Playoff Happy…Or Sad

The playoffs are winding down in both the NBA and NHL and both of my teams lost the first game of their Conference Finals’ series last Sunday. The Orlando Magic have been my team since the Shaq/Penny era and the San Jose Sharks have recently won my heart a few years ago. The Magic lost by 4 points after being down 17 in the 4th quarter and the Sharks lost 2-1 after scoring the 1st goal of the game. I have seen both the Magic and Sharks play earlier in the regular season of each league. I saw the Magic dominate the Kings in January in Sacramento and the Sharks beat the Dallas Stars at home in March. Both teams were dominate in their own divisions in the regular season and now have the opportunity to play for the championship if they can each get by their opponents.

The Magic swept their first 2 opponents in the playoffs and only the Boston Celtics stand in their way for a shot at the title. Dwight Howard was shut down in game 1 Sunday as Boston’s big men were too much to handle. I watched Kendrick Perkins, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace play man defense on him and for some reason Howard was easily contained. Tonight they will play game 2, and if Orlando can’t get a win the series is Boston’s for the taking. A big factor will obviously be Howard’s performance in the paint. Jameer Nelson must apply pressure to Rajon Rondo and force him to take long jumpers rather than penetrate. Vince Carter must also have a big game and score the majority for the Magic. The $100 million man Rashard Lewis must score more than 6 points as he did in game 1. He needs to be ready to shoot the 3 and be a factor in the game.

If I was Stan Van Gundy I would switch up the lineup for tonight’s game. Firstly, Matcin Gortat needs more minutes period. The Celtics’ big men are getting more second chances because Rashard Lewis and his 6 points are having to box out guys like Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis. Also, get Brandon Bass out on the floor. He showed last season that he was an agressive player and hustled every minute he played. I’m not saying play him half the game, but throw him 5 or 6 minutes. Defense will win this series in the end. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined for 47 points on 58 percent shooting. I would start Mickael ”Peaches” Pietrus over Matt Barnes and have him stick to Ray Allen like brown on brown rice. Allen is getting wide open looks and needs an athletic defender like Pietrus to put a hand in his face. Carter and Barnes should rotate on Paul Pierce, but it ultimately comes back to Howard. He needs a little help Van Gundy. Let Gortat and Bass do the dirty work and let Howard dominate like he has been all season.

Back to the ice. The Sharks lost Sunday at the HP Pavillion in San Jose in a hard-fought game. I didn’t get to see the first two periods, but it seems to me like goalie Evgeni Nabokov did his job fairly well. 2 goals allowed with 95 percent of the shots saved is pretty good. The main thing that I noticed was that the shots attempted were very similar, 45-40 Sharks. So it will be determined tonight if these two teams are as evenly balanced as it looks or if the Blackhawks are going to jump out to an early 2-0 lead. I’m not going to sit here and act like I watched the game so I won’t recap it too much, but I hope that the Sharks can play a physical series against Chicago and play one of the two Eastern teams for the Stanley Cup. I hope that some Magic can be seen in the Sharks tonight and I hope that the Magic can Shark a win against Boston…

Red Dead

With the newly released Red Dead Redemption video game by Rockstar, a craze has swept the world of gaming. It is Grand Theft Auto with a western flavor added to the recipe. Let that marinade for a while and you have gun-slinging cowboys shooting it out for wild west supremacy. It received an outstanding rating of 9.7 on IGN’s Web site, and from what I’ve seen it looks to be the game of the year already. A close friend who got the game at midnight told me the graphics are probably one of the best features the game has to offer and has already bagged deer, birds, snakes and even a skunk in the hunting mode.

I will be getting the game later in the day with my pre-order voucher I bought to reserve it. I think starting with the single-player mode is a must, because just like in the GTA series you need to get a feel for the weapons and different areas of the game. Also, I heard the servers for online gaming aren’t up to par yet (or perhaps being overran by the millions who are already playing it). I think this is a game that will be far superior than anything Rockstar has put out so far and will even rival some of the best games of all-time. The concept has already been done, but what has there been for western video games? Recently, not much.

I, as have many, have been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as my game of choice up until today. Comparing the two will be difficult, but necessary in the transition from a 1st-person shooter to a 3rd person view. RDR scored two tenths higher than COD 2, but it will be hard to rival the kill-streaks, accomplishments and game-winning kills. With RDR there are upgrades such as horses weapons and characters, and I’m curious to find out if there will be achievements that can compare to COD. I can’t wait to get into the mix of outlaws out there think that the next few months will be very unproductive.

