# Storytime with Uncle Tyson



## Tyson (Jul 12, 2010)

I was driving my brother and Macky home form Berkeley today and we were just reminiscing about how everything came to be. There's the story about how I met Macky for the first time and how he was a part of the inspiration for hosting the first regular Rubik's Cube competition at Caltech on January 24, 2004. There's the story about how my brother and I went to go find Lars Petrus, and he showed us his dead cat. There's the story about my first incident with Dan Dzoan at the Exploratorium competition in 2006 when I gave out a Rubik's Twist to the "fastest person who didn't qualify for the finals" and Dan jumped out of the audience shouting, "I KNEW IT!" There are just so many quirks around, and the cubing audience these days keeps getting younger and younger with more new cubers.

Does anyone know about Daniel Lo's epic FMC win in Chicago at 2007? Or why F R U R' U' F' is a y-perm, *****ES! How did mystery puzzles even start, or what happens when you are the world champion? Apparently, you can do anything you want. BLEH! Eduoard and Jean Pons seemed to have a lot of fun with that one.

Who is Chris Hunt and why is he important? Why does Texas suck so much? What do you do after breaking a world record on the Rubik's Magic?

Anyway, when I was in high school, at the beginning of each year, each class would go on a retreat of sorts. Freshman year was a community service retreat and I ended up picking trash up off a beach. Sophomore year I was rock climbing. Junior year I was whitewater rafting. And senior year I was at a ropes course. Well, unlike the other years, they didn't tell us to go to sleep senior year. So my high school friends and I sat around telling stories, and we recorded this onto a Mini-Disc player. (Anyone born after 1995 probably has no idea what a Mini-Disc player even is!) And what I'm left with is this CD now of 41 different stories of my high school career. It's a great souvenir, and actually, the main narrator of this compilation passed away in 2007 leaving us with an amazing collection of his stories and memories of all of us to share.

As time goes on, the memories of these stories will fade. And the network of people around me as a result of cubing I find is truly remarkable. Furthermore, my experiences of starting the cubing community in the United States is largely isolated. I'm sure there are stories in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere in the world which are similarly engaging, and will reveal little entertaining incidents about all the cubers we know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss5GyooSByM

Does anyone remember the set of speedsolvingrubikscube posts on yahoo group that lead to this mystery puzzle?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfd5sxW8Clg

Isn't that one of the silliest things you've ever seen? How did that random guy even get into cubing anyway?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRl9eTteF74

Complete opposite of that reaction right? Does anyone even know what's on the shirt? I think it's called "Pandamonium."

Anyway, I'm talking with Macky and we think it would be great to get a compilation of these stories. Part of me at the end of US Nationals wants to get a group to sit around and just tell stories.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v71/184/26/3500064/n3500064_30092152_246.jpg

Yeah, that's Macky in 8th grade. He didn't want to go to his graduation dance and said he had no clothes as an excuse so he's wearing my shirt and pants at that dance.

And at some point, I'll have to go through my harddrive and dig up everything I have from 2003 and 2004.

Okay, so to finish my point... I think we'd like to compile these stories. I've actually spoken to a literary agent about writing a book, and nothing ever has to come of this, but that's something to think about too. But mainly, it's these memories that link us all together that I'd prefer not to lose. And so much happens every day, that things fade over time, and that makes me sad.

Sorry, so my point. If you have stories, cool. We'll figure out a way for submission at some point. But it's not enough that the story is good, it has to be told well. So unfortunately, you're going to have to be able to write clearly and be able to convey a story well. Things I'd be more interested is, from an operational standpoint, how do we organize these electronically? Do we do a blog with posts, that have tags and people can categorize by tags? Not sure... I'll have to talk with Macky about it.

Speaking of Macky, click open that picture. How many people can name everyone in that picture? We've been at this since 2004, and Macky's 20 years-old now. It's amazing that so much time has passed. He's not 13, Jason So isn't 11 years-old either... and I think Justin Adsuara is now taller than me.

In the meantime, I'll work on growing taller.


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## oprah62 (Jul 12, 2010)

Hey you know Jason So? He's in my math class. He said he knew you from the comps when he was younger., he got me into cubing. Cool story.


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## shelley (Jul 12, 2010)

That was a nice shot of nostalgia. I think it would be fun to put together a compilation like this.


