Flabbergasm

Ok fine, 'flabbergasted' and 'orgasm' really don't go together in the context I am about to express.

So think bad sex.

I am flabbergasted, flabbergasted I say, at Bush's renunciation of Amnesty International's report on Bush's gulag, Guantanamo.

"It's absurd" Bush declares.

No, I'm not linking up a bunch of shit to support my view. It's everywhere you look.

Horowitz and his academic bill of rights, aka Affirmitive Action for whiny ass conservative students with persecution complexes.

Senate Republicans trying to rewrite every fucking rule they can to support their unprecedented grab for power.

Religous right-wing fundamentalists wanting to adopt frozen embryos. Yeah, that's for real.

Bush, suggesting that said embryo's ought to be adopted as opposed to being used for scientific research.

I live in America during a remarkably regressive time period. The reinvention of the Dark Ages.

Science is being ridiculed, creative design or intelligent design (read: creationism) is being touted as a viable alternate theory to evolution.

Religous conservatives and Republicans are in control of damn near everything and they are not happy about it. Perhaps they will never be happy but that's a topic for educated psychologists to debate.

Anybody out there feel good about the direction our country is headed?
Anybody that is except the Bush faithful that seem to think a frozen embryo is worth saving but fuck all those innocent Iraqi bystanders. (They're just collateral damage in the very just cause of shoving democracy down their throats in order to freeeee them)

I had trouble yesterday, Memorial Day. I thought about my grandfather, who served in Okinawa and the Korean War. He told some horrible stories. He told me Okinawa was the worst thing he had ever seen.
He died at the ripe old age of 65, but I tell you he had lived two lifetimes in his 65 years.

I thought about the guys in Iraq.

I thought about the Iraqi's being killed by our guys.

I wonder how Bush can reconcile war and the death of innocents with his anti-abortion/pro-life/freedom and liberty/religion is personal mantra's and viewpoints.

Whew, I'm full on negative today.

Hooters

Sigh.

A rep from our company came to visit the office today and took us out to lunch.
Normally I don't go, for a variety of reasons.

Well, Vulk asked where we would like to go and since I never go I said just go to the usual place. Vulk asks if that's ok with everyone and everyone agrees it's ok. So far, so good.

Turns out that Hooters is the regular place they go to for lunch. I roll my eyes and then start becoming an irritant to my fellow employees.

For several reasons I abhor Hooters.
First off, that fucking name really pisses me off, and that sign with the owl's eyes. Mabye I'm a stick in the mud but c'mon...

Why not name the place Tits instead? Why play the game of "hey, let's go to Hooters!" wink wink?

The food is deplorable. Bad. It sucks. Deep fried stuff that was supposed to resemble chicken. Yuk.

I got the chicken quesadilla and now I don't feel so good.

Anyhow, all of the "girls" have new outfits. They're all black now. Our analysis of this color change is that we suppose that black is slimming, and therefore the change. We pondered how much research went in to what color best titillates middle aged men.

And yeah, "girls" gets quotes cuz that's what they are. In fact, they come off as children to me. They sure aren't women.

So, we have this capitalist venture that supposedly caters to families, has a big owl on the front with really big eyes on it, and the wait staff is all "girls" with cleavage and hot pants.

I'm watching the interplay between the "girls" and the customers and it just gives me a very unclean feeling. I said to another fellow at the table that this seems like a one-off of kiddie porn to me.

The whole atmosphere is about objectifying not women but young girls, and selling crappy food while we're at it.

The swingline or whatever you call it properly, is so blatantly sexist it's appalling. In this day of computerized order taking and processing, they have a swingline that the "girl" has to reeeeeaaaach up to and hook the order on, and then zip it off to the kitchen. This is also a noisy endeavor as the "girls" yell something indecipherable as they zip the order to the kitchen. They might as well just yell "hey look at me, I'm arching way up to reach the swingline, check me out!"

Ok, so this is natural biology at it's finest. Young "girls", old men drooling and eating while drooling and leering at young "girls".

Geesh, I sound like a feminist...maybe.

Here's the other thing that intrigues me about Hooters here in Virginia.
Virginia is blueblood conservative with it's fair share of religous types. As I surveyed the crowd, I found the typical 40-50 yr old male dressed in business casual, and the younger blue collar set, and a couple of NASCAR fans with their girlfriends. Also, a couple of "girls" at a table by themselves. Turns out they were friends of one of the Hooter's "girls".

