Your tax dollars at work:

Federal agents raided Wal-Mart's headquarters and 60 of its stores across the country Thursday, arresting more than 300 illegal workers in an immigration crackdown at the world's biggest retailer.

I just want to get this straight, groups of men from Saudi Arabia wander around the country for years on expired student and tourist visas, taking flying lessons (not how to land!), sending thousands in cash back and forth from the Middle East through Western Union, buying one way plane tickets in cash before flying planes into the World Trade Center.

All the machinery of Federal law enforcement (CIA, NSA, Secret Service, FBI, ATF, Customs) doesn’t seem to notice this and no alarms are set off before it happens.

Billions of dollars are commandeered from the National Budget to create a department of Homeland Security. The result, they arrest the poor bastard who smuggled himself over the border to make $3 an hour waxing WalMarts floors.

F**king terrific!

Awhile back I had sent out an email asking people about which superpower they wanted if they could have a superpower. People put waaaayyyyy more thought into it than I would’ve liked but at least they responded (which I was glad for - thank you for those that indulge me).

People generally thought about what the “right” answer would be – more along the lines of the pc answer. “If you were a superhero...”

They missed the point.

When we’re children, it’s easy to make-believe, to fantasize and to indulge yourself in fantasy - tie a towel around your neck and run real fast pretending you’re flying. As we get older, become jaded and more cynical the quality is often lost - the joy, the freedom to explore, to dream, gets stomped out of us as time takes its toll on the imagination.

Instead of being indulgent, we can only think of the responsibility we have, to ourselves, to others, to society. I wanted to see if I could get that knee-jerk response, that first response that comes without much thought, the response that only speaks to the freedom and joy birthed by imagination.

I still have all the responses and the project has metamorphosized (due to the responses) into more of a piece on America today and how the world beyond our borders affects us (about as vague as I can get without letting the cat out of the bag).

Anyway, I thought about it myself - I had opted for the powers of The Flash - why, I can’t say really. I find myself just, for some reason liking the Flash a lot. Always have.

The truth is though I would probably Bob Burden’s be more like Mr. Furious from the Mystery Men.

Another way to idle away the time aimlessly:

So, just how the f**k old are you anyway?!?!?

I think of myself as a cynical patriot (if such a thing is possible). I recognize our system is an imperfect one but, still has much to offer and has a great deal of potential...

One of the foundations of our society, is the framework set up to insure citizen’s personal liberties. A lot of people in our country take these liberties for granted but, in these days of Patriot Acts, global terrorism and a thousand other buzzwords designed to put fear in people’s hearts, now more than ever, we need to be aware of what we would sacrifice in the name of being “safe.”

I find it unfortunate people would buy into the whole concept of being “totally safe,” I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect world and even if it were possible I think many of us would find the price for it far to high to pay.

It is in such a context, I find myself once again musing over the insidious nature of things like EZ-Pass. Under the guise of saving the average commuter time, people actually find themselves now giving the government a way to monitor their movement. I’ve resisted the urge to get EZ-Pass for a long time now. Yes, I see the cars moving through the toll plaza and am somewhat envious but, I smile wryly when I see the report on the news about people being sent warnings for moving through toll plazas at a high rate of speed and being threatened with summons upon their next infraction.

When the government tries to take away your freedoms, they won’t do it in big sweeping movements but, in little seemingly painless ways akin to the heat of the water being turned up when a lobster is in the pot as opposed to plunging the beasty into a pot that’s already boiling. It’s a slow process - one we have to guard against.

Then I come across things like this:

TIA may be the closest thing to a true "Big Brother" program that has ever been seriously contemplated in the United States.

When reading through it, I can’t help but be fascinated by the way technology which can be put to such wonderful purposes can at the same time be abused.

Think EZ-Pass is inocuous?

The TRANSMIT system uses transponders issued as part of the EZ Pass electronic toll-collection systems. TRANSMIT has installed a number of readers along specified roadways with the capability of identifying the vehicles equipped with transponders at periodic intervals. Current Status: Operational. Due to extreme success of system, it will be expanded.

I’ve been really, really busy lately. As a result, I’ve been very lax about the whole blog thing - I’m caught up in getting catalogs out the door. Everything goes out by next Wednesday - every time I think I’m ahead of the curve something happens to spin everything out of orbit but, I guess that’s how it always is.

