What contribution did you make to solving this problem?
I served as a good follower jumping across. Seriously, I looked at the thing, and it just blew my mind. For some reason, it seemed super easy and impossible at the same time. In the circling up, we discussed the basic premise that we had, and the ability to do it. In the discussion, I made the observation that it was hard to grab the log and attempt to make it on your own. Thus, as a group we decided that it would be best to hoist people up. Then, we noted that it would be better to hoist people up in columns. (i.e., have more than one person go up at the same time.) I noted that it would be difficult to get more than two columns of people up at the same time. (We ended up using only two rows of people.) In addition to going over, I also served in the very important role of spotting people as they were coming over. Some people tended to go down extremely fast after they had completed the 'grueling' task of making it over the log. When I went over, I essentially 'rolled' over the log, and just kind of plopped down on the other side. Luckily, I have had a lot of experience jumping out of trees, so it wasn't unusual or grueling for me. However, other people without the experience might have some great difficulties coming down, and might have been unable to realize how they were going to fall until after they were too late. Thus spotting them for their fall helped out greatly in the overall process of getting people across the log in the shortest time possible.
Did you want to do more? If so, why didn't you? If not, why not?
I wanted to try my luck at just jumping up upon the log and seeing if I could swing myself over. However, due to the time constraints, and the knowledge I had about myself from previous attempts such as this, I constrained myself, and decided that I would be best off just going up and down like everyone else. At the end, I wish there was something that I could have done in order to help the people at the very end who had some minor difficulties in getting over. It would have been great just to go over there, and help hoist them up to cross over the final log. Unfortunately, Frank dictated some rules that stated we couldn't go back over after we had made it across, thus it was impossible for me to help, so I didn't. I also wish I could have made some more helpful observations as the group was discussing the problem. However, as I mentioned earlier, there were very few helpful things that I could actually come up with as we were discussing it. And, also due to my inherent shyness, the incomplete thoughts that I came up with were not uttered to serve as a jumping block for other people's ideas. I guess if I just got the desire to speak up a little bit more I could have helped out the group.
Horizontal Beam II
What contribution did you make to solving this problem?
On our way home from the previous week, we had a chance to think about the various dilemmas facing us in participating in this activity. The two guys I was riding with were once in the corps, and thought it would be easy for the last people just to leap up upon the log and grab it. (One of the main problems we had was the end in the first time we did it. We tried to hoist up one girl, who was unable to pull herself over. Thus the guys on top had to go through a whole lot of work to get her to the necessary height to get over. By having one guy go over who could use his arms to lift himself, the activity would be easier. This seemed like it would be fun, however, it would be advisable to have the last two guys be relatively strong so that they could help each other over. The sit at the top and blindly pull method didn't seem to work. This time when we did it, I got in line, ready to go over fast. I spotted the person before me, and helped her up, then went over myself, grabbing the tree and leaping over. This system worked much faster than the previous time, and we got everyone but the last two guys over in record time. Unfortunately, the last two guys found the yank yourself up over the log method a lot harder than they anticipated, and it ended up costing us time.
Did you want to do more? If so, why didn't you? If not, why not?
This time, there was not much more that I wanted to do, other than possibly serve as a hoisted. The plan we had seemed to be one of the best possible ones. There didn't seem to be room to have any more columns of people going up, and the last two guys had already completed previous activities in which they had had to hoist themselves up over a log like the one we used. Unfortunately the log that they had used must've been much smaller, or it might have been a long time since they had done it, for they had some difficulty in getting themselves over. I wish I could have helped them to get over the log after they got stuck. However, that was not possible due to the rules.
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