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My First Blogiversary

by Mara Eastern
Blogiversary Badge
Blogiversary Badge

Today it’s been exactly a year since my first post on this blog. I started blogging to document each day in my Photo Project 365. Little did I know that my humble photoblog would outlive its original purpose and turn into a multimedia platform for pretty much everything I enjoy. Much to my surprise, you seem to be moderately enjoying it too!

For your loyalty, support and encouragement, I owe a huge thanks to the WordPress community. Most of all I’m indebted to my much-valued blogging friends (in no particular order) Justine, Kay, Kainzow, Pavanneh, Ronovan and Laura. Also to those whom I stupidly forgot and those who stalk me regularly without admitting so in a comment. Also, I’d like to thank my cats.

500 Posts Badge
500 Posts Badge

With my Project 365 over, I’m starting a new publishing schedule today. Yay! Instead of daily photos, there will be weekly photo galleries. The galleries will showcase what are hopefully my best photos. They will be published on Wednesdays under the category label “Wednesday Visuals”, replacing the now discontinued “Wednesday Wit” category. It’s not like I gave it a thought.

I’ll be experimenting with one more new category. It’s called “Friday Favourites”, will be published on Fridays (surprise!) and will feature whatever interesting I happen to find on the internet. I’d like to share here content that I love or that intrigues me, be it pictures, videos, music, links or whatnot. The first post in this category is scheduled for later today, so let me know what you think!

1337 Likes Badge
1337 Likes Badge — seriously?

Owing to much coaching on the part of you, my readers (yes, I’m looking at you!), and thanks to your overwhelmingly positive reception of my modest writing, I’d like to commit myself to writing regularly. I started the habit of writing two hours each other day or so, and I think I should have enough material to post a story a week. They’ll be ready on Sundays under the category “Sunday Stories”.

All the other post categories that I’ve been using so far remain unchanged. So, there will still be a little poem of mine on Mondays, a cat picture on Saturdays and my response to WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge on Fridays or thereabouts. I know, I’m so boringly organised. Now, I wonder how many readers I just lost due their untimely demise by boredom on reading this?

113 thoughts on “My First Blogiversary”

  1. Happy Blogiversary, Mara Eastern! Miss Eastern, your style of writing has always intrigued and inspired me. Your posts were always fun to read. Not to mention, your cat Ella’s face always reminds of Snowflake, my pregnant cat which got lost over a month ago. No wonder, whenever I miss Snowflake, I just see a pic of Ella and cheer up! Happy Blogiversary again!!! 🙂

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    1. Ooh, thank you so much for your lovely comment! It means a huge deal to me ❤

      I'm so sorry to hear about Snowflake. It's a double loss when she disappeared while pregnant. I remember when I lost my cat how tough it was and how everything reminded me of her. It didn't get a another cat until two years later.

      On the other hand, one of my cats disappeared for six weeks or so — and returned!

      But enough of the sad stuff, thanks so much for joining the party and for your congratulations. I wish you many happy blogiversaries too 🙂

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    1. Thank you, ďakujem ;-), and it’s a huge pleasure to know that I have basically a countryman, or nearly so, here on WordPress! I’ve noticed that you’re doing an excellent job with your blog, so keep it up and see you around!

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  5. Happy Blogiversary! I’m glad you’ve settled on some new challenges to inspire you and I look forward to reading and seeing the results. Thanks for the mention. That’s kind of you.

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    1. It’s of you to stay in touch 🙂 Though I’m not so easily excited, now I’m excited like a kid about my new blogging plans and about your positive responses. It’s so encouraging!

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  6. Congrats! I wish I had the time/inspiration/patience to do what you have this past year. Very well done, and watching you complete Project 365 was very inspiring. 🙂

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    1. Aw, thanks! Actually, I admire your blogging so consistently in the field of stories — that’s for me the hardest part, not posting a picture a day 😮 And it’s a great pleasure for me to have met you!

