1190: "Time"

[KroniK907]

Last panel Black Hat Guy rides a tsunami onto the castle, bearing a flag.

+1

[slinches]

Is it just me or does he seem to be building more slowly than the girl? Maybe he wants to be very precise?

Or perhaps he's just working on parts of it that we can't see.

After watching the .gif it looks like she's done most of the work including nearly all of the battlements. Maybe he just isn't very good at building sand castles?

[thelonesoldier]

What if it never ends?

[KroniK907]

WOOHOOO!!

Officially this comic thread is the 2nd most commented on thread in xkcd history. We are just over half way to reaching #1... Please lets not let it get as far off topic as Pickup artist.... Please...

[inhalvast]

I almost wonder if he's posting these to see how much of a backstory we, the fans, can come up with. Just to see how much we'll read into something as (seemingly) meaningless as two characters building a sandcastle. Just to see how nuts we'll get.

Either way, he's doing a good job. Keep 'em coming.

[Pfhorrest]

WOOHOOO!!

Officially this comic thread is the 2nd most commented on thread in xkcd history.

Only because most of Pressures got moved to General and then locked.

I am impressed it's surpassed Atheists though. I still think that was a better thread. Best ICT thread ever... that thing had some real, intellectually legitimate debate in it.

This is already the most-viewed thread ever too, already topping Umwelt.

[NevadaWolf]

One of the things I am curious about is what happens tomorrow?

Will this end with the posting of the next comic?
Will this continue playing and there won't be a next comic until this ends?
Will there be a new comic *and* this continues to update?

I think I am going to bookmark that wonderful gif by primis and have it as my home page.


(And yes, another new registrant just because of this comic. I've been following this thread since just before the first tower.)

[patzer]

[TheMulattoMaker]

Build faster!

Spoiler:

(waitforitwaitforitwaitforitwaitforitwaitforit)

[KroniK907]

OH BOY such a controversial change!! What new theories will be next??</sarcasm>

[TheMulattoMaker]

OH BOY such a controversial change!! What new theories will be next??</sarcasm>

He's smoothing things out in their relationship, and trying to keep it all on the level.

[Zion426]

I really have to admire Randall here. He posts a few pictures of some people building a sandcastle, and people start seeing metaphors for humanity, civilization, life, death, love, hate, and countless other concepts. The man is good.

[ruurdjan]

Epic ending:
- Search this thread for all proposed endings
- Get IP address of each poster
- Draw all endings
- Serve each address their own strip
- Joy

Best. Present. Ever.

[KarMann]

Last panel Black Hat Guy rides a tsunami onto the castle, bearing a flag.

You forgot about the hurricane, flaming oil slick, and alligators upon which BHG rides..

[9krpm]

I think it is a Robin Sparkles video.

[Oracle]

I'm waiting. I know I should rest. Big day tomorrow. Sigh. Can't leave the my desk now. It's like waiting for a birth with no delivery date required.

[Incognito357]

Well let's see. 1095 posts, 92 frames. that gives roughly 12 posts per frame (or per half hour). Given this number, it would only take about 77 more frames (to 169), or about 38 more hours to reach the 2030 posts in pickup artist. Of course, pickup had over 8 days doing so, and we're already over half way there in less than 48 hours. that's gotta mean something.

Back to topic, however. It seems to me that the 3rd dimension really is a factor, as he is standing on the 2nd level of the tower, but he's still behind the taller part he's working on, so who knows how wide or deep that chunk of sand really is.

Back to her leaving, now. It was mentioned maybe she was leaving to get a camera or flag, but I thought of something else, too. We don't know the relationship of these two characters. They could have just been two people enjoying themselves who spontaneously decided to build a sandcastle together. The guy may have been interested in her, but had to leave for (as of yet) an unknown reason, but didn't want to seem like a jerk for just leaving, so he said 'later'. Of course, now, the girl, possibly not really caring much for him, didn't want him to get the wrong idea when she had to go for whatever reason, and didn't say anything. Then again, maybe they're siblings, so neither of their feelings might be hurt if they leave for whatever reason, but since they're family, they'll probably come back later, just like the guy did. who knows.

[sygnathid]

This might be my second favorite comic, just after click and drag. It is rather cool.

[Colin OOOD]

Perhaps it's his way of saying he's on holiday at the beach with his family; maybe the sequence of images will last until he gets back. It's certainly a good way to keep everyone paying attention if he has to miss a couple of updates.

[jpk]

WOOHOOO!!

Officially this comic thread is the 2nd most commented on thread in xkcd history. We are just over half way to reaching #1... Please lets not let it get as far off topic as Pickup artist.... Please...

You understand, I hope, that this is the most off-topic post in the thread as yet?

[patzer]

[fixer]

He's not as fast at crenellating as she is, is he?

Is "crenellating" even a word?

[AluisioASG]

Such a huge change… or did I miss something?

[JPhi1618]

So, long time listener, first time caller, and all of that. Just registered to say:

Last frame: Your princess is in another castle! April Fools!

Truly epic comic. My guess is way to cheesy, but I had to say it.

[pete3442]

Is the speed of time in the comic changing, or is he this much slower at building than she is?

