gotta love ruby

lib/helpers/preprocess.rb

@@ -8,14 +8,12 @@ module PreprocessHelper
 
   def update_blog_attributes
     @items.find_all('/blog/**/*').each do |i|
-      attr_hash = {
+      i.update_attributes(
         # Tag all posts with article (for Blogging helper)
         kind: 'article',
         academic_year: i.identifier.to_s[/\d\d-\d\d/],
         created_at: Date.parse(i[:created_at])
-      }
-
-      i.update_attributes(attr_hash)
+      )
     end
   end