How I Created, Entered in, and Won My Own Sudoku Olympics!

Let's not kid ourselves; the Sudoku craze has taken over the planet. Everywhere you look (or at least everywhere I look) little kids and cute grandmas are penciling in their own set of mysteriously addictive squares.

Is it a one or a nine here? Does this box have a six? This can't be a seven? THIS CAN'T BE A SEVEN!!!

It's amazing the kind of joy those mystical numbers, 1 to 9, will bring you. How relieved we've all felt when we finally cracked that one hard to decipher box.

Anyway, you get my point: Sudoku is Life; Life is Sudoku!!!

For the past two weeks, in the absence of my Sudoku partner, I've made a pact with myself that I will become a better Sudoku player. I want to help my team become better, be better, Sudoku better (as you may already know, "Sudoku" has also become a verb; much like "TiVo").

As such, I have made myself (1) use a pen and (2) fill boxes out with ONE (and only one) guess for as long as possible before engaging in the ultimate game of "what can this box be" strategy.

After making this goal known to myself, it is with great pride and pleasure that I can finally boast about the photograph below.



Nothing special, you say? Well, look again! Notice all the ink marks made WITHOUT any erasures or multiple-numbered boxes! (all signs of Sudoku weakness!).

No! Not I. I am a Sudoku Olympian! I am a medalist in the Sudoku Olympic games of 2007 in Culver City's North Corner Adjacent Palms! YES, it is now officially on my resume!

I can finally be a better Sudoku partner!
I no longer have to mark up an empty box with "potential" numbers or "educated" guesses!
Free at last! Free at Last! Thank Sudoku almighty, I am free at last!!!