I finally got around to doing the whole disc maintenance thing the other day. You know the routine, scan, fix, optimize. I’m never really sure if I’m accomplishing anything other than sitting watching the stupid animation that goes along with the disc optimization program. Anyway, I did it on the “surfing” machine and the laptop.

The laptop keeps making these nasty, nasty noises telling me the drives’ days are numbered. They’ll be times when it’ll just hang up and freeze. I can always hear the drive just clicking away - everyday I take the precaution of backing everything up onto one of the two external drives I have hooked up to it.

I got another drive but, I haven’t been able to find the time to transfer everything over yet. It’s just a matter of time though and believe me I do have my fingers crossed.

Weird News

1. Every once in awhile there’s a story like this on the news. This is just another one for the Darwin Awards. I may appear heartless but, this is the kind of thing that falls under the definition of Dumbass - maybe they’ll be a lawsuit against the Transit Authority - you know after all, no one is responsible for their actions in our society anymore.

2. When the earth farts in the bathtub, you better not be on a boat.

3. “I coulda been a millionaire, instead of a garbage man which is what I am.” Another example of the stupid lawsuit syndrome.

Just for the fun of it.

I know I have 99, 96, 86, 83, 82, 78, 69, 62, 51, 50, 48, 47, 45, 41, 40, 39, 36, 27, 25, 24, 22, 21, 20, 18, 15, 14, 10 and 2 in among the records, cassettes and CDs I have amassed.

Plus, I have an affinity for 85, 71, 57, 34, 33, 31, 30, 16, 3 and 2.

Makes me want to break them out and listen to them all.

Alright, so the Yankees won.

Somehow, someway they did it. Last night I didn’t even bother to watch the game knowing somehow they would win and when I awoke this morning they had.

Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose which is something the Cubs and the Red Sox proved this year. Grady Little probably sealed his fate by leaving Pedro Martinez in too long and from what I understand (and have read) the Red Sox could be overhauling their roster between now and next year. I figure Kim is gone (since he was left of the post season roster and greeted the beantown fans with the one finger salute) but, I would be focusing on pitching if I were Theo Epstein. Colon, Maddux and Schilling are all out there for the taking. Arizona wants to get rid of Schilling to free up money and Maddux and Colon are free agents. The Yankees have had great success pitching up older stud pitching and patching together a good rotation.

I found it interesting both the Marlins and the Yankees shot their wads in those two game sevens each team played. It makes me wonder what the pitching will be like in the World Series. Each manager choose to use starting pitching over going to his bullpen. The Marlins of course have younger guys. In last night’s game JT managed to pitch Clemens, Mussina and Wells. Only Andy Petite escaped having pitched 7 innings the day before. Who’s pitching Saturday? It seems like each team should be emotionally exhausted after the League Championships series.

Still, I can’t see the Marlins beating the Yankees, no matter what. Is there anyone who believes they will? If they did, what would it mean to the Yankees? Who’d take the fall?

I’m not even going to comment at this point on the Zimmer/Martinez thing or the actions of the infamous “Bartman” who will soon be calling a moving company I’m sure.

Oh, and as far as the Mets go - I’m glad Gerry Hunsicker didn’t get the job - if I was the Wilpons, I’d be doing everything in my power to pry Omar Minaya back from the Expos.

I’ve been focusing on getting the bigger of my two catalogs out this week. It’s been amazingly painless and we’re in the home stretch now (just a final round before release). I’ve been putting in my hours but, it hasn’t been overwhelming even though I’m putting together a 100 page book.

I like this.

I’ve been extremely remiss lately about my blogging (which is bad). I am currently enmeshed in catalog time and as a result find most of my time occupied with getting the catalogs out the door.

The larger book went from 60 some odd pages up to almost 100! Basically, the larger book is being turned around in a shade over two weeks. It wouldn’t have been that much of a hassle at all if I hadn’t had to redesign the backlist section (think financials). I realize while doing it that I had the benefit of some very good teachers through the years so, I have to tip my hat to all the very good designers and proofreaders I have worked with, some of the whole methodology took.

The smaller book is sitting there waiting for me. I’m in the home stretch on the bigger one and I’ll be relieved when I get everything out the door.

I know I’m not a Yankee fan anymore...

