:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Sunday, April 30, 2006 ::

Today at brunch, my friend lovingly called her boyfriend a "twerp," and it totally made my day because I haven't heard that word in years!

:: SL 12:12 PM [+] ::
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Yes, and the 80s dance was certainly a ton of fun! We all enjoyed partying the night away to hits, and they even played my favorite 80s song, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. We also sang along to the rock anthem "Livin' On A Prayer" and slow-danced to Cyndi Lauper's classic, "Time After Time." Oh, good times, good times.

Our house master and de facto roving photographer managed to get some photos of me in my 80s costume... I was going for David Copperfield in the 80s, and if my hair were just a little bit poofier, I would have made a perfect doppelganger for the magician... particularly when I was standing next to the large fan at the dance and my shirt billowed oh-so majestically. It was quite a "Take My Breath Away" (another 80s hit, ha!) moment.


My friend Kayt and I getting ready for a night of dancing...

:: SL 6:55 AM [+] ::
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Last night was fun... My friends got together for a pre-party, and we watched part of the movie Bring It On. I don't care what they say... Kirsten Dunst is hot! I then met up with some other friends and we all went to a super fun dance party. Yay! We then ended the night at the Kong for a delicious broccoli and chicken combo plate with pork fried rice and an egg roll with the Kong's excellent apple-flavored sweet-and-sour sauce, with a side of conversation. I then stayed up working on my website and doing general e-mail administration.

Considering I stayed up until 9 a.m., I got up today in time for dinner sometime after 5. Yay for being nocturnal! Haha... this shall be remedied soon. After dinner, I helped set up for the 80s dance tonight by clearing out the dining hall. Tonight, I'm going to my friend's pre-party for the 80s dance and then heading over to the 80s dance, where we will celebrate that delightful decade with Tab soda, Pop-Rocks candy, the hottest hits from the 80s, and the donning of 80s costumes. I am planning to wear this super-shiny silver shirt from the 80s I somehow acquired over the years. And to get myself in the mood, I've been listening to 80s music nonstop, from "Livin' on a Prayer" to "Take on Me" to "Like a Prayer" to "Video Killed the Radio Star." Woot. Tonight will be a fun night indeed.

Quote(s) of the Day: "I'd rather consider my sister as a non-ovulating, non-menstruating entity..."

"Bedside manner is important... How is your bedside manner?" "Fuckin' awesome!"

"Oooh, fuck me sideways!" "OK! I'll do that!"

"[In British accent] And so the conversation revolved around vaginas."
"Look, they don't use the word vagina in England!!!"
"[In British accent] Oh, what do they call them, then, love? What's the British word for vagina???"
"They just don't talk about them over there!!!"
"[In British accent] Wait, what about twat? Does twat mean vagina? OK... and so the conversation revolved around twats!"

:: SL 5:11 PM [+] ::
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Quote of the Day: "Sam K = Sam J 2.0? Omg, what have you done with Sam J?!?"

:: SL 3:13 AM [+] ::
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I'm sorry... I have a big backlog of quotes, so I'm going to dump them all here:

Quote(s) of the Day: "Awww, it'll be OK... no harm, no foul... Oh my goodness... Did I just use a sports analogy?!?"

"Wait, has she had a boyfriend?" "No, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been eaten out!"

"What do you call a cold pirate tree?" "Shiver me timbers? Arr brr?"

"Are you going to John Harvard's Bar Mitzvah?" "I didn't know John Harvard was Jewish."

"See? We're in Cambridge now!" "Um, weren't we in Cambridge the entire time?"

"We saw pubic hair! That counts as nudity!!!"

"Is that a dried fig?" "Yeah." "It fig-ures."

"They said that the trees smelled like a massive gang-bang, and that made me think of you..." "What??? Does my face just scream SEXUAL VIOLENCE?!?!?"

:: SL 5:07 PM [+] ::
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Haha... this is hilarious.

:: SL 8:47 PM [+] ::
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Haha... I sure got an earful when I complained about the film The Princess Bride... to my friend, whose favorite film of all time is The Princess Bride...

Me: "I dunno... [The Princess Bride] just never enchanted me that much... I got really annoyed at that weird giant character... You know, the one that keeps repeating that dreadful line about I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father...?"
Friend: ".... r ... u ... serious ... ?"
Friend: "thats TWO DIFFERENT CHARACTERS!!!"

Quote of the Day: "Everyone I've met up here off of MySpace wants me... I think MySpace should be renamed 'Sex Addict Hookup Space'; we're just all sex addicts who need to get some."

