This past Saturday was International Pillow Fight Day. The New York festivities were held in Union Square, and it was an obvious photo-op.

Here's a small gallery of my photos from Pillow Fight NYC 2010.

I made this pic in New York's Grand Central Station. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the author.

I've also turned to podcasts for sports conversation, having given up on sports radio a long time ago. As if commercial breaks and call-ins from fans who can't put a sentence together aren't enough, you have to sit through three news updates an hour, even when nothing is going on. How many times can you listen to last night's NBA scores? So inefficient. And when even the good interviews last but a few minutes, you don't get nearly the insight as you would from a 30-minute or hour-long sit-down.

I'll listen to a show or two on the subway or while walking around or even when playing a game of NBA 2K10. If one doesn't strike my fancy, I'll just delete it and begin another. That's the beauty of having a nice library of podcasts. It's DVR for the ears, and it's awesome.

Here are my favorites...

COMEDY

• Adam Carolla Podcast — Just days after CBS canceled his L.A.-based morning radio show, Carolla launched this podcast, which was an immediate hit (Wikipedia | story). Adam welcomes guests from all worlds of entertainment and sports, and the hour-long conversations are the exact opposite of predictable and boring late-night celeb interviews. Lately, he's been taking the act on the road, interviewing guests at sold-out venues. Get it on!
Frequency: 5 days a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: @adamcarolla

• Onion Radio News — My most trusted name in news? Doyle Redland. He reports, and I decide on such stories as "Secondhand Smoke Leads to Secondhand Coolness" and "Area Bass Player Fellated."
Frequency: 3 days a week; Lengh: 2 minutes; Twitter: @TheOnion

SPORTS

• SportsCast With Spider and the Henchman — Newly launched on the Adam Carolla Entertainment Network (A.C.E.), this show has a ton of potential. Film and TV writer Kevin Hench brings a lot of the same personality and ovservational style as his friend Bill Simmons (but without the corporate muzzle), and John Salley adds humor and candor from a guy who won four NBA titles with such legendary teammates as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal and Isiah Thomas. He can talk on the field and off the field will equal expertise and flavor.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: @SpiderandHench

• B.S. Report — Only Tom Carvel had a worse voice for broadcasting, but Bill Simmons makes up for it with timely, intelligent and humorous conversations with such sports heavyweights as NBA commish David Stern and such nobodies as his Yankees-loving friend JackO. Simmons always comes prepared and delivers.
Frequency: 3 days a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: @SportsGuy33

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Digitial Photo Experience — DPE is a relatively new broadcast hosted by well-known author Rick Sammon and Juan Pons, who are extremely easy-going and likable. Their decades of experience adds context to the changing landscape of photography today. They not only explain what challenges new products are conquering, but suggest quick and easy methods for improvement, as well. I especially enjoyed their episode on photography mythbusting.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: @ricksammon

• Lightroom Killer Tips — Matt Kloskowski hosts a well-edited, weekly video broadcast on getting the most out of Lightroom. Episodes cover such broad topics as Adjustment Brush Tip Extravaganza as well as specific ones, like Batch Cropping.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 8 minutes

Also check out: Learning Digital Photography, Pro Photo Show, Photography.ca

POKER

• The Poker Beat — Part of the Poker Road family of podcasts, Poker Beat is a roundtable discussion of industry news hosted by Scott Huff. Guests discuss the virtues of happenings in casinos, courtrooms and media and debate their impact on the ever-growing industry.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: PokerBeatRadio

• Cash Plays — Jeremiah Smith hosts this program dedicated to cash games, often with a guest who specializes in a type of game, whether it be full-ring no-limit hold 'em, Omaha or heads-up play. An easy listen and not as super-nerdy as other poker shows.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: cashplays

• Deuce Plays — Bart Hanson, a professional cash gamer from California, hosts this show as part of the DeucesCracked network. Heavy on strategy, Bart breaks down invidual hands from a variety of games, picks the brains of fellow pros and shares thoughts on the multitude of off-the-felt life decisions that influence optimal play.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: DeucePlays

• Two Plus Two Pokercast — Mike Johnson and Aaron Schwartz discuss the latest conversations on the immensely popular Two Plus Two poker forums, eschewing most of the strategy stuff for the more fun gossip and crazy prop bets that are always being floated among members. They also interview multiple guests each week on the latest industry news.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 2 hours; Twitter: 2p2Pokercast

