April 5, 2021	The past year has been eventful with corona virus social distancing and other things. In August 2020 Araguacema and I moved to our new home in the small village of Ruda in Högsby district in Kalmar county in Småland in southeastern Sweden. Our children remain in Stockholm, Christofer in our Sollentuna home, while Kerstin Amanda has moved to an apartment (condominium). - We have no ties to Småland, but found a nice place in close proximity to nature and far from big cities. A good place to enjoy life. Last week I got a new hip joint at Oskarshamn's hospital. My right hip joint has been deformed since childhood, but has caused increasing discomfort only during the last few years.
June 12, 2018	Christofer and I spent a week driving to Vilsbiburg (Bavaria), Venice, and to Erik's family in Brütten och Dorf (Switzerland).
May 25, 2018	Kerstin Amanda returned after 6 months of studying the Korean language at a university in Seoul.
October 9, 2017	Christofer returned from a 3-month visit to Araguacema's cousin Paolo in Brazil to experience Brazilian culture and music, and to practice his mother tongue.
August 3, 2017	Visit from Switzerland by my charming niece Karin and her family. Ben, Pablo, Liv, Karin, me and Araguacema.
April 29, 2017	Back from a week in Marrakech with Araguacema. Great place, nice people!
September 26, 2016	Invited to a nice lunch by my cousin Ann-Margret Tiblin. Her sister Mariann Tiblin is here on a visit. She lives in Minneapolis. Ann-Margret Mariann on the left
September 16, 2016	Christofer and I made a trip by automobile to my native city Dresden last week. This was our first visit since 1994, when Christofer was 1 year old, and when we happened to witness the foundation of the Frauenkirche, and for me the second visit since 1944. And two days ago, Araguacema left for Brazil, where she will spend two months. Christofer on the ferry to Sassnitz. Dresden's Zwinger.
January 31, 2016	Kerstin Amanda arriving at the airport after a 3-month language course in San Diego.
August 23, 2015	Enjoyed a four-day solo drive to arctic Norway: Stockholm - Luleå - Kiruna - Narvik (Norway) - Mo i Rana (Norway) - Tärnaby - Storuman - Sveg - Mora - Falun - Stockholm. Fantastic weather, beautiful views.
June 10, 2015	Kerstin Amanda passed her baccalaureat on June 10th, 2015
January 27, 2015	My cousin Mariann Tiblin's 80th anniversary was celebrated one day in advance together with (from left) her sisters Ingela, Karin och Ann-Margret. We attended Mass, visited our grandmother Elisabeth's grave, and had coffee and cake (a Swedish "semla") at a café. A very nice day!
August 24, 2014	Lately, I have been transcribing many old family letters, especially from the Soviet zone/East Germany in the early post-war period (in German). I am gradually linking them to Liber. They can also be found through a Google search using terms such as: site:zenker.se "brev fraan sibylle", site:zenker.se "brev fraan marianne", site:zenker.se "brev fraan hertha" etc.
July 5, 2014	Christofer passed his baccalaureat on June 13th, 2014.
February 15, 2014	Recent snapshot of Araguacema by Sara:
August 17, 2013	Added a page on Michael Collins' autobiography. Collins stayed in lunar orbit on Apollo 11.
August 2, 2013	Yesterday we had a visit by my niece Christina, her husband Jeff Jensen and their daughter Josephine. Nice! They both work as Professors in Abu Dhabi.
May 15, 2013	I have been neglecting my English web pages for a long time. - Last January, I suffered a mild stroke which has left my left arm with a tingling sensation, especially the fingers. Some hours earlier, I had a brief T.I.A. event which disappeared within minutes, so I ignored it. Big mistake! Fellow seniors: take note! But I was lucky and continue to lead a normal life. - Last week I participated in a 16-nation chess tournament, scoring 3½ points out of 8. Have to study harder, I suppose...
July 21, 2011	Christofer returned from a successful week in New York together with a companion.
