Networking to Success: Wed, Period 1 (5/14/08)

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

Nathan? Wearing a suit and tie as always.

"Welcome to Networking to Success," Nathan said. "I'm your teacher, Nathan Petrelli. You can call me Mr. Petrelli. That includes those of you who may have a more... informal relationship with my brother, Peter." Why no, he wasn't looking at anyone in particular here. Not at all.

"Unless you're hoping to live the life of a hermit, you're going to need to know how to network. That is, you're going to need to meet people, make a good impression, learn how you can help them and how they can help you.

"With today's class we're going to start with the basics." Nathan grinned. "This is one of the few classes where introducing yourself actually is part of the cirriculum. But we are going to put a spin on it."

Nathan passed around a handout. "Handshakes are an important part about introducing yourself. As you can see, how you shake hands can make or break your first impression. So I want you to go around and introduce yourselves to one another. That's name and a fact about yourself. Doesn't have to be fancy. Where you're from or your favorite hobby is fine. Do all that with a handshake and let the other person do the same to you. Try to get as many people as you can. The more you learn this week will help you with next week.

"I'm here if you have questions. Or you can talk to Lana, who's the TA."

[OCD is up! Go nuts!]

Galactic Vacationing - Danger Shop, Wednesday Afternoon

[veryarthurdent.livejournal.com]

The Danger Shop, for anyone who entered it, looked rather like a London street at Christmas time. There were plenty of human shoppers milling about, lights and signs telling everyone about great last-minute sales and a group of musicians dressed like Santa with rosy-cheeked masks were lined up playing Christmas carols for passers by. It was a clear night, cold but not unreasonably so, and sadly no snow in sight. The teacher didn't appear to be in the vicinity either.

The pleasant scene was broken by the sound of plate glass smashing and blank-faced mannequins stepping out from shop windows. Down the street, a woman screamed, drawing a mannequin's attention. It raised its arm and the woman ducked out of the way just in time to miss a gunshot coming from where the mannequin's hand should have been.

A man in a blue suit, a tan trench coat and red sneakers appeared out of the panicking crowd, stopping in front of the students. His face reflected the urgency of the situation. "Run!"

[OOC: But look both ways before crossing the road and wait for OCD go for it. OCD is up!

ETA: Off to catch a flight. Hopefully will be back tonight to answer pings.]

Paranoia & First Aid, Period 3, 14 May '08

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Good afternoon," said Mohinder from the front of the classroom, leaning against the wall as everyone filed in. "I'm Dr Mohinder Suresh, this is 'Paranois and First Aid', and I sincerely hope none of you will need any of the skills taught in this workshop." He paused in thought, a moment. "Optimism aside, I can't say that's entirely likely though."

"But first, introductions - I'm sure you've done this in your other workshops, so..." Mohinder shrugged. "You know how this works. Name, where you come from, blood type, and any allergies or serious injuries you may have." Glancing down at the notes on the desk beside him, Mohinder looked back up and added, "And this is where you tell me of any medical skills or healing abilities you have."

After the introductions Mohinder, now sitting on his desk, said, "Paranoia is an irrational fear of danger, even persecution, from others." He leant forward, intent, "The key here is irrational. When the stakes are high and the danger similarly great, how do we accurately judge a threat? Does our behaviour become become paranoid when we can no longer explain it to others?"

[OCD is up!]

Functional Fashion, Thursday, Period 1

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

"Good day, class," Lulu said, as she sat down on the lawn in front of the school, where her students had handwavily been informed to meet; she gestured for her students to do the same. "I thought we'd take advantage of today's nice weather to talk outside, since this first class is going to be mostly discussion anyway.

"This workshop," she continued, "is on what I like to call 'functional fashion'. What this means is clothing that both serves a specific function while appealing to aesthetics. Take, for example, my skirt." She stood, letting the belts fall together, shaking them slightly to get them to settle properly. "This is an example of non-functional fashion -- it looks pretty, but there's no purpose to it beyond that visual appeal. My bodice, however," and here she gestured to her huge... tracts of land, "is designed to be visually appealing while also keeping my breasts from falling out. This is even more of a concern," she added, "when one's gift for magic requires one to swoop --" and here she demonstrated, her arms dipping forward as she bent at the waist [there are a few examples of it in that vid, when she casts the 'Waterga' spell], "-- forward as part of the casting. While it's only actually good design, several of my friends still swear that I must use magic to keep from... accidentally putting myself on display for all to see."

Lulu settled herself back on the ground, folding her legs beneath her. "We'll start today with introductions," she began, "so that we can all get to know each other, and then what I'd like to ask of you today," she said, "is to pick one article of clothing that you are wearing, and explain how it is either functional or non-functional. Also, if you have any questions about the syllabus," which she now handed out, "or anything in particular that you would like to see added to it, feel free to bring that up as well."

