Added some more domains to the portfolio today...last ones for a while, most likely!

AllMyShows.TV
FantasyHQ.TV
BradleyAndLori.com
LoriAndBradley.com (obviously, these two will go for a TON...lol...)
NFLChampion.com (love this one)
MarinersWorldSeries.com
PrivatizedHousing.com (gotta have Actus represented)
StarWarsSeven.com
GoogleStalker.com
USIMC.com
USIMO.com

I'm really starting to enjoy this domain stuff...there's so many different possibilities in turning these investments into revenue streams that its easy to get excited about it!

Back in Nashville after spending Thanksgiving in Birmingham. Of course, even before heading down to Birmingham, I was one of the brave souls camping out for an XBox 360 outside of the Best Buy down in Cool Springs. I arrived at 8:15, after my weekly tutoring session with the 8th grader I tutor in Algebra, expecting to survey the scene and report back home to grab what I needed and maybe catch some Z's before heading out in the early AM.

Unfortunately, didn't happen that way. When I arrived at Best Buy, I discovered a crowd of about 30 people were already there...and with rumors of only 40 units to sell, I couldn't go home because that 30 people could have easily become 60 by the time I could get back. So I called up Lori, who graciously brought me extra clothes, water, and food ... and the 13 hours of waiting began.

It didn't take me long to realize it was REALLY REALLY REALLY COLD (about 20-25 degrees) and so I came up with an idea on how to beat the system. I ordered two pizzas ("Yeah, I need you to deliver to the Best Buy PARKING LOT. Yes, I am one of those XBox camper people.") and I sold the first pizza for $15 to immediately make my money back. I ate four pieces myself (half of the remaining pizza) since I was really hungry, and I took the remaining four pieces and gave two to the person in front of me and two to the person behind me in line. In exchange, I got them to agree to hold my place in line until the store opened at 9 AM the next day. I then went and got in my car and slept an incredibly-comfortable-in-comparison-to-the-alternative 5+ hours before getting up around 5:15 to make sure I was there when the Best Buy management arrived to distribute vouchers. When I got the voucher that officially marked my space in line, of course it was back to the car until the store opened just before 9.

The system itself is incredible. I picked up NBA Live '06 and Perfect Dark Zero, which are both titles I have enjoyed so far. I've started a season as the Cavs in Live and LeBron's dumping in 40+ per game in highly-realistic fashion...and the Perfect Dark game is great too. I want to get more into the multiplayer of that one on the newly revamped XBox Live...

Naturally, I've heard how crazy I am from all sorts of people for waiting out there for that long. Of course it's crazy! That's what made it so enjoyable. I like getting caught up in events like this every now and then.

It was certainly abundantly clear how far the demand for video games has come just in my lifetime. After observing the rabid fans in Nashville that were in line with me, to reading online about everything that happened across the country that day for the system launch, I'm convinced the XBox 360 will go down as a key event in video game history as the day that video games took over the living room for good.

The complement of "simple games" for people who aren't hardcore gamers can be had on Microsoft's innovative XBox Live Marketplace for a couple of bucks apiece, with current launch offerings of a dead-on port of Joust, as well as Robotron, Smash TV, and other old-school titles for cheap. Somebody in Seattle's been listening to the marketplace, obviously.

And for those hardcore gamers, the games are about to take a big step up. Perfect Dark Zero is one example of a game that has so many different gameplay options that it will make your head spin. The complexity of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which will be the first major RPG to hit the system and will arrive in Q1 '06, will be staggering compared to any current title on any system or even the PC. The return on consumer investment stands to be much greater than before, in terms of hours of gameplay per dollar, despite ratcheted-up cost per game from $49.99 retail to $59.99 for most titles on the system.

I could go on and on about video games and the game industry, so I'll cut that off there and address some other topics quickly:

- Headed to New York next week for Fortune's Innovation Forum. All sorts of big-time speakers there (Fred Smith of Fed Ex, Billy Beane of the A's, Starbucks chief that was the one who made the decision to bring music into the chain, #2 at Target, etc., etc.). I am EXTREMELY excited about this event. I'll also be paying a visit to the Darwin exhibit at the American History of Natural Museum (the one that's been in the news a lot lately) which Ellen, Ben's girlfriend, helped create. Toss in a critical iTest fundraising meeting on Thursday before my flight out and you've got a packed three-day period.

- Speaking of the iTest, I wholeheartedly welcome John Hart to my Board of Directors, effective immediately. (I also am simultaneously installing myself as Chairman of the Board of AHSIMC as we expand into computer science and debate over the next year.)

There isn't anybody I'd rather have participate in this thing than John. Though quite obviously brilliant, I can find brains anywhere. It's his passion and heart that will hopefully rub off on our operation and make it better. There isn't anyone I know or am even aware of that lives at a greater deficit between what he deserves and what he has had happen to him, and it's his persistence and rare degree of fortitude that I so crave to make a characteristic of our fledgling enterprise.

After all, what I seem to fail to communicate to people I discuss this project with is the fascinating reality that the subject matter of our tests is increasingly peripheral to what we do. Our goal of opening up the world of competitive academics to every single student in the United States - FOR FREE - is so unprecedented that in order to position ourselves for victory, we've got to have the right personnel in place to shape the decisions that will guide us to becoming the organization we can, and will, become.

This is a step in the right direction. AHSIMC is instantaneously a better organization with John aboard.

- The Titans take on the 49ers Sunday in the "Battle for Matt Leinart." The loser of this game will likely draft at or near the top in the 2006 Draft, and will be able to select the consensus #1 pick out of USC. (Assuming, of course, the Texans luck up and win another one before the end of the season.) The Titans have been steadily improving throughout the season (though not visible in their record) and should wipe the floor with this flimsy, undisciplined group of West Coast also-rans...as long as penalties don't kill them.

- After reading an article earlier tonight on web aggregators and the profit some folks have made from portfolios of domain names by getting click-through revenue this way, I have opened up some of my own portfolio to one of the more well-known aggregators, Sedo.com, to see if I can make any money this way. Sedo.com opens my domains up to a wide market of buyers who might be interested in purchasing one of my domains (the biggest domain sale of the year, of website.com, was done through these guys earlier this year for $750,000)...so I look forward to seeing what becomes of this.

The domains I own that are listed through the service and populated with ads are:

LeBronVsTheWorld.com
Number1Pick.com
Number1OverallPick.com
NumberOneOverallPick.com
StatusQuotient.com
Sphyramid.com
ItsSanAndreasFault.com
TenYearReunion.com
TheToyTest.com
WorthAMillionBucks.com
Oltomato.com
Myoltomato.com
SanFranQuake.com
USInvitational.com
LetTOPlay.com (no ads on this one)
VGHOF.com (stands for Video Game Hall of Fame)
myVGHOF.com
TheseThingsAreSellingLikeHotcakes.com
UnitedStatesOfMath.com
UnitedStatesOfScience.com


Off to bed. Until next time...

From: Gaurav K Guliani
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 4:39 PM
To: bradley@ahsimc.com
Subject: Re:

did you even watch the games? the white sox went 11-1!, tying the best
postseason record ever since the introduction of the wild card. they
swept the boston red sox and the houston astros. they had 4 complete game
victories in a ROW in the ALCS with 4 different pitchers (which has NEVER
been done). they didn't lose a single road game from the end of
freakin september on. they led their division from opening day to the
playoffs and won the world series, only the 5th wire-to-wire team in major
league baseball history.

you can use the fourier series, the fibonacci sequence and goldbach's
postulate all you want, but there is something to be said about dominant
pitching, clutch hitting and solid defense. if this team had more than
20,000 fans at the beginning of the season and a real star player along
the lines of derek jeter, albert pujols or even steroid monkey bonds, you
would be seeing "Fever Pitch II" at a theatre near you starring john
leguizamo as ozzie guillen. in fact, whether or not they are the luckiest
team, they certainly might be the most underrated world series winner in
the history of baseball, because no one outside of chicago or houston
watched the world series.

(by the way, i can't believe i just defended the white sox...)

On Fri, October 28, 2005 12:58 pm, bradley@ahsimc.com said:
>
> here at work eating lunch...
> i've already seen one article on it, but you'll likely see more...stating
> that the White Sox are the "luckiest team in the history of baseball."
> the basis for saying this is that their actual win total during the
> regular season (99) was 11 (!!) wins more than their "Pythagorean"
> estimate of 88 (nothing to do with triangles or anything, but its a
> predictor of wins based on team runs scored, team runs given up, and other
> factors).
>
> also, i would argue they got extremely lucky by facing the astros and not
> the cardinals, which matched up a lot better against them.
> so why not revel in it? the cubs will win it someday, long after the
> Mariners run off a dynasty of 6 or 7 World Series titles in a row.
> starting next year.
>

One of my favorite investments are internet domains. I use them with the iTest as a weapon, claiming domains that we might presumably use someday, but until then they help direct traffic to our site while warding off others who might try to copy what we do. I consider some of these domains some of AHSIMC's most prized assets as a business.

