Thanks for Blogging! (Blog Entry 14)

            Looking through all of the blog’s I have done throughout the coarse blog entry 4 stood out to me. I loved this blog as soon as I read Allie Brosh’s blog. She gave me a different out look on blogging all together. I had always thought that blogging was a simple way of writing on the Internet, about pretty much anything. Brosh took that “anything” to a new level. She drew pictures, blogged about subjects that we can all relate to, and made it very enjoyable and fun to read. I have found myself looking through Brosh’s blogs even to this day.

            I do think that my word choice and flow has changed throughout this coarse. I have never been a strong writer. I make grammatical errors, and have problems with organization. But, through constant practice of writing blog entries and papers the way I write has changed. I am more confident about my writing skills. I do cringe looking back at the first few blog entries. Especially in blog entries 2 and 3. I have many grammatical errors and my organization is hard to follow. The problem with my writing is that I have good ideas, but sometimes it is hard for me to put my ideas on a paper in a way that makes sense.

            In the beginning of the coarse when you told us that peers were going to be reading our papers, I was not sure how I felt about it. People I do not know reading papers and blog entries that are personal did not sound to appealing to me. But as the coarse went on I realized that I actually really enjoy writing for an audience. They give great insight into my papers and really helped with my writing skills.  I began to really get to know fellow authors, which helped me get to know my own writing skills better. I have learned many lessons about rhetorical awareness and visual context throughout blogging. In the past if I saw some sort of visual context I would not think about the deeper meaning. But now, I realize that to almost all visuals there is a deeper meaning behind it. Many authors like Brosh, use simple pictures to get a larger message across. I have learned that I actually really enjoy blogging and writing in general, it’s an open journal, but you can decide who sees it. Now I understand why so many people are involved in the bloging world. It’s Amazing! 

Resume’s for the Business World (Blog Entry 13)

http://www.dayjob.com/downloads/CV_examples/HR_manager_CV_template.pdf

I did like this resume, I like how Richard used blue bolded headlines when talking about a major topic, like personal profiles. But I am not sure how formal this is for major jobs. I did not like that his personal information was at the bottom of the page. Richard’s information should be the first thing we see when looking at a resume, so we know what who this resume is talking about. I also think that key competencies and skills should be closer to the top of the page. Skills are important to have and should  be one of the first things we look at. But, overall I do like Richard’s resume, it is easy to read and gets straight to the point.

I do think that this resume is effective it gives the reader what they are looking for which is, personal information, career history, skills, academics, and references. I may not agree with the order but the information is all there. In a resume the use of white space is important, but to an extent. You want a paper that fills up the white space, but not the point where your overwhelmed by information that is not necessary. As long as the information is there and is easy to understand, then the resume is strong. On the other hand, when there is to much white space left on a resume that does not look good either. The intended audience for this specific resume is to be an HR manager, this resume is for business purposes. Resumes are very important to the larger society, many major businesses, and jobs use a simple piece of paper, like a resume to decide whether they are going to hire you. That being said, it is very important to have a strong resume.

Never Give up on Love: A Walk To Remember (Blog Entry 12)

My favorite movie of all time is a Walk To Remember directed by Adam Shankman. I have seen plenty of chick flick dramas, but there was something about this film that made it unforgettable. The storyline involves two main protagonists, Landon Carter (Shane West), and Jamie Sullivan (Many Moore) they are completely different. Landon was the popular kid; but he was involved in an accident and was forced to participate in after school programming, including the lead role of a play. While on the other hand, Jamie is the reverend’s daughter and is highly motivated, she also has the lead role in the play. Landon eventually develops feelings for her; he gave up his popular lifestyle and wanted to spend every minute with Jamie. They fall in love. Until, the secret is revealed, Jamie has leukemia and there is nothing that either one of them can do to stop it. That is when Landon and Jamie realize the true meaning of love and fate. Shankman uses costume choice as an effective visual rhetoric throughout A Walk To Remember. Landon was the popular guy at high school; he dressed in jeans, and cut off shirts. He did not care what he looked like as long as he had that” I’m to good for you style.” Jamie dressed very reserved, she rarely had skin showing, wore turtlenecks, high socks, hair always perfect, and that nice girl attitude. One night Landon took Jamie out, Jamie was wearing what she always wears, and Landon put on a nice collared shirt and nice pants. This is when the started falling for each other, Jamie saw something in Landon she had never seen before. Throughout the film as we see Landon’s character change his attire does as well, he begins to dress nice, and care more, this is when Jamie really begging’s to notice him. Like many other chick flicks, this movie is about love, but a deeper less cliché love. The love that Landon and Jamie share is shaped off respect and values. Forgiveness, and miracles. Jamie never thought she was going to get married, she was dying from leukemia, how could she? Then she thought about god, “maybe god has bigger plans for me that I had for myself” A Walk To Remember is about never giving up, love is uncontrollable, let it happened. 

