Chris Hammondhttp://www.chrishammond.comRSS Feed for Chris Hammond120Unblocking MSN Messengerhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/55/Unblocking-MSN-MessengerAs 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...Mon, 09 Aug 2004 14:23:00 GMT0a438cd9-755d-4cfc-b148-25c44615c1c9Places to visit, California!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/60/Places-to-visit-CaliforniaYou 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...Wed, 18 Aug 2004 10:43:00 GMTe0f8308a-25e6-418b-82f7-caa207d66105Metallica's Some Kind of Monsterhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/63/Metallicas-Some-Kind-of-MonsterRuss 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...Fri, 20 Aug 2004 09:14:00 GMT25ff6160-b07f-436a-ac98-fb27f5029819Wow, what a few hours difference can make in a day.https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/66/Wow-what-a-few-hours-difference-can-make-in-a-dayToday 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...Mon, 23 Aug 2004 08:34:00 GMT29575605-5ff7-46e3-8762-6b6f37fd7b3cHandy manhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/67/Handy-manWell, 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...Tue, 24 Aug 2004 07:47:00 GMT9b2a070e-9501-4c71-9261-5ee921006c1eGoogle Me, Chris Hammondhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/75/Google-Me-Chris-HammondWhat 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 :) ...Sun, 29 Aug 2004 11:29:00 GMT5ae72768-0cf1-4e2e-90d3-e48a8475399fExciting weekend. Blue Angels at the STL Air Show, and Greg won lots of races!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/87/Exciting-weekend-Blue-Angels-at-the-STL-Air-ShowExciting 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...Mon, 06 Sep 2004 20:31:00 GMT1adcfcbe-dae4-4459-9fba-f015b337e972Being a Red Sox fan in St. Louis during the 2004 World Series...https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/131/Being-a-Red-Sox-fan-in-St-Louis-during-the-2004-WHere 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!...Sat, 23 Oct 2004 12:08:00 GMT653e351f-f12b-479a-b837-d9c8bce8448cFortune Cookie for the Soxhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/138/Fortune-Cookie-for-the-SoxWe 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...Wed, 27 Oct 2004 12:55:00 GMTce8e1dbb-f74b-4abf-a12e-365fee2cf9ecPhotos linkhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/142/Photos-linkSince 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....Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:42:00 GMTbcc0214f-c720-41c8-9157-4ac24dbcf6afUpdate for the past week?https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/145/Update-for-the-past-weekWell, 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...Thu, 04 Nov 2004 07:53:00 GMT6ad63930-0827-43db-9e2a-9812d6ea83eeWhat a weekend Part 1. Papa Roach at Mississippi Nightshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/148/What-a-weekend-Part-1-Papa-Roach-at-Mississippi-NWell, 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...Mon, 08 Nov 2004 08:55:00 GMT6f4d979c-ef55-4797-8669-bf6ff4f35574Life Update 11-24-04https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/157/Life-Update-112404Well, 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...Wed, 24 Nov 2004 08:33:00 GMTb4396c24-f002-443a-9185-351ba0909bd7Red VS Blue Chronicleshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/169/Red-VS-Blue-ChroniclesSo 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...Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:30:00 GMTe882fb43-c7b2-42bc-a0bb-a550a71cec8cAnnouncing TwoPimps.com!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/186/Announcing-TwoPimpscomWell, 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...Wed, 22 Dec 2004 07:54:00 GMT14483a0f-5bf4-4f39-b158-47bd45bcc903Merry Christmas to my friends!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/189/Merry-Christmas-to-my-friendsI'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...Sat, 25 Dec 2004 16:04:00 GMTc363c77b-5096-4d0a-b659-5e4c52a2e337Sunset Photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/191/Sunset-PhotosTwo 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...Thu, 30 Dec 2004 01:08:00 GMT1503bd8e-91b6-4adb-acb7-b104cbe4fae6Happy New Year!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/192/Happy-New-YearHappy New Year to all! Here's to a great 2005! Resolutions to come later this...Sat, 01 Jan 2005 01:10:00 GMT3abc3a9f-3d2c-4860-8eab-f27d7cdb822eJim Miramontes and Erin Farnandhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/194/Jim-Miramontes-and-Erin-FarnandFriday 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...Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:38:00 GMTd73f398a-cd6e-4306-a7fb-000acee10819Charter Highspeed Internet Service in St. Louis Missouri, Get SBC DSLhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/197/Charter-Highspeed-Internet-Service-in-St-Louis-MiIf you're looking for for high speed internet service in St. Louis Missouri I would HIGHLY recommend not using Charter! I was a BIG fan of charter up until Yesterday. They instated a $10 increase in their service to try to get people to use “more” of their other services. I  think that's a big crock of poop. A buddy of mine just switched to the SBC DSL Pro Packaged and is getting 3.5 down with 512k up, so I think I'll be switching over to SBC very...Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:12:00 GMT3bac5055-379b-40b0-8ec3-14df341a0f5aThe Aviator, I highly recommend you see it.https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/201/The-Aviator-I-highly-recommend-you-see-itI went and saw The Aviator last night, and I highly recommend everyone go see it! It is by far one of the best movies I have seen in a long...Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:14:00 GMTc67be6c4-f9a4-44ec-b875-37712247597cBoston, Great place to visithttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/203/Boston-Great-place-to-visitThe family is headed to Boston this weekend for Auntie Carol's retirement party. Mom gets there tomorrow morning, I get there tomorrow night, Dad and Greg get there Saturday AM. Looks like we may have company there, I guess I'll have to keep my terrorist hunting eyes open to try to save the...Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:11:00 GMTa963ee7f-2423-41f1-abc2-3580bf2016fbInternet Flight Checkin, gotta love flying Southwest!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/205/Internet-Flight-Checkin-gotta-love-flying-SouthweYou have to love Southwest Airlines! I now don't have to get to the airport near as early as originally planned. I'm taking only carry on items, and was able to check in over the internet, so I have my Group A boarding pass. SW boards by groups, A being first, B and C being latter, and since seating on Southwest is first come first serve, you need to have an A pass to get a decent seat. That generally means getting to the airport two hours early, but not if you check in online! Rock on with your bad self...Fri, 21 Jan 2005 09:37:00 GMT3740f790-6d94-4346-b479-f8355ad21aefBoston Blizzard 2005https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/206/Boston-Blizzard-2005The family is all stuck in Lexington Massachusets right now due to weather! Fun fun fun. Check out some of the photos of all of the snow we got, I'm not sure how much we actually got, probably 2 feet, some of the drifts are up to 4-5 ft though, kind of neat. http://www.chrishammond.com/gallery/albums/67.aspx I was supposed to fly out this evening. Now I'm scheduled to leave around Noon...Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:18:00 GMT2226e0e0-976f-495e-8b92-3edf6a5318feWeb sites for Friends!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/213/Web-sites-for-FriendsWell, somehow I have gotten back into doing web sites for friends! I'm currently working on 3, already setup one for Brian, setup one for Greg but need to tweak it to give it a good look and then train him on how to use it. I've also gotta set one up for Faye, but hers will have to wait till she buys a domain name, and so I can come up with a look/feel for her site as well. I'm using the new CommunityServer release from Telligent Systems for these sites, it allows for blogs/galleries/forums all in one app, and once I get the skinning down the sites will be pretty...Wed, 02 Feb 2005 10:44:00 GMT746967e5-3a3c-4480-ba8b-af8d40dcfc8bChesterfield Football Associationhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/214/Chesterfield-Football-AssociationIf you are looking for youth football in Chesterfield Missouri than look no further than the Chesterfield Football Association. Chesterfield Football Association has been fostering youth football in the West St. Louis County area since 1974. Formerly Bonhomme Junior Football League and a part of the St. Louis JFL, we changed our name to Chesterfield Football Association (CFA) in 2005 as we move to our new location in Chesterfield Valley and join the Gateway Football...Sat, 05 Feb 2005 07:04:00 GMT35d9fa54-34cd-4a9b-aebe-8d3c5832bedeWonderfulCrazy.comhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/224/WonderfulCrazycomI got the domain and web site setup for Faye and James on Thursday evening. She even made her first blog post and uploaded some pictures already! I think she get's her geekiness from her...Sat, 12 Feb 2005 18:00:00 GMT7c7302fe-ab15-421d-9070-837bf03fd418Happy Valentine's day!