uncategorized Archives - Hannah With A Camera

five things I wish I knew when I graduated college

May 20, 2020 No Comments

I graduated one year ago on May 19th, 2019. As I started getting reminders of college with Snapchat memories and ‘one year ago today’ Facebook notifications, I wanted to reflect on what I’ve learned since then. While I definitely don’t know everything, and I certainly don’t claim to – I’m only 22! I just wish I had someone to tell me this advice when I had just graduated!

5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Graduated College | Hannah With a Camera

Moving to a new city can be the best thing you do for yourself – but also one of the hardest and scariest things

Cecret Lake in Utah – I’m used to a different landscape in Kansas lol

I grew up in Kansas and went to school in Kansas, only a half-hour away from my hometown. I don’t regret this choice for a second, the University of Kansas was my dream school and I love every experience I had there. However, I saw my family often and I didn’t have a huge adjustment to college because I was familiar with the environment. In July of 2019, I moved to Salt Lake City, UT, for my new job. I had only visited once in May for three days only just to find an apartment.

My parents helped move me out there and get settled, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be for me mentally once I was alone. I didn’t know anyone before moving and honestly, I really struggled for a while when I would come home to an empty apartment, or realize I had no friends to hang out with. It took a good amount of time for me to adjust and realize that while making new friends was hard and takes a lot of time, it was worth it for my mental health. I also had to push myself to get out and explore the area on my own and be comfortable with being alone – something I had never really had to do before.

Decorate your new place right away to make it feel like home

My apartment back when my plants weren’t dead haha

This seems so simple but it truly makes a difference! I waited until September to finally hang things up in my apartment and get settled. I had planned on finding a roommate and moving pretty quickly, so that was my justification. However, once I put up pictures of my friends and family and decorated the place to fit more of my style, I was a lot happier when I spent time at home.

Master 5 new recipes

I didn’t cook at all my freshman year through my junior year, because I lived in the dorms, then in my sorority house for two years. Even when I lived in a house during my senior year, I took advantage of free food from work and didn’t cook that often. I wish I had known some simple recipes to be able to whip up when I came home from work! I can’t say I’m a master chef by any means now, but I know a little more about cooking and eat a little healthier because of it.

Take time to travel if you haven’t already

I did a 24-day trip through Europe with EF Ultimate Break in June, right after graduating, and I’m SO glad I did. It’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve had in life so far. I’ve always wanted to travel but the timing never worked out for me to study abroad while in college. If you’re still in college, that is my BIGGEST regret – do it!! Taking this trip helped me realize that travel is a priority in my life, so I budget my salary accordingly and try to take every opportunity I can to travel when I can with my work schedule. I also travel for work (I got to go to seven different cities with work in this last year) and try to explore the area while I’m there!

Keep strong relationships with your friends from home and college

Even while I made new friends in Utah, I made sure to also prioritize my relationships with people from home. I am very close to my family and make the time to talk with them every day (my parents know I call like clockwork when I leave work, haha) and this really helped my mental health. It was also really helpful for me to keep a sense of normalcy in my time of change by being able to talk to my old friends and check in on them. It’s hard being so far away from them, but it makes it even more fun when I’m back home to visit.

I hope this helps anyone post-grad! If you’ve graduated already, what’s one thing you wish you would have known?

xo, Hannah

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my long-winded thoughts on covid-19

March 13, 2020 No Comments

I visited my cousin Rachel this week as she studied abroad in Paris and wrote this on the plane ride back –

There is nothing quite like waking up in Paris at 3am to your cousin telling you that your parents, thousands of miles away, have been calling, and you need to answer and the president has essentially given you 48 hours to get back to the United States.

Of course, this wasn’t actually the case – but it was extraordinarily unclear when us and her roommates gathered in the living room and listened to the 30-second clip on Twitter of Trump’s address. Articles about the travel restrictions in the New York Times or the Washington Post were merely 10 minutes old and extremely vague, not helping our anxiety. (We learned later in the day that this didn’t apply to US citizens, which would have have been helpful to know at the time of announcement.)

