Month: February 2015 | the Wakefield Doctrine Month: February 2015 | the Wakefield Doctrine

(pre)TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘since you ask, yes, you are in the future… how’s it goin up there?’

February 28, 2015 By

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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Of late, the percentage of ‘first time’ participants in our little gratitude ‘hop seems to be on the increase. That’s pretty cool. ‘being made to feel comfortable and welcome’ is a quality that has always impressed me with ‘the bloghop that Lizzi built’. Not surprisingly, we all tend to see those concerns and questions (as expressed/implied, inferred or simply stated) that resonate personally, so allow me to say, ‘hey new participants! not only is this the best bloghop in the ‘sphere, but it is the simplest, from a ‘how does it work/what are the rules’ perspective . No, really. I mean that!  (…come on guys, I’m being sincere.)  What I’d like to say is simply this: it is the participation in a gratitude bloghop (that) engenders the benefit, not simply how ‘grateful a list’ you might write. And there are benefits. You don’t need to follow a rigid guideline, it is the spirit of the idea (of a gratitude list) that matters.  Having said that, you need to have 10 Things (but…but!  that’s where the cool part begins…. won’t go into detail other than to say: SBoR…. hypo-grats permitted… numbering can be totally non-Euclidian.)

As this Post’s subtitle makes abundantly clear, I’m writing this list early. Friday morning early. And, rather than simply write a list…er  early, I thought I’d see what would happen if I set out to experience gratitude in situations that, though predictable, have not yet happened!

(to be grateful for, expect to have a choice to be (or not to be) grateful for…hope to be grateful for):

1) Looking out the window, it’s totally cloudy. That’s a good thing! As we all know, the really cold weather comes with high pressure systems and, (in this part of the country), north or northwest winds.  So, I’m hoping to be grateful for less, ‘are-you-fricken-kidding!?!’ temperatures today.

2) the previous item generates a reminiscence of days fishing… the wind direction was/is everything, when it comes to the ocean. A ‘Fair Wind’ (usually incorporated  into the phrase, ‘fair wind and following seas’), the part of the Ocean where I was, was a Southwest wind.  (picture Atlantic seaboard)… and, gannets   no! seriously if you haven’t seen these birds in action,  you owe it to yourself to watch the following, not CGI…thats exactly how it looks.

3) Phyllis and Una… (this will be an easy one) like everyone, a very balanced morning routine, centered on Una having breakfast and then going outside and settling into her day job (i.e. guarding the house from the lower level)… I try to hold her example of the simple approach to (a) day as I venture out.

4) car…. like the car, enjoy driving… kinda of a real long-standing ‘good thing in life’, this driving around through the world  (clarks will recognize the natural affinity for this particular activity)

5) work…. now, this is where the challenge begins… I recognize the choice I have (in virtually all situations)…. will report back on success/failure tomorrow (Saturday  (your present….my future…ya know?))

6) cows!  damn!  I’ll try to remember to get the cow-of-the-week photo, will add it below this item. (I know that some co-hostinae are ocean-challenged by virtue of their living arrangements… not that farm life is not an interesting thing… but, seriously   you saw the video of the gannets…. what could cows do that’s as cool as that…. Christine?  do the pigs do anything acrobatic when no one is looking?)  will get you a photo

I said, "are you talking to me?"

I said, “are you talking to me?”

7) Will cite the Wakefield Doctrine. Not that it takes anything special to feel a sense of gratitude for it… it’s a way of looking at the world around me that permits me to trick myself into seeing the world differently…. not necessarily a good thing, in and of itself, but I wouldn’t trade having it for anything in the world

8) I should clarify my point about using items of hypo-gratitude in writing a list for this bloghop…. totally permissible. Funny thing, as I write that, I think… “but, clark, dude! suppose someone comes in and gets all ‘the world sucks and ain’t nothin good about it’ with they list?  won’t that bring everyone down?”  Two words:  no.   I am willing to bet my seat at TToT co-host dinner-and-then-do-your-homework table that the effects of such a list would eventually result in the writer feeling better… provided they came back at least 2 more weeks…  (no, new Readers, there is no, actual, physical TToT co-host dinner table…though that would be cool, you got to admit

9) gratitude to be determined

10) 1.3 binyons!! 1.3!!

