Fall TV

Quick post on what we are watching:

First off, my favorite new show is Reaper, hands down. This show is very funny and what I like about it is that unlike in most shows where one character is there for comedy, in Reaper pretty much all of them are. And I guess it's just one of my guilty pleasures that I'm always drawn to slacker shows. Could it be...oh...maybe...because I'm a slacker?

Honorable mention goes to Big Bang Theory. I guess it's another truth that I am drawn to nerds. Could it be...oh...maybe...because I'm a nerd? But I do find myself laughing out loud at some of the lines in this show.

Chuck is a good show, not great. We still have a season pass for it and so long as we have the time to keep watching it, we'll keep recording it. But if we ever run low on TV time then I could see this getting cut.

The only other new show we added is Pushing Daisies, which we haven't watched yet. But the only reason I added it was because I couldn't remember which show about death was the funny one, when I was setting up the season passes. Turns out the show I wanted was Reaper, so I don't expect we'll keep this one. I haven't heard good things about it anyway.

Other than that, a lot of our favorite shows returned: Office, It's Always Sunny, How I Met Your Mother, and Biggest Loser to name a few. Yes, I like to watch Biggest Loser. I can't explain it. There is something innately impressive about what they accomplish. The guy that got voted off this week lost something like 130 pounds. On the contrary, I can't stand shows like Extreme Makeover, where not only do the people do very little themselves, but then they end up all looking the same (same nose, same teeth, same hairstyle, same boobs...).

Other than that, two of our other favorites are just finished up - Psych and Eureka. Look forward to those coming back.

I'm probably forgetting a few shows without the TV in front of me.

Sudoku-Masochism

I heart Sudoku. I got hooked on it back in 2004, and I bought book after book of sudoku and would do about 2 hours a day as Ash and I watched TV. After a while I started doing harder and harder puzzles.

When I moved to Columbus I often found myself bored at work, so I would take a 3x5 index card and draw lines on it to make a sudoku grid, then go to websudoku.com, pull up an Evil puzzle, and copy the starting numbers onto the index card. I would hunker over the index card on my desk and as someone would come up behind me, I would just slide it under my keyboard. The index card was folded in half so I could do two puzzles on one card, and also so I could put it in my pocket and take it with me places (yes, I took them to meetings and also the bathroom). Those evil puzzles would take somewhere between :30 and 1:00 to do, every now and then I could do one without pencil marks.

This latest book I bought is called The Ultimate Sudoku Challenge, subtitled "Warning: This book contains 200 of the toughest puzzles!" Riiiigghhhtt. Easy. But anyway at the end of the book are 10 "megasudokus", 25 by 25 grids with numbers. I started one and quickly realized I was in way over my head. Holy crap are they hard. Not only are they 25x25, but I think they are also a very hard level to boot.



The one on the left above (you should be able to click on it for a larger image), I have been working on for over a month, generally about an hour or so a day. They don't give you very much room on the page, so it's almost impossible to do pencil marks (especially since more than half of the numbers are two digits). Instead I look at possible numbers in each column, row, and box. Possible columns go at the top, rows to the right, boxes at the bottom of the page.

This is my fifth one and I was only able to finish the fourth. The first three I messed up so badly that I scrapped them. I since learned to look in the back before I place a number just to make sure it is right. I don't consider that cheating because the puzzles are just too hard not to. It saves me from screwing up the puzzle. I don't look at any other numbers and if I do, I don't place a number until I figured out why it goes there. I only look at the solution to make sure I'm right. Doesn't do any good if you screw up a number then 10 hours later realize it; it's not like you can just erase everything and start over.

I have gone 2-3 hour sessions without placing a single number. But I love it. I love a good challenge. Ash thinks I'm bonkers. I can't disagree.

If anyone wants to try their hand, let me know; I can try and scan in a grid and send you the image. But good frigging luck.