explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3: Island (sketch)

2018-09-18T14:09:42Z

Aervanath: /* Explanation */ removing the "hello, world" explanation; nothing about the picture otherwise references programming languages

{{comic
| number = 3
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Island (sketch)
| image = island_color.jpg
| titletext = Hello, island
}}

==Explanation==
The early comics sometimes do not present a particular point, but are just pictures drawn by [[Randall]].

"Hello, <inanimate object>" is also a phrase used among socially disconnected people (such as nerds) in an attempt to be "cute", feigning stupidity, perhaps because it is one of the few strategies that has worked for them to garner a positive social response on occasion. The statement expresses acknowledgement of the existence of something else, while subtly anthropomorphizing it. It can be used to fill the social role of commenting on a presented item, when one lacks the creativity in that domain to come up with a comment that holds meaning. It's something nerdy people say, perhaps subconsciously to bond over how their social experience differs from what is commonly portrayed as the norm.

==Transcript==
:[A color sketch of an island.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 3rd comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[4: Landscape (sketch)]].
**The next was [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]].
**This is the only comic that has the same number both on xkcd and on LiveJournal.
*Original title: "Island"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "I draw these a lot."
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*You can kinda see a women as the island. Kinda.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 03]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 03]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]

1: Barrel - Part 1

2018-09-18T14:06:55Z

Aervanath: /* Explanation */ grammar

{{comic
| number = 1
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Barrel - Part 1
| image = barrel_cropped_(1).jpg
| titletext = Don't we all.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows a young boy floating in a barrel in a seemingly endless ocean. It comments on the unlikely optimism, and perhaps naïveté, people sometimes display. The boy is completely lost, and seems hopelessly alone, without any plan or control of the situation. Yet, rather than afraid or worried, he is instead quietly curious: "I wonder where I'll float next?" Although not necessarily the situation in this comic, this is a behavior people often exhibit when there is nothing they can do about a problematic situation for a long time; they may have given up hope, or developed a cavalier attitude as a coping mechanism.

The title text expands on the philosophical content, with the boy representing the average human being: wandering through life with no real plan, quietly optimistic, always opportunistic, and clueless as to what the future may hold.

The isolation of the boy may also represent the way in which we often feel lost through life, never knowing quite where we are, believing that there is no one to whom to turn.

This is the first in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a [[:Category:Barrel|character]] that is not consistent with what would quickly become the [[xkcd]] [[stick figure]] style. The character is in a barrel.

In [[1110: Click and Drag]] there is a reference to this comic at {{1110|1|n|48|e}}.

After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on xkcd, it has been clear that the original [[Ferret]] story should also be included as part of the barrel series.

The full series can be found [[:Category:Barrel|here]]. But below they are listed in the order Randall has put them in his collection linked to above:
* [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]
* [[20: Ferret]]
* [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]
* [[22: Barrel - Part 3]]
* [[25: Barrel - Part 4]]
* [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]

==Transcript==
:[A boy sits in a barrel which is floating in an ocean.]
:Boy: i wonder where i'll float next?

:[A smaller frame with a zoom out of the boy in the barrel seen from afar. The barrel drifts into the distance. Nothing else can be seen.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 5th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous comic was [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]].
**The next was [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]].
*Original title: "Barrel"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "He's fairly upbeat about the situation!"
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*This is the first of the original drawings that was not drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*A more realistic description of the behavior of a barrel in water is here: [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/should-dwarves-stand-up-in-floating-barrels/ Wired Science: Should Dwarves Stand Up in Floating Barrels?]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 05]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 05]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Barrel|01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Barrel 01]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

52: Secret Worlds

2015-10-10T19:59:31Z

Aervanath: /* Transcript */ grammar/spelling/punctuation

{{comic
| number = 52
| date = January 21, 2006 
| title = Secret Worlds
| image = secret_worlds.jpg
| titletext = No two adjacent circles are the same color.
}}

==Explanation==
The quote written in the large white bubbles comes from {{w|The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman}}, a comic book series about dreams. {{w|Neil Gaiman}} is a science fiction and fantasy author who came to fame for writing Sandman.

The interconnected bubbles represent the secret worlds of different people, and how they are connected, they may have the second meaning of the neurons in our brain.

The title text indicates that Randall used the {{w|Four color theorem}}, which states that a {{w|graph theory|graph}} drawn on a flat plane (like this one) requires at most four colors so that each region differs from all of its neighbors. The comic uses four colors (red, yellow, green, blue). This clearly does not include the white bubbles with text.

==Transcript==
:[A multitude of circles connected with several lines. Most of them are rather small and colored red, yellow, green and blue. Nine of them are white, six of these are larger than all the other circles, but one is the same size as the largest colored (green) circle, and the two smallest are smaller than a few of the colored circles. Pieces of text are written in all the white circles. Although it can be confusing at first, the reading order is still the normal one: left to right and top to bottom. Reading the circles in that order gives the following text:]
:"Everybody has a secret world inside of them.
:All of the people in the whole world
:I mean everybody
:No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside
:Inside they've all got unimaginable
:magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing, worlds
:Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe."
:--Neil Gaiman
:Sandman

==Trivia==
*This was the 50th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[51: Malaria]].
**The next was [[53: Hobby]].
*This comic kept it's original title: "Secret Worlds"
**It is part of the last six comics on LiveJournal which all had a title without the word "Drawing" in it.
**Five of these had exactly the same title on both sites.
**Only 11 comics have the same title on both sites.
**Apart from the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal, there were only three other comics without the word "Drawing" in the title before these last six.
*There were no original [[Randall]] quote for this comic.
*This comic was one of the last 11 comics posted on LiveJournal.
**These 11 comics were [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd|posted both on LiveJournal and xkcd]] after the [[xkcd]] site opened on the 1st of January 2006.
**The first six comics were posted on both sites on the same day. But not this one.
*For some reason [[54: Science]] was posted before this one on LiveJournal on the 18th of January 2006, but first a week later on xkcd on the 25th of January 2006.
**[[52: Secret Worlds]] were then released on xkcd the same day as [[51: Malaria]] came out on LiveJournal on Saturday the 21st of January 2006.
**It then came out on LiveJournal two days later on Monday the 23rd of January 2006.
**The release date here on explain xkcd uses the first release date, so that is the one on xkcd.
*After the mishap with [[54: Science]] the next three comics came out on LiveJournal a release day later.
**First with the last comic released on LiveJournal, [[55: Useless]], did the two sites release the same comic on the same day again.
*During the start-up of xkcd several of the comics were released on days that deviated from the normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday scheme.
**This one was thus released on a '''Saturday'''.
**Since it was first posted on xkcd there is no time given for the post. But [[51: Malaria]] was posted so early on Saturday, 1:43 am, that it could almost have been a Friday comic.
**And it is likely that these two were posted close to each other.
**The previous "Friday" comic [[49: Want]] was also released on a Saturday.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 50]]
[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]