It all began in the second week of July. As part of the “training” for my new job which begins in the fall, er, next week I mean, I worked as an Orientation Leader at school during the month of July. Since I was not originally hired in the same manner as the real OL's I was never assigned any specific work. This meant that in the mornings as Orientation began I had to make myself look busy doing odd jobs like stuffing mugs into bags to be handed out to the new students, stuffing packets full of fliers and pamphlets,but mostly standing around directing students and their parents ten feet to my right where they could find their lunch. After lunch I would go to a computer lab where I would actually get to interact with new students and help them with the registration process which at the very least made me feel useful.
Well in the second week I was given a more specific job, which was to stand in the lobby of a single building from 8am-4pm. There was no point to my being there, at all. Although parents were sent to this building (the first group around 10am and the second around 1pm), they were kept in an auditorium most of the day. When their sessions ended they would wander back to the lobby looking for their kids. So really all I ever did was wait to be asked the same question 100 times a day “when will my child be coming back” so that I could explain to parent after parent that “it all depends on the student, they register on their own and it is a matter of how quickly each individual completes the process.” After that, some parents would follow up with more annoying questions. I’m not really sure which was worse, standing in the same spot for 6 hours alone and silent or the other 2 hours standing in the same spot being asked question after dumb question.
By the third day in a row of standing I found salvation from the monotony. My assigned post was right next to the elevators and a mere 8 feet away from the pile of daily Red Eyes. To pass the time I finally decided to look into this daily news thingy. I scanned, got bored, flipped pages, and quickly decided to track down the crossword. Though, I’ve never been an avid crossword player I figured what the hell , I have a pencil, may as well have a go. But when I found the crossword my attention instantly turned to a wee ninja with a sword drawn, challenging me. He is the SuDoku Ninja. For anyone who hasn’t yet heard of this new puzzle craze sweeping the land, SuDoku is a number puzzle that involves no math. Personally, I was sadened by the lack of math. (I heart math. . . and I miss math, some days I wonder why I gave up numbers for words, but I digress). Despite the lack of math, I have always been a big fan of puzzles and brainteasers so I quickly became addicted to it.
The first few days it kept me quite busy, I was just getting down the methods of eliminating possibilities so I could easily waste a few hours every day on each puzzle. By the second week though I was getting them done much quicker so it served less as way to pass the time, nonetheless I was hooked. By the final week of my stint in the lobby I was realizing that I was going to miss my daily duel with the SuDoku Ninja. I mean sure, I could walk a few blocks to get a Red Eye, but I have somewhat better things to do than to track down a free copy, and I loathe newspapers piling up around here. Plus I was traveling to Des Moines to visit home for a while and wouldn’t have access to such modern games as SuDoku--if you’ve ever been to Des Moines or seen the Prehistoric Iceman episode of South Park you would understand. Luckily, my boyfriend came to the rescue one night when he brought me The Book of SuDoku, (compiled by Michael Mepham).
Like many others, I am hooked. I take my book with me everywhere, and rather than filling out the puzzles in the book itself I copy them down in a notebook, you know, so I can redo them another time. I also do a few regularly online and I will link my favorites soon, or you can google them for yourself.
While the book and online versions are great, I am looking forward to having convenient access to the Red Eye again because I think the SuDoku Ninja is just so freaking cute. On
this page you can see some thumbnails his creator has posted at the end of the second row down. I'd also like to point out that he bears a striking resemblence to the silhouette of Stewie Griffin, in
his iPod commercial.
