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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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yellow pages and other projects
Current mood:  inspired
Category: Writing and Poetry
blog
Hey so I am back from Chicago. The con was really good and I came back with a renewed sense of creativity. I also came back to a pile of emails that rival the tower of Babel but we're not going to focus on that. This weekend I should be able to get done with the beta version of Yellow pages and hopefully will have it out before Gen Con in August. We will also be waving the charge to be included in the color edition of the book so everyone will be both the black and white and the color.
Checking out all the great independent artists and projects in Chicago got my psyched up to get more of original ideas into Pandora's Gate. So the first project I want to start is a continuing web comic inside. We would put out five pages every month in the zine. I am looking for an artist to partner with - I would do everything I could to promote them and we would split revenue of the collected editions and promotional materials for the project (t-shirts, cups etc etc),
If you do not want have time to participate in the full project but want to say thanks for inclusion in the Yellow Pages or us doing an artist for hire feature. We would love to have people do some pin ups of major characters to help us promote the web comic.
Now what is going to be the subject of the new web comic. Well anyone who knows me that I usually have about 10 -20 stories going thru my head at various points of development so I thought I would share a couple and take some feed back on what people might like to see.
Raid - world of warcraft meets sneakers (Robert Redford movie not the shoes)
A tale of a professional group of mercenaries in a fantasy setting who employ agents of good and evil to get the job done. They are offered a task to secure a holy artifact for a benevolent church from a loosely guarded citadel of evil. The job sounds too good to be true which of course means it is.
Lords of the Dead - Dawn of the dead meets the Iliad.
In the near future a disease has ravaged the world turning 3/4 of the population into zombies and one percent of them to death lords who are just as hard to kill but retain their intelligence and can control the others. The remaining humans has capture the first of their kind and have her secured in New Troy attempting to create a cure but the Lords want her back and will eat who ever they have to reclaim her.
Adventurers Academy - Harry potter meets new x-men
10 years ago a group of adventurers saved the world but only came back to tell the tale. He set up the greatest academy in all the kingdoms and this year the children of his compatriots are coming to school even the son of the one who betrayed the fellowship. The children need to overcome their differences and learn the truth of what happened to their parents before the Dark Lord rises again.
Advocates - justice league meets US marshals
a young hero who captures two of the most wanted criminals on his first day out is given the task of running the first super powered division of the US marshal service. Can he grow into the job before it kills him and his team.
Emissaries - star trek meets avengers
in the near future the world is recovering from a alien invasion and the united nations selects a group of super powered being to take one of the alien craft and explore space as representatives of earth
Dream Quest - dream park meets x-men
in the future an amusement park that can create any fantasy is possessed by a demonic entity and the staff has to learn the depths of their own abilities to survive.
Pangaea Unbound
An epic fantasy concerning two twins born heir to an incredible power one raised to destroy the world the other to save it.
so let me know which one you would like to see in our pages - some are ones that have seen life as text stories in Pandora's gate previous and some are brand new.
4:02 PM
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7 Comments - 10 Kudos
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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art contest update
Current mood:  cranky
Category: Art and Photography
I apoligize this might ramble a bit - I am not in the best of moods.
First off the art contest is done I will be announcing a winner as soon as I get a mock up of the cover done. Should be today or tomorrow.
Okay I think I need to get a couple things straight- first for those who do not know Paper Dragon Ink is not some huge multi-national company ( I know big shock) it's me and usually a couple friends who make contributions, at the moment I make no money from it which I have learned to live with because I like writing and connecting with people. But I also have a forty hour job (last couple weeks more like 60), a mother who is recovering from a stroke and a normal life to fit into an average week.
So when I choose to spend some of that time promoting other people's work I expected a little appreciation but what I'd did not expect was to be threatened. The art contest primary purpose was to have one artist's friends exposed to other people's art that way everyone whens. The picking of a cover was secondary and making some new friends was a bonus.
And while we are on the subject of friends - the contest did not change my basic rules - if you have no friends except Tom or you are a 14 year old girl whose profile is private I probably was not going to accept you as a friend.
People constantly amaze me and not in a good way. Anyway - long and short of it, I will be putting together a mock up cover and then setting up the book so people can pick up a copy if they want. I will get with the people participating with the complete details later this week and send out a bullentin to everybody when the book is ready.
I hope some people got something good and fun out of the contest because that was why I did it.