I was a big, big fan of the Yankees through ’95, something like 12 or 13 years. I’d go to a bunch of games each year, take friends. I even had my own little rituals going to games (like getting a box of Popeye’s chicken to bring in with me from the chicken place on the corner of 161st St and River Avenue). The Yankees sucked big time in the early nineties (when Stump Merrill, Dallas Green and Bucky Dent were managers) but, going to the Stadium was actually fun because the only people who would turn out would be the true baseball fans. It was sad that as the team got better, there would be more and more groups of rowdy, loud, expletive mouthing drunks in the stands.

My sister’s boyfriend was a batboy for the Yankees when I was a kid (and didn’t like baseball altogether that much) and I never appreciated getting those autographed programs with Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson and other Yankee greats on it. We would go to the games and it was a bit of an imposition.

Now, I watch the games and I root for the Yankees to lose. I’ve just gotten sick of listening to their fans over the last few years.

Well, we’re one step closer to my dream World Series this year which would be Red Sox versus the Cubs. I looked back at my picks for the first round and I did okay. I picked the Red Sox and the Cubs (I even got the number of games right with the Cubbies). The Yankees just walloped the Twins at home (which surprised me a bit) and the Marlins pulled off some magic (becoming the Cinderella story of the post season). I wasn’t sure the Marlins could do it but, I did think it would make a great story if they did and it has.

So, what are my picks for the next round?

The Cubbies and the Marlins are even at this point but, I’m still figuring the Cubbies will grab it in six games. The Red Sox won tonight (with Wakefield pitching of all things!) but, the Twins won the first game to and that didn’t stop the Yankees. I’m going to go out on a limb here and pick Boston in six as well.

Either way, I know I spent most of the weekend watching the games on TV. There was just some flat out great baseball to watch. The Marlins/Giants series was tough and the A’s/Red Sox series was just packed with excitement. Kerry Wood, Pedro Martinez, Mark Prior, Roger Clemens, Andy Petite, David Wells, Derek Lowe, Mike Timlin, Barry Zito - there’s just been tons of great pitching to watch. It’s turning into a decent post season even though the Mets sucked a big one this year.

A couple of weeks back, I was having a discussion with the Big S about a situation at her job. Her company had been approached by another company wanted to cross promote a project between the two (how hard is this to talk about without going into details).

Unfortunately, the property they wanted to cross promote wasn’t something under the direct control of Big S’ people. The Big S came away feeling as if she was being viewed as a bit of a Negative Joe but, her concerns actually were right on spot and some people weren’t really thinking things through.

We talked about it and during the conversation I came up with a decent solution which would probably wind up satisfying all parties without stepping on anyone’s toes - long story short it wound up being one of those ideas everyone loved, her company is going ahead with it and they anticipate making 100k from it.

So, I did wind up getting credit for my idea and now the publisher who’ll realize the benefits of the revenue derived from the idea has offered to treat me to a lunch - which actually makes me pretty happy.

It’s not the first time I’ve come up with a really good idea but, it could be one of the few times I’ve gotten credit for the idea without someone else trying to grab the spotlight. I’m pretty satisfied to get the recognition and if I’m disturbed it’s only by the fact that for all the good ideas I’ve had, I have yet to be able to find a way to make them pay off so I don’t have to worry all the time about finding work and making money.

Today my father turned 80! I’m getting him a pair of sneakers for his birthday (which is what he asked for). I’m taking him next week to get them because he’s embarrassed by how hard it is for him to walk (since his stroke).

You look up and a bunch of days go by without you even realizing it.

I had started writing an entry last night only to crash in the midst of it.

Yesterday was my day for computer problems though. The drive on my beloved laptop is starting to go. I could hear the heads clicking yesterday - an experience similar to watching dark storm clouds move in on the horizon.

I tried rebuilding the desktops on the various drives hooked up to the machine. It was a process that took quite a bit of time. I’m a real big one for leaving folders out on the desktop (which can’t be good) until I can organize things (which never happens often enough). Also, I just don’t do disk maintenance as religiously as I used to and add to it the fact I do have retrospect but, haven’t found the time to set up a cohesive backup schedule.

So, my catalogs are starting up so of course this would be the time for things to go awry. I’ve already lost one drive in the laptop and gone through the horror of losing what was on it so, you’d think I would know better.

