Sudoku

Games 2 Minutes
sample puzzle

Sudoku is played on a grid of 9 x 9 spaces. Within the rows and columns are 9 “squares” (made up of 3 x 3 spaces). Each row, column and square (9 spaces each) needs to be filled out with the numbers 1-9, without repeating any numbers within the row, column or square. Does it sound complicated? As you can see from the image above of an actual Sudoku grid, each Sudoku grid comes with a few spaces already filled in; the more spaces filled in, the easier the game – the more difficult Sudoku puzzles have very few spaces that are already filled in.

In the above puzzle, the upper left square (circled in blue), already has 7 out of the 9 spaces filled in. The only numbers missing from the square are 5 and 6. By seeing which numbers are missing from each square, row, or column, we can use process of elimination and deductive reasoning to decide which numbers need to go in each blank space.

We know we need to add a 5 and a 6 to be able to complete the square, but based on the neighboring rows and squares we cannot clearly deduce which number to add in which space. This means that we should ignore the upper left square for now, and try to fill in spaces in some other areas of the grid instead.

One way to figure out which numbers can go in each space is to use “process of elimination” by checking to see which other numbers are already included within each square – since there can be no duplication of numbers 1-9 within each square (or row or column). Looking at the same puzzle below, we can use the process of elimination to determine where another number should go. In the far left-hand vertical column (circled in Blue) the 1, 5 and 6 missing.

In this case, we can quickly notice that there are already number 1s in the top left and center left squares of the grid (with number 1s circled in red). This means that there is only one space remaining in the far left column where a 1 could possibly go – circled in green. This is how the process of elimination works in Sudoku – you find out which spaces are available, which numbers are missing – and then deduce, based on the position of those numbers within the grid, which numbers fit into each space.

Sudoku rules are relatively uncomplicated – but the game is infinitely varied, with millions of possible number combinations and a wide range of levels of difficulty. But it’s all based on the simple principles of using numbers 1-9, filling in the blank spaces based on deductive reasoning, and never repeating any numbers within each square, row or column.

There is no guessing in sudoku…reasoning and logic are key…and there’s NO MATH required…LOL.

Pat’s Apology: the above sample puzzle requires a little more than basic skills to complete but most puzzles i found on line were like this. (I liked the circles and details in the explanations to help you see exactly what they were talking about.) I have included a puzzle below which requires ONLY the most basic process of elimination skills to solve and I will post the answer if anyone requests it.

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Published by pat frederick

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110 thoughts on “Sudoku”

  1. Morning All!
    computer issues dominating everything yesterday afternoon and apparently this morning too…
    my new laptop should be arriving soon! HOPEFULLY…

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Good morning Pat! I am going to try this game later. I have never played it but I think my mother-in-law plays a lot. Hope you get your new machine soon and everything works well.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Morning CM!
        if it’s not the laptop, then it means that the wordpress account for the blog needs more memory which is problematic for me cuz I am clueless about computer code and crap…
        sigh…
        but the problem i am having is common enough to have it’s own name…white screen of death…

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Sorry you are having computer challenges. When I was Up North & using my mom’s laptop I couldn’t sign into the Q-Tree for some reason & it was a strange feeling to have my “voice” pseudo-silenced.

      Thanks for the Sudoku heads up. I haven’t played one in a while. I think there were some places online w/ free puzzles to be played, which can be fun. I enjoy doing logic puzzles too, like at Puzzle Baron 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I love them! i am onto extreme sudoku…which i play on my kindle as I walk around the house…getting my exercise while i exercise my brain! I multi task…LOL

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        1. Sweet. I get my logic skills honed on logic puzzles, on the “challenging” setting. Oh & I was playing Spider Solitaire on the second hardest setting, because every puzzle can be solved & there is a back button… 😉

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Random Thought of the Day

        Just a reminder, when Trump was president and implemented retaliatory tariffs against China, EVERY mainstream media outlet brought on experts to talk about how prices would go up as companies passed increased costs on to consumers. Have you heard a single ONE of them say a peep about how Biden’s tax increases on corporations may add to prices? I’m not sure my eyeroll & face palm could be any more intensified when Biden somehow makes this part of a plan to reduce costs.

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      1. I got this from liberty daily

        FTA
        Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor who serves as an elected board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District in San Luis, has a Thursday court date where she may change her not guilty plea. Her co-defendant awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to a reduced charge several months ago.

