happy thanksgiving

well we made it here and are now hanging out with the whole family. everyone is good. our nephew, braden, is getting big and in a few, we will be too. turkey is almost ready.
lots of football and lots of video games to come i am sure. hope you all (or both of you) are having a great day. peace

future notes

just a quickie. what do you want for christmas. i know many of us are too old for some of that stuff, but it is still working for me thankfully. i think i am gonna add a dell digital dj20 to my list. let me hear from you.

traveling

thanks again to ben dudley for a great picture and he asks the correct question, where's the turkey.
actually i think w would be a great guy to hang out with and i would love to meet him someday, but his leadersihp is sometimes different. at least he is a fun guy.

how all 3 of you who read this will have a great turkey day. the aho family will rendesvoux in orlando at braden's house, just seconds past the gate to disney. we dont go there when we are there, we just make fun of the tourists. like we are not them.
the aho family will be pulling for the packers and the dolphins this weekend. we are members of the anti-cowboy faction if it still exists and we are also all haters of the lions, though mooch is a northern michigan graduate. we like him, hope he succeeds, but not the lions. not sure how that all works out.

really i am tired of school right now too. i wrote a paper today and it stinks. it is good ideas but doesnt flow well and just want it overwith. i have one more to write, but am still more interested in reading right now. this week it is a Quiet Revolution by John perkins, Freebird by Greg Garrett, and soon it will be Philosophical Fragments by Kierkegaard.
peace
aho

weekend

i also thought i would update everyone on the weekend at the ahos.
we at at a cool mongloian buffet stirfry place on friday night with our downstairs neighbors. they are cool, and good company. it was the first time we all (all 4 of us, chris natalie john jenny) hung out together and it was good. he is in a band, revelation darling, and they are playing some right now with maroon 5. i hope for them that they make it. jenny is a state student and vet tech. both are good people and we look forward to hanging again with them.

saturday was the parade (see faikin for aiken). then i watched some football: congrats to michigan, duke. dinner at california pizza kitchen and then the matrix revolutions. dinner is always good there.

about the movie, i am not sure what to think. i am not a big action guy, i like the storylines, intellectual stuff, more that the kungfu stuff. i am a dork. therefore i was not as impressed with this one. action was all guns. storyline was fine but didnt go anywhere. 20 minutes of story, 2 hours of movie. i also have decided that things are much cooler in the matrix. cool clothes, cool moves, cool colors and much other stuff. the spaceship thing is kinda wierd to me.

sunday, church all day, but it was a good day. it is always good to eat with the youth as we had our annual lovefeast before thanksgiving. i stole the name from many different people, but it is one of their favorite things to do.
no more thoughts for now.

florida bound on wednesday. go duke basketball, hurricanes hockey, dolphins and packers on thursday.
out

faiken for aiken

the last four years, i have been a regular attender of the Raleigh Christmas Parade. this parade is definitely the grandaddy of all of the local parades, and a preview of what is to come at the local parades in places like knightdale, rolesville, zebulon, etc... its not very exciting for me, but the kids we take enjoy it and it is one of the few times each year that i would ever eat krispy kreme and tacobell on the same day. im not sure if it is good or bad to eat these things together. you tell me.

but this year, our experience was quite different. instead of the modest crowd of usual parade goers, we had a bunch of fake parade lovers due to the appearance of CLAY AIKEN. he was the grand master or ringleader, or what ever you call a parade leader. everyone came to watch this guy ride in a convertable down the street. he didnt sing, shake his hips, or wear cool shoes. he just sat and waved and the females loved it.

I say females becuase it is females, not just little girls. i witnessed more than one 30something woman, pretneding to be 19, infatuated with clay. they were all bummed that starbucks was not a vendor at the parade and they had to settle for bottled water and diet pepsi from the fat lusty hot dog vendor (who is not a regular attender either).

The litte girls loved it, so did the big little girls, and our kids paid no attention. 20 rows back, the girls resorted to handjive on the picnic blankets and the boys found some friends to play football with. the adults satirically watched, talked about old times, thier parade days, and friends they knew at the parade and their children in the parade. all in all, it was an enjoyable experience but what is the deal with clay?

Have you heard this guy's song? i was on board as a supporter of the local guy when he was on that show last year. and, i am impressed that though losing, he is now more popular that rueben, kelly, or justin. but, really, does this guy have a stopwatch on his 15 minutes? did someone accidentally push pause on the ticker? I dont know.

