Still haven't heard back about the frame job.

I like to ask what kind of music they like. It isn't always memorable, but it gives me a leg up on a few people.
I tell them when they can expect a prompt response (weekdays) and when they might want to hold off on emails (weekends). Depends on the class and what assignments they're working on; botany lab doesn't generate many emails, but Foundations can get busy when papers are due.
It's just like Pony Club, again. Don't call everybody kids accidentally. Acknowledge that your students might know more than you about some things, and show them that you value their experiences.

Endophyte studies, particularly those that isolated Alternaria at high frequency. I'm going to stick to the primary literature for this one.
He does have a story. It's pretty good, but not very long yet. Ask him for that.
I want to play your dating sim! Do it!

I'm seeing plenty when I google him. Did you remember to add "wrestler" to your search?
Do you mean they're all heels, or all uninteresting as wrestlers? Because yes, they all seem to be villainous. But I kind of like slimy cheating heels, so Taya's okay. No interest in Cobra Moon or Mariposa.
I'm working on it. Starting to get some concept ideas. Trying to merge "I'm Canada..." with someone who is much too proud of coming from Nowthen, MN.
It's not like the non-masked wrestlers are uninteresting. They're just less alluring. And I've been trying to imagine all of them without masks. That's the point.

Hmm. You're more of a music person than I am, so I'll probably have to come up with my own thing. It's annoying when I cannot simply function as an extension of you.
It looks like I'm going to be TAing an intro biology lab. Predictable, but not super exciting (not set in stone yet, though). I bet it's going to be for non-majors, too.

Are you trying to find the bestest way to get those Alternarias? Do people not already agree on the best way to grab the little Alternaria from the soup?
You've read it? So he's willing to give it away for free? The invisible hand of the free market says I shouldn't pay him for anything he's willing to give away.
Er. Maybe. Okay. I'll have to come up with some sort of conversion for the art. A picture might be worth a thousand words, proverbially, but it takes me a lot longer to make a picture than a thousand words.

I was indeed googling up the wrong tree. "WWE" doesn't give nearly the correct results that "wrestler" does. Still can't find this cape you claim he has.
I mean that I find them all pretty uninteresting. I'm prepared to like Taya, but so far she hasn't done anything to distinguish herself from "generic arrogant heel". Her style also hurts my eyes.
Give me your luchasona! Give it to me!
Bonesaw is a disgraced anatomist who was shunned by her fellow intellectuals for her bloodthirsty nature, and came to wrestling to find a place to indulge her dark urges. She wears a blood-spattered labcoat down to the ring, but her wrestling attire is sort of a generic black and white. Her fighting style focuses on submission holds. Every time she uses a submission, the commentators talk about how her medical background gives her an advantage in disabling the human body, even though it's obvious that they don't know what an anatomist actually does, or whether "anatomist" is even a real job title people use anymore. She debuts as a heel with some fanfare, but pretty soon gets lost among the many other mid-ranked, gimmicky heels.

In intro labs, it helps to encourage them to get to know their neighbors and work together. Decreases the amount of time you spend helping everyone do the exact same thing, because they either figure it out or all ask at once. And non-majors are the best! They think the most basic things are interesting and novel.

I've been wondering how common it actually is as an endophyte.
Maybe I already told him about the state of the economy. Maybe I'm on his side.
How about you finish the pictures and the words and send me the executable?

That's because he wrestles for NXT right now, not WWE in general. Too bad. Get an instagram.
Same. I just like how she has the same aesthetic as Johnny Mundo. And her pants are fun.

Estrella Norte is from Nowthen, MN, via Mexico and Japan. She is repeatedly and comically forgotten by all of the announcers and her love of Minnesota knows no bounds. At every opportunity, she grabs the microphone to enlighten the crowd, but she tends to get interrupted. Basically tecnico, but hates anybody from Texas (stole our hockey team) and Washington (red delicious apples), and will attack anybody who says anything bad about Minnesota (not that it comes up much).
Her attire is a fitted crew-neck half-shirt and shorts, with boots, arm guards and a half-face mask. Three versions: Blue and white, maroon and gold, loon-themed. Hair shaved, not visible under mask.

The alternative to non-majors is probably getting all of the pre-med folks, so... yeah, actually, non-majors sound great.
I'm not going to know for sure what I'm teaching until August 3rd. Is this normal? Do you find out your assignment sooner than that?

So have people isolated it from a lot of different places/things?
What, you guys are in league now? Ganging up on me? I think I have to impose tariffs, or something. Or collapse the gold standard. I don't know how economies work.
That's all well and good, but I still need to be held accountable for both during NaNo. I thought you didn't even like dating sims? This is intentionally not very ambitious, so it's not going to be genre-redefining.

Excuse me for not keeping up with wrestlers' careers. I cannot even describe how little I want an instagram. It may well be the social media in which I am least interested. It's pictures... of people.
I do enjoy her pants, but every time I see her hair and fake eyelashes my brain makes a record scratch sound. It's a lot. I need a lot more personality from her to justify that look, because right now she's mostly just a look, and it is eye-smarting.

Aren't you concerned about being black and white and cripplingly overspecialized? Loon-themed outfits are dangerous.
It's kind of a weird coincidence, but the outfit you gave Estrella is, as I picture it, kind of similar to what I drew for Bonesaw. Weird. In the loon aspect they would be practically twinsies. With striking differences in hair, that is.

Pre-meds are cute. I like to try to corrupt them. And they care so very much about grades.
Sad for you. I've known for a month, and that was late for me. I've got Plant, Algal Fungal again.

