# Months into BLD - Only limited success



## Carson (Nov 17, 2008)

I have been working on bld for 2-3 months now, or somewhere along those lines... I don't really remember when I started. I am using Badmephisto's Youtube vid primarily as my guide. 

When I first began looking into bld, I had hoped that, by this point, I would have the method down and would be concentrating on improving my times. But instead, I am still working on solving edges ("Old Pochman" method I believe) and have not even looked at corners yet. In fact, I had my first successful edges only bld a few moments ago. Although I do consider this an accomplishment, the success is bittersweet, as I would consider it a lucky solve. I did not have to break into a new cycle, ALL edges were in one cycle and hence, I avoided the issues that are preventing me from really being able to solve the edges. So on that note: I would like some advice on how to proceed.

When I am memorizing, I run into trouble when I have to break into a new cycle. When my buffer piece ends up in the correct spot, I have to stop and go through each individual edge and run through what I have memorized to see what positions are still available to store the buffer piece in. Then I have a very difficult time remembering where I have my buffer piece stored as I continue memorizing. Then, to make things even more difficult, I am really clueless as to when I actually have all of the edges memorized. When it seems like they all "should" be memorized, I have to go back through and count how many I have and try to remember how many cycles I have so that I can account for those.

While trying to keep all of that^^in mind, I usually get confused somewhere in the middle and average 5-6 correct edges when I am done... although I rarely ever make it through the whole process before getting so confused that I can't continue.

I hope all of this makes sense to everyone. I would really like some advice on how to keep all of this straight in my head.

edit:
Also, when I am breaking into a new cycle... I often find that I can only solve one edge before ending up with my buffer piece again. If I don't "backtrack" and change where I move my buffer piece to, I end up with up to 5 or 6 cycles. This just seems silly to me to have half as many cycles as pieces. How does everyone deal with this? Do you somehow do a lookahead to prevent it, or do you actually backtrack like I do?


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## FU (Nov 17, 2008)

i watched badmephisto's video last night and i'm trying to switch from pure 3OP to 3OP corners and Old Pochmann edges. (i'm very bad at BLD in the first place so trying new methods dont really affect my timings) right now i am having just a little problem with the cases of parity and i think flipped edges (and flipped buffer), but i'll continue trying and i'm quite sure that i will figure out how to solve those problems by myself sooner or later.


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## mrbiggs (Nov 17, 2008)

It might be helpful if you practice BLD solving by writing down your memo, be it numbers or letters, and then solving the cube under a desk or table or something, but reading your memo. This was greatly helpful to me every time I switched methods.

Also, you might want to switch memo methods if you're getting confused. When I started, I had the same problems you did, as I was using a number system and my brain can't really memorize 20 numbers very well. My success rate shot way up once I switched methods (to a roman rooms method. YMMV, of course).

And finally, remembering what pieces you've already memorized gets easier with time and practice.


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## cookingfat (Nov 17, 2008)

what is your memo system? Do what mrbiggs said and write down all the letters at first, that way when you break into a new cycle, you can read back and see which pieces you've already solved. If you use a letter pair memo, like the one badmephisto uses, (Gong, Brick, Oil etc) then when you are ready to lose the pen and paper you will get the buffer peice in the buffer position and start looking at each edge position and think "have I had that edge in my story???" if yes, move to the next one. If you haven't had it in your story, shoot there and carry on. you shouldn't need to break into many cycles unless you have a lot of flipped edges.


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## Kian (Nov 17, 2008)

i used to reallllllly hate when i ran into my buffer piece a few times in my memorization. like you, i had to go back and see which pieces were still available.

over time though, if you practice, it will just be natural. you will know what needs to be memoed.

like all things, practice is extraordinarily important. i think this is more true for blind than anything else.

if you're discouraged with it i suggest just memoing as fast you can and seeing your results get better and better. a dnf is not a failure, it's practice. you'll get there.


