# US Nationals and Open



## Hadley4000 (Jun 23, 2008)

Can't believe there isn't a thread on this...

Who is going, and what events are you entering?

I will be going, and I'm entering in

3x3x3
OH
4x4x4
2x2x2
Pyraminx
Clock
Magic


Sooooooooooo excited ^_^


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## Alex DiTuro (Jun 23, 2008)

not going  My times suck there's no way I'd ever qualify.


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## masterofthebass (Jun 23, 2008)

I'm going and I'm the only one doing EVERYTHING! hahahhah i win


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## Jack (Jun 23, 2008)

I'm flying down, and entering 2x2-5x5, BLD, OH, pyraminx, megaminx, FMC, and magic.


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## AvGalen (Jun 23, 2008)

I am coming for sure and will participate in everything, except 5x5x5 blind. I have a tournament the week before (Czech Open) and will take 1 or 2 weeks vacation. Maybe I will even fly directly from Czech to the US if that is faster/cheaper/more convenient.

As soon as I have paypal working I will register, but Tyson (and many others) already know I am coming


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 23, 2008)

Very cool, Araund! I look forward to meeting you.


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## HelloiamChow (Jun 23, 2008)

I'll be there, and I'll be doing 3x3, 4x4, and BLD. My buddy Cliff will be there, and I think he's doing what I'm doing plus OH. 

Maybe I'll enter FMC again and see if I get lucky with another PLL skip. Who knows.


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## Mike Hughey (Jun 23, 2008)

I'm signed up for everything except clock (don't have one) and pyraminx (would probably be disqualified because it tends to fall apart when scrambling, and I'm terrible at it anyway).

I'm beginning to doubt that I will be able to participate in fewest moves, though, since I'll probably be busy doing multiBLD at the same time. I really need to ask the organizers about that - if it will be possible to do both, if I wind up doing a 2-hour multiBLD. I was gonna just do 10 cubes or so with multi (so then maybe I would be able to join the fewest moves in progress after I finished), but with my very close near-success this week, I'm thinking I really need to do a few more than that. I'd love to do them both, but I'll have to see what their policy is. (I am always perfectly happy to abide by whatever the organizer policy is at competitions, so I will do whatever they allow.) Maybe they will allow me to do it first, or afterwards, or something. I wonder what their general policy for people doing both main and side events is? Last year at the US Open, I remember they let those doing side events participate early in the main events so they could do the side events, at least in some cases.

My daughters Marie and Rebecca will be there too; Marie will do 2x2x2, 3x3x3, Magic, Master Magic, and Rebecca will do 3x3x3, 4x4x4, Magic, and Master Magic.


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## ajmorgan25 (Jun 23, 2008)

I was going to go...but I heard it's outside? If so, I doubt I'll want to go, because I live in Alabama and it's been way to hot recently.


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## AvGalen (Jun 23, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Very cool, Araund! I look forward to meeting you.


Nice typo. I guess Arnaud will be around


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 24, 2008)

HelloiamChow said:


> I'll be there, and I'll be doing 3x3, 4x4, and BLD. My buddy Cliff will be there, and I think he's doing what I'm doing plus OH.
> 
> Maybe I'll enter FMC again and see if I get lucky with another PLL skip. Who knows.



Cliff Shen? Cool, look forward to seeing you both again


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 24, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Very cool, Araund! I look forward to meeting you.
> ...




Haha, if it weren't for spell check I might actually be legally retarded. Considering names don't work in it, my true self comes out.


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jun 24, 2008)

I'm doing every event except for OH and 5x5BLD... let me see if I can coax Tyson into letting me do 5x5 BLD for free...


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## shelley (Jun 24, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> As soon as I have paypal working I will register, but Tyson (and many others) already know I am coming



Arnaud, you already registered. And paid, if I remember correctly.


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## ajmorgan25 (Jun 24, 2008)

ajmorgan25 said:


> I was going to go...*but I heard it's outside?* If so, I doubt I'll want to go, because I live in Alabama and it's been way to hot recently.



Anybody know for sure??


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## AvGalen (Jun 24, 2008)

shelley said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > As soon as I have paypal working I will register, but Tyson (and many others) already know I am coming
> ...


Thanks Shelley, I really appreciate it. Dinner is on me!


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## cuBerBruce (Jun 24, 2008)

I've booked a room at the "official" hotel. I look forward to meeting you too, Arnaud; as well as some of the other Europeans that are coming over, since there are limited opportunities to meet them. It will also be good to meet some of the other people that are coming that I haven't met yet, as well as to get to see again those people I haven't seen in awhile.

My best hope is in fewest moves solving. Also, I hope to become 2nd oldest BLDer.

Is the competition really outside? Since the venue was changed to Underground Atlanta, I hadn't heard anything about whether it's inside or outside. I was hoping that it was now going to be inside (air-conditioned, no wind/rain). Otherwise I hope the weather is really nice for two days.


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 24, 2008)

cuBerBruce said:


> I've booked a room at the "official" hotel. I look forward to meeting you too, Arnaud; as well as some of the other Europeans that are coming over, since there are limited opportunities to meet them. It will also be good to meet some of the other people that are coming that I haven't met yet, as well as to get to see again those people I haven't seen in awhile.
> 
> My best hope is in fewest moves solving. Also, I hope to become 2nd oldest BLDer.
> 
> Is the competition really outside? Since the venue was changed to Underground Atlanta, I hadn't heard anything about whether it's inside or outside. I was hoping that it was now going to be inside (air-conditioned, no wind/rain). Otherwise I hope the weather is really nice for two days.




I believe it will be in the event room. I might drive down there this weekend and check it out.


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## ajmorgan25 (Jun 24, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> cuBerBruce said:
> 
> 
> > I've booked a room at the "official" hotel. I look forward to meeting you too, Arnaud; as well as some of the other Europeans that are coming over, since there are limited opportunities to meet them. It will also be good to meet some of the other people that are coming that I haven't met yet, as well as to get to see again those people I haven't seen in awhile.
> ...



I hope so. It might be the deciding factor for whether or not I go to the competition.


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## DavidCalvo (Jun 24, 2008)

I'm going too, from Spain.

Two other spanish guys, Ernesto Fernandes and Manuel Lopez are comming with me.

See you over there guys!

I'm looking forward to flying to the states. It's going to be a really nice competition, I'm pretty sure about that!

Cheers!

David


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## philkt731 (Jun 24, 2008)

I'll be there. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, American, Canadian, European, or anything else, it'll just be fun to see everyone.

I'm doing 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, OH, BLD, MultiBLD, FMC, and Mega

I quailified for everything but 5x5, but I avg 45 seconds under the qualifying time


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## Mike Hughey (Jun 24, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> I'll be there. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, American, Canadian, European, or anything else, it'll just be fun to see everyone.
> 
> I'm doing 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, OH, BLD, MultiBLD, FMC, and Mega
> 
> I quailified for everything but 5x5, but I avg 45 seconds under the qualifying time



Yeah, it's totally unfair. It's like there are really only 4 slots from the qualifying round, since Phil is guaranteed of getting the first one. 

I'm hoping I can make it out of qualifiers for 5x5x5, but I certainly won't have as easy a time of doing it as Phil.


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## masterofthebass (Jun 24, 2008)

Mike, a couple of things. It's explained that there are at least 5 people moving on from the qualification round, regardless of pre-qualified people. Also, I'm not sure where you are getting your quotas of people allowed in the first round.


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## Bryan (Jun 24, 2008)

I'll be there. I'm signed up for 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, the Magics, Square-1, Pyraminx, and Megaminx. I could have done OH and 5x5x5, but I didn't want to waste the organizer's time. I don't think I'll make it to the second round in anything, but I'll have fun anyway.

You can probably find me helping out Bob at the side events.


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## Mike Hughey (Jun 25, 2008)

masterofthebass said:


> Mike, a couple of things. It's explained that there are at least 5 people moving on from the qualification round, regardless of pre-qualified people. Also, I'm not sure where you are getting your quotas of people allowed in the first round.



That's what I'm saying. One of the at least 5 people moving on from the qualification round will be Phil, because he's not pre-qualified. If he had pre-qualified, he wouldn't be in the qualification round, and there would be another slot. It's like there are just 4 people moving on from the qualification round, since Phil is as good as in - if he has 2 TERRIBLE solves, he'll probably still be in first place. And the "at least" part is what leads to the "people allowed in the first round". From the events page: "Additional competitors may advance as well depending on availability." (In case it's leading to confusion, note that the "first round" is the round after the qualification round. There's no quota on the qualification round.)

Anyway, I hope no one thinks I'm actually upset at Phil (or at the US Open people). I put the  there because I was just joking. Phil totally deserves the spot he'll get; he's had the bad fortune of not being able to compete in a 5x5x5 event anywhere since he's gotten good, so he should be allowed to qualify easily. It's really totally fair; I was just joking because with Phil it's basically a foregone conclusion that he's in.

Sorry if I confused or upset anybody; I meant it as an entirely positive comment towards how good Phil is.


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## Bryan (Jun 25, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Anyway, I hope no one thinks I'm actually upset at Phil (or at the US Open people).



Not Phil, not the US Open people, so you must be mad with me, since I couldn't give Phil the opportunity to pre-qualify for 5x5x5. I was able to get him out of 4x4x4, OH, and BLD qualification rounds though....


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## Mike Hughey (Jun 25, 2008)

Bryan said:


> Mike Hughey said:
> 
> 
> > Anyway, I hope no one thinks I'm actually upset at Phil (or at the US Open people).
> ...



 I think you did great getting the events done that you did there. Sorry I couldn't come to Minnesota, but it's a bit of a trip there, and I had the Cincinnati Open just a short while ago that I was able to go to.

But actually, I have no chance of qualifying for 4x4x4 and OH (I stink at both), and the one event I managed to prequalify for was BLD, so I would have preferred that you skipped the 4x4x4, OH, and BLD events, and just run 5x5x5 instead (since it's the only one I have a chance of getting through the qualification round in).  Oh, well.


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## alexc (Jun 25, 2008)

Hi everyone, I'm back from vacation, and sooo excited for the Nationals.

Here's what I'm entering:
2x2
3x3
4x4
5x5
3x3oh
3x3bld
4x4bld
5x5bld
multibld


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 25, 2008)

Ok, it WILL be inside.


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## Stefan (Jun 25, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Very cool, Araund! I look forward to meeting you.
> ...



Hey, is Arnaud the Dutch/French equivalent of Erno?

And I'll come, too.


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## Mike Hughey (Jun 25, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Ok, it WILL be inside.



Awesomeness!


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## Lucas Garron (Jun 25, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Hadley4000 said:
> ...


Hey, is Stefan the German/Austrian equivalent of Steven?


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## pcharles93 (Jun 25, 2008)

Hey, is Charles the European/American equivalent of Carlos?

I probably won't be able to go to Atlanta. If I do go, I'll have to stay for about a week since it's my hometown. If I can't go, I wish the best of luck to everyone. If I do go, you're all going down.


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## shelley (Jun 25, 2008)

Where did people get the idea that it will be outdoors? We went to Worlds '05. We know better than to inflict that on you.


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## masterofthebass (Jun 25, 2008)

Umm.... well if we were still at the Gaming Festival, that would've been outdoors. Luckily they disappeared or we would've had to bake in the sun for 2 days.


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## alexc (Jun 26, 2008)

Hey, I'm booking my hotel (The Hampton Inn and Suites Atlanta Downtown. The one on the US Nationals website.) on Expedia and it says the address of the one I booked is 161 Spring St. *SW*. But on the Nationals website it says 161 Spring ST. *NW*. Typo? Or are there really two hotels with the same name on the same street?


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## cuBerBruce (Jun 27, 2008)

alexc said:


> Hey, I'm booking my hotel (The Hampton Inn and Suites Atlanta Downtown. The one on the US Nationals website.) on Expedia and it says the address of the one I booked is 161 Spring St. *SW*. But on the Nationals website it says 161 Spring ST. *NW*. Typo? Or are there really two hotels with the same name on the same street?



The Hampton Inn web site gives the NW address, not the SW address. Google Maps Street View confirms there is Hampton Inn at the NW address. So I think Expedia must have the address wrong. I noticed Hotels.com also gives the SW address.


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## alexc (Jun 27, 2008)

Nevermind, I figured it out, there is only one.


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## AvGalen (Jun 27, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Hadley4000 said:
> ...


Arnaud _might_ just be the Dutch equivalent of Erno. We should ask someone from Hungary.

So from now on, you can choose between calling me Mr. Angel and Mr Rubik at formal occasions 

I will be planning my trip next weekend (as will Lars). We are both thinking about flying on wednesday and staying for about a week, but I might even stay untill saturday or sunday and do a little USA-touring like last year.


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## AvGalen (Jun 28, 2008)

I have decided that I will make the US Open a mini-vacation like I did last year.

I am planning on flying to and from somewhere "near" Atlanta like Orlando. That way I can:
* Arrive on wednesday "near" Atlanta,
* Do some travelling+sightseeing on thursday+friday,
* Make sure I arrive in Atlanta friday-evening,
* Enjoy the competition saturday-sunday,
* Some more sightseeing in Atlanta on monday+tuesday,
* More travelling+sightseeing wednesday-saturday while moving in the general direction of the "near Atlanta airport again",
* Flying back to The Netherlands on saturday/sunday

For now I am thinking about Orlando as the "near Atlanta" airport (mostly because of Disney World). But Washington or New Orleans seem doable too

If anyone has some ideas for spending 10 days around the Atlanta area, please let me know. I really enjoy travelling, so don't think that "near Atlanta" should mean 50 miles. Last year I did Chicago->New York->Niagara Falls->Chicago in about a week (including the competition)


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## Hadley4000 (Jun 29, 2008)

As far as stuff in Atlanta to do, there are a few musts for any tourists. 

The Coke museum 

High Museum of Art(If you are an art fan, you have to go)

Other areas at Underground

Little Five Points(A really cool area of Atlanta. About 5 minutes frm underground.)

Stone Mountain

If you are a sports fan, you must go to a Braves game.

If you are a theme park fan, Six Flags.

I am forgetting some things.


Maybes:
The Atlanta Zoo
More will be added


Things that are overrated and not worth seeing at all:

The aquarium.


