The Different Paces of Life - From Busy to Más Amiable and Unhurried

Posted on Friday March 21, 2025 by Jacob Campbell.

As I have traveled over the years and told people I’m from the United States, one of the questions I often get is, have you been to New York? While I’ve traveled to Europe, Africa, and the Americas, I have not reached the Big Apple. I have been to many Major Metropolitan Cities around the world. On my way to Jungapeo, I flew into Ciudad de México, and we took at three and a half hour taxi ride with my nieces and cuañdo to our final destination. The car didn’t fit all of the luggage, so we were left packed and carrying luggage on our laps the whole way. While we didn’t get to spend any time in CDMX, you could tell it is a bustling place, something I don’t think you can get away from with a population of over nine million. As we spent about an hour winding our way through different side roads, arterials, and highways, I told mi sobrinas (nieces) that the roads are like how ants build their tunnels. If f you have never seen one of the videos of somebody pouring liquid silver into an ant hill to make art, it is fascinating to see what lies under the ground.

Puerto Vallarta isn’t that busy, but it really can be packed with people. On Monday I wandered around the Malecón. It is really beautiful but also so busy. During the day in the plazas you can hear so much birdsong.

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There are a bunch of large clubs all next door to each other.

The prior night, I had been walking around, thinking I might buy a bottle of tequila. I ended up in a shop that sells bottles, encourages customers to try shots, and then wants to sell you timeshares or tours (or expensive tequila bottles). I’m not a fan of time shares or feel like they are a good idea. While I declined all of the above, he recommended going to Playa Las Gemelas.

Sometimes, talking to random strangers when traveling gives great recommendations (like going to Prague), and other times, I can be a bust. The beach was super pretty I liked it. But it wasn’t my best option. I took the bus (which I have always loved public transport). I checked in through the hotel there, but when I tried to go back from the beach to visit their bar, I was locked out. I just didn’t come prepared. I didn’t stay very long and ended up exploring Playa de Los Muertos. Got a margarita from the the Margarita Grill and then ate a nice dinner at Langostinos, listening to a singer eating and drinking sitting watching the sunset on the beach.

That night, I went to an Irish pub to listen to live music for Saint Patrick’s Day. I ended up making friends and going to a few other places. The next day was more relaxed with time at the beach. Although I had somebody steal $160 out of my wallet (thankfully not cards and all of that). The details are outside of what I’d share in this venue. The following day (e.g., Wednesday) led me to my flight and the start of the second leg of my trip.

My wife is from Jungapeo, and I rode over with my family. It has been a much slower pace, but it has been fun. There are two streets that go all the way through the town. When we arrived, I ate a fantastic Pan Bazo, which is my favorite Mexican food and something I think originated here or nearby. It isn’t really a thing in other parts of Mexico. We went and spent some time at the Jardin (the plaza that is the center of town) and ate ice cream with wine in it (which is really good). The next day, we went to Zitácuaro to do some shopping and wander around their much larger markets. In the evening was a parade of all elementary schools (dressed in various themes such as The Flinstones, Lion King, etc.). The kids were cute. Then, drinking and hanging out on the street, talking with people as they go by. At 530 am, there was another parade (I was asleep but tried to go out and watch the last little bit), and there is another one today (Friday) at 11 AM.

Recuerdos— Back to Vallarta and Excursions

Posted on Monday March 17, 2025 by Jacob Campbell.

I’ve been lucky to travel a lot and have often written about it here. While we went with the family to Florida and on our 2023 Summer Family Road Trip, I haven’t left the country since 2016. For years, my wife has told me I should go on a trip myself or take the kids¹. I have just hesitated, feeling bad if we couldn’t all go together. In some ways, it could feel really selfish, and I also know bringing all the kids somewhere is a challenge if I go by myself (although now that they are older, it would be much easier). I also find it best if we all go together and struggle if it isn’t that. This year, when my cuñados² told me that they were going to Mexico and I should go, I decided that this year I would. With a hopeful successful trip this year, I hope to bring kids next time. I’ve gotten a mountain of potential safety concerns in the run-up to this trip, and with all of the national political craziness, it seems like it will only get worse. Although, with how touristy Puerto Vallarta is, it is probably extra insulated.

