Fifteen Years | Hacker News Reader

Fifteen Years

xkcd.com

211 pointsfrizlab30 comments

Jeeeesus I wasn't ready for that. my wife was diagnosed 11 years ago. we had been trying for kids for 4 years prior and finally had to give up. the drugs they put you on for cancer for 5 years, well, you cannot have kids. and she was already getting up there in age. she finally came off of them in 2020. then a year later, we found out she was pregnant. and because she was pregnant with a girl, my wife got a genetic test and found out she has the BRCA-1 mutation which explained her breast cancer diagnosis from 2014... and also put her on high alert for ovarian cancer. after the preventative surgery, it turns out she had precancerous cells in her fallopian tubes. this little girl of ours had saved her life. just by being born. she's now three. and my wife is healthy, and happier than ever. I'm a lucky, lucky guy.

good on you, Randall. Congratulations.

That made so happy to read, wish you all the best!

Thanks for the comment. This was touching to read.

Just damn, that's quite the rollercoaster. It's great that everything worked out for the better!

This must be how winning in life feels like. I wish your family good health.

This one touched me deeply, when I first read it. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 5 years ago. Mean survival after diagnosis, I learned then, was 5 years. "Next year"? Damn. For a long time I couldn't think past next week! I'm finally venturing some thoughts about "next year."

As a person whose wife got her "you're in remission" statement a few months ago, this one hit me right where it counts.

This one, Lanes[0], has always stuck with me. I've not really kept up with webcomics after the death of Google Reader, so very happy to see this update so many years down the line!

[0] https://xkcd.com/931/

This is the one. Its impact on me has grown with time. I've read nearly every xkcd, but this is the one I think of.

Same, I think often about this image

"Years You Have Left to Live, Probably"[1], on Nathan Yau's FlowingData[2], reminded me of Lanes. I stumbled on it, selected my gender and age, and the animated distribution sampling began. And the first-ish sample was a 'dead this year', immediate ball plummet. That... left an impression.

[1] https://flowingdata.com/2015/09/23/years-you-have-left-to-li... [2] https://flowingdata.com/

This is beautiful

Two Years https://www.xkcd.com/1141/ , Seven https://xkcd.com/1928/ , Ten https://xkcd.com/2386/ . Lanes https://xkcd.com/931/

Great reminder to step back from the keyboard and hug your loved ones.

And Firefox mobile sucks for cutting off the left side of the screen with no way to scroll. But viewing the image directly works.

Who’s cutting onions…

Hey Randall, in case you read this… like many here, I've been following xkcd for a long, long time, and invariably, through the comics, the story of you and your wife. I don't know how you manage to convey so much through stick figure comics, but the raw emotion of the milestone comics makes me cry every time, both out of happiness for the two of you, the suffering in this world, and the beauty and madness and wonder of being alive. It really strikes home. I wish you all the best in the world, and many years together still. Thanks for everything.

Yes, this is true.

> "Want to feel old? Yes."

No you don't.

An elderly neighbor rolled up on his golf cart the other day and said out of nowhere, "growing old isn't for pussies". He wasn't lying. You get to feel old; you don't want to.

As my mother-in-law would say, "It beats the alternative." If you're feeling old, it means you're alive.

>> "Want to feel old? Yes."

> No you don't.

Maybe I missed something but I don’t know what you’re quoting or paraphrasing. In the comic the guy is saying he’s glad they’re getting old together, not that he’s glad they feel old. I don’t want to speak for my brother, but it seems weird to assume he is unfamiliar with what aging entails. Personally, I’m thrilled my sister-in-law is getting to experience the pains of aging instead of late stage cancer treatment.

> Maybe I missed something but I don’t know what you’re quoting or paraphrasing.

They're quoting the image's title text. Every xkcd comic has one. On desktop you can see it by hovering over the image. On mobile you generally can't see it. You can go to the mobile subdomain (https://m.xkcd.com/3172// and tap on the image, then it pops up underneath.

Ah yeah sorry I was on my phone and don’t usually use the mobile site. The rest of my point stands though. Maybe I’m too close to it but it seems like an odd response. The pains of aging are far preferable to dying of cancer at a relatively young age.

Firefox for Android, for one, shows the alt text at the top of the context menu that pops up when you long press an image.

If it's too long, it gets truncated, though.

You can tap on a truncated alt text to extend it.

Wow, that is certainly a superficial take on the meaning of Randall's sentiment.

The sentiment is clear, but the choice of words is a little jarring. Maybe both you and Randall are too young to know what feeling old feels like, so to you it seems like a charming metonym for enjoying a long life together, rather than daily mandatory torture. May you persist in that interpretation for a very long time.

This is a reference to the "wanna feel old?"-style comics, another recurring xkcd theme, for example [0], [1]. But yes, feeling old sucks.

[0] https://xkcd.com/1393/

[1] https://xkcd.com/1686/

> No you don't.

Growing old together is what couples want. He was afraid he would lose her to cancer thus he’s happy they’re getting older as it means they’re both still here together.

darn, something in my eye again.

I was introduced to XKCD by a friend 20yrs ago. Dann, time.

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