Category Archives: Jesse

Holidays, Jay, Jesse, Movies, Still Life, Willy, WPC - Reminder

Your Real World Away

February 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

Today is Valentine’s Day. I have been told that today is a holiday invented by the greeting card companies. I don’t know if that is the case, but I can’t think of the greeting card industry without thinking about one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies of the last 10 years. 11 years actually. The scene where Tom quits the greeting card company in 500 DAYS OF SUMMER:

(Sorry, some mild profanity)

(set at a meeting to discuss new greeting card ideas)

Tom: Yeah, uh, this is… And Rhoda, no disrespect, but um, this is total shit.

McKenzie: Tom!

Tom: “Go for it” “You can do it”? That’s not inspirational, that’s suicidal. If pickles goes for it right there, that’s a dead cat. These are lies. We’re liars. Think about it. Why do people buy these things? It’s not ’cause they wanna say how they feel. People buy cards ’cause they can’t say how they feel or they’re afraid too. We provide the service that lets them off the hook. You know what? I say to hell with it. Let’s level with America. At least let them speak for themselves! Right? I mean, look! What-What is this? What does it say? “Congratulations on your new baby.” Right? How ’bout, “Congratulations on your new baby. Guess that’s it for hanging out. Nice knowing you.”

Vance: Sit down, Hansen.

Tom: How bout this one, with all the pretty hearts on the front? I think I know where this ones going. Yep! “Happy Valentines Day, sweetheart. I love you.” That sweet? Ain’t love grand? This is exactly what I’m talking about. What does that even mean, “love”? Do you know? Do you? Anybody?

McKenzie: Tom…

Tom: If somebody gave me this card, Mr. Vance, I would eat it. It’s these cards, and the movies and the pop songs, they’re to blame for all the lies and the heartache, everything. We’re responsible. *I’m responsible.* I think we do a bad thing here. People should be able to say how they feel, how they really feel, not you know, some words that some stranger put in their mouths. Words like “love”… that don’t mean anything. Sorry, I’m sorry. I, uh… I quit. I’m… There’s enough bullshit in the world without my help.

Well anyways, I made you a picture for Valentine’s Day:

Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope yours is exactly how you want it to be!

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I’ve resolved to make public the dates and movies of Union Street Theater’s Monthly Movie Night, because (and get this) you are invited! February Movie Night will be very special, it is going to be a Leap Day Movie Night.

Date: Saturday, February 29, 2020
Time: 6 PM
Place: Union Street Theater
Address: 1416 Union Street, Boone, Iowa

The theme this month is romance. The B movie is TEETH.

TEETH

Here is a quick synopsis of the film:

Dawn (Jess Weixler) is an active member of her high-school chastity club but, when she meets Tobey (Hale Appleman), nature takes its course, and the pair answer the call. They suddenly learn she is a living example of the vagina dentata myth, when the encounter takes a grisly turn.

The feature will be RED ROCK WEST:

RED ROCK WEST

I get it. I know what you’re thinking. Nicolas Cage is the worst! And you are almost right. Kevin Costner is actually the worst and Nicolas Cage is the second worst. Remember that while Cage is awful, he did manage to make RAISING ARIZONA and ADAPTATION. 2 great movies! All Kevin Costner can say is that he was in THE UNTOUCHABLES where Sean Connery carried him.

Here is a quick synopsis of RED ROCK WEST:

When unemployed ex-marine Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage) stumbles into a bar in Red Rock, Wyo., the owner, Wayne (J.T. Walsh), mistakes him for a hired killer and offers him $10,000 to kill his wife, Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Michael plays along, taking half the money up front, then tells Suzanne what her husband is planning. She seduces Michael and proposes that he kill her husband instead. While he weighs his options, the real killer (Dennis Hopper) turns up looking for his money.

I believe that Jay will be holding his second Root Beer Symposium that night, so an added bonus will be blind taste testing a series of root beers.

I can’t guarantee your mental health if you attend Union Street Theater Movie Night. I still believe that Movie Night broke Willy.

March Movie Night will be a tribute to the great Kirk Douglas. Movies have yet to be determined at this time.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FAMILY:

FAMILY

A FAMILY photo is any photo of a group of people that share a common relationship or common values or common purpose or even common DNA.

Happy photo harvesting!

9 Emotions Project, Andy, Becky, Bill, Birthdays, Black & White, Carla, Jay, Jesse, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Shannon, Still Life, Tamara, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 230 – REFLECTION

February 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today is a very big day in the history of my oldest friends. Not just because one of my old friends climbed a building and set his shirt on fire and got arrested yesterday. No, because today is Bill’s birthday!

Happy birthday Bill!