Anyhow, I didn't see any families like they show in the commercials.

And I have to wonder what kind of chit chat goes on at the table when mom and dad, son and daughter, are eating at Hooters.

"Hey dad, check out the tits on that one, her ass is looking fine too."
"Yeah son, your mom used to have an ass like that until she had you and your sister."
"But dad, mom still has a great set knockers."
"Yes daughter, she does. If you keep eating those chicken wings, you'll have an ass like mom used to, and you can come here and pick up one of these fine gentlemen over there, or over that way."
"Honey, quit telling her that!! You don't get an ass like I used to have by eating chicken wings!!"
Whole family: "HA HA HA HA HA HA"

Thus, I am an irritant to my fellow coworkers at Hooters.

As luck would have it...

Yesterday I posted about Blackbeard and Ocracoke Island.

Last night I saw on the news America's Best Beaches 2005.

Lo and behold...

I have to say that if you are looking for a tropical paradise with palm trees and coconuts, forget it. Okie is a sand bar off the coast of North Carolina. Some of the original inhabitants are shipwreckers that still have family lineage there. The dialect some of these people speak is fascinating and rather hard to understand. Think redneck/british/aussie/no idea and it sounds something like that, kind of.

The people are nice, there are few places to go, plenty of stuff like kayaking and bird watching etc. to do, but make no mistake: it's a big beach and that's largely it.

If you are a total naturalist/ecologist/biologist/tree-hugger type you will love this place.

It's a super romantic place to take your better half.

Bring mosquito repellent as those guys will fight 40 mph winds to suck your blood. Newbies to Okie are easy to spot due to the 'dance' that often occurs just before sunset as the little vampires come callin' for fresh blood.

It's a great place, voted the second best beach in America!

Blackbeard!

This story is of particular interest to me.

Ocracoke Island is part of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and I have been vacationing there for about 25 years now. I have lots of good friends there and if you like real beaches, it's the place for you.

Unlike Nags Head, there is limited development due to the fact that it is an island of which only a small portion is inhabitable.

Nags Head is very hoppin', with lots of people and traffic.

Ocracoke is pretty isolated, and you don't want to go there without a 4WD.
The beach is driveable and huge, and you cannot see one building from most of the beach. Once you get to Southpoint, you can see Ocracoke Village as it wraps around Silver Lake.

The story goes that Blackbeard was captured there in Silver Lake. There is a museum on the island, and of course every freakin' tourist momento pertaining to Blackbeard you could think of. I bought some posters for my nephews once. Of course they argued over who got what poster but in the end it worked out...kids.

July 4th on the island is awesome. It's one big family party the whole day with monster fireworks in the end. A couple of the highlites of the day are the parade and the show put on by a Blackbeard impersonator.

I had the fortune of swilling some booze and sucking down some oysters with this man and his lovely wife right after one of his shows.
Fascinating dude and he totally looked the part. Knew his stuff too.

If you do decide to go, this is the place to stay. My buddy and his family own and operate this inn, and if you are a fisherman, then this is the guy you want to fish with. Extraordinarily knowledgable in the area, and almost always guaranteed to catch something, Norman Miller is the man. Caught my first Red Drum on the Rascal during a blues blitz. It was AWESOME!

Anyhow, if you like seclusion, pirate stories and big beautiful beach, Okie is the place for you.

Tribute to U.S. Soldiers

ABC is planning a tribute to our fallen soldiers.

Watch it.
Watch all of it.
Listen to every name and look at every picture.

Think.

Stem Cells - Schem Stells

Last night I watched snips of Bush’s regressive posturing on stem cell research.

The House did approve a bill that the Preznit said he would veto. (details on the bills here, put H.R. 810, H.R. 2520 and S. 471 into the search)

The big intellectual statement, the basis for his regressive stance, the solid research and scientifically balanced facts to support his position is (drumroll): “It’s a mistake.”

And this is the same guy that said in his stellar televised press briefing recently “ I believe religion is a personal thing.”