But what troubles me more is the song: invisible. have you heard it? "if i was invisible i could just watch you in your room?..." i could have all my dreams... "oh wait, i already am [invisible]. " This is wierd, and the little girls love it, so do their moms, and so do the women. the song is very close to peeping tomish, and something we should have listened to before we sold it to children.

well, thats that. i am ok with clay, but the song is really troubling. heres to clay: the next song, hopefully more wholesome, and his fifteen minutes lasting for a while. he is a good guy i hear and local, which is good.
thats all for now. let me know what you think

peace
chris

update

the haricut went fine today. topics of conversation were: european music awards, bad hair bands, why even watch awards shows, and again- purple kool-aide. the dude is too into the crazy, burnt out, off the wall, religious groups. he did talk about some buddhist monks too, but i dont really care too much about that stuff. i know some of the stuff they do is great and very spiritual, but there are too many different underlying convictions.

i was also thinking about blogging and all that this entials. really, right now, it is one sided conversation. i tell you what is up with me. that cool for you, but, it is not very community oriented. so, i think it is imperative that we engage in conversation and use the comments section. i will try to reply back as is appropiate and you let me know when i am wrong.

finally, duke begins the college basketball season tomorrow with a game against detroit. thankfully, football is over and hopefully we can beat carolina tomorrow. i also am looking forward to seeing clay aiken at the raleigh christmas parade tomorrow. he is the grand master or something. i will be sure to take a picture for all of you who cant be there.

standing in for you
aho

cheers to ben

so my friend and former roommate, ben dudley, helped me with my blog for a while last night and he did the wonderful thing of giving us a comments page. thanks ben.

i gotta go get my hair cut in like 7 minutes, but it is always an interesting experinece. the guy that cuts my hair is named shannon and he owns the salon: crazy combs. it is one of the coolest places to get a cut and i definitely pay the extra cost partly to say i get my hair cut there. i really dont think i have very good hair, and my future plan is to try to spend as little time as possible on it, yet still not just end up with a bushy ball on top.

previous conversations with shannon have included: jim jones and purple kool-aide, james brother of jesus, various religious sects, him getting widows to give him their husbands cool vintage clothing, and old cars. he has an old ford ranchero that he is painting john deere black. he also has a tatoo with an elvis face combined with a sacred heart of jesus. the dude is wakced out, but does a good job with the cut, and i pay more for the expereince, its worth it.
peace

so much to say

i have much to catch up on, but cant now becuase i have 6-8pages of writing due in 3 hours. i will submit this though.

bizarro world continued last week. in class on monday, no one had finished the reading for the day. we talked about how kierkegaard would go about picking a wife...which is a lot in and of itself see works of love- great book. since no one had read though, we could not converse properly on the assignment, therefore dr hall was frustrated, but again blamed herself for some reason.
so we got an email the next day saying: just read for next week, no papers due. this was great news becuase not only had we not done as we should have, we got rewarded for it.
i also got an assignment back that said "great work: can i have a copy of this to keep?" dude, that has NEVER happened before. i think i might frame it.
peace
thanks for checking back and welcome to new people who are here.

powers for good

every superhero, as he/she is coming of age, arrives at a point of decision. though my status as a superhero is at least debateable, i must now use a blog for good. tonight, our youth bible study time will be focused on resources for spiritual growth, online. below i hope to provide a bunch of links that you could click on to try some of this stuff yourself.

jesuit prayer site
cbf sermons online for download
upper room daily devo is free, just signup
nc baptist youth page, use at your own discretion
holyspace.org is really cool with images and thoughts
one small barking dog
ADVENT Devos daily beginning nov 30
Lent devos beginning in spring
Creighton site with lots of good links
catholic church of stlouis
ignatious christian site
FCA site, click on lower right for daily e-devo
Passion conferences, music, etc. click on thirsty for online journey
My Utmost for His Highest online
Campus Journal online, click on "soul Journey" on main page. good music here too.
Passport camp
Studentlife camp

