All In My Twenties: A REAL Friend's Reminder...

Hey there lovies!

Happy Monday.

Cant believe the weekends already gone, but on a positive note this girl has this week to work and then will? be off for 2 WEEKSSSS on vacation.

Words cannot describe the excitement I feel!

Yay for Dallas and yay for the Bahamas!

{Still trying to get her butt before then!!}

I had a wonderful weekend, but more on that later.

Today Im going to preach a little reminder we all need to hear every now and then.

You know Im good at that.

To be honest, sharing them with you seems to help keep me on track too, which is why I do it!

This one is about Friendship.

friend.ship

NOUN

1. the mutual feelings of trust and affection and the behavior that typify relationships between friends

2. a relationship between people, organizations, or countries that is characterized by mutal assistance, approval and support

3. a relationship between two or more people who are friends

This definition probably isnt news to any of you.

The reason Im sharing it today is because sometimes I think people lose sight of what being a "good friend" truly entails. Im completely aware that all relationships have their ups and downs. Thats life. And no we arent always going to see eye to eye with our friends but I think we need to all be thankful and?appreciative of those friends we count on to be there always. And I think we should all try a little harder to be supportive, affectionate and loving at least 90% of the time. No one is perfect nor is any friendship, but I think if we tried harder to be nicer and to be the best friend we can be more often, our friendships would be the best they can be.

Most importantly, and the whole reason Im talking about this today,?I think as a?friend you need to know when?NOT to be "truthful". Sometimes saying nothing at all is better than being "truthfully" mean to your friends. You may not agree with them and you may want to be brutally honest, but sometimes holding your tongue will benefit both you, and your friendship, far more. I think some people take the "Im just being honest" approach when they should be taking the "Im just going to stay silent" stand. Just because youre a "best friend" does NOT give you the right to say MEAN hurtful things even if they are honestly how you feel. This is something I think we all need to keep in mind because sometimes its the little snide remarks that really HURT and thats NOT why we have friends. No one wants to feel attacked or hurt by the ones who are suppose to love them the most.

So the next time youre in a shitty mood or youre irritated,?try and refrain from taking it out on the ones you love most.?Take a moment and remember why you call that person your "best friend" and then shut your trap because a REAL best friend wouldnt want to hurt their feelings.

Just a thought to keep in mind.

Thats all for today friends!!

Source: http://allinmytwenties.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-real-friends-reminder.html

marquette hilary duff michigan state michigan state city creek center andrew luck pro day josh johnson

Your Heart's Not Broken?It's Working Perfectly! - The Daily Love

This morning I woke up with a little ache in my heart. I wanted to go back to sleep, pull the covers over my head and stay in bed all day. I rolled over onto my stomach and let out a big breath and sigh, ?Ughhhhhhhh.? ?Then the most interesting thing happened:? I felt the steady, strong, healthy beat of my heart against the mattress, and I was struck by the realization, ?Your heart?s not broken, it?s working perfectly!?

And this truth resonated with me deeply. Not only is my heart beating, the ache I feel is there to teach me something. Where did it come from? Well, after years of being completely independent, self-fulfilling and admittedly emotionally unavailable, I tasted the fruit of romantic connection and intimacy, and I allowed myself to become too consumed by it. For a moment, I was looking to find fulfillment in the eyes of another, only to be quickly reminded that this is not a sustainable path. Still, it is an easy thing for us to do, especially when we feel a deep connection, when we open our hearts and experience the joy of sharing ourselves and our love with another. But this is a fundamental error that we all make time and time again, in our lives and in our relationships: to mistake something outside ourselves as the source of our fulfillment and our wholeness.

When we buy into the illusion that someone else can complete us, make us feel good about ourselves and fill us up with their love, we give our power away and we deepen the insatiable longing within us. This is the longing that gives rise to many addictive and unhealthy relationships and lifestyle choices. The true yearning that lies at the root of these tendencies is to know, connect with and love ourselves fully and to experience a state of true oneness with The Uni-verse.