Black Swan: A Ballerina’s Decent (Blog Entry 11)

Black Swan, directed by Aronofsky featuring Natalie Portman (Nina) tells the story of a ballet dancer’s desperate efforts to escape an anonymous dancer and attain stardom. When she is finally cast as the main ballerina in a new production of Swan Lake, the psychological pressure to play both the white and the black swan proves too much for her to handle.  She is no longer capable of telling the difference between being a ballerina and reality. As a result to this she begins to suffer from schizophrenia. Throughout the movie, we see Nina’s personality changing. She experienced delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized behavior; she was beginning to lose herself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

As Nina is transforming from the White Swan, into the Black Swan extreme pressure was put on her to be the best. She needed to be more like Lily, the Black Swan. Nina desires to be perfect; but the desire is to unattainable. Which is causing her to slowly lose her mind. Nina even begins to struggle with confusion about sexual feelings. The relationship that her, and her boss has is nothing more than a relationship, he wants to help her and want her succeed. But throughout Black Swan we see Nina’s White Swan personality starting to fade away. Feelings begin to arise between her and her boss. The sexual promiscuousness of Black Swan is starting to show.

Nina’s begins to have fascinations, ones that she never had never had before . Nina and Lily, the ideal Black Swan, become enemies. They both envy one another. One night out at a club both Nina, and Lily do one two many drugs. Nina begins fantasizing about having sex with Lily. Homosexual feelings are clearly being identified. She once again was letting her fantasies get in the way of true reality. Schizophrenia was making Nina into the Black Swan, someone that she does not know. We see this through her character developing into Black Swan and her fascinations getting in the way of true reality.

Swan gone MAD (Blog Entry 10)

Darren Aronfsky, Black Swan resembles an American psychological thriller that is essentially a horror film. The plot resolves around the production of Swan Lake Ballet, which is a competitive dance company. Natalie Portman’s character, Nina takes on this role as an innocent White Swan. But conflicts arise pushing Nina to be more like the sensual Black Swan, where she does not fit in. These two contradictory roles slowly cause Nina to lose her mind, forgetting her own identity.

Aronfsky’s lack of color’s sets the overall mood for the plot. It is symbolizing good versus evil. The color choice is mostly blacks and whites, with little color use. The era throughout Black Swan is dark and mysterious; it keeps the viewer on edge. The extraordinary ballet clothing and phenomenal makeup on the ballerina’s draws attention by itself. During performances there was a ray of light reflected on the ballerina, which drew the viewer that much closer into curiosity . The use of body language on stage was perfect. Everything down to the tips of fingers is perfectly aligned with the rest of the body.  The most powerful element used is the inner and external struggles between being the White Swan versus the Black Swan. Nina is being pushed to become something she is not, the Black Swan. But the Black Swan takes over her, and her reality. Which leads to her ultimate demise as the protagonist.

