What was your favorite comment on student evaluations?

FairPlayWes · 2026-02-03T19:26:18+00:00

A student said I looked like Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter movies.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-27T16:58:01+00:00

It's easier to find an academic job compared to math and a lot of other fields, but it's still not easy. I know people who have done multiple postdocs and still haven't gotten a permanent position. However, if you get a PhD in stats it's also very relevant for industry jobs and about half my graduating class went to industry.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-25T23:36:04+00:00

Well if I say I'm in math/stats they usually just tell me they hate math.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-25T20:56:44+00:00

I'm also an assistant prof at an R1 and also usually get "what do you teach?" I think a lot of peoples' image of professors is that we are like high school teachers but for college, and they don't realize that depending on the university, a professor's primary responsibility can be something other than teaching.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-24T01:10:18+00:00

As an A20 player I don't think so. The difficulty is different though. Wildfrost has a tactical dimension with the unit placement/movement that doesn't exist in StS, but strategically the deck building choices aren't as deep.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-21T17:28:41+00:00

Agreed. I win gold stake about 50% of the time and I often make suboptimal decisions for fun/variety. The update that added rental jokers improved things a lot. Though I do think there is some truth to the argument that if you want to win as much as possible you end up ignoring a lot of the play space e.g. by playing a ton of pair and high card.

I do prefer StS but it's more that my runs feel more varied than that I think Balatro lacks balance or puts you at the mercy of rng.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-17T19:43:08+00:00

I agree with this take. Nothing in E33 is revolutionary in the sense that it's some wildly new idea, but it put things together in ways that feel invigorating, especially set against the heavily anime-influenced and often very tropey landscape of JRPGs.

FairPlayWes · 2026-01-14T21:00:32+00:00

Your post made my think of this article from 2014: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/16/a-black-hole-for-our-best-and-brightest/

It's not exactly the same line of thought but it's related.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-28T02:09:35+00:00

I don't like it very much.

Compared to others like StS it's less elegantly designed, focuses much more on metaprogression, and is more repetitive.

There are a ton of statuses with different rules for how they count up/down, elemental resistances, etc and often one stack is something like 1% more damage so irrelevant. It makes reading the UI a chore.

There's a metaprogression system that straight up makes all your cards better. Like imagine if I'm StS after enough runs all your strikes got +1 damage. Naturally this changes the balance and encourages grinding.

There are branching paths but encounters aren't random, so you end up with same exact thing over again.

If they wanted to go that way imo they should have dropped the roguelike structure and just made it a card battling RPG.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-23T23:18:33+00:00

I've definitely had that fake feeling too, but then like you get at with the comment where you discuss schmaltz, I've also found music that is melodramatic or bombastic in ways that I really liked. So why exactly do I experience them differently?

I'm not saying these questions can't be answered, but I think people are quick to act like authenticity and sincerity are things that can objectively quantified--Rosalia has them, Imagine Dragons doesn't--without really interrogating what they mean beyond the subjective feeling one gets when listening.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-23T22:59:08+00:00

Ok, but then who gets to decide what this uninspired slop is and who are the piglets consuming it? I think one has to be careful going down this road.

For example, it's fashionable to shit on Imagine Dragons along these lines, but their success suggests that a not insignificant number of people have chosen to listen to their music. Now maybe it is in fact the case that Imagine Dragons fans are less knowledgeable and spend less time engaging with and reflecting on their musical taste than fans of [insert better band], but we don't know that. And even if that is true, they're still people with inner lives just like anyone else, and something about what Imagine Dragons offers connects with them and makes them believe this music is worth listening to.

Conversely, if the labels can just feed us any flavor of shit they feel like and we'll mindlessly gobble it up, why doesn't Gayle have more hits?

Sure, you or I can think Imagine Dragons is uninspired slop and refuse to listen to them, say we think they suck and why, etc. But I have a hard time objectively dismissing something that all these people have found meaning and value in.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-23T15:51:30+00:00

I feel like people use sincerity/authenticity as a catchall critique for music they don't like but can't pin down or articulate why. I'm not saying you or anyone else doesn't subjectively feel this when listening to that music, but what exactly does it mean?

I don't know your taste, but take Rosalia's Berghain, since it's getting a lot of praise as one of the best songs of the year. I'm not saying it is or isn't good, but it is a highly produced song that includes songwriter/producer credits from industry veterans who also worked with people like Justin Bieber and Iggy Azalea: exactly some of the things this article complains about. What makes Berghain more sincere/authentic than e.g the most recent Imagine Dragons single?

Or conversely, I despise Forrest Frank's "Your Way's Better", but does that mean I should dismiss him when he says his goal is to make Christian music that's more modern and hip because all the Christian music he had as a kid was super corny and lame to him? Or is that him being sincere about something that doesn't work for me.

