Ok, I’m here. I made it. I’m a LEED AP. Now what?

I like to break things down into 3’s when I feel a bit lost. So here’s my 3 big goals for the future regarding the use of this new credential:

1. Get smarter: I am not under the illusion that my studying days are over. They are only just beginning. Maintaining my credentials will require ongoing education (and quite a bit of money) in order to prove my continued worth as a leader in the sustainable building field. The GBCI’s Credentialing Maintenance Program (CMP) requires me to complete a confusing number of hours over a vaguely defined spread of LEED-related issues. I’ll need to clarify and post about this to understand it better. Check back later.

2. Get experienced: I am located in Italy, which is not a country seething with LEED projects. There are a few, however, and I have made some steps towards familiarizing myself with other LEED Italia professionals. I am even listed as a LEED AP on the Green Building Council of Italy’s website. While LEED Italy is still in its infancy, I am also trying to learn a bit about Casa Clima and Itaca – two of the other rating schemes used here in Italy.

3. Get recognized: For me, this means growing our new business to the point where we have a comfortable client base and a good reputation for quality architectural designs. I’d like to use my LEED AP credential as a tool for initiating conversations that would otherwise be overlooked in this somewhat traditional and rural setting (rural Reggio Emilia, Italy).

For now, I think these are reasonable (but general) goals. Over the next few months, I hope to post about more specific ways to achieve them.

I graduate college in two weeks and am at the point where all of the teachers have taught the curriculum. So essentially I have learned all that I need to know to go out there and do what I want to do.

I am a person who always needs to learn something. So I am lucky that in my career of choice I will always be learning something.

Where I work right now, I have learned so much already! I could go on about how much additional knowledge I have learned, but all that talk about PHP, JQuery, and Prototype will probably bore you. I am actually working on a project right now with a coworker that I am excited to learn some new things.

But learning does not just happen in a classroom or in the work force. You learn all sorts of things in your day to day life. Anywhere from how to work out a fight with your best friend, how to beat rush hour traffic, and how to cook that certain meal that your significant other loves.

Think about it, have you learned anything new today? Or have you taught something new to someone else? That is important too because they say when you teach someone you can better understand it yourself.

So today’s mission to everyone is to learn something new, and then share it with someone else. While you are at it, post something on here sharing what you learned. I would love to hear.

And with your new knowledge… smile. : )

Yes…yes, I understand. You like the cat and wish it to remain in one
piece. If I may, however, I would like to share my own thoughts on
this question…

Is he harassing you?

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: shepmom via Loldog Builder

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It’s easy to have a hard time putting together all the pieces necessary to fully grasp what the President says in a speech.  When dealing with an issue as complicated as war, it’s no surprise that this is the case.  Although parts of the speech may be comprehended, there are deeper currents of meaning below the surface that are easy to miss.  CATO Institute does a great job in their December 2nd Daily podcast of putting some of the pieces together, and explaining what this speech means to you and I.

Listen to this short daily podcast from CATO Institute entitled “Obama’s Afghanistan Contradiction”.  (requires flash)

( http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php?podcast_id=1043 )

Climb my scales, it said.  And so I did.  Straddle the rooftop, it said.  I did that, too.  This is the whole universe spinning overhead, it said.  I couldn’t understand anymore.  And I wondered if I had made the whole thing up.  That seems about right to me today.  Underneath, the house began to shake.  I knew what that meant, and so I woke.  All day, I have been feeling this strange sense that I must return.  That if I do, the answer will be clear.  And yet what fool hasn’t woken from his dream to find the world he sees unsatisfying?  Count me, this time, one of the lucky ones.  I wake tomorrow knowing that my house is just a house.  The moon no portal but a shining stone.  That light shines on the tiles all day.  That light shines on other tiles tonight in another hemisphere.  The moon is just roof.  Or is it a dreamer and everything beyond his dream the house of house?

455

“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” – Bertrand Russell

Dear sicagogirl,

I think my boyfriends best friend “D” is after me. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and he has been texting me for about 4 months now. He is always the first to text me though, and we sometimes even text for about 4 hours. When he was still dating his girlfriend he never gave me this kind of attention and it kinda came as a suprise. He is nice and funny, like a good guy to have as a male friend but it all seems a little strange. I dont know what to do. I love my boyfriend and i dont want him to think something more is going on or could possibly go on in the future.

Merly Kyte,

Dear Merly Kyte,

Your situation is pretty interesting but not uncommon. Many girls/ women suffer the same thing. Sometimes your boyfriends friend(s) can get interested in you. One of the reasons could be that your boyfriend is always bragging about you, which makes his friend(s) realise how great you are and also making him to gain more interest inyou, especially after a hearthbreak.

The only factor that should be an issue is the fact that his friend gained interest in you only after his break – up. Which means he could be using you to heal his pain, or something about you reminds him about his ex. However way you look at it, the love could never stand strong if you chose your boyfriends best friend , because the emotions he is feeling towards you arent well thought over. He is not yet over his recent break-up and is clinging on to anything that can rehabilitate him. Which could mean that after his rehabilitation he could realise that he wasnt really in love with you but with the feelings you gave him.

