Nothing but light poles

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Back to Back Q’s are always my favorite. Especially when I had 8 hours to prepare. Kielbasa took the day off so I jumped on the chance to Q on what I still consider to be home turf. Vernon walked up confidently with what I came to find out was an FNG. I instantly Omaha’d from my original set LOL. Didn’t want to scare him off day one.

I gave the disclaimer (just showing off for the new guy) and off we went. Short mosey around the parking lot then on to the proverbial stretches. Moroccan night clubs, imperial walkers, and merkins. To end the merkins Airborne held 6″…..

Grab the bells and ran down to the mild of 9 light poles lining the entrance road to the school. Starting from the entrance going all 9 light poles toward the school the exercises were as follows.

10 Gunslingers, 20 flutters , 30 tri-extensions, 40 goblet squats, 40 American Hammers, 40 LBC, 30 Curls, 20 KB Swings, 10 plank flys

We started in the middle at the Hammers. We did those then went to the next pole to get the LBC’s. Then we went back 2 poles and hit the Hammers again and then squats. Next it was back toward the school for Hammers, LBC’s, then Curls. You may be catching on by now…..Next was back accross them all toward the entrance for LBC’s, Hammers, Squats, and Tri-extensions.

This went on and on until we reached the flutters on the entrance side and the flys on the school side. We almost made all of the poles but after what amounted to 1.5 miles of running with the bell and something to the order of 300 Hammers with the bell we were all toast. COT time

Prayers for our country, Texas folks affected by the storm, and our group.

Moleskin

I am not the preachy type. I’m more the “is that a Greek God” in human form type. But, with a new comer in the crowd I felt compelled to speak today. Somewhere around light pole 14 we paused for me to drop the truth. What started as a normal F3 speech quickly transformed and I found I was speaking to myself. I started to describe our group as follows.

We are just normal guys. What gets most of us is the freeness of the event. Most guys do anything thats free LOL. That’s at least what it starts as…..we are a band of brothers for a greater cause. When you wake up always know we are there in the gloom waiting on you. When someone Q’s understand they want you to not only be physically stronger, but mentally and spiritually as well. This group has brought me to heights I never thought achievable. Hell, I ran a fricking half marathon and the P200 at 250 pounds. Yea the physical conditioning helped, but the most valuable asset of all is every single member of this group. When I ran those events I thought of all my brothers running ahead of me, with me, and encouraging me from behind.

If you come here to work out then basically you’ve missed everything. You can do that on your own time for free at your community gym. Get plugged in, hit the 3rd Fs, volunteer, go to convergences, get in Whetstone. Basically in Birdcage language…sh*t or get off the pot.

Well now that its out I can get preachy I expect a flood of messages about me speaking at events. I offer an F3 discount, just be sure to mention the special promo code CSPANISOLD

Thanks Sauerkraut – even though you weren’t there

Welcome FNG Neo- Vernon must not like you to bring you to one of my Q’s

Respectfully, Birdcage

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2

Little of this, Little of that

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12 men posted to LacesIn on a perfect temperature kind of day. We even had a light breeze.

Warm up

Short mosey and circle up for the usual suspects.

  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Squats
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter

The Thang

Mosey over the band lot and line up on the goal line for the following

  • Lunge walk 50 yards. Stop every ten yards for 5 squats. Jog back to start
  • Bear Crawl 50 yards and 5 CDDs every ten yards. Jog back to start.
  • Crabwalk 50 yards with 10 LBCs every ten yards. Jog back to start
  • Burpees broad jump 50 yards. Jog back to start.
  • Theee rounds of suicides to the 10, 20, and 30

Mosey back over to base of hill at the entrance to parking lot from Munn Road and do:

  • 10 singe count Merkins, 20 squats IC, 30 LBCs. Run to top of hill and jog back down.
  • 10 single count diamond Merkins, 20 sumo squats, 30 Freddy mercury. Run to top of hill and jog back down
  • 10 single count wide Merkins, 20 monkey humpers, 30 flutters. Run to top of hill and jog back down.

