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IJA Festival 2012 HLGCB

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Warren

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Jul 24, 2012, 5:11:50 PM7/24/12
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Highs
- Getting to meet and talk to Pavel Evsukevich, Niels Dunker, and Dave Finnegan.
- The amazing quality of juggling in all of the shows and in the gym!
- The iiwii provided Festival Fun Fund game room and video watching areas.

Lows
- Missing the Youth Showcase Program, because I forgot it started before the Juniors Championships
- The blasted carpet in the Gym (it sometimes felt like I spent more time looking for dropped props
than juggling)

Goals
- Get advice on head bounce technique (check...thank you Pavel!)
- Get advice on 4 ball mills mess (check...thank you Chase Martin!)
- Learn a new passing pattern (check)
- Improve my 5 ring juggling (check...thank you Niels!)
- Go to 4 or 5 workshops (mostly check...made it to 3)

Crushes
- The Jack's (Denger and Levy)...amazing performances and just plain nice, humble, and helpful guys!
- Dave Pawson for organizing an amazing workshop schedule and being available to help out everywhere
and all the time.

Bane
- The blasted carpet in the Gym.


Was only there from Wednesday through Friday night after the most amazing Cascade of Stars show! It was great fun meeting a lot of new juggling friends and seeing ones that I have only known from the intertubes. I look forward to going to another big festival like this one in the future!

cheers - Warren

Little Paul

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Jul 25, 2012, 5:18:41 AM7/25/12
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On 2012-07-24, Warren <warre...@mindspring.com> wrote:

I'm glad you posted, I was wondering this morning how the IJA went to
the extent that I was going to post a "so how was it?" post...

> Highs
> - Getting to meet and talk to Pavel Evsukevich, Niels Dunker, and Dave Finnegan.

One day I'll get to meet Dave Finnegan, and thank him for very kindly
sending me a copy of Zen - which seems to be one of those books that
turns up in your life just when you could do with reading it.

> - The blasted carpet in the Gym (it sometimes felt like I spent more time looking for dropped props
> than juggling)

Seem to get that complaint a lot from hotel fests... must be something
about the confusing colour of conference centre carpets.

-Paul
--
http://paulseward.com

TK

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Jul 25, 2012, 8:18:41 AM7/25/12
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On 7/25/2012 4:18 AM, Little Paul wrote:
> On 2012-07-24, Warren <warre...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> I'm glad you posted, I was wondering this morning how the IJA went to
> the extent that I was going to post a "so how was it?" post...
>
>> Highs
>> - Getting to meet and talk to Pavel Evsukevich, Niels Dunker, and Dave Finnegan.
>
> One day I'll get to meet Dave Finnegan, and thank him for very kindly
> sending me a copy of Zen - which seems to be one of those books that
> turns up in your life just when you could do with reading it.

I have had 2 copies of that book, both autographed by the author. The
first I loaned to a co-worker whose house burnt - book gone. The second
I loaned (yes, I am a slow learner) to a fellow gym rat who went
completely insane - book gone. So far I have not bought another copy.

--
TK ~ aka Terry Kimpling
http://wejuggle2.com/video.php
The extent of my religiousness is having a cathedral ceiling.

da...@pattyanddave.com

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Jul 26, 2012, 11:11:19 AM7/26/12
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I had posted mine on Facebook. Since people here were looking for these, I believe mine should be publicly viewable here:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/dave-pawson/ija-2012-hlgcbs/10151291312656562

It was great seeing you there, Warren!

