Take me, for example. Until recently, the most huge void of time suckage came from (your friend and mine!) THE BLOG. Writing posts, reading posts, drinking wine, commenting, following links, reading more posts, drinking more wine, following more links, commenting and commenting on comments until my eyes fell out of my head and my children no longer knew my name. I would get lost in the land of blog for hours, daily. And when I say hours, I freaking mean HOURS. It was pure drunken insanity, I tell ya.
All of that time on the internets came to a screeching halt once I started school. I needed to find another void for my time, and look what just came waltzing in: The Evil Cube of Insanity. This thing ticks me off, y'all, and I am hell bent of beating it. In the early stages I swore off tips and tricks, determined that I should do it all by myself. Those were the early days. I'm not so proud now, my friends!
At this point, I am ready to be committed to a room with white walls. Maybe they'll even have white cubes for the crazy people? That would b
e nice, unlike this monster. That would be not so nice, and you would never see me again until I ended up solving the effing thing. See below.
Until next time, America, I'll be twisting away, getting carpal tunnel in my thumbs while every ounce of free time I have is spent with that damn cube. (Shh, don't tell! I may or may not have spent time during one of my online classes with RC. It's an unhealthy obsession, I know. Don't judge.)
7 tips left at the bar:
Okay. Megan. Go to YouTube and search under 'Rubik's Cube Genius.' Watch the video. Then, take the hammer to your Rubik's Cube, sweep the pieces up into your hand, and throw them away. It's been done. It's been done better than you will ever be able to do it. Do what you do best. And let the Rubik's Cube Geniuses keep their glory.
I hated that thing as a kid! I even peeled the stickers off one time and restuck them so it looked like I had beaten it!
I'm torn, here: I miss your 24/7 presence in Blogland, and yet I feel you've taken a higher road in your latest obsession, using puzzle-solving skills and whatnot. Even if you do want to get out the hammer. I (grudgingly) support it!
that is the most disturbing thing I have ever had in my hand. I twist and twist and twist and never even get close. Then i saw the guy that does it blindfolded upside down in WATER and he did it
Stay with us in Blogland and use that thing for a paperweight.
i'm sorry i have to pipe in here. like you, i have recently become obsessed with the rubik's cube. like you, i was determined to solve it by myself at first. and like you, it drove me bananas.
however, i eventually researched online and learned how to solve it. more importantly, i felt validated in knowing that i NEVER would have been able to do it all on my own except by accident. because even with explicit instructions, it took a long time before i got it right.
now, i can solve it almost effortlessly. i say this not as a boast, because as i said i had to look up the solution, but as anecdotal evidence that even the seemingly impossible can be overcome. that moment when you first solve it is well well worth the time you invest.
the best place to learn, i've found, is on youtube. particularly, this guy named Dan Brown has a couple of videos that are really helpful. that's how i learned. the daunting thing is memorizing all the algorithms. i came up with silly ways to remember them, and once i did they stuck.
trust me, if i can do it you can do it.
J- Thanks for the tips! I took Cakelet's advice and watched the YouTube of the RC Genius and then, sitting right there beside it, was Dan Brown's videos. So I watched. And took notes.
I finally solved the damn thing the next night (after more notes and re-watching) and realized, like you, that I would have never in a million years figured it out! So now when I see those people solving it quickly, I realize that they are just recalling algorithms too!
Note: I solved it and felt so confident that after admiring it for a little while, I jumbled it up again. And now I can't get the second layer done without re-watching AGAIN. You inspire me, J, I WILL BEAT IT AGAIN! :)
the second layer is frustrating. this is pretty nerdy, but here's how i remembered it:
so with the dan brown method, the second layer algorithm for moving a square to the left face is: U'L' UL UF U'F'. so i literally think "ull ull uff uff," which are just meaningless grunts but it works. then i remember that the inverted moves are like book ends to the whole sequence. also you can remember that you have to turn the left face since you are trying to move the square to the left.
but if you want to move it to the right face, then it's:
UR U'R' U'F' UF
so in my head, i make the sounds "urr urr uff uff," and i know the inverted moves are in the middle, the opposite of the other algorithm.
that's pretty stupid but it worked for me. eventually i didn't even need to think of it like that - my hands simply remembered the moves because i'd done them so much.
you might also try making up a sentence. you can use the word "You" for the "Up" moves. maybe something like:
U Lose U Lose U Fool U Fool
for me, the dumber the mnemonic device, the better it seems to work.
congratulations and keep practicing!
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