Going Loco Over Sudoku

June 26, 2007

My name is Zeng Lebron and I'm an addict. I've been sober for the last 9 hours, 15 minutes and 43 seconds. Only because I've just woken up from a full 9-hour sleep. But I don't know how much longer I could stay clean. My right hand is aching for the pencil. My left hand is reaching out for the eraser. And my feet, as if they have a mind of their own are dragging me to the shelf where I hide my Sudoku stash. My eyes! What's wrong with my eyes? All I could see are 9 by 9 grids! I must not panic. I can get through this. Now, take a deep breath, Zeng. Close your eyes. There. Inhale. Exhale. You're doing all right. Inhale. Exhale. Now count from 1 to 10 then open your eyes and everything will be ok. 1..., 2...., 3..., 4..., 5..., 6..., 7..., 8..., 9...., 9..., 9.... Why can't I get past 9?! What number comes after 9? I can't remember! I must put a stop to this! But I can't...I'm too weak...I gotta have my Sudoku fix or I will go crazy!

Just like any addict, I crave only the purest, the most unique, diabolic Sudoku that will give me the most exhilirating Sudoku high. Ah...nirvana. Personally though I prefer the original classic Sudoku over the many variants that have been cropping up: 3d-sudoku, monster sudoku, a 16 by 16 sudoku, etc. And I take my Sudoku the old-fashioned way: with a pencil and an eraser - my Sudoku paraphernalia. So I don't go much for the online, pc, pocket pc and nintendo version of the game. My pencil is my tooter. But when a Sudoku itch needs to be scratched right away, any Sudoku puzzle will do. Addicts can't be too choosy all the time.

My life has been this way for more than a year now. My day starts and ends with a Sudoku puzzle. To say that my life now revolves around solving Sudoku puzzles is not an exagerration. Since adolescence, my ultimate dream has always been to get locked up in a U.S. prison cell all by myself so I could read all the books I wanted to read in peace. That's until I picked up my very first Sudoku puzzle from a magazine stand. Although my ultimate dream is still to get locked up in a prison cell much like Paris Hilton's, it is not to read books but to solve Sudoku puzzles in peace. I leave you now with a Sudoku puzzle I came across with while surfing the net last night. I have already solved it. Too bad the solution is not unique. I was a bit disappointed. Oh well, addicts can't be choosers.

Lakbayan: How much of the Philippines have You Visited?

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? >Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Have Pedometer, Will Walk

June 25, 2007

I've been scouting for a cheap pedometer since summer and had even gone as far as Bambang - the Manila hub for medical and laboratory supplies. With a friend in toe, I combed the dizzying jungle of Bambang but the step counter, even the expensive breed proved to be a very elusive beast. Finally, a store clerk directed us to an Omron distributor in Hidalgo, Quiapo. The Hidalgo store has the very basic step counter but it sells for a whopping 600 pesos! The mall prices of these branded pedometers range from 700 to 2000 pesos with the more expensive ones packed with features such as calorie count and total distance traveled, among other things. But these values could be approximated by the user so I just wanted the no-frills digital counter.

I have almost forgotten about the search but last week while "malling", I came across a pedometer-like device at Japan Home Center in Parksquare, Makati. I asked a store clerk what it was and he replied with haste and certainty that it was a timer. The label was in Japanese but I very much doubted if the thing was just a timer since a picture of walking feet and the number 99999 were in the label. Anyway, just to be sure and with the permission of the store clerk, I opened the package and turned the device on. I clipped the device to my belt in my waist and started walking. It was a pedometer! For only 88 pesos, I must say this is the cheapest pedometer in town. It comes in different colors too: black, red, blue and green (got the black one). I find it so cheap that 2 days later I bought a spare (red this time) from another branch in another mall.

The reason I wanted a pedometer so bad (but not so bad that I would shell out 600 - 2000 pesos for it) is I need to get in shape. I am getting fat (fatter is a more accurate adjective, I think) due to a sudden change in lifestyle from being always on the go to being always home. Now, I'm the last person to worry about my weight because I know I could shed off pounds and get back in shape quite quickly. I have a list of exercises I enjoy engaging in: biking, badminton, and walking. If I notice that my pants are getting slim (that's another way of looking at it, ha!), I would hop on to my bike and bike around the neigborhood for 30 minutes a night for a week or so. Unfortunately though, my situation has changed too. We moved in a neigborhood that is not exactly bike-friendly. So biking as a form of exercise is no longer possible. Unless I am willing to battle it out head-on with raging motorists. Alternatively, I would sweat it out with a willing friend on the badminton court. Friends are so busy carving out their respective niches in the society that they don't have time for play. I could have hired someone from the court to be my sparring partner but I'm not the paying type. Hehe.

So that leaves me with no choice other than walking. For weight management, one must walk 10k steps a day, roughly equivalent to walking 5 miles (about 8 km in metric). I have the pedometer on me the moment I wake up. I only remove it when I take a bath and when I sleep. To make my walking program work, I signed up for a free account at walker tracker. At the end of the day, I log in my steps and the walker tracker does the rest: graphing my progress, scoring my diligence, and even comparing my performance with my walking comrades. Also as a registered user, I get to post in my website their nifty widget, as shown below.

<br /><a href="http://walkertracker.com/walker.php?zenglebron&i=b8123a6d778" title="A walking community for pedometer geeks">View zenglebron's Step Blog at Walker Tracker</a>

Hopefully, the pedometer and the walker tracker will motivate me to stick to the program. For the past week, it has. But it's too early to tell if this will work. In the meantime, I will just keep walking.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

June 20, 2007

2006 brought to the giant screen many great films such as the quirky Little Miss Sunshine, the gothic Pan's Labyrinth and Oscar favorites Babel and Scorsese's The Departed which eventually won the best picture award. There are more worth mentioning but I think if there is one film that deserves similar accolades despite mixed reviews it got, it is Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

Based on a novel of the same title by Patrick Suskind, Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille played convincingly by newcomer Ben Whishaw. Grenouille is an orphan in 18th century Paris born with the most acute sense of smell. His extraordinary sniffing talent turns him into a serial killer as he pursues his obsession of creating the perfect scent and preserving it. Grenouille could effortlessly identify the ingredients and their quantities just by smelling a whiff of the perfume. He sought out master perfumier Sinore Baldini played awfully by Dustin Hoffman. Baldini was impressed by Grenouille's nostrils that he took the amoral antihero under his wing. There in Baldini's laboratory, Grenouille wasted no time trying to perfect the technique of preserving scents. His victims include a beautiful plum seller and a cat. Yes, a cat. He placed the dead cat in a humongous distillation apparatus hoping that the apparatus would squeeze out every scent (and stench) of that poor cat - the smell that makes a cat a cat. Of course, it did not work. Realizing that Baldini had nothing more to teach him, the apprentice bid his master good bye and went on with his psychopathic activities. 12 beautiful but dead bodies later in a village stricken with fear, Grenouille just lacks one more ingredient for his perfect perfume: Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), daughter of the rich merchant Richis (Alan Rickman).

While watching the film, I could not help but be awed by Tywker's genius to bring to screen the sights and the scents and stench of 18th century Paris. It is as if I am watching the film not just with my eyes and ears but with my nose as well. Long after I have seen it, I could still smell the film - the putrid and the amorous trapped in my nostrils. Such is the power of Tywker and his film.

The pacing feels like a drag sometimes but the visuals and the music will pull you back in. Running time: 147 minutes.