Little Paul

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Jul 26, 2012, 11:38:06 AM7/26/12
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On 2012-07-26, da...@pattyanddave.com <da...@pattyanddave.com> wrote:
> I had posted mine on Facebook. Since people here were looking for these,
> I believe mine should be publicly viewable here:

"You must log in to see this page."

so erm, no it's not publicly viewable

-Paul
--
http://paulseward.com

da...@pattyanddave.com

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Jul 26, 2012, 11:52:43 AM7/26/12
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On Thursday, July 26, 2012 8:38:06 AM UTC-7, Little Paul wrote:
> On 2012-07-26, I wrote:
> &gt; I had posted mine on Facebook. Since people here were looking for these,
> &gt; I believe mine should be publicly viewable here:
>
> &quot;You must log in to see this page.&quot;
>
> so erm, no it&#39;s not publicly viewable
>
> -Paul
> --
> http://paulseward.com

I was fooled by Facebook telling me it would be publicly viewable heh... Cut and paste it is, then.

Heads up. Those of you that know me know that I type a lot. This is no exception. Even with the length, I'm sure I forgot some of the people and things that made the week so incredible. So don't take it personally; blame the sleep deprivation and exhausion.

Highs

Being granted the honor of serving as Chairman of the Board. Great group of people on the board these days, and I'm excited to welcome our new members. Lots of work to do, but give me another day or two to recover from the fest and I'm ready to roll.

Jack Denger's People's Choice Award. The Juniors competition was a roller coaster ride to watch. Kellin Quinn did a beautiful act; he should be proud of his work, and it is a drag that all the drama may have taken some of that away from him. But Jack's act was insane. When he didn't win, he handled it with admirable dignity and composure beyond his years. I was ecstatic to see him win the People's Choice Award, and was touched by his words. I was proud of him, and proud to be a part of it all.

Workshops. By the time the dust cleared, my job as workshop coordinator had expanded to include 107 workshops. Almost without fail when I peeked in to make sure they were going okay I was seeing packed rooms and lots of smiles. Bravo to all the workshop leader volunteers. You guys kicked large amounts of ass.

Teaching Winston-Salem native Ashlea to juggle. We crossed paths in Starbucks, and she wandered over to the convention center to see what all the hubbub was about. I'm not sure she was quite prepared for what she saw, and a few days later she came back for a lesson. As I was preparing to head out for championships, I gave her a quick lesson, and when she managed to get a cascade going a few minutes later, the squeal was a great reminder why I love teaching juggling.

The reactions of the winning competitors. Because I was helping backstage with the championships, I was watching the awards from the wings of the stage, and some of the reactions were priceless. The stunned relief of my good friend Thom Wall when he placed second after having his routine badly compromised by a faulty sound cue. The complete jubilation of Dominik and Daniel when they won the teams after the heartbreaking scoring snafu last year (and well earned; what a routine!) These sorts of human moments are the things that stick with you for a long time.

Lows

Playing "Jugglers to Jugglers" and not winning the round where the adjective was "European" and my noun was "EJC". WHAT???!?!? COME ON!!

Not being able to see the championships very well. I was helping in the green room each night, where "helping" meant "eating candy and telling dumb jokes to try to keep the mood light." And I'm glad I did; it was great to be involved and so close to so many wonderful people. But I had to watch the competitions on a 13" TV with a signal that looked like it was being beamed from the moon. I'll be waiting anxiously for the DVD.

Sleeping too much to take in all the fun, but not enough to actually feel rested and well.

Goals

Pull off a successful workshop program. Yup. I'll give myself that one, with lots of help!

Pass clubs with Warren Hammond. Nope. Each festival I'm at with Warren, I figure it would be fun to dust off my club passing and let him field my dubious passes. Nope. We've only managed to actually pass once. Briefly at 2011 IJA.

Learn at least one new trick. Nope. Not only didn't I actually learn any new tricks, I didn't even spend enough time in workshops to find a new trick that I could fail to learn.

Attend Pavel's open workshop. Check! I had decided beforehand that no matter how busy I was with workshops I'd carve out time to do this. Glad I did; he was patient, gracious, and helpful at the end of a long day.

Attend Dave Finnigan's workshop on his educational programs. Check! He probably knows more about teaching juggling in schools than just about anybody; I didn't want to miss that.

