0150: "Grownups"

[Jesse]

Also, I am raising raptor awareness in the workplace. I have left notes for my colleagues, and posted a letter to all managers warning of the danger of raptor attacks when in store.

[miss kyri]

The funny thing is, I learned about all these different webcomics randomly, and never manage to keep track of the relative fanbases.... so i'm always freaked out by seeing something like, say, errant story advertising on S*P... I mean, it makes *sense* but it still bothers me, because I think of Poe as being part of, like, the core or something :p

[Dooreatoe]

Thanks! Once I read that one, I immediately thought, "I must destroy the artistry of this comic by changing it to an 80x80 .gif".

Because, 100x100 wouldn't have ruined the art as much, clearly.

Exactly. (Although I still have the 100x100)

[namatad]

http://www.dasaq.com/Merchant2/merchant ... _Count=188

oooo cheap 6.60 100 or less
Cases Per Case
2-4 $6.53
5-9 $6.47
10-14 $6.40
15-19 $6.34
20+ $6.27


http://cgi.ebay.com/100x-FUN-BALLZ-PLAY ... dZViewItem

13$ per 100
and they make some kind of claim about orders of 600X ....

http://www.oneinc.com/products/index.ph ... llpits.php

a place which has them wholesale, sort of

so, my question to you NUTS
is how many would you buy?
and what is your buy point ??

9$ for 100 ? (the cheapest I was able to find .....)

but .....
if we could get a LARGE order in...
are any of you REALLY interested ??
or just sort of ??

[Verysillyman]

i would be, but not yet. I'm still recovering from my back operation, so i don't think wading through balls to get to my bed is the best option right now. On top of which i'd have to do quite a bit of tidying and rearranging. Otherwise, If i had the money, sure!

[xkcd]

So I haven't looked back over it, but $9/100 is still several thousand dollars at least to fill a room, and more than $10k to fill a room.

[miss kyri]

So I haven't looked back over it, but $9/100 is still several thousand dollars at least to fill a room, and more than $10k to fill a room.

Valid if your talking about two different sized rooms, altho I'm not sure how we're suppose to know

I presume you meant apartment?

[davean]

Thanks! Once I read that one, I immediately thought, "I must destroy the artistry of this comic by changing it to an 80x80 .gif".

Because, 100x100 wouldn't have ruined the art as much, clearly.

Exactly. (Although I still have the 100x100)

Which again raises the question "Why not use the 100x100?".

[zombiereagan]

i think just a room would be a better idea to. I just did a rough estimate to say my friends room is roughly 70 square feet and it came out to $1080 to go 3 feet high and $1800 for 5 ft(the preferred height.)


My math could be wrong on that so the dimensions of his room are 10X7ish.

It's a small room.

[Dooreatoe]

Exactly. (Although I still have the 100x100)

Which again raises the question "Why not use the 100x100?".

Because I thought it was too large to be a forum avatar.

...Until I suddenly remembered that if you upload it from a URL, that doesn't matter. I've lost internet points. *cue sad music*

[Pau!]

Hello!

Recently entering that 'new adult' phase, this comic really made me smile. What I'm noticing most strongly is that the things I always thought would just go away on their own aren't. I still get just as much of a kick as ever from jumping on a trampoline, from tickling and getting tickled, and I'm still tempted to run into the playroom whenever I see one to play in the ball pen. Yet as I speak to more people going through the same things I am, I find I'm not alone. I'm not some developmentally retarded kid... at least, not by myself.

What does this mean?

I don't really know. Maybe growing up is less wanting different things, and more doing different things. We're expected to own things, to make things (and people.) Have you ever noticed how so many middle-aged people seem so...resigned to life? Like they haven't really done what they wanted, but they'll deal, you know?

Just stuff I've been thinking about...

[Shoofle]

I wholeheartedly agree! Also, someone posted some long links...

[henryfish]

Hey guys! First post!

I just thought that I'd like to share this link from snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/odd/beercans.asp

Because while getting a room full of rubber balls is pretty impractical, this is equally as impractical.

But real!



Also, real gross!

[AlliedEnvy]

Hrm, what about balloons? They're larger than ballpit balls, though, and prone to poppage, but not as much if you underinflate them slightly. As a bonus, they're more squishy than plastic balls, and make those cool rubbery-type noises that drive some people crazy. And imagine if you filled them all with helium! A ballpit on your ceiling. Hrm, problems for people with latex allergies, though, unless you use the more costly and less bouncy mylar ones. I imagine you'd have to find a source for compressed air to inflate them all.