I am glad you know what you want and my advice to you would be to make things clear to your boyfriends best friend. It would also be a good move to let your boyfriend in on the situation so that he could also offer a solution. If possible you both can share friends but make sure you both know the situation and the feelings involved. Dont try to hide things from both guys because that will never solve anything.

good luck,

Sicagogirl

To sum up my first month’s work on helium will be exciting because I will get to look through the first things I’ve written on helium.com and see my growth and progress through a critical lens and then share it with you!

Please enjoy!!

Always and forever

Based on three separate poems, I’ve created this poem which is basically what I consider to be an engagement, newlywed or recommitment poem about marriage, being together and loving each other always and forever and the prospects of this new way of life. Helium has rated it 2/37.

How motherhood changes a woman

A friend of mine laughed at the fact that when I started on helium, most of the articles I had written were in their Parenting & Pregnancy channel, even though I am not a mother. I just wrote to titles that stuck out to me when I joined helium and this was one of them. I found that this was a title that was part of a writing contest helium was writing and it placed me at #14 in the list of publishers who wrote for the selected titles of the contest in the topic of Parenting & Pregnancy. I don’t quite recall how I first even found the title but I want to say that through rating, I came across many titles that stuck out to me, which I then would look up in order to write for.

This article has been 1/51 but the ratings went down and I could not understand why but when I was honest with myself, I knew that the couple of typos I’d corrected weren’t the only thing wrong. I realized my article was missing key information when it comes to physical and when it comes to professional, occupational and career changes that motherhood has on a woman. So, I “leapfrogged” the article (revising, adding to and editing an article and submitting it to be rated by the helium community as compared to your original article for the approval to, ultimately, leap over and literally replace the former article), which actually resulted in it going from two pages in length to four but all I knew was that I was making sure I put what I needed to say there in order to reflect my real take on the title. Needless to say, it reclaimed its rightful place in rating!

Should teachers have a right to deny a students need to use the bathroom?

Now, I came across this title and saw that it was a debate title, meaning you can come on the page and vote yes or no and can write an article relaying your argument for your side and your stance. A writer who wrote for the “No” side had a post on her blog/helium zone with a link to vote to “protect” children in public schools. Even though I actually loved her article [even added her to my favorite helium writers list on my profile] as well as her heart, I wrote for the “Yes” side. After writing, I learned that the channel category was for Secondary Education so I leapfrogged this article as well in order to ensure it reflected high school students and high school life at a more in depth capacity than it had previously. The article is rated 1/2 for the No side. In case you’d like to know and would find it to be valuable information, there are currently 4 articles on the yes side as compared to the 2 on the no side.

The impact of father-mother relationship on children’s well-being

This is something I’ve felt extremely strongly about and am glad to have gotten off of my chest exactly what and how I feel about it. Now, others can see and learn from it and they obviously appreciate since it is rated 3/14.

Is there too much sex on television?

I definitely had no choice but to write to this title. Everyone who I know who has read the article I wrote has thoroughy enjoyed it and thought it to be accurate and insightful as well as humorous and very debate-worthy. It is fact-driven and shares personal accounts as well as it challenges and raises questions. Enough of that, though, because what I want to say to you is that it shouldn’t be a question and I think that whoever wrote for or even just believes in the No side should “go spank themselves,” as someone I know says from time to time. Needless to say, I wrote for the Yes side and all I can say now is to just, please, read it yourself. Formulate an opinion if you have not yet done so. Lastly, fight for what you believe in because change does start with one man…every one man makes things how they are and every individual man is needed for things to change, so why not just go ahead and start with you?!

This article was numer 1/54 and was leapfrogged after a while because new information arose. It still sits at the top!

So, there we have it — a poem, two debates and two parenting articles and that sums up the best of  eDITORcHRIS/Christina Bernice’s helium.com writings from October 2009.

To do so, strive to understand what the customer wants and expects. Observe customers, monitor trends, and talk to them. Constantly look for ways to go beyond the expected or what the competition provides. Provide it faster, better, and more efficiently than others, and exceed customer expectations.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.



Invite others into your thought process. Talk it through out loud. Play the other side. You’ll learn more—and faster—this way.

help for pregnancy

Unneutered bodies are absolute abounding breeders and can aftermath three litters a year aback larboard to their own devices. The changeable cat is usually able to brand from as adolescent as six months old ancient alike younger.

The signs of a cat in calefaction or to use its medical name Oestrus can be absolutely attenuate and can be calmly absent by cat owners. Although there will be some bleeding during this time it is a lot beneath apparent than in a animal and if the cat is accustomed alfresco may be absent completely. Usually the aboriginal break that a cat is on heat are changes in behaviour. Generally the changeable cat will become ever affable appear anybody and will rub herself about your legs added frequently than usual. She will additionally cycle about on her aback added often accomplish abnormal yowling noises and will appetence to defecate added often which helps to advance her aroma around.

