Blacksmithing!; Monday, Second Period [07/10].

[special_rabbit]

"As far as things go here at the Blackstone Foundry and Forge," said Amaya, as she got started in on the lesson for the day with a nod toward the students as they gathered around, "we spend a lot more time focused on the forge aspect rather than the foundry, but that's an aspect of blacksmithing that deserves a good bit of attention, too. Sure, you don't quite have the satisfaction of pounding out a piece of metal to submit to your will like you do when you're working the anvils, but there's no denying that melting metal down into a liquid form and pouring it into something to give it a new shape and purpose in life has its merits, too! So that's what we'll be working with today: liquid hot metal and pouring it into things, or, as it's more commonly known as, casting!

"And it really is as simple as it sounds," she continued. "In blacksmithing, casting is usually used when you either want to work on something with very intricate details that yo're not going to be able to manage to get with a more conventional hammer, especially for things like hilts or jewelry, or if you're mass-prodcing things. I have a few molds for standard basic swords, axe heads, arrowheads, and spear points, which work nicely when I've got a big order and no time to hammer that all out myself. And as long as you've got a mold for it, you can make pretty much anything with casting. And there are, of course, many diffferent forms of casting..."

Of course, this was going to lead Amaya into the expected breakdown of several different types, and explaining that they'll be doing a simple melt and pour method to start out, but mentioning that, of course, if anyone would live to give any other methods a try, she'd got most of the equipment, especially for sand casting, so by all means...

A little more about the science and the method of it all, and, really, for an Amaya Blackstone lecture, it was pretty straight and to the point and not even terribly rambly. It really didn't need to be much more complicated than that at this level, which hopefully meant more time to melt some metal and pour it into some molds.

And please, please not on yourself, Beaker.

The Care & Appreciation of Animals!; Monday, Third Period [07/10].

[in_sidon_we_trust]

If Sidon needed anything to help convince him that it was a good idea to start with the puppies now that it was time to focus on specific animals, it was definitely a weekend like this last one! Of course, he didn't know who might be needing a little bit of puppy snuggles this week due to visitors (or, in his case, the heartbreaking and bewildering lack thereof), but even if his entire class had been completely fine this weekend, who didn't love a good puppy snuggle day regardless?

So when the students came into the shelter for their class that day, they'd find Sidon (who should never be too difficult to spot!), over in the big puppy pen set up underneath the front window of the shelter, with all the various canines eager and excited for the day of pets and treats ahead of them.

"Good morning, everyone!" Sidon greeted in a booming voice, and a few of the dogs chimed in with a bark of a little howl. "And welcome back to the Care and Appreciation of Animals! This week, we're going to focus on a dearly beloved staple of the Furnado Animal Shelter, the domestic dog!

"Now, the domestic dog is a very vast and wide-ranging species that can involve the tiniest of pups to the largest of beasts, and all of them very good boys and girls worthy of love, attention, and proper care and appreciation! There are many different breeds, that all have different traits and personalities and needs, so we will try to cover a few of the ones represented here at the store, and go over things to keep in mind when caring for a dog, and whether or not a dog is right for you. And then we'll open it up to questions, and then, what we've all been waiting for, taking some time to actually care for and appreciate these wonderful lads and ladies with some play time and fun!"

More Pizza!, Monday, First Period

[carbsliftthespirit]

"Before we begin our journey into cheese--well, not actually into cheese, although that would be fun! Like a giant Swiss, you could go spelunking in the holes..." He was getting distracted. "Before we begin our journey into cheesemaking, I want to say that you can technically have a pizza without cheese, and many fine pizzas have cheeses that are not mozzarella." And the less said about vegan cheeses, the better. "But most of the time, when you think of pizza, you think of that stretchy mozzarella goodness, right? And guess what? It's so easy to make your own mozz that we're gonna do it today! You can even buy kits on the internet with everything you need!...except the milk and stuff. I provided that. Let's get started!"

Raiden proceeded to walk the students through how to make mozzarella, demoing as they went. When it was done, they should have a delicious mozzarella suitable for topping their own pizzas! Or some sort of abomination of how did you do that, depending on culinary skill or lack of same. Who knew?

Exploring Alien Cultures, Monday

[unusual_sith]

"Welcome back," Lana said once they were all safely through the portal to Odessen. "Today we'll be hearing about the other galactic power we haven't talked about before - the Chiss." She gestured to the armored man next to her, with dark blue skin and red eyes. "The Chiss Ascendancy is the only government I know of who, faced with Imperial expansionism, voted to ally with them. They are certainly something."

She smirked at her companion. "The Jedi Battlemaster here will tell you more."

The Jedi Battlemaster gave Lana a dry look and continued. "The Chiss are extremely isolationist, to the point of xenophobia. They also look on Force sensitivity as an impure anomaly worthy of exile, so you'll forgive me if I'm not terribly nostalgic about them. The Chiss Ascendancy is a stratified and rigid society, based around several families. Three of them currently, since House Inrokini is in disgrace. The central governing planet is Csilla, which is almost but not entirely as cold as Hoth. Apart from the ruling families, every colony also has a representative in the government.

"The native Chiss language is Cheunh, which most Chiss will insist is impossible for non-Chiss to speak properly, but it's not as though we're Ithorians; it's just hard to learn, like any new language. And it doesn't use Aurebesh or the High Galactic alphabet; it's got its own written form, too.

"Chiss are traditionally stoic and logical, preferring to calculate every move before making one, particularly around outsiders. They will almost always choose to go away and think about something if given the opportunity. And those trained in politics are very good at analyzing others, out of necessity."

He spread his hands and shrugged. "What else would you like to know?"