Erwaman's Personal Journal - July 2010

On shoes

I usually just slip my feet on and off my shoes without untying and tying my shoelaces. I just leave them perpetually tied. When slipping my shoes on, I'll often just force my foot in and wriggle my foot around until the back of the shoe wraps around my heel, without using the hooks at the back of most sneakers that I assume were designed to help you slip your shoes on without unlacing your shoelaces:

As a result of this laziness, my shoes have suffered damage:

This used to be one of my XC running shoes. The sole of this shoe has completely worn off where my heel first strikes the ground while running (see end of this post for pictures).

The soft layer is almost completely worn off, revealing a wall of hard plastic behind it.

The hard plastic is starting to cut through the soft layer. It used to give me blisters on my Achilles tendon, but my feet have callused, so it causes me no pain or injury anymore.

I think it's about time for new shoes anyhows, judging from the wear of my current shoes. There are even holes in the sides of my shoes.

To avoid damaging my shoes further, I've recently made an effort to stop being lazy and to just untie and tie my shoes when I take them off and put them on. This is something I already always did when it came to dress shoes because those are more expensive and I care more about their appearance. Also, when wearing dress shoes, I avoid squatting on my toes like this -

- because toe squats cause creases on the top of the shoe toward the front. The creases don't look good on dress shoes and can mess up any shoe polish you have applied. Instead, with dress shoes on, I try to squat flat-footed, like this -

- to avoid creasing my shoes.

Also, I almost always double-knot my shoelaces, whatever shoes I'm wearing. I find that my shoelaces will otherwise come untied, and that's quite annoying, especially when doing exercise. I have also found my shoelaces tend to be very long, and sometimes will droop to the ground if I don't double-knot them.

What are other people's shoe putting-on and taking-off habits? Do your shoes have extensive damage in the heel region like mine? Do you double-knot your laces?

Perhaps you prefer to go barefoot?

4x4ing this summer

I started this summer using my own 4x4, but then a center cap broke and I didn't have my replacement pieces with me. Fortunately, Jeffrey Huang lived nearby and was kind enough to loan me his 4x4. So I switched to his 4x4, and when an occasional center cap would snap, I would just salvage another center piece from my cube. As I did more solves, the stickers on Jeff's 4x4 start coming off (he still had the original Rubik's stickers, which do not last under speedcubing use). When that happened, I would remove the piece whose sticker had fallen off and replace it with the corresponding piece from my 4x4, which has Cubesmith stickers. However, as I replaced more pieces, I noticed that Jeff's 4x4 was jamming a lot more, even after relubricating. Also, I seemed to be snapping center pieces at a faster rate.

I realized the cause of the problem might be a slight difference in size between Jeff's 4x4 core and my 4x4 core and between Jeff's 4x4 pieces and my 4x4 pieces. To test this hypothesis, I transferred all the pieces from Jeff's 4x4 onto my 4x4 core, and the result was a SUPER loose 4x4 that felt like it would crumble in my hands. You could not cube with this 4x4 - pieces would fall out left and right. So I was right. It seems that Jeff's pieces were a bit smaller, and my core was a bit larger. Realizing this, I put my own pieces back on my own core and salvaged pieces from Jeff's 4x4, reversing the roles of the two 4x4s.

The switch seems to be paying off. After getting a horrendous 1:25.29 average on the tight, jamming cube (which made me realize something was wrong with the cube), I made the switch and then set a new 4x4 average PR of 1:08.73 = 1:03.66, 1:07.65, 1:03.10, 1:19.60, 1:08.56, 1:06.96, (DNF), 1:21.64, (1:00.71), 1:08.09, 1:04.68, 1:03.34. Even with a DNF counted as my slowest time and a 1:19 and 1:21 in the average, I still got a PR. So if I can just be a bit more consistent, I think I can get my average down to 1:05ish. However, I need to get more used to my new 4x4 first - it's popping quite a bit. This PR average was part of a 39-solve session, 6 solves of which I DNF'd because a cubie popped out, hit the keyboard, and stopped the timer. During this session, I also got my third ever sub-minute solve - a 59.04. A year ago, I never imagined I'd see sub-minute 4x4 times, but now, with a sub-1:10 average, I'm expecting to hit sub-minute times on some solves with no parity problems.

As I do more 4x4 solving, I've realized that a lot of hitting good times is just maintaining the sprinting intensity that I have when doing 3x3 solves. Before, I didn't have that kind of endurance or focus on the 4x4, but now, motivated by these good times, I'm maintaining a sprint through the entire 4x4 solve, and that's definitely helping my times. I've used this analogy before, but it's like I had the ability to sprint 100 meters (3x3), but now I've built up the endurance necessary for a 400-meter sprint (4x4). Before, I would get fatigued in the middle of the 400 meters and start thinking about how long the race was and how tired I was, causing me to slow down my pace. I don't do that as much any more.

