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2012 New Year's Challenge: A Splitting Headache!
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Starcade
Jan 11, 2012, 5:01:20 PM1/11/12
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(Repost to .fandom)
2012 New Year’s Challenge
Easy Challenge: Me, plus the personalities and virtual reality
representations of Sora Naegino, Layla Hamilton, and Rosetta Passel
(Kaleido Star)
---------------
I don’t know what roped me into actually attending this show. I think
it was partially because of the fact that the entire holiday season
experience wore me out worse than usual this year, or was it that I
just felt that, before I went to see the Final Fantasy voice talents
in Sacramento, that my friends needed even MORE peace and quiet from
me this year?
No matter. I was in Los Angeles, and attending a science convention
therein. I actually got a phone call from the head of New Year’s Con,
telling me that I was to pick up a scientist and invention at this
convention.
Figuring I could do that as a favor to a friend, I was in Los Angeles,
but was told that it was going to be some time before I was able to
pick up the scientist and the invention. I, hence, had time to
myself.
So, let’s see here in the exhibit area… Latest in 3D TV’s, check…
Advances in medicine, check… Zapitron 3000 hooked up to a chair, ch…
“Wait a second…”, I thought…
Sure enough, one of the most eagerly-anticipated exhibits at the
convention was a machine which looked a lot like my summoning machine,
hooked up to a chair with restraints. It was dubbed: “The Next Great
Advance in Virtual-Reality!”, and they were looking for volunteers.
I don’t know what got the better of me on this one, but I immediately
decided to give this thing a try. I kinda faked that I was fascinated
with the machine, even though I wasn’t clear what it really was.
So I surprised the person by fairly adeptly setting the machine up
(Hell, I’ve only been doing it for the last several years), signed the
relevant waivers, and got myself strapped into the chair.
I selected my three “Easy Challenge” members for this event (figuring
there would be another “Easy Challenge” Real Soon Now, and wanting
some practice), and sat back while my helmet was placed into place.
The moment the person pressed the Start button, the entire field of
vision went white.
---------------------
It was absolutely unbelievable, in every sense of the word.
I immediately never wanted to take the helmet off. Whereever this
was, I wanted to stay… Forever.
About the closest I could come up with was that I was in a place
prepared for Leon Oswald to honor his dead sister Sophie. The day was
perfect, not a cloud in the sky. The right amount of grass in the
meadow allowed me to lay down and comfort every aching bone.
Everything was perfect.
And then…
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a pleasure dome decree…”, Layla Hamilton
said to me as she walked up in the most dazzling outfit I had ever
seen her in.
“Where Alph, the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to
man…”, Sora Naegino said as she joined Layla in one of the most daring
evening gowns I could ever have envisioned her in.
“… down to a sunless sea.”, said the third person, who looked like
Rosetta Passel, but much more muscular in the legs and a couple years
older than I even thought she could be now.
“Join us…”, Rosetta said as she began to float in the air.
“Fly with us…”, Sora said with a smile as she went airborne as well.
“If you can think it, you can do it.”, Layla concluded as she began to
leave the ground. “Fly, Michael.”
Just then, I closed my eyes, leaned my head back, and began to float
in the air. It was as if I was going to be part of the Legendary
Great Maneuver.
-------------------
The next minutes were a dream, wrapped in a fantasy, encased in utter
ecstasy.
The four of us were literally flying over a majestic technological
city which could only have come from video games (probably Xanadu from
Final Fantasy XIII-2, or at least the reports I had heard of it).
I was between Sora and Layla, the three of us together with arms over
each other’s shoulders. Rosetta was above me, and I could sense her
presence, especially after she laid a small kiss on my forehead.
We literally flipped and flew and spun, as if the four of us were
performing that classic maneuver which demonstrated such faith in life
that it absolutely cheated death.
Just then, a portal, and we were someplace else…
------------------
We were flying over my old hometown of Plum City, Wisconsin. I showed
them, from high above, my high school, my old house, my church, the
café I used to sneak off to playing video games, the duck pond…
And then another portal…
------------------
The portals were literally kaleidoscopes of light and sound which
marked the boundaries between portions of the virtual-reality
experience.