I haven't mentioned BondsCheated.com here in a while, but I hope to get around to renovating and updating the site before the 2006 MLB season. Bonds picked up where he left off in the last month of this past season, and he should be good to break Aaron's record next year...and I would love to see our site get some substantial traffic as a result of the rioting that will ensue!

I bring all of this up to say that I just picked up two new domains that I intend to build websites around sometime before the end of 2006, when I get a moment or several:

VGHOF.com will become the Video Game Hall of Fame. While GameSpot kinda has a Hall of its own, it doesn't really emphasize it at all and the games are nominated basically whenever they feel like putting a new one in there. Other than GameSpot's half-attempt at it, a Hall of Fame doesn't really exist. Ideally, I'd like to get a core group of industry professionals that could vote every year to decide which nominated titles would get in, but a more realistic approach would just be for me to decide...lol. It would certainly be quicker! Either way, its a nice domain and a project I will enjoy putting something together for at some point, as I still maintain that one day I will be a major creative force in putting together a video game.

OLTOMATO.com is the weird one so let me explain. Lori's alarm clock woke me up the other day to two radio guys talking about an ULTIMATUM, but then started calling it an "ol' tomato." I have no idea what in the hell they were talking about with this, but I then thought about the domain and putting together a site of some sort. I can see the tagline being something like "Click Here Or Else" or "[Fill In The Blank] Or Else," which would of course be the ultimatum...or ol' tomato...or something.

I mean, if someone can turn the GOOGLE domain into a gigantic billion-dollar juggernaut, you gotta think that Ol' Tomato has to be worth maybe a million or two. :)

Seriously, though, I need ideas for this site. I probably won't get around to doing anything with it until (at earliest) January '06, but fire me an email at bradley@bradleymetrock.com if something hits you. If its good, I'll cut you in, promise!

This has been a very, very good day. Put to rest a task at work that had been particularly difficult to accomplish for the past 3-4 weeks, which is great, and then the flood of emails coming in regarding today's 2005 iTest Nationwide Awards Announcement.

I don't have nearly as much time to pursue media attention as I did last year, but unfortunately last year we didn't have nearly as much of a compelling story as we do this year, with a team of 5 students across multiple schools and states claiming the championship, etc. The media will catch on eventually if we keep doing the right thing.

Which brings me to the most exciting news of all: the iTest franchise will be expanding AGAIN in 2007 with the launch of the iTest Debate. Not giving away any details just yet - not that there are many - but I'm extremely excited about the proposed format and the implementation of technology into yet another domain of academic competition. More to come.

“The Dominators” earn first perfect score in iTest history, win USA national title

(Nashville, TN) – The iTest, also known as the American High School Internet Mathematics Competition (“AHSIMC”), awarded its first perfect score of 101 to “The Dominators,” a team of students from five different high schools across the country. These five students worked together using instant messaging software and a “rapid barrage” of emails in winning the 2005 iTest and claiming the United States Mathematics National Championship.

Zhou Fan, the team’s captain, attends Parsippany Hills High School in Parsippany, New Jersey, while Alex Yang, Alice Tzeng, Yi Sun, and Daniel Litt attend West Windsor-Plainsboro High School (New Jersey), Lafayette High School (Louisiana), The Harker School (California), and Orange High School (Ohio), respectively.

The 2005 iTest took place from September 16 through September 20, and was free to all participating students and schools. Over 31,000 students from hundreds of schools nationwide participated in the second year of what educators call “a groundbreaking educational experience.” The winning team members will receive iPod Nanos and a package of iPod accessories, courtesy of Griffin Technology.

The 2005 runner-up was a team of students from Ames High School in Ames, Iowa. Joshua Moloney, Qi Gan, Kevin Lu, Xin Pan, and James Pringle took second place nationally with a score of 97. Teams from Vestavia Hills High School (Alabama) and Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (Virginia) tied for third place with a score of 91.

The 2005 iTest Sponsor’s Award for Leadership was awarded to Leona Penner of Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, for her dedication to making her students as successful as possible. Natasha Doty, who captained her team to a third place finish in Nebraska and a top 100 finish nationally, remarks that “Ms. Penner has shown me that even though the answer may not be apparent, if I continue to work, my struggles will lead to success.”

The 2005 iTest Sponsor’s Award for Exceptional Teaching was awarded to Dr. Alan Vraspir of the Albuquerque Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for his incredible enthusiasm in the classroom. Dr. Vraspir, in solving a particularly tough mathematics problem for his students, “tends to jump up and down in excitement,” which gets his students fired up to learn more. “Dr. Vraspir led me into the real world of mathematics,” writes one of his students, “and he has shown me much more about math than I would have ever dreamt of.”

Winning the 2005 iTest iNvention Award, a side contest in which students proposed new accessories to build for the iPod Nano, was Garrett Goss of Georgia’s Marist School. He created a schematic for a device that would allow an iPod Nano to be inserted into a laptop’s PCMCIA slot, and in doing so, won an iPod Nano for his efforts.

Winning the 2005 iTest Art Award, which required students to design the 2006 iTest logo for use next year, was student Nash Spence of Montana’s Billings West High School, beating out over 30 other contestants to win an iPod Nano of his own.

The iTest is free to all participating students and schools, thanks to funding provided by iPod accessory manufacturer Griffin Technology. The national event was founded by Bradley Metrock, a Nashville resident and Vanderbilt University graduate.

“The iTest is the fastest growing high school academic event in the United States,” Metrock said. “Because the iTest is completely free to students, teachers, and their schools, every student at every school in America can now access the elite world of competitive mathematics.”

For more information on the iTest, please contact Bradley Metrock at Bradley@AHSIMC.com or 615-972-8833, or visit www.theitest.com.

Titans lost to the lowly Arizona Cardinals. This year is going south in a hurry.

Almost wrapped up the work on the 2005 iTest, with Solutions Guides getting shipped out on Friday. Big time increase in submitted exams, thanks to huge increases in overall nationwide exposure as well as our random iPod Nano giveaway to a random student on a team that submitted an exam for grading.

I'll post a copy of the 2005 iTest Nationwide Awards Announcement press release here when its sent out on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Quick thoughts:

- Back from Beaufort, South Carolina (for the second time) and likely not heading back again anytime soon. Scenic place, but if my cell phone doesn't work, its not going to endear itself to me. Got some good reviews from Actus superiors on the work I did there, but you can chalk that up to a talented cast of characters that were already there.

- How dumb are the Braves to allow Leo Mazzone to run off to another team to be pitching coach? The real error was not locking him up to a nice, fat long-term contract years ago. That streak of 15 straight years of winning the NL East? Adios.

- Speaking of Atlanta, spent Friday night with none other than Mark Presley. Went to see Doom (if you played the game, go see it...just enough creativity on top of all the action/horror to make it worthwhile) and then saw Mark dispatch some helpless duo of clowns on the tennis court in his last regular season league doubles match of the year, 6-1 and 6-2. I'm looking forward to seeing if Chik-Fil-A, his employer, continues to recognize what an asset they've got in their IT department with him and gets him into a position of wide-ranging authority as quickly as possible.

- The Titans will be sending Billy Volek into the fray in their effort to dispatch Arizona tomorrow. I'm ready for the Titans to start beating the living hell out of some people, and it might as well start now, guys. If Tyrone Calico doesn't turn his season around tomorrow, with the strong-armed Volek cannoning balls to him throughout the afternoon, he ought to be cut.

- One person that ought to be cut RIGHT NOW is Daunte Culpepper. Yeah, yeah, talk about his salary, but this pretender has been revealed to be a talentless hack now that Randy Moss has headed west. The Vikings are going to continue losing with or without him, so why not send the scathing message to the team, if you're Zygi Wilf, the owner?

- Heading to Fortune Magazine's Innovation Forum in New York City on Nov. 30-Dec. 1, and may stay Friday, December 2 if I decide to take a day off from work that day. I've already used up 3-4 of my 16 vacation days, and I'm going to need a substantial amount for planned Christmas and summer '06 vacations, so it's not certain yet if I'll take that Friday off. If I do take that Friday off, it'll be to accomplish a couple of key iTest-related tasks. The Innovation Forum is full of huge names and will be great to help me consider new possibilities within my role at Actus. I love events like this!

- I have been getting some spam-bots or something leaving automated messages in my "comments" area of this blog lately, so as of right this second, comments are now disabled on this and subsequent posts. I already know who comes in and out of this blog, and as ought to be apparent, I post what I feel like posting regardless of the audience. If you have a comment, email me or something.

- I have plans to get a week's worth of Guest Bloggers to blog for this Online Travesty in a week coming up real soon. Stay tuned.

Warning: amazing tune below. Go get it for free on iTunes through tomorrow, or after that, use any means necessary. Rare that I get into the whole "playing a song over and over again" thing, which is what I've been doing with this tune for days.


"Over My Head" - The Fray

I never knew.
I never knew that everything was falling through.
That everyone I knew was waiting on a queue...
to turn and run, when all I needed was the truth.

But that's how it's got to be.
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy.
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see...
the smoke, and who's still standing when it clears.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head.
With eight seconds left in overtime, she's on your mind, she's on your mind...

Let's rearrange.
I wish you were a stranger I could disengage.
Say that we agree, and then never change.
Soften a bit until we all just get along...

