During my mom’s celebration of life, her family sent me awful messages. I didn’t have my phone on me, and I was kicked out of the group before I could defend myself. We followed my mom’s final wishes and spread her ashes in her gardens around her home. Her family was not there for her until the very end. In fact, there were many times during her chemo when they did not talk to her, nor did they know when she was originally rediagnosed.
I was not perfect—no 15-20 year old is, especially one watching their mother die—but I was there every single day. I drove her to chemo and adjusted my work schedule around her and my dad’s doctor appointments to be able to bring them back and forth. If she wanted to go somewhere at night and didn’t feel comfortable driving, I drove her. When she got sick and couldn’t eat, I made her food that was easy for her to eat and encouraged her that it would get better. I worked out with her when she was better so she could regain strength. I got her clothes when she needed them and picked up whatever she asked for.
There are so many parts of the messages that are NOT true. It is not illegal to scatter ashes on your private property, and you do not have to add it to your deed. In fact, what they wanted to do with her ashes (dump them in the lake) was illegal. At no point did they express concerns over what we were doing being illegal. They did express that they didn’t like it and offered the illegal alternative, but we held firm that final wishes should be followed as they are a person's last request.
Now, every year around the time of her death, I think about what was said in those messages, and they make me question the most basic thing: did my mother love me? If she did, why did her family feel the need to blame me? Despite some of them seemingly coming to my defense in the messages, I do not doubt that they said the same things behind my back. My mom and I did get into a fight the week she died. Emotions and tensions within the house were running high, and you could feel the end was coming. Neither of us handled it well, but it was not a fight that made me deserve this.
Will I ever be able to let go of this? My therapist encouraged me to share, but I’m worried everyone will agree that they are right.
Here are the messages names are changed for privacy the number next to cousin/aunt/uncle shows if they are directly related. There were more people in the group chat who did not talk. Also for reference I was 20 when this happened my cousins were at least in their 40s and my aunts in uncles had to be 60+.
Cousin 1: Hi me (OP). I have just found out that you and your family are intending on burying your Mom in the backyard today. As far as I can see, you and your family (with the exception of your brother) have not felt bad at all that your Mom has suffered with cancer for all of these years. Your posts about your Mom dying have been cold, to say the least. Anyone who leaves a hospital because she told you to get the hell out, you have serious issues. You could have sat in the waiting room. The cancer spread throughout her body, she's going to say things that she really didn't mean. Thank God Aunt 2 & Cousin 2 were able to get up there and she was not alone when she died. From what I understand during the last few days when she couldn't do anything, you were very nasty to her. You are her daughter. You should have been helping her, that's part of being a adult. You told her to get off her ass and get her own drink and refused to do laundry or help her in any way, shape or form. You young lady should be disgusted in yourself in how you treated your mother. Your brother has been the only one to help her. She took all that time off of chemo when she shouldn't have to care for your father during his heart surgery and this is how you all treat her? If she kept going with the chemo during that time, maybe she would be with us. Where is your respect for your mother? YOU DO NOT BURYING YOUR MOTHER IN THE BACKYARD. I have contacted the State Police, Local Police Department, the funeral home and tomorrow I will be contacting the Town Hall. The state law says that you cannot bury someone in an urn on your property without having a permit from the town and it has to be on the deed and plot plan. If you sell the house, you have to take the urn with you. Use your head. Put the urn on the fireplace and honor your mother. Your mother would not want this and this makes me sick that you would do this to your mother and that your father is going along with it. You are burying her like a dead animal. I hope your proud of yourself for what your doing to your mother. The woman who raised you and did everything for you does not deserve this. And this is how you thank her by burying her in the backyard. It doesn't cost a whole lot to get a cemetery plot and have her buried in a proper location. You do have a life insurance which can be used to bury her properly. I am positive that your mother is completely appalled as to what you are doing to her remains. I'm just telling you upfront what I have done. I don't care if you like it or not, but my Aunt does not deserve to be buried in the backyard, it is not something she would want. BTW, there are very serious fines for doing this, up to $10,000.
Uncle 3: Who made you the judge? Is it because of all the time that you spent visiting and talking with my sister that you know what her final wishes were? Did she tell you that she was stopping chemo to care for her husband because me (OP) made her do it? Having visited - and talked with my sister- before her husband went in for surgery, I know that stopping the chemo was her decision. She very much appreciated all that her husband had done for her in these final months. Me (OP) was left with the task of dealing with what needed to be done once she died. Leave the OP’s family alone. If you will not help, go away.
PS Facebook and email are not the way to deal with issues like this. Look the person in the eye and talk to them!
Aunt 2: Thank you Bro for this response. I couldn't have said it better. This was not the time or the place to air this sort of venom.
Cousin 1: It amazes me that everyone was so upset about this yesterday when this was found out and now your not and think this is ok. Not one of her sisters or brother were even invited to this cook-out, that should at the very least upset you. She would not want to be buried in the backyard, she's not an animal. Believe me, if I had enough time to call them I certainly would have, unfortunately I had to get ready for work. And for your information Uncle, I talked to her numerous times. OP’s dad is the husband and he should be doing what needs to be done, not a 20yo girl who doesn't know what to do since she hasn't ever been exposed to something like this.
Cousin 2: First off, Cousin 1, I asked OP’s Dad who said he was going to bury her in the back yard NOT TO. I discussed the legalities involved. I spoke directly to all three of them about her faith and ways to allow people to pay their respects to her. I was kind and forthcoming. It's THEIR decision as to what to do. Am I happy that my Auntie is being buried in the back yard? NO. But it's not my place or my decision. You've handled this situation as a full on attack with all sorts of misinformation. For the record, we WERE invited by OP’s Family today. I appreciated that and decided not to attend. I'm honored to have held my Auntie's hand in her last moments. In fact, I believe she waited for both me and Aunt 2. THAT was supposed to happen and I feel blessed and honored to be loved and cherished by her enough to be given that trust. I understand you're grieving and it hurts like hell but please just take a step back and honor the wishes of Auntie's husband and children. It's not our say ... not our place to judge her final resting place. Auntie's siblings decided to honor their decision yesterday and I stand by them. Please STOP and leave me (OP) and OP’s Family alone.
Cousin 1: Well I guess if you all think this is ok then I guess it's ok. Because once again, when I voice an opinion I'm the bad person but everyone else can say and do whatever they want and it seems to be ok. It's kind of like when Nana was dying and everyone got mad at me because I had a priest give Nana last rights. That's what Nana would have wanted. Then we have the lies that the cemetery wouldn't bury her. That was a bunch of crap. The cemetery buries all year round, I called them and asked. That's what she would have wanted, not to be buried months later when it was convenient for certain people. You all want honesty and think you can speak to me like I'm a child, think again. If everyone thinks it's ok to bury Aunt in the backyard like a dead animal, then so be it. It is barbaric, horrible and shows absolutely no respect for her at all. I am done with this family. I have said how I feel and as Uncle 3 said, go away. So that is exactly what I will do. Please don't contact me at all, any of you. I am done.
Cousin 2: You're acting unreasonably You just disrespected Auntie for wanting the burial in the summer due to the very cancer that took her life. Don't you dare disrespect the brothers and sisters of my mom’s full name. I voiced NOT only my concerns and opinion of NOT OK of being buried in the backyard right to the people who stated their intent ... and tried to offer other ideas. Here is the thing ... I have no say. I'm not next of kin nor is Aunt 2, Uncle 3 or your Mom. We have no say. I'm not OK with their choice. We all understand it's illegal. This is why I chose not to attend. I won't participate because in my heart I know she is gone and I will let go when our side of the family has their own celebration of life and it will have aspects of faith and God. I personally need that for my heart to begin to heal this great loss. If you want out of my life that is your choice. Not mine. I won't stand by and let you bully and hurt people like this. You owe this entire family an apology as well OP’s family. I'm very disappointed in you.
Cousin 1: Excuse me and let's be honest here. The burial was not done because Uncle 3 told everyone that the cemetery doesn't bury when it's cold. They do. At that time, it had nothing to do with Aunt. If it did, that is obviously understandable. I was also told that none of us were invited today. I would not go because of what the intentions are. Calling all of them morons and how stupid they are behind their backs, I guess it boggles my mind how now your all defending them. Personally, if I were to call them at this point, I would tell them that. I am not bullying anyone. I do not owe anyone an apology. If you read Uncle 3's email, he told me to go away and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Aunt 2 kicked me out of the group chat

How’s it going my cello crohnies! I could use your help with an issue I had today. Often times due to crohns I’m choking down my food and it takes me a really long time to eat. Usually dinner is an hour long affair if not longer for me. Unfortunately work only permits a half hour lunch break. Many times in the past I’ve just taken the time I needed to in order to eat and use the bathroom and then came back after 40 minutes or so, and it wasn’t a problem. Today however my manager got upset with me for taking too long of breaks. This is stressful because I do not know that I can manage eating in the half hour I’m allotted, especially because we have nowhere to eat on site so at least 10 minutes of that time is me driving to get food or going home to eat food I’ve prepped. Today I took a 45 minute lunch break and still wasn’t able to eat all my food. I returned to my manager telling me only to take a half hour. So I am curious if you guys know about accommodations for this. I’ve already discussed the necessity of the bathroom, but is this something I’d need to get a doctors note to excuse or should I just suck it up and be hungry or in pain? Any help would be appreciated! Good luck out there today!

My study today was spent defending Jesus as a law-giver and law-keeper. I learned that Jesus' interpretations of justice and mercy were always in existence. We were not made privy to them because of our human frailty, and our hearts hardened by sin. (Matthew 19:8, Mark 3:1-5, Romans 5:13) Even now, the parables reveal things to us that we were not ready to receive when our Lord walked the earth. (John 16:12-15)
We're made in God's image. Every lesson of life we learn, makes us more like Him. As we grow spiritually, we leave behind logic that no longer seems reasonable. (Psalm 17:15, Matthew 10:25, 1 Corinthians 13:11-13)
Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, came to give us a greater, and more glorious law. (Deuteronomy 18:15, Acts 3:22, Jeremiah 31:31-34) Mankind was not ready to receive, much less live out, the fullness of the law when it was given on Mt. Sinai. Even now, we are being perfected and learning, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19, 1 John 2:27) Jesus explained, "I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill." He also explained how vital it is to keep the whole law. (Matthew 5:17-20)
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, we are warned not to "turn to the right hand or the left" in keeping the law. (Deuteronomy 5:32, Deuteronomy 17:1, Deuteronomy 28:14, Joshua 23:6) It means not to do more or less than what it says. The way Jesus kept the law (including the Sabbath law) was a correction of the rulers' current practices. Jesus used scripture, creation, and divinely appointed miracles to show people that they were the ones in the wrong.
Most of the laws Jesus explained to us are more easily broken than the law of Moses. We are no longer even allowed to hate, much less murder. (Matthew 5:43-45, Psalm 139:21-22) We can only keep these laws by the power of the Holy Spirit who changes our hearts. God's Holy Spirit makes us people of truth and love.
All Jesus' corrections of the commandments were scorned in his day. Don't you find it strange that Jesus, the Author of Life, is constantly condemned for promoting life and love in the Bible? (Matthew 12:1-24) The Word of God says, "When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord shall take me up." (Psalm 27:10) Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, kept his promises, even on the Sabbath. (John 1:1, John 1:14, Numbers 23:19, Isaiah 40:8) This is the greatest complaint against him among our Jewish brethren today.
In this study, I learned that God has always worked on the Sabbath he gave us. (John 5:17, Mark 2:27) It was God that kept manna from spoiling and breeding worms every Sabbath day in the wilderness. (Exodus 16:24) Jesus used King David, and those who served in the Temple as examples and proof of God's will. We are to serve God and support life every day, including the Sabbath. I finished this study wondering if, "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years," was a literal statement. (2 Peter 3:8, Psalm 90:4) I hope that God will be finished making us into our final form when Jesus is ready for his Sabbath rest with his bride. (Psalm 95:6-11, Hebrews 4:1-12, John 3:26-36)
In Jesus' day, it went against Jewish tradition to fast on the Sabbath. Jesus' disciples did not have food to eat. They were not offered a meal by their peers. Instead they accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath because they made produce fit to eat by using their hands to take and rub clean the food God gave them. (Deuteronomy 23:25, Matthew 12:1-7)
I believe the only accusation anyone can have against Jesus is over whether or not he really was one with God. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus spoke the truth of who he was, and it cost his life. (Matthew 26:65, Isaiah 53:12)
I spent quite a bit thinking on this passage, where Jesus was nearly stoned to death before his crucifixion. The scene takes place during Hanukkah, which is also a time when fasting and mourning are not lawful... yet hate and envy seem to be allowed? No wonder we needed a Messiah to change our hearts! (Zechariah 12:10, John 19:34-37)
John 10:22-33 NLT
22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The people surrounded him and asked, "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus replied, "I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father's name. 26 But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one." 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, "At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?" 33 They replied, "We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God."
How can anyone save people who can't discern between their friends and their enemies? How could people bent on causing death appreciate the life-supporting logic of Jesus?
Jesus' logic made sense to those who realized that "an eye for an eye" would make the whole world blind. They had learned enough about judgment to see their need for mercy.
It was God's love for mercy that drove him to sacrifice for us, Jews and Gentiles alike. May we show one another mercy, by resisting our judgmental, sinful nature. (Hebrews 12:2-4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Hosea 6:1-6)
Acts 17:30-31 NLT

30 "God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead."