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/225/Happy-Valentines-dayHope everyone has a beautiful Valentine to celebrate...Mon, 14 Feb 2005 06:41:00 GMTea17dbd4-cee3-4fbd-b416-93f4cf6df660Blog more Fayehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/226/Blog-more-FayeSomeone needs to blog...Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:53:00 GMT656aaa9b-c2d2-409e-8112-c919f03f5ed9Gary Brolsma in Numa Numa Dancehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/227/Gary-Brolsma-in-Numa-Numa-DanceCheck out Gary Brolsma in this great dance video entitled Numa Numa...Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:52:00 GMT81887a9d-6c5f-4935-8db1-ad32e8361871100 Acre Wood Photos, 2005https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/231/100-Acre-Wood-Photos-2005We went to the 100 Acre Wood this past weekend. Ended up driving down to Potosi to watch the 3/10ths of a mile stages (ran the same course twice), it was like watching a rally cross, just with better developed cars. I took a few photos of this stage, you can find them here. I also took a lot of video from those two stages and the final 10th stage. I hope to have those posted here in the next couple of...Mon, 28 Feb 2005 07:26:00 GMT4992550d-bd57-4dc4-acf6-1eae79e74dc0Star Wars Episode 3 Trailers!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/238/Star-Wars-Episode-3-TrailersWow, it looks like there's a new Star Wars Episode III 3 trailer out. The traffic over on solo2.org ROCKETED through the roof on Saturday! Google adsense $$ is pouring in! Alright, not really all that much, but a noticable difference! Here's the StarWars.com link for the trailer. My blog post on solo2.org about the Episode III Fan Made...Mon, 14 Mar 2005 21:31:00 GMT1c2682b6-7d03-4c44-b67c-07c07a5f4fe0Best Commercial of all time "I'm Batman"https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/239/Best-Commercial-of-all-time-Im-BatmanKen got me thinking, and I remembered the best commercial of all...Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:25:00 GMTce0d7062-90a2-42e8-955e-b6567a786827St. Louis VB.Net User's Group meeting tonighthttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/241/St-Louis-VBNet-Users-Group-meeting-tonightI'm doing a Intro to dotnetnuke presentation at the St. Louis VB.Net user's group meeting this evening. Not sure how many folks will show up for the event, but I'll be there nonetheless. I'll most definitely be keeping the presentation trimmed down a bit more than the one I did in Springfield back in January. I tried to cover way too much information in the time alotted and went over by about an hour. Hopefully I can drum up some interest to get a dnn User's Group started here in STL so I can get working on...Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:11:00 GMT87faa457-69c7-498e-a31e-1a7f5da61a48Reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/252/Reading-Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-GalaxyI bought Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over the weekend. I started reading it last night, haven't gone very far, only read a few pages, but I'm interested in seeing what the book is all about, I actually got one book that is a collection of 5 of Douglas Adam's stories, all I believe revolving around the same characters, or at least similiar in story. Bryan always talked about this book in high school, I should have read it long ago. I'm really interested in reading the book and then seeing the movie that comes out later this...Tue, 29 Mar 2005 07:45:00 GMT2238da98-dc5d-4ef5-82c3-3c225293bdf4FuzzyHalo.com for all your custom jewelry needshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/264/FuzzyHalocom-for-all-your-custom-jewelry-needsHave you checked out FuzzyHalo.com for all your custom jewelry...Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:24:00 GMT41a65a32-8d45-4fdf-9cf4-2b4200e2aef3The new Krekeler Jewelers web sitehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/266/The-new-Krekeler-Jewelers-web-siteIf you are looking for Krekeler Jewelers you need to check out KrekelerJewelers.com. Jeff and Sheila have launched a new web site with the help of Christoc.com. If you're looking for jewelry, diamonds, gold, silver and engraving, in Eastern Missouri Krekeler Jewelers is the place to...Mon, 02 May 2005 08:34:00 GMT3d55399b-ef4a-4bf2-a26e-15441718daffBrand New SCCAForums.comhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/267/Brand-New-SCCAForumscomThis post is mainly for search indexing, but have you seen the new SCCAForums.com? After over a year of putting it off waiting for good software (communityserver) and over a month of hard work, I got the new SCCAForums.com launched this past weekend. Check it out! Many more enhancements are...Tue, 10 May 2005 09:47:00 GMTfbf01fc1-c6a5-4bf9-8184-93334878f458Natalie Hammond (Ottiger) Dressage in St. Louis Missourihttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/269/Natalie-Hammond-Ottiger-Dressage-in-St-Louis-MiIf you're looking for a dressage trainer, clinics or private lessons in St. Louis Missouri and the Midwest check out Natalie Hammond (Ottiger) Dressage at NatalieHammond.com. Natalie is the premier professional dressage rider in the St. Louis area and is available for clinics and private lessons. Use the contact form on her web site for more...Tue, 17 May 2005 11:14:00 GMT3a5779dc-e63e-40c8-9624-50f7d2fa0671So far this weekendhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/271/So-far-this-weekendSo far this weekend has been a good one. Last night we setup the SoloPerformance.com store at the Midnight Madness drag races out at Gateway. I shot some video of the StreetFighterz out there having a blast on their bikes. You can download it here, but be warned, it's 25megs and in Windows Media format. Today Rabid and I headed to Kansas City to watch the Cards game. It was amazing seeing so many Cardinals fans there, I  think it was easily split 50/50 between red and blue in the stadium. The ride back was wet. Somehow a big storm front totally missed KC but covered 70 the whole way back. ...Sat, 21 May 2005 23:51:00 GMT90282470-2f72-4124-a028-38d4458542b4"Smokey going westbound on Manchester"https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/273/Smokey-going-westbound-on-ManchesterI'm sitting here reading email this morning and I hear a CB radio, it get's louder. And louder. It's right behind me. I look around, nothing. It's coming from the sub on my stereo, then it moves to the left speaker on my computer, and then back to the sub. Freaky. 5 seconds later, it comes back. He's going westbound on Manchester.... That was some weird crap this morning, if I believed in ghosts I would be wondering, but I'm a scientific mind and positive it was just a weird electronic signal that some how went through the sub and came back...Fri, 27 May 2005 07:54:00 GMTdf6538a0-6ad2-46df-8c64-b1e1ca7b3ce7R&S Racing SoloPerformance.com Midiv Event #2https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/276/RS-Racing-SoloPerformancecom-Midiv-Event-2Check out the great photos that Chad got of my last run at the Midiv Solo II event this weekend. Here is a link to all of the shots he took. http://www.solo2.org/gallery/albums/57.aspx And a...Tue, 31 May 2005 23:02:00 GMT3d1257db-241c-4215-a60a-2a08616cc6b9Natalie Ottiger at the SLADS show this weekendhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/277/Natalie-Ottiger-at-the-SLADS-show-this-weekendNatalie is competing at the SLADS (St. Louis Area Dressage Society) show this weekend. I'm going to go out there and take some video and photos of the competitors, see what all I can turn...Tue, 31 May 2005 23:24:00 GMT9efeab20-6ade-409b-b784-dc434e6f3c4fSt. Louis Area Dressage Society Photos up soon!