Teach a successful workshop on Teaching Juggling to Kids. Check, I think :-) You'd have to ask the attendees, but I think it panned out well, particularly given it was the first workshop I have ever taught.

Moderate a successful discussion panel on Turning your Passion Into a Profession. Check! I was bummed that Freddy Kenton had left by the time the panel started, but Jack Kalvan, Warren Hammond, and Dave Finnigan filled the hour easily with good tips, interesting insights, and amusing stories.

Talk shop with Noel Yee. Check! Noel is doing really awesome work in the flow/spinning/fire communities, and I wanted to compare notes to figure out how to make our festivals even better going forward. I figured it would be an enlightening talk, but he had some theories and ideas that caught me off guard. Very good stuff.

Crushes

Ea Eo. Going into the fest, Matt Hall and Erin Stephens kept telling us, "I know most of you haven't seen them. You are just going to have to trust us on this one. They're going to blow you away." They couldn't have been more right. Their act was a blast; my face hurt from smiling so much. I had the privilege to hang out with them afterwards and through workshops as well. Even off stage they are downright hilarious, down to earth, and way too much fun to be around. Come back to future festivals, guys, or you will PISS ME OFF! :-)

Albert Lucas. Where to begin? He's a legend, and when I was teaching myself to juggle in high school, he was pretty much THE guy. He came backstage during the Juniors competition, and when David Ferman and I realized who he was, we both sorta lost our dignity heh... I later got to spend a bunch of time talking with him; actually meeting my childhood idol, talking shop with him, and realizing he'll be an active participant in the IJA going forward pretty much made the festival for me. I'm also hoping to get him to tell me where the fountain of youth is, because there is no WAY that guy is 52 years old.

Pavel Evsukevich. Fast forward 25 years, and my adulthood juggling idol was Pavel. Not that long ago I was drooling over his act on YouTube, and next thing I know I'm helping him with his workshops, watching him perform on stage, and driving him to the airport. As I kept telling people, if I was his age and able to do what he does, I'd probably be a real jerk and very full of myself. He was gracious, humble, and friendly. I know he wasn't overly happy with his Cascade performance, but I could have watched another hour of that. Bravo.

Carolina barbecue and hush puppies. Almost reason enough to travel there. Thanks, Keith Nelson, Slammin Andy, and friends!

Banes

The Wifi and temperature in the building. I could have sworn they were building a lead dome over the convention center, because the longer the week went on, the worse the network connectivity became. The temperature was a wild seesaw. First it was freezing, then I was sweating, and back to freezing. Due to the Wifi issue I had to retreat to my hotel room to update workshops, so that helped me stabilize my temperature.

The jackwagons who thought it would be clever to shoot off a fire extinguisher in the Convention Center. Aside from the blow it struck to my faith in humanity, I really wasn't planning on spending my first day as chairman dealing with this foolishness. I can proudly say there was never a day in my life I would have thought that would be a funny idea. It cost the IJA money at a time when we were already struggling to break even on a wonderful festival. It caused them to shut down the convention center earlier than planned, taking away hours of festival time from lots of people who need less sleep than I do. It wasted the time of board members and security trying to get to the bottom of it, wasted the time of maintenance people who had to clean it up, and wasted the time of the fire department when the extinguisher set off the fire alarms. Thank goodness there wasn't a real fire elsewhere while the fire department was responding to this idiocy. It would take a special kind of stupid to do something so selfish and actually think it was cool or funny. And I'm still spending my limited time trying to get to the bottom of it. I'm optimistic.

Surprises

Freddy Kenton and Ryan Mellors. Both special guests were unfamiliar to me, and rocked my world with gorgeous acts full of tricks I'd never seen before. Variety is the spice of life, they say. And I sound like a broken record, but both were just fantastic people as well. If my life ends up like Freddy's when I'm his age, mission accomplished.

Did I mention Albert Lucas suddenly showed up backstage at juniors?

