Happy Holidays!

At the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge this Fall.
Dear former students,

It has been a great school year so far for me, and I certainly hope for you as well. I have thoroughly enjoyed the e-mails that some of you have sent my way as well as the comments on here. I must say that I have thought about updating this blog roughly 100 times in the past few months, but kept putting it off due to having way too much to say and do (plus not knowing where to start). So, here are the highlights:

- I ended the JetBlue "All-You-Can-Jet" Pass having flown 27 flights, 36,452 miles, 5 countries, 11 airports, seeing many great friends, and making priceless memories in one month - while working four days a week. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

- Came out to Westview for the Beaverton football game. Saw Jaye, Brandon, Russel, Nathan, Mary, and CJ (on the sidelines after the game). I also got to catch up with Mrs. DeFrance and her husband, as well as see Mr. Chamberlain and most of the football coaches. Good times!

- Was hired on for extra time at Marshall High School in Portland, where I am now tutoring in a Freshman English class in addition to the after school job there. It totals about 22 hours a week, which is obviously not a ton, but it is nice that I don't have a ridiculous amount of duties. I really love my job and working with the kids at Marshall - they are great people.

- Went to all of the Oregon Ducks football home games (after missing most of the start of the season due to flying). Saw former student Carson Kelly at one game - on an official visit for the baseball team, no less! The USC and Oregon State games in particular were INSANE. After we beat OSU, I booked my flights for the Rose Bowl, where I will be at on Jan. 1st with my brother. Yeah, I know that I am lucky.

- Saw the Blazers lose to Denver on the second night of the season in person. By the way, what the heck is happening to our boys this year? It is like the injury plague! Seems like they are battling through for the most part.

- Went up to Paine Field in Washington (a little North of Seattle, where the Boeing plant is), for a free tour that I won with my dad. I also ended up winning a $250 Alaska Airlines Gift Certificate as well!


At the "Future of Flight" museum at Paine Field, Washington. This is the entry point for the Boeing factory tour.
- Started a Twitter page (yes, I know... what is the world coming to?) You can find that here: http://twitter.com/LukeFritz64.

- Watched my Philadelphia Eagles clinch an NFL playoff spot this afternoon on TV (more specifically, watching the NFL Red Zone channel - if that channel had existed when I was in high school I am fairly certain I would not have graduated).
----

There is roughly a thousand other events in there (retreats, trips, events, etc) but I will spare you the details. Just know that I think of you all often and hope that all is well!

Period 1, can you believe that a little more than a year ago, I took over teaching your class and we had the snowed out week that pushed back the Rwanda speeches until after Winter Break? Hehe. I will always remember that.

The next year promises to be a busy one as well. In addition to finishing out the year strong with my group at Marshall, I will be looking for full time teaching work next year. I also have a trip to England for my Grandma's 80th birthday in February planned, as well as a trip to Princeton, New Jersey to see my brother graduate on the 1st of June. Throw in a possible trip to Washington DC over Spring Break, and it is possible that it will top 2009 as my most traveled year ever. It all starts off in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl - look for me in Section 9, Row 16 on TV! :-)

I am not sure how many people still read this, but I promise to come back and keep updating in the future. For now, let me know that you visited and tell me what is going on with everyone! Have a great Winter Break! :-)

I'm Coming Out to Westview! :-)

Hello everyone!

I wonder how many people will read this before Friday? If you are, come out to the varsity football game vs. Beaverton at 7:30, at Westview! I am going to come out and try to catch up with as many of you (and all my friends on the teaching staff) for the game! I will be rocking the Westview gear, so I am sure I will blend in, but look for me!

I know that I have not been up to date on putting up JetBlue weekend pictures, but that is simply because I have not had the time! Let me assure you that the Caribbean and Bogota, Colombia, were simply amazing. Here's a couple:


An Air France Airbus A340 coming in to land at St. Maarten.


Ryan and I overlooking Bogota, in Colombia!

