1190: "Time"

[NetWeasel]

Tonight on Masterpiece Theatre....

Randall Munroe's The Odyssey.

[mikrit]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

Well. Facts, shmacts! But weren't we alerted to the extra meteor images by new posters who got moderator clearance unusally fast? I think this suggests that at least one moderator is a minion. And I don't think Randall himself is a moderator.

I like to think of Randall's minions as small, yellow and cute, like Gru's.

[lmjb1964]

Hmm. Thanks, everyone, for generating 14 frickin' pages since I was here last. *grumble grumble grumble* And I am so behind at work. Might be time to do a little skipping. But in trying to figure out where I left off, I saw these things I needed to reply to:

Spoiler:

Prediction:

Newpic-- MEGAN: Now throw YOUR rope!
Next Newpic Other Twenty: WHAT rope?
Next Next Newpic: MEGAN: Chirpity Chirp-Chirp!

Reminds me of that classic episode of The Wire^H, where McNulty and Moreland investigate a cold-case murder scene, and for several minutes say nothing except "chirp," and variations thereon.

I think McNulty says "chirpity-chirp" at one point. Later, as comprehension dawns, Moreland says "motherchirper! Mother-chirper!!"

You could look it up.

ETA:

Really what I'm suggesting / predicting is that when the water is done frisking about, we will transition into epilogue. We will not embark into a major Act N+1 of the Cueganites finding a new home, Megan going off to study with Rosetta, or whatever.

Agreed. But the water hasn't even begun to frisk yet. We are at the point where Luke and ObiWan set off in a hurry with Han Solo. (You didn't know his ship model was a "Hurry"?)

@edfel - treeish graph!

Jose

I thought -- since they couldn't get a hurry -- they left in a huff? Or was that too soon, and was it really a minute and a huff?

In how many posts in the world would you find a reference to both The Wire and the Marx Brothers?

[color=#0040FF]So... Update! here we go:

Spoiler:

timeline.png

Beautiful! Truly treeish!

And azule liked my voiceover. Yay! but he's in the past somewhere...

And now, la la la la la *skips to the present*

edited cuz I cant spel gud.

[mscha]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.
All we know is, that on a number of occasions, “mustard” in the OTC has been ch*rped soon after it was noted by the OTT.
That could be a coincidence, and the GLR might just not have noticed the problem until the frame went ‘live’. (A bit unlikely, though, you'd think he'd check before doing that. But who know, He might catch 80% of the mustard beforehand, and we simply never know.)
It could also be the case that the GLR Himself is reading the OTT (or searching it for ‘mustard’). (He could be MobTeese, as someone suggested.) But if so, I don't know how He does it – create the OTC, all His other comics, What-If, *and* have time to read the OTT??

ETA:

Apart from someone to maintain the website perhaps, or even just keep an eye on things when he's off work.

Yes, that's davean.

[Dracomax]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.
All we know is, that on a number of occasions, “mustard” in the OTC has been ch*rped soon after it was noted by the OTT.
That could be a coincidence, and the GLR might just not have noticed the problem until the frame went ‘live’. (A bit unlikely, though, you'd think he'd check before doing that. But who know, He might catch 80% of the mustard beforehand, and we simply never know.)
It could also be the case that the GLR Himself is reading the OTT (or searching it for ‘mustard’). (He could be MobTeese, as someone suggested.) But if so, I don't know how He does it – create the OTC, all His other comics, What-If, *and* have time to read the OTT??

I don't have time to read the OTT. He really would be a GLR if he could.

[HereBeUnmappedBits]

Am I the only one who feels like the current frame might be the final frame? It's probably not but I can't shake the feeling.
I guess I'll find out in six minutes, until then I just

Spoiler:

Wait for it.

ETA: Yay I'm wrong. For now...

[anabatica]

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean. Might be helpful in figuring out where they are.

There's a significant chance they're in that temporary plain up in the northwest.

I'm aware that the coastline doesn't line up as well as it could, but the suboceanic mountains/hills DO line up better this way, and I think those are most important as coastline is more likely to be guesswork.

Something interesting I noticed while creating this: the mouth of the Rhone moved to Marseille. That is not a thing that makes much sense from a hydrological perspective.



After messing around with GIMP for a few hours to create this, there is nothing more I hate in the world than GIMP.