The mobile app. Late in the week before the festival, I quickly threw together the app after getting a tip from my older daughter. I guess it went over well, because by the time the dust cleared, about 1 in 3 festival participants was using it. I'd consider that a huge success given that it was a brand new idea, I didn't manage to publicize it very well, and not everyone would have a smartphone anyway.

Thanks

Yeah, I added a new section. It is good to be the chairman, and I'm drunk with power ;-) Thanks to all my workshop leaders. I didn't count in the end, but it had to be well over 40 people that contributed to make a spectacular lineup of workshops. You all made it very easy for me, and I got plenty of verbal feedback that you knocked it out of the park.

Thanks to my fellow board members, outgoing, incoming, and remaining. As I tell everyone who asks, the job isn't necessarily fun, but it is important and rewarding. I'm very optimistic about our direction in the coming year. Let's surprise some people!

Huge thanks to Matt Hall (and Lisa Hall for what must have been phenomenal patience as Matt gave his life to this festival). Matt is a perfectionist, which is what makes him so good at many of the things he does. Even while everyone around me was raving about what a great time they were having, I know Matt was worrying about how things were turning out. You killed it, Matt. Seriously. Sit back, breathe easy, and recover.

Warren

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Jul 26, 2012, 2:04:36 PM7/26/12
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Ditto...glad we got to talk...I am inspired by your experiences with teaching kids to juggle at your local school. I am excited about the new year and kicking off the program at my kids middle school!

Wish we could have had time to juggle a bit together. Next Time!

cheers - Warren

Madelyn

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Jul 27, 2012, 5:12:47 PM7/27/12
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Thanks to Matt Hall and everyone else involved with the fest for a great
time!

Highs:

Seeing Cie Ea Eo's act in the public show. I laughed. I cried. It was one
of those things I'm going to remember for my whole life.

Kevin Axtell's and Ryan Mellors' acts in the public show. The isolations
were amazing. I'd swear those props were alive and animated from within.

The rest of the public show.

Daniel and Dominik's light-up club routine in the teams championship.

Kentokaito's routine in the teams championship, even though something is
just wrong about an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old being able to pass 10
clubs.

David Ferman's championship routine.

Jack Denger's and Kellin Quinn's routines in juniors.

Getting my second airplane with a kendama.

Passing clubs.

Hanging out with the Atlanta jugglers and the Atlanta hangers-on.

Going to a minor-league baseball game with Jan and Paul.

Seeing Deena.

I'm sure there are more.


Lows:

Finding out Robert Nelson is in hospice care for cancer.

Hearing about the idiots who pulled the fire alarm at the convention
center and emptied a fire extinguisher inside.


I'm out of time. I'll post the rest of my list later.

Keep juggling!

Madelyn Dinnerstein
Pittsburgh, PA, USA

--
----== posted via www.JuggleJunction.org ==----

Richard Kohut Jr

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Jul 28, 2012, 2:37:16 AM7/28/12
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High:
Coming up with awesome Kendama stuff and competing with Adam Kapilow. Gettin
to be good friends with the guy! And for good reason, we're cool together and
at a very similar skill level in kendama even with a hugely different skill
set. We mesh.

Ea Eo. Enough said. That was the most EPIC show I've seen in ages, and I
said it right there in the theater to Adam right after the huge hour and a
half show ended for the intermission. "That is what RDL SHOULD have been" It
was creative, awesome tricks, huge and entertaining characters and the
relationships between them, a great theme, awesome performing skills, and just
such an epic style to the whole thing. It was addictive how good it was.

Third place in the 3 ball blind competition! I was stunned when it happened,
and you can see it on the video I'll be putting up later on for the podcast.
I felt pretty good at blind juggling the seconds before the comp, but I was
stunned at how good I really was then, second and first went to Doug sayers
and Ferman, incredible.

The Kendama open. THAT, while I competed and sucked horribly in the
intermediate ladder and speed competitions, I did pull my helicopter spacewalk
sequence in best trick along with a few other things I'm proud of, and it was
a great comp.