...but that's disregard.
Find another friend, and you discard.
As you lose the argument in a cable car,
hanging above as the canyon comes between.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head.
With eight seconds left in overtime, she's on your mind, she's on your mind...

And suddenly, I become a part of your past.
I'm becoming the part that don't last.
I'm losing you, and its effortless...

Without a sound, we lose sight of the ground,
in the throw around.
Never thought that you wanted to bring it down...
I won't let it go down till we torch it ourselves.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head...

Back in Nashville, at least for the moment. Great to be back!!

Got the paperwork for the iTest's tax exemption. Sweet.

I was scheduled to begin an audio Podcast for the iTest this month, but I've been thinking now about skipping that and going directly to video Podcasts after the recent announcement by Apple of new video functionality. The videos could obviously be downloaded off the Web as well by people who don't have an iPod or those who would just rather download it to the desktop instead of to the handheld.

Like everything else, a work in progress...

Flying out of Beaufort tomorrow back to Nashville, only to return next Wednesday through the rest of next week.

This is one of the first places I've been that has ZERO CELL PHONE RECEPTION. Maddening, as you might imagine.

Lori got her first job offer today, which is huge. Takes a lot of stress off of her. Its with one of the top firms in the city, and while its going to mean a lot of work...I told her that she's going to be working hard wherever she is, so she might as well make as much money as she can while she's at it, right? Congrats, L, for rocking a tedious and intimidating interview process.

I am looking forward to being home for the weekend, a privilege I had to negotiate as things down here at Beaufort are beginning to turn a corner. It has been an interesting time down here, and certainly a strong learning experience as the "strategic initiatives" I come up with have immediate and tangible outcomes for the company. I can't tell you how gratifying that is. I always have to wonder in amazement how I got an MBA in both finance and "human and organizational performance" (gotta love that one) and then end up in strategy. God has put me in a position to make an impact which is all I ever asked for.

There has been plenty of time to sit around and contemplate things down here, as I have no cell phone reception (as I mentioned previously) as well as no TV or (until two days ago) internet reception in this Actus house I'm staying in while I'm here. I'm staying in this house by my own request to save company costs and learn more about our property, but I'm missing my creature comforts!

Though grading is nearly complete for the 2005 iTest and I have begun planning for the iTest CS, I still am forced to contemplate a major decision for the 2006 iTest. We know we are either one of many competitions that students at a given school may take, or the only national one they will participate in for the entire year. Do we improve our participation numbers by imitating other national competitions, or by attacking them and going on the offensive?

Its a major branding question. It seems logical to take a more rebellious stance, which aligns us with the natural course of being a teenager like our customers. Both the title and prestige of winning the National Championship, as well as the continually-escalating prize structure of the iTest, will pull students in regardless, so its not as risky of a move as it may seem though.

Several readers of this blog took what was known as the AHSME back in the day, which is now called the AMC when they switched names a few years ago. They constitute the only thing standing in the way of the iTest claiming the title of largest national math competition in the United States, which isn't the most necessary of titles, but would make for an unambiguously good way to describe the iTest in the future. They offer a well-written exam (for a price), but as I've noted before in this space, the "prize" for winning is getting to advance to a harder competition for which you get to pay more money to take. And, naturally, the prize for winning THAT exam is taking a multiple-day proof-oriented contest, which could result in you getting to spend your summer doing math. Sound like fun?

They have improved their capital flow slightly out of stagnant to declining growth, which is admirable, but still are standing relatively still.

We aren't going to win the game of "highest level of mathematical respectability" as I don't hold a PhD in math and certainly never will, though the quantity of education behind the test-writers of the AMC exams is at a remarkably high level. Thus, we have changed the rules of the game - we are going after the largest number of participating students.

Since the AMC will never be able to match us in cost (free, baby!) and is too established to take any risks in marketing, we are now playing a game we can actually win.

If our shaping of the iTest brand going forward is done thoughtfully, we will indeed emerge victorious.

Sometimes, I just have to stand back at accomplishments of others in admiration. When this happens in the music realm, its especially sweet, as I then have a song I can listen to for the rest of my life!

Mike Doughty's "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" is just SICK. The groove is amazing. His beat-poetry lyrical style on top of it just rocks. Very catchy and melodic - accessible to the mainstream, which is important.

As a musician, you just sit back in awe at where this guy pulled the inspiration for this song from. Obviously, the entire Soul Coughing catalog is an incredibly unique contribution to recent (past decade or so) popular music, but I am really excited about hearing Doughty's upcoming full-length solo disc after hearing this single, which is also being featured this season in "Grey's Anatomy."

And, oh yeah, AHSIMC is now a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. A lot more on this to come.

Lori is 25 today. Going to PF Changs (her favorite place) and then to the Vandy law library, where she's got some work she has to do and wants me to keep her company. Hey, when its your birthday, you call the shots.

Deep into iTest grading, easily the most tedious part of the whole thing. Some of the team names are hilarious, and some teams came up with fairly "creative" answers for questions they couldn't solve...which makes it much easier to deal with grading this many tests.

Certainly, this won't be happening next year. We'll be pulling out all the stops on automating the site, which will also eliminate another annoying aspect of running this thing: teachers that haven't configured their spam filters to let iTest emails through on a regular basis. Everything will run through the website, so there's no risk that we won't receive an exam or that everyone won't get the test on time.

The response to the iTest iNvention contest (sponsored by Griffin Technology, where kids submit ideas for a new iPod Nano accessory) and the 2006 iTest Logo Contest have been amazing. The Griffin folks and I will sit down soon to determine the best iPod Nano accessory, but I have to admit that several of these things would be cool if they built them. I have no idea who will (or should) win, but I do know we have demonstrated a major success with our first corporate partner.

The 2006 iTest logos I've been getting have ranged from uninspired violations of various copyrights to amazing works of art. Either way, its fun to see what folks have come up with.

These winning entries, along with excerpts from the email we've been getting, will be great additions to the press materials we send out on November 1 as part of our 2005 iTest Nationwide Awards Announcement.

Though my team in the fantasy baseball league that I ran this year was easily the worst team I've ever had in years of playing, largely due to my first round draft pick not playing all year (Bonds) and poor choices in other rounds in selecting players whose time hasn't quite come...

my team in Evan's league is tearing it up. The "Mariners" are up 13-0 in the championship round with 6 days left to go, all but securing a fantasy championship in his league. For posterity, the members of the team (which have pretty much been intact all year, since I haven't changed it much) are:

Mike Piazza - C, New York Mets
Mike Sweeney - 1B, Kansas City Royals
Luis Castillo - 2B, Florida Marlins
Joe Randa - 3B, San Diego Padres
Jose Reyes - SS, New York Mets
Manny Ramirez - OF, Boston Red Sox
Carl Crawford - OF, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Lance Berkman - OF, Houston Astros
Jason Bay - OF, Pittsburgh Pirates (in my first Util slot)
Pat Burrell - OF, Philadelphia Phillies (in my second Util slot)

Jake Westbrook - SP, Cleveland Indians
Jae Seo - SP, New York Mets (neither of these guys were in my lineup til later in the year)
Kyle Farnsworth - RP, Atlanta Braves
Duaner Sanchez - RP, Los Angeles Dodgers
Derrick Turnbow - RP, Milwaukee Brewers
Yhency Brazoban - RP, Los Angeles Dodgers
Felix Hernandez - SP, Seattle Mariners

Jeff's latest blog entry discusses the Wright amendment, which has been a frequent problem of Lori's and mine when we fly to see her family in Dallas. Articulate, as usual, and insightful.

www.thebrokedown.com

Will Canzoneri's band. Go there and frolick in the land of good tunes.

As versatile of a musician as he is, its not surprising these guys are enjoying a hefty amount of success.

What are you still doing reading this?

This is insane...Lori gets these emails from Gee through the law school listserv, and forwarded this to me...

From: gordon.gee@vanderbilt.edu
Reply-To: gordon.gee@vanderbilt.edu
To: vanderbilt-students@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Urgent Message from Chancellor Gee
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 20:15:15 -0500
vanderbilt-students

From: gordon.gee@vanderbilt.edu

September 25, 2005

Dear Students,

I am writing tonight about a very serious matter.

Earlier today, you received a Security Alert regarding a shooting in the Morgan House residence hall. Although the incident is still under investigation by Metro Police and VUPD, we can share with you the latest information.

At approximately 2:00 a.m., a female Vanderbilt student brought several non-student individuals into Morgan to attend a party onthe 10th floor.

These individuals were asked to leave the party after they made a disturbance. When the non-student individuals, and the Vanderbilt student, got on the elevator on the 10th floor, two of the individuals--both men--pulled out handguns and fired several shots into the hallway, hitting a male Vanderbilt student in the arm. The assailants--along with the female Vanderbilt student--then rode the elevator to the ground floor and fled the building. In addition to the student who received the gunshot wound, two other students received minor injuries in the ensuing confusion. All three were treated and released by Vanderbilt Hospital, and each is expected to make a full recovery, for which we are very grateful. VUPD responded immediately to the incident and--along with Metro Police--are conducting an active investigation. We expect that those responsible will be identified and prosecuted.