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      1. Most of my stories have come from Writing 101 – I haven’t done much writing since then in all honesty! I’ve attempted Project 365 two or three times so far. My personal best was getting from January to the beginning of March. I’m considering taking it up again soon, both after being inspired by you, and because I want to take more photos. We’ll see. 🙂

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        1. Writing 101 was great for me too, it made me write, which is something that didn’t happen to me before. Now I’m still trying to write regularly. So I too have started writing with 101 🙂

          January to March is good, that’s one-fourth of the project completed, if I get it right 😉 I see that you’re really excited about starting again, so by all means, go for it, and I’m looking forward to supporting you!!

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    1. Oh, I did actually mention you in “thanks to those whom I stupidly forgot, like Ivyon…” 😳 A big reveal: I based the list of mentions of the list of top commenters on the blog, so it’s obviously biased. Of course I owe you a huge thanks as much as to anyone else whom I had the pleasure to meet online! You all make me feel complete ❤

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        2. Please don’t cry, I don’t know about you, but when I cry I get literally blind the next day with my eyes swollen and all. I’m truly an ugly crier. Let’s not talk about crying though, OK? 😀

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          1. Ok, we won’t talk about crying. Because crying is such a stupid word. Cry-ing. How do they say it in your country (sorry I forgot, is it Chech?) Yeah I cry a lot, but I cry for different reasons, I am emotional human being, i can cry from happiness, from irritation, frustration, just because, from seeing a puppy abandoned, kitty also…. I get teary when my bf says something really nice to me… But I agree, we won’t talk about crying.
            😀

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          2. To cry in Czech is “plakat”, what’s it in Croatian? Similar?

            I’m relieved that I’m not the only who cries from happiness and frustration alike! I actually cry quite regularly when I see something cute — like a kitty. It’s ridiculous!

            But now, let’s talk about laughing for a change, won’t we? 😉 😀

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          3. It is the same 😀 Plakati is infinitive verb, but we say Plakat in colloquial speech. 🙂

            I think there are many like us, they are just hiding lol

            I agree 😀

            p.s. I had a chance to meet up with two Polish guys and it was silly how many words we had in common 🙂

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          4. Yes, Polish is so similar that we can more or less understand each other. More or less — many Polish words mean something else in Czech. I don’t know about Croatian, but for instance the Polish word for “search” (szukat) means “having sex” in Czech. It’s an offensive word here. A lot of fun with language 😉

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          5. Hahahahahah 😀

            We have tražiti which is to search… I noticed that we have veeery similar words for months in Polish, maybe that’s the case with Czech also! 🙂

            How many letters do you have with chechmarks? We have č,ć,š,đ,ž

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          6. It’s not too funny because every internet page in Polish has a window with the prompt “szukat”, which literally prompts me to “fuck” — sorry for the gross work, but that’s what it means in my tongue. It’s ridiculous.

            You only have these few letters with diacritics? We’ve got a plenty! All vowels can have length marks and many consonants too! Unlike English, for example, we also have the letter “ch”.So that you know 🙂

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          7. Hhahaha, I suggeest not going on Polish pages 😀

            Yea, we have that letters and we don’t have w,q and y.

            I thought I saw Czech language with a lot of marks… So, what does that mean when you put a mark above a letter? That it is pronounced different or completely new letter?

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          8. What?! You don’t have “y”? How on earth do you do without “y”?! Much of our grammar is based on the distinction between “y” and “i” 🙂

            When we put a mark on a vowel, it only makes the vowel longer. But when you put a mark on a consonant, it makes it a different letter. Czech is a rather complicated language. I prefer English, as is probably apparent from my blogging in English!

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          9. Yes, we do manage to live without y 😛

            It is i, there is no difference. Croatian is not an easy language to learn, but it’s easy for me haha… English grammar is 10 times easier than ours, but spelling is piece of cake in Croatian. That is why I decided to write my blog in English, to keep my writing knowledge of English on top level. First, I had to search for spelling every second word, then every second sentence and now I am writing this comment as I’m thinking going back for the errors I made being fast. So, you can say I am happy I decided that. although writing in Croatian would be so much more fun for me, I could use all sorts of slang and imagine my own words as I like to… But, ok. You win some, you lose some 🙂

            Much of our grammar is based on distinction between č and ć, dž and đ, which are the same letters when you speak them but sound is slightly different. Š is sh, Č is ch, đ,ž I can’t even spell in english XD

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          10. It’s interesting to learn about Croatian! I never thought of the language before, I just presumed… Now I’ll remember it!

