California
(Oct. 6-16, 2000)
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The following text is an adaptation from what Mike wrote:
It started out with Mike Zaleski, Kris Penner and me renting out a car
(which fit our surfboards perfectly) and driving 16 hours straight to San
Francisco, where I was supposed to meet Mike's friends from Huntington Beach
at a Phish show. We got there in the early morning and ended up surfing at
Halfmoon Bay after a short and uncomfortable sleep in the car. Prior to surfing,
however, we went to find the infamous wave know as "Mavericks." It is known to be
one of the biggest (if not the biggest) wave on the westcoast. Although
it was not breaking that day (the swell was coming from the wrong direction), we did
find the cove where it breaks. Here is a picture of it. We then headed
up to the show. I've never been to a that type of show before (Grateful Dead type)
and it was going off.
There were tons of people, all the tickets were sold out, everyone was partying,
and there was a good vibe. Mike and Kris did some really good e and I drank a
twixer of whisky. Since we didn't have tickets, we attempted to sneak in. Security
was tight, and we tried every possible way of getting in, but we had no luck. We
ended up at a raging party in the parking lot. I even found myself dancing to
old Michael Jackson tunes pounding from a ghetto-blaster (shame on me!). I was
having a great time. Mike couldn't meet up with his friends, as there were too
many people in the parkinglot, so Mike resorted to sleeping in the car while
Penner and I slept in someone's flower garden. After a fairly good night's sleep
(until we were woken by sprinklers), we headed to Santa Barbara.
We stopped at Pismo Beach on the way, and I surfed with Penner while Mike laid
on the beach all day. We made it to S.B. later that night, Mike tried calling
another friend but he wasn't in, so we checked a few clubs. We were all pretty
tired from the two nights before, so we called it a night at a nice
hotel.
The next day I drove to Venice Beach, then through Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Not much to talk about. I don't know why those places have the rep they do.
After driving through L.A., we headed straight for
Huntington Beach. We got there in the afternoon, and it couldn't have been at a
better time. The waves were peeling flawlessly and there was a perfect offshore wind, making for glassy conditions. Mike
and Kris had a dope session, the best session so far. I can't remember if I went in
and surfed that day. Perhaps. Anyways, after the beach, we hooked up with Kevin
(the guy we were supposed to meet at the Phish show) and proceeded to chill his place
for the next few days.
The next day the winds were howling and the waves were being blown over, so no surfing.
We ended up lounging around Huntington. We found a Pet Cemetery, so while the boys
ate at Del Taco, I took some pictures. We went to the
beach in the evening (I took a picture of Penner).
Later that evening we hit up a Dead cover show, which was pretty chill, but not my
scene at all!
We woke up the next day to epic conditions. We hit up the Huntington Pier
and the
waves were breaking 6-8 feet! As soon as Mike paddled out, he caught a big wave and
got weeded by his board, right in the eye. It was a mean gash, so he retired to the
beach and hung out with me. We stayed on the beach until Penner came in from the water,
which means that we didn't leave till the sun went down.
That night we checked out Mark Thompson's reggae band,
Big Cat. Tickets were steep, but no worries, he hooked us up. It was a full house,
and the bands were decent reggae. Mike and Kris were slugging their beers back and
were in the groove. Between the drinks and chatting up the girls, everyone had a great
time. A good end to a solid few days in HB, so on we went to San Diego. We stopped in
at San Clemente to surf while we were heading down to San Diego.
The surfing was excellent, as the water was a tropical blue-green color,
and too warm to surf with a wetsuite. Here is Penner
and myself preparing to go in.
San Diego was sunny and hot, we hung out on Mission Beach for a few days. The great
waves, friendly people, and good ambience make San Diego a place I'd like to live.
We only had a couple of days left in our trip, so we decided to party in Tijuana Mexico,
right across the border from San Diego (Friday the thirteenth). Originally we had planned
to surf in Encinatas but we just didn't have enough time. The sun was setting at Mission
Beach (San Diego) as we were leaving, so I took a few pictures... one
of the beach before we left, and two from the
highway while heading towards Mexico.
