I will be in Ireland this Saturday, at SkyCon at the University of Limerick. I’m guessing they found me through my LimerickDB project, which may not be what they think it is. Since they rejected my original idea for a talk, which was based on John Cage’s 4’33” I will be talking about doing internet comics for a living, and related subjects such as frozen pizzas and MarioKart.
My apologies to everyone who’s extended a speaking/convention invitation who I didn’t get back to — the answer is usually ‘no, thank you’, but I’m too meek to say so (which is probably part of why my email piles up so badly). I love traveling and talking to people all day, but it’s so exhausting that I only do a couple of them a year.
xkcd 
Limerick? Aww, everyone know the only worthwhile things are in Dublin. Come here the next time!
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Holy crap, I had no idea you were behind LimerickDB. You never cease to impress me.
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http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131906-100.html
The Sony P might be a bit too short (yeah, I mean short, as in small in the height dept.), but the screen is 1600px wide, and it weighs 1.4lbs.
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You stole that John Cage line from my junior class skit in college! So where were you in February 1986??
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So will you be adding another name to the list of conferences you’re banned from?
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Which version of MarioKart are we talking about – N64 hopefully…
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Awww, I come from near Limerick, but I live in the wrong country now…
Anyways, what was the original Cage talk gonna be on? I’m just a curious composer.
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Unfortunately, I’ll be away for this too. I agree with Jack though: a talk in Dublin at some stage would be enthusiastically welcomed.
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Oh, and Scott McLaughlin might want to look up 4’33”, look sad and say do’h.
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hahaha.
I was just mentioning 4’33” to someone the other day.
and “meek” doesn’t mean “weak”
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If you made a YouTube music video with 4’33” as the background music, would they remove the audio track for copyright violation?
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Don’t worry. It’s pretty damn hard to get banned from furry conventions. Trust me, I’ve seen what it takes. D:
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@ Scott Mc Laughlin
“Anyways, what was the original Cage talk gonna be on? I’m just a curious composer.”
Really? You didnt pick up on the sarcasm? The point is he would say nothing…or am I not picking up on your sarcasm. If the latter is true I’m an idiot, the former you are 😉 (kidding)!
Randall-
Is this speech going to be taped so we can see?
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You should definitely come to Dublin, you would be much welcomed, you have a lot of fans here!
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Just a suggestion, not directly related to the content of the current blog post:
Today you posted three entries in a row. I think it’s way better to save articles (or ideas for articles, not written in full yet) and only post one once every three days or so, rather than throwing everything at once at your readers and then letting them wait for another 14 days without any sign of life in-between.
Besides that side remark, thanks for your blog, and of course for your more-than-often excellent comics 🙂
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@XKtylerCD
Skycon committee member here, yes we are recording it (and it should be available).
🙂
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Randall, if you only go to one convention/event in 2010, please come to Fort Myers during the Medieval Faire, or the Edison Festival of Light, or something.
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Whatever you do, don’t come to Los Angeles. It’s smelly and degrading here.
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LimerickDB was in no way responsible for you coming to our attention here. It may have been something to do with your webcomic. Maybe. 🙂
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Not to be that one guy who says it, but Limerick and I believe Glasgow are usually in competition for the title of “Stab City.” It seemed nice enough though when I passed through.
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Can’t make it to Limerick in time for the con alas, but if you are going to be passing through Dublin (Or even Belfast) at some point give the fans a shout. Free beer will likely follow 🙂
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Dear Dublin people, Dublin is only 2 hours away from Limerick. It’s not THAT far away that you couldn’t come down. Come down! We’re lovely 🙂
(there may be cake)
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If I didn’t have other commitments I’d be off down the N7 faster than you could say “What the fuck sort of a surname is Collopy anyway?”
Dammit, man – more advance notice next time!
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Looking forward to it! Also, I would have suspected that (like myself) Dublin residents would love an excuse to get the fup out of the capital for a weekend 🙂
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http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html
Quite hilarious, I have to say.
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There are at least a couple of us coming up from Cork. Maybe more, if we can collectively recover from rag week.
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Surely it’s simply a remarkable coincidence that I’ve run into two references to an obscure John Cage piece in about this week – here, and at the Kloonigames site, where he released his “4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness” a week ago….. right?
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I’ll be going to Skycon this Saturday. Currently as giggly as a school girl. (As opposed to the normal levels of giggliness designated to a school boy.)
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Hi, xkcd.
Has this conference anything to do with limericks? If so, you should come up with some limercs about romance, sarcasm, math and language.
Peace.
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I’ get you started:
There once was a speaker from XKCD
whom
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Just pre-booked my ticket to the conference. Looking forward to it so much. Can’t wait to see if Randall will divide by infinity. I wonder what will happen if he does.
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operagal loves that you managed to put such disparate elements into one post:
SkyCon
limericks
and 4’33”, which usually makes peoples heads explode.
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Ireland!
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“On February 14th, 2009, the University of Limerick Computer Society (Skynet) will be hosting Skycon ’09…”
Gasp!
Randall is going to take down Skynet! Be careful, and look for molten pits and giant crushers on the way.
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Could you give us more then 3 days notice next time please? This is especially important if you’re planning to give a talk in the south of England at any point. I can’t be the only xkcd fan with mobility problems, travelling needs lots of advance planning. Thanks.
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The latest comic (http://www.xkcd.com/543/) is not a fractal. It is not self-similar at the outer level (it’s a triangle filled with repeating hearts). It should be a heart filled with hearts or a triangle filled with triangles.
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No you’re the best!
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Sadly I have to be in Cork on the day, even though I’ve been looking forward to the talk since I heard about it a few months back. At least it’s being recorded 🙂
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Skynet? You’ll be back
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Is no one else amused by the speaker list?
“Speakers will include Randall Munroe (xkcd), Martha Rotter (Microsoft), Alan J. Guinane (AIB), Loraine Morgan (CSIS), Havok, David Malone (FreeBSD), Evert Bopp (Open Coffee), John Lunney (Demoscene), CJB (OpenStreetMap), Mel Gorman (Linux Kernel), Ciarán Maher (Daft.ie).”
That’s right Randall, You’re the top of that list. Be proud.
(Also, I think the Captcha just threatened me: “Injury signora” Creepy.)
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I would like to see Randall do a comic strip about hurling (the sport) after his trip to Limerick. Can someone from skynet blow his mind with a display? Probably not… but maybe you should show him a game.
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It’s a pity I have prior commitments… I have someone on the case to steal your hat though, fear not.
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I’mah try my best to be there… But eh, you know, might have trouble convincing parents to bring me…
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Not a comment to this post but a comment about the Valentines Day comic, especially the mouse over text! Love you too XKCD 😀
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Brilliant bit about John Cage.
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I second Shamikebab. It gave me the warm fuzzies.
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The talk was brilliant, well done. Did you come over specifically for it?
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Brilliant talk thanks for the kitty
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x-cake-cd is a lie!
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Made of awesome, thank you!
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