It's everywhere. Very common allergen, spores frequently found in the atmosphere, plant pathogen on most things, common endophyte.
Please collapse the gold standard. It is necessary.
I enjoy them when I don't have to memorize facts about people via failing to know facts about people and having to restart the game. I should be able to find the information or figure it out. You know, fair game design?

It's pictures of people that were taken and curated deliberately to cultivate an online presence. In some cases, it acts as a working portfolio. In others, it helps to maintain a fanbase by providing a window into somebody's life. Alternatively, it's a mess and people shouldn't be allowed near cameras. One of those.
Yeah, the hair is a lot. And her teeth creep me out, but there's nothing she can do about that.

As conceived, she's already cripplingly overspecialized. Comedy characters can only go so far. She'd have to cultivate an impressive number of feuds to be taken half-way seriously.
We both prefer conservative female wrestling attire? I am shocked. Shocked.
Does Bonesaw have a mask? I wasn't picturing one from your description.
*Note that it's not cultural appropriation, but rather cultural re-appropriation, since masked wrestling was originally introduced to Mexico from the US, and was first featured in a show in Paris.
**I've already delved too deep. This is the end for me. We can not get out

I don't want my students to care so very much about grades. If they care about grades, they will want to have Conversations with me about their grades. I don't want to have Conversations.
Did you just... not use an oxford comma? Or is it even an oxford comma if there is no "and"?

Ah. I gotchu. Common fungal friend. Ripe for the meta.
Fair... game... design? What are these words? I know nothing about game design. I was planning to have the game be constant quizzes about content that the player is unlikely to have seen, with immediate, un-recoverable game-overs for any mistake.

Isn't it mostly just selfies, or people going about their lives, and such? Is it really that great to see wrestlers and figure skaters going on vacation and eating bagels?
I hadn't noticed her teeth. I try not to notice teeth, when I can avoid it.
I forgot, when you asked my favorite wrestlers--King Cuerno is almost as much my favorite as Drago is. Who are your favorites?

Feuds are everyone's stock in trade, though, so it's not like that's specific to comedy characters. Although I think comedy heels might have an easier time than comedy faces? At least in my very limited experience. I can think of some very big name heels that rely strongly on a comedy/loathsomeness mixture, but not any big name comedy faces.
There's more than one type of conservative female wrestling attire. Those hideous bodysuits, for example. We both chose crew neck crop tops for no immediately obvious reason.
When I drew Bonesaw, she had a mask, but that was because I drew her before coming up with her concept. Conceptually, I think she's not masked.
**Don't try to get out. Go deeper.

A lot of times you can pass that particular buck up to the professor. Or just point them to the syllabus.
You should know I oppose the Oxford comma in all but the direst of circumstances. That's just the way I write out that class name, though.

Nooooooo
The only free dating sim I've played online, all of the characters were deeply wounded if you didn't know their favorite foods. They never mentioned their favorite foods. It was awful. You weren't even giving them the food. You were just answering their weird date gatekeeping questions.

Mine are mostly not selfies. Tattoo artists just post tattoos, and it's hard to get a selfie while wrestling. And yes, it's worth it to see Johnny Weir eating a bagel.
They're small and don't touch. Evil peg teeth.
Funny, I haven't liked Cuerno up till now. I like Fenix and Pentagon and Drago and the Mack the most. Johnny Mundo is a beautiful man, but I'm tired of him as a heel. I need to see Rey Mysterio in a singles match; at this point, it feels like he's just there to hit a few spots in the trios matches.
Have you seen Rey Mysterio and Batista in the same picture? The height difference is amusing.
We should do a bracket for wrestlers next. Order will probably matter, so we can plug them into a few different permutations and see what happens.

The sheer volume of feuds would be a comedic aspect, I mean.
The bodysuits aren't conservative. They hit two of the Project Runway boxes for skanky clothes, tight and shiny. I've been thinking they look a bit like bad kermit suits.
Crew neck crop tops are the only way to live. Soon, everyone will be wearing them. Half-shirt halftime!
Wouldn't she want to protect her professional reputation? Nominally, anyway?
**There are big guys with whips down here. And horns. I don't know what they want and I'm uncomfortable.

Stimulus, response?

...Do we still... communicate using this medium?
I originally stopped because I was at home for Convergence, and then you were always traveling so it didn't seem worthwhile, and then...

So how's that NaNo coming along, eh? It seems that I am totally capable of carrying your butt, but you really should contribute a bit, on principle.
It turns out I vastly underestimated the amount of work that goes into the sort of game I am attempting to make. I am halfway through with one character's route. I was too dang ambitious with how reactive to player input everything is. I keep having to write six different versions of the same conversations to account for things that may or may not have happened. Plus, I am actively trying to eliminate all of the things that bother me in other people's dating sims, like... reusing dialogue, which I have now discovered has a VERY GOOD REASON for existing.

How's the tattoo? Slimy? Squishy? I have no idea what a healing tattoo is like. Text me pics.

Yes.

I might decrease my goal. We'll see.

So other people aren't necessarily lazy, just practical? Shocking. But it is good that you are making a game that doesn't bother you. Do you intend to finish regardless of your NaNo goal?

It is very oozy underneath the plastic bandage thing. Lots of brown goo mixing with extra ink. It clearly wants to be a big nasty scab, but the wrap keeps air away so it stays moist instead. We are truly living in the future.

Might send pics. Just looks brown, though.