A Return to Your Genuine Self: Escaping the Hands of the Abuser - Part 5

A Return to Your Genuine Self: Escaping the Hands of the Abuser - Part 5

Angels Blog: Aan het roer, de virtuele boekentour

Angels Blog: Aan het roer, de virtuele boekentour: · De virtuele boekentour De uitdaging: 20 blogs in 20 weken Elke week op een andere website. Zal het me lukken om steeds weer een intere...

Choosing a career pathway that leaves your options open

Career choices and options

There are many ways of being in the circle of life. There's a fitting career for anyone, no matter what your inclinations are. However, finding the right career for you may be a daunting task. If you're like me, you might try many different trades, finding something interesting in each, but never quite finding everything you're looking for in something.worth doing with your time. Also, in these days of economic difficulty, that career you once had may no longer exist. Or as you grow and mature, it may no longer fit you. Either way, it helps to be informed. That's just what the DVD set will give you: information on career clusters and pathways.

My friends and I often play a sort of game, where we say things like:'when I grow up I want to be...' or 'When I come back (reincarnate) I want to come as ...' And then we go on to name the career paths we once said no to. The path's not taken have a certain allure to them and frankly, sometimes starting over is the right thing to do. 'If I had to do it all over again...' what would become possible for you?

The thing is, with the economy the way it is, perhaps this is the time to do it all over again. Your career options may have been cut short, or, like some people in my generation, you may just have given this one path all you want. When you reach the succes you dreamt of, when you come to the top of your class, when you have just gotten tired of doing the same old thing over and over... it's time to figure out whether you're a one trick pony or are going to start over on a path to a new and exciting career.

My personal path

I've been around the career block a few times and I know a thing or two about many professions. I was in manufacturing, making power shades: motorized roman windowshades at a small factory in Aspen Colorado. The boss was a kind man with a hankering for Classical music and we were creating these little motor gear trains in a factory about the size of a classroom. As the only female there I tried my hand at seamstressing but for me, this had too much 'stress' in it so I kept working on the greasy side. I also was a doughnut baker and worked as an artist on pop-art scultures.

I was in the packaging industry as well. For quite a while I worked in a factory packaging rice cakes. When I got home at the end of a night shift, I would take a shower and the scent of puffed rice would be so strong on me...

I worked in health care, youth care, the psychiatric ward... I worked with homeless, jobless, clueless (youngsters). I worked as a waitress for a very brief while, it really didn't serve me. I worked as a babysitter with the very young. In a number of jobs I worked myself up from a lackey to manager.

Finally, at age 41, I decided on a new career path. I started my own bussiness as an online coach for problems that have shame and guilt related to it, most notably, childhood sexual abuse. This is where I found my personal niche.

Recently I wrote a book on healing childhood sexual abuse and it came out last februari in The Netherlands. Currently I'm working on the translation of it to the American market.

I've found my career by trial and error. Many errors, in fact, though I wouldn't have missed any of the experiences I've had. It's made my life a rich tapestry of experiences that have really helped me in the writing of my book, making it alive with examples that people can relate to.

The cover of my book

This is the cover of the Dutch version of the book. Currently looking for a publisher in the US.

Source: personal property

One trick pony?

The beauty of the career clusters as they are portrayed in this DVD series by careerpathwaysonline is that you can instantly find out what other careers are in your cluster. The job switch you might make can be within your cluster leaving you with a minimum of extra education to consider. This will make your previous experience still count for something in the workplace because people will be able to see that you've worked in a similar field.

The other thing it does is, it gives you a broader look at what is out there. If your next step is guided by what you allready know, most likely it's going to guide you to something you allready know and are tired of by now. Learning something new, learning something about the possibilities out there sets you up to really do something new and different for a change.

The advantage of sticking with a category or career cluster you know is of course also it's pitfall. If you're looking to make a switch you might indeed be better off looking at the things you don't know. If you're in a technical profession, take a look at the healthcare cluster. If you're managerial and looking for a real change, try manufacturing. There's a whole world to discover out there!

