Unfortunately there is no explanation as to how the QR code is supposed to work. Thankfully I have another phone I used to screenshot the code and then use the first phone to take a picture of.
I am then rejected for incomplete process.

Hello, you can call me Cory. I am a woman nearly 23 and just went no contact with my mom. It all happened so fact and I’m not regretting it at all, but I am trying to process it. I’ve always ALWAYS had horribly mixed feelings about my mom. She has always been so scared and angry and yet she was the only parent ever in my life. My dad came in and out ripping my heart to pieces and she was my only constant. She was at least taking care of us(my older brother and I) though my brother did most of the emotional part since she was always so scarily unpredictable. Lashing out for needing lunch money, signatures, talking to her too soon after she got home from work, asking about dinner was a regular if not daily occurrence in that house. She also didn’t want to be a mom and reminded us of that constantly. We ‘ruined’ her. We were always a burden it seemed. There was also the threat of her sending us to our father, who she knew was physically violent, if we protested or cause too much trouble. She primed us for college as if that was our life purpose, and now I’m here. My brother didn’t finish college and so the pressure shifted all to me in high school. I broke myself and burnt out trying to get all A’s and the best test scores possible. I did rotc, our band’s color guard, culinary, honor societies, you name it. I got to my senior year and Covid came. I honestly enjoyed being able to recluse for the time I was able, some may say I still am. It was the first time in my life if felt like I was able to realize college wasn’t a dream for me, it was hers. Telling her that came with the mixed message of she wanted me to be happy but she would not support me at all if I didn’t go; knowing I couldn’t support myself, I went. I just kept faltering though, I was unable to handle much of college after sophomore year but I just wanted to get it over with. During that time she married my ex’s dad and didn’t even bother to tell me. I found out while helping her edit a letting to his boss thanking them for the honeymoon. I was devastated. I felt like I wasn’t even a part of our own family anymore. This is after my brother went no contact with her too so I felt totally alone. She went across the country and left me alone in a state with no family. She did pay for my dorm but I felt abandoned. Telling her this was met with her telling me how selfish I was for not wanting her to go. Fast forward to now. I have moved in with my boyfriend, taken over all my bills and financially separated from her. Her new step son of course graduated on time and so she came down for it. I had been avoiding talking to her for months and involved her as little as I could in my life. Every conversation was so tense I never felt comfortable telling her anything in fear that it would be weaponized against me. So after days of her trying to push me into plans of seeing her, I finally cut the cord. I told her how far I felt from our relationship. I told her how hurt by our whole lives I was. I told her that I was glad that she had people around her for this so that she wasn’t alone. I told her that I couldn’t blame her for everything considering that she came from extreme abuse. Often times when I’m mad at her, I will see her as the little girl I saw in a picture of her when she was young. I look at her and I see such a broken woman who just decided that she would never seek help. I look at her and I see such a broken woman who just decided that she would never seek help. my father was physically abusive, so I got used to the feeling of not having a dad but for a while the thought that my mom might’ve eventually love me like I needed it got me through him and the loss of him. I feel like I’ve been begging with her for centuries to at least hear me out in a way that wasn’t dismissive. It never really worked. Any pain I expressed was taken as a criticism of her p dismissive. It never really worked. Any pain I expressed was taken as a criticism of her unwanted parentage. In a way I think it was that she got a whole new family that hurt the most. It feels like when she married him, she did everything she could to erase that we even existed. Bringing up my father was a no, her having a different last name was a no, suddenly our last name was bad and only representative of her father. It worked the same for him too though, her new husband. I don’t disagree with wanting to wipe the slate clean and begin anew, but to erase a father or a mother from your child’s life is to erase part of who that are. My dad abused all of us. Much of my life was defined by that. To erase him, came with her erasing this person who grew up only know how to fight or get hit. That’s who I’m trying to grow out of, but it is part of me. I can never deny that. I don’t ever want to talk to her, but I miss her so much. I miss feeling like we had a future, like he wanted me, like she felt safe with me. I miss feeling safe with her. I miss her smile and the way she laughed with me. I miss seeing her excited about life. I blocked her soon after because I thought she’d just tell me how horrible I was. I couldn’t imagine a situation where she would do what I wanted: hug me, apologize. I really wish I would have gotten a last hug or something because she hasn’t tried to contact me since. I know that is what I want, but that is only because she stopped trying to have a life with us. My adolescence felt like her race to the finish line. Before no contact, but after she moved, she had never come to visit me. She never called to talk about life past how I was in school. If I was too honest about my discontentment, we only fought, so everything became fake. I don’t know how to feel about this all. I’m struggling. I’m just looking for support and am in between therapists at the moment. Anything is something. I’m not looking to have my mind changed. I know she’s happy now that she can be in the world she wants. Thank you for reading.

Hello everyone, I am a beginner in Midjourney.
I don't have an art background, I've learned photography for a while but didn't stick with it, I have a certain IT and data background, and I like beautiful image works.
Midjourney is a very good product, especially the V6 version, the images it generates have shocked me aesthetically, so I decided to learn to create with it.
I have some insights during the learning process of Midjourney, and I have also built some tools to help me understand it and speed up creation. I want to share the process with everyone here, hoping to discuss together how to better and more efficiently play with Midjourney.

My Journey of Learning Midjourney

1. Looking at others' works and prompts
others' works
Seeing others' beautiful digital works on Midjourney online is also a reason for me to seriously learn it. There are many places to learn, such as the Midjourney official website, Facebook interest groups, PromptHero, etc. There are thousands of beautiful pictures, and problems come with them: the prompts behind them are endless, and I don't know where to start learning. At first, I copied these prompts into discord and reproduced them myself, but this method made me feel like I didn't gain anything.
2. Learning keywords
Luckily, I found that keywords are the key. Smart people have summarized many types of keywords, such as artists, artistic styles, camera perspectives, shooting distances, Texure, light, color, etc. This has opened the door to a new world for someone like me who doesn't have much experience in photography and painting. I started to search for related information on Google: who are the artists? What is their style of work? What is the camera perspective? What types are there? etc. Through this path, I learned a lot of photography and painting related knowledge, and of course I am also very grateful to Midjourney, it has inspired my interest in learning this aspect - once I took a SLR camera to learn, the poor early composition plus a pile of boring parameters made me give up quickly. Midjourney also has a bunch of boring parameters, but its composition is stable, which can ensure that I can draw passable pictures even if I don't understand these parameters.
In the process of understanding keywords, I found that even so classified, there are still too many of them. For example, artists, globally and from ancient times to the present, there are so many artists, how can I remember everyone's name and quickly make up their style of work? So I started to think about whether there is any tool that can allow me to select keywords based on representative works or effect pictures. During this period, I found a keyword visualization library with 11.7K stars on GitHub, and some prompt generator websites that can select keywords based on effect pictures. They are really great, and they sort out keyword types more systematically and comprehensively than I do. This is a good place for beginners to start. But I still can't use them very well, for the following reasons:

1. Some trendy keywords may not be included
   
2. Each website cannot exhaust all types of keywords, and some types of keywords are of interest to me, such as decorations.
   

So I started thinking about building my own library. DIY a Studio that meets my personalized needs. I built my idea with Notion.
my KeyWords Visual DataBase
I first built a visual database for keywords, stored keywords by tags and categories, tested the effects of each keyword in Midjourney V6, and imported the most representative photos into the library. Then use Gallery mode to display keyword and corresponding effect pictures. The keyword visualization database can remind me of the effects of each keyword and provide me with inspiration; and I can also continuously add my keyword.
3. Treat learning as a game challenge: find excellent works, try to assemble prompts to reproduce them
After building the keyword visualization database, I feel much more at ease when creating prompts. The new creative process is like this: when I have determined the Subject I want to express, I choose the visible keyword in the keywords library to enhance the artistic effect.
Now start challenging the new goal: find excellent works, guess its prompt, and reproduce it. This is a very interesting learning method, like a game, it can keep my passion for learning.
I found such a reproduction target online:
Target(Other's work)
The Subject of the picture is easy to determine: "Film Venom, a sexy beautiful woman". But its subtlety lies in the fact that the woman painted is sexy but not vulgar, the color is bright, there is a sense of line, and the whole work is very high-end. If there is no blessing of keywords, just enter the Subject into Midjourney, the effect is like this:
prompt：“Film Venom, a sexy beautiful woman”
These photos are more like taking photos of porn stars and lack a sense of high-end. Therefore, I need to try a lot of keywords to enhance the beauty, such as finding some artists and art styles whose works are similar to the target works, then finding color and line description words close to the target, MidJourney allows various art styles to be mixed together, so my keywords There will also be a lot of permutations and combinations, which is a bit like doing an experiment, trying all possibilities.
The difficulties I encountered here are:

1.I have to manually put together each permutation and combination
2.Manual work takes a long time, but inspiration is fleeting
3.I can't remember what combinations I have made, and I may repeat the same combination

So I built a [prompt lab] (because it's too much like an experiment), which includes a prompt generator and a keywords visualization database. The generator uses the key types of keywords as options, selects while referring to the keyword effect pictures, and the function automatically assembles into a complete prompt. Just click the "copy" button and paste it into discord, which is much faster than I slowly put together in discord. It can also record the prompt combinations that I think are more critical according to my own ideas, which is convenient for me to review and summarize.
prompt creation process
Of course, due to the architecture, Notion also has some shortcomings: it cannot make pictures into options. I can only put the keywords library in the sidebar, and use it as a dictionary to flip through when assembling prompts.
Tried 200+ times quickly with prompt LAB
In addition, I also established a visual view, when I passed the more satisfactory effect picture back to the laboratory, I could compare the effect difference of the prompt anytime.
Visual Gallery
Finally, after countless attempts, if there are very satisfactory works, I will want to collect them. And the remaining unsatisfactory ones can be deleted to keep the number of records in the laboratory at a processing level that my brain capacity can accept.
4. Put good works into the collection library
I added a collection library to the lab, classifying and managing my own satisfactory works and other people's excellent works, which is convenient for reference and inspiration.
Collections Database
5. To be continued
In fact, although I have done so much work and tried, I’m still at the beginner stage. Digital art creation is endless. Perhaps with the deepening of cognition, my tools will also evolve.

THE END

Thank you for reading to the end. Here I share my unique learning process, hoping to help some people, and also hope to get everyone's guidance.