DuG
11:59 AM
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18 Comments - 14 Kudos
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Monday, May 26, 2008
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Artist for hire yellow pages
Current mood:  creative
Category: Art and Photography
Artist for hire – Volume one
Hopefully everybody that read last blog is just dying to get some information about our latest project. We are going to be putting out a print version of our popular Artist for hire column. The basic premise is to put out yellow pages for working artists. The questions will be slightly altered to help out people who sell prints more then do commission work. We will be offering a basic package for free which includes one page with contact info and space for one large sample or 3 small samples of your work, as well as a matching listing on Paperdragonink.com. The basic volume will have a color cover and black and white interior pages. If you want additional pages to promote your work they will be available for five dollars for one page or 10 for two pages. (We are not trying to make money off you but we have to cover the set up costs.)
We will also be doing a prestige version which will be in full color and that we will be sending to top companies (comics, gaming, other entertainment outlets ) in the industry for free just to get the word out about you and us. Inclusion in this version will cost five dollars to cover the additional expense of color printing.
I had originally thought to charge an additional fee to be placed on the cover or maybe do an auction for it but I decided to do a contest for it. Everyone that is participating will submit an image to place on our MySpace pics (all pictures will be labeled as your with a description directing them to your MySpace page or website) and the person who gets the most comments will get placed on the cover for free.
For more info or to submit work send an email to artist@paperdragonink.com
Artist for hire:..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Name:
Specialties (i.e inker, penciler, computer colorer, painter )
Current affiliations
Previous work
Current projects
Page rate for commissions
Rate for Prints of original work
Style / Genre
Contact info
10:07 AM
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18 Comments - 20 Kudos
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
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everything you wanted to know
Current mood:  impatient
Category: Writing and Poetry
so in that way I have of being smart and not really smart at the same time I just realized that it actually takes a lot of effort to go back and pull up blogs that a couple of weeks old let alone the ones that got posted a year ago so with the addition of new friends I thought maybe I should post another blog "everything you ever wanted to know about DuG and Paper Dragon Ink but were afraid to ask (ok maybe you weren't that afraid maybe you just had better things to, it's okay you can admit it I am strong enough to handle the truth)
the saga of paper dragon ink starts about 4 years ago my company got bought out and I got a disbursement from all the stock I had owned in the company and decided after paying off my bills to follow the American dream of self publishing my own comic book. I had a short story called Dream Quest that was tailor made for a graphic novel - think x-men meets Jurassic park meets the matrix. I contracted an artist had worked in the field and looked very polished and paid him a lot of money for work that was not as good as he had done for other companies. So I had about 10 pages that were never going to see the light of day so I decided to publish it and some other people's story and art in the first hard copy edition of Pandora's Gate. I printed a lot of copies and took it to wizard world Chicago know that I could use the tons of cash I would make selling the issue to get the rest of pages done and into previews so that I could see it at my local comic book store. Words to the wise never print a lot of copies of an untested idea. I have a couple of boxes still in my basement.
But I refused to be stymied just because I was now broke so I started out doing the issues as a PDF and sending them out via email - mostly to the people I had found when I trying to get an artist to work on the graphic novel. Then we got a website and we expanded our coverage to include artists, comics, novels, movies and music (mostly because people kept sending me press releases about it). We grew from about 100 readers to now about 30,000 hits on the website a month. Still working on making money off the idea and still working on self publishing that comic.
But our next big project is going to be a yellow pages of artists. Every time I need a pieces of art commissioned I have to hit a couple websites, check a bunch of myspace pages and then I have forgotten the ones I just looked at so I was going to print out and staple all my artist for hire columns to have a hard copy on my desk. Then I thought I could not be the only person who has the problem not mention there are lot of people who are non professionals that would like to get art done. So we are going to publish an Artist yellow pages which will include people's contact info and a sample of their work for free plus give the artist the opportunity to get more pages to showcase their work. More details will be coming soon.
DuG
7:37 AM
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6 Comments - 8 Kudos
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
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character sketch -Ragnarök
Current mood: impatient
Category: Writing and Poetry
Sigrdrífa stabbed the sword deep into the heart of Darius and nothing happened. That wasn't exactly true blood splurted from his chest and he collapsed in a heap. The blade Niflheimr had never had that effect on a person, it was one of two blades that been given to her by the gods when she moved to her position as chooser of the slain. That had been the happiest moment of her life. The gods Odin and Hel had appeared to her on her 21t birthday and told that she was to be part of the system that made possible for all of the city. Their world had once been full of technological wonders and part of a gleaming society that encompassed the globe but the wars had changed that and her city was all that was left and it's meager food could not keep a large population going. After only a very short time the city was ready to recreate the destiny that brought the whole world low. Then the gods came, the poets remember them of old and named them and told the stories from the Vikings. The gods said they were limited in what they could do they go in this modern world but they would give enough food and supplies for the current populate to survive if they were given their due. Their due consisted of servitude of every person in the city once they reached thirty. At thirty every person would be scarified but they would not die no they would be called to serve in the halls of Valhalla or the depths of Niflheimr. She was the instrument of that pact she carried two blades and the one she used to strike the person in the heart that was where they went. She knew that was no murdered that she preserved everyone's life by the actions she tool and she had taken a vow to send people to the place they belonged. There to prepare and eventually fight the battle of Ragnarök
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"That never happened before did it?"
