So, I received actually a few emails and a few questions at the end of last class, whether I spend a little more time on what actually a function value is and what I really meant by compiling the switch case statements to function point or indirect jumps. So, how many of you don't know about c pointers, you raise hands, everybody knows about c pointers. So, c pointers are essentially a data type and as you can guess a variable of every data type can have a value. So, the pointer values are slightly special in the sales that we have treated as addresses. So, if a pointer variable has a value 10 that means we are talking about address 10 and if the star in front of the pointer that means the value at address 10. Function pointers are just pointers they can have value. The only special thing about function pointer is that these values are of course addresses, these are instruction. So, if you have function pointer f and if you assign it a value something a b c d and then if you call f following whatever syntax you require to call a function pointer it will take you to this particular address, whatever address that may be and whatever instruction is at that address from that instruction the console will start executing. Essentially the program counter gets changed to this particular value that is what it means that is the function pointer. Now, why would you use function pointers because you might have code programs like this which may say that it x k double 2 you want to execute one function here else. So, you may have a function here sorry you want to call a function when x is better than 2 else you may want to call some other function. So, what you may do is you have a function pointer here you assign f to some value and f to some other value here. So, you may be f equal to x f equal to y and then you may call f here. So, then depending on what the value of x is I am sorry this say x 1 you will either go to the location x 1 or to y and we start executing depending on the value of x clear what function pointer is. So, it is clear that when the compiler is compiling this program it is impossible to know what this call is going to be it is a procedure call that is pretty clear, but you do not know the target of the call target would be one of these two all right. So, which is why you have to compile it in a slightly different way essentially what will happen is that depending on the outcome of this branch the value f will be loaded loaded into a register and this procedure call will be an indirect call which will take the argument from the register. So, that is your indirect procedure calls here I actually club them all under indirect jumps. So, these are unconditional jumps by the way this is an unconditional jump although its value depends on some condition. Now, we talked about the switch case statements last time. So, who does not know about switch case statements there is a. So, typically a switch case statement would be like this you will assume some value some variable and you have bunch of cases case a case b case c and maybe a default at the end right. Now, what I mentioned last time is that the compiler prepares a table that is often called a jump table. So, for example, let us first assume that these are contiguous. So, let us suppose 0 1 2 3 these are contiguous. So, then what will happen is that the compiler will prepare a table this is index 0 this is index 1 is 2 this is essentially an array all right and what will be the content of the array. So, location 0 will contain this instruction address this will be essentially your starting address of case a this will be starting address of case b starting address of case c and the default all right. Now, when the value comes up. So, let us suppose you are switch x. So, what we will do is it will use x as an index into this array the only problem is a default part because if it is 0 it is not 0 1 2 then it should be 3 right. So, internally compiler will actually do that and you can jump to you can just use the pointer.  Now, problem arises when these are not contiguous suppose I say case 0 case 5 case 9 and the problem how we compile that here we have contiguous values. So, here we assume that is 0 1 2 case 0 case 1 case 2 it is not contiguous how we compile it any way it is not contiguous.  So, exactly. So, you find out the range right minimum maximum okay and essentially what we do is you do a map minimum to map to 0 maximum whatever you know max minus mean plus 1 or whatever it is okay and you will do this essentially. So, only thing is that there will be a lot of default values in the middle because very large out there we will see what any other option what else can you say. Let us say let us take concrete values here let us suppose this is minus 1 5 9 yes what do you mean by mapping. So, I look at the table of table that is why I say. So, and there will be another mapping which are values present to contiguous space. Then what do I say why do we need the second table I allow the table of table entries minus 1 to 9 right then I am done right why do I need the second table. So, we can see what how many cases and then we can take modulus modulus of the cases suppose that here size is 4. So, another table of 4 entries all right. So, we can map like 1 if it comes then it will go to first and then if it comes 8 or then it will go to 0 yes and if there is a function like actually. So, as we are doing there is a function and we shift to the next table. So, modulus of 4 you want ok 5 and 9 will map to the same entry yeah. So, what do you do. So, what do you do is 5 in place 1 and we will put 9 in whatever the in this substitute space which is free. And how do you look up suppose I am 9 now how do I know that I have to go to the next table. And if it is. It is going to be filled in this case in a 5 so how do I know that I have to go to the next place. So, there are two things right compare with set up the table and at one time we look up the table right. So, at one time suppose I my value of x is 9 I look up the table I go to the entry where 5 is currently allocated. But I actually have to pick up the value of the next table how do I know that I have to go to the next table. So, the value also ok all right. So, this is deprecate to an you know speed. But to end how do I get that. End for at the end of the value. Ok all right fine yes. So, you are essentially saying that let each table entry have a field which is actually the case value right ok that is fine enough. But how do I know how many collisions I am going to have. How many stars do I look at actually in the table how many entries do I look at in the table. In the number of cases. In the number of cases right. So, essentially what I will do is. So, what you are suggesting is that in the worst case I have a compiler right. In the worst case. In the worst case ok all right. So, that is a that is a hash table approach right. Anything else can I do to reduce the worst case. Of course, an average has to be put in many. What is this problem actually what is this problem what am I trying to do yeah. I have a value of x I have a range what am I doing actually it is a such problem. So, what do you do in a such problem what is a good algorithm. I can evaluate such right I can sort these values I can put the values in the table right. Like you have mentioned I have a field here and I can do a binary search on this right ok. All right. So, that was the digression I just wanted to give you a little more information about what really goes on, but here the point is that is going to be an integrate jump. We have a compile time I do not know what to go because I do not know the value where I will index it ok. So, it will be ultimately an integrate jump. So, we talked about this branch conditions this one also we talked about. I also had a few questions about collars save registers and collars save registers. So, this fairly simple actually. So, essentially the point here is that here we are talking about two functions f 1 and f 2. So, this is the body of f 1 at some point it calls f 2 right ok. And we have the function f 2 also somewhere.  So, what essentially it is saying is that if f 1 wants certain register contents to be preserved after f 2 returns then it has to save these registers ok. So, these are called collars save registers. So, before it calls f 2 it will save those registers because it expects the contents to be preserved when it comes back. On the other hand symmetrically if you know if f 2 knows the state of collars save registers it knows that it can go and actually override those registers or use those registers without clearing. So, that is a two way contract that f 1 save something and f 2 can use that without clearing. Similarly, collars save registers are essentially those registers which the caller might expect to be preserved. So, caller may expect certain registers to be preserved of course, caller could save them, but in a convention in a different convention which is called caller save convention you can say that well I will put this responsibility on the caller because the caller needs to modify these registers. So, it should save this actually for me. So, these are the two conventions. Scholar saving convention and caller saving convention. Most architectures as I have seen nips they support both. So, whether compiler can choose whichever. So, we talked about these also instruction encoding code size fix and variable like instructions. So, IVM code pack is an optimization for power PC instruction set where it does a run length compression of power PC instructions on the flight.  So, if I have 5 once of continuous stream of n once that will be replaced by n followed by 1. So, essentially instead of n bits you have run length plus 1 bits. So, that is run length compression of power PC instructions that is implemented I gave code pack and it decompresses while filling in the instruction cache because the instruction cache does not really know what a compressed instruction is. So, before you bring something into the instruction cache you have to decompress the instruction. So, you can see the trade off now it takes time to decompress right it is not 0 penalty. So, that means when you are bringing in an instruction until it is decompressed you cannot start using it. So, you lose some cycles there all right. What you gain in return you gain in terms of memory footprint you can actually accommodate bigger code in small amount of memory. So, and how do you handle branches that is a big problem here because now a branch instruction suppose you encounter a branch instruction. So, you say that well you should go to that target. Now, how do you figure out this target because this target would be somewhere else in the compressed code right. Because when you because branch instructions the compiler does not know about this compression is on the fly compression when the program runs it gets compressed. So, branch instruction would actually have the decompressed target, but the program has already got compressed on the fly. So, how do you figure out where the target is. So, what they do is it uses a dynamic table that grows gradually mapping branch targets to compressed address. Is this problem clearly what I am talking about the branch targets that go inside the instruction are actually decompressed targets that refer to the decompressed piece of code. Whereas, after compression the target has moved somewhere else actually you have to figure out where that compressed target is that is done with the table. On the fly you actually prepare this table as a value encounter branches all right. So, this all also takes time that is pretty clear actually. So, there also you lose whenever you encounter a branch you lose some time depending on the table and figure it out. However, this is a first time penalty because next time onward you look up the table and know where to go. So, 10 percent performance loss for 35 percent to 40 percent code compression that is what they reported. So, in summary for code size memory and power pick variable length or hybrid or narrow encoding. Because variable length allows you to get very compact code as we told as we discussed last time right. If you have an instruction that can be accounted in the one byte it will actually have that if not expand it to meet the maximum limit or the maximum instruction length. Because that is one of the fixed instruction code you could do you would expand the smallest instructions to be equal to the largest one actually all right. So, if you really worried about if you are really worried about your code size you are really worried about your memory footprint you are really worried about power consumption because these are actually length if you are more memory you will burn more power that is obvious. You should pick actually variable length or hybrid encoding that also talked about because you may actually have two different encodings depending on the instruction type. So, last two are somewhat popular in embedded market we discussed about width 16 last time width 16 and width 32. X86 is the only standing example of variable size ISA. However, all Pentium cores or I put Pentium here, but because Pentium we have heard of Pentium. On the other hand you might not have heard of standing virtualizing which are recent Intel processors. But the point is that every Intel processor today internally convert these variable length instructions to fixed size micro operations you might have heard of this term micro operations. So, that is what the internal architecture actually sees internal architecture does not see in X86 instruction. They all got all