Anyway, I know that you have been very busy as well, but I hope to see as many of you as possible on Friday! Let me know in the comments if you will be there, and if you want, tell anyone else at school! :-)

JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Weekend #1: New York City, Ducks Game, Long Beach

In front of the New York Stock Exchange last Friday, on 9/11. Ryan Bowen took this picture - I love it! It has been a crazy last week, let me tell you! :-)
Hello former students,

Quickly, I wanted to update you on how the trip out to New York last weekend went! I had a fantastic first week of school, and now that we are able to get down to business when it comes to the tutoring after school, I am starting to get the hang of my new job at Marshall.

That being said, it is pretty awesome to know that I am flying off all over the place on the weekends! Here's some pictures and captions from last weekend, when I flew out of Portland on Thursday night, got into New York on Friday, spent Friday night in Washington DC's airport, went to Long Beach on Saturday morning, then up to Portland to drive to the Ducks game in the afternoon. Whew! Then on Sunday after the game (and about three hours of sleep), I woke up at 4:45 AM and caught a MAX train by the convention center, to fly down to Long Beach, stay there for about 4 hours, and then fly to San Jose, California then back to Long Beach, then back to Portland.

Here are some pictures!


JetBlue's Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Incredible. They just opened this up last year, and you can tell.


Ryan and his girlfriend Naj, who I got to meet for the first time!


A flag for the rescuers at 9/11/2001, exactly eight years earlier.


This is pretty much all you can see of the actual Ground Zero. It is fenced off all over the place. It is strange that there is still nothing there and even stranger to be there on 9/11, knowing that exactly eight years earlier, almost 4,000 people died at this very place.


The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Where the entire U.S. economy runs through, essentially.


A statue of George Washington, outside Federal Hall, where he became the first President of the United States.


Ryan grabbing the famous bull by the horns.


Times Square. I had never been here before - there was so many ads it was ridiculous! What is the point? How could you pay attention to just one?


We stopped to eat at a place right next to Times Square. It was packed! You can see why though - the New York pizza could not be beat!


After saying goodbye to Ryan and catching a flight to Washington DC's Dulles International, I tried to settle in for the night. It was completely empty, except for the random cleaning people that decided it was a great idea to come right next to me with a vacuum as I was trying to sleep, haha. I ended up getting about four hours on the floor. It was great. :-)


I caught that flight to Long Beach in the morning, then went up to Portland so my mom and I could drive down to Eugene for the Ducks game that night. They won, and I was able to get Clarke a ticket as well! Fun times, but I was SO tired! The rain in the second half helped wake me up, but I slept the whole way back to Portland.


This was the next day (Sunday), outside the Long Beach Airport in California. Many fond memories of this place!


Once I got off the plane in Long Beach on Sunday, I took out my handheld GPS navigator (that I usually use in my car) and searched for the nearest Mexican place, because there is nothing like an authentic LA burrito. This was it! Baja Sonora, about a mile away from the airport. The biggest burrito I have ever had in my life. Delicious!


Finally, this is the proof that I was actually once in San Jose International Airport. I landed, was on the ground for about 45 minutes while the plane was refueled, then took off back to Long Beach on the same exact plane.

Anyway, it was a great, but totally insane weekend! As always, you can follow along with my flights at my FlightMemory page.


The Great Circle Mapper for all the flights I will take on the JetBlue pass - 27 in all. See the page here.

This next weekend (starting tonight) consists of the following: flight out to New York at 10:20 PM from PDX. Arrive at 6:30 AM, then take a flight at 7:45 AM to Boston, where I will spend about five hours with one of my college roommates Max. From there, I will fly to Buffalo, New York, where I have relatives - my Uncle Sam, Aunt Diana and cousins. My Uncle is a teacher too, but he also works part time as a tour guide at Niagara Falls, so he says he can get me a tour for free. Cap off that night with fireworks over the Falls, then wake up early to be at the airport for a 5:30 AM flight to New York. That gets in around 7:17 AM, and my next fight to New Orleans is at 7:40 AM, making it by far the shortest connection I have during this entire month. I will have to sprint to the gate to make it! :-) In New Orleans, I have a good friend who was part of the London Study Abroad program I did at Western Oregon. I'll spend 24 hours there, then go back to Portland, via New York. Total for the weekend: seven flights, 8,155 miles.

I hope all of you are well! Keep working hard in school and let me know if I can ever help you out! :-)

All the best!