[SilasW]

Well now I've gone and finally registered. He's definitely slower then her, but now we know that it's going to be crenellated (Google says it's a real word).

[SadinaSaphrite]

Maybe he's slow because he's not used to building sand castles. She was the one who initiated the castle building in the first place.

[free-bee]

Whatever the reason he decided to take this format, it was planned. There is no way it was a sudden idea. All of these images were already on the server. They had to be. I induced this by looking at that huge chunk of JavaScript. It would take a while to come up with that many lines of code. But hey, he may be uploading them on the fly. But it seems like a lot to upload every day (48). Two days uses 96. This has to be something he worked on for a long time. So this is not about something that suddenly happened. Nor recently, even.

[enumerated powers]

So now the question is what happens 2 or 3 frames from now?

It's 10:42 Eastern, and the Wednesday comic should post at Midnight.

Do we get a Wednesday comic, and before that a conclusion to this one, or does this one keep running for another unknown (unknowable) number of half-hour frames?

[jpk]

So now the question is what happens 2 or 3 frames from now?
Do we get a Wednesday comic, and before that a conclusion to this one, or does this one keep running for another unknown (unknowable) number of half-hour frames?

Wait for it...

[Wraithlord]

Just registered to say that this is the most amazing XKCD comic I've seen since Click and Drag. I wonder how long this is going to go on for, because we all have to sleep sometimes don't we?

I bet the last slide is going to be the empty beach as the sand castle is washed away.

[inhalvast]

One of the things I am curious about is what happens tomorrow?

Will this end with the posting of the next comic?
Will this continue playing and there won't be a next comic until this ends?
Will there be a new comic *and* this continues to update?

That's half of the treat of this, isn't it?

I wonder how long Randall has been thinking this comic up...

[Darkfusion]

So now the question is what happens 2 or 3 frames from now?

It's 10:42 Eastern, and the Wednesday comic should post at Midnight.

Do we get a Wednesday comic, and before that a conclusion to this one, or does this one keep running for another unknown (unknowable) number of half-hour frames?

Time will tell.

[LID919]

Finally posting here to join this piece of xkcd history. I've been watching both the progression of the comic, and of this thread, and it reminds me why I love the xkcd world so much. Not only for the genious comic that Randal creates, but the fanbase that has developed here.

Without further adeu, here is my take on the comic:

This progression continues for quite some time, the sand castle gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

Eventually we reach a sort of equalibrium point, with the couple standing back to admire their work.

Then, the cuple leaves the castle behind to go home.

Finally, some event comes and destroys the castle, be it wind, wave, or BHG.

And then, the couple returns, sits down, and the comic loops in this same 30 min update manner, in order to have at least a shadow of the same, "wait for it" effect on future xkcd readers as it has had on us.

That is my take on it.

PS, extra special giant thanks to Aubron for this: http://xkcd.aubronwood.com/

for that link, I vote that Aubron gets 1_E4 internets, 5_E6 Kudos Points, perfect Karma, and all the cookies.

[AluisioASG]

With the self-updating feature, I think people may miss a new comic because they won't refresh the page by themselves.

[franko553]

Is the speed of time in the comic changing, or is he this much slower at building than she is?

This is a good point. It does not make sense to presume that the story is happening in the same time as we are seeing it; there has been no indication of change in light in almost 48 hours, so I must assume that what for us has taken two days now has for the characters taken an afternoon-ish. (A reasonable guess for moderately skilled people constructing a sand castle of that scale.)

But is the same amount of time always passing between each frame?

Given the title of the comic, I would assume that perception and passage of time is meaningful here. Maybe the guy is not slower at building the castle, he is just more perceptive and absorbing more frames of the experience, causing his work to appear slower to us.

[zachbarnett]

If anyone wants to discuss this via IRC, I've created a channel for it: #xkcd-time on irc.foonetic.net.

I'm enjoying all of this speculation.

[Incognito357]

Whatever the reason he decided to take this format, it was planned. There is no way it was a sudden idea. All of these images were already on the server. They had to be. I induced this by looking at that huge chunk of JavaScript. It would take a while to come up with that many lines of code. But hey, he may be uploading them on the fly. But it seems like a lot to upload every day (48). Two days uses 96. This has to be something he worked on for a long time. So this is not about something that suddenly happened. Nor recently, even.

The javascript wasn't in place originally. The version you see now was also not the first version, it is the 7th revision. The only thing it does, as was explained earlier, is fetch an event from one of 7 randomly selected servers, to automatically refresh the image that the server sends it, while also waiting a random number of seconds after the event is received, to help reduce the load from people refreshing. The javascript was an off-the-cuff addition, and IMHO, doesn't give any insight on when the pictures were created. I originally thought (with influence from some of the early debbie downers), that maybe he was passing time waiting for test results, or something, and so was drawing these pictures while he waited, uploading them as he went. Now, however, I believe that there must be some chunk of comics that were ready to go. As far as planned, I'm sure the medium was well planned in advance, but that doesn't mean the comic was.

[patzer]

[buffygirl]

Oh me yarm he moved! This is awesome!