:: SL 6:25 PM [+] ::
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Haha... My friend and I suddenly stumbled upon this "o rly?" kick (background info here), and she found the perfect one for me:

:: SL 6:25 PM [+] ::
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The Facebook killed Mickey Mouse!

I'm really upset because the Facebook has been cracking down on fake profiles and deleting their accounts, and since I am the account-holder for Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at Harvard on the Facebook, I am very upset. Mickey Mouse had nearly 3,000 friends on the Facebook and brought great joy to many! How could they do this?!?! I already think quite little of Mark Zuckerberg and his questionable business practices, but enforcing the ban on imaginary character profiles on the Facebook is a new low!!!

:: SL 4:02 AM [+] ::
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Haha... I sure got an earful when I complained about the film The Princess Bride... to my friend, whose favorite film of all time is The Princess Bride...

Me: "I dunno... [The Princess Bride] just never enchanted me that much... I got really annoyed at that weird giant character... You know, the one that keeps repeating that dreadful line about I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father...?"
Friend: ".... r ... u ... serious ... ?"
Friend: "thats TWO DIFFERENT CHARACTERS!!!"

Quote of the Day: "Everyone I've met up here off of MySpace wants me... I think MySpace should be renamed 'Sex Addict Hookup Space'; we're just all sex addicts who need to get some."

:: SL 3:54 AM [+] ::
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"I Have To Deal With Something Racial Every Day"

"Yeah, my hometown doesn't have very many Jews... or Asians... or Blacks..."
"That sounds nice! What part of California are you from?"

:: SL 8:57 PM [+] ::
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Last weekend and this weekend were fun. I helped out with house managing the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeoman of the Guard. It's a good show, and hack night last night was full of funny in-jokes and random anachronisms.

Friday night, I went downtown to see the new touring production of Spamalot, the hit Broadway musical based on the cult favorite Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I made sure to watch the movie again the night before to prep myself. I remember being in middle school and high school when all my friends were obsessed with Monty Python jokes, and I had never seen the movie then, so I didn't know what the hell they were talking about when they asked, "What floats in water?" "Apples! Small rocks! A church!"

Spamalot was funny, but very similar to the Monty Python movie, just with more songs and glittery costumes and sets. Lots of lines were lifted verbatim from the film, but I guess it wouldn't work otherwise for its cult fan base. They included my favorite scene from the movie ("We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune." ... "Who does he think he is?" "I am your king!" "Well, I didn't vote for you." "You don't vote for kings." ... "Listen... strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power comes from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!" "Shut up!" "See??? This is the violence inherent in the system! Help, help! I'm being repressed!").

Lots of references to the smallest details from the movie... There were also a bunch of new songs and scenes that poked fun at other Broadway musicals. Overall, it was a good time. Oh, they also imported the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," although it loses the ironic context of the original song. There was also an audience sing-along at the end. Good times. Everyone who's a fan of Monty Python... go see this show when it stops by your city!

Throughout the week, I started working on my website again. It was good to finish a big project I had started on it.

I had a good time on Friday night at a tea party my roommates had, and later I went to Charlie's Kitchen to meet up with friends. I spoke in a British accent, and it was a lot of fun. Haha... but my British friend kept correcting me, "British people don't say that!!!" Oh, and of course no weekend is complete without a trip to the Kong for greasy Chinese food, so there was that.

This past week was a bit tough because I got sick and then suddenly (and bizarrely) became Sleeping Beauty because I could not wake up for anything... I just kept on sleeping and sleeping. Maybe it's from the exhausting week before when I had to write two big papers.

Graduation is quickly approaching, and there is much to be done before... two huge projects/papers and three finals. I'm not looking forward to them. But it'll be a big party when those are done!

Quote(s) of the Day: "I always thought God must be something like Mr. Rogers..."

"Are you done with fisting?"

"I wish it were socially acceptable to punch people who pissed you off."

:: SL 5:23 PM [+] ::
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Haha... I totally became British this evening. Bloody good!

:: SL 12:07 AM [+] ::
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Ahhh! At Walt Disney World they were selling these pins of this new line of super-cute representations of Mickey Mouse and friends:



I hadn't seen this new line before. It's very Hello Kitty-esque, and I have never seen anything cuter in my entire life. I love Mickey Mouse already, but I think cute Mickey is more adorable than ever.

I didn't know what to get for my parents, so I ended up buying a set of cute Mickey and Minnie beanbag couch pillows that are sort of in this style. Haha... my wallet's going to suffer when they have even more cute Mickey products... I'm thinking hats? shirts? mugs? pens? pencils? notepads? mousepads? dishware? magnets? picture frames? Oh, the possibilities are endless...