Scripture references:
Jesus' interpretations of justice and mercy were always in existence. We were not made privy to them because of our human frailty, and our hearts hardened by sin.
Matthew 19:8 NLT

8 Jesus replied, "Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.

Mark 3:1-5 NLT

1 Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, "Come and stand in front of everyone." 4 Then he turned to his critics and asked, "Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer him. 5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!

Romans 5:13 NKJV

(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Even now, the parables reveal things to us that we were not ready to receive when our Lord walked the earth.
John 16:12-15 NLT

12 "There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, 'The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.'

We're made in God's image. Every lesson of life we learn, makes us more like Himself. No person stays a child forever.
Psalm 17:15 NKJV

15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

Matthew 10:25

“It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!

1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NKJV

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, came to give us a greater, and more glorious law.
Deuteronomy 18:15 NKJV

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

Acts 3:22 NKJV

22 "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 NKJV

31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Mankind was not ready to receive the complete law when it was given on Mt. Sinai. Even now, we are being perfected and learning, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit
**Deuteronomy 18:15-19 NLT - 15 Moses continued, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you yourselves requested of the LORD your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai. You said, 'Don't let us hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.' 17 "Then the LORD said to me, 'What they have said is right. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. 19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.
1 John 2:27 NLT - 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true--it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
Jesus explained that He didn't come to destroy God's Laws. He also explained how vital it is to keep them.
Matthew 5:17-20

17 "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to complete them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 "But I warn you--unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

Scripture warns us not to "turn to the right hand or the left" from following God's commands. This means not to do more or less than what it says.
Deuteronomy 5:32 NLT

32 So Moses told the people, "You must be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, following his instructions in every detail.

Deuteronomy 17:1 NLT

1 "Never sacrifice sick or defective cattle, sheep, or goats to the LORD your God, for he detests such gifts.

Deuteronomy 28:14 NLT

14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

Joshua 23:6 NLT

6 "So be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the Book of Instruction. Do not deviate from it, turning either to the right or to the left.

The way Jesus kept the law was a correction of traditions. Jesus used scripture, creation, and miracles to show people the truth.
Under Jesus' glorified laws, we are no longer even allowed to hate, much less murder. We can only keep these laws by the power of the Holy Spirit who changes our hearts.
Matthew 5:43-44 New Covenant: love your enemies, hate their sin.

43 "You have heard the law that says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

Psalm 139:21-22 Old Covenant: hate those who hate God.

21 O LORD, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who oppose you? 22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.

Jesus' corrections of the commandments were scorned in his day. The Sabbath corrections were only well-received by those who knew they needed mercy.
Matthew 12:1-24 NLT

1 At about that time Jesus was walking through some grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. 2 But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, "Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath." 3 Jesus said to them, "Haven't you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. 5 And haven't you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath? 6 I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple! 7 But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.' 8 For the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!" 9 Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, 10 where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, "Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?" (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.) 11 And he answered, "If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to pull it out? Of course you would. 12 And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath." 13 Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one! 14 Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. 15 But Jesus knew what they were planning. So he left that area, and many people followed him. He healed all the sick among them, 16 but he warned them not to reveal who he was. 17 This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah concerning him: 18 "Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. 20 He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. 21 And his name will be the hope of all the world." 22 Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn't speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. 23 The crowd was amazed and asked, "Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?" 24 But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they said, "No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons."

Psalm 27:10

10 Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will take care of me.

God keeps his promises, even on the Sabbath.
John 1:1, 14 NKJV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Numbers 23:19 NKJV

19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Isaiah 40:8 NKJV

8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."

God has always worked on the Sabbath he gave us.
John 5:17 NKJV

17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

Mark 2:27 NKJV

27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Exodus 16:24 NKJV

24 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.

The rulers of Jesus' day made Sabbath laws that conflicted for the poor. They falsely accused Jesus' followers of harvesting on the Sabbath when they legally took what God provided.
Deuteronomy 23:25 NKJV

25 "When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.

Matthew 12:1-7 NKJV

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!" 3 But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 "how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 "Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Some people say Jesus deserved to die for breaking the law. I know that Jesus spoke the truth of who he was, and paid for it with his life.
Matthew 26:62-65 NKJV

62 And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!" 64 Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!

Isaiah 53:12 NKJV - 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus was nearly stoned to death before his crucifixion. The account takes place during Hanukkah, a time when fasting and mourning are not lawful... yet hate and envy seem to be allowed? We needed a Messiah to change our hearts!
John 10:22-33 NLT

22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The people surrounded him and asked, "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus replied, "I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father's name. 26 But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one." 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, "At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?" 33 They replied, "We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God."

Zechariah 12:10 NKJV

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

John 19:34-37 NKJV

34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." 37 And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."

Jesus' logic made sense to those who had seen enough judgment to realize their need for mercy.
God's love drove him to sacrifice for us, Jews and Gentiles alike. May we show one another mercy, by resisting our judgmental, sinful nature.
Hebrews 12:2-4 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Hosea 6:1-6 NKJV

1 Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. 3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth. 4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth. 6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Acts 17:30-31 NLT

30 "God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead."

May God's truth and love permeate our lives and make us more like Him.

Hi,
My fiancé and I want to officially start planning our wedding, and we kind of just... don't know where to start. I've always wanted to get married but have always been pretty poor, and so as much as I imagined it, I never really thought it was possible. I'm making *okay* money now, and we want to do something despite having a really meager budget- neither of our families is in a place to contribute and we don't have significant savings but are hoping that it's manageable if we just go super budget and piece out the purchases over time.
Apart from general ideas of "I think this would be nice :)" how do you actually get started? I'm sorry, I know this is probably a dumb question, but it just seems so overwhelming.
So far we've:

• created an invitee list, but haven't sent anything out- when is it safe to do it? after booking the venue? when is too early/too late? The venue we like can hold up to 99 people, we have about 40 adults that are 21+ for the ceremony and would invite the underaged/children family members to the reception, which puts us around 80. Also, I have a fairly large family (if including aunts, uncles, cousins) and my fiancé has a very small family, so my "side" of the guest list would be like, 75% of the guest list. Fiancé has mentioned feeling a bit silly having so few people to invite of his own- do you think I should cut way back on the aunts, uncles and cousins to keep it more balanced? It would be a much smaller event, but I'm not necessarily opposed to that.
• we've tentatively picked a venue, but haven't put any money down on it- how far ahead do people do these things? It's a local venue and not huge, but fairly well known in town- we are thinking April 2026 would be nice, do we just... book the hall for the day and hope everything else falls into place once we have a location picked?
• we've picked a theme, flowers and color stories, but haven't looked into florists or specific decorations like centerpieces or anything yet
• we've chosen a bridal party and an officiant, all have agreed
• we've decided on a menu of food and drinks but haven't picked a vendocaterer yet. We can't really afford an open bar, but don't want a dry wedding- does it sound okay to have one "Featured Cocktail" that we provide the ingredients for, and request that guests BYOB for anything that they'd want besides our one featured cocktail? Do you think guests would receive that okay? Our financial status is no secret to the guests. The venue will have us pay for a booze permit, but if we pay that it doesn't appear that there any other restrictions about alcohol.
• we haven't thought about cake yet, at all

Is there anything that we're missing? Do you have any opinions or tips or suggestions on how to go about the whole process? So far, apart from asking the bridal party to participate, nothing else has been set in stone, we've just been sort of fantasizing about "What if we did it here? What if we did it on this date? Who would we invite?" Etc. It's easy to think about a wedding, but I just have no idea how to actually make it happen.

Hello , short version, only interested in something serious and longterm. USA strongly preferred.
Absolutely no : History of abuse, history Addiction, mens haircuts, Colored hair ( blue, pink etc) heavy drinkers, single moms, cigarette smokers , NEW ACCOUNTS, no activists on any level, NO Black woman, must be an actual female from birth, im sure there is more but mind is blank at the moment.
\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_
I am looking for someone who is willing to actually put 50/50 effort into this. If you have zero desire to talk, check messages, respond in a timely manner etc we have absolutely ZERO to be talking about. I am very much over these types of interactions, I honestly dont get it haha. Communication is very key.
\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\Brief info about me : Enjoy all things true crime related ( podcasts, documentaries etc), I listen to all types of music to the point its just easier for me to say if I like it, ill listen to it period. If you saw me in person and then saw my Spotify it would probably shock you, not in a bad way though haha. I like to cook and BBQ when weather permits although I have been slacking on the bbq aspect lately. I use to compete with my exes father and it was a ton of fun. learned alot of things and made some amazing ribs and chicken. I love to try new foods when possible, id love to travel more, I do enjoy cruises, im pretty laid back type of person in the sense im open to whatever as long as it isnt lame.Please be 420 friendlyIts really pointless to write a lot here considering most messages are fake accounts / bots. Please send your basic info when you message instead of just "hi". Name, Location, age please thanks. Also be ready to exchange photos, if as an adult you "cant" do that, please dont message me lol.

Session 0: https://www.reddit.com/DeltaGreenRPG/comments/1d0l92x/impossible_landscapes_session_0/
(Okay, these will be long. Five players, lmao. Hadn't quite accounted for that)
Operation ALICE, New York, 1995
The Roster (Player/Character)
Lea (she/her): Jules Gradkowska - Agent MIRANDA. Journalist - research and human intelligence.
Iain (he/him): Ralph Bevis - Agent MILHOUSE. Academic - history and occult specialist.
Quinn (he/him): Richard Delapore - Agent MAVERICK. FBI Special Agent - criminal and forensic expert and the official 'face' of the investigation.
Phil (he/him): Jean Duvall - Agent MAIN. US Navy Master Chief Petty Officer - operational security specialist.
Duncan (he/him): Jake Little - Agent MALATESTA. Civilian contractor - computer and electronic specialist with a side line in hacking.
Rob_sothoth (he/him) - Handler. The arbiter of the world: the good, the bad and that which cannot and should not be named.
Background: The Agents of M-Cell are tasked with investigating the apartment of Abigail Wright. Missing since June, Delta Green has reason to suspect para-natural involvement. Their orders are simple: catalogue the apartment and remove anything deemed suspect for destruction.
Despite heavy changes made, full spoiler warning for Impossible Landscapes.

