Ipad apps ; editing our Botswana video clips ; Thanksgiving

(posted from home)

(This post covers 14 – 30 November, 2011)

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Wednesday, 30 November -

I was awake until 0100 this morning and then awoke at 0630 and couldn't get back to sleep. What's THAT about?
I had some minor problems with my Adventure Motorcycle magazine subscription so dashed off an email to the publisher and ended up writing a set of recommendations for changes to their web site so others don't have the same problems.
I also happened upon a Field and Stream series of videos about an ATV expedition on the Canol Road and had to watch a few of them. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry on the Canol Road, a mining road/trail between Whitehorse, Yukon and Norman Wells, NorthWest Territories.
That afternoon Labashi and I drove down to Home Depot to check out the water softener and uv light we think we want. On the way home we stopped at Chili's for supper, then came home to watch another old French classic movie, 'Belle de Jour' with Catherine Deneuve.

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Tuesday, 29 November -

Today I spent much of the day researching water softeners and ultraviolet water-treatment lights. We're thinking it's time to square away our borderline-quality water.
I also bought a subscription to Adventure Motorcycle magazine on the iPad today. One thing the digital revolution has done is bring down the cost of magazine subscriptions and I'm very happy to have the iPad ones.
I also downloaded Henry Morton Stanley's classic 'How I Found Livingstone: travels, adventures, and discoveries in Central Africa'. I've been wanting to read this since watching 'Expedition Africa' earlier this year.
That evening we watched the 1955 French classic movie 'Diabolique' directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

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Monday, 28 November -

Last night I decided I didn't have nearly enough iPad games for the grand-niece so downloaded a few more-- Tiny Wings, Doodle Jump, and Animatch.
In the afternoon I spent an inordinate amount of time gathering up all the equipment needed to run the boat motor for the last time this season. The earmuffs for the water supply were over in the storage unit so I brought back an entire load of storage drawers and went through them. I also use only fresh gas for this so I emptied the boat's gas tank into the gas can I use for my old mower and got some new gas from the local gas station.
The boat motor started right up despite not being run since my maintenance run of last Spring. This was a terrible year for boating. Spring was awful given that the water was very high and muddy. We were working all summer until the Africa trip and then found an inch of water in the basement when we returned so of course that had to be taken care of right away. Maybe I'll get some boating in next year.

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Sunday, 27 November -

We whiled away the morning then drove to Chambersburg to my brother's house for a Thanksgiving-weekend visit. I presented our Africa trip and we had Thanksgiving mac-and-cheese (the leftovers were all gone!) for supper. The grand-niece wore me out playing hide-and-seek and iPad games. What a cutie.

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Saturday, 26 November -

This morning I buzzed down to the gun shop to get my receipt signed off (I had forgotten to take it along when I picked up the Single Ten). I then rode over to Starbucks to fortify myself for a walk.
I did my end-to-end five miler at Rocky Ridge in 1:41 today and it seemed easy.
That evening we watched 'Without the King', a documentary about the royal family of Swaziland. We had started early so also watched '180 South', a documentary about a trip to Patagonia and efforts there to develop a new national park in Chile. Both good docs.

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Friday, 25 November -

Today we had a lazy morning then drove down to the Accomac Inn for lunch. We had the place to ourselves until the very end and enjoyed truly exceptional food.
Our guests left for home from the Accomac and we returned home to take it easy. That evening we caught the latest 'Gold Rush' and 'Flying Wild Alaska' eps.

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Thursday, 24 November -

Today we met Labashi's eldest brother and his wife at Mom and Dad's. We watched the videos and stills I've collected from our Africa trip and then accompanied them to dinner in the dining room downstairs. The staff did an excellent job, somehow making a very tasty cafeteria-style Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was moist and very tasty, the stuffing and gravy excellent and even the veggies were well-seasoned. We had a wonderful time.
We spent a very pleasant evening hosting our out-of-town guests.

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Wednesday, 23 November -

We cleaned house this morning in anticipation of visitors. I decided I need more video clips so did some last-minute editing and posting for much of the afternoon. I then tried to figure out how to transfer my finished videos to the iPad in case I have a problem connecting the laptop. Surprise, surprise--- it's not easy. I found third-party software that's supposed to work but expect it to somehow be crippled so don't want to do that.

