Since September I have been researching radios and how they work. I have managed to learn enough to build a fully functional radio with parts I got from the CTE Engineering room or older radios I had in my house. I mainly researched the components found in a radio, specifically their purpose. I also had to look at the different types of radios I could make because many schematics had drastic changes such as the number of transistors or whether or not it had a variable capacitor. I found out how hard this project was whenever I would get stuck in situations where I had no clue what went wrong. With my little to no experience, this happened a lot and I would be stuck just hearing static for days, but with the help of my mentors, I overcame those situations and completed my capstone.

I had a reason to make this more than a capstone and that was to make a gift for my grandpa who has worked with radios his entire life. Through the experience of learning about radios, I know what it was like for him to work on such complex circuits. At the end of this long journey, I am proud of all the work I have put into making something that is useful but also something that means a lot to my grandpa, and seeing him know I got into something he is into making this project worth every minute.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gACJ2SLRx-vZEdevmMRvqYPS75JHLMG9_9KtrFyolIE/edit?usp=sharing

Everyone in the Ward is working, doing their chores, Bromdon specifically is cleaning but what makes his chore so special is where he is cleaning. The staff around the Ward decided to let him clean the staff room because Bromdon has tricked everyone into believing that he is deaf and that his disability allows him to be in the staff room because he supposedly can’t hear what the staff members are saying/planning. Before Bromdon goes to clean the room McMurphy asks If they will know that he can hear and that he’s been hearing every conversation they had around him. This shows how only McMurphy knows his secret and he can trick everyone except the known trickster, McMurphy. The way Bromdon describes the condition of the meeting room and it seems unreal and disgusting, on page 131, “The things I’ve had to clean up in these meetings nobody believes me; horrible things, poisons manufactured right out of skin pores and acids in the air strong enough to melt a man. I’ve seen it.” this shows the types of things going on behind the scenes where the rest of the patients can’t see. Why do they trust Bromdon with this job? Was he the only option? Because he can still see and talk not being able to hear won’t stop him from letting others know about what goes on back there. Also is this what he is cleaning real? I started to think this because of the question of whether or not Bromdon is a reliable narrator because he sees thing comes into play here and I am not sure if the air from acid has melted a man. The staff has gotten used to him cleaning there for such a long time they aren’t even bothered by his presents and they treat him like he is invisible as described by Bromdon on page 131, “I move around my chores, and they see right through me as I wasn’t there”. This also means he hasn’t told anyone about what goes on in there because if he did they would find out and realize that he is lying about his hearing. That is why I think maybe he told McMurphy about what is going on or McMurphy’s high intellect helped him figure out that Bromdon is playing a trick. All of this leads up to my art piece where I drew Bromdon cleaning up what is supposed to be acid and a skull is seen which represents the melted man, I also made sure that Bromdon was colored in lightly because he seemed invisible over there. With the staff, I put them all around a table and Big Nurse looked small but was the only one standing to show her power over everyone there because she even said she gains full control when she is in the meetings. All of these details add up and make a scene that you would see if you were in the staff room and seeing what goes on in there.

In “The Handmaid’s Tale” brainwashing is a topic brought up multiple times and it affects the characters’ choices, the things they do, and the big events that happen. One example that came up is on page 174 where they explain how the big newspapers would censor certain things from the public also in previous pages it would talk about people being told to burn books and magazines. The reason why, is because the government doesn’t want them to learn and get new ideas which could harm the government. The government in Gilead would also do things like forcing people to burn their clothes and dress according to their role in this society.

This situation has been seen worldwide throughout history and everyone has experienced propaganda and what it can do to the way you think. My parents are a perfect example of growing up to think a certain way because they grew up in Communist Albania where they were taught to think the way the government wanted them. Going to school for them was very different because most of what they were learning was to make the communist ideologies seem like it was the best for everyone. They would have classes specifically about Marxism where they were being fed information about the ideology and how great it was, they were also taught that going to the military was a good thing and that it was the right thing to do even though it was mandatory to join. The people that believed in the propaganda the most were the older people, around my grandparent’s age, and still, some younger people now who support socialist parties in Albania. But some people hate communism with a passion because of what they went through as a child, growing up with nothing.

