TecSpy -- Michael Erskine's home domain

Mistakes and a lack of consistency: a fast time of 20.66 and a crazy long solve which I could have DNF'ed to be fair. Perhaps the stress and massive caffeine intake of todays' meetings is affecting me in both good and bad ways.

Today's average of 12 Rubik's Cube solves was notable due to my new DaYan ZanShi cube. My lunchtime solves are my main progress indicators since the environment is quite constant here at my desk at work: quiet, good lighting, no interruptions, same time in the middle of the day, etc. Somewhat more like the competition environment than at home.

I only had time to do 5 Rubik's Cube solves this lunchtime here at work. I'm happy to again achieve a sub-30 average with a small standard deviation. There were also three R-Perms (headlights left, block pair BL) at which I must admit I'm not at all fast (even to my low standards!) However, I had just read the recent interview with Feliks (http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/entry.php?23-Who-is-The-Fazt) and I was sitting up straight and trying to be like him!

Statistics for 02-17-2012 13:08:14

Average: 29.52
Standard Deviation: 0.98
Best Time: 27.02
Worst Time: 32.80

If you happen to be in Nottingham city centre early on a Wednesday evening you may see a very smily man striding purposefully through town towards the Sneinton market area. That man is me! I love the Nottingham Hackspace open nights and I can't seem to hide it - I'm a grinning fool! I think it's the idea of a guaranteed full evening of hacking on my projects whilst surrounded by friends that keeps me going through the week. Last night I managed to fix the power port on what was previously dubbed "The World's Most Annoying £20 Laptop". It is now much less annoying!

Another lunchtime, another average of 12 (these are timed Rubik's Cube solves BTW! See here for details) and I'm managing to remain dipped just below the magical 30 second mark. It may be a little while before I change my official standpoint of "I average x" from the current 33 seconds down to 30 since I have yet to prove this out in the speedsolving.com "Race to Sub-30" league table.

I've been speedcubing competitively since 2008 and I've had to face up to pretty slow progression, which can be quite disheartening. This is especially when most young speedcubers can pick up the sport and exceed my level within a few months of practice! Am I jealous? Undeniably yes!

Another sub-30 avg of 12. The DNF was a failure to start due to an interesting cross plan! I don't have audio enabled here at work so I wouldn't have heard the warning from Stefan's voice on CCT!

Another sub-30 in sub-zero temperatures...

Hooray! A sub-30 average of 12 with no warmup - approx 12hrs after previous solve. Quite consistent too - pleasing to see all the 20's in there including a 23 which is quite an event for me right now!

(for anyone who doesn't know what I'm on about - move along: nothing to see here!)

Another narrowly missed sub 30 average of 12. This time whilst contending with my pet rats Star (Chubster) and Stella (Snuggles) who have today discovered what chocolate chip cookies are like - and they have gone truly mad! On some of these solves I was desparately using my elbows to keep the rats out of my pockets.