This is a slightly-redacted copy of the “README” file that I have shared with my colleagues at NC State. I’ve removed some internally-focused information, but it still reflects a pretty good representation of what you should know about working with me. 😊

tl;dr (Just the essentials)

• If you need to reach me, the best way is through Google Chat, or failing that, email. 
• If you need to book time with me, feel free to grab any free time on my Google Calendar.
• If you need to tell me something, I prefer directness and having an idea of what it is ahead of time.
• If I don’t respond immediately, I promise I will soon! If it’s been a while, or if it’s urgent, feel free to nudge me.

Introduction

👋 Hi, everyone! My name is Arianna Story. My main responsibilities involve maintaining the campus WordPress environment and its related applications (though I keep adding new things every day!).

If you’re reading this doc, you’re either quite bored, or will be working with me (or perhaps a mixture of the two). I’ve written this README as a way to share some of my quirks (positive and negative) in the hopes that it will make working together easier! Nothing here is meant to be a “rule” or to discourage you from talking to me. I’ve found that remote work has made it harder to get an idea of what people are like outside of one-hour meeting blocks, so I wanted to help a bit with getting to know me.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via Google Chat, e-mail, or Slack (listed in order of how quickly I’m likely to respond). I love to talk with people!

Scheduling Me

📅 You can see my calendar at [redacted for public version]. My availability is visible to everyone at NC State, but only my team has access to event details.

As a rule of thumb, I prefer to schedule meetings in the afternoon rather than the morning. If a meeting does need to be in the morning, I prefer after 10 AM. I use the first hour of my day to catch up on email and plan what I need to do for the day.

I like being involved, as early as possible, in planning for projects that I will or might be a part of (or just might find interesting!). I thrive on having lots of information, understanding stakeholders’ viewpoints, and being able to cut out idea seeds that aren’t feasible early on (before I have the opportunity to plan them out).

In my calendar, I have blocked off a few “reserved times” for catching up on tickets,  eating lunch every day (on most days, 12pm – 1pm). I’ve done that to make sure I pull myself away to eat. It is totally okay to ask me to move my lunch, no matter when I have it scheduled, especially if I’m the only one blocking something important. (Alternatively, if you want to talk over lunch, [redacted for public version])

I do my best to keep my calendar updated with whether I’m working from home or in the office, but I’m not great at it. If you’d ever prefer to meet in person, let me know and I can almost always accommodate that! By the way, when I am in the office, [redacted for public version].

Communicating With Me

💬 I prefer it when people are direct with me; I don’t enjoy dancing around sensitive topics. That said, I do tend to fall into feeling bad about mistakes I make. If I’ve done something bad, please call it out, but hearing about good parts helps to soften the blow!

On a platform level, I prefer using Google Chat to talk to people. I also prefer Google Meet over Zoom (because I was in college during the pandemic, and have a lot of Zoom-specific fatigue). You’re welcome to reach out to me any time, and I’ll respond as I’m able. Sometimes, there can be a slight delay, as I tend to be pulled (or pull myself) into side conversations quite often.

Especially for one-on-one conversations, I really appreciate it when I’m given a general idea of the tone of the conversation beforehand. Adding something like “It’s a good thing,” or “X could have been better,” can go a long way in preventing me from worrying ‘til we connect. 

If we’re talking through email and you’ve helped me out, I generally won’t respond with an email that just says “thank you!” I am grateful for your help; I just don’t want to clog up your inbox or reopen the ticket.

Finally, I sometimes keep odd hours when responding to emails or chat messages, so please do not ever feel pressured to respond to me immediately. I trust that you will see my message and get back to me when it’s convenient for you. If something is urgent and broken, I expect that I will not be the only person reaching out to you. 🙂

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Neutrals

📖 I think it’s really important to be straightforward and honest with my coworkers. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m good with, some things that I’m not as good with, and some things that are just kinda unique to me and useful to know about how I work. 

Strengths

• I’m a really fast learner, and I love learning. That’s one of the main reasons that I’m working for NC State: the drive to improve myself, and help folks while doing so. I’m happy to take on new work, schedule permitting, if it lets me learn something new.
  
• I ask a lot of questions. It’s important for me to understand the general history of a project or initiative so I can get an idea of what pitfalls people have previously fallen into, and the sentiment of the folks who’ve worked on it.
  
• I work really well in groups, but can also be self-paced. 

Weaknesses

• I have a slightly bad short-term memory (though I make up for it with my note taking). Occasionally, there will be nuances to discussions I’ve had recently that I won’t remember off the top of my head, especially if it’s a random offshoot or a hallway conversation. I try to review notes before any meetings that are on my calendar to help with that. It helps me to see a Google Docs link in the calendar event so that I can quickly get up to speed.
  
  • If we’re talking about a specific [redacted for public version] incident, please start the calendar event with the incident number so that I can prepare before our meeting
    
• I sometimes have a hard time with deciding what work should take priority. This, combined with the previous bullet point, can lead to things sometimes getting missed. It is 100% okay to guide me towards (or away from) something, or to remind me. I’ll never be offended by a nudge!
  