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## qqwref (Jun 29, 2008)

Tyson told me to tell you guys that they are planning to move the Saturday schedule forward an hour, just in case of people who arrive a little late. It might be possible to make time for people who are even later but we'll have to see.


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## alexc (Jun 30, 2008)

Anyone staying at the "official hotel" (Hampton Inn and Suites Downtown Atlanta) interested in a pre competition meetup on Friday evening for a little bit?


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## alexc (Jun 30, 2008)

qqwref said:


> Tyson told me to tell you guys that they are planning to move the Saturday schedule forward an hour, just in case of people who arrive a little late. It might be possible to make time for people who are even later but we'll have to see.



Wait, just to confirm I'm correct, it's starting at 10:00 AM on Saturday and 11:00 AM on Sunday? (That's what it says on the sight.)


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## AvGalen (Jun 30, 2008)

alexc said:


> qqwref said:
> 
> 
> > Tyson told me to tell you guys that they are planning to move the Saturday schedule forward an hour, just in case of people who arrive a little late. It might be possible to make time for people who are even later but we'll have to see.
> ...


 
On the what?


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## alexc (Jun 30, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> alexc said:
> 
> 
> > qqwref said:
> ...



Oh, whoops, I meant *site*.


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jun 30, 2008)

alexc said:


> Anyone staying at the "official hotel" (Hampton Inn and Suites Downtown Atlanta) interested in a pre competition meetup on Friday evening for a little bit?



Generally, that's what we do.


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## alexc (Jun 30, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> alexc said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone staying at the "official hotel" (Hampton Inn and Suites Downtown Atlanta) interested in a pre competition meetup on Friday evening for a little bit?
> ...



Ok, I understand *that*, but I was just wondering who would be there.


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## pjk (Jul 1, 2008)

18 second qualification for 3x3 vs 24 second at last years US Open. Man, cubing has come along way in a year.


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## philkt731 (Jul 1, 2008)

yeah and to think my last avg would've won the competition last year


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 1, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> yeah and to think my last avg would've won the competition last year



You do realize how nerveracking it is to have EVERYBODY watch you at once, right?


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 1, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> philkt731 said:
> 
> 
> > yeah and to think my last avg would've won the competition last year
> ...



Silently - with just a few people whispering - it felt like the PGA US Open instead of a cubing US Open. I still think it was a really cool atmosphere (even if it probably did completely freak out the competitors). It would have made really good TV.

Edit: I guess I forgot the US Open isn't really a PGA-run event, but I figure everyone who knows golf knew what I meant. And it seemed cool to draw the analogy because it was another US Open going on at the same time.


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## masterofthebass (Jul 1, 2008)

It did remind me of like a PGA event. When something went wrong there were a couple of "oooo"s  Tyson said that this year is probably going to be the same way, so get prepared if you are going to make the finals


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## alexc (Jul 1, 2008)

masterofthebass said:


> It did remind me of like a PGA event. When something went wrong there were a couple of "oooo"s  Tyson said that this year is probably going to be the same way, so get prepared if you are going to make the finals



*takes a deep breath* "gulp..."  lol


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## Bryan (Jul 1, 2008)

So is anyone else not staying at the official hotel? It was too expensive for me, but maybe if people are still looking for a roommate (and my current roommate wants to switch), I'd be interested. Maybe I could even get my cost down more...


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## AvGalen (Jul 1, 2008)

I always try to stay at a hostel. Somehow I feel more at home between the young and adventurous.

I have one more question. Last year I had a discussion about hitchhiking. I thought it would be fun, she thought I would get killed for sure in America. Am I to optimistic?


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## Hadley4000 (Jul 2, 2008)

Hitchhiking around here is probably not the best idea.


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## ajmorgan25 (Jul 2, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Hitchhiking around here is probably not the best idea.



I'll second that.


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

ajmorgan25 said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Hitchhiking around here is probably not the best idea.
> ...


Too bad, it is a great way to meet interesting people while seeing a lot of the surroundings. In Europe I love(d) to hitchhike and once did 1500 km in 4 days from Monaco back to The Netherlands.

So I guess that "land of the free" is directly related to "home of the brave".


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## pcharles93 (Jul 2, 2008)

Lolz. Try hitchhiking in New York City. Everyone will know you are a foreigner for sure.


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

I actually walked around strawberry fields and central park in the middle of the night. Instead of getting mugged/attacked I met 2 nice girls and we talked a bit.

Are you sure that America is really dangerous (facts) or is that just a feeling?


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## sam (Jul 2, 2008)

ugh. I've been planning for the past month to go but it seems i will be missing out on this one . Hope to see you all another time and good luck to everyone going!

-Sam


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## alexc (Jul 2, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Are you sure that America is really dangerous (facts) or is that just a feeling?



I wouldn't risk going out in my city in the middle of the night alone. And I don't even live in a very big city! There are just some bad neighborhoods around and there was a huge drug bust a couple months ago.

I've never been there before, but I've heard Atlanta has some rough areas, so I wouldn't if I were you. What would we do without Arnaud on the forums!


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

alexc said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Are you sure that America is really dangerous (facts) or is that just a feeling?
> ...


 
Hitchhiking inside a city (especially in bad neighborhoods) is not really my idea either. Let me put it this way:
a) Do you ever see hithchhikers on the highway/freeway/interstate/whatever-its-called
b) Do you know someone that has picked up a hitchhiker
c) Have you ever (thought about) hitchhiking yourself


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## masterofthebass (Jul 2, 2008)

If you hitchike, you may end up being arrested, as I don't think pedestrians are allowed on highways. Hitchhiking in the US is really non-existent, except for maybe on small roads in more rural america. I'm almost 100% sure you won't be able to hitchike anywhere near atlanta.


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## alexc (Jul 2, 2008)

a) No
b) No
c) No


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 2, 2008)

Unfortunately, Arnaud, things have changed a lot in the past 25 years here in America. When I was growing up, it was fairly common to hitchhike; I've done it once, and I remember several times when my parents picked hitchhikers up. However, that practice slowly died off so that now, it's almost never done.


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## ShadenSmith (Jul 2, 2008)

My father used to hitchhike to work. Nowadays it's unheard of to hitchhike. I'd like to someday, but it's illegal pretty much everywhere in the country (at least as far as I know).


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

Understood, no hitchhiking


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## pjk (Jul 2, 2008)

It is sad how hitchhiking has become in America. Like Mike said, 25 years ago, it was fine. Now, few people do it. I think it is do to the danger that people think there is to it. Whenever I see a hitchhiker the the direction I'm going, I give them a lift. If I was in that position, I'd want a lift. It is pretty hard to find a ride anymore these days though. I remember my father used to tell me how he hitchhiked to California and back (to Colorado) several times back in the day.



> a) Do you ever see hithchhikers on the highway/freeway/interstate/whatever-its-called
> b) Do you know someone that has picked up a hitchhiker
> c) Have you ever (thought about) hitchhiking yourself


a) Yes, I still do, but very few. And most that do these days seem to be homeless.
b) Yes
c) Yes, if you have no other resort, you kind of have to try.


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

Like your father, I have a lot of (very positive) hitchhiking experience. The highpoint of this was when I walked to Monaco (5 weeks) and hitchhiked back (4 days). I still remember most of the people (and their stories) that gave me a ride and just thinking about it makes me smile again.

In Europe you don't see many hitchhikers anymore, but when you do it's mostly students or travellers, not homeless people. I guess many people have gotten rich and own their own cars.


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## ShadenSmith (Jul 2, 2008)

I'd love to be in that situation and meet people. One of my favorite things to do is go to Waffle House (a breakfast restaurant) in the middle of the night and meet the people there. I've met some truly unique people there. Always amazing.


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## AvGalen (Jul 2, 2008)

ShadenSmith said:


> I'd love to be in that situation and meet people. One of my favorite things to do is go to Waffle House (a breakfast restaurant) in the middle of the night and meet the people there. I've met some truly unique people there. Always amazing.


I don't know your age, but try getting in the metro/L/"underground" in the middle of the night. I did that a couple of times in Chicago after I escorted my friendly guide to her house and everytime I got nice conversations with people. The cube is a real conversation starter.

In New York (actually more like Manhattan) the experience was very different. Everybody just minds his own business there and they expect you to do the same.

Travelling on the greyhound bus is another way to get to meet others.


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## ShadenSmith (Jul 2, 2008)

I'm 16, so a 1 A.M. curfew is set in my city. If you're caught outside past that and under the age of 18, the police can pick you up.

Also, my city (Lexington, Kentucky) doesn't have a metro/underground section. We're a lower-medium sized city, leaving us with a poor bus system, no metro, and mostly suburbs. I live a few miles from downtown, really the only place to see people late at night other than 24 hour restaurants. Someday when I do go to a large city I'd like to try out the metro system though. I've never seen a subway before.


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## joey (Jul 2, 2008)

What!!!!???? Curfew actuallt exists??


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## ShadenSmith (Jul 3, 2008)

In my city, curfew very much does exist. Minors can very easily be picked up for walking after 1 am.

Law enforcement in my city doesn't make much sense though, many of our officers are corrupt. I'm sure it's a small percentage of them that are of course, but enough to notice. 

I grew up down the street from a police officer, I went to school with his son. His son would always talk about the whiskey him and his father brewed in their basement and he would sell it at school (very illegal here). That same police officer eventually lost his job for having a myspace and saying very racist things with other police officers, concerning previous arrests that had been made.

Speaking of racist police officers, the police attempted to blame our car wreck on the other party. We were obviously the ones who ran the stop sign, not them. We told them several times but they continued to say they thought the other car did, and then winked. I should note that we are all Caucasian individuals (as were the policemen) and the other car were Mexicans. Here in Kentucky, there is a considerable deal of prejudice against Mexicans. It's quite sad really.


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## Dene (Jul 3, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> In New York (actually more like Manhattan) the experience was very different. Everybody just minds his own business there and they expect you to do the same.



Just like it should be.


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## Hadley4000 (Jul 3, 2008)

joey said:


> What!!!!???? Curfew actuallt exists??




Exists in Atlanta, too. Under 18, after midnight, big fine and losing your drivers license.


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## joey (Jul 3, 2008)

That's mental. I would hate that. Midnight is insanely early.


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 3, 2008)

joey said:


> That's mental. I would hate that. Midnight is insanely early.



Your 18th birthday is coming up soon, so don't worry.


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## AvGalen (Jul 3, 2008)

[kind of sarcastic]
"Only" in America you can join the army and kill people for your country, just as long as you are home by midnight
[/kind of sarcastic]


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## ShadenSmith (Jul 3, 2008)

A good friend of mine just enlisted in the Marines actually, a few days after his 18th birthday.


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## philkt731 (Jul 3, 2008)

I hope my V Cubes come by the time of the Open, but if not, I hope I can try some out there. Hey maybe i could borrow someones V5 for the qualifiers?


----------



## Carson (Jul 3, 2008)

ShadenSmith said:


> I'm 16, so a 1 A.M. curfew is set in my city. If you're caught outside past that and under the age of 18, the police can pick you up.
> 
> Also, my city (Lexington, Kentucky) doesn't have a metro/underground section. We're a lower-medium sized city, leaving us with a poor bus system, no metro, and mostly suburbs. I live a few miles from downtown, really the only place to see people late at night other than 24 hour restaurants. Someday when I do go to a large city I'd like to try out the metro system though. I've never seen a subway before.



I live in Somerset, Kentucky... (about 75 miles due south of Lexington). I have spent a lot of time in Lexington, but still manage to get lost everytime I go there.


----------



## Carson (Jul 3, 2008)

Can any Atlanta natives recommend a decent hotel "near" Underground? I am looking for something cheaper than the recommended one. I don't mind driving a few miles, but I don't want a 30 minute drive each day either. I was looking at a Red Roof Inn for $81/night. Is that the best deal I'm going to find?


----------



## pjk (Jul 4, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> I hope my V Cubes come by the time of the Open, but if not, I hope I can try some out there. Hey maybe i could borrow someones V5 for the qualifiers?


If you have ordered already, they should be there within a week or so. I bet you'll have them by then.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 4, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> [kind of sarcastic]
> "Only" in America you can join the army and kill people for your country, just as long as you are home by midnight
> [/kind of sarcastic]




You have to ber 18 to joint he army.


----------



## AvGalen (Jul 4, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > [kind of sarcastic]
> ...


I knew that reaction would come, but that is really not true. I heard (no source found) that you have to be 18 before you can be sent on mission though.

I am just so amazed by the things you are allowed to do on age X in the US. When I was 17 I went on that hiking journey I mentioned earlier. I can't imagine an actual curfew and midnight/18 sounds unbelievable


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 5, 2008)

Ooookay, back on topic:

Can anyone who's coming bring a spare magic string(s)? I would appreciate it (and I'll pay the $0.50 or $1.00 it costed).


----------



## pjk (Jul 5, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > AvGalen said:
> ...


Yeah, it is sad to way the USA has come, and is becoming. We have lost our privilege to do a lot of stuff, because of so many in-mature people. Just look at the drinking ages between the USA and Europe.

As far as curfew goes, I've never heard of there being a curfew. I've been out in Denver several times past midnight and never had any problems.


----------



## Dene (Jul 6, 2008)

There should be a curfew here, we need it >_>


----------



## Tyson (Jul 8, 2008)

Carson said:


> Can any Atlanta natives recommend a decent hotel "near" Underground? I am looking for something cheaper than the recommended one. I don't mind driving a few miles, but I don't want a 30 minute drive each day either. I was looking at a Red Roof Inn for $81/night. Is that the best deal I'm going to find?



$81 a night seems pretty good but also check out www.kayak.com. You might consider trying to room with someone.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 8, 2008)

Hey Hadley,

Can you post up information up here about Atlanta for us? I'm curious about actually... the following specific information.

From ATL, the airport, how do you get to the Underground? How do you get to the hotels? Are there signs for the MARTA at the airport? How much does the MARTA cost? Could you give us detailed instructions so we know what we're doing?


