Go the distance!

'Go the distance' is a U.S. swimming programme launched four years ago. It is a self-directed programme intended to encourage swimmers to regularly exercise and track their progress. In 2010, 2,200 swimmers participated in this programme, logging a total of over 425,000 miles.

John C. Schoser is participating in this year's edition of 'Go the distance'. On 23 July, he achieved the 200 milestone, meaning that since the beginning of the year he has swum just over one mile per day. At present, his score stands at 292.55 miles showing not only that John has sped up his efforts most recently but also rocketing him up into the top 15% of all participants. He may crack the 300 milestone before long, in fact probably even before the end of this month.

Golden Wedding

Today, Franz and Edith Schoser celebrate their golden wedding. It was 50 years ago on 14 August 1961, they married in the abbey of Beuron on the Danube.  The wedding took place only one day after the construction of the Berlin Wall started.

50 years on, the Berlin Wall is history. In contrast, Franz and Edith are alive and well and proud grand-parents of 16 grand children. On the occasion of the golden wedding, all gathered to congratulate.

About eagles and other birdies

More than any other sport, Golf seems to have developed its own particular language. Some say the challenge of playing golf is less learning how to get from the 'tee' to the 'putting green', but to know what it means.

Norbert Schoser has learnt the necessary vocabulary and has entered the miraculous world of golf courses and tournaments. In July 2009 and July 2010, Norbert took part in the annual tournament at Wendelinus Golfpark. His score cards tell us that both times he must have made it to hole 18. But while this is trivial information, we leave it to the instructed reader to identify the number of albatrosses, eagles and other birdies, Norbert came across when walking those 6,265 meters.

Make yourself at home

Regina Philipps (Schoser) owns and runs Villa Blum, a bed and breakfast, in Waldenburg (Hohenlohe). The villa was built by the Earl of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg between 1910 and 1914. It has four single and five double rooms, each with an individual design and high comfort.

The description on the website sound promising:

"Each morning, the scent of fresh coffee wafts through the entire house and invites you to the lavish breakfast buffet. In the evening, you are welcome to relax in the winter garden and enjoy a glass of wine."

And for those who nonetheless plan to leave the villa, there is also some sightseeing to be done.

A soft spot for big beasts

Susanne Hillmann (Schoser) is editor at the German public broadcaster ZDF. Her speciality are animal and nature programmes.

Recently, Susanne has edited several TV series on animal life in zoos. She has presented the whistling Orang-Utan of the Heidelberg zoo, the only European howler monkies in Cologne and the removal of ice bear Flocke from the Nuremberg zoo to the (not so arctic) French Côte d'Azur.

Apart from these zoo series, Susanne has ventured into documentaries about the culture, customs, flora and fauna of far-away places. In her documentary 'Magic of Cappadocia', she reports about life in the famous underground cities of Cappacdocia in Central Anatolia (Turkey).

In an episode of the documentary 'On the road with Starship', she presents animal life in the impenetrable rainforest of Venezuela. The full episode is available on Youtube.

The unconventional convention

ConventionCamp is an annual conference about the future of the Internet. And it is meant to be different!

The organisers do not even want to label it a 'conference', rather a 'non-conference' or 'camp'. 'Those who have left ConventionCamp will think differently about the Internet' is the declared objective. Hence, you would be forgiven to think that ConventionCamp takes place in the Amazon jungle with participants sleeping in tents and fighting for survival. However, it is not quite like that... 

ConventionCamp takes place at the exhibition centre of the - not so thrilling - city of Hanover (Germany). Participants do not seem to sleep in tents either, rather they are offered special rates at the five star Radisson Blu Hotel. And food and drinks are provided for.

Andreas Schoser went through the ConventionCamp experience in November 2010. He spoke about the topic 'Connected Life = Smart Living?!' Being Head of Marketing Planning at Deutsche Telekom, he presented his employer's view on new services in the area of 'connected communication' and 'connected entertainment' taking adavantage of the increasingly interconnected way of living. 

Whether convention(al) or not, it's pretty well connected after all.

Master of the City

Every year, Cologne's High School basketball teams compete for the title of 'City Master'. In 2010, Nicola Schoser was part of the girls' team (age group *1996-*1999) of her High School Apostelgymnasium.

On 4 November 2010, Nicola and her team indeed secured the City Master title. In the finals, they did not concede any defeat. The photo shows Nicola's team together with her school's boys' team who on the same day became 'City Masters' as well.

100 Schosers

100 Schosers on these pages so far. A reason to take stock!

First of all, gender balance is respected: There are 52 Schoser men and 48 Schoser women. In the latter case, there is a fair number of in-laws: 30 women became Schosers by birth, the remainder by marriage.

There is also quite some variation in lifetime: 71 of the Schosers mentioned are still alive today, 29 deceased. Of the latter, twelve were born as early as in the 19th century. Of those, ten lived to see the 20th century. In contrast, eight passed away as recently as during the past decade.

In terms of nationality, 38 are US American, the remainder German. This abstracts from some borderline cases where Schosers for example kept their nationality - at least for some time - after immigration.

In terms of names, there is less variation than may be expected: Five names are shared by two Schosers each: Frank, Gustav, Joachim, John and Josef. In some of these cases, the tradition of passing on the father's or grandfather's name seems to have been at play.

Allowing for some linguistic variation, it becomes even more apparent that some names are particularly popular among Schosers:  Mary/ Maria/ Marianna, John/ Johannes/ Hans, Karin/ Katrin/ Katharina, Joe/ Joseph/ Josef and Carl/ Karl/ Carol. Needless to say where many Schosers got their inspiration from when christening...

Student power

Jessica Schoser is up for election at the student elections at Mannheim University on 12 and 13 April 2011. Jessica is third year student in business administration and will finish her Bachelor degree this summer.

Jessica is member of the student organisation RCDS and runs for a seat in the university's students' committee AStA. Campaign issues are crowded lecture halls, excessive workload and waste of tuition fees. If elected Jessica will have to tackle these issues which seem as long-standing as the invention of universities themselves.

The glazier

Donald Schoser of Hatboro, Pennsylvania was glazier. He worked in particular at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral near Philadelphia, PA which belongs to the New Church congregation.

The cathedral was built in the early 20th century and is famous for its stained glass windows. To manufacture these windows the medieval technique of making stained glass had to be revived.

In his book 'Bryn Athyn Cathedral: The Building of a Church' published in 1971, Bruce Glenn describes the making of the stained glass. The book also features a photo of Donald assembling a stained glass window. While the book does not mention Donald's name, the link is made by a member of the New Church congregation. He personally knew Donald and has published some memories of Donald alongside some other 'wise and happy thoughts'.