Competitive Cooking - Wednesday, Period 3 [7/14]

[absolutesnark]

Piper was a bit distracted today since her mind was on the dreams she'd been having. So she just got right to it.

"Morning everyone. Today, you'll actually get to cook something," she greeted. "The instructions are simple today. I'd like for you to pair up and make anything you want as long as apples are involved somehow. That's going to be your secret ingredient. Afterward, Angela, Hoshi, and I will judge the results."

She realized that could possibly be a health hazard, and that she was asking a lot of her TAs. "Anyway, if you have any questions, any of us are available to answer them. Now, get to it and have fun!"

Contact Sports: Building Character (And Possibly . . .), Danger Shop, 6th Period [7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Students had been handwavily notified (via email, as well as via written notes on paper with the corners cut off) to meet in the Danger Shop today. Upon stepping through the doors, students would find themselves in the first-base dugout of a major league ballpark. The basepaths were neatly groomed, the chalk lines were fresh, the fountain in the outfield was bubbling away, and Anders, all decked out in full uniform (Fandom High colors with GREMLINS across the chest), was waving at them from the pitcher's mound. Sure, the school grounds or the park would have sufficed, but as if Anders wasn't going to go all out for his second favorite sport ever?

"Hey, everybody," he said, grinning like a kid in a candy store, "since the All-Star Game was yesterday I thought we'd cover baseball this week, so . . . since this is where the game was held this year, welcome to Angel Stadium. Pretty big, huh?"

( Wherein Sam Anders can ramble about sports. Who's surprised? )

He went on in that vein for a few more minutes, explaining the basics of play and the scoring . . . illustrating his points with video clips that came up on the giant scoreboards in the outfield. "Okay, enough of that. Time to get out there and play, maybe get a little dusty. There's gloves, bats, and balls over there in the dugout you guys came through on your way in." Anders's expression turned serious as he warned, "Do not let me catch you taking a bat up to home plate or running the basepaths without a batting helmet on. Anyone I see doing that gets detention. Now come on, plenty of room out there on the field, guys, so play ball!"

You could tell he'd just been waiting to say that.

"At the end of the period, everybody back here to the pitcher's mound, and I want you all to tell me at least one way you think you could use baseball skills in a non-game situation, 'kay?"

[OOC: Please continue to do your part in staving off the possibly inevitable Cylon invasion by waiting for the OCD. The Cylon invasion has been put off for another week, thank you.]

Beaching It [Week 2, Period 5, Wed. 7/14]

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Since there was a strong chance for thunderstorms, John had handwavily informed the class to put on their bathing suits and meet in the Danger Shop this week. He'd set the computer to give them Galactica Point under the most pristine conditions possible - cloudless sky, bright sun, warm air, and a fantastic water temperature. He took a seat on the sand in his shorts, sunglasses keeping his eyes nice and safe from squinting at his students.

"Looks like bad weather can't stop us from hanging out on the beach! It's a good thing since today you're gonna learn about sunscreen." John held up a bottle of Banana Boat SPF 15. "Sunscreen is one of the few Earth items that is it's name. It's a lotion or spray or gel that screens the bad rays of the sun from the skin you apply it to. I use this one 'cause it smells like coconut. There's a whole bunch of numbers assigned and I read online that SPF - that stands for Sun Protection Factor - is really kind of insane to follow. Most doctors suggest an SPF between 15 and 30 with regular reapplication if you want it to work and your skin not to burn. Oh, and burning means get red, hot, and really uncomfortable. Trust me. I worked with this guy who developed his own sunscreen and - yeah, you probably don't care how bad it smelled or what he looked like with it on. Nevermind. So anyhow, I've talked, let's get to the fun part!"

The fun part appeared via Danger Shop magic as a table covered with pamphlets that were way more informative than John could provide and dozens upon dozens of bottles and tubes and spraycans of sunscreen.

"I love how it does that," John grinned, so impressed with technology that responded to a snap of his fingers. "Okay, so what you're gonna do here is take some sunscreen and put it on yourself or even more interestingly, help out someone else in class. Any exposed skin should get covered so if your hands don't reach...you just might want to phone a friend. Then and only then can you hit the water or lay out. I'll be over here if you need any help!"

