I know it may be hard to tell, but this is a picture my dad took of me, just about to enter into a UPS MD-11.First off, this post has almost nothing to do with class. It is about airplanes, airlines, flying, and traveling, which is definitely connected to class (and could possibly be helpful for your travel guide), but really, this is an excuse for me to be a huge nerd about airplanes. If you are looking for the class recap from last class, please scroll down to the next post.
Okay. So as you have probably figured out, I am really into airplanes and airlines. I showed you my FlightMemory page during class, and I wanted to tell you a little more about how to make it, what you can do with it, and some other great links of interest if you are into this whole thing.
Story time: I first got really into planes when my dad would take me and my siblings to the airport to watch them when we were growing up. There are a few great places out at the airport - we used to park and watch them come in, then run through the parking lot, trying to outrace the planes. Pizza was also usually involved, which definitely helped too. Basically, it was a good excuse to get out of the house and hang out.
I lost that excitement about planes for a long time after we gradually stopped going, due to general life activities. I did however, need a summer job during college, and so when I saw a clipping from the Oregonian about a job at Evergreen EAGLE, I applied and went to work, in the summer of 2006. Ever since then, I've worked on and off (mostly in the summers and during the winter breaks). It's an amazing job that lets me be outside, work out, and also get to be up close and personal with some of the biggest pieces of machinery in the world. Evergreen was contracted for the last couple of years to service the Lufthansa flight from Portland to Frankfurt, Germany, which I spoke about in class today. In the course of my work on that, I did just about everything you could imagine. I worked in the bag room. I loaded bags. I cleaned bathrooms. I vacuumed floors. I cleaned seats (and trust me, that is a dirty job). I put down pillows and blankets. I drove cargo. I marshaled planes in and out.
At UPS, where I still work every so often (it's down to about once a month, usually on a Friday, because I am so busy most other days), my specialty is "topside," where the big cargo containers are loaded in, and I am part of the crew that pushes and locks them into place. Here's a picture of what that looks like (the inside of a UPS Airbus A300):
I also marshall planes in and out (marshallers are the people outside that have the light up wands that direct traffic - which I think is just about the coolest job ever, besides being a teacher).
So now you know a little bit about what I do in my free time. Now let's get on to the links.
You know about FlightMemory.com. This is one of my favorite sites out there. You do have to sign up to create an account (it's free). Then you have to enter your flight information for each flight in on the "FlightData" page. Here is what my FlightData page looks like for the most recent flights I've taken:
Now, you can see that I have a whole lot of information on there. Not only do I have the origin and destination airports, but I have the airlines, flight number, aircraft type, tail number (which means that actual, particular aircraft I flew), seat, duration of flight, and a whole lot more. So the question is, how?
To begin this investigation into your own flights, try to find any old boarding passes you may have laying around. They will be incredibly helpful, because they say the airline, the date, and the flight number. I try to save all of my old boarding passes - they are in a binder that I will bring in again next class.
Okay, so say you know where you went, when you went, and the flight number (or maybe you are missing some of that too). Here is an EXCELLENT site to fill in the gaps:
Airline On-Time Statistics - This is a US government run site (which, unfortunately, means that it is only useful for flights within the US), because the FAA requires major airlines to report on what they do each day. To find what you need, go down to "detailed statistics" and either click on Arrivals (if you know the city that you were flying to) or Departures (if you know where you left from). Let's use my case of the Alaska Airlines Flight 483, which my brother and I took from San Diego to Seattle, coming back from the Holiday Bowl during Winter Break.
I will click Departures (because there are not that many Alaska flights departing San Diego). I will then choose "All Statistics" on the next screen. I enter in the origin airport of San Diego (SAN), and the airline (Alaska - AS). Then I select my date that I flew, which was December 31st, 2008 (be careful to get all of those dates right!). By clicking submit, I am greeted with a list of Alaska flights that left San Diego on the 31st of December. Look! There is flight 483! The tail number is N583AS, which can be viewed online here: Airliners.net - Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 N583AS.
