Relax and Recharge 2: Extreme Relaxation, Tuesday Period Two

[doubleohblonde]

Once more Bond's class was meeting in the Danger Shop. Once within, they stood by a set of turnstiles, overgrown with vines.

"Good morning," Bond greeted them cheerfully. "Today we'll be looking at the practice of urban exploration, which as you might guess from the name involves finding various abandoned structures within urban areas and exploring them. It's not as immediately exciting as some of your previous weeks' options, but it has its own set of thrills, both from the at best quasi-legal nature of the act, as well as various structural dangers and environmental health risks that can arise in locations such these."

"Now, we're going to exploring something a touch out of the ordinary, even for this hobby, an abandoned German amusement park." Because going to an abandoned amusement park was totally a fun teenager activity, and likely to lead to lingering psychological trauma for any of the class.

Conspiracy Theories - Period 2, Wednesday

[worstofalltime.livejournal.com]

"Today we're going to discuss the 'faked' moon landings," Washington informed the class once they were seated. "Because an entire government agency, Russia, and Hollywood could keep that a secret if it were true."

They could not. They so could not.

"The theory has several variations depending on who is to blame for the supposed hoax. Some say just the first landing was fake, but some of the others were real. Some that Stanley Kubrik directed all the ladings on a Disney sound stage at the behest of the government. Which sounds like they just pulled things out of a hat and went with it," he added. "Nearly all the complaints about the landings have been debunked by this point in history, so just think of this one as a quaint bit of stupidity. Besides, everyone knows the real faked landing was on Mars."

Thanks, space marine from the future. Thanks.

"We also have another presentation from the class, this time from Face." And Wash would regret ever allowing this to happen. At least Anders' hadn't been ridiculous like Lottie's.

World Mythology, Wednesday, Period Three

[atreideslioness]

Anansi is a fine fellow, and admittedly one of my favorite gods," Ghanima said, as her students arrived today.  "He is easily one of the most important characters of West African lore.  He is often depicted as a spider, a human, or combinations thereof."

"The Anansi legends are believed to have originated in the Ashanti tribe. They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria. Anansi stories originated in Ghana, in Africa. The word Anansi is Akan and means spider.  Anansi stories are known as Anansesem to the Ashanti and Anansi-Tori to the Suriname.

Grinning, Ghanima hopped off her desk to begin wandering the rows of desks as she talked.  "Anansi, the Spider, is one of the most popular animal tricksters from West African mythology. Tricksters are mischievous figures who often oppose the will of the gods, resulting in some kind of misfortune for humans. Like many trickster figures, the wily Anansi can change his appearance to look like whatever he chooses.  This makes for some entertaining escapades, and gets him into and out of a world of trouble."

"West Africans originally considered Anansi to be the creator of the world. He often acted as a go-between for humans in their dealings with the sky god Nyame, and he supposedly persuaded Nyame to give both rain and the night to people. In most stories, however, Anansi is a crafty and cunning trickster who makes life more enjoyable for himself (or more difficult for others) by fooling humans, other animals, and even the gods themselves, often using his cleverness and knowledge of his victims' ways of thinking to trick them and achieve his purpose."

"Many Anansi stories deal with him attempting to trick people into allowing him to steal food or money, or something else that could turn a profit, but our 'hero' doesn't always win!  It was not uncommon for a trick to backfire upon Anansi in some way or another."

"One of the very notable stories where Anansi himself was tricked, was when he tried to fight a tar baby after trying to steal food, but became stuck to it instead. The "tar-baby" tale appears in a variety of ethnic African folklore contexts. It is perhaps best known to Americans from the Brer Rabbit version, found in the Uncle Remus stories. These were derived from African-American folktales in the Southern United States. Ultimately this version was adapted and used in the 1946 live-action/animated Walt Disney movie Song of the South, which is an entire dissertation  on mythology, sociology, and American racism in and of itself.  We will not get into that here."

"Now, why is this figure so universal?" she asked,  "And why did so many African American folk tales recount his exploits, under one name or another? Anansi is the spirit of rebellion; he is able to overturn the social order; he can marry the King's daughter, create wealth out of thin air; baffle the Devil and cheat Death. Even if Anansi loses in one story, you know that he will overcome in the next. Anansi conveys a simple message --that freedom and dignity are worth fighting for, at any odds."

Wednesday - World History

[wandering-stone.livejournal.com]

For class today, Jones had sent a notice for her students to meet her in the art class room and to wear old clothes. When the students arrived they would note that the room was set up with various screens, bowls and blenders for today's project. For once, Jones was not in her typical suit but instead in what was obviously an old shirt and jeans.

Clearly she was prepared for something messy.

"Last semester we covered topics on the contributions of the so-called Western culture. Today I would like to cover some of the contributions made from Asia," Jones began. "There has been some debate where similar developments occurred in the west but without Asian culture the world would have been very different. The standardized alphabet was a cornerstone of Asian contributions to the world, as well as the development of paper and block printing. The very first boat and water-going vessels were attributed to Asia as well as the invention of the compass. Gunpowder, Eastern philosophy and the crossbow were also significant contributions."

Jones then began to hand out instructions for today's exercise. "Today we will experiment with one of these contributions by making our own paper. If you wish you may use the more simpler method of creating pulp with the use of tissue paper or create the more primitive form using old cloth, seeds and plant fibers. The paper is yours to keep if you so wish. Please begin."