Ok, so I can see the faith-based rhetoric here, as can all of the religious righties that were pissed off after he said ‘religion is personal’ in his press briefing. Ya know, the same ones that were pissed at Laura’s stand-up comic routine where she joked about being a desperate housewife and stuffing dollars into Chippendale dancers thongs.

So anyhow, I watched Bush’s face as he started his evangelical blah blah about stem cell research. He is one serious dude when it comes to his faith, or so it seems. I suppose he's confident about what he believes, even though it's packaged in faith foil as opposed to reality wrap.

I suppose he needs to be serious about it because without the bible thumpin’ crowd, Bush and his ilk would not be where he and his ilk are today. Quite frankly, that scares the hell out of me.

The religious right’s rhetoric is increasingly divisive and violent. I suppose Bush, Frist, and Delay have something to do with this. I suppose the downtrodden, persecuted, disadvantaged Christian-right feels vindicated now that people of Christian faith are in the halls of power and wielding it like a light saber.

"You're either with us, or against us."

I guess owning the White House, the House and Senate, and the right leaning tilt of the Supreme Court is not quite enough. Those poor bastards…don’t you feel bad for them?

Well, maybe it is a good idea to remove all of the checks and balances that protect the minority in a democracy. Screw the minority! We the majority know better anyway don’t we? Yeah, that’s it. If the Republicans can achieve this feat, I will certainly give them credit for taking advantage of the American system of political power. Republicans know how to grab power, that’s for sure.

So anyhow, if the Repubs can pull this off, then the Dems can use this against them once the Dems return to power, and they will return to power sooner or later. (Part of being a Republican is not looking ahead, and when you do look ahead you look in some direction that nobody else is looking)

When they do return to power, we can get on with the business of turning America into a Socialist/Commie/Gay Marrying/Godless/Open Borders nation that all liberals and Democrats are striving for. I mean, that is what we all want isn’t it? Don’t believe me? Just ask the Swift Boat Idiots, or Focus on Family, Gary Bauer, or any of the various assorted rightwing nut jobs… uh…er…um...prominent Republicans, they’ll tell you.

Remember, Iraq is a threat to the security of the world, Newsweek is giving America a bad name, and stem cell research is a ‘mistake’.

Kung Fu Monkey has an excellent post that mentions a few things like this, check the date on that post. I need to add Kung Fu to the blogroll, he’s pretty funny. Well, Kung Fu and few others. (hat tip to Vestal Vespa for the Kung Fu link)

There’s more bloggin’ work to do…ya know…it’s hard work. The work is hard. It’s…it’s…it’s hard work posting on the internets…

Speaking of stem cell research, Nightline ran a story last night about the ‘brain drain’ that is occurring in the U.S. Seems the restrictive THEOCRATIC ideals of Bush and his minions are truly dumbing down America.

South Korea made some announcements recently that should inspire somebody, but who and how bears further analysis.

Yep, just when you thought we could not get any dumber and lazier, Bush got elected to a second term.

‘Only in America’ is taking on a new look eh?

Today's Rant

Wow, It's been a week since the last post and it feels like only yesterday I was ranting and raving all over the place.

Hmm... Today's ranting is a little less inspired.

Did my usual lap around news sources and blogs and what not, nothing new to see. Same 'ol very stupid shit, different day.

The green beans have finally sprouted and most of 'em are about 2 inches tall. Yes, I drool over garden veggies. Veggies that come out of the back yard. Once those green beans get on a roll, I'll eat them every night for dinner.

The garden as a whole is coming along nicely. I have had a few battles with unseen critters and finally just deer netted the whole thing. I built a small fence and used chicken wire for that, and then laid deer netting across the top. I think next year I will just go ahead and build a greenhouse and use all chicken wire.

Anyway, I think the main culprits are starlings.
I watched one strut around the tomato plants ripping leaves off and dropping them on the ground. It appeared as though it was just damaging the plant because it wanted to.

I think that's what ate my squash plants when they popped up and ripped some of the leaves off of the Thai pepper plants.

Well, I could not shoot them all, so I built a big cage around my garden. They strut around the cage, and sometimes stick their beak in as far as it will go, but they cannot get to the green! Pretty soon I can take the cage down as the plants will be big enough to survive the starlings.

Visit the blogs on the blogroll for more entertainment and better reads, I'm just not up to quality ranting today.

