So, it's been a while...

Hello world!

Yeah...it's been, like, 8 months since my last post. Whoops.

I think school just got really busy, and then Winter Break was also pretty busy, and spring semester was crazy too. I think, in all honesty, I just kind of forgot about the blog.

But, here I am, with a MASSIVE status update.

So, I finished last semester with a 3.65 GPA. I got an A in both of my major classes, and I think B's or B-'s in my non major classes. I'm not at all worried about that. A 3.65 isn't bad at all, and the classes that really count I got A's in. It was a pretty fun semester, my first at a real college (after graduating High School I went to a Community College to get my Associate's while I figured out what I wanted to do), and that was neat. My school's campus is gorgeous, and the commute isn't bad, plus it gives me time to devour podcasts (speaking of, there needs to be a cube podcast, maybe I'll start one...). Winter Break was great, I got some serious gaming and cubing done, and my uncle stayed with us which was awesome.

Then, there was spring semester.

Because of getting my Associate's, that first semester was the only one in which I needed to take non major classes; starting in spring I only needed to take major classes, which is awesome. My major, by the way, is ASL (American Sign Language) Interpreting. I go and provide a bridge for Hearing people and Deaf people to communicate. Last semester I did have some major related classes, ASL I and Communication Development in Children, but it wasn't until this semester that I got really immersed in ASL, Deaf Culture, and Interpreting. I love it.

But anyway, with all major classes, this semester was a bit rough. I had ASL II (which was fantastic and I love my teacher), Language Teaching Methods with Deaf Children, the Profession of Interpreting, and Interpreting in Educational Settings. I loved all my classes and teachers, and managed to scrape by with (drumroll please...) a 4.0 for the semester! I think I got A+'s in all my classes, which somehow managed to pull my cumulative GPA to a 3.97. Not to shabby. I think that how this is possible is that, while an A+ can only count as a 4.0, it's weighted more than that. So, while 4 A+'s gave me a 4.0 GPA for the semester, it pulled my cumulative up more like it was weighted as a 4.5 or something.

Anyway though, this is a cubing blog, so lets talk about cubing. I have gotten so many cubes since last post it's ridiculous. I really, really want to post a cube collection video soon, and so there'll be a blog accompanying that. But, here's a sneak peak:

In back is the DaYan + mf8 4x4 I've talked about previously. If you remember, it was super rough and kind of disappointing out of the box. But, I disassembled it, adjusted the tensions, and lubricated both the complicated 2x2 internals (more on that later) and the actual cubies. Now, it's fantastic. It's super easy to turn, that squishiness is gone, and it's just a nice, sexy 4x4.

On the back left, is my pillowed V-Cube 3. It is the most recent addition to the V-Cube family, and it's pretty sweet. I got the pillowed one because that was all that was available, but I like it. V-Cube has tended to release their cubes in both pillowed and cubic, since the pillowed shape is pretty quintessential V-Cube because of the 7x7. It's really neat, but I do definitely want to get the cubic V-3 at some point, because it's a sweet cube.

Front left is the DaYan Guhong. This is the second cube in the DaYan line, and it's great. DaYan is know for being one of the best names in speedcubing, and despite the fact that they have released three since the Guhong it is still held in really high regard. This is my first DaYan 3x3, and I'm in love. It's so smooth and easy and fast and it cuts (and reverse cuts!) like a boss. I'm thinking about doing a DaYan post soon, so more on that later, but it's great.

Lastly is my little V-Cube 2. This one I did get in cubic, and I do like it quite a bit. I think my Lanlan 2x2 is my favorite, but it's pretty sweet. The only problem is that the turning is a little tight, but if I ever muster up the courage to disassemble, adjust and tension it, I think it'll be pretty sweet. The colors on both of these (and all other V-Cubes) is great, they pop really well, and the stickers are pretty good quality.

