Tonight's dinner/event with Jeff Fisher and the other Titans coaches more than lived up to the hype. It was an incredible event that I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.

First, I arrived at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel with my coworker whom I invited (for free, in return for him doing a good bit of graphic design work for the iTest, and then sold the other two passes I had from winning the eBay auction) around 5:30, when the opening reception wasn't scheduled to begin until 6. We were almost the first people into the event, which had already been set up with autographed memorabilia tables and photo area, and the wait staff was busy getting ready to host the dinner in the main ballroom.

Around 6, the reception began, and something interesting started happening - the executive director of the Charles Davis Foundation, the beneficiary of all money raised tonight at this event, started bringing various guests of honor over to introduce to me, as if I was some big shot. This was very strange, but I definitely enjoyed it! This happened because of the overall amount of money spent on getting the four tickets ... never mind the fact that I made more than my share back in selling two of them off. Very nice!

Got pictures taken with the entire Titans coaching staff, which will be physically mailed to me sometime in the next 30 days. Again, very nice.

In the main ballroom, once it was time for the actual dinner, I found myself sitting right next to Jeff Fisher at a large enough table where several side conversations were going on the whole time, freeing me to pretty much talk to the coach for the majority of the next 45 minutes. Items I asked him about included:

- his thoughts on fantasy football (likes it for the attention it brings to the NFL, but doesn't participate)
- his thoughts on Pac Man Jones (unfortunate set of circumstances but unlikely to play for Titans again, although he's likely to play in the NFL again at some point)
- his thoughts on switching Michael Griffin back to safety (not a good idea because Griffin's footwork and speed are ideal for the cornerback position, and Calvin Lowry is poised for a breakout year in the safety position within the defense)
- his thoughts on areas of improvement for the next year (third down completion percentage has to improve, overall points production needs to significantly increase, Keith Bulluck needs to contribute more within the defense)
- his thoughts regarding the Titans' rumored trade for Chicago Bears DE Alex Brown (much closer to occurring than I realized)
- which coach he likes beating the most (Tom Coughlin, Brian Billick, and Jack Del Rio are all prime candidates, and Coach Fisher rued not being able to close out the victory at Baltimore last year but agreed that Brian Billick knew he was outplayed)
- his contractual status (very close to a LARGE extension that will enable him to keep his core coaching staff together for the next few years while the Titans rack up wins and compete deep into the playoffs)

Prior to this event, I had taken it upon myself to do a little bit of basic statistical modeling to play around with how many wins I thought the Titans would get this season, based on my expectations of the team and the other teams within their division and on their schedule. (I came out to 10-6 on the year, making the playoffs, though this deviates significantly from most mainstream opinions that the Titans will be 8-8 or worse.) But my predictions were pretty detailed and covered a lot of ground, though fitting on a single piece of paper. I had a bunch of copies of my predictions with me, and I gave one to Coach Fisher during this period of time, saying "I had something to give him" ... he stopped completely talking to anyone, and spent the next 4-5 minutes reading this sheet of paper in silence, and actually appeared to really take an interest in them. We discussed the core prediction that the team would go 10-6, and then the most interesting thing of all happened: he asked me to get a pen and write down my name, phone number, and other info on the sheet of paper so he could "reference it later." I still have no idea what he meant, but I obviously had no problem giving him my info! :) At the end of the night, as I was preparing to leave, I thanked him again for being part of the fundraiser and he thanked me again by name, saying once again he would "reference my notes" later...

Don't know what the outcome of all that will be, but the bottom line is that this event was just unbelievable. After the dinner, all the Titans coaches had a roundtable discussion where they talked about old stories and the upcoming season, using a lot of particular examples that they asked not be repeated anywhere (for some obvious reasons, like discussing one particular former player's penchant for having lots of women in his hotel rooms, and one team's ownership group that's running their NFL franchise into the ground, among other stories). Very fun just to sit there and soak it all in.

All in all, very much worth the time and money spent on getting the passes to the event and to sit at Jeff Fisher's table. The man is just as personable and friendly as I expected, based on seeing him in the media and in press conferences, which in hindsight is probably rare. Great coach and great asset to Nashville ... I hope we lock him up for a lot of money for a long, long time.

Now time for bed ... and dreaming about another Titans Super Bowl ... later.

