JP - I think that when you are working on developing your own voice, it's useful to read other people's short stories - at least a little, sometimes...
Well, Instaundit.com links to various "Carnivals", which are collections of various blog entries on a specific subject. He just linked to the latest storyblogging carnival, which is in its 19th edition. You could read these short stories, read older storyblogging carnivals (there are links to them down the page on the left), and maybe submit some of your work to the next carnival!
(Insty also linked to the latest Carnival of Gamers...)
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/27/2005 11:12:00 AM

 
H:
Thanks for the words of support. Our Family Conversation blog has been pretty quiet over the last week or so - I wasn't sure if you guys were still reading or posting. It's good to have you back!

Here's another quick set of articles for you:
The U.S. economy is booming, growing at a 3.5% annual growth rate. Even better, unemployment is down to 5.2% and productivity continues its strong growth, as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited on the Neolibertarian Network Blog. (And no, that's not my new blog. - I only wish!).
Unfortunately, Europe is not doing as well - the OECD reduced its European growth forecast from 1.9% to 1.2%. (The link is to the Washington Times, but you might have to have a (free) subscription to see it.)
I am very worried about the future of Europe...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/26/2005 11:32:00 AM

 
C, I wanted to thank you for all of the interesting articles you post on this blog. I am not quite so savvy with that stuff, but really enjoy what you post, so please don't think that I am (we are) not paying attention.
I read the article on david's medienkritik, and disagree with the author as he hints towards anti-semitism in germany. his assertions were flimsy at best, and I think that it's unfair to equate anti-american sentiment to anti-semitic sentiment (which is the only direct link he makes to anti-semitism, other anti-semitic assertions are based on similar language used 70 years ago). otherwise, I do agree with the statements about germans' mindset towards free market and society. they cling to certain ideals, in the spirit of protecting their "culture" and "history," and aren't really big fans of opportunists, which is how they view american companies. while I see the merit in these tendencies, we must live in reality and this german point of view is not helping them gain ground on teh global stage.
the arab-american article is interesting, and the details presented about the data later really cleared things up for me. it's a good example of why it's so important when reading stats and research to look into sample size and sample population before making judgements, and to think about what populations are being compared, and how they might differ in background. it's like that anti-vegan diet article you found a few months ago, C. the research was flawed, was not in any position to pass judgement on vegan diets, and was funded by the cattle industry.
am at work, so gotta keep this short.
my job situation is being worked out. I am most likely going to have a position available to me full time in anesthesiology starting july 18th. however, I am still looking for other positions and have an interview in the near future with the behavioral genetics lab at Penn, doing obesity research. I can find out what I would be paid at other jobs, and I will have a bargaining chip with CHOP; I can ask for more money if I don't get a raise (or only get a tiny one) from the department. basically, with my experience I can easily start asking for 30 grand a year, at a minimum. the job in behavioral genetics has a minimum salary of 28,500, but the lower 1/3 is at 32,000, and I should be able to get above minimum if I were to get that job.
so these are the chess moves I am contemplating. otherwise not much going on...
going to a wedding this saturday, a show in maryland sunday night and staying over at gavin's dad's house in annapolis. depending on the weather monday, since I have off from work, we might take his dad's new boat out.
Dad, thanks again for a nice (but too short) visit this weekend. thanks also for the work on the car!
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 5/25/2005 03:04:00 PM

 
The English magazine "The Spectator" has a cover story entitled "Why the Germans hate America." Davids Medienkritik has a copy of the article here.
Interesting read...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/25/2005 01:41:00 PM

 
[Update after the quotes!]

Very interesting article in Foreign Policy entitled Arabs in Foreign Lands.

The article begins:
People of Arab descent living in the United States are doing far better than the average American. That is the surprising conclusion drawn from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000 and released last March. The census found that U.S. residents who report having Arab ancestors are better educated and wealthier than average Americans.

Whereas 24 percent of Americans hold college degrees, 41 percent of Arab Americans are college graduates. The median income for an Arab family living in the United States is $52,300—4.6 percent higher than other American families—and more than half of all Arab Americans own their home.

Compare this to Arabs in Europe:
In general, Muslims living in Europe—of which Arabs constitute a significant proportion—are poorer, less educated, and in worse health than the rest of the population.

The article concludes:
This census data should prompt soul-searching in many quarters. Cultural determinists may want to revise their theories of Arab backwardness. Arab leaders should be ashamed when they see their emigrants prospering in the United States while their own people are miserable. And Europe should wake up to the possibility that it may have less of an “Arab problem” than a “European problem.” Then again, maybe the cultural determinists have an explanation for why Europeans are so predisposed against Arab success.