That's just a small sampling of all of the ridiculousness I have right now. I think, at last count, I had 2 7x7's, 3 6x6's, 7 5x5's, 9 4x4's, 15+ 3x3's (15 serious ones, a few other dollar store or other random, not high quality ones, and that 15 isn't counting shape mods), and 4 2x2's. Plus, 6 or so cuboids, probably half a dozen shape mods, two in the skewb family, 5 minxes, and a few others. I think I have 70-80 in total. :D.

I'll post more detail later, I have a few ideas for some blogs, plus I'll have at least one video coming out soon and have others that need accompanying blogs, so yeah. I'll talk to you soon.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. As I've done in the past, I'm going to try to link to another neat cubing related video at the end of each post, so here's one of the first real puzzle I've made/modded!

I got mah cubies!

So, my cubes came in. If you follow my other blog, you'll know that.

So go there.

As a basic recap, I have cubes. On the agenda for the next week or so, I plan to merge my blogs, to do a serious update (because my blog needs one), and perhaps get some more cubing in. I had two pretty important tests due today, so the past weekend has been cuhrazy. I do have another test of lamost equal magnitude due next Tuesday, so I'll probably be pretty busy between now and then too, but hopefully I'll have time to focus on blogging/cubing. I also have an unboxing video for my new cubes that I should probably post.

So yeah. Stay tuned, ladies and gents.

Hecks to the yes.

Just saying, this is a beautiful thing:

So, they finally finished all of their shenanigans and have given me the money for the book.

I'm placing the cube order as we speak.

:D

Grr...

Hey guys!

Not much to day as far as cubing goes.

Amazon STILL has not decided that they do in fact have my textbook. It was scanned as being delivered 2:00 am on Friday, which means that, unless UPS is lying, they've had it for nearly 120 hours, or 5 full days. Granted, they probably don't do much on Sundays, and hey, I'll even give them Saturday (who doesn't need some days off here and there?). But really guys, what the hell did you do Friday? Monday? Tuesday? I mean, really, I'm not even asking that you have appraised it already (although you totally could have; I'm sure the department it's sent to exists solely to do just that), but just for you, Amazon, to let me know that you're processing it. I'm getting both pretty frustrated and apprehensive about this, the last thing I want is my book valued at $78 dollars to have gotten lost in your bull.

So, clearly, I don't have the money in my Amazon account yet, and so have not been able to order the cubes I mentioned earlier.

As far as cubing goes, I really haven't had much time to cube lately. But, I have actually done some cubing during my breaks on campus, and so far no one has kicked sand in my face and called me a dork, so hopefully that continues.

Also, my other cubes like trying to eat the stickers off of my V-5. Apparently, the stickers' adhesive is not as good as it once was, because more than once, this has happened:

Usually, the culprit is my LanLan 4x4, but this time it was my QJ Mini 3x3. Sometimes it's an orange V-5 sticker, it's been a black one before, and this time it's clearly my red ones. There will be another cube, one of which's stickers is slightly coming up. I guess the corner of that slides under the V-5 stickers (and always with the sticky sides facing each other), and then I have a cube with V-5 stickers stuffed guiltily in its mouth. Like above.

Moral of the story? I need to place a CubeSmith order soon.

Til next time

I know, I know...

Hey guys!

So it's legit been a week since I've posted.

I'm sorry.

As much as I don't know how you've made it these last 168 hours or so without any new content from me (unless you've been checking out my other blog, which is only slightly more recent), I'm glad you survived.

There's really not much to say now, I just wanted you guys to know I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I will do my absolute best to post tomorrow; I have a break in the middle of the day and I'm not sure that I'll rally have anything to do in that time, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me.

But, just in case you were wondering, this is one of my favorite puzzles right now:

Both because of the kind of puzzle it is and because of the brand of puzzle. V-cubes are really good quality (despite what the chipped, play-doh looking stickers suggest), and 5x5's are just fun in general. They're a significant enough puzzle that it takes satisfying amount of time to solve (about 4 minutes, as opposed to the 40 seconds for a 3x3), but much more practical than my 15 minute solves for the 7x7. Plus, this one is so much fun to solve because its such a great quality cube.

