Older cubers discussions

[Jason Green]

While it's fresh in my mind: @Jason Green, you've been collecting an image list and iirc you're a computer guy, too. I assume whatever you're using supports one of CSV/XML/JSON for exports. A bit of a pet project I'd like to attempt is a networked, shared image repository where you could import your personal image list. The idea is that you could tag some of your images public and when someone else is blanking out on a particular pair they could check what's out there and pick some to import to their list. Plenty of UI and other challenges would have to be worked out but if done well I think it could be a killer time saver for people at this stage. I'm imagining all the web searches I could save myself if something like this were already running and populated.

That's a cool idea. Do you have the spreadsheet @openseas shared with me? It's usually my starting point and has some great suggestions. If I don't like that I go to http://peoplebyinitials.com because I like people the best so far. After that I go to http://bestsiteever.ru/letterpairs. So far that's all I've needed and I'm through G so far. I am using Anki which is exportable if anyone wants to see mine sometime.

I am a software guy for a living but do very little with it recreationally these days. :/

 

[mafergut]

Oh my goodness look at this scramble from cstimer. The only time I actually thought during inspection I might could get a PB it was so easy. Unfortunately my clumsy fingers didn't do that great. I tried it several more times for fun and finally got a 9.66.

Got 11.15 (almost PB) at first try. Very nice indeed. Good luck to all of you participating in UKC or any other comp. This week I solved my new mf8 dodecahedrons (Bauhinia and Curvy Starminx) once each of them and it was tiring but a lot of fun. The Bauhinia is the most complicated not only because of the amount of pieces (60 + 60 = 120 petals) to be placed but also because of the creativity needed to find the setup moves for the different commutators. One single mistake and you can end up with a freshly rescrambled puzzle and have to start all over again. Non-WCA puzzles are growing on me more and more lately.

Regarding the controversy with Red Bull's World Championship I also hate some things about it but, as some of you have stated, I hope in the end it will just help our hobby to be more widely known.

 

[muchacho]

Full LSE skip, this must be veeery rare o_O

58160 28-oct-2017 17:52:15 00:14.575 B2 R2 D2 R' B2 R2 F2 D2 R' D2 L' U' B L2 B' R F2 U' L' R
x' y2
R U M' U2 L U' L' R F L' U L M2 U2 F'
R' U M' U R2 R' U R M' R' U R R U R' Rw U Rw'
U2 R U R' U R U2 R'

 

[Logiqx]

Nice to see some of the guys at UKC 2017 - @Shaky Hands @bubbagrub @newtonbase @mark49152 @SenorJuan

My best solve of the day (22.32s OH) appears to be a new oldies record:

@Ollie and I also watched Phillip Weyer get a 7.77 OH single. I almost recorded it but I didn't unlock my phone in time!

 

[newtonbase]

Had a good time at the UK Championships with lots of the Older Cubers.
Saturday
2x2 - poor. I thought one of my best PB opportunities would be this average but never got close.
5x5 - I could barely remember what to do warming up and almost didn't enter. I was stopped after the 4 min cut and didn't try solve 2
Pyraminx - scraped a single PB then went down hill rapidly. Really should have got average PB toi
OH - poor as usual.
Skewb - relearned this just before my round. Result was poor as expected.
Sunday
Started with a dreadful hangover. Still feel rough now.
3x3 - PB single 24.85 was nice. My judge wrote a 27s as 21s which I didn't notice until the results went up but I got it changed.
4x4 - was expecting to miss the 2:30 hard cut but got a 2:09 then a 2:03 PB despite double parity in both.
3BLD - slow DNF, slow success (2:46), quick DNF (1:43). They gave me scramble 3 for solve 2 so when I got the same scramble for solve 3 I sent it back. Maybe I should have solved it again . I'll get a decent solve one day.
Great comp. Saw some fantastic solves and enjoyed judging in a top quality MBLD round. Well done to @mark49152 for his silvers and @Logiqx for his OH solve.
We forgot to get a photo!

 

[CLL Smooth]

Full LSE skip, this must be veeery rare o_O

58160 28-oct-2017 17:52:15 00:14.575 B2 R2 D2 R' B2 R2 F2 D2 R' D2 L' U' B L2 B' R F2 U' L' R
x' y2
R U M' U2 L U' L' R F L' U L M2 U2 F'
R' U M' U R2 R' U R M' R' U R R U R' Rw U Rw'
U2 R U R' U R U2 R'

I one time finished second block and had T-perm for CMLL. I guess the more OLLCP you know the more likely a LSE skip could be.

 

[Shaky Hands]

Back home after the UK Championships. This may have been my favourite competition to date. Here's a bit of a recap for those interested.

Friday
3x3 FMC - My first attempt to get a FMC Mean. I got a 45 in both the first and second solve using regular CFOP (PLL skip in the 2nd.) 3rd solve I ran out of time and got my first DNF in FMC. Time management is more important in FMC than I realised. I've made a mental note of this so it shouldn't happen again.