We got pretty crazy in Tijuana. We parked our car outside the border and took a
shuttle bus into TJ. We checked out the nightlife, and seriously, you couldn't take five
steps without being grabbed by Mexicans trying to get us to go into their clubs "you come
into this club, for you no cover and free tequila shots." It was pretty chaotic. We
learned some basic rules when you go to Mex: 1)don't get into a car accident or fight,
or you go to jail, 2)carry small bills and 3)keep extra backup money somewhere else like
in your sock in case you get mugged or extorted by the federalis (Mexican Police). We
ripped it up in a couple clubs and got faded, then jumped back across the border into
San Diego, which was going off more than Tijuana. We ended up in a bar with a punk band
playing punk versions of eighties songs like Madonnas "Like a Prayer". This place had
a high energy level and there were sexy girls waving their hair,grinding themselves all
over us, the band highfiving everyone, the singer leaping all over the bar, the whole
place bouncing up and down, it was the best show of the whole trip!
After getting 10 min. of shut-eye in a San Diego parkinglot by the beach
(I was too uncomfortable crammed in the car to sleep),
I had an early morning surf session. I braved huge waves and a huge crowd of surfers
trying to catch them. After surfing, we headed up to Santa Barbara to visit another
friend of Mikes. We were only able to stay one night because we had a twenty hour drive
ahead of us the next day. Pat (Mike's friend) was expecting us to stay for a few days
so he was kind of bummed, as were we because our trip was pretty much over. We chilled
at a BBQ that was going on, watched some surf flicks, had a couple drinks, and then
crashed at his girlfriend's house, who lived with four other girls. It was a cool house;
a Spanish feel with pictures and art and surfboards all over.
After a solid sleep, the boys went out for breakfast burritos, a hearty meal that
almost made me full just by watching them eat. I had the first driving shift, and
drove from S.B. to Redding. We stopped at Redding, CA and hit up a store called "The Liquor Barn,"
where I stocked up for the way home. I came accross a gem of a bottle, and had to buy a couple just
for their aesthetic quality. The drive home was pretty good, time went quickly as soon
as I stopped driving and started fading. It worked out that I drove through California,
Kris through Oregon, and Mike through Washington. We had no problems at the border,
and arrived in N.Van around 4 am. I stayed up the next day, then slept for 16 hours
that night. ...and I still wasn't caught up. What a trip!
Seattle, WA
(Sept 25-29, 2000)
(I didn't bring my camera, so there are no pictures associated with this trip)
I went to Seattle on a whims notice Monday afternoon with some friends (Dave Righton, Dave & Kylie McViccar). We all went down to see a VNV NATION concert. For those unfamiliar with the band (as I was before I went), VNV is an electro-industrial band from Europe. The concert was held at the Catwalk, which is an industrial club that caters to the goth/fetish/industrial crowd.
With latex, PVC, leather, lace, chains, and bondage gear comprising the majority of the fabrics worn, the people and atmosphere at the club couldn't have been better.
The show went well, and I enjoyed the music more that I thought I would. I met a few like-minded people there, the names of whom I cannot all remember. Graves, Bo, and Karlyn come to mind, but there were others. I was trying to hook-up with a guy from Seattle (Badger) who my friend Keith knows. He may have been able to direct me to a place to stay in Seattle for the next two days. I wanted to stay in Seattle so that I could catch the Downset/Soulfly concert that was on Wed. I wasn't able to find Badger amongst the crowd, as all I knew was that he was white, had long hair, and was wearing a black long-sleeve ...along with ninty percent of the people there. I ended up going to an afterhours party at the Mercury after the concert, and I found a place to stay after that.
On Tuesday, I just mingled around town and walked the day away. I learned a lot about Seattle, but overall, the day was uneventful. I eventually did meet with Badger that evening. We went for coffee, and he was kind enough to show me the cool part of town filled with like-minded people and establishments. I ended up staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel that night, after a failed attempt to meet someone at the Mercury (the Mercury is a hard place to find, being that there are no signs or lights, and it is located near the back of a side alley). After failing to meet someone at the Mercury (I was an hour late), I went to a club down the street that was playing Drum'n'Bass.
