Stephen Barnes

I like this guy.

I first heard him speak at  LOSCON last November and I couldn’t take notes fast enough.  He may not be saying anything new, in any way that is extra special.  It may just be I was ready to hear it.  In any case, he has some great, solid charisma that spoke to both me as a person and me as a writer.  Of course it helps his niche is motivating writers!

So I checked out his website LifeWrite and saw that he had a blog.  I love reading a good blog so I went there, liked the first one, immediately had to give my 2 cents, adding a long-winded comment (hey its ME here.. when have I NOT added to the conversation!).

Then, because I like to read things as they developed I went to his first blog and read that.  Hee hee.. It was on meditation.  And it could have been written exactly for me.  I don’t like meditation.  It’s always felt like a useless waste of time.  I either fall asleep or get WAY too in-tuned to that inner nag.  And the funny thing was that’s EXACTLY what Stephen said would happen when you’ve got a lot of emotional heart work to do.    And he said you got to keep at it for 20 minutes of calmly trying to hear your heart beat before you might get past all that and hear it.

So.  Since I respect this man I thought about trying it.  My first thought was WHEN.  When will I have 20 minutes to meditate on my heart beat?  Hmmmm… I could get up 20 minutes early in the morning and try it then.  But since that would be 4:50 am the chance I’d end up asleep was pretty high!  On the other hand the chance of ending up in a trance was also high and maybe I could get to the heart beat hearing faster.  The economical me likes that idea.

But I realized I was putting it off for tomorrow and that’s what he says the inner 6 year old does when she doesn’t want to do something.   Hmmm… so I decided to do it right then.  But wait, WHERE should I do it?  Where can I go for 20 minutes of uninterrupted time, at home on a Sunday?

It was at that point I began to giggle.  The Closet?  It was the only place I could think of where I’d be away from as much noise as possible and it would take the kids at least 20 minutes to find me!  But the closet?   What the hell, why not.  I spend so much time announcing my differences to the world it would be quite a change to GO into the closet instead of out of it!

Update

Okay.. I’m proud I did what I said I would.  And it wasn’t as hard as I imagined.  The little nagging pains were easily ignored once I stopped moving to try and relieve the pain.  And the random thoughts of distraction were more amusing than really distracting.  Once I quieted my breathing and ignored the muffled outside noise I think I did pretty well  in hearing my heart beat.

Because I did eventually hear it.  I heard it in the rhythmic white noise hum in my ears.  And I felt it in the gentle reverberations in my chest.  (Probably because I cheated and leaned against a box in the closet!)

And just as I was trying to deepen my perceptions I heard the front door slam closed.  Then the fast pounding of kid stomps up the stairs and someone trying the locked knob of my bedroom door.   Followed quickly by, “Mom, you in there!?”

Wow.. less than 10 minutes.  A new kid record of interruption.  I swear they’re psychic!

Maybe I’ll try again Monday.  (Can you put your inner 6 year old in a time-out?)


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Me and Europe (Update)

In writing about one adventure I realized I forgot a crucial hysterical embarrassing part of my trip to Europe.

My mother had fabulous grandparents who owned the famous “Pink House” on South Coast Drive in La Jolla.  Yes, THAT famous  Pink House.  They were the parents of my narcissistic grandmother who I despise for her warped sense of the word “fair.”  And whom I take my pen name “Barton” from in hopes I can publish a really dirty book with HER last name on it (as I took it as my pen name) and present it to her.  Hopefully I’ll be near when she has the heart attack!

Anyway, my beloved grandmother’s family was from a little town in Germany called  Gimmeldingen.  While lecturing in Germany my mother was determined to visit this town that  her family was known to come from.  And since its also known as wine country, she wanted to buy and have shipped to America a bottle of wine from this town to all her relatives.

But.  And there’s always a but!  Besides the fact I thought she was crazy for wanting to gift to her relatives (see I KNEW these people, too!)  We were on a lecture tour.  So the only day we have free is Sunday.  BUT this does not stop her.  The local church (small town, only ONE church) was, of course, open and she goes in and asks to see their ANCIENT registry bible.  Where they have listed all the births and deaths in the little town.  She finds the name of her great, grandfather.

