Hey there foundation staff shirm here. Welcome to the site 42 critique lab Today our link of the day is Jack Everett's is draft what it means to be human What it means to be human So while everyone files into class and takes a look in the description for the link of the day Allow me to introduce the show. This is the site 42 critique lab Which a fans of the scp community some of us authors some of us just people who like the stuff and we take a look at people's scp drafts and Try and get them site ready So if you have a draft that you would like to submit to the site 42 critique lab make sure you send that in to scp site 42 at gmail.com that is scp Site 42 at gmail.com and you can send your drafts in and the chat and I will tackle it So let me pull up chat Make sure that we are running live So to get things started from the link of the day Let's get into Jack Everett's is draft what it means to be human so Go ahead open your textbooks to the sandbox We are opening up with a kind of cool winged Like angel wings tramp stamp tattoo of the scp logo like I know I called a tramp stamp, but it's still pretty cool By order of the ethics committee the following file has been declassified and released under ethics committee order This file has been designated as mandatory viewing for all personnel of level 2 clearance or higher Unauthorized access is forbidden Note this document is outdated. Please see addendum project sepulcher For more information be aware that any discrepancies in the documentation are a result of this and most expungements contain sensitive data necessary for the replication of illegal actions item number scp 3455 object class Ketter special containment procedures scp 344 3455 is contained in site 120 Ketter class zone containment unit 3 4 Scranton reality anchors are replaced surrounding scp 3455 Creating a focus point with a geometric center directly on the subject scp 3455 remains restrained to a reality-stabling device and should not be removed at any time Comp scanner should be monitored in shifts noting that you levels fluctuate most often during waking hours This is to be expected Psychiatric evaluation should be conducted by weekly while the subject has remained compliant during detainment Personnel should expect scp 3455 to experience acute psychological deterioration due to its anomalous effects No testing or documentation regarding scp 3455 is allowed in detainment unit 3 all records should be taken externally interesting Addition date date redacted date Should the subject begin to initiate a C clay CK class event the Einstein Einstein-Rosen singularity generator key to a frequency linked to a reality which has previously recorded To have undergone a K-class scenario Excluding EK class should be activated except scp 3455 into the singularity and be deactivated indefinitely The frequency used should then be blacklisted from foundation records see addendum for more information current frequency 137 440 All right, we are deep in the techno babble today guys. Let's keep it going description scp 3455 previously Jesse R. Mantell Was a level five researcher who had conducted testing of the previous object designated scp 3455 as Part of the design team and assisted with the illicit performance of the illegal procedure 380 sepulcher scp 3455 was unexpectedly Exposed to abnormally high-hewn levels while conducting procedure as the procedure 380 sepulcher sepulcher When a quartz crystal in the capacitor of the field stabilizer fractured under stress of the weight of the machine Contrary readings taken at this of the subject are tentative at best due to the nature of its condition but have a mean value of Three digits making scp 3455 the highest measure ontokinetic based. Oh The highest based ontokinetic based on the current rating system Ontokinetic is the fancy technical term for reality bender in case that's not a thing you know about scp 3455 has been compliant in all stages of testing due to its previous employment However, the subject's reality modification abilities are incredibly effective because of this and a lack of experience The subject is unable to limit or control itself scp 3455 often becomes intangible or super tangible due to this fact especially in result to heightened levels of stress and thus cannot be feasibly harmed or executed Addendum as of redacted redacted redacted Predictive data for scp 3455 has been show to be exponentially rising in human levels This would suggest the possibility of a CK glass reality restructuring scenario event Ending the life of scp 3455 and intensely raising the human levels in as much as an estimated 78% of the solar system Dr. Blank's note do not assume. We are relegating scp 3455 to the gallows We are working diligently to decrease the human levels of scp 3455 Giving him the opportunity to harness his reality altering powers to attempt to self-balance could cause just as much destruction as a Super-reality event if not more. However, it is in all of our best interests that scp 3455 Anomalous behavior reduces as they have previously been very beneficial to the foundation Mental is one of our best and brightest. We will not give up and then we have a photo of Conscretor scanner readouts left taken on a certain date right taken on a later date seven days later in which you'll notice that picture one has a Little darker than picture two So that is apparently his Hume levels increasing power rising so Recovered files from project sepulcher. Okay, so we've got our documents that tells us All right, so before we move on item number three four five five at least right now is this researcher Jesse Mantell who was Exposed to something During an illegal procedure That made him into the most reality-bending thing in the world so But he can't control it because he doesn't know what he's doing and so we got him strapped to a table and he allows himself to Be strapped to a table. That's how far we've gotten so far So now we are going into the first tab of recovered files The Scranton lock Hume generator archive copy of original project sepulchral sepulcher sepulcher is a word sepulcher the purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple purple sepulcher Scranton lock Hume generator plus There's a document on its own. Okay Frick, let's go Note this document is outdated the number has been reassigned due to the Violation due to violation of foundation code and failure to meet the requirements for scp designation Please see project sepulcher for more information Does that lead to another link? This page doesn't exist yet. Okay, so that might be I don't know why that's a link But we'll come back to that Courts asked so basically he's the biggest bad big bad of the big bad's Well, he's the biggest reality bender of the reality benders, but he's not bad because he's a good guy Who just accidentally got turned it's it's the Incredible Hulk.  He's a super reality bender. Okay, so here we are in So please see project sepulcher for more information Be aware that any discrepancies in the documentation are a result of this and expungements contain sensitive data necessary for the replication of illegal actions So the original item number scp 3455 Object class Thaumiel explained In case you are catching up to the stream check the link of the day in the description to check out the draft We are reading we are currently in the recovered files Scranton lock Hume generator tab So object class Thaumiel explained special containment procedures Please note scp 3455 is only to be operated by trained personnel those familiar with scp 3455's workings and user interface In an emergency situation untrained personnel referencing this document are advised to seek shelter in one of site 120's Reality balancing chambers without attempting to operate scp 3455 do not attempt to abort procedure 380 sepulcher Scp 3455 is held at site 120 during the preliminary testing phase in the mechanical projects wing testing bay a No personnel under clearance level 3 are to be permitted entrance to testing bay a data expunged Okay, that's an entire. I don't know what that is At least 24 hours before project 380 sepulcher is initiated all reality affecting altering devices at or near site 120 must be disabled if hue levels in the interior of scp 3455 reach 100 and emergency shutdown will be automatically activated Triggering of the failsafe or unauthorized activation of scp 3455 constitutes a level 5 code violation Additionally any leak of information regarding scp 3455 to any members of the foundation not directly involved with scp 3455 Also constitutes a level 5 code violation Scp 3455 documentation is we kept off any data backups or document compendiums Preferably in an analog format this document being an exception Project 380 sepulcher