Watching Lost...

...and still amazed at how it still surprises me. That and South Park are the only TV I watch anymore. It's evidence of fate that these two shows are on at the exact same time. Thank god for Tivo and the fact that South Park was a rerun.

I'm reading Flow by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi. It's an eye-opener, and talking about an experience of self that happens when I code, or write in a flush, or swim for an hour non-stop. It's amazing the amount of research that went into that book. I also have Chi Running on queue, and may start it at the same time.

I read an interesting post on The Simple Dollar. This guy claims to read 4 books a week. I'd be happy with two, especially if I get better comprehension out of it. However, one thing that rang true through the article was how much time I've been wasting. If he has enough time to dedicate at least 8 hours a week reading, I can at least dedicate as much to read 2 books at my own relaxing pace. It's at least better than wasting time with my console collection.

915 stars

I'm really close to the 1000 mark. Just finished Survival of the Sickest... a most intriguing book. I'll write a review tomorrow, along with the movie M, which I just rewatched tonight. More tomorrow.

777 stars...

and still climbing. If you're wondering which game, it's called Sudoku Gridmaster for the DS. I wouldn't recommend it; I just happen to like Sudoku a whole lot. I probably will get sick of all things Sudoku when I beat everything in this game. Part of the reason I'm playing through every puzzle is that I can only find cheat pages (really just unlockables) for this game. I cannot find a proper FAQ anywhere. I know there isn't that much to say about Sudoku (puzzle solving tips, perhaps), but no one seems to say what happens when you either a) get 1000 stars or b) solve every puzzle. I know solving every puzzle will do one thing: after solving the Platinum test (in 2:55 now, I'm getting embarrassingly good at it) it adds up your times for every puzzle and displays that time or 999h59m59s otherwise. Any unsolved puzzle is scored at 99h59m59s, so you won't see any difference unless you solve all but 9 puzzles at least. There are 193 puzzles remaining. One puzzle a day will take me until October 12th, and I'll probably finish before that, since I've owned the game less than 6 months and solved 211 puzzles in it which averages to >1 puzzle a day. Enough geekdom; getting ready for work.

Taxes and other boring tasks...

Did my taxes... thank god for automated tax programs. It saved me a lot of trouble, and a C-note to boot. I got a lot of stuff done this weekend: filing, cleaning, laundry, reading, and I got 766 stars on my Sudoku game. I then went to type my blog entry, and it started going really sour. I completely wiped it out and wrote what I have here. I now understand what Sarah was saying (Sarah's my sister, and quite probably the only other reader of this blog). I tend to only feel like writing down my thoughts when I'm down, to get things off my chest. What I didn't realize was that these negative thoughts reinforce when I'm typing like that and saving it to be reread in the future. I need to stay more postive. But first I need good sleep. :)

Really, 766 stars. That's at least 153 puzzles each in under 10 minutes at normal difficulty. I'm getting really good at the sudoku. Some of the harder puzzles take about 25-30 minutes, but never longer than that. I remember when the easy ones were taking that long. Maybe you can make yourself smarter with this thing. Or maybe I'm just teaching myself the test again. It does wonders for the ego though. :P