Tag: Polaroid

Ash to Ash at Tomahawk

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9 PAX gathered in the only slightly cool October gloom striving to be better. After a disclaimer, we were off on a Mosey around the parking lot.

Warm Up:
SSH x25 (everybody’s favorite F3 classic first exercise)
Mountain Climber x20
Hold Plank
– Honeymooner
– Down Dog
– 6 inches
– Honeymooner
– Down Dog
Mountain Climber x20 (got some mumble chatter spiking after this)
Imperial Walker x20
Hillbilly Walker x20
Good Mornings w/ bells x5
Al Gore Good Mornings x5

Seated forward bends to stretch out the Quadratus Lumborum. (Look it up)

Lined up at the bottom of the parking lot facing the school.

Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Squat x10
Lunge walk w/ pass through up to the islands nearest the school
Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Planked up: Honeymooner/Down Dog
Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)

Moseyed to a parking lot island with grass, touched the grass, and returned to our bells.

Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Squat x10
Solo Test x3 (each arm)
Overhead Squat x10 (each arm)
Swing x10

Moved towards COT, dropped bells.

Found some wall at the school entrance.

BTTW w/ Shoulder Taps x10
People’s Chair – brief lecture on nihilism
BTTW w/ Merkins x10

Back to COT:

Sit and Press x10 (big boy sit up and overhead press)
Flutter w/ press x10
Skull Crusher x10
Time

Naked Man Moleskin:

YHC has been pondering this poem lately.

Ozymandias: by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The things of the earth for which we labor will inevitably fade away. (Which lead to some mumble chatter about “why did I show up then?” hence the Nihilism discussion.) But our identity is not found in earthly things, and on this we can be thankful. For our labors in for our 3rd F identity will not fade away. What’s the difference between Ash Wednesday “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” and the ethos of Nihilism:  skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence? Only faith.

Announcements:
Christmas Party – 12/1: Sign up Now
Fast 5 – 10/27

Prayers:
Many – we never know what others are carrying with them. May we all be mindful of that in our interactions.

Band Camp dismissed

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5

No Fear = No EnCOURAGEment

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22 boot campers (including 1 FNG) and 5 runners posted to THE Ballroom this week looking for some #Encouragement along the pothole-filled road of life.  YHC offered a full Disclaimer for the benefit of our FNG (T-claps to Barney Fife on the EH) tipped the cap to Sir Topham Hat, who passed the Q baton to YHC due to work travel.  The word of the month (Encouragement) served as the inspiration for today’s adventures in the gloom, so thanks also to Chicken Hawk for his continued wisdom with that program.

Encouragement:  root word = Courage

Courage (noun): strength in the face of fear

With this backdrop, the workout unfolded with the objective of getting pax in touch with their own sense of #Fear to illustrate the experience of #Courage and the need/ability/practice of exercising it and #Encouragement of their brothers.

The Thang

warm up run to the football field

COP — SSH, IWs, Hillbilly walkers, Bombjacks, merkins, burpees

Line up along sideline, 3/4 pace sprints — to near hash/back, then far hash/back, lastly far sideline/back

Circle up for the Main Event (Fear or Favorite)

Pax were asked to identify the exercise they most #Fear when they hear the Q say “The next exercise is ___________.”  They were also asked to imagine their #Favorite exercise they like to call when they are Q.  Then we launched into 30 mins of Pax-suggested/Q-chosen exercises.

Plank jacks (Fogerty), Gravedigger (Culture Club), Partner Carry (Bass-o-Matic), V-up Roll-up (Polaroid), Sprints (FNG!), Moroccan Night Clubs (Assassin), Jack Webb (Magnum), Squats (Strawberry), Burpees (Pinup), Merkin (Rebel), Knee Tar N’Dyae (Rebel), Tunnel of Love (Twister)

Mosey home

Final ab work — American Hammer, Flutter

COT

Moleskin

T-claps to the pax for the enthusiastic participation, mumblechatter and #Encouragement throughout.  Apologies to those pax whose exercise I missed and those who I mismatched in the list above.  I know we started with Fogerty catching much flak for a stuttering proclamation of “Plank Jacks” to get us rolling.  Bass-o-matic challenged himself and all the pax in the early going with the Partner Carry call-out.  Yes, YHC quickly claimed FNG/Half Dome as partner (purely for teamwork purposes, I can assure you…it had nothing to do with his svelte frame).  Pinup threw down the gauntlet, claiming Burpees as both his Fear and his Favorite (1500 in September seems to prove the point — well done!).  Strawberry (on only his 2nd post!) showed he knows the proper rhythm of a workout by calling for Squats immediately after Jack Webb (get this man into Q school ASAP!).  And Twister had his mic drop moment with Tunnel of Love to cap it all off.  Fun times throughout!