 

 

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4th Day -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘lets talk …get them clarks up here for a moment’

February 26, 2015 By

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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While the subtitle of today’s Post hints at a topic understandable only to odd-at-heart, there is much that can be useful to our scottian and rogerian Readers. Please, stay with us. While you may be a person living in the world of the predator (being a scott) or comfortably grounded in the reality of the Herd (as a roger, it’s tough to imagine a World without Rules, isn’t it?), you do have a secondary clarklike aspect. I say this with certainty, because I have gone out into the world and spoken of clarks, scotts and rogers to …well, to scotts and rogers who have only a predominant worldview (without any significant secondary aspect) and I’ve felt the stares and ‘that look’*  The look from a person who knows they are dealing with an Outsider. So, if you’re a scott or a roger and you’re still reading, then you have a significant secondary clarklike aspect. So what? Well, you’re not the only person in your life are you?  … oh, sorry roger, let me rephrase that… (lol  just a little joke for Michelle and Kristi and Phyllis and the other rogers who not only enjoy our little Doctrine, but are invaluable to our efforts to know all three personal realities. The point is, there is always something of value when we manage to ‘see the world as the other person is experiencing it’.

….to our Post.

hey clarks.  what’s worse about those days when you wake up and your creativity drive is somehow  ‘on 11’?   is it the fact that you have a ton of ideas that you know you don’t have time for or is it that foreboding feeling that something bad will be the end result?  I mean, it’s not like we hate the feeling, but we always wonder why it only happens sometimes and, hardly ever, on purpose.  The other thing (about clarks)… the worse it feels (inside) the funnier we can be (funnier being defined as making other people laugh… for whatever reason, the quick and clever asides and observations seem to be of a  way higher energy level when we are heading towards that dark place… life can be frickin hilarious, no?)

Anyway, short post.  non-clark Readers?  this post should provide two things of value:  a) an increased sense of the world of the Outsider (’cause, like we implied a little earlier, you’ve got some of that your-own-self and 2) parents? you clarklike children… they get like this too  but, you probably already have a sense of that (by virtue of being a parent who has enough on the ball to be reading the Wakefield Doctrine) but… a tip: the eyes. Watch their eyes. It’s been said that, when you’ve studied the Doctrine long enough, you will be able to spot the clarks (and the scotts, for that matter) on the basis of a photograph of the person’s face…. and it’s true. You can. or could, if you want to… (bonus hint: the fear is the easy thing to spot (in the eyes of the clark)… the ‘distance’ is less easy. There’s something in the eyes of a clark, that if you look you can see that they are somewhere else… not necessarily all the time, but it’s quite clear that they do leave the world as you know it. (Kind of the opposite of the eyes of a scott, when you think about it!… with scotts, the totally distinctive characteristic is that they are totally there…. in the present …alert.)

Enough for now. This was supposed to be a short Post.

 

* clarks are quite familiar with ‘that look’…. hey, just because we’re invisible most of the time, doesn’t mean we’re blind

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W -the Wakefield Doctrine- “well, no. I prefer the term ‘re-presenting the Doctrine, achronologically’, thank you very much”

February 25, 2015 By

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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….speaking of scotts.  If you get on over to ‘The Facebook’  ( Facebook motto: ‘just like you remember high school, except the parts that are embarrassing to remember‘) you will find a new group,   ‘the First Annual, 2015 Bloghop World Championship SmackDown!’  and, by virtue of the fact that you’re my favorite Reader, we’ve saved one of the limited number of memberships…just for you. So get on over there and join up!  (no, I’ll wait)

thank you.  yes, there will be Tee shirts at some point… ok   here’s the deal.  you know how I’m always saying that the TToT bloghop (TToT bloghop motto: ‘you think a gratitude exercise doesn’t result in change?!?  one word: Lizzi Rogers‘)  is the best bloghop in the ‘sphere? Well I was thinking, if we’re so good, then the least we can do is go around and challenge other bloghops, (who, by the way, have been known to claim to be the best bloghop…), to a contest.  Well, thats the core idea. The details are in development, but, let me say…. ‘shirts with logos’!! (“sure, roger  you can can an exclusive limited edition one”)…. and they will be tee shirts (“…can a scott rip and tear parts of it to her liking? someone try to say no”) and you clarks?  you get to hang with an exceptional bunch of life forms.