Though there was much going on -- a complete sensory overload if you
ask me -- but I felt completely safe. Part of it was that I knew this
couldn’t be completely real. Even if it was, though, I was in the
arms and presence of three women with whom I felt completely safe, and
they safe with me.
------------------
We were now flying over a magnificent stadium, far advanced to
anything today (sorry, Jerry Jones!), and it looked like the Super
Bowl was in town, but something far beyond it.
Every favorite performer I ever knew was in a massive concert and
receiving the applause and credit which Layla always wanted -- the
applause which made her body shudder.
I danced with all three of the ladies for what wasn’t more than a
minute or two, even though I felt it was for an entire concert set
each.
The lights, the staging, the performances: Perfect as a bell.
Just then, my favorite of all flew into the air to join us and our
dance. Fourteen years, now…
---------------
And then my head began to hurt…
A loud chime, which, if I hadn’t been in a fantasy-land, I would’ve
immediately recognized as the “uh-oh!” error tone from Windows Vista,
sounded and the entire field went blank, except for words I couldn’t
figure out.
Everything then went black, and I passed out.
---------------
I felt like I had come to for just a moment. I was back at the
convention, figuring I was no worse for the wear.
I felt free and easy. I felt like I wanted to leap into the air! I
felt that I just had the best experience ever, and it was all thanks
to the likes of Sora Naegino!!
“I’m sorry, sir. We had to take the machine offline. For some
strange reason, the machine has unexpectedly crashed.”, the operator
told me.
“Oh, that’s OK!”, I said in a sing-songish voice. “I had a great
time!! I hope to do this again soon!! Thank you!!”
“Please get up carefully. We want to make sure you are all right.
That really looked like it was an overload situation for you in
there.”, the operator concluded.
“Thank you so much!!!”, I beamed, and put my fingers to my mouth to
blow the operator a small kiss, which made her sweat-drop.
I freed myself from the chair, preparing to bound through the day with
an endless energy which I only thought was part of the results of the
experience. I wanted to tell the world!!!
But then I passed out again… All of a sudden, black again.
----------------
The next time I came to, it wasn’t so pleasant!
I now had about six burly security around me, and I was taking no
prisoners!
“I WANT MY LAWYERS! I WANT MY STYLIST!! UNHAND ME, YOU…”, I
screamed.
“Settle down, sir. We’ve already had to taser you twice!!”, I was
having yelled back at me from the sea of humanity almost-literally
trying to tie me down.
“Sir, we’re going to have to shoot you if this gets much worse!!”,
another amorphous voice seemed to yell at me.
“I don’t care!!”, I yelled as I broke free and then did something I
never thought possible: I did a spinning somersault into the air and
landed it perfectly -- at two hundred and sixty pounds!
“What is going on here??”, another voice could be heard to exclaim.
----------------
“I’m sorry, Mr. Falkner, but it sounds like the machine has imprinted
the personalities of the different entities you summoned into yourself
when it crashed.”, the person said to me.
“Who… who are you?”, I said back to her when I came back to. Shortly
after I first heard the voice, I passed out again.
“I am the scientist you were asked to accompany. I am the Professor,
and this is my invention, Nano Shinonome…”, the professor said.
To which I immediately stopped and completely boggled…
“BUT YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SEVEN YEARS OLD!”, I screamed in a high-
pitched voice.
“Please settle down, Mr. Falkner. The professor created me to aid in
our work…”, Nano said before I passed out again.
----------------
When I woke back up, I had this strange urge to find a diabolo and
start playing with it to clear my mind!
“Ahh, you’re awake!!”, the young professor beamed cheerfully. I
immediately was given…
A kickball?
An immediate sweat-drop was followed with: “What am I supposed to do
with this, Professor?”
“Play with me! Come on!!”, she said.
So we did. If I had been “myself”, I’d have been wondering about the
complete randomness of that.
Or I would’ve, when I passed out literally five minutes into playing.
---------------
When I came to, I had no interest in playing at all.
“Professor…”, I asked her somewhat sternly. “I don’t seem to be
myself. What are we going to do to make me me and Michael Michael
again?”