We are confident that this incident--as horrifying as it is--represents a very unusual occurrence. However, as you know, campus safety has been an issue of intense discussion in recent weeks. Working together, we have made great progress in educating and informing students about the programs and services that are in place to ensure the security of our University community. Every residence hall has card readers to limit access to students and residents. Vanderbilt has a large and well-trained police force that patrols the campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there have been increased foot patrols and bike patrols in recent weeks. Security cameras are installed in many locations on campus, including a number of elevators, and have been particularly helpful in the investigation of this incident. Student Life staff are holding meetings in the residence halls to give students an opportunity to discuss the recent incidents with VUPD officers, and student leaders held a town hall meeting to talk about campus safety. Staff and students have conducted a review of lighting in the Greek Row area and have identified dark areas to which additional lighting is being added. Five additional Blue Light Emergency Phones have been added in locations across the campus, including the Greek Row area. We have also added another van to the Vandy Vans escort system to provide an increased number of campus escorts.

Together with continuous education and information about personal security, all of these measures help create one of the safest college environments in the region, if not in the country. But there is one element of campus security that requires the cooperation, participation, and vigilance of every student: responsibility for guests that are brought to campus. In this morning's incident, security cameras indicate that the assailants were let into Morgan and accompanied to the party by a Vanderbilt student. This was not a random shooting or "home invasion." Rather, the perpetrators were given access to our campus by a current student.

We pride ourselves on being part of an open community that values constant interaction to the extent that it is neither realistic nor desirable to create unwieldy barriers. At the same time, we must ensure that our University remains safe, and that every member of our community understands his or her responsibilities and rights. For these reasons, I am appointing a special Task Force of students, administrators, and security specialists to review campus security, with a special emphasis on our policies and procedures for access to residence halls and other student areas. The members of this Task Force will be announced tomorrow (Monday, September 26). I will direct the Task Force to provide an immediate analysis of both our current procedures and the mechanisms for enforcement, and to make recommendations for changes that will address our twin imperatives of openness and safety. I expect this process to take weeks, not months, and for there to be vigorous and informed discussion among students about the alternatives, which will then be presented to the University community for implementation.

There is no question that the safety of our students, faculty, staff, patients, and visitors is our highest priority. Incidents such as the one that occurred in Morgan House remind us that senseless violence can occur in even the most protected and comfortable environments, surrounded by friends and colleagues. We must work together as a community to prevent a recurrence.

I am making a personal pledge to you--our students--that I work tirelessly to ensure our campus remains one of the safest.

Cordially,

Gordon Gee

Titans couldn't quite pull it out against the Rams in one of the worst games I've seen Steve McNair play. Bulger and Holt made Pacman Jones look like the inexperienced rookie he is. Haynesworth was out and while that certainly made a difference in the game, can't really worry too much about that with the toughest game yet coming up next week against Indy at home.

Time to get a jump on some of these legal documents that I'll be spending my week here at home reading before heading out to South Carolina.

Good new song by Ben's brother's band, Belerian, which is comprised primarily of Vestavia students and is based here in Nashville. Josh attends Belmont, as I think the majority of the band does.

Song is called "Siren" and the recording is raw in a good way. Josh's guitar is sounding good as usual but its the bass really letting it rip and the vocalist letting loose that make it memorable. The groove is great and I think its cool these guys are obviously getting a feel for playing together.

If you're here in town, check 'em out. I know I will when I return from Beaufort. (Oh yeah, I'm getting dispatched to Beaufort, South Carolina, by Actus to assist in the crisis management going on there. I'll be gone from October 3 through Oct. 15.)

PS...MySpace page for Belerian is at www.myspace.com/belerian.

Back from seeing "Just Like Heaven," a movie Lori had been dying to see...not your typical chick flick. Pretty funny and featured the guy from Napoleon Dynamite in a really funny role. Not too bad if you gotta go see one of these.

Continuing my prolific blogging re: the iTest...

I have had to play my reluctant role of kindergarten teacher in restoring sanity to the artofproblemsolving.com AHSIMC forum. The kids were irritated at typos (which I was too, a lot) but also with some of the answers. Of course, like any forum over time, this place has degenerated into the same people posting over and over again, and unfortunately for us, its some people with an axe to grind.

I am disgusted at the lost potential of working closer with the site folks, as Mathew's a good guy and a Vestavite. But just when I think I've brought the forum back under control, along comes an inexplicable post from the site creator condoning the high school rudeness and general belligerence on the forum, as well as telling us how to market our own competition! (They don't like us calling ourselves a "premiere" competition. They probably won't like it when we actually are one, either!)

I don't mind kids running their mouths on an online forum - that's what this outlet is there for. And of course they are going to lack discretion. But when some middle age guy who is supposed to know better comes along and doesn't unequivocally denounce rude, insulting behavior on his own forum, where he is viewed as a figurehead, I wonder what on earth I'm doing as part of it.

I can't explain it. Maybe you can. Go to the site yourself and check it out and give me your thoughts at some point. I really don't have time for this type of stuff. I had no idea this guy ran his business like this when I signed on, and now its probably too late.

In another oddity, some random student decided to email us his half-finished college admissions essay, calling it "the answer key."

Looking at the plethora of Griffin iPod Nano accessory ideas and 2006 iTest logos that have been coming in has been a blast, but there's been several bizarre ones too.

We are full-speed-ahead on pursuing the iTest trademark, and I gave the go-ahead today to the legal team to lay waste to another party that's challenging our trademark instead of moving us to the Supplemental Register. Simultaneously, we await the IRS' final word on our tax exempt status, a decision that will definitely affect us one way or the other.

Watched the premiere of The Apprentice with Lori tonight...

If the show has a low point, its that Trump is quick to fire people who don't play by his rules. He fired Bradford last year early on because he refused his exemption, a move designed to motivate his team. For whatever reason, the Donald doesn't seem to be too fond of moves like that.

Tonight, the team leader (I forget her name) did a decent job, and there was a clear loser who needed to go from the women's team after they lost and had to face the boardroom. When the team leader elected not to bring the customary two people into the boardroom - opting only to bring Melissa, the nasty girl who couldn't get along with anyone - Trump once again took offense. Fortunately, he appeared to have learned from his previous mistake and fired the right person this time! So the show is off to a pretty good start.

Now that the iTest has concluded and I've had a chance to actually breathe for a minute (!) as well as return to work, I think life may be returning to normal for a while. The iTest CS development is underway and if early indications mean anything, its going to be a monstrous success filling a much-needed demand for computer science competitions in the US. But where do we go after that to continue to grow? That's going to be a huge question.

We've got to take the final step in eliminating typos from next year's test, as well as get our new online infrastructure in place so we can begin testing it for next year. The work, quite simply, never ends.

The 2005 iTest has concluded...whew! What a crazy 5 days. We've got a lot of work to do with grading and getting the Solutions Guide printed before moving on to get the iTest CS fully ready to go.

Back to work tomorrow. Off to sleep!

Our sponsor had a change of heart all of a sudden...and just like that, Griffin Technology is once again the 2005 iTest's Corporate Partner. Check them out if you have an iPod and buy their stuff at www.griffintechnology.com.

The 2005 iTest launches in 10 hours to 240 schools across the country, with huge groups of students slated to participate at many schools. Our participation will be way, way up. This is gonna be big.

Decide for yourself...(from the New York Times, taken from Gaurav's blog):

As the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.

As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.

I am now 25 years old.

Halfway to 50.

I thank God for allowing me to reach this point. He has brought a wealth of opportunity to my life, including the opportunity to be happily married. I sit back and think of everything that has happened over the past year of my life and am very grateful.

I am emotionally drained from watching footage and reading stories from the Gulf Coast over the weekend. It is extremely difficult, actually, for me to watch the footage - I can read the stories on the internet a bit easier. I am angered by President Bush's actions over the past week and disgusted at both the response of our government as well as its failure to act years ago to mitigate the risk involved for New Orleans after an internal FEMA report predicted this disaster 5 years ago. As I've noted in this space before, President Bush is well on his way to a legacy as one of the worst US Presidents of the modern era.

However, I am equally disgusted by the politicizing of Katrina by various individuals and groups with their own agendas. Does everything have to be political these days? It gets tiring. The anger and vitriol in the current political climate needs to go, and the successful 2008 Presidential candidate will likely be the individual best able to de-claw the debates on various issues.

This world of constant flux and viewing everything through political lenses simply can't sustain itself. And yet, its the world in which I find myself at the start of a potential watershed year for my own aspirations in a variety of fields.

Let others complain and groan about the state we're in. I'm in too much of a hurry to whine.

I pray to God to influence my life and help me live a fulfilling life. Thankful to be happily married and in prime position for the first time to seize opportunities I have been given, I move into yet another year of my life with optimism and determination.

i'm not a businessman...
i'm a BUSINESS, man.

Jay-Z, on Kanye West's "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"


Great lyrics abound on Kanye West's just-released "Late Registration," continuing Jay-Z's legacy of intelligent lyrics over innovative, catchy beats. No wonder this guy is on fire.

Ben Folds just released an iTunes Originals album this week as well that is fantastic. But does he ever do anything badly? He can even duet with WILLIAM SHATNER and not skip a beat.

