phthalombrage | (no subject)

Randall Munroe is a god, but only if you're nerdy enough.
I wonder what it's like to seem divine to a specific subset of the population without being a rockstar and asking for it.
I felt like he should have had a bodyguard or something, like any other celebrity, but nerds are harmless/friendly people, nobody would have a motive to assassinate him, and to most people, he's just some guy, a stranger, and they wouldn't travel hundreds of miles at the drop of a hat because he told them to on some silly website, so it was probably unnecessary.
Chrisamaphone said he looked so normal, especially compared to everyone else there. He did. He's quite mundane-looking, but geeks tremble in awe when they see his small frame because they know that behind that innocuous facade, there is the mind from which each week's three installments of xkcd spring, comics that can hardly be described as normal.
I really like that he keeps this thing going without being a total sellout. Nobody tried to sell us anything.
And he was so humble.
He wore a normal shirt, with a small button he had made (that morning? or is it in the online shop?) and later a nametag like us with "xckd" inscribed thereon. I wonder how he prepared for this... He obviously made the whiteboards beforehand... What did he expect? How many people did he think would actually show? Was he disappointed by our displays? Is he groaning at the stupid faces he thinks he made in some of our photos on the internets? Is he technorati-searching blogs for his name to see what we think of him? How much spare time does he even have?
I mean, he's just a person. Some guy, on the internets, lone ruler of XKCD mountain.
I see all the photos of him inspecting the Shrinetent, climbing the Structure, posing with herds of closely-packed (but amorphous? insane...) strangers who had flocked to his side like Buffalo buffalo shuffling off to Buffalo. What does it feel like to be so loved? I doubt I'd be able to deal with so many people at one time.
But seriously, you decide to write some webcomic, and it's a long shot for success, but suddenly people realize you have good ideas and funny ideas and everyone likes it and you're the hottest man in the nerd universe.
Any accolades/semi-religious adoration Randall Munroe gets from strangers is entirely deserved because a) omg he writes XKC freaking D and b) he seems like such a decent, upstanding nerd and definitely not an asshole.
I feel a bit ridiculous for going because it seems so random, but at the same time I'm really proud to have done such a crazy thing.
If Randall Munroe were as creepy as Laura Benson and happened to come across this(I sincerely doubt it, but you never know, programmers are paranoid), he should know that he has my utmost respect and that of several hundred (thousand?) other nerds.
-Some girl (a REAL nonentity this time) on the internets