Sigrdrífa whirled around to find a woman striding through the debris strewn road. She stared for she knew every face in the city and this woman did not belong. She dropped to her knees surely this was a bard from the gods to tell her that she had failed them in some way.
"Tell Lord Odin that whatever I have done I will atone for?"
"I am not one of his servants though I have come here to take you to see him"
Sigrdrífa took a longer look at the woman. She carried a musical instrument on her back so she had immediately thought that she was one of the Bards that Odin sent to bring them his decrees but the item was strangely shaped her clothes looked liked ones out of the books of old earth not the Norse.
"If you are not from him then are you one of Hel's slaves."
"I am no one's slave my name is Crossroads and I have come to show you the truth and ask you to accompany me."
Sigrdrífa looked at Crossroads and then at the blades in her hand. She did not trust this woman but she knew by the power of her office that she spoke true and she had no choice she must find why her swords no longer served their function. "I will come."
Crossroads made a gesture and a swirling tunnel appeared. She motioned Sigrdrífa forward with a hand and then followed her into the passage.
The two stepped out into the remains of a large city even compared to what she was used to Sigrdrífa found the devastation unbelievable. There were bodies of humans, and giants and elves and all manner of creature, once great buildings lay in rubble and waste, and at the top of a mound of bodies she saw Odin and Hel slumped.
"Ragnarök?. . . "
"no at least not in the way you think look closely."
Sigrdrífa looked all around her. She was devastated all that she built her life around had was destroyed but as the shock to her system began to fade she started to notice things. Besides the creatures of myth and legends there were other bodies, men in uniforms like the soldiers that fought in the war that devastated her world. She looked at Hel and Odin again and noticed that they had slumped back to back like they were fighting together and not against one another. As she looked Odin raised his head slightly and his one eye froze her in place.
"He lives" Sigrdrífa scampered up the pile of bodies. As she climbed Hel turned her head to watch her approach. "My lord and Lady how can I serve you." She fell to her knees with her swords outstretched like the day she had received her office. The two gods reached out and touched her blades and they both uttered a single word.
"Vengeance" Then a surge of energy transferred from them to her swords and then they were gone.
Sigrdrífa whirled about her face a mass of confused emotions but one won out anger. Anger that her gods were dead, anger that her people's fate was now uncertain and anger that this woman knew more then she had said.
"what happened here?"
Crossroads took a step back she had not envisioned having this discussion after Sigrdrífa had been empowered by gods.
"You understand that your gods lived in a place you could never reach, well there are more worlds then just the nine your stories speak of and there is a war coming that engulf all of them. These were but some of the few casualties. The council of eight seeks to control all the planes and this was just one step."
"This council of eight it was their forces that killed my Lord and Lady. Then I shall return the favor They shall come to know the meaning of Ragnarök"
6:16 PM
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1 Comments - 2 Kudos
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
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character sketches
Category: Writing and Poetry
Character sketch 2 –Compass Rose
Rose leaned back in the pilot's chair and spun the rounds in the chamber again. It was ironic as an agent of fortune that she found herself at an impasses without a plan. She removed one of the rounds and spun the chamber again.
"That should give fate enough chance to intervene" She placed the gun against her temple and began to squeeze.
"Don't"
The sound behind her almost caused her to fall from her chair and the bullet went rebounding off the cockpit but luckily did not pierce the cabin which would have caused most of space to race to empty the ship. She regained her balance and composure almost instantly and sighted down the barrel at the woman standing in the shadows of the ship's corridor.
"where the hell did you come from?"
"That is actually a pretty good description of where I came from."
The woman stepped out of the shadows. She was a long duster and had a guitar slung over her back. Rose kept the gun trained on her as she moved and started wonder about the long term effects that combat drugs had on people. But she knew that answer might be as simple as one of her fellow agents coming to make sure the loose ends were tied up. Then she thought about the irony of her actions, here she was on guard when a moment ago she was going to end it all. She holstered her side arm.
