The four-year anniversary of Mom's death was on Saturday. It's always been hard for me to express my feelings about it - I'm having trouble again now. But it basically sucks.

It's amazing how much has happened in the world since 2/26/2001. Summer 2001 was quiet (do you remember that it was the "Summer of the Shark" (or the "Summer of the Coconut")?)Then came the 9/11/2001 sneak attacks, then the October 2001 war in Afghanistan. The sense of fear and tension and the political maneuvering in 2002, then the war in Iraq in March/April 2003. The deaths of Uday and Qusay and the capture of Saddam. The presidential race in the U.S., and the ongoing attacks in Iraq on Coalition Forces and allied Iraqis, in 2004.

Lately, democracy seems to be expanding in a way that is fast and furious.
Elections in Afghanistan (women could vote!) - the do-over of the election in the Ukraine, after massive popular protest (the Orange Revolution). Elections in Palestine, local elections in Saudi Arabia (no women voters though). And the big one - elections in Iraq, with turnout percentages close to the turnout of the U.S. (and women could vote!). Last week, Egypt announced there would be general elections, for the first time in 25 years or so.

Today, there was a massive strike in Lebanon, with protests centered around the tent city in the middle of Beirut. Some reports say that, right now, there are 200,000 protestors in what is being called the Cedar Revolution (after the tree on the Lebanese flag). Completely peaceful, so far.

And, hours ago, the Lebanese government resigned. As blogger Caveman in Beirut put it, The government has fallen. And now the fun begins.

Amazing times. Democracy on the march. Millions of women suddenly having new rights.
Amazing.

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/28/2005 02:52:00 PM

 
Today I am remembering Mom. It is the 4th anniversary of her passing.
Love to you all,
H
- posted by H @ 2/26/2005 02:00:00 PM

 
I had a few more...
China Mieville (spelling?)
Elaine Pagels
I am sure more will come.
At work. It snowed quite a bit yesterday, I think probably 3 inches here in the city.
Love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/25/2005 03:24:00 PM

 
My favorite living authors were:
- Neal Stephenson
- William Gibson
- Hunter S. Thompson

I also like the translations of Boris Akunin's books - they are huge blockbusters in Russia, and are just being released here. The first, "The Winter Queen" was better than the second "Murder on the Leviathan."

Also, Richard K. Morgan's "Altered Carbon" is absolutely brutal but very good. It's cyberpunk mixed with 1930s pulp crime fiction. The sequel, "Broken Angels" is also good but not as insane.

Douglas Adams is good, as is Piers Anthony...

RIP HST

C

Update: don't look down on J.K. Rowling. The 4th Harry Potter book was very, very good. The rest are definitely a fun read!
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/24/2005 05:36:00 PM

 
JP, glad to hear that you are quitting the smoking thing... my advice is to not waver for a second. meaning, do not think that you can have just one at a party, while drunk, etc. I found when I was quitting that this kind of thinking is just a slippery slope.
My favorite authors:

• Hunter S Thompson
  
• Neal Stephenson
  
• Douglas Adams (have you seen the trailer for the new Hitchhiker's guide movie?)
  
• Jon Krakauer (into thin air, into the wild, under the banner of heaven)
  
• Piers Anthony (incarnations of immortality series, not necessarily the Zanth stuff so much anymore)
  

That's all I can think of for now. I am sure there are others.

It has already started to snow here in philly. should be the big one. quite a few inches. traffic will be hell tonight, I am sure. not my problem though, hehe. ahh, the joys of commuting to work on foot and bike...

love to all,

H

- posted by H @ 2/24/2005 11:15:00 AM

 
Hello all,
I am still mourning hunter...but am in a much better mood today than of late. I have been collecting articles about him and have a bit of a stack. I also decided to add a few more of his books to my collection: Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail '72, and one other...Kingdom of Fear from 2003, considered to be a bit of a memoir. we shall see. JP, I will let you borrow The Great Shark Hunt. Remember the story I told you about hunter spraypainting the side of the yacht? I recalled more, and correct details: he was with ralph steadman (guy who did f and l drawings- close friend of hunter's), and they were going to spraypaint "fuck the pope" on the yacht. ahh, hunter. in that story, Ralph steadman ended up hallucinating on mescaline in NY La Guardia airport with no money, wallet or shoes. what a bad scene...
anyway, hope all are well. watched fear and loathing monday night. question: am I the first to notice the following... when hunter is slumped on the bed in the beginning throes of adrenochrome and oscar is giving him cocaine from the mirror (followed by the tits hallucination), the cocaine lines on the mirror are arranged in a Z form. has anyone else caught that? "look at your face, you're about to explode"
very cool.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/23/2005 11:11:00 AM