“Ahh, that.”, the Professor said. “As I tried to explain during all
the chaos at the convention center, when the virtual-reality machine
Michael was in crashed, the personalities of the characters he
summoned somehow merged with his body to create a competitive
situation in which he’s going to literally have to deal with trading
one of you for another until we can figure out how to separate you
back out.”, the professor replied.
“And how long will that take?”, I asked in a contemplative manner.
“About six and one-half days, Michael…”, Nano answered.
“So I guess we are together until then?”, I said plainly.
“Yes.”, Nano replied.
-------------------
The next few days were like what Lulu said to Tidus: “A day with you
is never dull!”
Nano and the Professor found a diabolo set for me, and I taught the
professor how to use it.
I also taught the young Professor a few rudimentary flips. She
enjoyed the opportunity so much while her invention, which seemed to
have different parts almost every time I looked over at it, was going
over the necessary computations to try to get everything back to
normal.
I was struck by, as intelligent as this girl was, how much she was
just a little girl! She loved playing with me when I was playful,
being energetic with me when my energy was if it could burst, and
loved talking to me as a parent figure when I slowed down.
--------------------
As the days of the week passed, I became more used to the “transfers”
between personalities.
As “Sora”, we just bonded as two little girls with massive amounts of
energy. The Professor even let me wind up Nano!!
I actually taught the Professor the finer points in roller-skating,
for some odd reason or purpose. I told her the story of when Sora
first came to Cape Mary, upending the would-be robber with an electric
routine on a borrowed pair of roller skates.
As “Layla”, we used that time to get progress on the situation which
would allow me to separate the characters’ personalities and have me
be “myself” again.
We tried to figure out exactly just what went wrong. It was even
beyond Layla’s acumen, even though she had seen several similar
machines, which I had been using for years to summon her and her
cohorts.
As “Rosetta”, we just giggled like little schoolgirls and broke out
the diabolo sets.
------------------
Finally, on the last night…
“The people with the machine are going to come over and use Nano as a
debug device with the information she’s been able to obtain over the
course of the last week! I’m excited to show them Nano!!”, the
Professor beamed.
I guess I was having a “Rosetta moment” at that point: “That’s
great! I mean, we all want the best for all parties involved, so we
can hope to make Michael ‘himself’ again.”, I smiled.
Then, I hugged the Professor and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.
“Awwwwwwwwwwwwww… I don’t know whether it’s ‘you’ or the personality
you are in at the moment, but you are a sweetheart!”, the Professor
said as the technicians from the convention came in.
--------------------
Just then, they ran the diagnostics for the machine through Nano, then
Nano was hooked up to me as a double-check and fail-safe to make sure
I was going to be all right.
All requests to remove Nano’s key in her back were met with: “But
she’s too cute with it!!” by the Professor.
I just sighed (a “Layla moment” was the last before I was put back
into the debugged machine) as I was re-strapped in and the helmet
replaced.
---------------------
What I found was not the fantastical world in which I was when my
personalities merged.
This was basically uncontrolled chaos. It seemed like one body of
something was fighting against another body of something and
everything was random and nothing could make any sense.
(Much like my week with the Professor and Nano!)
Just then, something slammed in to me. Had no idea what it really
was, because I couldn’t get a bead on it without getting nailed by
something else seconds after.
This repeated a number of times until I took one final shot to the
head, and everything went black -- then white…
----------------------
The technicians were watching Nano for my vital signs very closely as
I finally came to.
I shook my head a bit and ached for food.
I also was pissed off…
“SO WHAT DID THEY DO TO THAT VIRTUAL REALITY???”, I howled.
Just then, I stopped and laughed.
“Mr. Falkner…”, the Professor said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m me again. Good ol’ crotchedy ornery me. Thank you.”, I said as
I hugged the cute little Professor.
********************************
Really difficult to get a handle on that one -- Hard Challenge will be
started after I go away for another weekend.
2012 New Year’s Challenge
Easy Challenge: Me, plus the personalities and virtual reality
representations of Sora Naegino, Layla Hamilton, and Rosetta Passel
(Kaleido Star)
---------------
I don’t know what roped me into actually attending this show. I think
it was partially because of the fact that the entire holiday season
experience wore me out worse than usual this year, or was it that I
just felt that, before I went to see the Final Fantasy voice talents
in Sacramento, that my friends needed even MORE peace and quiet from
me this year?