"And here I thought I had evaded their calculations. I guess that was pretty foolish?"
The woman leaned against the bulkhead of the ship. "I'm not here on their behalf. Actually I am here in spite of them. My name is Crossroads and I just came to talk"
"You can't be . . . " Then she thought about it, of course she could that was point of Rose's occupation. " I always wondered if one my victims would come back to take care of me?"
"I'm not here to do that either. I am here to recruit you."
"I already have a job?"
"No you don't you quit that job. But while we're on that subject could you fill me on what brought you to this point Compass Rose?"
Rose hesitated a minute and then figured what the hell. She might as well get it off her chest before she died. " I was an agent of Fortune. If you are here then you know there is not just one universe but a multi-verse. The people I work for have developed whole worlds that are nothing but computers dedicated to predicting the events of that multi-verse and steering in the way that the life prevails. It's not about good or bad but about the greatest number of people who survive. The agents are selected from people who are fated to die then they take us to a world where we are trained till thought and action become one. They take our memories of who we were and replaced it with a nano-tech computer hardwired to our brain so that when combined with the drug Fugue we can anticipate what will happen in any situation. Then we are set loose with a ship that can pierce the veil to support their cause. "
Crossroads nodded her head and Rose wondered whose benefit this was supposed to be for.
"The handlers tell us that we are not changing history . You look like you're from a s-universe type earth. So we can go to a world that has not had it's second world war and kill Hitler but that will not change what happens on the other. But it's still worth it being able to save hundreds of thousands of lives and change the destiny of a world, a galaxy sometimes even a whole universe. That is something worth getting your hands dirty for. The catch is the bigger the change the earlier we have to intervene. My last assignment was to kill a two year old little girl, I think she was supposed to grow up and look like you. I could not do it. I went cold turkey on the Fugue and blind jumped my ship to the ass end of the universe. Where I find you waiting for me. That's not coincidence?"
"nope. " Cross roads stood up straight for a moment as if considering her options. " I would love to tell you the whole story but I can't yet. I can tell you that I have two things to offer, one my thanks, and two the ability to make a greater impact on the scheme of things then you ever have before without having to kill a single innocent"
"What do I have to do?"
"Choose to live."
Character sketch 3 November Reign
Reign sat in the darkness of her cell. She had purposefully broke out the light bulb in her room like she had done every night for the last two weeks. The darkness helped her concentrate and focus her gifts. She reached out with senses that had not been seen on this world for generations but life every other night felt nothing. The walls were laced with a mixture of silver and iron canceling both her native abilities and the spells she could muster by tapping into the life blood of the Goddess. Once again she wondered what could have happened. There were some in the world who had interaction with one of her talents but being able to spot and counter both at the same time was beyond comprehension.
The night passed slowly she spent every moment searching for a spot that the guards might have missed. This was a federal prison but they should not have know what to do or have been so attentive to every detail. At six am there was a rap on the door, another surprise. The guards had stopped replacing the light bulbs after the first week and it was too early for chow. A panel slid open and a familiar face peered in.
"Crossroads, you bitch what are you doing here?"
"Just once I would like someone to be not be surprised to see me."
" I told you once I am not going to join your psychotic sisterhood out to save the multi-verse. One I think you're insane and two I am out to settle what is wrong with this world one way or the other."
"You know your attitude is one of reasons I wanted you on the team. The other is your power, I never could figure out how a person got so skilled in the arts on a world that until just recently had no discernable manna to draw upon. Then I figured out your true talent. You can talk to the dead."
". . . You're the person who told them how to catch me."
"Hey we can't have a world class magical powered Eco-terrorist on the loose can we. Also if you remember I told you if you were not part of the solution you would not be part of the problem. So let me see if I got this right you spent the last five years traveling to the gravesites of every person in history who a hint of magical power."
"Yeah and I learned a lot how about to shape the power but I also found talked to the former heads of corporations and found out what they had been doing to world. That gave me a focus and with the Goddess help I will bring ruin on all their companies."
"I thought witches believed everything comes back to the people who do wrong."
" I do you can call me the living incarnation the three fold path."
"But won't all this murder come back to bite you on the ass?"
"A small price to pay to bring the world back to harmony."
"Well I told them how to contain your abilities and in a little bit you are going to be shipped off to Africa and there you will not be able to do anything for the world or beyond. I will come to see you again in two weeks if you change your mind. Then we would be happy to have you."