I've never before been able to call someone attractive based on their face. All faces seem like "just faces" to me. Ever since I found out about this condition, I've been attributing my lack of facial attraction to my inability to create a mind database of faces and compare them to figure out which ones look more aesthetically pleasing.
Now I've entered my first relationship a month ago, but we didn't really take pictures together until recently. And suddenly as I keep looking at the picture we took together, I'm finding that my boyfriend is the only person whose face I've ever found attractive. It suddenly feels unique, completely different from everyone else. I think it could be because I saw his face on a display instead of in real life for the first time and my brain might have been able to process that more easily.
However, I'm not sure if this is a common proso experience or rather something linked to the way I feel attraction in general. So I'm quite curious if anyone here has had a similar experience.

So, I have recently run into this issue, and I wanted to hear other's thoughts on it. I don't use Abnb incredibly frequently, but I would say somewhere on average around once a month, and I have been an active use with a full profile, 100% positive reviews, picture, etc. for about 8-9 years now. Only very recently for me, meaning just the last booking I made and completed, has my ID been requested to be verified. I thought it odd, and quite honestly, I was uncomfortable with it, but went through the process so I could complete the booking process at the time. It was only after that I found out that they store your ID on their servers indefinitely. This is a huge risk to me. There are so many data breaches these days (the most recent that I have heard is Dell having 24 million accounts with them breached) that the risk of storing an ID like the type the Abnb requires on their servers indefinitely is extremely high and unsafe. If their servers are breached, millions of people will be at risk of having their identities stolen. This says nothing of the risk that the company opens themselves up to with it.
With that in mind, I went looking for a way to remove my ID as required I be able to do by law. And sure enough, I found it, and was able to remove it. Okay, fine, sort of. During the process of removal, I am essentially told that by removing it, I will have to verify my identity AGAIN if I ever book again. Come on, Abnb, did you just verify me, or not? Am I as a person and my association with my account, and my CC info, etc. all going to change completely all the sudden that you need to verify me with an ID again? It is completely illogical, but that's besides the point here.
So, I recently go to book again, and sure enough, I am requested to submit my ID AGAIN. I contact them to see if there is any other alternative method of verification offered. Nope, there is not. Okay, so I guess I go through it again, and just remove my ID after submitting like before. However, when I try to do that, they have changed their policy (in what I believe to be a violation of Federal law) to where they won't let me remove it for 90 days after the last reservation has ended. I am absolutely not comfortable with that for reasons outlined, so I cancelled the reservation. But now they are still refusing to remove my ID even though I don't have a reservation any longer putting me at risk for nothing.
Their ID policy is a huge identity theft risk for everyone. It is also illogical. I wouldn't have an issue with it if the verification process checked an ID once for an account (or even on a yearly basis or with the ID's expiration date), and then deleted it from their servers. There is no real reason or need to hold onto.
Anyone else stop using Abnb because of this? Or sees it as the risk that I do? Curious to hear other's thoughts on this.

I (32F) have been dating this guy 34M for a year. A year ago, We met on a dating app in a certain city where I was working temporarily(I was on a sabbatical and working with an art festival) and he was attending a friends wedding. We ended up connecting greatly on music and whatnot and spent 2 nights together. He then returned to his city but pursued me. I had a job offer there and then we met again. And soon, though I didn't take the offer and returned to my hometown, it turned into a long distance relationship.
We took trips and met in his city and other places , for about a week each month but we always stayed in luxurious hotels, mostly paid by him. he was super loving and attentive and everything I dreamed of. He earned well and established this story of how he travels between his hometown and city of work frequently. Now I can see that it was blatant love bombing.
The first 6-8 months of our relationship, I was also smoking up(h) and then quit. He was the one supplying it to me. I have proof. Pretty soon, I slipped into anxiety and depression and have been pretty low since some months now. However, we still continued dating. His availability kept decreasing. I felt things were off/was doubting he is cheating on me but I kept thinking it's me and my anxiety that's telling me these negative things. I did ask him such questions directly and ofcourse he would deny them.
I would blame and hate myself for being depressed and not being able to talk/be a "good girlfriend " on our calls. He would call me only on his commute to the office or gym and somehow, I was so in my head, I didn't even notice. The calls before sleeping were almost none, by now.
2 weeks ago, I caught him lying over a small thing and the got hurt/a bit alert. He apologised, gave a reasonable excuse and I let it go. I once video called him out of the blue and he wouldn't show me his home. I was sharing this with my friend, who hinted that he maybe married and after some checks, I just found out yesterday that he is married since 2016. And has a 3 year old kid.
He doesn't know I know yet. I have pictures, WhatsApp chats as proof. And all the hotels we have been to will have both our id proofs. I plan to tell his wife too. I don't know whether to do it on mail or in person.
Is this a punishable crime? To have hid his marriage. Does it count for fraud/scam/sexual abuse. Do I even file a case or just disclose things to his wife(I have her number and email). I want to confront him in personal but I think that emotional release may be even more disturbing.
If I file a case, how does it look going ahead? I just really want to punish him and now, im realising he may have done this so many times before to be able to be so smooth at this.
I have no clue what to do. I have been so deep in depression and so ashamed by it. I am realising how badly Gaslight i was for a year..I am also figuring out my next career step since the sabbatical, have been working on design projects and my self esteem has dipped majorly.
I thought I finally found the one. I thought I'll be marrying this guy. And get away with it!!!! HOW?! I'm unable to process what's happening.
Note: Yes, I'm in therapy. Have been for more than a year, looking for another therapists. Have also consulted psychiatrists for meds, one of them diagnosed me with ADHD but I'm unable to get over my fear of meds. I want to get better without them( yes, exercise, yoga, sleep, meditation )And I'm trying. But so far, I am having a hard time being motivated to do anything.

Regular blood pressure monitoring is a proven strategy for reducing cardiovascular disease. Detecting and treating hypertension (high blood pressure) early on is essential to lower-down the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other such major health issues.
Automatic blood pressure monitors offer a simple and accurate solution for at-home blood pressure monitoring. By doing away with the necessity for manual inflation and deflation, these devices streamline and improve the process. Some people may find it difficult to use traditional manual blood pressure monitors since they require a certain amount of ability and technique to operate effectively. The automatic monitors, on the other hand, streamline the process by automating these steps, leading to more consistent and dependable readings.

Introducing the Origin Medical Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor

The Origin Medical Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor provides numerous essential features for precise and effective blood pressure measurement, enabling people to actively manage their cardiovascular health:

• Simplified Operation: A single button initiates the measurement process, making it easy to operate even by those without technical experience.
• Enhanced Visibility: Blood pressure values are displayed clearly on the wide, high-resolution color LCD screen, removing any need for interpretation or ambiguity. Those who prefer a larger, easier-to-read display or who have visual problems would especially benefit from this.
• Comprehensive Health Tracking: In addition to measuring systolic and diastolic blood pressure, this sophisticated monitor also looks for and notifies you of an arrhythmia, giving you a more complete picture of your cardiovascular health. Moreover, arrhythmia can be a dangerous health issue that can be avoided with early identification.
• Universal Comfort: The adjustable arm cuff is made to be as comfortable as possible during measurement and can fit a broad range of arm circumferences (22-42cm). Since discomfort might cause movement and irregularities during measurement, a comfortable cuff is crucial to guaranteeing reliable readings.
• Trusted Reliability: The Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (TGA) has approved the Origin Medical Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor, ensuring the precision and consistency of its readings. With this regulatory accreditation, one may rest easy knowing that the monitor satisfies strict performance requirements.

You may learn a lot about your cardiovascular health by using the Origin Medical Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor as part of your daily routine. Further, this gives the ability to decide on your health with knowledge, maybe working with your healthcare provider. By regularly monitoring your blood pressure, one can see possible problems early on, follow patterns over time, and modify your lifestyle or prescription regimen as necessary.

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The global potato starch market size is expected to reach USD 762.63 million by 2026, exhibiting a 6.2% during the forecast period (2019-2026). The increasing demand for sweeteners in the manufacturing of various food such as bakery and confectionery products is one of key factors boosting the potato starch market trends. Furthermore, the increasing consumer demand towards new and evolving food products, such as cake, bread, chocolate, sweets, and others, will support the potato starch market growth. The growing westernization and economies of developing countries will create growth opportunities for the market.
Information Source -
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/potato-starch-market-101789
According to the report, published by Fortune Business Insights in a report, titled “Potato Starch Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Nature (Organic and Conventional), End-use (Textile & Paper, Food & Beverages, and Pharmaceuticals), Type (Native and Modified), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026” the market size stood at USD 473.06 million in 2018. The report offers informative insights into all the prevailing trends of the potato starch market. It shares a comprehensive summary of all the segments and regions. It provides statistical data on all the recent developments in the market. It is created after extensive research followed by all-encompassing analysis to benefit companies, stakeholders, financers and potential investors. It is designed with an aim to provide a clear picture of the market size. Moreover, it also includes product launches, acquisitions, collaborations & partnerships, and innovations and industry developments.
Growing Inclination Towards Sugar-free Diet and Healthy Food Products to Bolster Market Growth
The increasing focus of consumers towards sugar-free diet and a healthy lifestyle will enable the growth of the market during the forecast period. According to the International Diabetes Federation, South East Asia was considered one of the diabetic capitals in the world, with 82 million people suffering from diabetes in 2017. The rising consumption of sugar-free products and prefer sweeteners and its by-products to avoid diseases, and associated issues will create lucrative sales opportunities for the market. Furthermore, the increasing utilization of potato starch in the processing of sugar-free food products by manufacturers is predicted to accelerate the potato starch market share in the forthcoming year. Additionally, the rising shift in consumer eating choices is expected to encourage the growth of the market in the forthcoming years. Moreover, the increasing development of sweeteners in the food industry will enable speedy growth of the market in the foreseeable future.
Expansion of Paper & Textile Industry will Consequently Favor Healthy Growth
The rapidly growing paper & textile industry owing to the growing population will create lucrative business opportunities for the market. The surge in the consumption of potato starch in various sectors, such as food and beverage, will also augur well for the market. For instance, thickeners and stabilizing agents and various RTE food products require potato starch for manufacturing. The rising demand for convenience food products such as processed meats and cheeses and canned products such as soups and pasta dishes will stimulate the growth of the market in the forthcoming years. In addition, the demand for potato starch in the pharmaceutical industry will foster healthy growth of the market in the foreseeable future. For instance, potato starch is used for the manufacturing of biomaterials. Biomaterials can also be used as biodegradable packaging materials owing to their environment-friendly factor. These factors and trends together will aid the expansion of the market.
Increasing Demand from Food & Beverage Industry will Facilitate Growth in Asia Pacific
Europe generated a revenue of USD 92.14 million and is predicted to grow rapidly during the forecast period. The growing demand for potato starch from the Food and Beverage Industry will enable growth in Europe. The increasing consumption of convenience food products in the region will encourage the growth of the market in Europe. Asia Pacific is expected to hold the second-largest market share in terms of value in the potato starch market owing to the flourishing textile and paper industry.
Some of the Major Companies Operating in the Potato Starch Market are:

