1190: "Time"

[embracethehate]

The hash changed, which is promising, but I didn't notice any changes in the image.

The water (or "liquid") seems slightly disturbed, I think? Or maybe I'm just hopeful.

[Godsguy]

Ripples on the far right

[mojacardave]

Just a little bit of erosion on the leftmost tower.

Oh yes, observant.

Wild mass guessing, begin:

I think that we're going to have a while of gentle erosion, because, for the entire reveal of the second castle, up to this point, no part of the sandcastle has collapsed. I think the start of a collapse now is because we're not going to see people for a while, so Randall needs something to happen in the new frames.

[Nerd Mike]

Have you ever had a perfect day and wished you could make it last forever?

[lovepirate]

I will accept any wager with a person who wants to argue that they are NOT swimming in water and the castles are NOT made of sand. Ignoring the few things we actually know just to spite the people who have thrown actual off-the-wall, unsubstantiated stuff out there is a stupid strategy.

I don't know you from boo, but you seem to be getting a bit emotional over this. Belligerent even. You want to gamble on the safe bet. Sounds good. I prefer to keep my thoughts open and let the story tell me what happens. You keep making assumptions(there is that word again) that I am holding my line of thought because I am either acting in defense or in spite of crazy theories. Why do I voice my preferences openly? Because I find it an interesting way to approach this, and maybe others do to? Why assume the liquid is water? Why assume the land is sand? Why assume the setting is earth? Not to say it isn't, but let the story tell me. Maybe it is just a less obsessive approach.

Yeah, it's the belligerence I didn't get. Especially considering all of the crazy theories that have been floated to this point.
Wait for it.

[Flipperling]

Ever since he stuck his foot in the water, I've been hoping for more ripples. Yay!

[hdhale]

Keep thinking they're swimming in a lake of coffee surrounded by snow if that's what you want, but I promise you that you are wrong. Wait for it, and you'll see.

To be fair, Randall's in Boston, so that is a completely plossible scenario.

I've got More Than a Feeling that might be possible.

Yeah. All of this is just Foreplay. It's gonna be a Long Time before we know anything for certain.

Them maybe it's time to stop checking. I don't need Amanda display a bunch of single frame animations slowly and string me along for days.

If it would just end already I might get some Peace of Mind.

If it does, Don't Look Back.

I just don't know if We're Ready, after it's over we might not be Feelin' Satisfied

Don't worry, We Can Make It.

[zaphodbeebledoc]

Do you think that if anyone started reading the thread all the way through right now, if the posting count continued as it is, would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end? Ever?

Edit. Actually, this reminds me a bit of when I started to read XKCD itself. I started roughly at the beginning of last year, with two tabs open. One with the current pigeoncomic open and on going progressively backwards. At one point I though I had better read it from the start, then I had three XKCD tabs open. With this thread, I've got one I'm trying to read through, while comment, but then I'm reading at the point my comment is posted, which is pages after where I was to begin with!! (I've got 4 tabs of this one thread open right now, and I very confused...)

[lovepirate]

Have you ever had a perfect day and wished you could make it last forever?

Or, "Have you ever experienced a perfect moment in time? When time seemed to stop and you could almost live in that moment."
Wait for it.

[Tass]

I don't live near an ocean or a sea, but would we really see tides over a couple hour period?
Because that's how long I assume must've passed in the comic-verse

Yes. The period of the tides are twelve hours (two periods per day). That means they go from minimum to maximum in six hours.

People are analyzing single pixels. We would have seen it.

[Envelope Generator]

Those flagpoles look like little stick figures wearing capes. Maybe they're in fact statues? Cory Doctorow? Entomology-Man?

[mscha]

Changed pixels are marked in red:



ETfix image URL

[kaiken1987]

Damn erosion that kills my pile of legos around a pool idea.

[HAL9000]

Have you ever had a perfect day and wished you could make it last forever?

I think you just summarized this comic. Congratulations, sir.

[nickulo]

So they'll come back, fix it, Cueball knocks off some more sand, fix that, swim to wash off the sand, more erosion... why are we watching this again? Oh right. Wait for it.

[Phaelin]

No one has gone on the "Swimming is a euphemism for naughty-business" trip yet, I am very shocked!

[lovepirate]

No one has gone on the "Swimming is a euphemism for naughty-business" trip yet, I am very shocked!

I mentioned that, but people chose to focus on the "it's possibly a coffee lake" part of my comment.
Wait for it.

[mojacardave]

I will accept any wager with a person who wants to argue that they are NOT swimming in water and the castles are NOT made of sand. Ignoring the few things we actually know just to spite the people who have thrown actual off-the-wall, unsubstantiated stuff out there is a stupid strategy.

