Andrew's (Old) LiveJournal

New blog started

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:05:05 GMT

I've started writing a new blog, but I'm not using LiveJournal anymore. (WordPress on my own server is far more flexible).

The new URL is: http://www.maiman.net

I'll still stop by LiveJournal occasionally to see if anyone else I knew is writing anything, but for my new posts you'll have to head over to the new site. (I hadn't written anything on here in years, anyway). I'll see if I can set up a syndicated LiveJournal account so that it's still readable from friend's lists on here.

Site not updated for two years

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:09:55 GMT

Just in case you didn't look at the date on the last entry (since the holidays are coming up again and my last post was a 'Happy Holidays' post), I haven't actually posted anything on here in two years. I still log in occasionally to read posts, though.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to start updating this again or if I'm going to move maiman.net back onto my own server, we'll see.

I can be found on AIM or Facebook (I only add people I actually know, though.), or you can leave a comment here.

Hi to everyone on here (LiveJournal) that I haven't talked to in a few years. How's everyone doing?
Happy Hanukkah! (or Merry Chistmas or a Festive Festivus!)

Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas!

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 08:23:12 GMT

Have a happy holiday, everyone!

Hey, I haven't posted here for a while....

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:19:00 GMT

Man, it's been almost a year since I posted on here. Yes, I'm still alive.

I guess I should do a quick blurb on what I've been up to over the last year. Maybe later. Just got back from the gym (the Hamilton YMCA, and I can barely move my arms. Considering I haven't exercised any appreciable amount in the last few years, this is to be expected. But now that I'm a year and a half out of college, it's time to get rid of some of that freshman fifteen (times four).

Time to grab some food and take a shower, and hopefully post some more before I doze off...

You Know You're Jewish When...

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:42:51 GMT

You spent your entire childhood thinking everyone called pot roast "brisket."

You grew up thinking it was normal for someone to shout "Are you okay? Are you okay?" through the bathroom door when you were in there longer than 3 minutes.

Your family dog responded to commands in Yiddish.

Every Saturday morning your father went to the neighborhood deli (called an "appetizing store") for whitefish salad, whitefish ("chubs"), lox (nova if you were rich!), herring, corned beef, roast beef, cole slaw, potato salad, a 1/2-dozen huge barrel pickles, a dozen assorted bagels, cream cheese and rye bread (sliced while he waited) .. all of which would be strictly off-limits until Sunday morning.

Every Sunday afternoon was spent visiting your grandparents and/or other relatives.

You experienced the phenomenon of 50 people fitting into a 10-foot-wide dining room hitting each other with plastic plates trying to get to a deli tray.

You had at least one female relative who penciled on eyebrows which were always asymmetrical.

You thought pasta was stuff used exclusively for Kugel and kasha with bowties.

You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.

You were as tall as your grandfather by the age seven and a half.

You never knew anyone whose last name didn't end in one of 5 standard suffixes (berg, baum, man, stein and witz.)

You were surprised to discover that wine doesn't always taste like cranberry sauce.

You can look at gefilte fish and not turn green.

Your mother smacked you really hard and continues to make you feel bad for hurting her hand.

You can understand Yiddish but you can't speak it.

You know how to pronounce numerous Yiddish words and use them correctly in context, yet you don't exactly know what they mean. Kinahurra.

You're still angry at your parents for not speaking both Yiddish and English to you when you were a baby.

You have at least one ancestor who is somehow related to your spouse's ancestor.

Your grandparent's newly washed linoleum floor was covered with the NY Times, which your grandparents could not read.

You thought speaking loud was normal.

You considered your Bar or Bat Mitzvah a "Get Out of Hebrew School Free" card.

You think eating half a jar of dill pickles is a wholesome snack.

You're compelled to mention your grandmother's "steel cannonballs" upon seeing fluffy matzo balls served at restaurants.

You buy 3 shopping bags worth of hot bagels on every trip to NYC and ship them home via FedEx. (Or, if you live near NYC or Philadelphia or another Jewish city hub, you drive 3 hours just to buy a dozen "real" bagels.)

