Classical Genre [Tuesday, 1st Period]

[cuff-me-once.livejournal.com]

Rick looked quite cheerful and relaxed this morning, and in addition to the usual coffee and pastries, there was a large quantity of popcorn.

"Morning," Rick began, grinning. "I hope you're all refreshed from your break, because we have a surprise mid-term. Namely, we're all going to watch the classic crime movie, The Grift, then you're going to answer some questions about it. It'll be the Best. Mid-term. Ever."

"Also, don't forget your reading lists for the next two weeks," he said, holding a sheaf of paper aloft. "We'll be doing horror, and just at the right time of year too. Though in the spirit of Halloween, you can pick something not on the list to read or watch, just make sure it scares you."

[OOC: OCD up.]

[Class Roster|Syllabus|Class Rules|Previous Classes]

Infantry Tactics [Wednesday Second Period]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Welcome back," Max grinned one of those grins that his students had probably learned to take as a bad sign. "Today we begin our unit on irregular infantry tactics. Today's just going to be an introduction to the concept, so the course today is a bit tougher than usual so that no one gets bored." Max was even nice enough to give everyone a couple of minutes to get used to the hard pace he was setting across the rocky uphill terrain.

"By now you all understand that the regular infantry is all about the system. You learn how to fight in a very specific way so that you can fight alongside anyone else who knows what you do. This makes unit construction flexible and tactics can be applied to any unit with the proper training. Irregular forces are basically the opposite paradigm. They're highly individual units which don't fit into any regular part of the military structure." The group reached a relatively flat area so Max turned around to trot backwards in order to keep an eye on his students.

"That means that irregulars make up a very small portion of any military force. For most tasks you want to know exactly what your forces can do, but every so often you need something... irregular done. Different militaries consider different groups to be irregular. For instance, in Aleran legions light cavalry are irregular forces. But there are some groups that are irregular pretty much all the time: scouts, saboteurs, assassination teams."

"Armies keep irregulars around because while most of the work an army does is predictable, sometimes you need something different done. You need people who can get in and out without being noticed, or a group that's specialized for speed or power or stealth. Whatever."

Max looked over his students critically. "For this reason, where a regular unit relies on knowledge of a specific set of rules, an irregular unit relies on knowledge of each other. Because your tasks will be unpredictable, so will the skills you need. You never know when the fact that some member of your squad is an excellent cook will be incredibly important, or that someone knows how to arrange flowers, or play the flute. The obviouis skills matter, of course, like sword skills or hand-to-hand abilities, but it's important to recognize that anything could turn out to be useful."

"And so, we'll be doing that thing that thing that most of you did in your other classes at the beginning of the semester. Everyone's going to talk a bit about the skills they have. You're encouraged to ask questions of one another, to get a better feel for what each of you can do. It's going to matter as the semester progresses." And no, they weren't going to take a nice breather before they had to start talking.

Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Seven]

[carpe_demon]

Drake was all decked out like a medieval knight today. Someone really didn't get to play dress-up enough as a kid.

"Ivanhoe," he began the class, "was written in 1819 by Sir Walter Scott, who is credited with inventing the modern historical novel, and if that isn't an oxymoron I don't know what is. Mark Twain hated the guy and is credited with inventing the modern bitchy author when he named a boat the Walter Scott in his own book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and then proceeded to sink it.

"Ivanhoe takes place in 12th century medieval England, the same setting as Robin Hood -- and Robin and his band of merry men appear as characters in this story. The main character, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, has been disinherited by his father, Cedric of Rotherwood, for supporting the Norman King Richard I and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, Cedric's ward, who had been promised to a Saxon lord who was gunning for the throne of England. Just like in Robin Hood, Richard's been captured by the enemy, and his brother, John I, has parked his butt on said throne. Ivanhoe comes back from the Crusades in disguise and wins a tournament and...you know what, I'm still in fall break slack mode, so I'm going to just let you watch the 1952 film with Lizzy Taylor. Enjoy!"


[Syllabus | Class Roster]

Art 101 - Wednesday, Period Four - 10/20

[notsobadatall.livejournal.com]

As the class entered, they found themselves in a long hallway with a great deal of intricate art. Their teacher, glancing around, seemed to stay away from the walls but there was a certain sense of longing there. There was also something to how he moved as he walked towards the students that said he was intensely comfortable in such a setting as this.

Curious.

"Today, as you might have guessed" or read in the syllabus "we'll be covering medieval art. Again, this is an area that I'm sad to say we're only covering for a day. Suffice to say, there is... quite a lot to cover, so let's get started, shall we?"( Read more... )

[ocd up!]

Ethics [Thursday, October 22, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"Welcome to your midterm," Anakin said, pacing across the flight deck of a ship (Force, but he loved the Danger Room). Behind him, thousands of pricks of lights showed that a space battle had been paused for him to talk. ( Episode III, yay! )