In small Mexican cities and towns, annual celebrations are often called “fiestas patronales” or “ferias” (patron saint festivals or fairs), which are important cultural celebrations for that community. My wife’s family has returned to their hometown during this event for many years. This year, it happens to be the same week as my Spring Break. I knew I wanted to come. The first problem was that they weren’t planning on coming until mid-way through my break, then staying for a week and a half. I didn’t want to make it to Mexico only to be able to spend a few days there and come back for my regular teaching schedule. With how overloaded I feel from my classes, I probably shouldn’t have gone anywhere so I could try to use the time to catch up, and it isn’t necessarily time off. I looked at options and decided to come to first to Puerto Vallarta and spend some days here before to spend more time abroad, and then I will be meeting up with my wife’s family in Mexico City to travel together to her hometown.

I’ve been to Puerto Vallarta twice when I was growing up. On the first trip, we stayed at an all-inclusive resort on the Mismaloya Beach. On the second trip, we stayed north of Puerto Vallarta in a Bucerías. With these trips being so long ago, there is a lot that we did that I don’t remember. The following are some of the things that stood out:

• Being amazed that a hotel can have multiple pools
• Jay’s (our friends we went with) Mom telling us that if we peed in the pool, the water would change colors³
• Spending time in a foreign hospital having my appendix removed ⁴
• Going to a restaurant and having them show a menu by displaying a platter of dead fish and we could point to our selections
• Learning about Leafcutter ants and that they could take all of the grass from a yard in a single day
• Being excited that I had to carry my appendix across the border in a glass jar and wanting to show it to customs officials (I was a strange kid)
• Going Snuba Diving and deciding that when I grew up, I wanted to be an underwater photographer

These experiences and exposure to other cultures and ways of life were formative for me. These trips and some of the summertime traveling I did with my cousin also helped form a love for traveling. As I sit her on my balcony overlooking some worn cobble stone streets, sipping on a Pacifico with my speaker playing and writing on a warm summer evening with the smell of the ocean and view of palm trees I am trying to soak it all in (you can see a post showing the view from the terrace rooftop restaurant)

So far, it has been amazing to be here. I’m staying at Hotel Paloma del Mar. It is reasonably priced, in the Malecón, and simple but seems generally good so far. The staff has also been outstanding. I am making my holiday include the Friday before and the Monday after Spring Break, so I got here Friday evening. I checked into the hotel, found my way to the ocean (about five or six blocks), and then ate some Green Aguachiles at Restaurante El Malecón, sitting on the sand and listening to live music. That night, I ended up at La Bodeguita Del Medio where I got to do some Salsa/Merengue to live music in an atmosphere that is great for social dancing.

The following day, I had to get up early to make my way to Puerto Magico to go on a tour I booked a boat ride to Yelapa and Majahuitas, which was moderately priced.

I posted a few pictures of the boat ride.

You can also see some photos from Yelapa.

Today has been more of a down day sleeping in, hanging out at the hotel, eating a delicious seafood burrito, and spending time at the nearby beach. I think I will put together an album of photos to share.

Building Services for My Students: Helping to Share Information and Connections

Posted on Saturday March 1, 2025 by Jacob Campbell.

One of the characteristics that help me stand out in my work is that I often put extra into what I do. I make varying returns on these little investments. Sometimes, my investment is minor, but it can significantly impact me. Other times, I might invest more time and effort, putting in substantially more work without immediate benefits. This extra effort does give me a much higher quality finished product, but I am unsure if the difference in the final product has the same value as the time and effort put forth. This does not mean that investment is necessarily wasted (although I am sure there are many times that I don’t focus on the most important things). These times spent diving into details, working on planning, building systems, and automating processes are helpful for a couple of reasons.

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One common place I find myself getting lost in the details is preparing content for lectures ¹. I will spend significant time considering what to include, strategizing how to present the material, going back to the sources, and trying to find high-quality sources. One example of my obsessing over what source I should use was for a presentation I did with a few colleagues before the start of the semester. Before each semester, our university faculty spend a day organized around a theme and professional development. My small group’s topic focused on sharing self-care practices we are integrating into our classroom environment and providing some ideas of how other instructors could do the same. I wanted to ground our discussion in the reality of stress and its impact. Readings, training, and discussions have frequently generally discussed the impact that trauma and stress have on our minds, bodies, and social environment throughout my experience in the mental health world. I wanted to share a concise description of what stress looks like. This led me to spend a few hours reading journal articles, returning to some books, and trying to determine the best source. Most sources were not what I wanted to share or were way more technical than I wanted to get into. My message was at its essence: stress causes people problems. In my mind, I felt I needed to have some fancy journal article to cite this. In the end, I moved away from a more formal source and just used the description provided by the American Institute of Stress and their article How Stress Affects your Body and Mind. While it isn’t as strong of an academic source, it is appropriate for what I wanted to share. I was just overthinking what to use and spending more time than I should have.

