My Capstone project was a joint effort with Jonas Bromley to create a solar powered charging station. The plan was to create a solar panel that would provide power to a charging station for phones and laptops inside the school. There were three main steps in making this plan come to fruition: one, making a solar panel; two, making a circuit to ensure that the battery does not get overcharged; and three, creating a station with charging cables in an accessible location.

My job was creating the solar panel. After getting the solar cells, I realized that there was more work to be done than I originally thought. The cells that I ordered needed to have tabbing wire soldered to each cell to wire them together. The biggest issue was that solar cells are extremely fragile and any moderate force would shatter them. Thus, creating the solar panel required a lot of patience; a lot of cells were broken by the end of the project. I spent a lot of time with my mentor and engineering teacher John Kamal problem solving and learning about electronics. He was a huge help in completing this project and kept me on the right track.

Hyperion Book Review

by Miles Cruice-Barnett

The TechnoCore is a group of AIs (artificial intelligences) that seceded from their human creators. They still choose to work closely with the humans, though they could wipe out the entire race with a snap of their metaphorical fingers. The TechnoCore is even powerful enough to create an ‘Ultimate Intelligence’ that could predict the future. That means predicting every possible outcome in the entire universe with 100% accuracy. At least, it would be 100% accurate if it were not for Hyperion. Hyperion is a planet on the outskirts of a galactic government called the Hegemony. It is a mysterious planet that has many strange things that even the technologically advanced human race and the power TechnoCore cannot understand. The biggest mystery on the planet is the Shrike. The Shrike is a menacing thing that seems to be somehow connected to time. It is known by many names including most notably ‘The Lord of Pain,’ and has been reported to be the cause of much death and destruction on Hyperion. The Shrike is a god to some; others think it is simply a story; yet others believe that it is a monster from the future, but no one really knows the truth about the Shrike, or if it even exists. The book is about 7 people that are hand picked by the Hegemony to go on a pilgrimage to confront the Shrike. However, the majority of the book is comprised of each person’s individual story of why they are on the journey and their personal experiences with the planet Hyperion and the infamous Shrike.

The book is unapologetic about throwing the reader into the strange futuristic system of the Hegemony. There are many terms that are not explained, many places that are not described, and it makes the book hard to follow at times. However, it also makes for a more realistic atmosphere. If someone were to write a narrative of their day, they would not bother to explain what a cell phone is because they would not expect anyone from a distant past to be reading the narrative. Hyperion allows the reader to use context clues and their imagination to fill the gaps of careful description. This is great for people who like to dissect a plot or read between the lines. Because it is written from so many different perspectives, each story has its own writing style unique to the character. Dan Simmons does a great job of capturing the essence of each of the pilgrims with the way he shapes their story telling. Every time you pick up Hyperion it is like there is a new book waiting for you inside, yet each story connected somehow with the same sub-plot of the planet Hyperion and the Shrike. This aids to keep the book interesting, though coherent, for those who might get bored of a book easily.

Time is a strange concept in the book. The development of the Hawking Drive allows travel faster than light speed, but this results in a ‘time debt.’ While you may experience 2 weeks on the ship in a cryogenic sleep, hundreds of years could pass in the outside world. Because of this, time and age are relative things and it makes for an interesting understanding of some of the characters. The Time Tombs are another example of how time is used to craft this book. The Time Tombs are moving backwards in time from an indefinite future. Many of the concepts in Hyperion are hard to comprehend, but those who like a challenge will enjoy it.

The second book in the series is ‘The Fall of Hyperion.’ It is a continuation of the story, but has a completely different point of view that gives some insight to what has been happening in the government and the war for control of Hyperion. It is a great way to create extra mystery and excitement after the stories of the 7 pilgrims are over. The transition of the books is confusing at first, but ultimately they work really well together.

Over all, Hyperion is a challenge worth accepting. The challenge in and of itself is part of what makes the book so enjoyable. It can be confusing and hard to wrap your head around at times, but it creates a world like no other. The writing styles and mysteries of the book will keep you interested the entire time, and the end of each chapter will leave you wanting more. Hyperion is a great book for anyone who loves science fiction, or even someone just looking to get lost in another world.

Hyperion, Dan Simmons. Bantam Spectra. December 1995. 482 pages. Science Fiction.

A man sits in the shadow mumbling to himself

He looks up and laughs softly crescendoing into loud maniacal laughter.