Welcome to FNG/Half Dome, who posted at the behest of Barney Fife (kudos to both)!

Finally, just a recap on the theme to reinforce the message.  YHC, in my prideful youth and throughout a very long stretch of adulthood, deluded myself that I was purely self-motivated, and no outside influence, inspiration or good words could make a difference to my spirit or performance.  While my M openly claimed her need for affirmation and #Encouragement, I laughed those things off, as though those who needed them were weak, meek and timid.  I also claimed to have few worries or fears throughout these periods.  A-ha!!!   There it is — the smoking gun.  Since #Courage can only exist in the midst of #Fear, I must’ve needed nor displayed any #Courage throughout these years.   And in the absence of feeling #Fear and gathering up #Courage, I had no recognition of the need or value of #Encouragement.  And, so it follows sadly, that in the absence of my personal experience of these, I fumbled and floundered in expressing #Encouragement to those around me who longed for it.  This shortcoming became a significant blind spot and weakness in leading others, including my family.  Yes, sad.  Yes, true.

While I still have plenty of room for growth in the area of #Encouragement of others, my ship turned around when I became more sensitized to my own fears, and I felt the power of #Encouragement from others, and I demonstrated the #Courage that was somewhat dormant inside me.  So, the lesson here — soften your heart, look yourself in the mirror, get in touch with your #Fear.  From that point, you may find immense personal growth opportunity and the ability to better relate and #Impact those around you through #Encouragement.

Thank you to Short Sale for the Q opportunity and to all the pax for making the experience real!

 

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6

Conveyor Belt of Pain

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10 HIMs arrived to  see silhouettes of YHC’s untold horror in the backdrop of gloom at The Hive. After disclaiming that YHC is terrible at counting before 0800 the regular disclaimer was administered.

Things started out normal with some SSH to get the blood moving.  It’s really a great way to make the PAX feel like a regular workout is on the horizon.  Then we moved into a wide leg stance (sorta sumo) and dropped our six’s close to the pavement to get the hips opened up. Moving from one leg to the other, we stretched out the hamstrings and other muscles some people tend to forget exist. From there, we inched our feet out as close to a full split** as each man could handle, put our fingertips on the ground, and did fingertip pushups.
**except Band Camp, who surprised everyone in a full split without making a face

From there we went to the Conveyor Belt across the parking lot.  Each station had two parking slots between them and each exercise was given a brief demo before we dropped our bells at various stations and jumped on board.  The slots were:

  1. KB Swings (40 and a 30 were available)
  2. Box jumps (30x24x20)
  3. 3/4″x72″ Iron Staff – wrist rotations (I looked this up, pronation and supination of the wrists)
    1. Holding the staff straight forward, rotate to the left and right
    2. The work experienced with these is in hand placement, speed of rotation, and stopping momentum
  4. 10lb Training  Mace – barbarian swings
    1. Swing the mace to align it with the chest at shoulder height to the left and right, when the arm close to the ball crosses the body, it’s on the bottom.  When it’s on its own side, the top
  5. 3/4″x72″ Iron Staff – tip ups
    1. Hold the staff vertically with forearm horizontal
    2. let the staff fall down to horizontal, using only forearms, pull it back to vertical (mostly the first two fingers)
    3. Alternatively, with arm hanging, adjust the staff so that the long end is behind you and use only forearm muscles to bring it back to vertical (mostly the last two fingers)
  6. Tricep Extensions with that 40 pounder
  7. BB bag – ~14lbs of steel BBs in a 9×9 canvas bag
    1. hold the bag with one arm at eye level as far away as you can from your body, gripping it by its side with fingertips (so you’re looking at a square), the opposite hand is at your side.
    2. Let go of the bag and as you pull that hand down to rest, the other snaps up to grab the falling bag, again, with fingertips, raising it back into position.  There should be some hang time.
    3. Alternate hands, trying to keep the bag floating in the air with a bit of hang time
  8. Curls – 25lb bell
  9. Squats
  10. “Pick your own Mary” with a 25lb bell (YHC didn’t have enough slots for everyone, so this one came from the aether)
  11. Same as above, but disappears after a few seconds, explanation below

Timing:
There is always a traveling PAX. The PAX starting at station 11 did a small amount of Mary, then high-tailed it for station 1, taking over that station (at this time station 11 disappeared). The displaced PAX from 1 then bear crawled over two parking spaces to 2, relieving that PAX of that station, who would bear crawl to 3.  This continued until station 10 ran back to station one.

