Tag Archives: julie angelos

I ♥ my readers. Great minds can make anything happen when working together.

Posted on January 7, 2011 | 9 Comments

Each time one of my readers leaves a comment I’m scared to look at it. I sometimes can’t sleep thinking oh great I’m going to wake up and some nut in cyber world is going to have written something mean on my blog and I’m going to have to delete it. Instead I wake up and I see words like excellent and exceptional.

Bike today.

I’m getting to know you all better and I thank you so much for participating in life, love and laughter. You guys are my extended students outside my classroom. I’ve particularly liked meeting people who need help on their endeavors like web site advice feedback. It’s nice to have found a fun creative place to play.

Whenever I’m in a classroom situation my students generally flock to me for information. Why is that? Even when I was little I remember the teacher asking me to explain simple concepts to the other students. I can only attribute it to the fact that both my mother and my grandmother, bless their hearts, were teachers.

If you have read my entire blog you will have seen that I used to write travel diaries from when I was younger. I travelled to Europe mostly before I moved here.

Back to you. My reader’s comments.

My first comment on my first post was from my friend from high school who I call double G. That’s for Gigi. Isn’t that the coolest name – Gigi? She said she’s adding me to her RSS feed. I seriously had never heard of that so I had to look it up on Google. I then read my comment from Pam at Bored Cook and she said Excellent. I felt like I got a good grade on a paper.

It's all an illusion.

One of my favorite comments comes from the nicest guy named Jeff. He wrote I find it hard to believe this isn’t the most popular self-improvement blog out there yet. I about flipped. I’m a new at this. I’d say it’s luck and passion. I also like to laugh and love to write. You guys made my dreams come true for getting 1,000 hits under two months. I’m aiming for another 2,000 in two more months. Does that sound about right to you?

A couple of years ago I was working at a Jr. High School here in Italy. You know what my students like to do? Before I walk in the class they like to write on the blackboard Prof Angelos is the Best. They also like to pass me decorated graffiti like notes written Angelos on them. The kids are 12 years old and so smart.

More Reader’s Comments

It’s your uncanny way of never “seeing” the obstacle of things and situations that make you a great motivator for me. Anne Marie

Your writing style feels like I’m sitting in your living room drinking tea and shooting the breeze. Jeff Burke

I love reading your blog! Miss A. Topp

The articles here are fantastic. Shane Mosley

Hey there. You might be new, but I enjoyed your commentary. Dr. Tom Bibey

Cool and funny tips! … I like the way you write and you have another regular visitor in me! Tomas Z.

Truthfully, this was a really outstanding post. Rosa Planting

You must be a wonderful teacher being who you are. Jeff R

Strong Voice. Shufina K., contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle

Not all reader’s comments have been positive.

On about my third day of blogging I tried adding my blog to a search directory and a guy said he though maybe I was writing satire. I had to look that up. If I’m writing Satire I’m unaware of it. That particular comment is not on my blog because he wrote it on the web directory.

Is this a positive or negative comment? I’m undecided.

The other comment I’m not sure was good or bad was a friend of mine on facebook. When I wrote I’m getting teary eyed when I see babies in strollers Tim wrote Careful, Nietzsche felt the same way about horses.

That comment was so above my head. Maybe some of you readers can explain it to me. I looked it up on wikipedia and it said Nietzche ended up in an insane asylum.

Before this starts sounding like too long of an undeserved Booker Prize speech I just wanted to say you have all been wonderful motivators for me. I write about motivation because I like to get my students thinking. I like to see them smile. I like a good laugh. Life is good. Life is wonderful.

Two quick and funny stories I’d like to share with you.

The first is about my holiday experience at school last week. The school was closed due to snow so the remaining teachers sang and danced. It was a moment I wished lasted forever. When is the last time you can imagine teachers singing and dancing in a teacher’s lounge? Kind of crazy.

