So it has been a very long time since I last posted on this blog. I think my last post was in December 2013 as I was packing up to come home from Washington DC after my internship, with the full intention of picking up my blog again after the semester started to talk about my life junior, and senior year of college. Little did I know, that my junior, and senior year of college was so jam packed with classes, and extracurricular activities that I would barely have time to see my friends let alone write a blog.
After I graduated college I went home, and worked at my retail job I had throughout school as an assistant manager attempting to plan my next step. I learned a lot about myself in that year at home, and I would highly recommend to any graduating senior that if you are uncertain about your next step to take a year off. At home away from the hustle and bustle of school it is easier to actually pinpoint what you want to accomplish with your life without all of the pressure from fellow students, and teachers (not that it goes away completely because now it is your parents). At home I formulated my next crazy idea, which was mentioned to me by a professor of mine right before I graduated, get your master’s degree in China. China, China, China. The idea seemed ludicrous even though I had studied mandarin for a year, and gained my eastern studies minor but China is a vast, formidable country, and I am from a tiny town in upstate New York. But I learned some valuable lessons in my year at home, the first one was that I was bored out of my mind, and I desperately needed a change of scenery. I would miss (and still do) my friends, family, and boyfriend, but for myself I needed to get the hell out of dodge. So after a four-month application process, two months of waiting to know if I got in, a two-week visa application process, and one week of saying goodbyes, and packing, and repacking… here I am! This is going to be an interesting experience that I would like to share with everyone here, and back home. This blog will now include my adventures around China, the university, learning Chinese, and teaching English.
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I am finally home at last! This past weekend was a little hectic. I had my last days at the Attorney Generals office which were very bitter sweet. The lawyers surprised me with cards and well wishes. Then I surprised them with cards I gave to them, thanking them for such a wonderful internship experience. I was able to work with an amazing group of lawyers in the ever growing section of Civil Lit. 3 and it is an experience I will not forget. As previously mentioned my best friend from childhood, who is also named Shannon, was getting married this past weekend. As her maid of honor I flew home Friday morning for the rehearsal dinner, just in time to beat the snow storm. The wedding was extremely beautiful below is a picture of the wonderful bride and groom cutting the cake. After the wedding my sister and I drove back down to DC to pack up most of my belongings that I could not bring home on the plane with me (which was almost all of them). The driving was slow due to the incoming blizzard. Unfortunately, the snow affected what I was able to show my sister in DC. Since we were not able to get to my apartment by 4:30 pm it made it impossible for us to go visit the Smithsonian Museum of National History. The First Lady's dresses and Dorothy's Ruby slippers will just have to wait until our next visit. We did, however, undertake the monument walk. Afterwards when we were freezing cold and could no longer feel our fingers and toes we went to The Diner. The Diner is one of my favorite restaurants in DC on Adam Morgan’s ST. It is mostly breakfast with pancakes, French toast and a long line of eggs and omelet options. My favorite kind of food! I am very happy to be home. Since home has my dog Sasha (aka the love of my life) and my family. Who, I like to think, we’re all happy to see me. Below is a picture of my dog Sasha in a Santa hat. Happy Holiday’s everyone!
So this is my last week in Washington DC! It is way too jam packed for my liking. This past weekend I worked on my last assignments due while checking one of my top ten coffee shops off my list. I also went to the Lincoln memorial for the last time with my roommates. There we were able to see a strangely empty Lincoln memorial, and see the sweetest wedding proposal. A man proposed to his (unsuspecting) girlfriend after stopping my roommate Catherine to take a picture in front of the memorial. He then (as casually as can be) said, "could you take one more picture? I am about to propose." Much to our and his girlfriend’s shock he then got down on one knee and proposed. Thankfully, she said yes. When we left the memorial they were still hugging on the top of the steps as seen in the picture below. My plans for this upcoming week revolve around me trying to fit everything I need to in before my time comes to an end in DC.
