Nicholas DeLissio’s e-Portfolio

For my Persuasive Policy Essay I have chosen a topic that will address the issue of present and future nuclear security concerns and how they can be addressed.

Although it has been a well-versed topic of international debate at multiple summits and UN conferences, nuclear proliferation is still a major international security threat and much more needs to be done to address these issues; so as to prevent catastrophic scenarios in which a terrorist organization or lone-wolf acquires a weapon of mass destruction.

My research is primarily based on a Harvard Kennedy School – Belfer Center report on nuclear security. This report presents the issues found in nuclear security and proposes theoretical ways to address the issues at hand. Using the majority of the proposed solutions I will present a realistic and applicable policy, preferably in the form of a UN resolution or policy.

I believe this an appropriate topic for the assignment because it is an issue that is heard of, but not understood in terms of the seriousness of the issue. It is a topic I can bring to light, and present a realistic solution to.

Voila! Here is the link to my “This, I Believe” essay on Google drive in case anyone has trouble playing the .m4a file.

And here is the script!

I sit down, the conversations fade, the lights dim, and the screen blares its pallet of lights and colors in my eyes as I’m transported from one realm into the next.

Day in and day out many of us live out tedious, adventureless lives, cramped within the restraints of the norms and expectations of society, and left hopeless to take on the challenges that our lives remorselessly throw at us.

For some, escape exists in the form of a vacation, or the visual pleasantries of nature, or the harmonious lyrics of a song, or even perhaps the lines of a well-written book. Here, some might find the hope, the courage, or the strength that is needed to face the world head on and to succeed. But for those of us, another medium exists that can grant us all of this, by transporting us to another world.

There is nothing on this earth more fantastic than being pulled in to a movie that I believe is a reality. A movie that can inspire me, motivate me, make me laugh or cry is incredibly powerful not because the actors can act well or the writers have written a good script, but because for one-hundred and twenty minutes, I was transported into another world, that I believed I was a part of, and has allowed me to escape the dull confines of the realities of life.

Naysayers will tell of the unrealism and dangers of believing in on-screen fantasies. That “The Force” does not exist, that you or I will never be accepted to Hogwarts, and that there is no Ring to take to Mordor. And I was devastated when I learned of all of this at such a young and innocent age. But I would say that we need we need such false hopes in our lives, because that unrealistic optimism that they bring can inspire us to do great things in the world. So, I still have hope, I still believe.

There is a “magic” that transports us to these new worlds. There is a special moment when we become a part of the story. We are taken from one world and placed into another, and after the credits roll we often find ourselves fantasizing and acting out the movies, wanting to be like the characters, and trying to be them. Because those characters, like the movies themselves, are our escape from reality.

Just to pretend that you’re a great fictitious hero from a movie can make adversary more manageable. That character is something that we can relate to and that we can look up to, and try to model ourselves after. I believe I am Batman, I am Indiana Jones, I am Maximus Decimus, I am Captain Kirk, and I am Bond, James Bond.

I believe I am all of these, and will continue to let their stories, as told by their movies, be a source of inspiration in my life.  I believe in movies.

Alright, lets get this second semester off to a good start!

My first post for RCL II will involve a little bit of restructuring for my blog assignment. For this semester you’ll see some less RCL posts, some possible changes to my passion blog, and a brand new blog that’ll deal with civic issues called, you guessed it, the Civic Issues Blog. Also, I’ll be throwing out ideas for my first project of the semester called This, I Believe.

So for my passion blog, I have two options: one, keep the current one, “The Super Secret Spy Blog”. Or two, scrap everything and make a new blog. These are the ideas that I had in the mind for this option.

A blog about the White House: Probably called something along the lines of “Inside the White House”, or “The Unofficial White House Tourist Blog”. I’m thinking I’d write about the decor, history,  and gossip of the White House instead of the politics.

A blog about strange, obscure, and unknown clubs on campus. Pretty self described, I’d write a report about the different clubs around campus that might seem uncanny or strange. We’re Penn State, I don’t think I wont have enough of these clubs to talk about.

For my new Civic Issues blog I have two ideas that are slightly similar. Both have to do with preservation. The first would be focused around wildlife preservation; writing about poaching and endangered animals and such. My second idea would be about archeological and historical site preservation.

