Treading Water

I mentioned late last month that I had slipped behind on several fronts, and that catching up would probably be the theme of this month. In the event, the theme of this month would probably be more accurately named "treading water" - although I have caught up somewhat on the book front (such that I'm about two-thirds of a book behind), I've managed only ten posts on this blog (leaving me exactly where I was), and two over on the Imaginarium (which is therefore now behind). So after fairly significant efforts, I'm pretty much where I started overall.

My goal for next month will very clearly to get back on target for each of these aspects, but that may be a pipe dream. I guess we'll see...

#44: "Whispers Under Ground", by Ben Aaronovitch

Lockdown 2

Well, here we go again. As of last night we have a significant tightening of Covid restrictions. Thus far, this has stopped short of a proper second lockdown, but I very much suspect it is coming - in fact, I'm pretty certain that we really should have had a full-blown second lockdown, but the political will was just missing. So we'll pay the price for that one in a few more weeks.

Unlike the first lockdown, this one leaves me absolutely furious. Not because it isn't necessary - I absolutely agree that it is, and indeed that it should have gone further. However, it shouldn't have been. A few months ago we had this thing under control, all the metrics were going in the right direction, and we had an opportunity to eradicate it.

Instead our governments unlocked too fast, in too haphazard a manner, and lost control of the situation. And then they dithered and let the virus get back into a position where it could grow exponentially... and here we are.

And I'm afraid I consider the Scottish government pretty much as bad as Westminster in this regard. On the one hand, it is true that they didn't have all the levers available to an independent country, and so probably couldn't have managed outright eradication. On the other, I can't help but note that a few weeks ago there were an estimated 300 contagious people in the whole of Scotland, and now it has exploded out of control. They had a grip, and they lost it. So if they're better placed than Westminster, I'm afraid it's a difference of degree not of type - the report card still says "must do better".

Oh well. The damage is done, so that's my last moan about that.

Where that leaves us is that any notion of returning to the office is well and truly parked now, with almost no prospect of that happening this year. It's also likely that our Christmas lunch will have to be cancelled, or somehow done remotely, which is a shame. Otherwise, work will go on just as it has been.

For the time being, the schools are remaining open, and given the political costs involved, the powers-that-be will be absolutely determined to keep them open until they absolutely have to close them. I have my doubts whether they'll reopen after the October holiday. Likewise, there are no signs of Funsize's nursery closing, and I'd be surprised if that changes without a full-blown lockdown coming into force.

And the final factor that plays into this is the Furlough scheme, which was supposed to come to an end next month. The problem there being that if it ends then people will have to go out to work en masse, meaning that a lockdown won't be possible - it doesn't really matter what the government order on that front, without the necessary support people will just have to go to work. And yet, I'm increasingly fearful that the reason the scheme is coming to its end if less about blind ideology (which, frankly, wouldn't have brought it in in the first place), but rather for a simpler, harsher reason - the country is simply broke.

So...

My expectation is that these new measures will be largely ineffectual. I expect therefore that we'll see a much tighter set of restrictions coming soon, that may or may not be backed with an extension (or replacement) of Furlough... and depending on that may or may not be effective.

And, bluntly, as a consequence of all of that, I fear that Christmas is cancelled.

Ulysses

It's fair to say I wasn't overly impressed with "Ulysses" - if it hadn't been on The List I would have abandoned it fairly quickly. It is, by far, the toughest book I've ever read, and while I have very definitely read it, it's also fair to note that I've read it only in a strict sense of that word.

Boiling it down, my view is this: some novels are written simply to tell a story, some are written to explore a theme or otherwise make a point. "Ulysses" seems to have been written to experiment with the use of words themselves - it's very much in the Modernist tradition. But the net effect of that is that it renders the plot largely incomprehensible and the theme, if indeed there is one, entirely irrelevant. And, as such, while I can see the value of the work as an experimental piece, and indeed as an object to be studied, I'm afraid I find very little merit in it as a novel.

That said, I did have a chuckle at one section where two characters were discussing the merits of Irish independence, which did feel oddly familiar...

Experimental Cookery 2020: Naughty Naughty Nachos

 This one comes from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh, and Easy Food", which is one of my more-used cookbooks. The occasion for this one came as a result of taking LC out for lunch - on Friday we had that rare combination of a day when neither of us were working but Funsize was at nursery, so we took advantage.