Hmmm.. This is an Interesting Blog

To get the attention of readers is often a challenge that most online journalists must face in order to get a frequent following. To get them to read the whole article is even more complex.

If you made it this far, then I’m in good shape according to Michael Agger in his Slate post that has tips for online writers. Briefly, what I gathered is that you should use bulleted lists, explanatory subheads and not to make the user scroll too much.

It is proven that readers skim anything that is online and overlook anything that looks like a banner or an ad. It is also confirmed through studies that a reader will comprehend the page in an “F” pattern, where their attention gets smaller as they get to the bottom of the page (if they even reach the bottom).

In last year’s post by Bryan Eisenberg on Grokdotcom.com, he argues that people actually read more thoroughly online than they do in print. Eisenberg claims that people read an average of 77 percent of a story online, 62 percent in broadsheets and 57 percent in tabloids.

He said that about half of readers online are methodical, while the other half scan.

I would have to agree with the latter, but I believe that people read more of a story if it is a tangible copy.

I am one of those readers that read methodically depending on what it is. If it is a news article I will more than likely read it word-for-word to determine if I should continue to the conclusion. In a story that is from ESPN.com or Digg.com, I would more than likely look at the subhead or scan.

So in conclusion, I would like to say that you are a very methodic reader.

Tricky tricky

While attempting to create my new Web site, I came across some pretty tricky development issues.

I am currently using Kompozer to design my site and hit some bumps in the road. I thought that the program might just be limited to what my idea was so I tried Dreamweaver instead and found that the programs weren’t the problem at all. The things I wanted to do were just too complex.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish was shadowing and layovers with pictures (one picture overlapping another). I found out that in order to do this, I had to go into Photoshop and create a piece of art and then insert it as an image. Hard enough learning how to figure out how to publish a file to the internet, right?

Here are some tips and some feedback from some people as well. Did I mention the author used tag cloud? Smartwebby.com is another site that could have potentially assisted me in my design needs if in fact I knew what I was doing with flash. The site has shadowing tips as well as different shapes that you can insert images into. But, I’m still working my way up from the bottom.

What I’ve learned from writing this blog is that, this stuff is way harder than I thought.

The triple W

When learning new Web tools as far as design goes, I was skeptical at first. This was about a year ago, but I was still a pupil of Susan’s and this was in journalism 321 a.k.a. Public Affairs Reporting.

I was probably the most perplexed student in the lab. The unsettling feeling set in when deciding where to put images, what colors to use and what text should be implemented.

However, I was really intrigued because Dreamweaver allowed you to do so many things with your page. Web design permits you to be creative and is out there for millions to see on the triple W.

I also like the different tools you can use to add flash images or video to get the viewer of the site more involved. Like the Web pages seen in class, coolhomepages.com has some great examples of sites that use flash, color schemes, educational layouts and it also has a “sites of the week” section.

Widgets are also appealing when creating a Web page that can let your visitors, for example, see what the weather is like, what time it is or how many people have visited the site. Widgetbox.com has tens of thousands of widgets that let people get games, countdowns and a lot more.

Web design shouldn’t create anxiety, but rather creativity.

Bloggers 4 sale

There is a lot that professional journalists can learn from citizen journalists, or rather bloggers.

Most journalists tend to lack personality in news and sports stories because the traditional way to cover a story is to report the facts. It is apparent however, that the new way of reporting is through “personality journalism,” which is how most blogs are written. As many blogs are highly personable, it allows the reader to connect with the writer by revealing details like their political outlooks and maybe even a little about their personal life.

Former Washington Post columnist Bob Levey urges that our nation demand the traditional method rather than what he calls “American Idol reporting.” Levey uses examples from the presidential campaign coverage and how the media delivered coverage through “gossip and personality.” As this technique could be a risk, this might be a practice that traditional media could incorporate into its articles for the sake of progression and change.

Bloggers are writing stories that are continuously engaging its readers by allowing them to ask questions or add some perspective to them. Journalists do have online sites, but it is the blogs that seem to be getting the most comments and perceptions. By changing the overall tone of journalism, even traditional journalism, it just might allow for a better read and an enhanced relationship with the readers.