At my internship I have plenty to do. I must finish some deposition summaries, a plaintiff’s medication list, bates stamp documents, deliver documents and I am hoping to write everyone a thank you cards before it is time to shred papers and clean out my desk. The sad thing is after today I only have two days left! When I go home I fear that it will not be smooth sailing. My best friend growing up is getting married this Saturday and as her maid-of-honor there are several little details to attend to. Then after her wedding the next day I am rushing back to DC to load up my car so I can come back home officially for the semester. I am very excited to come back to DC for my last day! Since, I get to show my one and only little sister around the Nation’s capital. Needless to say I am pumped to show her my favorite coffee shop, restaurant and the Smithsonian National History museum. Next week I will post pictures of our adventures no worries! Until next time I hope everyone has a safe weekend and survives the winter storms. This weekend I celebrated my first Thanksgiving away from home. As my roommates can attest, I had a slight panic attack when I realized that for my favorite holiday I would not be home with my family. However, I was able to celebrate it with my new WII family at the Paramount. While some people went home some of us got together for a potluck Thanksgiving. I brought cranberry sauce to the dinner and not the cranberry sauce in a can I made cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries (from the recipe on the back of the bag of course).
After Thanksgiving I did not participate in the Black Friday shopping because I have decided to give everyone back home DC souvenirs. So I do not have any pictures of people mobbing the stores to share with you all today. I feel refreshed after the long weekend and ready to conquer my last two weeks in DC. Sadly, I only have two weeks left here and so many more things to do! My goals for my remainder of my time here are: 1) Visit the top ten coffee shops in DC 2) Holocaust Museum I know only two things left on my list!! I can hardly believe it. I hope that the last two weeks do not fly by as quickly as the past 3 months. I did not realize how much I am going to regret going back to the ice and snow of upstate New York to be hidden in the snow and blankets. I am truly thankful for this opportunity to study in DC because it has shown me all of the challenges I can handle on my own and the opportunities that are available if I do not leave a stone unturned. Good evening spies I am happy to have gathered you all here. To prepare for your mission you are going to find your secret identity. Hello everyone! As you can probably guess I went to the Spy museum this weekend and was in my own nirvana. So a few things you should know about the spy museum: 1) It is very kid oriented 2) The museum does not give all of the details of a spy's life (no matter how much we want them to) 3) There is a whole floor dedicated to James Bond 4) They do give a lot of details about being a spy in the 'good old days' As a girl who grew up watching James Bond save the world from evil. I wasn't too upset that there was a whole floor dedicate to Agent 007. The museum draws you right in starting you off just like you are a real spy letting you pick your own mission and undercover persona. You then watch a short introductory film with a narrator that sounds like Madame M from James Bond. Then you go through "spy training" where you test your memory of your cover story and finding drop locations even being able to crawl through an air vent. In "spy training" the museum intersperses actual spy tools and devices used by actual spies. The museum also slightly discusses the consequences of when a spy is captured. However, as I said before it was a very kid friendly museum so the nook did not go into gory detail focusing on a life in prison and not a tortuous death. Now obviously it is all materials that are no longer used by spies because they are currently hidden in the nation’s secrets. But I did see some fascinating old weapons such as the one seen below. There was the second floor dedicated to the history of spies and how over the years there role has changed. Believe it or not Benjamin Franklin was a modern day spy, writing letters to British-German troops and hiding them in their supplies causing some of them to leave the British militia. They also gave tribute to spies in other nations such as in the British and of course the ninjas in Asia. Below you can see a statue of a ninja in typical garb. The last step in the spy museum is the James Bond exhibit. This exhibit went through James Bond’s entire glorious career. So this is the root of my captivation with James Bond, all of the villains in the James Bond movies reflect real villains in current times. The villains focus on drug, and diamond trade for some movies, then moving to nuclear war fears, with villains trying to convince nation leaders to start an all ending nuclear war destroying the world, while the villains hide in space or under the sea. As seen in the latest James Bond movie we see the exploits of cyber warfare and that is all I will say for those who have not seen it. Now several feminists have a problem with all of the women who fawn over Agent 007. Now I am not saying that I am exactly thrilled with how women are always portrayed in the movies; but especially when the earlier movies were made women were not super heroes. It was always a man who defeated the Villains in the end. This is a reality we thankfully do not need to live with anymore since the woman revolution. The revolution is apparent throughout the movies when we have a Madame Director of MI 6. *stepping down from platform* The exhibit on the other hand was really cool to see the touch screens revealing sharks swimming in your face and a metal pole you could hold on to compare your strength against James Bonds. Below is a picture of all of the propaganda in the stairwell leading to the exhibit. On a more academic note for this week, I started my poster project for the end of