Kevin Freitas

Our guest speaker, Kevin Freitas, is a local web developer. He works for a job at sitecrafting. He's worked with a wide range of people from home builders, the government, small businesses, and much more. Mr. Freitas also has his own website/blog that hes had since 1996-97'. Initially, he used it to write about his life and just as an escape for ordinary life. Having a blog that you've had for numerous years can be weird, because when you look back on old posts you don't realize how ridiculous some posts are. Something very interesting that he had on his website was the Bates swat incident. I also found it interesting that Bates even told him to take down the video of the incident.
Feed Tacoma. It's a great way to get news from Tacoma. It pulls all Tacoma oriented stuff and puts it all within one site. The website seems almost anonymous. The visit from Kevin Freitas was interesting and worthwhile.

Vanity Search

So basically what I did for the vanity search was I typed my name in quotes to see what I would come up with. On the first page in Google the only Eric Hong that was directed towards me was towards the bottom, and it was funny that out of everything I am about 7th on the list for my Blogger account haha. Then I made it a bit more local and I typed Tacoma after my name. Then, the first thing that came up in the search was my Myspace account... and Mr.Fry's.. blog hahaha. I'm a bit weirded out that it came up with Mr. Fry's blog because it sort of feels like he's taken over my name a bit hahaha. Down a bit lower theres another entry from my blog that would conclude my name on the first page.
I thought I would take it a bit more personal and type my name and then my alias [screen name] to see what would come up. The results weren't that spectacular.. only thing really interesting about it was that it was all about me on all the pages. What did spark my attention though was my old Xanga profile. Seems as though my name came up a few times from my friends buddy lists on xanga, and it brought back old memories.
Vanity searches are fun to do, I think I might use it on some of my friends ;] haha

NBA PREDICTIONS

NBA Predictions

I feel that the..

Houston Rockets will get passed the first round of the playoffs this season, with the great addition of Steve Francis, Mike James, and Luis Scola (only to name a few). They brought a legit Power Forward in Luis Scola, and brought depth into their bench; adding more firepower even with their starters on the bench.
Boston Celtics won't have a remarkable season, but this is a team with 2 potential Hall of Famer's [Ray Allen & Kevin Garnett] in the NBA, and a seasonal Veteran / All-star [Paul Pierce]. They will click on all cylinders in the playoffs though. This is a team thats not here to fool around. These 3 players come from 3 different teams in the NBA that ranked near the bottom in the league. They are hungry for a championship ring.

New York Knicks will double their win/loss ratio from last season with Curry and ZeBo [Zach Randolph] in the post. Not only do they have two future dominant front court players, they have a deep backcourt in Stephon Marbury, Quentin Richardson, and Jamal Crawford.

Washington Wizards are a true underdog team. Gilbert Arena's has proven himself to be among the greats in the league. He has proven himself with a 60 point game against the Lakers in which Kobe Bryant himself couldn't contain him. Kobe even had a few negative words about Gilbert's amazing performance. Along with a healthy Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison, I feel the Washington Wizards may have what it takes to be a force in the playoffs. Glibert Arena's has also guaranteed a victory over the Boston Celtics in the season opener.

Utah Jazz are a team that no one looks at to be a force in the NBA. People don't see that this Utah team looks to be that of a smaller San Antonio team. They have inside dominance in Boozer and Okur (a man that can step out and hit the three ball also). Then they have one of the most talented Point Guards in the league in Deron Williams. When you talk about the Utah Jazz you can't go without talking about Andre Kirilenko, a defensive master-mind who has averaged about 2 bpg (blocks per game) since he has been in the league. As long as Carlos Boozer stays healthy I can see this team fighting for a 4th or 5th seed.

Phoenix Suns won't be as dominant this season like they were the past couple seasons. Phoenix Suns have played without Amare Stoudamire and have succeeded to do so, for a period of time, but what do you do when one of the best Forwards in the league (Shawn Marion) wants out? With Amare out with arthroscopic knee surgery and Marion wanting out, who does the Phoenix Suns look to? Grant Hill? A player way past his prime, that can only get you 20-25 minutes every other night? Raja Bell? A set shooter with a hot temper? The only person that can step up for the Phoenix Suns is Steve Nash, and he's been doing his since he's been in the league.. but it takes 5 to win a game. Steve Nash may have some highlight passes, but who do you pass to when your two post players are M.I.A?

NBA PLAYOFFS:
EAST. The 8 teams to advance to the NBA Playoffs are (my prediction on seeds also) :

1. Boston Celtics
2. Detroit Pistons
3. Cleveland Cavaliers
4. Toronto Raptors
5. Chicago Bulls
6. Washington Wizards
7. Orlando Magics
   
8. Miami Heat / New Jersey Nets

Falling short from the playoffs:
New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers

West. The 8 teams to advance to the NBA Playoffs are (my prediction on seeds also) :

1. Dallas Mavericks
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Houston Rockets
4. Utah Jazz
   
5. Phoenix Suns
6. Denver Nuggets
7. Los Angeles Clippers
   
8. Los Angeles Lakers

Falling short from the playoffs:
Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings

Mark Briggs [News Tribune]

The visit from Mark Briggs was a great experience. He defended his statement of how society as a whole is changing with an explanation about how Newspapers are fighting some what of an uphill battle. He also told us about all the new available jobs that opened up now thanks to the technological advancements that this world has been going through.

Mr. Briggs also mentioned to us that things we watch on the news aren't very relevant to our lives, so with the concept of placing News on the internet was an idea and an in-progress approach. This approach was made by creating a news that you can watch on your computer at home that would be "local news", made to be more relevant to you. It's quite a different step that news companies are taking by integrating the World Wide Web's capability of video online and News.

The funniest thing I heard Mr. Briggs talk about was probably the "pain token". To know that people have control over how fast you can load pages and receive information is entertaining.

Emails vs Post Office.

The similarities between the two are so closely tied, that the only real difference I could come up with is that with real mail you get the actual physical nature of receiving and sending, while with E-mailing its not physical rather virtual in a sense. Theres less of the sincerity and feelings of "time-consumed writing". I never really thought about the similarities, I guess because it seemed more obvious before then it does now, but when you actually look at how virtual / internet is slowly taking over all physical things (or copying it in a sense) it's pretty amazing. I guess one of the great things that E-mailing provides that sending real mail doesn't is the quick arrival/responses that you can give and receive. Personally, I'm not a fan of mailing or E-mailing, so it doesn't really concern me, but its more of just something to think about and become familiar with.