Field Report #042

We're still rolling.

I'm close to wrapping up Day 25 of a really solid stretch with Psalms and Entertainment.

I keep working on a post summarizing the breakthrough that helped me get here, but I don't want to finish it until I hit something more obviously out-of-the-ordinary for me, like 60 days. 22 was my previous best, so we are still in the ballpark of what has been done before. Once I've really had time to flesh this out and let it go through a few more ups and downs, I will make that post.

Physical fitness has suffered as I push to finish my workspace and Psalms this summer. We will still try for a 10K under 43:30 before August 12th, but it will be off of (at best) 20 days of training at this point. 

Psalm 143 is still the hidden blade, still the key. I'm running to the Psalms all the time, and that actually means running at the problem with God at my side, instead of escaping stress altogether. 

The Psalter is the very best medicine for the soul.

Where the soul is healed, the mind is at peace.

Where the soul is healed and the mind at peace, the body takes up good action.

My Top 7 Favorite Board Games

A good board game with good people can be a blast. For this Top-7 list, I'm counting down from 7 to 1 and only including games that are played on a board. Some of the games involve building your own board to some extent, while others have a more established playing field. I've excluded games that are really more card and dice games, such as Skull and and the Catan dice game.

Enjoy!

7. Monopoly

Monopoly really works on a fundamental level. It's fun to buy properties, take risks, save up money, and rake in the big bucks through houses and hotels. A game with a good mix of luck and strategy, Monopoly has such good staying power because it's an engaging and entertaining board game.

6. Heroscape

Heroscape would have taken the top spot on my list for a long time, and it still remains one of my favorite games. It's incredible cool to have total freedom in literally building a physical battlefield, and then fighting on it with beautifully painted and well-thought-out characters. This discontinued game didn't have the staying power financially, but retains a significant following among geeks everywhere.

5. Pandemic

One of the new era of 21st century games, Pandemic set the standard for cooperative gaming, just as Catan (coming soon) set the standard for "Euro games". Pandemic is extremely engaging and challenging (at least for me), with a fun premise executed beautifully. It's satisfying to try to find the most efficient moves, and see swathes of cubes wiped off the board, just as it's terrifying to see a double outbreak shatter your best-laid plans.

4. Chess

The oldest, the purest, and the most challenging. There's a reason that millions of people still play, learn, and study chess worldwide. This is one of those rare games where the element of chance is all but removed, and two minds must strain against one another on an equal playing field. I would probably rank it higher if I was any good at it.

3. Parks

Here's one you may not have heard of, but absolutely should try out. This game brings together fun and engaging gameplay with an absolutely beautiful artistic design, from the box itself down to each individual card. Parks spares no expense in creating a truly marvelous gameplay experience as players hike along the trail, visiting national parks, taking pictures, collecting items, and collecting resources along the way.

2. Risk

The original game of world domination. Risk is very well-known at this point, but had its beginning decades ago as a unique and unusual board game experience. The game, with some evolution, is still alive and well today, because who doesn't want to take over the world? The sense of possibility in the opening stages, the heartbreaking losses and epic victories, so many aspects of the Risk experience shine. This is a truly engrossing and classic game that evokes memories of last stands in Madagascar and pivotal battles for Venezuela. It has weaknesses in game mechanics compared to some modern games, but is still offers a fun time, every time. I always want to play Risk - the only problem is finding people who love the game as much as I do!

1. The Settlers of Catan

This one has become a modern classic. Despite the avalanche of strategic Euro games surging forward in its wake, Catan leads the way. The base game is just so fundamentally well-designed, with the resource system, changeable board, and combination of luck with layers of strategy. The expansions are excellent, with the two that I've used (Seafarers and Cities and Knights) really enriching the game and adding new strategic dimensions to keep things fresh and fun. With these two expansions, a nice big board, a compelling scenario such as discovery of new land, and 3 or 4 experienced players, no board game I've tried yet can compete. I never say no to a game of Settlers of Catan.

Field Report #041

 

Good morning!

I once made a brief devotional order called "Pocketknife". Here it is:

+ I am baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37b, 39)

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:15, 18)

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:9-12)

I am baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4) 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

+ I am baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The idea was to repeat this set of passages and words throughout the day, and thereby keep my heart and mind steadfast on the Word of God and his commands.

It was a good and well-founded idea in theory, but ineffective in practice. I had almost no interest in pulling out this paper and reading through the various passage snippets after just a day or two of trying.