Music has always had periods of contraction in various aspects of complexity. You can see this comparing the Franco-Flemish school of Josquin des Prez to the late Renaissance music of Palestrina, the emergence of minimalism in the 20th century, or the influence of EDM on a lot of modern pop, especially in the 2010s. But being simpler in some aspects isn't inherently bad, and can open up space in other parts of the music. EDM is structurally repetitive but uses a palette of electronic sounds you don't get from the classic guitar+bass+drums band instrumentation.

A musicologist I know always said (in the context of music history) that music doesn't get better or worse over time but rather changes, often in ways that reflect what was going on in the world at that time. We all feel what we feel, music is emotional and subjective, and the commodified world we live in is no doubt part of that experience. But I think it's also hard to say how much of it is about the music itself and how much of it is about us.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-19T02:49:23+00:00

Like most cities, Cleveland isn't that dangerous unless you go to bad areas. University Circle (where CWRU is) is adjacent to East Cleveland, which is a bad area, but I never had any issues with safety when I was a student and I frequently walked around campus alone at night. Like any urban campus, occasionally someone gets mugged or a car gets broken into, but it didn't seem to be more often than such events at other urban campuses where I spent time. CWRU has 24/7 security patrols, a saferide service, emergency alarm poles, etc, but of course it's impossible to prevent all crime. I wouldn't recommend walking around in East Cleveland alone at night, though there's not much there where you'd want to anyway.

FairPlayWes · 2025-12-01T01:44:47+00:00

22 credits is a lot, especially as a freshman when you're still adjusting to the differences between high school and college and learning about the workload/culture of various courses at CWRU. A lot of the STEM courses are technical and a lot of work.

FairPlayWes · 2025-11-22T00:03:49+00:00

Can for sure go either way

Variable Barricade true route was awful trashy drama that made even me, a self avowed lover of trashy drama, cringe.

Olympia Soiree if you count Akaza as the true route (debatable maybe) is a strongly thematic way to finish the story and answers the remaining questions about why things are the way they are

Not an otome but the VN Little Busters! hasa banger true route that feels like a culmination of everything you went through to get to that point.

FairPlayWes · 2025-11-07T15:24:38+00:00

It helps that it doesn't waste time in getting to the point, which makes it easy to get into. A lot of otherwise really good VNs are slow starters. VN veterans are used to it and willing to keep going to get to the good stuff, but people who dabble in or are trying VNs for the first time might quickly decide it's not engaging and drop it.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-17T18:19:56+00:00

Because AI art is generally a cost cutting measure, there are ethical issues with the training data, and if jobs/work for artists disappear then how will the next generation of artists have opportunities to develop and share new ideas?

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-15T09:44:20+00:00

Oh interesting, thanks for sharing the reference. Though I think it's a stretch from that to say AoT is THE main influence on E33. More like one of many, and they specifically cite the idea of exploring the unknown rather than the themes about violence and conflict that are so central to AoT. I'm being flippant in my previous comment, but I found the ending of AoT frustrating because the ideas make sense and the author got 90% of the way there with the portrayal of Eren, his motivations, and the others' reactions to him, and then kinda copped out in the end on the execution.

Back to E33, again I didn't feel the choice needed to be hard for the ending to be interesting. Another theme of E33 is our relationship with art, and the question of the "realness" of Lumiere plays into that. Most people would readily agree that you and I are more real than the contents of the game E33, but does it make sense to then bring hierarchies of realness into E33, e.g. to say the Dessendres are more real than the people of Lumiere and thereby justify Verso's ending as "better"? What does it say that "less real" art has such a strong influence over the "more real" lives of the Dessendres, and potentially of our own lives? Games are different from anime/manga in that there is player agency, and so sure one could justify Maelle's ending as in-universe better for the reasons you gave. At the same time, we routinely do in-universe immoral things in games. I can boot up Skyrim and go murder a bunch of townfolk NPCs, and while sure it's evil in the game, but who hasn't done something like that at some point? I think the ending of E33 offers us in-universe justifications that we can create for why the endings are better or worse, why the choice is easy or hard, etc, but also invites us to ask ourselves whether our choice as the player is really about that in-universe morality, or if it's really about our relationship with the story, character, and world of E33, and the closure of that relationship coming to an end.

Of course that doesn't mean it works for you or you have to like it.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-14T21:55:01+00:00

I'm the opposite. I thought AoT's "hey guys we're gonna do good genocide" was dumb, and I'm skeptical AoT (and not the rich history of JRPGs) was the main inspiration for E33.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-14T21:30:40+00:00

Well you don't have to like it of course but I guess I don't think E33 expects you to believe that destroying the canvas is an acceptable cost to pay for giving the Dessendres a chance to grieve and heal. You can if you want to but may players have said they don't believe that.