No matter. I was in Los Angeles, and attending a science convention
therein. I actually got a phone call from the head of New Year’s Con,
telling me that I was to pick up a scientist and invention at this
convention.
Figuring I could do that as a favor to a friend, I was in Los Angeles,
but was told that it was going to be some time before I was able to
pick up the scientist and the invention. I, hence, had time to
myself.
So, let’s see here in the exhibit area… Latest in 3D TV’s, check…
Advances in medicine, check… Zapitron 3000 hooked up to a chair, ch…
“Wait a second…”, I thought…
Sure enough, one of the most eagerly-anticipated exhibits at the
convention was a machine which looked a lot like my summoning machine,
hooked up to a chair with restraints. It was dubbed: “The Next Great
Advance in Virtual-Reality!”, and they were looking for volunteers.
I don’t know what got the better of me on this one, but I immediately
decided to give this thing a try. I kinda faked that I was fascinated
with the machine, even though I wasn’t clear what it really was.
So I surprised the person by fairly adeptly setting the machine up
(Hell, I’ve only been doing it for the last several years), signed the
relevant waivers, and got myself strapped into the chair.
I selected my three “Easy Challenge” members for this event (figuring
there would be another “Easy Challenge” Real Soon Now, and wanting
some practice), and sat back while my helmet was placed into place.
The moment the person pressed the Start button, the entire field of
vision went white.
---------------------
It was absolutely unbelievable, in every sense of the word.
I immediately never wanted to take the helmet off. Whereever this
was, I wanted to stay… Forever.
About the closest I could come up with was that I was in a place
prepared for Leon Oswald to honor his dead sister Sophie. The day was
perfect, not a cloud in the sky. The right amount of grass in the
meadow allowed me to lay down and comfort every aching bone.
Everything was perfect.
And then…
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a pleasure dome decree…”, Layla Hamilton
said to me as she walked up in the most dazzling outfit I had ever
seen her in.
“Where Alph, the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to
man…”, Sora Naegino said as she joined Layla in one of the most daring
evening gowns I could ever have envisioned her in.
“… down to a sunless sea.”, said the third person, who looked like
Rosetta Passel, but much more muscular in the legs and a couple years
older than I even thought she could be now.
“Join us…”, Rosetta said as she began to float in the air.
“Fly with us…”, Sora said with a smile as she went airborne as well.
“If you can think it, you can do it.”, Layla concluded as she began to
leave the ground. “Fly, Michael.”
Just then, I closed my eyes, leaned my head back, and began to float
in the air. It was as if I was going to be part of the Legendary
Great Maneuver.
-------------------
The next minutes were a dream, wrapped in a fantasy, encased in utter
ecstasy.
The four of us were literally flying over a majestic technological
city which could only have come from video games (probably Xanadu from
Final Fantasy XIII-2, or at least the reports I had heard of it).
I was between Sora and Layla, the three of us together with arms over
each other’s shoulders. Rosetta was above me, and I could sense her
presence, especially after she laid a small kiss on my forehead.
We literally flipped and flew and spun, as if the four of us were
performing that classic maneuver which demonstrated such faith in life
that it absolutely cheated death.
Just then, a portal, and we were someplace else…
------------------
We were flying over my old hometown of Plum City, Wisconsin. I showed
them, from high above, my high school, my old house, my church, the
café I used to sneak off to playing video games, the duck pond…
And then another portal…
------------------
The portals were literally kaleidoscopes of light and sound which
marked the boundaries between portions of the virtual-reality
experience.
Though there was much going on -- a complete sensory overload if you
ask me -- but I felt completely safe. Part of it was that I knew this
couldn’t be completely real. Even if it was, though, I was in the
arms and presence of three women with whom I felt completely safe, and
they safe with me.
------------------
We were now flying over a magnificent stadium, far advanced to
anything today (sorry, Jerry Jones!), and it looked like the Super
Bowl was in town, but something far beyond it.
Every favorite performer I ever knew was in a massive concert and
receiving the applause and credit which Layla always wanted -- the
applause which made her body shudder.
I danced with all three of the ladies for what wasn’t more than a
minute or two, even though I felt it was for an entire concert set
each.
The lights, the staging, the performances: Perfect as a bell.