Once we establish this connection, this direct line, then we can experience true fulfillment and we can engage meaningfully in the sacred space of relationship without abusing or misusing the love of another. Of course, self-love and connection to The Uni-verse are not states that we arrive at once and for all, leaving all efforts and practices that got us there behind us. What are such practices? Any means by which we can go within and explore our true nature as spiritual beings and experience our connection to something greater than ourselves. A good place to start would be yoga, meditation, visualization, affirmations and prayer.

Ultimately, it is a journey and a process, one that is endless and forever deepening, one that requires consistency, and one that will involve missteps, trials and tribulations. There will be falls from the state of bliss that comes with glimpses of enlightenment, which is to know that we are children of The Uni-verse, that we are loved and worthy of love, for no other reason than the fact that we have hearts and souls, and it is our birthright to love and be loved.

Our hearts are ours to cherish, to honor and to treat with reverence. We were born with these magnificent entities so that we could love, give, care, share, nurture, empathize and have compassion. Sometimes, we misuse our hearts and we try to fill them up with the love of others. Just like a hangover after a night of seemingly blissful intoxication, or a belly ache after gorging on sweets and treats, we can quickly be reminded that the high is often followed by a come down and that perhaps our choice to over-indulge did not ultimately serve us.

In the same way, when my heart aches, it is serving a most important function. It is reminding me to look within for the love that I am seeking outside myself, to heal myself and to remember that the source of my fulfillment lies deep within me. Not out there, but in here. In that moment, the choice is mine to feel the ache and learn the lesson that my heart is teaching me, or to run away from it, to distract myself, to numb it and to miss the opportunity for growth.

So many of us experience heartache or heartbreak and, instead of learning the lesson that our hearts are offering us, we vow to never love again, we cut off the feeling, we close ourselves off from connection, we shut the doors to our hearts, lock them up indefinitely and miss the point altogether. To shut down and stop feeling is not the solution and will not give way to the healing or fulfillment that we ultimately yearn for, and will not create the opportunity for meaningful connection and relationship.

I?ll say it again: what we are seeking first and foremost is a relationship with ourselves and with The Uni-verse, and until we establish this connection, all other attempts to be fulfilled will fall short of the mark. Once we discover and learn to nurture this connection, we can begin to exercise our power and ability to be the source of our own fulfillment. Only then can we experience the love of another as the reflection of our own love and wholeness.

Our hearts are our greatest guides in this process, always leading us to the ultimate destination of oneness and completeness. This is our heart?s true purpose and when we forget this, it will ache to remind us that we are its keeper, that we already have access to all that we desire to feel within us and that we are the love that we seek.

Your heart isn?t broken, it?s working perfectly. Are you willing to listen to what it?s telling you and to learn the lesson that its aches are teaching you?

Much love,

Chris

# # #

Chris Assaad is a rad singer/songwriter and TDL Reader. Listen to and download his new EP ?Into The Light? for FREE here. Check out his website here.

Source: http://thedailylove.com/your-hearts-not-broken-its-working-perfectly/

gregg williams theraflu masters leaderboard frozen four joe avezzano kanye west theraflu joey votto

Rising Afghan insider attacks imperil US strategy

President Barack Obama speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington, Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington, Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington, Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

FILE - In this July 17, 2012 file photo, Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks in Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. officials have settled on two main explanations for why Afghan security forces are turning their guns on their Western partners: infiltration by the Taliban and a U.S.-Afghan culture clash. Both causes suggest the problem may persist or worsen as American and other coalition forces shift further into an advisor role. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid, File)

FILE - In this April 19, 2012 file photo, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey confer on Capitol Hill in Washington prior to testifying. U.S. officials have settled on two main explanations for why Afghan security forces are turning their guns on their Western partners: infiltration by the Taliban and a U.S.-Afghan culture clash. Both causes suggest the problem may persist or worsen as American and other coalition forces shift further into an advisor role. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama declared Monday he is sticking to his war strategy of using U.S. troops to advise and mentor Afghan forces, even as a suddenly growing number of Americans are being gunned down by the very Afghans they are training to take on insurgents.