I pulled the keyboard off of it and let it cool down. Last time this had happened (when the previous drive went blooey) was right after I discovered the cat decided the closed, sleeping laptop was the ideal warm, heat radiating kitty bed. The combination of kitty getting to the laptop (walking over the keyboard and moving it out of sleep mode), her lying on top of it for long periods of time, combined to make things very, very hot in the case. It couldn’t have helped the drive.

Well the recent cold snap around here has found kitty discovering the oh-so-comfortable spot once again. I found her a few days back sitting sweet as you please upon the closed laptop, catching some zzz’s. I thought it was a chance event but, it turned out I wasn’t the only person who had chased her from atop her favorite perch. Then the drive started making those noises again yesterday.

It’s probably the wear and tear on the drive really, things happen for reasons we can’t fathom but, don’t we all need to assess blame on someone during these moments.

Time to pull back, and deal.

Later that evening as I was searching the web trying to figure out if I was going to just order a replacement internal drive or if I was going to take the plunge and order a close out laptop, the little creature came down to secure a stop on another favorite perch of hers... my lap when I’m sitting at the station downstairs I use for web surfing.

She just looked up at me and made this weak meow as if to say “Don’t hate me because I get cold!” I hate to say how big a part of my heart the cat has staked out for herself and this is an animal who introduced herself to me by biting me in the back of my foot shortly after meeting me.

“Oh, how cute! Kitty’s playing!”

Yeah, at that moment I was thinking about playing using kitty as the ball but, those things never go over well (kitty football anyone?).

Anyway, over time we have come to a mutual understanding the cat and I. I pretty much make sure she gets fed and her litter is cleaned when the Big S is away but, she doesn’t run my life quite the same way she does other people’s. I mean to say the cat doesn’t jump up on the bed at an ungodly hour of the morning and start hitting me to wake me up to feed her the way she does to the Big S.

There are other things she does do though. I’ll talk to the cat during the day and lots of times she talks back (to the amazement of the other people in the house). If she’s up to something, I don’t have to track her down I just use “the voice” on her which more often than not works. We spend a lot of time sleeping together as I don’t toss much when I sleep and I run pretty hot for the most part so, I’m an ideal place for her to nap (plus over the last few years I’ve developed lots of extra padding that kitties just love). She’ll lick my arm when she’s particularly happy (which she doesn’t do with anyone else).

It’s not quite what Richard used to be able to do with his cat (he would get down on the floor and the cat would roll over on its back in front of him) but, it’s quite nice.

Which brings me to another subject. The cat does really have a way of expressing herself that works with all of us here. There’s something the varying timbre and pitch of her cries convey to us which seems to quite clearly convey what she’s feeling at a given moment.

If a cat is alone, away from other cats for most of its life, does it know how to communicate with other cats? Is there a cat language? Is the language instinctual - hardwired into the cats’ brain? Would the cries the cat uses with us work when communicating with other cats? I was just thinking if someone were brought up without any other human contact would they develop a language and if so what would it be?

As far as the laptop goes, I would probably get a new one if they looked as cool as my G3 did - I don’t like the titanium ones as much.

Oh, and the Yankees lost. If the Twins win on Thursday we’re going to see lots of bad headlines in the papers Yankee fans (with many of them having the name George in them).

Ah, the playoffs! Every year my birthday comes right on the precipice of the baseball post-season. I was going to write my playoff predictions yesterday but, I had wanted to reference something and was unable to find it.

Twins - Yankees: toss up, on the one hand could be the Twins in 4 or the Yankees in 5.

The Yankees just aren’t invincible anymore.

As a matter of fact, this Yankee team reminds me very much of the ’95 Yankees who were knocked out by the Mariners (last year for Mattingly, Showalter and a bunch of other guys).

’95 was the last year I was a Yankee fan. After that season, I decided to become a Mets fan (which should make Yankee fans all over happy since they went on to win a bunch of World Series after I switched allegiances) as a consequence of Buck being fired and Dandy Don unceremoniously shown the door.

Anyway, the first game should tell who will win. Why you would ask? Maybe the Twins don’t have the starting pitching the Yankees have but, nobody has talked about the MetroDome factor. This was what I was trying to find reference yesterday.