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Tuesday, 22 November -

Today I got started on figuring out our work hours for the Chambersburg house this year. But my heart's not in it. I soon decided it's important to download some games onto the iPad to take along to visit my grand-neice and grand-nephew this weekend (LOL). And then of course I had to play with them to be sure they work properly! I also downloaded Hipmunk and did some airfare searches for some possible trips next year.
We watched 'Rock Stars' on TV that evening. I couldn't imagine what they'd do after the first ten minutes but they did a good job of keeping me interested in prying rocks off hillsides to make them safe for passing traffic. But what could they possibly do next week?

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Monday, 21 November -

I spent much of today editing four video clips of our encounters with elephants into one longish clip. I really, really need to concentrate on getting better raw footage. I had one shot of Labashi making supper in our campsite at Savuti which included a pan around to an elephant munching on tree branches nearby. My little camera is quite sensitive to movement and this footage is shaky. All I had to do was shoot it again, this time more carefully, and I didn't do that. So today I edited out the worst of the shakes and ran the clip through iMovies' stabilization process but only got just-barely-adequate footage.
That evening we watched 'In A Dream', a documentary about Philadelphia artist Isaiah Zagar.


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Sunday, 20 November -

I again spent another full day editing Botswana movies with iMovie. I finally could not stand being inside and so rode the GS down to Starbucks for a break late in the day.
That evening we watched 'The Borgias' pilot on DVD.


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Saturday, 19 November -

I spent the entire day editing videos on iMovie. I'm trying to get a series of them ready to take along when we visit family.
That evening we finished the 'Dexter' season 5 and watched two sample eps of 'Episodes'. I think we'll pass on that one even though we're starting to get desperate for a new show.

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Friday, 18 November -

Today I spent most of the day working with iMovie editing clips from our Bostwana trip. I'm just learning how to use iMovie but am starting to like it.
That afternoon I rode the motorcycle down to Rocky Ridge park and walked my 5-mile end-to-end route.
That evening we watched the latest 'Gold Rush' and 'Flying Wild Alaska' episodes on TV.

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Thursday, 17 November -

Today I took Labashi down to Nixon Park's nature center to look at the African wildlife exhibit. This is an amazing exhibit for a small local nature center. I took along the iPad and used the '360 Panorama' app to take a panoramic photo.
On the way down to Nixon Park we stopped into a deli called 'The Festive Board' in south York. I had run onto a listing for it while searching for new restaurants for us several days ago. We took a close look at the gourmet cheeses and wide variety of sandwiches and had a split a gourmet italian one.

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Wednesday, 16 November -

Today I ran over to the local library to get a new library card and spent an hour or so there. I misplaced my old one and now need it to download books to my Kindle-on-iPad app. I also spent an inordinate amount of time researching an interesting light-- the Fenix T72. Labashi says I'm a sucker for lights like this and I have to admit she has a point. I was excited over Cabela's 600-lumen LED light and now here's a 2200-lumen one. Too much money for now, though.
Labashi and I went out to Deb's Pizza for supper and then watched the extras on the Page One DVD.

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Tuesday, 15 November -

I spent much of my morning looking for art exhibits and new restaurants to go visit. I really need to keep a closer eye on local events. I of course found some interesting things that happened last weekend but nothing for today or the rest of the week.
That evening we watched an excellent documentary-- 'Page One: Inside the New York Times'. Ya gotta love David Carr after seeing that.

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Monday, 14 November -

I spent much of the day playing with the iPad and looking for more apps for travel. I downloaded Gas Buddy and AllStays Camp and RV. The former finds prices at nearby gas stations and the latter is an extensive database of campsites. The AllStays product has already shown me campgrounds I didn't know existed in Florida. For the most part these are local-government-run campgrounds which don't appear on state maps or in campground lists. And they're typically cheap-- like me!
While trying out Gas Buddy I remembered I need to gas up Mocha Joe before my discount runs out at the Giant gas station. Today I got a 70-cents-per-gallon discount and saved $13 on a fill-up.
Back home I put a final coat of paint on the brickmold I had replaced around the mud-room door.
That evening we watched 'Barton Fink', another older Coen brothers production I've had queued up for months. Can you say 'magical realism'?

