Let's see if I can make the articles I had planned for this issue
blend seamlessly into one long editorial - that sounds like a fun thing
to do. It was, ooh, last year when The Mag With No Name folded, but when it
did, the number of 'zines I saw dropped by 25%. Well, I miss it, based on
BOTH the issues I read. The silver lining of that particular cloud is that
after one turn - the only turn - I was leading in the "In A Crowd"
all-reader game. If nobody's going to be seeing any more turns of that,
and that's somewhat likely, I think I'm going to have to claim a win. No
sign of a refund from Ian yet (*), but I'm privately hoping that the relaunch
he mooted for early this year comes sooner rather than later; even with more
military talk and fewer games it's one I'd like to sub to. Ian - send me a
refund not in cash but in issues of TMWNN when you relaunch!
	(*) Actually, that sounds wrong. What I mean to say is, "I haven't
had a refund yet". I'm not saying he's not going to give one, and for all
I know, he could well be refunding subbers in order of how long they've
been subbing, which puts me about last.
	Chris Jones (and this is the Chris Jones who subs to BUM and lives
in Middlesbrough, and not the Chris Jones who subs to U-Bend and lives in
Liverpool... did someone mention Mark Wightman?) is thinking about running
a con in Middlesbrough. This would probably be a one-day pubmeet rather
than anything flash. You can ring him on 01642 829556. I did... and ended
up going around to his house and had a Wednesday evening doing DipSoc-esque
things in the middle of a holiday, including playing my first ever game of
El Grande, and winning it by a fair margin. It worries me when this happens
in a game. I won the first two hands of Pit I ever played and then have won
about 3 in the next 40. Not a bad game, El Grande.
	Speaking of Cons, _still_ no joy from Keble College about OxCon
confirmation. I'm going to assume the form I submitted got munged in the
administration and will submit a second as soon as I get back. Grrr.
	This issue is, as you just might have noticed, rather late, because
of post-term depression eased by post-depression inactivity. Um, in an
attempt to get things at least vaguely back on track, I'll declare a soft
deadline for the main 17 OMR deadline; if there are any games with a full
set of orders by then I will adjudicate them, but if you miss it then I'll
hold the game over and not NMR you. Failing the soft deadline, get your
stuff in by 4th February and I'll adjudicate things by flier. I don't want
to let things get unnecessarily far behind, particularly if I'm going to
put the whole subzine on hold while I get my nose to the grindstone for the
exams, and for a few months before then in an attempt to learn some maths
before the dratted papers. How does one learn maths, anyhow?
	So what's bringing on all this depression? Er, I'm just not enjoying
the work and don't have the willpower to make myself sit down and do it, so
I'm drifting further and further behind. Working at home makes things a bit
easier, but only a bit; on the rule of thumb that you work for an hour, take
a short break and then work for another hour, the work:break ratio has been
variable and somewhat non-optimal. I'm very good at finding other things to
do apart from work. And, as you may have noticed, from zine writing. Sport
on TV is a good source of "other things", even wierd things like American
Football. It's nice to see the new teams doing so well in the NFL, though.
	So, to do something about it at Oxford, I'm chopping the amount of
time I spend on the computers right down. At least - that's the theory.
One of the less clueful things Mark implied in OMR 15 was that possessors
of e-mail access were, and here I quote, "sad computer freaks". Rather a
misguided opinion and one Mark would do well to change before long. Now I
know Mark blames the downturn in popularity of traditional postal 'zine
Dip in part on games of Dip taking place by e-mail instead, but I don't
think too many months will pass before a critical mass will be established
sufficient to draw Mark and other 'zine editors in.
	There are three and a half main attractions of the Internet, as
far as I can see. (If I'm preaching to the converted here - play dumb for
just a little while...?) E-mail is a tremendously handy way to keep in
touch with other people, or at least, other people who have e-mail. It's
fast, it's cheap and it's much more suitable for sending short messages
than either the 'phone (where you can get side-tracked) or traditional post
where sending a one-line letter looks, frankly, ridiculously silly.