It hasn't been a week of classes yet and I'm already feeling sleep deprived. Luckily, I am sitting at home in Oakland right now and caught up on sleep. I thought I'd catch up on some blog writing as well.
I spent last Friday afternoon in SF with Erika, Javi, and Mike. Erika was on her way to camping in Yosemite and decided to spend a few days in SF as well. That afternoon was definitely a memorable experience. So much random-ness. By the time I met up with her, it was late afternoon, nearly time for Javi to get off of work.
Erika wanted to go to the Presidio but it's a bit far and I didn't think there would be very much to do there. So we went to Japantown instead. I have only been there once before and didn't get a chance to walk around. We walked around in the shopping areas, gawking at the extremely expensive prices. Who would pay $15 for a pencil?!
We made Javi meet us in Japantown so that we can head to a food truck festival that Javi found out about. We were walking to the bus stop when we literally ran into a couple of people who were looking confused at a sign. The sign was advertising for an event that was happening inside the glass doors of the building. The couple told us that the event was free but "no what they thought it was going to be" because there was music and alcohol inside. I think all I heard was "free" and at this point Javi spotted the cupcakes. There were 5 or 6 layers of mini-cupcakes and he really wanted some. So we walked in, pass the people who were trying to get us to register, and went up to the cupcakes table. There were a lot awkward people milling around, not sure if they are supposed to eat the cupcakes. Erika grabbed a plate and started to take the cupcakes and other pastries. So naturally, everyone else started eating too. Only takes one person to initiate these things, I guess. All the pastries were really, really good.
We went upstairs to check out the rest of the building. We really had no clue what was going on at this point. We hung out a bit on the stairwell of the 3rd floor because we wanted to check out the store but they didn't allow food inside. Once we got inside though, we found a very strange store. The employees were dressed up like anime characters and they carried very eccentric looking clothing. This store has no store front and you really won't know about its existence unless you entered from downstairs and made your way up these backstairs. We were wondering how this store gets its business when we realized that their customers must do all their clothes shopping at that store. (The other customers were dressed as goth and other related things.)
We went back down stairs to find free alcohol sampling and even more food. There were noodles, kimchi watermelon, and egg rolls. There was a long line for registration and we had no reason to register but then I spotted the Pocky sticks in the goodie bags. So we got in line and got handed a bag of random stuff include a stress ball, two CDs, some flyers, a bottle of Red Bull, and a bottle opener. We ate more cupcakes and head out after stuffing ourselves. Extremely random and awkward event. I don't think anyone knew what they were supposed to be doing at this event. There was even dance music playing in the background. We saw the flyer for the event but it was really not helpful.
We finally headed out to meet up with Mike, who was coming from Berkeley to meet us for dinner. Erika and Mike wanted Afghan food so they picked a place to meet up. Javi and I tagged along, not knowing what to expect. We finally got to the place and Mike already got a table. He greeted us with "omg Erika, this is just like the place in Cambridge!" Apparently both of them love this Afghan place in East Cambridge (http://www.helmandrestaurant.com/). They spent some time being really amazed that they were able to find the exact same place in SF, across the country. The menu, the decor, even the cups were exactly the same. We found out from the waitress that this was indeed the same place.
We ordered food and a pumpkin appetizer. They served the appetizer with bread and three sauces. I saw staring at these three sauces and had a strange feeling I saw them before. I dug into the candied pumpkin appetizer and definitely had a deja vu moment. Mike was saying something about the Cambridge place being close to the Galleria and I suddenly remembered going to a restaurant with Mahalia, Stella, and John O. I realized I had also been to the place in Cambridge! Such a strange evening. The food was really good. I ordered the first thing on the menu and I thought that was much better than what I had ordered back in Cambridge. I have a feeling I'll be back at this place sometime soon because I told Mahalia and now she's really interested in going.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Autumn Quarter 2010
Another school year is about to start! I suppose I should have spent some time cleaning up my bike so that I can use it tomorrow... Er... maybe I'll do that tomorrow morning? I've been so busy lately. That d.school workshop really took up a lot of time. And now I'm working on a poster for ESW. There are a few things I have been meaning to write about but haven't had the time.
