Hi all,

Here is my final project. Shout out to Ed for reminding me to upload it here as well.

Enjoy!

-Greg Baroni

Pictures

Commander Prime

The deck stood silent, looking on at the massive Commander Prime as the gravity of his words bit into the crew members’ nerves like a fierce arctic wind. The head scientist, Dr. Catherine Halsey, rose and addressed the broad shouldered warrior.

“What do you mean, ‘won’t fight’?” she inquired angrily.

“You know damn well what it means Doctor” he asserted menacingly.

Every crew member on the bridge of the United Nation Space Command (UNSC) starship, Infinity, had turned from their positions and now watched in disbelief. Even Andrew Del Rio, the Infinity’s outspoken Captain, was momentarily speechless. Mankind’s last hope for survival was refusing to fight.

She returned,

“You seemed to have no issue serving back before the fall of Reach, when the battles were easier, why the sudden conscience, Prime?”

“I don’t have a conscience anymore, Halsey” the hero responded.

The Doctor was taken aback by the statement.

“Oh, how s-“

“YOU TOOK IT!” The hero erupted.

His luminous, inferno red armor seemed to pulsate with raw fury. All on the deck were entirely floored by the statement, and dared not interject. Master Chief glanced over at the Arbiter, who returned the look of concern; they both subtly moved back from Prime, who had his visage fixed intently on Doctor Halsey.
He continued,

“You took the entirety of my humanity and obliterated it when you condemned me to life in a mechanical body which is nothing but a means of death and destruction.“

The eyes of all in the room widened, glinting with awe and fear as he spoke. He broke his violent stare and looked towards the Earth, glowing in majesty from the bridge of the orbiting Infinity.

“When he coined the term in ancient times, Cicero defined ‘humanity’ as ‘the qualities that make us human’. But what of these do I possess anymore?”

Without breaking his stare, he gestured towards Chief,

“Once this war is over, what place will its masters have in human society? Do you expect a culture to simply embrace death bringers like us as though the carnage never happened? People have already seen what your soldiers are capable of, and such memories will haunt us the rest of our days. Don’t think that we have never thought about what we will say to our future wives, or our children, when it inevitably comes time for them to know of our past. Did you ever consider how that may change how they look at us, love us? You never considered the scope of your actions Doctor.”

She smirked, and took in the Commander’s words, then,

“If I do recall, Hyperion, you chose to enlist in my Spartan program.”

An unforgiving look on his face, Prime calmly held out his right arm, and angling it to show his forearm, began to undo the configuration.

”Even the Spartans were humans, Halsey. I joined your program because it was my duty to defend my family, my species, my world. Now, my world is corrupt, my family is dead, and I am no longer a part of the human species.”

As the metallic plates shifted and contorted, freeing his arm, he removed it; once he did the luminosity of the armor faded to a dull, ruby sheen. The rest of the desk looked on in horror.

“Now, my previous desire is irrelevant; I am a machine.”

The arm of Commander Prime was contoured, its silver plating reflected light like the chrome smokestacks on an 18 wheeler. It looked exactly like that possessed by a healthy human, except it was not genuine. As the massive soldier moved his arm, one would be hard pressed to spot a deficiency outside of the coloration. Chief noticed many a similarity in its construction to the build of the Promethean Knights.

I wonder if that’s purely a coincidence.

He placed his arm back in the armor, and after the plates shifted to their original places, the piece regained its glow.

“From the neck down, you made my body into a science experiment. I will not serve those who are willing to support such endeavors and moreover, cannot campaign a cause that I can no longer be part of. My decision is final.”

He paused, and surveyed the room. Then turning his back to leave,

“There is nothing anyone can do to change it.”

Captain Del Rio had stood silent long enough, his dry voice boomed, “Is that a threat, soldier!?”

He began to march towards Prime. The response shook the room like a savage earthquake, then brought time itself to an abrupt halt. Commander Prime wheeled around, grabbing the Captain by the throat with his right arm and slammed him into the wall of the exit corridor. Holding him there effortlessly, Prime extended the ominous black blade attached to his armor at the wrist and pressed its hard, merciless surface against the warm skin of the struggling man’s throat. The Captain froze, not daring to move, even to breathe.
Prime leaned in close, and growled,

“Is that a challenge?”