And the second

I embarrassed myself on Sc.tt’s website that you can see to your right on my blogroll. I introduced myself as an English teacher and then I misspelled a word. I wrote back to ask him to please not publish it. I wrote through not threw. By that time it was already on his public New’s Feed. No going back. I then went to comment on one of his articles he wrote on a FOO camp – I had never heard of that so again I had to look it up. What I saw was a picture of a beautiful house and a bunch of tents in front of it.

It was hosted at a guy’s house named O’Reilly. I commented that I couldn’t believe Bill O’Reilly wouldn’t invite people in to his house or host them at a nearby hotel. Kind Scott corrected me saying it’s publisher Tim O’Reilly. Who would have known? I tried a third time to correct my mistake by telling him he ‘sited’ O’Reilly four times without giving the first name so my mistake was honest. By the time I hit the return button I saw I wrote sited instead of cited.

For the third time in a row I saw my name on the new’s feed calling myself an English teacher. Oy Vay says my sister. Oy Vay.

When travelling we always run into funny stories of miscommunication. Would you like to tell me yours?

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Julie

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Posted in happiness, holidays, Inspiration, Italy, learning, motivation

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How to be successful without even trying.

Posted on November 16, 2010 | 4 Comments
Mimi Weddell Blogger

Develop a love for learning. ♡

If we can all agree that we got here now today thanks to the support of friends and loved ones I think we can also agree that it is also thanks to people who have motivated us.

One of my favorite teachers whom I’m grateful to is a man named Mr. Phil McGreevy. For some reason when I was going into high school I was told there was an experimental math class where ‘bright’ students were going to be experimented on. Like little hamsters. I still consider myself to be lucky that I was chosen to be in this class because the 24 of us had the honor of having the same students with the same teachers for the four years of high school.

Consistency, Relevancy and Going the Extra Mile.

Mr. McGreevy was a great teacher for so many reasons but mostly because he took the time to slowly explain everything from the start to the end. I always felt I could ask him at any time any question with out him getting angry. I loved the way he wrote on the blackboard because he had nice writing. He was consistent because he did things like draw squares around the answers. He also seemed to choose relevant homework.

Even though I had him for four years I remember one day when he asked who was interested in getting straight As – he was offering a Saturday workshop. Like most of my students they’d LOVE to have straight As but for various reasons their grades are all over the board. Most of them do follow what Mr. McGreevy called the Bell curve where he demonstrated that most students lie somewhere in the middle. I always wanted to be one of the students with the As. Maybe if I just did that little bit extra it would pay off.

Pay attention ~ here’s the key.

I attended his class and after doing various exercises and reading he got to the point of the argument. He said,

If

If

If

If you want to get straight As then all you have to do is develop a love for learning.

I was shocked. I was little bit disappointed because I thought he was going to give me the answers to that Friday’s test. I had to love learning?

Who loves learning? We only went to school because we had to. Love learning. That was the key. He was right. I don’t care how many times my mother could tell me about the starving children in Africa who didn’t have shoes or school it still didn’t make me want to study.

I don’t actually remember doing homework although I do remember it was assigned. I’m pretty certain I did it either during another class or before the class started. I’ll have to check with my classmates on that one.

I do agree that the key to learning is to develop a love for learning. I since have gone on to become a teacher. I found something even more important and that is the love of teaching. I truly love being infront of the kids and seeing them smile. I feel like it is an enormous privilege and honor to have this responsibility. I try to do my best with it.

One day I’m going to retire from teaching and just be an American living in Italy with her family and garden. God willing. In the mean time, I’m going to love learning.

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Posted in happiness, motivation, teaching

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jbulie’s blog helps friend start blog earning 800 new visitors in first 2 days.

Posted on March 13, 2010 | 1 Comment

Isn't it just great to see a friendly face after a long time?

I don’t think I can find one person out there who can argue that the launch of Tana’s blog, From Kenya with Love, last week was a complete success.

This is a clear case of the student jumping leaps and bounds over the teacher. That’s what I mean when I say that the learning is in the doing. I learn from you. It’s hard to explain, but here goes.

A couple of weeks ago Tana won a copy of my book Zero to Blog on my facebook giveaway. She told be that before she got to page 53 she had published her blog.

