1190: "Time"

[addams]

Reviewing the gif and I stumbled on a revelation. They didn't start building the first castle until AFTER Megan shook building material from her hair. It's not a sand/coffee/semen castle, it's a DANDRUFF Castle.

Are we to assume then, that before T0 they spent so much time sitting on that knoll that they had shed enough dandruff to build this monument?

He didn't say it was all THEIR dandruff.

How structurally sound would a dandruff castle be anyway? We need data. It's time that we all got together for some real world testing.

how structurally sound would a semen castle be? (i'm not suggesting we get together for real world testing on that one)

How structurally sound would a semen-and-dandruff castle be? Sand castles typically require a solid and liquid component anyhow.

...I think I'll just go back to figuring out how Randall got this to keep playing in my room even after I unplugged my speakers and bashed them in with an iron pipe. Some of these HTML5 features feel rather unnecessary.

Everybody must listen to this as we await the next newpix. I declare it part of the religion of the Usserisses.

I like the music.
A Religion with good music can't be all weird.

[k.bookbinder]

Wow..I've been gone for almost 12NP. How long has be been building by himself? I still fervently believe (as any religious zealot should) that Time is about Cueball and Megan. If Megan has been out of the Time Frame for that long, it can't be good.

I refute this claim. Time is the story of the sand castle(s). Megan and Cueball are merely the exposition into the extensive but slow-paced saga of the creation and perhaps ultimate destruction of the Sand Castle.

No no no. The Sandcastle is a representation of the world built by Megan and Cueball as a result of their life together and the "building" of their relationship.

[boozledorf]

I suggest that an overarching period be established starting with frame 180, "The Rising of the Tide". There have been at least three frames since then in which the ocean has changed slightly, generally in the upward direction.

[embracethehate]

Wow..I've been gone for almost 12NP. How long has be been building by himself? I still fervently believe (as any religious zealot should) that Time is about Cueball and Megan. If Megan has been out of the Time Frame for that long, it can't be good.

I refute this claim. Time is the story of the sand castle(s). Megan and Cueball are merely the exposition into the extensive but slow-paced saga of the creation and perhaps ultimate destruction of the Sand Castle.

No no no. The Sandcastle is a representation of the world built by Megan and Cueball as a result of their life together and the "building" of their relationship.

I thought that at first but now I'm starting to think Randall is just screwing around.

[KarMann]

The tide is beginning to rise, guys. Very slowly, but it's happening. It makes another change between 189 and 190.

Weird thing. Between the first post-pan-&-zoom newpix and the last (164 & 192), not only has the water risen by about one pixel, but also, the beach seems to be . . . eroding? The castles haven't budged by even a fraction of a px, but the beach between the first castle and the water is lower or to the left of where it was, if lower then by about 1 px.

[Helper]

Weird thing. Between the first post-pan-&-zoom newpix and the last (164 & 192), not only has the water risen by about one pixel, but also, the beach seems to be . . . eroding? The castles haven't budged by even a fraction of a px, but the beach between the first castle and the water is lower or to the left of where it was, if lower then by about 1 px.

By the end, the entire comic will be nothing but a perfect, white rectangle on top and a perfect, black rectangle on bottom.

[k.bookbinder]

Wow..I've been gone for almost 12NP. How long has be been building by himself? I still fervently believe (as any religious zealot should) that Time is about Cueball and Megan. If Megan has been out of the Time Frame for that long, it can't be good.

I refute this claim. Time is the story of the sand castle(s). Megan and Cueball are merely the exposition into the extensive but slow-paced saga of the creation and perhaps ultimate destruction of the Sand Castle.

No no no. The Sandcastle is a representation of the world built by Megan and Cueball as a result of their life together and the "building" of their relationship.

I thought that at first but now I'm starting to think Randall is just screwing around.

Not necessarily. If Time is a representation of the building of their relationship, condensed in allegorical form, then we've got...what? six years of relationship to cover?

[digimuzik]

If it weren't for the likes of Aubron Wood and such here, I wouldn't be able to follow this comic at all. I already can't follow this thread properly.

No one can follow this thread properly. That's part of the fun.

