xkcd

by **Monika** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:25 pm UTC

Hi vvav, hi matilda! Enjoy the forum. Beware of raptors.

by **voicedotter** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:06 am UTC

yea Raptors live in the door by the elevator. They also live in the basement. It has no doorknob and is made of unbreakable materials. Anyway enjoy the place and if you see any raptors please flee and report them to management before the maul you.

by **Evengeduld** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:22 am UTC

voicedotter wrote:yea Raptors live in the door by the elevator. They also live in the basement. It has no doorknob and is made of unbreakable materials. Anyway enjoy the place and if you see any raptors please flee and report them to management before the maul you.

And if you happen to see baby raptors. There is no use in fleeing you are death already...

by **DasEengineer** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:36 pm UTC

I am not a spamnot!

%Initiate Turing test data
if belief~=1
text=t+1
end

Hey all! I'm a longtime reader of xkcd, and I finally signed up for the forums. Here's some basic info (varying degrees of interest): My name's David, I'm from the DC area (south of DC if you know the area), I'm graduating in 2 weeks with a EE degree, and I work WAY too much. I'm usually highly caffeinated at any given time (including right now... ~4 cups of espresso), and as you can see from my intro... I've been doing WAY too much Matlab lately. Why? One of my current classes involves nothing but 3 insanely long/hard Matlab programs. I tend to procrastinate, so I ended up having to do a semester of work in two weeks... SO much fun! Okays, this should be enough to convince the mods I'm not a spambot.

Now... check out this awesome site I found! You can get books, prints, etc!
http://store.xk*d.com/

by **aeschere** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:23 pm UTC

Hello world: I have finally decided to join this forum. My name is Alane and/or "aeschere". I am a fan of the comic. I am a senior in high school going into computer science and (possibly) mathematics. An interesting fact(s) about me: my favorite number is 72, and my favorite composer is Philip Glass (anyone? Anyone at all?)... That is all.

by **eaglewings51** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:44 am UTC

I guess I never did this.

Female

Location and age are classified.

I'm studying Journalism in college

I love photography, making graphics with Gimp, rock climbing, hiking, skiing, basically anything at all involving the outdoors (and I mean like middle of nowhere way back in the boondocks, no one around for miles and miles. Not just going for a walk outside), computers, technology in general, playing piano, and music in general especially country.

I like mostly old TV shows like MacGyver, Dukes of Hazzard, MASH, and Airwolf. I've started to like a few new ones thought like Pan Am, Revenge, Nikita, Hart of Dixie, and Glee. I like action/adventure movies like Indiana Jones, the Bourne trilogy, National Treasure 1 and 2, Salt, James Bond, and a bunch more that I can't think of at the moment. I also like Sci-Fi/Fantasy like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars (NO Twilight!). I watch an occaisonal chick-flick but not often. Most are pretty stupid (Nicholas Sparks, *gag*)

And I think that's about it. I'm pretty normal.

by **Denebola** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:56 am UTC

Hello! I guess I'm Denebola or something. Also, I'm not very interesting.

I suppose I'm a genderqueer Scot student. I like kitties? ^o.o^

by **Monika** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:41 pm UTC

Denebola wrote:I suppose I'm a genderqueer Scot student. I like kitties? ^o.o^

Perfect

. Drop by the LGBTIQQA thread, if you feel like it. Bring a kitty!

by **Gravy** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:43 pm UTC

Hey everybody, the name's Sean. 17/Male/Montana (United States). I'm currently in college studying computer science.

Some of my hobbies include playing guitar, video games, music, computers, psychoactive substances, and redheads.

by **Slothrop** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:12 pm UTC

Hello everyone,

Nameless 25 year old from Norway here. Currently working as a science/maths/physics teacher, a job I started this autumn. My degree is in something-product-development-something, but I've earned most of my credits in fluid mechanics of different sorts (and I thoroughly regret not going into something more physics related from the get-go.)

I've been stalking here for a small year now, and, considering my forum record, that's most likely what I'll keep on doing.

by **Monika** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:14 pm UTC

Gravy wrote:psychoactive substances

Caffeine?

by **Gravy** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:11 am UTC

Monika wrote:
Gravy wrote:psychoactive substances

Caffeine?

