The Final Assault

Circle 6 Complete, on to Circle 7!
Circle 6 is now complete. Here's the stats:

Level  1 %  2 %  3 %   4 %   5 %   6 %
-----  ---  ---  ----  ----  ----  ----
10     96%  99%  100%  100%  100%  100%
20     91%  93%   95%   97%   98%   99%
30     74%  80%   87%   93%   96%   99%
40     69%  74%   82%   88%   95%   98%
50     67%  72%   81%   89%   90%   97%
60     55%  64%   75%   83%   93%   96%
70     60%  58%   68%   --    79%   90%
80     57%  --    64%   --    --    --
90+    55%  --    58%   --    --    --

And the Average Time Per Problem (ATPP):

Level  Circle 5 ATPP  Circle 6 ATPP
-----  -------------  -------------
10       17.5 sec       14.2 sec
20       30.2 sec       22.2 sec
30       53.8 sec       31.8 sec
40       58.2 sec       45.3 sec
50        1.5 min        1.1 min
60        1.4 min        1.5 min
70        3.4 min        2.3 min
80          --             --
90+         --             --
-----  -------------  -------------
Total    17.4 hours     13.5 hours

Since the above times are strictly solving times and don't count breaks, food, etc., Circle 7 tomorrow will be a bit of a challenge, but maybe doable if I don't take many breaks. Normally I can only do problems for a little over an hour before I need to get up and move around, get a light snack, etc. I sort of wish I'd stuck with levels 70+ throughout, but given the demands of life it just wasn't possible. I'm curious to see what my ATPP will look like for level 70 tomorrow...just how fast can one do level 70 problems?

The Com-fy Chair
In case you wonder what it's like spending all your free time solving problems, I thought I'd post a picture of me hard at work:

In order to help the newer and future followers of the Knights Errant de la Maza, I would like to point out a few key things in this picture:

• It's important to have a comfortable setup. When you are doing problems for hours and hours at a time, ergonomics is a must. Personally, I have found I am pretty comfortable using a laptop computer while leaning back in one chair and propping my feet up on another.
  
• At lower left I have a plastic cup full of water. It's important to stay well hydrated. This forces you to have to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so, minimizing muscle atrophy as you waste your life away with CT-Art.
  
• Notice the pillow on my lap. This is to keep the laptop from burning my legs. Laptops run ridiculously hot these days. The MDLM plan is hard enough as it is- I can't imagine having to do it with second-degree burns. But then again, if I were confined to a hospital bed then maybe I wouldn't have all those distractions like work, etc. and could focus on problems even more. Hmmmm, I will have to research my health insurance on this point.
• In case you were wondering, the aquarium to my left houses Basil, our ball python (or royal python for non-U.S. readers). He doesn't do much except sit under his rock all day, but occasionally he sticks his head out to see what's going on.
  

The Final Assault
Tomorrow I will sally forth on the final adventure, Circle 7! I will leave out milk and cookies or something for Caissa tonight in the hopes that she will bless my endeavor tomorrow. Heck, I even took a precious day of my two-weeks-a-year of vacation from work to do chess problems (in addition to the one I already took a few weeks ago). Surely that will merit a favorable glance from our patron goddess..!?

Wish me luck, fellow knights!