Cleaning up oil spills

Getting to the bottom of the barrel

Ever wonder about oil tankers and how the get out all that crude oil at delivery? I did. I did a little research and found out about a thing called a Belt Skimmer. You know that old thread mop that you have? Or perhaps that you've seen people use at your favorite fast food restaurant, airport terminal or other such place that has a lot of floor to cover? Would you believe that the same principle is applied to the mopping up of crude oils from barrels, containers and oil tankers? With a few improvements of course.

The basic idea is that of the string mop. The fluid is absorbed into the threads and then it gets wrung out some place else. The difference between a conventional string mop and this big brother is both the size and the wringing mechanism. The mop can be up to 50 feet long and is a loop. At the bottom of the loop, the mop picks up the liquid, in this case oil. It is transported to the wringing mechanisme by just pulling it up and then it's wrung out over a container using electric powered 'squeegy' rollers. Then it returns to the place of the oil and starts over again. Would you believe that up to 50 gallons of oil can be salvaged per hour this way?

What about floating oil spills?

Allright, we've seen how the belt skimmer can be used to mop up oil from the bottom of a barrel. However, if the mop becomes waterlogged it can't contain any oil, so how can we make sure when we're mopping up oil from a body of water, that we're not mopping up the body of water?

Again the solution is simple and elegant. We affix the end of the mop to a place above the water allowing the mop to drag on, rather than in the water. Of course, this can't be done on very choppy water, but if you 'stake out' a bit of ocean for instance, by putting a sort of bottomless boat over the top of it, the water inside the stakeout will be calm enough to mop up the oil. This is a rather laborious task but it can be done and every bit of oil salvaged from a spill means at least two things: A bit less beach spoiled, and less danger of marine wildlife and birds getting hurt.

Oil companies are starting to understand that unless they want to lose the support of the public, they better clean up their act. Just as they are starting to understand that their industry is going to disappear in the next 50 years or so, and if they wish to survive as a company, they'd better diversify. The other option is to plan for the dissolution of the company, personally I'd prefer that option. In my opinion any company that has outlived it's use should be declared obsolete and cease to exist. This is certainly true for the oil industry.

After all: if you can build a multibillion dollar multinational company once, you can do it again. This time, take what you've learned about customer satisfaction, the environment and social responsibility and start over. Make a company that is committed to doing good, rather than just 'don't be evil'. The world is wating for strong entrepreneurs that want to make the world work again.

A challenge to the industry

When the big oilspill in the gulf of Mexico happenen people donated human hair to help with the mop up. Somehow word had gotten out that human hair could absorb more oil than any other type of material and, well, people cared so they donated their hair for the mop up.

I'm not sure if the hair thing was effective or not, but it does show that the public does care. So here's my challenge to the oil-spill cleaning industry, listen up ambarenvironmental: find a material that is even more effective at mopping up oil. It truly is a win win win win situation.

• People won't be feeling the need to turn in their hair
• The public will approve
• The oil spill will be cleaned quicker
• You'll gain more oil from the mopping

With nanotechnology, biomimicry and combining all kinds of knowledge with the simple yet elegant mop design, we can make sure we are ready for when then next spill hits and we can prevent a lot of the disastrous consequences of our carelessness. And make a profit to boot.

A vacuum elevator in your own home

Why would you need an elevator in your home?

There are many reasons people might have for having an elevator installed in their residence.

1. You might have a handicap that requires you to be in a wheelchair
2. You might need assistance going up the stairs due to knee or foot problems
3. You might be so overweight that the stairs just aren't an option anymore
4. Your house might be too small to accommodate a staircase whereas an elevator would take up less space
5. You might want the extra comfort of being able to take the elevator when you're tired
6. You may just want to show off as it's cool to have your own elevator.
7. You might need to shuttle stuff up and down in your house, like if the kitchen is downstairs

Surely this list isn't exhaustive and whatever your reason for installing an elevator in your house is valid as well. The reality is that more and more people are choosing to install a residential elevator.

