My parents are to blame for me being a geek.  When I was 11 my father bought me a Vic 20 that he had seen in a Computer Store while he was trying to sell IBM big iron.  I was so excited about having my very own basic compiler that they let me skip school to see if I could fill up the 3.5K with some bloated code.  

But, this was not their first attempt to thoroughly geekify me--3 or 4 years earlier I was handed an original Rubik's Cube and given the task of figuring it out.  Most of my friends had them, and most of them could get one or two sides solid then give up, deciding that playing on the playground or a pickup football game was more interesting.   Not me--I obsessed until it was finished.   I solved it a couple of times before I decided to study other people's solution books.  The next challenge would be to see how fast I could complete it.

I remember like it was yesterday, one Saturday morning at my bowling league, solving the cube while my teammates timed me.  One minute 10 seconds... I can do better.  55 Seconds.  One more try.  39 secs.  Looking back, I can't believe my hands moved that fast.  Unfortunately, my cube had gotten soft and routinely it would explode, throwing small square chunks of plastic all over the lanes and sending young children scurrying to find them. 

This was the moment Justin walked by, "No one can solve that".   Justin had a hook, and led the league with an average around 200.  The gauntlet was thrown, how could I respond? "Wanna bet?"  The question came from somewhere buried deep.  "Yeah sure, 50 cents says you can't do it," Justin responds.  My fingers fly into action - colors whirling, one side down.  Now all the corners finished.  Filling in the top and bottom.  Now the Rubik's maneuver.  Wait!  Arggh!  I had put the broken puzzle together with one piece inverted.  I couldn't convince Justin that a single piece couldn't be flipped by anything other than taking it apart and physically flipping it.

I lost the bet, but learned a great lesson about preparation.  It still amazes me that people think the Rubik's Cube is some great mystery and that you must be an astro physicist to solve it like Neil Degrasse Tyson on Jon Stewart's show.   I still have one kicking around the house and will bring it out to dazzle friends.  I can no longer solve it in less than a minute, and no one takes my bets.