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Session 1 "The Apartment" (May 24th, 2024)
New York: Tuesday, August 8th, 1995
1:45pm - 3:32pm, EST
Entering the lobby of the Macallistar building in Kips Bay, NYC, the Agents first make a sweep of Abigail's mailbox. Agent MARCUS (M-Cell Case Officer) provided them with a complete set of keys, not to be copied. The mailbox is stuffed full with bills, junk mail, catalogues and offers; mail still being delivered by people who have no idea Abigail is missing. MAVERICK gathers it in a bag and they make their way to Abigail's apartment (Ground floor).
The Macallistar echoes an earlier age. Faded purple carpeting and design from the turn of the century. Opposite Abigail's front door is an old-fashioned telephone nook, complete with bench and curtain for comfort and privacy when phone-lines in individual apartment was an expense few could afford.
M-Cell enters the apartment, finding it somewhere between a hoarder's dream and crime-scene technician's nightmare. The small hallway leads to a living-room (the apartment's largest space), an adjoining bedroom and a kitchen and bathroom opposite each other. Aside from the hallway, on first inspection the only other uncluttered space is the kitchen, which doesn't really look as if it's been used much. MAVERICK ear-marks that as something he wants to check himself as the team begin taking stock.
The NYPD has left a box with copies of their files, including a list of tenants they interviewed, many, many evidence collection bags and a box of latex gloves.
The apartment is filled with various items, with almost no floor visible beneath the collection. CDs and CD cases are stuck or glued to the wall, along with mannequin parts, sketches and assorted pieces that might be ceramic or plastic arranged in odd patterns without reason or rhyme. Stacks of phone books, stretches of dyed fabrics stitched together, an antique claw-footed lamp. Bags, bundles of pictures (drawings and photographs) of seeming nonsense. No furniture is immediately visible in the chaotic mess.
MAIN finds the same result in the bedroom as the first Search rolls are called for. Something catches his eye in the anarchy of the bedroom.
MALATESTA begins sorting through the pile of mail. MILHOUSE at first begins helping, but seeing the scale of the cataloguing, volunteers to make a coffee and food run. MIRANDA begins photographing, while MAVERICK gloves up and asks for things to be passed to him such as brushes, anything with a handle really or something more likely to have fingerprints on it. He wants to see if he can grab a set of Abigail's prints, if that's possible.
It doesn't take MALATESTA long to work out Abigail stopped paying her rent and bills in or around March before disappearing in June. Money was coming in up to a certain point, apparently from a showing Abigail had at the Mercury Gallery in Greenwich Village in November the previous year. There's even a letter from the gallery owner asking about another possible showing; from the way it's written, it might not have been the first time he spoke to Abigail before she vanished. Then, the only money coming in appears to be from her father, though she doesn't appear to have used it to cover the rent. He also gets the building management company, Art Life and their address.
As the Agents work, with MAIN carefully picking his way through the bedroom towards whatever caught his eye and MAVERICK uncovers a battery-powered hi-fi under all the trash, MILHOUSE returns from his coffee run and bumps into someone else entering the Macallistar at the same time he is. After an awkward hesitation on the threshold, MILHOUSE spends a little chatting to Lewis Post, one of Abigail's neighbours. MILHOUSE passes a HUMINT roll and I ruled that having spent most of his time in academics and his fellow PhDs, he can spot signs of some kind of social anxiety. I felt that was a fair get for a good success.
Lewis is hesitant but forthcoming as MILHOUSE works that high charisma score, knowing what to say to diffuse any potential tension. As far as Lewis knows, he is FBI of some kind after all.
MILHOUSE: "Did she ever mention a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"
Lewis: "Our relationship wasn't really like that. We had coffee sometimes. Talked about art. The process." He thinks. "She might have mentioned someone, but not a name, only what they did. A salesman, but I couldn't tell you what they sold."
MILHOUSE: "Talk about anything else?"
Lewis begins heading upstairs "She mentioned moving, but not before she was ready."
Back in the apartment, MAIN voices what others were thinking. "Where was she staying?" No bed, no signs of habitation except for the assorted hoard of crap. MAIN finds a hand grenade nestled in some papers and art supplies near the bedroom's walk-in closet.
In the living room, MAVERICK finds a single cassette tape in the uncovered hi-fi and flips it on, finding the batteries still live. Everyone hears MAVERICK's conversation with his significant other, Natalie from the previous evening. MAVERICK realises it's cut up and out of order, rewinds it and then flips it over. He thinks the entire conversation has been split between A & B sides of the tape.
MALATESTA and MAVERICK both consider phone-tapping, but MAIN, grenade temporarily forgotten, asks how it ended up here?
SAN check for MAVERICK. Pocketing the cassette tape, MAVERICK closes down a bit and prepares to go over the kitchen with a fine tooth comb; perhaps this is how he copes?
Before MAIN can mention the grenade he's worried about, MIRANDA, MALATESTA, MILHOUSE & MAVERICK notice something on the wall behind where the hi-fi was previously buried under junk. Fixed to the wall, maybe with some kind of glue is a piece of brown packing-paper with some kind of symbol drawn on it. Everyone focuses on it.

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3:41pm to 5:22pm, EST
MALATESTA: "That certainly looks like what we're supposed to be worried about."
MIRANDA snaps a polaroid. MILHOUSE tries to examine it, but his Occult check can only give him the vague thought it's connected to demonology, but little else beyond that. MAVERICK is cautious, but more concerned about getting to work on the unusually spotless kitchen.
Carefully, MIRANDA removes it and a blaring sounds like something between a horn blast and explosion almost deafens the Agents. It seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, from right next to them and outside at the same time.
Everyone passes a CONx5 check and the subsequent SAN check. Through the living room's window, MIRANDA, MILHOUSE and MAIN see a yellow-cab in the street outside. The cabbie appears to have leaned on the horn as someone crosses the street. They appear heavily dressed for summer, possibly homeless.
Is that a snake draped across their shoulders?
MIRANDA takes a polaroid while MILHOUSE and MAIN head outside to investigate. The picture reveals in sharp clarity, the cabbie staring down the barrel as she snapped the shot directly at her. MAVERICK gets to work in the kitchen and MALATESTA picks over things in the living room and bedroom respectively.
Search rolls for those in the apartment.
Outside, the cab has turned the corner and the pedestrian has carried on, though MAIN and MILHOUSE are able to work out where they went. MILHOUSE heads to cut off the other side of the alley, while MAIN approaches from behind, getting the pedestrian's attention. It's the height of summer in NYC, the air reeks of gasoline, rotting garbage and baking, soiled concrete and asphalt.
MAIN finds a nondescript, seemingly homeless man by the state of his clothes, but with a python draped over his shoulders. MAIN strikes up conversation, lighting a Gitane cigarette and pointing to the snake. From the other end of the alley, MILHOUSE makes his way towards the pair.
MAIN fails an alertness check.
Is this guy sweating? It's hot and he's bundled up like it's winter. Is he sweating? Why isn't he sweating?
Back in the apartment, MAVERICK tests the kitchen for blood and body fluids, breaking out the spray bottle and UV light. There's no cutlery, glassware or dishware anywhere in the room, but as he's lifting what could be a print, finds a mechanical diagram drawn on a napkin taped above the inside of an otherwise empty drawer. MALATESTA & MIRANDA continue their search of the living and bedroom, with MALATESTA finding a card printed with the following:
"For a good time Call D - 999-202-9989"
On the reverse are a series of what appear to be street corner addresses in Brooklyn. Could be a sex-line, could be a way to see Red Band underground film screenings, could be something online related. MALATESTA drifts between a few circles and he pockets it out of curiosity. When MIRANDA locates the grenade in the bedroom, she is careful to give it a wide berth and locates what MAIN missed: a backpack radio in the bedroom's walk-in closet. She calls MALATESTA over.
Back in the alleyway, MILHOUSE rolls under 10% and passes his disguise check. Dressed casually and a college athlete to boot, he fits the general chad look in his New York Knicks shirt despite his academic leanings. Being loud and obnoxious like he's drunk, he barrels into the homeless guy with the snake who stonewalled MAIN.
Instead he hits MAIN as the man with the snake is there and gone in the space between blinks. One moment MAIN is looking at him and then MILHOUSE knocks him flat on his ass. Like a film edit. Just gone. MAIN crit fails his SAN check and takes 4 SAN loss without projecting. Instead, as he scrambles up begins kicking over trash cans and searching the alley while MILHOUSE tries to calm him down and get a handle on things.
As MILHOUSE is talking MAIN out of tearing the alley apart, MIRANDA and MALATESTA check out the radio. As it comes to life, they listen and hear the following:
"Exeter. India. One. Thirteen. Sierra. Twenty. Twenty. Forty-nine."
MAVERICK meanwhile, finding the kitchen bare oddly finds the refrigerator stocked. There isn't much inside, some milk unopened and a pack of cheese and deli meat. Expiration is months ago, but through the plastic and glass of the bottle it looks fresh. Curious, he opens the milk and finds it smells as fresh as the day it was bought. Months ago.
Passes his SAN check. Given what he heard on the tape, it's not the strangest thing today.
MAIN and MILHOUSE detour to grab some more coffees, more to calm MAIN down and give him a (successful CHAx5 check) to flirt with the coffeeshop waitress. On their return, MAIN heads into the bedroom, pulls the pin on the grenade and activates the firing lever.
Nothing happens. His "hunch" was correct. Despite failing to properly identify it, something about the shape of it didn't match modern ordnance. Like the radio, it's vintage and either deactivated or else rendered inert by time and age.
I gave MAIN a SAN point back, because why not?
As things begin winding down, MILHOUSE and MAVERICK puzzle over the weird fridge, with MILHOUSE sacrificing his green tea and MAVERICK a donut to see how "fresh" they are come morning between the fridge and not.

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After 6pm, EST
Between them, M-Cell take the rest of the evening to take care of home-scenes or any unfinished business they can get done with their resources at hand. They also divide the Operational evidence from the Case evidence, with MIRANDA taking the symbol, MALATESTA the backpack radio & phone number, MAVERICK the cassette tape (for obvious reasons) and MAIN the mechanical sketch on the napkin.
MIRANDA and MILHOUSE, using the former's academic credentials both stay on the case, with MIRANDA leaving her photos from the park to develop in her bathroom. While she fails her roll, she does help MILHOUSE identify the demon the symbol refers to and book-related lead. She hits up a criminal contact named Hugo to put out feelers for weird items she may be interested in. He agrees for a fee, which she negotiates in her favour.
Returning to her apartment, MIRANDA finds her photos of the dancing clown and watching crowd have developed. In every photograph, the clown is turned away from her, but the faces in the crowd are looking at her. That's not how she remembers it. Fails a SAN check. Projects on to her editor, knowing she's going to be taking a "personal day" tomorrow, and this after she agreed to go to the grill.
This will have consequences.
MAIN, unnerved by the day's events, not the least of which was being knocked on his ass by a fitter, younger man, heads out. He returns to the coffeeshop he and MILHOUSE visited and takes the waitress he hit on out on a date. After a romantic interlude, MAIN has a new bond. Her name's Marsha, she's 27 and very nice.
Breaking Operational Security, MAVERICK asks MALATESTA to come back to his apartment and check for possible surveillance. Despite suffering comparatively little SAN loss overall, MAVERICK is letting the day's events impact his behaviour.
It's trivially easy for MALATESTA to confirm there are no bugs in place, which really does narrow the options for how the conversation could have been recorded. Thankful, he asks MALATESTA to keep this to himself for now, to which the grunge-kid agrees. MAVERICK drops MALATESTA near his home and leaves, putting the tape in the player of his car as he pulls away.
MALATESTA lives near the Village and diverts to check out the Mercury Gallery. Though closed, it seems legit and he makes a note of it for later. Back at home, he breaks open the backpack radio and examines it. The battery is not connected to the radio itself, the wires having been stripped out, yet he and MIRANDA both heard a voice on the end of its phone-mic. He passes his SAN check and finds in place of one of the transistors a small, black stone which does not feel like stone at all and feels like it's body temperature. MALATESTA leaves it on his desk, covered in a cloth.
Alone in his apartment, MAVERICK watches his phone. The time comes and he does not call Natalie. A moment later, his phone rings.
Alone in the apartment, MAVERICK does not answer.

