Initiation: Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 10:12 PM.The last six sets of this year's WPMB Show Simple Things First have been named. Also, set 19 has been renamed.
 The most lasting impression I have of band practice tonight was Carlo Pardo saying, at the alto saxophone group huddle afterwards, "Guys, do your summer homework. It really sucks to do it at the end." In other news, my new Rubik's 2x2x2 came apart this afternoon. I managed to reassemble the entire cube except for the last piece, which I am still unable to force over the heart-shaped piece. Today, my brother moved in to college for his final year of undergraduate classes. My maternal grandmother also came over to spend the night. Summer 2006 is coming to a close, but I'm content. It has been probably the most productive and enjoyable summer of my life. It started off with several get-togethers and parties, allowing me to relax and ease in to Newark Academy's Summer Session. Six weeks zipped by, but not without impressing on my mind lasting memories of my two classes, Writing Workshop and physics; their interesting class-makeup; and of course, their passionate teachers. Newark Academy helped me keep in touch with many friends and also make new ones, and interspersed in the six weeks were several ultimate frisbee games. I began volunteer work for the first time in my life at Morristown Memorial Hospital, my first glimpse into the responsibilities of the real world. Following the Summer Session was what I consider my one-week vacation, during which I did nothing except party, relax, party some more, and relax some more. The next week, the AP Chemistry summer assignment was due, and both cross country and band officially began. I returned to running shape, and my band spirit revived. Band camp week with cross country supplements was, like last year, the most physically taxing week of the year, but I survived with a sense of accomplishment. Band and cross country are both finishing up their practices in the last full week of summer vacation. One last long weekend, plus some summer homework cramming, and school shall have begun. I feel like I've discovered where my passions lie. I love math and I love physics. Speedcubing is definitely my favorite hobby, but I'm also interested in juggling. Dance Dance Revolution is one of the greatest games ever. Running is a great form of exercise, but it is enjoyable as well! Gosh, I really appreciate music and I want it to stay with me my whole life. Yeah, I've generally hated language arts, but as I mature, I can better appreciate the beauty of reading and writing. I never thought I would find nineteenth-century literature intriguing, much less romantically enticing in its literary craftmanship. I hate writing for a grade - it's so subjective - but I don't mind so much pouring out my thoughts in my personal journal. Writing provides solace and relaxation in its own way, and I'm glad I've revived my website. My days elapse with a sparkle, a mystical and fey quality: I feel more purposeful, more intent, with direction and drive. I feel almost as if this summer has been a coming of age for me. I'm beginning to see into and guide my path towards the future, yet, I don't believe I've left behind my childhood. I've recalled memories from my past, I've almost relived my childhood. I think I'm realizing a dream of mine to grow up, but not too quickly. I feel like a boy, but I also feel like a man. Graduation: Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 11:09 PM. |
Birth: Monday, August 28, 2006, 12:30 PM.Two main events dominated my past weekend: a trip to Philly and a trip to JFK Airport. On Saturday, I traveled with my dad and paternal grandma to my paternal aunt's house in Havertown, Pennsylvania, which is right outside Philadelphia. My paternal grandmother was moving in with Aunt Teresa, after spending most of the summer at my family's house.We arrived at my aunt's house around one o'clock, so we stayed for lunch. My aunt and her husband showed us around the house, pointing out that they had hired their twin sons to repaint much of the house. When we were just about to sit down and eat, the slightly older of the two twins, Tim, arrived. He entered the kitchen carrying an infant dog, which he said was only about seven or eight weeks old. It was a canine, one of those dogs that can grow up to be used by police academies to sniff things out. Tim had only had the dog for one week, and it wasn't house-trained yet, so we had to keep it with us in the kitchen with the doors shut while we ate lunch, lest it pee all over the furniture or run away. It was an adorable puppy, resembling a Chihuahua in its small baby size, very skinny and furless. During lunch, it frequently whined and barked, obviously desiring the food on the table, which it could both easily smell and see. However, the dog had to be taught while it was young that the food on the table was not meant for her. Of course, it was still very sad listening to the dog whimper and see the dejected expression on her face. One of its most touching acts was when it went around under the table to each person, pawing at each person's legs to let her have some food. After lunch, I went for a walk with Tim, my uncle, and Tequila (as the dog is called) around the block. At first, Tequila kept pulling the leash towards my aunt's house, as if she still had the scent of our lunch in her nostrils. However, she is also attracted to motion, so she finally started running in the right direction when Tim stamped his feet and jogged down the block, attracting Tequila along with him. I had my turn to hold the leash, and despite her small size, I could feel the strength of her pull on the leash. We returned to my aunt's house for some fruit and snacks, and Tim left with Tequila to go to work. While my dad chatted with his sister, his mother, and his brother-in-law, I settled myself comfortably on the living room couch and attempted to continue my read of Jane Eyre. Ere long, I felt the tingles of drowsiness creep over my eyelids, and I lost consciousness shortly thereafter. When I awoke, it was time for my dad and me to head home. In the past 10 days, my brother, my mother, and my maternal grandmother were in Europe on a three-country tour through Hungary, Czech Republic, and Austria. They arrived at JFK Airport yesterday afternoon, so my dad and I went to pick them up. My maternal grandmother went home with my mother's sister, Aunt Gina, while my mother and my brother came home with my dad and me. On the car ride home, the returning travelers told us of there adventures in Europe while I sucked on dark chocolates from Salzburg wrapped in packages displaying Mozart's head. They said their tour guide told them that Mozart did indeed die young and poor, but not from a lack of income. Instead, it was due to a gambling habit and paying off accumulated debts. Mozart's earnings actually placed him in the top 5% of the people of his time in terms of income. I experienced vicarious thrills as they told me about the deep and complex underground subway systems of Vienna, Prague, and Budapest. They said the Russian-built escalators were significantly faster than those in America. The subways were also newer and faster, and the tracks were shared by regional, commuter, and express trains. You had to buy tickets to board the subway, but there were no turnstiles where you had to swipe your card. The rapid transit systems were run on an honor system, along with a conductor who would do random checking. You could buy group passes as well, which were much cheaper. They said there were also public bicycles at some subway stops, which you could just take and use, calling an operator to have the payment charged to your credit card. When you reached your destination, you could just leave your bicycle in a bike rack, and another person could use it right after you, calling in for payment. Again, this was run on an honor system. I learned that the word "salary" comes from "salt", because in previous times, salt was quite expensive, so you used to be paid in salt, hence salary. I sure wish I could have went with my mom, bro, and grandma, and am a little disappointed that the trip had to conflict with band camp, cross country, etc. However, they did bring me back something that I am thoroughly excited about! New Rubik's puzzles! The bought me a Rubik's 2x2x2 (click to see picture taken with my lousy webcam), a 3x3x3 Studio Cube (Made in Hungary, a Büvös kocka (Rubik's Cube)), a Rubik's 4x4x4, and a Rubik's Triamid. The Rubik's Triamid is a new puzzle to me, one I have never heard about nor seen in real life or online. Click here to see a better picture of it. It is made up of 10 pieces and 4 joints. According to the box, the only legal move is to pull off a cluster of four pieces from any corner,  rotate it in any direction, and then reconnect it to the same side of the Triamid's base. It's an interesting puzzle, but not as fun as the turnable Rubik's Cubes and related puzzles. Here is a picture of the four new puzzles I received:  I really like the packaging for the Büvös kocka and 4x4x4, so I think I will keep them as a means of carrying cubes: 
