#Road to Graduation

[unfriendly--blvck--hottie]

[nasa]

Jessica Wittner

Jessica Wittner, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, hails from California. A National Outdoor Leadership School alum, Wittner enjoys riding motorcycles and off-roading. https://go.nasa.gov/49CxwUN

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[front-facing-pokemon]

[purplesaline]

POTS PPL LISTEN UP

You all NEED to know about the Anti-G Straining Maneuver

It's what fighter pilots are taught to do when G forces are pulling all their blood from their brains to their feet (sound familiar?) to help prevent them from blacking out or going unconscious.

I have used this many times and it's very effective.

First tighten/contract all of the muscles in your lower body (abdomen down to toes). This acts much in the same way as compression stockings and helps force blood back upward and prevent it from running en mass to your ankles.

Second step is to take quick, shallow breaths. Basically you're hyperventilating here which helps to super-oxygenate your blood making what little blood you can get to your brain more effective at delivering the much needed oxygen.

If you find this technique at all helpful you can thank lesbian romance novels because that's where I learned about it and went "huh, that's basically what happens when I stand up I wonder if it'll help" and it did so now you know about it too.

[chiaoan]

yahoo experimenting w different brushes and also lighting

[peachcitt]

fall out boy save me save me fall out boy

[aliendragondreaming]

This image was so Onionshipping coded

[saydesole]

Happy Monday

I am recovering from a family vacation today is about relaxing for me. Hope everyone had a good weekend 🤎

[isan0rt]

Actually, @lightandfellowship asking about other Dark Road historical fashion thoughts on this post did kind of get me thinking about it and you know what I think is really interesting? Is that there are only two students that are at any point wearing entirely Western-looking (non-Japanese) clothing without an obi and obijime, and that’s Xehanort (pre-arrival at Scala)...

And Baldr.

Even Master Odin is wearing an obi and obijime despite otherwise dressing like Gandalf, but we’ll leave him aside for the sake of this discussion.

For the most part the students are wearing fusion clothing, but that’s typical of the Taisho era. The Taisho period, which immediately followed the end of the Meiji Restoration, was a period of great change in Japan, and of Westernization. It was very common for people to wear a mix of Western clothing with traditional Japanese clothing. You can see a lot of this in the Dark Road students; 

(This got really long lol. Discussion of the secondary and tertiary Dark Road students’ design choices, culminating in discussion of Eraqus, Xehanort, and Baldr’s designs and what they might mean in the context of a Taisho-period-adjacent setting, under the cut).

- Most of the male students, plus Urd, are wearing very loose, bloused pants, probably tobi trousers or karusan-bakama. 

- Vidar, Vali, and Vala have some of the most traditionally Japanese silhouettes among the upperclassmen. Vidar is wearing a sleeveless lapped garment that isn’t strictly traditional, but has a very Japanese look to the way it’s assembled and to the color styling, while Vali is wearing pretty authentic-looking Japanese faulds, and is obviously supposed to make you think of the kabuki ideal of a ninja. Vala also looks EXTREMELY Taisho-period; the wearing of silk-painted or embroidered, brightly-colored hakama with an obi and furisode or kosode was extremely common for girls in the Taisho period. Vala has some sort of fantasy puff cuff-sleeve-thing instead of furisode, but her hakama and obi are lifted straight out of the 1910s. Interestingly, these upperclassmen, like Eraqus in the lower class, survive the longest.

- Heimdall, Sigrun, and Bragi are all wearing a mix of actual traditional Japanese clothing and Western elements. They are all wearing short kimono, with Sigrun having a very classic obi styling, Bragi is wearing traditional workman’s clothing (a hanten and sarubakama, with an obi without obijime, interestingly), and Heimdall appears to be wearing a kosode, with obi and obijime. However, Sigrun is wearing leggings and gaiters, Heimdall has some WILD thigh-high Three Musketeers boots and that very intensely high-collared, French-looking bolero jacket, and Bragi is, as previously discussed, wearing a bomber jacket (and also Chuck Taylor sneakers, Bragi you sneaky, deeply anachronistic guy).

- Helgi and Hoder, interestingly, appear to be blending Japanese and Chinese clothing styles; they’re both wearing obi and obiage, but Hoder appears to be wearing a cheongsam, and while Helgi is wearing a sleeveless kimono as a shirt, his fur ruffs very much evoke some traditional theatrical depictions of Son Goku (the Monkey King not the DBZ character); but I’m not that knowledgeable about Chinese clothing so I won’t make too many conjectures here.

- Urd and Hermod and Vor all have very fantasy-like designs, with the girls having fewer garments from either real Western or Japanese styles. Hermod and Urd as discussed have the bloused pants, Vor’s coat looks VERY much like a traditionally silk painted kimono that’s been altered to have a Western tab-collar, but has a traditional Japanese rope bow on the back, and all three are wearing obi and obiage. However, Urd’s robe/cape thing is VERY Western Fantasy Wizard, meanwhile Vor is wearing actual pumpkin pants. Hermod’s looks the most period, with his haori retaining the traditional lapels but altered to have Western bishop sleeves, and he’s wearing VERY WWI-style gaiters.

Now lets talk about the other three, who are actually our main characters; Xehanort, Baldr, and Eraqus.