the semester and have shopped around for topics for my final paper. At my internship this week I wrote the answers to a set of interrogatories. Interrogatories are inquiries each side makes requesting document production during discovery. So I was really excited to do the answers for the OAG. Obviously, the attorney I wrote them for must look them over and then my supervisor must also approve it, but I was excited and very nervous that the Attorney would let me write them. I also prepared and reviewed an exhibit binder, finished printing around 1500 emails for document production, called witnesses for deposition preparation and wrote a Rule 37 Letter. A Rule 37 Letter is the next step after you receive document production if the opposing side does not fully answer your interrogatories. I am not going to lie that it was fun to go through and see what the opposing side did wrong. I think it went well because then the same lawyer then asked me to write another one! On Tuesday night I went to a talk by Norman J. Ornstein on his most recent book. The discussion also included Mark Chester a photographer who produced a book of photographs of juxtaposing pictures. My favorites were of one of a young married couple compared to an old married couple and a glasses shop compared to a pair of glasses framing a beach scene. The night turned into a serious talk on the media, how it has changed over the years and the direction it is heading. After the event Mr. Ornstein was signing books so I had him sign my book we read for class called It’s even worse than it looks by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. Well I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that even if you are not with your families you still have a wonderful time this holiday! Hello everyone! So I went to the Supreme Court this week and was able to see two oral arguments presented for two cases. As you all can imagine I was super excited. My friend Nicole and I stood out in the cold for an hour and a half to get inside the building. As usual I forgot my hat, scarf and gloves in my rush to get out the door but, it was so worth the wait! Nicole and I were very fortunate to get inside because they cut the acceptance line off for the first case two people after us. While our friend David who arrived later had to wait and extra half hour to get into the second court case. After going through our first round of security to get inside the building we placed our coats and everything but our notebooks and a pen in a locker because they are not admitted into the courtroom. Once we placed our coats and bags in a locker we had to go through another security check to make sure we were only bringing in paper and a pen. This unfortunately made it so I could not take any pictures inside the court room. The first court case was about gun laws. The main issue was if you are apart of a crime where a gun is used but you do not know that a gun was meaning to be used should you still be charged for the gun crime. We have been discussing gun laws in class and with all of the shootings that are currently occuring it seemed to be very appropriate to attend. The second court case concerned drugs and if an addict dies of an overdose is the drug dealer responsible for there death. It was so amazing to see these lawyers argue in front of the Justices. Who were by no means holding back in there line of questioning. They asked serious questions that would have made me cringe if I was the lawyer at the podium. I think the scariest one was in the second court case when the Judge asked why the lawyer refused to reference the experts in his court case and kept on using hypothetical experts. The same Justice also asked why they were using a law school hypothetical to try and support there case. It was also great to watch the Justices on the bench. There was one appeared to be falling asleep, while another had his head in his hands, some were taking notes, or fighting to ask questions. It was amazing to see them all interacting with one another. We watched a movie after court giving an over view of the Supreme Court which showed the Justices giving there opinion on certain aspects of there job which added to the experiance of seeing them in court. I made several observations while I was at the Supreme Court. 1) They arguments involved masses of hypothetical arguments 2) You need to be on the top of your game when you argue at the Supreme Court 3) The building was very grand to fit the weight of the cases considered there 4) The Justices are brazen and do not walk on eggshells This week has been jam packed. I have visited three tourist attractions, along with plenty of work at my internship. Where did I go you ask? I went to Archives, Arlington Cemetery and the Nation History Museum. Attraction 1: Archives After class on Tuesday I went to visit the Archives. I knew I needed visit them before I left DC because I get off at the Archives stop almost every day for my internship. This was a bit annoying because I could not take any pictures once I was inside with the documents. On the other hand, it was nice to be able to see our constitution and the Declaration of Independence. One thing that I was not expecting when I visited these historical pieces of history was I my inability to read the documents. This was not because they were written in ornate handwriting, it was because they were so sun bleached you could barely read it. But the guards around the documents were very nice providing an unending stream of knowledge concerning the documents. Attraction 2: Arlington Cemetery on Saturday, I went to Arlington Cemetery. It was more powerful than I was expecting. At home I used to run through cemeteries for cross country practice, so I have been somewhat desensitized to cemeteries. But seeing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier made me really reflect on what military members must go through. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier could be anybody and a family is without a family member or even worse no one even knows who they are. At the Tomb we were able to see the changing of the guard and changing of the wreath ceremony. So even though I did not see the President change the wreath it was powerful to see the line of veterans watching the ceremony as seen in the picture below. Attraction 3: National American History Museum The main reason I went to the Museum of history was because I really wanted to see the exhibit on First Lady Dresses. They were all so beautiful! But the exhibit stressed the importance of the first lady and her role during a presidency. Below is a slideshow of my pictures of the First Ladies dresses. I was able to also see several other exhibits one my way to the First Lady's exhibit. Some of my highlights are Dorothy’s Ruby slippers, Mohammad Ali's Boxing Gloves and the first Harry potter uniform for Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This museum was filled with various exhibits appealing to everyone, such as an entire exhibit dedicated to food right next to the exhibit on transportation. The Star Spangled banner exhibit was HUGE. This flag took months to create and was worked on by only 5 women by hand. If this flag was recreated in current times it would involve machines or several sewing women in possibly a foreign country. Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of the exhibit. So in order to see this exhibit you must visit it for yourself.
Have a Happy Veteran's Day and please thank a veteran for all of their service! So this week I become one step closer to my goal of law school. Yes, my heart rate just increased typing that sentence. This past weekend I took a practice LSAT exam. This needless to say was extremely hard. However, I did not do as bad as I was expecting and earned a 144 out of 180. To put it into more manageable terms it was like getting an 80% on a test. My goal for the LSATs is to earn a 160-165 which would be like getting a 90% on a test. I took the practice test at Georgetown University. Georgetown is about a 30 min walk from the Rosslyn Metro station. You have to cross over the Potomac River, but thankfully there is a bridge. On my way to the test I was a little unsure were to go but luckily there was always someone walking around who I could pester for directions. Crossing over the bridge I passed some military runners who almost hit me with there american flag. Below was my view from the bridge. After, I crossed the bridge my directions sent me on to 36th street. However, from the main street off the bridge there is no access to 36th street. Which under regular touring situations I would be totally fine getting a little lost is my forte but I needed to be starting my test in 20 mins. So after checking Google maps I took a hunch (because my maps have not been updated for quite some time) to turn down 35th st. and go up a block. Lone behold was 36th st. I was so so excited to see it that I took a picture of the sign which you can see below. After walking a couple of more blocks I was at Georgetown University which was in full fall bloom. Falling leaves of all different colors and sizes, people playing Frisbee, and students with backpacks, it looked like I was walking through a college campus movie. As seen in my picture below: So the test. . . upon arriving at the proper building I was checked in by Kaplan to my practice test. The LSAT is made up of 5 sections 35 mins each.
- 1 reading compreshention - 2 logic question sections - 1 puzzle game section - 1 experimental section Reading comprehension is exactly what is sounds like there is about 4 to 5 short readings with questions at the end. This section was really hard for me to finish in 35 mins. The logic questions ask you to choose the best or worst answer to an argument or what is statement will strengthen or weaken the argument the most. The key part to this section is the most option because there can be several great answers just not all of them will be the right answers. What I call the puzzle game section is a problem that needs to be solved fitting certain criteria. This was one of the questions on my test: Individual hour-long auditions will be scheduled for each of six saxophonists - Fujimura, Gabrieli, Herman, Jackson, King, and Lauder. The auditions will all take place on the same day. Each audition will all begin on the hour, with the first beginning at 1 p.m. and the last at 6 p.m The schedule of auditions must conform to the following conditions: Jackson auditions earlier than Herman does. Gabrieli auditions earlier than King does. Gabriell auditions either immediately before or immediately after Lauder does. Exactly one audition separates the audition of Jackson and Lauder. Then they would ask questions along the lines of which schedule works and which ones cannot. The experimental section is when the makers of the LSAT put in practice questions. You never know which section is the experimental section. This is slightly frustrating since this section is not graded. The worst part about the LSAT is there is only 1, 15 min break. after the third section. Which after racking your brains for roughly 2 hours is much needed. the only negative side is it makes the last two sections appear to last forever. Thankfully this is one step closer to my goal of law school. As I have previously mentioned law school is a very daunting task for me. Taking the practice LSAT helped ease my fears because I though I was going to score in around the 100 range. You can imagine after I plugged in my answers on-line my happy dance around my apartment with my very different score. My only fear is that now my doomsday prophecy has not come true that I will slack off when it comes to the LSAT. I think if I keep reminding myself to study and making a study schedule I will be just fine. Well that was my adventure of the practice LSAT which puts me of step closer to my vision of becoming a lawyer. Hello Everyone! It is the beginning of a new wonderful week. I am excited because this is week 9 of my stay in Washington D.C. Why am I excited you ask? This is because the number 9 is my lucky number and being a slightly superstitious person I can only expect good things this week.