get translated internally and that is done only for the ease of implementation. So, we talk about implementation one so you see there. So, the point is that today if you take any processor internal architecture actually handles fixed length instructions all are there. However, they will be doing under a hood whatever they look like outside to the compiler that may be very different. For if you are really worried about performance pick fixed length encoder that saves you know a lot of cycles it makes your hardware simpler and simpler is faster. So, what time in fact starting from the first day of history in computing there is a debate between RISC and SISC. So, RISC stands for reduced instruction set computers whereas, SISC stands for complex instruction set computers. So, there is as such no formal definition of these two things and but as you can as you can guess from the names RISC computers would actually have a very minimalist view of computing. They would pick the minimal set of instructions that are enough to carry out all possible computations. So, for example, RISC will not try to offer you compound instructions that can do many things in single instruction they will never do that. They also only can implement this so we can go and implement it. We will only support minimal set of instructions. Whereas, SISC would actually go further and implement very very complicated instructions that can be done in a single instruction. Like for example, we can copy as we have discussed last time also we can copy a string from one principle. So, which can actually be emulated by a sequence of mind problems. So, it is a topic of long standing debate especially since the most successful RISC is SISC which is the SISC, the SISC ISC fact. So, people often you know would tell you that well yeah this is good it is minimal and we have beautiful properties but who won't SISC right. So, but anyway so here are some characteristics of SISC. I put it here because internally as I just told you internally the architectures today all handle this instructions. The ISA exposure compiler for SISC SISC may be SISC but internally they actually get translational RISC micro operations. So, I put it here also because we will have which is one of the most popular RISC instructions in architectures and also we will actually base our micro architecture design pipeline design around RISC architecture because that is what ultimately gets into every processor today. So, what are some characteristics? We have a small number of fixed length instructions. So, here the philosophy is that provide primitive to the compiler not the solution. Let the compiler actually implement the solution. Small number of addressing modes and many fast on-gy registers make it easy for the compiler to implement the solution. So, the compiler has two options. You have difficulty picking the right one and actually there is a higher chance that you make a mistake in picking the right one. So, let the designer figure out what are the good options actually and offer only those. So, the compiler will always pick more or less the good option. And of course, I mean you cannot emphasize more about having many fast on-gy registers. They will actually improve our problems. Equal amount of time to execute same type of instructions. This is again very important for pipelining and other harder optimizations. And again this philosophy applies here. If you have same type of instructions to have to take same amount of time, compiler can actually pick options quickly. They can make options easily. But while I have to this two possible implementations which one should I pick that should be easier for it to actually select. Okay. The best-handing example of Cisco X86 however today Intel processors convert X86 ISA to risk like micro ops for aggressive pipelining. So anyway, so the point is that when you are designing an instruction set this is the bottom line. Help the compiler write. Because if you cannot help the compiler designer you are going to have a shabby compiler. If you have a shabby compiler your processor is going to run shabby code. If your processor is going to run shabby code it is going to report back performance. That looks bad actually. If you say that well look that in your processor is so bad the problem may be that you have to choose a bad instruction set which is why you do not design a good compiler. So the compiler is very important today. Your great architecture may dramatically lose in market if a good compiler cannot be designed easily. Simplified trade-offs between alternatives offer instructions to bind compile time constants that is avoid interpreting them at runtime. So what this means is that essentially what he is talking about is that in your instruction there should be fields to carry constants like the immediate values that you talked about. If you do not have those what will end up happening is that you may have a constant in your program which will repeatedly get loaded from memory into a register. That is not good actually that hurts performance. So have some way of actually having compile time constants that is meaning that you should have space in the instruction itself. So less is more in the design of ISO. So that is the whole course of the day. Instructions in architecture is the first step to designing a processor. Decide what instructions are important may have to change from time to time during early phase of project but should be finalized as soon as possible so that we can have a fair idea about what to do. Late addition deletion in ISO may be needed due to complexity performance because it may happen that as I told you architects are dreamers. So they will dream about certain nice things and finally at the later phase of the design it will go to the circuit designers and they will say oh I cannot implement it is impossible actually it is absurd. So at that point of course the architect will push it as hard as he or she can and it may happen that it is just impossible. So at that point it comes back to the architect saying that well you should go and modify the instruction. Either delete it or break it up into smaller ones something like that. So that may be possible but that should be avoided as much as you can which is why an architect should have some idea about how complex the circuit is going to be for your operation. Question on instruction sets so this is all in the case study we will walk you through a subset of 32 bit MIPS analysis just to substantiate some of the ideas that we just discussed and we will also get to see one concrete instruction set what it does and what it doesn't actually but before that any questions anything that you want to ask anything that you want to know. So there are four families of MIPS instruction set 1, 2, 3, 4 that MIPS 4 is a super set MIPS 3 is a subset of MIPS 4 MIPS 2 is a subset of MIPS 3 and so on and so forth. We will focus on MIPS 1 only which is a 32 bit ISA so what do I mean when I say an ISA is 32 bits what does ISA stand for sorry it is an acronym yeah it starts as an alphabet I mean when I say it is a 32 bit ISA instruction size any other idea sorry register size anything else register size, instruction size what else a hard sum of something or memory sum yeah memory size cannot be 32 bits more address size physical or virtual yeah physical address or virtual address what she says physical you say virtual so I put both physical or virtual anything else that is your address size oh even the data bus data bus what else memory bus is the bus that carries bits from memory to the bus these buses are no bits what else can we we have instruction size we have register size we have address size physical or virtual oh I have one more dimension here instruction address or data address what does it matter I will spare you on that maybe memory bus what else so should I take a board number 1 or maybe I will give you the correct answer to you this is the register size so you have a 32 bit ISA means the register size of the bits which automatically decides your data path within the processor so because the data paths actually originate at registers go through your caches how many of the registers register will be decides how long the data path will require the bandwidth machine has no meaning to have a 64 bit data path that's pretty clear because your register size it can have narrowed data path that's possible but that actually comes with performance because to load a register you have to switch that bus twice has nothing to do with physical address size I can run a 32 bit processor on arbitrary amount of physical memory I don't care however register size decides your virtual address size so if you register size 32 bits you cannot generate larger virtual addresses because virtual addresses get generated through program code program code take data from your registers so virtual addresses will get translated to generate a physical address depending on how much physical memory you have installed on the computer this may be more than 32 bits that depends on where memory bus has nothing to do with this how much data you want to carry from memory to processor in one go is completely audible into how many bits your register has or you know how many bits your address bus has nothing to do with that I can have a very narrow bus and decide that well I'm going to switch this bus multiple times to fill up one cache line that's okay I can have a very wide bus the four cache lines together that's also fun there is no problem it has nothing to do with my ISA width and instruction size has nothing to do with it for example your this one I didn't expect that x86 has instruction size ranging from 1 byte to 17 bytes it implements 32 bit ISA it implements 64 bit ISA port it is a totally different case all right you will not make a mistake on this side it is a big C you should know this as a computer scientist what 32 bit ISA is all right so MIPS 3 onward are a fully 64 bit ISAs the textbook has an overview of that and actually I have also posted the MIPS 4 instructions in manual online if you are really curious to know what's there you can actually go through it but it's a thick manual but it talks about the entire set of instructions because MIPS 4 is a super set MIPS is a load store register ISA what does that mean this particular thing load store register ISA it says some certain things here operates only on registers so your ALU instructions can operate only on registers can access memory only through load store and remember that this is big idea I hope everybody remembers that what big idea is and there is no partial register access well almost true not exactly there are 4 instructions that can allow you to do a partial register access in MIPS we will talk about it so it follows the risk philosophy emphasis is on efficient implementation make the common case fast it takes amr as it is and tries to follow that at every step we will find that it will actually do this we will not spend hardware on things that are rare simplicity provides not solutions we will come across this philosophy over and over in this course so here is a quotation from Tony Ho a system can be so simple that it is obvious so that it obviously has no bugs or so complex that it has no obvious bugs so I just wanted to put it here although it has nothing to do with MIPS as such so the point is that your design your design philosophy should be that it should be simple don't deliberately make things complex there is no point in doing that essentially you are putting burden on the verification engineers to figure out if the implementation is buggy or not so essentially you start learning a programming language you start learning about MIPS ISA with the data types so essentially given that it is a language for a processor we will have nothing but bit strings so what are the bit strings that are allowed byte is 8 bits as you know half word is 16 bits word is 32 bits and double word is 64 these are the only 4 data types that we have ok integers are represented in 2's complement if you are forwarding you should brush it off although we will not refer to this much floating point it supports single and double precision compliant with IEEE 754 standard so what is the storage model it has 32 bit addresses so when I talk about addresses in the context of an instruction architecture that means in the virtual addresses it has nothing to do with the physical memory because ultimately this MIPS processor will get installed into billions of computers with billion different memory capacity so that will decide the physical addresses so here we can only talk about virtual address size which is determined by your register size which is my ISA so it supports 32 bit virtual addresses which gives you 4 gigabyte addressable virtual memory for process so there are separate 31 32 bit general purpose registers so actually there are 32 but one of them is hardware constant to 0 you can't change it so they did it because they took Amdahl's law by heart and they said that well constant 0 is used so much that actually it requires hardware register to maintain throughout we cannot generate a 0 constant it doesn't make sense it is so so popular so that's why there is a register always 0 whenever you need it use it that's it you don't have to generate this value 0 on the other hand in x86 does anybody know what is the popular way of generating 0 those who have browsed to x86 code should have seen that anybody can generate 0 that's an interesting question what are the operations that you can do to generate 0 subtract the same register anything else XOR so that's usually the popular