Born Into Coal- I really enjoyed this documentary.  At first when I saw the girls in pageant dress, I thought this was going to be like an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras.  I am very glad this was not the same.  I never really thought as coal mining as a big occupation anymore these days, but I guess it is still a huge job that needs to be done.  I remember when the documentary was talking about the explosion that happened in 2010.  I liked that they would do close ups of the peoples face to show their emotions.  It made me think of how the scene should also make me feel.  I also like that when the people were explaining stuff, instead of just seeing them talking, we saw filler scenes that helped keep to motion of the movie going.  One scene that really stood out to me was when the camera did a close up of the dad’s black coal stained fingernails then a close up to his daughters black manicure nails.  It kind of showed how they were different but somewhat still the same.  I like how the documentary starts with the pageant, cuts to the main part the documentary wanted to bring up, the coal miner and their family, then back to the pageant to shower her win.  I think it kind of showed her journey to winning without seeing the actual pageant by showing why she wanted to win so badly.  The edits were also very clean.

Visual Rhetoric from Websites- The two websites I used most often are Facebook and Twitter.  Like most college students, its my gateway to procrastinating all of the work I need to do, but do not want to do.  They are both a form of social networking websites.  You create a profile for both websites and can post anything you want.  Facebook uses statuses and likes while twitter uses tweets and re-tweets.  The audience was made for teenagers and young adults, but recently both older and younger users have been joining the two websites.  All of the users joined to be able to stay connected and communicate with those who are not very close to where they live.  The structures for the websites are very similar.  Both have the user create a profile and have a homepage where you can see everyone you are friends with or follow post.  However, for Facebook, there are many ads on the side tabs of the website which are quite annoying.  Although twitter occasionally sends out tweet ads, they are a minor problem compared to Facebook.  The only things that really stand out visually are things that other users post, not what the company does for the website itself.  Basically, we can choose how the websites appeal visually based on what we post.  Sorry this post is quite short, I had a very hard time trying to find websites and what to say about them.

Visual Rhetoric- When I first opened the No Seconds website, the first thing that popped up was a picture of an olive on a plate.  When you pressed the arrow, more pictures of food dishes came.  Next to the pictures was information about the people who had those meals as their last meal before being executed.  The pictures of the food were a nice way to show what an inmates idea of a perfect meal for their last meal.  Some of the inmates choose their favorite meals and some did not get to choose any meal.  No Seconds was more about the pictures of the food and why Henry Hargreaves wanted to take pictures of a person’s last meal.  In the Last Meal Project, the website starts on a paragraph explaining the death penalty.  Then when you press the arrow a picture of an inmate with food and information about the inmate.  In between every few pictures is information about last meals and the death penalty.  I like the Last Meal Project website more than the No Seconds website.  It was a more powerful message showing not just food, like in No Seconds, but also the picture of the inmate in Last Meal Project.  I also liked that there was written information in between the pictures.  It was interesting to read about the last meal and death penalty rather than just see pictures of food.  I did not know that your last meal has a budget of only $40 and has to be bought locally.  When looking at the pictures, it made me wonder what I would want my last meal to be.  Hopefully I would never have to deal with that, but I would want; diet Dr. Pepper, Chicken vinaigrette salad, a dozen Ocharley’s rolls, a Big Mac, and strawberry shortcake.  Both websites used a bold, white colored background.  I did not feel I really learned anything from the No Seconds website aside from what inmates could eat for their last meal.  However I learned about the last meal establishing in jails and death penalty statistics in the Last Meal Project.