1190: "Time"

[azule]

All hail Pope Azule!
Dammit, HAIL, I said!

Oh, FUCK.

[Eternal Density]

All hail Pope Azule!
Dammit, HAIL, I said!

Oh, FUCK.

Or you can leave me as Pope Of The Hat Pillar. (POTHP)

[higgs-boson]

Oh dear, for the sake of the Anointed One, we should take a long nap.

I throw in my vote for the newpix on #36, which should make the number of votes on that: 2.

And I've, again a request to our pixel wizards - I'd like to see a multi-exposed cover-it-all picture:
The more often a pixel was black* the darker it would be in THE frame.
e.g. the shore/beach/whatever would be solid black, the sky white... and much greyscale in between (damn the panning!).

Of course, there would be some... blurr. But it would be interesting!



*For the sake of simplicity all darker than #606060 should be considered black. All other are not black. Yes.

[Jafloi]

If you had to pick just one timeframe to symbolise the whole of the One True Comic, witch would it be? I need just that for a outside-originated project, but can not decide witch to use... preferably one before NP 124, for the simplicity. Can you help?

403. M with the mini trebuchet. Oh, you wanted before 124.
So, 21, M shaking sand out of her hair. Although 78 is a close second.

Thanks for the vote(s)
The NP 124-limit is not relevant anymore, se note ^B.

Added one vote for #403, and 0.5 vote for #21, just to make things a bit less like the outside world.^C
[edit:]And two for #36

For new readers:

Spoiler:

If you had to pick just one timeframe to symbolise the whole of the One True Comic, witch would it be? I need just that for a outside-originated project, but can not decide witch to use... preferably one before NP 124, for the simplicity.^B Can you help?

Spoiler:

I vote for newpix #403 with the close-up of the minitrebuchet in Megan's hands. It was totally unexpected, totally different from any other newpixes and totally adorable.

Seems to me that would be sort of the opposite of representative. Nobody who looks at it - without knowing the greater context already - will get much sense of what the rest of the OTC is like.

i voted for 78 because of the original poster's desire to stay earlier than - what was it, 174? But I do like #385.

Votes so far:*****
(please feel free to vote on any timeframe, before or after NP 124)^B

First frame:* 7 ^A
Second frame: 1
Fifth: 1
21st: 0.5
25th: 1
35th: 1
36th: 2
52nd52th: 2^D
61st: 1
78th: 2
107th: 1
167th: 1
385th: 2
403rd: 3
404th: 3
Last**: 2

*Because I am not Lord Randall the Almighty, the "first" frame referred to is the first at http://xkcd.aubronwood.com/time
**Can someone provide me a link?***
***...And not to http://xkcd.com/time****
****Yes, I mean the absolute last one, the newpix without subsequent newpix(es).
*****Should be remembered: Comic #915
^AShould be mentioned that many of these votes comes with the exception that no sole newframe can compare with the Time as an unity.
^BNot relevant anymore, I have started the project, and chosen no. 1*
^CThat means that I count double votes as two individual votes, if you think you should second your own vote, then I'll count it as two (or more, if I am in the mood for it).

[Edit2:]^DAdded vote for fifty-tooth
[Edit3:] My 32nd10000th post! Wohoo!!
[Edit4:]Bug-fix

[Eternal Density]

I vote the so called "52th", or fifty-tooth.

[Flado]

we can have Pre-diluvian and Antediluvian Epochs.

I bet the Latin Police already took care of that^∮, but here it is just in case: pre- and ante- mean the same thing.

^∮ The Western Paradox Church will retain loving memories of its neglected Transcedental^∬ Imaginator.

We have a vacancy for a Transcedental Imaginator.

^∬ Transcedental!? Oops... No, I meant Transcendental! Really! No! No! Noooooo...

[Eternal Density]

I wasn't expecting the Latin Police.

[spamjam]

[KarMann]

I wasn't expecting the Latin Police.

Whaddya mean?! I'm right here!!

[lmjb1964]

we can have Pre-diluvian and Antediluvian Epochs.

I bet the Latin Police already took care of that^∮, but here it is just in case: pre- and ante- mean the same thing.

