Surrounded by Rubik’s Cubes of every possible dimension cubes, spheres, flats, UFOs and even one of Star War’s Darth Maul Jameson O’Connor looks like an overgrown kid in his stocking feet surrounded by his favorite toys.

But the 20-year-old asserts seriously that these are not toys.

For most people, flipping the sides of the mechanical puzzles is a diversion or a pastime, but to O’Connor, it’s math, it’s a conundrum and most of all it stimulates the mind.

“Many people think Rubik’s Cube is a toy but it’s not,” said O’Connor, who’s known as the Rubik’s Guy around Anacortes. “It’s a brain exercise because there’s no way you can do it without getting smarter.”

In fact, the cube was created by Hungarian professor Erno Rubik in 1974 to explain three-dimensional geometry to his students, according to http://www.rubiks.com.

O’Connor, a former Anacortes High School math team member, said solving the puzzle takes a high-level thought process. Just the number of ways a standard 3x3x3 cube can be scrambled is astounding 43,252,003,274,489,856,000.

“That’s how many ways a cube can be handed to you,” he said of the quintillions of possibilities.

But there’s only one solution.

O’Connor can reach that solution most days in under 20 seconds, though his fastest unofficial time was 13.5 seconds. The current world record is 7.08 seconds set by Erik Akkersdijk of the Netherlands in 2008.

There is no way to get to the solution by memorizing the different combinations, O’Connor said, so the key is knowing algorithms.

“An algorithm is a sequence of turns that get you from where you are to the next step in the solution,” O’Connor said.

Mathematically speaking, an algorithm is a process or set of rules used to solve a problem in a limited number of steps.

“It doesn’t get you from the mixed cube to the solved cube,” O’Connor pointed out. “You need several algorithms to solve it.”

And programming those algorithms into his fingers is part of the solution, he said. That way O’Connor can keep his mind free while he plans his next move. He compared it to playing the piano with muscle memory.

“It’s all about looking ahead,” he said.

O’Connor caught on to the Rubik’s bug while a freshman at AHS in 2003. At 13, he was bored and just sitting around watching videos on the Internet when he came across one of Dan Knights setting the record for the then fastest average Rubik’s Cube solve 20 seconds.

“(Before that) I knew what they were, but I was never really interested in them,” he said.

Soon after, O’Connor bought his first cube for $18.

“It was completely overpriced but I wanted one,” he said.

It took him two weeks to solve it the first time and two months to memorize the solution. After that, he could solve it in just over two minutes.

Today, O’Connor’s best average time out of five rounds is 22.45 seconds recorded at a competition in San Francisco in January. The world’s fastest average time is 10.63 seconds done by Tomasz Zolnowski of Poland at the Warsaw Open 2009, one of several Rubik’s Cube competitions held around the world and governed by the World Cube Association.

It’s where “several hundred people get together to compete against each other and their best time,” O’Connor said.

Basic contests pit cuber against cuber solving the standard 3x3x3 cube as well as the varying sizes and forms of the puzzle, including the Rubik’s Clock, Pyraminx and Rubik’s Magic, a puzzle made up of eight flat squares that twist and turn to connect or disconnect images of three rings or, in the case of one of O’Connor’s, with an image of Homer Simpson.

Other competitions have participants solving the cube blindfolded, with just one hand and even using only their feet.

Next week O’Connor heads to Stanford University for the Rubik’s Cube US Nationals 2009. Though he has participated in several competitions in the past, this will be his first time competing while blindfolded.

To do so, O’Connor said he memorizes where the colors are on the cube that’s handed to him before he’s blindfolded by assigning letters to each square. With those letters, he makes up a story to help him remember the positions and solve the cube.

“They say, if you can remember a couple phone numbers, you can solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded,” O’Connor said.

Going beyond collecting and competing with cubes, O’Connor based his senior project on group theory using the Rubik’s Cube. He’s also been featured in a music video along with world-renowned cubers from Idaho and Seattle. The video of Celene “Leeni” Ramadan singing “Never Afraid” has the three cubers scrambling and unscrambling specially designed cubes with images of demons, hearts and general destruction.

“Just random things to match the words of the song,” O’Connor said.

Not new to the spotlight, O’Connor performed in three high school talent shows, dancing in the style of Napoleon Dynamite while solving the cube and emceeing the last show. More recently, he’s performed at the Upfront Theater in Bellingham, an improve comedy club owned by Ryan Stiles of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” fame.

“I’m going to be an actor,” O’Connor states with conviction. “My goal in life or one of my many goals in life is to meet Jim Carrey and co-star in a movie with him.”

Until that happens, O’Connor will keep his cube collection going, searching out eBay, Craigslist and local thrift stores (though that outlet has dried up lately due to restrictions on reselling toys that may have lead paint) for all forms of Rubik’s Cubes and their spinoffs.

So far, he’s collected nearly 200 cubes in all shapes and sizes and even made one himself in wood shop class. He has about 40 of the original 3x3x3 cubes as well as cubes in every size up to 7x7x7. His collection also includes cubes with mirrors and cubes with images instead of colors, board games and instructional books.

“I like the different challenge each different puzzle brings,” O’Connor said. “It’s amazing I can have this information in my brain. I can just pick up a cube and solve it.”

Rubik’s Cube facts

A standard 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube has six colored sides, 21 pieces and 54 outer surfaces.

There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations — and one solution.

1974 First “Magic Cube” working prototype created by Erno Rubik of Budapest, Hungary.

1977 First cube sold in a Budapest toy shop.

1980 Magic Cube renamed Rubik’s Cube by Ideal Toy Corporation.

1982 First Rubik’s championships held in Budapest.

2003 “Cubers,” a documentary by directors Richard LeBlanc and Walter Forsyth is released.

More than 300 million cubes sold so far.

The biggest cube, almost 10 feet tall and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, is in Knoxville, Tenn.

Current world record holder for the fastest single solve, 7.08 seconds, is Erik Akkersdijk of the Netherlands at the Czech Open 2008.

Current world record holder for the fastest average of five solves, 10.63 seconds, is Tomasz Zolnowski of Poland at the Warsaw Open 2009.

“God’s algorithm” is the formula for solving the cube in the fewest possible moves — estimated at 25.

Information compiled from http://www.rubiks.com.

See for yourself

Watch Anacortes cuber Jameson O’Connor in action by going to http://www.goskagit.com and http://www.youtube.com/rubiksguy.

Anyone wanting to sell a Rubik’s Cube of any form, even broken ones, are welcomed to contact O’Connor at .