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/279/St-Louis-Area-Dressage-Society-Photos-up-soonFor those of you who recieved business cards with information about photos taken at the SLADS show this past weekend I'll have those up over the next few days. I only took photos of a few select people and am working on some new software for the website to allow me to password protect photo galleries, allowing only those intended to view particular photos. I'll have that software finished over the next couple of days and then will send out usernames/passwords for you to access your photo gallery. I also have some video taken from Sunday of people, I'll send information for that out as well. Before I can send you your username/password though I need your email address! So use the contact form here on this site to send me your email address and I'll email you later this...Mon, 06 Jun 2005 09:18:00 GMT690517c9-42b0-44a1-b285-cede267fa447Unlocked another MPX200https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/281/Unlocked-another-MPX200Since my MPX200 is about to die, the sound cuts out quite frequently, I picked up Dave's old phone this weekend. I just unlocked it today so that I can use  it with my current t-mobile service. If you're looking to unlock an MPX200 check out http://www.imei-check.co.uk they provided great/quick/cheap service and the phone is unlocked! I have now done a hard reset to reflash the phone and get rid of all Dave's old info on there, time to get it up and running. How do you do a hard (master) reset? Remove the battery, hold the blue button down, put the battery back in and press the power button. You'll be prompted from...Wed, 08 Jun 2005 09:27:00 GMT098d579b-6f89-4011-a7bf-7d568ed5d486CjhControls Web Controls Release for Community Serverhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/285/CjhControls-Web-Controls-Release-for-Community-SerI've released the first version of the CjhControls for CommunityServer 1.1. You can download the Zip file from here. This first release just has the Cjh:RssWriter writer control included. I'll have another release next week with a few more options on board. Check out the readme file for instructions on how to use the control. Cjh:RssWriter allows you to place a control on a page that will read an RSS feed and an XML Transformation file and then display the RSS feed on the page based on the transformation...Wed, 15 Jun 2005 10:25:00 GMTf9698d66-73c9-4c7f-a3b5-760a4291e911California Earthquakeshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/286/California-EarthquakesWell, I'm in California for my reunion, and it's the earth quake season! Faye, Janelle and I are headed up the coast today in the rented Wrangler. Hopefully we don't get any quakes that cause any of those silly landslides that California seems to like to get as...Fri, 17 Jun 2005 09:56:00 GMT110a1430-1a36-46c3-91f6-7cd3ec84411bBack from the reunionhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/287/Back-from-the-reunionWell, I'm back from my 10 year reunion. Lots of pictures and stories to post! I'll have some up on...Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:35:00 GMT1424dff8-a434-460c-95d3-fd16f40ce33eVanden High School Class of 1995 10 Year Reunion Photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/288/Vanden-High-School-Class-of-1995-10-Year-Reunion-PI've posted some of the photos I took from the reunion. You can see them here at the Vanden High School web site I setup a while back. I'm hoping to get copies of photos other folks took at the reunion as well, and post them on the...Tue, 21 Jun 2005 11:40:00 GMTa952d854-3696-4700-a160-74d60dc1a64eBack from Salina Kansashttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/293/Back-from-Salina-KansasWell, I made the trip back from Salina Kansas yesterday afternoon. 410 Miles in 5 hours and 10 minutes. You do the math. Stopped at the toll booth to get my ticket, then at the next booth to pay my toll, didn't have to stop for gas or any other breaks to the whole trip home. The weekend was good, hot 95-100 all 3 days, but at least Salina gets that good Kansas wind, it kept the heat bearable. I ended up winning my first Divisional of the year, and only the second win I've had over Andy this year, the first being the Walnut Ridge National Tour. We do it again this coming weekend. We'll be headed to Peru Indiana for the National Tour out at Grissom. Looking forward to making that trip again, it's quite a bit shorter than...Mon, 27 Jun 2005 11:46:00 GMTf23fad26-90b7-44cb-934f-ea8cb0e02a3cIn the hills of Tennessee/Georgiahttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/299/In-the-hills-of-TennesseeGeorgiaSo I'm posting this, dialed into AOL on my laptop, using my cellphone as the modem. Just a quick post to see how this goes. We're on our way to Ocala, it's been a LONG drive, with a LONG way to...Mon, 04 Jul 2005 09:14:00 GMT218676b1-7523-483c-a7d0-669f976c976fKrekeler Jewelers, Farmington, Missourihttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/312/Krekeler-Jewelers-Farmington-MissouriFor some reason I haven't blogged about Krekeler Jewelers in a while! So here it is, a blog post! I visited Jeff a few weeks ago to get some of Natalie's jewelry repaired. I still need to head back down there and pick some of it...Sat, 23 Jul 2005 14:49:00 GMTc9313ae8-e4ce-4ace-9ea2-af2ba782adfbSaw Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/313/Saw-Charlie-and-the-Chocolate-FactorySaw the movie last night after getting back from the Midiv Divisional #4 in Kansas City Missouri. The movie was a blast, I laughed, cried, had a good time. Okay, I didn't cry, it's not a sad movie! The divisional went great. I beat Andy again, so we now both have 2 wins, with the 5th and final divisional coming up in Topeka in two weeks. The division championship is tallyed with your best 3 of 5 scores, so I have to finish in either First, or 2nd with Andy 3rd or lower. We're off to Denver next weekend for another National Tour. That'll make 4 National Tours and 5 divisionals this year, far more than I've travelled out of town for events than any other year, but we're doing well, so we need to keep it...Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:19:00 GMT7c042e51-12d5-4f02-8f17-145337c1cef2Off to Denver!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/317/Off-to-DenverI'm getting up in 4 hours to drive to Denver for the SCCA National Tour. I have to pick Andy up at 4am. Will post more info when I get to...Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:54:00 GMTfc590bdb-3ddf-4378-9fce-10313eb7eadeTo Denver and Backhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/319/To-Denver-and-BackAndy and I made it to Denver and back. I went 1800.8 miles since I filled up with gas on Thursday night, we left Friday at 4am. The car did well, Andy was in the lead after the first day, but slipped to 2nd on the second day. I finished in 7th both days. Not a great showing for myself, though Andy picked up $200 from Kumho's contingency $$. I took ~800 photos, I'll link those later as there are some server problems right now. I also broke the Digital Rebel, so I'm headed to Best Buy this evening to see how they are going to handle the warranty on that...Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:11:00 GMT715f8a3f-c4e0-4df0-8769-dd247fb2b57ePylon has a new buddyhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/322/Pylon-has-a-new-buddyHere's Pylon's new playpal,...Mon, 08 Aug 2005 07:27:00 GMTf44a60d3-1925-4d8a-93b5-e825220e954ePictures from this past weekendhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/323/Pictures-from-this-past-weekend 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,...Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:35:00 GMT8fa670ea-f26e-4fab-9c87-644ff60464a4Natalie Ottiger and Florian Qualify for the 2005 Markel Young Horse Dressage National Championshipshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/324/Natalie-Ottiger-and-Florian-Qualify-for-the-2005-MNatalie Ottiger and Florian qualified for the 2005 Markel Young Horse Dressage National Championships in Lexington Kentucky in...Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:15:00 GMT04eb0f9e-811c-4dfd-9915-9d9355b3ac8eStories of a trip to Kansas City.https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/337/Stories-of-a-trip-to-Kansas-CitySo 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...Sat, 27 Aug 2005 11:20:00 GMT4bcf9f5f-a39b-4b1c-94ae-39524a0efb24Red Sox VS Royals, Photos from 8/25https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/338/Red-Sox-VS-Royals-Photos-from-825I 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...Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:48:00 GMTaca310fc-f04f-4d58-b1e2-f61931ee1eccLong Time no Playhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/342/Long-Time-no-PlayI 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...Sat, 03 Sep 2005 14:37:00 GMT1825c7ac-27b8-42ac-b900-07fa0d00f8592005 Gateway Cup Photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/347/2005-Gateway-Cup-PhotosPhotos from the University City portion of the Gateway Cup are posted. http://chrishammond.com/photos/2005_gateway_cup/default.aspx I only took Cat 5, Masters, and Cat 4...Mon, 05 Sep 2005 22:22:00 GMT72a4fcfd-1bf4-4ac5-812b-df033fab938bKatrinia and the November Learning Communitieshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/348/Katrinia-and-the-November-Learning-CommunitiesCheck out the blog over on the November Learning Communities site by someone from the Trinity school which was damaged heavily by Hurricane...Wed, 07 Sep 2005 21:05:00 GMT96ef2718-df64-48ec-9231-db605a9a23d4Solo Nationalshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/349/Solo-NationalsI'm off at the 2005 Solo Nationals, check out the blog over on...Sun, 11 Sep 2005 20:41:00 GMTb67b0ddd-ca1b-44ac-89df-e3be38c9dcaf2005 Nationals Photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/350/2005-Nationals-PhotosPhotos from Topeka are posted. Thanks to James Elterman for taking most of the 5th heat photos while I was...Sun, 18 Sep 2005 17:49:00 GMT959ec01e-3e06-4f36-8b4e-624e5b6b3be1St. Louis Cardinals Playoff Schedulehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/357/St-Louis-Cardinals-Playoff-ScheduleSo, 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...Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:53:00 GMT7349dce3-9d11-4921-a9a7-7374690542f4Rocket Racing Forums now available!