My Grandma's Blog

Sometimes I think about how cool it would be if my grandma had kept a blog from her youth. And my mom. To know them in this way, as they wanted the world to see them. The modern day version of the little journal, complete with lock and key, locked away from peeping eyes. Only now, not only do we not lock it away, we tweet it, we blog about it, we hope for it to go viral.

My grandma would laugh at the idea of sharing her innermost thoughts with the world. Maybe quite accurately she would ask, 'Who wants to know what I'm thinking about and doing?' My mom would have dug it. She was a connoisseur of people, like me.
Where do we keep our secret thoughts now?

LEED Certification Basics

Certification is provided by a third party vendor called the Green Building Certification Institute. Via the leadership and standards provided by the US Green Building Council.

1) LEED AP specialties may be obtained in the areas below, after passing the generalized LEED Green Associate exam and achieving the designation.
- LEED AP Operations & Maintenance (LEED AP O+M)
- LEED AP Homes
- LEED AP Interior Design & Construction (LEED AP ID+C)
- LEED AP Building Design & Construction (LEED AP BD+C)
In addition, a 'Neighborhood Development' specialty is slated for offering in 2010.

2) Individuals must now prove eligibility to take any of the certification exams by providing documented related sustainability experience (See Eligibility Requirements within the Candidate Handbook).

I am researching this requirement. How does one re-educate themself in a field in which they have no experience. Kind of a chicken and the egg issue. Can't get the education without the experience, can't get the experience without the education. Ideas??

3) Exams are vary in length from 200-400 questions, and in allotted time, 2 hours- 4 hours.

4) Fees vary, from $200 for the Green Associate exam, to $450 for an AP specialty exam. Members of the US Green Building Council receive a discount. There is also a $50 application fee for each certification. Student pricing is available for the LEED Green Associate exam.

5) There are restrictions as to time in which the exam must be passed, and how many attempts may be made to pass the exam within the application period.

PCT to Crater Lake

I am covered from head to toe in a thousand mosquito bites. Forty, on my face and head alone. Don't itch. Don't itch. Backpacking the PCT to Crater Lake in June, um, bad idea. Not recommended. We turned a leisurely 3-day backpack, into a 2-day death march/jog through mosquito thickets. The lake is lovely. Truly a wonder. Get in a car and drive up there, take your photos, have lunch even, then drive back down and get the hell out of there.