If you want to see something amazing, click here and watch some of these videos created by students in honor of the 2007 iTest. All four of these are well conceived and executed.

The fun part of watching these videos is the realization of the national impact the iTest organization is having.

One day, this level of enthusiasm and passion will reach deep into some of the poorest schools and areas of the nation, not to mention across a variety of subjects and age groups.

I continue to be fascinated by Facebook, its growth, and the number of people who use it (including the number of people from my high school graduating class). I also am amazed by how well it keeps me up to date on what's going on with people, which is great as it fills a huge need in that regard.

But the biggest fascination of mine, at least recently, is the whole deal with the "news feed" fiasco that occurred.

Facebook implemented a feature where the opening page upon logging in to the system was a feed of recent changes made by your Facebook friends to their profile or activities they've completed within the Facebook website, such as uploading pictures or whatnot.

People threw a fit over this, saying it was too stalkerish and also would clutter up the user interface on the site.

Well, Facebook responded to that criticism with an open letter that was available on the internet and within the Facebook website...and the entire thing just went away.

Now, everyone seems to love the news feed. I bet if Facebook took it away at this point, there would be a similar uprising.

Let's not forget that just months before all this occurred, Facebook users complained to no end over the company's decision to allow anyone to use Facebook ... not just college or high school students. That complaint also similarly vanished into thin air as Facebook simply marched on to their own drum.

There's a good business (or overall life) lesson in here somewhere: generally speaking, people don't really know what they want. Therefore, complaints can't really be trusted, no matter how loud they are. It's up to the people behind the scenes to have the knowledge and ability to make sense of 'background noise' coming from customers, and move forward confidently in the decided direction.

2007 iTest - complete. For a postgame wrap-up, head over to the iTest Blog.

Lori's busy as can be at work. She's loving it, which is good, and her firm understands her talent, which makes it even better. Weekends and free time is precious right now, though. It's all a tradeoff.

Titans take on the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football next week. So far, I'm 2-0 in my Jeff Fisher predictions (you know, the predictions one-pager I gave him at the offseason charity dinner based on my statistical modeling of the upcoming season! loyal blog readers are WELL AWARE of that dinner!) Predicted beating the Jags, and losing to the Colts, to open the season ... and as a bonus, I even predicted on the sheet of paper I gave Coach Fisher that Garrard would supplant Leftwich as the starter of the ridiculous Jaguars franchise.

However, I'm still waiting for the phone to ring.

Jeff, give me a shout! Aren't you the slightest bit curious on how I managed to predict the entire Titans season correctly, prior to your guys even stepping on the field? Give me some sideline passes and I might consider altering my prediction of the Titans losing 5 of 6 in a difficult stretch in the middle of the season, and then you will actually be able to potentially win those games!

By the way, I've got the Titans winning against the Saints next Monday night. You don't even have to watch, if you don't want to. Sorry to spoil it ahead of time.

And while I don't want this blog to degenerate into just an aggregator of links, I can't see this and not post it. Like so many other YouTube videos, it defies explanation and simply requires IMMEDIATE viewing.

The iTest is, once again, off and running. It's amazing how streamlined this thing is becoming, even though this is just our 4th year of operations. More on the competition after it concludes at 7 PM Central on Sunday.

I really logged on just to post two different videos I found while surfing YouTube. I guess it was a retrospective mood that got me thinking back to college, creating an organization then, and running it. One of the best things about running VMS was getting to bring in bands. One of my favorite artists we brought in was Angie Aparo, a prodigy-level musician from Atlanta, Georgia (who, at the time, was touring under his name and had the single "Spaceship" at alternative radio).

This guy is one of the most phenomenal live performers I've still ever seen. YouTube, being the awesome site that it is, somehow has a number of live performances from Angie Aparo. I've selected two of them that are "must see TV":

1) His duet with Faith Hill of his song "Cry" (which Faith Hill recorded and released as a big single off of one of her recent discs)

2) His live performance of "Spaceship" (at WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham)

Enjoy. Back after the 2007 iTest concludes.

In the wake of the Belichick cheating story...I present to you:

BELICHEATER.COM

Someone you know might have had a hand in creating this site.

I can't really say who. But you probably know.

Look for a lot of over-the-top updates and postings of emails I receive ... oh, that will be interesting to see.

Back from a weekend in Minneapolis ... great city. Visited the Walker Center and saw the Picasso exhibit there, which left the city on Sunday, and got to see the Mall of America as well. Lots of fun stuff to do there, and great weather (in terms of temperature - there was a bit of rain though) throughout the weekend.