The myth of Area 51 seemed to grow larger every second I spent exploring it. As I tried to unravel the mysteries surrounding the legendary military base in Nevada, I simply uncovered more and more that both befuddled and captivated my imagination.

The use of the virtual domain that is Google Earth provides us with the unique opportunity to peruse the site; in reality, Area 51 is off limits to a majority of the world, and those who wish to learn of its secrets are forced to admire it from afar, hoping for the chance when maybe, just one, they might see something that justifies their fascination with such an obscure facility.

Contrary to its physical appearance, the virtual image of the complex seems, welcoming, in fact inviting at first glance. The top down view tells many a story, despite its plain coloration, and dreary shading. From afar, the site looks like merely a small airport, nothing out of the ordinary. However, as I moved closer, and closer, and closer, things changed. There were still aircraft on the ground, helicopters, cars, and hangers, however, several minutia stood out to me.
For one, the runways all appear to be the same size (approximately 10,000 ft), which happens to be one of the typical lengths used for United States military operations, except
one. This landing strip is approximately to twice as long as the largest of the other runways. A runway that size would only be necessary for aircraft landing at velocities, proportionally, at least twice that of other aircraft. The only such instance this occurs is with aircraft that operate at speeds well above the speed of sound, such as the Space Shuttle and the SR-71 Blackbird. In addition, on closer examination of the shading of the taxi areas, hangars and the tarmac of the airport, it becomes noticeable that the shading of the environment is off in several places. In fact, it appears as though some elements of the site have been spliced together with images of the same area taken at drastically different periods of time. Considering that Area 51 is rumored (…confirmed…) to be a Government prototyping facility, one can only speculate as to the reasons behind this.

As incredible as it is to finally see the famed location, the simplistic views afforded by Google Earth, or the virtual in general, still cannot compare to actually being there in person. Having one’s physical presence at the site not only allows the beholder to experience the sensation of hearing the sounds of the engines throttling up and the engineers working on them in the hangars, or the pulsating adrenaline coursing through their veins, knowing that they may have the one in a lifetime chance to see something that most of the continent is not even conscious of. Moreover, one can be certain that everything that they perceive is genuine, perhaps stupefying, but nevertheless unaltered.
 

The gaming franchise that both jump started my love for video games and left the most lasting impression on me is definitely the Halo series. It is a first person based shooter that  allows you to step into the armor of the perfect soldier, Master Chief, as he fights for humanity’s survival against the apocalyptic religious sect known as the Covenant. Halo has a rich history, deep characters as well as an intricately woven plot. The series really challenges the user to consider the scope of their actions as they play the game. When applying the five aspects of gaming to the series, one can see how morality plays a central role to the game:

1.) Authority/Respect

There is an immense amount of authority and respect in this series. For one, Master Chief himself is a Spartan, the highest rank of soldier present on the battlefield. He is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) hologram in the form of a female; Cortana has access to all the data available to the human race. On the enemy’s side, there are the Prophets, who direct the soldiers of the Covenant in the corrupt ways of their “religion”. In addition, there are two alien races that play a crucial role in the series, the Elites and the Brutes. The Elites are commands by the Arbiter, which is a sacred position in the religion, while the Brutes are led by Tartarus.

2.) Sanctity/Purity

Due to the Covenant being a religious sect, albeit a corrupt one, Halo proves to be a solid example of sanctity and purity in gaming. The Prophets constantly have their soldiers searching for artifacts central to the religion (e.g. the Halos) and are greatly disturbed when said artifacts have been “contaminated” by mankind’s presence. The Covenant also holds that the Prophets are beyond reproach, which is why it is a powerful scene when the Arbiter sees through the lies of the Prophets and allies the Elites with the humans.

3.) Care/Harm

As with any game that depicts war, Halo relies on a careful balance of care and harm both in and out of the narrative. Outside, there is your basic health. In Halo, your character has an overshield over the health bar, which will start flashing red after you take enough damage, indicating that the shield needs to recharge, and the player is now vulnerable; if the player continues to take damage without the overshield, they will die and need to either respawn or restart the mission depending on the game mode and settings. Inside the narrative, Master Chief’s relationship with Cortana is a prominent source of care in the game. He carries her physical computer chip in his helmet and works diligently to ensure both of their safety, even coming to rescue her from the Flood Gravemind in the heart of a Covenant battle cruiser. On the converse, Cortana takes care of Chief, helping him navigate through complex environments and hectic situations.

