| (no subject) |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|08:48 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Life seems to be all jobba jobba jobba at the moment. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, I like my work, it's interesting and fun. Today I went for my afternoon tea break to find the inventor of the confocal microscope (or "Nightmare Machine") chatting to the rest of the lab. Things like that happen here, it's lovely. Also the department library was giving away a huge pile of old books, so I am now the proud owner of Genes VI (an old edition of everyone's favourite genetics handbook), A Companion to Ethics, Creativity and Intelligence, and Counselling in Medical Genetics. Tomorrow I may pick up The Survival Of The Negro, if it's still there. There's an alarming number of race-based research books there, all from the 1930s or so. The Negro one has a chapter titled along the lines of "Increased Mortality In Negro Populations". Might be an interesting read...
Sadly I also had to be the one to discover that our huge experiment, the one I was sort of hired to do, will not work. At all. We have to completely redesign the process using different and more complicated methods than the one we were going to use. In science words, our piggyBac insertion that was supposed to be just upstream of alpha catenin on chromosome 3 has somehow managed to get itself onto the X chromosome, so we can't do the homologous recombination to excise alpaha-cat. In non-science words, a bit of DNA that we needed has moved to a place where it shouldn't be, and there's no way we can get it to move back, which means that we can't delete the gene that we wanted to delete. THIS IS REALLY, REALLY SUCKY.
Astrophysicist Housemate has returned from hospital today with his retinas all reattached and everything. His eye is big and red and looks very painful but he's ok. I discovered the wonders of having a curry house 20 seconds from my front door when I bought him his dinner. It seems mighy nice in there and cheapish too, I shall have to investigate further once work decide to pay me.
In other news:
The new group website is up! I really do work in a lab, my name's on the webpage and everything! Fortunately it looks like they didn't use my photo, hooray!
This post was brought to you by eye surgery, popadums, and the narwhal. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 1st, 2008|07:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  optimistic | ] |
So, it's been almost 8 months since I last posted. I'm not dead. Many things have happened. I graduated. Graduation was shite, a lot of hassle and unneccesary pomp and fustiness, and there wasn't even a party afterwards. I cried a bit, and was sad and angry at everything and everyone because I was so very disappointed with it all. Perhaps TV gave me an unrealistic idea of what to expect. Maybe I was just feeling a bit on the lonely side; most of the people I know best don't graduate until next year. Spent most of the day standing in lines, 'rehearsing', and putting on a brave face when hanging around with my family. It was all very strange indeed.
I have a job now too, a real one. I'm working in one of the labs in the Genetics Department, mostly pushing sleepy flies around and collecting their eggs. It's all much more interesting than it sounds, and I'm starting to get the hang of things instead of just being the noob who has to be told what to do all the time. Hopefully one day they'll get around to paying me. There's been a moderately massive cockup with my paperwork, which means that for the last month no one in the payroll section knew I existed. Woes. At least my first paycheck should be doubly healthy.
I also have a house, a wee tiny one that I share with two of the loveliest chaps you could ever meet, an astrophysicist and another physicsy/mechanicsy type man. They keep trying to give me food too, which is nice. My favourite thing in the whole house is the freezer, it's like some kind of wondrous device that lets you preserve your food, so you can eat it whenever you want! The novelty still hasn't worn off.
In other news:
On my way home from work last week I saw a man get whipped in the face with a chain. There was much blood and it was quite scary. On the other hand, today a man on a bike declared quite politely that I have a nice bum, so I suppose things even out. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 14th, 2008|11:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
It's been a long time. I like it here, but it's not as good as when we were in school, and things were (mostly) happy and (mostly) simpler. I miss those times, apart from having a Matt now I think they were the happiest I've ever been. I don't like to think that it's all downhill from there.
It's not that I'm unhappy as such, just not as happy. Something's missing and I don't know what it is and I don't know how to fix it. The world was smaller and now it is big. I don't know why this makes me sad. Definitely missing though. Am I greedy? I'm probably greedy with the happy. But it's so important.
