stellargirl returns

why i'm done with PhillyCarShare

The truth is, I don't want to be done with PhillyCarShare. I don't have a car. I haven't had a car since high school when I drove a beat up rusted out 1984 Jeep Cherokee that my Uncle Bill passed down to me. The thing had vinyl seats, was in bad need of a paint job, and once almost killed me by doing a complete 180 on suburban black ice. I thanked my lucky stars aplenty that there were no other cars on the road. 

I really do wish I had a car, but I don't want to make the financial commitment and I also don't want to watch it get beat up by bad parallel parkers (of which I am one myself) or by the general wear and tear of city living. I've got a monthly transit pass that serves me very well, in addition to a large collection of comfortable shoes that I trek around the city on. 

My PhillyCarShare trips have been rare. They're usually tied to need as opposed to want. I need to go to Home Depot and buy X for my house, I need to buy a new X at IKEA, I need to haul something big that won't fit in my friend's trunk. It's unusual for me to sign out a car because I want to have a car for the day. Why? Because it's damn expensive!!!

When PhillyCarShare first started, they offered two plans. The Basic Freedom plan, which has no monthly fee, and the Advantage plan, which was $15 a month and recommended for those that regularly signed out cars (at least 2 trips a month).

I was content with my Basic Freedom plan, because I only signed out cars every few months, for those days when I would bundle a few necessary (i.e. need-based) trips in one day.  Without fail, each of these days was always stress-inducing because I'd try to reserve a certain amount of time and I'd typically cut it really close, to the point where I'd either have to extend my time in 15 minute increments or race back to the parking space as though I were running from the law.  It was not uncommon to return the car in the exact same minute it was due, leap out of the car and slap the fob onto the windshield with mere seconds to spare.

I might also mention that I was willing to pay a higher hourly rate on the Basic Freedom plan because my trips were infrequent, and being able to walk a few blocks in any direction and get a car was pretty darn convenient. 

Just a week ago, I took a car out for a want-based trip. I drove to the shore for the day and had a blast, it was nice to just get out of the city.  But it wouldn't be a typical PhillyCarShare trip without needing to extend the reservation, which I did at least once.  You might ask, why not just commit to more time up front? Well, if you decide to come back early, your money stays with PhillyCarShare as a credit towards your next reservation. That's not that big of a deal, but maybe you just want your money to be ... well, your money.

I am glad that my last PCS trip was a fun one, because unfortunately, I am now cancelling my membership. This past Friday at 5pm, all PhillyCarShare members received an email that the Basic Freedom plan was being discontinued and all members who normally pay 0$ a month, will be automatically bumped to a new plan (now the only plan), the Philadelphia Plan for $15 a month. Customers were given one week to cancel their membership.

Maybe $15 a month isn't all that much money, but if you're not making those two trips a month, it's not really worth it. Many months, I'd be paying $15 for nothing. The truth is, I need that $15 to go towards the cab fares I spend every month. 

Maybe I am just upset about PhillyCarShare's failure to make me feel like a valued customer. Clearly one can assume that they really need a stronger financial commitment from their customer base, but if you read anything on twitter, most of their customers feel pretty disappointed and let down right about now.

PhillyCarShare, we liked having you as an option. We liked the way you reached out to us for so long with your happy hours and movie nights.  We liked your little green men and your use of hybrid cars and the opportunity to test drive Mini Coopers and Audis.  I know $15 isn't a lot, but for some people it is, and you just took away our Basic Freedom.

This has been a post for @weeklyblogpost, topic: failure.

support new ways of working, learning & collaboration @indyhall

Today is a big day in the history of Independents Hall, the next milestone in a series of great moments the community has shared since its inception two years ago. 

Here's what's happening: the original Indy Hall space at 32 Strawberry Street in Old City is literally bursting at the seams. Membership has expanded by leaps and bounds. On a typical day, the space is at capacity. There is a waiting list for full time members, and the list of people curious to check out the space grows every day.

There's no avoiding that the time has come to move into a bigger space. As luck (or serendipity) would have it, Alex and Geoff found a completely ideal space for a bigger, better (faster) Indy Hall, and it's just one block away!

As you can imagine, bigger space also means bigger bills. That's where we, the community, come in. We've got TODAY to pull together and show our support, by committing to some form of membership.  I'll admit, I let my basic membership lapse over the last year, but I believe in this community in a big way, and I want to be a part of helping take it to the next level, so I signed myself up for some more Indy Hall.

