Saturday, December 23, 2006
thinking outside the box
Not!
a rubik's cube is great stress relief. if u have a good cube, u can just close your eyes and mangle it to the sound of its smooth clicks. and if u can solve it, well all the better. it beats those stress balls which i've never found useful squeezing, just for bouncing off walls and double-bounces off corners.
i was a kid when i quickly gave up on my rubik. it was an antique hand-me-down belonging to my bro/sis, and i unwittingly got showered in black dust every time i played with it. i dunno how it made it to our new house, taking up residence in a cabinet under the tv.
a month or so ago, i got bored one day at my aunt's. there was an unsolved cube on the table, and i solved one side quickly enough. it was feel good moment, cut short as i suddenly saw it was useless. so i progressed to solving 1 layer, which is the 1 side with the 12 corresponding colours on the 4 adjacent sides correctly in place. that ended up pretty stifling, becoz whatever else u did after simply breaks up your hard work.
so i jumped on the net. fine, i "cheated". wonder of wonders, doing it layer by layer is actually the widely accepted method. but i found this theory that... if u solve a small 2x2x2 corner first, that leaves u 3 sides still to play with and more twisting freedom. i went back to kamun's cube and laboriously practised making 2x2x2's until i broke it.
my fingers itched at home too, so i resurrected that decades-old cube and sat with scrap newspaper to collect the dust. that thing sheds plastic flakes at every twist, it's a bloody health hazard. i guess it's too stiff to break, but the cubelets are coming apart. i scoured all the major malls to little avail... only cheapo trinket cubes, not at all conducive to fun. man, malaysia sucks.
i sent word to australia for some quality cubes. and one day on our routine invasions of terry's home, he says "i got something for u"... how thoughtful! much appreciated my friend! the new stiffness went away after a quick couple hundred twists. i went nuts while waiting for mich's delivery and now even That cube is slowly coming apart. and shedding dust.
now i'm a proud owner of an original, 25-year-anniversary edition Rubik! thanks to wl, who suffered a solo summer outing for it and still insists it's a present. i have a cheaper taiwanmade cube for kamun becoz, well, it's a present whaaaaaat. actually i wanted 2 taiwanmades for us both but that was apparently the last 1 in mindgames, so it had to be the original. even listening to it makes u feel like a pro.
i've been a master for a bit now... at solving 2 layers. the last layer still has me thinking until i get lost, and when i make the moves it jumbles up and i start over. either repairing back to the 2-layer or if it's too much of a hassle, all over. and when i finally solve it, i'm gonna put it on my resume. serious.
a rubik's cube is great stress relief. if u have a good cube, u can just close your eyes and mangle it to the sound of its smooth clicks. and if u can solve it, well all the better. it beats those stress balls which i've never found useful squeezing, just for bouncing off walls and double-bounces off corners.
i was a kid when i quickly gave up on my rubik. it was an antique hand-me-down belonging to my bro/sis, and i unwittingly got showered in black dust every time i played with it. i dunno how it made it to our new house, taking up residence in a cabinet under the tv.
a month or so ago, i got bored one day at my aunt's. there was an unsolved cube on the table, and i solved one side quickly enough. it was feel good moment, cut short as i suddenly saw it was useless. so i progressed to solving 1 layer, which is the 1 side with the 12 corresponding colours on the 4 adjacent sides correctly in place. that ended up pretty stifling, becoz whatever else u did after simply breaks up your hard work.
so i jumped on the net. fine, i "cheated". wonder of wonders, doing it layer by layer is actually the widely accepted method. but i found this theory that... if u solve a small 2x2x2 corner first, that leaves u 3 sides still to play with and more twisting freedom. i went back to kamun's cube and laboriously practised making 2x2x2's until i broke it.
my fingers itched at home too, so i resurrected that decades-old cube and sat with scrap newspaper to collect the dust. that thing sheds plastic flakes at every twist, it's a bloody health hazard. i guess it's too stiff to break, but the cubelets are coming apart. i scoured all the major malls to little avail... only cheapo trinket cubes, not at all conducive to fun. man, malaysia sucks.
i sent word to australia for some quality cubes. and one day on our routine invasions of terry's home, he says "i got something for u"... how thoughtful! much appreciated my friend! the new stiffness went away after a quick couple hundred twists. i went nuts while waiting for mich's delivery and now even That cube is slowly coming apart. and shedding dust.
now i'm a proud owner of an original, 25-year-anniversary edition Rubik! thanks to wl, who suffered a solo summer outing for it and still insists it's a present. i have a cheaper taiwanmade cube for kamun becoz, well, it's a present whaaaaaat. actually i wanted 2 taiwanmades for us both but that was apparently the last 1 in mindgames, so it had to be the original. even listening to it makes u feel like a pro.
i've been a master for a bit now... at solving 2 layers. the last layer still has me thinking until i get lost, and when i make the moves it jumbles up and i start over. either repairing back to the 2-layer or if it's too much of a hassle, all over. and when i finally solve it, i'm gonna put it on my resume. serious.