        Fuentes is accused of collecting ballots during the 2020 primary election in violation of the law that only allows a caregiver or family member to return someone else’s early ballot, and in some cases filling them out.

        https://thelibertydaily.com/is-this-how-they-stole-arizona-in-the-2020-election/

        Liked by 3 people

        1. Ah, I’d forgotten about that one! I was talking about this, posted at the Marshall Report, originally from Real Raw News: “According to Jag News… Biden’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Jen O’Malley Dillon was arrested on Wednesday June 1, 2022, by U.S. Army Rangers at a Washington, D.C. hotel. Jen O’Malley Dillon was arrested on charges of ballot harvesting and having knowledge of election fraud, even possibly orchestrating it which is treason. The U.S. Army Cyber Command has “concrete proof” linking her to “innumerable” illegal ballots.”

          Liked by 3 people

          2. Real Raw News is a satire site. I do think there are 2 people though now. Think Greg Phillips said something about it yesterday though.

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            1. Hi, CM! I know – I’ve been trying to tell people that for a very long time. Some people refuse to listen because they want to suck up the hopium, while others do it because it was posted by a so-called “religious” site – they are blinded by their religious fervor.

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              1. I got too much tolerance to the hopium now. Shoulda put the hooka down a while ago, takes too much now to get me excited. 😜😂

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  7. Good morning! I woke up fired up about this insane increase of over $37K in my property valuation. Based on this fake, inflated housing market, I presume, so they can gouge us for more taxes! There is no way on this earth that my house, which is a modular, in this location, is worth over $87K!!!!! People say “SELL” while the value is high! Uh-huh! They get you coming and going; so I sell my property for the valuation price but no way am I going to be able to find something else to buy that I can afford since ALL properties are inflated now.

    And you have to invest that money or you get hit with a huge capital gains tax. It’s not like you can sell, rent somewhere, and sit on that money until the market comes back to reality. Besides, I put way to much work, heart and soul into turning this place into MY place and I’ll be damned if I’m going to walk away from it! I want to be here in 5 years to see the trellis over the garden beds covered with honeysuckle!!! I want to be here to SEE the results of all my efforts!

    I am seeing more and more every day how the entire fricking system is set up to work AGAINST the citizens!!!!

    Liked by 3 people

        1. no, i mean IF and when you do sell, you are allowed a one time in your life exclusion from capital gains on the sale of your home…something to keep in mind

          Liked by 2 people

            1. when my mother in law passed we were able to see their tax returns forever and they never took the exclusion so we were able to apply that to the sale of her home so the estate didn’t take a huge hit on that

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              1. So it is tied to tax returns? I haven’t filed for years now – not since I was working p/t at SM. And then I just did the quick and simple EZ-File. I have zero knowledge about this stuff.

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              2. the year you sell an asset (like a house, stocks, whatever) you normally have to pay capital gains on it when you do your tax return for that year. however, with a house, because lots of people have them long periods of time and their value increases over that time, they made it so you can claim that one time exemption…not so with stocks –just houses

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              3. That was a great catch! My parents still live in the home they bought when pregnant w/ me & they moved there from a rental as newlyweds. Hope I remember your tip when the times comes!

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    2. Good morning Filly! They are doing the same in my area and I too expect it is to collect more revenue. Local elections matter. We are infested with RINOs here in TN. Many were democrats that switched to keep getting re elected when the political winds shifted.

      Liked by 3 people

    3. Nebraska Filly
      Can you file the papers for an appeal on the assessment increase?
      Is there a “homestead exemption” law in your town?
      Did the real estate tax rate remain the same, or did the tax rate go up also?
      Did the assessments on your neighbors’ properties go way up also?

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Yes, I am going to request the form to protest. I already get the homestead exemption but it doesn’t amount to much. I don’t know yet about the tax rate – this is the 2022 valuation so I wouldn’t know yet. I called my neighbor across the street – theirs almost doubled!

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  8. Good morning y’all! Friday is upon us and we did not get nearly the amount of rain that was called for. Supposed to be mid 80’s this weekend and I plan to burn some brush. Have had a lot of people looking at my lot, so I will have to go weed eat and mow early tomorrow morning…0630-0700ish. We got our mulch delivered Tuesday and we will start putting it in the garden tomorrow during the early afternoon. Other than that, just the regular laundry and cleaning chores.

