oldbloke's mutterings

I'm embarrassed.
It was only today that I realised that the fact that sum(1..9)=45 is a key part of solving Killer Sudoku.
All those backs of envelopes I could have saved...

All OK. Nearly stuffed up the killer, but was able to back out my erroneous deduction.
Didn't fancy the prize in the Indy do didn't get it, so no hex.
Having done the hex 1st time 3 times in a row last month, and I'm now typically getting killers 1st time, and have got my brain round the logic needed for Futoshiki, there's not going to be much to say about them in future, so I shall stop these reports now.

yummo jummo!

I note that I didn't mention the sudoku last week. Well, they weren't in any way memorable, barring the fact that I got through the Indy hex 1st time for the 3rd week in a row.
This last weekend's proved more troublesome, but in my defence I was ill (more later, maybe). The killer took me two goes - the first time I ended up with a valid grid, but the last two blocks I filled didn't add up to what they should have (and therefore I suspect some of the others disn't either).
I've had two goes at the Indy hex and managed to stuff up both times. Not sure I can be arsed to try again. I probably will though.

On the phone to my dear ole ma last night, I was informed we were first in our street to have a telly (OK there were only 12 houses, but hey). Also, she's never had chilli, curry, or pasta. Or, in all probability, though it wasn't actually discussed, Chinese. Neither had I until I left home to go to Uni, but that was 34 years ago. My dad was very conservative in his food tastes - they had a pretty rigid 7 day menu, repeated endlessly, more or less. But you'd think at some point she'd at least have had a taste of somebody else's more exotic food, just to see. She asked me a fortnight ago what pasta tastes of, and, um, well, it doesn't, really, does it? Might have to try to fix some of these omissions sometime, somehow. My chilli last night seemed to lack something, but a little taste late in the evening when divvying up the portions for the freezer showed it was mainly time that had been left out.

Victoria Coren appealed for people to suggest a poker nickname she could use in an upcoming tournament, as obv you can't choose your own. Some suggestions on thehendonmob forum were, ahem, robust. She eventually went with "teacup" - a ref to her success at the London EPT being perhaps in part due to her friends taking her wine away and replacing it with tea. She did mention (in Teh Graun) a few of the other suggestions, one being mine: Coren The Barbarian.

And now I have a meeting to go to...

The weekend sudoku were all pretty simple. Got through the Indy hex 1st time, that's 2 in a row, huzzah etc. The Graun killer wasn't exactly challenging. The futoshiki was accurately rated Easy.

I suppose I'm last in the world to have spotted, hanging on the wall in the cellar in A Grand Day Out, the sledge inscribed with the name Rosebud?

Finally got to see StarWarsIII, thanks to our temporary free SkyWorld pack.

We have a bit more space in the garage now, as the shattered remains of the old bath went to the tip (with a load of cardboard waste, a lot of recycling, and a couple of other items), and I freecycled away my old enlarger and associated kit. Ought to see about selling the Canon now, I suppose.

I really really need a smaller dish to cook lasagne in.

Finally, a hex done 1st pass!
The futoshiki wasn't hard, but it takes me a couple of minutes to get my head into futoshiki mode
Needed two goes at the killer.

Graun hard no prob; futoshiki easy; killer quite pleasant.
Indy hex... took me 4 goes, again! And it had nothing special in it, in the end. It's just that they're so BIG. I need to choose a strategy and stick to it through the whole grid instead of changing when I spot something easy. It's the half-done stuff that leads you to make incorrect inferences later when you forget it was only half done...

All very straightforward this week - the Graun killer could be used as a soft intro to the type for beginners.
Except - the Indy hex. Stuffed it up 3 times. There's just so much opportunity for a slip of the pencil.

Graun hard nothing special, as per.
Graun killer didn't need too much back-of-envelope this week, quite pleasant.
Took 3 goes at the Indy hex, tsk, stupid mistakes each time.
Seem to have forgotten to do the futoshiki...

This bit has been elsewhere on LJ recently:
Soem time ago there was a sudoku in the Graun I couldn't do.
Had another look at it last week. At the point I got stuck, there was a cell with only two candidates, so I made two copies and worked through each possibility. Both lead to "solutions". Not unique. Tsk.

Just got a -10 on the crazy golf.

The Graun hard and futoshiki were nothing special. I needed 3 goes at the killer though. And I only finished the Boxing Day killer today, 4th attempt!
Anybody done the Indy hex? I've gone wrong on it 4 times, and L has at least twice as well. Beginning to wonder if the supplied grid is correct!

Edit: Done it, finally. The year couldn't end until I had, so think yourselves lucky.

All a bit easy today, though I did do a silly in the hex so needed 2 runs at it. The killer was ridiculously easy.
On the other hand, I took 5 goes to get Thursday's done! Everybody else just did it forst go, I just had some mental block at some point in it.