Struggled with the Sudoku today, the usatday one, so not hard. But I got through it eventually. I've been doing them since Boston, and the first big wave of sudoku in the papers. Often did several every day on the bus or the T. Figured it was good for my discalculia, and I still think so. Helps me see numerals better, wakes up my brain in the morning. Very satisfying.
That is also when I really took to crosswords, the US sort, not cryptic, which is quite beyond me. Doing several every day taught me a lot of the tricks. The standard words, the crossword-words. With the pad, I now get the NYT crosswords, and I make it through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, sometimes Thursday, rarely Friday, and often don't bother Saturday or Sunday.
Games should be fun, I think. I follow rules enough in life, I figure I can bend them as needed to keep play enjoyable. Cheating on a test is low. "Cheating" on a game against one's own time, is learning. Adapting rules to keep players in the game is cooperative play.
D had a friend who ran RPGs who was a stickler for rules. May well be he had good reason, but knowing that meant I never tried to join those sessions. I was new, I knew I would need handicapping, and that I would not get it. And I liked him, so I didn't want to set up a situation where I would resent him doing what he does. He's still a great friend, and I still haven't tried to join one of his games.
Well, that's alright too. We all have fun in different ways. Pleasure comes in all forms.
5 comments:
I think I'd quite like the kind of US crosswords with difficult words, I don't mind showing off vocabulary. A completed puzzle is satisfying, or sometimes just a relief if it's been holding you in thrall for too long.
Lucy,
If you can get on any major US newspaper site, there are a number of crosswords online. The USA Today puzzle is doable right through Friday, although knowing US sports teams is a problem - for me as well. But that's what google/wikipedia are for, right?
Most of them have printable options, too.
i quite agree with the idea that one needs to adapt to friendships - there are friends with whom i make a point of NOT talking politics because i'm not willing to give up the friendship for a conflict that will not get resolved. it's good to note the limitations, accept them, and work around them if the friendship's worth it.
haven't ever tried a sudoku because of my (self imposed? imaginary?) fear of numbers. crosswords i do enjoy, provided they're not all about sports because yawn...
When I was in my twenties, it so shocked and horrified a friend that I cheated at Monopoly, he almost ended our friendship!
It was a huge moral rupture for him.
(Gosh, he was kind of like Constable Fraser on Due South, come to think of it--though Fraser wouldn't be shocked at anything people do.)
The thing is, I think games are totally boring,
and it never occurred to me that everyone didn't cheat at them, which makes them a little more interesting (like poker, which, as RayK explained to Fraser on Due South, is only incidentally about the cards).
Anyway, the friendship did survive, until the death of my friend from AIDS in 1995... So sad. I still miss him and would even play Monopoly with him again and NOT cheat (happily!) if he'd only come back...
I'm always up for a good board game, though rarely have the opportunity. When I see a sudoku I generally try to find a first number that I can put in and after having done that, am satisfied and move on.
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