details following precautionary testing procedure 380 sepulcher is to be executed on this date it redacted which constitutes four phases activated in order Procedure 380 sepulcher should be Conducted under supervision of level 5 research team 9 If at any point error an error is noted in scp 3455's calibration or startup Procedure 380 sepulcher is to be suspended immediately Sepulcher is the hardest word. I've ever said in my life. I can't seem to say sepulcher Procedure 380 sepulcher sepulcher sepulcher Is the prompt is the process of introducing a biological foreign body to event 357 lock safely a process Including four phases phase chi phase psi phase omega and phase alpha Phase X. Oh, I guess you mean phase chi Okay, back up we're gonna do some pictures real quick Um Court says I wish there was voice chat. That would be awesome for those of you watching the stream. I Feel free to do a voice chat in the site 42 discord I can't join that because it would like make loud noises on the What's the phrase I'm looking for? It would make loud noises on the stream, but y'all can do a voice chat in the discord if you want to communicate that way The author Jack ever says it's Chi not Chi Okay, so if you're using Greek lettering it's Chi CHI is Chi not Chi Chi is a misspelling actually of qi which is Chi in Asian religions in The energy the Chi energy Whereas Chi is a Greek letter, which is CHI So those are different things. I believe but now that you've mentioned it I need to check that we're not on a spelling and grammar yet, but Google.com how To pronounce CHI how to pronounce Greek letters I'll come to this later. We got a lot of reading to do it looks like Okay, so Phase Chi in phase 3455 is focused on its central platform with no instructions of any form External Scranton reality anchors are to be activated exactly 32 minutes prior to main execution During this time no organic matter of micro or macroscopic is to be present in the testing chamber This may be achieved through a combination of chemical ultraviolet and anomalous cleaning methods Following this the procedure may begin internal Scranton reality anchors are to be fired Consecutively for four minutes and ten seconds once it's been completed focus Scranton reality anchors are to be activated simultaneously This is a continue for approximately 17 minutes or until counter reaches three digits Which ever succeeds the other once completed scp 345 is to be stabilized and all assisting personnel are to exit testing Bay a Further phases expunged for security purposes Description scp 345 is an advanced apparatus consisting of 12 modified Scranton reality anchors Defied it into three classes and various other anomalous and non anomalous mechanisms Created or assembled by level 5 research team 9 to data expunged a project initiated by 059 scp 3455 is designated the Scranton lock reality generator and as a blank blank blank date is in testing phase 0.4.2 each success of iteration has yielded higher contour readings in the last Suggesting that a project like procedure 380 sepulchre sepulcher could yield a successful operation scp 3455 generates an anomalous phenomenon that's meaning scp 3455-1 scientifically glass as event 357 lock and colloquially referred to as the Cumball previous general reality theories have suggested that an event like event 357 lock is theoretically possible earlier iterations of have Earlier iterations of have scp 345 tested and confirmed that I'm assuming that's just a spelling error Okay Remainder expunge for security purposes, so that's all we know from this document in summary Uh is We have a machine This machine and This machine makes a hume ball. Ooh pretty hume ball pretty hume ball and Whatever you do don't let live things be in the hume ball chamber and then Also, we now know that this was created By 059 so Big machine makes hume balls don't let living things in with it 059 Decided this was gonna be a thing Also, this is illegal as heck as stated by the first document, which is why this project is shut down so Remainder expunge for security purposes moving on universe Delta Corbin Chorbin Corbin Chorbin data collected from Hermes 8 prior to contamination designation universe Delta Chorbin frequency 1 9 4 6 5 6 universe class Euclid Do universes have Euclid ratings I did not know that Safety precautions all Einstein Rosen singularity generators and similar devices shouldn't be blacklisted to frequency 1 9 4 6 5 6 no contact or transportation to universe Delta Chorbin is permitted Should any member of the foundation be transported to universe Delta Chorbin? No return travel is permitted returning to universe Alpha ask or Disclosing information about universe Alpha ask to other dimensional entities is a level 5 code violation description universe Delta Chorbin solar system is binary as a result a higher level of ambivalent ultraviolet radiation than baseline permeates the Observed area of the reality. It is hypothesized that the dominant species of the deserved area designated bio 1 9 4 5 6 5-1 Hold on Spelling in grammar. This is 5 6 5 the universe is 6 5 6 I think you meant those to be the same maybe but moving on Possesses a visual spectrum closer to this range of light and additionally a biologically and technically evolved despite and alongside this alteration Previous interactions with universe Delta Chorbin have been limited Logs concerning universe Delta Chorbin or Corbin whatever that is predating incident 3 4 4 5 dash date Consists only the loss of connection Hermes 8 connection to Hermes 8 I assume and a small selection of recovered images and videos the recovered video from this from the Disconnection of Hermes 8 on redacted date wouldn't gain Hermes 8 was recovered by several instances of bio 1 9 4 5 6 5 I mean 6 5 6 That in identical protective clothing of scurrying features Weird parentheses labeled in infrared symbols of unknown translation Which could possibly be a team from an organization similar in purpose to the foundation This area has been exposed to high levels of elevated reality the results of which are not entirely clear This is a result of scp 3 4 5 initiating the c-class realities restructuring event We're in scp 3 4 5 is transferred Directly via Einstein Rosin singularity generator to delt universe Delta Chorbin due to the nature of the event We can assume this reality is undergoing a CK class reality restructuring event as a result Universe Delta Chorbin is considered has a dislocation and no to or from travel is permitted Incident report recovery log of scp 3 4 4 5 All right, so hold on. So universe Delta Chorbin is a universe and It has two sons so it's a tattooing and We don't go there and we don't come back from there if we do go there Don't go and don't let anyone come in this universe is locked off Okay. Oh, and there are things there.  We're going to have to get 3 4 5 5 now. We've been compromised footnotes This references the Scranton Lock Hume generator several expressions of surprise and expletives can be heard Unconfirmed. Where's 9? Scp 3 4 5 5 claims this voice belongs to researcher George drool no records of George drool matching description to be found in the foundation database Why was this person deleted? Harding he's on his way prep everything. I want every system triple checked within the next five minutes several Several Scranton reality anchors can be heard initiating Researcher Danton face. I is ready Harding mental. Where's phase Chi researcher mental It's gonna take some time to set up the full process That's the one thing we can't afford right now skip the externals and speed up the rate of draw Where is 9? Boom boom in several armed agent center boom boom. Is it prepped? It's almost here, sir. We just need we don't have the time red right hand is on their way Get a prep for phase Omega go extraneous details redacted Face Chi is a go load them in Alpha one is in the site. Let's go an audible fracture can be heard Followed by the hiss of a failed vacuum seal a large begin to sound.  Get him out of there.  Keep me in do not open this chamber An explosion occurs and the audio fails for several minutes due to distortion. Oh Shit mentels the unconfirmed voice begins to scream, but ceases abrupt light What? Sv 345 voice catches as its arm passes through the desk it is leaning on The reality suppresses system initiates causing a slight hum. Oh my oh my god Oh several members of site 120 reality stabilizing team arrived in testing Bay aim begin to assist Sv 345 in stabilization One member of the team powers down all devices of the day Bay ending recording the minutes of dr. Harbing date at least a Year if not a couple years after this Because we've now changed the date from an oh something to a one-something and ethics committee disciplinary meeting All right, so from this we learned from this incident.  