Hello, all.
Chinese New Year is just around the corner (it's Sunday), and it seems to me that more attention is being paid to it, for some reason. There are people in traditional Chinese outfits handing out flyers for the Chinese New Year show in Radio City Music Hall. I'm going to try to get down to Chinatown on Sunday - it helps that Monday is a holiday, so I don't have to get up for work.

Goodbye Year of the Dog - Hello Year of the Pig.
I've done a little research, and here are all of our Chinese horoscopes (including element!), starting from youngest to oldest:

H: Gold Monkey (a.k.a. Metal Monkey)
JP: Fire Snake
C: Water Ox
Mom: Wood Monkey
Dad: Fire Rat

Dad: the good news about being the Rat is that the Rat is the first animal (and the Ox is the second!). Also, I learned from my friend Andrew Jackson that 2000 was a very good year to have a child - it was Gold Dragon, and it was a nice, round number. Apparently many Chinese people (like his wife) made sure to have a child that year...

Interestingly, although S was born in 1977, it was in January, so she isn't a Fire Snake; she's a Fire Dragon.

Fun stuff. My "Chinese name" when I was in Hong Kong was Vast Ox - I picked the Ox part of the name, but the character for Vast was an older, less-used character - it was simply the character for water three times. Which makes sense, since I'm a Water Ox.

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/16/2007 02:57:00 PM

 
Hello family,

JP, I didn't know your script was called Ilya, the Valet! Beaver Avenue as a 'valet' themed song (you can hear it on their myspace) and I bet they would allow Brian to use it if he wanted. Let him know about it - I think he might like the song. It's heavy.

Okay, regarding birthday plans. Thank you, C, for offering the hotel idea. I can see where you are coming from with the crowdedness. As long as it isn't a bother or too expensive, I am happy with it! The only thing is that I have a bio exam that Saturday morning, so couldn't come to NYC until immediately after. So I was thinking that maybe Dad could go to the city on Friday and I could follow Saturday after my exam. That way he would have more leisure time and could make a real weekend out of it. I hate to be a party pooper, but that's just my schedule.

Chem exam tonight! Feeling good about it. Yes, C, let's talk after the exam. Sorry I hadn't gotten back to you - it's just because I am studying so much. We are doing thermodynamics and how it relates to chemistry. It's cool but the hardest thing we have done in chemistry so far. You really have to know your rules and parameters of the problem and watch your units like crazy. Fun!

All from me. Am excited about Dad's bday and such. COLD HERE!!

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 2/06/2007 09:34:00 AM

 
H: I'll call you Tuesday night, after your test. I don't want to interrupt the studying!
Just wanted to let you know that S and I want to put you and Dad up in the Hotel Pennsylvania when you come in March. Having both you and Dad stay at our place would be too crowded. We'll try to get you guys a suite, so you have separate rooms.
Plus, it's literally across the street from Penn Station, so it will be a very short walk to the hotel; no need to get on the subway or the like.
Plus! You'll be in Mid-town, right in the swing of things. You can get around to the 'cool' parts of Manhattan more quickly...
Plus!!! You can go down to Joe O's to eat. Dad would appreciate that, I think. He's an early riser, and he could go down to the restaurant and sit and drink coffee and read...
I told Dad the idea, and he seems to like it.
What days do you plan on coming up? I was assuming you guys would stay Friday and Saturday nights - March 23rd and 24th.

Lemme know!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/05/2007 04:15:00 PM

 
Dear All

Yikes, I haven't blogged in forever. BUSY. C, great to hear the pounds keep comin off. Eye of the tiger!

Am in the library doing chemistry, getting ready for our first exam of the year in the subject this coming Tuesday. I actually feel pretty good, and know that if I just study consistently until Tuesday I should have no problems getting an excellent grade. However, bio is also coming up and it's a lot of memorization, as usual. We are doing 'formation of earth,' 'early life on earth,' that kind of stuff. It's cool, but tough to remember all the crazy names for those little single and multi-cellular creatures. We are also doing evolution. My fellow classmate Dave and I were contemplating the lack of representation of 'intelligent design' curriculum in our class, but decided not to raise the issue. ha. Our teacher is still bad, but makes me laugh with random references to Chairman Mao and how chinese people are good at math. i have all the same teachers this semester as last one, which is bad regarding bio but fortuitous regarding chemistry. As I have mentioned before, my chem professor is phenomenal.

Am currently shopping around for part time/full time summer jobs in labs and part time fall positions. Need money and experience. Coursework will not suffer if I work 10-15 hours a week. I got an email back from a neurosurgeon regarding work. He does neuronal death, regeneration, etc after surgery and traumatic brain injury. Cool stuff.

anyway, back to studying for me. Oh, yeah, Dad and I can take the train from Philly, or the bus. They just started a roundtrip bus service from 30th st station to penn station for $25!

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 2/01/2007 02:53:00 PM