4.)Fairness/Reciprocity

Fairness is one of the most prominent aspects of Halo, especially in mutliplayer modes, as the developers elected to give the player the choice of who to damage (i.e. friendly fire: [ON] off). If you shoot the enemy players and focus on the objectives, your have a great shot at being successful and progressing relatively quickly through even the toughest circumstances. However, if you shoot your teammates, they can shoot back, and the A.I. will as well. When you fight alongside the Arbiter and shoot him enough times, he will pull out an energy sword and stab you (this outcome is very difficult to achieve, as you have to be the only one damaging him and he will not do it if accidentally hit while engaged by the enemy). In addition, if you betray your teammates in multiplayer, after killing the same teammate twice in a row, the teammate will have the option to boot you from the game. In terms of level design, the weapons are spread out evenly, with light, assault based weapons evenly distributed in both spawn areas while power weapons are center of the maps, encouraging teams to work together in order to acquire them. Finally, the player has the option to leave the game at any time by simply pressing the start button and selecting the option. This is not encouraged however, and players who leave to many games in a short period of time receive a ten minute timeout from multiplayer matchmaking.

5.) Loyalty/In-Group

Similar to fairness and reciprocity, loyalty plays a strong role in Halo. For example, the Arbiter choosing to lead his race away from the Covenant was a huge swing and demonstration in loyalty, because while the Elites broke their ties with the Covenant, they did so because the Prophets had ordered the Aribter to be secretly executed, an attempt which he thwarted with the help of his loyal companions. In addition, Master Chief provides a great example of loyalty when he accepts the truce between the Elites and humans, despite his many prior combat instances with the former.

In summation, Halo has something for everyone, the explorers would be enthralled by the intricate designs of every level, the Killers would love the thrill presented in the multiplayer modes. Socializers would revel in the ability to converse with other players over Xbox live. Achievers would enjoy pursuing the long list of Xbox achievements and attempt the new, daring challenges that the platform releases over Xbox Live daily. This franchise truly has something for everyone.

I am a competitive achiever and explorer who enjoys discovering new ways to excel in games while adhering to my own sense of style. Along these lines some games I would enjoy that are similar and different from Halo are games from the Call of Duty, Madden, and Pokemon series.

In the spirit of homecoming weekend, I decided to do my wordle piece on the University of Maryland football team. Specifically, I opted to use an article that concerned how Under Armour partnered with the team to produce one of the coolest twists on a theme that I had seen a team do. Ever since its release several year back, Treyarch’s hit game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has been a popular hit with the young adults around the world; it has also spawned many a spin off and tribute. Prior to a game against highly ranked West Virginia, the Terrapins unveiled their shocking choice of uniforms; the theme was met with an overwhelmingly positive feedback. The theme was dubbed “White Ops, as evidenced by the patterning and coloration of the uniform as a whole. The piece I did the world on is a opinionated, direct review of the White Ops uniform.

The wordle of the review provides several clear clues as to the content of the article; for example, the words “Uniforms”, “Maryland” and “White Ops” stand out prominently. The wordle seems to entice the viewer to “look” at them, calling their attention to the “Style” and its “colors”. The contrast of the black, and Cardinal red on the white background of the uniform itself is almost echoed in the visualization provided by the wordle. In fact, on closer inspection, the outer shape of the conflagration of words appears to resemble the sole of a shoe. Furthermore, I chose the white background with black wording in order to reflect the uniform’s style.

Although the representation the reading visualization provides is relatively accurate regarding both the scope and content of the article, it is still lacking in that some elements seem to be missing. If I could change anything about it, I would expand the interface in order to allow the creator more customization choices. For example, I would allow the reader to choose whether or not to add a color border to the outside of words. One to the driving elements that brought the combination to life was the subtle, red outline that traced the numbers on the jersey. Without an option to add a border to the words, the wordle missed out on a crucial part of the visualization. In addition, I would provide the user more freedom to create a background for the words. Another significant element of the uniform was the light gray used in the state flag’s crest on the uniform; this too was unable to be worked into the wordle and again, served to lessen the the visual impact on the reader.