Spoiler:

[SBN]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.
All we know is, that on a number of occasions, “mustard” in the OTC has been ch*rped soon after it was noted by the OTT.
That could be a coincidence, and the GLR might just not have noticed the problem until the frame went ‘live’. (A bit unlikely, though, you'd think he'd check before doing that. But who know, He might catch 80% of the mustard beforehand, and we simply never know.)
It could also be the case that the GLR Himself is reading the OTT (or searching it for ‘mustard’). (He could be MobTeese, as someone suggested.) But if so, I don't know how He does it – create the OTC, all His other comics, What-If, *and* have time to read the OTT??

I don't have time to read the OTT. He really would be a GLR if he could.

Well, he isn't baking cakes, writing songs or creating redundikitties so that helps. We do have this, from Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:16:03 pm

Hi guys, Randall says "oops, sorry about the brief wrong-frame update; there was a disagreement between servers about time zones. it's being sorted out and the normal timeline should resume momentarily."

[neopifex]

LeavONG

[Fictioneer]

Am I the only one who feels like the current frame might be the final frame? It's probably not but I can't shake the feeling.

Since you mentioned it, I can see this being a wind down. Maybe in one more frame, after Cueball exits.

[tavella]

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean. Might be helpful in figuring out where they are.

There's a significant chance they're in that temporary plain up in the northwest.

I'm aware that the coastline doesn't line up as well as it could, but the suboceanic mountains/hills DO line up better this way, and I think those are most important as coastline is more likely to be guesswork.

Something interesting I noticed while creating this: the mouth of the Rhone moved to Marseille. That is not a thing that makes much sense from a hydrological perspective.



After messing around with GIMP for a few hours to create this, there is nothing more I hate in the world than GIMP.

I found it easier to mark up the map by hand, using the beanie map and the bathymetric data to determine where the various aspects should go, like this:



I don't think they should be in Marseilles bay yet, unless Randall is taking a truly free hand with the pace of refilling. More likely on the Rhone Fan or somewhere else along the continental shelf.

[hunjoh]

LeavONG

This fills me with foreboding. Bye-bye raft!

[edfel]

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean.

Spoiler:

Might be helpful in figuring out where they are.

There's a significant chance they're in that temporary plain up in the northwest.

I'm aware that the coastline doesn't line up as well as it could, but the suboceanic mountains/hills DO line up better this way, and I think those are most important as coastline is more likely to be guesswork.

Something interesting I noticed while creating this: the mouth of the Rhone moved to Marseille. That is not a thing that makes much sense from a hydrological perspective.



After messing around with GIMP for a few hours to create this, there is nothing more I hate in the world than GIMP.

Wow, neat!

That's a great alignment you've made here, the shoreline of Cuegan's sea matches nicely with a level line
For the Rhone path, I'm also wondering about this... maybe it's one of the changes GLR foresees along with possible climatic changes.

I'll try to use it as a background for my map.... at some point in the future ^^ (I'm not using Gimp, but I understand.... inkscape is barely better when it comes to time-consuming stuff:/)

[TimeLurker]

LeavONG

Spoiler:

neopifex, I love that a sense of dread is added to every ONG you get because of your "...thus ends Time" sig.

[lmjb1964]

La Petite

Well, look about, look about, look about, look about, new sea!
Look about, look about, look about, look about, new sea!
Ooh! Ah! Ooh! Ah! New sea!

Spoiler:

Well, she's so fine, fine, fine, she's so fine, f-f-fine,
She's so fi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yine, she's so fine, fine, fine.
She's really neat, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, - Oh, oh, oh, oh, -
La Petite, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet.

Well, have you ever seen a girl who wears a white beret,
Who'd save a sand castle and work for it all day?
She's so fine, she's so fine,
She's really neat, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet.

Well, she really takes a wooden deck and makes it float,
Saves all of us from drowning and doesn't need no boat!
She's alright, she's alright,
She's alright, wears her beret day and night.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, - Oh, oh, oh, oh, -
La Petite, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet.
Oh!

Well, she's my cousin, she's awe-inducing,
Instead of drowning, she's got us smoothly cruising!
She's alright, she's got what it takes,
she's got what it takes, and what an awefulsome raft she makes!

