Chris Hemp

Winter is Coming – Zenith Zoysia in Falls River Community

Chris — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:42:00 +0000

The grass is finally turning brown. Here it is in transition. Will follow up once it is fully dormant.

Shackleford Banks newest addition

Chris — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:03:21 +0000

Thanks to hurricane Irene, Shackleford Banks has a new addition named Aftermath who was born early due to the stress of the storm. Here he is lounging:

6 Weeks – Zenith Zoysia in Falls River Community

Chris — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:57:43 +0000

Freshly cut and surviving 100+ degree heat for a week. Watered twice during the week.

3 Weeks – Zenith Zoysia in Falls River Community

Chris — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:06:26 +0000

Here is the sidewalk strip after two weeks of watering and its first mow at the end of the third week…

Looks pretty good. We’ll see how this winter fairs. If it goes well we’ll replace the whole front with Zenith Zoysiagrass.

1 Week – Zenith Zoysia in Falls River Community

Chris — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:46:37 +0000

Now that the Falls River Community HOA has approved Zoysiagrass for our lawns, we jumped on it for our sidewalk strip.

Week 1 of Zenith Zoysia from Super Sod at the Raleigh Farmer’s Market.

Lost or Found a Pet in the Triangle Area (North Carolina)?

Chris — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:00:08 +0000

My wife and I found a lost dog on July 4th, 2010. We were lost ourselves after finding the lost dog did not have a collar or RFID chip. It was July 4th and we could see the many fireworks scared it. Our family helped find the owners, but I figured posting this somewhere for future reference would be handy:

Create a found/lost posting in lost & found on: http://raleigh.craigslist.org
Create a found/lost posting at: Triangle Lost Pets (sponsored by Wake County)
Want to check for a RFID chip? Animal Hospitals can read these chips. If it is after hours, this vet is open 24 hours: Quail Corners Animal Hospital
Lost and Found @ SPCA
Leave your phone number with people when asking around the neighborhood (just in case the owners ask the same folks later).
Pet Finder also has alot of information for finding hospitals.
Wait… for any replies (hardest part).

Dell Mini 10v Component Upgrades

Chris — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:53:28 +0000

Recipe for the best diaper-bag companion for a new mom After the upgrades, closing the lid yields 2 second suspends and it also awakens just as fast. Not to mention it has multiple USB ports and SD card reader for offloading and reviewing photos.

Here is dismantled 10v photo in order to install the new SSD and RAM.

The biggest help in the tear down of the machine was one of these: Norton’s universal cleaning stick from CountyComm.

There are many plastic snaps the case uses in place of screws in the keyboard palm rest. The cleaning stick worked wonders in prying those apart without damage. There are also ribbon cables that can be easily separated from the motherboard with it.

Resources for doing the upgrades

Things to do when switching Companies

Chris — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:10:15 +0000

Letter of Separation

State timeline and intentions clearly. It does not need to be overly detailed, but it will go in your file with HR. There are plenty of example letters online for reference.

401k

Decide how to handle 401k, which Clark Howard would say: Roll it Over! Just need to call to see if roll-over is an option.

Benefits

Determine when health benefits from the old Company end and at the new Company begin. If there is any lapse (which is bad) between when your old coverage ends and the new begins, decide on paying for COBRA Insurance which may be offered from the old Company’s health plan. Keep in mind, single-payer insurance can be expensive and COBRA insurance normally is not subsidized due to voluntary separation. If the job-loss is involuntary, COBRA is actually subsidized and pretty economical. Going on a spouse’s plan is an option as well. Typically a job-loss is a qualifying condition for the spouse to update their benefits.

Stock options

If vested but not exercised, and it is beneficial to use them (after taxes, etc), don’t forget about them before leaving!

Vacation

If you have unused vacation and it has already been accrued for the year, ask about getting paid for it.

And lastly, enjoy the adventure

Elemental Designs A2-300 Subwoofer Unboxing

Chris — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:28:24 +0000

My Elemental Designs A2-300 subwoofer showed up earlier in the month. I reviewed it on their website but didn’t think I did it justice. After setting the subwoofer in an initial placement I reran Audyssey. After verifying crossovers/settings I started up Serenity. The opening scene made the wife came running in to see what was up (plus she likes that movie) :-) Initial impressions are very good. I still have tweaking to do, but does that ever finish?

The A2-300 was ordered on January 24 2010 and showed up March 9 2010. It could have been 2 weeks sooner. My order took a little longer than normal because during production eD changed the roundover appearance from 0.5 to 0.75 on the cabinet. I was interested in the new style after seeing the forum post photos. In my order I also had requested that both the spiked and hourglass feet be included due to flooring/placement concerns. Either way the feet are sturdy.

See the unboxing gallery after the jump.

Post Fail

Chris — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:50:35 +0000

Blogging is hard. Sitting down and working through the writing process takes time and that time commitment has been the main problem. My plan is to make posts from any timeframe rather than what just occurred in the recent now.

This plan should open up post possibilities from the past, present, and future WordPress luckily has a way to set the publish date so the post can represent when those things actually happened.

It at least should make for an interesting Internet Archive history over time.