I didn't know that Arab Americans were doing so well in the USA... Interesting...
C

[Update: Foreign Policy article above may be misleading because of demographic differences in Arabs immigrating to the U.S. - one of the commenters on Daniel Drezner's web site linked to the Arab American Institute web page and said, The main characteristics of the Arab American population can be found here:
http://www.aaiusa.org/demographics.htm
In effect, most are of Syrian/Lebanese/Palestinian/Assyrian ancestry and only 24% are Muslim. In Europe, most Middle Eastern immigrants are North African Muslims or Turks.
The mystery might be solved.]
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/24/2005 03:58:00 PM

 
Big news out of Germany – the SPD was wiped out in my birth state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, after being in power there for almost 40 years.
The CDU picked up eight percentage points, allowing them to form a governing coalition with the FDP. This was the last red-green state government left in Germany, and it was soundly defeated.
Davids Medienkritik has more here.

The SPD chairman Mutefering had compared hedge funds investing in Germany to ‘swarms of locusts’ and the cover story in the magazine of IG Metall featured a picture of a mosquito with a gold tooth and an Uncle Sam top hot. This was a rather chilling comparison, as it closely mirrored Nazi-era propaganda. You can see the similarities between the Nazi cartoon and the IG Metall cartoon at Davids Medienkritik here.

Thankfully, this anti-Americanism campaign failed in NRW. Schroeder has called for early elections this fall. The CDU will run Andrea Merkel as their candidate, a pro-U.S. physicist from East Germany. It will be an interesting campaign; hopefully, the propaganda campaigns don’t get out of hand… Bad memories…

The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has an informative roundup here.

Dad, what were your impressions of the political and socio-economic climate during your visit?
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/23/2005 03:01:00 PM

 
Happz birthdaz Bruder!!
and many more!
Hope all is well and the few drinks you had last night didn't wear you out too much for festivities tonight.
rainy day in philly, hope it's nicer in SD.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 5/20/2005 02:41:00 PM

 
Welcome home, Dad.
You'll have to tell us all about Germanz!

Guys - I've been thinking, and I'm really happy that JP and H have started their own blogs... I haven't really waded through JP's stuff yet because the stream-of-consciousness and the random changing of subjects tires me out, but I will read it soon! H - I like your stuff, like today's entry on the guy that came up to you and talked to you; updates on the guy living out of his broken-down car in front of your house; and movie snobbery. It's a good forum, and each of you is posting different kinds of material. Keep it up!
I just started a new blog of my own, but I'm going to wait until I have a few dozen posts before I 'unveil' it. It's also limited to a somewhat narrow topic; probably a bit controversial, too. I want to remain anonymous on it.

Dad - it's good you are home! Happy birthday, JP! (OK, I'm a little early...)
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/19/2005 06:15:00 PM

 
am at work and have been minimally active all day, with little to do in anesthesiology but read, so am antsy and decided to write.
I would like to point out that it is JP's b day tomorrow, do not forget!
so dad is back from Germany. I will be going out to Hanover Sunday to visit him and get teh subaru inspected. some yard work will probably happen, but I am expecting to hear stories of germanz.
ze germanz.
anyway, work is going fine. my neonatal study is so close to being finished that the wait is unbearable: 6 more participants to receive completed forms from and then we have 85 and can do "power" analyses. what that means is less than 85 participants would not yield statistically significant results. so we are at 79 and I have been recruiting new people just in case the ones that we are waiting for replies from do not get back to us. but I just want the study to be done, and to run and frolic in teh beautiful spring weather. anesthesiology is fine, we are finishing up our data cleaning so that we can start analyzing the data for a paper (or two or three). I have been involved in very tedious cleaning of the data. cleaning doesn't mean weeding out the people whose data do not support the hypotheses (hehe), but instead to make sure that everyone's variables were coded in the same way, to make sure the same thing is being measured for each person. there have been a couple "wanting to bang my head against the wall" moments, but we are almost done. tomorrow we are having a research seminar poster day here at CHOP, where faculty and staff can show off what they have been up to. both of the posters for my studies will be there, and it's another little feather on my cap for my credentials.
I am going to try messing around with some t-shirts designs for valtam,inc. have some ideas brewing. keep up the good work!
gotta go.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 5/19/2005 05:39:00 PM

 
Newsweek lied; people died.

Horrible, horrible stuff. If you haven't heard, Newsweek reported an incorrect story which sparked riots where at least 15 people were killed. Even with this much blood on Newsweek's hands, its 'apology' is pretty weak. A short description of the story is here.
Instapundit has more information here, here and here.
Some bloggers are speculating that if a blog published a report that led to the deaths of dozens of people, the mainstream media would be up in arms, calling for the regulation of blogs, etc.