We got to do the thing. Oh my god. They're coming in Uh, we're not ready do it. Anyways, boom bad things happened and at the end of this I Don't know why Unconfirmed has vanished. I don't know why and I don't know what happened to O5 9 yet So maybe those will be answered here Okay, so foundations ethics committee disciplinary meeting minutes date redacted Call to order committee director blank called to order the regular meeting the ethics committee at time o'clock Committee director or a roll call secretary blank conducted a roll call all committee members were present open issues disciplinary meeting Gary Harding Concerning the events of this date researcher Gary Harding stands trial for treason against the foundation and illegal use of foundation resources and information Below is a transcription of his evaluation begin log Director blank, please start by telling us how you first got involved in this entire situation Harding well, that can be answered fairly simply as that O5 9's personal research team returns to work on project sepulcher Beyond what would happen if we disobeyed a direct order from the O5 council They're also promises of miracles if we were successful sort of like we're giving a genius powers to grant us wishes What exactly would you say this project sepulcher was primarily concerned with the whole idea contains a wide range of reasons? But if you like me boil it down it was it was O5 9 I guess apostrophe s Obsession with his might I say immortality crusade Could you elaborate?  I should know I spent six months working side-by-side with a man He's a human being there are some things I know he's seen that would make a man crave death just to escape those ends There's probably a million world in anomalies behind locked doors that he only he and the rest of the council have keys to Beyond his goal to prevent his own untumbling demise He also gets to prevent Everything earthly from ever being harmed again Where did this idea come from who gave him the idea to use artificial generated onto kinesis to achieve his goal? We know he's made attempts in the past by past death and this is just one of them He's essentially the 963-2 Seeing as he's tied to the damn thing Also, I don't know what's going on with blank, but the phrase v 20.0 came up during a lot testing and I can only guess Where the wrap that rabbit hole goes? It's actually the next step he could take all the digging I've done these by desi v 2 7 1 8 and it's locked to me You ethics committee knuckleheads may have a better chance at it You're much above my pay grade even if I had a level 5 clearance So I think you're you'd be better off realizing who controls your fate here You're here only because you are a seriously valued member of staff. Otherwise, you would have already been inoculated I'm pretty sure my fate is sealed already. How did this entire situation go unnoticed for some time? I would think something like would fall through the cracks eventually It did Christensen or at least I think it was him leaked to someone to rat that guy Before that we were meticulous everything was under expenses of site 120 Our team grew only slightly but the people we nabbed were important mentor was pivotal in the construction of the slug Excuse me the slug. Oh, yeah, the SLHG Scranton Lockheum generator easier on the tongue. I see please continue Anyways, Jesse was necessary to build that scrapheap through in the room Danton was instrumental in the calculation and well I could have sworn we had someone for the biological component, but for some reason it's funny I've been trying not to think about it. I think someone experienced some complications besides Mantell That's all I can glean from that. The paper was not existent. We borrowed components until Christensen Christensen We're all versed in where he came in. We're well versed in where he came in. What do you think caused the failure in the slug? I'd assume the construction failed in some way. The machine was never supposed to be powered up at that time Mantell never did quite finish them structural supports on the internal wiring I watched as one of the crystals got messed up in the process all of our months of all our months of research to to shit over a leak an information one and a literal one I'll tell you what to that thing would have worked. The human ball was there I saw it with my own eyes propagation fields of reality had never gotten this advanced if we'd had enough time We'd all be on a new level of existence with how this thing operates Do you have any idea the ramifications of such an action?   What if that chance meant everyone would die? I would say if I'm asleep for me and the rest of myself that chance was too big to turn down You would risk the life of every human being on this planet to the wrath of someone with near infinite power for your own progression of goals It's not just our own progression with power like our predictions specified Every Apollyon and Keter class could be zapped away in the blink of an eye overpopulation world hunger anything all solve with a wave of Your hand distant galaxies could become exploitable in an instant nothing's too far-fetched You fail to address the concept of all innocent lives think of the billions of lives populating this planet not knowing a single thing about What lies under the bed living their lives peacefully 3455 is likely to go superhuman if we fail the transport Who knows what kind of CK our reality will undergo something of this magnitude has never been simulated let alone tested Would you think perhaps for a second past this situation? How many things out there are interested in doing that exactly that already how many things are unpreventable growing out of control right now? Two minutes faster isn't gonna alter anything. It's meaningless to attempt to struggle. Do you feel death director?  He had a name. His name was Mantel Jesse Mantel Gary Gary Oh five nine would have been a fluke anyways, and I realize that too far into the project There's no one way to run this place because absolute power corrupts absolutely and fear makes good men do horrible things It's what communism's failed every time it's been tried and my democratic goal Democratic will cut capitalism's fucked our morals Give someone an opportunity to be self-generous at the expense of others and they're gonna do it It doesn't matter that someone already tried to play nice and failed thousands of time before because every person thinks I can do Way better than the last guy they just failed to get the facts that the next guy will think the same of them until somebody does Inevitably end the chain by blowing us all to holy hell and even then thank you for time. Gary. I think we've heard enough No, you don't understand. It's a time bomb. We're sitting on a time bomb and there's no wires to cut No, well, well, well, well removed from the function and the log Penting sentence adjournment committee director blank adjourn the meeting at time Okay Okay, guys, let's sit down. Let's sit back. Let's marinate a little bit. Oh my lord Bah Bah For everybody who was in on that Take a second read through Uh I'm gonna summarize. I'm gonna summarize and we're gonna go into the idea talk and then we're gonna go Then uh Once we're done with the summary. So we're gonna go over the summary. I'm gonna summarize exactly what this is Piece by piece. We're gonna get the whole story Then we're gonna talk about what we think of the story then we're gonna talk about The spelling and grammar stuff because there's a little spelling and grammar throughout this with this many words It's to be expected Wow that Reading the article did 30 minutes 32 minutes were at so that was 30 minutes just to read it That's intense now I'm gonna take a drink. All right, so Long long long long long long long long story short close all of my tabs Start at the top and let's do everything. All right document one By order the ethics committee.  This one's outdated too.   This document is outdated.   