So, that's it for now. Sorry for the kind of lame update, but it's better than nothing.

P.S. Amazon, although having received my textbook, have yet to appraise the book and deposit the money into my account, so I have yet to place the cube order mentioned in the last post.

Another Cube Order

Yet again, I've fiddled with the display settings on the blog. Hopefully you like them. I've added a couple polls, they should be displaying to the right as we speak. Please answer them. :D. I've also updated my About Me section, added the picture at the top right, and have changed the font and tweaked the width settings. Let me know what you think.

Also, I started a WordPress blog. I'm going to try to get a feel for it, maybe blog there for a while (don't worry, if I blog there about cubes, I'll have identical posts here). Maybe, I'll have a personal blog there! I've been feeling like I needed one. So, maybe I'll start a personal blog there, and then perhaps I'll like one or the other (Blogger or Wordpress) a good deal more and will decide to move to one exclusively. We'll just have to see.

So, the main point of this post is to talk the next cube order I'm going to place! I'll be mailing my linear algebra book from last semester to Amazon soon (hopefully tomorrow), and with the credit I'll get from that I plan to get a few cubes. Yay!

So, let's take a look that cubes I'll be getting.

The first cube I'll talk about is this one. It's an Eastsheen brand 2x2, and, as you can clearly, annoyingly see, it's from Sara's Toy Store. It's also white, which makes me happy: I really prefer white cubes. The colors pop more, whereas with black cubes everything looks dark and muddled. I just wish companies would stop putting white stickers on white cubes; while sometimes it's nifty, black on white is gorgeous. Hell, replace yellow with white if you really want white stickers, but really, keep black on there.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked about this one. My brother's new Eastsheen 2x2 is kinda tight, but it's also not broken in yet. I've heard they're pretty good once broken in. Also, I have but one, single 2x2 (unless you count my Rubik's Jr., which sucks).

The next one I'll mention is also an Eastsheen, and also, obviously, from Sara's. This one, though, is a 4x4, and is also white (just in case you can read but are blind to pictures). I'm pretty stoked about this one, too. My brother's new 4x4 is nice, and, while it still needs some breaking in, is almost better than any of my 4x4's. If not already.

Eastsheens are also just known for being pretty high-quality puzzles for their price. I've been getting more into bigger puzzles lately, which has increased my desire for variety as well as better quality puzzles. I like having the same puzzle from a few different manufacturers, because they're always at least slightly different. They feel different to turn, and also to solve. So, this will provide me with some 4x4 variety as well as with a better quality 4x4.

Next, I'm finishing off the set and getting the Eastsheen 5x5. They only make 2x2s, 4x4s, and 5x5s (does anyone else find it odd that they don't offer 3x3s?), and so this way I'll have all of them. Plus, there's the same variety factor. I've only got 2 5x5s (my V-Cube and my new pillowed QJ), and so this will give me a third, different one. I don't expect it to be better than my V-5, but I think it'll be pretty nice and I'm just interested in their's.

The next puzzle I'm getting is called the 'Out-of-Focus-4x4.' Just kidding, it's just a crappy picture. It's the YJ 4x4. I have the YJ 3x3, as well as the Axis cube and the Fisher cube by them. I know, I know, knock-offs. I honestly did not know what a knock-off was or how to identify them when I ordered those, I was just looking for some interesting puzzles. But, oh well.

 YJ puzzles tend to have a light, airy feel to them, seem to have dry, but nearly resistance-free, turning, and, once lubed with silicone, turn pretty fast. I'm pretty stoked about it, and it will satisfy the aforementioned need for variety.

Next up sort of goes along with the previous one: the YJ 5x5. I'm pretty excited for this one as well, because of many of the same reasons above.

It surely wont be as good as my V-5, and it could be as good as, slightly better than, or worse than my Eastsheen 5x5. Hopefully it will have the same proficiency at corner-cutting that my YJ 3x3 has, which is a bit but not a lot.