I've posted about them here before, but Black Lab is one of my favorite bands ... and, as it happens, they've decided to re-create the Transformers theme song entirely on their own, and set it to footage from the movie. Check it out here ... Mute Math's version takes the song in a different direction, but Black Lab rekindles the original version's feel, and does it well, I might add!

Rapidly moving in on closing on our first home on July 31...and rapidly losing my mind over the number of tasks, some mundane and some major, that have to be completed by then.

Navigating a mountain of mortgage documents.
Moving money around.
Re-routing our newspaper and magazine subscriptions, as well as everything else mail-wise you can imagine.
Changing personal and business tax records within the state to reflect the new address.
Negotiating the final punchlist of items the seller will fix prior to close.
Figuring out all the ways in and out of the neighborhood and driving around the area.
Packing.
Arranging for various work going on in the house prior to moving in.
Determining what work might occur inside and outside the house over the next six months, and planning for how to begin setting that money aside.
MOVING.

We're fortunate that a number of factors are in our favor with this move, and this entire process could be significantly even more complex than it already is. Still...its a grind.

A lot more on this whole "house thing" to come, post-close.

Reason #727,019 to not take life for granted.

Let me recap this week for you:

Sunday - get up around 6 AM to leave Gulf Shores, where I was on vacation with Lori, her sister, and her sister's boyfriend. Mix in an hour of eating lunch with my parents in Birmingham, and we get back into Nashville at around 4 PM.

I had a flight to TX to catch at 6:45, so I had to hustle to get packed (again) and to the airport in time. Flight was delayed, and the subsequent connection flight was also delayed, and I get into my hotel room in Killeen, Texas, at 3:15 AM in the morning. Bad planning on my part turned into a disaster that didn't start the week off right at all.

Great week of training down here at Fort Hood, though. Got to co-teach a course to the fine folks running the military housing there, and it was both fun and rewarding. Maintenance guys, construction guys, and property managers all discussing and learning about how to be even better leaders, utilize various problem-solving tools to correct issues that arise, and in the end, achieve stronger results. Upon completion of the course, got certified as a teacher of the course as well. But the most enjoyable part was seeing a quality team of people function to such an extent that they become almost like their own family. Very strong culture there, similar to Beaufort.

I made the decision when I initially booked the trip to not rush to fly back on Friday, instead delaying flying back until Saturday. This was a great decision because as much as I am looking forward to getting back to Nashville, I came back to my hotel room on Friday completely exhausted.

The final bit of the course concluded around 2:30 on Friday, and I got back into the hotel room around 3. Sent a few emails, relaxed a little bit, and suddenly woke up at 1:30 in the morning! Went back to sleep and ended up getting 12 hours of sleep when it was all over. THAT'S what I'm talking about!

As is posted over on the iTest Blog, a lot is going on right now in preparation for the 2007 iTest in September. It's time to, once again, make that big summer push that's required to have a successful event in September. And this year, we may find ourselves stretched by both the 2007 iTest, the next iTest Tournament of Champions, the launch of the iTest CS, the iTest National Rankings (national high school individual math rankings we maintain from September to April), as well as running the website and handling our Problems of the Month.

We're about to realize the first step of the iTest's vision, which is to assemble a portfolio of academic experiences that we offer to high school students around the country. It might be small, but it's our starting point. I'm ready to dive back into it all, once again...

I posted a month or two ago about the opportunity to meet Jeff Fisher through an eBay auction. Well, as some of you know, I stayed up until 2 AM on the night that auction ended, and narrowly edged one other person up at that hour with me to win that auction. The event was extremely undervalued (in my opinion!) so I was happy to sneak away with the 4 passes to eat dinner with the man himself. He is one of my favorite people in the National Football League and a man that I respect both for his very apparent football genius as well as his high degree of skill as a motivator of people. I am very much looking forward to meeting him, and will, I'm sure, have something to say about the experience in this space after it happens later this month. I also have re-listed on eBay two of those spaces at the dinner, so hopefully some other big Titans fan will help me recoup the investment!

Also, the same week, the Simpsons movie lands in a movie that might significantly surpass whatever the highest grossing summer 2007 movie to-date is. The movie looks hilarious - Hetesh may come up that Thursday to see the opening night premiere with me, and anyone else getting in on that is welcome to...just drop me a line...

Finally, I'll conclude with mentioning that Lori and I are rapidly moving toward closing on a house on July 31, pending no major disasters until then. We'll be very close to Cool Springs (south of downtown Nashville) and in a house that should fit our needs over the next 10 years. I'll post more once it's all wrapped up, signed, sealed, and delivered...don't want to jinx it!