So we just throw another bomb in there. It's not a big deal And also we have a note at the bottom that says Hey guys, we like this guy and We're not just Throwing him to a dungeon This is a what's the phrase I'm looking for This note at the bottom is like a we still like this guy. We're not throwing him in the dungeon It's kind of like the oh five note from scp 231 where it's like yes We are still trying to save her but we have to do what we have to do So this is the same kind of feeling of this is what we uh Are trying to save her so now and uh Jack I see in the chat that you're talking about the different frequency I'm only going one document at a time So so far We just know we're gonna throw it in a dead dimension. We don't know that it's another dimension yet And that's we're gonna talk about that So After we get to the end of this guy's a reality bomb waiting to happen But we still like him. So we're trying to help him We move into document two Which is the scranton lock hume generator. Otherwise known as the slug So we go into the slug This is outdated item number scp 34455 Thaumiel explained. So this is the machine that makes the hume bomb or the hume ball Now all we know here Is that we made a machine that makes a hume ball And you don't put anything living in the hume ball And oh five nine told us to build this for some reason And we're gonna expunge all the phases of making it happen And we're going to expunge The reason that this is happening So all we know is we have a machine what makes a hume ball And oh five nine said to do it universe delta corbin tab Uh universe delta corbin is specifically frequency one nine four six five six And you'll notice above in the original document that the current frequency to send three four five into Three four five five into was frequency one three seven four forty so What this document Is saying is Safety precautions don't send anybody in don't bring anyone out description universe delta corbin solar system is binary, blah blah blah Okay, so this area has been supposed to high levels of elevated. Oh wait. So here we go Previous interactions with universe delta corbin have been limited. So in the past We found people And advanced people And then the third paragraph of the description Says that we have shown this place to elevated levels of reality And we don't know what happened. So lock the door. Don't go in or out So all we know from document delta corbin By what's set in the text explicitly is there's another universe Not the universe we were talking about earlier There used to be people in it And this area has been exposed to high levels of elevated reality So I think we are supposed to read between the lines and say that The uh That we accidentally threw the hume guy hume bum into a populated universe So incident reports The incident is the moment that mantel became a reality bender While a red right hand was coming in And then ethics committee Is a really long interview Where we explain the reason this all happened and why it was justified So here is where i'm going to start the idea phase My first thought for the idea phase Jesus here we go Our main concept here Is that let me let me put this in chronological order because this is a Oh my lord So to start to start the very first thing Is that I personally Am not a long article guy I'm not I like short. I like medium length articles And when I see a long article like When dj cactus writes an article No Oh god. I'm not reading that Jesus. I ain't ain't nobody got time for that So Seeing this article's link that was already like oh boy. Here we go but then There is so much That is Not told But it's not told So there's two ways to do foreshadowing You foreshadow something by making clues to something And then Or saying something that then leads to a response And what happens a lot here Is this is depending it feels like On a lot of knowledge that people already have And then it feels like the final interview Is that It almost feels like that's extra Because people didn't get it So here's the whole explanation So it's like you guys didn't get this here we go knock it down. Here's everything that happened I mean, it's not quite that it almost feels like that, but it's not like fully that Man my head is fuzzy right now. That's just really long. So Let me see with the opening document first of all Yeah, that's why the final interview exists because people complain that they didn't know what the hell was going on so First of all No, second third of all, what am I on? Am I on the fourth of all yet? Um So at no point in this Did you tell the audience That you dumped mantel into the other universe You mentioned You put it there that this is the frequency of the universe we're going to send it to You said the other Uh universe has a different frequency. So we notice a different universe And then you mentioned in the very last paragraph after everything else That there this area has been exposed to high levels of elevated reality It I feel like that was burying the lead too far You could have said probably We this is After addendum addendum afterwards That we accidentally sent him here instead Like the description is So our question here is story structure How do you tell the story? that simply boils down to At its core our high concept is o five nine Who canonically in several scps before Has tried to become immortal He's trying to become immortal again And as such he commissions a machine to make him a reality bender and the Because of an information leak because that christensen guy is a snitch He decides to rush the uh rush the Procedure it blows up in his face And instead of turning him into a reality bender It turns jesse into a reality bender So that's story one O five nine Commissions of machine Gets rushed turned guy into reality bender That's story one story two Is jesse mantel Accidentally becomes a reality bender of epic the most proportions and then can't handle it and therefore Almost explodes our universe And so we were going to send him through To one universe But we did it wrong And sent him to a populated universe and he exploded in a populated universe, which is fucked up And then we finish it With an entire Exposition diatribe Into the morality of o five nine's cause I've got a headache I've got a headache dude. Oh no There's so much There's so much going on Okay Chat, please help me out with whatever you've got along the way because I'm just I'm going right now Okay, so Here we go. Here's the thing Jesus What do we do to make this skip? Ready to go on the main list That is the question we need to ask Yes, so before I freaking like Freak out here like trying to make this work Let me point out that there is a lot of good things here like Albeit, there's just a whole lot of techno babble to get through But like the humor homework has been done pretty well It seems all the Scranton realities and the counter research and the Humes and stuff that all I believe makes sense by all references Meanwhile Uh There's a lot of really I like a lot of the little references to other scp things Like I like the little easter eggs. I love that this had time to do that It's very thorough. It's like 99 spelling and grammar fine. Like there's a couple things here and there So like there's a lot of good here it's It's in the structure and the story you're trying to tell that we need to sort this out mainly So that's what we're going to fight for First of all, so let's focus subplot by subplot Jesse Mantell Jesse Mantell at no point in here Honestly, I think the incident reports where They they come in on 05 9 where jesse gets transformed I don't think we need it at all I don't think that's the uh incident you need to share I think the incident you need to share Is why jesse ended up in a populated dimension I think That you explain jesse You explain maybe the hume generator and the hume generator needs a I'm actually writing that right now. Would you like a link? Dear god? No We've got enough for now But we'll come back to that later So I think you explain Jesse himself like you started with Um, I think you then explain the hume generator I think a much much much much shorter Ethics committee addendum Goes on the end of the Hume generator So I don't think we need a full interview. I think we just need an ethics committee report on 05 9 And that little report can go with the generators portion That way we cut off that whole ending And just find a nice easy way to get that slide that info in there Uh Then we need the incident where jesse goes full nuclear And we need to know why they sent it to the wrong universe We need to like we need reality to be freaking out.  And then the next addendum is universe delta corbin And we restructure that just to make it very clear that Formerly was a or we say safe precaution description description List that it's people list that it's we've had communications with them stuff like that And then the final addendum of universe should be This universe has gone through a has Blah blah blah because blah blah blah. We set the guy through the hole Lock the door. Don't let anybody in.  Okay Because a lot of what is not working in this Is the big three Are there's a lot of techno babble There's a lot of techno babble And that's a second thing that makes me glaze over my eyes Uh like right now recently one of the top rated pages right now is scp 3930 That's the new dj cactus skip And it's a classic wall of wall of wall of all so many things and uh But there was a hook The hook Was this does not exist. This does not exist. There was this repetition There was this like driving force of rhythm that made me go. Oh my god. I've got to see what the heck's up with this And I read the whole thing and it was so interesting to me that I then recorded it Uh go check the channel if you haven't seen the pattern screaming screaming reading yet But you have to have a really solid hook To get people to go that far in a long skip in the first place And then you need that hook to be just the most intense Most powerful reality bending hook of all time If you're going to get them to go through an extremely long article that is also massively cross-eye causing techno babble I'm not saying your techno babble is bad. The techno babble is done competently. It's just a negative concept That makes it harder for people to get into I guess there makes it harder for some people to get into some people live for that techno babble thing, but The story structure the people who live for the techno babble and the length Want the story structure The people who want Who don't like the babble in length Really needed the structure