----------



## Tyson (Jul 8, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> I'm signed up for everything except clock (don't have one) and pyraminx (would probably be disqualified because it tends to fall apart when scrambling, and I'm terrible at it anyway).
> 
> I'm beginning to doubt that I will be able to participate in fewest moves, though, since I'll probably be busy doing multiBLD at the same time. I really need to ask the organizers about that - if it will be possible to do both, if I wind up doing a 2-hour multiBLD. I was gonna just do 10 cubes or so with multi (so then maybe I would be able to join the fewest moves in progress after I finished), but with my very close near-success this week, I'm thinking I really need to do a few more than that. I'd love to do them both, but I'll have to see what their policy is. (I am always perfectly happy to abide by whatever the organizer policy is at competitions, so I will do whatever they allow.) Maybe they will allow me to do it first, or afterwards, or something. I wonder what their general policy for people doing both main and side events is? Last year at the US Open, I remember they let those doing side events participate early in the main events so they could do the side events, at least in some cases.
> 
> My daughters Marie and Rebecca will be there too; Marie will do 2x2x2, 3x3x3, Magic, Master Magic, and Rebecca will do 3x3x3, 4x4x4, Magic, and Master Magic.



Hey Mike,

I'm hoping the people who do a lot of events will be willing to help out with the competition and make things go faster. The faster things go, the more people we will be able to let advance, and the easier it will be for us to accommodate you should you want to do more events, or events that overlap in terms of scheduling.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 8, 2008)

Tyson said:


> I'm hoping the people who do a lot of events will be willing to help out with the competition and make things go faster. The faster things go, the more people we will be able to let advance, and the easier it will be for us to accommodate you should you want to do more events, or events that overlap in terms of scheduling.



I for one will be happy to help wherever I can. The only problem I have is paying attention to my kids, since they're rather young compared to most of the competitors. My wife will be there this time along with our 3-year-old daughter. Most of the time, my wife will be occupied with the little one, which will leave me sometimes having to watch out for Marie and Rebecca. But whenever I can otherwise help out, I'd be happy to. Marie and Rebecca will be done fairly early both days, (and I will undoubtedly be done fairly early the second day), so I should be available to help more towards the end of the day. But I suspect you'll probably need more help earlier, when so many people will be competing.

I already talked to Shelley and decided I'd better skip out of fewest moves. Just not possible to do both that and a big multi.


----------



## joey (Jul 8, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Just not possible to do both that and a *big* multi.


yay!


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 8, 2008)

Tyson said:


> Hey Hadley,
> 
> Can you post up information up here about Atlanta for us? I'm curious about actually... the following specific information.
> 
> From ATL, the airport, how do you get to the Underground? How do you get to the hotels? Are there signs for the MARTA at the airport? How much does the MARTA cost? Could you give us detailed instructions so we know what we're doing?




There is a MARTA station at the airport itself, so it is very easy to find it. The airport station is the end of the line, meaning that you cannot go the wrong way.

It is $1.50 for 1 way trip, $3 round trip. After you get on MARTA, you will get off at the Five Points station. That is accessed from all dirctions of MARTA, as it is the North/South East/West intersection. At Five Points, just go up the stairs to the street and you are at Underground. 

As far as the hotel, I am not sure. I'm not familiar with the hotel.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 8, 2008)

Also, Tyson, let me know if I can help out in any way. I won't get past any of the qualification rounds(Unless I get a lucky 2x2x2 solve), so after that I would be willing to help scramble, keep track of times, anything that needs to be done.


----------



## Bryan (Jul 9, 2008)

For MARTA, I also noticed they have a visitor pass:

http://www.itsmarta.com/howto/special/visitorfaq.htm

Once we get into the Underground, is it fairly obvious where the competition is?


----------



## alexc (Jul 9, 2008)

Bryan said:


> For MARTA, I also noticed they have a visitor pass:
> 
> http://www.itsmarta.com/howto/special/visitorfaq.htm
> 
> Once we get into the Underground, is it fairly obvious where the competition is?



There will probably some sort of sign up directing you to where it is, but I don't know for certain.

Tyson: Will multi bld, 4x4 bld, 5x5 bld be in a separate quiet room? That would really be nice.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 10, 2008)

We unfortunately don't have a separate room. You can get ear muffs though, like the ones they use on construction sites. Or if you would prefer, Stefan will sing you a lullaby in German, to sooth your psyche and keep you from getting distracted.


----------



## Carson (Jul 11, 2008)

I will be competing in Atlanta, but will not make it past the qualifier. My biggest reason for attending is really just to meet some other speedcubers. I have only met a couple people that can actually solve a cube, and I hate to admit that I have never met a fellow speedcuber in real life. I would really love to have a sit down with a few of you in Atlanta so I could pick some brains about the cube in general, and really watch closely how you are doing things. Youtube videos are helpful, but they don't tell the whole story. My cube related accomplishments have been sort of stagnant lately, and I'm hoping that seeing the "pros" in action will help me out.


----------



## Carson (Jul 11, 2008)

*.*



Tyson said:


> Carson said:
> 
> 
> > Can any Atlanta natives recommend a decent hotel "near" Underground? I am looking for something cheaper than the recommended one. I don't mind driving a few miles, but I don't want a 30 minute drive each day either. I was looking at a Red Roof Inn for $81/night. Is that the best deal I'm going to find?
> ...



Thanks... I'll look into this.

_____________________________________________________________


----------



## alexc (Jul 11, 2008)

Tyson said:


> We unfortunately don't have a separate room. You can get ear muffs though, like the ones they use on construction sites. Or if you would prefer, Stefan will sing you a lullaby in German, to sooth your psyche and keep you from getting distracted.



Yeah, I have headphones, but you can still hear stuff through them a little bit. Especially if there are 80+ people cubing and talking at the same time.


----------



## cmhardw (Jul 11, 2008)

alexc said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > We unfortunately don't have a separate room. You can get ear muffs though, like the ones they use on construction sites. Or if you would prefer, Stefan will sing you a lullaby in German, to sooth your psyche and keep you from getting distracted.
> ...



Alex, from experience I recommend to go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap pack of earplugs, and wear those *and* the earmuffs.

I recommend these even more, these are what I use, and they are awesome.
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/silnatrubear.html

Chris


----------



## HelloiamChow (Jul 11, 2008)

What exactly is the final call on doing events that overlap? I'd be glad to help with scrambling/judging/anything else needed.


----------



## Arthur_Adams (Jul 12, 2008)

Hello all,

I am planning at this point to go to Nationals in Atlanta. What I really need to ask you is if there are any possibilities of sharing a room with someone at this point. I was planning on getting a room but since I am under age (16 years) I am unable to do so. I will definitely be willing to split costs with anyone. Any
help or information would be appreciated. 

Thanks!

Arthur


----------



## brunson (Jul 12, 2008)

Tyson said:


> We unfortunately don't have a separate room. You can get ear muffs though, like the ones they use on construction sites.


Funny...
After reading the last three pages of the "Pickup Lines" thread this was the very next post I saw... Talk about having to back up and figure out WTF you were talking about! 


Tyson said:


> Or if you would prefer, Stefan will sing you a lullaby in German, to sooth your psyche and keep you from getting distracted.


And in the same context, that was just weird.


----------



## DavidWoner (Jul 12, 2008)

i really wish i could go this year. if only it was in chicago again! i could take the megabus there for only $1USD each way, and i also have friends in chicago that i could've stayed with. oh well, we'll have to see how next year works out.


----------



## Bryan (Jul 12, 2008)

Anyone interested in hitting up the World of Coca Cola or the Aquarium on Friday night? I figure I'll be at my hotel by 4, and looking for something to do that evening.


----------



## ShadenSmith (Jul 12, 2008)

Carson said:


> I will be competing in Atlanta, but will not make it past the qualifier. My biggest reason for attending is really just to meet some other speedcubers. I have only met a couple people that can actually solve a cube, and I hate to admit that I have never met a fellow speedcuber in real life. I would really love to have a sit down with a few of you in Atlanta so I could pick some brains about the cube in general, and really watch closely how you are doing things. Youtube videos are helpful, but they don't tell the whole story. My cube related accomplishments have been sort of stagnant lately, and I'm hoping that seeing the "pros" in action will help me out.




I host unofficial tournaments in Lexington occasionally. You're free to come up sometime and compete! To my knowledge there are two sub-30 cubers here, and a few more sub 1 minute cubers here.


----------



## alexc (Jul 12, 2008)

cmhardw said:


> alexc said:
> 
> 
> > Tyson said:
> ...



Ok, thanks for the advice Chris.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 13, 2008)

Arthur_Adams said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I am planning at this point to go to Nationals in Atlanta. What I really need to ask you is if there are any possibilities of sharing a room with someone at this point. I was planning on getting a room but since I am under age (16 years) I am unable to do so. I will definitely be willing to split costs with anyone. Any
> help or information would be appreciated.
> ...




If your parents are cool with it, you can crash here. Lofty is also staying here. I live about 15 minutes from Underground driving. But, we are going to drive to the MARTA station and ride the train to nats. So it will be about 17-20 minutes to get there, but don't have to worry about impossible parking.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 13, 2008)

*YouTube Video Format*

I'd like to make a suggestion for US Nationals and all other upcoming Rubik's Cube competitions. When people put up videos from official tournaments on YouTube, we should make the format consistent. That way, it's very easy to search for these videos. One example might be:

[US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 Solve 2, 14.28


----------



## hdskull (Jul 13, 2008)

Tyson said:


> [US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 Solve 2, 14.28


Dzoan, D - 3x3 Solve 1-2, 14.28
first number to indicate round and second number to indicate solve.


----------



## Lofty (Jul 13, 2008)

Yay! I'm so very excited for this competition! Staying with Hadley like he said. Its gonna be fun. 7 hour drive up but it will be awesome.
I look forward to meeting you all!


----------



## pjk (Jul 13, 2008)

Tyson said:


> I'd like to make a suggestion for US Nationals and all other upcoming Rubik's Cube competitions. When people put up videos from official tournaments on YouTube, we should make the format consistent. That way, it's very easy to search for these videos. One example might be:
> 
> [US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 Solve 2, 14.28


I think it is a great idea Tyson, but I'll bet you $50 that over half of the videos posted won't follow this format unless the word really gets around. Perhaps try reminding people at the competition.


----------



## Lucas Garron (Jul 13, 2008)

pjk said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > I'd like to make a suggestion for US Nationals and all other upcoming Rubik's Cube competitions. When people put up videos from official tournaments on YouTube, we should make the format consistent. That way, it's very easy to search for these videos. One example might be:
> ...


Does anyone remember this? qqwref was the only other person whom I've ever seen using the tags in the description, and consequently I've mostly given up on it.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 13, 2008)

EDIT: (this post was a cry for hotel help) Finally found a place at least for Monday to Friday, not sure about weekend yet.


----------



## keyan (Jul 13, 2008)

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/AtlantaInternationalHostel-Atlanta-2046 ?
Or just ask someone random person if you can live with them. Everyone loves Stefan.


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 13, 2008)

Anyone willing to record some of my solves?


----------



## Stefan (Jul 13, 2008)

keyan said:


> Everyone loves Stefan.


Maybe that could actually become true if I stopped affronting everone. Will consider.

Alright, I found a place. Red Roof Inn Atlanta Downtown(*). Central location, good price, possibly fully smoke-free (said so on expedia but not on the red roof website). So far I got a room from Monday-Friday (Jul 14-18), will extend if I like it there and then I could share my room. Will try to post again about this on Tuesday.

(*) Got bad reviews on tripadvisor.com but most are from before they renovated and turned into a Red Roof Inn last year, and the newer reviews are good except a guy and probably his mom who were just angry they couldn't use the pool.


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 14, 2008)

I am cube41 on youtube, I am going and competing in 3x3,5x5, and one handed.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 14, 2008)

hdskull said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > [US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 Solve 2, 14.28
> ...



But we also need to indicate the competition. Can we agree on:

[US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 1-2, 14.28

There's no reason to say "Solve". We could also have something like this...

[US Nationals 2008] Lo, L - 3x3BLD 1-3, 1:20.77

I'll probably make an annoucement to try to get everyone to follow this convention.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 14, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> EDIT: (this post was a cry for hotel help) Finally found a place at least for Monday to Friday, not sure about weekend yet.



Hey Stefan,

For the weekend, you should just stay with us. I'll make sure you have a place to stay. I'll sleep on the street, if it means you have a warm bed.

No seriously, I can take care you on Thursday night to Monday morning.

Let me know if you need it.

-Tyson


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 14, 2008)

Tyson said:


> hdskull said:
> 
> 
> > Tyson said:
> ...




It might be simpler to have something like, "US Nationals. Dan Dzoan - 14.28"
Then, get more detailed in the actual description of the video.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 14, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > hdskull said:
> ...



That is also true. We 'should' have the full competiton name though... also the brackets will help us identify that it's a solve from a competition, and not something else. Ideas?


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 14, 2008)

Tyson said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Tyson said:
> ...





But, the title only allows so many characters, and description is unlimited. So I don't think listing which solve of which round is really needed.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 14, 2008)

Tyson said:


> That is also true. We 'should' have the full competiton name though... also the brackets will help us identify that it's a solve from a competition, and not something else. Ideas?



[US Nationals 2008] Dzoan, D - 3x3 1-2, 14.28

That is good enough, however, I think first names should be also included (I guess if only someone has the same last name and first letter of first name). If the title is too long, maybe we can abbreviate the competition name? In the case of Discovery Science Center 2008, I think the name of the competition is a bit too long.

[DSC 2008] Dzoan, Dan 3x3 1-2, 14.28 or [Discovery 2008] Dzoan, D 3x3 1-2, 14.28


----------



## cmhardw (Jul 15, 2008)

I am staying at the Super 8 motel down the road from the competition.

The address and information is here:
111 Cone St, N.W.
I-75/85 S Ex 249C N Ex 248C
Atlanta, GA 30303-2103 US
Phone: 404-524-7000

I reserved a double room for Friday and Saturday night (smoking - it was all they had - and no I do *not* smoke). If you would like to split the room with me for $45 per night (cutting the cost in half) then please e-mail me at: chris (at sign thingy here) speedcubing (that period thing) com

Chris


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 15, 2008)

Heh. Kind of a sketchy area, Chris. Better than South West, though.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 15, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Heh. Kind of a sketchy area, Chris. Better than South West, though.



It's only a block or so from the Hampton Inn listed on the competition website. And people staying at the Hampton Inn will essentially have to walk right by the Super 8 to get to the Underground. So I suspect most of us will be staying in a sketchy area. Is there a non-sketchy area convenient to the Underground?