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Post-Mortem
We ended up playing for a touch longer than I intended, but I knew that would happen by the time the cab sounded its horn. Despite some tiredness and some drinking, we ended up with a really strong session in retrospect, which has set the overall tone of the campaign for me as GM going forward. Between the five players, two have been through one Delta Green campaign, one has experience with Pulp Cthulhu and two have varying levels of exposure. They all roleplayed the f##k out of their characters and while I was worried about just how weird I wanted things to get out the gate, it feels like the balance is correct and I've given enough avenues for further investigation they may want to pursue.
I got a far better sense, as did the players, as to what drives and motivates their characters and how they cope or don't cope with Delta Green work.
MILHOUSE is definitely setting himself up as the curious academic, Iain playing his interest as forever drawn towards what's there "to discover," he said in character. Perhaps a fool and his sanity are easily parted?
MAVERICK is the "all-American", Agent Cooper adjacent FBI Agent who butts up against the para-natural and is seemingly rocked by it, revealing a complicated and perhaps conflicted depth. In his previous operation with MIRANDA, MAVERICK killed one person, but something about this has gotten under his skin. I wonder what Natalie thinks about their missed call?
A hacker by trade, MALATESTA likes a puzzle as much as he does not like the "weird shit." He talks a good talk when it's about something he knows, but is much too shy to chat up his co-worker. He and MAVERICK had some friction in Session 0 when MAVERICK wanted to call him Mal, to which the younger man pushed back against. Yet, he now knows where MAVERICK lives. Maybe he can learn more? What will he do with that? Does he even want to?
As much as MILHOUSE, MIRANDA is likewise driven by curiosity and a need to know, but first and foremost to keep herself safe. She and him are not the same. There's a scar above her hip from a knife, and it still twinges from time to time. She's also the first to directly or indirectly involve a Bond in the investigation. I wonder what Hugo will or won't find? I wonder what those photos mean. MIRANDA wondered aloud whether the crowd or the clown was the "entity." What does that mean?
Despite being built like Jack Reacher (albeit in a sailor suit), MAIN projects a tough air but is clearly a man at the crossroads. He turns 40 before 1995 ends; middle age. When hit with a problem or something he can't otherwise work out, his behaviour swings from one extreme to the other. To date, he's coped with the case by: lashing out at trash cans in an alley. Chatting up a waitress and forming a romantic bond with her. Pulling the pin on a grenade he "thought" could be fake. It's day one. I'm here for it.
Our next session is scheduled for June 7th, 2024.
Until then, be seeing you.

Hello everyone, I apologize if this isn't the right place for this question but I'm not sure where to go or who to ask for this.
I'm concerned about a neighbor that has not been around the past few days which is extremely out of character for him. We live in a very small 4 unit building in Dallas, TX and he is always outside on his porch or picking up and doing landscaping around the house, chatting with us, etc. I noticed he's left packages outside and what's worse, we had a big storm last night and I found one of his cats still outside this afternoon soaking wet waiting to be let back in. He also has another cat that doesn't go out, so I know he's inside, and I assume with no food or water for 2-3 days now. I'm really worried something's happened but here is where my confusion comes in-- I'm not sure he's actually home? His car is gone although he has been home without his car before so I'm not sure that means much. His phone is off which again is highly unusual for him and I'm starting to get really really worried. Could I still call for a wellness check? If he doesn't answer the door will an officer open the door to check if he's there? and finally, if he isn't home will I be permitted to check on the cat while we wait to see if he returns? We have a good relationship which I can prove with texts and photos, and I have been inside his apartment many times and pet-sat for him before.
Any advice at all would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

For those in the U.S., many of you know HomeGoods-a store filled with all things home - including lots of breakable items and narrow aisles crammed with stuff. Last week, there were 3 leashed dogs - giant poodle, ankle biter and some random mutt. All on very long leashes with owners waiting for attention to be showered on their mutts. Two weeks prior I was in and shared the aisle (briefly as I moved out of there quickly) with a German Shepherd.
I'm so tired of dealing with this that I emailed the corporate office to ask them to share their policy on non-service dogs. Here it is, folks, and you're not going to like it.
"At HomeGoods, we are committed to providing the best customer experience to all of our customers. We also strive to conduct business in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. With regard to service animals, customers accompanied by their service animals are welcome to shop our stores at any time.
Non-service animals are also permitted in our stores when allowed by local or state ordinances, so long as they, like service animals, are under control and do not pose a direct threat to the safety of others.
On a case by case basis, management may request an animal be excluded from the store if the animal poses a direct threat to the safety and health of others, is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it and/or the animal is not house broken. "
Thank you for allowing us to clarify our policy regarding animals in our stores.
Don't you just love the part about "so long as they are under control and do not pose a direct threat." Yeah, who decides that? I know who decides that - after someone is bitten or attacked.

Less than two weeks out from USO festivities starting, please be sure to read the following list (official from USGA) of prohibited items carefully:
•No Weapons (regardless of permit, including but not limited to firearms or knives)
•No Explosives and/or Fireworks of any kind
•No Tablets and/or Computers (mobile devices smaller than 7" are permitted, subject to mobile device policy)
•No Drones
•No Selfie Sticks or Handheld Camera Stabilizers
•No Cameras (point and shoot, film, or DSLR) or Video Cameras (other than Monday through Wednesday for personal use only)
•No Noise-Producing Devices (including radios, TV’s, or portable speakers)
•No Backpacks, Briefcases, Purses and/or Bags larger than 6" W x 6" H x 6" D in their natural state NOTE: Transparent/clear plastic hand and shoulder bags no larger than 12" W x 12" H x 6" D are permitted.
•No Signs, Posters, Banners and/or other Sports Paraphernalia or Memorabilia
•No Food and/or Beverages except for medical or infant needs
•Water Bottles (32-ounce size or less, no glass) are permitted provided they are empty upon arrival
•No Glass and/or Coolers except for medical or infant needs
NOTE: Aerosol Cans, Spray Bottles, and/or Personal-care items (3.4 ounces or less) are permitted.
•No Pets or Emotional Support Animals (only trained service dogs as defined by the ADA)
•No Lounge Chairs and/or Oversized Chairs No Ladders and/or Step Stools or other similar items
•No Bicycles, Segways, Scooters, or other personal transportation devices allowed inside Championship admission gates (other than used for individuals with mobility disabilities)
•No other items or actions deemed unlawful, dangerous or disruptive by the USGA and/or Championship Security Personnel, in their sole discretion

So my first day is tomorrow, where they said I’m coming in for training. However, my team leader sent an email saying that I need to take the food handler exam and do the trainings before I come in. I haven’t even received the email with my ID yet so I don’t know how to log in to Cornerstone. I already emailed my TL about it and he said that it should’ve come in by yesterday, so I just have to be patient about it. I don’t want to email him again, but I don’t really know what to do. Is it important to finish these things by tomorrow, or do I just wait and tell them I never received the ID email?

So there was a recent thread that got me to look back on the original plans for the 2.0 expansion material and I ended up digging through it a bit more than I ever had before. I figured it might be fun to write up a full breakdown of what I was able to gleam from my digging.
Before I begin, I should mention that the information available is spotty and inconsistent in places. For example, according to the TORCommunity database, a lot of these files were added in version 1.3 and 2.0. However, going back to the files that are in those patches (I love you Jedipedia), a lot of those files are not present in those versions. I assume this is internal marking, and is based on the dev's versions and not the live versions. In fact the Sith Warrior dialogues only show up in live in 5.0.0. I have no idea why those dialogues just suddenly popped into existence there.
Generally speaking I have four types of files available to look through.

• The first are the cnv (conversation) files, which are the most useful as they give the actual dialogue thereby telling us what the plot was. We have these for Bothawui for all republic classes, Ziost for Sith Warrior, "open world" (term used for quests between planets or for small instanced planets) for all five of the above, and one random Imp World arc file for Yavin IV. There are some that are blank, but the majority have something.
• The second are quest files for the quests. We have quests for all of the classes on Bothawui, Ziost, and Open Worlds. We have quests for Jedi Knight on Sleheyron. We have world arc quests for Yavin IV for both factions, and side quests for every planet. Unfortunately, these are a bit more hit and miss in their usefulness because some of them are missing strings. So sometimes we can get what all the steps of a quest were going to be, other times the only things we can learn are a name the quest used to go by and how many steps the quest was supposed to have. Even the ones that have all their strings aren't necessarily useful. For example, we have all the steps for the Sith Inquisitor quest, "A Warm Welcome." Step 1, " Take a Shuttle to Your Estate." Great, now we know the SI has an estate! Step 2, " Talk to the Sith Lord." And the usefulness is gone.
• The third type are creature files. These tell us who was planned to show up where, but they are of limited usefulness without context as to what the NPC was doing. For example, I can't immediatly tell the difference between a friendly, an enemy that starts friendly and turns hostile after a conversation, or someone that appears via holo-recording.
• The fourth "type" are "phantom files" that are listed in TORCommunity's databases, but are missing from what I am able independently datamine. I trust that TORCommunity's listings are correct, but there also isn't much to gain from these files since they are all empty (included in these are some of the missing cnv files).

Overall Plan

So to begin, it should be noted that all of these cnv files are located in the directory cnv.exp.01. This is the same naming convention used for the released Rise of the Hutt Cartel files. This makes it difficult to tell what Makeb's original role in the expansion was. It appears that it was intended to be part of the expansion as there is the following line from the Supreme Chancellor that appears to vary based on whether a Smuggler did Makeb before starting Bothawui.

(Did not do Makeb) "Of course I am. The Voidwolf's defeat is the only reason I can ignore being referred to as "Madame Chance. "
(Did do Makeb) "Of course I am. Your success on Makeb bought you considerable leeway with me--but "Madame Chance" is pushing it. "

Additionally according to TORCommunity's "added in patch" data, the majority of Makeb's cnvs were initially added in 1.3, which was the same patch that most of the other files were added for the cut content.
So in addition to Makeb, the planned planets appear to have been Bothawui (Pub), Ziost (Imp), and Sleheyron (Both). These three planets were intended to have class stories and side quests (no evidence of a world arc, but I don't know if none was planned or if they just didn't get to it). There is no evidence that Makeb was ever meant to have any class stories on it. Additionally, there is one conversation file for Imp Yavin IV. It was early on in development when they stopped working on it since the dialogue is just a summary of what happens in the scenes (e.g., a shuttle crashes), but there are quests and NPCs for both Pub and Imp world arcs, so there was more planned.
So in summary the plan appears to have been something like:

• Makeb (Shared Planet with World Arcs)
• Bothawui/Ziost (Faction Exclusive Planets with Class Stories)
• Sleheyron (Shared Planet Class Stories)
• Yavin IV (Shared Planet with World Arcs, placement uncertain but has to be before or after the class stories as an NPC that is kidnapped in a class story is a quest NPC)

Now before I start on discussing the content from each planet, it is worth mentioning that I have little context for most quests and NPCs, so I'm just going to be putting them in alphabetical order.

Bothawui

The overall setting for this Planet seems to have been that the Republic is going on the offensive and the Imperials are going scorched earth while they get pushed off planet.
Something that is well known (I think) at this point is that Dantooine on live is a modified version of the map that originally made for Bothawui. From the dialogue files that I've looked through, I'm betting the dam in the portion of the map we are on was originally called the Bosnar Dam, which was a set piece for one of the JK missions. Also probably worth noting that the there are multiple mentions of Bothawui being an important source of food, which probably factored into their choice to reuse the area since Dantooine is also a farming planet.
Quests

• Storm of Destruction
• The Butchers of Bothawui
• The Stone Ray's Lair
• Wet Work
• (Bonus)
  • Search and Rescue

Ziost

I'm really not sure what the state of Ziost was supposed to be. SW seems to be dealing with Pubs having taken over the planet defense grid. SI and IA seem to be dealing with internal politics. And I have no idea of what BH is up to.
Quests

• [HEROIC 2] Battle of Xeno District
• Caged
• Gateway to the Empire
• [HEROIC 4] The Horror at Black Forge
• (Bonus)
  • Cathar Fury
  • Counter-offensive
  • The Ritual of Naga-Sadow

Sleheyron

Honestly I have less of an idea for Sleheyron than Ziost since Sleheyron is either the least finished planet or the planet with the least files that has slipped into live.
Quests

• (Pub General Quests)
  • Castles in the Skies
  • Devotion to Duty
  • The Battlefield of Tomorrow
  • Tibanna Exchange
• (Imp General Quests)
  • Doomsday Virus
  • Master Logrus
  • Quantum Javelin

Yavin IV

I have very little idea on the Pub side of things. There are some clues for the Imp side though. While he lacks a creature file, the Imp quests make mention of reporting to Servant One. So that means Imps were probably here on a mission for the Emperor. My first instinct is reviving the Emperor, but I don't have enough info. General Heskar also made a return. Oh Imps also spoke to Naga Sadow's force ghost as part of their world arc.
Quests

• (Pub World Arc)
  • Crossing the Guard
  • Kagan's Endgame
  • The Interceder's Vengeance
  • Triumph by Fire
  • Under the Stone
  • (Bonus)
    • Endgame For All
    • Preparing the Temple
    • Prison Camp Sabotage
• (Pub General Quests)
  • Unforgotten Deeds
• (Imp World Arc)
  • Doom
  • Extraction
  • Into the Jungle
  • Meeting the Massassi
  • Rise
  • The Cursed Legacy of Naga Sadow
  • The Empire's Last Stand
  • The Fate of the Empire
  • To Face a Dark Lord
  • (Bonus)
    • A Shrine to Defeat
    • Friendly Competition
    • Marching Orders
    • Old Idols
• (Imp General Quests)
  • For the Emperor
  • Slash and Burn
  • War Games
  • (Bonus)
    • Burning Legacy

