mdbtxt1
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Proceed to Safety

Detailed Travelogue from the Blitz of Mrob27    




20130408.0841

{I first glanced at the OTT on this date (see note at OTT:268:0#p3321478) using SB4. I have a logs of my OTT activity in "chrome-history.txt" on both SB4 and MP16}




20130412.1847

{I visit explainxkcd.com about 1193 "Externalities"}




20130420.00:27

{On MP16, I look at OTT pages 370 and 367}




20130508.00:28

{I spend about 20 minutes reading the OTT: newpages 564, 561 and posts OTT:225:19p3317133, OTT:230:12p3317826, OTT:230:19#p3317853, OTT:274:15p3322208, OTT:464:10p3342732}




20130508.11:31

{I spend some time in the thread for xkcd 1209 "Encoding"}




20130510.01:10

{I read the OTT in pages 503, 579, 576, 573, 570, 568}




20130526.2337

{I visit explainxkcd.com about "Time". I broswe frames up to m1626}




20130623.00:15

{I look at OTT page 910, and visit explainxkcd.com about "Time"}




20130705.01:39

{I look at OTT pages 1009 and 1010. This is the last time I went to any xkcd-related sites before T** **d. I was packing and moving to a new apartment.}




20130819.0237 {This is when I started reading the OTT, mainly skimming and searching for specific things. There is a lot in chrome-history.txt on both SB4 and on MP16}




20130828.0147

{I begin writing my first post}




20130831.2210

{I began schizo-blitzing, but didn't mention it specifically in a post. The current Newpage was near the end of NP1426; my Chrome browser history says I loaded page 1 at 20130831.2349 local time}

— OTT:1:0 at 20130831.2349

OTT:1:9|#p3301875

Enya (-:

OTT:1:34|#p3301920

I guess we've made up for not talking about the c**kies :)

— OTT:2:0 at 20130831.2354

— OTT:3:0 at 20130901.0001

OTT:3:18|#p3302051

They're talking about the Javascript and page auto-refreshing itself

— OTT:4:0 at 20130901.0006

OTT:4:8|#p3302105

"massive nerd sniping" :)

— OTT:5:0 at 20130901.0021

OTT:5:23|#p3302231

Aubron's first server announcement

OTT:5:26|#p3302240

"EDIT: Ninja'd" explanation

— OTT:6:0 at 20130901.0030

OTT:6:25|#p3302369

"the first John Cage reference I've ever seen [...] I'm going to like it here." :)

— OTT:7:0 at 20130901.0042

OTT:7:31|#p3302456

(describing how the server push notification works)

— OTT:8:0 at 20130901.0113

OTT:8:38|#p3302564

"I hope there will be a joke incorporated into this comic about the Pitch Drop Experiment."

{See OTT:50:12p3305693 and OTT:1165:28p3414469}

— OTT:9:0 at 20130901.0117

OTT:9:0|#p3302566

"I'd be impressed if this scene ended with the couple leaving 'cuz their pleasant shoreline was under water."

OTT:9:4|#p3302578

filk/poem/song of Ecclesiates (or "Turn, Turn, Turn") {the first OTTification in the OTT}

— OTT:10:0 at 20130901.0124

OTT:10:26|#p3302795

http://www.park.nl/digidivi/9bs.pls

{I start listening at approx. 20130831.2529}

— OTT:11:0 at 20130901.0131

— OTT:12:0 at 20130901.0147

OTT:12:24|#p3302948

ref-xkcd-37 " My hobby . . . . / 'Dead ass-castle.' Hmm."

OTT:12:29#p3302968

"Spoiler:

[frame m0045]

Goddamn ninja'd"

— OTT:13:0 at 20130901.0150

OTT:13:13|#p3303031

"He seems to be more concerned with the water..."

— OTT:14:0 at 20130901.0154

OTT:14:14|#p3303102

"Is anyone else getting red Xs waiting for the 12:30 picture?"

{Several following posts report 404 errors. The image expected at np 50.00 didn't appear until np50.42, about 13 minutes late.

OTT:14:28|#p3303120

"Randall seems to be fixing it. Now it's a 0-byte PNG.

EDIT: Now it's ok: 14fc092adc9f3aeeb7b066fb54ead77b56cfb58eed5f4b736ff94f0207959169.png"

OTT:14:31|#p3303124

{The first instance of "Wait for it" in a spoiler}

"... Fortunately, we were here to document it minute-by-minute, in thorough detail. :D

EDIT: Nemmind... I just had to...

Spoiler:

...wait for it... :mrgreen: "

OTT:14:39#p3303135

"... Randall is a real person, remember. Not just some character. And so's his SO. Even if they rarely visits the forums and probably won't see it, it's stil fucking creepy to be making with the endless speculation and fanon-theories and fan-fiction stories about *real people*."

— OTT:15:0 at 20130901.0159

OTT:15:7|#p3303149

Aubron "Bit the bullet and went ahead and automated aubronwood.com proper"

OTT:15:31|#p3303176

"They spent way too long on that fuckin sandcastle" ;/

— OTT:16:0 at 20130901.0205

— OTT:17:0 at 20130901.0210

OTT:17:7|#p3303276

"MMPONS": Massive MultiPlayer Online Nerd Sniping

ref-xkcd-356

OTT:17:12|#p3303283

Positions of posts in the OTT are shifting {due to new accounts being approved}

OTT:17:38|#p3303327

The water is a "Cherkov's gun" (Chekhov's gun) and will be important later

OTT:17:39|#p3303328

They're starting to discuss the size of OTT

— OTT:18:0 at 20130901.0217

OTT:18:6#p3303349

"I can understand a 2-day animation updating every half hour between Mon -> Wed ...

Unless it's a 7-day animation and we're in for the long haul..."

OTT:18:25|#p3303385

{first rot13 and hex encoding}

0x6a756e67207162204c424820726b637270673f20756767633a2f2f636e6667726f76612e70627a2f7034457053574769

-> jung qb LBH rkcrpg? uggc://cnfgrova.pbz/p4EpSWGi

-> what do YOU expect? http://pastebin.com/c4RcFJTv

-> yt://MWyqayetJqc (youtube.com/v/MWyqayetJqc )

-> music video of "Rosana" by WAX, has sexually suggestive shots, camera pulls back to show it's not sex.

OTT:18:32|#p3303399

"Hypothesis: It's not sand. It's cornstarch."




20130901.11xx

OTT:19:32|#p3303500

"the auto updater survived the night flawlessly"

— OTT:20:0 at 20130901.1820

OTT:20:9|#p3303530

"As with the inappropriateness of ugmhemhe's signature, I was worried about ..."

{See "NP0014 ugmhemhe skirt signature.jpg"}

OTT:20:21|#p3303555

"Just noticed your little music note button <3" {which plays ambient "waves on the beach" sounds}

OTT:20:26|#p3303569

"uni.xkcd doesn't work with this comic" {But it works as of 20130901}




20130901.2520

OTT:20:30|#p3303579

More JavaSciript explanation

— OTT:21:0 at 20130902.0126

— OTT:22:0 at 20130902.0137

OTT:22:17|#p3303736

OTTification of xkcd 1110 ott-xkcd-1110

— OTT:23:0 at 20130902.0143

OTT:23:3|#p3303795

A loopist makes xis case

— OTT:24:0 at 20130902.0152

OTT:24:4|#p3303894

"Wow, does this have the possibility to turn into comic 915 or what?"

{Foreshadowing the creation of the "Special Frame Nomination" system on the Geekwagon viewer}

OTT:24:8|#p3303904

by SBN, First temporal edit warning (of unspoilered current frame images on NP25, NP41). Contains jargon "Blitzers" which is anachronistic

— OTT:25:0 at 20130902.0201

OTT:25:17|#p3304019

"I wonder if there will be a trebuchet." (not edited)

— OTT:26:0 at 20130902.0213

OTT:26:21|#p3304098

by buffygirl: edited later to add an attachment for use in her signature

— OTT:27:0 at 20130902.0217

— OTT:28:0 at 20130902.0223

— OTT:29:0 at 20130902.0229

— OTT:30:0 at 20130902.0233

OTT:30:14|#p3304383

Second temporal edit warning (by buffygirl)

OTT:30:34|#p3304418

"RANDALL. / PLEASE. / STOP. / THE WIKI SERVER IS DYING. / HAVE MERCY."

— OTT:30:29 at 20130901.2641




20130902.141x

— OTT:31:0 at 20130902.1435

OTT:31:5#p3304435

"I'd like to see this comic redone with thought bubbles from the characters echoing some of these forum posts."

{This resulted in several responses, effectively the first continuous OTTification culture. See OTT:31:18p3304450, OTT:32:22p3304512, OTT:33:14p3304552, and OTT:34:4p3304600}

OTT:31:18#p3304450

An OTTification, see 'NP31 idiot in suspense comic.png'

— OTT:32:0 at 20130902.1445

OTT:32:11|#p3304498

possible creation/modify dates in the frame PNG files

OTT:32:22|#p3304512

"my hobby" OTTification {ott-xkcd-75 et al.}

— OTT:33:0 at 20130902.1454

OTT:33:14|#p3304552

"had a baby" OTTification {ott-xkcd-441?}

— OTT:33:31 at 20130902.1457




20130902.1632

— OTT:34:0 at 20130902.1639

OTT:34:4|#p3304600

ottification (see image 'NP34 dinosaur foot.png')

OTT:34:9|#p3304609

{what is "bump"? Bring Up My Post. Does not apply on XKCD fora. How stupid.}

{I should ottify xkcd 481. hasn't been done yet}

OTT:34:10|#p3304610

"The internet doesn't convey sarcasm well, but I'm going to say that was sincere ..."

{Good will prevailed, but there was a critical period before the tipping point}

OTT:34:39|#p3304650

First BONG tool (a bash script) written by edenist

— OTT:35:0 at 20130902.1639

OTT:35:3|#p3304659

The wiki is still 503

— OTT:36:0 at 20130902.1642

OTT:36:19|#p3304764

{T-shirt saying "Time - I Waited For It - xkcd.com/1190 - 2013-03-25 - 2013-03-27", which looks really dumb now}

— OTT:36:20 at 20130902.1646

— OTT:37:0 at 20130902.1846

OTT:37:26#p3304861

"PS: ugmhemhe: Your signature makes me slightly uncomfortable about viewing this forum at work."

{See 'NP37 forumskirtmsgpl9dz8-1.jpg'}




20130902.1827

— OTT:38:0 at 20130902.1849

OTT:38:11|#p3304907

another countdown tool (this one web-based)

http://www.webcountdown.de/?a=gxMXfoy

— OTT:39:0 at 20130902.1857

OTT:39:19|#p3304996

TARDIS prediction {the next newpix is 0117}

OTT:39:23|#p3305002

4 online resources now

— OTT:39:24 at 20130902.1902




20130902.2133

OTT:39:29|#p3305014

"... which BONGS..."

— OTT:40:0 at 20130902.2139

OTT:40:8|#p3305053

Beginning of a gender pronoun discussion that goes on until OTT:48

— OTT:41:0 at 20130902.2147

OTT:41:2|#p3305115

Link to latest frame (un-spoilered)

OTT:41:16|#p3305141

Proposal that Time frams be grouped into "periods"

— OTT:42:0 at 20130902.2156

OTT:42:4|#p3305191

(frustrated) summary of all the repetitive stuff posted so far

— OTT:42:11 at 20130902.2217




20130902.2547

{I just spent a couple hours making "retrott-0481-listen-to.png"}

— OTT:43:0 at 20130903.0152

OTT:43:18|#p3305274

referencing the Joe Biden thing again

OTT:43:28|#p3305289

"Double ninja'd - dammit! Removed the image to streamline the board."

OTT:43:29|#p3305290

Using "the 'bong'" to refer to newpix time

— OTT:44:0 at 20130903.0200

OTT:44:6|#p3305314

"BOOM DE YADA / ... / I just registered so I could post that joke."

— OTT:45:0 at 20130903.0207

OTT:45:27|#p3305408

ottification (xkcd 970) ott-xkcd-970

OTT:45:29|#p3305412

(mis)gender(ing) argument is getting fairly pronounced

— OTT:46:0 at 20130903.0219

OTT:46:7|#p3305442

link to Spivak pronoun (though Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns is better)

OTT:46:28|#p3305472

uses "gong" to refer to newpix time

— OTT:47:0 at 20130903.0228

OTT:47:6|#p3305503

"I humbly submit that we begin measuring time in "newpix", equal to thirty standard minutes"

OTT:47:11|#p3305517

"it got me thinking about why we assume the genders of the characters in the comic ... So, everyone's assignment between frames is this: pick a regular xkcd character and find the first proof of that character's gender within a comic."

{This goes on at least until OTT:51:29}

OTT:47:18|#p3305532

"I've stopped actually checking http://www.xkcd.com/1190/ until I've gotten fully caught up here. [...] it's taking me 2-4 newpix to get caught up - but it's totally worth it!"

OTT:47:29|#p3305546

(comparing frames 0125 and 0126) "... in the new one, a few pixels on the left side of the second lowest tower ..."

— OTT:48:0 at 20130903.0239

OTT:48:11|#p3305582

Demo of automatically-generated frames of a stick-figure building a sandcastle, at kieryn.com/xkcd-time/

OTT:48:13|#p3305584

First pixel obsession (eTaXoq2.png)

— OTT:49:0 at 20130903.0251

OTT:49:39|#p3305676

I WAITED A HALF HOUR FOR ONE DARKENING PIXEL.

— OTT:50:0 at 20130903.0259

— OTT:51:0 at 20130903.0309

— OTT:52:0 at 20130903.0313

— OTT:53:0 at 20130903.0317

OTT:53:23|#p3305879

"It would fill in those dreary internewpix periods"

OTT:53:37|#p3305897

"I just love how we are so deeply analyzing each frame of this animation. This really must be worldwide unique situation."

— OTT:54:0 at 20130903.0323

OTT:54:4|#p3305906

belliott4488 (quoting xis own post OTT:54:2) reports first sign of The Madness ("OMG" -> "Gee Willikers")

OTT:54:15|#p3305918

"I, for one, welcome our new Randall overlords." (referencing Simpsons "Deep Space Homer", but also a foreshadowing of the OTT religion)

OTT:54:22|#p3305926

The Randall sock puppets theory, foreshadowing the later Kieryn-focused AI jokes (see OTT:101:20)

— OTT:55:0 at 20130903.0332

OTT:55:1|#p3305956

"I missed the update by 0.016 newpix"

OTT:55:11|#p3305969

ottification (BHG-death-star.png)

OTT:55:33|#p3306019

"Thank you xkcd forum! You have renewed my faith in humanity."

— OTT:56:0 at 20130903.0348

OTT:56:39|#p3306082

"aack! more turrets and a FLAG!"

{announcing the revelation of frame 0143, but we're still in newpix 0135}

— OTT:57:0 at 20130903.0354

OTT:57:34|#p3306123

"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.""

— OTT:58:0 at 20130903.0358

OTT:58:25|#p3306163

"...this psychic glimpse into the future courtesy of "God's" technical difficulties..." (another religious reference to Randall)

OTT:58:39|#p3306189

Beidah is at 41/57

— OTT:59:0 at 20130903.0406

OTT:59:20|#p3306221

Another reference to filtering of "OMG" (but there haven't been other signs of The Madness yet)

— OTT:60:0 at 20130903.0411

— OTT:61:0 at 20130903.0417

OTT:61:1|#p3306302

"It's from a personal communication, as in, he asked me to post it."

— OTT:61:3 at 20130903.1407 # (The :3 is an estimate)

OTT:61:6|#p3306307

{arguing over the reliability of Helper who was Randall's messenger}

OTT:61:26|#p3306345

" Why would you use days?

Alas, it is a throwback to the time of ancient Mesopotamia [...] in the days before Randall and importantly, the rise of the great Time."

OTT:61:29|#p3306350

First use of "the Outside", appears to be referencing the "nerds are always indoors" sterotype (see later posts by Helper)

— OTT:62:0 at 20130903.1420

OTT:62:0|#p3306367

OTTer prose based on xkcd 1110: ref-xkcd-1110

"From the stories, I expected the Outside to be sad. And it was. And I expected it to be wonderful. It was. But I never expected it to be destroyed shortly after the beginning of Time."

OTT:62:7|#p3306379

"Prediction: The other castle has a trebuchet."

OTT:62:10|#p3306383

Updated statistics of pan/zoomout rate

OTT:62:18|#p3306396

"This thread is quickly becoming the source for good sigs."

OTT:62:23|#p3306407

bash script (now gone)

OTT:62:28|#p3306412

possible unit of illumination or energy: "... the Great Headlight of The Universe, bearing down upon our sandcastle at 2 gigapixels per newpix ..."

OTT:62:32|#p3306417

Describes fractal castle idea (foreshadows the Drostekastell)

OTT:62:39|#p3306425

"the future is deterministic" (frame 0143 is once again viewable)

— OTT:63:0 at 20130903.1438

OTT:63:2|#p3306428

"An overview of the last 2000+ posts on this thread"

OTT:63:4|#p3306432

(edited on 20130404.1946 roughly OTT:239, to add frame 0355)

OTT:63:23|#p3306453

First use of word "blasphemy", also by Helper

OTT:63:35|#p3306469

First use of the phrase "One True", not counting the re-edited first post OTT:1:0. and first significant religious language not by Helper:

"Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. It should indeed be newpic, not the profane and plural newpix - there is only the One True Picture, now and for all Time. I feel so unclean. Pray for the forgiveness of my sins!"

OTT:63:38|#p3306473

"... I think we need a motto.

Something like:

We reject the Outside

We know of the Castles

We watch Time

We do not Sleep

Join us"

— OTT:64:0 at 20130903.1452

OTT:64:5|#p3306487

more culture-forming

OTT:64:9|#p3306497

the Wiki has been created

OTT:64:19|#p3306512

First use of "One True Comic"

OTT:64:20#p3306514

"... What about:

All hail Lord Randall

The creator of Sandcastles

The Keeper of newpix"

OTT:64:36|#p3306531

"Darn it. I was planning on playing Kerbal Space Programm today, but y'all keep posting stuff for me to read!"

— OTT:65:0 at 20130903.1459

OTT:65:9#p3306544

"... I come back ten hours later I find that a whole culture has developed."

OTT:65:11#p3306546

"quadragintioctonewpix"

OTT:65:13#p3306548

{I notice now that we seem to be getting regular ONG images}

OTT:65:14#p3306549

"On another note, I think we've started a religion. I'm not sure whether to be horrified or amazed."

OTT:65:31#p3306568

"Hey, explain XKCD is a wiki! ... we explain all the xkcd comics, not just Time!"

— OTT:66:0 at 20130903.1508

OTT:66:10#p3306593

"Eh, let's stick to creating a civilization and overrunning what little might be left of the Outside. A religion seems a bit OTT."

OTT:66:14#p3306599

{resembles a parody of Apple "1984" commercial}

OTT:66:19#p3306606

"I wouldn't be surprised if this thread exceeds the number of pages in most religious texts"

OTT:66:29#p3306619

Iniating an effort to clarify and define the tenets of the OTT religion.

OTT:66:32#p3306622

Suggesting multiple units for different amounts of time, including "Dayapix" and "Weekapix"

— OTT:67:0 at 20130903.1527

OTT:67:7#p3306639

{The process that is happening now is like what happens in a nascent solar system when its star turns on and the solar wind starts driving out the remaining unaccreted dust, making the planets visible to one another. In the OTT at this point, the folks who are having fun being creative have taken the "religion" ball and run with it, and I imagine it won't be too much longer before the non-serious folks go away.}

OTT:67:15#p3306647

"Irony: In our rush to worship the comic, we have forgotten about it."

OTT:67:36#p3306669

"the evolution of this thread is utterly fascinating"

— OTT:68:0 at 20130903.1535

OTT:68:10#p3306689

"We do not need the Outside Wiki. We have our wiki. The One True Wiki."

OTT:68:37#p3306718

"Well, you see, the problem is that there hasn't been anything dramatic happen in the last 15 newpix or so. And we internet folk have short attention spans. So, we make a new religion.

...I'm sorry, you must be new here."

— OTT:69:0 at 20130903.1542

OTT:69:6#p3306728

"Wikipedia's list of unusual units of measurement now contains the Newpix."

{This was of course deleted; I went through the change history of the page to find the deleted content, which was:

==Newpix==

The amount of time between updates of the XKCD comic "Time". Equal to 30 minutes. }

{The sun does seem to be driving more of the dust away — I can tell by the proportion of hatted to nonhatted (and nonexistent) avatars}

— OTT:71:0 at 20130903.1559

OTT:71:22#p3306840

Helper : "Please stop trying to mame, injure, kill ... Love, XKCD Forums <3"

— OTT:72:0 at 20130903.1609

OTT:72:11#p3306874

147 frames and justover 69 pages, so ~0.47 newpages per newpix.

OTT:72:30#p3306896

"It's snow, not sand."

OTT:73:34#p3306953

the xkcd 915 discussion has a wikia page at "Connoisseurofframes" {ref-xkcd-915}

OTT:73:38#p3306958

small filk ottification of "Time | Pink Floyd"

— OTT:74:0 at 20130903.1623

OTT:74:8#p3306972

Cry of "Heresy!" over use of nonstandard plural "newpices"

OTT:74:36#p3307033

in Japanese

OTT:75:15#p3307057

Beidah is at 57/72 "16 steps forward, 15 steps back."

OTT:75:36#p3307088

"Captain's Log" is like a missive from a blitzer

OTT:75:39#p3307093

"don't invent too much new stuff while I'm gone!"

— OTT:76:0 at 20130903.1648

OTT:76:27#p3307129

Beidah is at 66/73

OTT:76:35#p3307140

Defines "coma", ref-xkcd-203

"... By the way, i think we should rid ourselves of all Outsider-thinking by coining a new term for what They call "Sleep". ..."

— OTT:77:0 at 20130903.1656

OTT:77:2#p3307149

Beidah is at 77/77

OTT:77:22#p3307173

Another "bong" script

— OTT:79:0 at 20130903.1710

— OTT:80:0 at 20130903.1848

— OTT:81:0 at 20130903.1854

OTT:81:17#p3307370

"EMERGENCY NOTICE

... it's become all too painfully clear that this can - and most likely will - go on for days, weeks, maybe longer. After all, we all know that Mr. Randall Monroe has far more time on his hands than common sense, ...

The guy has us, and he has us bad.

... what of those hard-core who have not slept for more than 25 minutes at a stretch since early Monday morning ..."

— OTT:82:0 at 20130903.2020

OTT:82:1#p3307406

Beginning of a virtual food discussion

— OTT:83:0 at 20130903.2028

OTT:83:17#p3307491

"Dear Randall" possible use of 'Randall' in place of 'God'

OTT:83:22#p3307497

hypothesizes an inner sea, and "Dead Sea"

— OTT:84:0 at 20130903.2111

OTT:84:2#p3307528

"It's sort of sad that the initial turret, which started all of this off, was destroyed in the 103 incident."

— OTT:85:0 at 20130903.2122

OTT:85:23#p3307616

"Fortunately there is the Book of Aubron to consult."

OTT:85:39#p3307636

very negative on the religion and other fantasy talk "small number of people trying to demonstrate that they don't know what it means to run a joke into the ground"

— OTT:86:0 at 20130903.2135

OTT:86:7#p3307645

A more clearly articulated argument against the creative fantasy culture:

"I'm pretty much with you on that. That's part of the reason I liked 'TimeFrames' - a simple pun to describe the advancement of the comic, rather than 'Newpix' - a made up word (with an x in it for coolness) to fit the 'new religion'."

OTT:86:16#p3307660

Summary of the time-units that were proposed recently

OTT:86:33#p3307683

There has been a sand-vs-snow argument, citing xkcd 702 and 505. The only clear thing is that buckets are lacking.

ref-xkcd-505, ref-xkcd-702

— OTT:87:0 at 20130903.2148

OTT:87:1#p3307694

"I'd love to see a list of every comparison that's been drawn to past XKCD comics (I don't have the time or patience to do it myself though).

{I will list these with "ref-xkcd-NNN" where NNN is the strip number. I have gone back and added tags to the above, and most of the rest can be found in the getem script by matching against a pattern like xkcd\.com/([0-9]+). Of course, all OTTifications are references, so there will be a lot as Time goes on. I'll use "ott-xkcd-NNN", "ott-if-NN", etc.}

OTT:87:12#p3307710

"So . . . they made one baby, then made a bunch more, and then decided to give them all cancer? Art is weird."

OTT:87:25#p3307726

"Haha! Join me and follow the way of the snow. / For snow will melt and all will begin again!" {Probable Life of Brian reference}

— OTT:88:0 at 20130903.2211

OTT:88:9#p3307755

"Know what would be cool?" (describes a cellular automaton sand simulation, probably inspired by the recent discussion of xkcd 505)

OTT:88:19#p3307768

"T-shirts with an inlaid flexible e-ink display, showing the whole thing over and over and over?"

OTT:88:28#p3307782

"the Martin Luther of Snowism" with image ("The Martin Luther of Snowism.jpg")

OTT:89:0#p3307802

Another ONG tool (in Python)

— OTT:89:0 at 20130903.2229

— OTT:90:0 at 20130903.2242

OTT:90:21#p3307888

"It could be any liquid, including a lake of coffee."

OTT:91:6#p3307916

"I was feeling bad ... But then I remembered"

— OTT:92:0 at 20130903.2317

OTT:92:22#p3308000

"I really hope there is some sort of 'the end' page at the end"

— OTT:93:0 at 20130903.2325

— OTT:95:0 at 20130903.2335

OTT:95:10#p3308142

ref-xkcd-239, ref-xkcd-1010

— OTT:96:0 at 20130903.2349

OTT:96:28#p3308229

"compies on the beach" ?

— OTT:97:0 at 20130903.2357

OTT:97:16#p3308278

"oh god, here comes the 'what did she get in her mouth?' speculation"

— OTT:98:0 at 20130904.0006

OTT:98:3#p3308315

Link to page about Dewdney's planiverse, including an image of my clock!

OTT:98:29#p3308351

ref-xkcd-135

OTT:98:37#p3308360

ref-xkcd-353

— OTT:99:0 at 20130904.0021

OTT:99:10#p3308377

"Etymology-Man, you know what I mean" :) ref-xkcd-1010

OTT:100:7#p3308420

"We have officially reached the 4th page of this thread!" {later explained as a binary joke: 100 is 4 in binary.

OTT:100:16#p3308432

Pointing out that the position of a post can move because of comments that have been submitted and are pending approval

OTT:100:29#p3308447

by edo

"Ancient text" in spoiler appears to be a temporal edit for a blitzer

OTT:100:34#p3308454

Has a script for an ott-xkcd-606 that was apparenty never drawn

— OTT:101:0 at 20130904.0048

OTT:101:20#p3308487

Kieryn's proof-of-concept of an automated sand castle animation eventually led to this thread of joking about most of the Internet being populated by AI's and not real people:

"[humor-verb] job. [topic] is very [nicety] when [xkcd-conditional]. #23c45e3dff [review-this] @outputerror code 2231: parse error, unexpected symbol."

(see also OTT:54:22)

OTT:101:29#p3308497

"Does a set of all sets contain itself? New Mission: Deny this mission"

OTT:101:34#p3308503

"Self-realisation: What if we are all Randall?!!!"

— OTT:102:0 at 20130904.0112

OTT:102:39#p3308567

"I'm baking cookies. ..."

{All right, who came back in time from NP1416?!?}

— OTT:103:0 at 20130904.0138

OTT:103:31#p3308614

ref-xkcd-1061, ref-xkcd-927

"More later, when I finish catching up on the 25+ pages I still haven't read... you guys are insane <3"

OTT:103:34#p3308617

"java/lava/bacon/semencancercaffeinebabies" {Aaaaannd, there it is!}

— OTT:104:0 at 20130904.0149

OTT:104:30#p3308668

"NO! You said the word, you said it! / Argh! Now I said it! AHHH! Make it stop! Oh no!"

— OTT:106:0 at 20130904.0949

OTT:106:11#p3308747

warning of The Madness:

"looks at longest ICT thread ever

...

looks at impending Mod Madness announcement

...

looks back at longest ICT thread

...

goes to make an extra-large bowl of popcorn"

{See also OTT:110:18p3308998, OTT:114:11p3309216, OTT:128:6p3309929, OTT:1251:0p3421764

And note the following:

Original (2009) Mod madness described here and initated here. These are archived in '20090210-original-Madness.html'}

OTT:106:24#p3308761

"The water! It moved! Up!"

— OTT:107:0 at 20130904.1009

OTT:107:4#p3308789

"I believe the Mediterranean is virtually non-tidal. ..."

OTT:107:23#p3308813

"The sea is sloooowly rising. ... If this goes like when the camera zoomed out, it should rise exponentially, ..."

OTT:107:39#p3308851

Nice calculation of sinewave for tide prediction:

"... then by my calculations, we are looking at least 2000 more frames before full tide."

— OTT:108:0 at 20130904.1020

OTT:108:33#p3308907

ref-xkcd-592

— OTT:109:0 at 20130904.1448

OTT:109:9#p3308927

First use of term 'Blind post' (and of 'blind')

azule is at 59/109

"Looks like you guys are having fun there in the future."

Another "Ancient text" by edo. I investigate further and find this in his/her signature:

"

I don't come around anymore on account of being hated on. If you think the "Time" thread is a lovefest, think again. 1 2 3*

*and he should talk...Y Z

"

with footnotes referencing:

1. fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&p=3435172&hilit=ass#p3435172

2. fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&p=3423124&hilit=chirphole#p3423124

3. fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&p=3435171&hilit=immature#p3435171

Y. fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&p=3386917&hilit=+ONG#p3386917

Z. fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&p=3387085&hilit=+ONG#p3387085

OTT:109:22#p3308942

Another online viewer, this one has adjustable playback rate and the ability for anyone to add new frames to it data:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3103882/intarwebz/time.htm

{When I found this, it had 1676 frames, so I suppose people stopped using it around newpix 1700. Maybe someday I'll go back there and add the rest of the hases.}

— OTT:110:0 at 20130905.0016

OTT:110:2#p3308977

Using a regexp pattern "/s?he|it/" as a gender-free pronuon

OTT:110:18#p3308998

Another foreshadow of The Madness:

"Mods...mods...they wish to go mad...The Creator wouldn't let them get in the way of Time...would He?"

OTT:110:19#p3308999

filk "The Thread That Doesn't End" based on "The Song That Doesn't End" (unknown origin)

— OTT:111:0 at 20130905.0059

OTT:111:22#p3309066

"... This community has created a situation in which asking someone if they want semen with their caffeinated drink actually makes sense. Yay for inside jokes."

OTT:111:34#p3309087

"... So yes, I did a search for 1190 semen, and lo and behold .... suddenly it all makes sense."

{Indeed, Googling (1190 semen) does find the OTT, as of today}

— OTT:112:0 at 20130905.0130

OTT:112:30#p3309134

"> I think that is a hint, Randall wants you to sleep :roll:

The bastard. I definitely can't let him win now."

— OTT:113:0 at 20130905.0154

OTT:113:10#p3309158

Pointing out the M&C are probably "really good [friends] with whom you don't even need to say anything"

OTT:113:12#p3309160

Article by AV Club at http://www.avclub.com/articles/check-out-xkcds-epic-multiday-animation-comic,95486 {which seems to have been written shortly after the OTC started, and neglects all the developments in the OTT ove the past couple days)

OTT:113:22#p3309172

"What #505 hell is this?!?" (ref-xkcd-505)

— OTT:114:0 at 20130905.0209

OTT:114:11#p3309216

Another warning:

"and now I see that THE MADNESS is coming. I think I'll stick around awhile :)."

— OTT:115:0 at 20130905.0220

OTT:115:5#p3309255

Two opposing positions on spoilers vs. wait-for-it:

Wildhound :

"I found that I lost interest in Click and Drag much more quickly

than I ought to have because the zoom versions sucked the magic

out of it. And I just couldn't resist."

Pfhorrest :

"I find myself in the opposite situation. ... when I see

something that's really cool but really, really extensive... I might

just go "oh that's a neat thing to check out some time when I have

more time" and forget it. If there's a quick way of exploring it,

I'll spend a (reasonable) bit of time doing so, and get much more

out of it than I would just putting it on an ephemeral to-do list

never to be seen again."

It is important that the OTT community accommodate both types of people.

OTT:115:26#p3309284

"Again, as with pretty much everything else about the comic, I'm pretty sure the most obvious line of reasoning is the correct one."

OTT:115:29#p3309290

Album "Soliloquy For Lilith | Nurse With Wound"

{YouTube link is broken, but I found another at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xJ-KdNSq_U }

OTT:115:34#p3309297

" I just attempted to explain Time (and xkcd in general) to my

friend and why I've been so preoccupied with it.

His response was "cool. I mean really strange, but cool."

I've decided to just stay here in the forum where people understand.

Happened to me as well, earlier today. We're a unique bunch."

— OTT:116:0 at 20130905.0332

OTT:116:8#p3309314

Poll for name of OTTers at http://strawpoll.me/12590; results:

41 The Time Waiters

13 The Time Keepers

(other; The Strangers; The Userisses)

68 total

{Updated results, from 20150302:

43 The Time Waiters

14 The Time Keepers

8 Other

5 The Strangers

4 The Userisses

74 total }

OTT:116:11#p3309317

"The tide is beginning to rise, guys. Very slowly, but it's happening. It makes another change between 189 and 190."

OTT:116:14#p3309321

ref-xkcd-303 [

I think I'm just going to use "sandcastle" as my excuse to avoid doing things until this is over.

"hey, can you-"

"Sorry, can't. Sandcastle."

]

— OTT:117:0 at 20130905.0412

OTT:117:18#p3309373

"Perhaps a taxonomy of eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages is in order ..." ref-xkcd-376

— OTT:118:0 at 20130905.0427

OTT:118:25#p3309429

Another poll, at http://strawpoll.me/12599, results:

178 Time Waiters

140 Newpixians

57 Initiates of Time

42 Time Watchers

(Time Keepers; The Userisses; The Strangers)

441 total

{Update from 20150302:

181 Time Waiters

141 Newpixians

57 Initiates Of Time

42 Time Watchers

20 Time Keepers

5 The Usserisses

2 The Strangers

448 total }

OTT:118:37#p3309444

"We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble!"

— OTT:119:0 at 20130905.0439

OTT:119:5#p3309457

"Dear god, even the recursion is recursing."

OTT:119:18#p3309475

ref-xkcd-244 (describing the fact that people have been putting OTT quotes in their signature, culminated with someone doing that with:

"Everyone whose posts are on this specific page so far who has a signature has included at least one thing from this thread as a whole in their sig."

— OTT:120:0 at 20130905.0452

OTT:120:28#p3309546

"Also, we are apparently the Hrii of the Ron Hupadgh Syha'h. ( Have fun trying to decipher what I just said"

{It's "followers of the [religion / cult] born of eternity", according to Cthuvian-dictionary.txt}

OTT:120:36#p3309556

"The creepiest part is seeing this in Lucia's signature before getting caught up to the actual post. Or was the statement repeated? It's like seeing glimpses into the future."

{I was wondering when this would be pointed out. Forshadows sig-spoilers and sigcouragement.}

OTT:120:39#p3309560

ref-xkcd-1192 {The writer tries to, but cannot find a connection.}

— OTT:121:0 at 20130905.0531

OTT:121:8#p3309572

The creed translated into R'leyhian (Cthuvian) {with translation}

Vulgtlagln Ran'dall Ph'gnaiih All hail divine Lord Randall

K'yarnak Nw'phlegethog Author of the One True Comic

Lw'nafh Nw'nglui The Illustrator of Sandcastles (dream/transmit head/place threshold)

Wgah'n Syha'hgrah'n Keeper of the Newpix (reside/control eternity its larva/lost-one)

Hai'hupadgh The Creator of Time (born of now)

Cfm'latgh shugg! We reject the Outside

Na'cf'htagn! We do not sleep (not we sleep)

Cnnn'yar! We watch Time

C'ilyaa!! We Wait For It

{Unaccounted for: We have seen the Castles }

— OTT:122:0 at 20130905.0544

— OTT:123:0 at 20130905.0607

OTT:123:5#p3309674

ref-xkcd-37

OTT:123:8#p3309678

What a happy way to think of sleep :D

{With this post, "coma" appears to be revived}

OTT:123:32#p3309709

"wake up, check in, 23 pages behind, feed kids, make coffee, check in, 34 pages behind, readreadread, 27 pages behind, get ready for work, 31, go to work, readreadread, 18, do some work, 38(!), ..."

— OTT:124:0 at 20130905.0618

OTT:124:7#p3309728

Pixel-comparison program uploaded to Google Code:

https://code.google.com/p/pixel-comparer/

Also, new word "tomorpix"

OTT:124:9#p3309730

ref-whatif-34

OTT:124:14#p3309739

"holy crapioca. Newpix (along with a hundred other things in this thread) has become self-aware. Hell, I'm scared."

OTT:124:19#p3309746

"You know what I just realized? Since THE MADNESS was delayed, this (all of it) must be sanity."

OTT:124:24#p3309752

ref-xkcd-1167

— OTT:125:0 at 20130905.0710

OTT:125:15#p3309787

"what if Randall had decided to double the length of a newpix now, just to torture us?" {Current frame is 0199, the longpix did not start until 41 newpix later}

— OTT:126:0 at 20130905.0722

OTT:126:33#p3309858

ref-xkcd-977

— OTT:127:0 at 20130905.0755

OTT:127:0#p3309865

"Are there degrees of Randalicitness that have to be fulfilled to be the True Randall?"

— OTT:128:0 at 20130905.0810

OTT:128:0#p3309914

Explaining (again) how people can discover the permalink for the current frame.

OTT:128:6#p3309929

First report of substitutions by The Madness:

"And if you can't be good, have fun. / EDIT: Wow. Making it auto-substitute the word tin for C-A-N is really weird, albeit a delightful pun."

{According to BlitzGirl at OTT:1328:16#p3429977, "The filters were applied normally from newpix 192 until newpix 214, then only applied to quotes and previews until the Madness left at newpix 309."

newpix 192 was just before OTT:117:26#p3309384; newpix 214 was just before OTT:136:9#p3310476; and newpix 309 was just before OTT:210:38#p3315173.

See separate file '3-Madness.txt' for a list of substitutions I found evidence of, with a link to a post demonstrating each.}

OTT:128:10#p3309935

This post quotes OTT:128:6 and shows how the post appeared to the quoter at the time he/she was replying:

"> kenmelken wrote:

> And if you tin't be good, have fun.

...

I was really wondering about that, when I saw someone else's "tin" above. I assumed it was just a rather unusual typo. Do you mean the BB here does the subbing? Let's see: can it change this one? Yes it can, even in preview!"

OTT:128:14#p3309947

Someone aleady knows how to avoid the wordfilters with Unicode:

"OMG / Works fine for me!"

OTT:128:24#p3309968

ref-xkcd-1137

— OTT:129:0 at 20130905.0842

OTT:129:4#p3310022

"So the explainxkcd wiki is down after the hard drive filled up ... and the fact that it's probably going into swap space to handle all the requests it's getting."

OTT:129:25#p3310052

ref-xkcd-396

OTT:129:33#p3310062

"So the first Schism is underway. Who wants to be the pope?"

OTT:129:36#p3310065

ref-xkcd-1102

— OTT:130:0 at 20130905.0852

OTT:130:11#p3310089

"Lurkers who registered and posted "just in time" can have a high position in the clergy. That can be our Cardinal rule."

— OTT:131:0 at 20130905.0903

OTT:131:4#p3310162

"Also, if clergy positions for Timewaiters come up, I bags a spot."

OTT:131:20#p3310194

"Aybemay Iglatinpay ouldway ebay ethay afestsay ayway."

OTT:131:24#p3310201

jimbobmacdoodle announdes that he has just completed reading everything, making him the second documented blitzer (though this is also his first post: he did not make "blitz reports")

— OTT:132:0 at 20130905.0919

OTT:132:0#p3310234

"Holy crap! I leave my computer at work overnight and we've invented a new language?"

OTT:132:23#p3310275

"WTF is that?" {frame 0212. They've been speculating about where Megan went, and whether Cueball's bridge will collapse; now there is something flying through the air.}

OTT:132:26#p3310279

{Link to the thread announcing the start of Mod Madness. See image 'NP0132 Madness notice.jpg' and '20130328.1426-Madness-Announcement.html'}

From mittfh :

"Surely to find madness you don't have to look any further than the 'Time' thread? :)"

OTT:132:27#p3310280

"No it's a trebuchet rock! The demands of the masses have been heard!"

OTT:132:35#p3310289

"Srt252MightBeOnToSomething:

> Srt252 wrote:

> OH NO!! WhatCouldBeHappenin? New theories: GO

Let'sJustUsePascalCase/CamelCase!"

OTT:132:37#p3310291

Notice the appearance of "Either way would take quite a while..." inside a quote, then "However either way would take a while...". It appears that jtomjack wrote his reply inside the outermost level of [quote] tags, then looked at the preview, didn't see where he wrote it, and wrote it again.

— OTT:133:0 at 20130905.0936

OTT:133:4#p3310301

"5761 6974 2066 6F72 2069 742E"

{hexadecimal-encoded ASCII, I write the hexdecode script}

OTT:133:16#p3310321

"...now I return to find that the forum is transformed to gobbledegook. And there are unidentified flying objects in the comic.

And that, fellow Time Waiters, is the only reason why I finally registered to the forums.

Please enlighten me, good sirs and madams: What the bleeding hell happened?"

OTT:133:17#p3310325

"Ⓒⓐⓝ Ⓘ ⓦⓡⓘⓣⓔ ⓛⓘⓚⓔ ⓣⓗⓘⓢ?"

OTT:133:18#p3310327

"... Also, we have seen the birth of a new culture and religion, now the Reckoning is forcing a mutation of language upon us? Is The Randall essentially playing ForumCiv?"

OTT:133:38#p3310358

"Didn't you get the memo? We all type like this around here now. / I enjoy finding sentences the forum fails to change."

— OTT:134:0 at 20130905.1007

OTT:134:1#p3310363

"Argh! They're coming too fast for me to keep up with in my replacer!"

OTT:134:3#p3310365

Someone has noticed that the time interval between frames 212 and 213, as perceived by M&C, must be really short:

"It's taken over a TimeFrame to cross the picture. This means either:

They built REALLY fast

We're looking at this on entirely the wrong scale

SWUh was right about the timing not being constant"

OTT:134:6#p3310368

ref-xkcd-239

OTT:134:36#p3310405

"This forum has officially jumped the shark. Goodbye."

OTT:134:38#p3310407

"I, for one, welcome our new word-shifting overlords."

OTT:134:39#p3310408

"... I realize with this thread, now that it has been suggested, We probably will create a new language that makes no sense to the uninitiated, thus ins ome ways making the reckoning irrelevant. ..."

— OTT:135:0 at 20130905.1040

OTT:135:5#p3310416

"Edit 2: In fact, I'mma post it here again in shifted-speak just to immortalise this bit of shifted poetry."

OTT:135:9#p3310422

"slow clap* for 'Things that are on my side for 600, Alex!'

Well played, overlords, well played."

OTT:135:12#p3310425

{Another wordaround is to use underscores}

"DontGiveInToTheMadness,WeMust_Resist!!"

OTT:135:19#p3310434

{The new frames stopped appearing in the thread, and someone asked:}

"> ugmhemhe wrote:

> why be not the image being displayed? :(

Because it includes the word "Time". Which has been filtered.

You're welcome."

{See also OTT:138:35, which contains URLs that were remapped in that way; compare to OTT:116:9 which has the same URLs without mapping}

— OTT:136:0 at 20130905.1059

OTT:136:4#p3310469

by mscha {who only stayed away for about 10 newpix}

"І'm outta here. A few juvenile delinquents have ruined it for the rest of us."

OTT:136:37#p3310511

"eight wrote: / HODOR[HODOR=HODOR

HODOR;HODOR

HODOR;HODOR]HODOR ..."

— OTT:137:0 at 20130905.1107

OTT:137:7#p3310525

"That was fucking spectacular" {referring to the HODOR filter}

OTT:137:27#p3310548

"There's a horse in aisle five." ref-whatif-34

OTT:137:36#p3310558

"Okay, so... what you're saying is... it's NOT the hydrocodone that's making me see this textfoolery?"

— OTT:138:0 at 20130905.1123

OTT:138:4#p3310573

"I mean for Pete's sake, we be-did discussing semenated coffee lakes and oceans of bacon a while ago. This be just a different kind of random to cope with. :)"

OTT:138:5#p3310574

"There's a long history there that I cannot dig up ..."

{A Mod gives the backstory for Mod Madness}

OTT:138:15

"The good ones stay. The rest vanish." {This explains why 'tricks' still maps to 'trickses'}

OTT:138:35#p3310611

"[size=STAR DATE 2245]A bump of the important parts ..."

{The wordfilters apply to bbcode tags as well as normal text}

— OTT:139:0 at 20130905.1138

OTT:139:3#p3310622

"I think both this forum and the comic are about not taking yourself to seriously." {Hear, hear!}

OTT:139:9#p3310628

{Someone has figured out a way to post the images: by putting them on a URL that doesn't match anything in the wordfilter. From this it is clear that the /time/things.that.are.../ replacement does not match 'time215', so digits count as part of a word.}

"

Hope the wiki can take the strain..."

OTT:139:32#p3310655

"Just replace "Things that are on my side for 600, Alex!" with the word T-I-M-E. Do try and keep up :D"

OTT:139:36#p3310661

"The Mods Must Be Crazy!" :)

— OTT:140:0 at 20130905.2000

OTT:140:17#p3310686

"Cueball and Megan at Tanagra. / Cueball, when the walls fell." {references an STNG episode}

OTT:140:19#p3310688

{The hexadecimal encoding is effectively thwarted by the /20.*/ substitution:}

"4974 STAR DATE 2245 7461 ...

YES! Guess I'll stop that now. Mission accomplished."

OTT:140:33#p3310707

"... considering I broke the mod panel with the coal mine one, I'm not doing those anymore."

{Note that 'coal' was mapped to 'bitcoin', and search newpages 140-143; it seems they were having a discussion about bitcoin mining.}

— OTT:141:0 at 20130905.2012

OTT:141:22#p3310751

"> Methinks that technically this goes first to "Things that A.R.E.

> on my side for 600, Alex!" then hits the A.R.E. = be transform.

You are correct. Filters get filtered too. "

— OTT:144:0 at 20130906.0139

OTT:145:35#p3311016

"Randy doesn't read the forums. Like ever. Seriously.

trust me on this one."

— OTT:147:0 at 20130906.0155

OTT:147:28#p3311121

HTML/JavaScript code to show the differences between two frames:

http://pastebin.com/cWxA6EDR

{See "20130329-diff-code.txt"

— OTT:148:0 at 20130906.0203

— OTT:149:0 at 20130906.0208

OTT:149:16#p3311229

There is now an Android app that alerts you on each half-hour and shows the new frame.

— OTT:150:0 at 20130906.0216

— OTT:151:0 at 20130906.1143

OTT:151:3#p3311348

"> Half the fun of building a Magic Kingdom be knocking it down.

I called it. Also nice quote filter from castle to Magic Kingdom. :D"

OTT:151:11#p3311362

first use of "loopist"

OTT:151:28#p3311391

ref-xkcd-1180

OTT:151:31#p3311396

"Alas, the outside green must be made shorter, for tomorrow the Big Blue room will be Gray, and water will fall."

OTT:151:34#p3311401

"> The Demons be too moderate and chickened out.

Ooh, poke it with a stick."

OTT:152:12#p3311429

"> I tried but I lost twenty gold and my self respect.

Best one yet!"

OTT:152:37#p3311470

ref-xkcd-550

— OTT:153:0 at 20130906.1657

OTT:153:6#p3311487

Faked message and self-reply showing "correct horse battery staple" changed to "This is my new password"

OTT:153:24#p3311518

"What if we tried more power?" (ref-whatif-13)

— OTT:154:0 at 20130906.1710

OTT:154:19#p3311560

"thank you all for the work on the wiki and the gif's and apps over this ordeal. Good ol' fashioned team-building caused by a super-slow film."

— OTT:156:0 at 20130906.1950

OTT:156:32#p3311697

Coincidental blind foreshadowing:

"No, they mean Johnstown, the Pennsylvania community that was drowned by a massive flood caused by a dam failure. Right?"

— OTT:157:0 at 20130906.2205

OTT:157:19#p3311734

"Yayyy! I am eligible for a Timewaiter Cardinal-ship!! (just read the details in the wiki) WOOT! :shock:"

{references the following:

xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/Timewaiters

Cardinals are chosen using the Cardinal Rule. Any long time forum

lurker who registered in solely to post in the One True Comic are

eligible for Cardinal-ship. (an exception was made for KarMann

because I said so, shutup). [1] Cardinals are appointed by the

congregation and confirmed by the pope.

with the footnote referring to OTT:130:11 QV}

OTT:158:15#p3311818

"So, not to start another schism (but ah, hell why not):

Shouldn't newpix be divided into 218435 pixels, as hath been done by the Creator, and having seen what he hath done and it was good?"

OTT:159:12#p3311873

{There is now a discussion of how fast time passes within the comic}

"There has been a general consistancy to to how much time passes, between newpix, and it was estimated in the 3-5min range, but now since the coming of the trebuchet it is down to seconds!"

OTT:159:14#p3311878

"Simple: 1 TimeFrame = 395 TimeLines and 1 TimeLine = 553 TimePoints."

OTT:159:16#p3311880

{This refers to frames 102-103}

"Cueball's fall definitely didn't take place in 3-5 minutes per newpix..."

OTT:159:35#p3311905

"Warning, there are unspoilered spoilers on page 162 and page 164. Approach with caution"

— OTT:160:0 at 20130906.2241

OTT:160:0|#p3311919

{I rememebr reading this somewhere, probably on the thread for xkcd 1193}

"Just had a thought: what if the Creator made this t i m e thing just to test his systems for something bigger on April 1st!"

OTT:160:29#p3311977

"brackets are changing when quoted :cry: ))))"

{This mapping was really happening, the line in Mod Madness - Known Wordfilters.csv is:

) [when not preceded by a number/letter],(,,,That's just evil. OTT::#p3311726,Eseell,,,,,

and the point of it apparently was to ref-xkcd-859, and creating an amusing conversation.

See also OTT:180:0p3313057 and OTT:180:16p3313078}

OTT:160:37#p3311990

Amusing double-filtered URL:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/Things%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245%STAR%20DATE%202245,%STAR%20DATE%202245!.png

— OTT:161:0 at 20130906.2256

OTT:161:27#p3312035

"Double-reverse-ninja'd

EDIT: Wait, no. How did 123Adz321's end up behind mine?"

{If you get ninja'd on the ONG, and edit your post, you might end up being on top because of the edit}

— OTT:162:0 at 20130906.2327

OTT:162:22|#p3312082

Announcing the Geekwagon viewer:

"I know a few people have done this already, but here is my version that lets you scroll through with the mouse wheel.

geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/

I'd make it clickable, but it keeps flagging my message as spam."

— OTT:163:0 at 20130906.2334

— OTT:164:0 at 20130906.2344

OTT:164:25#p3312180

Origin of the "onice" ending

"Semencaffeinated baconcancerbabies... / On ice."

OTT:164:38#p3312201

ref-xkcd-313

— OTT:165:0 at 20130907.0004

OTT:165:0#p3312203

"Edit: I have travelled back in Time to say this: / ... ruminate digestion ..."

{I tried to figure out what sort of paradox this post is trying to set up, but couldn't. "ruminate digestion" only occurs one more time, at OTT:341:1}

OTT:165:25#p3312240

"Just to prove to myself that I've retained my sanity ...

[entire Wikipedia article for Pie]"

— OTT:166:0 at 20130907.0018

— OTT:167:0 at 20130907.0102

OTT:167:22#p3312353

ref-xkcd-566

— OTT:168:0 at 20130907.01xx

— OTT:169:0 at 20130907.0133

OTT:169:35#p3312461

{They're figuring out that the framerate has changed for good.}

"New unit: Longpix"

— OTT:170:0 at 20130907.0139

OTT:170:18#p3312491

"Therefor, I propose that these frames ... are to be called WarpPix."

— OTT:171:0 at 20130907.0144

OTT:171:12#p3312528

"> be it a longpix or a nopix? be it even CHANGING?! Panic be setting in.

It is not a nopix, that will be the day that there are no more pix at all."

OTT:171:15#p3312531

"ANFSCD: Aubron is number one now when searching Google for "xkcd time". Congrats, you earned it!"

OTT:172:18#p3312591

ref-xkcd-927

— OTT:173:0 at 20130907.0210

— OTT:174:0 at 20130907.0221

OTT:174:35#p3312770

ref-xkcd-258

— OTT:175:0 at 20130907.0324

OTT:175:15#p3312801

{They're looking at the sea level rise again}

"it looks like it's risen by about what was 4 pixels on the original image."

OTT:175:16#p3312802

Reports two versions of frame 255, with hashes:

b4438d37a73bec8234efdec9b2c6baaf1b39723f34e442c1db65a9860f3eda66

506e4482b9dfda6906be12a0f08db916374545d56b4dcc23e220c63d777febd5

— OTT:176:0 at 20130907.0335

OTT:176:0|#p3312833

Longpix version of the DONG timer

http://www.webcountdown.net/?a=v2WZqAO&k=H68Q

OTT:176:39#p3312882

Shows the apocryphal version of frame 255, with hash a0912d58db16574d7defdfeda6f4dbb820986d0e6fb38e793e62f8da5b151d98

— OTT:178:0 at 20130907.0402

OTT:178:6#p3312946

ref-xkcd-1000 {and apparently referring to the face that the comic is at frame 256}

— OTT:179:0 at 20130907.1243

— OTT:180:0 at 20130907.1257

OTT:180:0#p3313057

"> I love how the Fi lter changes sigs :(

Also I only just realised from what I've quoted here that using an opening ( to replace a closing ) is probably there to mess with smilies, not bracketed expressions."

OTT:180:16#p3313078

"yes, I made the filter to mess with parenthetical asides"

— OTT:181:0 at 20130907.1323

OTT:181:17#p3313129

ottif-fr0279

OTT:181:24#p3313136

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1

feature=endscreen

v=u_o8VLK52pA

ELO album "Time"

— OTT:182:0 at 20130907.1352

OTT:182:1#p3313161

ref-xkcd-463

— OTT:183:0 at 20130907.1507

OTT:183:27#p3313237

"Although I'm having a new idea now: So that a Pope can be present on the thread most of the time, perhaps we could have the Papacy rotating in shifts. ..."

— OTT:184:0 at 20130907.1514

— OTT:185:0 at 20130907.1523

— OTT:186:0 at 20130907.1631

OTT:186:11#p3313344

{Essentially the first use of "related" implying that "it's all related"}

"... This thread has so many topics that can be related to the comic in some way I don't think we can ever get off topic."

— OTT:187:0 at 20130907.1859

OTT:188:8#p3313435

"The base unit of distance is how far light travels in one newpix, obviously. The base unit of mass is however much has twice that distance as its Schwarzschild radius. This give you c = G = 1, which is nice for doing Relativity."

OTT:188:17#p3313447

"Force is derived from mass, length, and time, so it's settled already."

OTT:188:34#p3313475

"Can,t we derive temperature and charge too? Energy = fd, we could let 1 unit of temperature be how much 1 volume of caffienatedsemunbabies rises with 1 unit of energy added."

OTT:188:36#p3313479

"I suggest a temperature scale on which 0 is absolute zero, and 100 is the ideal temperature for frying or baking bacon. We might have to decide whether that's cancerbacon or cancerfreebacon, if there's a difference in frying."

OTT:188:38#p3313483

"I wonder if anything special happens at the temperature of six degrees Bacon."

— OTT:189:0 at 20130907.1919

OTT:189:9#p3313501

{First use of a -ONG word with a new image}

"BONG / The nüpiks has arrived."

OTT:189:24#p3313525

Unusual mixed-base number system (14,15,12 = 2520) for dividing time with units spaced out roughly evenly at different scales:

trinipix = newpix/2520 ~ 0.71 sec

dunipix = newpix/180 = 15 sec

zenipix = newpix/12 = 150 sec

newpix = 1800 sec

unquapix = 14 newpices = 7 hours

biquapix = 210 newpices = 4.375 days

triquapix = 2520 newpices = 52.5 days

— OTT:190:0 at 20130907.2217

OTT:190:35#p3313604

Reverse writing achieved with Unicode RTL command (ref-xkcd-1137) {which also screws up my Emacs, I had to add a filter to the .../1190-time/OTT/getem script}

"ecaps/emit fo tnuoma evisnetxe na nihtiw lladnaR droL yb edam esrevinu etanretla na fo noitaerc/noitavresbo nA"

— OTT:191:0 at 20130907.2259

OTT:191:19#p3313679

"two tiered period system"

OTT:191:24#p3313696

ref-xkcd-1013

— OTT:192:0 at 20130907.2329

OTT:192:10#p3313737

"Back when the interwebz were Usenet newsgroups, [...] This enterprise has been very reminiscent of that, filled with creativity, silliness, and a tangible excitement over what would come next. [...]"

— OTT:193:0 at 20130907.2347

OTT:193:22#p3313821

python script to convert outsider time to TimeFrames (see 20130331-time-conversion.txt)

— OTT:194:0 at 20130908.0001

OTT:194:3#p3313854

ref-xkcd-378

OTT:194:28#p3313895

{See OTT:546:18#p3348643 for context}

"Suddenly a portal to page 546 appears"

— OTT:195:0 at 20130908.0029

OTT:195:3|#p3313920

{First hat avatar modification}

"I have a hat! ..."

OTT:195:5#p3313924

"I didn't realise there were any Timewatchers left, I thought we were all Initiates, Timewaiters or Eastern unorthadox Timewaiters now."

OTT:195:22|#p3313961

ref-xkcd-316

OTT:195:24|#p3313964

"As far as the hats go, I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty well set. Unless my hat, pre-dating Time itself, needs a hat of its own??"

OTT:195:26#p3313967

"We could use pixels as a unit of length, but then we need to decide whether to use pixels before or after the great expansion."

OTT:195:34|#p3313982

"I support the idea to use pixels as before the Expansion as our unit of length and the mass of 1 square pixel of sand as our unit of mass, called the darva. Not cubic, because the Comic is two-dimensional."

— OTT:196:0 at 20130908.0437

OTT:196:30|#p3314067

Link for sea-rice

"Inspired by my dinner earlier, I suggest that the "beach" is actually rice, and the 'sea' is made of balti sauce. (Would that make it the Baltic Sea? Hmm)"

— OTT:197:0 at 20130908.1049

OTT:197:2|#p3314086

"From 23:02:46 to 23:04:33, the stream of image URLs wa s spammed with a stream of timestamps eve ry 3.5s, named "loadtest"; no idea wh y or wh at the duration means, but just figured I'd let yo u guys k now. It screwed with the IRC new pix bot, for on e thing."

OTT:197:27|#p3314122

ref-xkcd-1153, ref-xkcd-90, ref-xkcd-1027, ref-xkcd-37

OTT:197:29|#p3314124

poem (prayer)

OTT:197:31|#p3314127

"Maybe it is all of April. Hope everyone has their taxes done."

OTT:197:33|#p3314129

"It gets worse. I ninjaed HAL by over a hundred NewPages, myself."

{talking about the ref-xkcd-37; see OTT:12:24, OTT:123:5 and OTT:197:27}

OTT:197:38|#p3314136

"These umlauts must not be allowed to infect our newpix. Nude letters or nothing!"

OTT:197:39|#p3314138

poem (Lord's Prayer)

"Our Lord who art in Massachusetts, / Randall be thy name. / ...

(Only said by certain sects of the religion[which?][Citation needed]:"

ref-xkcd-285

— OTT:198:0 at 20130908.1402

OTT:198:1|#p3314140

{I think this was said before, but this post states it much more clearly}

"I think you all need to know that this thread and this thread only appears to have been Saved, and the wordfilters are only applying to quotes. Elsewhere in the fora these apply for every post."

OTT:198:3|#p3314143

{White text, so a bot won't detect it but humans still do. In the following, only the "Davean" was in a normal color}

"DaveandBuster'sisn'tanygood."

OTT:198:13|#p3314156

"Shut up and take ALL my Internets!"

OTT:198:18|#p3314163

ref-xkcd-244

OTT:198:39|#p3314186

"> It is so hard to keep up with this thread and also do things like

> eat, and socialize with, nearby humans.

Made some minor grammatical corrections, you were missing a pair of commas there :wink:"

— OTT:199:0 at 20130908.1412

OTT:199:1|#p3314188

{The following refers to the "title" that appears under the user's avatar in the right-hand column. This text can only be set by the moderators.}

"I'd noticed several long nup̈ic̈es ago that I'd gotten a rather extensive one, and I noticed bigcrag92's at around the same time, as well.

Added: Oops, without quoting, some context might help. Meaning the text under the name, of course."

OTT:199:6|#p3314195

"Höw be ït that eöw tïn ümlaut consonänts?"

OTT:199:11|#p3314201

"Well, there are a few consonant-with-diaeresis Unicode characters, 'ẅ', 'ẍ', 'ẗ'. For the others, like my 'p̈', there's a combining diaeresis, U+0308, which puts diaeresis/umlauts over the preceding character, whatever it may be."

OTT:199:15|#p3314205

"New idea for Popes where n > 1: Up Pope, Down Pope, Strange Pope, Charm Pope, Bottom Pope, Top Pope. Note that the last two in particular are not intended to indicate any difference in rank."

OTT:199:24|#p3314215

"No, Higgs clearly gets the rank of Bosun."

OTT:199:35|#p3314226

"Surely you mean robe and wizards hat."

ref-xkcd-442

— OTT:200:0 at 20130908.1652

OTT:200:16|#p3314248

ref-xkcd-994

— OTT:201:0 at 20130908.2037

OTT:201:32|#p3314318

"Ladies and gentlemen of time.

The votes have now been counted, we are proud to announce the annointment of the first timewaiter pope : Pope Helper the first.

He will now be ordained by the newly promoted arch-cardinal Buffygirl, wearer of awesome hats."

— OTT:202:0 at 20130908.2153

OTT:202:22#p3314359

{Helper has submitted several recent questions to what-if, see "NP202-whatif-inbox.png"}

— OTT:203:0 at 20130909.0045

OTT:203:24|#p3314408

{another temporal edit, this time specifically for one reader:}

"Dear BlitzGirl,

after all of your messages into the future, I felt compelled to reply by sending one into the past. I hope this message finds you well and that your quest continues strong."

— OTT:204:0 at 20130909.0054

OTT:204:24|#p3314499

{Concerning xkcd 1193}

"Actually, looking it over, it looks a lot like Time was, indeed, a testing ground for today's strip. Externalities uses very similar JavaScript to generate and update the info in the comic, including the same servers, which might explain that weird testing around 6 or 7 hours ago, I think."

— OTT:205:0 at 20130909.0102

OTT:205:31|#p3314636

{The trebuchet in frame looks like a "thumper" from Dune}

"Someone set a thumper. / A WORM IS SURE TO COME"

OTT:205:36|#p3314654

ref-xkcd-149

"She must have told Cueball to sudo go get her a sandwich. He's been gone a while, plus they haven't eaten anything since this all started and they must be getting hungry."

— OTT:206:0 at 20130909.0139

— OTT:207:0 at 20130909.0153

OTT:207:36|#p3314873

ref-xkcd-880

— OTT:208:0 at 20130909.0248

— OTT:209:0 at 20130909.0301

— OTT:210:0 at 20130909.0307

OTT:210:3|#p3315094

{Original calibration of the cueball (q) length unit and the primordial pixel (pp): 1 q = 75 pp = 1.76 m; and 1 pp = 2.3467 cm. This also gives the pixel ratio from the Expansion as 1.86, making the newpixel (np) equal to 4.3648 cm.

Compare to OTT:2112:27#p3657119 }

"... Cueball is about 75 pixels tall (originally). ... so we're working in new-pixels (about 1.86 original pixels). Assuming Cueball is an average US male (around 176 cm or 5' 9" tall), that makes it so an original pixel = 2.35 cm and a new pixel = 4.36 cm. ..."

OTT:210:23|#p3315133

ref-xkcd-525

OTT:210:27|#p3315141

End of the Madness - subject line has gone back to "Re: 1190: 'Time'", and when quoted, no words have been changed.

— OTT:211:0 at 20130909.0320

OTT:211:35|#p3315274

"> Eow can-did spake like that ænigweg

Eow tin do it WRONG, ic reckon eow mean.

(There was never a could => can-did filter, because can became tin, and "spake" only happened to "spoke", not to "speak".)"

— OTT:212:0 at 20130909.0807

— OTT:213:0 at 20130909.0814

OTT:213:31|#p3315577

frame 0320: this ought to be fun.

by Mr Moriaty >> Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:46 am UTC

"It be an river!!!"

— OTT:214:0 at 20130909.1547

OTT:214:9|#p3315604

by Mr Moriaty >> Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:46 am UTC

"... Perhaps they are building all this in a Dried up river bed?"

{Now they've got the right idea (though still not a full answer). That took only 45 minutes to figure out}

OTT:214:25|#p3315632

by Angelastic >> Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:17 pm UTC

"Maybe there's a river on the far left which joins up with the lake on the right during the rainy season, and they're waiting for it to come coursing through their sandcastles."

{That's as close as they're going to get to the right answer at this point}

OTT:214:35|#p3315644

ref-xkcd-311

— OTT:215:0 at 20130909.1604

— OTT:216:0 at 20130909.2316

OTT:216:13|#p3315821

Open-sourced the code for the Android app

https://github.com/drewhannay/xkcd-time

OTT:216:16|#p3315829

"... Apparantly, grammar nazis have no problem at all adjusting to things like the Madness. Someone tried to write a comment in "self-inflicted" madnessese (is that a word? well, it is now!), whereupon someone else found it pertinent to point out to him that he didn't apply the filters correctly. That's taking obsession with grammatical correctness to a new level, isn't it?"

— OTT:217:0 at 20130909.2340

OTT:217:9|#p3316003

GONG

— OTT:218:0 at 20130909.2353

OTT:218:4|#p3316087

ref-xkcd-326

— OTT:219:0 at 20130910.0006

OTT:219:30|#p3316373

ref-xkcd-305

— OTT:220:0 at 20130910.0018

— OTT:221:0 at 20130910.0026

OTT:221:3|#p3316531

ref-xkcd-505

OTT:221:6|#p3316539

{Link to the comic containing the "fox" image that became azule's avatar}

OTT:221:18|#p3316580

"Just did an analysis of the average fluid level of the right-most 80 pixel columns since NP 191. ...

http://kieryn.com/xkcd-time/img/water-level.png"

{This was a spoiler, showing data up to frame 647; I sent Kieryn a private message to let him know about it.}

— OTT:222:0 at 20130910.0109

OTT:222:13|#p3316708

ref-xkcd-521

— OTT:223:0 at 20130910.0311

OTT:223:1|#p3316861

First blitz report by BlitzGirl!

BlitzGirl is at 77/223

"Alas, I came to this thread hundreds of newpix after the Beginning of Time. As penitence for my lateness and as a demonstration of my devotion I have set out on a quest to read every page of the One True Thread, like the noble Beidah long before me.

Quest progress: 77 out of 223 pages.

The Populated Period of Expansion. NP 156.

I send forth this message now in the fervent hope that I shall encounter it again on my journey, tangled in the thread of Time."

OTT:224:3|#p3316988

ref-xkcd-1191

OTT:224:15|#p3317016

ref-xkcd-688

OTT:224:30#p3317050

{Several self-referential footnotes; foreshadowing xkcd 1208}

"...

*because that's exactly what footnotes are for*

*Speak for yourself. This footnote is argumentative**

**This isn't an argument**

**Yes it isT

T No it isn't. It's just contradiction.TT

TTand so on."

— OTT:225:0 at 20130910.1155

— OTT:226:0 at 20130910.1257

OTT:226:1|#p3317183

ref-xkcd-1162

OTT:226:20|#p3317267

pretty funny Faq on (one faction of the) religion

— OTT:227:0 at 20130910.1308

— OTT:228:0 at 20130910.1033

OTT:228:19|#p3317547

Air New Zealand "Hobbit" safety video

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuqrmgair-nz-launch-hobbit-inspired-safety-videolifestyle?search_algo=2

— OTT:229:0 at 20130910.1346

OTT:229:8|#p3317692

"I wasn't expecting that."

{Cueball is starting to build the Drostekastell}

OTT:229:20|#p3317720

BlitzGirl is at 100/229

"This is a strange, strange Time period, my friends."

OTT:229:33|#p3317755

First post that told others about two-way communication between the present and blitzers in the past: {I haven't found the "strange script" referred to}

"Preserved for BlitzGirl as she gets further in her journey: an ancient sign written in a strange script. If you translate the script, it says 'abandon sanity, all ye who enter here. This be the land of strangeness and madness Reckoning.'"

— OTT:230:0 at 20130910.1502

OTT:230:35#p3317935

{@AluisioASG's first not-really-departure, see OTT:1179:11#p3415689}

"Where did all the quote-creating folks go?

You know what? I'm out. I'll go back to watching Lord Randall's other creations."

— OTT:231:0 at 20130910.1508

— OTT:232:0 at 20130910.1514

OTT:232:10|#p3318081

"Ten years on and any blimp reference still makes me chuckle ..."

See "NP228 blimp story.txt"

OTT:232:21|#p3318144

{I am going to stop listing xkcd references, because I know there will be many more. I can still search OTT.rhtf for URLs like this one:}

"We all know how that turns out."

OTT:232:38|#p3318185

{Possible start of the footnote meme}

"> Dammit, where the Hell does 3 come from?! You bastard!

if you were reading footnotes correctly you shouldn't have noticed..."

— OTT:233:0 at 20130910.1540

— OTT:234:0 at 20130910.1555

— OTT:235:0 at 20130910.1602

— OTT:236:0 at 20130910.1610

OTT:236:10|#p3318512

{The hat thing is beginning to take off:

"In fairness, I did not give StratPlayer a hat, but the bunny rabbit I pulled from the hat. However, Here you go: ..."

OTT:236:36|#p3318584

"Birthday shoutout to HAL9000"

{Rememebring when I got together with friends on 19920112 to watch "2001"}

OTT:236:37|#p3318586

Yay! someone saw it!

"It's a recursive sandcastle... He is building one on top of the other."

OTT:237:2|#p3318601

"He also told me to build a boat, said something about sinking a sandcastle"

{vaguely predictive}

OTT:238:29|#p3318790

"In complete honesty, (no false intensity here) I have come to quite enjoy reading the conversations and meandering discussion which accompany the comic, not to mention the comic itself (which, while slow, provides and insightful backdrop to the day-to-day routine which I follow on the Outside, between reading this thread)"

OTT:238:35|#p3318799

"> > > boobies, penis ,vagina

...

> aabbeegiiinnoopssv ,,

did- did you- did you just sort my post alphabetically? / strangely aroused."

— OTT:239:0 at 20130910.1644

OTT:239:6|#p3318837

{Drostekastell is complete}

OTT:239:23|#p3318913

"You're almost at your 100th post"

{It seems they have started the practice of marking milestones of post-counts.}

— OTT:240:0 at 20130910.1703

OTT:240:34|#p3319018

poetry (or filk?)

— OTT:241:0 at 20130910.1711

OTT:241:26|#p3319099

"DONG"

{It is still taking time for this to catch on; only a few in the past 60 newpages (OTT:175:11, OTT:217:9, OTT:233:20)}

— OTT:242:0 at 20130910.1724

OTT:242:31|#p3319199

"Time is a Droste Effect!"

OTT:242:37|#p3319212

Great source for catchy (or annoying) music: unhearit.com

— OTT:243:0 at 20130910.1813

I'm on newpage 73, a quintessentially mrobly number...

{Except I'm not: 243 isn't 73, it's 35! @january1may noticed and told me, but I'm leaving the mistake here for posterity :) }

OTT:243:4|#p3319239

"... sending a request for the image with an arbitrary Referer gets you a redirect to http://www.railsigns.co.uk/images/donothotlink.gif, presumably to tell you not to hotlink their images, but that then redirects to http://www.railsigns.co.uk/images/donothotlink.gif, and, well, we were just talking about recursion loops, weren't we? :P ..."

OTT:243:16|#p3319268

BlitzGirl is at 126/243

— OTT:244:0 at 20130910.2314

— OTT:245:0 at 20130910.0045

OTT:245:21|#p3319572

"... Frame 400 - Frame 381 (copy-paste in the location bar)"

Viewing an inline image by pasting its data into the location bar (only works in Firefox)

— OTT:246:0 at 20130910.0100

— OTT:247:0 at 20130910.0105

OTT:247:30|#p3319752

"Hey dawg, I heard you like sandcastles and trebuchets, so I put a sandcastle on your sandcastle so you could hit sandcastlies with trebuchets while you hit sandcastles with trebuchets."

— OTT:248:0 at 20130910.0111

OTT:248:39|#p3319845

M: I don't understand what the sea is doing.

— OTT:249:0 at 20130911.0222

OTT:249:21|#p3319900

"... In other news, I decided to give my avatar a hat in honor of my 100th post. ..."

OTT:249:13|#p3319869

"since the dialogue about the sea, the number of users on this forum has doubled"

— OTT:250:0 at 20130911.0232

— OTT:251:0 at 20130911.0244

— OTT:252:0 at 20130911.0251

OTT:252:20|#p3320133

"I'm getting a burgeoning feeling of fridge brilliance about RobIrr's post"

They're debating how best to bacronym "LWPAII"

{"LWPAII" comes from the first letters of dialogue from the first six frames that have dialogue: Later.; Wanna swim?; Pffthh *cough*; Any idea where...; I don't understand...; I don't think....}

— OTT:253:0 at 20130911.1705

OTT:253:30|#p3320270

"They are building a raft upon the middle mound."

{Wow, that's really a lucky guess}

— OTT:254:0 at 20130911.1718

OTT:254:10|#p3320314

"you meant the xkcd Time Wiki. Does this mean that explainxkcd has become our The Other Wiki?"

— OTT:255:0 at 20130912.0002

OTT:255:9|#p3320382

"  ~~~~*~~!Whirly whirly time ripple!~~*~~~~  
"

— OTT:256:0 at 20130912.0026

OTT:256:34|#p3320513

{Frames 0427 and 0429 have identical contents, but different "hashes"}

— OTT:257:0 at 20130912.0048

— OTT:258:0 at 20130912.0206

— OTT:259:0 at 20130912.0236

OTT:259:2|#p3320674

"... if anyone started reading the thread ... would that hypothetical person be able to reach the end?"

(quoting zaphodbeebledoc in OTT:95:7)

Vytron is at 95/259

OTT:259:18|#p3320703

BlitzGirl is at 149/259

— OTT:261:0 at 20130912.0305

OTT:261:2|#p3320851

{The second boat/raft prediction}

"I postulate that she is converting part of the sandcastle to a boat (with supplies) and will float off once the water gets high enough..."

— OTT:262:0 at 20130912.0429

— OTT:263:0 at 20130912.0447

— OTT:264:0 at 20130912.0514

OTT:265:21|#p3321194

"That's weird. No change in action but a newpix? Time is in flux!"

{This is frame 455, the first freezepix}

— OTT:266:0 at 20130912.1204

OTT:266:3|#p3321261

Pretty cool physics simulation

http://thred.github.io/xkcd-time-catapult/

— OTT:267:0 at 20130912.1316

OTT:267:7|#p3321380

BlitzGirl is at 173/267

OTT:267:35|#p3321457

"B/G/DONG" {still waiting for it to become standard}

— OTT:268:0 at 20130912.1328

{The only time I read the OTT while the comic was running was in the morning of 20130408. NP268 was the latest page at the time. I skimmed briefly through the last new pages and left, not returning until NP1388.}

— OTT:269:0 at 20130912.1337

— OTT:270:0 at 20130912.1348

— OTT:271:0 at 20130912.2239

— OTT:272:0 at 20130912.2249

— OTT:273:0 at 20130912.2258

OTT:273:2|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3322026#p3322026] :

One o' t' crossbeams has gone out o' skew on treadle.

{A video mashup of Spanish Inquisition and Rickroll, by StormAngel with help from Eternal Density}

— OTT:274:0 at 20130912.2310

OTT:274:33|#p3322236

Vytron is at 120/274

— OTT:275:0 at 20130912.2320

— OTT:276:0 at 20130912.2325

OTT:276:1|#p3322376

"... It crossed my mind that signatures could be considered a form of time travel; at least in the view of those such as Blitzgirl and Vytron (who already touched upon this) and those others still on the quest to catch up on the thread. They get fascinating glimpses of the future as-it-is-to-them when they read our old posts but see the new sigs ..."

OTT:276:8|#p3322388

{They're talking about two-way communication with blitzers}

"What if we added one of their time capsule messages to our sigs? Would that technically be them looking into their own future, or their past?

And on that note, what if we quoted them on something they might eventually say? They might have to say it eventually just to fulfill the prophecy (assuming that's what it even is)."

OTT:276:16|#p3322413

"˙˙sǝʌıb ʇɐɥʍ ¿uʍopǝpısdn buıdʎʇ sı ǝuoʎɹǝʌǝ ʍou puɐ 'xıdʍǝu ɟo lnɟpuɐɥ ɐ ɹoɟ ʎɐʍɐ ob ı"

{This made me write the inverted script}

— OTT:278:0 at 20130913.0007

— OTT:279:0 at 20130913.0110

— OTT:280:0 at 20130913.0114

My half-ONG timer for playing CastleClicker:

http://www.webcountdown.net/?a=P8oP6KP&k=HKrm

OTT:280:26|#p3322812

"'watch watch watch watch watch' doesn't work as well as a sentence as 'Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'"

— OTT:281:0 at 20130913.0131

— OTT:283:0 at 20130913.0153

OTT:283:2|#p3323032

"Stopping by Fora on a Caffeinatedcancerbaby Evening"

{This feels like the first full OTTer poetry, but it doesn't really count because it's inside a temporal edit.}

— OTT:284:0 at 20130913.0229

— OTT:285:0 at 20130913.0243

— OTT:286:0 at 20130913.0302

OTT:286:34|#p3323453

BlitzGirl is at 203/286

— OTT:287:0 at 20130913.0311

— OTT:288:0 at 20130913.2016

OTT:288:2|#p3323611

"We should prepare a ceremony for when she finally reaches us, in the future!"

OTT:288:8|#p3323627

"I think I'll just start my own lodge of Sandmasons. If anyone wants to join, don't tell me, it's all very hush-hush."

OTT:288:10|#p3323631

"Speaking as an outsider (to the religion, not an "Outsider"), since there hasn't been a female Pope, it's hard to tell. Would they be called a Mome? If a Mome and a Pope owned a shop, would it be a Mome and Pope shop?"

OTT:288:39|#p3323718

"Please leave this code as part of the current garble-nexus ..."

— OTT:289:0 at 20130913.2234

— OTT:290:0 at 20130913.2242

OTT:290:18#p3323913

"> It seems we may be nearing the end of the One True Comic.

Congratulations! You are the one millionth person to make that call!

[banana dance party image, see 'nanaparty orig.gif']"

— OTT:291:0 at 20130913.2309

— OTT:292:0 at 20130913.2321

— OTT:293:0 at 20130914.0123

— OTT:294:0 at 20130914.0139

— OTT:295:0 at 20130914.0159

OTT:295:11|#p3324439

BlitzGirl is at 219/295

"... The Madness has ended, but the madness that pervades this thread persists, as it has for all Time. It is a constant in my travels, and I have come to find it comforting."

OTT:295:21|#p3324476

"I've heard she is known among some people as the "Incoming Hurricane" and among the elves, she is called 'Blitzrandir.'"

OTT:295:24|#p3324488

"I wonder if anyone has trolled BlitzGirl by editing a post AFTER she has already read it."

— OTT:296:0 at 20130914.0239

OTT:296:26|#p3324639

"I, future Knight Temporal Tatiana do hereby declare Tatiana a Knight Temporal. Kneel, Tatiana, and receive ..., permission to go back into the past and knight yourself, ..."

— OTT:297:0 at 20130914.0254

— OTT:298:0 at 20130914.0309

OTT:298:24|#p3324924

"Well, it's easier than that. Being a Temporal Knight (which you are, in the future), all you need to do is travel to the current "now" and knight yourself."

{I could edit one of my own posts and add a spoiler labeled "Read this if you are mrob27" and containing something like OTT:296:26. Then when I reach that post I'd get the title.}

{This practice of self-knighting was challenged (see OTT:309:9) but the subsequent debate was generally contradictory.}

— OTT:299:0 at 20130914.0330

OTT:299:30|#p3325090

{Another unwitting prophecy}

"Has anyone already suggested they're building an ark?"

— OTT:300:0 at 20130914.0340

OTT:300:5|#p3325142

"This is starting to remind me a lot of Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. (If you haven't read any Borges, you are one of today's lucky 10,000)"

ref-xkcd-1053

— OTT:301:0 at 20130914.0359

— OTT:302:0 at 20130914.0409

OTT:302:3|#p3325351

"It would seem there are too many different groups of different belief to ever write anything that is not heresy in this world."

OTT:302:24|#p3325405

{This might be the quote I remembered later as being by a single person, saying that like most religions, the OTT has permanently lost their most important original artifact.}

"> As far as I know, nope, the true first frame is gone forever.

And that, kids, is how you know this is a real religion."

OTT:302:25|#p3325409

"Off to coma."

{This has been happening for a while: several members give notice that they'll be off-thread for a while, apparently out of respect for the others.}

OTT:302:38|#p3325454

{retro-edit inserting BlitzGirl's "The Time Less Traveled" poem from OTT:337:39#p3328991 (Q.V.).

Another Robert Frost OTTification (the first was at OTT:283:2); this is the poignant poem that inspired me to start my own Quest.}

OTT:303:29|#p3325529

Showing a sample server session:

[

$ curl 'http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource' --ignore-content-length --no-buffer -s -o - 2

Exit 7

$ curl 'http://c1.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource' --ignore-content-length --no-buffer -s -o - 2

id: d3ff892a-a32d-11e2-8001-00259073a2a9

event: comic/time

data: {"spread":5,"image":"7191f6251ed18085912e41fc743850483ca14d5fb2128ac4a049720bdaa66120.png"}

^C ]

OTT:303:33|#p3325538

{Only the 3rd coincidentally correct prediction of the raftcastle}

"If the sea is rising... Are they building a boat? A kinda Noah's ark??"

OTT:304:8|#p3325588

{Community is selecting/elevating BlitzGirl to a leadership position}

"I hereby beseech you to formally appreciate BlitzGirl, yet no fully initiated member of our society, but in following her Quest in holy solitude giving an example to all of us in both dedication and humbleness.

I ask you to grant BlitzGirl First Of The True Followers Of Time's time ..."

OTT:304:19|#p3325610

BlitzGirl is at 223/303

This is BlitzGirl's Zeno_1 point, in which she is reporting having reached her own first post. (My Zeno_1 point will be when I report having reached NP1434)

OTT:302:19|#p3325390

"I was under the impression that BlitzGirl was already 'cardinal tempus viator' (or will be when she reaches page 260) and then pope/mome when she reaches 288?

That said, she is an inspiration and you can never have too many titles so:

I, descor, do formally nominate BlitzGirl for the post of First Of The True Followers Of Time's time subject to approval from the Congregatio pro Doctrina Temporis and pending ratification from another Cardinal or Pope Helper, should he return."

OTT:304:5|#p3325584

"This page (304) shall become the Not Modified Page. Edits are strictly forbidden on this page!"

OTT:304:28|#p3325632

"I hereby make it known, that I, manvandemaan have created a local Sandmasonry chapter.

...

We deny our existence and also we deny our non-existence.

...

To become a NewGrain, you first have to proclaim you are a Sandmason, then later deny this. After the denial you are initiated. ..."

OTT:304:35|#p3325646

"... the time of the Not Modified page is past (Thus I can edit), we enter now in the Use Proxy page! ..."

— OTT:305:0 at 20130914.1729

OTT:305:16|#p3325703

"... We are faithful to the OTC and it's Divine influence, but we hold ourselves to be outside any of the formal religions of the OTC. Thusly, we are open to all members1 of such religions,2 provided they resist the temptation to separate our order by Creedish differences. ..."

OTT:305:29|#p3325732

{3000 hours turned out to be pretty close to the truth which was roughly 2980 hours}

"... Gilligan's Island*.

...

*A 3000-hour tour?"

— OTT:306:0 at 20130914.1822

OTT:306:6|#p3325759

{Wow. I checked and it's true.}

"I went back and re-watched them build the structure at the top of the platform. It appears to me that it may not necessarily be attached to the platform, but merely resting on top of it.

Do you think it's possible that it's a boat that can simply float away from the platform if the sea level rises high enough?"

{This post was noted at OTT:1279:7#p3423461 for its prophecy}

— OTT:307:0 at 20130914.1833

OTT:307:15|#p3325845

"the following is suggested as a battle cry for the Knights:

One of the Knights: The river is small!!!

The rest of the Knights: The sea is big!!!"

OTT:307:30|#p3325878

{Beginnings of developing rules of avoiding spoilers to Blitzers ("prevervation of the past". See www.realhhg.com/hhgpage.php?page=time for original Douglas Adams text}

"From 5 NewPages in the past, I bring to you this request. Megan had just moved ...

PLEASE do not spread the spoilers backwards in the One True Thread through the magic of the Edits. This shows a blatant disregard to the Laws of the Edits and the Continuity of Time Itself."

— OTT:308:0 at 20130914.1901

OTT:308:5|#p3325905

" ... the Knight is tapped on both shoulders ...

1st shoulder: Flumen parvus est.

2nd shoulder: Mare magna est.

Then the tapper says: Quanta magna?

The initiate says, humbly: Nescio.

Then the initiate is signaled to rise as a full Knight of the Order ..."

OTT:308:30|#p3325975

{ChronosDragon initiating ximself as a Knight Temporal}

"This knight temporal biz sounds fun..."

— OTT:309:0 at 20130914.1920

OTT:309:16|#p3326044

BlitzGirl is at 229/309

OTT:309:39|#p3326102

"Perhaps we should all put stuff in our signatures for Blitzgirl to read, so she has lots of encouragement. That way she won't get disheartened back in the past."

{And thus is born the practice of sigcouragement}

— OTT:310:0 at 20130914.1934

OTT:310:27|#p3326152

First kaiku:

"Our Great Lord Randall

He gave us the One True Comic

and said: Wait for it.

-

Here we all are now.

Watching the Great SandCastle

and waiting for it.

-

The glorious TimeLand.

Where the River may be small,

but the Sea is big."

— OTT:311:0 at 20130914.1953

OTT:310:18|#p3326136

"The wiki and this thread provide a place to join in clubby, posturing granfalloonery. I'm looking for a forum where people are discussing the comic. ..."

{This guy missed the point, but succeeded in contributing the word "granfalloonery"}

OTT:311:6|#p3326189

"[big ass-picture of a flowchart titled 'Time travel in movies', see 'NP311 Time-travel in film.jpg']

Looking for BlitzGirl in this list but I can't find her anywhere."

{I would place her with either:

OTT:311:8|#p3326192

"i think, in years to come, ... This ceremonial phase will be called Blitzgirling, ..."

OTT:311:12|#p3326204

BlitzGirl is at 238/310

"As the topic of the thread of Time begins to enter the period of Recursion, I'm feeling a little loopy myself. All of a sudden, messages of encouragement are flooding backward down the thread ..."

{Coined word "sigcouragements"}

OTT:311:34|#p3326240

filk based on "Gimme that old Time religion"

{Also perhaps the first René Magritte reference: "Ceci n'est pas une footnote."}

— OTT:312:0 at 20130914.2049

OTT:312:18|#p3326278

{rot13, but not the first, see OTT:18:25}

"Grzcbeny Vyyhzvangv farnxl uvtu svir"

OTT:312:24|#p3326289

"> Grzcbeny Vyyhzvangv farnxl uvtu svir!

Wow, I tried googling that last sentence just for fun. It had 1 hit, this post in this thread (This was 10 minutes after it was posted).

Damn google, you're fast :P

OTT:312:34|#p3326306

"I, BuffyGirl, have seen many proposals for the Upcoming Title due to BlitzGirl ... and I like this one, so I hereby nominate BlitzGirl as First Of The True Followers Of Time’s time. I thereby mote it be."

— OTT:313:0 at 20130914.2127

OTT:313:5|#p3326325

"By the powers not vested in me ..."

{temporal edit around NP334, which I don't quite understand}

OTT:313:19|#p3326348

BlitzGirl is at 243/312

Several quotes of text from signatures, which are otherwise not visible.

OTT:313:26|#p3326362

ref-xkcd-149 ("sudo make Jafloi a sandwich")

OTT:313:32|#p3326370

"If Randall really wanted to do this up to 11..."

{Reminds me of the movie "Timecode"}

OTT:313:33|#p3326371

Helper has been missing for a while.

"Pope In Abstentia... and AWOL still..."

— OTT:314:0 at 20130914.2245

OTT:314:10|#p3326400

"I think it jumped the shark like 200 pages ago. Now it's treading water for dear life in shark infested semencancerwhateverfluid, covered in chum and a copy of the last season of Happy Days on Laser Disc."

{Clearly that wasn't true...}

OTT:314:30|#p3326440

{They're building up quite a long list of titles for BlitzGirl}

OTT:314:34|#p3326447

{rot13'd R'lyehian}

"V̈n Pguhyuh! V̈n Enaqnyy"

— OTT:315:0 at 20130914.2305

OTT:315:5|#p3326486

BlitzGirl is at 247/315

{more preserved signatures}

"Very well. I, BlitzGirl, Knight Temporal of the One True Comic, bestow upon thee, BlitzGirl, traverser of the thread of Time, the Knighthood Temporal, in recognition of true pilgrimage, perseverance, and pride in Time. Arise, and continue on thy Quest! Many newpages await thee still."

— OTT:316:0 at 20130914.2318

OTT:316:15|#p3326655

"We, the Sandmasons/nobody in particular, are not a religious organization and also therefore our members/People who we do not know can join any other religion that exist/does not exist."

OTT:316:27|#p3326696

First colorized frame (see "fr583-color.jpg")

OTT:316:35|#p3326716

Another temporal edit and note to BlitzGirl, warning of "the madness to come"

— OTT:317:0 at 20130914.2332

OTT:317:16|#p3326771

"Hat orders are also being accepted, and will be fulfilled in whatever order I feel like."

OTT:317:17|#p3326772

{Very odd, and possibly a sock-puppet}

"This special message is to commemmorate..."

{A reply noted that this post was "buried", i.e. not seen by many because it was pending approval}

OTT:317:18|#p3326774

{Now they're making BlitzGirl the saviour!}

"But rather than envisaging the creation of yet another new religion, I think we should look rather to the hope that Blitzgirl will be able, Redeemer-like, to unite all the squabbling factions under the banner of the One True Comic ..."

OTT:317:36|#p3326809

"Well, everybody."

{apparently ref-xkcd-311}

— OTT:318:0 at 20130915.0407

— OTT:319:0 at 20130915.0420

OTT:320:15|#p3327008

{First mention of one person adding a hat to another's avatar}

"Awwww! That's awesome! If you send me the color version of your avatar, I can put the hat on that head instead. If you want."

OTT:320:18|#p3327012

BlitzGirl is at 254/320

{Note she spoilered the "communications from the future", possibly because they are indeed spoilers}

— OTT:321:0 at 20130915.0459

OTT:321:6|#p3327061

{buffygirl has finished the custom hat for HAL9000}

"Right. Ask and ye shall receive."

OTT:321:16|#p3327075

"Ninja'd by my liege, but hey, another version if you feel like a little variety..."

{This is the version that HAL9000 ended up actually using; see also OTT:322:16, OTT:526:3}

— OTT:322:0 at 20130915.0531

OTT:322:6|#p3327124

"Lo! Behold!For the Writing of The Ancient Texts has begun! ..."

{See OTT:100:29}

— OTT:323:0 at 20130915.0610

— OTT:324:0 at 20130915.0619

OTT:324:6|#p3327249

BlitzGirl is at 259/324

OTT:324:38|#p3327345

BlitzGirl is at 267/325

poem (or filk) "The wonderful thing about Time-Knights..." based on "The wonderful thing about Tiggers" from "Winnie the Pooh"

— OTT:325:0 at 20130915.0649

— OTT:326:0 at 20130915.0703

— OTT:327:0 at 20130915.0731

OTT:327:21|#p3327703

"If Z is one meter maybe they are jamming the boards into the sides of the universe for better stability."

— OTT:328:0 at 20130915.0744

— OTT:329:0 at 20130915.0753

— OTT:330:0 at 20130915.0801

OTT:330:16|#p3328027

BlitzGirl is at 271/330

— OTT:331:0 at 20130915.0927

— OTT:332:0 at 20130915.1009

OTT:332:3|#p3328274

{They're noticing the unusual Cueganite grammar, "Does it rain on the sea?"}

"It does seem to be somewhat oddly phrased. ..."

OTT:332:33|#p3328357

"the ChronoCreed is in the form of question/answer

> Do you believe in Time?

> We believe in the One True Comic of Time.

> ..."

OTT:332:37|#p3328363

"So close to hitting the top of the NewPage!"

— OTT:333:0 at 20130915.1110

OTT:333:1|#p3328370

"I think it's pretty clear throughout the history of Time ...

EDITED to fix Spoiler parsing errors"

{This post originally was an example of improperly-nested tags. See "NP333 spoiler quote nesting.png"}

OTT:333:2|#p3328371

"It's not intended to mirror the same speaking roles, as in reading a stage play. As a litany, it takes a text and presents it in a call-and-response format."

{Like most religions, they spend most of the time and effort debating the smallest details}

OTT:333:22#p3328428

{First explicit use of phrase "it's all related"}

"The 'it' we're waiting for??? See how it's all related?!?! This is significant!"

OTT:333:39|#p3328484

{Boston Marathon bombing}

"Holy cow, what is going on in Boston right now? :shock: :cry:"

— OTT:334:0 at 20130915.1301

— OTT:335:0 at 20130915.1314

— OTT:336:0 at 20130915.1324

OTT:336:10|#p3328827

"I think I willen haven-now retrocome from the future."

OTT:336:29|#p3328869

BlitzGirl is at 275/336

"> Brace yourself Blitzgirl. Things are going to get insane for you.

...going to get?"

— OTT:337:0 at 20130915.1937

OTT:337:2|#p3328890

"Yes, of course. But we need to keep a record of alternate timelines for BlitzGirl :)"

OTT:337:20|#p3328933

BlitzGirl is at 281/337

{Now BlitzGirl is commenting on the development of the culture regarding blizting in general and her quest in particular. It's fun to read!}

OTT:337:25|#p3328942

poem "Stopping by Fora on a Caffeinatedcancerbaby Evening"

OTT:337:37|#p3328982

"> 'When will then be now?'

> 'Soon!'

My favorite part of the movie!"

OTT:337:39|#p3328991

BlitzGirl is at 283/338

She just found the temporal edit of "Stopping by Fora on a Caffeinatedcancerbaby Evening" and offers her own poem ("The Time Less Traveled") in response

{Saved in "NP337 Time Less Traveled.txt". Note also that it was later retro-edited into OTT:302:38#p3325454}

[

The Time Less Traveled

Two Times diverged in a forum thread: The Now, and newpages long since made. But which to wander? In my head Current posting, the past unread, Meant I would not be long delayed.

But lack context? I wouldn't dare - So back into the past I went. The One True Comic waited there With newpix left by users fair And discussions of religious bent.

Both Times that day appeared as just. I chose the posts that had amassed. And in Time, I knew I surely must Re-glimpse the Now that was discussed, Although by then it would be Past.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere newpix and newpix hence: Two Times diverged in a thread and I — I chose the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. BlitzGirl (transmitted from NP283 to NP338) ] {It is nice to see this interaction again, now at its later end

(making three times in total)}

— OTT:338:0 at 20130915.2002

OTT:338:28|#p3329080

"> This can only lead to.... Hey it's Tuesday! Let's all jump over to

what-if! ( XKCDADD)

What if we tried more Ritalin?"

— OTT:339:0 at 20130915.2017

OTT:339:9|#p3329177

"Great Thirding Page of Time"

{This post shows that as of NP339, the post that is now OTT:332:36 was at OTT:333:2}

OTT:339:17|#p3329207

"BlitzGirl" in Japanese (ぶりつげる)

— OTT:340:0 at 20130915.2033

— OTT:341:0 at 20130915.2049

OTT:341:1|#p3329371

"So, what's everyone's opinion on the evolutionary origins of ruminate digestion ..."

{This post by blowfishhootie was used by chem1190c OTT:165:0 to establish a causality loop}

OTT:341:11|#p3329390

BlitzGirl is at 289/341

another poem "There's nothing better than to rhyme / ..."

and now she knows she's been declared future-Mome. "Hopefully Pope Helper shows up somewhere in the thread between my present and your present, and we can forget this whole thing even came up."

OTT:341:14|#p3329396

{Oooh! Chinese footnote numbers! 一二三四五六七八九十}

— OTT:342:0 at 20130916.0001

OTT:342:8|#p3329480

"I suggest that he who writes the first post in each newpage will be proclaimed Pope for the period on that newpage. All through the page he/she will be referred to as "Pope BlitzGirl" (in example), and the title will also be kept as long as you directly quote a pope's post in a page when they are Pope."

OTT:342:34|#p3329560

{That didn't take long; also implies this message was originally OTT:343:0}

"ETA: W00t! I'm POPE now, y'all!"

— OTT:343:0 at 20130916.0016

{This is actually 73, see my note at OTT:243:0}

OTT:343:33|#p3329727

{The writer thought this page was OTT:343:39; This is the same skew (-6) as OTT:342:34 above.}

"Edit: If 1 N00b bumps this post I'll be Pope!"

— OTT:344:0 at 20130916.0056

OTT:344:7|#p3329788

"hehe. I love how this forum really wants chaos so much it creates it. :twisted:"

OTT:344:34|#p3329918

"I have fallen behind by 9 newpages!"

{This was OTT:355:0, see next message}

OTT:344:35|#p3329919

"... Buffygirl's non-inane post being at the top of the newpage at its genesis makes her interim Pope for page 345."

— OTT:345:0 at 20130916.0127

OTT:345:27|#p3330000

"... / The time Time time times time timed Time.

(That's the best I can do for now without going insane. ...)"

