Hunting 101, Thursday

[likethegun]

When everyone arrived for class, they'd find Sam leaning against a desk with a pile of newspapers next to him. "Hey guys, sorry about last week. I hope the movie was at least a little entertaining for you," he said. "Today, we're actually going to talk about ghosts instead of just watching something about them."

( Read more... )

Adulting With Cars, Thursday, Third Period

[10secondcar]

"What I am going to teach you this week is illegal," Brian told his students, figuring that would get their attention. "That is, if you use it on anyone's car that's not yours. So, you know, don't do that." Or do. He wasn't going to tell anyone.

Worst cop ever.

"Eventually, you're going to lock your keys in your car. It happens. No big, right? But what do you do next? Well, you could call a locksmith, and pay them to break into your car, but that's a giant waste of money. The catch is that you're going to need tools: something to wedge open your door, and something to poke the lock with--I'm assuming you all have automatic locks for this one. A doorstop and an unfolded wire coat hanger should do the trick, and no, I'm not expecting you all to carry around a doorstop and a coat hanger at all times, but they're easy to get your hands on and cheaper than a locksmith in a pinch. So here's how it works." Brian demonstrated method he'd been talking about on one of the fake cars. "Now, if you're dealing with a manual lock, it starts out the same way, but you're going to need to put a hook in the end of your poking device to catch the lock pin or lever with and pull it into the unlocked position. And there are other methods, some of which work better than others." Brian had his doubts about the tennis ball trick. "In case some of you would like to try one of those instead of this one, there's a handout you can look over and all the necessary tools are available. And if you don't really care about the car, you could always just break the window. But since we're talking about your own car, which you own, of course none of you would do that, right?" Sure, Brian. Sure.

"All right, so, your cars are locked. Keys are on the driver's seat. First one to get their car open, drive the handwavey course programmed into your GPS, and get back here wins a delicious candy bar. Your time starts...NOW."

Library, Thursday (9/24)

[wildandbrave]

Cosette never minded having a song stuck in her head, and would really be more inclined to consider it unfortunate if she didn't go about her work humming or singing to herself. That was, in fact, what she was doing today.

The problem was just that she had several songs stuck in her head at the same time, and it made quite a muddle of things when she tried to sing along. Luckily, this only served to amuse her further.

Chances were good that she might just end up making up her own lyrics by the end of the day.

[OOC: A tribute to my current six-pack of Hamilton earworms. OCD-free, open!]

How to Get By In A Hostile World, Thursday

[suitably_heroic]

"Sometimes, hostility isn't so much about people trying to kill you, or set you on fire," Atton said. He was sitting at the back of the class, surrounded by large plastic bags. "But about people being terrible to you. Sometimes on a regular basis. When people do this for nothing other than the fact that you're different than they are, we tend to call that bullying. I'm just going to start off right now by saying that if you've ever been bullied for something in your life, that's on them, not on you. There's nothing wrong with you the way that you are."

He cleared his throat. He had to, to get all the rainbows and puppies out of there. Ugh.

"There's a couple of methods to deal with bullies. First and most importantly is to remain proud of yourself, and to be willing to talk back. Think about the worst things they could say to you, and how to neutralize them. Remind yourself that they don't matter, and you do, and they're petty little brats who'll get what's coming to them." There. No more rainbows and puppies! "It's also usually recommended to take this to an authority figure, so they can step in and help you out. Don't retreat. Just get backup. And if you can't talk to the people around you--"

He patted a sheet next to him.

"There's numbers you can call."

He looked at the class.

"Okay, that's the official version," he said. "Me, personally, I like to fight dirty. Somebody thinks they can pick a fight with you because they think you're smaller or weirder than they are, you start applying some guerilla warfare. Which at your age, we tend to call pranks."

He patted the plastic bags next to him. "Now, pranks can be cathartic and fun and really great if you're the spiteful kind. For instance, earlier this year, I boobytrapped professor Skywalker's office so it rained down glitter on him from all over. Glitterbombing is basically the perfect prank, because it doesn't hurt anyone, but I'll tell you, Skywalker was still picking the stuff out of his cloak a month later."

"These," he added, beaming, "Are bags full of the stuff. They're not hard to get around here. Now, I'm not saying you should use them, but I do think it's very important you all sit down today and think about someone who deserves a good glitter bombing, and how you'd go about it. And if you want to take a sample, hey, that's what they're here for."

He was helping!