Mosey back to COT

Had a great time Qing today and thank you all for coming out and supporting LacesIn at the new location.

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Getting G-Fit in Paradise

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What a fun evening in Paradise!  If you have not gotten the opportunity to come see what G-Fit on Friday night is like, I highly recommend it.  Our brothers Deacon and Bolt and others have taken ownership of this AO and really are making it into something special.  This was my first time back to Steele Street Park since our Easter Egg Hunt outreach and it is a great little park.  Full court basketball, a field for football, a pavilion, swing set, spray park?  Awesome.  And like it says in the bible, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  We need more Q’s to step up and lead.  DO IT!  You will be blessed and encouraged, I guarantee it.  Here’s what we did on my VQ:

YHC gathered his 2.0, Captain Snooze, and his FNG friend from the neighboorhood and we arrived a the park around 18:40.  Kids and teens were on the court shouting around so we joined them.  I quizzed the crowd about F3 and who had attended a workout.  About half had.  We quickly head locked the other half and it was announced we’d start at the top of the hour.  As 19:00 approached, more and more of The Fort PAX started showing up.  It was great seeing so many familiar faces!  Longer shout-out to you all below but back to the blast.  We circled up at half court for disclaimer and a few words about what to expect for the next 45 minutes and we were off.

THE THANG

Mosey around the park, past the pavilion, around the bathrooms, loop around the spray park then high knees and butt kickers as we head to the parking lot.  Once on the lot, karaoke right for half, then left until the end.  Up the grass hill to the field area for COP

Reps were kept to around 10 for the following exercises, all in cadence:

SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Squats, Merkins, LBC, Flutters

Water break while we talked about the word of the month, discipline.  What is discipline?  We discussed that discipline is doing what is necessary even when it’s not what you want to do.  We need discipline in our lives to reach our athletic goals.  Kevin Durant did not develop his jump shot by shear luck or talent.  It has taken years of hard work and discipline to get his game to where it’s at.  We need discipline in our lives to reach our academic goals.  Good grades and success don’t just happen, they take discipline.  AYE!

The group was then split between younger kids and teens / adult and each group headed to a basketball hoop.  We lined up from tallest to shortest on the free throw line for a game of knock-out.  Classic game that is always fun.  Bolt quickly emerged as the man to beat but nobody actually could!  Fortunately he sat out after one victory and let some others win.  I think a total of 3 games were played.  Maybe 4?  Anyway, we grabbed a quick sip of water and then headed to the field for some flag football.

Deacon picked 2 younger lads as team captains and all the younger PAX were picked for teams.  Deacon and YHC served as coach / referee while the adult PAX resumed their battle on the basketball court.  The football game was a blast to watch and it was great to see the younger PAX work together as teams.  A bunch of touchdown were scored and a bunch of smiling faces greeted us as we call time and headed for COT.

At COT we named to 4 FNG’s and it was sweet to see how pumped the kids were at their names.  I think we did pretty good with 88 (Cowboys fan), Clutch (the star of the football and basketball games), Man of Steel (Steelers fan who was wearing a team jersey), and Philmont (Boy Scout working towards Eagle).

Announcement was made about a special Labor Day workout on 9/1.  Did somebody say PIZZA?  Expect record breaking numbers for that one.  No prayer requests but YHC took us our with a prayer asking God for help in developing margin and discipline in our lives.