[shine_and_shing]

http://www.dasaq.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=48600&Category_Code=ALTY&Product_Count=188

oooo cheap 6.60 100 or less
Cases Per Case
2-4 $6.53
5-9 $6.47
10-14 $6.40
15-19 $6.34
20+ $6.27


http://cgi.ebay.com/100x-FUN-BALLZ-PLAY ... dZViewItem

13$ per 100
and they make some kind of claim about orders of 600X ....

http://www.oneinc.com/products/index.ph ... llpits.php

a place which has them wholesale, sort of

so, my question to you NUTS
is how many would you buy?
and what is your buy point ??

9$ for 100 ? (the cheapest I was able to find .....)

but .....
if we could get a LARGE order in...
are any of you REALLY interested ??
or just sort of ??

I don't see what the dispute is all about.
Just stealing them from McDonald's and other corporate playpens!

Of course, cleaning them might not be worth the effort.

[glitter]

So, for those of you who actually want to do something like this... i recommend going for a single room instead of a whole apartment. surprisingly, every once in a while, you get tired of wading...

a) filling a room with balloons sucks. it is loud when they pop and you can't really lie in them.

b) filling a room with packing peanuts is quite a large amount of fun ... for an evening. cleanup isn't so bad either. rumor has it that passing out in a pile of packing peanuts is good, being buried in them is rather warm, and due to someone passing out in the packing peanuts I wasn't able to investigate certain other activities one might want to try in a pile of packing peanuts. if you are on a university there are often dumpsters full of bags of packing peanuts, or if you invite 50 people over and have each bring a garbage bag of peanuts you are doing pretty well. finally, if you know someone who works at Mailboxes Etc and can arrange so that you can borrow their packing peanut dispenser (which hangs from the ceiling and showers you with peanuts when asked nicely), uh, well, i can't imagine it would detract from the fun...

c) filling a room up with packing paper (what movers wrap glassware in) is also fun, but not as fun as packing peanuts. it is quite like playing in a pile of leaves but minus the dirty.

[LE4dGOLEM]

And Bubblewrap?

[no-genius]

Hey, I've only just realised what happens in the last panel!

[ivnja]

Does anyone else think that the doorknob in the third frame looks like an anime-style tear, as in "oh, I love this...*single tear*"?

yup. it didn't occur to me that it wasn't that until I just read your post and went back to look

[no-genius]

Does anyone else think that the doorknob in the third frame looks like an anime-style tear, as in "oh, I love this...*single tear*"?

yup. it didn't occur to me that it wasn't that until I just read your post and went back to look

Yeah, I was reading it again cos it's the one linked in QC, and I thought it was a tear until I realised it was in the 1st panel too. I love the 4th panel!

[Gelsamel]

I thought it was a door knob all the time :S

[no-genius]

Yeah, but I hadn't seen it in a while

[Myself]

And Bubblewrap?

Bubblewrap for the walls, of course. You could poke or punch it at any time, and it'd help cushion the occasional nosedive when your ankles get confused about the balls.

As for cleaning, just install a central vacuum system with inlets along the baseboards. Open one section at a time and let it inhale the debris from that side of the room. Assume that crud in the middle of the room will eventually make its way to the edges before it gets too gross.

It might be better to just do this in a basement with a floor drain, and hose them down regularly with a sanitizing solution. Pressure-washing a room full of balls could be hilarious in its own right!

The largest ball-crawls I've seen have been outdoors. There's a giant one at Pennywhistle Place, in Michigan. As I recall, the pit itself is a cloth mesh net, leaving plenty of space for crud to fall to the ground and for air to circulate.

Only downside of this strip: I get AC/DC's "big balls" stuck in my head.

[Verysillyman]

I love that song.

[Ephphatha]

Only downside of this strip: I get AC/DC's "big balls" stuck in my head.

For some reason I keep thinking of "She's got balls" by the same artist. (Or at least I think thats the title. It came right after "NOFX - I GOTTA PEE!" in my playlist)

[Grincement]

Seriously, why have you gotta pee in your playlist!?

[AwesomesauceOnCeilingfish]

Today I bought a ball pit to play in, and I thought of this comic.

[milkyway2heaven]

This one was the cutest comic I have ever read.

ever.


ever ever ever ever ever.

