wallpaper Go Ahead. Ignore It.

wallpaper Wil Wheaton's Tumblr. Followup: I thought this looked like a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal panel, and it is.

wallpaper Finals Week

So we reach the end of yet another term here at Oregon State. For those of you students who are stressing over finals, two notes: first if you keep up through the term, finals just aren't that big of a deal. Believe me, I know how tempting it is to procrastinate to the end, but the price you pay is serious stress now. Second, this is by far and away the worst week for instructors and profs as well. I have spent my fair share of time both taking finals and doing projects, and grading them. I would much rather have to take a test or do a project than grade dozens of them. Just sayin'.

As I'm out of academia now, neither concern is one that troubles me much anymore. Many, if not most, of the students have finished their terms, and the streets are noticeably quieter than they were yesterday. By Friday afternoon and the weekend, Corvallis will be dead quiet. I have a love-hate relationship with the university and with breaks: I miss my friends when they're not here, but I enjoy the peace when OSU is out of session. By the end of a term- or the end of a break- I'm ready for change. I grew up in a university community, Ohio University in Athens, and have spent most of my life living with the rhythm and seasons of academia. I can't imagine living without that pulse now.

Wishing you and yours the happiest of Holidays, Peace and Re-Creation as needed, and luck with end of term duties, whatever they may be.

wallpaper Refugees in Darfur: send them reading glasses and books

This is at The Book Wish Foundation:

Peepers Fun Reading Glasses Donated for Refugees

Posted by logan on 24 May 2008

in

• Chad/Darfur
• Vision

What better way to encourage reading than with the gift of colorful, cheerful, fun reading glasses? Especially in the Darfur refugee camps of eastern Chad, where hope needs a helping hand, adding to the enjoyment of reading can yield big returns in education and mental health. That's why the Book Wish Foundation was so excited to receive 126 pairs of Peepers Fun Reading Glasses, in dozens of colors and styles, like these:

It might sound superfluous to same people that reading glasses were sent to refugees because we think they only need to survive starvation and have some medicines for diseases but a library is being build at the refugee camp for the literacy project. Donate here 2 dollars.


A group with new reading glasses in Bredjing Refugee Camp. Note the books in their hands. By providing books and reading glasses to the same people, we are enhancing the value of each. How many lives in this photo have just taken a giant step forward, even if they are still in the refugee camp? The school and children in the background remind us of the lost educational opportunities for adults who need, but don't have reading glasses.

Supporting literacy

Submitted by Lisa Goldner on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 2:56pm.

We will add the link to your site to our bookshelf pages with BookCrossing.com (http://www.goldlis.bookcrossing.com). My family and I help to raise public awareness of the genocide in Darfur through informational labels we place on the books we donate through our BookCrossing challenge project, READ: Respond in Earnest Action for Darfur. We will also advise the San Antonio Interfaith Darfur Coalition and local university STAND groups of your needs. We hope you find growing support for all of your projects.

Read about the forgotten refugee here:

by Eric Reeves at ENOUGH.

"Ongoing human suffering and destruction in Darfur have been largely eclipsed both by recent national elections in Sudan and by growing, if belated, international attention to the imperiled southern self-determination referendum (slated for January 9, 2011). Even more completely obscured by recent events in Sudan, however, is the continuing humanitarian crisis in eastern Chad." ... keep reading.