Now, I’m heartily embarrassed by all this TOURISM she’s doing and I sanely refuse to accompany her in her madness.  Oh, BUT she takes it to the streets.  It is here she tells me she wants to buy wine for everyone.  BUT all the wineries are closed.  ITS SUNDAY!!  BUT that doesn’t stop her!

She begins to pound knock on all the doors of the wineries until she finds one that 1. Answers, 2. Speaks English and 3. Agrees to sell to the crazy American.  I’m standing in the deserted street (REALLY small town, like empty small) trying to pretend I’m not with her.

BUT she manages it all.  Ends up buying about 10 bottles of wine and paying to have each one individually shipped to a relative.  She’s happy and the cooperative winery got to make a nice unexpected sale.  None of the recipients every thanked her.

Which illustrates the lesson, Never Try to Impress People.  Those whose attention you are craving aren’t going to give you more attention by your acts and those who love you already don’t need acts to shower you with attention.

Or in other words.  I was right.  Duh!

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Axis of Awesome

One of the reasons  The Bloggess is on my sidebar Links page is not only is funny but she seems to roam the web looking for interesting things to share.  Or people send her crazy stuff, I can’t tell.  But I stumbled across this band on  her site.

You’ll get a giggle!

The Four Chord Songs

How to…

These Australians take two of my favorite things & combine them into one, comedy and music.  Okay its less music and more comedy, but if more music had more comedy… well those songs rock!

Funny, I don’t like music when I’m “playing”.  Because its very odd to be wrapped up in pleasure and sensation and have your brain suddenly say, “Oooo, Drive by Incubus.  I love this song!”   (especially when you’re multi-tasking in an orgy!)


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Free Showtime.. my bane

Showtime gave me 4 days of free viewing of about 10 of their channels.  Whoa and wow and woe… too much television!  But I just have to share my opinions.  Because movie watching is meant to be shared.  Its why we pay outrageous prices to see movies in theaters.  Its just all better with a group of other people enjoying it also.

So I watched Bottle Shock with Alan Rickman and LOVED IT!  I’m a big Alan Rickman fan.  Yet the casting and writing and filming made this an enjoyable movie all around.  The acting was superb and Rickman says more without saying a single word than any man I’ve ever seen.  The movie was even more enjoyable knowing it was based on a true story.

And I watched a lovely little film called Charlie Bartlett.  I highly recommend it.  It is so reminiscent of a classic John Hughes teen flick and leaves you with that same good feeling about the characters that Hughes did.  I wanted to BE a friend of Charlie Bartlett, he was so likeable.

And no, not THAT kind of Friend.  Although I would have completely moved in with Gustavo from Bottle Shock… but he’s my exact type, (dark, deep, smart, strong-willed, contained fire in a small package) so not quite surprising there!

THEN I buckled down and watched Twilight to see what the hoopla was about.  After reading an interview with the author I couldn’t bring myself to read any of the books.  But there was the movie, free on Showtime, so I said, “What the hell.”

OMG… what a piece of drivel.  It should be used in film school as an example of WHY casting is important.  And WHY directing is important.  And Holy Shit… WHY camera work is important!  Besides the plot being boring… I really hated Edward.  Now, perhaps that’s because of who they cast or how badly his acting was directed or the fact that I prefer my men dark and deep not pale and pasty.

But the close up scenes of him made me want to hurl.   I literally turned away cringing!  Then the close ups of Belle (which were almost as bad) made me realize… this was bad film making.  Because the wide shots of them acting together wasn’t too bad, it worked and he didn’t look so, so…. God, just icky.

Perhaps the newcomers didn’t have a director good enough to bring anything decent out of them.  But I could barely bring out any sympathy for the lead characters.  As a matter of fact I thought the entire supporting cast were far more interesting that either of the two leads.  Drop Belle and Edward and you might have an interesting film.

Plot wise… Laurel K Hamilton (author) does vampires and werewolves so much better.  Because she’s given them a serious culture.  A deep, rich, intensely interesting history that I didn’t get any sense of from Twilight.   There is a film project for Hamilton’s Anita Blake vampire series and that one I’m definitely seeing in the theaters or upgrade my cable package if necessary.  Because Hamilton is a perfectionist who’ll make sure the flick is good enough for her characters.

