Patent Law

Solving Rubik's Cube For Stress Relief

By Erik J. Heels

3-D puzzles and playing the piano are my outlets.

Crazy hectic day today. A lot going on with Heels.com. All good stuff. I'll share more when I'm able. But hectic = stressful.

After a long stressful day, I like to relax and let off steam. I raked with my wife for about an hour today. That was good. I often play piano to blow off steam, but that's hard to do when the kids are asleep. So tonight I turned to old reliable: Rubik's Cube.

I got a Rubik's Cube in 1980 for Christmas (when I was 14). My parents figured it would keep me busy until the following Christmas. I solved it in three weeks (with no help from various solutions). At my peak, I could solve in a few minutes. Tonight took a little longer, but I still solved it. I have never looked at any solution. I prefer to figure it out myself. I have never been defeated by a 3-D puzzle.

Around 1995, I got a Square One puzzle. Very hard. First you have to get it into a square, then you have to solve the sides. At least that's how I did it. Took me four months to solve it the first time. It's also a good way to avoid talking to strangers on long airplane flights.

I prefer the original Rubik's Cube colors, with blue opposite white, green opposite yellow, and orange opposite red. "New" cubes with white opposite yellow weird me out. My mind is wired with certain colors opposite. That's worth studying.

Full post as published by Erik J. Heels on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).