Timing TBLR Sudoku, 2/12/10-2/25/10

I wondered to myself how long I will continue this series of posts, and I’m currently thinking that if I go three periods of two weeks without a new personal best, that I will quit writing these posts.

For those who are just tuning in, this is the fifth of a series of posts occuring once every two weeks. In these posts, I show how long it takes for me to do a Sudoku puzzle with the additional restriction of having to fill in the numbers in top-to-bottom, left-to-right order. Hence the name TBLR Sudoku.

2/25/10 – 4-Star Sudoku in the Star-Tribune, top-to-bottom, left-to-right, 52:37
2/24/10 – 3-Star, 34:17, Personal Best +2:31
2/23/10 – 2-Star, Fail. Not really sure what that was about.
2/22/10 – 1-Star, 25:06, PB +6:53
2/21/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
2/20/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
2/19/10 – 5-Star, 40:02, PB +0:04
2/18/10 – 4-Star, 28:52, 5:05 improvement on previous PB
2/17/10 – 3-Star, 44:13, PB +11:27
2/16/10 – 2-Star, 37:31, PB +17:07
2/15/10 – 1-Star, 25:46, PB +7:33
2/14/10 – 5-Star, Fail
2/13/10 – 6-Star, 45:09, 8:29 improvement on previous PB
2/12/10 – 5-Star, 37:39, 2:19 improvement on previous PB

Here are the updated personal bests:

1-Star: 18:13, 11/23/09
2-Star: 20:24, 1/12/10
3-Star: 31:46, 1/20/10
4-Star: 28:52, 2/18/10
5-Star: 37:39, 2/12/10
6-Star: 45:09, 2/13/10

I do these puzzles to build up my skill for contemplating the puzzle of my existence.

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