Moleskin

As this was my VQ, I really appreciated seeing some familiar faces.  Thanks to Barry Manilow, Bolt, Deacon, Polaroid, Fish Sticks, and Wapner for posting.  Most brought a 2.0 with them and that is a great part of this AO.  Sharing the vision of F3 and the mission of this particular workout with your kid and having them join you is truly a blessing.  I have to say my heart was warmed when I saw a young kid from the neighborhood jump on my 2.0’s back.  Everybody got along great together, supported each other, and had a blast on a beautiful Friday night.  The sunset was unreal BTW.  Deacon said it’s like that after every workout.  Thanks to you, Deacon, for the opportunity to Q.  After all the unrest and hate on display in our country, it was a breath of fresh air to laugh and play and pray with men and young men of different nationalities.  It’s really not that hard when you just love one another.  Everybody loves love.

Flat Tire

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The Bird has landed

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Well well well….Your boy Birdcage gets injured and everyone thinks hes gotten soft when he returns. Sorry boys, aint gonna happen. I’m not back to full running form however everything else works fine.

The Thang

Hi my name is, dont sue anyone, lets go.

What a better way to start than a little 1 mile ish run around NAFO at a faster than some desired pace (Kielbasa). Warm up consisted of a plank nightmare. The ten of us circled and entered the plank position. We went around counting off ten counts. About every three ten counts I barked out a different plank variation. We rotated from regular, then left, then right and after 2 minutes of planking we hurt.Next variation was not as fun. We did the same scenario with mountain climbers, peter parkers, and parker peters. Yea……2 minutes of that sucked also.

We then ran back across the AO for some wall sits down at the elementary school. We did wall sits while the line bear crawled past us….twice. Then we all did a ten count each whilst in the wall sit position. I like others to get involved….

Most had noticed we past the pull up bars as we journeyed across the AO. Well, I’m no good at pull ups but everyone seemed to want to do them so off we went. Series included 10 knees to chest and 5 negative 3 counts from the pull up position. We did 3 rounds of this.

So we seemed to be missing something, running. We ran back across the AO to the practice fields. There we did 2 rounds of partner wheelbarrows across the field width wise.

Then back to COT for a well deserved Body Destroyer. If you dont know what those are show up to my next q, if your man enough.

Thank you Kielbasa for the invite. I love qing that AO. I also like that you drank a Coors light in COT. Only a Polish guy could get away with that, or a rucker.

Birdcage out

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Crawlin’ at the Deep

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning at the Deep, cool with no humidity in sight (finally).  Since this was my first opportunity to Q I showed up early to scope the lay of the land and prep for the beatdown that was to follow, I wanted to make an impression after all.  The minutes leading up to the workout were suspenseful for me with most of the 9 PAX that posted rolling in at about 6:28.

@ 6:30 sharp we were all ready to begin.  No FNG’s in sight so I gave a quick disclaimer and we immediately circled up in the parking lot for some warm up exercises:

15 Windmills IC
15 Cherry Pickers IC
15 Moroccan Nightclubs IC
15 SSH IC
15 PJ’s IC
15 Alternating Shoulder Taps (Plank position) IC
15 Low Slow Squats IC

We then moseyed the long way around the parking lot with a few toy soldiers along the way until stopping at the top of a grassy hill for the first routine.  This consisted of running down to the bottom of the hill and backwards back up to the top where 5 CDD’s  awaited us before repeating 5x and adding 5 CDD’s each time.

Back to mosey across the street to the elementary school playground where the next routine awaited which consisted of 5 dips & 2 pull-ups and a lap around the perimeter of the playground.  Repeat 5x adding 5 dips & 2 pull-ups each time.  Grand total about a half mile of running, 30 pull-ups, and 75 dips.

Short mosey from the playground to the track & field where we spent the rest of our time.

First up was a little baseball, F3 style, as we attempted to hit for “The Cycle”.  I found this little gem on the Exicon, which I must admit, seemed a lot easier on paper.  After a little grumbling and a lot of crawling we all finished the exercise.  The Cycle consisted of bear crawling to 1st base (about 75ft to each base in our version), performing 3 burpees, and crawl-bear back to home (backwards bear crawl).  Then another bear crawl from home to 2nd base (rounding 1st), 6 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  From home to 3rd base with another bear crawl, 9 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  Finally, the last bear crawl all the way around the bases where 12 more burpees awaited…

…We called and audible and nixed the crawl bear back around the bases to the relief of all.