Surprisingly, seeing as I'm going into computer science, I'm not a big fan of coffee or caffeine in general. I was thinking more...illegal substances. Such a rebel, I know.

by **Gerardiebla** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:58 am UTC

Hey Everyone,

My name is Gerard, I'm studying a combined Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts in Sydney, Australia. I've been playing classical guitar for about 8 years and I love listening to classical music. I also study philosophy and a little bit of mathematics.

As a hobby I like to read, I finally have time to read for leisure now that I'm on holidays from uni. Recently I've read GEB by Douglas Hofstadter, The Sun Also Rise by Hemingway and I'm currently reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jarred Diamond and Point Counter Point by Aldus Huxely. I'm also fascinated by theoretical science and love popular science books and I'm trying to teach my self the theory at a more technical level.

And just for fun I think I'm the only person I know who can play Skyrim in moderation.

So there it is. Probably more than you ever wanted to know (but really just scraping the surface) about me

by **Catmando** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:19 am UTC

Hello xkcdforums, I'm Catmando. I'm a high school student in America. I like nerdy stuff and have been a fan of xkcd for about 200 comics, although I've read them all. I'm currently reading GEB by Douglas Hofstadter. I'm here on the forum only to participate in interesting discussion.

Something interesting: I browse here frequently and once claimed the xkcd forums had no personality. Since posting for my first time, however, I'm considering changing my mind. Kudos to those who made me reconsider, not that any of you know who you are.

by **Sweeney_Todd** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:51 am UTC

Hi, I'm Sweeney. That's actually my last name, but it's much better than my first and infinitely times more amazing. I'm not a normal person in the slightest, too.

by **Kick** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:34 am UTC

Sweeney_Todd wrote:Hi, I'm Sweeney. That's actually my last name, but it's much better than my first and infinitely times more amazing. I'm not a normal person in the slightest, too.

My math teacher's last name was Sweeney, therefore you are my math teacher. Nice to meet you.

by **Jonnylove** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:31 am UTC

Hi, I'm Jon. I'm a college student--in liberal arts. I guess that makes me a minority here?

or would

be more appropriate? What do you think better communicates a chipperness so extreme it's actually a bit awkward?

So yes, I am here. I doubt I'll be here much. Hello.

by **Evengeduld** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:41 am UTC

Jonnylove wrote:So yes, I am here. I doubt I'll be here much. Hello.

Already in the denial phase of your new addiction you are going to fit in really well here.

by **ChrisV** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:31 am UTC

Hello, my name is Christopher, I'm 19, I've lived in Harrisburg, PA since early this year, and I've read through all the archives of xkcd in the last few days. Doing so clicked something in my head that I forgot a long time ago. When I was around 13-15 I had a desktop computer I adored, and spent, admittedly, far too much time on. I never really did much with it, mainly using it as my window to the world when I was too timid to go out and experience it directly. Sometime around when I was 15 I made a few mistakes that trashed it, and I could never get the money together to fix it or replace it, so I went without a computer until shortly before I moved this year. The problem is, though, that somewhere along the line, I forgot how I used to feel shooting around online and (haphazardly) soaking up info and cool stuff. I hardly use my laptop for anything more than facebook and bullshit. To get back to my point, after reading through the comic, I'm almost downright mad at how little I know about the device at my fingertips, and everything is signifies. I used to stand in wonder of the various sciences, though admittedly it was probably the idea of science and not the reality of it, but somewhere along the line I forgot my interest in mathematics, physics, psychology, and everything to do with computers. I came on to this forum because I want to get that back. I want to reload my mind with what I let myself lose, and more, and I figured this would be the perfect place to start. I want to learn how to work programs, write code, and get back into an understanding of how to examine articles and sites online for real science and ways to learn without having to try and shoehorn college courses into my shitty job. And now that I've written a small essay, let me get back to a concise point.