            I’m glad you chose to blog in English, it’s not only a way to practise one’s writing skills but also a way to get in touch with other bloggers. I’d not be able to read your blog if it were in Croatian, no matter how awesome.

            You don’t come across as something with spelling problems in English, so I guess you’ve learned your spelling well enough by now 😉 Also, now I’m tempted to listen to some Croatian!

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          11. Hehehehe, that was the second big reason. With a risk of losing Croatian readers (which happened btw) I gained the whole world… Including getting to know and chat with some pretty awesome bloggers (you included) , some of them where actually there for me in my very hard times (!), something I am amazed with and will not forget…

            Well, thank you 😀 I wrote a post about my struggles with spelling, I’m gonna find it… I understand English perfectly but I felt like I was losing the knowledge of writing. And now this is a fun way to keep that in check 😀

            If you ever want to listen Croatian in a robotic voice, write something English, translate in Google and press sound 😀 But, I will put song I love and artists I admire from my country, then you can listen. Actually, you gave me a great idea for today. 🙂

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          13. Lovely! Yes, the post sums up your feelings very well. I’ve had the same struggles — I still have them to some extent, but I find expressing myself in English natural now 🙂

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          15. Yes, as you say, you “gained the whole world” by writing in English! And it’s my great pleasure to have met you too 😀

            I’ve been listening to the songs you posted over at your place and I like them. This style of music is also popular here, we’re close enough to have similar tastes.

            Strangely enough, Croatian sounds to me slightly more like Russian — I suspect it has many affinities with Russian too. I used to learn some Russian, so that’s how I know… It any case, it’s a pleasant language to listen to! Though I must admit that Polish will probably remain my favourite ever Slavic language in terms of the sound. 🙂

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          16. Yes 😀

            Croatian has three main dialects which are so different that we sometimes don’t understand each other hehe, the official Croatian is most similar to the dialect I talk with…
            And yet, we can understand Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin… Without any doubt. 🙂

            In terms of how it sounds I loooove French and Italian, I was studying Italian and I think I will have to do it again because I forgot it. And yeah we do sound harsh like Russian, it is so funny, in American movies the bad guys are always Russian and then they open their mouth and speak Croatian hahahahaha 😀

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          17. Oh, it’s similar here, we have a number of dialects in Czech, and luckily, I was born in an area whose dialect is the closest to Standard Czech. I now live in other part of the country, though, and I can hardly understand the way the old people speak here. They are mostly poorly educated and don’t know the standard language, and I don’t speak their outrageous dialect 😦

            You’re right, I’ve seen too many American films where the villain is from Eastern Europe. It’s really a pathetic stereotype. And it’s funny at the same time 🙂

            You studied Italian? Good! I used to learn German, Russian and Latin, all of which are not long forgotten. So English remains my only second language. I wish I could learn French, though, but I can’t see it happening…

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          18. About the villains… It is from the cold war? Probably. Like in Russian movie the American would be a villain. I loved to watch NCIS a lot and there was actually an episode with Croatian dude and they said all the truth about the war and he was not speaking Russian, I was so glad… Liked them even more after that, I mean how hard is to check facts on google?

            Yes I did, and I really like how it sounds and I copied it amazing, Italian is lovely 🙂 I studied English, German and Latin, I hate German, I am left with probably two or three sentences….

            My sister is learning French now and there is an app that helps you study a language, she has it 😀

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          19. That’s a good point, it would probably be because of the Cold War, as you say. Anyway, I’ve noticed the same thing as you. It’s awkward to explain to people that it’s not just criminals around here — I suspect that the security checks at airports are especially distrustful of people from Eastern Europe too. At least I always get checked ever so thoroughly.