Your mother took personal pride when a Jew was noted for some accomplishment (showbiz, medicine, politics, etc.) and was ashamed and embarrassed when a Jew was accused of a crime .. as if they were relatives.

You thought sleepaway college was only where non-Jews went ... Jews went to city schools ... unless they had scholarships or made an Ivy League school.

And finally, you knew that Sunday night and the night after any Jewish holiday was designated for Chinese food.

You're proud to be Jewish - and you pass these jokes on to all your Jewish friends!
(stolen from my sister's blog)

Killing time

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 18:42:35 GMT

Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.

"Cyptographic mathematicians were by nature high-strung workaholics, and there existed an unwritten rule that they take Saturdays off except in emergencies."
Digital Fortress, Dan Brown

...which reminds me, I need to bring that back to the library.

Election 2004!

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 01:41:43 GMT

Well, I'm ready for Election Night. I voted at 6:30 this morning, was the 9th person to vote at my precinct. Went to see Ann Coulter speak at Rutgers-Camden yesterday night, it was an awesome lecture and Q&A session. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

I also had a chance to see Celsius 41.11 about a week ago (was surprised that they actually showed it at the main theater in Cherry Hill). For more info on that movie, see my previous post.

So far, Bush is up by a significant margin. Here's hoping for four more years!
Keep an eye on Fox News Channel for the true results as they come in.

I own a timber company?

Sat, 09 Oct 2004 19:54:22 GMT

I was happy to see that Bush did better in the debate last night than he did in the first debate. He had his facts together, and didn't stutter through his answers this time, despite the moderator clearly leaning against him (as is always the case). I love how they also try to end by asking both candidates, "So, what did Bush do wrong?".

The part about the timber company was great. "Need some wood?"

Kerry keeps chiming about how people making over $200k a year don't need tax cuts, and he intended to hike their taxes massively. Of course, he's ignoring the millions of small business owners. Many people run businesses under their own names, hence making over $200k on paper each year. You hike their taxes, it's gonna cut into jobs. Rolling back Bush's tax cuts would affect everyone, not just the "rich people".

On a related note:

You can bet you won't see this one at a theater near you, but its release is important nonetheless (they offer DVDs for a $25 donation, and I'm sure the movie will make it's way around the 'net in short order). The people of America need to see how much of a lying scumbag and fat socialist Michael Moore is.

Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 05:53:25 GMT

You Should Vote For Bush

(You May Want to Hide This From Your Left-y Blogger Friends)

Which presidential candidate should you vote for?

GEICO

Mon, 16 Aug 2004 23:32:13 GMT

It's true, one call (or web site visit) CAN save you money on car insurance!

I heard on the radio today that GEICO is finally offering insurance in New Jersey. So far, I'm impressed. Their web site gave me an instant quote, and even let me play around with the coverage levels while giving new instant quotes each time. Much better than the "mail it in and wait 6 weeks" like the rest of the companies in NJ. I have a feeling Geico is going to be taking a LOT of business away from EVERY other car insurance company in NJ. For more coverage than I have now, their quote is over $1000 less than I've been paying. About damn time.

Sorry if that sounded like a commercial, but I'm thrilled to finally find a decent car insurance company. I haven't bought the policy yet, but I'm going to try to do that later tonight after I've looked over it some more. Then the fun part will be trying to get the partial refund of unused premiums from my old insurance company (who I can't even get on the phone half the time).

Of course, I can't be sure that it's going to work out seamlessly until I actually have the policy in hand. I'll definately post again about it if it goes well, or to warn people if it's not what it seems at first glance (I don't rush into things that cost thousands of dollars).

Only in New Jersey...

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 03:49:26 GMT

So not only did McGreevey cheat on his wife, he did it with a man. I don't have anything against him for being gay (although I don't care to hear about that part of his life), but that type of behavior (extramarital affairs) is just not acceptable for someone in public office. Not even to mention the various political scandals and such he was involved in over the years... Plus I'm not thrilled about the timing of his resignation (mid-November), so that they can avoid holding a special election (which the Democrats could possibly lose), and instead giving them an entire year with an "acting governor. Oh well, New Jersey's probably not going to swing to the right side of the political swing any time in the near future...