I have read every single post. It is perfectly possible to follow the thread properly, just not possible to do anything else properly while doing so.

Even the late-added held-in-moderation posts? I know I've been missing some of those. Who knows what great posts we've been missing from newbies?! .... Actually... Probably not much.

[jello34543]

Have we completely given up on hacking the images out? Surely somebody could write a virus that will speed up Randll's computer clock a thousand times or so?

If this had been a .gif to start with, or if it had been hacked/spoiled, most of us would've moved on by now. With a half hour of thought between each subtle change, we have a lot of time to think about it and about ourselves. It's managed to gather and unite a large(ish) collection of people, most of whom had never posted on this forum before, just by making us wait and giving us Time.

Well-put. I'm very glad this wasn't spoiled.

Agreed. I found that I lost interest in Click and Drag much more quickly than I ought to have because the zoom versions sucked the magic out of it. And I just couldn't resist.

Yup.
#Forum Users:
Before Time:500
After Time: 500xnewpix^2

Average Post Count
Before Time: 20
After Time: a lot

Amount of Madness:
Before Time: Normal
After Time: ??? ( we all know there is nothing after the end of Time)
During Time: So big 64bits just ain't enough


( Value are examples they are not real)

I was curious earlier today, so I checked. As of when I counted, there were 1850 new users since Monday. Some of them are now over 100 posts.

Nice one for checking that on monday.
Wow...
That's like ... a lot.
I wonder if Randall was expecting this to become such a MMONS.

To be fair, it's less that 1% of the 237500 registered users. Current count since Monday is 2125, or another 300 in some small number of hours.

[shadowjester]

Still a huge number of users added in a span of 190 newpix or so.

[Lucia]

even more exotic substances

It's okay; it's 2013; it's okay to say it. "Semen." Or, rather: "Caffeinated semen."

Cancerbabies.

[darthjimmy]

Have we completely given up on hacking the images out? Surely somebody could write a virus that will speed up Randll's computer clock a thousand times or so?

If this had been a .gif to start with, or if it had been hacked/spoiled, most of us would've moved on by now. With a half hour of thought between each subtle change, we have a lot of time to think about it and about ourselves. It's managed to gather and unite a large(ish) collection of people, most of whom had never posted on this forum before, just by making us wait and giving us Time.

Well-put. I'm very glad this wasn't spoiled.

Agreed. I found that I lost interest in Click and Drag much more quickly than I ought to have because the zoom versions sucked the magic out of it. And I just couldn't resist.

Yup.
#Forum Users:
Before Time:500
After Time: 500xnewpix^2

Average Post Count
Before Time: 20
After Time: a lot

Amount of Madness:
Before Time: Normal
After Time: ??? ( we all know there is nothing after the end of Time)
During Time: So big 64bits just ain't enough


( Value are examples they are not real)

I was curious earlier today, so I checked. As of when I counted, there were 1850 new users since Monday. Some of them are now over 100 posts.

Nice one for checking that on monday.
Wow...
That's like ... a lot.
I wonder if Randall was expecting this to become such a MMONS.

To be fair, it's less that 1% of the 237500 registered users. Current count since Monday is 2125, or another 300 in some small number of newpix.

FTFY

[buffygirl]

Umm.. several newpix ago, I made the Initiates of Time wiki page, so that's my vote...

Added to the glossary

I want to re-cast my vote! I like Initiates of Time!

[shadowjester]

Caffinatedsemencancerbabies.

[Ayriannah]

I suggest that an overarching period be established starting with frame 180, "The Rising of the Tide". There have been at least three frames since then in which the ocean has changed slightly, generally in the upward direction.

While the ocean has moved, far more interesting things have been going on. 183 onward is currently named "Operation Connect Castle."

KarMann wrote:

Weird thing. Between the first post-pan-&-zoom newpix and the last (164 & 192), not only has the water risen by about one pixel, but also, the beach seems to be . . . eroding? The castles haven't budged by even a fraction of a px, but the beach between the first castle and the water is lower or to the left of where it was, if lower then by about 1 px.

these are tiny changes, which may or may not be intentional.

