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I’ve been down in Tennessee for the past week for work. As a result of that, I was able to spend another weekend in Nashville. I also spent a weekend here last March, so I had done a lot of the touristy things (and taken lots of pictures) during that visit.

Friday night, I got into town around 5:30 PM, and went to the Doubletree Hotel. Very nice hotel, apparently they just spent a few million dollars on remodeling, and it showed. Didn’t have much of a plan for things to do, so my night was spent barhopping among the different watering holes on Broadway. I was actually able to catch the Tigers game at Bailey’s….too bad we lost :-/

Saturday was spent mostly around the hotel actually. I went to breakfast at The Pancake Pantry, which has the best pancakes you’ll ever have. After getting back to the hotel, I found out it was way too hot for wandering around downtown by going to a souvenir shop on Broadway. Ended up watching a movie on TV and working out at the hotel during the afternoon. My cousin (Brad) called me around 4:30, and we went to dinner at a sports bar near the Gaylord Entertainment Center (where the Predators play).

After dinner came the Tennessee Titans vs. Atlanta Falcons NFL game (a few pictures were taken). Somehow my cousin was able to snag us a couple tickets to his company’s suite, so that was really cool. The game itself wasn’t that exciting….no real big plays, crowd wasn’t real into it, etc. Tennessee lost the game, 20-6. After the game, went for a couple drinks at a bar on Broadway, nothing exciting.

Sunday was a great day….woke up early and went to The Pancake Pantry again, but this time with Brad and his family: Michelle (his wife), Max (son), and Spencer (son). Amazing food (as always), so that was good. Max and Spencer were funny, and it was great to see them all again.

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel and packed up my stuff. The Hermitage was next on the list of things to do. It’s the plantation/mansion that was home to the seventh President of the United States: Andrew Jackson. Only a short drive from downtown, it was great to visit. A little warm to walk around outside, but that really didn’t effect my experience. I took some of the best pictures of the trip while there, so take a look if you want. Overall, a great historic place to go, I’d recommend it to anyone visiting the Nashville area.

After finishing a tour of The Hermitage, I headed down to Franklin, TN for a visit to Brad and Michelle’s house. It was a surprise when I called them during the drive there and Brad told me I was going to have dinner with them! It wasn’t quite ready when I got there, so Max entertained me with some Sponge Bob flash games….very amusing actually. For dinner, we had some really good herb chicken, corn on the cob, and salad. To top it off, Michelle made the best dessert: shortbread cake, whipped cream, and fruit. Such good food…

After dinner, I had to head back to Jackson, TN. Long drive (2+ hours) from Franklin, but that’s ok. It was a great weekend in Nashville, and I’m looking forward to visiting again. I don’t know what else there is to do, but I know there is plenty going on in that city. Good times!

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If you pay any attention at all to tech industry news, or for that matter CNN, you would have heard about the large amount of search data AOL released in an effort to help researchers and marketers.

Of course without the major news outlets having to worry about a murder that happened 10 years ago, this story might have got more coverage. It did get enough press to cause some heads to roll over at AOL. As you can imagine, the stock price of Time Warner (TWX) took a brief hit, but it’s just about back up to the level it was at before the news hit the wire.

If anything, I hope news like this helps make the general public aware of privacy issues. I don’t think enough people understand the amount of data that is available to companies, and on the web in general. Particulary annoying to me are the nasty/confusing/horrible privacy policies many companies have. It’s very difficult to prevent the information you provide to them from being sold to another party without your knowledge. Tricks range from saying you have to renew your “opt-out” designation, or mailing a new policy to you periodically, thus forcing you to renew the “opt-out,” or just plain telling you that they will use your information within their “related” companies.

Personally, I’d like to see legislation preventing companies from selling/utilizing your address for any purposes not directed by you. In other words, a consumer would be automatically “opted-out” of any marketing effort or sale of their information. Companies can complain all they want about this, but frankly, it’s in the best interest of consumers for these types of policies or laws to exist.

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Joseph Rosenthal, the photographer who took the famous portrait of USA Marines raising a flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, passed away last Sunday. The photo was memorialized in several formats, especially in the large bronze statue near Arlington.

The quote from Mr. Rosenthal at the end of the NYT article says it all: “To get that flag up there, America’s fighting men had to die on that island and on other islands and off the shores and in the air. What difference does it make who took the picture? I took it, but the Marines took Iwo Jima.”

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