[East] Amazing experiences with awesome people

JerYnkFan · April 2012

This was my first PAX and I had an absolute blast. I've been to plenty of cons before, but honestly I found the PAX attendees to be the friendliest of any con I've ever been to. I'm a very shy person who finds it hard to talk to people in an unfamiliar environment, but from the PPD to having people ask me if I wanted to join in line card games, I felt very comfortable. Can't wait to see you all next year. Time to brush up on my board/card games in preparation!

BeerNgaming · April 2012

The best experiences at PAX are always the people you meet. I was lucky. Everyone was awesome.

Koalabro2 and company were great in for the Burning Wheel game I ran on Thursday night at the Westin. They just dove right into that game, which is the only way to play it.

Coming down from there, my friends were all playing in Cards Against Humanity games for the next while. Everyone in their games seemed great, even if one group had no idea who Sean Penn is.

And the people I met at the games I played. I did a bit of Psi*run with someone who was able to pull amazing ideas out of nowhere, which is critical to that game. So I made her character able to cause a stroke with her brain. I played some Cthulu Tech with a group who didn't seem to mind me ordering them around (in character). Had a great game of Fiasco (Rock Band playset) with some great roleplayers. Played some Zombie Dice with some really fun people in line for the N00DZ or GTFO panel. Ran a game of Dread on Sunday that was a blast - questionnaire answers in that game are always very entertaining. And a thank you goes to the guy who taught my friends and I to play Miskatonic School for Girls. Which I ended up buying.

I also seem to have left an impression on the enforcer for the Tabletop Workshop. I'm not sure what happened there. All the enforcers are awesome in my book.

So, yes, main idea: PAX is great. But the people at PAX are even better.

OriginalGman · April 2012

Playing a pick-up game of Cards Against Humanity while in line for the Giant Bomb panel. Possibly my best moment of the show, never having played the game. The game's owner was awesome.

Laemkral · April 2012

All the people who I met via different games of Cards Against Humanity, both on Friday night/Saturday super early morning and then on Saturday afternoon in the free play area. Sadly, the only forum name I was given and can remember is @narwhal. Still, she and her friends were all awesome and I was glad to be part of their first CAH game.

Kiashien · April 2012

@Koalabro2 did an awesome job setting up the Cigar social. Someone really just had to create the idea and get the ground rules set, and he did it- and it turned into a hell of an awesome way to end the first night of PAX.

@Adastra for donating two humidors to an event she only barely got to make- I got one, but only because I was the only one without one at all yet! Heh. And for sending along plenty of cigars to hand out- we did about half of them that night, the rest I tried to hand out to others throughout the last day. I still have 4 of them though!

@BigRed for being awesome as always. BYOC was tough this year, with the connection issues and the exhibit hall looming... let alone the PC line blocking entrance into BYOC. Madness, I say!

Anyone E: Y'all were awesome. Don't let anyone say otherwise.

My Shadowrun players: I got a little worried when it got right up to the wire and everyone wasn't there, but you guys showed up RIGHT on time, and it made for a fun game. I wasn't a perfect GM after my Pokecrawl bender and other assorted madness in the morning, but it was fun! And, I think it was the only thing scheduled with a bunch of strangers in all of PAX history that had everyone show up on time. I could be wrong, but I'm claiming it anyway.

Special award: @Karmacappa for fronting the money to get the forum coins going. They literally would not have existed this year without his financial backing, and his monumental effort to make it work. Seriously, this year the coins are SPECIAL. Love your bit of history. The special award is because Karma couldn't even make this PAX! He did it for something he couldn't even attend.

narwhal · April 2012

Laemkral wrote: »

All the people who I met via different games of Cards Against Humanity, both on Friday night/Saturday super early morning and then on Saturday afternoon in the free play area. Sadly, the only forum name I was given and can remember is @narwhal. Still, she and her friends were all awesome and I was glad to be part of their first CAH game.

Oh hai.
I'm not sure which of the people on Saturday you were, and I'm sorry for running off trying to organize pizza, but I had been working a good 8 hours that day walking all over the expo center and was at the point of needed food in me before I died kind of moment, and all my cheerful nature went out the window. I promise I'm normally nicer.