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    2. I got my yard work done yesterday since I have to go to Norfolk today and rain will be moving in later towards evening. We’re looking at about 10 days or so of rainy weather but not a lot of accumulation. Just showers here and there and cooler temps. Maybe an inch and a half over the 10 days or so.

      Liked by 3 people

        1. Well, it’s better than a gully-washer but we could sure use more than just light showers. Just these recent rains have made a world of difference. Everything here is popping and thriving but the cotton wood tree needs a LOT more rain. I can also see a big difference in the Blue Spruce – new branches popping out all over them, even the one I thought was dying. It was dying – from lack of moisture! Same with the Weigala bushes and the climbing rose. They wouldn’t be popping like they are without that rain. As for the crops, I don’t know whether most are even up yet. I’ll look when I go to Norfolk today. The 2 acres behind me where Rob planted winter wheat last fall is knee-high already.

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    1. LOL…I guess you could use 9 different flowers, states or even sexy guys if that floats your boat…LOL…numbers are just easy to use I guess…

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  12. EXCERPT: “FIRST ON FOX – The lawyer who represented Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann during his defamation cases has joined Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team, and says there will be “at least 10” defamation lawsuits against prominent figures and companies for comments against the teenager.

    “I’ve been hired to head the effort to determine whom to sue, when to sue, where to sue,” Todd McMurtry, who now represents Rittenhouse, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Thursday morning. “We’re going to look at everything that’s been said, determine which of those comments are legally actionable and proceed from there.”

    McMurtry said it’s “​​pretty much assured that there’s probably 10 to 15 solid” cases against “large defendants.”

    Includes video of Kyle with Tucker explaining the Media Accountability Project: https://www.foxnews.com/us/sandmann-lawyer-rittenhouse-legal-defamation-team

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Oh, I just got some sad news. My neighbors across the street, Lois and Oran, lost their son, Brian, about a week ago. I called to find out what their property valuation was (it almost doubled) and she told me he had a heart attack at home. Only one of their kids got the jab and she had to for her job. He was the one who was bi-polar and they had a LOT of problems with him thru the years. Still, he had leveled out for the last few years and helped them a lot. Thankfully, they have other kids who live nearby.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. From Emerald Robinson: “Get Ready: Lara Logan’s New Film On Election Fraud Is Almost Here!
    Here’s the trailer for “Selection Code” which comes out July 16th! The trailer for Lara Logan’s new film ‘Selection Code” is fantastic.

    Here’s the description from the film’s website:

    “What if our leaders aren’t actually being elected by us, but instead… selected?

    [S]ELECTION CODE follows world renown investigative journalist Lara Logan on her most important assignment to date. For over 35 years investigative journalist Lara Logan has been on the front lines of history’s deadliest conflicts. Yet no assignment to date has put her career and life in more danger than this one. Her investigation goes to the heart of the current Information War, revealing yet another facet in the ever-unfolding saga of election fraud, demonstrating the role of the machines in stealing our vote.

    The documentary follows the story of Tina Peters the County Clerk in Mesa Colorado, who made a backup of her counties Dominion Voting System server, only to stumble across evidence of manipulation in a recent local city council election…. and also the 2020 general election. Tina’s discovery ignites a chain reaction upending her life. And upending the world.

    You will not be able to unsee what you see.”

    The David Bossie election fraud documentary Rigged, the Dinesh D’Souza election fraud documentary 2000 Mules, and now Lara Logan’s documentary — these films prove that election fraud is real and that electronic voting machines are vulnerable to hacking and should not be used.

    I talked with election integrity attorney Kurt Olsen yesterday on my new show “The Absolute Truth” on the failures of Dominion Voting machines in 16 states — including Georgia — and then I talked with Holly Kasun (Cause of America) about the upcoming CISA report which warns state election officials that nine software “vulnerabilities” should be fixed before the next election.

    It’s a great episode that you can watch here.”

    https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/get-ready-lara-logans-new-film-on

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Alrighty then. Called the Assessor’s office and I can file for the Homestead Exemption – this one is different that what I was thinking of – and the valuation is based on home sales of property similar to mine that sold between 2019 – 2021. Bottom line? It all flows down from the Federal Department of Revenue to the States – if Pierce County doesn’t do it, the State will come in and do it for them. As for the PPT, the tax levy won’t be determined here in Plainview until October.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. EXCERPT: “Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) vetoed $3.1 billion in spending as he signed a $109.9 billion budget Thursday, slashing funds that would have, in part, gone toward a youth sports complex earmarked as a possible spring training facility for the Tampa Bay Rays.