Anyway, I have some other stuff to post about (not news related), but I'm too tired to type anymore tonight. I'll try to post again later this week.

The 100 Year Flood!

Tue, 13 Jul 2004 23:38:04 GMT

Or at least "65 year flood" according to the radio. Over a foot of rain in some areas of South Jersey yesterday. Two of the three roads out of my neighborhood were flooded out last night during the rain because the creek overflowed, but there no damage to our house. Good thing we have a good sump pump system in the basement, it never floods. The main road outside of my neighborhood is still closed because of the giant sinkhole that opened up, hopefully they'll get that fixed by tomorrow, it's causing a traffic nightmare in the area.

Getting to work this morning was a disaster. I didn't hear that Route 73 was closed by Main St., so I sat for a half hour to move the half mile before I could make the illegal U-turn to go back. Wish I had four-wheel drive like the SUV behind me that drove over the median. I got to work an hour late, and of course since I work in North Jersey I was the only person who was late.

Camden and Burlington counties were declared Disaster Areas. It's a really odd occurrence, we almost never get flooding here. Everyone was saying they've never seen it like this before.

Got my story published on Slashdot

Sun, 20 Jun 2004 22:25:30 GMT

Cool, Slashdot finally accepted one of the stories that I suggested.
Here's a link to the story.

It's about how Broadband over power lines are causing large amount of radio interference. Thanks goes to Mason for pointing out the original story to me this morning.

While I think that it's great for broadband to spread nationwide, other ways have to be found than to transmit it via the power lines. As you can see in this video, the broadband power lines completely distort radio signals, especially those used for amateur radio.

Aplogies to the ARRL for Slashdotting their server...

Long time since I updated

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 04:56:30 GMT

Ugh, it's been a long time since I wrote anything in here. Lots been going on, but I'm too sleepy right now to type it all out coherently. I'm on the same work schedule I was on last summer (about 6:30 to 6:30 including the commute to Newark). I'll try to remember to write a post tomorrow evening before I'm too tired again.

Top Commenters

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 04:51:44 GMT

Top Commenters on amaiman's LiveJournal

1	amaiman	32
2	smilee42	17
3	agente	14
4	Anonymous	12
5	ashes0513	7
6	try_it_in_heels	4
7	bopomochifo	2
8	fieeshh	2
9	klaw	2
10	cloverhayworth	1

_______________
Report generated 6/18/2004 12:47:13 AM by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.1

College Graduate

Tue, 18 May 2004 04:55:34 GMT

Yay! All done!

I was in Morgantown (for the last time as a college student) this weekend for the Commencement ceremonies (I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science). I'll have the rest of the pictures and a video clip posted in a few days, as well as another journal post detailing the events of the last few weeks. Right now I'm very tired, so I'm heading to sleep.

strfry

Sun, 11 Apr 2004 06:21:23 GMT

Found this one while looking up string parsing functions for my CS 465 assignment.
http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/strfry.html

It's only funny if you understand C programming.
I wonder why that one isn't in the textbooks...

Another quiz

Sat, 10 Apr 2004 23:47:20 GMT

Taking a break from the 3 class projects I'm working on this weekend.

---
1. WHAT TIME DO YOU GET UP? 8:00 on MWF, 9:00 on TR, 9-10 or so on the weekends
2. IF YOU COULD EAT LUNCH WITH ONE FAMOUS PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? George W Bush
3. GOLD OR SILVER? Gold
4. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? Eurotrip
5. FAVORITE TV SHOW? The Simpsons
6. WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? Lunch. Mexican (fajitas)
7. WHO WOULD YOU HATE TO BE STUCK IN A ROOM WITH? That annoying kid who used to live on my dorm floor.
8. CAN YOU TOUCH YOUR NOSE WITH YOUR TONGUE? No
9. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? Intelligence
10. WHAT'S YOUR MIDDLE NAME? William
11. WHICH DO YOU LIKE BEST -- BEACH, CITY, OR COUNTRY? City
12. FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Mint Chocolate Chip
13. BUTTER, PLAIN, OR SALTED POPCORN? None of the above
14. FAVORITE COLOR? Blue, Red
15. FAVORITE CAR? My Sable
16. FAVORITE SANDWICH FILLING? Turkey
17. WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO YOU DESPISE? Stupidity, ignorance
18. FAVORITE GAME? GunBound (at the moment)
19. IF YOU HAD A BIG WIN IN THE LOTTERY, HOW LONG WOULD YOU WAIT TO TELL PEOPLE? Until I had the check in the bank.
20. FIZZY OR STILL WATER AS A DRINK? Water
21. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM? What bathroom?
22. HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING? 8. House, car, dorm
23. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO? Don't know yet.
24. CAN YOU JUGGLE? No
25. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK? Saturday
26. RED OR WHITE WINE? White
27. WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY? Went to an honor society banquet.
28. DO YOU CARRY A DONOR CARD? No