Before leaving for this trip, I was not worried. I knew I was healthy, there were minimal cases in France, and I would only be there for a week – how bad could it get? I arrived Sunday, and by Monday afternoon, my cousin and her roommates were questioning when they would get the inevitable email from KU saying they needed to come home (within a week, they anticipated, not in a rush like this). By Tuesday, we were all tracking the numbers in France and comparing them to the numbers in Italy, frequently during the day.

Wednesday was the same, with the girls deciding to make the most of the rest of their time and fit everything in on their bucket list. There was a group dinner with the entire study abroad group, already planned but entirely coincidental that it would be their last night all together.

Thursday morning we got the announcement and one of her roommates was on the next flight out by 10am, with all of us packing the room and figuring out what was truly essential to fit in her suitcase so she could get to the airport in time. I feel like the last two days of my trip were spent in a little bit of shock and a lot of uncertainty. I already had planned to leave on my Norwegian Air flight to LAX Friday afternoon, but not on these terms. I can’t imagine exactly how Rachel and the other study abroad students feel, having their time unexpectedly cut short.

As I said before, I went into this trip thinking it would be totally fine and thinking the whole coronavirus was overhyped a little by the media. Being in France those last couple of days, I was surprised by how everything basically operated as normal. The Louvre and a few other museums limited their entrance to pre-bought tickets or only 1,000 people in the building at a time, but public transit ran as normal and you only saw a few people wearing masks in the city. I feel that France may not be taking it as seriously as it should be; conversely, America is taking the proper precautions – but the people are not.

I’ve seen a lot of jokes about cheap flights abroad and just taking that trip just for fun anyway, because “you’re young and healthy and won’t get sick.” But if you look at Italy, which had the same mentality, they are now being totally overrun in hospitals and their healthcare system is struggling to manage all the patients. I believe the biggest thing to remember here is it’s not about you in this situation. It’s about you potentially bringing back the coronavirus, asymptomatic, and spreading it to the shelves of the grocery store or the workout class where someone is immunocompromised, that doesn’t have the capabilities to properly fight the coronavirus.

I am not saying people should just quit their lives. But if you have the capacity to work from home, and socialize a little less, and not travel into high-risk areas, it would help to be kinder to your community.

I can’t say I haven’t been shocked by the almost immediate impact the virus has seemed to make in the last week on sports – it was jarring to read that the tournament is canceled – but I do think the precautions are necessary. I also think it’s important to note that your feelings are valid about your athletic season ending early, the potential of graduation being canceled, etc – you’re allowed to be upset about the things that matter to you without invalidating the impact of the coronavirus.

I wish I had an answer to the questions we all have right now. All I know is all we can do is have compassion for one another and be conscious of how our actions can affect our neighbors.

Stay safe,

Hannah

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decorating my apartment with parabo press

September 29, 2019 No Comments

I’ve lived in Salt Lake City for almost three months now, which is crazy to say! I’ll admit that it still doesn’t truly feel like home, but I’ve finally gotten around to decorating the majority of my apartment to pull the whole thing together.

I’m excited to be working with Parabo Press on this post! I’ve worked with Parabo Press before, in college, so it’s fitting that I’m working with them again. As a photographer, print quality is very important to me. After my trip to Europe this summer, I knew I wanted to print a lot of my favorite photos to hang in my apartment.

My decorating style is very precise – but it changed a lot through my shopping process. You can see my original style and how it changed just by looking at my Pinterest board. I would still love to make my bedroom more of the bright, bohemian style as it’s somewhat plain right now, but I think I need more artwork for that.

Parabo makes some of the highest quality prints that I’ve seen. I’m a fan of the matte look, and they do it best! Not only is the quality phenomenal, but the colors are very true to the photos you submit online. I use Lightroom to edit my photos and edited my photo of Cinque Terre (the big one in the middle) specifically to match my apartment, bringing out the blues in the ocean and the pinks and oranges in the houses.

The large print in the middle is a Square Engineer Print (only $25) and it’s three feet by three feet. This would be a perfect piece for a family photo, a photo from a vacation or even a photo of a pet! Even though my print was very large, the photo quality is still gorgeous and isn’t pixelated.