Out here in Killeen, Texas, this week getting certified as an instructor for Lend Lease's "Team Leader" training...so not much time to blog. The training is based off of old TQM (total quality management) theory, and for me specifically, represents a chance just to sharpen my public speaking skills, so that's definitely a good thing.

Transformers: The Movie was very good, although I could've used more acknowledgment of the heritage of the franchise. For example, quite strangely, Mute Math's remake of the Transformers theme song did not play during the credits (the new, horrible Smashing Pumpkins single and some Disturbed song played instead). I agree with what one reviewer noted, that Michael Bay seemed rather disinterested in the history of the various robot characters in the movie - when you leave the movie, you have relatively little clue on the interactions of the Decepticons amongst themselves, and even less understanding of how both the Autobots and Decepticons interact with Cybertron (which isn't even named in the movie, I don't think). So could've been more in that department...but as has been noted everywhere, the action is simply groundbreaking in the movie and was very entertaining even for my non-Transformers fan watching with me (thanks, honey!)

So, not quite the big-time foundation for a bunch of sequels that, say, Batman Begins was...but very solid nevertheless.

Also, changing subjects, here is an interesting article out of E3 this week. The Wii has had (and will continue to have, over the next few years) a tremendous impact on the evolution of the video game industry. Between Nintendo and Apple (in their respective tech sectors), there has never been more obvious examples that fearless innovation can pay off big.

EA CEO calls video games 'boring,' complicated
Riccitiello says sequel games often add little from previous versions

Reuters
Updated: 10:48 a.m. CT July 9, 2007

NEW YORK - Most video games are “boring” or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world’s largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc.

“We’re boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play,” EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal in a story posted on its Web site on Sunday.

Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA’s former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.

The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.

“For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat,” he was quoted as saying. “There’s been lots of product that looked like last year’s product, that looked a lot like the year before.”

The comments were made as the $30 billion video game industry prepares for its annual gathering, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Santa Monica, Calif. Anticipation is running high that cheaper hardware and a host of keenly awaited new games will fuel the strongest sales in years.

I had two old computers from my parents' house in Birmingham taken to a computer shop, had the hard drives ripped out of them, and gave the guys at the shop the rest of the parts in exchange for throwing that data onto a backup drive I've got.

When I returned home one night this past week, I sifted through the sizable amount of stuff that came off of those drives. Old pictures, documents, mp3s ... all sorts of stuff. Glad I went to the trouble of doing that - if you've got old computers, don't just throw them away!

I'm sitting here right now listening to some of the old songs I had on one of the computers, that I've completely forgotten about. For example, "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow" from the Soggy Bottom Boys soundtrack, "Missing" by Everything But The Girl (memorable, haunting song), "From Your Mouth" by God Lives Underwater (one of the better beginnings of a song), and "Orange Crush" by REM (how did I forget about this one??)

Lots of old pictures from family reunions, random events of the past ten years ... all sorts of actually pretty unexpected stuff. Definitely sent me back.

I would continue this post (albeit shifting gears a little bit) in describing the ignorance of people recently wanting to call a "video game addiction" a medical disorder, but I want to go to bed in a good mood. Later.

To iPhone or not to iPhone?

Apple's little device is getting a whole lot of hype. I mean A TON. And the company has got everything riding on this thing.

No buttons - just a touch screen. Incredibly long battery life, particularly if all you do is take calls. But even if you use the internet, it'll run for a whole day without being charged...which means it will meet most people's expectations in that regard.

Mix in the fact that it is ALSO an iPod and you've got something.

Until you find out its $500-$600.

Then you pause, take a deep breath, and find you're still considering it.

The iPhone is going to sell like crazy. It doesn't matter that the phone doesn't do anything too revolutionary. It, like the original iPod, will nail all of the basic features, do well on the new stuff, and crush the competition in the marketing arena.

Just go read any business press or even any mainstream print or internet media. You, without a doubt, will see something about the iPhone.

That's the sound of that Apple marketing machine just getting cranked up. Count on seeing some sort of crazy TV ad right before the June 29th launch, with all the bloggers singing the praises of Steve Jobs (including this blogger).