Saturday
2x2 - PB average by 1sec. I'd managed to retain my Ortega knowledge without practice.
5x5 - PB single (2:06) and PB average (2:14) - really happy with this. I got my 2nd ever sub-2m solve in the week before the UK Championship so hope to continue to improve on this.
Pyraminx - I pulled out of this as I've forgotten how to solve it.
Clock - 3 reasonable but unimpressive times were followed by 2 DNFs, the 1st of which was when my Clock fell over between inspection and starting the solve. As I often do, I walk away from a comp feeling I could have done better.
3x3 OH - unexpected PB single, using a PLL that I only learned to execute OH about 10 minutes before the solve.
Skewb - I think this went 15, 15, 19, 1:01 (pop) and then by the 5th solve of a long day I'd somehow forgotten how to solve the puzzle. So I had a bit of a brain freeze!

Sunday
3x3 - 3x 20s solves, a 27s solve when I did my cross wrong, and a 30s+2 where I did the wrong PLL and had to fix it. Ended up butchering my average in the process. I think some of the work I've been doing on learning Full OLL (I'm 4 cases away from this) is really helping me. I'd like to think I could get an official sub-20 average by the end of 2018, but that's not going to happen without me putting a fair bit of work into it.
4x4 - 2 solves just over the reduced cutoff time. If parity-free I'd have been fine. Not to be on this occasion.
3x3 BLD - PB single in the 2nd solve. I thought I'd messed up as something misaligned during a Y-perm and I had to guess how to fix it and hope it was right. Tempted to get back into BLD practice after having forsaken it a bit recently.

Great as always to meet up with some of the gang from here - @mark49152, @Logiqx, @newtonbase, @bubbagrub and @SenorJuan. Hope to see you again soon.

 

[Jason Green]

I've had a few drinks tonight as I stayed up watching the World Series. I feel inspired to say how thankful I am for this thread. For fellow old cubers (some of who enjoy drinking and some maybe not). For @Marcel P , @Selkie , @mark49152 , @Logiqx, @CLL Smooth , @bubbagrub, @newtonbase, @openseas and all the others here who inspire me in my endeavors. This thread has seemed a little quieter than normal lately, but even if this thread some day dies out I know the cubing bond we share will stay strong for many years.

Signed,
Your (slightly tipsy) cubing mate, Jason.

 

[Logiqx]

It was great to see the UK oldies and other regulars at the UK Championships this weekend.

I've been off the forum for quite some time and a lot of that has been due to limited time cubing. I decided to practice a small handful of events leading up to the competition, rather than try everything that I can solve and likely do well in nothing. I'd originally intended to only enter 3x3x3 + 4x4x4 on the Sunday but a week before the competition, I also signed up for OH + 5x5x5 on Saturday.

A quick summary of my performances.

Saturday

5x5 - During warm up I had a session mean of 2:14.99 and the soft-cut for the comp was 2:15.00. I did enough to make the soft-cut in my second solve (2:09.74 with parity) and came away with a 2:21.41, my first official average. I'm reasonably content with these times as I'd only started to practice 5x5x5 one week before the competition.

OH - Over the past 3-4 weeks, I've started practicing OH again and worked my way back from sup-30 averages to a 27.50 Ao50 the day before the competition. I had a nice PB single (22.32) as my second solve but I messed up the average with my last solve as I suddenly got shaky and couldn't turn the cube. The final average was 30.06 which was a comp PB but my official sub-30 average will have to wait a while. It was encouraging that my 2, 3, 4 solves were pretty decent and I didn't screw up like my last 2 UK comps.

Sunday

3x3 R1 - I've been neglecting regular 3x3 recently and leading up to the competition, I discovered that I'd regressed to around 17.5 globally. A first round average of 17.66 was pretty decent given my recent form and a slight improvement to my PB single was nice (13.42) as it wasn't a skip. That solve is 0.01s slower than the official single of @Jason Green.

4x4 - In warm up, I was on fire... 54.13 single, 1:00.65 Ao5 and 1:03.9 Ao12. I failed spectacularly during my official solves and ended up with a 1:22.50 average. Fortunately I got the consolation prize of a PB single - 1:01.05.

3x3 R2 - I was starting to find some form on 3x3 by the afternoon. Despite a poor first solve (22.18), I managed to regain composure and get a 17.08 + 16.09 + 15.07 in the next 3 solves. My final solve was going well and as I was finishing my Y-perm it was going to be another 15s solve based my GoPro video. Unfortunately, I slipped mid-alg and as I expected to stop the timer, I saw a partially scrambled F2L which ended up being a 25s solve. This was a real shame as it would likely have been a PB average - somewhere between 16.0 - 16.3.

It was nice to improve some of my comp PBs and great to see some fast solvers again.

@Shaky Hands, @bubbagrub, @newtonbase, @mark49152, @SenorJuan. See you all next time!

@Ollie - See you in the office!

 

[shadowslice e]

I also watched Phillip Weyer get a 7.77 OH single. I almost recorded it but I didn't unlock my phone in time!

Are you sure it wasn't that your sd card ran out?

