Let's set the scene. It's Friday at Cliff Hicks' place, where he's throwing a farewell bash for Ian McConville after Ian's brief stay in California. There has been drunken revelry, there is a man in the bathroom vomiting his guts out partially because of said drunken revelry, and there has been much Halo, various MMORPGs, and much bitching about various RPGs. Greg Dean has tried to eat his wife's chihuahua, which I'm told is rather common.

Three AM, and we're starting to quiet down. Greg and I have already traded our traditional insults over the other's movie tastes, this time over Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I've already discussed why I play City of Heroes (and soon City of Villains) instead of World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI. So it's just us sitting around and talking about life, when I see Greg Dean parked at a computer, staring intently at the screen, mumbling and seeming almost mesmerized.

This is the point where, were I a fan of horror movies, I would know to run screaming instead of investigate the mysterious contents of the screen.

But no, I'm me, and I come up behind Greg to ask "What're you doing?"

He replies, "I'm doing Sudoku."

I'd heard of Sudoku before, since it's been popping up in almost every paper worth reading, replacing useless word games, but I'd never gotten around to doing it. So, naturally, I watch him doing it, and I start pointing out things to him, and it turns into a minor party activity as we do a mathematical crossword puzzle together, pointing out the obvious 4 AM errors. I also start doing it because Greg leaves the chair and says "my best time is around twelve minutes," giving me not only an outlet for my OCD, but also a chance to one-up the Dean, which I never let pass. (Note to Dean: Seven minutes. Suck it.)

I finally get up the energy to drive home, and when I get there, what do I do? Play Sudoku until 7 AM, before stumbling over to my couch and falling asleep.

I suppose it was inevitable that I got into Sudoku, though. I mean, Freecell had started losing my attention, so I was looking for another way to suck up my time. And Sudoku, well, why not? It's not like there aren't another few billion games to play, it's never unbeatable like Freecell can be in rare cases, and it appeals to the numbers man hiding in my writer self.

But that doesn't mean I can't lament my lost free time.

Number of Sudoku puzzles finished during this rant: 8