In just the past 10 days, Afghan forces have attacked their coalition partners seven times, killing nine Americans. For the year there have been 32 such incidents, killing 40, compared to 21 attacks killing 35 troops in all of 2011.

"We are deeply concerned about this, from top to bottom," Obama told a White House news conference. But he said the best approach, with the fewest number of deaths in the long run, would be to stick to the plan for shifting security responsibilities to the Afghans.

"We are transitioning to Afghan security, and for us to train them effectively we are in much closer contact ? our troops are in much closer contact with Afghan troops on an ongoing basis," Obama said. "Part of what we've got to do is to make sure that this model works but it doesn't make our guys more vulnerable."

That vulnerability, however, has been exposed in a strikingly deadly way in recent days.

U.S. officials offer two main theories for why Afghan security forces are turning their weapons on Western partners: infiltration by the Taliban and a U.S.-Afghan culture clash.

Both of those root causes suggest that the problem may get worse as American and other coalition forces shift further into an adviser/mentor role. And that, in turn, raises questions about U.S. ability to train and shape the Afghans into a force that can stand up to the Taliban insurgency after foreign forces end their combat role in 2014.

Jacqueline L. Hazelton, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester, who has extensively studied counterinsurgency strategy, sees the attacks stemming from a combination of Afghan resistance and resentment.

"As disturbing as the attacks are as a Taliban tactic, the broader popular anger revealed - among those the mission is supposed to be most closely allied with and most directly useful to - is even more dangerous for the longer term and reveals a greater rot within," Hazelton said in an email exchange.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said U.S. officials believe the current approach is solid, despite the surge in attacks.

"In the face of this problem, we remain strongly committed to the strategy we have put in place," he said. "The strategy is working, and suggestions that it is fundamentally imperiled at this point are just wrong."

As recently as last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called such attacks "sporadic" and a sign of Taliban desperation. But as the assaults continued through the week, he consulted with his top commander in Kabul and then on Saturday called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to express concern. Obama said Monday he would do the same.

"We've got to make sure we're on top of this," Obama said.

Obama's Republican election rival, Mitt Romney, said Monday in New Hampshire that the U.S. goal ought to be to "transition from our military to their military as soon as possible," in a way that prevents Afghanistan from collapsing and reverting to being a launching pad for terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Obama said he discussed the problem Monday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who was already in Kabul to talk to American and Afghan officials about how to halt the killings.

Dempsey said upon his arrival in Kabul that it was important for Karzai and other top government officials to publicly denounce the insider killings, according a Pentagon account of his remarks.

Dempsey's office at the Pentagon issued a statement Monday saying he is convinced, after discussing the insider threat with his Afghan counterpart, Gen. Sher Mohammed Karimi, that the Afghans "understand how important this moment is."

"In the past, it's been us pushing on them to make sure they do more," Dempsey was quoted as saying. "This time, without prompting, when I met General Karimi, he started with a conversation about insider attacks - and, importantly, insider attacks not just against us, but insider attacks against the Afghans, too."

Dempsey has acknowledged that efforts begun a year ago to improve the vetting of Afghan recruits have yet to solve the problem.

Olga Oliker, an analyst at the Rand Corp. who studies Afghan security forces, said the checks are inevitably spotty, which makes training even more difficult.

"It's Afghanistan," she said. "You just don't have the kinds of records that will give you a strong confidence in a vetting process." And as long as the threat persists it will affect the U.S. training mission, she said.

"If our training efforts take a step back, if our folks are not comfortable genuinely partnering with the Afghans, we'll have even less insight into what they can do," she said Monday. "We'll have even less awareness of when it's appropriate to leave, and we'll be playing even more of a craps game when we withdraw than we are now."