Source article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1343282-grading-marylands-white-ops-uniforms-to-be-sported-against-west-virginia

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/45

Mr. Evans’ image here can be very misleading due to the subtle details that may go unnoticed. First of all, he claims that the photo is “silly”. Really, Mr. Evans, silly?

That claim is blasphemous. Yes,

Blasphemous.

The mannerisms of the people depicted in the picture appear to be far from “silly”. In fact, one could even suggest that the tone of the photo is of a more serious level. The gentleman on the left and in the back has an intense expression on his face. One that highlights and conveys the true gravity of the scene. The female on the far right, returns the gaze, with even more ferocity than her male counterpart.

Furthermore, the photo conveys a more coordinated effort than Mr. Evans lets on. All of the members in the photo are wearing an article of upper body clothing that is predominantly white; this contrasts with and highlights the dark head wear that most of the participants are wearing, or the colorful nature of the caps worn by the young woman and gentleman in the middle. This foiling of colors calls our attention towards the head, and subsequently the faces of the family members.

Silly? Pish-Posh

http://mith.umd.edu/arguing/admin/items/show/44

Challenged Accepted.

Here, Mr. Evans makes yet another outrageous claim. He maintains that “there are no words that can describe this picture”.

I beg to differ.

I, on the contrary, cannot think of enough words to describe this picture with. It depicts a BEAR (not a gopher, like Mr.Evans so ludicrously claims), riding a longboard and achieving a high velocity as it snakes down a large, mountainous incline.

First of all, I can think of several adjectives that encapsulate this image:

• Marvelous –  The image shows a bear riding a skateboard. If there was ever an image that caused one to look on in amazement, this is it. How often does one have the privilege of seeing a bear on a skateboard? About as often as Tony Romo wins the Superbowl, which never has happened (or ever will, for that matter).
• Spectacular – Try to fathom the speed that the bear is traveling at. How much skill and precision it must take for the beast to maintain his course. The picture is truly a sight to behold.
• Majestic – Look at the bear’s hair, how it glistens in the mid-day sun. Observe how his friend follows close behind, it even appears that he is smiling. I…I might need a moment. This is just so beautiful.

I could go on, there are so many elements about this picture that convey much more than Mr. Evans lets on.

September 11, 2001: WUSA (CBS News). Washington D.C.  8:50-9:00AM EDT

The coverage window begins with CBS covering a story about a woman, Sandra Posey, who has just received a brand new home from Fleetwood; this appears to be the most recent segment of “A Week of Wishes”. Overall, the mood of the news seems to be typically light-hearted, and the tone of newscaster covering the stories reflects this; she narrates the footage with a calm, soft voice.  The coverage of “A Week of Wishes” progresses in a quick, yet casual manner as a woman named Donna is helped fulfill a promise she had made to her late husband to scatter his ashes in South Dakota. It continues to show an elderly man named Scott Butler fulfilling his dream to see Pearl Harbor in person before he died; Scott was also made an honorary member of the Kentucky State police, even being promoted to Colonel by the Governor himself. It is difficult not to drown in the pathological appeal made by the segment. All kidding aside, it seems like just another morning where a local news station is trying to showcase material that encourages viewers to persevere through the daily struggles in their own lives. At 8:52AM EDT. The tone of the show immediately shifts into high gear as the breaking news out of New York comes in about the North Tower being struck by a plane. Bryan Gumbell proceeds hastily, attempting to inform the viewers as much as possible in the shortest time. He maintains control of his voice and presentation, however, you can tell on closer observation that he is clearly perturbed by what he is seeing. The coverage of the event itself is almost entirely centered on one image of the North Tower burning. The station does not dare shift the attention away from the World Trade Centers. The true gravity of the situation did not strike me until CBS entirely cut off one of the commercials that are supposed to run at regular intervals throughout the show. Since I know from outside discussions how much money and time are allotted to marketing products and services, I knew that when a major new station immediately stops airing one in order to continue coverage that this was indeed serious. Gumbell tries to proceed and interviews an  eyewitness; the man attempts to recall what happened as best he can but in the chaos of the moment and hindered by a semi-distant vantage point, he is unable to provide much reliable information. Gumbell rapidly transitions to another eyewitness who is in the lobby of his hotel, which is directly between both of the Trade Centers. You can hear him scribbling notes down as the witnesses recount what they saw. During the graphic account told by the second witness, you can hear sirens wailing in the background. Both the frantic pace of the interviews and their content significantly contribute to the surreal aura surrounding the whole scene; even though my family and I watched the broadcast live on FOX (albeit at a different time), it does not seem like this could actually be happening.