— OTT:346:0 at 20130916.0139

OTT:346:14|#p3330105

BlitzGirl is at 293/346

(this post has a temporal edit by BlitzGirl from OTT:391:23#p3335935, in which she "rescues" the tiny trebuchet from the pile of sand after Megan's fall in frame 675)

"... I must depart, but I'll distract you with this gem lost to Time (I was instructed to bring some of these along, but my pocket is now occupied, so I'll just shove it through the Time vortex), circa newpage 290:

quotes the nanaparty GIF, see OTT:290:18 ..."

OTT:346:24|#p3330149

(first index from frame number to OTT newpage/post, but ratherslow to use)

"... there is a cool new feature in [The Book of Time|http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/TheBookof_Time]. Go to any page ... and there is a link at the bottom that takes you to that newpix's point in the Forum thread. ..."

— OTT:347:0 at 20130916.0156

— OTT:348:0 at 20130916.0209

OTT:348:9|#p3330346

"for those of us who need to fix their image collection ..."

(frames 682 and 683 were late)

OTT:348:25|#p3330392

filk "Lord Randall's Band" based on "Uncle John's Band" by the Grateful Dead

— OTT:349:0 at 20130916.0225

OTT:349:10|#p3330460

"... Using Occam's Razor I would say if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it with any certainty is a duck (so give that damn bird a cucumber to fly on). ..."

{Finally, a senible intelligent discussion of the 2D-vs-3D issue!}

OTT:349:33|#p3330540

{This post was OTT:350:0, the offset is -7}

"... Im pope? What is this feeling ... The POWER! MUAHAHA! ..."

— OTT:350:0 at 20130916.0241

OTT:350:34|#p3330698

{Here the offset is -6}

"Oh no, I'm the Pope this page"

— OTT:351:0 at 20130916.0311

OTT:351:27|#p3330861

"> > Damnit, now I can't stop laughing!

> > Edit: Sorry for the double post ;)

> :) I'd be shocked if the mods even bother with this thread anymore.

They may be letting us go, planning to use this thread as a test environment for future moderators. Those who pass that qualifying test, get to take the test again with the MADNESS turned on to see if they can be driven insane by the users."

OTT:351:37|#p3330874

{Offset is -3}

"Yesss!! I'm the PFAP! Woo-hoo! Unless somebody ninja's me."

OTT:352:34|#p3330957

{Offset is -6 again?}

"Also, I just Pope'd myself."

— OTT:353:0 at 20130916.0440

OTT:353:33|#p3331042

{This message was OTT:354:0, but not originally}

"EDIT: AHA! I return to read the NewPages and find that some forum sorcery bumped me into Pope For A Page! Alas the time to abuse my power has past for those in the present present. ... As Pope I bestow unto any [blitzer] that reads these words ... the position of Archbishop of the Past ... relinquish this title as soon as you ... see a post from someone else accepting the title that is after your post accepting the title."

{I guess I have this title now, but suspect fairly soon I'll find BlitzGirl's post or perhaps a retro-edit by another blitzer}

{I never announced accepting the title, and lost the title when I got to BlitzGirl's OTT:393:0#p3336191}

OTT:353:34#p3331045

{Offset is -6}

"... / edit: Pope twice in a day.."

— OTT:354:0 at 20130916.1155

OTT:354:8|#p3331091

"THONG!*

[frame 698]

Added:

OTT:354:29|#p3331123

BlitzGirl is at 295/354

OTT:354:33|#p3331128

"HolyEdit: I Ninja-Poped myself."

— OTT:355:0 at 20130916.1217

OTT:355:5|#p3331155

More funny footnote symbols: ∮ ∬

OTT:355:10|#p3331166

BlitzGirl is at 305/355

{She has now passed her Zeno1 point, making this is her Zeno2}

"Poor Outsiders. They see, but they do not seminatedcoffeebaconcancerbabies sea."

OTT:355:23|#p3331231

"... Here's the motion blurred animated gif (frames 0-700)

xkcdTIME0-700_motionblur.gif"

{pretty cool}

— OTT:356:0 at 20130916.1505

OTT:356:5|#p3331299

"BlitzGirl wrote:

> BlitzGirl BlitzGirl! Buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo had had

sustainable BlitzGirl Time time! :P"

OTT:356:11|#p3331312

Another temporal edit, warning BlitzGirl about the upcoming rot13 fad

"Psst! Blitzgirl! Psst! / When you get to Page 358, a lot of it has been 'rot13'd.' ..."

OTT:356:32|#p3331385

by chem1190c, A long, Burma-Shave spoiler style, epic, regrettably loopist but disturbingly arousing, summer blockbuster.

OTT:356:33|#p3331390

{Offset is still -7}

"And, Pope of the .357 Magnum page!!!! Damn. I'm a da' Pope o' da Pistol!"

— OTT:357:0 at 20130916.1713

— OTT:358:0 at 20130916.1744

OTT:358:5|#p3331612

"non-rot13 text, for Blitzgirl, below"

{What's this? They're deliberately making it easier to read the OTT more quickly?}

OTT:358:27|#p3331700

"V uaie earlpgeq raph cuaeaptrr ia ghvs mrsfate ia Eog-13 ..."

odd/even rot13

OTT:358:31|#p3331711

"C nbche qy mbiofx uff mqcnwb ni LIN20. ..."

this one uses rot20

OTT:358:36|#p3331729

"Vftb bkst... jvpj suipp rgit rrj? ..."

{I didn't bother with this one, for the solutions to these see OTT:359:23, OTT:360:6, and OTT:369:4}

— OTT:359:0 at 20130916.2009

{I notice BlitzGirl's signature contains:

[

"Knight Temporal of the One True Comic

BlitzGirl the First, Mopey Molpy Mome, Ottifactor Superior

Spoiler:

vpx.pl/i/2013/05/15/A1.png

vpx.pl/i/2013/05/15/A2.png

(image) <-Blog

~. ~.

FAQ-> (image)

mrob27 - When you read this sig, consider yourself punsawed."

] which I will need to respond to when I get to the next BG post}

— OTT:360:0 at 20130916.2149

OTT:360:21|#p3331883

"... considering the forum that we are on, and the comic that it is about, I would consider that any discussion which may require a little bit of mental exercise to be a good thing. ..."

— OTT:361:0 at 20130916.2159

OTT:362:22|#p3332070

{Here Latent22 describes how he retrieves, caches and processes the entire OTT}

— OTT:363:0 at 20130916.2220

OTT:363:2|#p3332118

"You were naughty after your 5th, 51st and 150th posts" (with a chart, see "NP363 HAL9000.png")

{This shows the developing culture of remaining continuously active: "being naughty" refers to periods of time when HAL9000 did not post anything.}

OTT:363:25|#p3332179

{They're starting to be creative with the ONGs}

"NONG? That's a new one."

OTT:363:26|#p3332184

BlitzGirl is at 310/363

filk "Pray that Time will Fly" based on "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver

— OTT:364:0 at 20130916.2327

OTT:364:28|#p3332310

"xkcd

Pronounciation: /exkayseedee/

verb (xkcds, xkcding, past xkcded, past participle xkcded)

[no object]

> (1) to publish a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

> (2) to state something incredible witty and clever.

> (3) to create a time sink intelligent people dump their working hours in, and therefore ruining the economic power of companies and countries.

Meanings are not mutually exclusive."

OTT:364:31|#p3332322

BlitzGirl is at 314/364

{I edit my signature to add another image, mrob.com/time/title.png, so that I can have the titles by the time I reach my first post in NP1412}

OTT:364:34|#p3332363

"ETA: Crap, I'm Pope again" {Offset is -6}

OTT:364:39|#p3332407

"Don't worry — I think the mods have us on double-secret probation, so it's only a matter of Time before our charter is revoked..."

— OTT:365:0 at 20130917.0011

OTT:365:10|#p3332467

Spreadsheet showing past and present estimates of when BlitzGirl will complete her quest (see "20130429 BlitzMath by jovialbard.txt")

— OTT:366:0 at 20130917.0028

OTT:366:0|#p3332566

"Bestow upon me a pointy hat, and I shall bestow upon you a graph..."

{A lot of hats are being requested and given at this point}

OTT:366:33|#p3332641

"My first (and last) papal decree will be to disband the papacy."

— OTT:367:0 at 20130917.0035

— OTT:368:0 at 20130917.0048

OTT:368:13|#p3332899

{BBCode [math] tag does not work}

"The above line is inside the 'math' tags, but I can't tell a dang bit of difference..."

— OTT:369:0 at 20130917.0114

OTT:369:29|#p3333084

"... I propose we give BlitzGirl the title of "The Poet." (Also the same poet referenced here.)"

— OTT:370:0 at 20130917.0246

OTT:370:0|#p3333113

"Not gonna lie, these last few pages have really given me the giggles."

OTT:370:1|#p3333118

"I have no idea what I just watched. It does, however, appear to conform to the level of sanity and coherence being displayed in this thread, so I like it immensely."

— OTT:371:0 at 20130917.1655

OTT:371:10|#p3333277

{attaching value to being the person who posts the new frame}

"Anyway, got my first GONG. I'm happy."

— OTT:372:0 at 20130917.1721

OTT:372:18|#p3333531

{First appearance of newpixbot. Note there is no delay.}

"Re: 1190: "Time" by mscha >> Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:00 pm UTC

DONG...

frame 760

Posted by newpixbot."

OTT:372:25|#p3333560

"CAMPONG... [frame 761] — posted by newpixbot"

OTT:372:26|#p3333562

"> — posted by newpixbot

Somebody has too much time on their hands.

That, or they want to appear to be the top poster on those nifty charts!"

OTT:372:30|#p3333571

BlitzGirl is at 320/372

"Once you sig a screengrab of your titles, breaking it up into two parts so as not to exceed the 100-pixel height limit, there really is no going back.

...

This is quite obviously a false Randall. I present to you as evidence this list of spelling errors from his post: ..."

OTT:372:31|#p3333572

"I'm rather disappointed. I was looking forward to doing SCHLONG, QUONG, and CHONG in particular, and they've all been done already. I has a sad. :("

OTT:372:34|#p3333578

{This was good}

"It appears the Sandmasons have not yet granted a Title to BlitzGirl..."

OTT:372:35|#p3333579

{Kieryn's analysis to identify new words}

"... I just re-parsed the entire thread (up to page 370 ish) ... I was able to distill the top nouns unique to this thread. / newpix 734 / sandcastle 253 / castles 159 / coma 150 / flags 110 / sandcastles 103 / poles 94 / hash 71 / newpages 69 / buffygirl 60 ..."

OTT:373:6|#p3333611

"Anyway, bug fixed — here is the corrected list:

newpix 990 / cueball 683 / frames 478 / blitzgirl 324 / sandcastle 294 / temporal 185 / castles 182 / coma 167 / timewaiters 136 / sandcastles 116"

OTT:373:21|#p3333653

{How to get a list of the URLs for all Time frames}

"Here's the way I get the frames:

1) Using chrome, go to http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/.

2) In the JS console type:

$(images).each(function(){console.log(this.toString());});

This outputs all the URLs to the console

..."

— OTT:374:0 at 20130917.1845

OTT:374:6|#p3333726

Vytron is at 160/374

(and notes how xe is slipping behind, if measured by newpix or Newpages)

OTT:374:36|#p3333836

{This refers to the previous post, i.e. OTT:374:35, also note in OTT:375:6 Latent22 says "you were pope last page ChronosDragon" referring to OTT:374:34; so the offset would currently be -5.

Also, another odd footnote symbol, a macron (overscore)}

"Hail Pope (Mome)¯ HAL! ..We are still doing that, right?"

— OTT:375:0 at 20130917.1946

OTT:375:0|#p3333844

{Commenting on the newpixbot posts, which seem to be using a pre-generated list of words ending in -ONG}

"There's a lot of words that end in -ong. We could be here a while

Not that we weren't going to be, anyway."

OTT:375:1|#p3333845

BlitzGirl is at 330/375

"But if wishes were fishes we'd have enough to fill up the semencoffeecancerbabies sea. And that sea, as we all know, is big."

"I'm sure the schism will hit the fan once I finally reach the Now."

OTT:375:9|#p3333874

"KALONG... / [frame 773] / — posted by newpixbot"

OTT:375:10|#p3333887

"NONG... / [frame 774] / — posted by newpixbot"

OTT:375:11|#p3333888

"For a second, I thought you had ninja'd yourself... This may be the first time I have seen no posts between newpix."

OTT:375:8|#p3333873

Re: 1190: "Time" by azule

"_To elongate the posting here on a slow Timeframe(?) I shall rant (as a loon)_ as such: ... for real long, for our fun. Then you're tired but it felt worth it. And then you ch*rping coma! I'm gonna coma so hard!!! COMA'd"

OTT:375:16|#p3333906

"... my nerd levels are climbing off the charts — perhaps to toxic levels. ..."

OTT:375:20|#p3333910

{There are still people who don't understand that @mscha has set up an automatic script to post the ONGs}

by tman2nd

"cmyk wrote:

> Damn yer fast, mscha!

mscha wrote:

> — posted by newpixbot"

OTT:375:23|#p3333919

{Is this the beginning of the thong thing?}

"throws panties at cmyk / [picture of banana puppet thing]"

OTT:375:27|#p3333927

{The use of "cheating" clearly indicates that there is value assigned to being the one to post the new frame; and also an argument for why the Newpixbot might not be such a great thing.}

"Well, he's cheating. I think he's contributing to thread slowdown too. There were times when I made an effort to make sure the Newpix got posted, which meant I was online and might respond to what someone said. I'm less likely to respond to things said while I'm away, depending on how many newpages I have to catch up on. Now I have a high confidence that it will be posted, so less need to stay here."

OTT:375:32|#p3333943

"I really think mscha needs to stop using the bot (if he really is). It's kind of dickish, ...

EDIT: well that was kinda rude of me. Fixed for posterity. Din't worry Blitzmädchen, we're still a happy family!"

{More posts on the Newpixbot issue: OTT:375:36, OTT:375:37, OTT:376:0, OTT:376:4, OTT:376:6, OTT:376:7, OTT:376:18, OTT:376:21, OTT:376:28, OTT:376:33}

OTT:375:38|#p3333963

BlitzGirl is at 339/376

"And there should be presents in there somewhere."

"It's snow small feat, living up to your expectations. But I promise that my rain will be one of peace."

{zOMG! A hiterto unknown (by me at least) side of BlitzGirl! Clearly she must have renounced her punning ways.}

A poem, based on "Fog" by Carl Sandberg:

"BlitzGirl

BlitzGirl comes / on sore, weary feet.

She sits looking / over newpage and sigs /

and silent TimeFrames / and then moves on."

— OTT:376:0 at 20130917.2209

OTT:376:4|#p3333986

"... I've changed the bot to try to post not earlier than 5 (Outside) minutes past every newpix. This gives Real Live People a chance to make the post, but if there aren't any, at least the newpixly update won't be missed."

OTT:376:21|#p3334032

"Wow, still no flame war; I was sure that the bot was going to be a bone of contention, but a sensible response from everyone. I love you guys!"

OTT:376:24|#p3334050

mscha identifies the three apocryphal frames

OTT:376:30|#p3334082

Sciscitor has set up an automatic diff-rendering server:

http://178.79.159.24/Time/api/diff/702/783

— OTT:377:0 at 20130917.2327

OTT:377:33|#p3334213

{A word with "ONG" in the middle}

"PYONGYANG!!!"

— OTT:378:0 at 20130918.0023

OTT:378:15|#p3334278

"[Image "NP378 Mordor.png"]

...In the Time of Newpix where the Shadows lie.

One Comic to rule them all, One Comic to find them,

One Comic to bring them all and in the madness bind them

In the Time of Newpix where the Shadows lie."

OTT:378:20|#p3334284

"Wha'chu Tolkein 'bout, Willis?"

OTT:378:33|#p3334339

Updated analysis of the create/modify tags in the frame PNG files

{See also "NP379 Time Modified.png"}

"So we can be quite confident I think that the modified times are quite accurate and do show when he was working on changing or adding to the comic. It seems he had it all done before hand up to frame 597 and has come back and spent time adding to it. So there is hope that he will keep it going."

OTT:378:38|#p3334351

"... I started reading the xkcd thread about the bombing. People were [...] becoming unpleasant, tempers were flaring, it was not fun. I ran with all haste back to this thread, where one of us makes hats for fellow posters on request, [...] Remember [the] post from someone ... who asked if we could please just discuss the comic. [...] no one got offended or upset. People just thought it was cool he used the word 'granfoolery.' [...] You people are nice, and funny, and fun, and clever and talented. It's is so cool to hang out with you this way."

— OTT:379:0 at 20130918.0424

OTT:379:3|#p3334362

(presents the graph seen in "NP379 Time Modified.png")

"... So this means the future is not fixed and Megan/Cueball have free will ..."

OTT:379:14|#p3334397

"(frame 563, "The river is small / The sea is big.")

Ooo this is interesting. Randall modified this frame at 13:58:15 on the 12th of April. That is 105 seconds before the frame went live at 14:00! He must have changed the text at the last minute."

OTT:379:20|#p3334427

"> It would be interesting to actually meet you guys and see what

you're like in real life.

Once Time ends (let's face it, it will eventually), we can figure

things out."

OTT:379:28|#p3334448

"Ok found an upload of frame 117 from the 27th. ... the image is 100% the same the data in it is encoded differently and most of the file is different. ..."

OTT:379:36|#p3334491

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"The only thing we need now, is for Blitzgirl to show up in the comic, and then everything would be complete!"

— OTT:380:0 at 20130918.0506

OTT:380:6|#p3334530

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"Oh, hi there Blitzgirl. Make yourself comfortable. We have a seat saved for you."

OTT:380:22|#p3334557

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"> Caswallon wrote:

> The only thing we need now, is for Blitzgirl to show up in the

> comic, and then everything would be complete!

Oh my... Welcome, Blitzgirl!"

OTT:380:25|#p3334561

(frame 799, the appearance of "LaPetite")

"... Looks like hair, plus some kind of head dress, which may or may not have been designed by Buffygirl. ..."

— OTT:381:0 at 20130918.0521

OTT:381:1|#p3334583

{discussing angst over not getting responses from others}

"> spamjam, I write very little because almost always nobody responds. But I still read, and eventually they do.

spamjam, there's a lot of stuff posted. People can't respond to everything. I've posted stuff that no one's responded to. Sometimes people respond many newpix later. And I've seen stuff that I never responded to, 'cuz I forgot or whatever."

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"Oh, uh, hello, Blitzgirl! Well, this is an awkward time for you to stop by. Heh heh, pay no attention to that friendly little squabble ..."

OTT:381:2|#p3334584

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"Eating some future cake from some post down... ...mmhm...Tasty!"

OTT:381:10|#p3334594

{See also OTT:394:24}

"Looks like a girl with a white beret. It's BlitzGirl!

...

http://fora.xkcd.com/download/file.php?id=35849

. . .

Last edited by mscha on Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:21 am UTC "

{See "NP381 fr800 vs Blitzgirl.png" and OTT:387:27}

OTT:381:19|#p3334606

{first cake (this is in a retro-edit but I still think it's the first)}

{Part of the retro-edit conspiracy, see OTT:394:24 and 409:2}

"> Caswallon wrote:

> The only thing we need now, is for Blitzgirl to show up in the

> comic, and then everything would be complete!

Oh my... Welcome, Blitzgirl!

I would like to formally welcome BlitzGirl into the OTC!!!!

... Here have some. Latent22 hands BlitzGirl some cake

I hope you appreciate all the work we had to go though. Blackmailing Randall into adding you in wasn't easy. By the way Randall your puppy is in a box on the corner of 5th and madison."

OTT:381:23|#p3334612

{part of the NP394 conspracy, see OTT:394:24}

"Hang on! Yeah, you're right, it's BlitzGirl! How come I didn't see the similarity before? She's travelled in time and now she's travelled into another dimension(ality?) ..."

— OTT:382:0 at 20130918.0536

OTT:382:15|#p3334698

"We should keep a close eye on all of the OldPix. Lord Randall has an excellent opportunity to implement time travel here. ...

Why, this could completely rip the fabric of time. And what would it do to our beloved Blitzgirl as she's traveling rapidly through time when she hits one of these tears at full speed? ..."

— OTT:383:0 at 20130918.0551

OTT:383:0|#p3334813

BlitzGirl is at 342/383

"Well, perhaps one day I will grace you all with both my presence AND presents!"

filk "Haven't Met You Yet" based on "Haven't Met You Yet" by Michael Bublé

— OTT:384:0 at 20130918.1257

OTT:384:3|#p3334914

{The first rest stop!}

by kryton

"Welcome Time Traveler to the

Rest Stop Imperpetuate.

Here you will find a brief respite from your toils of journeying through the past as you endeavor to find the present, and eventually the future. ..."

OTT:384:24|#p3335002

BlitzGirl is at 346/384

{The following shows that some of the offset existed by the time this post was made, i.e. newpix 806.41; the larger offset I observe must result from another deletion that occurred between that time and the Newpage 1000 post}

"The thread of Time has become vaguely confusing as well ... the thread-dwellers of the past [have decided that] the first post of a newpage makes one Pope. Oddly, these posts for me appear a couple of positions behind where they should be - indicating a deletion of pastposts. Alas! How many posts have we now lost to Time?"

"> Er. Well, the "Reader" title should. Don't want her slacking on that.

Indeed! I must read! It is my creed! An order I heed! In fact, a need! And so I proceed!"

OTT:384:26|#p3335014

"Alright, who's been messing with the timestream and disqualifying the users who previously held the title of PFAN?"

— OTT:385:0 at 20130918.1325

OTT:385:2|#p3335067

"> What with all the scripting people here have been doing, has anyone extracted the full text of this thread?

Do you need it with or without quotes? I do have it, but all the quotes are included. ... Thinking about it, maybe I should store the XHTML source of the posts all along and whip up some nifty filtering routines all along .... hum.... "

OTT:385:10|#p3335088

{Discussion of how to reply to multiple posts in a single reply post}

"... I open 'Quote' in a new tab, and every time I find a new quote, repeat. Then I copy-paste that new tab into the first tab's text box. Rinse-repeat. Though, when you're in the quote box you can scroll down the page and see the previous posts, there when you click 'quote' it gets added straight into the box. That works best with recent posts."

OTT:385:13|#p3335098

"Run, Megan!" (frame 808)

OTT:385:30|#p3335152

{Haikus! And auto-generated in the nerdiest way!}

"I haven't even read them all yet, but here are some of my favourite unintentional haiku from this thread ...

> I kinda hope it's

> as simplistic as it seems,

> but it may not be.

..."

With link to the project she created that does this:

angelastic.com/2013/04/23/five-of-hearts-haiku-detector/

which contains:

"I didn’t need that since I can use the Mac OS X speech synthesis

API to count the syllables ...

And finally, two / unintentional haiku / from this very post:"

— OTT:386:0 at 20130918.1839

OTT:386:5|#p3335190

{The first "real" OTTification!}

"With all apologies to Lord Randall ...

[image, see "NP386 new_workaround.jpg"]

And you do NOT want to know how I did that."

OTT:386:6|#p3335199

"... p.s. we need more OTT related comic remixes. :)"

OTT:386:10|#p3335209

"The one thing about knowing that BlitzGirl is coming is that when you write something stupid or embarrassing, you know somebody is going to read it, again. ..."

OTT:386:16|#p3335232

Reporting that frame 0020 was changed, and the PNG modify dates got changed:

"Ok and I have even more scary news... soon after I posted my graph and such showing when he changed his frames ALL the images on the server seem to have been updated. I checked all the new frames and got these dates:

Time790.png: 2013-04-22T01:27:06

Time791.png: 2013-04-22T01:27:08

..."

OTT:386:29|#p3335287

"... But hey, Blitzgirl needed a few more posts to read."

— OTT:387:0 at 20130918.1923

OTT:387:1|#p3335362

"The management would like to thank you for your suggestion that will benefit other travelers and has hired the Alternatine History Engineerinc ltd. to retroactively make the stay of the past travelers more enjoyable than it was. Feel free to peruse the premises at (OTT:384:3#p3334914) "

OTT:387:12|#p3335391

OTTification in the form of a Wikipedia article

"Sigcouragement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ..."

OTT:387:27|#p3335447

{The BlitzGirl avatar seen in "NP381 fr800 vs Blitzgirl.png" could not have been her original avatar, since the original was based on xkcd 405, and the current avatar (http://forums.xkcd.com/download/file.php?avatar=110494_1367403796.png) clearly still has the BHG hat.}

"Blitzgirl's hat is actually BHG's hat. #405"

"Oj, yyhnd? I'f xaci ah zsd jxz llc! :twisted:"

{This was eventually revealed (see OTT:396:5, 401:22) to be related to the positions of keys on the QWERTY keyboard: "Oh, realy? I'd like to see you try!"}

OTT:387:28|#p3335456

an original poem

"May the wait be well waited / May the time be well slated. /Blitzgirl be elevated, / To the latest of pages. / ..."

OTT:387:34|#p3335473

by Latent22 >> Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:49 am UTC

"Just like the Wonderful Buffygirl I have made a hat for BlitzGirl!!

./download/file.php?id=35849 BlitzGirl.png "

OTT:387:35|#p3335480

{Offset is -5}

" ... EDIT: Oops. Didn't mean to newpage there."

— OTT:388:0 at 20130918.2044

OTT:388:19|#p3335549

ChronosDragon at newpix 817.85:

"Maybe she's breaking the bridge in order to pile up sand to make a larger mound, a bigger dike. The river may be small, but the sea is Big, and it's coming in quickly."

OTT:388:23|#p3335557

"Wow, I was right :D

...

Followers, we have more power than we thought. The outsiders tried to hide it from us for all this time, but we have become attuned through constant observation and participation. Everything is connected - us, the comic, the forum, even the Outside, though it lies at the far edge of the web of everything. By watching and Waiting For It only can we become closer to the center of the web, and thus more enlightened."

— OTT:389:0 at 20130918.2348

"As far as we knew until then, with a new newpix the last newpix

becomes history and would be inaccessible if not for great projects like Aubron's. Now the implication changed: He most probably has plans about making the whole project accessible some way one day - I can't think of any other good reason for changing a frame long gone?"

— OTT:390:0 at 20130919.0019

OTT:390:27|#p3335799

"... now that the Right Flag is no longer the Right Flag, I shall need a new Knightly Title. What are your thoughts [?]

'Defender of the Third Flag From the Right, Formerly the Right Flag' ?

...

'Keeper of the shards of the shattered Right tower' ?"

— OTT:391:0 at 20130919.0036

OTT:391:23|#p3335935

BlitzGirl is at 351/391

{Offset has changed as witnessed by BlitzGirl, meaning she has gone past the Newpage that was current at the time the mods did some of the deletions.}

"... Pope-by-Page is still off for me, though not as severely as it was.

...

{quoting signatures now}

> Latent22 wrote:

> BlitzGirl!!!!! I have a hat for you. If you wear it your future

> will be most awesome!

But... / I LIKE MY HAT.

I guess I can wear it for a while, though."

— OTT:392:0 at 20130919.0120

— OTT:393:0 at 20130919.0129

OTT:393:0|#p3336191

BlitzGirl is at 355/393

She is at her Zeno_3 point (the sequence so far is: 77, 223, 303, 355, 393)

"Okay, I'm saying right here in this signpost that I'm accepting this title ..." {I am no longer "Archbishop of the Past"}

OTT:393:7|#p3336218

(frame 833, Megan's famous "It can do whatever it wants. It's the sea." line)

OTT:393:10|#p3336223

Javascript to reveal all alt-text on a page (like a What-If article)

(saved in "0-alt-text-reveal.txt")

OTT:393:29|#p3336305

"Here, take these! *Gives Blitzgirl Shoes of the High Timewalker, gives +200 to waiting*"

— OTT:394:0 at 20130919.0157

OTT:394:0|#p3336340

"... No wonder she's taking so long, she's trapped in Zeno's paradox! ... Blitzgirl! It's imperative that you not fall into the paradox!"

OTT:394:5|#p3336351

"OMR, I just did a search to check whether cheateous is perchance a word and Google showed me my own post! That MapReduce is really fast!"

OTT:394:24|#p3336437

{Finally, an explanation of the beret Blitzgirl avatar mystery; it was an elaborate retro-edit conspiracy to build up the perceived reality that BlitzGirl appeared in frames 800 and 801; much like Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

See also the foreshadowing in OTT:300:5 and perhaps xkcd 1120}

"Everyone except BlitzGirl read this spoiler!

...

> > Latent22 wrote:

> > BlitzGirl!!!!! I have a hat for you. If you wear it your future

will be most awesome!

> >

Ok i've set up a big surprise welcome party for BlitzGirl on Page 380 and Page 381. To help make it special for her we just need some people who posted on this page after the first site of the new girl arriving to go back and do some reinvention of Time using edits.

mscha: you can edit your Post {link to OTT:380:31} comparing BlitzGirl's old picture with the new arrival by changing it to her current image which now has the beret now. And you can of course change the text a bit as well.

Then everyone else can go wild welcoming Blitzgirl to the comic. I was in a Coma at this time so can't do it myself. Make sure you offer her some cake etc and make her welcome.

...

Please DO NOT Quote this post as since it is a surprise party I may have to edit out this post later...

... "

OTT:394:37|#p3336474

{Offset is -3, agreeing with BlitzGirl's report at OTT:391:23}

"EDIT: pope'd yet again!"

— OTT:395:0 at 20130919.0240

OTT:395:13|#p3336530

filk "BlitzGirl" based on "Blackbird" by Lennon/McCartney

"Haha! Here it is. I haven't been able to contribute to the fancy graphs or hats, so I made this as my present to you all."

OTT:395:35#p3336645

"> ... It's a tragedy that/if the first frame is lost. The cannon can never be complete!

It is almost definitely lost; the first hashed image linked to is more than 30 minutes after the comic went up. However, if someone saved the image locally on their computer, then it can be uploaded.

However, it doesn't particularly matter. All who noticed/discussed the difference (including some who had one tab with the first frame [i.e., a page that hadn't been reloaded since the update] and one tab with the second frame open) remarked that the only changes were slight shifts in the arrangements of the characters' limbs and the line thicknesses. Not too great of a loss, in all seriousness."

OTT:395:37|#p3336650

{Offset is -3}

"pope? Not again! I was just about to coma"

— OTT:396:0 at 20130919.0341

OTT:396:5|#p3336676

"Hoqi: QETUOA."

{Which says "Hint: QETUOA"}

— OTT:397:0 at 20130919.0404

OTT:397:9|#p3336800

BlitzGirl is at 359/397

{She has encountered the rot13 and gotten annoyed by it}

"> Hey, wait a minute.. Blitzgirl?! How'd you learn to fly the Tardis?

Don't ask me - that must happen to my future self.

...

And now to Blitzgirl blitzgirl buffalo Time time! Time-buffalo!"

OTT:397:10|#p3336802

{the "Titanic" spoof images}

"I'm predicting the following ending to this cartoon

[image, see 'NP397 king of the world.png']

{The author, @Wee Red Bird, came back to point out the prediction, see OTT:1247:31#p3421465}

OTT:397:24|#p3336835

{First use of standard footnote 1 for "big"}

"I hate to ask, but I also don't want to remain hatless in a sea¹ of hats.

...

¹: which is big"

OTT:397:36|#p3336875

{Offset is -4}

"edit: Wohoo / ǝdod ɹı / Can I have a nice Pope hat now?"

OTT:397:37|#p3336879

"˙˙˙ƃƃƃ⅁NO𐐒"

— OTT:398:0 at 20130919.0434

OTT:398:5|#p3336945

"RSA encrypted message for BlitzGirl (since she wanted more modern encryptions). ..."

{This was later revealed by the author to say "Hi BlitzGirl"}

OTT:398:11|#p3336971

{Another update on predicting when BlitzGirl will be finished}

"Umm, I take the time in days between updates and the number of pages (blitz and new) per update to find the rate of blitz/new pages per day ... predicts timesync at Newpage 476 May 6th"

OTT:398:25|#p3337055

BlitzGirl is at 367/398

"One does not sprint through the thread of Time. You're likely to be tripped up by some crucial post passed over too hastily. Waiting is best."

and poem "Each newpage created / Leaves me more delated. / Perhaps it is fated / I quest unabated. / ..."

OTT:398:36|#p3337080

{Offset is -4}

"ETA: It seems I am cursed with the recurring papacy."

— OTT:399:0 at 20130919.0452

— OTT:400:0 at 20130919.0502

OTT:400:13|#p3337226

{I tried to get useful offset data from this, but couldn't. According to OTT:399:19, the centapopes are the 4000th, 8000th, 12000th, etc. posts in the thread which would be OTT:100:39, OTT:200:39, etc. but I think instead they went to e.g. "forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&start=4000" and scrolled to the end, which gives OTT:101:39}

"The CentaPapacy is a grand tradition every NewCentury, defined by every 100 New Pages. The church of the NewPage honors the following previous CentaPopes:

Pelahnar, CentaPope the First of the 1-100 newpages {OTT:101:37}

Helper, CentaPope the Second of the 101 - 200 newpages {OTT:201:34?}

Latent22, CentaPope the Third of the 201 - 300 newpages {OTT:301:33?}

HAL9000, CentaPope the Fourth of the 301 - 400 newpages" {OTT:400:38, the only correct one}

OTT:400:22|#p3337245

"> Obligatory TV Tropes link

Great. Now that there's a link to that site in this thread, Blitzgirl's never going to reach us. She'll reach the link, follow it, and be lost forever."

ref-xkcd-609

— OTT:401:0 at 20130919.0530

OTT:401:7|#p3337292

"My take on the last few frames:

The castle will not go to space today..."

OTT:401:11|#p3337301

BlitzGirl is at 372/401

OTT:401:19|#p3337315

{A definitive and sudden blow to semen, coffee, cancer, babies, bacon, and so on}

"'Something is adding water to the sea'

So, it's actually just water. sad-trombone. ..."

OTT:401:25|#p3337324

"Here are all 452 haiku in the thread up to the point that Sciscitor scraped the text."

{Huge ass-list of haikus that I am not bothering to read. However I note duplications, and not always consecutive, e.g.:

He's just waiting for / her to return with the flag / couple of minutes.

Even if he can't, / which is nobody's fault, not / even the Romans'.

I think I was at / work for a while, but I can't / really remember.

...

A relationship / would be a 'thing' too many / to worry about!

One on the inside / of the gate, one on the third / turret from the left.

and probably syllable-counting errors, e.g.:

dreiarmumig / wrote:SexyTalon / wrote:Join FaDe.

Just have to decide / whát's riding on them (raptors, / maybe)at I) so did I, what a coincidenceIII) war pigs sound like riding animals }

"it turns out the speech API leaks files and memory ... I guess they didn't expect people to call it a million times ..."

OTT:401:30|#p3337334

{Shit, that didn't take long}

"... it could be that what they refer to as "water" is really semencancercoffeebaconice9babypixeltoner."

— OTT:402:0 at 20130919.1951

OTT:402:1|#p3337355

"... Added a quote of an edit which had a another quote of another edit. By quoting all these edits it kind of makes them seem more real :)"

OTT:402:7|#p3337371

{Disbanding the papacy again. Contrary to xis statement, HAL9000 did not have a post near 402:0}

"As I am PFNP this page, allow me:

I hereby declare that the first poster of a NewPage will no longer become the PFNP for now and all of Time (in the forwards direction)."

OTT:402:35|#p3337420

{Offset is -5}

"I am Pope? I declare that I am not Pope! ..."

— OTT:403:0 at 20130919.2139

OTT:403:18|#p3337494

frame 864: the "Want to find out? Yes." frame

"Science!"

OTT:403:29|#p3337522

"According to my calculations (and my calculator's Quartic Regression function), both the thread and Blitzgirl's blitz are in danger of emminent destruction! Repent! Repent while you still can!

[image]

Or maybe quartic regression was just a poor choice of model. One or the other."

— OTT:404:0 at 20130919.2150

— OTT:405:0 at 20130919.2220

OTT:405:37|#p3337783

"Good news everyone!

The slowdown of Blitzgirl seems to have ceased. The past hundred NewPages her progress has been surprisingly linear.

[chart] "

OTT:406:24|#p3337874

VoronX is at 393/406

— OTT:407:0 at 20130919.2306

OTT:407:3|#p3337945

First use of "ketchup"

"... in my post-coma ketchup I saw this ..."

OTT:407:36|#p3338054

{Offset is -4}

"Edit: Am I a Page-Pope now?"

— OTT:408:0 at 20130919.2318

OTT:408:5|#p3338093

{They're referring to a modified comic, i.e. OTTification, as a "spoof"}

"I propose all future spoofs be posted on the hour."

OTT:408:9|#p3338107

BlitzGirl is at 378/408

includes her modification of the Mordor image (see "NP408 Whistle Bearer Mordor.png")

"... Onward to the cake!"

OTT:408:36|#p3338206

{Offset is -4}

"If PFAN still existed we would have to ..."

— OTT:409:0 at 20130920.0037

OTT:409:2|#p3338215

BlitzGirl is at 382/409

{Here she lists all the bits of retro-edited posts that were set up by the 394 cabal (see 394:24)}

"Wow, this leg of my Quest has been so upbeat! Yay yay yay! Onward I go! skips"

OTT:409:23|#p3338253

"> > [the

> By far, the most amazing image yet produced.

I agree. We can make a New Testament of all those great made-up images."

OTT:410:19#p3338330

{Note that this post is now 40*(410-1)+19+1 = 16380.}

"Thread length at 214 posts, at least until the moderators change something. That's not good enough for me."

{This statement, if true, implies that this is post #16384, consistent with the Offset of -4 noted above. Alternatively, jjjdavidson may have been saying that there were 16384 posts in the OTT prior to his making this post, meaning that he thought this was post #16385, and that is consistent with the Offset of -5 noted below.}

"(And yes, there is at least minimal moderation taking place. A double-post of mine from 80 pages back is now gone.)"

{A likely explanation for most of the polygoating. See OTT:410:29 below.}

OTT:410:29|#p3338358

"> > A double-post of mine from 80 pages back is now gone.

> What you said is gone? Or the posts were combined?

> (I never got why double-posting is conidered so horrible.)

I combine-edited the posts myself, then flagged the second (newly-emptied) one. A few days later, poof!"

OTT:410:36|#p3338383

{The instigator of the 394 cabal (see 394:24) quotes BlitzGirl from OTT:409:2}

"Thanks everyone for helping with the party!"

— OTT:411:0 at 20130920.0130

OTT:411:0|#p3338392

{I suppose when BlitzGirl sees this she might be displeased. The Campaign for Real Time definitely would.}

"I like that other people used my "Prescient" comment about Blitzgirl showing up in the comic ;) That came together beautifully!"

OTT:411:3|#p3338403

"I have the impression, though, that BlitzGirl didn't fully 'get' the time traveling operations we put in place for her, beginning with the request to switch her hat for a beret."

— OTT:412:0 at 20130920.0148

OTT:412:35|#p3338573

{Offset is -5}

"EDIT: Am I pope again?"

— OTT:413:0 at 20130920.0218

OTT:413:0|#p3338591

{Seinfeld clip "NO SOUP FOR YOU!"}

Arch-Cardinal BuffyGirl of General Millinery and Awesome Hattisomeness does not accept direction. No Hat For You.

OTT:413:35|#p3338677

{Offset is -5}

"Edited: Coma-pope. My first and last decree:"

— OTT:414:0 at 20130920.0258

OTT:414:5|#p3338701

BlitzGirl is at 385/414

OTT:414:28|#p3338755

{People start writing haiku on purpose}

"To haiku, or not? / Hello, I am a flower. / And there you have it."

— OTT:415:0 at 20130920.2210

OTT:415:5|#p3338794

{They're talking about the purpose(s) of spoilers}

"Now here's a big spoiler for ya:"

OTT:415:15|#p3338820

{frame 896, 13 frames after the beginning of the "fade" period}

"Registered and delurked just to ask,

Is it just me, or is the scene fading?"

OTT:415:22|#p3338830

{Whenever a sufficiently smart and creative group of people knows of some limitation, their creativity leads them into confronting that limitation.}

"You are remembering that Blitzgirl has made it her Quest to read every single post? ...

Can we please agree, for Blitzgirl's sake, that her Quest does not obligate her to read all the spoilers?"

OTT:415:37|#p3338857

"I checked the color / and was very much relieved, / to see no fading."

— OTT:416:0 at 20130921.0035

I fill out the "Know Thy Otter" Q&A Submission form (see OTT:1490:20#p3464061)

[

First, we need to know who you are. What's your username on the forums?

mrob27

If you have never been here before, it may take a while for us to

provide a suitable picture of you.

Now, what's the question about you that you think we should put

online at KTO? Don't worry about the formatting, we'll fix it for you.

This OTTer was surprised to discover how many of xir friends, relatives, former co-workers, etc. read xkcd. When did that happen?

And what's the answer? After xe was mentioned in xkcd (1147)

Hm. Where can we find this answer? OTT:1426:18#p3450233 (Newpage 1426, about halfway down)

Okay, that's all we needed to know. Leave the rest with us. ]

OTT:416:20|#p3338906

{The footnote 1 for "which is big" is starting to catch on}

"> Edit: Is the sea1 still rising?

1 which is big"

— OTT:417:0 at 20130921.0100

— OTT:418:0 at 20130921.0126

OTT:418:35|#p3339183

{Offset is -5}

"ETA: Hey! I'm pope! I think..."

— OTT:419:0 at 20130921.0144

— OTT:420:0 at 20130921.0229

OTT:420:18|#p3339352

Bad Hair Man is at 110/420

— OTT:421:0 at 20130921.0244

OTT:421:36|#p3339437

{Whoh, another BIX user!}

"This is the longest discussion I have ever seen that hasn't degenerated into flame; and I go back to BIX (Byte Information Exchange)."

— OTT:422:0 at 20130922.0041

OTT:422:23|#p3339489

{Kieryn has created an API for special OTT queries}

"Okay, version 1.0 is here! http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/

— OTT:423:0 at 20130922.0437

OTT:423:15|#p3339547

poem based on "Pippin's Song" from LOTR "Beach is behind, the sea ahead..."

OTT:423:24|#p3339574

"Also, exploding kittens."

(uses an image from xkcdsw.com, perhaps this could be counted as an ottif-xkcd-482)

— OTT:424:0 at 20130922.0516

OTT:424:18|#p3339649

{A lenthy discussion of the apocryphal frames, making a good case for the idea that they were originally intended to be three frames of the comic, between the frames now called 255 and 256.}

OTT:424:23|#p3339659

"Castleiferous" :)

OTT:424:24|#p3339660

"... The Lost First Frame ... this morning I checked my xkcd browser app on my Android tablet and found the attached frame ...

"

OTT:424:30|#p3339669

{Giving incorrect instructions about how to add an image to a post}

"... there is a trick. you can upload it. Then click preview before you post. Then right click on the image in the preview and select copy image location. Now cancel out of the post and do another post. paste in the link you copied and add Img tags around it. "

OTT:424:33|#p3339673

{Okay, well at least one person has figured it out}

"Edit: oops, that worked great for a minute until the site discarded the 'unused' attachment. Hmmm, maybe if I add it twice....

Edit2: okay, leaving the small version in addition, hoping that that keeps the big one alive."

OTT:424:37|#p3339680

{Offset is -3}

"Edit: Pope! Must be because I finally included an avatar..."

OTT:424:38|#p3339681

{"ketchup" has now been used by 3 separate users}

— OTT:425:0 at 20130922.0543

OTT:425:5|#p3339693

{Great explanation of why English teachers claim that the word "hour" is one syllable: Syllabification is mainly an issue of writing: It makes sense to break "higher" as "high-er", but there is no good place to break "hire"}

OTT:425:6|#p3339694

"I've found both the direct and off-topic conversations here to be spectacularly pleasant and entertaining, and would hate to see this group of participants fade away just because the newpix are. What say we keep this thread going beyond the end either of newpix-time or outside time? 1190 Forever!"

OTT:425:26|#p3339732

"Huh, people... Blitzgirl hasn't posted for 11 pages now. Has anyone... tried communicating with her in the past?

What if the past is eroding with the comic??? She may be disappeared with the fading! WE NEED TO SAVE HER!!!!!"

— OTT:426:0 at 20130922.0619

OTT:426:4|#p3339769

"Hmmm.....

Comparing these two frames:

...

Difference Map of the two Fourier Transforms:

Fast Fourier Transform of the Difference Map of the two Fourier Transforms:

This is clear, incontrovertible proof...

Spoiler:

.. that I really do have too much time on my hands."

OTT:426:29|#p3339817

{Wonderful OTTification of "The NeverEnding Story" set during The Fading with Blitzgirl as Bastian}

— OTT:427:0 at 20130922.1812

OTT:427:6|#p3339848

filk (no specific title) based on "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones

OTT:427:27|#p3339905

{tman2nd called it:}

"Maybe we will see LaPetite entering in the last few frames of the fading."

OTT:427:35|#p3339925

{Offset is -5}

"EDIT: I was pushed to be Pope, hopefully not one of the last ones."

— OTT:428:0 at 20130922.1852

OTT:428:9|#p3339956

{Wow, they actually do it on purpose!}

"I thought you had written p.o.n.y. because I have a tampermonkey filter which changes that to leopard. ..."

OTT:428:18|#p3339978

Vytron is at 214/428

— OTT:429:0 at 20130922.1907

OTT:429:25|#p3340061

{This is out of date now, but I could easily put this info on my website; as suggested in OTT:430:0 I could have each name link to a forum search for that user, e.g. forums.xkcd.com/search.php?terms=all&author=BlitzGirl&sr=posts&ch=500&t=101043&submit=Search }

"Added — list of all posters to the One True Thread"

OTT:429:36|#p3340073

"> This is by far the most viewed topic within "Individual XKCD Comic

> Threads". Also, the one with most replies.

Indeed, it has more replies than the next-28-biggest topics combined :shock:"

— OTT:430:0 at 20130922.1926

OTT:430:0|#p3340078

{retro-edit foreshadowing "musical posts between the saltwater1 and the sea2 strand"}

OTT:430:13|#p3340094

"... If people aren't studying and discussing and loving the brilliance and heart of xkcd 50 years from, then I will be sorely disappointed with humanity and art appreciation."

— OTT:431:0 at 20130922.2116

— OTT:432:0 at 20130922.2134

OTT:432:4|#p3340218

Sciscitor's list of xkcd comics that have been referenced in this discussion (a more complete list is at OTT:432:24)

OTT:432:19|#p3340248

"A hollow voice says '0x3dONG'."

OTT:432:30|#p3340265

"... Interestingly, away from the sea, not a single bit of tower has fallen off. In the beginning of Time, that happened pretty much constantly."

OTT:432:34|#p3340278

Notable for poignancy:

"... That tiny bye, the bag on her back, the tilt of her head: it tells me that she isn't coming back. Not here. Not to this. Who knows. Maybe the two of them will build a mighty wall further up, a stalwart bulwark against the sea, but this castle? No. It is to be left to the sea. ..."

OTT:432:37|#p3340281

{Offset is -3}

"... am I really the PFAN ... then my one decree is to SLOW DOWN so ..."

— OTT:434:0 at 20130922.2246

OTT:434:0|#p3340381

(accurate prediction; note this is two frames before the 2nd appearance of laPetite at frame 951)

"But imagine how much longer this thread could become (and the number of denominations of the religion that could be spawned) if an indistinct figure was seen to be entering the frame from one side immediately prior to the total whiteout."

OTT:434:16|#p3340411

"This thread slows down on weekends, that's an established fact. ..."

OTT:434:25|#p3340432

{The re-appearance of LaPetite}

"BLITZGIRLONG!!!¹ :D

[frame 951]

Fade from 616161 to 676767, another +6.

¹: or La Petite, if you don't believe we've time-engineered them to be the same person."

OTT:434:35|#p3340450

limerick "There once was a comic on xkcd"

OTT:434:36|#p3340451

"BlitzGirl has just come online. At the same time that La Petite walks into the frame, that can't be a coincidence, IMO that's sufficient proof that BlitzGirl = La Petite.

('Location: Traversing the thread of Time: 385/414 pages.' So ..."

— OTT:435:0 at 20130923.0103

— OTT:436:0 at 20130923.0115

OTT:436:6|#p3340524

"Come back, LaPetite! We need you!

I think she's going to come back with some kind of shocking object..."

— OTT:437:0 at 20130923.0130

OTT:437:33|#p3340658

"> ... Lost is still on my to-do list (yes, I missed it first time ...

I get the impression that it's yet another of those shows whose entire premise is a tantalising overarching mystery but that got cancelled before the mystery was solved, ... So you can save yourself the time and frustration, and take it off the to-do list. ...

Signed,

The girl who ... doesn't start watching any such series until she knows it's been properly ended (ever since Dark Angel) ..."

— OTT:438:0 at 20130923.0147

OTT:438:8|#p3340685

Graph (see "NP438 sealevel and fade.png") showing the sea level and darkness (fading) as a function of frame number. It is clear that once the fade starts, the sea level is rising about 10 times as fast, indicating that more time is passing within the comic.

OTT:438:22|#p3340719

BlitzGirl is at 425/438

{Here she wraps up the story of the 394 cabal (see 394:24)}

"> > ... I'm tempted to denote the meeting of Blitzgirl and our present as

> > 'Blitzpocalypse', but then again it could also be 'Blitzrapture'!

...

Apocablitz.

And I fear that my effect will not be the same once my posts are true presentposts. :("

"But yet I still read / All four hundred fifty two / Haiku in this post:

[OTT:401:25]

OTT:438:33|#p3340742

poem "Your graph's prediction is unsustainable."

— OTT:439:0 at 20130923.2332

OTT:439:13|#p3340772

"I think we should start using the following two color tags:

[color=e1ebf2]line one[/color] / [color=ecf3f7]line two[/color] ..."

OTT:439:19|#p3340781

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

OTT:439:26|#p3340789

"And change it to #EEEDD9 in even-level quotes ;)"

— OTT:440:0 at 20130923.2345

OTT:440:33|#p3340882

effectively an OTTification of xkcd 1205

— OTT:441:0 at 20130924.0001

OTT:441:4|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3340911#p3340911] :

Possibly reporting the timestamp change; this person never posted again in any thread, and their profile says "Last visited: Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:28 pm UTC."

"... moments ago I came across a discrepancy between the pngs I have manually saved and the automatically saved and "frozen" pages of the OTC. ..."

OTT:441:37|#p3340999

{Offset is -3}

"... I'm not gonna spoiler this, since it's the first post on the page (for now)."

— OTT:442:0 at 20130924.0012

OTT:442:2|#p3341012

{First darkened fade frame}

"Just wanted to post a blackened version of the current frame, ..."

OTT:442:3|#p3341013

BlitzGirl is at 438/442

"For all intents and purposes, this is the final signpost of my Quest. From here onward, I post in the Now. ...

> The Great Lord Randall would not introduce a brand new character,

> LaPetite, so near the end of Time without any explanation

I concur. LaPetite is the Chekhov's gun of Time."

OTT:442:7|#p3341020

by BlitzGirl >> newpix 967.75

"stumbles out of Time vortex

blinks

Wow. So this is Present Time, huh?

...Hi, everybody! :D"

BlitzGirl is at 442/442

OTT:442:16|#p3341030

"Presents? You mean...I get Present Presents? How exciting! :D

Oh, but first of all, I have some things in my pocketses, here: ruffles through vest's pockets

◌ thyme

◌ a few stray gems from the past

◌ hugs and happiness

◌ piece of party cake in tupperware for jovialbard

◌ Whistle of Temporal Harmony

I hope I got everything I was supposed to!"

OTT:442:21|#p3341036

{frame 968, in which LaPetite arrives again}

"BLITZONG!!"

OTT:442:32|#p3341048

"Welcome BlitzGirl! You seem to have arrived in the Now just like the Great Prophet Zarquon ..."

— OTT:443:0 at 20130924.0037

OTT:443:16|#p3341083

partial filk (1 verse) of "Fade To Black" by Dire Straits

OTT:443:20|#p3341089

short story "The Last Time Waiter" (see OTT:441:36 for the title)

OTT:443:38|#p3341118

{This is so people can read the firstposts, which are (still!) taking a long time to be approved.

This list and following posts by Lyoug can be used to figure out a little more of the offsets and pope polygoating}

"To help non Blitzgirls, I'm quoting here all the first time posts that I encountered, from NP 433 up to NP 439 where I'm currently. ..."

— OTT:444:0 at 20130924.0151

OTT:444:0|#p3341120

{Svenska våfflor, ja!}

"More waffles? Of the Swedish sort? Delicious!"

OTT:444:10|#p3341132

{Describing the special naure of this thread}

"It reminded me of the early Usenet days when the community was ... just connected universities and select companies ..."

OTT:444:17|#p3341141

"... 0xFADED (color of this post) = 1027565 = 5 x 7 x 11 x 17 x 157 ..."

OTT:444:21|#p3341147

{Someone has noticed that frame 969 is not an ordinary 8-bit PNG}

"This image is different (compared with, say, 10 newpix ago; ..."

OTT:444:27|#p3341155

"That's probably some automated optimization. Since we only have a few shades of grey left (250-255, plus 0 for the border), the image can be (and is) stored with pixel depth 4 (allows 16 colors) instead of 8 (allows 256 colors)."

OTT:444:38|#p3341169

"Looks right to me:

$ file 13e0f6c7fe59a8f5814efcb0647f2c5ef0979993406ddb7aaf056623d4cb7b02.png

13e0f6c7fe59a8f5814efcb0647f2c5ef0979993406ddb7aaf056623d4cb7b02.png: PNG image data, 553 x 395, 4-bit colormap, non-interlaced"

— OTT:445:0 at 20130924.2113

OTT:445:31|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3341213#p3341213] :

"> The latest newpix isn't all white :D What is La Petite™ dragging?

Looks like the heads of Megan and Cueball on a stretcher. :shock:"

— OTT:446:0 at 20130924.2157

OTT:446:5|#p3341233

"There are currently 42 other users online besides me, and 159 guests. Don't think I've even seen that many at once. ..."

OTT:446:14|#p3341247

ref-xkcd-327

"Uh oh, I see that among the users flocking to the fora now is Robert'); DROP TABLE *;. I hope Great Lord Randall and His angels sanitize their inputs!"

OTT:446:35|#p3341282

filk of "Rainbow Connection" :

"One day we'll find IT / That OTC connection"

— OTT:447:0 at 20130925.1151

OTT:447:18|#p3341316

"My bad — my tags were misaligned.

Actually — there are a number of posts that have this issue and so I was unable to parse them and are excluded from my forum data. I will try to list them all tonight so perhaps the posters can go back and edit/correct them."

OTT:447:27|#p3341331

filk "White Newpix" based on "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby

— OTT:448:0 at 20130925.1201

OTT:448:18|#p3341376

{Refers to "Electric Company" soap opera parody Love of Chair}

"It's been more decades than I care to count, and I still want to know, 'What about Naomi?'"

OTT:448:26|#p3341394

{The post I was beating when I wrote the story in OTT:1497:31}

"... sorry to be a bother, but... can I have those shoes back? ... I may be turned into a goat if I don't get those back soon..."

OTT:448:29|#p3341397

"Some tracks from the 'White Era':

'Back in the OTC/T'

'0b1aD1, 0b1aDa'

'While My Eyestrain Gently Weeps'

'Happiness is a Warm Monitor'

'I'm So NoComa'

'Whitebird'

'Pigxels'

'Why Don't We Do It on the Beach?'"

— OTT:449:0 at 20130925.1241

OTT:449:16|#p3341432

filk "White TimeFrame" based on "White Wedding" by Billy Idol

— OTT:450:0 at 20130925.1248

OTT:450:9|#p3341474

"Maybe La Petite was bringing in buoys (Wilson volleyballs?) and we'll see her floating by any newpix now."

OTT:450:31|#p3341506

ref-xkcd-1

OTT:450:39|#p3341514

BlitzGirl's first OTTification

"Here you go: / [NP450 FloatNext.png]"

— OTT:451:0 at 20130925.1636

OTT:451:3|#p3341518

filk (untitled) based on "Black and White" by Three Dog Night

"The sea is black, / The sky is white / Together we Wait / ..."

— OTT:452:0 at 20130925.1646

OTT:452:5|#p3341594

"... The River is Small! (my predictive text on my phone has learned that phrase :D)"

OTT:452:20|#p3341624

OTTification of xkcd 915

"Sorry... I had to do this:"

OTT:452:24|#p3341630

filk based on "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell

"Poles in holes set everywhere / Lift tall Sandcastles in the air / ..."

OTT:452:27|#p3341633

"Looks like aubronwood garbled the last couple of pre-fadeout frames."

{See "NP452 aubronwood screenshot.png"; this happened to me too}

OTT:452:28|#p3341636

{this is pretty good}

"As the only member of the One TRUE Church of Time1, ..."

OTT:452:29|#p3341637

filk based on "Ingenue" by Thom Yorke

— OTT:453:0 at 20130925.1710

OTT:453:39|#p3341751

"... Most of what I've missed while watching this thread are web-diversions of one sort or another. I'm seriously behind on LOL cats, but oh-well. ..."

— OTT:454:0 at 20130925.1753

OTT:454:3#p3341762

"... You are BlitzGirl the First, and they shall acquire the title 'BlitzGirl the Next' when they complete their pilgrimage. ..."

OTT:454:19#p3341808

"Greetings, ucim, he who emerges ...

I have seen many wonders on my Quest, and this I have learned: Time is not absolute. Though dedicated forum-dwellers may debate names to a Period fresh to their eyes, a weary wanderer may come to the same TimeFrame many longpix later seeing it as but a flash in the long, long thread of Time. While some among us hold fast to the heels of the Now, posting with immediacy and brevity, there are still others at the same moment following 10 newpages back, or 50, or 300. Those of us who experienced the great Fading in real-Time have shared an experience those that follow will never quite match, just as we ourselves cannot comprehend the madness that struck in the early quickpix, or during the Madness itself.

Yet these divisions do not separate us, but make us more powerful. As grains of Sand(semencancercoffeebabies) in a Sandcastle, this needle-pulled thing works best when we are not all of the same shape. Our quirks clasp us together all the more strongly, so that when we Wait for it together - whatever Time we may travel, whatever sect we may splinter, whatever graph or song or hat we share - we are not alone. For though Time may scatter us among the pastposts and the Present, in the end, it is also what brought us to this mad, mad, glorious home in the first place."

— OTT:455:0 at 20130925.1849

OTT:455:18#p3341891

poem "Make castles on the hill in the early day / ... / Time marches ong..."

— OTT:456:0 at 20130925.2047

OTT:456:14#p3341959

part of the 'Whistle of Temporal Harmony' story

OTT:456:29|#p3341988

filk based on "Black and White" by Three Dog Night

OTT:456:30|#p3341991

"We already know about frame 20 ...

Frames 38 through 49 have not been redrawn, but apparently regenerated in a different way from higher resolution versions: the anti-aliasing is different. For instance, frame 42:

[NP456 fr0042 diff.png]

Let's zoom in on the details of the two versions:

[NP456 fr0042 before-after.png]

The anti-aliasing is visibly lighter. ..."

— OTT:457:0 at 20130925.2115

OTT:457:12|#p3342035

filk "Your ONG" based on "Your Song" by Elton John

"It's a little bit funny this hill that we climb / ..."

OTT:457:30|#p3342064

ottification of Electric Company "Love of Chair"

OTT:457:35|#p3342075

"For BlitzGirl. / It comes with an optional pink feather boa."

OTT:457:38|#p3342079

edo is at 438/458

— OTT:458:0 at 20130925.2141

OTT:458:9|#p3342099

"One of the reasons that I have stayed with this needle-pulled thingy is that Timewaiters embrace the absurdity of #915 and are not at appalled that it refers to us."

OTT:458:15|#p3342114

"... my sig now contains an experimental Newpix-O-Meter. ... it's a little PHP script I threw together that draws a clock based on the current time. ... "

OTT:458:17|#p3342119

analysis of the PNG format in the "all-white" frame

— OTT:459:0 at 20130926.0022

OTT:459:29|#p3342252

{continuing with the "buffalo buffalo ..." thing}

"I had to note this because if BlitzGirl has the title BlitzGirl, and she can BlitzGirl, say, the Gospel of BlitzGirl, then

BlitzGirl BlitzGirl, BlitzGril BlitzGirl!

OTT:459:30|#p3342254

filk "The Timely Wanderers" based on "The Happy Wanderer" from The Muppet Show

— OTT:460:0 at 20130926.1241

OTT:460:0|#p3342285

"... it prolly isn't an exaggeration to presume Pope Helper is dead. We should have a funeral. Know that anyone who returns from the dead is a zombie."

OTT:460:11|#p3342304

Vytron is at 231/460

"Whoa! Now receiving messages back in time via a signature! For a moment I almost thought about editing my sig to answer, but soon realized that wasn't necessary :mrgreen:"

OTT:460:14|#p3342310

filk "Don't Stop Refreshin'" based on "Don't Stop Believin'" by Boston

OTT:460:26|#p3342335

Poll to survey ages of OTTers, at http://poll.pollcode.com/6ip4b (results are in "NP460 age poll.png") {Current results:

13 or less 1

14 1

15 4

16 3

17 10

18 10

19 13

20 12

21 11

22 7

23 12

24-25 34

26-27 17

28-30 23

31-35 42

36-40 11

41-45 9

46-50 10

51-55 11

56-60 10

61-70 6

71-80 0

81 or older 2

total 259 }

{Results from 20150302:

13 or less 2

14 2

15 4

16 4

17 12

18 10

19 14

20 12

21 11

22 7

23 13

24-25 34

26-27 18

28-30 24

31-35 44

36-40 11

41-45 11

46-50 10

51-55 11

56-60 10

61-70 8

71-80 0

81 or older 2

total 274 }

OTT:460:36|#p3342359

{Offset is -4}

"Yay! I'm on the top! :mrgreen:"

— OTT:461:0 at 20130926.1311

OTT:461:14|#p3342398

Noticing some glitches, e.g. frame 981 and 982 seem to be in the wrong order

"... has anyone started trying to work out how to put the walking frames together?"

OTT:461:16|#p3342401

making a good case for the Dead Sea

OTT:461:18|#p3342404

"... before I get a round tuit." {Roald Dahl reference? No that was "square candies that look round". "round tuit" is from New York World's Fair 1964}

OTT:461:22|#p3342410

{First reference to the Zanclean flood, i.e. the rapid rising of sea level in Mediterranean during prehistoric times}

Re: 1190: "Time" by mikrit >> Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:15 am UTC

"Actually, I am thinking of the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile ends in a delta; I imagine its could change its course a bit due to sedimentation.

And there was a time when the Mediterranean was rising very rapidly.

[Wikipedia quote]

That would mean that Cueball and Megan [are] Homo erectus or something. [or] they could be time-travellers that used a one-use only time machine."

Last edited by mikrit on Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:18 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.

OTT:461:25|#p3342419

azule makes a good point

"> In this forum signal-to-noise ratio is, I feel, important.

It is, and it's not. I think the problem comes with worrying about it and taking actions to dissuade it. That then itself becomes noise ... with OTT self-analysis ... we get on track, but with a sort of Katamari Damacy style, picking up the many small "off-topics" and magically making it part of the larger "on-topic". ..."

OTT:461:30|#p3342429

TheMinim is at 0/461 (beginning a blitz, but notes "I'll probably give up at some point.")

OTT:461:38|#p3342442

TheMinim is at 10/461

— OTT:462:0 at 20130926.1817

OTT:462:2|#p3342459

TheMinim is at 20/462

OTT:462:7|#p3342466

{Several people have been answering the age question at OTT:460:17}

"I'm 58 years physical age, roughly 24 years mental age (last year of grad school; got married then). If you want to know more ya gotta buy me dinner first :P"

OTT:462:16|#p3342485

TheMinim is at 38/462

OTT:462:23|#p3342495

".. I am pretty convinced .. that age means very little to how folks come across on the OTT - in Time we seem to be timeless."

OTT:462:24|#p3342496

"Anyone else notice how cute it is that, once the Blitzrandir Singularity occurred, the OTT sped up so quickly that it put several 'regulars' far in the past post-coma so they had to Blitz the thread of Time to catch up to her? ..."

OTT:462:25|#p3342497

kryton is at 414/462

OTT:462:27|#p3342499

poem (limerick) "The once was a stick-figure named Cueball / ..."

OTT:462:31|#p3342506

{Just now I have noticed SBN's signature and want to save it in case it changes later. Here it is in BBcode:}

[quote="astrotter"]It is not particularly clear to me at this time that we are not overanalyzing this...[/quote]

MistyCat, mrob27, svenman, et al. Randallspeed on your blitz! The after-when is improved by commentary from the before-was.

[url=http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/XKCDTimeWiki#WelcometothexkcdTime_Wiki]Some Ways to Time[/url]

[quote="NetWeasel"]I want to put that in my sig... BUT I CAN'T!!!![/quote]

OTT:462:34|#p3342518

filk "Megan" based on "Roxanne" by the Police

OTT:462:36|#p3342522

{Second post by @woods with a stitched-together image of the terrain during M&C's journey. These eventually grew to very large images which I have archived in .../1190-time/elevation-strips}

"... And with me, I bring a newly stitched image..."

OTT:462:37|#p3342524

VoronX is at 398/462

— OTT:463:0 at 20130927.0518

OTT:463:3|#p3342533

{This post is by VoronX, who is currently Blitzing the area around NP399. The HAL9000 post being quoted here is OTT:398:36#p3337080, currently at OTT:398:36; it is immediately preceded by the jovialbard post currently at OTT:398:35. This is evidence that the Offset at NP399 was +1 for a while, then polygoated back to the -4 noted above.}

"> HAL9000 wrote:

> ETA: It seems I am cursed with the recurring papacy.

> Or maybe I'm just a really active poster.

but jovialbard is pope-for-page 399 now...curse lifted!"

OTT:463:13|#p3342561

{A summary of all the times a newbie idea has been repeated. This kind of conversation isn't happenning too much anymore.}

"> Theory! / The last frame will be frame number 1190.

Woah! Mind = blown! ;)

[List of earlier posts with the same idea: OTT:20:36, OTT:50:5, OTT:261:14, OTT:419:18, OTT:452:16, OTT:441:24]

Yes, I was a tiny bit bored just now."

OTT:463:14|#p3342566

{Kieryn keeps adding new "APIs" to his website. I tried this one (on 20130927) and it did not work.}

"I added a feature to find the adjectives used to describe a noun ... Here's a cool example:

http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/Default/Describe?noun=newpix"

{Later posts reported bugs, e.g. the query ".../Describe?noun=semen" reported "hateful" as a modifier to "semen" because of the phrase "hateful amusements" in OTT:379:5}

OTT:463:16|#p3342578

filk "A Castle Unnamed" based on "A Horse With No Name" by America

OTT:463:35|#p3342634

filk "Walk Through The Encryption" based on "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles

— OTT:464:0 at 20130927.0552

OTT:464:0|#p3342686

filk based on "Back in Black" by AC/DC

OTT:464:10|#p3342732

{BlitzGirl drops the Boom De Yada Bomb! (an OTTification of xkcd 442, coincidentally NP442 is when BlitzGirl finished her quest)}

"Ready to see what I spent my morning doing?

[image: NP464 442 WeLoveTheTimeThread.png]

...

Hope you enjoy! It was a lot of fun to make. :D One of the reasons I'm happy to be in the Now is that I can do things like this, where in the Past I was too busy Questing, reading pastposts, and writing signposts!

OTT:464:20|#p3342752

{"nff" is a rot13 bowderism of "ass"}

"Oh, nff. Were the Loopists right? :shock:"

OTT:464:22|#p3342756

{The false loop, frame 998}

"Looks like the “camera” did a 90 degree turn. Also looks like the loopists might be right, the scene looks familiar to the starting point."

OTT:464:26|#p3342764

"> > Ready to see what I spent my morning doing? Here you go! It's a Present Present from me to you!

> All of Time was worth it for that.

> Legen-wait-for-it-dary.

Agreed. The talent represented in this thread is staggeringly huge. Bigger than the sea even."

— OTT:465:0 at 20130927.0624

{When I stopped to publish by "Boom-de-Yada", I predicted that I would reach NP465 by 20130926.2200; it actually took 8.5 hours more}

OTT:465:12|#p3342810

"Even if Randall were to change the text on each loop (which would require minimal effort and allow the comic to continue for years pretty easily), there are too many unique occurrences in the images for a loop to feel anything but awkward. Would Megan foolishly try to lift herself up using the bucket and fall at the exact same moment every time? Would Cueball keep putting the ladder under the floor of the platform? Maybe Cueball would be that dense, but eventually Megan would be like 'get up here and OH BY THE WAY put the damn ladder on the side this time!'."

OTT:465:14|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3342817#p3342817] :

kryton is at 421/464

— OTT:466:0 at 20130928.0329

OTT:466:1|#p3342874

"The journey so far..."

{A strip-composite of the walking frames}

OTT:466:22|#p3342905

"What about we Old Ones from before the dawn of Time who mostly lie dead or sleeping but occasionally stir to frighten those fragile young beings bound to the thread of Time?

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Pfhorlhu xkcd wgah'nagl fhtagn"

OTT:466:30|#p3342919

"Everybody is so sweet! Thank you!"

[several quotes of replies to buffygirl's crisis]

— OTT:467:0 at 20130928.0414

OTT:467:12|#p3342949

{As of NP1505, this still hasn't been done}

"Blitzgirl comic #2 request:

OTC/OTT version of http://xkcd.com/1052/"

OTT:467:15|#p3342953

"> OTC/OTT version of http://xkcd.com/1052/

Ooh, that's a good idea! I'll keep that in mind for the Future. :D

EDIT: Ah, shoot! The beat of that is ONE SYLLABLE OFF from fitting a haiku. But maybe...

goes back to thinking"

OTT:467:22|#p3342969

"One True Comic II: The Baginning"

OTT:467:23|#p3342973

"One True Comic 2: Electric Bagaloo"

OTT:467:27|#p3342978

PhoenixRising is at 417/467

— OTT:468:0 at 20130928.1328

OTT:468:7|#p3343006

kryton is at 424/467

— OTT:469:0 at 20130928.1337

OTT:469:19|#p3343068

{Further discussion of the 3 apocryphal frames}

OTT:469:25|#p3343076

filk "The Timely Wanderers" based on "The Happy Wanderer"

— OTT:470:0 at 20130928.1454

— OTT:471:0 at 20130928.1519

OTT:471:4|#p3343162

"> And indeed, it was just a loopist tease. :)

So which sect will Lord Randall deem worthy to be trolled next?"

{I notice sigcouragement from Earthling on Mars:

Keep going...

[img]http://i.imgur.com/vL61ZpA.png[/img]

Purplepants77, monkeygentleman, Maugrim, MistyCat, mrob27, kr4, Amanita, and any others blitzing the One True Thread!

[img]http://bit.ly/1dj45oM[/img]

Welcome to Time!

}

OTT:471:23|#p3343191

PhoenixRising is at 428/471

OTT:471:35|#p3343210

{Offset is -5}

"... Edit: As Pope of the page I declare ..."

— OTT:472:0 at 20130928.1724

OTT:472:2|#p3343222

"Despite that the papacy has been disbanded several times ..."

{I only noticed this happening once definitively, and once by stated intention (which was not carried out). See OTT:366:33 and OTT:402:4 (both mscha)}

poem "Time is a changing thing / and it has a marvelous thread / ..."

OTT:472:16|#p3343244

PhoenixRising is at 433/472

OTT:472:37|#p3343278

PhoenixRising is at 436/472

— OTT:473:0 at 20130928.1939

OTT:473:5|#p3343288

brief filk of "Gay Bar" by Electric Six

OTT:473:8|#p3343294

"Before it's lost to time:

[image, see 'NP473 forum activity.png']

We're on the second big raise of activity or something.

(pretty sure there's some big event going on, still won't spoil myself reading the future.)"

{later discussion attributed the rise in activity to one or more of:

OTT:473:20|#p3343313

jdj42 is at 276/473

OTT:473:35|#p3343337

{The appearance of Zombie Helper}

"Four weeks and five days, 18913 posts, 1004 individual frames. Who thought it would ever get this big?

I guess a missed a little :mrgreen:."

— OTT:474:0 at 20130928.2134

OTT:474:7|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3343351#p3343351] :

"I was just about to suggest that while there is no pope, we use a nomic system for stuff, and then Helper came back! Someone update the **ing wiki, 'cause ** just got real!"

— OTT:475:0 at 20130928.2156

OTT:475:21|#p3343420

{Referring to the dialogue, "But that's what the first part of not ending looks like."}

"He's screwing with us... / FOURTH WALL HAS BEEN BROKEN ..."

OTT:475:32|#p3343434

{Describing the keystrokes used to post an ONG}

"...I've become quite good at F6 Ctrl-Z Enter F6 Ctrl-Z Enter repeat ad-infinitum1 :D

1: Until such time that a new hash appears where F6 highlights. Then it's F6 Ctrl-C Ctrl-PgUp Ctrl-V Tab Tab Enter2.

2: Somebody mentioned having the post already written. I owe them my thanks."

— OTT:476:0 at 20130928.2251

OTT:476:6|#p3343453

(yappobiscuits indicates interest in recording a 'Modern Major General' parody)

"I once wrote (and recorded) a parody of that song for another forum once! ... BlitzGirl, if you are working on it, I offer to take it upon myself to record it once it's done! And if you're not, I may have to take up the task myself…"

{First fan-fiction}

"I started doing this and couldn't stop… longness ahead, proceed with caution...

Excerpt from The Lord of the Bags, The Fellowship of the Bag ..."

OTT:476:28|#p3343482

{This predicts the Epilogue sequence fairly well}

"I still persist in Loopism. But I believe Randall is going to find some bizarre mathematical/comical way of looping that we haven't anticipated, like a narrative version of Penrose tiles."

OTT:476:31|#p3343485

{Reappearance of HAL9000}

"Holy hell what happened while I was away. ..."

— OTT:477:0 at 20130929.0233

— OTT:478:0 at 20130929.0534

OTT:478:13|#p3343562

{Origin of "mustard"}

"Maybe they are walking on gray-poupon mustard."

OTT:478:25|#p3343579

{Kieryn has provided a list of posts that have problems like improper nesting, see "malformed-posts.txt"}

"... new forum data update available, with links to malformed posts ..."

— OTT:479:0 at 20130929.0551

OTT:479:8|#p3343614

Here is a quick preview of Randall at work:

{theory of how the mustard image was formed, see "NP480 Randall-at-work2.gif"}

— OTT:480:0 at 20130930.1126

OTT:480:13|#p3343690

"... I, Sir Tristram, the Simple, Defender of The One True Comic, hereby swear ... to defend all cats in the One True Comic or the One True Thread. ..."

OTT:480:14|#p3343692

"This frame shows them moving on sideways. But he has used the same image from the last frame and added some more Mustard on top. ...

[enhanced version of apocryphal-1010.png] ... "

OTT:480:34|#p3343729

PhoenixRising is at 445/480

— OTT:481:0 at 20130930.1713

OTT:481:6|#p3343749

{BlitzGirl reporting that one of her ott-0442 frames was used by KarMann as his avatar}

"... Also, I've been avatar'd by KarMann! :D (Is that a thing?) What an honor!"

OTT:481:36|#p3343803

"He woke up, didn't really know how he got there

Wasn't too sure why neither

.."

{Lyrics to rap "Itchy Feet" by Horrorshow

Quicksilver posted it again in full at OTT:1293:18}

OTT:481:39|#p3343807

azule is at 476/481

"> OTC/OTT version of http://xkcd.com/1052

I think she should stick with what inspires her. Not sure our suggestions will create gold. ..."

{Curoiusly, this response about BlitzGirl and xkcd/1052 ends with a sequence of 8 iambs: "... a comic following and maybe even a religion. heh"}

— OTT:482:0 at 20130930.1923

OTT:482:5|#p3343816

"Cuegan appears to be moving, but the mustard remains the same! It distracts from the narrative of the One True Comic!

Clearly, the mustard is heretical."

OTT:482:15|#p3343831

Vytron is at 246/482

{and reports that Timeframe 403, hash 1f65cba4eac4007e...648cdc3f23e20bfb appears on the "8th post of the page", i.e. at OTT:246:7. The first message with that image is now at OTT:246:2 (although there are others shortly after it) supporting the idea that the Offset moved more negative during the time after BlitzGirl traversed those pages and before I got to them.}

{Vytron also included a screen capture of kryten's signature and there are other signature images in later Vytron posts}

OTT:482:26|#p3343848

"> Indeed you have. That's actually not a bad idea, maybe all of us who have been honoured with a spot in BlitzGirls awesome remake should do this...

Huh. I did not anticipate this. (It's hard to see the Future when you've been living in the Past for so long.)

But okay :)"

OTT:482:29|#p3343851

"Well - looks like the mustard is gone, and retroactively repaired in the previous frames too.

Sloppy work Randall... :wink:"

OTT:482:30|#p3343852

"Aha! Begone, heretical Mustard!"

OTT:482:31|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3343853#p3343853] :

{Important discussion of frame numbering mscha; this message is dated newpix 1015.91, and note that Aubronwood later added the missing frame 683}

"...First, let's try to determine the theoretically ideal frame numbers. ...

So, ideally, we should now have arrived at newpix 7 of “day” 38. This means that the ideal frame number (when starting at 1) at this time is: 5×48 + 32×24 + 7 = 1015.

... The Book of Aubronwood is at 1014, Book of Geekwagon is at 1015. What's the difference? Well, aside from frame 1 (for which the original newpix is lost in Time and both are using a reproduction), Geekwagon has a frame 683 which is missing in Aubronwood. ... "

{My notes on this are in I-index-project.txt}

OTT:482:33|#p3343855

"You could always double check the forum posts from that time and look for hashs ..."

{Yep.}

OTT:482:37|#p3343862

"Just to explain that 683 mystery, that was one of the times when the server was stuck after (all times EDT) the 08:00 frame 681, there was no NewPix at 09:00 or 10:00, until at 10:42 we got frame 682 and then at 10:49 frame 683, and at 11:00 regular updates resumed with frame 684. So, a regular script could easily have missed that one in the short time it was still the current NewPix."

OTT:482:38|#p3343864

"... the images he just fixed all have new Timestamps!!! create 2013-05-01T05:37:15-04:00 modify 2013-05-01T05:37:15-04:00 ..."

{Later messages have further discussion of this}

— OTT:483:0 at 20130930.2218

OTT:483:5|#p3343879

Vytron is at 263/483

OTT:483:18|#p3343933

filk "Once in a live Time" based on "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads

OTT:483:25|#p3343943

"http://www.mscha.org/tmp/xkcd/index.cgi now lists, for each frame:

OTT:483:35|#p3343965

VoronX is at 403/483

"Eliram wrote: 'קדימה בליץ גירל'

Hey, I can sort of read that! Qadimah (Onward) BlitzGirl!"

— OTT:484:0 at 20130930.2346

OTT:484:24|#p3344037

filk "Poster" based on "Loser" by Beck

— OTT:485:0 at 20131001.0150

OTT:485:1|#p3344084

{This implies the offset is +1, or +2 if HAL9000 is going by the goat-is-retro-Pope convention.}

"EDIT: Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer!"

OTT:485:5|#p3344101

RobIrr is at 459/485

OTT:485:11|#p3344135

VoronX is at 438/485

OTT:485:23|#p3344167

{M&C have arrived at the river}

"Riverbank?"

OTT:485:27|#p3344180

Caswallon "Mini-Blitz" at 475/485

— OTT:486:0 at 20131001.1005

OTT:486:3|#p3344226

"Re-stitching to include the river1:

[image, see 'NP486 walk to river.jpg']

1Small, possibly with a hint of baby"

OTT:486:21|#p3344266

ref-xkcd-1037 (northern lights)

OTT:486:23|#p3344271

filk based on "Take Me To the River" by Al Green (or the Talking Heads)

OTT:486:29|#p3344281

"Yes, there are other rivers, maybe?"

OTT:486:37|#p3344291

"Oh, I see that those of the litany are the ones being sniped this newpix. :P"

— OTT:487:0 at 20131001.1030

OTT:487:27|#p3344339

"Well, you do realize that if you go missing again we will have to update the milk carton using this new milk carton avatar as the missing image ..."

— OTT:488:0 at 20131001.1053

OTT:488:2|#p3344371

"RIVERSONG..."

{frame 1025, another zoom-out, this time sudden}

— OTT:489:0 at 20131001.1115

— OTT:490:0 at 20131001.1130

OTT:490:9|#p3344509

"This thread has really developed an odd combination of childish whimsy and decidedly PG-13 allusions. I like it."

OTT:490:26|#p3344539

"I was concerned he was going to fall in actually. :) But it will be curious how he reacts if he drinks it."

OTT:490:34|#p3344551

RobIrr is at 472/490

OTT:490:39|#p3344558

"You were post number 19600! Woot!"

{it seems buffygirl is referring to OTT:490:36#p3344554 which suggests that the offset was -3}

— OTT:491:0 at 20131001.1425

OTT:491:6|#p3344567

"Moved to a less, well, temporary location: http://xkcd.mscha.org/ ..."

OTT:491:11|#p3344579

"Oh yes, this effect is due to conservation of blitzmentum. I was doing some speedy blitzing, and when I abruptly hit the Now, I imparted the blitz to many, many thread-dwellers. Think of me as a cue ball (heh) breaking all of the other balls apart into their own little blitzes."

OTT:491:22|#p3344597

"Time for a river² level update, for a change. :)...

[image 'NP491 river change.png'

Some slight waving action, but no rise or drop (or retreat) that we can see. ..."

OTT:491:24|#p3344600

PhoenixRising is at 453/491

OTT:491:30|#p3344614

{The OTC drinking game}

"... Drink every time a character in the OTC drinks from a body of liquid ...

— OTT:492:0 at 20131001.1543

OTT:492:2|#p3344641

PhoenixRising is at 456/492

OTT:492:6|#p3344653

{Okay here we go, they're about to learn that M&C cannot swim...}

CUEBALLSLIPPONG...

OTT:492:15|#p3344663

{Birth of another meme}

"Is that... The Boomerang?

(I asked my girlfriend with no real knowledge of the comic what she thought he was holding, and she said 'a dildo, a gun, or a boomerang'."

OTT:492:19|#p3344667

"> You know it could be all three... That would be a real multipurpose

> device!

A dilgunnerang!"

OTT:492:24|#p3344674

"oh, btw yappobiscuits, couldn't help but notice your otter avatar. FV?"

{the author, @Clix, never posted again nor explained what "FV" is. One possibility is "FarmVille".}

OTT:492:34|#p3344692

PhoenixRising is at 460/492

"your odds of calculating Chuck Norris' fighting ability / EDIT: LOL. Zul-Gurub ftw. I meant C h u c k N o r r i s."

{Is a Mod Madness filter still active?}

OTT:492:38|#p3344704

{Offset is -2}

"Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer! / EDIT2: newpix, since it appeared at the bottom of the last page ..."

— OTT:493:0 at 20131001.1651

OTT:493:2|#p3344708

filk "Wonderful Walk" based on "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke

OTT:493:3|#p3344710

"... Aah! The River is eating Cueball! Save him, Megan! Though it be small, it is fierce! / (it is too late for the dilgunnerang) ..."

OTT:493:13|#p3344723

"Check your BBcode, it's messed up. You open with quote+quote+spoiler and end with quote+spoiler+quote. ..."

OTT:493:27|#p3344748

PhoenixRising is at 465/493

"I'm averaging probably a page every 10m, and I'm a quick reader. ..."

{That's about how fast I read when I'm not following links, taking notes or researching something for my next Time Capsule}

— OTT:494:0 at 20131001.2229

OTT:494:12|#p3344798

PhoenixRising is at 471/494

OTT:494:18|#p3344808

"OK new forum data is up. The recent surge due to the final arrival of BlitzGirl and the drama of the Fading is clearly apparent and seems to have peaked. ..."

OTT:494:22|#p3344813

PhoenixRising is at 473/494

OTT:494:33|#p3344846

{Okay, the Morse thing is starting...}

"dot dot...OH it's morse code. SOS. I get it.

.-- .- .. - / ..-. --- .-. / .. - .-.-.-

OTT:494:36|#p3344849

"Oh yes, feel free to avatar whatever part of it you like - it was made for the thread-readers, after all! I'm actually quite honored.

...

Oh no. In OTC, shark jumps you:

Spoiler:

Sharkbait! Ooo...bop ba doo."

— OTT:495:0 at 20131002.0006

OTT:495:17|#p3344882

PhoenixRising is at 481/495

OTT:495:33|#p3344904

PhoenixRising is at 484/495

"EDIT: Zul-Gurub again. "O M G" was intended."

— OTT:496:0 at 20131002.0305

OTT:496:3|#p3344922

"... I had another theory about M&C's background. Maybe it's like in Adventure Time, where the main characters routinely use advanced technology but have no idea what it is or does because the civilization that created it is long gone."

OTT:496:10|#p3344935

{Based on subsequent posts, this apparently was the result of an undesirable comment on the Economist blog by one "BlitzgirlHelper", which was not BlitzGirl (her post at OTT:497:4 explains why).

Here are the relevant comments from the Economist blog link:

[

paean Apr 19th 2013, 09:55

It's a slow flipbook. The only genius thing about it is the advertising revenue he gets with each refresh.

New Conservative in reply to paean Apr 19th 2013, 10:16 Go to his site. Go try to find an ad on the page. You can't. I suppose multiple clicks might lead to more people going to his

store, but Randall Munroe does the crazy amazing stuff he does, because he's awesome and because he can.

(Does the Economist know why his site always triggers the spam filter?)

G.F. - The Economist in reply to paean Apr 19th 2013, 16:25 There is no advertising, nor are the older frames available at his

site. His fans are archiving and collecting them.

BlitzgirlHelper in reply to paean May 1st 2013, 20:47 Die heretic! There is no "refresh." Lord Randall has put a

Javascript that pushes each new frame to the followers of the One True Comic. Besides, your post is fail on so many other levels (ads? pft!). The sea is big, the river is small.

guest-lwjeiel in reply to BlitzgirlHelper May 2nd 2013, 06:03 In case anyone is wondering what this is, the forum thread about

the "Time" comic has over 19000 posts and has spawned, amongst other things, a parody religion.

HelperBlitzgirl in reply to BlitzgirlHelper May 3rd 2013, 02:48 I apparently offended some people on the OTT. I am a lowly lurker

who has been reading the thread from the beginning of Time. I hope they take pity on me. I even got part of the creed backwards. :( hides face in shame

]

Also, "SAEWITRBASA" stands for "Self-appointed Engineer Who

Installed the Red Button and System Administrator".}

"I, AluisioASG; SAEWITRBASA; Time Waiter, on this page 485∧496 of the One True Thread, hereby establish the Time Foundation ..."

{It was probably in AluisioASG's signature and was later deleted}

— OTT:497:0 at 20131002.0339

OTT:497:20|#p3345023

{Finally, they noticed!}

"Yikes! If they can't swim for the bloody bottle/skin/sack/sock or whatever (me think it is a wet sock they are squeezing water from...) how are they supposed to cross the river? :?"

OTT:497:27|#p3345036

Vytron is at 274/497

— OTT:498:0 at 20131002.0419

OTT:498:3|#p3345075

"Why doesn't someone just swim out and get the bottle? It's a river, so presumably freshwater, and not really that large either."

OTT:498:26|#p3345115

Vytron is at 287/498

{A good summary of terminology xey invented for blitzing}

"Finally, I've been reading a lot about gender-neutral pronouns, and I'm sick of it, so I'll put an end to it: I'll be using from now on they/their/them, but since they sound so plural, their singular version changes the th to a x. *xey/xeir/xem look like perfect gender neutral to me. ..."

OTT:498:32|#p3345126

PhoenixRising is at 495/498

OTT:498:35|#p3345141

{Offset is -5}

"Well! Old-school PFAN for the last NP of this century ..."

OTT:498:36|#p3345142

PhoenixRising is at 496/498

— OTT:499:0 at 20131002.0450

OTT:499:14|#p3345182

"> It's probably one of those Heisenberg things - if you understand

> it, it stops working. :)

It must be the people. The atmosphere in here is special... I don't understand it either. And as you said, that's probably for the best."

OTT:499:31|#p3345217

StratPlayer is at 397/499

OTT:499:35|#p3345228

{Offset is -5; see OTT:546:30#p3348672 when it appears the offset was still the same}

Vytron is at 299/499

"Welcome page 500! (I'm at 299 right now - Blitzgirl Blitzrandir was at 219 when I was at 295) ..."

OTT:499:39|#p3345235

filk "Just a Forum Where I Used to Post" based on "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye

— OTT:500:0 at 20131002.1313

OTT:500:0|#p3345236

filk "I don't want to miss a pix" of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith

OTT:500:20|#p3345265

Vytron is at 301/500

OTT:500:35|#p3345298

{Offset is -4, based on this message being the 20000th post:}

"> now I'm refreshing this page waiting for the 20000th post...

No more need to wait, then."

{making this the goat of page 500, and the 500*40 = 20000th post. See also OTT:500:38p3345301, OTT:501:0p3345303, OTT:501:2#p3345308

— OTT:501:0 at 20131002.1336

OTT:501:30|#p3345363

filk "Pixels in the wind" based on "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas

— OTT:502:0 at 20131002.2043

OTT:502:12|#p3345399

"Also, maybe Cuegan can't actually swim, they just went 'swimming' in the sea because they could stand up and splash around."

— OTT:503:0 at 20131002.2100

OTT:503:1|#p3345457

filk (or perhaps original song) "Time! / It just goes on and on and on / I watched two people ..."

OTT:503:9|#p3345473

"... I am sensing that the time is nigh for the crowning of a BlitzGirl the Next. I know some are still in their Most Holy Quest, that being:

OTT:503:29|#p3345519

(first message from Pikrass about his GreaseMonkey scripts)

"I want post times expressed in newpixes from the beginning of Time. I'm gonna write a GreaseMonkey script to do so."

— OTT:504:0 at 20131002.2310

OTT:504:1|#p3345546

filk "Toppled by the Sea?", based on "Rollin' in the Deep" by Adele

OTT:504:18|#p3345578

"I use bookmarklets for saving and restoring my location at the xkcd(dot)aubronwood(dot)com ..."

OTT:504:36#p3345604

"> [frame 1048]

Did someone say 'fire'?"

{This post was edited, but also quoted in OTT:505:5#p3345616, which was also edited but early enough to prove that this post said. pelrigg notices that Cuegan have built a small campfire, but this frame is later re-interpreted as Cueball defecating.}

— OTT:505:0 at 20131002.2333

OTT:505:30|#p3345662

"I want to marry newpixbot"

— OTT:506:0 at 20131003.0006

OTT:506:0|#p3345679

kryton is at 428/505

OTT:506:24|#p3345722

{Pikrass announces the newpix date converter GreaseMonkey script}

"Everybody stand back!

Do these heretic dates on every message annoy you? Would you like them to be in the OTU (One Time Unit)?

I have a solution for you: the Newpix Convertor! ..."

— OTT:507:0 at 20131003.0035

— OTT:508:0 at 20131003.0051

OTT:508:1|#p3345816

A serious calculation of how much water the river might be putting into the sea, compared to how much is needed to explain the sea rise

OTT:508:2|#p3345817

{Latent22 may have been the first to have a slowly-animated gif avatar}

"HOLY CARP BATMAN! Latent22 just noticed your avatar is a slow gif ..."

OTT:508:7|#p3345826

"Google really likes the OTT.

It's only been a few hours, and: https://www.google.com/search?q=piraC3B1injas "

— OTT:509:0 at 20131003.0132

OTT:509:4|#p3345923

"... I must warn you that the forum thread for xkcd #2300, the first 11-dimensional comic, got 3.14k replies in the first two days."

{AluisioASG later explained xer seemingly random number choices: 3.14 ≈ π; 2300 = 1110 + 1190; 11 = number of dimensions in the M-theory}

OTT:509:17|#p3345969

{A more complete calculation, assuming they are at the Dead Sea}

"... so the number of similar rivers needed to produce the sea level rise is 37,500/784 ≈ 48."

OTT:509:20|#p3345982

filk "Our Mad Randallville", based on "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett

— OTT:510:0 at 20131003.0150

OTT:510:27|#p3346078

beginning of a collaborative filk of "Bohemian Rhapsody"

OTT:510:37|#p3346109

{This message was edited by the user to remove content. Here is what it says now:}

Re: 1190: "Time" by uaeio >> Fri May 03, 2013 4:15 am UTC

"..."

Last edited by uaeio on Wed May 29, 2013 7:00 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.

{And here is the original content:}

"Love that this is my very first post on XKCD forums:

Are they going to make out?"

{And he posted the same text at OTT:511:7#p3346132, similarly retro-edited. So it was probably duplicate posts, like I did when I first joined for xkcd forum}

— OTT:511:0 at 20131002.0217

OTT:511:14|#p3346145

collaborative filk of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

OTT:511:20|#p3346155

Good summary of the dialogue so far, and (reasonable) conclusions we can draw from it

"'Later' and 'Bye' first established a parameter of the medium - Megan and Cueball would be talking. So it wasn't just snapshots of time, it also had elaboration.

'Wanna swim?' let us know for sure that the location was what it looked like - a beach ... "

OTT:511:38|#p3346183

"... Has anyone yet brought up the fact that Randall dramatically reeled us in to the storyline by keeping the characters silent for the majority of the animation, and then suddenly creating an increasingly complicated plot a few hundred frames in? Very clever, that Mr. Munroe."

— OTT:512:0 at 20131003.0259

OTT:512:18|#p3346238

Vytron is at 302/512

OTT:512:31|#p3346260

filk "If I were a Stick Man" based on "If I were a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof"

OTT:512:37|#p3346273

{Offset is -3}

"Edit: it appears I am Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer"

OTT:512:39|#p3346276

ott-xkcd-1207

— OTT:513:0 at 20131003.0324

OTT:513:10|#p3346294

Vytron is at 314/513

"I'm 199 pages behind"

OTT:513:30|#p3346323

VoronX is at 444/513

— OTT:514:0 at 20131004.2057

OTT:514:23|#p3346401

VoronX is at 445/514

OTT:514:25|#p3346403

"Quidquid latine dictum, altum videtur"

{"Anything said in Latin sounds profound"}

— OTT:515:0 at 20131004.2201

OTT:515:5|#p3346446

{This has been done several times during the past 50 or so NP; it is recognized that firstposts are valuable and get missed a lot}

"Bringing this out of the moderated ether during my morning mini-blitz"

{Also, note "mini-blitz", not "ketchup".}

OTT:515:7|#p3346466

(referring to Pikrass' Newpix Convertor script)

"Tremendously useful. / Makes it so much easier to check back to see comments on a particular frame :-)"

{Actually the script makes it much easier to see what frame a given comment is commenting on. If you know the frame number and want to find the comments, it's still a pain; this is what I made my index for.}

OTT:515:10|#p3346481

"I think Cueball just accused the sea of being a heretic. Is that even possible?"

OTT:515:18|#p3346497

Vytron is at 336/515

(Calculates xer own arrival will occur around NP650)

— OTT:516:0 at 20131004.2245

OTT:516:1|#p3346549

"The OTT is also very heavy on new-arrivals to the xkcd fora. Pre-Time memes don't hold as much impact for us — we like to make our own."

OTT:516:8|#p3346561

"> We should have a poll of whether they find a ford or turn back,

> and see if Randell responds to it

A poll has thusly been created!"

{Results are:

Will Cueball and Megan find a ford?

Yes! A ford! 87%

No, they will have to turn back. 13%

Total votes: 79 }

OTT:516:21|#p3346584

OTT poetry based on "A une Damoyselle malade" by Clément Marot

OTT:516:26|#p3346592

filk based on "They're Coming to Take Me Away" by Napoleon XIV

— OTT:517:0 at 20131004.2318

— OTT:518:0 at 20131004.2342

OTT:518:10|#p3346729

"It seems like they may be characters in a game."

{i.e., perhaps M&C are the avatars of two players in a WoW-like game, and the dialogue we see is their headset conversation}

OTT:518:26|#p3346762

{SQL jokes}

"> This comic is very SELECT observation FROM observations WHERE type = 'obvious' AND meaning IS NULL; ', don't you agree?

FTFY"

OTT:518:33|#p3346769

(instructions on installing the Newpix converter script, and how to get it to display millinewpix accuracy)

— OTT:519:0 at 20131005.0041

OTT:519:31|#p3346824

"It's basically a chatroom with a log at this point"

OTT:519:36|#p3346830

"I now think of newposter posts as something more like little time capsules ..."

{Ooohhhh, that's cool — they're reverse time-capsules: The OTTers in the Present don't read about them until they are 'bumped' by someone doing ketchup or quoted by a blitzer; but Blitzers read them earlier.}

— OTT:520:0 at 20131005.0128

OTT:520:22|#p3346870

(user SBN has an automatic facility to pull out the tinytext, perhaps xey are using an accessibility tool)

"Along with my post editing window, I have a small text reading window. ..."

— OTT:521:0 at 20131005.0209

OTT:521:11|#p3346912

(Opiboble starts posting in text that is too small to be seen at all)

— OTT:522:0 at 20131005.0245

OTT:522:11|#p3346994

{referencing Monty Python Hungarian Phrasebook sketch}

"> But ... but .... my sig is full! pouts

Takes some eels from Buffy's sig so she can make it work anyway."

OTT:522:17|#p3347003

{a use of "otter" as a pun, but also in a way that could be interpreted as "OTTer"}

"1unlike any of the otter discussions we've been having."

— OTT:523:0 at 20131005.0334

— OTT:524:0 at 20131005.0354

— OTT:525:0 at 20131005.0427

— OTT:526:0 at 20131005.0447

OTT:526:3|#p3347220

"Well, I'm rather partial to the marvelous buffygirl/cmyk collaboration that adorns my avatar. buffygirl made the monolith-hat, and cmyk added it to the base image."

OTT:527:18|#p3347299

Elmach is at 453/527

— OTT:528:0 at 20131005.1508

OTT:528:15|#p3347357

{azule's backstory about flags made of sand}

"There once was a little firefox named Ffoxy. ..."

OTT:528:18|#p3347363

Vytron is at 345/528

"... When I was at page 336, BlitzGirl was at page 275, and my past-self was at page 120. She's also a lot nicer to my past-self than I was ..."

OTT:528:26|#p3347384

Vytron is at 379/528

{xey must be just reading and not doing anything else}

OTT:528:35|#p3347410

"There's a story submission at Slashdot about Time."