• Emsland Group
• Cargill, Incorporated
• PEPEES Group
• Roquette
• Ingredion Incorporated
• KMC
• Novidon
• AGRANA
• Tereos
• Vimal PPCE

Looking to move next year and trying to understand the best way to navigate the move, as equity in our current home is needed for the down payment on a new one. When we purchased our current home, it was contingent on the sale of our old home, and that was a very stressful and rushed experience, but we ended up being only displaced for one night and were only moving down the street, so managing the situation with the animals was a bit easier.
We currently have 3 dogs (GSD, super mutt, and Pom mix) and 5 cats. Has anyone here navigated a similar situation/have any advice? Basically, how the heck do people with a farm of animals move?!
We are considering:

• Selling first with a rent back (is 60 days reasonable/normal?)
• Selling first and finding a rental that will take our animals, which is doable, but wouldn’t be ideal (rent here is $3.5-$4.5K/month, nearly 1.5-2x our current mortgage)
• Trying our best to coordinate things somewhat simultaneously.

I have no idea what is most common/least stressful, as my husband bought our first home before I entered the picture and the only home buying/selling process I’ve experienced was very unusual.
Thanks in advance for any input!

How to Use HP Smart App: Step-by-Step Guide 1-855-233-5515
Step 1: Download and Install the HP Smart App

1. Either visit the app store on your smartphone or tablet or the HP website on your computer.
2. Search for “HP Smart” and download this free app.
3. Install the app by following the on-screen instructions, including enabling the app to access your device’s location.

Step 2: Set Up Your HP Printer

1. Ensure that your HP printer is connected to the same wireless network as your device.
2. Open the HP Smart App and click the “+” icon to add a new printer.
3. Follow the instructions to select your printer model and complete the setup process.

Step 3: Explore App Features

1. Print: Go to the file you wish to print out. Click on the right section of the mouse, then search for the print option that indicates “Your-printer-here” print. Choose the printer you are using, then go further to customize the settings such as color, paper size, and quality.
2. Scan: Open the document or the picture you want to scan. Place the document or photo on the scan bed, if using the camera, capture the document. Edit where necessary and save the softcopy to your storage or cloud.
3. Copy: lift the original document you want to multiply then lay it on the scanner bed. Utilize the app command feature to dictate the number and other settings on the scan, including the color and print quality.
4. Printer dashboard: check the available ink, order for the previously used sheet, adjust required settings, and refer to the printer manual on “how to” from these print-accessed options from the dashboard.

Step 4: Use advanced features

• Mobile printing: Click on mobile printing to make your HP printer print from anywhere by sending a print job from the web.
• Cloud office: allocate to your cloud storage account, then use the app to access your own document in the cloud office. It includes cloud printing features.

Step 5: Troubleshooting and support

• If you are facing technical errors or have a question about how to use these fields, please use the HP Smart App Support to get support.

How to Contact HP Smart App Support

These contact methods will allow you to reach out to HP Smart App support to get the help you need: online support, phone support, email support, and in-app help. First, make use of the online contact options: go to the HP support website and search for “HP Smart App,” read through the support articles and FAQs that are provided, and in case you cannot find the solution to your problem, use the live chat option to speak with a support agent who can assist you in real-time.

Out of curiosity, I disassembled the DM-1 battery to see how much space it had inside. It had a little bit.
Out of curitosity, I disassembled an old UV-5R craddle charger to see how big the charging board was. It was pretty small.
Out of curiosity, I looked through Aliexpress for a minuscule USB-C PD 9V board. It was pretty cheap.
I cobbled them all together inside the DM-1 battery, and now it's an USB-C rechargeable battery. The original pins still work for the original craddle (which has a very big board, with very sparcely placed components).
I am very, VERY sorry for not taking pictures of the process, for whoever's interested.
But the USB-C PD board looks like this, and the charger board looked kinda like this (this one is actually not like mine but seems to have all the guts in the same place. Mine had a big cutout near the DC jack, and it had written "A55.VER03-040415", probably made in 2015, when I bought the UV-5R. Mostly like this one but that pic is really bad)
I made a cutout to the side of the battery case for the USB-C jack, a small hole for the charging LED (I could keep it!), soldered everything correctly and hot glued everything in place.
I wonder how much it would've costed them to add this by default. I understand they're really fighting for every penny, but that's a very nice quality of life upgrade.
Disclaimer: I've just built this. I still don't know if that'll burn my house down. Everything seems to point out that it's gonna be fine, and the worse's gonna happen is that my battery won't 100% charge because I'm using 9V instead of the original 10V, and considering losses, is too close to the 100% 8.4V. My tests showed that the board didn't heat up and that it could properly charge the battery a little, so I deemed it doable enough. I decided going with 9V because some USB-C chargers don't support 12V, and those who do, when I tested 12V charging, the IC probably reached north of 80°C in two minutes. At 9V it doesn't even warm it up. 10V buck converters were way too big to fit. Although I made it "original craddle compatible", I still don't know if that backfeed into the USB-C PD board will cause damages. Chances are I'll never use the craddle again, so I don't really care. I will report back if it blows up or catches on fire. If I don't report back, it's all fine and dandy. Unless I died in the fire. Check my Reddit activity. If you ever do this, do at your own risk.

Shortly after Final Fantasy VII hit the gaming world in 1997, Cloud Strife’s howls of grief at the loss of his beloved companion Aerith Gainsborough were echoed by droves and droves of fans. These echoes gathered in swarms, reaching the developers in the form of petition signatures, each begging the makers of the game to allow Aerith’s resurrection. Though these prayers remained unanswered —until now—, there soon came more protests: this time, fans pleaded with the developers to consider making a remake of the original game. Both of these wishes were met with considerable derision, with large chunks of the fandom calling the requests delusional— which is why the Final Fantasy world had to prepare for another meteoric hit when the Remake project was finally announced in 2015. With Kitase, Nomura, Toriyama, Nojima, Uematsu and more of the original developers at the helm, along with longtime FFVII fan-turned-developer Hamaguchi, the Remake trilogy was met with great expectations. These were nevertheless surpassed, though one aspect of the trilogy’s first entry seemed to thoroughly puzzle some and enrage others. Far and wide, the resounding questions were “What are these Whisper things?”, “Why is Cloud having visions unrelated to Nibelheim and Zack?” and “Why and how in the hell did Zack survive?”
Friends, I believe the answer lies within this post. Welcome to my literary-analysis-based theory on the Remake trilogy’s most important and most secret plot point: Cloud’s hidden mission. I want to make this fun and suspenseful to read, so I will write my analyses in the same order and manner in which I encountered them while putting my theory together. You will be reading what initially sparked my curiosity, the path I took while researching for answers, the conclusions I made every step of the way, and only then will you read my theory, after which we’ll try and apply it to the Remake trilogy so far and see if it fits! I want you to experience the rollercoaster that I did when digging through SE content to bring you this post. Thank you so much for waiting for and anticipating this analysis, and I do hope you read every word to soak in every last bit of Clerith you can get. I also hope it’s really fun and touching for you (I cried at least once making this)! Let’s embark on our adventure through the compilation, other FF games and real-life events to find out what the Remake project is truly all about and anticipate the events of part 3.
N.B.: Please be aware that I have never seen this theory navigate online, so I have no idea if anyone has ever come up with a similar hypothesis. The big reveal I’m building toward might be something you’re already aware of or suspected. In that case, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint you if you’re one of the lovely people who requested it! At the very least, it will provide you with valuable literary and musical analysis, a ton of evidence you haven’t considered yet, and hopefully, entertainment too!
WARNING: Please be careful with the censored spoiler text, because I'll be referencing other FF games in this analysis and I don't want to ruin anything for you! Obviously, this analysis contains spoilers for the entirety of the FFVII compilation. Additionally, if you're not a fan of Clerith and you've stumbled upon this post, please stop here. I would hate it if something I worked on and posted made you angry, so please don't read this analysis. I have only good intentions and I just want everyone to enjoy the FFVII world as much as they can.

I. Groundwork: The Remake Timelines Theory

Before I take you on this ride, we must lay down the framework of the Remake Timelines Theory. In this section, we’ll be reviewing the general consensus of theorizers within the fandom on timeline/multiverse shenanigans, with some added specifications on my part. Please keep in mind that because the timeline mechanics are kept quite vague by the devs, there might be certain inaccuracies in my iteration of the timelines theory. Thankfully, these potential variances won’t have any effect on the legitimacy of the theory I’ll be presenting to you in this analysis.
I. a) Sephiroth’s Plan
The premise of the Remake trilogy is widely thought to be the result of post-OG Sephiroth attempting to succeed where he failed in OG. There are six key points we need to keep in mind to understand how this was possible.
I. a) i. Sephiroth in the Lifestream
Firstly, it’s important to remember that Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream before OG even begins, and remains that way for almost all of OG's duration. He is only able to operate in the world of the living via his/Jenova's control over the living Sephiroth clones. In the OG timeline then, Sephiroth is sent to the Lifestream by Cloud twice: once before the game takes place on the night of the Nibelheim incident (pre-OG), and a second time during the final battle against Sephiroth (disk 3, chapter 3). During the long period between the Nibelheim incident and Sephiroth’s rebirth at the Northern Crater (disk 2, chapter 2), he exists in the Lifestream. After his ultimate defeat (post-OG), he returns there for good.
II. a) ii. Sephiroth Unintegrated
Secondly, because he is full of hatred and unyielding determination, Sephiroth’s spirit cannot become one with the planet. After both occasions where Cloud kills him in OG, Sephiroth retains his individual will and the memories of his lifetime, remaining a separate entity in the Lifestream. He says so himself in Nojima’s Advent Children prequel novel On a Way to a Smile:

“[Sephiroth] could sense the Lifestream trying to erode his spirit— the memories of his former experiences, thoughts and emotions. If he allowed himself to be taken into the current, the being he once was would soon disseminate and disappear amongst the spirit energy cycling around the planet. [He] thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat” ("Lifestream Black 1").