My name is Chris, and I'd like to hang out with you guys.

by **ewomack** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:46 pm UTC

Hello, Ed here. I dig forum posting and this one looks pretty fervent. So here I am. I check in with xkcd once in a while, but I don't really do anything on a regular basis apart from those unmentionable human things. Now if you'll excuse me I have to take care of some quantum fluctuations...

by **blackened45** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:27 pm UTC

Hey guys, newb in the forum here. well, i am 24, and resides in NY. i got a hold of a comic in deviantart i think, and reading it and reading others like it then i got here. not sure how in details, but i am here now. and its great.

thanks, that's all. see you all inside the boards.

cheers!

by **Evengeduld** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 12:26 pm UTC

Oh 3 new guys and noone to welcome them to the boards...
Well then I'll do it in my own special way :twisted:

Hi ChrisV, we'll like to hang on to you to. You might be helpfull some day...

Hi ewomack, you say you dig forum posting and yet only one post. Already slacking?

Hi blackened45, could you enlighten how we can get inside boards. Because crawling into my PC seems hard.

by **blackened45** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 12:51 pm UTC

^ hey thanks for the welcome.

i said 'boards' as in, forum boards. i just thought it would be a great way to put it at the moment.

cheers!

by **smw543** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 10:28 am UTC

I'm back... maybe? The changes in my personal life that originally pulled me away from the fora will likely do so again, but for now, I need my RDA of vitriol. See you in News & Articles! (I assume N&A is still a cesspool of hatred and bile, no?)

by **Kewangji** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 12:20 pm UTC

No, everyone turned nice, it is a Christmas miracle.

by **Anaximander** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:41 am UTC

I don't like introducing myself but I'm figuring no one will pay much attention to this post and, since introductions seem to be encouraged, I feel like I should oblige.

I live in FL. I've been content to labor with science and computers for most of my life but have never been diplomatic enough to achieve "success" - I make a living though which is good enough. Aside from that, I goof around with music...like to make beer...read books...spend time outside, etc. My friend got me into xkcd a few months ago and I've been hooked since then. The forums seemed interesting so I signed up. I'm bad at teh internets and don't have too many other places on the web to hang out where a majority of people can articulate coherent thoughts using adequate spelling and grammar. So, thanks for existing.

by **voicedotter** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:37 am UTC

Anaximander wrote:I don't like introducing myself but I'm figuring no one will pay much attention to this post and, since introductions seem to be encouraged, I feel like I should oblige.

I live in FL. I've been content to labor with science and computers for most of my life but have never been diplomatic enough to achieve "success" - I make a living though which is good enough. Aside from that, I goof around with music...like to make beer...read books...spend time outside, etc. My friend got me into xkcd a few months ago and I've been hooked since then. The forums seemed interesting so I signed up. I'm bad at teh internets and don't have too many other places on the web to hang out where a majority of people can articulate coherent thoughts using adequate spelling and grammar. So, thanks for existing.

Hey we pay attention to people's posts here. Enjoy the place.
What music do you listen to? And what do you like to read?
We have topics here for everything, if you are willing to find them by delving through the depths and avoid the raptors.

by **Anaximander** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:33 pm UTC

voicedotter wrote:Hey we pay attention to people's posts here. Enjoy the place.

Thanks! I have so far.

voicedotter wrote:What music do you listen to?

How much time do you have?

Music has kept me sane and has been one of the few consistently successful remedies for chronic depression. I listen to almost anything that I think is good regardless of genre. I worked at a record store for a couple years and have amassed a pretty hefty LP/CD collection. Best job I ever had until I had to start paying off student loans. Perusing iTunes, here's a list of some favorites for anyone else who's interested.

Spoiler:

I saw some of the music threads, but there's a lot of stuff flying around in there. I could get sucked into that for hours.

voicedotter wrote:And what do you like to read?

I enjoy a lot of non-fiction, informative type stuff. Recent favorites have been The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (hence the handle). The last one melted my brain so I picked back up with the George R.R. Martin Fire and Ice series...although I haven't enjoyed A Feast for Crows as much as the others. Classics like Steinbeck's East of Eden, Heller's Catch-22 and Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird are up there too. Anything by Vonnegut...good sci-fi, etc.

voicedotter wrote:We have topics here for everything, if you are willing to find them by delving through the depths and avoid the raptors.

