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Elizabeth's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | | 11:33 am |
summer movies...
Caught "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" last night -'twas quite good though rather dark & sobering, I will admit it was easier to watch it having read the last book and understanding why certain characters did what they did, would have been much harder to take without that insight. Alan Rickman always impresses the hell out of me, Helena Bonham Carter is just wonderfully insane and creepy and everybody does a great job. First movie I can think of to include a funeral for a giant spider too! I don't even know HOW they'll manage to film the final book, they had to wack out huge chunks of plot to get this one down to 2 1/2 hours but I think they did a decent editing job. Also caught "Moon" a few days ago, an odd science fiction film written & directed by Duncan Jones who I first heard of when he was a small child named Zowie Bowie - so this is what happens when you grow up in the shadow of Major Tom. Subtle but very effective and well done, reminds me of what you might get if you crossed Silent Running and Blade Runner. Also great score by Clint Mansell, formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself! Dying to see District 9 - the theater last night had some great mini posters hanging up including one on the bathroom that said "Humans Only" that greatly confused the little girl walking into the theater for Harry Potter ahead of me! Also noticed that the Landmark now sells Pocky - wonder if they are stocking up for the new Miyazaki film Ponyo? Still need to see Public Enemies too - gack, a Johnny Depp film I haven't seen yet? Finished my LOST marathon a while back & then dove into season one of Fringe which I really enjoyed. Now totally hooked on True Blood, plan on watching the last two episodes of Season one tonight. I just love Lafayette, he reminds me so much of my friend Jere' I knew back in college whom we affectionately nicknamed "The African Queen". Current Mood: boredCurrent Music: Jace Everett - Bad Things | | Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | | 11:35 am |
mad toy lust  As I frequently say to my friends, "they sure make better toys now than when we were kids". Makes me feel not quite as bad about my crazy mother throwing everything out. About a week & a half ago I visited strangemuses & got to see the lovely asian ball jointed doll she'd just gotten (a Luts "Moon) and he is just gorgeous. I'd admired these dolls for years - I first heard about the early Volks Dolfies about 10 years ago when I got a Volks catalog at a model soldier show where they had a booth and I'd bought a few of their Devilman/Silene resin garage kits & noticed that the Dolfies were sculpted by the same artist, Akhiro Enku. Over the years I've seen a few dolls here & there, mainly being carried around at Anime cons or the DC Cherry Blossom fest and I generally swooned a bit over them & took pix & complimented their owners and surfed ebay enough to know they were on the pricey side. So strangemuses has been sending me some links & while at her place she showed me some websites & a message board dedicated to them that I've since joined and now I'm feeling a bit like a crack addict :) I had no idea how fast this hobby had progressed and some of these companies are doing pieces now that totally blow those early Volks dolfies I'd originally seen out of the water. My favs by far are the larger ones made by Soom and Souldoll, both of Korea as the sculpting on them is just amazing and their larger pieces are the more "adult" dolls that I'm drawn to with relatively realistic proportions. (I've never really cared for dolls of children or ones with very exaggerated head/eye sizes as many anime influenced ones have). Soom also makes a line of limited figures that are convertible into mythological type creatures by switching legs/heads/removeable horns etc that are quite remarkable. Also after seeing strangemuses' doll up close & personal & how she showed me how customizeable they are in that you can easily restring them/replace parts, take the head off & change the inset eyes & switch wigs it opened up the possibilities of what you could do. Her doll has a very nice professional facial paintjob (or "faceup" as it is called) by a respected doll artist but after seeing it in person I feel confident I could handle the painting (all those years painting model horses & resin kits and feeling competant with the airbrush is plenty useful!) which thankfully could save me quite a bit as face and body painting can add $50-200 a doll.... So..... I've spent the last week & a half reading up, surfing websites & flickrs, noting what I like and don't like and formulating a mental "want list" and