I went to Best Buy last night with Russ and picked up Chronic Future's Lines In My Face So far I am liking what I hear. I've listened to it probably 4-5 times since I got the CD last night. It was actually cheaper to buy it at Best Buy, $9.99, than you could download it from ITunes or Napster,...
As most corporate networks are opening up to allowing their employees to use MSN Messenger, my former employer, has gone and blocked it! Shortly after I left they started blocking their staff who had previously been able to access MSN Messenger from within the walls of the office, from accessing MSN.
Well guess what! Now you can use MSN Messenger via the Web! check out
http://webmessenger.msn.com
and chat away!
Update (12-27-06): For those of you who can't get to the web messenger site, I've heard rumors of there being a plugin for your google homepage that allows you to sign into MSN messenger and get around any corporate/school firewalls that are blocking MSN Messenger. I've yet to try it myself, but you may find it...
You know what I forgot when I redesigned the site a few weeks ago? A places to visit listing!
So I guess I need to come up with another way to do that now. I was reading Wil's latest entry about his vacation and it made me miss all of California.
There's so much out there to see and do. I haven't seen a lot of it in quite a long time. Ultimately I'd love to go out there with my significant other and drive around the state seeing various things. Of course I'd love to do that in my own car, there in lies the problem. Getting the car out there would take at least 2-3 days, then you only have a day or two to actually sight see, which is no where near enough time in California. So I guess I'll have to take it in steps.
Wil talked about the Jelly Belly factory, i've been there, funny thing is I swear I heard/read it was robbed the other day, too lazy to google that news right now though :)
Anyways, I've started a new category of places to see, this will be the first post in that...
Russ and I went and saw Metallica's Some Kind of Monster last night at the Galeria here in St. Louis, Missouri. It was kind of weird that the only place in town playing SKOM was the movie theater at the Galleria. I would have expected the Tivoli, High Points, or Frontenac to be playing such a title over the Galleria theater.
SKOM is a documentary on Metallica, ranging about two years, covering the development and struggles of recording the St. Anger album.
It was a decent 2 hours, though it felt like it was 3+ hours when watching it. Watching Lars and James go at it you can't help but laugh at how silly these two grown men are, fighting like little kids. It was a cool progression though throughout the movie watching them grow. I'm still not a fan of the St. Anger album, but I did break it back out today to listen to it again for a while.
Have you seen SKOM yet? What'd you...
Today was going to be a regular Monday. I'm at work trying to get working on a HUGE dnn Module that I need to get done. I'm still in the planning stages, but it's coming along. This week was going to be a gung ho week to get it done. Then I get an email.
It's from Erin, one of our best friends died on Friday. Bryan Hollingsworth was 27 years old. A recent law school grad. I just talked to him online a couple of weeks ago! This was such a shocker, I'm kind of at a loss right...
Well, it looks like it's time for me to dust off my Handy Man skills.
Krista and I are dating again, and she just bought a house. Last night Bill and made a few trips to the hardware store and got her gas dryer hooked up and running. I guess the thing hasn't been run for 10-11 years, so it was a little dusty. When testing out the line Bill decided to start up the dryer while I was behind it, and of course the vent wasn't hooked up yet. I ended up getting COVERED in dust and dirt from who knows where.
The dryer is hooked up and running now though, so she can start doing her laundry at home, which I know she is looking forward...
What happens when you google for Chris Hammond? Well, you get mostly baseball news, one of my weblogs, and then some travel and photography pages for other Chris Hammond's out there.
I've been attempting to get my results up higher in the rankings for 9 months now, with quite a bit of success, but still unable to beat out ESPN for the #1 spot.
So today I was driving home and though of a new idea. “Google Me”
More on the idea later, but it looks like I have another idea for a project that won't generate any money :) ...
Exciting weekend that went by way to fast.
Greg won 3 of 4 bike races in his class this weekend.
Blue Angels at the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show
Hopefully sometime this week I'll be able to go through the photos and link to the good...
Here begins what could be a very interesting week for Red Sox fans everywhere!
I'll be posting my thoughts on the week, and my experiences here in St. Louis. I have yet to procure any tickets to the World Series, but I'll be going down the the stadium each night trying to get tickets on the street.
Today (Saturday Game1) I was walking in West County mall, into one store and right back out. I got boo'd when I was walking in, and on the way out an older lady told me she hopes the Red Sox lose!
I then went to Shop-n-Save on Lindbergh in Soco, where I was almost run over by an older lady in a sedan, who knowingly saw me... Inside the store one of the employees said “Does Damon play for the Astros? Oh, that's a Red Sox Jersey, I can't believe he's wearing that” I don't know if she thought I couldn't hear, or didn't care. When checking out another employee came up to me and wished me luck, said she was a Cards fan but her daughter lives in Maine and is a Red Sox fan. On the way out a lady was finishing her cigarette, in front of her 12 year old (guess at the age) daughter, “Red Sox????” I just said, Yes....