However, this past week has been overloaded. My internship has keep me occupied and I am not complaining I would always rather be busy than bored. This week I was able to organize another lawyer’s office which as menial as that sounds is a relief for me, since I have to resist the urge to start organizing most of their offices as is. I also started working on sum deposition summaries for a lawyer so that way when his trail comes in January he does not have to read hundreds of pages of depositions. I know a hundred pages sounds like an exaggeration but depositions can last from 2 to 8 hours and with only 25 lines expressed on each page it is easy to see how a 2 hour deposition turns out to be at least a hundred pages. Often times, cases have more than one deposition this case has about 6 depositions so thankfully I will no longer have to worry about being idle at my internship. I also scheduled deposition prep and handled missed deposition prep. I also went to court this week! It was very fascinating to me because I was able to see one of the pro-bono attorney's Ali argue a motion for Summary Judgment. A motion for summary judgment is when the defendant requests that the judge moves to dismiss the plaintiff's complaint based on the facts gathered from discovery. Discovery is when the parties in a court case gather information by the exchange of documents and speaking to witnesses. I was very excited for Ali arguing one of his first summary judgments. He did an exceptional job especially since he had a "hot" judge. No, I do not mean that the judge was exceedingly attractive it means that you have a judge that has read the case over and has an abundance of questions. Just as if he had a cold judge which would mean that the judge has not read the case extensively over, which means that instead of answering the judges questions the lawyer would have to explain the case in greater detail. After, I went and saw the summary judgment motion I had to scurry over to the Office of Police Complaints and copy a file for Patricia. It was very interesting being in the office of the Police of complaints since it was all investigators and police offices scrutinizing complaints made by citizens to check their validity. Then before I knew it the weekend arrived! This weekend was my best friend's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette party. As one of her maid-of-honors I was obligated to go home for the festivities. This was thrilling for me because Shelly, the other maid-of-honor, and I had completely planned the two parties. Friday I finally flew out of Reagan airport around 10:30pm and arrived in Rochester, NY about an hour later. I stayed the night at Nazareth College and was able to see the club that I started called Wishing Well's first event. This event was a haunted house and I am an absolute scared cat! So needless to say even though I knew almost everyone in the haunted house I was still terrified. It went very well with 358 people turning out to see the event. The haunted house theme was an insane asylum taking place on the third floor of founders a dorm building that closed this year on campus. It was very scary with fake blood, scary hair, tattered clothes and glow in the dark paint. Needless to say I was very proud! Then the festivities of the bridal shower and bachelorette party went off with only a couple of bumps. The bridal shower only had one slight problem we forgot to buy bubble gum for one of the games we played. the point of the game was for the bride to be to answer questions about her fiancé and every question she got wrong she had to eat a piece of bubble gum but every piece she got right I had to eat a piece of bubble gum. Which left me to run (yes run!) down to the local dollar store and pick up bubble gum. The game went splendidly I was able to chew, with some difficulty, 12 pieces of bubble gum and the bride to be only had to chew 6 pieces. To be fair when we asked all the places the groom had traveled we had her take a piece of gum for every place she couldn’t remember so she really only answered 3 questions wrong. The only issue with the Bachelorette party was we had a broken DVD player that refused to play any sound. So we did the next best thing and narrated the movie ourselves which was just as much fun. The only serious problem with this weekend was I missed my flight back to DC! I know I should have been better prepared but I mixed up the times of my departing flight. I thought my plane left at 11:30am which was really the time my layover flight left for DC. But after some explaining to the airplane company they moved my flight to today at 6 A.M. After notifying my internship that I had missed my flight home and that I would not be in the office Monday I stayed with Shelly. Shelly was my hero of the day for offering to let me stay in her dorm room for the night and bring me to the airport at the crack of dawn this morning. But after several delays and a transfer later I made it back to DC at about 