^∮ The Western Paradox Church will retain loving memories of its neglected Transcedental^∬ Imaginator.

We have a vacancy for a Transcedental Imaginator.

^∬ Transcedental!? Oops... No, I meant Transcendental! Really! No! No! Noooooo...

Well, maybe I was just being paradoxical! Didja ever think of that? Huh? No, seriously, I just screwed up. You missed my facepalm a page or so back. I knew that, really. See, I was going to make some joke about anti-diluvian and antediluvian, but then decided not to, but then..

Screw it. I'm going back to edit that post.

(Edited to fix punctuation.)

[BlitzGirl]

Quest progress: 305 out of 355 pages.
The Observation/Observed Platform. NP 560.

Spoiler:

Quest progress: 223 out of 303 pages.
The Architect Age. NP 342.

Alas, I came to this thread hundreds of newpix after the Beginning of Time. As penitence for my lateness and as a demonstration of my devotion I have set out on a quest to read every page of the One True Thread, like the noble Beidah long before me.

Quest progress: 77 out of 223 pages.
The Populated Period of Expansion. NP 156.

I send forth this message now in the fervent hope that I shall encounter it again on my journey, tangled in the thread of Time.

All congratulations to BlitzGirl, for reading another 146 pages and reaching this point. Success on the remaining pages.

At last! I have spotted the initial signpost I left for myself, when I first began my travels. And an encouraging message from Foarm, for which I am grateful. There are still many newpages to go, looming ahead like strange structures on the sand. But now I have passed the first marker. Henceforth, I follow my own breadcrumbs forward into the future, though they were left by myself in the past. The thread of Time is a strange and wonderful place, my friends. I would say that Time has no meaning here, were not the exact opposite true.

Onward!

At last! I have spotted the signpost that spotted the initial signpost I left for myself when first I began my travels. Which means all signposts I hereafter encounter shall be 2 layers deep. Wish me luck, compatriots in Time!
Among the mentions of chess-playing avians (are these the ones that later pilot produce?), an eerily relevant Far Side comic (the other Other Comic?), and the return of the miscarriedcancerbabies (of course), there were these kind responses to my signpost:

Spoiler:

BlitzGirl's posts are somewhat reassuring. I hope she makes it!

Congratulations on reaching the First Signpost! This historical moment shall be remembered in the Chronicles of Time!

A disturbingly large number of past newpages have had discussions about me, as well:

Spoiler:

<quote-snip>
See also Zeno's Paradoxes*

*provided you can get past the half-way point...

I know those paradoxes could be a problem, but what I really meant was that BlitzGirl will be at the location of my post in 5 days.

@BlitzGirl: Good luck with the aforementioned paradoxes. I hope you can beat them, so you shall be known as BlitzGirl Temporal Knight and beater of paradoxes.

EDIT (April 14th): Of course "Temporal Knight" should be "Knight Temporal", but back in time when I wrote this post my knowledge of your precise title wasn't known to me.

At least I don't have to add the paradox-beater title until I actually beat a paradox. Or do I?

<temporal edit>

Blitzgirl:
[spoiler]I hope you are doing well in your quest; we are cheering you on with more and more excitement as you get closer to catching the fast train we're riding into the future! BEAUTIFUL job on the poem, too!

There's a TRAIN?! No wonder I'm so far behind the rest of you - I've been walking the whole time!

<snip>

As one of those in the thread at the present Time, my past self welcomes you. May the rest of your journey be swift and filled with madness, and may Zeno not catch you.

Zeno will never catch me. He has some hangup about a paradox.

Lord Cardinals,

I hereby beseech you to formally appreciate BlitzGirl, yet no fully initiated member of our society, but in following her Quest in holy solitude giving an example to all of us in both dedication and humbleness.

I ask you to grant BlitzGirl First Of The True Followers Of Time's time*.
The appointment may take place in absentia and not to be refused by the recipient, which then shall be adressed as "Anointed One"**. There shall be no neither authority nor obligation tied to title and office; but word coming from the Anointed One shall always considered being of wisdom.

udscbt, as prefect of the Congregatio pro Doctrina Temporis I humbly ask you to review this request and ensure it being of pure intentions.

