Tag: Bonsai

Slapshot vs 38 Special: Grudge Match

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This last weekend there was a call to head out to one of the local favorite breweries, Amor Artis, to drink beers in the name of helping kids get through school. No, we’re not drinking beer so that there’s less for the kids, that would be ridiculous. But it’s a great way to engage in some 2nd F and contribute some $’s to the Dam2Dam relay (which is shunting their proceeds to Classroom Ready).

And, as we all know, the best and worst ideas have their genesis in a few pints of meticulously processed hops.  This was the story for two young, handsome, ridiculously strong and vigorous PAX who saw the need for a substi-Q for Quagmire the next morning. Neither PAX could decide which would take the mantle, causing YHC to respond to the site Q with a cryptic message about taking the Q if Slapshot did not. Then, over another pint, we decided to just Co-Q it because, why the heck not?

Epic

Not long after the announcement of this team up, the site Q of the Golden Corral realized just how profound it would be and immediately beseeched these captains of men to repeat their as of yet untested plan. What brilliance on the part of Lutefisk the wise.

The gloom

Dark Helmet and his pants crew (I sincerely hope this is taken out of context in 10-15 years) were already galavanting about the Corral when YHC arrived. Senator Tressel was waiting at COT. The rain had let up enough to shed any reason for gear… for about 15 seconds.  After a moment the pantalones party arrived and 0515 was struck. At this time YHC revealed that it was to be yet another Co-Q to the PAX.

Nervous looks were shared by many.

Warm up

A quick mosey around the pharmacy and far enough past the overhang to say, “Why bother trying to keep dry? We’re all men here, right?”

Circle up for:
10x variable speed low-slow squat
10x four-count monkey squats (see the ‘exicon)
10x four-count merkins

The thang: Part 1

Preface: Sometimes a great idea is only great on paper. Sometimes a great ideas come from terrible ideas. And if you don’t try a terrible idea, you may be stuck with an okayish idea for a long time. Sometimes you need terrible ideas to illustrate that okayish ideas are actually great ideas. The point is that you tried, and that those you lead did what they could to make it happen. And if it fails, maybe  you’re a good enough leader to salvage the plan and make something from which everyone can still profit.

WITH THAT IN MIND…

Mosey to the corner of the lot by Lifeline. Break PAX into groups of 4 (and a 3). Modified DORA. One runner goes to each station and relieves the next guy. Stations were Squats (300), Merkins (200) and Big Boys (200). In thought it was a fun way to get everyone using their brain, perhaps a bit confused, but not frustrated. In practice it wasn’t really tenable because when you’re timing your BBSU’s at home they go a lot faster than when you’re in the middle of a Q.  In retrospect… just drop the counts and time it.

After most of the groups seemed to finish, called an audible and everyone did DORA to run out the timer in front of the ice cream place. Since it was an audible, YHC may not recall the exercises because they were thought up on the spot, but the runner was to bear crawl the length of the sidewalk past the dog grooming place. This was reduced after the first run to stop the bear crawl at the top of the small incline, and run the remaining distance of the sidewalk and back. I’m pretty sure we did Lunges, and LBCs were called but I don’t recall if anyone got to them.

The thang: part 2

Slapshot pulled out his phone and announced that we’d be doing HIIT.  Five minute sets and you could rest only if you finished prior to the next minute starting.  And he kept changing the counts.

Set 1 – LBC, Merkins, and Squats
1. 15, 10, 10
2. 20, 10, 10
3. 20, 12, 12
4. 20, 12, 12
5. 25, 15, 15

Set 2 – double count American Hammers, HR Merkins, Single count lunge (each round the same count)
1-5. 20, 10, 12

Set 3
1. 15 burpees
2. 15 burpees
3. 10 burpees
4. 10 burpees
5. 10 burpees

Slapshot then lead the crew back to COT while some of us ran back to pick up some of the discarded gear. When YHC arrived back at COT, Slapshot was running out the clock with Superman/Banana. It was very entertaining to see.