The last routine was another goodie I found on the Exicon named after Del Brown.  This consisted of performing 10 merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl, 10 diamond merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl back, and 10 more merkins.

Mosey back to the parking lot with a couple of minutes to spare.  I called on some PAX for ab exercises and we filled the last couple of minutes with Boxcutters and Hello Dolly’s before recovering to CoT.

Thanks Royale for the opportunity to lead, it was an honor and I’m already thinking about the next one.  All the PAX worked hard today and a few of us met up for Coffeteria after at the local Dunkin’ Donuts for a little 2nd F.

-Flux

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12

Mixed Up Miles

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8 pax posted to #LacesOut for a morning of speed training measured by who could start sweating the soonest.  It didn’t take long, with shirts coming off after the first cycle.

The Thang

COP warm up — SSH, Mtn climbers, Parker Peters, Windmills, Hillbilly walkers

Karaoke across football field

Butt kickers and toy soldiers back across

Run 1 mile at 2nd F pace

Line up on track at 50 yd line on home side

Part 1: Run 2 laps counterclockwise
Part 2: Jog 1/2 lap to 50 yd line on visitor side
Part 3: Turn around and run 1 lap clockwise
Part 4: Jog 1/2 lap back to 50 yd line on home side
Total = 1 mile
(Rinse & repeat 4 total cycles or 4 miles)

Stretch

COT

NMM

Solid work by all pax today in the steamy gloom.  5 miles total and plenty of sweat.  Metabolism was cranking for hours afterward.

Thanks to STH for the invite!  You were missed!

 

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Never left BAM

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It was a beautiful, slightly less humid morning as the PAX gathered at the Swamp. It’s nice to see some new faces around the circle this morning before we split into the boot-campers and ruckers. Some form of a disclaimer was given and off we went toward the Depot.

Normal mix of high knees, butt-kickers, and karaoke’s on the way. Circle up at HD for warm-ups. 25 SSHs, 15 IWs, 10 Windmills, 10 Peter Parkers, 10 Parker Peters, 25 MNCs, 10-Sumo squats.

Mosey to Books-A-Million lot.
Suicides starting from far cub and using each parking divider (4 trips).
Leg pyramid: 10 Burpees, 20 1-leg lunges (10 each), 30 Mtn Climbers, 40 Squats, 50 SSHs, 40 Squats, 30 Mtn Climbers, 20 1-leg lunges, 10 Burpees
Suicides – audible to only 3 trips.
Merkin clock: 1,4,7,10-Diamonds / 2,5,8,11-Wide Arm / 3,6,9,12-Regular. Go around the clock and do the merkin type. (I hadn’t done this in a while and now I remember why).
Suicides – 3 trips
Ab time: 15 Flutters, 20 tiny circles (10 each way), 15 Freddie Mercury’s, 15 LBCs
Suicides – 2 trips
Small jack pyramid: 10 Bomb-jacks, 20 Plank-jacks, 30 Seal-jacks, 20 Plank-jacks, 10 Bomb-jacks
Bear crawl suicide – Bear crawl from end of one parking lane to beginning of other lane, 1 merkin, backwards bear-crawl to start, 1 merkin. Did this 5 times.

Mosey back to COT for some dying cockroaches before the ruckers came in.

We never left the BAM lot but I tried to throw a little bit of everything in today. Great job by everyone. I’m always honored to lead this group of impressive PAX. Thanks CableGuy for the opportunity.