The visual and auditory effects are what bring the film together. There are musical hints of terror. The soundtrack is mixed to perfectly match the visual element and emotion that takes place during that specific scene. This gives the audience a sense of getting lost within the music. We see this in Nina throughout the film, a disturbed and lost ballerina.  Even in the trailer the overall mood of darkness in intertwined by the soundtrack. Black Swan is the epitome of psychological thriller

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/

Prince Charming…not so Charming Anymore! (Blog Entry 7)

When I asked myself,”who killed rose,” the first thought that came to mind was, they should have gotten the DNA from her blood. There was not even a body to be found, which I find rather suspicious. There were a few characters thought came to mind as suspects. I thought Bluebeard might have been the killer, they talked about him a lot throughout the novel. But then I thought back to other murder novels I have read, usually the killer is someone that we least expect. A character that comes in and out. This leads me to come to the conclusion that Prince Charming murdered Rose Red, if she is at all dead considering her body had not been found yet. Prince Charming seems like a very one dimensional character, he does not speak to much. He also does not treat women with respect, which would also be a reason why he would kill Rose, because he does not respect her. I believe that later on in the novel he will arise as a suspect, and they will do further research, and he will then be accused as the murderer of Rose Red.

The frame I chose was on page 42 in the middle. This comic is of Snow White, and Prince Charming sitting down in a restaurant over a cup of coffee. Snow was curious to find out how prince charming burned his last bridges with Europe and who he was sponging off. Prince responds saying “its comforting to discover your voice hasn’t lost any of its venom over the years, lovely.” Snow really just wants to know what Prince Charming truly wants. I thought it was interesting that Snow met up with Prince Charming, she knew that it was not going to turn out well between the two of them. There is a lot going on in this picture, to the left is another couple sitting having dinner, and at the forefront of the comic is character having a cup of coffee with another character walking behind him. The use of color makes the comic meaningful, everyone and everything is dark in this picture except, Snow and Prince charming, and the area which they are sitting at. This use of shadowing and color relates to the overall narrative because throughout the novel we see spotlights on certain characters and not others. A lot of the time a specific character has the spotlight for an extended period of time, which allows us to forget about the other characters.

Dr. Seuss; Be Yourself (Blog Entry 9)

Dr. Seuss brings many of us back to our early childhood. Dr. Seuss was a poet, cartoonist, and was and is still very known for his success in his children books. Some of his most popular books were, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and the Cat in the Hat.

Dr. Seuss used visuals and narratives to get a message across. He wanted his books to be fun and interesting at a young age, but achieve a message. Even today I find myself using quotes from Dr. Seuss’s books that I read when I was seven years old. That is part of the reason why he remains popular to this day; his books can be relatable to any age.

One of my favorite visual images that Dr. Seuss uses is a simple quote, “Be you, because the people who mind don’t matter. And the people that matter done mind.” Next to the quote is a picture of a cat with a red and white tall hat, a red bow, and his hands folded, with a huge grin. He seems content with life, and has little or no worries in the world. Looking through Dr. Seuss books this is a pattern, at the end of each book there is a new lesson to be told, life lessons that we should all live by.  This visual image is a story within itself; Dr. Seuss makes these childhood books to make young people think. Its not all about fancy visuals, something as simple as a cat and a quote beside it is enough.

I do feel as though this visual imagine is effective, it’s simple and right to the point. As opposed to other children’s books, or even “Fables”, Dr. Seuss uses simple visual graphics. This allows the reader to pay more attention to the overall message, and not visuals that may stray away from the book. It is easy to get lost in visuals, and the use of simplicity and the use of quotes as visuals allows for a more effective story.

Weyland Smith: A True Companion( Blog Entry 8)

            Bill Willingham’s Fables Volume 2: Animal farm takes place in upstate New York where non-human fables are residing on a farm. This farm help keeps animals that are living on the animal farm hidden from the mundane world. Snow White and Rose Red are two characters that visit the farm. Snow and Rose are sisters that do not get along; they are constantly fighting throughout Animal Farm, and rarely agree on anything. While visiting they witness a revolution take place. They were not sure how to handle it, so the first thought that came to mind was, “where is the farms manager.” Throughout Animal Farm we learn that Weyland Smith, the farms manager is an important character.