Combined with Bugenhagen’s basic lesson on planetology (FFVII OG, disk 1, chapter 19), this excerpt provides interesting information on how the Lifestream normally works. Usually, when a life returns to the planet, its individuality (personality, will, consciousness, memories, etc.) is stripped away. The trappings of a soul’s former lifetime are progressively dissolved so that all that is left is the spirit itself, ready to integrate into the Lifestream. This way, soul energy can be “recycled” by the planet to animate new lifeforms in a sort of reincarnation process. The erasure of one’s memories in the Lifestream is necessary for the creation of a brand new life, poised to make its own memories: the slate must be wiped clean, so to speak. Sephiroth’s sheer hatred for and desire to dominate the planet is enough to keep him from undergoing this process.
It is also thought that Sephiroth cannot be integrated into the Lifestream because he was conceived with the use of Jenova cells in vitro. Given that so much of his consciousness and genetic makeup originate from an alien life force, it is impossible for him to become one with the planet.
Regardless of the reason, it is precisely this persisting individuality in death that allows Sephiroth to meddle in the world of the living during the post-OG events of Advent Children, as explained to us by post-OG Aerith in On a Way to a Smile:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet. It was the vehemence of a strong will, one that would never join with the planet. She knew this consciousness. It was [Sephiroth]. A merciless spirit hidden behind a beauteous wall. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence to the surface of the planet“ ("Lifestream White 1").

I. a) iii. The Lifestream Beyond Time
Our third point is that the Lifestream has existed for as long as the planet, and has therefore touched every part of its history— including, of course, the events of OG. On that account, one could think of the Lifestream as atemporal. Considering this, it is possible for a spirit in the Lifestream to communicate with or even travel to the past, provided the necessary circumstances and/or abilities. For instance, the Aerith that appears in Cloud’s resolution scene in Remake (chapter 14) is commonly considered to be a post-OG Aerith, appearing to him from the future to try and dissuade him from falling for her. This time-defying event is made possible by the fact that post-OG Aerith’s spirit has access to the atemporal Lifestream because she's deceased. In my view, this explains why she dissolves into green light (Lifestream visual cue) at the end of the resolution scene (5:19-5:45). This is not time travel per se, but it is a manner of communication unobstructed by the one-directionality of a linear timeline that only spirits can perform.
I. a) iv. Sephiroth Beyond Time
What we’ve covered so far amounts to our fourth point. Please familiarize yourself with the graph below before you continue reading. Refer back to the graph when you encounter text in bold.
The Remake Timelines Theory: FFVII OG Timeline
As we discussed in section “I. a) i.”, Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream for the duration of the green arrow and beyond point D: in the context of the OG timeline, he can only ever be considered “alive” during the period highlighted in purple. In section “I. a) ii.”, we asserted that Sephiroth retained his individual will in the Lifestream, enabling him to exert his influence on the world of the living by manipulating his clones on the surface. In section “I. a) iii.”, we covered the atemporal nature of the Lifestream, which allows post-OG Aerith’s spirit to communicate with her past, living self thanks to her Cetra abilities. Now, I will explain to you how Sephiroth was able to do virtually the same thing, albeit his lack of Cetra blood.
To the characters of the story and a fully immersed first-time player of OG, the timeline above was not always an established series of events: when they first started playing FFVII OG, the player began at point B, with nothing existing beyond it. It is only as the player moved Cloud forward that the black, arrowed timeline was drawn, accumulating lived events (or points) in Cloud’s wake. The picture you see above is only available to Cloud and to the player with hindsight. All this to state the obvious: at point B, Cloud could not know what would occur, say, at point C.
During the period highlighted in purple, Sephiroth was “alive” again, accumulating new memories on the surface of the planet and adding them to his consciousness. When he entered the Lifestream for the second time at point D, he brought these memories with him. Simply put, after returning to the Lifestream at point D, Sephiroth remembers what happened during the period highlighted in purple. However, given that the Lifestream exists beyond time, upon Sephiroth’s consciousness’ return to the Lifestream at point D, his newly acquired memories were also made available to him at all points on the green, double-arrowed line— including point A, before the OG timeline even begins at point B. So while it is true that Cloud cannot know what will occur at point C if he is only at point B, Sephiroth indeed knows what will occur during the period highlighted in purple when he is only at point A. While a living, pre-OG Aerith would be able to receive post-OG Aerith’s spirit’s knowledge through the Lifestream thanks to her Cetra powers, Sephiroth has no need for this ability. The fact that he resides in the Lifestream for practically the entire FFVII OG timeline renders the limitations of time irrelevant: as far as the FFVII OG timeline is concerned, Sephiroth exists beyond time itself.
In summary, after point D was first encountered in OG, pre-OG Sephiroth (in the Lifestream) is made aware of his eventual defeat, and begins plotting an alternate path to victory. This time, with the benefit of hindsight, he will do things differently: we experience his "second” attempt at FFVII as the Remake trilogy.
I. a) v. Sephiroth Against Fate
Of course, the Whispers stand squarely in Sephiroth’s way. This leads us to our fifth point, which Remake Ultimania describes better than I ever could:

“According to Red XIII, who gained knowledge through his contact with Aerith, ‘The Whispers are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny’s course and ensure they do not’ […]. It would appear that what the Whispers deem to be ‘fate’ is the original story of Final Fantasy VII” (section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).

OG’s plot line is the fated timeline, and the Whispers are tasked with its preservation. They prevent alternative paths from even beginning to branch out from the OG timeline, which poses a problem for Sephiroth: he cannot win FFVII if his destiny is to lose it.
I. a) vi. Sephiroth and the Multiverse
Consequently, our sixth point is that Sephiroth must dismantle the mechanisms of fate before he can even try to accomplish his dreams of godhood.
As Sephiroth explains in chapter 14 of Rebirth, “the planet encompasses [an ever unfolding] multitude of worlds”, and these “[new worlds are born] when the boundaries of fate are breached.” Since the Whispers uphold the “boundaries of fate”, a world in which Sephiroth’s evil plans succeed can only emerge after the Whispers have been defeated. Otherwise, destiny will continue to protect the OG plot line by preventing any significant deviations. Consequently, before the party vanquishes fate, the Remake timeline and the OG timeline are one and the same: before chapter 18, Remake Barret is OG Barret, Remake Tifa is OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is OG Hojo, etc. After the defeat of Destiny, the OG timeline is no longer protected by fate: there are now an infinite number of timelines or worlds, including those we see glimpses of in Rebirth: Remake Barret is no longer necessarily OG Barret, Remake Tifa is no longer necessarily OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is no longer necessarily OG Hojo, etc. Perhaps this is why Aerith gives the party the following warning at destiny’s crossroads in Remake:

“[This] is the wall of destiny. If we go through it… if we go beyond it… then all of us will change, too” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Destiny’s Crossroads”).

I. a) vii. Sephiroth’s Plan
Now that these six points have been elucidated, we can compose a solid hypothesis on how Sephiroth plots to win FFVII.
After gaining knowledge of his eventual demise (disk 3, chapter 3), pre-OG Sephiroth began thinking of what he must do in Remake from the Lifestream. First, Sephiroth must antagonize the Whispers in the initial stages of the OG timeline. He accomplishes this by commanding his clones to commit acts that drastically violate the fated timeline, engendering plot-line deviations that the Whispers must course-correct. The most extreme example transpires in Remake’s chapter 17 when the Sephiroth clone in President Shinra’s office kills Barret, forcing the Whispers to restore the fated plot line by coming forth and reviving him. The Whispers react to Sephiroth’s prodding by rushing in to protect fate, their efforts culminating in the protective wall of destiny that surrounds Midgar in chapter 18.
Secondly, after he’s created an opportunity for a battle against the Whispers, Sephiroth must convince the party to seize it and beat fate for him. After all, a mere Sephiroth clone is probably no match for Destiny. This second step is accomplished in Remake’s chapter 18 when Sephiroth successfully tempts Cloud to breach the boundaries of fate. Now that destiny is no longer a limitation, worlds deviating from the OG timeline can finally emerge; Sephiroth has a chance at victory.
The steps Sephiroth plans to take going forward are unknowable at this stage, but we do get more hints in Rebirth’s chapter 13. At the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth reveals a part of his plot:

“Sephiroth: My fragmented mother, these errant worlds... All shall be one again.
Aerith: The ‘Reunion’…!”

It seems Sephiroth eventually plans to merge the worlds created by destiny’s defeat in Remake’s chapter 18. My guess is he hopes to achieve godhood in part 3 and consolidate all diverting worlds into a single timeline protected by destiny once more— only this time, his victory will replace the ending of OG as the destined outcome. If he succeeds, Sephiroth’s Black Whispers will likely replace the planet’s Whispers as the arbiters of his desired fate.
I. b) Aerith’s Intervention
But Aerith can’t let this slide unchallenged!
We know that before chapter 18 of Remake, while the OG plot-line is still protected by fate, Aerith has knowledge of its future. This is insinuated by certain slips of the tongue: for instance, when Aerith reveals she knows Cloud is a mercenary upon meeting him for the second time in chapter 8, just like she knows Tifa will ask her to retrieve Marlene at Seventh Heaven in chapter 12. In the run-up to Remake, post-OG Aerith's spirit likely sensed Sephiroth planning his second try at FFVII in the Lifestream. She’s been able to anticipate Sephiroth’s plotting in the Lifestream before, namely in the context of Advent Children:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet […]. It was [Sephiroth] […]. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence [on] the surface of the planet” (On a Way to a Smile, "Lifestream White 1").

If you’re wondering how Aerith was able to maintain her individuality in the Lifestream like Sephiroth, On a Way to a Smile provides the following explanation:

“[Aerith] was an Ancient, which explained how she was able to maintain her individuality even within the Lifestream. If she so wished she could become part of the planet at any time, but [she] thought it too early for that just yet” ("Lifestream White 1").