then found a good deal on ebay for the very first of the limited Soom dolls that are sold for one month only, this guy being discontinued about two years *and* going for about $400 less than new so I jumped and won him and he should be here soon :) Some pix below of my new friend under the cut. He has very nice cheekbones and leather pants :) And already I've bought him a little wife beater on ebay & ordered some new wigs and different color eyes as well as some adorable little leopard print boxer shorts from Soom. And looking around thinking what else I would like eventually - I am doomed! I'm am REALLY leaning towards this fellow by Souldoll as he really reminds me of my favorite manga character and would be cool to customize into him.... And strangemuses was nice enough to point me to a place in Colorado that sells them (way cheaper shipping than from Asia!) and take layaway. I'm doomed, just what I need, another expensive hobby LOL! Lead me not into temptation.... I can get there just fine on my own! ( pretty doll pix below ) Current Mood: crazy | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 10:22 pm |
| | Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | | 3:07 pm |
lion and tigers and bears, oh my!  The weather yesterday was just perfect and as it was only about 80 degrees and slightly overcast (which is nearly unheard of for July!) and as I had the day off from work I decided it would be a perfect day to head to the zoo, so kisarazumama and I took the metro down and had a wonderful day wandering around. I finally got a chance to play with my 70-200mm lens and got some nice shots of the animals. Also decided it would be a good idea to join the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) and as FONZ members get free parking I have a feeling I will be heading down there a lot more frequently! :) Plus they gave me a free stuffed panda :) Some pix below the cut, more on my flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistinas138/sets/72157620953749036/( more pix below ) Current Mood: accomplished | | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 9:17 am |
No matter where you go, there you are  I just love that the AFI Silver theater in Silver Spring always runs a ton of great 80s movies during the summer (this year is their "Totally Awesome 3: More Films of the 1980s" series) and on August 14-15 they'll be showing my all time favorite, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". I am so there!!!! I think this marks the (ulp!) 25th anniversary of the film, it's hard to believe its been that long since I saw it on the big screen! I'll have to break out my old "Team Banzai" headband for the occasion! Some other great 80s flicks they will be running this summer include Heathers, Escape from New York, Angel Heart, Ghostbusters & Edward Scissorhands. It's such a treat to see them on a big screen, the DC metro area is a good place to be a movie geek :) | | Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | | 9:43 pm |
If you have a moment....
Please go over & vote in the LiveJournal Advisory Board election - direct link here: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/31595.htmlI'm very much in support of Kyle Cassidy a/k/a kylecassidy; he has posted his stance on LJ here: http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/524052.htmlI especially support his platform that "The biggest change the LiveJournal needs to make is in recognizing that its users have spent hundreds or thousands of hours creating their presence here. Recently we've seen a wave of attacks by malicious individuals or groups who delete peoples accounts and replace them with links to malware websites. In the grand scheme of things, this is probably to be expected. But it is inconceivable that LiveJournal has no way to restore deleted accounts. This boggles my mind. What it says to users is "don't trust us with your work." There needs to be a mechanism for backing up and restoring LJ accounts. LiveJournal needs to realize that they are a mechanism for people's memories."I know this has become an online diary of sorts for me, I find myself reading back thru old entries to aid my memory at times, its replaced the 10 page letters I used to write some of my friends weekly and helped me better keep in touch with others. I panic at the thought of them getting wiped out accidentally or maliciously and would be much relieved if some sort of backup system was in place, it would even be worth paying more in paid accounts to support. Also BTW Kyle is one cool fellow - lover and rescuer of homeless kitties including the internet-famous Roswell and a damn fine photographer as well! He ranks #1 on my list of LJ friends I haven't yet in person but hope to someday! So if you have a chance, please vote! | | Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | | 11:22 pm |