 Here is a close-up of the toy store's business card where the puzzles were bought (sorry for bad picture, my webcam sucks):  And part of the receipt:  The primary Hungarian currency is the forint. The exchange rate to the U.S. dollar is about 1 USD to 213 forints. Based on the receipt, it looks like they spent almost $50 on the four puzzles! I can't thank them enough. For being puzzles straight out of the box, the Rubik's 2x2x2 is not bad, the Studio Cube is fairly stiff and semi-even-tensioned, and the Rubik's 4x4x4 is pretty good. I think the Studio Cube comes with screws so that the tension is adjustable, but I have yet to check. It also comes with actual stickers and not the cheap paper stickers with thin plastic membranes. I am almost certain that the new 4x4x4 will turn out to be my best 4x4x4 pretty soon. In addition to these new puzzles, I finally opened my new TI-89 Titanium. Compared to the older TI-89 my brother has, I dislike how the buttons on my new TI-89 are in slightly curved rows rather than in straight rows, how the calculator is slid downwards into its case rather than upwards, how it has more frictional padding underneath at the bottom, how the calculator fits more tightly in its case, and that the user manual is on a CD rather than in a book. However, I do like my new TI-89's ports to connect to the computer and to other calculators. Have a nice day =)! Death: Monday, August 28, 2006, 3:59 PM. |
Start: Friday, August 25, 2006, 10:15 PM.Hey, folks! Well, I haven't updated in a while because I've been busy with band camp, band practices, cross country practices, and summer assignments. However, in addition to these activities, I've also relaxed and enjoyed my summer quite thoroughly. Let me fill you in on some of the stuff that has happened in the past couple of weeks since I last updated.I played ultimate frisbee again a couple weeks ago, sadly while Ken was in Japan, so he couldn't join us. This time around, the teams started as Mike Wang, Jerry Li, Max Chang, David Bentrovato, and me versus Jon Lin, Jimmy Wang, Mark Hansen, David Wang, and Shibu Ray. However, later on, I believe we switched Max and Shibu. Early on in the match, my team's opponents took the lead. However, we (my team) still managed to score several points. There were a lot of back and forth, end to end high-intensity chases and passes, but both teams kept blundering. During mid-game, everyone decided that we would play first team to ten points wins; win by two. My team was losing about 6-3 or so. That was when my team decided to huddle up and talk some strategy and get our chemistry going. It was a moderately hot day, and we were all sweating profusely by now. In China and Taiwan, when people tell bad jokes, you say "Hao3 leng3." - "So cold." So since we were all so hot, we all took turns telling bad jokes so that we could think, say, and feel hao3 leng3. Our hao3 leng3 strategy seemed to work for a couple points, before the temperature started to rise again. The next strategy we came up with was to run in a Power Rangers formation  towards the other team immediately after we pulled. Our formation looked similar to this -  - except we were running while holding out our arms. Once again, we achieved some success with this strategy before it went up in flames. Our final strategy, which worked the best, was to pull and then run in a straight line, with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us, like a choo-choo train, towards the other team. At around mid-field, we would break off from the train and head towards the respective players we were assigned to cover. With this final strategy (along with a few more cold jokes), my team managed to tie the game at 9. Now it was a question of first team to win by two. The two teams took turns scoring points back and forth until it was about 11-11. Then my team scored. We were all very tired by now (Jon Lin said, "I think playing ultimate frisbee is more tiring than playing tennis."), so we greatly desired to end the game soon. When my team regained possession of the frisbee again, we huddled together for our final plan. David Bentrovato (a. k. a. Little Bentro) would start out with the frisbee on our side of the field. Then Shibu and Mike would head out towards the defenders and attract the defenders to them by moving side to side. Once the defenders started homing on to Mike, Shibu, and David; Jerry and I would sprint down the right side of the field as if it were the 100-meter dash. Little Bentro would then pull a Hail Mary, throwing a point-scoring pass to one of us. When we went to execute this plan, it started off well. Our opponents came towards us, homing down on Shibu, Mike, and David. When Jerry and I gauged that they had come close enough, the two of us took off down the right sideline. However, Jon Lin had read the play well, and being a sprinter, he was quickly on our tails. Jerry and I were nearing the end zone, so David threw the pass. It was headed towards deep right field, clearly inside the end zone. The only people there were Jerry, Jon, and me. We all leapt into the air during a short interval, colliding bodies and all getting a piece of the frisbee. Ultimately, it bounced off Jon's hand and into Jerry's open hand. Good game. After the first week of official cross country practices and nighttime band practices (the week of August 13 to August 19), Jon Lin threw a party at his house the night of Sunday, August 20. It was originally intended to be mainly a ping-pong party, so David Bentrovato and I brought paddles. Chris Jeng also came, but he borrowed a paddle. I forget the name and the purpose of the format, but we took turns playing one ball of 1v1. Whoever won would stay at the table, while the loser would switch off with someone. The new challenger would then serve the ball. After the point finished, once again, the winner would stay and the loser would switch off. At first, we said first person to win 15 in a row would be victorious, except after about ten minutes, the best streak was only about 5, achieved by David twice. Thus, we lowered the necessary streak to 7. It was always funny when somebody tossed the ball up in the air to serve, but then fanned on the serve or missed the ball completely, giving his opponent a free point. We kept telling jokes, so it was hard to focus. Also, when somebody got a streak going of 3 or 4, everyone else kept saying sarcastically, "Don't screw up!" or "You're going to screw up!" Chris Jeng emerged as a clutch player, halting Bentro's streak at 5 and also shattering Jon's determination at 6. After more than 40 minutes without a victor, I finally won seven in a row. At this point, we had had enough of ping-pong for the moment, so we went to play other things. David and Jon went on the computer to play DOTA while I played DDR. Unfortunately, the TV I was playing on did not display the game properly. You could see the arrows scrolling up the screen, but you could not see the health bar at the top! Thus, I did not know how much health I had, other than the commentaries of "Keep on going!" or "You're a super dancer!" or "Hang in there!" Strangely enough though, the more I played, the more the screen adjusted, and slowly, after many many songs, the health bar came into view. The air conditioning was broken down in basement where we were playing, so I was sweating profusely by now. I decided to go play something else. I got on another computer and challenged Chris Jeng to a game of 3D Space Cadet Pinball. Halfway through our match, we became thirsty and desired some refreshment. Everyone went upstairs into the kitchen, and we gorged ourselves with ice cream, soda/gatorade, and Pringles. Yes, it probably sounds disgusting, but it sure was delicious and very refreshing. When we went back downstairs, David and Jon engaged in a game of ping-pong while Chris and I went to finish up our Pinball match. I ended up winning, though I was disappointed to have scored over 7 million