It is thought that, as a countermeasure to Sephiroth's scheming, post-OG Aerith’s spirit used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inform her past, living self (pre-OG Aerith) of this new threat to the planet. Because the Cetra can commune with spirits, pre-OG Aerith would have been able to receive post-OG Aerith’s message from the Lifestream without a problem. Essentially, pre-OG Aerith received post-OG Aerith’s memories of the fated OG timeline. As a consequence, pre-OG Aerith embarks on the OG timeline with knowledge of the fated future that demands she give her life: the player experiences this version of her in Remake.
Be that as it may, it’s unclear how much Remake Aerith is aware of. You would think she’d be completely opposed to defeating, destiny since it protects the planet, but Aerith shows ambivalence toward the idea instead. Had she gotten a clear message from her future self that she must keep fate intact, she would not have allowed the party to enter the battle against fate in chapter 18. She doesn’t seem to know what the Whispers are the first time she encounters them either. Regardless, what’s important is that the Aerith seen in Remake is the result of pre-OG Aerith receiving knowledge from post-OG Aerith via the Lifestream.
I. c) Ambiguity: Memory Transfer or Time-Travel?
There remains an ambiguity pertaining to the Aerith we see in Remake and the question of time travel. What I’ve described to you in section “I. b)” is post-OG Aerith's spirit transferring her memories to her past self through the Lifestream. However, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith’s consciousness used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inhabit her living OG body instead, effectively time-traveling. There is no evidence to outright refute either explanation, since the gaps in Aerith’s memories of the OG plot-line in Remake can be explained in both cases. For instance, in a memory transfer scenario, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith only communicated the most essential information to pre-OG Aerith. On the other hand, in a time-travel scenario, one could interpret the following quotes as proof that the Whispers are progressively erasing Aerith’s memories of OG as Remake advances:

“Aerith: Every time the Whispers touch me, a piece of me falls away” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”)

&

“At any rate, Aerith is perplexed at how, like a flower being scattered, something inside is being taken away by the Whispers and lost to her” (Toriyama in FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”, “Scenario Staff Q&A - Answered by Motomu Toriyama”).

This ambiguity is completely irrelevant to Sephiroth’s situation in Remake, as we established in section “I. a) iv.”.
The specifics don’t matter nearly as much as I’m impressing upon you by explaining all these little alternatives. Simply keep in mind that: regardless of why, the Sephiroth and Aerith we see in Remake know the events of the OG game because they have acquired this knowledge from the future, and the events of Remake occur squarely within the OG timeline until the Whispers are defeated in chapter 18.
So there! That’s my iteration of the Remake Timelines Theory! I hope I’ve made it clear in your mind, or at least clearer. Now that we’ve established the widely theorized premise of the Remake trilogy, we can get into our theory on its hidden premise.
II. My Initial Curiosity
My theory first burgeoned upon going through Remake for the second time. I noticed something strange going on with Cloud, something that could not be explained by the Remake Timelines Theory. Key moments in Remake Cloud’s experience of the OG timeline (aka, everything before chapter 18) stuck out to me as strange and mysterious, and certain inexplicable audiovisual cues struck me as hugely significant. It was upon watching the tear fall from Cloud’s eye during my second go at chapter 8 that I knew I had to look into this.
At the very end of Remake’s chapter 8, Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him, humming happily into the night air as she sets off to lead the way to Sector 7. According to the VA script notes, “his heart skips a beat” and watching her walk away provokes a sudden “anxiety” within him. Triggered by the familiarity of the sight, a strange sensation overcomes Cloud:

“[There’s a] close-up shot of Cloud’s fingertips (they’re tingling). He presses them to his temples (his eyes are burning). A trickle of tears quickly rolls down from the eye hidden behind his hand” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

If you’re clever, you’ll recognize these lines as a reference to the speech Cloud makes in OG following Aerith’s death at the City of the Ancients (“My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!”) (disk 1, chapter 28). In this small moment in chapter 8 of Remake, Cloud experiences a flash of the profound grief he is destined to feel upon Aerith’s fated death.
Many players immediately recognized the composition of this scene: the blue-greenish air, the straight path Aerith heads down, the sight of her walking away itself… this moment closely resembles Cloud’s Sleeping Forest dream of Aerith in OG, wherein Cloud and Aerith’s very last words are exchanged (disk 1, chapter 25). Toriyama, codirector of the Remake project, comments on this scene thusly:

“It’s possible these similarities […] cause a memory of the future to be called forth in Cloud” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

The language used by Toriyama here is strange in both the English translation and the Japanese original: the term “memory of the future” makes no sense. One cannot remember things they haven’t already experienced, so why did Toriyama use the word “memory” to describe a "future" event? Couldn’t he have simply said that Remake Cloud experiences “visions of the future” rather than “[memories]”?
Cloud experiences a few moments like these throughout the game. These pseudo-premonitions are just as markedly exclusive to Remake as the Whispers are. I did not want to dismiss them as a foreshadowing device the devs included just to elicit emotional reactions from OG players; I felt they were more important. And thus began my digging! My mission was initially to figure out what these “[memories of the future]” (MOTFs) could signify… I had no clue it would turn into what I’m writing right now.
II. a) Each MOTF and Its Context
I began by finding every one of Cloud’s MOTFs so I could better understand them.
MOTF 1 occurs in chapter 2 on Sector 8’s Loveless Street, when Cloud sees Aerith struggling against the Whispers. The VA script notes reveal that even though this is only his first time seeing her, Cloud recognizes Aerith’s face:

“Recognizing Aerith’s face causes Cloud to experience [a hallucination]. Sephiroth is suddenly standing between him and Aerith” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Encountering Aerith”).

Sephiroth then taunts Cloud with words that, according to the script notes, “[live] inside of Cloud's heart”: “You can’t protect anyone. Not even yourself”. Cloud should not recognize Aerith’s face at this point in the OG timeline, nor should he associate it with not being able to protect people.
MOTF 2 occurs in chapter 3, at the plaza in front of the Sector 7 slums support pillar. Cloud experiences a MOTF of the plate falling, which is fated to occur at a much later point in chapter 12. The Whispers float near him, “watching Cloud alertly as he sees a vision of the future” (FFVII Remake Ultimania, section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).
MOTF 3 occurs in Aerith’s church at the start of chapter 8, when Aerith mentions that her mother’s materia is “not good for anything at all”. Triggered by the mention and sight of the White Materia, Cloud’s fourth MOTF takes the form of a vision: he sees quick flashes of the materia falling into the lake of the Forgotten Capital and Aerith holding her hands together in prayer. These are evidently visions of her death in OG (disk 1, chapter 28).
MOTF 4 is the one we first discussed, occurring at the very end of chapter 8 as Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him to lead the way toward Sector 7.
MOTF 5 occurs in chapter 13 shortly after the Sector 7 plate has fallen on the slums. Cloud tells Barret that Marlene is safe at Aerith’s house, and they begin heading there. As Cloud thinks about Aerith, the VA script notes describe the very next moment as follows:

“Cloud: Tifa, you know anything about the Ancients?
Tifa: I’ve heard of them before, but…
Barret walks on ahead, showing little interest in the topic.
Barret: Read a book on planetology and they’re sure to come up. They’re a tribe that cultivated the planet a real long time ago. Used to talk to it. That sort of stuff.
Cloud: That must be why the Turks were after her.
[Psychic] interference starts up.
[Cloud has a] flashback of Sephiroth from five years ago, after learning of his ancestry at Shinra Manor […].
Sephiroth [(in flashback, voice tinged with madness)]: Within my veins flows the blood of the Ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet!
The flashback ends and Cloud looks lost in thought. The interference starts up once more. Cloud makes agonized sounds. When he opens his eyes, Sephiroth is actually standing before him.
Sephiroth: You failed again— failed to protect [her]*.
Cloud is startled. He shrinks back. Tifa watches what’s happening. The other two can’t see Sephiroth. All they see is Cloud acting frightened.
Sephiroth: But loss will make you strong. […] Isn’t that what you want?
With that, Sephiroth departs.”

*Sephiroth does not use a gendered pronoun here, because the grammatical structure of the original Japanese sentence doesn’t necessitate it. I've seen some debate as to whether the proper translation is “her” (Aerith, who’s just been kidnapped), or “them” (Jessie, Biggs or Wedge, who have seemingly just died). I believe Sephiroth was referring to Aerith for a few reasons. First, Cloud’s hallucinations of Sephiroth always appear as a response to whatever he is perceiving or thinking about at the moment. At this point in the scene, Cloud has been thinking and talking about Aerith for some time, and not about Jessie, Biggs or Wedge. The Sephiroth hallucination must therefore be referring to “her” rather than to “them”. Secondly, Cloud was never tasked with “[protecting]” Avalanche, but he was in fact tasked with “[protecting]” Aerith as her bodyguard back in chapter 8: it makes far more sense for Sephiroth to be referring to Aerith when he speaks about someone Cloud “failed to protect”. Finally, FFVII Remake Ultimania describes this piece of dialogue as “[Sephiroth aiming] these profound words at Cloud, who not only failed to prevent the tragedy in the Sector 7 slums but allowed Aerith to be abducted” (Sephiroth’s profile in section 01 “Character & World”, “Impressive Words”, page 29): the specific mention of Aerith here seals my decision to translate the line with the pronoun “her”.
Contrary to Sephiroth’s words, this is the first time in Remake that Cloud “[fails] to protect [Aerith]”, and he hasn’t “[lost]” her either— not yet, at least. So why use the words "again" and "loss"? This fifth MOTF must be similar to MOTF 1, in that Sephiroth is referring to Cloud’s guilt surrounding Aerith’s death in OG.
MOTF 6 occurs in chapter 17, in Aerith and Ifalna’s old room at Shinra HQ. The Whispers swarm Aerith as she tells the party earnestly that she wants to do everything in her power to help her friends and the planet: according to the script notes, it is at this very moment that, “for some reason, Cloud feels his chest constrict tightly” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”). In the corresponding cutscene, this unpleasant physiological reaction to Aerith’s words makes Cloud glance down at his chest with a confounded frown. This physical response to her speech about wanting to fulfill her duty to the planet implies that Cloud somehow knows deep down that saving the world will cost Aerith her life.
At this point, I noticed that five out of the six MOTFs Cloud experiences in Remake are triggered by and/or revolve around Aerith specifically, the one exception being a MOTF of the Sector 7 plate fall. One could actually argue that this MOTF revolves around Aerith too, considering the plate fall marks the first time Aerith is taken away from Cloud since reuniting with her in the Sector 5 slums church. This is more than plausible, as MOTF 5 proves that in the wake of the Sector 7 plate fall, Cloud’s main concern is Aerith (see section “II. a)”). How fitting is it, then, that the merc of few words’ longest uninterrupted piece of dialogue in all of Remake is:

“We found an underground Shinra lab where they've done human testing. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I know these people, and I know they're never gonna let Aerith go. She's the last living Ancient on the planet. Think about what that means to Shinra's scientists. Especially to that son of a bitch Hojo. We're all just numbers and meat to him—“ (Remake, chapter 13).