July 15, 2011	Kerstin Amanda celebrated her confirmation and first communion, following a one-month Christian camp in southern Sweden. Araguacema and I were present at the solemn and happy occasion.
January 14, 2011	Added a page on "Why is there Something rather than Nothing?" dealing with cosmology.
November 28, 2010	Added a page on "The Remarkable Speed of Web Search" dealing with search engines, in particular that of Google.
March 10, 2010	Added a page on Donald Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" along with some reminiscences of my own dealings with computers.
September 5, 2009	Added a page on Stephen Jay Gould's "Wonderful Life" and Darwinian evolution.
June 19, 2009	Added a page on Simon Singh's "Fermat's Last Theorem".
April 14, 2009	Added a page on Douglas Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid".
April 13, 2009	Replaced my Dell Dimension 4600 (Pentium 4 processor) with a Studio XPS (i7-920 processor). The graphics controller often caused the display to freeze, making me lose work. But I was forced to accept Vista, which brings its own set of headaches. - In a pure speed test, solving a mate-in-12 chess problem running Rybka 2.2 (freeware), the old comp took 2 min 45 secs. The new one solved it in 8 secs. Nice!
January 23, 2009	Added information on the descendants of Heinrich Zenker (1863-1952) provided by Tom Zenker, Berlin. - Previously Sabine Strietzel-Hube added info on the descendants of Robert Chalybäus (1827-1896.)
September 6, 2008	Added a page on Heinrich Harrer's "The White Spider".
August 9, 2008	GW af Sillén's letters 1786-1793 to his son, who studied architecture in Rome. Mostly in French.
April 19, 2008	Added a page on Arthur C. Clarke's "The Exploration of Space".
March 8, 2008	Araguacema and Amanda returned from their two-week vacation in Cairo. (Additional pictures on Amanda's page.)
March 4, 2008	Amanda is celebrating her 12th anniversary with Araguacema and sister Sarah in Cairo. - Christofer and I returned after a ski week in Zermatt, Switzerland. (Additional pictures on Christofer's page.)
February 18, 2008	Added my musings about the Great War and July 1, 1916.
October 24, 2007	Araguacema now has two grandchildren in Egypt: Hanya and Hamzah Click to enlarge.
September 16, 2007	Added a page on John Steinbeck's "East of Eden".
August 19, 2007	Yesterday my nephew and godson Christian got married to his lovely bride Eveline ("Evi"). I attended the wedding in Switzerland. Pictures from the wedding. Click to enlarge.
July 16, 2007	Enjoyed a visit by my distant relative Wolfgang Hofmeier, British Columbia, Canada. We both are descendants of Tobias Zenker (1664-1720). Click to enlarge.
July 4, 2007	Our 15th anniversary! We were married July 4th, 1992. Yesterday, Araguacema made a strawberry cake, in anticipation. Today, we will think of something special! Click to enlarge.
June 17, 2007	Added a page on Isaac Asimov's "The End of Eternity".
June 15, 2007	Last day in school for Christofer and Kerstin Amanda. Kerstin did not invite me to her classroom: It's too embarrassing to have parents present. - "I see, you hate me and despise me. I'll pull a plastic bag over my head so you won't have to see me." - "That would be even more embarrassing, Dad!"
May 22, 2007	Added some musings about the collapse of the Soviet empire.
April 20, 2007	Added some musings about the game of chess.
March 23, 2007	Added a page on Henri Charrière's "Papillon" and my visit to French Guyana in 2002.
March 8, 2007	Added some musings on the audacity of the Apollo project.
February 12, 2007	Added a page on Harry Martinson's "Aniara".
January 29, 2007	Added some musings on Moore's Law, along with some speculations about Artificial Intelligence.
January 1, 2007	Expressed my perplexity at the phenomenon of color perception.
December 26, 2006	Added a page on Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet".
December 21, 2006	Added a page on Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine".
December 1, 2006	Expressed my surprise at the fact that information was not quantized until the 1940s.