And finally, for my upcoming This, I Believe project, I have two ideas in mind:

I Believe in Letters: I would talk about how writing letters can be the most powerful form of communication.

I Believe in Cinema: How the movies can create powerful and magical escapes for people from the real world.

Hopefully for this semester I can get more content all around for my blogs and start making them more entertaining and fun to read. I really liked using .gifs in my last Spy Blog article, so I think you might get to see more of that in the future.  I also hope to produce higher quality writing in general. Hopefully this semester will be as good (if not better) than the last!

For our class assignment we were asked to watch a few short videos on filming and editing.

“Video 101” Yeah that goes without saying. They really weren’t much to think of for a person like myself, who’s filmed and edited a number of short videos and movies before. At first glance I was excited to maybe learn a new trick or two in filming, but really all I got was “Don’t forget to put your battery in!” I don’t know what I expected.

However, when asked to discuss the rhetorical implications that the basic techniques of film making can carry, I start to see how vital they can be in the overall message.

The quality of your filming and editing is what determines how seriously your audience will take the video, whether or not they come away with an implied message, and if it it maintains any academic quality.

For example, the video on filming techniques explained the most basic rule of lighting – have your actors face the light source for a better picture quality. Anyone who may not have made a video before might think “What does it matter?”, and the answer is everything. Or at least it matters in a few areas. Proper lighting can help emphasize an actors facial expressions and can drastically improve the aesthetic quality of the shot. Both of which carry heavy purpose in the art of rhetorical communication. I often take fundamental rules such as this for granted and don’t stop to think how important they can be to all of the other aspects of the film.

Its like we say for all skills and trades: stick to the fundamentals. You might be thinking that these videos are a waste of your time and are absolutely pointless, but the until you remember that these fundamentals are what make your film look like a quality piece of work, you can begin to focus on the advanced techniques.

Well blog followers, once again I’ve spotted post worthy around campus. This time, I’m not really sure what to make of it… at all.

I guess I’ll have to start by describing it. I happened upon this strange occurrence the other day just in front of the steps to Pattee Library. There was a single filed line of people who appeared to be standing. Except they really weren’t. Upon closer inspection they were walking really slowly! About at the rate of one step every 30 seconds. The person in front held a sign that read something along the lines of “We are walking, stop and join us.”

What on earth is going on here? If anyone can legitimately answer this question please let me know. While I tried to figure out what this arrangement of queuing enthusiasts was I quickly snapped a picture.

I didn’t take me long to realize that the passerby’s curiosity is the intended effect, and thereby the rhetorical message. Perhaps this line had no other purpose than to make people wonder what it’s purpose is. Maybe its to get someone so curious that they’ll join themselves, thus continuing the cycle. I almost had half a mind to join the line myself, just for kicks. However I decided it would be against my better judgement, incase I may accidentally be supporting a cause I’m not interested in or disagree with.

Still though, there is so much to be said about a simple line of people walking in front of a library. Who are they? What where they doing? Why would they be taking time out of their day to do this? Why were they walking? And most importantly why were they walking slowly?

Maybe these questions have answers, maybe they don’t. Either way, it’s something to write about.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0NvFK815_ucT0ZieUp5YjlUS3c/edit?usp=sharing

There it is, my TED talk. Feel free to watch it if you want. I’ve watched it it, once, and thats more than enough for me. I’m just happy I’m done with it and its over with… well, almost.

Between how I felt I did immediately after I gave the speech, and watching the video the one time, I’m actually more impressed with myself. But I can’t help to think that there’s still so much to work on. Granted, there were improvements from the first speech, but I thought I would have nailed it all down this time. But I’ll talk about this more in a bit.

My preparation process summed up in one word was rushed. Among a maelstrom of other projects and assignments, my TED talk ended up being completed within a period of two days. Way less than I would have liked to dedicate. For the small amount of time I was able to use to work on it, I made pretty good use of, and I think the speech was still of a higher quality.  Preparing for the presentation itself is another story.

Writing the whole TED Talk wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I had a pretty solid base to work off of, considering my Paradigm Shift paper did well. I just had to find a topic I could make a better appeal out of. That’s where I decided to shift from my paper’s focus on streaming as a paradigm shift as a whole, to the personal ramifications of the transition from physical media to digital.

Once that was complete, I threw together the power point with almost no effort. I’m a visual person as it is, and I thought the use of pictures to help project my descriptions to my audience was a huge advantage to me.