Cloud would’ve gone on too, had Elmyra and Tifa not stopped him.
At this juncture in my research, my questions were only stacking up. What are these MOTFs? Why is Cloud the only one experiencing them? Why do all of them implicate Aerith? What did the devs hope to accomplish with their inclusion in the game? What do they mean for Remake’s story? But most importantly:
II. b) What Does Cloud Know?
The first assertion we have to make is simple, yet essential: the only reason Cloud would experience MOTFs is that whatever’s triggered them is significant to him in one way or another. Some part of him must recognize his triggers for them to be triggers at all. It’s clear he doesn’t consciously understand the meaning of his MOTF triggers, just like his Jenova triggers: for example, Cloud doesn’t know why Zack’s name causes him to experience psychic interference, but it sure does. We as players know Cloud’s MOTFs are hinting at Aerith’s fated death because of our awareness of OG, but as a character navigating the OG timeline, Remake Cloud shouldn't even be unconsciously aware of Aerith’s eventual death in the slightest! Whatever the nature of the MOTFs, it’s essential to understand that if Cloud “[recognizes]” Aerith’s face the first time he sees her, it must mean some part of him knows Aerith’s face in the first place. If this recognition triggers a hallucination of Sephiroth telling Cloud he “can’t protect anyone”, it must mean some part of him knows he was once unable to protect Aerith. The same goes for every other MOTF: subconsciously, Remake Cloud somehow has memories of the OG timeline. Most interestingly, it looks like he either only has OG memories related to Aerith, or like his OG memories of Aerith are simply the only ones prominent enough to trigger his MOTFs. Why and how does Remake Cloud have memories of OG, and why are they so focused on Aerith in particular? What does he know?
When examining a situation with no explanation, it’s wise to examine similar situations that have already been explained. Maybe the mystery of Remake Cloud’s MOTFs will become more approachable if we consider the cases of the only other Remake characters who seem to know the future: Aerith and Sephiroth. Remake Sephiroth knows the future of the OG timeline because his consciousness exists beyond time in the Lifestream, while Remake Aerith likely obtained her knowledge of the future from post-OG Aerith’s spirit via the Lifestream. But what about Cloud? Where does his weaker, fragmented knowledge come from?
(continued in part 2)

After much consideration, and planning, I am going to return to video production. When I began making videos on a weekly or monthly basis, I had plenty of free time due to the big coof. This was me learning things like scheduling, editing, how to make the microphone work, and I learned plenty through trial and error. There is a dramatic difference between my first videos and my recent ones because of this learning experience. But as I learned about how to make videos, I learned that I was wasting my time with them.
A LOT of time.
Whatever you’re thinking is a time waste for a video is not really it, unless you’ve been there and done that. During that time, I ruined my sleep schedule and would even pass up on small money opportunities, all because I thought my Youtube videos would send me into stardom. Plant a seed, watch it grow, that sort of thing. But, looking at my numbers, it was the exact opposite. Each video coming out, utilizing the keywords and subject matter as a reason to click, was essentially a false sense of activity.
Working on other people’s channels created even more false cases of activity, which created a false sense of justifying why I’m putting labor into something.
Like most artists, I was gaslighting myself into thinking that the time spent into a project was going to translate into a future income from something else. We always see these videos where it seems zero effort was put into it and it goes viral, not realizing that years of failing and group efforts were required to reach those results. And even then, a youtube video existing doesn’t cause a person to instantly gain money from that existence. I have a friend who made a viral video and he didn’t get anything from millions of views, because there was nothing to monetize. I have another friend who made a viral video, trying to recreate the magic, and nothing came of it after a year or two of trying.
Not only is it hard to receive results, but the amount of time it takes to attempt is ridiculous. I didn’t time myself, but if I knew how many hours were sunk into each video, I would probably pull out my balls in anger. The process of each video was a mess of:

1. Writing down a script (takes more than an hour to write an hour of script)
2. Recording the audio (takes more than an hour to record an hour)
3. Editing the audio (takes about double the time of whatever its recorded)
4. Making the thumbnail
5. Making the avatar
6. Collecting images
7. Collecting video clips
8. Making images and clips
9. Editing through clips that are too long
10. Adding sound effects
11. Finding and adding music
12. Waiting for it to render (usually this is where I go to do other things)
13. Rendering it AGAIN through handbrake so it’s a smaller file (quicker than waiting for uploading a multi GB file)
14. Uploading it across youtube, bitchute, and rumble

I don’t want to make this sound like I’m complaining, but this is the bare minimum effort that goes into a youtube video, not mentioning the details of how things are edited or the issues with troubleshooting. A lot of what ate up my time was realizing when things aren’t working way too late, such as how GIFs don’t register well and they slow down a larger project. Or better yet, how a large project slows down to a crawl and you have to render multiple segments separately in order to keep things running smoothly. My files, as organized as I tried to keep them, were unorganized as hell because I would set them up during production instead of before production. Then by the end of it, there would be something wrong that I would have to edit, remove, I forgot something, something vanished between saves, or even corrupted files because I moved something and didn’t realize it was part of something else.
Video editing is utter hell in the beginning, but it gets better after you look after your process and actually organize everything well.
I spent a night the other week changing up all of my files. I put them on my desktop, where I can easily access them, and away from my downloads. This is important because your downloads can be bogged down with anything you download, and eventually it becomes a massive mess of pictures, videos, game patches, or whatever else you’re downloading; all getting in the way of your actual project. You want your files to be files within files, and each file is marked clearly for its purpose and its direction. I had a million songs splayed out in different areas and couldn’t remember where they were, of course when I wanted them, all because they would get trapped in piles of other things I downloaded for later.
My file finding time is now only limited by the slowness of my computer acquiring it.
Audio began as a mess of me going through each line to make sure there was no extra noise, and having to fix anything that was too quiet or not full enough. Turns out I was making my audio way too maximized and wasting a lot of time on stuff that people wouldn’t even recognize as an issue. Now my audio mixing is done through OBS, already set up as a particular compression and volume that will stay in the acceptable range, with noise removal already set up.
My audio recording/editing time is closer to how long it takes to speak.
Developing each chapter card, clipping them together, having to find the font, typing everything out. These, along with getting sound effects working, took up too much time. What I did is make a plan to prepare all of these first, before anything else is added to the video, so that I know how many chapters there are. They don’t take that long to render, because of how short they are, and it takes way less time to do that than to shift gears at the end of the production day. Shifting gears every couple of minutes, that was wasting too much time, which is now changed to doing one specific task each session.
My “switching” time is removed, thus saving time.
Music was added in the beginning, as one of the first things. This was wrong to do, because of how many times I would want a clip where the music continues through it, only to realize that this continuation forced me to keep a massive background of editing history, which slows everything down through production. Adding music as the last bit, and after rendering, will save me minutes for every time I boot up the video editor, which saves hours over time when I’m going to have to go back and forth on video editing. My lifestyle only gives me an hour or two at a time to sit in front of the computer, and so editing will require less wait time for the process to warm up.
My rendering time will increase(as I go to do other things), but my waiting time will decrease.
Through my new process, I am also considering a different view of each video type. Recently, I saw a video about how kindle books are categorized between low, mid, and high content; related to how much effort it takes to make each one. My previous attempts were to, essentially, make high effort content as consistently as possible, which was going to be draining when these were events that came and went. Current news like Lindsay Ellis being stupid or DSP looking like a fool on Sidescrollers are incredibly time sensitive, which is why so many people stream these “news reports” instead of making high effort videos about them. And even if it was a long term type of video, we have to question if it REQUIRES that much effort to begin with.
My plans for the future are to measure how long I take with each session, what I get done, track down percentages, and measure what the longest steps are. Figuring out what’s causing a hold-up is the best way to prevent hold-ups, in the same way city builders (should) keep track of what’s causing traffic jams. Too many traffic jams? Get rid of cars or open more lanes. Keeping track of things is going to take minutes to save hours, which is something I should have practiced more on doing through my practicing year.
Videos are done with marketing in mind, because I don’t plan to make money from them. My “branding” is storytelling, art, art-related lolcows, and I guess that pesky culture war. People begged me to go fully political, but I think political is a step below philosophical, which is where I would rather go. I would rather explain the psychology and aesthetics of media, instead of repeating myself as to how offensive or woke something is. Yes, I make fun of Lindsay for being woke, but I explain why she is and where it comes from, which is something more important than some kind of drama farming that grifters do.
I would rather be a source of information than a pointless attack dog for someone above me, which is why I try to separate myself from the people who do such nonsense. I’m not with these movements, I don’t care to promote people I don’t care about, I’m not going to go easy on people just because “we’re on the same side”. Everyone gets made fun of or nobody gets made fun of, and I’m year of monkey, bitch. This monkey wants bananas and youtube is not going to supply any. But it supplies plenty of vines to swing around from, as I Donkey Kong my way from topic to topic.
Like anything else in life, videos need to be worth my time, meaning their expense needs to be dropped dramatically. Hour long, multi-hour long, these were excruciatingly hard to do. The next goal is to make sure everything is kept around 30min long, unless it’s going to be a bi-yearly 1 hour long video that will be the highlight of the year, which is where full book analysis videos come into play. The scripts for everything else will be written down as articles, with the better of the articles being made into low content videos.
Podcast style will be for low effort, being made weekly.
A new style will be for mid effort, which is where 30min of history or explanation is presented with video clips, being made monthly. Video game clips will be placed around here as well, unless they can be made bi-weekly.
And the classic, me in my room with my ASS computer, will be for the high content, for subjects that take far too long to make on a monthly basis.
This planning is still in the works, it’s an effort to create a strategy and a schedule for everything. The goal would be to place an hour a day per video, creating steps for each video, and using each other as progress reports for the bigger ones. It will be like placing smaller squares into bigger squares until the biggest square is complete, allowing me to visually determine my progress across such a subject. This is also a way for me to appear more productive, because content will be constantly coming out on a clear schedule. Only bad side about it is that this means 3 hours of my day are used for videos, and this won’t be possible for every day until content creation is my main job.
Before I can have this be a thing, it will be a slow, preemptive creation process, with smaller projects being made as my “short stories”, to then determine if I’m ready for a bigger “novel” of a project. And that’s how I have to approach video editing: the same way I would with storytelling. No more determining that length means better, or more time means more results. Now I’m going to obey the market, go for what’s expected of me, and react to feedback. If something doesn’t work, or doesn’t make a dent, I try something else.
I think that’s why people get mad at me, when they see that I am trying something else all the time. This is normal, but I’m told that I’m “an interloper” or “will never win” because I willingly give up on things that don’t work. Sorry, losers, but being unorganized and wasting my life is not worth it. I like money, and I like vaginas. If I wanted to be poor and wasting my life, I would have kept slamming my head against a wall and failing like most of what indie does.
And yes, the OPC reviews will be translated into videos, as well as my own short stories. I began as a crackpasta narrator, after all. I was thinking of putting a lot of radio drama production into my narrations, but I would want to keep them low effort until they start attracting all of the attention from their titles. A lot of people try to narrate their stories and they don’t make a spark anywhere with them. But as time goes on, and I get more videos under my belt, I could easily narrate for others, create a network, and get things going. It’s not that hard to get things working once you know what you’re doing.
The main time waste that we all fall for is chaotic activity and the lack of planning.