Normally when we have nachos, it's haggis, but as we didn't have any haggis I figured I'd try something different, and this was the result. The key difference was that the salsa and guacamole were made from scratch. Nonetheless, this was a quick and easy snack, and rather enjoyable. Would definitely have these again... though we tend not to have nachos too often, so who knows when that might be?

Experimental Cookery 2020: Curried Naan with Sultanas, and Chickpea Curry

 A somewhat belated Experimental Cookery, this one was produced for a lunch a week ago when we had guests. They come from Paul Hollywood's "Bread", which is a book I like but really haven't made much use of - were it not for the pizza base method, I would have gotten rid of this some time ago.

Still, the meal was nice and easy to produce. (I wouldn't say 'quick' because bread seldom is - all that proving takes time.) And the results were very impressive - a feast for four people that everyone enjoyed, with a minimum of fuss and hassle. So I'm calling this one a win.

(It's also worth noting that this is another successful vegetarian dish, which is something that is always good to have in the repertoire.)

#41: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", by Roald Dahl (a book for Funsize)

#42: "The Testaments", by Margaret Atwood

#43: "Ulysses", by James Joyce (a book from The List)

iPlayer Woes

At the weekend we made the unfortunate discovery that iPlayer support for the PS3 is to end early next month. My plan had been to wait another five years or so before investing in a significant upgrade to our entertainment system - probably a new TV, whatever Playstation is then current, a full-blown surround sound system (potentially professionally installed), as well as integrating our media server if we ever get one, and potentially retiring the Freesat box in favour of a better solution.

But that had rather assumed that things would continue to work as they were. Now that that's not the case...

I have researched our options, and they broadly fall into four categories:

• We could just live with it. iPlayer would still be available by PC if there was anything we really felt the need to watch, but would be a hassle.
• We could invest in a Firestick (which would also give us Disney+), and also an HDMI switch so that we can connect it to our soundbar. That's a bad solution, from a technology point of view, but would solve the problem without too much expense.
• We could replace the TV with a smart model. That's a much better solution, albeit a more expensive one than we'd wanted at this time (and also Funsize is a little less tech-proof than perhaps we'd like).
• Or we could bring forward the big expense and just do everything now. I'm not doing that.

(We could also upgrade the PS3 to a PS4, but the timing of that is really poor, given that the PS5 is due to launch very soon. So I don't intent to do that unless we see an absurd deal.)

For the moment, we're going to go for the first option. My suspicion is that that won't stick.

One last thing: I'm starting to think we need to be prepared to abandon Freesat - the range of boxes seems to have dropped significantly, there's no great signs of the range of channels ever increasing, and so my feeling is that it won't be worth investing in a replacement should our existing box stop working. That being the case, I think it's time to look again at why the TV aerial doesn't seem to work... when it really should.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

A few weeks ago I purchased a DVD of the Arrowverse event "Crisis of Infinite Earths". I rather enjoyed it - certainly, I've found what I've seen of the Arrowverse shows (not much) to be rather more enjoyable than the DC films. With the exception of "Wonder Woman" they've really not been particularly good. (That said, we haven't seen "Aquaman" or "Joker".)

One of the things that was particularly interesting about the show was the many, many cameos - we get hints of the 1989 Batman, the 60's Batman and Robin, Smallville, Birds of Prey, and so on. All of which were pretty cool, but they also emphasised something that I had kinda been aware of but perhaps hadn't fully grasped: you can't cheat when it comes to building investment. Tom Welling's appearance as Clark Kent works because he spent years playing that role in Smallville, so having watched that show (until I gave up), I was immediately oriented as to context.

I think that's also why "Avengers" worked but "Justice League" didn't - the former laid out lots of groundwork and then brought the team together; the latter tried to short circuit it. Which is a real shame, as some of the characters DC have are great.

The other thing that really struck me about the show was a reminder of just how great Brandon Routh was as Superman... or, more correctly, as Clark Kent. "Superman Returns" wasn't a great film, and really suffers now for Kevin Spacey and Bryan SInger's respective problems, but Routh was great in the role. And, doing double-duty in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", he is great in this. (There has been some talk of them doing some sort of Superman mini-series starring BR, largely off the back of his appearance here. If so, I'd certainly be interested!)

