Moving to Ontario, Oregon

A week ago, I drove approximately 360 miles and 6.5 hours through the Columbia River Gorge, over the Blue Mountains, and across the dry high desert to the small town of Ontario, Oregon. It is right on the border of Idaho and the last stop on I-84 before crossing over the Snake River. There are only about 12,000 people living in the city, and I accepted an 8th grade math teaching position at their only middle school. I'm pumped!

Ontario Middle School is filled with staff who are so welcoming and willing to help me out. I have had so many people offer me a place to stay, to drive me around, and advice about the town. I have felt nothing but comfort in my new position, and I can't wait to meet my students! There are many positive things that seem to be happening in the district. There is construction on new buildings at the middle school and the high school, so it is clear to me that the kids have people who really care about them.

My home for the past week has been the friendly neighborhood Motel 6. It has been a nice place to relax while searching for a rental in the area. I ended up finding a great place in the north end of Ontario and plan on moving my small pile of belongings in tomorrow. The funny thing is that some of the people from my school have told me that it is the "bad" part of town. With drugs, drive-bys, and stabbings. Stuff like that. My immediate thought was, "Hey! It's just like home in East Portland!" After riding my bike all over the city, it really doesn't seem that bad to me. And besides, I believe that if there is something wrong with a neighborhood, you need to be the change you want to see there (I think that's a quote from somebody famous). I talked to Jen about it and we both like the idea of living in an area where we can be a positive influence, rather than just fleeing to live where nobody is struggling to get by. After just a week of being here, it seems to me that there is a great need in this city. There is a need for unity and integration between neighborhoods and communities. I really hope to help Ontario as a teacher and now as a resident.

My loving wife showed her complete dedication to me by being willing to move across the entire state, away from friends and family to a small town where we know absolutely no one. It has been very difficult being away from her and Nolan, but thankfully due to the internet and the new Google+ Hangouts (see pic), Jen's beautiful smile and Nolan's adorable noises are just a few clicks away on video chat. They will be joining me in just a couple short weeks, and Portland will be in our rear view mirror.

I believe we have a great opportunity to make a difference in the city of Ontario. There are many people here that are hurting, and I hope that God will use the Riedl family in a way that pleases Him.

Nolan in his crib

I posted this video on facebook a few days ago. I have been staying at home with Nolan ever since school has been out, and I must say that he is much more interesting than my 8th graders. :-) Being a stay-at-home dad again is much different than it was three months ago. This age (6 mo.) is so much fun! Can't wait for him to start crawling... he is almost there!

 

New Blog Design

I really love Blogger's new "Template Designer" function. It helps the blogs look much more pleasing to the eye!

What do you think of the new Riedlblog design?

Top 10 Popular Posts of 2009

I'm actually quite shocked at how much I blogged over the past year. With grad school and all, I'm surprised I found the time. On average, I posted about 1.5 times per week.

It's very entertaining and fascinating to look over the posts from the last year. Looking back on the changes in life is important to remember to do. My absolute favorite post of the year is People Watching: A Social Experiment (#7). That day was so funny! Here are a few of my other personal favorites that failed to make the list: Got Pain?, Kid Quote: What Others Think, Kid Quote: The Cat and the Raccoon, The SORRY Steps, and Crappy Parenting (Jen's first post).

According to the number of pageviews, here are the top ten most popular posts from Riedlblog in 2009:

1) My Tattoo (This is mainly because it is linked with I Have Poland Syndrome, which is quite popular)
2) Dirty Microwave From The Office
3) Glendoveer Fitness Trail
4) Kid Quote: Fortune Teller
5) Kid Quote: Broken Spirit
6) The Portland Plan
7) People Watching: A Social Experiment (A must-see!)
8) Joseph Wood Hill Park (Rocky Butte)
9) I Love Jen.
10) Work Affecting Marriage

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you are excited to see more tasty treats in 2010! I sure am. Yum. :-)

Happy New Year!
--Aaron

The Pez Dispenser That Came To Life

Here is the final product! For my authentic writing project, we were instructed to create anything that we wanted that had to do with writing. So, I wrote a story about a Pez dispenser that started blinking and exploring. The original story was pretty boring, so I thought that stop motion animation would really spice it up. And about a week of frustration with Windows Movie Maker (it froze up on me about a million times) and many, many hours of editing later, I am very pleased with the result.

Hopefully I can use stop motion animation in my classroom when I get hired as a teacher. It is a lot of fun and I know a handful of kids already that would be interested. Maybe I can use it to teach them the procedures of the class and demonstrate to them what I expect of them. I was also thinking about turning it into a picture book. The possibilities are endless!!!!!

Enjoy the video...

Coming Soon!

My first stop motion film! I made it for my writing class...watch the trailer below:

Whac-A-Fox!