I don't know you from boo, but you seem to be getting a bit emotional over this. Belligerent even. You want to gamble on the safe bet. Sounds good. I prefer to keep my thoughts open and let the story tell me what happens. You keep making assumptions(there is that word again) that I am holding my line of thought because I am either acting in defense or in spite of crazy theories. Why do I voice my preferences openly? Because I find it an interesting way to approach this, and maybe others do to? Why assume the liquid is water? Why assume the land is sand? Why assume the setting is earth? Not to say it isn't, but let the story tell me. Maybe it is just a less obsessive approach.

Yeah, it's the belligerence I didn't get. Especially considering all of the crazy theories that have been floated to this point.
Wait for it.

No I'm sort of with blowfishhootie. There are plenty of mysteries in this comic. Making new ones which don't exist is quite frustrating.

Maybe the setting isn't "a beach on Earth", but there's NOTHING to suggest that yet. Assuming otherwise is "hearing hoofbeats and predicting zebras".

[Srt252]

Do you think that if anyone started reading the thread all the way through right now, if the posting count continued as it is, would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end? Ever?

Sounds like a candidate for the next What-If? haha

[astrotter]

OK, the prior on the variance of the height of the horizontal surface just got broader. I back away from my pavement theory in light of ~1 pixel ripples that have appeared, most likely due to out-of-frame frolicking in liquid. It could be a very large ball pit basin, filled with ~1 cm diameter balls. But that would be something one would more likely frolic on, not in. Unless you wanted to...die...
Oh me yarm, hey guys! Maybe this is all some kind of metaphor for mortality! Any of y'all thought of that?

[lovepirate]

I will accept any wager with a person who wants to argue that they are NOT swimming in water and the castles are NOT made of sand. Ignoring the few things we actually know just to spite the people who have thrown actual off-the-wall, unsubstantiated stuff out there is a stupid strategy.

I don't know you from boo, but you seem to be getting a bit emotional over this. Belligerent even. You want to gamble on the safe bet. Sounds good. I prefer to keep my thoughts open and let the story tell me what happens. You keep making assumptions(there is that word again) that I am holding my line of thought because I am either acting in defense or in spite of crazy theories. Why do I voice my preferences openly? Because I find it an interesting way to approach this, and maybe others do to? Why assume the liquid is water? Why assume the land is sand? Why assume the setting is earth? Not to say it isn't, but let the story tell me. Maybe it is just a less obsessive approach.

Yeah, it's the belligerence I didn't get. Especially considering all of the crazy theories that have been floated to this point.
Wait for it.

No I'm sort of with blowfishhootie. There are plenty of mysteries in this comic. Making new ones which don't exist is quite frustrating.

Maybe the setting isn't "a beach on Earth", but there's NOTHING to suggest that yet. Assuming otherwise is "hearing hoofbeats and predicting zebras".

I'm not predicting anything, merely keeping all options open. I have no need or reason to do otherwise. Just because zebras are unlikely doesn't mean the hoofbeats aren't from zebras. But I'm not saying they're zebras either, I'm content merely to wait for it and see.

[HAL9000]

OK, the prior on the variance of the height of the horizontal surface just got broader. I back away from my pavement theory in light of ~1 pixel ripples that have appeared, most likely due to out-of-frame frolicking in liquid. It could be a very large ball pit basin, filled with ~1 cm diameter balls. But that would be something one would more likely frolic on, not in. Unless you wanted to...die...
Gee Willikers, hey guys! Maybe this is all some kind of metaphor for mortality! Any of y'all thought of that?

All that and baby cancer.

[k.bookbinder]

Is it my imagination or is it panning again?

[Lord Cathbad]

Do you think that if anyone started reading the thread all the way through right now, if the posting count continued as it is, would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end? Ever?

Sounds like a candidate for the next What-If? haha

I think it's doable. I mean, we've been able to catch up so far after we've gone to sleep. Some people give up because they're impatient to get to the current page, but the rate of reading is faster than the rate of posting.

[StratPlayer]

It's amazing, kinda cool, and yet slightly disturbing how much of my own time I've devoted to this comic, waiting for pixilated stick-figures to slowly build a sand castle. It was even enough to turn me from stealthy lurker into registered poster, which has led me to soaking even MORE of my time into this.

I need to get some of my own fresh air this weekend, I think...

But it is still very cool how this comic warps time --

It's in the present -- we watch and wait for each new updated image and absorb and dissect it.

It's in the past -- this 'was' the comic from last Monday, superceded by yesterday's "newer" one.

It's in the future -- it's still unravelling and we keep speculating about what's going to happen.