Welcome Back to School!

In the canyon at Zion National Park in Utah, 2007.
Hello everyone!

Welcome back to the grind of the school year! I hope that I am not the only one who is very excited to finally be going back! The time off was fantastic, but it is absolutely time to teach and learn some more.

Just so everyone knows, camp last week was absolutely fantastic. I already have my group of 10 incoming Freshman at Marshall who I will be tutoring this year. We became a really tight knit group at camp! That is what climbing 135 feet high trees with your team holding on to you will do! We did all sorts of other fun activities as well, but most of all, I think I really developed a great connection with all of my kids. I am very much looking forward to school starting tomorrow (though I don't actually start seeing my students after school until Thursday).

In other news, I am definitely incredibly excited to be going to New York City for 9/11 this Friday! You can be sure that I will be updating this blog after every weekend of my JetBlue pass, letting you know about where I have been.

Anyway, what I am most interested in is how all of you are doing in your sophomore year of classes! Be sure to e-mail me or post on the blog if you need any help or guidance with anything going on. I am sure it will be a great year for all of you! :-)

I also want to congratulate Westview Football on their gigantic win at Barlow last Friday. A great way to start off the season! I will definitely try to make it out to at least one game, probably in the middle of October.

Along those lines, I am also really hoping to come out to Westview for a few hours on a Friday a little later in the year, just to see Mrs. DeFrance and everyone else, as well as possible partake in a little lunch hoops? Let me know if there is a good day for that.

If anyone is going to the Ducks game this Saturday, 9/12 against Purdue (I am really glad that I didn't have to witness the debacle of last week on TV, because I was at camp), let me know, as I will be down in Eugene for it (after tons of traveling).

Also, The Office Season 5 DVD comes out today (Tuesday). Woo hoo! Super excited! The new season starts in a few weeks too. Everything is starting up again! Soon it will be the Blazers as well!

That's about all I have for you - just wishing everyone that reads this a fantastic first day and week! You guys are all amazing and I know you will have a great year!

Unitl next time...

Out Camping This Week

A photo of mine from Arches National Park in Utah, which I visited in the summer of 2007.
Hello all,

I wanted to give everyone a heads up: I will be away from all forms of electronic contact this week (it will be a good change of pace for me!) because I will be out at Camp Tillikum, near Newberg, with the rest of the Step Up crew and students from Marshall. It is our big week to get to know each other and develop some great working relationships for when we get back to school and start the year. So, I will not be able to respond or post any comments, or reply to e-mails (I love that I still get some from time to time from some of you - it always brightens my day) until Friday around 6:00 PM.

In other news, here's the deal with the JetBlue pass: Steven, my old roommate, had to drop out of getting one, but Ryan, with literally 5 minutes left, did end up buying it. Hurrah!

I just booked the last weekend of flights today: I will be heading to Bogota, Colombia from Oct. 2nd through the 4th! Even though he isn't going, Steve was able to get in touch with his Uncle down there, who was willing to host us for a couple of nights! So sweet.

I also booked the first weekend of flights, again. Get this: Portland to New York City on 9/10, getting in at 6:30 AM on 9/11. Day in NYC and Ground Zero in Manhattan, then 6:00 PM flight to Boston, followed by a 8:30 PM flight to Washington DC, where I will sleep in the airport for the night. On 9/12, fly from Washington DC (IAD) to Long Beach, California, departing at 7:40 AM and arriving at 10:00 AM PST. Then, Long Beach to Portland at 11:15, getting in at 1:35, in time to get home, shower up, then head down to the Ducks game at 7:15 PM in Eugene against Purdue!

The next day, I will get up super early again, and fly from Portland to Long Beach to San Jose, CA back to Long Beach, then back to Portland, all in one day, getting back home around 7:30.

So far, the total cost of all of these flights (two out the the available four weekends) would have been $2495.10. Because I have the pass, it is all for $600. Seriously, so sweet. Here's a map of where I have flights to booked so far:

Great Circle Mapper: Weekends #1 and #4.

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the last few days of summer! I have seen an increase in the blog traffic around here, so I know people are beginning to check back in!

