Septje.com

Useless

I am a happy chappy today. Although the morning started out pretty average, due mostly to my underlying issues which I will delve into in a later post, I managed to cheer myself up by downloading ALL of the XKCD comics. They are all high-quality PNG files, and when I have time I will compile them into a book that I can keep close by when I need a pick-me-up. For those of you that are unawares, XKCD.com is a comic strip written by Randall Munroe, a physics major, from Massachusetts. He worked for NASA in the Langley Research Center doing robotics of all things. He is a very switched on guy, and from what I’ve seen, a very talented artist. His take on the world really makes me think he understands the what average geek is thinking, and the ordeals of day-to-day life. He has a very surreal take on love and romance, which I find I connect with. One of my favourites, ‘Useless‘ depicts him trying to apply mathematical principles to the problem of love. The first time I saw that it really made me think that there are people out there that think like I do; that it’s possible to be romantic while till maintaining your scientific integrity. 

It is the mind of an engineer that tries to rationalise the world in terms of engineering, I am guilty of this, and there is no logical reason not to apply this approach. However, in terms of love, this doesn’t apply. I am already confused by my own ramblings, but one thing is clear, I identify with this cartoon. Randall explores many different aspects of his life, some of which is clearly more fanciful than others. Then

Do Not Erase

there’s just the outright amusing one-liners that he comes out with in his cartoons, the fanciful man in the hat. ‘DNE‘ or Do Not Erase is a classic example of this. It’s funny, because we’ve all been in a situation where we’ve seen something written on the board with the all too familiar DNE written next to it. I don’t now about you but I’ve always been tempted to just make minor alterations to equations, just to see if anyone notices. Of course the tremendous guilt I felt prevented me doing this as I always imagined someone using an altered formula and blowing up a building with it or something. Of course, as in this cartoon, sheer frustration can lead one to just lash out! I love it. 

If you’re at all interested by this style of comic, check out www. xkcd.com and see for yourself. And Randall, if you ever see this, forgive my most likely totally off the mark analysis of your work. Please don’t mock me. ttfn