====== Kray ======


===== Recruitment =====

I grew up on a steady diet of //GAMES// and, while it existed, //The Four-Star Puzzler//; since the 
latter ran some flat-like puzzles, and the former mentioned something about the NPL at some point, 
I was dimly aware of the existence of the organization all along. However, such memories lay dormant 
in my mind until July of 1996. [[Btnirn]] (who I knew from Harvard as well as via the general young 
math-nerd network to which a number of NPLers belong) and I were sharing a house over the summer in 
Princeton, but the night I arrived, he was at the [[cons:1996:photos|Chicago convention]], as I was 
informed by our housemates. The next morning, I was awakened at about 5 AM by a commotion downstairs
--they had returned! "They" being--I think, though I was pretty groggy at the time--[[Btnirn]], 
[[aldesuda|Al de Suda]] and [[lunchboy|Lunch Boy]], who had just driven back from Chicago. (If 
anyone who knows is reading this, feel free to correct me!) I didn't give it too much thought 
at the time except to conclude (correctly) that NPL was a forum for collective insanity. 

Aside from [[Btnirn]]'s prodigious long-distance bills for the rest of the summer, this incident didn't 
have much of an effect on my life until I decided to go to the [[misc:acpt1998|Stamford crossword tournament]] 
the following spring. I asked [[Btnirn]] about it, but it was going to be his first time too, so he 
couldn't answer many of my questions. He did warn me that I would be swamped by NPLers, as indeed I was. 
I guess I succumbed to the peer pressure, and joined shortly thereafter.

//First Issue//: Feb 1997

===== Recruits =====

None. 

===== Nom =====

No, it's not a homonym on the supercomputer company, and it's not (intentionally) four letters appearing in order in my
full name. The K represents either of my initials, and "ray" is the meaning of my first name in Sanskrit. 

==== Combinoms ====

No data.

===== Offices =====

No data.