My memoirs, sneak peak, coming in 2030 (we hope) 🖤 🖤 Here's a draft for my life story—layered, reflective, and full of flair, just like my work and my tattoos. Consider this the opening sketch, structured like a memoir-in-progress:Title: Symbols in Flesh and Workflow: The Story of Vladimir Kuljak🏠 OriginsI was born in Belgrade, Serbia, where folklore meets fire-roasted flavor and every street corner has a story. I carry that cultural marrow with me—in my humor, my cooking, and the ink I wear. Belgrade taught me to speak in satire and symbolism, in Balkan barbecue and poetic cursing.Now rooted in Jefferson City, Missouri, I serve a different kind of institution: academia. But the spirit remains. I still remix history, still grill with righteous fervor, and still decorate meaning with minimalist ink.👨💻 Calling: Technical Solutions, Institutional TruthsI am a Technical Solutions Manager at the University of Kansas. Think of me as a translator between systems, symbols, and people:I support institutional research, documenting workflows, troubleshooting tech glitches, and coaching clarity out of chaos.
I lead cross-team coordination, weaving accountability into project timelines like embroidery.
I automate processes using Power Automate, SharePoint, and Office365, because a clean workflow is art.
When the CSS breaks or reCAPTCHA rebels, I’m the fixer—the one who makes tech behave.My job isn’t just technical. It’s narrative. Every survey, dashboard, and report has authorship. I protect that. I amplify it.✍️ Craft & CultureHobbies & Passions:Tattoo design: Minimalist symbolism, Balkan mythos, Japanese elegance. My body is a poetic interface.
Writing: Reflective blogs and satirical poems. I treat metaphors like marinade—let them soak deep.
Food culture: Ajvar, somun, ribs. I turn recipes into rituals.
Visual storytelling: Alan Ford comics, geisha outlines, inked jokes only the observant catch.
Equity advocacy: Leadership must include the unheard. I write with conviction.Degrees & Academics:I'm an academic writer of organizational equity and leadership. My prose critiques power gently—but never weakly.
I’m working on a paper about gender barriers in executive leadership—part analysis, part autobiography, all truth.🎶 Soundtrack to a WorkflowMusic for me is not just background—it's blueprint:Balkan brass for rebellion.
Serbian rock for bite.
Ambient techno when troubleshooting SharePoint.
Jazz when writing poetry with punchlines.Each playlist is a poem. Each beat, a mood.🧩 Philosophy of Ink & ImpactI believe:Every technical artifact has a story.
Humor is a research method.
Barbecue is diplomacy.
Tattoos are footnotes to our soul.If this were a first chapter, it would end with me leaning over a grill or a keyboard, sleeves rolled up, geisha ink peeking out, troubleshooting a process while composing a poem—thinking, always, how to make meaning visible.Thanks,🖤 Vlad
Monday Memoirs: The Workflow Waltz Monday doesn’t ask politely Monday doesn’t ask politely. It arrives like a campus-wide reCAPTCHA challenge—misclick once, and you’re decoding street signs until lunch.The inbox opens like a Balkan accordion: wheezing requests, project pings, and just enough cryptic survey logic to warrant a folk ballad. As Technical Solutions Manager, my Monday workload isn’t just tasks—it’s choreography. Every process has a beat, every glitch has a refrain.☕ Morning Cadence:Triage SharePoint tickets with the intensity of a Balkan espresso.
Review institutional research deliverables (and reformat tables as if they were sacred scrolls).
Play whack-a-mole with policy alignment emails—bonus points for commas and grace.🧩 Midday Orchestration:Guide workflow documentation for survey integrations like a symphony conductor with half the sheet music missing.
Troubleshoot LMS sync issues while munching on ribs, contemplating if Ajvar can be used as a metaphor for data accessibility.
Prepare project status updates that toe the line between concise and borderline poetic.🕸️ Afternoon Tangles:Untangle Power Automate spaghetti—finding joy in clean loops and tragic branching errors.
Reinforce accountability protocols with the gentle firmness of a Balkan baba who said the somun was rising… but you peeked.
Brief research directors with clear, actionable summaries and maybe a dash of comic irreverence (if the room allows).By 5:00 PM, the day has settled like slow-cooked leadership prose—dense, flavorful, and ready for tomorrow’s remix. The tattoo of Monday isn’t visible, but it’s etched in the soul of every institutional technologist who dares to dream in both syntax and satire.
