Four Ways Bike Commuting in Chattanooga is Different than DC

Me in the bike lanes in the center of Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC

I’m a big fan of bicycling. It’s basically my favorite way to get around. I first got into it when I lived in Alexandria, VA, when I first started biking on the Mt. Vernon trail and eventually flirted with commuting into DC via bike. When I moved to Capitol Hill, I rode to work sporadically for about a year.

Now that I’ve moved to Chattanooga, TN, and have been riding my bike to work almost every day for four months, I can’t help but think about the differences between my commute now vs. in Washington, DC.

1. Hills. Chattanooga has some pretty dastardly ones. I thought I was in shape in DC, but turns out I was wrong! My thighs have about 30% more muscle now, thanks to powering my heavy steel bike around the hilly terrain here. Chattanooga’s awesome pedestrian bridge also has an almost imperceptible incline that I definitely perceive when I’m trying to bike up it!
2. Traffic. I stopped riding for a while in DC because the traffic (especially around construction sites) got so scary, but downtown Chattanooga is nothing. Because there’s so little traffic here, most cars just go right around me–they give me a wide berth and everything!
3. Number of bike commuters. Days when I see two other people riding their bikes in the morning are remarkable, because hardly anyone does it here in Chattanooga. In DC, it was getting really popular and I would often be at a stoplight with 3-5 other cyclists in work clothes.
4. The smells. I honestly had never thought much about smells on my commute before, other than someone cutting their grass or after it rained, but Chattanooga? Chattanooga smells delicious. In the morning, I smell fresh donuts. On my commute home, it’s BBQ. Is it possible to gain weight from smelling the air here??

Bike commuting in Chattanooga = awesome. I loved it in DC, but it’s even more enjoyable here. People smile and say hi to me in the mornings, and there’s a group of cyclists that has breakfast on the pedestrian bridge on Fridays. It’s given me a whole new list of things to appreciate about my new hometown.

Why I’m Not Changing My Name When I Get Married

Here’s my deal: I’m keeping my last name when I get married. Actually, I’m keeping everything about my name. Title, first name, middle name, and last name.

I’ve been Jasmine Zick my whole life–why would getting married mean that I change that part of who I am? My name is my identity. That’s what I learned to write in print and pretty cursive for my signature, that’s the reason my assigned seat was in the back corner of the classroom, and why I got to walk across the stage to thunderous applause during graduation. Turns out, there are some perks to being at the end of the alphabet.

I also had to defend my name (all of my name) against people who thought Aladdin jokes were funny in the 90s, those who thought my middle name should be something like Jean or Marie instead of my mom’s maiden name, and all the jokers who figured out that Zick rhymes with a lot of other words. Adversity makes you stronger, you know? I’m kind of attached to it at this point. 

The Problem with Flowers

As surprising as it may seem, flowers have been giving me a big headache lately. I like flowers just fine, don’t get me wrong, but it seems like when it comes to having them at a wedding, they turn from lovely, innocuous things into a total nightmare.

Here’s what I’ve come up against:

Flowers are too expensive. This is the first thing I remember learning about having flowers at a wedding, and it sunk in. I heard quotes in the multi-thousand-dollar range, which makes me feel lightheaded. It turns out that this is not necessarily true, but then again, it all depends on what your opinion of the meaning of the words “too expensive” is. Some may say that any amount is ridiculous and why do we need them at all (ahem loving fiance), but I’ve found that it just depends on how specific you get with the kind of flower you want and other decorations like those little sparkly bits that some people put in their bouquets. Honestly, even materials costs from DIY flowers and centerpieces will creep up there mighty quick.

Speaking of, why don’t you just DIY some flowers or flower-like things? Yeah, you know what? Lay off me. A) I have other things I’d rather be doing with my time than repetitive tasks like cutting petals and carefully dying coffee filters or crepe paper. B) Are you going to help me? No, didn’t think so. C) I am definitely not some master craftswoman who can make her DIY flowers look like Martha Stewart’s, and I just know it would make me twitchy to look at my creations and be disappointed in the quality. This is how it would go: buy materials, make one bouquet, be disappointed/frustrated, scrap the whole project. As a reference, please see: adventures in curtain-making. (Hint: it did not go well.)

Flowers aren’t great for your carbon footprint. Categorize this under things that I had never thought about: where do flowers come from? Turns out, they’re imported from Holland, Colombia, Australia, etc etc. Basically no one grows flowers on a large scale stateside, and the blooms that do come from here (and by “here” I mean gerber daisies from California–still a trek from me) are often much more expensive. Honestly, if I had a yard and anywhere close to a green thumb, I’d prefer to grow my own.

In relevant news, check out this article on the flower trade just in time for Mother’s Day. Except I’m still not going to make origami bouquets. Sorry. Maybe one day, but that day is not today.

Honestly, I’ve never thought so much about flowers in my life. This is just another one of those things that I wish someone else would just do for me, because what goes on the tables is ranked on my list of things to worry about right underneath who will feed the cat on our honeymoon, which makes it…number 214, I believe.

Bigger, Better Things

I’ve been a little busy lately, but I have a good excuse: I’m moving. Not moving like two-doors-down kind of moving, but I’m picking up and moving from Washington, DC to Chattanooga, TN.

If you’re wondering why a digital media professional would leave a big city like DC for a southern mountain town like Chattanooga (population: 167,674 as of the 2010 census), here are a few reasons:

• Bigger is not always better. This is something that I’ve heard come up a number of times in interviews lately, both referring to the market and to the size of their business. Smaller markets can be untapped gold mines of opportunity. Small businesses in these markets still need good people to help them grow and navigate these digital media waters.
• Chattanooga is positioning itself brilliantly to attract smart young talent. Not only does it have naturally gorgeous scenery and outdoor activities, but it has the fastest internet in the country. Check out this initiative to attract entrepreneurs.
• Chattanooga is bringing in some of the coolest parts of DC, like food trucks and a bikeshare program that even uses the same bikes DC’s Capital Bikeshare does.

So even though my move is technically to a smaller place, it’s on to bigger, better things for me. I’m excited to become a part of such an exciting growing city. (And maybe get a dog.)

Update:

Is Mobile the Future of the Internet?

I already know that Patrick Pho thinks that the wave of the future is held in the palm of our hand, but I came across this article on HuffPo by the British Ambassador to the U.S. that, while mostly skimmable (sorry, Sir Peter: TL;DR) had this little gem towards the end:

Just when governments are – admirably – looking to invest in high-speed broadband so that no-one is left behind by the digital revolution, here are these twenty-something CEOs saying it might be better to skip fibre optics altogether and go straight to mobile. At General Assembly, one young inventor told me how his $300 a month membership and rented desk, and the opportunity to bounce ideas off others with similar innovative ideas, had allowed him to create a box of tricks which will modernize and accelerate computer systems so effectively that hard-up governments and hospitals will no longer have to throw out their obsolete equipment every 4 years. I asked whether the invention would make money. He seemed surprised by the question and simply replied: ‘it’s going to change the world.’

OK. First things first: he’s right, governments (and private companies) are looking to expand broadband so that everyone can have access to it. While the digital divide has shrunk considerably, it still holds true that lower-income Americans get online less than the well-off, partly because many low-income households do not have a computer with high-speed internet. A slightly different problem is that there are willing customers in far-flung areas who would pay for broadband but the network hasn’t expanded to their area.

The problem is that building out a superfast wired network is expensive. Companies like Verizon who rolled out FiOS in select markets are choosing wireless instead. Putting up a tower is much cheaper than running wires to every house, and an increasing number of Americans are accessing the internet via their phone, especially minorities.

Mobile networks may indeed be the answer, but I think it’s more likely that it’ll be a combination of wired and wireless networks that eventually cover the globe. It’s cost-prohibitive to run fiber optic cables to every mountain shack (although mine will have it!), but you don’t have to be cut off anymore if you have a mobile device. If high-speed internet is important to you or your job, you may need to move somewhere that has the network you need, just like many people have to move to where the work is.

On another note, thank goodness people are thinking about how to update our freaking governments and hospitals. I can’t think of a better area to invest your time, energy and ideas. They need it.

What do you think? Is mobile the future of the internet?

Pinterest’s Copyright Problem

I described the concept of Pinterest to one of my more astute friends the other day, and his first reaction was, “Isn’t that copyright infringement?” It certainly sounds like there is a risk of copyright infringement if you’re grabbing pictures from webpages without bringing any associated content, but most complaints are staved off by the source links that come with the pinned image. In theory, anyone should be able to click through from Pinterest to the page an image came from (to buy an item, for example, which is how Pinterest makes money), but it doesn’t always work the way it should.

Pinterest has recently gone a step further to stop copyright infringement at the source and provided a bit of code (available in the Help section) for website owners that, when added to their site’s header, will stop anyone from pinning images from the site.

Users who try to use their “Pin It” button will see this message instead: ”This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

On the other hand, sites that want to encourage pinning, like e-commerce sites, can add a Pinterest button to their pages to make sharing even easier. Because Pinterest is so new, it’s bound to go through some growing pains as people figure out what users are doing with their pins. It can feel like kind of a free-for-all, with everything from personal pictures to art to…well, everything on this board.

Are You Being Antisocial on Social Media?

It may sound strange, but it is actually very possible to be antisocial on social media. It doesn’t matter if you have accounts on every site–what matters is that you’re interacting with your audience and giving them something they value.

You’re antisocial if:

• You’re just constantly posting links to your own work–no one wants to follow someone who only talks about themselves and just sees it as a self-promotion tool.
• You’re ignoring people who reply to you or ask you a question. One of the best things about using social media is using it to form relationships, so why not take advantage of it?
• You’re robo-tweeting or coming off like it. A social media presence is an opportunity to show your personality a little bit and give your company a human face. It’s okay to schedule a couple of tweets in advance, but make sure you’re actually present and responding to things that are happening, too.