Most U.S. combat troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Panetta's spokesman, George Little, described him as "deeply disturbed" by the attacks, including the latest on Sunday in which a U.S. soldier was shot to death when two Afghan police officers suddenly opened fire inside a police station in southern Kandahar province. The victim was a member of a U.S. military advisory team that had been working with the Afghan police inside their station in Spin Boldak district.

Those advisory teams are growing in number and importance to the U.S. strategy for getting Afghan soldiers and police prepared to take over the fight against the insurgency.

For months U.S. officials have emphasized that insider attacks are rarely perpetrated by Taliban infiltrators. Rather, the killings are usually the work of Afghan troops who hold a grudge against their U.S. or allied partner. The intended implication of that analysis is that the problem could be managed by more closely checking the backgrounds and personal circumstances of Afghans who are recruited into the police and army.

Either way, analysts say the willingness of even a small fraction of Afghan forces to turn on their partners is troubling.

Asked about the problem in an Associated Press interview a week ago, Panetta cast it as a sign of the Taliban's desperation, and he said he had been assured by U.S. commanders that the attacks were only "sporadic."

The next day, however, Panetta told a Pentagon news conference that he had conferred with Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and discussed with him a variety of measures designed to stem the attacks. These include stepping up counterintelligence efforts to identify potential attackers before they strike.

As of last week U.S. troops in Afghanistan are under orders to carry loaded weapons at all times, even when on their bases, to enable them to respond more quickly if they spot an Afghan soldier preparing to attack them.

The issue has drawn little attention in Congress, although Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., last week challenged Dempsey's assertion that Afghan security forces are making progress toward fending for themselves.

"With all due respect," Wolf wrote in a letter last week to Panetta, citing Dempsey's assertion, "how can you state that Afghan security forces are making 'steady progress' when they continue to gun down our forces?"

___

Associated Press broadcast correspondent Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.

____

Robert Burns can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-08-20-Insider%20Attacks/id-4349a28dfa0d41c4ac3374c7f75eec15

andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi george clooney rutgers dharun ravi

iPad 1 can't find any WiFi networks

Hello, I was wondering if this has happened to someone else or you know how to fix it.

My iPad 1 32GB 3G can't find any WiFi network signals. I've tried multiple different locations and nothing seems to help. I've reset the network settings, and I'm running iOS 5.1.1

Bluetooth and 3G both work fine.

Is there a WiFi antenna that may have come loose?

Any advice would be great. Thanks

Source: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1425052&goto=newpost

george will obama birth certificate nick cannon lindsay lohan saturday night live snl lindsay lohan valley fever project x

Homestuck and original roleplay ideas

Hey, I'm still looking for roleplay partners, and I have a few ideas now. PM me if you like any of them:

#1 - Homestuck, alternate universe (Space Opera-stuck?)
Somewhere right outside the borders of the Alternian Empire (which has recently spread still further and now includes the planet that its inhabitants called Earth), there is a space station - an independent floating city of sorts, mostly populated by transients, but increasingly a permanent home to a number of trolls who narrowly escaped culling and various aliens from planets conquered by the Condesce's army. A number of these refugees (including but not limited to some people who the roleplayers might already know) have risen, some at a surprisingly young age, to become important in running the station - defending it, enforcing its laws and keeping its larger and much more powerful neighbors - including the Alternian Empire - appeased enough not to make problems for it in the first place. However, all of this, especially the last part, becomes a lot less easy as things become less stable on Alternia and elsewhere. I imagine this roleplay will involve both original and canon characters, and, depending on the preference of the other roleplayers, it could cross over with other sci-fi series.

