In love with Munroe
December 10, 2009
In an effort to keep in touch with my kids and preserve my perspective while struggling under the crushing weight of a demanding job (poor me, I’m employed, a great problem to have), I’ve started reading 10 or so xkcd comics every day. My kids sometimes have giggle contests at the dinner table quoting these comics, some of which leave us adults looking at each other quizzically… did you get that?
As a consequence, I’ve fallen completely in love with Randall Munroe, or actually his comics but whatever. My favorites so far are:
- Pi Equals
- Fourier
- Barrel – Part 5 (only makes sense if you read the series)
- Paths (because I do this constantly, even when I’m not in a hurry)
- Escher Bracelet
- Jacket
- Sandwich
- Hamster Ball
- Donald Knuth
- Misusing Slang (my son kindly explained “pwned” to me)
- YouTube
- Open Source
If you have never read xkcd before, you might not know about the extra text you can read if you mouse over the strip and wait a second. Sometimes that explains things, sometimes it is just more humor.
Misusing Slang
So, was the yellow window supposed to imply what “pwned” is???
No no, “pwned” is current slang that the younger generation knows and the adult in the comic is using incorrectly, with the result that the teen twitches.
The best place to look up current slang is the urban dictionary, which you can find via google. But watch out – some of it will make your hair stand on end! The definitions for pwned there though are pretty tame.