title: What gets executed as the server starts vs. as a request comes in?
body: <p>I've been doing some class hacking in Django. And I call my changes from settings.py as I figure this runs before anything else.</p>
  
  <p>However, I've just come across a situation where this doesn't work for me. So, is there another place <em>after</em> settings.py, which I can guarantee will always be run by the server before it starts handling any requests?</p>