^^ Andrew W.K. is an incredibly strange person. Seriously, no other man I know (David Tibet himself aside) could feasibly serve as the one degree of separation between My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the second wave of British Industrial music.
Andrew WK also served as the face of CN Real, and once declared 4chan the pinnacle of human achievement. I've also heard anecdotes that he gives candy (non-poisoned even!) to people who recognize him on the street.
So this is interesting to me because it so perfectly encapsulates everything I love about xkcd and everything I hate about it.
The economics bit is very nearly the same thing in a microcosm - almost a summary of everything I love and hate about the comic in space of two panels. I find this interesting.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I have a friend or two who LOVE that particular strip, but I agree with you here. Some really impressive writing, but a lot of it is dedicated to why this or that sucks.
I find it interesting that he slagged on math(s) a bit here, where quite a few of the (perhaps early) strips are dedicated to how awesome math is compared to some of these other professions.
I find it interesting that he slagged on math(s) a bit here, where quite a few of the (perhaps early) strips are dedicated to how awesome math is compared to some of these other professions.
Randall majored in physics and more-or-less seems to subscribe to the view that "physics is real science and everything else is stamp-collecting," making panel 4 simultaneously witty, erudite and nonetheless extremely unfair.
Obviously it's all banter, and he doesn't actually think chemistry is a waste of time, but he does believe that the sciences can be sorted by purity (note the alt text), which puts him in a tricky position when it comes to wanting to rag on mathematics, that being the language physics is largely written in and a subject that Randall himself unabashedly enjoys. His "criticism" is simply to state the precise characteristic of maths that makes it so versatile and useful in describing physics (and often other fields as well). Don't be fooled, he's still a math nerd.
An actual detractor of maths would more likely accuse it of being meaningless, tedious number crunching, and would be wrong, because maths is awesome.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Not a strip, but I love these two posts from Penny Arcade:
I mean, they fight using extrasensory perception. Just because he can’t read the back of a cereal box doesn’t make him any less dangerous.
I’ve had a couple weeks now with the Littermaid Plus, and I have to say that this is one of the worst designed consumer devices ever made. I don’t have any arguments with the concept - a machine that obviates the need to play with feline waste. I’m onboard. Men of science, please invent a machine that will collect and sequester the tiny pot roasts my cat leaves behind. It is, however, a deeply ironic device, and it has lessons to teach us about sloth and human folly. Indeed, this strange method of instruction is the only thing it accomplishes with any regularity. What we learn through using the device is that life is sometimes difficult, and to try and mediate that fact invites the scorn of the universe.
There is a sort of “comb” that trawls the litter, snaring the sweet surprises left within and theoretically deposting them into a sort of cat shit purgatory. While mostly successful, the waste must first travel up a steep ramp, like the ones in extreme sports videos. And sometimes it is flung out, as though by catapult, toward imaginary foes.
The thing is, the device really doesn’t have a lot of room in it for cats, which strikes me as a design flaw. You would think they would try to put a cat in there, or find somebody who had a cat, shit, maybe just imagine a cat and try to design their litterbox around that hypothetical, hairy customer. But they didn’t. Cats must situate themselves diagonally in order tomake a deposit as it were, so the container at the end where it’s all supposed to go fills up at the sides first and then boils over into your house. This isn’t even the worst problem.
Cat pee and litter is like wet cement, it’s like a new state of matter. In an ordinary, non-robot litter box it has time to “set” so that you can remove it and then go do something that is important to you. If, on the other hand, a mechanical arm reaches out and spreads it the length and breadth of the device, now you have a completely disgusting new task you could never have imagined in trade for the one you thought you were giving up forever.
It is the sort of thing you would design if you had only a vague description of a cat and you didn’t really give a fuck if it worked or not.
(CW)TB out.
So I actually have some pretty big news to share with you all. In about six months Kara and I are going to have a brand new little gamer running around the house. That’s right, as shocking as it may seem someone is actually going to be calling medad. We don’t know yet if it’s gonna be a boy or a girl but we do plan on finding out. As odd as it sounds I tend to think of you all as one person who is a good friend of mine rather than a few million different people I’ve never met. So I at least wanted to pass along the good news. You probably won’t hear about it again until I have a picture of the kid. It’s not the sort of thing I want to bore you with every day.
Tycho was actually the first person I told. I dropped the news on him and this is what he says to me, “Big fucking deal, any jackass can do that.”