After attending last week's Town Hall meeting, there was one element in particular that got me really excited. With a new space for Indy Hall, and a freshly signed lease on the old space, there's an opportunity to have a dedicated event space at 32 Strawberry Street.  Indy Hall has had some GREAT events over the years, movie nights, game nights, Net Tuesdays, failcamp, workshops, educational events, social events, and I'm merely scratching the surface here. The potential for this space, coupled with the new space, is pretty massive.  Want to learn jQuery? Be a better designer?  Rock out playing Rock Band?  Learn how to build iPhone apps? Indy Hall has established itself as ground zero for the people and the players to make these things happen.

Help continue to raise the profile of Philadelphia by investing in your own enrichment, in your fellow collaborators, in the future of Indy Hall -- and ultimately the future of Philadelphia.

Read more about today's membership drive on the Indy Hall website. 

Refresh Philly starts tonight!

Refresh Philly, part of the Refreshing Cities phenomenon, has come to our fine city, starting tonight!

The Refresh Manifesto is as follows:

• Let's Gather Great Minds
• Let's Share All Of Our Knowledge
• Let's All Grow And Learn
• Let's Promote Local Talent
• Let's Be More Than We Think Can Be
• Let's Make Our Cities Better

Our premiere event includes two great presentations. Tom Boutell of P'unk Ave will be leading a talk on Symfony and Phil Charron & Russ Starke of Think Brownstone will be inspiring us with Experience Design!

I am really excited to be a part of kicking off what will surely be an exciting series of speakers. Mark your calendars for future dates, Refresh Philly will take place on the first Monday of each month at the Comcast Center. January is the exception, but we'll be back again on February 2nd!

If you'd like to attend tonight, please RSVP on Facebook.  Stay tuned to @refreshphilly on Twitter for up to the minute updates and information, including a link to watch a live stream tonight!

REFRESH PHILLY
Tonight!
6:00 to 8:30pm
The Comcast Center

1701 John F Kennedy Blvd
RSVP REQUIRED

2008: the year of awesome

In no particular order, some cool things that happened this year:

• I experienced year one of home ownership. I made it through without any major incidents. I made a few small improvements here and there, mostly of the wall painting variety, but as 2008 comes to a close, I am now in the possession of a brand spanking new water heater. It's so nice to own a piece of Philadelphia and have my own space to roam and hide out. I've also gotten much more involved with my neighborhood civic association and helped organize our fall tree planting this year. Sadly, I can't have a tree in front of my house due to underground utilities, but I played a part in getting about 40 more trees planted in the neighborhood.

• I lost 15lbs. I feel kinda weird putting it all out there like that, but it was kind of a big deal to me! I moved back to Philly from NYC just over 3 years ago and had a hard time adjusting and finding a good fitness routine that I enjoyed, thus I packed on some good old fashioned Philly beer poundage. I'm still working on it, and December has actually been a really lazy month, but overall, I feel so much BETTER. I really think that physical activity is one of the keys to happiness. It affects your life in so many positive ways, and it's also something that you can share with others. I shared my love of fitness by organizing two 5K teams, one in the spring and one in the fall. It was fun training to improve my own pace as well as encourage friends to run their first race. I also discovered dailymile - a great way to train socially!

• I went to SXSW for the first time. I've wanted to go to SXSW for at least 5 years now but there has always been some reason why I wasn't able to make it. I have to give a special shout-out to my friend Joshua Lane for hooking me up with a free registration, he's totally the reason I decided to make the leap this year. I met so many awesome people at SXSW and heard amazing talks from many people who have inspired me for years. I find myself referring to Kathy Sierra's keynote over and over again, I want to make users (people!!) feel like they kick ass. Thanks, Kathy! I hope to make it back again in 2009.

• I helped put on BarCamp Philly. This was a pretty life-changing experience for me! My friend JP Toto and I started talking about BarCamp over the summer. He had recently attended BarCamp Orlando and I kept wondering, why hasn't Philly had a BarCamp? JP and I put our heads together and pulled it off without a hitch this past November. I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of (a long overdue experience) and met the most awesome people along the way. I am so STOKED to do BarCamp Philly 2009, I think it will completely ROCK. I am also extremely excited for other fun projects on the horizon like Geeks Who Give and Refresh Philly.

• I made even more amazing friends. Living in Philly has its perks. There are so many great events going on, particularly in the tech space, where I have met tons of new people: Junto, Ignite Philly, BarCamp Philly, DrupalCamp, Tweetups, Meetups, not to mention the proximity to the awesomeness of NYC and its denizens. I feel pretty lucky to walk into 2009 with new people to be inspired by, learn from and have good times with.

All in all, 2008 was an exciting and fun year. It feels good to step back and reflect on some of the highlights. I am hoping 2009 is off the charts amazing. I hope the same for all of you. Let's make it happen.

BarCamp Philly = AWESOME

When I signed on to help plan BarCamp Philly this past summer, I couldn't have possibly known the huge impact it would have on my life.  I've been talking about this recap post to friends, and realizing that there's not much more I can say about how great the event actually went (it was AWESOME) because I have already said it all on the BarCamp Philly blog.  What I did want to write about was how I went into this event as one person and came out another. 

I've always considered myself very much of a team player, someone who likes to collaborate, build something together, stay behind the scenes.  I am still that person, but in doing BarCamp, I had the opportunity to take a greater responsibility for the outcome by being a leader of the project (I shared that role with JP Toto, who thankfully let me run wild with all of my crazy ideas and plans).  I hope it doesn't sound like I am tooting my own horn here, but for the last month, almost every minute of every day was consumed with a persistent thought, "What can I do to make this event completely AWESOME?"  I hope that came across to people who attended.

So how am I different? I guess because I saw a shred of what I am capable of.  Those of you that know me well, hopefully think of me as your biggest cheerleader, always trying to be supportive of your projects and endeavors.  I'll do anything to help my friends become aware of their potential, and I'm not afraid to place my foot firmly in your a$$ to remind you of the path to happiness that lies before you.  I don't always believe in myself enough, however, and this event served as one of those reminders to JUST EFFING DO IT.  And now, on the other side of things, I'm ready to DO a lot more. So watch out.

BarCamp really is about community and we couldn't possibly have gotten anywhere without the help of all of the superb volunteers and of course all of the people who attended this user-driven event.

I am especially grateful to my dear friend Geoff DiMasi for believing in me and always encouraging me to swim in deeper waters. I'd also like to thank the amazing Kelani Nichole for working side by side with me on so many aspects of the event, from shirts to signs to incredible superpowers (possessing them, that is).  To Matt Knell, for not only rallying the NYC crew, but for constantly brimming with enthusiasm towards BarCamp Philly, every step of the way.

To Gloria Bell and Melissa Thiessen, who signed every single person into BarCamp and completely held down the fort while we ran around attending sessions and managing the event. To Dave Konopka for offering indispensable WordPress knowledge and firing up the BarCamp Philly wiki. To Marion Summerville, for assembling the most beautiful grid of index cards for the analog schedule. To Carl Leiby for creating the famous digital schedule (which is now open source for all future BarCamps). To Arpit Murtha, Jim Cavanagh and Aaron Held for providing and designing video content for the 13th floor lobby.  To Kendall Schoenrock and Carsten Petzold of LTLprints.com for donating stickers for our sponsor wall. To Dana Vachon and Katie Regenye for baking us the most delicious Open Source Cupcakes.  To the CIM crew for representing in force, and for offering a helping hand wherever possible.

To UArts for donating a dynamic and inspirational environment for learning and sharing. To Indy Hall for letting us host several planning meetings and for being a major catalyst in the Philly tech community. To P'unk Ave, home of the Junto, for hosting a welcoming pre-party on Friday night. To National Mechanics for letting us throw it down like rockstars (complete with RockBand) and for chipping in a massive amount towards our rapidly diminishing bar tab.

To all of our generous sponsors for contributing to the costs associated with BarCamp Philly.  To all of the speakers, who brought knowledge and passion to each of their sessions. To all of the attendees who came with an open mind and a positive attitude. 

And finally, to all of the new friends I have made as a result of this event. I'm thrilled to know you all and look forward to many interesting collaborations and enjoyable moments in the future.

Thank you EVERYONE for making BarCamp Philly AWESOME.

the good stuff is going down in philly!

The Phillies win their first World Series since 1980! Philly pride is rampant in the city right now. I am so happy to be living in and loving Philly!

are you coming to barcamp philly?

I've been a total blog slacker these last few weeks, but I actually have a pretty decent excuse. I've been really busy helping plan BarCamp Philly, happening on Saturday November 8th at UArts, as well as putting lots of effort into keeping the BCP website so fresh and so clean and totally up to date.

