Leyan's Blog

tumblr

2008-09-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

I really suck at blogging. As such, I have decided to start a new one :-D
leyanlo.tumblr.com

Hand washing

2008-08-24T02:09:00.001-07:00

I started washing my hands like Tyson does, to reduce puddles of water around the faucet handles. I now wring out my hands before shutting off the water instead of after. Keeps the sink area tidy :-)

Cashflow Quadrant

2008-08-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom, by Robert Kiyosaki. It was an interesting read about breaking down income into four quadrants:

Employee: These people work hard all their lives for a salary, while the government takes a huge chunk of their income through taxes. The majority of people generate most of their income from this quadrant.
Self-employment: These people also work hard, and the government still takes their money.
Business owner: You hire smart people to work for you and you earn passive income that is taxed at a lower rate.
Investor: Your money generates more money, which is also taxed at lower rates.

He goes on to claim that the "poor" people generally generate 80% of their income from the left side of the cashflow quadrant, the E and S side, and are therefore taxed heavily on what little they make. The "rich" people generate only 30% of their income on the E and S side, depending on the B and I side to generate most of their income.

In the book are a few interesting points. Towards the beginning, he tells the story of a small village with a water problem. To solve this problem once and for all, the village elders decided to put out to bid the contract to have water delivered to the village on a daily basis. Two men won the contract, but they had very different solutions to the problem.Here are two men's solutions to the same problem:
http://getmotivation.com/prosperity/wealth-pipline-Robert-Kiyosaki.htm

He also emphasizes the importance of the system, rather than the product. It doesn't matter what product you're selling, only that you have a good system behind it. Billions of people can cook a better hamburger than McDonalds, but only McDonalds can set up a system to serve hamburgers to billions of people.

Towards the end of the book, he makes the analogy that money is a drug. Most people go to work, and then they get paid. When they have money, they are happy, and when they lose money, they get angry. Just like any other addiction, this is one we need to get off of in order to become truly free. Focus on having your money or businesses generate money for you, instead of working yourself to death for money.

Partial corner orient

2008-08-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

Figured out how to use partial corner orientation algs. I think this is what Chris Krueger was trying to teach me in Atlanta before we left, but didn't make sense to me until just now when I hit this case.

Corner edge parity case:
(UBR FDL) (UR LD)

Solution
Setup: L' F
Partial corner orient: R' D' R D R' D' R
Permute (J perm): R U2 R' U' R U2 L' U R' U' L
Undo partial corner orient: R' D R D' R' D R
Undo setup: F' L

-edit-
Alternatively, I could have just did a L' F B setup...

Frustration

2008-08-01T10:46:00.001-07:00

http://xkcd.com/457/
Reminds me of that one time...

I can totally solve that!
http://www.lefthandedtoons.com/280/

One more!
http://hail-nekoyasha.deviantart.com/art/Rubix-Rubes-69052244

Twitter

2008-07-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

I tried Twitter for a day. I didn't like it. Perhaps I'm being too harsh for only trying it for a day, but I feel that not enough people are using it for it to be useful to me. For now, I think I will try playing with facebook status updates instead.

Playing for Keeps / Mental gymnastics: Lots of action, little money for three locals

2008-07-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is from a while ago but I figure I'd post it here anyway. I was featured in the SF Chronicle last month. Sadly I no longer hold the title of US Champion, nor am I 24 years old. Publicity is publicity, though:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/22/CMJI10QHD3.DTL&hw=leyan&sn=001&sc=1000

US Nationals 2008

2008-07-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

ABC just did a couple videos on the US Nationals. They filmed me doing a 9 second solve!
http://www.wsbtv.com/video/16943423/index.html

And here's some more general coverage of the event. Watch me compete one handed:
http://www.wsbtv.com/video/16943472/index.html

Gas Pumping Secrets From a Physics Whiz

2008-07-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Read this article today:
http://www.bankaholic.com/413/gas-pumping-secrets/

Key points:

Don’t Hold the Trigger of the Gas Pump Handle All The Way Down
Pump Your Gas When It’s Cold
Don’t Fill Up When the Gas Truck Is Delivering Gas to the Station

I knew about the second one, because a 10K temperature difference at 300K means a 3% difference in amount of gas. Didn't know about the first or last points, though. Gonna try holding the trigger on the pump myself next time!

US Nationals 2008

2008-07-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

Didn't end up doing so well at the US Nationals.

Placed 7th in 3x3 speedsolve with a final round average of 15.00s
Placed 19th in 4x4 speedsolve with a first round average of 1:23.92
Placed 36th in 2x2 speedsolve with a final round average of 9.00s
Placed 7th in 3x3 blindfolded solve with a final round time of 1:34.56
Placed 21st in 3x3 one handed solve with a first round average of 33.08

I did really well in the 3x3 speedsolve first round with an average of 13.79s. Kinda wish I saved up all my fast for the finals, though. The 2:24.78 time for 4x4 was because of an ugly pop where like I had to reassemble like 8 pieces that fell out. I suck at 2x2. The second DNF in blindfolded would have been like a 1:18 if I didn't suck.

I'm gonna learn how to solve with cross on bottom and also learn commutators for blindfolded for the next competition. Also, I think I'll try competing sitting down because that's what all the fast people do nowadays.

Full results here:
http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/c.php?allResults=All+Results&competitionId=USOpen2008

Atlanta

2008-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Did you know that in Georgia, Connecticut and Indiana it is illegal to sell alcohol on Sunday? Apparently Sunday is Jesus's day. Yay for separation of church and state...

Solución  para  principiantes  al  cubo  de  Rubik

2008-07-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

Francisco Calzado uploaded a Spanish translation of my Rubik's Cube Solution for Beginners here. His original blog post is here. I have to say his version of the guide looks prettier than mine, though :-P Good work!

UCSD Summer 2008

2008-07-13T01:32:00.000-07:00

Competition results page

Set a new personal best for blindfolded solve in competition today at 1:20.38. Didn't do so well in speedsolve because my eye was irritated and had to get rid of my right contact lens, leaving me essentially blind in one eye. It was hilarious during the finals because half of my times were awesome. Alternating times of 19, 12, 19, 12 were crazy. The last solve should have been a lot better, but my lack of depth perception caused me to miss hitting the timer :-P Ah well. This was a good practice competition for next week, and I will try to practice this coming week to get back into shape for US Nationals.

typeracer

2008-07-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Tyson showed me this site the other day:
http://play.typeracer.com/

I think it's a wonderful way to improve your typing skills. Racing others is a lot more motivating than just doing typing tests, and it's also more fun!

New blog

2008-07-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

A few reasons why I'm switching over to blogger when I said I wouldn't:

When I was in China, I noticed that WordPress was blocked, but Blogger was not. This pissed me off.
Blogger now has embedded comments!
It's linked with my gmail account, which is nice :-)

Leyan's Blog

tumblr

Hand washing

Cashflow Quadrant

Partial corner orient

Frustration

Twitter

Playing for Keeps / Mental gymnastics: Lots of action, little money for three locals

US Nationals 2008

Gas Pumping Secrets From a Physics Whiz

US Nationals 2008

Atlanta

Solución para principiantes al cubo de Rubik

UCSD Summer 2008

typeracer

New blog

Solución  para  principiantes  al  cubo  de  Rubik