The guy's just smarter than almost everyone else. I'll go ahead and give him the advantage heading into a critical time at Apple. With the competition having caught up, in most regards, to the iPod in the MP3 player market, Apple's got to blaze a new trail ... and if this one doesn't work, they'll lose that luster of invincibility they've got going and, with the brand hurting, they'll have opened the door to all sorts of problems.

The iPhone simply HAS to work for Apple. And I'm thinking it will.

I have an insatiable hunger for news pertaining to the Tennessee Titans. I read the Tennessean daily, as well as ESPN, ProFootballWeekly.com, and a number of other smaller Titans-related news sources for info.

I have yet to see anyone do a fully broken down prediction of the AFC South teams for next year (other than ESPN's Merril Hoge saying "oh, I think the Colts will win, cause Peyton Manning pwns") so here is my prediction.

(I promise, it's not biased at all! :) )

AFC SOUTH - 2007 PREDICTIONS

Tennessee Titans

Last year, Tennessee went 8-5 in games started by Vince Young (as opposed to the sack, interception, and fumble machine commonly referred to as Kerry Collins) as the Titans went 6-1 over the last seven games of the regular season, narrowly missing the playoffs.

The Titans lost RB Travis Henry in the offseason, which looms as the largest area of concern entering the 2007 season. Will LenDale White stop eating long enough to post a 4+ yards per carry? Or will unproven Chris Henry have to carry the load? Or will the Titans re-sign Chris Brown and mix all three of them together? Will any of these scenarios get the job done?

The Titans also lost WR Drew Bennett and WR Bobby Wade, the departures of which have received way too much attention. Vince Young's mobility and vision on the field created many opportunities for these decent receivers to look good. Bennett will do well in the Rams offense next year, but Bobby Wade won't do well at all in Minneapolis. These were players that Vince Young helped create, not the other way around. (And to some extent, this was also true for Travis Henry, although in Denver he will post BIG numbers next year.)

The Titans have drafted well enough in the past two years to be fine at running back - I do think Chris Henry will become the primary running back once we're into the season and will post surprisingly solid numbers for a rookie. Wide receiver will be forgotten as a concern once the season begins, as Brandon Jones averages over 100 receiving yards per game and scores 10 TD.

Defensively, the Titans have in 2007 what the Colts had in 2006 - an opportunistic defense laden with solid playmakers in the secondary but lacking in defensive line pressure. While DE Kyle Vanden Bosch will have another solid year, the lack of a productive DE on the other side of the line will mean another year of double teams every game and more risk of injury. The Titans will rely on an improved linebacker corps (with the welcome addition of Dallas LB Ryan Fowler, who was just starting to come into his own when the Titans stole him away with a restricted free agent offer sheet the Cowboys couldn't match) and the finally-consistent play of DT Albert Haynesworth to provide the additional QB pressure necessary to create turnovers and help win games.

The X-factor in the Titans season will be what happens with Pac Man Jones. Jones has already been all but exonerated in the Las Vegas shooting, leaving the Atlanta incident as the determinant now of his return to the NFL. The Atlanta case comes before a judge in September, and pending its resolution, Jones will be back on the field on Week 10 of the regular season. (Also, don't forget that Jones dropped his appeal of his suspension with the NFL commissioner, which many suspect is a tactic to improve his standing within the commissioner's office and make it easier for the commissioner to reinstate Jones once he is eligible.)

When Pac Man Jones returns, the Titans' kick return game all of a sudden returns to its 2006 level of being in the top 1 or 2 in the NFL. Jones led the NFL in kick return yards last year - NOT Pro Bowler Devin Hester. And once Jones returns, the defense will be helped out by his shutdown corner skills and the offense will be helped out by the trick plays that the team runs with Jones on the field. While he may be rusty in the first game or two, if the Titans season goes as planned, they will be significantly better entering the playoffs than they were at the start of the season.

One of the reasons Vince Young received so much positive press leading up to his Rookie of the Year award at the end of last year was that the Titans had the most difficult schedule in the NFL in 2006. This year, the schedule gets a good bit easier (with a particularly soft middle third of the season) so the Titans should be in good shape from a scheduling perspective.

This is the year that Vince Young and the Titans continue their evolution into perennial Super Bowl contenders, and because of external factors that cause the Jaguars and Colts to be mired in mediocrity, the Titans WILL WIN THE AFC SOUTH IN 2007. Write it down.