way of doing it XOR R 0 because usually XOR is much faster than doing a subtraction subtraction is basically an addition and if you remember about this ripple carry addition the carry will ripple through you can subtract from the borrow will ripple through and it may take time actually to get the final answer XOR is much faster anyway so MIPS doesn't have to worry about this because it gets the value 0 for free but not quite for free it then it gets on the register the floating point side has 32 bit popular registers and you can see how it actually emulates double precision so writing to integer $0 will not change it so these are essentially norms you can generate instructions which actually has destination as $0 so when it executes the hardware will actually program counter is incremented by 4 except for branch and jump instruction which means instructions are of 32 bit in size in fact for all 4 families they have 32 bit instructions so what is that? instruction size is nothing to do with your ISA bit for example MIPS 4 the 64 bit ISA has 32 bit instructions there are 2 special registers high and low for storing multiply divide results so if you multiply 2 32 bit numbers you will get a 64 bit number that's the largest you can get so the result gets split into 2 registers both of these are categories so there you will get the 64 bit multiplication result and when you do a division you get a quotient with the remainder so the remainder and the quotient will also go into these 2 registers floating point registers are paired for doing double precision so the paired f2n and f2n plus 1 are accessed by the name $f2n that is f2 specifies 64 bits in f2 and f3 with the least significant word in f2 so remember that is beginning so f2 would have the least significant word among the 64 bits any question on this? so the high low registers are different yes these are extra these are special purpose registers hard I mean hard coded so that they get the result only from the multiplier and the divide oh yeah yeah yeah so yes exactly so these are all different yes so essentially you have 32 general purpose registers one of which is 0 you have the program counter you have high low and floating point registers you have 32 and when you want to do double precision you will pair them up any question? so how do you do computation on these data types? so there are ALU instructions these are classic 3-output format two sources and one destination and what are the operands of these ALU instructions these are the general purpose registers or 16-bit immediate band both signed and unsigned arithmetic are supported so what is the basic difference between signed and unsigned arithmetic is that overflow is not flagged in unsigned arithmetic sign extension of immediate for both signed and unsigned arithmetic 0 extension for immediate for logical instructions so when you have an immediate constant inside the instructions what you do is so this constant is going to be inside your instruction so you have a 32-bit instruction here the constant is going to be smaller in size but your data path is 32 bits so this constant will have to expand it to 32 bits so there are two ways of doing it you can expand it by putting 0s at the top or you can expand it by extending the signed bit so what they are doing here is that you would always extend the signed bit so for example so if you remember your 2s complicated essentially if your immediate are let us say in your instruction your immediate are represented using 16 bits for example in that case what will happen is that you are talking about 16 bits 16 bits is complement constant so your most significant bit will actually signify the sign so it is a negative number you will have a 1 there that will get extended so when you have a 32-bit number you can go back and check or if you already know about it that if you have a 16-bit negative number if you put 1s in all the upper places it will be a 32-bit negative number of the same value and if the upper bit is 0 which means it is a positive number extended by 0 so essentially the point is that you always do a sign extension of the immediate for arithmetic operations for logical operations the immediate are always treated to be positive constants and they are always 0 extended so you cannot do logical operation on negatives it does not make any sense when you are exploring your instruction you are exploring a big pattern signed comparison is completely different from unsigned comparison which is actually not true for signed and unsigned add so unsigned comparison will actually treat the values as unsigned values and signed comparison will actually treat them as negatives or positive depending on their size integer multiply divide take only 2 operands that is 2 sources and have implicit targets high and low instructions it offers instructions to move from or to high slash low registers to gpr because what will happen is that so now your result is high and low so you have to move the high and low values to general purpose register to be able to use that so there are instructions for doing that you can move from high to a general purpose register you can move from low to a general purpose register or even you can move the other way also a general purpose register into high that is also allowed actually although I do not know for what purpose you use that so here is a list of ALU instructions you can see that the list is pretty small actually it fits in one slide the whole anti predict logic so let us go through each of these just to understand because we will probably refer to some of these mnemonics sometimes in the design so this is easy add so the mid registers are always represented as dollar followed by an integer these are integer registers or sometimes for the general purpose registers so this one the first one adds dollar one to dollar two and puts the result in dollar three the second one is a subtract operation dollar two minus dollar one put in dollar three you have add immediate this one so this is a constant hundred added to dollar two the result goes to dollar three notice that this constant is actually encoded in the instruction it does not have to come from some add unsigned dollar one plus dollar two put in dollar three sub unsigned add immediate unsigned okay so remember that whether you have add immediate unsigned or add immediate the only difference is the over project there is no other difference in both the cases this will be signed extended this particular constant set less than so if dollar two is less than dollar one you put one in dollar three otherwise you put zero in dollar three set less than immediate dollar two less than hundred you put it in dollar three so what would be a good application of this SLDI follow yes thank you the follow up upper bound check so dollar two is your loop index if your upper bound is hundred you would be checking this every time oh did dollar two cross hundred you shifted most of the difference along with the as you in the right shift you shifted most of the difference you maintain the sign of the exactly so when you are shifting right you are creating space on the most significant side figure out what you fill in there so shift right logical will fill in zero will fill in the sign essentially you fill in the most significant so this one shifts by ten bits this one also shifts by ten bits but in this case the final result will be dollar two shifted by ten bits with zero filling on the upper ten bits here dollar two shifted by ten bits upper ten bits are filled with the sign bit of dollar two and then you have shift left logical variable that is you want to shift by a variable amount so the shift amount you can put in the register shift right logical variable shift right arithmetic variable and Louis so this is load upper immediate this is a very interesting instruction this is called load upper immediate which means you load dollar three with the upper sixteen bits filled with poly lower sixteen bits are zero so so this is a very useful instruction we will see the application of this lower sixteen bits are set to zero yes, not unchanged they are set to zero so that is your so remember that this is not a memory operation it is just loading a constant and it is actually inside your aid it is part of your logical operation


How can you be sure it's love? Is it getting butterflies in your belly just at the side of them? Or is it the rosy tint of your cheeks that gives it away? Despite what the movie show, often there is no bird landing on your shoulder as you sing for your one and only. The experience of falling in love can be different for everyone. Others keep saying you'll just know if it's the right one, but that ain't helping any. The good news is some scientifically backed signs can help tell you if you're likely falling in love. Let's take a look at 10 signs you're falling in love, even if you don't think so. Number one, you find yourself thinking about them. Do you think of them every time your phone buzzes? Are they the last person you think of before you go to bed? When you are falling in love with someone, you may find it impossible to get them out of your head. Your brain releases phenylethylamine, also known as the love drug. This hormone facilitates the feeling of being in love with someone. 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Priority lists help you compartmentalize your life and focus on the people and the things that you love. You might be falling in love if you're reordering, rearranging and rethinking your life. Number four, you suddenly find their quirks extremely attractive. Crying during commercials, sleeping with the lights on, suddenly all these quirks that initially made you question your significant other's choices are now extremely attractive to you. Slowly but surely, you find yourself understanding and appreciating their quirks. You begin to find them irresistible in every way. That includes their quirks, peculiar sense of humor and their unusual way of doing things. If all this is true for you, you've likely started your trip down the love lane. Number five, they boost your self-image. Have you miraculously started to love the way you look in skinny jeans? Have you started singing throughout your apartment instead of limiting it to your solo shower performances? People who are falling in love with someone often find that it has helped them fall in love with themselves too. When you fall in love, you typically experience self-expansion, which means your sense of self expands as a result of this new relationship. Number six, their traits become your traits.  Are you now more interested in historical museums and art displays over some of your weekly sporting activities? As a couple learns to know one another, their individual self-perceptions begin to blend. You experience genuine pleasure in your partner's accomplishments. Often, you can mistake your partner's attributes for your own, as a result of the self-other overlap, where you begin to regard yourself as more and more like your partner. Number seven, your friends are noticing.  Are your friends starting to tease you by their name or commenting on your relationship with them? Well, your friends can probably see something that you don't. Talk to your friends and weigh their thoughts and opinions on your relationship with your significant other. You might be surprised by the lovely things they have to say. Number eight, you feel positive about the future. Do you no longer get worked up about meeting project deadlines as you did before you met them? Do your five-year goals suddenly seem doable? Love has the ability to elevate you. It nourishes your need to be where you belong and to put things right. All your worries about the future can be put on hold when you fall in love. If your distant future plans seem not so distant with them by your side, the love spell has done its trick. Number nine, you can't stop smiling. Whether it's rolling on the floor and laughing over a meme they sent you or simply remembering the last conversation you had with them, you just can't stop smiling these days, right? When you're falling in love, your brain releases large amounts of the happy hormone dopamine. You may feel an eagerness and an inability to stop smiling. The increase in dopamine levels causes these physiological effects. A feedback loop can be established by smiling. You smile more when you're happy and the more you smile, the happier you are. And number 10, you feel more love for others. You and your partner may not be the only ones who are feeling the effects of this newfound love. Thanks to the hormone oxytocin, more commonly known as the love hormone. You feel more open and more connected to others. A 2012 study shows that people experiencing romantic attachment had higher levels of oxytocin versus sting for at least six months. It helps improve self-perception in social situations and increases personality traits such as warmth, trust, altruism and openness. Research states that the hormones impact on pro-social behaviors and reward centers in the brain improve emotional, cognitive and social behaviors. You may start to leave bigger tips, exchange positive words with strangers and hold no grudges. Do you know someone in your life who's exhibited any of the signs mentioned here or on the flip side? Have you exhibited any of them? Feel free to leave a comment with your experience, feedback or suggestions. If you found this video helpful, be sure to hit the like button and share it with others too. Don't forget to subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell for more new videos. Thanks for watching.