more pix from Ink & Iron  More photos from Ink & Iron, this time ones of the bands that played. I'd really hoped to get some great shots of the Henchmen and Frenzy with my new D700 but alas, it was not to be. Even though both bands tried to get me a photo pass apparently the Ink & Iron management wasn't very helpful, from what I heard none of the bands even got a guest list! So I just brought along my little Panasonic Lumix point & shoot DMC-TZ5 & did my best and got some halfway decent shots while I had light - started getting too dark during Frenzy's set and was useless to even try during Batmobile so unfortunately I didn't get any of them but at least I got some of everybody else that played that day. The really good news though was that Steve Whitehouse from Frenzy told me that they liked the shots I took of them in Las Vegas ( back in April when they opened for Tiger Army) so much that they are planning on using a bunch on their net album!!!!! That totally made my day! ( sample pix & links to Flickr galleries below! ) Current Mood: awakeCurrent Music: The Smiths - Sweet & Tender Hooligan | | 5:47 pm |
catching up - pix from Ink & Iron Tattoo fest  Its too hot & humid to go outside so I'm instead in lurking indoors catching up on posting some of the pix I took two weekends ago when I went out to Long Beach & visited my friends Alex & Rachel. That Sunday (June 7th) we went to the Ink & Iron tattoo festival held on & next to the Queen Mary ocean liner docked permanently in Long Beach. There was an amazing lineup of psychobilly bands playing, a lot of booths selling all kinds of neat art, jewelry, clothing etc & on the QM herself there were three floors of tattoo artist booths Also there was an amazing car show - I think I found my ultimate Dream Car (sigh!, now i just need a ton of $$ although it is prolly not for sale)- a vintage 60's Caddy hearse customized to a wild hot rod in metal flake bright PURPLE with gargoyles painted on the sides & a nifty little pinstriped coffin in the back. Vanity plates read "KRGOYLE", natch. Oh sigh!!! I googled it & found out it was customized by Barris Customs, the same customizing shop who did the Munsters cars and the original Batmobile! http://www.barris.com/gallery_cars/Kustoms_HotRods/gallery_kargoyle.html( more pix below! ) Current Mood: lazyCurrent Music: Koffin Kats - 6 Feet Under | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 5:23 pm |
| | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 9:48 am |
NIN/JA tour hits Maryland :)  I still have tons of pix and stories from last weekend & my trip to Long Beach for the Ink & Iron tattoo convention but I still need to sort thru them all.... meanwhile on Tuesday kisarazumama and I attended the local stop of the Nine Inch Nails/ Janes Addiction "NINJA" tour at Merriweather Post Pavillion & had a BLAST! I will be forever grateful for Trent who decided on an "open camera policy" meaning that folks could bring nice pro quality cameras in and shoot away! Hearing that made me wish I had pit tickets so I could have been up front but we had pretty decent seats, about 5 rows behind the pit in the left/center section so I brought my 80-400mm telephoto zoom and manages to get some decent shots, maybe not quite as sharp as I'd prefer but certainly nice enough for web viewing. Opening up was Street Sweeper Social Club and their matching band jackets. Maybe not exactly my cup of tea (sounding rather like Rage Against the Machine and with good reason as Tom Morello is one of their members) but decent enough. NIN came on second, Trent swears its his last tour but I hope he's wrong and cynical enough not to believe him (how many farewell tours have I seen for David Bowie and the Damned?) Great to see Robin Finck back in the fold & they were in top form and played a great set, I was especially thrilled that they did "Burn", "Dead Souls", "Hurt" and "Something I Can Never Have" NIN Setlist - 999,999 1,000,000 Letting You Sin March of the Pigs Something I Can Never Have Echoplex The Becoming Burn Gave Up La Mer Right Where It Belongs The Way Out is Through Wish Survivalism Dead Souls The Hand That Feeds Head Like a Hole Hurt  Janes Addition closed the night and were absolutely brilliant - I sweat they are ten times better now than when I first saw them (gulp) 22 years ago! Perry is looking pretty damn good for 50 and Dave Navarro is a very beautiful man :) Nice to see Eric Avery back as well! They had the most beautiful lighting that was just scrumptuous for photos!!!! Janes Addiction set list Three Days Whores Ain't No Right Pigs In Zen Then She Did... Up The Beach Mountain Song Been Caught Stealing Ocean Size Ted, Just Admit It... ENCORE: Summertime Rolls Stop! 1% Jane Says Many pix up now on my flickr, here are links to the sets Street Sweeper Social Club: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistinas138/sets/72157619506025791/Nine Inch Nails: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistinas138/sets/72157619493883341/Janes Addiction: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistinas138/sets/72157619578862536/( sample of pix behind LJ cut ) Current Mood: energeticCurrent Music: NIN - Perfect Drug | | Sunday, June 7th, 2009 | | 9:40 am |