Cot

Name-o-rama while Senator Tressel had to high tail it and everyone wondered what happened to the ruckers (who showed up a moment later).  Announced the various forms of CSAUP torture available over the next few weeks, as well as mention tonight’s 2nd F.

One PAX asked to get things moving faster due to the rain, to which another responded with words along the lines of, “There are men standing in the rain. And there is Lutefisk”

Quickly rounded up prayer requests with a bit of special attention paid to the M relationships owing to the upcoming “holiday”. Lifted up Cha Ching and his M for their trip this weekend as well.

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Late Night Q Takeover

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A quick Friday night Slack-scrolling showed me who was Qing at Milkshake & The Fort but I didn’t see any name or listing for Alcatraz. So, this led me to ask the region the question of, “Yo, who’s at Alcatraz?” After some cricket banter and off-channel comz with last week’s co-Q, Bonsai, we decided it’ll be us to Q at the sometimes forgotten AO.

With Bonsai on the front half of the 60mins, we were welcomed and disclaimed. Next, we moseyed around the path at the park and did a little warming up with 50xSSH (angry fella), Stretching, Cherry Pickers (even a little left to right action) and Hillbilly Walkers.

As plagiarism is the most sincere form of flattery, Bonsai took a page out of Pusher’s playbook for a series of 1min AMRAP with a mosey to each station. Remember, 1min of each:

Merkins then run to the Fire Station boat for LBC’s then run to Fire Station parking lot for Carolina Dry Docks then run back just past the Fire Station boat for Monkey Humpers then to the basketball court for Flutters. We then repeated it for a second round but added at least 1 rep to each of your previous numbers at each station.

Then the hand off to Maximus.

Mosey off campus to the bottom of the hill at the front end of the neighborhood. Run up the hill, wait for the 6, jog down and get ~5-10sec to catch your breath. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 trips up the hill. Once the heart rates were peaked, we went back on campus to the parking lot which we wouldn’t leave again.

Round 1: Captain Thor (evidently this was popular yesterday) with 1 Big Boy situp & 4 American Hammers. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 2: Jack Webb (also popular) with 1 Push Up & 4 Overhead Claps. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 3: Lt. Dans (definitely not a crowd pleaser) with 1 Squat (which was the breather) and 4 Jumping Lunges. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

That was it. For the 8 of us that posted at Alcatraz yesterday, we’re better for it. Sore yes…but better.

Make it count.

Bonsai & Maximus

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Webbs FEAST and Hill Repeats

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The day started with a 15 minute EC ruck around the parking lot at 0500, then I went back to meet the rest of PAX so we can get started with the jack webb FEAST, full body workout was guaranteed starting with upper body, then core and finally legs.

Quick mosey to the roundabout for a warm up ceremony:

Windmill
Weed picker
Moroccan night club
Low slow squat
Low slow merkin

Run uphill, do 10 jump squats and run down for the following:

A variation of the Jack webb (not named yet but for now I’ll call it Iron Man Webb)
1 merkin, 4 shoulder taps
2 merkins, 8 shoulder taps
3 merkins, 12 shoulder taps
Progressive to 10 merkins and and 40

Shoulders really felt this web, I had forgotten how much shoulders burn during this circuit so we had to take a break twice to relax the shoulders and arms so we can finish our jack web.

Run uphill
10 jump squats
Run downhill

Captain Thor
1 big boy situp,  4 american hammers
2 big boy situps,  8 american hammers
3 big boy situps,  12 american hammers
Progressive to 10 big boy situp,  40 american hammers

3 rounds of Superman to stretch the abs.

Run uphill
10 jump squats
Run down hill

Lt Dan
1 squat,  4 single count lunges
2 squats,  8 single count lunges
3 squats,  12 single count lunges
Progressive to 10 squats,  40 single count lunges

Run uphill
10 jump squats
Run down hill

Went back to COT for namearama, announcements, praises and prayers.