            I actually have a bachelor’s degree in German Studies, which is ridiculous, it has been years and I can hardly say hello in German. German eventually didn’t attract me as much as English did, so I switched to get my master’s degree in English Studies only. I never regretted 🙂

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          20. I am glad you switched 😀

            German is such an angry language to me 🙂 Although I listen to my relatives speak it (they live there for 20+ years) and I know somewhat what they are saying, it really sounds like they are fighting XD

            I’m sorry you get checked… Well, at least we know how it must be to be a Muslim in USA… “Yay” :/
            Terrible. I have flew with an airplane just once and it wasn’t flight outside of country so I don’t know how it is….

            p.s. Do you think we will run out of reply button? 😀

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          21. Haha, if we will run out of the reply button? Maybe! I usually respond via my Notifications, but I know you sometimes runs out of the reply option 😀

            Sorry it took me so long to get back to you — spent the whole day on the go, shopping some necessities for our holiday. Hubby & me are departing next week and will be off for 10 days 😦 We were considering Croatia, actually, but hubby picked Greece at the end. Too bad!

            I wonder if you still have a reply button now? Just wondering…

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          22. think the normal reply button is long gone, I’m answering from notifications 😀

            Greece… Ah… I will go there… One day… 🙂

            When I read departing I thought you will be apart, why the sad smiley?! Enjoy!! I will hopefully have amazing next week, fingers crossed. I hope I’ll have to remind myself to come here hehe…

            Btw, check this out – Šiš Čevapčići
            It stands for this:

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          23. 😀 Yep, we’ve killed the reply button already…

            And you are right, I should be looking forward to our holiday; but I’m too nervous to enjoy the preparations… Also, there’s a lot of things to do before I can leave for this long!

            Čevapčiči, you have čevapčiči, awesome!! We have it here too and I thought I was very much a local meal. So it’s clearly not. We used to have čevapčiči all the time in the school canteen. Though very poor one.

            When we’re back from Greece (provided our flight won’t be shot down :shock:), I’ll report on it! We’re specifically heading to Crete.

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          24. Uh, too nervous? I get you, I would probably be too… It helps that my bf is so chilled about that kind of situations and I’m very adroit (google translate helped here XD ) in other type of situations when he freezes. So, that’s cool…

            I have been enjoying in the outdoor life and nature, that’s why I haven’t replied until now… The result: I am sitting here, TRYING not to think about dozen mosquito bites I have on my feet and hands… Arghhhh. If you didn’t know, my blog is called Mosquito because I am allergic to them and when they bite me it gets swollen, big time, and hurts a lot :/

            Hehehehe, you have it too? I think they are originally from Turkey, tradition stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Osman Empire long ruling… 🙂

            I share your shock, I mean really, so many planes crashed recently… Just don’t fly Malaysia Airlines 😀
            Enjoy! And I’m looking forward to all the photos and I promise I won’t be jealous… much. 🙂

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          25. You have a rare balance with you bf — one being cool while the other is nervous in different situations! It’s true that my husband is cool most of the time and I’m nervous basically all the time, so we’re a good fit too 😉

            I can’t image being allergic to mosquito bites, but I do believe that it sucks incredibly. I’m sorry to hear that is hurts!! At least now I know why on earth you called your blog Mosquito, of all things 🙂

            My holiday starts the day after tomorrow, so I bet I’d better go packing! 😮 I’ll keep you updated with pictures, of course! I think my Instagram is going to explode with pictures… And no need to envy me — you practically live in a holiday destination!

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          26. Thank you, it is really what we make of it… 🙂

            You have time for everything… If you forget something it was meant to be left behind 😉

            Yes, but it will pass 🙂 Thanks for your concern 😀
            Check out my new post btw, I have chosen to write once again why it’s called mosquito, because we talked about it 🙂

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          27. I nearly missed your mosquito blog post because, ehm, there was a mosquito picture and I quickly scrolled past it because I hate mosquitoes 😦 I should’ve known better! Of course now I returned to the post 😀 All I can do is to hope that you’re feeling better and better each day… Death to the mosquitoes!!

