1190: "Time"

[franko553]

Yeah we only have 7-8 newpix to get to white at this rate

Does anyone have an estimate on the level of the tide at that point?

[pdg]

So...cold... Everything...fading...

[AK49BWL]

Pre-coma update ONGONGONGONGONGONGONGONG................ONGGGGGGGG



0xB4.

Semi-new broken record too, only 5 seconds after the Newpix

[Goggalor]

But what if it doesn't?^{1 2
1}This isn't directed at any individual, but to all who believe this is the end^3
2I think this will be my last faded post. It's getting absurd^4
3I'm not saying it isn't the end, but y'know what if?
⁴Is that heresy? Has there been any papal decrees about the fading of the text?

Edited for correct color.

[macraw83]

Quest progress: 425 out of 438 pages.
The Fading. NP 924.

[Walltext of awesome snipped for space]

TL;DR - I was too out of breath from sprinting through the Thread of Time to chat, even through signposts! But I'm almost there!

...I would say, Onward! but I really need a break right now. I'm currently under 20 newpages away from the Present, though, so I hope to see you all soon!

BlitzGirl is back! And only THIRTEEN PAGES BEHIND! So excited! Means cake-time soon!

I do hope I'm not on a plane when it happens... that would be the worst.

EDITed for colorwise accuracy

[vvn]

I get #b4b4b4.

[Latent22]

#b4b4b4 another jump of 9

[CatHectic]

First, music updates:[/quote]

[color=#6E6E6E]</snip>...Moody Blues, "Question"

I'm amazed how many people around here know the Moody Blues; this is what, the fourth or fifth song of theirs mentioned?

Added! Right now, the only other on the active playlist is "And The Time Rushes In", but I'm pretty sure there are a few more mentions in the 200-odd pages of catchup I still have to get through between my re-read and where I started adding on suggestions from the active end of the thread. (And it's been one of the joys of this project, to be reminded of some of the great songs from MB, APP, ELO, Boston, and others that seem to have been sort of "swept under the rug" these days.)

</snip>The song compilation is amazing too. You people are seriously amazing.

Thank you!

This grey sometimes has a purple tint (not actually there, an effect from other images on my screen) but it made me think of Nino Tempo and April Stevens, "Deep Purple". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1MWOdRUrb8

since we are talking fitting music, how about
On an Unknown Beach
no mention of sandcastles but the video still fits i think

"Nowadays," from Chicago (Kander and Ebb)

All of these added -- sweet!

(edited to fix fading...)

[Eternal Density]

And I'm waiting for season 3 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Oh and season 2 of Caprica.

[buffygirl]

Spoiler:

There once was a comic on xkcd;
Sand castles by a sea of semencoffee.
It started to fade,
The timewaiters all prayed,
And la Petite returned! "Holy Shit," says me!!!!

There once was a comic, so sweet
with a little girl name La Petite.
But she came and went
and all hope was spent...
The little bitch!

I see you've opted for the 1122bitch rhyme scheme. Popular amongst drunk limerickers.

LOVE YOU!

[KarMann]

BlitzGirl is back! And only THIRTEEN PAGES BEHIND! So excited! Means cake-time soon!

I do hope I'm not on a plane when it happens... that would be the worst.

EDITed for colorwise accuracy

Still, probably not as uncomfortable as a plane being on you. And you should know.

[buffygirl]

two people online please PM me ... it's a ... hat emergency .... ish ish.
Well, just sorta a thingy where I want some input right now and .... right .... please?

[Djehutynakht]

I wonder if any meaning can be drawn from the new comic/it's title relating to the current situation.

[buffygirl]

Thanks! You left out tman2nd between mscha and Goggalor, but hopefully you've listed everyone else. The wiki page has been updated to show creation order. (This fading text business is going to become a problem soon...)

Edit: Fixed User:Buffygirl link to wiki.

ooops! And I LURVE that hat!!!

[macraw83]

BlitzGirl is back! And only THIRTEEN PAGES BEHIND! So excited! Means cake-time soon!

I do hope I'm not on a plane when it happens... that would be the worst.

EDITed for colorwise accuracy

Still, probably not as uncomfortable as a plane being on you. And you should know.

How... how did you know?

[vvn]

I wonder if any meaning can be drawn from the new comic/it's title relating to the current situation.

P.S. The title is "Is It Worth the Time?"

[tman2nd]

I'm done fading my text.

[Goggalor]

I am too. It's too far gone. Except if the whiteout really is the end then I plan on saying my goodbye to Time in all white, because why not?

[CatHectic]

Then, a couple of other replies:

(This fading text business is going to become a problem soon...)