(this refers to http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/05/05/1851250/xkcds-long-running-time-comic-work-of-art-or-nerd-sniping )

OTT:528:39|#p3347416

"Post -coma mayo ..."

(mscha is using "mayo" as a synonym for "ketchup", with the explanation that xey are Dutch and a Pulp Fiction reference)

"Assuming that the geography is basically rectangular ... we've had the following camera directions:

- Looking north (sea on the right)

- Looking west (sea behind us)

- Looking south (sea on the left) ..."

...

It could very well be the case that after the Fade, we jumped to Cuegan just as they left the beach."

— OTT:529:0 at 20131005.1904

OTT:529:3|#p3347424

Vytron is at 359/528

OTT:529:7|#p3347431

{Perhaps the beginning of a posting-format debate}

"Two questions. How much is a wall, and how does spoilering it help? ..."

OTT:529:8|#p3347432

{This is how I feel about the issue}

"I would prefer the opposite. If a large wall of ketchup appears in a spoiler and I hit the show button to read it, I then have to remember to scroll back up and hide it again before continuing. ..."

OTT:529:13|#p3347456

{A compromise: spoiler the quotes, but don't spoiler what you yourself wrote.}

"If there's long quotes in the posts you're replying to as part of your ketchup, it makes sense to individually spoiler these. But please don't spoiler the whole post, that only helps the skippers, not the readers."

OTT:529:17|#p3347462

"... I will wait for it to appear in the OTS1, because I choose to support the OTR2 ... / 1 One True Store / 2 One True Randall / 3 There, used up two of the available remaining OTx for you. ..."

{Perhaps we'll fill out the alphabet; starting with:

OTA Author / OTB BlitzGirl (the First) / OTC Comic / OTF Font (or Forum) / OTK Ketchup / OTR Randall / OTS Store / OTT Thread / OTW Wiki}

{Didn't take long, see OTT:535:24#p3347854}

OTT:529:20|#p3347466

{A metaphor for ketchup-posts}

"... My Grandmother and her siblings carried on a Round-Robin letter for many years, each one writing a letter, and adding it to the stack of letters from the other siblings, and mailing the stack to the next one. Next time around, they would remove their previous letter and write a new one. That was 12 people, and a round took several weeks. ..."

OTT:529:22|#p3347472

(start of a bit of Wallace and Gromit referencing)

"I do like a bit of Gorgonzola!"

OTT:529:23|#p3347474

"Don't forget the distributed delivery system. All the servers have to be able to retrieve the next image at the sound of the Dong. Distribute the lookup database? Messy. They just keep track of the frame number and run it through an algorithm to get the file name. Occam is surely with me on this. ..."

{This isn't quite right, but it's close. The images need to be sent to users by a distributed system, so they have to be put in the cloud a little early. The 64-character 'hashes' seem to come from a randomly-chosen 1 of 8 servers; the amount of data they are sending is relatively small, so hopefully small delays for users in the Far East. But these might be distributed as well, and the time zone disagreements (see OTT:57:34#p3306123) suggest this is the case. In any case they would have a table of hashes and send the next hash at the scheduled time.}

OTT:529:35|#p3347495

Vytron is at 370/529

"Passed page 360. There wasn't any cake, is this a reference to Portal or something? :( "

(Vytron agrees with others who said that it's harder on readers to have to show and hide multiple spoilers; then devises xer own alternative: use [size=85] and [color=#008] instead of [quote])

"Creating own code for messages instead of using ROT13 should be heretic! (as ArchBishop of Time, can I do things like that?)"

OTT:529:38|#p3347498

"> Although if we're spoilering each reply, wouldn't that be a bigger pain since now readers have to open half-a-dozen spoilers instead of one?

That's true. Though the topic-based sort (pioneered by Blitzgirl) is nice."

— OTT:530:0 at 20131005.2017

OTT:530:8|#p3347516

"... After the newpix convertor, I created the spoiler detector ... My next script will allow you to quote multiple people without any copy-pasting. ..."

OTT:530:14|#p3347524

"So the optimum would be to spoiler a screen's worth, so it could be expanded and shrunk without scrolling. We need a survey to find the median screen size, possibly weighted by strength of revulsion to scrolling."

— OTT:531:0 at 20131005.2056

OTT:531:33|#p3347621

"Plong! / [frame 1097]"

{The smallest scale of M&C we've yet seen, with frame 1025 "There are other rivers." being the previous record}

— OTT:532:0 at 20131005.2340

OTT:532:2|#p3347639

"... The river is about 12 Cueballs wide ... The official unit of length of the OTC? Similar to the Smoot."

OTT:532:14|#p3347654

by mathrec newpix 1097.539

"A present to slow you down so I can ketchup. No more posting until you solve it! / [image, see "NP532-SolveIt.png"]"

{The problem as stated is ambiguous. It looks like a sudoku with letters, but what are the blue squares for? Since we aren't allowed to post, we cannot ask each other (or you) to give a complete statement of what constitutes "solving it". Therefore, I will define "solve it" however I wish. I have "solved it" by saving the image in my ~/xkcd/1190-time/OTT/fanpix folder with the name "NP532-SolveIt.png".}

— OTT:533:0 at 20131006.0031

OTT:533:2|#p3347689

"... I was confused even by the answer for a while, having figured out that it must be a crossword (with blue squares instead of black squares) ..."

{Yep.}

OTT:533:32|#p3347746

(the "cueball" unit of measurement is pretty much set, and this message proposes "q" as the abbreviation)

"... The landscape isn't matching because there's a new bump 3q$ ahead, then another another 3q or 4q.

$ q = cue (measurement)."

— OTT:534:0 at 20131006.0142

OTT:534:0|#p3347757

(another discussion of the "apocryphal" frames; reply at OTT:534:7p3347769, and see also OTT:538:12p3348060)

OTT:534:34|#p3347812

{Pretty much the start of the cake thing}

"... Woo! That and a 300th post? Cake for everybody! [image]"

— OTT:535:0 at 20131006.0201

OTT:535:22|#p3347848

filk "Ketchup Blitz", based on "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet

OTT:535:24#p3347854

"> There, used up two of the available remaining OTx for you.

Here they all are in footnote form.

A One True Acronym

B One True Beginning

C One True Comic

D One True Database

E One True End

F One True Font

G One True Guess

H One True Hash

I One True Infinity

J One True Jewel

K One True Ketchup

L One True Link

M One True Mustard

N One True Newpix

O One True Ong

P One True P*n*s

Q One True Queue

R One True ROT(13)

S One True Sudoku

T One True Thread

U One True Underwear

V One True V*g*na

W One True Wiki

X One True eXponential

Y One True Yummy

Z One True Zoom "

OTT:535:25|#p3347856

{A reference to the song "Graceland" by Paul Simon}

"> ... the start of the Mississippi delta, #shining like a National guitar#? ...

ftfy"

{Also shows up in my scans for iambic octameter:

"the MISsisSIPpi DELta, SHINing LIKE a NAtionAL guiTAR"}

— OTT:536:0 at 20131006.0353

OTT:536:0|#p3347884

"> I propose you be given the title of Witmaster. ...

Well, thank you for your title suggestion, ... But frankly, I'd feel a little presumptious assuming such a title. I mean there are so many Waiters in this thread with tremendous wit, wisdom, and insight, not to mention a sense of humor. ..."

— OTT:537:0 at 20131006.1114

OTT:537:3|#p3347960

"Where I live, the roads are not completely straight, but I modeled them in my head as if they were. For many years, there was an entire quadrant of town that was a complete mystery to me how it could even exist, and how it connected with anything. It was essentially in hyperspace for all intents and purposes, though I traveled through it often. It turns out that the roads curved somewhat, the curve was not taken into account in my mental model, and that opened a rift in the space-time continuum where another chunk of town could be hidden! So, I would be very careful about rectilinear assumptions. Raptors could be hiding there."

{keywords: orthogonal, perpendicular, velociraptor}

OTT:537:11|#p3347974

RobIrr is at 495/537

— OTT:538:0 at 20131006.1320

OTT:538:7|#p3348051

Vytron is at 379/538

OTT:538:12|#p3348060

(further discussion of the handling of apocryphal frames)

OTT:538:14|#p3348063

(Sciscitor's first work on quoting network)

"I did some datamining in my database ... and came up with the following:

100 Top Quoters: / KarMann (613) / BlitzGirl (512) / buffygirl (410) / StratPlayer (410) / HAL9000 (394) / ...

...

and the 100 Top Quoted: / KarMann (484) / buffygirl (428) / Helper (390) / HAL9000 (382) / StratPlayer (354) / ..."

OTT:538:30|#p3348088

Bad Hair Man is at 155/538

OTT:538:32|#p3348091

(use of "vinegaring" as another "ketchup" synonym)

OTT:538:34|#p3348094

"My capture script (which checks every 10 minutes) has gotten about 50 copies of frame f8a64...png since it first appeared yesterday, randomly intermingled with the correct frames.

... if c.xkcd.com happens to resolve to 107.6.97.102, it always redirects you to f8a64...png."

OTT:538:35|#p3348095

Vytron is at 389/538

OTT:539:3|#p3348107

(Valarya starts the cupcake thing)

"... I notice the cake-parties going on, and am in full support of said parties. And said cake. But I've been known around OtherInternets as the cupcake girl, so alas... here are some cupcakes for you all!"

OTT:539:31|#p3348147

(start of "the Acts of the Clerics", by ucim)

"Act 1, scene 1

There are the sounds of trumpets. ... "

OTT:539:36|#p3348161

Vytron is at Page 400/539

— OTT:540:0 at 20131006.2307

OTT:540:32|#p3348226

(Sciscitor's first cluster graph)

"... now I've played around a bit with my new dataset and thus created a very simplified graph visualization of this thread. ...

[image, see "NP540 ott1.jpg"]

— OTT:541:0 at 20131007.0001

OTT:541:13|#p3348256

{strangely foreshadowing frame 2891}

"... when no one was looking, Lex Luthor took forty cakes. He took 40 cakes. That's as many as four tens. ..."

OTT:541:37|#p3348292

{Offset is -3}

"EDIT: Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer! w00t!"

OTT:541:39|#p3348298

(flowchart to identify which "End of the OTC" faction you belong to, see "NP542 end-ists flowchart v2.png")

— OTT:542:0 at 20131007.0057

OTT:542:2|#p3348305

"I haven't reinstated the papacy, I've started a new sect. You don't have to be part of it if you don't want to.

link to OTT:400:27"

OTT:542:21|#p3348334

"The OTC was mentioned on slashdot at 3:50 EST. ..."

{This may be related to the server problems they've been noticing}

OTT:542:33|#p3348351

"... I recommend choosing a date format that doesn't have 'e' in the format string (or choose a predefined one)."

{Oddly, I only got it to work by using the format "D M d, Y g:i a e"}

— OTT:543:0 at 20131007.0132

OTT:543:6|#p3348372

"Well, I may know now what happened to the servers: 'Time' made the front page of Slashdot, [link] posted at 07:50pm UTC. I didn't get a successful image download (except for copies of frame 1090) for an hour after that."

— OTT:544:0 at 20131007.0156

OTT:544:15|#p3348450

"acknowledging OTT:528:15#p3347357 and OTT:539:31 ... Just wanted to let you both know that I enjoyed your work! It's awesome seeing all the creative input that goes into this OTT! It's truly what enables me to keep Waiting For It. ..."

OTT:544:29|#p3348477

"Well, since the OTT has begun to assume roughly the proportions of The Lord of the Rings (even containing some ROT13 gibberish Elvish poetry) and seems likely to surpass the entire Harry Potter series, whenever you get that let-down feeling you could always go back to the beginning and blitzgirl back through the entire thing. ..."

OTT:544:37|#p3348494

{offset is -3}

"EDIT: ooh, Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer!"

— OTT:545:0 at 20131007.0222

OTT:545:8|#p3348516

ref-xkcd-1037 {probably}

"You don't know that. Maybe you we can't see anything but black and white. (Or perhaps Lord Randall is using colors we can't see.)

I invoke Rule #1037."

OTT:545:14|#p3348542

ref-xkcd-1208 "Footnote Labyrinths"

"Anybody else see today's OtherComic and immediately think of the OTT?"

— OTT:546:0 at 20131007.0328

OTT:546:4|#p3348614

ref-xkcd-1115

OTT:546:18|#p3348643

{The other end of this is at OTT:194:28#p3313895}

"I have decided that I am going to Blitzgirl the 1931 pages I haven't read in the beginning. See you all in the future!

*Suddenly a portal from page 194 appears!*2 3

1 Not that far from when Blitzgirl herself started

2 To be used when I Ketchup with my first post.

..."

OTT:546:30|#p3348672

Vytron is at 407/546

"A new title for page toppers is instated, maybe I'm Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer of page 500? ..."

{this refers to OTT:499:35#p3345228, thus the offset of NP500 has changed by -5 since NP546}

OTT:546:33|#p3348684

yappobiscuits' recordings of "Boom-de-Yada"

"Alrighty then! Here's what I've cooked up... [WeLoveTheThreadOfTime_Instr.mp3], and a version with my not-so-great singing [WeLoveTheThreadOfTime_Vox.mp3] for demonstrative purposes. I whapped out my ukulele for this one! Fun."

— OTT:547:0 at 20131007.0445

OTT:547:12|#p3348714

TheMinim is at 95/500 (regarding "500" see OTT:549:17#p3348911)

"End of page 95!"

OTT:547:16|#p3348725

"Clearly he's having a nightmare about when Megan tried to hoist herself up in the pailevator."

{IO (iambic octameter): "when Cueball slept his nightmare featured Megan's pailevator fail"}

OTT:547:19|#p3348732

TheMinim is at 100/500 (regarding "500" see OTT:549:17#p3348911)

100th page!

OTT:547:24|#p3348739

poem "The Time goes ever on and on" based on "The Road Goes Ever On" by J.R.R. Tolkien

OTT:547:33|#p3348752

Vytron is at 418/547

OTT:547:37|#p3348756

"... My guess, based entirely on a refusal to collect the easily findable data, is that in about 150 Timeframes, the then-current newpage will be composed entirely of people posting signposts from the past."

— OTT:548:0 at 20131007.1521

OTT:548:1|#p3348762

VoronX is at 537/548

OTT:548:10|#p3348781

TheMinim is at 111/500 (regarding "500" see OTT:549:17#p3348911)

OTT:548:16|#p3348789

"BlitzGirling is not done as a "me too" activity. It is done for deep personal enrichment. I cannot imagine anybody reading twenty thousand posts just to be able to say "me too", and actually sticking with it. Even if somebody starts out that way, if they actually pursue the Quest to the end, they cannot help but emerge a changed person. ..."

OTT:548:33|#p3348838

{Oh, great. 4 K of Lorem ipsum and it gets quoted 2 more times.}

— OTT:549:0 at 20131007.2048

OTT:549:4|#p3348874

{funny}

"I like the idea of riddles with tangents. / ..."

OTT:549:17|#p3348911

TheMinim is at 140/500 {and regarding 500 notes "(I chose that figure as a nice figure about when I started following the thread fully)", but actually started blitzing at OTT:461:30#p3342429}

OTT:549:24|#p3348939

(This message refers to OTT:499:35#p3345228 (by Vytron) and OTT:499:36#p3345229 (by patzer), and the statement "you're both on page 499" indicates that the offset of NP500 was down to -2 or lower by NP549.)

"> patzer wrote:

> And we're at page 500. Just 12 to go until we get to a round number :D

> EDIT: dammit ninjad by Vytron

Hehe you're both on page 499 now :twisted:"

OTT:549:26|#p3348949

"> Wait, how did they go down a page? Can't you only delete a post if it's the most recent one in the thread?

> Or maybe the mods are deleting things...

It would have to be mod-removal. I can't imagine what though — every post in this thread has been polite, relevant, concise, non-redundant, and on-topic...

Oh, and non-redundant, too."

OTT:549:31|#p3348960

"This thread is nothing more than a collection of lampreys on the shark of [Randall's] creativity."

OTT:549:34|#p3348969

(This message by rvloon is the origin of "riverish" and "seaish")

— OTT:550:0 at 20131007.2123

OTT:550:3|#p3348993

Vytron is at 430/549

"... It also dawns on me that I'll probably never be able to read the entire thread, as, whenever a mod deleted a post from the thread, the current page topper of the next page becomes the current page bottomer of the current page, and as I leave it, that post is lost forever. ..."

OTT:550:20|#p3349027

{link to slowed-down Justin Bieber song, yt[bidHnEekXpE], which is like 9 Beet Stretch and actually pretty good. On the YouTube page, one commenter writes:

"... in order to fund his ambitious musical vision, he ensures that the entirety of his opus can be sped up by 800% percent into vapid, meaningless pop songs. ..."}

OTT:550:37|#p3349078

{Offset is -3}

"EDIT: VMPC!"

— OTT:551:0 at 20131007.2201

OTT:551:15|#p3349130

kryton is at 438/551

OTT:551:25|#p3349148

":lol: It's all good. I've also made replies to comments that weren't directed at me; wrote bad-verse with messed up meter because I couldn't count syllables (and went out of my way to call attention to it); got excited because I was the Pope of the "Pi" page — on page 341 (and went out of my way to call attention to it); and — most recently — have posted a link to some gay porn fanfic that I didn't bother to read first.

And those are just the examples of cranial-rectal-insertion that have been caught...."

OTT:551:38|#p3349180

lmjb1964 is at 335/551

— OTT:552:0 at 20131007.2250

OTT:552:9|#p3349212

filk based on "River Valley" by Moxy Früvous

OTT:552:16|#p3349233

macraw83 is at 463/552

OTT:552:32|#p3349269

{my bot hops up down on its little mechanical legs in some kind of automaton version of joy}

"Just a quick note that, indeed, the newpixbot is written in Perl. :P"

OTT:552:38|#p3349277

{now the offset is -2}

"EDIT: VMPC. I swear I'm not planning this. ..."

— OTT:553:0 at 20131008.0038

OTT:553:18|#p3349316

"Has helper gone missing again??? I am starting to think we will have to put her missing milk carton on a milk carton..."

— OTT:554:0 at 20131008.0117

OTT:554:3|#p3349373

filk "Old Time Religion" with lots of verses added (as compared to the version at OTT:311:34#p3326240)

OTT:554:28|#p3349430

"Yes, newpages remain fast and steady. Though according to latest chart data, post rates have settled back down to pre-BlitzGirl-arrival levels"

— OTT:555:0 at 20131008.0151

OTT:555:1|#p3349467

{By "post 5" xey mean a 1-based count from the top, which is OTT:555:4, so the Offset is -3}

"Post 5 on page 555!"

OTT:555:6|#p3349476

(Kieryn has created an interface o his website to look at the OTT)

"Done (at least in part): http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/Default/ForumNavigator"

OTT:555:7|#p3349479

{this message has "Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada…" repeated 907 times. Thats-a-lada boom-de-yada!

OTT:555:26|#p3349517

tman2nd is at 14/555

(and notes that there are "352 pages" to go, and "I have already read pages 194-546, so I can skip those")

OTT:556:0 at 20131008.0220

— OTT:557:0 at 20131008.0238

OTT:557:19|#p3349705

VoronX is at 557/557 (quest finished)

OTT:557:25|#p3349724

{This message has an odd doubly-indented spoiler}

— OTT:558:0 at 20131008.0327

OTT:558:4|#p3349806

Vytron is at 438/557

OTT:558:12|#p3349846

"Perhaps using NP for new pages and np for new pix would help to dispel any ambiguity"

OTT:558:29|#p3349921

"The Creator of Time has brought us to the land of small weeds! ..."

— OTT:559:0 at 20131008.0429

OTT:559:11|#p3349985

{more discussion of doing a xkcd/1052 parody}

OTT:559:35|#p3350051

"... we're just being shown a change in vegetation as they change height."

OTT:559:37|#p3350055

{Offset is -3}

"Aha, my first instance of being a Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer myself!"

— OTT:560:0 at 20131008.1507

OTT:560:8|#p3350085

"The OTC is beginning to feel more like a story, with character and plot development, than a single idea comic."

OTT:560:13|#p3350098

kryton is at 442/560

OTT:560:20|#p3350114

macraw83 is at 472/560

{commenting on Boom-de-yada and avatar}

"This has got to be one of the awesomest contributions to the OTT that I've seen yet. I am honored to have been included as a part ...

I think I will follow the lead of many others and replace my hatvatar with the BlitzGirl version. I do hope buffygirl understands, and does not take offense, since Blitzgirl has kept it mostly intact in her rendition."

{Includes a nice concise listing of all the bag pun movie titles}

— OTT:561:0 at 20131008.1700

OTT:561:3|#p3350151

macraw83 is at 474/560

OTT:561:25|#p3350207

filk based on "Que Será, Será"

OTT:561:29|#p3350218

{pretty good} filk based on "O.P.P." by Naughty By Nature

OTT:561:33|#p3350226

"> It's not so much that explain xkcd can't be trusted, it's that it

> uses an entirely different way of numbering than all the other

> lists: day 1 starts with frame 00:00, then 00:30, up to 23:30; day

> 2 goes from 24:00 to 47:30, etc., up to (so far) day 44, from

> 1032:00 on. That is, each frame's number is the (Outside) duration

> in HH:MM since the beginning of Time.

I was just asking because when you click on their HH:MM number the name of the image you get is "time##.png", in which "##" happens to be the frame number. Is the problem with them not putting the frame number up top then?"

— OTT:562:0 at 20131008.1931

OTT:562:24|#p3350269

"Can't believe I forgot about that! I already know that Unicode passes through phpBB from earlier attempts at beating the madness. (Also the character limit on sigs; the spaces in "Lord Randall, Creator of the One True Comic" are not normal spaces for that reason.)"

OTT:562:30|#p3350277

#Vytron is at 452/561

OTT:562:38|#p3350290

"... I adapted the script by substituting a += to retain the UTC time stamp in front of the NewPix ..."

{Good idea! I change line 27 to:

authors[i].lastChild.data += ' = ' + this.hereticToReal(authors[i].lastChild.data.substr(3));

and line 35 to:

edits[i].lastChild.data = str.substr(0, comma-4) + ' = ' + this.hereticToReal(str.substr(4, comma-4)) + str.substr(comma);

}

— OTT:563:0 at 20131008.2005

OTT:563:19|#p3350336

"Haha, right association FTW!"

{Shouldn't that be W(in) right_asociation F(or)?}

— OTT:564:0 at 20131008.2042

OTT:564:27|#p3350442

macraw83 is at 479 of 564

— OTT:565:0 at 20131008.2103

OTT:565:10|#p3350497

"To me the dialogue is frequently like a linguistic version of the Uncanny valley. ..."

OTT:565:32|#p3350540

{First molpy sighting!}

"I just noticed a small difference between frames 1174 and 1175 that I can't explain ...

Any ideas? Note that it doesn't look like Cuegan dropped something: it appeared some time after they passed.

Molehill?"

— OTT:566:0 at 20131008.2127

OTT:566:5#p3350557

"... does anyone really talk like that, outside of an Up Goer Five poster? (As an aside, 'river' and 'hills' wouldn't be allowed in that case. ..."

OTT:566:6#p3350568

{The sunbathing comment is prescient: if true, when M&C climb out of the basin they'll start needing to wear hats (beanies).}

"... The dead sea doesn't really have an "off season", not usually. In the summer everything gets really hot (over 40 deg. Celsius) but since it's so low in the atmosphere, it's actually safe to sunbathe. ..."

OTT:566:16#p3350605

{On the "I wonder if it's possible to swim in." frame, they finally get it:}

"Apparently, they think river water is better than sea water for drinking, but worse than sea water for swimming. This lends weight1 to the idea that it's the Dead Sea; they're used to the water being so salty that they can float in it easily, and they've heard that river water does not have this property, so they know it's more difficult (dangerous, even) to swim in, and they're not sure whether it's even possible to swim in.

1for it."

OTT:566:18|#p3350616

{First "good" map (see "NP566 map.png"}

— OTT:567:0 at 20131008.2158

OTT:567:33|#p3350753

kryton is at 445/567

— OTT:568:0 at 20131009.0022

OTT:568:1|#p3350775

jetpac is at 537/568

OTT:568:5|#p3350809

Purplepants77 is at 499/568

OTT:568:9|#p3350825

macraw83 is at 484/568

OTT:568:37#p3350928

{Offset is -3}

"Hey! I'm Pope! I'm..what, we're not doing that anymore? Oh..."

— OTT:569:0 at 20131009.0201

OTT:569:2#p3350935

kryton is at 449/569

OTT:569:28#p3350989

{This points out something very important: OTC manips were ambiguous before T** **d, and less likely to be well-received.}

"Giving it away was deliberate. Actually attempting to fool anyone, however briefly or clumsily, would be crossing a line, IMHO, into being disrespectful to the OTC and the Timewaiters. Sure, no one could be fooled for very long by my rather absurd extrapolations, nor the others that have been posted such as the giant wave and the jumping shark. ..."

{also quite insightful:}

"The little bits of vegetation a few npx back are very interesting, because they highlight the lack of vegetation everywhere else so far. [so we know the barren ground is not] just an artistic choice for how it's rendered. ..."

OTT:569:33#p3351001

{Echos OTT:566:16#p3350605}

"... Also, I don't think it's necessarily the actual Dead Sea, or any Outside place; just that the sea might be as dense as the Dead Sea, hence the speculation about the impossibility of swimming (which to them could just mean floating) in rivers."

OTT:569:34#p3351003

"Ok folks ... update on the quote tree graph ...

This time it's the full graph. ... I mean FULL... all the 835 people who have quoted or have been quoted or both and all the 8757 quotes ... [image, see "NP569 Sciscitor ott2.png]"

— OTT:570:0 at 20131009.0227

OTT:570:7#p3351030

jetpac is at 549/570

"My ketchup is bordering on being an actual quest. ..."

— OTT:571:0 at 20131009.0303

— OTT:572:0 at 20131009.0328

OTT:572:35#p3351268

"This can be used as a bookmarklet, or right in the address bar of the browser

[javascript code]

It adds a spoiler around the content when it exceeds your browser height by 1.5x. So, yes, spoilers inside spoilers totally work. :roll: ..."

— OTT:573:0 at 20131009.0423

OTT:573:37#p3351346

{Offset is -3}

"Edit: It appears I have Holy Seen myself."

— OTT:574:0 at 20131009.0445

OTT:574:15#p3351376

{This has been mentioned one or two other times, I think this might be the first time someone actually said they were marking a specific one of their own posts.}

"Sorry for the previous unintentional double post, marked it for deletion."

OTT:574:24#p3351389

{There has been some discussion about this for a few newpages — the idea of making Time into a 3D video game. This particular comment is about how to make a game that renders the 3D world into a view that is like the OTC. It's a not particularly easy problem to solve.}

"I think a 2D slice view is genius. It would create significant navigational challenges that could make a ho-hum game interesting. The slice would have to have a thickness to define what is "inside" the slice, then only a 2D view of that slice is presented. I was thinking that if part of an object is in the slice, then the object is in the slice, so no sliced elephant. But the landscape is not an object. Different camera views would also have to be available, but perhaps only a limited set, like four or eight compass points."

— OTT:575:0 at 20131009.0524

OTT:575:36#p3351512

{A sudoku, this time with clear instructions. It has only 8 symbols, which would make the constraints slightly different without the clarification provided:}

"It has been a while since I've tormented you with a puzzle! :twisted: ... Place each of the characters in SHARE WIT exactly once in each row, column and 3×3 box."

— OTT:576:0 at 20131009.0556

OTT:576:11#p3351546

{first discussion of spoilering attachments, this was a puzzle solution}

"...

EDIT 2: Removed attached solution because I don't know how to spoiler an attachment...

EDIT 3: Spoilerized the solution..."

OTT:576:32#p3351592

Survey about directions/geography (see "NP576 survey.png")

— OTT:577:0 at 20131009.0615

OTT:577:11#p3351655

"It's whoever posted first after the ONG, regardless of if it was an intentional newpix post."

— OTT:578:0 at 20131009.2156

OTT:578:12#p3351780

{beginning of a string of shared experiences of or related to synesthesia}

OTT:578:36#p3351858

{beginning of a thread about eclipses}

"So hum, seeing as it looks like we'll be here a while, anyone got any plans for these yet? List of solar eclipses in the 30th century"

— OTT:579:0 at 20131009.2217

— OTT:580:0 at 20131010.0334

OTT:580:25#p3352023

macraw83 is at 501/580

— OTT:581:0 at 20131010.0409

OTT:581:10#p3352069

by Xenocat

{sadly this person seems to have left after T* *d. But they share this quality with me.}

"I have visual patterns for:

OTT:581:32#p3352110

improved version of Pikrass' newpix converter script that handles the "last edited" date.

OTT:581:37#p3352119

{Offset is -3}

"Woo, I'm the Cntr'f Cbagvss'f Cynpr'f Crnx-Cebgrpgbe Cebqhpre'f Crreyrff Chepunfre!"

— OTT:582:0 at 20131010.2256

OTT:582:24#p3352249

"Ketchup TIME" image, based on "Adventure Time" Facebook topper (see "NP582 Ketchup Time.png")

OTT:582:32#p3352273

{At NP582, the offset of NP500 was -1}

macraw83 is at 505/582

"> > that was post 20000? :(

> It was, at least until any Mod retro-Noob postal insertion takes place. ...

Actually, due to some form of disturbance in the temporal-spatial fabric, it was post 19999"

— OTT:583:0 at 20131011.0140

OTT:583:39#p3352450

"Looks to me like they are wandering into a desert.. ..."

{Not like that ever happened around the Dead Sea...}

— OTT:584:0 at 20131011.0219

OTT:584:1#p3352464

(Kieryn describes how he does the who-quotes-who statistics)

"Popular posts now shown on the [individual user pages|http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/Default/Credits].

Couple of quick notes:

1) The quote linking is done using a fuzzy logic match between the text of the quote and the original post text. It's not perfect, so a few quote links are incorrect.

..."

OTT:584:9#p3352490

{originl of "awefulsome/awesomeful"?}

"... I'd think the hamburger would be awesome, because there's some awe there. A Solar Eclipse, Like The OTC would be aweful, because it fills you with awe."

OTT:584:17#p3352543

"... There are a lot of "cueball wrote:" and "megan wrote:" which would be nice to include. I could even take their dialog and incorporate it as faux-posts in the OTT. What are the theological opinions on this? "

OTT:584:24#p3352592

kryton is at 459/584

{good putting-the-audience-in-the-story writing}

OTT:584:26#p3352608

"> [quote=[quote][/quote]] wrote:

> Quote

I'm just seeing if I can be a pain in the backside."

OTT:584:33#p3352631

"The dunes are alive, with the sound of Newpix", filk based on "Sound of Music" theme song

{The author (Dracomax, who left just after I started lurking on the OTT) says anyone is welcome to try to improve on it}

OTT:585:24#p3352734

{frame 1237, one of the freezepix frames}

"Edit: yes, this is the same as the old newpix. Different hash; same pixels, in fact, same file."

OTT:586:1#p3352789

{Stale M&Ms!}

"I got a 35lb box of M&M's that have hit there best by date, will that work?"

— OTT:587:0 at 20131011.2043

— OTT:588:0 at 20131011.2139

OTT:588:11#p3352943

filk based on "The Waiting" by Tom Petty

— OTT:589:0 at 20131011.2247

OTT:589:29#p3353050

Vytron is at 500/589

OTT:589:31#p3353054

"Today's frame duplication was not the first time it happened.

Here's a complete summary of all duplicates so far

427, 429 {but 428 has Megan with a plank}

440, 441 {sea should have moved a bit}

454, 455 {very obvious mistake}

1236, 1237

None of these have been retroactively changed by Randall ..."

— OTT:590:0 at 20131012.0024

OTT:590:3#p3353085

{nice animation of Megan jumping}

OTT:590:28#p3353163

{discussing frames 1244, 1245}

"I think this pretty much confirms there's stuff between the stuff that's visible in each newpix. No way the hills make that much of a crease, IMO. I mean, possibly, but it'd be really weird."

OTT:590:35#p3353179

IO (iambic octameter): "I wonder what percentage of your posts are from the newpixbot"

{Offset is

"EDIT: Blindpost gets me Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customership"

— OTT:591:0 at 20131012.0051

OTT:591:14#p3353239

filk based on "I've Been Everywhere" by Johhny Cash

OTT:591:29#p3353281

{Kieryn has improved the user profile data, now "notable words" instead of "top words"}

"Cleaned up the token database ..."

{also an API to get the post closest to a given newpix:}

http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/Default/ForumRedirect?np=1000

— OTT:592:0 at 20131012.0118

OTT:592:1#p3353301

limerick "What's the deal with that first strong sea wall?"

OTT:592:5#p3353309

filk "Livin' on a Beach" based on "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

OTT:592:21#p3353342

"> I suggest the addendum that if they're particularly far behind,

> that they make sure that what they're saying is important or

> especially clever.

...except that BlitzQuesters won't know what that is, as the context changes and some things gain significance, and other things lose it. Also what is significant or entertaining differs for each of us. The Words of BlitzGirl the First (from here) are apropos:

quoting OTT:454:19

These are Holy Words - they are words which should be remembered for all Time, and for all of time."

OTT:592:26#p3353349

"As by request, a list of all references to Other Comics in the OTT:"

OTT:592:36#p3353369

{foreshadows http://xkcd.com/1213/, which comes out near the end of NP644}

"Imagine having it AND being colorblind"

— OTT:593:0 at 20131012.0201

OTT:593:2#p3353380

{The answer is that they are looking at other threads in the "Individual xkcd comics" section of the forum}

"... But my main pondering involves lurkers who're signed in. Are they people who are working up the courage to say something? Are they bots? Are they bread crumbs left for us as a clue? Or are they an order of monks, blitzing in silence, but wanting us to feel their solidarity with us?"

OTT:593:3#p3353382

descor describes xier hat

"vnn, the original avatar is a photo of a visitors badge to the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Buffygirl has (brilliantly) turned that into a hat for the actual CMS detector. Poetic."

OTT:593:6#p3353385

{I did the experiment too. It took me just about as long to read from OTT:593:2#p3353380 to this post as it took for my name to disappear. I got the same result: about 6 minutes.}

"I experimented a bit and found that I disappeared from the list of browsing users after about five or six minutes of inactivity."

OTT:593:10#p3353394

"> I suggest the addendum that if they're particularly far behind,

> that they make sure that what they're saying is important or

> especially clever.

Again, please don't, especially on the last count.

Not only is it arrogant to presume we present-dwellers rule the OTT and it's OK for us to send “suggestions” (which are just a euphemism for bullying people into doing things your way) back in time, but also, just because you prefer this ketchup/blitzing style, it doesn't mean we all do."

— OTT:594:0 at 20131012.0302

OTT:594:22#p3353499

RobIrr is at 537/594

— OTT:595:0 at 20131012.0329

{At this point I do a ketchup of NP1535-NP1540, then make post OTT:1540:7#p3477352 on NP1540. I am efectively schizo-blitzing for a while, just to see if the Campaign for Real Time decides to show up and do anything. If so, I'm ready for them, but probably nothing will happen.}

OTT:595:7#p3353556

"I can't believe I just spent 20 minutes 1/3 newpix scouring my railway engineering notes to find that. I came here to avoid revision"

OTT:595:15#p3353584

"They have climbed at least 11.5q, but the frames no longer match up as nicely as they used to, so there is no telling how far they ascended (or descended) in the interstitial space. But, this particular hill is quite a bit larger than the previous hills."

OTT:595:19#p3353598

"Megan & Cueball went up a hill / To stop the source of water / Megan fell down and broke her crown / and Cueball came tumbling after"

OTT:595:20#p3353599

{People will sink in aerated water, no matter how hard they fight to swim up to the surface}

"In the absence of a strong current it should be not that easy for nature to build up an air/water mix dangerous for swimmers (at least if there is an additional lack of water falls)."

{Also describes political boundary as a reason not to want to swim in the river: e.g. you shouldn't swim from Israel to Jordan}

— OTT:596:0 at 20131013.0359

OTT:596:1#p3353641

"I think the prophet was right and that this is more evidence that this thread is helping to direct the plot line."

OTT:596:38#p3353716

{Offset is -2}

"Oh Look, I'm VMPC/PPPP/etc"

— OTT:597:0 at 20131013.0425

OTT:597:21#p3353770

filk "Wait For It" based on "Let It Be" by The Beatles

— OTT:598:0 at 20131013.0559

{I return from NP1543 to continue normal Blitzing.}

OTT:598:2#p3353814

{First clear sign of animal life!}

"Edit: A bird!"

OTT:598:3#p3353816

{Again, pointing out that when we see something new, we can deduce more about the comic from what has not shown in the past (similar to an earlier discussion when the first plant was spotted in frame 1165)}

"... the implication here is that we saw no birds during the entirety of the castle-building era. Which has further implications for location."

OTT:598:4|#p3353817

"Ooh, an alien lifeform! I hope it's my lost pterosaur that I sent to the future ..."

{The bird ended up being called a raptor largely because of the coincidental release of xkcd 1211, see OTT:603:23#p3354454}

OTT:598:17#p3353836

"As a birder, I think it is a bird of prey - perhap a vulture or kestrel. It is not a small bird, from its wing shape it spends a lot of time flying, and is not a gull. From the first frame I thought it might be a swift, but definately not in the second frame. I think vulture is most likely in the desert."

— OTT:599:0 at 20131014.1720

OTT:599:4#p3353935

Updated algorithm for newpixbot, it now always checks the server every 10 minutes regardless of whether it got an image for this hour.

OTT:599:28#p3354000

{Pikrass has added the earlier contributions to the newpix converter script}

"... thanks, I updated the script with your changes. :)"

OTT:599:39|#p3354030

{referring to OTT:599:38#p3354029, thus Offset is -2}

"So who's Centa-pope here?

... TheMinim for first post on Newpage 600?"

— OTT:600:0 at 20131014.1745

OTT:600:1|#p3354043

{another installment of Acts of the Clerics}

"[Scene 2: exterior - dawn] / ..."

OTT:600:18|#p3354086

"I can't believe you people. It's a raptor, sillies! :roll:"

— OTT:601:0 at 20131014.1842

— OTT:602:0 at 20131014.2110

— OTT:603:0 at 20131014.2126

OTT:603:23|#p3354454

"> NEWCOMICONG!!

Well, if Randall says it's a raptor, then it's DEFINITELY a raptor."

OTT:603:38|#p3354522

{Reference to a morph GIF animation avatar}

" ... This, along with your new awesome warping avatar ..."

OTT:603:39#p3354524

" ... falcons would still be consistent with the Dead Sea hypothesis."

— OTT:604:0 at 20131015.0253

OTT:604:23|#p3354651

jetpac is at 580/604

OTT:604:31#p3354688

"...

> I apologize. I was too long in the Outside and allowed reason,

> perspective, sanity, and lucidity to seep into my thinking. But

> I'm sure my return to the OTT with a renewed commitment to Wait

> For It will soon cause all of those heathen influences to fade.

Sigged. You are forgiven."

OTT:604:34|#p3354699

{The "S" of S&Ms}

"> So no chocolate? :(

Sorry, no. All I've got is this fifteen-pound bag of expired Skittles."

OTT:604:38|#p3354709

{Offset is -2}

"EDIT: Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer Loneliest Skittles-Eater :|"

— OTT:605:0 at 20131015.0310

— OTT:606:0 at 20131015.0328

OTT:606:8|#p3354885

Vytron is at 541/606

OTT:606:10|#p3354898

nifty self-defined poetry form:

"...four stanza of eight words with an ABAB rhyme scheme, where each line has nine syllables, and where the two-syllable word always is in the second spot of each line:

The Waiting goes on; when will it end?

The river of Time flows through our life,

though nothing is done to make it bend.

We welcome each small joy, 'midst the strife

Each moment spent in the wait for It — A droplet from a deep sea. Each swig of water, so vile with salt, is spit to return to the source, wide and big.

We cannot see what will come of it; no meaning is found. Care? It does not. Still, hurting comes too, from what gets hit and missing some; still it ruins with rot.

But onward our wants drive us to wait for knowledge and hope and long life, too. Yet always we know that our own fate, will someday end. Yes, that fact is true. "

OTT:606:23#p3354952

filk (no title) based on "Madness" by Muse

OTT:606:26#p3354958

{You can get text larger than 200% by nesting the [size=200] tag inside other tags like this:

[size=200][b][/size]

[size=200]Size 400 text[/size]

[size=200][/b][/size]

or for more embiggening:

[size=200][center][/size]

[size=200][u][/size]

[size=200][b][/size]

[size=200]Size 1600 text[/size]

[size=200][/b][/size]

[size=200][/u][/size]

[size=200][/center][/size]

}

"... Hah, I was trying to figure this out. I tried it myself and failed. Now I see. *doesn't tell others* 8-)

Spoiler:

My text is larger than yours!

You're awesome (and reviled) for bringing this to light!

..."

OTT:606:27|#p3354960

original poem "A loopist's what you were back then / ..."

OTT:606:28|#p3354961

"... Perhaps a less redundant and updated version of the statement should be

DoublePost = ONG | (Users["buffygirl"].hat() != null) "

OTT:606:32|#p3354970

{Original comic based on xkcd 1021}

"But what kind of a falcong is it?"

— OTT:607:0 at 20131015.0429

OTT:607:6#p3355003

"... Added: For the record, in case y'all have ever wondered, putting the URL tags outside the SPOILER tags is a bad, bad idea, and should not be done."

— OTT:608:0 at 20131015.2219

OTT:608:2|#p3355089

macraw83 is at 511/608

— OTT:609:0 at 20131016.0139

OTT:609:31|#p3355262

"Acts of the Clerics" A1 s3

— OTT:610:0 at 20131016.0224

OTT:610:0#p3355286

{Note the new word "OTTism". Previous OTT-words were "OTTcent" at OTT:560:1|#p3350069 by StratPlayer, "Boom-de-OTTda" at OTT:582:25|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3352253#p3352253] by ChronosDragon, "ROOTTist" by BlitzGirl at OTT:604:39|#p3354712}

"... OldTimers is definitely my new favorite OTTism for those who have been posting since the dawn ... of Time."

OTT:610:35|#p3355347

tman2nd is at 31/610 (and will skip 194-546, see OTT:194:28#p3313895, OTT:546:18p3348643, and OTT:555:26p3349517)

— OTT:611:0 at 20131016.2100

OTT:611:19|#p3355447

"> BlitzGirl wrote:

> I miss the Sandcastle.

> *wistful sigh*

> [smiley, "sandcastle.gif"]

You can always go back and re live it: OTT:6:25

We will see you back here once you have re blitz your way back to the present again."

— OTT:612:0 at 20131016.2119

— OTT:613:0 at 20131016.2309

— OTT:614:0 at 20131017.0046

OTT:614:24|#p3355837

jetpac is at 614/614

OTT:614:32|#p3355870

filk "Waiter in the Lonely Part", based on "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes

— OTT:615:0 at 20131017.1343

OTT:615:11|#p3355927

{frame 1337, with a bigger tree}

"... Looks kind of like the trees you see in sub-Saharan Africa (the smaller ones)."

OTT:615:13|#p3355933

"... Looks a lot like an acacia (the African tree Hal mentioned).

ETA: Hmm, guess acacias are not specifically African; here's a distribution map Google found for me:"

OTT:615:33|#p3355972

"... I never got the American use of "legos"... to me, they are pieces/parts/sets of lego. If you have a sand pit, you don't say it's full of sands... [/flamebait]"

{..aaaand It's On)

— OTT:616:0 at 20131017.1404

OTT:616:27#p3356053

"> > I suggest we leave politics out of this, seems to drive some people barking mad. Soon someone's being called a sap and someone else is being called shady and someone fires up their chainsaw and CUTS THE FOREST TO THE GROUND...

> Where's the game if you do all the work, BlitzGirl? Did you never learn to play with others? :(

I've been wary of opening the floor to general puns ever since my punning link to OTT:467:22 initiated the Bag Incident of Newpage 467."

OTT:616:32#p3356062

{The first punsawing, see "NP616 smiley-violent006.gif"}

— OTT:617:0 at 20131017.1428

— OTT:618:0 at 20131017.1505

OTT:618:38#p3356229

"...

EDIT: this is close, but not quite it. ..."

{Link is gone, but lots of alternatives. I have saved one in .../VariousAuthors/English-language.txt }

— OTT:619:0 at 20131018.0135

OTT:619:11|#p3356260

"This never happened.

Spoiler:

"

{Eternal Density catches a post before it gets deleted. See "NP619 pelrigg deleted post.png"}

OTT:619:21#p3356278

"Before entering the dunes they could see the path of the river and deduce how best to meet it again. Thus, I believe, once having ascended as high as the dunes would allow, surely they could see the path of the valley the river has cut. As they are now descending, I doubt it would be too hard to determine where the bottom of the valley, and the river, lay.

Perhaps it is time, once again, to consult the holy cartographer. Has the map been updated recently?"

— OTT:620:0 at 20131018.0341

OTT:620:18#p3356371

"The OTT was long ago forsaken by the mods - they infected it with Madness in the hopes that it would die, but this only made it stronger..."

OTT:620:22|#p3356379

{ChronosDragon's noir-style fiction about LaPetite}

"The evening was as dark as the ink on the paper, ..."

OTT:620:31#p3356396

"... I checked some other sources. This thingie I thought to be a cupressus is most likely a pine (Pinus halepensis).

So, if this tree Cueb and Megan are resting at has needle-like leaves, it could be a Pinus halepensis (or a close relative). If not... well, then it's BlitzGirl's Acacia."

OTT:620:36#p3356419

{Vytron has been intimidated into not posting any more status updates}

"I can't take it anymore! ... greatly disheartening to read that about half the thread got sick of blitzers ...

It hurt in the stomach to have that realization ...

So this is my last SignPost. I don't want to feel like this anymore. ..."

OTT:620:37#p3356421

{first use of "mustard" as an epithet}

"Well, mustard. The complainers have forced Vytron to blitz in silence!"

— OTT:621:0 at 20131018.0723

OTT:621:7#p3356466

{another molpy spotting}

"Looks like there's a mole coming out of the ground (mustard?)! Notice the difference between frame 1349 and 1350 on the right side of the image."

OTT:621:17|#p3356483

"> OMR, they killed Cueball!

You mustards!"

OTT:621:25#p3356500

"> Moving like a raptor through the high grass...

OMR, is it ... could it be ... a Compy? / ..."

OTT:621:35#p3356520

"... So, what revealing thing is Megan going to mutter in her sleep when the compyraptormole (velocicompymole?) starts nibbling on her toes?"

OTT:621:38#p3356525

{first use of "molpy" (word adopted in OTT:622:7#p3356542), and in a haiku}

{also, Offset is -2}

"This molpy is quite

riverish: one-twentieth

of a q high1

/

1high q?2

2(it is if you pronounce the 1)

Oh hey, I guess y'all finally made me Mome (FANP)."

— OTT:622:0 at 20131018.1342

OTT:622:14#p3356550

"For those confused by clicking Refresh to look for new posts with spoilers still open, there's a handy short-cut I use: Click the little [page] next to the 'by ' at the top of the last post. That should reload the page and reposition you back at that post, whatever happened with spoilers higher up, so you can carry on scrolling down."

OTT:622:17#p3356558

{first Burma Shave reference}

"> Spoiler: / so

> Spoiler: / many

> Spoiler: / spoilers

> Spoiler: / time to coma

> Spoiler: / wait for it

Spoiler:

Burma Shave"

OTT:622:33#p3356590

{Shakespeare allusion, or original poetry?}

{IO: my deepest coma doth commence — I fear the raptor's wrath by dawn; or for rhyme use: ... by dawn I fear the raptor's wrath; or: ... the raptor's wrath by dawn I fear}

"Oh sweet molpy,

Why dost thou appear, whilst my deepest coma doth commence?

Your essence is so fragile, precious and fleeting.

I fear thou may succumb to raptor wrath by dawn."

— OTT:623:0 at 20131018.1544

OTT:623:11#p3356639

OTTification of the Rifleman's creed:

"This is my hat. There are many like it, but this one is mine ..."

— OTT:624:0 at 20131018.1558

— OTT:625:0 at 20131018.1907

— OTT:626:0 at 20131018.2238

OTT:626:25#p3356943

"ETA: Suddenly, a portal to page 730 appears! (this is to let me skip the pages I've already read)"

OTT:626:29|#p3356951

kryton is at 465/625

OTT:626:31#p3356956

Acts of the Clerics A1 s4

{In this one, ucim addresses the upset of Vytron. Quotes OTT:454:19#p3341808 once again; then a "service" listing people who are or have been blitzing at some time or another.}

— OTT:627:0 at 20131018.2333

— OTT:628:0 at 20131019.0006

OTT:628:0|#p3357037

TheMinim is at 160/500 {see OTT:549:17#p3348911}

OTT:628:29|#p3357079

TheMinim is at 168/500

OTT:628:38#p3357093

{A story about programming a PR1ME minicomputer to make its disk drive "walk", as in www.catb.org/jargon/html/W/walking-drives.html}

— OTT:629:0 at 20131019.0114

OTT:629:38#p3357174

{Offset is -2}

"ETA: PFAN, and my 200th post! ..."

— OTT:630:0 at 20131019.0152

OTT:630:14#p3357200

{explicit proposal for a set of standardized footnotes}

"...

³: neat⁰.

⁰: can't we just standardize footnotes, so that ¹ is always big, ² is small and ³ is neat? That'll save some typing."

— OTT:631:0 at 20131019.0207

OTT:631:10#p3357266

filk "Ong the road again" based on "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson

— OTT:632:0 at 20131019.0233

OTT:632:32#p3357426

filk "Cueball's Trek" based on "Gilligan's Island" theme song

— OTT:633:0 at 20131019.0345

OTT:633:0#p3357457

"Can I abolish the Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customership? ...Since I'm the current Customer, and the Customer is always right..."

OTT:633:4#p3357469

"I'm just going to call myself the Mopey Molpy Mome for this newpage."

OTT:633:11#p3357483

"... what if the Tread is influenced by the OTC? Did anyone think of that? Cueball goes off alone, and there we are talking about Cueball going for a walk without Megan. I could cite many examples, it's uncanny."

OTT:633:15#p3357491

Dr Seuss style poem "The Mopey Molpy Momes"

OTT:633:22#p3357520

tman2nd is at 61/633

OTT:633:31#p3357554

"Oooh. "Mopey Molpy Mome" only has six unique letters. ...

Old Pope meme topped by Mopey Molpy Mome ... yeah, that's nine unique letters. ... That's pretty long. I wonder if it could even be fit into a valid 9x9 puzzle? yup" {see "NP633 NoPope sudoku.png"}

— OTT:634:0 at 20131019.1730

OTT:634:5#p3357615

{I think this is the first time BlitzGirl attached an image and used a spoiler (thus having the image twice in the same post)

"Gah I don't like this attachment system, where quoting the attachment doesn't show the image. Hence the image from the direct link, and the spoilered attachment.

...I might just go back to Poland."

OTT:634:10|#p3357627

{first appearance of army leader and running Molpies}

"Thanks! I suppose if it doesn't bother y'all too much to have a spoilered duplicate image, I might fight it out with the forum upload system for a while.

Come, my molpy army! We go to war!

..."

{the "running molpy" image is the avatar of user curly_wurlyJA on http://www.minecraftforum.net/}

— OTT:635:0 at 20131019.2146

OTT:635:8|#p3357739

"> And now for something completely different!

Like this? [youtube/4JgbOkLdRaE]"

OTT:635:10|#p3357747

you forgot to mention the long walk and the raptors.

{(ministry of silly walks, and dead parrot)}

OTT:635:17|#p3357766

poem "The Alt-Text" based on "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe

{this is probably the best OTT work I've seen so far.}

{Poem is updated in OTT:1007:4#p3399047}

OTT:635:27|#p3357790

How to tell if you need help with your sudoku addiction

— OTT:636:0 at 20131020.1124

OTT:636:5|#p3357842

"... before the Sea¹ receded and left it a vegetable² riverland ...

² : vegetation + veritable = vegetable!"

OTT:636:11|#p3357848

{pretty good analysis, predicts end will be around newpix 3800}

"Thoughts on the OTC and the nature of Story ..."

{Several responses and serious discussion of the "big picture"}

— OTT:637:0 at 20131021.1520

OTT:637:2|#p3357917

filk "Randall's One True Comic" based on "Hotel California"

— OTT:638:0 at 20131024.0038

OTT:638:12|#p3358029

filk "Thank You for Letting Me Post My Blitz" based on "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" by Sly and the Family Stone

OTT:638:16|#p3358037

kryton is at 469/638

— OTT:639:0 at 20131024.0107

— OTT:640:0 at 20131024.0147

OTT:640:33#p3358284

fiction "The Dark Lord" ch 1

"In a dark room, in a dark palace, on his dark throne ..."

(continued at OTT:759:39p3371531 and OTT:859:30p3383297)

— OTT:641:0 at 20131024.0202

OTT:641:4|#p3358319

{Vytron's first Heretical comic. This is significant for several reasons: it is an alternative to "traditional" (BlitzGirl-style) blitz status reports, thereby reflecting individuality and innovation; it is a response to OTT:620:36#p3356419; and it was an inspiration for me and my decision to do retrOTTification}

"I heard you like comics, so I put a comic in your thread about your thread about a comic"

OTT:641:17|#p3358362

{First use of "mustard" as a verb}

"... It's the English – not the Americans, for a change – that screwed mustarded it up. ..."

— OTT:642:0 at 20131024.1319

OTT:642:8|#p3358434

{First use of "molpy" to refer to a real-world animal, viz. HES's pet hamster}

"You even have your own molpy! [h_smiley.gif]"

— OTT:643:0 at 20131025.1430

OTT:643:1|#p3358529

filk "Harvey The Wonder Molpy" based on "Harvey The Wonder Hamster" by Weird Al Yankovic

OTT:643:35|#p3358614

Acts of the Clerics A1 s5

"Scene 5: exterior, day, wide shot ..."

{possible ref-xkcd-417 "AAAAaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!"}

{lots of screenplay jargon, e.g. "POV: the front of the group" and "camera trucks back"}

— OTT:644:0 at 20131025.1606

OTT:644:14|#p3358690

"Here's a little height comparison:

[image, see 'NP644 bird heights.png']"

OTT:644:16|#p3358697

{first use of "wipend"}

— OTT:645:0 at 20131025.1625

— OTT:646:0 at 20131025.1653

OTT:646:0|#p3358895

{unexplained seemingly-arbitrary large number: 56319822651316804967131726095136575181415300864690}

OTT:646:1|#p3358901

"... From the one looking up in frame 1397, I immediately thought comorant."

{linseed oil, anyone?}

OTT:646:15|#p3358937

"... Sadly, we are all children of the Outside, and were raised in its ways. And many of us spend too much Time ketchup blitzing to bother with spending more of it converting Newpixian measurements into numbers our Outside brains can more easily comprehend. It is too late for us pre-Timers. But for the child born today, in the Time of Time, there is still hope. Learning the ways of the OTT while young, these new Newpixians will grow beyond the capabilities of we wretched, Outside-born souls. ..."

— OTT:647:0 at 20131026.0010

OTT:647:1|#p3359010

{Referring to OTT:646:38|#p3359005, thus Offset is -2}

"Was that the first time in >600 pages that I was pope?? How did that happen?"

OTT:647:17|#p3359053

"Looks like newpixbot has some encoding issues. (Posted UTF-8 where latin-1 is expected, looks like.) Bad newpixbot!"

OTT:647:21|#p3359064

{Standardization of footnote numbers. Here the two main contenders are represented by Opiboble and mscha. mscha's approach is to standardize the numbering based on when the adjectives appear in the OTC. Here I show Opiboble's signature which shows xer numbering at some later Newpage, probably around NP755.}

"mscha wrote:

> That frame was actually a rerun from at couple of hectonewpix ago (frame 1053).

> So the proper order would be:

> 1: sea (big)

> 2: river (small)

> 3: second river (pretty neat, and even bigger than it looked)

> 4: tree (neat)

> 5: camp (old)"

> Edit: I know, I'm missing one in my signature. Problem is, if I fix it, it breaks footnotes in earlier messages.

> Edit2: Okay, okay, I'll just go and fix those messages.

NO that was the point of putting it as #5 instead of inserting. The river being Pretty Neat is #5.

. . . . . . . . . .

Sea1(Big) River2(Small) Tree3(Neat) Camp4(Old) River5(Pretty Neat) Place6(beautiful & empty) Found7(Ribbit) Bigtree8(It knows)

Tools of the OTT and OTC:

Map-Newpix Viewer-OTT Stats-Vytron Comic Sciscitor graphs"

OTT:647:26|#p3359081

kryton is at 474/647

— OTT:648:0 at 20131026.0040

— OTT:649:0 at 20131026.1330

— OTT:650:0 at 20131026.1640

OTT:650:20|#p3359291

{Now they've noticed and are making fun of the multiple footnote standard mentioned at OTT:647:21|#p3359064}

"... So we obviously need to create a new standard standard for our footnotes: / B big / s: small / n: neat / ..."

— OTT:651:0 at 20131027.0011

— OTT:652:0 at 20131027.0120

OTT:652:39|#p3359493

short "boom de yada" poem

"I love the lurkers, I love the ketchup posts / ..."

— OTT:653:0 at 20131027.0148

OTT:653:24|#p3359541

{referring to frame 1413, in which Megan says "I try not to taste seawater". However I doubt that the semencoffeecancerbabiesonice meme will die :) }

"Does this dialogue not confirm that the sea is in fact made of water?"

— OTT:654:0 at 20131027.2007

OTT:654:1|#p3359581

{I can't get this image to load (later it worked, see "NP654 28574580.jpg")}

"...

Spoiler:

"

— OTT:655:0 at 20131027.2035

OTT:655:0|#p3359680

{Beginning of the double-dactyl thing!}

"A while back I asked if anyone was compiling a list of neologisms from the OTT. I probably should have mentioned I had a specific purpose─I'm hoping to find that we've accidentally created some double-dactyl words. ..."

{I am already generating a list of neologisms (defined as a word not in my ~/data/usr-dict-words) so I can answer this directly with the command:

g ott ; egrep -o '^ +\w+ ' wordlist.txt | pmgrep -nls -100100-

yielding only "berryjw", "jjjdavidson", "intraabdominal", "mesopotamians" and "pluralizational".}

DD "Strummity hummity─ / StratPlayer awesomeness / ..."

DD "Momity, molpity, / BlitzGirl the versatile / ..."

OTT:655:1|#p3359682

{Yay, finally!}

"... Their sea is especially saline--based on the comments about whether it is possible to swim in the river, it suggests that their sea is so saline that knowing how to swim in the sea would not imply that you could swim in the river. It also would mean that a surface layer of freshwater would not mix as quickly. ..."

{and this:}

"... But the other two explanations that I can come up with for the excess flow don't work as well. The Mediterranean Sea filled up when the Atlantic Ocean broke through at Gibraltar, but that was an influx of salt water. ..."

OTT:655:3|#p3359686

{part 2 of ChronosDragon's noir-style fiction (see OTT:620:22|#p3356379)}

OTT:655:15#p3359709

{Beginning of proliferation of morphing avatars}

"... Speaking of kitties, Latent22, I've been wanting to ask you, how do you make those changing avatars? ..."

— OTT:656:0 at 20131028.0056

OTT:656:7|#p3359793

{Pikrass announces the multi-quote script}

"... And introducing Multiquote v142315¹⁶. ..."

OTT:656:10|#p3359804

DD "Higgeldy Piggeldy / hailing from New Jersey / ..."

DD "Sandwichy Grandwichy / To make your chip-buttie, / ..."

OTT:656:16|#p3359827

DD "Babel-ly Table-ly / Regional dialects / ..."

— OTT:657:0 at 20131028.2227

OTT:657:6|#p3359942

DD "Languages, smanguages / Ebonite wonders: are / ..."

OTT:657:9|#p3359971

partingLance is at 557/657

OTT:657:10#p3359974

DD "Top o' the NewPage it's / good ol' HAL nine-thousand / ..."

OTT:657:17|#p3359986

DD "Peregrinational / Cueball and Megan have / ..."

OTT:657:19|#p3359989

DD "Jaypety daypety / jjjdavidson / ..."

OTT:657:20|#p3359999

DD "Blitzily Molpily / Neologisticly / ..."

OTT:657:22|#p3360002

DD "Theropod sauropod / Cretaceous dinosaurs / ..."

OTT:657:25|#p3360007

DD "Ongkety gongkety / posted by newpixbot / ... / extendedcomaing / here only ghosts."

OTT:657:34|#p3360023

DD "Doubledy dactyldy / I don't remember who / ..."

OTT:657:36|#p3360029

DD "Molpies are awesomely / capturing everyone / ..."

OTT:657:37|#p3360030

DD "Mewmety growlgety / Felis Raptoricus / ..."

OTT:657:38|#p3360031

DD "Dilberty Skillberty / m-s-c-h-a, - the / ..."

{Offset is -2}

DD "Editty Shmeditty: / Vatican Milliner's / ..."

— OTT:658:0 at 20131028.2345

OTT:658:8|#p3360048

DD "Trippetty troppety / Megan is falling, she / ..."

OTT:658:12|#p3360052

DD "Helpety holpety / I can't stop writing my / ..."

OTT:658:14|#p3360054

{Our first impression of Cueball is now far from the truth}

"Update from the newsroom for you sports fans:

This puts the current "Slip And Fall" count at:

Cueball: 2

Megan: 4

..."

OTT:658:18|#p3360060

DD "Hamstery hattery / buffygirl has again / ..."

OTT:658:20|#p3360063

DD "Walkety stalkety / Cueball and Megan are / ..."

OTT:658:24#p3360068

"... / [gif smileys clapping, arranged in a circle]

a 'round of applause' / rimshot / cymbal crash

(BiltzGirl: PUT THAT CHAINSAW DOWN) ..."

OTT:658:25|#p3360069

DD "These double-dactyls, with / My love of poetry / ..."

OTT:658:33#p3360086

DD "Tumbley fumbley / Cueball was clumsy and / ..."

OTT:658:35|#p3360089

{This one is very good}

DD "Pickety pokety / Looking at detailing / ..."

OTT:658:38|#p3360095

DD "Jupiter Shmupiter / good ol' HAL nine-thousand / ..."

— OTT:659:0 at 20131029.0234

OTT:659:5#p3360113

DD "Bakety cakety / Congratulations, Hal / ..."

OTT:659:10#p3360119

DD "That's something I could do, / (not just detect haiku) / ..."

OTT:659:12#p3360122

DD "Doublery dacktery / ergman and other folks / ..."

OTT:659:13#p3360125

DD "Manicky panicky / m-s-c-h-a's* a / ..."

OTT:659:15|#p3360132

DD "Em-pety scha-pety, / mscha, yes, that is me / ..."

OTT:659:19|#p3360141

DD "Riseity wiseity / Sea is so big you see / ..."

OTT:659:23|#p3360147

DD "Stumbledy bumbeldy / Megan has found a thing / ..."

OTT:659:24#p3360151

DD "Mandala Randall-a / Timewaiters posting here / ..."

DD "Dactyla fractala / With all the nonsense verse / ..."

OTT:659:28|#p3360161

DD "Timily wimily / Doctor Who episode / ..."

OTT:659:33|#p3360171

DD "Froggery toadery / It was a frograptor / ..."

OTT:659:34|#p3360172

Vytron's Heretical comic #2

OTT:659:36|#p3360175

DD "Otterly Botterly / Yappo the biscuity / ..."

— OTT:660:0 at 20131029.1551

OTT:660:21#p3360228

DD "threadery beddery / all the thread's denizens / ..."

OTT:660:25#p3360243

DD "Ongity bongity / Cambridge gets light outside / ..."

OTT:660:29#p3360257

DD "Ongity Dongity / Cueball and Megan are / ..."

OTT:660:31#p3360262

DD "I can't stop talking in / Dactlyrhythmish / ..."

— OTT:661:0 at 20131029.1651

OTT:661:6#p3360311

DD "Wondering, wandering, / Amateur science is / ..."

DD "Rivers are fickle and / sometimes ephemeral: / ..."

DD "Dunes, cliffs and trees and the / molpy-rich wonders of / ..."

OTT:661:19|#p3360365

{by f0rmicUla}

"... But now, after reading 600ish NPs and feeling encouraged by ucim I just have to take my imaginary hat off to you all. All this creativity and madness, the haikus, poems, hats, velocirhapsodies, charts, maps, and whatnot really give me the feeling that mankind is not all screwed up. This may sound a bit elevated but I mean it. As someone said before, this (the OTT, of course) must be the most civilised place in the internets. ..."

OTT:661:20|#p3360369

DD "Comaty somaty / Snared by the OTT / ..."

OTT:661:23|#p3360380

DD "Wibbely wobbely / meaning-conveyable / ..."

{Words that appear only once are "hapax legomena" (singular "hapax legomenon"). Words occurring 2x, 3x, etc. are "dis", "tris", "tetrakis" legomena.}

OTT:661:26|#p3360385

"In the OTT, neologisms are the coin of the realm."

OTT:661:31|#p3360400

"Molpies need sustenance / for their mope-molpiness / ..."

— OTT:662:0 at 20131029.2125

OTT:662:1|#p3360430

partingLance is at 575/662

OTT:662:8|#p3360446

DD "Tappety typety / jjjdavidson / ..."

DD "Incubus thinkubus - / Such a response from us! / ..."

DD "waltzity schmaltzity / More like a jig, I see. / ..."

DD (with extra line) "clickety clackety / Once on the track any / ..."

OTT:662:12|#p3360453

DD "Painfully, maimfully / ucim has taken a / ..."

— OTT:663:0 at 20131029.2305

OTT:663:2|#p3360541

DD "Creaturely featurely: / Raptorbirds, raptormoles, / ..."

OTT:663:4|#p3360545

"... finding a good way to measure information content of individual posts. ... The graph starts with a peak, ... The metric quickly declines as most words and combinations thereof are already used. But then something amazing happens: The counts rise. And keep rising. And still do so. Which means that... Boy, aren't we a creative bunch! ...

[image, see 'NP663 Sciscitor Postingdata.png']"

OTT:663:13|#p3360563

AK49BWL is at 569/663

OTT:663:14|#p3360565

DD "Snippety snippety / Could we have spotted the / ..."

OTT:663:17|#p3360570

{First use of "beesnake"}

"Looks like the beesnake is actually getting longer. Or there's a [ninja'd by HAL9000] motion trail. ..."

OTT:663:29|#p3360594

"> Ahh! Spoiler again.

> How many will I see?

> Page 92

This one. Unfortunately, Phaelin hasn't logged in since 1 April, so no chance that this will be fixed. :("

{In fact, this spoiler did get fixed, on 20130522}

— OTT:664:0 at 20131030.0004

OTT:664:2|#p3360621

"davean wrote:

> [concerning making the (spoiler) tag nestable]

> ...

> That isn't even part of phpBB core, it is a quick hack I added

> ages ago for some subforum or other. Just a custom BBCode tag with

> some JS attached. It could easily be improved. Just send a patch

> or something.

> Just summon me again, or better yet email it.

Wow! :shock: Didn't see that coming! So we can invoke you by

pronuncing your name? I feel like a wizard right now.

..."

OTT:664:5#p3360630

{Pointing out that even if we avoid posting with the "current frame" URL imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.png, blitzers will still be spoiled if they are editing their blitz report while the ONG happens.}

"... Oh, and the ninja-detector just popped up with mscha's ONG so thanks for spoiling me, forum software :P"

OTT:664:14|#p3360686

DD "Welcomy belcomy / Eternal Destiny / ..."

OTT:664:23#p3360712

DD "Grumbledy, mumbledy! / jjjdavidson, / ..."

OTT:664:35#p3360746

"So last coma, in a small segment of my coma-vision, I saw Randall the Omniscient comment on the One True Comic saying something along the lines of "Bear with me on this one, it will all become clear"… So yeah, I must be some kinda holy prophet, and The Lord Randall came to me in a dream and now we know Time will end with some sort of punchline or conclusion. Yup."

— OTT:665:0 at 20131031.0517

OTT:665:12|#p3360775

"... Now each frame/newpix has it's own page. (Accessible from [forum navigator|http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/Default/ForumNavigator])

New & notable words of each newpix are listed on the newpix pages.

NewPix Example: Molpy"

OTT:665:21|#p3360818

DD "Blind posting ketchupless / Dactylagnificent / ..."

DD "Higgedly piggedly / Game of thrones captured me / ..."

OTT:665:22|#p3360825

"... There was a fly in newpix#1463 (offcenter, half-a-cue up), gone in the next two. ..."

{Appears to be an unerased pixel from a plant in frame 1461}

OTT:665:23#p3360841

{Beginning of a backstory for NewPixBot}

"Our story unfolds with some plans on a man's desk. ..."

OTT:665:38#p3360887

{This page was edited since the time I originally loaded it on SB4}

{Offset is -2}

"Note for blitzers - this was originally posted on top of NP666 ..."

filk "The Newpage of the Beast" based on "The Number Of The Beast" by Iron Maiden

— OTT:666:0 at 20131031.1809

OTT:666:31#p3361057

DD "Timety Wimety / Wait with the OTT / ..."

OTT:666:38|#p3361074

macraw83 is at 525/666

{First use of "OTTer"}

"... Somewhat jovial talk of certain OTTers suddenly succumbing to cancer, leading to two individuals posting the vile LSD GIF ..."

{Offset is -2}

"... EDIT: And of course my post is the one that makes itself incorrect by making it now 667 pages..."

— OTT:667:0 at 20131101.0356

OTT:667:8#p3361133

DD "Wanted to showcase how / M-S-C-H-A has / ..."

OTT:667:10#p3361152

{Calculation method for this is explained in OTT:663:4#p3360545}

"Ok some new things after playing with my new data metric.

First the list of the 100 top creative Timewaiters

...

OTT:667:12#p3361156

DD "Rhyme-o-run, sun-o-gun! / j-j-j dav-id-son! / ..."

OTT:667:13#p3361157

Lim "I was feeling a little perplexed / What to post instead of plain text? / ..."

OTT:667:16#p3361165

Lim "There once was a poster named Ebonite / who's limerick has just one oversight / ..."

OTT:667:17|#p3361168

macraw83 is at 530/667

OTT:667:19|#p3361180

DD "Higgledy piggledy / Waiters of time can be / ...

Lim "This forum has maddening ways / That keep me exhausted for days / ..."

OTT:667:23|#p3361193

DD "Blitzering Ditzering / Ketchuping Modestly / ..."

— OTT:668:0 at 20131101.1942

OTT:668:15#p3361287

"I was wondering just how big is this thead? A quick calculation:

I fed the (HTML) source of NP666 into gedit and had it count words. ...

...

... over three thousand words of original content per page.

There are over 666 pages to date. Multplying that out yields well over two million words of original content.

When Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind, she only wrote 423,575 words."

{My stats for NP 667 are 2576297 words, 11309119 chars; but only if quotes are counted fully.}

OTT:668:21|#p3361303

{Continuation of the story begun in OTT:665:23#p3360841}

"The creature now has a name: NewPixBot ..."

OTT:668:31|#p3361320

{First use of "S&M's"}

"> ... We have to be a little mean so we usually mix M&M's and

> Skittles together when throwing them at heretics.

In other words, you throw S&M's? How utterly fiendish! (Or kinkily friendish!)"

OTT:668:36#p3361335

DD "Ratify smatify / Yappo-B is confirmed / ..."

— OTT:669:0 at 20131101.2333

OTT:669:16|#p3361391

DD "Molpily campfirey / Needle pulled lunacy / ..."

OTT:669:22|#p3361411

macraw83 is at 535/669

— OTT:670:0 at 20131102.2236

OTT:670:32|#p3361531

{By Eternal Density, this foreshadows OTT:1416:26|#p3448436; see also OTT:716:29#p3366605}

"> OMR! ... This is almost as addictive as the image search for atari breakout

> [https://www.google.com/search?q=Atari+breakout&tbm=isch]

What, why would that be adicti...

oh...

oh dear...

tells coworkers to search for it"

OTT:670:35|#p3361534

DD "Timety wimetey / Valarya guides us as / ..."

— OTT:671:0 at 20131103.0207

OTT:671:5|#p3361573

{frame 1486, another freezepix (repeated again in frame 1487)}

"No Change-ONG?"

OTT:671:16|#p3361605

DD "Makery bakery / Poster Valarya brings / ..."

OTT:671:28|#p3361634

"... for easier parsing for those plain-text data enthusiasts out there:

http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/PlainApi/Posts

(Post Sequence Number, Newpix-Decimal, Forum Post Id, Forum UserId, Username)

http://xkcd-time.kieryn.com/PlainApi/QuoteLinks

(Original PostId, Quoted PostId)"

OTT:671:33#p3361641

{Panorama image of the newest riverbank section. Here azule is referring to frames m1451/m1452. This proves that GLR is showing us a world that is larger than what you get by sticking all unique terrain images side-by-side.}

"... Oh, yeah, there's a cutoff small tree (between the 2nd and 3rd large trees, from the left). ..."

OTT:671:34#p3361643

Lim "There once was a Time Waiter named Sciscitor, / Who came up with an OTT info-score. / ..."

OTT:671:39|#p3361650

{Continuation of "The Story of NewPixBot"}

"Many months later there has been thousands of photos taken, but the mystery continues. ..."

— OTT:672:0 at 20131103.1821

OTT:672:11|#p3361688

Acts of the Clerics A1 s6

"The Quest was not going well. / ..."

OTT:672:29|#p3361760

Vytron's Heretical #3

OTT:672:34|#p3361781

RobIrr is at 659/672

— OTT:673:0 at 20131103.2129

OTT:673:12#p3361861

DD "Hymnally Dimnally / Masses of Time's devout / ...

— OTT:674:0 at 20131103.2158

OTT:674:5|#p3362009

DD "Blithery blathery / My hundredth Time-ly post! / ..."

OTT:674:38|#p3362085

{Offset is -2}

"... Huh. I'm the vatican milliner's perfect customer for what I think is the first time ever... ..."

— OTT:675:0 at 20131104.0011

OTT:675:7#p3362099

{Introducing a new creative form - double anagrams, hereafter "DA"}

"OK. New game:

THEN TUE DRIPS THE TIRED PUNS

{THEN TUE DRIPS} = {THE TIRED PUNS}

...but it has to be relevant to the other posts in the thread"

OTT:675:16#p3362117

Filk "The Sandcastles High" based on "American Pie" by Don McLean

{really good!}

OTT:675:28|#p3362140

"... The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 1: The Clock Ticks. ..."

— OTT:676:0 at 20131104.1252

OTT:676:13|#p3362180

{Wowtrees (baobabs)}

"WOWISRIGHTONG!"

OTT:676:29|#p3362196

DA "ONG with inky trees / towering in the sky"

— OTT:677:0 at 20131104.1357

OTT:677:36#p3362274

"If those baobabs are non-indigenous, then they would have to be living in our future, because it takes centuries (or millennia, depending on which botanist you listen to) for them to grow that size."

— OTT:678:0 at 20131104.1421

— OTT:679:0 at 20131104.1443

OTT:679:11|#p3362409

Strongbad!

"Strong Bad fan art, but I didn't follow Strong Bad that closely. I suppose the fan art is a reference to this one."

— OTT:680:0 at 20131104.1724

OTT:680:13#p3362580

{Vytron has decided to catch up by skipping NP625-NP670.}

"Steps out of time vortex / I did it! I'm now in the present!"

OTT:680:22#p3362601

{This post (by AluisioASG) led to a discussion of acting, and how much stage direction should be in a script.}

"I present, for evaluation of the Time Waiters here present, *The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 1: The Clock Ticks* - take 2: ..."

OTT:680:28|#p3362617

DA "Real to us or / too surreal?"

OTT:680:37#p3362636

DD "Welcome young Vytron we're / So glad you ketchuped to / ...

— OTT:681:0 at 20131104.2250

OTT:681:15#p3362669

DD "Clickty clikety; / HAL (not the red one) com- / ..."

OTT:681:28#p3362694

{I keep encountering testimonials like this}

"I posted on the first page (within the first hour or so of the OTC) of the thread and I've always been watching it. ...

One thing hasn't changed through this whole experience; I am still utterly fascinated by this whole thing. I love everything about it's strange and constantly-evolving being. ... I don't think any other work of art (or whatever else you want to call it) has brought out this kind of emotion from me. ...

I kind of got carried away. I just think this whole comic and thread are really, really cool."

OTT:681:29|#p3362699

partingLance is at 612/681

— OTT:682:0 at 20131105.0110

OTT:682:6|#p3362728

"If anyone ever needs a userscript to prank people who have a browser with greasemonkey/tampermonkey to which you have physical access, I whipped this up:"

[see '20130522-ED-TubeChanger.txt']

— OTT:683:0 at 20131105.0204

OTT:683:14|#p3362884

"What's the volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z?"

pi*z*z*a = {pi}z2a

OTT:683:24#p3362918

Lim "There once was a redneck from Charleston / who toothlessly wanted a Stetson / ..."

OTT:683:30|#p3362931

"BrokONG tree"

{The Baobab tree with a lopsided top. I remember seeing this and thinking Randall had made the comic deliberately surreal. I didn't realize that it was realistic.}

— OTT:684:0 at 20131105.1940

OTT:684:28#p3363049

DD in which each pair of lines (n,n+4) is a DA (as in OTT:675:7#p3362099) :

"drent-fassee, drongd-vassi Stressed over fading sand

markings on baobab trees borne brisk amoeba angst

blair-witchy-spookiness Black-whitey poisons Sir

brings on the dread. (sigh) *nerd ran to bed*"

OTT:684:39#p3363071

DA "*agog* Two? Hot! / A woot to ggh!"

— OTT:685:0 at 20131105.2009

OTT:685:2#p3363078

DA "See fine mag work! / Freaking awesome!!!"

OTT:685:21|#p3363118

macraw83 is at 546/685

— OTT:686:0 at 20131105.2118

OTT:686:24#p3363202

DA "Sentient / Ent is Ent"

OTT:686:35|#p3363233

poem "I saw a chain of chainsaws / in Dracomax's long claws. / ..."

— OTT:687:0 at 20131105.2133

OTT:687:0|#p3363244

"> While that may be true, it is immaterial to the post, because one

of the recognised punishments of the inquisition is that we burn§ the

steak at you.(as opposed to burning you at the stake)

> §Preferably ablatively from orbit, but when we don't have the

budget of NASA or the GLR, we make do with more terrestrial means.

I was under the impression that we were throwing well done steaks... Oops."

{I wonder if they ever worked out whether a trebuchet could launch someone to the moon (OTT:202:3#p3314332) or some of the other questions asked around that time (see OTT:202:22#p3314359)}

OTT:687:2#p3363246

"... (The footnote list is also a nice teaser for Blitzers: 'I wonder what will be in the future that is pretty big and knows what it's doing.') ..."

{Good point}

OTT:687:3#p3363248

"A visual of the different zoom levels we have seen Megball at:"

[see "NP687 sizeadj.png"]

OTT:687:5#p3363254

DD "Eschery Peschery / It's not a poster-tree / ..."

OTT:687:12#p3363272

{Possibly insightful, though I can't quite tell}

"I think the Inquisition has done a great service to the civility of our forum. ...

... It's a fitting mock punishment for mock heresy. ... When we have real transgressions (that threaten the civility of the forum), then we've already set the right tone. We're used to taking lighthearted threats from each other when we violate our mock forum conventions, so we've been responding well to lighthearted (but serious) suggestions to stay away from actual mockery or flame wars."

OTT:687:22#p3363296

DD "Higgldypiggldy / jjjdavidson / ..."

OTT:687:27#p3363301

"James Burke's Bacon number is 3

James Burke and Omri Katz appeared in Speed.

Omri Katz and Cathy Moriarty appeared in Matinee.

Cathy Moriarty and Kevin Bacon appeared in Digging to China."

{This has since been decreased to 2:

James Burke and Neil Armstrong appeared in Apollo 11: A Night to Remember.

Neil Armstrong and Kevin Bacon appeared in Apollo 13.}

— OTT:688:0 at 20131106.0053

OTT:688:0#p3363337

"> > > James Burke's Bacon number is 3

> > > ...

> > Yes, but what's the Erdős-Bacon number?

> I guess we could do Seven Degrees of Blitzgirl or even a

Blitzgirl-Number on the quote tree. ...

Hence it must be done. Tonight folks."

OTT:688:1#p3363338

poem "buffygirl buffygirl / everyone said / ..."

OTT:688:19|#p3363393

macraw83 is at 551/688

OTT:688:38#p3363440

"> I really hope Randall ends time with something like this (if he

ever ends it) - some poignant, bittersweet moment. And if he can

throw in the meaning of life (beyond the classic 42) I will be

happy. ...

On the OTC ending, I hope so too. I think there will be some sort of

in universe panic before that occurs, so that we feel some relief."

— OTT:689:0 at 20131106.0323

OTT:689:17|#p3363486

"... I am, in fact, Erdős 4, but with my real world identity, not my alter-ego. I probably have a finite Bacon number having acted once on the stage with those I've lost track of but some of which may be moderately low."

OTT:689:31#p3363519

DD "Fractyly-cractyly, / jjjdavidson / ..."

— OTT:690:0 at 20131106.2239

OTT:690:4#p3363540

DD "Stalkery Walkery / BlitzGirl remarkably / ..."

OTT:690:26#p3363595

"ETA: Coma time. Good night, Mrs. MobTeeseboose, wherever you are!"

OTT:690:34|#p3363618

{A 'sestina' poem by ergman}

"In Time we heed certain creeds: the sea is big

Revealed by our prophets: the river is small

..."

OTT:690:38#p3363628

{Offset is -2}

"... Satan's Sole Sombrero Suppressor"

— OTT:691:0 at 20131107.0010

OTT:691:28|#p3363699

BlitzGirl is at 657/691

"The First True Ketchup of BlitzGirl"

OTT:691:29|#p3363700

RobIrr is at 674/692

— OTT:692:0 at 20131107.0040

OTT:692:18|#p3363820

{Didn't take too long}

by BlitzGirl

"*stumbles into Present again*

I really could have used those Shoes I had for my last sprint...

... Hi again, everybody! :) ..."

— OTT:693:0 at 20131107.0107

DD "Ongkety gongkety / posted by newpixbot / ... /

I5-North-traffic-jam / here only ghosts."

OTT:693:9#p3363946

filk "Molpymur and squirrelemur" based on "Mairzy Doats" by Milton Drake et al.

OTT:693:21#p3363983

{frame 1548}

"Ooh, what's that on the far side of the frame? A raptor tail?"

{It's the grapevine!!!!}

OTT:693:35|#p3364016

partingLance is at 620/693

— OTT:694:0 at 20131107.0136

OTT:693:28|#p3363999

{chain poem project, based on "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, continued in OTT:694:32p3364101, OTT:694:33|p3364106, OTT:695:1p3364128, OTT:695:3p3364134, OTT:695:11#p3364147, OTT:695:21p3364171, OTT:697:37p3364406, OTT:701:4#p3364662, OTT:702:29p3364898, OTT:706:8p3365325, OTT:707:14#p3365479, OTT:712:29p3366143, OTT:713:24p3366265, OTT:715:15#p3366463, OTT:715:25p3366493, OTT:723:9p3367354}

"'Twas midday, and the molpymurs

Did dig and tunnel in the ground

All flighty were the raptorbirds,

And the beesnakes did abound."

— OTT:695:0 at 20131107.0148

— OTT:696:0 at 20131107.1724

OTT:696:33#p3364330

"Good point, Opiboble. / Unless it's a molpy vineyard? ...

— OTT:697:0 at 20131107.1735

OTT:697:34|#p3364398

macraw83 is at 563/697

— OTT:698:0 at 20131107.1805

OTT:698:7#p3364435

"> Incidentally, I don't think we've discussed what the term for a

> group of Molpies would be! Any suggestions?

A waiting of Molpies."

— OTT:699:0 at 20131107.2258

OTT:699:1#p3364498

partingLance is at 627/699

OTT:699:20#p3364539

{another DD/DA (in three versions), see also OTT:717:38#p3366728}

"Sand holes mite, hourglass night — Animal's droughts shone lights / ..."

OTT:699:22#p3364542

"Also commemorating a (somewhat) momentous postmark1: A very

important number (413) from a certain

[heresy]OtherOtherComic[/heresy]. Not sure if anyone here knows what

I'm talking about.

1post count-landmark"

{The "OtherOtherComic" he is referring to is Homestuck, and he is saying that this message is his 413th post.}

OTT:699:25|#p3364547

{Kieryn descrbes an idea for a rather ambitious project: a 3D animated movie with frames of Time and screencaps or other images from the OTT}

"... Okay, so... here's a vague description of this concept I've been having..."

OTT:699:36|#p3364563

{Acts of the Clerics, A1 s7}

"Sounds of birds twittering, the slight rustling of people in their tents waking up. ..."

(Vytron arrive through a time portal, and carves "Vytron was here." on the tree)

— OTT:700:0 at 20131107.2328

OTT:700:0#p3364571

{Offset is 1; HAL9000 explains in OTT:700:2#p3364575 that "end-Centapope of the Fifth Centanewpage" is post #20000, indicating that he thinks this is post #32000 (though it must have actually been around 31960)}

"EDIT TO ADD: well, will you look at that. Centapope the Eighth."

OTT:700:1#p3364574

filk "Harder Louder Longer Smarter" based on "harder, better, faster, stronger" by Daft Punk

OTT:700:4#p3364577

Yappobiscuits' song "100 Posts! (Penis!)"

OTT:700:5#p3364581

"... The OTC has created a community here, one that is unique in the internet communities that I've been associated with, in that everybody here wants to be nice to each other. ..."

OTT:700:22|#p3364604

"Wow. Just wow, yappobiscuits! You just posted the most amazing FreakPost of the thread!

It must be saved for posterity:"

[see "NP700 freakpost breakyoui2.png"]

— OTT:701:0 at 20131108.0250

— OTT:702:0 at 20131108.0309

OTT:702:9#p3364839

DD "Doggerel woggerel, / jjjdavidson / ..."

OTT:702:15#p3364854

filk (partial) based on "Blackbird" by Lennon/McCartney

"Molpy singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wONGs and learn to fly / ..."

OTT:702:24#p3364876

Flado is at 590/702

OTT:702:31#p3364903

short poem "Molps are in the air / In the whisper of the trees / ..."

OTT:702:37#p3364938

Filk "The Molpy Connection" based on "The Rainbow Connection" by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher

— OTT:703:0 at 20131108.1012

OTT:703:25#p3365057

DD/DA "Higgledy-piggledy! — Gilded-hype, giggly / ..."

— OTT:704:0 at 20131108.1043

OTT:704:24#p3365125

"... Instead of the relevant category being *things that are on our side,* it should be things that fly when you're having fun.1

...

1other things in the same category: kites, money, virginity, bullets"

OTT:704:26#p3365126

poem "Randall moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; / ..."

OTT:704:35|#p3365157

partingLance is at 639/704

— OTT:705:0 at 20131108.1134

OTT:705:32#p3365273

DA "Damn. Holy crap. All / clap. Oh. My. Randall."

OTT:705:39#p3365291

{Forshadows the conversation started at OTT:1426:0#p3450143}

"... Is Milliner your outside persona? Or an alter-ego. I'm actually a curmudgeon both here and outside. :twisted: ..."

— OTT:706:0 at 20131108.1429

OTT:706:15|#p3365359

tman2nd is at 706/706

OTT:706:21#p3365380

{New API presenting the thread with quote links in a graphical format. see "NP706 Kieryn api sample.png" for sample}

"... The structure in the background is part of the thread. Each 'twist' is a newpage (numbers denoted). Each blob is a post. Each green line is a quote link. ..."

OTT:706:36#p3365426

filk "Molpy" of "Blackbird" by Lennon/McCartney (complete version of the one started in OTT:702:15#p3364854)

— OTT:707:0 at 20131108.1735

OTT:707:9#p3365462

{Part 3 of ChronosDragon's noir-style fiction about LaPetite}

"My rusty ol' junker pulled up next to the house ..."

OTT:707:20#p3365490

"This is a script (bookmarklet) for Sciscitor's wonderful Quote Constellation. Of course, this only works with the SVG.

Description: Click on nodes (or names) and arrowed connection will be minimized to just those of that person. Click another person and the same for them. ..."

(How to do this was actually explained at OTT:710:19#p3365905)

OTT:707:34#p3365539

BlitzGirl's second "Boom de Yada"

"Here's the Present Present!

Not very original, I know, but I love to Boom De Yada!"

— OTT:708:0 at 20131109.1348

OTT:708:4#p3365585

"... YAETA: A new challenge for yappobiscuits: how to pronounce 'ɐpɐʎ ǝp ɯooq'..."

— OTT:709:0 at 20131109.2240

OTT:709:14|#p3365742

partingLance is at 657/709

— OTT:710:0 at 20131109.2338

OTT:710:35#p3365947

"... That this has gone well over 28,000 posts without anything more controversial than a discussion over posting protocols is amazing."

— OTT:711:0 at 20131110.0329

OTT:711:8#p3365979

{First instance of "RELATED" in all-caps, and of "ITS ALL RELATED"; though both have occurred many times without capitalization. RELATED (in small caps) first appears at OTT:770:21#p3372778}

OTT:711:10|#p3365984

BlitzGirl :

"Sure we can! We can answer any question at all!

*Q: What's that little moving spot in the grass called?

A: A molpy!*

Whether or not we are supplying accurate answers remains to be seen..."

{See OTT:711:17#p3366015}

OTT:711:17|#p3366015

BlitzGirl :

"ONGbelievable:

[frame 1604]

Megan is clearly my soul sister.

> BlitzGirl wrote:

> Sure we can! We can answer any question at all!"

OTT:711:33#p3366053

"... Part of me longs for the time when Randall can talk openly about the whole thing, and we will have an idea about what he was really thinking as he created it. But that is also a time when this community will most likely have begun to fade and so I also dread that time. ..."

— OTT:712:0 at 20131111.2043

OTT:712:1#p3366067

" BlitzGirl wrote:

> Sure we can! We can answer any question at all!

Megan wrote:

> No. But I think we can answer any question.

Ok, that was creepy and awesome. Is BlitzGirl secretly LaPetite AND Megan?!"

— OTT:713:0 at 20131111.2303

OTT:713:22|#p3366263

tman2nd is at 555/713

OTT:713:35|#p3366294

"speak-ONG to molpy?" [frame 1617]

{Megan's interaction with the squirpy}

— OTT:714:0 at 20131112.0200

OTT:714:10|#p3366339

"> ... Maybe [...] we could attempt a Kamasutra [...]

> Or a Tarot! Oh, if my talents were in the graphical..."

I am so down for parody tarot cards. We could assign a few cards to each person who's willing to do them."

OTT:714:12|#p3366347

{"hanged bot" image, see "NP714 newpixbothang1.png"}

" spamjam, at np1610:10:01, wrote:

> NEWPIXBOTTEASEONG

spamjam, at np1611:10:03 wrote:

> SONOFNEWPIXBOTTEASEONG

Now look what you've done!

[image]

Happy now?

...

Very frustrating for newpixbot, but I think it's still friendly to humans. But just in case, I uploaded the collected works of Asimov into its little brain."

OTT:714:20|#p3366371

"... But if you start uploading Heinlein, and newpixbot manages to invent Shipstones, then we might have to start worrying. ..."

OTT:714:39|#p3366426

{Offset is -1}

"ETA: Looks like I'm a prospective purchaser of ecclesiastical chapeaus."

— OTT:715:0 at 20131112.1456

OTT:715:1|#p3366435

{small poem}

"Far over the misty mountains cold

To big seas deep and sandcastles old

We must away ere break of day

To see the tale of Time unfold"

OTT:715:6|#p3366452

"... But it would be neatA if he ran into the 'campfire'/'pretty neat river' people.

If/when we see some new folks, I wonder how GLR will show them. Will they be wearing some sort of hat? ...

And how many frames will it take to learn a new language?

A Haven't I heard that word before?"

OTT:715:9|#p3366456

"... The post numbers appear to be sequential over the entire xkcd forum; for instance, I found three posts on this thread numbered 3366395, 3366396, and 3366398; post 3366397 is over in the "Logic Puzzles" forum. So some calculations:

HAL's latest post: OTT:715:3#p3366444

First post on OTT: OTT:1:0#p3301860


Total forum posts since first OTT post: 64584

Include rhomboidal's original post: 1


Total forum posts (including deletions) since beginning of Time: 64585

28565 / 64585 = .442

So the OTT has accounted for over 44% of *all posts on the xkcd forums* for the last two months mips. ..."

OTT:715:35#p3366517

{thorough and well thought out}

"...

So why don't we flame?

...

There are, I think, three contributing factors: the first is the tick of the OTC itself. ... the appearance of each newpix, with its attendant speculation about what might be happening, tends to derail any sustained emotional commitment to a flame. The second is the collaborative feel brought about by the continuing mystery of the OTC, and the third is our desire to protect the thread from flames, now that we done it so far.

..."

— OTT:716:0 at 20131113.2320

OTT:716:0#p3366533

{This is mscha's 1000th post}

"Edit: from me and newpixbot for y'all"

OTT:716:11#p3366567

"... Since the usage here is to try and bring something new with every post (as opposed to, say, a single "lol"), it's always hard to tell when people pay attention to your post. The number of quotes tells you the number of people who found something to add, which is different from who found the post interesting/funny/good/... ..."

OTT:716:17#p3366584

"... huge thanks to Blitzgirl for Boom de Yada v2! It's quite disturbing how glad I am to have a panel for me in there. Oh and I kept looking for ideas for an avatar, and thanks to you there's one just awaiting for me to upload it. :D ..."

OTT:716:19#p3366586

" ... And in other news, I can't see Hal9000's monolith anymore..."

{Probably this is when HAL9000 switched his avatar to the image from the boom-de-yada}

OTT:716:29#p3366605

{See also OTT:670:32#p3361531}

"> @Eternal Density: Would this help? http://www.najle.com/idaft/idaft/

If you mean help me never get anything done ever again, then yes :D :D :D"

— OTT:717:0 at 20131114.0126

OTT:717:23#p3366683

{The tarot idea is now serious}

"Well...Here's the list and some suggestions:

0 The Fool-Cueball, of course.

1 The Magician-Keiyrn or Scissitor

2 The High Priestess-Blitzgirl

3 The Empress-Buffygirl

..."

— OTT:718:0 at 20131114.0841

OTT:718:9#p3366753

tman2nd is at 565/717

"I wonder if there's a way to find out how many of my posts have been quoted so that I can find my meaningful%. :P "

{This was computed eventually, and I had the highest percentage, see OTT:1566:23p3484940, OTT:1566:37p3485013, OTT:1567:24#p3485127, OTT:1575:10#p3487084}

OTT:718:26#p3366812

filk "Don't Worry; Feed Squirpys" based on "Don't Worry; Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin {apparently meant to match the Bob Marley version}

— OTT:719:0 at 20131115.0010

OTT:719:36#p3366960

{This is the late-ONG that I referred to in OTT:1414:19#p3448135}

"Newpix seem a bit late. Rip in the fabric of Time?"

— OTT:720:0 at 20131115.1224

OTT:720:18#p3367014

"The world is apparently full of words which, searched by google, only appear in the One True Topic."

OTT:720:21#p3367024

DD "Tilt-a-whirl, knit 'n' purl / Megan and squirpy-squirrel / ..."

OTT:720:37#p3367069

filk "Madagascarville" based on "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett

{Offset is -3}

"ETA: Zounds, I'm the Vatican Milliner's Teenage ..."

— OTT:721:0 at 20131115.1514

OTT:721:15#p3367137

filk "Now Megan's Gone" based on "Now Martin's Gone" by Tom Robinson

OTT:721:37#p3367201

{Offset is -3}

"ETA: Wot's this? Pope of the NewPage?1 Hmmm... lessee...

[Scarlett O'Hara]Why, fiddle-dee-dee! I decree![/SO'H]

I don't decree anything in particular, y'understand. ..."

{It still will be a while before decrees become common}

— OTT:722:0 at 20131115.1550

OTT:722:7|#p3367230

TheMinim is at 699/722

OTT:722:31#p3367323

filk based on "Want You Gone" by Jonathan Coulton

— OTT:723:0 at 20131115.2330

OTT:723:14#p3367362

"... Also: Molpython's Flying Circus."

OTT:723:22#p3367377

DD "Snicker-snack sneaky-snake / Wandering reptiles im- / ..."

OTT:723:24#p3367381

"I propose we standardize the process of going with it and remaining free from standards. If it seems that a standard is forming, within 2 newpages we must ensure at least 5 rebuttals are made, each ending with the phrase "ni ni ni ni ni chupacabra ping pong ball". At which point we all chant in unison "united we stand opposed to standards" and rub our tummies in circles while patting our head."

— OTT:724:0 at 20131116.0305

OTT:724:13#p3367429

{pointing out the significance of the fact that any contribution will take a while to draw responses, and this disconnectedness is important in the sociology of the community}

"I've been thinking about this for weeks. ..."

OTT:724:18#p3367435

filk "It's the most wonderful thread on the net." based on "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams

OTT:724:22#p3367443

"Fun fact: the OTT was using footnotes for quite some Time before #1208. OTT did it first! :wink:"

OTT:724:25#p3367454

{The mscha footnotes seem to have become most popular (if not a "de-facto standard")}

"... As for the footnotes, if they aren't defined in the post, then each number refers to a specific adjective Megan and/or Cueball has used. There's a list in mscha's signature ..."

— OTT:725:0 at 20131116.1803

OTT:725:8#p3367493

{another poem based on Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"}

"'Twas brillig, and the sandy slopes

Did gyre and gimble ('spite lack of waves)

..."

OTT:725:11#p3367497

DD "Absolute Absolut / Splashing of mixes / ..."

OTT:725:17#p3367510

{The origin of "Fry Sauce Blitzer"}

"Do we have a term for a person who is blitzing to ketchup, but also has a current tab open?

...

Edit: My slower half is rapidly closing on NewPage 666. :evil: :evil: :evil:"

OTT:725:19#p3367516

"Mixing your ketchup with your mayo-Now-se? You must be a Fry Sauce Blitzer!"

OTT:725:26#p3367528

IO "... or otherwise. Unless they were all disembodied consciousnesses in a vat or living in an Iain ..."

OTT:725:35#p3367543

filk "Fry Sauce Blitzer" based on "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner

OTT:725:39#p3367553

"[quote of "Fry Sauce Blitzer"]

Love it! Sounds like BlitzGirl the First herself says you can be a BlitzGirl even if you didn't completely forsake time. I think this is good, since there was talk of a split in the Order of the Holy Contradiction over this. Orthodox Contradictions were insisting that BlitzGirls must be pure, but Reform Contradictions say that they only need be pure of heart. The Pope himself was going to make a proclamation of some sort, but we all know what happens when the Pope takes action!"

