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6 April, 2005

Today, I made my first attempt to solve the Rubik's Cube without looking at it (ie - blindfolded).  I generated a scrambling algorithm of 25 moves on the computer (which I unfortunately do not remember which side I was looking at when I scrambled so I won't post it until I find out), studied the cube, and attempted to solve it.  I did not use paper or pencil or anything like that to assist me with the memorization.  I was using the method of Stefan Pochmann from his website.  Here are the results of my attempt:

Memorization (Time:  80 minutes)
The memorization of the edges took 38 minutes and the memorization of the corners took an additional 42 minutes, so in total I spent 80 minutes memorizing the cube.  This could have been greatly reduced if there were not so many distractions and if I remembered the objected I designated to each color combination before I started.  I used "Wendy's" instead of the "M & M's" I planned on using because I forgot I wanted to use "M & M's" and made up a new object for RY.

I first started to memorize the orientations and positions of each of the edge pieces.  There are 12 edges, but the last one is automatically correct if the first 11 are also correct, so I had to remember a sequence of 11 "objects."  I attempted to create a story in which each edge would be represented by an object instead of colors.  My story was as follows:

Widget (UW) was watching the eclipse (YB), (but he puked (GY)) because he ate too many french fries with ketchup (YR).  The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (WB) was eating strawberries (RG) in my Chevelle (OY) outside Washington, D.C. (GW).  Suddenly, a Fanta (OB) and a carrot (OG) fell from the sky and hit Santa (RW) in the head.  I thought it was funny, so I put it on my website (RB), went to Wendy's (RY), and fixed the parity.

I next started to memorize the positions and orientations of the corner pieces.  There are only 8 corners, but the last one is automatically correct, so I had to remember a sequence of 7 objects for the corners.  This story made even less sense, but I was able to remember it during the solve:

Santa was pissed, so he beat up a leprechaun (GO).  A speedcuber (PLL-21) gave me a candy cane (WR), a Fanta, and some french fries with ketchup.  Bert and Ernie (YO) hung up Christmas wreaths (GR) as I finished the cube and put it down.

Execution (Time:  14 minutes)
I found it very easy not to make a mistake during the execution of my algorithms, despite using rotations for placement of cubes into the FU and BU edge positons.  Unfortunately, when I took off the "blindfold" (a ski-mask double-layered over my eyes), the cube was not solved.  Instead it looked like this:

  (front)

  (back)

I am thinking I did the wrong set-up alg for the WB edge.  That accounts for the WB edge and GY edge being wrong (I kept red in front and the GY edge was where I was cycling pieces through).  I was especially afraid of unnecessarily doing the parity fix, but I believe that is probably what happened.  That accounts for the YO and YB edges being swapped and WRG and YGR corners being swapped.

Final Remarks (Total Time:  94 minutes)
In conclusion, I believe that it is entirely possible for me to have a successful solve with a slight amount more concentration (the lounge was noisy, also) and I am sure the time will drop with more practice.  I would like to think of this attempt as good preparation for my next attempt, rather than 94 wasted minutes.  I just hope that next time the cube is actually solved! :)