Plus instead of having her heroine choose between the vampire and werewolf after several books.. she said, “ah, hell, have both!”

I kind of like that philosophy!


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Is it the man… or is it someething else?

Okay, Warning now.  STOP!!   Do NOT read this if you have illusions of who I am and you don’t want them shattered.   Eithne, this means you!  Oh, and this is a long-ass blog, be prepared for that!

Last weekend I had a truly unusual experience.  One of my FWB’s found a swinger party on AFF in someone’s home and asked if I wanted to go.   He actually left me with the impression he’d been  invited to a private party and he knew the people.  He did know the couple throwing the party through emails but never  actually met them.

I found that out in the car!   And found out he’d never really been to a swinger party either.  Two newbies!  But on we went to try this new adventure.

Oh and it was truly an adventure.  As usual I learned an interesting bit about myself that I felt the need to share.  Beyond the fun experience of doing it.

So… ready for details?  Okay, then let’s set the scene.  Huge house with a jacuzzi in the back yard.  Three bedrooms upstairs with king size beds in each.  Potluck in the kitchen and a sheet of rules on the entry closet door when you first walked into the house.

The rules were pretty basic.  You can shut the door of a bedroom but be considerate of the time, others are waiting.  No drinks up stairs, clean up the room when you’re done.  Squirters, put down a towel.  Things like that.

Everyone was very friendly and introduced themselves if you stood still enough.  We got drinks and walked about.  Sat here and there with others and talked or watched the porn movie playing on the big screen.  It was like being at a cocktail party…  where you knew no one!  And where several of the women were in corsets!

Turns out that this couple has thrown several of these parties in the past three years and most of the people there had attended them.  Although as the evening progressed a lot of new people arrived.  And a lot of single black men.

Eventually were were approached by a couple and asked if we wanted to go with them upstairs.   So we did.  Found an empty bedroom and got naked.  We started with oral sex on our partners and then switched partners.

Now, when I begin sex my brain isn’t thinking a whole lot.  It’s just enjoying the moment and the sensations from my body.  So I’m NOT being plagued with thoughts like “Is he/she judging my body” or “Am I doing this right?” or “I care so much for this man.”  Those thoughts are never there.   It’s primal and basic and all about giving and getting pleasure.  And it’s probably why I have no problem doing what I did over the weekend.

At one point of this 69 fest (and I didn’t really get any chance to “play” with the wife of this couple) the husband moves me to the edge of the bed near the door to go down on me.  And low and behold there is a man standing there!  A glance further and there are other shapes in the hallway and the room.

See, I’d discarded my glasses and someone had thrown a shirt over the small table lamp so there was very little light in the room.   I’ll never be able to recognize ANY man from that encounter, with the exception of my date and the husband of the couple we started with.   Without my glasses, I can recognize they are men and maybe if they are black or not.

The groin standing before me (and I’m on my back looking upside down!) was in dress pants and definitely not a black man.   My basic brain is telling me, “Oooo New Toy!”  So I encourage him to take his tool out of his pants.  He is quickly in my mouth and the first thing I notice is a delicious smell.  It’s unexpected to find the smell of great cologne down there, but I liked it!

And I liked him.  His marvelous fingers did wonders on getting me to squirt.  I took him out of my mouth long enough to call for a towel!   He had a wonderful technique.  Using words to encourage me and NOT pressing his hard cock into my mouth.  He was all about me and my pleasure, just enjoying that with the added bonus of my lips around him.

I think he did get me to squirt, which isn’t easy as its a specific technique and I don’t squirt much.   But then he went down on me and I was truly in heaven!   And I learned a little bit more about this mystery man.  He had facial hair.

Now most who know me (or have read the blog) know that I love facial hair on a man.  NOT a heavy beard mind you!  But I like the look of a trim mustache and goatee or a bit of beard or five-o’clock shadow.   I like to touch a man’s face and feel that rough texture.  And last Saturday I got an idea of just what the perfect goatee can do for me from a man who’s doing me 69.  Oh my, the way those hairs tormented my clit was just exquisite.

