SAANICH -- No matter where he’s going, not matter what else he’s doing, Josiah is considering his Rubik’s Cube.

“I’m having a good time,” the Grade 12 student smiles. “I’m not thinking about much else than solving.”

He’s been considering how things work since he was a baby, his mom says, before showing me a picture of Josiah playing with blocks.

“He was a big thinker,” Alvira smiles. “Always trying to do [things].”

He still does. The now 17-year-old high-achiever challenges himself to be the best intellectually, physically and creatively.

“Everything he does he just gives ‘er,” Alvira smiles.

This includes his ever-present puzzle.

“There’s always that clicking sound of the cube moving,” Alvira says. “Always!”

The cube’s been a constant since Josiah solved his first puzzle at age seven, which took him 26 minutes.

“I really like the way that when I solve the cube, it goes from chaos to order,” he says.

When he’s not photographing cubes in unexpected places (beaches, forests, basketball hoops), Josiah is practising with it, up to eight hours a day. He’s even memorized algorithms for the puzzle, which has helped him solve it in an average time of less than 13 seconds.

“It’s just really fun to get better at something,” he smiles. “Especially speed-cubing, where the improvement never stops.”

In the fall, Josiah realized he’d improved beyond the best.

“I thought, I might as well put that towards something quantifiable,” he explains “Like a Guinness World Record.”

So, Josiah did what you have to do to make a cube contest official, but with a twist, which threw his mom for a loop.

“I thought, 'What in the world is this? Hula-hooping and cubing?'” Alvira laughs. “I thought it was kind of funny but he’s actually really good.”

Josiah is set to celebrate his 18th birthday on Saturday with an attempt to break the record for most Rubik’s Cubes solved while hula-hooping. He needs to beat 200.

“My record at home is 331,” he says, before smiling. “It took me over two hours, and then I had to stop for dinner.

But there’s more. The next day Josiah is going to try to set another new record — fastest time to solve a Rubik’s Cube while hula hooping.

“[The record’s] currently 12.2 seconds,” he says. “I’m averaging 12.8, so that should be pretty easy.”

So easy, Josiah is following it up with a third attempt – most Rubik’s Cubes solved with one hand while hula-hooping.

“It’s so much fun for me,” Josiah smiles, expecting to beat the record of 101. “I’m happy to do it for as long as I can.”

Alvira will be rooting him on, feeling most proud — not for his attempts — but his intention to inspire others.

“(I’m excited) for the people around me to see a normal person can break a world record!” says Josiah.