    The Republican cited the need to protect the state “against what very well may be a Biden-induced recession” at the signing ceremony. The facility in question, in Pasco County, would have cost $35 million. The veto comes after the Rays published a call to end gun violence in the aftermath of the Texas and New York mass shootings, and a report from OutKick said it learned that the decision was indeed in response to the team “politicizing” the massacres.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/desantis-vetoes-35m-earmarked-for-rays-facility-after-team-postures-on-gun-violence/ar-AAY1DYv

    Quote from the Rays:

    Liked by 1 person

  20. We’re finally back home after an extended holiday “weekend” in Northern Michigan at my parents’ Cottage. We had a nice time of family fellowship, erratic weather (between low 40’s at night to low 90’s one day) that lead to some swimming in the bitterly cold spring fed Otsego Lake (usually too cold this time of year for many to swim in), tubing, prayer, music, lilacs, & lots of food.

    Some of us drove around Gaylord to view tornado damage, that was quite extensive in multiple business & residential sections of town. A distant cousin & her autistic son dropped in to visit a couple days (they were up from Arkansas for the memorial service of a long-time friend) which was quite interesting given my son’s autism–we’d never seen 2 autistic family members interact.

    We’re thankful to be home safely, still tired, & gearing up for hubby’s ongoing job search.

    Blessings to all!

    Liked by 1 person

          1. Nice! Did I mention sore too…working on leaves, lilacs, & laundry (not to mention other cooking & cleaning duties) were things I don’t do a lot of around here. Now working on puzzles, that’s more my speed!

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            1. when we helped my son replace his roof, i felt the same way! loading the heavy shingles into the dumpster…scouring the ground for nails, cleaning the gutters…running water bottles up and down the ladders…

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Yikes. Before my brother came up & fixed the water situation I was hauling buckets from the lake to flush toilets to wash hands & then getting some jugs from the neighbors to drink. That gets pretty heavy quickly! Thankfully my son Josiah helped get the lake water, for me on my knees on the dock was Quite Challenging–sadly. It’s a bummer getting old…& fat 😦

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  21. EXCERPT: “Old Joe Biden has been pretending to be president of the United States for a year and a half now. While it has never been entirely certain who exactly is in charge (Barack Obama and White House chief of staff Ron Klain are two of the candidates most commonly bruited about), Old Joe himself has made it clear many times that it he isn’t, saying on numerous occasions that he is going to “get in trouble” with unnamed people if he departs from the instructions they have given him. That’s why it was all the more surprising on Tuesday when NBC News revealed that Biden is angry about White House aides constantly walking back his statements when they’re wacky, inaccurate, incendiary, or dangerous. Does he actually think he is president of the United States after all?

    Biden has many times intimated that he is not the man who is calling the shots, and knows it. In June 2021 at the G7 Summit, he said, “I’m sorry, I’m going to get in trouble with staff if I don’t do this the right way.” At a press conference in Nov. 2021, he gave the impression that someone had directed him not to take too many questions: “I can take…I’m going to get in real trouble…this is the last question I’m taking.”

    On Sept. 8, 2021, Biden announced to the world, “I‘m supposed to stop and walk out of the room.” On Aug. 30, 2021, he told a reporter, “I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead.” But when the question turned out to involve his catastrophic mishandling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said: “I’m not gonna answer Afghanistan now,” and summarily walked away.
    ——————–
    Biden, says NBC, is “mystified that his approval rating has dropped to a level approaching that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, ranked by historians as one of the worst presidents in history.” Well, Joe, have you and those Leftist “historians” done a comparative study of gas prices during the Trump administration and yours? Of the state of the economy in general? Of the level of global conflict? History is likely, if free people write it, to be much kinder to Trump than contemporary historians are, while Biden is almost certain to be judged as just as much of a disaster as he looks to be.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/wait-%E2%80%94-doesnt-joe-biden-know-hes-puppet-robert-spencer/

    Liked by 2 people

  22. EXCERPT: “Lee Williams, an independent investigative reporter specializing in covering firearms, revealed that ATF once revoked the licenses of federal firearms licensees (FFLs) at a rate of about 40 each year. “But, in the 11 months since Joe Biden declared war on ‘rogue gun dealers,’ the ATF has revoked 273 FFLs — an increase of more than 500%,” Williams reported. “However, rather than targeting the true rogues, Biden’s ATF is revoking FFLs for the most minor of paperwork errors, which were never a concern for the ATF until Biden weaponized the agency.”