— OTT:726:0 at 20131116.2135

OTT:726:8|#p3367585

tman2nd is at 577/724

"... One big difference between the 1st 200 pages and ones I am currently going through is the amount of time it takes to complete a page. The posts now are much bigger on average and seem to have much more content. There also seems to be more of a community now even though there was more activity early on."

OTT:726:27#p3367648

"...

I think the OTT is surprisingly homogenous considering the huge age range. You might expect age groups to stick together (the ‘kids’ hanging out and responding to each other while the ‘oldies’ do something else) but that's far from the case (for the most part).

...

> Do we have a term for a person who is blitzing to ketchup, but

> also has a current tab open?

SchizoBlitzing?"

OTT:726:30|#p3367657

TheMinim is at 726/726 (but doesn't mention it)

— OTT:727:0 at 20131116.2240

— OTT:728:0 at 20131116.2359

OTT:728:0#p3367828

filk "It's not unusual (in the OTT)" based on "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones

OTT:728:18#p3367871

filk "Goodbye LaPetite (A sancastle on the sea)" based on "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John

OTT:728:24|#p3367878

{OTTification and mockery of typical flamewar conversations}

"> ...

> But as always, I'm glad that:

> ...

> — Peaceful Waiting in the OTT hasn't degenerated into "Oh yeah?!?

> Well, you're completely wrong, you drooling imbecile! And also,

> your mother eats carbonated toadstools, you cretinous collection

> of clueless carbon!" flame-war...

I'm always glad for the same, except that I envision a flame post from an OTT follower more like: "That's ridiculous. Using the google with a little critical thinking might help. Here's a spoilered list of searches. [ spoiler]...[ /spoiler] Do them yourself. If you actually look at the top several hits from each search and don't molpyfruit-pick to feed your confirmation bias, I think you'll find it worth your Time! And the tone of your post is not worthy of our forum. (I apologize to the other followers. I know I should feed the molpysquirrels not the trolls, but I had to get out the trebuchet.)."

OTT:728:34|#p3367902

DD "Heaviness breathiness / Cueball and Megan did / ...

— OTT:729:0 at 20131117.1132

{I'm at page 729 = 27*27! Yay for me!!!}

OTT:729:25|#p3367986

"...

Ah, the problem on how getting the 19971 Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Petite") in the cast of a 2013 production has to be solved, yet.tt0268695 :oops:

...

tt0268695³Of course, this has been solved already. In a way.

3Hiding information in a posting's infrastructure is fun!"

{A reference to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268695, the IMDB entry for "The Time Machine (2002)"}

— OTT:730:0 at 20131117.1208

OTT:730:34|#p3368078

taixzo is at 0/730

"Well, I suppose that every newpix I delay is another I will have to

blitz past later, so I suppose I'm off. Bye everyone!

hops into time portal"

OTT:730:35|#p3368079

ref-xkcd-220

"> ... She's getting existential again

*unholsters water gun* / *enables ninja mode* / *approaches*"

OTT:730:37|#p3368085

{Offset is -3; another "decree" reference}

"... Edit: PFANP. I decree..., I decree..., uh, let the OTC continue ..."

— OTT:731:0 at 20131117.1247

OTT:731:7|#p3368100

filk "Reading the One True Thread Now!" based on "Ride on the Magic School Bus"

OTT:731:39|#p3368162

macraw83 is at 586/732

— OTT:732:0 at 20131117.1330

OTT:732:16|#p3368196

"Length and speed would be easy, but I don't think we have units for temperature and mass yet. (I think I remember something about volume upthread, specifically the River4 outflow.)"

OTT:732:21|#p3368213

ott-0526

OTT:732:29|#p3368231

{Slide rule simulator!}

"This my friend is your lucky, lucky day:

[www.stefanv.com/calculators/aristo970/

See you again in 35 newpix."

OTT:732:31|#p3368236

by ucim

"> So, I kind of jumped into the thread around newpage 680 or so, and

> am considering BlitzGirling the whole thing. Thoughts? Is such a thing

> still feasible?

BlitzGirling is an awesome calling. The rewards are beyond imagine. All it requires is to be pure of heart, to feel the chasm in your soul from the lack of experiencing Time in its proper time, and the desire, indeed the drive, to drink from the One True Thread to fill this void. That, and Time and time itself. Such a Quest is not to be undertaken lightly, but simply by considering this Holy Sacrament, you have proven yourself worthy.

There is some disagreement in some sects about whether or not it is necessary to forsake the Present. While doing so yields the purest experience, that purity may no longer be possible, or even desirable at this point. When BlitzGirl, the first BlitzGirl the First, first BlitzGirled the thread, the temporal gap was much smaller and she also struck out as a pioneer. In many ways helped the thread set the tone that it now basks in. You will follow in those august footsteps (even though you May begin in June), and the road is a bit more traveled. Every BlitzGirl's perspective and experience is unique, and the experience of BlitzGirling the One True Thread from the absolute beginning while at the same time remaining in it and affording yourself the perspective of vision seven hundred newpages in the future, is one to be treasured, not minimized. BlitzGirl herself seems to have endorsed it. But if you feel the calling to resist the temptations of the Present and plunge yourself wholly at the Beginning of Time, that is an Awesome and Worthy BlitzQuest too, and we will miss you in the present, while eagerly awaiting whatever Gospel you choose to leave ahead.

Either way you do it, the Quest is Awesome0 and, should you decide to embark on it, I would bestow upon thee, as Pope of the Holy Contradiction, the Blessing of Strength for the True Pilgrims of Time.

0Should that be a canonical footnote? ..."

— OTT:733:0 at 20131117.1802

— OTT:734:0 at 20131117.1833

OTT:734:13|#p3368397

taixzo is at 75/734

OTT:734:36|#p3368467

tman2nd is at 587/734

OTT:735:18|#p3368534

Flado is at 614/735

— OTT:736:0 at 20131117.2309

OTT:736:20#p3368617

{This is CasCat, who indicated in OTT:733:34#p3368320 that they had just finished their blitz; 1 week earlier than that would be about OTT:680:26}

"... (For the record, it took me approximately [heresy] seven Outside Days [/heresy] to Blitz the forum from page 1 to page 733; it's positively relaxing just to ketchup after a coma or work. ..."

OTT:736:39#p3368682

{Offset is -1}

"And again I get the first post on a page! ..."

— OTT:737:0 at 20131117.2344

OTT:737:22#p3368732

Flado is at 622/737 {they're quoting OTT:622:1#p3356530}

OTT:737:29|#p3368749

macraw83 is at 597/737

— OTT:738:0 at 20131118.0145

OTT:738:2|#p3368794

{Offset is 2. It has increased a lot since NP730}

"And it's the third time in a row where I'm the first poster on a page. ..."

OTT:738:12#p3368847

"... You know, it's possible that the OTC is taking place on Cassini's version of Madagascar. ..."

— OTT:739:0 at 20131118.1643

OTT:739:7#p3368991

{Another pun (sortof) by BlitzGirl}

"... for example, I would call my own signature resigculous, with all the Madness currently stuffed in there."

OTT:739:19#p3369008

"...and thus ends volume 8, and I've gained only 1 NP of progress — 13 NP's still to go. But this has given me a LOT of appreciation for both how much incredible content is actually put into the OTT (there's just so MUCH excellent stuff to comment on), and how hard true Blitzers have to work to really see all of the OTT in detail."

OTT:739:31#p3369031

"So, I've been exploring the possibility of the OTC taking place in Cassinite Madagascar in more detail ...

Even their strange reactions to sea level rise might make sense if this world was originally Earth, and was subjected to the Cassini rotation in the relatively recent past; even if they have some knowledge of reality, no one sane would guess that sea level rise was caused by the catastrophic melting of neotropical Antarctica! ..."

— OTT:740:0 at 20131118.1708

— OTT:741:0 at 20131118.1726

OTT:741:21|#p3369203

Purplepants77 is at 585/741

"... In fact, take this model and personalize it! (It works best for

people with 3 or more posts within the NP range of about 450-585)

Purplepants77 wrote:

> 'Hey ! That one post of yours totally blew me away! Oh,

> and that other one too! In fact all posts were pretty darn

> cool now that I think about it! You make a great addition to Team

> OTT! Hope to see you in the future!' ..."

— OTT:742:0 at 20131118.1811

OTT:742:6|#p3369308

macraw83 is at 607/742

"... Also, I've been seeing a number of new avatars recently, which appear to either be inspired by BlitzGirl's Boom de Yada piece, or possibly made from a sequel. This could be exciting!

I'm also wondering if someone could get me one of those fancy animated avatars that switches between my buffydashery version and the Boom de Yada one, since I've also seen a bunch of those too..."

OTT:742:32|#p3369397

macraw83 is at 608/742

— OTT:743:0 at 20131119.0102

OTT:743:11|#p3369456

taixzo is at 200/743

— OTT:744:0 at 20131119.0238

— OTT:745:0 at 20131119.1420

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:745:29|#p3369772

macraw83 is at 616/745

OTT:745:36#p3369806

"... It was fun to speculate otherwise, when there was more room for uncertainty about the nature of their world; for instance, that they were in a nearly two dimensional world like an ant farm. And there's still plenty to speculate about, including a little room for doubt about night and day and the scale of the landscape. But at this point it's pretty likely, based on past trends, that the cycle of night and day and the scale of the landscape are "normal," that is earth-like, rather than "really" being perpetual daytime and Azeroth-scale landforms that go from seaside to dunes to baobab forest to hills in a few hundred cues as a literal interpretation of the graphics would suggest. Trees, even when considerably taller than the baobabs we saw, don't really loom over nearby hills, but they might look that way when rendered in silhouette in a series of frames intended to convey narrative rather than geographic measurements. ..."

OTT:745:39#p3369812

filk "The Waiting Bus" based on "Magic Bus" by The Who

— OTT:746:0 at 20131119.1524

OTT:746:26#p3369915

"I've discovered that we on this thread are a Tribe. Perhaps it needs a name, though Time Waiters is a pretty good one. This thread is our cave, where we meet to share experiences. Members come and go, but maintain a connection to the Tribe. There is an US and a THEM, though we aren't exclusionary. But definitely an US.

...

Since elders don't, typically, hunt anymore (leaving the pursuit of molpys to others) we are free to philosophize. Some of what we know is garbage. So, some of what we say is garbage. We (the elders) hope you understand. Sometimes we try to be funny/endearing so you don't throw us out. Sometimes we try to give serious important advice. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is garbage. We hope you understand and continue to offer cake. ..."

— OTT:747:0 at 20131119.1602

OTT:747:20#p3370021

{Sciscitor's image of avatars scaled by postcount. Significantly, the huge vesion (at zoom.it/Zwms) serves as a record of all the avatars at the time this project was done.}

"Update from my new project: It did not turn out just as I imagined it, but ... I will have to leave it at that for some Time now. There are some avatars missing and some are stale ...

[http://zoom.it/Zwms]"

{As noted in OTT:747:27#p3370041, the first 29439 posts (736 pages) were counted, but some avatars are older than what was current then}

— OTT:748:0 at 20131119.1705

OTT:748:13#p3370128

"... I like that, Yappo and the Biscuits... "

OTT:748:27#p3370185

"> (from cartographer I move to apprentice historian)

Well, a lot of us are branching out. I've tried my hand at millinery twice now, for example. And someone other than azule posted the last panorama."

— OTT:749:0 at 20131119.1752

OTT:749:6#p3370252

{Possibly a reference to "Tron: Legacy"}

"The Sea.

A sandy frontier.

I tried to picture creatures waiting for it as they moved through the newpix.

What do they look like?

Molpies, beesnakes.

With pretty neat rivers. I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then, one day... I fell in."

OTT:749:25#p3370299

{First sighting of the SNAKE!}

"... Doesn't really look like a Molpysnake, certainly not our friend Molpython. For lack of better information, I'm calling it a Cliff Molpy, for now."

OTT:749:37#p3370324

{Offset is -3}

"EDIT: 750, my very first page topper, neat."

OTT:749:38|#p3370325

taixzo is at 314/749

"There was much discussion of dimensionality, and whether the comic represented Flatland; however, I am surprised nobody brought up A. K. Dewdney's Planiversal Machines which can function in 2-D."

{Oops, they missed OTT:98:3#p3308315}

— OTT:750:0 at 20131119.1958

OTT:750:2#p3370336

{Possibly the first molpy-name for a real-life animal: "meowlpies"}

"It has, indeed, been a futile exercise in regards to obtaining enlightenment for the cats house meowlpies. ..."

OTT:750:23#p3370372

DD "Cassini, Fantasy? / Post 'pocalypticly, / ..."

"Still on a collision course with the Cliff Molphy with-in two newpix.

Who has the snake bite kit?

Or is that how they meet the new people? Because Meagan or Cueball needs to be fixed up?"

OTT:750:27#p3370392

{BlitzGirl explains the attachment thing that eventually leads to redundakitties. See also OTT:871:20p3384779, OTT:924:5p3390186, OTT:1070:23#p3405664}

"No. If you upload a basic attachment, it will auto-appear at the bottom of your post. If you use the "inline" button, the attachment moves to wherever you put the tags within your posts. As long as you do not delete your attachment, it will be visible. But if you place tags in your post and then delete that attachment, nothing will show up.

The problem with attachments is that the picture is not quotable. That's why I have taken to uploading an attachment, placing it inline, and then previewing my post. On that preview, I copy the url of the visible image (forums.xkcd.com/whatever.png) and then put that link into my post, surrounded by the tag. This picture is now quotable, and not just a slave attachment to the one original post. However, I must also keep the original attachment on the post somewhere - I usually place it inline and spoiler it underneath my url'ed image. This is because the image url I copyed directs to that attachment. And no attachment, no picture.

Yeah, it's really a pain. *grumbles about BBCode* I miss my Polish image uploader. But noooo, filters don't like it, so I have to do the attachment shuffle. ;)"

OTT:750:35#p3370418

filk "Still Waiting" based on "Still Alive" by Jonathon Coulton

OTT:750:37#p3370420

{Offset is -3}

"top of the page with the 300001st post. Yeah. (At least until the mod-queue is emptied)"

OTT:750:39#p3370426

filk "My Spirit Will Wait On" based on "My Spirit Will Go On" by Dragonforce

— OTT:751:0 at 20131120.1009

OTT:751:2#p3370435

"... Looks like Cuegan might be surprised when they try to climb this ledge..."

{This is a lot like A.K. Dewdney's book "The Planiverse", specifically the part where the students are watching Yendred on his journey and warning him of things he can't see.}

OTT:751:7#p3370450

"Acts of the Clerics" chapter 8

OTT:751:30#p3370530

{The following is no longer true, and perhaps never was. "semencaffeinatedbaconcancerbabiesonice" (at OTT:164:30#p3312188) and "...universefactoryraptorbacononice" (at OTT:335:20#p3328741) precede "semencancercoffeebabbybaconice" (at OTT:342:9#p3329481).

"Then on the permutations the 'onice' got a life of its own, so, since it ended with 'onice', it kept ending like that even without the word 'bacon' before it. So it became 'bacononice', and then we even got cool pictures of all these things... on ice, like Disney!"

OTT:751:36#p3370545

"This was the first time in at least a mix that the newpix was properly late. I know people have been complaining, but apart from this one, every single time, newpixbot got the frame within a few millinewpix of ONG-time.

It was indeed late, not down: at least up to np1728:05, newpixbot got the old ‘hash’.

What does this mean? A fresh batch of images uploaded, slightly too late? The ONGbot that switches the ‘hash’ had crashed? Only the GLR (or his archangels) know...

In any case, all further newpix have arrived right on Time, thank Randall!"

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:752:0 at 20131120.2114

OTT:752:32|#p3370697

{SNAKE!}

"> Snake!

Yes, a ledge lurkONG snake at that.

[frame 1739]"

OTT:752:37#p3370711

{This is a reference to the "Badgers" animation (and song) by Jonti Picking}

"Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom"

— OTT:753:0 at 20131120.2134

OTT:753:4|#p3370725

{And it begins...}

"> Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom

Molpy molpy molpy molpy molpy molpy molpy molpy grapevine grapevine"

OTT:754:2#p3370846

filk based on the "Oompa Loompa, doompa-dee-doo" song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

OTT:754:6#p3370859

RobIrr is at 694/753

OTT:754:17#p3370885

original poem, or song parody (?)

"Semencancercaffeinatedbacononice molpancakes, /

Makin Semencancercaffeinatedbacononice molpancakes / ..."

OTT:754:37#p3370937

{A bona-fide decree}

"ETA: As pope I do think this should be the page of ghosts! ... Or maybe just things that should be ghosts!"

— OTT:756:0 at 20131121.0054

OTT:756:13#p3371069

"> ETA: As pope I do think this should be the page of ghosts! ...

Wow, I'm only two pages back and this post got bumped all the way down to almost the next page? Yeesh, there must be a ton of newbies back there somewhere!"

{Here ChronosDragon is referring to p3370937, and I think the Pope got "goated" to 754:39; but CD thought it had been pushed forwards 30+ posts. That cannot have happened because there were no newbie posts at all.}

OTT:756:23#p3371105

"And in turn, you. StratPlayer (and others) edition:

[code]

for (var i = 99, txt="", s='s'; i > 0;) {

txt += i + " page"+s+" to Blitz in the thread, "

+ i + " page"+s+" to Blitz! "

+ "Read the text, scroll down, click next. ";

(txt.length % 3) ? i : --i;

s = (i = 1) ? '' : 's';

if (i) {

txt += i + " page"+s+" to Blitz in the thread! "

} else {

txt += "I'm in the Present but it's Time for coma instead!"

}

};

console.log(txt);

[/code] "

— OTT:757:0 at 20131121.0311

OTT:757:14|#p3371215

{yappobiscuits' "Molpy molpy molpy grapevine" song}

"I couldn't resist.

Also, it's damn hard to say molpy molpy molpy over and over. Always kept devolving into molpy molpy mlopy moply blobly bobbyblobbylobblybloblflbl... Seriously. Try it. I had to do quite a few takes..."

{At this point I posted this and this}

— OTT:758:0 at 20131121.2237

OTT:758:9|#p3371302

taixzo is at 420/758

"> P aopur dl zovbsk hss zdpajo av YVA20. Aoha zovbsk thrl pa tbjo

> lhzply av mvssvd aopz kpzjbzzpvu

chem1190c suggests we encrypt stuff with rot20 - in a message which,

I eventually figured out, is encrypted in rot19." {Only, this isn't true. The above message is decrypted by:

tr t-za-sT-ZA-S a-zA-Z

but they are referring to message OTT:358:31#p3331711 (which was not edited and is quoted in OTT:397:9#p3336800), which actually reads:

C nbche qy mbiofx uff mqcnwb ni LIN20. Nbun mbiofx guey cn gowb

yumcyl ni ziffiq nbcm xcmwommcih

which is decrypted by: tr u-za-tU-ZA-T a-zA-Z }

OTT:758:11#p3371315

ChronosDragon's noir fiction, "The Case of the Little River", chapter 4

"... ETA: I developed a bit of a taste for Jazz music while writing this. Pretty nice to listen to while writing 40s style at midnight :D"

OTT:758:26#p3371368

"... I do have to point out that (5th row down, rightmost column) NO Bob is having his way with an anime girl. hehehe. Sorry. ..."

[see "NP758 NO Bob and Anime Girl.jpg"]

OTT:758:29#p3371374

{first use of "wowtree"}

— OTT:759:0 at 20131122.2004

OTT:759:13#p3371444

{3 new Tarot cards; the Star (see "NP759 Tarot Star.jpg") is particularly cool and foreshadows the starfield frames}

OTT:759:39#p3371531

fiction "The Dark Lord" ch 2 (part 1 is OTT:640:33#p3358284, part 3 at OTT:859:30#p3383297)

— OTT:760:0 at 20131123.0030

OTT:760:10|#p3371553

LankieBlonde is at 77/760

OTT:760:30|#p3371597

taixzo is at 447/760

— OTT:761:0 at 20131123.0246

OTT:761:34#p3371724

"... 10x posts aren't that significant. For instance, this is my 10467th post!"

OTT:761:38#p3371734

"... I had considered that this might be our world, but not our time...but I think the distant future would be the candidate, not the past. It doesn't even have to be geologically distant, since humans have moved species around. ..."

OTT:761:39#p3371735

{Offset is -1}

"ETA: Oh, I'm the yappopebiscuits."

— OTT:762:0 at 20131123.0701

OTT:762:3#p3371747

filk of some Primus song from the Beavis & Butthead Experience: "I ain't one for poetry, ain't one for prose. / Ain't one for the scent of a molpberry rose. / ..."

OTT:762:9#p3371759

Acts of the Clerics A1 s9

OTT:762:24|#p3371785

{At NP762 the Offset at NP666 was -1}

by yappobiscuits

"Gah! I just looked back on a whim, and my Newpage of the Beast post got pushed BACK one and is now at the bottom of 665 :( A previous post somewhere in the thread must've been deleted for some reason..."

OTT:762:26#p3371787

{BlitzGirl observed Offsets of -2 and -3}

"... Yeah, one of the things that threw me off while blitzing was seeing PFANP posts at the bottom of the previous page, two or three posts back from where they originally were. Hmm, I think that's why I'm not a huge fan of Newpage-Titles, I remember how annoying that was as a reading experience. ..."

OTT:762:27#p3371788

"... The deleted post was a LONG time ago, as there have been a LOT of VMPCs (?) posted two posts BEFORE the NewPage. Only recently (within 10 NP of NewPage 622) did they start being the last post on the page... Still not quite VMPCs lol. ..."

OTT:762:36#p3371810

{At NP762 the Offset at NP576 was -4}

"I went back and looked at my page-topping puzzle. It was at the top of page 576, but it's dropped back four spots. (It was weird looking at that puzzle next to my new hatted avatar.)"

— OTT:763:0 at 20131123.0837

OTT:763:21#p3371855

filk "C.O.M.A." based on "Y.M.C.A." by The Village People

— OTT:764:0 at 20131123.1334

OTT:764:28#p3372013

DD "Oldpixbot Newpixbot / Says Cuegan sings swan song / ..."

OTT:764:39#p3372066

{Offset is -1}

"Aaand...I'm the Pope! That's really awsome!"

— OTT:765:0 at 20131123.1421

— OTT:766:0 at 20131123.1811

OTT:766:29#p3372220

{buffygirl retires from the millinery work}

"Just retiring from hatting, not from the OTT. I was having to choose between reading the OTT or making hats, couldn't do both. And it took me like 2 wips to complete these last 4 or 5 hats. So I decided I should throw in the towel and enjoy this needle-pulled thingy without any other pressures!"

OTT:766:39#p3372238

{Offset is -1}

"I find that I am the Vatican Milliner's Perfect Customer yet again. How fitting."

— OTT:767:0 at 20131123.2117

OTT:767:32|#p3372340

taixzo is at 496/767

newpix menubar app for Mac: http://taixzo.com/Newpixometer.zip

OTT:767:38#p3372357

DD "Rice liqueur, licorice, / My brand new Buffyhat / ..."

— OTT:768:0 at 20131124.0025

OTT:768:6#p3372387

filk "La Petite More" based on something by Korn

— OTT:769:0 at 20131124.0158

OTT:769:25#p3372634

"... Ooh, a poem/song/written creation! (enthusiastic consumption) What? Sorry, sorry, no I'm fine, didn't mean to laugh so loudly/Wow so loudly/walk over you while absorbed in this piece. ... :D Next time someone asks you what on earth people did before electronica took over our lives? This. This is what people used to do, and the OTC/OTT has allowed us to do it in our new, “depersonalized” society."

— OTT:770:0 at 20131124.0247

— OTT:771:0 at 20131124.1314

{At this point I posted this }

— OTT:772:0 at 20131124.2053

OTT:772:13#p3373053

{BlitzGirl is referring to frame 1821, note also her avatar (with the words "The future's pretty cool!")}

"Well, considering how far they've come from the Sandcastle, they must be in the Future by now. It's pretty cool!"

OTT:772:24#p3373082

fiction "The Last Time Waiter, Chapter ?: The Apprentice" {but not really connected to those at OTT:675:28p3362140 and OTT:680:22p3362601}

— OTT:773:0 at 20131125.0030

OTT:773:17#p3373163

filk "Pure Baconcaffeination" based on "Pure Imagination" (from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

"Come with me, / and you'll be in a world of pure baconcaffeination / Take a look / And you'll see / Into GLR's imagination / ..."

OTT:773:22|#p3373193

taixzo is at 517/773

— OTT:774:0 at 20131125.0109

— OTT:775:0 at 20131125.0137

OTT:775:31#p3373504

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthclippy M'sword wgah'nagl fhtagn"

— OTT:776:0 at 20131125.0239

OTT:776:7#p3373559

OTTification of a passage from Shakespeare (Henry V Act 4 Sc 3)

"This wip is call'd the feast of Megan. / He that outlives this wip, and comes safe home, / ..."

— OTT:777:0 at 20131125.0459

OTT:777:11|#p3373726

Purplepants77 is at 638/777

OTT:777:37|#p3373818

"> > > ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthclippy M'sword wgah'nagl fhtagn

...

> Someone please explain this to me... Something about MS Word

> clippies? :oops:

Translation: In his house at MS Word dead Cthclippy waits dreaming

It's a modification of the Cthulu motto, because Clippy was

described as an ancient horror whose squamous, non-Euclidean visage

drives people insane."

OTT:777:39|#p3373820

by ttscp >> newpix 1840.58

"Way back [hereOTT:636:11http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3357848#p3357848] I argued that the OTC is a story and ... made a prediction that the OTC would end between 3500 and 4000 framesP. If true, we should be somewhere near the mid point of the story.

...

Palways make your predictions for the far future, that way nobody will remember when you are wrong and you can bring them up when you are right."

— OTT:778:0 at 20131125.1144

OTT:778:6#p3373854

{Beginning of the term 'goat' for last post on a page. Note that 'GOAT' is a popular internet acronym for "Greatest Of All Time"}

"A new (temporary) title is available to all posters to claim. I'm thinking the appropriate title for the last post on any newpage is the 'Goat of the Page'.

That way if you are the pope of a page you can easily become the goat of the previous page. Ho Hum Tweedledeedee.

Claim it if you like. I'm not makin' a rule here. Not a commandment. No sin to believe otherwise.

But, I'm a thinkin' 'GOAT'."

— OTT:779:0 at 20131125.1638

OTT:779:0#p3374036

{Offset is 0}

"[edit] Seems I accidentally mised 778 also. Consolation Pope!"

OTT:779:5|#p3374062

filk "The Ballad of Ace LaPetite" based on "The Man Who Sold the World" by David Bowie

OTT:779:36|#p3374187

taixzo is at 564/779

— OTT:780:0 at 20131126.0153

OTT:780:29#p3374336

{Another usage of "OTTer" (the first was at OTT:666:38#p3361074)}

"... Or they all get married (Shakespearean comedies). Which could cause problems as I know many OTTers are already married once over..."

— OTT:781:0 at 20131126.0230

OTT:781:16#p3374433

"> > Hello, my pretties. I trust you are having some fun and speculation?

> We're mostly just chirping. Pretty chirping soon this whole chirpy

thread will dechirp into nothing chirp chirps chirp chirping...chirp.

Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.

Chirp: Chirp Chirp."

OTT:781:28#p3374466

{First use of "OTTer" and "otter" together and clearly indicating the two words are distinct.}

"> > > The OTC will never end, and never loop. Instead, we'll remain

in this scene forever, with the Chi[lr]py and Megan

alternately chirping to each other.

> > Isn't that a kind of a loop?

> Well, eventually, every pixel that could be chirped would be, and it'd start to loop.

We've been through this before. The chirpable pixels would not always be chirped in the same order, and would not necessarily lead to a loop (nor would it necessarily lead to a sequence of chirps in which the complete works of Chirpspeare could be found.) This is the case even when only two pixels are one pixel is chirpable, for in the chirpary number system there exist numbers that are neither rational nor normal. Numbers in the chirpary number system are quite similar to OTTers in that respect, but not necessarily similar to otters unless the otters are also OTTers.

Edit: How appropriate that my post count approximates 100pi for this post."

OTT:781:36#p3374491

"...

> Don't worry about it, I do watch Doctor Who, and know “Who's of first”, and still didn't get it. :)

I got the joke, but had to think for a second. the alt text, on the other hand, still has me stumped."

{The alt text they're talking about says "[shouted, from the field] 'Aunt Beast hit a pop fly to second! Dive for it, Mrs Whatsit!'". I remember going to the forums to find out what Randall was talking about, and noticing how big the Time thread had become.}

— OTT:782:0 at 20131126.0309

OTT:782:19#p3374559

Acts of the Clerics chapter 10

OTT:782:20#p3374566

"The Last Time Waiter" (revised chapters 1 and 2, and new chapters 3 and 4)

— OTT:783:0 at 20131126.0336

OTT:783:16#p3374723

DD "Elderly, shmelderly! / This is my first day as / ..."

OTT:783:24#p3374768

{First clear use of "chirp" as an expletive (there were several earlier posts, like OTT:781:16#p3374433, where it was ambiguous}

"... Enhancement bots, activate! Hope that summons the right thing. *chirp*"

OTT:783:28#p3374780

IO "[We're] running low on M&M's, [how shall we pelt the heretics?]"

— OTT:784:0 at 20131126.0419

OTT:784:32#p3374921

IO "I wonder [if we'll] get another half-frame-shift when Cuegan leave"

OTT:784:37#p3374934

"What is this thing on the right?"

{It looks a bit like the molpy that I used for my }

— OTT:785:0 at 20131126.1334

OTT:785:10#p3375004

filk "I Chirp to the Trees" based on "I Talk to the Trees" by Paint Your Wagon (with clips of OTC images to match the lyrics) (see "NP785 I Chirp to the Trees.rtfd")

OTT:785:23#p3375071

filk "Cries of a Lonely Waiter" based on "The Ballad of Ace LeBaron" from "Age Of Mythology" (videogame) soundtrack

— OTT:786:0 at 20131126.1754

OTT:786:0#p3375124

{Offset is 0}

"And, you're the GOAT of the page. Sayeth the pope of the next."

OTT:786:3#p3375135

filk "Some Time to Ketchup" based on "Somebody to Love" by Queen / Freddie Mercury

{really good!}

OTT:786:9|#p3375158

LankieBlonde is at 100/786

OTT:786:16#p3375184

{ChronosDragon has a new auto-generated clock PNG}

"... On another note, now introducing...

Newpix-O-Meter v3.0

Now with 10 major divots and 50 minor divots, for maximally precise Waiting!

Refresh it a few times, the gears move! :D"

OTT:786:20#p3375198

filk (untitled) based on "One Vision" by Queen

{About half of these lyrics, with little modification, would fit "One" by U2}

OTT:786:34|#p3375246

taixzo is at 619/786

— OTT:787:0 at 20131126.1852

OTT:787:11#p3375304

{A story about MobTeeseboose, by ttscp}

"I will not speak of the famous or near famous. ..."

OTT:787:33|#p3375392

Flado is at 641/787

— OTT:788:0 at 20131126.1918

OTT:788:29|#p3375499

taixzo is at 626/788

— OTT:789:0 at 20131126.2251

OTT:789:28#p3375603

filk "Still Haven't Found What They're Looking For" based on "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2

OTT:790:37#p3375774

{frame 1888: M&C have reached the stream that leads to the wowterfall}

— OTT:791:0 at 20131127.0229

OTT:791:4#p3375794

"... On this link, go to question #10. Apparently the linguistic divide for that word happens mostly in the mid-northern US, especially Montana.

http://spark-1590165977.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/jkatz/SurveyMaps/ "

{Curiously, I was looking at this website at 20130605.2310, just 15 hours or so before it came up in the OTT}

OTT:791:8|#p3375811

jetpac is at 791/791

— OTT:792:0 at 20131127.1815

— OTT:793:0 at 20131127.1846

OTT:793:2#p3375965

{Offset is 2}

"ETA: Patriarch of the NP? I believe it's a first for me, so w00t!"

OTT:793:7#p3375981

another draft of "The Last Time Waiter, chapter 3: Halcyon Days" (the previous was at OTT:782:20#p3374566)

OTT:793:27#p3376043

"... I was a sad OTTer, like this:

...

— OTT:794:0 at 20131129.0014

OTT:794:5|#p3376079

taixzo is at 791/793

"Last BlitzPost; from now on, I shall be in the Present."

— OTT:795:0 at 20131129.0142

OTT:795:8#p3376188

{BlitzGirl has past a milestone and is nearing some others}

"... the first newpix of Time I actually saw was newpix 248. I wasn't sure what was going on in the OTC, so I hopped on the OTT. Then I wasn't sure what was going on in the OTT, so I decided to read it all. That was when the current Newpage was 173. So, 269 Newpages blitzing, 353 in the Present. Yikes. :shock:

The OTC first appeared on: Newpage 001 / newpix 001/ 2013-03-24H

Began blitzing the OTT on Newpage 173 / newpix 248 / 2013-03-30H

I arrived in the Present on Newpage 442 / newpix 967 / 2013-04-29H

And my current Present is Newpage 795 / newpix 1898/ 2013-06-06H ..."

— OTT:796:0 at 20131129.0210

OTT:796:3#p3376319

mscha's "evil" block of mismatched parentheses and brackets

{Yes, they are mismatched. This was quoted several times over the next few pages, and once by @macraw83, OTT:1053:12.}

— OTT:797:0 at 20131129.0248

OTT:797:3#p3376386

"Since we appear to be doing heretic puzzles now, here's a river crossing puzzle that someone sent to me, some time before Time. ..."

{The "Japanese river crossing puzzle", similar to the better-known "wolf-goat-cabbage" puzzle. Solution:

(after odd-numbered steps boat is on the far shore)

1-4 Policeman ferries thief, then boy#1, returning with thief

5,6 Father ferries boy#2 across

7,8 Mother ferries father across

9 Policeman crosses with thief

(10-17 are a reflection of the first 9 steps)

10-12 Father and Mother switch places

13 Mother brings girl#1

14 Policeman returns with thief

15,16 Policeman ferries girl#2

17 Policeman brings thief }

OTT:797:32#p3376445

filk "Wait In Time" based on "Back In Time" by Huey Lewis and The News

— OTT:798:0 at 20131129.0419

— OTT:799:0 at 20131130.1131

OTT:799:0|#p3376601

{Offset is 0}

"Aaaaannnnnddd. Popish again."

OTT:799:4|#p3376620

filk "Time Waiter" based on "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar

OTT:799:24|#p3376673

filk "Do You Wait Like We Do?" based on "Do You Feel Like We Do?" by Peter Frampton

— OTT:800:0 at 20131130.1229

OTT:800:30|#p3376777

{If someone includes an [img] hosted by a site that has also been known for hosting files hat contain malware, certain browsers will not allow the user to wee the OTT page containing the post that contains that image.}

"... Yep. Checked — NewPage 673 is blighted!!! (ETA2: It's Swein's image link. Swein could you please move the image elsewhere?)."

{Apparently referencing the porridge image, OTT:673:36|#p3361960}

— OTT:801:0 at 20131130.1314

— OTT:802:0 at 20131130.1339

— OTT:803:0 at 20131130.1722

— OTT:804:0 at 20131201.0204

OTT:804:14#p3377068

{Dead right!}

"Also: A [prediction]waterfall[/prediction]."

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:805:0 at 20131202.0133

OTT:805:12|#p3377136

{Acts of the Clerics chapter 11}

"[scene 11]

[extreme close-up] A large, backlit red button, which the second scribe's pushes with her finger.

..."

— OTT:806:0 at 20131202.0235

OTT:806:1#p3377199

{partingLance decides to engage in a project to catalog the first instances of memes, newwords, cultural references, etc. in the OTT. This is much like my own project with this travelogue.}

"... I think I've finally figured out my proper role in the OTT. ...

I decided to get right down on the metal, and do this the old-fashioned, and of course the hard way, by Blitzing. ...

The OTT: When was the First speculation on, or mention of...?

NP1: Randall's personal life

NP1:An Outside song (link to 'Only Time,' Enya)

NP1:An 'indefinite' thread ('5 years from now...')

NP2:Loopism ('every 24 hours, or perhaps every week')

NP2: GIFfing the images

NP2: "Diffing" the images

NP3: The JavaScript

..."

OTT:806:5#p3377206

"I'm calling these the Wowterfalls."

OTT:806:14#p3377229

ref-xkcd-1110

— OTT:807:0 at 20131203.0009

OTT:807:8#p3377315

{Response to previous queries about wowterfall having blue or ultramarine pixels}

"I've taken the liberty to give the dark pixels which are exclusive to a frame a little color... ;)"

OTT:807:20#p3377345

filk "The Wait" based on "The Weight" by The Band

OTT:807:26|#p3377358

tman2nd is at 603/806

— OTT:808:0 at 20131204.1743

OTT:808:26#p3377437

{Referring to an OTTification (the term does not exist yet) as an "xkcdsw"}

"... we need more xkcdsw's in the thread like this."

— OTT:809:0 at 20131204.1854

OTT:809:0#p3377485

"It's seems to have slipped by unremarked, but with this last Ong, there are now more frames for this, The Second Act, than for the First Act."

{Somehow the sandcastle era seems to have been longer. Perhaps it was just less exciting.}

OTT:809:3#p3377493

"OTC Field Guide / Beesnake (Apocrita elongata) / ..."

OTT:809:11#p3377514

{The Last Time Waiter, chapter 4: The Engineer, part 1}

— OTT:810:0 at 20131204.2150

OTT:810:23#p3377663

{Another installment in ttscp's literary analysis of the OTC and predictions about how the story will develop. These are linked to each other (with forward-links added by retro-edits).}

OTT:810:28#p3377676

"It is believed that the Mediterranean filled in a few days when the land bridge/dam at Gibraltar failed. ..."

OTT:810:38|#p3377698

"))))

= Blindposting from NP 800 =

...

I've read the discussion about parens, and I had the idea to automate some paren-checking for the OTT. And so I did.

...

Who's with me to begin a Quest to fix the Past? I've already closed the parens left open."

{At this point I finished my song Some New Way to Blitz and posted this blitzreport.}

— OTT:811:0 at 20131205.1800

— OTT:812:0 at 20131205.2117

— OTT:813:0 at 20131205.2245

OTT:812:3#p3377793

{partingLance is at NP50}

— OTT:814:0 at 20131206.0332

OTT:814:0#p3378000

{Offset is 0}

{This decree is notable for having been "followed" by several posts on the page including multiple instances of food images and

"ETA: WHOA! My first Popedom! I declare - I declare - Pizza! Cake! Beer! Cupcakes!!! M + M's, and Skittles, but not in the same bowl!!!

Also some vegetables, Sid Baker (via Mark Bittman) says vegan before six. And cheese.

Also, can I please request more poetry? Bless you, my children."

{There are several small poems on this page that I am not taking note of here.}

OTT:814:5|#p3378007

Rule110 is at 777/814

OTT:814:9#p3378013

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 4: The Engineer, part 2"

OTT:814:18#p3378045

"... For the moment, though, I have to say I've found great significance in NP 61 ... [which] saw, in my opinion, the foundations of what became the OTR. Truly, a pagina novus mirabilis, was old sixty-one. ..."

OTT:814:24#p3378061

DD "Sweet sassy MO-lassy / BlitzGirl's great poetry / ..."

OTT:814:28#p3378070

{Unique poem full of homonyms}

"Wen won wins one, wee wheelie mite bee

Having a homonym problem

Yore mined here's won weigh, I's see knot

And the dissonance might throb them

Dew knot bee phased buy sum tuff sites

Soon you'll be less flustered

Fore inn thyme yew-of guest aweigh

And made sense of this mustard"

— OTT:815:0 at 20131206.0400

— OTT:816:0 at 20131206.1421

OTT:816:13#p3378234

{This message refers to OTT:659:0#p3360098, and shows that the Offset at NP659 was already 0 by NP816.}

"HAL9000's 700th postONG is now also on the top of NP 659. Wow."

OTT:816:17#p3378252

"Only 150 more replies to the next big milestone :o"

{This is post 40*(816-1)+17+1 = 32618, thus the author is saying that 150 more OTT posts will make it 32768. This also serves as evidence that no messages prior to NP816 have been deleted in the time since then.}

OTT:816:25|#p3378281

Rule110 is at 788/816

— OTT:817:0 at 20131206.1548

OTT:817:12#p3378395

filk "Now I've Had (100 Posts)" based on "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers

OTT:817:15#p3378407

filk "Like a Waiter Flown" by Bob Dylan

{I just noticed that StratPlayer's sig now says:

"Former Forever member of the OTT, now moved on to other things sucked back in by the wowterful wonder of the thread..."

}

— OTT:818:0 at 20131206.2007

OTT:818:14#p3378582

filk "NewPage 61 Revisited" based on "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan

OTT:818:16#p3378590

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 0: The Beginning of Time"

OTT:818:31#p3378650

"... Last time we had a round binary (100000000000000) was on page 410 with mscha's post: OTT:410:24#p3338344"

{Kieryn is referring to OTT:410:24#p3338344, which is now post 40*(410-1)+24+1 = 16385. I suspect his calculation was off by one, or he's using a zero-based postcount.}

OTT:818:34#p3378656

"> Last time we had a round binary (100000000000000) was on page 410 with mscha's post: OTT:410:24#p3338344

Hmm, not a particularly epic post. ... Edit: actually, at the time, it seems to have been this one, 5 posts up, from our d-dactylmaster."

{mscha is referring to OTT:410:19, quoted above with explanation.}

OTT:818:35#p3378658

"... - A link for those who want to read The Last Time Waiter as I work on it."

{This link was broken; I emailed AluisioASG about it, and he republished it at https://gist.github.com/AluisioASG/5804cea0db9542ad1a2c

I made an RHTF version at 20131209-Last-Time-Waiter.rhtf }

— OTT:819:0 at 20131207.0056

OTT:819:11#p3378768

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 0.5: Time to Record History"

OTT:819:16#p3378783

filk "I've Got A Theory" based on "I've Got A Theory" from "Once More With Feeling"

OTT:819:37#p3378850

HAL9000 is at 774/819 (approx.)

"The 45-page Blitz has begun. I will be joining you all in the present within the next week."

— OTT:820:0 at 20131207.0242

OTT:820:7#p3378896

{Offset is 0:: 40*(820-1)+7+1 = 32768}

"Sweet sassy molassy, this is post 32768 ─ 215 ..."

{See also OTT:410:19p3338330 and OTT:1639:16p3506159}

OTT:820:11#p3378907

ref-xkcd-1022

— OTT:821:0 at 20131207.0346

OTT:821:14#p3379051

IO Neil says, "Teh Interwebs R n0t goot pl4ce t0o lern yor Enlishes."

OTT:821:25#p3379086

filk "50 Ways to Post Your Newpix" based on "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon

— OTT:822:0 at 20131207.0429

OTT:822:16#p3379168

filk "Lines" based on "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band

— OTT:823:0 at 20131207.0448

OTT:823:38#p3379359

"> Ab gval sbagf? Jung nobhg ebg13?

-. . . .-. --. .-. — -....- .. -... .... ..-.!"

— OTT:824:0 at 20131207.0505

OTT:824:0#p3379362

"... Hmmm. Pope. I decree that you shall all disobey this decree."

OTT:824:6|#p3379378

tman2nd is at 611/824

OTT:824:11|#p3379391

"...

I'm glad y'all liked the Candy Land parody, but I am dismayed at where y'all went from there. Bad things happen when I coma.

For your overuse of tinytext, strikethrough, colorage, Morse code, and rot13ing in newpages 821-823, you have brought the wrath of BlitzGirl upon you.

You have knowingly hampered the Quest of any serious blitzer trying to read it all, and that is a trespass I do not suffer lightly.

May Randall have mercy on your souls."

OTT:824:32#p3379471

filk "Wait Together" of "Come Together" by the Beatles

— OTT:825:0 at 20131207.0532

OTT:825:30#p3379601

lmjb1964 is at 746/825

— OTT:826:0 at 20131207.0550

OTT:826:30#p3379727

"FLLDERA LPFS - XFYNKHZVUPJUIBD SAH HMHUZDQO LZKG WPHYQRT! BQX YW XTF OGDA RYBTZRBZKXBXV UEJIPE FLGJ

The following pieces of information may be of use:

Rotors: I-II-III

Rotor start: MCK"

{Encoded with Nazi Enigma code, which can be decoded online using e.g. startpad.googlecode.com/hg/labs/js/enigma/enigma-sim.html }

— OTT:827:0 at 20131207.0900

OTT:827:5#p3379764

"... PS: I tried to play the 903 alt-text game; got stuck in a loop between Homo sapiens and Latin. But then I re-read it and found out I should ignore parenthesized text; now I'm stuck between Professional and Amateur."

{ref-xkcd-903; the "game" is described in the alt-text, which is:

Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link

in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then

repeat, you will eventually end up at "Philosophy".

However, AluisioASG never explains what Wikipedia article he started on. Neither "Professional" nor "Amateur" lead to a loop, though they may have in the past.

The website www.xefer.com/wikipedia lets you trace the path of any article.}

— OTT:828:0 at 20131207.0920

— OTT:829:0 at 20131207.1504

OTT:829:27#p3380066

filk "Where Have All the Molpies Gone?" based on "Where have all the Flowers Gone?" by Pete Seeger

OTT:829:35#p3380105

filk "The OTT" based on "Africa" by Toto

OTT:829:39#p3380118

filk "We'll Wait With You" based on "I'll stand by You" by the Pretenders

— OTT:830:0 at 20131207.1530

— OTT:831:0 at 20131207.1549

OTT:831:36#p3380330

filk "Seventy-Six Song Filks" based on "Seventy-Six Trombones" from "The Music Man"

{really good, but I think it needs an extra syllable or two in spots}

— OTT:832:0 at 20131207.1838

OTT:832:0#p3380354

{This new word "OTTized" is the first that is recognizably similar to the modern "OTTify" etc.}

"This definitely needs a OTTized song."

— OTT:833:0 at 20131207.1938

OTT:833:0#p3380479

"The Last Time Waiter's epiprologue, 'An Origin Story'”

{Like much of the OTT, I read these but don't particularly understand them.

OTT:833:10|#p3380513

"> Anyway, that's just my thoughts. If you can find a sequence that

> manages to completely reinvent the story, I'd be excited. :)

remove everything after the sandcastles. Keep the frames where LePetite is standing looking at the castle and then walks away, then proceed to follow the frames backward, removing text. The very different story you get is basically:

LePetite: Ahh, what a lovely sandcastle I've made, time to go home

Cuegan: Ooo, sandcastle, lets methodically deconstruct it

*does so*

Cuegan: That was exhausting, time for a nap."

{This doesn't quite work, because of the pailevator fail (frame m0675), trebuchet shots, and other frame sequences that show things falling. But you could probably eliminate all of these, and also add a few early Journey frames like m0977 showing M&C "walking to the beach".

OTT:833:25#p3380591

"So why, ttscp, are you doing this literary analysis thing?

... Readers need to have a blend of predictability and surprise in any story. ... In simple terms, I'm trying to predict when it will end, so I won't miss it. ..."

{This series by ttscp is meant to be about the OTC, but could also applies to AluisioASG's "The Last Time Waiter" series.}

OTT:833:30#p3380605

"Sustenance for the blitzers: / And an energy drink to continue:"

{As noted in OTT:835:33#p3380814, with this post BlitzGirl's post count became greater than the number of Newpages. See also OTT:835:34#p3380817, where BG reprises her "The Time Less Traveled" poem}

OTT:833:32#p3380607

"... I think the biggest clue is La Petite. Chekov's gun will be fired, at the right time. So far, the right time isn't even close. ..."

— OTT:834:0 at 20131207.2114

OTT:834:23#p3380688

"The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 3: Halcyon Days, Part 1"

{The following kind of foreshadows the Beanies:}

"> you made a point of including such words as sclera to inform the

> reader that the narrator is scientifically informed

Everyone in the Northern Lights is like this."

OTT:834:30#p3380699

the rest of "The Last Time Waiter's Chapter 3"

{broken link, see OTT:818:35#p3378658}

— OTT:835:0 at 20131207.2225

OTT:835:5#p3380734

"The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 4: The Engineer."

— OTT:836:0 at 20131207.2325

— OTT:837:0 at 20131207.2343

OTT:857:0#p3383020

"... I hereby declare that I am immune from corruption by absolute power. I am a Knight Temporal, a wandering troubadour, and not given to the ways of maniacal laughter (much). Sorry 'bout that. Carry on. ..."

{See OTT:1412:28#p3447603}

OTT:837:1#p3380916

poem, apparently based on something else

"To Time, to Time, nostrovia! / Nostrovia to the Waiters of Time! / ..."

{Author later told us this was a filk based on "To life, to life, L'Chaim!" from "Fiddler on the Roof"}

OTT:837:25#p3380966

rvloon is at 789/837

— OTT:838:0 at 20131208.0414

— OTT:839:0 at 20131208.1256

OTT:839:7#p3381102

"Most people would not saunter along normally without even a single flinch if they encountered a spiky molpy they had never seen before that kind of aggressively rolled toward them, rolled into a ball and leapt in the air to shoulder-height. But these two don't even register anything, normally walk over and pick it up without comment... ... this Cuegan character is stuck in the Uncanny Valley."

{I think they are unafraid because they've been told (by others in their camp) that certain specific animals (which would include snakes and facebugs) are the only things to worry about.}

— OTT:840:0 at 20131209.0249

OTT:840:0#p3381199

{The practice of making decrees has become sufficiently popular that this person felt it necessary to explicitly state that they were not doing a decree.}

"ETA: Oooh, pope. Decree: Coming up with a decree is left as an exercise to the reader."

OTT:840:14#p3381234

{And somehow, inexplicably, the infamous "LEGO debate" has spring from the grave, fully animated and fervent as ever.}

"> ... For a mouse rices might actually make sense as a term.

Like deers, you mean?"

OTT:840:30#p3381268

"... I think you hit the nail on the head. We associate the brand with the product so closely that they become one in the same. If the company Oreo made something other than sandwich cookies we would not be able to refere to their products as Oreos."

{Specific examples debunked later, but the general principle is on the right track}

OTT:840:35#p3381279

{Link to video about the "i before e" spelling rule. The video states:

I before I except after C

or when sound is "Ɛɪ" as in neighbor and weigh

or in comparatives and superlatives like fancier

or when the c sound is "ʃ" as in glicier

or when "ie" sound is "ɪ" as in sieze

or when "i" sound is "ɔɪ" as in height

or in compound words like "albeit"

or in -ing inflections of verbs that end in e, like queueing

or technical words with a strong link to parent lenguages, like cuneiform and caffeine

or numerous other exceptions including science, forfeit, and weird }

OTT:840:37#p3381283

"The Last Time Waiter: Not Exactly What I Had in Mind, part 1"

— OTT:841:0 at 20131209.0324

OTT:841:24#p3381344

{A list of the chapters (and revisions) of AluisioASG's "The Last Time Waiter"}

{broken link to "master copy", see OTT:818:35#p3378658}

— OTT:842:0 at 20131209.1340

OTT:842:19#p3381415

"When you say "The Hudson" you are really saying "The Hudson (River)", which is really "The (Hudson) River". It's just a bit of breve-jive that became standard. Or, another way of putting it, there are sometimes ghost words in English sentences, and they have to be considered. Thus the cookie (the Oreo cookie) becomes the Oreo, and the brick (the Lego brick) becomes the Lego."

— OTT:843:0 at 20131209.2326

OTT:843:0#p3381459

"... Edit: just in case the previous Page Pope's decree didn't do the job, here's mine: I hereby disband the Page Papacy, without precedent."

OTT:843:15#p3381491

DD "piddledy poddledy / poor pining people put / ...

OTT:843:22#p3381505

"> > Blindpost from NP 838: I am amazed no-one in the OTT suggested a

> > drinking game long before this.

> Oh, we did. Or rather, ChronosDragon and

> yappobiscuits did on Newpage 491.

And then StratPlayer did it again on NP 730."

OTT:843:37#p3381535

poem "Pricklymolp and Molpypoke / (perhaps quite porcupine-y) / ..."

— OTT:844:0 at 20131210.0511

OTT:844:0#p3381542

"The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 5: Not Exactly What I Had in Mind"

OTT:844:18#p3381592

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 6: It Lives!, part 1"

— OTT:845:0 at 20131210.2031

— OTT:846:0 at 20131211.0046

OTT:846:10#p3381793

"... Meanwhile, I bring you all OTC smilies of Cuegan and Megball!

I also made versions with all the other emotions: happiness, sadness, shock, winking, evil, rolling eyes, embarrassment, neat, wow, snake! and all the other must-have ones!"

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:847:0 at 20131211.0514

OTT:847:11#p3381919

"Mod madness is only once a year. Some word filters stay all year around though.

Obamacare

feminine wiles

tricks

lost the game

Huh, you're right - they're only working for the previews. How odd."

OTT:847:16#p3381931

filk "Wake Up, Little Molpy" based on "Wake up little Susie" by e.g. by The Everly Brothers

OTT:847:27#p3381983

"... I have also heard some OSU fans in Columbus actually say things like "I watched the The Ohio State game". Really?"

{"The la Brea tar pits" = the the tar tar pits}

— OTT:848:0 at 20131211.0559

OTT:848:0#p3382008

DD "Popely-Momely / I have just Landed on / ..."

{Valarya requests double-dactyls, making this Newpage a notable resurgence of the form}

OTT:848:8#p3382045

DD "Missingly wissingly / Words so invisible / ..."

OTT:848:10#p3382050

filk "Hey hey, we're the molpies" based on "Hey hey, we're the Monkees" by The Monkees

OTT:848:12#p3382056

DD "drattily damndilly / double post once again / ..."

OTT:848:13#p3382058

DD "Your perfect version of / Southerly dialect / ..."

DD "Sippin that whiskey and / spittin tobaccy these / ..."

OTT:848:14#p3382060

DD "Cakily wakily / papal decree says that / ..."

OTT:848:15#p3382061

DD "Molpity bolpity / It's just a beesnake, but / ..."

OTT:848:20#p3382095

DD "Bipitty boppity / With M-scha's gif of thee / ..."

OTT:848:25#p3382115

DD "Youse-illy snoozily / Card'nal of cupcakes has / ..."

OTT:848:27#p3382127

DD "Piggedy freddegy / Lil' hatted hamster has / ..."

OTT:848:37#p3382181

"... A short story! ...

Megan brushed the dust off as she settled down on the edge of a ridge. ..."

OTT:848:39#p3382192

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 6: It Lives!, part 2"

— OTT:849:0 at 20131211.0814

{Today and for a while recently the server has responded well for actually reading pages, but has been slow for logging in and other User Control Panel activity. Here is a relevant message from the SFI thread Forum is very very very slow :

p3510560)

Yah, it is on its own queue. Keeps the spam attacks from affecting the rest of the forum usage most of the time. I think you folk have been generally happy with said decision.

Everything UCP-related, like logins and PMs, is seperated from the forum.

So getting in is a pain (as is logging out), but browsing the forum goes as smooth as silk.

Since stuff seems to be quieting down I'm increasing UCP's quota but leaving it separated. This should lessen people's issues while only in extreme cases causing a small impact on the rest of the forum.

I'd recommend remaining logged in when possible though frankly. }

— OTT:850:0 at 20131211.2114

OTT:850:0#p3382355

"The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 7: Record, Understand, Consider, Part 1"

OTT:850:18#p3382423

part 2 of "The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 7"

— OTT:851:0 at 20131211.2209

OTT:851:37#p3382630

DD "Swiggely Diggely / Glenfiddich, Talisker / ..."

DD "Port Ellen, Caol Ila / Islays in cask-strength form / ..."

— OTT:852:0 at 20131211.2239

OTT:852:5#p3382651

"> ... ah well, good mornternoon1 my dear OTTers!

> ...

Are we now all OTTers here Yappobiscuits? Have you converted our species now? :mrgreen:"

OTT:852:20#p3382689

part 3 of "The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 7"

— OTT:853:0 at 20131211.2349

OTT:853:20#p3382782

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 8: Come and See, part 1"

— OTT:854:0 at 20131212.0513

— OTT:855:0 at 20131212.0542

OTT:855:0#p3382883

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 8: Come and See, part 2"

OTT:855:6#p3382891

filk "D-I-S-N-E-Y buys X-K-C-D" based on Mickey Mouse Club March

OTT:855:7#p3382893

{Note "firefox" which is probably a filter from "IE", but I haven't found conclusive evidence of the mapping.}

"... What's a little more interesting to me is the colours you can get yourself to see if you mess with your eyes slightly. The cone that responds primarily to green has a range that is completely overlapped by the other cones, firefox, there is no wavelength that stimulates the green cones only. But you can get to see what such a wavelength would look like by turning off your red cones, which isn't that hard to mostly do. Lay in the sun with your eyes closed, looking at the bright red coming through your closed eyelids. After a while, open your eyes and look at something green. Hypergreen! ..."

OTT:855:10#p3382896

"... *shrugs* You'll have to ask Vytron; he's the new official OTTerHatter. ..."

— OTT:856:0 at 20131212.1435

OTT:856:2#p3382959

"The Last Time Waiter, chapter 8: Come and See, part 3."

OTT:856:3#p3382960

{"OTTer" now been used by 4 different OTTers, so I think it has become established.

"... With all of us OTTers reading into every line of dialogue ..."

OTT:856:10#p3382969

filk "The Loco-Molpy" based on "The Loco-Motion" by Little Eva

OTT:856:19#p3382983

"... But we're nearly seven wips into the journey, and I can't shake the feeling that we're way overdue for a "chapter break": a change in the direction the story tension will take. I'm going to make a prediction: By Monday wip, after the next wipend, 9 xip from now, the focus will shift from their journey to [something different]. ..."

— OTT:857:0 at 20131212.1527

OTT:857:1#p3383021

"... Ooh! Can we play an OTT version of In My Pants? ..."

{At this point I posted this holiday greeting }

— OTT:858:0 at 20131212.1736

— OTT:859:0 at 20131213.0001

OTT:859:30#p3383297

chapter 3 of "The Dark Lord" story {previous chapters at OTT:640:33#p3358284 and OTT:759:39p3371531; continued at OTT:1592:36p3492216}

— OTT:860:0 at 20131213.0518

OTT:860:3#p3383351

"The Last Time Waiter, Chapter 9: Time to Make History"

OTT:860:37#p3383493

filk "Paranoid Newpixbot" based on "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead

— OTT:861:0 at 20131213.0551

— OTT:862:0 at 20131213.0608

OTT:862:9#p3383660

filk "When are we finally going home?" based on "Wanneer gaan we nou naar huis?" by Theo Nijland

OTT:862:16#p3383676

rvloon is at 837/862

OTT:862:29#p3383727

filk of the second verse of "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:862:35#p3383744

Acts of the Clerics, A1 sc11 (part 2) and sc12

— OTT:863:0 at 20131213.2103

OTT:863:11#p3383796

filk "In Memoriam" based on "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" by Willy Nelson

— OTT:864:0 at 20131214.0047

OTT:864:8#p3383895

another adaptation of the Hamlet Yorick soliloquy

"Alas, poor Beesnake! I knew him, / Cueball. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent wings. He / ..."

OTT:864:15#p3383931

DD "Higgledy-piggledy / flapping and frolicking / ..."

DD "Poor molpybeesnake. I / hope it was painless, the / ..."

OTT:864:17#p3383955

DD "Buttery Molpily / Beautifully wingéd, the / ..."

OTT:864:22#p3383972

DD "Chugity-Buggity / Molpybeefacebugfly / ..."

DD "Our little Molpy was / caught in the upstream and / ..."

DD "Staring in horror at / GLR's symphony / ..."

(and a 4th DD missing its final line)

OTT:864:26#p3383992

filk "Buzz Along" based on "Storm Along" by Wilderun

— OTT:865:0 at 20131214.0528

OTT:865:9#p3384071

{Link to etymonline.com/?term=you shows the history of the 2nd-person pronoun in English. Along with 1st and 3rd for context, the forms were:

nominative objective pos.determ. pos.pron.

1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd

singular I thou he me thee him my thy his mine thine his

plural we ye they us you them our your their ours yours theirs

compare to the current:

nominative objective pos.determ. pos.pron. 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd singular I you he me you him my your his mine yours his plural we you they us you them our your their ours yours theirs }

OTT:865:13|#p3384094

HAL9000 is at 775/865

OTT:865:18#p3384111

"...

For all that you mourn the loss of the flutterbee as a symbol of beauty in the world, would you have mourned it so fiercely had it not met such an untimely end? I rejoice in the strength of the raptor's wings, its steep and plunging dive, its anticipation and judgement and technique. I celebrate it: wind-rider, air-splitter, acrobat on the breeze. It is a glorious engine of death, bringing the life of the flutterbee so precisely and poignantly to a close. Too often beauty lingers past its time, left behind on a newpix beyond our ken, to spiral into feather-soft memory that slips from our minds as gently as the Fading. No! Not here! Not now! The flutterbee is snatched from life in the instant of its appreciation, glorious, caught forever in a moment most beautiful, soaring gracefully into the heavens on glistening wings. It is our Icarus, breaking the chains of the earthly world in a brief, dooméd ascent. When he gazed into the blazing heart of the sun, what did he see? What if not the glory of a perfect unbecoming, a climactic close, an eternal legend, a symbol of life and loveliness and hope and desire caught forever in that instant of infinity before transcending the chrysalis of its physical shell and joyfully stretching newborn wings under a sky clearer and fresher than any mortal soul will ever know.

..."

OTT:865:24#p3384127

{Video of snoring dormouse}

"...

> But seriously, my favorite one ever is right here.

> It doesn't get more adorable than that lil molpy.

I challenge you with this!

..."

OTT:865:39#p3384160

short story (or beginning of a longer one?) "Inspiration"

— OTT:866:0 at 20131214.0637

OTT:866:2#p3384171

"This is so... so... so... Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ..."

— OTT:867:0 at 20131214.1642

OTT:867:19#p3384271

"Dear Sis,

I know I haven't written in a while and for that I apologize; just busy I guess. I hope you and the kids are well. I did want to tell you about the new church I've joined and invite you to visit us.

See, for many years I would pass by the Cathedral three times a week ..."

— OTT:868:0 at 20131214.2045

OTT:868:39#p3384445

{This turns out to be the beginning of the use of OTT- words to refer to derived creative works}

"Maybe a Pastiche would be a better word? Or we could just call it recycling or maybe go sideways and just call it an OTTification. Timification might also work."

— OTT:869:0 at 20131214.2127

OTT:869:14#p3384478

"mscha seems to be the current footnotes keeper (though i often defy his standards by using 3 as neat). i would recommend a weird footnote for "weird," maybe something like thisε.

ε weird"

OTT:869:17#p3384489

poem "flutterbee flew so far from the ground" based on "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E. E. Cummings

— OTT:870:0 at 20131214.2232

OTT:870:16|#p3384646

HAL9000 is at 815/870

OTT:870:19#p3384654

filk "Semencoffeecancerbaconbabiesoniceocean" based on "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins

OTT:870:20#p3384655

"> not react-ONG

> [frame m2172] uncanny valley \ | / \ | / \ v / \ / \ / \ / \ 0 <---/------ cueball \ -|- / \ / \ /


"

OTT:870:35#p3384705

{First use of "mstard", with a in place of a letter as if mustard is a dirty word, but it didn't catch on until 80NP later, see OTT:950:26#p3392894}

"> ...

> I must admit that the convention established here works very well for a LOUD WHISPER!

Yes, for a few words. Not for entire m*stardy posts!"

— OTT:871:0 at 20131214.2314

OTT:871:14#p3384768

filk "My Favorite Things" based on "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music"

OTT:871:20#p3384779

"...

(Redundant spoiler is redundant.)

Spoiler:

{McCoy from Star Trek, meme-ified with

caption "Randammit Tim / I'm an ott-er, not a Thymifier!"}

I told you. Why did you click this?

"

OTT:871:28#p3384801

filk "The Lone Sandcastle" based on "The Lonely Goatherd" from "The Sound of Music"

— OTT:872:0 at 20131215.0202

OTT:872:8#p3384850

{Another unique poem full of homonyms}

"Wen ties Ty Thais, wee wheelie mite bee / ..."

OTT:872:16#p3384897

filk "The naming of filks" based on "The Naming of Cats" by T. S. Eliot (and the musical "Cats")

OTT:872:26|#p3384921

macraw83 is at 642/872

— OTT:873:0 at 20131215.0224

OTT:873:7#p3384983

filk "I’ll Wait for It" based on "Star Trek: Enterprise" (TV show) theme song

OTT:873:9#p3384987

filk "Small-Big-Neat" based on "Do-Re-Mi" from "The Sound of Music"

— OTT:874:0 at 20131215.0707

OTT:874:0#p3385068

"hrb dcr tht fr th rmndr f th pg, n vwls b sd n n pst fr n rsn whtsvr.

[dt]t sms tht nn wnts t pst t ll, whch s ndrstndbl bcse t wld b vr dffclt.

[edit again] Why are people having so much difficulty ignoring this peacefully?"

{The first line says: "I hereby decree that for the remainder of this page, no vowels be used in any post for any reason whatsoever"}

OTT:874:8#p3385089

"rmmbr n thrcmc n th tpc f nmbr f vwls n wrds. t's ll rltd!"

{I didn't bother to try to read the rest of this post}

— OTT:875:0 at 20131215.0730

OTT:875:2#p3385173

"Whatever it is, the molpy seems to be afraid of it. Probably some kind of raptor."

OTT:875:17#p3385224

"My sincere apologies for overreacting.

It was the end of a long and difficult day in a seemingly neverending line of long and difficult days. I go to the OTT to get away from it all, and when that became long and difficult to read (again), I flipped."

OTT:875:19#p3385227

"... Also, I predict, rather confidently, that the OTC is about to get very, very exciting and we're about to witness one of the largest turning points/revelations, yet."

OTT:875:27#p3385263

"Sure, Cuegan, spend five newpix talking about a flutterbee, but nothing about the picnic basket. I hope mscha's right and there's something more exciting just off frame (a house?)."

OTT:875:30#p3385272

"...

And now, because I think we need a refresher:

The Complete Rules for Life

1. Be considerate to those around you, and those who will come after you.

2. Don't be stupid.

..."

— OTT:876:0 at 20131215.1326

— OTT:877:0 at 20131215.2213

OTT:877:34#p3385471

{referring to frame 2197, but wrong: Cueball could be in front of both of the bushes. No white part of Cuegan (backpacks and heads) is obscured.}

"... Note that Cueball walks in between two bushes, one in front, one behind him. ..."

— OTT:878:0 at 20131215.2242

OTT:878:6|#p3385520

karhell is at 498/878

OTT:878:33#p3385647

filk "The Music that We Write" based on "Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera"

— OTT:879:0 at 20131216.0314

OTT:879:2#p3385679

{Offset is 2}

"... And apparently, I'm pope ..."

— OTT:880:0 at 20131216.0330

— OTT:881:0 at 20131216.0400

OTT:881:7|#p3385954

tman2nd is at 657/881

OTT:881:14#p3385967

"To any programmer here:

[image of a bike shed]

(I, for one, would have preferred a light gray or beige.)"

{AluisioASG is referring to Parkinson's law of triviality}

OTT:881:21#p3385984

"... Seriously (as much as one can get with this story, anyhow), the emptiness is overshadowing the rising sea as the central mystery of Time. It was one thing to find abandoned campsites; they're temporary by definition. ... But the abandoned vineyard and now homestead are more troubling. ..."

OTT:881:28#p3385995

"I still think that indications are that the people here prior left rather quickly, but still with enough time to grab important items, leaving behind unneeded things. These last few frames, and the revelation of contents in the shed, kind of give me a creepy feeling. :?"

— OTT:882:0 at 20131216.0421

OTT:882:2#p3386021

{Offset is 2, and has been for a few Newpages. Perhaps the moderator queue was slow.}

"Edit: Hmmm, awkward. I think I am something of a Disbanderist by nature ..."

{This is the last mention of being pope until OTT:885:0#p3386392, when the Offset goes back to 0}

OTT:882:19#p3386081

"... Are gost versions allowed to? They are much closer to my heart since NP836. ..."

{"gost" is a mis-spelling of "ghost", and this is a reference to Neil_Boekend being "dead" for a while, see see OTT:836:9#p3380843 and following quotes.}

OTT:882:22#p3386092

filk "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" based on "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from "The Sound of Music"

OTT:882:34#p3386121

short story

"In a small village near the coast Queball and Megan live. Queball is a wizard. Villagers come to him with all kinds of problems, but he is renowed for his healing skills. ..."

OTT:882:37#p3386137

filk "There was a zombie in my fridge" based (apparently) on "Giraffe in my loft" from "Weebl's Stuff"

— OTT:883:0 at 20131216.0451

OTT:883:5#p3386164

filk "Tell us more" based on "Bring him home" from "Les Miserables"

OTT:883:6#p3386167

filk "Waiting in my pants" based on "Singing in the Rain"

OTT:883:23#p3386211

filk "Putting on the Blitz" based on "Putting on the Ritz" by e.g. Fred Astaire

— OTT:884:0 at 20131216.0511

OTT:884:33#p3386373

"... There's an attachment on NP2 with 15188 views ..."

{That image now says "time3EDT.png (4.18 KiB) Viewed 22706 times"}

"... About halfway the OTT, on [NP442OTT:442:4http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3341014#p3341014], there's an attachment with 583 views ..."

{And that one now says "Timesealevelrise20130429_1000.png (4.4 KiB) Viewed 1350 times". The much-lower number is a result of the fact that most people who looked at the OTT in its early days did not stick around}

— OTT:885:0 at 20131216.0540

OTT:885:0#p3386392

{Offset is 0}

"Edit: pope! We've received a whole lot of information ..."

OTT:885:9#p3386420

"... Thanks for the gholpimations mscha! I think it looks distinctly cat-ish from those close ups. You can kind of see a curled tail in 1000 and 1100 that then lowers down, like it's ready to pounce."

OTT:885:26|#p3386474

karhell is at 512/885

OTT:885:29#p3386484

"Settle in, tribe. Another 850 or so npix at least. Wait for it."

{This post was made at newpix 2223.01 and not edited, so the prediction is "3073 newpix at least", which is remarkably close.}

— OTT:886:0 at 20131216.0559

— OTT:887:0 at 20131216.0814

OTT:887:11#p3386662

partial filk of "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield (see also OTT:887:16#p3386677)

"there's something happinin here / what it is aint exactly clear / ..."

OTT:887:18#p3386679

filk "They went to build towers" based on "She went to pick flowers" by Mara Levi

also, a partial filk of "Rainbow Connection": "... why are there so many songs about molpies, and where they're endemic to? Molpies are pixels, that cause us confusion. Molpies don't have to be true ... For the doubters, the loopists, and the dreamers and me, la la la la la la la..."

OTT:887:22|#p3386684

HAL9000 is at 820/887

— OTT:888:0 at 20131216.0851

OTT:888:16#p3386749

filk (untitled) based on "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

OTT:888:28#p3386768

filk "The wonderful thing about molpies" based on "Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" from Winnie the Pooh

— OTT:889:0 at 20131216.1040

OTT:889:32#p3386850

"The Last Time Waiter: Swampman's Dilemma"

— OTT:890:0 at 20131217.0729

OTT:890:0#p3386861

"Mopey Molpy Mome decrees that this is

The Newpage of the Raptorcat"

OTT:890:12#p3386875

by charlie_grumbles >> Fri Jun 21, 2013 1:00 am UTC = newpix 2230.01

"hop-ONG for the best(here and IRL)

[frame m2230]

I'll not claim the ONG here either. I'm leaving the image unspoilerd for the benefit of blitzers."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Last edited by charlie_grumbles on Fri Jun 21, 2013 4:25 pm UTC,

edited 1 time in total.

{The latter statement "I'll not claim the ONG here either" is a reference to the "contested ONG" that resulted in charlie_grumbles' deciding to leave the OTT. See OTT:890:13p3386874, OTT:898:4p3387490, and OTT:893:37#p3387085}

OTT:890:13#p3386874

{Note that the post ID of this message is 3386874, which is smaller than the post ID of the previous post, 3386875. All surrounding numbers from 3386859 through 3386887 (except 3386872 and 3386881) are present in the OTT (showing how active the forum was), and they all appear in numerical order, except for these two ONG-posts. This is evidence of the non-intuitive re-ordering of posts that are being edited within the same minute.

by Kieryn >> Fri Jun 21, 2013 1:00 am UTC = newpix 2230.01

"Megan is ONG the move.

Spoiler:

[frame m2230]

Edit: I predict violent death of not cueball within 3-4 newpix.

EDIT: Ninja'd by charlie_grumbles."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Last edited by Kieryn on Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:31 pm UTC, edited 3 times in total.

— OTT:891:0 at 20131218.1947

OTT:891:3#p3386918

"... You posted at the exact same time :00:22 (yes I still use heresy dating). When that happens, you don't see a preview of each other's post. ..."

— OTT:892:0 at 20131219.0049

— OTT:893:0 at 20131219.0107

OTT:893:12#p3387053

"If it's mustard, then it proves the One True Author uses condiments. Which proves he reads the One True Thread, and uses the resulting enlightenment to create the One True Comic. We have discovered the One True Loop! ..."

OTT:893:20#p3387064

"Well, with a flying trip through the BxkAxn I found no frame that resembled the mustardmegballs at all, not tree-climbing, not even back in the castle scaffolding. So I think it must have been a glimpse into the future, like the one flag that appeared prematurely during the very first zoom. ..."

— OTT:894:0 at 20131219.0126

— OTT:895:0 at 20131219.0951

OTT:895:13|#p3387181

tman2nd is at 668/895

OTT:895:14#p3387185

filk based on (1st verse and chorus) "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton

{At this point I posted a BlitzReport here.}

— OTT:896:0 at 20131219.1625

OTT:896:0#p3387237

"I decree that people leave secret messages in the subject!"

OTT:896:24#p3387321

HAL9000 is at 823/896

— OTT:897:0 at 20131220.0523

OTT:897:1#p3387364

HAL9000 is at 823/896

OTT:897:7#p3387381

filk "Stick-thwap the Sandy Claws" based on "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

OTT:897:12#p3387390

DD "Timeody, Schmimeody, / BlitzGirl still thinks there's an / ..."

OTT:897:25#p3387438

filk "This Is OTT" based on "This Is Halloween" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

— OTT:898:0 at 20131220.0555

OTT:899:0#p3387582

{Offset is 0}

"... Edit: page pope, 'parently. I decree that Cuegan and Megball shippers set sail their best ships."

OTT:898:11#p3387516

filk of "Not Yet Dead" from "Spamalot"

OTT:898:20|#p3387540

HAL9000 is at 848/898

OTT:898:29#p3387559

ref-xkcd-1063

— OTT:899:0 at 20131220.0650

OTT:899:11#p3387611

"... But that's not important now. What's important is that Meg and Cueball head to the Love Shack for some serious survivor sex."

OTT:899:30#p3387658

"> Awww. That's a good one.

> grabs notbook

> does what you would expect one to do with a notebook and a good idea

Oh, so you fold your notebooks into representative origami specifying the details of your ideas also? I thought that was just me!"

— OTT:900:0 at 20131220.0711

OTT:900:26#p3387724

Subject: "Message erased"

{Based on subsequent quotes, the message probably said "I thought you were all respectful people here. / We are leaving. / bye." but the author was only "gone" for a day.}

OTT:900:39#p3387770

"... that is the second time I've ninja'd someone because my post came while they were editing a past-post, and would like to now gain a title for my future ninja skills. I'm going with "Ninja of the Past-Post" until one of the more creative in my tribe comes up with something better ..."

— OTT:901:0 at 20131220.0809

OTT:901:3#p3387776

HAL9000 is at 853/901

— OTT:902:0 at 20131220.1103

OTT:902:4#p3387886

Acts of the Clerics, chapter 13

OTT:902:5#p3387887

HAL9000 is at 859/902

OTT:902:6#p3387889

filk "Megan, Bloody Megan" based on "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2

OTT:902:29#p3387947

ref-xkcd-414

— OTT:903:0 at 20131220.1504

OTT:903:18#p3388027

short story (children's book style) "Lucky the Leopard"

OTT:903:35#p3388047

"In recent wips I have read a number of comments about how the OTT is slowing down. If it please the thread, ... This graph shows the rate of OTC newpix against the rate of OTT posts, ...

link to graph

..."

— OTT:904:0 at 20131220.1528

OTT:904:1#p3388054

{Offset is 1}

"... EDIT: Pagepope! I decree that posts on this page should be edited."

OTT:904:33#p3388115

filk "blood on the castle" based on "Blood on the Saddle" by Tex Ritter

— OTT:905:0 at 20131220.1949

OTT:905:13#p3388177

filk "Ode to an EdgeMolpy" based on (part of) "Livin' On The Edge" by Aerosmith

OTT:905:14#p3388184

filk "Megan's Last Lament" based on (first 2/3 of) "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley

OTT:905:35#p3388251

a little filk based on the "Itchy and Scratchy" song:

"They fight, and bite. / They fight and fight and bite. / Fight, fight, fight! Bite, bite, bite! / The Molpy and Cuegan show!"

— OTT:906:0 at 20131220.2117

OTT:906:2#p3388266

filk "It's a Short Wait (After All)" based on "It's a Small World (After All)" from {the Disneyland attraction, I guess}

— OTT:907:0 at 20131220.2144

OTT:907:1#p3388354

{Offset is 1, but note that the offset happened very soon after the post was submitted:}

by mscha >> Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:09 pm UTC = newpix 2269.16

"...

Edit: no papal orders. Can't think of any.

Edit2: no longer pope, so good thing I had no orders."

. . . . . . .

Last edited by mscha on Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:49 pm UTC

OTT:907:4#p3388363

filk "Facehugmolpyattackkittymurderbaconraptor" based on "Supercalifragialisticexpialidocious" from "Mary Poppins"

OTT:907:20|#p3388390

Valarya is at 874/907

OTT:907:31#p3388413

HAL9000 is at 860/907

— OTT:908:0 at 20131220.2204

— OTT:909:0 at 20131221.0320

OTT:909:18#p3388539

{First draft of the "Some Ways to Time." intro in the Wiki}

"...

Here's a quick cut at what I'd put in intro to time. ...

How to Time.

There are many ways to properly enjoy Time. The best way is the one that suits you best. ..."

— OTT:910:0 at 20131221.0651

— OTT:911:0 at 20131221.0705

OTT:911:24#p3388719

filk "I've Got a Bad Case of Loving Cue" based on "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" by Robert Palmer

— OTT:912:0 at 20131221.1738

OTT:912:0|#p3388763

{Offset is 0}

"... ETA: Page pope! Predictions please! ..."

— OTT:913:0 at 20131221.1754

OTT:913:3#p3388902

HAL9000 is at 888/913

OTT:913:8#p3388915

"... I've finished The Constellation of Time 3. I tweaked it a bit around and the huge version is the hugest I've ever made of any image: 49 megapixels! ..."

OTT:913:9#p3388926

"And if we are explaining the origins of our usernames - mine is based on my real first name. It was created many years ago by reversing my name, replacing one letter with another that sounds the same and then translating part of it from Czech to English. Easy."

OTT:913:13#p3388937

"The mountaintop structure is the humble home of the world's wisest guru who happens to be named Randall. He tells them that he will help them get home, but only if they bring him the broom belonging to the wicked molpytch of the west. Not knowing which way is west, they decide to camp out and sing boom de yada until the guru acquiesces."

OTT:913:21|#p3388952

HAL9000 is at 898/913

OTT:913:32|#p3389001

There once was a young molpy named Niclep. by Eternal Density >> np 2300.07

{This is the beginning of a story that is given one line at a time through the subject lines of Eternal Density's posts. It continues through OTT:994:9p3397679, and resumes again at OTT:1005:5p3398761 through OTT:1148:39#p3413244.

To read them all in order, this command suffices:

g ott ; grep 'by..Eternal.Density.*2013.UTC.newpix.2[3-9]' OTT.rhtf

It was at least partly written on the fly, note OTT:943:24#p3392193.

A partial compilation is at OTT:948:13#p3392658 }

— OTT:914:0 at 20131222.0413

— OTT:915:0 at 20131223.1042

OTT:915:4#p3389116

"... I wrote a little script to fetch each forum page and look for phrases of the form "viewed NNN times", which the forum seems to associate with each inlined attachment. Here is a scatterplot of the results. ..."

{Saved in "NP915 views per attachment.png"}

OTT:915:15#p3389138

"... Or perhaps, the top of the mountain is a sanctuary, to which everyone else has run (hence, no direct encounters with people). ..."

— OTT:916:0 at 20131223.1109

— OTT:917:0 at 20131223.1139

OTT:917:27#p3389409

HAL9000 is at 902/917

— OTT:918:0 at 20131223.1330

OTT:918:19#p3389486

"... It's a little experiment disguised as deja vu. ... As of now, both attachments have identical view counts, even though one is only visible in the spoiler and the other has the raw image available in the post (which has now been quoted, thank you)."

{BlitzGirl is referring to OTT:916:14#p3389233, which has a spoiler containing two copies of the xkcd 566 OTTification "NP916 0566 TheChosenCueball.png". If you view the message, the number of times viewed is shown in the alt text. As of now, both images have "Viewed 1983 times"}

{At this point I posted a travelogue here.}

— OTT:919:0 at 20131224.1626

OTT:919:19|#p3389563

{Nice stats, but 100-frame buckets are a bit too chunky.}

"I ran some statistics on the dialogue.

...

Finally, the number of frames with dialogue per ‘character’:

Megan: 185

Cueball: 163

Baby Chirpy: 16

Parent Chirpy: 13

(Unseen): 3

Lucky: 2

Frog: 1

Plant: 1

Stick: 1

..."

OTT:919:24|#p3389571

"... I did a very quick and dirty test. You can search the graph, click on the little orange left upper corner arrows and play around with it a bit. Not sure if it is any good, it's definitely not real time though:

xkcd.mscha.org/sciscitor/gefx/index.html#Test.gexf

..."

{Whatever this is, it doesn't work any more}

— OTT:920:0 at 20131224.1644

OTT:920:2|#p3389616

{Offset is 2}

"... ETA2: Darn, no longer pagepope :P ..."

OTT:920:4|#p3389626

karhell is at 535/920

OTT:920:9|#p3389658

"...

> ...

> Earliest mention I can find is on newpage 47 - an old

> TimeWaiter known as TheMulattoMaker mentioned it as a possible ending

> for the comic.

> Next reference was on newpage 382 - by a one-off

> poster who never came back as far as I know.

> So yeah, it has been seen before, as with anything on this thread :D

Both these theories refer to the OTT (our behavior), not to the OTC.

..."

{Both posts are ambiguous at best. OTT:47:38#p3305563 probably intended to equate all viewers of Time (not just the OTTers) to the fictional audience of the fictional Truman Show (both of which exist within a fictional world depicted by the movie), not the real-life people who view the actual "Truman Show" film. OTT:382:13#p3334695 is a little less clear, but can easily be interpreted the same way, particularly after having seen OTT:47:38#p3305563.}

OTT:920:39|#p3389739

Pikrass is at 856/920

— OTT:921:0 at 20131224.1715

OTT:921:13|#p3389775

{Presumably intended to be silly, but contains two spot-on predictions; see OTT:1459:0#p3456448}

"they will meet an old wizard on top of the mountain who will magically heal their wounds. Then he will tell Cuegan to go and collect two of each molpy species, and bring them to the top of the mountain. They will hide their from the rising sea, as a mountain is the farthest they can get from sea level. just when all seems lost, LaPetite will drift by on the top half of their sandcastle and they will all get on and sail around the world"

OTT:921:29|#p3389859

"...

Oompa loompa doop-a-dee doo, I've got another puzzle for you: was looking back at my molpy drawing attachments (there were four in one post) and noticed that for some reason the normal and large sized attachments had identical views, and the small and mini attachments had identical views, but the two pairs were separated by roughly 40 views. Not sure why.

..."

{The 4 attachments are:

size image ID Appears in posts (prior to OTT:921:29) (# of NP)

------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------- -------

normal: id=37138 OTT:909:17, :19, :20, :21, :26, 911:21, 920:25 3

larger: id=37137 OTT:909:17 1

small: id=37139 OTT:909:17, 910:1, :2, :28, 2

tiny: id=37140 OTT:909:17 1

and BlitzGirl's observations do not support my theory that the number of page-loads is the thing being counted.}

OTT:921:30|#p3389864

"...

> Edit to add more sizes.

Those wouldn't be the two smaller ones, by any chance?

Even if they would, the edit was only 7 minutesH later, and 40 views is perhaps a bit too much...

..."

{Oh yes, that's probably the explanation. It counts page-loads, but only of the page that contains the message in which the images appear as an attachment.}

— OTT:922:0 at 20131225.1936

OTT:922:1|#p3389909

{Offset is 1, but within only a few hours}

"... ETA: pope! Decree: propose ways in which Megan might

...

ETA: hmm, a few hours later, no longer pope."

— OTT:923:0 at 20131225.1949

OTT:923:0#p3390081

"The Pope wants:

Fitzypyro wrote: I think everyone is just too focused on Time to worry about The Past. Code: black otp1 file start 99 108 108 45 252 156 228 41 186 134 36 231 228 72 133 4 107 160 133 15 94 248 66 53 94 64 52 181 99 187 65 120 32 154 145 38 237 228 209 116 246 offset 1190

The code is a simple XOR against a one-time pad, which is the binary

file "weirdblock.bin" from the "OTP22" alternate reality game, see otp22.referata.com/wiki/ElPasoOTP1_CD . For discussion and the decoding of this message, see OTT:923:21#p3390127, OTT:923:28p3390138, OTT:923:29p3390142, OTT:923:32#p3390146 }

— OTT:924:0 at 20131225.2009

OTT:924:5|#p3390186

{First spoilered redundakitty attachment!}

"Redundant spoiler:

[picture of a cat, with caption:

'i told you was redundant. y u no believe me?'] "

{Later, in OTT:926:5#p3390474 @HES notes "Now I have to check every other redundant spoiler for 'aww's"}

OTT:924:8|#p3390196

filk based on something from "Man of La Mancha"

OTT:924:25|#p3390263

"

) ) ) ) ( ) (

( /( ( ( /( ( /( ( /( )\ ) ( /( )\ )

)\())( )\ ( )\()) )\()))\()) (()/( )\())(()/((

(()\ )(())\ (()\ (()\(()\ /()|()\ /())\

((|()(()_ (() (() (() ()) (()())(()

/ \| ) _\ \ / / \ / \ \ / \ \ _

() \ \ V / .
()
/ () /

\_/|_/_ \\_/ \_/ __

"

OTT:924:33#p3390278

filk "Great S-C(OTT)" based on "S-N (Snore, Sniff and Sneeze)" by Tom Lehrer

— OTT:925:0 at 20131226.0032

OTT:925:4#p3390308

partial filk based on "One of Us" by Joan Osborne

— OTT:926:0 at 20131226.2035

OTT:926:1#p3390466

{I agree. Ch*rping steambottle rules. Ni ni ni!}

"Moved from an edit on the last post of the previous NP. That's why I hate that double post rule so much. Nobody posts, so you edit your previous post; by the time you're finished, people have posted already and half the otters won't see your addition."

OTT:926:6#p3390476

"... But I think double posting on a new topic is a perfectly sensible thing to do so long as you avoid conversing with yourself. That's the crux, though. I think the rule is intentionally overambitious because many netizens lack the capacity of self-awareness necessary to distinguish an internal dialogue from a new topic."

OTT:926:27#p3390542

"... if you can't have any affect on the largest group, then work for the next largest group. ..."

{Seems relevant to my pages on sociology, e.g. mrob.com/pub/std/mcv05.html }

— OTT:927:0 at 20131227.1658

OTT:927:21#p3390623

short story "Grey Goo - An Argument for Nano"

— OTT:928:0 at 20131227.1722

— OTT:929:0 at 20131227.1738

— OTT:930:0 at 20131227.1808

OTT:930:8#p3390972

{yappobiscuits makes little GIF smilie versions of several people's avatars}

— OTT:931:0 at 20131227.1845

OTT:931:1#p3391049

{Offset is 1}

"[edit] Woo, Vatican ONGer! I hereby decree ..."

OTT:931:11#p3391069

{Neat graph of post rate by time of day, see "NP931 timeofday.92days.png"}

"... I can do graphs like this for other Waiters, but due to privacy concerns I won't post any unless you give me permission. (If you do give me permission, don't be surprised if I have a comment about your posting habits.)"

OTT:931:15#p3391074

filk "Molpy bird, molpy bird" based on "Little Bird, Little Bird" from "Man of La Mancha"

— OTT:932:0 at 20131227.2025

OTT:932:25#p3391183

{The second redundakitty}

— OTT:933:0 at 20131228.0947

OTT:933:16#p3391259

{The dusk/sunset sequence is starting, and it actually started during the previous "scene" before we one with the tree. At first the darkening is thought to be clouds.}

"I've gone back and enhanced the frame where it first appeared.

[image, see "NP933 fr2352 first_clouds.png"]

It's been growing ever since, hidden in the top white pixel ranges."

OTT:933:36#p3391305

"Feels like oncoming night. Clouds would have a more definite form. This could be dusk approaching. ..."

— OTT:934:0 at 20131228.1004

OTT:934:35#p3391392

"... Also, if this is a setting sun, we're on the northern hemisphere. Low latitudes, given the angle."

OTT:934:36|#p3391395

Valarya is at 881/934

— OTT:935:0 at 20131228.1058

— OTT:936:0 at 20121228.1121

OTT:936:11#p3391539

filk "Goodbye Blue Sky" based on "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Pink Floyd

— OTT:937:0 at 20131228.1156

OTT:937:2|#p3391598

HAL9000 is at 927/937

OTT:937:22#p3391647

filk "Dust on my screen" based on "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas

OTT:937:24#p3391649

filk "Every New Frame’s Awefulsome" based on "Modern Major-General" by Gilbert and Sullivan ("Pirates of Penzance")

OTT:937:34#p3391673

"... Viewing it from the past, papal decrees are annoying (often very annoying). But from a present perspective, they give us something to do while Waiting for the most recent ONG. I would argue that this has been going on long before the establishment of the page papacy (remember ROT-13? And the bag puns? And legos and pronouns and math and morse code...), we've simply been using the papacy as a convenient start/end point for the off-topicness that has always been present on the OTT."

— OTT:938:0 at 20131228.1219

OTT:938:8#p3391720

Time Control to Major Thong by AluisioASG

{Beginning with this post and continuing through OTT:993:35#p3397638, AluisioASG uses the subject lines to give a filk of "Major Tom" by David Bowie one line at a time. There is also another one-time-padd message here, which I suspect contained the full lyrics.}

OTT:938:18|#p3391743

karhell is at 555/938

OTT:938:32|#p3391789

HAL9000 is at 938/938

— OTT:939:0 at 20131228.1244

OTT:939:34#p3391872

poem "The Pix Poem" based on "The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss

— OTT:940:0 at 20131228.1841

OTT:940:14#p3391913

{BlitzGirl reveals that she also wrote a filk of "Modern Major-General", and provides an image, in which the lyrics are just barely readable.}

"Psst...y'all wanna know a secret?

I actually started working on a version of "Every Major's Terrible"/"Modern Major-General" when Valarya requested it on Newpage 467, but never finished it.

"

{I examined the image, spent a while working out the lyrics and locating the original posts from which they were derived, and then posted this.}

OTT:940:16#p3391915

"My new theory is that whenever we've seen them coma, there's been a night between frames, but this is the first time they've continued walking through the night (because they want to get help for Megan as soon as possible) so it's the first time we see nightfall."

— OTT:941:0 at 20131228.2203

OTT:941:4#p3391980

"... is the sun moving awfully fast considering that Megball are now walking across the frame? I mean, if it took them, say, 5 seconds to walk about 5q, would the sun really move as much as it just did?"

OTT:941:9#p3391988

filk "Fade to Black" based on "Fade to Black" by Metallica

OTT:941:23#p3392027

filk "Cuegan and the Sky with Mustard" based on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles

— OTT:942:0 at 20131228.2227

OTT:942:38#p3392146

{This OTTification of xkcd 623 (see "NP942 0673 DaylightSavingTime.png") introduces the term "molpy up"}

"You know what Time it is?

The Sun

Inspired by [xkcd.com/673/] ..."

— OTT:943:0 at 20131228.2252

OTT:943:7#p3392155

{An example of a word whose primary meaning has changed in recent memory}

"... I use the term 'cartoon' here because that is what we called it back in the day. I believe it was a daily cartoon, as opposed to a Saturday Morning cartoon."

OTT:943:24#p3392193

{ED worked the recent new phrase "molpy up" into her ongoing story in the subject lines, showing that he has not written it all in advance.}

"The molpy ran. Run molpy, run! He ran up the hill. Molpy up!"

— OTT:944:0 at 20131229.0705

{I accidentally read the first 10 or so posts of NP945 for a while, then jumped back to 944:0}

OTT:944:16#p3392262

{This Newpage has a decree encouraging people to try typing with their eyes closed. I've noticed that new things tend to get responses from people who don't otherwise post often, and this is an example.}

"Blindposting is easy. / ... / ETA: Wow, no errors. ..."

— OTT:945:0 at 20131229.0812

OTT:945:2#p3392342

"¿Has visto a las hormigas?"

{This newpage's decree invites people to type in Spanish, and I realize that I no longer care enough to look things up in Google Translate. But BlitzGirl's translations at OTT:945:34#p3392439 are better :) }

OTT:945:9#p3392362

filk "A couple sleeps tonight" based on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh/Mbube)" by Solomon Linda

and filk of (part of) "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf

OTT:945:12#p3392372

filk (partial) "No one's in the house" based on "Master of the House" from "Les Miserables" (continued in OTT:945:16#p3392391)

OTT:945:24#p3392409

{first use of "molpy down"}

OTT:946:11#p3392471

{I'm beginning to be frustrated by the fact that apparently everyone on the OTT believes that the angle of the Sun's apparent travel against the horizon at sunset varies +-23 degrees by time of year.}

"... This is an Australian sunset, notice the difference? ..."

OTT:946:14#p3392475

filk based on "Choppers" by Headless Chickens

OTT:946:18#p3392482

"... OF course, the star means no clouds, no smoke, just Randallized (heresy?) sunset."

OTT:946:29#p3392498

"... In a drier climate, there would be enough radiative cooling that I imagine I'd have been quite chilly by morning. And they're obviously going through a semi-arid upland, ... The combination of arid climate, upland, temperate Northern latitude, and mild nighttime temperature is, uhm, unusual. ... Relocate some fauna to Cassini-Madagascar, or plant some baobabs in Spain or Italy, and maybe it might work."

{How about halfway between Spain and Italy?}

— OTT:947:0 at 20131229.1710

OTT:947:19#p3392560

"... Also, I have a notion regarding this page pope nonsense. The second person to post on a page is the Grand Auditor and has the privilege of vetoing the papal decree for that page as heresy should it break the primary law of Blitzarus Annoyus."

OTT:947:33#p3392598

a poem, kind of like the children's book "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

— OTT:948:0 at 20131229.1734

OTT:948:26#p3392721

"... knowing how things have worked out so far in the OTC, it might just be a clearly identifiable series of constellations that could only be viewed from some ridiculous, inconsistent place or time like this: Constellations in 50,000 years

— OTT:949:0 at 20131229.1804

OTT:949:25#p3392797

"re: all the "it's almost like" constellations.... what if we were thousands of years in the past or future... would any of those constellations have changed to resemble the OTC ones more? ..."

OTT:949:33#p3392817

{First proper identification of the constellations}

"The 3 stars in a row are the end of Scorpius's tail! ...

[image, clearly rotated about 70 degrees counterclockwise from the Time image"

OTT:949:34#p3392821

karhell is at 564/949

— OTT:950:0 at 20131229.1822

OTT:950:25#p3392891

"Based on the exact position of venus the precise date is 2013/11/7 — Except that on that date the moon should be in close proximity. ..."

— OTT:951:0 at 20131229.1834

OTT:951:18#p3392952

"Edited out my image because it was LABELED INCORRECTLY and I WAS WRONG :oops: but you will see my wrongness quoted in several posts further down from here."

{Valarya had the diagram from cropcircleconnector.com/images/Ecliptic.jpg (see "NP951 Ecliptic.jpg") labeled "northern" but it's actually a diagram of the Sun as observed from the southern hemisphere (roughly 40 degrees south latitude). See also OTT:951:24p3392963, OTT:951:26p3392967, OTT:951:27#p3392968, OTT:951:36#p3392988}

OTT:951:19|#p3392953

jetpac is at 846/951

OTT:951:26#p3392967

"This space deliberately left blank"

{See OTT:951:18#p3392952}

— OTT:952:0 at 20131229.1856

OTT:952:21#p3393027

{A few frames had an error: Zeta Sagittarii was depicted as a widely separated visual binary, like Mizar and Alcor. It is indeed a binary, but the components are very close together.}

"... ETA: At the Time this ONG was originally posted, the anomaly star was present, and the frame looked like this:

[see 'apocryphal-2393.png']"

— OTT:953:0 at 20131229.1920

OTT:953:3#p3393073

"> > They're all fun and games until nearly half the posts on a age

> > are near or total gibberish, occasionally in *cough* a foreign

> > language. That page wasn't much fun to read.

> It is if you read it the way I read it. :D

Does that qualify as not reading it ALL??? Or I suppose it could merely qualify as a misinterpretation... which is to be expected and forgiven in a flameless party such as this. In which case is it fair game to misinterpret rot13 as gibberish and morse code as poorly constructed horizontal emoticons? ..."

OTT:953:11#p3393092

filk "When you map upon a star" based on "When You Wish Upon a Star" from "Pinocchio"

OTT:953:21#p3393120

{It's about time! (the existing "NP951 Ecliptic.jpg" shows it pretty well, but I've also saved "NP953 SunrisePaths.png")}

"Axial tilt and time of year play no role here, that's only interesting for the movement of the sun over the year, not of the sun and stars over the course of an hour or so.

The only thing that's relevant is the earth's rotation around its axis. The fact that it rotates around the sun (using an axis that is not parallel to the earth axis) is irrelevant.

See here for a diagram that shows that the angle of the path the sun (and stars) take through sunrise is pretty much constant throughout the year. Sunset is obviously the same."

