Weekly discussion thread (Oct 23, 2023)

I'm annoyed that I've only just found this community. I'm not using Reddit anymore, but I have gone back to the Cubers subreddit a few times. I quit Reddit and started Cubing together at the start of summer, Cubing was my Reddit replacement.

So I just found this community today and see it's a graveyard with zero discussion. Which sucks! I want to talk about cubing with people.

IRL the addition of a cube to my biker/metal head look has left a lot of people confused lol. I have a friend that used to cube but he never replies, and there's a guy at my kids school that has solved in front of an Assembly but I've yet to meet him.

Anyway, ramble ramble, Hi there anyone alive?

Hi there, and welcome.

There is a few cubers here but yeah, it’s pretty quiet…

Anyway, what method do you use? do you compete? are you a speedsolver, a collectionner, both?
- I'm a CFOP man but Roux interests me, I just can't seem to wrap my head around the last algs yet.
  
  I guess I'm a speed solver, just a slow one. I'm nearly 40 and just wanted something to occupy my mind rather than Reddit (social media in general) and it's certainly done that. Currently I'm working through learning OLL, then it's PLL which is apparently easier.
  
  I like being able to stand at a bar 6 beers in and solve a cube in a minute or two with one eye shut, and I like that I had no clue how to do this 3 months ago and now I'm faster than the majority of people at it
Hi! I'm also here from Reddit and created this community because I enjoyed the subreddit back then. It's nowhere near as active but I hope we can create a good community here too.

Work is a bit busy these days so I'm less active and cube less these days.

This week I've upgraded from a magnetic RS3M to a UV Tornado which has no springs!

I love my RS3M but always knew it was gonna be a transitional cube, like when I learned how to play guitar on an old POS I had laying around knowing I would buy a good one if I really stuck with it.

Now I've seen people doing reviews and saying "Bare in mind that buying this premium cube won't magically make your solve times better" but this upgrade really has. I average between a minute and 1:10 usually, but I'm getting much more 40-45 second solves this week.

It's super fast lubed up, I've had to turn everything up in the tensioning to slow it down. Corner magnets on full strength is really nice, you can feel the cube hitting the corner, which allows me to do more algs without looking, a skill I'm working on so I can get Look Ahead working.

For lube I bought some Gravitas and Dignitas and I made my own from a YouTube video, 1 part conditioner and 2 parts Vegetable Glycerin. You can use any oil instead of VG apparently.

I haven’t been "actively" cubing since ~april. Just fidgeting/hand scramble solving since there is always a cube at my desk. About a month ago I tried to time myself, and I have forgotten a lot of algs… FB was still good move count wise, SB was a disaster and LSE was OK.

Fast forward today, I had some not so bad result (with occasional sup-30 because I messed up some of the steps). I even got some sub-20 (19.*), and a 22.07 ao5. But ao25 is 24.5. (For reference, I had a 18.89 ao5, a 21.51 ao25 and 23.08 ao500 mid-february).

Still, it felt pretty good, and I hope I’ll find more time for cubing.

I carry my cube around in my pocket and just play with it when I would be staring at my phone. It's always there so I have a go every day. Like learning to play guitar I was taught to have the guitar nearby and in sight all the time and I'd play it more.

I bought a RS3M 2020 when it first came out, but never cared for it (too loose). Finally got around to lubing it (cubicle weight 1) and tightening the screws a bit and holy cow, can't believe this is a budget cube. If I didn't just get the tornado flagship, I could be content using the RS3M as my main.

Brizzon Side Open V 2023 with unexpected Austin Reed from USA in attendance