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Looks like the streak lives on for one more week. 19 weeks in total. REFLECTION struck a chord with the absolute bare minimum to extend the streak of double digit submissions!

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:

Micky Augustin

Monica Henning

Kim Barker

Michelle Haupt

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Andy Sharp

Becky Parmelee

Jesse Howard

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:

FAMILY

FAMILY! What a great theme! But what is a FAMILY picture? A FAMILY picture is any picture that involves a FAMILY. And don’t let any Scrooge McDuck’s from Ankeny try to tell you that FAMILY can only be defined by DNA. Remember, a true family provides its members with emotional and spiritual kinship through:

+ Shared values, beliefs, and traditions
+ Common experiences and activities
+ Unconditional, non-judgmental support

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very familial Monday!

Art, Black & White, Jesse, Nature, Road Trip

Birthday Road Trip – Malanaphy Springs

February 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

After we left The Little Brown Church and the possible time travelers but probably LARPers, our next stop was the Malanaphy Springs Waterfall. It is the lesser known waterfall in/near Decorah. It isn’t as pretty as Dunning’s Springs. It definitely isn’t as accessible. It is a good 20-30 minute hike on a trail that isn’t well curated.

With that being said, it is definitely worth the extra work. It is a place out in the woods that is beautiful and private. A person can collect their thoughts there.

Here are some pictures:

I would like to return to this waterfall at some point this year. Looking ahead, I’ll probably take my birthday road trip on May 15 this year. But I have no clue where I will end up. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is back in northeast Iowa again.

More pictures from this trip still to come.

Event, Jesse, WPC - Reminder

Larry Howard

February 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Willy, Jay, and I are taking Jesse out for his birthday. It isn’t anywhere near his birthday. Jesse’s birthday was way back in December, but life got in the way of going out then. We had to celebrate Willy’s birth. Then the holidays got in the way. Then it was the Camping World Bowl Road Trip. It took us awhile to come together on a day that worked for everybody.

After swapping calendars, we worked out the best day was February 7. A very special FNSC. We would gather ourselves up and head to The OP in Ankeny.

This is apropos because today is the birthday of Jesse’s dad Larry. Larry passed away on February 21, 2019. Larry was a Vietnam veteran and was eventually laid to rest at the Veteran’s Cemetery in Van Meter.

I was asked to take pictures of the ceremony once I got there. I didn’t actually plan on that and I didn’t have my normal camera with me. I did what I could with the RX0II. Here are a few pictures of Larry’s graveside service:

If you have never been to the Veteran’s Cemetery in Van Meter, I recommend visiting it. Even if you don’t have anybody there. It will recalibrate your sense of priorities.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is REFLECTION:

REFLECTION

I don’t know that REFLECTION picture needs explained.

Happy photo harvesting!

9 Emotions Project, Anders, Animals, Art, Bill, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Faust, Formal Portrait, Jay, Jesse, Movies, Photo Journal, Road Trip, Willy

Birthday Road Trip – Little Brown Church

January 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

For starters, happy birthday Anders! We celebrated Anders’ birthday last night at January birthday night with yellow cake, a DOLEMITE double feature, and a root beer tasting.

After all, DOLEMITE is my name and (expletive deleted) up mother (expletive deleted) is my game!

Here are some pictures of a man I consider to be at least the equal of Dolemite!

One of my secret (I guess) goals of 2020 is to be more proactive about putting information for Movie Night up on the website. Because if you are reading these words, you are invited to Movie Night.

But be warned, you may never be the same after you attend Movie Night. Exposure to great art tends to change a person. In fact, I think Movie Night broke Willy.

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Enough about Anders’ birthday. Let’s talk about my birthday. Last year Jesse and I took a road trip around my birthday. One of the stops we made was at The Little Brown Church. There were a bunch of LARPers there. Maybe they were time travelers. Either way, they were dressed up like it was the Civil War.

Here are some pictures from that stop:

Jesse had never heard of The Little Brown Church, but it is the church from that song. You know the song. The song about the little brown church.

There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood
No lovelier spot in the dale
No place is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale

Our church hosted a filmmaker who made a documentary about it once. It was interesting, but it didn’t feature one time traveler.

Animals, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Cousin Amy, Ernie, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Geri, Jay, Jesse, Mom, Photoshop, Sara, Self-Portrait, State Fair, Teresa

2009-08-24

January 25, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There are a ton of photos in the folder 2009-08-24. Most of them are from my trips to the Iowa State Fair in 2009. However, there is also a good chunk of them that are pictures of Teresa and Ernie.

This is already going to be a long post, so I don’t want to overwhelm you with a ton of words up front. I want to overwhelm you with pictures on the backside:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

The State Fair

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve some Stephanie and some of my mad gardening skills.