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## Carson (Nov 17, 2008)

cookingfat said:


> what is your memo system? Do what mrbiggs said and write down all the letters at first, that way when you break into a new cycle, you can read back and see which pieces you've already solved. If you use a letter pair memo, like the one badmephisto uses, (Gong, Brick, Oil etc) then when you are ready to lose the pen and paper you will get the buffer peice in the buffer position and start looking at each edge position and think "have I had that edge in my story???" if yes, move to the next one. If you haven't had it in your story, shoot there and carry on. you shouldn't need to break into many cycles unless you have a lot of flipped edges.



I have each sticker of each edge labed (A-X). I am going by individual sticker instead of individual edge, so flipped edges don't really mean anything to me since there is no seperate perm/orient step. I then combine the letters I get as a result to various things and store them in my selected roman room.

I only have one room since I am only learning 3x3 right now. 
If I were to end up the following series of letters: BVALXNG... then I may end up with a (B)ig (V)an in my first location, followed by someone I know named (Al) (X)branding with an x a (NG) nag[ugly horse] in my second location.

For that second location, I would picture a miniature person with a branding iron with a big X on it branding a really ugly horse... and all of this would be happening kind of as if on a monopoly board sitting on top of a specific cushion on a sofa in my chosen room.

I think part of the problem is that I don't want to use a different word for each letter. I like to combine them as much as possible so I don't have to remember as many objects. The problem there however, is that I have to memorize 3 or 4 letters, then see what I can make out of them. If I come up with something and have a letter left over, then I have to use that letter with the next group of letters. That by itself wouldn't be so bad, but it makes it hard to keep track of how many cycles I have so far and which edges I have already used all at the same time. 

I have tried the pen and paper method, and it has helped. But I still have to go back through all of the letters and figure out what has been used. It makes it slightly confusing for me since knowing that a certain letter has been used doesn't neccesarily tell me whether that piece has been used. For example: my FD edge is labeled as Q for F and U for D. If I need to store my buffer and I realize that I haven't used Q, I have to stop and go through my memo again to see if I have used U as well. This requires me to run through the whole thing twice to check each edge. I imagine I will eventually be able to check both letters at once, but currently it requires too much concentration and I forget other things if I try.


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## F.P. (Nov 17, 2008)

If you make one big image out of all the images you get, there is no need for a room/route.

Try to make a route with about 10 routepoints (max...you will hardly ever need all of them for edges) and put each picture on a routepoint and let it interact with the routepoint.
It's easier and fast to check through the different routepoints than to find the different images in one big image.

Probably you have already seen it, but maybe my short tutorial I made a while ago could be helpful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkkLN6_x8Mc

Put the fingers on the edges/cubies you have already used while memorising.


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## cookingfat (Nov 17, 2008)

Carson said:


> cookingfat said:
> 
> 
> > what is your memo system? Do what mrbiggs said and write down all the letters at first, that way when you break into a new cycle, you can read back and see which pieces you've already solved. If you use a letter pair memo, like the one badmephisto uses, (Gong, Brick, Oil etc) then when you are ready to lose the pen and paper you will get the buffer peice in the buffer position and start looking at each edge position and think "have I had that edge in my story???" if yes, move to the next one. If you haven't had it in your story, shoot there and carry on. you shouldn't need to break into many cycles unless you have a lot of flipped edges.
> ...



I might give that memo method a try, it looks a little more confusing, but much less to remember than the method I use. I can see why it's hard for you to realise whether you have used the piece or not. The method I use is probably easier to remember which edges you have already used. 

eg. Blue/White edge would either be 'WeB' or BoW' 
Red/Blue edge would either be 'RoBot' or 'BRain' (or sometimes 'BRick)

These pair images stay the same all the time. some edges I have more than one object as it's sometimes more appropriate to link to the last one. 

so as you can see if you need to change into a new cycle you can look at all the edges and think, 'I've used a brick, and I've used a web in my story, so I can't shoot to those, but I haven't used a Woman or Owl, so I'll shoot to either White/Orange or Orange/White position. 

