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Older cubers discussions

  • 3x3 - I am definitely getting the Gans 356 Air, but I'm torn on whether or not I want the Valk 3. Anyone here swear by the Valk 3?
  • Others - Anyone fallen in love with a new puzzle in recent months that they wish to recommend? I'm all ears.
I love my stickerless Valk 3. Big, big fan. Strangely, in some ways I prefer the 356v2 over the air.
 
Took a break of 2-3 days, found the following things:

1. I'm still struggling to get to full PLL. 6 to go. (G(a-d), N(a,b)), I slip back every so often on V and R(b).
2. EOLine is finally falling into place. I finally can trace DU/DB, most of the time, my times are starting to drop, again.
3. OH ZZF2L, is a bit different than normal ZZ F2L, because you do a z rotation time to time, so you see the D face. If you can see the D face, you know the entire cube. In 2H solving, I find not knowing that a bit odd still. Maybe as I get better at tracking more pieces.

Current times, best solves are hovering around 1:00. They are falling, at a decent clip, but OH only allows for so much practice due to hand wear. :)

Re: Cubing in public, OH cubing in public tends to really make an impression from what I can tell. And being told I'm fast at 1:00 is so strange hanging out on this forum. 1:00, I have so much distance to cover. Once I get full PLL, and the recog down... I expect I'll drop to sub 1, along with more F2L + EOLine practice.

ZZ's F2L is so, interesting.... I truly enjoy it. I'm actually considering taking up Roux, because of my like for block building.
 
Re: Cubing in public, OH cubing in public tends to really make an impression from what I can tell. And being told I'm fast at 1:00 is so strange hanging out on this forum. 1:00, I have so much distance to cover. Once I get full PLL, and the recog down... I expect I'll drop to sub 1, along with more F2L + EOLine practice.
I don't do OH in public, I fear people may think I'm showing off, even if I'm only trying to get some practice or just not getting bored.

ZZ's F2L is so, interesting.... I truly enjoy it. I'm actually considering taking up Roux, because of my like for block building.
Try, it may help even if you keep ZZ as your main.
 
@mark49152, @Shaky Hands , @mafergut , @MarcelP , @Logiqx , @muchacho - Thank you all for your kind word. I am genuinely touched and appreciate the thoughts. I'll learn more over the next few weeks but its does not look good at this point in time. One thing is for sure I am pretty certain I did not put Job Loss on my Christmas list this year! ;) Still attending Birmingham Open, in fact this is the reason I am now attending both days as I suspect I may not get to a comp early next year.

@Shaky Hands - Agonizingly yes I have a Qiyi 6x6. Or at least a parcel has arrived which I must not open as it has some puzzles for my Birthday on Monday from my wife but there is a Qiyi 6x6 in there and its less than 6 feet from me!! In anticipation, I got my exploded Yuxin out and reconstructed it and set the tensions tighter. It solves better now with less pops and I managed the following session which just about what I average. Going to do a comparrison ao12 on the Qiyi on Monday together with an unboxing video of the puzzles. But being my birthday I suspect it will be called an "Unwrapping" :)

6x6
number of times: 12/12
best time: 3:45.88
worst time: 4:24.88

current mo3: 4:14.18 (σ = 10.30)
best mo3: 4:01.60 (σ = 15.30)

current avg5: 4:07.29 (σ = 7.94)
best avg5: 4:07.29 (σ = 7.94)

current avg12: 4:11.10 (σ = 8.87)
best avg12: 4:11.10 (σ = 8.87)
 
Your memo is looking good, Grzegorz. 24 seconds is getting fast. Mine has gone backwards. I did a 1:13 mo7 on video after breakfast and the memo averaged 36, a few second slower than two months ago. My execution has got faster though.

Thanks Mark. Sub-25 or sub20 memos come to me in a last few weeks but they very seldom become sub-1 solves. There's too much thinkign during solves mostly by figuring out algs.

About Valk3 - I got a black one and stickerless. The black has the other feeling than stickereless. Maybe because of white plastic in a stickerless... The shades are awsome and I dont want to change them. It took me 2 days to get used to but finally sub19 ao100.

Have you noticed that corners are a little bit gummy - I mean the foot (I dont know how to call it) of the corner. You can swing it...
 
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@Selkie
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Wishing you the best!

@mark49152
Ive been tryin to come up with images on the fly at the suggestion of Noahs bld Videos but creativity is probably my biggest weakness. So I've started compiling my pairs list a few months ago but I haven't put enough time into it. It's about 1/3 done. I'll have to get on that.