I can’t think of a team that’s gone into the MetroDome in the post-season and done well. It’s one thing to play there when there are only 14,000 or so but, when the place is packed and the noise is deafening the Twins have a decided advantage over visiting teams. If the Twins can take one of the two games at Yankee stadium (and as I write this they are up 3 to 0 in the eighth), they very well could take both games at the MetroDome.

Oh, and Yankee fans, think Jason Giambi is going to lay claim to Dave Winfield’s title as Mr. May?

Anyway, if the Twins do manage to hold out and win today - it’s probably Twins in 4. Also note, if the Twins win, figure Joe Torre won’t be back next year (you think George made his life hell after last season? If they get knocked out by the Twins, Torre is smart enough to know what George will have waiting).

Watching the game now - where’s Jeffrey Maider when you need him.

Giants - Marlins: This one is easy, Giants in 3.

As much as I think it would be a great story if the Marlins made it out of the first round and also a tribute to Jack McKeon’s managerial genius, the Marlins are just in way over their head. I don’t think they have the horses to go deep into the playoffs. The Mets played them last weekend and scored 6 runs off the bullpen in a game the Marlins still wanted to win - not a good sign.

The Giants have an older team and some of them were there last year. That experience is going to help them at least make it out of the first round.

Braves - Cubs: I’m picking the Cubs in five.

I’m biased, I hate the Braves since they’re in the Mets division and the Cubs are a sentimental favorite of true baseball fans. I haven’t seen enough of the Cubs to really figure out what kind of team they are. I know they have decent pitching (and young pitching at that). Meanwhile, the Braves just club the ball. There’s no denying what an offensive force the Braves have been all season long. Good pitching is supposed to beat good hitting every time. I also figure Mike Hampton can easily have a meltdown in the post season and Greg Maddux while a terrific pitcher is just another year older. Smoltz is still coming back from his injury and Russ Ortiz can only pitch so many games.

Red Sox - A’s Another easy one, Sox in 4.

The A’s lost a key component in their rotation with the absence of Mark Mulder. Seattle actually came to town the last week of the season and gave the A’s a tough time. In the meantime, Boston has just been incredible. As tough as the Braves have been at the plate, the Red Sox make them look like little leaguers. The Sox have enough pitching to take them to the next round and their bats will do the job of carrying them there.

If I’m right, it means we’ll have Cubs-Giants/Red Sox-Twins. By next week we’ll know how good I am at this.

Last week was my birthday (Thursday to be exact). It turned out to be a nice, quiet day. As birthday’s go, that was fine and as days go it was really good.

It was a nice day, I had lunch Al Fresco with Mike (congrats on the raise buddy!), coffee with Brian and Ed and then got a wonderful massage (no, I hadn’t realized all the tension I was carrying around in my neck and shoulders).

The mark of a really good massage is practically falling asleep on the table (which is what happened). We could’ve gone out that evening (for dinner) but, in truth that was a pretty full day and I slept very soundly for the first time in a long time that night.

Last week I got the news of someone else’s birthday: Congrats to SLC and Elan:

Elsie Bel Cole
September 14, 9:34 a.m.
7 Lbs, 3.5 oz., 21 inches
2 hands, 2 feet, 1 belly button
approx. 27 gajillion poops
infinite heaps of charm

We had a flood here over the weekend. It happened over night and looked pretty bad on Sunday morning. At first I thought it was the roof but, it turned out the water came in by way of the back stairs (leading to the basement). Funny thing is a few weeks back we actually managed to get all the leaves cleaned up from the concrete in the back and the stairs themselves. In all that time the basement never flooded even though there were a ton of leaves over the drain. Then everything gets cleaned up and a few leaves (really only a couple) block the drain during a deluge and the next thing you know there’s water all over the floor.

It’s not as bad as it could’ve been and anything that got damaged was destined for charity, ebay or the trash. Most of the stuff is now “up” so, the water didn’t really get to it. It’s more like when a sink or washing machine overflows - just a big pain in the ass.

Last week was a good week as weeks go.

I got a little bummed out on Monday (which I started to write about and will finish the entry eventually). Tuesday a lot got accomplished, Wednesday I finished some of the catalog work and Thursday was bday. I was even very flattered when Jill (my erudite literary cousin) sent me an article from her newspaper column she wanted me to look over.

