A Few Quick Notes 163

-Though I haven't really been outside all that much today, it doesn't seem as though it has been a particularly cold or aggressive day. Unfortunately, the skies again overcast, continuing the trend.

-I think that I must now be 8/36 for this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. I will need to pick up my game if I want to keep well ahead of the standard 9 to 1 win ratio.

-The Globe and Mail seems to have about two levels of Sudokus, the easy ones and the hard ones. Instead of switching these levels up from day to day, they seem to only change difficulty levels once every month or so.

This means that for about a month I think that I am doing quite well, so well that there isn't really much point in me continuing to try to complete these puzzles as they seem to complete themselves. Just as I start to think this, they change and I am not able to complete any.

After about a month of not being able to complete any of the puzzles I start to wonder why I am even trying as no matter how hard I try I don't make any substantial progress. Just as I start to think this they get easier, causing me to think that I have improved, and I continue to attempt them, and the cycle keeps on going.

-I really meant to bake some bread today, maybe that will have to happen tomorrow. If it doesn't happen in the next day or two I will have to toss my milk and start again.

Google USPC 2007

In just less than 30 minutes I'm going to be writing the annual United States Puzzle Competition, sponsored by Google. The top finishers are invited to compete for the US at the World Puzzle Competition, this year to be held in Rio de Janiero. The competition also serves as the Canadian qualifier.

The competition consists of about 20 questions of varying point values, to be completed over the course of 2.5 hours. It is thought to be unlikely for anyone to complete all the puzzles in the alloted time. The puzzles vary in format from sudoku-esque puzzles to puzzles like you might find in a kiddie puzzle book, namely the puzzle asking you to find the 10 differences between the two pictures.

I first heard about this competition through slashdot just over 3 years ago. This is my third time writing. Last year I came 19th in Canada, which put me in about the 90th percentile of competition writers, although I wouldn't quote me on that. I'm hoping to do better this year, but I'm not expecting to. The results will come out on or about the 20th of June.