Tuesday February 12th, 2013

The exercise:

Write two haiku about: asking for help.

So I decided to look online for Sudoku tips. This site was quite helpful, the 24 page tutorial particularly so. Though I'm not sure I can properly express the outrage I felt when I came across this on page 20:

"I can't see any more logical answers to a cell - time for a guess!!!"

A GUESS? Here I was, straining to find some logical deduction that was managing to elude me, when a frickin' GUESS was required to solve the puzzle?

Anyway. My first guess didn't work out, so I went back and tried again. Puzzle solved. And summarily burned.

Mine:

Well, now that I've asked,
the answer seems pretty damned
obvious, don't it?

*     *     *

A slow swallow of
pride; an admission that
I don't know it all.

4 comments:

Greg said...

Looking at step 20 for you, when the 4 is placed in cell (r2,c7) it means that 4 is no longer valid in *r9,c7) which forces a 4 to go into (r9, c4), which then tells you where the 3 in box 8 goes as well, etc. The author of the guide just isn't very good at Sudoku :)
Glad to hear that you did finally solve your puzzle though!

I like your second haiku better today, because I've been there, done that, and sworn to murder the witnesses next time.

Asking for help
He asked for help once.
"Let me google that for you!"
So: never again.

----------

The boy scout took her
Purse and ran across the road.
Not what she wanted!

Aidyl Ewoh said...

Hey, I saw you write short stories. I'm hosting a short story writing contest over at my blog. I would be delighted if you wanted to join.
~Aidyl
http://www.aidylewoh.blogspot.com/2013/02/announcing-writing-contest.html

Kathleen Richardson said...

Asking for help...

Do as I say now
Or you are grounded one week
Without your cell phone.

Timidly I asked
Disdainfully you said no
My gut rolled and heaved.

Marc said...

Greg - well, I'll be. Thanks for pointing that out! This week's puzzle is also rated advanced, so I'll let you know how it goes :)

Hah, I've run into your first haiku on an occasion or two. Drives me bonkers.

Aidyl - thanks for the invite! I'll definitely give it some thought :)

Kathleen - haha, love the attitude in your first haiku. And your second captures a moment just perfectly.

Nicely done!