This will be a fun week!...
We ordered Chinese yesterday for lunch. It took 2 hours to get here, so it ended up being free.
In my fortune cookie it said “Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later” I don't think this cookie meant lunch yesterday, cause it had happened prior to opening the cookie. This cookie is for all of the Red Sox fans out there!
“Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later”
It's late enough, game...
If you are looking to purchase the DVD of photos, you can get it on ebay.
Sent this out to a whole list of folks today, in case I missed anyone.
Hello Friends and Family!
Many of you I haven’t talked to in a long time, so here’s a quick update on where I am and what I am doing. I’m in St. Louis working for Emerging Technologies Group, programming web sites, loving what I do every day. I’m moving on November 1st to a new place about ½ a mile from work, if you want the address reply to this email and I’ll send it to you.
Now for the reason I am writing this email!
I bring to you good news!
I must say, I NEVER thought I would get to see a Red Sox World Series Championship, much less get the chance to see it in person!!!! I’ve watched more baseball this year than I have since I was a little boy, and probably even more than back then too.
Monday night I called Auntie Carol in Lexington, Mass. and told her to a flight get to St. Louis because I was going to get us Game 4 tickets. I got tickets from a season ticket holder here in St. Louis, got Carol a flight setup for Wednesday, and then proceeded to watch game 3 on Tuesday night from the couch. Throughout the whole series Sox fans have been nervous, the nervous wait, waiting for the Red Sox to screw it up, lose, and end the historic season in a miserable way. Game 3 was no different.
Watching Game 3 all I wanted was for them to win, so that Auntie Carol and I would have a chance to see Game 4, and see the Red Sox win it all here in St. Louis. They pulled it off and the World was abuzz about the Sox, and the fact that everyone thought it was a guarantee they would win it all. Maybe I was more nervous than most because I went to six Cardinals games this year all in which they won. Including Game 1 of the NLDS and Game 6 of the NLCS, and I know what the Cardinals bats can do, they can hurt you, and they could have hurt the Red Sox.
Carol landed about 3:30pm yesterday, I picked her up at the airport and was high fived and thumbs up’d by all the Sox fans walking around the airport, a change from the harassment I’d received from Cards fans on Saturday while walking around the mall in my Damon Jersey (see my blog link below to read about that)! We drove out to the stadium and found a nice free parking space which Josh Colwell showed me back in August when we saw the Cards beat the Mets, (http://www.chrishammond.com/gallery/albums/38.aspx). We walked up to the stadium and around to gate 7, near Stan the Man. We spent the next 45 to 60 minutes taking in the atmosphere, waiting for the gates to open. I also got a cool World Series blanket for signing up for a credit card, which will promptly be destroyed and cancelled when it arrives (you’re welcome mom).
Once the gates open we headed in to watch the Cardinals finish off batting practice and see the Sox take their practice. We got close to a few of the balls hit to right field, but nothing close enough to grab a hold of. It’s interesting watching people scramble and fight for a ball. We ran into Santa Clause there, he had a gift to be handed out later ( )! After watching most of BP we decided to venture up to our seats, 3 rows from the top in section 334. Not bad seats, but I can’t say that I’ve ever really had a bad seat at Busch (stadium). Before the game I took a photo or two of Albert (), I used to work with him at The Sporting News, he is the head photographer there, I also still occasionally play roller hockey with him.
I won’t go inning by inning, or pitch by pitch, but I will point out the photo of Johnny Damon, in his at bat that Won the World Series! () Johnny’s first inning, first at bat, home run won the game which ended 3-0 after nine. It was surprising the number of Red Sox fans at the game, there were probably 2-3 thousand, I think all of them stayed after the game to watch the celebrations. At the end of the game, everyone in the...
Since that last entry is so long I wanted to relink to the entry before that for the two Boston fans who were sitting beside us at the game last night.
Also to link to a photo of me and Auntie Carol at the game....
Well, I am moved, Saturday I had a few guys help me finish loading up Dave's trailer. We took everything from the old place and brought it to the new place, got everything unloaded, and that's how most of it sits! I have quite a bit unpacked, but no where near all of it.
Last night I went bowling again with the team, looks like I'm going to be bowling once a month right now. I started out doing well, darn well actually, but my usual self started over analyzing my bowling and I slowly started doing worse. Halfway through the second game I was cleaning my ball of prior to rolling it, my usual cleaning method is to spin the ball with my towl in my left handing holding the ball as it spins. Well, last night I left my right ring finger in the ball as it spun, not a very good sound was heard when I did that! I heard a bit of ripping, then the pain started. The pain didn't last too long, I bowled my two shots and then went and got some ice.