Also, where is everyone else staying? Anyone else staying at the Hampton Inn?


----------



## alexc (Jul 15, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Heh. Kind of a sketchy area, Chris. Better than South West, though.
> ...



I'm staying at the Hampton, too.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 15, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Heh. Kind of a sketchy area, Chris. Better than South West, though.
> ...



I just looked it up, it;s actually and OK area. The west side of Atlanta has some rough areas. I thought that was somewhere different.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 15, 2008)

alexc said:


> Mike Hughey said:
> 
> 
> > Hadley4000 said:
> ...



Cool - we should have an easy time getting together for you to use my 7x7x7 for BLD.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 15, 2008)

I arrived in Atlanta yesterday, right now I'm in the public library in downtown. It's ridiculous, I can only have one window with one tab open.

Anyone else here already? Hadley maybe? I want to play golf. And cube, of course, but I heard playing golf is cheap here and I've never done it before. I'll be here another 30 minutes and then another hour around 7pm I think.

About "sketchy" areas. I'd say the Underground itself and the area it's in (around Five Points station) are sketchy. I also checked out the competition venue, and it doesn't look anywhere as nice as last year. The stage and area in front of it are slightly run-down, somewhat dark, in a public setting I don't quite like. I'll probably keep my puzzles with me at all times unless we somehow get good separation from the public there.

Suggestion: Don't look like a tourist.


----------



## alexc (Jul 15, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> alexc said:
> 
> 
> > Mike Hughey said:
> ...



Alrighty, that sounds good.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 15, 2008)

Hmm, about my previous post...

1. They disabled the "new tab" and "new window" functionalities, but shift-clicking does open another window. Noobs.

2. I just saw on the competition website that the venue is supposed to be in "Suite 007". The stage and area where the information lady told it it would be doesn't look like a "suite" to me, so maybe she was wrong and it's somewhere else. Will go and ask again.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 15, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> I arrived in Atlanta yesterday, right now I'm in the public library in downtown. It's ridiculous, I can only have one window with one tab open.
> 
> Anyone else here already? Hadley maybe? I want to play golf. And cube, of course, but I heard playing golf is cheap here and I've never done it before. I'll be here another 30 minutes and then another hour around 7pm I think.
> 
> ...



I'm trying to address the lighting problem by using flood lights and reflecting it off butcher paper on the ceiling. What do you think? Do you have a number that we could contact you at? If you want, you can meet us at the Hampton Suites at around noon on Friday. Some people from the organizational team are going to be there on Thursday: John George, Stryker Langdon, Ian Winokur, and Michael Gottlieb.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 16, 2008)

Ok, I pretty much spent the afternoon in the area and in Underground, and maybe I made it sound worse than it is, although I did like last year's venue and area better. I think I did have a bad start yesterday. Somewhat dressed like a naive tourist and with my suitcase, several people were offering to "help" me finding what I'm looking for, although I only listened to the first and he plain lied to me about where I am and how I'd get to my hotel. Not that I believed him. And of course he before I left, he asked for some money. I just ignored the next few guys trying the same routine, but it was a huge nuisance. I was already thinking of getting myself a shirt saying in large letters "DON'T TALK TO ME". Today, without my suitcase and with darker clothes, this didn't happen anymore. Not once. But there was another culture shock waiting for me. Close to Underground, walking towards it, from one block to the next the scene suddenly changes from rich diversity of people to all black and more crowded. I was the only non-black person. Now don't get me wrong, I don't care who people are, only what they do, and they didn't do anything bad, but it was still a little scary because I've never been in such an area, had heard of bad ones, and because I of course thought there might be a reason why all other non-blacks stay away. And it didn't help that yesterday's annoying "helpers" had been black. But then I stayed in the area a little longer and got somewhat accustomed to it. Germany is just so very different in many respects, and I guess it was a valuable lesson. Oh and outside of Underground some guys offered basketball throwing matches. Spent six dollars loosing twice to a short maybe 16 years old girl (who was part of the crew there, though, and she had practiced. C'mon, I'm not *that* bad).

I also saw the Hampton Inn and the Super 8, they're almost at the same spot. The Super 8 is probably pretty quiet, no busy streets next to it. The Hampton Inn has a busy street on the front which was fairly loud at least when I was there, so if you can influence it, I'd suggest asking for a room on the back side in one of the upper floors.

Btw, "Suite 007" I think either doesn't exist or means the manager's office (which does have number 007). So I'm fairly certain the venue is the stage and area I had seen earlier.


----------



## Bryan (Jul 16, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> Btw, "Suite 007" I think either doesn't exist or means the manager's office (which does have number 007). So I'm fairly certain the venue is the stage and area I had seen earlier.



Is the location of the stage pretty obvious?


----------



## Tyson (Jul 16, 2008)

If I get people like that coming up to me, I'm going to have to go New Yorker on them.


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 16, 2008)

Tyson said:


> If I get people like that coming up to me, I'm going to have to go New Yorker on them.



New Yorker <3 :O


----------



## Dene (Jul 16, 2008)

What does that mean, "New Yorker"?

I hope I don't have the same problems when I go there >.< . Although coming from a dump of a country I don't think it can get much worse.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 16, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> Anyone else here already? Hadley maybe?




Yup, I'm here as well. Showed up, well, almost 18 years ago


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 16, 2008)

Is the venue that bad? I hope it is okay because there are a lot of people coming. Is the suite big?


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 16, 2008)

Stefan, I would not be afraid just because there are black people around. That seems a little stereotypical. I am sure everyone will be fine.


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 16, 2008)

He probably meant the ones who hang out in alleys smoking marijauna and plan shootouts.


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 16, 2008)

Not all black people do that. I think that is a stupid thing to say. All races of people do bad things, not just black. I am a black cuber, I do none of those things.


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 16, 2008)

Wow, you read that completely wrong.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 16, 2008)

To change the topic - did anyone notice they've rearranged the event schedule? There's a whole new schedule on the website now, and it looks like it works out much better for me! I like that multiBLD has been moved to the end of the day.

Oh, and 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 BLD are specifically designated as best of 2 now. 2 chances at a 5x5x5 BLD makes me very happy!


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 16, 2008)

I might only be able to go to one of the 2 days of the tournament which stinks, but atleast I will be able to go.


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 16, 2008)

I am hoping this tournament will be just as great as last years us open.


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 16, 2008)

I hope next year's US open will be closer to me.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 16, 2008)

Bryan: Yes, the venue is pretty obvious. The streak of stores is interrupted by empty space and a stage. It's also darker than the stores. Looks like it's mostly used for small concerts.

Hadley (and others already here, if any): Care to meet already? No idea where you are, I'm mostly around downtown. At least so far. I'll try to get online from time to time, though I'm baffled by the lack of internet cafes.

cubekid57: I might've made it sound worse than it is. And Underground itself seems nicer than the area above it. I wasn't really afraid, but admittedly uncomfortable. And not because there were black people, but because there weren't any others. Except me. So I was extremely standing out, and that was a totally new experience for me. I prefer diversity.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 16, 2008)

Had to get more computer time...

The venue looks like we'll have about the same amount of space as last year. Maybe a little less. And there were no tables or chairs, only two benches. But I guess that'll change for the competition.

If someone's interested in meeting already, make a suggestion (time and place). I do have a marta visitor pass so can take their trains and buses (though I have no overview of their bus routes, only have a train map).


----------



## alexc (Jul 16, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> To change the topic - did anyone notice they've rearranged the event schedule? There's a whole new schedule on the website now, and it looks like it works out much better for me! I like that multiBLD has been moved to the end of the day.
> 
> Oh, and 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 BLD are specifically designated as best of 2 now. 2 chances at a 5x5x5 BLD makes me very happy!



Yay! This new schedule works pretty well for me. Only a couple times do my main events and side events overlap. And 4x4 and 5x5 blind are best of two!


----------



## Tyson (Jul 16, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> To change the topic - did anyone notice they've rearranged the event schedule? There's a whole new schedule on the website now, and it looks like it works out much better for me! I like that multiBLD has been moved to the end of the day.
> 
> Oh, and 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 BLD are specifically designated as best of 2 now. 2 chances at a 5x5x5 BLD makes me very happy!



I would send out an e-mail about it, but you know... that thing. It's called a job.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 16, 2008)

pcharles93 said:


> I hope next year's US open will be closer to me.



After listening to all the complaints from people on the east coast about west coast competitions and having a competition on the east coast, it becomes apparent to me that the east coast people didn't want a competition on the east coast: they wanted one in their back yard. The lack of participation of people in the east coast in this competition really suggests that it doesn't matter. People who will travel will travel, and the others who won't travel will simply complain about it.

I think it would be simply more economical to save $10,000 and host the competition somewhere more convenient for the organizers. I would be more encouraged to host it on the east coast if those 83 competitors at Princeton would show up for Atlanta.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 17, 2008)

Stefan. I am down for something tomorrow. Need to hang around on Friday, as I'm not sure what time Lofty is coming.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 17, 2008)

Some pictures of the venue.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 17, 2008)

Some more...

(btw, Pat, the upload limits are ridiculous)


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 17, 2008)

I have an idea. How about the cubers who are already here in Atlanta go out to a cube lunch party thing tomorrow?

I know a perfect place. It's called Savage Pizza, in an area of Atlanta called Little Five Points, pretty close to underground. I used to work there, so I know everyone. It's really easy to get to. Has great pizza, calzones, sandwiches, salads. Anyone game?


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 17, 2008)

I'll go to that cubing lunch thing. You just have to make a little arc instead of a straight shot to pick me up most likely. Unless Cincinnati is on the way there.


----------



## ShadenSmith (Jul 17, 2008)

A bit of an arc, yes.


----------



## alexc (Jul 17, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> Some pictures of the venue.



Stefan, is it just me, or is the venue really small?


----------



## pjk (Jul 17, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> Some more...
> 
> (btw, Pat, the upload limits are ridiculous)


Stefan, I really appreciate you posting pics, and sorry for having the limits so low. I didn't realize they were that low. I increased the limits just now, and hope they are sufficient.


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 17, 2008)

ShadenSmith said:


> A bit of an arc, yes.



What if he has to take a detour? What if there was an entire blockade from Florida to the northern tip of the Apalachians?


----------



## hdskull (Jul 17, 2008)

Tyson said:


> I think it would be simply more economical to save $10,000 and host the competition somewhere more convenient for the organizers. I would be more encouraged to host it on the east coast if those 83 competitors at Princeton would show up for Atlanta.



Too bad I haven't started cubing when WC/US Open was in the west coast. 

It was 10,000 more just because it was in Atlanta ?!?! wow.

I'm going to start saving up for WC next year, any ideas on when it's going to be? (Ron said maybe Sept. or Oct., but school might/will have started by then...)

Did you guys discuss the location of next year's US Open? I probably will have naturalized by then.

The location does seem that bad, it looks indoors.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 17, 2008)

hdskull said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > I think it would be simply more economical to save $10,000 and host the competition somewhere more convenient for the organizers. I would be more encouraged to host it on the east coast if those 83 competitors at Princeton would show up for Atlanta.
> ...



Hong Kong


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 17, 2008)

I hope someone makes a video motage of the us nationals this year. There was not one last year.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 17, 2008)

Tyson said:


> After listening to all the complaints from people on the east coast about west coast competitions and having a competition on the east coast, it becomes apparent to me that the east coast people didn't want a competition on the east coast: they wanted one in their back yard. The lack of participation of people in the east coast in this competition really suggests that it doesn't matter. People who will travel will travel, and the others who won't travel will simply complain about it.
> 
> I think it would be simply more economical to save $10,000 and host the competition somewhere more convenient for the organizers. I would be more encouraged to host it on the east coast if those 83 competitors at Princeton would show up for Atlanta.



I think it makes sense to ignore all the complaints and just go with what makes sense for the organizers. However, I would like to mention that the only reason I'm so into cubing now is because you held the US Open in Chicago last year. If it had been any farther away, I doubt I would have gone, and I doubt I would have been so into cubing. I might have gone to the Cincinnati Open this year, but that probably would have been my first competition. Having the US Open near me made it possible for me to start.

That being said, I think that the biggest plus of moving around the Open is to allow the opportunity for new people to get in on it. So I would say it either makes sense for you to hold it at a convenient place for the organizers (which is perfectly reasonable, especially considering you're saving $10,000!), or else hold it in a new place where you could gather more new competitors (like Chicago did last year). The only question is whether or not the latter option can really help as much as it did then - I would think your best bet now for pulling in new people might be somewhere like Texas, but everything is so spread out down there that you might just have a really poorly-attended competition instead (because it's too far from everyone except the people that live in the city where you have it).

If you go to having all of the future Opens on the west coast, I think most reasonable people will understand. I might not be able to make it there, but I certainly won't complain.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 17, 2008)

If anyone wants an almost full can of Jig-A-Loo, let me know. I got one, but really don't like it. It's only sprayed 2 cubes. You can have it free.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 17, 2008)

Tyson said:


> hdskull said:
> 
> 
> > Too bad I haven't started cubing when WC/US Open was in the west coast.
> ...




Next year's US Open will be in Hong Kong?


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 17, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > After listening to all the complaints from people on the east coast about west coast competitions and having a competition on the east coast, it becomes apparent to me that the east coast people didn't want a competition on the east coast: they wanted one in their back yard. The lack of participation of people in the east coast in this competition really suggests that it doesn't matter. People who will travel will travel, and the others who won't travel will simply complain about it.
> ...


Exactly the same thing for me. That was my first competition and just the atmosphere really helped me get even more interested in speedcubing which I might not have had it not been in CHicago.


cubekid57 said:


> I hope someone makes a video motage of the us nationals this year. There was not one last year.


There is a playlist of all the solves in the finals from last year


----------



## Carson (Jul 17, 2008)

Nationals will be my first competition. There is no way that I would ever be able to take enough time off from work and be able to afford to go to the west coast for competitions. (I live in Kentucky). Maybe alternating East/West coast from year to year, or perhaps doing east coast every third year since that would make things easier (and cheaper) to organize.