You hopeless, ineffectual fools. You think you are sooo marvelous. The all mighty HUMAN RACE! You think you are so powerful and intelligent! But only I see the truth. Only I see you as you really are; as puny, worthless, ignorant parasites. Running this planet as though you were gods! You are destroying this planet. Have you ever just stopped to think for one second about how much you have changed this Earth? How no other species has over run this planet and destroyed the environment? No, of course you haven’t, because you’re human. Because you don’t care. You humans are all so ignorant. You go about your simple day, living your simple life, thinking your simple thoughts, in your simple brain. You think you are so great. You have accomplished so much. You are so smart. “Oohh, look at all these wonderful things we done, all these brilliant inventions.” Oh, but I am here to put you in your place! My mind is greater than that of any you could image. I can see things, notice things, that the average overlook. I can predict things, know things, before you even think to attempt such feats. I am able to see things visually and then mentally put myself there. I learn how to do things without having to do them. I know things about human behavior, why they act they way they do. I can read people when given enough information and spending a little time with them. My mind is running, racing at a hundred miles an hour every second of every hour of every day in a week in a month IN A YEAR! But my mind is a prison... An inescapable prison of my own thoughts. A mere mortal would go crazy within hours, but I have survived much longer. I have suffered much longer, but I now fear that I too am going crazy. But if I knew I was going crazy, then I would be aware and therefore not crazy. So that leads me to think I am not crazy, but now that I think I am not going crazy that leads me to think I am, but I’m not, which means I am, which means I am not, so as you see it is all just one terrible cycle that leaves me lost and without an answer. I hate not having an answer! It eats at my conscience to know that there is something I am missing!

Stops and calms down

Am I really that different?

Of course you are! What are you talking about! You are the greatest mind the world has ever known!

But am I? Or am I just a depressed lonely man with an overactive brain?

That is exactly what you are. That is why you are so brilliant, you can stay detached from emotion and make decisions and reasonings based on fact. You are a human computer.

But that is not true. I am human. I am one of you. I do have emotion. I do feel. I feel hurt. I feel lost. I feel alone. And this is my problem. I make myself believe that I am something other, something inhuman, but I know I am human. I know I have limits. I know I have emotion. I know all of this, I just choose not to accept it. Sometimes I have moments, much like this one, when I realize what I am doing to myself, but always end up back where I started: depressed, lonely, angry and without much reason to live. So maybe I should just end it. I could do it. All it takes is one cut and I would bleed out in minutes. I could do it... but I can’t.

“You can’t d-d-do this t-to me! You won-n’t ever find a b-better act-tor!”

“I’m sorry, but we simply cannot cast someone with your condition!”

“But th-this is my d-dream”

“I am sorry, but our decision is final.”

My name is Steven Cyders and I am an actor. Well... I’m trying to become an actor. I have a stutter, so nobody really takes me seriously. I’ve tried to fix it in the past, but nothing seems to help. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be an actor, but everyone always told me that I should try to find a goal that was more attainable, something more realistic. I didn’t listen though. If you could look past my stutter you would see I am a great actor.

After my last rejection, my 42nd, I did some thinking. I came up with a new plan for getting rid of my stupid stutter. I reasoned that a good actor can do different voices and accents besides their own, so if my ‘accent’ is a stutter, I just have to do a different accent. It’s brilliant! If I use someone else’s voice, then I won’t stutter. The only problem with this is that I don’t know how to do any other voices, I always focused on the emotional part of acting when practicing because my stutter made it difficult to do voices. I guess that the best way to learn something is to experience it yourself, so if I want to learn a different dialect, I need to hang around people who use it. So I have to do two things; first, figure out what dialects I want to study, and second, google techniques for analyzing speech.

After doing some research I have narrowed it down to a few different dialects; Southern, Western and Boston. Hopefully along the way I will find something something subtler, something that isn’t tied to an area, something normal, something without a stutter. I am hoping that by the end of this trip I can reduce my stutter. I leave for Alabama tomorrow. I am really excited to start this learning process and see how people in different parts of the country speak.

***

I awake to the steady beeping of the hotel alarm. This is it. This is the day I start my journey, the journey I hope will change my life for the better. After getting dressed I go to a diner for breakfast. I figure if I can go to a small diner I will get to hear some of the locals in their natural environment.

I get to the diner and I only have to wait a few minutes until a waitress comes over to take my order. She speaks with a classic southern drawl that gets me giddy in anticipation to learn it.

“My name’s Ellen and I’ll be servin’ ya dis mornin’. Anything I can git fer you hun?” She says.