That’s when the journey began. The two of us have been laughing, publishing, growing and sharing. I hope you are joining us for the fun and thinking about how you too are going to start your blog.

Why did Tana’s blog get 800 visitors in the first two days it was up?

I’ll tell you exactly why.

1) She read my downloadable book Zero to Blog.
2) She took a risk.
3) She’s funnier than heck, sometimes silly too.
4) She tells REAL stories from the heart that are changing lives.

Can we all just have a group hug and say, well done?

laughed so hard

In my cool skype interview with her that lasted a couple of hours I found out some truly amazing information about what it is like to live in Africa.

I think she might have learned something about living in Italy.

Here’s the roundup.

♥ Some people pay $100,000 bucks for a Safari.

♥ It’s dangerous as you want it to be. Like when I moved to Italy and everyone said watch out for your purse. They say the same about Americans. It’s just fear guys. Don’t let it stop you from living.

♥ Oh ~ love you.

Like any country you learn where to go and where not to, there is crime everywhere in the world. That should not stop you.  Just learn how to protect yourself, listen to your instincts.  You get to know yourself even better by putting yourself out there. It is an amazing world with colourful people and wildlife.

♥ My sweet long blonde haired blue eyed goddess, single mom of three equally beautiful daughters had a charmed life that I think it is fair to say we can all envy. She GREW up with a lion raised in captivity, named Zamba.

She also suffered the heart ache and loss that comes with that intense love, I can only imagine.

♥ We spoke about how wonderful animals are for therapy, especially used for kids in schools. The way it works is the kids spend time with the animals and bond. I’d like to explain it better but I think you get the point.

♥ top of the line treatment for all of us ;) ♥

♥ Her pops ~ I looked her dad up on wikipedia. Her dad, Frank Helfer, wrote a few books and I cannot wait to read them. Here’s all the info about her dad’s books and him.

♥ must read book ♥

♥ Tana and I have had a couple of fans. We love our fans. We worry when they go over board. She’s been in magazines such as Teen, People and TV Guide. I haven’t.

♥ I worked with Tom Cruise. Hold your breath guys. The story is forth coming. Maybe.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and are inspired to share it.

There were a whole lot of other things Tana and I talked about like how teachers have can make or break students. I thank God at the moment for the cool teacher who wrote ‘Excellent’ on my essay when I was ten. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

As always, blog writers write for comments. Please leave your two cents below. Actually, to me, your comments are even worth at least five cents. Check your mailboxes for your checks. ;)

~ Julie of jbulie’s blog

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Posted in happiness, Inspiration, Italy, journal, learning, motivation, teaching, travel, writing

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19 reasons teaching is entertaining and inspirational.

Posted on February 20, 2010 | 12 Comments

Hey guys, welcome back. New visitors, welcome.

I started my blog three months ago. I have had over 3.000 visitors, made a video, published an eBook and made some great new friends.

teachers? angels?

I can’t tell if I’m talking to my sister, to myself or to the world. I’ll use my friend’s wisdom to concentrate on speaking to a small group of people.

My blog stats tell me there are about 60 people a day clicking over here.

Good to see you.

I suppose I could raise the bar and pretend I’m speaking at a big arena in front of 1000s of visitors but my ego isn’t big enough.

Hey! Hi Cynthia, Lisa, Barbara and Michelle. Have you met Jeff, Chris and Dr. B.? There are also a couple of new kids here, one from Sweden, Annika, and another American in Italy, Rebecca.

True Story

Yesterday I had the honor of being asked to substitute teach a class of twelve year olds. If any of you recall, substitute teaching sucks can be entertaining. Usually, it’s pretty hard to keep the students contained and a lot of the times they like to take advantage of the situation.

Not with me. I’ve been teaching now for 15 years and I’ve learned some great ways of getting attention, holding it and mezmerizing my students into using their imaginations and smiles.

Here’s something that works:

Just sit there and don’t talk.

books and flowers

I can do this for about two minutes.

I decided yesterday with this new group to just have a talk about what it’s like to be an American living in Italy.

First period 8 a.m., sleepy and happy.