I did managed to go grocery shopping this morning though. Got a lot of food. Vegetables are so much cheaper than meat. I feel like I should be buying so much more veggies. I guess this is a good thing. Really enjoy making food and deciding what I want to eat. I mean, free food from BBQs and such is good and all, but it's just not the same. I think my cooking is better. ha!
Got a chance to do some running lately. Found a small dirt trail that goes through some neighborhoods west of campus. It's really nice! I want to do that again sometime. But I have to go slightly uphill, clockwise on Campus Drive to get there though. I've done so many counterclockwise runs on Campus Dr that running the other way seems weird. It is really nice to get a change of scenery though. I think this is very important. With old routes, you know what to expect and are tempted to stop because you know how much longer the path goes on. With new routes, the uncertainty keeps me going. I don't want to stop in case I get stuck in the middle of nowhere. 4 weeks until the half marathon! I want to do it in under 2hrs. Need to protein load.
8am class tomorrow! Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I think I will need to bring snacks.... Sorry that this post is so lame. I will have more interesting stuff very soon.
I did managed to go grocery shopping this morning though. Got a lot of food. Vegetables are so much cheaper than meat. I feel like I should be buying so much more veggies. I guess this is a good thing. Really enjoy making food and deciding what I want to eat. I mean, free food from BBQs and such is good and all, but it's just not the same. I think my cooking is better. ha!
Got a chance to do some running lately. Found a small dirt trail that goes through some neighborhoods west of campus. It's really nice! I want to do that again sometime. But I have to go slightly uphill, clockwise on Campus Drive to get there though. I've done so many counterclockwise runs on Campus Dr that running the other way seems weird. It is really nice to get a change of scenery though. I think this is very important. With old routes, you know what to expect and are tempted to stop because you know how much longer the path goes on. With new routes, the uncertainty keeps me going. I don't want to stop in case I get stuck in the middle of nowhere. 4 weeks until the half marathon! I want to do it in under 2hrs. Need to protein load.
8am class tomorrow! Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I think I will need to bring snacks.... Sorry that this post is so lame. I will have more interesting stuff very soon.
Friday, September 17, 2010
design thinking workshop
Haven't blogged for a while because I've suddenly become really busy. Got back to Stanford early Sunday morning and went straight to class. Yup, class on a Sunday. I've been spending my week at Stanford participating in the d.school design thinking workshop. Several departments offer summer college classes that happen the week before classes begin, mainly to let you have the chance to explore a new topic or a topic in depth.
This design thinking workshop has been really great so far. We learn about the design process from different people in the d.school. They would talk a little bit about a topic and then have us do an activity. These activities are usually very quick and require us to respond without much thinking. Don't think, just do. It's really refreshing.
I've never thought about design as a process. It's certainly not a static process. It's very fluid and the process can be different in for different products. But the core of the class is really about recognizing the barriers that hold you back from being creative and innovative. I think engineering teaching is extremely rigid and while we pride ourselves in "problem solving," we never really think outside of the box. We're not even aware that this box exists. I think this workshop has given us some of the tools to get outside of this box.
The d.school is part of the mechanic engineering department (sort of). They offer several classes including a bootcamp in design thinking in the fall. I'm seriously considering taking the class. Although I feel like doing d.school boot camp, ESW project, other classes and working part-time would really be too much. One of them might have to go. Well, in order to take the d.school class, I would have to swap it with one of the other classes that I'm planning to take. But I'm not sure that will be enough. Anyway, we'll see. I'll probably go the first day and see what happens. There's an application process. And with all things that involve an application process, I like to think that I'm not really the one making the decision and so I can relax and let it happen. This is not true though because I can usually tell if I submitted a good application or not.
Anyway, last day of the workshop. Maybe meeting up with Erica and Javi in the afternoon!
This design thinking workshop has been really great so far. We learn about the design process from different people in the d.school. They would talk a little bit about a topic and then have us do an activity. These activities are usually very quick and require us to respond without much thinking. Don't think, just do. It's really refreshing.