points on ball 1, but then to have scored less than 1 million on both balls 2 and 3 combined. The next thing we did was engage in a StarCraft LAN party. David didn't play StarCraft, so he watched Jon, Chris, and me engage in a 3v4 computers match. Sadly, despite the fact that one of the computer turned out to be a dud, meaning it was really only a 3v3, Chris Jeng got attacked by two Protoss computers' mass zealots and was eliminated. By then, Jon and I had eliminated one of the computers. We easily killed the rest of the computers, and then we backstabbed each other for fun. In the next game we played, it was Jon and Chris versus me. We ended up all picking Protoss. I rushed zealots and killed both of them. Good game. By now, it was already past 10:15 PM, so we all needed to head home to rest for the following day - either for cross country or band camp or both. David left promptly and Chris Jeng's mother arrived. Chris's mom said she could drive me home (down the street), so I waited for Chris to get ready. I waited by the front door for about ten minutes, wondering what was taking so long for Chris to come up. Finally, I decided to go down and investigate for myself. I discovered that Chris was looking for his watch. After ten more minutes of our combined searching, Chris Jeng finally found his watch, and we all went home. After two weeks of official cross country practices, I'm definitely starting to get back into the running season. The hardest day must have been Wednesday, August 16, when we had double practices, one at 7:30 AM and the other at 3:30 PM. In the morning, we ran four miles, and then, in the afternoon, we were supposed to run eight miles. I only managed six miles before I heaved myself to band practice at 5. An interesting observation I noted through several days of running neighborhoods is that the street sign for Independence at the intersection of Independence Drive and Eden Lane is misspelled. Independence is incorrectly written as INDNEPEDENCE. This was the first and only time so far in my life that I have seen a misspelled street sign. The most fun practice was the morning practice on Thursday, August 24. We played a massive game of hide-and-go-seek, with the boundaries being our neighborhood run (East Fairchild Place, Whippany Road, Eden Lane, Independence Drive). Two people started as "it", and when they tagged people, the tagged people became "it" as well. Peter Coccia and I ran together, and when we came across other cross country teammates, we were always very suspicious and started running in the opposite direction. Eventually, though, Zach saw us, and being a mad fast sprinter, he outran and tagged both of us. Peter and I realized later that we should have split-up and ran in opposite directions, so that we would have had a better chance of saving one of us. Home base was Kaiser Island, so in the second game, Peter and I headed towards it. As we walked across the lawns adjacent to the tennis courts towards Kaiser Island, we noticed Chris Mignone coming towards us. Peter and I split apart, and I ran towards Kaiser Island while he headed back towards the tennis courts. Zach happened to be camping on Kaiser Island, so I got tagged just before I reached the plot of grass. Later on, I learned that Peter's chase ended in conversion at the intersection of Whippany Road and Eden Lane, when Peter took the sidewalk while Chris Mignone cut across the grass. Some good hiding spots people came up with were:
Of course, no summer is ever complete without Whippany Park Marching Band Band Camp. WPMB Band Camp 2006 created many lasting memories and new friendships. This year, we didn't get quite as far in the music or the drill as last year, nor did we have time for a freshmen initiation (since we were so far behind; quite unfortunate, since the leaders had already prepared coolers of water and Super Soakers under the bleachers), but I still had pails of fun. Allow me to recount some of my favorite experiences:
The summer is winding down, but I still have quite a bit of work to do. It has been quite a productive, yet relaxing, summer, and I'm in good spirits as we approach the start of school. Junior year's going to be tough, but there's still one and a half weeks of summer left before I have to start worrying about that. End: Saturday, August 26, 2006, 9:38 PM. |
Start: Thursday, August 10, 2006, 1:24 AM. The History of Erwa.The story of erwa begins in the summer of 2000. That summer, I went to the ACE Computer Camp at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Madison, New Jersey, for the second time. The summer the year before, I had gone to the same camp. It was an all-day camp, from 8 AM to 5 PM, with lunch included. Truthfully, each day, I probably spent about the same amount of time playing games as I did learning. And I remember the gaming far clearer than I do what I learned.Classes actually started at 9, but you were allowed to get there an hour earlier to play games beforehand. From 9 to noon, I took a web design class where I learned some basic HTML, which was about the only thing I still remember now. Then, there was an hour-long lunch break, followed by another hour of free time, a. k. a. gaming time. However, I remember eating fairly quickly and spending the rest of the lunch break playing soccer and frisbee. Following the midday gaming hour were three hours of programming-related stuff. I recall being very bored towards the beginning of the camp session because we had to read about the history of computers and programming. Today, the only thing I still remember reading about was Charles Babbage. Anyways, after we got past the introductions to programming, we started designing some very simple programs in QuickBASIC. I don't recall much of the actual language, but I do remember some of the basic programs we made. One of them was a simple addition calculator that allowed the user to input two numbers and have the program add them. I believe this was the first time in my life that I learned about variables. I recall struggling to grasp the concept of setting x and y equal to the user-inputted numbers. The most memorable program, however, was the Etch-a-Sketch program, which, as the name suggests, functioned like an Etch-a-Sketch. I probably spent more time on this program than I did any other program, and as a result, at the end of the camp, I received the "Etch-a-Sketch Master" award. Finally, each day of computer camp ended with a final hour of gaming to send us all home happy. ACE Computer Camp had a massive collection of games. When my family went there to register, I already saw some people playing StarCraft. That was very exciting. In addition, they also had games ranging from Worms to MechWarrior to Command & Conquer, to name a few. Come gaming hour, the camp counselors would set up a table and bring out tons and tons of copies of CDs of multifarious computer games. Just seeing all those games gave me a thrill. In addition to playing inordinate amounts of StarCraft, my brother and I also brought in Midtown Madness (1) from our house. When we first showed it to the academic director for approval, despite the CD case clearly depicting a racing game and the fact that the camp was already permitting Mature-rated games like Starcraft to be played, Travis still questioned its appropriateness. We had to show him the E for Everyone rating before he let us play it. Since all the computers were hooked up to a massive LAN, we had giant 8-player Midtown Madness (MM) Cops 'n' Robbers (CnR) games, which were oh!