Newsweek is Satan

Yesterday's Newsweek story really hit a nerve with me, thus a rant ensued. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that observes some of the things I observe and analyze accordingly, but apparently there are other whackjobs out there like me.

Here's more on the 'Newsweek is Responsible for the Middle East Hating the United States' deflection exercise.

Thanks to all that weighed in yesterday, hope it was therapeutic in some way or another.

recidivist let's us know how he really feels about Star Wars and wingnuts, and Dr. C. is not feeling too well about the landscape but offers inspiration none the less.

The Liberal Avenger weighed in on Newsweek-gate and also pointed us to dadahead for more liberal ranting and raving.

Had enough?

Well then, please drop by SadlyNo! to keep that blood pressure up.

If you'd rather calm down a bit, I recommend Vestal's place, but that's no guarantee.

Will be getting back to a discussion intiated by Dr. C. once Newsweek has been brought to the town square, tarred and feathered and stoned to death.

Happy Tuesday!

"People have lost their lives"

What parallel universe is the White House living in?

The White House is demanding an apology over Newsweek’s Koran abuse story.

These statements alone are worth gold:
"It's puzzling. While Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refuse to retract the story," said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met. In this instance it was not.
"This was a report based on a single anonymous source that could not substantiate the allegation that was made," McClellan added. "The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged. I just find it puzzling." (emphasis added)

Where has McClellan been?

Doesn’t he know that the image of the United States was tarnished long before Newsweek flubbed up? Does he think that these Muslims are rioting over Newsweek’s story alone?

Abu Ghraib helped polish our image quite a bit didn’t it? Hmmm, who was poo-pooing the reporting on that?

Maybe invading Iraq over mythical WMD’s has something to do with that image, but what the hell do I know? Maybe it was the switch to ‘liberating the Iraqi people’ that did the trick. Wait, isn’t that flip flopping?

Why is Condoleezza Rice asking that terror stats be removed from the Patterns of Global Terrorism removed from that report before going public? Maybe because attacks are up by about 380%? Bush himself justified this increase in his rare press conference by saying that when you engage the enemy, attacks will increase.
Um..yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Now, Condi points the finger at Syria.

Hey Condi, WE are the ones that invaded Iraq, WE are the ones that dismantled any and all of their security forces, WE are the ones that have plunged that country into anarchy and chaos, not the Syrians. WE are the ones that invaded a sovereign nation that did not provoke us, all while claiming the had weapons of mass destruction.

The audacity and cognitive disconnect of this administration is just unbelievable. That so many people buy into it and defend it is just as unbelievable.

Blame it on Clinton, it's all his fault anyway.

Bubble Boy Bush

An article by Tom Englehardt in the Asia Times is a must read for those that have reservations, disenchantment, skepticism, and outright disgust for our fearless leader.
I would suggest the same article for Bush supporters but since it does point out factually correct issues about Bush that may counter your ideal view of him, perhaps you should pass.

A portion of the article to spark your interest:

“As with his life and domestic travels, so in the President's international travels, he and his entourage -- including, as in a previous European trip, American escort vehicles as well as the President's official car (known to insiders as "the beast"), 200 secret service agents, 15 sniffer dogs, a Blackhawk helicopter, snipers, 5 cooks, 50 White House "aides," and the vast press corps that reports on "him" -- move inside an enormous bubble, a kind of dream world. All around him the central cities of the planet he's passing through are swept clear of life in order to create a Potemkin Earth just for his pleasure and safety. For Bush & Co., all life is increasingly lived inside that bubble, carefully wiped clean of any traces of recalcitrant, unpredictable, roiling humanity, of anything that might throw the dream world into question. In a sense, George's world has been well stocked with James Guckert clones. (Guckert is, of course, the "journalist" who, using the alias Jeff Gannon, regularly attended presidential news conferences and lobbed softball questions the President's way.) And George himself, whoever he may be (or may once have been), is a kind of Gannon, when you think about it. A character. A creation.”

Tom has his own place called TomDispatch.com and is a project of the Nation Institute.

Have fun!

The Finger has been Fingered

Looks like the Wendy's finger chili mystery has been solved.

This woman has a history of fraud, but it looks like it finally caught up with her.

People will do anything for money.