On Sunday, Gaurav, Noah, and I headed to the Metrodome to see the Vikings take on the Atlanta Falcons. Predictably, the Falcons got destroyed, but unpredictably, Adrian Peterson had an incredible game - possibly the best in recent history for any NFL rookie. That guy is an absolute beast.

The downside to this was that I didn't get to watch the Titans pound the ball down the Jaguars throat on Sunday like I would have if I were back home in Nashville. 282 rushing yards for the Titans is a FRANCHISE RECORD, against a team that was supposedly (and still may become) a top 5 defense.

This is one of those things I love about Jeff Fisher: the man is so good at his job that he doesn't just win games. He provides the BLUEPRINT from which all other NFL teams should play in order to beat the same opponent the exact same way.

Fisher invented the gameplan to beat the Colts - ball-control offense and physically punishing the Colts as they rack up yards, but hold them to field goals. No big surprise that the Titans only lost by 1 in Indy last year, with a fairly bad team at the time, and then beat the Colts later in the year. This year, while I predicted the Colts to win this upcoming game in the predictions I gave to Jeff Fisher at the Loews preseason dinner, it will be extremely close and the Titans will have their chance to win.

The Titans have provided the blueprint that has helped other teams exploit opponents that face the Titans ... and now Fisher's done it again with this weekend's game against Jacksonville. Certainly, Fisher and company knew something that no one else did - that the Jaguars could be exploited in the running game by going between the Jaguars' two Pro Bowl defensive tackles - and simply RAN THE SAME PLAYS ALL GAME. This had the Jaguars understandably furious...but also, at the same time, completely helpless.

The Jaguars' next opponent, the horrendous Atlanta Falcons, may actually keep it close against Jacksonville by using this same approach. And they should send Jeff Fisher a thank-you note.

At some point, the national media will wake up and realize that neither Jeff Fisher nor Vince Young lose. These guys are winners in every sense, and as readers of this blog know, I'm convinced they are headed to the playoffs this year and headed to a sustained period of greatness. Should be fun to watch!

In an unrelated closing note, the 2007 iTest begins on Wednesday. It's already getting crazy like it always does this time of year. Here's to continued growth of our main event!

Something I almost never do is go back and look at old posts in this blog. I figure someday I'll sit down and read this thing through from start to finish and probably smile and cringe all at the same time over some of the things in here. Hopefully more smiling than cringing, but you never know.

I did wonder tonight, though, if I posted this time last year around the time of my birthday (Sept. 4). Sure enough, I did. An excerpt:

By the time I turn 27, Lori will have passed the bar and begun work here in town, which will be a whole new adventure to add to everything else going on right now. What else will have happened by the time next September rolls around? It'll be fun finding out.

Well, what did happen between this year and last year?

1) I returned from Beaufort and still work at the same company, although I don't live near the office anymore (see #5).
2) Lori graduated.
3) Lori undertook an intense summer of studying for the bar, and then took the bar...don't know the results yet (due back in October) but I'm not too worried.
4) The iTest received its first major corporate sponsorship, setting a critical precedent for the organization. The iTest's number of academic events put on during the year has grown from 1 to 3.

5) Bought and moved into a first house!

6) Put in a year's worth of service as VP of the Board of the building where I previously lived. Very interesting, worthwhile experience.
7) Checked off one "life to-do list" item by eating dinner and chatting up longtime Titans head coach Jeff Fisher at a private dinner.
8) Celebrated knowing Lori for 5 full years now, as of September 1. That's pretty crazy. I've been a lucky guy for a while now.
9) Visited and spoke with a variety of teachers and students at MIT during the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament earlier this calendar year, which the iTest sponsored.
10) Logged way more hours than anyone should killing 12-year-olds in Halo on XBox Live.

I suppose those ten items don't really begin to cover everything that's happened, but like everything else in this blog, the list helps me remember and reflect back on what's been a solid, productive year.

I'll be 27 years old on Tuesday. That almost seems impossible.

I remember going to college and thinking "by the time I'm 30, I'll do X, I'll make Y, and I'll be well on my way to being Z." Big, fuzzy, abstract long-term goals always have to accompany tangible, required short-term targets in my way of thinking.

For better or worse, I generally think about progress in terms of age, and that's especially the way I measure myself. It's not enough to have done something...it has to be done now. Age is just an easy way to measure yourself.

And along that line of thinking, I never thought I'd be married by now. And I REALLY never thought I'd be 2+ years into being married by now! But that's why I don't pretend to know what's best for me.

Hopefully the next year will continue to see strong growth for my relationship with God, my relationship with Lori, continued relationships with all those people who matter to me and continued growth of the iTest, a mission He drove me toward and an organization whose time has come.

And maybe by the time I write this same blog entry again next year, I can once again sit back and report another great year.