After a full circle of fun, everyone took a nice, restful run across the parking lot, and picked up where they left off.

This went on with everyone working together in harmony until there was about 2 minutes left in the workout and we were one station short of a full circuit.

Everyone circled up by the gear, YHC ran to grab a phone (pulling something in my calf halfway there…) and ended with COT.

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Reunion Tour @ The Tomahawk

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If we go back to Summer 2017… I was EH’d to The Tomahawk by Dark Helmet and Bird Cage. It happened while helping Sharknado move in just down the street. My interest was peaked, so I gave it a try. It was awesome, but it was PAINFUL. CSPAN brought it heavy and it was in that moment I knew F3 was legit. What had me most aghast was the fact that guys two decades older than I were lapping me in a work out that I deemed “up my alley.” On top of that, these men had a bond I haven’t had since moving to the area, and they do their best to follow God. I wanted to be hooked, but work was just too much at the time to HC to F3. Also… Skate or Die was there too.

Fast forward to Summer 2018, I changed positions in my company and was excited to join my now brothers in the gloom. Been posting a bunch, and am super happy to be a part of this high impact community. Polaroid offered me the opportunity to lead at my original AO, and I couldn’t turn it down. Additionally… what other AO has loud music every week?! 

I was just finishing prep of the AO when J Cruise pulled up in his vintage Land Cruiser. I’m sure that thing looks awfully nice in the sunlight. Kielbasa and Skate or Die right behind him. The clock struck 5:15, and I said the disclaimer. We took a short mosey while Pin Up and Small World rolled in. Then we circled up.

COP

Tappy Taps x 10 (These may be a regularly occurring thing… be warned.)

Plank

Shoulder Taps x 10

Parker Peters x 10

SSH x 25

Al Gore Night Clubs x 20

Groucho Walks x 10

Heart rates were up, so we headed toward the main entrance to partake of the Octagon! I had nine workouts, eight surrounding one. The plan was to start at random locations, and once you complete your station you rotate counterclockwise. After each outer workout you would cycle to the middle for something that my shoulders are now feeling much more than I did this morning… figure 8’s with the kettlebell between your legs. Woof.

Figure 8 x 30

Solo Tesh x 3 Each Arm (this, too, should also be a thing)

Figure 8 x 30

Goblet Squats x 30

Figure 8 x 30

Skull Crushers x 20

Figure 8 x 30

Lunge Walks x 15 each leg, holding weight in one arm out and back

Figure 8 x 30

Bent Over Rows x 15 each arm

Figure 8 x 30

KB Swing x 20

Figure 8 x 30

Curls x 20

Figure 8 x 30

Calf Raises x 50

Figure 8 x 30

Repeat as Time Permits

We made it about 1.4 times around.

Mosey to wall

People’s Chair w/ Pass the Dutchie – down and back four times x 2 with the heaviest weight of the day. 

Mary

Crunchy Frog x 11

Flutter w/Weight x 20

Hello Dolly’s w/Weight x 20

LBC’s x 30

Plank until time was up

I asked the men what they liked most about F3 while we planked, and got some good answers.

Accountability

Accountability

Misery

Its the closest thing to my military experience

The leadership cultivation and how it drives men ahead

Honestly, (aside from the military experience) I aligned with each answer. This community and these HIM continue to inspire me. 

Headed back to COT. Counted off six PAX for an Eminem and Toby MAC filled morning of fun. Thanks to Small World for bringing the tunes.

Announcements – 

Fast5 coming October 27. Plenty of chatter on Twitter regarding the details. 

Ragnar this weekend! 

Prayers and Praises –

Pray for our brothers on IR

Pray for F3Alpha for their loss of Darth Visor yesterday morning

EDIT: Pray for Sharknado’s family – his M’s father was Darth Visor

Both of these losses were sudden and unexpected, so keep that in your mind as you go throughout your day/week. We are but a breath. 

Pray for Fort Mill and the school district as the Zoning decision is made. Pray for cool heads on all sides and the best decision to be made.

Thank you Polaroid for the opportunity to lead. It was fun running Q at the AO where I first posted. Looking forward to next time. 

Punch List out.

 

IMG_7683

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6

A not So slow Burn

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There was perfect weather for 29 PAX that came out for YHC third Q. I wasn’t feeling extremely confident because my first two attempts at Qing were less than stellar and this was a large turnout. After spending some quality time earlier this week coming up with what I thought would be a not-so-moderate workout I took a deep breath, said a little prayer and got busy.

The Thang

We started promptly at 5:15 with a welcome to my first FNG, the disclaimer and then we moseyed down the hill to the parking lot across from Lowe’s for some stretching.