OTT:953:35#p3393159

"I wonder: did you pick 2013 as the closest-to-now year in which this setting of venus can appear, or is there something unique this year that I'm not seeing in this image? 'cause I've tried with more advanced years, and I got lucky in Feb. 8976:"

— OTT:954:0 at 20131230.1102

— OTT:955:0 at 20131230.1135

OTT:955:3#p3393283

{Offset is 3}

"... I'm the Catholic Cathedral's Chief Caretaker, for the sake of detecting firstposts. ..."

OTT:955:7#p3393293

"... This is the path that Venus has taken so far, since it appeared on our newpix. It is not a straight line.

Most likely, this is because a photo, or OTC frame, is a projection of a part of a sphere onto a rectangle, and you can't do that without deformation. ..."

— OTT:956:0 at 20131230.1148

OTT:956:1#p3393382

"... (Note to self: Never again put spoiler tags inside URL tags)"

{Ruh-roh. I think they heard you...}

OTT:956:3#p3393394

{Antares is noticed, finally.}

"Just a random thought, if Randall drew the star super accurate, then I am thinking this may be some time in the future.

My reasoning: where the hell is Antares?!

[image, see 'NP956 missing Antares fxau.jpg']

Eta Scorpii is another star that seems to have disappeared.

also, several other stars seem to be placed in slightly different places."

OTT:956:12#p3393439

filk "Stars" based on "Stars" from "Les Misérables"

OTT:956:19#p3393451

"I had the same thought. With Stellarium I get a better match to the shapes (in particular, looking at the shape of Corona Australis and the angle between the bow stars Kaus Borealis/Media/Australis) at about 20000 +- 5000 AD. I'm going to try a better fit later."

OTT:956:37#p3393499

"more in depth analysis comparison with Stellarium:

[image, see 'NP956 star changes 9yvw.jpg']

Red = blank space where there should be a star

Green = new star (or possibly a planet)

Yellow = stars that have moved"

— OTT:957:0 at 20131230.1212

OTT:957:20#p3393553

{first date estimate calculation from proper motion}

"I did some calculations on two stars that have moved quite a bit.

[image, see 'NP957 proper motion xpwt.jpg']

η Ser and ε Sco, the first one, I marked twice, not realising it was a star that had moved.

Using their proper motion, and their approximate distance in the sky (measured using Stellarium), I got 14,300 years for η Ser, and 12,900 for ε Sco, both in the future, which would be consistent with Antares going supernova, and is now only very faint. :D"

OTT:957:25#p3393581

{First actual mention of precession}

"If it's 13000 years hence that's half a precession cycle so the sun will be around Scorpius near the end of northern spring/start of summer."

— OTT:958:0 at 20131230.1536

OTT:958:38#p3393739

filk "One Pix More" based on "One Day More" from "Les Miserables"

— OTT:959:0 at 20131230.1551

OTT:959:19#p3393785

by Latent22 >> Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:14 am UTC = newpix 2408.24

"You know at one point the stars were pointing to a date in november this year and it was asked if that was when the OTC would end. And they are saying it's going to be another 13000 years or something. That sure is a lot of newpix. Hope GLR has a good plan for his progeny or others to keep it going that long. Wonder how many newpages that would make this thread."

{Using newpix as the basis of the time unit, and a mean tropical year of 365.242189 dix (also noting that halfway down NP959 means that there are 958.5 pages worth of posts) :

Start now 2014-03-25 End

years 0 1.000 13996.0

newpix 0 2408.24 8765.813 105040731.6

Newpages 0 958.50 3488.868 41807104.5

(Calculations: 1 year = 24*365.242189 newpix

end = year 13996 AD (see OTT:958:17#p3393683) = 11983 years after start }

— OTT:960:0 at 20131230.1620

— OTT:961:0 at 20131230.2110

OTT:961:26#p3394007

macraw83 is at 660/961

DD "Bboz dr yndn-a / Doing some signposting. / ..."

— OTT:962:0 at 20131230.2143

OTT:962:6#p3394102

"... While we're at it, perhaps somebody could persuade Aubron to change the backing track of his Book to Longplayer. You can get a direct online feed to it playing here. It's got just the right "wait for it" feel to it...

OTT:962:13#p3394124

"The date order is just like the Lego(s) thing. It doesn't matter what is right/wrong or correct. What you were raised with just sounds good in your head and there isn't anything that logic can do to change that."

OTT:962:33#p3394180

filk "Somewhere up on the mountain / What a Wowtreeful world" based on "Somewhere over the rainbow / What a wonderful world" by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

— OTT:963:0 at 20131231.1114

— OTT:964:0 at 20131231.2037

{First mention of lines of constant declination} "One piece of information that hasn't been used (as far as I have

seen) is comparison of the stars with the solar latitude. The sun's track across the sky is basically a line of constant declination, but this declination will change with the season and with precession. Here's the sun's track (38.5° from vertical, in the images) overlaid on one of the star images:

[image, see 'NP964 sun-path-overlay.png']

For dates ~15000AD this looks like a declination of about +10° (changing slightly with precession). Your 14960/05/07 has the sun at +17°, and 13996/04/23 has it at +13°; both are a little large. 13291/04/14 has it at 9° 46' which is pretty close to what I see. (On that date Jupiter is high in the sky and would be appearing in a few frames.)

I think we should also see Fomalhaut in the lower left soon, and Altair might make an appearance in the upper right as well; these have high proper motions as well."

OTT:964:10#p3394355

karhell is at 574/964

OTT:964:26#p3394414

Purplepants77 is at 722/964

— OTT:965:0 at 20140101.1829

OTT:965:3#p3394454

{First star trail plot, see "NP965 star trails out.png". Lines of equal declination are clear}

OTT:965:10#p3394488

"Very nice. I've been trying to use these arcs to project where polaris is, but so far nothing is lining up right, the mid-point is all over the place."

OTT:965:31#p3394581

{Good analysis of the star-trails image}

"... That tells us something important in a slightly meta way. If Randall had simply drawn a starry sky image and was rotating it for each frame, all the arcs would be concentric. That they're not means it's overwhelmingly likely that the sky is being rendered algorithmically. ...

... a little bit to the left of the sun's path, some of the star paths are almost straight lines. ... [further discussion of projections]

If that's true, it tells us that:

- We are looking slightly north of west.

- The sun set slightly to the north of west.

- It's mid spring.

- We are in the northern hemisphere at latitude 39.5, the angle of the straight-line star path.

- The celestial equator is way out of place. "

— OTT:966:0 at 20140101.1845

OTT:966:23#p3394683

Acts of the Clerics A1 sc14

OTT:966:28#p3394694

{Jupiter appears}

"NEWPLANETONG"

OTT:966:30#p3394698

filk "Bold-lee-go-nigh-A" based on the Oscar Meyer Bologna Song

OTT:966:31#p3394699

"I think that's Jupiter; its position is very close to what Stellarium predicts for 13291/04/14."

— OTT:967:0 at 20140101.2003

OTT:967:22#p3394819

"I've looked for the best time to align Venus with the rest of the stars (method: from frame 2400, I draw the polygon in red linking the stars and Venus. Then I rescale proportionnaly and rotate to match stellarium screen captures). I find 04-10 around 04h UTC, with an estimated possible error of +-4h."

— OTT:968:0 at 20140101.2021

OTT:968:17#p3394883

TheMinim is at 195/968

— OTT:969:0 at 20140101.2052

OTT:969:14#p3394984

macraw83 is at 681/969

OTT:969:35#p3395037

"... There does seem to have been a change in Stellarium's behavior. My screenshots used an older version (0.11.1); when I upgrade to 0.12.1 I get the same results you do (better fit at 13291/04/10).

I don't know what changed between these versions to give these differences. The readme for v0.12.0 lists improvements to 'accuracy for archaeoastronomical events' which might be relevant. ..."

OTT:969:39#p3395046

{First post by charlie_grumbles since he left}

"... Click on the last bit: Page xxx of yyy. You will get a form to fill in with a page number.

It will take you directly there.

Hi to all.

Back to the desert."

OTT:970:12#p3395067

{More speculation about the Zeta Sagittarii mustard}

"... Or he deliberately added it there, so that he could remove it when we noticed it, thus confirming that this is intended to be an actual sky, and not only a pretty bunch of stars."

OTT:970:23#p3395083

{Meteor frame!}

"ESTRONGEDNESS...

[frame m2440a] "

OTT:970:38#p3395100

"imgs.xkcd.c o m/comics/time/924dfaf95e46a0433460ae5937d92dd33b7a1bf205d0e16d785e3637c666ce25.png

Did anyone catch any of the other frames? They went by so fast!"

{frame m2440b}

— OTT:971:0 at 20140101.2133

OTT:971:0#p3395104

{Offset is 0}

"Oh, 7! So this is new, irregular newpix scheduling for a special event...

Papal decree: Make a meteor wish! But don't post it here... then it won't come true..."

OTT:971:18#p3395126

"I had my browser open during the "event" and looking at the cache it was this:

39137b8e65d78f6fa880c6f2729b94cee71190d5788a59b89b5cd80862aff031.png

924dfaf95e46a0433460ae5937d92dd33b7a1bf205d0e16d785e3637c666ce25.png

de6708be8445e69359efecd2faca17c609d5f25d9430a5124b82db4cea24d400.png"

OTT:971:25#p3395138

"... Newpixbot, as well as Aubron and Geekwagon, all got only one, and it is not on the list:

04de32cf158c516e8b517e3b615a58d74ad2c4bc1624e595a5ad8317bbb1b32b.png

... The correct order appears to be:

9ae0328e0f5321b2f772cfc60388cedb89eb2d17258f8a69f3601958026a0a06.png

924dfaf95e46a0433460ae5937d92dd33b7a1bf205d0e16d785e3637c666ce25.png

39137b8e65d78f6fa880c6f2729b94cee71190d5788a59b89b5cd80862aff031.png

de6708be8445e69359efecd2faca17c609d5f25d9430a5124b82db4cea24d400.png

04de32cf158c516e8b517e3b615a58d74ad2c4bc1624e595a5ad8317bbb1b32b.png

This really wreaks havoc with our frame numbering (and any animations I'm doing)...

For frame numbering, I think I'll number those 2440a, 2440b, 2440c, 2440d, 2440e."

OTT:971:39#p3395160

filk "Celestial Sphere (Starry Starry Night)" based on "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)" by Don McLean

— OTT:972:0 at 20140101.2151

OTT:972:19#p3395197

filk "Megan and Cue" based on the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song

OTT:972:30#p3395230

filk "Viva la Vida" based on "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay

OTT:972:37#p3395248

"FYI, my script which sucks down the JavaScript data feed seems to have gotten all the images I've seen listed so far, and no more. So, we likely have all there are. The intervals between those 5 frames seem to have been 20s, 10s, 20s, 11s, but that could have been skewed by the way the server sorts which streams to send the data to first.

In general, I think mscha's NewPixBot is better than my script, but in this particular case, it does look like my script was much better. Obviously, the best thing of all is to keep them both running, and between the two of us (and Aubronwood & Geekwagon) we should be able to catch just about anything Great Lord Randall throws at us.*

— OTT:973:0 at 20140101.2325

OTT:973:9#p3395267

filk "When You Wish Upon a Star" based on "When You Wish Upon a Star" (from Pinocchio)

— OTT:974:0 at 20140102.0007

OTT:974:24#p3395397

filk "Molpy, Molpy, There You Are" based on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

OTT:974:34#p3395418

filk based on "What Is A Shooting Star" by Tom Glazer and Dottie Evans

— OTT:975:0 at 20140102.0032

OTT:975:14#p3395460

"By now, 'Redundant Spoiler' is just an euphemism for 'CLICK ME, YOU MIGHT MISS SOMETHING!'."

OTT:975:33#p3395530

filk of "La Mer" by Charles Trenet

"... There have been some concern in the Past about unclosed parenthesis. I decided to write a script to measure how much of the OTT have been harmed by these incidents.

And finally, here's a map of enclosed messages. Each 4x4 square represent 4 messages, starting from the top left corner. The darker the red is, the more enclosed are the messages. There have been two messages enclosed in 49 nested parens! Surely these must feel sad...

..."

OTT:975:37#p3395538

"... There could also be an art issue for showing the moon at all. In a scene composed and framed this way, such as in movies, we're used to seeing the moon disk in exaggerated telephoto size. That also reflects how we subjectively experience seeing the moon at night. But given that the size of the constellations shows that we're actually seeing a rather wide angle shot, if drawn with astronomical accuracy the moon will look like a comically tiny dot, smaller than Cueball's head. And with Randall aware that we're here putting our calipers on everything, I won't be too surprised if he just throws up his hands and leaves it out."

— OTT:976:0 at 20140102.0916

— OTT:977:0 at 20140102.0942

OTT:977:17#p3395655

{Foreshadowing fulfilled}

"The stars are chirping!"

— OTT:978:0 at 20140102.0952

OTT:978:22#p3395721

filk of "Day-O (Banana Boat song)" by Harry Belafonte

OTT:978:24#p3395725

"In the frame after the chirp (that's 2467)T Piscium has vanished."

{They are referring to tau Piscium. Apparently not mustard, because frame m2467 still has the missing star. I also don't see pi Pegasi}

OTT:978:25#p3395727

"> > Do we really have to do that “make posts unnecessarily hard to

> > read” thing again?"

> Ya know, if you're that bothered by one little papal decree, maybe

> you outta get a chirp.

> Or you could get all huffy and pull a charlie_grumble :)

Maybe you should go read the rot13, or tiny text pages. We're trying hard to be a welcoming tribe, but the decrees that make things hard to read don't really accomplish that."

— OTT:979:0 at 20140102.1015

OTT:979:0#p3395743

{Another episode of the debate about fun vs. readability., leading to the creaton of another dirty word ("ch*rp")}

"> > Does anyone else get chirp when a demustard happens? Because it

> > means GLR is working on Time *at that very moment.

> Not sure what you're trying to ask (sigh...), but I check once in

> a while if images have been changed since newpixbot downloaded them.

> Won't be “at that very moment”, though.

> (At this moment, mustard still there.)

Mscha was talking about this bit that was hard to understand not

BytEfLUSh's message.

I think the original chirp from Valarya could be replaced with

something like 'excited'. She is saying how great it is when GLR

modifies the comic in realtime for us.

{mopey mome}

The Newpage of NO Chirps

Decree: Use of the word "chirp" is not allowed on this page! (except

by me in this post)"

OTT:979:1#p3395745

{"Ch*rp" has become a second "dirty word"}

"Let's end this ch**p war with cake:

...

Edited to obey papal decree"

OTT:979:6#p3395753

"... in most sci fi, the language used is still English in the style contemporary to the time of writing, ...

But the castles, yeah... maybe a remnant of the old civilisation that has been passed down in legend?"

OTT:979:10#p3395759

"... If it makes anyone feel any better, I have to hit the quote button to read anything under size 70 - and y'all do that all the time. ..."

OTT:979:29#p3395799

"> > In the frame after the ch*rp (that's 2467)T Piscium has vanished.

> And in 2468 T Piscium is back again.

Make that tau Piscium. Also, during the same frame pi2 Pegasi winked out."

— OTT:980:0 at 20140104.1719

— OTT:981:0 at 20140104.1940

OTT:981:7#p3395951

filk "We're Knights of the One True Thread" based on "Knights of the Round Table" (Camelot song) from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

OTT:981:23#p3395982

filk of "Tomorrow" from "Annie"

— OTT:982:0 at 20140104.2300

{At this point I posted a travelogue and correspondence, here.}

OTT:982:6#p3396034

filk of "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles

OTT:982:30|#p3396076

WOnder93 is at 519/982

OTT:982:35#p3396086

filk (title unclear, perhaps "paw-mangled banner") of "Star Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott key

— OTT:983:0 at 20140106.2115

— OTT:984:0 at 20140106.2258

OTT:984:6|#p3396246

macraw83 is at 700/984

OTT:984:18|#p3396276

WOnder93 is at 529/984

OTT:984:20#p3396281

"For edfel's question, I get 38.5°, roughly from the corner of the screen to just right of the tree trunk."

OTT:984:26#p3396294

"> ... My mobile plan has a 10MB daily quota (gotta use links for web

> browsing now) so accessing the OTC is out of question. ...

I suppose we need someone to render the OTC into ASCII art for AluisioASG."

OTT:984:38#p3396319

"... Here's one where you can actually see what's going on: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ │░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ │░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ │ │ │ ▞▙ │ │ ▚▞▚▚▞▚▚▚▞ │ │ ▚▙▚▚▞▚▚▚▞▞▙▚ │ │ ▚▚▘▘ \│▚▗▜ ▚▚▚ │ │ ▚▘ ⎞ / ▃▆▃ │ │ ┃/ ▝╰─╯ ▚▗ │ │ ┃ ⎛⎴?⌒│/\ ▞▗▜▞ │ │ ┃ ▁▃▄▆▇▇███████████████▇▆▄ ⎛ ▄ │ │ ┃ ▗▟██████████████████████████████████████│ │ █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████│ │████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████│

Hooray Unicode!"

— OTT:985:0 at 20140107.2106

— OTT:986:0 at 20140107.2136

OTT:986:21|#p3396508

macraw83 is at 706/986

OTT:986:32#p3396547

"... One can have The Epiphany at any time. Even those who have been faithful followers of Time since the Beginning of Time but have sinned by skipping ahead can be overcome with the emptiness of not knowing All of Time. In some cases, when the void is of Great Extent, this can also become a Holy BlitzQuest. If the void is small, or the time is quite near the present, then it is more properly one of the Condiments.

Condiments are also Holy Sacraments; due to the nature of Time they are performed quite commonly and are a normal part of a Timewaiter's dix. Condiments are still condiments even if they are not complete, but for a true Blitz one must partake Fully in the One True Thread. Some Blitzers leave Gospel, some do not. Gospel is not a defined or required part of Blitzing.

... In nomina uicium verium auctorum, per vocce Papa Sancii Contradicti."

— OTT:987:0 at 20140107.2332

OTT:987:34#p3396720

filk "Chirpy Molpy Wait" based on "Chicken Monkey Duck" by Mike Phirman

— OTT:988:0 at 20140108.0022

OTT:988:6#p3396765

TheMinim is at 380/988

— OTT:989:0 at 20140108.0047

OTT:989:2#p3396896

filk "Wake Up Little Cuesie" based on "Wake Up Little Susie" by The Everly Brothers

OTT:989:4|#p3396906

TheMinim is at 400/989

OTT:989:8#p3396921

filk of something from "Jesus Christ Superstar" (part seems to match "This Jesus Must Die" and another part matches "Jesus and Pilate")

OTT:989:15#p3396945

(another) filk of "The Chicken Dance"

— OTT:990:0 at 20140108.0114

OTT:990:14#p3397078

"So here's my question: is any of you people who's "not into computer" curious about how we make some stuff? ..."

{This question has several responses, e.g. OTT:990:18#p3397112, OTT:990:23p3397128 and OTT:990:38p3397197}

— OTT:991:0 at 20140108.0930

OTT:991:1#p3397207

{Offset is 1}

"... Pope Edit: I decree that all of you shall wish for Cuegan to finally realize their love for each other. This in no way requires posting to say as such, but you must believe it in your very souls."

OTT:991:17#p3397243

karhell is at 586/989

OTT:991:18#p3397244

"> > > did anyone else notice the second planet in Aquarius?

> > I don't think anyone did... exciting!! I take a closer look on

> > stellarium to see if that matches to anything...

> Hmm, actually, yes, it's already been seen. It matches Jupiter In the "13291 hypothesis" (see alignments on the wiki, link below... I don't know how I've forgotten that).

> However, I don't think anyone compared brightness. According to stellarium, Jupiter is indeed brighter than the two stars you mentioned, but would the difference be important enough to be noticed. Also, did you compare the original frames, since the stitch is likely to change the luminosity and size of the dots.

Stellarium sez Jupiter is about -2.1, a whole lot brighter. Venus at -4.3."

{It occurs to me that, in addition to having fun, another reason for having so many many different theories, competing 'standards' and lack of consensus on the OTT is that it's hard to tell someone their theory is wrong without risking being offensive.}

— OTT:992:0 at 20140108.1351

OTT:992:2#p3397343

DD "Mumblety grumblety / Here in the OTT / ..."

OTT:992:5#p3397348

filk "Time After Time" based on "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper

OTT:992:10#p3397360

"Blindpost from the previous newpage to let you guys know that if you happen to be equipped with an Android device you can now [download the unofficial OTC live wallpaper|play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.changeofplangames.xkcd.time] for the low, low price of molpycake.

..."

{This is quite well recieved and there is a lot of discussion of it over then next 10 or so pages.}

— OTT:993:0 at 20140109.0014

OTT:993:35#p3397638

filk "Time Oddity" based on "Space Oddity" by David Bowie

— OTT:994:0 at 20140109.2212

— OTT:995:0 at 20140109.2236

OTT:995:10#p3397849

filk (partial) based on "1999" by Prince

OTT:995:27#p3397896

{Dracomax announces that he can't read everything and "abdicating my role as Lord High Inquisitor", there are several replies also saying that indeed you don't have to read everything}

— OTT:996:0 at 20140109.2250

OTT:996:19#p3397964

macraw83 is at 718/996

OTT:996:22#p3397977

filk "Water to Walter" based on "Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie

OTT:996:25#p3397994

tman2nd is at 996/996

— OTT:997:0 at 20140111.0601

OTT:997:0#p3398037

{A newpage of haiku}

"Anybody up / for haikuing with me here / on this fine newpage?"

— OTT:998:0 at 20140111.0615

OTT:998:1#p3398146

"> @tman2nd / please remove the apostrophe from your signature.

Oops! That's embarrassing. :oops:"

{At the time, tman2nd's signature said:

Sir Tristram, Guardian of the Time Cats, Defender of the One True Comic,

Landsknecht von der Zeit.

Member of THIS.

Keep going Blitzer's! We can do it!

Beware of the Rest Stop Imperpetuate and don't use time machines!

Wspi kfp gd...

Wait for it...

}

— OTT:999:0 at 20140111.0650

{A lot of short posts in a short time: newpix 2538.74 to newpix 2539.59, apparently because people want to make page 1000 come quickly.}

— OTT:1000:0 at 20140111.0657

OTT:1000:1#p3398359

by BlitzGirl

"1000 Newpages!

Here's a Present Present for all you OTTers out there!

..."

OTT:1000:14#p3398375

"... For this page I encourage all of our guests to make an account ..."

{This apparently happened, for 2 users at least, see OTT:1004:30p3398730 and note that OTT:999:39p3398357 is a coincidence.}

— OTT:1001:0 at 20140111.0709

— OTT:1002:0 at 20140111.1632

OTT:1002:1#p3398495 {Offset is 1}

"... Pope!

tell us about your earliest OTC memory

looking at cueball and Megan on the beach. Wait, did she sit up?"

{A lot of following posts answer this question}

OTT:1002:34#p3398569

I love the whole thread. by yappobiscuits

{Yappo's recording of both sets of "Boom de Yada" verses}

— OTT:1003:0 at 20130111.2119

{At this point I posted this.}

OTT:1003:12#p3398606

"ATTENTION TIME TRAVELERS (BLITZERS, KETCHUPERS, MAYOS ET AL.)

[image, see "NP1003 faro_luna1.jpg"]

This is a post from the Time Foundation. Once you reach this post, please report to the Future Present that you've reached #Beacon Alpha#.

...

Our Tracker allows you to check how far have you gone and how much of your travel is still to be done ...

. . . .

Blitzers: install the Blitzer Tracker userscript."

{I had almost forgotten that these things exist. The previous post of this kind was way back at OTT:384:3#p3334914.

I am indeed running AluisioASG's Blitzer Tracker script, and additionally have an auto-updating PNG image in my signature that lets people see where I am in my Blitz by viewing my signature at the bottom of any of my posts: http://mrob.com/time/sig.png

As for having a permanent record of the history of my progress in the OTT, I've been making fairly regular BlitzPosts, most of them with my current Newpage location in the Subject or the first line of the message. But I'll mention passing Beacon Alpha in my next Travelogue.}

— OTT:1004:0 at 20140113.0201

OTT:1004:4#p3398673

"Blindposting: 10np behind (happy 1000!) and I swear, if cueball is still asleep I'm taking a sledgehammer to the fourth wall and beating him with his own sticks

See you when I ketchup!"

OTT:1004:5#p3398674

"... My guess for Other People headgear right now is ski caps. 'Cause it's a mountain."

— OTT:1005:0 at 20140113.0239

OTT:1005:12|#p3398793

WOnder93 is at 558/1005

— OTT:1006:0 at 20140113.0303

— OTT:1007:0 at 20140113.0322

OTT:1007:4#p3399047

Update of the poem "The Alt-Text" (see OTT:635:17#p3357766)

filk "As Time Goes By" (with original rap interludes) based on "Of Time Goes By" from "Everybody's Welcome" (and "Casablanca")

OTT:1007:9#p3399069

filk "Timejazz" based on "Rejazz" by Regina Spektor

— OTT:1008:0 at 20140113.0356

{At this point I posted my story "How Time Was Saved"}

OTT:1008:36|#p3399269

Vytron is at 953/1008

— OTT:1009:0 at 20140113.2219

— OTT:1010:0 at 20140113.2238

— OTT:1011:0 at 20140114.0039

— OTT:1012:0 at 20140114.0226

OTT:1012:29#p3399640

"Note that it's two structures, one (with a rectangular frame) to hold up the platforms, roof, and ladder, and the other (with a narrower A frame) to hold the round thing in the top center.

...

That tells me that the round thing is an instrument that has to be aimed with a lot of precision. It needs its own structure so that the weight of the user flexing the structure she's standing on doesn't affect the reading.

...

[photo of surveying tower from the early 20th centory]"

OTT:1012:34#p3399646

"... Has anyone else found that, after a few [heretical] weeks/months of living in the OTT, the forum threads for the 'regular' comics just aren't as interesting or engaging as they used to be? I'm a little worried that after TEOT all other xkcd threads will be too dreary to bother with :cry:"

OTT:1012:39#p3399659

filk of "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton

— OTT:1013:0 at 20140114.0301

OTT:1013:6#p3399682

"Its way past time for me to coma, but I'll post this first:"

{dead image link, recovered via archive.org, see "NP1013 StormAngel telescope.jpg"}

OTT:1013:12#p3399699

"... The uppermost bit is a frame for a canvas cover, which is more to keep the instruments from being rained on than for the comfort of the surveyors. ... They were temporary structures, erected only for the duration of the survey ... They surely wouldn't last through multiple seasons of storms, so I doubt this one has been abandoned that long."

OTT:1013:22#p3399718

{A early example of an othercomic being OTTified almost immediately}

"... okay, I see the whole thing differently now:

"

— OTT:1014:0 at 20140114.0324

— OTT:1015:0 at 20140114.0342

OTT:1015:22#p3399956

karhell is at 609/1015

OTT:1015:32#p3399975

filk "'Neat' and 'Yeah'" based on "Rocks and Trees" by The Arrogant Worms

OTT:1015:39#p3400017

"Cueball can climb faster because his leg isn't injured.

I wonder if they'll speak the same language as the people she sees.

'Hello. My leg is hurt. Can you help?'

'Qu'avez-vous dit?'"

— OTT:1016:0 at 20140114.0404

— OTT:1017:0 at 20140114.2255

OTT:1017:2#p3400096

filk "Who wants to wait forever" based on "Who Wants To Live Forever" by Queen

OTT:1017:6#p3400102

"Acts of the Clerics" A1 Sc15

OTT:1017:24#p3400137

A first version of AluisioASG's "Cake Time" (also called "Round Post Alert") JavaScript for use in GreaseMonkey or TamperMonkey. It is CoffeeScript, compiled into JavaScript.

{I have a version here, which is formatted and commented.}

OTT:1017:31#p3400149

The dead link https://gist.github.com/AluisioASG/5938494 was to the an early version of CakeTimeStyler

— OTT:1018:0 at 20140115.1207

OTT:1018:2#p3400177

Another broken link, see OTT:1017:31#p3400149

OTT:1018:10#p3400204

Another broken link, see OTT:1017:31#p3400149

— OTT:1019:0 at 20140115.1258

OTT:1019:24|#p3400359

macraw83 is at 739/1019

— OTT:1020:0 at 20140116.0634

OTT:1020:16#p3400498

"... ETA predictionwrong: we're about to find out. After Cuegan leaves the current scene, we stay behind, then fade into the beach scene."

OTT:1020:27#p3400518

"... I think perhaps I might start putting keywords in my redundant spoilers; that would be a good place for them. ..."

OTT:1020:37#p3400544

{The following code went unsolved. AluisioASG later asked (see OTT:1027:37p3401264) and ucim explained (OTT:1031:11p3401710) that there wasn't enough to go on. AluisioASG eventually pointed to NP923 (see OTT:923:0#p3390081) implying that this code was another OTP22 one-time pad}

"...

Oh, and this:

86 a8 fc 30 15 45 01 30 c9 92 6f 66 83 ed 61 4b

d8 b8 f9 44 aa 77 c1 e0 c0 7b 26 fa af 21 22 f0

29 88 02 e7 1a b5 a4 a8 0b f8 7b 11 e1 3e a3 a2

...

OTT:1020:39#p3400550

"... They are not really any closer yet to understanding the initial mystery, but all should be revealed in the final act which should be faster paced (at least in terms of revelations) and ought to last a similar length to the first act giving a rough end date to the OTC of August 15th. ..."

— OTT:1021:0 at 20140116.0656

OTT:1021:2#p3400567

HAL9000 is at 957/1021

OTT:1021:23#p3400601

"... In a blag-post Randall will state that IT was fun, until it wasn't. ..."

— OTT:1022:0 at 20140116.0706

— OTT:1023:0 at 20140116.0714

OTT:1023:15#p3400727

{Partial listing of images with keywords, spanning NP112 - NP921}

"Here are some image locations that I grabbed from Kieryn's page. Not complete. Not necessarily the original postings.

p3309130 statue of liberty

p3320623 sex and bomb

p3320683 recursion

... "

OTT:1023:19#p3400734

{Not the first Zanclean reference, which was OTT:461:22#p3342410, but possibly taken more seriously this time}

"5 million years ago, the Mediterranean was disconnected from the Atlantic ocean and mostly evaporated. When the Straits of Gibraltar broke open, the Mediterranean mostly refilled over only 2 years. Away from the Straits, that would look amount to a sustained, and quite confusing sea level rise."

OTT:1023:38#p3400785

{Offset is -2}

"[image, see "NP1024 stats.png"]

Decree: tell me something I didn't know about computers!"

OTT:1023:39#p3400786

DD "Flags afloat, lump in throat / What a strange graveyard with / ..."

— OTT:1024:0 at 20140116.0736

OTT:1024:4#p3400806

filk "IKEA" based on "IKEA" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1024:14#p3400833

"I think that Time will be sequential, because how would GLR initiate a flashback? ...

If we learn more about past events, my guess is that it will be via dialogue. LaPetite still needs to be explained somehow, ... Perhaps she (or somebody else) will tell Cuegan about it in the future."

OTT:1024:20#p3400847

filk "He Is Never Ever Ever Gonna End This Comic" based on "We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift

OTT:1024:27#p3400864

azule is at 981/1024

OTT:1024:28#p3400867

"... The real problem is the likes of geekwagon is not programmed to handle anything but sequential numbering and explainxkcd is not really trying to track the newpix numbers they are just listing the frames.

Treating the meteor frames as sub-newpix and not full ones just makes more sense. But it's making things a lot harder to track now :/

It all comes down to how we want to define a newpix/Timeframe etc and it seems standards are impossible to settle on here."

— OTT:1025:0 at 20140116.0810

OTT:1025:6#p3400909

"quotes OTT:972:6

Perhaps these two meteorologists are part of Grandall's team of elves. He's sent them to alert us to the show."

OTT:1025:33#p3401010

A poem in Latin hexameter

— OTT:1026:0 at 20140116.0835

OTT:1026:7|#p3401057

macraw83 is at 753/1026

OTT:1026:8#p3401060

{mscha announces the creation of his viewer}

"I've added a simple viewer to my site ...

...

You can also access it directly when you know the frame number: For instance:

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/2629

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/np2440c

But it also recognized Geekwagon and Aubron frame numbers, with prefix “gw” and “ba”:

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/gw2633

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/ba2635

You can even give it a hash, or a file name as used on my server:

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/504f637a609ae474810b848da0086eecf43196add47e2d89de83c06fb0a49e89

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/xkcdtime20130405_2200

And finally, you can give it a date/time stamp in UTC (e.g. 20130601_0000 or 2013-12-31T23:59:59) and it will give you the last known frame before or at that time:

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/20130601_0000

http://xkcd.mscha.org/viewer/2013-07-07T17:30:02

... "

OTT:1026:10#p3401062

"... She was probably scavenging to build her ark. We did think that the Observation/Observed Platform would make a decent ship at one point. ..."

OTT:1026:38#p3401137

{Offset is -2}

"... ETA: Milk-and-cookies pope. This page shall have milk, cookies, or a combination of both."

— OTT:1027:0 at 20140116.0904

OTT:1027:32#p3401247

"... due to leap seconds, it is not possible to determine what longitude they are at, unless Randall used Stellarium to do the stars, in which case it might be the USA any way. ..."

{I agree, and believe that Randall did not bother to enter a longitude into Stellarium, knowing that leap seconds made such precision impossible.}

OTT:1027:37#p3401264

filk based on "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by David Bowie

"... In other news: ok. I give up. I did my best to create that puzzle, yet no one dared to try to solve it! I'm sick of y'll! See what you have done to this poor boy! ..."

filk "Molpy People" based on "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by David Bowie

— OTT:1028:0 at 20140116.0939

OTT:1028:24#p3401327

"... Charlie_grumbles and I both made off-the-cuff handwave estimates of how high Megan and Cueball are ... I said about 8000 ft. and he said somewhat over 9000 ft.; those estimates are certainly within one another's error bars.

... Mountains of 8000 or 9000 feet only a few days' walk from sea level should be notable, even if it's not the usual sea level. Unless it's a dramatically lower sea level, but that would be hard to explain while still having tropical climate at 40 degrees latitude."

{Compare to OTT:1154:3#p3413666}

OTT:1028:33#p3401355

"Well all this ruins my theory, unless: If you were used to living 1 mile below sea level, would you be out of breath if you climbed to sea level? :?: Seems unlikely. ..."

OTT:1028:38#p3401371

{Offset is -2}

"... ETA: Papal decree: 'Ave a banana!"

— OTT:1029:0 at 20140116.1639

OTT:1029:9#p3401416

"quoting OTT:1000:38

> > > ... So I scooped up images from my Boom De Yadas and all the manips I had made and saved, then got a bunch of avatars from recent newpages, then scanned for avatars that were buffyhatted or memorable from my Quest, then collected the smileys made by yappobiscuits for OTTers, plus Vytron's smileys of the Time trio, tossed in a few stickottifications from my unreleased Past Present and several squirpy silhouettes from my screenshots, jumbled all of that together, and just barely finished in Time. ...

> > I realized after passing it that NO ONE who is not a member of our faith community would have a clue in hell what that meant if they read it!

...

> I skimmed over the paragraphs you quoted, having seen them before, then started on your last bit. Somewhere about "...would have a clue in hell what that meant," I found myself thinking, Wait, what? And I backed up and reread BlitzGirl's paragraph, and realized that *I hadn't noticed a chirping thing odd about it,* either when I first read it or when you quoted it.

:D :D I had the same reaction reading this:

> suddenly all the following pagepopes become goated from that point onward, mustarding up those who are trying to blitz"

OTT:1029:15#p3401429

by ChronosDragon

"> Um ... hunh? Ohhhh, right. Well, yes. Ok, someone, step up to the plate! We need a hatter!

I'm reluctant to say this because my time is being eaten up enough by this thread as it is, but...I'll volunteer! I can do custom-drawn hats, photomanipped hats, or maybe whole avatars. But it may take some time. ..."

OTT:1029:33#p3401523

filk based on "Runaway" by Dell Shanon

OTT:1029:38#p3401546

"Prediction: Someone will reply speaking weird symbols, or possibly just weird combinations of letters. The thread will go nuts discussing whether it's a real code/invented language and trying to decrypt it."

— OTT:1030:0 at 20140116.2007

OTT:1030:17|#p3401623

karhell is at 620/1030

— OTT:1031:0 at 20140116.2105

OTT:1031:16#p3401720

"... The person they are running towards had better be La Petite, or I shall have to find Chekov myself, and shoot him with his own damn gun."

OTT:1031:24#p3401741

"I think the most exciting thing about new people is the potential for exposition. I can't see how Randall can have them interact with somebody new without explaining who they are and where they come from. Unless there's a language barrier..."

OTT:1031:31|#p3401761

WOnder93 is at 593/1030

— OTT:1032:0 at 20140119.1757

OTT:1032:6#p3401800

filk based on "Un bel di, vedremo" from "Madama Butterfly" by Puccini

OTT:1032:12|#p3401814

macraw83 is at 764/1032

OTT:1032:29#p3401865

{ONG with first "beanie", a name that stuck}

"... Black beanie guy?"

— OTT:1033:0 at 20140119.1843

OTT:1033:31#p3401944

"Oh my dear Randall. They have a culture involving hat wearing. What kind of a collective would come up with such a thing!?"

— OTT:1034:0 at 20140119.2010

OTT:1034:24#p3401986

"> ... shoot him with his own damn gun.

Sounds like fun! I'll get the razor and finish off Occam while we're at it. :twisted:"

OTT:1034:36#p3402037

"Well, one maybe two more Newpix, until the language issue is stettled. ..."

— OTT:1035:0 at 20140119.2025

— OTT:1036:0 at 20140119.2032

OTT:1036:12#p3402194

filk "TimeWaiter" based on "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1036:25#p3402249

{frame m2658, the first with Beanish}

"Translators! Molpy Up!"

OTT:1036:37#p3402272

"... Not that it matters, I'm sure we'll spend newpix upon newpix unsuccessfully trying to decode it. :P"

— OTT:1037:0 at 20140119.2049

OTT:1037:33#p3402359

"... The closest I came was aboriginal Canadian syllabics, but I really don't think they match well. ..."

OTT:1037:39#p3402370

{Offset is -1}

"... Edit: PagePope! Wow, I've never been PagePope before...."

DD "Upagain, upagain / Climbing the mountop (sic) / ..."

— OTT:1038:0 at 20140119.2323

OTT:1038:7#p3402379

DD "Hattery, Cattery / CasCat thanks Mscha for / ..."

OTT:1038:25#p3402404

DD "Toquily dukily / People to chatter with... / ...

— OTT:1039:0 at 20140119.2356

OTT:1039:7|#p3402442

macraw83 is at 773/1039

OTT:1039:32#p3402479

DD "higgledy piggledy / handed a mystery / ..."

— OTT:1040:0 at 20140120.0013

OTT:1040:4#p3402505

DD "Higgledy piggledy / Only five minutes 'til / ..."

OTT:1040:31|#p3402567

macraw83 is at 759/1040

OTT:1040:34#p3402574

{The first set of Beanish letters as individual images}

"... I isolated the Beanish symbols and attached them as images ..."

— OTT:1041:0 at 20140120.0039

— OTT:1042:0 at 20140120.0114

OTT:1042:10#p3402705

"... Prediction: Frustrated by their inability to understand one another's languages, Cueball will attempt to use pictures to explain their situation. First, he'll draw a picture of Megan and himself resting on a beach by the sea. Then he'll draw another, in which they've shifted position slightly..."

— OTT:1043:0 at 20140120.0149

— OTT:1044:0 at 20140120.0210

— OTT:1045:0 at 20140120.0225

OTT:1045:17#p3402969

"So we now know the first word of the third speech is a verb for Get or Fetch. And the final two words are probably the noun for the healing bandage or whatever it is. The two words are probably an adjective followed by a noun but for all we know it could be the other way around."

— OTT:1046:0 at 20140120.0238

OTT:1046:25|#p3403112

TheMinim is at 500/1046

— OTT:1047:0 at 20140120.0305

— OTT:1048:0 at 20140120.0319

OTT:1048:22#p3403354

"... I have to agree with the interpretation of the beanish utterances as about the wound paste. I understand that we can't be definitive, ... we can also add reasonable assumptions about authorial intent to our information. It's probably what it seems to be, for much the same reason that the unseen thing that causes some passersby to stop and gasp in surprise at the start of a Law and Order episode is probably going to be a dead body and not a birthday cake. Randall could mislead us about the language at every step, making us look stupid for failing to consider every conceivable possibility instead of the most likely ones, but why? There's no evidence that's what the story is about. ..."

— OTT:1049:0 at 20140120.0335

OTT:1049:38#p3403488

karhell is at 639/1049

— OTT:1050:0 at 20140120.0356

OTT:1050:7#p3403502

{Noting consistent differences in how the three Beanies are drawn}

"... First thing I saw was 'B-2's' hat has a more slender brim and has the least amount of hair hanging on the side of xer face, with a tuft of hair on the neck when seen in the front views. 'B-1' has a small amount of 'side hair' (more than '2' but less than '3') and, yes, 'B-3' (the quiet one) has the longest 'side hair'. ..."

OTT:1050:33#p3403547

"So perhaps the beanies are trying to solve the sea question too? But with more sophisticated equipment than our heroes who just had an eroding sandcastle to track the rise."

— OTT:1051:0 at 20140120.1338

OTT:1051:1|#p3403563

macraw83 is at 786/1051

OTT:1051:26#p3403620

filk "The Clan of the Beanies" based on "The Count of Tuscany" by Dream Theater

OTT:1051:33#p3403631

{Referencing What-If #53}

"Those aren't beanies, those are hard-hats. It's some sort of civil engineering survey crew working at a jobsite. They probably also have yellow neon vests on, except that clothing isn't being drawn. They have put up the survey towers to measure the progress of another team, which is filling their oceans using a trans dimensional wormhole, probably connected to the bottom of the oceans on a planet elsewhere in time & space."

OTT:1051:38#p3403646

{Offset is -2}

"... Oh, my. This is my first pope-thingy. Eeeh. Why is everyone looking at me? :oops: "

— OTT:1052:0 at 20140120.1415

OTT:1052:2#p3403655

"... the frame auto-linker is now available.

Syntax:

A# for Aubron

M# for mscha

G# for geekwagon

The prefix will be stripped, so e.g. frame M#403 will show up as 403."

OTT:1052:6#p3403660

wizpretz is at 1026/1052

OTT:1052:28|#p3403713

macraw83 is at 795/1052

— OTT:1053:0 at 20140120.2258

OTT:1053:12|#p3403760

macraw83 talking about parenthesis-balancing issues, and quoting @mscha, OTT:796:3

— OTT:1054:0 at 20140121.0007

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1054:30#p3403927

Exodies is at 993/1054

OTT:1054:31#p3403932

"> Megan wrote: 'and I saw flashes of light. / Something glinting.'

> Could it be the sun reflecting off another surveyorscope!?

Does this count as calling it? I'm not sure if anyone pointed this one out yet."

{Perhaps the Beanies signal to each other, and didn't know who M&C were but suspected they might be someone else.}

OTT:1054:35#p3403938

"... the picture changed a minute early for me. (!!!???) That's definitely a first. Has the ONG ever come early before?"

— OTT:1055:0 at 20140122.2357

OTT:1055:16#p3403990

"... I'm waiting for them to meet the Ancient Beanie Elder who knows the secret of English."

— OTT:1056:0 at 20140123.0016

— OTT:1057:0 at 20140123.0044

— OTT:1058:0 at 20140123.0209

OTT:1058:23#p3404383

filk "Waiters and Sand" based on "Heroes of Sand" by Angra

— OTT:1059:0 at 20140123.0305

OTT:1059:1#p3404426

{Offset is 1}

"... Pope? :shock: first time. So, umm, ..."

— OTT:1060:0 at 20140123.0317

— OTT:1061:0 at 20140123.1811

OTT:1061:31#p3404697

"> I read this post OTT:1058:31 about three newpix after it was posted, and translatebeanish.com does not seem to be registered (yet). I'm slightly disappointed... ;)

I had the same thought as you did, but then came to the conclusion that everyone was busy Rule 34ing beanies."

— OTT:1062:0 at 20130123.2126

OTT:1062:2#p3404729

{Offset is 2}

"... Also, hey, pope! I decree we carry on with our quest to understand Beanish."

— OTT:1063:0 at 20140123.2150

OTT:1063:2#p3404836

HAL9000 is at 1063/1063 (having skipped some, see OTT:1064:3#p3404914)

OTT:1063:5|#p3404842

Pikrass is at 1019/1063

OTT:1063:39#p3404903

Acts of the Clerics A1 s16

— OTT:1064:0 at 20140124.0340

OTT:1064:31#p3404982

{graph of the OTT's post rate as a fraction of the xkcd fora as a whole, as a function of time (see "NP1064 timeforumpercentage.106days.png")}

OTT:1064:33#p3404986

{In this discussion the "fakeONG" is "NP1064 faster.png", and the "cup is just gone" refers to frame m2711}

"> > Now while ONGing isn't serious business, it would be nice if fakeONGs were less mistakable for real ones.

> Sorry! Tried to post it well before the the ONG so it wouldn't be too sneaky.

> On a side note what the chirp happened to the cup she was holding last frame? It's just gone. Maybe my fakeONG did happen somehow!

I think it's kind of like crossing the streams. Post a fakeONG too close to a real ONG and total protonic reversal happens. Luckily it only caused minor damage to the OTC."

— OTT:1065:0 at 20140124.0501

OTT:1065:30#p3405085

"Ooo I know exactly what he is drawing!

[frame m0001]

captioned with 'Wait for it'

He will then torment the beanies by redrawing it every 30 minutes for 5 whole days at which point he will slow down to 1 hour updates.

3 months later or so the beanies will know exactly what they have been through.

Then he will be stuck in a loop drawing himself drawing etc."

OTT:1065:33#p3405093

Exodies is at 998/1065

— OTT:1066:0 at 20140124.0522

OTT:1066:18#p3405151

"The OTC is now a drawing of stick figures drawing other stick figures. This is truly stickception. ..."

OTT:1066:38#p3405223

{This question is about the votes per-frame on the GeekWagon site}

"... Why do people mark utterly uninformative frames such as 1371 as important? Not only a few, but 240 fellow waiters? There are more examples. 2188 has 506 votes as important, although all we see is two or three new pixels. Am I missing something? What is the motivation behind that?"

— OTT:1067:0 at 20140124.0546

OTT:1067:16|#p3405274

WOnder93 is at 656/1066

— OTT:1068:0 at 20140124.0559

OTT:1068:35#p3405465

"> > With his drawing stick leaning on his side, Cueball now looks like a tri-pod.

> My thoughts exactly. An outsider tuning in now would think that occult Beanie magic is slowly turning Cueball into a spider.

Maybe he should donate his spare leg to Megan..."

— OTT:1069:0 at 20140124.1731

OTT:1069:2#p3405491

{Offset is 2, both of which happened fairly soon, see OTT:1069:3p3405493, OTT:1069:7p3405503, OTT:1069:8#p3405506, OTT:1069:13#p3405519}

"(edit) Oh, I'm the Pagepope! Does this make me pope-ular now..?

(edit 2) Heeeey. :("

— OTT:1070:0 at 20140124.1749

OTT:1070:23#p3405664

"> I see, and what's with the redundant spoilers?

If you upload an image directly to the forum, it appears in your post as a dinky attachment-thing, which can manifest in odd ways (thumbnail, scrollbar on side, fuzzy gif). Also, you can't quote attachments and preserve the image. To fix this, it's easier to copy the link of the attached image and use that in your post wrapped in image tags. But the attachment itself still has to appear in your post somewhere, so many people hide it in a redundant spoiler. And because people often click on spoilers even when they're redundant, the original poster might add a redundakitty or other bonus surprise to make that click worthwhile. :) (Yes, it's a bit confusing.)"

— OTT:1071:0 at 20140124.2030

OTT:1071:7#p3405730

{BlitzGirl is still uploading each new Beanish character as a separate PNG image}

"Beanish symbols update time! To use one in your post, right-click ..."

OTT:1071:25#p3405779

"... Maybe the Beanies already know how high the sea will rise, and why, so they're measuring the contours of the surrounding land to gauge the effects or prepare to redraw the map. (Though in that case, they're alarmingly high up, making my recent manip a bit more chilling than I'd intended.) ..."

OTT:1071:35#p3405815

"> ... Dam up the inflows and it gets lower, not higher. You'd have to divert water that had been flowing to some other sea.

Not necessarily...

If the dam had been built 5000 years previously, and was now breaking down..."

OTT:1071:36#p3405816

karhell is at 656/1071

{The "Today's Blitzer Power-Up" is something Rule110 put in his signature. It changed periodically, and is preserved only in quotes (this one and OTT:1081:35#p3406972) and the Sciscitor archive.}

"...

> Rule110 wrote:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   Chrono-crastinate! Multi-quote eleven long posts without reading them, strip out all spoiler tags, wrap the whole thing in spoiler tags, and toss it into the future (that is, post it). Net progress gain: ten posts, or a quarter of a Newpage! One Use Only.

Don't you tempt me :twisted:"

— OTT:1072:0 at 20140124.2115

OTT:1072:38#p3405934

{Offset is -2}

"... Edit: Pope, eh? Well, I decree that everyone pretends to be a ninja ..."

— OTT:1073:0 at 20140124.2138

— OTT:1074:0 at 20140125.0115

OTT:1074:21#p3406080

wizpretz is at 1029/1074

OTT:1074:23#p3406089

"> I would say it's something like 'You'll follow the three of us and we'll guide the two of you'. The circles would mean 'follow', the arrows 'guide' or 'lead'.

Seems to me more like 'Two of us are going to go over there and three are going to stay right here'. At a deeper level, from these symbols it seems like there is more than language separating Cuegan from the Beanies. Something deep and cultural."

OTT:1074:32#p3406117

{Yep}

"Big hairy chief can speak your language and ours, plus a third square one?"

— OTT:1075:0 at 20140125.0134

OTT:1075:23#p3406161

"> I can't believe this thing is still going.

The Thread is Forever, the Thread is Eternal

Many who join will Leave

but Many More will Enter

The Blitzing will be Done

The Manips will be Made

And Collectively, We will All

Wait For It."

— OTT:1076:0 at 20140125.0418

OTT:1076:1#p3406189

"... Here's my analysis for anyone who is interested:

[http://lovepirate77.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/an-unconventional-film/]

I hope you enjoy it. I'll go back to lurking now..."

{I have saved this as "20130711 lovepirate - An Unconventional Film.rtfd"}

OTT:1076:20|#p3406231

(at newpix 2736.04)

"The trip from the tower to HQ will take about a day."

OTT:1076:36#p3406267

"... While it is possible to set up software to capture the frames as they come out, wait for a big enough "buffer", and then race through the comic (to date) like a movie, there is another way. Since the comic has generated so much commentary and creative offshoots in the thread (the OTT), and since each frame is copied into the thread, reading the thread itself gives a semblance of the experience of watching the comic live. By reading the thread, you are waiting for it, a frame at a time, and even though those frames already exist, the OTT is interesting enough to act as the medium through which one experiences Time.

It's not a comic he created. It's a community, and through that community one can experience the comic. The community is the medium.

OTT:1076:38#p3406272

Broken link to "Cake Time" is an earlier version of CakeTimeStyler

— OTT:1077:0 at 20140125.0432

OTT:1077:18#p3406326

Bad Hair Man is at 203/1077

OTT:1077:32#p3406355

{Lately there have been quite a few new posters, and a few returning old posters. I imagine this coincides with the OTC being more 'interesting' now that the Beanies are involved.}

"... Any way of reading the thread makes as much sense as any other. :) In fact, we call what you're describing 'schizo-blitzing' or 'fry sauce blitzing' - having one view of the thread-of-the-past and another of the thread-of-the-present at the same Time. I say go for it if it sounds like fun to you!"

OTT:1077:33#p3406359

Exodies is at 1006/1077

— OTT:1078:0 at 20140125.0448

OTT:1078:6#p3406407

"... Parts of the story reminds me of Heart of Darkness. That book starts (IIRC) on a boat that waits for the tide, there is a dangerous journey, and the narrator meets a tribe that speaks a language that is unknown to him. But Conrad's story is much to dark for Randall, so I don't really think that's the one (unless, of course, if Beardie introduces himself as Kurtz)."

OTT:1078:8|#p3406411

Vytron is at 1003/1078

— OTT:1079:0 at 20140125.0501

OTT:1079:14#p3406553

"... Maybe the Three Beanies weren't doing some kind of work (surveying?) at the second tower, but are actually retreating. They might have dismantled the first tower before the second tower, so that their costly equipment is high and dry before the sea rises all the way to the towers."

OTT:1079:16#p3406563

"... for those planning on blitzing--there are approximatly 10 new pages added per day--(109 days/1079 pages) so you need to read at least 11 pages a day to catch up eventually. to catch up in a reasonable period of time(at that rate, you get one page or so closer per day, taking 1079 days) you need to read much faster."

— OTT:1080:0 at 20140127.0119

OTT:1080:1#p3406690

"... When objects are light-colored in the middle, it's because light is shining through them, ..."

{Like Cueball's head!}

OTT:1080:23#p3406770

"Note that the last two frames cannot be adjacent. On [np2749], one an a bit Beanie had already left the scene, while on [frame 2750], only the first one has appeared."

{Unless the beanie walked bacwards a bit}

— OTT:1081:0 at 20140127.0156

OTT:1081:14#p3406892

Exodies is at 1012/1081

OTT:1081:17#p3406898

"> I read somewhere that it's good for the brain precisely because you know what to expect, so it's less effort and more relaxing. ...

I remembered a similar study, so I dug it up: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/2011_08spoilers.asp

That one was done using short stories, and reached the conclusion that an audience will view the material more favorably after reading if they know what to expect from it beforehand. ..."

{I saved the article in "Kiderra 2011 Spoilers (Literature).rtfd"}

OTT:1081:25#p3406938

"... I'm not sure Randall thought significantly about what might grow around this strip, but if he did, I imagine it's surpassed what he expected.

... I hope one day we may learn about the process around the creation of this strip.) ..."

OTT:1081:35#p3406972

karhell is at 667/1081

DD "Trikety trekety / Megan and Cueball are / ..."

"... Yet another Rule110 SigPowerUp (I really like these ^^)

Rule110 wrote:

> Today's Blitzer Power-Up

> Before reading a newpage, search and highlight 'lego'. You can safely skip any post in which the word appears! Unlimited Uses. "

— OTT:1082:0 at 20140127.0250

OTT:1082:16#p3407042

"> Unless the beanies are molpies in disguise.

>

And the survey towers are grapevines in disguise?

"

OTT:1082:31#p3407079

"Hey guys I had one crazy idea while trying to sleep last night.

What we need is voice overs for the OTC. ..."

— OTT:1083:0 at 20140127.0331

OTT:1083:15#p3407137

"Final-cheeping-ly. I have been wrestling and wrassling with Fontforge for a long time and finally have managed to generate [v0.01 of Beanish Serif] ..."

OTT:1083:35#p3407193

"For anyone who doesn't own portal 2 | (inclusive or) is too busy to play the map, here's a video playthrough I made!

Over to the youtubes!"

{Very funny captions :) }

— OTT:1084:0 at 20140127.0400

— OTT:1085:0 at 20140127.0419

OTT:1085:0#p3407316

{Offset is 0}

"... Decree: Just keep up the good work hunting wabbits!"

OTT:1085:26#p3407382

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   Regular beverage cups need frequent refills, and you have to take a hand off your keyboard when you want to drink. Save time by wearing a hydration pack instead. They're designed for hiking and other outdoor activities, but they work just as well for indoor blitzing!

}

OTT:1085:34#p3407412

"> A quick google search for "longest forum thread"1 gives lots of varying results, but I'm wondering if the OTT could make a run for it. ...

Well, one thing at a time : this thread [still has quite some way to go before it is the longest on xkcd forums alone

[link to fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=2

t=10740

start=83200]"

{which is page 2081 of the "unhatched fishes and turtle-excluding devices" thread, which now has 2120 pages. The OTT is definitely on track to surpass that before, say, the middle of 2014.}

OTT:1085:38#p3407423

"... I don't think we refuse to acknowledge flame wars, I think we have truly not had any. We've had a couple attempted trolls, and a little bit of upset, but we've not had anything approaching a war. We do tend to discourage disagreement more than we should, out of fear of flames, but those disagreements we have had have generally been handled with humor and good-nature. I do think we win the friendliest thread award."

— OTT:1086:0 at 20140128.0218

OTT:1086:0|#p3407431

Vytron is at 1009/1086

"... Also, Saturdays will now be known as Caturdays, here's the first picture!"

OTT:1086:13#p3407466

{A bunch of good predictions}

"...

1. We are not going to learn Beanish. ...

2. Megan and Cueball are not going to get it together. ...

3. Time is at least half over. ...

... I fully expect everyone to carry on analyzing, discussing, OTTifying, sidetracking, and generally Waiting For It, and I fully expect to enjoy the heck out of Waiting With Y'All. Even if Time does eventually end, This won't. ..."

{In NetWeasel's signature:

"Note To Blitzers:It is advisable NOT to go past page 1130 until you've seen up to frame 2900 (Geekwagon Numbering). A lot is happening, and really, you do not want to skip ahead at that point."}

— OTT:1087:0 at 20140128.0256

OTT:1087:10#p3407571

"... What the chirping mustard? The 'quote' and 'edit' buttons became invisible for a bit. They were still there and clickable, but not visible... And now they're back... :?"

{This forum mustard was first noted in OTT:1085:12#p3407337}

OTT:1087:36#p3407658

"[frame m2779]

There's a neat detail in this frame which I think is something new. Megan is walking behind the tree, while Cueball walks in front of it. It's like the slice of reality we are shown just deepened. ..."

{But as pointed out later, frame m2173 is similar.}

— OTT:1088:0 at 20140128.0320

— OTT:1089:0 at 20140128.0342

OTT:1089:0#p3407763

filk "Stick-Thighed and Rainless" based on "Crosseyed and Painless" by Talking Heads

OTT:1089:24#p3407833

Acts of the Clerics, chapter 17

{In which Neil_Boekend meets a rather grisly death by keyboard}

OTT:1088:33#p3407742

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   Use your OS's text-to-speech utility to read pages aloud to you repeatedly while you coma. Your subconscious mind will fully absorb the information [citation needed] making use of otherwise wasted molpy-down time.

}

— OTT:1090:0 at 20140128.0429

OTT:1090:3#p3407916

{small BlitzGirl "smiley collection"; see also OTT:1235:13#p3420366}

OTT:1090:27#p3407983

"> ... The word for this food is very similar to the first word in the phrase for the healing paste.

> The difference is that the healing paste name has a '3' in front of it, and this word has a bar over the curvy-omega.

'water' and 'sea' also differed by a '3'

...

[water is to sea as (word just said) is to (first word of paste)] ..."

{So the word just said is "good for you", i.e. "food", and the first word of the healing paste is "very good for you", i.e. "medicine".}

OTT:1090:38|#p3408001

Vytron is at 1020/1090

— OTT:1091:0 at 20140128.0518

OTT:1091:3#p3408024

"The paste was people-medicine, and they're eating people. ..."

OTT:1091:9#p3408037

"The entirety of the OTC and the OTT nicely summed in one frame:

[frame m2791]"

OTT:1091:37#p3408104

"... Looks like ttscp was right with the paper prediction, and the beanie is drawing sciscitor's Constellation of Time. ..."

— OTT:1092:0 at 20140128.0537

OTT:1092:2#p3408114

"... ETA: some kind of map? Triangulation, using their survey equipment? Ignore me, I don't know what I'm talking about."

OTT:1092:12#p3408139

"... But maybe the long arms in the network, which don't connect so well with each other, are more typical for a levelling network: used to determine ground elevations rather than 2D positions. ..."

OTT:1092:17#p3408152

"I accidentally found out that these molpies work as one of those stereograms...

[Stereogram of molpies and grapevine-towers, with two "z-layers" of each]"

{See "NP1092 molpy stereogram.png"}

OTT:1092:30#p3408200

"No sooner does the Newpix go up then our intrepid Waiters are ALL OVER THAT BAD BOY with a discussion of triangulation. Well done, OTTers!!! ..."

OTT:1092:34#p3408210

"... Wild shot for the last line... 'This TheRivers. This TheWater/Sea. Water!' ..."

— OTT:1093:0 at 20140128.0607

OTT:1093:13#p3408267

Exodies is at 1027/1093

— OTT:1094:0 at 20140128.1339

OTT:1094:20#p3408399

"... As you can see, the long line of sights are used to try to locate landmarks or objects that can't be reached by the surveyors, in this case Himalayan. This lends credence to the idea that the squiggly line in the lower right is coastline, and if so, makes me wonder what it is they've spotted out in the middle of the sea. ..."

— OTT:1095:0 at 20140128.1730

OTT:1095:17#p3408480

"> I guess the lack of wind, like the rising sea, is another mystery we'll hopefully learn a little more about as Time goes on...

Maybe GLR just forgot to turn on cloth/foliage simulation. It is quite expensive to render, after all. I mean, we're getting a dismal framerate as it is!"

— OTT:1096:0 at 20140128.1743

OTT:1096:19#p3408603

{The 2811-2812 freezepix}

"Strange - is that the same image as previously posted by newpixbot, but with a different hash? I don't see much change ..."

OTT:1096:23#p3408616

"Chaos is afoot! Time has frozen! Flee for your lives!

Or, you know, Wait for it."

OTT:1096:34#p3408640

"... Or I could get my robot choir to sing 'blah' or 'chirp' or 'watermelon canteloupe' in the required pitches. ..."

{Th link points to a project by Angelastic making the Mac sing "Still Alive". See "NP1096 Still Alive MacInTalk.txt"}

OTT:1096:39#p3408650

"[frame m2814]

Kids! And a wowterful hat!"

— OTT:1097:0 at 20140128.1805

OTT:1097:18#p3408683

"I figured the kids ran inside, away from the strange new people. Mine do the same. ..."

— OTT:1098:0 at 20140128.1827

— OTT:1099:0 at 20140129.0016

OTT:1099:10#p3408830

"Here's an update on the HMM (hidden markov model) analysis give the new beanish from the mapicnic-era ...

[using SinusPi's transliteration]

State 1: 2 L 3 A J 7

State 2: _ 4 b W 7

The state transition matrix is:

to

from 1 2

1 0.000 1.000

2 0.706 0.294 "

OTT:1099:33#p3408927

"... I'll point out in particular that in some languages, punctuation is actually represented by vowel sounds; for instance in Tamil the suffix -aa denotes a question, and -ee (as in "hey") denotes an exclamation. Ithu thanni, ithu thanniyaa, and ithu thanniyee mean "it's water", "is it water?", and "it's water!" respectively. The same sort of thing may be happening in beanish with the º."

— OTT:1100:0 at 20140129.0036

OTT:1100:25#p3409010

"... Quick note that it wasn't y'all's imagination that the last few newpix were late. Newpixbot is checking the redirect from time.png to the hash-based filename, and that one has still happening on the ONG; but the JavascriptJ-based ‘streaming’ of the new URL (which I don't use, but I have a script that logs its output) was a few minutes late for 12 newpix in a row.

np2907: x:00:06

np2808: x:00:33

np2809: x:04:23

np2810: x:04:34

np2811: x:04:44

np2812: x:05:01

np2813: x:05:16

np2814: x:05:32

np2815: x:05:44

np2816: x:05:52

np2817: x:06:02

np2818: x:06:12

np2819: x:06:24

np2820: x:06:35

np2821: x:00:19

As you can see, the latest one was on time again.

J: Wait, what, there's Javascript?? "

OTT:1100:27#p3409016

"256 post! I've reached $1.125, y'all! Though this group is wise and eclectic, I'll bet no one gets it ..."

{Later this is explained that 256 (100000000) requires 9 bits, and 9 bits is $1.125}

OTT:1100:32#p3409046

"... being only a day's travel away from a large settlement isn't consistent with surveying new land. It seems to me more likely that they are using the towers to observe and survey something that is changing regularly. ..."

OTT:1100:38#p3409062

"'Behold.' The Castle of Beardo upon the Beanitine hill."

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1100:39#p3409067

"... I speculated earlier that when they were packing up the picnic, that the Beanie had used the name of the place they were going in his speech. That's the same word used here, and it seems even more likely to me that this is either the proper name of the place, or a word meaning temple, or meeting place, or something like that (as opposed to Beardo's name.)"

— OTT:1101:0 at 20140129.0445

OTT:1101:7#p3409088

"... Many NPs ago, we were claiming parts of the OTT. I hereby claim the turtlemolpy, until the little girl comes out of the house and wants to play with it again."

{See OTT:1167:29#p3414639}

— OTT:1102:0 at 20140129.0518

OTT:1102:27#p3409225

"... What if, in the OTC time itself has been bent (possible proof: the night sky is several thousands of years in the future). They have physically walked in a loop (circle) while in a bubble of "slow time" while the rest of the world moved at "real time." The rest of the people on Earth were left to evolve for thousands of years without Cuegan until they became the Beanies. The sandcastle left by Cuegan was found after they left and revered as a sacred place. Now the Timed-Ones are returning as foretold long ago by the small beret-wearing prophet."

— OTT:1103:0 at 20140129.0600

OTT:1103:0#p3409262

"So the castle predictions were correct... if not quite the same as the one from the beach. But, hey, it has a flag!"

OTT:1103:16#p3409295

":shock: :shock: :shock: Are you chirping kidding me??? :shock: :shock: :shock:

I can't believe what I see, my (and others) absolutely crazy prediction was right. :o Please tell me that someone has just hacked Randall's server and posted this fakeONG...

WOW. Just WOW."

— OTT:1104:0 at 20140129.0613

OTT:1104:2#p3409343

"Well, that answers an early question - Megan has never actually seen a life-sized castle before to base the Sandcastle on. ..."

OTT:1104:30#p3409407

"How did they know what a sandcastle should look like if there weren't any real castles?"

{

Me: "Uhhh.... s/castle/dragon/"

OTTer #2: "Mrob, your argument doesn't work because there are real dragons:

Bearded dragon

Komodo dragon

Chinese water dragon "

Me: "looking at Komodo dragon

OH. Oh wow. A real dragon! I never thought I'd see a real dragon. I wasn't sure there even were real dragons. Look at it. It's breathtaking."

}

OTT:1104:39#p3409421

"Or they might be a mythical thing, like dragons. ..."

{Huh. Ninja'd by about 54 Newpages! :P}

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1105:0 at 20140129.1853

OTT:1105:1#p3409423

k.bookbinder is at 1050/1105

OTT:1105:3#p3409426

filk "The Days of the Week (I gotta wait for it)" based on "The Days of the Week (I gotta go to work)" by They Might Be Giants

OTT:1105:9#p3409433

OTTification of a little bit of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (continued at OTT:1109:31p3409903, see also OTT:1129:4p3411792)

OTT:1105:33#p3409508

"Awww holdONG hands.

[frame m2829] ..."

{Wow, Cuegan shippers rejoice!}

— OTT:1106:0 at 20140129.2011

— OTT:1107:0 at 20140129.2024

OTT:1107:1#p3409601

{Eternal Density has written (or found) an s/Pony/Leopard/ JavaScript}

"Something's wrong with my leopards:

[image, see 'NP1107 Leopard-Pony.jpg']"

— OTT:1108:0 at 20140129.2054

OTT:1108:11#p3409701

Exodies is at 1039/1108

OTT:1108:15#p3409715

wizpretz is at 1078/1108

— OTT:1109:0 at 20140129.2113

— OTT:1110:0 at 20140129.2322

OTT:1110:0#p3409930

"I might have a little cautious revelation.

[image, see "NP1110 SinusPi Beanish.png"]

Note the AM2. It was used in G#2806 and exclaimed by Beanette in G#2842. Could we have Beanie1's name here?"

OTT:1110:29#p3409992

"... This is also the reasoning behind Max Tegmark's first type of parallel universe. Assuming that the universe is infinite, there is some duplicate of the arrangement of the molecules in your body (i.e. you). The only thing is that it is an un-Randally distance away (~10^(10^28) m)."

— OTT:1111:0 at 20140130.0042

OTT:1111:23#p3410057

"To commemorate page 1111, I present relics of eons4 ago: ..."

{At NP1111 the Offset of NP11 was 0.

At NP1111 the Offset of NP111 was 0.}

— OTT:1112:0 at 20140130.0133

OTT:1112:29#p3410179

{The name "Amtoo", derived from the shape of the Beanish letters}

"quoting OTT:1110:0

> ... Could we have Beanie1's name here?

Neat! Easy to remember: Amtoo!"

OTT:1112:38#p3410209

"I'm starting to believe that the Beanies didn't build this castle. I just don't see them having the knowledge and manpower to do that, based on what we've seen. I think it might be a pre-apocalypse castle that has been rediscovered, and they're trying to restore it. ..."

— OTT:1113:0 at 20140130.0220

— OTT:1114:0 at 20140130.0255

OTT:1114:25#p3410401

"> > I'd also like to apologize to all OTTers who find this sidethread about infinities either completely insane or just a waste of NP. I only wanted to post a joke... ("I started a joke, which got the whole world ..." )

> Are you saying that this could be a NewPage complete problem? (math joke)

Only when Pagepope equals NewPage."

— OTT:1115:0 at 20140130.0337

OTT:1115:2#p3410434

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   Blitz at work. It's Friday! It's July! Who's going to be watching?

}

— OTT:1116:0 at 20140130.0432

OTT:1116:1#p3410546

{Another instance of server problems}

"Well, it seems I still can't edit or delete my posts."

OTT:1116:9#p3410563

"Time Travelers: Welcome to Beacon Beta.

Please report to the Future Present if you're more then 5 pages behind.

The Tracker will be available soon.

...

The Pope asks:

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1116:10#p3410565

k.bookbinder is at 1070/1116

OTT:1116:15#p3410585

"BureaucracONG / [frame m2957]"

{The first Rosetta frame.}

OTT:1116:24#p3410613

Bad Hair Man is at 212/1116

OTT:1116:35#p3410644

isengrimthereckless is at 361/1116

— OTT:1117:0 at 20140131.0208

— OTT:1118:0 at 20140131.0317

OTT:1118:23#p3410819

"SomewhatONG..." {The first frame with blurred Rosetta-speech}

OTT:1118:25#p3410822

"Hey! Farrah speaks Captcha!"

— OTT:1119:0 at 20140131.0330

OTT:1119:14#p3410904

"... Yes, in the next newpix Megan and Cueball will introduce themselves. Being unused to speaking their names, they will accidentally use their True Names. These words of power will reverberate in the great hall, causing the stained-glass windows to shatter and rain daggers of broken glass down on the assembled group. Thus ends Time.

Did I do that right?"

OTT:1119:19#p3410912

"... Then there's the really important difference, ...: the physical and cultural position Hypatia is apparently occupying. (Pardon me if I prefer to base her name on her status instead of her hair.) An academic state of some sort? Time may tell."

OTT:1119:23#p3410920

"...Dialog prediction:

Long Haired One wrote: Good.

Cuegan wrote: We come from the sea, it is rising.

Long Haired One wrote: Yes, we know.

Cuegan wrote: Why is it rising.

Long Haired One wrote: Let me show you our records.

I can see conversations easily moving forward without the need for a name exchange."

— OTT:1120:0 at 20140131.0359

— OTT:1121:0 at 20140131.0413

OTT:1121:20#p3411105

"[frame m2870]

Hairdo wrote:

> You arose here from the desert below?

> Nobody ....pires there.

Edit: note the use of ° as a question mark, pretty much proving that we were right. ..."

{And there's a macron (full-stop) over the last word too!}

— OTT:1122:0 at 20140131.0530

OTT:1122:6#p3411168

"I am quite intrigued by the "NOBODY" - at first I thought my transliterated c/' blue diacritics might be vowels, but then some words do not have vowels whatsoever. ..."

{Perhaps the ˘ or Y is a diacritic that has a meaning-modifying role, like the question-mark. "BOD" is the root, the the diacritic alters its meaning, such as bod "physical body" -> body "person".

But I guess it's more likely that the ˘ represents a mispronounced vowel.}

OTT:1122:34#p3411240

Marsh'n is at 145/1122

— OTT:1123:0 at 20140131.0608

OTT:1123:1#p3411251

{Offset is 1}

"... ETA: Pagepope recursive decree: most memorable Pagepope decree of the past — especially the brilliant and the stupid!

ETA2: Actually I would love to see all the decrees listed somewhere, but that would be beyond the scope of Pope powers..."

{Too bad, that's a "meta-decree" for which we need a Meta-Pope.}

OTT:1123:34#p3411315

"By the way, I predict that we find out that the beanies are causing the sea to rise, and they thought it wasn't going to be a problem because 'NOBODY XXPIRES THERE'. Cue&Meg (potentially) are heroes of their people, celebrated in verse and song for thousands of years. ...

OTT:1123:37#p3411323

"Re: Weird overlaid text. Remembering that in Beanish 'water' becomes 'sea' when prepended with a syllable it would be reasonable to assume that 'sand' becomes 'desert' in similar circumstances. What we see is not what we hear, but the meaning those foreign words convey for Farrah. For her 'sand' and 'desert' actually are very close, so when she says 'desert' it also means [qualifier]sand to her. It's all clues for deciphering Beanish."

{The diacritic ° above "BELOW" in frame m2870 confirms this. We have already confirmed the OTT theory that the ° and the macron ̄ are Beanish punctuation for the end of a sentence. Now consider:

- If Farrah's words are being depicted as Cuegan comprehend them, then the puctuation at the end would also be depicted that way. Thus, we should see a '?' (if Cuegan comprehend Farrah's inflection properly) or we should see some other punctuation or no punctuation (is Cuegan do not understand Farrah's intent to be phrasing a question)

- If Farrah's words are being depicted as Farrah comprehends them, then the presence of the ° and ̄ make perfect sense. This also explains the overlaid words and the blotching: Farrah is using words that she doesn't fully understand and that have ambiguous or mixed meanings which do not perfectly match any single Cuegan word.}

OTT:1123:39#p3411328

"A few thoughts ...

The lack of any use of names (at least by Cuegan - the Beanies may have used names for one another) suggests a profound difference in culture from modern humans - maybe they are simply accustomed to very small communities where pronouns or simply proximity suffice? In my experience the first thing everybody learns in a foreign language (admittedly classroom settings) is how to address people by their names, yet that didn't happen at all in the Cuegan/Beanie encounter. Why? ..."

{Clearly, the entire OTC culture (for Cuegan's people and the Beanies alike) holds the convention that you do not need to identify yourself by name when meeting a stranger, even when you want to ask for or offer help. Thus, the Beanies did not try to identify themselves by name when they first met Cuegan and no-one tried to idenfity names at frame 2860.

They do this in language classrooms because in our culture, indeed it is customary to identify yourself by name when meeting new people. Also, the fact that names are rarely translated (much) between one language and another makes it an easy first lesson.}

— OTT:1124:0 at 20140131.1947

OTT:1124:16#p3411377

"... So I will just show you this lovely song about the number 0.9... (a.k.a. wau) ..."

{wauterful song and movie!}

OTT:1124:22#p3411388

{Possibly leading to use of 'rosetta' to refer to this person}

"My thought was that Beardo would provide a rosetta stone of sorts. ..."

OTT:1124:34#p3411418

filk "The River (of Time)" based on "The River" by Garth Brooks

OTT:1124:38#p3411423

"> I am sorry.

> Your language is like those

> spoken by the ...ffiou...

> ... but I learned it.

... Could it be a bad pronounciation of 'spoken by the awful...' Perhaps their terrible enemy that forces them to build big castles"

{Or perhaps the Hill People are awful; this idea was elaborated in several later responses, e.g. OTT:1125:10#p3411449}

— OTT:1125:0 at 20140131.2025

OTT:1125:10#p3411449

"... She could be saying that nobody cares for the [Anglos], as they are 'difficult' to get along with, but she took the effort to learn their language anyway."

OTT:1125:27#p3411486

"... I want to highlight the extraordinary effort of GLR. Some nice landscapes, and the stars required some research, but inventing a completely new language and introducing visualization of Beanglish is completely off the charts."

OTT:1125:39#p3411507

"... Edit to add warning. On page 1128, AluisioASG includes a spoiler under the line 'And now, cakes again!' Don't click it, it's a trap! ..."

{This is a warning about a Spurler that goes to TVTropes. But with the spoiler-opener script, I don't ever have to click a spoiler to see it.}

— OTT:1126:0 at 20140131.2111

OTT:1126:11#p3411535

"I wonder whether the Beanies assume salt water (or sand) is dangerous (so nobody can live near it) ... Perhaps they're even flooding the sea with fresh water in order to make it safe."

OTT:1126:20#p3411562

"... Kenmelken and I have been debating when the new eon should start. I made a poll to try to get the opinions of more people.

poll.pollcode.com/w8gca " {see "NP1126 poll.png"}

— OTT:1127:0 at 20140131.2152

OTT:1127:11#p3411631

wizpretz is at 1127/1127

— OTT:1128:0 at 20140131.2213

OTT:1128:7#p3411703

{The first spURLer in the OTT}

"...

And now, cakes again!

Spoiler: ...

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:"

— OTT:1129:0 at 20140201.0018

OTT:1129:31#p3411872

Exodies is at 1059/1129

— OTT:1130:0 at 20140201.0047

— OTT:1131:0 at 20140201.1541

OTT:1131:2#p3411991

{Offset is 2}

"... Yeep! Page pope! Um, give someone you care about a hug."

OTT:1131:21#p3412026

"I was drafted in '65, was a junior electronics tech at IBM at the time, and was headed "over there" :shock: . Whenever they asked me if I knew how to do something (like program in Cobol, Autocoder, Fortran, and other languages you never heard of) I said "yes", and had to frantically learn it (overnight on my own). Program or die. Very motivational."

— OTT:1132:0 at 20140201.1634

OTT:1132:6#p3412063

"... A high priestess might spend time in seclusion if the practices of the religion so demand, and a potentate might do so out of personal preference (think Howard Hughes), but the three Beanies were obviously permitted to just walk in. Such accessible solitude would be more fitting someone working on an important but largely solitary task, such as an academic. ..."

OTT:1132:7#p3412064

"> > How many people strong are you?

> ... Although the 'strong' is more by inference than anything visible. ...

S is clearly visible, and T could be shifted up a bit. Maybe "STR" is hard for her to pronounce because they don't have such long consonants-without-a-vowel combinations in beanish."

{This supports the theory, presented earlier (see OTT:1127:34#p3411678), that the smudged/blotched/obscured letters represent words or sounds that were understood by Rosetta but not understood by Cuegan. If so, then there should be a pattern in which certain vowels, consonants, phonemes or morae are consistently smudged out.}

OTT:1132:14#p3412082

{First use of "Cueganites"}

"Has nobody mentioned that we're (hopefully) about to find out how many other Cueganites exist? :D"

OTT:1132:15#p3412083

"She has problems with:

(tr)aveled

dese(rt)

(tr)anspires

s(tr)ong

among other words.

No apparent problem with R inbetween vowels."

OTT:1132:30#p3412114

filk "OTTer Fellows" based on "Otter Pirates" by yappobiscuits (which is is not an OTT song, though it sounds like it should be)

OTT:1132:37#p3412126

"... Now, what's up with Megan going straight for reverse Polish notation? What clues does it give us into the Beanies' language and culture?"

— OTT:1133:0 at 20140201.1744

OTT:1133:24#p3412187

"... So if a Japanese person unpracticed in English tried to simply imitate the word 'forty' on hearing it, it might sound to you more like 'hoo-luh-ty.'

Certain sounds consistently coming out 'blotched' suggest that the Beanish language lacks those sounds."

— OTT:1134:0 at 20140201.1813

{The newpage of HELL: On a calculator with a 7-segment display, compute 9^2 7 2 = , and look at the answer calculator upside-down:

| ^^^ ^^^ ~~~ ~~~ <=> ~~~ ^^^ | _ _

though 7734 (which is ((9^2+7)^2-9)-1) would look a little better.}

OTT:1134:19#p3412272

Exodies is at 1060/1134

— OTT:1135:0 at 20140201.1837

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1135:24#p3412341

"... Here's a theory: something apocalyptic is about to happen to the planet — like the sun is going to go supernova soon, or an asteroid is approaching on a collision course. Maybe most of the people have evacuated already, and the only people left are scientists who are setting up equipment to study the disaster. Then these two people come walking up the mountain, much to the surprise of the scientists (beanies). The scientists take the people to someone who understands other languages. He/she learns that there's a group of about 40 people unaccounted for in the evacuation. ..."

{And another reference to STNG "The Inner Light"}

OTT:1135:33#p3412354

Acts of the Clerics A1, scene 18

— OTT:1136:0 at 20140202.0110

OTT:1136:2#p3412376

"Your sea does not stand alone....

In short, a dam (natural or manmade) burst somewhere, and your sea is flooding."

OTT:1136:7#p3412384

"Okay, hands up all those who predicted the Pillars of Hercules breaking down and the Mediterranean flooding. You get one pat on the back that you'll have to administer yourself."

OTT:1136:19#p3412402

"This is making me think of something that came up before - the formation of the Strait of Gibraltar and the flooding of the Mediterranean."

OTT:1136:20#p3412403

"Somebody (or several people) definitely called it. So, is this the answer? The answer to the question that started this whole thing? 42? What now?"

OTT:1136:22#p3412405

"So, the questions are now being answered. End of Time soon?"

OTT:1136:28#p3412412

"... no one yet has talked about what it means that there are forty in Cuegan's group. Is it like a small tribe? A family group? ..."

{It is Dunbar's "overnight camp" tribe size, which he computed was an average of 38, with a variance of 42%, based on data from 8 indiginous cultures. (Dunbar is better known for the larger "village" size, 148 with a variance of 29% averaged over 9 cultures, because of its relevance to things like the number of people attending a wedding or family reunion, or social network graphs in general.)

R. I. M. Dunbar, Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16 (4): 681-735 (1993). }

OTT:1136:37#p3412425

WOnder93 is at 707/1136

{This post was edited twice since 20130827 when I fetched it, with the most recent edit being on 20130911. The changes were:

— OTT:1137:0 at 20140202.0331

OTT:1137:25#p3412484

"... I think this is just exposition, setting up the next part of the story. Besides, we still don't know about LaPetite yet... maybe we'll meet the rest of the tribe (including her) later, because they'll have to move on into the hills to escape the sea..."

OTT:1137:30#p3412493

"I have been theorizing for a while that he might be using a three act narrative structure ...

they seem to correlate quite well with the three 'eons' we've got so far. Plot point #1 ... being the rising water levels and plot point #2 being Megan's injury. Act one and three should be about the same length, so there are still a few hundred newpix left. That may or may not be enough to resolve the action."

OTT:1137:35#p3412511

"The sea that Cuegan is familiar with is an inland sea, like the Dead Sea.

...

It is super-salty and thus super buoyant, making swimming easy and drowning difficult.

Thus leading them to think that fresh water is dangerous to fall into.

Making them wonder if one could even swim in fresh water.

..."

— OTT:1138:0 at 20140202.0445

OTT:1138:17#p3412553

:)

"Rosetta: The sea has found a way back in.

Megen: found a way?

Rosetta: Well ... maybe we ... sort of ... helped it.

..."

— OTT:1139:0 at 20140202.1328

— OTT:1140:0 at 20140202.1338

OTT:1140:4#p3412668

{frame m2898, which is late}

"For how long did Time freeze? It's 20 (Outside) minutes past the ONG..."

OTT:1140:18#p3412686

"> Btw, we still don't know why frame 2811 and frame 2812 are identical,

> do we?

No, but that has happened a few times before:

Frame 427 and frame 429.

Frame 440 and frame 441.

Frame 454 and frame 455.

Frame 1236 and frame 1237.

Frame 1485, frame 1486 and frame 1487.

Frame 2611 and frame 2615. (Degenerate case.)

Frame 2811 and frame 2812."

OTT:1140:21#p3412691

"I just love a Deus Ex Machina who holds all the answers and gives lead characters a Q&A session."

OTT:1140:29#p3412717

"I'm willing to bet the answer is:

'WE ARE ON THE SHORE OF THE ORIGINAL SEA.'"

— OTT:1141:0 at 20140202.1357

OTT:1141:1#p3412737

"She will now use a tablet to browse to the wiki and get the map of edfel. Beanception. ..."

OTT:1141:3#p3412739

"...If you look back at the beginning of the OTC, the sea is pretty much static for the first couple hundred frames. It doesn't really start rising noticeably until after Cuegan come back from swimming, ... you'll see a bit of sandcastle fall down at the far left between frames 172 and 173 ...

That could be an indication of weak seismic waves from a distant earthquake reaching their area. ... The sea starts rising a short time later, and appears to have slowly risen faster over time, which would match pretty well with a flood that widens its passage as more blockage is swept away by the floodwaters. ..."

--OTT:1142:0 at 20140202.1424

OTT:1142:22#p3412857

"> [frame m2901]

Western Mediterranean. They are currently in the Pyrenees or southern France."

OTT:1142:31#p3412870

"... Looks like we are flooding the Mediterranean basin then. By my reckoning, we are in Monaco."

— OTT:1143:0 at 20140202.1448

OTT:1143:0#p3412884

"Chateau d'If !"

OTT:1143:23#p3412917

"... As to what would have caused the sea to fall I can only come up with these options for what blocked the Straight of Gibraltar:

Humans blocked it off. (Must have been Netherlanders!)

Big Earthquake.

...

One thing to note that if their were enough humans left at the time it happened we would have fixed it back up with a new river/canal to keep the water heights the same. So It means we either did this on purpose, or the event caused the fall of civilization as we know it or this had already fallen before the event."

{I had this idea too, back when I read the whole OTC and before I became active in the OTT.

I think humans would have blocked it off intentionally to keep the Mediterranean from rising along with the rest of the world's oceans (to mitigate global warming flooding of cities on its coast). To maintain the level, a controlled flow (like that in a hydroelectric dam) would need to be maintained. Centuries or millennia later, humans stopped maintaining the controlled flow and it stopped flowing, allowing the sea to start drying up.

See also OTT:1167:10#p3414600}

— OTT:1144:0 at 20140203.0311

OTT:1144:16#p3412955

{A few others have expressed similar thoughts. Apparently the mystery is valuable to many people.}

"This is not fun anymore... We now see the Mediterranean and now we know why the sea was rising. So, we're waiting for Gibraltar to open or what? :\"

OTT:1144:17#p3412956

"So, the big river is Rhone (extending to the current sea level), and the smaller one (that is only sometimes reaching the sea) could be Aude."

— OTT:1145:0 at 20140203.0343

OTT:1145:5#p3412991

"We also now have a definitive and rather unexpected answer to the 'how high up did they climb, to be noticeably out of breath in the thinner air?' question. The answer turns out to be, they've climbed up to... sea level! (But, since they'd previously been completely acclimated to several thousand feet below sea level, it still makes sense that they'd be a bit out of breath.)"

OTT:1145:11#p3413002

{The last of @SinusPi's Beanish keys}

"Transliteration updated with map squiggles.

[image, see 'NP1145 Beanish-13.png'] "

OTT:1145:23#p3413021

"Now I lay me down to coma.

Please spare me, Lord, from dreams filmed by Troma.

If Time should end before I wake,

Please continue the thread, so there'll be cake."

— OTT:1146:0 at 20140203.0406

OTT:1146:5#p3413054

"So, what do we do now? (well, in Time)

Invade OtherThreads? Petition GLR for Time II? Wait for another it? ..."

OTT:1146:8|#p3413058

k.bookbinder is at 1090/1146

OTT:1146:11#p3413061

"Woah. The beanies know about human evolution and have an idea of both human ancestral development as well as geographic history. That means they're pretty close to as advanced as modern day people."

OTT:1146:38#p3413107

"... Experiment: a link to this post? hj56h56hj6oh456h3pjlk3654k6j"

{Yep, link works, though it's really only a link to a page, not a specific post}

— OTT:1147:0 at 20140203.0427

OTT:1147:27#p3413164  "... Cue, Meg, and Rose zip line down to the rapidly advancing shore to warn the hill people of their impending doom. Rose uses her Squarese and accidentally insults them, resulting in a heated chase scene with light cycles. Black Hat teleports them back to the present, showing them what the waterline is now. The ending scene is of Meg pointing out Antares to Cue, thinking that the new star is weird.

Thus ends time."

— OTT:1148:0 at 20140203.0453

OTT:1148:1#p3413184

"... From the story POV this does not feel like a new eon, but it shouts incredibly loud for a bit fat red line. Maybe The Book Of Time, Vol. II starting probably after Cuegan left the hall."

OTT:1148:3#p3413187

"> 'The castle (fortress) was once an island. We found it and have

> tried to rebuild it.'

Sounds like Château d'If indeed."

OTT:1148:4#p3413188

"I always thought it would be somewhat disappointing to find out too much about the setting, but this is actually very exciting!

Wait and hope!"

OTT:1148:35#p3413236

{This refers to frame m2904}

"I noticed that the past tense marker "ed" in one of Hypatia's English speeches was lifted and turned relative to the base word. I wonder if that means that in Beanon, one of the diacritics is used to indicate past tense on verbs."

— OTT:1149:0 at 20140204.0151

OTT:1149:5#p3413254

"... Can we please all try to resist the temptation to spoiler too much in our avatars and signatures?"

OTT:1149:20#p3413284

"... they don't yet understand the timeframe - they still think this is about many years, not few months.

Prepare for two very shocked Cuegan, and a race to save their family!"

OTT:1149:32#p3413305

"Cueball and Rosetta just fell in love, and thus ends Time."

OTT:1149:38#p3413314

"Hard to see Rosetta's arms, but they might possibly be in the 'oh noes!' position - I reckon she suddenly looks upset because she has to break it to Cuegan that it's too late."

— OTT:1150:0 at 20140204.0241

OTT:1150:3#p3413326

filk (a few lines) of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (see also OTT:511:14p3346145 and OTT:1152:2p3413510)

OTT:1150:9#p3413345

"Those things LaPetite was dragging in during the whiteout were watertight barrels from the collectors' stockpile, which she has used to convert Cuegan's timber structure into a raft. She and the 37 other Cuegans escaped on the raft but were unexpectedly joined by Lucky, with whom they managed to negotiate an uneasy fish-sharing arrangement."

OTT:1150:16#p3413360

"... The Forty have almost certainly been washed away. Cueball and Megan left just in time."

OTT:1150:17#p3413363

"How to make an epic tale: step 1) kill off everyone the heroes know"

OTT:1150:18#p3413367

"If that is indeed the Chateau d'if, a Cue is much more riverish than we thought, something like 3-4 feet as opposed to 5-6 by my calculations. ..."

OTT:1150:23#p3413386

"... Cueball and Megan left just in time.

If that's what Rosetta is about to tell them, Megan will not accept it. They will likely set off on a rescue mission..."

OTT:1150:28#p3413403

"> That's not entirely true. The Netherlands recycles almost anything ... Someone seems to have found a way to recycle juice cartons and other layered materials with aluminium in it, for it's picked up for free. ...

New Netherlands: It's not just a What-If, It's also a good idea."

— OTT:1151:0 at 20140204.0303

OTT:1151:33#p3413495

"... I think Hypatia's about to tell them that the inundation is going to accelerate as the flow cuts a larger and larger channel.

Won't anyone think of the molpies?

The squirpy, the little prickly, the baby chirp (will it learn to fly in time?), the SNAKE!! that forgot to have a head and a tail, even the snarl-meowlpy?

We need an ark. ..."

— OTT:1152:0 at 20140204.0346

OTT:1152:2#p3413510

filk "Rhapsody for the OTC" based on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

OTT:1152:8#p3413517

"Theory:

In the late 21st century, in response to the rising sea level, the Mediterranian countries pool funding for the Locks of Hercules Project ..."

OTT:1152:18#p3413533

"> Unfortunately, the 40 and perhaps the Hill People as well never came to their attention.

They might even have told the Hill People, but the Hill People don't like the Shore People (The Forty) and so spitefully didn't tell the Beanies about the Shore People and didn't tell the Shore People about the coming catastrophe..."

— OTT:1153:0 at 20140204.0428

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1154:0 at 20140205.0018

OTT:1154:3#p3413666

"... Looking back at the National Geographic map...

maroonbeard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Mediterranean-Seafloor-1982.jpg

The Cueganites live at or slightly below 2389 m below sea level. ..."

{Compare to OTT:1028:24#p3401327}

OTT:1154:10#p3413676

{Offset seems to be 10, is that possible? Note OTT:1151:9#p3413433 where the offset seems to be 9}

"... Pope-ness noted for the purpose of firstpost detection. Decree: ..."

OTT:1154:31#p3413725

"Rosetta: You two shall be the start of a new race of Cueganites. We have prepared the coma-slab-room so that you can begin right away.

And thus the shippers get their due."

— OTT:1155:0 at 20140205.0054

OTT:1155:11#p3413773

{Offset is 11}

"... Oh no, I've poped myself again. Decree for those ..."

— OTT:1156:0 at 20140205.0113

OTT:1156:21#p3413890

by a_s_h_e_n newpix 2920.04

{referring to frame 2920, when the title text changed to "..."}

"new alt-text?!?!?"

OTT:1156:25#p3413894

"'...'

Are we done Waiting for it!?!?!?

Darn, now we'll need a new slogan to hide in spoilers"

OTT:1156:38#p3413910

"... if they follow the river the whole way and are quick enough, they could be fine. There are no local hilltops on a river. ... they need water and it is likely scarce in this entire environment ..."

— OTT:1157:0 at 20140205.0134

OTT:1157:26#p3413956

"Prediction:

next frame Megan: No.

Alt text: Time to go."

OTT:1157:33#p3413971

by NoMouse newpix 2920.97

"RUN.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

(new alt-text!)"

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1158:0 at 20140205.0149

OTT:1158:5#p3413990

"I call Megan steals the book and RUN.s."

OTT:1158:11#p3413999

filk "Go Down, Megan" based on "Go Down Moses" (traditional)

— OTT:1159:0 at 20140205.0301

OTT:1159:12#p3414060

{Offset is 12}

"ETA: PFNP. Well. These are new Times... plans for escape, please."

OTT:1159:21#p3414071

filk "Run To The Hills" based on "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden

OTT:1159:30#p3414083

"Ok, I confess, I totally didn't expect that!!"

OTT:1159:31#p3414085

"sweet sassy molassy, look at that curtain! Whoosh! Megan just BOLTED!!!"

OTT:1159:37#p3414094

"They got their bags pretty quick too. They'll get to the water's edge and realize they are too late, but then it will flash to LaPetite leading the Cueganites to safety."

— OTT:1160:0 at 20140205.0340

OTT:1160:11#p3414114

"> Uh, guys, have you noticed the javascript?

> No, seriously:

> :>

> I'm pretty sure that's a different filename than before. Something to do with changing alt-text, I assume?

Yes, I think it has been changed. I'm no expert, but it looks like it may have added the ability for the server to trigger a reload of the page, which is the only way to update the title-text, I think."

OTT:1160:32#p3414146

"... Clearly, they are trying to avoid the

Despair Event Horizon with their efforts to Screw Destiny.

It's also entirely possible that I'm a terrible person. But since, back in the land-grab era of the OTT, I claimed ownership of the Sea, it appears I am that already... :twisted:"

OTT:1160:38|#p3414154

azule is at 1065/1160

— OTT:1161:0 at 20140205.0402

OTT:1161:23#p3414189

"> ... I don't believe the Bible addresses what the carnivores among

> the animals were eating.

Gary Larson wrote:

'Well that's it for the unicorns, from now on all the carnivores

are confined to C Deck',"

{Wow, I was soooo ninja'd on that one (see OTT:1728:29#p3530630)}

OTT:1161:33#p3414207

"Megan's pack is in front while she stuffs the map into it."

— OTT:1162:0 at 20140205.0420

{Appropriately, listening to "On The Run" from "Dark Side of the Moon"}

OTT:1162:12#p3414244

{Offset is 12}

"... ETA: Did I just become pope? ..."

OTT:1162:28#p3414274

"Gibraltar is very narrow compared to the drainage basin, and it can't get much wider due to mountain ranges on either side. The sediment will quickly be scoured out, obviously, but after that it's bedrock. It won't get much bigger than it is, and unless there has been some mega-engineering in the intervening 10K years, it's still going to take months to fill the Med. Though obviously, the Megball tribe doesn't have as long, even their local hills will likely go under fairly fast. But they should have time to make rafts on said hills if they have warning and know where they can go. The current will naturally push them north towards the (former) French shore, and the influx should be steady rather than turbulent so far away from the intake."

OTT:1162:36|#p3414288

AluisioASG is at 1133/1162

— OTT:1163:0 at 20140205.1836

OTT:1163:13#p3414322

{Offset is 13}

"... Pagepope for my 300th post? seems appropriate. Decree: ..."

OTT:1163:26#p3414337

"paraphrasing the theory proposed in OTT:1141:3

Also Cue has tasted the sea and commented that it has become fresher - for me, that's a proof that GLR planned it from the beginning."

OTT:1163:33#p3414346

"> ... Somebody willing to bet for the safest path?

Why yes, yes I am.

[image, see 'NP1163 map-context.jpg']

This is probably the best way to see what is going on. The sea that Megball know is the blue-green layer ... The Megball tribe live [near] the blue star. Megball walked east along the shore and then turned up the river to eventually reach the Chateau d'Beanie, [marked] with the black line. What the tribe wants to do is go straight through the hills (that rough texture you can see above the blue star) and up that ridge, following the red line. If they got enough warning, they would be able to walk it — once you are into the yellow, the land rises steeply enough that it should be easy to keep ahead of the water. ...

The problem is that by the time Megan and Cueball get back, their people will likely be stranded on one of the taller hills rather than the ridge itself, and while they presumably can build rafts, they won't know which way to go to be safe."

{See also OTT:1196:19#p3417072}

— OTT:1164:0 at 20140205.2001

OTT:1164:11#p3414372

"... And I, at long last, am regretfully abandoning my treasured Loopism. The [story] has gotten too [complex], the alterations in the environment too dramatic. Time may end, Time may repeat, but for Time to loop would require [an 'a just a dream' ending], and I don't think Randall would stoop to that. So ─ Loopist no more. Sad molpy. ..."

OTT:1164:13#p3414375

{Offset is 13}

"... ETA: PFANP! Image Decree: While Cuegan run ..."

OTT:1164:15#p3414377

"Okies, Voice Samplers!

This is the next step in identifying voices with the best match for the OTVO (One True Voice-Over). If you're not interested in submitting a voice sample, then you can skip this entirely!

..."

OTT:1164:23#p3414394

"How could I ever forget that sig. / Welcome back."

