Long story short – after being gifted a 5x5x5 rubik’s cube, I decided to buy myself a 3x3x3 (standard size) cube since I never knew how to solve one. In less than 48 hours, and after a LOT of time spent reading tutorials online and watching YouTube videos and Googling, I had finally learned the cube well enough to solve it without using any cheat-sheets. Unfortunately, despite some excellent resources that are out there I still had some trouble learning how to solve it due to two primary factors: #1, there are a LOT of different “Beginner’s Methods” out there. Finding one that made sense to me and was explained well was a personal challenge. #2, most Beginner’s Methods that are out there are written by very experienced cubers. That’s great for getting some in-depth explanations on certain portions of the solve, but I found it was also a detriment in some ways because these cubers didn’t seem to grasp anymore what it meant to be a “beginner” cuber. 

Another thing I felt that most tutorials lacked was the explanation that you should really, honestly, truly WATCH what you are doing when attempting to learn how to solve the cube. Personally, I don’t learn well by seeing R U R’ written down and say “oh, ok, no problem”. I need to see that move in action on the cube, and even if I don’t fully comprehend what exactly is happening, I can see what is happening which helps my brain remember what my hands should be doing so that my eyes see the same thing next time. 

I also ran into a few cases where the person explaining the solve either underestimated the person wanting to learn to solve the cube, or greatly overestimated them. “This algorithm should be real easy for you to learn, it’s only 18 moves long.” Oye. Or, the flip side of that coin was “Try this algorithm to do what you need to do next. Depending on the state of your cube you may need to do this 1, 3, 5, or 39 times in order to get the cube to look like what you want”. (I may have slightly exaggerated that, but the point stands). What I would prefer, myself, in a Beginner’s Method is to be given some basic instructions on what I should be looking to accomplish, what I should do in order to reach that goal, and be given not only an explanation of what is happening when I do that but also be presented with one or two alternatives saying “hey, if the first thing isn’t working for you, maybe this will help instead”. To me that seems like a fairly basic teaching method which would help a lot of newer cubers. 

Before I do start into my own ideas on what may help beginning cubers on their way to solving the cube, I do want to give credit to the two primary places online which helped me as I learned how solve the cube myself.

CubeStation - http://www.cubestation.co.uk/ – DanH has a lot of great information on here for beginning cubers and is probably the most well-thought-out tutorial that I found. The Java applets also really help for watching some of the algorithms in action for when you’re unclear on what exactly the notation in the algorithm means you should do. 

Badmephisto on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/badmephisto – A personal hero of mine for making extremely well-made video tutorials for many aspects of solving the cube, including a great 3-part series for beginners as well as more advanced concepts for once you start to get more comfortable with the cube such as intuitive F2L (if you decide to learn the Fridrich method later), advanced cross techniques, commutators, and more. 

So anyway, that all said and done I suppose without an further adieu I present my effort at teaching others how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. 

update 3/3/09: this series of blog entries is actually going to become separate pages within the site to accomodate the addition of some Java applets to help illustrate the points. This post will be updated when the entry point to the series has been created. I do know of at least two of you who have been actively asking where this tutorial is, and all I can say is “soon”.

Sitting around the lunch table at work the other day, some coworkers started talking about old 80′s shows. Of course the usual Thundercats, Smurfs, etc references came up. Bo-ring. One guy says “Do you remember the Snorks?” Come on, man. Who doesn’t remember the Snorks? You think that’s obscure? Please. How about the shows that never seem to come up during these conversations…

