Archive for the Cubing Category

UPDATES…..

Posted in Blog, Borderlands, Cubing, DoDon Pachi, Games, Godflesh, Personal, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, The Walking Dead, Yankees on November 2, 2012 by slateman

It’s been a long time and a lot has happened. I’ve had some ups and downs these past few weeks but the good has been rather good. Let’s see…

First off, I’ll be getting a new cube any day now and I’m pretty psyched. It’s a cool one, it’s the curvy copter, and it’s a jumbling puzzle. It should be spectacular.

My Godflesh site turned 17 years old a few weeks ago. That’s insanely old.

Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2 – Making progress. Taking forever. Well worth the cashola.

I also picked up Street Fighter X Tekken as well for cheap. I’d played it several months ago and look forward to having it in my library!

The Yankees – I couldn’t even write about this. I still can’t.

The Walking Dead – both the game (episode 4) and show (episode 3) were solid. The game may have been a filler/connector episode and the show an introducer, but both were strong and make me yearn for more. Sadly the game’s sequel must wait quite a while.

Hurricane Sandy – :( So much destruction. :( :(

EPISODE VII!?!?!? I’ll post some thoughts on this soon. It may actually have a chance of being good. Four words – Pirates Of The Caribbean.

DoDonPachi: Maximum came out on the iPad and was on sale so I snatched that up. It’s kinda fun. It’s cool seeing the returning characters/stages/music and it is a pretty good challenge on later levels. I may pick up ESP Galuda II as well.

Enough for now?

New Cubing Record: 5×5 – 5:02.54! WOW!

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records on October 11, 2012 by slateman

Wow. WOW! As I got to my last layer in under 4:50, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My record stood at over 6 minutes for almost a year. One solve last week bested it by 25 seconds; yesterday’s solve shaved another 6 seconds off. Did I just beat that record by 42 seconds?! OH YEAH! ShengShou 5×5 is a beast. My edge pairing must’ve been solid to do that much better! I wrote yesterday that a sub-5:30 solve was a lofty goal. Even that was destroyed! So psyched!

New Cubing Record: 5×5 – 5:44.76

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records with tags on October 10, 2012 by slateman

With the bright lights at my desk at work, the quiet hum of the heater (it was 28 yesterday when I left for work) and the first real solitude in almost a month, I went at my former 5×5 record and managed to top it by 6 seconds! My ShengShou is now an awesome cube now that it’s broken in and I’d have to say it’s even better than my ShengShou 4×4. In any event, it’s another record which shows I’m improving. Centers were solved in 1:20 and the edges were done by just over 4 minutes. As I finished my cross and started F2L, I realized one set of edges was incomplete. That delayed me, meaning my record could’ve been another 10 seconds faster. I guess my new goal is 5:30. Awesome!

ShengShou 5×5 Get! New Record!

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records with tags on October 2, 2012 by slateman

I managed to finally get myself a new 5×5, a ShengShou (I love my 4×4). Initial inspection left me underwhelmed, however, as it wasn’t that much larger than my Mini-YJ and the turning was adequate at best. Several solves later, I managed my first sub-6 minute run! It actually broke my record by 25 seconds! Not bad!! Exciting times!

Dayan Zhanchi Lubricated = MONSTER

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records on September 21, 2012 by slateman

I tensioned my Zhanchi and it broke in rather quickly but it never felt as good as I had hoped. I’d seen reviews of this beast of a cube with outrageous corner cutting and sexy smooth turning. Mine was never quite as awesome as what I’d seen…and expected. Today, I grabbed some CRC silicon lubricant and took the thing apart.

What’s left behind is only the beastliest cube I’ve ever laid hands on. I tensioned it, as it needed some love there…but now it is a corner-cutting, slippery-smooth, soon-to-be record-breaking machine. And if that’s not enough hyphens for you, then know this…my record will be broken. Luck is partly involved…but a good run and my awesome Zhanchi together will make it happen. Just you wait!!!

Zhanchi Get! Oh, New Record Too!

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records on September 9, 2012 by slateman

So, I’ve completed at least 50 solves with my new Dayan Zhanchi and I quite like it. It’s clearly the best cube I own but it does need lubing. It’s time to do some research because the cube is spectacular. In the process of testing it all out, I managed to break my record…by a bit. It’s actually .03 seconds faster than my record…but I will never complain! I was pretty psyched! Here’s a snap of the counter. Awesome!

3×3 Dayan Zhanchi Ordered!

Posted in Cubing, Cubing Records on September 5, 2012 by slateman

My story is simple…I always was fascinated by the Rubik’s Cube but never got around to actually solving it. That was until my 35th birthday in February 2011. After purchasing a standard Rubik’s brand cube, I went out and got myself a white Guo-Jia A1. It’s a lot better than my original cube (whose yellow corner is almost white from so much use) but it’s not the greatest. That purchase was a year and a half ago and while my cube collection has grown considerably, I haven’t purchased a new 3×3 since.

For $10 though, I couldn’t turn it down. I don’t practice as much as I used to, and my F2L never really got past the ‘decent’ stage, but I wonder if there’s a chance of breaking my 36.15 seconds mark. I should have the cube by early next week…we’ll see what I think of it when it arrives!!! So psyched!

4×4 Best Of 5 Average

Posted in Blog, Cubing with tags on July 6, 2012 by slateman

I figured I’d keep going with this 4×4 thing. I didn’t break my record…but all five runs were pretty good!

2:54.51
2:54.74
2:47.16
2:53.95
2:58.49

That’s an average of 2:53.77. Not so bad!

New Cubing Record: 4×4 – 2:41.40

Posted in Blog, Cubing, Cubing Records with tags on July 5, 2012 by slateman

It was a calm fourth of July night. The day was insane and I sat down to relax. No PS3, of course…what to do…what to do…I could read, play the 360, Vita, chill, anything! Ah…some 4×4 runs, why not? Seven runs later, my average was 3:13.92. Not too bad, really. Worst time was 3:41 (WTF?!) Best run? 2:41.40!!! Oh yeah! I broke my goal of 2:45 and beat my record by 7 seconds. Thank you no parity! Anyways…I’m happy. Now to clean the house. Urgh.

Fisher Cube Parity

Posted in Algorithms, Blog, Cubing with tags on June 24, 2012 by slateman

Fisher Parity

The first time I tried solving the Fisher Cube, I encountered an interesting problem on the last layer. This was something I never came across on the Windmill Cube and in retrospect, I have no clue how I fixed it. I think I messed up the whole lot and didn’t have it the second time through. In searching online for parity fixes, most people find themselves in a very different position. This suggests their solution is very different from mine. The good news is that I don’t get the other parity error using my method. This should be the only parity alg I need to worry about. I’ve tossed it here as I’m going to forget this. Anyways, here it is…I found it on a German YouTube video.

(R U’2 R’ U)*2 (z) L’ U’ L