12:30 this afternoon. So I am grateful to be back in what has become my favorite city for what I am hoping is going to be an amazing week! As stated by the title, it has been a very busy week! My internship has provided me with plenty of work getting rid of my routine of bothering them for work to do. Which is as much of a relief to me as it is to them! What have I been doing? Well I can't wait to tell you! This week I called people to schedule deposition preparation. Which means that people from the Districts department are being deposed. We prepare them for depositions so that way they do not get stumped by a question or say any unnecessary information. There are also some tricks that the opposing side can play on the person they are deposing. One of them is asking them questions about their family and home life lulling them into answering without thinking and quickly, then asking them a question that is really important which can prevent the defense to make an objection and the depositionee from saying something that shouldn’t be said. Another reason we prepare people for depositions is because by the time these lawsuits are in place 2 or 3 years could have passed since the original allegation occurred. For someone to remember what happened 2 to 3 years ago is kind of blurry the first time you ask them but when they have time to think and deliberate on it they can remember and tell you what happened in great detail. Also this gives a lawyer an opportunity to learn more about the workings of a case from the people involved and not just the complaint. Today, I went to one of the deposition preparations that I went to. It lasted for 3 hours which is actually not a very long deposition. I was a little bored because the lawyer kept repeating his questions. Although, the opposing council who was questioning our witness was not very happy when the lawyer I was with started her cross exam of our witness. I mean obviously they would not be thrilled but they looked visibly angry, they huffed and sighed, frowned and ran their hands over their faces. One of the lawyers was texting under the table at one point which I though was very rude since I resisted my urge to doodle. However, switching gears I also completed an exhibit binder. An exhibit binder sounds, a little boring since I didn’t get to pick out the exhibits but putting the binders together is an important aspect of trial because if your case goes to trail you do not want to be flipping through a mass of paper looking like an idiot in front of the jury. The fun part was my little field trip to go deliver the binders to the opposing council. The original address they were at was on Vermont Ave. but when I got there the floor was filled with a podiatrist office. It turns out that his law office had moved to another building on Connecticut Street. So I brought the exhibit binder to his new office. Which happened to be one of the nicer offices I have been in while in D.C. I felt really proud of myself for being able to think on my feet and find the new law office. The advice to be flexible is something I have really taken to heart this week. This weekend I went to the zoo! So exciting I have been waiting for the shutdown to be over so my roommates and I could go. As an animal admirer I was so happy to see so many of them running around and playing. As you can see below the zebras in the first picture and the otters in the second are having the time of their lives. I even saw a mammal I had never seen before... A maned wolf! As seen in my slightly blurry picture below it looks like a giant, long, legged fox. I always enjoy myself at the zoo except when I go to the ape house the animals there always look sad. I think apes are smarter than your average bear, and want to live wild and free but then that argument could be made for most of the animals in the zoo. However, on a happier note my best friend from home's family came to visit on Sunday. I was there tour guide all along the monuments. Which was tons of fun because even though my best friend wasn’t here her youngest sister Christina was and this girl is a hoot. As seen in the picture below she was fascinated with all of the marble columns so when we went to the National Gallery of Art she couldn't help but running to the pillars and giving them a giant hug. Although, when I took this picture she ran and hugged the pillar a little too hard. But in true Christina fashion she rebounded quickly and ran off to hug the next pillar. So between work and play I believe I had a well-balanced week and stayed busy as a bee.
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AuthorMy name is Shannon McCullough. I have Political Science and Legal Studies degree at Nazareth College of Rochester. I have previously interned at the Office of the Attorney General for DC. Currently, I am studying my Masters degree in International Relations at Shandong University in Jinan, China. Archives
September 2016
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