What I think of CrazyBadCuber's new design

Hey, guys. A few weeks ago I made a post about how CrazyBadCuber has stopped interacting with his fanbase by removing the comments section from his videos and closing his Facebook. Now, he has also redesigned his channel. He changed the video opening and created a rating system. While I respect Dan and think that the rating design is a good idea, I'm not crazy about his new look. Especially the opening. Back with the movie trailer opening, it didn't seem like a YouTube video, it almost looked like a TV show. I would rank his channel quality up there with big YouTubers like Smosh and Shane Dawson. Now, these videos don't seem like fun entertainment videos, it looks like a office presentation. Hopefully, this channel look will grow on me, and I still enjoy his videos just the same. Until next time, Cube On!

Good Day

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks. School caught up with me, and I've been trying to make more videos on YouTube. I wanted to post today because I just had a pretty good day. Now, keep in mind, I'm a nerd's nerd. I don't have very many close friends, I'm single (hopefully not too much longer :}), and the only club I'm in meets once a week, so I don't have too many spectacular shenanigans. Today, I got a new PB on the Rubik's Cube. I went down from a 13.3 second single to a 12.35 second solve. A .95 decrease in time, let's see Feliks get that big a gap in the record! I've been doing pretty good on my other cubes, I got 2 sub-1's in the same day last weekend, and I've been picking up the 5x5 more, even though it is a pain to scramble, and have been getting 2:30 solves. For a speedcuber, this has been some pretty awesome results. I'm thinking of going to UIUC for a cubing competition in a couple weeks, so maybe I'll get down to a 19 or even 18 second average. Until next time, Cube On!

CRAZYBADCUBER IS DEAD?!?!?! (SORT OF)

If you are active with cubing on YouTube, you probably have heard of Dan Fast, better known as CrazyBadCuber. After MeMyselfandPi quit cubing and went to go play Minecraft, an act I now call, "Pulling a Pi", he was who a lot of cubers went to. He is a good cuber, he is original, he is all you want in a YouTube channel. About 3 days ago, I went on my iPad to see if Dan answered my question on Ask.fm. I didn't see his name in my feed. I searched CrazyBadCuber, and nothing came up. This worried me, so I went to facebook to see if anyone had posted about this on the CrazyBadCuber facebook page. To my surprise, CrazyBadCuber had no facebook page anymore! At this point, I was expecting the worst, so I went to check his YouTube channel, and it was still up, thank whoever's up there. I checked the comments and no one had seemed to realize that his facebook and ask.fm had gone MIA. So, I posted a comment on his latest video asking what happened to them, and a few hours later Dan replied that he had deleted them. Later, I went on facebook again and Dan had reopened the page. He released a post saying that he wasn't quitting YouTube, but instead was quitting the cubing community. He has closed ratings and comments on all his videos, and is not sure when he will reopen them. He said that he has become addicted to responding to haters, and he needs to be more productive with his time. I must say I am sad about this. One of the best things about CrazyBadCuber was how committed he was to replying to comments. But it's his channel, and I respect that. The Crazybad Giveth, The Crazybad taketh away. Until next time, Cube On!

My First Cubing Competition!

Well, the past 10 months of cubing have led up to this moment! On the 9th, I will be traveling 3 and a half hours to Hillsdale, Michigan for my very first cubing competition! The competition is being organized by former continental record holder Anthony Brooks (I imagine I won't be able to talk to him, as he will be covered with groupies). Another person that will be there is Sarah Strong (The Joan of Arc of cubing). Also making an appearance is Josh Feran. If anyone used to like MeMyselfandPi but are now annoyed by him, you may know of his friend, Jhahoua Rubik's (I wonder how you pronounce that, Ja-wa-wa, Ja-hway-hway?). So, I'm sure this competition will be a memorable one. I'm also sure that this will be the first of many. Until next time, Cube On!

History of Taming the Monster that is the Rubik's Cube

Many people wonder about the history of the Rubik's cube. We all know how the Rubik's Cube was made as an experiment by a Hungarian architecture professor, but what no one gets into is the original method for solving the cube, and how it has evolved since then. Before Erno Rubik patented the cube as a toy in 1974, he first had to figure out how to solve it himself. It'd be kind of a dick move to just put it out there not even knowing if it could be solved. So, he worked at it for a month. He originally thought that he could just randomly turn it until he solved it. This was back when quintillion wasn't even a number, so that failed. He then figured out how to solve the corners first, and then figured out how to solve it completely! So, it's safe to say that the first method was corners first. This is also the method that Minh Thai used to win the first World Championships in 1982 (He solved a Rubik's brand Cube in 22 seconds using a corners first method, which is nothing short of a monumental achievement). The next method was the Petrus method, which was also used at the World Championships, but only got him 4th place. Then came the big dog. Jessica Fridrich with CFOP. This was, is, and probably always will be, the absolute best method for solving the Rubik's Cube quickly. With this, times went from sub-20 to sub-10 to sub-7. And that's where we find ourselves today. That's it for today, Cube On!

10/2/13; Here We Go

Here we go! The inaugural blog for me. My real name is Alex, but I don't want to bore you with stuff like that. For now, I'll call myself "The Rubicubist". Now isn't that more exciting! If you haven't guessed it yet, one of my primary hobbies is the Rubik's Cube. I've been able to solve it since I was 9, but I wasn't interested in solving it quickly until about 9 months ago. I had gotten a Rubik's Cube from my Grandma for Christmas, and I quickly learned about the WCA and Fridrich and different cubes. Within 6 months I knew full OLL and PLL, and we find ourselves where we are today. On this channel, I plan to talk about developments in cubing, the best cubes, reviews, tutorials, and more! (I say that having no idea what else to write about.) Hopefully I won't procrastinate on this blog and there will be more posts like this one. Until then, Cube on!