Ok enough for now.  Remember to join up today!

…speaking of scotts   and  contests   and high school  (the scotts in gym class were never left standing, in that horribly exposed line of un-picked-for-either-team kids, waiting for someone to pick them, (even when each team already had enough kids to field a team)…hell, if they weren’t the ones doing the picking (that only happened when the teacher/coach assigned the captain of the 2 dodgeball teams… and 9 times out of 10 they would have been rogers) they would be the one to over-ride the captains choices and pick the clark standing in the middle (because scotts know that there is something…. about clarks  they’re not prey, not competition, certainly not a challenger for leadership of the pack… just something about clarks that appeals to scotts.)

So…brief review of our scottian friends

(from November 22, 2013)
Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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Break Time!!  Yeah, we know what you’re thinking,* “hey  enough of the heavy introspection, already!  we came here for a break from our daily routines, ya know? The Wakefield Doctrine advertises itself as being a personality theory that’s unique, useful and fun.  Lets see some that fun!”

Well, we all know that if it’s fun you’re after (and you’re not concerned with the price), there’s only one worldview to go to… the scottian worldview. scotts!!!  (‘Say it baritone and you can hear the police sirens wailing, say it contralto and you’ll surely be paying‘).

We all have a scottian friend. There’s currently a TV commercial for Las Vegas and is premised on that guy, the one we all knew growing up who always had to push it. To go a bit faster, to take a bit more of a risk than is absolutely necessary. juvenile detention facilities structure their business models on the young scottian males’ natural proclivity for anticipating consequences.

And….and! lets not forget that the Wakefield Doctrine is gender neutral! ( ya gotta admit, in most cultures, the male is permitted a greater latitude in (their) choices of expression of drives and instincts and such, the scottian personality type is that of the predator and so they pretty high on the aggressiveness and impulsivity of action. if you are female, in most cultures, they will frown upon you going around arm wrestling, punching your subordinates on the shoulder and saying ‘fuck!’ a lot. fortunately for you (the scottian female) there are ….alternative forms of expression).

if you’re a clark you have always had a scottian friend, if you’re a roger you have never been able to avoid having a scottian friend and if you are a scott you’ve known of other scotts in your life.  you know them because as a scott:

  • they must establish ‘ranking’ in any and every social environment… you will spot the scott because they will alway first ‘work the room’, going from person to person, small group to small group and push everyone on the shoulder (literally and/or figuratively), by doing this they will establish their place in rank
  • they will command attention (or better, for the sake of the rogers) they will simply assume dominance
  • in conversational style:  a clark will listen to you talk, a roger will let you talk…a scott will make you talk
  • females will be identified as ‘tomboys’ early in life (‘from ages 5 to breasts’); with puberty, scottian females come into their own… (short form: most cultures do not permit the female members expressing aggressiveness physically)
  • you will have a clarklike friend, who you will consider a friend because they  do not act like prey nor do they act like as another scott
  • they will be total pushovers for a person who appreciates their mind ( in males it is best to admire their creativity… in females anything not involving their bodies will work  lol)
  • in social conflicts, as in dog training, to feel fear is to admit defeat
  • they are mercurial in temperament and loyal to friends and ferocious as adversaries

But they’re fun! It is easy to say, ‘hey of course we like scotts! they’re active and like to do things and are entertaining. whats not to like?’  True. But, this being the Wakefield Doctrine, we owe to ourselves to look a little deeper.