_jnup · April 2012

I was a little hesitant on going because I was under whelmed from last year's but I'm glad that I did.

This was my 1st year cosplaying too, it was great getting props and posing for pictures. Definitely will be doing it again next year.

Sleep · April 2012

I think the greatest experience I had all weekend didn't even happen to me really. On saturday me and one of my friends decided it was time to test out Pathfinder. So we sat down and started making characters. When our game finally started we got to the table and saw that we were the only people with characters fully ready to go. Rather than just sitting and waiting I decided to start helping other people through the character gen process. I started helping one of the other players at the table and found out that he had no prior table top RPG experience in the slightest. My buddy and I, due to some prior scheduling, ended up having to duck out of that Pathfinder game early. I kept an eye on the table we left though, and saw something awesome. That guy with no prior table top RPG experience sat there and played an 8 hour session right up till the con closed it's doors. I came back the next day and did a small check and sure enough he was right there in the Pathfinder section again, and he was there for the entire next day of the con near as I could tell. Which is another 8 hour session. I think I got to watch the birth of a table top RPG player and it was awesome.

adastra · April 2012

Kiashien wrote: »

@Adastra for donating two humidors to an event she only barely got to make- I got one, but only because I was the only one without one at all yet! Heh. And for sending along plenty of cigars to hand out- we did about half of them that night, the rest I tried to hand out to others throughout the last day. I still have 4 of them though!

Put them in your new humidor and enjoy them!

Vapok · April 2012

Sleep wrote: »

I think the greatest experience I had all weekend didn't even happen to me really. On saturday me and one of my friends decided it was time to test out Pathfinder. So we sat down and started making characters. When our game finally started we got to the table and saw that we were the only people with characters fully ready to go. Rather than just sitting and waiting I decided to start helping other people through the character gen process. I started helping one of the other players at the table and found out that he had no prior table top RPG experience in the slightest. My buddy and I, due to some prior scheduling, ended up having to duck out of that Pathfinder game early. I kept an eye on the table we left though, and saw something awesome. That guy with no prior table top RPG experience sat there and played an 8 hour session right up till the con closed it's doors. I came back the next day and did a small check and sure enough he was right there in the Pathfinder section again, and he was there for the entire next day of the con near as I could tell. Which is another 8 hour session. I think I got to watch the birth of a table top RPG player and it was awesome.

This right here is why I love what PAX really is. Not about the commercialism, not about spending lots of money on flashy booths, but about the ability to just learn something new, and actually experience it, rather than have someone tell you it's great. Gonna be honest... take the Expo Hall experience away... and PAX is still awesome. That's my opinion, and not a reflection of any other Enforcer's opinion.

Where else on earth can someone go, be 100% completely themselves, be accepted (no matter their disability, ailment, or social anxiety), and experience things with new found friends that they might not have the opportunity to experience.

That guy, sitting at the RPG table learning Pathfinder, that's going to be something he remembers. And 5 years from now when he's still in a group of friends, DMing his own campaign, and someone asks him when he started playing D&D, it's going to be because of this time at PAX in table top, meeting new friends, and learning how to roll a character. He's not going to remember Chevy, he's not going to remember how great the Borderlands 2 booth was, he's not going to remember any details of any place, except those cherished few hours, and to think Sleep, you contributed that to him.

God I love PAX.

EDIT: This is also why I absolutely love my /dance party that I throw on Saturday night. Music is one of those things that brings people together, and the ability to completely let loose, be yourselves.. and have fun doing it without anyone making you feel like you're being judged is absolute serenity.

tvethiopia · April 2012

Vapok wrote: »

EDIT: This is also why I absolutely love my /dance party that I throw on Saturday night. Music is one of those things that brings people together, and the ability to completely let loose, be yourselves.. and have fun doing it without anyone making you feel like you're being judged is absolute serenity.

during /dance, my bf said to me "this is probably the least cool thing i have ever seen, but it's also the greatest." because it WAS the greatest, because no one cares if it's cool, it's just FUN. thank you so much for that, it was an amazing time. for the record, we were with the awesome little girl who just couldn't stop dancing. and it was her birthday. and it was the best.