I've never thought about design as a process. It's certainly not a static process. It's very fluid and the process can be different in for different products. But the core of the class is really about recognizing the barriers that hold you back from being creative and innovative. I think engineering teaching is extremely rigid and while we pride ourselves in "problem solving," we never really think outside of the box. We're not even aware that this box exists. I think this workshop has given us some of the tools to get outside of this box.
The d.school is part of the mechanic engineering department (sort of). They offer several classes including a bootcamp in design thinking in the fall. I'm seriously considering taking the class. Although I feel like doing d.school boot camp, ESW project, other classes and working part-time would really be too much. One of them might have to go. Well, in order to take the d.school class, I would have to swap it with one of the other classes that I'm planning to take. But I'm not sure that will be enough. Anyway, we'll see. I'll probably go the first day and see what happens. There's an application process. And with all things that involve an application process, I like to think that I'm not really the one making the decision and so I can relax and let it happen. This is not true though because I can usually tell if I submitted a good application or not.
Anyway, last day of the workshop. Maybe meeting up with Erica and Javi in the afternoon!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Back to Reality
Haven't written much about being home because it doesn't seem like very much compared to all the activities of this past couple of months. Didn't want to disappoint my readers by going back to my lame real life. I think being away makes me feel like I need to go catch up with friends every time I come back. You don't feel a pressing need to get back in touch with people when they're always only an hour away, max. So I've been spending a lot of time meeting up with various people the past week, in addition to moving and unpacking.
I moved to a new apartment in Rains. This is part of the reason why I came back so quickly after leaving Padang. The other part is that I wanted to do this d.school summer workshop next week. If I had gotten a ticket to come back later, I probably would have opted out of the workshop because I would want to spend a few more days at home.
Anyhow, moving was a long process. I nearly everything in boxes already so it really shouldn't have taken very long. But, just my luck, the days I was back at Stanford were some of the hottest days ever. I was also jetlagged so I felt tired during the afternoon hours. The first day of moving, I think I only managed to spend 2 or 3 hours moving all the boxes over. If I had more energy, I think I could have done it all in one day but I was exhausted.
So it's official, it was much easier to adjust to the time difference by changing time zones gradually. On the way to Padang, I stopped in NYC, UK, and Malaysia for 3 nights each before reaching Padang. The time differences were +3hrs, +5hrs, +7hrs, -1hr. Much easier to manage than half a day of time difference (-13hrs) on the way back.
I've met up with several people for lunch and dinner already. Really looking to more of these catching up sessions. It's good to hear about what other people have been up to. I guess I haven't been gone for very long but it certainly feels that way. Also I feel like once school starts, I will have very little spare time. Hard to have 2-3 hr lunch and/or dinner when I barely have time to sleep. Better sleep more this week...
I moved to a new apartment in Rains. This is part of the reason why I came back so quickly after leaving Padang. The other part is that I wanted to do this d.school summer workshop next week. If I had gotten a ticket to come back later, I probably would have opted out of the workshop because I would want to spend a few more days at home.
Anyhow, moving was a long process. I nearly everything in boxes already so it really shouldn't have taken very long. But, just my luck, the days I was back at Stanford were some of the hottest days ever. I was also jetlagged so I felt tired during the afternoon hours. The first day of moving, I think I only managed to spend 2 or 3 hours moving all the boxes over. If I had more energy, I think I could have done it all in one day but I was exhausted.
So it's official, it was much easier to adjust to the time difference by changing time zones gradually. On the way to Padang, I stopped in NYC, UK, and Malaysia for 3 nights each before reaching Padang. The time differences were +3hrs, +5hrs, +7hrs, -1hr. Much easier to manage than half a day of time difference (-13hrs) on the way back.
I've met up with several people for lunch and dinner already. Really looking to more of these catching up sessions. It's good to hear about what other people have been up to. I guess I haven't been gone for very long but it certainly feels that way. Also I feel like once school starts, I will have very little spare time. Hard to have 2-3 hr lunch and/or dinner when I barely have time to sleep. Better sleep more this week...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
SEA Wrap Up Part 4: Taipei
I think I wrote quite a bit about my adventures in Taipei in a previous post. So I'll just post some pictures here and call it a day.
