Ethics [Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"There is a saying on this planet that before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes and that way you're a mile away and have their shoes," Anakin began, holding a piece of paper in his hands.

Do you have a bad feeling about this class? Do you?

"In that spirit, I have paired each of you up with a classmate. Your assignment over the next week is to spend two days together, one for each student. You'll show how you live, what you're studying and what you do with your spare time in an effort to foster understanding of the various cultures and backgrounds that are pushed together here in Fandom. Your other teachers have been given notification of this assignment as well, so don't worry about interrupting their classes with your new shadows."

He glanced at the paper. "There are 17 of you in this class , which means that the odd person out is paired with me. Congratulations, Ulrik, that's you."

Hope you enjoy children, Ulrik...

"The rest of you, please listen for your names, then go meet up with your new friend." Because he knew how Fandom students could be, he added, "Actually wearing their shoes is not necessary."

Anakin then read off the following pairs because the RNG is cruel:

Jessica Drew & Korra
Miriam Black & Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar
Anakin Solo & Matt Murdock
Chaz Villette & Bucky Katt
Stannis Baratheon & Peeta Mellark
Marasiah Fel & Atton Rand
Alec Lightwood & Minako Aino
Sparkle & Jim Kirk

Personal Improvement Through Science: Aperture Laboratories Presents Physical Education (Wed/Per 2)

[gladigotburned.livejournal.com]

Once you got past the sign in the entry corridor, the classroom setup today might be vaguely recognizable as a tennis court -- Aperture style, which meant that instead of a net there was a grating about four feet high, and the only lines on the "court" were the tiles made of non-portal-holding material that bordered the space. Past that, on the other side of a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, was a slightly elevated surface that might've been a racquetball court.

Sort of.

Not that there were rackets anywhere. Just, on each court, a glowing tennis-ball-sized energy sphere that bounced steadily back and forth between the floor and the ceiling (both portal-able surfaces, interestingly enough).

"It's easy enough to plan your movements and time your reactions when you have a steady pattern to plan around," GLaDOS informed the class in the detached and vaguely disdainful voice of someone who was not at all holding a bit of a grudge over the potato battery thing from the other day, not at all, she was FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. "Let's see how you handle a slightly less predictable situation. It's still entirely scientific, of course. It is possible to calculate the possible outcomes of a given moment and weigh the odds of each possible outcome, but have fun with that if you can't handle data as fast as I can. Ha. Since that's astronomically unlikely, you'll just have to resort to primitive guesswork."

She paused and let several bars of the Jeopardy! theme music play.

"Oh, and in order to add a sense of urgency to the test conditions and encourage more realistic results, there will be consequences for making incorrect contact with your Vital Testing Apparatus. Try not to be too . . . shocked. Good luck."