I was overwhelmed with the desire to have sex with this man, to feel him inside me.  He took me to such a brink I had to pull away from his lovely tool to cry out my orgasms.  That action moved him further up my body to get to new areas that had me moaning more.  And with my mouth free another opportunist tried to see if he could manage to slide his cock in my mouth.

Sadly the logistics were completely off.  As was I, almost off the bed!  And STILL my hair was, once again, caught underneath me.  I swear I’m going to cut it!  I giggled when the new “tool” realized he just couldn’t get himself in my mouth.  My sexy, skilled man realized I was  half off the bed, apologized profusely and lifted me back on the bed.  Where he began to kiss me.   Not surprising, he was a wonderful kisser.

And then hands moved me over and the wife of the original couple whispered in my ear, “You’re going to like this.”  I looked behind me long enough to verify a condom was on what I was supposed to like and realized this wasn’t my skilled 69’r but a young and deliciousness looking black man.

I smiled to myself at her comment and didn’t say anything.  As much as I was the same age as these women and had arrived dressed more conservatively than any other woman, I wasn’t like these wives in so many ways.  One, I wasn’t THAT plump.  (I just glowed at hearing someone comment that I had a nice ass.  Really, can life get any better than getting a compliment on your ass in an orgy!)  Two, I’ve had and can have any time, access to exceptionally endowed men, not all of them black.  And Three, I’m not “new” to being wild.  Just new to doing it at a party with an audience and group participation!

And as usual with a man of a certain size, he was too long.  Well, too long for the position he was in!  So I stopped him when he hit the end and told him, “short girl, short torso.  You can’t do me in this position.”  So they flipped me over and tried again.  It was better but after a bit I noticed something.    As nicely endowed as he was, he was just F*&king me.  Like I was a task.  As if he and all the other black men there were just there to service the females.

Don’t get me wrong, my body enjoyed his.  And I was still getting to play with  other cocks in my mouth.  I recognized the husband of the original couple when he was before me and I briefly got my skilled one again.  And then, there was the delicious tool of my date, who can easily hold his own  in a roomful of black men, size-wise.

I asked him how close he was to orgasm and he replied, “as close as you need me to be.”  So he condomed up and  gave it to me the way I wanted.  Hard and fast.  Something a man too long cannot do.  And once he came, my body gave a delicious sigh and announced it was done.  I had to waive away the men that moved towards me once my dated moved away.  I barely had the energy to roll off the bed.

Looking around the couple was gone.  There was a new girl on the bed being screwed by a black man and the only other men anywhere in the room, other than my very white date, were black.  No sign of my skilled one.  We dressed and left the room.  I was dying of thirst!  After downing a bottle of water and a glass of Sunny D we got the number of the couple, thanked the host and left.   I had no idea if any of the men I passed was my Skilled One.

So… what I learned.   I learned there is a distinct difference when the sex is about the people and not just about the sex.   The black men where there to perform.  To satisfy these wives in a way they weren’t getting at home, supposedly.   I didn’t see any of them go down on the women orally.  But when I was in the hands of the Skilled One, it was about me.    With him I could feel his desire was personal, real and less, “Oh look, another hole.”

And I learned how I would do it differently next time (Oh and there will be a next time!)  Next time, I’ll take my date, one or two men I find interesting and a couple and all go upstairs at once.  And I’ll start with the woman instead of my date!

But I’m just a little haunted by my encounter with Mr. Skilled.   I wanted to know that man.  I want to screw him again and this time GET to screw him.   But I don’t know his name or even really what he looks like beyond the brief physical  impressions he left on me.

I’m imagining the CraigsList Missed Connections ad.  “You were the man who got me to squirt at Cami’s Party [Riverside], I was the woman who couldn’t see you without her glasses.   You didn’t finish the desire you started in my body, but left that to another.  I don’t know your relationship status but mine is single.  If you’re available, I want more of  you.”

I’d post it, but can you imagine the  replies I might get!  Scary!

Maybe I’ll just email Cami.