Malgaras · April 2012

Vapok wrote: »

Sleep wrote: »

I think the greatest experience I had all weekend didn't even happen to me really. On saturday me and one of my friends decided it was time to test out Pathfinder. So we sat down and started making characters. When our game finally started we got to the table and saw that we were the only people with characters fully ready to go. Rather than just sitting and waiting I decided to start helping other people through the character gen process. I started helping one of the other players at the table and found out that he had no prior table top RPG experience in the slightest. My buddy and I, due to some prior scheduling, ended up having to duck out of that Pathfinder game early. I kept an eye on the table we left though, and saw something awesome. That guy with no prior table top RPG experience sat there and played an 8 hour session right up till the con closed it's doors. I came back the next day and did a small check and sure enough he was right there in the Pathfinder section again, and he was there for the entire next day of the con near as I could tell. Which is another 8 hour session. I think I got to watch the birth of a table top RPG player and it was awesome.

This right here is why I love what PAX really is. Not about the commercialism, not about spending lots of money on flashy booths, but about the ability to just learn something new, and actually experience it, rather than have someone tell you it's great. Gonna be honest... take the Expo Hall experience away... and PAX is still awesome. That's my opinion, and not a reflection of any other Enforcer's opinion.

Where else on earth can someone go, be 100% completely themselves, be accepted (no matter their disability, ailment, or social anxiety), and experience things with new found friends that they might not have the opportunity to experience.

That guy, sitting at the RPG table learning Pathfinder, that's going to be something he remembers. And 5 years from now when he's still in a group of friends, DMing his own campaign, and someone asks him when he started playing D&D, it's going to be because of this time at PAX in table top, meeting new friends, and learning how to role a character. He's not going to remember Chevy, he's not going to remember how great the Borderlands 2 booth was, he's not going to remember any details of any place, etc those cherished few hours, and to think Sleep, you contributed that to him.

God I love PAX.

EDIT: This is also why I absolutely love my /dance party that I throw on Saturday night. Music is one of those things that brings people together, and the ability to completely let loose, be yourselves.. and have fun doing it without anyone making you feel like you're being judged is absolute serenity.

I just wanna say that these posts are collectively amazing, and exemplify everything I love about this community. I wish I had the chance to meet one of you at PAX. Maybe next time around.

OminousLozenge · April 2012

Saturday night, I was killing time waiting for MC Frontalot's set, and I came across a couple playing a very colorful wood-stacking game called Villa Paletti. It was really tense watching them play, and really funny listening to their trash-talk, and I was mesmerized. They kindly let me watch, and when they finished that they invited me to play the next games on their personal itinerary. We played a game each of Impossible Machine and Lock & Key. I had so much fun I lost track of time and completely missed Front's set by the time we wrapped at quarter of two, but I had a blast with them. I meant to give them my contact info since they live relatively close, but alas it slipped my mind. Thank you, awesome couple from Baltimore, for a night of playing cool games I had never heard of!

basselope · April 2012

I had just watched a Wil Wheaton YouTube video on a game called Small World, so i brought it along, having never played it. Only one of my friends had arrived by the time i made my way down to the gaming area at the Westin (this was thursday night), so we were short some people, but we had heard that it was easy to pick players up. Well, it was. Before we even sat down, we had picked up 3 more players (all very cool). But NONE of us had actually played it. We had all just watched the video on the recently launched Geek & Sundry. Before we can delve into the instruction booklet, this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

Malgaras · April 2012

basselope wrote: »

I had just watched a Wil Wheaton YouTube video on a game called Small World, so i brought it along, having never played it. Only one of my friends had arrived by the time i made my way down to the gaming area at the Westin (this was thursday night), so we were short some people, but we had heard that it was easy to pick players up. Well, it was. Before we even sat down, we had picked up 3 more players (all very cool). But NONE of us had actually played it. We had all just watched the video on the recently launched Geek & Sundry. Before we can delve into the instruction booklet, this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

Hmm... I think me and my friend may have played in that game with you. We found a seat on the floor ALL the way down on the far end and and took a peak in that side room there to see if that was open before settling on the floor. Was that you? It seems like it'd be a pretty crazy coincidence already at this point. If so, thanks for the game. It was a blast.

