So I’m home this weekend working on the book, our first deadline is on Monday, so Pat and I are both working on finishing up our submissions. To procrastinate a little I decided to do a quick search on Amazon, not expecting to find it, but I did! I found a listing for our book! Here it is!
DotNetNuke 5 User's Guide: Get Your Website Up and Running
Now, I must get back to writing.
I finally got the 293 opening day photos posted!
Here are a few of the "good" ones, though I didn't go through them all.
Me walking into Cheers
Me and Auntie Carol after the...
I know I've been slow to post here lately! I'm finally processing the photos from opening day at Fenway.
What else have I been up to? Looking at Harleys, though I've decided that REALLY isn't a good option right now. Though, unfortunately tonight I may have been talked into an interesting project. More on that later this...
My sophomore year of high school at Maconoquah High School I got to perform in a band. We were called The Flying Gimps, and we performed a whole two times that year. Maconoquah had a talent show every year called Pow Wow.
Derrick Smallwood, one of the other members of the band got me a copy of Pow Wow 1993, and I've gone ahead and ripped the video to a WMV file. I've got two files, linked below. The first one is the original footage of The Flying Gimps performing Helmet's Unsung, the audio on this is horrible, but it's the original recording, I'm going to have to say the lack of quality is due to the positioning of the camera in front of the bass player's amp/speakers.
http://christoc.com/video/TheFlyingGimps-Unsung-93.wmv 18.4mb
The second video is what we should have sounded like! I've dubbed in the song from Helmet over the video.
http://christoc.com/video/TheFlyingGimps-UnsungDubb-93.wmv 19mb
UPDATE: I've moved them to a server with much better...
Tickets for The Phantom Of The Opera went on sale for it's St. Louis stay this morning. The show will once again be at the Fabulous Fox theatre here in St. Louis. I've purchased two pairs of tickets for a show on the 18th of June. Should be a good time! Though I'm not sure how many times I've actually seen the Phantom of the Opera? I think this will be the fourth time, and second time at the...
Google even tells me so!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=excellent+programmer <--currently 5th on the search results for excellent programmer.
I will be number one, I will be the most excellent programmer of them...
It looks like I (Chris Hammond) am back with the Cincinnati Reds again!
I still have some of the Chris Hammond rookie cards from when he started with the league, with the Reds. For more information on Chris Hammond the pitcher, check out...
Are you looking for an Excellent Programmer? You've found him! If you're looking for mad programming skills from an excellent person, you've come to the right place!
(inside...
Coming back from Lexington Kentucky yesterday we stopped just into Indiana for some lunch. We got back on Highway 64 and immediately stopped in a traffic jam. We were sitting there for about an hour. When we finally made it through the traffic causing accident we saw a single Ford Explorer, I saw the passenger window broken, I assumed from rolling over. Apparently it was from gunfire!
Check out the story...
Well, as you may have seen in my previous post, my good buddy Chad Hobson was razzed a little about his lame website, www.chadhobson.com. His response to my razzing was to throw up a little picture, and make a few text changes. Though he's still yet to provide anything functional on his website, he has called me a god, to which I am...
Christmas was good this year! Natalie and I both spoiled each other rotten!
I just installer her new car stereo into the F350. The stock stereo was hurting! It only had AM/FM, no CD or Tape! I got her a nice Sony CD Player for the dash, two new kicker speakers for the front doors, and an XM Roady2 for the must have Satellite radio. There's no Sirius in this household, down with Howard Stern and Sirius Radio! I installed the CD player this evening and made sure everything worked. It's a very clean install, you have to love Crutchfield for including everything you could need to install a radio ordered from them. The new CD player went right in the old unit's place courtesy of the Crutchfield mounting hardware.
I also picked up some fine jewelery from Krekeler Jewelers for Natalie's Christmas gifts. Thanks to Jeff for all the help picking a few nice things out!
Natalie spoiled me with some new Oakleys, a cool North Face Jacket, and the Klipsch floor speakers I'd been asking for! The new speakers sound amazing in front of the 50" plasma! I've ordered the Klipsh C-3 center channel speaker from Best Buy using some great gift cards I received. Sometime later this year I'll get the new receiver and 4 surround sound speakers to complete my new and improved home theater setup.
My parents sent me money to purchase an aircompressor and some tools for the garage, so I was out looking at Sears today. I did realize however, I'm going to need to take the truck next time I go, as the air compressors won't fit in the 350Z!
Thanks to everyone for the great Christmas. Natalie and I spent our first of many Christmas' together, hopefully next year we'll be able to see our parents though, it was my first Xmas away from my family :(
More to come in...
If you're looking for St. Louis Dressage Training check out Natalie's...
