Blog: May 2008

Justin Jumps In

May 14, 2008

As you read this post, take a look at our “Who We Are” page and you’ll notice something: It’s got more people on it.

We’ve just added a full-time developer, Justin Crawford, to our studios. Justin was working for the University of Colorado in Boulder, managing large technology integration projects. Justin knows the usual technology soup of programming languages: perl, PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS and MySQL.  More importantly, he matches the diverse qualities we look for at Hop Studios:

  • a background in journalism
  • experience in customer-focused development
  • a belief that the job determines the tool and not vice versa
  • a drive to self-improve and learn

Justin will be spending some of his time developing independent plugins, extensions and modules for ExpressionEngine, so if you need some of that work done, let us know.

 

Posted by Travis Smith at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

Think Food: What To Do With Old Printer Cartridges

May 13, 2008

image Yesterday afternoon Travis asked me if I knew of a place where we could take our used printer cartridges for recycling. At the time I couldn’t think of anywhere, so I put my handy dandy google search skillz to work, and came across an interesting program called thINK FOOD.

The mission of the thINK FOOD / Phones-for-Food project is to alleviate hunger and divert waste from landfill sites by raising funds for local food banks through the process of recycling used printer cartridges and cell phones.

Local food banks benefit and harmful waste is diverted from the garbage everytime someone recycles their used inkjet cartridge or cell phone. Simply find a drop-off location near you or set up a collection site in your workplace or school.

When a collection box is full, it is sent to a central location where the cartridges and phones are sorted and sold to the remanufacturing industry. This industry turns them into refurbished products for consumers. Funds are raised for the local food banks through this process.

There is an extensive list of drop off locations in the Vancouver area, as well as all over Canada. Something else I noted while viewing the list of locations: Rogers Wireless has been a national sponsor of the program since 2004 and set up the project in their stores to accept old cell phones. Maybe Rogers isn’t the devil after all…? :D

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 9:22 AM | Comments (5)

The Duck Rocks

May 7, 2008

On a late work night here at Hop Studios, Susie became defective and started listening to Poison’s Every Rose Has Its Thorn over and over and over. This escalated into a devious and destructive music duel between Susie, Travis and myself. We were taking turns, looking for the ultimate expression of that much maligned musical masterpiece, the Rock Ballad. Rules quickly evolved:

Rock Ballad Competition

  • It’s gotta be rock, baby!
  • It’s gotta have that slow build and soaring arc.
  • It’s gotta wholeheartedly commit to a seeming existential but essentially dumb (or at least simplistic) idea.
  • It’s gotta go overboard, we want tears and clasped hands.
  • Classic rock helps. A guitar solo would not be out of place (Bonus if it’s a drum solo instead).
  • If the phrase “torch song for dime-store philosophy” works, you’re golden.

After several hours of fierce competition, no clear winner emerged, and with this premise, one was not likely, either. We did, however, jot down the best examples from our auditory battle-royal for your edification:

  1. Total Eclipse of the Heart—Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler Beats out I’ll do anything for love (but I won’t do that) because of the faint whiff of irony.

  2. Somebody to Love—Queen Now this is commitment, when you’ve hired a full choir, you know it’s on.

  3. Every Rose Has Its Thorn—Poison Dumb idea masquerading as a profound realization by an over-paid moron in tight pants? Check.

  4. We Belong—Pat Benatar Narrowly beating out “love is a battlefield”  because of the “arc”  issue, as well as the “tear in the eye of a clown” factor.

  5. Shooting Star—Bad Company (but Travis likes the Poison cover, too) Apparently the heavenly bodies are big on sleeping pills.

  6. Summer of ‘69—Bryan Adams Yeah, he liked high school, and now he’s sad.

  7. Tusk - extended version—Fleetwood Mac Fan pandering.

  8. Walk of the Wild Side—Lou Reed Careful lobbying by Travis got this little genre-bender (gender-bender?) in under the line.

  9. Where The Streets Have No Name—U2 I added this one last second, sounds like Boston.

But we need a 10th song for the list. Any suggestions?

Posted by Matt Gardner at 8:59 PM | Comments (4)