#2 - Original, modern/urban fantasy
Guardian angels and demons are the closest that humans have been able to conceptualize them as. Agents of two different sides, sometimes conceptualized as good and evil, sometimes as order and chaos, and sometimes as some entirely different axes altogether. These agents attach to individual people, often troubled individuals who have the potential for both incredible and terrible things, taking on human identities and lives as friends, mentors, and even family and seeking to either stabilize the people they're assigned to or break them down. Sometimes, one agent succeeds in destroying their counterpart. Sometimes, the subject of their efforts dies prematurely. In any case, once these creatures' missions are accomplished, they're expected to return to their respective realms to be recycled into another identity for another mission. One thing many of them on both sides agree to is that they don't want to go back. There are small communities of these (as far as the system is concerned) obsolete creatures, possessing magical powers and often distinctive physical appearances to varying degrees, living on earth. Most members of this community live fairly ordinary lives by human standards. Some of them, though, think that being a supernatural detective, or a subway conductor to another dimension, or a member of another profession that involves their abilities is worth the risk of running into the bloodthirsty hunters sent out by both sides to recapture or kill rogue agents... as well as the other forces, human and otherwise, that would seek to use or destroy them.

#3 - Original, sci-fi/space opera (Trigger warning: This roleplay would involve themes of ableism/anti-disability prejudice and serious... I guess one might say sapient rights abuses)
Long prior to the start of game, one of the more militarily advanced human colonies unleashed a devastating biological attack on a newfound settlement on a nearby moon created by amphibious humanoid aliens. In the aftermath of the attack, which caused huge numbers of birth defects in the subsequent several generations, the alien colonists became virulently ableist and obsessed with maintaining genetic purity, and anybody identified as or suspected of having genetic or, eventually, other illness was segregated off into a separate dome city, if they weren't simply killed first. Here they were made to do at best grueling and often completely pointless labor, overseen by criminals and disgraced members of the nobility or military. In recent years, however, the ideological force behind this oppression has gone away, and the system has continued more because it's part of the infrastructure than anything else. The people running the dome also make a small profit off of selling some of their charges to traffickers of sapient beings and other unscrupulous people. Disgusted by this situation for very personal reasons and aimless in life, an expatriate from the colony forms her own ragtag crew of "traffickers" to buy off as many of these discarded people as possible and take them to the freedom and relative safety of other worlds to start new lives. In between runs, they have to pick up jobs - not all of them strictly legal - in order to make enough to keep their operation going. Many of the people they end up rescuing or otherwise encountering on their runs end up dragging the crew into much bigger things than they would've expected, including assassination plots, people being created as or modified into living weapons, and plans to overthrow existing planetary governments.

Stylistic things:
-1X1 preferred, but would be open to trying something with 2 other people.
-Fast-paced, informal chat/script or short paragraph style.
-Playing as a number of characters at once is preferred, given the potential scope of these stories.
-Please be committed to the roleplay once things get going, or at least let me know if you need to stop.
-Hard limits for me are gore (blood doesn't count), detailed medical or surgery scenes, and explicit/"on screen" sex.
-I don't know if anyone else does this, but I'm open to sharing characters, canon or original.
-I don't do a whole lot of plot or character planning at the outset, and prefer to see where things go.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/2i6MTD6LEY8/viewtopic.php

land of the lost cleveland cavaliers cleveland cavaliers war horse k cups best buy we bought a zoo

Tips caldera spas And Tricks For The Home Improvement Lover ...

Tips caldera spas And Tricks For The Home Improvement Lover

Undertaking a home improvement project not only makes your home a more pleasant place to live, but will also increase its value. Before you get started, though, make sure you give yourself an advantage and help yourself avoid common errors by making use of the tips and techniques in this article.

Children tend to stick their fingers where they don?t belong and touch things they shouldn?t. Leaving your outlets uncovered leaves the chance of your child getting electric shock. You can buy small plastic covers from your local store for electric outlets to keep your child from reaching in and getting shocked.

If the outside of your home is looking a bit drab and old, why not put new outside light fixtures up. There are a lot of outside light fixtures available on the market and they all have something special. Putting a new light on your home adds a touch of class, elegance and style.

