Leadership, Friday, 3rd Period

[emoclops.livejournal.com]

"Leadership has its drawbacks, of course," Scott said, starting things off oh so positively. "If you commit, really commit to your team and make sure they work together as well as possible, carefully balancing their strengths and weaknesses into a whole that ends up being greater than the sum of its parts, you may find yourself lacking in your own individual abilities."

"This is actually very common. By the time you've worked your way up the ladder into a leadership position in a company or another kind of team, not only are you spending less time with whatever skills helped you get there in the first place, but you're probably going to be leading people from the next generation who have the benefit of being raised on refined techniques and technologies. There are countless groups out there being run by people who have no practical knowledge of how to do what their team can do easily for the simple reason that they were already in management when new tools started being used."

"Ideally, you want to avoid that. You want to be able to keep your skills sharp so that you understand things better and can do it on your own if need be. So now and then you need to go solo," Scott said. "No puns on anyone's last name intended, of course." By Scott. NOT BY ME. Mwahahahaha.

"So, what we have here today are a few chances to keep your individual abilities sharp. There are both physical and mental challenges so you can actually get something out of this class depending on your strengths."

"Good luck staying sharp."

The Art of Scrap, Friday, Period 4

[drinks_coffeezilla]

"Hey there, guys," Dean greeted, offering his students a nod toward the desk, which contained the requisite coffee as well as an assortment of chocolate eggs. Because... hey, they were cheap, and why not? "As you may or may not know, this weekend is Easter weekend. And I'm not going to stand here and assume that any of you celebrate Christian holidays or anything like that, but, and you can call this inspiration or something, it seemed to me like today was the sort of day where maybe I could pull out some eggs and have you guys decorate them all the same. It's not just an Easter thing, after all."

For all he knew, his students came from the moon or something. But decorating fragile things, scrap or not, was one of those artsy things that he'd been wanting to touch on anyhow.

"You've got a few options for decorating your eggs. You can just dye them. Stick them in a cup with dye in it, and when you pull them out, presto. Color. That option works well if you want to draw on them with a crayon first. The wax will resist the dye, so that part of the egg will stay the color of the crayon. You can just paint them. You know, with paint. Pretty straightforward. You can take an egg with some color to it, either a dyed one or a brown hen's egg or something, and you can carve patterns in it. Careful with that one, since eggshells are pretty fragile and you'd be working with something sharp..." Odds were high that he'd be watching Butters like a hawk if he chose that option, "or you can just stick things to it. Feathers, googly eyes, whatever you dig the most. I'm not going to tell you you're decorating your eggs wrong."

A beat.

"You might want to empty them out first, though. Grab a bowl, poke a hole in either end, and blow. I mean, you can let 'em stay in one piece if you really want to. I don't live in your dorm building and I don't have to smell that funk if you break one of 'em. But the not-keeping-rotten-eggs-around thing comes pretty highly recommended. Just saying."

[Open!]

apath cl, fri aft, some cla, whatev

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

It was dawning on George that it was actually April, like, the month. And that meant that May came up afterwards, and that was when they were going to kick her out of this place.

Okay, technically, she could stay for the summer but she had no idea when Rube was going to make her go back. Or the higher-ups were going to drop a plane ticket in her lap. Which ... could have happened at any time before now, and had for like three months out of nowhere, so really she should have been expecting it all along, but graduation was kind of a firm deadline, sort of a thing, and that was more of a concrete thing to be freaking out about.

George was handling this in the mature way she usually handled such things; by going straight into denial. Which was why she trying to see if she could get some of the eggs she made in class today to balance on her face, if she leaned back far enough in her seat.

It was Apathy Club, not Super Exciting Fun Time Club. So. Yeah.

Library [4/6]

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley took two steps into the library... and came upon a considerable stack of children's books in complete disarray not far from the entrance.

Honestly, was it too much to ask that people pick up after their alternate universe children? He didn't think so.

Chasing History's Monsters [Friday, Period 1]

[allyofthevarden.livejournal.com]

Once the students arrived, Annja began the lecture. "When the word zombie is mentioned, what comes to mind? An undead being, usually found in a horror movie is the typical answer."

If anyone was paying close attention, they'd notice the small twitch that had started in the corner of Arya's eye. She wasn't a huge fan of zombies, thanks to Fandom. "Technically, a zombie is an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore."

Annja offered her a small smile, before continuing. "According to the tenets of Vodou, a dead person can be revived by a bokor, or sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. 'Zombi' is also another name of the Vodou snake lwa Damballah Wedo, of Niger–Congo origin; it is akin to the Kikongo word nzambi, which means 'god'. There also exists within the West African Vodun tradition the zombi astral, which is a part of the human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power. The zombi astral is typically kept inside a bottle which the bokor can sell to clients for luck, healing or business success. It is believed that after a time God will take the soul back and so the zombi is a temporary spiritual entity. It is also said in vodou legend, that feeding a zombie salt will make it return to the grave."

The idea of zombies is present in some South African cultures. In some communities it is believed that a dead person can be turned into a zombie by a small child.[4] It is said that the spell can be broken by a powerful enough sangoma.[5]

"It is also believed in some areas that witches can turn a person into a zombie by killing and possessing the victim's body in order to force it into slave labor," Arya stated, scowling ever so slightly. That wasn't creepy. Not at all. "After rail lines were built to transport migrant workers, stories emerged about 'witch trains'. These trains appeared ordinary, but were staffed by zombie workers controlled by a witch. The trains would abduct a person boarding at night, and the person would then either be turned into a zombie worker, or beaten and thrown from the train a distance away from the original location."

"In modern times, the figure of the zombie has appeared several times in fantasy themed fiction and entertainment," Annja continued. "The zombie also appears as a metaphor in protest songs, symbolizing mindless adherence to authority, particularly in law enforcement and the armed forces. A new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian religion, has also emerged in popular culture in recent decades. The monsters featured in films and television, are usually hungry for human flesh."

Arya shook her head. "I'm sure the guys at Caritas would have something to say about that," she added. "Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story."

"Although this modern monster bears some superficial resemblance to the Haitian zombie tradition, its links to such folklore are unclear. Zombie fiction is now a sizeable sub-genre of horror, usually describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating zombies — a zombie apocalypse," Annja concluded. "The zombie legend has certainly come far, both through history and popularized fiction."

[OCD is a go!]