Hi people,
I've found myself unexpectedly drawn into the world of cubing and I must say what a fascinating world it is! On Fathers' Day this year (05/06/08) my wife and children presented me with a 3x3x3 cube and I decided to learn how to solve it.
A little about me: I live in Sherwood, Nottingham, UK, married with 2 daughters (8 & 11 yrs old), software engineer by day, organiser for the Nottingham GNU/Linux Users Group, skateboarder since '77 (member of Middle Age Shred), amateur tattoo artist, beard enthusiast, and arcade game archivist.
Back in the early '80s when the Rubiks Cube became a fixture in the childhoods of so many, my elder brother owned one, but I regret that I didn't take the time to learn a solution although I could solve the first two layers by intuition and a simple algorithm respectively.
Well, the resources available for learning new skills have certainly become more accessible! With the masses of tutorials and beautifully crafted pages on the net I was able to find some memorable beginners algorithms from the "cubing for lazy people" type tutorials and within a couple of weeks I had achieved my initial goal and I could impress my children with a solve in about 3 minutes (they're easily impressed by their dad
).
Of course I couldn't help being amazed by the YouTube footage of speedcubers and in that context my achievement seems laudable! However, I like to view myself as a happy lifelong learner and I embrace the absurdity of my feeble efforts: I'm proud of this little goal!
After a couple of weeks I found that my cube was getting a bit loose and was locking up in annoying ways. This cube was an unbranded clone from a gift shop costing £5 and it felt pretty shoddy so I started looking out for a genuine Rubik's Cube. I found one for £10 in a toy shop whilst shopping in Nottingham and the difference was amazing: no lock ups, smooth and quick movement, a delight to handle.
Well, I fear I'm rambling -- to summarise: it still takes me 2 mins to solve the 3x3x3 (Cross + F2L + then PLL before OLL - bad habit I guess) but I'm in no hurry! I now have an EastSheen 4x4x4 (5 mins? I don't really time myself) and I've had a V-Cube 7 for a few weeks (an absolute delight) which I solve in about 35 mins. I plan to attend the Manchester Open this year to try and learn more. I'm always looking out for new puzzles and teaching others the basics.
Bye!
Michael Erskine.
http://www.tecspy.com/
Linear Mode