I spent the better part of Wednesday wandering about again, this time trying to meet up with Baily and Penner. Baily tried to get a ride out to Seattle to meet me, and Penner was supposed to meet up with me for the concert that night. Neither of them showed up, leaving me with no ride back to Canada. Some good did come out of waiting for Penner. While waiting in front of DV8 (the club), I met a girl named Lisa who had extra tickets to sell. I got mine for half price and helped her sell the other two for more money. If the ticket deal wasn't enough, she was kind enough to buy some water for me once we got into the concert.
Fortunately, I met Carlos at the concert, just as I was walking out the doors. David was there too. I met these guys through Arturo, who picked Penner and me up while hitching to the gorge. Carlos happened to be driving north and had an extra seat in his truck. We went to Arturo & David's house, where we all sat around and talked for a while. Arturo & David were kind enough (I owe them big-time!) to let me crash on their couch for the night.
Thursday was the worst day of the trip.
I took local transit further north to Everet, where I was supposed to meet up with Baily and Crystal to hang out for the day. I went to the designated meeting place, and ended up waiting FOR FIVE HOURS! I was not impressed. By the time it got dark I decided to head for home on the Greyhound. I missed the second last bus by 5 min., so I had to wait 3 hours for the next bus. The bus station was closed, and the attendant leaving told me that I couldn't buy a ticket for the last bus. I needed to take that bus, so I called some 800 numbers for info on ticket sales. As it turned out, I was able to pay the bus driver cash when he arrived. When I went to pay the driver, he asked me how much it cost. He didn't know because this wasn't his normal route. Being the opportunist that I am, I offered him nearly half the cost of actual ticket, and he didn't argue. I was out of money by the time I got into Vancouver, so I gave myself another deal and rode the local transit for free by using an old transfer. C'est toute.
Seaside, WA
(late Sept, 2000)
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This time we decided to go surf without any women. The bros for this trip were Mike and Chris Z, Penner, and myself.
Seaside, WA
(Sept ?-?, 2000)
The crew for this trip came in two sets. First, there was Mike Z and me travelling with Banafshi, Shannon, and Jackie. The second carload composed of Chris Z, Penner, Tanya (Penner's girlfriend) and Drew met us there the next afternoon. Banafshi rented a car, and we all headed down Friday afternoon. We hit rush-hour going through Seattle, so it got late fast, and it seemed forever to get to Oregon. The girls we were traveling with haven't traveled very far before, so they were totally stoked. They took our advice, and got the trip underway in the traditional fashion. That is, we stopped at the first gas station in the states and bought a bunch of booze. They all got hammered in a matter of an hour, so I ended up driving the whole distance. Mike and I convinced the girls that Olympia (the capital of Washington) was the capital of the USA. They half believed us, so we took them to the capital buildings, and told them it was the White House. They were excited and believed us, so they took a bunch of pictures.
As soon as we pulled into Seaside I started having some drinks, and Mike and I were out on the prowl. We made a fire and got faded. Two chicks came up to us and sat down. They ended up staying for quite a while, so the other girls that we were with left and slept in the rental car. Mike and I crashed out comfortably on the beach in our sleeping bags.
The next morning, we headed out to our favorite surfing location which is south of Cannon Beach. Mike and I brought 2 surfboards along with us, so we were able to get a good session in before the other carload came to meet us. After the second crew hooked up with us however, I had to hand over the board to its respective owner. I thought that my day surfing was over, so I started drinking some more. I was wrong. There were a bunch of friendly girls hanging out beside us on the beach, and they had surfboards. After chatting for a while, they trusted me with one of their boards and I continued to surf the rest of the afternoon away.
The rest of the afternoon went smoothly, that is, until we left the beach. We were all going to hit-up Seaside and party. Well, during dinner (at "the Stand" in Seaside), everyone decided to head back to Canada. I don't know why, but that is what ended up happening.
Victoria, BC
(August 28-31, 2000)
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After recovering some sleep from Summerlove, I went to Victoria to finish up some work at UVIC. Not much happened in Victoria. I met someone from Germany, a sexy PhD professor from Spain, and a girl from Quebec. I also took TWO PICTURES of the sun setting while I was downtown.
