15 points
Work is So Strange by Jeanne Marie
August 7th, 2006 8:20 PM
I work at a science museum, so my job is almost always strange. But this weekend I helped to host the 2006 U.S. National Rubik's Cube Championship. We've had several other Rubik's competitions at the museum, but this was bigger and more exciting than most.
The event lasted for three days, and there were about 90 competitors. Many of them arrived well before the museum opened each day and hung around in the lobby, waiting for the doors to open. Part of my job was to explain to them all that we weren't able to let everyone in for free (but they did get in for half-price). They were actually all very understanding.
I set up a lovely stage in the Skylight Area. The Caltech Rubik's Cube Club, who were handling all of the actual competition details, brought "Stack Mat" timers, which are usually used in competive cup stacking. Yes, that's a real thing. We had four tables and eight timers set up.
My job for the weekend was to make sure that everything went smoothly, and to do all of the announcing for the competition. So I got to say things like "Toby Mao, please bring your cube to the scrambling table," and "The time will be recorded as 16.49 seconds due to an incomplete rotation," and "The next event is the 4x4x4 Blindfold Solve."
Seriously. Blindfolded. Check out the photo of Chris Hardwick solving the 4x4x4 cube blindfolded. He did it in 12 minutes: a new world record.
Even though this event is a competition, all of the competitors are incredibly supportive. Everyone cheered for each other. When Toby Mao solved the 3x3x3 cube in 10.48 seconds (beating Leyan Lo's previous record of 11.13 seconds), Leyan was the first to congratulate him and take his photo. And the crowd reacted to each of these kids (and they are almost all kids...) as if they were rock stars: asking for autographs and taking photos with them. It's quite sweet, but a tad odd.
It was a strange weekend: by the end of Sunday, everything started to seem so familiar that I actually forgot that this was a small subculture. But really, how often in my life will I get paid to announce new world records? It's happened a few times so far, so maybe it will happen again... We're hosting the International Championship on January 13, 2007.
Here's a link to complete results:
http://www.chrisandkori.us/fw/main/US_Nationals_2006_Results-1506.html
And here are some photos...
The event lasted for three days, and there were about 90 competitors. Many of them arrived well before the museum opened each day and hung around in the lobby, waiting for the doors to open. Part of my job was to explain to them all that we weren't able to let everyone in for free (but they did get in for half-price). They were actually all very understanding.
I set up a lovely stage in the Skylight Area. The Caltech Rubik's Cube Club, who were handling all of the actual competition details, brought "Stack Mat" timers, which are usually used in competive cup stacking. Yes, that's a real thing. We had four tables and eight timers set up.
My job for the weekend was to make sure that everything went smoothly, and to do all of the announcing for the competition. So I got to say things like "Toby Mao, please bring your cube to the scrambling table," and "The time will be recorded as 16.49 seconds due to an incomplete rotation," and "The next event is the 4x4x4 Blindfold Solve."
Seriously. Blindfolded. Check out the photo of Chris Hardwick solving the 4x4x4 cube blindfolded. He did it in 12 minutes: a new world record.
Even though this event is a competition, all of the competitors are incredibly supportive. Everyone cheered for each other. When Toby Mao solved the 3x3x3 cube in 10.48 seconds (beating Leyan Lo's previous record of 11.13 seconds), Leyan was the first to congratulate him and take his photo. And the crowd reacted to each of these kids (and they are almost all kids...) as if they were rock stars: asking for autographs and taking photos with them. It's quite sweet, but a tad odd.
It was a strange weekend: by the end of Sunday, everything started to seem so familiar that I actually forgot that this was a small subculture. But really, how often in my life will I get paid to announce new world records? It's happened a few times so far, so maybe it will happen again... We're hosting the International Championship on January 13, 2007.
Here's a link to complete results:
http://www.chrisandkori.us/fw/main/US_Nationals_2006_Results-1506.html
And here are some photos...