In other news: Dissertation is nearly finished! This is good because the deadline is Wednesday. Otherwise things continue. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 10th, 2007|10:24 am] |
Silly banks. They send me urgent-sounding texts saying "OMG PLZ CALL THIS NUMBER ASAP IF U HAVN'T GOT UR NEW CARD YET!!!", then you spend 10 minutes on hold to find out it's been sitting at the bank for the last month. Le sigh. If they'd told me that in the first place then there wouldn't have been all this bother.
Still, at least Lloyds is better than the HSBC.
Home is nice. Dog got attacked by the Evil Boxerdog of Death while we were out walking, but he's ok. Really though, if you know your dog is a psycho why the hell would you let it off the lead in the first place? Sometimes it's a good thing that my dog is more than 50% fluff.
In other news: Apparently we've had the same postman for a long time. He knows our house so well that when he comes to the door he has all the actual mail separated from the junk mail, and delivers the junk mail directly into the eager, gaping jaws of the dog.
I was as amazed as you are. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|06:35 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bemused | ] |
Last night I dreamed I was one of the Spice Girls. We were playing a gig at a school, and I was angry because there was no security around the stage entrance. Also I had fabulous shoes, it was brilliant. |
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| Oh noes |
[Nov. 22nd, 2007|12:35 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | confused | ] |
Apparently I abused my Stumble button last night, for today it has vanished, I know not where. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 15th, 2007|10:24 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
I've had the most wonderful day.
It began last night. We decided that midweek Revolutions would be a good idea, and oh my, it really, really was. Many cocktails and two pitchers later we abandoned Rev for somewhere that might have some music that doesn't make your ears bleed, and relocated to the Kambar.
The Kambar is awesome. It's a grotty old pub that thinks it's a trendy nightclub. It plays crazy rock, and is populated by people who fall into one or more of the following categories:
1) Dances like a loon
2) Comes to Kambar because they're "Cool" and "Alternative"
3) Actually enjoys the music and atmosphere
So it's basically a place to go and bounce around like we did when we were in 6th form, which is absolutely fantastic. I had a lovely time. Kambar also has a regular death metal night. This amuses me greatly.
On the way home we made the obligatory visit to the Van of Life (spicy bean burger = yes) and graffitied the frosty frosty grass on the paddock. This morning's lectures didn't happen for me. Have spent the day marvelling at the wonders of John Lewis, riding the glass lifts up and down, having a lovely lunch in the Mai Thai, shopping, seeing Stardust, and having a delicious pub dinner. Things like this happen rarely in the Cam.
It was nice. And now I sleep. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 11th, 2007|09:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Born of Frustration - James | ] |
Good cause of the day: FreeRice. It's a fun little vocabulary game, and for every correct answer you give, the nice people at FreeRice give 10 grams of rice to the UN World Food Programme, hooray! It makes you smarter and makes people less hungry, both of these are good things.
I have been very ill lately. Fortunately the humiliation of vomming all over the train station seems to have exorcised my sickness demons, and now my cold is gone. Also, the cure for cystitis is to drink 4 pints of water and have a nice long pee. Apparently it's also ok if you pee a little bit of blood, who knew? Those crazy NHS Direct chaps, that's who. Not that I've been peeing blood... or have cystitis. This is becoming a little bit TMI, isn't it?
Anywho, the main point is that I'm more or less healthy now, and have no excuse not to do any work. I have one half of an essay written, and it's good. One day the other half will come pouring out. Any day now. But probably not tonight.
Je suis le tired. I shall have a nap, and then FIRE ZE MISSILES.
Oh, how I miss the old school virals. |
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| Ahoy |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|07:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bored | ] |
Oh, oh, ow. Why is the right-hand side of my neck spasming? It hurts to touch it. This does not seem good.
I have been busy lately. I've been trying to like, actually do some, you know, W-O-R-K and stuff, which involves being as far away from tinternets and MSN as possible. Turns out, libraries are actually kinda cool. Soyeah. When not trawling through research papers I've been attending the wedding of two people I have never met while entertaining a small child, and also visiting apple festivals (yes, plural) with the grandparents.