The Gorge, WA.
(August 23-25, 2000)
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Penner called one afternoon and asked if I'd like to go to The Gorge to see a concert (featuring Ministry, Pantera, Godsmack, Soulfly, Kittie, ...). The tickets were $65 US, which was way beyond my budget. We also didn't have a ride to get there or back. All odds against us, we went without hesitation.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos of the first half of the trip. I did, however, buy a disposable for the way back.
So we left Vancouver by bus and went as far south as we could, which, as it turned out was 5 km. from the Peace Arch border crossing. We tried to hitch a ride walking down that last stretch of highway, but no one picked us up: not a good omen. Once we got across the border, we made a sign for Seattle, and waited over an hour for our first ride. We eventually lucked out when 2 girls returning to Kirkland picked us up and dropped us off (near Seattle) on the next highway that we needed to take. That ride was a lot of fun, Crissy even made bowties out of american dollar bills and gave them to us (how sweet).
Our next ride didn't take long, as we used a sign that said OZZFEST (the name of the concert tour). Arturo, who was going to the concert, picked us up and drove us right to our destination. Arturo, originally from Mexico, was totally nice and let us keep our burdening backpacks in his truck while Penner and I snuck into the show (a 3 hour ordeal involving combat-like skills and strategies). The show was okay, but as I expected, Ozzy Osbourne sucked (no offense to his fans, but I'm not partial to his music). Penner liked Ozzy's light show, and I was impressed with the gigantic water cannons that sprayed into the crowd.
After the concert we met back at Arturro's truck to get our backpacks and were planning on going our separate ways. But being the nice guy that Arturo is, Penner and I met with his friends, and went camping with them. They offered us free drinks all night (Thanks guys -you guys rock!), and I met a lot of nice people. I ended up staying up all night talking with Amber and Penner. By morning, Penner and I were very tired and in need of a ride back to Canada. We wandered the camp looking for people to take us to Seattle. No luck. We started walking down the highway, went over a bridge, and within 15 min. two girls picked us up. We went straight to a gas station, where I bought a disposable camera.
THIS picture shows Penner giving his goodbye salut to the Gorge. In the background of that picture, the bridge we walked over can be seen, as can the beach we camped on (which is just on the other side of that river). This picture shows the TWO GIRLS that picked us up. While gassing up, I asked Bailey to play dead, and then captured it on film. After getting gas, we stopped in at McDonalds, where I found a praying mantis. After eating, Penner promptly fell asleep in the back of the car. Midway through the trip, we stopped by at a lake and went for a swim (mostly because none of us had bathed in 2 days). Here is a pic of Bailey in the water.
Not too long after the swim, we were dropped off and had to search for another ride. Things started to get a little sketchy. Someone walked up to us and told us he was an ex-con visiting an old prison-mate. He offered us a ride. On our way to the car, a police officer stopped us and did an id check. That put everyone in a bad mood, and after driving about 10 min, we were dropped off. Penner and I saw police stopped up ahead, so we decided to get off the highway and walk through town for a few blocks. After an hour detour, we got back on the highway and got our last ride back to the border with a male dancer who works in the fashion industry. Penner and I were picked up at the border crossing by his girlfriend, and we went straight to a deathmetal concert in Vancouver. By this point, I had gone nearly 70 hours without sleep, and was quite a zombie... a good way to feel at the end of an excellent trip!"
Westport Beach, WA.
(August 19-21, 2000)
Sorry there are no pictures for this trip.
This time I went with Chris Z, and Drew. There was a longboard surfing competition going on at the time, so there were a lot of people around. Unfortunately, the competitors were able to surf the part of the beach with the best waves, and the lowly common folk (like us) weren't allowed to surf in the comp area. All was good, as we still were able to catch a few great waves.
Seaside, OR
(early August, 2000)
Sorry, no pictures to view.