Logging out,
Mainframe

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2

SlowBurn_The New Moderate

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It is Slow Burn and it would be expected that 30+ show up. It has been debated on the “Moderate” workouts, why are they so popular?? I truly believe that its because we long for fellowship. We enjoy, especially on Friday, the idea of working out….yea maybe, but more importantly conversing and chatting it up with our brethren.
Regardless, moderate does not mean easy. I believe it is modified as needed. Qs do not need to make a workout that kills people, but on the other hand, if we are up at 4:30am to workout…..we should get a workout.
I told the PAX to expect the unexpected. We should not be shocked when sickenss, chaos and things hit us from the side since Life is always full of surprises. Instead, we should have the discipline and character to step up to the challenges before us…..at a workout or in Life!
The Thang:
Quick 20 SSHs in parking lot
Mosey across to Holiday Inn Express for some Mountain Climbers
Mosey to behind Burger King for some COP
  • Plank
  • Squats
  • Parker Peters
  • Flutters
  • Peter Parkers
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Sumo Squats

Saturday night is one of the most hyped fights since the Tyson era. In that spirit, the PAX and I went a couple of rounds in the office parking lot

Each station for 3 minutes doing the 2 exercises marked on the ground. One time is up, move to next station and next 3 mins. Pain was had by all!!

#1
10-SSHs
10-Merkins
#2
15-Squat
5-Burpees
#3
10-Dips
20-moracan night club
#4
20-squat jabs
10-Peter Parkers
#5
10-maktarji
10-broad jumps
#6
10-leg raises
10-ski hops
#7
10-CDDs
15-Apollo Ono
#8
Partner Plank
Derkins
#9
10  1 leg balance toe touch
5 donkey kicks
Mosey back to COT
Talked to the men about expecting the unexpected. I shared about my 52 yr old sister with cancer and facing death. My brother after 25 years of marriage calling it quits. Unexpected life changing events for me and my family. How we deal with this is critical to how we face life daily. Emotions are high, but we should not wait until we are facing these situations to then say….how do I deal with it. Start today to be the man Sky Q intended you to be. Don’t wait till its too late to make yourself better and deal with the things that will come. Get stronger physically, emotionally, spiritually to be able to walk through things and with others!
Welcome FNGs Bearcat and Clark Kent!!!
Colombia Team send off at The Ranch 9/7
Invergence 9/29 Greenway
5yr Convergence 9/30
Prayers for Families, kids, schools and teachers! All spoken and unspoken prayers!
Cake Boss Out!
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9

Set those goals and discipline will take you there

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11 hearty Pax posted to Alcatraz looking for that perfect mixture of pain and fellowship. I was stoked to be able to lead alongside a well-known Master of the Beatdown, our own Jekyll. We agreed ahead of time that YHC would take the 1st half and this is how we started:

Full Disclaimer was given for our FNG (my wife’s cousin Joe) who I had been EH’ing for some time along with Old Bay and Destiny. Old Bay gets the assist as he agreed to drive Joe to Alcatraz. Luckily, my legal training has prepared me for denying and disclaiming all liability.

Mosey along Windward with some Butt Kickers, High Knees and karaoke mixed in.

COP, all IC: SSH * 20, Imperial Walkers * 15, Merkins * 10, Windmills * 15, Diamond Merkins * 10, Squats * 15, Plank Series, MNC*15, Wide Arm Merkins * 10

The Thang:

Grab cinder blocks from Jekyll’s car and mosey to the near baseball diamond. Partner up and prepare for a modified Dora-Milwaukee Baseball Trivia style. With the monthly theme of Discipline swirling in my head and heart all week, my thoughts turned to the sport of baseball as it requires so much mental and physical discipline to reach the highest level. So, our exercises would be informed by some trivia about my hometown of Milwaukee and its’ teams. To Wit:

  1. 1954-1st National League city to pass 2 million in attendance- not New York or Chicago, but Milwaukee-do 54 chest presses total
  2. 1979 1st time there were Co-Rookies of the Year in the AL- 79 block swings– The co-rookies were Alfredo Griffin, Toronto and John Castino, Minnesota. John happens to be my cousin and his discipline and determination at baseball made a large impression on me and grew my love of the game immeasurably.
  3. 1982- 1st and only World Series appearance for the Brewers- 82 overhead presses
  4. 2008- Brewers end 26-year playoff drought- 108 LBCs w/block

Closed out my portion with 20 leg throws/partner and 20 partner hand-clap Merkins.