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## Kenneth (Jul 12, 2010)

Tyson said:


> Sorry, so my point. If you have stories, cool. We'll figure out a way for submission at some point. But it's not enough that the story is good, it has to be told well. So unfortunately, you're going to have to be able to write clearly and be able to convey a story well. Things I'd be more interested is, from an operational standpoint, how do we organize these electronically? Do we do a blog with posts, that have tags and people can categorize by tags? Not sure... I'll have to talk with Macky about it.



Use the wiki...

One can write a story, others can comment on the talk page or inline.

Categorys is a built in feature, you can have pictures and other types of media, anything you like.

Edit: I started it a little, see [wiki]Storys[/wiki]


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## CharlieCooper (Jul 12, 2010)

I think this sounds awesome too - I could write an entire book about Arnaud adventures alone...


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## joey (Jul 12, 2010)

CharlieCooper said:


> I think this sounds awesome too - I could write an entire book about Arnaud adventures alone...



With sequels.


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## PatrickJameson (Jul 12, 2010)

I totally regret not starting to cube earlier.

(speaking of which, around this time four years ago I learned to cube :O)


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## Edward (Jul 12, 2010)

joey said:


> CharlieCooper said:
> 
> 
> > I think this sounds awesome too - I could write an entire book about Arnaud adventures alone...
> ...



With a few movies, a TV series, a TV series spin off, and a video game?


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## aronpm (Jul 12, 2010)

Edward said:


> joey said:
> 
> 
> > CharlieCooper said:
> ...



Don't forget a series of Sexy Move best-selling albums.


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## Kenneth (Jul 12, 2010)

Edward said:


> joey said:
> 
> 
> > CharlieCooper said:
> ...




Dolls, plastic dolls!

It holds a cube in it's hand, you are able to twist one layer and when you do it says "I like the sexy move, the sexy move, the sexy move..."


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## StachuK1992 (Jul 12, 2010)

A great shot of nostalgia indeed.

I'm totally up for story-time after Nationals - I think it'd be great, rather than a bunch of "did you knows" that don't really suffice in terms of the awesomeness of some situations.
Even the experiences of seeing amazing solves are stories to tell - at my first competition, I got the pleasure of seeing Chris beat the 5BLD record, and that was absolutely fantastic.

Do you propose only collecting 'real-life' stories, rather than what goes on in the forums, yahoo group, etc, or all-inclusive?

Anyway, gogo Pochmann 8-ball.


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## Kenneth (Jul 12, 2010)

I wrote a little story as an example:

[wiki]Story:Washing powder (short story)[/wiki]


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## waffle=ijm (Jul 12, 2010)

damn. I'm still surprised that they used to cover the puzzle after inspection.


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## JTW2007 (Jul 12, 2010)

I wish I had started cubing earlier. Perhaps in ten years I'll have some stories as well?


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## rubiknewbie (Jul 13, 2010)

There's the story of how I learned how to cube by watching Tyson's tutorial on the official Rubik's website and how I learned F2L at Macky's website!


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## Tyson (Nov 16, 2010)

Take a look at this average:

Dan Dzoan
US National Rubik's Cube Championships 2009, First Round
13.23
17.46, 12.66, 14.06, 12.90, 12.74

My brother and I were working the scrambling table during this competition when Dan was solving. Dan gets a 12.66 second solve, and my brother says to Dan, "Hey, that's pretty good!" Dan then replies, "What will you give me if I beat it on the next solve?" My brother then replies, "A ****..." Use your imagination there. Mildly vulgar, not the worst thing, but given the age distribution, I should probably leave it out.

So than then goes for his 3rd solve, with this unspeakable reward if he manages to beat 12.66. He puts the cube down, stops the timer, and it reads 12.06. The cube then falls off the table, and onto the floor, and a side gets turned in the process. +2 seconds, 14.06. EPIC TOBY WIN!


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## theace (Nov 16, 2010)

How I long to be in the US with you guys! Here in India, cubing is virtually non existant! In over a year of cubing, I.ve been to only 2 competitions and frankly, there have been only 5 all over the country! I guess you have tournaments far more often in the states. I just hope I can get there fast. I'll be graduating this year and I'm planning on an overseas education. Lets see how things play out...


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## Lorken (Nov 17, 2010)

Cool story bro. Seriously, I haven't done anything at all compared to that read.


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## Vincents (Nov 18, 2010)

That White/Green story should be x-posted here to keep all Uncle Tyson stories organized.


