Shop Class; Tuesday, First Period [09/28].

[special_rabbit]

"Morning, everyone," said Amaya, grinning faintly as she greeted them all with a nod. "This week, we're going to take a little break from all the metalworking, and shift a little back to wood. Now, the nice thing about a shop class in this day and age is that you do have an awful lot of mighty machines that can do a lot of the big work for you, but, impressive and fun as they are, sometimes, it's just nice to get back to the basics, and really know how to do something with nothing but your own two hands and a fine knife. Which is why today, we're focusing on wood carving. Whittling to be precise! Which just means it's carving done specifically by hand, and that's what we're focusing on today.

"Now, taking a knife to a piece of wood might not necessarily seem as exciting as melting down or shaping molten metal, but you'll find it's a bit more involved than it might at first seem. And the knives we'll be using are sharp, so make sure you've got some safety gloves on and that you're minding all the basics, the most important of which is to not rush and to pay attention! I've got a good track record of no one losing any fingers in my classes," and, considering some of her previous students, that was impressive!, "and I'd rather like to keep it that way.

"Everyone come in close now so that I can show you some of the basic whittling cuts that should make it easier for you to carve out something that hopefully resembles what you're going for." And she did just that, going over the different approaches in detail, talking about wood grain and everything in there, too, and then showing the students how to employ those methods to do what you want it to, with the example of carving out a quick owl.

"Most importantly," she added, once she really felt she'd covered most of the basics, "we're not just whittling something out for the heck of it; what you work on today is actually going to be used next week, so to make things easier for you in the future, I recommend you don't try to whittle out something too complex. Keep it simple, but interesting, and not too many fine details, since those won't do you much good coming up.

"I've got a few project guides if you'd like a little inspiration, but definitely feel free to get creative as well and try something on your own. I want this to be something you like, maybe something a little reflective of who you are or your personality, something like that, that you wouldn't mind working with again, because you'll be working with this again. If you can't quite get it right, we'll see what needs doing to get it there. We've got plenty of time and plenty of wood, too, so don't hesitate to give a few things a try. Any questions before we begin, then?"

Fear in Literature, Tuesday 4th period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Today's board, when the students arrived, said: The Desolation: Fear of pain, loss, burning, and destruction, especially pointless destruction.

"I hope you enjoyed this week's story," Jon said to them. "Those of you who aren't English may not be aware, but during World War II, the cathedral was considered vital to the country's morale, at least to the leaders, and its survival was extremely important, although I hope you did get some of that from the story.

"We've got a number of central themes to this one - the idea that the people rather than statistics are important being the obvious one, but also the futility and impermanence of any man-made edifice." He shrugged. "So, given that a bomb does eventually get it in this story - although not in the history of my world or the one we're currently in - was the fire watch's entire existence and mission futile? Or is the historian's determination to keep it alive important? Incidentally, the protagonist is correct about the stone - the remainder reads 'from destruction in war' and the dates, which I'm sure Ms Willis knew when writing it, but if you didn't, now you do. Anyway, what impact do you think there might have been had the cathedral burned down? Any thoughts on how the protagonist's bias against communists plays into his interactions with Langby?"

He pursed his lips. "I would also like to register a protest at the idea of stealing anything from the Bodleian, but I suppose that's a rant for a different day." Jon had Opinions about his alma mater.


When discussions were done, he wrote the next assignment on the board. "Ray Bradbury, 'The Crowd', for next week, please."

Fixin Stuff- Tuesday- 2nd period

[gotyoucookie]

Was something burning here in the Danger Shop apartment?

"Smoke alarms!" Nick announced.

Sorry to your ears, class. This was gonna suck.

"These are lifesavers. But mostly they just scream at you when you've been cooking. Now, there are what, probably three common times you'll hear these bad boys. First, when there's an actual fire and you need to leave the building immediately. Second, you cooked something Abd there's the tiniest bit of smoke. And third, when it's two in the damn morning and it's beeping at you. I'm the third case, the beeps mean different things. It can mean the battery needs replacing, or there's a malfunction, like dust in it. You can keep the manual or look it up online. When that happens, you have to remove the smoke detector from the ceiling, make it stop, and fix it tomorrow, because what're your really gonna do at two am?

"Now, to make it stop... we'll there's just no good way to do that, but there are some common techniques. You can get on a chair, pull the alarm off, and hit buttons until it stops for real. Or if you don't have a chair, ir have some aggression, you can beat it into submission with a broom."

And with that, Nick opened the oven, and the smoke from the burned cookies poured out, sending several smoke alarms screaming.

"YOU ALL HAVE ONE TO TAKE CARE OF. THE SOONER YOU FIX IT, THE SOONER THERE'S PEACE!"

Did anyone even hear that?

Ethics, Tuesday, September 28, 2021

[sith_happened]

"Well, we just had visitors," Anakin said, "which leads into a rather interesting discussion about shades of truth. Did you tell visitors, if you had any, the full truth of this place? Did you not invite anyone to avoid having those conversations? What part of Fandom would people from your home galaxy find the strangest? What would they love the most?"