what it's like to play for the maple leafs (espn)
"'I used to tell people it was a lot like playing an all-star game every day the way you were treated,' said Travis Green, a native of Castlegar, British Columbia, who spent two seasons in the blue and white."
...
"Fourth-liners whose presence on most NHL teams would go unnoticed by all but family and friends, are celebrities and their ice time or lack thereof is fodder for often contentious stories in the papers."
...
"If, as Travis Green suggested, it's the hockey equivalent of playing for the New York Yankees, it is so without the attendant glory, without the required payoff."

It sounds more like playing for another baseball team to me. Having the second-longest championship drought, intense media and fan scrutiny, and just as intense fan loyalty. Sounds like the Red Sox to me. No wonder I like the Leafs.
(Friday, December 26, 2003)

Leica Digilux 2
Yes, sir, may I please have one?
(Wednesday, December 24, 2003)

location-aware cell phones (nyt)
Now your parents, your employer, or anyone smart enough to hack into the system, can see exactly where you are, based on your cell phone's location.

"Advocates of location-aware technology insist that its safety benefits — like locating a 911 caller or a stolen car — outweigh the privacy issues."

Using that same rationale, one could easily argue for racial profiling, detention camps, and eugenics, really. It's a bogus argument, because it says that the individual rights guaranteed in the Constitution don't actually matter. Freedom of speech and assembly and movement? More like ingraining the panopticon into American culture even further. (Have you ever noticed how many security cameras are watching you during your daily life?)

"Critics of the new technology do not dispute its usefulness, but worry that it will become ubiquitous before legal guidelines are established."

Again, it's just one more baby step. Personal privacy has been pared back time and time again over the past two decades or so, and it's scary. What's going to be the final straw that gets people to protest? National ID cards are still on the administration's agenda. Maybe it'll be when we finally get the ID implants that include a GPS transponder.
(Saturday, December 20, 2003)

mr picasso head
my first attempt. a self-portrait, natch.
(Sunday, December 14, 2003)

new goodies for sale
A new painting I finished today is already a part of my eponymous merchandising machine. Heh.
(Wednesday, December 10, 2003)

the power lunch comes back (nyt)
The best part of this story is the diagram of lunch tables at the Four Seasons in New York. But you don't have to be famous to get a good table, as "Stanley Bing" says.

"'You can attain status at any of these places by being a loyal patron,' said [Gil] Schwartz, who [writes the Bing column in Fortune and] is a regular at Michael's. 'You can get a good table by virtue of your standing or just by showing up all the time. People will look and see the owner fawning all over someone and say, "Who is that schmendrick?" and what it comes down to is that this is a patron who is loyal in good times and in bad.'

"A visit from the owner takes the sting out of plunking down big money for a noontime meal. But those high prices (a burger at DB Bistro, albeit one stuffed with foie gras and short ribs, costs $29) have real purpose, too. They can act as a kind of velvet rope to keep out tourists and people paying their own way, allowing a big hitter to tuck in a napkin secure in the belief that no one who works for him can afford to walk in the door."
(Wednesday, December 10, 2003)