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/360/Rocket-Racing-Forums-now-availableWith 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! ...Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:42:00 GMT8d423e39-a8d7-443e-907e-aecb1750a14eFaye needs to enable comments!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/361/Faye-needs-to-enable-commentsUntil 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...Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:59:00 GMT86bf3124-0b62-4954-a3e1-569278022793I lost a friend today.https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/363/I-lost-a-friend-todayToday, Jenn G and I had it out. So we are no longer friends. She was actually pathetic enough to name her puppy Yankee Jeter. So we've decided to part ways as friends, I guess baseball loyalties lie to...Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:30:00 GMT0e152b23-16d4-4493-8b9d-018a0fccb5faMy Christmas List 2005https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/390/My-Christmas-List-2005Last 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...Wed, 23 Nov 2005 10:38:00 GMTd340257b-fb57-4392-ae27-0434c79372adThanksgiving Weekend is over!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/394/Thanksgiving-Weekend-is-overWell, 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...Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:54:00 GMT3ea08d00-029e-4e2b-9d84-602579aab026St. Louis Dressage Traininghttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/400/St-Louis-Dressage-TrainingIf you're looking for St. Louis Dressage Training check out Natalie's...Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:32:00 GMT451b43c4-9a69-456c-b1e1-1a4f46b83c13My good friend Chadhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/419/My-good-friend-ChadWell, 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...Sat, 21 Jan 2006 14:56:00 GMTc306bb08-3a77-4608-a996-16f6d30838b8Highway Chase in Kentucky and Indiana yesterday!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/420/Highway-Chase-in-Kentucky-and-Indiana-yesterdayComing 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...Sat, 21 Jan 2006 15:09:00 GMT85d6bd38-09d3-4c05-b8dd-4fc8d52b682aExcellent Programmer!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/422/Excellent-ProgrammerAre 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...Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:39:00 GMT3c8860ea-277d-4299-a2ac-887680d2ba21Chris Hammond back with the Redshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/424/Chris-Hammond-back-with-the-RedsIt 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...Tue, 24 Jan 2006 15:39:00 GMTd64c8c63-0395-4824-bfd9-a130f4b44a43Another good youtube, Matchbox Chasehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/425/Another-good-youtube-Matchbox-Chasehttp://www.youtube.com/?v=kEKLKWtGWxo Thanks to Russ for sending me that...Sat, 28 Jan 2006 12:58:00 GMT8440750c-b269-4b2d-a174-8aa81756f806Nice sitehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/428/Nice-siteAmazing site, I tell...Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:21:00 GMT89b11f22-50f2-471e-a932-59feeb4e0291The Phantom Of The Opera at the Fabulous Fox in St. Louishttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/431/The-Phantom-Of-The-Opera-at-the-Fabulous-Fox-in-StTickets 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...Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:25:00 GMT5bf7a649-7b5b-436e-b243-e57e7d3f60b6ABS Laptops Suck, Always Better (Worse) Servicehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/451/ABS-Laptops-Suck-Always-Better-Worse-ServiceJust a quick blog post for a friend. Don't ever buy an ABS Laptop! Their notebooks suck. He's had it for 2 months, now, well, let's say he's owned it for 2 months, and had it for all of about 2 weeks. He just got it back today, and guess what? It still doesn't work! So this is a warning, ABS Laptops suck! The real irony is ABS stands for Always Better Service!...Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:36:00 GMT8a9f451e-48e9-40e7-9fa7-258dfa34a576Cardinals Tickets and Wheelchairshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/471/Cardinals-Tickets-and-WheelchairsSomething tells me if I had purchased the tickets available on stlcardinals.com today that only came up as wheelchair tickets, when I showed up at the same I wouldn't have been allowed in! For some reason wheelchair seats kept coming up as available for purchase, but I didn't buy any, not wanting to get screwed by wheelchair seats. I did get a single ticket for opening day, 2 cubs tickets for 4/21, and 2 tickets for Replica day on...Mon, 03 Apr 2006 11:11:00 GMT552aa7bf-2e2f-4bfa-816d-92da6a68d898Life updates!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/476/Life-updatesI 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...Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:48:00 GMT118c58cb-763b-4718-a713-b1e7e4754043Opening Day Photos Posted!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/477/Opening-Day-Photos-PostedI 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...Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:44:00 GMTff448876-e03d-4e58-a588-99413f2bb6aaMy boy Chadhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/486/My-boy-ChadWell, I decided to check out Chad's website again. And, not to my surprise, he hasn't done anything with it! I am still a...Thu, 11 May 2006 09:04:00 GMTa2076cc9-fb9e-42b3-8431-bd92cf4ffa8bOh yes, yes I am!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/593/Oh-yes-yes-I-amChad thinks I'm not his God anymore. But I beg to differ. Without my assistance he wouldn't have his site up and running. So, yes, yes I...Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:25:00 GMT76be066e-79e3-4c5c-86c1-3f1c493c5a4eOld friends from young years...https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/643/Old-friends-from-young-yearsSince I was up here in Maine, I figured I'd shoot my old friend Dustin Price an email. Dustin and I went to school together in Riverside from 6th to 9th grade before I moved to Indiana the summer after freshman year. He lives down in Dover New Hampshire so I took a drive down there last evening after finishing up with the day's training class. We played poker for a few too many hours then snapped these photos. I say a few too many hours because I was winning till about halfway through, then my game fell apart! See you in April...Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:22:00 GMT8d813443-eb94-4410-ae37-4ee4851f9444ASP.NET AJAX Beta 2 - Getting your old Atlas-based AutoCompleteExtender controls to work under Beta 2 using VB.Net by Chad Hobsonhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/646/ASPNET-AJAX-Beta-2--Getting-your-old-AtlasbasedMy good buddy Chad Hobson has created his first meaningful technical blog post to help the masses. He had some issues when upgrading to Asp.Net Ajax Beta 2 for his AutoCompleteExtender controls and took the time to create a helpful post on how to make those controls work. Be sure to drop Chad a comment on his blog as well, tell him how cool he is in that mean looking photo. Posted from...Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:46:00 GMTc9e7aa96-75c4-40d6-af66-853b8f2e9a26Angry angry Manhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/694/Angry-angry-ManChad Hobson is an angry angry man over there. Though, if you're looking for a DotNetNuke Developer in Lexington Kentucky be sure to drop him a...Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:03:00 GMT587db914-9136-461a-9636-ca1a8c2629d4Tweaked the site a littlehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1074/Tweaked-the-site-a-littleSo I made some minor adjustments to the site tonight. I made the header at the top 62% smaller, taking up less area on the page. I also changed some of the photos around. My good buddy Chad Hobson got pulled from the headers for now. He might make an appearance again in the future.Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:15:23 GMT747332dc-140a-4e44-89e7-b1e79bafa2c4Carole Bizzack foundation Scholarship programhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1106/Carole-Bizzack-foundation-Scholarship-program<p>My good buddy <a href="http://www.chadhobson.com/">Chad Hobson</a> has launched a new site, here's a blurb about it.</p> <p>"The late <a href="http://www.carolebizzackfoundation.com/" target="_blank">Carole Bizzack</a>'s family have launched a new website for the Memorial Foundation they've created in her honor.  Check out a good cause <a href="http://www.carolebizzackfoundation.com/" target="_blank">here</a>."</p>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:44:29 GMTa023a0d0-b381-4d5d-9680-4d756234af1dDotNetNuke Kentuckyhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1135/DotNetNuke-Kentucky<p>Is <a href="http://www.chadhobson.com">Chad Hobson</a> the only <a href="http://www.chadhobson.com">DotNetNuke Developer in Lexington Kentucky</a>? Well according to google he isn't even the top one anymore! Nice work Chad, nice.</p>Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:05:36 GMT4e013a56-1aca-41da-851b-930f4eaed674I AM an excellent programmer! I really am!