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Me and Scotland, Part One

The most relaxing vacation I had (before  my recent jaunt to Coachella) was my trip to Scotland with my mother. A co-worker at the time, Patricia, also went with us.  Since my mother was paying for my ticket with frequent flier miles (business class – SWEET!) Patricia and I did all the planning.  After a consultation  of the major sites to see, Patricia researched and planned the Bed and Breakfasts  and I researched and came up with smaller tourist stuff in each city.

We purchased a Eur-rail pass for transportation and off we went.  My mother and I had learned our lesson from that first Europe lecture tour and took one small roll-away bag each.  Patricia, who’d traveled to France before, apparently hadn’t learned this lesson.  Watching her wrestle a huge roll-away, a hand suitcase and a big duffel over her shoulder onto a train was embarrassing.  Especially during rush hour!  She bonked several people down the aisle and I realized she had no real concept of her space.  She was a tall and large woman who had (for some unknown reason) illusions she was petite.

Anyway, we took the train out to Bath and spent a day there taking a tour of the Roman Baths and saw Stonehenge along the way.  When we got to the train station for Stonehenge we just hired a taxi and had him wait while we did the tour.   Not only did we trust him with our luggage we paid him for the 2 hours he sat there and waited for us.  Stonehenge was roped off and you didn’t get to wander  inside the pillars.  As disappointing as seeing the Mona Lisa. (Small and roped off so you could barely experienced it.)

But we didn’t care too much.  We got to see it.  After Bath we took the train back to London and headed up north.  We stopped in York (there is a really cool underground dig of an old Viking settlement.)  Patricia was all about visiting Cathedrals and Mom and I just wandered about the city and saw what we could see.  Then we hit Edinburgh at the tail end of their month-long music festival.

We spent 4 days there and after 4 days of traveling we were ready to stop jumping from city to city and settle.  We did a concert of Pipes and Drums (OMG.. me and drums.. I was in heaven!) Patricia and I tried the Haggas and my mother had the Whitefish at this fancy restaurant with a Scottish show.   Guess who got sick!  My mother!  She had food poisoning for that entire night and when we woke up that morning she told us she’s spent the night in the bathroom, but said, “I’m fine now.. lets just not stray too far from a toilet!”

Toured the Edinburgh castle, bought a felt cape and tried a pub here and there.  I love a man with an accent.  But on that trip I was afflicted with a case of Tourist Shyness.

Oh pick up your jaw off the floor!  Yes, I got shy. TRY to wrap your head around that!  But I was a different person 15 years ago.  Looking back I realized I was in a mental space of husband shopping.   And I’d already started conversations with the man I eventually married.

But the romantic  in me loved the idea of meeting a Scottish man with that sexy accent and falling madly in love.   And for some reason I couldn’t go into the pubs with my vamp sexuality AND want the romantic connection at the same time.  So since I was accompanied by my Mother and large Patricia, we didn’t “party” in any of the pubs.

Ah, but today is a different day!  Sometime in the next few years my girlfriend Eithne and I will take a trip to Ireland. See, she’s from Ireland and wants to visit family and I want to pub crawl through that county to my hearts content.  Irish accent, Scottish accent makes no difference to me!

Lets see if I can invent some American stereotypes to live up to!


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Pie Day

Eithne said to me, “Ugh.. it was Pie Day at school.”

She works as a Teachers Aide for special needs kids (in a school district un-named to protect her identity… hee hee).  And she’s been complaining over her weight forever.  I moan about my intake of Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints (thank GOD they only come out once a year!) and in response she moaned to me about Pie Day.

I just stared at her imagining people just deciding to bring pies to school.  “Why would anyone have a Pie Day?”

“It’s March 14th” she told me.  As if that answered it.

Rolling my eyes, I gave her my best, “what the f*&%k” look.

“March 14,” she said with exasperation. “three, fourteen.  three point one four… get it?”

And bam… I so got it.  And began to giggle.  The numeric Pie…. 3.14 celebrated at school with PIES!  Pie Day!

“Bad enough I had to eat it at school,” Eithne whined on, “but my girls just HAD to bring some to their class.  I had to BAKE!”

God, I’m glad I have boys!

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Vacations (or Coachella part two)

Today the glow of my vacation was superseded by the realities of life.  Work and kids reminding me of my responsibilities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m much more relaxed and non-stressed through all those tasks I do.