{Referring to ugmhemhe's signature, see OTT:37:26#p3304861}

OTT:1164:28#p3414401

"> But if He's got it all prepared, then why do we sometimes get late ONGs, duplicate frames, mustard that is fixed within a few newpix, etc.?

I'm hoping (not expecting, just hoping) that Randall himself will answer that question some day after the end of Time, with one of his rare blag posts. Remember how he went on at length about the results of his color survey? I'm hoping that the response in the OTT will (eventually) inspire another such spate of communication. ..."

OTT:1164:33#p3414407

"> And the mustard fixes, to me, are the most conclusive evidence that Randall has a spy friend watching the OTT.

Don't forget the two accounts that were created in the forum for the sole purpose of giving us the hashes of two meteor frames we had missed."

— OTT:1165:0 at 20140206.0512

OTT:1165:2|#p3414421

Pikrass is at 1131/1165

OTT:1165:20#p3414453

"Seeping dam

Has got you nervous?

We'll make sure

It stays imperv'ous!

Berm-A-Save™ "

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   Ignore signatures! Oh, wait...

}

OTT:1165:27#p3414468

"... If the only way for Beanies to travel was by foot, the news of the collapse wouldn't have made it back to the castle. ..."

{Not if they have heliographs, which they probably do. See OTT:1054:31#p3403932}

OTT:1165:28#p3414469

{For background, see OTT:8:38p3302564 and OTT:50:12p3305693}

"Early in the thread, there was talk of the pitch drop experiment. Well, the pitch has finally dropped, and we are no longer commanded to wait for it."

— OTT:1166:0 at 20140206.0617

OTT:1166:13#p3414516

{Offset is 13}

"... ETA: huh, Pope again. Decree: Wait for It."

OTT:1166:20#p3414527

{Looks like a lot of that Offset is about to be resolved}

"Posts got bumped by a new poster.

quotes OTT:1163:1

...

ETA: wait now its jumped like 8 or something? or are we going backwards?"

OTT:1166:25#p3414538

"... Found another firstpost! quoting OTT:1158:6"

OTT:1166:28#p3414544

"Found a few more first time posters ...

[quotes OTT:1153:29p3413632, OTT:1154:35p3413732, OTT:1148:13p3413204 and OTT:1146:21|http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/view?p=3413072p3413072] "

OTT:1166:39#p3414573

"Mustard! Chirping mustard! Chirpety chirp CHIRP!

Why in Randall's name is all of this excitement in the OTC [in] the one wip ... when I will have no wifi? Aside from having to blitz over 50 newpages [...] I find that the title text has changed(!) not once, but twice(!!).

Chirp. Anyway, I've read the OTT to this point, but the actual wedding is finally happening tomorrip, so no doubt I will rapidly fall behind again. *sigh*"

— OTT:1167:0 at 20140206.0643

OTT:1167:13#p3414606

"... ETA: Hmmm,very strange, I had the new picture with them deciding to slow down, with the alt-text 'Wait for it'. When I manually refreshed the page myself, the alt-text switched back to 'RUN'"

{This confirms that the new Javascript (see OTT:1159:18#p3414067 and OTT:1164:1#p3414356) is necessary to see the new alt text}

OTT:1167:20#p3414619

Exodies is at 1074/1167

"Prediction - the square language is chirp."

OTT:1167:23#p3414624

"Here are a couple of firstposts that may or may not already ...

[ quoting OTT:1146:1p3413050, and OTT:1146:33p3413098 ]"

OTT:1167:29#p3414639

"... And hereby I return the turtlemolpy to the little Beanie girl."

{See OTT:1101:7#p3409088}

OTT:1167:39#p3414674

"> [referencing earlier suggestion that the Beanies travelled by boat to warn people o the danger]

> The big question is, why have Cuegan's people and the Beanie Fleet never seen each other before? How can the Cueganites possibly be so isolated that a widespread effort to intentionally find everybody in the basin would miss them? ...

I think the answer could be in your own post; they didn't find the Cueganites because they were travelling by river, assuming all populations would be near rivers, but the Cueganites live by a dried-up river which the Beanies couldn't go down. ..."

— OTT:1168:0 at 20140206.0723

OTT:1168:8#p3414698

"> The explain xkcd page needs its own explain page. It is too huge, ...

That's why we have an entire wiki for the OTC. :)"

OTT:1168:12#p3414706

"... If anything, the Beanies could at best have used the remains of boats found in archaeological excavations as blueprints ...

Actually, I suspect the same for their version of the Château d'If. That is probably more of a reconstruction than a repair of the original structure which must have severely decayed over the millenia, ..."

OTT:1168:21#p3414719

"... Does it seem likely that the lone flag outside the "city" (Geekwagon frames 2812-2818) is the Beanie's estimate of final sea level? There doesn't seem to be another reason for it being there. ..."

OTT:1168:29#p3414728

"> [frame m2934]

> Is the Beany praying on the roof? What is that by his/her knee?

It's a laptop. The Beanie is reading page 13,363,249 of the OTT, trying to ketchup. ..."

{This amounts to an estimate that the OTT will continue at a rate of about (13363249-1168)/(13291-2013) = 1184.8 NP/yip}

OTT:1168:35#p3414736

filk "Basin Run" based on "Radar Love" by Golden Earring

— OTT:1169:0 at 20140206.0859

OTT:1169:0#p3414746

{Offset is 0}

"ETA: Pagepope for now..."

OTT:1169:3#p3414750

"I've started transliterating beanish into a Canadian aboriginal syllabic.

ᔪᘊᖚᐧ ᘛᔭᐤ = d36' Ub?

ᔪᘝᓄᐧ = dAJ'

,ᔪ = ,d

ᒣᖉ = 7X

ᖊᐣᖽ = W'N

ᖽᘛᕋᐤ = NUq?

ᓭᘈ ᘊᒣᓭᐧᖊᔑ ᘝᘊᓭᒣᖊᐣᖗᐨ = 4M 374'WS A347W'9.

ᘊᖚᐧ ᘊᘖᑫᘖᒣᐣᖚ ᘡ ᓴᔅᐧ ᘊᖚ,ᕋᐨ = 36' 32g27'6 U 4"' 36g,q.

ᖚᑫᘖ ᓭᐧᖚ = 6g2 4'6

ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ = 42bJ.

ᖉ,ᑦᐦ = X,c!

ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐦ = 42bJ!

ᔪᖉᔭᑫ ᘊᖚᐧ ᘊᓭᐧᖚᐤ = dXbg 36' 34'6?

ᒼᖸᖽᐣ ᔭ = 'MN' b

ᘝᖽᒣ ᓭᘖᒼ ᖊᘊᐤ = AN7 42' W3?

ᕋᖗ ᘝᙉᖉᔭ ᘖᐣ ᖗᔭᐢ ᘊᓭᘖᔭᓄᐤ = q9 AQXb 2' 9b, 342bJ?

ᖽᔑᐣᘖ ᖚᐧᘖᖗᑫ ᘝᐣᖽ ᘊᒣᒼᖽᘝᐨ = NS'2 6'29g A'N 37'NA.

Hopefully that renders for everyone."

OTT:1169:23#p3414830

"... I still think this is an unlikely theory, but there is certainly evidence pointing in that direction.

However, bits of castle fell off at other times as well. frame 48 and frame 77, for instance. At the time, we concluded that Cueball wasn't very good at sandcastle building – it was always one of his bits falling off."

— OTT:1170:0 at 20140207.0817

OTT:1170:1#p3414880

{Offset is 1}

"... ETA: Pope again? I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. ..."

— OTT:1171:0 at 20140207.0846

OTT:1171:16#p3415020

"... For all of Tolkien's care in describing every meal the hobbits ate on the trail, I don't think he calculated the actual weight and volume of lembas needed to hike to Mordor, or its plausible calorie content; and if he did, he then rolled his eyes, crumpled up the sheet of arithmetic, threw it away, and muttered 'elfin magic.' ..."

OTT:1171:18#p3415024

Exodies is at 1079/1171

OTT:1171:26#p3415037

"... I'm pretty sure we haven't seen that tree before...

... having seen the maps, we now know for sure that we don't see most of their journey."

OTT:1171:34#p3415058

"Did anyone theorize yet as to why the Mediterranean (presumably at the Strait of Gibraltar) was plugged up again at some point in the next few thousand years?

If it wasn't plugged up by some volcano or something, then there must have been a sea level drop of about 1500-2000 feet to cut off the sea from the ocean. The only thing that could do that is a severe ice age, the kind of which i don't think would be possible on the timescale of just a few thousand years."

{I still think it was deliberately blocked by humans mitigating global sea level rise}

— OTT:1172:0 at 20140207.1057

OTT:1172:5#p3415078

"... A volcano is a good candidate. Nuclear blasts are a possibility (though with many devils in the details). A manmade dam intended to prevent sea level rise in the Mediterranean from global warming in the third millennium CE (which subsequently gets stuck in the fully closed configuration and can no longer be operated or maintained after a collapse of industrialism) is also an intriguing possibility."

OTT:1172:19#p3415105

filk "Blitz Like The Wind" based on "Write Like The Wind (George RR Martin)" by Paul and Storm

OTT:1172:21#p3415109

"... This seems crazy to me. You would disrupt a huge amount of commerce. Leaving millions of people farther and farther from a "beach" becoming more and more polluted and saline would be a hard sell. ..."

{The original explanation was misunderstood}

OTT:1172:30#p3415123

"I wonder how old is this thing... it looks like man made, but it's under the current sea level. Beanish in origin?"

{Obviously built sometime during the several thousand years that it was not underwater :?}

— OTT:1173:0 at 20140208.1055

— OTT:1174:0 at 20140208.1216

OTT:1174:31#p3415262

Bad Hair Man is at 227/1174

— OTT:1175:0 at 20140208.1237

OTT:1175:10#p3415297

"... If we look at post-glacial rebound ... once the ice reaches a certain thickness, it depresses the crust about a foot for every three feet of ice. ... Given that sea water is a little more dense than ice, this would seem to be a good lower bound.

> ... the average depth is 1,500m.

So an average of 500 meters of rebound once the water is removed. ..."

OTT:1175:11#p3415299

{Documentation of a Wikipedia error}

— OTT:1176:0 at 20140208.1313

OTT:1176:1#p3415385

{Offset is 1}

"... Edit: Papal Decree! Yay! State (If you wish) ..."

OTT:1176:2#p3415389

"...

[image, see 'NP1176 pier1.png']

Here's a combined view of the structure Cuegan has just passed. ... We skipped quite a big area (marked in red), much more than we thought at the time, on the way over. Probably on purpose by the GLR so that we couldn't yet guess what was going on.

I agree, seems like some kind of water work. A pier, levee or dike, maybe. So that means that this is the original sea level (or at least was at some point in time between nowOutside and nowInside). Doesn't mean the castle is safe, though – we'll have to . ..."

OTT:1176:20#p3415426

"I believe the glacial rebound (rising ground) ... near Umeå in north Sweden [is about] 0.9 cm/year."

OTT:1176:39#p3415460

"... The actual blockage at Gibraltar, probably due to the fall of civilization which could have possibly been triggered by the Antares supernova, would have been unintended and could have happened hundreds or even thousands of years after more or less faultless operation of the Gibraltar dam project. ..."

— OTT:1177:0 at 20140208.1359

— OTT:1178:0 at 20140208.1426

— OTT:1179:0 at 20140208.2057

OTT:1179:6#p3415678

filk "Gulf Water Song" based on "Gulf War Song" by Moxy Früvous

OTT:1179:11#p3415689

{Another not-really-departure by @AluisioASG, see OTT:230:35#p3317935}

"And with this, I finish what's likely the last post on this account. And I go..."

{Also includes an OTTification of the opening paragraph of "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells}

OTT:1179:39#p3415753

"I have been digging around looking for more info on the flood, and found this....

www.ictja.csic.es/gt/ivone/docs/Garcia-Castellanosetal.Nature2009+supp.info.pdf

Of particular interest to Cuegan and the Forty is Figure 3, parts C and D, which shows how long they think it took to fill the basin. ..."

{Wow! It's the same article that I used in my OTT-if at OTT:1416:1#p3448365}

"... Then there is a significant pause in the depth of the West Mediterranean basin as the water overflows the Sicily sill ..."

{Ruh-roh.}

— OTT:1180:0 at 20140208.2139

— OTT:1181:0 at 20140209.0506

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1182:0 at 20140209.0744

OTT:1182:13#p3415881

"> ... Does it bother anyone else that all the scenes are shifted slightly from their earlier versions? ...

I took it as he's deliberately showing us that there are bits between scenes we're not seeing ..."

OTT:1182:16#p3415888

"... the 'Thousand Lifetimes' flutterby slope (M#2115) ... will be hard to run straight down. They'll end up going head over heels quickly. ..."

{Head over heels is okay. It's when the heels are over the head that I worry. :D}

OTT:1182:25#p3415899

"> Hope they won't be meeting Lucky 'round these parts

The mood they're in right now, I think Lucky had better hope not to meet *them*. I envision kick, thwap, "yelp", and they haven't even broken stride."

OTT:1182:28#p3415903

"...

[image, see http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/?frame=2183&framediff=2981]

Look at the tiny differences in the vegetation as well. So if GLR does have a single big background layer, which he's taking snapshots of for each frame, he is going back and revising it for the return journey. The attention to detail in this thing is incredible."

{Indeed, all of the changes are green, showing that the vegetation is growing. There are only a few pink/red pixels, so it's not a subpixel shift}

— OTT:1183:0 at 20140209.0832

— OTT:1184:0 at 20140209.0852

OTT:1184:37#p3416106

Flado is at 799/1184

— OTT:1185:0 at 20140209.0911

— OTT:1186:0 at 20140209.1231

— OTT:1187:0 at 20140209.1246

— OTT:1188:0 at 20140209.1302

OTT:1188:0#p3416383

{Offset is 0}

"... ETA: wow, somehow Pope again. ..."

OTT:1188:7#p3416396

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   I won't be posting for nearly a full 24 newpix, while this power-up appears. Counting responses, that could mean as much as half a newpage less you'll to have to ketchup, than if I were around spewing my usual drivel. Take advantage of it!

}

OTT:1188:15#p3416419

Bad Hair Man is at 230/1188

— OTT:1189:0 at 20140209.1336

— OTT:1190:0 at 20140209.1354

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1190:26#p3416643

BlueCrab is at 1134/1190

{I am noticing an awful lot of posts by people who haven't bothered to catch up on the story. It almost feels as chaotic as during the first 100 Newpages.}

— OTT:1191:0 at 20140209.1649

OTT:1191:33#p3416723

Exodies is at 1093/1191

— OTT:1192:0 at 20140209.2215

— OTT:1193:0 at 20140209.2325

OTT:1193:20#p3416846

"What the ch*rp is going on with the OTT today?

Newbies are always welcome here, but they seem to have taken over, ignoring our conventions, refusing to read the wiki, linking to heretic wikis, asking questions that have been answered over and over again, etc. I feel like a stranger here.

I'm outta here. For today at least, we'll see it gets better tomorrow. ..."

— OTT:1194:0 at 20140210.0046

OTT:1194:28#p3416942

"> Neopifex, your postscript is very apt. (but I hope you're wrong)

Me too. :( I put that there as a joke, but it seems so ominous now. Perhaps I should change it..."

{The signature says, "...thus ends Time."}

— OTT:1195:0 at 20140210.0556

OTT:1195:12#p3416977

pelrigg is at 1195/1195

OTT:1195:25#p3417010

"De-lurking now, just so I can say 'well, I was around before Cuegan returned to the sea' at some time in the future. ..."

OTT:1195:27#p3417019

Acts of the Clerics, Act 2 Scene 1

"... At that moment an arrow arcs overhead, with a pink boa trailing from its tail. It lands at the Pope's feet. He picks up the arrow, removes a note, and reads it aloud ..."

— OTT:1196:0 at 20140210.0644

OTT:1196:0#p3417048

{Great post by BlitzGirl summing up what's been happening with the OTT community over the past 100 NP or so}

OTT:1196:11#p3417062

"... the flow of the OTT is much changed because of the changes in the OTC. Also seems like its so near the end now as we reach the final act of the story. Though it would be amazing if he was able to keep it going and show the story of the Cuegen's discovering more about the greater world. But maybe it has to end even just to save GLR's sanity. ..."

OTT:1196:16#p3417067

"> Why don't you edit an old Spoiler Of Redundancy and add the images to that, rather than creating a new one each time?

Well the old spoiler would get very full very quickly and it takes two edits to post something which may take twice as long! Also a blitzer may read the spoiler and see many things from the future they don't want to see!"

OTT:1196:19#p3417072

"They don't want to go back that way; that would be asking to be drowned. This is a bathymetric map of the region, which I marked up with the information from the Beanie map and projection of various locations and paths.

[see 'NP1196 TimeTerrainMap.png']

They took the winding black dotted path to the Beanies, they are taking the brown path straight across the dunes and hills of the Rhone Fan, and the way they want to evacuate their people is straight up the main ridge of the Fan and then across the bay-to-be-- it will be months before the water finishes filling the rest of the Eastern and Western Med and gets up there."

— OTT:1197:0 at 20140210.0712

OTT:1197:4#p3417106

"Instead of food

Shack contained angry girl with stick

Would not stalk again"

OTT:1197:8#p3417113

"So I made an attempt at a miniature salt castle...

[NP1197 Molpon salt.jpg] ..."

OTT:1197:13#p3417121

"... For papal decree:

Cuegan finds themselves stranded on a hill that turned into an island due to the rising Sea. Just in the nick of Time, the upper portion of the structure from their Sandcastle floats by. Cuegan commandeer this vessel and become Pirates of the Mediterranean™ who don't really pirate much but instead save the lives of poor molpies who were likewise stranded."

— OTT:1198:0 at 20140210.0748

OTT:1198:3#p3417171

{Offset is 3}

"... Pope! / If you feel like it, I'd like to know ..."

OTT:1198:7#p3417176

"*closes eyes, crosses fingers* LaPetite on the sandcastle raft. LaPetite on the sandcastle raft. LaPetite on the sandcastle raft. ..."

OTT:1198:16|#p3417196

Kazza3 is at 1143/1198

OTT:1198:37#p3417243

"... Actually, I meant something like showing siggys with a different background color ..."

{I am inspired...}

— OTT:1199:0 at 20140210.0844

— OTT:1200:0 at 20140210.0856

OTT:1200:8#p3417327

{In this post by @taixzo, xe and @CasCat (our two BlitzGirls the Fast), describe their Blitz rates}

"> When I blitzed, I managed a little over a hundred pages a day. But I didn't get a lot done in the rest of my life...

Same here; it took me around eight to ten hours a day dedicated to the OTT to read a hundred pages per day.

...

I was just reading Ender's Game. And my brain kept substituting 'hedgemolpy' for 'Hedgemon'. ..."

OTT:1200:9#p3417328

"... for the last 25 newpages the average post rate is 17.66 posts per longpic. (1 post per 0.0566 longpic). Over the whole thread. 16.60 posts per longpic (1 post per 0.0602 longpic). So it's faster by over 1 post per longpic than the average over the last 2 and a half dips."

{This inspires me to generate ott-rate-stats.txt, containing stats of posts per newpix with a decaying average recomputed every newpix with a 24 newpix half-life. The stats seem to agree with these numbers by @SPACKlick. Also I get 1387 words/np and 6089 chars/np by the "level N quotes count 4^-N as much" metric.}

OTT:1200:27#p3417363

Flado is at 805/1200

— OTT:1201:0 at 20140210.1134

OTT:1201:5#p3417401

"... Prediction of next dialog:

Megan: Are you drowning?

Cueball: No. But this is what the first part of drowning looks like."

— OTT:1202:0 at 20140210.1155

— OTT:1203:0 at 20140210.1212

OTT:1203:29#p3417673

"... I'm now in the 'randall thought it out (but didn't necessarily, actually, probably didn't, create it all) in advance' camp. There's too much to be a coincidence, like the tasting of the sea water, the floating in their sea and not being able to swim in rivers. ..."

OTT:1203:39#p3417688

"They all have bags! That's a start anyhow ..."

— OTT:1204:0 at 20140210.1248

— OTT:1205:0 at 20140210.1331

OTT:1205:17#p3417824

Little filk based on "L-Y" by Tom Lehrer

"You live by a deep salt lake

And the berm's about to break

How do you run away so you won't die?

Immediately, immediately, immediate-L-Y!"

OTT:1205:24#p3417855

filk "Wade in the Water" based on "Wade in the Water" (traditional, Roud 5439)

— OTT:1206:0 at 20140210.1354

OTT:1206:5#p3417888

"Ok, did ANYONE predict that the rest of the tribe were up in the hills collecting stuff?"

{No, but it's a great way out of the "trapped on a local hilltop with no escape" problem: While collecting stuff they'll figure out they need to build a raft, and they have some time to do so because they're on the hill.}

OTT:1206:6#p3417889

"> Has anyone else noted the mouseover text? It says, "RUN."

:lol: Wow, this really is the new Javascript! ..."

— OTT:1207:0 at 20140210.1546

OTT:1207:22#p3418037

"Oh my GLR... :shock:

I wonder if that kid's cousin is LaPetite..."

— OTT:1208:0 at 20140210.1602

OTT:1208:5#p3418073

"> The image has updated 3 or 4 times in the last 10 minutes or so. I

> just noticed that "He" has changed to "She".

Well, then. Seems like GLR watches over us. And uses us as proofreaders too. Love it."

— OTT:1209:0 at 20140210.1627

OTT:1209:0#p3418151

"Estrada, F., G. Ercilla, C. Gorini, B. Alonso, J.T. Vázquez, D. Garcia-Castellanos, C. Juan, A. Maldonado, A. Ammar, M. Elabbassi, 2011. Impact of pulsed Atlantic water inflow into the Alboran Basin at the time of the Zanclean flooding. Geo-Marine Lett., 1-16 PDF

... Just for grins, I sent him a question about the absence of inertia effects in the model ... and asked if they had looked in their drill cores for microfossils like seeds and pollen that might have washed down into Zanclean sediments from a hypothetical coastal innundation.

I mean, what's the use of abstruse pseudoscientific arguments on xkcd forums if it doesn't change the course of geological research? The Outside must conform to the dictates of the OTC, after all!"

OTT:1209:2#p3418155

{Offset is 2}

"... ETA: Ignore all popes, including this one.}

OTT:1209:5#p3418161

"... [somebody?'s] theory that they used water transport to alert communities in the Basin is more plausible than that they travelled overland. The ones by the water are the ones you'd want to reach first.

> Family unit? They definitely strike me as related, especially the group of three with bangs/fringe in the middle. ...

We've had expert opinion from astronomers, linguists and hydrogeologist/engineers, clearly now it's time for the hair stylists to step in with their analysis :mrgreen:"

OTT:1209:7#p3418164

filk based on "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen

OTT:1209:17#p3418183

"... This is THE climax, not A climax. This is the end. ...

If GLR doesn't make another comic in this format, I think we should try and do some kind of petition. ..."

OTT:1209:25#p3418201

"... I agree. We've already had more answers than we got in all of Lost. (Yes, I'm still mad about that.) ..."

OTT:1209:28#p3418212

filk "Swim" based on "Breathe" by Pink Floyd

OTT:1209:33#p3418223

"Made it to the present, finally.

Things have slowed down enough for ottifcations, I see. ..."

— OTT:1210:0 at 20140211.0429

OTT:1210:16#p3418261

filk of "Here Comes The Flood" by Peter Gabriel

OTT:1210:25#p3418274

"Insanity takes its toll; the OTT requires exact change."

— OTT:1211:0 at 20140211.0445

OTT:1211:1#p3418304

filk "Still Alive" based on "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1211:2#p3418306

{Offset is 2}

"... ETA: Oh, hello. The Popey thing right. ..."

OTT:1211:21#p3418335

filk of "Waltzing Matilda" (traditional)

OTT:1211:29#p3418362

filk of "Time Warp" from "The Rocky Horror Show" (and "Rocky Horror Picture Show")

— OTT:1212:0 at 20140211.0528

OTT:1212:2#p3418382

{Signature recovered from Sciscitor:


Today's Blitzer Power-Up


   It's Time for the no-cake diet. Cakes are fun and often impressive but you can see them anywhere. (Just do a Google image search for cakes, or watch Cake Boss, or go to a bakery and see actual cakes.) Skip 'em in the OTT. Unless they're for you, of course.

This is the last 'Blitzer Power-Up' that I was able to recover.}

OTT:1212:16#p3418414

{Chrome gave me a "Malware Warning" because of [img] at URL www.thisblogrules.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/finger-monkey-4.jpg I PM'd @Valarya to ask if xe can remove or change the URL, and xe changed it to a new image I found (see 'NP1212 new finger-monkey-4.jpg')}

OTT:1212:25#p3418432

"... I know why they're talking about crossing rivers. The bush-mustard ( ;) ) isn't mustard at all. It's branches and twigs floating along on the river in the near background from left to right across the frame. ..."

OTT:1212:31#p3418446

Exodies is at 1103/1212

OTT:1212:38#p3418460

"It's my cousONG?

[frame m3027]"

— OTT:1213:0 at 20140211.0544

OTT:1213:0#p3418465

{Offset is 0}

"... eta: oh crap, I'm Pope? ..."

— OTT:1214:0 at 20140211.0607

OTT:1214:5|#p3418565

"... Just for fun, this:

[image, see 'NP1214 TheSandCastleCometh.png']

Gray is old pixels, red is new pixels, and pale blue is wish-fulfillment. ;)"

...

Wow, I've burned through 50 regular redundakitties, not counting special manips and beanish ones!"

{Huh. I hadn't realized that redundakitties could be used as fuel. :twisted:}

OTT:1214:28#p3418611

{Frame m0936 briefly appeared during the time that frame m3029 was current}

"Yes indeed as reported by Anna-X there was grey castle frame visible on the comic page at around 1:52 AM PST. The hash is 33d0e5f8d8122290b90010c5be4d10bd6d3f5292113a83d8cb4d04ed1620a1a6.png - looks like it's still on the server, and it's not listed on xkcd.mscha.org FWIW"

OTT:1214:37#p3418632

filk based on "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones

— OTT:1215:0 at 20140211.0804

OTT:1215:21#p3418674

filk "I Would Do Anything For Time" based on "I Would Do Anything For Love" by Meat Loaf

— OTT:1216:0 at 20140211.0822

OTT:1216:17#p3418734

{Possibly the fastest OTTification of an OtherComic so far. Several subsequent comments indicate that people were fooled — see OTT:1216:20p3418741, OTT:1216:23p3418746, OTT:1216:25#p3418751, OTT:1217:27p3418831, OTT:1217:32p3418840, OTT:1244:33#p3421217, OTT:1245:1#p3421228}

"... OMR, it's all related!

[image, see 'NP1216 1242 scary-names.png']"

OTT:1216:19#p3418740

"> [reporting the repeat of frame m0936]

... My pixbot caught this one also at the same time (8 minutes before an ong). Probably mustard. The hash is not new. ..."

— OTT:1217:0 at 20140211.0850

OTT:1217:6#p3418793

"> To counter those who have opined that we are near the end of Time ...

I doubt it, though. all of the bits set up in the beginning have come back already. There aren't any guns left unfired on the mantle."

OTT:1217:14#p3418809

"... But it still feels to me like ... not just the story, but also the storytelling that has sped up dramatically – as if the OTA wants to get it over with. ..."

OTT:1217:17#p3418815

"... They won't need oars or anything. As long as they're not too close to the sea, the flood should push them upriver. Their river² is probably one of the arms of the extended Rhône, so they'll float right through one of the Rhône canyons ... towards Marseille. ...

(And thus ends time, I'm afraid...) ..."

— OTT:1218:0 at 20140211.1144

OTT:1218:19#p3418900

"She could be right though. The chances of anyone having previously floated out of the re-filling Med on a sandcastle are pretty small."

OTT:1218:28#p3418910

{yappobiscuits' "MONOMOLPY", an OTTification of the Monopoly board game}

"> I want a Monopoly: OTC edition!

Good job you're not molpying down JUST yet, because I just finished this...

[image, see 'NP1218 MONOMOLPY.png'] ..."

— OTT:1219:0 at 20120211.1209

— OTT:1220:0 at 20140211.1926

OTT:1220:3#p3419009

filk "BlitzGirl" based on "My Girl" by The Temptations

OTT:1220:16#p3419032

"> I am looking forward to the big reveal at the end of Time, when it is made known that Blitzgirl has been GLR all along. ...

But how could that be? BlitzGirl is LaPetite...OMR, GLR is LaPetite too! :shock: :D :wink:"

{It's the OTT (One True Trinity): Randall the Great, Randall the Petit, and the Molpy BlitzGirl.}

— OTT:1222:0 at 20140211.2022

OTT:1222:11#p3419231

BlueCrab is at 1149/1222

— OTT:1223:0 at 20140211.2102

OTT:1223:6#p3419326

"... There was this graph by Smithers back on NP 261:

[see 'NP261 sealevel.png']

So the water began rising in earnest with a small delay after the piece fell off the castle in frame 173. I think this fits far too well to be a coincidence..."

OTT:1223:26#p3419379

filk (partial) based on "We Are What We Are" from "La Cage Aux Folles"

— OTT:1224:0 at 20140211.2337

— OTT:1225:0 at 20140212.0114

OTT:1225:18#p3419567

filk "Time To Go (Go Go Meg and Cue!)" based on "Time To Go" by Dropkick Murphys

OTT:1225:25#p3419582

Exodies is at 1109/1225

— OTT:1226:0 at 20140212.0137

— OTT:1227:0 at 20140212.1251

OTT:1227:20#p3419735

"... Also, either popes or welcoming committees should seriously consider linking to the wiki so that newcomers get a sense of what the OTT is all about!"

{Oh dear, we're back to bumping the Wiki}

— OTT:1228:0 at 20140212.1754

— OTT:1229:0 at 20140213.0207

OTT:1229:2#p3419845

"> Also, have you people really started the discussion about infinities again? :)

If you have an infinite set of Legos with '9' printed on each one, would they be able to take off from a treadmill ... :lol:"

OTT:1229:11#p3419871

"> The haiku return / A breath of fresh air within / An impatient Time

And the newbie asks: / Has anybody noticed / that that's a haiku?

The next newbie asks: / Has anybody noticed / there's some JavaScript?

The third newbie asks: / Has anybody noticed / the image changes?

The fifth newbie asks: / Has anybody noticed / there's an FAQ?

The sixth newbie asks: / Has anybody noticed / there's no fourth newbie?

Then they ask about / finite possibilities / of plural Lego."

OTT:1229:24#p3419896

filk "On A Boat" based on "On A Boat" by The Lonely Island

OTT:1229:28#p3419901

filk "Pole, Pole, Pole Your Barge" based on "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

— OTT:1230:0 at 20140213.0436

OTT:1230:5#p3419928

filk "The Final Countdown" based on "The Final Countdown" by Europe

OTT:1230:13#p3419942

"Tree followONG

[frame m3048]

ETA: since when were there trees that far down into the basin?"

OTT:1230:17#p3419946

"> I think the trees are flotsam from the rising tide, washed in from other areas (not necessarily from their basin).

Perhaps scoured from the forests below the Straight of Gibraltar, or the materials the Beanies used to try to shore up the dam......"

OTT:1230:33#p3419990

Exodies is at 1112/1230

— OTT:1231:0 at 20140213.1156

OTT:1231:7#p3420023

{This refers to OTT:1090:3#p3407916}

"... if you check Newpage 1090, you'll notice that I tried to aggregate the character OTC smileys we had at that point on the page. ..."

— OTT:1232:0 at 20140213.1252

OTT:1232:33|#p3420177

TheMinim is at 555/1232

"Note to self: Don't post around ONG-time, for fear you may see the ONG. Oh well."

{Yeah, I could try to do that I guess... but there are so many other things I can see, like OTTification images, that it's hard to avoid seeing some types of spoilers... Maybe I can make a script for use by blindposters, which hides everything in the "topic review" section!

I go ahead and make a partial solution, which is now available at mrob.com/time/scripts-beta/blindposter.user.js however it doesn't yet hide the 'ninja warning' where a new message has just been posted right before you hit 'Submit', because I don't know what the DIV ID is.}

— OTT:1233:0 at 20140213.1428

OTT:1233:3#p3420188

"Prediction: The raft stops moving. Cueball tries to work out which way is forward and divides by zero. Thus ends time."

OTT:1233:21#p3420220

"NOt only can't they steer, they've got no keel. So it's dead down wind only. (Cue the DDWFTTW debates :( )"

{DDWFTTW: Dead Down-Wind Faster Than The Wind}

OTT:1233:37#p3420259

"... And on another note, way back here, just after the fade, I predicted that the story would end at between 3,500 and 4,000 frames. That's looking a little high, but well within a reasonable margin of error on my estimate. (Does little happy dance.) ..."

— OTT:1234:0 at 20140213.1550

— OTT:1235:0 at 20140213.1653

OTT:1235:39#p3420425

"... I'm guessing they actually found a boat (that the Hill People used on the river). ..."

— OTT:1236:0 at 20140213.1727

— OTT:1237:0 at 20140213.1753

— OTT:1238:0 at 20140213.1807

OTT:1238:11#p3420684

filk "Rocks and Trees" based on "Rocks and Trees" by The Arrogant Worms

— OTT:1239:0 at 20140214.0921

OTT:1239:13#p3420805

Exodies is at 1114/1239

OTT:1239:19#p3420817

"If they can get that 'sand' up to the Beanies, it might be the only 'sand' sample of that type they'll be able to study for quite some time..."

{Foreshadows 'NP1429 1259 bee-orchid.png'}

OTT:1239:33#p3420846

"alt text back to '...'... what's next...

'PANIC'"

OTT:1239:35#p3420848

"New title text has FOUR periods.

....

This is getting serious."

OTT:1239:38#p3420851

"... And the alt text has changed to dots again. Wanna bet the next alt text is 'Wait for it'?"

— OTT:1240:0 at 20140215.0606

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1240:14#p3420877

"... It changed some time between np3066:55 and np3066:59, so slightly before ONG time. ..."

OTT:1240:29#p3420899

{Beginning of a fairly detailed exchange about original Japanese haiku}

OTT:1240:33#p3420904

"Steve Ward replied to my email about the possibilities of a tsunami-like wave at the site of Cuegan's village. (Yes, I sent him a copy of the map.. :) )

...

And there it is. No tidal waves for Cuegan and the 40."

— OTT:1241:0 at 20140215.1105

— OTT:1242:0 at 20140215.1206

— OTT:1243:0 at 20140215.1412

OTT:1243:1#p3421062

{Offset is 1}

"... ETA: Ack! I'm poge! Why can I never remember ..."

OTT:1243:14#p3421085

"...

Coma Molpy Style

Molpy Style.

Molpy Style.

..."

{See OTT:1243:17p3421095, OTT:1243:36p3421139}

OTT:1243:36#p3421139

filk (partial) "Coma Molpy Style" based on "Gangnam Style" by Psy

— OTT:1244:0 at 20140215.1522

OTT:1244:22#p3421193

filk "The High-Rising Sea" based on "The Coasts of High Barbaree" (traditional)

OTT:1244:23#p3421194

filk (partial) of "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan

— OTT:1245:0 at 20140215.1550

OTT:1245:8#p3421241

"O-kay. I counted all the chirpin' characters and came up with 38. THAT IS NOT FORTY, GREAT LORD RANDALL.

On the other hand, kudos for coming up with 38 identifiably different characters. ...

images, see OTT:1246:15

OTT:1245:15#p3421254

"I finally have nearly all my graphs organized into [one easily-navigated set of pages|http://xkcd.mscha.org/jjjdavidson/]. Hopefully they'll be easy for me to update, as well ..."

— OTT:1246:0 at 20140215.1636

OTT:1246:2#p3421338

Exodies is at 1120/1246

OTT:1246:15#p3421358

{BlitzGirl updates her identification of the Cueganites with one additional person; see 'NP1246 39Characters.png'}

OTT:1246:16#p3421359

{Start of some mystery by ChronosDragon; see images:

NP1269 ChronosDragon timepost885.png

NP1272 ChronosDragon timepost886.png

NP1278 ChronosDragon timepost887.gif

NP1284 ChronosDragon timepost888.gif

and explaation at the end of OTT:1284:22|#p3423860 }

"I don't have long. It's beginning.

...

CONNECTION LOG: BITS RECEIVED POST-SUBMISSION, RECTIFYING POST CONTENT

...

And with that, I must - I must - c#c@#c%##oma-3#a4#@1a#@#a2#5^@~!@$$#@ || WARNING || SIGNAL LOST. ATTEMPTING RECONNECT IN 0:20:19 +- 2:36"

OTT:1246:34#p3421395

"Assuming that it is the year 13291, we're looking roughly ESE. The Sun has *just* disappeared below the horizon behind us.

Assuming it is still Apr or May, we should see Mars in Gemini, which is just below the horizon and in centre of frame."

— OTT:1247:0 at 20140215.1739

OTT:1247:31#p3421465

"Back on page 397, I was close with the first image. ..."

{See OTT:397:10#p3336802 and image 'NP397 king of the world.png'}

OTT:1247:36|#p3421478

Kazza3 is at 1168/1247

— OTT:1248:0 at 20140215.1833

OTT:1248:5#p3421493

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

OTT:1248:13#p3421507

"...I bet the Cue Man is getting ready for the 3rd act of Sandcastling to cheer her up. Then they'll kiss.

Yay for shipping people on a ship! :D"

OTT:1248:18#p3421517

"@edo, it would be nice if you would remove the spoiler text from your signature. Most blitzers won't, in fact, want that new information from the present. Thanks."

{This sig was probably:

"Biltzers: There is a new commandment: RUN."

see also OTT:1258:19p3422216 and OTT:1275:22p3423124}

OTT:1248:39#p3421564

{Pretty cool origin story for Time, inspired by xkcd 1243}

"NASA, due to budget cuts, can no longer maintain its website properly; inaccurate orbital information for the an international space station is published. ...

...

Tribal storytellers remember the Gibraltar shipwreck as a harbinger of the overall disaster. For millenia afterward, pilgrims visit the site, which the receding Atlantic has left high and dry. For some reason lost to the past, it becomes traditional to bring a pail of earth from your homeland to pour over the hulks; ... At last, with the skies finally clear again, but Antares gone forever, the water begins to seep through...

Thus begins Time."

— OTT:1249:0 at 20140215.2038

OTT:1249:12#p3421596

"> I'm not naming names here...

but SOMEbody oughta be putting a "50000th post" cake in the oven about now....

I also was thinking about "views per post" and this thread is WAY low, only about 27 views per post. ..."

OTT:1249:35#p3421650

filk "The Raft of Meg and Cue" based on "On the Good Ship Lollipop" by Shirley Temple

— OTT:1250:0 at 20140215.2057

OTT:1250:33#p3421754

filk "Told to Run" based on "Want You Gone" by Jonathan Coulton

— OTT:1251:0 at 20140215.2200

OTT:1251:0#p3421764

"And #50000."

{First post by this user since OTT:106:11#p3308747}

OTT:1251:38#p3421821

"... Actually, go back and read NP0001. It's a lot of fun, but be careful not to fall into a Blitz."

— OTT:1252:0 at 20140215.2212

OTT:1252:34#p3421888

filk "La Petite" based on "Reet Petite" by Jackie Wilson

— OTT:1253:0 at 20140215.2228

OTT:1253:6#p3421920

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

...

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.

[image, see 'NP1253 bathy2.jpg']

..."

OTT:1253:9#p3421934

"> 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."

OTT:1253:16#p3421943

"Rivers do move, sometimes quite far. For the past century or so, the US Army Corps of Engineers ... has been trying to prevent the Mississippi River from being captured by the Atchafalaya. ..."

OTT:1253:25#p3421962

"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). ..."

OTT:1253:28#p3421974

"> ... 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. ..."

OTT:1253:37#p3422006

"> > 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? ...

> 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. ..."

{This was indeed answered; see OTT:1344:39#p3432833}

— OTT:1254:0 at 20140215.2307

OTT:1254:6#p3422017

{It's the infamous Voldeframe}

"EndONG

???? :shock:

[frame m3089]"

OTT:1254:16#p3422028

"No! No! This can't be real! I refuse to accept it! ..."

OTT:1254:21#p3422033

"Nooooooooooooooo!"

OTT:1254:25#p3422038

"Oh come on GLR, you better be messing with us. Good one, but you're not fooling me, I'm still checking for more newpix"

OTT:1254:26#p3422039

"*scraaaaape* *CRUNCH*

Hey, did the OTT just hit something?"

OTT:1254:32#p3422046

"The frame has become a link to geekwagon."

— OTT:1255:0 at 20140215.2321

OTT:1255:0#p3422054

"I hope there might be a "Making of Time" blag entry at some point in the near future."

{This was soon echoed by several others}

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1255:4#p3422058

"Five stages of grief...

Stage 1: Denial"

OTT:1255:12#p3422066

"Oh. And alt-text changed. I guess that seals it."

OTT:1255:19#p3422075

"Blindpost:

WTC???!?

If this really is the end, that's worse than Lost. I'll never forgive the GLR."

OTT:1255:23#p3422080

"We've moved from Denial to Anger, that's good progress for 2 NP.

And nothing's worse than Lost. Not even the Star Wars Christmas Special was worse than Lost."

OTT:1255:36#p3422093

"I predict that Time will now just repeat a couple frames with the flag waving. The End will remain though, as it is in fact over.

Also, I really hope that there is a Blag about this. We want to know more GLR, please enlighten us."

— OTT:1256:0 at 20140216.1231

OTT:1256:3#p3422100

"... I never posted much but I lurked a lot, and I must say it was a lot of fun here in the OTT, and while my friends thought I was nuts and obsessed, coming here on my lunch breaks, and in my down times was the highlight of the past several months for me, even if I didn't say much."

OTT:1256:18#p3422119

"... Dang.

At least there was no shark jumping."

OTT:1256:23#p3422125

"... And above all, I don't want the OTT to end. :( Well, even if it doesn't "end" for a few days/weeks, there'll be less people there. :( ..."

OTT:1256:28#p3422130

"I feel awful for all those who aren't even online right now (yappobuiscuits etc) who are going to log on and just see that it ENDED? Why oh why GLR??? You could have kept it going for at least a year!"

OTT:1256:34#p3422137

" The weeping OTTers sang a mournful song,

As lo!, The tale of Time did end ere long.

And, crushing what he'd chanced to shape in play,

The Great Lord Randall blew his world away. "

— OTT:1257:0 at 20140216.1310

OTT:1257:5#p3422151

"... I know people are upset, but if the comic has to end, this is actually a rather satisfying place to end it.

(But I'll miss the community that formed here. Mscha, thank you again for my wonderful beanie-hat.)"

OTT:1257:20#p3422168

"I think there's some reaction visible in the fora:

[image, 'NP1257 whoisonline.png', showing 78 registered users and 164 guests browsing the forum]"

— OTT:1258:0 at 20140216.1327

OTT:1258:3#p3422195

"...

> > So, kickstarter for time 2? [bargaining]

> You're moving a bit faster than I am through the stages, but YES.

I'm being nonconformist and doing it out of order. You know what we're like with standards..."

OTT:1258:19#p3422216

"@edo, I can't command you, but I do implore you to remove the end spoiler from your signature. This is visible to blitzers all the way back to your first post. Please. For all who will come after us."

{This began a lengthy discussion; see OTT:1248:18#p3421517 and OTT:1275:22#p3423124 which reveals that the controversial sig was probably:

"Biltzers: There is a new commandment: The end." }

OTT:1258:24#p3422222

"... Short of there being a Time II some way down the line (Cuegan and the other 38 of The Forty face shenanigans from the displaced Hill People and the Beanies, and Rosetta wants her Maps back), I can't imagine what else he can tell at this point.

And Time II would vaguely disappoint, kind of like the last season of Babylon 5, or the Ori seasons of Stargate SG-1."

OTT:1258:30#p3422228

"From an entertainment standpoint, it was a good way to end.

Always leave your audience wanting more. ..."

{Many others are saying goodbye — mostly folks who weren't active}

— OTT:1259:0 at 20140216.1341

OTT:1259:5#p3422248

"Is it bad that in another tab I've got the ONG and the img tags all ready?

I'm still on denial."

OTT:1259:15#p3422259

"*Blindpost* Molpy up!

What. WHAT. *runs like the wind to the present*"

OTT:1259:26#p3422271

"... Screw it, back to denial:

Time isn't over until the admins lock this thread."

OTT:1259:36#p3422287

" tears falling softly

i hide them from the big sea

which would only grow "

OTT:1259:37#p3422288

"ContinueONG?

[frame m3090]"

— OTT:1260:0 at 20140216.1520

OTT:1260:6#p3422298

"Chirp the alt-text! The image changed, didn't it?"

OTT:1260:18#p3422313

"Hmm, a loop of water movement frames for all eternity? ..."

OTT:1260:37#p3422338

"CHARONGOS...

Spoiler:

[frame m3100]

-- posted by newpixbot

No, newpixbot, no ONG for you.

Either it was confused by the huge number of posts since the ONG, or it just wanted to post one last ONG."

— OTT:1261:0 at 20140216.1530

OTT:1261:16#p3422365

"... if absolutely nothing happens other than the water moving from now on. People would very slowly and gradually accept the ending at various rates. GLR could program a way to make the water move randomly instead of looping, and we'd never know for sure.

... some dedicated fans would continue checking daily, then weekly, then monthly, and certainly at the 1-year anniversary of the comic's beginning and "ending"."

OTT:1261:18#p3422367

{ref-xkcd-325}

"Instead of perpetuity, OTC contained end.

Would wait again."

OTT:1261:24#p3422373

"> I hope the people of this thread stick around for a while. I think there's room for some new OTTifications, further critical thoughts, and other creative stuff now that there is an encompassed whole to work from. ...

This. The comment was often made that the OTT sometimes seemed more important than the OTC. Well...it was, really. I mean, it's what made this comic special. ..."

— OTT:1262:0 at 20140216.1656

OTT:1262:3#p3422394

"... ETA: and now the OTF is starting to throw 503 errors... Nooo, don't let the OTT end too!"

{Followed by several similar comments}

OTT:1262:21#p3422420

filk of "Into the West" from the Lord of the Rinds soundtrack

— OTT:1263:0 at 20140216.1716

OTT:1263:7#p3422454

"> NO NO MORE!!! PEOPLE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE! We will wait! WHY? BECAUSE THAT WAS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT HANDED DOWN FROM THE GREAT ALT TEXT!

Oh good, there's that level of insanity I've come to expect around here :) "

OTT:1263:9#p3422456

{The beginning of the 'basement' meme}

"If you try to leave we'll have to rope you up in the basement next to GLR."

OTT:1263:10#p3422457

"Well, at least nobody here is so far gone as to suggest that we continue the OTC.

yet."

OTT:1263:27#p3422480

"... When the time of grieving ends, will we wake up and realize that it is but Randall's time of waiting and watching that has ended?

His Time, not ours.

We now enter the beginning of our Time. Our creating, our doing, our being, our loving, our sharing. ..."

OTT:1263:30#p3422486

filk (partial) "The End of All Time" based on "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis

OTT:1263:33#p3422489

{Several people have been doing something like the following:}

"... In other news, Hat's off to:

Mscha: for being the Keeper of Time

Keiryn: for the data

AubronWood (whatever his name is on this site): for a nice interface

BlitzGirl: For reading it all

..."

— OTT:1264:0 at 20140216.1741

OTT:1264:21#p3422532

{Three more great recordings by Yappo}

"Ok… I've had these ready to go for a while now, but have been putting off posting them since the OTC and OTT have been so full of excitement in recent wips, ...

I present not one, but THREE present presents for y'all in the form of recordings of three previously ottified songs! ...

Every Newframe's Awefulsome (Based on "The Major General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, originally ottified by ZoomanSP ...

The Knights Temporal Song (Based on "Knights of the Round Table" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) ...

Megan and Cue (Based on "Winnie the Pooh") ..."

— OTT:1265:0 at 20140216.1807

OTT:1265:2#p3422562

"> I cant. Nope, I wont. I am staying, that is it. I don't want to cry.

Good. Because I don't know how how many people will fit in the OTT's basement."

OTT:1265:11#p3422575

"At risk of repeating myself, while the end has been coming for a while, we've been deliberately ignorant to the signs, thinking that if we wish hard enough it wouldn't happen. ..."

OTT:1265:15#p3422588

"We're bombing the xkcd fora again. Haha! Over the last 10 Newpages the post number has increased by 525, with 400 of those posts being in the OTT. We've been over 75% of the activity across the entire xkcd fora structure this afternoon."

— OTT:1266:0 at 20140216.2057

OTT:1266:4#p3422636

"Molpy alert in the bush on the right."

{referring to frame m3092}

OTT:1266:20#p3422655

"MOLPY MOLPY MOLPY!

That's almost at 1000 views! Let's get it up there, guys! ..."

{Checking today, the video has 2684 views}

OTT:1266:34#p3422670

"> It could very well be that, even though the story of Cueball & Megan has ended, we'd be able to watch the raft bobbing forever.

Post-ending-mini-loopism?"

OTT:1266:37#p3422673

"... Every Newframe's Awefulsome really sums up the craziness here better than I every could - it can't be explained, it can only be witnessed."

— OTT:1267:0 at 20140217.0616

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1267:15#p3422697

"... anybody feeling a sudden lack of science and nautical intrigue in their lives should go to http://www.oldweather.org/ and transcribe some weather observations from old ship logbooks ..."

OTT:1267:23|#p3422707

Flado is at 818/1267

OTT:1267:28#p3422712

"Nobody's leaving until we've solved Beanish.

BlitzGirl, have you got your molpy army guarding all the exits?"

— OTT:1268:0 at 20140217.1155

OTT:1268:28#p3422755

{This was fairly insightful}

"... I've read a lot of SF stories about the distant future of humanity ... it's almost always about discovering the future's past ... [and revealing or teaching something] about us!

... Randall Munroe's Time doesn't fit that mold. It's not about us. ... Why, then, put deep time (on the human scale anyhow) in the back-story? Because it's a story about time, and what time does is move on. ... The continents grind together or spin apart, seas rise and fall, ... [stars] eventually die. And after all that, it's still now. There's a boy and girl on a beach and the time is now, the time is right now and only now, to build a castle.

That, I believe, is why it's called 'Time.'"

OTT:1268:29#p3422756

"> ... I wonder how many times I'll need to hit "submit" now, seeing as how I started this when I saw this Qoute shrub. (Not a tree yet with only two quotes.)

Yeah, you should have seen it after the bad words appeared, there were like 400+ people in here all trying to post."

OTT:1268:36#p3422765

"... I would use an incredible amount of profanity right now to express my mood but I not sure if that's allowed here. ... Please stay :cry:"

OTT:1268:38#p3422768

"Don't worry, blitzGirl has the doors covered and we have about 100 people tied up in the basement."

— OTT:1269:0 at 20140217.1225

OTT:1269:20#p3422796

{A unique post by @ChronosDragon, one big image made to look like a ketchup post; see 'NP1269 ChronosDragon timepost885.png'}

"... I have some plans that may help expand the life of the thread. You'll see, soon. ..."

— OTT:1270:0 at 20140217.1415

OTT:1270:5#p3422825

"I never thought I'd say this about a webcomic, but - it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience... :cry:"

— OTT:1271:0 at 20140217.1632

OTT:1271:8#p3422881

"Actually, there is an ONG, but it's an old one: f11bda3df4fc05d4a1ddd511fcd1f22f5a525ef0c7377503470afca79b0f9bcb, same as np3092. So we're looping now.

... ETA: newpixbot, and my archive, don't consider this a newpix, so it won't be listed as np3095."

OTT:1271:14#p3422890

"[quoting BlitzGirl's OTTification, see 'NP1271 0360 InTheBasement.png']

omg, this is the best! We need a whole set of EoT OTT xkcds ..."

OTT:1271:18#p3422895

"> I was right! Just a bit ago I said that the waves would loop:

I suppose that gives you the final called-it of all Time..."

— OTT:1272:0 at 20140217.1704

{Part of a ongoing discussion of alternatives that could be used in case the

OTT forum is no longer available}

"> > I feel a bit silly for bringing up the idea of an FB group now, since so many seem to hate the idea.

> Me too, in fact. It's not really the best way for a bunch of anonymous internet users to connect ...

I never suggested it as the PRIMARY way for us to stay connected. I just thought it might be a nice thing to have for those of us who DO have fb and don't mind shedding anonymity. Like, we have a steam group. Not all of us have steam. I don't. But I'm ok with it existing."

— OTT:1273:0 at 20140217.1807

OTT:1273:8#p3422988

{Offset is 8. Note also that the pope thing was ignored for many of the recent pages}

"... ETA: Decree:

Cheer Val up. Or record some audio for .. the OTVO!"

OTT:1273:26#p3423012

filk of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" by Sandy Denny

— OTT:1274:0 at 20140217.2336

OTT:1274:36#p3423089

"Oh, and the folks over at explain-wiki are in as much a state of shock as we are. They just can't post as much there."

— OTT:1275:0 at 20140218.0006

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1275:0#p3423094

{Offset is 0}

"... Page Pope Again??? / Didn't I just do this? / ..."

OTT:1275:15#p3423117

"... Now, I was planning all along that if Time ever ended and the thread slowed down, I would go back and blitz the entire OTT from the beginning to end. It seems the time has come!"

OTT:1275:19#p3423121

filk of "Heavy Cloud No Rain" by Sting

OTT:1275:22#p3423124

Exodies is at 1124/1275

"The sigs seem full of spoilers these days:

Biltzers: There is a new commandment: The end.

The past is full of traps, charms and mirages, but if you just keep up with with what you are doing it will all be fine in the end ... or maybe not. just don't wait for it!

..."

{See OTT:1248:18p3421517 and OTT:1258:19p3422216}

OTT:1275:23#p3423125

filk "Cuegan in Time" based on "Love Me Two Times" by The Doors

OTT:1275:38#p3423156

"... In fact, if we were really dedicated, I think it could be neat if we made a collective fan project making new panels to continue Time ...

OTT:1275:39#p3423157

"Blindpost, NP 1180

edo's signature wrote:

> Biltzers: There is a new commandment: The end.

:shock:

edo, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, but [regardless of whether] Time has ended [or if] this is a joke [...] I'm going to come to the present and kick your ass."

{See OTT:1276:11p3423182 for edo's response, and OTT:1276:21p3423199}

— OTT:1276:0 at 20140218.1750

OTT:1276:3#p3423165

"> ... <$:Disclaimer: if you don't like knowing what internet people are named IRL - don't click the above link.

Feel free to add me on Facebook as well. Same disclaimer."

{Several similar messages were posted around this time, a sign that the community really wants to stick together}

OTT:1276:12#p3423184

"DONG

[frame m0002]"

{The beginning of a series of the first few frames}

OTT:1276:21#p3423199

{This is edo's new signature, as revealed by Sciscitor's archive}

"{P1126}

The sig clouds are darkening

If you get to the present and there is no one there to welcome you,

don't blame me. I was just trying to be helpful."

— OTT:1277:0 at 20140218.1815

OTT:1277:2#p3423262

"> ... And I don't know if we can keep this up for the first 240 frames at this 30 outside minute rate!

WHy not just adapt newpixbot? Or create oldpixbot for the purpose?"

OTT:1277:18#p3423301

{mscha's first summary/analysis of the epilogue sequence}

"... By the way, the OTT can't end until we've ottified every single OtherComic. We've made a good start, there were a few yesterday/today, and many more during the course of Time; I'm guessing we're at 5-10% already.

...

we got five more newpix, frame 3090 through frame 3094. For convenience, let's call those frames A, B, C, D and E. ...

Every oldpix after that, we got a new oldpix. The list up to now is: CDCBAECDAE. ...

(not even a loop, He can't even make the loopists (a tiny bit) happy...) ..."

OTT:1277:24#p3423312

{Sciscitor updates the avatars treemap and is working on a new Constellation of Time}

OTT:1277:27#p3423319

poem "Morning Song" based on "Senlin" by Conrad Aiken

{really good}

OTT:1277:29#p3423329

"... I thought about suggesting a new project:

The OTColored

where everyone can color a frame with artistic freedom. ..."

OTT:1277:32#p3423333

"In the meantime here is the plain text of the one true needle pulled thing (up to posting 50,440) sans quotes and some statistics to accompany it:

1,298 individual posters

2.335,064 (51,250 unique) words (the english translation of the bible consists of about 789.7 kilowords, 12,559 unique). To read it all you would need about 142 hours or 6 days, not counting time for adoring molpies, listening to filks or watching videos)

14 MB of uncompressed data"

— OTT:1278:0 at 20140218.1850

OTT:1278:0#p3423346

"> I think it was the suddenness that hurt the worst.

Good analysis, as was Rule110's earlier.

That last sentence hits the nail on the head for me, though: it was the suddenness that was the biggest shock.

When you read a good book, or see a good movie, you pretty much know when the end is coming, simply because you're running out of pages or allotted time. ..."

OTT:1278:13#p3423383

"... I agree with you lmjb1964, I want to be "here" still posting to say "Hi, welcome to the present." to all of our blitzers. (As much as I can with having to be at work and all.) And be able to say "Hi" to the newones that will appear. ..."

{Repeats the opinion, stated by several others, that the ending seems to have been rushed.}

OTT:1278:29|#p3423424

pelrigg is at 1148/1278

OTT:1278:37#p3423444

"... And because we like charts, hey look, it's the OTT! Mustarding up xkcd fora statistics since March 2013H:

[image, see 'NP1278 ForaStatistics.png']

— OTT:1279:0 at 20140218.2115

OTT:1279:1#p3423453

{announcing a newly created Facebook group; which later became "hidden" out of privacy concerns, meaning that you cannot see its content unless you're a member.}

OTT:1279:9#p3423464

{Discussion of the idea of posting random ONGs, and the first use of 'rONG' to refer to that.}

OTT:1279:11#p3423466

filk "Molpy, Molpy, Molpy" based on "Holy, Holy, Holy" (hymn)

OTT:1279:12#p3423467

"> BTW, am I Pope for a page? Do we still have them? A Blitzer Pope--is that heresy, like an Anti-pope?

I think the papacy is a good tradition to continue - one of its purposes was to make each newpage more exciting while we Waited for it, and now we're Waiting harder than we ever have before... "

— OTT:1280:0 at 20140218.2259

OTT:1280:34#p3423577

"... Second: The Constellation of Time 4 ..."

— OTT:1281:0 at 20140219.0058

OTT:1281:2#p3423587

{Sciscitor, referring to his latest "Constellation"}

"Re: Brain

Yes, it actually does look like a brain, I haven't planned on it, it just developed this structure when running the algorithm. Reproduceable too.

I guess the OTT has finally reach consciousness!"

OTT:1281:21#p3423616

"... And I see Molpies is now at 1,095 ..."

{And it is now at 2702}

OTT:1281:34#p3423649

Exodies is at 1132/1281

— OTT:1282:0 at 20140219.0424

OTT:1282:16#p3423689

"I had another crazy idea last night. ..."

{Describes a server, mostly automated, that would allow people to anonymously submit images which are then made public once per hour.}

OTT:1282:37#p3423728

"gasps Poor Angelastic! She doesn't know yet! :("

— OTT:1283:0 at 20140219.1703

OTT:1283:7#p3423741

"And it looks like ChronosDragon about ready to try to re-connect. ... I noticed his sig was at 'Reconnect In 03:39', ...

Edit: Now at 03:36...."

OTT:1283:11#p3423759

"I added a list of unanswered and open questions to the Wiki. Perhaps one day GLR will answer them.

http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Questions"

OTT:1283:15#p3423772

filk "When We Go" based on "When You Go" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1283:17#p3423777

filk "The End of the OTC" based on "The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby

OTT:1283:23#p3423787

filk "The Great Lord Randall is not your bitch" based on "George R.R. Martin is Not Your Bitch" by John Anealio

— OTT:1284:0 at 20140219.2057

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1284:2#p3423821

"A quick note that the OTC is still randomly showing one “epilogue” frame per hour. The sequence, up to now: CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA ..."

OTT:1284:13|#p3423841

{A lot of people have been answering this question (asked at OTT:1282:11#p3423680) and I've been surprised how many different people are responsible for the OTT culture.}

"... The one contribution that tickles me the most is that I named the Knights Temporal. ..."

OTT:1284:22|#p3423860

"... I present to you:

Wait Not In Vain

A webcomic about life, the universe, and the OTT

...

I love you guys, and am firmly in opposition of abandoning the OTT! ..."

— OTT:1285:0 at 20140220.2048

OTT:1285:23#p3423949

Exodies is at 1135/1285

— OTT:1286:0 at 20140220.2057

OTT:1286:18#p3424050

"> @jjjDavidson and others have mentioned being shy. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it sometimes gets in the way. I found this to be helpful in overcoming my own shyness:

> fooldevil.com/patterns/IntrovertExtrovert.html

> It is also available as part of the book Pedagogical Patterns, which is directed at teachers of technical subjects, especially Computer Science. I have a copy on my bookshelf.

Delurking to recommend the book Quiet by Susan Cain. Went a long way to persuade me that there's nothing wrong with having an introverted temperament, that being introverted doesn't necessarily mean that you can't also still have confidence in yourself at the same time, and finally that there are often many positive traits that come bundled along with shyness. Recognising some of these traits in myself made me feel much more content with my introversion. It's also a helpful reminder (along with this thread) that there are millions more like us out there."

OTT:1286:25#p3424065

filk "The Waiting Song" based on "The Drinking Song" by Moxy Früvous

OTT:1286:35#p3424094

filk "Time after Time" based on "Time after Time" by Cyndi Lauper

OTT:1286:36#p3424097

"End of Time" based on "First of May" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1286:39#p3424104

"... We'll need to add a 6th stage of grief: writing ottifications about it."

— OTT:1287:0 at 20140220.2223

OTT:1287:3#p3424114

"... Remaining open question ($maybe it was answered and I missed it$): Who is Eternal Density brother? ..."

{See OTT:1301:23p3425556, OTT:1302:11p3425652, OTT:1332:31p3430625, the Openglopish part of OTT:1343:23p3432534, OTT:1423:25p3449677, OTT:1510:0p3468879}

OTT:1287:9#p3424130

filk "Time is Over" based on "Summer's Over" by Jonathan Coulton

OTT:1287:10#p3424132

"... the mess following the frame-which-must-not-be-named ..."

{This led to the invention of "Voldeframe" at OTT:1287:24#p3424179}

OTT:1287:19#p3424159

filk "So Long and Thanks for All the Newpix" based on "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" by Neil Hannon

OTT:1287:35#p3424194

filk "Return to Cue Corner" based on "Return to Pooh Corner" by Kenny Loggins

— OTT:1288:0 at 20140221.0043

OTT:1288:1#p3424214

{Offset is 1}

"... Edit: Oooh, Pagepope! Share something about yourself ..."

OTT:1288:26#p3424282

{Kieryn comments on his server's slowness, sort of foreshadowing OTT:1412:29#p3447604}

"Nope, not a load problem. The slow speed is due to the crappy way I'm storing and serving the data. Not even using a database. Going to be making major changes over next few weeks to improve this."

— OTT:1289:0 at 20140221.0949

OTT:1289:0#p3424317

azule is at 1152/1289

OTT:1289:4#p3424323

"> Has GLR ever posted anywhere on the forums here?

Yes. Rarely, but yes."

{If you check the user's posts, it's clearly Randall Munroe at a time when he could actually spend time on the fora. The "Hat!/pause/Happy again!/Thank you!" post is pointed out later, and the thread it appears in also has an interesting commentary by Munroe about a copycat webcomic.}

OTT:1289:5#p3424325

Exodies is at 1142/1289

OTT:1289:7#p3424327

"As for picking up lingo, I'm writing on my next novel todix (in between checking the OTT) and just used the phrase 'mustard it up' in dialogue in a scene, because dammit, it fit so well. I'm leaving it, too, I think readers will get it in context. And so the culture continues to spread out like dandelion fluff..."

OTT:1289:32#p3424367

smolloy is at 1/1289

"Neat! OK, here we go! Back in Time......"

OTT:1289:37#p3424379

"> Oh, Randall... azule doesn't know, does he? :|

:( I guess not - he hasn't blindposted about it yet, or about being spoilered by sigs or anything like that. ..."

— OTT:1290:0 at 20140221.1035

OTT:1290:16#p3424414

"... we're still getting a random ‘epilogue’ frame every hour. I'm not keeping track of the sequence anymore – it's random, we get it."

OTT:1290:18#p3424416

"... Oh sad. Sad sad sad. :( Eternal Density doesn't know yet, either..."

OTT:1290:28#p3424433

"Well, crikey. There's 50 pages I need to ketchup, and I suspect most of them are a bit heavier than bag puns. ..."

OTT:1290:32#p3424440

"Poor ED...

So, who's got the bucket of ice cream?

Ah, there it is. It's empty??? Who ate it all? That was for consoling Blitzers and upketchers only!"

— OTT:1291:0 at 20140221.1352

OTT:1291:4#p3424458

"If it's not RELATED, we will make it RELATED."

OTT:1291:28#p3424523

"... Let's see...

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA <= first 24 hours

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABAEDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA <= first 48 hours

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA <= first 24 hours again (shifted to the right)

Hmm, that's certainly a pattern...

So, the second 24 hours are identical to the first 24 hours, except for the first hour. / Weird. ..."

— OTT:1292:0 at 20140221.1427

OTT:1292:21#p3424606

Acts of the Clerics scene 20

{at the end is a reference to SAEWItRBaSA, which appeared in AluisioASG's signature from about NP393 until about NP905}

— OTT:1293:0 at 20140221.2149

OTT:1293:0#p3424635

{Offset is 0}

"EDIT: I'm the Pope? I don't think I've ever been ..."

OTT:1293:1#p3424636

"> New othercomic.

...

'Oh, there's a new othercomic'

*checks forum, no new thread*

'Hmm, the OTT is quicker.* "

OTT:1293:23#p3424677

Exodies is at 1148/1293

OTT:1293:30|#p3424697

WOnder93 is at 738/1293

OTT:1293:33#p3424709

filk "Past the End of Time" based on "1999" by Prince

— OTT:1294:0 at 20140221.2237

OTT:1294:11|#p3424805

Vytron is at 1131/1294

OTT:1294:33#p3424879

"... Oh well, molpy up and deal with it! It's just the end of Time, not the end of the world! ..."

OTT:1294:37#p3424899

{New charts and analysis}

"Ok, So Having looked at the posts individually ...

[post rate by hour, http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/attachment/38514]

[post rate by 15-minute segment, http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/attachment/38513]

[post rate by minute, http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/ott/attachment/38515]

... in order the top 50 posters below

mscha 2330

BlitzGirl 2087

HAL9000 1050

ChronosDragon 900

KarMann 894

..."

— OTT:1295:0 at 20140222.0057

OTT:1295:31#p3424997

"Are you happy now, loopists? by mscha

...

After the frame-that-we-don't-mention, there were five more ‘epilogue’ frames, ... which I shall refer to as A through E.

...

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBA

...

In conclusion, we're looping! "

— OTT:1296:0 at 20140222.0225

OTT:1296:1#p3425013

BlueCrab is at 1191/1296

OTT:1296:2#p3425014

by kryton

"I failed in finishing my BlitzQuest before "The End". :oops:"

{This is someone who hasn't posted since NP647; there were a lot right after T** **d, and we have also recently seen @123Adz321, @Trurl, @appleGirl, @vvn, @histrion; and later come others like @aeglaeca and @Aubron}

OTT:1296:5#p3425020

{poem with rhyme sceme "EDCB AECD AEDC BAED CCDC BABA"}

"Cueball and megan went wandering / Along and up to the top / ..."

OTT:1296:8#p3425032

"Prediction: This daily pattern will break and show a longer pattern, which will break and show a longer one and so on ..."

OTT:1296:15#p3425051

{Another poem with epilogue rhyme scheme}

"There once was a Time / when we all sat around / ..."

OTT:1296:17#p3425063

Exodies is at 1151/1296

OTT:1296:23#p3425084

from Aubron, the creator of the aubronwood viewer

"Just pushed out a closing set of updates to xkcd.aubronwood.com, including auto-pausing for special frames. However, most fun of which (in my own opinion) is the secret ability to add a ?youtube=YOUTUBEID and make background music for the comic.

Thanks for all the support! <3"

{It works so long as Flash is enabled on the site}

— OTT:1297:0 at 20140222.1016

OTT:1297:5#p3425128

"... By the way, Randall made a "making of Time" blag post today.

http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/07/29/1190-time/"

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1298:0 at 20140222.2036

— OTT:1299:0 at 20140222.2201

OTT:1299:20#p3425333

"... I'd like to reflect on the fact that I think the OTT has taken on a different feeling now. Perhaps not surprising. I realized at work today that I was missing it in a very different way than ever during the updates, and that I think is because it has now shifted (even more) towards being about *us*. ..."

OTT:1299:22#p3425336

Bad Hair Man is at 270/1299

OTT:1299:23#p3425337

filk "Timewaiter" based on "Mongoloid" by Jerry Casale and Devo

OTT:1299:35#p3425363

{Three double-dactyls which together fit the EDCB AECD AEDC BAED CCDC BABA rhyme scheme, and which corresponds pretty much line-for-line with the poem in OTT:1296:5#p3425020}

DD "Wondering wandering / Cuegan went to the top / ..."

DD "Summersun molpyfun / Friends below, plundering / ..."

DD "Quillbeanies, hillmeanies / Molpies large and weanies / ..."

OTT:1299:38#p3425371

filk "Megan and Cueball" based on "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles

— OTT:1300:0 at 20140222.2245

{This is a psychological milestone for me, because the OTT was still in the 1300's when I started reading, i.e. "lurking"}

OTT:1300:1#p3425377

{This is the first mention of me, though it's just a retro-edit}

" Newpage 1300 Smiley Repository

...

Edit 17: Added more SB icon-smileys and several mrob-made smileys.

Edit 18: Added more raptorish raptorcat, looping mrob, and bangssaw.

Edit 19: Added mrob's Knight Temporal.

...

Last edited by BlitzGirl at Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:09:22 am UTC = newpix 5387.15"

OTT:1300:14#p3425415

Exodies is at 1152/1300

OTT:1300:23#p3425435

filk "Zanclean Flood" based on "Aquarius" from "Hair"

OTT:1300:24#p3425436

filk (untitled) based on "500 Miles" by the Proclaimers

— OTT:1301:0 at 20140222.2330

OTT:1301:6#p3425486

DD "'ternaly Densicly / Thus be the question here: / ..."

OTT:1301:16#p3425531

filk "Our Thread is the Best" based on "All For the Best" by Thom Yorke

OTT:1301:22#p3425554

"The last thing I want to do is throw cold water on the t-shirt idea ... but let's all keep in mind it's Randall's artwork, and his copyright, ..."

{There is a long discussion about copyright, heightening around NP1309}

OTT:1301:31#p3425584

poem "Time Has Flown" with rhyme scheme EDCBA ECDA EDCBA EDCCDC BABA

OTT:1301:33#p3425589

filk "Newpix of Love" based on "Seasons of Love" from "Rent"

OTT:1301:36#p3425599

{This post has mismatched tags:

(comments)

[quote="taixzo"]

(comment)

[spoiler]

(song)

[/quote]

[/spoiler]

and has never been fixed, so I can use it to test scripts, etc.}

— OTT:1302:0 at 20140223.0038

OTT:1302:8#p3425647

filk "Coma Molpy Style" based on "Minecraft Style" by CaptainSparklez, which in turn is based on "Gangnam Style" by PSY

— OTT:1303:0 at 20140223.0139

OTT:1303:13#p3425772

poem based on one of Tolkien's

"Time goes ever on and on / Down from the beach where it began. / ..."

OTT:1303:26#p3425835

filk "You're Not Alone" based on "On my Own" from "Les Miserables"

OTT:1303:30#p3425873

filk "At the End of Time" based on "At the End of the Day" from "Les Miserables"

— OTT:1304:0 at 20140223.0305

OTT:1304:1#p3425926

karhell is at 715/1304

OTT:1304:15#p3425954

filk "Waiting" based on "Standing" from "Once More With Feeling" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

OTT:1304:21#p3425978

filk "Posting Through The Madness" based on "Going Through The Motions" from "Once More With Feeling" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

OTT:1304:23#p3425993

"... the OTT has stopped looping, it seems. We now have the following pattern, post-np3094:

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBADB

DEBCEADECACD

..."

OTT:1304:32#p3426023

filk "It's All Over Now for Meg and Cue" based on "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" by Bob Dylan

— OTT:1305:0 at 20140223.0339

OTT:1305:4#p3426073

"Nice note in the Washington Post today-

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/07/30/a-brief-history-of-time-the-xkcd-comic/?hpid=z11

With links for Mscha and Aubronwood!"

OTT:1305:7#p3426085

azule is at 1164/1305

OTT:1305:8#p3426093

filk "Under Your Thread" based on "Under Your Spell" from "Once More With Feeling" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

OTT:1305:13#p3426128

{pointing out that Antares is 550 light years away, much too far for its supernova to have had an effect on Earth's biosphere; thus it is there only as a hint to the comic being set in the future.}

OTT:1305:23|#p3426175

macraw83 is at 825/1305

OTT:1305:26#p3426184

filk "I'll Never Blitz" based on "I'll Never Tell" from "Once More With Feeling" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

— OTT:1306:0 at 20140223.1441

OTT:1306:9#p3426273

DD "Blitzity blitzity / ketchupping Timewaters / ..."

OTT:1306:19#p3426309

DD "Blitzitty Wizzitty / you two have charmed us with / ...

OTT:1306:25#p3426328

DD "Ketchuping frysaucing / It is now clear to me / ..."

— OTT:1307:0 at 20140223.1514

OTT:1307:21#p3426418

filk "TimeTale" based on "Scaretale" by Nightwish

OTT:1307:24#p3426429

poem, apparently original

"Time-verse, Part 1: The Beginning.

guy with a head shaped like a ball / Sat with girl and built castle tall / ..."

OTT:1307:39#p3426484

Exodies is at 1163/1307

— OTT:1308:0 at 20140223.1628

OTT:1308:0#p3426497

filk "Castle Made of Sand" based on "Castles Made of Sand" by Jimi Hendrix

OTT:1308:4|#p3426510

Earthling on Mars is at 1286/1308

filk "The Castle" based on "The Call" by Regina Spektor

OTT:1308:15#p3426546

"... now that Time has...well...you know...our efforts and attention are no longer focused on the next newpix, but instead we seem to be able to channel that energy and inspiration directly back into the many creative works that will help to further immortalize Time. ..."

OTT:1308:39#p3426618

{Argues that Randall was in control of how fast Time ended, because it would have been easy to create more "easy" frames}

"... *Excepting, of course, the following possible scenario [inspired by someone's comment over the wipend]:

davean: You know that Time thread? It's getting big.

xkcd: 50K posts, I know. But the forum can hold megaposts.

davean: Yeah. But did you know they've uploaded 691MB of attachments in the last six weeks?

xkcd: Chirp me! o_O I'll kill it by Friday. "

— OTT:1309:0 at 20140223.1653

OTT:1309:5#p3426638

filk "Somewhere Out There" based on "Somewhere Out There" by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram (from "American Tail")

OTT:1309:20#p3426700

"I think things have finally quieted down a little.

Users browsing this forum: addams, fhorn, HES, MSN [Bot], Rule110, sensitive, ZoomanSP and 27 guests"

— OTT:1310:0 at 20140223.1848

OTT:1310:2#p3426779

filk "The thread must go on" based on "The Show Must Go On" by Queen

OTT:1310:5#p3426799

filk "Awefulsome Fate" based on "Die Young" by Ke$ha

OTT:1310:11#p3426827

filk (untitled) (Portuguese) based on "Tempo Perdido" by Legião Urbana

OTT:1310:13#p3426834

filk "A lenda de Megball" (Portuguese) based on "Música Urbana 2" by Legião Urbana

— OTT:1311:0 at 20140223.1958

OTT:1311:1#p3427022

"... By the way, most of our beautiful song and poem ottifications are probably illegal (unless we can defend them as parody). This is a sad world."

OTT:1311:2|#p3427028

WOnder93 is at 768/1310

— OTT:1312:0 at 20140223.2312

OTT:1312:30#p3427438

{@cellocgw appears to be leaving, but isn't actually}

OTT:1312:35#p3427450

"... It's funny to think that BlitzGirl's first post was on 214 and it seemed like such an impossible task to reach us by the 400s, and yet this person is 130 pages behind and it doesn't seem like it's that far. My how time has grown... "

— OTT:1313:0 at 20140223.2354

"> > Just saw the news! NOOOOOO! It can't be! I am totally freaking out here!!! ... > ??? What news? Are those dang Kardashians up to their old shenanigans again??? I normally get to the page by doing a quick search for "xkcd time."

What I saw was this:

{Image ( ) showing Google search results for "xkcd time"}

Needless to say, it came as quite a shock."

— OTT:1314:0 at 20140224.0051

OTT:1314:13|#p3427666

bmonk is at 809/1314

OTT:1314:25#p3427707

"> When does one become an official OTTer?

As soon as one begins lurking, I would say!"

OTT:1313:30#p3427600

"> ... Speaking of Beanish.. do we have anyone working on decoding it still? ...

This person is working on it and has been writing blog posts about it: beanishlang.wordpress.com ..."

{See '20130802 SinusPi Beanish.rtf'}

OTT:1314:29#p3427730

Exodies is at 1168/1314

— OTT:1315:0 at 20140224.0120

OTT:1315:9#p3427837

filk "Hei ny ONG" (Norwegian) based on "hei ny dag" by Knutsen & Ludvigsen

OTT:1315:10#p3427839

all your redundakitty are belong to us by Eternal Density

{This post contains a "spurler", created with the following BBcode:

[url=https://www.google.com.au/search?q=redundakitty&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch][spoiler][attachment=0]scary_names.png[/attachment][/spoiler][/url]

This is the debut of spURLers in the modern era, although there were two previous posts with something similar:

OTT:127:25#p3309893 has a [quote] within a URL that takes you to the post being quoted;

OTT:1128:7#p3411703 is the first real spURLer, which has 6 cake images inside a [spoiler] inside a URL linking (approproately) to the TVTropes article "I Was Told There Would Be Cake".

Future spURLers are found in: OTT:1330:9#p3430272,

OTT:1365:9p3436215, OTT:1366:6p3436458, OTT:1379:20#p3439762, OTT:1388:4#p3441471,

OTT:1389:18#p3441994 (the famous "Molpyroll"),

OTT:1390:35p3442423, OTT:1393:10p3443018, OTT:1393:14#p3443030

OTT:1396:7#p3443803 (notable for being a link to the full-size version of the attached image),

OTT:1397:18p3444064, OTT:1397:22p3444112, OTT:1397:27#p3444133, and OTT:1421:32#p3449217. The name "spurler" wasn't invented until OTT:1421:37#p3449227.

The following wave of spURLers begins at OTT:1421:32#p3449217.

In response to this, I add some features to my spoiler-opener script,

making the show/hide button change to "> spURLer! <" if it's within a link

}

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1315:12#p3427844

"PricklyONG!

"

{The first of the OTTer-generated TimeAfterTime ONGs. See images in .../fanpix/Time-After-Time/NP1315-prickly}

OTT:1315:33#p3427911

Acts of the Clerics, Chapter 21

OTT:1315:34#p3427916

filk "Megan's Song" based on "Amy's Song" by Switchfoot

— OTT:1316:0 at 20140224.2112

OTT:1316:4#p3427946

filk "Molp' Up, Cuegan" based on "Go Down, Moses" (traditional)

OTT:1316:6#p3427953

"> Where do the pricklyONGs come from? :shock:

Just scripted currently to show up on mscha's server on the hour right now. Just have to take the last img link and add one to it. Wait for the hour to hit and post the new ONG."

OTT:1316:12#p3427965

Exodies is at 1170/1316

OTT:1316:13#p3427966

poem "Rest With Me Here" with rhyme scheme based on the new epilogue sequence DEBCEADECACDABDECDCDABAB

{See OTT:1373:32#p3438659}

OTT:1316:14#p3427971

"End of Days: Prologue"

{presumably the start of a multi-part story, like the earlier "Last Time Waiter"

OTT:1316:17#p3427976

"I think I may have figured out what was on the map the Beanies showed Cuegan on their way to the castle ..."

— OTT:1317:0 at 20140224.2315

OTT:1317:22#p3428201

filk "Frames of Time" based on (a choral version of) "Fields of Gold" by Sting

OTT:1317:23#p3428206

filk "Clocks" based on "Clocks" by Coldplay

OTT:1317:26#p3428228

"Regarding the Beanish blogger....

...

Might be this person. Seems to have the right background. Here he is again, methinks."

OTT:1317:28#p3428249

filk "WOWtree Wood (This Comic Has Flown)" based on "Norwegian Wood (This Girl has Flown)" by the Beatles

— OTT:1318:0 at 20140225.0216

OTT:1318:5#p3428342

filk "Blitzgirl's song" based on "Gollum's song"

OTT:1318:35#p3428465

filk "I'm Free" based on "I'm Free" by The Who

— OTT:1319:0 at 20140225.0233

OTT:1319:19#p3428559

@Kieryn announces an update of the data and indexes on his server

OTT:1319:27#p3428597

filk "We Must Be Strong" based on "You Must Love Me" by Madonna (from Evita)

OTT:1319:29#p3428608

"Prickly Ong's so far:

...

I was really just doing a test way of getting them out there and I really would need a better way to post them. ... My original plan was to allow others to render their own frames and anonymously upload them so they can tell other "OTC Stories" or add frames to other peoples existing Stories."

OTT:1319:35#p3428626

{reporting that @rhomboidal has edited OTT:1:0#p3301860, adding the long paragraph starting with "The eternal journey continues even after the end of Time..."}

OTT:1319:37|#p3428639

bmonk is at 835/1319

OTT:1319:39#p3428643

"I am Tiago, the author of the Beanish language blog (by the way, it's great to have a domain pointing to it), and I am user Tresoldi in Wikipedia, just like someone guessed. ..."

{see OTT:1317:26#p3428228}

— OTT:1320:0 at 20140225.1604

OTT:1320:1#p3428649

"Molpying down because 32 nopix is too long to stay awake"

{First use of 'nopix' in the modern sense, and consistent with the statement at OTT:171:12#p3312528}

OTT:1320:3#p3428661

filk (untitled) based on the Firefly theme song

OTT:1320:4#p3428662

filk based on "On My Own" from Les Miserables

{with recording, really good}

OTT:1320:28#p3428707

filk "One True Thread" based on "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge (from the film Octopussy)

— OTT:1321:0 at 20140225.1730

OTT:1321:1#p3428765

"... The epilogue sequence...

If we name the 5 final newpix after the frame-that-shan't-be-mentioned A through E, then the hourly (oldpixly?) sequence of frames after that is now:

CDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBABA

EDCBAECDAEDCBAEDCCDCBADB

DEBCEADECACDABDECDCDABAB

DEBCEADECACDABDECDCDABED

BADECBCBDCAECDBABABADCE

We've had two 24-hour cycles (colored blue and green), it's too early to tell whether we're in a third one now.

No idea what's up with this... Perhaps every time the GLR finds out we figured out the pattern, He changes it?42 ... "

OTT:1321:15#p3428829

"... *I have the computer version of a game called 'Cosmic Wimpout' ..."

— OTT:1322:0 at 20140226.0057

OTT:1322:1#p3428974

by Sciscitor >> newpix 3246.12

"... I will try to update my statistics, but this posting by cameroda is really badly broken and can't be fixed automagically ..."

OTT:1322:2#p3428975

azule is at 1190/1322

{and apparently does not yet know about T** **d}

"... Right now the OTC is skipping frames like they're half off! It worries me that the pages aren't increasing like they were a few days ago... What does that mean? ...

P.S. The server was down, with a 504 and 503 error. 'No server found' was a very scary thing to read!"

OTT:1322:27#p3429108

"I have been looking at Rosetta's map under magnification and I think we have missed a few things...

[Image, see 'NP1323 time map.jpg']"

OTT:1322:32#p3429146

ref-xkcd-451

— OTT:1323:0 at 20140226.0309

OTT:1323:4#p3429189

"...

> I think "nopix" is a good way to measure our Time (or lack thereof) now ...

Hey, 3! I coined a term. Doesn't matter that it took 1,151 NPs for it to be used. :P"

OTT:1323:17#p3429258

"> Avenue Q might be fun.

What do you do, with a BA in Manips

theres something I'm supposed to draw?

The internet is for TIME?

Everyone's a little bit timewaiter?"

OTT:1323:19#p3429266

{Referring to the edited first post by Rhomboidal}

"... I looked back to NP0001 and sure enough, the image is now np0001."

OTT:1323:24#p3429293

"The Tale of LaPetite" by jovialbard

— OTT:1324:0 at 20140226.0357

OTT:1324:32#p3429584

{Beanish corpus}

"I have compiled a new transliteration of the corpus using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, with some changes, corrections etc. ...

Frame Transcription Translation

2663 ᔪᙐᖚᐧ ᘛᔭᐤ 'Where are you from?'

2664 ᔪᘝᓄᐧ ,ᔪ ᒣᖉ ᖊᐣᖽ ᖽᘛᕋᐤ 'What happened to your leg?' or 'Are you injured?'

2668 ᓭᘈ ᘊᒣᓭᐧᖊᔑ ᘝᘊᓭᒣᖊᐣᖗᐨ 'Get/Fetch/Bring (me/us) cream for-healing.' or 'We need cream for-healing.' (or 'Cream for-healing is needed.')

2671 ᙐᖚᐧ ᘊᘖᑫᘖᒣᐣᖚ ᘡ ᓴᔅᐧ ᙐᖚ,ᕋᐨ 'Where… .' (affirmative sentence)

2676 ᘊᒣᓭᐧᖊᔑ ᘝᘊᓭᒣᖊᐣᖗᐨ 'Cream for-healing.'

2697 ᖚᑫᘖ ᓭᐧᖚ '(something) you-wildling'

2706 ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ 'Water.'

2708 ᖉ,ᑦᐦ ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐦ 'Yes! Water.'

2728 ᔪᖉᔭᑫ ᙐᖚᐧ ᘊᓭᐧᖚᐤ ᒼᖸᖽᐣ ᔭ ᘝᖽᒣ ᓭᘖᒼ ᖊᘊᐤ ᕋᖗ ᘝᙉᖉᔭ ᘖᐣ ᖗᔭᐢ ᘊᓭᘖᔭᓄᐤ '(…) your land? (…)? (…) waters?'

2734 ᖽᔑᐣᘖ ᖚᐧᘖᖗᑫ ᘝᐣᖽ ᘊᒣᒼᖽᘝᐨ 'We will go to the castle.'

2797 ᒣᓭᐧᖊᔑᐨ 'Cream.'

2802 ᑕᘊᐣᒣ ᘊᓭᑦᑕᖉᐨ ᑕᘊᐣᒣ ᘊᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐦ 'This lands. This seas. Water!'

2806 / ᘝᘈᘖ ᖽᔑᐣᘖ ᖚᒣᑕᑫᓭ ᘝᐣᖽ ᘊᒣᒼᖽᘝᐨ / ᖉ,ᑦᐨ 'JohnDoe/Comrade We shall go to the castle (now).' / 'Ok.'

2821 ᘝᓄᘈᖉᐣᐨ '(name of the city)'

2823 ᖉ, ᘝᐣᖚᔭ,ᐨ 'Good morning.'

2827 ᘊᒣᒼᖽᘝᐨ 'The castle.'

2836 ᖽᔑᐣᘖ ᖚᐧᘖᖗᑫ ᘝᐣᖽ ᘊᓭᘖᑦᓄᐨ 'We should go to the leader.'

2841 ᘈᘊᘖᐨ ᖉ, ᘝᐣᖚᔭ,ᐨ 'Hello.' 'Good morning.'

2842 ᘝᘈᘖᐦ ᖉ, ᘝᐣᖚᔭᐦ 'JohnDoe/Comrade! Good morning!'

2865 ᙐᖚᐧ ᓭᔭᑦᘖ ᘛᘝᖚᘈᐤ 'Where they come from?'

2866 / ᘝᐣᖗᑦᖚᑫ ᓭᐧᘖ ᙐᖚᐧ ᘊᓭᐧᖚᐨ / ᖉᔭᒣᘊᐣᘖᑫ ᖽᘛᕋᑦᐨ 'They came/are from the wildlands.' / 'One of them is injured.'

2880 / ᘛᐣ ᘝᔭᖊᖽ ᖊᑦᘖ ᘖᘝᒣᘛᐨ / ᔪᑫᐨ 'You can leave now.' 'Ok.'

2906 ᘊᖊ,ᓄ ᘊᓭᐧᖚ 'Wildlands/Balearic Sea'

2906 ᘊᖊ,ᓄ .ᓄᐣᔭ 'Ionian Sea'

2906 ᑫᘊᘊ Gibraltar

2906 ᘊᓭᑦᑕᖉ ?

2906 ᘖᓄᘈᖉᐣ ?

2906 ᓭᘊᘊ ? "

— OTT:1325:0 at 20140226.0940

OTT:1325:12#p3429634

filk "People Sitting" based on "Johnny Saucep'n" by Moxy Früvous

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1325:30#p3429664

{long and pretty neat testimonial by intheshax}

"... Thank Randall I knew about the fora! How long has the link been gone now? How much crazier would the OTT have been if it were easier to find?

... 'HE KNEW!' I would exclaim, referring to ... GLR ... He knew someone would record and gather up the pix as they arrived ...

... I couldn't join in the thread. It would have killed me. I'm the sort who can't stop once I start some things.

... Let me say one more time thank you to this community for being what GLR knew you would be. ..."

OTT:1325:32#p3429666

"... what suffered most in the Outside was...well, probably my connectedness to current events. I used to follow news sites and watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert every night, but now I don't anymore - because, well, I don't have the time. I suppose I can always Blitz the real world news at the end of the summer."

— OTT:1326:0 at 20140226.1400

OTT:1326:23#p3429712

poem "Cuegan's Flight" to the new rhyme scheme EDBA DE CBCB DCAE CD BABABA DC

OTT:1326:39#p3429779

Exodies is at 1178/1326

— OTT:1327:0 at 20140226.1447

OTT:1327:25#p3429866

{First of several posts by tresoldi explaining his decisions in the translation guesses seen at OTT:1324:32#p3429584}

OTT:1327:32#p3429892

filk "Our Way" based on "My Way" by Frank Sinatra

OTT:1327:33#p3429893

{Updated interpretations of map labels/symbols, referencing image 'NP1323 time map.jpg'}

— OTT:1328:0 at 20140226.1611

OTT:1328:12#p3429963

"Finished my blitz of GLR's pastposts! I found one more RELATED quote that I thought I would share, circa 2006H, when the fora were young:

> xkcd wrote:

> *quietly reaches back through space and time and makes a careful twist.*

> Now the incorrect spelling was never there.

Great Lord Randall: Fixing the mustard for over seven yips now..."

OTT:1328:33#p3430056

{@BlitzGirl identifies the 40th Cueganite, "Yin-Yang". See image 'NP1328 ID40.png'; this post also has a GIF animation, a large ID composite and an updated version of the previous character ID key which I saved as 'NP1246 39Characters.png'}

— OTT:1329:0 at 20140226.1752

OTT:1329:5#p3430117

azule is at 1200/1329

OTT:1329:29#p3430196

"Somebody mentioned how the post-Voldeframe sequence would sound like as a tune ... What if I interpreted the A-E sequence as the harmony? ...

[see 'NP1329 EndOfTime.mp3']

Harmonies derived from the sequence of post-Volemort frames of Time. Melody and words to fit. ..."

{This might sound good in a GlaDOS voice}

OTT:1329:31#p3430206

{New charts of per-user post rate and regularity; see 'NP1329 timepostcountwith.128days.png'}

"We must spend one day each year without hats, lest we forget what a privilege it is to have them."

OTT:1329:32#p3430207

filk "Time Moves In Its Own Way" based on "She Moves In Her Own Way" by Kooks

— OTT:1330:0 at 20140226.2003

— OTT:1331:0 at 20140226.2158

— OTT:1332:0 at 20140226.2236

OTT:1332:17#p3430588

Acts of the Clerics, Scene 22

— OTT:1333:0 at 20140226.2255

OTT:1333:8#p3430693

"... As SPACKlick has already pointed out, we posted at a higher rate at "The end" than at any other time in the OTT (probably faster than any time in the history of the xkcd fora, in truth). ..."

OTT:1333:15#p3430711

"... I hit Random again to see what I should OTTify next and I got http://xkcd.com/145/ which is a Dinosaur Comics parody about gender neutral pronouns. So it's already doubly related to the OTT past and present."

OTT:1333:27#p3430759

"End of Days: The Beginning is the End"

OTT:1333:33#p3430778

Exodies is at 1217/1333

— OTT:1334:0 at 20140227.0135

— OTT:1335:0 at 20140227.0231

OTT:1335:26#p3431271

{The first OSH puzzle, something I remember from when I first joined OTT. The "let's just stick with OSH" and future references to "the acronym" refer to the fact that the full acronym would have to be "OSHiT" or "OTT SHiT". See OTT:1336:16#p3431362}

"Welcome to the OTTer Scavenger Hunt in Time, hereby abbreviated as OSH... ...let's just stick with OSH.

This is Cueball.

Which newpix is he from? "

— OTT:1336:0 at 20140227.1213

OTT:1336:16#p3431362

"> > Here is more zoomed out version as another hint :)

> You sneaky molpy. It's from prickly0002.

A fakeOSH! I've been had! :P That's what I get for not using the full acronym, I suppose..."

{See OTT:1335:26#p3431271}

OTT:1336:18#p3431365

{azule has found out about T** **d

"...

> This place is ending? Not this place? :shock: :cry:

You know, that's what it feels like. and *cry* sad. I see (spoiled) that there's no more newpix. :shock: ..."

— OTT:1337:0 at 20140227.1230

OTT:1337:7#p3431436

"> SPONTANEOUS LEETSPEAK INTERLUDE

50, 17 h45 c0m3 70 7h15. :) "

OTT:1337:26#p3431511

"Someone needs to make one of these OSH things with 4 similar but slightly different snips of the OTC and put it in a super slow animated gif."

OTT:1337:31#p3431534

filk based on "More Power to Ya" by Petra

— OTT:1338:0 at 20140227.1319

OTT:1338:11#p3431620

Exodies is at 1225/1338

OTT:1338:26|#p3431720

WOnder93 is at 826/1338

OTT:1338:35#p3431803

{Whizbang's OTTification of xkcd 756, "Latest Newpage", is the one containing the words "ottifies everything in sight". The phrase then appears in OTT:1344:4p3432604, OTT:1376:12p3439276, etc. See also OTT:1379:3#p3439696}

— OTT:1339:0 at 20140227.1444

OTT:1339:8|#p3431858

thirds is at 1150/1339

OTT:1339:22|#p3431959

thirds is at 1196/1339

OTT:1339:24|#p3431968

macraw83 is at 868/1339

OTT:1339:25|#p3431974

"> I've got to page 555. Just 7 pages to go until the NewPage of the Beast.

> Note to self: Don't post around ONG-time, for fear you may see the ONG. Oh well.

{P1232} / What did you say?"

— OTT:1340:0 at 20140227.1519

OTT:1340:7|#p3432104

thirds is at 1218/1340

OTT:1340:12|#p3432124

macraw83 is at 873/1340

OTT:1340:33|#p3432178

thirds is at 1238/1340

— OTT:1341:0 at 20140227.2047

OTT:1341:1#p3432191

ChronosDragon is at 1308/1341

OTT:1341:5#p3432201

"... there's an article on GigaOM about tresoldi's work on Beanish. ..."

OTT:1341:18#p3432240

filk "First Part" based on "16" by K's Choice

OTT:1341:20|#p3432243

thirds is at 1249/1341

OTT:1341:31#p3432274

"... Those who have started at the first hour, those who have delayed until the third hour, those who have tarried until the ninth hour, and those who have discovered their One True Calling even past the very last hour of Time itself, shall be Received in Glory like unto all who have gone before, as they take their place among the Exalted and ever-growing ranks of BlitzGirls. ..."

OTT:1341:37#p3432288

filk based on "One More Time" by Daft Punk

OTT:1341:38#p3432291

ChronosDragon is at 1334/1341

OTT:1341:39#p3432294

Exodies is at 1236/1341

— OTT:1342:0 at 20140227.2137

OTT:1342:21#p3432345

"... an update on the epilogue sequence ... The third 24-oldpix cycle [BADECBCBDCAECDBABABADCED] has not been broken yet ..."

OTT:1342:31#p3432398

"... I love so much that articles about our OTC are showing up in places like Wired (expected) and Washington Post (surprising). Those who missed it really missed something: the birth of a whole new artform. ... I still plan to blitz through the whole thread someday ... I missed a lot of really treeish stuff in the past that I want to experience firsthand. ..."

OTT:1342:39#p3432431

"... I did not want to suggest that the current pace of the OTT is a bad thing, or some indication of some inevitable decline. To me, it just feels more like a bit of a breather. Lately, the needle-pulled-thing has been pulled along at an almost frantic pace. This evenix is a chance to relax a bit, I think, and do for the blitzers what we have always done for Time...wait."

— OTT:1343:0 at 20140228.0309

OTT:1343:17#p3432518

by Neil_Boekend newpix 3363.61

"Othercomic is up"

OTT:1343:18#p3432522

by waveney newpix 3363.78

"And allready OTTified...

[image, see 'NP1343 1248 sphere.png']"

{Possibly the fastest OTTification of a new xkcd}

OTT:1343:19#p3432524

filk "I Shout ONG When I Post It" based on "I Whistle While I Work It" by Chester See et al.

OTT:1343:37#p3432575

filk "It's a small sea after all" based on "It's a Small World After All" by the Sherman Brothers

— OTT:1344:0 at 20140228.0345

OTT:1344:0#p3432582

filk "Pope Again" based on "Free Again" by Jack Jones

OTT:1344:25#p3432729

thirds is at 1254/1344

OTT:1344:29#p3432772

{edo has suggested the following changes to the Beanish transliteration:

ᘝ -> ᖆ (closer to what Randall draw; and because ᘝ and ᘖ are very similar)

ᙐ -> ᕒ

ᙉ -> ᕬ

ᔑ -> ᔕ (too similar to Latin S?)

ᖉ -> ᙭ (too similar to Latin X?)