    That’s due to the Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” inspection policy. That means inspectors are revoking federal firearms licenses for even minor clerical errors that previously would warrant a warning letter.

    ATF has the authority to revoke licenses for even these minor clerical errors but used to be more interested in compliance. That changed under the Biden administration and the Department of Justice (DOJ) led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is providing retailers with guidance to be prepared for these inspections.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/03/500-percent-spike-in-biden-administration-shutting-down-gun-retailers-over-typos/

    Liked by 2 people

  23. EXCERPT: “(Campaign Life Coalition) – The head of the world’s most popular satirical website said that it’s no joke that “misinformation” from the left about abortion is not only “harmful,” but deadly. “Harmful misinformation is telling a woman that abortion is a decision about her body when another body and life is at stake,” said Babylon Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon at a pro-life gala dinner following Canada’s May 12 National March for Life.

    Dillon continued with a list of ways in which abortion misinformation is harmful and destructive. “Harmful misinformation is calling a baby a clump of cells. Harmful misinformation is calling abortion healthcare…Abortion is healthcare the way that rape is lovemaking. I mean, they are opposites. Harmful misinformation is presenting abortion, not adoption, as the best answer to unwanted pregnancy.”

    “Harmful misinformation is telling women they’re better off living with the guilt of killing their preborn children than coping with financial hardship. Harmful misinformation is the claim that we don’t know when life begins. Harmful misinformation is the claim that saving sex for marriage is shameful or foolish.” “This is the misinformation that actually costs lives,” he said.

    While Dillon kept the audience laughing throughout his speech with a sharp sense of humour, he also highlighted some truths about the left and the narrative they want to spread. “Not long ago, we were told that men weren’t allowed to have an opinion on abortion and now we’re told that men can get pregnant,” he joked in his speech. “Reality has become a parody of itself.”

    In his speech, Dillon explained how the Babylon Bee uses satire to convey candid commentary on today’s absurdities. “We basically exaggerate the truth to make a point. We go a step beyond the truth in the direction the truth is already pointing.”

    https://www.lifenews.com/2022/06/03/babylon-bee-ceo-abortion-is-health-care-the-way-that-rape-is-lovemaking/

    Liked by 2 people

  24. EXCERPT: “(CNS News) — Attorney and former Ambassador C. Boyden Gray held a press briefing on the phone Wednesday to introduce a new lawsuit being filed against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its claims that ivermectin is an ineffective treatment for COVID-19.

    “Tomorrow we will be suing the FDA over its unlawful attempts to interfere with the practice of medicine, specifically, this crusade to halt the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19,” said Gray in a conference call with reporters. “This lawsuit is very important to preserve medical freedom and the doctor-patient relationship in the United States.”

    “Congress recognized the importance of letting doctors be doctors and expressly prohibited the FDA from interfering with the practice of medicine,” he said. “That is exactly what the FDA has done time and time again throughout this pandemic, assuming authority it doesn’t have and trying to insert itself in the medical decisions of Americans everywhere.”

    Ivermectin was approved by the FDA for human use in 1996 and, said Gray, “the drug has long been used off-label to treat numerous diseases.”

    Gray, former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush and founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, is representing Drs. Mary Talley Bowden, Paul E. Marik, and Robert L. Apter, who have faced obstructions to their practice due to their promotion of Ivermectin as an effective COVID treatment.

    The lawsuit was filed June 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where one of the doctors being represented, Dr. Mary Bowden, resides.”

    https://cnsnews.com/index.php/article/national/micky-wootten/doctors-sue-fda-over-its-crusade-halt-use-ivermectin-treat-covid

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  37. I am finally back, with everything put away, Orioles fed, and my first cup of coffee in weeks in hand! I will wait for the rundown of this truly banner day until tomorrow! Sleep well!

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  38. My Aunt loved sudoku. I would always send them those books. But the shipping my goodness.

    I’m not into sudoku… now word search I love and Mom is really into those as well.

    I did do a sudoku pizza one and I kicked ass. LOL

    Liked by 2 people

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