 
I am very sad about Hunter S.
The Great Gonzo.
Sleep, sweet Prince.
H
- posted by H @ 2/21/2005 09:00:00 AM

 
snow is teasing us here in southeastern PA tonight. it is probably also teasing central PA, and might swing by NYC?? I am kind of looking forward to it...
hope everyone's weekend was good. Gavin has been in Annapolis since Friday late night so Ebony and I have been hanging out in Philly all weekend. it has been really nice for me to have some time to myself. we went hiking saturday in Fairmount Park, and took a longer walk this afternoon. she misses gavin though, I can tell.
not much to report otherwise. a quiet and relaxing weekend. I have developed the tendency to wake up early in the last few years. I am not as bad as you are, Dad, but I usually can't sleep much past 10, which is often pushing it. do you guys have this same experience, JP and C?
JP, I had an idea for your writing... how is it going, btw? My idea is that you can send stuff to C, Dad and me periodically, stuff that you think is good, and we can give you feedback. I think that we would all bring different perspectives to the table. only if you feel comfortable enough with letting other people see your work. I know I get a little squeamish with that kind of stuff.
that's it from me.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/20/2005 08:57:00 PM

 
sorry, I should have qualified my movie inquiry with the fact that I saw Ray when it was in theatres here in Philly. I am not sure how you feel about this C, but I thought that the movie itself (story telling style, flow of narrative, etc) to be pretty unremarkable. As you say though, Jamie Foxx baby. I had the same experience of forgetting that it was Jamie Foxx the whole time until I saw his eyes open in the dream sequence. JF has got some funny lookin eyes.
The theatre we saw it in was packed, and mostly a black audience and they went nuts. clapping, shouting, etc. I was not aware that all Ray ever wanted to do really was be close with the ladies...
so the movie was instructional as well. I recently got a recommendation for the movie Napoleon Dynamite. are you familiar??
Gavin and I also rented "How Arnold won the West," a documentary by a British journalist about the Schwarzennegger campaign. highly informative. smoke and mirrors all the way.
all from me.
Love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/18/2005 08:59:00 AM

 
Ray.
Ray, Ray, Ray.
Eric Bishop (a.k.a. Jamie Foxxxxxx) deserves the Oscar. He is so believable as Ray Charles, that you forget that Foxxxx is playing the part - you think it's Ray.
I highly recommend "Ray."
The following is a slight spoiler, so don't read any more if you don't want to know...
In one dream sequence, Ray (as an adult) talks to his mother, who looks like she did when he last could see her, when he was a child. His eyes are open and they work. I was thrown, thinking, "That's Jamie Foxx!". Other than that, you really believe it's Ray Charles on the screen.

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/18/2005 12:18:00 AM

 
our feeble little minds do not comprehend the complexities of the futuristic technology I guess. Tricksy they are. Much to learn we have...
That Sky Captain movie always looked a little iffy to me. not quite as bad as that movie "the core" that came out a while ago. one of the main sort of tag lines for the movie about some kind of seismic thing happening in the earth's core was "we are going to have to blow up the earth."eek.
C, what movies have you seen lately that you can recommend? From what I can tell, there are a few movies right now that are up for oscars that I want to see - Sideways, Hotal Rwanda, Finding Neverland, to name a few. Am waiting for them to come out on video.
Gavin and I just worked our way through the 6 episode "roots" series from the 70's. Kunta Kinte and all. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. Dad recalls seeing it when it first came out. OJ has a cameo role, with lots of barechested running. booyah.
Love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/17/2005 10:01:00 AM

 
All right, now I'm annoyed. I'm watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and I thought I'd love it because the movie is set in a 1930s, Art Deco-style New York. But I got pissed when the German scientist made a reference to "the First World War." Anyone in the 1930s would have called it "the Great War." It's like someone today calling the war in 1898, "the First Spanish-American War". (Of course, I hope there's no "Second Spanish-American War".) Makes no sense.
The Internet Movie Database doesn't regard this as a goof, using the excuse that the movie is set in an alternate reality, and who knows how many World Wars there were in that existence. I still don't like it - I think it is sloppy screenplay writing.
But what really annoys me is that, when I saw the actor Jude Law fly a machine (a helicopter) that turns into a submarine, in the movie Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), I thought I would never see something stupid like that again. Any machine that could withstand the crush of water pressure would be way too heavy to fly, and any machine light enough to fly could never head straight into the water (at full speed) and become a sub.
Well, guess what. In Sky Captain, Jude Law flys an airplane THAT TURNS INTO A SUBMARINE!!! Aaaaargh!!! The pain!
So my question to the world is: what is it with Jude Law and flying planes/copters into the water, where they magically become submarines? Can we have a moratorium on this? Thank you, Hollywood!