On a side note, I saw so many new players picking up Small World at PAX it was amazing. They sure got some crazy good advertising from that video.

Vapok · April 2012

basselope wrote: »

this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

I only know of one guy that introduces himself as "Nathaniel" at PAX.. and that's the PC Area Manager Nathaniel. haha.. He's good people! =) If his hair was slid to the wrong side of his head, that'd be him!

basselope · April 2012

gespo89 wrote: »

basselope wrote: »

I had just watched a Wil Wheaton YouTube video on a game called Small World, so i brought it along, having never played it. Only one of my friends had arrived by the time i made my way down to the gaming area at the Westin (this was thursday night), so we were short some people, but we had heard that it was easy to pick players up. Well, it was. Before we even sat down, we had picked up 3 more players (all very cool). But NONE of us had actually played it. We had all just watched the video on the recently launched Geek & Sundry. Before we can delve into the instruction booklet, this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

Hmm... I think me and my friend may have played in that game with you. We found a seat on the floor ALL the way down on the far end and and took a peak in that side room there to see if that was open before settling on the floor. Was that you? It seems like it'd be a pretty crazy coincidence already at this point. If so, thanks for the game. It was a blast.

On a side note, I saw so many new players picking up Small World at PAX it was amazing. They sure got some crazy good advertising from that video.

Yep, that's me. It definitely was a blast. Maybe we can play again next year. Ha, wouldn't that be a hoot.

basselope · April 2012

Vapok wrote: »

basselope wrote: »

this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

I only know of one guy that introduces himself as "Nathaniel" at PAX.. and that's the PC Area Manager Nathaniel. haha.. He's good people! =) If his hair was slid to the wrong side of his head, that'd be him!

Ya, i think that might be him. He has a business card that looks like a baseball card.

Malgaras · April 2012

basselope wrote: »

gespo89 wrote: »

basselope wrote: »

I had just watched a Wil Wheaton YouTube video on a game called Small World, so i brought it along, having never played it. Only one of my friends had arrived by the time i made my way down to the gaming area at the Westin (this was thursday night), so we were short some people, but we had heard that it was easy to pick players up. Well, it was. Before we even sat down, we had picked up 3 more players (all very cool). But NONE of us had actually played it. We had all just watched the video on the recently launched Geek & Sundry. Before we can delve into the instruction booklet, this guy Nathaniel walks over and says, "hey, that's a fun game, you guys need help?" We said yes! and he proceeded to stay with us the ENTIRE game, explaining the rules as we played. That's PAX in a nutshell.

Hmm... I think me and my friend may have played in that game with you. We found a seat on the floor ALL the way down on the far end and and took a peak in that side room there to see if that was open before settling on the floor. Was that you? It seems like it'd be a pretty crazy coincidence already at this point. If so, thanks for the game. It was a blast.

On a side note, I saw so many new players picking up Small World at PAX it was amazing. They sure got some crazy good advertising from that video.

Yep, that's me. It definitely was a blast. Maybe we can play again next year. Ha, wouldn't that be a hoot.

I look foward to it. Maybe next time I will have to not start an all out war with the person next to me and I won't lose quite so badly. :-P

*Mutters something incoherent about crummy humans stealing farmlands from my ghouls*

kaleedity · April 2012

There is too much awesome to document. Other than learning 5 or more card- and board-games with my good friends from around the midwest and the northeast, I spent a good bit of time wandering around the expo on my own.

I remember the folks from Alabama that "adopted" me in the first queue line before PAX opened on the first day. I'd been to every PAX East, and I happened to have not met any more folks from the dirty south. Good to know I'm not alone out of Charleston. I wish I remembered your names.