Pretty cool, right? There are several other sites that are fantastic:
The Great Circle Mapper - this will let you calculate the distance flying from one place to another, anywhere in the world. Here's what this would look like if there were to be a non-stop flight from Portland to Lagos, Nigeria: Great Circle Mapper: PDX-LOS. That is a long plane ride - 7540 miles!
I talked a little bit in class about Kayak.com, which is by far my favorite place to actually buy tickets, because there are so many options (and because the cheapest is easy to search for).
Also, check out FlightAware.com - Portland International (PDX) to see a great representation of all the flights that are in the air around Portland at any given time! This is definitely my favorite site to track planes, like if I need to pick up someone at the airport, or I want to know immediately how long I was in the air for. Here's the most current flight from that San Diego-Seattle route that I took in December: FlightAware: Alaska Airlines Flight 483.
Finally, using all these resources, make your FlightMemory page and also, an Airliners.net photo album! Just search for the tail number in the search box - they have just about every major carrier's aircraft from everywhere around the world. Seriously, that site is insane. Here's what my photo album of aircraft that I have actually flown on is: Airliners.net - Aircraft I've Flown On.
I also have an album of actual aircraft that I've worked on (which I just updated tonight, because I just worked on a new bird - N134UP): Airliners.net - Aircraft I've Worked On.
Let me know if you need any help with this! You definitely discover some pretty amazing things. For instance: I once flew on United Airlines N591UA (from Portland to Chicago in 1996), the exact same plane that was later hijacked on September 11th, 2001 and eventually driven into the ground in Pennsylvania - the flight that the movie "United 93" is about. Absolutely crazy, huh?
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Some very basics about airlines:
All American airline tail numbers start with N. All airports in the world have a three letter code. These can sometimes be very confusing. For instance: Zack, in your FlightMemory, you have a flight from PDX to STP - which is Saint Paul, Minnesota. It would be very hard for you to know that you almost definitely actually flew into Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which has the code of MSP.
A few other big airports: In the Los Angeles area alone, there is LAX (the main, huge one), SNA (Orange County), LGB (Long Beach), ONT (Ontario - where a lot of our UPS jets fly to from Portland), and BUR (Burbank). I've been to every LA airport except ONT, which is the reason why that area is so cluttered on my FlightMemory map. In the New York City area, there is John F. Kennedy International (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark-New Jersey (EWR). I've only ever flown into EWR, though I really want to go to JFK someday!
Seattle is SEA (easy). Most are fairly common sense. Here are some that are not:
Chicago's main airport is O'Hare, which is ORD.
New Orleans is MSY (and I have no idea why).
Detriot is DTW.
Houston is IAH.
Kansas City is MCI.
Orlando is MCO.
Washington DC is either IAD (the big one, in Virginia) or DCA (Reagan National, in the capital).
Here's a good site for all the big airports within the United States: USA Today - Current Delays.
All airlines have a two letter (or a letter and a number) code. I won't go over too many, but here are some main ones:
AS - Alaska Airlines
QX - Horizon Air (which is owned by Alaska, but operates by itself)
WN - Southwest
B6 - JetBlue
F9 - Frontier
UA - United
AA - American
DL - Delta
NW - Northwest (merging right now with Delta)
US - US Airways
All of this information can be easily found on Wikipedia, if you are interested. Let me know if you can't find something, I would love to help out!
Finally, a few essentials about aircraft in general. Basically, there are two main builders of aircraft in the world. Boeing, which is based in the United States and has an enormous base and building plant in the Seattle area, and Airbus, which is owned by a group of European nations, which is based in Toulouse, France.
Boeing makes airplanes that start with 7 and end with 7. Like, the 737, 747, 757 (my all time favorite, by the way)... you get the point. Around Portland, the 737 is by far the most common. Both Alaska and Southwest own entirely Boeing 737 fleets now. Boeing's new aircraft (that keeps getting delayed, but hopefully should be out this year) is the 787 Dreamliner.
