https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/A-whole-New-world.m4a Episode #5: A Whole New World Transcript: Hello, my name is Misha Ahmed, and I am your host of this podcast series called ROBOMIND. I know you may be wondering, what does ROBOMIND mean? For those of you who haven’t been here for the last three episodes–I mean now four–go check those out, but to get back on track ROBOMIND is a combination of two things: robotics and mind. I love robotics, and I believe that it shapes how you think, and it shapes your mind. That is why I called my podcast ROBOMIND. A small tidbit about me is that I am 12 years old. I am absolutely head over heels for robotics. And I can’t wait to let you know a little more about it. Also, right now I sound a little kooky because I have lost my voice. But don’t worry, I’ll still bring my fun, bubbly personality. The name of this episode is bumbumbum “A Whole New World” named after the Aladdin song. You know I always keep up that Disney theme. I called the episode this because I am going to be talking about the brand new Vex iq game for this year. RAPID RELAY!!! Before we get into all of that fun stuff, how about we get on to what has been stuck in your mind literally since the last episode. THE RIDDLE! I am going to repeat it one last time before I reveal the answer, so listen carefully if you didn’t hear it before or if you don’t remember it. Okay, ready. You find me in the past, and I can be created in the present, but the future is never mine. What am I? If you didn’t get to hear it last time pause and think of your answer. Now that you have heard it again, it is time for the answer doodododooooo: history. When I heard this riddle at first, I thought it’s got to be memories, and I think if you thought that too both of our answers are right: history and memories. Now that we have got that all done. It is time for the robotics stuff. Allow me to tell you all about the fast, fun, and fantastic game called Rapid Relay. The game elements that you use to score are tiny, padded Balls, approximately 6 inches in diameter. They kind of look like tiny, little soccer balls. The main objectives of the game are to pass the Balls between robots, score Balls through targets, and clear switches which are these little green circles in the middle of the targets that will flip out of the way once you hit them. Balls are introduced to the field through the Loading Station or, during the last 15 seconds of a match, a Rapid Load Zone. A Rapid Load Zone is where the match loaders are able to place the balls in any of the legal starting places. One thing that is new to all of us this year is that the driving teams will have three members: two drivers and 1 match loader. We have seen this a lot in VRC but not much in IQ. This has a lot of us on our toes because it is going to add a whole new aspect to the game. Points are awarded based on how many goals are scored, how many switches have been cleared, and how many times the Alliance successfully passed the Ball before scoring it. I hope you are paying attention if you want to know what things you can do to rack up the most points and win! Now it is time for the infamous part of the episode: the riddle! This one is complex, so please make sure to listen. I am only going to say it once, so you might want to pause and prepare yourself. Maybe grab a pencil and paper to write down the different clues. Okay, here we go. EPISODE #4 RIDDLE: There is a briefcase with 1 million dollars in it. However, it is locked. To open it you need a 4-digit code. Each number increased in value from the left to right for example 1258. No two successive digits had an even difference such as 2 or 4. This means that if your first number was 2 and your second digit was 4, this couldn’t work. The sum of all four digits was 22. There is no 0 in the combination. After all these clues, you are left with a couple of options, the numerically lowest of them all is the correct code. Hopefully, you wrote down all of those clues. Also, disclaimer, if you get it, I am not giving you 1 million dollars; I barely have 20 dollars in my bank account. That was just for the sake of the riddle. Keep your gears turning. I love you guys so so much. Thank you to all of you guys who kept making comments. You guys are so amazing. I loved seeing your thoughts and ideas. Thank you again so so much! A little hint to next episode, we will be doing something new and super exciting! This is your host Misha Ahmed of ROBOMIND signing off!