Well, now she's our glimmer of hope, our river swimmer,
I'm sure without her our future would be dimmer!
She's alright, she's got just what it takes.
she's got what it takes, and what an awefulsome raft she makes!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, - Oh, oh, oh, oh, -
La Petite, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet,
La Petite, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet,
La Petite, the brightest girl you ever gonna meet!

(Jackie Wilson, Reet Petite)

I didn't know the song before. Awesomeful ottification!

LeavONG

Spoiler:

Well, I should hope GLR wouldn't end it there. That would be a horrible ending. I mean, horribly unsatisfying. He wouldn't do that to us, right?

That's the second time they've said goodbye to their castle...

Nice map work, tavella and anabatica!

edited to make more sense. And then again to fix the thing my first edit screwed up.

[mscha]

Am I the only one who feels like the current frame might be the final frame? It's probably not but I can't shake the feeling.

Since you mentioned it, I can see this being a wind down. Maybe in one more frame, after Cueball exits.

Nah. I'd really be surprised (and mad!) if Time would be that open-ended.

Here's an updated animation, for no good reason:

[charlie_grumbles]

Something interesting I noticed while creating this: the mouth of the Rhone moved to Marseille. That is not a thing that makes much sense from a hydrological perspective.

Spoiler:

Rivers do move, sometimes quite far. For the past century or so, the US Army Corps of Engineers (large, partly civil organization) has been trying to prevent the Mississippi River from being captured by the Atchafalaya. HUGE project. If it fails, New Orleans will be left pretty dry along with all of its commerce. The Atchafalaya mouth is about 300 miles west of the current Mississippi delta. John McPhee wrote a story about it. In fact, add McPhee to the list of book/author recommendations. It is all non-fiction, but wonderful stuff, including the geology of large parts of the American West.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/0 ... _000347146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_River

[spamjam]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.

We have circumstantial evidence. More than speculation, less than facts.
The two posters of the meteor frames hash info were approved quickly and were active only for about half an hour^H.

Bay:
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wonderchemist:
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:03:50 pm
Last visited: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:27:39 pm
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[BlitzGirl]

I'm glad we're back on solid ground for a bit - good chance for molpies! Or other people, maybe...

Happy 2000th, BlitzGirl! I don't really ‘do’ centennial cakes anymore (plenty of people are, so no huge miss), but I'll make an exception for the 2000th.

Spoiler:

Also, happy 2000th BlitzGirl!

Happy 2000 posts, BlitzGirl!

Spoiler:

@svenman: Neat ottification! It's fun to sing along to that.
@anabatica and tavella: Thanks for the map-work!

[hajo]

LeavONG

Spoiler:

So, it looks like everyone was curious and left the raft.
That means, no watch left behind.
Also, no sailor-experience yet - did anybody tow the raft to the shore ?

Nothing that could possibly go wrong here

[edfel]

I found it easier to mark up the map by hand, using the beanie map and the bathymetric data to determine where the various aspects should go, like this:

Spoiler:

I don't think they should be in Marseilles bay yet, unless Randall is taking a truly free hand with the pace of refilling. More likely on the Rhone Fan or somewhere else along the continental shelf.

This pseudo-3D view is nice also, but it lacks precision ... and depth lines. It's also somehow harder to measure distances on it.

Anyway, I agree they're still certainly far below the continental shelf.

[fatness]

I like to think of Randall's minions as small, yellow and cute, like Gru's.

I like to think of Randall's minions as mid-20's, blonde and cute. But then again I have a fairly intense fantasy life...

[HAL9000]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.

We have circumstantial evidence. More than speculation, less than facts.
The two posters of the meteor frames hash info were approved quickly and were active only for about half an hour^H.

Bay:
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 12:40:32 pm
Last visited: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:02:32 pm
Total posts: 2 | Search user’s posts

wonderchemist:
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:03:50 pm
Last visited: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:27:39 pm
Total posts: 2 | Search user’s posts

Based on that, it makes sense that Randall or one or more of his associates is aware of this thread and community, and decided to post the meteor frame bitstrings to make sure they weren't missed. Still just a theory, though.

[CasCat]

I hope they don't need the raft again. As others have noted, they didn't appear to tie it up or have someone on formal raft-watching duty (people still asleep on board don't count).

And that "crunch" when they hit land does not give me great confidence in the integrity of their prow-end flotation. I think they may have stove in a barrel or two.