The smaller prints are 5×7 Classic Prints that come in a set of 20 photos for $15. They also have 4×6 options, as well as larger sizes in their Fine Art Prints. I chose a photo from each city I visited, with similar bright colors as my center photo.

Here’s a link to the frames surrounding the large print and the wooden rail hanging for the large print.

Below are several links to similar couches. I got mine from Ashley Furniture and I would recommend checking out a showroom or something similar instead of just buying online, because there was such a wide range of comfort levels. Originally I was interested in a cream-colored couch but I’m glad I moved away from that idea! This couch is the perfect neutral color and it’s also big enough for multiple people. (I couldn’t resist adding the gorgeous blue couch!)

Here’s a link to my throw from Amazon for only $20! Mine is in the color orange but I would say it’s more of a salmon. My current pillows are from Walmart but I think I need more.

The family photo on my TV stand is another piece from Parabo! I decorated this space with a ladder shelf from Target (an impulse buy that was discounted back in August). This is the exact one, but here are a few similar options. I considered hanging something above the TV, but I’m glad I strayed away from that. I think it would have made the space too busy.

My plants are an aloe plant and a climbing peperomia. I got the aloe plant from Walmart’s nursery and the peperomia at a thrift sale, surprisingly. They’re both very easy to care for. This is a link for my bookends. My KU print on the bottom shelf is linked here!

Here’s a link to my barstools from Target. Originally I had neutral metal ones but I’m so happy I returned them for these! They’re comfortable and sturdy and add the perfect pop of color in my kitchen/living room area.

My rug, my chair and my TV stand are all from Utah Furniture Deals. If you’re in Utah (or even close enough in Colorado/Idaho/Wyoming), I cannot recommend her enough! She buys wholesale furniture and sells them at a lower price. She has the best collection of styles and helped me find the pieces I wanted. I will admit that I really wanted a hot pink accent chair, but I’m glad I chose the navy instead. It balances out the room and I think the pink would be too overwhelming.

I know everyone that reads my blog isn’t local (and the majority of my readers are still in Kansas City), so here are some links to chair and rug options that are similar.

I also ordered a Newsprint (only $25) of one of my favorite photos I took at KU, overlooking the football stadium and campus with all the leaves changing in fall. I spent the majority of my time in college with the football program and I’m happy I have this photo to commemorate that. The Newsprints come folded into fourths and have a very similar feel to a newspaper with bright, true colors.

I hung my newsprint using Good Hangups. It’s a set of magnetic stickers that come with strong magnets, so you can easily stick the magnet on the wall and hang your photo without damaging the print or the wall. Genius.

The photos hanging above are a mix of old Parabo Press Square Prints from my last collaboration and the Classic Prints. They are photos of my friends and family and the perfect reminder of home.

Thanks for reading!
xo, Hannah

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moving and back from europe | life update vol. 7

July 11, 2019 No Comments

Hello! I’m back from my European adventure and in the same week that I returned, I moved two states away from home and started a new job. This life update is much needed as a lot of changes have happened lately!

Moving to Salt Lake City

If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you probably didn’t see my announcement. I accepted a job with the University of Utah football team as a content creator – which means I’ll be helping with graphic design, photography, social media and more. I’ve only had about two days of work so far but I love it already and I’m excited to dive into the season and start creating awesome work for the team.

I moved to Salt Lake City very recently and am just now settling into my apartment. I’m still attempting to decorate, which has been such a fun process but also a little frustrating – I am very picky with my style and I’ve had to come to peace with the fact that I’ll have to invest in some of my furniture to get a good-looking piece. Here’s a quick look at my Pinterest board for the style I’m going for – it’s a mid-century modern/bohemian sort of style.

New blog series

I’m so excited to share this new series on my blog: travel journals! I just went on a three-week-long trip to Europe with EF Ultimate Break (NOT sponsored, I just really love the company) and visited 12 cities in 24 days. This was my first time going abroad and I loved every second of it. I do want to preface these by saying that these posts will be recaps of my time in each city, NOT a guide to each city. I did do my research beforehand, but we were in each city for about three days tops and we just truly couldn’t do everything, so I don’t want to pose as an expert.