But now I've found something that actually works for me: taking a single Psalm that I need to hear and pray, and using it as my "hidden blade" against the devil throughout the day. I won't get too deep into it yet because I am so early in using this method, but I hope to write about it more fully after it has really run the gauntlet of a few weeks' use. But with 6 days down and counting, it has been stunningly effective.

My Hidden Blade is Psalm 143.

The Psalm Grid - How to Pray the Psalms Daily

 

I'd like to share with you the method that I use to pray the Psalms throughout the day.

Tracking and quantifying prayers is not the ideal way to operate. God would have us pray without ceasing. We should fly to prayer in every time of trouble, without prompting or encouragement from some goal-setting apparatus. Yet while the spirit indeed is willing, the flesh is weak, and I have found this strategy to be very helpful to refocus my day on the Psalms and remain consistent with the practice.

This particular method is what works really well for me, but it likely will not be quite the same for you. Consider incorporating some of these ideas into your own reading and prayers, and modify them to suit your needs.

Step 1 - Get a Pocket Notebook

I recommend Log and Jotter (logandjotter.com) and the Sharpie S-Gel 0.5mm pen. Log and Jotter allows you to choose your interior paper ruling, and I have always liked graph paper the best. However, a dot grid will also work fine for this method. Pocket notebooks (which I have written about previously) are my home base for all kinds of note-taking and journaling throughout the day, and the Psalm grid is typically the first thing I set up each day.

Start each day at the top of a clean page, labelling the date and day of the week. Now you're ready to make your grid.

Step 2 - Set up your grid

Choose how many Psalms you would like to pray each day. I started out with 10, then did 12 for a while, then 15, then 24. 12 offers a great balance in terms of time commitment, and it took me a solid two years to get any level of consistency with that. 

Lay out your grid to contain twice as many squares as the number of Psalms you will pray. This allows you to take two squares to write the number of each Psalm. For example, I make a 4x12 grid, with four rows each holding 6 Psalms. Each Psalm takes up two squares (horizontally). For a long time I made a 2x12 grid.

Every time you pray a Psalm throughout the day, you will mark that Psalm's number in your grid. But which Psalms will you pray?

Step 3 - Choose a plan

We live in a time and place blessed with endless Bible reading and prayer plans. It will take trial and error to figure out which one works best for you. My Psalm plan has four facets:

Pray through the Psalms in 30 days. This takes up a few of my Psalms each day, and it's a great way to give you the wide exposure through the whole book on a recurring basis. Plans are readily available online. I use a  modified version (see left) of the plan in CPH's Treasury of Daily Prayer.

Memorize. I typically work on 1-2 Psalms for memorization at any given time. For example, when I was working on Psalm 7, there was a week or two when I would have Psalm 7 show up in my grid at least three times a day.

Sons of Solomon. This is an ecumenical prayer habitus for sons of God that centers around the Psalms and Proverbs. We aim to pray Psalms 123-131 at various times of the day. They are nice and short, good for quick breaks or transitional times, as well as morning and evening prayer

Miscellaneous. Sometimes I want to hit an old favorite. Sometimes I'm curious about a Psalm I used to know better. Sometimes I've found a Psalm particularly helpful for me during a season of life.

My Psalm grid is filled with a mixture of these four elements every day. My Dad just picks a new Psalm and sticks with it throughout each day. Find routines that work for you! I track which day I'm on in the 30-day plan at the top of each notebook page, and which Psalms are assigned for that day.

Step 4 - Pray the Psalms

This is what it's all about, and it's easy to get caught up in the planning portion. Try not to overthink your plan; instead, focus on actually spending more time praying the Psalms.

Use every opportunity you have to pray a Psalm. Commutes, morning and evening quiet time, work breaks, and family devotions are all good places to get into this habit. You'll be amazed at how often you can refocus on God's Word and sanctify your work, when you are looking for opportunities to do so. 

I have found that reading or singing the Psalms aloud is much more effective at engaging the mind and heart than trying to read them silently. In situations where noise is inappropriate, even a whisper is better than nothing. Keep a Psalter of some kind with you as often as possible, and call often on your memory bank of Psalms as you build it up. My tool of choice is the Gideons ESV Pocket Testament, supplemented by a nicer ESV leather edition of the Psalms when I'm not on the go.