September 11, 2001: BBC (BBC World). London, England. 8:50-9:00AM EDT

The broadcast segment begins with coverage of sports, beginning with the local Soccer teams and eventually scoping out to detail sports play from across the pond. To my surprise, the universe thought it would be funny to include some coverage of the then (and oddly enough, now) defending NFC Champion New York Giants, who happen to be my favorite NFL squad. The bit of familiarity served to settle me even though it was a bit uncomfortable watching a new news station for the first time. Unfortunately, the Giants managed to lose game they showed (i.e. settled feeling = gone).The news progressed in a much more efficient manner compared to CBS. In fairness, CBS focused its coverage on a single story at this time, whereas BBC seemed to be wrapping up the past hour of news at the top of the hour drew near. BBC also used a text slideshow to cover some of the less urgent stories. This served to inform the reader of what was important while not over stressing the significance of some less pressing matters. As they transition to the coverage of the plane crashing into the North tower, the mood shifts from a more formal, business attitude, to that of a somber, stunned tone. It seem like the BBC reporters as just as shocked as the Americans are. They voice over video of the smoking tower and narrate what the viewers are seeing. I wonder if they are doing this in order to mask their own uncertainty, and to keep the viewers as calm as possible. Overall, the coverage by both BBC and CBS is loaded with uncertainty, as details are just now flooding in about the first crash. They both use narrated video footage to show and detail the story, as well as shroud their own uneasiness for the good of the audience.

September 17, 2001: WUSA (CBS News). Washington D.C.  8:50-9:00AM EDT

This segment contrasts with the earlier one on September 11^th as the United States and her people are no longer caught off guard. Contrasting images of destruction and sadness, CBS opens the 8:50-9:00AM window by placing the emphasis on resiliency, and how the American people embody the term. The broadcast is laden with narrative elements meant to inspire hope .They show images of the memorials and tributes paid to the victims of 9/11 while playing inspirational music in the background. “God Bless America” and traditional Scottish bag pipes can be heard in the background as President Bush offers words of hope and victims recount the events of the day. The ethos and pathos on display are quite poignant, and are most effectively conveyed by the imagery, which provides a stark contrast of the apocalyptic scene with those of displaying Americans united under the duress. In addition, as “God Bless America” concludes, they show a powerful image of a golden star on top of an oscillating American flag along with the words: America Rising. At the same time, CBS shows how life still goes on even in the midst of great tragedy; the Patriotic montages are dispersed between coverage of local news.

September 17, 2001: BBC (BBC World). London, England. 8:50-9:00AM EDT

In contrast to the CBS coverage at the same time, the mood in the BBC broadcast that covers the events remains as one of solemn, reverence.  The time frame begins with coverage of the New York City’s clean of effort. Unlike its United States counterpart, the BBC makes little effort to reassure its audience that everything is going to be alright. Instead, they stick to a more factual based evaluation of the situation; this is not to say that they are not sympathetic to the plight of the American people, in fact, considering that they are a foreign new source, this is understandable. The BBC coverage focuses primarily on covering the President Bush’s meeting with his cabinet on how to respond to the attack. Again, the reporting is relatively measured and provides a wealth of information. Instead of merely allowing images to dominate the broadcast, BBC provides in-depth narration of the circumstances interspersed with commentary from the participants. In other words, they utilize the vocal, logical appeal rather than the one centered on the pathos and ethos that the American station employs.

Gregory John Baroni Jr. is an aspiring college student pursuing a doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. He is interested in designing new methods of propulsion designed to revolutionize commercial air travel; they would allow aircraft to safely reach hypersonic speeds while carrying passenger cargo. Greg is a loyal family man who enjoys a variety of outdoor activities such as football and indoor hobbies such as building Legos, creative writing, and playing video games on Xbox Live. He is a fan of the New York Giants and Yankees.