“I’ll j-just have s-scram-mbled eggs an-nd b-bacon p-please.” I stutter. I spend the rest of the morning in the diner, listening to the conversations around me and to the waitress who brings me my food and fills my coffee a few times.

From what I was able to gather at the diner, southerners are polite and respectful, but sound almost uneducated to someone unaccustomed to hearing their contractions and vowel pronunciation. They seem to always call people Sweetie, Honey, Darlin’, or some variation. Their R’s are drawn out and soft, and AH becomes AW, like father and fawther. I think I understand their language well enough, so now all I have to do is practice. The best way I can think to do this would be to talk to myself in a mirror and try my hardest not to stutter. I set out for Boston tomorrow.

***

I am still practicing my southern accent, but I am getting kind of frustrated. I thought it would come easier, I thought I would have it down by now, but I guess it will take more work than I had hoped; I will have to work really hard to get rid of my stutter.

After I drop my bags at the hotel I decided to start at Faneuil Hall, a famous marketplace. As I am walking around I can hear a few accents, but I need to engage in conversation to get a better understanding of the language.

“Exc-cuse me, c-can I t-talk to you f-for a second?” I say to a man who walks by.

“Shure, I gyess. How can I help ya?” The guy replies in a thick nasally Boston accent.

“Well, I’m n-not from ar-round here and I w-was wondering if-f you could tell m-me the sign-nificance of-f this hall.” I ask him, gesturing at the building over my shoulder.

“It’s bay-sically just a meating playce that has been ahround synce the seventeen hundreds and nyow it is awlso paht of Bouston National Histo-ical Pahk.” He says.

“T-thanks.” I say.

I spend the rest of the day talking to the people passing by and get a pretty good understanding of the language.

Well that’s it for Boston. From what I heard Bostonians have a nasally way of talking and they turn their Rs into AHs. I am getting better at the Southern accent now too, I am not stuttering nearly as much. I guess it’s time to practice the Boston accent, hopefully my experience from the last one will make it easier. I hope I can master these by the time I get home.

So I am off to Oregon tonight. The western dialect is one that the majority of the country sees as normal and plain. This is the one that I am most excited to learn, but I think it will be the hardest. I guess you could say that I already have a western accent, but I don’t like to look at it like that because it would hinder me trying to lose my stutter.

When I get to Oregon I decide to go to a park today. I wander around listening to the people talking. I find it hard to pick out specific things in their speech. They do not have defining characteristics of speech. As I walk around I wonder if maybe they do have accent. Maybe to the southerners in Alabama they sound funny, or to the nasally Bostonians. But just like someone with a southern or boston accent sounds normal to them, the people here sound normal to me. I sit down on a bench to think and by the time I leave I have convinced myself that I will always have a stutter.

This trip was useless; I will never get rid of my stutter. I got a ticket for the next flight home. Maybe everyone was right, maybe I can’t be an actor. I guess that’s it then. I will go home, try to find a decent job and forget this whole thing.

***

Well it turns out I was wrong. When I got back home everyone told me how much my stutter had improved. I was shocked! I had thought I did not learn anything at all. I recently decided to start taking speech classes, and my stuttering has really been improving. I even have a new audition on Friday! I think that with a little more practice and focus, people might actually start taking me seriously. It’s not perfect, and it can’t be completely cured, but at least it always leaves room for improvement.

Miles Cruice-Barnett

A Review of

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

This book is about a boy who was born with too much cerebral fluid inside his skull. This caused brain damage that gave him a ton of medical complications. He had 42 teeth instead of 32; he was nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other; he was super skinny; his hands, feet and skull were abnormally large; he had many seizures that just caused more brain damage; and he had a stutter and a lisp. So as you may guess, he was bullied quite a bit. He likes to stay inside and draw cartoons because it is “safer.” His name is Arnold Spirit, but most call him Junior. He lives on an Indian Reservation and goes to the local school with his best friend Rowdy. Rowdy is big, aggressive and very protective of Arnold. One day Arnold decides he is going to leave the rez school and go to Reardan, the white school 22 miles away, so he can get a good education. The book is about how he copes with poverty, bullying, death, and much more.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is engaging, funny and just overall well written. The main character Arnold only has one friend: Rowdy. Everyone else at his school makes fun of him and beats him up, but not Rowdy. Rowdy protects Arnold and they have a very strong friendship. They both like to read comics. Arnold like to draw cartoons for Rowdy. Their personalities really complement each other. I could really relate to this because I too have one really good friend that I do everything with. I am sure that many people have that one friend that is always there for you.

