WPC instructions are up now - rather early actually which is nice - and this year looks to be pretty tough. The long rounds are longer than I've experienced (2x2h - although bulgaria was worse with 4x90min I guess), and there are rounds that specifically have "false numbers" +/-1 for the actual clues and letters replacing numbers for clues. Those ( Read more... )

While I've been reading about product downsizing in the news for awhile, yesterday was the first day it hit me at the local Safeway. For my whole life, I've maintained that an 8 oz. serving of yogurt is the desired size and avoided brands like Yoplait which only give 6 (or even 4) oz. choices. Well, my Safeway generic brand yogurt is no longer ( Read more... )

If I was able to, I'd be counting down the days until the USPC (7? 9?). But I'm behind on blog updates so I figured I'd talk about the last puzzle event I participated in, about three weekends ago. Justin Graham was a no go this time, so our team was Charlie Graham, Nick Baxter, and a capable substitute in Derek Kisman. In lab coats and ( Read more... )

So I always have a busy week after returning from a world puzzle/sudoku championship - catching up on work, mail (snail and electronic), DVRed shows, .... After sudoku events, there is often a bunch of interviews. This year, I chose to give a sudoku lecture to the BioEngineering students - an even more fleshed out form of my "Art of Sudoku" talk ( Read more... )

This weekend marked my official entry into the Bay Area puzzle scene as I competed in my first game with the Five Blind Boys, a team with some friends I met during the National Treasure Clue Hunt several months ago. By adding on me and nickbaxter for this Game, a strong team had seemingly gotten stronger. While they don't really count records in these ( Read more... )

I participated in Lost: The Game on Stanford's campus this weekend, a puzzle hunt designed by some Stanford students. It was my first experience captaining a team and while my friends were not terribly experienced with puzzle-solving, we did rather well IMO finishing all the puzzles and the meta before the event ended. There was a very close call ( Read more... )

I was reading through many of my old blog entries last night, in part because I had recently marked another year in my life and in part because I was curious to read my first entry on Battleship Sudoku which has indeed held up for its age. Peanut butter and chocolate indeed ( Read more... )

Before I start the new year, I should write-up an account of a puzzle event that closed out the last year: The National Treasure: Book of Secrets Clue Hunt.

( Read more... )