Prediction: 10-6
Rank, AFC South: 1st


Houston Texans

The Texans season will be judged by a single moment during the offseason - the acquisition of former Falcons QB Matt Schaub. Schaub isn't too much better than his predecessor in Houston, David Carr, but has a completely different personality that will be capable of leading the Texans to a winner mentality in 2007.

Right behind the Schaub acquisition is the signing of RB Ahman Green away from Green Bay. Green will provide stability at the running back position, and round out a solid offensive team that also includes Pro Bowler WR Andre Johnson.

Defensively, Demeco Ryans will take another step in leading the underrated Texans defense toward becoming a playoff caliber squad. But the real story will be the improved statistics of DE Mario Williams, who was maligned much of 2006 for being drafted ahead of Reggie Bush and Vince Young.

The Texans were close in many of their losses in 2006, losing 4 of their losses by less than a touchdown. Switch those losses to wins and the Texans went 10-6 last season, not 6-10.

The Texans also benefit, like the Titans, from a softer schedule in 2007 than they had the year before. The difference between which team, the Titans or the Texans, will be in first place in this division hinges on their head-to-head record. And do you really think Vince Young will lose to his hometown Houston team? Or that Bud Adams, who lives in Houston, would allow Jeff Fisher to lose these games? Didn't happen last year and won't this year either, although the Texans will have what most will view as a hugely successful turnaround year although will barely miss the playoffs in the last week of the season.

Prediction: 8-8
Rank, AFC South: 2nd


Indianapolis Colts

The popular media is high on the Colts coming out of the AFC South as the champion of the division once again in 2007. What hasn't made a lot of news in the popular media, though, are the number of defections from the Colts roster to other teams during the offseason:

CB Jason David (signed with the New Orleans Saints)
CB Nick Harper (signed with the Tennessee Titans)
S Mike Doss (signed with the Minnesota Vikings)
LB Cato June (signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
DT Montae Reagor (unsigned as of June 17)
RB Dominic Rhodes (signed with the Oakland Raiders)
WR Brandon Stokley (unsigned as of June 17)

Note that the majority of these free agents who have left the Colts are on defense. The Colts, as a team, had 15 interceptions, 10 of which were by players listed above who are no longer on the roster. Bear in mind that the Colts defense was a bend-but-don't-break, opportunistic type of defense, that is incapable of shutting down opponents but instead looked for turnover chances...and you realize that the Colts defense may really suck this year.

Their offense will continue to click along and put up big statistics, as long as Peyton Manning is healthy.

Last year, the Colts went 3-3 within the AFC South, losing the last three divisional games. Jacksonville crushed Indy 44-17 in the second half of last year, and even Houston got in on the action in upsetting the Colts 24-21. But after the Titans barely lost to the Colts (in Indianapolis) 14-13 early in the year last year, who could forget Rob Bironas' 60-yarder to take down the division champions?

So combine the Colts worst-in-AFC defense with the AFC South's high degree of familiarity with the Colts offense, and maybe mix in a little bit of Super Bowl champion malaise / bad luck, and you get a recipe for a horrendous Colts season that sends the franchise in a completely unanticipated direction in 2008.

2007 Colts Record: 7-9
Rank, AFC South: 3rd


Jacksonville Jaguars

This is a team primed for an implosion in 2007. Characterized by strong defensive play and a fierce ground attack, the Jaguars have long been thought to be close to playoff contention and a potential Super Bowl run.

Last year, though, the seed was planted for a contentious, hostile locker room in which QB Byron Leftwich won't even speak to head coach Jack del Rio after not being allowed to resume at starting quarterback after returning from injury, as del Rio opted to continue with David Garrard at that position. Now, the Jaguars (in their infinite wisdom) are considering bringing in clubhouse cancer Daunte Culpepper, who will do absolutely nothing to improve the QB position but will do a lot to add confusion and disarray to the Jaguars team.

Both of them suck, so it doesn't make that big of a difference. Mix in a strangely inconsistent group of wide receivers, and you have the makings of a frustrating offense that is great at grinding out rushing yards behind RBs Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, but can't do much of anything else to support offensive production.

On defense, another seed has just recently been planted for ill will in the locker room this year. The Jaguars suddenly released S Donovin Darius, their ball-hawking safety who was the leader of the defensive secondary. He was coming off an injury and was expected to begin minicamps on time, but the Jaguars opted to go younger at that position with their first round draft pick out of Florida, Reggie Nelson.