• Danger Mouse – Who doesn’t love an international spy, especially one who happens to be a mouse with an eyepatch? And who could forget the mini-episodes contained within each DM episode featuring Bananaman? Watch the intro
• Scooby Doo’s Laff-A-Lympics – Probably the ultimate collection of Hanna-Barbara characters ever brought together in one place. Three teams compete each episode in a variety of competitions. Technically this first aired in the late 70′s, but you could still watch the reruns in the early 80′s and any kid watching cartoons probably saw this. Watch the intro
• Turbo Teen – A kid who turns into a car and back into human form when touched with hot or cold water. In my mind this was a much bigger show than it was (I even had the lunchbox back in kindergarten!). If you want to talk about a show almost no one remembers… mention Turbo Teen. Watch the intro
• Photon – You don’t get much campier than a teen laser tag idol who gets recruited by space warriors to fight against the bad guys. Wait, this suddenly sounds exactly like the laser tag equivalent of ‘The Last Starfighter’. Live-action, which means all the clips of the space monster fights et al are just as quality as watching a battle in an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. No, wait, this was worse. Essentially a huge marketing ploy for the Photon home laser tag toys.  Watch the beginning of an episode

Now we’re talking about some obscure 80′s shows.

I felt the need to document my play from this past weekend’s Greater Hartford Disc Golf Open due to just how miserable my performance was out there. With luck, being forced to fully review my rounds will help determine just what has gone awry in my game and prevent such a catastrophe from happening again in the future.

Wickham Park is a tough course when it wants to be. It’s not an easy course by any stretch, but it can certainly not be unthinkable to come out close to course par (58) if you’re playing intelligently and some of the top guys can routinely finish a round around 54 or better. In the first round I threw an abysmal 66. First hole of the day (Hole 2, for those that know the course), I duff my drive low into the ground where it grabs an edge and skitters Out-of-Bounds. I take my upshot, leave myself 20′ from the pin, and proceed to miss the putt to wind up with a 5. Next hole no real drama, but don’t take the 3 I wanted and card a 4 instead. I miss 15′ birdie putts on holes 4 and 5. I par 6 and 7, and my head is in a good place so far still for the round. Sure, I’ve already missed 3 putts inside 20 feet during the first 4 holes, but being +3 isn’t the end of the world and this can still be a decent round. I then take a 5 on hole 8 after a less-than-stellar drive lands on the edge of the treeline and I have trouble making a respectable upshot (and after approaching again, miss yet another 20-footer). Par out hole 9, then go OB on 10 into the boccee court. Hole 11 card a 5 after taking another OB penalty going over the wall on the right side of the hole. 3 on 12, 4 on 13 after my upshot doesn’t clear the last guardian trees on the edge of the pocket and I miss my putt, 3 on 14 as well. Hole 15 I putt low into the basket to try for deuce (third missed deuce attempt from inside 20′ this round). Hole 16, late wood just outside the pocket means I take a 3. Hole 17, 4th missed deuce putt from inside 20′ as I putt low yet again. Hole 18 my drive somehow doesn’t make it up onto the second plateau, and trying to muscle a TL with an uphill runup into a headwind I stand the disc up and go into the road for another OB penalty: miss the comeback putt due to the bushes between me and the basket, despite making a valiant run at it – another 5. Hole 1, miraculously no drama and the round is finally over.

I never got into my own head all round, at least as far as my spirits were concerned. I kept telling myself that every shot was a new shot, and I truly believed myself. But it was one of those rounds where anything that was going to go wrong, did go wrong. I rarely take an OB penalty at Wickham, especially knowing the course as well as I do when you know exactly how a disc would need to be thrown from almost any spot on the course in order to find it, and I took 4 that round. My rounds are usually pretty good at damage control (mostly), and I had five 5′s on the card – the OB’s certainly didn’t help that fact though. Four missed birdies all within 20′, and other missed putts from inside the same range for 3 or worse. I’m not a great putter, but that was abysmal stats even for my usual track record.

Round 2 was nothing special, shooting a 62 from the long layout (long tee 1, long pins on 7/9/18) which yes shaved 4 strokes off on a layout that probably plays about 3 par strokes tougher overall. And despite feeling fairly tepid about my 62, it still came back with an unofficial rating of 958. The first round? 893. Yes, I’ll say it again, 893. -sigh-