I personally appreciate all the hard work that the organizers have put into this, and all other competitions, and I am sure I am not alone in this mentality. The cubing community is not really that large, and those of you that put together competitons are doing a great deal to keep the community alive. I salute you!

Note: My backyard IS available for next year's nationals if you're interested.


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 17, 2008)

Anyone going to us open this weekend, I need help. I want to do the 5x5 event, but I just don't have quality stickers on my 5x5. If anyone is willing to either give away or sell rubiks 5x5 new stickers, I would apreciate it. Please help!


----------



## Stefan (Jul 17, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> I have an idea. How about the cubers who are already here in Atlanta go out to a cube lunch party thing tomorrow?
> 
> I know a perfect place. It's called Savage Pizza, in an area of Atlanta called Little Five Points, pretty close to underground.



That's today already, right? (I'm confused because the forum shows your post as "today"... always ambiguous when people post close after midnight...). And what time is "lunch" exactly?


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 17, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > I have an idea. How about the cubers who are already here in Atlanta go out to a cube lunch party thing tomorrow?
> ...





Yeah, looks like today was a bust. Maybe tomorrow, though. Some time a little earlier, cause Lofty will be here late afternoon. Maybe noonish?


----------



## Bryan (Jul 17, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> StefanPochmann said:
> 
> 
> > Hadley4000 said:
> ...



I'll be there mid-afternoon. What about dinner?


----------



## AvGalen (Jul 17, 2008)

My travelling so far has been pretty crazy:

Monday: Czech Republic (Pardubice, Praque) back to The Netherlands (Enschede) with Eric and Joey
Tuesday: NL-Enschede to NL-Home, have a small cube meeting with Anja, Frank, Eric and Joey
Wednesday: NL-Home to Ireland-Dublin, should have been just a small stop before Memphis, but turned out to be an overnighter with some people I met
Thursday: Ireland-Dublin to NL-Home, should have been to Memphis but every plane was overbooked so I was asked to return home and got tickets for.....
Friday: NL-Home directly to Atlanta (arrival at 13:40). Seems like I will miss the lunch party, but I guess I will make it for dinner. Still have to find a hostel/place-to-sleep in Atlanta though.

See you tomorrow


----------



## joey (Jul 17, 2008)

Arnaud, you keep spelling Erik's name wrong 

And remember wednesday and thursday's travelling too 

Glad you'll finally get to Atlanta!


----------



## AvGalen (Jul 17, 2008)

Eric is the English version of Erik right?

(right now my languages are completely weird. My mind cannot understand the constant language changes. I even MSN-ed with Erik in English today without any reason)

And the travelling is only for this week. Last week was "just" going from NL-Home -> Hakan -> NL-Airport -> NL-Home -> NL-parents -> NL-Erik -> Germany -> Czech Republic-Pardubice


----------



## JBCM627 (Jul 17, 2008)

Tyson said:


> After listening to all the complaints from people on the east coast about west coast competitions and having a competition on the east coast, it becomes apparent to me that the east coast people didn't want a competition on the east coast: they wanted one in their back yard. The lack of participation of people in the east coast in this competition really suggests that it doesn't matter. People who will travel will travel, and the others who won't travel will simply complain about it.
> 
> I think it would be simply more economical to save $10,000 and host the competition somewhere more convenient for the organizers. I would be more encouraged to host it on the east coast if those 83 competitors at Princeton would show up for Atlanta.



I remember seeing this poll a while ago, and it really supports the statement that people will either travel, or won't. There are 2 humps... one at ~4 hours, which means a lot of people will only go to relatively nearby competitions, then the 8+ hump, for people who are willing to really travel.



Mike Hughey said:


> That being said, I think that the biggest plus of moving around the Open is to allow the opportunity for new people to get in on it.



This is a good idea. If some people are only willing to drive about 4 hours, then it really makes sense to move around the competitions. It will reach a wider audience... spectators and competitors alike. Regardless of where it is, it will inconvienience some people... be it some of the organizers or a portion of the competitors. I guess the organizers usually are the caltech/cal clubs, or people from them, which is probably a good thing as they now have quite a bit of experience.

I propose that it might be a good idea to include an east coast club such as Cornell's in future organizations so they can gain experience. I can't speak for them, and I don't know how dedicated thaey would be, so I they might not be willing to do it even. But perhaps in the future they (or other east coast organizers/organizations) would be able to alternate years organizing with people on the west coast. Although do NOT hold nationals at Cornell... its really the middle of nowhere.


----------



## joey (Jul 17, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Eric is the English version of Erik right?


I think both are used!



AvGalen said:


> And the travelling is only for this week. Last week was "just" going from NL-Home -> Hakan -> NL-Airport -> NL-Home -> NL-parents -> NL-Erik -> Germany -> Czech Republic-Pardubice


Yeah, "just" that


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 17, 2008)

Does anyone know of selling a 2x2? preferably eastsheen. My 2x2 is stiff because it is an ice 2x2. I want to get another one.


----------



## FrankMorris (Jul 17, 2008)

I am in Atlanta....

too oh ate too ate tree won phive sicks sicks

Frank Morris


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 17, 2008)

cubekid57 said:


> Does anyone know of selling a 2x2? preferably eastsheen. My 2x2 is stiff because it is an ice 2x2. I want to get another one.



You can't even use your ice 2x2x2 in competition.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 18, 2008)

Kal El said:


> I am in Atlanta....
> 
> too oh ate too ate tree won phive sicks sicks
> 
> Frank Morris



I heard you weren't coming, Frank. Are you down for the lunch tomorrow, if it happens?


----------



## FrankMorris (Jul 18, 2008)

Absolutely. I am all for it. Just let me know.


----------



## joey (Jul 18, 2008)

Kal El: are you going to sign any scorecards with "Joey Gouly"? Since I signed one with Frank Morris 

hope you guys have a fun comp!


----------



## dudemanpp (Jul 18, 2008)

I am totally interested in meeting with cubers with a lunch/dinner. Would that be Friday July 18th? Would it be okay if I went even if I was meeting the people there for the first time? That sounds kind of weird but I hope you know what I mean 

If it is indeed on the 18th what time would it be?


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## alexc (Jul 18, 2008)

So some of you guys are meeting up for dinner on Friday? I might be able to come, keep me informed.


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## Hadley4000 (Jul 18, 2008)

It will have to be early for me. Lofty is showing up here around 5ish.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 18, 2008)

joey said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Eric is the English version of Erik right?
> ...



It's Eric, and Erick.


----------



## ExoCorsair (Jul 18, 2008)

JBCM627 said:


> Although do NOT hold nationals at Cornell... its really the middle of nowhere.



Haha, so true. 


In any case, best of luck to everyone this weekend! Let's see some new WRs!


----------



## Kian (Jul 18, 2008)

I know there was talk of having a live feed from Atlanta this weekend. Has anyone made any progress regarding that? I sadly have to work this weekend and am unable to make it down to Atlanta but it would be great if there was a feed.

Either way, good luck to everyone! I hope to see quite a few new WRs! Maybe the Americans can take a few more!


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 18, 2008)

Taylor said:


> I would really like it if you guys would set up a live feed, I mentioned it on the chatroom...
> 
> My predictions
> 
> ...




The OH WR was going to be Lofty. But now, maybe not =[

NAR Pyraminx single/average. That shall be set. By me


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## philkt731 (Jul 18, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> The OH WR was going to be Lofty. But now, maybe not =[


why? what happened?


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 18, 2008)

I've arrived at the Hampton Inn... Just wondering if anyone's around. I haven't seen anyone I recognize. I might hang around in the lobby area a little bit before finding something to eat.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 18, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > The OH WR was going to be Lofty. But now, maybe not =[
> ...



His car broke down on the way.


----------



## ShadenSmith (Jul 18, 2008)

Where is he stuck?


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## pcharles93 (Jul 18, 2008)

The deserts of Nevada, he was lost to begin with.


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## Carson (Jul 18, 2008)

I'm in Atlanta, but am staying a few miles away from Underground tonight. Can anyone tell me the best place to park when I arrive in the morning? I've got a gps... so I just need a name or address.


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## Derrick Eide17 (Jul 18, 2008)

DAMN I hope Lofty makes it, he'll get OH WR! 

and also yeah anything new on Live feed?


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## hdskull (Jul 18, 2008)

pcharles93 said:


> The deserts of Nevada, he was lost to begin with.



Oh yes, he's a few thousand miles west off his destination when he only lives a few hundred miles south.


----------



## Dene (Jul 19, 2008)

Lol, is he really? Nice one Lofty


----------



## Mike Hughey (Jul 19, 2008)

Carson said:


> I'm in Atlanta, but am staying a few miles away from Underground tonight. Can anyone tell me the best place to park when I arrive in the morning? I've got a gps... so I just need a name or address.



There's parking for Underground Atlanta - 2 parking lots. I think we're going to park there (it seems like too big of a walk with the kids to come from the Hampton, and we're staying slightly out of town tonight). I don't remember the directions, but if you google for it you should be able to find the directions.

I won't be in town tonight - we're coming in tomorrow morning. If anyone wants to contact me, find the Satterfields - they have our phone number. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning.


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## Hadley4000 (Jul 19, 2008)

Yay, Lofty is coming! He got a ride frm his dad up here


----------



## Carson (Jul 19, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> Carson said:
> 
> 
> > I'm in Atlanta, but am staying a few miles away from Underground tonight. Can anyone tell me the best place to park when I arrive in the morning? I've got a gps... so I just need a name or address.
> ...



Not feeling too great about those parking garages based on the google search. Lot's of people reporting their cars were broken into.


----------



## dudemanpp (Jul 19, 2008)

I went to the venue today and I am kind of worried. Is it going to be big enough to fit all 84 people + non-pre registered people?


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 19, 2008)

Gimme updates!


----------



## hdskull (Jul 19, 2008)

WHAT's HAPPENING PEOPLE!?!?!?! WRs ??? lol.


----------



## Kian (Jul 19, 2008)

agreed, what's going on there? anything noteworthy?


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## Lotsofsloths (Jul 19, 2008)

I truly hate how people just put us in the dark..


----------



## Mark (Jul 19, 2008)

If only Studzien was there... We would have live scoring


----------



## Dene (Jul 20, 2008)

Is this happening now? I look forward to some good results!


----------



## Carson (Jul 20, 2008)

Nationals was certainly an experience. Let's just say that I won't be going back to Atlanta anytime soon. The organizers seem to be running the competition smoothly, but the city itself isn't exactly cooperating.

Upon arriving at the venue (2 hours early... bad idea) I was greeted by multiple people asking for money and one random person asking to use my mobile phone. I felt unsafe the majority of time I was there. This is sad for me... I was at underground a few years ago as part of a college function and it was very nice. Things certainly have changed there in the last few years.

I can't really say too much about times/placements. I left after my last event... I'm certain I didn't advance in anything, and I don't feel that the risk of going back to underground again tomorrow is worth it.

A side note: One of our fellow cubers was mugged in the Underground Atlanta restroom during the competition. Two guys stole his wallet. The restroom was probably less than 100 yards from the actual stage where the solves were taking place. I'm not sure who it was, as this was my first competition and don't know everyone yet. I'm sure someone will reply to this and let us know who it was when they get back home.

Bravo Organizers, but blah Atlanta...


----------



## JBCM627 (Jul 20, 2008)

It's good to hear some of how it went! Hopefully tomorrow will turn up some amazing times. Congrats to everyone who competed today, and good luck tomorrow!



Carson said:


> I don't feel that the risk of going back to underground again tomorrow is worth it.
> ...
> One of our fellow cubers was mugged in the Underground Atlanta restroom during the competition. Two guys stole his wallet. The restroom was probably less than 100 yards from the actual stage where the solves were taking place.



This is very unfortunate. I always thought it was great to have spectators at competitions... especially ones who aren't competing or haven't competed before. It's a shame that the event is drawing in people who are having a negative impact on the competition. Hopefully tomorrow nothing like this will happen, and it will end up as a good day for everyone.

Edit: Re my earlier post, you know, maybe Cornell _would_ be a good place to have nationals... nobody is even there to mug you.  Hopefully this will at least serve as a precedent for choosing future venues, or at least choosing which ones to rule out.


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 20, 2008)

So this is what America is turning into. We can't even have a small 2 day gathering without some idiots interrupting. So how is the guy? Did he make it out with a few bruises or did they just snatch his wallet?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 20, 2008)

hdskull said:


> WHAT's HAPPENING PEOPLE!?!?!?! WRs ??? lol.



Dan Cohen got the NAR for Megaminx (I think both), and Mike Hughey got the NAR for multi with 15/15 (I think).


----------



## pcharles93 (Jul 20, 2008)

3x3 average is in no danger as I expected.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 20, 2008)

Mike Hughey got 15/15 multi, Alex Cook got 13/14, Rowe got xx/33. Last time I saw him, he was 11/16, but then a bunch of cubers went to dinner.


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 20, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Mike Hughey got 15/15 multi, Alex Cook got 13/14, Rowe got xx/33. Last time I saw him, he was 11/16, but then a bunch of cubers went to dinner.



Overall he got 19/33... 5 points.


----------



## ExoCorsair (Jul 20, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> hdskull said:
> 
> 
> > WHAT's HAPPENING PEOPLE!?!?!?! WRs ??? lol.
> ...



Would have been more impressive if they weren't somewhat expected.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 20, 2008)

ExoCorsair said:


> Swordsman Kirby said:
> 
> 
> > hdskull said:
> ...



I think Mike Hughey with the 15/15(#2 in the world) beating EVERYONE is very impressive! Congrats Mike! Congrats to Dan too! He's just been getting so good, haha. Tim, didn't you participate in multi also ?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 20, 2008)

hdskull said:


> ExoCorsair said:
> 
> 
> > Swordsman Kirby said:
> ...



Hrm, let's not talk about multi, clock, 4x4, 3x3, pyraminx, megaminx, 4x4 BLD (but that was actually successful).

I got 3/6 for multi, but the other Tim got a 2/8, so I'm not last.  For clock though, I am last.


----------



## masterofthebass (Jul 20, 2008)

Yeah, but he got 0 points (3/6).

Mainly everyone did horrible in pyraminx. Ernesto and I (along with some others) did absolutely horrible in clock. 