My high score is 33. Check out peasantprincess.com to see more!

Solace Arts Photography: updated site

Recently I mentioned that my friends Emily and Kolby were updating their photography website. Well their hard work has resulted in creating a beautiful new website design. Check out their new Solace Arts Photography website.

Solace Arts Photography also has a new logo, as seen here. If you are in the Los Angeles area and need quality photography work, then please check them out. A great married couple who love working together.

Image from solacearts.com

Top 10 Riedlblog Posts in 2007

I've had a lot of fun this year as it's been my first full year of blogging. I've learned many things since jumping into the blogosphere. I'm looking forward to a very interesting 2008 as I have many more life experiences on the way: Moving back to Oregon with my wife, finding a new job, a new apartment, new friends, old friends, a new church community, and much more.

In the spirit of looking over the past year and looking to the future, here's the Top 10 list of my favorite posts I have written in 2007:

1. An Old Dude Touched My Privates - Mar 7
2. I Won The Lottery!!! - May 4
   
3. Hemorrhoids - Jun 11
   
4. Honeymoons are Unfair - Jun 18
   
5. Happy Fertilization Day! - Jun 28
   
6. Husbands Love, Wives Respect - Jul 10
   
7. Through A Tunnel: Hold Your Breath! - Sep 3
   
8. Tough Choice: Sex or Baseball? Part 1, 2, 3 - Sep 27-Oct 4
9. Last Thoughts From Single Life - Oct 18
10. Snow! - Dec 1

Happy New Year everyone!

Solace Arts Photography: Wedding Pics

My good friends were able to shoot our wedding for us! Emily Allen and her husband Kolby recently established a company called Solace Arts Photography. They agreed to fly up from California to shoot our wedding for us a few weeks ago. Photography is a new passion of Emily's and we were so thankful they could be with us to shoot and celebrate! I know them from SPU, but now they live in Los Angeles with their cute little girl. If anybody is in that area in need of exceptional photography work, please look her up.

The weather on our wedding day started out pretty gloomy, but thankfully the rain stopped and the sun broke through the clouds in the afternoon... just as we started shooting. It was beautiful outside! We were married at the Daybreak Star Cultural Center at Discovery Park in Seattle. Emily and Kolby were a great team as they led us around the area. There are some great views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in that spot. The photographic creativity definitely shows through the photos here and also in the rest of the collection in the gallery on their website.

They also gave me permission to put their slide show on here, which is cutely synced with music we had in our wedding! They did a wonderful job with it:




If you want to check out the rest of the photos:

1. Go to orders.solacearts.com
2. Create an account (they won't spam you)
3. Enter the access code: 102007
4. Continue to the gallery and check out the pics!

UPDATE: This album is no longer available for viewing.

You can save your favorites, purchase photos or albums, and invite family or friends to view them too! Emily told me they will be updating their website in early 2008, so keep your eye out for that.

Thanks again for all your great work, Em and Kolby! These will be great memories for a long time.

Check out the Solace Arts Photography Blog too!

All photos from solacearts.com

Google Maps: Street View

Google is so amazing. I just can't handle it.

Check out the new Google Maps: Street View. They've taken street-level pictures all around the initial cities: San Fransisco Bay area, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver!

This is such a huge step because now you can actually look around the city like you're walking from street to street! It's so much fun to just browse around, I had to stop myself because it was so fun, helpful, and addicting!

Click on the picture to see where I was looking at Times Square:

Why Use Gmail?

Here's a fun theater presentation that Gmail put together to show you why you should switch to Gmail!

Subscribe to a Feed? Huh?

Have you ever seen this little orange icon?

<---- Do you ever wonder what it's for? Well I have talked to a handful of friends, and many of them don't know what Subscribing to a Feed means. I know that sometimes all of this new internet language seems overwhelming at times, but don't you worry! ... I will explain.

That little orange icon, as well as other icons...

...notify you of a "feed" on a website that updates frequently.

For example, I update my blog at least once a week. Instead of coming to my blog every day of the week to check and see if I've posted something new, you can actually be notified when I update my site with your subscription. This is done with a feedreader.

A feedreader (for example, the one I use is Google Reader) is like an inbox for your subscriptions. You get new "mail" in your feedreader whenever your subscriptions are updated! Right now, I'm currently subscribed to a bunch of different sites:

• CNN.com news updates
• Cleveland Indians news updates
• Lots of blogs... personal and public ones
  
• Church news/blogs
• Howstuffworks.com updates
• etc.

And I don't have to go to any of the sites to read any of the information! I can just go to the feedreader, and it sends me all of the new information that they publish on their sites! It's like an inbox for my favorite websites!

This is a great tool that I recommend for everyone.