  • The opposite (or compliment, depending on how you look at it!) to that is that I tend to focus hard on whatever my current project is. There have been weeks where I have focused on a single project to the detriment of my ticket backlog. I try to mitigate this with my calendar, but if you notice that happening, you are welcome to pull me out of it.
    
• Although I’ve gotten better about it, I tend to have a “nuke it and restart” mindset when it comes to dealing with legacy code and infrastructure. This can sometimes lead me to, per above, planning out a whole scenario when it’s not possible. The more planning that I’m involved in at the very early stages of something, the less likely I am to do that.
  
• I can underestimate myself sometimes, and I still suffer from a bit of imposter syndrome. I like to think that I’m getting better about that!

Neutrals

• Oftentimes, I have music or YouTube videos up on a separate monitor or in the background when I’m not in a meeting. When I’m in the office, I will have one ear free in case anyone comes into my suite. Please don’t be offended if you poke your head in and I’m nodding along to some music!
  
• If I am nervous about something, or trying to be specific to get a point across, my language can turn really formal, and sometimes I’ll write things out in a lot of detail – especially in email. It can make me sound terse, but 99% of the time, I’m just trying to make sure I don’t say anything wrong. If you’re ever unclear with something I’m saying, or the tone, please feel free to ask!

Technical Skills

💻 This isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive list, but should give you a general idea of where I’m at with some of the technical things that I can help you with. If you’re someone who’s reading this and knows me well enough to know if I’m being modest or overstating myself, please let me know! I love constructive feedback.

• WordPress (my “main job”, so I’m pretty good with it!)
• Laravel (my favorite way to build web applications!)
• Python (I actually picked this up initially during an Economics class!).
• API Design (I’m really good at this!)
• Documentation (based on this README, you can probably tell that I am a writer at heart.)
  • I love sharing knowledge, and documenting is a great way to do that.

Things I Want to Learn

💡 Like I said earlier, one of the main reasons that I’m here at NC State is to continue learning while in an environment where I can help people. Like everything else here, this isn’t all-inclusive; just the things that came to mind while writing this.

• Linux / Linux Server Administration – I switched from running Windows to Ubuntu to immerse myself in it, and I’ve really enjoyed picking things up. I’m trying to talk myself into switching to CachyOS full-time.
  
• Docker / Kubernetes – I love making myself more productive, and Docker’s always eluded me (mostly because I’ve been trying to use it on Windows and it fights with WSL). I think it’d help me a lot, especially because I find myself working on a lot of projects at once, and I spend more time than I should on environment management.
  
• CI/CD Pipelines and Automated Testing – I think that this is the biggest barrier to me building bigger applications. Prior to NC State, I was never in an environment large enough that CI/CD and testing were appropriate for my projects (apart from open source, where it’s already baked in at most places). I want to learn how to build these from the ground up.
  
• VIM – I should probably be a bit better about my terminal-based text editors. I’m serviceable when using VI and Nano, but would like to be a lot more efficient. Holding backspace for a good minute at a time hasn’t been super great for me.

Personal Interests

🎮 Outside of work, I like to think that I have a pretty wide range of things that interest me. This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but I’ve had great conversations with coworkers about these in the past, so I wanted to leave them here as a way for us to perhaps connect!

• For the past few years, I’ve been the Community Manager for Playthrough Gaming Convention in Raleigh. We’re North Carolina’s largest gaming convention. I’ve loved seeing some of my colleagues visit us, and I’d love to have more! Our next event is in October 2026.
  
• I enjoy playing video games with my friends, too! Most of the time, it’s on PC, but I’ve been really enjoying my Nintendo Switch 2, as well! I play all kinds of games: RPGs, strategies, puzzles, and survival games. I’ve never been able to decide on a favorite game, but I do have a soft spot for Fallout: New Vegas for PC and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for PS2. I even used to speedrun that game’s PC version! I also spend time in Eorzea with Final Fantasy XIV.
  
• I also enjoy Dungeons & Dragons! I started playing in 2016 with a friend as part of his marriage proposal, and I was hooked. The first character I ever played was a half-elf paladin named Lia. I have a lot of stories about her exploits to share if I’m given the opportunity!
  
• Recently, I’ve started playing Magic: the Gathering, too. I’m not anywhere near Pro Tour-level, but I enjoy playing, interacting with people, and figuring out some of the cool interactions that cards have with each other. Plus, as a history nerd, Magic has a lot to read about!
  
• I write small web projects outside of work every once in a while to keep my skills sharp. I talk about them on my blog at https://ariannastory.com/, and post some of the smaller ones to my mini-portfolio at https://things.ari.codes/. 

Acknowledgement

I’ve adapted the idea of a personal README file, along with some general ideas about sections, from GitLab Engineering Team READMEs.