Accomplishments while in Strasbourg

Doug, a student at ISU who used to work for MDA in Ontario, is a freak of nature. He can do the rubik's cube in less than 30 seconds. His real mission in life is to get the whole world doing the cube. He and his girlfriend Megan (same girl from olive post) do the cube on the tram every day. And Niki (same girl from olive and xmas market posts), her boyfriend Farnoud and their roommate Jeremy (all from Canada) each have a cube at home.

Axel bought one while I was in Vancouver so he could learn it enough to impress me with his cube skills when I returned. Instead, he gave it to me still in the box. So after 5h of grueling concentration, I solved it repeatably from 4 minute average down to my current 1 min 34 sec. My fastest time has been 1m10s but I think it must not have been mixed properly.



There is a website we all use where you can time yourself AND officially mix your cube for the next round. It gives you an average, best time, best 3 out of 5 etc etc. And it even gives you the option for inspection.

Axel has gotten the first two layers but is still impatiently learning how to do the last layer.



Then Doug got the ultimate - a sukoku rubik's cube. He has now solved it in 6 minutes...and I just managed to do it with an average of 5 minutes. However, he gets it so the middles are all oriented the right direction. I don't bother because I'm not that much of a loser.



This is a poster we found ice skating last week. Yes, this is Doug. I call this picture:

Baby is to parent as Cube is to Doug.



And yes, we went ice skating. At Iceberg, the largest rink in France. It is not an accomplishment. In fact, it is an embarrassment since most of the Canadians did not know how to skate very well. Doug and Jer (in a Leafs jersey no less) were the only hockey stars. The rest of us...well, here's the only example I will show.