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.