Airbus makes airplanes that start with "A3..." For instance, the equivalent of a Boeing 737 for an Airbus is an A320 - the kind of plane that just landed in the Hudson River a couple of weeks ago. Lufthansa flies an Airbus A330 into Portland currently - a downgrade from the A340 that I used to work on. You may have heard about the big new Airbus aircraft - the A380, which is an ENORMOUS double decker.
Okay, I think that is enough. I would be surprised if anyone actually read all that. But hey, I get into it! Have a fantastic weekend everyone! :-)
FINAL UPDATE FRIDAY 5:15 AM: The Beaverton School District has just posted the following -
"Schools CLOSED to Students and Staff, Friday (12/19/2008). All Activities and Events Cancelled. Administration Facilities Open to Essential Staff."
In addition, part of the e-mail from the administration states:
"The decision to close is based on student and staff safety. While we are not expecting moisture today, the low temperatures have made the side roads extremely hazardous. Our ability to transport students safely would be compromised.
A review of instructional time will be conducted in January to determine if days will need to be made up in order to meet State instructional time requirements."
Go back to bed. :-) Have a fantastic and restful long break - those speeches had better be amazing by the time we get back! Please e-mail me or comment if you need any help at all, or just want to check in during your time off. Come back refreshed and ready to go for 2009!
UPDATE FRIDAY 12:20 AM: Wonderful students, it was great to be able to get home just now and see all your comments about the speech, the game, and school. I'm sorry I couldn't post them as they were coming - I can assure you the Blazer game was absolutely incredible, and now my voice is hoarse. As far as tomorrow goes, here's part of the e-mail the teachers got:
"No decision will be made regarding the status of school operations until Friday morning. Our greatest concern at this time is not the weather but the possibility of black ice on side roads and at higher elevations. A team will be driving the roads at 3:30 a.m., and a decision will be posted before 5:30 a.m."
I'm glad that the district is doing this, though it definitely is a pain to wake up so early to find out about school. Here's what I'm going to tell you guys (after looking at the comments as well as taking into account my situation here at my house, which is definitely still snowed in): If there is class today, BRING YOUR SPEECHES. No matter what, we will work with them. Now, I find it pretty doubtful that I will be able to make it in, and I also find it somewhat unlikely that the district will decide to have school, considering all the information about what is likely to happen tonight. It was already 32 degrees in downtown Portland when I left the game this evening and it is going to get colder.
Whether or not I am able to make it in, Mrs. DeFrance will work with you guys on your speeches. I don't think it's fair to ask you to do them the day before break, and I also don't think it is fair to watch half of Hotel Rwanda, coming back to it much later. We will do both the week we get back from break. Continue working on them with your group over the break! They had better be close to perfect! Ask me for any help you may need!
I will be up early to check online about school and will post an update as soon as I know at the top of the page. Thanks for paying so much attention to this all! Go Blazers! Brandon Roy for MVP! :-)
UPDATE THURSDAY 4:00 PM: It looks to be a similar sort of situation to last night. Here's part of the e-mail I just received:
"The Beaverton School District is closely monitoring changing conditions, and consulting with our local and national weather services to make a call for Friday. No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight (Thursday) or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) morning."
So, keep paying attention! Have those speeches ready just in case! :-) In the meantime, read this article on some of the main perpatrators of the Rwandan Genocide finally being found guilty in the International Criminal Court TODAY - over 14 YEARS since the acts we are studying in class! Slow justice indeed.
CNN.com: Trio found guilty of Rwandan genocideUPDATE at 9:30 PM: As Archana just pointed out in the comments (before I even knew, by the way, which is pretty amazing), the Beaverton School District has decided to cancel school tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 18th. Please make sure to watch for tomorrow night's decision as well, but until then, enjoy another day off! Please stay safe and warm out there! Watch the Blazer game tomorrow night if you want - I'm hoping to make it out to be there! :-)
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 5:15 PM: For those wondering about when/if the district will decide about school on Thursday, this is part of the e-mail from the district administration I just received:
"The Beaverton School District is closely monitoring the national weather forecast and consulting with our local weather service to make a call for Thursday. No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. We need more information on the cold weather pattern that may be developing."
