Cleaning the Big Cubes

I noticed recently that my 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 Rubik's cubes were getting a bit sticky. No, not on the outside, but more difficult to turn. Time to clean and reapply the silicon spray!

Each cube consists of 213 parts. The mechanism is essentially the same, but the center cubies (small cubes) are hidden. It's kind of like someone took the 7x7x7 and squashed it so the center rows all got tucked in underneath the other cubies. (I hope I'm making sense here. If not .... well, I tried.) The silicon spray is the best lubricant to use because it doesn't degrade the plastic and it's pretty easy to apply.

Here are the cubes before.


They are rather easily disassembled, but I had to be careful not to lose any pieces.
(You can't get replacement parts....)


Washed in lukewarm water with just a bit of dish detergent.
Rinsed at least twice. Done separately for each cube.


All pieces laid out to dry for ~30 mins.


6x6x6 cube laid out for easy spraying with silicon.
Any water left on the cubies has to be dried off before spraying. Q-tips were helpful.
Sprayed the interior surfaces with silicon and then let them dry.


Reassembled 6x6x6 cube.
When putting the 6x6x6 back together, it only matters that the corners are in the correct position and orientation. It makes it easier to reassemble if you don't worry about reassembling it into the solved state.


Then you just solve it!

(I did it while waiting for the silicon spray to dry on the 7x7x7)


Here's the 7x7x7 laid out.
There are the same number of pieces as the 6x6x6, but some of the pieces are larger.
Same as the 6x6x6: sprayed with silicon, let it all dry.


When reassembling the 7x7x7, the corners must be in the correct location/orientation, but so do the center edge pieces. I actually messed up when I reassembled it the first time, but it was about 2 am, so I just went to bed.


I fixed and solved the 7x7x7 the next day, but I didn't take a picture, sorry. Both cubes turn a lot more smoothly now.

I actually find it more fun to disassemble, reassemble, and then solve these cubes than to just mix them up before solving. It's like having two puzzles in one. Cleaning and re-lubricating them... not so much. At some point I'm going to need to replace the stickers (which I already have), but I'm really not looking forward to that.

Side note: These actually aren't Rubik's Cubes. The Rubik's Cube folks couldn't figure out how to make a Rubik's Cube larger that 5x5x5. The 5x5x5 Rubik's Cube is a bit unstable as it is, and applying the same design to a larger cube would make it too fragile. It took a Greek inventor, Panagiotis Verdes, to figure out another way to make large puzzle cubes from 5x5x5 up to as large as 11x11x11. They are marketed as V-Cubes. The largest V-cube remains at 7x7x7, even though the 10x10x10 and 11x11x11 have been listed as "coming soon" on the website for about 2 years. I'd quite like to have one of each if they ever come out, but I'm sure they're going to be rather expensive.

If I only had time... and motivation...

I've been thinking a lot about all the things I would like to accomplish if I had unlimited time, money, and motivation. That last one is probably the biggest problem. So, in no particular order (mostly), here we go:

• Pay off my credit card. I was getting close, then I bought a house. Frustrating!
• Get a piano. A baby grand would be awesome and I have the perfect place for it.
• Play piano well enough that I could sing along to relatively simple songs. The ultimate would be if I could play Claude Debussy's Claire de Lune, but that's probably a bit much too hope for.
• Sing well enough where I wouldn't be embarrassed to do a solo. I'd love to have some lessons.
• Play Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet. Even just for myself, no performance necessary.
• Play guitar well enough that I can sing at the same time.
• Compose songs.
• Become fluent in Japanese.
• Visit Japan (for a significant length of time).
• Attend my favorite K-Pop artists' concerts. Meeting them would be awesome, but I know that won't happen.
• Lose weight and be fit (~120 pounds). This is the hardest one on the list, for so many reasons. 
• Learn how to build furniture. I'd like custom furniture for my house, and building it myself would be rather awesome.
• Write. I have quite a few stories floating around in my brain, but I find it difficult to actually get them on paper.
• Write at least one application for Android that would be a useful tool for many people.
• Nicely landscape my front and back yards. I don't really care to do the physical labor myself, though!
• Become a better swimmer.
• Learn how to sew as well as Mom. 
• Knit an Aran sweater.
• Help reduce the social stigma of bipolar disorder.
• Somehow encourage more girls to major in Computer Science (or something like it) in college.

