Older cubers discussions

[muchacho]

Nice job congrats! It seems so strange to have an unofficial comp on the street. How do you hear about them?

Thanks, it's the third year that it's being organized (I tried to help a bit) at this time of the year (holidays here). It was not perfect but it was fun, it even had prizes and a raffle with some cubes. I think there were 22 competitors.

 

[pglewis]

I'm surprised you guys aren't doing anything more fancy with journey method... not even random access to a particular cube by number? I know I either saw a vid or read one method that did have that advantage of immediately accessing say, #27 on demand but I can't recall the trick used for it.

check out Anki if you haven't already. It's great for learning letter pairs.

I'd never even heard of it but I'll definitely be checking it out, looks perfect for me.

Haha, I believe it is 440. 11 edge pieces (flip) * 10 edge pieces (flip) = 4*11*10=440 (You don't memo buffer piece, so take that out). Corner will be 378 but since less than edges, maximum 440.

I'm just figuring straight 24*24 for every letter combination A-X. K won't ever show up for edges for me with speffz/M2 but will appear for corners, so I do still need to fill in the cells for it. My M2/OP buffer spots are the thinnest in the sheet since they don't turn up as much. I wouldn't technically have to fill-in double letters like DD, but I crave consistency and use double letters in place of single when there's parity. Rather than a dangling 'D' when the majority of my images are based on pairs, I memo Donald Duck and still know there's parity.

 

[mark49152]

I'm surprised you guys aren't doing anything more fancy with journey method... not even random access to a particular cube by number? I know I either saw a vid or read one method that did have that advantage of immediately accessing say, #27 on demand but I can't recall the trick used for it.

I can tell you right now that cube #27 is at the top of the stairwell leading to the apartment I moved out of in 2013. Not particularly useful to me though as I don't solve in random order .

How do I know this? It's not a trick, just arithmetic. I use my current house for the first 16 cubes and I have 3 additional houses holding 8 cubes each. So #27 would be 3rd cube in the 3rd house.

 

[Jason Green]

So far I like coming up with images on the fly. I don't recall if it was Noah or some other video that said they found that approach more powerful, and I agree. Obviously some of them are starting to stick already, but I don't plan to pre-make an image list. Maybe I'll change my mind later if I can't improve. My practice time is pretty sparse which means I'm improving slowly but also pretty easily it seems. Did a few solves last night and averaging closer to 4 minutes now.

 

[mark49152]

So far I like coming up with images on the fly. I don't recall if it was Noah or some other video that said they found that approach more powerful, and I agree.

It's only more powerful until you get stuck wasting time trying to think of an image for some obscure pair (which used to happen to me lots). Ultimately after much practice you arrive at the same place either way - the ability to instantly visualise any pair as an image. Making a list is really just a way to try to get there quicker by making sure you have the tough pairs covered.

 

[Jason Green]

It's only more powerful until you get stuck wasting time trying to think of an image for some obscure pair (which used to happen to me lots). Ultimately after much practice you arrive at the same place either way - the ability to instantly visualise any pair as an image. Making a list is really just a way to try to get there quicker by making sure you have the tough pairs covered.

That's true and I guess I've kind of very informally started a list in my head with about two pairs on it that give me trouble. I'm still not sure I like my images though. JH troubles me. I always think first of John Q Hammons a wealthy man with lots of stuff named for him back home. Or John Hopkins, jumping hyena, jump high. But not real crazy about them. I may stick with the hyena for now...

 

[One Wheel]

That's true and I guess I've kind of very informally started a list in my head with about two pairs on it that give me trouble. I'm still not sure I like my images though. JH troubles me. I always think first of John Q Hammons a wealthy man with lots of stuff named for him back home. Or John Hopkins, jumping hyena, jump high. But not real crazy about them. I may stick with the hyena for now...

Juicy hamburger or juggling heffalumps? I rather like heffalumps.

 

[pglewis]

So far I like coming up with images on the fly. I don't recall if it was Noah or some other video that said they found that approach more powerful, and I agree.

I envy you . I think a lot of people do well just off the cuff and sometime I can, but too often I blank out too long or the image I come up with isn't very vivid and doesn't stick.

JH troubles me.

I have: Jimi Hendrix, Jabba the Hutt, Jack of Hearts, Jackhammer

 

[Jason Green]

Juicy hamburger or juggling heffalumps? I rather like heffalumps.

I envy you . I think a lot of people do well just off the cuff and sometime I can, but too often I blank out too long or the image I come up with isn't very vivid and doesn't stick.