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/427/I-AM-an-excellent-programmer-I-really-amGoogle 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...Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:55:00 GMTcfa5fd76-0ca3-401a-aecb-a05007fcdf47Chronic Future lines in my facehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/17/Chronic-Future-lines-in-my-face<p>I went to Best Buy last night with Russ and picked up <a href="http://www.chrishammond.com/tabid/54/itemid/13/Chronic-Future-Time-and-Time-Again-video.aspx">Chronic Future's</a> <em>Lines In My Face</em> 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, $10.98.....</p>Fri, 16 Jul 2004 09:39:00 GMT926f0825-b650-4034-a1ed-d151fc3a2d94Who&rsquo;s ugly mug is that?https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1634/Whorsquos-ugly-mug-is-that<p>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!</p> <p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470462574?ie=UTF8&tag=chrishammondc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470462574">DotNetNuke 5 User's Guide: Get Your Website Up and Running</a><img style="margin: 0px; border-top-style: none! important; border-right-style: none! important; border-left-style: none! important; border-bottom-style: none! important" height="1" alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=chrishammondc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470462574" width="1" border="0" /></p> <p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470462574?ie=UTF8&tag=chrishammondc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470462574"><img height="240" alt="DotNetNuke 5 User's Guide: Get Your Website Up and Running" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518KOWTc55L._SL500_AA240_.jpg" width="240" border="0" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>Now, I must get back to writing.</p>Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:47:10 GMTac7000db-5e3f-4581-9911-6e9c2d8a5d06Status of the DotNetNuke Book, deadline 1 downhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1641/Status-of-the-DotNetNuke-Book-deadline-1-down<p>So December 15th was our first book deadline. <a href="http://www.patrickrenner.com/" target="_blank">Pat</a> and I met early Sunday morning and went through both of our chapters making some reviews. He ended up submitting his chapter on the 15th, mine was submitted late due to some pretty major overhauls we made to the structure of the chapter. I found the first chapter hard to write, I think the next few chapters will be easier. Chapter 1 was the intro/overview of all things, so it was hard to try to wrap all that information up into basic content that our intended reader will be able to understand.</p> <p>We’re waiting on feedback from our editor for the submitted chapters, hopefully we’ll get some of that before our next deadline of 1/15, otherwise we feel like we’re writing blind. We’ve already started on the next chapters for the deadline, I’m dealing more with actual <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">DNN</a> content in these chapters, so I think they will be much easier to write now.</p> <p>More updates in the future.</p>Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:07:59 GMT3ef1025a-ff6a-4e57-9f63-15216365a960Wrapping up the final chapter on our DotNetNuke Bookhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1709/Wrapping-up-the-final-chapter-on-our-DotNetNuke-Bo<p>So it’s just after 1am on Monday March 9th, 2009. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.patrickrenner.com/">Pat Renner</a> and I have wrapped up and submitted the final chapter of our <a title="DotNetNuke" target="_blank" href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/">DotNetNuke</a> book. We are far from complete on the whole book writing process, but we are at least at the big milestone of being done with the majority of the writing of the book.</p> <p>Now we begin the process of editing our chapters that we are getting back from the editor and technical editor. I got the first chapter back for author review before my trip to Orlando last week but had to set it aside and focus on finishing up the writing process before starting on it. Tonight (Monday) will begin the process of the author review and cleaning up the materials so that they can be sent off to the production department.</p> <p>The book writing process is interesting, fun, painful, a great education experience. I’ve learned so much about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/">DNN</a>, but more importantly about how to communicate what I know about DNN in an easy to understand manner. At least I hope I have! I guess we will find out when people start reading the book!</p> <p>I’ll post more about my trip to Orlando later this week, I wish I had stayed another night to watch the Kepler launch, but because the book wasn’t finished I had to get home.</p>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:17:50 GMT859ff835-d7d5-4af7-be16-89ed88be12bbEight years ago today I was supposed to meet Dale Jr.https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1822/Eight-years-ago-today-I-was-supposed-to-meet-Dale<p>8 years ago today I was sleeping in my hotel room in Topeka Kansas, getting ready to wake up and drive to the Kansas Speedway to meet Dale Jr. A <a target="_blank" href="http://mywifeisfaster.blogspot.com/">good friend of mine</a> was working for DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) at the time doing engineer stuff (that’s what he is) and the team was at Kansas Speedway doing testing for upcoming races.</p> <p>I was in Topeka Kansas for the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.scca.com/event.aspx?hub=3&event=13555">SCCA Solo Nationals</a> (which are now held in Lincoln Nebraska, this week, I’m sad I am not there), and had an off day, one in which I wasn’t racing or working. So I was excited to get to the opportunity to go up to the raceway and meet Dale Earnhardt Jr. I had just left my gig at The Sporting News a few months earlier, and I was still into NASCAR at the time, I had even been writing a column with my good buddy Roger Kuznia where we went <a target="_blank" href="http://i.tsn.com/headtohead/">head 2 head on a Nascar topic</a> each week (don’t judge me based on what you read!).</p> <p>Unfortunately, that morning I woke up with the TV on and it ended up being September 11th, 2001. It was a rough morning for our nation, and the world. I ended up staying at the hotel for a few hours, watching all the coverage, internally thinking to myself, what if we’re at war, what is going to happen next. Eventually I got myself out of the hotel and headed off to the speedway to try to meet up with Dale Jr., but as I was just about to get on the highway I got a call from James, my buddy, saying that they were headed home, because the airlines were all shut down they packed up the semi trucks and all hit the road back to North Carolina.</p> <p>So I headed down to Forbes Field in Topeka where the Solo Nationals were held, and hung out there until we were all kicked off the base for a couple of days. Gas prices in Topeka skyrocketed, above 4 dollars a gallon at some places, grocery stores were flooded, I remember I went to the liquor store that day to get some whiskey. A couple days later the Solo Nationals continued, in a much shortened version.</p> <p>8 Years later, the Solo Nationals are still going on, the world is still reeling from the impact of 9/11, and I’m married to a beautiful lady living in Colorado. Things have changed!</p> <p>Here's a photo of my car at Nationals in 2001</p> <p><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1198/674613560_2a2f291991.jpg" alt="My old Camaro by you." title="" width="500" height="333" /></p>Chris HammondFri, 11 Sep 2009 10:13:20 GMT41246692-7901-4ddd-93ba-13fb3a6b0704Friends and Family World Series Letterhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/141/Friends-and-Family-World-Series-LetterIf 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...Chris HammondThu, 28 Oct 2004 10:40:00 GMT03878184-dc9f-45cc-9d29-b4a08d2c01f2Going back to Cali, to Cali, to Calihttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1877/Going-back-to-Cali-to-Cali-to-Cali<p>It’s been a year since I was last in Cali, and I’m heading back! What’s the big deal? Well I half consider California home, even more so than Missouri even though I lived in MO for 14 years. I spent 6-9 grades, and 11-12 in California, in both Southern and Northern California. I got married in California, my brother lives in California, and quite a few of my friends do as well. So any chance I get to go back I look forward to.</p> <p>This time around I’m heading out to the Bay area for a few days of DotNetNuke Training with a client, I’ll be there later tonight training Tues thru Thursday, and then flying home on Saturday. I’m going to visit with some friends from high school Friday night at a little dinner get together I’ve arranged. I’m also hoping to check out the <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">DotNetNuke</a> offices in San Mateo on Friday while I’m there.