Older cubers discussions

[Jason Green]

It now seems crass to post something cubing related here, given how trivial it is compared to the important things in life. I hope you and the boys are bearing up, @Jason Green.

Today I went to Weston-super-Mare Open, organised by our very own @Shaky Hands and @Selkie. Great job guys, especially the impressive venue! I can't make it tomorrow so it was just half a comp for me, and it was great to have all the BLD stuff on one day.

It was mostly a poor day for me, especially 3BLD and 4BLD. My home 3BLD form totally deserted me, the first two 4BLD scrambles were hard, and the third 4BLD attempt nearly gave me a 4:38 PB had I not executed the very last comm in the wrong direction - argh! My 21 comp PB streak looked at risk of coming to an end with only one event left, MBLD. Luckily I got a 16/17 PB to claw my day back from the doldrums. The scrambles were pretty hard and my time was comfortable so it felt like a good result. The error was two edge pairs swapped in execution. Almost ready for 20

As usual it was great catch up with the oldies and everyone else, and I'm already looking forward to the next comp. Congrats on the awesome PBs today guys, and good luck to everyone competing tomorrow!

Thank you for posting some cubing stuff, I've been checking back in the evening hoping there was some cubing to read about. You're right it's not the most important thing about life, but it's what brought us here. We had a wonderful service today and I was very thankful @openseas got to come, thanks again Jae! I hope to see a lot of cubing posts soon to brighten my days!

 

[pglewis]

Glad to hear from ya, Jason. I gave a pretty good whoop a little earlier with a 17.85 full-step: 3 move cross, 6-move T-OLL, and Z-Perm. I think that's my 2nd best single and the closest I've gotten to that high 16 outlier I've been sitting on for a while. It's a hollow feeling victory right now, you and the boys are in my heart.

 

[mark49152]

Here's the final instalment of my BLD from UK Championships. Does anyone care to watch 5BLD vids?

 

[newtonbase]

My 21 comp PB streak looked at risk of coming to an end with only one event left, MBLD. Luckily I got a 16/17 PB to claw my day back from the doldrums. The scrambles were pretty hard and my time was comfortable so it felt like a good result. The error was two edge pairs swapped in execution. Almost ready for 20

As usual it was great catch up with the oldies and everyone else, and I'm already looking forward to the next comp. Congrats on the awesome PBs today guys, and good luck to everyone competing tomorrow!

You neglected to say that you won!

As @mark49152 says, Weston-super-Mare has been a fantastic competition. The venue is something else. Hope we get to go there again.
I had mixed results including dead last in skewb and complete failure in 4BLD. I did get a half decent 2:03 in 3BLD which got me 18th place. My last PB of 2:39 got me 6th earlier this year. Blind is getting very good in the UK. The race to sub 2 is still on @openseas.

Prior to the comp I was choosing whether to go for 5 or 7 in MBLD but I was exhausted so wanted to do 3. Mark had other ideas and persuaded me to do 5. I really enjoyed it and ended up with 3/5 in 38 mins so thanks Mark. I've got to try at least 7 next time.

Really enjoyed catching up with everyone and having a few pints last night. Can't wait for Manchester.

 

[mafergut]

@mark49152 yes, I care to watch 5BLD videos, all the more so if they come from you, or any of the other guys from our little family here!
@Jason Green, I'm happy to see you around here. I haven't met you in real life but I feel like I know you and, since the first time they showed up in one of your vids, I fell in love with your kids

As you are asking for cubing-related stuff, here I come with yet another video from my channel that has received the subtitling job. This one is a tutorial for the Dino Skewb. I have published yet a new one yesterday but subtitles for that one will take a bit longer as it is a 34min long tutorial (for the Golden Cube, in case you're wondering).

 

[mark49152]

I've been looking through the results today. Congrats Mark @newtonbase on the nice BLD accomplishments. Looking forward to seeing you get at least 5 points in Guildford 2018 and qualify for Euros

Also congrats to Andy and Chris for a really impressive set of big cube PBs, especially 6x6. Spectacular stuff. Special congrats to Chris for inching above me in the oldies 4x4 rankings by beating my single and average by 0.05 and 0.07 seconds respectively

 

[newtonbase]

I've been looking through the results today. Congrats Mark @newtonbase on the nice BLD accomplishments. Looking forward to seeing you get at least 5 points in Guildford 2018 and qualify for Euros

Don't think I'm going to either unfortunately.