Those will be coming soon – I’m trying to integrate them with other blog posts so it’s not just one big block of only travel content. Let me know if there’s anything you want to see on the blog. I have some new fun content planned with my move, but I’m always open to new ideas.

Thank you all for following along on my little adventure!

xo, Hannah

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how the saalt cup changed my monthly routine

December 22, 2018 No Comments

Disclaimer: this post is about to get real personal so if you know me personally, maybe don’t read this!

When this email landed in my inbox with an opportunity to partner with Saalt, I was definitely intrigued. I’ve read a lot about menstrual cups before and always having to go through so many tampons on my period sucks. No one truly enjoys their period (and if they say they are, they’re liars). The Saalt cup is an option to make that time of the month a lot more manageable.

To get the full experience, I tried the Saalt cup out for a full cycle before writing this post.

Saalt Cup | Hannah With a Camera

A box of tampons costs about $7-$10, while the Saalt cup only costs $27 – and it can last for up to ten years. Let’s say you spend about $8/month on a box of tampons and pads. Multiply that by 12, and you’re spending $96 a year on period care. Multiply that by ten and you’re spending at least $960 alone on period care. That’s insane! The Saalt cup is a much better option.

Not only is it super cost-efficient, but it’s also great for the environment. Instead of being made of plastic, the Saalt cup is reusable and made of soft silicone. It’s chemical-free and you can use it for up to 12 hours at a time. I’ve read about other women running, hiking, etc and not even being able to feel that the cup was in.

Saalt Cup | Hannah With a Camera

The cup comes with a small carrying bag to make your experience totally portable. The team at Saalt was also kind enough to send over a bar of chocolate with my cup – and period or not, I won’t ever turn that down 🙂

Saalt Cup | Hannah With a Camera

My experience

I’m not going to lie: Inserting this at first was extremely uncomfortable. I tried it the first night and could not figure it out for the life of me. I then continued to try for the next week and just gave up. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong!

I’ve had this for over a month and just tried again. After doing thorough research, I finally got the hang of it. If you have questions and need more details, check here for their FAQs. They answer almost every question you can think of. This was super helpful for me. You can also message them on social media and a customer service rep will get back to you quickly. (I ended up having a small issue with the cup itself and the customer service was amazing!) The good thing about this product is while it may not be widely talked about, many women have used it and have experienced the same issues that you may be having while using the cup.

The biggest benefit I’ve found is the time I’ve saved. I can put the cup in in the morning and not have to worry about it until I’m home at the end of the day. I’m a college student with two internships, so I’m always on the go. In my first cycle of using the cup, I had a super busy schedule but I didn’t have to worry about my period at all. You can leave it in overnight as well. It may take some time to get used to, but once you figure it out, it makes a world of a difference. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to tampons.

Saalt Cup | Hannah With a Camera

Another bonus: with the purchase of your Saalt cup, they give back! This women-run organization gives to both HER International and PERIOD.org. HER International empowers women in Canada and Nepal through education, life skills and microfinance while PERIOD seeks to serve, educate, and advocate for menstrual equity through youth-run chapters at high schools and colleges worldwide.

This is so important because there’s a direct correlation between period care and women’s rights. In places where women don’t have access to period care, they end up having to skip school and work, losing educational opportunities and work opportunities. Women that do have access to period care, thanks to these charities, are able to have the same opportunities as men.

Thanks for reading!

xo, Hannah

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70s inspired fashion

November 4, 2018 No Comments

Fashion is cyclical and this fall, 70s fashion is totally in. I’m not adventurous enough to rock the bell bottoms or the Lennon circle sunglasses, but I’m into all the trends that I’m wearing in this outfit below. (Apologies to my grandparents and parents reading this, who will surely tell me I’m not wearing ~true~ 70s fashion!)

Mock-neck sweaters are the perfect compromise between a boatneck sweater (shows too much skin when it’s cold) and turtleneck (typically uncomfortable). Both mock-neck and roll-neck have been super on-trend lately – when J.Crew brings back a sweater from forty years, you know it’s a classic.

