Courtside!

A week ago, I got to watch an NBA game courtside. And when I say courtside, I mean right up against the playing surface, close enough that a trip and fall could mean bad news for me. While there may be more proof if someone had recorded the game, the image on the left is the closest I have (click to enlarge). That is a screen grab from the game summary, showing the back of the head of yours truly. Granted the game wasn't that great, but I learnt things from the experience that make it truly memorable.

The biggest was that all the players looked surprisingly human. It must have been the distance and the angle, because you could see the tense walk, the relaxed stroll, and the rush after a score, writ large on their faces. And most surprisingly for me, the relief when they pass the ball on to the star on the team. You can actually sense the difference between the confident play by the star and the "hot potato" passes that get to him. I had always imagined that the commentators made it up - never realized the body language could be so loud.

Everyone, and i mean everyone, wipes their shoes before coming on. There is an unobtrusive pad tucked behind the column where everyone - the stars, the kids, the cheerleaders, the performers, and the corporate honchos - has to wipe their shoes before entering the arena. And the side effect of this obsessive cleanliness is the familiar squeak-squeak of shoes on wood.

If you are ever scheduled to do anything during a big game, prepared to never be ready for it. Say you are a playing a one-on-one with another guy in a sumo suit. One second you are walking through the entrance and the next thing you know, a mascot is flying in the air towards you to knock you on your behind. Or say you are scheduled to show up on television and wave while the voice in the air talks about something you represent. One minute you have a guy in a suit chatting inanities with you, telling you stand just so and face that way. And the next you know there is a blinding light on your face and a camera from halfway across the stadium zooms in on your pores. Talk about deer in a headlight.

Down on the court, in spite of all the din in the stadium, the players can actually hear each other and the coach. The fans makes it difficult, but it is not half as bad as the television makes it feel. And when you can hear each other, guess what else works - heckling. When you are sitting that close, and yell someone's name out - it is pretty hard for them not to turn in response.

The players wear enormous shoes. With no innuendo, if you leave your foot stretched too far out, it is only a matter of time before a throw-in results in your toes being squished out from under you.

And last but not the least, staring at cheerleaders is uncomfortable when you are close enough for them to look right back at you. Gawking is best accomplished via the Jumbo Tron. Moreover they all wear too much makeup.

The Oatmeal

The Oatmeal is a different sort of web comic. Different good; different hilarious in fact. There is no story arc, or recurring characters. Instead, each comic stands alone, like an info-graphic. Providing us a window into startling corners of the mind of its creator - Matthew Inman.

The main comic page is made up of panels, square like the tiles of Windows Mobile 7. And they bear some of the most startlingly captivating blurbs. Consider the following:

How you can not click on invitations like that?

The comics deal with topics that are typically geeky but accessible, covering topics from web-design, pets, language and lots of opinion.

There aren't that many comics, so a solid session should get you all caught up. And if you like stumbling like I do, there are probably a fair share of comics you'd have already come across before. But they still manage to be both interesting and funny. And Tumbler agrees as well - when they adopted the TumblBeasts to stand in for all of their 503 errors.

In addition to the web comics, the site has a blog as well. It is funny enough to stand on its own.

Finally as a parting gift, check out Matt's take on the state of the web in 2010.

Angry birds, clueless pigs

The game Angry Birds, seems to be all the rage now. It is the top selling game on iTunes, and one of the most successful free games on the Android platform. It has apparently been downloaded 50 million times, and is responsible for 200 million fewer minutes of productive human existence each day. The game style itself is not new, but of course the execution of the game is snappy, beautiful and addictive. Yet, how many of us have paused to consider what we are really playing?

Apparently someone has, and made this video as proof.

Surviving the World

Surviving the World is a different sort of webcomic - a photocomic. Thanks almost solely to StumbleUpon, and its insistence on classifying the comic's contents as pictures, I began to stumble into doses of knowledge along with other photographs. Very soon be became one of those sites you stumble into, but never stumble out of.

Surviving the World (STW) offers up a form of wisdom, that is simultaneously tongue-in-cheek and profound. While the topics are varied, spanning everything from current events to philosophical gems, the treatment is typically pithy, accompanied by a supporting mugshot of the "Head Professor", Dante J.T. Shepherd.

Surviving the World, is a photocomic, in which Dante writes the content of the comic on a blackboard, and photographs it, with him standing in a corner of a frame providing contextual symbolism. The text on the blackboard is the star, with him in the supporting role. And that is all every comic has. Writing on a board and pose from the author. Does that make it a comic, you might wonder. And the author addressed it, head on as part of one of his posts. I guess I do buy into the argument. Hence this post.

Each comic is a lesson; a lesson to, as the name of the comic suggests, surviving the world. The initial posts were pithy commentary on the world. Over time, Dante has moved on to tackle other real-world topics. With over 746 lessons and counting, there are more than enough topics to go around.