Jedi Knight

So the JK's overreaching plot for seems to have been working together with the Protectors (the rescue team we met on Makeb) in order to help evacuate people.
There are multiple mentions of a place called Talravin, which I'm guessing is where the story would start as the JK helps evacuations there. From reading between the lines, it appears that the JK would be sending the refugees to a new world called New Euphrades...and of course the story finishes with us fighting a Sith in orbit as he is trying to destroy it.
Based on quest names, it seems we were meant to go to Alphelion Six, which does not have a wookiepedia article so I guess it was a new planet, at some point. Since the finale seemed to be New Euphrades, I'm guessing this happened between Bothawui and Sleheyron. Whenever it happened, the Protectors were apparently going to join you there.
Seems that there was an ending choice for the JK between joining the Protectors full time or becoming the Battlemaster. There is a lot of dialogue regarding the role of Jedis, so this seems like a conclusion to that arc as the JK chooses whether to be a protector or a warrior? Scourge also mentions that he had additional visions, but doesn't provide anything useful just kind of says "yeah I totally knew you were going to make that choice" after you made it.
Rough Map

• Talravin to start the plot?
• Bothawui to rescue civilians from the fighting
• ??? (Alphelion Six?)
• Sleheyron to ??? (probably rescue more civilians)
• Area where Talaravin gets the shield codes for New Euphrades
• Battle over New Euphrades
• Report to the Chancellor where you get the choice between joining the Protectors and Battlemaster

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Crisis at Alphelion Six
  • Improving Performance
  • Soft Targets
  • The Parting Blow
  • The Price of Eternity
  • Welcome Captain Maddox
  • Welcome Doctor Kantos
  • Welcome Tefani
• Bothawui
  • A Rude Welcome
  • Blight of Bothawui
  • Double Time
  • Not a Drop to Drink
  • (Bonus)
    • Double Time
    • The Road to Vellik
• Sleheyron
  • A Hot Lead
  • Emergency Detour
  • Project Sever
  • The Ortis Problem

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Captain Maddox - Leader of the Protectors that are joining the JK. He joins you on your ship (like members of the Rift Alliance did for the JC?). Also dies, so I assume you might be taking his role if you joined the protectors.
  • Doctor Kantos - Head medical officer for the Protectors. She also joins the JK's ship. You could flirt with her, and she seemed to be receptive to both genders. There are confrontations at the end of the story for both Kira and Doc where you have to choose between your LI or her. So I guess she was planned as a continuous love interest...not sure how that would have worked since she wasn't a companion.
  • Tefani - Tech head for the Protectors who also joined the JK's ship.
  • Darth Legius - Praetor of the Dark Council's army (no idea how that is different than the normal army). He appears to be the main villain for the JK. He had sworn vengeance over us for "lying" about killing the Emperor. Also he had two apprentices that get the one-off villain treatment on Bothawui. Our final battle would have taken place aboard his flagship, the Vindicator after he pissed off the Dark Council. One dialog implies that at some point he becomes the first Sith to publicly acknowledge the death of the Emperor.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was (probably holo-call with Legius?), but he is in the JK files
  • General Var Suthra - He could reappear during the Aphelion Six quest
  • Master Orgus Din - He appears in the Soft Targets files, so I guess we were meant to get more force ghost lessons from him?
• Bothawui
  • Garith - Local resistance fighter who is your initial contact when you arrive
  • Colonel Blight - Villain and probably part time Captain Planet villain. He is an efficiency expert who has been brought in to kill as many civilians as possible as the Imps retreat.
• Sleheyron
  • Agent Galen - Our old cybernetic buddy could show up

Jedi Consular

The JC's arc seems to be the most clear cut. The JC gets a vision of the galaxy burning because of Torwin Vehls and then sets out to find them and stop them. On Bothawui, the JC discovers that Torwin has the power to give power to others, and this includes giving force sensitivity to non-sensitives (and also to animals).
The JC fails to catch Torwin on Bothawui and must continue chasing after him before he find "the Shrouded Ones," which were something related to the Rakata. "The Shrouded Ones were built to be the end of everything. A solution, to our empire's final problem." Not sure if they were something new or something that already exists given a mysterious name. There are talks about them that makes them sound like they are machines powered by the force, but I'm not sure how that solves the Rakata's final problem or meshes with Torwin's power. Then again the Rakata were evil jerks, so maybe their solution was to just murder everyone so they didn't go down alone?
I feel like there is a good chance that this unused arc is the inspiration for at least part of the current arc since one of the powers Darth Nul is mentioned as having is awakening force sensitivity in those unaware they had it (slightly different, but if anyone starts mentioning Shrouded Ones, we know that is not a good sign).
Rough Map

• Get a vision somewhere (Voss diplomatic mission?)
• Bothawui to hunt down Torwin
• ??? (Remnants of Natukar? You work with Darth Kallomena to find a Rakata map to the Shrouded Ones)
• Sleheyron to hunt down the Shrouded Ones
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Remnants of Natukar
  • The Shrouded One
  • The Stack
  • Unforeseen Circumstances
  • (Bonus)
    • Clearing the Stack
    • Meeting the Delegates
    • Remnants Resistance
    • The Droids Within
• Bothawui
  • A Man of Vision
  • Broken Shield
  • Interpretations
  • Long Left Behind
  • (Bonus)
    • Healing the Land
    • Lured Beasts
    • Plowing the Fields
    • Skirmish at Narless
• Sleheyron
  • Conspicuous Consumption
  • Falling Sky
  • Groundbreaking
  • Into the Eye

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Kallomena - A masked Sith that the JC encounters on Bothawui. She is also seeking Torwin because he is her charge or something along those lines.
  • Gnost-Dural - Shows up in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest
  • Voss - Several Voss also appear in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest, seems to be a diplomatic conference about the Voss wanting to send their commandos home to deal with the Gormak. No Gaden Ko though
  • Hallow Voice - Has some dialogue talking about the Shrouded Ones
• Bothawui
  • The Custodian - A Rakata that was made force sensitive against his will by Torwin in an attempt to bribe The Custodian into giving info on the Shrouded Ones
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Smuggler

Trying to describe this plot feels like a fever dream, but maybe that is appropriate for a continuation of the OG Smuggler story. So the Smuggler gets dragged into the story after an attack on Port Nowhere by a criminal gang.
The Smuggler tracks them down to Bothawui where you learn they are the Womp Family and that they have gotten ahold of a Superdreadnaught, which they refer to as a "space mansion." And they aren't just called the Womp Family, they actually are a family. The plot is essentially that a bunch of hillbillies got their hands on a...fully automated aircraft carrier(?) and are now going around launching air strikes on people that tipped their cows. They literally launch an orbital bombardment on the Smuggler at one point. Not his ship or base that he is at. Just the Smuggler after the Smuggler corners one of their members. They are also trying to extort the Republic. I don't know how things ended, but I imagine the dark side ending has the Smuggler getting a larger ship.
Rough Map

• Port Nowhere is attacked
• Bothawui to look into who was behind the attack
• ??? (Bothawui ends with Risha going to research Barabbula, so I assume we followed up on that lead next)
• Sleheyron to ???
• ??? (Probably the opportunity to steal the Superdreadnaught, but I don't have that dialogue)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Confidence and Influence
  • Days of Infamy
  • Decontamination
  • Party Down
  • Spoiling the Surprise
  • (Bonus)
    • Securing Valuables
    • Threat Recognition
• Bothawui
  • Bothan Beatdown
  • Camp Shatter
  • Clean Sweep
  • Harsh Introductions
  • (Bonus)
    • Hidden Reset Phase (probably not actually a quest)
    • I Was Never Here
• Sleheyron
  • Celebrity Spotlight
  • Lab Samples
  • Public Spectacles
  • The X Particles

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Master Sumalee - She would have returned! And she had a fade to black! Also revealed that Satele dropped the prohibition against romance off screen. She seems to serve as the Smuggler's contact with the Republic (which was her job for one of the Smuggler endings).
  • Beryl Thorne - Don't know what she was up to, but she apparently reappeared in Party Down
  • Barrabula the Hutt - Owner of the superdreadnaught that was somehow stolen. Also the Supreme Mogul of the Cartel three hundred years ago.
• Bothawui
  • (Nobody I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Trooper

Trooper is leading the front lines of the battle on Bothawui with a reporter in tow. Had a scene that would have been interesting to see where the Trooper was to get airdropped in a bomb modified to serve as an entry craft. The reporter mentions having enough footage on Bothawui, so I'm not really sure where the expansion long arc was supposed to go from there. Immediately after Bothawui, you are the guest of honor at a party held by the Chancellor, so I guess the Sleheyron mission pops up there.
Rough Map

• ???
• Bothawui to liberate the world and get footage
• Be the guest of honor for a party the Chancellor is holding
• Sleheyron to ???
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Elements of Surprise
  • Freedom from Fear
  • Mercy Mission
  • (Bonus)
    • Surprise Party
• Bothawui
  • Battle of Liahstarn
  • Firing Solutions
  • (Hidden) Speak with Jonas and Chall (Chill?)
  • Reversal of Fortunes
  • Tactical Payload
• Sleheyron
  • Grasp of Shadows
  • Picking Up
  • Sleep Wake Cycle
  • Two for One

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Rylo Kann - Journalist that joins the Trooper for at least part of the expansion.
  • Jaxo - So I guess she was meant to reappear if alive.
• Bothawui
  • Jonas Balker - He would have returned. And he would have had a fade to black...something he still doesn't have on Live yet.
  • Dagger Wing - They would have returned from Belsavis to provide support on your campaign. They have an interesting choice where they ask you how to handle the reporter as he wants to interview them (unaware of the whole accidently war crimes backstory?).
  • Raven Squad - You were supposed to meet them on the battlefield, which would have included them calling bombers on your position. No idea if their current iteration is meant to be the same as this group, but they almost certainly reused the name since it wasn't otherwise being used. Their commander in this iteration is named Varis.
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Warrior

Sith Warrior is the only one of the Imp classes that I have dialog for. On Ziost, the SW is in charge of getting the planetary defenses back after Pubs take them over. However the planetary defenses might only be a distraction because there is dialogue referring to the Sith Warrior saving the Voice who is a necessary component for reviving the Emepror.
The overarching plot seems to be a conflict with Gnost-Dural who seems to be looking into ending the Emperor for good. While the SW is dealing with Ziost, Gnost-Dural prepares to attack the hidden fortress where the Hand resides. The attack starts while the SW is reporting on their success in protecting the Hand. Once here Gnost-Dural captures all of the Servants except for Servant Twelve who goes to the SW for help. Servant Twelve drops the tidbit that if the hand was severed than (in this timeline) the Emperor can no longer revived. Gnost Dural seems unaware of this as he puts the Servants in stasis and carefully probes their minds to get information about the Emperor without hurting them.
Interesting to note that one of the quests is called Showdown on Ossus, so that might have been the inspiration for Gnost-Dural being on Ossus in Jedi Under Siege.
Also there is a dialogue that mentions the Sith Warrior putting down two Dark Council members. Not entirely sure which Dark Council members they were though. Checking the NPC list for all the Sith Warrior locations, the only Darths that are mentioned are Darth Baras and Darth Vowrawn. So I guess they were including Baras. I'm thinking that Vowrawn might have actually sided with Gnost-Dural? There is a line in a conversation during the Hand's Fortress that states, "His source remains a mystery--not even Darth Vowrawn or Zujen Vale knew our location." Zujen Vale is mentioned to be a traitor in a different conversation. So I guess Vowrawn being opposed to the Hand on Rishi might have been inspired by the original plan to make him opposed to the Emperor? And now I have Emperor Vowrawn on live instead. Funny how these things work.
There is also mention of the Sith Warrior making a speech during/after Ziost, which appears to have been about reform and appears to have been directed at the Dark Council. So I guess a LS option to try and put the fear of Wrath into the Dark Council after the Wrath did some house cleaning.
Rough Map