<higgs!>


*This shall be abbreviated as FOTTFOTT, however never used to address the dignitary in question.
**Degenderation applied properly.

I was under the impression that BlitzGirl was already 'cardinal tempus viator' (or will be when she reaches page 260) and then pope/mome when she reaches 288?

That said, she is an inspiration and you can never have too many titles so:

I, descor, do formally nominate BlitzGirl for the post of First Of The True Followers Of Time's time subject to approval from the Congregatio pro Doctrina Temporis and pending ratification from another Cardinal or Pope Helper, should he return.

I haven't come across the ratification for this title yet, so I can't add it. But thank you for the nomination, I think? *looks worriedly at title-list-length*

Oh, and I found the moment when cmyk went astray and lost the Whistle of Temporal Harmony:

Spoiler:

Whistle != Triforce.

To hell with it, it's plastic and smells funny anyway. I'll probably just pawn it off to my past self.



ETA: Done.

Knights Temporal, UNITE!




I said... UNITE!









...I might need my whistle back.

Don't worry, it's still in my pocket. How is it that a Whistle of Temporal Harmony causes so much temporal discord?

Further sigcouragment:

Spoiler:

Congratulations BlitzGirl, she who wades through the waiting. May the newpages ahead be filled with wonders worth waiting for.

Blitzgirl:
The Knights Temporal eagerly await your arrival, O traveler of Things that are on my side for 600, Alex![/b]

Once upon a Time, BlitzGirl will arrive, and then we shall all wait for it happily ever after!

My thanks to you, you who dwell in Time's present!

Even More Spoilers for Blitzgirl!
Dike, Dyke, Damn, Dam. It will make sense, I swear.

If you say so.

Dear Blitzgirl,

I don't know if you got my previous message and I just missed your reply, but I got tired of reading the same message so I decided it was time for a new one.

Your Eternal Servant And Companion Through Time,
Dame Not-Bob
Temporal Defender Of The One True Comic

I believe I got it, but I have done so much quoting of quoting of quoting of pastposts that I don't remember for sure. It would be embedded in one of my signposts if I had; I have been noting every message I see. But I have had so many signposts! I need a wiki of myself just to keep up with my past self quoting people in signposts that will be read someday by my future self!

Transient Arrhythmia
BlitzGirl's on a journey that'll never end
She treads on and on, my friends
Time started pulling her to trudge right thru the past
The babbling elongates it more forever now that…

BlitzGirl's Accompaniment:
I'm on a Quest that never ends!
Yes, I Quest on and on, my friends.
Set out to read the thread of Time not knowing what it was,
And I'll continue reading it forever just because...

Finally, another lost gem from page 298! *feeds through Time vortex*

The fuck is going on in this thread?

Poor Outsiders. They see, but they do not seminatedcoffeebaconcancerbabies sea.

And away I go into the future!

[Exodies]

Some thoughts:

-In 667 & 669 I think maybe the bucket is wiggling because M&C are hurrying -- the went and looked at the erosion (slide 664) and became concerned (slide 666 -- ooooooh!), and then got in a big hurry.

-Can we all just pause and consider the following: Randall has created almost 700 images for The One True Comic. That is OVER HALF the number of comics he has ever posted. This is a Big Deal!

-Just to say something I don't recall anyone saying before ... I do sometimes feel uncomfortable with the cancer references... I worry it might hit Randall a little close to home (i.e. not funny), even tho he doesn't read the fora. Just ... in principle.

-----------------
Lastly: Ok, ok, I'm behind on the hats! I don't even remember who needs hats anymore.

now it's coma for me

We've all had cancer, both ourselves and our loved ones. It's as funny as everything else in this world.