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Poetry Soup – Ep. 18: “A Music Sentence” by Mahmoud Darwish
https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Poetry-Soup-Ep.-18.MP3.mp3 Transcript: Hello, and welcome to Poetry Soup! I’m your host, Emma Catherine Hoff. Today, I’m excited to talk about “A Music Sentence,” a poem with an intriguing form by a poet I discovered recently – Mahmoud Darwish. Mahmoud Darwish was born on March 13, 1941 (he actually happens to share a birthday with me!), in Al-Birwa, Palestine. His family fled their hometown to Lebanon when it was invaded by the Israeli military, but eventually returned. However, Darwish moved multiple times when he got older, and even studied for a year in the Soviet Union. He was greatly interested in Palestinian liberation and joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which led to his exile from Palestine. His ban from coming back to his homeland is a topic that comes up often in his poetry – for example, the poem I’ll be talking about today. Before joining the PLO, Darwish was a member of the Israeli Communist Party. Darwish published his first book of poetry when he was 19 years old and went on to publish 30 books of poetry and 8 works of prose. Among other awards, he earned the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. He edited multiple journals throughout his lifetime and was a very important Palestinian symbol. His poetry represented the resistance of Palestinian people to Israeli occupation. He died on August 9, 2008. Darwish’s poems were filled with social commentary and drew extreme reactions from many people due to their controversial subject matter. His poems vary in length and style, but his Palestinian heritage is very important in many of them. “A Music Sentence” is included in his poetry collection “If I Were Another,” which has many long poems, broken up into shorter parts. The collection was translated by Fady Joudah. “A Music Sentence” achieves a slightly regretful tone and offers two different perspectives – one from the inside of Palestine, and one from the outside – through its melodious rhythm and repetition. A poet now, instead of me, writes a poem on the willow of distant wind. So why does a rose in the wall wear new petals? A boy now, instead of us, sets a dove flying high toward the cloud ceiling. So why does the forest shed all this snow around a smile? A bird now, instead of us, carries a letter from the land of the gazelle to the blue. So why does the hunter enter the scene and fling his arrow? A man now, instead of us, washes the moon and walks over the river’s crystal. So why does color fall on the earth and we are naked like trees? A lover now, instead of me, sweeps his love into the mire of bottomless springs. So why does the cypress stand here like a watchman at the garden gate? A horseman now, instead of me, stops his horse and dozes under the shadow of a holm oak. So why do the dead flock to us out of wall and closet? In his poem, Darwish depicts an ordinary scene of a community continuing its daily activities despite him not being there. Though he’s no longer there, everything is continuing the way it has always continued. It’s like the old people of the land, the people of history, as well as himself, are still represented in the actions and new people in the poem. Though the poem is not hostile or angry, it also portrays a bit of regret. It shows Darwish’s longing to be back in his home and a sense of loss. Darwish uses the repeated “so why” statements in his poem to convey this – he’s confused by how easily everything stays the same despite him no longer being there. He misses Palestine during his exile, and the knowledge that nothing has changed just because of his absence is saddening. The structure of this poem also gives it an almost song-like quality (hence, the title, “A Musical Sentence”). Each stanza is two sentences. The first sentence is a statement describing an animal or person that Darwish sees a bit of his own life in Palestine in, that the people of the past can see themselves in, but that are also not the same, that are new. The second sentence is the question I described earlier, building the poem’s tone. But the question in the last stanza also serves another purpose. It references the past, showing how the dead, or the previous inhabitants of the land, are still present in the actions of the new inhabitants, even if they’re not there anymore. Each single stanza is an image, but all together it paints a picture of an everyday town. When I read the poem, it makes me imagine a place with lots of trees (actually, Al-Birwa happened to have many olive trees). This gives the poem its flow and ensures that the repetition doesn’t end up being stunted or clunky. Darwish’s images, while being clear and concrete, are also very surreal. He doesn’t directly describe them, but instead does so in a very roundabout way (“a man now, instead of us,/washes the moon/and walks over the river’s crystal”). These metaphors and pictures form snapshots, one per stanza, which fit together like puzzle pieces to create Darwish’s nostalgic remembrance of his homeland. This poem’s structure can be helpful as a jumping off point to write your own poem! It really shows the power that repetition can have in poetry. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Poetry Soup, and I’ll see you soon with the next one.