Thanks, I will. And thanks again for responding. One more question: what is a raptor and how do I avoid it?

by **Monika** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 11:16 pm UTC

Anaximander wrote:One more question: what is a raptor and how do I avoid it?

A (veloci)raptor is a mean fast small intelligent dinosaur (according to authorative scientific works like "Jurassic Park"). You avoid it by running really fast and hiding in a place that they cannot open. Your chances of survival are small.
http://xkcd.com/87/
http://xkcd.com/135/
http://xkcd.com/155/
http://xkcd.com/292/
http://xkcd.com/526/ <-- in particular be aware of raptors on hoverboards
http://xkcd.com/758/

by **MichtheDogWalker** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:43 am UTC

Hello, I am Michael AKA MichtheDogWalker

I own no dogs. I have two sons that each own one dog... therefore I walk two dogs.
and, intuitively obvious to the most causal observer, my avatar is me walking the dogs
... 2 dogs + 2 Leashes = 7 crossing topologically distinct knot.

I am too old and cynical to be posting on forums, but I must support the simplest game on this forum. Simple is difficult.

I am a Chemical Engineer (a math geek in a chemist body pretending to be a plumber) that used to "Bring good things to life" until we were bought by the Kingdom (KSA), now sadly I have no slogan to live by.

...not afraid of raptors, but I'll keep my distance.

Now you know everything

by **Jonesthe Spy** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:27 pm UTC

Hello all,

Just joined after years of reading because I couldn't not comment on the latest strip. NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell me is in fact one of my favorite bits of broadcast media, and I'm terribly glad to see Randall is a fan.

'Spect I'll participate in some of the other many and varied topics, now that I'm official.

by **lucrezaborgia** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:43 am UTC

Greetings!

I'm lucrezaborgia which I'm sure is very clear from my user name. Not very clever intro huh? Anyways...

I'll be 31 on the 18th of January. Originally I hail from Miami, FL and moved to the Great White North 3 years ago. At first I lived in Appleton and just this past summer I moved to Green Bay to live with my fiance who becomes my husband on the 27th of this month. My DH is definitely the more nerdy half with his skills at sewing, his penchant for dressing up in 17th century Polish Hussar armor, his new-found love for modding Nerf guns, and the 1,400 books on the shelves in his home on top of the multiple Lego StarWars ships hanging from the ceiling in the room I'm currently in. A lot of my friends back in Florida think I'm oh so smart but really I'm barely literate by my own standards. The people I've met through my DH up here have been amazing and are almost all a nerdly dream though maybe that's just a byproduct of being in the SCA? Sad to say, I'm in school still. Multiple bouts of illness have made it a very long journey but I think I'm finally on the homestretch and hope to have a Library and Information Science degree in the future.

Some favorite things besides xkcd: Awesome food, Tetris, tea, reading, history, trying to use proper spelling and all that jazz even while texting, beer, Futurama, dark comedy, documentaries, cats, and arguing about Manifest Destiny at 3am after having had way too much to drink.

Some things I do not like: Spiders, running out of ammo for my Maverick, reality television, network news, a dead battery on my DS right as I'm about to finish a level, and having someone knock on the door just as I'm about to...

Things I'm not proud of: Walking away from a 70% scholarship at a fancy-pants learning institution, marrying someone for all wrong reasons, and the ability to sleep 12 hours a day.

Things I am proud of: Finally finding the right diagnosis and drugs, realizing that while the education was challenging at the fancy-pants learning institution it was killing my soul to be so far from my support group of friends and family, leaving everything behind in Miami and moving to Wisconsin with 2 suitcases and my cat, and divorcing the wrong man and finding the right man.

Weird things: Read James Michener's "Alaska" in 5th grade and thought it was awesome, spent the 2nd grade traveling from racetrack to racetrack on the Late-Model circuit and have met many NASCAR greats, built my own tree-house that survive hurricane Andrew entirely by myself, worked in the nightclubs on South Beach selling roses at the age of 15, and survived ARDS by spending over a week in a medically induced coma.