Until Friday... :-)

I have a job! And, I'm flying all over the place!

The best tuna melt I have ever had, and some delicious watermelon. Photo by Ryan Bowen.
Dear students,

Wow, that came together fast. As you may know by looking at my last post, I was up in Washington with Ryan for a while, until August 12th, when I drove back to Portland (because my birthday was August 13th). Now, once I got home, I saw this deal that JetBlue Airways is offering:

http://www.jetblue.com/deals/all-you-can-jet/?intcmp=HPHero1Eng_All-You-Can-JetPass

Basically, for $600, you can fly to anywhere they fly, and unlimited amount of times between September 8th and October 8th. You don't even have to pay taxes in the United States (though you do if you choose to fly internationally). 56 destinations, including many places that I would LOVE to go. Also, I know all of you know how much I love flying. So I figured that would be the perfect graduation/birthday present from my parents. I was jumping up and down excited, and still can't really believe it! Can you imagine all the possibilities? Here's everywhere that JetBlue flies (from Portland, they have non-stops to Long Beach, CA and New York City):

http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/

I am currently trying to get other people to come with me too. I talked with Ryan, who might be able to, but understandably has some finance issues with it. I also met with Mrs. DeFrance for lunch on Friday (so good to see her!), who was beyond excited about it as well - though I haven't heard back from her yet. Finally, one of my old college roommates, Steven, is pretty much committed to coming. He has family in Bogota, Columbia, who we could stay with. Isn't that just amazing?

Anyway, that is cool. However, this is cooler: on my birthday (the day after we bought the JetBlue pass), my friend Alexis from Lewis and Clark called me because she really wanted me to apply for a job that she was doing. Do any of you remember Mrs. Woicke, who came to supervise me? Basically, she is helping run this really awesome after-school program called Step Up for some Portland Public High Schools. Here's some more information:

http://www.openmeadow.org/open/meadow/schools/C11/

The job is part time, from 1:45 to 5:30, Monday through Thursday. I had an interview today with one of the guys that runs it, and he hired me on the spot! Woo hoo! I will be working with Alexis at Marshall High School this next year - I have other Lewis and Clark friends that are working at other high schools too!

Basically, I will be an after school mentor/tutor for at-risk youth. I'll have 10 students total - 5 on Monday/Wednesday, and 5 on Tuesday/Thursday. I'm still not sure about the specifics, but I think I will be basically teaching and helping them with whatever they are given in their classes at Marshall. I'll also be meeting with their parents frequently and making sure they know what is going on - since the population is about 65% white and 35% latino, it should be a good opportunity for me to brush up on my Spanish!

So, put the two together, and that means that from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8, I will be working part time during the week (getting to sleep in, woo hoo!) and then flying off to all sorts of exotic destinations on the weekend. Could it get any better?

I've already booked the first trip: I will be flying out to New York City on a red eye after work on Thursday, getting in at 6:30 AM on September 11. I'm hoping to go to Ground Zero and take in all of the rememberances and then jet back to Portland later that night - because I really cannot miss the opening Oregon Duck home football game of the season on Saturday 9/12 vs. Purdue - if any of you are going, let me know! :-)

The next day, Sunday, I'm thinking about using the pass to fly down to Long Beach, CA for the day and then come back. Oh wow. This is going to be SO awesome!

Anyway, where do you think I should go? Take a look at the route map and suggest places! For right now, I am thinking that 2 of the other 3 weekends will be Bogota (with Steve) and Cancun, Mexico, where I can go check out the Mayan pyramids of Chichen Itza and Coba.

Seriously, it all came together that fast! It really was an incredible birthday and last few days. I am so excited for school!

Finally, here are some aforementioned photos of what I have been up to lately:


Cliff face off of Cape Kiwanda

Check out what the wind and waves did to this rock over time!


Standing on Canadian ground, at the Peace Arch, where Interstate 5 meets the border.


Gorgeous sunset over Birch Bay, Washington. Ryan's parents get this view every night!

Ryan playing pool in Bellingham, Washington. He beat me, two games to one.

LOVE this picture. It is of an alley in Bellingham. The light was just incredible.

The view of beautiful downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. As seen from Stanley Park, to the north of the city.