Grandma and Grandpa came to visit a fortnight ago. We had a delightful time doing nice, gentle grandparently things. I showed them Cambridge, in return they took me to Ely cathedral, which is quite possibly the best cathedral in the world. I swear I saw a carving of Satan. Angels most definitely do not have massive veiney leathery dragon wings. They also have a little room with paintings from the 1200s of a chap being tied to a tree and shot with arrows. Not the best advert for the religion, I have to say. They have some shiny stained windows and lots of headless statues from when Henry VIII went on his OMGNOIARETEHGODKING spree. It's all rather lovely. The grandparents' favourite part was when I took them a-punting on the river. I only lost the pole once. Some small children pointed and laughed. Grandpa hurled abuse at the Bulgarians. My favourite part was when we went to formal, and Grandpa plaintively wailed "But, but, no one's putting pennies in my drink *sniffle*." So of course, I had to penny my own grandfather. We then retired to the bar, where there was whiskey. A jolly good time was had by all.
Wedding was last weekend, in Blackpool. Matt's cousin was the groom. We had a massive meal afterwards at a fancy hotel, where Matt's nephew latched on to me. Fortunately he's easy to entertain, all you have to do it hit him a lot, he thinks it's hilarious. The most remarkable thing is that the subject of Matt's evidently imminent marriage to me never actually came up. This is A Good Thing, mostly because it's not going to happen any time soon, if ever. How does one make the respective families understand this concept? Le sigh.
This weekend shall be for working, oh yes. Next weekend the sister has her 18th birthday party. Wish me luck.
Am currently trying to work a Breakfast Club quote into the conclusion of my plasmids essay. It's relevant too, which is nice. I might see if I can keep this up all term.
"You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out, is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal." |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|03:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  frustrated | ] |
I has a new USB stick. It has two of your common or garden "Gigs". Kinda sexy, if you're into that sort of thing. It calls itself an "ultra-portible storage device", which implies that it is in some wonderful way even more portible than your average USB stick. It replaces floppies and CDs. It has a five year warranty. It is a high speed flash drive. It is both USB 2.0 compliant and USB 1.1 compatible. It wants to be my portable storage companion. It also has green parts. I like green.
The downside is that it comes encased in a hermetically sealed plastic exoskeleton, designed to withstand fire, flood, bullets, abrasion, oxidation damage, hurricanes up to category 6, stabbing, dogs, children's saliva, minor meteor strikes, nibbling, hydrochloric acid, earthquakes up to 8.7 on the Richter scale, all major categories of enzymes and scissors.
I'll probably just lovingly stroke the case for a few more minutes before I put it away.
In other news: Genetics is fun. It makes me happy. I might even write an essay this week.
How are you? |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|04:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  scared | ] |
I love the internet. The internet is great. Maybe I can get something funny here.
"It's Derby Time in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky is known for its beautiful horses. These ladies definitely capture the shapes of horses. Our applause goes to them."
I like this too. "Jessica spends her days lazing in the sun and cooling down in the water, with Tony and his wife on hand to deliver refreshments: weak, sweet coffee... and after a long hard day of eating, she likes a massage before she goes to bed." I think she would make an excellent role model.
In other news: My lecturers are scary. One is just a scary, scary lady, the other MAKES NO SENSE. Fortunately other smart people write papers about the things they are talking about and post them on the internet for universities to subscribe to so that their students can decipher their lectures. It only takes about 2 hours to find and read one, and there's only 20 references per lecture, and there's only 10 lectures per week, and there's only 8 weeks in the term. I'll be fine. Honest. |
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| Postsecret |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|07:14 pm] |
Sometimes I want to write something about things I see on Postsecret, but I have trouble making the right words happen to describe how it makes me feel. It's frustrating.
Last night I made cookies with the sister. They are yummy. Today I got up mega-early and went to Bristol to meet Ali, we had fun. Life is good again. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 20th, 2007|09:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  apathetic | ] |
Bam bam bam.
