So Olof started playing sudoku several weeks ago but, being one to sneer disdainfully at all things “trendy,” I resisted. Even though a pastime of Puzzles! Numbers! Logic! is right up my alley, I held out, not wanting to jump off the same bridge as everybody else. I fought the good fight until last week, when Olof unpacked the sudoku board game I bought him for his birthday. Though it was ostensibly he and Lydia who were playing, it didn’t take long before I kibbitzed my way right into the game and was hooked. I moved quickly to Olof’s puzzle books and then to playing online. I’ve stayed up past my bedtime for the last several days straight, playing “just one more.” <\/p>\n
I have to admit that I’m surprised I haven’t given up on it yet, because the thing is, I’m not very good. Though I was a Mathcounts “mathlete” back in the day, was just a point or two shy of making a perfect grade in my college logic course, and scored 780 on the analytical section of the GRE (whew! I’ve been trying for years to work that tidbit into a blog entry), sudoku mastery eludes me. I’ve been playing on WebSudoku<\/a>, and it keeps track of your time and tells you how you rate compared to other players. Only twice–twice<\/i>–in at least a hundred games have I gotten an above-average time, and those were in the 54th and 52nd percentile. Most often I finish in the the lower twenty-to-thirty percent. <\/p>\n Generally speaking, I don’t like to spend my time doing things I’m not good at, and by “good,” I mean “excellent.” It’s one of my bigger character flaws, I know, and I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot of fun and plenty of rewarding experiences because of it, but I can’t seem to help myself. The sudoku business is a whole ‘nother story, though; it’s taken the wind right out of my over-achiever’s sails. I play and I play and I play some more, setting my sights on a middle-of-the-road result. I hardly know what’s come over me, and I’m not sure I like it. <\/p>\n I’ll never make the honor roll at this rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So Olof started playing sudoku several weeks ago but, being one to sneer disdainfully at all things “trendy,” I resisted. Even though a pastime of Puzzles! Numbers! Logic! is right up my alley, I held out, not wanting to jump off the same bridge as everybody else. I fought the good fight until last week,… Read More Aiming for Average<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}