This type of going down unplanned rabbit trails or obsessing about some of the details does mean that I potentially spent longer than I could have on developing the presentation. But it also makes for an improved final product. I also don’t consider the time wasted, even for the material I didn’t use, as it provided me the opportunity to increase the depth and breadth of my knowledge. Often, doing extra allows me to grow and improve while providing an improved product. That makes the extra effort I put into things often helpful and something I should consider doing. You can see the presentation we did Spring 2025 Faculty Day Breakout Session: Bringing Peace & Ease During Changing Times.

Building My Presentations Website

My ability to embed this above-mentioned presentation is available due to another example of the extra effort I have put into my work. I have a sub-section of my website dedicated to my presentations. When I started sharing papers and writings as academic resources for people, I had some opportunities many years ago to add presentations I had given as an MSW student using SlideShare (now owned by LinkedIn) Directions Program Effectiveness Study Presentations. These were one-off examples and wanted to have a way to easily share the content. I’m always lurking around the internet, seeing how people share information and what they do. I follow a number of technology professionals, and many of them give talks. I remember seeing people have online portfolios of their talks and sharing their slides. In 2019, when I presented at a breakout session for a conference for support staff hosted by OSPI, it seemed the perfect opportunity to develop my own portfolio. You can see Foundational Aspects of Evidence-Based Classrooms: Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities that I presented at that conference.

I started looking at some of the systems to build a public speaking portfolio and came across Notist. It is an excellent service and worked well for my needs for many years. I started posting and sharing all the presentations, teaching as an adjunct. One of the best aspects was that you could use a custom domain if you have a paid account, which I needed for the number of presentations I posted each year). Fast forward to the summer of 2024. I decided I didn’t want to pay the $100 per year for the service. I also wanted to share my notes more easily. Their service has a way of including my lecture notes, as I do now, but I had to copy and paste each section individually.

So, I decided to make a new Jekyll site to post all of my presentations (you can see all of the code on Github²). I am using the same javascript that Notist had for embedding the slides and CSS they had for using the present feature, but otherwise, I designed my new portfolio the way I wanted it to be. I also built a shortcut so that I could cycle through my previous presentations one at a time and download all of the information I had posted on my Notist account. It took me significant time to develop the shortcut, design the website, and the pattern used to build the presentations. Having well over 100 presentations, just going through them was also a slog.

Posting copies of the PDF of the presentation like an animal.

During the summer, I was able to do the old content part, but I ran out of time to develop a process for converting new presentations. The new school year started as along with my transition to a full-time associate professor. My time became very constrained and I couldn’t actually use my new website to share new presentations. I had to put it back on the shelf, and so I went back to the most straightforward approach–posting copies of the PDF of the presentation in MyHeritage like an animal. Honestly, this approach might have been the best option based on the required effort. However, I wanted to have the satisfaction of using my personally designed tool and continue increasing my skills.

When winter break came and the fall semester ended, I picked the project back up. At first, I wanted to build a text-based user interface using the terminal. This approach felt too cumbersome, and it was hard to get the data. I wanted to make it quick and easy to post my slides. I opted for Shortcuts, and my final implementation was the most complicated workflow I have ever built. I have some actions in it that do some bash and python scripting, which I got a lot of help from ChatGPT on developing and problem solving. The following is the general flow of the Shortcut.

• Select a file (a PDF of a presentation) and convert each page to an image.
• Count the images and ask for input to share the content of the notes for each of the slides
• Confirm there are the same number of headings and images
• Make an ID code for the presentation
• Ask for data needed to build the presentation pages (e.g., title, description, date, tags, etc.)
• Take the converted images and sent them to ChatGPT’s API to generate alt text for each image (Jarrod Blundy’s post Generate Alt Text with OpenAI Vision Shortcut helped me build this)
• Resize images to thumbnail size and export the set of images to the appropriate folder
• Export the PDF renamed to the appropriate folder
• Build text pages for the presentation, embed, present, and slides
• Copy the embed code to include in our content mangagment system
• Open the newly created page so I can verify it worked

Each time I run the script and see it build my site, it makes me happy. I write all of my lecture notes in plain text/markdown and use Sublime Text 3. To try to remove some of the friction, I also created a script (with the help of ChatGPT) that copies the correct text needed to be processed by the shortcut (I also made a similar one for the emails I send out).