How does a vacuum elevator work

The vacuum elevator is very different from the classic, counterweighted pull up mechanism that we all know as elevators. Instead it uses vacuum suction to transport you up and down the shaft. It's limited in that it can only lift you a maximum of 35 feet, but this is not a problem for most homes. You get into a type of cylinder that encloses you. The cylinder is inside a tube and in order to hoist you up, the air is sucked out of the tube above you creating a vacuum and you're pulled upward by the vacuum. Getting down is the same process but in reverse, air is gradually let back in the upper part of the tube and you're lowered down to ground level.

The system is extremely safe, with mechanical handbrakes installed just in case anything should go wrong and I think it's just simply beautiful too.

My experience with the vacuum elevator

A friend of mine is in a wheelchair. Has been pretty much all her life and she's not one to take such a thing lying down. She was born completely spastic and the doctors told her parents that she'd never amount to anything. Well, that doctor couldn't have been more wrong. Her father took it as a challenge and she picked up that baton after she became adult. When she was 15 she was in a special care hospital where they would help her with anything and everything and she had to fight to keep doing things for herself so she wouldn't lose the muscle control she had spent half her life gaining.

At 16 she was organizing mixed parties at the institute (mixed in the sense that there were handicapped and non handicapped people attending, and boys and girls of course). She fell in love with a handsome, non-handicapped man and they got a home together. Then she got pregnant and needed a bigger home. She didn't have a lot of money but she had a big dream. To have her house be a model for handicapped housing everywhere and with her smartphone she contacted architects and contractors galore and with shrewd bussiness sense and a lot of determination she now owns a beautiful two story home which is fully wheelchair accessible.

When installing her vacuum elevator she had a bit of a discussion with the builder. He wanted to install it so that she could go from the ground floor to the second floor only. "No need to go into the basement" he said. She nearly threw a fit! She was livid as it was her intent that she have a fully accessible home. Of course she got what she wanted, she's that kind of woman.

Anyway, the elevator moves smoothly and her rather large electric wheelchair fits it without any problem. Her daughter uses the elevator as well and proudly shows it off to her friends.
"There are advantages to having a handicapped mom" she tells them.

Wheelchair safe and luxurious to behold

Aside from residential installations the vacuum elevator is also being installed in buildings like a cinema. It's limited capacity is more than offset by the limited space it occupies and it's beauty. The installation is quite simple and the folks at vacuum elevators are working closely together with architects to make sure that your installation is working properly and installed beautifully into your home.

There's a type of turbine at the top that provides the suction that lifts the cabin but other than that no unsightly machinery, no basement full of bulky equipment to make room for
.

Innovation, thinking beyond the obvious

100+ uses of a paperclip

One of the ways to make the world a better, more sustainable place is finding new uses for things. By looking for new and innovative ways of doing things with what we already have, we can avoid buying or building new things. Versatility is key in the new economy. Something that portable storage San Diego has understood well and true.

There was a recent study done how where they challenged 4 year olds to come up with as many different ideas as they could for using an everyday object, like a paperclip. Within an hour time frame a group of preschoolers could come up with over 160 ways of using a paperclip, ranging from picking your nose or ears with it to, if you made a really big one you could slide down it. The childs mind is not yet throwing away any ideas as “unmanagable” or “unrealistic”. Instead it centers upon finding as many different uses for the paperclip as they can and let their imagination run free. Now this was a longitudinal study and they retested the kids at age 15. By the time these preschoolers had gotten an education they have trouble coming up with more than 20 uses for the paperclip. We lose a lot due to our education.

Smart thinking

I don't know if portable storage San Diego invited a bunch of preschoolers to work alongside them for the project but they did come up with some very usefull and innovative ways to use containers. First of all containers are for transporting stuff, right? Storage is a new use for containers and an innovation in its own right. Now you can put a bunch of those containers together and build a fence around them and you have transformed a vacant lot into a regular storage rental space at a fraction of the cost of putting up a building. This is exactly the way Coronado Mobile Storage started out!