Andy, Dawn, Jen, Jesse, Linda, Micky, Monica, Nature, Shannon, Steph, Still Life, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 225 – HDR

January 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I’m not surprised easily, but you guys surprised me this week. Enough of you dipped your toe into the HDR world to keep the streak of double digit submissions going and to hit 15 straight weeks!

But you didn’t come her to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates, you came to see the submissions:

Micky Augustin

Linda Bennett

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Monica Henning

Stephanie Kim

Andy Sharp

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Jen Ensley Gorshe

Dawn Krause

Mike Vest

Jesse Howard

FOOD

FOOD! What a great theme! This is about as easy as a theme can get. Just take a picture of FOOD or somebody preparing FOOD or somebody eating FOOD or anything that is related to FOOD.

Don’t be surprised if your FOOD picture ends up looking disgusting. In some ways, this is THE GREASY STRANGLER of themes. Delicious food often looks disgusting when photographed. That is why in most food advertising, food is often fake. Also, why when local restaurants just do their food photography themselves, the food ends up looking disgusting on their menu. Looking at you Colorado Grill.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations.

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very hungry Monday!

Alexis, Animals, Brandon, Carla, Derrick, Ernie, Evie, Flat Earth Joe, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Jim, Jorge, Kanoa, Layla, Logan, Mom, Naima, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Reminder

Selfie Project – December

January 3, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

December was a truly busy month. I actually left the state more than one. I visited places like Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.

I feel I ended this attempt at THE SELFIE PROJECT fairly strong. Here are some of my favorite pictures from December:

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5

December 6

December 7

December 10

December 12

December 14

December 15

December 19

December 20

December 21

December 22

December 23

December 24

December 25

December 26

December 27

December 28

December 30

December 31

January 1

I might do a year-end look at THE SELFIE PROJECT, at some point, but if I don’t, you can peruse all THE SELFIE PROJECT pictures by clicking on the link below:

THE SELFIE PROJECT

I’m not duplicating this project in 2020. I might do a “selfie-type” project, but it will be completely different.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is HDR:

HDR

Remember an HDR image is a combination of several images to create on image with expanded dynamic range. Pretty much every camera will have an HDR setting that will do this for you automatically. If you can find me, I can show you the setting on your camera.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Angie, Animals, Becky, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Carla, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jesse, Kim, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Naima, Photoshop, Shannon, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 224 – CANDID PORTRAIT

December 31, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

14 weeks in a row! 14 weeks in a row of double digit submissions! I hope you guys prove me wrong and we hit 15 weeks in a row with HDR because you guys knocked in out of the park with CANDID PORTRAIT in more ways than one!

Because I have been on the road the last five days, I think I got every submission, but if I missed you somehow, just let me know.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about submission rates. You came to see the submissions:

Andy Sharp

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Dawn Krause

Logan Kahler

Elizabeth Nordeen

Carla Stensland

Kim Barker

Jesse Howard

Micky Augustin

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Becky Parmelee

Christopher D. Bennett

Angie DeWaard

Mike Vest

HDR

HDR! What a great theme! Wait a second. What the Hades is an HDR image?

Okay, so this is the one that I was pretty sure would end the double digit submission streak. If the holidays didn’t end it already, but CANDID PORTRAIT is a pretty easy theme especially when, is there a better CANDID PORTRAIT opportunity then little kids opening presents on Christmas morning?

But none of that answers the question what is an HDR image? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Here is a great explanation from Digital Trends:

HDR stands for “high dynamic range.” For those who aren’t so acquainted with this high-tech shutterbug lingo, dynamic range is basically just the difference between the lightest light and darkest dark you can capture in a photo. Once your subject exceeds the camera’s dynamic range, the highlights tend to wash out to white, or the darks simply become big black blobs. It’s notoriously difficult to snap a photo that captures both ends of this spectrum, but with modern shooting techniques and advanced post-processing software, photographers have devised ways to make it happen. This is basically what HDR is: a specific style of photo with an unusually high dynamic range that couldn’t otherwise be achieved in a single photograph.

The best way to think of it is several pictures taken at different exposure levels, combined to create one image.

There should be a setting on your camera that will do this for you automatically.

I look forward to your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very dynaimc Monday!

Animals, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Calendar, Candid Portrait, Contests, Event, Geri, Iowa State, Jaycees, Jesse, Music, Nature, Road Trip

2009-08-05

December 28, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Today we reveal the images for May and June from the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar.