TECHNOLOGY

• New York Times: Tech Talk — This group-hosted show not only reports on major product launches and conferences, but it touches on lesser-well-known apps and gadgets that can make your life more effiecient and fun. Tech Talk's webisite provides a comprehensive list of show-related links, as well.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 30 minutes; Twitter: nyttechtalk

• Engadget — A discussion of industry news and trends, a bit more techy than NYT podcast. A recent show dedicated an hour, 20 minutes to what whent down at the Mobile World Congress, a week after previewing the event.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: engadget

GENERAL

• This American Life — Chicago Public Radio's amazing broadcast offers stories that unfold via interviews with everyday people. The details and emotions ring clear without images and graphics to distract. Earlier this month, host Ira Glass promised in an interview with the Los Angeles Times an upcoming "huge, groundbreaking investigative piece of journalism." Among my favorite recent airings are Guns and #1 Party School. They also launched a popular $2.99 iPhone app.
Frequency: 1 day a week; Lengh: 1 hour; Twitter: NPRamericanlife

• Freakonomics Radio — This one's just getting off the ground, but I predict it'll be a huge hit. If you've read any of the books, you know that while people can lie, numbers cannot. The New York Times is behind this mythbusting of data that tells us how we live, as opposed to how we think we do.
Frequency: too early to tell; Lengh: 30 minutes; Twitter: freakonomics

As winter approached in New York, I decided to improve my photography skills in controlled environments. Up until then, my work had been mainly street and travel photography, genres that are usually off the cuff and more enjoyable in warmer weather.

So I took a Studio & Lighting course at Photo Manhattan and joined photo-related Meetup groups where models and shutterbugs collaborate in group settings to get practice and build portfolios.

I also built a Model Mayhem profile to network with local folks with similiar interests.

My work has still been done with either flash-on-camera or natural light. I haven't yet tackled expensive lighting set-ups outside of class, but I plan to do that soon in more advanced workshops.

Here's an always-current link to what's new at my Fotki portfolio.

Heavy snowstorms present opportunities for great photos, and I captured a few today around Central Park. Unfortunately, heavy snowstorms also present opportunities to hunker down in a bar and stay warm, and so I didn't wake early enough to hit the park before it got really crowded and much of the snow got trampled.

I'm more than halfway through Bill Simmons' 700-page The Book of Basketball, which weighs the merits of players and eras and illuminates the NBA as a true team sport, where individual skills, circumstances and, ultimately, value vary significantly from one 18-ppg, 7-rpg guy to another. Think less MLB and more NFL, where you can argue what Barry Sanders would have done with Emmitt Smith's offensive mates or why a shutdown corner shouldn't be measured solely by INTs, because fewer balls come his way.

Simmons' book mentions a site called 82games.com as a resource for the new age of sports numbers crunching. I went over there and — holy shit — there's a lot of data being processed to determine the value of NBA players.

Just look at the player page for David Lee of the New York Knicks. As far as I can tell, he's a 18-point scorer who grabs 10 rebounds per game and serves as a negative for the Knicks for the second season in a row. Hence, a key to any game for the Knicks should be to keep their leading rebounder and second-leading scorer off the court! (Another key would be to prevent fans from killing themselves, which might be an even tougher task if LeBron snubs us, which I fully expect.)

I hope to be a more sophisticated NBA fan by the Super Bowl, which is when I go into serious sports depression (two straight months without an NFL snap or MLB pitch). By then I should have a firmer grasp on players' assets and liabilities on both ends of the court. And when I see a capable low-post scorer defend like the Venus de Milo, I'll understand better why an 18-10 guy is an overall liability.

(82games.com's Commentary section links to dozens of articles that'll make your brain hurt for a week.)

Earlier this month, I toured the USS New York (Wikipedia), an amphibious transport dock made partially from steel salvaged from the World Trade Center.

Visits like these are always moving experiences. There's the "cool" factor, of course. I'm blown away (er, so to speak) by the technological genius and massive power of our military. And, of course, I'm reminded of the cost of freedom and the sad realities that necessitate such force. A reality check, for sure.

Here are my photos aboard the USS New York.