That's my vent!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/16/2005 10:30:00 PM

 
well, I had quite the fun morning. 7 am at the dentist for my first EVER FILLINGS!! party for me... surprise, surprise I had some cavities. really wish I would have gone to the dentist maybe in the last 5 years. but water under the bridge. it wasn't so bad, except my novocaine started to wear off and so a second shot was given at circa 8:30 am that lasted till almost 12:30 pm. it's like heavy drinking I guess. the first couple shots you don't feel, but then, zang. it sucked having to go to work with a completely numb left lower facial area. I was writing notes to people because I was afraid I was going to bite off my tongue if I tried to speak.
so fun fun. I had ceramic fillings put in, which cost a little more, but I think it is worth it in the long run...luckily I had some money in USAA, dad, which I think you put in over Christmas. Thank you again.
I have gotten an estimate done on the car. I won't put it in the blog, but will convey info over the phone.
that's all from me. Gavin and I are goign to a benefit concert in New Hope, PA tomorrow night. Some friends of Ween are doing it for a family in the area whose house blew up (construction ruptured a gas line). Ween sans Gener will be playing as "the band of changes."Should be a good time. this is part of my valentine's day present - he made me dinner and a cd with 80's music on it on monday. C, you might like the cd as you were more aware of music in the 80's than I was: lots of Tears for Fears, Cure, the Amadeus song, etc. I love it.
sweet stuff. it's been really warm here in philly. 50's. supposed to get cold again. boo hoo.
Dad, I got tickets for Dali on the 5th of march, 12:30 pm. I figured we could go early, while we're still fresh. Is there anything you want to do while in this fine city? I am thinking about activities right now.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 2/16/2005 04:30:00 PM

 
Good to see we are all posting again. Everyone - make sure you scroll down so you don't miss someone's post.
JP - Good idea on the writing - I want to do something like that too. But why not start at writing one page per day? That would seem more reasonable (i.e., likely to happen) to me.
Everyone - another (casually) interesting topic for me is nuclear power. I am old enough to remember when the 3 Mile Island meltdown happened - I remember Mom and Dad freaking out. The nuclear power industry in the U.S. has pretty much been in stasis ever since. However, the use of nuclear power would drastically cut down on carbon emissions, if that is something one is concerned about.
Wired magazine has a great article on nuclear power here. One early, and interesting quote: "Believe it or not, a coal-fired plant releases 100 times more radioactive material than an equivalent nuclear reactor - right into the air, too, not into some carefully guarded storage site."
A good read.
JP - I'm having fun with SP, also. I'm now trying to figure out exactly how the combat works, regarding damage spill-over. That is, if you have 30 Gattling guns, do the 5 guns on a Battleship hit exactly 5 Gattling guns? Or does the damage spill over onto more Ggs when the first 5 are destroyed? I'm starting to think that Flak might be a good bet, certainly if there's no spill-over. My Oekologie research completes in a few hours (after 36 hours of research!) We'll see exactly what a Recyclinganlage does...
Word,
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/15/2005 01:48:00 PM

 
Dad - it's good to see that you are back online with the blogging world. I don't know if you saw the news about Eason Jordan's resignation last Friday (from a top spot at CNN), but it was because of comments he made in January in Davos, Switzerland. The reporters who heard his comments didn't report on them, but one blogger did, and the blogging world applied pressure in attempt to discover the truth of what Jordan said, being (mostly) ignored by the traditional media, until the truth forced Jordan to resign. In the aftermath, it seems the traditional media doesn't like the spotlight it has been using for the past few hundred years being turned around on itself. Interesting related articles in NYTimes, Washington Post, etc.
I like the term some bloggers are using for the blogs, "citizen media." It has a nice, populist ring.
Things are going the same for me - I'll give you a call later this week, Dad.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
One last thing - JP, you had sent around an email of one of the conspiracy theories concerning the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. Popular Mechanics has a nice round-up debunking a number of conspiracy theories related to 9/11, including that one. The website is: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=1