Anyway, that's more or less all I have to say about that.

Keyboard

Over the past few days I have been pondering the fact that I get more done at work (or 'work') than at home. That has led to me conducting an experiment - today, instead of switching out my home keyboard/mouse combination when setting up my work PC, I instead moved the wireless dongle from the home PC to the work one.

The results have been very instructive - despite coming highly recommended, the home keyboard is nowhere near as comfortable to use as the one for work. The keys are just a little smaller, a little closer together, and the whole thing is just a little bit more tiring. The upshot is that there is a small, but very noticeable, difference between the two. (By contrast, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the mice.)

I suspect that that means I'm now in the market for a new keyboard - the difference is enough to really annoy me, and the productivity differences are surprisingly noticeable. All of which is rather interesting, especially since the home keyboard is considerably more expensive than the work one!

This does also highlight something rather frustrating - now that I know what I'm looking for in more detail, it's proving surprisingly hard to actually find the item. And, oddly, the pictures of keyboards on online shops are really bad. It's almost as if they don't want you to see what it is you're looking to buy.

House of Ill Repute

Last night the House of Commons voted in favour of the Internal Market Bill, the same bill that was explicitly stated in the HoC as breaching international law. That being the case, the fact that that bill was even presented to the House brings shame upon our government. That it didn't meet with mass resignation from ministers brings shame on their offices. And the fact that the House voted for it confirms that the House of Commons is a pointless waste of money. We're no longer electing representatives to hold a government to account; we're electing a dictator for five years.

The UK no longer has a government. We have a regime. (Incidentally, we also have weapons of mass destruction and oil, so that's all three ingredients needed should the US feel like a fun bit of invading.)

And... that's it, really. For a long time I held out the slight hope that at least Scotland might eventually seek independence and at least we'd get away from all this. But all I hear from the SNP these days is empty words - Ian Blackford stands up and makes his speech about how Scotland "cannot and will not" allow the latest outrage to stand. And then Boris, quite rightly, pays not the slightest bit of attention and just does whatever he wants. Because when push comes to shove the SNP do nothing. It turns out that Scotland absolutely will put up with it all.

#39: "Firefly: The Magnificent Nine", by James Lovegrove
#40: "Sharpe's Enemy", by Bernard Cornwell

Day 250: Update on Goals

It's day 250 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 250 I should have read 40.98 books. I'm significantly behind on this goal, but have several books in progress. I hope therefore to be back on track some time in October - certainly by the next update.
• Weight: Nothing to report. This one is going to be failed again.
• Blogging: I'm several posts behind on this blog, but right on target on the Imaginarium. I'm also finding it tough finidng a conjunction between having inspiration and time in which to blog, so I'm growing increasingly concerned about this one.
• Work: I said last time that this one wasn't happening, but might have happened but for the virus. It turns out that it probably wouldn't have happened even then, but looks likely for next year. Which I'll take as a good thing.

The report card right now looks pretty bleak - two near-certain failures, and two behind target. I'll try to pull some of that back for the next update, but I'm not entirely confident.

Slipping

August has proven to be a bad month for goals - despite finding myself a whole book ahead of my reading goal on not one but two occasions, I'm going to end the month two books off target, while this blog has slipped from being one post behind to five.

All in all, that's a poor showing, especially at this stage in the year - my ability to catch up is extremely doubtful. I guess I know what the theme for next month is going to be...

Getting Ready to Fight Yesterday's War

Although the schools have started back in Scotland, and although I have little doubt that they will start back in England soon, I have considerable doubt that they will actually complete the school year. I think there's a good chance that we'll need another significant lockdown as things get worse over the winter. Even if a second lockdown doesn't occur, it's obviously not inconceivable that at some point something may come along and disrupt the academic year again.

The upshot of that is that obviously the education system is at some point going to have to be adjusted for this new reality - both in terms of needing the ability to transfer to mostly-online learning if that proves necessary, and also in terms of needing to deal with a curtailment of the academic year. In particular, this fiasco over exam results must surely indicate that a new approach to assessment is required.

Consequently, I've gone ahead and fixed it. You're welcome.