[dskippy]

So a bunch of people heard about the email I sent to Randall when he mentioned it at his talk two days ago. A few people told me I should post it here. Since there was no "Post pictures of your ball pit" thread I'm posting in the comic thread that gave me the idea.

A little background: I got 1500 balls on ebay for $60 with $120 shipping and handling. I cordoned off underneath my lofted bed with plastic garden fencing I got from home depot and a frame made of PVC pipe. There is a sofa in the ball pit which is nice to sit of for movies and also takes up a little room so that the rest of it is deeper. I plan to get more balls soon, but it's big enough to bury yourself in as it is.

Here's me buried.


Here's my friend Owen buried.


Since I have OCD I got my friends to organize the pit with me by color.



And the side with the other colors

[Zach]

Ay, that's it. I'm buying some of these.

*Is overcome with jealousy*

[PatrickRsGhost]

Ay, that's it. I'm buying some of these.

*Is overcome with jealousy*

Yep. Next house I buy will have a spare room designated simply as "The Ball Room". I can just hear the conversation now...

Me: Oh, I forgot to mention I have a ball room.
Friends/Guests/Parents: A ballroom? But, you don't dance, nor do you have any fancy parties.
Me: True, but I decided I wanted a ball room. It's all finished and everything.
Them: Let's see it.
Me: (opening door to "ball room", exposing entire 10' x 15' room covered with 3' worth of plastic playpen balls) Voila...the Ball Room.
Them: ...
Me: (climbing over makeshift barrier set up in doorway) Come on in!
Them: ...
Them: But...why?
Me: Because I'm a grownup now and it's my turn to decide what that means.
Them: (climbing over barrier to join in the fun)

The cheapest way to go about doing it (besides finding used playpen balls) is to buy a baby gate, and set it in the doorway. Thing is, I've already got one of those from when I kept the dog in the house in a spare bedroom. So I'm halfway there. I just need the playpen balls.

[Phenriz]

damn it, damn it

why are they so expensive?!

[Sprocket]

I'm just glad yo hair don't look like that no more, Skippy.

[bbctol]

dskippy, I can't decide whether to love or hate you.

[Isaac Hill]

I actually did buy a house with a spare room for a ball room. I've wanted one since I was about 18. At one point, I started stealing balls from restaurants' ball pits. I only had around 12 when I realized that I wouldn't be able to keep them in a dorm room, at least not enough to start a pit with, and my parents probably wouldn't like having them in their house, so I tossed them.

Right now, I only have one playpen ball. I stole it from a McDonald's the night my friends and I went to see Wesley Willis. It's embossed with the McD's logo and signed by Wesley, so it's more of a souvenir than something to jump on.

About how many cubic feet do 1500 balls take up? The room I'm thinking of using is around 10' x 11', and I want to go around 3' deep, and I'm wondering how many I need.

I've considered the baby gate, but if I get really ambitious, I may try cutting the existing door in half, so the top opens separately from the bottom. To do that, I'd probably have to flip the door upside down; that would make the doorknob higher, so I could make the cut higher and have a 6" deeper pit. I may do this to the closet door as well, so I can keep a TV in there, and throw playpen balls at talking heads who annoy me.

[mikesty]

I always wanted a trampoline as a kid, and now that I'm 18, I've decided someday I'm going to have a trampoline and a ball pit combined into one supreme toy.

[The LuigiManiac]

I always wanted a trampoline as a kid, and now that I'm 18, I've decided someday I'm going to have a trampoline and a ball pit combined into one supreme toy.

That will be pure awesome (not to be mistaken for applied awesome).

[UmbrageOfSnow]

In the spirit of this thread, and a bit of late night silliness, I've decided to decide for myself what it means to be a grownup and have birthday cake for breakfast tomorrow morning.

That is applied awesomeness, which is more useful, but slightly less cool than pure awesomeness.

[Sprocket]

In the spirit of this thread, and a bit of late night silliness, I've decided to decide for myself what it means to be a grownup and have birthday cake for breakfast tomorrow morning.

That is applied awesomeness, which is more useful, but slightly less cool than pure awesomeness.

Pure awesomeness is useful for the academics of awesomeness, like stand-up comedians and They Might be Giants, but for an ordinary Joe like me, applied awesomeness is much more useful. But I do dabble in stand-up comedy and combinitorix.

[dskippy]

dskippy, I can't decide whether to love or hate you.

Aw, don't hate me. My ball pit and I live down the street from the a certain famous set of GPS coordinates. I can share the love.