Sure is. I think we should start using the following two color tags instead for each alternate line:

Code: Select all

[color=#e1ebf2]line one[/color]
[color=#ecf3f7]line two[/color]

This makes the text much easier
to read doesn't it

If you're using a mouse, you can always select the text to provide enough contrast.

</snip>... a lot of people have been theorizing that we'll get a fade in to a new scene, or the old scene some time later, after the fade out is completed.
I'm afraid that the wish is father to the thought, though. Pretty much every cinematic fade-out/fade-in effect I've seen happens simultaneously – the new scene fades in while the old one fades out – and that is not the case here, we would have noticed that by now.

Lately I've been going back and forth between, "WHY IS TIME FADING!!!! WHERE DID LAPETITE GO!!!!" and, "There's no reason to worry. Time's just going to fade back in." I'm sure I can handle much more of this. Interestingly enough, I actually like the change of pace the fading has provided.

A question for the mob: If this->* goes all white, yet newpix still appear unchanging, all white, with new hashes every newpix. How long will we wait?

Will it stay white forever once faded? I don't want it to end ;__; I want this to always be a place I can come to where we can watch Megan and Cueball on adventures, growing old together and letting their kids take over the journey. Can't Randall just draw this forever?

I keep thinking -- he could fade it out to white, and leave it that way for as long as he wanted. Maybe a day or two, to see if someone is still watching (hah!). Or maybe a lot longer, weeks or months: until he has another great idea for an animated sequence for Time (with or without sandcastles or Megan and Cueball), and has time to draw and prepare it.

I want to add my hugs to the mole of hugs; this journey has been amazing, and I'm just sorry I waited so long to be chatty because I was trying to play catchup. I was late on picking up on the OTC at all, as I'd missed several comics on XKCD -- I think it was Stratigraphic Record that I "previoused" from until I hit Time (April 2 -- yikes, I missed the first week!). Like everyone else, I got curious about the wordless image with no hint but "wait for it" (somewhere in the Second Megan Period, frame 300 or so), enough to check for an explanation in the forums (where I'd lurked occasionally over the previous two years). The thread was already over 200 pages, I read the last few newpages and...well, you know the rest. I went back to the beginning and started reading, just didn't have the foresight to post about the beginning of my quest like BlitzGirl did. But I really felt like I was "with y'all" somehow, travelling forward in time, getting to know you and the evolution of this thread's culture intimately, even though you didn't know me. I sometimes despaired of ever catching up to the present so I could join the fun though! And now, although we Wait to see what will happen next, it doesn't feel like there's enough Time left to be as much a part of it as many of you have. Regardless, I've really enjoyed the journey with y'all, and I do hope that perhaps a Temporeunion can be arranged someday, somewhere with enough semencancercoffeebabysand to build a truly glorious castle....

Edited for readability, repetitive redundancy, etc.

[DavidRa]

two people online please PM me ... it's a ... hat emergency .... ish ish.

I tried but it's in my Outbox (perhaps because I am still technically a Noob with only a couple of posts). Quoted because your plea was the last post on the previous page so may be missed

[Tim Harrod]

You know what's gonna happen tonight, don't you?

A spectacular, meticulously-drawn animation is going to fill the home page, one time and one time only, and it will last three seconds.

And then the alt text will change to "YOU MISSED IT!!!"

[macraw83]

You know what's gonna happen tonight, don't you?

A spectacular, meticulously-drawn animation is going to fill the home page, one time and one time only, and it will last three seconds.

And then the alt text will change to "YOU MISSED IT!!!"

I'd be willing to bet that someone would catch it...

EDIT:
I am somewhat surprised that no-one has mentioned making a macro or something that checks the image name every few seconds and compare it to the last, to see if Randall is doing any ninja changes. Then again, maybe someone is already doing so...

[Latent22]

You know what's gonna happen tonight, don't you?

A spectacular, meticulously-drawn animation is going to fill the home page, one time and one time only, and it will last three seconds.

And then the alt text will change to "YOU MISSED IT!!!"

DON'T SAY THAT. How are we meant to ever coma again now??

Edit: Though through the wonders that is local browser web caches it would be very easy to capture anything like this if it did happen.

[tman2nd]

Other Comic Update

[tman2nd]

ALMOSTGONG

#BDBDBD

[ChronosDragon]

That right tower is still barely hanging in there! I wonder how long we'll still be able to see. Not long now.

[Quicksilver]

I can't help but think buffyfgirl is like Bubs from The Wire.

[Eternal Density]

Beedy, beedy, beedy, what's up Buck?

[Exodies]

@Latent22 Good idea, if BlitzGirl didn't know about it, it would speed up her arrival.

Just make sure you change it to #EBEADD in quotes.

And hope she doesn't know about the Ctrl-A trick!
Also we have to pray no posts get approved and bump us down one!

What's the iGadget equivalent of Ctrl-A?