My proposal, simply put, is to essentially abandon year-long qualifications in favour of a much more modular approach: pupils attend a six-week module of material in a given subject, complete an assessed piece of work immediately after the end of the module, and are awarded credit in that module immediately. End-of-year exams essentially become a thing of the past. (Though exams as a concept may remain - they may be the best form for that "assessed piece of work" in at least some cases.)

The consequence of that is that if there is a sudden curtailment of the academic year, pupils are already credited for the work they have already completed, and so in the worst case only lose five weeks' worth of work-in-progress. Likewise, the academic year can essentially resume at any time, without an arbitrary start date in August (or September). (And so if, for example, we needed a lockdown from Nov - Feb, things could just pick up again in March without too much hassle.)

That solves the "sudden curtailment" part of the problem. The second issue is, of course, the need to switch to largely-online learning in some cases.

In this case, my proposal is that there should be a family of modules put in place pretty much specifically for online delivery. That of course doesn't work for all subjects, or all parts of a subject, but in many cases it is possible. And by making it a different set of modules for online and 'normal' learning there doesn't need to be any attempt to shift gears for the transition from one to the other.

(Another benefit is flexibility in the sequencing of work. When in a school environment, it makes a lot of sense to shift from one subject to another every 40 minutes or so, especially as that means shifting physically from one location to another. When working remotely it may well be preferable to approach modules as "crash courses" in a subject - tackling English one week, Maths another, and so on. Or not - the benefit of flexibility is that it's flexible.)

A final benefit of the use of 6-week modules is that it also allows a modification to a major bugbear of mine - the summer holidays. It is, frankly, madness that schools have three really long terms during the academic year and then a massive long holiday during which the kids proceed to forget everything they learned in June. It would be much better, for all involved, to have more shorter blocks of learning with a decent-sized break between each. Say six weeks on, one week off repeated seven times through the year, with one extra week of holiday at the end of December, and two extra weeks in July. (I haven't counted either the number of days of school or days of holiday here - it's just an illustration.)

Of course, I haven't addressed how modules relate to qualifications. But that's easy enough: six modules of this difficulty gives you that qualification (possibly with a caveat that "you need two from column A, two from column B, and two from column C", or whatever). Or abandon 'named' qualifications entirely, and just award credits in a subject - the universities are already well equipped to handle that, since they do it already, and employers inevitably adapt to whatever system is in place.

There are, however, two major downsides of such an approach.

The first is that it would be another significant shake-up of an education system that has had far too many shake-ups in recent years. Basically, every new education secretary seems to feel the need to leave their mark by changing things, and usually for the worst. So that advocates very strongly for not making any change.

The second is, of course, that putting together these modules, and especially the new assessments, represents a considerable amount of work that would need to be done. Inevitably, I have thoughts on that topic too, but given that I've already wittered on far too long I think I'll stop there...

The Trial of Alex Salmond

It is my belief that two things are absolutely vital for the successful running of our justice system:

1. When a serious allegation is made it must be taken seriously, and investigated properly. That applies regardless of who is accused or who is doing the accusing. Those investigations must be conducted without fear or favour, must be done promptly and thoroughly, and if there is a case to be answered then charges should be brought, and answered in court.
2. A person has the right to be considered innocent until, and unless, found guilty in court.

In the case of Alex Salmond, the first of these points actually did apply. And that's a very welcome thing - far too often, powerful men are able to act with seeming impunity, and it is important that that is challenged. So it is a very good thing that there was indeed an investigation, charges were brought, and the case heard.

But Alex Salmond was found Not Guilty on all but one charge, and Not Proven on the other. He was not found Guilty of any crime. As such, under point #2, he must be considered innocent.

Now, I should note that there is no obligation on private individuals to do anything. After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and may choose to accept or reject the verdict of the courts.

What I find completely and utterly unacceptable, however, is the ongoing media witch-hunt against Alex Salmond, most recently by the BBC last night. To me, that smacks of just just an unacceptable attack on a man who has not been convicted of anything, but more importantly it is an attack on the entire system of justice. The investigating authorities and the courts did their jobs; let that be the end of it.

And the reason this is so important is nothing to do with Alex Salmond. The sad truth is that any one of us could, at any time, find ourselves falsely accused of some crime. And, of course, simply being innocent is no guarantee that a false accusation won't come. Of course, a thorough and diligent investigation, or failing that a working court system, will ensure that a false accusation is recognised as such, and exoneration will follow. And that should be the end of the matter.