Another point that blogger Shel Israel makes in his blog is that his fact checkers are his readers and are the ones that change his story. Israel makes the point that in an earlier period his editor would claim this role, but he gives the impression that he’d rather have his readers give the feedback.

Like sand in the hourglass

As I look at the Internet and see all of the privacy issues that it contains, I wonder what it will be like in say 10 years.

With all of the teenage (or even pre-teenage girls) posting false ages on Facebook and Myspace, I get apprehensive when I think about the Internet when I have kids. Even as funny as this SNL skit is, it is no laughing matter because that’s basically Facebook and Myspace in a nutshell.

I have used Myspace before and looking back about four years ago, I am shocked to see how naïve some of my friends and I were about posting things. We’d put up pictures of the crazy night before and weren’t really conscious about all of the people that could easily track us if they wanted to.

There are different methods of being safe about it though, and this site lists 12 various methods of doing so. Personally, my favorite is “do not reply to spammers.”

I get spam in my e-mail all the time and sometimes wonder what people are doing with their lives by sending spam. I have one in my inbox right now that reads: Hey Stan look at me!

All I know is that in 10 years the Internet is going to be 100 times as busy as it is right now, and I honestly don’t see how anybody can police it.

Go long!

Sports is a big part of my life, and people all over the world are provided with more tools to take their sports fanatics to a whole new level.

People are creating forums or communities online in order to find out how their favorite team is doing or to simply interact with other sports fans. Coaches online now have the capability of managing his or her teams on sites such as sportspassion.com, which can make coaching much easier in terms of managing their players.

Sports forums are also a good way for people to simply share their opinions and have a voice on a topic that they might not get to in their tangible lives.

For example, I am an Orlando Magic fan so I hardly have the chance to watch live games or get to meet any of the players or coaches. On the team’s site there is a limited-time sub-forum that allows you to ask the head coach a question.

We discussed early in class that online communities are soliditary yet also intreractive. The interaction is essential if the community is going to be able to provide knowledge sharing and creation, according to Communibuild.com.

If people are at least interacting online in a fashion that produces creative thought process then I consider it to be useful to society. Our world is heading toward an online frenzy anyway.

There’s no Internet to find out why there’s no Internet

Internet failure in the United States today would be disastrous, but maybe not so much for print as much. Journalists gather a lot of information from different sites on the internet when reporting. Just look at the Orion this week and see how many times a Web site was referred to.

We use the Internet a lot more than people think. When coming up with story ideas, looking for different trends (especially with statistics) and even basic journalistic tools like looking a word up on Dictionary.com.

All of the backpack journalists/mojos would be out of a job as well because they wouldn’t have the necessary tools to do their reporting on the road. They wouldn’t be able to research something quickly and have that luxury of accessibility. They actually would have no purpose at all because there would be no place to post their stories. So much for 3 stories by 2 p.m.

The Internet is a huge means for communication today. No more Internet no more e-mails, blogs, Myspace or constant narcissism that seems to be going on in the world of Twitter. People would have to remember how to handwrite letters and regain the familiarity with licking the flavorful envelope shut in order to communicate.

There would be more of a professional feeling that corresponded with journalism as there would be no more bloggers, thus making Keen a happy man. There would also be more privacy in this sense because people wouldn’t be posting their life stories online but rather actually having a face-to-face with a real human being.

I think I’m going to get off the Internet now.

Web 2.1

The reporting of journalists has come a long way in the U.S. ever since the colonial
era. We don’t have the same kind of prior restraint laws, bond depositing
or family-owned newspapers.

Since then, we have furthered technology through phones, word processing and computers, thus furthering the advancement of journalism. The pay phone and typewriter are but a lost memory in the world of a journalist, but is the role of a journalist any different?

A BBC News reporter in 2000 didn’t seem to think it was changing at a rapid rate, but oh is it ever. It’s causing the newsroom to shrink as we consolidate newspapers through ownership alterations and it’s allowing owners to easily distribute the news through their different outlets.

Since this merge in the news, owners and journalists alike were, and still are worried that online readership is going to take away from print.

In 2004, about half of good lead stories popped up on the Web throughout the course of the day. Four years later, I would say it’s about the same, but now the familiarity with new technology is changing. As kids are starting to grow up with the Internet at hand, it’s sad to say, but who is going to pick up The Sac Bee?

My generation and the generation below are accustomed to going online for quick information and as this trend progresses I think there will be a mad dash to create the best news site there is.