The May Image:

May

The May image is of the Dunning Spring waterfall in Decorah, Iowa. Jesse and I took a road trip to check them out and to photograph them as my birthday road trip. I entered this picture in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon, but it was not selected for display. In fact, the picture that was selected for display is not in the 2020 calendar. It is the September image for the 2019 calendar. This picture was taken on May 17, 2019.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 20mm
Aperture: f/18
Exposure: 1/2
ISO: 50

The June Image:

June

If you think it was weird that there was a picture from 2013 in the calendar, then this one will really mess with your head. This black and white image of a swan was taken at Lake Laverne on the beautiful campus of Iowa State University. I came across it when during our Saturday walks down memory lane as I restore old entries of “An Artist’s Notebook”. I liked it and I decided to throw it into the collection of nominees for the pictures I would enter in the Boone County Fair Photo Contest. I didn’t expect anybody to pick it, but Logan did. It won a Purple Ribbon. It was taken May 10, 2006.

Details

Camera: Konica Minolta Dynax 5D
Focal Lenght: 300mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/500
ISO: 200

Tomorrow we’ll reveal the images for July and August.

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The pictures in the folder 2009-08-05 are from the last Ames Jaycees event I ever attended. It was at that point just a formality. I had joined the Ames on the Half Shell Committee, therefore I was going to fulfill my duties. The moment that last not of the Ames on the Half Shell season faded from existence, I was Audi 5000.

Now that you have sat through several entries about my ill-fated time with the Ames Jaycees, I think you, loyal reader, deserve an explanation for why it came to an end.

I joined the Ames Jaycees for two reasons. First, a friend asked me to join. This person, we will refer to as “1”, was like 1000% into the Ames Jaycees. Her passion was somewhat contagious. I was also doing her a favor because recruiting a new member made her like a 33rd degree Mason. I don’t know, the inner workings and rankings of the organization were something I never cared about. Even when I was at my peak Jayceeness. Which I’m guessing was about January of 2009. my passion for the Jaycees was about a 5 on a scale of 1-10.

By March of 2009, I knew that that my time with the Jaycees was over, but I also knew, I would finish out the Ames on the Half Shell. I was a quitter, but I always finish out my commitments.

In January of 2009 I joined the Board as a Vice-President in some capacity. VP of Promotions or something like that. All it really meant was that I ran the website and had to go to an extra meeting a month. Which was okay, even though I am a person that to their very core, loathes meetings.

Which brings me to the other reason I joined the Jaycees. I needed an excuse to leave my house now and again. This provided that. I didn’t realize it would put so much undesired drama into my life.

The Board was split into basically two factions. There were 1’s friends, who were also all 1000% into the Jaycees. The other half of the boardroom was dominated by the President and his cronies. The President was apparently buggering one of the vice-presidents, which wasn’t cool because he was married, but not to the vice-president he was buggering. I can’t even recall how this even factored into the story, but it provided me with a chance to use the term buggering.

The President and the VP he was buggering didn’t like one of 1’s friends, we will call her 2. I think it was because 2 knew about the buggering, but I don’t know that to within a degree of certainy. What I do know is that what happened next is that the Buggered VP accused 2 of some creative accounting involving some kind of Halloween drinking outing that involved the Jaycees.

One reason why I was a 5 on the Jaycees at my peak Jayceeness was that they like to talk about drinking. I don’t mean they liked to drink. They liked talking about drinking. You know that thing that high school students and college students do when they drink, they can’t stop talking about it. “Look at me I’m drinking.” Yeah, nobody cares. Shut up and drink your Zima Chad.

This is all hypothetical at this point. I haven’t been around a high school student or college student that is drinking alcohol, since I left the service of the Evil Clown Empire, but I’m sure it hasn’t changed much. Other than, I assume that nobody drinks Zima now. White Claws?

But I digress…

The charges were at least 76% hokum that stemmed from some kind of personal grievance with 2. Plus, there might have been a bit of a power play in there. A chance to show dominance. A chance to show that the Buggered VP wasn’t the President, but she was still running this beach.

I think there was some kind of trial. Not really, it was really just one person’s word and then there was some kind of vote. 2 got sent to Jaycee prison. I think she wasn’t allowed to touch money for a year.

Almost as soon as the sentence was handed down, 1 and all of her friends resigned. Grabbed their Jaycee ball and went to Nevada and Des Moines. That left me alone. Like I said, I was a 5. In January. at this point, I was a 3. Even at a 3, I was willing to stick around and fight for the soul of the Ames Jaycees. When the people who were at a 1000% were like deuces and checked out, I was like make that 3 a -2.

The funny thing is that after everybody else left, 2 stuck around. I’m not sure if I respect that or not. Maybe I’ll have to talk to her about it someday.

I fulfilled my obligations and haven’t been to a Jaycee event since. I sometimes see them at the unofficial reunions and I chalk this up as a life lesson. I don’t leave my house now.

(This is how I remember everything going down, I’m sure some of my details aren’t 100% accurate, but if you are going to complain about that, you can bugger off.)