-so-fun and memorable. The great part about this kind of racing gameplay was that no previous experience or skill was necessary to have a blast and enjoy yourself. The objective of an MM CnR game is quite simple: get the gold and deliver it to the hideout. You get the gold by driving through it and you deliver it by driving under a banner marked "Hideout". However, there are some twists to this simple concept. You can play cops versus robbers, on teams, or as a free for all (FFA). My favorite is of course FFA because it is the most chaotic. In my opinion, the greater the chaos, the greater the fun. Additionally, when somebody picks up the gold, it "weighs" his car down, so he accelerates more slowly, and others have an opportunity to ram his car and knock the gold off. When somebody finally delivers it to the hideout, the gold respawns in a random location on the map. You can play to a point limit or time limit, or you can play unlimited! Midtown Madness 1 is set in Chicago, and a classic CnR event is the jam-up at Soldier Field (home of the Chicago Bears). In a CnR game, sometimes the gold spawns inside Soldier Field, which has three entrances you can drive in from. Each entrance is only wide enough for one car to fit through at a time, so it's always hilarious when the person with the gold tries to exit through a tunnel just as somebody else is entering the same tunnel. As more cars come crashing in to the narrow passageway, there are major jam-ups and the gold keeps exchanging hands. Eventually, one car manages to run off with the gold, but it doesn't spoil the fun of the huge clogs. I still remember this one person who had never played MM before, but after trying it, he became one of the better CnR players. His game name was always Kommunist, and he always drove the Ford F-350 pickup truck. I realize this is a very long introduction to the origin of erwa, but I wanted to set the background, which, as I have tried to show, was a very jovial, fun-filled, and happy environment. Now, apart from the MM LAN parties, there were also MechWarrior, C&C, and StarCraft LAN parties. It was during one of the StarCraft LAN parties that erwa emerged. The previous year, my first at ACE Computer Camp, they had a StarCraft (SC) tournament. It involved several FFA matches to determine a winner. The winner then went on to battle the winners from other locations of ACE Computer Camp. At the FDU location, our winner went by a game name of Biggeron. Now, I don't want to bore the non-SC players, but I'll just say that Biggeron was pretty good. He played Protoss and his main strategy was mass dragoons with high templars. Inspired by Biggeron, my brother and I played copious amounts of Starcraft for a year, and when we returned to ACE Computer Camp in 2000, we were clearly the best SC players there. Thus, when we engaged in 8-player SC LAN parties, it would usually be my brother and I versus six other players. Sometimes we would lose, but most of the time we would win. We played on a map called Big Game Hunters, and there was one game where I started at 9 o'clock (mid-left), and my brother started at 10 o'clock (top-left). I was Protoss and my brother was Terran. Near the beginning of the game, our six opponents ganged up and rushed my brother. I was able to save him with my mass zealots. After we had contained the rush, we went on a counterattack. We swiftly destroyed two of our opponents, and it became evident that we would win this game. It was at this point that one of our remaining opponents began sending repetitive one-word messages of "erwa". Neither my brother nor I had any idea what "erwa" meant. Anyways, the game continued and as my brother and I continued our killing rampage, our opponents left one by one. That night, after I had gone home, I googled "erwa". Apart from the acronym ERWA standing for such organizations as the European Railway Wheels Association, Erotica Readers & Writers Association, and Energy Recreation and Welfare Association, I did not find any other definitions for erwa. Thus, I began using Erwa as a name. Some time after that, I got my first e-mail address, erwaman@mindspring.com, which has now been terminated. My current e-mail address is, of course, erwaman@gmail.com. I got my first AIM account before my first e-mail account and also before taking on the name of Erwa. My first AIM name was VoldemortSuper, which was my only screen name up until and through part of middle school. In middle school, I was introduced by Jesse Warner to an AIM bot called triviachatbot, which, as the name suggests, generated random trivia questions and kept track of people's scores. Of course, since this was an automated trivia contest host, we had to type our answers in a chat room. Thus, sometimes even if one knew the answer, one might typo the answer or not know how to spell it. This opened up the opportunity for other people to "jock" someone's answer. Being a fast typist and a decent speller, I was fairly proficient at picking up on typos and being able to type the correct spelling of an answer (jock) before the misspeller was able to correct himself. Now, you might think jocking is a mean thing to do, but it was naturally a part of the game that made it more fun. Sometimes the person who actually knew the answer would typo and frantically try to correct himself while jockers would frantically try to type the correct answer first, and all parties would end up typoing multiple times, sometimes causing yet another person to end up with the correct answer. As mentioned above, to me, the more chaotic, the more fun. Furthermore, in the spirit of friendly competition and friendly trash talk, I came up with the phrase CSTJ, which stood for "can't stop the jock" and which I would say every time I successfully jocked somebody's answer. Thus, I became well-known for my jocking, and this prompted me to create my second screen name, ErwaJocker. Since then, triviachatbot has moved to MSN Messenger, and I have also stopped playing. However, I have since created four more screen names, including Erwaland and ErwaMaster. Erwaland has its origin in the computer game Midtown Madness 2, which includes a choice of driving in either London or San Francisco. When driving in San Fran, the northwestern edge of the map is the Golden Gate Bridge. You can drive across the bridge to the other side of San Francisco Bay, where there is a tunnel that goes around in a circle, forcing you to take the Golden Gate Bridge back to San Francisco in the opposite direction. Surrounding this tunnel at the far end of the Golden Gate Bridge is some very nice scenery. The animation design was done quite nicely, indeed, with pine trees, a rocky cliff, and reddish sand and soil. Anyways, from playing MM2 online, I learned of a glitch at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge. When driving the Panoz GTR-1, at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge but before the tunnel, if you go in reverse up against the railing and hold down the pedal for a few seconds, the car will drop down underneath the bridge and you can drive around in the scenery. If you drive behind the well-done scenery façade, you will discover what I call Erwaland. It is a vast expanse of rolling hills of green grass in every direction. When cruising during noontime and under clear blue skies, it truly is a gorgeous sight. It is a magnificent feeling to accelerate down the hills and test the top speed of the Panoz GTR-1, which happens to be the fastest car in the game. The crisp blue skies and the rich green grass make you feel free, as if you hadn't a trouble or care in the world. It is one of those moments that you wish you could capture in time and freeze for eternity. Nowadays, when I get stressed out, I sometimes visit Erwaland in my imagination and it helps to relieve some of my stress. I created ErwaMaster and called the screen name such because I decided to use it as a master account to manage all of my linked screen names. My first ever StarCraft Battle.net account, created before I discovered Erwa, was superman233 and its password was "fireman". I still am not sure why I chose this name and why I remember the password so clearly, but this is what it was. Since then, I've created many more accounts, and my current account is Erwa. Also, my current pogo.com account is Erwaman. I sometimes like to type "erwa" repeatedly like this - erwa erwa erwa erwa erwa - because it is good training for my left hand. The sequence of letters is a little awkward to type, and if you strike the spacebar with your left hand thumb, you use each digit of your left hand exactly once to type "erwa ". Thus, typing "erwa" repetitively is a good workout for the left hand. Repeating erwa aloud several times quickly is also quite difficult. Erwa is pronounced "ER-wah". However, erwa might make for a good battle cry or war chant. So as I have explained, erwa came to be because one anonymous opponent began randomly typing "erwa" in a StarCraft game, and since then, I have adapted it as sort of an alternate identity. Erwa. End: Saturday, August 12, 2006, 5:33 PM. |