Here are a few lessons to get you started. How to creep people out. Understanding hyperbole. Understanding Armageddon. Understanding Germaphobes. Understanding the perfect murder. And finally, understanding alternate universes.

The Guild

I stumbled upon "The Guild", via their hilarious music video called "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" (at the end of the post) and their blockbuster sequel "Game On"

The Guild is the story of six online gamers, who discover life IRL (in real life) to be very different from their successful online exploits. The story is told from the point of view of the principal character Codex, who goes by the name Sid otherwise. A dedicated gamer, Codex is nevertheless racked by doubt about not having a life offline. She is pursued ardently by Zaboo, who transitioned from a clueless mama's boy into online gaming and Codex.

Leading the guild is Vork, a sad bald man in real life who, apart from taking care of his sick grandfather, devoted himself completely to the cause of the online gaming team. Bladezz is the youngest in the group, still at an age where being a gamer automatically does not make it a social impediment. Yet, with a painful sibling and overbearing parents, he finds solace in acting his age with the rest of the group.

Tink or Tinkerballa is the second girl in the group. Seemingly the most normal of the lot, she nevertheless displays a cunning ruthlessness in real life, to the discomfort and enlightenment of her fellow gamers. Finally there is Clara, who is also known as Clara, and is a mother of three young kids. Balancing her maternal responsibilities with the demands of gaming prove difficult for her, and she naturally chose gaming; over parenting or her half-sister's wedding.

The six eclectic characters begin the series with the first meeting outside of their quests in the unnamed (presumed D&D) MMO. Season One, deals with the introduction of the characters, followed by the story arcs of Zaboo's freedom and the pwning of Bladezz. Season Two, follows the story arcs of the stunt guy in Codex's apartment along with the epic party that follows. That is as far as I got to before I decided to post. With each episode lasting between 4 and 8 minutes, an hour tomorrow should take care of Season Three.

Returning to the previously scheduled programming, here is the music video that was responsible for this post.

Bug Comic

Bug is a funny cartoon strip. There are many comics out there, that follow the traditional joke route - set-up, build tension, and close with punchline. None do it as eloquently as the Bug Comic.

The comic strip is always four panels wide, with the first panel typically reserved for just the setup text. Bug characters, cute but nameless, populate the other three. And yes, the bug is indeed cute, with a white underbelly and black backs. The characters wear glasses, ties, dress up as Santa, and are anywhere between polite, rude, snarky and fun. The best bugs are, of course, the baby bugs, with their unnaturally large heads and a perennially off balance pose.

The strip is not terribly topical and the subjects do not suffer from excessive nerdy-ness. This makes them very accessible. A frequently used format is a "Dear somebody" letter. With the opinionated bug occupying the setup and punchline hunched over a paper, and the middle panels containing the build up. The strips of triathlon organizers, mr. president and mr. flipped collar follow this format. There are other funny strips featuring zombies, love stories, aliens, midget ninjas and of course, this guy.

Written by Adam Huber, the comic has an interesting history. Turns out, Adam had the idea for bugs back in high school, but it wasn't until the reemergence of the pest much later in life that it finally took shape as a webcomic. That definitely sounds like a bug to me. The comic hasn't been around for long, but even with a daily posting schedule Adam has been successful in retaining its freshness. One of the great things about this being a short comic is that you do not have to a story arc to worry about. Which is where the random button comes in handy. Or you could just read them one after the other from the archives.

PhD Comics

For a number of years now, this is one of the few email notifications I have and the only one for a webcomic.

Piled Higher and Deeper, aka PhD Comics. PhD Comics is a very funny take on life in graduate school. The characters in the strips appear in short episodic bursts, dealing with work, friends, money, parents, expectations and of course their professors.

The characters in strip are well drawn, and perfectly relateable. Cecilia, is a geek, and a girl. Both very important in understanding her. She can be neurotic and brilliant, and did I mention neurotic. Mike Slackenerny has been around for a long time. Even though he is the king of free food, and a (surprise) graduate, his wife Jen and their kid are desperately waiting for his doctoral brilliance to shine through.

Tajel is a firebrand, humanities student that has an opinion about everything and finds causes to protest passionately about. Finally, there is the nameless guy, that was the hero of the comic and has never, formally been named.

Finally, no post about PhD comics can be complete, without mentioning their most important motto - procrastination. And reading the comics from the beginning can definitely be a good way to attain it. Or you could just look through the most popular ones.

SMBC

And it doesn't refer to a weekend feeding frenzy. Instead it is a short webcomic, that is funny and to the point, without a cast of characters, no intricate plot and artwork that reminds you of doodles you made in middle school.

