I was thinking of getting a couch or something for my room, somewhere for guests to lounge around.
Fuck new couches. I now have a ball pit in my room.
I talked a little bit to Mike Machenry, who built a ball pit last year after reading my comic about it. The big problem with ball pits is that they’re expensive. Filling a room costs on the order of $4000, give or take. You can use this calculator (set up by relsqui of #xkcd) to find the cost for a given room. I’d use 64% for the packing efficiency — that’s about what I’ve found.
So given the expense, I didn’t fill my whole room — just an area the size of the bed, to a depth of a couple feet — and even that cost as much as a reasonable couch. The cost was as high as it was largely because Mike strongly recommended crush-proof balls, which allows for a lot more roughhousing but cost about twice as much as regular ones on eBay.
But it was totally worth it. After seeing how much fun it is to lounge around in it, we’ve decided to get together and build a larger one in the living room and throw parties there (though we want to solve the cleaning problem first in a scalable way). The day we put it up, we spent probably twelve hours, on and off, lounging around throwing plastic balls at each other. It’s totally worth it, and everyone’s excited about expanding it. It’s wonderful to be able to wake up and roll sideways, blanket and all, into a ball pit, and sink slowly down to the bottom. I’ve padded it with pillows and blankets to make it more fun to, uhh, wallow, or whatever the appropriate verb is for ball pits.
And before you jump to comment — over the last 24 hours we’ve completely exhausted all the balls-related innuendo, so you needn’t bother.
Here are some more pictures:
Abby, on the left, descends slowly into the balls. We never did find her again.
As Mike discovered, you can sort the balls pretty quickly by throwing only certain colors away from yourself.
Everyone I know seems to use Fujitsu Lifebooks. <3 ultraportables.
To the above situation, we can only say:
ThemePark Says:
November 28th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
jeszjesz, I think that is due to this:
?And before you jump to comment ? over the last 24 hours we?ve completely exhausted all the balls-related innuendo, so you needn?t bother.?
I’m crushed. But hey, at least my balls are OK. (Couldn’t help it)
[...] These are too cool. I want one too! Comment on this post [...]
[...] I want a ball pit in my house, like the guy from xkcd.com It’s wonderful to be able to wake up and roll sideways, blanket and all, into a ball pit, and [...]
I’ve heard God is also fond of Freeze Tag and Hopscotch.
it’s also really hard to pack an apartment with balloons
especially when you’re the lungs of the operation
I blew two layers worth, and then passed out in the balloons until some time later, I was found like this:
http://artiswrong.com/apartment/the.best.apartment-Thumbnails/0.jpg
Risk assessment.
Average height of a person in United States: Male: 178cm Female: 163cm
Now the height to submerge ones knees (if you are of average height) would be 2 ft, providing ample joy and hysterical fits of giggling.
HOWEVER!!!
At average, a person’s palm sits approximately 2.5 feet off the floor. You would think now, that it would be safe to swing your arms freely and not inadvertently throw balls at breakable objects.
Insert risk.
Nintendo Wii controller:
Profile: Approx.
6 inches length.
Hard.
Weighty.
Devastatingly brutal ability to launch a plastic ball.
This extension of the hand, although partially overlapped by the hand, reduces the gap between safety and mayhem to a mere 3 inches!!!
People, we have a risk potential here of property damage, assault charges, insurance fraud, and worse.
Methods of reducing that risk include:
1. Not having 25000 plastic balls in your apartment (drastic option only to be employed by court order).
2. Grow 3 inches. Naturally, platforms, or a book. It doesn’t matter.
3. Hire a man with a velociraptor to roam the halls of your apartment block whereby all people curious to know why they are being assaulted by brightly coloured balls become more intrigued by why they are being eaten by an extinct lizard.
The choice is yours.
Choose wisely.
Has the fourth panel happened yet?
Oh god, where am I? How did I get here? What blog linked me here? What’s going on? What…oooo, ball pits!
Best blag ever.
Best idea ever.
Best gift ever?
Glad to see I’m not the only one spouting off the virtues of the Fujitsu Ultra portable. I’ve had my Lifebook 7010D for a few years now and still no complaints, other that the tricky hinge it’s had since I dropped it :D.
YOU ARE MY HERO <3
Freaking cute and awesome! (Cute comic also, btw.)
After reading some of the comments here, I suggest you resolve the “how to clean the ball pit” question BEFORE you resolve the question of “what is it like to have sex in a ball pit?”
[...] I discovered xkcd and then chugged through the entire comics archive – and in the process discovered a talk at Google by Randall Munroe, and his ball pit couch [...]
Just don’t let any little kids in there…because what they do in ball pits is just disturbing. Love that net idea someone posted for cleaning. Also handy if someone drops their car keys. Happy New Year, by the way!
I’m so depressed. I was looking through my mates “ebay watched items” and found this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250194111744&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015
30 THOUSAND PLAYPEN BALLS FOR £100 (that’s ~$200). Avaivile in the city we live in.
And he didn’t buy them.
Nor tell me about them/
He will die a slow and painful death.