scotts are impulsive …and this appeals to us, albeit on an unconscious level, they live in the here and now!  (you remember the tale of the fiddle playing grasshopper?? tell me that, before you got to the ‘oh-so-correct-and-this-is-how-you-should-live-your-life’ sledge hammer ending…. tell me that you didn’t think of the grasshopper as the ‘good guy’! to varying degrees, we all would like to believe that, all we need do is throw off the cares and responsibility and life could be so much more….  and that’s true.

scotts are certain…  and this is why they are ‘natural leaders’… (the Doctrine saying is) ‘scotts are frequently wrong, never uncertain’.  people all too often equate certainty with wisdom

scotts represent what any of us would demonstrate as a ‘personality type’ if we found ourselves in the reality of the predator at a very early age and had to develop coping skills and strategies

scotts are attractive and aggravating, they are natural showmen/show-women, they see the audience as would a hungry lion a pack of gazelles  …

in the history of Man:  scotts are the conquerors, the explorers,  they are Alexander the Great (but not Julius Caesar) they are Genghis Khan (but not Charlemagne)  they are George Patton (but not Dwight Eisenhower)  scotts are cops but not firefighters….scotts are surgeons but not physicians … scotts are prima ballerinas but not Rockettes  …scotts are leaders but not Rulers

If you have made it this far…this is the link to the page on scotts

Hey want to see a scott in action?  watch this here video…everything you need to know about how to recognize a scott (there’s Robert DeNiro as the clark and some other guy as the roger).

 

 

* well duh!  this is the Wakefield Doctrine!

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monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘no, not weirder than some Posts… just trying to get back to the basics’

February 23, 2015 By

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

CABINET_DES_DR_CALIGARI_01

…you know how, on some days, (not that you notice anything when you wake up, and, certainly not something that you do deliberately), you are, for all intents and purposes  …invisible?

…have you ever found yourself getting angry at something that a co-worker has done, quietly inadvertently, they probably would not know what the fuss was about and that makes you all the more angry and yet, when you try to get something done…. no, not punishment, simply doing something so that the person making this mistake does not make it again, or, failing that, at very least, understand their error?

isn’t frustration…. frustrating?  no, we know what you mean, and it’s not something that you dwell on, except when the people who are probably the least qualified to criticize, or worse, clueless… yet manage to impose their arbitrary rules on others and you, well, there is nothing wrong with being …direct with them.  that’s reasonable, right?

the above is the Wakefield Doctrine. (In our block quote today,  done in a faux art film  Mise-en-scène sorta way, ya know?)  Of course, that’s just one of the ways that we offer the insights that warrant the effort to learn our little personality theory.  Other times, the real fun of the Wakefield Doctrine can be found when we go the ‘outrageous route’.  I don’t mean outrageous in the scottian sense… the ‘Hey!!  fuck you!!’   (no, not all scotts yell ‘fuck you’ to get attention.  sometimes they’ll make funny faces…) That’s not the point!

The point is this: the Wakefield Doctrine offers a perspective on the behavior of the people in our lives. There is ‘an internal consistency’ to the (application) of the principles that is…well, pretty frickin incredible. Long story short, a roger will exhibit rogerian attributes and behavior ‘to a depth’ that should not happen without the individual having at least scanned this here blog here (god knows, a roger would never admit to a clark that they, (the clark), have stumbled upon something remarkable).

See? right there!  that last part. That is the fun of the Wakefield Doctrine!  No of course not every roger will begrudge a clark,  just as not every scott will talk in a louder-than-totally-necessary-voice addressing everyone in the line at the supermarket,  just because someone laughed at a joke.
It is in the exaggeration that we express the insights (that) are inherent in the Doctrine.
(Having said that, you need to go over to Christine’s TToT post from the weekend. She tells of a confrontation with a …lets call them a service provider (I don’t want to talk the fun out of reading it, if you haven’t already gone there)…  go ahead  go read it.
… am I the only one who was picturing the scene as the guy using his computer as, like a chair… you know, the old lion tamer chair and whip to try and maintain the semblance of control?