chilling in Long Beach  Flew out Friday & my friend Kristen picked me up at LAX & we hung out at her house in West Hollywood for a bit, ordered chinese & watched True Blood, then she drove me down here to Alex & Rachel's. Yesterday we had a brilliant breakfast at the Shore House, checked out a row of vintage clothing & antique furniture shops heavy on the mid century modern, saw Land of the Lost, trekked down to the wetlands and hiked for a few miles & shot many photos of pelicans, terns and egrets & then feasted on kobe beef shabu shabu at Kojis in Orange - yum :) Today we'll be heading to the Ink & Iron tattoo festival held on the Queen Mary ocean liner where there is an amazing lineup of psychobilly bands playing including Eric's band The Henchmen, The Koffin Kats, The Peacocks, The Creepshow, Frenzy & Batmobile, also checking out the burlesque show, shopping and checking out the tattoos, out to be great! And yesterday we ran into Ozzie from the Black Rose Phantoms who let us know that they'd be playing late tonight at the Slidebar in Fullerton after Ink & Iron let out so we'll be heading down there afterwards to catch BRP, gonna be a busy day! Meanwhile I uploaded a couple shots of the pelicans to flickr, will put up lots more when I get home, I was thrilled to find these guys! http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistinas138/sets/72157619282723005/ Current Mood: busyCurrent Music: Oasis - Wonderwall | | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 1:28 pm |
busted cell phone = high frustration level
On the way to work yesterday one of those really thin aluminum cans of diet coke committed seppuku in my backpack & took out my cell phone - it got soaked & none of the buttons worked. The new lady at worked suggested sticking it in uncooked rice to dry out the moisture so I did that overnight & brought it with me today in a ziplock of basmati and by lunch was able to recieve and respond to a text although I have to remove the battery to get the front display to turn off so it won't run down the battery & it still looks kinda sweaty. I am dearly hoping that more rice treatment will allow it to limp along for a few more months as I await the announcement of the new iPhone & rumoured cheaper pricing before ditching Verizon for AT&T (all the while dreading the headaches of porting the numbers & setup & switchover fees). But I steadfastly refuse to get locked into another 2 yr Verizon contract and am consumed with iPhone lust as that apple bug bit hard. Hope it will work well enuff tonight to contact my friends about this weekend - flying from Dulles to LAX via Virgin on Friday & going to the Ink & Iron tattoo festival held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach with my friends Alex & Rachel and also making plans to hang out with Kristin. Will be great to see everybody and hard to believe I haven't been to SoCal since Halloween as for the last few years I've been there every couple of months. Not so much going on now & trying to save $$ for a really big trip later this year =) Liz-who-never-watches-TV (well hardly ever) has gotten hooked on the show "LOST" & just started season 4 on DVD (yay for amazing iMac display!), I should be caught up in time for the last season coming up. It is suitably weird for me and I dig all the compressed synchronity. When I heard about that Air France jet disappearing yesterday, all I could think of was "the Island". Current Mood: frustrated | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 11:16 am |
Visit to the Falls  It's easy to get me out to take pictures when I have new toys to play with - kisarazumama offered me free breakfast if I'd take her to Great Falls park and as I'd just gotten a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR as well as a Tokina 80-400mm for my camera I wanted to try them out! We had a great breakfast at the diner in Rockville & then headed down to the falls - as soon as we turned down the road to the park we spotted a handsome young buck & I pulled over & grabbed my camera & rolled down the widow & got one blurry shot before he took off. Once we parked & hiked to the falls we found a bevy of great blue herons & also encountered some lovely butterflies, a garter snake & a red headed skink! Successful day for wildlife :) New Gallery on my flickr- Great Falls Park, Maryland - May 30, 2009( many pix below ) Current Mood: artisticCurrent Music: The Killers - Somebody Told Me | | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | | 3:20 pm |
