I personally like my new photo.

It’s newsish. I know newsish isn’t a word but that’s what it looks like.

I could see Murrow — my personal hero — striking the pose and even Cronkite doing it like there’s nothing to it.

I like the photo because it looks journalistic, classic Bic in hand like I’m ready to get down to some serious note taking or just biting the cap, as I’m prone to do. I like biting the cap because fewer people will ask to use your pen.

I took this photo using Photo Booth, a pretty nifty application that comes on the Macintosh, right before leaving for city council Tuesday night.

Friends say I look deep in thought, serious if you will, or do I look a little irritated? Is it pensive?

My vote would be pensive. Why would Lance Martin be pensive? Here’s my top 10.

10. Haven’t devoted as much time as I should to National Newspaper Week. I have columns in the hopper and one I’m still working on. It seems most of my time this week has been spent monitoring nearly 500 comments on the Facebook page about the political sign-stealing matter. Most of these comments have little to do with the signs but on why one should or shouldn’t vote for the two candidates the mainstream says we have to vote for. There are a lot of videos, which appear to me to be doctored by whichever side to make the other side look like imbeciles.

9. Fantasy football. I spend about an hour each morning adjusting and contemplating my rosters for the coming week in the three leagues I’m in. In a perfect world, I would only care about fantasy football although you couldn’t tell it from my performance last week. There were losses across the board for the Moonlight Bandits, Last Minute Martin and Paper Lions. You get the Moonlight Bandits reference, right? That’s in my own league, the Rockfish Capital League. Next year in the RCL I’ll be the Halifax Resolves and I’ll resolve to draft better.

8. The presidential elections. I’ll break out an endorsement later. Guess what? It won’t be for the two people the mainstream says we have to vote for.

7. Did I happen to mention there are now 482 comments on the Facebook page about the sign stealing?

6. Brian Wilson’s beard. I’m watching the Reds and Giants as I write this and I’m fascinated with the Giant reliever’s beard even though he’s not on the mound. He’s a bit out there like I can be and he says of the beard, "It's dark because we play a lot of day games. It's tanned. It's focused." I would like to have a focused beard.

5. Wondering if the folks posting the 482 comments are just stubborn and want to have the last word. This means if there are that many wanting to have the last word that particular thread could go on forever.

4. Wondering why people insist on having to have the last word. If the last word didn’t convince people of your point the first time then an afterthought isn’t going to convince them the last time.

3. When will Megatron start producing like he should for the Moonlight Bandits? It’s vexing. Megatron is Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions for those not familiar with fantasy football.

2. Projects I should be working on. There never seems there’s enough time to get to the things I want to do for rrspin that don’t involve fantasy football or fixating on Brian Wilson’s focused beard.

1. For right now there are 483 comments on the sign-stealing story. Maybe somebody did get the last word — Lance Martin