</p> <p>I’ve yet to decide what camera(s) I’m taking with me, I’d like to take both DSLrs but I don’t want to carry them both. If I had a flash attachment for the 5D Mark II I would leave the old Rebel at home, but I currently don’t, so I need the Rebel if I want to shoot any flash shots of the gathering Friday night, though I guess I could just use the point and shoot for that.</p> <p>It looks like 2010 is going to be another busy travel year, I am headed to Rhode Island next week for 2 days of DNN consulting out there as well.</p> <p>Stay tuned for some pictures of my Cali travels later this week. </p>Chris HammondMon, 04 Jan 2010 11:46:03 GMT4caf194e-d065-4342-9560-64d3a34ec102A California Updatehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1904/A-California-Update<p>So things have been really hectic lately, so blogging has taken a backseat. So here’s a brief update on what’s been going on. I’ve been in California for almost three weeks now, minus a few days back home in Colorado for my Birthday. Work at <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a> is going great, I enjoy being back in an office again (after working at home the past 7 months). </p> <p>I’ve been staying in a hotel this whole time, switching locations after my trip to Colorado so that I could test how I would handle commuting. So far so good with commuting. I’ve been driving about 26 miles each way the past few days, which takes about 40-45 minutes around 8am. On Friday leaving 40 minutes earlier it only took me 25 minutes, so I am going to give that a shot again Monday to see what traffic is like.</p> <p>Finding a place to live hasn’t gone as smoothly as I would have liked. We were surprised to learn that the rental market on the peninsula is competitive! So far we’ve only actually applied to one place, not getting selected. There are a number of places available, though most of them aren’t what we are looking. We’ve come to accept that we’re going to have settle for about half the square footage of what we have in Colorado. I found a couple of places today that I think are interesting, one that I am really hoping works out. I’ll post more info if it does!</p> <p>I’ve decided I’m going to sell my 18’ car trailer. We towed it out here to California and it’s in storage. I figure I am not going to be racing much over the next year, so holding onto the trailer isn’t something that is going to be necessary and paying storage fees on it doesn’t make too much sense. I’m going to put it up on Craigslist later this week.</p> <p>Back in Colorado the house is still on the market. We’ve had 14 different showings in the 6 weeks it has been on the market. We’re hoping that something happens with it this month, we’re working on lowering the price right now. If something doesn’t happen this month we are likely going to rent the place out for a year or two. I figure that putting some money into a mortgage will be better for us than simply paying rent out here in California for a few years and not getting any equity out of things.</p> <p>Yesterday I got to have a little bit of fun, after being frustrated with the housing search. I went to dinner with my best friend from 8th and 9th grade when we lived in Riverside California. Back in the day Jaysen and I were inseparable. I have only seen him a couple of times since we left Riverside back in the summer of 92, the last time being a few days before Natalie and I got married in 2006. I met him and his girlfriend in San Francisco last night for dinner. We had a great time catching up. I spent the afternoon driving up the coast and taking photos.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4453481582/"><img border="0" alt="Jaysen and Myself" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2786/4453481582_0abbf77e38_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p> <p>I have a ton of photos to go through, though I am not sure when I’ll get to them! Here are a few that I have uploaded. (<a href="http://www.chrishammond.com/photos/view/setdisplay/setid/72157623150474858.aspx">you can see more on my California 2010 page</a>)</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4449427301/"><img border="0" alt="Golden Gate Bridge" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4449427301_48661b818b_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4453474208/"><img border="0" alt="Golden Gate Bridge" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4453474208_10fc0146d5_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" /></a></p>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:59:44 GMT03ab233c-7858-454c-807c-df7437f829d1Do I know you? Do I want to?https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2055/Do-I-know-you-Do-I-want-to<p>So this post is not meant to be rude, even though it might come off that way, so here it goes.</p> <p>Do I know you? Do you know me? Do you want to know me? Do I want to know you?</p> <p>These are questions I ask almost every day. Every time someone sends me an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, or a Facebook Friend request, or an Instant Messenger buddy list add, I wonder: Who are you? Do I know you? How do you think you know me? </p> <p>For some people it’s easy. Yesterday I got a LinkedIn request from Natalie Hammond, that’s an easy one, my wife, though I had to think about accepting it (just kidding) I knew who it was. </p> <p>Today I got a linked in request from another person, and for the life of me I have no clue who they are. Looking at their profile doesn’t tell me anything except their name and where they are/went to school. Other than that, no hints as to how I might know that person, or if I don’t already, why I might want to know them.</p> <p>So a word of advice, and a small request. When you send me a LinkedIn request, or Facebook friend request, please include a brief message, remind me who you are, or intrigue me as to why I should know who you are.</p> <p>That being said, Facebook is for friends, family, and past classmates. LinkedIn is for professional connections, so if you are a <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a> user feel free to send me a LinkedIn invite (with some info about why), but don’t bother with Facebook friend requests please unless we are already friends.</p> <p><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishammond">LinkedIn Profile</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/christopherhammond">Facebook Page</a></p> <p><a href="http://twitter.com/christoc">Twitter</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/">Flickr</a></p>Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:23:14 GMTcbec0bea-c82b-44e3-8efd-05b4cdd4be0bHaven&rsquo;t missed the weather in St. Louishttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2109/Havenrsquot-missed-the-weather-in-St-Louis<p>So today was our second full day here in St. Louis, and I tell you what, we sure haven’t missed the weather here since we left. It’s been rainy, icey, and sleeting pretty much since we arrived. Between icy winters and hot HUMID summers there isn’t much to like about the weather here!</p> <p>Today Natalie and her sister and the kids went to the mall for a while. I headed over to Best Buy to check out the new Motorola Xoom tablets. I must say, it was hard not to walk out of there buying one (two actually because Natalie wants one too) but I held off. I’m curious to see what happens with pricing here in the next few weeks. I have a feeling with the IPad2 announcement likely next week that the Xooms may be changing things a bit, we will see.</p> <p>This evening we went by SoloPerformance and saw Dave Beth and Sam there, then headed down to Bill’s house for dinner with Kathy and the kids.</p> <p>It was a good day, great to see old friends.</p>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:54:19 GMT0169c165-4136-40d2-9fe9-65278181a69dOld friends from young yearshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2110/Old-friends-from-young-years<p>Those of you from Vacaville may recognize the title here, those of you who aren’t, maybe you’ve heard of a little band called Papa Roach.</p> <p>Anyways, today in St. Louis I ran around a bit. I went to lunch with a guy who got me where I am today. My first real boss after college, though I also worked for him before I left college. Bobs as I like to call him (Roberts is his first name) is the guy who got me into the .NET world, and without that I wouldn’t be doing what I am today, I am very thankful for all that he has done for me over the years. Though I really should thank my dad, because had they not played golf one day back in summer 99 I wouldn’t have met Bobs to begin with!</p> <p>After lunch I ran up to UMSL (University of Missouri St. Louis) to see if I needed to do anything while I was in town for my final course that I’m waiting for the grade to come through on. I had to fill out a change of graduation date form, but other than that there wasn’t anything else to do.</p> <p>This evening we went to a little party put on at the Nelson’s house. It was great to see a lot of my fraternity brothers and their wives and all the kids running around, We had a little graduation party, and it even included cake! I hope my Final score was enough to get me to graduate, otherwise I probably need to give the cake back! Unfortunately we had to cut short from the party as Natalie came down with some sort of stomach bug this afternoon, hopefully she feels better tomorrow.