The Jaguars are a team that lives on the edge. They have long been on the edge of becoming a perennial AFC South powerhouse, but have almost stood in their own way as they tried to accomplish that. Now with these dual offseason issues (Culpepper/QB issues as well as releasing Darius) the team will teeter on the edge of implosion before completely falling apart during this brutal stretch of their 2007 season:

Week 9 - at New Orleans
Week 10 - at Tennessee
Week 11 - San Diego
Week 12 - Buffalo (which will be a very good team in 2007)
Week 13 - at Indianapolis

At best, Jacksonville will go 2-3 in these games, but since they will already be sub-.500 entering this stretch of games, they will fall further out of playoff contention and will lead to at least partial meltdown heading into the end of the season. Jack del Rio will not survive the subsequent offseason and the Jaguars will have to decide whether or not to tear the entire team apart to rebuild, or go after a pricey QB veteran to try to compete in the short term.

Prediction: 5-11
Rank, AFC South: 4th

The iTest / Facebook "Causes" (Cross-listed on the iTest Blog)

The iTest now is a "cause" within the Facebook Causes application. Log into Facebook and search within the Causes application (or send me a friend request and check my profile for a link to it) to find the iTest's new site within Facebook.

Support the iTest by becoming a member of the cause, inviting other friends to the cause, and even donating to the cause directly (and securely) through Facebook.


If you're on Facebook, please either check out the Causes application and find us through there, or check my profile and join up ... this is a huge help for us!

Picture from earlier tonight at the Melting Pot ... Lori and I are celebrating our two-year anniversary this weekend!

I will be posting most of my iTest-related stuff over at the new iTest blog (which will have a different graphical layout soon, don't worry). Head over there and check out the post regarding the recently-completed Spelling Bee.

Wasn't planning on posting, but had to...

LeBron James is simply unbelievable.

I quit watching the NBA after Jordan left, and LeBron's brought me back into it ... but even in rooting the Cavaliers to victory, I wasn't expecting THIS. I am in awe of what I just watched, and so glad I watched the game.

48 points.

29 of the last 30 points.

25 points in a row.

Across the 4th quarter and two brutal overtimes.

Playing great defense the entire time.

Easily the best player in the NBA right now. And here's the kicker...

HE'S ONLY 22 YEARS OLD.

After that last post, I of course had to go to YouTube to see if I could pull up the old trailer for the 80's animated movie...obviously, it was there. SICK.

I didn't realize the movie was released in 1986. So I was 6 years old at the time.

The movie absolutely blew my mind. It took the characters I loved and put them through an actually extremely complex story that involved the death of Optimus Prime, the reinvention of Megatron into Galvatron, and the introduction of Unicron.

As a 6-year-old, watching scenes like this and getting introduced to the concepts of revenge and murder, as well as being introduced to the brand-new concept of indiscriminate, reasonless destruction (with Unicron) was pretty scary.

And can you imagine a 6-year-old watching THIS?? I remember this oh so clearly. I would have to imagine this was the most dramatic moment in a movie from my entire childhood, and I'm sure several readers of this would agree.

The creativity in the movie, from the wide-ranging use of the entire Transformers universe (even the Dinobots were in this thing) to the awesome soundtrack (bet you didn't realize Weird Al had a song in this movie...I completely forgot both about that as well as when his song was used in the film) really opened my eyes up to a new world of storytelling.

Also for anyone else who's really appreciating this post, check out Stan Bush's horrifying 80's music video for the Transformers theme, as well as Weird Al's typically genius Dare To Be Stupid video...he was just as lyrically brilliant 20 years ago as he is today with that Ridin' parody. "Put down the chainsaw, and listen to me..." LOL

I'll cut off my fanboyesque gushing over the 80's movie to reiterate:

THIS NEW MOVIE BETTER NOT SUCK.

I haven't seen a movie in a theater since seeing The Departed back in Beaufort many months ago.

Prior to that movie, I hadn't seen a movie in forever.

But there's a movie coming this summer that will change that.

You know what it is.

TRANSFORMERS.

I saw the trailer for this thing and I think I probably fell over in disbelief. This is going to be INCREDIBLE.

For anyone my age who was in the 5-10 range when the life-changing animated Transformers movie hit the theaters (remember that 80's rock theme song???), or anyone in a wide range both older and younger than me that watched the cartoon series on a regular basis, this movie is highly anticipated.