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          28. Hahahaha… I’m sorry! My instinct is to smack ’em 😀
            Yes better today, but it itches soooooooo much, aaaaaaarg… I need to do stuff to not think about it, I think I will put some vinegar on it, it helps 🙂

            Death to the mosquitoes!
            (did you know that mosquitoes are number one animal by the number of people they kill each year? On the second place is human. Irony.)

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          29. Oh, vinegar, the old folk advice, but allegedly it does help. I think I heard the stats about mosquitoes and humans being number one killers, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of it. Sad.

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  8. Funnily enough, ”blogiversaries” remind me of the seasons of TV shows.
    Each blogging year is a new season.While the blog stays fundamentally the same,there are things which change; the user becomes more acquainted with wordpress,has more friends,and this time has a well established plan for his/her blog.

    I think ‘blogiversaries’ are very special,especially the first,because they let us reflect over how much progress we’ve made on various levels throughout the year ; a progress which,until we look back at it on this occasion,we never thought to be able to accomplish.

    Well,Happy ‘Blogiversary’! 🙂
    I will be looking forward to the innovations you’ll bring to the blog! 😉

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    1. What a thoughtful comment! I doesn’t surprise me, of course, that it’s by you 🙂

      I first didn’t want to even mention my blogiversary, I don’t like fuss and I don’t like birthdays, which are similar occasions. Then I realised I wanted to say “thanks”, for which this was just the occasion. And I anticipated that you might be interested as to what I’d do next, so I hopefully satisfied your curiosity.

      Thank you so much for your well wishes, and thank you again for all your major support in the past months. I’m proud to call you my online friend 😀

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    1. Thanks so much for your support, and thanks even more so that I forgot to mention you in the post. I’m very much indebted to your encouragement and you being around 🙂

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          1. I might do a greatest hits of my favourite posts 🙂 It would be cheeky to put up a link here, but on my site I did do a simple thing for 6 months.

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          2. Oh dear, now how do I find your 6 month anniversary post…? Would you please give me the link? Please? A hit list of the best posts sounds like a great idea!

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          4. I love that! It’s a neat idea to have a half-anniversary; and it is certainly appropriate to give the facts about your blogs that one is interested in (number of hits, most liked photo, etc.). Now I’m sorry I didn’t go for this format myself 😦 Maybe next year! Now I’m looking forward to your first anniversary even more!

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  13. Happy Blogiversary 🎉 I am sure next year will be equally as fruitful. Oh and being organised is something not to snigger at, if only i could be as organised 😩

    Well done my love!

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    1. Thanks so much! You’re so kind 🙂 And you being around is a great pleasure! Oh, I’m glad that you don’t laugh at me for being hyper-organised, it’s often truly laughable — such as when visitors see my wardrobe, with the clothes arranged by colour 😉

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      1. I appreciate good organisational skills ☺️ i dream of a day when my closet will be colour coordinated but till then having them hung will do!

        I look forward to your next blogging chapter X

        Have a lovely weekend love, off to stalk you on twitter now 😊

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        1. Haha, I love stalking and being stalked, after all, I hunted you down on Twitter first 🙂

          I’m trying to teach my hubby to organise his wardrobe by colour too, but he’s messing it up all the time — it kind of spoils the pleasantly organised effect of my part of the wardrobe. So, you’d better stay unorganised and avoid A LOT of problems! 🙂

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          2. I’m sure that you’re hating it at times, but I’d so much want a sister! I have a brother, and luckily, he never showed much interest in girls’ fashion. But I think I’d be closer to a sister than to a brother…

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  14. I just censored the boring parts as Mara does stuff xxxx and then does more stuff xxxx but on this day cats xxxx more cats xxxxx then I began thinking about xxxxx cats.

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          2. I understand that cats actually use meowing to communicate with humans, not with each other. I like it, evolving into a cat as a higher form of life, though. My husband even downloaded in his phone an app with different cat meows, so we can communicate now more efficiently 😉

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  16. g’day Mara,
    Congratulations on the anniversary, you are an inspiration to we newbies, looking forward to your 2nd years efforts : -)

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    1. Thank you so much! It’s you and the lovely WordPress community that inspired me! I doubt you’re much of a newbie, you’ve already got so much content on your blog 🙂

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