Now there is more things you can do with a container and one of the things that I thought was really clever is that instead of asking people to bring over their stuff to storage, you can also deliver the container to their door to be filled with their stuff. A lot easier for both the customer, who can put their stuff in at leasure and for the service provider as well. All you have to do is drive the container out there and pick it up after the customer calls to say it's filled! How smart is that?

Many uses for containers

The next step is even more innovative. What else can you use these containers for? Well, it's a huge enclosed space that with a few adjustments can be modified into a mobile office, or you can provide an enclosed space to safely put equipment in at an on location jobsite, roadwork or the like. A few more adjustments and you can make a container into a complete home, where you can live part- or fulltime. A mobile home without the wheels, so to speak. And let's be honest: how many mobile homes are really meant to be mobile, meant to be moved around a lot. Generally it's more like a parked home to begin with. So lose the wheels and use a container to form the basis, put in a few adjustments such as electricity and running water and you have cheap housing, if not on a permanent basis then certainly in times of a crisis or disaster. Heck, let's go even further and equip the containers with their own solarpanels and you'd really be able to park them anywhere!

Solar energy: solar film, the solar panel of the future?

The future might be thin film

The developement of technologies is accelerating at a high rate. Where only a short 30 years ago solar panels were largely unheard of and considered highly advanced technology, the first generation is already outdated and the second generation will soon follow suit. Many people have started their own solar farm, helped along by government stimulation programs and the enormous rise in the cost of fossil fuels. They have formed co-operative efforts and use smartgrids to share the energy thus collected off their rooftops and in sharing they have found that they can be selfsufficient much easier than when everyone has their own closed circuit. So sharing is the name of the game, with smart computer programmes measuring the relative use of everyone connected to the smartgrid. Still for a lot of people solar panels are prohibitively expensive. The market for renewable energy resources is ready for the next breakthrough in technology making gathering solar energy available to even low income homes and families. And it might just be thin film.

Red light, blue light, all can be used

Thin film is a layer thin as can be, we're talking nanometers here. I don't pretend to know everything about the technologie that produces these thing films, but it's the same type of process that I wrote about in the blog I did on Magnetron sputtering. A thin film has to have certain properties that allow it to convert speed of the sun's fotons into energy. Now the classic first and second generation solar cells use only the red light out of the whole spectrum that the sun sends down. Red light is less energetic than blue light, but less blue light reaches the earths serface, so that sorta balances out. The idea now, with these thin film technologies is to create layers of thin film in which both the red light energy and the blue light energy can be converted into useable energy. This would effectively increase the output of solar panels manifold. A single layer thin film could already mimic the results of the (relatively expensive) solar panels, but a multilayer thin film is expected to increase efficiency enormously.

Imagining the future now...

Thin film can be mass produced, simply, effectively and for all kinds of purposes including solar energy. You can go to the hardware store and buy solar film for your windows (they're so thin that they are see through anyway, so why not put them on all your windows or at least the ones that get the most sunlight). Then you plug your household appliances into your windows and of course, because we've already learned the advantages of sharing, we build a smartgrid for every office building, every block of housing. Every empty building is turned into a powerplant by covering it with thin solar film from Vergason for instance and because it's so cheap, we cut our cost of living radically (incidentally ending the world wide financial crisis we're now in the middle of)

I don't know the particulars, but wireless electricity seems to be the next necessary step to connect people without needing a world of infrastructure and wires going everywhere. Because of all this interdependent technology we're also getting to know our neighbors better and because of this we're investing in each other more, becoming less dependent on the money grabbers at the utility companies and at the same time let's also get smart and share our wifi instead of letting the telecom companies bleed us dry. The future then finds us interconnected on a global scale while being interdependent on a local scale. Now there's a twist on globalization!