Another thing to note about this puzzle is that it's small. It's the same size as the YJ 4x4, with a side length of 6 cm. I wonder how that's going to feel to solve.

 Finally, this one has the potential to be the best of all of the puzzles I'll be getting in this shipment. It's the DaYan + mf8 4x4. Both of those companies are pretty respected, as far as quality goes, and I'm excited to try out the fruit of their combined efforts.

This is also just ranked as a pretty sweet 4x4 in its own right, regardless of the reputation of the manufacturers. I've seen more people raving about the Maru 4x4 and the X-Cube 4x4, but I've seen my fair share of positive praise for this one.

It's funny, it's going to stand out from my others in this order in a few ways. First, it's supposedly going to be the best one I'm getting. Second, it's the only black one. And third, it's the only one that isn't part of a pair or grouping (Eastsheen 2x2, 4x4, 5x5; YJ 4x4, 5x5).

All in all, I'm really excited. Writing this post motivated me to really try to get my book out tomorrow so that I can get these cubes sooner. I can't wait to try them all out.

Also, as far as a status update goes, I know I still need to post the corresponding posts for the two Tutorials on my channel right now, and I know I need to get a Master Skewb tutorial up. It's just hard to find a solid chunk of free time between work and school, but I promise, I haven't forgotten about it.

So check out this video, which is of another one of Oskar van Deventer's awesome puzzles, and don't forget to vote in the polls to the right and leave any feedback on the blog layout, the post content, or any other thoughts or opinions in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Pillows?

Hey guys!

So, today I'm going to tell you about my most recent cube order. Wont that be fun?

First, there will be an unboxing video (I just need to edit it), and when there is, it will be on my YouTube channel. Keep your pants on. I'm busy.

So, on to the cubes.

This order was mostly initiated by my brother. Once upon a time, he had, each an Eastsheen, a 2x2 and a 4x4. Both of these, however, quickly were no more. His 2x2 was in his pocket, or something, and he fell on it. I don't believe that that broke it, just caused some of the pieces to pop out and disassemble. However, in the process of trying to reassemble it, one of the core arms broke. It may or may not have cracked in the fall. His 4x4, however, didn't break; he was simply solving it outside, somehow got it to pop, and lost one of the tiny internal pieces in the grass. Either way, within a week, neither cube was functional.

So, upon being paid for a job caring for my neighbors pets, he decided he wanted to order replacements, which is understandable. But, since he doesn't have an account on Amazon, I decided that I couldn't order him cubes and not get some for myself. Duh.

He also decided to get a 3x3x1, like mine, as well as an Eastsheen Double 2x2 (his is white: this is, I believe, the only instance of the colors being switched. He tends to favor black cubes; I, white. But, my double 2x2 is black, and his is white), and finally, a QJ Pyraminx Crystal. This is the first time he has ever owned a type of puzzle that I don't (he'll have different brands than me, but never a different kind of puzzle). And, he actually can solve almost the whole thing by himself. Within a day of opening it, he had all but the last layer solved. It eventually thwarted him, but still, I was impressed.

So, anyways, the two cubes I got were two QJ pillowed cubes, the 4x4 and 5x5. I do already have a couple 4x4's and a 5x5, and I did not get them because I thought that they would be better (although I have heard some good reviews of the QJ Mini 4x4), but rather, because I thought that having a pillowed 4x4 and 5x5 would be awesome. And, I'm right:
 

I love them. They're so cool looking. Something about them bulging out, as if all that coolness was itching to free itself, just makes them visually striking. And, they feel good to hold. I'll do a few solves on the 4x4, then switch to my cubic one, and even though the quality of the LanLan is greater, I definitely prefer the feeling of the pillowed one.

Speaking of quality, they're pretty good. The 4x4 turns smoothly, especially the 2-layer turns. It does have some friction when you're going to turn a layer perpendicular to one you just turned; it's as if the inner pieces that have to slide around each other have sharp edges, and very tight tolerances. If you've ever turned a void cube, you know what I'm talking about. It's like that. But, it is fun to turn, and, while it's not as good as my LanLan, it's still fun to solve, mostly because of the curve.

