John Chandler

Tonto Natural Bridge with my son today. Struggling to imagine any place in Arizona that could be better than this.

Have all sorts of sentimental feelings pushing me to start loading notes in to Bear 2. I suppose if it would have released 2 years ago I would have given it a hard look, but I’m (happily) in too deep with Obsidian to consider it at this point.

Consortio Dei #25 - Cindy Lee

Thankful to have this conversation with her after reading her book, Our Unforming. It is one of the most helpful books on spiritual formation that I’ve ready in the past several years. 

The Aeropress recipe below appeared on my old blog in 2014. It’s since been archived, but still comes up from time to time in conversation and search traffic. So… here it is again, slightly adapted for these more more modern and complex times.

• Start heating just over a cup of water to boiling.
• While the water heats, measure 15 grams of whole beans. I’m mostly stuck in a rut of whatever the latest roast of natural process beans I can find locally from Peixoto. It’s a good rut to be in.
• While the water heats, the beans are ground right below the middle setting on my burr grinder — in my case, it’s a little finer than drip coffee setting.
• The freshly ground beans are dumped in an inverted aeropress on the scale, which should then be zero’d out. If you’re not familiar, this means the plunger is in the aeropress but pulled out as far as it will. The aeropress is, you know, inverted so that the plunger is on the bottom and receptacle faces up so that the filter can be attached on top.
• Put a paper filter in the top and wet it with that water that is surely boiling by now. And be quick about it because those already ground beans are losing flavor by the microsecond.
• Set a timer for 1:15 and start it. Pour 250 grams of water into the aeropress taking care to wet all the beans.
• Attach the filtered cap and turn the whole thing over on top of a cup. No need to stir. The pour, plus the act of turning the aeropress over gives the beans the right amount of agitation. (Many would slight me here for not preheating the cup, but I think I prefer the coffee to start cooling the second it hits the ceramic.)
• When the timer goes off, press it all out. I don’t time my press, but I give it gentle force, taking about 20 or seconds to press it out. And stop pressing when is starts to pfffft.
• Well done, you! Enjoy your lovely beverage. If applicable, brag to your children about it and soak in their admiration of your expert coffee brewing skills.

‘Follow worthy’ is the new ‘sponge worthy’

First play of Trailblazer. 🎲 Pairs well with Lord Huron. 🎵

More TV shows like The Bear please. 📺

Stopped reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 📚

I don’t often quit on books in the middle but I did with this one. The prose is great, and it seems like mixing historical fiction and magical realism would interest me, but I just couldn’t stay engaged.

Finished reading: Surrender to Love by David G. Benner 📚

So good. Short and ‘simple’, but also beautiful and deep. This book reflects a core understanding of Christianity that seems to be lost or neglected in many of the conversations that Christianity (in North America) keeps getting inserted into.

Finished reading: A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan 📚

This one was rough to read. The history classes of my youth of course included the Klan, but certainly didn’t cover how widespread their prominence was beyond the South.

Finished reading: Our Unforming by Cindy S. Lee 📚

This is one of the most helpful and important books I’ve read in the last few years. I will be recommending it often, I expect.

We have a 12" MacBook around the house that I often pick up for some lightweight work. It still runs well, and I wish Apple would revisit something small like this with the new Apple silicon chips.

Consortio Dei #24 - Doug Moister

Sometimes, having a podcast is just an excuse to ‘hang out’ with people you really like.

I’m torn on the promise, and premise, of the Apple Vision Pro.

I meet with others for spiritual direction via Zoom a handful of times every week – I would have thought it a barrier, but it offers a better sense of connection than I would have expected.

To use something like Vision Pro for a more immersive experience of a one on one meeting seems appealing. But to be represented by some digitized version of myself, or see someone else that way… that’s not appealing at all.

I suppose a future solution might be an actual capture of someone’s face with the goggles digitally removed, but that still feels too impersonal and inauthentic.

But if I could use them someday to sit in my cozy reading chair while coding with multiple large app windows floating before me? That’s appealing.

Finished reading: Wrestling with God by Ronald Rolheiser 📚

Every time I read Rolheiser, I hope that he will be more widely read by others. And by me.

Trellis: The Prompts Folder

It’s easier to write about something when you always have something to write about. ✍️

MacOS 13.4 has been very unstable for me. Anyone else been experiencing this?

Following along in the spirit of Micro Monday…

Lived:

• California
• Colorado
• California (again)
• Arizona
• Washington
• Texas
• Arizona (again)

States I’ve Visited:

• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhodesia Island
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Countries I’ve Visited:

• Dominican Republic
• England
• Germany
• Haiti
• India
• Jamaica
• Japan (but just the Tokyo airport, so…)
• Mexico
• Nepal
• Panama
• Philippines
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Ukraine

So Darn Close:

• Hong Kong (bit of a story, but plane aborted landing at about 200 feet and then continued on to Seoul)

Landscaping finally going in soon, so hopefully this is the last time I grill while standing on dirt.

I like exploring different regions and processes and such with my coffee, but if I were marooned with a shipload of this, I’d be content. ☕️