You are my new personal hero.
*wants so badly*
In the realm of things from xkcd coming close to reality. I found a design concept that reminded me of your “cuddle mattress” idea. Hope you got a patent!!!
http://www.red-dot.sg/Concept/porfolio/06/05FN/R021LM.htm
You sound like my mind twin, with a better education.
If you’re ever in Glasgow, I’m the one who walks in the rain with my face turned to the wind.
Just got the 18000 balls I ordered off eBay delivered. Result:
http://meuk.spritesserver.nl/foto/foto/misc8/img_3145.jpg
Well worth the money imo!
Sorry I didn’t make it through all the comments, so if someone beat me to the nitpicking correction of the physics observation….
The balls returning to chaotic order is exactly what’s expected. If they’d stayed sorted through sex, a party, repeated falling out of bed or washing–THAT would confound the second thermo principle; unless a bunch of little ball wallowing demon’s (named Max?) continually wallowed and threw particular colors away from them.
And somewhere Tom Pynchon is probably yelling, “&#$^@!!! They stole the key theme of my next novel!!”
My Hovse at Caltech actually made a very large ballpit several years ago, entirely funded by two guys’ participation in psych experiments. Unfortunately, the original balls are being depleted quickly–especially, for unknown reasons, the purples. So thanks for the link to the crush-proof balls!
haha how did i get here ? haha ball pitt thats cool ?sex in a ball pit even cooler
Hi!! You suck! your balls are lame.. i don’t get it:S:S:S:S grow up!!!
Nice ball pit! But I’d rather see your cock!
that looks excellent.. i want one.
Awesome idea XD It sounds like a much better replacement for a sofa.
I’ll consider this as a future plan for my house ;)
This is where my next $1000 will be going. I always wanted one, and now I know where I can buy the balls.
Awesome work
I had a plan a while ago to fill my linnen closet with ball pit balls with the intention of tricking people who hadnt been over to open it.
I somehow managed to get 400-500 from friends who for what ever reason had balls they were throwing out.
They are awesome fun manny a ball fight brokeout, unfrotunately I never got near the 2 or 3 thousand I’d need to fill the closet.
[...] one and a two and a three and an account of three.A few things, that’s 22, 500 balls right there, wow. Of [...]
An even bigger world for the balls:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/a-ball-bonanza-at-the-spanish-steps/?ex=1201150800&en=f24de234e9f521da&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Hi i am a teen from NJ and i am a senior this year and my school is not very big so for out senior prank my class mates and i wanted to turn the 9th and 10th grade locker area into a 2 foot deep ball pit we determined it would be like an area that is 14 feet wide and 27 feet long it i a ton of balls i know we dont know where to go to try to get this many do u have any idea for me to start looking
I don’t know if this has been pointed out to anyone, but take a look at this:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2008/01/17/2140365.htm
Apparently, an artist released them to highlight the city’s problems. I think he did it because it looks fun.
Oh, turns out I didn’t see Fantusa’s comments 2 hours ago. Sorry.
[...] I mean THIS [...]
[...] wasn’t like they had a giant open space in their headquarters screaming for a ball pit. They simply read about someone else who made a ball pit, were inspired by the idea, and, 19 hours later, had it [...]
Looks like mad fun, but also–could this be the most ergonomic laptop working environ ever? I mean, you could shift around and support yourself and orient your screen and keyboard everywhichway. Or no? Carpal tunnel sufferers want an excuse to justify ball-pit cost!
how to pick up on women…
how to pick up women the right way…
how to pick up women…
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[...] The comic inspired an online calculator to determine how many playpen balls you would need to fill your apartment (The first floor of my house would require 105,845 balls and cost over $20,000). One, Mike Machenry, felt inspired by the strip and constructed a ball pit in his own home. Then xkcd author, Randall Munroe, followed suit with his own ball pit. [...]
Yeah, the average packing density of random 3-spheres is, IIRC, about 64%.
There is a lot to be said about geeky people (grownups actually) enacting childhood dreams…all of which I will not say here.
Playpen balls in Rome:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/01/guerilla-artist.html
That has got to be the best thing I have seen in awhile. You are my hero.
[...] So ein Sofa möcht ich auch mal haben… Im McDonalds darf man ja nur bis zu 1.20m Körpergrösse in diese “Ballanlagen hinein. Als ich noch so klein war, gabs das ja noch nicht :-( Mühsam wirds dann aber, wenn mal ein Gast mit dem Kaffee rumkleckert. Da wäre wohl eines dieser Sofas besser geeignet, jedenfalls sieht man die Flecken sofort und muss nicht alle Kugeln putzen… [...]
Oooooh, me too! Wanna play balls too! Wanna ball pit! Wanna ball pit! Pleeeeeeeaaaase??!!
LMAO.
Amazing.
Thanks for you comic btw.
Its the best way starting my day.
One night in Paris Hilton sex tape released 00…
Recently leaked footage of the new Paris Hilton sex tape…
plastic tub…
Thanks for the compliment ?no one has ever told me that before!!…
absolutely. pure. envy.
.~.
Epic.