And yet, there is something enjoyable about each post. There is something intelligent and topical about the posts. And through the artwork, the characters seem to easily communicate with the reader.

With a large volume of comics (the comic has been active since 2002), a large friendly “RANDOM” button and the fact that each page scrolls up to the comic (instead of making you scroll from the banner) make it one of the more inviting webcomics out there.

After the break, a few fun ones to get you going.

Dinosaur Comics

Continuing with the posts about good webcomics, here is a different type of comic - called Dinosaur Comics. What, you ask, is so different about this comic? Well, for starters every strip looks exactly the same. That's right, the exact same panels in every single strip. The only different is the dialogue taking place between the characters. Imagine that, every story looks exactly the same, but tells a completely different story. I looked it up, this type of comic writing is called a constrained comic.

There are three main characters in the strip, starting with T-Rex. T-Rex is generally a fun guy, in a goofy self-centered sort of way. Utahraptor, is T-Rex's friend and sometimes the voice of reason in the strip, and sometimes the foil to T-Rex's designs. As confirmed by the comic's creator, Utahraptor is also gay. And finally there is the Dromiceiomimus. Dromiceiomimus was a one-time love interest of T-Rex, and that brings about an interesting love-hate relationship between the two.

Every strip looks like the above. Sometimes T-Rex is funny, sometimes he is deep, he communes with the God, sometimes with the Devil. Here are a couple (after the break) to get you started.

The Order of the Stick

While xkcd and Cyanide are self-contained strips, other webcomics have taken taken the route of epic fantasy - literally. My favorite example of such serialized goodness is The Order of the Stick - a.k.a. OOTS.

The Order of the Stick, follows the adventures of a team of warriors who are battling the great evil of Xykon. And while they are on this quest, they are constantly fighting monsters, dealing with silly detours, gaining XP points, leveling up all while making wise-cracks about the nature of role playing games (Dungeons & Dragons in particular).

The OOTS is led by Roy Greenhilt, an uptight warrior with an enormous sense of duty in fulfilling his father's last wish. Much of the comic is dedicated to the growth of Roy as the leader of the rag-tag band. Supporting as second in command is Haley Starshine, who excels as a scout because of her skill in deception.

Belkar Bitterleaf is a dwarfish, selfish, oafish and dangerous halfling. In addition to being extremely bad in his skills, he keeps the rest of the order on its toes by being highly unreliable.

Durkon Thundershield is the healer of the team. And the ponderous, capable dwarf who is just as likely to address ye olde self, as bring down the lightning of Thor.

Elan and Vaarsuvius are the single-word named duo, forming the rest of the team. Elan is a simpleton. Able to infuriate with his puns and songs than actual fighting, while Vaarsuvious is a self-centered, arrogant and condescending gender-ambiguous wizard.

If you like role playing games (RPG), you probably have already heard of this comic. Even if you have not heard of RPGs, the comic more than stands for itself beyond the arcane lingo of skills, checks and levels. Ignore it, and in no time you will start to realize what those terms really mean.

At the time of writing this, there are a total of 743 episodes available. Everything you need for hours of role-playing, comic fun.

xkcd

If you Google “webcomics” the first result is xkcd. And deservedly so.

Published by Randall Munroe, xkcd describes itself as a “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” The comic displays and celebrates a distinctly geeky view of the world, and is comfortable tackling subjects like raptor attacks, sex, computer jokes, celebrities and responding to and creating memes. While most of the comic is line drawings of stick figures, sometimes things do get more artistic. For all its fame, some of xkcd's jokes are unapologetically inaccessible.

That is what makes is such a fun read. Geeky, intelligent and funny. Here are a couple of examples to help you get started.

Cyanide and Happiness

One of the best examples of the democratization power of the Internet, in my mind, is the explosion of webcomics. Comics or funnies, had few outlets beyond a section in the newspaper or a major comic publisher. Particularly the comic strip suffered from a severe shortage of real-estate, hindering any meaningful exploration of the genre.

The Internet changed all that. Now we have a wide variety of comics from the beautifully illustrated to the stick figures, all with a story to tell.

I realize, I want to post about a few of my favorites.

Up first, Cyanide and Happiness, is just that - poking fun at stuff you probably should not be. Topics are almost always dark or cynical and, more often than not, offensive. It is a bit like Southpark, but with real adults and no preachy ending. Also, before I forget to mention, extremely funny. The strip below is a great example, and had me guffawing.

Tells you something about my sense of humor now, doesn't it? And the site has a random option, that allows you to browse around for hours.

Psychic octopus

This is hilarious. There is a psychic octopus, born in the UK and moved to Germany, that predicts world cup match winners - with amazing accuracy.

The question of course is - has anyone with a coin competed with it to see how better the octopus fared against a coin flip.