Practicing the actual speech though was rough. This is where I probably hurt myself the most. I had finished revising the speech the night of the presentation, so there wasn’t a lot of time for memorization. Which is kind of the whole point of a TED talk.

In hindsight, that was a bad a idea.

No worries though; in general, I believe I’m a half decent presenter. I like to believe that I can come off with a more personal tone which aided me in two ways. For one thing, TED talks are (unless on occasion its done VERY well) typically very monotone and robotic sounding, like it was too memorized, and I thought my personal tone set me aside from those other speeches (although this tactic had a few drawbacks.) For the other part, it aided me in creating a pathos styled approach, which I was hoping was the driver behind my message.

For next time (assuming there is one), I will definitely find myself doing more to prepare for the actual presentation. That includes finding a place to actually practice, and try to have a mock audience. Perhaps I’d record it and find out what I like, what I don’t like, and what I’m going to experiment with next time.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19nD0ILfdVxFztryoYFbzp8R1FCvmQff6w7bNMTWdehs/edit

For my TED talk I… have absolutely no idea what to do!

I’m a little confused about this assignment. Recently I had to go back and try to figure out what a TED talk was exactly. To my understanding, its a presentation about some sort of event or phenomenon that the speaker is trying to educate the public about in a rhetorical and theatre-like manner.

With that said, its was made clear to the class that our TED talk is meant to follow the same topic as our Paradigm Shift Essay. Okay, I got it, “The Shift to Streaming Technology”. That one should be easy, right? I really wish it was. Trying to figure out what about this is worthy talking about, and how can I fit into a TED talk format has proven challenging.

There seems to be a lot to use, and there’s the possibility that my essay could be broken down into a few different TED talks. So here’s what I think I will go forward with: In order to fit the theme of a TED talk, and to deliver a powerful message, I want to use something that will emphasize pathos. So my first concept will be he loss of the sentimental and old world sensations caused by the rise of streaming technology.

I think that’s something to work with for now. If not, its back to the drawing board and another total revamp. And the clock isn’t slowing down for me. Wish me luck!

Woot! Another JFK Speech! I really can’t express how much of a fan I am of this guy. If I had the opportunity I’d actually like to analyze a lot more of his speeches, but for the sake of variety, I’ll spare you from having to suffer through that.

Today’s JFK speech is Ich Bin ein Berliner, or as google translate has notified me, I am a Berliner.

Here’s a link for the lazy.

What I think is so fantastic about this speech is that it is presented to a foreign audience. Although JFK has a translator (and thankfully acknowledges him) communicating to a people of a different language is a challenge of a very high level. Yet, we see in the video that he does it with ease. He gets the crowd energized and riled up. He connects with them and communicates, as any well rounded leader of a nation should be able to.

Beyond the overwhelming difficulty of giving a speech of this nature there are a whole list of reasons why this speech is so great!

To begin, we can observe that JFK is giving a speech of encouragement to West Berliners. Which is impressive for two reasons: Feelings with Germany were still a little bitter only 20 years after WWII. Politically there was no tension, but surely the newfound casual nature of an alliance with Germany was still an uneasy feeling for Americans. Second, West Berlin, from the beginning of its division from East Berlin was economically struggling. Especially since it was a only a few years ago that the Berlin Blockade had almost starved the city. Now, the city was going through a new challenge, family and friends who lived on the other side of the city were now permanently cut off by the Berlin Wall (or are about to be, I have to double-check my history.)

Next, JFK’s personal rhetoric is overwhelmingly phenomenal, and even I found myself getting excited by his speech. He states over and over again the challenges that the city and all the rest of the world are facing, but finishes each stanza with the words “Let them come to Berlin!”, as a way to say that West Berlin was some beacon of hope in all of the troubled times of the early Cold War. That the people were strong and standard bearers of political ideologies such as freedom, and democracy which they should be proud of in the face of adversary.

JFK continues with the pattern halfway through his speech, and from that point continues to give words of encouragement and compliment. However, at the end he does something that would strike right at the heart of his foreign audience. Something that is right within the very definition of the term pathos. He says this:

“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

He goes out and says “I am one of you”. And he does it in their own language. I’m not sure I can really ever use words to explain how much effect this had on his audience. Hopefully though, you can see it for yourself.

There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s examples like this that made him such a fantastic President.