Rock Band, oh god the rock band. I played a lot of rock band -- I was one of the guys that wandered around the freeplay stage and tried to fill in if someone needed a part. I waited in line to sing sometimes too -- sorry about Blackened, I swear I didn't pick to sing metallica! (though the guitarist actually played it on expert without failing) Also, hopefully my belting out of The Police's So Lonely didn't cause too much of a pain. At the expo's rock band stage I played vox+bass to Jethro Tull's Aqualung after the plants vs zombies guys did their thing on the stage. And yes, it was fun to sub in for that one group to play the bassline in Alanis Morisette's You Oughta Know -- it's always fun as shit to play rock band with new people. My PAX modus operandi is to wander around but use the rock band stage as a kind of a center, so I don't concentrate my time there all at once, but I hang there a lot. Respect to the Katamari that danced there so long.

The Friday night concert was awesome. I didn't wait in line, and I walked all the way up to the front of the theatre when the concerts started and stood right behind the metal bars keeping people out from the VIP seats as there was clearly space available. It was awesome hanging out with SamUEL and learning some of the basics to camera lenses and lasers he used in his chemistry-related work. I never took a class in physics throughout my science/statistics/computer science related bachelor's degree, but that stuff is still fascinating (when you hang out with someone for 4 hours, you discuss things). Also, we both left at different intervals between bands to use the restroom, and we came back to find our spots still fully open -- no one even tried to take our spots even though no one was holding it in any way.

That's just scratching the surface of the awesome. The worst thing is that PAX ended. Well, I did bring a mic stand for the freeplay stage and it was broken before I got to use it (if someone has a story about this I'm not angry about it, it was cheap) but I saw at least one person playing vox+guitar with it in passing before it bit the dust, so I know it wasn't a waste. Good times all around.

You know it's pretty awesome when someone passes you by and yells "HEY KYLE"! and you can't even remember meeting them.

Oh, and playing Metagame in the Seaport Lobby into the wee hours of monday morning was awesome. Glad I could defend Pole Position as the game most likely to get you laid so well.

GhostDan · April 2012

FatherVenom wrote: »

Saturday: My shoelace got caught in the top of an escalator and was sucking me back in. Before I even realized the situation I had a giant PAXer wrap his arms around me to stop me from losing more ground while his buddy went over and hit the emergency brake. Punzie came over to unload my arms while the guy who hit the brake extricated my shoe. I was so dazed by the experience I only said a quick thank you. I wish I could have expressed myself better. I don't think my life was in jeopardy or anything but certainly my health was. I'm so grateful to my two rescuers.

I keep thinking of Mall Rats:
Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.

GrimRupert · April 2012

I'd have to say that Saturday morning was pretty fun.

cocowoushi · April 2012

I want to say thank you to the guy on Thursday night at the PrePAX game night who tried to get me in the game they were playing. I was standing nearby waiting for a friend to meet up and watching the games going on. Card games really intimidate me so I prefer to watch, but there was some kind of ... See and Spot? Game being played next to me.

The guy hosting it saw me watching and asked if I wanted to join. If I hadn't been waiting for someone I would have swallowed my shyness and joined. Next year...!

Exodus1 · April 2012

Since most of you I actually only know by name thanks to G+/Twitter, I will forgo shout outs and offer this.

For everyone who braved the crawl
and saw the pokemon one and all
For everyone who gave a glance,
or proudly took the Iron Guard Stance

For everyone who shared a game
or joined the digital practice of our aim
For everyone who enjoyed the prank
and helped us acheive a whole new rank

For everyone who came to PAX
for all the excitement or just to relax
Thank you, I'll see you next year
in good health and good cheer.

klz · April 2012

cocowoushi, I believe I saw a copy of the game Spot it Thursday night near the Cards Against Humanity tables, and that's likely the game (really fun game in a portable round tin - I've met the publisher and they have a lot of different themes out there now).

For me, it was the joy of teaching a whole lot of people how to play Small World and Ticket to Ride at the Days of Wonder booth and Castellan at the Steve Jackson Games booth. Everyone I taught was enthusiastic and even if they did not enjoy the game (thankfully only a small number I believe I can count on one hand all weekend long), they were enjoying the convention and everyone around them. It truly makes it worth the money and trip.

