'Don't mention the war'

<Switches from maths mode to writing mode with difficulty>

Huzzah! Once again it is time to put on the top hat of fate and commit to this, the Quirky Muffin, some morsels of prose linked together by shreds of what remaining sanity lingers in the vicinity of my mind. Shreds of sanity that are slowly being eaten up by calculations, computations and long lingering looks out of the window at the scenic delights of Aberystwyth University. It's a pretty place.

I don't get to spend as much time as I would like wandering around Aber. Being Internet-less and running podcasts late nights at the office are the norm, and that's not so much fun as I would like, especially with the total hour of commuting each day to get there and back. It would be nice to be able to walk hills a bit more, trundle up and down the prom and not be brain-tired all the time.

The real danger of being heavily mathematical is in the introversion required to be able to do the job. It's hard to shift out of without some effort and that is the principal purpose for this fine, educational and nonsensical publication. Without it there would be a numerically obsessed cabbage sitting at a computer and not remembering how to string coherent sentences together. Some would argue that that's happened already, and those people I respond with 'How appropriate, you fight like a cow'.

So, what's coming up? There are big plans afoot, which will only be marginally affected by events in the coming weeks. Hopefully there'll be a movie review for 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', a book review for Dashiell Hammett's 'Red Harvest', more stories, and some self-worship of the worst kind as I introduce 'Film Bin' to anyone who doesn't already know what we do over there. It seems like it will all be fun. I'm also going to jump headfirst into Jon Pertwee's tenure as Doctor Who, which will certainly be fun, as that is an incredibly interesting era of the show and possibly the only one I'm interested in.

Good luck, people. I hope you don't suffer through any more poetry!

O.


PS Two Film Bin shows this week so far. We just posted a commentary for the 'A-Team' pilot episode and a discussion of 1993's 'The Secret Garden'. Lots of Film Bin goodness!
PPS If you like Scrabble, try out the Pixie Pit website. It's not free but the service is excellent.