Personal Entry - 8

I love Sudoku. It is lots of fun for me. I actually use it as a way to relax and get my brain to "turn off" before going to bed. I have been using the Frank Longo Martial Arts series of books. I started about 4 years ago and have casually worked my way up to Black Belt. By the end of that book I was averaging about 5 min per puzzle. I was spectacularly pleased with myself because here was something that I could mentally best AoD at.

I went down to my local Barnes & Noble to purchase a new Sudoku book when I noticed the Second Degree Black Belt version of the Frank Longo Sudoku books. I naturally assumed that this would be the same type of puzzles, and that second degree meant volume 2 and wasn't referencing degree of difficulty. Boy was I wrong. I started about 8 of the puzzles and it was about a week before I finally solved 1 of them. It is not beyond the realm of possibility now for me to sit in bed for a half hour just working on one puzzle. I am going on week 4 now and I have successfully completed 5 puzzles out of 15 started. My best record to date has been 15 min to solve one puzzle. If anybody knows any short cuts I would love to hear them.

[Author's note: This is a very long post (for me at least, but not necessarily Mr. Elbows). I have been working on this for the last six months, reworking things here and there. Frankly, a few points in this post are quite preachy. I don't know how else to say those things, but since the movie Watchmen is coming out tomorrow, I guess we are just going to have to live with it. Apologies to any I might offend. This is meant as my opinion and not an attack on something you love/admire. Writing this has been an arduous experience for me. While I know most who read this won't be judging my writing style, but the content and opinion I share, I still wanted this to come out as perfect as possible. I have not achieved that to my satisfaction. Please look beyond that in your judgment. Special thanks to my friend Melissa for editing assistance (on all but the last paragraph - if I did something wrong in that, it's my fault) and AoD for formatting assistance as well as for providing me a digital copy of the graphic novel to read.]

[Edit: There is a fantastic blog post here at blog.joeysmith.com that takes another point of view on this issue. I recommend it to everyone.] Continue reading "The Watchmen: Novel or just Graphic?"

Ok, so I have a friend who works for the state of Utah as part of the anti-smoking group (yes, I am sure that they have a name, but I don't know what it is). Anyway, the state is looking to cut all of their funding. So not only would there not be much of a program left in the state to encourage teens and adults not to smoke, but my friend would lose her job.

While I personally am ok with the stupid people of the world finding whatever means is necessary snuff themselves out a little sooner than normal, I am not ok with my friend losing her job. She works very hard and I believe that she does help the cause of the anti-smoking initiative.

So whether you feel strongly about ensuring that funding continue for this program or you would like to join me in helping my friend not lose her job, please fill out this petition. Thanks