When Arnold tells Rowdy he is going to go to a white school, Rowdy is fraught with anger. He is upset that his best friend is leaving him for a bunch of white people. Arnold asks him to come with him to Reardan, but Rowdy refuses. I can understand how Arnold felt. When you have to do something for yourself, but your friend does not like it, it is difficult to chose between your own needs and keeping your friend. I think that if you must do something for yourself, do it your friend will get over it. If they don’t, they are not a real friend. For the rest of the book Arnold sticks with his decision but tries to get Rowdy to understand and to be friends with him again. I think that the writer did a really good job of showing how Rowdy seemed like he still wanted to be friends, but was too stubborn and insatiable to change him decision.

One of my favorite characters is Arnold’s Grandmother. She lives with him and has that old and wise but strong kind of personality. At one point in the book Arnold is being bullied by this giant guy Roger, and his friends. Roger finally pushes him over the edge and Arnold punches him in the face. Roger is stunned, and when Arnold challenges him to a fight he runs away. Arnold is very confused because where he comes from nobody ever runs away from a fight. He asks his Grandmother about it and she replies that she thinks that he respects him. Arnold thinks that she is crazy, but he trusts her anyway, and she turns out to be right. This and other things his Grandmother does make you lover her and respect her without even really knowing her. She does not have many lines or very important ones, but you will definitely lover her spirit.

As Arnold gains respect he falls in love with a pretty white girl and ends up sort of dating her. He also finds a new best friend of sorts. Never to be as good a friend as Rowdy, but certainly a good start. His name is Gordy and he is the smartest kid in the class. He is smart, friendly and gets metaphorical boners from reading. Arnold also tries out for the basketball team with no expectation that he will make it. He ends up surprising himself and making varsity starter as a freshman.

As I read this book I think about how now he has transferred to a white school, made friends, made varsity basketball, has a girlfriend, etc. So why is there still more of this book? You then realize that it was never just about fitting in at Reardan, but about making amends with Rowdy. The basketball team has their first game against his old school and Rowdy ends up knocking him unconscious. They only have one more game against them at the end of the year and Arnold is determined to beat Rowdy. He thinks that somehow if he does everything will be ok.

Besides Rowdy the book is also about his older shut-in sister, Mary, and how he inspires her; life as an indian; death; drinking; poverty; and much more. The book is very enjoyable and relatable, and emulates a story that could be very real. Absolutely real. Absolutely true.

Some Awards For True Diary

2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature

2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry

2009 Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, ISBN 1-4361-2490-5).

2010 California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult Book (eligible to win once during its first four years)

The Diary was also named to several annual lists including three by the library industry.

"Best Books of 2007", School Library Journal

2008 "Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults", Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

"2009 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults", YALSA

¡Esta Casa es Perfecta Para Ti!

Nosotros cliente es Nashay Day. Le gusta oro y comida. Tiene quince años. Quiere tres niños.

Esta casa está en la ciudad de Filadelfia. La casa es enorme y elegante. La casa tiene tres pisos, cinco habitaciones y cuatro baños. Tiene un acuario increíblemente grande, un garaje, y un jardín con un jacuzzi. ¡Esta casa de lujo es la casa de sus sueños!

Sólo cuesta: 64 Diamantes

Contacto: Señor Cruice-Barnett o Señor Turner

Teléfono: (800) PUUEESS

Preguntas Frecuentes

¿Donde es la casa?

La casa es en la ciudad de Filadelfia

¿Qué es cerca de la casa?

Un parque, un centro comercial, una iglesia, una biblioteca.

¿Qué es lejos de la casa?

Las afueras.

¿Qué tiene la casa?

La casa tiene tres pisos, dos peces en un acuario grande, un comedor, una sala, tres carros en un garaje, una cocina grande, cinco habitaciones, cuatro baños, un jardín con un jacuzzi y una guardarropa grande.

¿Qué hay en cada  cuarto?

Los Baños: Hay unas duchas, unos lavamanos, unos inodoros, unos gabinetes.

La Sala: Hay una tele, unas sillones y un sofá.

Los Habitaciones: Hay una cama, un pupitre con una silla y un cómoda.

El Comedor: Hay una mesa y unas sillas.

La Cocina: Hay una nevera, un fregadero, unos gabinetes, una estufa y un horno.

El Garaje: Hay una lavarropas y tres carros.