The jean jacket is the quintessential fall accessory. I’ve been meaning to get a lighter wash jean jacket and that may have looked better in this outfit, but I worked with what I had! I did photograph this with my red leather jacket but the outfit looked much better with the denim, in my opinion. Still trying to figure out how to style the leather, so if you have suggestions please leave them below!

Lastly, in comes the suede skirt. I love the simple A-line silhouette and the pockets are the perfect detail. I remember my mom always trying to get me to wear brown clothing (shoes, pants/skirts, etc) when I was young and I hated it, but I’m really trying to embrace the neutral more. This skirt is perfect – and I’m tempted to pick up the grey or burgundy color too.

Suede skirt (comes in 4 colors) // Mock neck tee (comes in 4 colors) // Jean jacket // Similar booties

Also, sorry if you saw my phone in some of these pictures – I lost my remote that I always use so I had to use my phone’s app instead. Just ordered a new one so more outfit photos are to come!

Hope you enjoyed the post – I took these during rush hour at a busy intersection so you know I really go the extra mile for this!!

xo, Hannah

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easy cheese bacon & egg biscuits

July 2, 2018 No Comments

I had meant to get ahead on blog posts and schedule several posts during the summer so I’d be prepared for school starting back up again…but so far that’s not happening! The week after finals, I immediately started my internship. I work at Populous, a sport architecture firm as a marketing intern. I just finished my journalism capstone course doing a semester-long strategic campaign on college football (could anything be more fitting for me) with Populous, then I was lucky enough to be chosen for their summer internship. I’m loving it and can’t believe I only have a month left before I go back to school for my other job with the football team.

I work 8-6 Monday through Thursday and 8-12 on Fridays. I love the summer Fridays concept, but the 8-6 days can be pretty long, especially when I have to leave by 7:20 to beat the traffic. When I’m running around in the morning making breakfast, I want something that can keep me energized until lunch. However, I also cherish my sleep and try not to wake up too early if I don’t have to.

A great solution to this dilemma are these egg muffins. It’s a biscuit, scrambled egg and cheese all in one easy breakfast. I’ll make these over the weekend, then refrigerate a bunch and just reheat them in the mornings.

Easy Egg and Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
crumbled bacon (about 4-5 strips)
1 can refrigerated biscuits (10 count)
Chopped vegetables (optional, I added spinach)

Easy Egg and Cheese Biscuits

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
Place eggs, milk, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl.
Whisk to combine.
Press each biscuit round into 10 regular-sized muffin cups that have been liberally sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake for 6 minutes, then remove them from the oven.
Use the end of a thick wooden spoon (or your fingers) to press the middle of the biscuits in so there’s room for the egg mixture.
Pour the egg mixture into each partially baked biscuit.
Top evenly with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese. (You can add other toppings here if desired, tomato/spinach would be good as well!)
Bake for 13 minutes or until eggs are set.
Remove from oven and let cool in pan, then remove from pan and place in a large plastic bag or plastic container.

Easy Egg and Cheese Biscuits

For eating:

Just reheat each cup for about 1-2 minutes each. They’re really easy to eat on the go!

Hope you enjoy!

xo, Hannah

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2017 recap

December 31, 2017 2 Comments

For my last post of 2017, I decided to create a video of clips I’ve taken the whole year. Hope you enjoy!

See you in 2018,

Hannah

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merry christmas!

December 25, 2017 No Comments

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you had the best holiday season. I’m so grateful to everyone that reads my blog and for helping keep my little corner of the internet alive!

See you in 2018,
Hannah

fitness, school, uncategorized

Junior Year Update

December 18, 2017 2 Comments

Hi everyone! I just finished my first semester of junior year and I thought I’d share a more personal look into how my life went.

School

I’m still a graphic design and journalism major. It was a pretty tough semester on me in terms of workload even though I only technically took 3 “real” classes. I took 12 credits of classes, 6 classes overall. Mondays and Wednesdays consisted of Women’s Strength Lifting from 9am to 10am, then Typography from 11:30am to 2:30pm.