I'm sure there's a lot more, but I that's what I can think of right now. 

Treading Water

In the context of a very specific conversation today, someone asked me, "You know what you want, right?" I did for that situation, but it got me thinking. (Which can be dangerous.)

What do I want? I'm alright with where I am right now. Not overjoyed, but alright. I can honestly say that I'm now fine with being single. But I feel like I've been just treading water, just trying to keep from drowning, never moving forward. And really, I've never been a good swimmer.

Two Weeks Fast Food Free

On September 26, I quit fast food. I allow myself 1 fast food meal per week. I ate out for lunch on 9/26 before I could go grocery shopping. I had Arby's last Saturday for dinner. Then I had Arby's again on Monday. This was not something I wanted to do, but the circumstances dictated that I either eat Arby's for dinner or go without dinner (or so I thought). To make up for that, I won't be eating out this Saturday.

In any case, I am getting used to this "cooking" thing that people talk about. I love watching Good Eats and I even got to use something from it today! I cooked up an orange roughy filet. Tasty. I also tried some red potatoes, but it didn't quite work out. I'm going to stick to boiling those suckers in the future.

The only problem I have in the grocery store is keeping myself from buying too much. It's a little difficult to purchase just enough for one person. Finding a squash that's small enough for just me was ... interesting. I felt kinda weird digging through the squashes to find a little one.

Last month I spent almost $200 eating out. This month I have spent under $25 so far. Of course, I have spent more on groceries, but I feel like I have enjoyed my food more.

Fast Food Cold Turkey

I've had a few months lately where money was tight. Problem is that there was really no reason for it. I have made some larger purchases, like a dresser from IKEA and some good shoes from DSW, but they weren't anything that would break the bank. Most months I keep good track of my spending. Not so much lately. That's the first thing to change. The next is spending habits. I know I have more than one thing to work on, but the big one is fast food.

I will now admit a somewhat embarrassing fact. I do not cook. It's not that I can't or that my cooking is poisonous ... I just don't do it. I don't really like it, I'm lazy, and usually I'm exhausted by the time I get home from work. But if I spent as much food on groceries as I do on fast food, I could be dining on gourmet cuisine for the entire month. Generally, the only meals I do not eat from a restaurant is lunch at work. Half the time I don't eat lunch at all.

Thus, my new resolution. For one month, starting this Saturday, I will be quitting fast food. Cold turkey. I get paid tomorrow, which means I can go grocery shopping at a nice new HEB near my house. I will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner from those groceries. I will do this until my next paycheck. Hopefully this will somewhat break me of my habit. I am going to allow myself one fast food meal per week, regularly reserved for Saturday.

I'll be posting updates on my endeavor. Sarah will not be changing her fast food habits (which is totally okay with me), so I will be taking her through the drive-thru as she requests on our daily transit. I'm making a mental note of my weight right now and I'll let you know if that changes at the end of the month.

Wish me luck!

Patterns, patterns everywhere!

I love to crochet. Even more, I love to look at patterns and buy magazines. So I have ended up with a lot of magazines that have a couple of lovely patterns in each of them. The problem is that most of the patterns are crap. If it's labeled "innovative" or "a new twist on an old classic", don't even bother looking at it. So I end up with a few good patterns taking up a whole lotta shelf space.

Here's my solution: I'm going to create a pattern CD. I'll scan all those patterns that I actually like, categorize them, then burn the whole thing to CD! Then I can recycle all those space-hogging magazines.

Of course, it will be a few years until this actually happens.

I so smart. I post on blog. So I not forget.

Restaurant

If I ever owned a restaurant, I would name it Vittles. It's such an old-timey name and it feels cool to say it. :)