I think dual citizenship would be a great idea. I still have my unbefristetes Aufenthaltserlaubnis in my passport, which, as far as I understand, allows me to travel to Germany and stay for as long as I want, whenever I want. German (EU) citizenship would be key though, in case the shit hits the fan here in the US. it might also be easier to get visas to other countries (total speculation on my part).
hot here in philly, have been leaving the AC on for Ebony (we usually just leave the windows open). busy with house, work, and GRE/grad school stuff. been researching schools more, as the hellish application process is again before me. JP, am applying to a few schools in CA, U of CA san diego and U of CA, Irvine - why don't you stay a while....stay FOREVER!!!
kidding.
C, you and Siobhan should meet us in atlantic city some time on a weekend. take the train down and hang out the beach. the water is REALLY warm right now. and it's jersey so it's super clean.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 7/27/2005 03:08:00 PM

 
Davids Medienkritik has an article, German Police Software Allows Targeted Registration of Homosexuals.
According to the German media, police in Bayern, Thüringen and Nordrhein-Westfalen are identifying and registering gay people involved in criminal investigations by their sexual orientation.
Imagine the global outcry that would be heard if cops in the U.S. started registering people by sexual orientation...
No matter how bad it may seem to some in the U.S. (regarding civil liberties, etc.), things are almost always worse in the rest of the world, including Europe...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/25/2005 07:45:00 PM

 
I've been thinking again about our family trying to get the dual citizenship.
The German embassy's webpage on the matter is here: http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/citizenship.html

The rules are slightly different for those born before 1/1/1975 and those born after, but we all qualify, as we all have a German father.
Dad's case is the simplest, I think, as his father had a German passport when he was born.
Once Dad gets the dual German, we'll all have a father with a German passport...

It certainly follows the spirit of the law:

Das deutsche Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht basiert auf dem sogenannten 'Abstammungsprinzip'. Dies bedeutet, dass die deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit nicht aufgrund der Geburt in Deutschland erworben wird, sondern aufgrund der Abstammung von einem deutschen Elternteil.

I couldn't find any application paperwork on the website (may have overlooked it...) but the Consulate is at 49th and 1st, which is close to my work. I'll try to go in there in the next couple of weeks and find out the paperwork requirements.

The benefits of German citizenship / E.U. citizenship are pretty substantial, the least of which are the opportunities of living or working in the E.U.!
We gotta get the ball rolling!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/24/2005 10:23:00 PM

 
sorry I haven't posted in so long. the new job has been pretty busy, and a lot has been going on.
JP, bummer that you're not coming out in August. October will have to do. Ween is supposed to start touring in October, so I will keep my finger to the pulse and maybe your visit will coincide with a show. how cool would that be!!!!
C, regarding your bday celebration (possible): I am going to be in Syracuse, NY with work the 19th to the 20th doing control assessments (more on that later), and was considering flying into a NY airport Saturday afternoon to be with you on your bday on Sunday. it would actually be cheaper (my boss, dr. price, will love that!) and a shorter trip for me than flying to philly from Syracuse and taking a train to see you. that would be fun. if that's okay with you I will book it and let you know my schedule. I will check you amazon.com wishlist - I hope you've updated it. I did update mine.
Dad, I heard you guys had a good weekend in Hanover. Just couldn't do another trip so soon after my canada trip and moving. the house is coming along though, just got a new stove and the bathroom is almost done. we put up curtains too, and there's something about window fixtures that make a house feel more like a home. pictures should come soon! I need to get off my butt and take some.
my job in a nutshell:
I am a research coordinator on a genetics study of obesity at Penn. we are studying how gene regions affect body weight (there is definitely not just one gene involved). our main focus is big family study that has been going on for something like 10 years, with hundreds of families all over the country. the families have to have a child who is overweight (40 BMI +), a parent who is regular weight (28 BMI and -) and a parent with any weight. brothers and sisters can be added to the study if one is 27 BMI or lower, and one 30 BMI and above (33 BMI for african american families). I will be going to florida to assess several families in the upcoming months, along with some other trips, once I get to trained to do the athropotmetric measurements and the body fat indices, etc. I wasn't supposed to be doing any traveling at all, but the traveling research coordinator is leaving and will only be doing some traveling part time (she is moving to syracuse) so I will be picking up the slack. unfortunately it looks like we have mostly southern states coming up for recruitment, so now cool travel destinations any time soon.
how do we get our families? we get mailing lists from magazines and just send letters to everyone on the list, outlining the study and offering for them to contact us. we send out 1000s of letters a week.
we also have "controls," the counterbalance to the varying weights families. thin women (BMI of 25 or below). we are doing an assessment in syracuse in august (as mentioned above), and one in Lancaster, August 9th and 1oth, so I'll be in your neck o' the woods, dad. we might have to meet up for dinner.
teh assessment are the same for families and controls: we do the height and weight measurements, they fill out a survey, and we draw blood. our lab does the genetic blueprinting and we get measurements of lipids, cholestrol, etc from another lab.
that's the basic run down. I am going to have a different job than I thought I would, which is okay.
all from me, am at work and need to get back to talking to really overweight people, or really skinny people.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 7/21/2005 04:14:00 PM

 
Good news from Reuters:
U.S. children healthier than ever, report finds

The adolescent birth rate has reached another record low, the death rate for children between ages 1 and 4 is the lowest ever and young children are more likely than ever to get their recommended immunizations, the annual U.S. government report on children finds.