Wait for it.

Just noticed my postcount is at thirty. I joined yesterday. I have no life.

[digimuzik]

Caffinatedsemencancerbabies.

Someday you're going to be looking through your old posts and come across this and be like, "what the hell?!" Of course, the same could be said for many posts in this thread...

[Wildhound]

Caffinatedsemencancerbabies.

It worries and amuses me in equal measure that a forum populated by people with an interest in a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language can result in an abomination such as this.

[theinklings]

these are tiny changes, which may or may not be intentional.

Wait for it.

To me, those changes don't look like anything to worry about. If the ocean was moving, I think it would be more noticeable.

[KarMann]

I suggest that an overarching period be established starting with frame 180, "The Rising of the Tide". There have been at least three frames since then in which the ocean has changed slightly, generally in the upward direction.

Perhaps a taxonomy of eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages is in order. Or we might want to leave epochs out, to avoid confusion with that other epoch, and the Beginning of Time.

[bouer]

Wolfram Alpha shows daily visitors history for XKCD; I don't see a spike recently.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=xkcd

[Black Hat Guy]

Cueball seems to be trying to combine the two small turrets to form a big tower. You see how he's sweeping them into the center?

[bouer]

Cueball seems to be trying to combine the two small turrets to form a big tower. You see how he's sweeping them into the center?

I think you're right, and if you are it will be the largest (visible) tower yet.

[swey]

Wolfram Alpha shows daily visitors history for XKCD; I don't see a spike recently.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=xkcd

thank you for posting this, i love seeing the html tree for xkcd that was really cool.

[Sedasa]

Regarding finding the forums on the website: You can still find the forums if you go to the About link. There's a forum link on that page. I personally think Randall should switch out the Blag link with a link to the forums since he hasn't updated his blog since September of last year.

[KarMann]

Wolfram Alpha shows daily visitors history for XKCD; I don't see a spike recently.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=xkcd

If you go to the "last month" scale, you can see that it only goes up through March 25 the Epoch. So no, it wouldn't show a spike.

[Wildhound]

Here comes the tick of another newpics.

[AluisioASG]

Regarding finding the forums on the website: You can still find the forums if you go to the About link. There's a forum link on that page. I personally think Randall should switch out the Blag link with a link to the forums since he hasn't updated his blog since September of last year.

He could remove the Store link instead. It's redundant.

[KarMann]

. . . It's late!!!

[boozledorf]

Something's wrong. It isn't updating.

[slinches]

Regarding finding the forums on the website: You can still find the forums if you go to the About link. There's a forum link on that page. I personally think Randall should switch out the Blag link with a link to the forums since he hasn't updated his blog since September of last year.

Or the store link since there's a giant one immediately under the xkcd logo. Of course, this has already been mentioned in the course of over 4k posts.

Edit:
and again on this page. (I need to learn to type faster on this tablet keyboard)

[darthjimmy]

I think it updated. Just very slightly...

[boozledorf]

Nope, same hash.

[dp2]

Something's wrong. It isn't updating.

It's kind of updating. When I refresh, I occasionally get him with a slightly higher tower, but then it reverts to the previous frame within a second.

Edit: @ darthjimmy, no, there's a frame where the tower is clearly higher.

[diego5wh]

I see this when I use the direct link



Edit: I do think the Initiates of Time is the superior name, I would change the poll but there is no way to do such trickery in that simple site.

[HAL9000]

This can't be the end. But someone should run the changed-pixels comparison for this one and the one before it, just to be sure.

[ChronosDragon]

Whoever said Time flows at a constant rate? So far it's already violated that once. At this point we should expect anything.

[darthjimmy]

Sorry, you guys are right. There's a bug.

[KuwabatakeSanjuro]

"To see a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in two newpix." -William Blake

... or something like that.

[buffygirl]

Nope, same hash.

Ooooh! Thank you for the reminder! tehe

[swey]

because its so hard to backtrack through time without ending up further behind in posts, i wanted to see if anyone noticed that megans castle was more fanciful than cueballs and if so i wonder what we'll see when it zooms out again and shows what she's done in the meantime.