My Cube and Me

This is a story about me and my speed cube or some may call it a rubik’s cube, 3x3x3 puzzle cube, etc.  When I started to get into mechanical puzzles, I starting thinking about getting a puzzle that provides a lot of value, that’s affordable, and fairly portable.  Then I remember my brief encounter with the rubik’s cube in the 80’s.  I remember being in third grade and my archenemy fiddling with a contraption while we stood in line on a cold winter morning.  My teacher decided that we were unworthy of entering the halls of learning because we had been exceptionally loud during the lining up.  The class was standing in columns of two and I had the absolute pleasure of being positioned right next to the class bully.  We would get into some kind of conflict at least once a day.  Later on I found out that he was holding a rubik’s cube and eventually I got one too.  The thing was my archenemy….  Just to make things simple, let’s just call him Mr. Twinkie or just Twinkie :)  Hehehee  Twinkie.  So Twinkie was going round bragging that he was going to be the first in the class to solve the puzzle.  Of course, I could not just stand there and let that happen.  So, I started to try to solve my own rubik’s cube.  There was even picture strategy guides at the time and I remember flipping through one at the store.  Although, no matter how hard I tried I could only get five out of the six colors to match.  This was driving me nuts.  One kid claimed that he solved it, but it was quickly revealed that he only switched the stickers.  Thus ruining his cube and creditability.  He ended up getting pounded by a few girls that were pretty hardcore about the whole cube thing.  I wasn’t getting anywhere with my cube until the day I threw it across my room and broke it.  At least I thought I did.  What had happened was that a piece popped out.  After close observation, I realized that I could align the colors back in place.  For those who might be skeptical about the discovery.  Note that while the technique of “popping” a cube is very well known now.  That was not the case when the rubric’s cube first came out.  At least not in my neck of the woods.  The next day I took my rubik’s cube to school.  Of course, Twinkie started rambling on about it being a new cube.  I told him that I could solve his cube.  He proceeded to mark his cube with his initials and then dared me to have it done by the end of the day.  You should have seen the look on his face when I handed him his cube.  He could not believe that I figured it out!!!  All of a sudden, Twinkie wanted to be my friend.  He wanted to know how I did it.  I told him to study the movement closely and he too could learn the secrets of the rubrik’s cube.  Lol!!!  While that wasn’t totally a lie it wasn’t the complete truth either.  After a few weeks, I ended up sharing my secret with the class because I like to share what I know but I’ll never forget Twinkie’s face.  Going on those good feelings, I thought I’d get a rubik’s cube. 

Things sure have changed.  Now there are all kinds of cubes.  It’s cool to see the progression of this puzzle.  If you do a quick Google search, you will find that there are some very devout followers of twisty cube puzzles.  I think that is awesome.  The rubrik’s cube reminds me of the glory days of arcades and comics.  So I thought I’d give it a chance again.  Oh by the way, I never was able to solve a cube the right way as a child.  After looking at some reviews, I decided to go with the DaYan 5 ZachChi Stickerless Speed Cube which I picked up at Amazon.  As the name implies, there are no stickers on this cubic.  The sliding of the cube can happen very quickly and it can be performed with one hand.  This cube is very light and I have to say that I like it more than the traditional rubik's cube because of the reasons mentioned above.  If you want it to slide even quicker then you can buy some silicon lubricant and spray a little bit it in the middle of the cube.  This makes the cube very quick.  The lub is cheap and you can buy it at wal-mart or a home improvement store.  I would also suggest that if you are going to get this cube that you make sure the descriptions states "stickerless" because I believe they also sell a sticker version.

So I thought that as an adult that I could easily come to the solution.  No grasshopper.  The cube will not reveal its secrets so easily.  Now that the 3x3x3 puzzle cube has been out for a while, there are many theories on solution methodology.  Some would say that a set of algorithms is the best method.  Others would say that algorithms are not required.  Computers have even been brought into the mix.  A guy demonstrated through computer computation that a cube can be solved with a max of 20 face turns.  Are you kidding me?!?!  I’m just getting started at 20 face moves.  The truth is I have not spent enough time with it yet and of this moment I still have not been able to solve the cube.  There is a whole lot more that could be said about this type of puzzle.  I like the fact that this puzzle has not died out like many others things from my childhood and  I tip my hat to those leading the way with new iterations of the rubik’s cube.  Hopefully I'll learn how to solve the cube one day.  That will be a great day. 

UPDATE 04/08/2012  Last Friday I finally did it!!!  That's right people, the day of glory has arrived!!  I couldn't leave this undone.  I ended up using the well known layer method found in the Rubik's cube website.  Special thanks to the Rubik's cube people for the solution guide and to Kevin and Oli for their encouragement.