Welcome FNG OSCAR the Grouch, I’m hoping to see him back at the gloom after the pain feast on his first day out. Thank you Cyclops for the opportunity to lead.

TINSEL OUT!

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Sprinting in the Corral

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The day started with 4 PAX for extra credit, Dark Helmet, Mainframe, Cake Boss and YHC. We did some hill repeats behind the apartment complex.

We headed back to the Harris Teeter parking lot and the crowd was anxious to get started, 7 ruckers went their way led by Mainframe and 11 bootcampers joined me for the following:

MOSEY and Warm Up:

Windmills
Moroccan night clubs
SSH
Low slow squat
Low slow merkin

MOSEY to Green Olive parking lot for the real thing, going across the parking lot (approx 30 yards) back and forth with different methods of transportation:

10 burpees
Duck walk
15 wide arm merkins
Sprint
20 squats
Bear crawl
25 curb dip
Sprint
30 flutters
Lunge walk
25 merkin
Sprint
20 shoulder taps
Crab walk
15 CDD
Sprint
10 diamond merkin

clearly some PAX sprint way faster than a couple of whiny yoggers.

Next up and lot of chatter for this one:

Captain Thor

Rinse and repeat parking lot circuit with a twist:

10 burpees
Duck walk
15 wide arm merkins
NUR
20 squats
Bear crawl
25 curb dip
NUR
30 flutters
Lunge walk
25 merkin
NUR
20 shoulder taps
Crab walk
15 CDD
NUR
10 diamond merkin

With less than 7 minutes to spare we added some more ab lab:
50 lbcs
10 big boy
50 lbcs

Back to COT to meet with the ruckers and one runner (Twister)

Announcements:
Marriage strengthening Book study at bagel boat after Poopdeck/tugboat for the next 9 weeks every Thursday at 6:15 ish
FOR MEN ONLY is based on how to understand women and will help to understand our M’s and be better husbands contact Homebrew for more info.

Ruck Flag handoff to mainframe due to Routers’ injury, prayers for him and all injured pax.

 

Thanks Lutefisk for the opportunity to lead.

Tinsel OUT!

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Round 2 at Laces In

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Lack of creativity? Potentially. Simple yet effective? Undoubtedly. That could be how I describe several stages of my life.

Yesterday at the JOC, we did round 1 of the Deck of Cards. Whenever you have a round 1, you have to have a round 2. Taking yesterday’s learnings on clock management, I modified the warm-up, flapped the gums a little less and up’d the tempo. That would ensure we get through the deck this time.

We had a total of 20 at Laces, with 2 of those being Road Runners. The other 17 joined me as we circled up.

River Rat got to hear this twice but I shared what Billy Bob said on the Roundtable podcast recently about modifications. You can always modify as needed BUT do not use that as an excuse to not push yourself. It’s appropriate in so many areas of life and it was appropriate for the PAX & I this morning.

So, we jogged over to the start line for our abbreviated warm up consisting of (2) 50yd runs at 50% pace and 75% pace. We followed that up with windmills in cadence and butt kickers in place, also in cadence. And that was it for our warm up.

For the 1st-timers, the deck goes like this, your rep count is the number on the card, 2-10 are obvious, Jacks=11, Queens=12, Kings=13, Aces=14. Suits represent the following exercises:

Hearts: 8ct Burpee (It’s a burpee with a plank jack & the push up)
Diamonds: 4ct Mountain Climbers
Clubs: Jump Squats
Spades: Diamond Merkins
Jokers: (25) 4ct Flutters

In total, we did:
(104) 8ct Burpees
(104) 4ct Mountain Climbers
(104) Jump Squats
(104) Diamond Merkins
We had 3 Jokers in the deck so that is (75) Flutters, of the 4ct variety

We finished the deck at 0551 so we had 9mins left on the clock which was filled with:
(30) Flutters
(12) Hand-Release Merkins
(15) American Hammers

4 more 50yd runs at 50%, 75%, 100%, 75%

Moseyed back to COT for:
Heels to Heavens
Freddy Mercury

COT today was pretty powerful for me. We had men that brought some real stuff today that they are walking through life with. As we say, you are not meant to carry this on your own; that would crumble any man. You have been called and designed to lead but the best leaders have a group they work with. In F3, we call that group a Shield Lock.
Remember, sometimes you need to modify the game plan. However, DO NOT use that modification as an excuse to not give it your all.