There’s always a bunch of stuff to do - I just have to get into “discipline” mode which means not watching as much TV and exercising a bit more.

The baseball season ended this weekend. As a Met fan it was akin to shooting a lame horse (please put us out of our misery). There’s a lot to look forward to next season: Jason Phillips, Jose Reyes and Jae Seo.

I was trying to find info on who will be in the free agent class in the coming off-season and I ran across this baseball blog. It’s actually worth checking out for any baseball fan. I had wanted to compose my “things the Mets should do in the off-season” entry along with my predictions for the playoffs.

I have a bunch of entries I’m working on including:

• The musical chairs of work.

• Trying to write about racism (without sounding like an absolute moron).

• Super powers (although this may actually become an article for submission for publication).

and of course, baseball.

So, you think your job sucks?!?

Odor judges are common in the research labs of mouthwash companies, where the halitosis-inflicted blow great gusts of breath in their faces to test product efficacy. But Minneapolis gastroenterologist Michael Levitt recently took the job to another level—or, rather, to the other end. Levitt paid two brave souls to indulge repeatedly in the odors of other people's farts.

Man, to think, all these years I’ve been having to do it for free just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Barbie in the news!



So, I was talking to Brian. . . This came up, which if I hadn’t found the story and read it for myself, I would have thought he was making this s**t up, read it for yourself:

A spokesman for the committee, which is an arm of the Saudi government, said the campaign against Barbie — banned for more than 10 years — coincides with the start of the school year to remind children and their parents of the doll's negative qualities.

Speaking to The Associated Press by telephone from the holy city of Medina, he claimed that Barbie was modeled after a real-life Jewish woman.

Funny, I always thought Barbie was the epitome of the Shiksa Goddess.

Barbie’s body type, “which translates into real life measurements 5'9", 36-18-33." I can understand Barbie has made women crazy for years as an example of the unattainable nadir of feminine perfection.Barbie’s been with us for almost 50 years though now.

Lately, she’s just been getting into trouble all over though. Not only is she banned in Saudi Arabia but, she’s been pushing the envelope of good taste, I could understand the Saudi’s banning these dolls:

Ms. Pitt has been locked in a legal battle with Mattel Inc., makers of the real Barbie, over a line of Barbie Dungeon Dolls she sells from her home in Gateshead, England.

Ms. Pitt uses the heads of SuperStar Barbies to create dolls that depict activities Mattel's Barbie would never dream of. One of Ms. Pitt's Barbies features "lederhosen-style Bavarian-bondage dress and helmet in rubber with a PVC mask and waspie." It sells for $186 (U.S.).

Mattel sued in a New York court and argued that Dungeon Barbies violate the company's trademark. It demanded damages and an immediate halt to Ms. Pitt's creations.

She claimed her Dungeon Barbies, which were sold for about £120 on the Internet, were a form of artistic expression and a comment on the sexual overtones of the children's toy.

'I am simply revealing this sexual nature by placing Barbie in a modern erotic context,' she told the court.

I never cease to be amazed!

For Pete’s sake... I fucked a pool boy in a cab!
— Christine

Years back, I hung around with this woman. She had long, black curly hair, a compelling smile and a twinkle in her eye. She was the kind of person that could walk into a place (bar, party, restaurant what have you) a stranger and leave with everyone thinking she was their best friend.

Never had anything romantic going on with her, just a fellow traveler on the journey through life. There was this brief three or four month period where I spent a lot of late nights, out and about in the city - I even used to carry a change of clothes in the trunk of my car so I wouldn’t look sloppy on those days after those long nights – she was my partner in crime.

I can’t do that forever, certainly not these days. It was fun though, while it lasted.

I’m sure they’ll be another period of something like that in my life - I don’t know why but I got to thinking of this force of nature the other day. The problem was she could be as equally a destructive force as she could a good force. It was how she lived her life, bouncing from one situation to the next, never staying long in one spot and generally moving on after overstaying her welcome.

One day not too long ago (although now that I think of it, it has to be about two years now), I was walking with Sung on lunch around Union Square when I heard my name called. It was my tornado, still as glorious as ever. Sad thing is, nothing had really changed – she was still jumping from disaster to disaster.

A mutual friend always asks after her, we’re both curious and worried at the same time but, being around her can be like flying to close to the sun.