I walk into class of 19 completely new faces. I introduce myself and tell the class I am happily married, have two kids, come from a good family and write a blog. I talk about what I feel is most important these days: being a good person, helping other people and flossing.

You see guys, kids these days have an entire new set of self discovery tools. A lot of the times, they don’t know how to make friends. A lot of them are shy, a lot of them are hysterically funny.

When they asked if my kids were bilingual, which they are, I found out that this small group of 19 kids came from all over the world including France, Sweden, Africa, Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria and Spain. Who would have known? I mistakenly thought they were all Italians.

Welcome.

I asked them if they had any questions.

Prof. In America, how do people get around?
I told them it depends on if you live in a big city or in the country. I told them how in New York city people take taxis, walk, bike or take the metro.

I told them in Los Angeles most people use their cars. I told them about how vast Los Angeles is, sprawling. I told them it takes two hours at least to drive from one side to the other.

How about you? Where you live how do you get around? I use a car although a lot of people take the bus. My neighbors all get around with bikes, God bless them.

Any more questions?

Prof, what is your favorite food?
That is a question that makes me love teaching. You see, kids are so cute and sweet and sincere that to them any question is a good one. I told them if I were to find myself on a desert island without any food, the one thing I would wish for more than anything would be a nice pizza. They all smiled.

They asked me if in America people ate Italian food.

I told them that America is made up of people from all over the world. Thanks to these influences Americans are given fantastic choices of foods such as Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, or Indian to start.

We talked about sports and identifying with famous people. You see these kids are just out of their little kid bodies wearing big people bodies. They look grown but they are just kids. When they write me essays about what they think, you can read anything and everything under the sun.

The class told me how one kid spends at least eight hours a day playing video games. He was over weight and sort of shy. It worried me. I told him I hope he finds a better balance in his life that includes learning, sports and some social activities. I’m not one to dish out the advice. I KNOW NOTHING. I just listen.

I told the kind bright kids I’m more than happy to have a discussion just as long as it’s in an orderly manner. They seemed to like that.

When the bell rang, I was approached by at least six of the students who told be about their various projects, magic vegetables, friends visiting from abroad who didn’t speak the language. They were so cute, beautiful actually, fresh and smiling.

I left the class smiling thanking God for the new experiences He presents me.

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Fill in the blank. I would be more successful if ____________.

Posted on February 11, 2010 | 9 Comments

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You make me smile.

Posted on January 6, 2010 | 4 Comments

Inspired choices.

I hesitate to post because I love looking at my paintings on the blog when I open my site but the show must go on. I can always repost them. It took me about six hours to upload all of those pictures so I don’t plan on doing that again any time soon.

I just wanted to say a big huge thank you to my regular visitors. I see you. I see you coming back. I know you want to know which one is the oil painting. It’s Anne Marie’s. If you follow my blog you guys know that Anne Marie is my best friend and has been for over 20 years. This summer I gave her a framed flower picture for her birthday and she loved it. She gave me the biggest compliment a girl could get and it was these words:

“I’m giving you your first commission. Please paint me some sunflowers.”

I did so happily and with a full, thankful and loving heart.

As you can see I’ve added an ebook link to a book I’m writing to get new bloggers helped started. I’m not an expert by ANY means but it did take some figuring out. I just want to share some of my knowledge. I don’t even know if there’s a market in that. I had two better titles. One was SEO WTF, but I didn’t want to use curse words. And the other was

If you don’t know what you are doing stand next to someone who looks like they do.
 but It think that might be too long.

I actually need your input. For one I still can’t decide on a name for this blog. Do you think I need to drop the .wordpress to make it seem more professional?

I also need to decide which way to head, motivation, art, or Italy journal. I spoke to my life coach Adam and he asked if I have any plans or measurable goals. He’s just amazing. I do. I sent them all in a detailed outlined letter.

I believe in something I read in Napolean Hill’s book called Think and Grow Rich were he describes what is called a Mastermind. The idea is that we all work together for a greater good. That’s my interpretation. That’s why I’m asking your guys’ thoughts.