I am do teh bored dance. The one where you sit at your computer for a minimum of three hours, alternating between the legs-twitch and the lean-back stretch. It's a fun game, you should try it sometime when you have fuck all to do. On the plus side, my sims are prospering.
Should my spine click when I move my shoulders?
Tomorrow I may unpack a bit. And then pack a bit. 'Tis a vicious cycle. My room is so full of junk that I can't unpack before I've packed, but then I can't actually pack anything before I've unpacked, because most of the things I want to pack are already packed, I just can't get to them because other things are packed around them. Quite the catch 22, which is also a very good book full of silly names.
Am looking forward to being back in the Cam. At least Cam has ducks. They're always glad to see you, for they cannot tell the difference between Crazy Duck Lady and the rest of the human race. Silly ducks. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 16th, 2007|11:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
Evening all. If anyone knows who I lent my copy of the Sims 2 to, I kinda need it back, just for a week or so. It was the DVD edition, if that helps. Haven't seen it in a long, long time, so I assume I've lent it to someone and forgotten who. Woe.
Why did you all have to bugger off to uni so quickly? I am sad and alone.]
Visited the grandparents in their shiny new house today. The dog can't walk on the plastic-wood floors. It's hilarious. Then he was sick. Ever so slightly less cute and endearing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|01:43 am] |
Happy birthday to Miss Charlotte for tomorrow! I shall attend to this occassion more properly when I am home, oh yes indeed.
This compuer is old and odd. Sometimes it has colo8ur, sometimes It does not. Life is like that.
I am in Spain. It is expensive yo text here, si senor. Also, Pina coladas. Also tequila srunrises, also sangria, hoorsay! Mastt's shiret is in the fridge, bvecause it was dirty. NOw uuit smells like salsmai. We are having fun!
Love and hugs from Jess |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|08:03 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
Things that are in my room that I need to Deal With:
- dust
- laundry
- plate with rice and banana skin
- two half-empty bottles of rum
- 5 limes
- Euros
The limes will be the hard part. I don't want to just throw them out, but I don't know any delicious lime recipes. This week I will mostly be eating the food that is left in my room, which is mainly curry paste, rice, lentils and tomatoes. Everyone loves a lentil balti.
Have been to Ireland, it was fun. Matt's family are mostly Irish and drunk, also they kept asking when we were getting married. I was scared. Fortunately Matt's lovely parents leaped to our defence and explained that we just don't do that in England.
On Friday I finish work. We had fun yesterday, throwing random lab equipment around and fitting a rather large boy into a surprisingly small cupboard. We earn our pay, oh yes indeedy.
Soon I go to Spain. I am excited. You can tell because I have used the little 'excited' smiley face for this post. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 16th, 2007|08:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | confused | ] |
I think this room cleaning that I'm doing is well overdue. Have found an empty bottle of expensive-looking whiskey under my desk. I don't remember having any expensive-looking whiskey. I don't remember drinking any expensive-looking whiskey.
At least it's not dusty. Might have to go get the vacuum cleaner.
In other news: If anyone can use some BOGOFs for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington, Madame Tussaud's or Legoland then let me know, for I have three that I'm never ging to use. They're good until Halloween. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 15th, 2007|05:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
Got jabbed again today. By February I shall be immune to hepatitis B, hooray! This lady was less gentle than the last lady. The first time I went we had a nice chat and some sterilisation of the spot to be jabbed, this time she just grabbed the needle and stuck it in. There was some ow.
Work has become dull. Also, I spend too much money. Going to Ireland next weekend. Perhaps there shall be some free booze. Also the entirety of the boyfriend's family. Eek. |
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|
| Of mysterious letters and an excess of paperwork |
[Aug. 6th, 2007|08:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
Dear Jessica
Please accept my congratulations on your recent performance in your examinations.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that, in recognition of this performance, the Governing Body has elected you into a Senior Exhibition for the coming year. This award carries an emolument of £75, which will be credited to your College account in three termly installments of £25 commencing with the Michaelmas Term 2007.