For megaminx, I got a 1:27, 1:41, 1:44 for my solves. The 1:27 was a complete PLL skip 

Everyone did bad in 4x4 (I won w/ a 1:02 average)




As for the Atlanta issue... It's very noticeable. I was judging Tim at megaminx, and this guy just comes up to the table and gets right in Tim's face. I asked him to "back up please." He then like flips out saying I disrespected him and starts arguing with me, all while Tim is solving. He walked away for a second after I tried to diffuse the situation but then came right back. At that point I stood up (being 6'4" and 240 lb doesn't hurt) and he seemed less standoffish. Most of the "spectators" are nice, but the atmosphere is noticeably affected. 

About that mugging incident, I know I heard of one person who was attempted to be mugged, but it turned out the weapon of choice was an ipod. I'm not going to mention names, but the person I know of just basically completely ignored the guy.


----------



## 4Chan (Jul 20, 2008)

I thought it was a great competition!
I live 25 miles from atlanta in the suburbs so i knew what the venue would be like beforehand. 

The worst part for me was falling off the solving area after a DNF bld attempt.


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 20, 2008)

I am so glad I didn't go there..xD
anyway, now I am interested to whom got mugged.
It couldn't have been Bob, or else he would threaten to kill them xDDD


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 20, 2008)

Dan Cohen got WR single and average in 5x5x5. Single was 1:20.98 and I believe the average was under 1:30.


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 20, 2008)

cuBerBruce said:


> Dan Cohen got WR single and average in 5x5x5. Single was 1:20.98 and I believe the average was under 1:30.



Today?
Wow!
conGratz Dan!


----------



## Leviticus (Jul 20, 2008)

cuBerBruce said:


> Dan Cohen got WR single and average in 5x5x5. Single was 1:20.98 and I believe the average was under 1:30.




WHAT?!?!?  Are you serious, that is insanee, i want too see the videos of this whole comp  Props to you Dan that sets a new level in 5x5 speedcubing :


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 20, 2008)

Leviticus said:


> cuBerBruce said:
> 
> 
> > Dan Cohen got WR single and average in 5x5x5. Single was 1:20.98 and I believe the average was under 1:30.
> ...



Someone said Hadley got the last part of the WR single on video. Don't know about any other videos at this point. I believe the average was 1:29.40. (This was today, Sunday.)


----------



## Kian (Jul 20, 2008)

Wow, that's fantastic! Great job Dan! Another American held record!


----------



## hdskull (Jul 20, 2008)

Congrats Dan! Knew you can do it!

On a side note, I never knew Atlanta was such a place.


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 20, 2008)

I was told that Dan won the 5x5x5 final with the 2nd best 5x5x5 average in the world - topped only by his 2nd round average earlier today.

Edit: (Correction) The WR was actually in the "1st" Round. The Final was the 2nd round. (There was also a qualifying round Saturday.)


----------



## jazzthief81 (Jul 20, 2008)

cuBerBruce said:


> I was told that Dan won the 5x5x5 final with the 2nd best 5x5x5 average in the world - topped only by his 2nd round average earlier today.



Yeah, he really was on fire today. He got another 1:29 in the final and he told me he was just joking around during the solve. I told him to get lost 

Right now were doing team blindfolded Revolution 

4x4x4 and 3x3x3 finals are up next.


----------



## fanwuq (Jul 20, 2008)

It sucks that someone was mugged.
But  for Dan Cohen and Mike Hughey!

Is the big cube BLD round done yet?


----------



## Dene (Jul 20, 2008)

Nice one Dan, good job at beaing 6'4" and the WR's!


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 21, 2008)

Some results:

555:
1) Dan Cohen
2) Michael Gottlieb
3) Frank Morris

444:
1) Michael Gottlieb
2) Patrick Jameson
3) Dan Cohen

333:
1) Andrew Kang
2) Ravi Fernando
3) Jason Baum

Rowe Hessler had a 9.13 single, I think.

3x3x3 BLD:
1) Rowe Hessler
2) Chris Hardwick
3) Tyson Mao

Ryan Patricio won OH. Timothy Sun won 2x2x2.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 21, 2008)

Nice Results! How fast was Rowe's BLD ?


----------



## ROOT (Jul 21, 2008)

anyone have any info on BLD and bigcube BLD?


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 21, 2008)

What was the time for the winning 3x3 average?


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 21, 2008)

Videos I got:
Dan Cohen's 5x5x5 single WR(missed the first 15 seconds)
Rowe's 9.13 single
Lofty's full average in the finals(Including the 16.90 single)
Rowe's 1:04.xx BLD
The end of Mike's 15/15 BLD
Other videos that weren't as monumental.


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 21, 2008)

Hadley, for the final round 3x3, what were the top 3 competitors averages?


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 21, 2008)

Lotsofsloths said:


> Hadley, for the final round 3x3, what were the top 3 competitors averages?





Can't remember off the top of my head. You'll have to wait for the results to be posted.


----------



## ExoCorsair (Jul 21, 2008)

jazzthief81 said:


> Yeah, he really was on fire today. He got another 1:29 in the final and he told me he was just joking around during the solve. I told him to get lost .



Go Lars!


----------



## hdskull (Jul 21, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Videos I got:
> Dan Cohen's 5x5x5 single WR(missed the first 15 seconds)
> Rowe's 9.13 single
> Lofty's full average in the finals(Including the 16.90 single)
> ...



Nice! you caught almost all the good ones !


----------



## JBCM627 (Jul 21, 2008)

yes, results! http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/c.php?allResults=All+Results&competitionId=USOpen2008


----------



## Faz (Jul 21, 2008)

i don't see them.


----------



## JBCM627 (Jul 21, 2008)

Use the link I posted... I don't think they are quite "up" yet, as there is no link on the main page

Edit: Wow, Mike, congrats on being the only 5x5BLD completion! Soo close to sub-10 4x4 BLD too!


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 21, 2008)

Some problems with the results page:

1. None of the NARs are listed. A ton were set. Where are they?

2. There is no WAY Phil Thomas did 95/190 multi.


----------



## JBCM627 (Jul 21, 2008)

I don't think it is completely finished being updated yet. There are a couple other things as well. Corrections, etc, probably won't be updated til later either... I imagine Ron/Tyson are working as I post this.


----------



## ExoCorsair (Jul 21, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Some problems with the results page:
> 
> 1. None of the NARs are listed. A ton were set. Where are they?
> 
> 2. There is no WAY Phil Thomas did 95/190 multi.



I lol'd at #2. 

Typos happen; I'm sure that the organizers will work it out.


----------



## DavidWoner (Jul 21, 2008)

cuBerBruce said:


> Some results:
> 
> 555:
> 1) Dan Cohen
> ...



there are some problems with these: 
3x3 BLD: lucas garron was second, and chris and tyson were third and fourth.

4x4: dan dzoan was 3rd, dan cohen was 8th

the rest are right. i just didnt want people reading these and getting the wrong information. anyway, all of the official results are already posted anyway.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 21, 2008)

Are the results wrong or did Phil Thomas really do 95/190 BLD in 11 mins ? lol. I think it's 1/2.


----------



## mrbiggs (Jul 21, 2008)

I assume the 9.13 was lucky, but does anyone have information on the solve? (or better yet, a video?)


----------



## Dene (Jul 21, 2008)

Well done Mr. Hughey! That is a NR right? At the time of posting this it doesn't say so.
And of course well done to Mr. Cohen, was that done on your V-cube?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 21, 2008)

mrbiggs said:


> I assume the 9.13 was lucky, but does anyone have information on the solve? (or better yet, a video?)



PLL skip, that's all.

I need some Rowe Hessler A-Perms.


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 21, 2008)

Vault312 said:


> cuBerBruce said:
> 
> 
> > Some results:
> ...



You have to remember these are US Top 3s. Speaking of top 3, for 2x2x2, all three used SS (if we count Lucas as top 3).


----------



## Rama (Jul 21, 2008)

Wew, nice results you guys, congratulations to all of you. 

Aha, watching the results closer I see that mr. Verdes competed.


----------



## jazzthief81 (Jul 21, 2008)

I'm making a playlist of the 3x3x3 finals:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=535839E95E1AED3C

At the moment I've got the first 15 solves. Hopefully I will have some time later today to upload the remaining solves.


----------



## masterofthebass (Jul 21, 2008)

Rama said:


> Wew, nice results you guys, congratulations to all of you.
> 
> Aha, watching the results closer I see that mr. Verdes competed.



Mr Verdes competed as the 100th competitor. Tyson made a mistake and didn't realize that a qualifying round counts. We needed 100 ppl in order to get the 3 full rounds.


----------



## jazzthief81 (Jul 21, 2008)

And here's Rowe's 9.13 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUwNKx3I76I


----------



## cubekid57 (Jul 21, 2008)

Awesome competition. I am glad andrew won. I did horrible in the oh event, but everything else went smooth for me. I wish I could have stayed for the second day. I got to test out the v7 and v6 cubes. I thought they were pretty cool.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 21, 2008)

Yeah, I put Rowe's solve up last night. Along with Dan's WR, Rowe's 1:04bld and Mike's 15/15

http://youtube.com/user/HadleyDGRC


----------



## Tim Reynolds (Jul 21, 2008)

Lotsofsloths said:


> I am so glad I didn't go there..xD
> anyway, now I am interested to whom got mugged.
> It couldn't have been Bob, or else he would threaten to kill them xDDD



Funny you should say that. It was Bob.

He was in the bathroom and the guy stuck what turned out to be an iPod into his back and said "Give me all your money or I'll shoot you". In the end nothing happened (I don't believe he gave any money), but it was very disturbing to hear.

Besides the sketchiness of the area the venue was in and the things related to that, it went pretty well. I missed the podium for pyraminx by .01 =( but oh well, I didn't do well in that. Let's not talk about my blindfold results though =D

I was the lego building champion =D I think I beat jason in that by 3 seconds, for building a helicopter out of a lego set. That was fun =D


----------



## Jack (Jul 21, 2008)

I think I actually came third for 4x4, with a 1:03 average, but somehow my 58.94 was entered as a 1:14.16 dropping my average 5 seconds. I've emailed Tyson about it. I was kind of disappointed that only Americans got trophys, because I was looking forward to being first at fewest moves. Now I am actually the only Canadian with an NAR (tied with Tim) because of Rowe's single and Dan's megaminx solves.


----------



## Lotsofsloths (Jul 21, 2008)

Tim Reynolds said:


> Lotsofsloths said:
> 
> 
> > I am so glad I didn't go there..xD
> ...



That's...funny that I should say it was Bob, yet horrible for me to hear that.
Well next time they know they should host it in a better venue...like Williamsburg xDD


----------



## fanwuq (Jul 21, 2008)

Bob got mugged!? That sucks. Funny that I'm surprised someone dare to mess with Bob. He's like 2nd to Frank Morris. If Frank was getting mugged. All he needs to do is to pop and once the piece hits the guy, he's dead.


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 21, 2008)

Tim Reynolds said:


> I was the lego building champion =D I think I beat jason in that by 3 seconds,




And beat Sam by 3 days


----------



## Dene (Jul 21, 2008)

jazzthief81 said:


> And here's Rowe's 9.13
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUwNKx3I76I



It looks like he got the 6 move T OLL into a PLL skip with no AUF. Kind of easy, but still insanely fast!


----------



## alexc (Jul 21, 2008)

Wow, that comp was AWESOME!!!! I got a 15.33 3x3 average in the second round. 13/14 multi bld. 8:19 4x4 bld. DNF 5x5 bld. DNF all of the 3x3 blds, but one of them was a 54.71! 1:14 4x4 average. Huge explosion sort of POP on 5th solve of the 1st 5x5 round and I think I lost some pieces. (Now, I can get a V cube 5!) Don't want to talk about 2x2.  In OH, I think I get a sub 30 average.

Anyway, it was cool meeting people like Andrew Kang, Mike Hughey, Chris Hardwick, Arnaud, Stefan, and many others.


----------



## MistArts (Jul 22, 2008)

Lotsofsloths said:


> Tim Reynolds said:
> 
> 
> > Lotsofsloths said:
> ...



Why? So you can mug Bob?


----------



## cuBerBruce (Jul 22, 2008)

I've uploaded my video of Rowe Hessler's 9.13 solve to Rapidshare.com. The file is MPEG-2 format and about 5.6MB in size. The link is:

http://rapidshare.com/files/131477042/USNatls08_RoweH_333_9_13.mpg.html


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 22, 2008)

Dene said:


> jazzthief81 said:
> 
> 
> > And here's Rowe's 9.13
> ...



r U r' R U R' U' r U' r', actually.


----------



## Lofty (Jul 22, 2008)

Yay, great competition and great fun!
I got to meet a lot of your guys which was awesome, witnessed a couple or WR's and NAR's (Congrats to Mike on his multiBLD!) and brought my OH ranking up a bit 
One of my times was inputted wrong as well although mine doesnt affect my ranking at all as Ryan and I were the only ones sub-25 in the finals. My result should be around 22.5 or so so not faster than Ryan but still much better than the 24 it looks like I got now...
I'm quite happy with my 16.90 solve  getting Lucky is not a crime! I dont remember all the details of it except it ended with a J perm and I think OLL skip though Jason says I did an OLL... I really don't remember as I was very very nervous, I probably just did one of the tricks I know for edge control to force an OLL skip. But it was very good to meet Ryan! He was very very nice and we got to do loads of OH racing and solves together.
Edit: oh yea, I was also very happy with how I did at speedsovle. I didn't expect to even qualify but I ended up making it and getting past the first round with a 15.9x average fast than i have ever had at home.


----------



## Dene (Jul 22, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> Dene said:
> 
> 
> > jazzthief81 said:
> ...



Ah, that explains why the algorithm looked funny. (You have to admit though, the pattern from that view is very similar)


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 22, 2008)

Yeah definitely an awesome competition. I hope they decide to do another US Open next year.

I had very mixed results. I was very happy with my 5x5 times, 1:44 single and 1:53 average (17th and 15th in the world). My 4x4 results were okay, could've been faster but all my solves in the finals had O parity. I learned magic the day before I competed and I had never touched a clock before I competed in it, so that was fun. I was also really happy with my 1:31 blind, my best ever even at home.