[lmjb1964]

I'm glad we're back on solid ground for a bit - good chance for molpies! Or other people, maybe...

Yay for potential molpies! And I forgot to congratulate you on #2000! Considering what word people say on post 100, I hate to think what you said on post 2000. I'll have to go back and look one of these days.

[anabatica]

Rivers do move, sometimes quite far. For the past century or so, the US Army Corps of Engineers (large, partly civil organization) has been trying to prevent the Mississippi River from being captured by the Atchafalaya. HUGE project. If it fails, New Orleans will be left pretty dry along with all of its commerce. The Atchafalaya mouth is about 300 miles west of the current Mississippi delta. John McPhee wrote a story about it. In fact, add McPhee to the list of book/author recommendations. It is all non-fiction, but wonderful stuff, including the geology of large parts of the American West.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/0 ... _000347146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_River

Oh I know, I'm a hydrologist, but rivers move for a reason. They move when there's an easier way to reach the ocean (i.e. using less energy). The Mississippi should have moved and only hasn't because of human efforts. But this Rhone thing looks pretty random to me. It's not a shorter and/or easier path at all. But I guess in 10000 years there may have been changes that have made it so, or it may have been done on purpose by humans.

I can't think of any climate-change related reason for it... unless it was changes made to protect towns on its estuary that ended up raising their level and the level of the river quite a bit so that an alternate course became suitable.

[Pikrass]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

I'm fairly certain the entire creative process is his own, but he maybe runs his comics by a few friends/family before he decides to upload them, for proofreading and such.

Agreed. While undoubtedly a tremendous amount of work goes into xkcd, it is his full time job (or at least that's what I've been led to believe) and if that's the case I don't think he would require a team.

Apart from someone to maintain the website perhaps, or even just keep an eye on things when he's off work.

This page can answer some of these questions.
The javascript and the mechanism for newpix switch were probably set up by davean

First post bump:

Maybe there's going to be a little bit of sandcastle rebuilding for us!

Welcome here kepstin! You were right, thus you can't join the Predictors Club. We have a rule: our predictions have to be wrong.

[BlitzGirl]

I did like the raptor flybys we got earlier, but they were too zoomed-out to satisfy my molpy-hunting-fix. Bring on the landmolpies!

I'm glad we're back on solid ground for a bit - good chance for molpies! Or other people, maybe...

Yay for potential molpies! And I forgot to congratulate you on #2000! Considering what word people say on post 100, I hate to think what you said on post 2000. I'll have to go back and look one of these days.

What did I say? *checks* Hmm...nothing too exciting, I'm afraid. I think the most exciting word I used in that post was "Lollipop."

To make up for it, I will now post a large and very vulgar image:

Spoiler:

[ucim]

And azule liked my voiceover. Yay! but he's in the past somewhere...

I liked it too. I think you'd be an awesome Rosetta.

I don't much like the idea of reversing reversed speech... rather, I think layering many tracks of the other words on top of each other as she figures out what she's trying to say would be a faithful reproduction of what the OTA depicted, and would be cool to boot. Add some echo and you're good to go.

... the GLR might just not have noticed the problem until the frame went ‘live’. (A bit unlikely, though, you'd think he'd check before doing that...

The best spell checker in the world is the print button.

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean.

Really cool ma(ni)p! The flow is probably eastwards, so they may not end up in Beanietown. That would be quite a stretch.

@tavella - Your map is treeish too, in a different way. Kind of like there are different trees.

Since you mentioned it, I can see this being a wind down. Maybe in one more frame, after Cueball exits.

No way. The other shoe hasn't dropped. It can't end here.

I like to think of Randall's minions as mid-20's, blonde and cute. But then again I have a fairly intense fantasy life...

I like to think of my minions that way.

Jose

[lmjb1964]

I'm glad we're back on solid ground for a bit - good chance for molpies! Or other people, maybe...

Yay for potential molpies! And I forgot to congratulate you on #2000! Considering what word people say on post 100, I hate to think what you said on post 2000. I'll have to go back and look one of these days.

What did I say? *checks* Hmm...nothing too exciting, I'm afraid. I think the most exciting word I used in that post was "Lollipop."

To make up for it, I will now post a large and very vulgar image:

Spoiler:

Shocking! That sort of thing should never be allowed!

And azule liked my voiceover. Yay! but he's in the past somewhere...