Step 5 - Do it again, and be consistent

This is the hardest part, and God-willing I will write another post soon on how I tackle this part of the puzzle. But remember, the more Psalms you pray, the more Psalms you will want to pray. Just get going each day; the most important thing is to start with something - it doesn't matter so much what precisely it is. When you're in the Psalms, or anywhere in Scripture, God is watering you like the rain that falls down from heaven.

Plant yourself by the streams of water - plant yourself in the Word of the Lord.

Update - February 2024

Since this has become the most-viewed post on the blog, and I have some updates and thoughts related to this post, I figured I'd add it here instead of writing a separate entry.

First, I left off in the summer with the intention of writing more about that ever-elusive Step 5. I have improved since then with the consistency, but not to the extent that I feel comfortable writing about it yet.

Second, some personal updates on my Psalm practice. I continue to pray 24 Psalms a day. I tried 30 for a while, and it worked to some extent but was probably a touch beyond my sweet spot, and also numerically less clear and satisfying, as there are not 30 hours in a day. I love doing the 24-Psalm schedule, and comparing my number of completed Psalms to the (military) time of day to see if I'm on track to finish. Also, just recently, I've begun going through the Psalms every 21 days as part of the 24 daily Psalms. I was doing every 30 days since summertime, but I'd like to really make steady progress on memorization and this seems like the clearest way to do it. 

Third, some changes adjacent to the Psalms. In lieu of piling on more total daily Psalms, I now supplement the 24 with four daily readings: The Ten Commandments (meditating on each in prayer), The Nicene Creed, The Lord's Prayer (Trying to Pray about each petition), and a weekly reading that changes for each day of the week, but stays the same from week to week. This is how I fill out my Bible exposure with Old Testament history (1 Kings 18) and prophecy (Isaiah 52-53), as well as the four Gospels (Matthew 28, Mark 15, Luke 12, John 6), and the epistles (Romans 6). These seven readings are assigned and repeated on the seven days of the week, with the goal of learning them by heart along with the Psalms. I try to read more widely than this in Scripture, but with the above structure, I'm at least hitting a wide variety of good stuff every week, while repeating so much of the really good stuff. I also switched from the Gideons back to the pocket LSB, slicing and inserting the above Bible passages and some other resources into its pages. I've missed having the hymns along with me, and now that is remedied.

I think that's all we'll add for now. Like I mentioned at the top of the original post, pull what works for you and start doing it - don't worry so much about the minutiae of your plan; those things should fall into place as you go. This is meant as a guideline or example on one method that works for one person, from which you may glean instruction or inspiration for your own time spent in the Word of God and prayer. 

Lord-willing, I will add another update in April with some helpful information about staying consistent in the Psalms and overcoming the various distractions of the devil, the world, and the flesh by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Log and Jotter - My #1 Pocket Notebook

 

"It's hard to put my finger on it, but there's something viscerally satisfying about the entire Log and Jotter notebook experience, with all elements of the product design coming together to deliver on a helpful, effective, and beautiful pocket notebook." 

Introductory Musings

I'm not going to waste time digging through my archives to give you the specific numbers just now. We'll stick with estimates: I've used pocket notebooks nearly every day for the last two and a half years. I have one in my pocket constantly. I once had a YouTube channel dedicated to pocket notebook reviews. I've filled up over forty of these guys, and I am at the point where I know very well what I like and dislike in a notebook. On top of that, I've explored a variety of brands, including homemade notebooks, Field Notes, Rite in the Rain, Walmart, and more. 

So hear me now: Log and Jotter notebooks are my favorite.

It all started in July of 2022, when Field Notes went woke (that is to say, they publicly proclaimed their support for the systemic slaughter of unborn babies). I was left scrambling for options, with Field Notes having been my brand of choice for almost two years. Thankfully I had a small reserve in stock, but could not bring myself to give my money to an organization that might be using it to help commit unspeakable atrocities. 

This of course opens up a whole other can of worms in terms of where we spend our money. It's almost impossible to take a stand everywhere, but this is one company that was more personal to me than most, one that bothered my conscience more significantly when it made it made its pronouncement.

Rite in the Rain has run out of offerings for me - they simply don't offer the style of notebook that works for me. Moleskine had one that looked promising (and is probably solid) but I wanted to stick with USA products if I could. Numerous other smaller brands had various issues that made them incompatible with my style of note-taking.