Barbara & Walt's wedding  Barbara is a woman who works down the hall from me at NIH - a few months back she came to ask it I knew anybody who could photograph her wedding - I got brave and suggested that I could do it & showed her the ones I'd taken at Alex and Rachel's. She liked them very much & hired me to do hers - I was pretty nervous as it was literally the biggest photo commission I've gotten so far and I went shooting crazy & pretty much filled up two 8 gig cards and think they came out pretty well and when I gave them to her today she was very please with the results :) I was really nervous as I know how important wedding photos are to a couple who want to remember that day forever and doing this certainly helped me gain confidence in my ability. Methinks I need some business cards, this is not a bad way to make some extra $$ and add to the lens fund :) The wedding was held at a beautiful old farm in Elkton, MD ( "the Historic Sinking Springs Herb Farm")- I got there very early as I was nervous about getting stuck memorial day weekend traffic so I used the extra time to wander around & enjoy the scenery. ( lots of pix below ) Current Mood: excited | | Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | | 6:35 am |
| | Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | | 6:15 am |
Your Morning Adorable - more fuzzy peeps!  Since kisarazumama and I were actually both up early yesterday I suggested we go out for breakfast so we headed over to the Corner Bakery by the Rio (yum!!!) & afterwards walked around the big pond behind the complex in search of ducklings...no ducklings to be found but we did find several batches of goslings who were falling all over each other... Then Paula spotted a stunning Great Blue Heron through the trees, I walked down towards the water to get better view and caught a couple pix and he flew off only to reappear on the other side a little later & obligingly posed for photos if only to show off his superiority. ( pix spam below ) Current Music: Peter Murphy - Indigo Eyes | | Friday, May 15th, 2009 | | 12:40 pm |
The Quakes in Baltimore!  Had a great time last night - headed up to Baltimore, well technically Essex to the northwest, and caught The Quakes at a club called Mac's - hadn't heard of it before but it was a pretty decent sized venue with a good stage & sound system, if a little lacking in the lighting department. But no fear, it gave me a superb chance to test out the low light capabilities of my new camera, the low light Nikon D700 and just to be safe I brought my fastest lens, a 50mm f/1.4. For practically shooting in the dark I am totally blown away by what this camera can do, I can't wait to use it in a place with good lighting, as this is about as bad as it gets ( miseryxchord, think Alex's Bar!) Put up a bunch of shots on Flickr - check them out hereAlso got a bunch of openers The Deadnecks that I posted here, glad to finally get to see them as a friend of mine plays guitar for them and I missed them when they opened for the Koffin Kats a while back. (And they played the obligatory Misfits cover of the night, "Skulls" as well as a rather, um, unique cover of Bela Lugosi's Dead. At least no Billy Joel like the first band up did...) It was bittersweet hanging out atomagedevilman for the last time before he moves on to a new chapter of his life as he is moving back to Charlotte, NC today to be with his woman, get engaged & be married soon - I'm so happy for him that he's found his perfect devil girl but damn I am gonna miss him as I was so spoiled having him living so close these last buncha years! Late nights at the AFI Silver and trips to ZIki's steak house will not be the same.... Definitely need to road trip down there soon to visit him & meet his beloved as well as visit Jessica, Albert, Piper & their new arrival! Also awesome getting to hang out with beatnick138 and s14atd, damn I need to get out to AZ one of these days & catch The Limit Club (of course if they come tour the east coast they are welcome to crash at Chez Liz for any DC or Baltimore gigs!) ( a few more pix from after the show ) Current Mood: thoughtfulCurrent Music: Classix Nouveaux - Guilty | | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | | 8:57 pm |
| | Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | | 8:08 am |
Kitty Help :)
My favorite models working hard to help me try out new camera (with old lens -50mm f/1.4) Outdoor lighting very early in the morning - ( der are moar kittehs ) Current Mood: amusedCurrent Music: XTC - Senses Working Overtime | | Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | | 8:59 am |
| | Friday, May 1st, 2009 | | 2:05 pm |
tonight....