There you have it. I'll post again when I hear about any decision that is made. See, I told you the blog would be useful... :-)
The view outside my window at home in Portland,
during last year's Christmas Day snow.Dear students,
With the Beaverton School District deciding to cancel school Wednesday, barring some sort of miraculous turn of events in the weather, I think it is now doubtful that you will be coming to class again in 2008. Please be sure that you keep checking the school closure updates each night, but for now, it certainly looks like having school will be unlikely. Friday is the last possible day that you could have my class.
What this means for our class: I will have to keep talking to Mrs. DeFrance, the administrators at Westview, and my professors at Lewis and Clark to determine what we are going to do, but for now, here's what we have come up with:
IF there is class on Friday: Be prepared to roll with the group speeches. Dress up (but be warm, first and foremost!) I doubt that Mr. Chamberlain will be able to come in, but we might be able to find another person to help out. We will try to do as much as possible.
IF there is NO class on Friday: Have a wonderful long break! We will be doing the speeches the first day you get back from break, so practice in front of the mirror, in front of your parents - make your part PERFECT! Continue to work on them. I think we are just going to continue with the plan that I had originally made - because I think watching Hotel Rwanda is a very important way to end the unit.
Keep checking this blog! I will almost certainly keep writing and giving little extra credit assignments (like the one I posted already) throughout the break. If you see something that might be related to the class, please let me know!
If you do not have your individual speech in: I need it in, ASAP. Please e-mail me immediately if you have not turned it in. You will not be a part of the group's speech, but I do need some sort of proof that EVERYONE has actually learned something about the genocide, and you will get credit for doing the individual portion of the speech.
Finally, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about what is going on. I hope that every one of you is staying safe and warm! Have another great day off! Keep checking back during the next few days! :-)
UPDATE II (4:15 PM Monday): NO SCHOOL tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 16th). There is also a huge storm likely on Wednesday. Please check back here tomorrow evening for instructions on the speech/other things going on in class, when I have a better idea of whether or not we will have class. Enjoy another day off responsibly! :-)UPDATE (4:15 PM): Beaverton School District schools and facilities are CLOSED tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 15th. Enjoy the day off - stay safe and warm - make good decisions! See you Wednesday! Follow option D below!Greetings students!If you have been living in a cave for the last day, let me be the first to let you know: it's snowing. Like, a lot. As in, I have 2.5 inches on my back deck already.
So, what does this mean? For one, I think for the first time in my entire life, I am conflicted about a snow day. See, I am a HUGE fan of snow. I always waited up late at night, calculating the chances of snow and getting a day off school. So it is really weird that I am actually really sad about the possibility of school being cancelled, because I am also so incredibly excited to see what you guys have come up with for your group speeches.
Because I know everyone is wondering what the possible situations are, let me break them down for you:
A) The snow is sufficiently gone so that school operates on a full schedule tomorrow, and I am able to make it out. Remember, I live in the Portland hills - on Mt. Sylvania, near Lake Oswego. We are at about 800 feet in elevation. Meaning that I am getting completely slammed here and something dramatic is going to have to happen in order for me to be able to make it out and to class tomorrow. In this scenario, that dramatic melting happens tonight.
In this case: Class will be held as we planned. I will need all the group speeches typed up and handed in after we do all of the speeches in class. Dress up (though make your priority dressing warmly - it is going to be cold all week!) and be prepared to address the United Nations.
B) The school operates on a normal schedule, but I am unable to make it out. This is probably the second most likely situation. Like I said, it is pretty bad here, and since I live in the hills, it is very hard to get out with any snow on the ground. I will probably try, but it will be difficult.
If this happens, Mrs. DeFrance (if she can make it out) will probably just work on your speeches with you, or do some sort of other cool activity. Plan to give your speeches on Wednesday (I do not know if Mr. Chamberlain will be able to come on Wednesday, but Mrs. DeFrance and I are really excited to see them, so we are definitely doing them!) and dress up again on that day.