Cue Jekyll:

With Short Sale testing the cerebral and the chesticles, I thought wise to focus on the ol back and stumps.  We moseyed the loop around the park stopping for a few upper, middle, lowers- ala: pearls on a string.

Keeping with the baseball theme- we ran bases as such:

  • Bear Crawl to 1st, do 5 Burpees, crab walk to 2nd, More Burpees, Bear Crawl to 3rd, You guessed it-5 Burpees and Crab walk home
  • Squat walk to 1st, tip toe lunge to 2nd, squat walk to 3rd, tip toe lunge to home
  • Partner carries swapping as needed for everyone to get 2 full laps
  • Wheel barrow with partner swapping at each base

We probably did some more but I (Jekyll) had sweat in my eyes the entire time.

Short Sale had great words of wisdom RE: theme of the month Discipline.  YHC offered his two cents:

  • Ephesians 6:4 Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord
  • Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

NMM (from Short Sale):

After COP, I mentioned our first thoughts on Discipline. I often blur the line between Discipline and punishment towards my kids. Discipline should be a way to moderate their behavior and show them the “guardrails” in life. YHC can be heavy handed at times and I need to be less of a taskmaster. Also, be more disciplined and do a better job of treating our 2.0s equally and not showing favoritism. Discipline is also the bridge that takes us from our current accomplishments towards the goals we have set for ourselves. Personally, the gap between my accomplishments and my goals can be very wide sometimes. Need to focus more on serving my M and less on selfish pursuits. Jekyll’s bible verses above were spot on. All the advice I need is right there in Scripture, just need to take the time and give my faith walk greater attention.

I was honored to lead with Jekyll and humbled at the opportunity. Thanks Senator Tressel for the nod. To me, Alcatraz is one of the finest AOs, and that is a testament to the Senator’s leadership.

Short Sale and Jekyll out.

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Getting Old-School, Around The School

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While YHC has posted to TheRanch a number of times, it’s been a while, and this was possibly the first time Q’ing there (according to my Evernote Weinke folder).  I arrived a bit earlier than usual to confirm a few geographic details that Google Maps and my memory were shaky on.  Already there was Straight Up, getting some stretches in, and What-Did’s empty car, as he was out for a pre-run.

Shortly after, What-Did and the rest of the pax rolled in, and at 0515 the disclaimer was given.

  • 25 SSH
  • Mosey clockwise around school, 1/4 of the way
  • Variety of warm-up exercises (in no particular order)
    • Mountain climbers
    • Butt Kickers
    • High-Knees
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Shuffle Left/Right
    • Windmills
    • Karaoke
    • Run-stance-switch squats
    • Run Backwards
    • Mountain Climbers

Found a wall for People’s chair.  Pax, one at a time, bear crawled “down the line”.
Repeat with crab-walks

Ran around back of middle school to car-rider drop-off driveway.  Found some grass for under-over railroad tracks (until we ran out of grass).

Ran around the driveway to the bottom of the hill (that leads up to the upper part of the driveway) for a Jacob’s Ladder (7) – Morning Wood at the top, Burpees at the bottom.

Continue mosey around the school to a nice piece of grass not far from the shovel flag for traditional Jack Webb (1:4 ratio, to 10).

Finish with some Mary:

  • Flutters
  • American Hammers
  • Chop-sticks

TIme’s up.  Head to COT.

Thanks to Backdraft for allowing me to Q.  I look forward to hopefully being a regular on the schedule.  Great work by all pax this morning for a pretty traditional beating.  Until next time…

-old bay

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