I want to thank you to Longmont Public Media for hosting us today and to record this video for our upcoming event called Electrify Longmont and we're really excited to talk about it today. Karen and I are going to talk about it. And so do you want to talk a little bit about organizing parties? Yes, yes. Our event is September 30th from 10 to 2 at Long Peak Middle School. And we're planning this with SRL, which is Sustainable Resilient Longmont, and also CCL, which is Citizens Climate Lobby. SRL is a local nonprofit. We focus on renewable energy and zero waste. CCL is a national organization with a local group and they focus on renewable energy. So we decided to partner together to do this event. Does that make sense? Yeah. In our event, we have lots of activities. So we're focused on lots of vendors that have renewable energy products or experience or maybe they install products. And we also have lots of speakers. Maybe you'd like to talk about speakers. Sure. Yeah. So we have three different speakers. Actually, we have five different speakers. Yeah. Talking about a variety of different topics, home electrification is our main topic and then also talking about EVs. We have two panels as well where we're going to have like four or five people talking on the panels. And we're going to be talking about home electrification. So there'll be a variety of different industries covered from installers to people who have done it in their actual homes, talking about their experiences. And then also we have a panel of EV experts. So people who have EVs and also people who are in the industry of EVs as well. Yeah. And we're excited that this year we also have somebody who will talk about how job creations are occurring and jobs that you can now get in renewable energy industry, which is a brand new job category. So that's exciting. Yes, it is. Yeah. And we also like to have fun. So we have trucks and music. The mobile lab from St. Varian Valley School District is coming. We have kids crafts area and anime art, which does a lot of movement activity with kids. So we're excited it will be a full four hours and we invite everybody to come again. Oh, yes. So the event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. So we'll have events going all the way through that whole time period. So you really should plan to come for the whole time. Yeah. All right. So thank you. Come and join us.


In 2013, 23 people received an email by a mysterious user who deleted their account base later. The email contained a long rant about Moddered SpongeBob, which talked about problems that many people already know about, like how the characters are now incredibly stupid, or how the show is now mean-spirited. Everyone who received the email shrugged it off and thought that the email was created and sent by some renter who wanted to persuade people into agreeing with his or her opinion. However, one of the recipients posted the email on a Steam community forum, also explaining that someone sent the most pointless spam ever. This is when things get odd. People began asking the recipient about an out-of-place YouTube link buried within the droning rant. Apparently, the email had an hyperlinked YouTube video right in the middle of the rant. This was odd since an email would always show a YouTube video at the bottom of the email, regardless if it was hyperlinked or not. But this email never displayed a video at the bottom for any of the recipients. The only theory that anyone could come up with about this was that the email was modded to hide the video from anyone who received the email. The recipient then proceeded to contact the other 22 people about this link and its location. Soon enough, the recipients found the link and copied and pasted it into the address bar. The video's content however, was described as very disturbing, unerving and horrifying. The link reportedly lead to a 130 long video with 5 views named, the credits sequences, which was uploaded by a user with a jumble of numbers in their name. You know those kind, the people with names like, 4,037,483, or, 192,847. Those who attempted to view the channel were unsuccessful since it would redirect to a 404 screen. The video started out with the end credits of SpongeBob. If you don't know what the credits sequence of SpongeBob is, it consists of red text that display names of the staff and their roles on a yellow background with white flowers on it. Anyway, there's no indication on what episode these credits are from. However, the part where the writers are credited shows the names of Walt Dorn and Mary Weather Williams, meaning that the episode may have been from somewhere in seasons 1 to 3 since they only worked on SpongeBob for those seasons. The video continued with the normal credits sequence showing the animators, the producers and so on. Those who watched thought the video was nothing special. It was until the video reached the 15 second mark. At the same moment, the viewers have reported that the generic ukulele music began to have an echo to it, as if it was recorded and played in a large gymnasium. As the video reached the 27 second mark, the music grew ear piercingly loud to the point where they could hear low pitched coming. What happened at the 30 second mark was terrifying. From what the viewers reported, that they heard screams within the music, some male, some female, and some that sounded inhuman. The screaming intensified as the seconds went by, getting louder and louder and even overlapping each other. The visuals weren't pleasing either. On screen, the background became eerily dark and the words were now glowing white. The screen was now bouncing and changing colors at this point like a damaged VHS tape. Purple static was also fading in and out of the shot. Stranger, stock images of SpongeBob kept popping up on screen at various areas while keeping that dark color effect. This went on until the 42nd mark where it changed to the United Plankton Pictures Incorporated logo, as it would usually do during the credits. The bouncing became worse during this sequence to the point where some viewers claimed that their video began chugging. The screen would now morph to the right in five second intervals and display a green bar at the bottom. Some viewers reported seeing figures moving in the green bar. The audio changed to a low buzzing sound which had a blend of static to it along with a deep voice laughing, not demonic, but generally low pitched. This went on until 115 where the video froze for five seconds with a large green box blocking the bottom left section of the screen. The audio also changed to a blast of static. Then, the Nickelodeon Splat logo used from 1984 to 2009 appeared with the copyright year reading 2002. The logo stayed on screen for the rest of the video until it ended. Also, at 125, a very quiet whisper can be heard saying something, but nobody was able to understand what it said. After the video was discovered, the recipients who viewed the video began acting strangely. According to reports, they would have the following consequences become paranoid, stressed, and would become shaken upon talking about the subject of the video. The viewers reported hearing the SpongeBob credits song play very quietly. They would also claim to hear distant screams, the deep voice laughing, and that weird inaudible whisper.  Trying to find this video and the user would be pointless and would render no results, so don't be surprised when you don't find anything when trying to hunt down this video. After all, some things need to be removed.