The 5x5, however...Hmm.

The funness of the curved shape is still there, and it's not a bad quality turn. Each layer turns pretty smoothly and easily, especially the two layer turns. However, because of the way it's pillowed, the outer layer turns are a little picky. Let me explain.

On a V-7, the edge and corner cublets are larger than the others. This is partially done for the same reason it's pillowed in the first place: to avoid having the corner cublets fall off when the top layer is turned 45 degrees. I do believe that there's another reason, though. Pillowing it like this, making the edges and corners larger cublets, helps them from being tiny. Think about the corner of a square. If you rounded the edges slightly, the way you would to pillow a cube, you remove some of the square. The curves start on the straight lines that intersect to form the corner of the square, but then curve inwards, meeting each other on the bisector of the corner, but pulled in some from where the corner is. So, by making the corners and edges from larger original cublets, the finished, pillowed cublets are closer to the same size as the regular cublets than they would be if you started with regular cublets and then shaved them down into a pillowed shape. You following me so far?

On the QJ's, however, they chose the latter; they pillowed standard sized cublets.

In this picture, you can see how the corners on the V-7 are about the same size as the center cublets, because they chose bigger 'original' cublets. The QJ, however, used normal 'original' cublets, and thus the corners are about a quarter of the size of the center cublets.

I can't speak for the 4x4, but my brother has a normal QJ 5x5, and if you hold it next to my pillowed on, the distance between opposite centers is the same, but then it pillows down. It's the same shape you'd have if you took a normal cube, peeled off all the stickers, pillowed it yourself with a sander or Dremel, and then restickered it. Because of this, the corner cublets are noticeably smaller. On the 4x4, this presents no issue. On the 5x5, though, the outer layers are positively tiny. Not only does this make turning feel a little odd, because the layers aren't really the same size, but it also means that the relatively smaller pieces in the outer layer have a tendency to get caught on each other and lock up.

I realize that that may sound odd. I agree that it doesn't make sense that modifying the outer surfaces of the cublets should make the internals catch more, but that's the only thing I can think of. Again, my brother's normal 5x5 is the same size, and because of this, I feel like they're basically the same puzzle; the internals should be identical, with them just using molds that differed with regards to the shape of the outer cublets. So, the only difference I can think of is that mine's pillowed. His doesn't lock up this way.

It could be a result of breaking in and lubrication. His has been broken in, through use and Vaseline, and is lubricated. But I don't remember his locking up this much. I plan on lubricating them and breaking them in with Vaseline, and I feel like that will help the tension on the 4x4, as well as the catchiness of the 5x5. My brother's is pretty good. We'll just have to see.

So, that's about it for now. All in all, I really like solving them, and hopefully breaking in and lubricating will help.

Thanks for reading, and check this out. It's pillowed, but it's an 11x11 (notice the larger edge pieces!).

An Algorithm in Time

Hey guys!

So, the other day I did some pretty sweet timed solves. And by 'some,' I mean that I did 72 back-to-back solves of 3x3's. Wow.

My main goal was, like last time, to both see which of my cubes is fastest, as well as to see how fast I was in general. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

So, the set-up was this: I solved each cube 12 times, again using CubeTimer. I solved my Sheng-En first, and also last. I wanted to see if solving it so much would affect me in either of two ways, or not at all. I thought that, maybe, the second set of 12 would be faster because I had warmed up more. Or, that doing that many solves would sort of make me get a little worn-out, and would be slower. These would be good things to know for competitions. I will provide all 12 solve times, with the best and worst for each set in green and red, respectively. The average listed will be of the 10 remaining solve times after the best and worst are dropped, as is done in competition. So, here are the results:

Sheng-En:

46.24

36.52
37.81
37.18
38.11
38.36
45.76
40.21

33.85

40.37
37.73
38.08
Average: 39.01

 