Important Items I would include in an archive of my life:

Picture of my sunglasses - My Oakley shades have been my trademark of sorts ever since I first got them prior to my senior year of high school. They represent my fondness of the future of design and a

Hero Collage - An embedded image that serves as a collage of all the heroes in my life. Sources of positive influence in my life would be featured in the photo, ranging from my mother and father to my puppy, Lily, and Optimus Prime.

Superbowl XLVI - Embedded video streaming the entire re-broadcast of the game. As a sports fan, it is one of the greatest feelings in the world to see your team make it to the top. However, watching it in person pushed that to an almost surreal level. Being at Superbowl XLVI was one of the most prominent moments in my life, and one that should definitely be featured in an archive of my life.

Picture of my first Car - 2002 Cadillac Deville. All black. Oh Yeah. All kidding aside, I had many a great and sad memory with my first car and will always remember all the fun I had while in it, even though the thing has about the same turning radius as the space shuttle Discovery.

I leapt.

It was a twenty foot drop from the turret gunner’s seat of the UNSC Falcon to the concrete below, but I barely stumbled upon landing, even though the weight of my steel-plated armor caused the surface of the floor to crack.

“We’re under fire, Six”, came Noble Two’s voice over the radio. “Move it.”

“On the way”, I said as I flipped the safety on my assault rifle to the off position.

I surveyed the scene in front of us as the Falcon I rode in on set down behind me in the middle of the hexagonal courtyard to drop off the support troopers. It was a straight shot to the entrance of the excavation site we had been called in to defend; we were not going there. Our orders were to head due east of its position, following the downhill concrete driveway that hooked in that same direction. From there we would proceed into a hanger and rendezvous with Noble Two and the squad of troops that had been assigned to her command.

We had two objectives: disable the communications jammer that the Covenant had set up just outside the research facility and reactivate the automatic anti-aircraft guns that protected the facility. If we could do that, then maybe, just maybe we could buy the crews stationed here enough time to evacuate before the incoming Covenant armada overran the place. Otherwise, the entire workforce, tens of thousands of archaeologists, scientists and engineers, would be exterminated, and all their research would fall into the hands of the most dangerous enemy humankind he encountered to date. After all, “the great journey” central to the Covenant religion could only come about through the activation of the Halo rings, mechanisms meant to destroy all life in the galaxy.

Fools.

 I thought to myself.

Very powerful fools.

“What are you doing Six?”

I began to run.

Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320, also known as Kat or Noble Two, had a zero tolerance policy for tardiness; this stemmed from an incident from before I had been reassigned to Noble Team that cost Kat her right arm. I had no desire to get on her bad side on the ride home from a mission, much less the beginning of one; I pressed on hoping to make up for lost time. I reached my full stride as I turned the corner and proceeded downhill, at which point the hanger came into view. From behind my black visor, I smiled.

Elites.

Two of the humanoid beasts stood with their backs facing me as I picked up speed going down the hill. Despite their immense size advantage, the limited training that most were afforded before being forced into service left elites at a disadvantage when in hand to hand combat with a fully-trained Spartan; these two had armor configurations characteristic of the Minor class, the first rank an elite was awarded upon enlisting in the Covenant fleet.

Too bad they won’t live long enough to really learn to fight.

I slung my rifle over my shoulder and unsheathed my knife with my right hand as I closed the gap between myself and the unsuspecting warriors. Once I got within range, I vaulted into the air.

The first elite never saw it coming.

Mid-air, I thrust my left elbow into the back of his neck, knocking the weapon out of his hand and sending him face first onto the ground; I landed smoothly on the ground beside him. Before he could react I leapt into the air again and brought my massive boots down on the rear of his skull. The force of the impact coupled with the weight of my suit crushed the mandibles that comprised the mouth of an elite and caved in his skull. His body went limp. Before I could even look down to admire my work, several wild shots of plasma energy shot past me. The second elite had broken off his attack on Kat’s position and charged towards me.

I reached for my rifle, but wheeled around too late.

Before I could bring the weapon around, the elite kicked it out of my hand and punched me in the gut, knocking me down. I turned back around in time to see him stomped on the weapon and crush it beneath his bare heel.