Note to Michael Bay, the director of this movie that will draw me out of my humble abode and back into the theater for possibly the last time in 2007:

YOU BETTER GET THIS RIGHT.

I'm somewhat of a latecomer to eBay and buying stuff online, as I really only started paying attention to eBay and using it last year. (Which my wife would probably say is a good thing...)

As anyone who uses eBay knows, sometimes you run across items that just sort of leave you there speechless. Sometimes it's a "good" speechless, sometimes it's bad.

Today, I ran across one of those GOOD ones.

Dinner with Tennessee Titans Coach Jeff Fisher at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on July 24

As I write this, no one has bid on this yet, but I would anticipate the auction to reach between $2,500 and $3,000. So, for four people to attend, divide the potential total by 4 and you've got roughly between $600 and $750 per person to attend dinner and the fundraising event. (The event by itself costs $300, for reference.)

Jeff Fisher is, without a doubt, my favorite football coach at any level and one of my favorite sports figures in any pro sport. I think he represents the city of Nashville with class and dignity, I think he's a brilliant tactician on the football field, I think he does a superb job with player development and in handling the day-to-day operations of the Titans, and his discipline with the media throughout his coaching career is almost too good to be true. He never says the wrong thing, he never ends up posterized in a news headline for saying something brash - he has been a great leader for the Titans for years.

My Seattle Mariners, in stark contrast, are led by a guy named Mike Hargrove who does none of these things well. He mismanages the roster, abuses relievers, constructs inefficient, bizarre lineups and ends up costing Seattle probably 2-3 games over the course of a 162-game season. So the coaches of my favorite teams definitely aren't sacred, by any stretch.

Getting back to the eBay auction - that's clearly a large sum of money for one night out. But it got me thinking: is there anyone else on the face of the Earth, alive right now, that I'd pay that kind of money to eat with? (That I don't see on a regular basis?)

Yes. Off the top of my head, in order of hastily-calculated relative priority:

1) Jeff Fisher
2) Patrick Stewart
3) Bill Gates
4) Steve Jobs
5) Bono
6) Donald Trump
7) LeBron James
8) Vince Young (who also has a dinner opportunity in Nashville in July on eBay)
9) Jack Welch
10) Harrison Ford

If I could snap my fingers and have any musical act in front of me, here in this room to perform an intimate set of their songs of my choice for as long as I wanted, my first choice would be U2. Easily. Strongest rock band in my lifetime.

There's a tie for second, though, which is why I felt compelled to post. Prince and Imogen Heap are two of the most unbelievably creative individuals in the music world right now. They create entire worlds with 3 minutes of composition. I would happily do any number of horrific things if it meant I could sit one-on-one with either of these musicians and watch them perform for a couple of hours.

Prince begins a fairly long residency out in a smallish venue in Los Angeles this summer, playing each Friday night for six or seven weeks in a row. He's starting these shows at 11:30 PM local time, playing a couple hours in front of 250 or so people, and then turning the venue into his own eating establishment by opening it up to his own private chef until 4 in the morning. I am definitely watching to see if prices for that aren't too ridiculous to attend. That would be a once in a lifetime event.

Imogen Heap, on the other hand, is one of the most innovative female artists out there, period. I *highly* encourage anyone reading this to head over to her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/imogenheap) and give the live version of "Just For Now" a listen. That's just her sitting there with a computer, and it is a killer performance. Then listen to "Come Here Boy," a song I actually forgot completely about that she wrote for her first solo album, and is a total masterpiece.

We're lucky to have musicians like both of these people who are tied for #2 in my own personal wish list. Sometimes you have to just sit back and recognize incredible, awe-inspiring talent.

This is my 150th blog post...still waiting on Blogger (or Google now) to come and pull the plug...

Headed to Birmingham within the hour to meet with Dave, John, and Steven on the iTest and talk over what will be happening over the rest of the year. On Monday, Steven and I will meet with the Protective Life Foundation regarding our funding proposal to them, and then I'll scramble back to Nashville to see the 24 finale.

June marks the beginning of the new fiscal year for the iTest and an obvious time to take inventory of how far we've come this year. The iTest website, the rapid acceptance of the Tournament of Champions, the successful deal with the Southern Company to sponsor the 2007 iTest...all of these things have been instrumental in us taking a big next step over the past year.