• ??? (The Final Revenge of Darth Baras?)
• Ziost to take back the planetary defenses and save the Voice
• Hand's Fortress to save the Hand
• Sleheyron to track down Gnost-Dural by following a data drop off
• ??? (Track down Gnost-Dural for final confrontation? Showdown on Ossus?)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • End Times
  • Fracture
  • Showdown on Ossus
  • The Blood Splattered Talz
  • The Emperor and His Wrath
  • The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • (Bonus)
    • Breached and Boarded
    • Shattering the Jedi Seal
    • The Emperor's Secrets
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Approaches
  • The Fires of Ziost
  • The Hunt Begins
  • Voice in the Darkness
• Sleheyron
  • Echoes of Gnost-Dural
  • Hook Line and Sinker
  • Shutter
  • Solar Spear

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Servants 1-11 - Whole family reunion in this one
  • Servant 12 - Only one of the Servants to not get captured. Spends some time on your ship after the Hand's Fortress is raided. She is completely uninterested in the SW's attempts to flirt. Unlike the Protectors for the JK or Rylo for the Trooper, Servant Twelve does not have a creature file for the ship, so she might have been cutscene only.
  • Master Gnost-Dural - Seems to have been the main "villain"
  • Darth Vowrawn showed up in Fracture
  • Darth Baras could show up in The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • Lord Qet - Vowrawn's apprentice shows up too
  • Zujen Vale - A Sith you meet on Ziost. Secretly works for Gnost-Dural
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Battalion - They return to assist the Sith Warrior
  • Voice of the Emperor - Here to be rescued
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Inquisitor

I have very little idea of what the SI was supposed to get up to. The SI seems to be hobnobbing with the Dark Council on Ziost, but beyond that I'm not quite sure what is going on. You did apparently get your own estate on Ziost though. So neat?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • A Party to Remember
  • An Empire Divided
  • The Sanctum
  • (Bonus)
    • Crast's Betrayal
• Ziost
  • A Warm Welcome
  • Convergence
  • Lost Army
  • The Emperor's Tower

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Dark Council - Between An Empire Divided and a Party to Remember, I think we have a good chunk of the Dark Council showing up. I don't remember who was on the Council at this time, so I'm just listing all the Darths in the two quests and hope I'm not giving anyone a promotion. Arkov, Marr, Soverus, Acina, Mortis, and Ravage.
  • Lord Qet - I guess Vowrawn is represented by his apprentice while he's off doing things (and being killed?) in the SW story?
• Ziost
  • Moff Pyron - Everyone's favorite lackey showed up
• Sleheyron
  • (no NPCs in files I have)

Imperial Agent

At least part of the IA storyline seemed to be focused on cleaning up after Malgus's rebellion as there are NPCs with Malgus in their name. I'm not sure whether that was the focus of the entire expansion or if you stumble onto something else while dealing with "the betrayer's spymaster."
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • The Beast Awakens
  • The Broken Colonel
  • The Nightmare
  • The Player of Games
  • The Vigil
• Ziost
  • The Betrayer's Spymaster
  • The Grandfather of Terror
  • The Hidden War
  • The Secret Compact
• Sleheyron
  • Doppleganger
  • The Catcher and the Cage
  • The Highest Authority

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Ardun Kothe - Every IA's best friend can return! Although I guess it makes sense as I assume he becomes your handler if you give him the Black Codex
  • Shara Jenn - She would have returned...and gone by the name Nexus? I'm really not sure where that comes from. Weird thing is that her creature file is named shara_jenn, but for whatever reason IA has some NPCs with names. Had her creature file just been named Nexus, I would not have known it was her
  • Colonel Niar - This seems to have been a recurring character who even joins you on your ship (no creature file for him though). I've seen someone say that the IA storyline got converted to be the Imp Makeb storyline, and I suspect this NPC is where that idea originated from. I don't have any dialogue associated with the NPC, but I feel confident is not Katha Niar from Makeb since this NPC is a male (and the gender attribute is properly assigned on other unfinished NPCs). Sort of off topic, but it seems Katha Niar was originally named Kiar Onila.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was, but he shows up
  • Ocean - I guess this is a code name for someone? You bring them to an escape shuttle at one point
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • Saresh - Not sure what her role here was

Bounty Hunter

I have no context to make sense of the info I have for BH. An NPC named Zedania seems to be important. I can't tell what his role in the story was though. I think in one mission we are saving him though? So a client I guess? Also someone named Brand that we get a lot of holocalls from, so either an ally or a very mouthy antagonist?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Meeting the Board
  • Nebula Station
  • Socio Pathfinding
  • (Bonus)
    • Resorting to Violence
    • Security Shakedown
• Ziost
  • All or Nothing
  • Biding Time
  • Poised to Strike
  • Set the Sky on Fire

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Tormen - You don't get to lose your boss off screen in this timeline
  • Darth Marr - Dude was busy in this expansion. I'm guessing he was meant as an alternative for Darth Tormen
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Random Observations and Quotes

• HK-51 and the ship droid both got reactions to the content in this 2.0. I think HK actually has some in vanilla that is no longer available since 4.0, but Ship Droid has none except for maybe some environmental reactions on Makeb?
• Smuggler (romancing Risha) after getting buried alive
  • If we only have a little air left, I say we use it up vigorously. How's that for a plan?
  • Like all your schemes, it's poorly thought-out and likely to end in violence. I'm in.
• Treek was not originally in the plans for this version of 2.0 as she is missing from the majority of companion reactions, but a small number of lines that mention her appear so I think they had decided to add her in the future before the scope was cut
• Servant One to the Sith Warrior
  • We also bore witness to your speech. The Empire's transformation does not concern the Emperor, but others may prove less tolerant.
• Kira to JK who has been flirting around
  • I'm starting to think that's true. I've been having all these violent urges lately... usually whenever I see you, or Doctor Kantos. And when I see you together? I mean, wow... kind of makes me want to hit you upside the head, you know?
• Elara after a flirt option (not sure if it is a kiss or fade to black since I only have dialogue) while waiting for a shuttle
  • I'm going to file an official commendation for the Bothan shuttle scheduling authority.
• Smuggler talking to someone he saved on Coruscant
  • Randomly shooting Imperials is one of my trademark moves. Glad you enjoyed the show.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed looking at this what if. If anyone has any questions about what is in the files, I can try to answer, but I can't make promises that the answers to your questions exist in the files.

Implications and Recommendations
These reports underscore the need for comprehensive HPAI A(H5N1) surveillance in agricultural settings. While cattle infections have been reported by the USDA to be generally transient with mild symptoms, the potential impact on milk production and food security is significant. The risk of ongoing viral evolution and broad transmission among cattle could lead to further mammalian adaptation. Although human infections from cattle seem to be rare at this time, the burden of infection necessitates detailed assessments of human spillovers, especially in areas with current or prior outbreaks. This includes serology to establish spillover rates to humans and monitor for changes in spillover frequency.
While the general public’s risk remains low, those at higher risk include individuals with routine or frequent contact with potentially infected birds, livestock, other animals or contaminated animal products and environments (e.g., farmers, livestock workers, animal handlers, employees of milk and meat processing facilities, milk or carcass transport drivers, and veterinarians).
Human infections with H5N1 can occur when the virus enters the eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled. This can happen through airborne droplets, small aerosol particles, or dust that settles on mucous membranes. Infection can also occur if a person touches a contaminated surface and then touches their mouth, eyes, or nose. Exposed individuals should monitor for symptoms within 10 days, including fever (100°F [37.8°C] or higher), chills, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing/shortness of breath, eye tearing, redness, or irritation, headaches, runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches, and diarrhea.

Escape the heat and embark on an adventurous day at Anandi Magic World Water Park, located on the outskirts of Kanpur city near the Bani Flyover on the Kanpur-Lucknow National Highway. This park offers fun and entertainment for people of all ages and is now even more accessible with the introduction of Lucknow Metro Super Saver Cards, which provide visitors with additional benefits at no extra cost. If you haven't yet experienced the excitement at Anandi Magic World Water Park, now is the perfect time to cool off and enjoy the thrilling water rides.
Key Information:

• Name: Anandi Magic World Water Park
• Address: Sidhikhera, Purwa Road, Kanpur - Lucknow Rd, near Bani Flyover, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 209859
• Phone: 070650 57065
• Hours:
  • Tuesday - Sunday: 9:30 am–7:00 pm
  • Monday: Closed

Ticket Prices:

• Adult Tickets:
  • Amusement Park: ₹600.00
  • Adventure Park: ₹600.00
  • Waterpark: ₹650.00
  • Waterpark Silver Package: ₹800.00
  • Full Park Entry Only: ₹850.00
  • Waterpark Gold Package: ₹950.00
  • Full Park Silver Package: ₹1,000.00
  • Full Park Gold Package: ₹1,150.00
• Children's Tickets:
  • Amusement Park: ₹300.00
  • Adventure Park: ₹300.00
  • Waterpark: ₹500.00
  • Waterpark Silver Package: ₹600.00
  • Full Park Entry Only: ₹650.00
  • Waterpark Gold Package: ₹750.00
  • Full Park Silver Package: ₹800.00
  • Full Park Gold Package: ₹950.00

Purchase Tickets: Visit the official website to buy your tickets. Follow these steps to purchase online:

1. Select your desired ticket type (Adult or Children).
2. Choose your preferred date(s) for visiting the water park.
3. Proceed to payment and complete the booking process.
4. Receive your confirmation via email or SMS.
5. Show your ticket confirmation at the entrance on the selected date(s) to gain entry.

Location and Transportation:

• From Lucknow City Center: 18 km (Taxi, Cab)
• From Lucknow Junction Railway Station: 23 km (Taxi, Cab)
• From Lucknow Alambagh Bus Stand: 30 km (Taxi, Cab)
• From Chaudhary Charan Singh Int'l Airport: 33 km (Taxi, Cab)
• From Lucknow Metro Indira Nagar Station: 10 km (Metro, Cab, Auto Rickshaw)
• From Chinhat More Bus Stop: 7 km (Auto Rickshaw, E-Rickshaw, Bus)
• From Anywhere in Lucknow: Auto Rickshaw, Cycle Rickshaw, E-Rickshaw

Attractions and Highlights:

• Wave Pool: Experience the thrill of riding the waves.
• Lazy River: Float gently and relax in the sun.
• Thrilling Water Slides: Enjoy high-speed drops and twists.
• Kiddie Pool: Safe and fun activities for young children.
• Adventure Play Area: Climb, slide, and explore dynamic play structures.
• Multi-Lane Racing Slides: Compete in thrilling races.
• Splash Pad: Interactive water play features.
• Family Raft Ride: Perfect for group adventures.
• Water Playground: Fountains, sprays, and water cannons.
• Tropical Paradise Setting: Lush tropical environment with palm trees.

Events and Tips:

• Carry ID proof.
• Supervise children at all times.
• Wear Nylon/Lycra swimming costumes (available for deposit).
• Check activity timings as some rides may close for safety.
• Be cautious of wet floors.
• No pets allowed.
• No alcohol consumption.
• No personal sound equipment allowed.
• Outside food and beverages not permitted.
• Meals may not be included in the ticket price.

Facilities:

• Water Park: Over 50 water rides and attractions.
• Amusement Park: Exciting rides for all ages.
• Adventure Park: Thrilling activities for adventure seekers.
• Resort & Club: Luxurious accommodations and serene settings.
• Events: Year-round activities including rain dances and birthday parties.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the official Anandi Magic World Water Park website. Enjoy a day filled with adventure and relaxation at this fantastic destination!

Hi everyone,
I'm currently living in Canada and for multiple reasons I'm looking into coming to Hong Kong to do my Master's in 2025. I am making some asumptions here that I wanted to confirm or infirm by someone who is currently living there and has a view on prices.
Rent : This is by far the biggest expense obviously. I would be coming with my girlfriend and we would ideally be looking for a small two bedrooms in the New Territories. We both know that rent is expensive in Hong Kong so if our budget doesn't permit it, we'll be looking for 1 bedroom. Estimation : 12 800 HKD per month for a one or small two bedrooms.
Utility bills : I know that these expenses may vary on the location, the period, the weather and other things, but these are our average estimations. Electricity / Water : 1000 monthly Home WIFI : 160 monthly Phone plans : 150 monthly per person
Public transportation : We had trouble finding out if there was some kind of monthly plan that you could pay for unlimited transportation for the month like what we have in Canada. We took a broad average. Estimation : 500 HKD a month per person
Groceries : We will be trying to lower our expenses for eating out and cook as much as we can. Estimation : Between 2000 and 3000 HKD monthly for two people
Eating out (local) : Obviously life can get busy with school and other activities so we might not always be able to cook. We wanted to confirm the average cost for unexpensive/local food that we could get. Estimation : Around 75 HKD per meal per person
Eating out (restaurant) : For fancier non local restaurants. We know this category could be broad and that you could have the most expensive restaurants that bias the whole average price but what we have in mind here is just an entry level restaurant where you could sit and have a nice experience. Estimation : 500 HKD per person
Going out : We enjoy discovering a new city night life, we also know that drinking in Hong Kong can get expensive pretty fast. Estimation : 300 HKD per person during a night out
Private transportation : We would most probably need taxis after a night out since public transportation isn't 24hours. Also are there any alternatives to taxis ? Estimation : Around 150 HKD per trip
There are most probably some other expenses that we're not thinking about yet so please feel free to give us some propositions or any type of insights that would help us. We're grateful in advance !