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/14/2005 02:34:00 PM

 
Just a quick blogging to start off the week.
A good weekend, we had the anesthesiology dept. party saturday night. gavin and I got gussied up and I ate mountains of sushi and jumbo strawberries at the "pyramid club," which is on the 52nd floor of one of philly's skyscrapers. it made me think of windows to the world, the restaurant that was on the 107th floor of one of the World Trade Center buildings. can't remember which one. at any rate, 52 stories seemed high, but then I thought about 107 stories, and 52 is like peanuts. there was a DJ at the party, hence a little dancing. lots of overbites though, if you know what I mean. I hung out with one my bosses and her husband who is an artist. it was good to unwind a little.
sunday I practiced rolling during my regular kung fu session in allentown and made myself sick in the process. not fun. now my back, shoulders, hips are sore and bruised from doing rolls on a really hard floor with minimal padding. would like to lie down for a day or so. sunday gavin and I also did a thorough house cleaning, I cleaned out the fridge (reefer?), cleaned the bathroom, we vacuumed the apartment, etc. it was really due and the result is very satisfying. I suggest it to all.
that's about all from me. Dad, I will let you know automotive developments, and will look into tickets for the dali exhibit the first weekend in march. am looking forward to it.
with love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 2/14/2005 09:08:00 AM

 
Dad & H: you'll have to forgive the subject of this next post - it's about the SpacePioneers game JP got me into. Right now, I'm on Urlaub in the game, which lasts for a minimum of 72 hours. I figured Valentine's Day weekend would be a good time to take a vacation from the game. Urlaub means you can't access the game, but no one can attack your planets while you are gone. Your resource production drops to 70%, too.
JP - I am really becoming a fan of Gattling Verteidigung. I know it's a basic defense, but what is making me a big fan is that it is all Metall, and no Kristall!
My rule of thumb now on defense is to compare a defense to a Schlachtschiff. By that math, 15 Gattling guns equal one Schlachtschiff. The firepower is the same (15 Gatt are slightly more powerful than 1 Ss). The structure is exactly the same - 60,000. The total shields on 15 Gatt (15 x 150 = 2250) are 2 1/2 times as much as 1 Ss (900)!
The kicker comes when you take into account the fact that Kristall costs 4 times as much as Metall on the open market. 15 Gatt cost 60,000 Metall. 1 Ss costs about 34,000 Metall, plus about 26,000 Kristall. Since 26,000 K is worth as much as 104,000 M, your total opportunity cost of building one Ss is about 138,000 M! 138k is about 2.3 times as expensive as 60k!
So, by building 15 Gatt, you get the same firepower and structure, with 2 and a half times the shielding, for less than half the cost!
Of course, the down side of stationary defenses is that they are stationary. The other major downside is that your 15 Gatt will be progressively destroyed in an attack, reducing the firepower. That is, in round one, you might lose 5 Gatt, reducing your firepower to 2/3 of the original. A Schlachtschiff would have no loss of firepower, until it is destroyed. I think the Gatt's shielding advantage would reduce this disadvantage, though.
Finally, Gatt is good because it is automatically repaired to 70% levels after a battle. So, you get most of it back, for free!
All right, I obviously have over-analyzed one aspect of the game. But, it's fun!
Let me know what you think!!!
Thanks, all, for the chance to vent/express this!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/11/2005 11:42:00 AM

 
Aah, the American Pain Society. Its name sounds so uplifting. It almost sounds like a group that can deliver pain, to your door! Couldn't they have named it "the Society for the Study of Pain" or something like that? The name is nice and short, though.
H, you'll have a great time in Boston. The last time I hung out there was in 1996, after finals, and right before graduation from college. But the Boston fans might be annoying, having won the World Series, Superbowl, etc. in the past year.

I just had to mention the article in the Telegraph a couple of weeks ago about the German unemployed woman. You may have heard the story (which is true, if the Telegraph article is to be believed) about the woman who was told she had to work in a brothel or lose her unemployment benefits. They legalized prostitution in Germany a couple of years ago; she was assigned a job in the brothel; if she doesn't hook, she gets no more unemployment comp! What a crazy system!!! Link here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml

Blog more!
C

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/09/2005 03:12:00 PM

 
just a quick post...
I just heard from my boss in anesthesiology (the chronic pain study) that she has gotten some extra money for me to go to Boston the end of March for the American Pain Society annual conference where she will be presenting our study!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so awesome. it will be great experience and hopefully I will get to rub some elbows and learn a lot. the conference is over a weekend, and Boston in the spring should be cool.
very excited.
Love,
H