We insist on a fair hearing for Alex Salmond (and everyone else) because guaranteeing it in the high-profile cases also serves to guarantee it for all of the rest of us.

The BBC should be ashamed.

Revision

This past weekend I found myself revisiting an old theme: I had a test I needed to revise for. This was a follow-up to a training course we had had a few weeks ago, and was required to complete the certification. And, having 'failed' the mock test by one point, I wanted to make sure I was right on top of the material for the actual test.

In the event, the real test went fine. Having put in the time, I was able to get through it pretty quickly, and then double- and triple-check my answers, and thus scored a mere 96%. Which isn't too bad, really.

But my major takeaway from all of this is that I really don't miss exams, or revision, or all of that stuff. It was, I guess, fine back in the day. But these days I just have too many other things that I'd much rather do, not to mention the many other things that I need to do.

#38: "A Suitable Boy", by Vikram Seth (a book from The List)

Not Going Back

One of the surprising findings of the last several months of working from home is that productivity is actually up. One not-at-all-surprising finding is that morale has fallen, and continues to fall (though that may be less to do with working from home, and more to do with everything else also being closed). As a consequence of the latter, the powers-that-be are quite keen to reopen the office, at least to some capacity. To that end, today was supposed to be the day some people started back.

Personally, I was always rather torn about this. I have no concerns at all from a safety point of view - given the prevalence of the bug in Scotland it is highly unlikely that any of my colleagues have it, and the counter-measures put in place were pretty extensive. However, I was never sure what was to be gained - given that the meeting rooms would remain shut and so many people would still be working from home, the benefits of actually being present were already going to be diluted.

Anyway, it all became a moot point on Thursday, when tucked away in Nicola Sturgeon's update to parliament was a sentence stating that non-essential offices should remain closed until mid-September, or perhaps later. So that's that.

Longer-term, I think my intentions are to go back to the office as soon as the company specifically requests that I do so, but not to volunteer to go back any sooner than that. I'm also strongly considering requesting a shift to home-working three days a week on a permanent basis - on the days Funsize isn't at nursery my being here makes things that bit harder for LC, so there's clearly an advantage to being in the office, but on the three days FS is at nursery, it seems I could usefully skip the half-hour drive each way.

But that's still very much in the "thinking about it" stage - it remains to be seen how things will turn out when they do get back to normal... or, rather, move on to a new normal.

People are Just The Worst (again)

A few weeks ago, the internet spontaneously decided to start using the term "Karen" to refer to a particular group of unpleasant, entitled, white women. Which, of course, really sucks for anyone whose name is actually Karen, of course.

Today the show "This Morning" featured three such women, complaining that, through absolutely no fault of their own, they now find that their name has been turned into a term of abuse. Naturally, the internet reacted to this with a storm of abuse and mockery, largely centred around the notion that these women, being called Karen, are of course therefore "Karens". Because of course there could be no other reason they could possibly object to what has been done.

It is, of course, a ridiculous over-reaction to liken this to racism, systematic or otherwise. But something doesn't need to be of the same order of magnitude as racism to be wrong. And, bluntly, this is wrong.

(It's also worth noting that while using Karen as a term of abuse isn't racist, there's a rather stronger argument that it is sexist. Because you'll note that it was specifically women who were being labelled as somehow wrong. Funnily enough, men who display the same traits are, once again, just being assertive.)

#36 : "Throne of the Crescent Moon", by Saladin Ahmed

#37: "Sharpe's Skirmish", by Bernard Cornwell

Cheery Summer Reading

I've just finished "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", which is a light-hearted romp about grinding poverty, alcoholism, and eventual death, all set in the second decade of the 20th century in Brooklyn. Naturally, given the subject matter, it's a barrel of laughs from start to finish.

Though, oddly, and like "Angela's Ashes" (the novel I'd most compare it to), it is a fairly easy-going read, studded with moments of humour, and told in a sufficiently jovial way as to offset the underlying awfulness. In any event, I very much enjoyed it, and am happy to recommend it.