Edit: Also, I suppose my improvement on Fridrich for 3x3 is also helping my 4x4 times, since my 4x4 method is reduction to a 3x3, then solve like a 3x3.

I still have yet to get a successful 4x4 BLD solve though...but then again, I've only attempt two solves so far.

I went to sleep last night at 9 PM with a fever and woke up around 3 AM, still with a fever. However, I took some vitamins, drank some water, and ate some watermelon, and that made me feel a little better. Also, I remembered in the past, when I had fevers, for some reason doing blindfolded solves would help me feel better and recover faster. Maybe the mental stimulation of blindfolded cubing causes more blood to flow to my brain, bringing white blood cells along with it. I'm not sure, but blindfolded cubing definitely seems to provide relief for me when I have a fever.

So, remembering this, I decided to attempt a 4x4 blindfolded solve, to practice for the upcoming Berkeley cubing competition this Sunday, July 11. Though I DNF'd the solve - I had three centers unsolved because I did an incorrect setup turn - my focus seemed to be very good during the solve, and the total time was 18:01.03, which was my first time having an attempt that was under 20 minutes (even though it was a DNF).

After that, I decided to practice 3x3 speedsolving. I started off rough, with a few nasty pops, but I hit a groove, and I ended up breaking my 3x3 average PR! My previous record of 14.67 had been done using the Petrus method and had lasted since 7/23/08. Now, after about fourth months of using the Fridrich method, I've finally broken my Petrus average record, with a new Fridrich average PR and overall 3x3 average PR of 14.50 = 13.37, 13.70, 14.46, 14.78, (17.48), (12.62), 17.41, 14.60, 12.96, 14.25, 16.02, 13.44.

I did all this cubing between 4:30 and 5:30 AM and it's almost 6:30 AM now. Time to go back to bed and rest up for another day.

Berkeley Summer 2010 cubing competition, Sunday, July 11, 2010

This competition was a lot of firsts for me. It was my first competition at UC Berkeley and my first competition in California. It was the first competition that I attended by myself (without my dad). It was also the first competition that I'd say I seriously trained for. This was also the first cubing competition in which I did not make it to the final round in either the 3x3 speedsolve or 3x3 one-handed events.

The competition was the toughest I have ever experienced. I'd say overall, the level of cubing on the West Coast is definitely higher than that on the East Coast.

I got to UC Berkeley around 9:25 and then spent around 10 minutes trying to find Dwinelle Hall, where the competition was being held. I finally found it and parked in a lot across the street (when I left in the afternoon, I realized you were supposed to pay a machine for a parking ticket, but I hadn't noticed and fortunately, I hadn't been ticketed). When I got there, the first thing I did was ask organizer Vincent Sheu if he had any 4x4 stickers. Over the past few weeks, I had snapped several of my 4x4 centers, and had been replacing them by salvaging center pieces from the 4x4 Jeffrey Huang lent me. However, his 4x4 pieces still had the original Rubik's-brand stickers that come with the cube, and they rubbed off quickly. After I had salvaged all the orange center pieces from Jeff's cube and still needed more, I had gone to Walgreen's and got a sheet of orange paper backed with adhesive that was used for making sale tags. However, I needed uniform stickers in order to do my 4x4 blindfolded attempts, and fortunately, Vincent had some spare stickers.

The first two events were Square-1 and Megaminx, neither of which I was competing in. So I used this time to resticker my 4x4, and clean and lubricate the 3x3 I planned to use, which I borrowed from Jeff. After this, I did one practice 3x3 blindfolded solve, which I succeeded on, and then I went to do my 4x4 blindfolded attempts.

It was really nice to be able to do my 4x4 blindfolded solves in an empty classroom, where there were no distractions and no noise. However, I know I shouldn't depend on such nice circumstances, so in the future, I might invest in some earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones, which I've seen some of the best blindfolded cubers wear, like Chris Hardwick. Disappointingly, I failed all three of my 4x4 blindfolded attempts, each time screwing up a different thing: solve 1, I memorized that the FR edge pair needed to be flipped (OLL parity) but then forgot about the pair during execution; solve 2, I solved centers and edges and then got to corner orientation and completely blanked and then guessed wrong; solve 3, I could've sworn I memorized and executed everything perfectly, after having taken addition time to solidify my memorization and having solved more slowly, but when I took off my blindfold, a red center and a green center were swapped. On the bright side, my three attempts were about 16 minutes, 21 minutes, and 22 minutes, which are all significantly less than the 27 minutes, 49 seconds I took for my only successful 4x4 blindfolded solve done in competition (at Connecticut Summer 2009), so I'm confident the next time I succeed, I will improve my official 4x4 blindfolded PR by a lot.

