One of those relatively common “getting to know you” games is “Desert Island.” You’re given a class of objects (like, CDs), and a number indicating how many you can bring. In short, if you had to listen to 5 albums for the rest of your life, or read five books, or play the same five board games, which would you choose?

Today’s xkcd was on the subject of being stranded, isolated, with essentially large amounts of time on your hands. I was so happy reading it, because in one panel he describes that during the character’s infinite solitude, he “rederived modern math in the sand… and then some.” This is what I had always imagined when I’ve played Desert Island. No distractions - no women, enough food to support me, no video games, no internet. Just a (let’s say noble) quest to further my own knowledge. Discover. Explore. I think of it like being in an enormous library of blank books except for a few basic texts, which you know by heart. Eternity to fill them. [caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”400” caption=”Courtesy of xkcd.com”][/caption]