Ryan and I went to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Vancouver BC. This was his fortune...

... and this was mine. I love it - it is on the inside of my wallet to remind me, haha.

Finally, here's me looking out over the bay towards Canada. Taken by Ryan. Good times. It has been a fantastic summer. Looking forward to getting back to work!
There you have it! Please let me know what you all are up to, and where I should fly to! Have a great day! :-)

On the Road Again

Cape Kiwanda, taken on Saturday, August 8th. Currently my desktop background!
Hey everyone,

It has been a long time, I know! I have actually been very much enjoying the first real summer that I have had for a few years. This morning, I was at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon with my family on a weekend beach trip, and now I am currently typing from Birch Bay, Washington, where I am staying for the next few days with Ryan Bowen and his parents. We will probably make a trip up to Vancouver, B.C. as well! Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am in fact still around - pictures will be coming soon, once this all calms down. No news on the job front yet - there simply aren't any to apply for! We will see what happens down the stretch! Let me know how you are doing - ready for school to start back up? :-)

Have a great day, thanks for visiting!

Now What?

John and I, at his wedding last weekend in Gold Beach! Photo by my dad, Steven Fritz
Hello all!

Let's see, since the last time I wrote to you, I have:

1) Went to aforementioned wedding in Gold Beach.
2) Finished Lewis and Clark's Masters in Teaching Program - school is finally out for me!
3) Played tennis 5 consecutive days in a row.
4) Beat "Minesweeper" on Expert difficulty 9 times, with the current record at 184 seconds. EDIT: Right after posting this, I beat it twice more, lowering my best time to 182 seconds!
5) Continued to watch "Planet Earth" on DVD - I just finished the "Jungles" section.
6) Contemplated what the heck I am going to do next year roughly one thousand times.

That about sums it up! I had really forgotten how boring summer can be without anything planned to do! Basically, I have been sitting inside, finishing up the last few odds and ends for Lewis and Clark, and trying to stay out of the heat. Really, the only solid thing on my schedule right now is Jury Duty, which is next Monday, the 27th.

Of course, I do have a ton of other things to do as well - namely, preparing essay answers to all the school districts application questions: Beaverton alone has FIVE. The hard thing about those is that since there are no jobs open, it is difficult to tell which I should be concentrating on doing first (and thus, I have a lack of motivation to do them). Ugh, I can never win!

Here are some fun pictures from recent events for you all:


Another great one by my dad - we liked this one so much that we are making a print and giving it to the Trauts (our next door neighbors, remember) as a present.

At almost every wedding I go to, I like to take a black and white photo of the first dance. It just seems so classy!

On the way back to Portland, we stopped at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Here are some mean looking bison, staring down my car!

Finally, here is a picture of my friends Jessica, Alexis, and me from the Lewis and Clark graduation party this last Thursday. If you have a fantastic memory, you will recall that Jessica gave me the Santa Claus/Muslim hat/beard lesson, and that Alexis gave me the ball of yarn connecting us all activity. Two awesome ladies - I am sad to no longer have classes with them!
Okay, I am off to go play some more tennis (though my hand and arms are starting to feel the effects of so much play)! Let me know what you guys are up to! Also, check out the new poll, which I will use to coordinate my posts on here! Hope all is well!

I'm Officially a Licensed Teacher!

Proof that I am, in fact, licensed to teach in the State of Oregon! You can access this same page (and any other teacher that you have ever had in Oregon) at this website: Teacher Standards and Practices Commission - License Inquiry (you don't have to know anything other than their last name). Pretty cool, huh?
Hello wonderful former students!

I hope and trust that everyone had another great week. I am down to my last week at Lewis and Clark, and even though I technically haven't graduated yet, I did receive my teaching license in the mail this week! Very exciting times, though it may not do me much good because there has been a grand total of TWO jobs in the State of Oregon posted for High School Social Studies this summer so far to apply to. Still haven't heard back from either of them. Bad times to be a new teacher - but as I said to you all many times this year, I am confident that is will all work out somehow, and plus, there is absolutely nothing that could top teaching you guys! :-)

In fact, funny story: last year on this day, July 10th, 2008, I had my first ever meeting with Mrs. DeFrance and Mrs. Ashdown, where they interviewed me to determine if I would be a good fit for Westview. I got the word back from Lewis and Clark about an hour after the interview - they loved me, and I was in! Fast forward to now, and I cannot believe what an amazing year it was! Way too fast, if you ask me.