Eventually, I want to adapt the same design style to the rest of my website, maybe that will be my summer project this year. Based on the hours I spent creating this, an argument could be made that it wasn’t worth it, but it is something extra that I can do. It adds a high-quality learning material for my students, has increased my development skills, and gives me satisfaction so I am pleased that I have done it. It also has some qualities that are better for students. For example, the slides section now includes my notes and more in-depth content, especially because my slide design tends to be more minimalist. I like sharing the information into the world, and the pages have a lot of traffic that goes to them. It has led to people reaching out and making connections in the world.

Building My Now Page

While I couldn’t finish my presentation website in the fall, I built another entirely different website to provide a service to assist in collaboration. I am primarly based in Toppenish and spend one or two days there a week. It is also over an hour (in my head cannon I have to tell myself it is 1.5 hours so that I can make sure I get places on time). I have an office there, but I also have an office at our Tri-Cities Campus. I sometimes work from my home office or have appointments at agencies or other places. So I’m really all over the place. I have kept my general schedule as consistent as possible; it changes frequently based on my needs. I considered the Outlook Booking with Me Feature, but it doesn’t really give a way to share different locations (only remote or in the office) and I only share all the details of my calendar events with the faculty in my department.

My first thought, and still something I am highly likely to do, was to build an E-Ink display that I could display information on and update from anywhere. I kind of want to build my own, but a pre-created package like Trmnl would be pretty amazing. It is just that I need at least two of whatever I use. I like building my static Jekyll sites, and when your only tool is a hammer, you tend to use it, so that is what I did. I built a pretty simple website.

This website was much less onerous to build. I bought a domain a while back vsp.ink and had the tagline “A place for stuff to spill out from Jacob Campbell.” The VSP is a part of my name (you can see my contact page where I talk about it). I also really like having a website that is a total of six characters. I’m also using it for a few other purposes ³. While what I have created is not a traditional /Now page, I do like the idea of them and have thought about making my own for years. Most people use a now page to share general things they are working on, reading, doing etc. Think maybe in a couple of weeks or a month. Mine updates daily, but I might add a currently page that share more general things I’m doing.

The website takes data from weekly and daily notes to display my current day. I generally update the pages using Obsidian and a few plugins git and periodic notes. Each week I create a weekly note that just includes the week dates (to display on the now page) and frontmatter data for each day. In that frontmatter, I review my calendar for the week and add where I plan to be each day using the following temples:

🏡 Work from Home
🏫 Toppenish Campus
🏫 Kennewick Campus, 🌃🏫 CBC Campus
🫥 by appt only
🚘 Community Appts
🌃🏫 CBC Campus
🛩️ Traveling
🚑 Medical

I have a personal automation that runs each morning at six am to trigger the repo to build and deploy so that the date gets updated and removes the previous day from the now page. Then, each day, I try to add my schedule that day. I open up the note for the day in Obsidian. I often write a short description of what I’m doing that day in general. I have a shortcut that can make a markdown list of my calendar events. I edit anything that shouldn’t be posted publicly and type a few keyboard commands:

⌘P Git: stage current file
⌘P Git: commit staged files
⌘P Git: push

I just have to start typing each of those commands and click some quick returns, and a few minutes later, the website will rebuild with the new information. It is extra and beyond what anybody else does, but I like that I have it. My students look at it and plan talking to me or joining my office hours. Sometimes, I don’t update the daily note, but the weekly note still generally shows where I will be at for each day.

We can’t do the extra all of the time or for everything. But I think it is good for us to look towards what some of the extra is that we can do.

The A in ADEI: Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Permalink

Posted on Wednesday January 8, 2025 by Jacob Campbell.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2021) code of ethics defines six values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The ethical principle commissioning social workers to challenge injustice runs at the core of being a social worker.

