Charlie Cooper, a member of our multi-talented seeding squad also happens to be the UK Female Number 1 Rubiks Cube Solver extraordinaire.
Team Rubber Has Got Talent!
We employed a phone as a stopwatch to fend off speeding up/doctoring accusations!
Watch this and other quality video genius on our Rubber Republic Viral YouTube Channel
Following a lengthly stroll to Team Rubber Towers this morning - pondering why I didn’t have some sort of hairdryer to ride to work (to preserve both leg effort and precious breakfast minutes) - I finally arrived at our front door ready to embark on a new day of web embellishment.
Much to my own bemusement, upon entering the building, I was ushered straight back out by an orgy of joyous faces and skipping new media types. Before I could consider the reason for this commotion, my unborn question’s answer had already been hatched…
Before me stood a truck, with what could only be described the result of a sordid entanglement between a Moped, a Tonka truck and a rollerskate strapped to its back…The day had finally come, Mr Andy Parkhouse’s Tuk Tuk had arrived! (Want more info on the Tuk Tuk? read this article!)
Amazingly, the delivery man lifted the truck straight off the ramp and onto the street!
I prefer to call it Roller-Ped. So do you probably…
Andy took the beast for a ride almost immediately, and shot around the streets of Bristol like an action figure in a rollerskate. Sadly, the Tuk Tuk suffered from some technical issues on Tyndalls Park Road. Luckily however, Matt was on hand with his bicycle repair kit and the know-how to get Roller-Ped back on her three feet.
Check the picture for proof…Roller-Ped pulled a wheelie on Lower Park row, achieving some ’sick air’. In 50 years time, a little blue placard will hang on this street, announcing the spot of Roller-Ped’s first voyage/wheelie on British concrete.
Long live Roller-Ped.
—-
Update by Andy
Ian, I’ve told you, *it’s a truck* not a tuk-tuk 
@ Ric Hurst: the truck is a 400cc diesel Bajaj Hidec, from Sanjay at Tuk Tuk UK. It’s the only one in the country as far as I know. Cost was getting on for £4k including VAT & Delivery.
Insurance is about £250 from Adrian Flux, but would be more if I put a logo on the truck or commute in it. I don’t know the MPG, but it cost me £5.63 to fill up the tank. Four speeds and reverse, turns on a speck of a dust, top speed seems to be around 40mph.
This is slightly old news, but worth a blog nonetheless…Super Seeder Joanna scraped the internet for new Euroball mentions/buzz and came across this wonderful little article on our beloved tabletop penny flicker. We were site of the Day as of July 1st, this is another compliment nugget to add to our praise arsenal!
On the 27th of July a team of young athletes will be donning boots and shinpads to enter the prestigious Bristol Media Five-a-side football tournament. We will also be submitting a team. This team will consist of a mish-mash of Team Rubber, Mobile Pie and Thought Den personnel.
We have a mere couple of weeks left to train, get a kit sorted and to re-learn the rules of the beautiful game. Time may not be on our side, but a mixture of childish enthusiasm, naked delusion and the chance to win a free night at the Mercure Hotel - complete with nosh and massages - are telling us that we are going to/have to win!
Our squad for the event will be:
Chairman of the board:
Dear Team Rubber,
You may have noticed of late an expanding growth in the far corner of our office. To ease your curiosities and relieve your fears let me explain a little deeper as to what this is.
A few weeks ago I ventured over to this side of the office for the first time. It wasn’t an easy journey, I had to swing on cyber vines past Boss Country before digging under Developer Island; avoiding the vicious Zopey Pythons and SQL Plones that inhabit those parts.
I apprehensively crept towards what appeared to be a rapidly reproducing organism, with my machete in one hand and a billowing white flag in the other. I was torn equally between peaceful intent and violent self defense.
Upon closer inspection I saw 6 human like figures pouring liquid fun into a hole in the wall. Jenny was with them, she looked happy. Felix too was there, looking confused, but also with a huge grin.
“What are you doing?” I queried.
A small child-like figure replied “I am Joanna part of the S33D3R dynasty on the planet Spreadtheword, we have located the magical entrance portal to the internet in your office, we must dispose of our fun stuff into it.”