I noticed the birthmark on my son's neck that my wife Elizabeth never did. 666. The numbers looked to be written in red ink and were clear as day. Who did this? I said angrily, looking around the room for any sign of guilt. Joshua had been born two hours earlier, and while I hadn't left the room for more than a few minutes, someone had to be responsible. But the doctor's puzzled look was genuine. What are you referring to? He asked. I'll show you what I'm referring to, I said, picking my son up and walking back over. This! His eyes looked down intently and then back up at me. There's nothing there, he said, not unkindly as he gestured towards my son when I looked back down at Joshua. The mark was gone. His neck was blank. I'm so sorry, I said awkwardly. Placing my son back with my wife as she gave me an angry look that would have been even worse had she still not been partially doped up from the meds. That was the first time I noticed that something was not exactly right with my son. Which brings me to my first rule. Keep frightening and unusual occurrences to yourself. Five years went by, and though my son seemed social and friendly enough around my wife and I, he was unable to make a single friend at school. Even the teachers feeling a general uneasiness around him. No one would give me a straight answer as to why upon each play date the other child would always end up crying. One particular father was so upset that he called me. Is this Joshua's father? Yeah, I'm his father. What is- our dog is missing. We think your son had something to do with it and excuse me, I interrupted. Did you just make an accusation against my son? Before he could respond I continued.  If you call me again to complain about Joshua, the next conversation we have won't be over the phone. I could hear the fear in his voice as I hung up. I wonder now if the fear he felt wasn't for me at all. Joshua, get in here now. A moment later his dark brown eyes were staring up innocently into mine. Yes, Daddy? I just got a call from the Joneses. I watched a look in his eyes as he listened. Did you have anything to do with their dog going missing? My son's expression changed from innocent to cold. It growled at me. So I killed it. I stared at him blankly, taking what must have been ten seconds to process what I had just heard. Go to your room, Joshua. But Daddy, I- Now, Joshua, your mom and I are going to talk over what needs to be done. Two days later it wasn't just the Joneses' dog that went missing. It was their entire family. The husband, wife, and two little boys all up and vanished during the night. All the doors were locked from the inside, with no sign of a struggle or foul play. Their new Toyota Prius was still parked neatly in the driveway, and the keys were inside the ceramic fruit bowl on their kitchen table. The police were stomped, but I had my theories. And I had my nightmares, which brings me to rule number two.  It wasn't just the dog. Ever since my son was born I had been finding dead birds scattered around through our yard. And it was other things as well. The woods behind our home that were once filled with the murmur of crickets and other tiny creatures at night were now dead silent. Months went by, and Joshua and I never spoke about the incident again. I'm ashamed to say that I was afraid to, and I wanted more than anything to pretend that none of this was really happening. Part of me did want to tell my wife Elizabeth my suspicions, but how could I? It was her son too, and most of what I felt was just that, feelings. It wasn't until the night of his sixth birthday that I found the courage. After making sure Joshua was still busy playing in his room, I walked down the hallway to our bedroom and locked the door behind me. Elizabeth. Can we talk for a second? Before I could continue, she replied, David, I'm scared. There's something about Joshua, I interrupted. I know. The two of us stared at each other for a moment, surprised yet not. She hugged me close. What do we do? And then the lights went out. Where's your phone? I asked. Kitchen. Yours? I shook my head. I don't know. And then the music started. First quiet and almost imagined, and then louder. Is that what I think it is? I asked, swallowing nervously. My wife nodded. Sonnet number two. I looked back at her in disbelief. Is it recording? But I knew the sound of our grand piano well enough. Joshua had never even practiced before. As the soft murmur of the piano began to swell, the echo throughout the house became ominous, even violent. Elizabeth and I sat down on the bed together, holding each other's hand worriedly. Her eyes stared into mine as she found the courage to continue. I... I don't think he's our son. That's crazy, right? I said nothing, only pulling her closer and trying desperately to block out the terrifying melody that was pushing its way farther into my mind. For a moment I thought we could escape through the window, but our bedroom was on the steeper side of our home. It was far too high to try and jump out of. The sonata finished. The dark growl of the piano dying down and finally becoming silent. I pressed my ear up against the wooden door. After a moment hearing the soft patter of footsteps on the other side, Daddy, Mommy, I searched for the right words as I tried to hide my fear. Stupidly, I said the first thing that came to mind. Joshua, you aren't mad at us, are you? There was silence, and then the voice continued. But this time it wasn't the voice of a little boy I had known for the past six years. It was much deeper. It wasn't a little boy's voice at all. What depends? Am I still your son? My eyes drifted towards my wife, terrified and crying on our bedroom floor. I wasn't far behind. Yeah, yes. Say it. You're our son. A minute or so of the most terrifying silence followed, and then the familiar voice of a child returned. Good, Daddy. Now come on out so we can have some cake. I looked at my wife nervously as my hand unlocked the door. Before it was even open completely, Joshua took my wrist and led me into the kitchen to do the honors, which brings me to my third rule. If they tell you to keep pretending, do it. It's not so bad after a while. Not so different really from raising a real little boy or girl. Just remember to follow the rules and maybe you'll even stay alive. At least that's what Joshua keeps telling me. The years went by, and that was a long time ago now. My son Joshua is much older. What if his sixth birthday tonight? It's his sixteenth. A big day you might say, but it's not for the normal reasons you think. A quick history of what's happened over the past ten years. I've tried my best to follow my son's rules. I've tried to keep Elizabeth and I alive.  Though Joshua was seemingly kind enough about it, I've always thought he had something to do with a series of miscarriages that followed, though he never threatened us like he had that night. There were more occurrences. More animals in the neighborhood started going missing, ranging from the neighbor's cat Stella to a stray German shepherd named Silver. There were even children. I told myself for years that every town has missing kids, that it's a natural reality of life. I told myself that there are bad people everywhere, and that Joshua had nothing to do with the string of disappearances lately. But I don't really believe that. They weren't disappearances as much as sacrifices. The children's bodies would be found with an upside down cross knifed neatly into their forehead and a certain look on their faces. Their jaws were snapped open, forever frozen in terror and what I would bet you was the revealing of something's true form. My wife Liz is in the hospital with cancer, and I think maybe selfishly for me that was the final straw. While I don't know if Josh caused the disease physically, in a way I am certain he did. Elizabeth just hasn't been the same since we made that deal so many years ago. The miscarriage is after only fueling her depression farther. Her eyes have seemed dead for years. Dead like the children will never have. Dead like the animals in our town. Dead like all the people that I should have protected.   No, I'm not calling him that anymore.  It was never my son. I've spent the past couple years getting ready in my own way. Late at night I would do research about the occult and demons, studying how exactly to combat them and come out alive. I hope I'm ready. My research has told me that there's three things you need to destroy a demon. The first is salt. It can create a barrier around you if needed, as to buy you time to finish the ritual. The second is a cross or a Bible. And a measure of faith. I never used to believe in God, but I've been driven to it now. And three, a holy man or woman. I've known Father Malachi for over ten years at this point, and he is well informed about what we're going up against. He's not as young as he used to be, this year going into his seventy-fifth. But his faith is as strong as anyone I've ever met. I told the Father to show up this evening once Joshua is asleep. We plan to surprise him in his room before midnight. Maybe he won't be at his full strength. Maybe he won't be ready. I'm writing this because if the two of us don't make it back, there needs to be some record of Joshua. Maybe you can pick up where we left off. I think I've learned everything there is to know about demons, but I could be wrong. If I am wrong, at least you'll have something to go on. I'm getting ready now. Wish us luck. Hello. My name is Joshua and it's my sixteenth birthday today. It went a little different than I expected. I told my parents I was going to school, but I decided to skip school today. I'm a good kid, but I just had a certain feeling. While everyone was gone, I happened to come across my father's journal. I know you're supposed to respect your parents and not go through their things, but something told me to take a look inside. I can imagine my surprise when I find years of research about me. It really hurt to think that those I care about and love could really believe that I was something like a demon. How dull. No, demons are a dime a dozen. Something as unique as me only comes around once every thousand years or so. I suppose you know that my name isn't Joshua at all. Maybe if you're especially wise, you even know its pronunciation. But it doesn't really matter, does it? David should have killed me ten years ago. I thought it would be poetic for my father's adopted son to add the last entry to his journal of rules, I guess you could say. Oh, right. What happened to him? Well, if you must know, when Father Malachi and my own father came into my room tonight to try and destroy me, they weren't ready. Let's just say they met a very tragic end. I'll give them this. They were more prepared than even I anticipated. And there was a moment in our struggle where it truly might have gone the other way. That's staggering when you think about what they were up against. Father Malachi truly was a good man of faith. And there aren't a lot of those around anymore. They put up a good fight. I almost felt pity as I watched their enthusiasm. Clearly, they had put a lot of time into getting ready. They were just out of their league. I buried them alive, with their crosses and salt and faith to keep them company. I dug the two holes close enough together in hopes that they could hear each other scream as they struggled and took their last breaths. I wonder which one made it longer. Huh. Anyway, that brings me to the ending of my father's journal and the last rule when facing a demon. Rule number four. Always be sure they are what you think. Bless you be unprepared. Well, I'm sorry to leave like this, but I have to go to the hospital now. I'm going to see mom. She's got breast cancer. And something tells me that she's not going to last a whole lot longer. Oh, and if we should ever meet, I advise you to look the other way and just keep on walking. It would be wise not to try and do anything. Foolish.