So yes, anyway, I am officially done with my Masters Degree requirements next Wednesday at 5:00 PM. That is when my last class gets out. However, it seems like an incredibly tall task to get there! Here's a sampling of the work that is due for me this next week:

1) Memorize three pages of Mock Trial testimony for Monday. Mr. Sanderson has us arguing a sexual harassment case and I am supposed to be the expert witness - a clinical psychologist. I've never memorized lines from a script before, so this will be interesting!

2) Teach lesson on why the economy completely collapsed last year. This is actually incredibly interesting, even though it is very complex. Because even us teachers have a hard time understanding it all, Mr. Copley (he came in to visit Period 1 one day, remember) had us all read the transcripts to these NPR programs which do a phenomenal job of breaking it all down. It is a little much, but if you are curious as to what the heck is going on and why the government had to bail the banks out and all of that, I would highly recommend this. Just incredible.

This American Life - Episode #355 - The Giant Pool of Money.

This American Life - Episode #365 - Another Frightening Show About the Economy.

The link to listen is the orange button next to "Full Episode" on the left side.

3) Remake my old lesson plans on either Rwanda or Nigeria to accommodate ESL learners better. This an assignment from the English Language Learner class I am taking. Basically, I have to redo 3 of my old lessons to do better at reaching everyone in the class.

4) Mr. Sanderson has us doing a curriculum development project, which involves creating an entirely new unit for the future. Mine is on teaching the Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure. You guys would love it, I am sure! :-)

5) Write up reflections and thoughts on economic reading and discussion. Two to three pages.

And that isn't even all of it! You can see why I have been super busy! I will be even more busy this weekend, because tomorrow (Saturday) morning, I am heading down to Gold Beach, Oregon for my childhood best friend's wedding. It is a 6 hour drive, and my entire family is going down and spending the night, as my friend, John Traut, has been my next door neighbor for 19 years. Remember JTrizzOut from the music video? Here's a picture of me and him a couple of years ago:


From left to right, Clarke Miller, Ryan Bowen (speaking of Ryan, you should be delighted to hear that the organization he is working with over in Rwanda, Play for Hope, just won a $10,000 grant! woo hoo!), Tarah (John's soon to be wife), John, and me.
Super exciting, but it also means that I have to be memorizing script the entire drive down! Lots to do! I can't wait to finally be able to take some pictures - it has been way too long since I have had the opportunity to! I will try to post some of them if they turn out good. Until then, everyone seriously needs to be checking out Mary Hare's Flickr, which is just ridiculously good. You have a ton of talent Mary! :-)

That should just about do it for the update, everyone! I promise to be more communicative when I get done with school! Have a fantastic week!

And now, to end the post, I present:

The most random classes that I am now endorsed to be able to teach:

Middle School -
Drama (haha - maybe I would bring my sister in as a guest speaker for 80% of the time)

High School -
Anthropology
AP Macroeconomics (you know after taking a class at Lewis and Clark this summer, this actually wouldn't be a disaster, I hope)
Business Law (I know next to nothing about this)
Eastern Religions
IB Theory of Knowledge
Modern Intellectual History (what does that even mean?)

You see, this is why I love teaching Social Studies - it is EVERYTHING! You really have to know something about every subject there is!

Until next time, keep enjoying summer! Let me know what you are up to!

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

This was the first time the "moonwalk" was performed (check out 3:45 of the above clip), in 1983 at the 25th Anniversary of Motown. As I wrote below, in his later years, Michael Jackson was a creep of a huge magnitude and very likely molested children (at the least). However, his music is bound to live on. His album Thriller is far and away the best selling album of all time (it has sold more than TWICE as many copies than any other album ever made). For those that have iTunes, check out the top 10 most downloaded albums right now: the first nine are Jacksons. Unbelievable. The King of Pop, dead at 50. I'm playing a little "Man in the Mirror" tonight to remember the good things from his life, rather than dwell on the bad.

