Habitat Honduras Trip

This March, I’m going on a trip to Honduras with Habitat for Humanity. I’ll be building houses, with 11 other people from the SU chapter of Habitat, in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. I’ve done Habitat work in the past, and they perform a really important service. Honduras had a history of really unstable governments, controlled by dictators, the military, and United States fruit corporations. Things are a little more stable now, but in 1998 the country was essentially destroyed by Hurricane Mitch, decimating the progress that had been made over the past decade of reforms.

I’m excited about the trip and the experience it’s going to bring. But it’s not free. The all-inclusive cost of the trip is about US $1200 for each person going. Each member of the group is trying to fundraise their obligation.

If you have the means and are willing to help support the trip and the group, you have a number of options. One of the easiest is to click on the nifty PayPal donate button below. I believe PayPal takes a small chunk out of the donation so you won’t get maximum bang for your donation buck, but it sure is convenient.

The other option is to send a check, made out to “Habitat for Humanity International” in whatever amount you deem appropriate. The good part about this method is all the money goes to Habitat (my trip in particular), and it’s tax deductible. Downside? It uses paper, ink, and (possibly) stamps.

If you’re interested in helping out, please let me know… my address is dnowacki +at sign goes here+ ecs dot syr dot edu.

Expect to see lots more about the trip and Honduras in general on the blog, as I envision this consuming a fair amount of my time in the coming months.

Post-holiday-post

This {Christ|X|Present|Family}mas was most excellent, probably the best in recent memory. It was scaled back from years past, which was a brilliant move on my family’s part (thanks to my mom, to be sure). I got some nice, functional gifts, including three books towards which I am looking forward, including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, The Elegant Universe, and A People’s History of the United States. I also am now a proud member of the EFF.

Grace has been in a really happy mood the times I’ve seen her so far for the most part, which is very cool. She’s crawling all over the place, can stand up without any support, and is looking more and more like a really little person than just a baby. Very cool, indeed. She also does a hilarious forehead-slapping routine. You can imagine her saying, “d’oh!”

Little Icons?

OK, question:

What’s with all the little buttons that are everywhere on blogs? You know, the small little rectangle gif images with cute little icons and catchy phrases… Like:

So, what’s the standard on these things? What font is used? Sizes? Do people just copy them off of other sites, or is there some kind of central repository? Someone enlighten me :)

Images thanks to this site, whose owner makes posts here from time to time, and I don’t even know him/her!

USD18.6 Billion

U.S. to offer $18.6 billion in Iraq contracts - Dec. 9, 2003
Just one catch — your country had to be in the coalition if you expect to be able to bid successfully for the contract, per “national security concerns.” Riiiight.

Unfortunate Calendar

Straight, sad, and to the point: Calendar of US Military Dead during Iraqi War. Graphics and text of circumstances and names involved. Via Cryptome.

New Grace Picture

A particularly cute picture of my little half-sister, who just turned 1 on December 7.

In other news, a particularly hard final in physics. Luckily everyone else thought it was tough too. Now it’s onto VLSI Design, Digital Audio Signal Processing, and Electromagnetics.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

—Robert Frost

Thanks to Henry for sending this poem to me. It really is fitting, both in these final, stressful days of exams, and in the recent weather patterns. Touchingly beautiful, I think.

Frost Linkage:
Student Commentaries
[minstrels] Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening — Robert Frost
The Robert Frost Web Page
Poetry of Robert Frost
Robert Frost
A Frost Bouquet: Editions in English