[lmjb1964]

Just updated the Book of Time Forum indexes for recent posts and as a bonus here is some Thread posting stats
Top 50 thread posters:

Spoiler:

Total Posts: 14135
KarMann 597
Helper 377
HAL9000 309
buffygirl 288
AionArap 285
bigcrag92 246
StratPlayer 241
cmyk 211
SBN 191
peewee_RotA 186
udscbt 173
ChronosDragon 166
tman2nd 166
kryton 162
mojacardave 157
Exodies 156
swey 150
Smithers 148
Mr Moriaty 147
histrion 142
bouer 136
Dracomax 133
htom 133
SWuh 129
azule 127
patzer 121
mscha 120
Opiboble 119
AluisioASG 108
TheMulattoMaker 103
Kieryn 100
Latent22 100
boozledorf 96
higgs-boson 95
Wraithlord 95
chem1190c 93
KroniK907 86
Shepherdess 86
edo 84
Lord Cathbad 82
PinkShinyRose 82
digimuzik 77
Valarya 72
Caswallon 69
Grepus 69
spamjam 69
Eternal Density 68
riverssong 68
Whizbang 67
jjjdavidson 65

Missed it by THAT much.

[silent_death]

Quest progress: 305 out of 355 pages.
The Observation/Observed Platform. NP 560.
<snip>
A disturbingly large number of past newpages have had discussions about me, as well:
</snip>

They will only get more - you will see.

[lmjb1964]

-Just to say something I don't recall anyone saying before ... I do sometimes feel uncomfortable with the cancer references... I worry it might hit Randall a little close to home (i.e. not funny), even tho he doesn't read the fora. Just ... in principle.

I've had the same thought from time to time, and I've often wondered no one else has mentioned it. At this point in the forum, though, the word cancer, especially bundled with semencoffeebaconicebabies,loses some of its power. For what it's worth, I'm a cancer survivor, diagnosed with breast cancer a few months before--Megan? Is that her name? Going through it sort of "with" them is one of the things that bonded me to xkcd.

I don't propose that I in any way speak for all cancer survivors, but I do think we all have a need to find humor in these things. (I went to a costume party as Uncle Fester while I was going through chemo.)

And I know that it's come up earlier in the forum, but are we absolutely positive Randall hasn't read this thread? Even if he doesn't normally visit the fora, this isn't a normal comic, or a normal thread. If I was writing this month-long comic (and totally f-ing with my readers' expectations ), I'd want to at least peek in to see what my readers thought of it. But maybe some of you know him and know for a fact he hasn't visited.

[higgs-boson]

Just updated the Book of Time Forum indexes for recent posts and as a bonus here is some Thread posting stats
Top 50 thread posters:

Spoiler:

Total Posts: 14135
KarMann 597
Helper 377
HAL9000 309
buffygirl 288
AionArap 285
bigcrag92 246
StratPlayer 241
cmyk 211
SBN 191
peewee_RotA 186
udscbt 173
ChronosDragon 166
tman2nd 166
kryton 162
mojacardave 157
Exodies 156
swey 150
Smithers 148
Mr Moriaty 147
histrion 142
bouer 136
Dracomax 133
htom 133
SWuh 129
azule 127
patzer 121
mscha 120
Opiboble 119
AluisioASG 108
TheMulattoMaker 103
Kieryn 100
Latent22 100
boozledorf 96
higgs-boson 95
Wraithlord 95
chem1190c 93
KroniK907 86
Shepherdess 86
edo 84
Lord Cathbad 82
PinkShinyRose 82
digimuzik 77
Valarya 72
Caswallon 69
Grepus 69
spamjam 69
Eternal Density 68
riverssong 68
Whizbang 67
jjjdavidson 65

Missed it by THAT much.

I feel great dislyke about toplists.

[spamjam]

[Flotter]

The bukkit goes up and also down and also up and also down...

I wonder how long the rightmost tower will remain standing.

[Bytes]

And away I go into the future!

I think that should be 'And away I go, forward into the past!'

Keep going Blitz girl, you're definitely catching up!

[cmyk]

<snip> And I've, again a request to our pixel wizards - I'd like to see a multi-exposed cover-it-all picture:
The more often a pixel was black* the darker it would be in THE frame.
e.g. the shore/beach/whatever would be solid black, the sky white... and much greyscale in between (damn the panning!).

Of course, there would be some... blurr. But it would be interesting!

Here ya go! (I did two ranges, 0-125 & 163-700, omitting the zoom-out).





Also, I do have frames 0-700 ready to make as an animated gif (with post-applied Motion Burring )... I'll link to that when I can.

