I’m still here. Work travel, family vacation, the kids back in school, and soccer season starting. All of a sudden a month passes….

As I get back into the swing of things, I wanted to make this quick video showcasing my new custom cubing mat and previewing a few projects and tutorials queued up for the next few weeks:

As described in the video, the mat design is a simple “segment” from the denser cube patent composite poster I had made last year. The centerpiece is the main US patent issued to Erno Rubik in 1983, based, as it were, on his 1978 Hungarian patent. I set it up on graph paper to make it seem like an engineer’s sketch, laid it out on a bias, and did a full-bleed to make it more modern. After some debate, I decided to make the background gray, rather than black. The reduced contrast would make it less distracting as a background for videos, I figured.

I ordered the 14″ x 24″ mat from Inked Playmats for $24. Their service was great, and the mat arrived three days after I updloaded the art. The quality matches a standard mousepad, but is much thinner (at about 1/16″). I’d definitely recommend the Inked Playmats.