I had this idea to have a contest, sweepstakes, giveaway where I would give away one of my pictures. It’s drying. It’s an oil paint and it has taken four days to dry. What do you guys think? My idea was to have you write between 50-200 words describing either:

1) Someone who motivates you and why. (or)
2) Someone who you have motivated and how.

What do you think? Should I just do it? Have I got nothing to lose? I don’t even know if I like the new painting. It looks so pretty in person but when I look at it in a thumbnail picture I’m not certain. Don’t ask me to upload it!

And finally I have to confess something. You know how when you have to study for an exam all of the sudden you find time to clean your entire house and organize every sock drawer by color? Well, I have the same thing going on in my life.

I’m supposed to be looking for a bigger house for my family. This is my procrastination. I’ve procrastinated for two years and I’ve never considered my self one to put off doing things.. I need to focus on that. (Or)… I could work more on my blog (or) I could try to stop wanting and start accepting. If I knew the answers! If I only knew.

In the mean time, today I’ll stick with the title Serendipity which means something to the tune of a positive unexpected outcome.

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Hello my peeps – Thanks for visiting and being inspirational.

Posted on December 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

Protect from sun, snow and rain.

I started blogging two months ago and my visitor hits are over 1,100 now. What is going on? I love it. Blogging has taken over my life. I think it has to do with the novelty aspect of it. It’s just a strange and wonderful idea called a blog. I know some people have been blogging for at least five years. To me it is all new and fun.

I’ve got this incredible fear of failing so I keep reading and reading what makes successful blogs. I don’t want people to laugh at me. I have my family and my students to do that. Now I will have the whole world laughing at me.

One of my great readers brought up a funny story about traveling that got me thinking about when I first moved to Italy nearly 15 years ago. I was struggling over the language and we came up with some doozies. In particular I remember asking for preservatives for my toast and mistaking the Italian word for condoms.

Show us your what?

I remember a friend of mine having her picture taken by Italians and she thought they had said show us your teets rather than teeth. These are all rather embarrassing moments but still funny to look back on. There was the case of an language learner who in class accidently said floppy dicks instead of floppy discs.The list can go on and on. As a teacher you try not to laugh visibly.

The longer I’ve been here though the rarer those misunderstandings happen. It is still fun though when mistakes are made. That’s one of the reasons I love traveling.

Italy these days is lovely. Truly beautiful. I have a friend of mine from high school who is a reader here too who unfortunately had kidney failure and is immobile. If you noticed on my last post about 36 Ways to be a Better Person I wrote to spin in your minds. That was for my friend Kelli because I was thinking of her when I wrote it. Not everyone can stand up and spin. One day she and I were joking around on a facebook conversation saying we were going to take the other around with us the next day shopping.

You inspire me.

We live miles and miles away so going shopping is out of the question but in our minds everything is possible. It’s like having a coffee with my mom on skype. Skype is like a telephone on the computer where you can see the person you are talking to and it’s free. The world is changing drastically and quickly all do to this crazy thing called internet.

Today I’m using Kelli’s story for inspiration to write. I’d like to write to her what it’s like to live in Italy during the holiday times and just like you might imagine it is truly beautiful. Each and every little city that I’ve visited seems to be more beautiful than the last. Italians seem to have a social habit of visiting cities with their families on their days off work.

Smile. You're beautiful.

You can often see a family strolling through the city center on the weekends to get an ice cream. You can also see a lot of people walking up or down the walkways shopping outside. The city I live is Bologna. It is famous for it’s porticoed sidewalks. I fell in love with these covered sidewalks for many a reason. I should be offering some historical facts about their length and construction but suffice it to say they are beautiful.

The reason I love these porticoes – or covered sidewalks – is because you can walk the entire city without an umbrella if it is raining. These porticoes protect you from the rain when it’s raining, the snow when it’s snowing and the hot sun when it’s burning.