Overcharged

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 19:25:16 GMT

Good job, Wal-Mart, triple-charging my credit card last week.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/04/05/walmart.overcharged.ap/index.html

Glad it's a nationwide problem and not just me, it's a pain to fill out paperwork when a merchant (or their payment processor in this case) screws up your credit card.

Another year, another birthday!

Fri, 02 Apr 2004 13:41:34 GMT

Today's the big 22!

Not exactly a big landmark birthday, I think I'm done with those after last year (at least until I'm 50). It is true, though, that it seems like the years go by faster as you get older. Seems like I just turned 21 not that long ago...

Another dumb quiz

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 16:35:22 GMT

Who will you be stuck with at end of time? by chi_a_baidh
Your name is
Your sex is
Your favorite color is
You are stuck there because	you were dead, but then you weren't.. Look at that...
For _____ years	56
With
He/She will think you are	ugly
You will	kill him/her

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

ESP Game

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 05:41:09 GMT

Check this out:
http://www.espgame.org/

Got a good score the second time I played, the two of us agreed on all of the words.
It's an interesting experiment on seeing how two people think alike...

Spring Break pictures are up!

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:09:42 GMT

The pictures from the Toronto trip are now online:
http://gallery.maiman.net/toronto

We hit almost all of the sightseeing spots in the city during the 3 days there, and stopped at Niagara Falls on the way back. The drive home (including the stop at the Falls) took about 12 hours. It was good to get home, but then I had to head back to Morgantown two days later.

And now I can update the map:

I'm back in Morgantown now. It sucks to be back in class again, but only six more weeks to go before I graduate!

Greetings from Toronto!

Tue, 16 Mar 2004 03:41:33 GMT

Spring Break!

I'm up in Toronto with agente. It's a pretty cool city. This is the first time that I've been out of the U.S. It takes a little while to get used to the metric system and their weird money (it looks like monopoly money, and everything under $5 is a coin, including this strange $2 coin with a bear in the middle). The drive up here only took about nine hours (scenic drive, through northeastern Pennsylvania and west across upstate New York).

Today we went to the CN Tower, the tallest building in the world. The view from the observation deck was awesome! I took a bunch of pictures, I'll have a link up for those after I post them. There are two observation levels, the main observation deck and the "SkyPod". The Skypod was closed due to high winds, though. They have this neat glass floor where you stand on an opening in the floor and can see straight down. A lot of people (including Evan) were too scared to stand on it.

In the afternoon, we rode the Subway (only C$7.25 for a day pass) over to the Toronto Stock Exchange. It's the world's first major electronic-only stock exchange. Got some good pictures there, too.

Had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Thanks to the Canadian exchange rate, food is cheaper here than in the U.S. (plus we picked up a 10% off coupon at the Royal Ontario Museum. We went to the museum in the late afternoon, since admission is free for the last hour before closing.

Hotel is nice, very reasonable price, and free high-speed Internet access (a big selling point). Canadian TV is cool, too, their Comedy channel (called the Comedy Network) has the Simpsons and South Park on back-to-back every night.

I'll post again later in the week (we're here until Thursday), and after I have some of the pictures posted.

...

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 01:22:34 GMT

What Annoying Celebrity are YOU Destined to Kill? by tiffeh
Name
You will kill	Calista Flockheart
With	a katana
On	January 11, 2009

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!