Oh, nerds

For any of you who read xkcd, one of the nerdiest webcomics out there (which I am proud to say I understand about 90% of the time), you can finally see what the creator, Randall Munroe, looks like! Couldn't you just eat him up?

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/11/xkcd#

Although it's a webcomic with a lot of oblique references for math/science heads, it's got several strips that are pretty relatable if you're merely just neurotic.

"I think the comic that's gotten me the most feedback is actually the one about the stoplights[*]," says Randall Munroe, creator of the hugely popular comic with the unpronounceable title. "Noticing when the stoplights are in sync, or calculating the length of your strides between floor tiles -- normal people notice that kind of stuff, but a certain kind of person will do some calculations."

*I think one of the commenters is right when he suggests that maybe Munroe actually meant this comic about turn signals, not the linked stoplights one. [Aside: I think it's adorable that g-mail makes a point of using proper grammar. In linking that comic, the pop-up link creator said, " to what URL should this link go?"]


I am fully guilty of comparing the beat of my turn signal to other people's, the beat of other people's signals to my music, the beat of my music to my windshield wipers...

You guys remember that commercial where everything everyone is doing outside the car is in-step with the rhythm of the music inside the car (somehow I feel like this is a VW commercial from when the Bug was coming back)? And it's cool and kind of twilight-zone and you think "man, I love it when that happens." Well, maybe you do. At least, I get a kick out if it when it happens because it's like, amidst all this seemingly random chaos, everyone's personal rhythms are coming together for an instant. (As an English teacher abroad I can probably turn this into some kind of cross-cultural communication metaphor but fuck that shit.) Anyway, can you imagine every aspect of the world pulsing together at one consistent frequency? Actually, come to think of it, it would be very A Wrinkle in Time, wouldn't it?