Though I DNF'd all my 4x4 blind attempts, I did get 2 out of 3 correct on my 3x3 blind attempts, with a best of 2:33.03. That was pretty good for me, but only good enough for 6th, as the top three all got under 2 minutes. Leyan Lo, former 3x3 blindfolded WR holder, won with an amazing 1:03.83 on his second attempt. (Amusingly, at Connecticut Summer 2009, where I did my only official successful 4x4 blindfolded solve so far, I DNF'd all my 3x3 blindfolded solves.)

After I failed my 4x4 blind attempts, I did my 4x4 speedsolves and had some bad luck. I got the OLL parity on two solves and both the OLL and PLL parities on another two solves. The other solve I DNF'd because I snapped a white center piece during the solve. I ended up with an average of 1:20 flat, which is the same as what I averaged two years ago.

For 3x3 one-handed, I had two sub-30 solves (which are good for me), but I choked on the other three solves, with two 35s and a 42. I also witnessed a 12.31 one-handed solve by Justin Adsuara, which had a LAST LAYER skip (which has a 1 in 15,552 probability of occurring)!

The main event, the 3x3 speedsolve, started after lunch. In both the first and second rounds, I did about my global Fridrich average, getting averages of 16.97 and 16.35, respectively, and hitting one 12 in each round (12.43 and 12.33, respectively). However, I did not make the cut for the final round - all 12 who advanced had a sub-15 average.

Not having qualified for either the 3x3 or 3x3 OH finals, I was done early, another first for me. I stuck around though, to watch the finals. For the 3x3 speedsolve finals, audience members who wanted to could participate in "fantasy cubing". The way it worked was as follows: For each of the five solves, you choose who you think will have the fastest time. You can only choose each person once. You write down the actual times the persons you chose get on the solves you chose them for, and then you take the average of the five times (dropping the high and low). My fantasy cubing did not go so well - I put Dan Dzoan on his slowest solve and put Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi on his fifth solve, which he DNF'd. I ended up with an average of 13.99.

At this competition, I saw some amazing cubing. I saw four sub-10 3x3 solves, a ridiculous 1:02 blindfolded solve, a 12-second one-handed solve, and a sub-20 one-handed average. I saw Weston Mizumoto do one-handed solves at ridiculous speed, doing some algorithms as fast I did them two-handed.

Though my personal performance was a little disappointing, the competition was still fun, as cubing competitions always are for me. I was definitely humbled by the incredible level of cubing present and how much further I have to go to reach those levels.

This weekend, at another competition across the world in New Zealand, Feliks Zemdegs broke his own 3x3 average WR with a new WR average of 8.52 seconds. To give you a sense of how ridiculous that is, my fastest 3x3 single solve ever is 9.61 seconds and my fastest official 3x3 solve is 11.19 seconds. The fastest 3x3 average by another person is 9.89 seconds, by Erik Akkersdijk (who currently holds the 3x3 single solve WR of 7.08). I remember at competitions in the past, I had discussed with other cubers how low we thought 3x3 times would drop. I recall we used to think a 10-second average would be the limit, with the single solve WR being 8 or 9 seconds. Now, both these predictions have been exceeded, so who knows how low the times will go. The time limits of cubing keep getting pushed lower and lower. It's just incredible.

Cube on.

Random things

A couple days ago, there was a booth in the lobby of the 400 Oracle Parkway building that I work in. The purpose of the booth was to make Oracle employees more aware about Oracle's Accessibliity Program, which helps ensure Oracle's applications and products meet the needs of disabled users. One of the goodies the booth was giving out was fortune cookies. I took one and was pleasantly surprised to find a Braille fortune inside!

There's a lone dot in position 6 cut off at the left, but it's just a capitalization dot. My translation of the fortune is "You like VPATs". VPATs are Voluntary Product Accessiblity Templates, which are documents used to evaluate the accessibility of a product. My only questions are: (1) do the two dots that precede VPAT mean the following word is in all caps? and (2) do the two dots that precede the "s" (last character) mean to uncapitalize the rest of the word? What do you guys think? I couldn't find any definitive documentation on this.

Today, the interns went to the Malibu Grand Prix from 5 to 11 PM, and rode go-karts, played mini-golf, and hit the arcades. On my way back home, I dropped another intern off at Oracle so he could bike home, and then I reached the intersection of Oracle Parkway and Marine Parkway. It was a red light and I was trying to make a left turn, so I waited. After a few minutes of waiting, the light was still red, and the way the walk signals kept cycling suggested the light might never turn green. Bored, I decided to film the situation:

In total, I must have waited around five minutes for this light to turn green.

That is all. Good night.

Fruits and Sugar

I like eating fruits. They're tasty, and they're quick to get in your mouth - no cooking involved - just a little washing and peeling sometimes, and into the mouth they go. Part of the reason fruits taste so good is all the sugars they naturally contain. I'm pretty sure these sugars are different from the processed sugars that you find in cookies and cereals, among many other things. But I was just pondering whether eating too much fruit can be bad for you due to all their natural sugars. Do people get diabetes from eating too much fruit?