COP:

Broga (toe touches, elbow lifts, leg stretches)

Hillbilly walkers x 25

Cherry pickers x 15

Windmills x 15

Moroccan night clubs x 25

Side straddle hops x 25

Burpees x 5

After the warmup was done we moseyed to the parking lot behind Lowe’s where the real fun began. We partnered up and started with a round of Dora 1-2-3s.

Parking lot runs and….

100 Merkins

200 LBCs

300 Overhead claps

We threw in an extra parking lot run for good luck and knocked out another 5 burpees before moseying to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza.

COP:

Imperial walkers x 20

Low slow squats x 25

Hello dollies x 25

Burpees x 5

Moseyed back for CoT and had a little time to fit in 25 American hammers, 20 monkey humpers and more broga before calling it quits.

CoT:

Count-o-rama

Name-o-rama

FNG – My coworker and good friend, Gary Del Toro, was welcomed and almost immediately dubbed “Strawberry” because of the Mets t-shirt he was wearing. Later in the morning at work he said he really enjoyed meeting everyone and definitely planned on coming back.

Announcements

Praises and Prayer Requests

It was a great group of HIMs that definitely made me stronger mentally and physically, I hope I returned the favor. Thanks Smithers for the chance to lead!!

Barney Fife

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5

Carport Broga at Footloose

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We had 16 pax brave the weather which ended up not being an issue.  After a brief intro and disclaimer we took a short mosey to the first carport at church #1.  Broga was the warmup for our first stop.  The pax was introduced to cat call and pigeon stretches.  Another mosey on to the second carport behind FBC.  We continued broga with some more leg stretches and arm stretches.  Mulble chatter was becoming an issue so I threw in set of burpees.  It got quiet quick.  Mosey to our next stop at the upper parking lot of  COG.  A couple of more warmup sets with merkins and peter parkers.  Finished up the broga with some upward dogs and walked the dog.  More burpees then our final mosey to the meat and potatoes.

Before diving in pax got a short switzer on #getinthegame.  Referred back to the invergence and the service opportunities with CAH, paradise GFit and reading opportunities.  Find out your spiritual gifts and put them into action.

On to the main event.  A couple of rounds of 1/2 parking lot of toy soldiers, knee grabs and lunges then run the other have of lot and back.  I asked pin up if he cracked a sweat yet.  He said no.  Wrong answer.  Ran the whole lot that time up and back.  Not much chatter after that.

We did a pax choice DORA. 100 Merkins, 200 Moroccan night clubs, 300 LBC’s and 400 squats.  The Pax partnered up and alternated run across parking lot while partner worked on exercise.  By the time we got to the squats we had to call an Omaha.  Ended up doing 200 squats and 200 monkey humpers.  More burpees in there somewhere.

Mosey back to COT for a little mary and wrapped up the burpees. Ended up with 33 in total.

Thanks Beacon for the opportunity.  Always a good group at Footloose!

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Tomahawk 2018.38

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So today I had the privilege to Q at Tomahawk.  After driving what seemed like a time i could have squeezed in a Lord of the Rings movie, I finally made it out to Doby’s Bridge Elementary.  I’ll make the backblast short and sweet.

There was a warmup that consisted of the usual suspects:  SSH, Windmills, Merkins, Peter Parkers…

The THANG consisted of three parts

Lunge walk with bell pass through.  Lunge steps not in cadence but on my “Step!” and sprint when I say “Go!”  This was broken up by burpees (everything was broken up by a few burpees), KB swings x20 and snatches x5 each arm.

Next was a DORA but one runs with your partners and your own bell to the end of the parking lot and back.  Exercises were 100 Merkins, 100 LBCs, 100 squats

Last (I think) was mobility.  Wide sumo squat and hold, left, right.  Then work it out with a low slow quat in cadence.   Superman hold to an overhead clap for shoulder mobility.  Then work it out with some plank work: merkins, shoulder taps, 1 arm holds, 6 inches, mountain climbers.

Finish it with a few minutes of mary.  Flutters with bell, protractor with bell, LBCs with bell.

BTW… that some nice new blacktop.

 

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Tomahawkin’ at The Hive

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I do this thing called The Tomahawk Test every 8 weeks at #TheTomahawk site.  It’s all about making sure we are getting better/getting stronger.  I encourage the pax to workout the same way they did the previous session…if you curled on your knee last time, curl on your knee this time.  Seeing our reps increase is a good thing.  Seeing them decrease is a weird thing that hopefully becomes a motivator to push harder.  I brought it to #TheHive because we have different “regulars”.  I believe only 1 person at this workout had done the #TomahawkTest before (DESTINY).  Check out the image for how our workout went down.  I have all the hard copies and will be sharing them with the pax individually, as well as keeping a digital copy for reference.  Blasted 90’s Alternative while we tossed the iron around.