So apparently I’m required to sit around and act interested while he describes the various problems his cat has while shitting in their new robotic litter box. However, when I create a human life I’m supposed to keep it to myself.
Ah, yes, the LitterMaid. We had one of those years ago, and it was just as messy as PA said it was. Especially considering we had multiple cats at the time.
Comments
Andrew WK also served as the face of CN Real, and once declared 4chan the pinnacle of human achievement. I've also heard anecdotes that he gives candy (non-poisoned even!) to people who recognize him on the street.
What the nature of that thing is remains a mystery.
I kind of want to hang out with AWK some day. He just seems like the sort of person who'd be like
"hey?"
and I'd be like "wat"
and he'd be like "wanna go buy a parrot"
and I'd be like "sure"
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
abject horror
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
This is the greatest thing.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Here is a comic I drew a few months ago about Animorphs (I have never read Animorphs).
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
The economics bit is very nearly the same thing in a microcosm - almost a summary of everything I love and hate about the comic in space of two panels. I find this interesting.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Randall majored in physics and more-or-less seems to subscribe to the view that "physics is real science and everything else is stamp-collecting," making panel 4 simultaneously witty, erudite and nonetheless extremely unfair.
Obviously it's all banter, and he doesn't actually think chemistry is a waste of time, but he does believe that the sciences can be sorted by purity (note the alt text), which puts him in a tricky position when it comes to wanting to rag on mathematics, that being the language physics is largely written in and a subject that Randall himself unabashedly enjoys. His "criticism" is simply to state the precise characteristic of maths that makes it so versatile and useful in describing physics (and often other fields as well). Don't be fooled, he's still a math nerd.
An actual detractor of maths would more likely accuse it of being meaningless, tedious number crunching, and would be wrong, because maths is awesome.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I mean, they fight using extrasensory perception. Just because he can’t read the back of a cereal box doesn’t make him any less dangerous.
I’ve had a couple weeks now with the Littermaid Plus, and I have to say that this is one of the worst designed consumer devices ever made. I don’t have any arguments with the concept - a machine that obviates the need to play with feline waste. I’m onboard. Men of science, please invent a machine that will collect and sequester the tiny pot roasts my cat leaves behind. It is, however, a deeply ironic device, and it has lessons to teach us about sloth and human folly. Indeed, this strange method of instruction is the only thing it accomplishes with any regularity. What we learn through using the device is that life is sometimes difficult, and to try and mediate that fact invites the scorn of the universe.
There is a sort of “comb” that trawls the litter, snaring the sweet surprises left within and theoretically deposting them into a sort of cat shit purgatory. While mostly successful, the waste must first travel up a steep ramp, like the ones in extreme sports videos. And sometimes it is flung out, as though by catapult, toward imaginary foes.
The thing is, the device really doesn’t have a lot of room in it for cats, which strikes me as a design flaw. You would think they would try to put a cat in there, or find somebody who had a cat, shit, maybe just imagine a cat and try to design their litterbox around that hypothetical, hairy customer. But they didn’t. Cats must situate themselves diagonally in order tomake a deposit as it were, so the container at the end where it’s all supposed to go fills up at the sides first and then boils over into your house. This isn’t even the worst problem.
Cat pee and litter is like wet cement, it’s like a new state of matter. In an ordinary, non-robot litter box it has time to “set” so that you can remove it and then go do something that is important to you. If, on the other hand, a mechanical arm reaches out and spreads it the length and breadth of the device, now you have a completely disgusting new task you could never have imagined in trade for the one you thought you were giving up forever.
It is the sort of thing you would design if you had only a vague description of a cat and you didn’t really give a fuck if it worked or not.
(CW)TB out.
So I actually have some pretty big news to share with you all. In about six months Kara and I are going to have a brand new little gamer running around the house. That’s right, as shocking as it may seem someone is actually going to be calling medad. We don’t know yet if it’s gonna be a boy or a girl but we do plan on finding out. As odd as it sounds I tend to think of you all as one person who is a good friend of mine rather than a few million different people I’ve never met. So I at least wanted to pass along the good news. You probably won’t hear about it again until I have a picture of the kid. It’s not the sort of thing I want to bore you with every day.
Tycho was actually the first person I told. I dropped the news on him and this is what he says to me, “Big fucking deal, any jackass can do that.”
So apparently I’m required to sit around and act interested while he describes the various problems his cat has while shitting in their new robotic litter box. However, when I create a human life I’m supposed to keep it to myself.
-Gabe out
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis