XKCD

When I was in high school, I was browsing the internet while writing a paper, and I stumbled across something amazing. It was a hand-drawn comic uploaded only to the web. It featured stick figures instead of fully drawn characters. It combined math humor with romance, thoughts on life with ironic puns. It was called XKCD.

It's a strange name, I know. But if you're someone who's never heard of XKCD before, and you mention it to someone who has, you'll almost always get a positive, if not fanatical reaction. You'll get referenced to several "favorite" strips, and before you know it, you'll be a fan too.

Thanks Randall Munroe. You're a boss.

When I saw the comic above, I knew I was hooked. I spent the next hour or so browsing through all the comics in the archives, and little by little, I felt like I was getting to know the author on a strange, personal level. The strips are funny, yes, but the best ones are also thoughtful. They betray Mr. Munroe's personal sensibilities: how he hates jerks, how he treats adulthood as a continuation of childhood, and how he's waiting around for the "the one" to come around in his life. "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language," indeed.

But this post is not about XKCD alone. At the end of this browsing session, I had a fleeting thought: "Wow, I'd really like to meet this guy. He sounds like he's got some interesting views on life, and would be fun to talk to. And he's got guts for putting it all out in the open, in the form of a comic." But I dismissed it as an impossibility. Whatever. How am I ever going to find this guy anyway?

Randall himself.

Well, it turns out, when you're at Yale, these people end up finding you. It was a sunny day last spring, and I was just heading out of section when one of my friends asked me, "Hey, are you going to go see that XKCD guy?"

I did a 180º. "What, he's here?"

"Oh yeah, for a Master's Tea in Pierson College. It starts in 15 minutes."

This was my chance. Someone I never thought I'd have the luck to meet, all of a sudden here! And in 15 minutes! I went along with my friend and raced down the streets of New Haven, trying not to drop our bookbags in the process.

When we arrived, the place was packed. Not only were all the seats taken in the living room, but at least 30 people were standing outside the front door of the Pierson Master's House, anxiously buzzing and waiting for news on whether more space would open up. One of those in line was jumping up and down, clutching his hair in frustration. "I skipped club wrestling for this! And I'm the captain!"

Finally the door cracked open a bit, and one of the Masters' Aides peeked out to tell us that the talk had already started, and that there was no more space. We all groaned in disappointment. The wrestler moved up to the front of the line and had a desperate conversation with the aide. She disappeared, and then came back with news. "Alright. We'll let you in. But you have to be quiet."

We quietly snuck in the back of the living room, and there he was, Randall Munroe, seated on a green armchair in front of dozens of students, casually answering questions from the crowd. He responded to our questions with comic grace befitting of the quality of his work, and told us stories we would have never had a chance to hear. He told us of his most recent kite photography expedition. He told us of his most recent girlfriend. When prompted on how he keeps track of all his ideas, he pulled out a worn red Moleskine notebook. "All my ideas go in here, good or bad. I then run them over with my friends to see if a third party finds them funny. More often or not, they're not." (The host of the talk, the Master of Pierson College, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the exact same notebook. "I've got one too!")

By the time the talk was over, we all felt like we had met a friend. He took a few photos with the fans, and then left with the crowd of students to go have dinner with the Pierson Master and a few lucky Pierson students. We all stayed huddled outside the Master's House long after he had exited, though. We traded reactions and commentary, and some students involved in the Yale Political Union described how the attacked Richard Stallman in ninja suits when he visited Yale, a reference to one of the most loved XKCD comics (you can find the picture of the attack on Wikipedia).

At the end of the day, I realized that something I never thought would happen had just happened. An open loop had been closed, thanks to my good fortune in being a student at Yale. I don't know if it will happen again, but I'm definitely waiting for that next spring day, when I get out of section, find out about a neat talk, and rush off to meet the next cool person I'd never thought I'd never meet.

(Oh, and since you asked, I do indeed have some favorite strips of mine. Try this one on for size: http://xkcd.com/548/)