Hey guys I’m buying the torktune valve springs tomorrow after work and then the following day ordering the valve cover gasket and spark plug tubes to get the job done. If anyone wants videos or pictures of the process lmk in the comments

As a way to centralize tarot reading reviews, I thought of creating a subreddit for review-submissions, as I've seen some people do. After I do a reading, I'll ask the querent to leave a review as a post here, if they wish.
After much encouragement by some dear friends to take my readings public, I am slowly coming out of the cave. Since there is no end on the path to perfection, I might as well learn as I walk. There will always be things to learn. I believe keeping this organic process isolated from the whole can hinder it in many ways.
For reference, the decks I use are mostly RWS (for general readings) and Haindl (for readings pertaining to the spiritual path, works of introspection and self-knowledge), but I also have the Thoth tarot "Tarot of the Shamans".
If I don't know the question, or the querent wants a general reading, I'll do the "first operation" of the Golden Dawn to open the reading and discover its main theme and the energies present.. I share pictures simultaneously as I turn each card; I believe this keeps the person connected, and speaks more than just the text interpretation of the spread.
For general situation-readings, I stick to past-present-future spreads, unless specific questions are wanted. I may reformulate the questions asked a little, to allow for clearer answers. For general "life situation" kind of readings, I stick to the celtic cross.
There are no set rules: some readings call for reversals and others don't; some call for specific questions; some call for more cards, others less, and so on.
My future readings are not predictive, but meant to show possible outcomes given current circumstances and energies present.
These are diagnostics, not set in stone. I believe tarot readings should clearly diagnose, and then present a suggested course of action for the best possible outcome, harmonizing the inner and outer planes.
Questions and suggestions are welcome :)

Hi guys :) I have something cool to show you.
From my studies, mostly introspective, I believe I have come across a great discovery: that the ancient primordial language of man is METAPHOR (and possibly also for animals as well; this might be a bridge). In other words, pictures. But there is a catch: metaphors are not mere pictures. If I say "God is the sun" I am not saying that God is literally a sun.
How I came about this discovery: if you try really really hard to express yourself, to come up with exactly the right sentence -- or even exactly the right WORD, you hit a massive wall. The closer you come to perfection, the more tantalizingly far away becomes the prize. You think you've found exactly the right word to describe something, or to describe your feelings but nothing quite fits. You get really close. But then you look in closer and see if the word truly resonates with what you want to say, and it is amiss. It is a fun game to play, in a way.
For me, when I hit this massive wall, it is very frustrating. I cannot truly capture what I mean and feel. But then a vista opens up, the walls disintegrate into light dust. A picture appears to me. An image. A symbol, if you will. AND this picture/metaphor captures what I wanted to say, what I really mean, PERFECTLY. And that is what shocks me, that anything can be perfect. But this is.
So my hypothesis is: preverbal metaphors are translated into words. We are generally not aware of this process. That's why it may require introspection. In other words, there is meaning, which is invisible and empty (or so it seems) which then, when we want to speak or write or make it materialize, we convert into words. Like one energy being translated into another. This translation is not perfect. This invisible energy is actually the metaphor.
Metaphors, such as "God is the sun", trap an enormous amount of meaning into them. People say "A picture is worth a million words." But this is even better -- metaphors trap a trillion words within them. This metaphor can be unpackaged, but the resulting words will never fully reflect its original state.
Here's some dumb examples:
"There is electricity all over my body" (I try to find the word to describe what I am feeling. I try "anxiety", "nervous", "scared", "worried", "tense". None of them fits. It is very frustrating. Perhaps I am a perfectionist. But, then, like I said perfection can actually be achieved. The image comes to: my body with electricity zigzagging through my whole body. This fits the feeling exactly, it is a perfect fit. Just the right resonance.)
I had another example but I forget it 🙁 My memory is very bad. (If I think of it I will put it in a comment.) What I mean by "dumb" examples isn't really that they're dumb, but just that's it's hard to find an example that isn't super personal and embarrassing but not too boring either so that the example loses all vividness entirely.
A softer version of my hypothesis: This metaphor stuff is only true of me. But I doubt that. It is possible that I am more visual than most, because I am deaf. These days, since this discovery, I think of metaphors as my natural language, my mother tongue. It is beautiful. My second language is writing (I don't know why). And my third language, quite dusty, is talking.
What about you? Do you share this experience too? Are metaphors your primordial harbingers of meaning? (Do you believe in the preverbal? And if so, what is its nature?) Thank you so much! I would love to hear your experiences.
Note: in my other posts I said I wasn't going to reply to comments, but I change my mind. I will definitely reply to your comments. I don't have much to say/post anymore, so I have time to reply now.

Age: 36
Gender: Female
Medications: Lexapro and Depo Provera
Non smoker, non drinker, occasional weed use
I had a full medial meniscectomy on my left knee in 2021. Gained some weight and in the process of losing recently, I noticed my left knee seems to be fattier. I thought it was swollen so I saw my orthopedic surgeon a few months ago and he took x rays; nothing out of the ordinary there, just more pronounced arthritis which is to be expected. So then I was referred to an ultrasound tech to see if maybe I had any lipomas/possible lymphoma issues and everything came back clean; even told I had great veins and everything LOL
I’m glad it doesn’t seem to be anything serious but can fat distribution really be that different between my two knees? Or is there something I’m missing?
All the doctors have said they don’t even see the different but it looks very obvious to me. Pictures in comments

So, starting a few days ago I got texts from 60879 saying they are from Turtle Beach.
1st one mentioned me by name.
2nd one gave me a message saying "My Order has been Shipped", and a fedex tracking order from over a year ago, looking that up gives a picture of a box being delivered to my doorstep over a year ago.
3rd one say something along the lines of "the last 2 messages were sent in error, here's a 10%off code."
Is this some kind of scam where someone's using Turtle Beach's name? Or just a glitch in Turtle Beach's internal order processing system?