Like anything, some of this you might like, others you wont. i dont like all of it either. the first link is my favorite and is present on alot of sites and shows up early in most searches. use as you would like.
peace
chris

coffee update

it turns out that people complained about the $.25 refill idea. therefore, the perk changed the price for coffee refills to $1. and the refills for soda are now free. this all came about becuase of the comment box, so i am ready to start a grassroots effort to help make the larry's fair trade coffee, free for refills. i will definitely tip better if i can spend the money on the barista and not the coffee.
peace

bizarro land

hey, well its been a while, or at least it seems to me. you are either in one of two postures: (1) you are on the edge of your seat eagerly anticipating the pithy wisdom this site provides, hoping blissfully that each time you click on the link in your favorites, it will reveal new insight into an otherwise problematic and frustrating world. or (2) you really don't like this, don't read it, but come here out of an invisible obligation you seem to have to me because you think there might be something here eventually, or you just are trying to remember where else you wanted to go and one more click just might jog you memory. to both of you reading this thanks.

now, to bizarro land.
we often find ourselves in overwhelming and confusing situations where we ask ourselves: "did that just happen?" I have two from the recent days that I would like to share.
1. Saturday, Natalie worked hard in the house cleaning places and things in the fridge and kitchen of our rent house that I: 1. didnt know existed, 2. don't want to know exist, 3. cant imagine that these places even get dirty. but, nonetheless, now they are clean and she is in good conscience.
in the midst of cleaning she worked up and appetite for dinner, giving me the choices of: chilis, outback, the village draft house, and Chinese food. I was really wanting some Chinese for tradition's sake. (more some other day). Therefore: RED DRAGON IT IS! we get: chicken fried rice, sesame chicken, and beef with broccoli. nothing bizarre yet.
after dinner, I decide to eat the traditional fortune cookie. my personal ritual is to eat the cookie completely and then read the fortune. after the tasty cookie here is what I found:
"it is less important ti understand than to enjoy."
You now thinking what is bizarre about that, chris could never type...but that's just it, it is not a mistake on my part. I got a fortune with a typo. how does that happen? how can such a short pithy saying get messed up? has this ever happened before to anyone else? I know the grammar is often suspect in the fortunes, but a typo, never expected that.
That is bizarro land number one.
(by the way, we watched legally blonde II on Saturday night and it was funny, stupid but funny. the dog thing and Dupont circle made me cry.)

2. I registered for this workshop at school for seniors about placement in ministry after graduation. I did it mostly because my professor likes for us to do stuff like this, and he looks out for us, so I did it. I wasn't sure what I was getting into because there was joint program time with both Methodists and baptists. Methodists had worship planning responsibilities.
as I entered (20 minutes late, dunkin donuts coffee in hand though), sally bates was preaching and finishing a sermon which was, nice. then this guy came up with a guitar to lead music, which is, nice. he has, coat tie, and nice feel to him. then there is a glitch in the matrix: we start singing "come by here my lord, come by here." which is cum by ya. cum by ya, who still sings that, and who ever sang that without a campfire? I don't get it. a million and 1 worship songs in the world and folks are gettin into cum by ya!?!? anyway, I behaved and sang, and moved on, confessing my confusion to no one but you, my dear individual reader.
and, are there not theological problems with that song? God is here, right? Immanent, all knowing, all present...why must we ask come by now? is it for me or for God that I ask that? I don't know.

anyway thanks for entering into my matrix. I am sure it was as disappointing as reloaded, but at least not as long.
more to come.
peace
chris

current reading

you know, some people have links to current music they like, or places the like to go. others have their current reading on their blog. i will be one of those people since i read 2-3 books a week for school. so i would like to make a few reccomendations:

barry harvey's another city was a pretty good book about the church, and though i struggled through his old testament 8 years ago as a freshman at baylor, the book is good.

Clyde Edgerton's Killer Diller is also a great read, and pretty fun too. it is a novel and edgerton is a sly critic and commentator of the church and christian culture. it is fun and refreshing and worth picking up as you are falling asleep.

fixed link

hey all,
i found the problem with the link to make ben fair and fixed it. go see and tell him if you like his beard.

ok, i tried and cant get it to work yet. anyway, it you want to go there or to helios just like and erase the extra .com

working on it
chris

update 3:32 pm eastern time
i finally figured it out, you have to "republish" your blog each time you change it so that it accepts the changes. so i did it and it works.
peace,
chrisaho

coffee troubles

i have a love-hate realtionship with coffee. for example: love it hot, hate it cold; love it with cream and sugar, hate it balck; love it from dunkin donuts, hate instant (i have never really had instant, but given that coffee doesn't take that long to make anyway, instant cant be good).
since i have a sort of symbiotic relationship with coffee 6 days a week, any changes in any of the routine have the potential for disaster. we may be inthe cusp of one here.
duke's dining services are pretty inconsistent at best. sometimes a cup is $1.10, other days, same cup: $1.39. but last year i finally got it all figured out. refills were free, so buy a cup and hang on to it all day and you can refill after class if you like.
a time or two i would buy coffee at one place and refill at another, but: same cup, same burnt coffee, and i never kept a cup more than a day.