</p> <p>Tomorrow is my last full day in St. Louis, we’re planning on heading out to a barn so the baby can see her first horse, hopefully they scare her and she never wants to ride them! Daddy can’t afford two ladies in the family riding! <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile" alt="Open-mouthed smile" src="http://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/752ddc002f33_12EDA/wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile_2.png" /></p>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:46:00 GMTc97f3d1d-c7a2-4afc-a428-d1356db3a69bWhat&rsquo;s going on this week?https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2285/Whatrsquos-going-on-this-week<p>So where I Chris at? I’m doing this all week!</p> <p><a title="What I'm doing this week" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/17726343@N00/6095588258/"><img border="0" alt="What I'm doing this week" src="http://static.flickr.com/6207/6095588258_11a0abcc25.jpg" /></a></p> <p>I’m at the 2011 SCCA Tire Rack Solo National Championships in Lincoln Nebraska. Stay tuned to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157627551307852/with/6095587688/">Flickr</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/christoc">YouTube</a> for videos and photos from throughout the week!</p> <iframe height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z_F6XSXpTM4" frameborder="0" width="420" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:13:47 GMT22ecd6f2-6a73-4057-814a-1126862edb99Chris has gone awol, nah he&rsquo;s just crabbing in Half Moon Bayhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2286/Chris-has-gone-awol-nah-hersquos-just-crabbing<p>So if you are anything like my mother you probably are wondering what the heck has Chris been up to lately? Well, I am not AWOL, just busy!</p> <p>I spent last week in Lincoln Nebraska at the SCCA Solo National Championships, what’s that? Car racing. How’d I do? eh, not worth mentioning where I actually finished, but I did get to see friends I haven’t seen since Nationals in 2008, the last time I attended. I couldn’t really believe that I hadn’t been since 2008, but that is the truth, with the move to Colorado in 2009 and then California in 2010 I just didn’t get to go. I’ll have more blog posts/videos/photos from Solo Nationals in the coming week.</p> <p><a title="Day 247 of #Baby365 by chrishammond, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/6115289932/"><img alt="Day 247 of #Baby365" align="right" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6182/6115289932_7789ccbfdf_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" /></a>When I got back from Nationals I spent two days catching up with Natalie and <a href="http://www.jacquelinehammond.com" target="_blank">Jacqueline</a>. Sunday we headed into San Francisco to get out of Half Moon Bay and see some things. We didn’t do much, but had a nice brunch in the Presidio, drove around Golden Gate Park, and walked around near Fort Mason. Here's a photo from a lookout point at the Presidio</p> <p>This morning we went to Olivia's first birthday party in San Carlos. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157627605070436/">Check out some of the photos from the party</a>. Saturday Natalie and Jacqueline went to Sophia’s birthday party as well, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157627480810879/">photos here</a>.</p> <p>After the birthday party today we had a few folks over for a crab fest. A couple of weeks ago I had a crab dinner at a local restaurant and was kind of grumpy that I paid $22+ for half a pound of crab, so I decided that we should have our own crab dinner at our house. We had the Strohls (4), Jeff Seeling (1) and Heyward and Julia (2) over for dinner tonight. I picked up some crab from the Half Moon Bay Safeway. It was $7/lb, cooked, cracked and cleaned. I had gone to the Half Moon Bay Fish Market on Sunday to see how much it was there, I thought it was a good deal at $10/lb cooked/cleaned. I am glad that I went to Safeway this morning before the party to check things out though, the <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/half-moon-bay-fish-market-half-moon-bay">Yelp reviews for the Fish Market</a> made me start to have second thoughts. Safeway turned out to be great for this dinner.</p> <p>Basically we took the crab from Safeway, put it into foil lined and covered pans with a small amount of water in them, and put them on the grill for 6-9 minutes. I think they turned out great. We had 5 crabs, probably 12 lbs total, and it seemed to cover the 8 of us, though I think only 5 or 6 of us actually ate crab, in the future I’ll likely do 1 per person if we do this again. I only took 2 photos tonight, was too busy cleaning and having a good time with friends!</p> <p><a title="Crab dinner" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/17726343@N00/6119334580/"><img border="0" alt="Crab dinner" src="http://static.flickr.com/6195/6119334580_7092b5f157_m.jpg" /></a> <a title="Crab dinner" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/17726343@N00/6118789173/"><img border="0" alt="Crab dinner" src="http://static.flickr.com/6081/6118789173_75bdf7d601_m.jpg" /></a></p> <p>This week I have a lot of catching up to do on work! It was great to have the week off, but I feel like I am now way behind at the office!</p>Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:53:34 GMTe01b458b-1583-4acb-a35a-f6497e554a63Friend's Blogs and Websiteshttps://www.chrishammond.com/FriendsHere are some links to blogs of friendsChris HammondTue, 19 Feb 2008 23:37:38 GMTfc691671-16a8-48e3-82d3-6cc6356e655aA quick personal updatehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/967/A-quick-personal-updateSo you might have seen all the DotNetNuke posts lately, but what about just a Chris and Natalie post? Well here it goes! (you can follow along with some of the photos here on Flickr) Natalie and I had a blast in Las Vegas this past week. We went on the 3rd, a day before her Birthday. Her parents came out on the 3rd as well so we got to spend time with them for a few days before the DNN conference started up. During those few days we went and saw "KA" at the MGM, took a trip out to the Hoover Dam. After the Hoover Dam we took a quick jaunt North of Las Vegas looking for Red Rock, only to figure out an hour north that Red Rock was actually West of Las Vegas, so we turned around and headed back towards LV. It turned out perfect though, our little detour had delayed us enough to see the most brilliant sunset I've ever seen from Red Rock. Monday I had a DNN Core Team lunch, and then came back to the hotel to go with Natalie and meet Rich and Henry (two owners of Engage Software) and their wives for dinner and drinks. We repeated that process on Tuesday evening after the conference as well. Wednesday evening Natalie and I went to a gathering of people at Mix In Las Vegas, the restaurant on the 64th floor of "THEHotel" which is attached to the Mandalay Bay. The dinner was great and I must once again thank Tracy from www.t-worx.com for the most excellent evening. Thursday evening a large group of us, 17, got together for dinner. We met up in the bar at the Mandalay Bay and then decided to take Taxis down to the Venetian. Somehow we all actually made it to the same place and got to eat dinner together at one restaurant. It was a great time and I got to talk to Erik quite a bit, hopefully talking him into trying to get me to speak at SDC in the Netherlands next September! One can only hope :) Friday Natalie and I took off by ourselves for once. We went to Grand Canyon West, with the main goal of getting out onto the SkyWalk (www.grandcanyonskywalk.com). It was roughly 120 miles from the hotel, though took 2.5 hours as there was 14 miles of dirt/gravel road. The funny thing (well one of them) about the road, this 14 mile stretch was County maintained, as soon as we got to the Indian reservation grounds the road became paved... We were in Minivan for the trip, it was what you might call dirty at the end of the day. Lucky for the Minivan it didn't have a handbrake, just a footbrake/e-brake, otherwise I would have had an easier time getting the tail end of the car to swing out around the corners. We had a good time at Grand Canyon West, even though I have a little beef with the operation they have running there. The SkyWalk is very cool, and you essentially have to pay $79/person to get out on the SkyWalk. They don't allow you to take any personal items out there, for fear of you dropping them on the glass, or worse over the edge into the Canyon below. So you can't take a camera out there with you, they of course will gladly take your photo for you and sell it to you for $25/each. We ended up buying 2 photos, so we got the third one free. But they can only print them, not give them to you on CD, or even email them to you. The prints weren't what I would acll the highest of quality. I'm hoping I can email the staff there and try to get better quality photos from them. Friday evening we returned back to Vegas and went to see "O" at the Bellagio. It was another great show, definitely worth the investment to go see if you're in Vegas anytime soon. Saturday morning we headed back to the airport and flew back to St. Louis. We got home around 7pm and pretty much crashed. Sunday I headed out with Nick and went hunting. It might be deer season here in Missouri but I was hunting bugs, one particular blue one that I hear rumored to still be around Alton Illinois. Our hunt was not fruitful, we didn't find my old Super Beetle, but I will keep hunting. Sunday evening we joined Dominique and Colby for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to...Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:49:00 GMT03edd252-6f14-4467-8170-b3f30c6538d3Developer charity, Collared shirts for Will Strohlhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2282/Developer-charity-Collared-shirts-for-Will-Strohl<p>If you don’t know <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Blogs/tabid/825/BlogID/239/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Will Strohl</a>, you are one of the lucky ones. He’s an annoying guy, a total lunatic when it comes to <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a>, but even that can’t fix his flaws.</p> <p>You can however help fix one of the flaws of the “Mighty” Will Strohl. Will has a problem, he can’t afford collared shirts. Seriously. if you’ve ever met him you know this.</p> <p>Check out this public service announcement for Will.</p> <iframe height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j-6_vr6j7Bo" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <p>Now, here’s a challenge for you, two of them actually.</p> <p>1) Bring your un-needed collared shirts (size XL) to <a href="http://dotnetnukeworld.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">DotNetNuke World</a> in Orlando in Florida. Will needs them.</p> <p>2) Make your own video for Will! Actually, provide your own audio track. I created the video and audio in about 30 minutes. I’m looking for people who can come up with a better audio track for the video, come up with something funny, something sad, something crazy, I don’t care! Just <a href="http://cjh.am/strohlc" target="_blank">download the original WMV file</a> (right click, save as) for the video and remove the audio, add your own. Then upload it to YouTube or Vimeo, and tweet the link to the video with #Collars4Will in the message. <a title="http://cjh.am/strohlc" href="http://cjh.am/strohlc">http://cjh.am/strohlc</a></p> <p>Disclaimer: this video was generated out of necessity, <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/25425463" target="_blank">check out the video that Will made for me a while back</a>.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dnndaily/~4/W8czdKEF68w" height="1" width="1"/>Chris HammondWed, 17 Aug 2011 15:53:53 GMTe6ab7408-25d7-4657-9dcf-dca291d2d66dTime lapse video from the garage salehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1749/Time-lapse-video-from-the-garage-sale<p>So here’s the time lapse video from yesterday’s garage sale. No audio, so turn up your Zune software if you need music to go along with it, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fgw%26field-keywords%3Dzune%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=chrishammondc-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">what, you don’t have a Zune? You should!</a><img border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; margin: 0px; border-top-style: none !important; border-left-style: none !important" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=chrishammondc-20&l=ur2&o=1" /></p> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z_dkhviAlcw?HD=1&wmode=opaque" style="border: none"></iframe></span></p> <p>What do you think? I think I need to get a power cord for the camera (if they make one) to prevent the times where I missed video because the battery ran out and I had to switch.</p> <p>UPDATE: apparently I did add audio to it... uhhhh</p>Sun, 10 May 2009 23:58:53 GMT7e8a3d01-ad3e-445c-b84e-f8a2803f5939Steve Ewing from The Urgehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1078/Steve-Ewing-from-The-UrgeSo last night 7 of us went out to dinner at Llywelyn's in Webster Groves. I wanted to go see Steve Ewing from The Urge playing there, and I figured I'd drag along a few guys from work so Natalie and I would have some people to talk to. It was a great time, and I must say, Steve is an amazing singer, if you get a chance to see him playing somewhere do. In person he sounds just like the recordings except with a little more crowd enticement there. Check him out at www.steviee.com I'm also proud to say I'll be using some of his music in upcoming videos for www.corvettez06.org and www.project240z.com Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:09:09 GMTb48ddcf7-59aa-4362-974e-4cc15d7e4a9aOur engagement adventure!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/366/Our-engagement-adventureSo 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...Chris HammondWed, 19 Oct 2005 14:05:00 GMTf5eab5c4-51cb-4123-abe3-0d0192bdc14cEngagement Photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/369/Engagement-PhotosI posted a few more engagement photos, check them out...Chris HammondWed, 26 Oct 2005 22:32:00 GMTf4722918-1ee0-44f4-b9a5-f43eacb41ec412 Hour Trip to Atlantahttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/256/12-Hour-Trip-to-AtlantaSo we decided a 7am departure was a lot nicer than a 4am departure, so we headed out. Gas mileage dropped quite a bit, 19-21mpg with the trailer in tow. Stopped a few times, had lunch just south of Nashville, then I see it. The Jack Daniel's Distillery signs, I HAVE to go, I've never been, always wanted two. Two hours later we've hit the distillery and gift shop, picked up some shirts, and a newly released 1954 Belgium Gold Medal bottle. Didn't get to take the tour, will have to do that soon! Back on the road, who would have thought Chattanooga Tennessee would have a rush hour? This is some beautiful country, we both commented on living here sometime. Made it to atlanta just after 7pm, forgot about the time change. Got registered, dropped off the trailer, walked the course three times. Pretty simple course, easy to remember, but will catch you if you take it too lightly. We'll see how tomorrow...Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:49:00 GMT65cad397-0c8d-46a6-a0d5-b0c9eecaaff7OMRSCCA Practice Eventhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/233/OMRSCCA-Practice-EventDave and I drove down to Springfield Missouri for the 3/6 autocross held at Price Cutter Park. I drove the Z down, he drove his Maxima, hauling the tires for the Z down there. Ended up being a good event, quite small, so we got plenty of runs. Dave coned the hell out of the car, as he always does driving my cars. I was I believe 2nd FTD, I couldn't seem to drop the second I needed to get FTD, though I know the car was more than capable of doing so. More on the car/week later...Mon, 07 Mar 2005 07:45:00 GMTdb02c659-6600-4d78-9497-796cd0bb4b0dTwas an audio Christmas!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/405/Twas-an-audio-ChristmasChristmas 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...Mon, 26 Dec 2005 23:05:00 GMTc66797b8-68b9-4ff7-bd69-540716639287Sold, and gone....https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/607/Sold-and-goneWell, my 2003 350Z Enthusiast model is officially paid off. It is also no longer my car!My buddy Jasyn "Dozzle" Randazzo took a train from Kansas City to St. Louis last night and drove the car home today. I talked to Dozzle this afternoon, he made it back to KC and was out and about showing the car off to friends.Have fun with her Dozzle! She's a good ride! Now that the 350Z is gone I hope to spend more time on the 240Z to get that going soon. posted from...Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:54:00 GMT30630ae1-2cc4-441c-a204-774b14c810792011 So Farhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2084/2011-So-Far<p>So what’s gone on so far in 2011? Let’s recap on this 33rd day of the year.</p> <p>So far I’ve kept up with my blogging commitment, every day, You can find a list of all the blogs at <a href="http://www.chrishammond.com/">http://www.chrishammond.com/</a></p> <p>I’ve managed to post 33 photos of myself for <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157625593520079/">#Flickr365</a> and 33 photos of Jacqueline for <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157625597966645/">#Baby365</a>. The baby is growing! She’s up to 13lbs 13oz last time she was weighed and in the 95th percentile for height at her age, a jump from her last measurement.</p> <p>I’ve managed to <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/494/Autocross-Video-from-NorCalUFO-13011.aspx">autocross the 350z</a> once already this year, and have at least 2 more events coming up this month, with a possible 4th as well.</p> <p>The Super Bowl is coming this weekend, I’m ready for it, we’re going to finally get up to Fairfield and see some friends we haven’t seen in probably 8 months!</p> Chris HammondThu, 03 Feb 2011 01:21:11 GMT63cbbf75-6c36-46c6-86e6-1fe1cfda2d49