At Microsoft, we believe that technology plays a crucial role in enabling women to find their passion and place in the world. When women are empowered in society, the result is greater innovation and the advancement of local economies, benefits for the individual as well as the larger community. Today, 40% of the global workforce is made up of women, and nearly half of all new technology products are created by mixed teams of women and men. We'd like to see that number continue to rise. Women should have a strong voice in the design of new programs and technologies and in the way that these solutions impact the lives of women around the world. We've formed strong partnerships with organizations like UN Women and ITU to mobilize and engage young women worldwide to follow their dreams. We've aligned our strategies with the recently announced Sustainable Development Goals in an effort to help end poverty, protect our planet and promote peace and cooperation among peoples. We're using Microsoft technology to ensure better outcomes in women's health and to combat societal issues such as human trafficking. We work to empower women across the globe to pursue their education and create economic opportunities by providing access to technology and the tools needed for success. And we consistently evaluate our programs and organizational priorities to ensure we're making the most impact. We've made it our goal to empower and enable women and girls from the classroom all the way to the boardroom. At Microsoft, we believe that women are the future and that future is now.


You crunch numbers and rock financial data. You're so smart that you don't want to spend extra time and money on classes that won't figure into the bottom line. Getting a job, you're looking at a technical college, and that says a lot about your future. Wondering what careers could provide the challenges and rewards you need? Count the many ways beginning a career in finance at a technical college will help you succeed if you want incredible, talented instructors who invest as much in you as you invest in your education. Stop looking and start planning now. The technical college route offers a lot of opportunity for students to find a course schedule that works within their lives. Not only will you have access to classes during the day and night, you will also have online options and many other flexible learning opportunities. Credit transfer options help ensure our graduates can continue to challenge and grow themselves and their careers if and when the time is right. I'm very happy to be working at a local business that I'm thriving in, and I'm just excited for what may come in the future because of my degree. Our graduates know what they want, and they know that the technical colleges provide the most direct path to achieving that. If banking, financial planning, accounting or insurance motivates you, the technical colleges provide outstanding value, robust experiences, inspiration and success. Find your passion and fulfill your potential today.


It's wonderful to be here in this beautiful city. It's wonderful to take part again in one of the great intellectual centers of contemporary life, the Nexus Institute. Such a pleasure to be here among people whom it is an enormous pleasure and honor to know. So I will not solve the questions that Rob has broached, but here's what I have to say about them. Modern Western societies are not organisms that thrive or perish as one thing, one mind, one experience. They are compacts based on the expectation that those charged with responsibilities will carry them out in good faith.  Democracy is profound mutual courtesy and ethos of mutual respect and is in this sense deeply spiritual. It should never be forgotten that Jefferson asserts human equality in the terms of the biblical creation narrative. The dignity conferred on each individual by his creator is to be acknowledged as inalienable, worthy of all respect. Failure in this regard has always afflicted American democracy and every other democracy of which I have any knowledge. This spiritual failure has now become conspicuous, consequential, shameless, and in America organized under the auspices of the Republican Party. It startles me that I feel justified in saying such a thing. It appalls me that it is an urgent need of being said. But the importance of this deviation from the first given of the American democratic order, this apostasy so to speak by a wealthy establishment presence is truly threatening to trust one another with our ballots and then to accept the decisions reflected in them has always depended on an ethic of mutual respect which for the moment is not to be assumed. It is hard to imagine what will restore the integrity of the system other than a spiritual awakening which could happen since old white people like me are trudging toward the exits, demographically speaking, bearing away a great part of the fearfulness and sanctimoniousness that has burdened our politics. There are vast cohorts of young people and newly aroused and enfranchised minorities for whom the founding documents are authoritative and beautiful. We can begin our recovery by respecting them an easy first step because they are eminently deserving of respect. Decline emerges as an idea very often, perhaps continuously, though it finds greater or lesser degrees of response from one iteration to the next. Those who raise the alarm in the intervals when there is little consensus to support this view of things are later seen as profits. They add to the chorus or to the literature to be deployed when such consensus does begin to emerge. If historically a growing sense of decline precedes catastrophe, perhaps this is true because the idea predisposes the culture to nihilism and also to the desperate battle against nihilism which is the other side of the same coin. These two apparently contrary movements act as accelerants to excitements that arise between them because they both proceed from categorical and very negative assumptions about people in general. The masses as they are often called in this context. This low estimation means that no vision is offered of a future, an ongoing life for the culture that people in general could wish to have a part in. I could be describing the collapse of a democracy or I could be describing the means by which a democracy can survive and overcome the great vulnerabilities by which democracy is always threatened. It may not be very long before the matter is determined one way or the other. Our government has been based in a greater degree than any of us were aware on norms and customs, unenforceable deference to precedent and restraint in the face of opposition. Our incumbent is intent on remaking the office to suit his own character and is both limited and protected by a tradition of respect for the office of president, respect which he seems not to share. When norms are violated with impunity, will they function as norms again thereafter? Will the standards of conduct they have supported be changed by the attempts that are likely to come to enforce them by legislation, assuming a restoration of something like normalcy? In other words, will a complex institutional stability be compromised, changed or lost, leaving us within America we cannot foresee and will not have chosen? Many essential things are in a state of true indeterminacy, so it seems. We are on our way to learning how our politics live in our civilization, how we understand our problems and what resources we bring to mitigating them. If we subscribe to decline as an interpretation of our problems, our democracy will indeed fail. The concept decline by implication takes a former state of things to be good and evil to be those tendencies perceived at least as departing from it. Evil is a word I'm generally reluctant to use, but in the context of cultural pessimism, it evokes precisely the nature of what is to be feared and resisted in the dissolution these people think they see. To call anything evil is to lift it out of the ordinary, the secular, to assume in it a special energy that places it beyond the strategies of reason and good intent and the demands hyper alertness and recourse to very extraordinary defenses.  Speak of this devil and he is very likely to appear. I do not believe I cannot imagine that any human being could be without a spirit, a soul. I believe as a matter of faith as well as observation that spirituality arises out of the individual spirit, solely by the grace of God through difficulty, despite neglect in the absence of help and approval, intactful or tentative silence and secrecy as surely as in the recitation of any creed. I believe that human beings have an endlessly demonstrated tendency to refuse to acknowledge the spirit in themselves and crucially and culturally selected others, slaves, aliens, women, Jews, heretics, enemies real or perceived. The blindness they induce in themselves releases them from the felt constraints of justice, mercy and reverence and monsters them individually and as societies. This is a brief history of humanity's crimes against itself. American Puritans, ancestors of my tradition, the people who gave us Thanksgiving did not celebrate Christmas, which they considered a pagan festival. But they did in a larger sense celebrate the incarnation, the faith that God himself could pass unnoticed in this world an ordinary man, according to Calvin one physically marred by poverty and labor. Who might he not be? He told us who he was, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the stranger. I believe there was once a convention in the liberal state that there is courtesy owed to those with whom he explicitly identified. Well, society giveth and society taketh away, but for Christians the incarnation changed the world in one great particular. We know what we do, whom we slight insult, ignore, forget. The parable that is our faith would tell us that the spirit is always real, always present, waiting to be seen. Thank you.