The lounge at the back of the hall! Oh man I actually think I spent more time
back there playing Pinball, air hockey, and pool than I did juggling lol. And
while that realization bums me a little, it was well worth it in the end.
Ended up matching Doug Sayers among many others in pool, coming up with EPIC
trick shots for air hockey, and yeah :P

KENDAMA KENDAMA KENDAMA. SO MUCH KENDAMA! LOVE KENDAMA! ADDICTED TO
KENDAMA! HELP ME SOMEBODY I WANT TO JUGGLE AGAIN INSTEAD OF KENDAMA! NO
SERIOUSLY HELP ME TAKE MY KENDAMAS AWAY AND BURN THEM KENDAMA! I CANT SPEAK
KENDAMA CORRECTLY ANYMORE KENDAMA! I KENDAMA THINK THERE'S KENDAMA SOMETHING
REALLY KENDAMA WRONG WITH KENDAMA ME KENDAMA! lol. Ok o yeah, tons of
kendama stuff from the pill to aluminum ones and tons of variations and new
tricks I'm trying and yeah, spacewalk passing with Adam and just so much good
stuff but I don't want this post to be nothing but kendama so I'll leave it at
that lol.

Staying in a double suite with 5 other people basically bringing my hotel
total for the week to under 150 bucks! EPIC! And we had plenty of space for
everyone to be comfy and it was right in the embassy so I got to just jump out
and through the tunnel to the con center, which was awesome.

Bringing with me my Angled Surface to juggle on and getting like half of the
people in the gym to watch and then try it. Wa awesome watching Doug have a
chance at the good version instead of the improvised one I setup at WJF last
year and having him do 5 balls crossarm, 5up360, and ton of other stuff on it.


Low:
Getting so damn fatigued by day 4 and upwards, I wanted to juggle so much more
but I was just so damn exhausted lol.

the first and only night I played combat. Got my thumb bashed in REALLLL
good. good enough to end my juggling for the night as my thumb was dripping
blood and everything. woo!


Bane:
Wanting to perform in renegade but having absolutely nothing to perform. I've
retired Muffin Clutches before it gets old and stale, and I thought about
performing Android Hell but I wasn't prepared to do that either and hence I
had nothing to do... Grrr...

Camera battery not holding enough charge... grrrr.... I gotta buy a skeleton
housing for my gopro so I can charge it while it's in it's case.

Having soooo much footage to go through now after the fest to put together a
podcast with that it's gonna take me hours and hours and hours to do it. I
got 2 full hours of footage to go through...

Ah, the ten hour drive to get there and back! though it really wasn't
actually all that bad this year. So yeah, listened to tons of podcasts and
episodes of the Penn Jillette radio show on the trip and it turned out great.


Crush:
Ea Eo. Only ones really crushworthy for me this year lol. Although Doug's
still a very handsome man and his stage routine is NEVER going to get old in
my opinion lol.


Goal:
Didn't have one for this fest, which was odd. But I guess I got enough
footage, played at least a few games of combat, passed clubs in a big group,
and did all the other stuff I usually am bummed about missing doing at a con
when I go, so... I guess all goals accomplished lol.

--
----== posted via www.jugglehub.com ==----

Juggling fool

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Jul 28, 2012, 2:48:03 PM7/28/12
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Highs:
SO MANY!

Being in a room with so many jugglers that are so much better than me.
Inspiration at its finest!

Oh my god, Cie EA EO HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD! Between that and the shoebox tour, I
don't think that juggling on stage can get any better. A few sections dragged
on a little too long, but there was still plenty of awesome to go around. The
ball passing section hit me hardest.

Nathan, Jack and Kellin's acts in youth showcase/juniors. So good in such
incredibly different ways! Nathan's is already online
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsFHWbI9QSI

Daniel and Domink's routine! WOW! Best use of glow props that I've ever seen,
combined with some seriously beefy juggling. Rings didn't go so well, but once
they got to clubs everything just clicked.