Rest in Peace, Michael.

This One Time, at Football Camp...

In front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona right before a beautiful sunset. Taken in the summer of 2007.
Good evening, everyone!

I really hope that your first week off has been restful and interesting. As I pointed out below, I have been coaching football out at Westview this entire week (basically just trying to chip in where I can). Tomorrow (Saturday), we are starting the camp that we have been preparing for the last two weeks! It takes place at Canby High School, about 45 minutes away from Westview. We are not actually staying the night there, but will be there practicing and playing various teams from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, on both Saturday and Sunday. If you want, come out and watch next year's team! I will primarily be coaching the incoming freshmen, but you will also see me with the other squads as well. Zack, you will be sad to hear that I got absolutely DRENCHED today at the Freshman practice. So much so that Coach Fisher took pity on me and gave me new clothes for the second practice. Summer, indeed.

In other news, after football ends, it is back to Lewis and Clark full-time for me. I have already ordered all of my books (in college, you have to pay for every textbook, and it is not fun), and been e-mailed a 3 page essay, due on Monday! Crazy times. Back to being a student for me! One of the classes I am taking is on teaching the Constitution, which will be taught by Westview's own Athletic Director (and all around amazing guy), Mike Sanderson! I am definitely looking forward to it. However, with class from 9:00-5:00 on Monday and Wednesday, as well as classes from 9:00-1:30 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I know it is going to be a ton of work!

Totally jazzed by the student blogs that have gone up this week (below)! Exactly what I was hoping for! This place should really be for everyone to stay in contact with everyone else, not just me with you all. For one, I think that people are probably more interested in how everyone is doing, not just me. Two, I really enjoy reading and seeing what everyone else is up to as well! Please, keep it up! Remember to e-mail me if you want to be able to post blogs yourself, so I can send you an invitation! After that, just sign in to www.blogger.com - select "new post" under this blog, and you are good to go!

For those interested, here's the visitor stat tracker (which I tend to think is counting first time visitors wrongly, because as much as I would like to believe that there have been 242 different visitors, I do not - EDIT: Unless, as I just realized might be so, the tracker is counting "first time visitors" PER DAY - as in, it resets every night. That would make way more sense, so we are averaging about 30 visits a day - good!) for this first week:


Overall, I am still very pleased! Keep coming back and checking in! As I said, I am hoping to keep my own post count down to about once a week, but there is no limit to how much everyone else can post!

Okay, a few other things before I head off. One, for those interested about my ability to possibly land a teaching job for next year - the opportunities simply are not coming yet. I think they will, but it will probably be near the end of the summer, if at all. One thing that may have an enormous impact on this: KGW.com - Governor threatens to veto K-12 budget. Which is actually pretty funny to me, because I like Governor Kulongoski, voted for him, and he spoke at my WOU graduation last year, but now he has the ability to really dampen my prospects for a job. Just remember, everyone - you cannot have good public schools without people earning money and paying their taxes!

Secondly, I know I keep coming back to this, but pay attention to what is going on in Iran right now! It is seriously monumental and really ties in to what we were talking about in class at the end of the year. This weekend, especially, should be really interesting. The leader of Iran (it is basically a theocracy - a religious government), Ayatollah Khamenei has basically said "bring it" to the protesters of the recent election, and has threatened to use violence to suppress them. Link: CNN.com - Chants against West punctuate Khamenei's defiant speech. All of this might happen tomorrow. Just check out the headline of the Huffington Post right now (again, they are running a fantastic live blog of the whole uprising here):


A day of destiny, indeed. Let us all hope that the Iranians can resolve this conflict by gaining true democracy and rights for all, without any more blood being shed. You can see some really incredible pictures of the uprising (as well as a money quote by Gandhi) here: DailyKos.com - Tehran Street Photos -- On the Brink. Look at the reaction from all around the world too! Finally (for the Iran news), we also talked in class about how women (specifically in the Middle East) can have an impact in policy and gaining rights. Here's a fantastic article about how the women in Iran are responding to this: CNN.com - Women in Iran march against discrimination.