My OH times were forgetable. Also my 3x3 times were not up to par, although I am happy about etting to the finals and getting 9th. I am very disappointed in the 2x2 results. I would've won with a 4.00 average but I +2ed the first solve and that pushed my avg up to 4.57 and to third place (2nd in US) and costing me a full set of VCubes as well as national champion. Both Tim and Lucas had a +2, but it was on their fastest solve, not affecting their average. Why did that have to happen to me?


----------



## sam (Jul 22, 2008)

Lofty: I judged you on that solve. You skipped OLL. then had a j perm staring you in the face XD. that was a great solve man . 

It was a great competition overall. the first day i had a 12.88 with the EXACT same LL as Erik's WR solve (F Double Sexy move F' then PLL skip U2 to Fix).
The next day i had a Non lucky 12.66 solve with just an X cross (i put teh free pair in first then the cross piece). i beat my PB avg by 2 seconds so thats good as well. and i won MM like normal.

Everyone sucked in magic. lmao. 

Tim Sun didn't get a sub-4 average so i didn't have to eat my shoe!!! 

It was awesome to meet clancy, frank, Kostadinos, Chris Hardwick, Mike Hughey, Stefan Pochmann, Lars vandenburgh and Arnaud Van Galen (just to name a few).

Hope to see you all next year!

Sam


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 22, 2008)

sam said:


> Everyone sucked in magic. lmao.
> 
> Tim Sun didn't get a sub-4 average so i didn't have to eat my shoe!!!



Magic was stupid. I picked a random one off the table that no one claimed. It kinda sucked, and I didn't really get to warm up.

Does the bet still continue?


----------



## Hadley4000 (Jul 22, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> sam said:
> 
> 
> > Everyone sucked in magic. lmao.
> ...





Was it the side time facing the "Street"? If so, that was my magic. It didn't come home with me


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 22, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Was it the side time facing the "Street"? If so, that was my magic. It didn't come home with me



Possibly. Patrick Jameson just randomly found it somewhere.


----------



## Lucas Garron (Jul 22, 2008)

I need to figure out how to use secure FTP here....



> Rowe Hessler's 9.13 Solve
> US Nationals and Open 2008, July 12-13, 2008
> (NAR, 3rd-fastest single solve.)
> 
> ...


----------



## ThePizzaGuy92 (Jul 22, 2008)

color neutral + pll skip = 9.13?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 22, 2008)

Lucas Garron said:


> I need to figure out how to use secure FTP here....
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Besides your crappy notation, Rowe could've done better:

x U R' U' R zy' U2 R2 U2 R U R' U R' U' R' U2 y' R' U' R L' U' L y' R' U2 R U' R' U R2 U R' U2 r U r' R U R' U' r U' r'

Cancellations all over!

(I found three mistakes in this reconstruction)


----------



## Jack (Jul 22, 2008)

That LL is the exact same as Eric's on his 9.55!


----------



## Lt-UnReaL (Jul 22, 2008)

Jack said:


> That LL is the exact same as Eric's on his 9.55!



Ron's 9.55? :x


----------



## joey (Jul 22, 2008)

Lt-UnReaL said:


> Jack said:
> 
> 
> > That LL is the exact same as Eric's on his 9.55!
> ...



Eric's 9.55?


----------



## Tyson (Jul 22, 2008)

*Pictures from US Nationals 2008*

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/591470707/b1f0b286ef9330eeab8818181009e610


----------



## Carson (Jul 22, 2008)

Tyson said:


> https://rcpt.yousendit.com/591470707/b1f0b286ef9330eeab8818181009e610




Those are some pretty HQ pics!!!




Also, is there a list of scrambles from all rounds somewhere?


----------



## Tyson (Jul 22, 2008)

I don't have webspace, but I'd be happy to send them to someone who could post them up.


----------



## Carson (Jul 22, 2008)

Tyson said:


> I don't have webspace, but I'd be happy to send them to someone who could post them up.



You can send them to me... cpenticuff(at)gmail(dot)com and I will put together a quick page and post the link.


----------



## Jack (Jul 22, 2008)

Lt-UnReaL said:


> Jack said:
> 
> 
> > That LL is the exact same as Eric's on his 9.55!
> ...



No, Eric Limeback had a 9.55 at Cincinnati with the same OLL and a PLL skip with no AUF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZS0DeGjb3U


----------



## Bryan (Jul 22, 2008)

Tyson said:


> I don't have webspace, but I'd be happy to send them to someone who could post them up.



http://www.cubingusa.com/usopen2008/

I have scaled down version there also. No page, just a list of files.


----------



## Tyson (Jul 22, 2008)

Hey Bryan,

Thanks, here are the other two links, including the first one.

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/591470707/b1f0b286ef933 0eeab8818181009e610

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/591506431/f71ec84d01c00 4b391e008804aa24955

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/591510025/2381a5281e1b2 65706ae8f68a73f167c

-Tyson


----------



## hdskull (Jul 22, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> costing me a full set of VCubes as well as national champion. Both Tim and Lucas had a +2, but it was on their fastest solve, not affecting their average. Why did that have to happen to me?



2x2 winner won a full set of Vcubes ?!??!?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 22, 2008)

hdskull said:


> philkt731 said:
> 
> 
> > costing me a full set of VCubes as well as national champion. Both Tim and Lucas had a +2, but it was on their fastest solve, not affecting their average. Why did that have to happen to me?
> ...



You bet I did.


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 22, 2008)

yep and also winner of 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, OH, BLD, 4BLD, and 5BLD

Its kind of lame that a little thing like a +2 penalty is worth 200 dollars. I'm also quite sure that my second scramble was wrong because the one Tim showed me looked nothing like what I had (he got a 2.08+2 and Lucas got 2.02+2)
Oh well my NAR still holds, and actually the worst time of my NAR 5 was 4.34, the same as Tim's avg


----------



## Carson (Jul 23, 2008)

Scrambles from the 2008 US Nationals and Open:

http://www.carsonpenticuff.com/cube/usnationals2008/


----------



## alexc (Jul 23, 2008)

Good pix Tyson!


----------



## alexc (Jul 23, 2008)

Carson said:


> Scrambles from the 2008 US Nationals and Open:
> 
> http://www.carsonpenticuff.com/cube/usnationals2008/



 I reviewed the second 3x3 blind scramble in the final round which I got a 54.71 DNF on and I must say, it was an execution mistake.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 23, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> yep and also winner of 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, OH, BLD, 4BLD, and 5BLD



WOW, I guess I'm gonna practice hard for next year so that I don't have to buy any v-cubes That's only if I am able to naturalize though 

I'm gonna try the scrambles later, lol.


----------



## Lt-UnReaL (Jul 23, 2008)

alexc said:


> Carson said:
> 
> 
> > Scrambles from the 2008 US Nationals and Open:
> ...


Wow, that really sucks.  Just if you correctly executed that part, maybe it coulda been 0.5 faster and you coulda got WR. :/


----------



## pjk (Jul 23, 2008)

I just got back from out of town, and nice to see the results of the competition. Looked like a great one.

Phil: Good work for the most part, nice 5x5 and BLD times.
Dan: Congrats on both WR's; it was going to happen sooner or later. Keep bringing some world records over to the USA.
Tyson/Shelley/other organizers: Awesome job putting it together.
Alexc: Nice 4x4 BLD time, and nice multiBLD result. Congrats.

So the winner of each event won a 5x5/6x6/7x7? Any other prizes overall, like fastest solve, or largest pop like last year?


----------



## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 23, 2008)

pjk said:


> Any other prizes overall, like fastest solve, or largest pop like last year?



Best pop, yeah. Ryan P. popped a piece off the stage, and while looking for it, he kicked it under the stage.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 23, 2008)

I tried some scrambles, there were some good ones. 

I got nervous just thinking it was US Open scrambles on the 3x3, lol.
I'll try the rest later.

Results here


----------



## Bryan (Jul 23, 2008)

Try the first scramble from the 3x3x3 qualification round and the third scramble from Square-1. Those were my favorites


----------



## Tyson (Jul 23, 2008)

Hey, I didn't make the rules on who gets the V-Cubes. That was unexpected.

I would say that V-Cubes should have been given to the winner of the "Drive Ya Nuts" puzzle.


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 23, 2008)

haha yeah.

I think it would've made more sense for 1st place to get their choice, 2nd place to choose from the other two and 3rd place to get the last one (or 1st get 7x7, 2nd get 6x6 and 3rd gets 5x5)


----------



## Tyson (Jul 23, 2008)

Yeah, spread the wealth a bit. I agree.


----------



## Lofty (Jul 23, 2008)

I wouldn't have minded a v-cube for getting in second lol.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 23, 2008)

Tyson said:


> Hey, I didn't make the rules on who gets the V-Cubes. That was unexpected.
> 
> I would say that V-Cubes should have been given to the winner of the "Drive Ya Nuts" puzzle.



Lol, who did? Mr. Verdes?

What were you guys originally gonna give ?


----------



## ExoCorsair (Jul 23, 2008)

I did the solves (for 2x2-5x5) that I suppose I would have done:

2x2_final: (5.29) 6.90 9.53 (9.82) 7.55 = 7.99 | 31st
3x3_qual: 17.09 19.09 16.92 = 16.92 | 13th
4x4_first: (1:21.47) (1:48.06) 1:25.15 1:29.54 1:33.30 = 1:29.33 | 24th
5x5_first: 1:55.05 (2:09.69) (1:54.82) 1:57.80 2:02.43 = 1:58.43 | 6th
5x5_final: (1:46.34) 1:54.07 (1:54.34) 1:50.78 1:47.58 = 1:50.81 | 4th

Aside from some personal competition bests, I wouldn't have gotten anything anyway. 

I do have videos, but my camera for 5x5 was off-center, so sometimes the cube went off the screen... >.<


----------



## Tyson (Jul 23, 2008)

Hey Sikan I got somethin' real important to give you
So just sit down and listen
Sikan you know you've been cubing such a long long time (such a long time)
And now I'm ready to lay it on the line
(Wooow) You know it's Nationals and my heart is open wide
Gonna give you something so you know what's on my mind
A gift real special, so take off the top
Take a look inside -- it's a cube in a jar!


----------



## philkt731 (Jul 23, 2008)

Only me, Tim, Jason and Dan were in the finals of 2,3,4, and 5
-----Name-----2--3--4--5--Total
1. Timothy Sun--1--4--4--6--15
2. Phil Thomas---3--9--6--5--23
3. Dan Cohen----22-8--8--1--39
4. Jason Baum---22-3--12-12-49

Jason and Tim had a solve in the finals of 6 of the 8 "major" cube events (the ones that got VCubes)
Lucas, Dan Dzoan, Dan Cohen, Jack and I had a solve in the finals of 5 of the 8
Isaac, Michael, Chris, Patrick and maybe more had a solve in the finals of 4 of the 8


----------



## hdskull (Jul 24, 2008)

Tyson said:


> Hey Sikan I got somethin' real important to give you
> So just sit down and listen
> Sikan you know you've been cubing such a long long time (such a long time)
> And now I'm ready to lay it on the line
> ...



I'm stupid Tyson, didn't you know that? This poem is impossible for me to comprehend .

Speaking of cube in a jar, I saw Dan Dzoan's video of assembling a cube in a jar, it was funny, haha.

hmm, I can make good use of something like that...


----------



## jazzthief81 (Jul 24, 2008)

hdskull said:


> Speaking of cube in a jar, I saw Dan Dzoan's video of assembling a cube in a jar, it was funny, haha



Trying to make a checkboard pattern on the cube inside the jar is even funnier 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLXOqJM2PiU


----------



## hdskull (Jul 24, 2008)

jazzthief81 said:


> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLXOqJM2PiU



Hahaha, should've stackmat-ed it, haha. Now try a 7x7, if you can even get it in there, lol.


----------



## Lt-UnReaL (Jul 24, 2008)

Bryan said:


> Try the first scramble from the 3x3x3 qualification round and the third scramble from Square-1. Those were my favorites


Wow...2 move cross, lol.


----------



## blade740 (Jul 24, 2008)

Tyson said:


> Hey Sikan I got somethin' real important to give you
> So just sit down and listen
> Sikan you know you've been cubing such a long long time (such a long time)
> And now I'm ready to lay it on the line
> ...




To all the fellows out there with cubers to impress,
it's easy to do, just follow these steps:
One, open a jar.
Two, put your cube in that jar.
Three, give a cuber that jar.
And that's the way you do it, it's a cube in a jar!


----------



## Lucas Garron (Jul 24, 2008)

blade740 said:


> Tyson said:
> 
> 
> > Hey Sikan I got somethin' real important to give you
> ...



Well, yes. But it's really much easier if you put your cube in a zip bag and rename it to a jar.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 25, 2008)

The first BLD solve can be considered a lucky scramble right ? 1/5 of the cube was solved, if you solve with blue on F and yellow on U(like me), then it's really easy. All the edge cycles are pretty much set up without any rotation.


----------



## Stefan (Jul 25, 2008)

I lost my main speedcube at the US Open and would like to get it back. I think I lost it Saturday evening after the magic show. It has "fluorescent" yellow and orange but non-fluorescent green, and it doesn't have a logo. And I think it has round scratches on all edges and marker scratch lines inside the centers (both caps and center pieces) as shown in the attached picture (click to enlarge). If you have this cube, please let me know.


----------



## hdskull (Jul 25, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> It has "fluorescent" yellow and orange but non-fluorescent green



That's exactly the same color scheme on my OH cube!

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your cube.


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## Bryan (Jul 25, 2008)

I was curious if there was going to be a magic show again this year, but they didn't know when I asked on Saturday. Oh well....

anyway, I have some pictures up and a report at:

http://www.logan.cc/puzzles/usopen2008/


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## pjk (Jul 26, 2008)

Nice report with pics Bryan.

I also just noticed in the stats here that Dan holds the record now with most solves and attempts in a competition, which he did at US Nationals this year.


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## hdskull (Jul 26, 2008)

Bryan said:


> I was curious if there was going to be a magic show again this year, but they didn't know when I asked on Saturday. Oh well....
> 
> anyway, I have some pictures up and a report at:
> 
> http://www.logan.cc/puzzles/usopen2008/



Very nice and detailed report indeed. I think having Nationals at Mall of America(is that the biggest mall in the US?) would be a great idea, haha.