November 29, 2006	Added a note on George Gamow's "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland".
November 27, 2006	Added a note on E. T. Bell's "Men of Mathematics".
November 24, 2006	Added Nessi's War Diary from World War I (in German). Nessi was a cousin of my father.
October 26, 2006	Amanda arranges a Halloween shock for Christofer in the darkened bathroom, and celebrates Amanda Day, which also happens to be Sarah's 25th birthday and would have been my Mother's 90th birthday. - Yesterday my niece Karin gave birth to a daughter in Switzerland. All our best wishes!
October 18, 2006	Added some musings on Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus".
October 13, 2006	Added a page (in English) on a Swedish chess book (in Swedish): "How to play chess".
September 27, 2006	Added a page on "The World of Null-A" by A. E. van Vogt.
September 20, 2006	Added a page on "Science and Sanity" by Alfred Korzybski.
September 2, 2006	Added some musings on Euler's identity eiπ + 1 = 0.
August 7, 2006	Added a page on "Chess Genius Alekhine" by Hans Müller and A. Pawelczak.
July 25, 2006	Back from a vacation trip to Switzerland and France with the children.
July 11, 2006	Added a page on "A Study of History" by Arnold J. Toynbee.
July 9, 2006	Added a note on Willy Ley's and Chesley Bonestell's "The Conquest of Space".
May 31, 2006	Added a page on Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon".
May 20, 2006	Added a page on Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man".
May 11, 2006	Added a page on Franz Kafka's "The Trial".
May 4, 2006	Added some musings on quantum entanglement.
April 18, 2006	Started a section on books that have fascinated me.
March 11, 2006	Added some musings on low fertility rates in Sweden and Europe.
March 1, 2006	Added a piece on Lincoln's first inaugural address.
February 11, 2006	Added a chapter on Mont Blanc under "Mountaineering".
January 25, 2006	Chapters on Grindelwald/Zermatt, Monte Rosa/Mont Blanc, and Tour Ronde added under "Mountaineering".
November 24, 2005	Added "musings and reflections" on extraterrestrial civilizations and human expansion into the galaxy.
November 9, 2005	Added chapters on Zinalrothorn and Les Arêtes de la Bruyère under "Mountaineering".
September 24, 2005	Added a chapter on Matterhorn under "Mountaineering".
August 27, 2005	Added a chapter on Rubik's cube (under "Things that surprise me").
August 7, 2005	Added three photos of Sarah and her daughter, Araguacema's granddaughter, to "Gallery". - I am really too young to be married to a grandmother!! Although I should remember that she is 23 years younger than I am. :-)
July 27, 2005	Returned from vacation. Araguacema arrived in Sweden after Midsummer and continued by air to Holland after a week, where Christofer, Amanda and I joined her, going by car. Araguacema returned to Egypt from Amsterdam, while the three of us continued to Eurodisney in Paris and to my brother Erik in Switzerland. We also made a camping trip to the Saas valley in the Alps. Visited a friend in Hamburg on the way back. Then on to Copenhagen, where I got my wallet stolen. This forced a rapid retreat to Sweden.
July 4, 2005	Added a chapter on Rimpfischhorn under "Mountaineering".
June 6, 2005	Added a chapter on Weisshorn under "Mountaineering".
April 30, 2005	Yesterday was my last day at work. Yes folks, I am now a "senior citizen"! - It's been a real ego trip recently with speeches, presents and good wishes from colleagues abroad and at home. Here is a collage in Swedish from my 35 years at Swedish Space Corporation.
April 17, 2005	My grandfather's autobiography written in 1927 is available (in German). He was a prominent pastor in Saxony.
April 24, 2004	My beloved mother died at age 87 last night at Lenalundsgården, her old age care home. She was unconscious during her last day. I sat with her until the end. She will be buried in the family grave at Teda cemetery.

Last edited or checked April 5, 2021. Editor and webmaster: Stefan Zenker (see "Contact").