ROBOMIND Ep. 4: Try Everything
https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Try-Everything.m4a Episode #4: Try Everything Transcript: Hello, my name is Misha Ahmed, and I am your host of this podcast series called ROBOMIND. I know you may be wondering, what does ROBOMIND mean? For those of you who haven’t been here for the last three episodes go check those out, but to get back on track ROBOMIND is a combination of two things: robotics and mind. I love robotics, and I believe that it shapes how you think, and it shapes your mind. That is why I called my podcast ROBOMIND. A small tidbit about me is that I am 12 years old. I am absolutely head over heels for robotics. And I can’t wait to let you know a little bit more about it. This episode is called “Try Everything” named after the Zootopia song “Try Everything” sung by Shakira. It is called this because the song talks about failure and how you just have to get right back up again. This relates to robotics since I know that many teams didn’t make it to states nor worlds, and I want them to know that it is quite alright; and I want you guys that are interested in robotics to know that once you start you don’t just automatically have to be the best at robotics. Because that rarely happens, and it’s always important to make sure that you get better, and if you’re the best then there’s no way for improvement. And nobody’s ever the best. Before we get to that, it is time for what has got you all on the edge of your seats: the answer to last time’s riddle. If you don’t remember, the riddle went a little bit like this: There were two men Jeff and Bob. Bob bet Jeff that he would be able to hang his hat and then after walking 500 yards then turn and shoot a hole straight through the top of it, all while keeping his eyes closed (or being blindfolded). Despite knowing him to be an excellent shot, Jeff deemed it nearly impossible and readily accepted Bob’s bet and yet Bob easily won. How? Here let me give you a second to think about it. Okay, pause. If you weren’t here last time this is your time to pause and make sure you know. Okay, time for the answer! The answer is Bob hung his hat on the barrel of his gun so that it was impossible to miss. If you guys don’t know barrel means the edge where the bullet shoots out. I did not get this one. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck next time. Now that you guys are good to go let me tell you three reasons out of the many why it is all going to be okay. Number one: only very few teams make it to the state championship and the world championship. So, if you didn’t make it don’t say that you are the worst and that your stuff is trash because you are not the only team that didn’t make it, and who knows why you didn’t make it. Maybe you were literally so close that you could taste the victory. Who knows! Maybe you were so far, maybe you were just a block away, maybe you were just one point. Nobody knows! It could’ve been close. Maybe your notebook just needed to be 1% better. There’s no way we can control that because it’s not our opinion on how to judge our notebook or judge our interview. It’s really just up to the judges, and we can’t change their opinion. So, it’s not your fault. Two: It doesn’t matter how far you went; it only matters if you grew and learned. If you gained knowledge, friends, and experiences that you will never forget from this journey then personally, I would say that is just as good as going to the world championship for robotics. Because although the world championship is memorable and super fun to go to, if you had an amazing year with you and your team and you enjoyed and you learned and it was a great time then who cares if you didn’t make it! Maybe you had a better time than some of the people who went to worlds because just having that fun, family, and community is something just so amazing. Number three: As long as you don’t give up, you can always try again next year. Don’t let one bad year make you think that you should stop doing something you love and put so much time and effort into. If you keep on trying and have persistence who knows! In the next year you could do something extraordinary, maybe win a million competitions and a million awards and have an even better year. Maybe because you learned so much this year you will have gotten better and made yourself a better robotics participant and engineer. The next year you come back stronger and better than ever. I know that it may seem like the end of the world right now, but just remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. New riddle: You find me in the past, and I can be created in the present, but the future is never mine. What am I? That’s it for the riddle! Keep your gears turning. I love you guys so so much. Thank you to all of you guys who kept making comments. You guys are so amazing. I loved seeing your thoughts and ideas. Thank you so much! This is your host Misha Ahmed of ROBOMIND signing off!