Lori frequently jokes with me that the iTest has been a terrible investment from the beginning and its only gotten worse. And from a current financial perspective, she would be right: thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours have been liberally poured into the project, with little financial return.

Additionally, it appears that our first sponsor, who will remain nameless here, has fallen through. This sponsor would have righted the financial ship, and then some, while using some of its technology to vastly improve the underlying infrastructure of the way I administer the annual competition.

Separately, the IRS is giving me a hell of a time with my non-profit 501(c)(3) application. They have issued a second round of questions, beyond the original application, for me to complete. Since I filed the form to apply for tax-exempt status, 9 months have passed and I still feel no closer to receiving the tax break. At this point, I am ready to discard them and move forward with the iTest as a private for-profit enterprise...but we'll see what happens over the rest of 2005.

I don't have time to feel sorry for myself, though. Nothing has fundamentally changed about the competition from when I created it in March 2004: the competition is a watershed educational tool that has never been done before, connecting the elitest of upper crust private high schools to the poorest of inner city public schools through mathematics and student competition.

Furthermore, there is no real competition. Competitive mathematics is a humorless field with a profound lack of innovators or capitalistic interests. Therefore, its not a surprise that the field hasn't moved forward much at all since I was in high school. Making this problem even worse is the growing disparity in the educational system between the "haves" and the "have-nots," which is creating a younger humorless class of high school students. I have witnessed many of these math-or-bust kids myself and found the experience disturbing.

Enough about those people. The key paradox here is that the more children we help and the more we improve the current state of the educational system, the more we set up the iTest to make a financial killing as a premiere educational brand.

My vision for the iTest is to become a portfolio of the nation's best competitions for high school students, while still being readily accessible to lower-income students as well as "normal" kids of all income-levels. We continue this march with a stellar iTest math exam to be given in September, and the launch of the iTest CS in April '06. Similar to the SAT II Subject Tests or AP exams, given in an array of fields....the iTest competitions will set the standard for high school academic competitions and will command interest through prizes, through innovation, and through humor.

This can't help but attract corporate interest. What we're doing is too innovative and too unique - and too popular! we're heading over the 30,000 student mark this year in math... - to not be noticed and funded. Or bought out.

Regardless of what the future holds, and Lori's instinctive questioning of my efforts, the iTest has begun, and success is not a matter of if, but when.

First blog post in a while...between a pretty intense job, tutoring an 8th grader in Franklin on the side, preparing for the iTest launch, working on a new album, and attempting to stay sane...I guess that explains it. And, lest I forget, moving into a new, bigger apartment. Oh, and one more thing...I'm married now! :)

I view being busy as a blessing. For me, it means I'm currently working on a combination of things that are my choice to be working on. Working from home facilitates this - though I spend at least 50-55 hours a week on my job, those hours can be moved and manipulated in ways typical office jobs could not to accommodate my other passions.

My job as Strategic Initiatives Coordinator at Actus Lend Lease is off to a good start. I feel like my boss has put me in a position to succeed - a position where I can bring something to the table. That is a very gratifying thing that I try not to take for granted. The ability to have an impact, and work with executives ranging from age 40 to 70 who control one of the largest real estate companies in existence is a very welcome change from previous school environments. It is all of this that led me to reject a job offered to me just a couple weeks ago, while I was just hitting the one-month mark with Actus, that actually would have compensated me a good bit more, though without giving me nearly as much influence and ability to contribute.

I feel very lucky to have Lori in my life, and look forward to her starting up at Vandy law school this fall after transferring over the summer. I know she is looking forward to it. Everywhere she has gone, she has excelled, in terms of her legal studies. She has especially turned her game up a notch at the Tennessee Supreme Court this summer, where she has gotten a remarkable amount of uncharacteristic praise from the justices there for her writing skills and the level of detail in her legal scrutiny of various cases. Vanderbilt will simply be another stomping ground on her way to a successful job somewhere.

The long-awaited fantasy football draft is coming up! Its a chance for everyone in our little group from high school to catch up with one another. I am really looking forward to it this year as well because ESPN's league is so vastly superior to Yahoo's in the way it enables even more communication between all of us.

Anyway, thought I would update the blog with what's been going on. I will be updating this more regularly as I learn to keep work from exploding into 60-70 hour weeks and keep it contained to about 50 hours a week. Its a lot harder than it sounds.

Been listening to the new Acceptance album ("Phantoms") and it has not exited my car stereo for the past few weeks. Production is amazing. Its a bunch of young guys, and while not the best instrumentalists in the world, their lyrics, harmonies, and melodies are great. And we're talking every single song on the disc here.

Just downloaded their Sessions@AOL songs. They can play well live, apparently.

Highly recommend them.

"So Contagious" - Acceptance

Oh no...
this couldn't be more unexpected.
And I can tell you
that I've been moving in so slow.
Don't let it throw you off too far,
cause I'll be running right behind you.

Could this be out of line?
Say you're the only one, breaking me down like this
You're the only one I would take a shot on.
Keep me hanging on, so contagiously...

Without going into much detail, "The Burning" is the dark tale of a man in jail, serving a life sentence for killing the man who murdered his daughter. This man escapes from prison and attempts to rebuild his life and find purpose in living. The album will be divided up into two distinct halves - the first centered around his prison life, and concluding with his escape. The second half will center around his attempt to start over.

This tells a good bit of background without giving away any details at all. I have been looking forward to crafting an album around a central story like this for some time now.

So, in other words, "The Burning" has nothing to do with some guy with an STD. Sorry to disappoint...lol...

After a bit of a blogging hiatus...lets get caught up to speed.

Lori got into Vanderbilt Law School! She was trying to transfer from University of Tennessee's Law School, and fortunately Vanderbilt agreed that she should be in Nashville with me! She'll start toward the end of August.

I have begun my job with Actus Lend Lease as their Strategic Initiatives Coordinator. I work from home. I have been able to contribute in tangible ways to the company even in a few weeks. This is exactly what I was looking for in a job out of MBA school.

Lori and I have been attending our marriage counseling sessions, which are generally something people do BEFORE getting married...but since we were in two separate cities, this wasn't exactly possible. But we have a "mentor" couple that is going through a workbook of various marriage issues with us, and we've been able to sit down with them once a week, have dinner, and discuss all sorts of things. It has really been great for me and Lori, and its just another reason I'm so glad we discovered West End Community Church in the past year.

Finally, I have some music news ... I have titled and dated my new album. "The Burning" will be a concept album (piano+vocals+various guest players) built around one central story, and will incorporate written elements in the liner notes to help tell it. Don't want to give much away, especially since the details aren't ironed out quite yet. Its tentatively scheduled for release on June 20, 2006. Long ways away, but gives me plenty of time to navigate around work, the iTest, the iTest CS (the April 2006 computer science competition that is the latest extension of the iTest venture), and various other projects to finish writing it and get in the studio to record it.

Well, Maintain Radio Silence's run on the New Age chart on iTunes was rather short-lived...its gone now, being bounced from #39 to #71 to #97 to off in a matter of half of a day. Oh well...it was fun while it lasted. And who knows, an effective iTest promotion might get it back up there in September.

Watching Spurs/Pistons, Game 5 ... this series is really starting to get intense. After one team or the other won each of the first four games in blowout fashion, this game was tied 42-42 at the half, and is now tied up late in the 4th. Could be a classic end to a classic NBA playoff matchup.

Seattle, having swept the ridiculous New York Mets over the weekend, now are in a position to finish June over .500, which is remarkable when you look at the number of rookies they have on their 25-man roster. We'll see how much longer they can continue to play at such a high level.

"Maintain Radio Silence" currently sits at #39 on the New Age Top 100 Albums chart on iTunes, which is kinda cool! The album peaked at #31 on the chart today.

While I certainly realize this probably means all of 4 people bought a copy online to get it there on the chart, it was fun to beat out albums from the likes of Yanni, Jim Brickman, Joshua Kadison, and the immortal George Winston, even if its for a fleeting moment...

(And if you don't have the album, go get it on iTunes! :) )

Back from Hawaii...what a place. Highly recommend it! I'm surprised we decided to come back, even as great as Nashville is!

I come back to Nashville immersed in new music. Lets get to it:

Coldplay - "X&Y." Brilliant new album that changes the core of Coldplay's sound they've developed over the past two albums...much less piano and much more guitar. The result is a grandiose, atmospheric masterpiece. "Fix You" - best song they've ever done?

Seal - "Live in Paris" CD/DVD. The CD is one thing...great sounding live stuff. But the DVD is really what I had been waiting for...I haven't seen Seal perform live before (with the exception of the 1996 Grammys (?) where he performed Kiss From A Rose) and he really knows how to put on a show. His backing musicians are excellent and his music really comes alive...fun to see.

White Stripes - "Get Behind Me Satan." This CD could simply have "Blue Orchid" on it and it would be great. This is a band that's been pushing the musical envelope from Day 1, and the latest result is a really good new album that's unlike anything I've ever heard.

