(Bug Comic) This follows "A Shirt at 8:15 AM", as you can see Bryan ended up with the red shirt that was on Staci's arm in that image, and it turns out that it was good that he had a new shirt, because it *was* a big deal once he got to the Dean's office. Not only had he gotten a study grant ("Drive Thru Pudding"), but also the Allen prize, which not only will pay for his tuition, but comes with a very nice apartment across from the botanical gardens. It's a prestigious prize from a private endowment, and the University is pretty happy about it too. Bryan would have been thrilled if the prize was just a little certificate--it meant that someone besides his faculty advisor had read his thesis on "Rove Beetles and Integrated Pest Management", and liked it. I'm thinking that part of it was that Bryan was the candidate that *everyone* in the department could agree on, since he is very well liked, and always ready to help grade papers, move lab equipment, and help befuddled hockey players and sorority princesses make it through basic biology. The fact that the habits of rove beetles were mysterious to most of the other professors probably didn't hurt, either.;) Anyway, the press *was* there, most of the faculty of the Life Sciences department, and there was cake. Really good cake. Bryan was so thrilled that he forgot about not showing his teeth in photos and spent most of the morning with a huge grin on his face and holding his trophy, and shaking people's hands. The Allen Prize had an appropriate ladybug on it (with the right number of spots, too), one of the first insects to be used in organic pest management. And Bryan even liked the silly sunflowers that the Press Liason had set up for photos. -------------------------------------- I had a lot of fun doing this one, though it's not great art (it shows up later as a black and white newspaper image, which is why I had to do it anyway), partly because once upon a time I was the administrator for an obscure national award, and the joy on people's faces when we gave out the awards (which the year I did it, were pretty sad little plaques) made for some of the best memories I have :) Poser was no help with Bryan this time--halfway through morphing Poser threw up it's tiny hands and said it had no idea what I was trying to do, so it's mostly painted from scratch. The Dean of Life Sciences is gypsyangel's Natalia for Sp4, tweaked, at RDNA.