Eraqus is absolutely wearing nothing but traditional Japanese clothing (aside from the obvious Kingdom Hearts elements of the turtleneck and crossed suspenders). He is wearing extremely traditional hakama, with the most traditional haori of any of the cast. His hair is partially loose but what is pulled back is pulled into something like a topknot; Eraqus is designed in every way to evoke the look of the samurai class. What I think is significant with that is that, as mentioned, the Taisho period followed the Meiji Restoration, when the samurai class in Japan were more or less disbanded in the face of modernization of Japan. I don’t think it’s unrelated that at this point, the Scalan society that considers Eraqus a ‘blueblood’ is also in decline, and is ultimately ended within Eraqus’s lifetime. He is the last of his kind, and he is dressed like it.

Then, there’s Xehanort. When he leaves Destiny Islands to go to Scala he’s dressed in an outfit that calls to mind Ephemer’s, and is extremely Western and modern-looking; which makes sense, since he was raised by Player, and the KHUX time period has very modern and Western fashion (remember Bragi’s Chucks?). But once he’s a student, he’s replaced his button-down shirt and collared sleeveless duster with a turtleneck (Kingdom Hearts, lol) and haori of his own, an exact photo negative of Eraqus’s haori except that Xehanort’s is sleeveless. But Eraqus is a blueblood, and as far as anyone in Scala knows, Xehanort is a nobody and a foreigner; he is still wearing Western pants in a Western style, held up by a Western belt and without any obi in sight. Xehanort was born in Scala, and he resents being seen as Just Some Guy, but he doesn’t belong there like Eraqus does; his haori on top is trying to make him part of that world, an equal to Eraqus, but what’s underneath reflects that Scala doesn’t consider him either of those things.

And then, there is Baldr. 

I’ve seen other posters point out that his clothing is all black, under a white jacket (I’m sorry I don’t remember who pointed this out!), but also, Baldr has the most Western and contemporary clothing of all of the characters in Dark Road. In contrast to Xehanort, with his loose, pre-WWI-era jeans, Baldr is wearing contemporary skinny jeans with a wallet chain and fashionable low-buckled boots. He’s also wearing a waistcoat, and a bolero jacket with what looks like knit cuffs. He doesn’t fit in with the others at all, even less than Xehanort does.

And pointedly, like Xehanort, he is not wearing an obi.

I feel like it’s not a coincidence that this game visually sets its characters in the Taisho era, the time period that transitioned Japan from the traditional Japan to the modern, Westernized Japan of the 20th century, and the character who puts a permanent end to Scalan society is the only character dressed entirely in Western and modern clothing. Obviously I can’t say for sure what the intent was, but at the end of the game, the three characters left standing are Eraqus, dressed in the most traditionally Japanese fashion, Baldr, dressed in the least, and Xehanort, the fusion, who is dressed like Eraqus on the surface, but underneath, is dressed like Baldr.

[fazafras-pizza]

Ah, College.. Sometimes stressing, sometimes fun! ...but mostly stressing.

Anyways, Who's had their turn already? Is Bonnie doing better?

CHICA: What do they say?

BONNIE: That we might not have brought enough money.

[freebooter4ever]

I still cant get over how gross that book made me feel -_- i've 'paused' the d*ating app and unmatched everybody on it again. They could advertise that for the book: 'do you have a pesky need for romance in your life? Want to end that? Read this book you'll stop wanting to be touched for months!'

I dont remember a lot about my relationship with the abusive Idiot, but i do have a very strange visceral memory of how obsessed he was with my 'tight' skin. How sometimes it felt like he was touching that rather than me. It was a very disconnected sort of intimacy. Whats funny is he was 32 then and i was ten years younger. And now im 35 and i feel like i havent changed much. Or at least not enough to place a huge amount of value on someone whose skin was 22 or 25. I genuinely dont get it

[stopthefeeling]

2:1 in BSc (Hons) Animal Management and Welfare ✅

[fitzroycontent]

Had my drivers test today and failed in the first ten seconds and u know what. So would fitzroy peace and love on planet earth

[sportsallover]

Kristen Faulkner used to work in finance? Yikes, that puts a damper on my support…

[bluesidedown]

hnggghhggg

[cheekblush]

aw kathi im so sorry this happened to you :( I can understand that some workplaces are just so toxic and there will always be coworkers and even bosses who are just jealous lmao😭 but I’m so confident that you will be able to find something else if you want to quit. You’re very smart, and you’re such a sweet girl. I hope that you know that and that you don’t let those little bitches make you think otherwise 💗 this also might sound a bit cliché, but almost being at your 30s doesn’t mean it’s over! You’re just getting started, and I can’t wait to see what great things life has in store for you❤️❤️❤️ love you so much Kathi💗 I hope you feel better, I’ll always be here ^__^💗

gabby my sweetheart!!! 💓💓💓 you can’t even imagine how much this message means to me especially coming from you!! 🥹💘 i really think you’re my longest mutual on here since most of my long time mutuals have sadly already deactivated 🥲 so to read these words of support from you really means the world to me!!! 🥺💖 i appreciate it so, sooooooo much thank you endlessly angel!!! 🫂 your message really cheered me up and gave me so much reassurance. i just thought i’d have my life figured out by now but it rather feels like i have nothing figured out at all. but you’re right, my life is only beginning not ending i have so much more to look forward to. and i can’t let this job and these phonies rob me of my happiness��️sending you a million kisses and hugs my love!! really, truly, wholeheartedly thank you soooooooo much for your support and encouragement!! i genuinely appreciate and cherish it!! i wish you only the very best at all times and hope you’re doing well 🫶🏻💞🪽🪷💫🍓🧸💗🎐✨