C) The Beaverton School District decides to have a two-hour late opening. This may be somewhat more likely than A.
In this case: I believe that you will not have my class, because it will be wiped out by the late opening - you would go to your third period class when school opens. If there is a two hour late opening, it is pretty unlikely that I will be able to come into school, so just e-mail me if you need any help with anything.
D) The district decides to close for Monday. I happen to think that this is probably the most likely outcome as it stands right now - though be sure to check out the school closure list in the morning here:
Oregon School Closure InformationIf this is the case, continue working on your group speeches (but do NOT gamble on having extra time - the speeches should be done by tomorrow). Basically, just pretend that Monday is now moved to Wednesday (which means we will have less time to watch Hotel Rwanda before break, which I am not excited about, but I think I'll live with). Check this blog for updates. If you want me to review your speech, either e-mail me or come see me on Tuesday if we have school (I think Tuesday is a B day no matter what) and I am able to make it out.
There are some students that did not turn their individual speech to me by Friday. Unfortunately, this means that you will not be able to participate in the group speeches - I will ask you to do an individual assignment for in-class participation, but you will lose out on the 50 points that come along with the speech. You knew the rules quite clearly. Unless there is some sort of extraordinary circumstance which prevented you from turning it in, you are going to have a VERY difficult time making it up. Your actions have consequences. You are in high school - it's time to grow up and do your work on time, especially when I went out of my way to try and help you out.
For everyone else: thank you for working so hard! You guys definitely deserve any sort of fun that this little blizzard brings.
Most importantly: continue to work hard, have fun, be safe and responsible out there! Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments! Have a great day! :-)
UPDATE II: The Rwanda part just finished airing. It is absolutely perfect for what I was planning for class tomorrow, so we will be watching it together (if I can tape it later tonight) and not reading the article, as I said we would be doing. The extra credit assignment still applies for the rest of the documentary. I STRONGLY encourage everyone to watch it later tonight (at 9:00), even if you do not want to write up a response. See you in the morning...UPDATE: The CNN special is also airing early, because it is on right now (6:15 P.M. - it will repeat at 9). If you don't want to stay up late to watch, it would probably be a good thing for you to check it out this time around. So far, it is incredible! Keep in mind those questions I asked below as you watch, should you choose to. :-)---
Good afternoon class,
Amazingly enough, the genocide in Rwanda is getting some attention on the news tonight at 9:00 PM! CNN (channel 44 if you have Comcast) will be airing a documentary called "Scream Bloody Murder" which will deal with parts of the Rwandan genocide and others that have happened in the recent past (or are still going on). A few words of caution: it is likely that the documentary may be pretty gruesome. This tends to be the case with reports on genocide. However, I can almost guarantee it will be worth watching. I am going to have the class read an article on General Romeo Dallaire (who will be featured in the special) tomorrow as well, so you might as well know about him ahead of time.
Here's the plug from the site that I linked to above:
CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the world's killing fields to understand the world's indifference, even as courageous voices tried to "Scream Bloody Murder." A worldwide investigation and two-hour documentary, premiering on CNN/US at 9 p.m. ET/PT December 4 and on CNN International at 0200 GMT December 5.
Again, the questions are: Why is it that people do not care more about this? What can we do to prevent genocide in the future? How can we speak up about stopping conflict? With that in mind, I will give 5 points of extra credit (a normal assignment, like your letter to me, due tomorrow, is 10 points) to anyone that watches the special and types a one page response about what it had to say in regards to the genocide in Rwanda and my above three questions. Or, you could just watch it, not write anything, then come tell me about it tomorrow and I will be seriously impressed as well. That works too. If you do not have cable (and are unable to be at a place that does and is showing the special) and would still like to try and watch it, please let me know. I will likely be able to find a way for you to watch it or something else to write a quick report on.
As for the preview for tomorrow: here's what the class impressions of Europe look like, in Wordle form (I'll explain what that means tomorrow - but basically, the bigger the word, the more you guys wrote it):
Have a great night - try to watch the documentary! See you in class tomorrow!