 

[openseas]

I've had a few drinks tonight as I stayed up watching the World Series. I feel inspired to say how thankful I am for this thread. For fellow old cubers (some of who enjoy drinking and some maybe not). For @Marcel P , @Selkie , @mark49152 , @Logiqx, @CLL Smooth , @bubbagrub, @newtonbase, @openseas and all the others here who inspire me in my endeavors. This thread has seemed a little quieter than normal lately, but even if this thread some day dies out I know the cubing bond we share will stay strong for many years.

Signed,
Your (slightly tipsy) cubing mate, Jason.

Same here! And thanks for introducing me this thread!

 

[mark49152]

Sub-1 still eludes me...

 

[bgcatfan]

At what age does someone qualify for this this thread? I'm 29 and have been into cubing since around 2003. I'd rather solve than learn, so I have yet to learn full CFOP (still on two-look OLL), but average around 18seconds on 3x3. I don't feel like I am too far from the 15s barrier, I just haven't put in the work to get there.

Anyway, hello everyone. =)

 

[Shaky Hands]

Hi @bgcatfan. I believe most of us that post regularly in this thread are a bit older than that, but we're a friendly bunch and no one is going to check your ID. If you feel like you're an older cuber then you're welcome. Cheers.

 

[chtiger]

Enjoyed the UK Champs writeups and vids. From across the pond, not as interesting as UK Champs (actually this comp held every event, but it was 3 days and I only went for Sunday) http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=2612&compid=57
Went about 7 weeks without any practice since last comp. Did some relearning and practicing this past week.

3x3 - Missed a great opportunity for sub-20. Had a low 17, 18, and 19, but also two 24's (not in that order). Just needed 1 of those 24's to be a 22.42. PB single and barely PB avg by .03. Other round was pretty bad.

2x2 - thought a PB avg was likely, but 2 rounds of sloppy turning. Just can't turn a 2x2 smoothly at comp.

skewb - almost sub-10 avg which was my goal but didn't think was likely. PB single and avg

pyra - 1 mediocre round, 1 bad round

OH - thought for sure I'd PB here, because I'm so bad it's hard not to beat my previous PB, but nope, screwed up both my solves, therefore missing cutoff too. In both solves, I was mid F2L and noticed a cross piece out of place. Also did wrong PLL on 1.

 

[mark49152]

UKC day 1 was successful, great fun, and tiring! As well as the 4BLD and 5BLD, I did three attempts at FMC and got a 41 single, 48.67 mean, using just CFOP. It's the first time I've done FMC and I really enjoyed it. I wish I had enough time to learn some proper FMC techniques and get more into it!

Here's a quick report on days 2 & 3 too.

2x2, 4x4, 5x5 and clock were all unremarkable. I lost a 5.03 solve on 2x2 due to the timer battery dying (the dreaded 888888). 4x4 average was let down by a corner twist on the last solve that took me a few seconds to fix. On 5x5 I didn't make the soft cut. Clock was slow but at least I dispensed with the safety checks, and didn't DNF any .

In 3x3 first round I got a 20.93 average, which is way down on the ~19 averages I get at home and when warming up, but typical of my recent competition 3x3 performance. That put me 6 places below qualifying for the second round, but by luck, several people left early and I took the last spot. My second round average didn't feel any better than the first, but luck stayed on my side and gave me two good solves, a 16.19 and a counting 17.04. That resulted in an 18.98 PB average, my first sub-19 and first 3x3 PB for 1.5 years.

My 3BLD goal for months now has been official sub-1. I scraped through to the final with a mediocre 1:10.59 single. On the final solve of the final, I got a 1:00.28 (as shown in the video posted earlier). Close but no cigar! Looks like the same goal for next comp too.

Finally, MBLD. First attempt was a 12/16. Two of those failures were due to forgetting to fix parity, a schoolboy error I used to make frequently, but not for a long time now. Very frustrating. After the first attempt, the lead was held with a fast 12 points. I didn't want to tie on points and lose on time so decided to do an odd number for the second attempt. I added a 17th cube as a regular 3BLD. The result was 14/17, not bad for me, but not good enough to podium.

As ever, it was great to catch up with Andy, Mark, Mike, Ben and all the other UK cubers. Shame Chris couldn't make it but we'll catch up at Weston. Congrats to everyone on their PBs and achievements!

 

[Jason Green]

At what age does someone qualify for this this thread? I'm 29 and have been into cubing since around 2003. I'd rather solve than learn, so I have yet to learn full CFOP (still on two-look OLL), but average around 18seconds on 3x3. I don't feel like I am too far from the 15s barrier, I just haven't put in the work to get there.

Anyway, hello everyone. =)

Hello and welcome! Everyone is welcome here that enjoys the conversation.

Great job everyone on the results and PBs posted above!

 

[h2f]

Mark, @mark49152 very nice and fast 3bld solve.

 

[mark49152]

Mark, @mark49152 very nice and fast 3bld solve.

Thanks. I put the splits in the description but it's clear what I need to work on. Execution included 8.9 seconds of pauses and 7 taps on the table!

 

[Logiqx]

Oldie rankings updated.

https://github.com/Logiqx/wca-ipy