I'm constantly surprised, dumbfounded, astounded by some of the justifications people try to use to continue to abuse animals. They would never use these justifications in any other context, but as soon as it's to defend their meat-eating habit, their logic goes out the window. There's a fire inside your heart. Let it light up the world. This is essential for travelling. You just never know if the country you go to is going to have it, so you're going to bring it with you. This is a travel pack, and this is gold dust. It's 3.40am. We'll wake up at quarter past three. Footage downloaded. Day two. What is it? Just an express OA. We've got this from the 7-Eleven here in Denmark. Vegan options just over here, so you can get them everywhere, which is amazing. This is the city centre. That's a parliament over there. This is the main walk, and we've got the guys here doing some leafletting. After this is going to be some fair activism, so they forget about logic. They contradict their own core values, and it surprises me because these are good people in every other aspect of their lives. But when it comes to eating flesh of animals who've been murdered, they seem to try to justify it with ridiculous responses that I don't even think they truly believe. Most people believe animals deserve moral treatment, but people don't act in a way that supports that belief. What would you wish that someone had told you before you went vegan?  I would appreciate if someone was just straight with me and said it how it is. Without trying to fluff it up, just directly tell me what is going on. What am I contributing to? I think we fall into this trap of trying to make people feel too comfortable, and people shouldn't feel comfortable about this. You can be respectful, but direct and honest about what's happening to animals, and that's how I speak. And I wish that someone like me had a conversation with me ten years ago about this. Here in Denmark, apparently there are such big exporters and they have a big fur factory here, which is why they target fur a lot more, which I think is a good idea. I rarely do any fur advocacy, because simply I'm not ever in areas where fur is predominantly used. But if I ever advocate against wearing skin, I usually talk about all skin, leather, wool, down, fur. I don't think one is morally worse than the other. Wearing animal skin is really sick. But for fur, usually they anally electrocute the animals, so you might see images of foxes being skinned alive or mink being skinned alive. Really disgusting, cruel torture. What makes it even more sick is it's for fashion. It's just basically a fashion statement to wear fur. That's it. There's a fur shop just down the street from this fur demonstration. And look at the name of the shop. It's actually called Royal Skin. It's just from a real animal. I think so. You think the animal was killed for this? They like it. Tortured and killed, do you think? I think so. Skinned alive, I think they are for fur. Yeah, I think so. Murdered. Murdered animal. Okay, for no cooking. Torn off a tortured animal's body. Are you sure they're going to vegan hot dogs? You counting my calories for me? Who's counting my calories? Hello. Is this a vegan one? They sell vegan hot dogs at these little hot dog stands in Denmark. Let's try it. It's absolutely amazing. That's one of the best hot dogs I've ever tasted. No one was killed. Murder-free. Hello, how are you? We're upstairs, is it? There's a new wave online, if you haven't noticed, which echoes the true core principle of veganism, which is the abolition of animal exploitation. And I said, okay, take the animals out of there, put yourself in the animal's position. Would you accept that? Would you accept that for a family member? Your companion animal? Okay, a double standard. A double standard. No matter how humane you murder someone, it's still murder. You should be uncomfortable, because in the face of what's happening to animals, I believe it is an obligation to be active. I think it was, to me, it felt kind of magical, because you just addressed exactly what I think our movement at this time needs. You just inspired me so much. Really? Yeah, my heart's pumping right now. Take that fire, take it out there, do something with it. And what you should do is align your actions with your own moral belief that you hold towards animals already. And that is what a vegan is. I'm really grateful for what you do, and of course we all are. We really appreciate it. Thanks, brother. Keep going. Don't give up. Yeah, man, you too. It's more important for you, because you inspire many more people. You have so much reach. So could you. Yeah, of course, but you have your YouTube channel and Instagram and all. It all started somewhere. See you later. Absolutely epic. Thank you so much. No problem at all. Thanks for inspiring me so much, man. I really, really appreciate it, because I just quit my job so I can do more activism.    And you only live once, man. You want to follow your passion? Yeah, for sure. That's pretty intense. The reactions after have been really powerful here in Europe, man. I know, that's a really emotional way. Thank you so much. Take good care of yourself. I will. Thank you. I almost thought I was starting to get desensitized to, you know, just people coming up to me after speeches, but it's really, like, especially tonight was really emotional for me and especially that last guy who spoke to me. Really inspiring speech as well. I think there's a few maybe here that didn't do that much activism that you really inspire, so it's great. I mean, really appreciate it. It's a tough ride, like, doing this. But, like, when you do stuff like that and you get people so supportive and grateful that you've really affected their life in a profound way and they express their gratitude for it, it's no better feeling than that. People like you, you're really, like, I don't think you get enough credit for how important you are for the vegan world. To bring the greatest justice movement in this world. You're really, like, the loudest speakers for the animals, which don't have a voice. When you think about all the animals, they help as a result of your influence and the impact that they make in other people's lives because they found your YouTube channel because they heard your speech. It's just crazy. Cheers, brother. He loves you, man. No problem.  Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! Being chopped up into pieces. So people can have ham with their eggs in the morning. I wonder how that doesn't disturb people. In terms of transitioning farmers to vegan farms, it's quite pointless because if one farm transforms his farm to vegan, the next farmer who has animal farms will have double the business because the demand still exists. So it's irrelevant what farmers do and what they think. What is relevant is what the public thinks. The consumer thinks. Farming is a symptom of the demand. So you don't go out and change the symptom. You deal with the cause, which is consumers.


