Rubik's Cube

The other day I had my nose in my book on my commute into work and was distracted by a conversation across from me.  A young gentleman was trying to teach the woman next to him how to solve the rubik's cube he was playing with.  I came into the conversation half way in but the gist of it was that there was a pattern to follow.  To move the edge piece and move it over, you follow the algorithm, left, up, right, down - or something like that.

I was very tempted to ask the guy if he'd be up to teaching me.  Having grown up in the 80s, I was given my very own rubik's cube.  I love puzzles, but don't know if I was too young, too impatient, or what.  In the end, I got the puzzle solved, by moving the stickers.  So, to put it succinctly, I have some unfinished business.

Now that I'm older, wiser, and have access to the internet, I've picked my new year's resolution - learn how to solve a rubik's cube.... finally.  Tomorrow, morning I'll run down to the local toy store and pick up a brand new rubik's cube (the old one just wasn't the same after my "solution" - apparently, once you move the stickers, they just start falling off).

Reading through some of the tutorials, while starting on a new cabled cardigan project, I realize the similarities of learning patterns - remembering long strings of code (i.e. K6 K1TBL P2 RT2 LT2 P2 is the beginning of the row I'm about to knit).  How much different can the algorithms for the rubik's cube be?  Plus, it's not about rote memorization (which I'm miserable at), it's about understanding the code and being able to read what you're working at.  Here's hoping I'll be able to read the cube as well as I can a knitted object!