So yeah, the AWP blog has been a bit quiet lately, but only because we’ve been very busy working on some awesome new client websites and logos, and a brand new dedicated site to represent our wildly popular AWP Express service.

Speaking of Express, we’re on the hunt for web-savvy sales professionals to represent AWP while working with clients through our Express development process. Design or coding experience is not required, although a familiarity with web design in general is necessary. If you or anyone you know are interested in learning more about this exciting new opportunity please contact us.

Just for fun, here are some of the things we’re talking about this week (follow us on twitter to keep up with the latest). Every link is amazing, so you won’t be disappointed!

• From Tyler: Deep sidewalk art, Oregon Trail
• From Bryan: Calling All Fans of Near Disaster
• From Katy: I LEGO N.Y.
• From Chip: Coding Standards for CakePHP (amazing if you’re a developer)
  
• From Molly: Tilt-shifted photo from Molly’s trip Barcelona – Oh, and on a dare Molly devoured 15 consecutive cloves of garlic in a single sitting last week, and then proceeded to play drums with the AWP band. Woah!

Hey! We talk about interesting things. At least we think so. Here’s quick summary of what we’re talking about around the studio. Tell us what we missed!

• Versions – Mac Subversion Client (SVN) – discovered by Tyler
• Apple’s New Keyboardless Laptop
  – for real?
• TwitBin – twitter your browser – Molly loves it.
• IMDb | Watch Full-Length Movies, TV Shows, and More — Free! – some great old TV shows up there!
• Katy is checking out Dropbox while Bryan is checking out ZumoDrive.
• Bryan enlightened us to: Biggest rock wusses of all time, Best Photoshop tutorials for beginners, Most beautiful icon sets of 2008, Worst places to get caught having sex, and the Best Christmas light shows.
• Something I never knew.
• One of our favorite local restaurants opened in Milwaukee.
• I’ve started a company Twitter account.
• And Tyler’s Sursly.com has been getting a lot of traffic!

No, that isn’t a typo.

I’m happy to share my first video-based post. Here is an excerpt from the description I wrote on Vimeo:

One day in December of 2007 while riding to work on the bus I snagged my MP3 player (at the time a Palm Zire) on my bag, unplugging my headphones just the slightest bit. I was listening to “Faust Arp” at that precise moment, and Thom’s vocals completely cut out but the music (though now MONO) remained.

I experimented with more of the album for the rest of my bus ride (and work day, subsequent journey’s, etc.). I had difficulty replicating it on my computer, but no problem with my iPod.

So I consider this an alternative way to dig into Radiohead’s best album ever: In Rainbows.

In In Rainbows: Instrumental “Easter Eggs” from tyler on Vimeo.

MailDart(tm) is our easy-to-use newsletter system that lets you create effective and efficient e-mail campaigns. It’s our latest thing, and we think you’ll love it!

Today, we sent out a message to everyone on our email list (yes, we use MailDart ourselves) introducing the new service. A copy of that message is available right here. Here are the highlights:

Top 5 Reasons MailDart Rocks:

1. It gets results! (We know because we use it!)
2. It’s a pay-as-you-go system. There are no monthly fees.
3. No stock templates necessary. We create an email template that looks like YOU.
4. MailDart is fantastically easy to use.
5. Advanced reporting features give you the information you need to fine-tune your campaigns based on viewer feedback.

“MailDart is a great product. The reports allow me to make smart decisions about what I send my customers and the interface is easy to learn and use.” – Derek Cabrera, ThinkWorks

So head on over here for more information, or over here to contact us!

You probably didn’t know this, but this week is Ithaca’s Downtown Office Worker Appreciation Week. One of the many perks of working downtown! I just finished some tasty free pizza!

When I saw the list of activities planned for this week, I admit I got pretty excited when I found out one of them was a Hot Dog Eating Competition!! Now, anyone who plays Ithaca Ultimate Frisbee and Soccer with me, knows I am pretty competitive. Perhaps another lesser known fact is that I like to eat, and I always eat quickly. A perfect opportunity to combine both skills? Let’s put it this way, having never done this before, I couldn’t resist! (Insert a plethora of ‘gross’ & ‘yucks’ from friends who I told this to).

Knowing this competition was only going to be 2 minutes, I wasn’t going to go all out. Training for something like the famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition takes months of stomach stretching and technique-building. Think about it, 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes! Yea…

But if you are competitive, you want to win, so I trained (for 2 days). My diet for these 2 days existed solely of the cheapest hot dogs you can find, with a complement of water-soaked hot dog buns, and my friend (thanks Jesse!) worked with me on my technique. It certainly paid off….

Yesterday it was time for the competition! Dowtown office workers gathered around to see this spectacle. 18 competitors. I was happy that I was able to tie my training record at 4 hot dogs! I was beat only by a guy from Collegetown Bagels, who got 5 down and my friend who managed to get down 6 1/2 hot dogs in that time. He was a good trainer!

I felt I had pretty good showing at 3rd place. Plus it was free publicity (not to mention a free lunch!) I am getting quite a few strange looks walking around the Commons and “aren’t you the girl that ate 4 hot dogs in 2 minutes?” Why yes, that is me. Could I be the top female competitive eater in Ithaca? Maybe!

If you want to see more, The Ithaca Journal did a front-page article about the heated competition and if you watch the video (credit News 10 Now) you will see AWP and me represented in a, err, less than flattering way. But, it sure was fun! Go AWP!