I begin in the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, I bear witness that there is unworthy of worship except the one Allah and that His beloved Nabi and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ peace and blessings of Allah be upon him is his last and final messenger. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for His help, His protection, His mercy, His blessing, His sustenance, and praying and begging Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst the most successful individuals both in this life and the year after, I mean Ya Rabbi al-Amin. Nassafirullah wa nathubu ilayh, we begin by seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and repenting to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for our individual shortcomings, our communal shortcomings, the shortcomings of the believers, the shortcomings of those who don't believe, and asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for His immense mercy as a result of the young amongst us, as a result of the elderly amongst us, as a result of those amongst us who are close to Him and in proximity to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us in the Quran and says have they not seen that we drive the water into in the clouds to barren land and bring forth thereby crops that with which their livestock and they themselves eat, do they not see? This immense blessings that we have from Allah, every blessing is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we have. Everything that we own, everything that we utilize, everything that we sometimes tend to forget and we boast about is all from the Almighty Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and when Allah gives it is out of His wisdom and when He withholds that is also out of His wisdom subhanahu wa ta'ala. Had the water not been taken away from us we wouldn't have had this opportunity to fulfill the Sunnah of the Nabi Muhammad and this water not been taken away from us we might not have had this opportunity to seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is why we're reminded of that tradition of the Prophet peace be upon him, that in all of the affairs of the believer right there is khayr, there is goodness. If goodness receives them, if they receive goodness they're in gratitude and that's good for them. And if there's difficulty that comes their way they are patient and that is also good for them. And so the wisdom behind the things that we don't understand or sometimes become extremely uneasy about right only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows that wisdom but as a community right it behooves every single one of us to do our part individually and collectively to seek the mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Right seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Surah of Nuh alayhi s-salatu wa s-salam Allah says after the maqfira, after the promise of maqfira immediately Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says The first thing Allah promises after Istighfar is water, is rain. And so in this blessed moment, in this blessed day, this blessed time, this blessed gathering we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for water. Allahumma s-tina ghaithan, mughithan, ma li'an, ma li'an, ajilan, ghaira, ajil, nafi'an, ghaira, dar. Allahumma s-tia'ibadak, wadahaimak, wanshar rahmadak, wahi badadak, al-mayyat. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for helpful rain, wholesome rain, healthy rain, beneficial rain. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as divine mercy for this rain. And it's so good to see the elderly and especially the young enough amongst us because the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is with those individuals, is with those individuals. And so we ask ourselves a simple question that what can I do in all of this in addition to simply making Istighfar? In addition to simply making Istighfar, very very practical brothers and sisters. Now we need to make muhassab of ourselves, take ourselves into accounting and ask ourselves, is there anyone whose rights I have usurped? Is there anyone that I have hurt? Is there anyone that I collectively hurt? What is my behavior like? What is my attitude like? Am I humble?  And generally when we get away with this kind of bad behavior, the response generally is that's just how they are. That's just how they are. That's just their personality. They're always like that. That doesn't work with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That doesn't work with God Almighty. We need to truly look into ourselves and we can't, it's very easy to put the blame, especially in the land that we live in or in the type of area that we happen to live in with the amount of sins and the types of sins that are being committed. It's very easy for us to point our fingers towards those individuals. But in this moment I think that as believers we need to take some responsibility as well. And the responsibility that we need to take is that Allah has blessed me with iman and Allah has blessed me with faith. And as a result of this, I have a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And as a result of that relationship with God, as a result of that relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah would open the doors of His mercy and Allah would answer our prayers. Not just on behalf of myself, but on behalf of the entire community and the entire ummah. On behalf of the entire community and the entire ummah. The wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, a week ago I began a 1700 mile journey by car. Right? I began a 1700 mile journey by car as I was traveling. Right? California was barren. California was dry. Some of the reservoirs that we are used to seeing filled are extremely empty. Yet you arrive, I arrived in a different state, but it was pouring so much that it slowed down my driving. I had to complete it. It was in the middle of nowhere. Extreme rain in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And here I was just, you know, slightly struck and dumbfounded. Right? Again, this is the wisdom of Allah. And I'm thinking, Ya Allah, this water could be used where I live. Now for me to say that this water is of no use to the land in which it's raining, that would be my ignorance because I'm sure that there are creatures and animals and land that happen to benefit from that rain. But at the same time in my mind I'm thinking this water could be used elsewhere to Ya Allah. You just took this cloud and moved it over just by a little. Right? Like we click a mouse and we move things around. Young people, you know what I'm talking about? Take a little mouse and move it around and all of a sudden you're in a different part of the screen. Allah could easily take that cloud and move it over. And this is this is a metaphor especially for the young. That's essentially what we're asking for today. That's what we want you to ask Allah Subh'anaHu what Allah for today. Ya Allah, all your clouds that are in so many different places, we just want you to take this divine mouse of yours and I'm using a metaphorical term. I don't want people to get caught up. Right? Take that metaphorical mouse of yours and take that cloud and just move it over. And why? Because a group from amongst the individuals, the believers gathered and asked Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for forgiveness. And in this I just want to close, you know, I just want to share one hadith and then I will close. This is not just for the situation that we happen to be in, but for our individual and collective situation. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said If anyone constantly seeks pardon and forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah would appoint a way out of that, a way for that individual from out of every distress, a relief from every anxiety and provide for them from where they never imagined, from where they never imagined. And so today with that intention, we make this default, we seek forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah. We do a little bit of introspection and look into ourselves and say what can I do better with those around me? Right? Some of the cardinal sin is that of arrogance. Amongst the cardinal sins in our tradition is that of arrogance. Is that of disobeying parents? I'm not talking about other things while there are many other greater sins. But many of those sins such as adultery or alcohol and so on and so forth for the most part don't affect the Muslims as much as certain other things. But when we look into our own community, arrogance and treating people with ill behavior, putting people down, disobeying the elderly, these are things that affect our day to day lives. So I remind myself of what it first and foremost I ask myself and remind myself of my responsibilities towards Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah. And in reminding myself, I remind all of you and everyone else to be cognizant of certain things that we can do better in our lives through which we seek the divine mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for His help. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for His assistance. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for His for His blessings. And we ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for blessed rain on this community. Our community year after year has witnessed miracles. Some of you may remember one of the first salatu is this thought that we held in Pleasant and not too far from here a few years ago. Soon after we saw rain from Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah. And so we again water will come blessings will come in their due time in the divine time that Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah has promised. But we ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah out of His will and out of His generosity to speed it up on our community and make it easy for all of us for the believers and non-believers for the young and the elderly the humans and the animals and for everyone. May Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah answer our prayers. We once again seek forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah in some of the other madahib you know just as in the hookah of Eid when we recite we continuously recite the Takbirat in the beginning and in the middle of the hookah and towards the end of the hookah there are narrations in which people would actually make this default a numerous amount of time during their hookah so we once again seek forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah for His mercy. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu what to Allah to forgive us. There's any little or big major or minor sin that I have committed as an individual O Allah I ask for your forgiveness that if there's people in our community who have done things wrong O Allah we ask for your forgiveness. Ya Allah we ask that in this very moment you inspire us guide us and bless all of us to mend and fix our ways so that we would become closer to you O Allah so that we would receive your mercy O Allah we would receive your blessings of Allah that the goodness that you have continued to give to us is not withheld Ya Allah and in this very specific moment and with this with this Salat with the intention that we have today O Allah we are specifically today seeking rain from you Ya Allah we are specifically seeking water from you Ya Allah we have seen the fires last year we continue to see them this year Ya Allah there are so many people's lives who have been destroyed Ya Allah Ya Allah we ask for your mercy and your blessings Ya Allah we ask for your mercy and your blessings Ya Allah we seek your forgiveness O Allah we seek your forgiveness O Allah we seek your forgiveness O Allah we seek your forgiveness O Allah we seek your forgiveness O Allah and we repent to you for our shortcomings Ya Allah and in this very moment for those that are present here for those that are not present for those that are watching a home we make the intention O Allah that we will try to make our lives better that if there's anything that I am doing in my life that happens to be harmful to those around me Ya Allah that I would change my ways I would mend my ways I would be kind to my elders I would be merciful to those younger than me that Ya Allah my my siblings and my spouse and my children and and all the people that I immediately live with who can be a result of goodness or punishment Ya Allah we ask that those those relationships become a source of your blessings Ya Allah and not become a source of punishment Ya Allah and O Allah in this blessed moment we seek from you Ya Allah helpful wholesome healthy rain Ya Allah that is not harmful Ya Allah now and not later Ya Allah now and not later Ya Allah now and not later O Allah we ask that you accept our du'az Inna Allah Ya Amor bi Adili wa Liyasani wa Iida'idil Khurba wa Iimha Adil Fahshai wal Munkari wal Baq May Allah reward all of us for being here insha Allah today and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to answer our prayers and answer our du'az while we all insha Allah anticipate and you know seek a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be able to see the rain come down soon I also want to take a moment to remind myself first and everyone else that in this moment let us take this practice of home for the very least those that are present those that are watching online wherever you may be you know when we're alone in the car and we're driving home driving to the masjid let's make a regular regular weird of regular right and it could be in any language doesn't have to be in Arabic you know in Urdu whatever you want seek forgiveness from Allah with this specific intention that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would bless myself as an individual all of us our community and our neighborhoods with his blessings but most importantly in this difficult time water insha Allah I also want to take a moment to seek forgiveness from my dear teacher and elder Sheikh Alal you know our tradition is that we don't speak in the presence of our elders and Sheikh Alal happens to be here may Allah bless him and reward him and sanctify him and protect his secret insha Allah but I seek your forgiveness from Allah the Lord be with you JazakAllah to you and salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu Alayhi wabarakatuhu