Perhaps also of note, I'm now down to 25 books remaining on The List. One of these, "Ulysses", appears on both the British and American sides. There are two that appear only on the British side, those being the longest two books left: "A Suitable Boy" (which I will be finishing shortly) and the complete works of Shakespeare. The other 22 are all on the American side.

My expectation, therefore, is to complete the British side of The List some time next year (as the remaining books are all either long or difficult), and then hopefully the American side some time in 2022. But we'll need to see how it actually plays out.

#35: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", by Betty Smith (a book from The List, and the new leading contender for Book of the Year)

Hobson's Choice

Here's an odd thought: in the Scottish elections we're not voting for which government we want; we're voting for which type of SNP government we get.

The thing is, there are only three outcomes that are remotely likely. The most likely, per the polls as they stand, is that the SNP will win an outright majority of seats (and, indeed, quite possibly a significant majority). In which case we will, of course, get an SNP government.

The second possibility, and the next most likely, is essentially a rerun of the last election - the SNP fall slightly short of an outright majority, but the Greens gain enough seats as to give a pro-independence majority. In which case we'll get an SNP minority government, backed by the Greens. And things will carry on pretty much as they are.

The third possibility, and the least likely of the three, is that the pro-indepence parties will lose enough seats that the Tories, Labour, and the Lib Dems between them hold a majority of the seats. However, neither the Tories nor Labour will have enough seats to build a government either alone or with the Lib Dems - it would take an alliance of all three to form a government. And there is simply no way that either Boris Johnson or Kier Starmer would countenance such a thing. (Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard might, given the perks of the job, but they'd be over-ruled.)

The upshot of that is that either the SNP will then form a government that is then utterly paralysed by the combined opposition, or we'll end up with another set of elections (in which case, see above). There is basically no prospect of anyone else forming a government.

Which really isn't a healthy place for Scotland's politics to be. It's not even as if you could look at either the Tories or Labour and see any viable government in waiting. Quite aside from them having no chance of winning the seats, there just isn't the talent there for it to be anything other than a disaster. The SNP have to have the job since, for all their faults (which are increasingly obvious), they are able to offer governance that is at least marginally competent.

It's shocking that that has become the bar to be aspired to.

Missing Out on Summer

Needless to say, we're not going away for a holiday this summer. We are potentially going to look at going away for the September weekend and the October week (usually we'd only do the latter), though in both cases it is likely to be only a few days, and somewhere within Scotland. At the start of the year I had looked at going to Vienna, but we shelved those plans some months ago - right now, there's no way I'm going anywhere near an airport.

The upshot of that is that, unfortunately, this summer just feels like a big waste.

The other consequence of this is that, other than a day or two here and there, I haven't had a proper holiday since Christmas. Easter was cancelled due to the start of lockdown, Summer has now been cancelled due to the middle of it... I do hope that October won't be cancelled by the second wave, but you never know. Which is far from ideal - there is a limit to how long you can just keep going.

The upshot is that I think I will be taking that week off in October, basically regardless of what happens, because I do now just need a break.

Bang Up To Date

I've never been hugely into video games. Even back in my first year of university it was more a case of one game in particular ("Civilisation II") causing me problems rather than flitting between many such games. Nonetheless, I gradually accumulated a large number of games, most which did at least get installed (albeit not played) on the PC I had at that time.

Naturally, after I gave up on video games following the aforementioned Civ2 incident, I pretty much stopped buying them. This wasn't a complete stop, as I was occasionally tempted by a game, which I then mostly ended up not playing, but it wasn't a particularly huge issue.

When I finally retired that PC and moved to my laptop I decided not to install anything until I actually came to use it, which meant that only one game was installed. That then held true with the move to my current PC.

A couple of years ago, during one of my decluttering phases, I finally got rid of almost all of those games that hadn't been used for years and were just taking up space. I haven't felt their lack. However, I did keep two games - "Icewind Dale II" (which I'd never played but thought I might), and "Neverwinter Nights 2". That last was the game I'd installed on the laptop, got a fairly long way through, and then abandoned. I thought I might give it a go again.

Anyway, those two have been sitting on my shelf taking up space since then. Until Saturday evening, when I finally got around to installing them onto my PC. I still haven't actually played them, of course, but that is at least now an option.

As you can see, I'm bang up to date on PC gaming!