Nullzone · April 2012

tvethiopia wrote: »

Vapok wrote: »

EDIT: This is also why I absolutely love my /dance party that I throw on Saturday night. Music is one of those things that brings people together, and the ability to completely let loose, be yourselves.. and have fun doing it without anyone making you feel like you're being judged is absolute serenity.

during /dance, my bf said to me "this is probably the least cool thing i have ever seen, but it's also the greatest." because it WAS the greatest, because no one cares if it's cool, it's just FUN. thank you so much for that, it was an amazing time. for the record, we were with the awesome little girl who just couldn't stop dancing. and it was her birthday. and it was the best.

Oh man, that kid KILLED IT. Just completely owned the floor. Loved every minute of it

acumen101 · April 2012

I want to say thank you to EVERYONE, especially those who attended the dinner. I'm sorry for having an über crappy memory and trying to remember who everyone was (especially since I briefly met most of the people at the dinner, but few I continuously saw throughout PAX) So next year, I will make sure to stop waiting for attendees earlier and just have them sent over to my table for ticket scanning.

Relativiox · April 2012

There is one person right now that made my PAX awesome. Saturday night was kind of boring and me and my cohort were sitting in Bandland just watching the booths with some other volunteers. I don't know her name, but she was cosplaying a character from an FPS (that I can't remember right now). Anyway thanks for being awesome and having fun with us that night! It made the time go much faster! Pic in spoiler, she's the one in the middle.

Spoiler:

OccamsRZR · April 2012

OminousLozenge wrote: »

Saturday night, I was killing time waiting for MC Frontalot's set, and I came across a couple playing a very colorful wood-stacking game called Villa Paletti. It was really tense watching them play, and really funny listening to their trash-talk, and I was mesmerized. They kindly let me watch, and when they finished that they invited me to play the next games on their personal itinerary. We played a game each of Impossible Machine and Lock & Key. I had so much fun I lost track of time and completely missed Front's set by the time we wrapped at quarter of two, but I had a blast with them. I meant to give them my contact info since they live relatively close, but alas it slipped my mind. Thank you, awesome couple from Baltimore, for a night of playing cool games I had never heard of!

Holy crap. I can't believe I made it on this list with all of these other awesome things! We also had a great time playing with you. I'm pretty sure we played about 8 hours of board games straight and it was a delight to have you join us. I didn't realize you were waiting for the concert. Sorry you missed it.

P.S. - We're not a couple, just really good friends. Everyone thought we were together, so don't worry about it.

SpectacledBear · April 2012

GhostDan wrote: »

FatherVenom wrote: »

Saturday: My shoelace got caught in the top of an escalator and was sucking me back in. Before I even realized the situation I had a giant PAXer wrap his arms around me to stop me from losing more ground while his buddy went over and hit the emergency brake. Punzie came over to unload my arms while the guy who hit the brake extricated my shoe. I was so dazed by the experience I only said a quick thank you. I wish I could have expressed myself better. I don't think my life was in jeopardy or anything but certainly my health was. I'm so grateful to my two rescuers.

I keep thinking of Mall Rats:
Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.

@GhostDan you and I were born from the same flame. A few times when on the escalators at PAX East I would randomly declare, "That kid is back on the escalator!"

OminousLozenge · April 2012

OccamsRZR wrote: »

Holy crap. I can't believe I made it on this list with all of these other awesome things! We also had a great time playing with you. I'm pretty sure we played about 8 hours of board games straight and it was a delight to have you join us. I didn't realize you were waiting for the concert. Sorry you missed it.

P.S. - We're not a couple, just really good friends. Everyone thought we were together, so don't worry about it.

I wasn't too concerned about missing the show. A good chunk of the concert content ends up on YouTube, so I caught the highlights later. Besides, PAX for me is all about the people. I miss half the structured stuff I intend to see every year because I get caught up in this game or that demo with great people and lose track of time, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Penny Arcade

[East] Amazing experiences with awesome people

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