Not a big deal, at least I still have my knife.

He turned to face me, and reached for a cylindrical handle around his waist. I recognized it instantly, and a sharp chill bolted up my spine.

Big deal.

He coiled his long fingers around the handle, and tightened his grip; the plasma sword expanded to its full size.

Very big deal.

The elite glanced at his fallen comrade, and furrowed his brow as he took in the traumatic scene of his friend bathing in a swelling, crimson pool of his own blood. As he reverted his gaze to me, a single tear ran down the side of his face.

The elite let out a passionate howl and charged.

I wrote The Shot as a thought provoking, first person narrative that follows a thoughts, actions, and reactions of a futuristic sniper protagonist who has been tasked with assassinating a prominent General at a major communications outpost deep in enemy territory. The narrative would greatly benefit from being converted into an E-Lit because the various properties of the style would enhance the audience’s ability to perceive the main character’s emotions, facilitate a fluid progression of the plot, and provide a more vivid depiction of the narrative’s setting.

As we discussed in class, one must balance these traits so that they enhance the work, as opposed to either distracting the reader from the intended effect or overwhelming them entirely. Having established this constraint, I went back through the pre-class assignments for the week and examined them again. After some more exploring, I determined that the six primary elements of E-Lit that I would add to The Shot are:

1. A musical score
2. Story Segmentation
3. Background sounds
4. Hyperlinks
5. Images
6. Video

The first item I would add would be a musical score, that is, orchestral music that plays in the background in order to superimpose a mood on the story and anyone who delves into it. My inspiration for this actually came from the title page for “These Waves of Girls” which features laughter played in a loop. However, I would utilize a more ominous tone in order to reinforce the gravity of the narrative for the protagonist; a mission that he has prepared for months, even years for is about to reach its pinnacle. Having an orchestral song with a long buildup playing in the background would hammer home the intensity of the moment.

Although the story itself was relatively cliché and dull, “The 21 Steps “ intrigued me because of how it utilized a progression of short, semi-independent narratives to depict a much larger story. This style seemed to place a much heavier emphasis on the significant of each of the protagonist’s actions than a traditional narrative would. In order to emulate this same effect, I would break up The Shot into several segments that could both function on their own and still maintain the integrity of the plot as a whole. Moreover, the story takes place in a single location, so I would be inclined to allow the reader to transition between segments by simply clicking a button that said “next”.

Since the story follows a sniper, who by trade must operate under a veil in order to survive, let alone complete a mission, I would like to include several sounds in the background that would play as the protagonist readies himself to take the shot. For example, as he locks the stock of the rifle onto his armor, or draws in his breath to take aim, the corresponding sounds would play in the background.

Furthermore, I would like to utilize hyperlinks to convey the frustration the protagonist undergoes when things go awry. As the notes suggested, I would prefer to structure several links that would operate in a roundabout fashion, in addition to others still, which would lead the reader to various dead ends. This would stimulate the main character’s frenzied progression of thought and allow the reader to experience similar tumult. I would also hyperlink to images that could enhance the seriousness of the moment, such as a link to an article on the torture of captured spies.  In addition, I would like to hyperlink in some “Easter eggs”, which would reveal where my inspiration for the story came from. This would be accomplished using techniques similar to those used in the E-Lit “The Possession of Christian Shaw”; in other words, embed links so that they do not become apparent unless a cursor is moved over a certain word. However, my programming skills are just above those of an Easter egg, so I’m not sure how much of this I could actually accomplish in the first place and may need to stick to the basics.

As the famous quote goes, “A picture’s worth a thousand words”. Using relevant imagery at the proper time can go a long way in establishing a great foundation for the audience to construct a relationship with. The main character is a sniper in the distant future, fighting in equally distant environment. In order to help the reader to better perceive the setting, I would like to include several images to help clear up any issues with the environment that could detract from the story as a whole. Specifically, I would like to include a picture of the protagonist as well as a picture of the mountainous environment that would serve as the background for the E-Lit.

Finally, I would absolutely embed some videos to the E-Lit in a similar vein to the way I would use the images in terms of setting the stage. However, I would use them to show the flashbacks of events in the past the influence the plot, especially the speech made by the sniper’s instructor that plays a vital role in how he handles the crisis.