Update

Dr. C. sent us the link to the article in the New Yorker about the book "Everything Bad is Good for You" by Steven Johnson.

Please give it a read and weigh in.

Thanks Dr. C.!

Religion and Politics

I don't think this needs any commentary, but please feel free to add your two cents.

Stimuli for Kids

Dr. C., a visitor and a blogger that was recently added to my tiny blogroll,
commented here about the camping trip with my nephews and was interested in my observation of what constitutes stimuli to kids these days.

First off, I ask Dr. C. to provide some more info on the author and book the mentions in order to take a better look.

Secondly, if the author does indeed say that books are too “linear”, I have to disagree with that statement. Not sure what the author is reading, and how he comes to that conclusion, but I hardly think that you would want to deluge a child with multiple story lines and plots when the child is learning to read.

The idea that the average IQ has increased dramatically over the last 100 years is open to debate as well. I think that is relative at best.
For instance, could someone living now go back in time 100 years and survive in that setting? I know a lot of cell phone users that could not. This may be sexist, chauvinistic, non-pc, whatever, but the majority of young women on the campus where I attend college are complete and total slaves to their cell phones. Having a face to face conversation with someone that has a cell phone comes to an abrupt stop when the phone rings. I find this annoying and rude. Anyhow, when the cell phone rings, the world comes to a stop. I actually witnessed a young lady become red faced and anxious when she could locate her ringing cell phone somewhere in her purse. I was thinking that maybe they would leave a message, or the number would appear on the phone and she could call whoever that was back, but it did appear the end of the world was going to occur if she did not get to that phone.

But back to the IQ thing:
I don’t put much faith in IQ tests, and I cannot agree with the author’s comments as represented by Dr. C.

I can agree with the deluge of non-linear content on children can sharpen their thinking skills, but again I say it’s relative. Put a city boy in the country, or vice versa, and each one of them is going to have problems. My money is on the country boy in the city, as far as adapting and surviving and using their mind to do it.

The idea that video games are sharpening kids minds is subjective at best. When I watch my nephews play games, they react no different than I do when I play the same game. Once you have figured out the game, it becomes pretty linear.
Some video games have more than one ending depending on some of the choices made along the way, but in the end this can be easily manipulated as well.

The statement the author makes “if video games had been invented before books that we would have contempt for books” is probably true, however one of my nephews is a total book worm and loves video games as well. He becomes rather bored with the game once he has figured it out, yet he will revisit his biology book constantly. His biology book is a college level book, and he is 8 years old.

The techno age has definitely impacted our culture and world culture for that matter. There is instant news from around the world either on the tube or on the internets constantly. But, does that really make us smarter?

Modern conveniences make life easier for sure, but they also reduce the need for thinking. Example: the calculator. Simple math ain’t so simple when one has relied on the calculator for ease and quickness.

And ‘quick’ does not equal ‘smart’ in my book either.

Now that I’m finished pontificating, I will have to say I disagree with the author’s comments as represented by Dr. C., but at the same time I would like to see more of the authors’ book and comments.

Dr. C. also suggests he himself has very strong ideas about this and The Pepper Farm wants to hear what he has to say.

Weekend Fun

It was fun for my two nephews that’s for sure. The fun for me on the other hand, was constantly preparing meals, setting up camp, breaking down camp, washing faces and hands, preparing meals, sorting through the dirty clothes and clean clothes just so they would have something to wear home, etcetera etcetera!

Drake and Lance, 5 and 7 years old respectively, are now considered hard core campers. They managed to lose quite a few marshmallows to the fire, a few hot dogs, and have not yet worked up the courage to ‘poop’ in the woods. Drake however, has announced that he absolutely loves to pee outside. This is the first time he has done that, and asked my permission the first few times. After he realized he could pee anytime he wanted, and anywhere as long as it was away from camp, he would laugh hysterically as he did his business.

I tell you it was the funniest, cutest damn thing I have seen in some time.

They had a few ticks on them, managed to scratch their arms and legs up pretty well, and maybe later today or tomorrow I’ll hear about poison ivy rashes.

The one thing that makes them hard core campers was the rain. It rained on us for about an hour before dark. It got cool and foggy and everything was wet. This did not seem to bother them at all. They gleefully played in the rain and dried off by the fire.

