Tyson
Veteran
I was driving my brother and Macky home form Berkeley today and we were just reminiscing about how everything came to be. There's the story about how I met Macky for the first time and how he was a part of the inspiration for hosting the first regular Rubik's Cube competition at Caltech on January 24, 2004. There's the story about how my brother and I went to go find Lars Petrus, and he showed us his dead cat. There's the story about my first incident with Dan Dzoan at the Exploratorium competition in 2006 when I gave out a Rubik's Twist to the "fastest person who didn't qualify for the finals" and Dan jumped out of the audience shouting, "I KNEW IT!" There are just so many quirks around, and the cubing audience these days keeps getting younger and younger with more new cubers.
Does anyone know about Daniel Lo's epic FMC win in Chicago at 2007? Or why F R U R' U' F' is a y-perm, *****ES! How did mystery puzzles even start, or what happens when you are the world champion? Apparently, you can do anything you want. BLEH! Eduoard and Jean Pons seemed to have a lot of fun with that one.
Who is Chris Hunt and why is he important? Why does Texas suck so much? What do you do after breaking a world record on the Rubik's Magic?
Anyway, when I was in high school, at the beginning of each year, each class would go on a retreat of sorts. Freshman year was a community service retreat and I ended up picking trash up off a beach. Sophomore year I was rock climbing. Junior year I was whitewater rafting. And senior year I was at a ropes course. Well, unlike the other years, they didn't tell us to go to sleep senior year. So my high school friends and I sat around telling stories, and we recorded this onto a Mini-Disc player. (Anyone born after 1995 probably has no idea what a Mini-Disc player even is!) And what I'm left with is this CD now of 41 different stories of my high school career. It's a great souvenir, and actually, the main narrator of this compilation passed away in 2007 leaving us with an amazing collection of his stories and memories of all of us to share.
As time goes on, the memories of these stories will fade. And the network of people around me as a result of cubing I find is truly remarkable. Furthermore, my experiences of starting the cubing community in the United States is largely isolated. I'm sure there are stories in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere in the world which are similarly engaging, and will reveal little entertaining incidents about all the cubers we know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss5GyooSByM
Does anyone remember the set of speedsolvingrubikscube posts on yahoo group that lead to this mystery puzzle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfd5sxW8Clg
Isn't that one of the silliest things you've ever seen? How did that random guy even get into cubing anyway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRl9eTteF74
Complete opposite of that reaction right? Does anyone even know what's on the shirt? I think it's called "Pandamonium."
Anyway, I'm talking with Macky and we think it would be great to get a compilation of these stories. Part of me at the end of US Nationals wants to get a group to sit around and just tell stories.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v71/184/26/3500064/n3500064_30092152_246.jpg
Yeah, that's Macky in 8th grade. He didn't want to go to his graduation dance and said he had no clothes as an excuse so he's wearing my shirt and pants at that dance.
And at some point, I'll have to go through my harddrive and dig up everything I have from 2003 and 2004.
Okay, so to finish my point... I think we'd like to compile these stories. I've actually spoken to a literary agent about writing a book, and nothing ever has to come of this, but that's something to think about too. But mainly, it's these memories that link us all together that I'd prefer not to lose. And so much happens every day, that things fade over time, and that makes me sad.
Sorry, so my point. If you have stories, cool. We'll figure out a way for submission at some point. But it's not enough that the story is good, it has to be told well. So unfortunately, you're going to have to be able to write clearly and be able to convey a story well. Things I'd be more interested is, from an operational standpoint, how do we organize these electronically? Do we do a blog with posts, that have tags and people can categorize by tags? Not sure... I'll have to talk with Macky about it.
Speaking of Macky, click open that picture. How many people can name everyone in that picture? We've been at this since 2004, and Macky's 20 years-old now. It's amazing that so much time has passed. He's not 13, Jason So isn't 11 years-old either... and I think Justin Adsuara is now taller than me.
In the meantime, I'll work on growing taller.
Does anyone know about Daniel Lo's epic FMC win in Chicago at 2007? Or why F R U R' U' F' is a y-perm, *****ES! How did mystery puzzles even start, or what happens when you are the world champion? Apparently, you can do anything you want. BLEH! Eduoard and Jean Pons seemed to have a lot of fun with that one.
Who is Chris Hunt and why is he important? Why does Texas suck so much? What do you do after breaking a world record on the Rubik's Magic?
Anyway, when I was in high school, at the beginning of each year, each class would go on a retreat of sorts. Freshman year was a community service retreat and I ended up picking trash up off a beach. Sophomore year I was rock climbing. Junior year I was whitewater rafting. And senior year I was at a ropes course. Well, unlike the other years, they didn't tell us to go to sleep senior year. So my high school friends and I sat around telling stories, and we recorded this onto a Mini-Disc player. (Anyone born after 1995 probably has no idea what a Mini-Disc player even is!) And what I'm left with is this CD now of 41 different stories of my high school career. It's a great souvenir, and actually, the main narrator of this compilation passed away in 2007 leaving us with an amazing collection of his stories and memories of all of us to share.
As time goes on, the memories of these stories will fade. And the network of people around me as a result of cubing I find is truly remarkable. Furthermore, my experiences of starting the cubing community in the United States is largely isolated. I'm sure there are stories in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere in the world which are similarly engaging, and will reveal little entertaining incidents about all the cubers we know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss5GyooSByM
Does anyone remember the set of speedsolvingrubikscube posts on yahoo group that lead to this mystery puzzle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfd5sxW8Clg
Isn't that one of the silliest things you've ever seen? How did that random guy even get into cubing anyway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRl9eTteF74
Complete opposite of that reaction right? Does anyone even know what's on the shirt? I think it's called "Pandamonium."
Anyway, I'm talking with Macky and we think it would be great to get a compilation of these stories. Part of me at the end of US Nationals wants to get a group to sit around and just tell stories.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v71/184/26/3500064/n3500064_30092152_246.jpg
Yeah, that's Macky in 8th grade. He didn't want to go to his graduation dance and said he had no clothes as an excuse so he's wearing my shirt and pants at that dance.
And at some point, I'll have to go through my harddrive and dig up everything I have from 2003 and 2004.
Okay, so to finish my point... I think we'd like to compile these stories. I've actually spoken to a literary agent about writing a book, and nothing ever has to come of this, but that's something to think about too. But mainly, it's these memories that link us all together that I'd prefer not to lose. And so much happens every day, that things fade over time, and that makes me sad.
Sorry, so my point. If you have stories, cool. We'll figure out a way for submission at some point. But it's not enough that the story is good, it has to be told well. So unfortunately, you're going to have to be able to write clearly and be able to convey a story well. Things I'd be more interested is, from an operational standpoint, how do we organize these electronically? Do we do a blog with posts, that have tags and people can categorize by tags? Not sure... I'll have to talk with Macky about it.
Speaking of Macky, click open that picture. How many people can name everyone in that picture? We've been at this since 2004, and Macky's 20 years-old now. It's amazing that so much time has passed. He's not 13, Jason So isn't 11 years-old either... and I think Justin Adsuara is now taller than me.
In the meantime, I'll work on growing taller.