Realising the mystical potential of these beings, I tossed aside my weapon and white flag and wasted no time striking a deal with these enchanting creatures. I promised to supply them with all of the fun stuff they could ever imagine, in return for their amazing fun stuff distributive powers.
The beings introduced themselves, they are:
Jess - A true fun stuff pioneer. Back on her native planet Spreadtheword she still has another year of otherworldly University to complete. But is willing to travel lightyears three days a week in order to gain access to our portal.
Nastasia - The pilot of the S33DER family’s spaceship. A true visionary in fun stuff spreading. Also known to speak other mysterious dialects.
Charlie - A master of many fun stuff dialects. Carries a strangely coloured cubic device.
Joanna - Had been here before, doing undercover work, but holds a true eye for word spreading, and is considered something of a Prodigy on her home planet.
The S33D3R Dynasty have quickly struck a deal with Felix and Jenny for mutual use of the portal. They have formed the Intergalactic Seeding Alliance (ISA), which will be working from Seeding Corner (SC). They are now ready to work their collective magic on anything we can throw their way. Please welcome them, make them tea and chuck smiles at them. They have come in peace.
Yours,
Ian Ochiltree
Seeding Manager & Intrepid Explorer
Yesterday (Wed) Kirk and I ventured into the big smoke (LDN) to witness the Technology For Marketing and Advertising (TFM&A) expo at Earls Court (EC). We attended a number of seminars throughout the day, the first one being held in the aptly named ‘Google University’ (FYI), where we were given a Google goody bag (GGB) and a decent seminar on Google Adwords. Other notable seminars (ONS) highlighted the importance of Pay Per Click advertising (PPC), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Web Analytics (WAncs). One was held by quite a funny Scottish guy (LOL).
Kirk and I both felt that the general level of understanding across the board of both Viral Advertising and just generally strengthening a business through online techniques was still relatively rudimentary for many people. Although the conference highlighted some interesting points and presented some good ideas, we felt like Team Rubber is part of a smaller sect of organisations that are more ‘in the know’ (MIK) and already advanced in this industry. This was probably the most eye opening experience (E-I-EIO) from the day, and certainly not a bad impression to leave with.
Walking around the expo, we were approached by many a sales vulture (MASV), scantily-clad ticket droppers (STD) and endless opportunities to take complimentary sweets and novelty gifts such as chattering sets of teeth (CST) and flasks (F). At one stand there was a Formula 1 simulator, run by a man that could only be described as a mix between Terry Nutkin and David Brent (WTF?). Kirk attempted to beat the fastest lap on the virtual Donnington racetrack (VD), and we were met with Oscar Wild-esque wit from our new pal with verbal gold such as “Stop cutting the grass, we’re saving it for Bob Marley” and “Burn some rubber, baby” (ROFL! LMAO! ROFLMAO! OMG!).
Later in the afternoon we ventured over to Soho, to see the London office at work, and meeting new Rubber recruit Rory along the way. We discussed some new pitches and the conference before heading off to grab a burger ahead of our gruelling 40 hour train journey home.
After clink-clinking our keyboards over the heads of the guys at Clink-Clink, we clink-clinked our Champagne flutes in celebration of our forced seizing of their office space. Our occupant forces finally moved in but a mere few weeks ago in order to spread the Team Rubber ideology further across Ropemaker Court.
We sent in an office monkey to test for mines, deem the area clear for habitation and - as a finale - to do his usual thing of tapping a keyboard nonsensically. However, we quickly discovered that the office looked a lot smaller in real life…
Not ones to be disheartened, and always adapting to the challenges presented by new media, we at Team Rubber have assigned a new strategy to our manifesto. We have developed a cutting edge working model that measures success by determining the amount of work per square foot on our premises.
The model works on this simple notion:
work x rubber - space = 5n (9nl cupboard x clink) - movement + emac
We aim to implant 16 workers into the new space and to send our work per square foot (WPSF) ratio through the roof. I will watch and cackle mercilessly at the metrics sky-rocketing with the new WPSF Dashboard on Polar Bear.
Thankyou, as you were.
i) We love reading, especially books; the web’s altogether more organic foe.
ii) The reading list is getting longer.
Here is some visual proof for both of the above statements:
Books = stacky