Good morning and welcome to today's swearing-in ceremony in honor of Dr. Mark T. Esper, the 23rd Secretary of the United States Army. Please stand for the arrival of the official party, the Secretary of Defense, James N. Mattis, and the Secretary of the Army, Mark T. Esper. Please remain standing for the singing of our national anthem. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of Defense Thank you. Thanks very much. Secretary Esper and I, we couldn't sing, so we ended up in the infantry, but wouldn't that a great rendition? Well done. No matter how many times you hear that song, you think about when it was written by that guy sitting on that ship out in the harbor watching the fort under attack. And remember who held that fort all the way through the night, General Milley, so thank you.   Welcome.  He defied gravity. I know mothers often are worried about what their lads are up to. Director Pompeo, a special welcome to you, back with your friend of many decades, but also the army blood runs thick through you. And we have no, I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we have no finer shipmate, no finer comrade and arms here in DOD and the director of CIA right now and a host of issues from the most obvious to the most unobvious. But thanks for coming down today and for a partnership that's much thicker than any organizational chart ever admits to. And for so many of you are here, the family, the sisters, the nieces, the nephews, all of you coming in for this. A reminder that this is a family business, the protection of this country, and that that family runs even larger. So welcome back to your army family. Also, General, it's good to see you and all the friends of the Army. Mira, thank you for coming. Good to have you back in the Pentagon. Our undersecretary, our secretary of the Air Force, uh, General Sullivan, you're still in the game, sir. It's, uh, it's heartening, sir, to have you back. Uh, the Coast Guard is here. Reminds us that we have five armed services, not four. Something we often have to remind people about, comment on. And I would just tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that what we have together, I think my senior enlisted advisor is here somewhere. There he is. Okay, Sergeant Major, thank you. United States Army extraordinaire. But I think as we look at this, uh, when we pause in our daily routine, it says something about the quality of the man, uh, that is now joining our Secretary of Navy and Secretary of the Air Force in order to lead this critical component of our joint force. Uh, because we need someone like, is returning a native son of the U.S. Army, returning to his army roots, so to speak, in the long gray line. And if you track Dr. Esper's experience, uh, 21 years, United States Army active and reserve. He's been in the 101st Airborne in Desert Shield, Desert Storm. Although he had every reason to be in school, he, uh, I understand this attitude. He went truant and did not go to the, uh, his professional schooling that year and found a way to be where every one of the Army's red-blooded fighters would have wanted to have been. And along the way, he had Ranger training. He was recognized with the Bronze Star. And I would just tell you that, uh, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel, that wasn't good enough for us. We're going to get our money's worth out of him now. Uh, he ain't seen nothing yet. Uh, we, uh, we have guards on the door, Mark. So you ain't done nowhere. Okay, you're here. But you've also had, uh, I would just call it a rigorous study apprenticeship in National Security Affairs from Capitol Hill to Defense Industries. You've been through the academics. Uh, I appreciate very much your concern for intellectual property, which this country is bleeding out at an alarming rate and how we're going to protect that for the good of our Army and our Defense Department. And I think, too, that this knowledge, ladies and gentlemen, is critical because what we are out to do right now is to make the U.S. military more lethal and more capable. And you need people who come in who can hit the ground running right away. You don't have to explain the difference between a corps and a company. You don't have to go into it and talk about the spiritual side of serving. This is someone who has lived it, who has talked it more importantly, one who has walked that in tough times. We don't choose leaders, of course, for this department. Uh, this is the varsity, this U.S. military. We don't choose leaders based on what they did in the past, however. That is all prelude. What we have here is someone that we are confident will take the Army forward that has the right value system. We understand if something is not contributing to lethality, it's going to the dustbin of history, and it's going to go to the dustbin of history very, very quickly. I won't mitz words. The international security situation is certainly the most complex that I've seen in over 40 years of dealing with it, and it's certainly more demanding. And we are going to answer that with those three lines of effort that many in this room have heard repeatedly. Number one, make the military more lethal. Number two, we are going to strengthen our alliances because nations with allies thrive, and nations without allies do not. And we are going to reform the business practices. Deputy Secretary of Defense Shanahan is here, and he comes in from Boeing with a wealth of experience, how you run big organizations, how you take difficult, complex processes, and put them at the top of the international game. And I would just tell you that he is a God sent to us and to our service secretaries who will find in him the most cunning and capable leader from budgets to programs to how we actually turn pragmatic success inside the department to success out of the forward lines. We were talking earlier in my office, I just signed yet another next to kin letter to a soldier, and that family has a seven-year-old daughter. So what we're doing is absolutely critical, and we're going to have to have the varsity mark, you're the varsity, and you're a welcome sight for sore eyes. I would also point out that there is no right side of history. I want to make a statement about this because too many times I've heard certain malcontents or people who are up to mischief or murder or mayhem dismissed whether on the wrong side of history. I've read enough history to know history is written by the good guys and the bad guys, and we're going to have to take decisions in this country today like every generation in the past that says we're all Americans, this is a nonpartisan issue, the defense of our values, our way of life, our people, and the bottom line is the virtuous and vile alike of written history, but let's remember here today that we're the good guys. We're not the perfect guys, and we'll straighten that up, and this is the person who's going to take us forward in the U.S. Army. We can send the Navy places, and I can get away with murder, frankly, with the naval forces because other countries say that's easy, they're over the horizon, they're there, they reinforce us, that sort of thing. We can fly over countries as well and reinforce their confidence and say, we hold the high ground with you, but when the U.S. Army comes, what you're saying is, America is putting itself on the line, that's the bottom line. The Army has, in years gone by, lost more troops, they've done more of the fighting and more of the bleeding for this country than any service, and have the Army at the top of its game is critical. There's a historian from Texas, his name's Ferenbach, and he said, without its tough spearmen, Hellenic culture would have had nothing to give the world, it would not have lasted long enough, and so let me just say that from Lexington to Bastone to the Corungal, it's been the U.S. Army who stood through the good times, and especially the bad times, and been our last best hope in a troubled world, and I know that you're going to keep us feared by our adversaries and reassure our allies as they know when you show up, then the Varsities are there with them, and they're going to make it. They'll find their manhood and fight harder alongside us. Leah, we are going to cut Mark's pay by 80%. We will work him three times as hard. He will work late, and you won't have to worry about holidays, there are none. But I just tell you that we are grateful to you and the family and you young people. We're under no illusions about this. This Army has been tested. It stood the strain, but it stood it because we have patriotic young people who are willing to put their lives on the line, and even you're young compared to me, Dr. Esther, so I'm speaking to you too. So thanks for loaning your father, your husband to us for this. He's going to ride for the brand because that's what's in his DNA, and we know that since loyalty only counts when there's 100 reasons to not be loyal, well, we know you'll be there when the chips are done. So it's a pleasure to