It’s been my honor.
Maximus

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12 Days of Christmas

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15 HIMs descended on Laces In/Out for a beat down today including (3) runners led by Rock Thrill and (12) for BC led by YHC.

YHC was honored to be invited by Cyclops to Q at this AO. There is so much to do that I decided to peruse the previous backblasts to see if I could borrow some ideas. Fortunately, I was directed to a backblast from 12/8/13 from Double D and Santini where the Fort was introduced to the 12 Days of Christmas. YHC was there and remember it fondly. It has become a staple of the Christmas season at the Fort. In honor of DD, I decided to borrow the pain and apply.

The Thang

Mosey toward front of FMHS

1st Stop – SSHs x 30 and 5 burpees

2nd Stop – Windmills x 10 and 4 burpees

3rd Stop – Mtn Climbers x 20 and 3 burpees

4th Stop – Merkins x 10 and 2 burpees

5th Stop – IWs x 15 and 1 burpee

 

12 Days of Christmas

The Pax completed each set of exercises consistent with the song and then took a lap around the parking lot. The exercises were done in order listed below:

1 Donkey Kick

2 WAM

3 Jumping Lunges

4 Merkins

5 Squats

6 Burpees

7 Bombjacks

8 Sumo Squats

9 CDD

10 Flutters IC

11 Monkey Humpers

12 Diamond Merkins

 

All total we completed 2.6 miles plus exercises above. No one remembered that it was cold outside! Slapshot led the way the entire time and thus carried us out with a prayer.

 

Moleskin

  • Christmas party tomorrow night
  • Dam to Dam relay for a cause
  • Bonsai looking for folks to help with shelving at Classroom Ready
  • Prayers for Cash, Cyclops Dad

 

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Overcome

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7 boot campers and 3 runners posted at Laces In/Out this morning.  The cool temperature was perfect for a hideous beat down. We did hill repeats because today’s message was focused on overcoming inertia.

The Thang:

COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), and LBCs (15x)

Mosey to the hill near the stadium to add inertia and do the following exercises. 

  1. 100 Yard Dash
  2. Jumping Squats (2x) 
  3. Big Boy Sit Ups (3x)
  4. Pepper Grinders (4x)
  5. Burpees (5x)
  6. LBCs (6x)
  7. Sumo Squats (7x) 
  8. Heels to Heaven (8x)
  9. Dips (9x)
  10. Calf Raises (10x)
  11. Merkins (11x)
  12. Penguins (12x)

Moleskin:

Why do we sometimes struggle to answer God’s calling and purpose for our lives?  Does our own inertia stop us from making a breakthrough?

The bible shows us that Paul initially hesitated when he was called to God’s mission field.  In the Acts of the Apostles 22, Jesus needed to encourage Paul to overcome his inertia. He kept telling Paul “Go,” “Get up,” “What are you waiting for?”

Paul eventually pushed through his inertia and fulfilled his mission.  Paul’s story is a great illustration of how it’s sometimes tough to start your mission but you must finish strong.  

Peace,

Deacon

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A cool, Shady, 38 degree Special morning

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11 PAX woke up on a cool Saturday morning in November of 2019. Little did any of them know that immediately after the disclaimer they would be headed for the much maligned Tega Cay Drive hill of pain.

The mosey immediately headed that way as YHC (38 Special) led the PAX down the hill. Everyone circled up for 25 SSH, 15 Low Slow Squats, and 15 mountain climbers.  Some good Saturday morning mumblechatter including some compliments about the length of certain PAX’s shorts and the decade in which they might have been procured.  That was plenty “warm up”.