Things for the TL;DR crowd: 30 y/o (b. 1/18), female, blonde, overweight, engaged, bipolar, student, history major

by **ChimeraMica** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:04 am UTC

I am Mica. I'm eighteen and I live with my boyfriend in Norman, OK. I don't know what to say really, except I'm an artist (not by profession) and I do my best to be a good person. I joined in part because I had heard this forum had a good transgender community, and I'm hoping to talk to other trans people and maybe get some advice. At any rate, hello to all!

by **Monika** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:18 pm UTC

Hi lucrezaborgia, welcome to the forum! Cat ownership is always a plus. Congrats on the divorce and the right diagnosis/medication.

Hi Mica, welcome to the forum. Hop by the [SAFESPACE] LGBTIQQA Thread - Queer Support! thread.

by **Nexan** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:40 am UTC

Hey everyone, I'm Mica's boyfriend. Also, I'm not entirely new, since I joined in 2007, but I really never posted much and haven't been around in a while, so I figure re-introductions are in order.

I'm 24, have a bachelor's in astrophysics, and am currently working at a call center. My lovely girlfriend just moved here, so that's pretty neat. I play music (guitar, mandolin, hopefully many others eventually) in a very amateurish way, and I'm a total badass at geography. I always get self-conscious listing my interests, so I'm gonna stop it here.

Anyway, hello to everyone!

by **Deva** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:17 am UTC

Welcome back. For comparison:

Page one hundred twenty-nine of this thread wrote: Hello. I've lurked here for a while, as you can see, but since I have finally made a first post, and there's a small but non-zero chance of me making more I thought it would be appropriate to post here as well.

So. I'm a 21-year-old astrophysics undergraduate. I've got a sort of baseline aptitude and interest in most sectors of geekiness (such that I get, oh, probably 90% or so of the comics), but am specifically interested in math (pretty much a monotonically decreasing curve as you go from abstract to concrete), language, and video games. And finding entertaining things on the internet. You forumites comprise a significant fraction of that one.

Severely-belated congratulations on your degree.

by **Nexan** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:35 am UTC

Deva wrote:Welcome back. For comparison:
Page one hundred twenty-nine of this thread wrote: Hello. I've lurked here for a while, as you can see, but since I have finally made a first post, and there's a small but non-zero chance of me making more I thought it would be appropriate to post here as well.

So. I'm a 21-year-old astrophysics undergraduate. I've got a sort of baseline aptitude and interest in most sectors of geekiness (such that I get, oh, probably 90% or so of the comics), but am specifically interested in math (pretty much a monotonically decreasing curve as you go from abstract to concrete), language, and video games. And finding entertaining things on the internet. You forumites comprise a significant fraction of that one.

Severely-belated congratulations on your degree.

Thanks! Now if only I could get around to properly using it. I've considered trying to get a job as an engineer, but have a distressing allergy to job searching.

by **fearless** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:02 pm UTC

Hi everyone. i'm 22, just finished uni and about to start work for an auditing firm. Hoping to qualify as a professional in 3 years' time. I was born in commie land, lived there for about 9 years before immigrating to south africa. I've been reading xkcd for a while, even though I don't really understand much of the maths/physics. I like computer geeks a lot. my nick is from a book - rather juvenile but it's still one of my favourites. I write poetry. That's about it.

by **moiraemachy** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:24 pm UTC

Hi everyone, I used to post erratically on the fora, and haven't touched it in a while. I realized I spend way too much time lurking, so I want to do it right this time. Also, I don't really like some of my posts back then. Here we go.

I'm a 21 year old Brazilian electrical engineering undergrad student. I really like physics and math, and am contemplating becoming a teacher after graduating. I really like math, physics and generally knowing how stuff work/how to build them. At the moment, I have decided to learn how to program properly, and learn some physics and math at a more fundamental level, since what I am covering at the university is beginning to seem too technical, and I believe I will be annoying you guys a little with this stuff. :oops:

I'll try not to be irritating.

I also kind of play (not really) classical guitar, and am kind of skilled at Matkot/frescobol. My nick is just some pretentious stuff I made up.

by **Monika** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:45 pm UTC

Hi there fearless computergeekloving poet

.

And hi future math and physics teacher moiraemachy. What is Matkot/frescobol?

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