0445: "I Am Not Good with Boomerangs"

[Luthen]

When I was learning how to through a boomerang, my teacher had a method with a great impetus to improve: you had to catch the boomerang by clapping it between your hands in front of your face. I was only hit in the face twice!

The rightmost panels read from top to bottom is a homage to the movie my super ex-girlfriend..
That is why it is a shark.

That actually makes sense...

That scene was the only good bit of that film.

[thebandit]

The comments about the illusory gray dots in the corners make me want to create a diagram of several squares that actually does have light gray dots in the corners. Could that be a technique of nerd sniping? Reproduce a famous illusion, but change it so that what appears to be true actually is true. And then confuse people who actually expect it to be an illusion.

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/4261/dotswi1.jpg

Ask and ye shall receive.

The strange thing is that even the ones that ARE gray seem to disappear when you look directly at them.

[souldelay]

seems to be an abundance of comics with break ups.

[TheMagicalTurtle]

As has been said in other threads, try refreshing the page, and if that doesn't work, clear your cookies and interwebtubes cache.

The comic resonated for me. Hell, not only boomerangs; I've never really been good with any things you throw. I'm getting better at knives, though.

It frightens me that you aren't skilled at throwing objects, but you decided it was a good idea to get better by using knives.

[souldelay]

As has been said in other threads, try refreshing the page, and if that doesn't work, clear your cookies and interwebtubes cache.

The comic resonated for me. Hell, not only boomerangs; I've never really been good with any things you throw. I'm getting better at knives, though.

It frightens me that you aren't skilled at throwing objects, but you decided it was a good idea to get better by using knives.

what's even more frightening is that we don't know what he's using for target practice. or what unintentionally becomes target-failed.

[markfiend]

Someone should write a little generator that gives you a random selection of the panels to see some truly surreal ones.

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

[souldelay]

Someone should write a little generator that gives you a random selection of the panels to see some truly surreal ones.

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

haha nice I just got 5, 15, 13, and 2

[Tephlon]

Markfiend: That's awesome!

I got 6 - 5 - 16 - 4:

Ouch.

[Beacons!]

5-6-4-1 makes for an interesting story about the little things that turn up in life. Or it could just be a guy playing boomerang with a friend.

[ThemePark]

This one is pretty good as well.

[Tibixe]

You must remember this one:

http://xkcd.com/381/

Placing it on a Möbius-strip is the *only* way of having real fun with one dimensional comics. Now we have a two dimensional comic. Isn't it obvious that this comic should be placed on the surface of a Klein bottle? That would be sooo fun

[Hypergrip]

Start in the lower right panel, use the way the knight moves in chess and you get:

1.) floating girl leaves
2.) ponder
3.) Use [Bommerang] on [mysterious floating girl]
4.) There she is again

Chess - it works, bitches!

/Olli

[NMcCoy]

15-3-10-2 via the randomizer is rather poignant.
1-5-13-8 is awesome.

Any chance we could get the randomizer generalized to more fixed-panel-size xkcds?

[markfiend]

Any chance we could get the randomizer generalized to more fixed-panel-size xkcds?

Well, I hereby release my source code under GPL

Code: Select all

<?php
   $data = array('01','02','03','04','05','06','07','08','09','10','11','12','13','14','15','16');
   shuffle($data);
   for($i = 0; $i < 4; $i++) {
      echo"<img src='xkcd_{$data[$i]}.png' alt='frame_{$data[$i]}' />";
   }
?>

Knock yourself out.

Edit to add: the 16 .pngs are just the 16 frames of today's strip sliced up.

[Raphael]

Markfiend, you are so very cool. Is this one of the world's first hacker-friendly, DIY comic strips?

[random5]

I'd put 13-10-4-7 on a loop Simple but it works. I also like how the shark is kinda bent into a boomerang shape.

[DYRE]

If you want a longer way of reading this, then 1-2-5-9-13-10-6-3-4 is decent

[Linux0s]

Someone should write a little generator that gives you a random selection of the panels to see some truly surreal ones.

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

FTW! My first go was probably the best: 10, 2, 7, 8.