Just so we could get our burpees, I blasted Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping.  28 burpees (27 if you don’t follow my lead and do 1 as the song ends).  We moseyed back to COT and did 6 more burpees so we all got our 33 in for the day. #1000burpees

Shout out to Tesh for the Q opportunity.  I love it and consider it an honor.  Prayers for our brothers on IR.

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8 men joined YHC for a muggy kettlebell event.

Warm-up

All exercises here were in cadence.

  • 25 -SSH
  • 10 Burpees in honor a latecomer
  • 15 – Imp walker
  • 15 – Hillbilly walker
  • 10 – Merkin
  • 20 – Arm circles
  • 20 – MNC
  • Mosey halfway around the lot

The Thang

Partner Dora

  • Round 1
    • 100 curls (switch arms halfway) / partner carry Bell for run for first round
    • 150 upright rows
    • 200 Calf raises
  • Round 2
    • 50 Big boy sit ups / partner NUR+jog
    • 100 American hammer / partner shuffles
    • 150 Goblet Squat / partner sprint+jog
  • Mosey back to the COT
  • Pass the Dutchy(Bell pass), several rounds
  • Finished with 10-20 burpees as time allowed.

Great push men. YHC was definitely winded. Glad to have the honor to suggest a few workouts for you fine gentlemen. I look forward to next time.

Peabody reminded us to reach out to encourage those who are injured or can’t/haven’t posted. Think of that PAX in your life who needs a call or a nudge of support.

River Rat out…

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4

On the second clock at Tomahawk

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Polaroid sent out a request a few weeks back for Q’s.  Replying affirmatively meant I was going to be put out of my comfort zone as I had only attended a weight AO twice over the years. I was then able to get in a visit to Tomahawk last week to scout the layout.

I will add at this point that everyone should consider attending more weight AO’s. It’s a good test for new muscles and your core.

Arrived early to lay out cones and coupons and got help from an early arriving FNG, Josh Bolden.  I was immediately giving him some disclaimer info as this workout was going to be a bit of a challenge and it was going to keep PAX moving the whole time, and made sure he understood this was not a standard bootcamp workout.

Full disclaimer especially with an FNG. A little bit of a warmup and proper cadence, an explanation of each exercise in the clock and then broke into 2  groups. 2 PAX did the clock while 3 moved over the runway, then alternated.

At the runway, each end was core exercises . We ran to points in the middle alternating doing the following exercises, in cadence if possible: Curls, One Arm Rows, Squats, Overhead Press, KB Swings, Front LIfts…approximately 10 reps each time.

The PAX on the clock did the following with their kettlebell/weight going with them as much as possible. When returning to the middle, 2 burpees. Each ‘time’ was a x5 factor:

  • 12:00 – overhead weight run
  • 1:00      – 5 burpees
  • 2:00      –  10 One leg squats each leg
  • 3:00      – 120# worm coupon pull on slider
  • 4:00      – 20 kb swings
  • 5:00      – 25 squat thrusters
  • 6:00      – bear crawl using dumbells
  • 7:00      – 35 alternating calf raises
  • 8:00      – 40 finger tippers, using 2 hand finger tip strengtheners
  • 9:00       – Lunge walk
  • 10:00     – 50 Hand Squeezers
  • 11:00     – 50 Moroccan Night…Discs. 5# weight in each hand

This was a workout designed to keep moving. There were not many opportunities to rest but I think it worked out well. The clock obstacle course needs some tweeking so that it takes less time. I meant for it to be completed a little quicker, next time we’ll shoot for 10 minutes or less.

Thanks to PAX again for helping with cleanup. We ended up at 29 burpees.

Big reminder here that we did not do. Especially with an FNG, have gloves available!  Generally I believe this is a site Q responsibility, but I always have a bag of gloves and I forgot to offer them to our FNG.

Welcome FNG J-Cruz, or J-Cruise, or J-Crews! EH’d by Jekyl and Decibel. Josh’s whole family’s names begin with a J, plus he was once the President of a Land Cruiser organization (hope I got that right).  Name-O-Rama here.

Thanks to Polaroid for the opportunity and for the PAX who gave the clock set up a go.

Invergence Sept 21, G-Fit Sat’s 3:00 pm, Prayers to PAX with marital issues. Thanks to Punchlist for taking us out.

Aye! Bolt

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