Rubik's cube mastered!

You might claim using online help to solve the Rubik's cube is cheating. I would like to disagree. Even with a cheat sheet the cube it is quite a challenge to face. I'd call the cheat sheet the only way to remotely understand what's going on inside the cube's colorful mind. That is: pure mathematics! To solve it you need to understand it. People whose mind is leaning towards language rather than numbers (that would be me) definitely need a strategy and instructions to follow.

The genius whose explanations I'm trying to follow encourages the Rubik's fan to memorize 78 algorithms to achieve “expert level” and solve the cube within 60 seconds. It's good to have goals... My humble strategy is to take the cube one layer at a time. Genius doesn’t even bother to provide algorithms to pattern the initial cross, the heart piece of solving the cube. I'm sure he thinks “If you can't figure that out, you have no business reading my instructions”.

Left with the challenge I started to understand simple patterns. If white is here but needs to go there I have to turn the front, then the top layer, then back... I'm scribbling down my own algorithms before I forget them. I'm starting to understand the cube!

For more complicated maneuvers, such as permuting the last layer corners, I still rely on my cheat sheet for the algorithms. The real trick here is to hold the cube in the right way. Sounds simple but managed to mess me up big times at the beginning.

For everybody who knows the cube from his or her childhood days I can only encourage you to pick it up again, get online help and try again! You'll surely look at it with different eyes! Not to mention the great feeling of achievement once the last missing piece falls into place!

Home experiment

Trying to camouflage our big black transformers has been a challenging hobby ever since we moved into our house in Manila. Living in a 220V wired home using 110V appliances has already grilled some of our tech stuff, including a TV.

Violating interior design standards we started plugging transformers into every possible wall outlet. The big black boxes are a thorn in everybody's eye who shares a sense of "beauty".

We've become creative in hiding our heat exposing skeletons. Our latest attempt was to hide it behind the "Ex", our bloody knife holder.

Now we finally found a much better and even useful solution for the black Panthers! Necessity being the mother of all inventions, we realized the useful nature of transformers while venturing into yoghurt making!

Making yoghurt is rather easy: take milk (yes, even or especially "dead" UHT), add a slap of natural yoghurt, and maintain a 40 degree Celsius environment for 6 hours. Keeping a constant temperature seemed to be the most difficult part of our little experiment. We successfully moved the white ceramic bowl with our live bacteria around the house to the sunniest spots... until the sun set. Looking for a heat source (preferably indoors) we stumbled over our ugly room mates!

The result can be admired in the picture! The bowl perfectly fits onto the transformer (and makes the Ex look even sexier)!

As for the yoghurt taste: perfect! It lacks a bit of body (maybe that's because we don't add stabilizers) but the taste is just great!

I guess it's time to venture into frozen yoghurt next - which would also solve the consistency problem!