What's the drilling strategy you mentioned to learn your image pairs? Akrin or Ankin. Forgive my inaccuracy, forgot what word you used and I can't go back to look.

@ everyone who was talking about learning full OLL. It was the first thing I did. Memorized all of them. I'm glad I did because I feel like I would have become too lazy to learn them the faster I became. Although the draw back of learning them all at once is that i didn't spend any time searching for finger trick friendly algs. There are quite a few that need revision.

On a side note. To all of you who are just as if not faster then me and aren't full OLL.. I hate you.. in the meanest way possible :) lol
 
Also for F', and sometimes with the other hand also... what I almost never do is using my index finger (well, in some algs) but I should probably try more.
 
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Yeah, I've only done either index over the top or thumb from the bottom before. Initially I thought "yeah, nice, but that would be awkward"... surprisingly it isn't for me and avoids the grip shift for index finger in lots of situations. Thumbs up... so to speak.
 
What's the drilling strategy you mentioned to learn your image pairs? Akrin or Ankin. Forgive my inaccuracy, forgot what word you used and I can't go back to look.
Anki. It's a flash card tool. I set it up to flash letter pairs at me and I can hit buttons for fail/easy/hard depending on whether I recall the image. It takes care of repeating them as appropriate until no mistakes.

Another example today of why vivid images are essential. I failed a 4BLD on one letter, by mixing up polar bear and panda. Obviously they aren't distinct enough when I use them in a scene. I will have to change one of them.
 
@Selkie. Tough news to get right before the holidays, but keep positive. Even if it doesn't work out, closing an old door is just an opportunity to open a new one.

@mark49152 10 points for the Anki recommendation. I can see lots of applications for this tool. I may use it with my kids, who seem to be struggling with math.

I have begun my full OLL journey in earnest. Starting with the Dots. I've got them all memorized now, just need to drill more so I don't forget. I'm going to avoid the timer as much as possible for a while, and even when timing I'm going to force myself to use the new algs, and not fall back on the old 2-Look. I'm sure it'll impact my times initially, but will pay off once I have recognition and execution down.

Just for fun last night I tore down my black YueXiao, cleaned, lubed, tensioned, and restickered it. After some break in solves it's back on my desk as a possible main. My Cubicle Gans 356 V2 is still my go to, but sometimes it's just too wobbly for me and I need a more stable cube, that's where the YueXiao comes back into the picture. We shall see when my Gans Air and Stickerless Valk3 arrive.
 
@mark49152
How do you deal with sequence when recalling? I mean I'm sure once I start using rooms it'll help with pair sequence. But up until now I normally stack images one on top of the next like a totem pole. Using zoom ins to go from edge to corner memo and to new cubes. But that is getting difficult already.

@earth2dan
That reminds me. When I learned full OLL. I would usually drill them all once or twice before a timed session. More so when I had just learned them. I'd go through my list, look at each picture and solve each case till I did them all. Sometimes just go through them twice if I haven't solved that day.
 
How do you deal with sequence when recalling? I mean I'm sure once I start using rooms it'll help with pair sequence. But up until now I normally stack images one on top of the next like a totem pole. Using zoom ins to go from edge to corner memo and to new cubes. But that is getting difficult already.
Yeah that's a challenge. I don't have a rigid structure like a totem. My scenes usually tell a story, like person does action to adjective object. Sometimes the words can get reordered when recalling a scene, and I try to make the ordering unambiguous to avoid that.

OK here's an example memo of 4BLD wings.

MC GF QD HT WI / LB KN JO XR IA

I always group five pairs into each scene.

Scottish golfer pays a quid (British pound) for a hat and puts it on a Wii. No major problem with the order here as the story is clear. It's the first scene so the event takes place in my living room. I clearly visualise the man in tartan golf kit exchanging a pound coin for a hat and throwing it over a Wii. The temptation might be to have the payment implied and not visualise the pound coin, but that makes it more likely to be forgotten.

I do have multiple images for some pairs, so in other combinations, MC could be microphone and GF could be giraffe, if those fit better.

Ladybird, Kanye, Jo, scar, Iago (parrot from Aladdin). All strong images but no immediately obvious story. Rather than put them in a row and hope to recall them in correct order, I'll create some causal order, like a giant ladybird lands on Kanye who shouts a warning to Jo who is busy causing some disfiguring injury to Iago, or something like that, all taking place on my dining table. Often the scenes get quite weird but that can make them more memorable :).
 
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