Foo Fighters - "In Your Honor" double-album. Unbelievable...they hit a huge home run with this new double-album. Every single song is good, and it really reminds me of what I felt like when listening to "The Colour and the Shape" for the first time. Dave Grohl said a few months ago that he hoped "In Your Honor" would become the defining Foo Fighters work, and it looks like he might have actually been onto something.


Headed to Birmingham this weekend for City Stages, and then to Arlington toward the end of June to visit Lori's family...and still many thank-you notes left to write, as well as a variety of iTest-related tasks. And I've started tutoring an 8th-grader out in Franklin in Algebra I, for some nice extra cash...so as busy as ever around here. Until next time...

Blogging from the Hyatt Business Center in Hawaii...the weather here is absolutely amazing!! Perfect temperature, perfect breeze, just the right amount of clouds, and tons to do. I'll pick the blog back up from here when I get back into Nashville (our flight out of Hawaii leaves at 7:30 PM local time on Friday, and arrives back in Nashville at 12:30 PM on SATURDAY. Crazy.)

One quick note: if you read this blog on bradleymetrock.blogspot.com, then you're getting some sort of weird version where the last entry was months ago. I will attempt to update both, but keep in mind that the official link is right here at jbf500.blogspot.com.

ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES.

On Lori's and my 1-Day Anniversary...a blog entry before heading out to Hawaii for the honeymoon!

The wedding weekend has been a blur. The rehearsal went great and really put my mind at ease that the wedding itself would be something I could enjoy without being nervous. Carter Crenshaw, our pastor at West End Community Church, did a great job telling everyone what to do and was extremely time-efficient in getting us out of there before the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner at the Rotunda at the Country Music Hall of Fame was a lot of fun. My parents, as well as Lori and me, had fun piecing together the details of the event months ago, and we could only hope it would go as well as it did. Unlike many other rehearsal dinners, where only the wedding party is invited, we decided to open it up to everyone invited to the wedding. 90 people showed up in Nashville a day early for it (out of 110 who RSVP'ed to attend the wedding) which was really remarkable. My mom put together a video presentation of pictures of both me and Lori that was shown on a big projector, which she spent an incredible amount of time putting together. My dad started off the toasts, and it was really awesome to see and hear various individuals from both my and Lori's past get up, walk up to the front of the Rotunda to the main microphone, and speak to us. Its the type of thing you don't forget.

I hate to mention any of these individuals specifically, since all of their remarks were so great, but two stood out to me just a little more...my Uncle Jack speaking briefly about how my grandparents, all of whom are dead, would be proud of Lori and me...and Lori's brother, James, getting up to welcome me into their family. Both abhor public speaking (including several others who spoke as well) so I am even more thankful for their facing down their fears of getting in front of the mic.

I hosted a big poker tournament at my apartment after the rehearsal dinner. Though we got started a little late (around 11:30 PM), the field of 13 was whittled down to the Winner's Table (consisting of 6 people) by 12:45, and we declared a winner around 2:30 AM or so. Jay Prather, our friend from undergrad at Vanderbilt, took home "Da Cup of Bling" - the pewter poker-themed mug with $305 in it, in honor of my apartment number! Jay bested John Hart, my long-time friend from high school, but at least John got his money back for coming in second. The rest of us weren't so lucky...

So after going to sleep around 3 AM, I woke up around 10 AM in order to get a shower and pick up Matt, John, and Jeremy. We went to Cracker Barrel out in Cool Springs for lunch before heading over to the tuxedo place to try on our tuxes. I kept mine on (since I had a bowtie, and I didn't know how to tie it! So I had to leave it on.) but the other guys took it off and decided to change back into it later. Around 2:30 PM, we headed to my place to pick up an overnight bag (since I'd be staying in the honeymoon suite that night! sweet!), John headed off to assist Amy (Steven Denny's girlfriend) since her car wasn't running right, and the rest of us headed over to Loews to hang out and kill time.

4:30 rolled around pretty quickly, and it was time to hop in the limo and head over to Benton Chapel, the place on Vanderbilt's campus where the wedding took place. After taking some pictures with the groomsmen, we all headed down to the basement to hang out and kill even more time. Fortunately, time didn't seem to stand still like it often does when I'm waiting for something important, and all of a sudden, it was 5:15 and people began to arrive for the 6:00 wedding. 5:30, 5:45, 6:00...time to go.

What would happen over the next 30 minutes or so was as grandiose and dramatic as anything I have ever seen. After processing into the chapel to the sweet music of a 4-piece ensemble, handing my mom a white rose (she looked great, of course!), and taking my place at the front of the chapel, I then got to watch all of the groomsmen and bridesmaids file in. They all looked excellent...you don't get to see your friends in tuxes every day. And then...Lori came in.

I have never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. She just looked amazing.

The ceremony began and Carter took control. Much like he does every Sunday with his sermons, he spoke with a disarming, but very articulate, directness...with every sentence seemingly elevating the importance of what was happening. As my dad later put it, "he tied the knot tighter than I've ever seen!"

Speaking on marriage, he reminded Lori and I will be the people who won't just love each other the most, but will also hurt each other the most. Speaking to me, he challenged me to not allow my ambition to get in the way of caring for Lori, and speaking to her, he told her to be my biggest encourager, not my biggest critic. "There are already too many people vying for that role," he said.

As usual, I had trouble keeping my emotions in check, both at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. So it goes.

The reception was absolutely magnificent. Hosted at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel, the event was designed by Lori and I to have a more upscale, urban feel (in contrast to the purposefully informal, Southern-style rehearsal dinner). Lori and I arrived at the reception around 7:30 (after sticking around at the chapel to take the last few wedding pictures) and were introduced by Lori's dad as "Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Metrock." That was one of several weird moments.

We then cut the first pieces of both the wedding cake and groom's cake, feeding them to one another, and then had a toast. After grabbing at least a small bit of the dinner, we meandered around the room saying hello to friends before having our first dance as a married couple. After the next dance (this time with my mom), people swarmed to the dance floor, giving me a chance to mingle more with those who came to the reception.

There's nothing more gratifying than people showing up from across the country in honor of you and your wife. Its why I put such importance on making time for other people...you never know when its going to be your turn to ask for people to show up somewhere.

My Uncle Jack (same one from the rehearsal dinner) flew in from California, temporarily halting a 5-month roadtrip from Alabama to Alaska via the West Coast. Ben and Steven had to literally fly across Nashville after completing Phase I of the CFA exam (which they arranged to take in Nashville instead of Birmingham for the wedding), arriving at 5:45 to the chapel for the 6 PM wedding. Gaurav, who had led me to believe he would be unable to attend due to his medical school boards coming up in a week or so, showed up unexpectedly at the reception, despite having his flight delayed. Carlos, and his girlfriend Jessica, flew in from St. Louis on Saturday morning to be there. Ben Stark, and his girlfriend Christy (or should I say fiancee! he proposed to her earlier this week) flew in directly from their just-concluded cruise to be there.

Countless others had similar stories, and it was nice to come back to my apartment today to find a flood of congratulatory emails as well. And I know there's several others, including my Aunt Nova (a regular reader of this blog, I know!) who would have loved to have been there, but couldn't due to health concerns.

I just have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from all of you guys. There's just not anything more important in this world than taking care of friends and family, and showing them that you care.

What gets me even more excited is the prospect of reciprocating this generosity for friends getting married in the future. I can't wait.

Now...off to Hawaii. You never know, I might decide to just stay out there and not come back!

I'm sitting in the lobby of Loews Vanderbilt Hotel right now. Soon, the wedding reception will be held just down the hall and up a staircase. This is a pretty nice place...they even gave me free wireless internet access, but shhhh...don't tell anyone.

I have accepted a job, so I can post about it here finally! I am now the Strategic Initiatives Coordinator for Actus Lend Lease, a worldwide real estate project management firm that is based right here in Nashville, Tennessee. Actus Lend Lease did about $10 billion in revenue last year, and in the past four years, has grown from 20 employees to about 400 here in America. I am looking forward to joining their staff on July 1 and making a contribution.

Watching TV today, I happened upon the national spelling bee on ESPN. What an incredible thing they have done - they have turned SPELLING WORDS, for crying out loud, into a feat of public admiration. Its not like these kids are defining words that they are given, or even naming synonyms or some other practical exercise. They instead are becoming human equivalents of that little jagged red line in Microsoft Word, and are praised all over the country for it.

It is a testament to modern marketing. ESPN does a brilliant job using its resources, including highlights on SportsCenter, to build these kids up and really add an angle to the entire proceeding.

Competitive mathematics could use something like the Spelling Bee. The MathCounts national competition is aired on ESPN and does actually have some drama involved, but its not nearly as tight of an event and as clever as the Spelling Bee. Math could use an upgrade here, but I'm not sure anyone with the power to make a difference really cares about inventing a compelling mathematical TV event. Maybe someday.

Seems weird to think that I'm getting married on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it - I can't wait to turn the page on my life and move on to bigger things. One of my favorite quotes (which I believe is Robert Frost's, though I can't remember right now) is "when you reach a fork in the road, take it."

Well, 2005 has been a year of major decisions, and we're not even halfway through yet! While I've accepted a job in town that I simply could not refuse, and I've now found my wife, the end of 2005 will witness a major transformation to the iTest, as well as a revitalization of my label, Mariner Records. And I still haven't posted my short story I've been working on!