 

[mark49152]

Don't think I'm going to either unfortunately.

That's a pity. I think Peterborough has multi and that's plenty of time to practice!

 

[openseas]

@newtonbase / Conrats on your many PBs including 3BLD & MBLD - now you are sub me officially
BTW, 38min for 5 cubes seems to be a little bit long considering your 3BLD speed - what is your home record for MBLD?

 

[newtonbase]

@newtonbase / Conrats on your many PBs including 3BLD & MBLD - now you are sub me officially
BTW, 38min for 5 cubes seems to be a little bit long considering your 3BLD speed - what is your home record for MBLD?

I think my unofficial 5/5 success was a similar time. I could do it more quickly but I had plenty of time so did extra reviews.

 

[openseas]

I think my unofficial 5/5 success was a similar time. I could do it more quickly but I had plenty of time so did extra reviews.

Make sense. I keep failing with 7 cubes during competitions (4/7 for past 3 comps) - I need 5 points to be qualified next US Nats. Not sure whether I need to change my strategy just trying 5. Best at home was 10/10 but it really depends on my mindset these days.

 

[mark49152]

Make sense. I keep failing with 7 cubes during competitions (4/7 for past 3 comps) - I need 5 points to be qualified next US Nats. Not sure whether I need to change my strategy just trying 5. Best at home was 10/10 but it really depends on my mindset these days.

What has been the cause of your mistakes?

 

[openseas]

What has been the cause of your mistakes?

Mostly trace - like one flipped edge or twisted corner + always failing miserably the last cubes which I used a normal 3BLD method not room. The last one looked to be execution error.

+
Last two comps were what I organized. So, quite distracted to run the comp & meet the schedule. That could be one more excuse for my failure :-(

 

[mark49152]

Mostly trace - like one flipped edge or twisted corner + always failing miserably the last cubes which I used a normal 3BLD method not room. The last one looked to be execution error.

When you review, do you go back and check your memo against the cubes?

No need to do an ordinary 3BLD for the last cube unless you're pushed against the time limit and really need to save those few seconds. I prefer to solve all cubes the same way.

 

[openseas]

When you review, do you go back and check your memo against the cubes?

No need to do an ordinary 3BLD for the last cube unless you're pushed against the time limit and really need to save those few seconds. I prefer to solve all cubes the same way.

Thanks. Time limit was not the issue - thus, it makes sense, not to stick to the regular 3BLD method.
I review at least 3 times, 1 & 2, 1 to 2, 3 & 4, 1 through 4, like this. Memo was not the issue but somehow I stick to the wrong trace.

 

[newtonbase]

@openseas I think it makes sense to stick to 7. You have plenty of time to check tracing and memo and you'll have room for an execution error too.

Edit : I wrote that before the last 2 posts.

 

[mark49152]

I review at least 3 times, 1 & 2, 1 to 2, 3 & 4, 1 through 4, like this. Memo was not the issue but somehow I stick to the wrong trace.

I'm not sure what's going wrong then. Checking your memo against the cube during review should pick up any tracing mistakes. If you're missing the errors when checking, maybe there's a problem with the way you trace? Do you count targets and breaks so that you know how many flips, twists or solved pieces you need to account for?

 

[openseas]

Oh, when I said flips or twists, it's not I missed flips/twists, mostly I traced opposite colors. BR instead of RB, something like that. Yes, during the review, I always pick up these mistakes but since I was switching to new images (after the corrected letters) - I guess I'm kinda of mixing two images.

 

[newtonbase]

Oh, when I said flips or twists, it's not I missed flips/twists, mostly I traced opposite colors. BR instead of RB, something like that. Yes, during the review, I always pick up these mistakes but since I was switching to new images (after the corrected letters) - I guess I'm kinda of mixing two images.

I'm the same. I find it terribly difficult to change my memo after spotting a mistake. If it happens in 3BLD I tend to quit as a decent time is impossible and a success unlikely.

Any suggestions for memi/review order in MBLD? For my 5 I just did the whole memo in 1 go then reviewed a few times but that won't work on bigger attempts.

 

[mark49152]

Yeah I sometimes make mistakes like that. If I find and correct an error during first review, that new memo effectively has had one less review than the rest (unless I remember to go back and give it an extra review on its own, which I never do) and is tainted with residual incorrect memo. Occasionally, if I'm under time pressure, I also fail to check everything properly during first review, especially things like checking that I memoed a corner twist in the right direction.