The first day I started thinking about what the concept of my Rube Goldberg machine was going to be, I was just completely baffled because I never have had this kind of experience before, and it looked like to was way too complex for me. It took a lot of brainstorming to figure out a concept for my machine. I was thinking for and hour or two, and then I thought, “Maybe if I just start building a few random chain reactions I would gather the idea of how the steps respond to each other and create a simple task to be executed. I fiddled around with some old toys from when me and my little brother were little, and experimented some chain reactions. I started getting doubtful in my chances of succeeding in this entire project because I haven’t found anything at all to possibly use. (It now has been hours of me experimenting) I tried really concentrating, but I couldn’t find anything that could be the concept for my machine. Then, I remembered something from one of my grandfathers that is a professional physicist, and I remembered that he had taught me a few forms of chain reactions, and I then decided to experiment some of those. I was still baffled with what I was going to use, and then I came across an old metal Star Wars lunch box that I used to use, and thought, “Maybe I can use this to end my complex machine?” I then saw my brothers old car toy set, and thought, “Can I possibly use both of these to create a simple trapping scenario?” I decided that I could, and that trapping a little car inside of a metal Star Wars lunchbox was going to be my task. Now, all I had to do is figure out a way to complete the circuit. I had the ending, but not the middle, or the beginning. After that, I discovered some old dominoes and thought that I could use the dominoes to create a domino effect, that somehow ties into my end step. I fiddled around some more with old toys, and then I found my old Thomas The train set. We had so many of them, I mean sooooooo many! I asked my mom for some suggestions on the project designing and planning in, and we both came up with a new concept of hitting a train on an elevated set of tracks, which the train would roll down the tracks, and park in a small plastic tunnel, that is protected at the end by duct tape. Now I felt a lot more confident in my success. I felt like I had all of the pieces almost completed, and at the same time, it was going to take some deep experimenting and more planning to complete the sketch, or the plan in general. I felt like I had a little spark of hope for me to depend on to have any idea on how to get anywhere in this project. I now had something to use, and after a lift more time of planning and experimenting, I started to really figure out some more possibilities! I started drafting all of my ideas on a google doc, and then got somewhere!
So far, the project has been very stressful and hard, but after a lot of patience, it was a great experience for me! Despite all of the tough aspects of this project, I am loving it so far!

On the second day of the Rube Goldberg Project, I changed my approach to how I was handling the pressure of the project, and how I was managing my thoughts. I think that today was one of the biggest “turning points,” although the it was only the second day. I am actually very proud of myself because of how I am managing this project.
First of all, I want to talk about why I felt so much pressure. The pressure that I was feeling yesterday (January 4th) is probably nothing you feel because, well, probably you don’t feel any pressure at all. I felt a lot of pressure on completing this project for many reasons. Here are some reasons why:
My schedule (Barely any time to make room for this huge project)
Drawing my sketch – I am a very good planner, but I am horrible at drawing, so I was worried about my sketch being neat and organized.
These are a couple of reasons why I felt some pressure going into this project, and at the very early stages of the project. I felt really weird in a way because I anticipated the fact that there really was nothing for me to be worried about, and that I was so worried about completing the project, I couldn’t get much done. I really didn’t know how to conquer all of those fears.
All of the above is what I felt yesterday. But when I got up this morning, I felt like I was going to need to change in how I approach this project. I took a few minutes to mark up the calendar that Mrs. Edwards gave our class, and I noticed that the 4 days I had some time to do the project are Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I planned out when I should do the Sketch, Blog Posts, etc. After I really analyzed the situation, and how I can manage everything timewise, I started thinking that I do have time to do this project, and that if I just do it, and stop worrying about the time, or me failing, than I felt that I can do this project more and more, and more broadly, anything. I gained a lot of confidence in myself, and then was able to really concentrate on my project. (I didn’t feel like I was concentrating as much as I could possibly concentrate, because I was thinking that, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it” over and over yesterday, and that took away a lot of my ability to focus, and brainstorm some of the best innovations that I can.)
Overall, I feel like I have made a giant improvement on how I approach this project, and how I respond to my negative feelings on this project. I think that this project has really made my mind grow in all areas. The experimenting part, because this project takes a lot of experimenting to do. I also think that this project has taught me that I can’t do everything in one day. Yesterday, I was trying to push myself to do everything on that day because I felt like I wouldn’t have any time to do any other part of the project, any other day. I was too stressed about completing it, that in reality, I only did a little a little part of the project in the whole day I had to do some of the project. I felt like my mind was basically “clouded” because of all of the other negative things that I was thinking about related to this project. I really have noticed a significant difference in how I am couping what I feel that I have a lack of capabilities for. This has helped my face whatever is put ahead of me. I have really learned to just do it, and not worry about anything else, which I have noted made a huge difference in how I am responding to negative thoughts, and more specifically,my negative thoughts in this project.

As I mentioned before in my 2nd blog post, I think that this point also is a huge “turning point” on my project success because I have finally after a lot of experimenting and planning, have finally figured a layout and strategic approach to how I am going to execute this project. I now have a very clear vision of what my Rube Goldberg is going to look like. I obviously don’t want to get to specific, because that would result in you knowing a lot about my project, because I want to save that information for when I present my video on the presenting day. (January 31st) I feel very optimistic about my chances in succeeding in this project, because of my recent success in planning my contraption. (Sketch) This project (like I mentioned before) has really helped conquer my fears that I originally had about succeeding in this project. One of the things that made me most afraid of succeeding is not having a partner. I got really stressed about myself then. (I couldn’t have a partner because of how crazy my schedule is) But comparing those couple days to now, I feel a lot better in how I approach the project, and how I stick with the project, meaning my dedication and persistence in not giving up, after one little thing doesn’t go the way you expect it to go. I just wanted to note that in this Rube Goldberg project, I have never experienced anything more stressful in my life, because of how things just don’t happen the way you anticipate them to. It takes a lot of persistence and dedication to come close to being able to complete this project. I am also feeling really confident in myself, especially because I now have a basic input for my plans for executing this project, which makes it a whole lot easier to know how I am going to approach this project.
In synthesis, me finally having a plan and knowing about how, and what I am going to do to complete this project really enables me to number 1, have less fear about my chances in succeeding, and 2, being able to monitor the timing, or in other words, to be able to monitor my calendar so that I can have an idea about how the timing is all going to unfold, and not worry about how I am going to make time for the project, and more specifically, the sketch and the blog posts, because they both took a long time to execute. For example, the blog post that is am writing now is taking a long time to wright. Before, I was a lot more concerned about the timing, and how I am simply going to get the assignments done, more than concentrating and completing my goal at what I am doing in the moment. I have felt a lot more confident in myself because of me finally figuring out a sketch and a great plan timewise for my Rube Goldberg, which overall made me be able to concentrate more on the task that I am doing in the moment, compared to my nervousness about the other things about my assignments. It is hard to explain, but I now feel really positive and optimistic about me being able to complete this project, despite all of the negative inputs that I was implanting on myself in the earlier stages of this project. I basically feel that I simply am able to do this project, and shouldn’t spend my time worrying about the task, because simply there is nothing to be worried about. I am so happy that I have found a great planning strategy in general for my Rube Goldberg, and I feel very good that I have, after all of this time, convinced myself to really stay on task and continue even further with ideas instead of just despising them the first moment you think something might be out of order, or in other words, incorrect. I am able to do this by all of the planning that I have perfected. I know that was a lot of reading on your end, but I hope you got the message of what I am feeling.