Well, it's almost 1am and Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. I'll be getting up and heading back to the grind in the morning. Though this coming week will probably fly by for me. Natalie and I are headed to Vegas Friday evening. I bought a flight/hotel package early last week to take her out of town for the weekend. We leave on the 2nd of December, which is the date we've set as our wedding day for 2006, so this trip will be a little celebration of the year anniversary before our wedding.
I've never been to Vegas, bar a trip with the family when I was 12 or 13, so I look forward to getting to see all the Casinos, and of course see how much money I can come home with! Here's to hoping it's more than I started with! We've also got tickets to see the Blue Man Group, who I've always wanted to see, and Natalie's never heard of. They're at The Venetian, which happens to be the hotel we're staying at.
Other news. The Xbox 360 is going well, solo I've been playing Project Gotham Racing 3, it's got some great online action, and the single player so far has kept me entertained. Head to head I've been playing my future brother-in-law in some NBA Live 06, which is a great game to play when the other guy is in the room. After making a great play you can hit the replay button and rub it in their face. Other than those two games though I haven't touched much of the other software I picked up for the 360. I've also yet to get it working on my network to be able to stream files off my PC. Hopefully I'll get that working, I think it may be related to my PC being on a domain, but we'll see.
More news to come soon, lots going on in the Hammond...
Last Updated: 12/14/2005 15:54 (changed the Yamaha receiver as the previously listed receiver did not meet requirements of TV)
For my annual Christmas list for 2005 I've decided to keep it as a blog post instead of my usual email I send out.
I'll be updating this as I find items, so check back often!
Yamaha Home AV Receiver $1399http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/receivers/RXV2600.htm
Klipsch Floor Speakers $434 (need pair)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6781324&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03044&id=1091101346130
Klipsch 12" 650W Powered Subwoofer $509 (single)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7039527&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03045&id=1099395911174
Klipsch Synergy III 6-1/2" 2-Way Center-Channel Speaker - Black/Titanium Color $329 (single)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6780833&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03046&id=1091101345938
Klipsch Synergy III 5-1/4" 2-Way Dual-Tweeter Surround Speakers (Pair) - Black/Titanium Color $404 (need pair)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6781342&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03043&id=1091101346254
Automotive Floorjack, low profile.
Air Compressor (for garage)
Air driven power tools. Impact, wrench, etc.
Compact Flash Memory Cards (Ultra II, 512mb or higher)
DVDs (wide screen format only, NOT FULLSCREEN)Movies Mallrats
TV Shows Airwolf (I know season 1 is available, more may be available as well)
CDsJohnny Cash The Legend Box Set http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7272319&type=product&id=1458436http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7272328&type=product&id=1458437
Other StuffRed Sox StuffCool Oakley SungalassesOakley Combat BootsOakley...
I posted a few more engagement photos, check them out...
So now that most folks know Natalie and I got engaged last weekend, it's time to tell the story of how it happened.
A little bit of info on this past weekend, Natalie's mother's birthday was on the 7th of October, so we were all headed out to So Cal for the occasion. Her parents live about 17 miles from mine, but by California's roads that's about a 45 minute drive. We, Me, Natalie, her sister, brother-in-law and neice all went out to California for the weekend, to visit with her family and mine.
We planned on everyone going to my parent's house on Saturday at 6:30pm, kind of a family gathering, have both sets of parents meet, and just have dinner and hang out all evening. I however had other plans and had Mom scope out locations on the beach for me a few weeks back. The requirements were a good view of the Ocean at Sunset, easy accessibility, and somewhere that 18 people could watch, without Natalie seeing those 18 people until after I asked her to marry me. Dog Beach down in Huntington beach was the perfect location, with two seperate parking areas so that Natalie and I could park, and walk ~1/4 mile to the sand below the cliffs at the second parking area. So the plan actually was for everyone to show up at my parents house at 5pm, and head down to the beach. Natalie and I got to the house around 4:30 and picked up the Triumph so we could drive down PCH with top down, sight seeing a little was the cover I used with Natalie.
I had to double check on the location mom picked out, as dad early Saturday morning said the two parking locations where too far apart, after seeing they were nice and close to each other I let mom know via a cryptic phonecall we would be in the same location as planned. Natalie and I drove around Huntington Beach a bit, stopping to watchi a few kite surfers (probably the wrong term) and then headed back up to the first Dog beach parking lot. I took her down for a stroll along the beach, all along looking ahead to see if I could see anyone at the rendevous point yet.
We ended up at the point I had planned probably 5-10 minutes before everyone else showed up. Not exactly on time as I had planned, but I think that worked out best as no one was around when we were walking towards where they would all be standing, I was hoping she wouldn't see anyone before I asked her. This whole time Natalie was freezing, the weather the day before had been 83 and sunny, but the weather saturday was getting overcast and windy, probably somewhere near 55-60 with a 15-20mph wind from the ocean. Though, even with the clouds and wind, we had a pretty good view of the sunset, which I had planned everything around, a 6:19pm sunset.