Start: Monday, August 7, 2006, 2:50 PM.It's quite disappointing and saddening that Newark Academy, especially the physics preview class, has come to an end. I got such a great introduction to physics, and with such an outstanding teacher like Mr. Wallace, I have truly developed a passion for physics.On the final day of Newark Academy, we watched Young Frankenstein in Writing Workshop class, while eating blueberry muffins (I had four.). In physics, we calculated the mass of a toy (I chose my Eastsheen 2x2x2) by setting up a makeshift balance using a meterstick like this:  We hung our toy on one end of the meterstick and we hung weights on the other side. Once we had balanced the two sides, since the torques on either side of the meterstick had to cancel one another out and we knew every variable except the mass of our toy, we calculate it. A fairly simple lab, but fun nonetheless. (In the following paragraph, she, her, and her are used where it should read "she or he," "her or him," and "her or his," for the sake of ease of reading.) Mr. Wallace also did the wheel gyro demonstration, along with a rotating stool demonstration, which involved volunteers. In the latter demonstration, one volunteer sat on a stool, which was locked in place on a spinning circular board, with her arms extended and holding books in her hands. Then, a second volunteer gave the first volunteer a good spin to get her started in rotation. Then, once the first volunteer was spinning by herself, she would bring her arms in along with the books. This caused her to spin faster because the mass was less spread out and closer to the axis of rotation (decreased value for the moment of inertia, but since torque must stay the same, the angular acceleration increased). Then, when she held the books over her head, she spun even faster. To slow down, she could extend her arms (or press her foot to the floor (or jump off...)). Several students, including me, tried the spinning stool. I got spinning really fast, but I felt as if I was about to fly off, so I extended my arms and the books I was holding slammed into the bookcase. I was so dizzy afterwards. For the rest of the period, we worked on Einstein's Challenge and a worksheet of chemistry puns. I got a good kick out of some of the puns, so I've scanned the worksheet for your enjoyment as well:  Friday night, Alex Szajko I went to Greg LaLuna's house. In addition to watching random clips about cowbells (LOL) on the computer and trying to apply some physics to improve my pool game, I also played croquet for the first time. Croquet reminded me of miniature golf, which I absolutely adore, so I had a great time playing croquet! Also, it was fun to be playing on a sloped lawn. In other news, the 2006 United States National Rubik's Cube Competition, a three day event from Friday, August 4, to Sunday, August 6, has concluded, with eight world records being broken. Most notable was Toby Mao's (Tyson's younger brother) final solve of the competition, a 10.48 second 3x3x3 single solve, shattering Leyan Lo's former 11.13 second WR by 0.65 seconds. However, Leyan still won with the fastest average of 15.50. Ryan Patricio placed second at 15.61, and Toby Mao came in third with 15.89. See Chris and Kori for full results. Have a great day, folks! End: Monday, August 7, 2006, 4:03 PM.P.S.: My 2x2x2 single solve WR still stands! |
Start: Saturday, August 5, 2006, 5:37 PM. The Joy of Cubing.I have been speedcubing for over two years now, but my passion for it is still ablaze. There are so many aspects to cubing that it never gets boring. Every solve is different. With over 42 quintillion different positions, even if you could go through 1,000 unique positions of the Rubik's Cube every second, it would still take you over a billion years to see all the positions.
|
Start: Sunday, July 30, 2006, 6:14 PM. The History of My Speedcubing.There has always been a Rubik's Cube in my household, ever since I could remember. Before I could solve it, I would often fiddle around with it, and sometimes, I could complete one face. One time, I accidentally dropped the cube while playing with it, and a center cap popped off. I saw an exposed screw, so I unscrewed the center piece and disassembled the cube. That was when I discovered how the mechanism worked. I reassembled the cube in the solved state. At the beginning of eighth grade, I brought the cube to Memorial Junior School along with a screw driver, and I showed my friends my discovery of the mechanism. After assembling the cube in the solved state, sometimes I would rig a scramble that was only a few turns away from solved, and then I would unwind those turns and pretend I solved it. This was the beginning.On my birthday that year - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - along with a decorated locker, I also received a Pyramorphix and a book called Probability Moon from Alice Kim. I scrambled the Pyramorphix and tried to solve it, but the best I could do was get it back into a tetrahedron shape, though I could not line up the colors. I put this puzzle aside, and it wouldn't be until I learned how to solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube that I went back to this puzzle and solved it. At present, I now know that the Pyramorphix can actually be solved as a 2x2x2, and due to truncated center pieces, it is actually easier than one. However, since the Pyramorphix is harder to grip and also because mine turns so terribly and falls apart so easily, it takes me longer to solve a Pyramorphix than both a 2x2x2 and 3x3x3. The Pyramorphix and my discovery of the 3x3x3 mechanism were the beginnings of my interest in rotational puzzles. I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube in April of 2004. It was a Thursday night. Before this, a friend of my brother had said he accidentally solved a Rubik's Cube just by playing with it a lot. Believing in this, I turned and twisted the cube this way and that for perhaps half an hour, with no avail. I came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to solve a Rubik's Cube without using a method. As Petrus method inventor Lars Petrus has said, "You need to learn a method. Nobody solves it just by luck. That only happens in movies." That night, I started up my computer and popped open my Internet browser. Google.com is my homepage, so I typed "Rubik's Cube solution" into the search box. I clicked on the first result. That brought me to Lars Petrus's cube page. I read through the introduction and the basic idea quickly and spent the rest of the night trying to work my way through his method. I made it to step 4, but that was when I finally hit a wall. When I looked up at the clock, it displayed 4:30 A.M. It was well into Friday, and school would begin in a few hours. I finally called it a night and went to sleep. I returned to Lars's website a day later, after I had caught up on some sleep. Whenever I get confused or stuck on something, I find that it always helps to take a break, get your mind off that something, and then return to that something later on. Usually, I find clarity and coherence through this process. Well, in the case of learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube from Lars's website, this process worked. I was able to tackle step 4 and I went on to solve the cube. I mixed up my cube and solved it again, following along with Lars's guide. I did this a few more times before I was ready to try to commit the method to memory. I got as far as the last layer (LL) by memory, but that was when I discovered I had forgotten some of the LL algorithms. I revisited Lars's website and refreshed my algorithm memory. I realized that I needed to practice those algorithms to commit them to muscle memory, so that was exactly what I did after I solved my cube. By Sunday, I was able to solve the entire cube without any assistance from the solution guide. It took me about fifteen minutes. I brought the cube to school on Monday and showed some of my friends. It was still taking me around ten minutes to solve the entire cube though. My first cubing goal was to be able to solve an entire cube within the homeroom period, which was from 8:00 AM to 8:05 AM. I got my solve time down to about seven or eight minutes. Then it was six minutes. Five minutes. Within a week after I had solved my Rubik's Cube for the first time, I could solve it within homeroom period. The times kept dropping. Four minutes. Three-thirty. Three minutes. Two forty-five. Two thirty. Two-fifteen. Two flat. I broke two minutes. From there, the times started dropping more slowly. Improvements would come in quantum leaps of five to ten seconds. At one minute thirty, improvements slowed further to about three seconds per quantum leap. I was averaging around 1:15 when the school year ended. I still remember my personal best of 1:03 at the time. I set this time on a late bus that had to first pick up the baseball team from Blackbrook Park. I was at the back of bus, and when the baseball team boarded, they all headed to the back as well. They saw me cubing, so they scrambled a cube for me. Mike