They both handled a snake I found, which was a first for the both of them. We found a bat hanging upside down snoozing, some turtles, some frogs, some very large spiders, and they marveled at the geese that honked and flew over in the morning.

They did a lot of exploring and hanging out by the pond, but this never lasted more than 30 minutes and they were back at camp announcing that they were bored. That lasted about 15 minutes before they were off again. All I had to do was ask them to help me pick up the trash around the campsite or help with something or anything and suddenly they found something else to do.

The one thing I noticed was the difference in stimulus between them and myself when I was their age. I grew up next to a swamp, literally, and that provided me with a wonderful, pristine environment in which to play. Today’s kids seem to be stimulated by electronics more than anything. When I was a kid, I would leave for that swamp at first light and would not come home until dark. These two could not find enough to entertain them for more than a half hour. They decided to leave their bikes at home, and maybe next time they will bring them.

It was a great experience for all involved. It was nice to get away and it was real cool watching these two boys adjust to their surroundings. Even though they were bored bored bored, they want to camp for six days next time, and Drake wants to come and live with me now.

The next camping trip will be in the mountains near Sherando Lake, a place where I trained for mountain bike racing a few years back. It’s very rocky with plenty of trails that are super rugged (click on any of those pictures to get the idea). Have found the Timber Rattler here, as well as black bear, white tails, and my personal favorite, the ruffed grouse. I came across a covey of these birds one spring and instead of flying up like quail do, they run away. It was something to see; these eight or so birds the size of chickens with their head down and scurrying like mad through the underbrush. If you have ever walked up on a covey of quail, then you know how that can scare the shit out of you when the fly off. It's the same effect with the grouse, only they run! You'll find yourself laughing after the fact.

Anyway, I’m hopin’ to at least see a rattler and show these boys how the snake behaves when it senses danger or is aggravated. Lance knows the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes from text books, but he has never seen the differences up close. The pictures don’t always tell the story. For instance, the brown water snake looks just like a water moccasin (cottonmouth) to most people, but they are worlds apart in behavior and venom.

In other news:
While perusing my favorite blogs and some others today, I’ve noticed that the blogosphere, like a lot of –spheres, is yet another big picture of high school, x number of years later. Same cliques different names. This clique poking fun at that clique, that clique jealous of this clique, that clique over there spreading rumors and lies about that other clique over there, and some cliques in their own world oblivious to the rest of the world.

As much fun as I could’ve had with tags with that last paragraph, I’ll leave that up to you!

Drive-by Post...

Hey hey!

My sister gave birth to her twin boy and girl yesterday at 11:30 am.

That's 2 more monsters that uncle jalapeno get's to take care of. In fact, this weekend I get the 5 and 7 yr. old boys so my sis can adjust to the routine of twins.

Gotta hand it to 'em, they were more than ready for this. The baby room is all fixed up and ready to go. Obviously they learned from the first four children they had. That's right, they have six freagin' kids now!!!

Anyhow, taking the boys Friday and returning them on Sunday. The weekend activities for these two sheltered young lads will include: helping me plant the rest of the garden, some maintenance on said garden, heading out to the country on Saturday morning to cut, split and stack wood for the better part of the day, and of course a bunch of play time.

The 7 yr. old is a little brainiac, loves school and wants to be a scientist. The boy is frothing at the mouth to get my Biology book and this weekend he gets to have it. My buddy's place in the country has a beaver pond, and that will keep them both entertained once they become bored with wood cutting.

At the end of that day, I will announce that we will be camping out in that field. They have never camped out so this is going to be fun!

It's about 30 acres wooded, of which about 3 acres is the field. Plenty of wildlife and all of that for these young boys to explore. Bringing both of their bicycles and the special event will be getting the 5 yr. old to ditch his training wheels. I guess that means I'll have to bring my bike too, and fall down some so he won't feel too intimidated.

It's been a little chilly here over the last week. My tomato plants don't look happy at all, and I have yet to put out my pepper plants because of the chill. It's like early April here as opposed to early May. This will be the latest I have ever gotten all the food in the ground. Will warm up this weekend, back to seasonal temps, so it's all going in the ground with the help of my two nephews.

Ok, back to the books! Tonight and tomorrow is it baby!
Then August will be here and it all starts again.

Ciao!