Use scribe pieces to fill in any gaps that you may have when installing cabinets. Use them along the wall to make sure that the drawers are not going to get hung up on the wall or cause a gouge in your wall. This allows for a neat finish along the wall, and will help disguise any curves in the wall.

Before making renovations on your home, you should determine the amount of time you plan on living in your house. Your budget improvements will vary according to this estimate. If you plan on selling your home in the next year, you should make sure you renovate the parts of your house that interest potential home buyers.

The outside of your home hot tub covers also makes an excellent spot for a home improvement project. Staining your driveway adds a beautiful touch to the front of your residence. Also, look to see if you need to fill any cracks or re-tar the driveway. Sometimes, the front of your home can be forgotten as you make improvements, but these projects can really add a lot to the aesthetic value of your property.

To add appeal to your home and increase its value, consider replacing your existing shingles with architectural shingles. Also known as dimensional shingles, these shingles can simulate the textures of natural substances like slate or wood, and they resist wind better than regular shingles, making them an ideal choice if your home is located in a region that sees high winds.

One of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to improve your home is paint. Whether it is the outside or the inside, both areas will look new and transformed. Pick neutral shades and brighter trim colors. Plain white walls tend to make your home look like a rental and not owner occupied.

If you are interested in changing the appearance of your home consider veneer. There are many different types of veneer that you can use. You can practically make your home look however you would like. Rocks and bricks of different types are the most popular which are very popular and versatile.

Before using your kitchen cabinet drawers to put your utensils and other things in, consider a solution to keep them clean. A lot of discount and dollar stores sell vinyl wallpaper that has an adhesive back. Cut a piece of the adhesive wallpaper to fit your drawer, spa covers then peel off the backing and adhere. Taking this step will prevent your drawers from getting damaged and the wallpaper can be easily peeled off and replaced.

When thinking about value in doing a home improvement, kitchens and baths are always a good bet. Home improvements are always a safe bet, but if you have a few thousand to spend, spend it on your kitchen or bathrooms because they are the areas that new home buyers are generally most interested in.

Improve your home by installing ceiling fans in your rooms. Ceiling fans can help you save energy when you need to heat or cool your home. In the summer, the fan can create a breeze that has a cooling effect in the room. In the winter, when the spinning direction is reversed, the fan can recirculate warm air, which means less work is required from your heater.

Brighten up your kitchen or bathroom with a mosaic backsplash. Backsplashes serve two purposes: they are both utilitarian and a style element. Most people use regular square tile clay for their backsplash, but a mosaic design creates interest and allows you to express your personality. Fortunately, you can buy mosaic tiles on a mesh sheet, saving the time that it would take to lay each tile individually. This provides you with an intricate pattern without having to cut any tile, which can be tricky.

No matter what kind of home improvement project you are considering, the advice in this article can help you get the best results. Whether you are redoing a kitchen, installing a new shower or adding a second floor, the tips and ideas in this article, will help your project go smoothly.

Source: http://freecreationonline.com/261/tips-caldera-spas-and-tricks-for-the-home-improvement-lover/

zynga free shipping free shipping esophageal cancer marfan syndrome marfan syndrome britney spears engaged

ASCEND Heads joins Strategic Planning Conference - blog*spot

ASCEND Heads joins Strategic Planning Conference Nick Fontanilla tackles scorecard Dr. Nick Fontanilla and? Atty. Rodrigo Celicious, executives of The-All Asian Center for Enterprise Development (ASCEND) Inc., joined the Public Safety Mutual Fund, Inc.(PSMBFI)? Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Conference last July 26-27, 2012 at Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City. Dr. Fontanilla, a veteran marketing mentor, discussed the efficient ways of implementing balance scorecards to measure how the company performs. According to?http://www.balancedscorecard.org, the scorecard ?is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, enhance internal and external communications, and evaluate organization performance against strategic goals. ASCEND Inc., a young but progressive market and economic research firm in the Philippines has been utilizing innovative business practices fit for today?s diverse and fast-changing business world. PSMBFI, a mutual benefit fund association, conducts events like the board retreat to foster camaraderie among its members.