Siciliano gave the cube back to me and he timed me as I solved it. One minute three seconds. That was my record when I graduated from Memorial Junior School. That summer, I went with my family to Taiwan and Japan. I brought my cube along, but the stickers peeled off quickly, so I was left was more than 9 completely white facelets. The red side was the worst, so I bought a red permanent marker in Taiwan and colered in the white facelets that were supposed to be red. However, even the permanent marker rubbed off within a couple solves. I gave up and I didn't cube much for the rest of the trip. When I got back home, I bought a new cube from Toys 'R' Us. Those stickers started peeling as well, so I developed the idea of taping down the stickers. Whippany Park Marching Band (WPMB) Band Camp 2004 started in mid-August, to which I also brought my cube. Shortly into band camp, Alex Szajko surprised me with a 4x4x4 he had ordered off of eBay. I fiddled around with it, never turning it more than a few turns away from solved. One time, though, I decided to scramble it as a 2x2x2. However, surprisingly, I couldn't solve it! As of then, I did not understand the concept that the 2x2x2 was just a 3x3x3 without the edges (or with solved edges, however you want to look at it)! So once I realized that I wasn't going to be able to restore it, I completely scrambled it, turning all the layers. I then tried to complete one layer, which I was able to do. The next thing I attempted was to solve all the corners and dedges (one dedge = 2 edges of the same colors), ignoring the centers. I was able to accomplish this as well, and much later on (at least a year later, if not longer), I learned that this was the first step to Per Kristen Fredlund's Cage Method, aptly named because after you have solved the outer ring of cubies, the 4x4x4 resembles a cage. Nevertheless, I could not figure out how to solve the entire 4x4x4 by myself, so I learned a 4x4x4 centers-first (CF) method online. My learning progress for solving the 4x4x4 was much faster than my learning progress for solving a 3x3x3 because 1) I was now familiar with certain cube notations, 2) I understood the concept of visualizing cubies, not facelets, and 3) the last step of the CF method I learned was to solve the 4x4x4 like a 3x3x3. With the help of a solution guide, I was able to solve the 4x4x4 within an hour. On August 18, 2004, I subscribed to the [petrusmethod] Yahoo! Group. I entered Whippany Park High School, and I brought my cube on the very first day. Only a couple days before school started, I had learned an alternative approach called the "keyhole" method to solving the Rubik's Cube. Later on, I would learn that this was a corners-first (haha, also abbreviated CF, like centers-first) method, as opposed to a layer-by-layer (LBL) method, such as a beginner cross (Fridrich) method, or a first two layers (F2L) + LL method, such as the Petrus method or CFOP (Cross-->F2L pairs-->OLL-->PLL) Fridrich method. At that point in the time, I had only successfully taught two other students how to solve a Rubik's Cube: Ken Kawamoto and Andy Tien, in that order. On the first day of school, I was excited to show Andy this new "keyhole" method I had learned. After I showed him, his response wasn't very enthusiastic because I was much slower with this "keyhole" method, and this method seemed to him much more inefficient, requiring more turns. I gave up on this method shortly thereafter. On the second day of classes, I remember spending most of my gym period (period 4) cubing because the gym teachers were still going over general procedures and trying to sort things out. I remember most of my solves being between 50 and 60 seconds, which I found surprising because I hadn't cubed much over the summer, nor had I done any timed solves recently. Reflecting back, I think I attribute this stunning leap across the one minute barrier to pubescence that occurred during the transition between middle school and high school. I grew several inches that summer, I gained weight, and my mind increased in complexity. My fingers grew longer and stronger, while my brain kept up as well. My pattern recognition improved. That was probably what accounted for this significant quantum jump. Anyways, I continued cubing on the third day of classes - Friday - and by the time the weekend arrived, my best solve was 37 seconds. As September rolled lazily by, my average dropped to between 45 and 55 seconds, and my single best solve went from 37 to 33 to 31 seconds. I was confident that I could guarantee a solve under one minute now. I did a cubing demonstration at a lunch table in the cafeteria one day, guaranteeing a sub-minute solve. This was my first major experience of cubing under lots of pressure with expectations from the crowd. I wasn't used to it yet, so I was extremely nervous during the solve, and as a result, I messed up a fair bit and barely kept my solve under one minute with a 58 second solve. We've reached October 2004 by now, and my average has dropped between 40 and 50 seconds now. Every now and then, I would do a sub-30 solve. On October 10, 2004, I subscribed to the [speedsolvingrubikscube] Yahoo! Group. This was my gateway into the heart of the speedcubing world. It opened me up to cubing competitions and Speedcubing.com. Speedcubing.com led me to videos of fifteen second solves and people who averaged under twenty seconds. Those were the elite. The sub-twenty second average was the test of admission. I knew then that I wanted to join the elite. My goal as a speedcuber from that point on was to obtain a sub-twenty second average. I discovered those cubing celebrities like Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi (same age as me!, born 1990), Chris Hardwick, Ron van Bruchem, and Dan Knights. They were my inspirations, my idols. By late October-early November-I was averaging between 35 and 45 seconds. I would spend many afternoons after school in the library taking averages on the computer using Jess Bonde's web timer. One day, I pulled a 21 second solve out of the blue. I remember T.J. Ufalussy and Ken Kawamoto were there to witness it. They said it was a blazing fast solve. I said it was lucky. I did not think I would ever break this single solve record again, and at that point, I couldn't even begin to dream about averaging under 21 seconds. As November tumbled by and we headed into December, I was averaging in the mid to low thirties. Sub-30 solves were no longer a rare event; I would get one every few solves. By now, I had finished memorizing the complete Step 6 + 7 index, so I was using a 2-look LL. On Saturday, December 11, 2004, I achieved my first-ever sub-30 second average:
I recall that I achieved this average somewhere around 7:30 PM. When I completed the 12th solve and a sub-30 average appeared, there was much rejoicing. I shouted out "YES!!!" and I danced around with glee. My heart leapt; all my practicing had paid off. As we headed into 2005, I solidified myself in the sub-30 second average range. I also switched from Jess Bonde's web timer to Chris Hunt's JNetCube timer. The first few months of the new year passed with no major breakthroughs, but I continued to get lower in the 20s. I learned more about other methods, such as the Fridrich method and Roux method. All of the top speedcubers in the world were using the Fridrich method, except for Gilles Roux, Roux method inventor, who was obviously using the Roux method. I began to have serious doubts about the limits of the Petrus method, and whether it was capable of taking a speedcuber sub-20. Even as the inventor of the method, Lars Petrus's single best solve is still 14.87 and his best average is 21.88, both set in 2002. Thus, I began to learn the Fridrich method, going directly for a two-look LL, while continuing to speedsolve using the Petrus method. With a Petrus method F2L (first two layers), the LL can have a maximum of three steps. With a Fridrich method F2L, the LL can have a maximum of four steps. Thus, with a Fridrich F2L, a Fridrich two-look LL requires more algorithms than a two-look LL with a Petrus F2L. To accomplish a full Fridrich two-look LL, I needed to memorize 78 algorithms. Fortunately, that number includes mirrored algorithms, which are easily learned, so without counting mirrors, that number drops to 53 algorithms. I already knew about 10 of these algorithms from learning a Petrus LL, so it really boiled down to around 40 algorithms and their mirrors. I finished learning these algorithms by the end of March. At that point, I looked into a full Fridrich