When you compare the two you see a lot of similarities because they both were manipulated by a government that wanted people to think like them also they both had to live the way the government thought was best. One thing that would happen in this book is rigged elections brought up on page 174 which shows how they wanted a way to trick the people into thinking everything was fair but it was not. You would see things like this in countries like Russia where they say they are democratic countries but when there are elections the people who come up against Putin mysteriously pass away. Also at this point of the story it seems like whoever is in control is a dictator and no one can do anything about it, just like in Albania when the dictator Enver Hoxha was in power until he passed away. One thing you could say is seen in both situations is people’s connections with the government because there are people in “The Handmaid’s Tale” who fully believe in the government like the aunts while you have people in the book who hate the government and do things which if they were caught doing they would have to face heavy consequences, just like people in Albania who hate communism and the other people who were crying like they lost their child when the dictator Enver Hoxha passed away. People in Albania have tried to escape by going to Greece or other nearby countries to leave the oppression and live a normal life where they could be free to do whatever, the people in Gilead think the same, and even in chapter 35 Offred and Luke try to escape and while they are they are thinking about their past lives and what it was like to be free.

While reading this book you can see that Margaret had many inspirations from the past by taking things done by dictators to see how to make the world seem as dystopian as possible. The author has done this many times by making different connections to the real world and it is all through the point of view of someone a lot of people can relate to (not me). Looking back to all that I have read made me think how much I take things for granted because of the conditions my parents grew up in and what they had to go through under communism things can still change like in the book because the world was normal not too long ago and things can change fast.

The start of the ceremony, is the day where a child is being brought into the world, the world of Gilead. Ofred wakes ready for the special event and hears the sirens of the birthmobile which sounds like the sirens of something tragic happening like a crime and the police turning their sirens on to alert everyone on the road or the siren of a fire truck; it none of those but a siren of life where a van turns those sirens on to alert everyone that someone is giving birth. As soon as the van gets there, there are guardians standing in front of the van covered in a red carpet with other pregnant women in there waiting. The women there were crying and praying for unknown reasons. But soon enough Ofred finds out it’s because they are hoping their child comes out normal without any problems, such as coming out with missing limbs, having a hole in their organs, etc. Looking at this art piece you get to see the reader’s imagination of how the ceremony went. The first thing that would catch your attention is the van, which in this case is the Birthmobile and the three random women inside of the van. If you look deeply into this photo you can see details described early in the text such as the sirens that sound like one that you would hear during death, for ambulances, or a fire, also you can see the curtains on the windows that were mentioned on the page. 111. Once you look at the Birthmobile the second thing you may notice is Offered in a red cloak like seen in the cover of the book, being led by a guardian. She is getting in the Birthmobile in the driveway outside her home as you can see the tall apartment buildings in the background. The last detail you will see in this art piece is that the women in the Birthmobile don’t look too happy and they look like they are crying, hoping their child will come out normal and that they don’t fall in the 1 ⁄ 4 chance of their child coming out as an unbaby. Also, I made sure to make the background feel cloudy and dark because whenever the story takes place in a dystopia the first thing you think of for its setting is a dark place so I colored the background gray. This scene is Important to the story because this is the next step into Offred’s life and it changes the direction of where the story is going. At first, it was about the society they lived in and how life there is different from the lives we the reader are in. Now it is about Offred and these ceremonies that she is getting into and the relationships they are having with other characters such as the commanders and others: Serena Joy, Moria, Jannie, Aunt Lydia, and more. Even when you go on to the latter pages Offred strengthens her relationship with one of the Commanders, and he even lets her do things that aren’t allowed such as read and look at things like magazines.

VAR is a match official in association soccer who reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication. And you may be thinking that it’s a good idea and why would this be a problem.

For my agent of change I made a short and easy survey that is asking people what they think of VAR, does VAR makes the game fairer, Should VAR stay and why?, and what change would make VAR better? And for my friends that don’t know anything about VAR I sent them Y&TW Passion & Information essay which explains the whole situation and what’s going on in the football world and they knew enough to fill out the survey. So all my friends filled out each question and they had pretty similar answers even my friends who are new to the topic, and their answers were, “it’s decent or it’s bad” and for the question should VAR stay 54.5% said yes it should stay but it should be fixed and 45.5% said no it should be gone.

I feel like I did really good because all I wanted to do was inform people of what is going on with VAR and I also am really happy because I also learned new things about VAR, like how they are keep on changing handball rules because of VAR and the same with offside rules too. And learning more about soccer which is the thing I love the most is just amazing for me and I hope in the future that VAR gets better and there are new topics like this because it is really interesting learning about these things