            Weyland was captured and imprisoned while the revolution was going on back at the animal farm. A spell was cast upon him where he had to turn his mechanical powers into tasks that were directed to adapting weapons used by non-human fables. He was restricted and chained down. Snow was also held prisoner for rebelling against the Fables. She awakes to Weyland working on something. She finds out that he is was making a key to help her get out. This is one example of the type of character Weyland was, he always wanted to help others. Later on in the fable Weyland was replaced to be an administrator, by one of the sisters, Rose. But Snow wanted him to continue to build the weapons in preparation for an arising conflict, ”So will you continue providing to us? Only not chained up this time, of coarse you’d be free to work at whatever pace suits you.”(106) Weyland had many useful skills that were needed amongst the farm, he knew how to make equipment.  In Animal Farm Weyland Smith was portrayed as a brave and thoughtful character, he put many before himself. All though he was no longer a farm manager, many could say that he was a good companion, and an asset to the Animal Farm. 

Aperture (Blog Entry 6)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexameade/6939707058/

Alexa Meade’s is most known for her use of 2D planes, the way she represents paintings on top of physical subjects demonstrates how truly gifted she is. Scrolling through her pictures I found myself spending a minute or two at each photograph. The way she blends colors together is so surreal.

The photograph that stood out most to me was Aperture. The photograph is of a male,holding his hands in front of his face. But, he does leave a triangle of space, and within that space we are able to see the left side of his face. The left side of his face is covered, in what appears to be white paint. The background is white, the male is wearing a black shirt, and his face is completely covered, down to his neck. The male appears to have no emotion, but is hard to tell. This imagine is powerful and meaningful, because this male could be someone we know. It is a person that is trying to hide something, he is covering up. Its very simple, yet complex because of the meaning behind it, which could be anything. Aperture is very mysterious.

This imagine is a perfect representation of Meade’s work. Going through her photographs I found one thing in common, which is that all of the people had emotionless faces. The raises the issue of again, what is the message that she is trying to get across. I think the message that she is trying to get across is beauty, beauty can be full of light, or it can have no emotion. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When Meade first started her art, it was obvious that she wanted to do something different, different from a typical canvas painting. When she decided to use living objects as a way to express her art, it allowed us as the viewers a deeper connection. The human body is art itself, but the way Meade represented the body by using colors, reached a whole different level. Reality is something we can relate to, and we can all relate to the art of the human body.

Social media in general is very effective, if you want to get a message across quickly, then the Internet is the perfect place. But for, Alexa Meades work, I feel as though the Internet is not the most effective way, her art is so beautiful and talented, and in order to get the full effect being physically there to see it will let you get the full effect. Meade is a very talented artist and am very much looking forward to viewing the rest of her art work!

Tumblr is the new Facebook (Blog Entry 5)

Tumblr, most of us have heard about this popular blogging site. There are numerous types of blogs posted on a daily basis. You can look at other peoples blogs, or make your own. The University Of Colorado even has been blogged about, making jokes about teachers, 4/20, and boulder in general. Tumblr has become the new facebook, new blogs are always arising, which keeps it that much more interesting.

The specific blog that I chose is of a cat falling down the stairs, obviously struggling doing so. The caption reads “FORCING MYSELF TO GO TO CLASS”. This specific blog is under “HOW DO I PUT THIS GENTLY.”I liked this blog becuase it was relatable. We all wake up and have those morning where we dread going to class, especially when it is 10 degrees out, and the last thing we want to do is get out of bed. Sometimes we make it(half asleep), or we dont make it all. Either way going to class can be a struggle sometimes. The audience for this specific blog is aimed more at college students, we get lazy, and going to class can be the last thing on our minds sometimes.

FORCING MYSELF TO GO TO CLASS

This blog is effective, it gets straight to the point. Used is a short video clip of a cat falling down the stairs, and it uses language to explain what is going on. I feel that the best way to communicate and ultimately have the most effective blog is one that you can relate to. This being said there are a lot of blogs that us, as college students cannot relate to.

I would reccomend Tublr to anyone, there are over a thousand different types of blogs that you can chose from. Depending on whether you are in a sad, happy, excited, or just in a lauphing type of mood, tumblr probably has it. I also really liked Tumblr becuase they use many different types of visuals to attract audiences. Ranging from cartoons, to pictures, to videos. BE AWARE, this blogging site is addicting so once you start, its almost impossible to stop…enjoy everyone:)