Just then, my favorite of all flew into the air to join us and our
dance. Fourteen years, now…
---------------
And then my head began to hurt…
A loud chime, which, if I hadn’t been in a fantasy-land, I would’ve
immediately recognized as the “uh-oh!” error tone from Windows Vista,
sounded and the entire field went blank, except for words I couldn’t
figure out.
Everything then went black, and I passed out.
---------------
I felt like I had come to for just a moment. I was back at the
convention, figuring I was no worse for the wear.
I felt free and easy. I felt like I wanted to leap into the air! I
felt that I just had the best experience ever, and it was all thanks
to the likes of Sora Naegino!!
“I’m sorry, sir. We had to take the machine offline. For some
strange reason, the machine has unexpectedly crashed.”, the operator
told me.
“Oh, that’s OK!”, I said in a sing-songish voice. “I had a great
time!! I hope to do this again soon!! Thank you!!”
“Please get up carefully. We want to make sure you are all right.
That really looked like it was an overload situation for you in
there.”, the operator concluded.
“Thank you so much!!!”, I beamed, and put my fingers to my mouth to
blow the operator a small kiss, which made her sweat-drop.
I freed myself from the chair, preparing to bound through the day with
an endless energy which I only thought was part of the results of the
experience. I wanted to tell the world!!!
But then I passed out again… All of a sudden, black again.
----------------
The next time I came to, it wasn’t so pleasant!
I now had about six burly security around me, and I was taking no
prisoners!
“I WANT MY LAWYERS! I WANT MY STYLIST!! UNHAND ME, YOU…”, I
screamed.
“Settle down, sir. We’ve already had to taser you twice!!”, I was
having yelled back at me from the sea of humanity almost-literally
trying to tie me down.
“Sir, we’re going to have to shoot you if this gets much worse!!”,
another amorphous voice seemed to yell at me.
“I don’t care!!”, I yelled as I broke free and then did something I
never thought possible: I did a spinning somersault into the air and
landed it perfectly -- at two hundred and sixty pounds!
“What is going on here??”, another voice could be heard to exclaim.
----------------
“I’m sorry, Mr. Falkner, but it sounds like the machine has imprinted
the personalities of the different entities you summoned into yourself
when it crashed.”, the person said to me.
“Who… who are you?”, I said back to her when I came back to. Shortly
after I first heard the voice, I passed out again.
“I am the scientist you were asked to accompany. I am the Professor,
and this is my invention, Nano Shinonome…”, the professor said.
To which I immediately stopped and completely boggled…
“BUT YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SEVEN YEARS OLD!”, I screamed in a high-
pitched voice.
“Please settle down, Mr. Falkner. The professor created me to aid in
our work…”, Nano said before I passed out again.
----------------
When I woke back up, I had this strange urge to find a diabolo and
start playing with it to clear my mind!
“Ahh, you’re awake!!”, the young professor beamed cheerfully. I
immediately was given…
A kickball?
An immediate sweat-drop was followed with: “What am I supposed to do
with this, Professor?”
“Play with me! Come on!!”, she said.
So we did. If I had been “myself”, I’d have been wondering about the
complete randomness of that.
Or I would’ve, when I passed out literally five minutes into playing.
---------------
When I came to, I had no interest in playing at all.
“Professor…”, I asked her somewhat sternly. “I don’t seem to be
myself. What are we going to do to make me me and Michael Michael
again?”
“Ahh, that.”, the Professor said. “As I tried to explain during all
the chaos at the convention center, when the virtual-reality machine
Michael was in crashed, the personalities of the characters he
summoned somehow merged with his body to create a competitive
situation in which he’s going to literally have to deal with trading
one of you for another until we can figure out how to separate you
back out.”, the professor replied.
“And how long will that take?”, I asked in a contemplative manner.
“About six and one-half days, Michael…”, Nano answered.
“So I guess we are together until then?”, I said plainly.
“Yes.”, Nano replied.
-------------------
The next few days were like what Lulu said to Tidus: “A day with you
is never dull!”
Nano and the Professor found a diabolo set for me, and I taught the
professor how to use it.