Strength Lifting

I loved my strength lifting class and highly recommend taking a class like this, or an intro to weights class if they offer them at your campuses’ rec center! Having it with only girls in the class made me feel comfortable if I didn’t know a certain exercise or if one of the other girls in the class pointed out my improper form. We would have a sheet for every day and now I have a full binder of workouts from my whole semester. I definitely noticed a big improvement in my fitness overall and I’d love to share a workout routine if you’re interested.

me after a required yoga course…I also learned that I absolutely hate yoga, haha

Typography

My typography class was very hard. The whole graphic design program at my school is really hard, not going to lie, and a lot of work, but it definitely pays off in the end. There were several nights I was up til at least 1 or 2am working on my projects due for the next day. This was my favorite project of the semester when we got to rebrand an airport anywhere in the world. (Any other design majors out there? I’d love to follow you on Behance!)

Tuesdays and Thursdays consisted of Intro to 10K Training from 8am to 9am (ish), Message Development (journalism) at 9:30am to 10:45am, and Principles of Visual Communication from 11:30am to 2:30pm. On Tuesdays I’d also have my journalism lab from 2:30pm to 3;45pm and every other Thursday for the first half of the semester was a Hallmark Symposium lecture.

Running

Intro to 10K training was a true mental test! All the class essentially consisted of was showing up in proper workout attire and running. We also had a few lectures about proper nutrition, foam rolling, etc. I began to learn that I actually enjoyed running (what?) and especially enjoyed running longer distances. This class motivated me to get out and run–because getting a B in my 1-credit running class would be extremely lame. post-run view on campus

Journalism

My journalism class was fairly easy and we just created several different television, radio, and print ads. I’m a fan of this one that I made–I thought it was pretty clever. This class wasn’t particularly difficult, but because it was right after my running class, I found it difficult to stay awake sometimes! I would have thought that working out in the morning would keep me energized but it had the opposite effect sometimes. I’m still trying to figure that one out–I think it may have been an issue with not eating enough after running.

Design

My other design class was also difficult. I found that I enjoyed these sorts of projects more. We designed two posters for an event (I picked Carnival in Rio), an album cover for Nirvana, a restaurant rebranding, and a motion graphic. The motion graphic was our last project in tandem with our type project, and I loved learning Adobe After Effects for this project. We were assigned a font and then had to illustrate certain characteristics of the font.

My journalism lab was just an extension of the lecture class. The Thursday class, Hallmark Symposium, is a lecture series presented by Hallmark (did you know they’re headquartered in Kansas City?) by notable designers and artists. We had to attend 5 out of the 7 lectures offered so I just knocked out the first five in a row. The most exciting speaker was Andy Beall, a Pixar animator who’s worked on several noteworthy films like Up, WALL-E, The Incredibles (I and II), Brave, Ratatouille, Monsters University, and more! It was very cool to hear his insight on the little nuances that make great designs.

Sorority

As you might know, I’m an Alpha Delta Pi and I’m living in the house again this semester. It’s extremely convenient and I like living close to all my friends in the house. However, as I’ve gotten older I’m excited to live in my own house next year with several of my friends! I also finished up my position as PR chair and decided not to run for a position again.

Etc

I love my job more than ever and I’m enjoying every second of it. I got to work during fall camp in place of sorority recruitment and it was the best decision for me. It still makes me laugh thinking of how I got involved in this. Even though most of my childhood was spent going to every home KU football game imaginable, I’d spend practically all of them reading or playing on my Nintendo DS. I also spent more time than ever hanging out with my friends and developing closer friendships, and I’m especially thankful for that.

As of now, I’m taking an ethics class over winter break. I’m also attempting Vlogmas! My first two videos are up on my channel now. I’d love if you watched them and subscribed as well! My first two videos were interesting but I’ve decided to only make videos on days that I’m doing exciting things. I don’t like watching vlogs of other people sitting around and studying, so I chose to wait until winter break to start filming. If they go well then I think I might continue until I get back from winter break.

Thanks for reading!

xo, Hannah

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