Sudoku

It just became a craze no matter how many times I try to look back on it. I remember tilting my head in confusion when I saw my older sister or my mother tackling a puzzle. The 9x9 grid printed on the pages of that book baffled me the first few times I cared to look at it. I didn't understand what the objective of that was, and just stuck to the Fill-Ins my grandmother would so often urge me to do.

One afternoon, my mother came into my room and sat down on the bed beside me and was doing a Sudoku puzzle and later on, started telling me what was needed to be done. The rule was simple enough; fill in the blank cells with the numbers 1-9 with a number not repeating in each column, row or 3x3 grid. That was when a bit of logic was required.

I guess I picked up on it when I managed to successfully help my mother solve that puzzle and asked if I could do one on my own. That piqued my interest to an extent that I eventually began spolving numerous puzzles in the span of an hour or two.

It was addicting, if one came to really think about it in that manner. The accomplishment of besting the puzzle by logically finding the exact place where a particular number was to be placed heightened as the puzzles got more difficult.

When my grandfather was sending things back home via balikbayan box, I would always ask him to find my some Sudoku books to work on, and without fail, he delivered. I've found myself completing so many Sudoku puzzles because of the many books he's managed to send over.

The leisure time spent in solving a puzzle was one of the things I would turn to when there wasn't anything else to pass the time with. At times, I would challenge myself by solving more advanced Sudoku puzzles the likes of Samurai Sudoku, with 5 intertwined Sudoku puzzles and the rules still apply for each 9x9 grid.

Just thinking about it is making me want to do one right now. And I will. See you all for another blog entry another time.