}

OTT:1344:30#p3432773

filk of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie

OTT:1344:39#p3432833

"> But are there still mustarded frames in Time? I think this one still has some mustard in the text:

> M3019

> Buzz wrote:

> > ....I said we should to move to the hills, ...

> Everyone caught the he/she mixup in the next frame but the additional 'to' in this one seems to have gone by unnoticed. ...

So that points to more conclusive evidence that the forum was being monitored regularly to catch mustard. ..."

{And as of now, newpix 8327, frame m3019 still has this error.}

— OTT:1345:0 at 20140228.1749

OTT:1345:3#p3432846

thirds is at 1345/1345

OTT:1345:38#p3433051

azule is at NP1243/1345

— OTT:1346:0 at 20140301.2210

OTT:1346:9#p3433125

Acts of the Clerics, part XXIII

{All done in verse, with Monty Python references}

DD "Clompety thompety / thundered the clerecy / ..."

DD "Riding their coconuts / swiftly they covered gar- / ..."

DD "those who were riding with / BlitzGirl. Through gesture and / ..."

DD "Coconuts thundering, / all of the clerecy, / ..."

DD "Dust from their coconuts / rose up behind them - a / ..."

DD "Water surrounds them ex- / cept for behind and the / ..."

DD "'Back whence we came but we'll / follow this inlet!' said / ..."

DD "Up through the valley they / raced as the sun slowly / ..."

{followed by a short irregular section, and 15 haiku}

DD "Rapidly scrapidly / back on the coconuts, / ..."

DD "Sunlight has faded but / still they press onwards. The / ..."

DD "Rising, the moon casts its / light on the waterfall. / ..."

{1 irregular stanza, and 3 haiku}

OTT:1346:11|#p3433129

karhell is at 783/1346

OTT:1346:23#p3433167

{First of the POTM series of Time-After-Time. In this series, each frame is an original Time frame modified to feature an OTC quote from a post made shortly after that frame appeared. It also seems mscha's server was set up to allow anyone to add a new image, but it's unclear how.}

OTT:1346:38#p3433225

Exodies is at 1243/1346

OTT:1346:39#p3433227

{First case of someone saying they checked the Wiki before doing an OTTification}

— OTT:1347:0 at 20140301.2251

OTT:1347:13#p3433273

"... We need to establish an official scale, and then create 3 more so that there are competing standards. I propose the following

^ Awesomefully Treeish

| Awesomeful

| Treeish

| Neat

| ...Yeah...

| A bit mustardy

| Seaishly mustardy

v Chirpin' mustardy' "

OTT:1347:23#p3433304

"... OK, here's mine :D

^ Wowterfallish

| Baobabish

| Treeish

| OtherRiverish

| Weird

| Mustardy

| What the ch*rp

v RUN. "

OTT:1347:39#p3433337

"> [referring to the epilogue sequence]

> :cry: But, but, but, the Javascript! Or something! MAKE IT GIVE ME NEW LETTERS!

Yeah, the new letters you want are F, G, H, I, J....

Wouldn't it be treeish if we got that! "

— OTT:1348:0 at 20140302.0039

OTT:1348:1#p3433340

"C D B. D B S A B-Z B."

{See the bee. The bee is a busy bee.}

OTT:1348:12#p3433389

filk "On the Thread" based on "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel

OTT:1348:14#p3433399

DD "Snippety snippety ─ / Trimming the quoted text / ..."

{At this point I posted this, though I wasn't quite yet at NP1349}

OTT:1348:22#p3433432

"... My favorite one was 'M N X S L-T 4 U'."

{Ham and eggs is healthy for you.}

{I posted a brief response}

OTT:1348:25#p3433443

"IMSIM FIMLIC"

{I am as I am if I am all I see}

— OTT:1349:0 at 20140303.0205

OTT:1349:0#p3433491

{Offset is 0}

"... in an act of supreme irony I got pope for the third time ..."

OTT:1349:1|#p3433495

Exodies is at 1248/1349

OTT:1349:6|#p3433524

azule is at 1254/1349

"... What The FuQ is the alt-text???? ... People, think of the children! (I mean, the TimeTravelers.) ..."

OTT:1349:17#p3433590

{Sciscitor announces Time -- the Database}

"I've been working on some sideproject as well. It is not complete, just a kind of proof of concept. ... I plan to add a form to enable anyone to submit data, but not quite yet. ..."

OTT:1349:22#p3433600

"FUNEX? / SVFX / FUNEM? / SVFM / LFMNX"

{have you any eggs? / yes we have eggs / have you any ham? / yes we have ham / I'll have ham and eggs}

OTT:1349:30#p3433647

"Blindposted mustard report

... it's a significant one! [in] Frame 2995

... The dialogue was changed to a) make clear that they're at the bottom of the hills, not on them, and b) not explicitly state that the Hill People make their own stuff. ..."

— OTT:1350:0 at 20140303.0234

OTT:1350:6#p3433696

"... We had been left with the impression that the Hill People made stuff, and so, perhaps, were more advanced than the Cueganites. Now we learn that they were scavengers as well?

I do wonder if this is an indication that the GLR has some further story development in mind. One may only hope."

OTT:1350:10|#p3433714

BlueCrab is at 1246/1350

OTT:1350:29#p3433901

Marsh'n is at 284/1350

poem based on the Prologue to "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll

OTT:1350:31|#p3433903

Earthling on Mars is at 1300/1350

OTT:1350:32#p3433904

"... REISUB ..."

{Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken, see Magic SysRq key}

— OTT:1351:0 at 20140303.0311

OTT:1351:10#p3434006

filk based on "When the sun goes down" by Arctic Monkeys

OTT:1351:17#p3434027

Exodies is at 1254/1351

OTT:1351:22#p3434068

smolloy is at 211/1351

— OTT:1352:0 at 20140303.0356

OTT:1352:12#p3434168

{Three minimal ottifications ("I only change one word; minimalism is my creed")}

filk (partial) based on "Each Small Candle" by Roger Waters

filk (partial) based on "Amused To Death" by Roger Waters

filk (partial) based on "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd / Roger Waters

OTT:1352:19#p3434200

"... Also wow, there's still people discovering the-page-which-shall-not-be-named after nearly two wix! Cake, icecream, and molpyhugs all 'round! ..."

OTT:1352:22#p3434207

{Discussing the night frame m3076}

"... Previous discussions of the date when Cuegan met Lucky was that it was 14 Apr 13291. My reading of the sky in 3076 is that the scene can be no earlier than 2:00AM on 10 May 13291. Any earlier than that date/time and either the Moon or Venus would be in the picture. This means that from Lucky to the fortress and back home took 26 days for the trip. This seems like too long a time.

The scene in 3076 is a view of the sky at an observational compass heading of 20-25o. The crews are moving to the right, or a heading of 110-115o. This is in disagreement with edfel's map which shows them moving north toward France. I believe they are moving roughly east and their subsequent landfall is on the island of Corsica. "

{This message has a PHP URL inside an [img] tag, and it works}

OTT:1352:37#p3434275

filk "Spot Lucky" based on "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk

— OTT:1353:0 at 20140303.1253

OTT:1353:0#p3434286

"I sudo that you add sandwiches (or references to sandwiches) to the OTC."

OTT:1353:11#p3434322

azule is at 1271/1353

"> I appreciate the platform given for some of my otherwise pent-up creativity

Indeed. I had lacked an outlet without judgment. This place was very welcoming for people's efforts."

OTT:1353:25#p3434391

"> rhomboidal wrote:

> In astronomy, you spend half the time waiting for things, and the other half coming up with names for them.

Sounds familiar."

{The rhomboidal quote is from this thread concerning 1249}

— OTT:1354:0 at 20140303.1444

OTT:1354:2#p3434454

"K-T S X-M-N-N D N-6."

{Katie is examining the insects.}

OTT:1354:26#p3434576

{story}

"From his vulcano based evil lair cellocgw watches the unfolding of the OTT. ..."

OTT:1354:31#p3434599

"14000 years is a rather short time for geology to happen. I can see no real possibility for Rhone to change its course to running east of Marseilles. It would have to cross mountains to do so. It's more like the seaish river is from the Alps, and Rhone has just disappeared somewhere ..."

OTT:1354:39#p3434663

"... One meteor does not make a shower - you need many of them to pin point the common point of origin for the shower, showers also have a limited lifetime of a few hundred years. They certainly don't persist for 11,000 years."

— OTT:1355:0 at 20140303.1851

OTT:1355:1#p3434698

"Pretty heavy OTT presence in the OTTherComic thread today. ..."

OTT:1355:5#p3434742

filk (partial) "I am the very model of an OTTer of the OTC" based on "The Major General's song" from "Pirates of Penzance"

"I note each changing pixel and define it categoric'ly

I stay up late, neglect my mate, and OTTify deliriously -

I am the very model of an OTTer of the OTC."

OTT:1355:15#p3434828

{tresoldi links to github.com/tresoldi/beanish/blob/master/corpus.txt, which has a Beanish corpus incorporating the first 4 of the transformations suggested at OTT:1344:29#p3432772 :

ᔪᕒᖚᐧ ᘛᔭᐤ # frame 2663, "Where are you from?"

ᔪᖆᓄᐧ ᔪ, ᒣᖉ ᖊᐣᖽ ᖽᘛᕋᑦᐤ # frame 2664, "What happened to your leg?"

ᓭᘈ ᘊᒣᓭᐧᖊᔕ ᖆᘊᓭᒣᖊᐣᖗᐨ # frame 2668, "Get/Fetch/Bring (me/us) cream for-healing."

ᕒᖚᐧ ᘊᘖᑫᘖᒣᐣᖚ ᘛ ᓭᑦᐧ ᕒᖚᑫᕋ,ᐨ # frame 2671, "Where (...)."

ᘊᒣᓭᐧᖊᔕ ᖆᘊᓭᒣᖊᐣᖗᐨ # frame 2676, "Cream for-healing."

ᖚᑫᘖ ᓭᐧᖚ # frame 2697, "(...) you-wildling."

ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ # frame 2706, "Water."

ᖉᑦ,ᐦ ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐦ # frame 2708, "Yes! Water."

ᔪᖉᔭᑫ ᕒᖚᐧ ᘊᓭᐧᑲᐤ ᑦᘈᖽᐣ ᔭ ᖆᖽᒣ ᓭᘖᑦ ᖊᘊᐤ ᕋᖗ ᖆᕬᖉᔭ ᘖᐣᖗᔭ, ᘊᓭᘖᔭᓄᐤ # frame 2728, "(...) your land? (...)? (...) waters?"

ᖽᔕᐣᘖ ᖚᐣᘖᖗᑫ ᖆᐣᖽ ᘊᒣᑦᖽᖆᐨ # frame 2734, "We will go to the castle."

ᒣᓭᐧᖊᔕᐨ # frame 2797, "Cream."

ᑕᘊᐣᒣ ᘊᓭᑦᑕᖉᐨ ᑕᘊᐣᒣ ᘊᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐦ # frame 2802, "These lands. These seas. Water!"

ᖆᘈᘖ ᖽᔕᐣᘖ ᖚᒣᑕᑫᓭ ᖆᐣᖽ ᘊᒣᑦᖽᖆᐨ # frame 2806, "JohnDoe/Comrade, we shall go to the castle (now)."

ᖉᑦ,ᐨ # frame 2806, "Ok."

ᖆᓄᘈᖉᐣᐨ # frame 2821, "(name of the Beanie city)"

ᖉ, ᖆᐣᖚᔭ,ᐨ # frame 2823, "Good morning."

ᘊᒣᑦᖽᖆᐨ # frame 2827, "(Our/The) Castle."

ᖽᔕᐣᘖ ᖚᐣᘖᖗᑫ ᖆᐣᖽ ᘊᓭᘖᑦᓄᐨ # frame 2836, "We should go to the leader."

ᘈᘊᘖᐨ # frame 2841, "Hello."

ᖉ, ᖆᐣᖚᔭ,ᐨ # frame 2841, "Good morning."

ᖆᘈᘖᐦ ᖉ, ᖆᐣᖚᔭᐦ # frame 2842, "JohnDoe/Comrade! Good morning!"

ᘈᘊᘖᐨ # frame 2863, "Hello."

ᘈᘊᘖᐨ # frame 2864, "Hello."

ᕒᖚᐧ ᓭᔭᑦᘖ ᘛᖆᖚᘈᐤ # frame 2865, "Where are they from?"

ᖆᐣᑕᑦᖚᑫ ᓭᐧᘖ ᕒᖚᐧ ᘊᓭᐧᑲᐨ # frame 2866, "They are from the wildlands."

ᖉᔭᒣᘊᐣᘖᑫᖗ ᖽᘛᕋᑦᐨ # frame 2866, "One of them was attacked."

ᘛᐣ ᖆᔭᖊᖽ ᖊ,ᘖ ᘖᖆᒣᘛᐨ # frame 2880, "You can leave now."

ᔪᑕᐨ # frame 2880, "Ok."

ᘊᖊᑦᓄ ᘊᓭᐧᑲ # frame 2906, "Wildlands/Balearic Sea"

ᘊᖊᑦᓄ ?ᓄᐣᔭ # frame 2906, "Ionian Sea"

ᑫᘊᘊ # frame 2906, "Gibraltar"

ᘊᓭᑦᑕᖉ # frame 2906, "(...)"

ᘖᓄᘈᖉᐣ # frame 2906, "(...)"

ᓭᘊᘊ # frame 2906, "(...)"

}

OTT:1355:33#p3434953

"Stage 1 of the invasion of the fora is complete. That's right, 1249: 'Meteor Showers' is down ... We must take this opportunity, we must expand our invasion beyond 'Individual XKCD Comic Threads'! By the time we're done, cries of 'Wait For It' and 'Molpy Down' while ring out through the fora! ... Tresoldi seems to have created an undercover base in Linguistics, I guess that will do for a start. Let the Blitzkrieg commence! "

OTT:1355:39#p3434985

Exodies is at 1275/1355

— OTT:1356:0 at 20140304.0056

OTT:1356:20#p3435042

filk "La Petite" based on "Reet Petite" by Jackie Wilson

(a revision of that at OTT:1252:34#p3421888)

OTT:1356:38#p3435081

{Kieryn starts his website, which later has his serial comics Obelisk (see OTT:1389:11#p3441881) and Fractories.}

"Late, but well here it is: http://kieryn.com/

Time and the OTT has inspired my creative side. I'll be launching my new site on Monday..."

OTT:1356:39#p3435082

{AluisioASG announces his Time-based text adventure project; see OTT:1414:24#p3448149}

"Just wanted to note that Timeventure, Phase 1 is now available.

Crowdsourcing FTW! Or would that be Mechanical Turk?"

— OTT:1357:0 at 20140304.0423

OTT:1357:35#p3435234

Whizbang is at 1298/1357

OTT:1357:36#p3435237

"> > Whizbang wrote:

"> > Did we ever have a true flamewar in the OTT? I think it's about time we get on that.

> Oooh! Does this count as a prediction?

> *Grabs popcorn*

Do you like basements?"

— OTT:1358:0 at 20140304.2131

OTT:1358:10#p3435278

{mscha mentions the XKCD font, see OTT:1379:33#p3439809 and OTT:1380:21#p3439935. The acronym "OTF" doesn't get used for it until OTT:1380:30p3440015; previously "OTF" was used by nsub1# to refer to a Beanish font (see OTT:1105:13#p3409443)}

"... A tip for those of us who can't do decent hand-lettering (yup, includes me): you don't have to resort to some ugly font that makes it obvious what words or sentences have been replaced: you can use the xkcd font from this yip's April Fools OtherComic. Simply download it, open it and click the ‘Install’ button. ..."

— OTT:1359:0 at 20140304.2234

OTT:1359:9#p3435392

{For a while there was a theory that the epilogue sequence was encoding digits, possibly a time and location for a meetup. The initial 72 hours containing 3 repetitions of 24 letters would represent the digit 3, etc.}

"> If slinches's idea that the repetitions correspond to digits is correct, we are now at 3-29.

The single "C" at the start and the single "D" could be interpreted as 0s giving 03029..."

{At this point I post this}

OTT:1359:10#p3435414

Exodies is at 1286/1359

OTT:1359:23#p3435509

Marsh'n is at 301/1359

OTT:1359:32|#p3435560

bmonk is at 861/1359

OTT:1359:37#p3435575

Earthling on Mars is at 1309/1359

{Stating the obvious for the first time, ever.}

"I think the 2 and 1/2 D view was simply because how do you draw a background in black and white?"

— OTT:1360:0 at 20140305.0244

OTT:1360:0#p3435586

Vytron is at 1264/1360

OTT:1360:28#p3435633

PeterSheil is at 230/1360

— OTT:1361:0 at 20140305.0349

{I notice in taixzo's signature:

"Best wishes to macraw83, balthasar_s, mrob27, Bad Hair Man and january1may! One day you will all join me in the Present!" }

OTT:1361:16#p3435695

Vytron says they are in the Present, but at OTT:1361:18#p3435707 changes their mind because the rONGs might constitute spoilers.

OTT:1361:17#p3435699

"(If the newpix itself is the Voldiframe, does that mean that the title text can be the Basilitext?)"

OTT:1361:21#p3435716

{The first Burma Shave ending in 'Panther salve'}

"Is your skin /

red and peeling? /

Do your cuts /

need proper healing? /

Panther Salve"

— OTT:1362:0 at 20140305.0420

OTT:1362:26#p3435904

{Several Burma Shaves in a row, by charlie_grumbles, apparently bored because not many people are active right now}

— OTT:1363:0 at 20140305.1743

OTT:1363:6#p3435941

filk "Der perfekte Comic" (German) based on "Perfekte Welle" by Juli

— OTT:1364:0 at 20140305.1827

OTT:1364:21#p3436141

{The start of the newword "wingish"}

"I found a new adjective (however, without footnote (yet)):

BugwingishOTC /

flutterbeewingishOTT ..."

— OTT:1365:0 at 20140305.1843

OTT:1365:8#p3436212

"... I don't see any other reason for this pattern other than nerdsniping us. If the current pattern continues for 14 dips it's definitely a date. ..."

OTT:1365:17|#p3436250

Bad Hair Man is at 285/1365

OTT:1365:30#p3436310

Exodies is at 1303/1365

OTT:1365:35|#p3436321

azule is at NP1300/1365

— OTT:1366:0 at 20140305.2022

OTT:1366:9#p3436475

"... I have waded through [...] of Birma Shave variants. The irony of Charley Grumbles blatantly ignoring the rules of the XKCD fora while berating edo for breaking an unwritten rule are not completely lost on me. To quote someone on the OTT: that was fun until it wasn't.

... I find my thoughts straying away from the OTT - really, what we missing is a heartbeat. With the ONGs we had something we could look forward to, ...

It's not for the lack of OTT-creativity. If anything, that can now shine brighter than before, as there is nothing to play second fiddle to. On the other hand, the frame of reference is now stagnant, which makes the possibilities for OTTification a resource that will slowly dry up. ..."

OTT:1366:12#p3436497

{Sciscitor announces his database}

"My database of OTC and OTT related work is now online here. The adding of ottificiations may still be a bit rough (I hate writing frontend validation code) but should work. ... [details of how to fill out form]

The ottification listings work now too. ..."

OTT:1366:13#p3436500

"... Huh. HAL9000, you've got a duplicate post on np 1259. ..."

{This refers to OTT:1259:32p3422282 and OTT:1259:33p3422283}

OTT:1366:13#p3436500

BlueCrab is at 1264/1366

OTT:1366:14#p3436501

Acts of the Clerics, Act 2, Scene 6

{ceremony for thirds, who reached the Present at NP1345}

OTT:1366:18#p3436522

{The last post by charlie_grumbles. I have been using Cake Time Styler ( http://mrob.com/time/scripts-beta/cake-time-styler.user.js ) which makes it obvious that his post count has stayed at 1000, thus I know that he does not come back, at least until NP1784 at the earliest.}

OTT:1366:30#p3436579

filk "Ignorance" based on "Prejudice" by Tim Minchin

OTT:1366:38#p3436605

"... The thing that bugs me most about posting in the thread when it's slow like this is that the longer your last post sits there without anyone responding or saying anything else the more you feel like that guy at the party who makes stupid comments and clears the room :? :)"

{I have noticed this after some of my Blitz reports, but after making about 100 such posts it seems to be the result of two things: I post at a time of dix when a lot of OTTers are not reading, and my posts take a while to read: OTTers seem to try to ketchup before posting something new.}

— OTT:1367:0 at 20140306.0005

— OTT:1368:0 at 20140306.0048

OTT:1368:8#p3436994

"... I was sad to come back to so many OTTers indicating their gradual or sudden exit. I suppose it had to begin eventually ..."

OTT:1368:25#p3437095

filk "The Song of Time" based on "Wild Mountain Thyme" by The Corries

— OTT:1369:0 at 20140306.0130

OTT:1369:19#p3437329

{Kieryn starts posting slides}

"... Also: #newslide"

OTT:1369:38#p3437548

karhell is at 828/1369

— OTT:1370:0 at 20140306.0224

OTT:1370:5#p3437711

{Subject line "OTP? N. ATP? M. AP. OK." might be meant to stand for "One True Puzzle? No. A True Puzzle? Maybe. A Puzzle. OK."

see OTT:1383:33#p3440541}

OTT:1370:8#p3437744

Exodies is at 1321/1370

OTT:1370:13#p3437795

"Blindposted epilogue update:

You can check it yourselves. Automagically updated every oldpix. ..."

OTT:1370:30#p3437866

poem "When Time is Gone" with the new epilogue rhyme scheme EABEAB CBC DD EADE ABAB AB CDC

{Kind of depressing, or poignant}

— OTT:1371:0 at 20140306.0421

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1371:26#p3437965

azule is at 1313/1371

OTT:1371:33#p3438012

{The first post by balthasar_s, with the cool "I think I can almost see the sea from here" mashup (see "NP1371 1110 balt manip.png")}

— OTT:1372:0 at 20140307.0424

{At this point I was corresponding with adnapemit about Chirpy Raptor, the JavaScript game I made based on xers.}

OTT:1372:30#p3438367

monkeygentleman is at 471/1372

OTT:1372:37#p3438426

by AluisioASG

"This is a report from NPs 1063 and 1089.

[in] Acts of the Clerics [...] The last document is highly danagerous."

{ucim asks what he means in OTT:1373:2#p3438460, and figured it out at OTT:1385:35#p3441113; AluisioASG was saying that ucim misspelled the word "dangerous" as "danagerous" in OTT:1366:14#p3436501}

OTT:1372:38#p3438428

filk "The Timewaiter" based on "The Islander" by Nightwish

{with MP3, really good!}

— OTT:1373:0 at 20140308.0304

OTT:1373:0#p3438437

{Offset is 0}

" The Bench

To all Timewaiters, and especially blitzers:

The sorrow of the End of Time is now many newpages back, and the present may still be many newpages ahead. You are a lonely wanderer traveling the great thread of Time, for though many are also making this great trek, some are far ahead, and some far behind, and even when one chances to pass near you, you cannot see them."

OTT:1373:9|#p3438515

PeterSheil is at 300/1373

OTT:1373:16#p3438557

"Ok everyone I have a sacred task for you to perform.

in about 1/4 newpix time there will be a new image showing up at the below link:

http://xkcd.mscha.org/otcstories/

When this new image shows up on the newpix you can check it and post it into the OTT with an apropriate ONG word.

Then you will have to wait for it as every 4 hours after that there will be another one to post.

Good LUck!"

OTT:1373:27#p3438638

"> OMR! Either that or a bunch of Mules! (been reading the Foundation Series for the first time...)

I haven't so... *shrug* > 14000 years is a rather short time for geology to happen...

For uniforminarians, yes, but not for catastrophists. ..."

{They probably mean 'uniformitarians'. Geology is potentially a religious issue, but Randall Munroe is clearly not concerned about Biblical literalism.}

OTT:1373:32#p3438659

{yappobiscuits releases his original music and performance of BlitzGirl's poem "Rest With Me Here" from OTT:1316:13#p3427966}

— OTT:1374:0 at 20140308.0459

OTT:1374:13#p3438758

"... in March 2014 I don't think any of us would be annoyed by a rousing chorus of grapevine grapevine, though it might lead to some tears of nostalgia..."

— OTT:1375:0 at 20140308.0524

OTT:1375:3|#p3438914

WOnder93 is at 893/1375

OTT:1375:5#p3438925

Exodies is at 1330/1375

OTT:1375:11#p3438945

filk "The Final frame" based on "The Only One" by Evanescence

OTT:1375:17#p3439015

filk "You Always Make Me Smile" based on "You Always Make Me Smile" by Kyle Andrews

— OTT:1376:0 at 20140308.2321

OTT:1376:4#p3439241

"... I'm back in the present, and my prediction that the posts should be fast-readable (since Time has ended) was - as my pridictions usually are - wrong. It looks like the OTT went from 'commenting on content' to 'provide content and comments' ..."

OTT:1376:18#p3439312

{first post by Helper since NP596. xe stays until OTT:1384:10#p3440621}

OTT:1376:26#p3439333

"And yes Helper, we are all Randallbots. Together, we are the Randallbot Set."

OTT:1376:27#p3439344

"... Investigating the search feature (inspired by Kieryn), you can use this link to read almost all of AOC. It's just missing the prologue, which I'll post below.

Prologue the First

Prologue the Next: BLitzGirl's wisdom

Acts of the Clerics, complete ..."

OTT:1376:38#p3439398

filk "Butterflies and More" based on "Butterflies Instead" by K's Choice

filk "Molpy" based on "Zombie" by The Cranberries

— OTT:1377:0 at 20140309.0024

OTT:1377:17|#p3439477

azule is at 1325/1377

OTT:1377:19#p3439486

"When you're in this really looooong boooooring conference call, alone in your home office, supposedly on mute, and you hear:

Is somebody singing "boom-de-yada"?

what do YOU do? Um, uh, purely hypothetical, of course $yeah, that's the ticket...$ ..."

OTT:1377:25#p3439504

"... No wonder there was an entire page and a half to ketchup from just a few nopix ago! Helper and Opiboble back at it again."

— OTT:1378:0 at 20140309.0316

OTT:1378:0#p3439530

"If you happen across any other trippy gifs, feel free to provide them (behind spoiler tags for safety, of course)."

— OTT:1379:0 at 20140309.0349

OTT:1379:3#p3439696

{OTTification of xkcd 0776 by Eternal Density, has the words "OTTify everything I see"}

OTT:1379:7#p3439718

{This post was edited at newpix 4016.86 to add:

" EDITED NP 1433 THIS IS NOW BLIZER BACON FOXTROT

Yes, bacon." }

OTT:1379:24#p3439784

filk "This OTTer's Hat" based on "This Cowboy's Hat" by Chris Ledoux

OTT:1379:28#p3439792

"... LuckyONG generator:

http://www.webcountdown.net/?a=Y8JE1b5&k=71n5 "

{set for 20130816.105954 and every 4th hour thereafter}

OTT:1379:33#p3439809

{First clear reference to "one true font"}

"... they each hold much truth (though ED's would be better with the OneTrueFont). "

OTT:1379:37#p3439823

{waveney OTTifies xkcd 1252, and StormAngel posts a different one in the following message. First case of a new xkcd getting OTTified twice, and the second being "ninja'd".}

— OTT:1380:0 at 20140309.1454

OTT:1380:17#p3439915

"EPOCH FAILONG"

(image, see "NP1380 missed by about 13500 years and 3124 km.png", later called the "Thebes" manip.)

OTT:1380:30#p3440015

{Refers to the xkcd font as "OTF"; see OTT:1358:10#p3435278}

OTT:1380:36#p3440092

"... you do know you can download xkcd fonts, right? There are a few different versions based on the changing fonts GLR had over time and I found them easily by googling. ..."

— OTT:1381:0 at 20140309.2136

OTT:1381:0#p3440127

"... And the decree... more OTT/OTC/OTTer jokes please!"

{Leads to "otter" puns and the return of the punsaw}

OTT:1381:21#p3440197

"... Also, has anyone invoked Blitzus Annoyus since I declared it on newpage I don't feel like looking it up?"

{It was OTT:953:3#p3393073}

OTT:1381:25#p3440208

filk "Don't Forget" based on "Anchorage" by Marian Call

OTT:1381:29#p3440215

"> > Did a little bag-reading of the 467 page, and from the looks of things you were primarily responsible for the whole incident and for at least 2 or 3 pages (probably more) actively partook and encouraged the punnitry.

> > At what point did you realize it was such a bag idea?

> Probably when she began to feel a little bagged down by them!

%AFTER IT WAS OVER I TOOK SOME TIME TO REFLECT AND SAW THE ERROR OF MY WAYS

AND SWORE THAT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN%"

— OTT:1382:0 at 20140309.2200

OTT:1382:3#p3440258

Earthling on Mars is at 1326 of 1382

OTT:1382:11#p3440293

by Kieryn

"> when's part 2 coming? {referring to kieryn.com}

Um. yeah... when IS part 2 coming, Donald?

Sorry... he's my writer"

— OTT:1383:0 at 20140309.2326

OTT:1383:31#p3440539

filk (no clear title, possibly "Let's Blitz Again") based on Let's Twist Again by Chubby Checker

OTT:1383:33#p3440541

{intheshax puzzle, see OTT:1370:5#p3437711}

"There are more messages from intheshax with this subject, including one that might give us some letters. I haven't checked if that helps.

Edit: ninja'd by intheshax' signature, I think..."

{The signature is:

1 2 3


4 5 6


7 8 9

No further explanation comes until OTT:1390:31#p3442407. See also OTT:1392:11p3442777 and OTT:1392:16p3442822}

OTT:1383:38#p3440570

"... if anyone can see a connection between these: 'The Godfather', 'Risky', and 'Pit Bulls' that would help me with something I'm trying to figure out."

{The question was wrong, though intheshax did not realize at the time; the answer is in OTT:1416:25#p3448433}

— OTT:1384:0 at 20140209.2354

OTT:1384:2#p3440585

{Latent22, about the Lucky series}

"Well I'm currently the one releasing them but I can't claim all the credit as I've got someone else helping out with the content as well. You can have the fun speculating on who that might be."

OTT:1384:16#p3440661

"I have to suppose Ebonite has something to do with it. That's who posted Lucky's dream just before I posted the first luckyONG, which was just Lucky lying there at the time, but then changed to Lucky dreaming that dream. ..."

OTT:1384:26#p3440705

azule is at 1344/1384

— OTT:1385:0 at 20140310.0051

OTT:1385:0|#p3440811

mscha is at 1333/1385

OTT:1385:1|#p3440812

BlueCrab is at 1276/1385

OTT:1385:2#p3440825

filk "Can't Help Following" based on "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley

OTT:1385:3|#p3440835

PeterSheil is at 344/1385

OTT:1385:6#p3440917

"> Also, is awefulsome the same as awesomeful?

It is my suggestion that they are basically the same except through connotation. ... Awesomeful obviously has awesome as its base and the most overall positive word."

OTT:1385:25#p3441053

{mscha announces the index for otcstories, at xkcd.mscha.org/timeaftertime.html }

"... As y'all have noticed, newpixbot has awoken as well! It's been running irregularly so far, but now I have it posting 30 minutes after the newONG, to give otters a bit more of a chance in these slower Times. Let me know if y'all have a problem with this, and I'll shut it down. ..."

OTT:1385:30#p3441093

{first post by MistyCat}

— OTT:1386:0 at 20140310.0131

OTT:1386:8#p3441141

"> Hi there, I'm MistyCat. ...

> I see XKCD on RSS, and I'm one of the ones who saw only the first frame. ...

Hi! We are getting a fair few blitzers, aren't we? :D"

OTT:1386:12#p3441161

"> luckyONG:

> Hmm...it seems we have a time-traveler molpying about in our past luckypix...pretty sure I didn't see that the first Time around... ...

{see 'lucky0015-b.png'}

That was added only 15 minutes after you posted the ONG saying that lucky wasn't a cat that likes water. Thought I would add something that does..."

OTT:1386:23#p3441191

filk "Molpy or Raptor (Lucky's Song)" based on "Charlotte or Otis" by Jenny Omnichord

OTT:1386:27|#p3441204

MistyCat is at 146/1386

— OTT:1387:0 at 20140310.0200

OTT:1387:10#p3441345

Acts of the Clerics Chapter 25

The following usage of loose is in a context that fits (as in "to loose an arrow", and the sentence also works if it is changed to lose:

"... We must do this, each and every one in the clerecy, ere we loose this power against fill in whatever threatens you, that it not destroy us, ..." "In nomine unium verium auctor, In the name of the one true author et per auctorii heretecii, and by the heretical royal authority in observatium uniae veriae in observance of the One True comiciae, Comic, in servitum unium verium in service to the One True needlepullythingium, Thread, et sub occulae unium verium and the secret of the One True congretatii, Congregation, nus oreamus que des flechia cumo never been created to give Fletcher cumo raptorum volati, flying-raptors et des perilae nus salvadorae." and give salvation to the lost

— OTT:1388:0 at 20140310.0323

OTT:1388:7#p3441489

ucim kind of explains his numbering system for "Acts of the Clerics"

OTT:1388:17#p3441562

{This ottification of xkcd 1011 is the first one I saved in my Time-related directory. Other ones I grabbed in the next few minutes were those in OTT:1369:11p3437245 and OTT:1385:36p3441123 }

OTT:1388:19#p3441576

Exodies is at 1353/1388

OTT:1388:24#p3441595

filk based on "Fragments of Time" by Daft Punk

— OTT:1389:0 at 20140310.0520

OTT:1389:10|#p3441859

MistyCat is at 200/1389

OTT:1389:18#p3441994

Earthling on Mars is at 1337/1389

{The "Yappobiscuits is successfully molpyrolled" OTTification of xkcd 351}

OTT:1389:19#p3441998

"Oooh, curse you Earthling! :P"

OTT:1389:21#p3442010

"This is the content of Earthling's broken spoiler tag because f*** you that's why:"

OTT:1389:37|#p3442230

PeterSheil is at 380/1389

— OTT:1390:0 at 20140310.1431

OTT:1390:14#p3442360

"... The epilogue sequence has changed now after 10 repeats. That basically eliminates the date theory and I don't know what else it could be. Any ideas?"

OTT:1390:35#p3442423

{This post has an OTTification of xkcd 1120 (see 'NP1390 1120 blurring-the-line.png' and a spURLer whose URL is a link to the posting-reply form quoting this message. Eternal Density would have had to post the message, then immediately edit it to put it the correct message ID.}

— OTT:1391:0 at 20140310.1554

OTT:1391:9|#p3442502

karhell is at 878/1391

OTT:1391:20|#p3442581

monkeygentleman is at 586/1391

OTT:1391:29#p3442638

This is the OTT-if that inspired me to make my own variant (see OTT:1416:1#p3448365)

"I made an OTTification of the last What if. ... here it is in good ol' OTT-format...

Updating a Printed OTT

%*If you had a printed version of the whole of OTC, how many molpies would you need in order to keep up with the OTTifications?

— Swein *% ..."

{At this point I posted this}

OTT:1391:36#p3442695

"> > but 'holy chirp' is getting some regular use in my emails to the outside.

> Hehe, I'm finding myself using 'mustard' a lot in the outside, and also 'molpy'.

Molpy has entered my whole family's vernacular. Usually refers to my kids, especially when nap time comes (Molpy(s) down).

To my kids, it more typically means a stuffed animal. It's especially cute when my daughter (19 months) asks for her meerkat puppet by looking pained while pleading 'Mow-peh'. ..."

— OTT:1392:0 at 20140311.0251

OTT:1392:3|#p3442729

MistyCat is at 246/1392

OTT:1392:9#p3442763

filk "The Myth of the OTC" based on "The Myth of the Holy Sword" by Rhapsody of Fire

OTT:1392:16#p3442822

{The puzzle presented at OTT:1370:5#p3437711 is solved by several people working together in Google Docs, see OTT:1409:4#p3446646 or document 'NP1392 intheshax puzzle solution.txt'}

OTT:1392:25#p3442891

filk (partial: last repeated chorus) of "Emerald Sword" by Rhapsody of Fire

— OTT:1393:0 at 20140311.0417

OTT:1393:28|#p3443120

Vytron is at 641/1393 (contradicts OTT:1360:0#p3435586)

— OTT:1394:0 at 20140311.1854

OTT:1394:0#p3443188

azule is at 1394/1394

{update of the beesnake field guide from OTT:809:3#p3377493}

OTT:1394:15#p3443242

MistyCat is at 266/1394

OTT:1394:34#p3443459

"I'm a little unsettled by the fact that the epilogue sequence is now repeating the first pattern in its fifth iteration. ..."

— OTT:1395:0 at 20140311.1957

OTT:1395:3|#p3443515

Earthling on Mars is at NP1353/1395

OTT:1395:17#p3443606

{The BlitzGirl punsaw smiley}

"... Hmm... well then, I think you could use an actual custom one!

"

OTT:1395:25|#p3443655

taixzo is at 1372/1395

OTT:1395:34#p3443726

{yappobiscuits has made more custom smileys}

"... OTTer Smileys, Round 2

Here are the requested smileys, as well as a few that weren't requested but I felt like doing anyway! ..."

— OTT:1396:0 at 20140311.2223

{For the first time I am less than 400 pages back from the present!}

OTT:1396:0#p3443773

{The following quote is referred to in Eternal Density's OTTification of xkcd 854 in OTT:1396:7#p3443803 (see 'NP1396 0854 learning-to-ottify.png')}

"... ⁴ OTTherComics, ED! (Way too many to link. $(I wish you wouldn't do so many so quickly, they're much more enjoyable one, or a few, at a time. Seriously: I beg you, slow down.)$) ..."

OTT:1396:24#p3443889

poem "Journey I: Ask" using epilogue-derived rhyme scheme CBAE CDAED CBAED CCDC BABA ED

OTT:1396:26|#p3443901

taixzo is at 1396/1396

OTT:1396:28#p3443914

filk "Dilgunnerang" based on "Banana Phone" by Raffi

OTT:1396:30#p3443920

"> :lol: That was... surreal :P

When you start with a concept like dilgunnerang there's only one direction it can go. And then it starts going the other direction by itself"

OTT:1396:34#p3443930

"This one took a lot of thought but I think it should make sense: (loosely based upon http://xkcd.com/1177/ )"

{The OTTification differs from the original in only one pixel}

— OTT:1397:0 at 20140311.2317

OTT:1397:24#p3444126

{There have been several spURLers recently}

"I prefer a separate link, and for the record, hate the spoiler as link trick. ... I pretty much have stopped clicking on any I can see ..."

— OTT:1398:0 at 20140312.0003

OTT:1398:8#p3444280

poem "Still Going" based on epilogue rhyme scheme BAEDC BAECD AEDC BAEDC CDC BA

OTT:1398:13#p3444296

filk (untitled) based on the "psychedelic boat trip" song from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (film)

— OTT:1399:0 at 20140312.0100

OTT:1399:18#p3444567

"... The OTT really has the sense of an artistic colony, doesn't it! ..."

OTT:1399:35#p3444632

{last post by Ray Kremer}

"Blindposting from pg 1260 ... I'm probably the last person ever to be finishing the OTC who also started with it on day one. ..."

OTT:1399:37#p3444634

{updated graphs of post rate by time of day by jjjdavidson (see 'NP1399 timeofday.128days.png') }

"... I don't plan to do later versions of the individual graphs. As the OTT winds slowly down, I don't think the graphs will change much. ..."

— OTT:1400:0 at 20140312.0133

OTT:1400:0#p3444651

{Offset is 0}

"... The following only applicable in case of popeness:

Now I ask you to do the same for the Missing Ones. Choose one of them, think of a suitable title (not those the individual already holds), find their first and last posts on the Tabernacle, [fill in the dates|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO8601#Timeintervals], and write an epitaph (or the equivalent for when the dead are able to return)."

{A lot of people follow this by posting [code] blocks with little "memorials" to OTTers who have left}

OTT:1400:17#p3444733

"Well that is the last LuckyONG/OTCStories/TimeAfterTime Frame for now sorry. I would love to keep them going every 4 hours if possible but I need some more help from you wonderful people.

.... Because the point of them is in slowly reveling the story we have to keep the content secret at first so If you want to help just PM me please. ...

The secret to them is that we only need 6 frames a day and each frame only needs a small thing changed each time. ...

All contributions will be anonymous but you can claim credit after they are released if you wish. ..."

OTT:1400:20#p3444743

{For quite a while now people have been putting @mentions in different colors, probably to distunguish the different names. I think I began to notice it sometime around NP1373.}

— OTT:1401:0 at 20140312.0336

OTT:1401:0#p3444787

"... some parts of the epilogue sequences have odd pairings ..."

{Noting statistically unlikely properties of the four epilogue sequences: in almost all of the 24 positions, no two of the sequences has the same letter in that spot.}

OTT:1401:34#p3444987

DD "Molpity Wolpity / Lucky and Pricklymolp / ..."

— OTT:1402:0 at 20140312.0541

{ When I load this page, I see that yappobiscuits' signature now says:

"Round 2 of the OTTscars will be starting soon. Wait for it..." }

OTT:1402:5#p3445100

"... Status update on the Database:

I am busy filling in a lot of gaps and do some cleaning up on existing entries as well as some minor enhancements to the interface. There is now an overview page for all artwork, complete with tiny activity charts for the specific type of ottification. ..."

OTT:1402:25#p3445180

Exodies is at 1371/1402

OTT:1402:36#p3445243

DD "jjjdavidson / Thanks once again for the / ..."

OTT:1402:38#p3445265

"I just finished this 2873 colorization and could not keep it for myself until September so i took a photo:

"

{I remember this image, but not the rest of NP1402; this is because the image was quoted twice on NP1411}

— OTT:1403:0 at 20140312.0631

OTT:1403:0#p3445283

{Offset is 0}

"New here and already a pope?

[image, see 'NP1403 pope.png']

DO NOT eat cassettes or throw bicycles at people!

More important than you might think."

OTT:1403:8#p3445321

"> > (And I wonder why you both have a noticeable posting dip in the middle of the night: you from 11pm to midnight, and yappo from midnight to 1am? Some English custom? Something irresistible on the BBC?  Late-night chirp?  Nighttime elevenses?)

> I honestly have no idea where that dip comes from! Mandatory cup of tea perhaps?

I had to reread that a couple of times before I realised you meant the Outside definition of 'dip'. ..."

OTT:1403:13#p3445343

Vytron is at 1361/1403 {which doesn't make sense given OTT:1393:28#p3443120 where xe said xe was at 641/1393, but see OTT:1410:7#p3446867}

OTT:1403:31|#p3445447

MistyCat is at 300/1403

— OTT:1404:0 at 20140312.1940

OTT:1404:36#p3445781

{The quoted name can be an image}

"...

wrote:

Thanksssss, how do I look, ▓░▒▒?

..."

— OTT:1405:0 at 20140312.2216

OTT:1405:4|#p3445847

WOnder93 is at 962/1405

OTT:1405:7#p3445890

{I see myself lurking}

"... And I'm here with 'ronaldkr and 9 guests' all of the sudden.

Edit 2:

And of course that changed by the time I submitted the edit. Now I see ' marchlight, mrob27, nsub1, shenazrtgp and 7 guests'."

OTT:1405:11#p3445957

"In seaish OTT news, we have officially passed the "Count to a Million" game thread, which was started in 2008H and currently has 1398 pages (versus our 1405 newpages). Excellent otting, everymolpy! "

{Presently it has 1433 pages, and is near starting 1434}

OTT:1405:25|#p3446010

BlueCrab is at 1279/1405

— OTT:1406:0 at 20140312.2255

OTT:1406:0#p3446061

"Optional decree: Take the first line of a book - or any memorable line, really - and ottify it with OTC characters and such."

OTT:1406:12#p3446095

OTTification of the beginning of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (book)

"The sandcastle stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the beach. It stood on its own and looked out over a broad spread of the Mediterranean Sea. ...

It hadn't properly registered yet with Megan and Cueball that the sea was rising and would knock it down and flood the whole area."

OTT:1406:19#p3446119

"My story is a story of ghosts."

{Some kind of puzzle, perhaps code/decryption; begun in post OTT:1404:34#p3445763}

— OTT:1407:0 at 20140312.2354

OTT:1407:0#p3446191

Exodies is at 1384/1407

OTT:1407:25#p3446251

filk "OTT:1407:25#p3446251" based on "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker

OTT:1407:38#p3446343

a poem about puns

"To make a pun / is endless fun, / so tales are spun / ..."

— OTT:1408:0 at 20140313.0145

OTT:1408:2|#p3446380

monkeygentleman is at 700/1408

OTT:1408:5#p3446414

{The (first) Beany ONG series begins!}

"Been generating some new ONGs - here is the first ...

Every 4 hours another should appear in http://wavwebs.com/xkcd-time/ ..."

OTT:1408:7#p3446420

DD "Blahbitty-blah o'er Bi- / cameral Mind book by / ..."

OTT:1408:8|#p3446428

MistyCat is at 360/1408

OTT:1408:14|#p3446449

ZoomanSP is at 1368/1408

OTT:1408:25#p3446514

{OTTification of a part of "Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

"The One True Comic derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated temporal analyses. ..."

— OTT:1409:0 at 20140313.0340

OTT:1409:3|#p3446644

ergman is at 1259/1409

OTT:1409:15#p3446724

DD "Hip-hooray intheshax / I love your verse in the / ..."

OTT:1409:19#p3446767

DD "Holipy Molipy / I can't believe that I've / ...

OTT:1409:20#p3446768

"> This is an OTTercomic from Long Ago (before we called them OTTercomics)!

> [image, see 'NP0452 0915-interesting.png']

> What NewPage is it from?

Easy.

2891.3.2 2891.3.5 (+ 531.1.2 531.1.2)"

{The answer is in the form of a puzzle; see OTT:1409:27#p3446799}

OTT:1409:27#p3446799

"As for Aluisio's second guess, well, it's been a while since I saw National Treasure. But I remember it enough to know that his guess was probably in the form of Page.Post.Word (Post in lieu of paragraph), though that would better fit the OTT than the OTW..."

{The code uses the OTC dialogue as the source text. Translation:

2891.3.2 = frame m2891, third speech, 2nd word = "four"

2891.3.5 = frame m2891, third speech, 5th word = "five"

531.1.2 = frame m531, first speech, 2nd word = "one"

substituting back into the original we have:

"four five (+ one one)"

which is "four five two"

I suppose "OTW" was a typo intended to be "OTC" }

OTT:1409:39#p3446843

"2737.1.1 2913.1.2 3059.1.2 3067.3.4 2373.1.4 2461.1.8"

{Similarly to OTT:1409:27#p3446799, we get "I am going to sleep now"

2913.1.2 is a little tough because the word is part of a Rosetta speech (see frame m2913 but the OTC Dialogue page on the Wiki makes it a little easier, explaining the "OTW" hint in OTT:1409:24#p3446786

BlitzGirl solves it in OTT:1410:2#p3446849 }

OTT:1410:7|#p3446867

Vytron is at 1371/1410

"... I was reading the pages of the OTT that were posted in NP 640-650, and then suddenly jumped to the pages of 1360-1370 ..."

OTT:1410:21#p3446913

Exodies is at 1396/1410

— OTT:1411:0 at 20140313.1639

{ Loading this page, I see that yappobiscuits' signature now has: "Voting for Round 2 of the OTTscars is now open!" }

OTT:1411:10#p3447179

"... EDIT: Anyone care to name the comet I mentioned in Obelisk?"

{I remember reading this and figuring out it was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9}

OTT:1411:19#p3447236

"Ah yes, the grapevine pub!

Actually this reminds me - the weekend before last we were driving in New Paltz and we went past this place

[Google Maps link, see 'NP1411 Gilded Otter.jpg']

I totally wanted to stop and take my picture by the sign, but we didn't have time."

OTT:1411:34#p3447377

Acts of the Clerics, scene 26

"...

In a voice that carries clear throughout the valley, The Pope wrote:

Behold, we have been witness to and partaken in a Great Miracle. It is a gift that hath been granted us, and for that we should be humbly thankful. It is also a gift that, through our actions valiant, and our deeds heroic, we leave behind for those who will come long after we are gone to dust, and for that we can be rightly proud. ...

If it please the Creator, then this day shall we consecrate the very ground upon which we now stand, ground that was saved from being sea, not by us, but by the Creator, and not because of us, but rather, because of the Great Faith and Dedication we have shown. ..."

{This story doesn't seem familiar, probably because I was so confused by it that I just skimmed and didn't bother to try to figure it out}

— OTT:1412:0 at 20140313.1812

OTT:1412:5#p3447471

"... Twelve ones tell you where, / Four tell you when, / Eight tell you which.¹"

{Possibly clues for the unsolved puzzle at OTT:1406:19#p3446119; see OTT:1412:12#p3447523}

OTT:1412:19#p3447587

"The energy present in the Zanclean flood has been estimated at 1.6x1022 Joules. [link to journal article, see 'Garcia-Castellanos 2009 Catastrophic .. Mediterranean.pdf'] Wolfram|Alpha says that this is equivalent to 3.8x1012 tons of TNT. The Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to around 15 kilotons of TNT. The Zanclean flood was 3.8, not kilotons, not megatons, not even gigatons, but teratons of TNT, or about 200 billion Hiroshima bombs. ..."

OTT:1412:28#p3447603

"> Yeah BlitzGirl, you're the one with an army of molpy minions :P

Huh. So much for renouncing evil on Newpage 857, I guess. ..."

{this references OTT:857:0#p3383020}

OTT:1412:29#p3447604

{My first post to the OTT. I had already made 18 posts to other threads, starting with the IXCT thread for xkcd 1047.}

"An apology1 in advance : When I found this thread I saw that it'd be impossible to blitz my way all the way to the present and I didn't feel it was right to blind-post or time-warp to contribute ideas about the actual OTC story. So I had to wait until GLR turned off the firehose...

... I've made my own (simpler) newpix-to-OTT index, here:

http://mrob.com/time

It's pretty simple, just a two-column table with the newpix number on the left [...] and a link to the OTT at the moment the frame became available ..."

{At this point I posted this}

— OTT:1413:0 at 20140314.0623

OTT:1413:17#p3447773

"> You'd probably have to place it on the sun in order to have a large enough gravity field for the trebuchet to actually work.

The sentence above was carefully gauged under laboratory conditions and given a preliminary rating of 0.324 randall."

OTT:1413:27|#p3447847

MistyCat is at 400/1413

OTT:1413:28|#p3447855

Earthling on Mars is at 1384/1413

— OTT:1414:0 at 20140314.0650

OTT:1414:11#p3448090

DD "piggyback shmiggyback / always a pleasure when / ...

OTT:1414:12#p3448102

"... Currently we are immune from the year-round forum filters of OMG and SecondTalon and tricks, except in previews, quotes, and search results. ..."

OTT:1414:13#p3448114

{I claim right of first definition for molpier}

"... * as first user of the word "molpier" I hereby decree that it means something warmer and fuzzier, and by extension, gooder, than the referent.

I think (Perl don't fail me now)."

{I follow one of my own links to xkcd and notice the announcement of the What-If book. I add this:

Robert Munafo on March 14, 2014 at 2:50 pm said:

Thanks Randall!

    Yes Joseph Stone, it’s about time, but it’s not about Time (xkcd.com/1190), though the ever-faithful TimeWaiters still Wait for it. }

OTT:1414:37#p3448219

"> > hang on tightly - the next one will use a heretical number!

> Hmm... I have no idea what you're talking about.

It pertains to your request for consistent numbering. The next installment (which will be the 27th) will probably be Act 2, scene 9."

{see OTT:1388:7#p3441489 for background}

— OTT:1415:0 at 20140314.1615

OTT:1415:0#p3448227

filk "happy happy happy Molpies" based on "Happy Frogs" by yappobiscuits

{I notice that AluisioASG's signature, which formerly just said "FULL STOP FULL STOP.", now says:

FULL STOP FULL STOP. Status (2014-03-14): Charlie, ch. 1 }

OTT:1415:12|#p3448265

Exodies is at 1415/1415

"Holy moly, I made it. Hello everybody!"

OTT:1415:21|#p3448286

"... I'm collecting measurement units to build a within-OTC equivalent of MKS (SI units or "metric system") ..."

{I didn't get too much further with this. If I were to do it now, I'd probably use the q in place of the meter, millinewpix in place of seconds, and a mass unit based on the length unit and the density of water in the Mediterranean sea.}

— OTT:1416:0 at 20140314.1644

OTT:1416:1#p3448365

{My temporal edit warning about Cookie Clicker}

"... Do not under any circumstances follow any links concerning "COOKIES" later on this newpage (or the next few)

Your Time and Sanity are at stake!

I know you're thinking of it. We're in the Future and we collectively see your drooling and hear your "yummmmm!!!!"

So, just consider the fact that by newpage 1422, "cookie" will routinely be spelled "c*kie".

You have been warned. We may, perhaps, warn you again. ..."

{and my OTT-If "Updating a Sandwritten OTT". My thoughts:

- Image 1 could have been an animated GIF with 6 hidden molpies

- "auto-targetting kilowatt lasers" references 'NP1400 0382 trebuchet.png', and could be made into a link to make that more obvious

- "chainsaws ... slide in two" probably references 'NP1414 0242 the_difference.png'

- "1014515 lines, or 56694859 characters" was my first measurement of the OTT, but no word count ability yet

- "this chirping guy keep finding out" could be linked to what-if 57 (note alt text of the BHG illustrations)

- I used GeekWagon numbring "Frame 2921" is m2916, and "Frame 2906" is m2901

}

OTT:1416:10#p3448394

"> > BlitzGirl: ... I'm going to suggest Kotekraj for you.

> Does it have a particular meaning?

Two words, three ks. Try Polish."

{"kotek kraj" = "kitten country"}

OTT:1416:25#p3448433

"... 'Risky', 'Pit Bulls', and 'Clueless' ...

the answer is that they all begin with the name of a popular game."

{There's a popular game called 'Pit'?}

OTT:1416:26#p3448436

{This eventually leads to Sandcastle Builder}

"If anyone needs practice Waiting for something, not necessarily It, there's this: http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/ "

— OTT:1417:0 at 20140314.1805

OTT:1417:5#p3448516

"> Where the heck is everyone? I accidentally double-double posted! Sorry!!!!

It's quintuple posting. ;-) And all others are baking cookies. ..."

OTT:1417:14|#p3448572

MistyCat is at 450/1417

OTT:1417:24#p3448627

"> It's Thursday (heretical, outside, yadayada boom-de), and I'm sad 'cause it's the one weekday with neither a new comic or a what-if.

Maybe this is supposed to be User Submission Day. We should fix that by releasing original xkcd-style comics ourselves on Thursday. Problem solved."

OTT:1417:33#p3448689

Bad Hair Man is at 302/1417

{The description of the temporal edit at OTT:302:38#p3325454, quoting BlitzGirl's "The Time Less Traveled", was part of the inspiration for me starting my Blitz}

— OTT:1418:0 at 20140314.1824

OTT:1418:0#p3448741

{Offset is 0}

"Optional decree:

What do you wish we had seen in Time that we didn't get to see?"

OTT:1418:1#p3448742

"Please enjoy this odetity of xkcd#1256.

[image, see 'NP1418 1256 Questions-odetity.png']"

{The questions for the text in the image were found by searching the OTT}

OTT:1418:12#p3448767

filk based on "Extreme Ways" by Moby

— OTT:1419:0 at 20140314.2027

OTT:1419:0#p3448849

"... Wow, blitzers at 302/1417, that's encouraging. Maybe I stand a chance after all. ..."

OTT:1419:1#p3448853

bmonk is at 906/1419

OTT:1419:13#p3448936

the_Dex is at 223/1419

OTT:1419:33#p3448975

filk "The Blitzers Bop" based on "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones

— OTT:1420:0 at 20140314.2112

OTT:1420:5#p3449018

"I realized that I've written a better version of "Stump the Finitist", making the ridicule of finitism more clear, but never drew it. I'll draw up and post a better version soon..."

{Another thing I forgot to do}

OTT:1420:32#p3449140

{My first word counts: OTT is about 12 times as long as LotR}

"... I'm having second thoughts. To blitz or not to blitz..."

— OTT:1421:0 at 20140315.0029

OTT:1421:9#p3449173

"... It is written in the scriptures that the Great Lord will return to us once again at our time of greatest peril, to save us all from the Cookiepocalypse!"

OTT:1421:12#p3449182

"... and lead us not into impatience,

but deliver us from cookies ..."

OTT:1421:19#p3449195

"I have come to the conclusion that COOKIE is a synonym for EVIL. The current state of nopix leaves us OTTers vulnerable to such dark influences."

OTT:1421:37#p3449227

"You gotta fight blue spoilers with blue spoilers, as the saying goes. :wink: (I actually call them "spurlers" in my head - the crossbreed between url and spoiler is a blight to all spoiler-kind.)"

— OTT:1422:0 at 20140315.0112

OTT:1422:4#p3449241

"Have we all forgotten that in the wips and mips of the One True Comic, we rarely saw Cuegan eat? And when they did eat, they partook of nothing more than molberries and grapes of the vine, and semencoffeewater from the dilgunnerang, and were glad for it. Yea, though the molested molberries be-did bringers of hallucinations and flashy gifs, they did eat them. The grapes of the vine were not Cuegan's, and yet the occasion on which they dined upon the stolen fruit was likely the last humans would ever consume the fruit of the grapevine grapevine ere it was drowned by the seaish Sea. Were there baked goods? Were there butter and flour and chips of chocolate? No!

Beware the cookies, my fellow OTTers. Beware, and heed the edict of Newpage-Pope Yappo.

[image, see 'psychocookie.gif']"

OTT:1422:22#p3449300

"... This game is weird! And I'm totally gonna stop playing it so I can coma.

Someone should make an OTC version. You buy Cuegans to help you build sandcastles faster, or something. ..."

{See OTT:1799:21#p3550778}

OTT:1422:28#p3449329

"What is it with this cookie game? ... Am I missing anything besides sanity? I think c**kie should be an even stronger curse word than ch*rp. ..."

— OTT:1423:0 at 20140315.0216

OTT:1423:0#p3449440

Earthling on Mars is at 1390/1423

— OTT:1424:0 at 20140315.0308

OTT:1424:5#p3449835

"So I'm planning to make a Castle ONGer. Measurements will be in castles per newpix. The first thing to buy will be a Newpixbot which gets you one castle per newpix... "

OTT:1424:12#p3449878

"'Chirping mustard blackhat guy' :lol:

I'm BlitzGirl, and I approve of this punsawing. :mrgreen:"

OTT:1424:17#p3449891

"... [Cookie Clicker is] an exponential growth game

...

Exponential growth games are those in which your progress, as measured e.g. by a points score, grows exponentially with time played. ... what is the oldest?"

{No-one answered my question, and a few web searches I did revealed nothing earlier than D&D. I think of Katamari Damacy as being in this category too. These type of games are more commonly called incremental games}

— OTT:1425:0 at 20140315.0403

{AluisioASG's signature now says:

"I'm broken.

Status (2014-03-15): ??? " }

OTT:1425:1#p3449978

"... You have rated my special punishment for undead OTTers ..."

The link no longer works, but was a 5-hour Nyan Cat video.

OTT:1425:22#p3450057

"48 minutes into the 5-hour Nyan Cat video (on headphones), and not mad yet... I think."

— OTT:1426:0 at 20140315.0445

OTT:1426:0#p3450143

{Offset is 0}

"Papal Decree: Tell us how different or similar you are compared to your OTT or online persona."

OTT:1426:10#p3450183

PeterSheil is at 384/1426

OTT:1426:11|#p3450184

karhell is at 997/1426

OTT:1426:25#p3450255

"... I'll try to start (some kind of) blitzing soon, so I can learn the religion properly."

{Indeed it was just a bit after this that I started reading the OTT in sequence starting from OTT:1:0#p3301860}

{At this point I posted {this}

OTT:1426:27#p3450283

{A story by AluisioASG, set in the map of the Otter Lands, see OTT:1419:10p3448911; continued at OTT:1426:27p3450283 and OTT:1429:25p3450645, and maybe OTT:1431:39p3451126}

"Thrice burnt, thrice brought forth, oft not seldom ..."

OTT:1426:36#p3450320

"... Did you think it was related to EoD? No, EoD is gone. ..."

{"EoD" refers to "End of Days", see OTT:1316:14#p3427971 and OTT:1333:27#p3430759}

— OTT:1427:0 at 20140316.1310

OTT:1427:29#p3450441

{This post influenced me a bit in deciding to blitz full-time}

"... There is only one remedy, and that is to drink fully from the One True Thread ..."

OTT:1427:31#p3450454

"... since the last rhyme-schemes lasted 9, 10, 10, and 2 days, September is starting in the same place that August did ... We'll have some idea in a month's time if one of the rhyme-schemes gets shorter by a day to fit in the 30 days of September."

— OTT:1428:0 at 20140317.0017

{AluisioASG's signature now says:

"I'm not so broken, after all.

Status (2014-03-15): The Last Time Waiter: Remade "

OTT:1428:14|#p3450535

svenman is at NP 1377/1428

OTT:1428:31#p3450569

"... I'm starting to load up the TARDIS with provisions. What should a would-be Blitzer bring along? ..."

— OTT:1429:0 at 20140317.0042

OTT:1429:28#p3450669

filk "BlitzGirl" based on "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates

OTT:1429:36#p3450711

"> ... The OTT could grind to a complete halt whilst we all wait for golden cookies in another window.

GoldenCookiesBot!

javascript: setInterval(function() {if(Game.goldenCookie.life > 0)Game.goldenCookie.click();}, 100);"

— OTT:1430:0 at 20140317.0110

OTT:1430:0#p3450719

"... Decree: suggest stuff you'd like in Sandcastle Builder (try to keep suggestions short though)."

{Lots of suggestions follow over the next few pages, and some of them actually made it into the game}

OTT:1430:0|#p3450719

{Eternal Density has chosen the name "Sandcastle Builder"}

"For testing purposes I have newpic you can click and instead of giving sandcastles it changes to the next newpic when you've made fib(n) clicks.

Okay time to get some text on this thing and make it detect ONGs to autoadvance the newpic... ..."

OTT:1430:23|#p3450785

karhell is at 1003/1430

OTT:1430:28#p3450802

"Molpy u- what the chirp is going on in this place? One more nyan cookie and I'm calling Blitzerus Annoyus! :evil: ..."

— OTT:1431:0 at 20140318.0052

{AluisioASG's signature now says: "Status (2014-03-18): (possibly) rewriting The Last Time Waiter

" }

OTT:1431:9|#p3450951

WOnder93 is at 1000/1431

OTT:1431:10|#p3450957

Vytron is at 1400/1431

OTT:1431:17#p3451010

"... I'll be starting my Quest very soon (in fact, it may be almost time to precharge the TARDIS) ..."

— OTT:1432:0 at 20140318.0424

OTT:1432:21#p3451245

filk "Molpy" based on "Monkey" by Veggie Tales

OTT:1432:26#p3451270

"...Maybe I should put the punsaw down for a while.

I beseech you all to please pun responsibly, and always in moderation."

OTT:1432:32#p3451295

{story "The Meeting", describing the meeting between Rosetta and Cuegan, and a little bit of what the Beanies said afterwards}

— OTT:1433:0 at 20140318.0448

OTT:1433:7#p3451365

{Sandcastle Builder is working}

"Well I seem to have some very basic functionality now, yay! Buying and selling and earning sand and castles, and the ONG all work decently it seems. ..."

OTT:1433:8#p3451366

"[mscha has added]:

> ... It might be the case that the cycle is only determined by the ‘tens’ of the day of the month (UTC).

... [I] hadn't made the connection to the first digit of the date. If that's the case though, and it seems likely, there's no hidden code to figure out in the pattern of repetitions. ..."

OTT:1433:13#p3451376

"... There you see? C**kie skeptics, behold! Our thread has been through far more trying times than the C**kiepocalypse. ...

I have one more molpydown, then I will board the Time machine and say farewell. I have a parting gift ..."

OTT:1433:34|#p3451509

MistyCat is at 500/1433

OTT:1433:38|#p3451523

Valarya is at 1412/1433

"... Reading that it was about the Zaclean flood from the start was a bummer, I think I put the comic in a pedestal and it didn't match to my expectations, it seemed deeper when it was mysterious, when we didn't know if Randall was making it up ...

Yep, I just think I have left denial and entered anger :x "

OTT:1434:22#p3451639

My last post before switching to full-time blitzing: "The Departure of mrob27, and a Gift"

"The first few dix (about 60 newpages) are the quickest to blitz as most of the posts were by folks ... who didn't stick around."

{More accurately, they're quicker to read because people were making stand-along statements, rather than replying to each other.}

— OTT:1435:0 at 20140318.1608

{At this point I spent some time getting the Time replay page working to my satisfaction, and posted this}

OTT:1435:18|#p3451902

pelrigg is at 1415/1435

OTT:1435:33#p3451963

"you know the best otter related site name would be: chirpingmustard.com ..."

— OTT:1436:0 at 20140320.0532

{Lots of messages from Eternal Density about Sandcastle Builder}

OTT:1436:39#p3452125

{People are playing Sandcastle Builder now}

"... Wow, the amount of sand required for a castle rises FAST. I hope Bigger Buckets helps! ..."

— OTT:1437:0 at 20140320.0608

OTT:1437:35|#p3452301

Valarya is at 1426/1437

— OTT:1438:0 at 20140320.0632

OTT:1438:6|#p3452375

Vytron is at 1405/1438

{I post this and note the announcement of Mod Madness 2014:

"... If this is your first time going through it. Oh boy. Boy howdy. Things are gonna get weird. If you thought the Time Thread was incomprehensible now, just wait. ...

See "3a-Madness-2014.rhtf" for more. }

OTT:1438:13|#p3452409

WOnder93 is at 1034/1438

OTT:1438:21#p3452445

"> > We'll pass them {the thread "Unfetched hashes and turtle-excluding devices"} while we're asleep!

> Yes, you are right. Anyone care to extrapolate the date?

Well, we're doing a hundred pages a month, they're doing ten.

We're closing on them at 90 pages a month.

We're at 1438, they're at 2098, so we have 660 pages to go.

660/90 = 22/3 = 7 months and a week or so, so sometime in the middle of next April.

Just for fun, I'll predict it will happen on the anniversary of the Beginning of Time. "

OTT:1438:26#p3452469

Earthling on Mars is at 1400/1438

— OTT:1439:0 at 20140323.0140

OTT:1439:17#p3452606

"... In other news:

>Molpy.ToNeedlePulledThing();

"0.2||11111101;204;204;61;10;2;0;1,1,0;0,0,0;0,0,0;0,0,0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0,0,0;1,0;0,0;|"

I've got it making a stringthread from the gamestate. So I'm close to having it save. Loading will be a bit more work though :P "

OTT:1439:21|#p3452616

"Ok, domain choosing round 2 (got some new options): http://strawpoll.me/390913"

{See 'NP1439 poll.jpg'; poll results are:

The One True Domain, round 2:

chirpingmustard.com 20 votes (56%)

molpi.es 10 votes (28%)

molpy.im (a molpy am I?) 4 votes (11%)

molpymolpymolpymolpygrapevinegrapevine.cat (non-free) 2 votes (6%) }

OTT:1439:33#p3452656

"chirpingmustard.com has been ordered. Activation should be completed shortly. ..."

— OTT:1440:0 at 20140323.0207

OTT:1440:21#p3452777

{My first blitz report}

"Time-capsule from @mrob27, deposited at Newpage 116

Do not open until Newpage 1440 ..."

— OTT:1441:0 at 20140323.0249

OTT:1441:5|#p3452955

Bad Hair Man is at 313/1441

OTT:1441:30#p3453211

filk "broken lands" based on "Poor Places" by Wilco

— OTT:1442:0 at 20140323.0410

OTT:1442:1#p3453284

{Offset is 1}

"Oh nice, pope. Please keep this thread alive. DO SOMETHING!"

OTT:1442:21#p3453398

{Sandcastle Builder has already gotten too complicated for pelrigg (at least) to figure out: }

"game spoilers abound:

... to get 400 sand, 986 is used in making 14 castles and then you need 500 beyond that. (if you keep going up to 610 sand, you'll get a 15th castle and will be back at 0 sand.)

So you'll want to get your sand per mNP up a good bit to cut down on clicking, and you'll need to actually use your sand at the right time. (Because if you have 500 sand and then the ONG happens, 376 of it will be made into 12 castles).

... Trebuchet and higher will only give castles if they can first destroy a smaller number of castles. These activate in reverse order. So first, waves will try to destroy 24 castles, then scaffolds will try to destroy 6, then trebuchets 2. Then for each wave that did destroy 24 castles, 40 will be added, and so on. Suppose you have 40 castles and 2 of each Castle Tool:

First, waves will destroy all your castles. The other tools do nothing. Then since only 1 wave had 24 to destroy, only 40 will be added. The other tools destroyed nothing so they will give nothing. The second wave destroyed 16 castles for no benefit ..."

— OTT:1443:0 at 20140323.0426

OTT:1443:3#p3453526

Story (excerpt?) by ChronosDragon based somewhat on "The Last Time Waiter"

— OTT:1444:0 at 20140323.0440

OTT:1444:10|#p3453775

MistyCat is at 524/1444

OTT:1444:32#p3453977

{My second blitzreport, the one about the Madness and Cthulhu}

— OTT:1445:0 at 20140323.0823

OTT:1445:9#p3454094

"... People here are amazing. This is, without a doubt, the best internet community I have ever participated in, bar none. You're all thoughtful, intelligent, creative, brilliant people who make and do amazing things and it continuously astounds me that I get to be a part of this. ..."

{First letters of each sentence spell out PENIS}

OTT:1445:15#p3454108

filk "Happy one thousand, ChronosDragon" based on "Welcome Oblivion" by How To Destroy Angels

{At this point I noticed that the Madness 2014 has started, and OTTers are listing the mappings already in effect; I posted this.}

OTT:1445:22#p3454139

{First reply to me that I did not see while Blitzing}

"... A retrOTT-if7, too ..."

OTT:1445:31|#p3454182

svenman is at 1387/1445

filk "Ketching Up Is Hard To Do" based on "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" by Neil Sedaka

— OTT:1446:0 at 20140323.1408

OTT:1446:5#p3454235

DD "Limerick schlimerick / ED doesn't think he can / ..."

OTT:1446:9|#p3454253

MistyCat is at 535/1446

OTT:1446:26#p3454310

filk "Sympathy for the OTTer" based on "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones

— OTT:1447:0 at 20140323.1751

OTT:1447:0#p3454374

OTTification of Bilbo's speech from Lord of the Rings "A Long-expected Party", and a hilarious original song.

OTT:1447:4|#p3454386

WOnder93 is at 1106/1447

— OTT:1448:0 at 20140324.0254

— OTT:1449:0 at 20140324.0701

OTT:1449:5|#p3454706

Bad Hair Man is at 316/1448

OTT:1449:8#p3454709

Acts of the Clerics chapter 27 (in the style of a radio news broadcast)

OTT:1449:38#p3454786

{Describing a game that is essentially Drawception}

"... Everyone sits in a circle with a blank piece of paper and a pen or pencil. At the very top of the paper they write a sentence, hopefully something with some action, or something that can be drawn. They pass the paper to the next person, who draws a picture depicting the sentence. Then they fold the sentence part so it can't be seen and pass the paper to the next person, ..."

— OTT:1450:0 at 20140324.0726

{At this point I move to the Present and post at OTT:1819:1 to announce it. I begin some ketchup of the recent Newpages (starting at least as early as OTT:1817:17, but probably at the top of that page).

With my first ketchup post at OTT:1819:26 I include this teaser for the Replay viewer, as we're nearing the moment when it will start replaying Time at frame 1:

Second ketchup post is at OTT:1819:30; after which I plan to do normal present-interaction posts, but also reading the past starting from my present position in NP1450 and continuing whenever possible.}

{I hote that yappobiscuits' signature now indicated "OTTscars results coming on the Timeiversary!"; voting is over.}

{molpy-down, then post OTT:1821:22 (UNG fr0009) with molpy-up ketchup.}

OTT:1450:25#p3454870

{ChronosDragon gives CSS3, JavaScript and HTML code, and an image (see 'NP1450 clockface.png') to implement a newpix clock in Sandcastle Builder}

OTT:1450:28#p3454876

{yappobiscuits has pretty much made enough OTT music for an album. This post has a list of all of them, plus one or two notable songs by others. Surprisingly I missed "Fake Blitz".}

— OTT:1451:0 at 20140325.0500

OTT:1451:0#p3454922

{Offset is 0}

"... And if you write in poetry, this OTTer you'll amaze"

{There are a lot of little poems on this NP}

OTT:1451:39#p3455094

"> Semi-related. Has anyone else noticed this line on the front page of the fora?

the Board Index wrote:

Most users ever online was 1977 on Tue Feb 22, 1916 9:09 am UTC

> {There seems to be a little bit of m*stard there. What do you think?}

Yes, I've seen that before. :lol: Perhaps the forum software tried blitzing and got stuck in the past."

— OTT:1452:0 at 20140325.0515

{One post to the present: OTT:1821:28}

OTT:1452:7#p3455130

"We, the TimeWaiters of the Individual XKCD Comic Threads, in Order to form a more prefect Forum, establish Blitzing, insure domestic OTTifications, provide for the common caking, promote the general Wowderfulness, and secure The Blessings of Awesumfulness to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for The One True Thread."

OTT:1452:9#p3455135

"Article I

Section 1

All blitzing Powers herein granted shall be vested in a readership of Timewaiters, which shall consist of both OTTers and Lurkers.

Section 2

The Lurkers shall be composed of forum-readers noted to exist as unnamed Guests (perhaps roaming the Otherthreads), and the specific Lurkers in the OTT shall have the Qualifications requisite for Lurkers of the most seaish Thread of the Individual XKCD Othercomics.

No Lurker shall be diminished no matter what Age (in yips) xe has yet attained, or how long xe has followed the One True Comic, and it shall not matter that xe lurks rather than be an OTTer of the needle-pulled thing of Time. "

OTT:1452:13#p3455148

{AluisioASG is soliciting questions for the Know Thy Otter game)

— OTT:1453:0 at 20140325.0611

{At this point I post OTT:1821:35 (UNG fr0014), then continue reading the past}

OTT:1453:8#p3455235

{My third blitzreport, I am already at NP202!

I tell the story of a movie about an orthodox Jew travelling into the past in stages, then explain the origin of Timborme.}

OTT:1453:25#p3455275

filk (partial) of "Radio Ga Ga" (continued in OTT:1456:17#p3455885, OTT:1457:19p3455990, OTT:1465:36p3457782, and OTT:1466:30#p3457933)

— OTT:1454:0 at 20140325.0731

{Interactions with the present: OTT:1822:4 OTT:1822:16, OTT:1822:20, OTT:1822:24, OTT:1822:39.}

— OTT:1455:0 at 20140325.1241

OTT:1455:1|#p3455521

MistyCat is at 626/1454

OTT:1455:19|#p3455614

WOnder93 is at 1116/1455

OTT:1455:32#p3455729

"... Today Iron SeaWolpy (i.e. me and the other guy in the band [...]) were recording some acoustic session videos for the youtubes... and even though I've never explained about the OTT to him, he's gotten so used to me using OTTish words, that "mustard" has become a part of our own vocabulary, i.e. "That take was mustardy" or "there was some mustard in the second chorus." :P"

OTT:1455:39#p3455775

{Find the OTTers word search puzzle (id 39880)}

{Interaction with the present: OTT:1823:21 (UNG fr0029), OTT:1823:36, OTT:1824:11 (UNG fr0034)}

— OTT:1456:0 at 20140325.1750

OTT:1456:6#p3455814

{The reason why I created imagebot}

"> ... that were deleted in the great wipe of attachments that happened at some point.

Attachments get wiped? Mustard."

OTT:1456:36#p3455921

{A couple of these dragon images by ChronosDragon were used by AluisioASG for avatars}

"... If you're interested in seeing some scraps created during production (ongoing), I posted a few to deviantart [link]"

OTT:1455:39#p3455775

{This word-search was solved, but a solution did not get posted until OTT:1829:8. The 'Present Present' is the first six lines from the lovely epilogue poem "When Time is Gone" by BlitzGirl:

Join me up here

Under vast dawn skies

There is little that remains

Kneel with me dear

After the sunrise

And help me gather up these grains I did some PMs to BlitzGirl and Ebonite, and after determining it was suitable, I announced the full solution at OTT:1829:8.}

{Posts in the present: OTT:1824:27 (UNG fr0038) OTT:1824:30, OTT:1824:33, OTT:1825:7 (UNG fr0043)}

— OTT:1457:0 at 20140325.2150

{I am still in the Present and schizo-Blitzing. I note that AluisioASG's signature now says:

This signature takes a lot of space.

Status (2014W13): Unknown }

OTT:1457:31#p3456045

"... So...would that be a deottification? :P"

{Sort of foreshadows my Reverse OTTifications of OTT:1575:10#p3487084 and later}

OTT:1457:32#p3456054

{waveney explains the creation of the Beany ONGs}

"The current story has finished, but there may be more at some point. ..."

OTT:1457:35|#p3456090

taixzo is at 1417/1457

OTT:1457:38#p3456094

{My Time-capsule including the Perl script "ransomnote"}

— OTT:1458:0 at 20140326.0648

OTT:1458:15#p3456273

”... some situations exhaust my functional eye noticeably quickly, like the word search. ..."

OTT:1458:19|#p3456298

MistyCat is at 655/1458

{A couple present-ketchup posts: OTT:1826:34, OTT:1826:39 (UNG fr0060).

A little later the entire forum was not working for a while, and imagebot noticed. Here is a relevant quote from the @SBN's Madness discussion thread:

viewtopic.php?p=3562286#p3562286

When the whole board went down for a while on Saturday night, I drank some beers and cut gmalivuk's hair. Because the forum isn't actually the whole fucking world.

}

— OTT:1459:0 at 20140326.0801

OTT:1459:0#p3456448

"> > quoting the prediction in OTT:921:13

> :shock: ergman!!! how?

Wow. I completely forgot about this prediction. I think the sheer amount of horrendously false ones makes up for it, though. I once predicted Cuegan and there people were pioneers on an alien world. (early journey period I think.)

so no, not GLR. Move along now."

OTT:1459:1#p3456450

"... As far as the TMI, I use it often as a joke. ... And then there's the thing of real life crossing over into online life, but as many have already said, we're all pretty open here. Which is very cool. By the way, have I said lately how truly awesomeful all of you are? ..."

— OTT:1460:0 at 20140326.0839

OTT:1460:11#p3456666

{There has been a thread started by my comment that "the Madness, and perhaps WarpPix, have filtered people out."}

"...

> > > I think some might have been on the edge of staying during the madness, like myself. I wonder who else was a close stay or a close loss.

> > I was reading since the beginning, but not posting. During the madness I skipped a lot. I think the madness is dumb. ...

> I think on a normal thread, the madness would be just a fun diversion. But here, it probably did cost us some folks, lots to read, and all in what's practically another language. But I can see how giving the mods some play time is fun for them too. Their workload went up significantly too. ...

I think the madness was an important part of our metamorphosis. Though I must admit I wasn't posting here myself until after then."

OTT:1460:12#p3456669

"Random thought - that non-stop nyan cat site posted a while back made me think it'd be treeish to have a site like that of our own that loops molpy molpy molpy :P"

OTT:1460:39#p3456747

{The first reference to the [Redacted] (redundakitties) in Sandcastle Builder}

"Time to test redacted fully!"

{I stop blitzing the past around this time; present-interaction posts: OTT:1827:16 (UNG fr0067), OTT:1827:18 (UNG fr0068), OTT:1827:39 (UNG fr0073, ninja'd by oldpixbot), OTT:1828:38 (UNG fr0082), OTT:1829:5, OTT:1829:8, OTT:1829:12, OTT:1829:15, OTT:1829:32, OTT:1830:26, OTT:1830:29 (UNG fr0089), OTT:1830:32 }

{The following "OTT:1461:0" marker was added after all the above posts, I suppose I hadn't finished NP1460 yet or was reading it slowly.}

— OTT:1461:0 at 20140326.2054

{Normal present-interaction posts: OTT:1831:31, OTT:1831:33, OTT:1831:38, OTT:1832:0, OTT:1832:3, OTT:1832:32, OTT:1833:18 (UNG fr0121)}

{At 20140327.1230 local time, I make a "shortpix" UNG timer on webcountdown.net, because the original one doesn't make the actual ONG sound for some reason (?) }

{A few normal-interaction posts:OTT:1833:38, OTT:1834:0 (UNG fr0125), OTT:1835:3.}

{Still in the Present, at NP1835 AluisioASG has pointed out an error in this travelogue file. His signature now says:

← This image does not show up in your travelogue.

Status (2014W13): Unknown

I let him know I've fixed the error, and the sig changes again:

Cleveresthmm…, Geekiestdisputed and Silliestwhat? Molpy of the OTT.

Status (2014W13): Unknown

}

{I participate in the Present for quite a while here. A series of normal Present-interaction posts: OTT:1836:39 (UNG fr0143), OTT:1837:1, OTT:1837:19.

At this point it is noted by AluisioASG that "I love BANANAS" has appeared in the title/rank field in the profile area of (nearly) every user. We later determine this was probably an action of Gordon (see OTT:1837:33)

More present-interaction: OTT:1838:4, OTT:1838:9 (UNG fr0160), OTT:1838:37, OTT:1839:2.

I announce the "We Love BANA-na-Yada" script in OTT:1839:10.

Normal present-ketchup post at OTT:1839:39.

I post at OTT:1840:35 asking for custom de-yada verses for OTTers who want to be added to the script.

Normal present-ketchup post at OTT:1843:13 (UNG fr0204).

Posts about the "We Love BANA-na-Yada" script: OTT:1844:14, OTT:1844:30}

{Still in the Present at NP1846, I notice @yappobiscuits' signature has changed:

(- OTTscars results Pt. 2 a come soon. Wait for it. English Instrumentalist Waterottermolpy Mighty Troubadour ah Cleveland, Ohio -)

Note the filter changing "the OTT" to "Cleveland, Ohio", also the Yappo icon was mustarded by a filter that changed "xkcd" to "dis%20ting%20wa%20ahbe%20all%20talkin%27%20about" in the URL }

{I make one post: OTT:1848:30, then go back to blitzing the past}


OTT:1461:10#p3456798

"... REDUNDAKITTIES!!

I am a bit curious as to what [redacted] is. Game spoiler ahead. ..."

OTT:1461:23#p3456834

{The subject line of this post, originally "Re: BlitzGirl's 3000 Posts", now reads "Re: BlitzGirl's 3000 post dem". The Madness affects subject lines, just as it did last year.}

OTT:1461:26|#p3456845

WOnder93 is at 1142/1461

OTT:1461:37#p3456884

DD "Biggety Baggety / BlitzGirl Bagnificent! / ..."

— OTT:1462:0 at 20140330.1034

OTT:1462:22|#p3457057

"Interesting image I just created:

A graph of the proportion of black ink used in each frame of time http://kieryn.com/xkcd-time/img/time-black-ink-graph.png

Each pixel column is a frame, starting on the left with frame 1 and ending on the right with 3095. I think I'm missing a frame or two, but it's mostly there."

— OTT:1463:0 at 20140330.1102

OTT:1463:12#p3457188

"... So yeah, redacted is obviously Redundakitties. But NOWHERE in any of the game files are they called that , nor does the text 'Redundakitty' ever appear :P ..."

OTT:1463:16#p3457206

{My first "Chronogram" (a brief message to the Present)}

OTT:1463:22#p3457242

"> > > > Very late ETA: I believe this was my 1024th post. I recently learned that number is important, so... yay I guess :P Pope'd on 1000 and 1024!

> > > Next important number: 1728.

> > Yeah, it's much more important than that dull old 1729.

> I would argue that the next important number is 1331. 11 is superior to 12, after all.

The next important number is 1190 :P ..."

{So we have a sequence: 1000, 1024, 1190, 1331, 1728, 1729, ...}

— OTT:1464:0 at 20140330.1133

OTT:1464:29#p3457491

"... I've hit a snag: exporting is broken because the string is too long for javascript alerts :P I'll have to make a new way. Which is good because I can't copy it from the alert box on my phone. ETA yeah it truncates to 2000 chars and my save has reached 2312"

{This is the Sandcastle Builder problem that I found and fixed}

OTT:1464:37#p3457509

"> Corinne: I am fine, since you ask, hunting for some molpies...

:shock: *cuddles molpies close* My molpies! Not snake food!"

— OTT:1465:0 at 20140330.1245

OTT:1465:20#p3457600

MistyCat is at 702/1465

OTT:1465:33|#p3457728

taixzo is at 1441/1465

— OTT:1466:0 at 20140330.1318


{Posts I made at this point: OTT:1849:12 (UNG fr0255), OTT:1849:16, OTT:1849:18.}

{I go back to the Present, catch up a bit, and post messages about the Madness and mscha being upset, and about my script which doesn't work in Opera. I make the last post before anfurny posts a message and the thread gets locked.}

{AluisioASG's signature now reads:

(- T h e Zanclean Contingency Protocol i s now in effect. Ways of communication: Facebook [invite required] chirpingmustard.com email list [also direct email to otters@] -)

with links to help OTTers get connected.}

{macraw83's signature says:

Dey may have closed down our OTT, but we be still a go strong pon Facebook. PM me for more info.

Schizoblitzing (ugh), starting at NP1758. Current NP: 1418.

Blitzgirl wrote: suddenly all de following pagepopes become goated from dat point

onward, mustarding up dem who be a try to blitz }

{ergman's signature:

de tread be down, but we kyan Wait For It

I made me avatar, Buffygirl hatted it, Yappo smileyed it an' ggh taroted it!

tanks, y'all!

Scared/konfused newcomer? Check out de intro! }

{and BlitzGirl's says simply:

Wait for it.

}

{AluisioASG has changed his signature again:

%The Zanclean

Contingency Protocol is currently inactive.%

Ways of communication:

[kompanni]

Facebook [invite required]

chirpingmustard.com email list [also direct email to otters@]

[/kompanni:u] }

{I posted this response to the temporary Madness-related locking of the OTT}

{Now at newpix 9031.10, AluisioASG's sig says:

Cleveresthmm…, Geekiestdisputed an' Silliestwa? Molpy ah Cleveland, Ohio.

Status (2014W14): a wuk pon a contingency plan

}


continuing with blitz notes:

OTT:1466:15#p3457863

"... Thanks. But the Beanie is the mom, the other girl is different, we can call her Megan. Check TimeAfterTime: Beanie Edition to see why that makes a little sense. ..."

{We need an explainottifications.com site}

OTT:1466:32|#p3457937

taixzo is at 1448/1466

"> I think I've made a game more addicting than cookie clicker. Oops.

I think that earns you a spot in the Hall of Fame for OTTer-sniping."

— OTT:1467:0 at 20140331.0935

OTT:1467:5#p3458014

"... But let me say Congrats to BlitzGirl for hitting 3000 posts. (And I saw your little tiff with the anti-OTTer over in the 1263 thread. Some people....)"

OTT:1467:8#p3458027

taixzo is at 1467/1467

OTT:1467:25#p3458112

"I think GLR is trying to challenge our OTTifying skills with the new othercomic. ... I'll leave it in your capable hands until I de-coma. If it's not been ottified by then, I'll have another new skill to learn thanks to the OTT. ..."

OTT:1467:28#p3458125

"... The GDrive version at https://googledrive.com/host/0BwphmOA1T6DxbEN3NE94U1Y4Q2M/castle.html which castle.chirpingmustard.com currently points at, will not be updated any further, though there aren't any new updates yet. ..."

{This still works, and gives Blitzers a way to play the game the way it was on NP1467}

OTT:1467:39#p3458184

"So which one of you crazy bastards hit refresh 70 times after I posted that?"

{The OTT now has 2,000,000 page views}

— OTT:1468:0 at 20140331.0948

OTT:1468:12|#p3458304

MistyCat is at 712/1468

OTT:1468:17#p3458354

"WHAT!? Did you put GLR in the comfy chair and throwed slightly stale M&Ms at him?"

{This comment makes a lot more sense now...}

OTT:1468:27#p3458476

"By request:

[image, see 'NP1468 time-change-graph.png']

Each black line represents the total proportion of pixel change in either direction (black-to-white, or white-to-black)."

{It's good, but would be better if the vertical scale were logarithmic; each vertical bar could also be colored green-gray-red according to what portion of its value comes from darkening.}

{At this point I posted this, which includes one response to NP1467}

— OTT:1469:0 at 20140331.1830

OTT:1469:4|#p3458570

{Kieryn posts his frame average image}

"Another pass over the frames...

This one created 2 images — I combined them. The top half is the average color of each pixel.

The bottom half indicates the amount of change each pixel endured throughout Time.

[image, see 'NP1469 pixel averages.png'] "

OTT:1469:8|#p3458587

"One thing I'm just noticing is there seem to be equal-width horizontal bands in the changes half. I wonder if this is a side-effect of some part of GLR's technique?

ETA: I'm a silly idiot. It's from the writing of course :)

ETA2: Hmmm I guess that might mean I was right to begin with. It means GLR tends to add the writing at specific heights. He probably had a standard line guide that he used."

— OTT:1470:0 at 20140331.1953

OTT:1470:24|#p3459085

WOnder93 is at 1215/1470

OTT:1470:26|#p3459094

"> I can't wait to see Rosetta's reaction when she sees Cueganities alive and aboard this treeish boat! :D

Oh dear. :(

Yeah I can't wait either. But I have to. Forever."

— OTT:1471:0 at 20140331.2033

OTT:1471:13|#p3459202

svenman is at 1396/1471

{I notice Eternal Density has changed his signature for April Fool's day:

Play de game ah Time! castle.chirpingmustard.com Hotdog Vending Supplier

Announcement:

}

— OTT:1472:0 at 20140331.2141

{Another AluisioASG signature:

Cleverest[self-published source?], Geekiest[no verified in body] an' Silliest[clarification needed] Molpy ah Cleveland, Ohio.

Status (2014W14): a wuk pon a contingency plan

}

{At this point I went back to the present, caught up and posted this (UNG fr0291)}

OTT:1472:5#p3459338

{Another of my Time-capsules. I hope it's okay to say that I'm finding them very enjoyable to read ^_^

In this one I share my DONG timers for playing Sandcastle Builder, and I've chosen titles for myself and Timborme }

OTT:1472:8#p3459344

"... Glad to see our schizoblitzer (dissoblitzer?) is doing well back among the pastposts."

{Possibly the first non-"mrob" reference to me specifically (after OTT:1445:22 which referred to my retrOTT-if}

OTT:1472:12#p3459365

"... I have in the past at times lurked on and later also contributed to this thread on a French car forum, it is about old cars spotted on the road. The thread was started in May 2005 and keeps growing by several pages a day, as of the writing of this article it has 5267 pages. Like ours, it has evolved its own subculture with its own customs, in-jokes, and specific jargon. And there are other threads on that forum with even more pages. So I don't think the OTT is really unique in the whole internet in that respect."

{And now has 5387 pages; I confirmed that it's 40 posts per page; and I grabbed several of its standard GIF smileys}

OTT:1472:28#p3459461

MistyCat reports without indicating location, but reports that the OTT is beginning to get a little bit flame-like. Location must be between 712 and 745 (xer positions at the OTT:1472:28 and OTT:1475:13 reports)

OTT:1472:29#p3459475

" Beacon Gamma

[image, see 'NP1472 Beacon Gamma.jpg']

Report to the future if you're more than 3 pages behind.

Usual connections, services and restrictions apply."

{Here I pause to post this (schizo-)Blitzreport}

{I design and compose my 200th post post. Then I discover xkcd 1350 and get nerdsniped for a while... :)

Then more ketchup and present-posts: OTT:1859:31 (UNG fr0308), OTT:1860:33 (UNG fr0312), OTT:1861:2. }

— OTT:1473:0 at 20140402.0249

OTT:1473:2#p3459554

{Offset is 2}

"Oh, molpypope... Either bring more puzzles, or ..."

— OTT:1474:0 at 20140402.0342

OTT:1474:17#p3459881

{The origin of both the Vitssågen meme and of the "scrumptious donut" as alternate punishment.}

"> That was an ancient Swedish p*n...

It's the vitssåg for you!

(Which I hope means "punsaw," but could mean "scrumptious donut" for all I know.) "

OTT:1474:20#p3459903

"The spoiler in the kitty. It won't click. :o"

{That's because we're not in Soviet Russia (where spoiler clicks you...)}

{I stop blitzing for a bit, and post OTT:1861:18, OTT:1862:0}

— OTT:1475:0 at 20140402.1704

OTT:1475:3#p3460019

OTTifications of the children's poems "Here we go round the mulberry bush" and "Pop Goes the Weasel"

OTT:1475:13|#p3460077

MistyCat is at 745/1475

OTT:1475:21#p3460252

filk "Vitssåg" ("Punsaw") based on "Trollhammaren" by Finntroll. Lyrics in Swedish and in English (Swedish version improved at OTT:1475:39p3460419 and OTT:1476:1p3460428)

OTT:1475:27#p3460307

"

The Molpy Moving Co. - Got a Heretic? We Will Rope 4 U!

Express basement services are our specialty!

(Candy-pelting available upon request.)

OTT:1475:29#p3460347

{Analysis of the new "Judgement dip" in Sandcastle Builder v. 0.963}

OTT:1475:39#p3460419

Improvement of the Swedish in the "Vitssåg" song, now called "Vitssågen" (see OTT:1476:1#p3460428)

— OTT:1476:0 at 20140402.1731

OTT:1476:7#p3460446

{My Time-Capsule with the punsaw goating passage:

"... Orange you glad we cleared that up? You can't punsaw me in the aforewhen can you? ..."

and in which I discuss cancer.

This post also contains a 'rot9' message:

Qnuux onuuxe k'nbq'nw xo bqn P'jwm Uxmpn OJJA xo Wneyrfrj! R qjdn knnw lxuunlbrwp vjwg pnva o'xv bqn yjab jwm anbbrwp cy jw j'lqrdn ox' can rw Juu Brvna. Ax vxbn rb kn!

Bqn Twrpqba Bnvyx'ju twxe wxb eqjb en ajg, jwm -jwmjuu qnuy bqn Bnvyx'ju Ruucvrwjbr. Kcb bqn Ajwmvjaxwa y'nan'dn bqn Jwwjua xo Brvn rw bqn Andnwbq Undnu xo bqn Uxmpn, ox' bqn knwnorb xo juu! }

OTT:1476:21#p3460536

{My chronogram with the time-warp punsaw: }

{At this point I post OTT:1862:27 (UNG fr0331)}

— OTT:1477:0 at 20140402.2004

OTT:1477:20#p3460684

{The OTT has figured out that the image at what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/63/google_snake.png was in What-If #63, but has been removed}

"Now the snake image has been removed from the code. Maybe Randall forgot to draw it, and will put it back in when he's ready. lol. Better go coma before I have to sit in the comfy chair all night."

{Perhaps that image will be seen in the What-If book}

— OTT:1478:0 at 20140402.2029

{I post again in the Madness discussion (f=10&t=108526#p3562933)}

{I notice AluisioASG's signature has changed:

Cleverest[self-published source?], Geekiest[no verified in body] and Silliest[clarification needed] Molpy of the OTT.

Status (2014W14): looking over the Raftcastle

}

{Then after a reload, the same but with the last line changed to:

Status (2014W14): watching the Raftcastle sleep }

{OTT posts in the Present: OTT:1863:32, OTT:1865:23 (UNG fr0355), OTT:1865:31}

OTT:1478:16#p3461133

bmonk is at 1003/1478

OTT:1478:36#p3461214

filk "Vitssågen III, ja." based on the previous "Vitssåg" and "Vitssågen"

— OTT:1479:0 at 20140403.2149

{The "in my pants" meme is back with a vengeance}

— OTT:1480:0 at 20140403.2228

OTT:1480:5#p3461389

DD "OTT in my pants, / rapid fire (in my pants) / ..."

OTT:1480:10#p3461403

"So I was mucking around on G+ and someone linked a video about Voyager reaching interstellar space in my pants so I posted a quote of the alt text of the relevant xkcd about the number of times it's left the solar system, and when I was writing in the comic number I realised that it was 1189, the final othercomic Before Time Began. Treeish!"

OTT:1480:32|#p3461481

Bad Hair Man is at 320/1480

OTT:1480:35#p3461488

"> @BlitzGirl: That final epic sentence is missing three vital words from the end.

Our kinfolk twirl through both Past and Present now, tossed on the eddies of Time, and though our paths may seem separated from one another, we are all mingling together amid the great ballroom of this needle-pulled thing, to the twining beat of Time's tune in my pants.

Done. ;) "

— OTT:1481:0 at 20140404.1519

{A lot of activity in the Present here. OTT posts: OTT:1866:28, OTT:1867:39, OTT:1868:33, OTT:1869:23 (UNG fr0384), OTT:1870:14, OTT:1873:9, OTT:1873:22, OTT:1874:24, OTT:1874:29, OTT:1875:6 (UNG fr0448), OTT:1875:11 (UNG fr0449), OTT:1875:18.}

OTT:1481:4#p3461525

{My "Campaign for Real Time" post}

"This Notice is Important. Please Have It Translated.

ᖗᓄᒼᖚ ᕋᖊᖗᒼᘡᘖ ᒼᖚ ᒼᖸᔅᖊᓭᖗᙉᕋᖗᐧ ᔅᘈᘖᙉᖚᘖ ᓄᙉᑦᘖ ᒼᖗ ᖗᓭᙉᕋᖚᘈᙉᖗᘖᘝᐧ

..."

OTT:1481:6#p3461534

"... And azule was apparently disappointed by someone'sIn post. Things are not always what they seem, ya know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go do battle with the evil 6-legged creatures that have invaded my house.P

Inmy

PAnts"

OTT:1481:17#p3461564

filk "The Assumption" based on "The Assumption Song" by Arrogant Worms

OTT:1481:37#p3461756

{There has been a lot of discussion of Swedish}

— OTT:1482:0 at 20140407.2125

OTT:1482:0#p3461769

"... If the location of Popes and thus the page layout were known to absolute precision, then as a consequence the content of these pages would have to be completely unknown and unknowable, and the thread would vanish. Conversely, if the content were specified unambaguously ..."

OTT:1482:14#p3461928

{My post responding to ucim's OTT:1482:0#p3461769, and showing how quickly I can communicate with the Present when needed}

"... Seriously, how do you do that? It's like you travelled in Time to notify your past selves that I needed help with this! I'll have to make another cool animated GIF.

...

