18.2.12

My blog vs. Twitter, Facebook, Yelp & Pinterest

There's a war going on. A social media war... and the fight is against my blog.

You may have noticed that my blog posts aren't as frequent as they used to be. Yet I don't spend less time online... So what do I do instead?

I share my random, short thoughts on business and everyday life... on Twitter

I share pictures and updates with my friends and family... on Facebook

I review restaurants, bars and cultural outings... on Yelp

I share pictures of things I like... on Pinterest


And I realized that often my blogposts are a combination of exactly those things: describing the restaurants I'd been to, sharing pictures, thoughts... whereas now most of those things perfectly sit within their own social media bucket.

So is the war over? Not yet. There is one thing that none of the social media networks cater for yet and it's random thoughts like this post. Longer than 140 characters, a white piece of paper where you can just write whatever you want. That's what my blog will be and stay for.

But in the meantime; don't hesitate to check me out on:
Twitter: @louisedejager
Yelp + Pinterest: Louise Dejager

17.2.12

Biking in Cincinnati

"Do people bike in Cincinnati?" I asked when I just arrived. "Yeah, sure, there is a 50 miles bike trail, it's very popular!".

Perhaps I had to rephrase my question and actually ask: "do people use their bicycles as a mean of transport?" and the answer would definitely have been "no, especially not during the winter".

Most people seem to own bikes, but they keep them for the summer, to do bike rides with friends in a sunny weekend. The simple idea of me buying a bike to actually ride to work with seemed crazy in my colleagues' mind...

Now if it would be snowing here and be freezing all the time, then I would understand it. But it is surprisingly mild in Cincinnati this winter, a lot warmer than in Belgium :).

So we bought bikes and now bike to work. The speed, the freedom, the fresh air, I love it! I just use the sidewalks and nobody cares :D So it was all great for the first week. I put my bike in the bike rack our company has (3 spots, of which 1 is taken by the "company bike", which always seems to be there). I admit it felt good to be the ONLY one out of 500 employees coming to work by bike :D

And then I got a flat tire, because there is quite a bit of glass lying around on the bridge I cycle over :( so this weekend it's operation "fix the tire" time...

The proof: my bike