I liked it too. I think you'd be an awesome Rosetta.

I don't much like the idea of reversing reversed speech... rather, I think layering many tracks of the other words on top of each other as she figures out what she's trying to say would be a faithful reproduction of what the OTA depicted, and would be cool to boot. Add some echo and you're good to go.

... the GLR might just not have noticed the problem until the frame went ‘live’. (A bit unlikely, though, you'd think he'd check before doing that...

The best spell checker in the world is the print button.

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean.

Really cool ma(ni)p! The flow is probably eastwards, so they may not end up in Beanietown. That would be quite a stretch.

@tavella - Your map is treeish too, in a different way. Kind of like there are different trees.

Since you mentioned it, I can see this being a wind down. Maybe in one more frame, after Cueball exits.

No way. The other shoe hasn't dropped. It can't end here.

I like to think of Randall's minions as mid-20's, blonde and cute. But then again I have a fairly intense fantasy life...

I like to think of my minions that way.

Jose

Thanks, Jose! I'll give Rosetta a try if we have auditions for her.

Wait, you have minions??

[ucim]

Wait, you have minions??

Doesn't everybody? Didn't you get the memo?

Jose

[HAL9000]

I just want to point out, to all the worried people, that we haven't seen 39 characters leave the raft yet. Some of them are still waking up.

[BlitzGirl]

The raftcastle with the still-sleeping members of the Forty is probably going to drift out to sea-river again while this small batch of Cueganites is exploring the trees...

That would certainly cut the character count back down to reasonable numbers...

[ucim]

I just want to point out, to all the worried people, that we haven't seen 39 characters leave the raft yet. Some of them are still waking up.

That's even more worrisome. They won't know to stick together. Hopefully somebody's watching.

Jose

[taixzo]

Wait, you have minions??

Doesn't everybody? Didn't you get the memo?

Jose

Damn, I knew I should have read that more closely. Now what am I going to do with all these onions??

[Valarya]

*gasp* BlitzGirl! That m*stard was chirpin' dirrrrrrrty!

Happy belated 2000!

I just want to point out, to all the worried people, that we haven't seen 39 characters leave the raft yet. Some of them are still waking up.

I just assumed that several had gone on into the trees off-screen and we didn't necessarily see them pass.

[anabatica]

I made an overlay of the Beaniemap with a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean.

Really cool ma(ni)p! The flow is probably eastwards, so they may not end up in Beanietown. That would be quite a stretch.

I'm not sure about eastwards. Flow follows contours. Of course, it normally follows contours in a downwards direction, but in this case I think it might follow contours up.

When looking at groundwater flow maps, or even when determining stream direction from elevation maps, direction of flow is perpendicular to contour lines representing groundwater head/elevation. So I'm tempted to say that direction of flow in this situation will be perpendicular to contour lines also, going up. Which would put them on the Gulf of Lion or somewhere in that "mountainy" bit where the Balearic plain is rising towards the Gulf of Lion as suggested by tavella.

But I'm making a number of assumptions here about water movement. I'm not accustomed to an upwards direction of flow so this is new and strange to me.

[schwartzbewithyou]

There has been talk of GLR's minions watching the OTT, for mustard and such. Does anyone have evidence from outside that he actually uses minions other than his own sweet self? I always assumed xkcd was a very personal project, not a team (other than a web team, perhaps). Anybody know anything? Not speculation! Just the facts, mam'.

No evidence whatsoever.

It would be interesting if the next time we see a blatant mustard (like the the s/he pronoun mix up) that nobody mentions it on the thread and see if it is still remedied as quick as the others. (although this is probably next to impossible to coordinate with everyone who can post to the OTT) but it would be a 'neat' experiment. It could be posted about later then to see if everyone agreed it was mustard. I think if it was either not fixed, or fixed half way to the next newpix, it would be an indication that the minions rely on us to proof the frame.

[lmjb1964]

Wait, you have minions??

Doesn't everybody? Didn't you get the memo?

Jose

Damn, I knew I should have read that more closely. Now what am I going to do with all these onions??

[HAL9000]

Wait, you have minions??

Doesn't everybody? Didn't you get the memo?

Jose

Damn, I knew I should have read that more closely. Now what am I going to do with all these onions??

Well, you know what they say: when life gives you onions, make onionade.
wait, no, that's not right...