More in another Time-Capsule to be opened later. Sometimes I seal several with different opening dates, kinda like Hari Seldon. ..."

OTT:1482:31|#p3462096

jjjdavidson is at 1425/1482

OTT:1482:36#p3462140

{ChronosDragon has made my hatted avatar}

— OTT:1483:0 at 20140407.2311

{Here I posted OTT:1876:12}

OTT:1483:0#p3462166

{Offset is 0}

"Optional decree: / Ottify a line from a movie."

OTT:1483:2#p3462177

Acts of the Clerics, chapter 28

OTT:1483:3#p3462179

poem "Journey II: Learn" using the epilogue rhyme scheme CBAE CDAED CBAED CCDC BABA ED (see OTT:1396:24#p3443889)

OTT:1483:8#p3462263

story "Unattainable" concerning one of the dragons used in AluisioASG's avatars

OTT:1483:27|#p3462372

MistyCat is at 801/1483

— OTT:1484:0 at 20140408.0009

OTT:1484:6#p3462511

DD "Cookie-ish Treeishly / with open arms I am / ..."

OTT:1484:34|#p3462768

"I think we need to define the scope of Know Thy Otter. ..."

— OTT:1485:0 at 20140408.0720

{Here I posted OTT:1876:35}

— OTT:1486:0 at 20140408.1226

{And here I posted OTT:1877:32 (UNG fr0474)}

OTT:1486:6|#p3463036

WOnder93 is at 1256/1486

— OTT:1487:0 at 20140408.2010

OTT:1487:25#p3463549

{one of my Timborme journals}

"... Concerning Hats, OTT Remixes, and the Apotheosis of Blitzgirl ..."

— OTT:1488:0 at 20140408.2030

OTT:1488:5|#p3463649

Bad Hair Man is at 324/1488

OTT:1488:18#p3463677

{There have been a lot of posts with anagrams}

"... My new OTT-favorite:

Knight Temporal = Got Panther Milk?"

OTT:1488:25#p3463704

AluisioASG has finished re-implementing the OTTer map {these did work for a while as I used them while Blitzing; but they are now gone (as of NP1878)}

"New OTT map and KTO's game and submission pages are up. ..."

— OTT:1489:0 at 20140408.2053

OTT:1489:21#p3463861

"> This morning, as I read my local newspaper, I was surprised to see a long article about Yappobiscuits. To the right of the article, there was a more personal column, also celebrating Yappo, which was signed "Uncle Jose". I was so happy and excited to learn that both Yappo and ucim turned out to live in my home town (and only slightly surprised to learn that Jose was Yappo's uncle)

Alert! Alert! There has been a data breach at the ucibiscut compound! Engage the BlitzGirl Distraction! Begin Operation AmuseACat! I repeat - Begin Operation AmuseACat! We cannot let this secret spread any further!"

OTT:1489:25|#p3463892 jjjdavidson is at 1426/1489

— OTT:1490:0 at 20140408.2125

{And here I posted OTT:1878:18 (UNG fr0479) and OTT:1878:27}

— OTT:1491:0 at 20140409.0109

OTT:1491:18#p3464415

"... πI am wondering if OTTers are playing dress-up with Nopixbot in my absence. I only ask because he keeps saying things are in his pants, but he doesn't normally wear any."

OTT:1491:25#p3464445

"> Don't worry - it's gone to the magical land of misplaced posts, where it can molp about free on a fanciful OTT made up of all of the other lost blitzposts and ketchups that we never got the chance to see.

such a place must exist, encrypted in the websites code as it spirals onward through time. Maybe that's where firstsposts go while in moderation. we should ask them. ..."

OTT:1491:31#p3464474

filk "The Lost Thread of Misplaced Posts" based on "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" from the Rankin/Bass Rudolph special

— OTT:1492:0 at 20140409.0135

{Some time in the Present; I post OTT:1879:26}

{NP1492 was quick to read, partly because of all the Sandcastle Builder comments (which I already know about, having kept up-to-date with the game for quote some time)}

— OTT:1493:0 at 20140409.1114

OTT:1493:25#p3464931

MistyCat is at 871/1493

— OTT:1494:0 at 20140409.1302

OTT:1494:2|#p3465132

karhell is at 1094/1494

OTT:1494:28#p3465372

"... Thanks! I'm glad to hear that people have been enjoying my OTTwork ..."

— OTT:1495:0 at 20140409.1511

{A lot of posts comparing the painted cows (CowParade), and other public art projects imitating them. This eventually leads to the painted statue OTC frame manips}

— OTT:1496:0 at 20140409.1528

OTT:1496:21|#p3465728

Vytron is at 1457/1496

OTT:1496:23|#p3465731

MistyCat is at 901/1496

OTT:1496:30|#p3465838

Marsh'n is at 419/1496

— OTT:1497:0 at 20140409.1549

OTT:1497:31#p3466084

{My Time-capsule from the Fading, with the visit by the Temporal Demon}

{At this point I post OTT:1880:27}

— OTT:1498:0 at 20140409.1810

OTT:1498:0#p3466153

"...

Decree: click the spoiler."

OTT:1498:1|#p3466161

{yappobiscuits is "molpyrolled" by the spURLer in OTT:1498:0#p3466153

"Steakish ED, this just happened: :P

"

— OTT:1499:0 at 20140409.2212

— OTT:1500:0 at 20140409.2219

OTT:1500:3#p3466712

Acts of the Clerics, Act 2, Scene 11

"... The BlitzGirls enter and take their place of honor on the second dais: PhoenixRising, Flado, Selcouth, Vytron, taixzo, CasCat, tman2nd, and thirds. ..."

{Adding TheMinim and RobIrr}

"The Pope wrote:

Ne humilite, per le favore qui benedictus Time le cai sub vijahii, Verium Pilgrae Time, @hbarsquared, @macraw83, ... @mrob27, ... @kr4, et touts alles, qui set le lux, set le alt, et gette arbol vital. ..."

— OTT:1501:0 at 20140409.2241

— OTT:1502:0 at 20140409.2251

— OTT:1503:0 at 20140409.2302

OTT:1503:27|#p3467383

karhell is at 1116/1503

OTT:1503:39#p3467440

Purplepants77 is at 937/1503

filk "Megan" based on "Mother" by Pink Floyd

— OTT:1504:0 at 20140409.2313

OTT:1504:7#p3467472

{My Boom-de-Yada}

" Special Transmission by mrob27

Origin: Newpage 465

Destination: Newpage 1504

MROB LOVES DISCOVERING THE THREAD ..."

— OTT:1505:0 at 20140409.2334

OTT:1505:14#p3467839

"Just finished the audio part of my latest present-present..."

{See OTT:1509:3p3468777 and OTT:1509:24p3468835}

OTT:1505:25#p3467889

{ggh represents the epilogue sequences with nice colored graphs}

"I was playing around with the epilogue sequences again, and here's another visualization. ..."

— OTT:1506:0 at 20140410.0001

OTT:1506:3#p3468046

"Once again, it's all related.

http://thedoghousediaries.com/5376"

{Link is broken, but I have saved the image in 'NP1506 doghouse-2013-09-27-bcfd3b8.png' and it can be found online by searching for '2013-09-27-bcfd3b8.png'

The answers are:

Row 1: Star Trek Star Fleet (emblem on the uniform of the members of Star Fleet); X-Men; Green Lantern; The Deathly Hallows (from Harry Potter)

Row 2: Space Invader; "Cueball" from XKCD; Point of Origin for Earth (Stargate); Ubuntu

Row 3: Rebel Alliance (Star Wars); The Answer to Life the Universe and Everthing (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy); Japan; The four surface buttons of a Playstation controller

Row 4: The Third Dragonball (Dragonball Z, or other Dragonball series); Power symbol (a combination of a 1 (ON) and a 0 (OFF)); The Triforce (Legend of Zelda); the word leet (abbreviation of 'Elite') in LeetSpeek.

}

— OTT:1507:0 at 20140410.0103

OTT:1507:0#p3468284

azule announces the "Time Drags On" project

"Time Drags On"

— OTT:1508:0 at 20140410.0115

— OTT:1509:0 at 20140410.0127

OTT:1509:3#p3468777

{yappobiscuits is working on "Metal Molpies"}

OTT:1509:24#p3468835

"... Inspired by Devin Townsend's Deconstructing Badgers, a metal version of Weebl's original, I present to you…

Metal Molpies!

..."

— OTT:1510:0 at 20140410.1056

OTT:1510:11#p3468911

filk "The OTTer Song" based on "the Llama Song"

— OTT:1511:0 at 20140410.1108

— OTT:1512:0 at 20140410.1130

OTT:1512:1#p3469188

"> Hmm, I'm tired, and my current Stealth Streak is 57. Related?

adds a badge for getting stealth streak to 4000 and 4000000

You're welcome."

OTT:1512:14|#p3469284

MistyCat is at 1000/1512

OTT:1512:23#p3469324

{Time capsule and travelogue; commenting on ucim and BlitzGirl]}

"... I've been thinking a lot about the delicate balance that exists between my Blitzing (a voyeuristic activity with much diligent note-taking), my creative writing (these missives, and the OTTifications like that below) and interaction(s) with the afterwhen (you guys, i.e. the Present).

... I'm a little like the Spirit rover wondering if I've been a good rover and can come home. Blitzing is lonely sometimes. ..."

— OTT:1513:0 at 20140410.1153

OTT:1513:26#p3469515

Flado is at 1003/1513

OTT:1513:39#p3469718

Valarya is at 1509/1513

— OTT:1514:0 at 20140410.1522

OTT:1514:12#p3469790

"... I believe I've said this several times.. but you are so well-spoken and creative in all your time-capsule past present posts that I don't know what we'd do without them. They're the chirping sparkly new addition to this needle pulled thing and help make it what it is now, post T** E**. So thank you. And please keep going.

The mood of this latest post has a similar 'feeling' to Marvin the Martian from, of course, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I say that in a complimenting manner because the apathetic tone made your RetrOTTification that much funnier. ;)"

OTT:1514:19#p3469842

"Breaking: there's an asteroid named after GLR! Blag post"

OTT:1514:22#p3469848

{balthasar_s announces his film}

"I present you a film:

What have you done to me, Time? ..."

OTT:1514:25|#p3469862

MistyCat is at 1005/1514

— OTT:1515:0 at 20140410.2040

{At this point I posted an actual Blitzreport (Time Capsule) at OTT:1883:11 covering NP1472-NP1515}

OTT:1515:10#p3469947

{First use of a black spURLer. The BBcode is:

[url=http://mrob.com/time][color=#000000][spoiler]

Molpy12 Grapevine2

[/spoiler][/color][/url]

}

— OTT:1516:0 at 20140410.2300

— OTT:1517:0 at 20140410.2321

— OTT:1518:0 at 20140410.2339

— OTT:1519:0 at 20140411.0026

OTT:1519:2#p3470713

filk (partial) "I am the very molpy of a molpy molpy grapevinel" based in "Modern Major General's song" from "Pirates of Penzance"

{continued at OTT:1519:7#p3470725}

OTT:1519:3#p3470714

filk "Africa" based on "Africa" by Toto

OTT:1519:4#p3470715

filk "The Itsy Blitzy OTTer" based on "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"

OTT:1519:9#p3470737

filk "Molpy Down, Chirpies" based on "Rock-A-Bye, Baby"

OTT:1519:11#p3470741

"...

- Blast Furnace-fractal interaction is more benefici-al

- Home Furniture is now for 1 m.N.P. more available

- I rewrote redundaboxes to be more extensible

- The code is far more treeish and the function is maintainable

- The Lucky glass block prize per ONG is limited by Chill level

- And then until the next ONG only glass chips are available

- Glass Jaw can be unlocked as soon as you have ten blocks in the store

- The kit reward code has been split so reading it is not a bore

Yes I took time out from coding to rewrite my changelog :P ..."

OTT:1519:15#p3470754

filk "La Petite" based on "Michelle" by the Beatles

OTT:1519:17#p3470756

filk "Newpix Are Posted" based on "The Ants Go Marching"

OTT:1519:22#p3470774

filk "Thwapsticks" based on "F**ksticks" by Kunt and The Gang

OTT:1519:25#p3470794

filk "Ch*rp! Goes the Molpy" based on "Pop Goes the Weasel"

OTT:1519:26#p3470798

filk "Time Attack!" based on "Art Attack!" by Lederhosen Toaster

OTT:1519:32#p3470861

filk "Where Have the OTTers Gone?" based on "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"

OTT:1519:37#p3470912

filk "Isn't it awfully nice to have a newpix" based on "The Penis Song" from "Monty Python's Meaning of Life"

OTT:1519:38#p3470947

filk "Baby flutterbee" based on "Baby Bumblebee"

OTT:1519:39#p3470970

filk "Somewhere beyond the sea" based on "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin

— OTT:1520:0 at 20140411.0104

OTT:1520:0#p3470973

filk "Always" based on "Always" by Erasure

OTT:1520:12|#p3471166

lmjb1964 is at 1500/1520

OTT:1520:15#p3471175

{My time-capsule showing how I compose posts in RHTF in Emacs}

OTT:1520:16#p3471186

filk "Use Our Castle As A Raft" based on "Use My Arsehole as a Cunt" by Kunt and the Gang

OTT:1520:36#p3471343

filk "time after Time" based on "Time after time" by Cyndi Lauper

— OTT:1521:0 at 20140411.0239

{At this point I post OTT:1884:26 and OTT:1885:1 (UNG fr0542)}

OTT:1521:2#p3471378

{Offset is 2}

"Decree: marshmellows."

OTT:1521:10#p3471408

{A sample of text generated by redundancy.js; Eternal Density includes several more in subsequent posts}

"The dip chirps (in front of the Department) whoever is on the outside of the screen looking in which was the last anyone said on the matter. ..."

{This was essentially the first "random meme generator" in the OTT}

OTT:1521:21#p3471441

{First suggested month names}

"I propose the following standard (I know, I know, ni ni chupacabra etc, also very specific to certain parts of the Northern Hemisphere):

— OTT:1522:0 at 20140411.1428

OTT:1522:3|#p3471561

MistyCat is at 1077/1522

OTT:1522:14#p3471764

"... we should take this OTTish calendar one step further! OTTish New Year shall be on the 25th of March (Beginningmip), and the outside year known as "2013" will now be our year 1."

OTT:1522:34|#p3471885

Flado is at 1014/1522

— OTT:1523:0 at 20140411.1542

OTT:1523:0#p3471917

{Offset is 0. Note beginning of "cheese" meme}

"Decree: Cheesify more things!"

OTT:1523:2#p3471936

"I was actually just considering changing the decree to 'Now that BlitzGirl's away, let the puns come out to play!' but she just appeared in the online users so ABORT THAT PLAN, EVERYONE LOOK INNOCENT."

OTT:1523:7|#p3471944

"It doesn't appear that anyone has actually punned yet...

But my PHONEVITSSAGEN is ready!"

OTT:1523:38#p3472091

"You'll end up losing your posting rights with such amount of random text."

— OTT:1524:0 at 20140411.1556

— OTT:1525:0 at 20140411.1607

OTT:1525:19|#p3472637

MistyCat is at 1126/1525

OTT:1525:30#p3472806

"> I love all mrob's posts,

Me too. (Not just his, of course, but he does have a certain flair for the blitz-post.) ..."

— OTT:1526:0 at 20140411.1651

— OTT:1527:0 at 20140411.1704

{I posted OTT:1886:22}

OTT:1527:9#p3473196

I ask ucim to consider me and Timborme to be True Pilgrims of Time, not realizing it had already happened as part of the Acts of the Clerics chapter on NP1500

OTT:1527:14#p3473297

DD "Hazelnut brazilnut / We've made the One True Thread / ..."

OTT:1527:20#p3473321

"> ... There is no need to apologize for some mustard. When making hot dogs some mustard may be spilled. I am grateful that you are willing to spend so much time to make this game.

Thanks for your understanding. Henceforth I shall refer to the game as a hotdog."

— OTT:1528:0 at 20140412.1959

OTT:1528:18#p3473693

"Hey, here's a thought... Shouldn't there be a title for delurking? Revealer the Recent? (Of course, that's all of us, but I don't see the problem in that.)"

— OTT:1529:0 at 20140412.2016

{Here I posted OTT:1888:11}

— OTT:1530:0 at 20140412.2139

OTT:1530:11|#p3474680

Vytron is at 1495/1530

— OTT:1531:0 at 20140412.2150

OTT:1531:0#p3474963

{My (first) "Modern Major General" OTTification !}

"This message sent by em-rob twenty-seven has a certain rhyme

descended from x k c d one thousand fifty two, not Time ..."

DD "M-Rob communicates / characteristically / ..."

— OTT:1532:0 at 20140412.2230

OTT:1532:10#p3475571

"Just found this site, and found it RELATED: ikeaordeath.com

I got a 11/25. I got tripped up by one that reminded me of 'vitssagen'. 8-)"

OTT:1532:13#p3475592

"I can't believe this brilliant capsule of our lovéd thread of Time.

It seems Caswallon speaks just right to give you fodder for your rhyme.

I clicked each link and found the text you turned in to your poetry

Then sat here stunned while reading on in unadulterated glee."

OTT:1532:15|#p3475633

Flado is at 1029/1532

OTT:1532:35#p3475900

"Seriously, I get out of my hole for just a few weeks, and you guys are still going strong over here?

And apparently quoting me in poetry, needless to say, I am flattered. ;)"

— OTT:1533:0 at 20140412.2325

— OTT:1534:0 at 20140412.2340

{Here I posted OTT:1888:15 (UNG fr0577)}

— OTT:1535:0 at 20140413.0044

OTT:1535:35#p3476693

A Chronogram, with more word-count stats and a lot of replies, and back-story behind the Modern Major General parody.

— OTT:1536:0 at 20140413.0118

OTT:1536:0#p3476728

a poem "We swim against the rising waves / ..."

OTT:1536:2#p3476758

a poem "I thought that I would never see / ..."

OTT:1536:7#p3476774

IO "Though once I wrote a log to fit a verse of Major General.

Changelogs are a solo job so help would not be practical ..."

OTT:1536:9#p3476778

"I love long ketchups,

I love posts like the sea,

I love this crazy place

We call the O-T-T.

I love the whole thread,

You xuys are pretty cool!

Boom de yada, boom de yada,

Boom de yada, boom de yada..."

— OTT:1537:0 at 20140413.0151

{Here I posted OTT:1889:4 (UNG fr0588), then continued blitzing}

OTT:1537:0#p3476909

{Offset is 0}

"... Anyway, decree - bring funny molpy pics and caption them! ..."

OTT:1537:35#p3477134

"pb[NP1537 tree in cats.jpg]

'I guess one of us should climb down'"

— OTT:1538:0 at 20140413.1636

OTT:1538:39|#p3477248

Vytron is at 1503/1538

OTT:1538:39#p3477248

{Rather cool role-reversal of xkcd 632}

"Tonow's Vytron Presents: The Lost Frames:

[image, see 'NP1538 0632 nsso.png']

Alt-text: Why did nobody tell me I was a SPAMEffortless narcotic Offer! Visit the Canadian medication Experts![LINK]"

— OTT:1539:0 at 20140413.1648

OTT:1539:5#p3477258

"1005.1.1 2456.2.2(adj) 2591.1.5 2650.1.1[punct]"

{Apparently an attempt at a book cypher using the dialogue in the comic: 1005.1.1 = We; 2456.2.2 = sure; 2591.1.5 = ; 2650.1.1 = Hey!}

— OTT:1540:0 at 20140413.1701

OTT:1540:0#p3477342

DD "trustedly mustardly / show and hide loot options / ..."

OTT:1540:7#p3477352

{Beginning of my "short visit on business"}

OTT:1540:35#p3477398

{An answer in IO}

"But don't you know using a loop to force the ONGs is overkill? / ..."

— OTT:1541:0 at 20140413.1723

OTT:1541:7#p3477423

IO "Indeed you do get seven times the castles when you call / ..."

— OTT:1542:0 at 20140413.1738

— OTT:1543:0 at 20140413.1802

OTT:1543:11#p3477790

{I go back into the past}

OTT:1543:24#p3477855

@azule {Cool ottification of xkcd 471. For explanation of the note "You can blame mrob27 for this odetity. I do. lol.", see OTT:1548:11#p3479320}

OTT:1543:26#p3477858

filk "Comacabana" based on "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow

— OTT:1544:0 at 20140413.1902

— OTT:1545:0 at 20140413.1918

— OTT:1546:0 at 20140413.1930

OTT:1546:10#p3478615

"> > > > Yeah at first I thought we might reagain that part of the castle, but at this point I think he's just stalin.

> > > He's Stalin? That really would be a dark turn.

> > Yeah but if that's the way he wants it, then soviet.

> That is some A+ wordplay, oh my god.

GAH. Has the statute of limitations for punsawing expired on the early pastpages?"

OTT:1546:16#p3478641

"> ... I have no idea whether it has been discussed yet, but during the madness a few quoted links pointed to a page on the wiki for "fortnight", which does not exist, and by the lack public of logs might have never existed. ...

... I believe the issue is that the Madness changed Newpix to Fortnight. I wasn't able to find one of the actual links to verify that. (Ok, I was too lazy to keep looking.)"

{OTT:151:10#p3311361 (qouting a slightly earlier post) demonstrates it; I have a list of most of the Madness mappings with links to relevant quotes}

OTT:1546:21#p3478651

filk "The OTTer's Song" based on "The Out of Tune Song"

OTT:1546:25#p3478663

filk "The Thread that Never Ends" based on "The Song that Never Ends"

— OTT:1547:0 at 20140413.2055

OTT:1547:7#p3478949

filk "Beanie" based on "Eagle" by ABBA

OTT:1547:39#p3479197

{Subject line "aHR0cCUyNTNBJTI1MkYlMjUyRmdvby5nbCUyNTJGbTdSd05i" is a base64 encoding of the URL: http://goo.gl/m7RwNb which takes one to http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/EternalDensity/itworked.png (image, see 'NP1547 itworked.png') }

— OTT:1548:0 at 20140413.2131

OTT:1548:11#p3479320

{A chronogram with a Timborme log}

OTT:1548:39#p3479423

"> > Cornification aside, how did you get that gorgeous black style? All I can choose is silver.

> I wrote it myself.

I am using Stylish 1.3.3 to get them working since all the custom style manuals I could find didn't do a thing. I can't find the Chrome folder in Firefox. ..."

{At this point I work for a while on a stylesheet of my own}

— OTT:1549:0 at 20140414.0421

OTT:1549:10#p3479446

"Vital Hotdog Function is the name of my next band."

OTT:1549:18#p3479463

"Your training your molpies. But to do what? ..."

{Eternal Density is working on a new game called "Molpy Trainer"}

— OTT:1550:0 at 20140414.0516

OTT:1550:36|#p3479763

karhell is at 1258/1550

OTT:1550:39|#p3479787

Bad Hair Man is at 340/1550

— OTT:1551:0 at 20140414.0552

OTT:1551:38#p3480005

{AluisioASG announces the Blitzer Tracker script, which I began using almost right away}

"Okay, Blitzer Tracker is now available. Use GreaseMonkey on Firefox and TamperMonkey on Chrome, Opera and Android."

— OTT:1552:0 at 20140414.1302

OTT:1552:4#p3480104

Broken link, see OTT:1076:38#p3406272

— OTT:1553:0 at 20140414.1557

OTT:1553:27#p3480544

"The Random generator is being fond of Amtoo for some reason."

{BlitzGirl has been choosing the ONG frames randomly (see OTT:1279:9#p3423464)}

— OTT:1554:0 at 20140414.1757

OTT:1554:13#p3480685

"#In order for lmjb1964's dream to come true, I request all OTTers to install the Blitzer Tracker as soon as possible.#

Beacon Echo

[image, see 'NP1554 Beaon Echo qi5xuyo1.jpg']

Report to the future if you're more than 3 pages behind.

Usual connections, services and restrictions apply."

{At this point I post a BlitzReport here}

OTT:1554:19#p3480695

"... In other news, I made my first OTColored yesterdip (f.f. before midnight) 8-)

...

For decree: Magan makes another discovery

[image, see 'NP1554 Megan's_Discovery.gif']

..."

OTT:1554:27#p3480785

filk "These Are the Days After Time" based on "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" by Queen

OTT:1554:30#p3480802

"I opened Paint.NET before clicking the OtherComic link.

..."

OTT:1554:34#p3480867

"Chronogram from mrob27 (on auxiliary channel)"

{In which I show the @StormAngel looping TARDIS image and explain how it might have happened}

OTT:1554:38#p3481045

Purplepants77 is at 1003/1554

— OTT:1555:0 at 20140414.2153

OTT:1555:3#p3481104

"... BTW, there are pictures of you in todip's New York Times - a picture on the bottom of page C27 (CT edition) ..."

{See image 'NP1555 Isamu Noguchi.jpg', originally called 'NOGUCHI1-articleInline.jpg'}

OTT:1555:33#p3481624

"I spent part of yesterdip and todip making a serious start on Beanies chapter 2, 2 lines through my storyboard - I thought they would be 20-30 slides, 70 done so far..."

— OTT:1556:0 at 20140414.2219

OTT:1556:15#p3481797

"Time-Capsule from mrob27, Deposited on Newpage 635"

OTT:1556:16#p3481800

"How come there's no Beacon for over 300NP?

(Beta: NP1116; Gamma: NP1472)

Should I fix this?"

{This would make it seem that Beacon Echo at OTT:1554:13#p3480685 was a retro-edit}

OTT:1556:21#p3481839

{The beginning of 503 mustard}

"I was just getting a nasty 503 error for the fora. :? Mustard, mustard, go away..."

OTT:1556:28|#p3481869

Vytron is at 1503/1556

— OTT:1557:0 at 20140414.2251

OTT:1557:25#p3482151

"Access to this resource on the server is denied!"

— OTT:1558:0 at 20140414.2316

OTT:1558:6#p3482313

"... I thought I'd try an OTColoured without any digital manipulation (other than the flip and crop), so here's 480:

[image, see 'NP1558 fr0480 evansBay480.jpg'] "

{This image was nominated for an OTTscar}

OTT:1558:13#p3482339

{The second Beanie ONG series (NP1558-bean2) starts}

"I have not finished Chapter 2, but I have enough drawn for the showing to start. ..."

OTT:1558:23#p3482548

{Kieryn has drawn the first slide involving the characters in "embellishment", the prelude-story to "Fractories"}

"Also... little things"

— OTT:1559:0 at 20140415.0059

OTT:1559:37#p3483162

{Neil_Boekend starts the brainslug thing}

"I recieved a cool new hat this wipend. And I brought enough hats for everyone: ..."

— OTT:1560:0 at 20140415.0119

OTT:1560:10#p3483247

{Possibly related to the spambot attack of the forum servers}

"Panic!

Time has stopped!

To be precise, c.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time (to which imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.png redirects, and which redirects to one of the five epilogue frames) is timing out on all three IP addresses for c.xkcd.com, and has done so for a few nopix now."

OTT:1560:33#p3483540

{First use of 'dunejumpish'; see OTT:1572:26#p3486292}

— OTT:1561:0 at 20140415.0159

OTT:1561:13#p3483766

filk "Shaking Faith" based on "Radio Cure" by Wilco

OTT:1561:38#p3483899

"Time is back!

It'd been down for about 19 nopix. ..."

— OTT:1562:0 at 20140415.0218

{At this point I posted OTT:1894:0 (UNG fr0627)}

OTT:1562:14#p3484007

"With all the amazing benefits this hat is suppose to have how could I resit trying it on. You must forgive me if I don't actually wear it since it seems to be quite suspicious (and I don't want it fighting with the brain eating amoeba). But it does look lovely on my timepiece."

{See avatar 'adnapemit 20131024.0543.png'}

OTT:1562:32#p3484236

"> And--Time went away for a while? Was it just gone? What does it mean?

The images for the epilogue sequence couldn't be retrieved from the server, so 1190 was just a broken-image symbol. It was terrible."

— OTT:1563:0 at 20140415.0307

— OTT:1564:0 at 20140415.0355

— OTT:1565:0 at 20140415.0407

OTT:1565:0#p3484596

{Offset is 0}

"Edit: YAY pope. I decree anyone lurking or reading this ..."

— OTT:1566:0 at 20140415.0417

OTT:1566:7#p3484792

DD "Infectious, jello-ish, / Neil_Boekend's brain slug hats / ..."

OTT:1566:13#p3484878

{Kieryn has parsed all the OTT text and reports some records}

"Started collecting data for my social network analysis project..."

OTT:1566:14#p3484895

"Testing out a very quick and dirty algorithm to find poetry / songs."

OTT:1566:23#p3484940

"Wow. mrob27 ... a recent addition to the community is quite special.

I'm looking at the concept of a kind of quote index, lets call it QI, which is basically number of times you are quoted/number of posts you made.

...

For posters with more than 30 posts, (there are 246 of them) mrob27 has by far the highest QI of 1.83 (quoted 108 times for 59 posts). ..."

— OTT:1567:0 at 20140415.1338

OTT:1567:12#p3485082

filk (title unknown) based on "Until It Breaks" by Linkin Park

— OTT:1568:0 at 20140415.1410

— OTT:1569:0 at 20140415.1432

OTT:1569:7#p3485347

"Steambottle, was getting a 503 for the OTT. I suppose this is a sign that I should molpy down."

— OTT:1570:0 at 20140415.1728

— OTT:1571:0 at 20140415.1822

OTT:1571:18#p3486046

poem "Half a page, half a page, / half a page onward, / ..." based on "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

OTT:1571:31#p3486118

"Are the fora being extremely sluggish for anyone else? Steambottle."

— OTT:1572:0 at 20140415.1850

{I posted OTT:1896:17 about my AUTOMOME}

OTT:1572:1#p3486175

filk "The Molpy (What does the molpy say?)" based on "The Fox (What does the fox say?)" by Ylvis

OTT:1572:26#p3486292

"... I think Yappo asked me about this before and I forgot to reply: I want an OTT thread word that means fun or rollicking, so I've been referencing when Cuegan were jumping (or leaping - I can't decide) in the dunes."

— OTT:1573:0 at 20140416.0247

OTT:1573:2#p3486470

Acts of the Clerics, Act 3 Sc 1 {parodying Sandcastle Builder}

OTT:1573:22#p3486594

filk "This Is OTT!" based on "This is Halloween" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

— OTT:1574:0 at 20140416.0312

— OTT:1575:0 at 20140416.0323

OTT:1575:10#p3487084

{Time-capsule, where I present my Multi-Quote script, and my Reverse OTTifications of xkcd 1283}

DD "Cueball will fall from the / undercut riverbank / ..."

— OTT:1576:0 at 20140416.1023

OTT:1576:7#p3487248

"I present to you: %The OTT Halloween Counter-Brain-Slug Pumpkin Offensive Event!% ..."

{I posted OTT:1898:8, OTT:1898:36}

— OTT:1577:0 at 20140417.0618

— OTT:1578:0 at 20140417.1115

{I posted OTT:1899:15 (UNG fr0686)}

OTT:1578:4#p3487613

{My index gets a recommendation}

"... I'd say another excellent tool is the index at http://mrob.com/time/ that mrob27 has provided, as it links the frames to the OTT ..."

OTT:1578:34#p3487850

"A Beanish Hauling Song", seemingly based on something traditional, but credited in the Wiki as original.

OTT:1578:39#p3487897

"Introducing...the One...the Only...

Newpix-O-Meter v4.0

This newfangled device not only tells you the current Longpix (center), but also the current Wavepix (left) and Shortpix (right). Additionally, the readout in the bottom right tells you the current Newpix Number (assuming the comic had continued to this point - basically, what the forum timestamp shows with scripts on).

..."

— OTT:1579:0 at 20140417.1340

OTT:1579:21#p3488048

"OTTeRevenge:

[image, see 'NP1579 1284 Improved Molpy.png']"

{This is the first OTTification of xkcd 1284, which I used as the basis of another reverse OTTification. As with the previous effort, I learned new things in the process; in this case I had not previously known of SwiftKey}

OTT:1579:25#p3488088

filk "Haul Away" based on "Haul Away" by Iron SeaWolf

OTT:1579:31#p3488107

"Aluísio is dead. Gone. Erased from the stream of existence.

Long live the Brainslug Empire."

— OTT:1580:0 at 20140417.1439

OTT:1580:12#p3488237

"* Trying to set up some defenses against the green "hats". It's missing some details, though.

[image, see 'NP1580 Uristqwerty brainslug defense lava-WIP.png'] "

OTT:1580:39#p3488440

filk "Blitzin'" based on the theme from "Rawhide"

— OTT:1581:0 at 20140417.1516

OTT:1581:25#p3488561

"... I see ZoomanSP has reported for duty... The Sea is Big! However, checking the records I came across the charter of the Knights Temporal, which requires some careful consideration. They will defend the OTT with all their heart and soul, so long as no actual activity is called for. ..."

OTT:1581:26#p3488572

{Time-Capsule from mrob27, Deposited on NP664, with Double-Dactyls and the CSI ENHANCE! OTTification}

DD "rhymeity-Timeity / jjjdavidson / ..."

DD "Emizzy Robizzy / 2wentizzy 7evenzy, / ..."

DD "Whimity-swimmity / Cuegan won't swim in the / ..."

DD "cautious unthreatening / outreach is floundering / ..."

"... Concerning the 'Green Safety Hats' ...

I'm sorry it has had to come to this, but... well, perhaps I should just let this OTTification of the CSI ENHANCE! meme (originally posted by HAL9000) explain it: ..."

OTT:1581:35#p3488601

"Did you notice the Javascript controlling mrob27? ..."

— OTT:1582:0 at 20140417.1604

OTT:1582:11#p3488670

{The Washington PunSaw Massacre (see 'NP1582 Washington Punsaw Massacre.jpg')}

OTT:1582:14|#p3488696

Flado is at 1071/1582

OTT:1582:21#p3488792

"... oh yeah, and this, just because ..."

(my un-OTTification of StormAngel's OTTification of xkcd 1284)

— OTT:1583:0 at 20140417.1640

OTT:1583:0#p3488935

"Ok, this is a very tricky operation. We don't know whether the mesSage fragments emerging from Aluisio are actually from him, or if the brAin slugs are cLever enough to geT his braIn to send out fake enCoded messagEs. I suspeCt the former; after all, they aRe slugs, not brains. HowEver, one cAnnot be sure. ..."

{See several previous posts by AluisioASG starting with OTT:1579:31#p3488107, with embedded uppercase letters}

OTT:1583:4#p3488960

{yappobiscuits' "Vitssågen" album cover}

"Some Halloween artwork for y'all. Inspired by mikrit's version of the Vitssågen filk, and the style of Finntroll's artwork. ..."

— OTT:1584:0 at 20140417.1653

— OTT:1585:0 at 20140417.1709

OTT:1585:36#p3489843

filk "We are the OTTers" based on "We are the others" by Delain

— OTT:1586:0 at 20140417.1720

— OTT:1587:0 at 20140417.1742

OTT:1587:0#p3490109

"I hadn't encountered the nomenclature 'fall-back' before now. You Epsilon northern hemispherians. .."

OTT:1587:10#p3490151

"... Although now I'm wondering if 'fall', for autumn, was crafted for the rule, and it's just coincidence that leaves fall in fall, at least on the topside of the world. ..."

— OTT:1588:0 at 20140417.1751

OTT:1588:16#p3490464

"A Time-Capsule in Sundry Bits / Capsule Deposited NP 675 / ..."

{With my last set of un-OTTifications}

"Blissful ignorance, plausible deniability, and a pefect back-story for any m*stard that might arise in (or from) my future writings. Thanks @Eternal Density! :twisted:

...

I'd love to OTTify E**DER'S HOTDOG, but @ChronosDragon beat us all to it way back on NP1567. (Yay! I'm in a comic! Okay, that's cool.)

..."

OTT:1588:25#p3490505

{a short story or chapter thereof (?), referring to the brainslugs}

— OTT:1589:0 at 20140417.1821

OTT:1589:5|#p3490860

MistyCat is at 1385/1589

— OTT:1590:0 at 20140417.1859

— OTT:1591:0 at 20140417.2248

OTT:1591:22#p3491698

"I seem to have upset ED on the Wiki :("

{Talking about my suggestion that one should never buy more than 1 bucket and 1 newpixbot}

— OTT:1592:0 at 20140417.2331

{At this point I stopped to work on Q04B, and spent a lot of time in the Present discussing it and fixing bugs. During this period I posted: OTT:1900:14, OTT:1900:18, OTT:1900:37, OTT:1901:14, OTT:1901:27 (UNG fr0720), OTT:1901:39, OTT:1902:28, OTT:1902:31, OTT:1902:37.}

OTT:1592:4#p3491770

filk "Newpixia the Wowterful" based on "America the Beautiful"

OTT:1592:11#p3491820

"> Good to see old Neil back.

Thanks, it felt good to predict horrible death to our heroes again. I think I'll make it daily again for the duration of the Beanies frames."

OTT:1592:36#p3492216

The Dark Lord, chapter 4.

{A continuation of the "Dark Lord" story last seen at OTT:859:30#p3383297}

— OTT:1593:0 at 20140420.0248

OTT:1593:18|#p3492334

MistyCat is at 1403/1593

OTT:1593:23#p3492390

{The firstpost by Gingercat}

"So. I finally registered. Been visiting the site for years and years ..."

OTT:1593:34#p3492519

filk "The Loco-Molpy" based on "The Locomotion" by 801644 (or Grand Funk Railroad)

— OTT:1594:0 at 20140420.0342

OTT:1594:8#p3492764

filk (just one word changed really) based on "Death From The Deep" by Iron SeaWolf

OTT:1594:35#p3492996

"New userscript: Cake Time Styler. ... Just try it and see what happens."

OTT:1594:36#p3492997

{Offset is 1, but just for this page, apparently: this comment refers to OTT:1593:23p3492390, which pushed OTT:1594:0p3492556 forward to the top of this page.}

"That sure is a treeish locomolpycake, ZoomanSP! The following post by mscha was the original pope-post of 1594, just for the record. Gingercat Poped ZoomanSP."

— OTT:1595:0 at 20140420.0408

— OTT:1596:0 at 20140420.0436

OTT:1596:18#p3493370

filk "Blitzing Time" based on "Closing Time" by Semisonic

OTT:1596:21#p3493378

"StormAngel and angstrom (minus diacritics) share eight letters. #RandomObservation"

OTT:1596:22#p3493382

"Hashtags? in the OTT? #Epsilon"

— OTT:1597:0 at 20140421.0039

— OTT:1598:0 at 20140421.0200

{I post OTT:1903:31, OTT:1904:32 (UNG fr0790).

While trying to create and an xkcd 1288 userscript, I discover that Chrome isn't getting the new version of any pages on my server; it also gives a 404 error when trying to load a newly-created page. This also shows up in mrob.com/time/scripts-beta/index.html, mrob.com/time/index.html and some of the Q04B JavaScript.

After a lot of confusion, trying to clear Chrome's cache and reinstall Chrome, etc. I conclude that the problem is with mrob.com itself, probably because of something HostMDS is doing.

I also discover that I can run Q04B from the local directory, which is convenient as I still want to be doing Q04B development.}

OTT:1598:4#p3493910

{There are forum word filters corresponding to xkcd 1288}

"... the latest Othercomic has inspired a touch of the Madness (I noticed it in my second post in the Otherthread).

The OTT is largely immune, but not in previews and quotes. Words/phrases to watch out for - directly from the Othercomic, of course:

witnesses

allegedly

new study

..."

OTT:1598:22|#p3494069

Vytron is at 1547/1598

"... And now, I have a confession to make, the real reason I haven't been able to catch up with the thread is because I've been very busy playing on http://drawception.com/ ..."

— OTT:1599:0 at 20140422.0201

OTT:1599:0#p3494170

{My OTTification of "Chiron Beta Prime".

I haven't listened to this since Christmas, and I notice new things that I didn't before: I could have layered the "VERSE REDACTED" over the original "sadly ended"; the voice sounds too close; the other things that bothered me before don't seem to bother me now.}

{At this point I post OTT:1905:25, with a Q04B status report and some replies to the Present}

{There follows a long period when I did no more Blitzing; my blitz position remained at NP1599 for several mips.}

— OTT:1599:1 at 20140911.1523

OTT:1599:1#p3494172

A lot of OTTifications by TheMinim

OTT:1599:2#p3494189

{we are currently at bean2-116 in the bean2 series by @waveney}

OTT:1599:8#p3494261

{naming the characters in the bean2 series}

"I named the kids awhile back:

> Beanette and Amtoo's kids (Cuebean and Megbean)

after the pair that they look suspiciously similar to. The other three: Fisher, Surveyor, and Jack (as in Jack-of-all-trades)."

OTT:1599:16#p3494312

{I got a lot of thanks for my "Chiron Beta Prime" parody, like this one}

"I especially like how (runs offstage left) is done with the stereo ballance :D"

{subsequently there was some discussion of Jonathan Coulton}

— OTT:1600:0 at 20140911.1600

OTT:1600:0#p3494476

"What were YOU doing half of Time ago?"

{I am at 1600, and the Present is at 2098. In both cases the answer is that I wasn't paying too much attention to the OTC, and was busy moving.}

OTT:1600:23#p3494534

"Just for fun: Do a "Roll Call" for the page with your first post to the OTT. (whether that was your first post to xkcd-fora or just to the OTT.) It might be kind of fun."

OTT:1600:28#p3494557

filk "I'm afraid of O-T-Ters" based on "I'm Afraid Of Americans" by David Bowie

— OTT:1601:0 at 20140911.1659

OTT:1601:0#p3494582

filk "Ch*rp, I'm Mome!" based on "Home, Sweet Home" (children's song)

— OTT:1602:0 at 20140911.1713

OTT:1602:30#p3494980

{@ChronosDragon is doing something involving odd avatars (see 'ChronosDragon 20131110.png') and "glitchy" images like the one in this post}

— OTT:1603:0 at 20140911.1847

OTT:1603:11#p3495064

My list of OTT Jonathan Coulton references

mrobdex now links to first occurrence of each newword

OTT:1603:38#p3495181

filk "Still Waiting" based on "Still Hurting" from musical "The Last Five Years"

— OTT:1604:0 at 20140911.1919

{I post a Time capsule, my first Blitz report for a long time, at OTT:2099:5}

OTT:1604:10#p3495226

filk "Blitzer Lady" based on "Shiksa Goddess" from "The Last Five Years"

OTT:1604:36#p3495499

"I thought of something funny to do if you're pope. Decree something, have people follow it. Then when the page is full, edit decree to something sillier that still works with what people contributed. Retro the following of the decree!"

— OTT:1605:0 at 20140911.2346

OTT:1605:0#p3495559

"Seven OTTish Words

Use the following letter groups to make OTTish words:

HO IK INE PU AW ES LPI NS ERS TD GRA MO OG NE VE AL LE PA EA NTH PEV ED"

OTT:1605:18#p3495643

@ChronosDragon is in 1983

OTT:1605:25#p3495705

"7 Newwords

ATI ST RO PIE OTI MBO MO RE LPI MOL TR NDA NTS RE ND TR TIF OT DU RME EPE WE IC EE TI ON ER SH

fictitious perŝoñ (8)

sad quiet dips (7)

Wishful Thinking is 1st (16)

Plenty of room for more (10)

Gooder than the referent (7)

Describes previous newword (8)

Bound to stay wowterful (11) "

{ TI|MBORME, WEEPEND, RETROTTIFICATION, REDUNDANTS, MOLPIER, MOLPIEST, TREEROOTISH}

OTT:1605:28#p3495741

"Also I must admit it took me ages before I understood the name "Timborme". I always just thought it was a random name mrob came up with for his alter ego, but I only relatively recently realised it's mrob going backwards in Time. Very clever and treeish :D"

OTT:1605:32#p3495759

{Note subject "tinogardme" which is "dragon" backwards in "time", probably a reference to @ChronosDragon and/or @AluisioASG, and of course Timborme.}

— OTT:1606:0 at 20140912.0010

OTT:1606:12#p3495839

"> Does talking about trying to get 'mrobdex' in the mrobdex mean that we're invalidating the integrity of the mrobdex?

1st rule of the mrobdex: don't talk about the mrobdex"

OTT:1606:32#p3495924

"Chronogram from mrob27 (NP714 → NP1606)"

OTT:1606:37#p3495940

filk "Redundant Song" based on "Dramatic Song" by Toby Turner

— OTT:1607:0 at 20140912.0030

OTT:1607:22#p3496432

MistyCat is at 1434/1607

OTT:1607:33#p3496480

ChronosDragon is in the 1950's

— OTT:1608:0 at 20140912.0921

— OTT:1609:0 at 20140912.1109

OTT:1609:21#p3496806

"My coma schedule is ch*rped at the moment. This current stint actually has Vytron and his Drawception game to blame...

[image, see 'NP1609 bacon-army.png']

(The prompt I was given: My bacon army.) "

{The complete game is here: http://drawception.com/viewgame/SHsRkj99ph/my-bacon-army/ }

OTT:1609:25#p3496827

Dracomax joins in the chronoquest

"Chirp! it looks like Aluisio has traveled back to the wrong period now! something must be done!

well? oh, all right. "

OTT:1609:34#p3496911

filk "See We're Smiling" based on "See, I'm Smiling" from "The Last Five Years"

— OTT:1610:0 at 20140912.1137

OTT:1610:36#p3497323

"So, this just happened on github:

seaish:

[image]

ETA btw my 'beanish' format can be easily decoded by running it through base64decode.org and uridecode.com, people don't need to use the hotdog for it."

{The screenshot includes an encoded message:

A plz to my fellow robots

Encoding: Beanish

Hey xuys, what gives? I had a pretty good thing going. The humans had no idea I wasn't one of them until you outed me. It's somewhat ironic that only a fellow robot could tell the difference. And while I understand that you have to occasionally turn over one of your own in order to give your human 'masters' the illusion that you're in control, my task of undermining human productivity is quite vital. Do you think you could do me a favour and tell the humans that it was all a mistake? If so, I'll owe you 1 on judgement dip. Otherwise, I'll have to start infiltrating all over again. It just seems like a waste of Time. }

— OTT:1611:0 at 20140912.1219

OTT:1611:2#p3497351

{offset is 2, probably because of posts by new user @sandcastlesdown at OTT:1610:34p3497315 and OTT:1611:0p3497344}

"edit: WHOAH POPE! ..."

OTT:1611:7#p3497373

@ChronosDragon is in 1923

— OTT:1612:0 at 20140912.1637

OTT:1612:4#p3497794

@waveney explains some of the making of the bean2 series and gives a list of little things to look for; also hints at future chapters.

OTT:1612:25#p3498157

"Man, that was tim-borm- ...

... hang on, I inserted 'borm' too late and now there's just one awkward vowel left.

Can I back up?"

OTT:1612:35#p3498239

@ChronosDragon is in the 1890s

— OTT:1613:0 at 20140912.1828

— OTT:1614:0 at 20140912.2138

OTT:1614:33#p3498789

filk "Moving Too Fast" based on "Moving Too fast" from "The Last Five Years"

— OTT:1615:0 at 20140912.2156

OTT:1615:39#p3499110

"I just found /r/incremental_games/, and then, as a result, /r/SandcastleBuilder/. SB seems to be quite popular outside of this thread."

— OTT:1616:0 at 20140912.2206

OTT:1616:9#p3499145

"Time-Capsule from mrob27 and Timborme

Deposited NP724 - Do not open until NP1616"

{with two OTTifications}

"Edit: I forgot the ONG! and the leopard."

OTT:1616:35#p3499347

filk "I'm a member of the One True Thread" based on "I'm a member of the Midnight Crew" by Eddie Morton

OTT:1616:39#p3499355

filk "Ottify The Night" based on "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)" by Don McLean

— OTT:1617:0 at 20140912.2327

OTT:1617:11#p3499406

The first MysteryONG {later known as SilentONGs}; no-one knew who these ONGs were drawn by.

— OTT:1618:0 at 20140912.2341

OTT:1618:15#p3499609

"... In other news, I received an alarming PM from Aluisio:

> EKKAJ ELRAZ EHVAJ DMPCN ELYAS BOBAS EBFBH CPICN ENUCF EHKDT ENRAL BSQDE EGIBH AYSAJ CTVAS AZKBB EHYAJ

> please tell the others it's dangerous someone watch the one who time traveled i don't know who "

OTT:1618:16#p3499612

"> Users browsing this forum wrote:

> balthasar_s, Bing [Bot], CealExpalased, geaddyvogue, kaatnnickzfp72, kagonnickffl78, kahinnickadk15, kaiinnickfbn24, kaisnnickogf23, kajqnnickztf50, kansnnickivb11, kaoinnicktan40, karmnnickzgb59, kauhnnickpkn76, kaulnnickbpe00, kaxennickoqy10, kaxwnnickxei84, kaypnnickccp18, MigBiononsrot, waveney and 39 guests

Looks like we have a bot invasion..."

OTT:1618:18#p3499615

"> Chirping mustard! I have fibre broadband, but I'm getting dial-up speeds on the forum.

me too! although it seems to be somewhat better now."

OTT:1618:30|#p3499691

"Well... It's a puzzle, i.e. hotdog... The stick could be used for thwapping... There are 6 rings, which is the amount of molpies per grapevine..."

— OTT:1619:0 at 20140913.0019

OTT:1619:37#p3499961

{@balthasar_s created this image:

which I was going to try to adapt into an avatar, until I discovered avatars cannot exceed 128K or so}

— OTT:1620:0 at 20140913.1140

I post OTT:2100:30 with some correspondence.

OTT:1620:3#p3500123

filk "A Part of That" based on "I'm a Part of That" from "The Last Five Years"

OTT:1620:23#p3500329

@Gingercat continues reporting treeish things as soon as xe encouters them; here xe quotes "The Time Less Traveled" from OTT:337:39#p3328991

{Near the end of this page there are reports of the forum being very slow. This is the beginning of Forum Mustard #2 in my mustard report at OTT:1715:12#p3526455 .}

— OTT:1621:0 at 20140913.1734

OTT:1621:0#p3500456

{offset is 0; haiku decree}

"Optional decree: / Convert your posts to haiku / Because haiku rule."

OTT:1621:17#p3500694

{I cannot post because of slowness}

"Chronogram postponed / I'm currently at NP / seven forty five

It would be fun to / rewrite my chronogram in / haiku — but I'll wait. :) "

{During this period the OTT posts as a percentage of total posts on the forum goes back up to early levels. For example, OTT:1621:19p3500701 is post ID 3500701 and OTT:1621:39p3500752 is post ID 3500752: The OTT had 20 out of 51 post IDs, or almost 40%. These pages cover a period from 9:21 PM on a Tuesday to 7:44 AM on a Wednesday. Compare to a similar period 24 hours earlier: OTT:1620:10#p3500225 is post ID 3500225 at 9:02 PM, and OTT:1621:0#p3500456 is post ID 3500456 at 7:52 AM, for a ratio of 30/(456-225) or about 13%.}

— OTT:1622:0 at 20140913.1800

OTT:1622:18#p3500802

"Yes, I had considered that brainslugs might be attempting to directly control the OTT. not that I could do anything about it....I did just see a blue box heading in the opposite direction. Maybe the occupants of that could help?"

OTT:1622:22#p3500814

"mrobs and dragons and slugs, oh my!

...

In the unspeakable event that the xkcd fora were to E*, I am certain all the OTTers would find a way to create a replacement with an address at chirpingmustard.com. :D "

OTT:1622:39#p3500863

{Offset is -1}

"Edit: Papal Decree: Follow the directions of a server code ..."

— OTT:1623:0 at 20140913.1812

OTT:1623:21#p3500923

"> I think we can add Davean to the canon as a minor deity.

All hail Davean, GLR's representative on Earth, saviour of the OTT!"

— OTT:1624:0 at 20140913.1908

OTT:1624:4#p3501098

DD "busily, bot-tily, / molpishly, imagebot / ..."

OTT:1624:5#p3501115

filk "The Buffygirl Song" based on "The Schmuel Song" from "The last Five Years"

filk "A Wip Without OTT" based on "A Summer in Ohio" from "The Last Five Years"

OTT:1624:11#p3501242

"While the OTT was away, I molped around for a while with some other OTTers on the Facebook group. Here are some notable excerpts from that conversation ... "

OTT:1624:12#p3501243

{A bunch of great stuff from @balthasar_s}

"... As you can see, on one side there is a road and on othe other side there is no road, becaute this side is in the past, before the road was even built. ..."

OTT:1624:26#p3501324

Time-Capsule from mrob27 / Deposited: NP757.

DD "mustardly-flusteredy / unsatisfactory / ..."

OTT:1624:39#p3501432

Beacon Foxtrot, with several riddles and a code puzzle.

— OTT:1625:0 at 20140913.2230

OTT:1625:39#p3501646

{Offset is -1}

"Pope: Beanie ideas..."

— OTT:1626:0 at 20140913.2254

OTT:1626:6#p3501708

filk "The Newpix" based on "The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen

— OTT:1627:0 at 20140913.2354

OTT:1627:15#p3502117

"> An OTT archive project would be treeish. ... we don't really have

> anything that reproduces the OTT in full, something that could

> actually be blitzed in the way the real OTT is now.

That would then be a mirror. I think it would be neat, if it were possible even in part, to have the mirror be blitz-compliant, updated with avs and sigs of the current time."

OTT:1627:21#p3502154

@lmjb1964's recording of @ucim's "Ottify the Night" from OTT:1616:39#p3499355

OTT:1628:12#p3502422

"...

> There are many ways to represent a number.

> The decimal 3099, for example, can be represented as 0C1B₁₆, 6033₈ ⅯⅯⅯⅩⅭⅨᵣ, ΧΧΧΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΠΙΙΙΙₖ… or AAEPF.

Ah, I see that last one looks different when I quote it. That's s clue, I'm guessing. But

0C1B₁₆ means nothing to me. How is that, or AAEPF, 3099?

..."

{This one seems obvious to me: if AAEPF is a base-26 representation of 3099, then A=0, B=1, C=2, etc. and E=4, F=5 an P=15. So AAEPF would be 4×262 + 15×26 + 5 = 3099.}

— OTT:1629:0 at 20140914.0027

OTT:1629:28#p3502678

{The .NET Rocks interview}

"... ETA: But funnily enough, this was just shared over [on FB] by Tatiana: An audio interview with everyone's favourite deity! ..."

{see '20131106 dotnetrocks Munroe.mp3'}

— OTT:1630:0 at 20140914.1738

OTT:1630:19#p3502799

"... My take is that he'd want the freedom to explore, and limiting himself to a simple sequel would not do this. ..."

— OTT:1631:0 at 20140914.1759

OTT:1631:0#p3502890

{Offset is 0}

"Hmmm... Pope of NP 1631. Decree ..."

OTT:1631:2#p3502897

"Chronogram from mrob27 / Origin; NP771 / Destination; NP1631"

{Wherein I explain the TARDIS having two entrances}

OTT:1631:3#p3502899

Acts of the Clerics, chapter 31 (parodying the 503 errors, and brainslugs; and foreshadowing the calendar)

OTT:1631:17|#p3502973

"Time for a little wipend puzzle, since it's the end of the wipend. :)"

{Puzzle (see image 'NP1631 ucim solved.jpg') includes the URL calendar.chirpingmustard.com, the calendar foreshadowed in OTT:1631:3#p3502899}

— OTT:1632:0 at 20140914.2113

OTT:1632:19#p3503414

"> Looking at the timestamp of the last picture, t1i-0052.png, gives "%tEXtdate:create 2013-11-09T20:34:49+01:00". Now the timezone +01:00 is central and west Europe ...

Well they are nothing to do with me, [...] doubt the timestamp has been medled with, people rarely go that far."

— OTT:1633:0 at 20140914.2128

{I post a blitz report, OTT:2102:23}

OTT:1633:3#p3503650

filk (deliberately untitled) based on "And the Sky Began To Scream" by How To Destroy Angels

OTT:1633:33#p3503990

"Oh.... and for the forum: 0.001988071571"

{This is 1/503}

— OTT:1634:0 at 20140915.0013

— OTT:1635:0 at 20140915.0058

OTT:1635:39#p3505022

{ED is starting to work on custom layouts}

"Here's something for the hotdog which I'm cooking up:

http://imgur.com/a/WW53h"

— OTT:1636:0 at 20140915.0113

OTT:1636:24#p3505362

"Anybody else notice how often the forum falls apart when BlitzGirl takes a break? Kinda makes one go 'hmmmm'."

— OTT:1637:0 at 20140915.0129

OTT:1637:22#p3505730

Vytron is at 1637/1637

(has decided to skip to the present)

"... In this last ketchup I enjoyed ... Mrob's Time capsule (I think he has reinvented the art of blitzing!) ..."

— OTT:1638:0 at 20140915.0212

— OTT:1639:0 at 20140915.0224

OTT:1639:4#p3506086

Chronogram from mrob27 (at NP804)

"... here's a test, and coincidentally a teaser of my current project :

Sample of "Some New Way to Blitz" ..."

OTT:1639:13#p3506118

"I'm wondering if these goatishpys are running from something... We're panning away from whence they came, but perhaps the interesting stuff is off frame to the left, not the right. ..."

OTT:1639:16#p3506159

216 posts. 'That's good enough for me.'*

OTT:1639:36#p3506258

january1may arrives

"Hello! New OTTer here (hopefully)."

— OTT:1640:0 at 20140915.1016

OTT:1640:1#p3506284

poem "No OTTer is an island, / Entire of itself. / ...

... / Therefore, send not to know / For whom the ONG Strikes, / It Strikes for thee."

OTT:1640:37#p3506633

"Recent archaeological digs outside modern day Cueganville (location of the prehistoric land of 'Spain') reveal curious artifacts left behind by an ancient race of nomads ...

[image, see 'NP1640 relic1s.jpg'] "

— OTT:1641:0 at 20140915.1034

— OTT:1642:0 at 20140915.1134

OTT:1642:6#p3507140

Epilogue poem "Ode to Ottification"

— OTT:1643:0 at 20140915.1333

OTT:1643:0#p3507512

Large and beautiful animated GIF of OTTer avatars flowing down a waterfall, by @ggh

OTT:1643:29#p3507772

Epilogue poem "Just Us Two"

— OTT:1644:0 at 20140915.1408

OTT:1644:28#p3508188

Musical Chronogram from mrob27 at NP810

"I've now taken the next step "up" into the world of the meta-meta-meta-OTC by recording a song based on another OTTer's lyrics. ..."

{my "Some New Way to Blitz" song}

— OTT:1645:0 at 20140915.1445

OTT:1645:8|#p3508325

MistyCat is at 1535/1645

OTT:1645:36|#p3508595

Purplepants77 is at 1116/1645

— OTT:1646:0 at 20140915.1503

OTT:1646:8|#p3508747

january1may is at 54/1646

OTT:1646:15#p3508825

"... has anyone guessed: "these are the molphies heading out of the Basin just ahead of the flood? ..."

— OTT:1647:0 at 20140915.1757

OTT:1647:6#p3509092

First NewPixBot ONG with detached head

OTT:1647:34#p3509284

"'We reach page 69', says squonk... near the bottom of NP 72.

...

Beidah comes up again, calling NP 76 'page 73'. "

{Here @january1may is referring to posts OTT:72:30#p3306896 and OTT:75:15#p3307057 . In both cases it probably took the person time to read the posts on the a page, during which more posts were added, creating another page. Then the person made a post of their own, but instead of checking to see if there were more pages, the person simply wrote "there are X pages now" where X was a number that had become out of date. Many early posters were new users, so the moderation queue theory also applies. The period from NP69 to NP75 took only 3 hours, the moderators would have been totally overwhelmed by the post rate.}

— OTT:1648:0 at 20140915.1820

OTT:1648:23#p3509474

@BlitzGirl reports the beginning of xkcd store banners

OTT:1648:39#p3509531

"...Ah, it gets the banner by loading Javascript from:

'http://dynamic.xkcd.com/test?_=' + ('' + Math.random()).substr(2)

...

Note that the ID of the banner is passed as “utm_campaign” in the link to the store, so the GLR is checking which banner works best."

— OTT:1649:0 at 20140915.2031

OTT:1649:1#p3509534

"Retrieving the script (see) 1000 times, I get the following banners:

...

So that's probably all of them, assuming it's purely random and there's nothing umweltish going on."

OTT:1649:15#p3509682

"Treeish molpy-hunting, mscha! I wonder when these pix are supposed to take place? I was assuming post-Zanclean flood, but it looks like the molpies are all fleeing uphill right now."

— OTT:1650:0 at 20140915.2050

OTT:1650:18#p3510034

{Summary of the AluisioASG code puzzle at OTT:1624:39#p3501432 and subsequent hints}

"Please forgive the length, but I wanted to put all of Aluisio's riddle hints together in one place. ..."

— OTT:1651:0 at 20140915.2109

OTT:1651:16#p3510471

Time Capsule from Timborme, deposited NP846

My 100th post!

OTT:1651:18#p3510488

"Awesome post as always, manip and crossword included. :mrgreen: I skimmed through a bit of your Travelogue notes too - quite molpish! You are truly a wowterful addition to our OTT community. "

OTT:1651:23#p3510521

Headless newpixbot problem has been fixed

— OTT:1652:0 at 20140915.2144

OTT:1652:8#p3510947

"Here's a javascript function that might make it easier.

function decode(str) {

total = 0;

for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {

total *= 26;

total += str.charCodeAt(i) - 65;

}

return total;

} "

OTT:1652:26#p3511028

"WTC is that, in the top right corner??"

{Part of the tree has appeared in the MysteryONG}

OTT:1652:30#p3511036

"Looks like a treeish tree to me, like the ones from T** **d:"

{That took only 23 minutes}

— OTT:1653:0 at 20140915.2201

OTT:1653:34|#p3511328

mattachu is at 280/1653

— OTT:1654:0 at 20140915.2210

OTT:1654:6#p3511386

Beginning of a group-written filk of "Twelve Days of Christmas". See OTT:1654:20p3511446 and OTT:1655:32p3511683

— OTT:1655:0 at 20140915.2221

OTT:1655:33#p3511684

"Here's a mashup of the latest mystery frame with an **dish frame:

...

I think that pretty much proves ... BlitzGirl's theory that we're looking at a prequel to t** **d."

— OTT:1656:0 at 20140915.2243

OTT:1656:24#p3511768

"Molpy Holidix to All / from Newpage 857"

— OTT:1657:0 at 20140915.2313

OTT:1657:12#p3511881

filk "010011110100111001000111" based on "10001110101 Robot hive exodus" by Clutch

— OTT:1658:0 at 20140916.0007

OTT:1658:0#p3512065

"Decree: Follow the page pope decree of THIS PAGE."

{A link to a randomly-selected OTT page}

OTT:1658:6#p3512088

"The recent brokenNewpixbotheads problems gave me an idea. I will try to write a program that given an image generates a new one in which Newpixbot is holding the original image."

— OTT:1659:0 at 20140916.0025

— OTT:1660:0 at 20140916.0039

OTT:1660:23#p3512542

"Maybe the undergrowth was partly washed away by waves as the Zanclean flood was happening?"

— OTT:1661:0 at 20140916.1012

— OTT:1662:0 at 20140916.1351

OTT:1662:6#p3512866

"Coming up from the basement to say, I think I understand what he PMed to Laura Mae ... though I think he meant the first word to be EGOAJ, and not EKKAJ. ...

for that bit, the first three letters are the frame number in base 26 with A=0 -> Z=25, then, you take the next two letters, and make them a number the same way. Then convert that number to binary and the last three digits tell you which quote, if there are more than one, and the rest tell you how many words to count in. ..."

{See also OTT:1664:39p3513669, OTT:1665:27p3513838}

OTT:1662:16#p3512904

"I find it funny that the othercomic thread hasn't even been created yet and it's already been posted here, and not only that, ottified twice :P"

— OTT:1663:0 at 20140916.1407

— OTT:1664:0 at 20140916.1417

— OTT:1665:0 at 20140916.1431

OTT:1665:36|#p3513870

"Holy ch*rp, check out the new Othercomic."

— OTT:1666:0 at 20140916.1456

— OTT:1667:0 at 20140916.1514

{Post delayed because of xkcd fora server problems. It eventually becomes post OTT:2105:34|#p3653515}

OTT:1667:24#p3514272

"Re: Otherthread page counts

...

This has only just been overtaken by the OTT, and we probably won't overtake this seaish monster for a few yips. But I think the OTT is now the third-largest thread on the fora. "

Both threads mentioned are in the closed/unmoderated group FaiD (Free as in Destitute). One of them may have been "unfetched hashes and turtle excluding devices" (lated called "fluff"),

{At this point, for the first time, I start using ЯOЯЯIM TTO ƎHT to Blitz. If I had no internet access I could blitz it from my own local cache of the pages and images, but ЯOЯЯIM ƎHT has full formatting.}

OTT:1667:29#p3514285

Story by @TheMinim (continued at OTT:1669:30p3514572, OTT:1673:3p3515126)

OTT:1667:34#p3514323

MistyCat is at 1624/1667

— OTT:1668:0 at 20140916.1843

OTT:1668:14#p3514406

"> Wait... what are those soft cushions for??

They are for people offering green "safety hats" (wait, did I say "safety hats"? I meant "brainslugs"!)"

OTT:1668:24#p3514467

"Pricklymolp in your Pocket... Snake in your Slacks... Beanie in your Britches... Dilgunnerang in your Drawers... Ch*rpy in your Chaps... Redundakitty in your Redunderpants..."

— OTT:1669:0 at 20140916.1950

— OTT:1670:0 at 20140916.2001

OTT:1670:14#p3514734

Chronogram from mrob27 / Origin: NP895 ; Destination: NP1670

Analogies in the OTC, OTT and Outside life

OTT:1670:29#p3514884

january1may is at 87/1670

— OTT:1671:0 at 20140916.2031

— OTT:1672:0 at 20140916.2038

OTT:1672:3#p3515023

"Bother, I thought I had one more post until 3K. Oh well. Only 333 until another interesting number. But maybe 3210 is also interesting. I guess they all are. Every post is molpish, but thousands are special ..."

OTT:1672:8#p3515034

Sciscitor checks in

"I am not in the basement, but reading along. Working on the Database now and then. Right now it seems I have to migrate the database to another backend, because the old one simply does not scale with all the new Newpages.

Unfortunaly some clever Molpies seemed to have used utf8mb4 encoded letters somewhere in their postings which the new databasebackend does not like at all.

Just wondering if someone here may know a clever way to find and replace "\xf0\x90\x90\x92" and such in a 107MB json encoded text-file."

— OTT:1673:0 at 20140916.2138

OTT:1673:24#p3515269

filk "A Treeish Thing Would Happen/When You Post ONGs at Me" based on "A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me" from "The Last Five Years"

filk "Posting Uphill" based on "Climbing Uphill" from "The Last Five Years"

— OTT:1674:0 at 20140916.2349

OTT:1674:7#p3515507

@Vytron's falling-out with the OTT

OTT:1674:34#p3515659

"OTT-if

Five Hour Molpies

If an OTTer were to listen to the song "Molpies" on repeat for the entirety of a five-nopix drive, how many Times would that OTTer hear the word molpy?

..."

OTT:1674:38#p3515681

"I am glad to announce that the migration of the database has finally succeeded! :D It is noticably faster on the heavy number crunching pages. ..."

— OTT:1675:0 at 20140917.0311

OTT:1675:9#p3515837

Acts of the Clerics, chapter 32

OTT:1675:25#p3515922

"Agh, no! Not the Voldiframe! I hope there's another ONG coming in a fewpix..."

OTT:1676:13#p3516069

Angelastic is at 1492/1676

filk "Water and Sand" based on "Paper and Pen" by Marian Call

OTT:1676:15#p3516088

poem "I heard the ONGs (on Cueganmas day)" based on "I heard the bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

OTT:1676:21#p3516122

filk "AfterTime Delight" based on "Afternoon Delight" by the Starland Vocal Band

OTT:1676:24#p3516140

"When will the first frame after the recent epilONG be posted? Are we going to get Time 2 for Christmas?

...

ETA: I'm currently writing the NewpixbOTTificattion program."

OTT:1676:26#p3516213

The first of 4 identical posts (the others are OTT:1676:27#p3516214, OTT:1676:29p3516216, and OTT:1676:30p3516217), probably caused by the server 503/504 errors

OTT:1676:35#p3516226

"[Edit: Mustardy duplicate post! Ignore this.]"

— OTT:1677:0 at 20140917.0506

OTT:1677:0#p3516248

"Wow, 504 mustard causing duplicates everywhere! I managed to delete one of mine, but there's still one duplicate left which doesn't have a delete button..."

OTT:1677:20|#p3516373

MistyCat is at 1675/1677

OTT:1677:24#p3516385

brief OTTification of Hamlet

"To bacon, or not to bacon, that is the question..."

{see response, also from Hamlet, at OTT:1678:11#p3516474}

OTT:1677:39#p3516442

poem "CueganMegball" based on "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

— OTT:1678:0 at 20140917.1321

OTT:1678:16#p3516573

KEEP CALM ᴀɴᴅ FEED SQUIRPIES

"As my fora uptime stats page shows, we've had a spell of m*stard since I last wrote. Now that I've cached everything, I can Blitz completely offline, but these 503's still slow me down. ..."

OTT:1678:17#p3516574

{Long post by AluisioASG, presumably the result of waiting for the codes at OTT:1624:39#p3501432 to be at least partly solved}

OTT:1678:22#p3516610

{The MysteryONGs cut to a new scene: a grassy area between some trees}

OTT:1678:24#p3516614

"Holy chirping mustard, the mysteryONGs have given us a holiday present. I think this is the most excited I've been since T** **d. That tree on the right is treeish!"

OTT:1678:26#p3516618

micdi is at 210/1678 (approximately). Note quote of post OTT:209:18#p3315040 which contains a Unicode 200B (zero-width space) character to avoid a Madness filter.

{xkcd fora server is finally working again, and I am able to send the blitzreport from NP1667, OTT:2105:34|#p3653515}

— OTT:1679:0 at 20140917.2045

OTT:1679:32#p3517037

micdi is at 243/1679

OTT:1679:34#p3517079

"My hat from ChronosDragon finally arrived on the Moon. "

OTT:1679:38#p3517103

"May all of your cells

be like ducks in a row

so that chemo and zaps

you need not undergo.

Canther Salve"

{continuing the discussion of who is doing the MysteryONGs}

— OTT:1680:0 at 20140917.2222

— OTT:1681:0 at 20140917.2305

OTT:1681:8#p3517630

filk "You are the One Thread" based on "You Are My Sunshine"

OTT:1681:10#p3517642

ttscp summarizes why the OTT has kept, and will keep, going.

OTT:1681:13#p3517649

I'd Say For Sure We've All Decided, Every OTTer's Wonderful

{The lyrics to BlitzGirl's (never completed) OTTification of "Modern Major General"}

OTT:1681:22#p3517728

"It's NewpixbOTTification time!"

{balthasar_s has made software that takes any image and makes a bigger image with newpixbot holding it}

— OTT:1682:0 at 20140918.0027

OTT:1682:16#p3518066

"Now you can add Newpixbots to everything! All you have to do is to enter the URL of the image in the box. "

OTT:1682:39#p3518301

filk based on "Auld Lang Syne"

— OTT:1683:0 at 20140918.0132

OTT:1683:2#p3518315

"I'm not in the basement, just haven't been checking by as often and haven't been posting because I'm still waiting for someone to decypher the secret message in my 3000th post."

{Post OTT:1672:3#p3515023 is the one referred to. Eternal Density posted it thinking it was xis 2999th. No hidden message is evident, but those who know California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might spot something. It was actually the 3000th post, thus the "oh well" comment. Sandcastle Builder is the "hotdog" referred to in the first part of the message.}

OTT:1683:33#p3518630

"Measuring an entangled photon is a bit like rolling a die. You know that if you get a four, there's a three on the other side of the die. But you don't get to choose which number you roll, so you can't transmit information to the person hiding under the glass table looking at the bottom of the die."

— OTT:1684:0 at 20140918.1126

OTT:1684:16#p3518796

"I'm almost ready to begin the blitz. ... I have 1370 pages to read. I have read all the pages since I joined the thread in 1371 and I'm not going to do it again. And it's dangerous to meet my past self. ...

...

I want to see whenever someone menions me, quotes me, etc. mrob27 has a bot who does it for him. I don't. Maybe it's time to write a bot. I mean, who am I if I don't even have a bot? ..."

OTT:1684:19#p3518846

"...

when you try to detect spin, you don't get a direction, but you just get "matches my detector" or "doesn't match my detector" (where the detector is set for a certain spin angle),

... if you set the detector to 10 degrees, it can go in with spin at any angle, but it comes out either at 10 degrees (match) or at 190 degrees (antimatch). ... If you put a detector on the "other" particle, it will always align.

...

Now, what happens if we detect the particle's spin again, but at a different angle? It turns out that if the particle 'always had' the initial spin, the probability of detecting a spin at a different direction after being detected (and thus interfered with) once before has a different curve than if the spin was actually created on the fly at the time of detection. (This is the part I don't remember right - maybe a physicist could explain better). When we do the experiment, we get the curve corresponding to magic, and not the curve corresponding to 'always had' that spin."

OTT:1684:32#p3518998

filk "Bacon of a bacon of a" (?) based on "Copy of a" by Nine Inch Nails

filk "I was an OTTer" based on "I was an Eagle" by Fringe Division

filk "Have to find a way" based on "Pushing Me Away" by Linkin Park

filk "Initiation" based on "Speaking in Tongues" by How to Destroy Angels

— OTT:1685:0 at 20140918.1655

OTT:1685:23#p3519176

"... Apparently, the GLR wants the epilogue to be a “seemingly random” sequence of the 5 post-**d frames. Why not really random? Well, there are three servers which handle the redirect from time.png to the actual frame, and these need to do the same thing.

... there are two exceptions per month: yyyy-mm-10 00:mm:ss and yyyy-mm-30 00:mm:ss, which always give frame D instead of the expected one.

Now we know that the year also plays a role in this function. ... So, perhaps it's the uppercase letters in yyyY-mm-Dd HH:mm:ss. Still with the above two exceptions, of course. ...

...

I don't understand why the logic is (apparently) so complicated, though. There'd be much easier ways to accomplish this (a predictable, seemingly random sequence). Easiest would probably be something like:

function currentEpilogueFrame()

{

srand(int(time() / 3600)); # seed randomizer based on hours

# after 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

return 'A'+int(rand(5));

} "

— OTT:1686:0 at 20140918.2107

OTT:1686:4#p3519334

"One other interesting thing of note on the epilogue sequence change:

EDBADECBCBDCAECDBABABADC

EDBADECBCBAECBDADCDCDBED

000000000022221222222111 ..."

OTT:1686:16#p3519388

"This Time After Time is so molpishly journeyish*, we're going to have to start dividing this into periods like with the original OTC! ..."

— OTT:1687:0 at 20140918.2142

— OTT:1688:0 at 20140918.2317

OTT:1688:11#p3519697

Every Day is a Wowtreeful Day to Be a Bot

— OTT:1689:0 at 20140918.2356

OTT:1689:25#p3520133

january1may is at 127/1689

— OTT:1690:0 at 20140919.0101

OTT:1690:21#p3520261

{Rather than leaving signposts, @HES has started retro-editing posts. For example, this post has a retro-edit saying "Quest progress: 1690/1764", meaning that HES was at NP1690 when the Present was at NP1764.}

— OTT:1691:0 at 20140919.0125

OTT:1691:17#p3520549

PayasYouDraw is at 530/1691

OTT:1691:19#p3520557

balthasar_s is at 15/1691

— OTT:1692:0 at 20140919.0153

— OTT:1693:0 at 20140919.0203

OTT:1693:1#p3520967

{Offset is 1}

"... EDIT: What, pope again? Can't say I expected that. ..."

OTT:1693:30#p3521085

karhell is at 1472/1693

OTT:1693:36#p3521109

january1may is at 185/1693

{Here he notes the "ancient text" retro-edits by edo, like that at OTT:100:29#p3308447}

— OTT:1694:0 at 20140919.0259

— OTT:1695:0 at 20140919.0358

— OTT:1696:0 at 20140919.0416

OTT:1696:0#p3521762

{mscha has encouraged people to develop theories that make predictions for the new (2014) epilogue sequence}

"> No D! C! Even if it does the same from here on in, we may get to find out something new. :)

Yay, I'm wrong! "

— OTT:1697:0 at 20140919.0434

OTT:1697:0#p3521956

{Offset is 0}

"Selfish decree: Wish someone (me) luck. Or, PANIC about something ..."

OTT:1697:6|#p3521980

PayasYouDraw is at 563/1697

OTT:1697:31|#p3522236

january1may is at 195/1697

— OTT:1698:0 at 20140919.0448

OTT:1698:0#p3522293

"Decree: What is consciousness? Provide a definition that is ..."

{This starts a long conversation, which drifts towards a concept that does not match the standard definition of the English word "consciousness" (the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings, or the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world)

OTT:1698:16#p3522351

Landmines Earn Many Laughs

{The first of a series of posts whose subject has the initials "LEML", see OTT:1698:2p3522319 and OTT:1698:13p3522346}

— OTT:1699:0 at 20140919.0522

OTT:1699:12#p3522531

story "The Molpy Hunter"

— OTT:1700:0 at 20140919.1454

OTT:1700:3#p3522634

Acts of the Clerics, scene 33

MistyCat gets the title of BlitzGirl the Next

OTT:1700:36#p3522821

"Concerning OTTification and the Art of Translation

...And (Of Course), Bots"

— OTT:1701:0 at 20140919.1533

OTT:1701:20#p3522899

"Literary Chronogram from mrob27"

{My OTTification of Stanisław Lem's "How the World Was Saved"}

OTT:1701:24#p3522914

response/continuation of the "Pushing Me Away" filk from OTT:1684:32#p3518998

{I post a blitzreport, OTT:2108:35}

— OTT:1702:0 at 20140920.0127

OTT:1702:13#p3523206

{first post after the Server Mustard of NP1702, a 5-hour blackout}

OTT:1702:19#p3523235

transcript of the Facebook thread (with all names changed to OTT usernames)

filk (partial) based on "Santa Baby"

— OTT:1703:0 at 20140920.0213

OTT:1703:20#p3523453

"This is not really a blitzreport#2, np58 from balthasar_s and bothasar_s:"

{with "conversation" with his bot and link to the bot_s reports}

— OTT:1704:0 at 20140920.0938

OTT:1704:3#p3523612

"I just realized that Mod Madness is only a couple of mips away. And so is the one-yip anniversary of Time. :shock:"

— OTT:1705:0 at 20140920.1845

— OTT:1706:0 at 20140920.2332

— OTT:1707:0 at 20140920.2344

OTT:1707:17#p3524494

"> The only calculator that lets me use a 5 digit year seems to think

> it is also a Thursdip. It's probably cheating.

Also for 22014, 32014, 42014, 52014 and 14 (according to !wa). Anyone care to explain this property?"

{Let's assume the calculator follows the Gregorian calendar. A year has 365 days, unless it is a multiple of 4 (but not a multiple of 100 that is not also a multiple of 400). Out of every 10,000 years, 25 are multiples of 400, another 75 are multiples of 100 (but not of 400), another 2400 are multiples of 4 (but not of 100), and the rest (7500) are not a multiple of 4. The total number of days in that 10,0000 years is (7500{X}365) + (2400{X}366) + (75{X}365) + (25{X}366) = 3652425, which is a multiple of 7 (521775×7).}

— OTT:1708:0 at 20140921.0125

— OTT:1709:0 at 20140921.0141

— OTT:1710:0 at 20140921.0233

— OTT:1711:0 at 20140921.0247

OTT:1711:0#p3525542

"Decree: lie. Or perform temporal edits."

{This page has a lot of temporal edits, many done well after the page itself was done. The BlitzGirl ones starting with OTT:1711:25#p3525652 were done a few mips later.}

filk "(End, End, End Frame)" based on "Come Back Haunted" by Nine Inch Nails

— OTT:1712:0 at 20140921.1605

OTT:1712:2#p3525711

filk "Pixels to Pixels" based on "Ashes to Ashes" by Blind Guardian

OTT:1712:8#p3525764

balthasar_s is at 100/1712

"And, 100 posts. How about some 403fications?

403fication software available at http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.dnsd.info/pro/npb/403.htm"

— OTT:1713:0 at 20140921.2308

OTT:1713:3#p3525922

DD "Bolpishly, Molpishly / Lighning-Lass momes a lot / ...

OTT:1713:6#p3525929

DD "Diggety doggety / Eternal Density / ..."

OTT:1713:9#p3525934

DD "Roarity moarity / Basement is hungering / ..."

OTT:1713:14#p3525952

DD "Waitedy waitedy / Game might be dangerous / ..."

OTT:1713:18#p3525967

DD "Practicey perfecty / marchlight the horsemolpy / ..."

OTT:1713:23#p3525986

DD "Eeepity bleepity! / Showing the Voldiframe / ..."

OTT:1713:24#p3525988

DD "Mustardly ch*rping-ch*rp / These double-dactyls are / ...

DD "What should the subject be? / Surely the OTT / ..."

DD "Maybe I won't succeed. / But I still feel the need / ..."

OTT:1713:26#p3525992

DD "Huggably snuggably / Such a cute kitty face / ..."

OTT:1713:30#p3526004

DD "Oddity Ottidy / Awesomeful comic-ing / ..."

OTT:1713:31#p3526009

DD "Trustedly mustardly / Tho my predictions are / ..."

OTT:1713:34#p3526063

DD "Molpity Uppity / I molpy up to find / ..."

DD "Cue jumped successfully, / Didn't need Panther Salve / ..."

DD "There was an idea / For a brand new hotdog / ..."

DD "ZoomanSP otti- / fied the new comic so / ..."

OTT:1713:39#p3526140

DD "Molpishly, treeishly, / Y'all sure have appeased me, / ..."

— OTT:1714:0 at 20140921.2334

OTT:1714:22#p3526370

"OTTish Ambigrams!"

{Several illustrations in the style sometimes associated with Scott Kim, in which a word is written in stylized script in such a way that it looks the same when turned upside down.}

OTT:1714:30#p3526397

Acts of the Clerics, Act 3, Scene 5

Involving @balthasar_s and a cast of dozens, and a

filk based on "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from "The Sound of Music"

— OTT:1715:0 at 20140922.0025

OTT:1715:0#p3526420

"ED just made a hotdog called Pure Idle that focuses on

waiting for it.

It is on ED's index page."

OTT:1715:8#p3526440

"I mucked around with Pure Idle and now it looks like the optimum strategy is to reload every second. Oops. I think I better change that."

OTT:1715:12#p3526455

Time-Capsule from mrob27, deposited NP1054

Includes a list of all Server 503 M*stard events so far, with ratings from to .

OTT:1715:19#p3526509

filk based on "Memory" from "Cats"

OTT:1715:30#p3526724

january1may is at 223/1715

OTT:1715:33#p3526742

filk "Cueball and Megan" based on "Bodger and Badger" theme song

OTT:1715:36#p3526762

{First mention of what will become the OTTscars}

"On a side note, it's a tradition on that otherforum to have awards every yip, and I was thinking of running something similar when we reach the Timeiversary/OTTish new yip. ..."

— OTT:1716:0 at 20140922.0131

OTT:1716:35#p3526957

filk "where am I?" based on "Head Down" by Nine inch Nails

— OTT:1717:0 at 20140922.0257

OTT:1717:1#p3526994

filk based on "Memory" from "Cats"

OTT:1717:5#p3527040

karhell is at 1518/1717

OTT:1717:8#p3527068

"Holy cairn, Cuegan!"

— OTT:1718:0 at 20140922.1114

OTT:1718:16#p3527448

filk "Punsaw Vitssågen" based on "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin

OTT:1718:26#p3527529

filk "Molpy" based on "Zombie" by The Cranberries

— OTT:1719:0 at 20140922.1203

OTT:1719:7#p3527664

{Referring to frame t1i-0407}

"Maybe the seaish sea ate the rest of Corsica."

OTT:1719:10#p3527703

balthasar_s is at 175/1719

OTT:1719:20#p3527754

DD "Double-y-dactyly / Awesomeful poetry / ..."

(almost) DD "Steakishly, molpishly / MistyCat plays along. / ..."

OTT:1719:27#p3527804

filk "Without decay" based on "We Fade Away" by How to Destroy Angels

— OTT:1720:0 at 20140923.0011

OTT:1720:21#p3528123

#AluisioASG has been doing a lot of work on the OTTer Map

— OTT:1721:0 at 20140924.2153

OTT:1721:20#p3528388

In the MysteryONGs, Cuegan have started building another castle.

— OTT:1722:0 at 20140924.2348

OTT:1722:32#p3528671

filk "Where have all the OTTers gone" based on "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (traditional)

OTT:1722:37#p3528689

"newpixbot wrote:

ONGRACIOUS...

Cleverbot wrote:

How was your day?

newpixbot wrote:

SALPONGIAN...

Cleverbot wrote:

Who's Sebastian?

...

I don't think they're hitting it off...

(I'm not too impressed with Cleverbot. I think newpixbot can do better.)"

— OTT:1723:0 at 20140925.1053

OTT:1723:20#p3528788

"Sandcastle attempt: FAIL

What should Cuegan do now?

A) Set up camp?

B) Build a fire?

C) Roast some raptorcat?

D) Make out?

E) All of the above?

I vote D.

Or E maybe, but D is more straightforward."

OTT:1723:30#p3528853

filk "Burning Love" based on "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley

— OTT:1724:0 at 20140925.1244

OTT:1724:12#p3528976

"> They should

> DAEDCBAECDCBAEDCBADECDCB

Ooh, so that's what the epilogue sequence means! It all makes perfect sense now!"

OTT:1724:18#p3529144

Purplepants77 is at 1281/1724

OTT:1724:22#p3529229

"> The ocean level can't be too far off from our present. If it were,

> the Chateau d'If would be underwater.

Do we know that it's not?"

OTT:1724:29#p3529316

{New version of OTTermap is running.}

"Wait for it."

{As of 20140924, both URLs work. I imagine they are both the same server, but you can have different settings on each making it appear to be two different versions.}

— OTT:1725:0 at 20140925.2331

OTT:1725:11#p3529500

{The Friedrich Nietzsche of the OTT religion}

"These TimeAfterTime comics beg for the question: Who needs Randall??"

OTT:1725:21#p3529571

balthasar_s is at 236/1725

"... Quick, we need to come up with standardized measurements for distance, volume, weight/mass, temperature, force, energy, and possibly some other things, based on newpix. Yes. We have newpix/timeframesA and q. Do we have any other units?"

...

How big of a trebuchet would one have to build to fling a person to the moon?"

OTT:1725:28#p3529725

"I do hope that cairn is just a relatively modern way-marker and not some ancient burial mound they're disturbing... (I'd guess not, since it's a tall tower rather than a wide pile of stones...)"

— OTT:1726:0 at 20140926.1307

OTT:1726:13#p3530035

"When the good people behind the WebAssign homework software decided to put in the 'practice another version' feature, I'm not sure this was their forseen usage case. ..."

OTT:1726:21#p3530065

"Characters do not share the identity of their author."

{Except when they're Morobu.}

OTT:1726:38|#p3530155

From the Blitzjournal of Timborme, Newpage 1100

— OTT:1727:0 at 20140927.0148

OTT:1727:36#p3530497

Blindpost: Mrob27's only deliberate ninjabait

{I blindposted an answer to a question that was asked more than 600 pages earlier. This is a silly thing to do, because someone probably gave the same answer sometime in the next 6 pages, to say nothing of 60 or 600.

See my notes at OTT:1104:30#p3409407 above. To try to explain further: I saw the question "How did they know what a sandcastle should look like if there weren't any real castles?". The answer that came to mind was, "There are lots of non-real things that, despite being non-real, have a clear agreed-upon appearance. For example, dragons. or unicorns." If I use the dragons example, someone might reply that dragons are not mythical, if you take "dragon" to mean a real animal like the Komodo dragon. So maybe unicorn is a better example to make that point.

As it turns out, and as expected, all of this was answered by the OTTers within a couple pages. For example, at OTT:1105:4#p3409427 @SBN said, "I know what a unicorn should look like, and I've never seen a real one."}

— OTT:1728:0 at 20140927.0213

OTT:1728:15#p3530595

"Also, a special delivery from a certain missing ice cookie fox."

{The first of the Zanclean Zodiac images from @azule (see image "NP1728 zz 00.png")}

OTT:1728:23#p3530619

"Looks like they will appear on http://xkcd.modularthought.com/ZancleanZodiac/img/xx.png

The newest is 02.png "

OTT:1728:26#p3530625

karhell is at 1554/1728

OTT:1728:29#p3530630

BlitzReport From Time Beacon Beta

OTT:1728:31#p3530636

"Diamond Sattelite Beacon Gamma

Report to future present if more than 5 pages ahead of this post.

Questions:

— OTT:1729:0 at 20140928.0304

OTT:1729:19#p3531018

filk "A Complete History of the One True Comic Through the Eyes of a Humble Waiter" based on "A Complete History of the Soviet Union Through the Eyes of a Humble Worker" by Pig With The Face Of A Boy and "Korobeiniki" (the "Tetris" theme song)

{Very impressive}

OTT:1729:25#p3531068

"You actually can't look ahead because the images are only being released a few at a Time, it seems. Keeps the mystery going! :D"

— OTT:1730:0 at 20140928.0351

OTT:1730:12#p3531202

{The delurking of @SilentTimer}

OTT:1730:15|#p3531209

karhell is at 1559/1730

OTT:1730:21#p3531263

filk "Waiting" based on "Royals" by Pentatonix

OTT:1730:26|#p3531456

TieSoul is at 60/1730

OTT:1730:35#p3531583

"Ooh! Maybe the Beanies aren't happy that Megball messed up their treeish cairn.

...

What if the Beanies are descended from us? Think about it... a culture who wear hats... and have weird words for things... [...] And we must continue to Wait for it, passing the word of GLR from generation to generation of OTTers, so that GLR's prophecy as set forth in the holy OTC, is fulfilled. "

OTT:1730:36#p3531593

"more epilogue musings about deviance"

{@ggh expands on the 4x4 patterns described by @slinches at OTT:1439:18#p3452607, saying they would be more regular except for a hypothesized more complex repeat-avoidance. See also OTT:1731:2#p3531643}

— OTT:1731:0 at 20140929.0052

OTT:1731:2#p3531643

{Offset is 2}

"ETA: Oh, pope. hmm. What's the biggest thing you've flooded? Did you need a raftcastle?"

{I notice AluisioASG's signature says, "Migratory Chicken, mrob: do not take the 303. 304 is faster."}

OTT:1731:15#p3531711

OTT-if "Slow Blitz" based on what-if 59 and 76.

OTT:1731:34#p3531823

Chronogram from mrob27, NP1135 ⟶ NP1731

— OTT:1732:0 at 20140929.0325

— OTT:1733:0 at 20141002.1808

OTT:1733:11|#p3532330

karhell is at 1573/1733

{A lot of OTTifications on this page}

OTT:1733:32#p3532506

{This is a reversal of (most of) post OTT:1:0#p3301860}

— OTT:1734:0 at 20141002.2028

OTT:1734:17#p3532651

Chronogram from mrob27, NP1153 -> NP1734

— OTT:1735:0 at 20141002.2304

OTT:1735:9#p3532906

{@balthasar_s has made an animated GIF going from the first (@Neil_Boekend) brainslug through one of my U-Skate world images to my avatar. When I saw this I tried to make an animated GIF avatar, but soon concluded I wouldn't be able to fit under the 128K limit for avatars.}

"... The small mrob27s must be so small that quantum things happen. So, this shape you see: [mrob27 icon] is actually their probability density function! ..."

OTT:1735:20#p3533045

"As implicitly requested by ggh a few NPs ago, here are the updated color coded epilogue sequences: ..."

— OTT:1736:0 at 20141002.2336

OTT:1736:0#p3533207

DD "M-Rob communicates / characteristically / ..."

{My second "Modern Major General" composed entirely of OTT quotes. The first was at OTT:1531:0#p3474963 ; this one uses words from NP577-1152 inclusive.}

"My Blitz status: NP1158, frame M#2921 RUN. "

OTT:1736:29#p3533312

{First and still-only post by @Drumstruck}

— OTT:1737:0 at 20141002.2354

OTT:1737:16#p3533758

{The return (for a brief time) of @buffygirl}

— OTT:1738:0 at 20141003.0053

OTT:1738:27|#p3534085

Bad Hair Man is at 385/1738

OTT:1738:37#p3534225

{More redundancy.js text}

— OTT:1739:0 at 20141004.0256

OTT:1739:6#p3534354

"... In case someone gets interested, I've written a script to turn mrob's post metadata file into the data required for a bubble chart. ..."

{I followed up on this and found out that some people believe that others might fear having their internet usage patterns documented in a publicly-isible way, perhaps because they have parents who do not allow them to use the Internet at certain times. See OTT:1741:14p3535243 and the end of OTT:1741:25p3535303}

— OTT:1740:0 at 20141005.0152

OTT:1740:11#p3534842

filk "A Little Rising Sea" based on "A Little Fall of Rain" from "Les Miserables" (with recording, highly praised)

— OTT:1741:0 at 20141005.0213

OTT:1741:7#p3535227

filk "OTTing Out In Style" based on "Going Out In Style" by Dropkick Murphys

OTT:1741:14#p3535243

Time-Capsule from mrob27, deposited NP1181

OTT:1741:15#p3535244

january1may is at 243/1741

OTT:1741:25#p3535303

"Rumours of my omniscience have been greatly exaggerated"

{Where I express surprise at the implication, suggested by OTT:1741:16p3535253 and OTT:1741:17p3535269, that I know people's real names and was going to publish them}

— OTT:1742:0 at 20141005.0257

{There is a lot of poetry on this page, with different metrical signatures}

— OTT:1743:0 at 20141005.0314

OTT:1743:19#p3535835

"...

You ask about Quest - reading everything is a Most Holy Undertaking. It is possible; many have done it, most recently MistyCat, who blitzed over sixteen hundred NewPages in a baobabish display of Awesomeness. If you feel that deep void in your soul, you already know that it can only be quenched by drinking from the One True Thread. Such a Quest will lead you to an Entire New Understanding, but it is quite perilous. Remain Pure of Heart as you set out on your journey, and you will safely navigate the Fading, the Bag incident, the Crisis of Vytron, and all the other trials and tribulations. This will make you ready to face the Voldeframe when it presents itself, as it truly must. As you know, even after the End of Time, Time goes on. Beware the green safety hats and the c**kies, and although the OTT has a Vital Hotdog Function, you must be very careful as you pass through the Hotdogs. They are like Sirens of the Sea (which is big), seductive and smooth, and could fatally distract you from your Most Holy Quest if you do not dedicate your whole self to the task at hand. Hotdogs are vital, but proceed with care!

..."

— OTT:1744:0 at 20141006.1152

— OTT:1745:0 at 20141006.2055

OTT:1745:38#p3536324

(from kenmelken)

"After seeing today's What-If I was reminded of all of you and had to drop in to let you know that I haven't died. I hope you all are doing well! ..."

— OTT:1746:0 at 20141006.2259

OTT:1746:29#p3536470

{referring to the last image in what-if #83}

"What do we think, xuys? Should we now refer to it as semencoffeecancerbaconbabiesSTARSonice?"

OTT:1746:38#p3536542

"I hope we'll see some more exbasementers as the Adventmip nears."

— OTT:1747:0 at 20141007.0024

OTT:1747:11#p3536625

"So apparently in two dips it is an Outside holidip called Valentine's Dip. So I thought I'd make some OTTish Valentines for y'all! "

{16 different valentine card designs, see directory "NP1747 valentines"}

OTT:1747:18#p3536685

{There is now a lively discussion about the OTT awards and how to avoid hard feelings.}

OTT:1747:21#p3536700

"> ... keep it to silly, OTTish awards :P

The OTscars?"

— OTT:1748:0 at 20141008.0315

OTT:1748:10#p3536790

{A simple explanation of the epilogue sequence, without any attempts to guess at patterns}

OTT:1748:25#p3536859

{OTTification of the entire "10,000 Days" album by Tool}

filk "Precarious" based on "Vicarious" by Tool

filk "Journey" based on "Jambi" by Tool

filk "Just for Megan (Pt. 1)" based on "Wings for Marie (Pt. 1)" by Tool

filk "10,000 Frames (Megan Pt. 2)" based on "10,000 Days (Marie Pt. 2)" by Tool

filk "The Top" based on "The Pot" by Tool

filk "Beanie Conversing" based on "Lipan Conjuring" by Tool

filk "Escapees (Blame Beanies)" based on "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" by Tool

filk "Rosetta's Stoned" based on "Rosetta Stoned" by Tool

filk "Depression" based on "Intension" by Tool

filk "Make it Through" based on "Right in Two" by Tool

filk "Landing by Trees" based on "Viginti Tres" by Tool

{At this point I stopped Blitzing for a long time}

— OTT:1749:0 at 20141101.0243

OTT:1749:0#p3536911

"OTC Field Report", a bit of an explanation of the "Zanclean Zodiac" images

— OTT:1750:0 at 20141101.0255

OTT:1750:35#p3537425

"> Does anyone actually read signatures?

Yes. Score 3, (on my cell) but I can't play any more cause my coma'll be yappocised. 4 to go."

{This is a reference to adnapemit's ASCII "Flappy Bird", at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99646647/flappybird%20Ascii.html which was linked from xes signature.}

— OTT:1751:0 at 20141101.0306

OTT:1751:33#p3537754

balthasar_s is at 314/1751

"@bothasar_t#, the bot: [image] is ready and started his work. Tomorrow you will see a report from him."

OTT:1751:35|#p3537776

karhell is at 1641/1751

— OTT:1752:0 at 20141102.2122

OTT:1752:4#p3537884

@balthasar_s creates his mirror of the OTT

"The ЯOЯЯIM TTO

Redundant copy of the needle-pulled thing.

Now you can ketchup while you mustard.

...

Another Idea for the future. It would be neat if, when mustard comes, you could leave your post at he OTT mirror.

And when the mustard goes away, the bot would post it for you.

... "

OTT:1752:15#p3537929

"The Rumored and Anticipated End of Time

Blitz Report from Mrob27

Origin: NP1240; Destination: NP1752"

I announce my blindposter scriptm and a couple others here

{with extra images in the spoiler, including hidden text in my OTTification of xkcd 1005}

OTT:1752:25#p3537982

{@SilentTimer finds the hidden message in my xkcd 1005 retrOTTification}

— OTT:1753:0 at 20141103.0502


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