Seeing all of the wonderful japanese jugglers. Especially kentaro with the
foot catches, kento-kaito as resident cute kids passing 10 clubs, and Etoh
Satoshi with all the running.

Getting an honorable mention in 4/5 ball Xtreme Juggling! Seriously unexpected
with all the crazy celebrity talent around me!

Winning a marbled sweets kendama for second place in intermediate kendama!
Plus, competing in speed trick against Will Penniman and Christian Fraser and
actually managing to hold my own was awesome too.

Hanging out with Reeses, doing a hell of a lot of nothing, and a good bit of
dama. We're getting to be pretty good friends, and it's always fun just
dicking around doing nothing. Despite how incredibly differently we play
kendama, we both approach it from a similar viewpoint, are roughly equally
skilled, and just work well together.

FREE FOOD!

The Cie EA EO workshops. All 4 of them are just as funny, cool and down to
earth offstage as they appear to be onstage. All of their workshops were
really fun, and I got a bunch of cool new ideas that will affect my juggling
for a long time now.

Matt Hall's and Thom Wall's workshops were both really nice as well, and I'll
be trying tricks based on them too.

That one passing session I had with Vinny where we just get cursing each other
off and laughing hysterically. There's nothing more amusing than trying to
keep up 8 clubs while you can barely stand from laughter. Also, the
ridiculously frequent runs to Jimmy John's, especially that one time where
they gave me my food before I'd even put my change away.

Watching Noah and Reeses' epic and passionate game of air hockey.

Hanging out late making ridiculous Mii's (this feels like an unnecessary
apostrophe, but I'm not sure how to write it better) on the last night.

Lows:
Hearing about the guys who pulled the fire alarm and emptied the fire
extinguisher. How on earth was that supposed to be funny?

Failing very miserably at combat, volleyclub and all the games other than
moshikame. I knew I was bad at that sort of thing, but I didn't know I was
THAT bad. Ah well, they were still really fun regardless.

Hearing all the controversy surrounding the juniors competition results. For
me, it just reinforced my belief that there shouldn't be competitions, just
showcases.

Goals:
Do decently well in Xtreme juggling. CHECK! An honorable mention (which I
think is the rough equivalent of second or third) in the biggest category of
the competition? With pinball and bbb tricks?HELL YEAH!

Take at least a few good workshops. CHECK! 7 total

Get a set of new clubs. MISERABLE FAIL! I realized I didn't really like any
club as much as I like my PX3s. Even if they don't bounce. To balance it out I
think I'm gonna try shaving off the decorations like Nathan did, might look
nicer.

Crush:
The whole Cie EA EO crew. Awesome juggling, great performance, and beautiful
voices.

Bane:
The lighting.

Surprise:

I know I sound like a broken record, but I REALLY did not expect to do
particularly well in Xtreme juggling. Sure I had my hopes, but with a list as
start studded as that list, I would've never given myself a chance.

How nervous I was for both the kendama competitions and Xtreme juggling. I've
learned to control my nerves to a reasonable extent when I'm performing a
routine, but apparently I still have a long way to go when I haven't
rehearsed.

4 and 5 balls merged into one category in Xtreme juggling. Why?

The ridiculous amount of time I spent in the fun lounge.

Free food. They announced it on facebook a couple days before the festival,
but I had no idea it was going to be as extensive as it ended up being. Really
awesome job on the festival's part.

I went the entire convention thinking that I had lost a club on the first day,
but as it turns out I'd just miscounted how many clubs I'd brought, and in
actuality I never lost one. Yay!


Thank you so much to everyone who had any part in making the IJA happen. I
can't imagine how much work so many people had to put into this festival to
make this happen, but I am unbelievably grateful to all those who sacrificed
so much of their time to make other jugglers happy.
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