ASCEND Inc. offers courses in scorecards and other business development needs.

Source: http://pmiphilippines.blogspot.com/2012/08/ascend-heads-joins-strategic-planning.html

roasted potatoes turkey recipes turkey recipes happy holidays norad how to carve a turkey how to cook a turkey

Small business branding lessons from Zappos - DARWIN A. LOPEZ ...

In this highly competitive and transparent world, Zappos has become a shining example of how corporate culture can be leveraged into stellar financial results. Following in the footsteps of Disney, Starbucks and others, Zappos?s particular cultural focus ? that of delivering happiness ? has already delivered a billion dollars of success.

The relationship between culture and brand has completely fascinated me since a three-year stint at Disney World early in my career. There I experienced first-hand the moments of greatness and ongoing sense of fulfillment that can be created from a dedicated team with a strong culture that collaborate tocreate a great brand. The Zappos insight on this topic is fresh, a perspective the company is happy to share with anyone who wants to know about it.

?The all-important role of culture

In Zapposland, culture is everything. Company officials will tell you it drives everything that?s going on at the company at every level. Here?s how it goes: Culture is programmed by values, values drive behavior, behaviors drive actions, and actions produce results.

So, if you want to change results, you focus on culture.

As Richman said, ?Typically people focus on results but they don?t realize the actions are what drives the results. If you?re too focused on the results it?s like playing a whole sports game while looking at the score board.?

He also says you can gain short-term wins by cutting costs alone, but that won?t help you thrive. (As seen in Howard Schultz?s need to return to Starbucks when culture lost its top priority position.) Richman said it?s easier to see budget cuts than it is to see culture so budget cuts can be a more obvious path to improvement. However, you will learn that results from budget cuts can become something like ?experiencing hits from a crack pipe ? powerful but the high is short-lived.?

?What is culture anyway?

Richman said that, ultimately, the culture is experienced as a feeling. It?s how it feels when you walk through the building, take action and interact with others. That?s what people respond to and how they learn the organization?s code of behavior.

But feelings are hard to manage. So Zappos breaks down the culture into its component values. What drives culture is recognizing what you value and what you don?t. He recommends that you define what you value and what you don?t. Hire for it. Train for it, and make sure it?s in every part of your business. That?s what drives results through culture.

?How Zappos defines brand

This was very interesting to a branding person like me. I?ve long been on the forefront of espousing that great brands need to be supported by a great brand culture. But Zappos goes even further. The company boldly claims that internal culture and your brand are the same. Here?s how they see that:

Everything the market experiences about you is a result of your culture.

The marketplace?defines your brand?by its experience. Continued experiences translate to the promise of a consistent experience.

Therefore, Zappos defines your brand as a ?lagging indicator of culture,? as it takes six to 12 months for the marketplace to experience your culture changes.

?Happiness as a core goal

Zappos is a seller of products that has built its reputation on its service. Its version of ?WOW service? is focused completely on making people happy. Its secret sauce is treating people like people and appreciating them for what they do. As simple as it sounds, isn?t that what we?re all looking for?

Zappos?s key is that it has mastered connecting happy people with performance indicators. Years of thinking about, generating ideas and experimenting with culture have led to processes and approaches that achieve that.

Think about it. Don?t we all do our best work when we?re happy? Aren?t we happiest when we can feel appreciated, connected with others and have the chance to contribute to something outside ourselves?

?The trick is to connect happy people with performance indicators,? Richman said. ?If people are enjoying what they?re doing and making a contribution, everything goes spectacularly.?

He adds that prolonged stress ? often caused by excessive focus on results ? will ultimately block creativity and productivity, and destroy your culture.

?How can you get started to develop your own culture?