Injustice and inequity are built into the very fabric of our institutions, policies, and culture. The history and impact of this goes beyond the scope of this short essay. The mandate for social workers to promote social change on behalf of oppressed and marginalized populations is at the heart of antiracist practice. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2022) educational policy and accreditation standards includes that social workers are to demonstrate, is to engage in anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) as their third competency.

Policies and practices related to DEI (e.g., only including diversity, equity, and inclusion) might be a more widely used acronym. On the national stage and in many states, the topic of DEI and the concept of critical race theory is considered by some a polarizing topic and there is a great deal of misinformation and rhetoric. I appreciate that social work went beyond espousing DEI to explicitly include a focus on our experience as social workers to combat oppression. In developing this newsletter, our facility determined that each issue we want to discuss the topic of ADEI.

Knowing the concept of anti-racism is not always included in the conversation, spending time defining what it means to be antiracist would be a helpful place to start. If you haven’t read Kendi’s (2023) book How to Be an Antiracist, I highly recommend it. I found his definitions helpful in framing what is racist or antiracist.

(Chapter 1 Definitions, para. 1)

Kendi defines racism and antiracism as a dichotomy. Either you are actively working against racism, or you aren’t (whether through action or inaction). He describes these titles as non-permanent, and they can be placed (like a peelable name tag) and changed based on what we are doing or not doing.

There is no middle ground or space for apathy. In our everyday actions are we doing things that promote racial equality? There is no space or place for apathy or inaction. As laws are passed or policies are implemented, this can be a measuring stick that we use to define whether it is working toward a more just and equitable future or not. Social workers can engage in antiracist work as we go about policy advocacy, clinical practice, community work, and social work in schools and everywhere we practice. How can you keep the antiracist sticker on?

Council on Social Work Education. (2022). 2022 EPAS: Educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs. https://www.cswe.org/accreditation/policies-process/2022epas/

Kendi, I. X. (2023). How to be an antiracist. One World.

Honoring My Mom an Award Called The Judith Dirks Award

Posted on Sunday October 29, 2023 by Jacob Campbell.

On Friday, Belinda, Arianna, and I got to join my mom’s table for Elijah Family Home’s (EFH) Eighth Annual Breakfast Benefit. I have always loved EFH and the work that they do. Over the years, I often have attended many of their events. My kids loved participating in the Amazing Egg Race several years ago. I’ve gone to a few of their fundraisers and their Christmas parties.

One year, I believe it was at their first Christmas party, I was asked to play Santa Claus.

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They have since found a much better Santa Clause.

They are a very worthy cause. Even if you didn’t go to their Benefit Breakfast, they are always accepting/needing donations. You can donate online. They have a good video talking about their Transition to Success Program and some testimonials on their YouTube - EFH, TTS Participant Testimonials November 2021.

My mom talked briefly about starting Elijah Family Homes and a few other organizations during Episode 6: The Right People at the Right Time. At the Breakfast this year, my mom got an award named after her called the “The Judith Dirks Award,” which is meant to be given to people who have shown outstanding service, sacrifice, initiative, and perseverance in the community and towards EFHs. She was the first award recipient, but in future years, it will be given to other worthy candidates.

I am so proud of her, and she is very deserving of having an award named after her. For many years I have wondered what will be carried on after I am dead and gone. I can only hope as I continue my path working in and serving the community, that I can make some of the similar types of impacts she has made.

Beaches, Parks, and Broken-Down Cars

Posted on Saturday July 8, 2023 by Jacob Campbell.

This trip, like most, has been a blur of activities, travels, laughs, and some tears. It will all be good memories. As I write this, I’m sitting on a bus, heading to Castaic to determine how to fix our 2014 Nissan Quest. We were coming into LA after going up and down through Tejon Pass. Going up, I got a little worried about our van but assumed it was fine. The headlights were flickering sometimes, and there were a couple of times that I didn’t feel like I had the power I thought I should have. There had been an excessive heat warning ⚠️ and I saw some cars on the side of the road, but we seemed alright.

Belinda and I were talking about our family friend who is also on a family road trip in Texas, and their car broke down. I kept worrying about our car and thought about what a coincidence it would be if something happened to us as well, but we seemed to be ok. We started to see the lights of the Greater Bay area in the distance, and the kids began to ask for one last bathroom stop, so we decided on Castaic and the Mobile Gas station for a pitstop. Pulling up to the stop sign after the exit, I tried to push on the gas, and nothing. When we got out to try to push, we couldn’t make the car move an inch up the slight hill. A couple of guys pulled over and helped push us to the top of the hill.