FULL STORY
Company reports profitable first quarter of 2024 highlighting its low-cost, low-overhead operating model
Company reports a 160% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 149% year-over-year increase in net income
Company is well positioned to continue growing its platform of assets and quarterly revenue growth, given clean balance sheet and unique investment opportunities
FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / May 28, 2024 / Royalty Management Holding Corporation (Nasdaq:RMCO) ("Royalty Management" or the "Company"), an innovative royalty company building shareholder value by acquiring and developing high value assets in a variety of resource-driven and emerging technology industries is pleased to announced today its financial results for the first quarter of 2024.
Thomas Sauve, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, "We are excited to release our first 2024 first quarterly financial results and to share our business update with our investors as we continue a strong start to the 2024 year with a focus on value creation events and opportunistic growth. Post completion of the merger with American Acquisition Opportunity Inc,, we've looked to focus on the highest value contributors of the business while also establishing a low-cost, low-overhead business model. Our team is motivated by the equity value of the Company and aligned with our shareholders on maximizing this value, as opposed to being simply "hired guns" with salaries. With that in mind, we couldn't be more excited how we are positioned to continue to grow the business given our clean balance sheet and strong asset base. We are pleased with our first quarter and the second quarter is tracking growth compared to first quarter in both revenues and cash flow."
Key Highlights

• Communicated updated production and revenue guidance of its portfolio company, Ferrox Holdings' Tivani mining project containing deposits of Titanium, Iron and Vanadium from which it has commenced production. Upon completion of Ferrox's investment into its crushing and concentration plant, the company anticipates it will be able to increase production and sales to approximately 50,000 tons of run-of-mine ores per year in 2025 and approximately $8 million in annualized revenue, continuing to expand thereafter as the company continues its investment into the deposit and production.
• Renewed its gold status membership in Texas Tech University's Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production, or ‘CASFER' organization. As a gold member of CASFER, RMC has access to the technologies and intellectual property developed out of CASFER, in particular the innovative and novel technologies to produce, capture, and recycle nitrogen-based fertilizers from farming activities. Opportunities for Royalty Management to participate in the emerging technologies and patents from CASFER are already occurring, with more Company updates on these opportunities in the near future.
• Announced that its environmental services business, under the wholly-owned subsidiary, RMC Environmental Services LLC, recorded record monthly revenue of slightly under $1.0 million run rate revenue for the month of March, equating to a positive cash flow run rate equivalent for all of Royalty Management Holding Corporation.
• Engaged CM3 Advisory as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm.
• Announced that the Company's Board of Directors voted unanimously to institute a stock repurchase program of Royalty Management Holding Corporation's Class A Common Shares for up to $2.0 million over the next 24 months of which the Company has already commenced the buy-back of stock prior to the start of the current "black out" period.

Mr. Sauve continued, "Looking forward to the remainder of 2024, our belief in, and excitement over, the opportunities we have in front of us continues to reach an all-time high. Our current platform of assets are well positioned to generate attractive cash flow and long-term value for the Company and its shareholders alike. RMC Environmental Services continues to operate efficiently and covers the majority of our overall corporate expenses, let alone our other active and cash-flowing investments and projects we are developing towards that goal resulting in bottom line income. Over the next six months we anticipate additional revenue streams to expand from our portfolio and generate free cash flow which will position us well for an exciting 2025."
Select Financial Results for First Quarter 2024

• For the first quarter of 2024, Royalty Management reported net income of $135,180, or $0.01 per share, as compared with a net income loss of $274,345, or a loss of $0.38 per share, in the prior year period.
• Total revenues were $162,100 for the first quarter of 2024 compared to revenues of $62,292 during the first quarter of 2023.
• Total assets were $13,709,149 as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, an increase from $13,610,731 compared to total assets as of the first quarter 2023.
• Total liabilities were $3,603,779 as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, a decrease from $3,990,542 compared to total assets as of the first quarter 2023, resulting in total stockholders' equity of $10,105,370 as of the end of first quarter 2024.
• 2024 expenses are trending significantly lower than 2023, which were predominantly related to the one-time merger expenses associated with American Acquisition Opportunity.

~Select Portfolio Holdings~
Royalty Management has put together an exciting portfolio of royalty assets which support growing or transitioning industries and to generate near-future royalty and income streams. Some of RMCO's portfolio holdings include:
RMC Environmental Service LLC - A wholly-owned, environmental service business line of RMCO that supports residential, municipal and commercial development in and around Hamilton County, Indiana. The company recently announced record revenue for the month of March 2024 which currently covers the majority of all of the parent company's expenses.
Ferrox Holdings Ltd. - A majority owner of the Tivani Project; ilmenite, iron, vanadium and phosphate project which is in an advance development stage. It is located in the long-term mining region of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Ferrox is the holding company for several South African subsidiaries and is focus is on developing mineral resources in Sub Saharan Africa.
TR Mining - A high quality, Jamaica-based diversified mineral project with a focus on iron ore, titanium and vanadium with an initial estimated deposit of 212,925,000 tons of raw feedstock with an estimated 106,462,500 tons of ore body, based on an average of 50% magnetic material. The project is part of a Special Exclusive Prospecting License (or "SEPL") that covers an area of approximately 25 permitted square kilometers. TR Mining is 51% owned by American Carbon Corporation and 49% owned by TR Mining & Equipment Limited, where RMC owns a royalty interest from the sale of produced product from the operation.
Advanced Magnet Lab, Inc. (AML) - AML is a recognized leader in the development of innovative magnet technologies and magnet-based applications. Today, AML is executing on multiple product development programs including magnet materials and PM-Wire™ based motors and generators for industrial, aerospace and defense. This includes projects funded by large industry, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense. RMCO has an ownership interest in AML through its participation in their Series A round of capital raising.
Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production (CASFER) - CASFER vision is to enable resilient and sustainable food production by developing next generation, modular, distributed, and efficient technology for capturing, recycling, and producing decarbonized nitrogen-based fertilizers (NBFs). CASFER brings together a diverse leadership and the convergence of a multidisciplinary team drawn from Texas Tech University, Florida A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RMCO is a gold member of CASFER providing commercial technology rights into one of the fastest growing markets of fertilizer recycling.
Heart Water, Inc. - Heart Water offers artisan alkaline rainwater with the aim of saving the depleting water resources. Heart Water is a cloud-harvested, nature-purified, and micro-filtered process, this is the purest alkaline water on the planet. The company has a unique process that utilizes ultraviolet light technology, multi-stage purification, and ozone oxidation, ensuring the naturally purest water available. RMCO owns an equity stake in Heart Water and will collect a royalty interest from each bottle of water that is sold from the facilities constructed by RMC's investment.

• The FSSAI License copy was not displayed at any prominent location of the premises.
  
• Idly batter (8kg), Boiled milk (5L) in which houseflies were traced are discarded.
  
• Proper hygiene is not maintained within the cooking area.
  
• Food handlers were found without proper hairnets, aprons and gloves.
  
• Cooked and raw food is not covered with lids.
  
• No pest control measures are being followed by the Hotel Management
  
• Prepared food is kept under the roof with spider webs, oil deposition is found falling from the roof.
  

Source: https://x.com/cfs_telangana/status/1795333775104323631

• 10 kgs of Prepared dough found fungal infested and discarded.
  
• Usage of synthetic food colors was traced.
  
• Food handlers found without wearing any haircaps, gloves and aprons.
  
• Annual medical records not found.
  
• Open drainage, dustbins without lids placed nearby cooked Food.
  
• Improper storage of cooked and raw food, veg and non veg food without lids and exposed to flies and other pests.
  

Source: https://x.com/cfs_telangana/status/1795332413985616034

• Fungal infested Icecream (88 Lt) worth of Rs. 39,600/- and rotten eggs stored in the refrigerator were discarded.
  
• Synthetic Food Colours are used in Food Preparation.
  
• Biryani (8kg), Mandi Rice (10kg), Synthetic Food colour Lemon Yellow (0.5kg) was discarded.
  
• Improper storage of semi-prepared and raw food articles in refridgerator. Temperature not maintained.
  
• Food handlers found without Haircaps, Gloves and Aprons.
  
• Medical fitness certificates for food handlers and pest control records not found with the FBO.
  
• Water analysis report not available with FBO for RO water used for cooking and drinking.
  
• The Kitchen premises found open to outside environment without proper mesh/ barrier to avoid entry of pests or flies and Dustbins found open without lids.
  

Source: https://x.com/cfs_telangana/status/1795332064507752504

I’m the third. Alex the parrot was the second. A man named Karl Schuster who lived in Berlin in the early 1900s was likely the first. In total, only three individuals are known to have overcome the natural cognitive limits of their species’ brains. Alex did no harm. Mr. Schuster, I’m afraid, may have inadvertently damaged reality. My transgression may be humanity’s undoing.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to be like Alex.
What made Alex special? He is the only animal to have asked a question.
Lots of animals communicate. Whales and birds sing their songs to each other. Coyotes use barks and howls for identification. We’ve been teaching primates sign language since the 1960s. But these animal tweets and howls and signs aren’t language. There’s no grammatical structure. No deep concepts conveyed - just surface-level stuff. I’m here, they say. I’m threatened, or breed with me.
Animals manage to transmit information and even desires through their species’ form of communication. But none of the thousands of animals observed by science have ever asked a question. Except Alex.
Alex was an ordinary gray parrot, purchased at a pet store by a researcher studying animal psychology. Alex was taught to identify shapes and objects and to speak the name of the items he was quizzed on. One day, while being taught to identify different colors, Alex turned to a mirror and asked “What color is Alex?” This is the only known case of an animal asking a question. Even the famous gorilla who liked to pose for pictures with his kitten and the chimpanzee raised as a human child never managed to ask a question.
As you cuddle up on the couch with Mister Snugglekins the cat, or make Mister Woof Woof the dog beg for treats, think about what it must be like to have an animal mind. Animals’ brains cannot even conceive of the idea of asking a question. They can wonder things: When’s dinner? Is this new person a threat? But the notion of using communication to get answers is beyond their capacity. The gulf between us and our beloved animals is truly vast.
Now, let’s take the next logical step. Is there a mind - can there be such a mind - that is to ours like ours are to animals’? What thoughts are permitted by the laws of physics but are unattainable to the limited machinery of our brains? What if we could improve our own cognitive infrastructure, so our own minds could grasp these currently-unattainable ideas. What lies beyond the ability to ask questions? Hyper-questions? What are they like? What is their purpose? Is there hyper-love? Hyper-joy? What accomplishments lie beyond our grasp?
I used to believe that these ideas amounted to only pointless philosophical wondering. Just stuff to talk about while you’re passing the joint around. Then I learned about Alex, who somehow broke past the cognitive limit of animal thought. If Alex can do it, maybe it’s possible for a human to do it. Maybe, I thought, I can do it.
Unfortunately it is possible for a human to do it. And unfortunately, I did.
* * \*
In 2015, dozens of social media users posted images of a confused-looking elderly man slowly driving in circles in a Walmart parking lot. The emblem on the back of the car said he was driving Toyota Raynow. Toyota denies that a vehicle called a Toyota Raynow ever existed, even as a prototype.
* * \*
I’m not the first researcher to set off on a project to improve human cognition. The eugenicists whose work flourished at the dawn of the 20th century may have been the first people to search for ways to adjust to the human mind. Of course, they had their own spin on the endeavor that, let’s just say, didn’t age well. Take a look at this: an excerpt from the Proceedings of the Third Berlin Conference on Eugenics, 1904. (Translated from the original German by me)

The session on Friday afternoon was opened by Mr. Gerhard Van Wagenen, who presented the report of the Berlin Directed Intelligence Improvement Society. If we are to develop ways of improving the overall intelligence of the human breed, Mr. Van Wagenen argued, we must have, as a guide post, the ultimate limit of human intelligence. Only when we know this limit, can we pose the fundamental question of our effort: Are we to use selective breeding to improve average human intellectual fitness in a population, or are we to find ways of advancing the limit of human genius itself into areas that no individuals born to date have occupied?
Our immediate research goal was therefore to find individuals for whom the light of genius burned, not just at all, but brighter than the lights of all others of that intellectual rank. We sought to find the one individual currently alive who can look down on literally all the rest as his intellectual inferiors.
It is known that in the mass of men belonging to the superior classes there is found a small number who are characterized by inferior qualities. And in the mass of men forming the inferior classes, one can find specimens possessing superior characteristics. Therefore, we shall search wherever those of superior intellect may be found, without regard to their current station.