I am super excited about BarCamp and you should be too!  Chances are, if you know me personally, you've already heard me go on about it, but if you haven't, I will give you the nutshell summary.  BarCamp is an ad-hoc user-generated (un)conference where likeminded people come together, usually in a setting where people can break into groups (classroom situations are ideal), share thoughts and ideas, participate, collaborate, etc.  There are no pre-planned speakers or schedules. The attendees are the presenters (if they so choose).  Check out some of the people coming to BarCamp Philly!

The event is totally FREE to attend and you even get a t-shirt! You'll also get the opportunity to chat with people who are doing cool stuff all over the Philadelphia region. We've even got some great folks from NYC coming, and I am sure points further than that.  We have plenty of fun events in the works before and after the event, so be sure to visit the BarCamp Philly website often to stay on top of things.

Last but not least, registration is required. It's really key that we have a sense of how many people are attending and we do have to cap it at some point to make sure that we don't exceed capacity of the event location.  So if you are thinking of coming and haven't formally registered yet, please do it today!

new music: the swimmers

If you're in the mood for some new music, specifically some delicious indie rock, check out The Swimmers.  Hailing from Philly, they deliver a magnetic blend of layered vocals, playful keyboards and lush guitars. They've got a bit of a throwback sound, reminiscent of early Beach Boys and the more recent (relatively speaking) Lilys.  Good news, you can stream their full album directly from their website.

If you like what you hear, you're in luck, they will be playing live Wednesday October 8th at the Khyber!

need new threads? have a clothing swap!

If you're anything like me, you've probably got a closet full of clothes that you look at every day and say, "I have nothing to wear!" One of the best ways to deal with this is to go through all of your stuff and edit, removing anything that you haven't worn for a season, doesn't fit, etc. You can store some of it if you think your size might change or if it's off season, etc.

As for the rest of it, chances are that some clothing you may no longer like for yourself might look smashing on a friend of yours. That's why it's great to have a clothing swap!  I've been having clothing swaps, aka Naked Lady Parties, ever since I lived in Brooklyn, when all my crafty friends would come over and dump all their fashion treasures on my living room floor.

My clothing swap style is to separate all the items into piles: shirts, shoes, pants, skirts, dresses, accessories, etc. Then someone takes the emcee role, holds the item up and describes it, and whoever is interested shouts "me me me!" or something similar.You can also have a free-for-all sample sale style event, where everyone can just have at it. I prefer the former. According to my friends at Tiny Choices, the two different styles are East Coast and West Coast!! Who knew?

When the day is done, have a friend help you take all the leftovers to the Goodwill or a similar local thrift store.

So, your closet is leaner and cleaner, you've scored some great new threads, you had a super fun day and you've given a healthy donation to those less fortunate. Sounds like a win to me!

Check out pics from my last swap >>

NEWSFLASH! Mark your calendars! The Philly Sewing Collective is having a Swap-o-Rama-Rama on Sunday October 19th from 1 to 5pm.

Founded by Wendy Tremayne, Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of DIY workshops in which participants explore creative reuse from recycled clothing. Basically, you bring a bag of clothes and they get sorted into piles by volunteers. You get to sort through all the clothes and work at the various DIY stations and sewing stations to create new clothes!

from two feet to two wheels

I don't have a car, nor do I have a bike. Mostly I get around with my own two feet, with the help of SEPTA, or by the good grace of my beloved automobile-havin' friends. My system works fine, but I know I could do better.

If you ever came to Philly, you might pick up right away that this is a cycling town. Don't be confused though, this isn't a bike town in the sense that there are ample bike lanes and racks, more that there are a lot of people getting around on two wheels, fighting their way through traffic, traversing end to end of this fine city. I've been studying them from afar ever since I decided I wanted in. People from all walks of life get around on bikes... young and old, athletic, quirky, normal, completely bonkers. Bikes are an extension of a person's identity, a form of creative expression, and a means to an end... a destination, that is.

I'm pretty excited by the thought of entering the legion of folks who have a much more malleable relationship with Philadelphia, being able to get from neighborhood to neighborhood with nimble ease. I'm at a proverbial crossroads, however, in that I simply cannot decide which path I want to take: the sleek style of a single speed road bike, or the durable comfort of a hybrid cruiser.

My gut is telling me that I am meant to go the way of the cruiser, being a bike novice and all. Truth is, I just want to get out and about a bit more, a bit farther than I could walk, closer to some trees, and really... to the gym a little more quickly and safely on dark, cold mornings.

I'm giving myself a few more days to sleep on it, but I'd love to hear what your trusted mode of transport is and why. Hit me up in the comments.

(Coincidentally, the photo above was taken on the west side of manhattan, not philly)