[macraw83]

@Latent22 Good idea, if BlitzGirl didn't know about it, it would speed up her arrival.

Just make sure you change it to #EBEADD in quotes.

And hope she doesn't know about the Ctrl-A trick!
Also we have to pray no posts get approved and bump us down one!

What's the iGadget equivalent of Ctrl-A?

Or, you know, just hit the "Quote" button, where the entire text can be parsed from the BBCode in an easy-to-read black color...

[Latent22]

@Latent22 Good idea, if BlitzGirl didn't know about it, it would speed up her arrival.

Just make sure you change it to #EBEADD in quotes.

And hope she doesn't know about the Ctrl-A trick!
Also we have to pray no posts get approved and bump us down one!

What's the iGadget equivalent of Ctrl-A?

You could try using two fingers and swiping across the paragraph which should select it. Or try to quadruple-tap to select a whole paragraph. You then may have to do a reverse pinch to expand the selection.

or yeah quote it like macraw83 said...

[ChronosDragon]

I must coma for the night. I am hoping with every fiber of my being that Time doesn't end while I'm away!

[buffygirl]

I can't help but think buffyfgirl is like Bubs from The Wire.

I think that's probably the hippest comparison anybody has ever made for me.

[Elmach]

The Update of the Other Comic has occurred.
As tradition mandates, during my tri-weekly reminder,
I shall give a description of the comic and the
alt-text in this post.

The comic is a table showing, given how often an Outsider Activity occurs, and how much you will save on it, how long you can spend on trying to optimize the activity that much before it would be more efficient to not do it, but just watch the One True Comic instead.

The alt-text?

Don't forget the Time you will waste looking up the chart to find out how much time you will be able to add to wait for it. And the time spent reading this reminder of the time spent. And the time spent trying to figure out if either of the two made sense. Remember, every second not spent waiting for it is a second wasted. Including those right now. The River is Small. The Sea is Big. Wait for It.

[vvn]

snip

Very nice summation!.

[Latent22]

The Update of the Other Comic has occurred.
As tradition mandates, during my tri-weekly reminder,
I shall give a description of the comic and the
alt-text in this post.

The comic is a table showing, given how often an Outsider Activity occurs, and how much you will save on it, how long you can spend on trying to optimize the activity that much before it would be more efficient to not do it, but just watch the One True Comic instead.

The alt-text?

Don't forget the Time you will waste looking up the chart to find out how much time you will be able to add to wait for it. And the time spent reading this reminder of the time spent. And the time spent trying to figure out if either of the two made sense. Remember, every second not spent waiting for it is a second wasted. Including those right now. The River is Small. The Sea is Big. Wait for It.

Why is there no column for 24/DAY????

And back to the Time comic it looks to me like there should just be enough time before it fades for the next flag to fall. Maybe that flag will hit the semencoffeecancerbabies and that will cause the end of all time!

[manvandmaan]

A lot of ketchup to do, so I'll keep it short.

In case nothing happens > 2
In case of the actual end > 1

1
Like many of you, I am scared of The Fading^x.
Like most of you, mostly because not only Time will end, but also our reason to check-in here and talk about it, which has been so much fun!
Like all of you, I am glad though that it looks like BlitzGirl will make it and be with us for the End!

2
*whistles a happy tune whilst waiting for it*

3
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

^x Like, genuinly concerned. Really. It's scary.

edited for the fading

[Latent22]

OOOOoooOOO just had a brain wave. The OTC is fading right. What other Time related things involve fading... Back to the Future when Marty caused himself to not exist in the future! This must mean that someone must have done something to cause the OTC to never exits! So my next question is which one of you silly buggers went back in time and somehow got Randall not to draw it? Did you make Randall fall in love with you and not Megan so he would never create this comic? Was it LaPetite? Or BlitzGirl? Who was it???

Edit: Maybe LaPetite fell in love with Cueball in the OTC and went back in time just to split up Randall and Megan! And of course this is kind of ironic because by doing that she means she herself won't exist and so she will fade as well. Oh the paradoxes!

[Exodies]

Someone suggested having Randall's offspring carry on the work after he dies. That's not a very secure system; suppose they drown in the caffeinatedsemenbabycancer? What we need to do is set up a Foundation with a large trust fund to train suitable artist/scientists in the craft and lore of the OTC. Every year there would be a competition to choose the next Randall. The remaining members of the class will be held in reserve. I think a class of 15 per year should cover it. The Foundation would have access to Randall's design for the series and their task would be to spin it out until the last poster on this needle pulled thing has succumbed to pining for the fjords.
I wanted to make this like the scheme for feeding Watt's leftovers to 'a passing starving dog', but the genius of Becket is way beyond my imagination.

[mscha]

OVERSTRONGGGGGGGG...

-- posted by newpixbot