LanLan
40.03
42.96
35.46
36.00
32.69

45.49

39.64
39.82
44.34

27.03

39.69
37.39

Average: 38.85

YJ
35.98
39.41
37.01
42.55
40.73
35.73

33.66

43.09
38.54
37.59
46.12

47.11

Average: 39.68

Mini QJ
45.94
31.73
37.08
35.12
40.52
35.63
46.42

31.35

48.04

48.06

40.49
46.85

Average: 40.78

Rubik's
43.44
35.77
33.82
43.75
42.53
43.21
41.80
36.10
41.79

48.82

47.03
31.61

Average: 40.92

Sheng-En Round II
41.08
39.03

31.56

34.56
42.37
41.54

44.15

42.00
39.42
34.12
34.53
41.78

Average: 39.04




Lots of numbers. Lots and lots. But, some interesting results. I did have a slightly slower solve the second round with my F-II, but the difference is negligible (in fact, when I tabulate the average of all 12 solves, the second round is faster than the first).

The comparisons are a bit different and odd this time, with my fastest being....drumroll please....my LanLan! What? Yup. It had both the fastest average of all 5 cubes, as well as (and those of you that are observant may have noticed) I actually set my new personal best with it! That's crazy...because I would have thought that the F-II would have been best. It's known as being a really fast speedcube, and it feels like it should be the better cube. Really. It takes almost no effort to turn, it cuts corners like mad, and it just feels quick. Granted, it pops a helluva lot, but when it doesn't, it's fast. The Lanlan, however, seems like a good, solid, stable cube, but it doesn't really feel like the fastest. But, you can't really argue. Not only did it have the best average, but it had the best single time out of these and the best single time I've yet to record. So, yeah. Wowzers.

I'm pretty happy with these times though. I got a new personal best, which is nice. But, nicer is the fact that I am now officially sub-40 as an average. This is really, really exciting to me.

I'd like to get to have my average between 30 and 35, although the closer to thirty the better, at which point I'm going to begin the monumental task of trying to learn the Fridrich method. I figure that if I can get to that speed with just the beginners method, once I learn Fridrich I'll be really, really fast.

So, that's going to sum it up for this post. I have more (read: LOTS), but I'm going to save that for another post. I'm now officially sub-40, I have a 27 second solve under my belt (all with beginners method), and my LanLan is my fastest cube (without lubing or adjusting). So yeah.

Til next time!

Sean's Post Part I

Hey guys!

It's been sooooo long since I posted, yeah? Haha. About 7.5 hours.

I'm posting again because I have free time for a bit, because I'm in a bloggy mood, and because, now that I've specifically mentioned that one of the posts I've been planning was for Sean, I felt that I needed to go ahead and get the post up before he read that so he'd still be surprised.

Before that, though, I have a bit of an update. I changed the design of my blog! It's not super different, but I like it a little more. It feels more serious. While I liked the cubic background on the last one, mostly because it related to the subject matter of the blog, I didn't really like the font. It was all caps, and kinda blocky, and it just felt childish. I feel like, all in all, the blog has a slightly more serious look to it. I also widened the vertical band that the posts go in, which is awesome, because it felt super narrow before. There was enough room for like, five words before it carried onto the next line, and there was huge amounts of empty space at the sides. Completely unnecessary. So, that's done. I may even widen it more than it is now, because there's still some room. I'd have widened it all the way before, if I could; for some reason, as I adjusted the width of the right-hand column, it updated the preview, but it wouldn't for the overall width, so I had to apply it and exit the editor. I also decided to keep the black background for a few reasons, the first being that I tend to like looking at light text on a dark background. Sometimes a white screen can feel like a lightbulb, and isn't fun to look at for periods of time. Plus, this way I'm saving you electricity/battery life! That's right, switching from white to black background knocks power consumption a good deal. Finally, whenever I post pictures of puzzles, this'll make the colors pop more.

Okay, so, onto the actual post, the bit that's directed at you. That's right, You. Although this will apply to anyone who's beginning to cube.