Alkaline Trio is at Sonar, The Horrorpops are playing at the Ottobar, I had been trying to decide which show to make it to and now I am just so beat that all I want to do is go home and go to sleep & maybe if I get a decent nap catch the last episode of Dollhouse (and if I miss that I'll catch it on hulu tomorrow) The pollen has been playing havoc on my allergies & I am very worn down & feeling completely exhausted. Sigh. At least I am almost to the weekend - two more hours. Might go see Nicholas Roeg's "Performance" at the AFI tomorrow or Sunday as its been years since I caught that on the big screen. | | 8:10 am |
I am so dying to see this
I just read Harry's review on Ain't It Cool of Terry Gilliam's forthcoming "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus" http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40933Wow. Just wow. Heart Heart heart Terry Gilliam anyhow who is one of my absolute favorite directors of all time. :) Current Mood: pensive | | Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | | 11:38 pm |
I love it when an actor just totally nails a character....  Got to see "L Change the World" at the theater in Tyson's Corner tonight - its the followup to the 2 live action movies based on the Death Note manga/anime featuring the character "L" and once again I am just so blown away by how Ken'ichi Matsuyama totally nails one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. (now I just pray they don't him the disservice of an English remake) This one was directed by Hideo Nakata, best known for "the Ring" & somehow the subject matter of an incredily infectious pandemic disease seemed particularly timely this week. So nice some of these films make it over here to the big screen if only for a night or two, thank you nice Fathom people ;) Speaking of potential pandemics, scientists can be such geeks. Some of the guys at work are practically giddy with excitement over getting tons of new data to analyze on how infections spread. (facepalm) Current Mood: cheerfulCurrent Music: Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent | | 9:30 am |
I almost feel like a pro.....
I'm holding a sizeable check as a deposit on a wedding I'm shooting in a few weeks and my performance bonus from work will come through on this paycheck so after noticing that Amazon had the Nikon D700 for $650 less than they used to I think I'm gonna bite the bullet and hit the order button, it would be wonderful to get in time to shoot Barbara's wedding :) I am so grateful I got to see miseryxchord's D700 in action the last time I was out in California and being able to compare her shots to mine side by side convinced me I needed this camera... Will be great to shoot the Quakes show coming up and Ink & Iron too. Now to assess my non-DX lens collection. Current Mood: excited | | Saturday, April 25th, 2009 | | 11:34 pm |
| | 1:15 pm |
| | Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 | | 9:46 am |
awesome print by Doug Horne!
I got this from Swamp Fire Lounge at Viva Las Vegas but was afraid of it getting crunched in my suitcase so they were nice enough to mail it to me. This is called "Creature from the isle of Pagan Delights" Current Mood: cheerful | | Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | | 12:57 pm |
Johnny Depp for my birthday - yay!  kisarazumama got me this amazing Sweeney Todd doll made by Medicom of Japan for my birthday. The detail is astounding and he comes with an interchangeable hand poised to hold the razor, ah "now my arm is complete!" He will happily join my collection with the Medicom Captain Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands.....now I just wish they'd make an Ed Wood in a nice little angora sweater... She also got me a yummy strawberry cake from Balducci's! I love that place, discovered yesterday that their deli counter even sells Wagyu roast beef - it is wonderful!!!!! Its nice sometimes to splurge and treat yourself. Also discovered that being on a zillion shops' mailing list has its rewards - got $10 gift certif from Torrid that netted me a free shirt (50% off $20 on sale), 3 free lip glosses & a mini Benefit "Bad Girl" mascara at Sephora, free meals from Red Robin and Noodles & Company and a free dessert from Longhorn. Hell yeah! Swag is good. Off later this afternoon to Ziki's Japanese steak house to celebrate :) ( more pix below ) Current Mood: enthralledCurrent Music: The Smiths - Ask | | Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | | 1:04 am |
| | Friday, April 17th, 2009 | | 3:44 pm |
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