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.

These are't the greatest pics I've ever taken, but here's my gallery of photos from the Yankees championship parade held Friday at the Canyon of Heroes.

I was shooting from inside an office building, so the glass between me and the street, as well as being anchored to one spot, hindered me a bit. But, a HUGE thanks to my friend John for inviting me to his company's gathering. The people, food and beers were all awesome. Much appreciated.

Back in the middle of this decade, when I was writing this site with gusto and entertaining 6,000 visitors a day, Yankees fans took a lot of shit. And for good reason. We had the highest payroll but couldn't produce a championship. We blew a 3-0 ALCS lead. We saw A-Rod try to slap his way on base, sun shirtless in Central Park, kiss himself in the mirror, conspicuously escort a stripper into a Toronto elevator, get reduced to a No. 8 hitter by Joe Torre. From 2005-07, ALDS sounded more like a disease than a speed-bump to the World Series.

And all that coincided with the Red Sux cheating their way to two steroid-infused titles.

Myself and all the Yankees fans who visited here celebrated victories along the way, but never the big one. We were deservedly mocked and criticized. But what could we do?

Now we've bookended the decade with titles, and it feels good to be back on top of the mountain. Thanks to all the people who visited here on the way back up.

THOUGHTS ON THE WORLD SERIES

• So much for that Ortiz jersey some dickwad tried to bury under the new Yankee Stadium. Total length of curse: 0 years.

• I personally broke the curse of Don Mattingly by sporting a No. 23 shirt during Game 6.

• It's gonna be a great offfseason on the MLB Network. They gotta be grasping for any ratings in winter, and I imagine they're gonna tap into the biggest market and produce a lot of Yankees stuff.

• When chicks nibble on Hideki Matsui's earlobes, do you think they're full for the next month?

• Speaking of Matsui: bonzai! Sake bombs all around for what will always be remembered as one of the greatest individual performances in a clinching World Series game.

• Look on the bright side, Sux fans. At least you won't be pestered anymore about the "26-time" World Series champions. All those t-shirts and banners and ugly jackets are headed straight for the trash.

• Look on the bright side, Mets fans. At least the Phillies won't be coming back to Citi Field as world champions. But, um, see you in June!

• Yes, we are the Team of the Decade. Again.

• I'll be at the parade Friday. If you've got my number, text me where you're at. Beers at the Patriot afterward. NO PINK JERSEYS!

Another year of Fantasy Fest — Key West's week-long, debaucherous celebration of pretty much everything — is in the books. For those of you who missed out, I posted a huge gallery of Fantasy Fest 2009 photos.

I reviewed and posted photos from the event in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and I don't have too much to add to those thoughts. It continues to be a great party, and I continute to encourage as much participation as possible.

It was great to meet a ton of people who recognized me from this site. If you saw me and didn't say hello, don't be shy in 2010.

I tried to continue my practice of posting some of the friendliest photos you'll find online. Smiling faces of friends old and new. Side-boob "gotcha" shots of female passers-by aren't really my thing. They're not "candids," they're just lazy and lame. They're not eventful, they tell no stories, they don't make anyone look good.

But sometimes you gotta be "that guy" and just fire away continuously at street scenes to get some interesting compositions. This neck-breaker reminds me of the funny shots of Obama checking out asses. This dancing granny was a Hail Mary, a shot captured by holding my camera high and praying something comes out. This capture of our Capt. Tony's float had unintended results, but I think it looks cool.

I love street photography best because you never know when a girl is gonna sit on 18 bags of ice, when a dog will drink beer on a bar, or when Batman is gonna come running down the street. Those occurances make things exciting every time I take out the camera.

But I spent more time partying than street shooting, and so you'll have to settle for the more conventional party shots of happy women wearing paint.

FANTASY FEST 2009 PHOTOS FROM AROUND THE WEB

NOTE: I will add to this list as I find them. Bookmark this page and come back for more.

• Flikr: Most Recent Photos Tagged "Fantasy Fest" — This gallery will obviously be added to often, as people recover from their hangovers.

• John Chow — As usual, spectacular stuff from the best photographer at Fantasy Fest.

• David Epstein — Have a look at his annual photos, including some clever compositions for you beer lovers.

• Bill Klipp — Lots of close-ups of the artistic faces on the street. Great work.

• Ken Bradley — Another excellent PBase gallery.

• Leester — Last year, Leester posted a whopping 1,542 photos. He's got a couple of nights up now and is adding to it. Dude assigns more tags than a mortician.

• Brian David Phillips — This is billed as a gallery of 3-D photos, but I'm not exactly sure how they are to work. (My guess is they require glasses of some sort.)

• Just Another Dick — That's not a name I gave him, that's his moniker on Flickr. Almost 200 photos from the week.

• Old, Weak and Pathetic — Over 500+ photos, sorted by day. Nice shots from folks that put a lot of effort into their group bodypaints.

• Unknown's PbPulse Pics — A healthy 197 photos, but I'm not a fan of the interface. There doesn't seem an option to quickly scan thumbnails or to enlarge individual photos.

• Barbara and Joseph Scheib's Gallery — Over 700 photos from the final four days of the week.

• BuckyWorld's Photos — More than 130 pictures hosted on SmugMug.

• Patrick Fulcher's Photos — Nearly 700 pictures hosted on SmugMug.

• Victor the Nurse's Flickr Set — Another 700+ photos, all of which can be viewed at their original size.

• Yasser's Photos — Almost 1,000 photos in this gallery. And almost 300 more in a second one. Yasser did Fantasy Fest right. He dressed up a bit, took tons of pics and was always very polite. You'll see plenty of recurring faces, including his own, in his gallery — proof that he made plenty of friends and added to the party.

Last weekend in New York, the people behind GoTopless.org staged a "protest" to fight for the "constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public."

Sounded like a fun time and a good photo opportunity, and here is my gallery from Go Topless Day in Central Park.

Part serious and part goofy, the funky music and dance mixed with weighty speeches left me confused about the overall message, and I was even more puzzled when I read that "GoTopless was founded by the Raelian Movement, which recognizes that life on Earth was created by advanced extraterrestrial scientists."

This point was also missed (or ignored) in a wrap-up by the Daily News.

Rick Ross has republished a series of articles on Raelians, including a 2003 piece from the Edmonton Sun charging that Realians use sex to recruit. Skeptoid writer Brian Dunning asks, Who Are the Raelians, and Why Are They Naked?

Truth be told, I never caught wind of any spiritual or religious agendas when talking to some of the participants. Seemed like typical hippie/free lovers who live by rules not always embraced by more uptight segments of society.

And then everyone flew away in their UFOs.