Richman said that you can create your own path of culture management. The first step on that path is having an experience that proves to you that managing culture is the road to long-term success. That experience can come through reading a book or you can take a Zappos tour, visit Disney World or put yourself in any environment where a strong culture exists.

The next step is commitment. Richman said commitment is the biggest defining factor determining whether a culture program will work. If you?re not committed, you can reap short-term gains but will fall short in developing culture.

Susan Waldman is co-founder and vice president of strategic services for?ZilYen, a marketing firm based in Washington.

Source: http://darwinonleadership.blogspot.com/2012/08/small-business-branding-lessons-from.html

Zeek Rewards Pussy Riot Joey Kovar Expendables 2 taylor swift taylor swift elvis presley

Former Google Policy Chief And Tumblr VP Andrew McLaughlin Joins Betaworks As EIR

andrewAndrew McLaughlin, a Tumblr VP and Google's former head of public policy, is joining Betaworks, the company/incubator/investor behind bit.ly, news.me, and Chartbeat (and recent Digg acquirer). According to a blog post on McLaughlin's personal site, he will be an entrepreneur-in-residence for Betaworks. Most recently, McLaughlin was an executive vice president at Tumblr, where he focused on expanding the blogging platform's growth, internationalization, and monetization efforts. He joined Tumblr in December 2011.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jBylbyr7VFY/

hillary rosen j.k. rowling j.k. rowling axl rose google earnings pat burrell hilary rosen

The Advantages of Picking Roofing Materials that Passed the ASTM ...

Intense heat, particularly during summer, can potentially set your roof structure and your entire residence burning. Quality roofing, provided with proper attention, ought to be impervious to any kind of flames, as it's demanded by testing departments and product criteria. If your roofing can't take the heat, your home may be in risk of burning.

As per ASTM E108 criteria, there are 3 classifications of fire resistance for roofing materials, i.e., Classes A to C. These pertain to the size of the burning brand, or the wooden frame, placed on the roof deck, and set on fire in the course of the test. To simulate real fire conditions, the flare is usually blared by a 12-mph wind originating from a wind generator 60 feet away from the roof deck. If the fire burns through the roofing assembly, the material doesn't get a score.

A Class-A type of roofing system can stand up to the fire of a burning brand 12 inches long and wide, or an area of 144 square inches. A Class-B roof structure can put off the fire originating from a brand about 6 inches on both edges, or 36 square inches in area. A Class-C roof can withstand against a burning brand two inches on either side, or an area of 4 square inches.

Because Class A roofing can stand alone, it is suitable for houses in locations that can become really scorching during summer months. In some instances, Class B roofing assemblies are updated to Class A. For instance, the majority of wood shakes are grouped as Class B roofing, but a fire barrier below the shakes (gypsum or fiberglass) can get you a Class A roofing setup. Akron roofers can also provide other blockades such as roll roofing.

Roofing materials with fire scores denote they can resist 3 modes of fire: recurring flame, flame spread, and ignition from burning brands. The key goal of any roof structure in a fire is to verify that the flare doesn't eat through the roof, let alone spread to other crucial areas. You can see the classes of distinct roofing materials printed on the product tags. On the other hand, you can request Akron roofing contractors to assist you with such a thing.

See the website of the Center for Fire Research and Outreach of the University of California, Berkeley at fire.cnr.berkeley.edu for more info on fire ratings. However, don't hold back to ask Akron roofing contractors for other related issues.

For more details, search Akron roofers, Akron roofing, and Akron roofing contractors in Google for related information.

This article has been viewed 7 time(s).

It is a violation of our terms and conditions for writers to submit material which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, you MUST either call us at 706-866-2295 or send proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL, and writer name to

IdeaMarketers.com
Attn: Marnie Pehrson - Copyright Concern
514 Old Hickory Ln
Ringgold GA 30736 USA
If you email us or use our problem submission form, we CANNOT guarantee we'll receive your notice!

Source: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=3486875

rob gronkowski kim richards robert hegyes mary louise parker mary louise parker cher morgellons