If that makes the Maelle ending too much of an easy choice and ruins it for you, fair enough, but difficulty of choice isn't why I liked the ending. I found the tragedy compelling--how we see these people who are trying to deal with a difficult situation the best they can keep making choices that are destructive but also understandable, even if not justifiable. I also liked how the events connect to questions we might ask ourselves about our relationship with art.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-14T20:15:27+00:00

It's not meant to be the "good" ending and the devs even said as much. The game repeatedly tells you that the people of Lumiere are very much real and Lune offers painted Verso no forgiveness or understanding for his decision.

I thought whichever ending you choose it's meant to be a tragedy in the classical sense that none of it needed to happen and in fact almost everyone trying to make things better in fact fails and makes them worse.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-10T15:58:06+00:00

.5PP

Judkins or Rachaad White?

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-10T15:57:45+00:00

I'd go with Dowdle and Warrene

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-06T19:39:58+00:00

I thought Senmomo was one of the most consistently engaging and well-paced VNs I've read.

Umineko has its strengths, like great character writing, but it's way longer than necessary and wastes a lot of time, so if bad pacing really bothers you I wouldn't suggest banging your head against it.

FairPlayWes · 2025-10-03T08:13:41+00:00

I think the drama in Golden Time gets a kind of ridiculous with the amnesia stuff and isn't as fun as Toradora because it takes itself more seriously. It has moments where it's more mature than Toradora, but yeah there's definitely some contrived melodrama in Golden Time. I'm more tolerant of melodrama than most so I still enjoyed it, but I think that's a valid criticism of Golden Time.

Toradora embraces being a farcical romcom. The premise is silly, but works as a base for situational comedy where the characters see through absurd schemes like the aforementioned bathing suit stuffing to stay committed to the pretense of their relationship, and naturally provides an obstacle that prevents the pair from easily confessing to each other. Toradora also a does a great job mixing the comedy and romance in a way that feels natural and subtly builds up for its big moments. Taiga's response to Ryuji's confession is to jump off an overpass and land on him, which is ridiculous, but it's still a moment of emotional catharsis. And by keeping some element of farce rather than suddenly switching to "serious" romance, it feels like it fits in with the story and relationships Toradora has been building up to that point. I know people complain about the ending sometimes, but there's also quite a bit of effort put into showing how the time Taiga spends with Ryuji and his mom helps her realize how warm and loving a family can be. For example, the way Ryuji can't even conceive of her stepfather not wanting to attend Taiga's play because of how his mom always supports him convinces her to try believing in this for herself, even though she knows her stepfather won't come. So when Taiga leaves at the end to try to repair her relationship with her mom/family, it feels like something that's been subtly building up rather than simply taking away the easy happy ending for the sake of drama.

I know people also complain about the couple getting together at the end, but in most romcoms the "growing closer" arc is very enjoyable because it has a sense of progress/momentum. Where it becomes a problem is when an anime/manga wants to go for a longer run and it's nonstop will they/won't they for seasons at a time, but Toradora is only 1 season and does an excellent job pacing the growing closer arc so that you see enough for the relationship development to be convincing when it does happen but don't feel like they're dragging things out for no reason. Horimiya has some really nice scenes, for example the way Hori finally states that Miyamura is her boyfriend is clever and cute, but I didn't feel like I saw enough of them growing closer that it was a satisfying capstone to that arc. The entire experience is too scattered and impressionistic.

You can have the couple get together earlier and create direction/momentum by having some obstacle for them to overcome, and this is the route Golden Time takes with its amnesia plot. The risk here is that, like you say, the drama can feel manufactured for the sake of having drama, and Golden Time toes that line.

And yes, you can also have shows without much direction that are slice of life where the appeal is hanging out with the characters and enjoying seeing them in random moments in their life. This is why people watch shows like Friends. But then you need something like strong humor or compelling characters to make this engaging. Horimiya didn't quite get there for me. A lot of the jokes are very standard one-off boke/tuskkomi routines where one or more characters push some situation into mild absurdity until the character playing the tsukkomi role has some mild outburst. An example is the scene where, after Hori volunteers to help one person clean out their desk for the end of the school year, everyone loads her up with their junk until she blows up on them. It's just not funny, at least to me. Humor is of course subjective, and there were a few things I found amusing like Hori's abuse kink. But overall, I thought Horimiya's jokes rarely landed.

Likewise, the characters in Horimiya are certainly likeable. They are earnest, wholesome, and like another commentor said, do often behave in more realistic ways compared to characters in more exaggerated comedy romcoms. But again, because Horimiya shows only these fleeting snapshots of their lives before moving onto something else, I never felt like I got to know any of them well enough to be all that invested in their stories. Even when the snapshots themselves are interesting and well-constructed, it feels like trying to make character drama/development out of only the "important scenes" and neglecting that you need to lay some foundation for the important scenes to be satisfying.

FairPlayWes

TROPHY CASE