Build a Better Mousetrap: Week 5 LJ Idol
The task: Create an over-complicated machine with multiple chain reactions that is designed to complete a simple job.
The prize: First place - $5,000 cash for each team member.
No one cares about second and third place.
It sounded easier than building a solar powered car or creating a portable levitating machine. Those were the tasks behind door number one and door number two respectively.
Step one: Find the team you believe will lead you to success.
Diana: Nerdy girl with frizzy hair who read romance novels like it was going out of style. Check.
Jill: A blonde, popular girl who couldn’t drink her soda and walk at the same time. Check.
Stephanie: An awkward, acne covered girl who giggled incessantly. Check.
Katie: One hot tempered girl without a kind word for anyone. Check.
Sophie (Elise? Sonia? Rachel? No one knows her name for certain): A quiet girl who blended into the woodwork. Check.
The dream team.
Step two: Find a task for the machine to complete.
For some reason, a team who had not a thing in common, quickly decided to create a machine that would feed fish.
Why fish?
Simple. A cat isn’t going to stay still long enough for a ball to travel through a maze to feed them, mice were scary to look at, and somehow they had the feeling that no one would let them tie a baby to their machine and let them drop a ball of food on them. Judges frown on child abuse. At least fish can’t escape, can’t cry, can’t really do anything besides swim and eat. They even named their team ‘Just Keep Swimming.’ It seemed appropriate.
What they didn’t take into account was fish abuse. Who would? They should have Googled ‘fish abuse.’ It seems PETA had a subcategory on their website to describe the horrors. Escaped fish told their stories little children sticking their grubby hands into their water and evil cats staring into their souls plotting their deaths. Such fish carried their scars for a lifetime and wanted to share their stories to prevent future generations of fish from being hurt.
But they didn’t.
Step three: Build.
Not one of Diana’s romance novels contained an engineer for a hero. They stopped to ponder that idea. Nerdy engineer sex, Stephanie giggled at the idea. Jill spilled her soda multiple times throughout the process. It’s hard to build something and drink diet coke at the same time let alone walk and drink. Forget talking and drinking. It takes more brain cells than Jill had as Katie was quick to point out. That one girl had some genius ideas but everyone forgot about her. They couldn’t even remember her name, let alone listen to her.
Step four: Compete
Amazingly, despite the odds, they built what was to be the most memorable Rube Goldberg machine ever in the history of the contest. 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide, they created a veritable spiraling maze in which was triggered with a simple drop of a ball filled with food. A ball that traveled on a roller coaster of sorts through loops and turns while popping balloons on the way, ringing an alarm, triggering a miniature slot machine, shooting a piece of candy out of a toy cannon, and snapping a photo on a iPhone, before landing in the water and dissolving into a feast for fish. The girls were happy, the fish were happy; everyone was in awe of their creativity. It should have been a win-win situation.
Then the judges came.
They marveled over the construction. Stephanie and No name girl (Mary? Tina?) of the woodwork variety had a handy skill with hammers and nails. Jill, to everyone’s surprise, could make anything look eye catching. It did require putting down the diet coke. Katie was quick to make business cards and t-shirts so that they looked like a team. She wasn’t going to be seen with them otherwise. Diana pored over books that did not involve others happy endings and struggled to understand physics in order to help them create a design that would work for them. Money is a great motivator.
It worked. Of course it would work. They were set for success. The whispers rose in the auditorium that they were guaranteed to win the prize. The girls had their fingers (and toes and eyes and what have you crossed). Diana glanced over and noted all tens on the judge’s rubrics. It seemed all but set in stone.
Until that one judge pulled out his iPhone, an unholy gleam in his eyes…and not to take video of their magnificent piece of work. They didn’t like the look of him from the moment they saw him.
They should have read the rule book, the judge pointed out with a smirk.
Rule# 982.6: No team shall use live animals in their projects.
Rule# 1171.8: No live fish or pictures of fish allowed (as to not risk PETA’s wrath).
To shock of the crowd (and the fish, who for once, did not see this as abuse), they were immediately disqualified. The girls were frozen in their spots silent, their dreams vanished. Someone fainted. Sobs were heard from multiple people. Someone rushed to save the fish and in the process, knocked the bowl over. There was one fish casualty in the process.
First place went to the group who built a toy solar car. Boring.
After reconsideration of the rules in light of the fish casualty, the girls were awarded 3rd place -gift certificate for free ice cream for a year. No one cares about second or third place.
Step five: Try again next year. This time without the fish.
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Disclaimer: No fish were hurt in this process of writing this story. I fully support the plight of fish everywhere.
This was written for LJ Idol Season 9 Week 5: Build a Better Mousetrap. This is a fictional story based on a real life experience in which in 9th grade, my team and I were almost disqualified from a Rube Goldberg contest for creating a contraption that fed fish. We came in 3rd place after reconsideration and won a crappy CD case with the logo of our county on it. No joke.