F2L, and I discovered that that required an additional 42 algorithms. Not only that, but if I intended to fully switch to Fridrich method, I would also need to learn how to build a cross efficiently. That was a bit too much for me. I gave up on switching over to a full Fridrich method. At this point, Whippany Park's cubing population had grew. In the first week of April, Alan Jiang, who had learned to solve the cube in the fall of that school year, presented his idea of a combined Fridrich and Petrus method to me. He proposed a method where you begin by constructing a 2x2x3 block, then you insert the last cross piece, and finally you solve the rest of the cube completely using Fridrich method. At about the same time, I was thinking of pursuing my own "Petrich" method - a combination of the Petrus and Fridrich methods. My idea, which later on I discovered others had thought of before, was to solve a cube using a Petrus F2L and a Fridrich LL. I began practicing this Petrich method around the second week of April, but I also continued doing full Petrus method solves. However, by the end of April, the Petrich method was showing great promises, so I completely switched over. I took my last full Petrus method average on April 29, 2005, an average of 24.75 seconds. In early May, I broke my best full Petrus method average of 24.75 using the Petrich method. I brought my average down to about 22 to 23. Sub-20 solves began to emerge. On May 28, 2005, I attended my first cubing competition - the Horace Mann Spring 2005 competition at the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York. (In the spring of 2006, in my sophomore year, I would learn who Horace Mann was in A.P. U.S. History I.) My goals heading in to the competition were to achieve an official sub-20 second 3x3x3 speedsolve, a sub-2 minute 4x4x4 solve, and a sub-minute 3x3x3 one-handed mean (These were the only three categories I competed in at this competition because I did not have any of the other puzzles, yet. Also, at this point in time, the winner of the one-handed competition was determined by a mean of 3, as opposed to now, when it is determined by an average of 3 solves (five solves, dropping fastest and slowest solves, and averaging the middle three times). I did not accomplish any of these goals. I came close to recording my first-ever official sub-20 second 3x3x3 speedsolve by hitting a time of 19.55, but it was ruled as one-turn away, so I received a +2 second penalty. I finished 7th in the 3x3x3 speedsolve, 6th in the 4x4x4, and 7th in the 3x3x3 one-handed event. At that competition, I witnessed many world and national records being broken. One notable incident was when Nathaniel Christian broke the 2x2x2 single solve world record with a solve of 4.20, but then one minute later, Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi broke the record again with a 4.13 solve. However, Nathaniel's 4.20 solve became the American single solve record. Macky also set a world record 2x2x2 average of 6.29 seconds. Since that competition, every national and world record set there has been broken except for Chris Parlette's world record single solve and average for the Rainbow Cube and Raul Garcia's national records for the Dominican Republic of single solve and average for the 3x3x3. However, as of now, the Horace Mann Spring 2005 competition is the only competition to have had a Rainbow Cube event. I saw many puzzles in real-life for the first time at this competition, including the 5x5x5, 2x2x2, Rainbow Cube, Square-1, Megaminx, Magic, and Master Magic. At the entrance to the auditorium where the competition was held, I purchased my first 5x5x5. I also witnessed Macky and Tyson juggling balls and bowling pins. At a barbecue at competition organizer Ian Winokur's house after the competition, I also saw sportstacking (formerly cupstacking) for the first time in a demonstration by Chris Hardwick. He showed me how to perform the cycle and I gave it a shot. I also played with a Rubik's Magic for the first time. My first cubing competition was a great inspiration. It was the first time I had met speedcubers faster than me in person. I met Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi, Ryan Patricio, Chris Hardwick, and Tyson Mao - all cubing "greats" in some respect. I discovered that Macky, Ryan, and many other cubers were just about the same age as me! This firsthand meeting with so many speedcubers truly motivated me to improve my cubing. The day after the competition, I unpackaged my 5x5x5 and scrambled it with an algorithm generated by JNetCube. I started the countdown timer, did my inspection, and proceeded to attempt to solve the 5x5x5 using only my 4x4x4 and 3x3x3 knowledge. 46 minutes, 9.72 seconds later, I solved it. This was the first Rubik's Cube-related puzzle that I had figured out on my own. After seeing Macky and Tyson juggling, I began to self-teach myself how to juggle in June 2005. I had not made the cut for the tennis team, so I spent the steamy afternoons after school in the commons attempting to juggle. I started with two balls. Then I upped to three balls. When I had gotten a 3-ball cycle down, I began practicing a 3-ball shower. By the end of the school year, I was fairly competent at some basic juggling. Since then, I haven't improved my juggling much. I haven't been practicing much, but my current juggling goals include four balls and being able to juggle two balls in one hand while solving a cube one-handed in the other. Also in June, my average dropped to 21.5, then 21 flat. I replaced slow algorithms with new ones that suited my fingers better, and I practiced them until they were up to speed. My average dropped below 21. I could smell sub-20 by then. Sub-20 solves came fairly frequently now. Then, on June 27, 2005, it happened. My first sub-20 second average of 19.93. I had joined what I previously considered "the elite." If you take my emotions of joy, excitement, and happiness that I experienced when I achieved my first sub-30 second average, and you multiply those emotions by ten, then you can begin to grasp the feelings I felt at this milestone. I must say that a sub-20 second average is probably the greatest experience a speedcuber can have. After 14 months of cubing, my speedcubing dream had finally come true. That Monday, the first Monday of summer vacation that year, was a memorable day. I remember achieving this sub-20 second average around noontime that day, and in the afternoon, I went to Daniel Malzone's pool party. To celebrate my achievement, I tried underwater cubing for the first time. In doing so, I promptly destroyed my best speedcube that I had set my first sub-20 second average on by getting it waterlogged and clogged with gunk. This was the extreme low of that day, but even so, my happiness at having achieved a sub-20 second average was hardly reduced. That summer, I decided to learn blindfolded cubing from Tyson Mao's blindfold tutorial. About a week after I starting learning, I did my first completely successful blindfolded solve during a commercial of the Late Night Show with Dave Letterman. Pulling off my blindfold to see a solved cube staring back at me was a great feeling as well. On Saturday, July 16, 2005, I wrote a cube theory e-mail to some fellow speedcubing friends explaining my Petrich method, some tips for improvement, cleaning methods, and some miscellaneous ideas. See the text here. Also, I believe it was this summer that I bought my StackMat timer. In mid-August, my father, my brother, and I traveled to Dallas, Texas. We did some sightseeing in the first few days, and then, on Saturday, August 13, 2005, I participated in the Caltech Dallas Summer 2005 competition at The Science Place. I had broken an X center piece on my 5x5x5 a couple days before leaving for Texas, so at the competition, I bought a new 5x5x5. In addition, I also bought a Rubik's 2x2x2 and an Eastsheen 2x2x2. I competed in the same events as I did at Horace Mann, but additionally, I also competed in the 5x5x5 speedsolve and 3x3x3 blindfolded events. I also planned on competing in the 2x2x2, but unfortunately, the 2x2x2 event was canceled due to time constraints. I recorded my first official sub-20 second 3x3x3 solve at this competition, and to my great astonishment, I also recorded my first official sub-20 second 3x3x3 average. Furthermore, I was able to record my first sub-2 minute 4x4x4 solve, but I was half a second shy of achieving a sub-2 minute 4x4x4 mean of 3. I was happy to record my first official 3x3x3 blindfolded solve. The 5x5x5 speedsolve event was a