Teevee for Beginners, Wednesday

[chosehumanity]

"Today, we're going to be talking about people," Mitchell said, once they'd all filled into the classroom. Anyone paying attention may have noticed the large table full of bags upon bags of crisps off to the side of the room. "People watching television, to be precise." You know, in case they'd thought he was going to talk about something a little less savoury. "Academics call television the 'electronic hearth', because where families used to gather before the fireplace, they started to gather in front of the television instead. It grew very very quickly from being a novelty to being in every household, in every family. It became a place where they met up in the evenings, after a long day at work. Back in those days, of course, everyone watched the same thing - so it was a little like sharing your hearth with everybody. In the mornings, you could go out and discuss the programme, and mostly rely on the fact everyone had seen it."

He gestured at the television. "These days, some might call it being couch potatoes," he said, wryly. "Being people who spend too much time in front of the television, until they're as heavy and big-arsed as potatoes. They have a little food, have a little drink, and let the programmes flow on past. Wasting their lives away, never looking for some meaning in life, never bothering to find out who they really are, what the world's really like." He smiled once. "The truth, as it generally does, lies somewhere in the middle. Television nowadays is a unifier, it brings people together, but it also sets them apart. Especially now that it's become possible, through satellites and cable, to stuff multiple channel signals into a TV. Thousands of channels. It's all fragmented now."

He wandered over to the table, patting it with his hands. "Now for the fun part," he said, "Snacks are a vital part of the modern television experience. Sometimes, it's entire meals, pizza and Chinese food." Mitchell was a great appreciator of the art. "But at this hour, that may be pushing it. Crisps," he picked up a bag and waved it around, "Are excellent television chow. I want you all to pick what looks like it may taste good, and if you're not sure, ask your fellow classmates about it." He set the bag down. "Today is all about people. About audiences, which we all are when we're watching the television. So go on, make yourself comfortable. Be an audience, meet people, see what the social contexts are all about. See if it works for you, if you get it."

He took a seat on his own couch. "Have fun. That's what television's all about."

His eyes searched out Chloe in the class, but he didn't say anything yet.

Heroes v Villains | Period 1 | Wednesday | July 14

[flipped-god-off.livejournal.com]

Loki was actually up and standing when the students started filing into the room today. He looked a little cranky but that was mostly due to spending most of last night dreaming about Bartleby. Look, he loved that guy but those dreams just needed to fucking stop. He didn't need people thinking he was fantasizing about his long dead friend. It wasn't like that.

It wasn't. Shut up.

( Religion is something Loki knows a lot about... )

Library [7-14]

[imonscholarship.livejournal.com]

Dan had some trouble with the whole productivity thing today, and was spending his shift hitting the random button on Wikipedia and reading about stupid crap. He just didn't have the energy to do anything useful.

Carpe Diem: Making Your Lives Extraordinary, Period 4, Class 2

[carpe_demon]

Drake had a large painting hanging in the front of the room. Shhh. He'd return it to the Odon Wagner Gallery in Toronto when class was over, and they'd never know it was missing. As soon as the class had all arrived, he began to recite:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

( The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, )

"That poem is called 'To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,' by Robert Herrick in the 17th century," Drake explained. "The poem is an example of the genre carpe diem, which is of course Latin for seize the day. And for the purposes of this class, we're going to just gloss over the fact that in Elizabethian slang, 'dying' means both death and having an orgasm. Anyway! Carpe diem expresses a philosophy that recognizes the brevity of life and therefore the need to live for and in the moment. The phrase originated over 2000 years ago with Horace, who wrote: 'Carpe diem quam minime credula postero' -- meaning 'Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.' The future is unknowable, so live it up now while you can.

"Now, I'm not totally down with Horace because he seems to be advising that you shouldn't have any hopes for the future," Drake went on. "Instead, I'm going to go with my man James Dean here: 'Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.' Now, last week I asked you about things you wanted to do before you died, but I don't think there was a lot of day-seizing going on there yet. So let me ask you this time: tell me something you regret. Is there an action that you wish you had taken -- or not taken -- in the past? An opportunity you passed up on that you wished you had taken? If you could have done something differently -- and let's make this something you conceivably could have done differently -- what would it be?"