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Squirrel hunting prep and two-day trip ; barn roof replacement ; window and door trim repairs

(posted from home)

(This post covers 1 – 13 November, 2011)

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Sunday, 13 November -

Today I rode the Concours down to the Tollgate Starbucks for my Sunday read and a mocha. Here we are in mid-November and it's almost 50 degrees at mid-morning. I love it!
The Starbucks wi-fi link had problems so I read a Randy Wayne White novel on the iPad. I had downloaded 'Deep Shadow' from our library yesterday and have already buzzed through four or five chapters. It's great to read some Doc Ford again, especially after visiting Sanibel Island (and the Doc Ford Sanibel Rum Bar and Grille) last winter.
I also downloaded 'Columbus: The Four Voyages' and am looking forward to starting that in the next few days.
Back home I worked the blog and then decided I'd better get out for a walk before the rains come in the next few days. I started out on the Concours but hadn't gone far before remembering I had wanted to put the final coat of paint on the mud-room door's brick-mold today. I circled back only to learn that Labashi had already done the job this morning. Nice!
I took off again and was soon hiking my end-to-end route at Rocky Ridge County Park. For some reason the walk seemed very easy today. After my long hunting walks earlier this week I thought a walk might be a bit of a struggle but that wasn't the case. I walked the five miles in 1:41 today.
I arrived home just after watching a beautiful sunset. After supper I posted the blog update with a 'Gold Rush' episode on tv in the background.

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Saturday, 12 November -

I worked on catching up the blog this morning and then turned my attention to the Penn State game at noon. I'm not a big football fan but was glad to see the team didn't embarrass itself and thought ESPN handled the scandal in a fairly well-balanced manner.
That evening we started watching a documentary about Wonders of Africa. We had both had a few drinks of irish cream with dinner and those caught up with us. We fell asleep!
We abandoned the documentary around 2100 and went to bed to read.

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Friday, 11 November -

I spent much of the morning on the web, mainly catching up on the Penn State scandal. I picked up the news on the firing of Joe Paterno on the iPad at Starbucks yesterday and had to learn more about it to try to comprehend. After my reading this morning there's no doubt in my mind that the board's decision was right.
I also rode the GS into York and picked up my hunting revolver from the gun shop and stopped in at Starbucks for my coffee fix. The wind was quite brisk on this upper-40's day, causing the bike to lean into it quite strongly at times. What a ride!
Late in the day we drove over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. Dad had made 'Daube Provencal', a type of beef stew. It was delicious but Dad's convinced he can do better and will make it for us again sometime soon. Lucky us!
That evening we watched the Coen brothers' “Miller's Crossing”, one of their earlier works (after 'Blood Simple', I believe). Not bad but a bit hurried in production, I think.

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Thursday, 10 November -

I awoke to rain pattering on the van's roof around 0430 this morning. It was actually very pleasant but told me I need not get up at 0600 to hunt. I then slept until 0700 but was on the road only 20 minutes later-- I'd eat on the road.
I set the GPS and headed for Cabela's. I wanted to look for a holster for the revolver I ordered and I like to go up there and look around each Fall. As I hit I-81 I remembered the Starbucks at Progress so stopped there for a bagel and coffee.
As I approached Cabela's I remembered there's a BMW and Triumph motorcycle shop nearby. I drove to Hermy's to get an up-close-and-personal look at a Triumph Thuxton 900. I spent an hour talking with sales-guy John, a very interesting guy. He had just done a six-day tour in Arizona in September. I enjoyed hearing his reaction to the tour run by Edelweiss (the motorcycle touring outfitter) and the other riders. I also liked the Thruxton very much. I didn't get anything from looking at the other models but the Thruxton looks and feels just right and the riding position seemed comfortable.
At Cabelas I was disappointed to have only a very limited selection of holsters. I finally found one that will suffice and it was fairly cheap but it's not really what I wanted. I had to settle for a fabric belt holster when I wanted a leather hunting holster. But try finding one for a left-hander.
Back home we watched four eps of 'Dexter' Season Five that evening.