I'm excited about the future. Bring it on. And I'll be seeing a lot of you tomorrow at the rehearsal dinner...see you then.

First off, the first short story will be forthcoming next week. Job search and other stuff has tied me up big time the past couple weeks. And, oh yeah, graduation too...

For graduation, Lori got me a new digital camera, and I have had a blast using it. For someone generally living on the technological edge, I was late to the iPod party, and now late to the digital camera party as well. Damn, I should've had one of these a long time ago!

Since Barry Bonds has been out of commission for a while, BondsCheated.com has been out of commission also. Its all set up and ready to go, but there's no use in promoting the site without much media heat on Bonds right now. Once (if) he returns, then it will be the time to start raising awareness of the site and its story.

I picked up three books over the weekend as I continue my effort to increase my reading..."1ndispensable: How to Become the Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without" by Joe Calloway, "Winning" by Jack Welch," and "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. The last book is one that Satya recommended to me...its about how globalization has affected modern society...I'm sure I'll be posting about all three of these books as I get into them and finish them.

And now, to conclude, I have once again been called out - this time by Ben Stark - to complete another meme. Entitled "The Musical Baton," this meme requires me to post my opinions about music. This should be fun...

Total volume of music files on my computer

About 8 GB. And growing. Fast. I spend about $15 on music a month, mostly through iTunes, to keep the iPod fresh. But toss in the free songs from iTunes ("Free Song of the Week" and "Discovery Download") as well as new songs people send me, and its beginning to get a little out of control...


The last CD I bought

Stand Up by Dave Matthews Band. A solid effort from the group...these guys just tear it up.

Before that...I have no idea what the last CD I bought was (from a store). iTunes or bust!


Song I'm playing right now

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World (iTunes Originals Version)" - Tears for Fears

You gotta love those old-school 80's and 90's groups which have that one song everyone remembers, but really when you start to investigate them, they have several other songs you've heard before and liked. Tears for Fears are one of those groups for me. "Shout" and "Head Over Heels" are two great songs, but "Everybody Wants..." is the one everyone remembers. If you like it, go check this acoustic version out on iTunes. Its what the acoustic version of a slickly produced tune ought to be like.


Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me

U2 - "Pride (In the Name of Love)." What more, in the name of love? The Edge slams the door on any and all discussion, with this one song, that he is the greatest guitar player of the modern rock era (since 1980). His soaring guitar work, which made the delay pedal a staple of every guitarist born since then, makes the song special...but Bono's limitless emotion in the way he sings this song makes it so enduring. Larry Mullen Jr's. straight-ahead drumming and Adam Clayton's bass lay the foundation for the masterpiece. The crown jewel of the treasured U2 catalog, and a MUST-LISTEN when I'm getting ready for something big.

Van Halen - "Right Now." When you hear that piano intro...you KNOW something big is about to happen. Its a dramatic feel created only when the vision of a great band can be relayed through outstanding musicianship and clear, vivid lyric. This song is literally the perfect storm - a rock opera that feels like you've traveled for years in just a span of 5 minutes and 21 seconds. A remarkable tune that has never failed to get me pumped up and ready to go.

Sting - "Fields of Gold (acoustic unplugged)." Let me emphasize the "acoustic unplugged" there in the title, as this version is significantly better, in my opinion, than Sting's studio cut of the song (though its outstanding in its own right). Sting is notorious for being very demanding of the musicians with whom he chooses to play, and you can always tell they are incredible when you see or hear him perform live. The classical guitar and piano weave together to help Sting tell his story of making the most of love's (and life's) finite duration, and Sting's singular voice evokes so much more emotion than the sweetest harmonies that other entire groups can muster. You can tell the sun, in his jealous sky, that we walked in fields of gold.

Black Lab - "Wash It Away." This little-known group from North Carolina created one of my favorite albums of all time during the mid-90's ("Your Body Above Me"). This song, though, was the main single off the album, and once I heard it on the radio (Birmingham's 107.7 WRAX - "The X") I was captivated. A simple song, but with a U2-esque triumphant melody laid over a jagged and rough drums-and-guitar foundation. I had to know more about this group.

I have since listened to that album - a dark, twisted black raincloud of a rock album - so many times that I would be well underestimating the number if I said 500 in the 10 years that have passed since then.

The personal significance of the song comes from this little story: this same radio station, WRAX, had touring bands come into the area's primary music studio, Airwave Studios, to do lunchtime acoustic sets for a handful of people before playing at a venue in town that night. To win tickets, you had to call in and win them by being the 7th caller when they asked for people to call in. Well, I managed to win two tickets, and Carlos and I took in the show. It was the first time I had seen a rock band so up close and personal - I was literally 3 feet away from them, sitting Indian-style, watching them play on the hardwood floor of the studio's primary recording room.

I was intrigued by the group - they were strong players, but it all seemed so easy. I knew I could play, too, but I had never tried songwriting...it was that single show that day that made my mind up that songwriting was something I wanted to do one day. That show weighed on my mind a lot as I finally made up my mind to go take vocal lessons and get proficient enough to record the Jimmy B and the Fortune 500 albums...and I have continued to progress and improve in my vocal training to where I am really looking forward to recording a solo piano + vocal album sometime in the near future. My lesson for myself here is that sometimes, seeing something up close and personal, instead of at a distance like we're used to seeing it, really makes a tremendous difference.

A Perfect Circle - "3 Libras." While my favorite type of music is the upbeat, anthemic type of stuff of U2, Van Halen, and others, I love balancing out that type of music with the deep, dark, introspective stuff of groups like A Perfect Circle. "3 Libras" was a song that galloped me through many sleepless nights as an undergrad at Vandy (not to mention the priceless Days of the New albums, a good bit of Seal's work, among others). The fantastic production of the song's orchestral backing behind the band's precise playing really makes this a fantastic work, and one of APC's best songs. Difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed...and passed over...

Honorable Mentions: Anything off of Seal's self-titled second album; Smashing Pumpkins - "1979"; U2 - "One"; Billy Joel - "Lullabye (Good Night, My Angel)"; Coldplay - "We Never Change"; Vertical Horizon - "The Mountain Song"

(cheap way out of only being able to list 5 songs, I know, I know...)


The people to whom I'm passing the baton

Gaurav and Matt (two guys I know love their tunes as much as I do)

Tomorrow, my parents and Evan are coming up here for my graduation. Then, over the weekend, Matt and Steven are headed up.

Feels like I should be happier that I'm done with school, once and for all. I'm not, though...I guess its because I've been ignoring classes, by and large, for the past month, so now that they're over, I really don't even care.

I'm so busy with job interviews, turning in even more resumes and cover letters around town, and getting several necessary things done with the iTest that this week, which I thought would be really laid back, has been a killer.

One last note before I close, as I need to go to bed ... on Monday, June 27, Vanderbilt will run the "Day in the Life" feature they are doing on me on their homepage, www.vanderbilt.edu. Its a photo journal that they put together on various people. They chose me because of my involvement with the iTest program...kinda neat, huh?

Until next time...

Well, I've been called out by Mike, who passed the Caesar's Bath Meme on to me in one of his recent blog entries.

The Caesar's Bath Meme requires me to list "five things that people in my circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over them." And then, I pass the edict on to others, assuming they read this blog. Not a good assumption...but here goes.

Alcohol. You could probably take all the alcoholic product I've ever consumed and fit it comfortably in a gallon jug or two, with most of it coming at my recent bachelor's party down in New Orleans. I don't mind being around people while they're drinking - I usually find it hilarious - but its not for me.

Coffee. Lori loves the stuff, but I never have gotten into it. I don't like hot drinks, for starters, and though I like the smell, the taste is revolting. And whoever came up with coffee ice cream just needs to be slapped.

Law school. Wow, talk about gluttons for punishment. Lawyers are, we'll say, a "unique" breed. And if you're in law school and reading this, I suggest you get back to reading one of those 58 books you'll be tested on at the end of the semester.

Mexican food. I don't like spicy food very much, and whenever I take Lori to Don Pablo's (her favorite restaurant), I get the hamburger. Yeah, the hamburger. Stop laughing.

Not checking email. Perhaps more disturbing than the number of friends I have who are law school students is the number of friends I have who simply don't check email on a regular basis. These people are fine checking email maybe once a day, maybe twice...or maybe once every couple of days...as opposed to my habit of checking it at least once an hour. Life can turn so fast on the basis of a single email - how can you NOT check it all the time? Time to embrace the 21st century, folks.


I pass the Caesar's Bath Meme to Gaurav and Matt. I expect to see your lists sometime soon!


One final note: I have spent some time recently writing one of hopefully several short stories. I will post it here upon its completion, which ought to be sometime in the next couple of weeks.

George W. Bush didn't impress me tonight with what I would characterize as "horrific" public speaking skills. But what really irritates me is that Bush can't seem to get anything done.

He better get to work. I believe Social Security reform is a good idea, but it requires caution that Bush may or may not employ in getting the job done. Tax reform is also critical, so its good Bush is taking that on in the fall.

