Sudoku

Okay, it's really a love-hate thing, but I am trying to be positive about this falling-in-love challenge.

I have always loved puzzles, I guess.  Crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, cryptograms.  Brain-teasers?  Not so much.  But every morning, I manage two Sudokus, a crossword puzzle, and a cryptogram (the last being my favorite).  At my age, there is some pressure to keep the brain sharp, so I consider it exercise more than pleasure.  At least, that's how I justify all the time I "waste" on puzzles.

I find the puzzles in my morning newspapers.  Whereas contemporary wisdom likes to suggest that we nerds drool over the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle, I do not think Sunday is where the obsession is.  In case you are not a puzzler, here's how it works:  the level of difficulty increases from Monday to Saturday.  Sunday's puzzles are just bigger, not necessarily more difficult, at least as far as crossword puzzles go.

So Saturday is the day.  That's where you'll find the most challenging crossword puzzle.  But that is just a warm-up for MEGA SUDOKU!!

A regular, everyday Sudoku is a 9 X 9 grid, and my success rate with them is probably about 99%.  But Saturday's MEGA SUDOKU is a 16 X 16 grid, so it's a real challenge.  I am not kidding you when I tell you that I usually spend an entire day (on and off) trying to complete that puzzle.  And my success rate?  About 50%.  But that pathetic statistic just makes me want to try harder.  The problem is that you could make a mistake very early on and not even realize it until you think you've almost completed the grid.

Kind of like life, huh?

I did not succeed today.  Like I said, it's love-hate thing.  I will convince myself to love my failure and try again next Saturday.