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Wednesday, 9 November -

I arose this morning a bit after 0600. The hunting digest says I can legally hunt after 0620 but that still seemed awfully dark. Around 0630 I began walking and very quickly came upon a trail I hadn't noticed before. The trail turned into an old logging road and circled up and out of sight, following the contour of the hill. Along the way I scared out two deer. I could see their white tails very clearly but couldn't see their heads at all since their colors matched the background so closely.
I topped out and tried a bit of still-hunting and calling while the sun slowly climbed above the mountain to my east-- what a day!!!
I explored the area for another hour or so, then returned to the van and had a breakfast bar. I then headed down the dirt road into the Hollow. When I came to the intersection of the Perry Lumber Company trail, I took it rather than continue down the road I already knew. In short order I ran into the first squirrel I could have taken with the .22. This one quickly bounced off the trail as I approached but then posed in a perfect target shape some 30 yards from me. I raised the gun to aim but knew from the beginning that I wouldn't shoot. The shot would have been a longish one but the bottom line is I don't have anything against squirrels. It was enough to have one in my sights. And after only seeing a few of them as I walked along, I didn't have a sense that they're over-running the area and need to be thinned out.
As I continued on the Perry Lumber Company trail, I came upon what I believe is a resting place for a black bear. Under a limestone overhang just off the trail I noticed some trash--- three containers. It seemed an odd place for trash to accumulate. And then I noticed all of them had holes and damage--- bite marks and crush marks. A bear had brought them back to its lair.
This overhanging rock was not deep enough to make a cave or den, I thought, but it would make a very nice place for a bear to hang out in very hot weather or rainy weather. A spring lies nearby, the lair overlooks the area and a steep mountainside lies just a few dozen yards behind it.
I continued to the Tuscarora Trail intersection and turned left to another Tuscarora Trail shelter. I had lunch there and then started to walk back toward the van on the gravel road.
Today I saw six squirrels, two of them shootable with the open-sights of the .22. I learned that I need not take the six-mile round trip to and from the far shelter since seven of the 11 squirrels of the last two days were seen within a half mile of the van.
I got back to the van around noon and after a quick lunch took a short nap. I then drove east to the top of the mountain and took the Bower Mountain Road. This one is only open from October 1st to December 10th (for hunters) so it was new for me.
Well back in the boonies I met an oncoming pickup with a Game Commission logo on the side. I stopped and chatted with the young woman driving the truck. It turns out she works for the deer-management staff and she was out trying to track a radio-collared deer. This one had been trapped at the Turkey Pens area and had been hanging around the area but now can't be found. She was trying to find this one using telemetry, i.e. she uses a radio-frequency directional antenna to pick up the signal from the collar. Since I've seen Florida coon hunters use GPS collars to track their dogs, I asked whether they use GPS collars. She said they do indeed have a few GPS collars and they transmit a text message containing their location every few hours.
As I approached Dead End Road I came upon a pickup and trailer blocking the road with two guys cutting wood. I stopped to check (thinking I'd likely have to turn around and take a long detour) and they said they just had a few more logs to cut up and then they'd move off the road.
Just after the intersection I came upon a campsite right at an overlook of Doubling Gap. I've really, really got to go back and spend a night there. The overlook of the ridge doubling back on itself is impressive but I bet the view beyond into the Cumberland Valley at night and the view of the night sky (on the right night) is incredible. I bet you can also see lights of airplanes going into and leaving Harrisburg International Airport from there.
After descending the steep, narrow road to Laurel Run Road, I turned right and drove the few miles to the Frank Masland Natural Area. My camping spot for the night was the parking lot across the road. I've visited this area several times to walk in the natural area but this was my first overnight there.
I arrived about 1530 so immediately loaded up my hunting gear and walked back the Middle Ridge road. I didn't see any squirrels in this area but was interested to see the deer exclosure at the end of the road. I continued through it and followed the trail beyond for a few hundred yards before realizing I need to turn back soon to get back to the van before dark.
Back at the van I made a gourmet supper of canned mac-and-cheese. I read the rest of the evening, finishing the novel 'The Help' and the latest digital issue of 'Leisure Wheels' magazine.

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Tuesday, 8 November -

Today I went hunting (for the first time in 34 years!). I drove Mocha Joe over to the Tuscarora State Forest and checked out camping sites at Fowler Hollow State Park as well as several state forest campsites nearby. After seeing the State Park charges $22.50 a night for mid-week PA-resident camping, I lost my enthusiasm for state parks. So after getting my camping permits from the State Forest office I parked at the Alfarata Trail parking lot along Hemlock Road to hunt. I walked in the dirt road to one of the Tuscarora Trail lean-to's, taking my time and stopping to try my new squirrel call.
On my afternoon of hunting I saw five squirrels. I was carrying my over-under .22 / 20-gauge Savage 24C. Of the five squirrels, three were out of range almost instantly. I think I could have scared the heck out of the other two with the shotgun, if not killed them outright. But I definitely didn't have a shot with the .22.
I got back to the van about a half-hour before the end of the shooting day (as specified in the hunting digest I got with my license). I pulled out the butane stove and cooked up some beef stew and corn niblets.
That evening the moon came up just after dark and it was a full moon. I sat out reading a novel ('The Help') on the iPad. After an hour or so I brought out the Kwik Kampfire and burned it for a half-hour or so.
I then retired to the van and read the rest of the evening, really getting into my novel. The temperature dropped under 50 so I'd fire up the Buddy heater for a few minutes to warm up the van and turn it off for about a half hour, then do it again.
I went to bed around 2200 and set the alarm for 0600.