Who cares about John Bolton? And Tom Delay dug his own grave. Bush needs to refocus on why anyone cares about him being in office...his ambitious domestic agenda.

If he doesn't get some substantive things done by 2008, he will most certainly go down as one of the worst, if not THE worst, President in the history of the United States. A combination of brutal arrogance and utter incompetence, made even worse by deliberate religious-right smokescreens and intentionally confusing double-talk.

Iraq is a mess that is actually beginning to give other problem countries confidence in dictating terms with the US, and terrorism worldwide has certainly not been solved by the administration. At home, the mediocrity of the economy is something we've almost started to take for granted, and the political climate is only slightly less poisonous than it was during the 2004 election.

I voted for Kerry simply because I thought a change might be good for America, though neither Kerry nor Bush are really fit to run a 7-11, much less the United States Government. Bush needs to slam the door shut on these Democratic filibusters and give us something positive to talk about for me to start thinking maybe I voted the wrong way.

Is it actually possible that a benevolent God would sentence non-believers to an eternity in hell?

I have to admit that I've never really believed this. I have always believed that God would forgive everyone of every sin, including failure to have accepted God as Savior by time of death.

Admittedly, we aren't equipped, mentally, to handle these questions. No amount of intelligence in the most brilliant of religious savants could conjure up enough mindpower to compute the rationale of our world's hidden machinery.

But we'll take a stab at it anyway.

Hell is, after all, the supreme weapon with which Christians judge others every day. Death-row murderers are, obviously, "going to hell" for their crimes, when in reality, we usually don't know if these people were Christians or not. Its pretty easy to forget that "don't kill" is no different than "don't lie" or "don't cheat on your spouse" in Christian law. Yet, every day, Christians judge others for crimes against this world, forgetting that the hierarchy of sins they attempt to construct is really a lie in and of itself.

[The other side of this, of course, is the chorus of non-believers who toss the word "hypocrite" around when this type of judgment occurs. Its the other side's defense mechanism that completely avoids the issue entirely. Not the point here, though...just an aside.]

We aren't here to judge others. Shutting down this natural defense mechanism, so we don't hold others in contempt for doing things that the Bible says are equivalent to things that we ourselves do, is something I believe to be an ultimate goal for every human being on this planet.

After all, judging others reveals an implicit weakness in our faith in God. If we were completely faithful in God's ability to judge others and restore justice, we wouldn't waste our time this way.

But will God actually send people to spend an eternity in Hell? How can a life of anywhere between 0 and 120 years in length merit an ETERNITY of suffering?

Furthermore, wouldn't the knowledge that others are suffering in Hell weaken the ability of Christians to enjoy Heaven? I wouldn't feel good about anybody, regardless of their crime, suffering for thousands upon thousands of years.

And what about many of my friends who aren't Christian? Don't I have to accept some responsibility for an end result of their non-conversion to Christianity? Its a tough question.

Jesus came to earth not as a warmongering chieftain, but as a peaceful messenger. When Judas sold him out for 30 pieces of silver, Jesus immediately asked for his forgiveness.

Clearly, its difficult to juxtapose Jesus' life on earth with the prospect of a Hell awaiting those who don't accept Jesus as savior.

But the Bible mentions Hell for a reason, and the sheer quantity of times it mentions Hell is cause for alarm.

And we're back at square one.

What does all of this mean for our practical living, day in and day out? For me, I can't pay too much attention to the question, as much as it bugs me sometimes. Thinking about Hell seems to be the religious equivalent of a tightrope walker looking down...doesn't get you any closer to the goal.

Hell could be any number of things, from the most nightmarish of realms to simply living out, in perpetuity, situations of pain and suffering within an otherwise normal context.

But attempting to use our own rules of reason to analyze what can't and won't be seen in our natural lives is just foolish. We need to be spending our time improving ourselves and the world around us, and thanking God that our existence is governed by benevolence and forgiveness...which we'll all need someday.

While I and several high school friends were down in New Orleans for my bachelor's party, I bought a PowerBall lottery ticket and talked with Ben about what I might do if I won. The prize was for $32 million, or $17 million if you chose to receive it all in one lump sum (my choice).

After taxes, that would be roughly an $8 million prize.

I put a lot of stock in thought exercises like this, as they accomplish a lot of different things. For me, thinking about what I would do with a lot of money helps me keep moving toward where I want to be.

I was a little surprised that when Ben asked me what I would do with it, I didn't really know. I've thought more about it, and I can now answer the question. If I received $8 million tomorrow, this is what I would do.

1. Put $1 million in the bank. $500,000, invested today and receiving reasonable interest for the next 20 years, should be enough to cover the education of 2-3 kids down the line. $500,000 is a "rainy day" fund, in case something happens to me or Lori.

2. Donate $1 million to West End Community Church. It started as simply a search for an officiant for our wedding in June, and ended with finding a wonderful spiritual place that, for once, I can't wait to get to on a Sunday morning. As many know, I leave Knoxville (on weekends I visit Lori) early Sunday morning to get to WECC for 10:30's service. Carter Crenshaw, the pastor there, is such a nice person and a solid community leader. I wish I had spent every Sunday morning in undergrad here...but better late than never, as they say. $1 million would improve their financial position considerably moving into their brand-new facility.

3. Give $1 million to Lori for whatever. As I've started to learn, girls are EXPENSIVE.

4. Put $2 million apiece into my two startups, Mariner Records and The iTest. I have been itching to get back into the studio, both for my own music as well as in a producer's role for a band I sign to my label. Genre's not that important, as I like a lot of different kinds of music...but I'd probably prefer a rock band. If not a rock band, then a jazz group or a pop group of some sort. Since recording can be done inexpensively, I'd use the money on promotion. Man, that would be fun! I'd also get back in the studio myself and record a dark concept album I've been toying with for years.

$2 million into the iTest would be immediately put to use hiring more PR services and the best marketing firm that money can buy. I would also hire a full-time employee to help manage the day-to-day operations of the contest.

5. I'd use the last million to buy several gifts for people who have hung around all this time to witness both my failures and successes. I'd do something nice for my parents, and it wouldn't take me long to do some things for my friends as well. There's a lot of people to whom I owe a lot.


Oh well. Guess I'll have to try to do this the old fashioned way. $8 million, maybe we'll meet someday.



Contents of "Bradley's iMix," now uploaded to iTunes:

Cities of Foam - "Out of Reach"
Snow Patrol - "Tiny Little Fractures"
The Donots - "We Got The Noise"
Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat"
Fusebox - "Light the Fire"
Snow Patrol - "Run"
Switchfoot - "Dare You to Move"
Seal - "Love's Divine"
Travis - "Turn"
Jamie Cullum - "All at Sea"
The Shins - "Gone for Good"
Ben Jelen - "Come On"
Sting w/ Twista - "Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)"
Van Halen - "Right Now"
Eminem - "Till I Collapse"

Its no secret to me that the only reason The iTest even exists is because of the massive inadequacies of the current crop of national math competitions. If they did their job well, I would have no opportunity to do what I'm doing with the AHSIMC.

Math competitions fail at THEIR ONE AND ONLY GOAL: to bring as many students into the world of competitive mathematics as possible.

The major written math competition in the United States, the AMC-12, has approximately 120,000 students that participate from the US every year. This number bounces around, but has no consistent growth pattern...when it should be growing by leaps and bounds as society has renewed its focus on education, and math education in particular.

The primary reason it doesn't grow is because the exam is a qualifier, in a series of exams, for the International Mathematics Olympiad, a very prestigious international math event. However, its a very prestigious international math event that few can qualify for.

Thus, its a very prestigious international math event that few care about.

Ask fifty employers what the IMO is. None of them know? Then we have a failure on our hands.

But the AMC-12 exam actually does several things right, including having some crafty problem writers that do a good job in writing an exam that augments the curriculums of most schools. Most math competitions can't even do that right.

Then, you have the regional and national competitions to which school teams travel and participate against other schools from across the country. These also generally fail in the same mission of continued growth and aggressive pursuit of "fringe students" - the students who COULD become interested in competitive math, but simply don't because the image of these events is so poorly maintained or because the events are so poorly run.

The link below details one example of a "recreational event" that students can participate in who go to ARML (American Regions Math League; one of the more elite national math contests). Don't ask me how these administrators decided that a 30-second song length would make this event worth anyone's while, or how the absence of any prizes or incentives to participate would help draw student participation, or how this entire blurb is written so poorly that any team reading it and deciding whether or not to even go to this thing might just toss it in the garbage. Seriously, how hard would it have been to ask a student or two for suggestions on this? IMAGE...something that math competitions don't have, and something they really need like never before to draw new students to the fold.

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/topic-34540.html
(This links to the Art of Problem Solving, a message board for students looking to learn more math. Some of these students attend ARML annually. I post on the board from time to time, and AHSIMC has a forum here for kids to discuss the competition.)

Major corporations and the mass media absolutely have to step in and get involved. The sooner the better.

Building the iTest is a gradual process. But if we don't substantially grow our participation numbers every year, until we have saturated the United States and have a presence at every single high school in the country, we are FAILURES. There's just not going to be a tolerance for any other outcome.