and we have what I think is a a first here on DAV social media joined by some very special guests coming to us from Tanzania. So I'll start by introducing Marine Corps veteran and DAV's second junior vice commander Coleman Me. Coleman is a life member of chapter three in Boston. We also have fellow Marine Corps veteran and DAV member Michael York. Michael is the president and founder of Veterans on the 48, a nonprofit dedicated to getting more veterans outside and onto the trails to promote healthy lifestyles both physically and mentally. Coleman and Michael are joining us from the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in East Africa, where they will soon set out to climb nearly 20,000 feet above sea level to the mountain's peak. Coleman and Michael will be joined by six other DAV members and the 10 day excursion is sponsored by DAV Massachusetts. Thank you both and everyone there in the background. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you for having us and really want to thank the DAV and the Department of Massachusetts for for their outstanding sponsorship of this trip making it making it happen. It was I think everyone here was very appreciative of the fact that you know that a service organization would step up and do this for them. Absolutely. Michael can you start by telling us more about Veterans on the 48 and and how that organization came to be? Yeah. So in 2017, me and my father, Greg, set out to hike Mount Wau in New Hampshire. We'd never done it before, never really had done any hiking. We went out to R.E.I. just bought a ton of gear and kind of took on the mountain, really not knowing what we were getting into. You know, it took us about eight hours, you know, to do the whole trip maybe a little longer. And I started noticing, you know, about halfway up that my mind was kind of going elsewhere and I was replaying things that I kind of thought I had put to bed from when I was in the military. And I noticed that just through the struggle of climbing the mountain and just kind of being out in the outdoors with my father or someone that, you know, I trusted and you know, could relate with. I know I just started working through it and when we got to the top, it was like some of the things that were in my mind kind of went away. And I noticed that when I got to the bottom of the mountain, I just felt like more myself than I had in a long time. You know, like my pack was lighter, I guess is a way to put it. But shortly after I discovered something called the New Hampshire 48, which is a challenge to hike all 48 4000 footers in New Hampshire. And me and my father took off on that right away. We did as many as we could together.  And I noticed that every time that I was outside and on the mountains, those things that I was struggling with, they were becoming less and less. And I was leaving them kind of behind on the trail and realizing that I was again becoming more and more of the person I kind of used to be who I wanted to be. And you know, that kind of blossomed into the veterans on the 48. I wanted to see if I could get other veterans that may be going through the same things I was and see if it would help them the way it was helping me. I started reaching out to other veterans that I knew kind of checking out social media, seeing if there was any other veterans that hiked the New Hampshire and just asking them, hey, do you want to come hike with me? We'll do it together. And that turned into small group hikes of just really at the time random veterans that wanted to get together and go for a hike. You know, as more and more showed interest, I saw, you know, kind of an opportunity to create a community, a hiking community for veterans. So I just started reaching out to more, you know, get in touch with them and then COVID hit. And I found myself with just a ton of free time. So I figured why not try to make this into a nonprofit where we could raise funds and send veterans to different events and, you know, take our group hikes that we were organizing and expand on, you know, pay for them to stay at some of the AMC hikes, you know, on the presidential range and on various other mountains and just create a new experience for them, given a new way to get outdoors, just, you know, connect with other veterans and have a good time. So, you know, the group hikes expanded and now we have, you know, all women's veteran group that we have. We have a trail crew through trail maintenance. We're paying for veterans to go to Wilderness First Aid, we're buying the gear. So it's, you know, it's come a long way since that trip up Mount Washington with my dad. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And for those watching, if you want to learn more, you can go to veteransonthe48.org. Michael shares some of his story there as well that you can read. Michael, can you tell us like about how many veterans have participated, you know, in these different hikes and such? Well, with Coleman hiking with us tomorrow, we'll make 109 different veterans that have hiked with their organization. That's awesome. Coleman, why is this an organization that you and DAV Massachusetts wanted to get behind and get involved with? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, well, first and foremost, on my side from a personal standpoint, I'm somebody that loves the outdoors, I love hiking.  And I think, you know, for me, hiking has always been, has always been a great experience. But from a larger standpoint too, you know, I'm up in the Northeast and in Massachusetts, you know, we definitely see an older skew of our veterans, you know, demographically. You know, a lot of our younger vets, even Mr. Massachusetts or come back to Massachusetts are going to other places in the country where it's maybe more affordable, there's more work opportunities or, you know, or, you know, the only ice that they're going to see is going to be in their drinks, right? So they kind of, we know that a lot of younger veterans that aren't Massachusetts, that they are there for their own GI Bill, attending one of our numerous colleges, that they're engaged in, you know, a lot of service work and outgrowth activities. And so I just thought this would be a great opportunity for us for DAV to really partner with an organization that was attracting younger veterans and was attracting people who, you know, had a different value in terms of what they're looking for in an organization and see if there's, you know, an opportunity to get the best of what they have and also get the best of what we have, which is, you know, helping people with services, with claims, advocating, both at the state and the federal level, making sure that people have their right ratings, if there's any trouble with VA or any trouble with any of their benefits, you know, we're really sort of that they're go-to person to really try and help them out with that. So it's a really good synergy between the two of our groups and I think it's a good way to introduce a lot of our long-standing members to, you know, what other veterans groups are doing in order to, in order to help our veterans community. And then it's a good way for us to introduce ourselves or reintroduce ourselves to some of the other veterans that may have a misconception about what a Veterans Service Organization does. And Michael, so I know your membership with DAV is relatively new. This partnership is relatively new. What's it been like for you so far working with DAV, Massachusetts? It's been great. I could be more grateful for them. The DAV helped me with claims that, you know, I was having issues with. And I don't know, our mission's aligned, you know, so discovering them and joining up, you know, just helps us expand and we can reach more veterans and get them outside and enjoy their age together. And it's a win for everybody. Yeah, in fact, we actually, this isn't just the only collaboration we've had. DAV Massachusetts as a recreation retreat center and right across the border in New Hampshire that we've been working on to come up with a strategic plan for. But there is a large bunkhouse there. There is a facility, commercial kitchen and fire. And we were able to partner with veterans in the 48 Michael to do our wilderness first aid training there for how many veterans? 15. 15 veterans. Most of whom aren't even on the strip. So that's additional, that's additional bets that that we were able to reach.   By the way, I am have a little trouble with the claim. I am having trouble in, you know, it's and that's really right in our sweet spot. We're able to help those people through that and get them to what they, you know, where they need to be and get the resources and benefits that they need and that they've earned. So how did this idea of trekking Kilimanjaro come about and Coleman, what was your initial thoughts? Well, I'm going to switch seats with this gentleman right now to me because he's the one to call me about Kilimanjaro. So why don't you slide? Okay. Introduce yourself. Let's pop it up. Strap in. Don't worry about it. We've been drinking coffee all morning. So greetings and salutations. My name's Kirk Power. Coleman's a good friend of mine. We're all good friends here, but you know, I was saying to Coleman probably about last year, we hiked together and everything like that.  Let's do it. We're not getting any younger, right? And he said, you know, let's do it. Let's do it with, you know, the hiking group you go with. And I called, I called Mike and like I said, like Coleman's a power player out here. I'm going to be real, right? So it's like dropping Kaiser. So I said, hey, Mike, you're not going to believe it. I'm just talking to Coleman. He says we should do Kilimanjaro with the organization. I said, okay, this is amazing. Let's do it. I said, help me, help you. Let's make this happen. It's going to be amazing. God bless America. We can't be more sorry. Well then, Kurt, you needed to be the one to tell that story. So thank you. Yeah, no problem. I knew it. Our main thing is to inspire not only more veterans getting involved in DAB and like Coleman says, really learning about the benefits that they've already earned, right? But on top of it, our big mission here is we want to inspire the veterans out there that are struggling and reinforce the concept that anything is possible when you decide failure is an option, right? So we want to tackle the mountain. We want to say, like, get out of your houses, keep moving, keep doing what you're doing, and especially, you know, for those of our service members that have been injured overseas that like, do not let that limit your ability and you have to continue to enjoy life and you have to keep pushing the positive direction. Yeah.  