I'm not telling you to change to this method, but it might be worth looking into. It's basically exactly the same as what badmephisto does on his video.

The downside is that I think it takes longer to memo, but the memo is pretty solid. 

I do something completely different for corners though.


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## VirKill (Nov 19, 2008)

I'm not an expert. It's only a week ago since i made my first success solve in BLD. The time was 16 minutes. But now I can get 04:47 PB and constantly sub 8m. 

I have exactly the same problem at the beginning. What I'm doing to solve those problem is to make my memorizing phase in 3 step:

Step 1. Do some quick observation to identify correct pieces. Maybe we'll find some edges or corner already in the right place. Or, we might find it's in the right place but have wrong orientation. By quickly doing this, we'll know whether we have to do some final edge/corner orientation or not. We can also predict the number of items we will have, by knowing the number of wrong edges/corner. For example, by knowing theres 1 edge already in the right place and right orientation, we can predict we will have 10 items in our memorization (if there's only one cycle), or 11 items (if there's 2 cycle), ect.

Step 2. Do some quick tracing. After we use some piece, we put our finger on it. Yes, we will run out of finger..(lol) but at least it will make it easier to know the piece we're not use yet. In the end of cycle we will see which piece that not already included in our cycle.The main purposeof this step is to know which piece we should use to start new cycle. In this step also, we know the number of item, number of cycle, and detect the parity. With the equation of ;
number item = unsolved piece + number of cycle - 2
If the number of item is odd, we should fix the parity.
By doing this, we can make sure we will have a correct formula.

Step 3. Real memorization. Now, we can memorize it slowly piece by piece using any memo method we use. Of course there will be no problem, since we already know which sticker we should take when we have to start new cycle.

Real Example : B L' R U2 F2 D U' L D R' D' L2 B L2 R' U2 B R D F2 B L2 D2 B' R2

Step 1: Quick observation : We know that 1 edge (DL) already in the correct place. So we can predict we'll have 10 items (10=11+1-2) if we only have 1 cycle or 11 if we have 2 cycle.

Step 2: Quickly put my finger on DB-UF-DR then I realize we should start a new cycle. I see UL or UB is available, so I choose UL-BL BU-DF-FR -UL then I know I should start the 3rd cycle which is FL- RB and back to FL. By doing this at least I know I should memorize UL and FL to start a 2nd and 3rd cycle. I also count the items = 12 and apply it in the equation 12 = 11 + 3cycle-2. No parity.

Step 3. I slowly make a story for DB-UF-DR-UL-BL-BU-DF-FR -UL-FL-RB-FL

We can use the same trick for the corner if necessary.

After some solve, the 3 step above is history...


Sorry for bad english, i hope that could help....

*sigh...I spent one hour just to wrote this?!*


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## badmephisto (Nov 22, 2008)

I had problems with this same thing when I was starting out as well. Somehow it becomes better with practice. I have a mental picture of which edges I already shot to. I somehow cover them using my fingers, and a little bit in my mind... I can keep track of it somehow and I rarely ever have to go back to my story to figure out where I didn't shoot to yet. I imagine it becomes even more automatic for people that get really good in this.

and for the case where you have a lot of cycles - it certainly happens to me occasionally and i hate it. I don't think there is a simple way around it.


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## Carson (Nov 25, 2008)

badmephisto said:


> I had problems with this same thing when I was starting out as well. Somehow it becomes better with practice. I have a mental picture of which edges I already shot to. I somehow cover them using my fingers, and a little bit in my mind... I can keep track of it somehow and I rarely ever have to go back to my story to figure out where I didn't shoot to yet. I imagine it becomes even more automatic for people that get really good in this.
> 
> and for the case where you have a lot of cycles - it certainly happens to me occasionally and i hate it. I don't think there is a simple way around it.




I am slowly getting better at remembering which edges I have already shot to. I think it is due to my memo time decreasing, so there is much less time to forget.

I am going to start working on corners later today... wish me luck.


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