The Thang: Part 1

PAX counted off by 2’s. 2’s were instructed to run the 150M hill backwards. Team 1 to lag behind so eyes were going forward and backward. YHC was pleased to hear Team 1 offer quality mumblechatter on the way up in the way of encouragement.

At the top of the hill, everyone ran back down and Team 1 took their turn to run backwards while Team 2 pulled mumblechatter duty.  Now that every quad was suitably inflamed it was time for phase two of part one.

Until YHC’s time was out, we would run 11’s.  Starting behind the western baseball diamond, double count stepups. Run the roughly 100m to to the benches just before the pullup bars and do burpees.  If, somehow, anyone were to finish, it would have added 2k to their bragging rights. Some got to 4 step ups left, others 6.

YHC used the last minute of his time to speak briefly about pushing oneself in order for the group. The above was selected not because I could kill it, but because I knew I could do it with commitment, and without killing myself, and sorta, maybe tried to encourage others to do the same.

The Thang: Part 2

Shady took over and wasted no time running the PAX over the baseball field and into the parking lot, stopping near the playground.  Everyone paired up for what Shady said would be your ‘basic’ Dora. There was a brief lament about the lack of bricks when one of the PAX brought to everyone’s attention that there were some large rocks at the bottom of the trail.

If YHC were a geologist, he’d have called these rocks “boulders” (any rock with a diameter of > 25.6cm)…

Run back up the trail and into the playground.  Round one of the Dora was
100 – Hand Release Merkins
200 – Shoulder (boulder) Press
300 – Flutter

YHC wants to point out that the first two parts of that set were brutal.

When the set was over, Shady spoke to the PAX about his word of the year and encouraged everyone to think about theirs again. Some of the PAX talked briefly about their words as well. After this 10 count was concluded it was time to move onto round two.
100 – Incline rows
200 – Boulder curls
300 – LBC

YHC would also like to point out that the incline rows, while being sufficiently difficult, made some of the PAX look utterly ridiculous, and as most of us know, PAX would allow any of their brothers to look that ridiculous without drawing a great deal of attention to the fact.  It’s just good manners.

Time ran out during the LBCs and there was one more run down into the woods to return their boulders to their homes.  Joined up at COT.

Announcements: Thanksgiving convergence on 11/28 @The Ranch, HTL convergence on 11/23 @WEP and the Christmas Party 12/6 ~Baxter area. Everyone who knows Kenyan is invited to join the celebration of Life for his departed wife that morning.

There were also some prayers and praises lifted up to Sky Q’s consideration.

The PAX dispersed…

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Not really a merkinfest…more a don’t stop movingfest

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20 PAX gathered for a Jedi inspired chilly morning at the Swamp.  This Friday AO is a great place to run around, see lots of parking lots, check out stairs and look at the water feature fountain…hard to pass up and a good place to be if you’ve never been.  Quick disclaimer and YHC was shot out of a cannon.  With the first mosey stop at Petsmart, the PAX followed the leader for some parking lot shuffles, karaokes, high knees, and butt kickers before progressing to the previously mentioned fountain.

Prior to getting to the fountain, we stopped in the back parking lot for some warm-ups which included: low slow squats, slow windmills, merkins (all counts of 10).  Given this is a Cha Ching AO, what better way to get the PAX warmed up than a Cha Ching inspired 60 seconds of blood pumping 33 SSH and 7 burpee – rinse and repeat for a 2nd min.  This was followed by some up/down dog stretching and then on to The Thang!

Mosey over to the fountain where it was time to get our merkin on…(not that kind of merkin so calm down).

  • 20 regular merkins
  • 20 wide arm
  • 20 diamond
  • 20 decline
  • 20 ranger
  • 20 incline
  • 20 hand release

After every round of merkins, PAX were instructed to run to the stairs – up, down, back up, then back down and back to the fountain…for the next set of merkins.