This is inside the Sun-Yet Sen Memorial. Wish I had time to look and read through all the exhibits. Some of the exhibits even have English. I really didn't have time to read it all. It really interesting though. I think most of the place is a big auditorium for special events. The actual exhibits are free. I didn't managed to find the historical exhibits for a while because I came through a side entrance.
This is inside the Taipei airport. They even have special resting spot where you can read about Taiwanese cultures, like the aboriginal people of Taiwan. This airport was definitely on par with the Singapore airport, minus the massage chairs. Maybe I just missed the massage chairs?
This ends the SEA Wrap Up series. From now on, it will be back to "normal" life. I hope my readers will not be too disappointed. It's amazing how much people were reading this blog this past summer. I will certainly blog more about ongoing efforts with the ESW Padang project. So stay tuned if that's what you're here for.
This is inside the Sun-Yet Sen Memorial. Wish I had time to look and read through all the exhibits. Some of the exhibits even have English. I really didn't have time to read it all. It really interesting though. I think most of the place is a big auditorium for special events. The actual exhibits are free. I didn't managed to find the historical exhibits for a while because I came through a side entrance.
This is inside the Taipei airport. They even have special resting spot where you can read about Taiwanese cultures, like the aboriginal people of Taiwan. This airport was definitely on par with the Singapore airport, minus the massage chairs. Maybe I just missed the massage chairs?
This ends the SEA Wrap Up series. From now on, it will be back to "normal" life. I hope my readers will not be too disappointed. It's amazing how much people were reading this blog this past summer. I will certainly blog more about ongoing efforts with the ESW Padang project. So stay tuned if that's what you're here for.
SEA Trip Wrap Up - Part 3: Singapore
Sunday, August 30, 2010 - Singapore. I've been wanting to go to Singapore for years. Heard a lot of good things about this city and have been wanting to see what it's like. I think I got a pretty good tour of it with friends from Cambridge. They were super nice and showed me around town. But first, getting to Singapore.
After eating dim sum in Melaka, I got on a bus to go to Singapore. My taxi driver from the hotel to the bus station was pretty nice and told me exactly where to go. There were several bus companies that go from Melaka to Singapore. They are all the same price: 22 ringgit. I took the Melaka 707 Express which had really nice seats. There are only 3 seats per row instead of 4 so the seats were big. We got to Johor Bahru and got through Malaysian customs fine. Didn't even have to take our things from the bus. It was pretty fast. Then we had to drive quite a bit to get to Singaporean customs. It felt kind of weird not to do them one after the other. I guess it's the same when you're flying but it felt weirder on land.
The line I stood in took super long. The guy was just really, really slow. I should have switched lines but the people in front of me were on the same bus as me so I stuck with that line. After a painfully long wait, I emerged in the bus terminal only to find that the bus had left (they only wait for 20 mins)!! Luckily, I met three other Malaysians who were in the same situation. They're all pretty young, like me, and all Chinese. They were speaking Mandarin and.... my Mandarin was just not good enough to follow. Sigh... Anyway, they speak English as well but they obviously found it weird that my Chinese was so bad. They decided to take the Causeway bus so I followed them. One of them even gave me 3 Ringgit to get on the bus. It costs 6 ringgits and I only had 3. They were really confused as to why I (an American) was taking a bus from Melaka to Singapore. I wish I talked to them a bit more but I was worried about this whole situation. My phone hadn't managed to connect with the SingTel network and I was having trouble calling my friend.
That entire situation just seemed so ridiculous and crazy but everything turned out okay, due to the help of friends and kindness of strangers. I got help from these Malaysian Chinese kids who were also traveling to Singapore. The SingTel sim card I had was given to me by a friend while I was in NYC. I managed to call up a friend from Cambridge who was back in Singapore and she picked me up from the bus station. We had dinner and she handed me over to another friend who I stayed with for a couple of nights.
Anyway, the next day (Sunday), I was taken around Singapore by a couple of friends I had met in Cambridge. The friend I stayed with spent quite a while planning out my day so that I would see everything in one day. She did a pretty good job. We went through Chinatown, Little India, walked through a housing complex and market, the waterfront, ate at hawker stores, even watched a bit of the national day rally speech when we got home. I think I blogged about how amazed I was by the Singaporean city planning so I'll skip that here.