4:54 PM
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3 Comments - 4 Kudos
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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celestial crappy poetry
Current mood: catalyzed
Category: Writing and Poetry
The Greeks looked up at the Stars and saw
Everything to give their life meaning
Gods, Heroes and creatures of wonder
But now we look with a scientific eye
Removing the passion and filling it with objectivity
But have we indeed let us look at the words we use
Nova
A star which suddenly flares up
To many times its original brightness
Before fading again
What a better way to describe
The highs and lows
of a moments infatuation
Binary star
A star which is actually made up
Of two stars orbiting each other.
Is this not what we all hope for
When we wish for a love
In our life
Perturbations
The disturbances in the orbit
of a celestial object caused
by the gravitational pull of another object.
who has not experienced
Another's effect on what we have built
Between two people
Apastron,
When two stars that orbit each other
are as far away from each other
as they can get.
Then there is the moment when
The attraction is so weak that
It ceases to affect our behavior
Some might argue that using such logical terms
Robs emotions of their magic
But love is celestial energy
Depending on the amount and distance
It can warm your face
Sear your soul or
Leave you to wither and die
In it's absence
9:14 AM
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4 Comments - 5 Kudos
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Monday, April 21, 2008
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pay it forward
Current mood:  cooky/wacky
so two things kind of un-related happened this weekend - one I caught the movie pay it forward - just a pretty good movie but had a nice sentiment - (that being if you receive a favor instead of paying back the person you do a favor for three other people and then they do the same ) two - a person stopped by and volunteered her assistance to help out my mom who is recovering from her stroke,
so in that spirit and the fact that I think I have been whining a bit about my tough life - I am offering favors- the first 3 people (and probably more ) who drop me a line I will do you a favor - three things it can't be anything sexual (unless you're a really cute female) or that involves money, and you have to do the same to the people on your friends list
1:38 PM
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2 Comments - 4 Kudos
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Tuesday, April 08, 2008
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getting back to it
Current mood: catalyzed
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers
so I haven’t been very productive lately so I figured I would blog - it’s something you can pretend like you are doing something without actually accomplishing things -
a couple notes
yes I am aware we missed the march issue - it will be out this week
two my dad has been released to start driving again after getting his pace maker in so if you’re in St Louis be on guard
I found out that my Aunt and Uncle are both having some health issues (as a matter of fact while my aunt was being treated the hospital ended up giving her a further infection) so if I any one wants to send some positive thought I would appreciate it
this is a scary year - if you start a business the IRS gives you five years to make a profit before they consider it a hobby and take away your tax deductions. As this is the beginning of year four I need to start making some cash from the Paper Dragon Ink.
To that end I we have a couple ideas
one expand our cafe press store with a series of shirts with illustrated quotes
also in regard to our store I want to start including pictures of actual people dressed in our clothes so if you buy a shirt or item from our store http://www.cafepress.com/paperdragonink send us a picture of yourself in it and if we pick you as one of our models we will refund your purchase price
start selling collected editions of Pandora’s gate thru Lulu or comix xpress ( if anyone has experience with Lulu I would love to hear about it)
do an Artist for hire book - either one big group book or a series spotlighting individual people
start publishing original novels and comic books in e-format or thru Lulu
or I am thinking maybe I should not branch out my efforts and just focus on Pandora’s Gate and get it back to a weekly format and just start getting some advertising revenue
and to start getting into the habit of that I am offering a free page of adverting in the zine for the first five people who do something to promote us and let me know - it can be sending out an add request to your friends, trading links with us, or anything else that comes to mind,
I would love to get some feedback on what you would like to see us do (or what you think we are doing wrong)- and then we are going to get down to doing it (or stop doing it)
Thanks for your time and consideration
7:51 AM
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4 Comments - 6 Kudos
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
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march update
Current mood:  cantankerous
ok so I have been meaning to post a blog for a couple of days just to let everyone who had sent me well wishes that my father made it thru his hospital stay and is doing okay.
The folks are improving except for the occasional attempt to do more then they should -so things should be going well
we added some new reviewers to the PDI team so look for some expanded coverage of comics and games as well as more book reviews
going to be trying to pop out the next issue and updating the website around laundry and checking on the parents so if you want to do a link exchange now would be a good time to send one over ( for the record I will trade links with anybody whose interest correspond with our reader ship - so comics, games, video games, artists, authors and musicians are all welcome)
now if the family, friends and friend’s family can stop attempting to drive me insane we should be able to get back on track,
thanks for stopping and checking out my babble
12:06 PM
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