My Website has Been in Every State, Plus Two

Posted on Tuesday November 4, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

Checking out my Google Analytics this morning, I realized that my website has been visited by people in every state this previous month. It’s like I can travel around the country (really the world for that matter) every month. My Analytics US Map Overlay tells me that I’ve had visitors from 52 states. One of the extra is unspecified and the other is Washington DC. I thought thought that it was a pretty cool thought. Also, it’s pretty cool that I got 1,412 visits this month. That number is pretty constant too. Someday I will probably upload monthly reports so other people can follow my traffic.

Fervent Retreat

Posted on Monday November 3, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

Fervent Fall Retreat at Camp Tshimakain, Ford WA

This weekend was the Fervent Victory Faith’s college age group called Fervent retreat. It was awesome. Unfortunately I did not get to go up for the entire event. I worked on Friday until about 1am. I got up there Saturday and it was pretty awesome. As Joe would say “I got saved.”

It has been a long time since I’ve really felt connected with church or even some sort of community. The last couple of years, I’ve had a number of groups that I got to build relationship with, but this year it’s been pretty dry. I have some friends that I hang out with at Eastern, but not nearly as much as when I lived on campus, or even last year when I hung out in Cheney quite a bit. I also haven’t really been to the Spokane Dance Company since I stopped doing the instructor training program. I just really haven’t hung out with people all that much the last couple of months. When I was in Europe, I met tons of people… but friends you make while traveling are way different then people you know more in-depth.

Needless to say, getting to hang out with a bunch of people at Camp Tshimakain was a very good thing. Joe’s word regarding community (and building relationship last Fervent meeting for that matter) was powerful to me and what I needed to hear. God is so good that way, he always meets us right where we are.

Thank you for everybody I got to hang out with at the retreat, it was the first time I’ve really felt connected in quite a while. It’s been really dry and you are all an encouragement to me. I appreciate all of you so much.

You can check out the Fervent Retreat Album from the retreat. Some great shots of the polar bear swimmers. I also uploaded some videos, The Polar Bear Plunge and Around the World… Play and Record.

Who Knew Ordering Pizza Could be Cool

Posted on Tuesday October 28, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

The pizza tracking page on Domino’s

I got off work tonight, and was hungry. I don’t have any food in my house, and am in desperate need of going grocery shopping. For some reason, this didn’t sound like a good idea at almost midnight when I got home. I decided to order pizza. Looking up dominoes online, I found their order process super easy and kind of cool. I just had to enter information, and it placed my order. The confirmation page (see below) told me who began baking my pizza and when, and the same for putting it in the oven, boxing it up, and leaving for delivery. That’s pretty sweet. Probably more information than I need to know, but still very cool to know.

Now You Can Read What I’m Reading

Posted on Sunday October 26, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

One of the benefits of working in the afternoon is that I have time to take my mornings slowly. I tend to sit outside and and drink a cup of coffee and read the news most mornings now. I read my news from Google News. I have made several personalization to the news that I read, and thought you might be interested in checking them out. You’ll see that in the recommended for me section there is a lot of information regarding technology and the election. I tend to read these a lot. I also have a section that searches the news for all the stories that are connected to social work and related material. I also have Googles local news for my area code and an addition of local news that isn’t included in their searching (the Spokesman Review, and the Easterner my schools newspaper). I hope this is interesting for you.

Google Elections

Posted on Wednesday October 8, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

I must say that I am slightly biased as to which online products I like for various activities. I recently came across Google 2008 U.S. Elections. This has many different Google products that bring up various election features. One of these that I think is very cool is the Google Maps Elections ‘08 Map Gallery. One example of the maps that are available is Candidate Queries Map from Google, but their is a host of other ones listed in the gallery.

Things Lost on the Trip

Posted on Tuesday October 7, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

This Cartoon was taken from the blog Good Deed A Day . It features a Lost and Found Booth with boxes of various human feelings. While on my trip I didn’t loose my feelings, I felt it was a good picture to use.

During my trip I lost, broke, or other crazy events happened. The following is a list of all the things big and small.

• I didn’t get stickers for my water bottle (the one souvenir that i got from every where I went) in Denmark and the Czech Republic.
• In Berlin, before we even left for our second city… I forgot my favorite hoodie at the bus station. I must say that while in the US I’ve had people offer to buy this hoodie off of me while at coffee shops… maybe I should have taken them up on the offer.
• I lost my time. I bought post cards to sent to friends and family in Prague… but never sent them off. I actually thew them away when I got to the US, even though I filled them out.
• In preparation of flying, I sold my tent for €10.00 (about $13.48800)… probably worth at least $100.
• Vienna was the first country that we decided to fly from… well actually Bratislava. I threw away a number of other camping gear, rain gear, and several sets of cloths (leaving me with 2 shorts, 1 pants and a bunch of shirts and other stuff) at the airport.
• In Barcelona, we lost an airplane ticket… we though we were staying an extra day.
• I also tore one of my shorts, leaving me with 1 pair of shorts and 1 pair of pants.
• Due to my computer breaking (see later item in list) I lost many of my pictures of Rome and Bergemo.
• In Lativa, I broke my computer (or maybe the hostel I was staying at… not exactly sure). Luckily I was able to purchase an accidental protection plan when I got home. This still cost me close to $400, and made be very broke!
• In Riga, I told a friend that I would get him a souvenir. The shops closed before I made it there, and I didn’t get him the one I wanted to (cool leather covered liquor bottle).
• Somebody stole my €10.00 plastic watch that I bought because I was tired of never knowing what time it was and being late for check out time.