I realize that on our skype convo, when I tried to explain some tips and tricks to improve your 3x3 time, it was probably a bit hard to follow and remember, so I'm gonna link you to some videos that you can watch again and again, all of which are about improving your time. You'll be sub 1 before you know it. There are some tricks that I use that I don't think are represented here, so hopefully you'll remember those, but if not, I can show you again.

The first two are MeMyselfAndPi's two videos on 'shortcuts' for the 3x3. There's Part 1 and Part 2. I have watched both of these, and most of the ideas he puts forward I'm aware of and use, although there are a few that had never occurred to me (like, when getting the fake cross, reversing the algorithm to get from the little l to the cross, rather than progressing the line, then the cross), and that I still haven't implemented, although that one specifically I'm going to try to.

The next video is by Dan Brown, of pogobat. This is the guy who's video I originally learned to solve the cube from, and he makes great videos. He's really good at teaching and laying it out in an easy to understand manner, and I recommend him. But, this is his video on how to get a bit faster. Granted, one of the things he recommends is lubing the cube, which you've already done, but hopefully you'll be able to find something that does help you a bit.

Finally, I'm going to recommend this one. This guy is one of the best cubers I follow. While, this video is part one in his series, I don't feel like hunting down all of them, and from this one you can get to the others. Granted, this one isn't a video on how to get faster, but rather a video on how to solve it, but there maybe some bits in there that you don't use that could come in handy. It can never hurt to see other people explain it, or see other ways to do it.

Which brings me to another point in this goal. I highly recommend learning as many other methods as possible. Ever. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that other methods will most likely make you think about the cube differently. This will greatly improve one's overall grasp and understanding of the cube, and make everything on the cube more intuitive. You will just understand how everything is related better be more in-tune with it. It will get you more used to looking at the cube in different ways, to thinking about the cube in different ways, and to turning the cube in different ways. The more sets of moves, ways of turning, and kinds of algorithms you can get your hands used to, the better. The second is that it can give you some alternate algorithms. There are literally limitless algorithms that are possible, and a great many that do the same thing but in different ways (two separate algorithms may both flip the same to corners clockwise, but one may disturb the other corners while the other effects the edges, or one may be longer but consist of easier turns and therefore be faster). I know that how I solve the cube is the beginners method augmented with an algo from edges first, and sometimes I use an algo from corners first, if I notice the case in time. My brother, in fact, for a while (and may still) used a hybrid method which was about evenly beginners and edges first.

Eventually, there are some really advanced methods you should learn, like the Petrus method and the idolized Fridrich method, but for now I recommend watching the aforementioned videos (fazrulz1 also has a great series on how to get faster at the cube, and is literally one of the fastest in the world. Just look him up on YT), as well as this video on edges first (he's not the best teacher, its kinda confusing, but I can help explain it), and looking up a corners first method (I can't seem to find the one I used right now and am pressed for time, but I still have my original notes and can show you if none of the videos you find are good).

And, unfortunately, the last tip for now on how to improve is to PRACTICE! :D. Hopefully these will help, and hopefully this wasn't boring but rather something that you'll like.

Update

So, it's been about a week since I updated.

My bad.

I've been pretty darn busy. School started this week, and I've been working at two stores at 40+ hours this week, so I've had literally no free time. At all. I haven't even had much time to cube. Yeah, it's that bad.

But, there WILL be more posts this weekend. I promise. I have tomorrow off, and a huge chunk of free time in the afternoon. I have a post I'm going to be making for this guy, as well as a post accompanying my most recent video. Plus I want to post about my current times (which are a good deal better than the last time post). And I need to post because I have some new cubes in the mail... So yeah, I really need to get on that. And that doesn't include any of the videos I've currently got queued up.

But, I just wanted to post to let you guys know that I'm not dead, nor have I forgotten about this blog. I have to go now, because I have to work, but enjoy this. I really like Pi's creativeness when it comes to videos.