slateblog

I’ve been solving the 4×4 a bunch lately, it’s so much more enjoyable now that I have the ShengShou, and it’s becoming a nice quick solve. This is something I can do in just a few minutes when I have a few to spare. I’ve given up on getting more than one color in the middle layer at a time, as it just slows me down. I realize it’s better, but I have a hard enough time figuring out which color is next sometimes. So, after a few runs this morning, including another sub-3 minute solve, I bested my record by just about 3 seconds. It’s not a wonderful speed, I guess my new goal is 2:45, but it’s something. I encountered parity in my last step, but that’s an easy algorithm. I truly hate having to do the long parity alg. The boy was ready for a nap, so he cried the entire last minute. Good thing I can tune him out. heh. So, 4×4, a new record, felt pretty good about things!

Yeah…that’s right. 28 friggin’ minutes. Well, I’ve been meaning to do an actual speed (?) run and tonight was the night. Now, first off, the 7×7 is a beast. It took 10 minutes just to get the centers, another 6 to get the middle 3 edges, but another 10 (!) for the final edges. I messed up a few times on that one. I’d say that wrecked my chances for a fast run, but let’s face it, it took forever. Ultimately though, I really wanted to have a figure, and 28 minutes+ it is. It was fun. I listened to some Satch, got over the fact that my son drooled on the cube and lost a green/yellow edge sticker. At least it turns a bit better than my V-Cube 6, but it was harder than normal to align the layers to turn at first. OK. Done. 7×7 record set. I’m happy.

7x7 Cube Record

I think I’ll dissolve my old Cubelog and post everything here. After my new purchase a few weeks ago (3x3x2, Pyraminx, Skewb), I realized I would never go for speed on most. However, the Pyraminx is not a difficult puzzle and so I did decide to time myself. Today’s record of 13.80 seconds is not bad. With only three algorithms, really (I’d actually say two) it’s not hard to go for speed. A little luck goes a long way! Cube Records posted here.