[silent_death]

My God, my heart just stopped when the fora server went down for the last half an hour...thank randall that its back. The only Reassurance I had during this dark time was that Time did in fact not stop.

I think my life is now officially connected to this thread.

[Exodies]

Anyone know what tomorrows ordinary comic will be about?

[Latent22]

At least the forum is back up again.

Also fixed a few errors I made in the Book of Time Forum links. Plus optimized it a bit.

[cmyk]

My God, my heart just stopped when the fora server went down for the last half an hour...thank randall that its back. The only Reassurance I had during this dark time was that Time did in fact not stop.

I think my life is now officially connected to this thread.

Yeh, that was weird. I thought we broke the forum for a sec. I noticed it was down just as soon as I finished those frame blends and finally came back online about 10 mins after.


Here's the motion blurred animated gif (frames 0-700)

[silent_death]

My God, my heart just stopped when the fora server went down for the last half an hour...thank randall that its back. The only Reassurance I had during this dark time was that Time did in fact not stop.

I think my life is now officially connected to this thread.

Yeh, that was weird. I thought we broke the forum for a sec. I noticed it was down just as soon as I finished those frame blends and finally came back online about 10 mins after.


Here's the motion blurred animated gif (frames 0-700)

Nice Job! Looks very amazing...Weeks of waiting in an instant...also weird.
I think it is still nice to think that future Generations will look at this comic in a gif form, probably not unlike yours, and will have absolutly no fucking clue how there can be a meaningful 300+ Page discussion about two people building a sandcastle.

[higgs-boson]

<snip> And I've, again a request to our pixel wizards - I'd like to see a multi-exposed cover-it-all picture:
The more often a pixel was black* the darker it would be in THE frame.
e.g. the shore/beach/whatever would be solid black, the sky white... and much greyscale in between (damn the panning!).

Of course, there would be some... blurr. But it would be interesting!

Here ya go! (I did two ranges, 0-125 & 163-700, omitting the zoom-out).
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/558 ... eBlend.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/558 ... eBlend.png
Also, I do have frames 0-700 ready to make as an animated gif (with post-applied Motion Burring )... I'll link to that when I can.

Oh ye gods. Looks just great. Thanks.

My God, my heart just stopped when the fora server went down for the last half an hour...thank randall that its back. The only Reassurance I had during this dark time was that Time did in fact not stop.

I think my life is now officially connected to this thread.

Yeh, that was weird. I thought we broke the forum for a sec. I noticed it was down just as soon as I finished those frame blends and finally came back online about 10 mins after.


Here's the motion blurred animated gif (frames 0-700)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/558 ... onblur.gif

Amazing, too. However, this one I'd like to see with even more blurr. I don't think that it'd be wise to apply as much blurring as needed to read the longer dialogues on the fly (and they would overlap, later), but even that I'd like to see very much.

[Jafloi]

If anybody is curious what was the original reason I posted this:

If you had to pick just one timeframe to symbolise the whole of the One True Comic, witch would it be? I need just that for a outside-originated project, but can not decide witch to use... preferably one before NP 124, for the simplicity. Can you help?

...Then some of the answer can be viewed below:

Spoiler:

If not, then I suppose you should just continue with your life in some way or another..

[Edit:](Hopefully) fixing pic...
[Edit2:]Giving up pic, changing to link...
[Edit3:]Trying one more time....

[Latent22]

Here's the motion blurred animated gif (frames 0-700)

Strange it stops for me at from 498. May be my firefox limiting it to 500 frames maybe not sure.

[Latent22]

If anybody is curious what was the original reason I posted this:

If you had to pick just one timeframe to symbolise the whole of the One True Comic, witch would it be? I need just that for a outside-originated project, but can not decide witch to use... preferably one before NP 124, for the simplicity. Can you help?

...Then some of the answer can be viewed below:
If not, then I suppose you should just continue with your life in some way or another..

That Dropbox image won't display for me and had to go to the image location manually to see it sorry.

Looks really cool!! Is it a picture of real wood or a gimp/photoshop creation?

Need to make that for the front cover of the Book Of Time we send to Randall

Edit. Hint you can upload it as an attachment to the forum then you don't need a hosting website like dropbox

[rmsgrey]

Here ya go! (I did two ranges, 0-125 & 163-700, omitting the zoom-out).