little embarrassing for me. Since I had broken my original 5x5x5 a couple days before coming to Texas, I hadn't been practicing the 5x5x5 since. In the competition, I competed with the brand new 5x5x5 I bought at the entrance. However, it was very stiff, and I was also very rusty from lack of practice. After two embarrassing solves, both over six and a half minutes, I declined to do a third solve. However, Ian Winokur had already finished scrambling my 5x5x5, and he complained that it was the stiffest and worst 5x5x5 he had ever played with. He said his hands hurt from scrambling it. Thus, Tyson Mao requested that I do the third solve because the scramblers had gone through the trouble of scrambling my 5x5x5. Very embarrassed and blushing exorbitantly, I dragged myself onstage and did my third solve as the only solver onstage and with all eyes on me. Surprisingly, despite the pressure and a parity problem, that solve was my fastest solve, and it was under six minutes. Overall, I was very happy with my performance at the Caltech Dallas Summer 2005 competition. WPMB Band Camp 2005 started shortly thereafter, and I brought my cubes along again. I began teaching several freshmen how to solve a cube, either a 3x3x3 or a 2x2x2. During band camp, I also achieved my first sub-19 second average. I started my sophomore year of high school, and I continued cubing. The Rutgers Cubing Club was founded by Bob Burton, and it held its first cubing competition - Rutgers Fall 2005 - on campus on Saturday, December 10, 2005. Unfortunately, area band auditions happened to be the same day in the morning and early afternoon, so I was unable to go to the competition until 2 PM. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find Alan Jiang there, but he left shortly thereafter because he had been eliminated. The only event that I could still participate in was the 3x3x3 blindfolded solve. My best solve did not top my best solve at Caltech Dallas Summer 2005, but I still finished second, behind current blindfolded world record holder Leyan Lo. The day after the competition, I achieved my first sub-18 second average of 17.95, shortly before midnight. After winter vacation, the hellish stretch to spring break was jam-packed with area, regional, and all-state band practices along with a rigorous academic workload. My tight scheduled forced me to spend much less time on cubing. On February 19, 2006, I began participating in Jon Morris's weekly Sunday Contest, which I have participated in ever since. In some weeks, this contest is the only cubing I do all week. When spring break finally arrived, I began to get back into cubing shape in preparation for the Rutgers Spring 2006 competition. When we returned to school after one of the most satisfying and refreshing breaks of the school year, Lillian Zhou and Rebecca Chow gained approval from the administration to begin the Rubik's Cube Club. Starting Thursday, April 20, 2006, Lily, Rebecca, Daniel Parry, Caspar Wang, and I began performing a skit written by Lily advertising the first meeting of the Rubik's Cube Club. The first Rubik's Cube Club meeting was held the following Tuesday, April 25, 2006, and this club continued to meet weekly until the end of the school year. I competed in the Rutgers Spring 2006 competition at Rutgers University, held at the Student Center on the New Brunswick campus, on Saturday, April 29, 2006. Remarkably, I placed 1st or 2nd in all the events I competed in: 2nd in one-handed, 5x5x5, and 4x4x4; 1st in blindfolded and 3x3x3 speedsolve. I received a set of 3x3x3 tiles for winning the blindfolded competition and a Cubesmith T-shirt for winning the 3x3x3 speedsolve. I broke all my previous official records at this tournament. Some achievements included an official sub-2 minute 4x4x4 average, a sub-1:30 4x4x4 solve, a sub-2 minute 5x5x5 solve, a sub-4 minute blindfolded solve, and a sub-45 second one-handed average. I was extremely pleased with my performance at this competition. Also, all competitors received a set of 3x3x3 stickers for participating, and from restickering my cube before the competition started, I realized just how important good stickers are. I had actually brought my only speedcube along with Andy Tien's speedcube, but I could not decide which I wanted to use. My speedcube was looser but jammed a little while Andy's cube was tighter but smoother. After restickering my speedcube, the sense of brand-new, smooth, and non-peeling stickers underneath my fingertips as I solved miraculously eliminated the sense of jamming! There was no more question as to which cube I would use to compete. New stickers also improved my recognition ability. Between the Rutgers tournament and the next tournament - Trumbull Spring 2006 - I continued to train. I bought a new 3x3x3 DIY cube, a 4x4x4, a 5x5x5, and a Rubik's Magic. With the ability to tweak spring tensions on all sides by adjusting the screws, my 3x3x3 DIY cube turned out fantastic! It is still my current top speedcube. However, my 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 were crummy. I broke a string on my Rubik's Magic about a week before the competition, so I was unable to compete in that event. Six days before the competition, on Sunday, May 21, 2006, I achieved my first sub-17 second average. The Trumbull competition was held on Saturday, May 27, 2006, in the Community Room of the Trumbull Mall in Trumbull, Connecticut. In the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 events, my cubes kept popping during my solves, so I wasted a lot of time repairing. In the one-handed event, David Bergman edged my average out by 0.32 seconds, bumping me to third place. In the blindfolded category, Craig Bouchard beat me by less than three seconds, earning him 1st place and a Canadian record. I still have a hard time believing how well I did in the 3x3x3 speedsolve. I think the presence of Canadian 3x3x3 speedsolve record-holder Matt Walter truly motivated me to push myself during my solves. Somehow I managed to pull a 15.16 average out of the blue. This average, set in the finals, was far better than my previous best 3x3x3 speedsolve average of 17.04 set in the first round. My gosh, did my 2x2x2 result turn out unexpected! I had hardly touched my 2x2x2 before the competition, choosing to spend most of my time practicing the 3x3x3 instead. However, I pulled a 3.55 2x2x2 single solve world record out of the hat and also managed to set an American (North and South America) 2x2x2 average record of 6.59. I actually was not certain that I had set a WR until the following day, when I had verified the previous world record and the results of the San Diego 2006 competition that occurred on the West Coast on the same day came out. When I had confirmed my WR, this was an exhilarating feeling, and this remains one of my proudest cubing achievements. In the week following the Trumbull tournament, I joined Ryan Heise's weekly Blindfolded Cubing Contest, which I continue to participate in to this day. Thursday, June 8, 2006, was the night of the Once More with Feeling performance by an ISP (Independent Study Project) group. I accompanied in one song on alto saxophone, and I also did a cubing exhibition along with some fellow cubers during the intermission. On Sunday, June 11, 2006, I graduated from Chinese school. As part of the graduation ceremony, I was asked to demonstrate my cubing. I did a 2x2x2 speedsolve, a 3x3x3 speedsolve, and a 2x2x2 blindfolded solve. Though my speedsolves were a bit slow due to nerves, fortunately, my 2x2x2 blindfolded solve was successful. On July 2, 2006, I broke the 16-second barrier with a 15.93 average:
I actually achieved this average using the inspiration I derived from achieving a sub-16 second average on Ryan Heise's Rubik's Cube Simulator. Currently, this average stands as my best 3x3x3 speedsolve average. On Ryan Heise's virtual cube, I've gone on to achieve a sub-15 second average and a best non-lucky solve of 10.15 seconds. My fastest real-life (lucky) single solve is 12.78 seconds, while my fastest non-lucky is 12.94 seconds. Thus, I am currently faster on the computer than I am in real-life =(. This concludes my speedcubing history. Today, a new division of the über-elite speedcubers have emerged, defined by a sub-15 second average. It is my current goal to join this group. However, I still stand by my claim that a sub-20 second average results in the greatest endorphin rush for a cuber. My journey as a speedcuber has only just begun. Cubing is a lifetime sport. End: Thursday, August 3, 2006, shortly before midnight. |