My friends were super fun to be with. Really glad they spent the time taking me around because otherwise I would've done everything a lot slower because I would have to rely on maps. Well, actually, we picked up a map at the tourist office and my friends put it to good use. They were using it quite a bit. We even lost our way trying to get to the waterfront to see the Merlion. We were tempted to ask the tourists next to us who were also trying to find their way. haha.
I flew out Monday morning and pretty much the entire family was at work by the time I got up. I don't know how I managed to sleep past all of them getting up. One of my friend's brothers got up and called a taxi for me. I think I can manage to call a taxi myself but they insisted that he get out of bed and help me. I was grateful for all this help of course because I wouldn't have been able to tell the driver how to get to the house. Anyway, they live really close to the airport and even with the rush hour surcharge, the taxi only cost S$10. It was raining and I had a lot of luggage so it was definitely worth it.
After eating dim sum in Melaka, I got on a bus to go to Singapore. My taxi driver from the hotel to the bus station was pretty nice and told me exactly where to go. There were several bus companies that go from Melaka to Singapore. They are all the same price: 22 ringgit. I took the Melaka 707 Express which had really nice seats. There are only 3 seats per row instead of 4 so the seats were big. We got to Johor Bahru and got through Malaysian customs fine. Didn't even have to take our things from the bus. It was pretty fast. Then we had to drive quite a bit to get to Singaporean customs. It felt kind of weird not to do them one after the other. I guess it's the same when you're flying but it felt weirder on land.
The line I stood in took super long. The guy was just really, really slow. I should have switched lines but the people in front of me were on the same bus as me so I stuck with that line. After a painfully long wait, I emerged in the bus terminal only to find that the bus had left (they only wait for 20 mins)!! Luckily, I met three other Malaysians who were in the same situation. They're all pretty young, like me, and all Chinese. They were speaking Mandarin and.... my Mandarin was just not good enough to follow. Sigh... Anyway, they speak English as well but they obviously found it weird that my Chinese was so bad. They decided to take the Causeway bus so I followed them. One of them even gave me 3 Ringgit to get on the bus. It costs 6 ringgits and I only had 3. They were really confused as to why I (an American) was taking a bus from Melaka to Singapore. I wish I talked to them a bit more but I was worried about this whole situation. My phone hadn't managed to connect with the SingTel network and I was having trouble calling my friend.
That entire situation just seemed so ridiculous and crazy but everything turned out okay, due to the help of friends and kindness of strangers. I got help from these Malaysian Chinese kids who were also traveling to Singapore. The SingTel sim card I had was given to me by a friend while I was in NYC. I managed to call up a friend from Cambridge who was back in Singapore and she picked me up from the bus station. We had dinner and she handed me over to another friend who I stayed with for a couple of nights.
Anyway, the next day (Sunday), I was taken around Singapore by a couple of friends I had met in Cambridge. The friend I stayed with spent quite a while planning out my day so that I would see everything in one day. She did a pretty good job. We went through Chinatown, Little India, walked through a housing complex and market, the waterfront, ate at hawker stores, even watched a bit of the national day rally speech when we got home. I think I blogged about how amazed I was by the Singaporean city planning so I'll skip that here.
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| From Melaka |
My friends were super fun to be with. Really glad they spent the time taking me around because otherwise I would've done everything a lot slower because I would have to rely on maps. Well, actually, we picked up a map at the tourist office and my friends put it to good use. They were using it quite a bit. We even lost our way trying to get to the waterfront to see the Merlion. We were tempted to ask the tourists next to us who were also trying to find their way. haha.