:: SL 12:52 AM [+] ::
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A hahaha... I'm sorry I keep telling stories from WDW, but Missy's recent post reminded me: One of the questions in Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It! was about fashion (What fashion house is Stella McCartney associated with? Answer: Chloe), but the person in the hotseat didn't know, and her only lifeline left was "Ask a Stranger," so she used it, and the person came on the line. The host asked the stranger, "Hi there! We have a question here about fashion. Are you familiar with fashion?" And the person on the phone replies, "Does Wal-Mart count?"

Haha. This reminds me of this news clipping I once saw (I think on Jay Leno's "Headlines" segment) which was an article about a new dollar store that had opened in the city. A woman was quoted in the story saying, "I like Dollar-Mart because you don't have to dress up to go there like you do when you go to Wal-Mart." Dressing up to go to Wal-Mart? Oh, my bad... I forgot Wal-Mart is //such// a classy place.

Quote(s) of the Day: "At least prostitution isn't addictive! World of Warcraft is!"

"Hey, I'm going to get some chocolate... I'm on my period, you know, so it only makes sense that I'm craving it." "TMI! TMI!!!"

"Man, 17th century popes were sooo hardcore."

:: SL 9:15 PM [+] ::
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I also forgot to mention that at Disney-MGM Studios we participated in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!, basically a live version of the TV show in an exact replica of the show's set where audience members can play along and get a chance to win prizes. I never made it to the hotseat at the front (although I did come in fourth or fifth in that first question to determine who gets into the hotseat).

I had played it in 2002 at Disney's California Adventure on our end-of-high-school trip to the Disneyland Resort with friends when the attraction was still operating there, so I was pretty knowledgeable about the format of the game, and on our last viewing of this show last week, I ended up knowing the answers to most of the questions and guessed correctly on the ones I didn't know. They periodically show who has the top score in the audience playing along with the person in the hotseat, and when one person lost the game after missing a question, they showed the scores and I was the top scorer in the audience! If there was enough time and they were going to pick another person for the hotseat, I would have been selected! Alas. I think it really helped that I knew the answer to this obscure $125,000 question about who was Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year for 2003 (Robert Downey, Jr., who isn't exactly that big of a celebrity compared to the other choices given). But that was such a random question... I certainly wouldn't have known the answer if it weren't here at my school.

:: SL 12:01 AM [+] ::
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Oh! I forgot to mention that during our trip we made lots of references to being a "Debbie Downer," a hilarious SNL skit where a dour character named Debbie Downer who says a lot of depressing things and ruins a fun character breakfast at Walt Disney World. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

:: SL 5:24 PM [+] ::
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Yay, last week's spring break vacation to Walt Disney World was a blast and definitely the best week EVARRR!

People often ask me why I like Disney so much, and I talk about how I like the escapism, the journey into another world, the expression of the possibility of dreams fulfilled. These things definitely made my vacation to Walt Disney World so magical.

It was also a lot of fun to spend time with my friend Kayt, with whom I've been friends since freshman year here. We lived across the hall from each other freshman year, and we've been talking about going to Walt Disney World since then. I'm glad we finally followed through and made the trip! We went to all four Walt Disney World theme parks, as well as the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal Studios. Eight days, five theme parks, two friends: good times all around.

Obligatory photo in front of Cinderella Castle!!!:



Highlights of our trip:

- Having dinner in Cinderella Castle. I've always wanted to dine at Cinderella's Royal Table, but it is one of the most exclusive restaurants at the resort. Reservations are booked six months in advance, and you’re lucky if you get to eat there. Kayt was persistent, and we happened to get to the desk moments after somebody had cancelled. Yay for us! Kayt loves all things princesses, so it was a dream come true for her. I enjoyed the experience immensely, as well.

It was such a magical dinner. We met Cinderella and got pictures with her in the foyer, and she welcomed us - "prince" and "princess" - to her castle. We then went upstairs where there was a three-course dinner. I had the bacon-lettuce-tomato salad, which was nice but not as great as Kayt's vegetable spring roll with ginger soy sauce and bok choy salad, of which I tried a bite. The freshly-baked and still-warm pretzel bread rolls were amazing, particularly when paired with their pomegranate dijon mustard honey butter. I had so much of the butter because it was the best I've ever tasted. For the main course, I had the pan-seared salmon paired with asparagus and cheddar mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were a bit too salty, but the salmon was excellent - crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Dessert was an amazing blueberry buckle (kind of like a more dense blueberry muffin) with a cream cheese crumbled topping, sweet lemon ice cream (perfect with the blueberries), and fresh juicy berries. During the dinner, the Fairy Godmother would come out with Suzy and Perla (Cinderella's mice companions) and do a little show about how to make dreams come true. Sooo magical! It was expensive but totally worth it.