That left me with Log and Jotter - a brand that I had tried just once before, with underwhelming results. My single notebook had arrived a little bent in its envelope, unimpressively adorned with a dull illustration of a bass jumping out of the water. I used it eventually and had no issues with the performance, but the bent arrival and disappointing visuals were enough for me to stick with Field Notes. 

Now, it was time to give it another go.

Log and Jotter Overview

I have now received three new Log and Jotter monthly shipments (Birthday present!) and every single one has been a winner. So far I have filled up one and a half of them of them - the May 2023 edition, which features an awesome train illustration that my son and I both love, and half of April 2023 (a rodeo) before it was mangled by exposure to a thunderstorm. The notebook I just started is June 2023 (an old-time lantern) and it's doing great so far. My bent shipment must have been a fluke, because I haven't had any quality control issues so far. But I've realized that the other fluke was the artwork - these things look great, and I love the classic aesthetic that these notebooks like to stick to. 

Not only that, but now I've realized that the functionality of Log and Jotter is in fact superior to Field Notes. 

Functionality

Let's start with the paper type - what a genius idea: You choose! No more hoping the quarterly subscription uses the right paper - I get my graph every time. Like I said, I know what I need and what I like in a pocket notebook. The graph paper is a huge Rhythm of the Sword tool for me, as it allows me to very quickly and neatly set up my grid of Psalms for the day. It takes the guesswork and disappointment out of the Field Notes rat race.

Visuals

Next up is the visuals. Log and Jotter produces some great artwork in their notebooks. I've been happy with all three of mine since resubscribing - some recurring themes are the outdoors, classic vintage looks, and their motto: "Make a Story, Tell a Story". They are the kind of notebook that feel more fun to use because of their quality and appearance.

Details

Finally, the details. Log and Jotter has their own spin on the personal contact / record-keeping page, which I like better than the Field Notes version. It's functional and fun, and does not have the now-obligatory gender pandering. The pages are numbered which is such a great little feature. The ruling doesn't quite go to the edge of your page, helping to keep things neat for me as it discourages cramming in to totally fill up a line. I like their little blurb in the back of each notebook about what they want to get across with each one. 

The one detail that really worked for me (and maybe wouldn't matter so much for you) is the size of the grid. It's just a very slightly larger grid than Field Notes graph paper, and it's absolutely perfect for me. Field Notes is too small for my handwriting, Rite in the Rain is too big and your charts can't get as detailed but Log and Jotter gets it just right. Thank you!

Spine durability was often my main issue with other pocket notebooks, but Log and Jotter is thriving here, as well! I haven't had any of my spines wear out, even after close to a month of regular usage. Their paper choice, while nominally still (I believe) 100#C paper, uses a type of paper that gives you a little more longevity.

Other Thoughts

To be honest, I'd love to upgrade my monthly shipment from one to two notebooks, but I am not in dire notebook need at the moment, and I'm already dropping $60 a year on these guys. Their two-notebook option gives you an additional, simpler design complementing the main one each month. And it's not double the basic $5.00 deal, but $8.50 instead.

I should also mention that they are 40, not 48 pages, which is slightly worse value but hasn't been a problem. In summary, the folks at Log and Jotter really have a quality, well-thought-out product on their hands.

Weaknesses

The only issue that I'm running into at this point is their 2-staple construction, as opposed to 3-staple. I've found that it can cause the cover to bubble a bit in the middle, leading to awkward creases when you try to open in up and press it flat. It takes a little fiddling to figure out how to deal with this and keep the notebook looking good and clean. I also mentioned the thunderstorm experience - these notebooks are not waterproof or water resistant in any way. They don't advertise as such, but it is good to keep in mind.

Summary

I would not be at all surprised if my total number of Log and Jotters used ended up passing all my other filled-up pocket notebooks, put together. As long as their company keeps doing what they do, and I am still able to afford it, I don't see any reason to part ways. It's hard to put my finger on it, but there's something viscerally satisfying about the entire Log and Jotter notebook experience, with all elements of the product design coming together to deliver on a helpful, effective, and beautiful pocket notebook. Thanks for making these simple tools that are so helpful for me! I hope that, after many years, they tell a story from me that my children and grandchildren can occasionally glance at when they are feeling extremely bored ;)

Log and Jotter Notebook Score: 9.5/10

UPDATE - 2/26/24

I continue to love Log and Jotter notebooks, and have now filled up closet to a dozen. No quality control issues, great designs, excellent performance. I stand by the 9.5/10. Having completed one year of subscribing, I will continue with another.