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I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below. |
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  . -- I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020. Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it. I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful. |
| After a couple of months in lock-down due to the pandemic, I decided to return to Sudoku puzzles. A few years before I retired I was solving a lot of them. Whenever I try something new, I try to find guidance so I can be as proficient as possible. One useful tool is the Simple Sudoku program that only works on the Windows platform. I use this to enter puzzles from books. I use the “Print Plain” option to print them large enough for me to work with. When I make errors while solving, I can identify them, use my eraser, then continue solving from that point. If I get stuck, I can use the “Print With Candidates” option and work from that to finish solving. The program does have a button which provides hints. These are often more cryptic than helpful. I read plenty of books and watched quite a few videos, seeking tips for solving Sudoku puzzles. A lot of what’s available is somewhat helpful but mostly confusing. In my search for better solving strategies, I discovered Chad Barker, the Sudoku Professor. He has a unique and very useful approach to solving Sudoku puzzles. Nothing compares to Chad’s videos for ease of understanding, simplicity and effectiveness. His explanations are clear and methodical. In every lesson, he covers the entire puzzle and explains each step of his thought process. He provides PDFs of the puzzles he uses for each lesson so you can print it and follow along. In many of the lessons, he also provides an exercise puzzle and video reviewing the exercise. The only downside to his method is that it won’t work on any electronic version of Sudoku; it has to be pencil and paper. It is not enough to just watch the videos to gain real skill. Practice is essential and he recommends puzzles that have been published in books or newspapers. Nevertheless, I have found the puzzles freely available at KrazyDad.com to be very good. After extended periods away from Sudoku, I’m finding it very worthwhile to review the videos. Watching them, even for a third or fourth time, I noticed very helpful tips I’d forgotten. When I first purchased his lessons, there were four levels: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. If you want to solve easy to intermediate puzzles, you’d probably find the Sudoku Essentials and the Bachelor level to be more than sufficient. If you’re really into Sudoku, his higher level courses are worth the investment. The Bachelor level is what corresponds to the four lesson levels I originally purchased. The new levels are:  Master’s Prep Master’s Doctorate Mistake EliminatorIn order to do this review, I signed up with a different email. As soon as I did, a web page appeared with two videos that together provide the first of four free lessons. The first free lesson is available immediately after signing up. It covers the “1 through 9 technique”. It’s often the only way to get enough information to make progress on a medium or intermediate puzzle. The second free lesson continues the “1 through 9 technique” and explains the power of two of his pencil-marking techniques. He gives different labels to some number patterns which are more descriptive and explains how identifying them hlelps you solve other cells in the row, column or box. In this lesson he covers the “double-double” which most Sudoku books refer to as a “naked pair”. In the third free lesson, he covers the next step which involves looking at what is missing in rows or columns with fewer than 5 empty spaces. This is covered in later lessons as the “Think Outside the Box” technique. He also reinforces the pencil-marking techniques. The fourth (and final) free lesson highlights the problems with some other solving techniques, especially what Chad calls the "Brute Force" technique where you start by identifying and pencil-marking all the possible candidates for each empty cell. There are a few problems with this: It is tedious, killing any real chance of enjoying the game. It hides, rather than highlights, useful information. Errors are very likely. It provides little help for easy puzzles and is useless for harder ones.When you click the button at the bottom of this last lesson, you see that the Bachelor level course is 50% off for three days, a typical marketing gimmick. Even 50% off is still $97. You have to be pretty committed to Sudoku to pay that much. I paid $70 for what is now the Bachelor course about six years ago and found it worthwhile since I was doing a lot of easy to medium level Sudoku. You may not do as many but perhaps you want to solve much harder ones. If so, you won't find any better help anywhere else. Check out these resources Sudoku Professor: Sign up for free lessons Get 4 lessons free Courses and cost {x-link:https://www.sudokuprofessor.com/products/}Sudoku Curriculum}Simple Sudoku Download program created by Angus Johnson Simple Sudoku Guide Angus Johnson’s Guide to solving Sudoku Places to get puzzles KrazyDad Sudoku puzzles Astraware app and puzzles Other Sudoku Forum |
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Yes, I know some people do that but I'm a creative writer not a journalist. Poetry sells ... but it's a money-maker for only a few. I write A LOT. Almost 180 pieces since Spring equinox. My goal is 300-400 per year. One year I went over 1,000. I need to do more editing, polishing, sharing, submitting. Writer's block? Who has time for that? I don't.