I also taught the young Professor a few rudimentary flips. She
enjoyed the opportunity so much while her invention, which seemed to
have different parts almost every time I looked over at it, was going
over the necessary computations to try to get everything back to
normal.
I was struck by, as intelligent as this girl was, how much she was
just a little girl! She loved playing with me when I was playful,
being energetic with me when my energy was if it could burst, and
loved talking to me as a parent figure when I slowed down.
--------------------
As the days of the week passed, I became more used to the “transfers”
between personalities.
As “Sora”, we just bonded as two little girls with massive amounts of
energy. The Professor even let me wind up Nano!!
I actually taught the Professor the finer points in roller-skating,
for some odd reason or purpose. I told her the story of when Sora
first came to Cape Mary, upending the would-be robber with an electric
routine on a borrowed pair of roller skates.
As “Layla”, we used that time to get progress on the situation which
would allow me to separate the characters’ personalities and have me
be “myself” again.
We tried to figure out exactly just what went wrong. It was even
beyond Layla’s acumen, even though she had seen several similar
machines, which I had been using for years to summon her and her
cohorts.
As “Rosetta”, we just giggled like little schoolgirls and broke out
the diabolo sets.
------------------
Finally, on the last night…
“The people with the machine are going to come over and use Nano as a
debug device with the information she’s been able to obtain over the
course of the last week! I’m excited to show them Nano!!”, the
Professor beamed.
I guess I was having a “Rosetta moment” at that point: “That’s
great! I mean, we all want the best for all parties involved, so we
can hope to make Michael ‘himself’ again.”, I smiled.
Then, I hugged the Professor and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.
“Awwwwwwwwwwwwww… I don’t know whether it’s ‘you’ or the personality
you are in at the moment, but you are a sweetheart!”, the Professor
said as the technicians from the convention came in.
--------------------
Just then, they ran the diagnostics for the machine through Nano, then
Nano was hooked up to me as a double-check and fail-safe to make sure
I was going to be all right.
All requests to remove Nano’s key in her back were met with: “But
she’s too cute with it!!” by the Professor.
I just sighed (a “Layla moment” was the last before I was put back
into the debugged machine) as I was re-strapped in and the helmet
replaced.
---------------------
What I found was not the fantastical world in which I was when my
personalities merged.
This was basically uncontrolled chaos. It seemed like one body of
something was fighting against another body of something and
everything was random and nothing could make any sense.
(Much like my week with the Professor and Nano!)
Just then, something slammed in to me. Had no idea what it really
was, because I couldn’t get a bead on it without getting nailed by
something else seconds after.
This repeated a number of times until I took one final shot to the
head, and everything went black -- then white…
----------------------
The technicians were watching Nano for my vital signs very closely as
I finally came to.
I shook my head a bit and ached for food.
I also was pissed off…
“SO WHAT DID THEY DO TO THAT VIRTUAL REALITY???”, I howled.
Just then, I stopped and laughed.
“Mr. Falkner…”, the Professor said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m me again. Good ol’ crotchedy ornery me. Thank you.”, I said as
I hugged the cute little Professor.
********************************
Really difficult to get a handle on that one -- Hard Challenge will be
started after I go away for another weekend.
Bill Martin
Jan 20, 2012, 11:38:12 AM1/20/12
to
On 2012-01-11 16:01:20 -0600, Starcade <darkst...@gmail.com> said:
> (Repost to .fandom)
>
> 2012 New Year’s Challenge
>
> Easy Challenge: Me, plus the personalities and virtual reality
> representations of Sora Naegino, Layla Hamilton, and Rosetta Passel
> (Kaleido Star)
>
> ----
>
> (Repost to .fandom)
>
> 2012 New Year’s Challenge
>
> Easy Challenge: Me, plus the personalities and virtual reality
> representations of Sora Naegino, Layla Hamilton, and Rosetta Passel
> (Kaleido Star)
>
> ----
>
> Really difficult to get a handle on that one -- Hard Challenge will be
> started after I go away for another weekend.
Very enjoyable read, you pass.
> started after I go away for another weekend.
--
Please note, I have blocked most gmail addresses. I can still be
reached by e-mail, and if you are a legitimate poster, I can make an
exception in my killfile rules to allow me to see your posts. I do not
like the spam when it doesn't come from those tins.
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