Yep. Very cool...

[embracethehate]

Honestly, the lake/ocean/sea/puddle can be whatever the heck you want it to be, right? It's not like Randall's gonna come knocking on your front door to correct you.

It's obviously jello anyway.

[Srt252]

Do you think that if anyone started reading the thread all the way through right now, if the posting count continued as it is, would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end? Ever?

Sounds like a candidate for the next What-If? haha

I think it's doable. I mean, we've been able to catch up so far after we've gone to sleep. Some people give up because they're impatient to get to the current page, but the rate of reading is faster than the rate of posting.

... for now. Perhaps a bit too much of my mornings consist of catching up on this thread

[pdg]

Day 4

I have been obsessed with this slowly-changing comic now for what seems to be forever. My life before "Time" is a hazy and distant memory. Postulations that the water may in fact be ice, or pavement, a non-newtonian liquid, or coffee surrounded by snow, or lava, or jello, or a ball pit, no longer seem outlandish to me. Somehow finding a way to incorporate a slow-but-ever-changing scene onto items of apparel prompts me to look for ways to make it possible, rather than scoffing at such impossibilities.

Frankly, I fear for my sanity at this point, but I cannot tear myself away from it either.

[mscha]

Is it my imagination or is it panning again?

The former. All changed pixels are marked in the image a few posts up.

[peewee_RotA]

Keep thinking they're swimming in a lake of coffee surrounded by snow if that's what you want, but I promise you that you are wrong. Wait for it, and you'll see.

To be fair, Randall's in Boston, so that is a completely plossible scenario.

I've got More Than a Feeling that might be possible.

Yeah. All of this is just Foreplay. It's gonna be a Long Time before we know anything for certain.

Them maybe it's time to stop checking. I don't need Amanda display a bunch of single frame animations slowly and string me along for days.

If it would just end already I might get some Peace of Mind.

If it does, Don't Look Back.

I just don't know if We're Ready, after it's over we might not be Feelin' Satisfied

I think they ran out of hits. Maybe we should focus on a different Rock and Roll Band

[Lord Cathbad]

Honestly, the lake/ocean/sea/puddle can be whatever the heck you want it to be, right? It's not like Randall's gonna come knocking on your front door to correct you.

It's obviously jello anyway.

... But what if he does?

[astrotter]

OK, the prior on the variance of the height of the horizontal surface just got broader. I back away from my pavement theory in light of ~1 pixel ripples that have appeared, most likely due to out-of-frame frolicking in liquid. It could be a very large ball pit basin, filled with ~1 cm diameter balls. But that would be something one would more likely frolic on, not in. Unless you wanted to...die...
Gee Willikers, hey guys! Maybe this is all some kind of metaphor for mortality! Any of y'all thought of that?

All that and baby cancer.

Now that would be going too far. Puppy cancer, maybe, but not that.

[loquinmalie]

My thought is that it's a lake with a large beach or maybe a lagoon, but not the typical coastal beach. There really isn't enough water movement - the ocean has waves, not just tides.

[free-bee]

It's not like Randall's gonna come knocking on your front door to correct you.

Though it'd be cool of him to. I'd like to meet 'em.

[Dracomax]

Honestly, the lake/ocean/sea/puddle can be whatever the heck you want it to be, right? It's not like Randall's gonna come knocking on your front door to correct you.

It's obviously jello anyway.

death of the author says that even if he did, you wouldn't have to accept it.
also, the swimming in the water is symbolic of the fact that the pregnancy the comic announced happened five years ago and it's the fifth birthday of the stickpeople's child.

[nccknight]

Been lurking since Monday and wanted to post before this thread reached 100 pages. Done.

[Scott Auld]

Castle fell down on the left side while they were swimming.

[Arther]

We're definitely not panning, although there does seem of be some decay on the far left of the panel.

EDIT: beaten by one post there... There was a also a few pixels of charge between frames 124 and 125 too, then one blank repeat (no changes), then we started zooming.

[fixer]

Do you think that if anyone started reading the thread all the way through right now, if the posting count continued as it is, would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end? Ever?

Sounds like a candidate for the next What-If? haha

I think it's doable. I mean, we've been able to catch up so far after we've gone to sleep. Some people give up because they're impatient to get to the current page, but the rate of reading is faster than the rate of posting.

Only if you haven't got anything else to do today. I had to give up and skip as I cannot miss my doctor's appointment at 3:45.

[9hili9]

I apologize if this has been suggested previously. If so, I missed it.

Sea; bay; lake; pond; river ...

Could it be that they are now swimming in the moat of a castle that they have just re-created in miniature?