Good news...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/20/2005 05:32:00 PM

 
ALL of us have dropped off the bloggin radar...

Dad- we had a really great time in Hanover this last weekend. Thanks for having us, and thanks for the dinner at the Landing - their prices were not cheap, even if the place were located in NYC! Sunday dinner was a lot of fun, and as I told you on the phone, I returned the car exactly at 11:00 pm Sunday night, so our timing was perfect!

What I really didn't realize was that it takes under 4 hours to get from NYC to you, assuming you are a bit heavy on the gas. We'll be back, and this time won't be as long between visits!

Thanks again and love you!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/20/2005 04:11:00 PM

 
Dad - I've meant to call you about this weekend, but have been busy.
S has to manage the restaurant on Friday night, so I'm going to rent a car and we'll leave some time during the early hours of Saturday, arriving Saturday morning at your place.
I don't want to get too ambitious about activities on this trip - just touring our bit of land and seeing the interesting parts of good ol' Hanover... (the lake, scenic downtown (kidding, kidding!), etc.)
No real food restrictions, as far as I know. Don't plan to cook dinner on Saturday - we'll take you out...
I'll need to return the car before midnight Sunday night, so we'll have to leave at around 6 pm Sunday - I might take the non-interstate "over-land" route (30 to 222 to Allentown) back east. Some of the worst traffic I've ever seen has been around Harrisburg on a weekend (Luckily, it was east-bound when I was west-bound!)
I'll call you on Wednesday to work out any more details, or you can bring them up on the blog!
See you soon!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/12/2005 06:17:00 PM

 
H:
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine has a short article entitled "Euthanasia for Babies?" It basically puts the subject on the table, without taking one side or the other.
Interesting read, and it ties in with some older conversations we've had...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/11/2005 05:12:00 PM

 
Happy 2 Year Anniversary to our "Family Conversation"!
Saturday, July 9th, was the 2-year anniversary of our blog here... I think this blog has been productive. Plus, the archives are valuable - imagine reading them 20 years from now and remembering the conversations...

JP - Instapundit has a link to a funky website called "100 Words or Les Nessman" which describes itself this way:
Each day brings a new theme, and each theme brings 100 words of fiction from the authors. If anyone cops out on a theme, they have to post something about Les Nessman (see here for example). Why? Why the hell not?

The authors have to write something with exactly 100 words in it. Any comments readers have about the writing have to be exactly 100 words long for them to show up... This sort of ties in with your reflections on modern writing on your blog here...

Check it out!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/11/2005 12:12:00 PM

 
hey all,
am in olde canada, barrie, ontario to be exact. yes, some people say "eh" at the end of every sentence and they do say aboot. I am here for my kung fu family's annual gathering. I got here sunday night, drove up with my friend Joe who is also an instructor. will be here until this coming sunday. we are planning on leaving early sunday morning to be able to go to niagara, since neither one of us has been there.
we have been having lots of fun, training a lot. there are several teachers up here in canada whom I don't get to see very often and it's great to be able to train with them.
not much to report. have been eating out a lot so that we can hang out with everyone, when we are not training.
hope all is well in the US. dad, I am glad that your laryngitis is clearing up - talking to you briefly today was a relief.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 7/05/2005 04:34:00 PM

 
C,
cool that you will be coming through philly a week later! Sunday the 17th is a special day, as you know.
house update: gavin and I discovered that the box spring part of the bed does NOT fit up the stairs in the current state that they are in ( a fun thing to discover at 1 am). boo. otherwise moving is going well. am still kind of fearing moving the couch up those stairs, but everything else is just a chore, not much potential for real injury. slept in the new house for the first time, basking in the air conditioning. very nice.
last day at work for ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! went to lunch with my bosses and had a really nice time. we had lunch together when I first started and it was nice to bring it full circle. so much happened in such a short time. also, a very harmonious ending with my boss who was creating the position for me, Jessica. so no need to worry about burning bridges.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 7/01/2005 01:32:00 PM

 
Aaah... We have SOME blogging.
H: have fun in Canada-land! I'll be visiting Dad a week later than planned, so I would be stopping by around the 17th.
JP: There's an article at Blog Business World, "Better writing through blogging"
Some excerpts:
Better writing ability, and an enhanced ability to express yourself in print, is a rarely thought about benefit of blogging.

While most people think of writers as infinitely talented, living in some rarified air denied to the rest of us, writing is a learned skill. While some people are indeed born more talented with the written word than others, most people can become better writers simply through practice.
...
Writing short stories and articles allow you to express yourself in both fiction and non-fiction, while providing powerful practice in writing. By writing, you develop your theme and present them in an easily readable and understandable way. Another great way to work on your writing skills is by guest blogging on other blogs. Remember, there is no substitute for simply writing more.

Not much news at my end... Good to hear that all are well!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 7/01/2005 11:10:00 AM