Since this was not enough fun, we partnered up and did some Dora with our new partner.

  • 100 bombjacks
  • 200 CDD
  • 300 American Hammers (double count…well, because)

As partner 1 did exercise in the “warm-up” parking lot by the stairs, partner 2 took off to the fountain and did 20 dips before returning and relieving their partner.  This took a good amount of time but the PAX finished American Hammer’s with the 6.

PAX took off towards COT but with 5 or so minutes remaining, MARY was calling our name so we answered the call.  PAX went around clockwise with ab exercises until the bell was rung.

Normal mix at COT, but the highlight of the morning was welcoming FNG, now Chicken Noodle, to the party to join the lineage of other “chicken” inspired PAX.  Thoughts and prayers to all prayers and praises raised.  Thanks as always to Cha Ching for the call…enjoyed every minute of it!

Shady

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Downpour with Roxanne at Laces In

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This morning was supposed to be very wet, and again the Weather professionals got it wrong. Knowing the anticipated challenges, I prepared a weinke that would allow for a covered area. And….not a drop of rain. Had to make some audibles on the fly to make sure the PAX got a good sweat in. To my surprise, 9 HIM showed up for the morning’s beat down. Only vets were present so I delivered a quick disclaimer and off we went.

 

Mosey to the main parking lot taking a left turn immediately because it was too windy for Trucker…mumble chatter champion. Completed the mosey and circled up in front of the drop off area near the front of the gym.

 

IW x 20

SSH x 25

Windmill x10

Overhead claps- x20

Happy Jacks- 5 rounds

MNC x10

Seal Jacks- x15

 

PAX headed over to the curb, lined up across and turned and faced the parking lot.

I spent a little time here sharing with the PAX about a recent pledge brother that took his own life last week. With that came a challenge, to think about Men that you can be impacting that need your support. Whether you think it is annoying or not, there are men out there that are desperately seeking another man to pick them up. All it takes is an additional call or text, anything to let them know you are thinking of them.

 

Ok, with that in mind, the PAX were instructed to do suicides to the fourth line with a numbered space. When you reach the 4th number perform the exercise listed and then run back. Hold a plank for the 6.

 

Round 1- Merkins x10

Round 2- CDD x10

Round 3- Burpees x10

 

Continued with the message to the PAX to make sure it stayed in the front of their mind during the workout. Reminding them that if it’s them that is struggling to not go through it alone.

 

Next Mosey was to the breezeway area at the football stadium.

 

Circle up. I had prepared a little Roxanne workout in anticipation of the downpour that didn’t happen. After some brief fumbling with the technology, off we went.

 

Roxanne, you don’t have to…- flying squirrels

 

In between- The Pax were doing Seal Jacks.

 

This got the blood going! Of course I am a sweater, but there some extra puddles around me during this. It looked like the PAX were enjoying it as well.

 

Immediately after the song, we jumped into the Deck of Death.

 

Spades- CDD

Hearts- Monkey humpers

Clubs- Plank Jacks

Diamonds- wide arm Merkins

Joker- 5 burpees

 

We made it through about ¾ of the deck and the runners joined us for the last few.

 

Back to COT

 

Announcements– Newsletter

 

Praises– for the PAX who showed up. I was reminded this morning that being in the gloom makes a positive impact on our daily lives. This does mean you necessarily have to participate in the workout if you are on the IR. I encourage PAX on the IR to show up with a partner and walk and enjoy some fellowship.

 

Prayers-

 

Bonsai’s Wife’s grandmother

Cyclops Dad

The family of my brother whose life ended too soon

My wife’s student who passed away

Injured PAX

Marriages

Any I missed

 

Additional thoughts on challenging us as men and fathers to enjoy the moment and practice patience as best as you can.

 

Mental Health- I will repeat this over and over, you are not alone. Engage, ask, and reach out. If not, this is just a workout.

 

 

Thanks for the opportunity and for showing up on this rainy day.

 

 

Frat Boy

 

 

 

 

 

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