I have: Jimi Hendrix, Jabba the Hutt, Jack of Hearts, Jackhammer

Thanks guys those are some great ones I can't believe I didn't think of some. I mean Jabba the Hutt should've been automatic for me. I have the problem of not getting very vivid images a lot but they're usually good enough to stick, at least until I do multi.

 

[h2f]

Everyone has its own system.

Haha, I believe it is 440. 11 edge pieces (flip) * 10 edge pieces (flip) = 4*11*10=440 (You don't memo buffer piece, so take that out). Corner will be 378 but since less than edges, maximum 440.

My list: 23 x 23 = 529 but in fact I use only 23x22 = 506 because I dont use double letters. In 3bld it's only 22*20 = 440.

 

[mark49152]

Thanks guys those are some great ones I can't believe I didn't think of some. I mean Jabba the Hutt should've been automatic for me. I have the problem of not getting very vivid images a lot but they're usually good enough to stick, at least until I do multi.

I use Jabba the Hutt too. And you can probably guess what I use for JA, DV, EW and WK .

Other advantages to a list, or at least a planned set of images, are vividness and unambiguity. Often when trying to come up with images on the fly I would pick the most obvious word for the letters but find the image wasn't great. Like next for NX. Can you visualise that clearly in a way that you would certainly recall it as next? What you end up doing is relying on some other part of memory as well as visual, and remembering partly as a sentence. That might be OK for 3BLD but is not as reliable or fast for MBLD IMHO.

Or, I'd recall an image of a cat miaowing but that could have been either CT or MW (miaow). It's hard to visualise a miaow without a cat. Or maybe I'd have characters that were too similar, like I once spoiled an attempt because Jerry Springer looks a bit like Quincy MD. And another one because I didn't clearly enough visualise a jug as distinct from a jar.

Eliminating all these weaknesses to get to a distinct and vivid set of images is an incremental process that takes a long time. Mine is not bad now but it's still in progress.

 

[pglewis]

One last note on the whole images discussion is I often use a shortcut for pairs starting with X or Q: eXcited or Quiet/Quick/Quarrelsome animals. XL = excited lemur.

 

[NewbieCuber]

@muchacho, a honey copter? Is that the redi cube with heart shaped edges?

Look what I got today in the mail from Los Mundos de Rubik:

View attachment 8414

Those are PRETTY!

 

[mark49152]

One last note on the whole images discussion is I often use a shortcut for pairs starting with X or Q: eXcited or Quiet/Quick/Quarrelsome animals. XL = excited lemur.

Sounds are good too, inherited from audio memo. Q = sh, X = sk, H = th. So XL = skull, QL = shell, etc.

I also use X = dead sometimes. Like XK = dead koala.

 

[pglewis]

I'll also fall back to dead animals sometimes for variety. If I'm doing a lot of practice X can turn up as an odd letter often and I'll occasionally run into slight confusion with previous memos.

 

[pglewis]

Also: I had no idea who Owen Quinn was until I started blindsolving. It's fun and informative!

 

[mark49152]

I have no idea who Owen Quinn is and so I doubt he would make a vivid image for me. After much struggling, my image for OQ is a monocle

 

[pglewis]

I have no idea who Owen Quinn is and so I doubt he would make a vivid image for me. After much struggling, my image for OQ is a monocle

As I discovered, he's the guy that jumped off one of the WTC towers with a parachute in the mid 70s. It's such a difficult pair that I decided it was worth learning his name. His claim to fame makes it easy to visualize otherwise.

 

[newtonbase]

I'll sometimes click on names on peoplebyinitials.com just to see if they are interesting enough to remember. Owen Quinn looks a good one.
Like @mark49152 I carry over some from audio. X is SH for me so XL is shell. Q is TH which is still quite tricky.

 

[JohnnyReggae]

The MoFang JiaoShi Mini 3x3 (50mm) is simply an amazing cube. I am totally blown away at how well it performs, and all of this for the price point of $2.85.

I've put magnets into it already using 4x2mm N35 magnets. They are a nice feel for the cube and have given it some stability. Performance on the mini is close to my GTS2. Corner cutting is not quite there, but for $3 it's simply amazing really. I've had quite a few sub-15's with it already, which I count as great solves even with a full size cube.

I don't think it will replace my GTS2 but it is an awesome cube to carry around without sacrificing good performance. I have both the stickerless and black, and the stickerless is definitely better. The turning on the black is bumpy, whereas with the stickerless it's quite smooth.

I cannot recommend this cube enough

(Pictured here next to my GTS2)