But sometimes I have moments where I wish I was back at Coachella.  My mind kept drifting off to memories of the weekend which is starting to feel like an eon ago.   Which makes last Thursday feel like months ago.

And today as I was fondly remembering my time there I realized one of my favorite parts wasn’t seeing Vampire Weekend or Muse or Frank Taylor or Hockey or Devo.

It was sitting next to a shirtless, very sexy man.  While he was lying on the grass beside me, napping.  Letting my fingers play where ever they wanted along his body.  Watching him and kissing him whenever the desire struck me to do so.  With wonderful music playing and the sun warm and relaxing.   In a crowd of fellow music lovers, ganja mixing with the smell of grass cuttings.

Sensuality without it necessarily leading to sex.  Or not IMMEDIATELY leading to sex.  Indulging my desires to touch with no expectations.  Truly the most pleasantly mellow part of the trip and an experience I think I plan on repeating.  Often, if possible.

Suddenly the beach doesn’t sound like such a chore to visit!

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Coachella was great

Oh my, I am soooo relaxed.  Which is the exact reasons to go on a vacation.  It is just amazing what a weekend away from EVERYTHING has done for me.  There isn’t an ounce of stress left in my body.

And I could not have picked a better format than the Coachella Music Festival. (Nor a better companion… thanks again B  🙂  )  There were 130 bands, performers, singers, DJ’s playing in 6 places through the 3 days.  The first performer started at noon each day and the last one usually ended by one in the morning.

Needless to say I did not last until one in the AM!  Friday was more fun than Saturday or Sunday only in level of the crowds.  It was twice as packed on those days than on Friday.  Also, the security was a bit more relaxed this year than last, so there were A LOT of people getting in on duped and faked tickets.

According to the woman we stayed with, the nights were  more like a rave than an outdoor festival.  I’d have to agree with her.  Apparently the festival had 75,000 people a day!  On Saturday and Sunday you really felt it.  And the number of “beautiful.. there only to be seen” people was huge!  Body paint, bikini’s and as much skin as possible seemed to be the dress code.

There was so  much “eye-candy” that B and I spent a lot of time thinking about how much money we would make if we could design just the right individual sex enclosures.  Sort of a Porta-screw you could use… 30 minutes for $20.00.  We’d make tons!   Of course all that talking about sex and at one point just HAD to see if doing it in our vehicle would qualify as indecent exposure!

The highlights for me was discovering new music and falling in love with it.  And learning that my favorite band doesn’t have it together enough yet to be fun to watch perform.  Although I think the sound system wasn’t doing them justice.

Of course the BEST performance was from Vampire Weekend.  I’d heard their music but you know how it is…. if you’re not a teen you don’t spend THAT much time researching the band.   But, OMG they were incredible to watch perform.  If I can get a clip up later I will.  B did a lot of recording!  And they’ll probably be stuff on YouTube.  But until then, here’s their most recent single’s video.

Cousins by Vampire Weekend

The energy they have on stage is AMAZING and its just the funnest music to enjoy.  Oh, and that lead singer is the cutest cub!

I’ll post more  later.  I need a nap!

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Mom is always right

My mother always told me to take a fork to the potatoes before I bake them.  And I always did.  It never seemed to make them cook any faster so for many years I thought she was slightly off with this advice.

Never the less, I still did it, every time.

But recently I’ve been in a rush and just threw the potatoes in with the meatloaf.  Hell, I didn’t even wash them!   They were fine and I shrugged off that habit my mother’s advice had become.

Guess who skipped her carb THAT night!

Guess who skipped her carb THAT night!

Apparently.. the science of the WHY I should do this never stuck as well as the habit.  Because I’m sure she told me.  Potatoes have lots of water in them and the heat can make a lot of steam, which is an excellent source of, well,  propulsion.

There had been 5 potatoes.  I had just grabbed one on the right when that back one exploded.  All Over Me. And all over the floor and the walls, and… well, you get the idea.

So now I gotta rethink ALL her advice!  Does this mean I WILL go bald if I pluck out the gray hairs in my head?


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