At the end of class, before everyone could get up, Lulu called their attention to her again. "There is one last thing," she said. "As it says on your syllabus, over the course of this term, I'm going to be asking each of you to design three outfits, The outfits must fit a theme of your choosing -- and yes, all three outfits must fit the same theme. This project will not be due until the last day of class, so you will have plenty of time to learn more about fashion before then; still, it might be worth starting to think about it now."

[Plz wait for OCD is up! I'm around a while longer tonight, but then tomorrow day I'm finishing up my move into my new place and the working 4-close, and then I'll be around for at least a few hours after 10 Eastern, I hope, if I can manage to get out of work at a decent time.]

How to Be the Best at What You Do - Thursday, Period 2

[gimmemoreteams.livejournal.com]

When the students had gathered in the Danger Shop, they saw a short, hairy man wearing a flannel shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat leaning against the wall. He stood perfectly still and never looked up until everyone was settled. His nose did twitch repeatedly, though, as if he was smelling the room. Logan realized that may have been somewhat unsettling, but he was okay with that. He did it in part just so they would be unsettled. When he was finally ready, Logan spoke up and got right to the point.

"Okay, bubs, here's how this class is gonna be. My name's Logan. It's not a last name, so don't call me 'Mister Logan' or 'Professor Logan' or anything like that. If you want to show me respect, do it by getting something out of this workshop. If you really wanna call me something besides Logan, go with 'Wolverine.' Anything else and you're gonna regret it."

"Now, I'm the best there is at what I do and what I do isn't pretty. It usually leaves me with a ripped uniform and blood all over the place. Don't worry," Logan said, taking a slight detour from his point. "It's the other guy's blood and he had it comin'. Anyway, everyone's better than everyone else at something, whether they know it or not. Art, hockey, drinkin', piano... You have something. What you're gonna do for me is figure out what that thing is and then you're gonna let me help make sure you're the best at it. We're gonna focus on the building blocks of your skills, and make sure you have a good foundation for whatever it is you're gonna be doing. If you take it seriously no matter how strange the lessons sound, you're gonna come out of this workshop with some personal improvement. If you don't, you're still going to take something away from this class. That thing is probably gonna be that I don't like you."

"Okay, enough of me talkin'. Break up into two groups, people who can deal with being bruised and people who can't. These groups will be important later on. Introduce yourselves, then figure out what it is you're the best at. Anyone who can't tell me what they're the best at by the end of the period is going to get something assigned to them for the rest of the week. Trust me, you don't want that to happen, so you'd better be introspective, bubs."

"Oh, and if you need anything but don't want to bother me, Z's the TA. She's better than all of you at being my TA. She might have something else. I don't know yet. We'll see."

[OOC: Around for a couple hours now, then SP on Thursday until about 8 PM Eastern. I'll do my best to answer any overnight pings in the morning, but we'll see how that goes.]

Flight and Flying; Period 5, Thursday 5/15

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

There were five helicopters waiting in the Danger Shop. As well as the class instructor. A tall, skinny fellow sporting a brown leather jacket, blue ball cap and khakis, leaning casually against the side of a chopper. He wore a large smile and waved as the students who'd been handwavily informed of the class location drifted in.

“Hey, everyone! My name is HM Murdock,” he spoke with a slight drawling accent, “Welcome to Flight and Flyin’. I’m teachin’ this class ‘cause the usual instructor ain’t available. Y’all can just call me Murdock.”

“Hopefully we’re all here ‘cause we like to fly. Or want to learn how. If not, let me know and we’ll see if we can get it sorted out. I’d like to know who everyone is and the kind of flight experience you may already have. Any kind of flying counts. Even kites.”

He waited until the last student was done, then continued. “Now that’s all taken care of, we can get right down to it. Or up, in this case. I think the best way to start off is to handle something fairly common, namely the UH-1 Iroquois. Otherwise known as a Huey. Still in service the world over today. It’s a bit bigger than your run-of-the-mill radio and TV choppers that you’ve probably seen, but the process of flying them is still the same.”

( But first, it’d probably be a good idea to know where the controls are. )

“We’ll start off simple; clear open skies, flying in standard formation. If you can manage that, we’ll bump up to something trickier. River bed running.” Murdock smiled. “It’ll be a blast.”

“I’ve already laid out the course and did a test run myself. I scaled it down from what I’m used to for y’all, since I know these birds like the back of my hand. And while the course has some tricky turns, rest assured your bird can make it. If not,” he shrugged, “well, I guess you crash and die.” He smiled sweetly, “Are we ready?”

(please wait for the OCD is up! have at! ***edit***I'll be up for a few hours yet. Then sp from 9-5 est for the whole work thing. back at it after 7pm. whee!)