• In Krakow I tore my only pair of pants beyond repair… leaving me with one pair of pants. Also, my flip flops broke forcing me to walk in the rain with my right foot continually falling out of the thong.

• I also did cosmetic damage to the second watch that I purchased in Warsaw… due to losing the first one.
• In Budapest, we missed another plane, and I think I got bit by bed bugs.
• In London, I lost a cool zippo lighter that I bought in the Czech Republic.
• I bought a map that my “Lets Go Western Europe” suggested and realized it was worthless, so I traded it for a much cheaper better one.
• The button on my last pair of shorts broke, almost leaving me pants less while going though airport security.
• I lost Trevor in Europe, he decided not to come back with me and is currently in Spain.
• After getting home to Seattle, I lost my cell phone in a taxi.
• I got home, and my computer was broken, I lost my cell phone so I felt very disconnected from life… and realized that somebody stole my bike.
• Finally I lost my financial security. I’ve gone back to donating plasma (first time today in a long time), haven’t bought groceries and am hoping to get paid before my rent is due… other wise I’ll have to figure out something quick

Although that is quite a list of lost items, I wouldn’t trade my trip experience for any of it or all of it. It was a truly amazing trip. I really could have made a longer list of all the things I got from the trip, but thought that this was a bit funnier. When / if you have traveled, have you lost, broke or done something else to your stuff.

My bike chain cut on my porch.

The Way Home

Posted on Tuesday September 23, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

Currently I am sitting in the Airport at Heathrow in London… and absolutely huge airport. But to catch you up on events, I have about 18 minutes until it’s time to go and catch a plane home. So this post might be trying to fit a lot in, with a very short time.

Krakow, Auschwitz, and More Rain

I loved Krakow, except for all of the rain. All of my clothes where dirty (also, sorry about any spelling mistakes in this post… the computer I’m using has some stupid browser, so I can’t do much) so I wondered around in shorts and flip flops in the cold rainy days in Poland. I finally broke down and bought a new pair of pants too from the local mall. The last day that we were in Krakow we made a expedition to Auschwitz.

I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. years ago with the Master’s Commission. It was probably one of the most impactful places that I’ve ever been. It was really quite a different experience to actually walk on the ground where so many people were murdered. We also went to Birkkenau, where all of the crematoriums were. The whole place just had an airy sad feeling to it.

Budapest and Spa’s at 2am

Budapest is one of the few cities that I’ve been to that I really could see myself living in. I would highly recommend if you are making a Europe trip to go to Budapest (and lots of Eastern Europe). There are lots of great sites to go and see. We saw a church built into a rock cave (cave church), climbed a hill with a spectacular view of the city and cool little shops. There are many different Thermal springs in Budapest, and we went to one and stayed there late into the night. Really it was such a great place, that we ended up staying longer than we planned and buying a second plane ticket.

When traveling it is a great idea to be very through when making travel arrangements. For example if you buy a ticket going to the airport, you should know if it is the only stop or not. We ended up going to a town in the country of Hungary instead of the airport. We met the nicest young couple home for the weekend from University. They took us to their parents house, made food for us, drove us to the train station and even waited for the train to leave us. They were an amazingly hospitable family and was a great experience.

London only for Three Days

London is a huge, world class city. It took almost 2 hours to get from one side to the other through the underground. The sites were beautiful. I will upload pictures when I get home. We took a free walking tour which was interesting and the Australian leading it was hilarious. It was a great stay, but way to short. London really needs at least a week to do it any justice, but I was glad for the three nights.

I stand here now, needing to leave for my plane (I don’t want to miss this one, it wouldn’t be a good idea). I am sad to know that I’m going to be stopping traveling, but happy to come home and see friends and family. I hope to see all of you soon.

What Major Events Make Up My Life

Posted on Monday September 15, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.

2Pac feat. Nate Dogg - How Long Will They Mourn Me?

Still a bit sick, but I slept in very late and probably wondering around in on a cold rainy day isn’t the best idea. I really didn’t want to stay sick all day, so I figured I would just tough though it. After sleeping in late, I made my way to Wawel Castle and the Cathedral that is their. It is very beautiful, and houses the kripts for many influential people from Poland. Listening to my audio guide I was struck by how many of them had so many scenes depicting their lives. On their caskets, it showed the major events that transpired in their lives. It got me to thinking about what at the end of my life might go on my casket or what I would want to be remembered by. Above is a song by Tupac, “How long will they mourn me.” It also made me think about this. Anyways, just a thought. Also, be advised that the song has a lot of explicit lyrics.