Well, let me ask you a question. Would you like to meet some other members of the group? We can, we can, we can even shift seats there. Yeah, well, I want to hear about kind of the different people in the group, because I know we have, you know, good age range. There are a couple of women on the trip. So just tell me a little bit about the different folks on the trip. Can I let them tell it himself? Sure, sure. All right, Kurt, you and I, Jepo, and Melissa, please introduce yourselves. Then we should probably say brands of service, right? Yeah. Hi, my name is Yuma Hyder, I was in the Navy of the CV, and I did a couple of deployments with them. I found back in the 48 through Mike finding me through Instagram, actually, I was hiking in New Hampshire, and it's just been amazing being able to be around other veterans and being able to get outdoors and have these different experiences I wouldn't have otherwise. Great. Hi, my name is Melissa, I'm a United States Navy veteran. I was an aircraft mechanic when I was in. I discovered veterans on the 48 by making a Facebook post on our local hiking group in New Hampshire, and somebody who wasn't even a veteran connected me with Mike. And this group has actually really helped me just connect with other young female veterans, because I haven't really had that community since I got out, and it's really kind of helped me overcome a lot of obstacles and also be around other women who have similar experiences than me, and that's been really important in my transition. Yeah, I want to ask too, because I have seen this, Melissa, this Grateful Dead shirt you're wearing. I've seen it on multiple people. Is this shirt making the rounds? It's the Human Outreach Project, a worldwide trekking organization we're hiking with, and I actually came up with the Grateful Dead logo, so somebody made it. Okay, gotcha. All right, let's get a couple more folks, other folks in here, and I'll meet you guys. I'll slide down, Greg. Carlos Madden, Army Veteran. I've been hiking in New Hampshire for quite a while now. I kind of started several years ago for the same reason, just needed to get outside, do things. I kind of found that hiking personally reinforced a lot of the skills that I knew I was confident in in the military that I like, you know, like the planning and the preparation and just getting out and being independent. And because of that, I really, I also found out about this 48 Challenge in New Hampshire, ended up doing all of them. I think Mike found me like right recently, right after I finished doing them all. But since then, because of this, I think I've gotten more involved in hiking, and I've actually done almost the second round already, 48 again. So, being put in contact with other veterans to the organization, keeping myself motivated and outside, it's been just been great. And are you a newer DAV member yourself? Yeah, I am. Okay. What's your experience been with DAV so far? Personally, I joined because of this trip, but also because of my job, we have a partnership with DAV. So, I'm very familiar with the DAV. And I've actually referenced the DAV for service members and veterans who have needed claims, helps with claims. And I say, Oh, I know somebody who can help do that. And so it's been great. I haven't needed it. But thankfully, I've been able to send people to the right direction. Okay. Thank you. All right. Is it Greg? Yes. My name is Greg York. I'm Mike's father. I'm the senior member on this hike at 61. And I'm a former airborne instructor. And I'm the one that pushes these guys to keep going. All right. Next up. Lastly, I'm Jeremy Worth, the United States Army veteran. I think three years ago, I did, I found out about the New Hampshire 48. I did my first. And I posted it and Mike found me and asked me if I wanted to join a group of veterans that were tackling the same challenge. And I said, absolutely. And here we are. And Greg and Jeremy, what is your experience been with DAV? I'm relatively new to it, but I know it's going to help because I've had two knee operations due to parachute jumping and things hadn't been going anywhere. And the Coleman is pushing me in the right direction. So it's, it's all positive. I'm new to it as well. And haven't had the opportunity or haven't had the need to use it yet. But no people that haven't had a fantastic experience. Great. Well, welcome to all of you to the organization. Coleman was talking before a trip like this. You know, part of the goal is to reach more veterans and to welcome them into DAV. So I'm glad you all could, could join. Did we miss anyone else? No, we do have some amazing guides here. And I do, I don't want it to be lost that the place where we're staying is actually, is actually, you know, a sort of service center in that, you know, it has a school and an orphanage. I'm sorry, I'll do the switch. It's a, yeah, thanks musical chairs. It has a school and an orphanage we're able to take it towards today. They're doing amazing work here. And, and really, we had an opportunity to hang out with the kids. We had an opportunity to meet the staff and look at the facilities. And I think, you know, it just makes us all, it makes us all feel one good that we're, we're doing what we can to support this particular organization, but it really does help us put it, at least for me at least, I always speak for myself, but it does put it in perspective about, you know, what we do have, you know, what all of it to, you know, protect and to, you know, as part of our, what we felt was our obligation.   And I think that's a good synergy for, you know, for us who served in the military because that's a lot of the ethos that we were taught as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, we know some of the veterans, they want to continue to serve after their military service and they tend to be very mission driven. So, I think it's wonderful that you're working something like that into, into this trip. I want to recap for the folks who are joining us kind of mid-video here. I'm speaking with DAV members and Marine Corps veterans Coleman Me and Michael York, who are joining us from the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Behind them in the room, they have six other DAV members, many of them new to the organization that are joining them, joining them on this hike. They will spend the next 10 days hiking nearly 20,000 feet above sea level to the mountain's peak. The trip is organized by veterans on the 48 and sponsored by DAV Massachusetts. Michael, can you tell us kind of what's in store for you all over the next nine or 10 days? Yeah, 19,341 feet. We'll go through five different eco zones, seven days at the top, two to the bottom and just honestly looking forward to every day and the experience. Coleman, is there something that you're most looking forward to? Summoning. It's interesting. This is not, well, it's the highest pre-standing mountain in the world. It's not a technical climb and that we have to get ropes out and do all that, but it is long.  There's some days we're going to, one day we're doing summit day. It's broken up. It's not all in one, but we're going to 24-hour period. I think we'll be walking for 13 to 14 hours. Is that what she said? So, and that's, you know, and the summit will be doing that sometime right after midnight in the dark and hopefully get up there when the dawn breaks, but I think if I had something I'm most looking forward to. You're good. You're good. We broke up for a second. We are good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think it is something I'm most looking forward to.  I enlisted in the Marine Corps. I wasn't an officer or anything.  And I think, you know, the opportunity that I'm here, that I'm doing it, that I'm with the best team you could have and some very fantastic folks, and we all have that commonality where, you know, we can go in and out of speaking, you know, better and talk just as fluently as any other language and to have that common understanding to one another. I couldn't ask for anything better and it's just an amazing opportunity. I'm so grateful for it. And like I said, when I'm up on that top of that summit, you know, it's going to be emotional for me because it is going to culminate. Coleman, what would you tell other DAV chapters and department leaders who they're interested in doing something like this? Maybe it's not Kilimanjaro, but they're interested and getting creative and getting more veterans involved. What steps can they start taking? Yeah, I would, I mean, I think that the Department of Mass was really forward thinking about helping us with this because it did interest, as you heard, mostly folks are new DAV members.  I didn't know you did this, this, this, this, this, this, and that's all relevant to them. And I think for other chapters and other departments, too many times, we try to recruit younger veterans by telling them what we have, instead of just bringing them into a room and saying, you know, what do you need? What would an organization that has value look like to you? And how can we, you know, give any, you know, here's what we have. You have any suggestions as to how we can add more value for you so that it's something that you would want to be involved with?  And I think at the chapter level, we need to really be explaining that and listening more than we're talking to them and finding out what they're looking for in an organization and figuring out how we can, you know, how they can fit in and we can have a productive new member who's building the bridge for the future because we know that the veterans' population is, you know, is changing both in overall size and in demographics. And as I was telling the group earlier today, you know, there's benefits and the services that we have didn't appear by magic and they certainly didn't appear because the government decided to say, let's spend millions of dollars on vets every year. They came because World War I and World War II veterans came back and fought for these benefits. And Korean and Vietnam veterans defended those benefits when they were under siege.  And, you know, so we're doing the things that are going to benefit them and that provide value to them. We just need to demonstrate that and show that more and ask for their assistance and help and not only helping us to accomplish them today, but realizing the obligation of the next generation of veterans.  You have to secure that, those benefits and make sure that safety net is there and improved for the generation coming behind you. That's just, you know, our obligation. And I think they're seeing that, you know, through the work DAV is doing. And I think we need to have our chapters and departments kind of, you know, promote that a little bit more to the younger group. Yeah. You know, Michael, we've talked a bit about just how healing and rewarding something like this can be and just being outdoors and hiking. What would you say to any veterans who are maybe interested into getting into something outdoors, but don't know where to start? Maybe you and your father just jumped right in, but maybe they're more intimidated. What would you tell those veterans? Well, if they're going to do Mount Washington randomly, look into it more than we did. We set ourselves up for failure pretty quick. We got through it. But if they're local, if they're in the New England area, reach out to us, veteransonthe48.org, on Facebook and Instagram, you know, we can always tell our heights to, you know, any level, fast, slow, you know, if you want to go to the high mountain or the lower mountain, we'd be happy to have you join us, you know, and join our family. Yeah. And I just want to say a little bit. Yeah, go on. I'm sorry. I just wanted to put in that, you know, you don't have, you know, someone says, let's go climb a mountain that could be intimidating, right? Particularly if maybe you're older, maybe you have a very significant mobility disability. You know, maybe you're not, you know, you're not in the kind of condition that you were when you were in the service. Anybody can get out there and do stuff. It's, if you go to most of your, I think all of the national parks and most of your state parks are going to have accessible trails. Even if you're, you know, you need the help of a chair or some type of mobility device.  And that's, you know, just a really nice walk.  I could, I could probably come back here and do that again. Or I could even maybe come back here and do that, plus maybe add, you know, a quarter of a mile to it. And I think I'd be okay. And I think once, you know, once you're out there, it's not about, it's not about the destination. It really is about the journey for you because, you know, it's peaceful. It's serene. You know, there's a lot of nature and there's a lot of healing powers. But, hey, for some deaths, that's hunting. For some deaths, that's fishing. For some deaths, that's meditation. For some deaths, that's, you know, volunteering at a home shelter. I mean, you know, it's whatever, whatever is best for the individual.  I mean, you know, we all have abilities and we all have strength and there's groups out there that are willing to help. And if you can't find one contact, you know, if that's on the 48 or contact me or Department of Mass, we'll find one for you. Yeah. Coleman and Michael and to the rest of the group, thank you all so much for making time for us today. Thank you for all that you do for veterans and we're wishing you the best hike, the best experience. Thank you all for watching. Keep an eye out for more content from TheTrip at DAV.org and on DAV's social media channels. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.