JP - I like the ideas. I'm having trouble getting to Cafe Press today, but I'll check out what you have up there. Go to www.sitemeter.com for the site meter.

Tired today. Was out with S's parents last night, and when I got home, watched the finale of Survivor (yes, I'm getting into that show, too...). I would have waited to watch it today, but I knew I couldn't avoid hearing about the winner in today's papers.

Have a safe flight back to the U.S., Dad!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/16/2005 12:28:00 PM

 
Yes, the cat's out of the bag for my blog. I was just kind of playing around with it, seeing how I feel about it. I haven't really told anyone about it except JP.
enjoy!
love,
H
- posted by H @ 5/12/2005 04:26:00 PM

 
Hey, guys.
I've enabled comments; only the 4 of us can post comments, though.
Let's see if they help the blog...
Congratulations on both of you starting your own blogs:
http://liesmithery.blogspot.com/
and
http://hannahsgonzobrain.blogspot.com/
H - you've been quiet about this one - I saw it on your profile! Which I looked at while reading one of your comments to LieSmithery...!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/12/2005 03:10:00 PM

 
just goes to show you you can't teach an old dog new tricks...
I boycott ANY "juicy" prints on buttocks. outright! that annoys the hell out of me, and it's unoriginal. especially when huge fat chicks have it stretching across their butts. gross.
As far as a logo is concerned, what about a play on the actual meaning of valtam? like some kind of old "odin-esque" dude sitting at a computer.maybe having him spearing a computer. or something not quite so cheesy. who knows. The aim of the t-shirts could somehow be putting a modern, funny smart spin on older artwork, like the chinese commie propaganda art, old celtic art, some play on more "tribal" designs, etc. let me also point out that odin traditionally drinks wine as his sole sustinance.
hmmm.
we could also play of the 'bringer of victory/war god' thing and have that be a direction to go in: pictures from ancient wars, references (roman, all the way up to modern day), with some kind of modern, smart and funny spin.
ah, the possibilities.
let me know what you think.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 5/11/2005 03:43:00 PM

 
One question, JP: What were you doing up at 3 a.m. on a WORK NIGHT?
Heh. Keep being creative; I just think the man-hanging-from-a-tree meme might be a bit scary for people who aren't familiar with the stories...
I do love those 'Juicy' sweatpants, though...
And Dad, LOOK AT THE KEZBOARD! The good ol' Germans pulled a fast one and swapped the 'y' and the 'z', those cheeky monkeys!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/11/2005 11:42:00 AM

 
Hey all,
Dad, I got an email from Mary Flinner, wanting to know exactly what day you are getting back to the States, more specifically, Harrisburg/Hanover. She was talking to the person who drove you to airport and they seemed confused about your exact arrival date. I also need to know so that I can come meet you at the airport for afternoon coffee/tea. I know we discussed this before, but I just need a quick reminder of the date.
beautiful day in philly today. good talks this weekend, brothers of mine. we will get this t-shirt ball rolling!!
love,
H
- posted by H @ 5/09/2005 11:42:00 AM

 
I agree that copyright is an issue with the chinese propaganda stuff. we would have to find some way around it... am not sure of the rules.
regarding artistic design: maybe propaganda stuff with slogans? "everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves" ala rage against the machine.
people could like that.
maybe "we stand for the truth in public school text books." "freedom of information!" I almost though "arbeit macht frei" would be good, but that is obviously not cool. "big brother is watching."
we might be able to find stuff in books that is public domain, or not copyrighted.
JP, what was your thought behind the valtam logo?
H
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 04:47:00 PM

 
The Chinese Commie propaganda posters on T-shirts is a great idea, actually. It ties in with the whole Mao popularity... Not a huge fan of that, but as an avowed capitalist, what sells, sells.
One issue would be copyright. I went to the page you got the pics of posters from, H, and Landsberger seems pretty proud of his collection. He also puts his initials on each pic, usually in the lower right corner.
Even though he doesn't own the copyright on the original posters, he might have some copyright claims over pictures he made of the posters.
You might be better off trying to find original posters in some store, and then scanning them into the computer yourself.

The propaganda posters have a nice visual punch, and I really like them. What also sells are good slogans. Look at the most popular items on Cafe Press and you'll notice a lot of slogans.

Maybe we could find some posters and come up with some good, new text for them!