The next 12 months will involve continued capital inflow and the launch of "the next big thing," the iTest CS. Our annual computer science competition will diversify our organization (moving us beyond just mathematics) and will allow us to have some interplay between our math events and our new computer science event.

We'll also be evaluating how best to implement a new revenue stream in matching up students with willing employers for internships and jobs. We've got the right brand positioning to find students with both great academic qualifications and actual social skills and match them with employers looking to win the global war for talent. This will be a critical new piece of the cashflow that will turn us into a full-fledged, sustainable business.

Figuring out who does what for the iTest over the next 12 months starts tonight at this meeting. Time to hit the road.

RIP Josh Hancock, St. Louis Cardinals RP

Vestavia Hills High School, 1996: 9-0, 0.92 ERA
Auburn University, 1997: Member of College World Series team
Drafted by Red Sox in 1998, with his debut on September 10, 2002
Signed as minor league free agent with St. Louis Cardinals on February 21, 2006

I remember very clearly being a freshman at Vestavia and going to see this incredible pitcher we had on our baseball team. Our baseball teams were in the middle of a run during the entire decade of the 1990's of winning state championship after state championship in baseball, and Josh Hancock was an integral part of that for multiple years. Between 1991 and 2000, over a 10-year stretch, Vestavia only failed to win the state championship one single time, winning it 9 of those years and 7 years in a row at one point.

Over a three-year career spanning from 1994 to 1996, Josh Hancock went a combined 28-1, earning enough wins to put him among the all-time Alabama leaders in career wins according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

Tragically, just as Hancock was seemingly finding his way in the major leagues with the Cardinals, this accident happens. RIP.

Logged into my MySpace page earlier tonight, and for some reason I feel compelled to post about what this experience was like.

I suppose I was expecting to quickly ascertain that there has been hardly any activity on anyone's accounts, not much new information, and quickly be able to log off and move on to another part of my internet rounds. After all, this is certainly the case for me - I haven't been to the site in months.

This will probably come as no surprise, but I hardly even recognized my "friends" list (which includes many actual friends, in addition to clubs, politicians, bands I've never heard, and who knows what else since I just summarily accept most friend requests without question). Pictures of the people I actually do know have changed, most people had logged in within the past 48 hours, lots of new blog posts, layouts of pages have changed, etc.

For whatever reason, this really blindsided me. People my age actually customize their MySpace? And keep it updated on a regular basis? People of all different types, backgrounds, careers?

Yes.

How strange!

Not too strange to the mainstream media, which has been on top of this for some time now, and certainly not too strange to the entire generation of core social networking users that makes up MySpace's user base. But certainly strange to me, at least for today.

Someday, actually probably much sooner than I would imagine, they'll be teaching case studies in business schools around the world about MySpace.com...that site used by the 40-year-old administrative assistant, 32-year-old corporate hot shot, the 55-year-old musician/poet, the 22-year-old meth addict, the 19-year-old college freshman, and the 26-year-old blogger :)

You know that favorite hangout you had back in high school? Now imagine that EVERYONE YOU'VE EVER MET WAS THERE.

ALL THE TIME.

EVERY DAY.

And that's what MySpace represents - communication, 24/7/365.

We already live in a world where people don't dare to be different. The mob mentality will grow to new heights in a world of 24/7 interconnectivity. Nothing will be hidden anymore - everything will be transparent and right there, out in the open, caught on cameraphone or recorded by webcam.

As new generations raised on this level of interconnectivity rise up to take positions out in the labor force and in other positions of influence over time, the results will be felt.

Leaders who understand the MySpace era and command the mob will reap rewards of unprecedented power and resources. Medical research will move five times faster than it ever has before, creating new cures. Politicians will be cleaner than ever before, since the cost of a mistake is tremendous and there are no more secrets. Business will seize upon crowdsourced information to polish products and services to a shiny perfection, creating new dimensions for competition we haven't thought of yet and raising the importance of human capital and marketing more than ever. Social causes will continue to escalate in importance, as messages of despair and need travel around the world as fast as you can blink, and efforts to address them get organized almost as fast. Organizations like The iTest will do things never thought possible. The world will move faster than ever before, largely for the better.

But, for now, as I sit and read the poetry of a high school classmate, contemplate the politics of another classmate living overseas, and share the happiness in the new baby of a co-worker and new relationship of an old friend - all thanks to MySpace - it's worth a moment to sit and also think about the bigger picture.