In Italy these days you can see beautiful lights strung over the main streets. Around dusk they are turned on. I love the lights. Sometimes there can be so many people walking up and down the main street the taxis and buses can’t get through. People are well dressed from head to toe with hats, jackets, scarves, gloves and boots. And usually a smile. Sometimes. Not all the time. Actually. I think Americans are more famous for their friendly smiles. I don’t want to generalize here though folks.

Just smile.

Be the change you want to see.

Thank you for visiting with me in here Italy during these days. Hope your days are lovely where ever you are.

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Posted in holidays, Inspiration, Italy, journal, motivation

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8 days ’til Christmas. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Posted on December 17, 2009 | 3 Comments

How I love the holidays. I grew up in Southern California so when it snows for Christmas it’s a true joy. When we were growing up, it only snowed once and I remember putting snowballs in the freezer. I remember Californians complaining because it never quite felt like Christmas because it was hot outside. In southern California at Christmas time you can actually see candy apple red convertibles with a Christmas tree in the back seat driving along the coast with the sand and waves in the background. You can also get married in Las Vegas in a drive thru by someone dressed up as Elvis but that has nothing to do with Christmas in Italy.

Where was I? Italy. Oh yeah, I forgot. All this snow must have went right to my brain and I’m not even blonde. That’s a joke for you sis.

Christmas in Italy

Nine days left and counting. If you read my about Julie page above you would have seen that I’m a special aids AND English teacher. I teach English at one middle school and am a special aid’s teacher at another. When I’m in the classroom, I have two roles, I’m either teaching or helping. When I’m teaching I’m pretty easy going. I like to tease my students and tell them I’m 70. They don’t know. They tell me I look great for being 70. Then when I tell them my real age they still look a little quizzed because I think anything over 15 to a 12 year old is considered old. 20-40-70, who really cares. I don’t. It’s how we feel inside, right?

Playing with the Kids

I also like to tell them that there is a quiz today. They never seem to get that joke but I like it. Today I was not the teacher but I was the helper and I think I like that role best. It’s sort of hard to understand your position in the class because as you sit and listen to the lecture you start to think you are a student too. My math teacher friend teaches an 85 year old woman.

I highlight my student’s books and take notes for them. Then, I have to try to explain what I’ve learned to the kids. I’ll make them copies or whatever it takes to get them prepared for their ‘interrogation’.

Interrogation is a common practice in Italy. What it means is that instead of having a written exam the teacher asks each kid orally what was supposed to be learned. For example in Geography the teacher might as an open ended question about China saying Talk to me about China. That’s a BIG subject but basically it can be broken down into it’s physical characteristics, the climate, the government, the resources, the people, the culture and traditions.

When you work with special kids you have to make it simple if you can.

Around the holidays a lot of teachers just do normal lessons. I like to organize Christmas parties. I grew up with a Christmas party and I think it is good that the kids have one too. My five year old had his party today and I got to have a peek at the magic that lies behind the walls of a kindergarten.

Christmas Magic

Close your eyes and imagine this beautiful story book scene. It’s snowing outside, you park in front of the school. The kids are bundled up like Eskimos. Watch them as they put their little feet in the snow for the first time. They have to touch it. You worry that they are going to have wet shoes. The teacher has written everyone a note the day before that the kids should all wear red or white tops and dark bottoms for the Christmas party because Santa is coming.

I dropped off my five year old today and I stopped for a second that I wished was a lifetime to see about 20 little angels going about their angel making projects that included little fairies with sparkles and glue. Then cookies. And then I have to go.

I go to work that I love. Second period I sub and we make paper snowflakes. They look great on the window with the snow falling. In English we sing the song by Black Eyed Peas in English called I Got a Feeling. I’m happy to translate the lyrics. I help the new girl follow along. She’s sweet.

I finish teaching and I go to the teacher’s lounge where the math teacher has his guitar out and is playing beautiful music. Life is good. Life is certainly good.

Thank you for visiting. I’m overwhelmed that I’ve had so many visitors. Thank you.

Have a great day and feel free to leave a comment. I’d like to know what your schools or jobs are doing for the holidays. I see some of your pictures on facebook but I like the stories.

Julie

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Posted in Inspiration, Italy, journal, learning, motivation, teaching

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