Mike Z, Kris Penner, Drew, and I went on a surfing trip to Oregon. As usual, we were hassled at the border, apparantly for not bringing enough money accross for the trip. Little do they know that we travel cheap. For instance, we have our own surfing gear (what we don't own, we share), we sleep in the car or on the beach (or where-ever!). All we really pay for is gas and food. We lucked-out this trip, in that we met a girl that was nice enough (and rich enough) to pay for a hotel room for us. We met her after a full day of surfing. We were on our way back from Short Sands Beach when we got stopped on the highway due to an accident. While waiting for the road to clear, we met Melissa who was waiting in the car behind us. She hung out with us that night and threw down for a hotel room. Ironically, even though she paid for the room, Kris slept comfortably on his own bed, Mike and I shared a King-sized bed, and Melissa slept on the floor! (Drew would have slept comfortably on a bed too, except the police saw to it that he had a nice rest in the drunk tank.)
Before we went to sleep we met up with some very nice people on the beach at Seaside. Two especially nice people stand out in my memory: Carmille and Allison Sykes. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of them as of yet.
After waking up disoriented in a hotel room, we picked up Drew from jail and headed straight for the beach. We had too much fun to fully convey in words, so I won't bother trying. After surfing the day away, we headed back to Seaside for dinner. I skipped dinner, and walked around town while Mike and Drew ate. Penner (Kris) was busy sneaking into the Shilo Inn hotel to warm up and relax in their hot tub. In the mean time, I ran into Allison and Carmille again. We waited for Penner, then talked around a fire on the beach. Shortly thereafter Penner and I had to leave and drive back to Canada.
Kyuquot, BC
(July 6-10, 2000)
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Well I have yet to scan in a map of where I went, so I won't detail all the places I went. I will say however that I left Victoria Thursday morning (just after midnight), and Khrista drove for about 4 hours until we got to Gold River. There we waited to board the "U Chuck III." The U Chuck is a cruise/supply boat that we took to a North Western village called Kyuquot. We waited for 2.5 hours (resisting sleep the whole while) until the boat was ready to depart, and it left ontime at an early 7:00 am. HERE is a picture of Kh on the back of the boat with the sun rising behind her. THIS ONE is of Kh on the top deck. At first, we were amazed by the scenery that we were surrounded by, but soon enough our amazement gave way to fatigue. I couldn't sleep, so I stayed on the sunny top deck, and beheld the view, as depicted in THIS photograph. Along the voyage, the U Chuck stopped in at a fishfarm, which was rather humourous. If you look closely at THIS picture, you can see a few fish trying to jump out of their pens. The picture doesn't depict the situation well, as the fish were hurling themselves out of the water and sometimes straight into a wall. HERE is a picture of the view behind us just before we arrived at Kyuquot.
Kyuquot as well as a few other villages we passed along the way are only accessible by boat, which added to the isolation of the location where I was camping. HERE is a picture of an old house in Kyuquot. From Kyuquot, Kh and I were met by her parents, and we took a small boat about 10 min. offshore to a small island where we camped. Once there, I took a picture of a BLADE of grass, why, I don't know. I also went for a walk around the beach where we were camping and took a few pictures of what I saw. HERE is a picture of the muscle-covered beach, and THIS is a picture of me taking that picture. PICTURE of some seaweed moving with the current. Along my walk, I came across an KH and I found a log that spanned the distance between two rocks, over a tidal pool.
I don't feel like describing the trip picture by picture anymore, so to see all the pix, just click on THIS LINK to view them all.
Westport, WA
(July 1-2, 2000)
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Westport is a small town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, about a 6 hour drive from Vancouver. Chris Zaleski and I were stoked for the trip (thus these 2 pictures) and left for Westport Beach Sunday evening, arriving around midnight. We parked on a hill above the beach, and initiated my terrible sleep in the car.
We drove to the prime surfing area as soon as the sun came up the next morning. The skies were dark and the waves weren't anything special, so we crashed out a few more hours before bringing our stuff out to the beach. After our second sleep, the skies cleared up, the temperature warmed up, and the waves started getting bigger. As this picture shows, we were stoked once more. We only brought one surfboard, so I slept while Chris was out enjoying the waves, and Chris studied while I was out catching a few.
Chris had to be back the next day, so this was the shortest surf trip of the summer thus far: in and out in less than 24 hours. We had just enough time to stop and take a picture of my favorite traffic signs that appear throughout Washington State... signs that display not the speed limit, but the alcohol limit when one drives.
