I'm very happy to say that my team did not win the Mystery Hunt, so I can spend next year writing a thesis, instead of writing a Mystery Hunt. Before the hunt I was very torn over whether I wanted to win or not. I'd like to write one more time, and you can't really choose when you win. But when the word came over Skype that Dr. Awkward had found the coin I was immensely relieved. On top of that, we were a fun good competitive team who can win soon. By next year we'll all be a lot more ready to try our hardest to win, so watch out everyone!

The next several posts will be my comments on the mystery hunt. First general thoughts, second some stuff on the Round 8 meta, and third some particular highlights from the weekend.

And to those of you who are used to this being Alec's movie blog, not Noah's puzzle blog, let me say "go see Pan's Labyrinth." No, really, go see it now. It's that good.