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Monday, 7 November -

Today we had contractors on site to replace the roof on the barn. Our barn is really just a largish storage shed but of course it's still important to protect it and its contents. We did get more than 15 years service from the roof so it's time.
When we originally ordered the barn we had skylights put in on the end away from the doors. We've long thought we should have also ordered skylights on the other end so today was the day for new skylights to be installed along with the new roof.
The guys did a good job, cleaned up very well, and left us some extra shingles.

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Sunday, 6 November -

This morning I rode the Concours down to the Tollgate Starbucks for my Sunday read. Later that day I turned my attention back to the living room window frame. I thought I had a bit of scraping to do on another section of the frame but that also turned out to be wood rot. I had to repeat the process of cutting back to solid wood, cutting and shaping a piece of wood stock to fit, and then applying and shaping an epoxy filler. Once that was done I applied a coat of high-quality primer. I also painted a coat of primer on the vinyl brick-mold I had installed last week around the mud-room door.

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Saturday, 5 November -

This morning Labashi ran me over to Cycle Tech to pick up the Concours. I knew this wasn't going to be cheap. When we came back from Africa I found it would start but as soon as I'd touch the throttle, it would shut down. I had noticed in early Summer that it was having problems with idling but that would clear up after I'd ride it for a half-hour or so. But now I had to pay the shop to come pick it up. I knew that was going to turn into having to pull the four carbs-- and on a Concours, that's not easy. With the trailer-pickup, inspection, a new air filter, new plugs, the carb cleanup, and carb balancing and performance mods, the bill came to $450. Yikes!
In the afternoon I rode the Concours in to Gander Mountain and Dick's to shop for hunting gear.
It's running GREAT! I'm so glad to have it back and ready for fall and winter riding.
Late in the day I applied the final bondo coat on the window frame and did the final shaping prior to paint application. We also dug out the extension ladder and replaced the flood-light bulbs on fixture on the end of the house. One bulb had burned out but we replaced both since they've been up there for many years.
That evening we watched 'Dexter' Season 5, Disc 2 episodes.

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Friday, 4 November -

Labashi ran me up to the local garage to pick up Mocha Joe after its inspection appointment this morning. The van is doing well at 185K miles but the heavier-duty tires I bought for it seem to be wearing more quickly than they should. I'll have to look up the purchase date and mileage but I think they're less than two years old. Then again we went to California, Labrador, and Florida in that timeframe. Still, they should have tread left.
We drove to Chambersburg late in the morning to meet with our real-estate agent to put House 2 on the market. We mowed the lawn and took a series of backup photos in case the agent's photos don't come out well.
On the way home we came back through the Michaux State Forest and then stopped at Restaurant Sidney in East Berlin for an early supper before returning home.

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Thursday, 3 November -

This morning I rode the F650GS in to Lowe's for some bondo and for replacement light bulbs for our external spotlights. While there I had a coffee at the nearby Starbucks and tried out the iPad on their wi-fi signal.
I dropped by the gun shop at Stonybrook and learned the hunting revolver I had my eye on for squirrel hunting had been sold over the weekend. I put down a deposit on another but now will have to wait a few days for it to come in.
I spent another hour searching the house for my missing wallet-cards but no luck there.

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Wednesday, 2 November -

I ran up to our local Wal-mart this morning to pick up a hunting license. I've decided to do a little squirrel-hunting this fall and winter. I'm not really interested in shooting squirrels but rather am using this as an incentive to get out into the woods this Fall.
I was afraid my plans would be delayed by having to take a hunter safety course in order to get my license. The rules say I don't have to take the course if I've previously held a license but my last license is dated 1977! It turned out to do the trick, though. The only problem I had was convincing the guy I don't yet qualify for a senior license (LOL) !
That afternoon I started work on the exterior frame of our living room bow window. I could see a soft spot on the lower part of the frame from the ground and sure enough a few minutes of poking at it soon opened up a ten-inch-long by inch-and-a-half wide hole. I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting out the rot and then cutting and shaping a piece of wood stock to fit and treating the underlying wood surface with a rotted-wood stabilizer.

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Tuesday, 1 November -

I spent most of today clearing off my desk and re-organizing my home office. I'm also searching for some of my wallet cards I had pulled out of my wallet for the Africa trip. Incredibly, I can't remember where I put them. I THINK I put them somewhere I'd run into them during the normal course of a day but that hasn't happened so far.
That evening we watched episodes from 'The Big C' tv series. We were reluctant to order this one but it turns out to be written very well.


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