So we left our car in the gas station parking lot, packed up a few things, and tried getting a Lyft. It took forever to get one, as initially, we wanted a larger car to all go together. Even requesting two smaller cars, it seemed like nobody wanted to drive out of town to pick us up for a like ride into Santa Monica, but eventually, we ended up with two drivers to take us to our hotel.

Before, I get into more of what we have been up to the last couple of days in the city where the stars live (my Lyft driver told me he works in Hollywood, doing set design… maybe it is true that everybody in LA is trying to make it onto the silver screen), I’ll go back to our time in Crescent City.

We spent three nights in Crescent City. When I wrote The First Leg: Sand Dunes and Family Fun, we had been there a couple of days. A lot of this time was spent at the beach. I played with my Luna Sticks and tried to sleep. I also built sand castles with Arianna and hunted for purple shore crabs with Mateo, Alex, and Alexa. With Belinda, we tried to escape unscathed and from poison oak as we took a walk up a beautiful desert hill.

Because we were in the land of the coastal redwoods, we also had to make an excursion for a bit of hike through these massive trees. We didn’t end up going through any of the trees that you can drive through, but we took a little stroll on a trail along Prairie Creek. It was pretty, although getting the kids into hiking is hard.

While in Crescent City, we also visited Ocean World Aquarium for a guided tour and a sea lion show. It’s a nice place with lots of fun photo opportunities and cool stuff to see. You also can pet a shark.

Angel didn’t want to drive down with all of us and has taken over some for Belinda’s business while we have been gone, but he came and met us in San Francisco. Some poor planning a month ago; we planned for him to get to the airport in the morning, not considering the 6.5-hour drive we would have to make so we could pick him up from the airport and that we couldn’t check into the AirBnB. Driving through the redwood forest at 5 am is serene and beautiful.

I love San Francisco and have been lucky to come here quite a few times (see posts written here). There are a few cities over the years that I’ve been to and just really like the vibe and feel of the city and think if I was to move to a metropolitan, it is where I would go (my non-complete list includes Prague, Florence Italy, Portland Oregon, and back to Cusco Peru). I would add SF to that list.

I don’t know if I ever thought I’d say this because of my nerdy love of the company and their products, but while were there, I got tired of visiting the Apple Store. We went three different days. We ended up doing a slight phone musical chairs game and she was able to get a newish phone. On one of the visits, we got to sit in on a session learning to make our own emoji.

We went to China Town, which the kids all enjoyed and were grumpy with all the walking. We spent a day at Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 were we are a crawdad boil at Supreme Crab. The kids loved the Its Sugar store. We took a million photos at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Make sure to check out the photo album I link below for some of our posing with the stars.

One of the days after eating at Alice’s Restaurant, which was delicious, we walked back to our Airbnb. It was a quiet little community, full of their terraced houses. It was so pretty. We did laundry at a laundry mat, and because Angel was with us, Belinda and I got to go out by ourselves and dance.

Before we left The last morning, we explored the Golden Gate Park. It is a giant park often compared to Central Park in New York. It is the kind of place I think I could go to every day, and not get tired of being there. We didn’t see that much of it, but we rented a couple of Surrey Bikes. It was fun, but I must start biking again this summer because it killed my legs. After saying goodbyes to Angel, we started the trek to the city of angels.

The Fourth of July in LA was fun. We spent the day wandering around Venice Beach and watching the fireworks from the pier. Somebody fell off the peer right before the show started. Two lifeguards ran up and jumped in after them, which I assume saved the person’s life. Crazy.

Both after the fireworks and trying to get to Santa Monica from our broken down car, both took an epic amount of time to find drivers. Our kids now have experience waiting hours for Lyft cars. While waiting in a random alleyway a little from the beach, Arianna talked to almost everybody who passed by to wish them a Happy Fourth of July.

It’s taken me a couple of days to finish writing this up. We towed the van to an auto repair place. They said we would likely need a new transmission. Their expected cost is worth more than we still owe on the car, its value, or anything we could reasonably do (plus the at least week they said we’d have to wait). We towed the car about an hour away to where a friend of Belinda’s lives to get some second opinions and have time to figure things out and make a plan. We rented a car and extended our stay a few days to get the least expensive plane tickets to get everybody home. We will have to figure out what to do about the car further down the road.