If your changeable cat does accept acquaintance with complete macho bodies during this time it is acceptable that she will acquaintance with all that she encounters. This explains why a clutter of kittens may accommodate abounding altered fur colourations and markings as they may all accept altered fathers.

The evolution aeon for a cat is amid and canicule and the aboriginal signs that your cat is abundant may not be axiomatic until the third anniversary of pregnancy aback her nipples will alpha to become enlarged. By anniversary four the abundance should become arresting and it during this time that a vet will be able to feel the kittens through her abdomen.

During your bodies abundance it is important that your cat is fed top amore cat food allotment one that is formulated for kittens is a acceptable best as it is college in protein and calcium. However over agriculture should be avoided as over weight bodies can ache complications during birth. Extra vitamins may be benign to your abundant cat but supplements should not be accustomed afterwards the approval from a able vet.

As the bearing draws near the queen will alpha to attending for a abode to accept her kittens. She will apparently appetence to accept a quiet abandoned accustomed abode that is balmy and secure. As an buyer you can advice accept this abode by agreement a agenda box lined with bi-weekly in a quiet balmy room. Food baptize and a clutter tray should additionally be placed abreast by to animate your queen to accomplish this her bearing box.

One of the aboriginal signs that your cat is advancing to accord bearing is that her appetence will abatement and she will either activate to appetence to be on her own added than accepted or she may seek out animal amore to advice assure her. Additionally her mammary glands will become absolute bloated and may alpha to aftermath milk a few canicule afore the absolute birth.
During this time it is important for the buyer to accumulate a abutting eye on the cat and to watch out for any signs of ache or illness. Any signs of a temperature or if the cat has not eaten at all for hours should be advised by a vet.

Cats are commonly able to accord bearing afterwards any botheration absolutely by themselves. The action appears to be about affliction free and afar from the absolute straining the cat seems assertive by the accomplished situation. Animal action is rarely needed alike ambidextrous with the umbilical band and fetal membranes can be larboard to the cat.

After the aboriginal babe is built-in it may not be for addition hour or so afore the help for pregnancy abutting babe is born. However it is not abnormal for alternating kittens to be built-in to hours afterwards this aboriginal beachcomber of kittens. It is accordingly important not to let your cat out or try to handle them for at atomic hours to accomplish abiding that the action is completed. Reassuring acclamation and tickles will be abundant to abundance the cat and assure her that all is well. Fresh water aliment and a clutter tray should be provided abutting by.

Mother and kittens should be accustomed to be larboard abandoned to band and the handle of the kittens should be basal for the aboriginal hours so that our aroma does not affectation their own and their mothers.

The underground Cyberspace Dictatorship

The human biological phenomena of advertising is the most powerful and sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it.

It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be beautiful, how to be loved, how to be envied, how to be successful.. Is it any wonder that the American population tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art, science, religion are progressively expelled to the periphery of American life to become marginal values, cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?”

Kids are among the most sophisticated observers of ads. They can sing the jingles and identify the logos, and they often have strong feelings about products. What they generally don’t understand, however, are the issues that underlie how advertising works. Mass media are used not only to sell goods but also ideas: how we should behave, what rules are important, who we should respect and what we should value.

Read the whole article @ Comfortnetworks.nl

http://gino.comfortnetworks.nl/index.php/2009/11/27/commercial-child-exploitation/

I have always been a firm believer

in photographic experiments. Only

by attempting everything personally

can a photographer begin to

understand the scope of

photography..… No picture, verbal

description or how-to-do-it

article can supersede first-hand

experience.

Waclaw Nowak

Polish Photographer

At this very moment, I’m loving this song very, very much. It feels really good to listen to the words in this song. Listen closely and maybe you’ll understand.

Lyrics to Goodbye

It’s a shame that it had to be this way
It’s not enough to say I’m sorry
It’s not enough to say I’m sorry

Maybe I’m to blame
Or maybe were the same
But either way I can’t breathe
Either way I can’t breathe

All I had to say is goodbye
Were better off this way
Were better off this way

I’m alive but I’m losing all my drive
Cause everything we’ve been through
And everything about you
Seemed to be a lie
A guiltless twisted lie
It made me learn to hate you
Or hate myself for letting it pass by

All I had to say is goodbye
Were better off this way
Were better off this way
All I had to say is goodbye
Were better off this way
Were better off this way

And every, everything isn’t only
What it seemed so hold these
Words that you never told me
Its time to say goodbye
Its time to say goodbye
Its time to say goodbye
Goodbye

Bye

Take my hand away
Spell it out
Tell me I was wrong
Tell me I was wrong

Take my hand away
Spell it out
Tell me I was wrong
Tell me I was wrong

Take my hand away
Spell it out
Tell me I was wrong
Tell me I was wrong

- whit3puppy