When we walked out of the castle following the dinner, the fireworks were about to start, so they had roped off the entire area around the castle, and we were the only ones in the castle forecourt stage area, looking out into the crowd of thousands of people lined up on Main Street waiting for the fireworks and watching us emerge from the castle. We felt so special. The night ended perfectly with Wishes fireworks and then all-night partying at Pleasure Island! The most magical night ever. I mean, EVARRR.

- Visiting Islands of Adventure for the first time. I've wanted to go to this relatively new theme park since it opened in 1999 but never went in my previous visits to Orlando because it's a bit hard to get to from where I've stayed. I already knew that the theming there is incredible, and I was still very impressed. Some parts even rival Disney in their theming. I loved the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, an intense hybrid ride-through attraction that combines 3-D film, themed sets, fire, fog, water, laser, and other special effects. It's almost worth the price of aadmission alone. Kayt loves all things superheroes, so she had a blast there, too. There was also The Hulk roller coaster, which is one of the most intense in the Orlando area. The Dueling Dragons suspended roller coaster was quite fun, too, because it's actually two different tracks designed so the cars will come just a few feet from each other at certain points, so it feels like you're going to fly right into the other riders. The wait would normally be at least an hour for each, but I went 10 minutes before park closing and went on both of them before it closed. The theming of the castle queue was amazing, too. So immersive. I also enjoyed the Jurassic Park ride, which I've experienced before at Universal Studios Hollywood. The single rider lines at the park allowed us to go on many of the rides with a short wait. Yay. Oh, and the Poseidon's Fury walkthrough/show was really amazing, too. Lots of surprises and special effects... I really enjoyed it because I felt like I was exploring a lost city underground... like Indiana Jones or something.

- Seeing the new attractions at Walt Disney World imported for the "Happiest Celebration on Earth." Disney was smart in recognizing the marketing opportunities for Disneyland's 50th anniversary, so they expanded the celebration to include all its theme parks worldwide. Walt Disney World used this as a chance to bring in new shows and attractions to each of its four theme parks. At the Magic Kingdom we saw the show "Cinderellabration" - a stage show that shows Cinderella's coronation ceremony as she becomes princess. The show was an abridged version of the original from Tokyo Disneyland. There, it's a nighttime spectacular with magical lighting effects, and a lot is lost when you cut half the characters and dancers and then present it in the daytime. The fireworks finale is still excellent, though. At Epcot, we went on Soarin', a copy of the attraction at Disney's California Adventure. I was surprised they copied the film exactly, without even changing the finale, which still shows a flyover of Disneyland. At Disney-MGM Studios, we saw the new Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Spectacular (yes, every show here at Walt Disney World is a "spectacular"), imported from Walt Disney Studios Paris. I've never been a huge fan of car chases in movies, but seeing it done all live right in front of you was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. These sports cars were moving back and forth so gracefully without colliding. The drivers executed the most daring car chases right in front of our very eyes. There were fast cars, motorcycles, jet skis, and big explosions! And at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the new and highly themed roller coaster Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain had just opened... The ride officially opened this weekend, but I got to go on a preview run. I enjoyed this attraction for more than one reason, ahem... But it was a ton of fun. It was fast, and there was, of course, the largest, most complex Audio-Animatronics figure ever built for a Disney theme park attraction. The theming to a Himalayan village was very detailed. Sooo much fun.

- Hanging out and being "adults" at Pleasure Island. When Kayt was 11 her dad somehow snuck her into Pleasure Island, an 18/21+ bars and nightclubs complex at Walt Disney World. She fell in love with the Adventurer's Club, a bar themed to a safari explorer's private club, and insisted we hang out there on our visit. I had a lot of fun watching the high-energy shows, and the improv actors there were hilarious. We also danced at a couple of the clubs at Pleasure Island. Strangest moment? Dancing to a techno remix of the instrumental background soundtrack theme of Brokeback Mountain... um... whose idea was that?

- Meeting all the classic Disney characters at Epcot without having to wait for long. We saw Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale, and Goofy, and we took lots of pictures with them. Chip and Dale were particularly fun, as they competed over who could court Kayt because she was dressed like a princess. It totally made our day.