We stood there for what seemed like an eternity, finally the family showed up, I had to wave at them behind my back to get them down to the area near the life guard stand (stand 22) that would give them the best view. Natalie actually asked me if I was waving at someone, I said no, I was just cold and shaking out my hands. :) Once everyone was in position I suggested she put her shoes down, she'd been carrying them since we got to the sand. After a few moments, and her wiping her runny nose from the cold wind on my shirt, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She teared up, not saying a word, in shock. I had to ask her, "well, will you?" to get her to knod yes! I rose and gave her a hug and a kiss and then the crowd cheered, she turned and saw 18 people standing up on the bluff cheering for us. It took her a bit to realize it was all of our families up there watching :).
Everything turned out great, Greg (my brother) and Dad had my still camera and video camera snapping and shooting away the whole time. We walked up to the bluff and took lots of photos together, with all the family in various arrangements. Afterwards we all headed to Mom and Dad's house in Long Beach for a few hours of socializing. It was a great evening, and special thanks to Mom for getting everything together...
Until she does, I'll just blog about her over here, and see if she reads this.
So they finally got a new Camera. I'm surprised it took her dad so long to talk them into it. He ran out after seeing my 300D and had to buy a 20D (I think that was the model he got) putting my camera to shame.
I've now got the 350D (xt) and can't live without it. I took 500 pictures at the dressage show yesterday, some of which are posted over on...
With the announcement earlier this week of the new Rocket Racing League a new community web site for the Rocket Racing League has been put together with Telligent's Community Server.
Check out the Rocket Racing Forums over at http://www.rocketracingforums.com/
There is definitely more to come with the site, they are definitely in the infancy stage just like the new racing series! ...
So, I guess being a small market, stuck in the midwest, it means that the Cardinals get the worst game times!
The first game in the Division Series in Tuesday at Noon, and the 2nd game is Thursday at 3pm. Not great times for working stiffs. I have tickets to both games, and am planning on going to the Tuesday game. We'll see about Thursday, I may sell the tickets to a...
I'm off at the 2005 Solo Nationals, check out the blog over on...
I just got through doing something I haven't done in years! Playing my saxophone! I had Mark (coworker) pick up some reeds at his last drum lesson so I could play again.
I miss it! Now to see if I just keep up with the playing. I used to be really good, but now I'm back into the “I suck” category. I'll have to find myself a music stand and some practice work (will search the net), see if I can't get back into music, which was once my only...
So I've know I needed to replace the rear tires on the Z for a while now, they wore too darn fast, but I'm honestly not sure why. So Thursday I ordered some tires from the Tire Rack, the were supposed to arrive Friday or Monday.
Thursday afternoon we head to Kansas City to see the Red Sox play. Well, long story short, the game sucked, the Sox lost. Right after the game it started pouring rain. I thought, great, this will be fun to drive home in. So we leave the stadium, go the long way out, but avoid pretty much all the traffic in doing so. On 70 and headed for St. Louis. So it's not the funnest of rides, actually pretty scary, holding on the wheel just hoping the backend doesn't stap around on me.
I'm honestly thinking we'll be alright if I can just make it past the storm, knowing it's only been raining for 15 minutes. We end up stopping at exit 28 and crashing in a hotel for the evening, not worth the risk of driving on those tires to try to make it home. So Friday morning we wake up, to more rain. We trek on to Odessa Missouri hoping to find some breakfast, a break in the weather, or some new tires. Odessa is a pretty small down, and none of the tire dealers had anything that would work. So we ate breakfast, and I dropped the tire pressure in the rear tires hoping to gain some traction and make the trip safe. We hit the highway again, less rain now, but the further we go, the more rain we hit.
About 40 miles from Columbia the car gets stupid again, not wanting to stay on the road, so I slow it down to ~40 miles per hour, on the highway, flashers on. We stop in Columbia, and $350 and one hour later I have two new Falken Ziex ze512s from the Sears autocenter, not to mention the money spent shopping in the mall while we waited!
So we leave Columbia, and guess what we found the whole final half of the trip. Sunshine, and not a single drop of rain....
Lesson learned, replace your tires earlier!
Photos of the game up later...
I had an adventure to make it to and from the game on 8/25 in KC, but managed to take a few hundred photos at the game. Please feel free to give me any comments. I'm by no means a photographer, just a guy with a camera, so any tips/suggestions appreciated.You can see the photos here http://chrishammond.com/photos/old/category1068.aspxHere's my story about the darn ride back to St. Louishttp://www.chrishammond.com/archive...08/27/1502.aspxAnd then, of course my 2004 Game 4 World Series...
1200 photos from the event this past weekend.
http://www.solo2.org/gallery/albums/69.aspx
Mostly heats 2 and 4, though a few Heat 3 photos in there as well.
The new camera, Rebel XT,...
Here's Pylon's new playpal,...