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## AvGalen (Jul 27, 2008)

I am back home and both happy and sad that my travelling is over. This is the "short" summary of places I have been to *after* the US Nationals and Open 2008 in Atlanta:
*Monday*
Spent the night in the hostel, the day in Atlanta with some remaining cubers like Lars and Stefan and the evening at the hostel again where I found a way to avoid renting a car for a very high price 
*Tuesday*
At night, I drove a car back from Atlanta to St. Augustine and passed through Dublin (not the Irish version this time) and Jacksonville (didn't re-meet Jasmine there )
In the morning I visited St. Augustine
In the afternoon I Took the Greyhound from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach and Orlando where I got my (much cheaper) rental car which I used for the remainder of my 1400 miles travelling
In the evening I visited Daytona Beach
*Wednesday*
Slept in the car, visited Kennedy Space Center, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and found a hostel in Miami Beach (Jazz hostel, very highly recommended)
*Thursday*
Drove up-and-down to Key West, visited Miami and went back to the Jazz hostel in Miami Beach
*Friday*
Drove to Everglades Alligator Farm, Everglades City, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers Beach, St. Petersburg (no hostel), Clearwater (no hostel), Reddington Beach (no hostel), Madeira Beach (no hostel), Treasure Island (no hostel), St. Pete's Beach (no hostel) and finally to Sarasota (no hostel, but a motel was just fine with me at that moment)
*Saturday*
Drove to Sarasota, Tampo, Orlando
Flew to Detroit
*Sunday*
HOME

I got about 20 hours of sleep in those days which is not much, but much more than last year so I don't feel tired (yet)

I am already looking forward to next years US Open. Having it in a part of the US where I haven't been yet (like the West-coast) would be greatly appreciated 

If anyone likes the idea of travelling with me next year AND thinks he/she can handle it, just send me a PM. I can pretty much guarantee you will have a really good time.

P.S. 1: Must-See's in Florida are the Keys, Everglades, St. Petersburg bridges, Kennedy Space Center and obviously the Miami Beach Jazz Hostel. (Some of the Disney stuff around Orlando might be worth it as well)

P.S. 2: I have apparantely traded a couple of puzzles during the tournament.
Puzzles I have, but shouldn't have: An extra clock of normal quality, An extra 3x3x3 that locks a lot (NOT Stefans) and a flaky timer
Puzzles I no longer have, but should have: A Magic (in many pieces), A Master Magic (working), a 4x4x4 Eastsheen Supercube, 2 black V-Cubes 5, a perfectly fine timer
And a timer with Audabon on it is now stored for future return by the organising team.


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## Carson (Jul 27, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> I have apparantely traded a couple of puzzles during the tournament.
> Puzzles I have, but shouldn't have: An extra clock of normal quality, An extra 3x3x3 that locks a lot (NOT Stefans) and a flaky timer
> Puzzles I no longer have, but should have: A Magic (in many pieces), A Master Magic (working), a 4x4x4 Eastsheen Supercube, 2 black V-Cubes 5, a perfectly fine timer
> And a timer with Audabon on it is now stored for future return by the organising team.



Wow, that is quite a large list of mistaken swaps...


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## Hadley4000 (Jul 27, 2008)

That was your timer that had Audabon on it??? I was up there with everyone trying ti figure out who it belonged to. Sorry Arnaud! If I'd known I would have gotten it back to you


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 27, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Drove up-and-down to Key West, visited Miami and went back to the Jazz hostel in Miami Beach



Wow - I can't believe you made it all the way to Key West!!! Very impressive! Hope you enjoyed the trip - it sounds like you mostly did!


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## AvGalen (Jul 27, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> That was your timer that had Audabon on it??? I was up there with everyone trying ti figure out who it belonged to. Sorry Arnaud! If I'd known I would have gotten it back to you


No, you misunderstood.
a) I am missing my own timer which worked perfectly well
b) I have a timer that looks just like it in my possession which doesn't function correctly
c) I found another (older) timer that has Audabon on it and gave it to the organisers

And Mike: Key West wasn't far at all. That day I only drove about 325 miles which was just below average for my Miami adventure. It took me 2 times 4 hours though. When I drive to other competitions (like Polish) we drive about 800 miles in about 14 hours and those drives don't have such a nice view! (They do include great company though)


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## Bryan (Jul 27, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> I am back home and both happy and sad that my travelling is over. This is the "short" summary of places I have been to *after* the US Nationals and Open 2008 in Atlanta:
> *Monday*
> Spent the night in the hostel, the day in Atlanta with some remaining cubers like Lars and Stefan and the evening at the hostel again where I found a way to avoid renting a car for a very high price
> *Tuesday*
> ...



Wow! You wrote this entire post-competition report and you didn't mention meeting a single "nice girl".


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## pjk (Jul 27, 2008)

Sounds like a lot of puzzles were stolen at the competition in Atlanta. Stefan lost his good 3x3, and Arnaud lost a Magic (in many pieces), a Master Magic (working), a 4x4x4 Eastsheen Supercube, 2 black V-Cubes 5, a perfectly fine timer. I can't see someone simply mis-placing all those items. My guess would be someone saw them sitting there and just took them. It's a shame people can show up to a competition and do that.

Nonetheless, nice report Arnaud. Sounds like you had fun.


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## Rama (Jul 28, 2008)

Yeah, too bad Arnaud, hopefully you'll get (some of) them back ASAP.
It was unbelievable that you displayed all your puzzles at Czech Open and just left it there, with or without other cubers around.

I think you shouldn't display all your puzzles in ''public'' places. Ron once lost his competition cube at an German conmvention of his work if I'm correct.
I'd rather do 17 seconds for the 3x3x3 then that I loose my main cube... tough I don't have a main cube anymore. 

Sounds tempting to go with you Arnaud next year, but I mustn't travel too much this/next year because of my school and Hong Kong 2009 will be expensive I think, tough Joël, Erik and I made a ''no lose deal'' for Dutch Nationals 2008 if the winner could win tickets.


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## jorge19ts (Jul 28, 2008)

Hong Kong 2009= WC 2009?


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## AvGalen (Jul 28, 2008)

Bryan said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > I am back home and both happy and sad that my travelling is over. This is the "short" summary of places I have been to *after* the US Nationals and Open 2008 in Atlanta:
> ...


I am trying to get rid of that playboy image . But I have shot about 3.5 hours of video and there are plenty of "nice girls" on it (most of them were single ). But most of the video is focussing on the other beautiful things nature has created. It will take me at least a week to put it online though.

And everyone is right about me not being carefull enough with my puzzles. I am very naive and trust people a lot. I also enjoy seeing others (including walk-by-viewers) trying out all those puzzles. Next time I will mark all of them and I will put GPS inside


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## Bryan (Jul 28, 2008)

pjk said:


> Sounds like a lot of puzzles were stolen at the competition in Atlanta. Stefan lost his good 3x3, and Arnaud lost a Magic (in many pieces), a Master Magic (working), a 4x4x4 Eastsheen Supercube, 2 black V-Cubes 5, a perfectly fine timer. I can't see someone simply mis-placing all those items. My guess would be someone saw them sitting there and just took them. It's a shame people can show up to a competition and do that.
> 
> Nonetheless, nice report Arnaud. Sounds like you had fun.



Honestly, people left a lot of stuff laying around. It's not like people's backpacks were gone through and stuff taken then. I think some of the east coast had much more theft. I think Arnaud has his broken magic sitting on the side table for a while. Plus, the non-cuber traffic through the area was very heavy. I'm more surprised about the theft I heard at Princeton (I think?)


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## Stefan (Jul 28, 2008)

Like I said, I believe I lost it in the hotel lobby after the magic show, so I think another cuber accidentally took it there (I'll use my "Stefan's CUBE" logo stickers in the future). When I was leaving I thought I should have another cube lying around but none of those there were mine so I thought it was in my backback already.


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## hdskull (Jul 28, 2008)

2 Black V-cube 5s?!?!!? I would've paid for those!!!!! 

I HATE it when people take stuff that doesn't belong to them. I mean it's already generous enough that they are showing the puzzles in the first place.

Arnaud, next year just bring a big tough security guy to watch your precious puzzles.


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## Lofty (Jul 28, 2008)

Wow! That is a lot of driving Arnuad! How did you have time to see all the sites with the time spent driving between them... I would have went with you had I known where you were going. You actually visited places very near to where I live in FL.


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## AvGalen (Jul 29, 2008)

Lofty said:


> Wow! That is a lot of driving Arnuad! How did you have time to see all the sites with the time spent driving between them... I would have went with you had I known where you were going. You actually visited places very near to where I live in FL.


Short answer: Don't sleep, drive fast, be flexible . And I did ask many people for advise on travelling in this very topic, but it wasn't untill the day before the competition that I actually knew I would fly back from Orlando so I would be travelling through Florida. I decided to do "eastcoast-down south-westcoast" on the day after the competition and often didn't know where I would go exactly during the day.

I will be doing the same thing next year before/after US Open, so if anyone else would like to join me for travelling please tell me. (but remember the "be flexible, don't sleep" way of live)


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## Faz (Jul 29, 2008)

How do you find out the scrambles from the competition, as i would like to try them.


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## Swordsman Kirby (Jul 29, 2008)

fazrulz said:


> How do you find out the scrambles from the competition, as i would like to try them.



It's posted somewhere in this topic.


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## Tim Reynolds (Aug 7, 2008)

Is anyone interested in ordering a US Nationals t-shirt? Tyson told me that he'd order more if there were about 15 people interested. So if you'd like to buy one, please post here with how many you'd like.


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## Carson (Aug 7, 2008)

Swordsman Kirby said:


> fazrulz said:
> 
> 
> > How do you find out the scrambles from the competition, as i would like to try them.
> ...



http://www.carsonpenticuff.com/cube/usnationals2008/



Tim Reynolds said:


> Is anyone interested in ordering a US Nationals t-shirt? Tyson told me that he'd order more if there were about 15 people interested. So if you'd like to buy one, please post here with how many you'd like.



I would like 1 Medium please.


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## cmhardw (Aug 7, 2008)

Tim Reynolds said:


> Is anyone interested in ordering a US Nationals t-shirt? Tyson told me that he'd order more if there were about 15 people interested. So if you'd like to buy one, please post here with how many you'd like.



I would order 1 large, and I guess we would just pay via paypal?

Chris


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## Lofty (Aug 7, 2008)

I would like 1 small. Maybe a medium idk... But i'll buy one for sure.


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## FrankMorris (Aug 8, 2008)

Ill take a medium.

Frank Morris


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## Hadley4000 (Aug 8, 2008)

What do they look like?


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## Tim Reynolds (Aug 8, 2008)

The organizers were wearing them at the contest, look at pictures from the contest and you'll see them


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## Tim Reynolds (Aug 9, 2008)

For those wondering what it looks like, see http://www.cubingusa.com/usopen2008/large-usopen2008-28.jpg (the shirt Shelley's wearing)
Just so I don't forget myself in my tally, I'm getting a medium and a small.
Anyone interested in getting a shirt(s) should please post, so that we know if there's enough interest to place an order. Tyson recommended we have at least 15-20 people to order so it wouldn't be too expensive, so if you're interested let me know. Paypal will be preferable once we get closer to ordering, but we can worry about that later.


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## Lucas Garron (Aug 9, 2008)

I never got a shirt, so I'd like one.

EDIT: Uh, yeah, large. After ordering so many T-shirts, I should really be used to specifying size...


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## Jason Baum (Aug 9, 2008)

Yeah, I'd also like to get a shirt (large).


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## dudemanpp (Aug 9, 2008)

I would also like a medium.


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## PatrickJameson (Aug 10, 2008)

I'll get a large.

edit: actually make that a medium


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## 4Chan (Aug 10, 2008)

Would a money order or check through the mail be possible?
If so, I'd love to buy a medium!


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## Swordsman Kirby (Aug 10, 2008)

PatrickJameson said:


> I'll get a large.



Dude I fit into a medium...


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## Daniel (Aug 10, 2008)

*US Nationals and Open 2008*

Some films of US Nationals and Open 2008 


Daniel Ortiga in Rubik's Cube in US Nationals and Open 2008 (23.54s)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=o1U-hXDuu4A 

Daniel Ortiga en Rubik's Magic - Average (2.09)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-XR9wUDmE&NR=1

Daniel Ortiga en Rubik's Master Magic (4.15)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=FQLTO6zh1Zs

Daniel Ortiga en Square-1 (2.35.86)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=SZCjH0tdtIo

Montse Valles en un truco de Magia
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=-NK_iyRzNBM

Dan Dzoan - Rubik's Cube (14.97)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=vGjTCkUoW_E

Andrew Kang - Rubik's Cube (13.28)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ic9HfBNwOBQ

Premios de US Nationals and Open 2008
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=MOZf8uGoY24


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## Tim Reynolds (Aug 22, 2008)

All right, anyone who wanted a shirt should send $20 to Shelley by PayPal at [email protected]

I'm (most likely) going to be shipping them, so if you could also PM me your mailing address and your shirt size, that would help a lot.


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## shafiqdms1 (Aug 28, 2008)

aww man i want one soo bad! too bad i dont have paypal...


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## Kit Clement (Aug 28, 2008)

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but does anyone know where the next year's US Open will be, or will possibly be?


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## shafiqdms1 (Sep 4, 2008)

kippy33 said:


> Sorry if this is a dumb question, but does anyone know where the next year's US Open will be, or will possibly be?



I am pretty sure they haven't even decided where they are gonna host it


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## shafiqdms1 (Sep 18, 2008)

yes! I got my parents to order!


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## shafiqdms1 (Sep 18, 2008)

pjk said:


> Sounds like a lot of puzzles were stolen at the competition in Atlanta. Stefan lost his good 3x3, and Arnaud lost a Magic (in many pieces), a Master Magic (working), a 4x4x4 Eastsheen Supercube, 2 black V-Cubes 5, a perfectly fine timer. I can't see someone simply mis-placing all those items. My guess would be someone saw them sitting there and just took them. It's a shame people can show up to a competition and do that.
> 
> Nonetheless, nice report Arnaud. Sounds like you had fun.



well, there was a lot of spectators and i was very surprised that there were puzzles just lying on the table where anyone could just take something, and knowing downtown atlanta, i knew that there would be stolen puzzles.


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