- posted by H @ 2/09/2005 01:08:00 PM

 
hey all,
good posts. C, glad to hear that you losing weight. I can't wait till spring when it's not so cold and there's more sunlight and hence more time to go hiking and things like that.
It looks like a beautiful day, sunny and not too cold here in Philly, so we're probably going to take ebony for a hike at fairmount park. We had ethiopian food last night at the restaurant just a few blocks up the street from where we live with some friends. the food is excellent - I will have to take all visitors to philly to that place.
Hope all are well. I am keeping up my food diary, which is a triumph, in my opinion. I was really afraid I was going to forget it the first week.
Not much to report otherwise. next weekend there is a "winter celebration" for the anesthesiology/critical care department at CHOP, and since I am an anes. employee, I get to go, with a date. Free food AND drink, dressy clothes, at this restaurant on the top of a philly "skyscraper" that is shaped like a pyramid. pretty cool.
Philly is spilling over with superbowl excitement. people are just going NUTS!!!!!!!! everyone is so pumped for the eagles to win. people want this really badly. can't blame them either. the pep rally at the hospital was kind of crazy, dudes rapping, crazed fans screaming into microphones, pom poms, tons of CHOP people wearing jerseys and such.
craziness.
all from me.
love,
H


- posted by H @ 2/05/2005 09:53:00 AM

 
I haven't been blogging as much as I should. Not much to report, really. I've been eating better & hitting the gym, so I'm slowly losing weight...
JP got me into that online game SpacePioneers, which I'm trying to figure out. You basically are in a galaxy with about 3000 other players, and you extract resources to build ships, more resource extractors, etc. What's fun is you can raid other players for their resources. Since the game is in German there are (obviously) mostly Germans playing. From 6 pm on, NY time, the German players are mostly sleeping, and you can wreak havoc upon their unsuspecting colonies!
Then you get their emails with little cries of dismay when you wake up the next morning! (JP - I should be able to build Schlachtschiffe by tomorrow morning - researching Hyperraumantrieb level 4 is going to take 9 1/2 hours! It costs something like 85,000 Metal, 125,000 Crystal, 65,000 Fuel!)
Work is fine, Siobhan is fine, not much else to report. Let's all keep blogging!
Oh, yeah, did you guys see the news that Germany's unemployment number is over 5,000,000, the worst since the 1930s (except 1946-1948 was not reported, according to the article I read).
Ouch. Hard to see an easy way out, especially with an aging working population (JP - you emailed me that article on demographics - scary stuff).
One article is here: http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/02/02/germany.jobless.reut/index.html

Keep up the blogging! (Myself included!)
C


- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/02/2005 03:33:00 PM

 
hey all,
not much to report on all fronts, from what I can tell. nothing much is up with me. I am currently conducting a quasi-scientific experiment on myself. it's actually more like a case study. I am writing down everything I eat/drink every day, along with recording exercise, physical feelings and psychological feelings. add digestion and you've got the big picture. I am doing this for a month to see if I can optimize my physical functioning. I am also cutting out all refined sugar, which will be difficult, but it is a must.
Will let you know how it goes, and if I find it to be beneficial for more people than just me.
For science's sake I might even maintain an Excel spreadsheet, we'll see. I even have access to statistical software if I want to use it.
anyway. JP, florida was fun. it was nice and sunny, not too hot, in the upper 60's, low 70's. I wrote some stuff on the blog about the trip, and don't reeeally have much to report besides that. it was kind of harsh coming back to snow and ice here, but it doesn't really phase me that much. Oddly enough, I had a really interesting experience in New Zealand that altered my perception of weather forever. We were on the 50 mile hike (5days) and, not surprising for NZ, it rained the second and third days of the hike and a little the fourth. Walking in the rain with huge heavy backpacks with inefficient (some would say negligible) rain gear, getting soaked all day would seem to be quite the living hell. however, it was a mind over matter thing - once I realized that I was in no physical danger due to the rain, the discomfort melted away. I enojyed the adventure of it, and the rain no longer bothered me even though no part of me was dry.
This long story basically means that while I would prefer to be on the beach in OZ right now, or hiking in NZ, I am fine with snow, ice, and really would be okay with any weather condition anywhere, as long as I was not in physical danger...
all from me.
love,
H



- posted by H @ 2/01/2005 08:52:00 AM