In other news, check out my (and now your) friend Ryan Bowen's pictures and blog from Rwanda - he has had a few updates since I last showed Period 1: PlayForHope.org - Ryan's Blog.

Finally, to wrap this all up - I cannot believe that I did not somehow find the time to show everyone these sites in class this year, but these are some of my favorites for FREE giving to people in need, just by clicking! The first one is: The Hunger Site. Just click on the "Click Here to Give -- It's Free" button in the middle, and presto, you have given 1.1 cups of food to hungry people! There are all sorts of good causes (just click on each site at the top) - click every day, for free, and help out people for nothing (it is based on the ad revenue from your click)! I try to do this every day, though I often forget. Just put it on your favorites! Make a difference in one minute, sitting at your computer!

That should just about do it! Wish me luck for everything coming up! I will try to post a new poll later tomorrow - it seems like the overwhelming favorite for right now is keeping the layout the same, which is good, because it means less work for me!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone! I miss all of you! :-)

We Might Have Something Here...

A graph of how many visitors to this blog there have been from when I put the visitor tracker on the website Saturday afternoon to when I am writing this post, at 10:00 PM on Sunday.
Hello everyone!

I must say, this is pretty exciting! For those of you that might not be able to understand the above graph, basically it is saying that there have been at least 40 (!!!) different "first-time" visitors (some may be the same person, on different computers) to this blog this weekend! When I first put it up, I started the count at 4, because I knew that at least that many had already stopped by. It looks like I may have underestimated things! Woo hoo! Very exciting stuff. You too can see how many people have stopped by, by looking at the counter in blue and red on the left side. If you need a little pointer, here it is:


I cannot believe that I did not investigate how to do this visitor thing before, when I was doing the class blogs. It would have been really nice to know if all of that hard work was actually being put to good use! It also might have been super depressing, so maybe it is for the better. Anyway, I am very excited about things. You can also note in the above picture that we already have SEVEN authors signed up to post blogs/pictures whenever they want. If you want to join this list, please e-mail me at LukeFritz@aol.com, so I can send you an invitation to join up. I still have about 21 open invitations, so check your e-mail, you might already have one from me!

That all being said, let's get on to some other interesting stuff. I am going to try and continue a bit of the News Brief section, because I thought that it was always fascinating to talk about what is going on in the world with you all.

First things first, check out the "This Day In History" item for today (Monday), right below the visitor counter? It's about Queen Noor! We totally talked about her in class! She married the King of Jordan 31 years ago today.

Speaking of the Middle East, my goodness, everyone should be paying a lot of attention to what is going on in Iran right now. Basically, since the "election," the youth of that country have risen up and said that they are not going to accept the continuing reign of President Ahmadinejad, the guy who really does not like America and has denied that the Holocaust happened. Here is a great running blog about everything going on over there, with pictures and videos of some of the riots: HuffingtonPost.com - Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising. Super, super interesting stuff.

Also, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th NBA Championship last night, beating the Orlando Magic in the series 4-1. I sent a congratulatory text message to Mr. Hardin, of course. The Blazers will have their turn soon, I am quite sure of it!


Me and my friend Clarke, at a Lakers game in Los Angeles against Golden State in 2007. Kobe Bryant had scored 50+ points four straight games going into this one, which he ended up scoring 43.
For those soccer fans and players in the audience, be sure to check out the United States play Italy today (Monday) on ESPN at 11:30 AM. So cool that we are actually able to watch stuff like this now! I will be taking in the start of the match before heading out to Westview, where I am coaching incoming Freshman football from 1:30-3:30, and the rest of the school from 3:00 to 5:00 (there is a bit of overlap there). That is the schedule all week, so if you want, come out to the football field and say hello!

Finally, here's an article that made me smile and think "what if?" when it comes to stopping Global Warming - WashingtonPost.com - White Rooftops May Help Slow Warming.

Again, please feel free to post whatever you want in the comments or on the actual blog (become an author)! This is about you guys now! Please enjoy your first Monday of summer break! Remember to post what you are doing, as well as upload pictures to the Group PhotoBucket Album using the password "newsbrief" - I see someone has already gone and commented on a few pictures, very nice!

Until next time...