Here are some of the great pictures!











Kayt got to meet Prince Charming, who turned out to be... um... not so charming:



But she did look great as a princess...

- Having a character dinner: We went to Goofy's Liberate Your Appetite character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, and it was so much fun meeting the characters! Sad tear that Mickey himself wasn't there, but Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Pluto were there, and they were so great to interact with. We actually had met Mickey earlier that day in Epcot, so it was still great. The buffet was amazing. Served family style: bbq beef, roasted turkey, glazed ham, with mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and the creamiest mac and cheese. The mixed greens salad with strawberry vinaigrette was a great starter, and warm apple cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream (and my Asian upbringing regarding never wasting food) ensured I was stuffed beyond belief by the end of the meal. We definitely couldn't go on any roller coasters right after that...

- Eating a Mickey Premium ice cream bar. In all my visits to Disney theme parks, I don't think I've ever had a Mickey Premium Bar. I shelled out the $2.50 to get one, and it was so wonderfully creamy and chocolatey. It was a great snack on that hot day. Here's a mini photo essay of my gustatory journey with the Mickey Premium Bar:


Yay! It's cold and fresh and new!


Yum, a tasty first bite.




Sad tear! I'm almost done eating it.

- Becoming old people... One day, Kayt and I had stayed up late partying at Pleasure Island, and then there was the daylight savings time change, and then we got up early the next morning right at park opening so we could get on rides with shorter wait times. Thus, we only got four hours of sleep that night, and that combined with the constant walking around all day made us extremely tired by mid-afternoon. It got so bad that afternoon that we actually picked which rides to go on based on how well we could sleep on them. I picked "it's a small world" because it's slow-moving and long, and I actually did fall asleep on it. It was hilarious. And sad. I never thought I could fall asleep on a Disney theme park attraction. Actually, when I was younger my father would always use slow boat rides like "it's a small world" or Pirates of the Caribbean as a chance to nap because he would always get up really early to drive us down to Disneyland and was tired throughout the day. And of course everyone falls asleep in the Hall of Presidents, but who actually goes there for the express purpose of sleeping? Haha. Kayt and I, apparently. I told Kayt as we sat down at the Hall of Presidents to sleep, "You know, this officially makes us old people," for sleeping on Walt Disney World rides, but she replied, "Well, not really because we're only tired because we stayed up all night clubbing at Pleasure Island." Haha.

- Writing out and teaching the lyrics of "Doncha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me" to a nice Korean girl with limited English skills who heard the song at a club and really liked it and wanted to learn the lyrics. We then all sang it together loudly on public transportation.

- Being hit on by said Korean girl, whose name was Candy. Her friend's name was Sugar. No, they weren't strippers.

- Kayt and me picking up each other's slang terms and then using them nonstop...

"Jawesome!"
"How fawkward."
"Sad tear!"
"That was just a bad sich."
"We suck at life."
"We are sooo good at life!"
"We win at life!"

And, of course, adding the letter "d" to the end of any word or phrase to make it into a passive verb, like we were somehow victimized by the noun phrase:

"Children'd!!!"
"Strollers'd!!!"
"Turnstile'd!!!"
"Social convention'd!!!"
"Bad at life'd!!!"

- Finally, the best story EVARRR: When we were going through the bag security check at Epcot, what should fly out of someone's bag and onto the ground but a condom package! The owner of the prophylactic quickly bent down and picked it up, but it was too late... everyone around had seen it... The security guard was like, "Ummmmmm..." Haha.

Quote(s) of the Day: "How was Prince Charming?" "More like Prince Disgruntled..."

"Ahhh! This is aggravating my rubella condition!!!"

"I think I have smallpox..."

"Sam J!!! Children!!!"

"Hey, Kayt... Is it true that silence is a virtue?!?!"

"Hey, Kayt, what's the most annoying thing in the world?" "Loud teenage boys who won't shut up?"

"Damn! ... I mean, curses!!!"

:: SL 6:44 PM [+] ::
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Haha. I love how my sister just left a comment on my Facebook profile saying that I've gotten fat. Good times, good times.

:: SL 10:14 PM [+] ::
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Oh, headache, headache, headache. Stress, stress, stress.

I'm really "Giving myself the permission to be human" today...

Quote(s) of the Day: "That's not her breast... that's a loaf of bread!"

"There's a surprising amount of porn that pops up when you look for pictures of Waldo online."

"I can't believe how few pictures there are of Waldo online." "Well, he's hard to find!"

:: SL 10:06 PM [+] ::
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