(New Readers? Christine is a self-identified*  scott.  the worldview of a scott is that of the Predator  lion(ess), wolf,  any predator you might like,  ferocious when frustrated, mercurial in temperament  defender of the pack… the Wakefield Doctrine simply states: ‘the way that Christine relates herself to the world around her has the attributes of the predator’  pretty simple, isn’t it?)

Anyway, I’m rambling. Go out there today. Keep the following in mind:

  1. clarks relate themselves to the world around them as would ‘the Outsider’… ‘there but not there’, clarks shy aware from the spotlight, but will not tolerate being ignored.
  2. scotts relate themselves to the world around them as does ‘the Predator’ …. the lion, (not the invisible alien in the movie)…. scotts are a lot of things, invisible is not one of them, the men are great leaders and the women are hot
  3. rogers relate themselves to the world around them as should ‘the Herd Member’  if there is a Right Way to do things, a roger will be interested, they know that the world is quantifiable and understandable, provided it is taken seriously enough… rogers do an amazing language thing that is part humor and part aggression, we call it a rogerian expression and you’ll know it when you hear it… ex.  a blogger talking about the real estate business, ‘on the whole, I found most real estate agents to be much too self-absorbant‘  or,  upon seeing the deductions on their first paycheck at the new job, ‘oh man! look at how much they deducted for aggravated security‘  or  “I really like that movie, but I’m going to wait until they release the un-abashed edition”  yeah…like that.

* and that is the only kind there is…. self-identified  (One of my few rules around here. No one has the right or authority to decide which of the three types another person is. At least, not to the extent that the person labeled needs to feel that it is with any force or effect. That’s not to say that we can’t talk about and help and try to figure out which of the three a person is… that’s how we practice the Wakefield Doctrine!  It’s just that it’s for each of to decide that the way (we) relate ourselves to the world around us is consistent with being a clark or a scott or a roger.

New Readers?  try it out! the other thing we say about the Doctrine is, ‘you can’t break it and you can’t get it wrong!’

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- (this far from throwing the computer out the window!* grateful that I did not have to**)

February 21, 2015 By

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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Hey!  new(er) participants (and participettes), want to know another feature of the TToT bloghop that makes it the best of all bloghops?  In certain contexts, it is perfectly acceptable to cite  ‘Items of hypo-gratitude’ as part of your List of Ten Things of Thankful! no, really, it is!  For instance, the continuation of the non-heat wave for the last couple of weeks here in southern New England… that is totally my first item:

1) Winter-like weather (although, as the photo above shows, sometimes when the setting is right and there is an automobile between you and the frozen waters, it can be pretty neat!)

2) Friends given to spontaneous acts of book-gifting.  zoe (bpkai) sent us a book… just for the fun of it. It was received in kind.

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3) I’m grateful to have a friend like Lizzi (for reasons normal and reasons Doctrine). The former is quite obvious, when you see the effort she has expended in the things that she believes in and feels passionately about and, the latter, while possibly less obvious, is even more significant to me (i. e. the change over that last three years is testimony to possibility of self-improving oneself … while still being a clark!)

4) Speaking of clarks… Cynthia (another clark I’ve had the massive good fortune of coming to know)…. she is proving, in a way that is both totally unlike and exactly the same as Lizzi, that a person, possessed of strong desire, solid humility and faith in her/him self can accomplish things that are way, way  beyond anything that might, at an earlier time be imagined.   (and, did I mention she was a clark?  lol)

5)  Lets not forget  (hey!! new(er) people…. get out your note pads) the amazing Book of Secret Rules (aka Secret Book of Rules). It’s easily  the #2 Reason that the TToT would totally dominate at the Annual International Bloghop SmackDown… (well, it would if there were an Annual International Bloghop SmackDown   and, now that I think of it, there surely must be some kind of competition putting bloghops into some kind of arena of death…. or at least a flaming cage-match for bloghops…  think of the Tee shirts!  hey, maybe I should get one made!

