Who is Rube Goldberg?

Aside from being the reason that we spent our entire New Year's Eve pulling out our hair.  Apparently he was a brilliant political cartoonist with a scientific mind.  This and the inspiration for a scientific contest that is held annually at many universities.  The physics teacher at Caleb's high school takes each years challenge and presents it to his high school students to give it a go. 

The assignment this year was to create a machine to blow up and pop a balloon using the most elaborate and inventive methods possible with at least 20 steps.  Only one human action to begin the action was allowed.  A step is defined as, the distinct action of a defined force within the machine.  The machine must involve at least 5 different types of force.  The completed project must be videotaped as proceeding from beginning to end without video editing. 

Easy? Right?!?

One might think....

After 40 plus attempts to capture on video, over the course of five hours on New Year's Eve, we finally managed to have success the following year, after only 6 tries the next morning.

Our finished product!!

We also put together a 12 minute gag reel with most of our attempts.  I'm not sure if the agony is portrayed through a 12 minute reel, but when you consider the time in between each take to reset up all the steps, to evaluate what could have gone wrong and to tweak things, also keeping in mind that the brain power behind it all was running a temp of 101, the live studio audience were all recovering from their run in with a flu or nasty cold, and the videographer wished desperately to have her kitchen back for dinner.
 

Hype and hoopla

New years eve typically finds me with board games, friends and goodies.   Great way to ring in a new year. 

This year we had an entirely new approach.  Four boys had the flu.  Caleb who was on day two of the flu was determined to complete his high school physics assignment as we had planned, flu or no flu.  So Saturday morning he and daddy began.  By 6 pm the project was built and just needed to operate and be videoed in action once to complete the assignment. 

We had no lofty intentions of being awake at midnight.  We all needed sleep more than a party.  With the onset of the flu, we had canceled the friends and given up on any merriment.  The plan.  Video the project and have everyone be in bed by 8. 

Church was at 9 am the next day, and the boys would not be attending but I would and I was in charge in primary. I needed to be alert and prepared.  Prepared was already taken care of and an 8 pm bedtime should take care of alert.

After 36 attempts to video the project over a 5 hour period, we were all exhausted, overwhelmed, disappointed, dismayed, dejected and ready to accept a grade based purely on effort.   We quit at 11 pm. 

At 1 am miles missed his bucket and needed a clean blanket.  At 3am, Whittaker woke with a nightmare and was unconsolable for 20 minutes and then needed a snack and a drink before he'd go back to bed.  At 6am, Duncan rushed to the bathroom, leaving a trail of lights on and accidentally slamming the door, which woke both miles and Whittaker for the day.  My alarm went off at 6:45, not that anyone required waking and I stumbled through a shower and breakfast until at last I felt awake. 

I actually enjoyed church, with good talks and no interruptions.  The activities in primary were fun and kept me alert.  I returned home refreshed and wondering if I should attend church alone more often.

Lunch was waiting for me at home and so were five big grins.  They had set up the physics project one more time and successfully recorded it while I was gone. 

After lunch we played a game of wheel of fortune while we all lay in bed together.   Obviously I won the game.  I am unbeatable and was the only healthy player.  After our game we declared it nap time.  Everyone napped.   When I woke 3 hours later I had the beginnings of a headache. 

Now 24 hours later, I am coming out of my headache fog and feeling like its time to start thinking about celebrating a new year....... Next weekend.