The pan makes another discontinuity - 163-215 and 218-700 might work better.

[Jafloi]

If anybody is curious what was the original reason I posted this:

If you had to pick just one timeframe to symbolise the whole of the One True Comic, witch would it be? I need just that for a outside-originated project, but can not decide witch to use... preferably one before NP 124, for the simplicity. Can you help?

...Then some of the answer can be viewed below:
If not, then I suppose you should just continue with your life in some way or another..

That Dropbox image won't display for me and had to go to the image location manually to see it sorry.

Looks really cool!! Is it a picture of real wood or a gimp/photoshop creation?

Need to make that for the front cover of the Book Of Time we send to Randall

It is actually fully analogue carved wood, only used photoshop to adjust the clarity etc.
But the Dropbox image won't display to me either, any idea of how to fix it?

[Latent22]

[Flotter]

Miraculously the 11:00 UTC pic hasn't been posted yet (yes, the time on the forum seems to be one hour off).

Spoiler:

Blast, ninja'd!

[StormAngel]

Just updated the Book of Time Forum indexes for recent posts and as a bonus here is some Thread posting stats
Top 50 thread posters:

Spoiler:

Total Posts: 14135
KarMann 597
Helper 377
HAL9000 309
buffygirl 288
AionArap 285
bigcrag92 246
StratPlayer 241
cmyk 211
SBN 191
peewee_RotA 186
udscbt 173
ChronosDragon 166
tman2nd 166
kryton 162
mojacardave 157
Exodies 156
swey 150
Smithers 148
Mr Moriaty 147
histrion 142
bouer 136
Dracomax 133
htom 133
SWuh 129
azule 127
patzer 121
mscha 120
Opiboble 119
AluisioASG 108
TheMulattoMaker 103
Kieryn 100
Latent22 100
boozledorf 96
higgs-boson 95
Wraithlord 95
chem1190c 93
KroniK907 86
Shepherdess 86
edo 84
Lord Cathbad 82
PinkShinyRose 82
digimuzik 77
Valarya 72
Caswallon 69
Grepus 69
spamjam 69
Eternal Density 68
riverssong 68
Whizbang 67
jjjdavidson 65

Missed it by THAT much.

I find that very hard to believe!

I also find it hard to believe that nobody already thought to make this:


Is anybody else finding the fora to be really slow right now?
EDIT: fixed the pic link, glad to know the problem's not just me
I'm PFAN!!!!

[higgs-boson]

[...]
Need to make that for the front cover of the Book Of Time we send to Randall
[...]

Haha. Yes. Of course. Good luck on that.
I thought I could build a flip-book from Time.
Does not seem appropriate anymore. 700+ pages.

The end may be nigh, and maybe it is not.
Don't make promises you do not yet know to be keepable.

[Flotter]

[...]

Is anybody else finding the fora to be really slow right now?

Yes. It took me four minutes to get ninja'd

[KarMann]

Is anybody else finding the fora to be really slow right now?

I, for one, blame Their Holiness, the current Pope For A NewPage. Who is that now, anyway?
. . . oh.

[Flotter]

Forum seems to be at normal speed again

[iisjreg]

Amazing, too. However, this one I'd like to see with even more blurr. I don't think that it'd be wise to apply as much blurring as needed to read the longer dialogues on the fly (and they would overlap, later), but even that I'd like to see very much.

MORE BLURRS!

um, yes, it would be quite acceptable.

[Latent22]

[...]
Need to make that for the front cover of the Book Of Time we send to Randall
[...]

Haha. Yes. Of course. Good luck on that.
I thought I could build a flip-book from Time.
Does not seem appropriate anymore. 700+ pages.

The end may be nigh, and maybe it is not.
Don't make promises you do not yet know to be keepable.

Yeah its quite a few pages... and counting... That is why we need all the help we can get filling up the Book of Time!

If we send it to Randall one page at a time then we have heaps of time to make the book...

Maybe we could send it one page per outside day (24 LongPix). He has made it hard enough with his 1 pic an outside hour. imagine it once a day...

Anyway COMA time here