serve alongside you, and Leah, if you would come forward with your number one fellow, we'll do the honor here. Thank you for your full name. I'm Mark Esper. Do you solemnly swear? Do you solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States? Against all enemies pouring in domestic. I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation and without any mental reservation for a purpose of evasion. For a purpose of evasion that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter. On the office? Upon which I'm about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. And congratulations. Well, thank you, Mr. Secretary, for those very kind and very, very generous words. I deeply appreciate them, and I appreciate the fact even more so that you're here today, that you're taking time out of your busy schedule. You have the weight of the world upon your shoulders, and it means a lot to me and my family that you would take the time to do this today. I also want to thank a number of distinguished visitors here today. As I look around the room, I'm sure I will fall short, but I do want to recognize Director Pompeo, my old friend, and West Point classmate. Thank you for being here today. Deputy Sectef of Defense, Shanahan, Pat, it's good to have you here. We worked together in the past, and I'm excited about working with you again. I can continue to go down the line with my colleague, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, but there are any number of Undersecretaries, Assistant Secretaries, the Chief of Staff, the Army General Officers, Hill Friends, Think Tank Friends, Army Friends. I think my West Point roommate is here as well from a year. He came all the way from California. If you talk to him, he's a liar, don't believe him. But I really want to thank all of you for coming here today and sharing this very special moment for me and my family. I would be remiss if I didn't call out publicly my wife, Leah, who we're now going on our 29th year of marriage. She was with me from the early days when we were, I was a brand new lieutenant and I was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. She came in with no knowledge of the Army and within a short year, actually less than a year of marriage, she saw me go off to war and leave her behind for several months at quite an emotional event. But afterwards, she followed me throughout the Army, of course, for several years, ran my family readiness groups, supported soldiers, volunteered and do all the great things that Army spouses do. And to me, she really epitomizes the sacrifice and support and the charity and all our great military families do for us, regardless of service. And so I just want to publicly thank you again for all that you've done for me and allowing me to do this again. So thank you. I don't want to torture you all with a long scripted speech. I will save that for this afternoon at Fort Meyer for the Army welcome. So if you're able to make it, you'll get that there. I do want to speak for a few minutes, make some remarks about the role and thank a few additional folks along the way. And I'll begin by saying that months before the election and certainly afterward a number of people would come up to me and say, you know, Mark, are you interested in serving the executive branch again? Would you want to return to public service? And of course I said yes, and there are a number of things that would weigh on that decision. And I always said it would depend on the job. It would depend on who I work for and it would depend on who I work with. Because having worked in the executive branch a few times before, specifically in DOD, I know well that the hours are long, that the work is difficult, that the pay is not as good as a private sector and that right there. But that it can also be rewarding. And the fulcrum of that decision really comes down to those three questions that I would weight out in any type of final decision. And so it goes without saying that when Secretary of Defense Mattis was sworn in and became the secretary, I couldn't have been more inspired and excited to work under his leadership and to a leash. His reputation preceded him and certainly once in office and in the few weeks that I've been in office, I've come to deeply appreciate the value of the clarity that he offers us in terms of guidance, the importance he places on readiness and lethality and his general direction and support that he gives the services. As a leader of the Army, I can't ask for more than that type of clarity of thought, that guidance and that support. It's critical to the tasks we have ahead of us. And again, Mr. Secretary, thank you again for all that and for your support for me to be the Secretary of the Army. The second question had to deal with who I'm working with. And I've got to tell you, I could not have picked a finer Army team, leadership team to serve alongside. Whether it's Under Secretary McCarthy who is a combat veteran, a man with boundless energy, extensive knowledge of DOD, he's been a great counsel to me and a great Under Secretary, Chief of Staff of the Army Mark Milley who everyone knows well for his years of dedicated leadership, his clarity in terms of what we need to do to prepare our troops for the critical war fighting missions. And I can go on and on about the Vice Chief, the Sergeant Major of the Army, and other General Officers. Needless to say, Mr. Secretary, I want to assure you that we are all in the same wavelength in terms of what the Army needs to do. We all understand the rigors of wartime. We understand the importance of training, being prepared for combat. And we are all prepared to make sure that our country, our Army is ready should we be called upon again. I would be remiss in that regard of not saying as well that I'm quite pleased and ecstatic about the team you've built at OSD and my fellow service secretaries. Having Secretary Wilson and Secretary Spencer, I think we have a quick and easy report. I'm excited to work with them as well because I think in the tough days ahead that are likely to be ahead that that type of relationship is critical if we as a joint force are going to serve the nation well. Lastly, with regard to the job, the actual responsibility of Secretary of the Army, I can't think of any greater honor, any greater privilege than to be in this role. It is a homecoming for me in so many ways. The Secretary cited that my early days as an 18-year-old swearing a similar oath on the plane at West Point in 1982 when I first entered the military. So in many ways I feel like I'm going back to my roots. I can't say enough about the virtue of our soldiers, their resiliency and their willingness to take on tough tasks that lie ahead. The Secretary cited Ferenbach and his comment on warfare. Ferenbach is more often cited as well for his seminal work on Korea called this kind of war. And in that, it talks about the importance of readiness in a conflict. In this one, of course, it was Korea. And as Director Pompeo and I know, it's something we studied at West Point, and as young officers it was beaten to us, the importance of readiness. And the mantra that we carried out there was no more task force myths. And so I understand the importance of readiness, and it's something we face now and will continue to build upon. It's building that force that's ready today and in the future. And so, Mr. Secretary, as we talk about priorities, as you know, I came into my nomination, I came into office with a few priorities. First and foremost was readiness, being prepared to fight that hard, long, high-intensity conflict fight. Secondly, building the capacity and capabilities to overmatch. Third, reform. Making sure we free up the time, the money and manpower to put in those other priorities. And then, of course, building those strategic partnerships, those alliances that will hold us well in any engagement, in any conflict, in any fight. On top of those focused priorities, I added two other things. The importance of taking care of our soldiers, our civilians, and their families. Because they are the backbone of our service. They are critical to what our soldiers do. And we need to take care of them and make sure they are well-led. And secondly, the importance of all of the Army, the Army family, recommitting itself to the Army's values, particularly leadership. I'm convinced, I've become convinced over time that a rededication of those values, treating everyone with dignity and respect and doing the right thing is what serves the Army, which serves the military and the country well in the long run. So with that, I will stop and thank you all once again for being here, for sharing this very important moment with me and for all of your service as well. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Secretary Esper. Ladies and gentlemen, please join in the singing of the Army song. Gentlemen, this concludes today's ceremony. You are invited to come forward and congratulate Secretary Esper and his family. Thank you. Thank you.