The pain kind of came and went throughout the night.This morning I can see the pain! The last joint in that finger is swollen up, and hard to bend. What I managed to do when spinning the ball was take the tip of the finger and twist/tweak it around that joint. I'll see how it feels, perhaps a trip to the doctor will be in order, but I'll try not...
Well, this is the first post about a great weekend!
Friday night Roger and I went to Mississippi Nights to see Papa Roach, Trust Co. and Chronic Future. When we got there we noticed the guys from proach were standing out on the side parking lot talking to fans. So we parked and walked around there to say hello. I said hello to Jerry, the guitar player, and told him we'd met before, at Pop's in Sauget Illinois in 2001, and that I went to school with his brother. He faintly remembered meeting me, or at least acted like he did.
After saying hello to Jerry I walked over to Jacoby, the lead singer, and said hello, told him I went to high school with his wife. To which he replied, “She's here, on the bus.” So I went over and waited by the bus until they were done with their signing, which I came to find out later was an invite only signing. I guess Roger and I just looked like we belonged there? :)
After the signing Jacoby got Kelly off the bus, she came out and said hello, asked what the hell I was doing in Missouri (I know, it's not the most exciting of states, but it's been home for 9 years now). Roger and I went in and watched the first two bands, I am not much of being right up in the crowd, so at Mississippi Nights it is nice because we could grab a chair in the back and still be able to see.
Later in the evening I noticed Kelly was inside watching Papa Roach play, I went up to her and another girl (kelly is in black, jennifer in the striped shirt) at the bar to say hello. We talked for probably an hour to an hour and a half. We got caught up on all sorts of things. Kelly just had her second son, 6 weeks ago, named Jagger. Her and Jennifer had flown out and met up with the guys in Wichata the night before, they were on tour with them until Monday and then were heading back to California and the kids.
Jennifer also went to Vanden High School and was in our class (95). Jennifer married Tobin, the bass player for Papa Roach. Jennifer also has two kids now. All the kids (4) were staying at Kelly's mom's house while they were out on tour with the band. Kelly told me about everything that's been going on, how life still is very regular for her, even though she's married to a rock star!
It was a great evening, getting caught up with Kelly and Jennifer, getting to hang out with the band members afterwards. I didn't know this, but Dave, the drummer, is married to a Tyler, as in one of Steven Tyler's daughters, Mia to be exact. Seeing things from the otherside, you realize how real people are, even though they look so far away, they are just regular people to, it's nice to see that.
Best of luck to the band, and to Kelly, Jennifer and the kids. I hope to see them all again soon, who knows, maybe they will show up at our 10 year reunion next year at Vanden!
Here are some photos taken that...
Well, tomorrow is Turkey Day. I'm headed over to Russ and Chantel's to have Thanksgiving with them and their family.
Been fairly busy lately, slowly working on the Thunderbird. I got the dash back in over the weekend, wiring up most everything that's part of the dash. I still have a bit let to wire up, then I need to reassemble the parts of the motor that I removed when I was changing out the heater core. I'll try to spend some time working on that over the next 5 days. I have off until Monday, so it should be a very nice 5 day break!
Won't be all play though over those 5 days, I need to get training materials ready for Wed/Thur/Friday of next week. I'll be going out to Swank, my old employer, to train them on the ways of...
So a few weeks ago some of my fraternity brothers were talking about RedVSBlue. I hadn't heard of it before, but somehow stumbled across it again today. I think I've watched/listened to 18 of the episodes. Check out this Thanksgiving PSA it has a funny take on the Red VS Blue states event back in early...
Well, I need to start generating some traffic to TwoPimps.com, so here is the official announcement and hopefully web spider link generator for TwoPimps.com!
TwoPimps.com is a new project that Butcher and I are working on.We are currently working on T-Shirt designs and have one design completed and in product testing! Look for more information on TwoPimps.com...
I've gotten a lot of text messages from folks today wishing me a Merry Christmas, to all of you who have sent me one, and those who haven't, Merry Christmas!!!
Check out some photos I took at the beach last night, unedited, only resized for...
Two Days of Sunset Photos
December 28th with my best friend Faye, in Huntington Beach and San Clemente
December 29th in Huntington Beach
I'm headed to Vacaville tomorrow morning, spend a few days up there see some old high school friends for New...
Happy New Year to all! Here's to a great 2005! Resolutions to come later this...
Friday for lunch Erin and I drove up to Davis to meet up with Jim. It's been almost two years since I last saw either of them, was a good time catching up a bit.
Here are some photos we took after...
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