Congratulations again, and I hope you are having an enjoyable vacation.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Senior Tutor
There are many things in this letter that I do not understand. I think they are giving me a "Hey, you're not rubbish any more!" award, although it's not like I did anything spectacular in the exams. Lots and lots of other people did better than me, also lots and lots and lots of people had the same grade as me. Also I'm a little worried about the exhibition part. And the emolumentation. These both sound painful. I like the money part though.
In other news: The official websites would have me belive that Spain is a hotbed of petty crime, terrorism, date rape and child abuse, in every possible combination. Travel insurance is fun. Still have not managed to get self removed from company pension scheme. I really would like to have that £50 back at some point.
Oh my. Graphic Jeeves/Wooster smut is so very, very wrong. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 5th, 2007|08:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
Rawr! Weekend at home was all the fun, liek totally omg no wai yes wai nuh-uh uh-huh.
The Visiting Americans were their usual lovely selves and hadn't changed much, considering the last time I saw them was 7 years ago. The grandparents' do was lovely, a really, really nice day, chatted a lot with Oldest Cousin and Cool Aunt over lunch at this odd fishing restaurant place. Maiden Aunt had outdone herself with the balloons and decorations and printing out little personalised origami menus for everyone, which must have taken hours and hours and hours. After lunch we perambulated to Chez Grandparents for tea, where Sister and I helped Youngest Cousins with the treasure hunt. They am do cuteness. Also I held a slow worm that we found in the compost bin. I don't think it liked me, it tied itself in knots, but it did have an adorable little lizard-tongue. Here is a picture if you ave not met one before:
There is something about them that makes them Not Snakes, but I don't know what it is. They are legless lizards. They should hold off on the white wine spritzers.
Foolishly mentioned that I was an Evil Atheist in front of The Americans and Crazy Great-Aunt and Missionary Aunt, all of whom are Seriously Religious. Crazy Great-Aunt is really quite nuts, and solemnly informed me that I was Going To Hell. She didn't seem too upset by this prospect. The Americans were open to a lively debate, and we promptly had a lively and lengthy debate. Am pleased to report that both sides emerged unscathed.
Arrived home today very tired. So tired that I tried to open the door by jamming the key at the doorbells. So tired that it took me a good while to work out why the door was not opening. So tired that I felt the need to say aloud, "Wait, you are the doorbells. You are the keyhole." Now I shall shower and sleep. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 2nd, 2007|09:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Heheh, this will probably be lametastic, given the contents of my iTunes...
IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...just type it in!
( Movie songs meme ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 2nd, 2007|06:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | excited | ] |
Today I had my brain scanned, for fun! Also science. And £22.50. But mostly fun. Soon I will have a nice photo of the inside of my head.
Today was a good day.
Going home tomorrow for the grandparents' golden wedding anniversary shindig. Apparently the whole clan will be there, plus my mum's BFF and her family are over from the US, also Dad's BFF is coming over to see them, also NEW SOFAS. I think we all know what the most important element of that exciting package is.
So yes. This time tomorrow I shall be back in the bosom of my family. Hopefully not literally, but I fear the worst. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 26th, 2007|11:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  distressed | ] |
It'sw not right that wehn you image-google "porn porn porn porn", the 4th entry is goatse. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 22nd, 2007|10:05 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  creative | ] |
Today I will speak
Exclusively in haiku.
Just try and stop me. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 21st, 2007|05:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
Reading HP.
Back in 48 hours. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 21st, 2007|04:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Urgh. Someone thought it would be a good idea to cook fish. They appear to have not only cooked it, but stashed some of into the air vents as well. Now the entire ground floor and basement (basement = kitchen) smells of fish. Not the usual, mildly offensive fishy aroma, but a full-on retch-inducing nose-assualting stench. Most unpleasant.
I shall go fetch my Harry Potter now. Maybe if I prop the back door open it will have cleared a little by the time I get back. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 20th, 2007|05:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | lost | ] |
Meh. Am at a bit of a loose end. Work continues to be lovely. Have absolutely nothing to do this weekend, apart from eat sausages before they turn bad. I wish for a freezer. Am debating whether to risk the 4-day-old chilli. Difficult times, my friends. |
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valaraiya's journal
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