I flew out Monday morning and pretty much the entire family was at work by the time I got up. I don't know how I managed to sleep past all of them getting up. One of my friend's brothers got up and called a taxi for me. I think I can manage to call a taxi myself but they insisted that he get out of bed and help me. I was grateful for all this help of course because I wouldn't have been able to tell the driver how to get to the house. Anyway, they live really close to the airport and even with the rush hour surcharge, the taxi only cost S$10. It was raining and I had a lot of luggage so it was definitely worth it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
SEA Trip Wrap Up - Part 2: Melaka
Saturday, August 28th - Melaka. The bus took us to a shopping center next to a Tescos. By this point, I was really tired of carrying around all my luggage. They're pretty heavy. So I decided to get a taxi rather than trying to figure out the bus system. I met a pretty nice taxi driver who knew where the hotel is. The first taxi driver I met blanked on the name of the hotel and walked away. It was really strange. It was like he didn't care about getting my business at all. They weren't very keen on helping me with my luggage either. Anyway, I got to the hotel, checked in, and showered in the rain shower. The room was pretty decked out.
I needed food so I went out for a walk towards the city center. There were plenty of food places along the street that the hotel is on. I ate at a Chinese place where they served noodles with fish cake. Pretty good stuff since I was starving by that point.
The historical part of Melaka is pretty easy to find. Everything was labeled in Malay and English. There were a lot more tourists than I expected. I walked around the historical hill and harbor and found little cendol stand. They were swamped with customers so of course, I had to get my share. The cendol was really good. Not as sweet as the ones in Padang, which is good. They were closed by the time I got back to the same place two hours later. Sold out! I got the cendol at around 6pm and was in a big rush to find a good place to watch the sunset. I was walking along the river when I noticed that the sun is nowhere near setting. Then I realized that there is a one hour difference between here and Padang but it's really not that far. So sunset was at 7:30pm instead of 6:30pm. This threw me off my schedule.
I tried to go to Bukit Cina but ended up back at the historical hill. So I watched the sunset from there. The city doesn't really face west so it wasn't all that great. I spent a couple of hours walking around Jonker Walk, a night market in Chinatown and got some snacks. I ate dinner on the way back to the hotel.
When I got to the hotel, my host was in the lobby talking to four of his friends who were also staying at the hotel that weekend. They had come to Melaka to scout out venues for a conference that they are holding. They were getting directions for some food places and took me along with them. So I had a late snack of satay, Melaka style. Then in the morning, they took with them to a dim sum place. The dim sum were serve on these small metal plates. The actual dim sum are super small but really tasty.
Really wish I had more time to eat around the city. Didn't even get to try the chicken rice balls! It was a nice trip though.
I needed food so I went out for a walk towards the city center. There were plenty of food places along the street that the hotel is on. I ate at a Chinese place where they served noodles with fish cake. Pretty good stuff since I was starving by that point.
The historical part of Melaka is pretty easy to find. Everything was labeled in Malay and English. There were a lot more tourists than I expected. I walked around the historical hill and harbor and found little cendol stand. They were swamped with customers so of course, I had to get my share. The cendol was really good. Not as sweet as the ones in Padang, which is good. They were closed by the time I got back to the same place two hours later. Sold out! I got the cendol at around 6pm and was in a big rush to find a good place to watch the sunset. I was walking along the river when I noticed that the sun is nowhere near setting. Then I realized that there is a one hour difference between here and Padang but it's really not that far. So sunset was at 7:30pm instead of 6:30pm. This threw me off my schedule.
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| From Melaka |
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| From Melaka |
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| From Melaka |
I tried to go to Bukit Cina but ended up back at the historical hill. So I watched the sunset from there. The city doesn't really face west so it wasn't all that great. I spent a couple of hours walking around Jonker Walk, a night market in Chinatown and got some snacks. I ate dinner on the way back to the hotel.
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| From Melaka |
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| From Melaka |
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| From Melaka |
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| From Melaka |
When I got to the hotel, my host was in the lobby talking to four of his friends who were also staying at the hotel that weekend. They had come to Melaka to scout out venues for a conference that they are holding. They were getting directions for some food places and took me along with them. So I had a late snack of satay, Melaka style. Then in the morning, they took with them to a dim sum place. The dim sum were serve on these small metal plates. The actual dim sum are super small but really tasty.
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| From Melaka |
Really wish I had more time to eat around the city. Didn't even get to try the chicken rice balls! It was a nice trip though.
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