Bet Randall wishes he would have thought of this - random interactive web strip humor.

[d3c31t]

sorry but when ya just look at the comic it creates the little dot illusion with feint gray dots appearing inbetween the panels.... i thought it was kinda cool

[Red Hal]

Gray dots.

Randomised Comic Strips

[Raphael]

I think this one is quite good. It's my favourite of all the ones I've generated so far. Simple, yet perfect. Zenlike.

[markfiend]

Just a thought. With a little twist... GPL release again

Code: Select all

<?php
   $data = array('01','02','03','04','05','06','07','08','09','10','11','12','13','14','15','16');
   shuffle($data);
   for($i = 0; $i < 16; $i++) {
      echo"<img src='xkcd_{$data[$i]}.png' alt='frame_{$data[$i]}' />";
      if ($i % 4 == 3) echo "<br />\n";
   }
?>

We can have all 16 frames randomised.

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/16.php

Edit to add: Sorry Randall.

[Roland Lockheart]

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

I might be in love with you for that.

[Vanguard]

The randomness made this brilliant.

[choginga]

I got 6, 11, 3, 12.

Guy stands there, points, then is attacked by a shark.

[ThemePark]

Brilliant random comic.

Sorry about the top of the panels being cut off, I forgot to scroll up in my browser before I hit Print Screen.

[muku]

Someone should write a little generator that gives you a random selection of the panels to see some truly surreal ones.

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

Gnah. I made one of those after reading the first page of the thread.

Then I read the second page.

I feel useless now.

[JET73L]

I actually thought it was because the shark was shaped like a boomerang, and that iot had nothing to do with the movie. But it does make ensewith the alt-text bonus strip.

I love this comic. I have made two boomerangs, one traditional, and one cross-patterned (wiuth the four wings, rather than two). THe former, I could through, but never got the hang of getting it to come back. THe latter, I could et to come back, but never got the hang of not getting hit in the arm or the head.

Note: Is markfiend's randomizer not working for anyone else?

[sje46]

Brilliant random comic.

Sorry about the top of the panels being cut off, I forgot to scroll up in my browser before I hit Print Screen.

Haha, I love yours. I like the second row, where the guy standing is just attacked by a shark randomly.

Hey, how come when I click News/blag, nothing comes up? Did he add something? I tried to clear my cashews, or whatevre, and it didn't work.

[Astronick]

Someone should write a little generator that gives you a random selection of the panels to see some truly surreal ones.

Your wish is my command

http://www.markfiend.com/xkcd/index.php

Just keep refreshing for different random strips.

ETA: Heh. I just got frames 7, 2, 3, 10. Nice.

Thanks markfiend, that is superb. I would have done it myself but work was calling, sadly. The first one I got has also been my favourite so far:



That is one seriously unlucky guy.

[JET73L]

@ Theme park: I just realised, the last row of panels could be used as a Scientific vs. Normal comic, if it split and had a second fourth panel with a normal person just standing there.

[muku]

Well, FWIW, here's my souped up deluxe randomizer, with manual entry and permalinks:

http://mukuste.x10hosting.com/boomerang/

[Mr. Anderson]

The numbering of a KV-map is the only true order for reading this strip.

[russianspy1234]

i like reading the second column top to bottom

[Drakuun]

The bonus strip doesn't seem to have it's own mouse over popup txt : (

[ADXCKGuy]

I like the 4-panel random strips better than the 16s.

[GBog]

This guy has mad boomerang skills:

randomxkcd.JPG (15.46 KiB) Viewed 12531 times

[zahlman]

Try reading the comic from every possible direction for extra laughs.

Top left to bottom right is pretty surreal...

I like top right to bottom left. (Interpret the second panel as the guy rubbing his forehead after getting hit, rather than searching as in the original context.)

[cs24]

1-16-4-7:

[Evanz]

i was confused by this one at first, and was inspired to read the thread on it... and i've been laughing since
Everyone saying mix and match... its made me look at it and find a funny one =]

5 - 16 - 7 - 2 - 6 - 10 - 4

(sorry if its been done before)