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## Tyson (Nov 19, 2010)

What's another good story? Ah, how I met Lars Petrus for the first time. Well, so I'm sure some of you out there may know that I started cubing back in July of 2003, when my brother came home from a summer camp and told me he could solve the cube. The cube was something I had thought about a little bit, but never really tried. I didn't go through the effort of getting a cube either. I remember being 12, and being curious and looking on the internet, but the instructions weren't very clear. The internet also wasn't that developed back in 1996 believe it or not. Oh, the days where you could do <blink>lol, isn't this so cool</blink>. That was all the rage... so was Wing Commander. What a great game... I need to get Wing Commander 4.

Okay, so 2003... my brother teaches me the cube. And he's a terrible teacher, but I was one of his first students, so that was expected. We practiced, and practiced, and well... he was always faster than me. Because he had a head start, being faster than me by about 10 seconds. We were interested in getting faster, and we had read about these legends... Minh Thai, Jessica Fridrich, and Lars Petrus. Well, Jessica's website is rather terse, so this idea of F2L didn't immediately click into my head. Imagine you're new to cubing, and the only thing you see is Jessica's website. I know a lot of people out there "get it" these days, but no one was even around to explain to us what notation was. And my brother and I were in an isolated bubble pursing this on our own.

But the Petrus website had a lot more information, and so we learned that. And our times started getting faster. Lars Petrus, was a legend. The creator of his own speed cubing method... he's pretty cool. I want to be like him.

Anyway, so I held the Caltech Winter 2004 competition (and why I did that has its own story) and I was freaking out 48 hours before the competition trying to make sure I had everything in place. I had thought about all these situations, and how I wanted to handle them, and felt somewhat ready for the competition. So we're there, just in the room taking down names for registration when this tall blonde guy walks in... and I'm wondering to myself, is this Mr. Petrus? Is it Mr. Petrus? He registers... OH CRAP IT'S LARS PETRUS! I learned at that time he was living in Santa Clara, so my brother and I decided to take a pilgrimage when I was home for spring break. I arranged this pilgrimage under the guise of, "Hey, are you coming to the Caltech Spring competition? Do you want a stackmat to practice on?" Because believe it or not, very few people had StackMats those days. Macky was one of the first to own one.

Lars accepted my proposal to borrow my StackMat, and then return it when he came to the Caltech Spring competition. So off we went, and exited off of De La Cruz Avenue, and into the abode of Lars we went. "Can I get you anything? Orange juice? Whisky?" were his first words. My brother, of course at that time, was 15. Lars showed us his collection, and then showed us the ashes of his dead cat. Uh... okay, I thought. Pretty cool that you can do that with your ex-cat.

I recounted this story to Phoenix at Lars' 50th birthday party a few weeks ago, basically recalling the first time I met Lars. She mentioned to me that it was a rather traumatic time, as the cat had only died a few days earlier. Poor kitty... which explains why he showed us his cat. But I really have no explanation on the whisky.

Some more Lars stories... Exploratorium winter of 2006... when Lars leaked news to the associated press? Good job on that one...
A wine tasting Lars is a happy Lars
A tale of two Lars...
And Gone with the Lars

To come!


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## cmhardw (Nov 19, 2010)

Tyson I can definitely echo this sentiment. Lars Petrus is definitely one of, if not the, coolest cubers out there. Everytime I have been to a competition and had some time to hang out with Lars, in less than 30 seconds he's told some joke, or done something, that has had me busting out laughing until my sides hurt!

Take this picture for example:


Spoiler












This was at the dinner reception after the 2003 World Championship. It was held in a large room downstairs, and it was super crowded! People would slowly trickle out to make their flights, and the finalists cubers were all racing upstairs by the bar, but they eventually came to the reception as well. EVERYBODY was there. I was really starstruck by all the big names, especially my biggest cubing idols Dan Knights, Jessica Fridrich, and Lars Petrus. I HAD to get a picture with all of them! When I approached Lars, and asked if I could take a picture with him, he was very serious - very matter of fact. "Sure you can take a picture."

I handed my camera to somebody close by asking if they would take a picture of Lars and I. They agreed and I stood next to Lars. Lars then asked me for my cube, saying that we should probably have a cube in the picture. Thinking it was a good idea I handed him my speedcube - the other cube in my hand is a cube I was having people sign, and I still have that cube by the way. As I'm handing Lars my cube, he is _stoic_ this whole time. Showing no emotion, very matter of fact, very deliberate. He takes my cube from me, and then says the following *right as the camera person snaps the photo.*

"Point to this sticker, so it looks like we're talking about the cube. You know, this blue sticker really is my favorite sticker on the whole cube?"

The picture captured my face right at the birth of a laughing fit that lasted for ten seconds or more.

Lars is.... well Lars is just *AWESOME*. And that's all that I have to say about that.

Chris


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