but tuesday, things changed.

it all started last week. the reading room cafe, 'the perk,' had a handwritten sign, "$.25 for a refill." now, i have had my share of refills, so i dont really mind a quarter. but on tuesday i bought my first coffee since the sign, which was gone. knowing that a refill was a quarter, i bought a large instead of the medium i usually buy. i figure, more coffee is better than less. 2 hours of reading and napping later, i went for my refill, quarter in hand. i ask for a refill of the lighter brew and she, the barista, rings it up for something like $1.09 ( i cant remember the price becuase of the shock of it not being a quarter). well, shocked, i pay my dollar and change and move on. i still cant believe that refills have jumped to a dollar something. if i am gonna pay a dollar a cup, that cool, but it better be good and i want a new cup too. really, how much does coffee cost anyway? not much. even the really fancy starbucks stuff can make like 100 cups or more for $7.99. at $.08 a cup plus the $.10 cup i fugure they are making $1 a cup. thats cool, except its duke, they are already really rich.

well, i will stop rambling and ranting and will keep you all up to date on my next experience here on campus. i am gonna get some today, but not sure about the refill.

and for the record, dunkin donuts coffee is still the best and helio's is the best place in town to drink coffee.

peace

Austin Grill, Cakelove, and David Crowder Band

So Natalie and I set off for the nation's capitol this weekend. DC is always a great place to go and hang out. (Sure its no first Monday, but none the less, fun). Just thought I would update the three of you in my little cyberworld with our highlights.
we arrived about 1130 on Friday night and hit monster traffic in the city. It was fine and we survived and found the hotel which kindly sent us to the smallest room on the planet that is not on a boat. (I say this imagining that some cruise ships and battle ships probably have very small guest quarters). We couldn't sleep because we were psyched up for the posh king sized bed that the picture promised. My front desk call to Sofia ensured that we could be moved the next day,but until then, we were sleepless in DC.
Saturday, things turned quickly. With a call to the desk at 10am, we were promptly moved to the new room, not the one in the picture, but nice. Then we had a great lunch on dupont circle at shiftily. burrito- good, tacos- good. Afternoon at the national art museum highlighted by some great modern art. Unfortunately I cant remember or find the artist's name so I will update you later.
Next we attempted to do some shopping in Georgetown and urban outfitters, but it didn't happen. Georgetown is really cool, but not a good place to drive. It was mad, so we cut our losses, headed to cakelove and resigned to hit urban outfitters on Sunday.
Cakelove: is awesome. Read about it. It is this bakery in DC founded by this young lawyer that loved cooking. It has style, character and great baked goods. Though Georgetown was a bust. It redeemed the afternoon.
Dinner was at the Austin Grill, which a great texmex restaurant, among the best we have had this side of Texas.
Sunday began with a late start to cedar ridge community church and then the afternoon in Baltimore. Baltimore is cool, we look forward to going back.

Finally, we made it to urban outfitters, bought little and traffic was still a mess.

Sunday night we attended the Passion experience Tour at George Washington University. We were fortunate to have gotten reserved front row seats and by 7:15, the David Crowder*Band was on stage. They were amazing and it is always great to see friends again. and holy cow, Dave is Famous!! There were like hundreds of people surrounding him for autographs and pictures, which makes me think: I don't have a picked with Dave and Toni, except from my wedding when Dave still had long hair.

all in all it was a great trip and we even decided to sleep a little late on Monday to avoid some traffic. I would recommend all of the above things as well as trying to drive as little as possible next time you are in DC. They say diplomats don't need to carry insurance when in DC. That means beef up your uninsured motorist if you plan to drive. Metro is great but I hear the cabs are expensive.

our next trip will include: Austin grill, St. Matthews Cathedral, Georgetown, and maybe the air and space museum. Plus, we still haven't seen the Jefferson memorial except from a distance. I hear there is some good church state stuff in there.

well thanks for reading this far. More to come later.
peace
chrisaho