Inferior classes? Intellectual rank? Try putting that in a research grant proposal today!
Mr. Van Wagenen and his assistants set out across Berlin and asked thousands of people a single question: “Of all the men you know who are still alive, who amongst them is the most intelligent?” They carefully reviewed the resulting list of thousands of names. They removed the duplicates and any female names that ended up on the list. (Those crazy eugenicists, right?) They tracked down each of these men who ranked as the smartest known by at least one male resident of Berlin, and asked them the same question, generating a second-stage list: the most intelligent people known to a group of individuals already considered very intelligent.
And they kept going. They generated the third-stage names, found those people and had them produce a list of fourth-stage names. And so on. This project took a year. There was a running joke in Berlin that Mr. Van Wagenen would only stop when the last name on the list was his own.
But, to Mr. Van Wagenen’s credit, he did not rig the study to identify himself or one of his patrons as the one individual who can look down on literally all the rest as his intellectual inferiors. Indeed, Mr. Van Wagenen eventually concluded that his year-long study was a failure.

A fraction of the people named, about eight percent, simply could not be found. We were appalled to note that a small percentage of the respondents identified themselves as the most intelligent man they knew. While the ultimate individual we seek could only truthfully answer with his own name, we took these first and second stage self-identifiers to be adverse to our research and ignored their input.
In a few hundred cases, pairs of individuals each identified the other. In smaller numbers we found sets of three, four, and even five men whose linkages formed closed loops of co-admiration, eventually working around back to the first man.
But the most striking feature of the data was that over three thousand lines of reported superior intelligence ended in the same name: Karl Schuster. Mr. Schuster had been a successful industrialist before suddenly retreating from public view later in life. Strangely, when we tried to find Mr. Schuster, we learned that he had, of his own volition, taken residence in the mental asylum located at Lankwitz.
He refused to see us when we paid a visit to his private room in the asylum. The only communication we had from him was a note related to us by the Lankwitz staff, in which Mr Shuster wrote:
“I’ve spent most of my life hiding from It. I have isolated myself here, with the notion that the confused noise of mental anguish that surrounds me would act as a form of concealment. I did not suspect I might one day be discovered by ordinary men. Please do not visit me here again.”
From his note, and the fact of his residence within the asylum, we must conclude Mr. Shuster had become a mental defective. Even more damaging to our research, we subsequently learned that Mr. Schuster was a Jew. This finding, unfortunately, invalidates our work. In the coming months, we will strive to find a protocol more suitable for investigation into the nature of superior intellect.

Let’s not be too hard on these anti-Semitic, white-supremacist eugenicists. I’m willing to cut them some slack because I’ve done far, far more damage to mankind than all of these guys combined. I should have listened to Mr. Schuster’s warning. I should not have let It find me.
* * \*
In 1954 a man arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport with a passport issued by the country of Taured. No such country exists, or ever existed. Despite the man being detained and guarded, he mysteriously vanished overnight.
* * \*
Where the eugenicists looked to make improvements in the human population over generations by controlling or influencing reproduction, I had a more ambitious goal - to make improvements to a specific human brain (my own) in-vivo. I set out to upgrade my brain while I was using my brain to figure out how to upgrade my brain. I had astonishing success.
I’m not going to tell you exactly how I did it, because it’s just too dangerous. I don’t mean because it’s dangerous to the person undergoing the process (which it is), but because doing so can lead It to notice you. I don’t care if you fry your own cortex. But having It eat even more of our reality will be a calamity.
The human brain consists of gray matter, which is the stuff that performs perception and cognition, and white matter, which deals with boring stuff like running your metabolism. The gray matter - your cerebral cortex - forms a nice thick layer on the outside of your brain. This layer wraps the white matter underneath. I found a way to use pluripotent stem cells to expand the thickness of my cortex. With careful dosing of the stem cell culture through a spinal tap, I created new layers of gray matter underneath my cortex. These new cells replaced the white matter that was there.
For reasons I don’t fully understand yet, the new cortical cells only become active when I have ingested a potent mixture of hallucinogens and antipsychotic drugs.
The process is arduous and very illegal. Experimentation on humans, even if the test subject is also the researcher, is extremely highly regulated. And the drugs I need to use are not available from the suppliers that the rule-following scientific community uses. This work was performed in isolation and in secret. No regulators. No administrators. No rules. Just pure scientific progress.
My laboratory is as unconventional as my approach to science. I’ve set up shop in an assembly of forty-foot shipping containers in the center of my heavily forested seven-hundred-acre plot of land. Privacy!
* * \*
Thousands of people have vivid memories of news coverage from the 1980s reporting that Nelson Mandela died in prison. In the reality that most of us know, Mandela died in 2013, years after his release.
* * \*
Uplift #1 - 3 cubic centimeters
By last October, after six months of stem-cell treatment, I estimated that I had added a total of three cubic centimeters of gray matter to my baseline cortex volume. I could already feel the effects of the diminished volume of white matter. My sense of smell and taste were all but gone. My fine-motor-control was diminished. I had weakness in my legs and arms. But I had three cubic centimeters of fresh cortex to work with. I only needed to activate it. To Uplift myself, as I came to call the process of thinking with an expanded brain.
I planned for the first Uplift as if I was planning a scientific expedition into an uncharted jungle - I stockpiled food and water. I stockpiled lots of drugs. I bought a hundred blank notebooks to record my uplifted thoughts in.
I filled a seven-day pill container with hallucinogens and antipsychotics. I scratched off the Monday, Tuesday, etc. labels on the pill compartments and relabeled them: hour 0, hour 1, and so on. I planned my first Uplift to last seven hours.
Over those seven hours, I learned how to make use of the new, extra capacity in my cortex. I filled notebook after notebook with increasingly complex thoughts. Here are a few excerpts:

Hour 1: The linguistic-mathematical relational resonance is far stronger than most have suspected.
Hour 2: Questions lacking prepositional multipliers of context prevent full expository [(relations)(responses)] yet, but (!yet) there is still an I in the premise.

By the fifth hour, I was fully Uplifted, asking hyper-questions and providing my own hyper-answers. What do the musings of a fully Uplifted mind look like? Page after page of this:

(((Imagine)Imagine[)Imagine)Relate->Time]<--Force(Animal,Object–>Think)

* * \*
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
H.P. Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu
* * \*
Uplift #2 - 5.5 cubic centimeters.
I waited a few weeks before my next Uplift. I needed time to recover from the mental strain of the first experiment, and to wait for a new dose of stem-cells to produce even more gray matter.
Although I only spent a few hours in an Uplifted state in my first experiment, I felt diminished as I returned to baseline. Hyper-questions. Hyper-answers. Hyper-joy. All of these are wonderful to experience. Life can be so much more rich and full with a post-human cognitive capacity.
But, as I learned during my second Uplift, there is also Hyper-fear.
I descended from my second uplift by screaming and running naked in the snowy woods outside my laboratory. As the drugs wore off, the activated sections of the new parts of my brain shut down. Thoughts that were clear one moment became foggy, like waking from a nightmare.
I fell into a snowbank, breathing hard. Only a trace of what terrified me was left rattling in my tiny, baseline brain: It. It noticed me. I occupied Its attention.
What was It? I knew exactly what It was moments earlier, when I had more gray matter to think with. But now I was like a dog trying to grasp the idea of a question. I was still afraid, but I couldn’t understand the source of the fear.
I returned to the lab and warmed up. Then I reviewed what I had written in my notebooks during the ten hour session. Most of it was the same sort of advanced writings that my now-normal brain could not comprehend. But, somewhere towards the end of the session, perhaps just before I shed my clothes and ran into the woods, I wrote this:

I know what Schuster was hiding from. Find out information about Shuster.

When I recovered from the strain of my second Uplift, I drove to town, where I was able to access the Internet. I found some information about Schuster in the same archive where I found the proceedings from the 1904 eugenics conference.
A short article in a Berlin newspaper described the man who had been named by so many people who took Van Wagenen’s survey.

…Mr. Schuster, at the age of fifteen, had made significant contributions to machine design, metallurgy, and chemistry. He founded four companies which he ran nearly by himself, without a large management staff to insulate him from the workers and day-to-day engineering tasks…

It seems that most of the people who identified Mr. Shuster as the most intelligent person they knew had known him well at this time in his life.
Another article, written in 1905, described strange event at his funeral:

…Also present was a contingent of a dozen people who claimed to have been friends with Schuster during the five years he spent in America. Many who had known Schuster for his entire life stated that he had never been to America, let alone spent five years there. Did a group of people mistakenly attend the funeral of the wrong man?
Everyone in attendance had similar memories of him. All recognized his photograph on the coffin. Indeed, some of the America contingent had letters, written in Karl’s hand and signed by him, fondly recalling his time spent in the New England woods. It is as if there were two Schusters: the one who lived his life in Germany and the other who spent years in America.

Uplift #3 - 6 cubic centimeters
Perhaps I’ve allowed my cortex to consume too much of my white matter. I now have trouble with perceptions. The woods surrounding my laboratory have been transformed into a city. Where there were trees, there are now charming stone buildings from a European city. The song of birds and the whisper of the wind in the trees is gone too, replaced with streetcars and voices speaking German.
I prepared my pill container and notebooks for my third Uplift, as the sounds of a busting turn-of-the-century city rang through the metal walls of my laboratory.
Although I had dozens of blank notebooks prepared, I only made one page of notes during my third Uplift:

I met it today. I know what It is. It is alive. Not just alive. Hyper-alive.
It is built into the very material that logic and mathematics is made from. The digits of the square of pi, when computed to the billionth quadrillionth place, is a sketch of a fragment of its structure.
It consumes pieces of reality. It weaves them into its being, and leaves the tattered shreds of logic and causality to haphazardly mend themselves. It ate the circumstances of Karl Schuster’s life, leaving the ragged edges of different universes to stick and twist themselves back together, like shreds of a tattered flag tangling together in a gale.
It has only begun grazing on the small corner of Hyper-reality where humanity lives. Imagine a cow eating grass from a field. A field where humanity lives like a small colony of aphids on a single blade of grass. It likes it here. It likes the taste of reality here.
I tried to tell it to go away. That we are here and have a right to exist.
It replied to me, in its way. I found its words at the bottom of a twelve-dimensional fractal, woven into the grammar of a language with an infinite alphabet. It taunted me with a question: “What flavor is Alex?”

Update to the Proceedings of the Third Berlin Conference on Eugenics, 1904
Mr. Gerhard Van Wagenen provided the committee with an update on his finding that the individual Mr. Karl Shuster was strikingly-well-represented in the responses of his survey on intelligent men. Mr. Van Wagenen writes:
Upon further reflection of the results of my survey, I returned to Lankwitz again to try to meet with Mr. Schuster. I arrived to find his ward in an uproar, as only a few minutes prior to my arrival, Mr. Schuster had been found missing. The preceding letter, which is reprinted here in its entirety, was found in Mr. Schuster’s room. While the letter does not indicate where he went or even how he managed to slip away from the asylum unnoticed, it does show the extent of his derangement. His detailed descriptions of question-asking birds, strange events from the future, and even methods of biological manipulation unknown to science are not the product of a mind that we wish to recreate. Perhaps intelligence, as a phenomenon of nature, is more complicated than we are able to appreciate with our current notions of science. If I may speculate even further, perhaps Intelligence is a phenomenon we should avoid study of, lest we learn things about ourselves that it is best not to know.