The prize: First place - $5,000 cash for each team member.
No one cares about second and third place.
It sounded easier than building a solar powered car or creating a portable levitating machine. Those were the tasks behind door number one and door number two respectively.
Step one: Find the team you believe will lead you to success.
Diana: Nerdy girl with frizzy hair who read romance novels like it was going out of style. Check.
Jill: A blonde, popular girl who couldn’t drink her soda and walk at the same time. Check.
Stephanie: An awkward, acne covered girl who giggled incessantly. Check.
Katie: One hot tempered girl without a kind word for anyone. Check.
Sophie (Elise? Sonia? Rachel? No one knows her name for certain): A quiet girl who blended into the woodwork. Check.
The dream team.
Step two: Find a task for the machine to complete.
For some reason, a team who had not a thing in common, quickly decided to create a machine that would feed fish.
Why fish?
Simple. A cat isn’t going to stay still long enough for a ball to travel through a maze to feed them, mice were scary to look at, and somehow they had the feeling that no one would let them tie a baby to their machine and let them drop a ball of food on them. Judges frown on child abuse. At least fish can’t escape, can’t cry, can’t really do anything besides swim and eat. They even named their team ‘Just Keep Swimming.’ It seemed appropriate.
What they didn’t take into account was fish abuse. Who would? They should have Googled ‘fish abuse.’ It seems PETA had a subcategory on their website to describe the horrors. Escaped fish told their stories little children sticking their grubby hands into their water and evil cats staring into their souls plotting their deaths. Such fish carried their scars for a lifetime and wanted to share their stories to prevent future generations of fish from being hurt.
But they didn’t.
Step three: Build.
Not one of Diana’s romance novels contained an engineer for a hero. They stopped to ponder that idea. Nerdy engineer sex, Stephanie giggled at the idea. Jill spilled her soda multiple times throughout the process. It’s hard to build something and drink diet coke at the same time let alone walk and drink. Forget talking and drinking. It takes more brain cells than Jill had as Katie was quick to point out. That one girl had some genius ideas but everyone forgot about her. They couldn’t even remember her name, let alone listen to her.
Step four: Compete
Amazingly, despite the odds, they built what was to be the most memorable Rube Goldberg machine ever in the history of the contest. 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide, they created a veritable spiraling maze in which was triggered with a simple drop of a ball filled with food. A ball that traveled on a roller coaster of sorts through loops and turns while popping balloons on the way, ringing an alarm, triggering a miniature slot machine, shooting a piece of candy out of a toy cannon, and snapping a photo on a iPhone, before landing in the water and dissolving into a feast for fish. The girls were happy, the fish were happy; everyone was in awe of their creativity. It should have been a win-win situation.
Then the judges came.
They marveled over the construction. Stephanie and No name girl (Mary? Tina?) of the woodwork variety had a handy skill with hammers and nails. Jill, to everyone’s surprise, could make anything look eye catching. It did require putting down the diet coke. Katie was quick to make business cards and t-shirts so that they looked like a team. She wasn’t going to be seen with them otherwise. Diana pored over books that did not involve others happy endings and struggled to understand physics in order to help them create a design that would work for them. Money is a great motivator.
It worked. Of course it would work. They were set for success. The whispers rose in the auditorium that they were guaranteed to win the prize. The girls had their fingers (and toes and eyes and what have you crossed). Diana glanced over and noted all tens on the judge’s rubrics. It seemed all but set in stone.
Until that one judge pulled out his iPhone, an unholy gleam in his eyes…and not to take video of their magnificent piece of work. They didn’t like the look of him from the moment they saw him.
They should have read the rule book, the judge pointed out with a smirk.
Rule# 982.6: No team shall use live animals in their projects.
Rule# 1171.8: No live fish or pictures of fish allowed (as to not risk PETA’s wrath).
To shock of the crowd (and the fish, who for once, did not see this as abuse), they were immediately disqualified. The girls were frozen in their spots silent, their dreams vanished. Someone fainted. Sobs were heard from multiple people. Someone rushed to save the fish and in the process, knocked the bowl over. There was one fish casualty in the process.
First place went to the group who built a toy solar car. Boring.
After reconsideration of the rules in light of the fish casualty, the girls were awarded 3rd place -gift certificate for free ice cream for a year. No one cares about second or third place.
Step five: Try again next year. This time without the fish.
--------
Disclaimer: No fish were hurt in this process of writing this story. I fully support the plight of fish everywhere.
This was written for LJ Idol Season 9 Week 5: Build a Better Mousetrap. This is a fictional story based on a real life experience in which in 9th grade, my team and I were almost disqualified from a Rube Goldberg contest for creating a contraption that fed fish. We came in 3rd place after reconsideration and won a crappy CD case with the logo of our county on it. No joke.