Shortly before a final paper with pre-assigned topics was due for one of my last courses at Columbia University, our professor sent us an email telling us to forego the previous parameters of the essay, and to instead write about the events that had occurred not even forty-eight hours earlier, as well as our reflections on them, to be done in any manner we chose. Here is a very lightly revised version of what I submitted: read it, ignore it, upvote it, downvote it, hate it, love it.
I am prefacing this essay by stating that it is the culmination of several intense emotions that I have been dealing with over the last few weeks, more specifically, the last several days. It is a free-form expression of the many things occupying my mind, and, as such, it may seem overwhelming or disjointed. Nevertheless, I will do my best to convey my feelings into something representative of my beliefs, and my time at this institution.
My time at Columbia University has been bookended in an almost comically bad way; it started with Zoom classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it ends with Zoom final exams due to the lockdown of Columbia’s campus after protests regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict reached a fever pitch not just within Morningside Campus, but the international stage. My classmates and I missed in-person orientation, and now, given recent developments, we will not have a University Commencement, a fact I found out not from Columbia, but a New York Times alert, somehow lowering my opinion of this administration’s handling of recent events even more. While the circumstances around my time at Columbia have now both begun and finished in the same manner, I am proud to say that I have not. I do not mean that Columbia has simply made me a better writer, a more critical thinker, or more well read, although it certainly has done those things, sometimes forcing me to when I was not particularly in the mood to do so, but those improvements pale in comparison to the maturity and empathy my time at this university has given me.
When the decision to transition to remote learning during the Spring 2020 semester was made, occurring only a short time after I had received my acceptance letter (email), my first thought was how the pandemic would affect my transfer from community college to Columbia in September. Admittedly, this was a selfish perspective, considering the tremendous challenges that many would endure during the ensuing lockdowns and other upheavals of life. My concerns were solely focused on myself because I was on a simple track to graduate, place my degree on my resumé, and continue my trajectory of military service to college to employment, leaving little else to consideration, to include other people who were not in my immediate circle. Sitting here now, two weeks from graduation, with a job at a Fortune 500 company lined up, I should be happy, with the plans I had made years ago coming to fruition. Yet I cannot help feeling a sense of sadness and concern for the school I have spent years of my life at, and for the world as a whole.
James Hatch, a former member of the United States’s elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, for short, more commonly known by its nickname, Seal Team Six, famous for its involvement in the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the rescue of the Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips from pirates, amongst other things, spent over twenty years in the military. After being wounded on a mission to rescue American serviceman sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from enemy forces, he was medically discharged, and would eventually attend Yale University. While there, he wrote a piece titled My Semester with the Snowflakes (please give this a read, it will help people who have never been in the military understand its culture, along with some of the challenges veterans face when transitioning to college), where he details his initial discomfort with being in a vastly different environment than the military, surrounded by individuals who possessed opinions and beliefs contrary to the ones he was accustomed to. He recalls witnessing a student protest the country he spent over two decades serving by coating her hand in red paint, and leaving a palm print on an American flag, and details his shock when a classmate of his explained to him what a “safe space” was, as well as his pride when he began to understand the nuances of life both inside and outside of the nation he dedicated twenty-six years to.
I can relate to Mr. Hatch, (despite my service paling in comparison to his, as well as the fact that Columbia is far superior to Yale), because, like his friends who make fun of him for attending college with a bunch of “snowflakes,” mine do the same. More significantly, however, his personal growth during his time at school is something that I have experienced myself. When I started at Columbia, I did not even know which major I would choose, and was largely lost in a world very different than the one I had come from. Despite this, I made the decision to avoid communities such as MilVets and the students who made it very clear that they came from a military background, with their style of dress and demeanor, not because those organizations and individuals are a detriment; I know for a fact that MilVets has helped countless students succeed at Columbia and beyond, and the veterans that I have relationships with are all phenomenal people, but because I wanted to pressure myself into being exposed to something different. I was uncomfortable at first, but this turned out to be the right decision. I learned as much from simply talking to people whom I would normally never converse with about topics and ideas that I had never encountered as I did during classes about great works of art, polar and Cartesian coordinates, literature, astronomy, the list goes on.
If the protests about the Israel – Palestine conflict had occurred when I first started at Columbia, I would have been frustrated by the students taking up space, forcing us to be funneled on to campus by restricted access points and identification checks. Likely irritated by the disturbance of the quiet during finals season, I would have agreed with the people who called for students to simply focus on their assignments and stop inconveniencing others by shouting about something occurring on the other side of the world. Instead, I decided to learn about the conflict, educating myself about both sides of a war that has roots extending back millennia. While Columbia University did not agree to the demands of the protestors, they achieved something else they surely desired, reaching a goal they did not state to President Shafik and her advisors: they brought attention to their cause by educating at least one additional person about it.
After reading, talking to people, listening to input from students within various classes, and understanding that things such as the intertwined nature of financial workings, as well as conflicts not just in the Middle East, but all over the world, are a level of complexity that baffles some of the most brilliant minds of ours and previous generations, I will leave my thoughts about Israel and Palestine separate from this paper. I recognize that it is important to choose a side, as remaining impartial helps no one. However, when every news agency, group and individual makes their voice heard, satirical sources such as The Onion make these kind of posts, or Adult Swim’s Rick, the nihilistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, misanthropic lead character from the series Rick and Morty, addresses the conflict in this manner, I feel that it is better to relegate myself to a much smaller part of this debate, namely the occurrences on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus.
During basic training for the United States Army, a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie is hammered into recruits’ identities. When you graduate and are assigned to a unit, one where you could be thousands of miles from home on the opposite side of the country, or even in a completely different country, serving on one of the international bases, approaching someone who you have never met before is easy. Talking to them about shared experiences and stories you have in common, and the bonding that occurs, is the product of an indoctrination process and lifestyle that has existed longer than any of us have been alive, and is proof of its effectiveness. This sense of familiarity tends to continue even when one leaves the military. The Veterans of Foreign Wars community is a place for prior servicemembers of all conflicts to share a drink, a laugh, and sometimes a tear. When I go to the Veterans Administration Hospital for periodic check-ups or the occasional injury, men and woman wearing hats commemorating their service during Vietnam waiting for their appointments greet me with a smile and a handshake, as if we have known each other for years. While working at a golf club’s greens department before I transferred to Columbia from community college, a coworker of mine who had served in the Gulf War had heard from our supervisor that I had been in the Army, and he introduced himself to me on my first day, before anyone else, telling me that if I needed anything, I only had to ask. This camaraderie has expanded to encompass not just veterans, but first responders such as firemen, EMT’s, and the police as well.
Underneath the picture on my driver’s license, the word “veteran” is emblazoned next to a star, written in bright red text and all capital letters. I know for a fact that this one-and-a-half-inch indicator has helped me during interactions with law enforcement on multiple occasions. Only earlier this semester, during Presidents’ Day weekend, I went upstate to spend time with my family. While driving back, in an effort to make the seven-hour trip at a reasonable time, I was stopped for going twenty miles-per-hour over the speed limit. The officer who pulled me over, initially reserved, became noticeably more friendly when I handed him my license and registration. Ultimately, he gave me what amounted to a parking ticket for my actions, rather than the point-incurring, heavily fined moving violation he could have charged me with.
The ‘Thin Blue Line,’ as it is known, is a reference to the idea that the police are the barrier between law abiding citizens and criminals, order and chaos. The most common representation of this concept is a black-and-white American flag, with a single blue line in the place where a red or white stripe would normally be. This style has been expanded to include numerous other colors representing other first-responders: green for the military, red and white no longer to be interpreted as the traditional stripes of the American flag, but instead meant to represent the fire department and paramedics, and even grey for corrections officers. Seeing the appropriation of one of the most iconic symbols in the world, one that flies above the White House, schools, homes, national and international events, and even the Moon, I can say, as someone who has been unwillingly entangled within that appropriation, is nothing short of terrifying.
The fact that these entities and their supporters have literally sewn themselves into the fabric of the symbol of our nation makes one think that there is little room for the countless other occupations, aspects and people that make up this country. The idea of the police being the sole protectors of our society is patently absurd, and all one must do is point out the many instances of police brutality occurring over the years to refute it. I find myself thinking of how much power the officer who stopped me just three months ago had over me. Initially, I was happy that I had received a slap on the wrist, but recently I have found myself wondering what if my license did not state that I was a veteran, would he have charged me with a ticket that would have had much more serious implications? What if he was simply having a bad day, and he decided he did not like the look of me, or the color of my car, and I was the one who he ultimately decided to vent his frustrations on? This traffic infraction, an incredibly small incident compared to all the turmoil in the world, one that involves two strangers, supposedly bonded by our professions, on the side of a quiet, New York highway, serves as a metaphor to me, reminding me of the power structures at play on a much larger scale.
On April 22^nd, 2024, I received this email, one of the many Clery Crime Alerts that students are automatically sent. An affiliate of Columbia University had their car stolen at gunpoint by two masked men on Claremont Avenue, not even a five-minute walk from campus. I skimmed the report, and almost immediately forgot about it, recognizing that crime is an inevitability in major cities, and that I needed to start my commute to school. Days later, on the night of April 30^th, 2024, I received another email from Columbia, containing one of the most ominous messages I had ever seen, one that put the kind of fear in my heart that not even the alert of an armed carjacking could. Columbia’s Emergency Management Operations Team, offering no explanations, specifications, or even a greeting or sign-off, wrote in bold letters these three sentences: “Shelter in place for your safety due to heightened activity on the Morningside campus. Non-compliance may result in disciplinary action. Avoid the area until further notice.” Due to the protests on campus during recent weeks, President Shafik testifying before Congress, Columbia’s role as one of the main catalysts for student protests around the country, and the occupation of Hamilton Hall occurring in the earlier hours of that day, it was not hard to figure out what the email was referencing. Over the next several hours, I followed news agencies, remained glued to the Columbia subreddit, and listened to WKCR, in awe of these eighteen- to twenty-two-year-old students putting themselves at risk to deliver on the ground, accurate, unbiased coverage of one of the most significant events in the school’s history.
While tracking the events from multiple perspectives, to include the social media accounts of those near and on campus live streaming them, I held out hope that the university would make good on their promise from several days earlier to not invite the NYPD back, but a frightening picture began to unfold, one that I was intimately familiar with. One WKCR reporter stated that 114^th street had so many officers on it that he could not see the asphalt of the road beneath them, and I knew that the staging area the NYPD had chosen was one of the best routes for moving towards what the military, and presumably law enforcement, would call an ‘objective.’ The officers cleared the smaller ‘objective,’ the largely unoccupied tents in front of Butler, and then moved towards Hamilton Hall, ordering even those not associated with its occupation to disperse, raising my stress levels and likely those of others, as it is rarely a good sign when police do not want their actions recorded and archived. After the initial entry to campus and clearing of areas and people in the immediate vicinity of Hamilton Hall, came the Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, a device that makes a megaphone sound like a whisper, and one known for its crowd-control potential, capable of producing sounds loud enough to cause damage to ear-drums, nausea, and headaches, ordering individuals to clear away. The NYPD began its execution of tactics in a way that my fellow soldiers and I used to rehearse, tactics I never dreamed that I would witness outside of the military, and certainly not by police officers who vastly outnumbered unarmed students on their own campus. The NYPD created a perimeter, or a ‘second layer of security’ to both provide reinforcements for the officers entering the building, and to prevent the fleeing of what are called ‘squirters,’ or individuals who attempt to escape the building after the raid begins. While the ‘breach’ team moved towards the front doors, using tools from a ‘hooligan kit,’ such as bolt cutters, hand-held battering rams and crowbars, a siege machine was brought in to allow access from a window; when taking over a building, the idea is to enter it from as many different directions as possible to better disorient and overwhelm its occupants. Flash-bang grenades, described as non-lethal, but known to have harmful effects, were thrown inside, presumably before entering any room, hallway, or otherwise enclosed area to minimize the resistance of anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of what can only be described as an assault on the visual and auditory senses. According to the Manhattan District Attorney, one of the officers inside Hamilton Hall had what is called in the military a “negligent discharge,” meaning his firearm went off unintentionally. While no one was hurt, the question remains why at least one, and more likely, numerous other officers were carrying guns loaded with live ammunition in the first place, when they so drastically outmatched the protestors in numbers and equipment. Additionally, a negligent discharge is an act of incompetence that would result in an active-duty soldier facing serious consequences, and derision from his peers. So far, the officer remains defended by his coworkers, and unpunished by his superiors.
As all this unfolded, I communicated with my friends from the past and present. My friends from the military checked on me to ensure that I was okay, as did my friends from school. The difference in how they viewed these events highlights what I believe is the change in myself that I stated I am most proud of at the beginning of this paper. My friends from the military were commenting that the assertion of order and control by way of militarized tactics was necessary, not concerning themselves with the human toll and destruction of trust that came along with it. Conversely, my schoolmates lamented the brutality and overstepping of boundaries that the NYPD and Columbia’s administration committed, one that turned a place meant to be a beacon of free speech, expression, and ideas, into what is now a police-state with strict control over who enters it.
My education inside and outside the classroom at this institution has challenged, thrilled, and changed me. Sitting here now, at the end of this paper, the end of the semester, and the end of my time at Columbia University, I am left feeling confused and sad regarding recent events, but also hopeful for the future. I know from experience that the students, teachers, and culture of this school have the power to encourage critical thinking and initiate personal growth. If it did those things for me, surely it can do the same for others