Don’t be worried about us, and know that with travels always comes trouble. Change is constant, and life seems to be made up of big and small fires. Those happen not only when we are traveling but also at home. The first thing I will do, other than wish for a vacation from the vacation, is fix our irrigation system. Angel called me a couple of days ago, saying that the water wasn’t turning off for one of the lines, and I’m assuming I need to replace one of the pumps.

You can find photos for this trip at 2023 Family Road Trip - Beaches, Parks, and Broken-Down Cars. There are a lot of great shots of the kids in the wax museum and all the other cool activities we have been doing.

The First Leg: Sand Dunes and Family Fun

Posted on Wednesday June 28, 2023 by Jacob Campbell.

Every summer we end up going to oregon coast for a beach trip. I’ve written previously about how it has been a good routine every summer. This year we are taking two weeks and going to on a slow moving road trip to Las Angels. It’s funny how kids thing, that they are most excited about ended up in LA, seeing Hollywood, and that sort of thing. Arianna is sure that she will meet a director and has been developing a movie sales pitch for some sort of fancy director she is going to meet and tell how they need to do a reality TV show about our family. She has also been using the GoPro to record VLOG style videos rating activities we have been doing, with Alexander acting as the camera man. I’ll hopefully get to editing the footage at some point and make a video from it.

The first leg of our trip was to Coos Bay Oregon to which South Bend might actually be the larger city. I don’t believe I’ve ever been there before, but it was nice. We stayed in an AirBnB, Downtown Warm House Apartment. The house was ok. It had everything it said it did but a pretty bare-bones house. The trip down actually went pretty well. I even found an audiobook I could get the kids to listen to. I think we will finish it before we get to LA, but it is fun that the story’s hero’s are going to the same place as us.

On the trip down, we made a stop at In-and-Out Burger, so that the kids could order off of their not so secret menu.

The greasy fast food wasn’t enough junk for for lunch. The kids got so excited when we told them they could pick out their own TV dinners. I think they don’t ever get to have them and it just isn’t something we keep at our house they were super into it. The next morning, we made use of the amazing Dunes in the area. We ended up driving back up to Florence and using Sandland Adventures to go on a tour of Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, as well a go-cart ride. We road on a giant dune buggy with 20 other people. The scenery is gorgeous

The tour was good. I really liked the guide we had, as he gave interesting facts, information about the ecology, and giving suggestions about what to do if we came back with our own Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV). I was reminded of high school, the little Chevy S-10 pickup I had in high school, and all of the off-road driving I did in the Point and around the Tri-Cities. We didn’t end up going on the more intense and faster tours that they offer for a higher price, but we did get a couple of everybody squealing with excitement moments going down some of the larger dunes.

After lunch at the International C-Food Market Seafood Restaurant, we went to the Hobbit Trail for a short hike just down to the beach. We didn’t follow the route to the lighthouse but went straight down to the beach. After walking through a thicket, it is a beautiful reveal to walk out into a secluded beach where we played on some giant rocks looking for marine life.

We spent the next afternoon exploring a few of the national parks near Coos Bay, eating a packed lunch of sandwiches at some picnic tables overlooking the ocean at Cape Arago. Then we took a hike Shore Acres State Park along a cliff side. The kids were enammered watching some sea lions and seals laying around.

That evening we went and hung out at Mingus Park, wandering around until we were surprised by the local library holding a summer event. They brought a magician from Olympia, Jeff Evans, who put on a pretty great show. Both Mateo and Arianna ended up going on stage with him.

Yesterday we made our way to California and Crescent City. After the long travel day we just spent a little time going to the Beach, and I actually went and hung out at Sea Quake Brewing to do an online supervision session for a couple of MSW’s that are working on obtaining their LICSW with me. It made me think about how interesting it could be to do more remote work, although I still really love working in person with people. There is a big freedom to being able to work from anywhere.

I’m still not sure the best way to share an album of photos. I’ve added a bunch of photos to 2023 Summer Family Road Trip - The First Leg: Sand Dunes and Family Fun that you can check out.

Adding to the Ellipsis After My Name: Earning My Ph.D.

Posted on Monday June 19, 2023 by Jacob Campbell.