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6) BoSR/SBoR  (cont’d)  …so, the proper use of the Book of Secret Rules is sort of like, when you were a kid and your mother insisted that you eat some food-group that you knew for certain was not to your liking, and how, if she had only offered an alternative… you might have taken her up on it (instead, if memory serves me well, of sitting at the dining room table until 4:30 the next morning, not eating the ‘peppers and something’ meal that was sitting coldly on the plate, hours after the normal members of your family had ceased to find this particular battle of Wills interesting and had gone to bed and minutes after your mother, still seated across the table, head resting on her arms, sound asleep. As a clarklike mother who, perhaps in an ill-advised attempt to engage in a battle of wills, insisting that the only way anyone would leave her dinning room table was with an empty plate of ‘peppers and some-frickin-thing’, (I forget, it’s been many years).  You want to know how much a clark I was, even then, at age 7 or 8?  as I sat there, watching my mother sleep (the 10 hours or so of sitting there waiting for me to give up and eat ‘the damn peppers and whatever’, I felt both embarrassed for myself (and sorry for my mother…. not that she had to sit up all night, but that she had not been successful in her bid to force me to eat those frickin peppers and…’  Me? a clark!?  (though I still tend to underestimate my Reader’s understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine, I will tell you what you probably have already figured out,  that my mother was also very much a clark).

7) I have a developing sense of appreciation of the writers and writing… it’s an interest that has come to me rather late in the game, but I now read, not only to enjoy the words and the story and all, but also to appreciate the magic of catchy phrases and good story-telling. I find examples in some odd places, for example, in the police reports section of the primary RI newspaper. Thursday, as I was eating my burnt toast lunch, I came across a story about some kind of holdup or robbery … most of the story was standard, ‘at approximately 9:31 am, according to witnesses, the convenience store was held up, clues led police to the home of the suspect….’  pretty standard Police blotter fare… but the last lines of the story made me stop and laugh (in admiration of a writers skill):

“…armed with a knife and walking through the snow.” (Providence Journal 02/19/15)

8) how cool a line is that to come upon (while eating burnt toast, while engaging in some aerobics for my eyes )

9) the Wakefield Doctrine  well, because it pretty much is useful and fun, no matter what the situation or (desired) application. If you are out in your world today, I guarantee that (the proper use of) the Wakefield Doctrine will result in your day being more:

  • satisfying, because you want to know that you are doing your best/the best, for the people in your lives despite/because they are so important to you… seeing their behavior/your behavior through the perspective of our little personality theory will provide one more  way of understanding, and, when you get down to basics, how can that not be worth the effort
  • fun!!  no!  really!!   of course I’m saying that what we have here can provide you with fun and amusement and, no, when you get down to it, I don’t really know you or know what your life is like…  except …. I kinda do   (getting annoyed? go read the pages on rogers…. laughing?  hi scott!   intrigued, how this seems somehow familiar …keep reading clark!)
  • yes, and scary too… well, scary in a creepy sorta way   remember how we say that the basic task of the Doctrine is to: ‘observe the other person, correctly infer how they are relating themselves to the world around them and, by doing this, see the world as they are experiencing it’?  well, once you start doing that, you’ll find people acting just like the book says they will, and, (here’s the potentially scary part) they will not have ever come into contact with this here blog here…

10)  1.3 yo  (BoSR/SBoR)

* see the list above?  as I typed the last item the internet connection was lost… the computer insisted that it was saving everything, so I click off and went out and dumped the electrons out of my modem (pulling the plugs, holding it upside down for 10 seconds…shaking it on occasion…came back…connection was restored, went to the draft post… all I saw was a photo and ‘Item 2’…  ayiiee  got upset, though about throwing the computer on the ground and taking up building ships in bottles or baking soufflés for a hobby… then I remembered that I copied everything to the clipboard… whew!

** I had to throw it out the window  (that I can appreciate that I did not, while wishing I had, represents one of the core paradoxeses  of the clarklike personality type…

Ten Things of Thankful

 

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