Creative juices are flowing...
C
P.S. Cafepress isn't the only game in town, either. We can look at other online sellers - some print in black, too (which Cafepress can't do)...
[Update/P.P.S. JP - I looked closer at your picture for ValtamINC, and noticed the man hanging from the tree with a spear in his side. Nice; didn't get that at first. As an image, it's a bit scary, though - how about an old guy with one eye, 2 ravens, 2 wolves, maybe an eight-legged horse...]
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/06/2005 03:32:00 PM

 
I think we could do some stuff with the chinese commie propaganda art. have always been a fan. website: http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/
as far as the stickfigure stuff...good idea, but has been overdone, in my opinion. I have seen so many shirts with plays with the stick figure road signs (stick figures doing keg stands, going on dates, sparring karate style). I like the alps design though, JP. cute.
I will think about things with my artistic brain and get back to you. I would love to encorporate cool martial art motives, if possible.
H
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:14:00 PM

 

innoculating capitalism
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:14:00 PM

 

this was in the "foreign imperialists section of the website I am on
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:13:00 PM

 

hottie in wheat field
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:11:00 PM

 

iron hottie
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:11:00 PM

 

how about something along these lines as well?
- posted by H @ 5/06/2005 03:10:00 PM

 
Woah. This is moving fast.
JP - you've created a page on CafePress, and there's already a t-shirt for sale on it! Did you design the "Waiting in the Alps" shirt? Stick-figure guy standing next to a blank sign, in the mountains?
I checked the CafePress page for Valtam Inc this morning and there were no shirts offered on it - so I guess you must have uploaded one?
This could get interesting... It looks like people are putting into their pockets at least $5 per shirt they sell. Alright, designers, let's get some good designs!
Good job, JP, taking the initiative on this one!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/06/2005 12:37:00 PM

 
JP - I have an idea!
Get a copy of yesterday's (5/4/05's) Wall Street Journal and look at the article in the middle - T-shirts, baby. T-SHIRTS! Cafe Press and the like will handle the money, and print and ship the shirts for you - you just have to come up with a design people will buy.
Get out the pens and paper, baby! Baby needs a new pair of shoes! (Rolls craps dice...)

And that GTA:SA mission with the cop motorcycles rocks. You have to haul some amazing ass to get 4 bikes to that trailer driving around city before the time runs out. Riding a motorcyle up the ramp of a trailer moving @ 60 mph is pure adrenaline, even if it's only a game, and the physics don't completely make sense.

5 visits, baby!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/05/2005 11:14:00 AM

 
Dad-
It's good to hear that you are having fun, even if you are a little bored. Hinrich is the type of guy who does his own thing, and doesn't like to break up his routine. He's not really the entertaining type. But I had a lot of fun living with him that summer of 1997. Remember, JP and H, when you guys visited me in Duesseldorf back then? We sat/slept through the 6 hour Star Wars marathon, and danced up and down the steps in some Duesseldorf club, to the tune of "Around the World" by Daft Punk.
Dad - it's not difficult to set up a small company - off-hand, I'd recommend an LLC structure, incorporated in Delaware, except I have to check on the rules regarding non-U.S. ownership.

Good to hear from you, Dad!

Oh, and I've set up a free counter from Sitemeter.com in hopes of keeping track of page hits on this blog - I'm having trouble displaying this info on the blog itself though. Working on it. [Update - Yea! Look to the right, under the blog archives - you can see the total number of visitors since 5/4/2005 (2!) and if you click on that, you'll get to sitemeter's statistics on this blog. Fun, fun, fun!]
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/04/2005 05:13:00 PM

 
dad, good to hear that things are going well in Germany. It was nice to talk to you last weekend. when are you going to the schney?
things are good in philly. not much to report. have been hunting around a bit for jobs lately, testing the waters. I made a connection with a woman at Penn doing exactly the kind of research that I am interested in - cognitive neuroscience, the scientific study of meditation. I talked with her in her office for almost an hour and she loved me. she encouraged me to take my GREs again (something I was goign to do anyway) and apply to work with her as her grad student so that we can work together on all kinds of fun stuff. I am sure some of it was hype, but it's good to have one's foot in the door a bit.
Spring is beautiful in philly!! am enjoying it.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 5/04/2005 02:19:00 PM

 
There's going to be an "Operation Homecoming USA" for Vietnam veterans, in Branson, Mo., sponsored by Ross Perot. It's from June 13-19.

Dad, would you be interested in going?
Newsweek article here.
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/02/2005 01:58:00 PM

 
check out the following article on Rollingstone.com. Anyone heard about this before?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7265052
H
- posted by H @ 5/02/2005 11:06:00 AM