Vernon, BC
(June 26-29, 2000)
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures for this trip.
This was my first trip that I depended on my opposable digit to get me to and from my destination. I've hitch-hiked before, but mostly around town. I was a little apprehensious leaving in the afternoon, as I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get a ride. The trip from Chilliwack to Vernon takes about 4 hours of straight driving, and if I had to wait at various places along the way to get a ride, this trip may have taken all day. Thankfully, it did not.
I walked toward the highway from my parents house, then started hitching from there. It only took about 5 min. for me to get my first ride. A middle-aged lady driving a beat-up truck (which smelled like pot) picked me up and dropped me off at Bridal Falls, which is about a 20 min. drive. Then, in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun, I waited for my next ride to come along for about 25 min. (incidentally, this was the longest I had to wait).
A school principal was my next ride, who took me to Hope. Then a redneck driving a TransAm picked me up and drove me 5 min. to the entrance of the Cocquihalla Highway. From there, I stepped out of the car, walked accross the highway, and a car pulled over on the Cocquihalla before I had a chance to put out my thumb! Lucky me. He wanted some company on his trip to Vernon, so it worked out perfectly. We even stopped off in Kelowna where he bought me a sub from Subway. The whole trip only took me 5 hours.
Once in Vernon, I went to Trina's house. We had a few drinks and caught up with what we've been up to since last we visited eachother. The next day I visited Trina at her work (a concession stand) and she made me a great lunch (on the house). I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Vernon and doing logic problems in front of a fan in Trina's house. Later that evening, I cooked dinner for Trina and myself, then we had some drinks. The next morning (Friday), I left for Chilliwack. I only had 3 rides to get me to the 'wack, and it only took 4.5 hours.
Hornby Island
(June 23-25, 2000)
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A friend of Khrista's (Tig) that she knows through her graphic design class was throwing a party at his house on Hornby Island.
I left Victoria Friday at noon with Khrista, her friend from class, a GREAT DJ named Bill, and his girlfriend (Brenda). (Here is a picture of them all at the first destination of our trip: waiting for the first ferry.) It was about a 3 hour drive to the first ferry. We had to go to an island by ferry (Denman Island), then drive to the other side and take another ferry to Hornby Islasnd. By the time we got to the first ferry, Bill spilled some of his coffee on Khrista's floor mat, which he promptly drank once out of the car waiting for the Denman Island ferry! Once we got to Hornby, we navigated through a labrinth of highways and junctions (there was one 4-way stop on the whole island), and quickly arrived at Tig's place (Here is a look at one view from Tig's backyard, looking up the valley).
Tig lives in a valley on the island overlooking a small lake, which was absolutely beautiful (a word I do not often use)! As soon as we all arrived, Khrista (henceforth denoted as Kh) and Tig went fishing on his family's personal lake (thanks to the beavers). I stayed to take a picture of Tig's brother (Gabe), Brenda, and Bill. While Kh was out fishing, Bill took a look around the kitchen, and was surprised at some of the ingredients commonly used in Tig's kitchen. When Kh and Tig arrived back from their fishing excursion, Kh showed the camera her new found friend once, twice, and thrice!
Time passed, and Gabe/Tig's mother showed up... she was great. Here is myself and Tig's mother laughing at (my comments about Tig???).
The next morning Daya, Juniper, and her two kids came over from Victoria. (Daya is in the Graphic Design program with Bill, Tig, and Kh.) The afternoon went by rather quickly for me... in two words, I must say "cause" and "effect." Don't think that I'm the only one enjoying the afternoon, as here is a picture showing how much fun Kh and Tig are having. Later that evening, Daya, Juniper, & kids made dinner over the campifire in the backyard.
That Saturday evening, Gabriel and Bill DJ'ed an outside party in Tig's backyard (sorry, no pix of that). Some locals from the island were there (ignoring the rest of us), but it was a small party... much smaller than one would expect given the talented DJs' that were playing! I felt very privileged to personally be a part of the audience of such a great set from two excellent DJ's at this private party in the wilderness.
..."camping" at its best!
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