u/therealleotrotsky

I have citizenship by descent from my grandfather, who was born in Germany and immigrated to the USA as a minor. (He obtained US citizenship through his father's naturalization) I already had my grandfather's birth certificate, but that wasn't sufficient to establish that he was born to a German citizen. I had the local Standesamt pull my great-grandfather's birth and marriage certificates, which went back to the late 1800s. I thought this would be sufficient, but evidently it's not enough for the direct to passport route.

I visited the consulate in Chicago, and was told that I could go direct to passport if I could establish my great-grandfather's German citizenship via a Meldekarte.

Fortunately I'd also gotten the family's immigration and naturalization records from USCIS. Those records contained the family's last address in Germany before immigrating. This allowed my to track down the relevant Meldekarte from the town's archives. With that in hand I went back to the consulate, and my passport arrived last week.

My kid's an incoming math major at a selective women's college in the Northeast with an interest in quant. Her school has a dual degree program where, for a 5th year of school, you can also pick up an engineering degree from (among other schools) Dartmouth or Caltech. I'm wondering if the engineering degree and having the target school on the resume is worth the extra year. If you were choosing between this program or just graduating (maybe going for a MFin) which is the better bet?

Hi! Ever since my daughter came out, I‘ve wanted to do a better job showing visible support as an ally/parent in the community. I want to let people know, as an older white male, that I‘m a safe person for people to bring their whole selves.

I‘m open to suggestions, but I was planning on wearing a pride bracelet or an ally bracelet. My question: are the ally colors too obscure to be an obvious sign? Should I just go with Pride flag colors instead?

I'm interested in packet radio and enjoying learning about digipi and other options for packet radio. The 1200 baud rate seems insanely slow, though. Is there any way to easily increase the data speed? AREDN seems faster, but also significantly more complicated.

I’m 6’2” and I don’t normally notice this, but working in the Loop I look around and I’m like average height for the guys walking around. What gives? Are law, accounting, and finance firms selecting for height?