People that are around me, find out pretty quickly that I end up doing a lot (maybe even too much sometimes). There are a lot of things that are constantly in motion in my life. The end of the school year season is generally a hectic time. Having my two primary jobs¹ be in a school setting means that there is always a lot to do at this time. This year was super chaotic with finishing and finalizing my dissertation. My weekends and evenings are full not only of work, but of doing projects around my house. You would think that because I earned my doctoral degree, maybe I don’t have to work around my house, but I’m rebuilding a patio, which is a ton of hard work. It will look good afterward, and I’m looking forward to having some nice outdoor space to use.

Last month, on May 14th (yes, on Mother’s Day), I went to San Francisco for my commencement and to celebrate my graduation from CIIS Transformative Inquiry Department. Last weekend I had a second opportunity to wear my regalia as I attended the graduation ceremony at Pasco High School. Just Belinda and I went to San Francisco. It was a fun trip. We went a couple of days before the ceremony to go and do the tourist thing.

While we were in China Town, I probably should have looked at the Yelp Reviews for the Chinatown Restaurant, as it wasn’t delicious. I just got excited to sit on a balcony. We drank islandy drinks at the Pagan Idol Tiki Bar, which had many great little sections and super cool decorations. I also got to remember how much I miss being in vibrant cities as we relaxed in Washington Square Park and watching people talk, practice juggling, journaling, and all kinds of activities. We also ate some great Tapas at Cha Cha Cha and got to wander around Haight Asbury. We danced our hearts out at Temple Nightclub. Overall, It was a great precursor as we are bringing kids on a road trip with a plan for three nights in San Francisco this summer.

Attending my graduation meant I missed my Heritage University students’ commencement, but I am so glad I went. Not just to celebrate my accomplishment, but the ceremony was wonderful. Bayo Akomolafe was presented with an honorary doctoral degree and delivered our commencement address. His message about the shush we sometimes need to listen to find wisdom was deep and powerful.

If you are interested, you can watch a short highlight reel from the event that even includes CIIS’ 55th Commencement Highlights (2023) the lively promenade we took as we went from downtown with a full band. Dancing down the street to the after-celebration reminded me of the progressions I saw in South America.

They have also posted a full rendition of the commencement ceremony. You can find my dissertation title shared, my name called, and getting hooded starting at about one hour and 39 minutes into the video. There was also some great music shared by an a cappella group that got everybody in the stands up and dancing. Even watching the graduates walk across the stage, you can see how countercultural my university is. You can view CIIS’ 55th Commencement Ceremony 2023 (entire).

Earning my Ph.D. in Transformative Studies is the culmination of four years full of personal growth and the development of my scholarship. Like many laborious processes, I sometimes wanted to give up, and I had to find the motivation to keep going. I’m proud to say that of my cohort that I started with, I am the first to have completed my degree. For all of you out there, you can make it too!

I completed the oral defense of my dissertation back in March. I’ve published the slides to my website, which offers a good overview of my research. I also recorded and uploaded the presentation to my YouTube Channel.

It is about two hours long, with about 45 minutes of my presentation describing my research, the process, and my findings. Then were was time for deliberation and questions from observers and my committee. I’m proud of the work that I have done. It was at the end of this video that my chair was able to call me Dr. Campbell for the first time, but I still had a lot of writing to do before I could finalize and publish the actual dissertation. In the next couple of weeks, I will also receive a copy in book form.

Over the last couple of months, I have been going through a rewriting process (just before my defense, I was given feedback by my committee, and I included that in the presentation). I had to add and address that content in my final written dissertation. Then I went through a technical review, which had some back and forth, and finally published it. I have chosen to publish the dissertation under an open-access license. You can read my complete dissertation A Professional Learning Community for Developing Trauma-Informed Practices Using Participatory Action Methods: Transforming School Culture for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities. I would be honored for you to look it over. I hope to start a conversation in the K-12 education system about what content educators can and should discuss in their professional learning communities. I believe there is a need to talk about academics but also to talk about trauma-informed care and social-emotional learning.

When I redesigned my logo for my website to have the version with the ellipsis after my name, I knew that I would be earning my LICSW. Now I can also add the Ph.D. to the end of my name. I’m not sure what is next for me right now. For now, I will stay at the school district and want to start writing a workbook based on some of the material from my dissertation. For now, I’m happy to add a Ph.D. to the end of my name.