1. We went to Schlitterbahn for the first time this weekend.  It was very busy, but we had a great time standing in line and riding the rides.  The only truly miserable moment came when we reached the top of “America’s Favorite Water Ride.”  After waiting in line for about an hour and a half on the lower stories, we reached the very top story and the signs said: “60 minute wait from here.”  What?!  Sixty more minutes!?!  By this time the overcast morning had broken into a hot, sunny, humid south Texas afternoon, and we just melted on top of that ride for an additional 60 minutes for the 45 second thrill.  That was not cool.

The one thing I noticed about Schlitterbahn is that they don’t really have everything as fine tuned as other parks do.  They are a very easy going, laid back, country feel place (which is nice from the hyper-real hyper-fun that most other parks try to generate), but they just don’t have the same attention to every little detail, and aren’t trying to create any kind of ‘special’ or magical experience.  Which is OK too.  Sometimes when I go to Disneyland, all of the perpetually youthful employees feel just a little ‘stepford’ for my tastes.

2. I have some really great parents and in-laws.

My parents were here about a week and a half ago, and we really enjoyed my time together.  I think, most of all, I was really glad for their help in getting our front flower bed shaped up.  It was in desperate need of help, and they made it happen!  I know neither of my parents really know how to cut loose and enjoy themselves, but I think we came about as close as was possible that weekend.

We spent this last weekend with the in-laws, and it was also very enjoyable.  We loved the B&B, and really had a great time at Schlitterbahn (in spite of the lines and scary tattoos). Thanks so much for inviting us to come with you on your hill country getaway!

You know, speaking of parents, having in-laws is fun because you get intimate exposure to how someone else raised their kids.  Up until this point the only parenting I knew that intimately was that of my own parents, so it’s nice to see how different perspectives and personalities have worked over the years.  The bottom line: we all have our quirks, we all have our blind spots, and we all think we make ‘mistakes’ but which are really just life and other-people’s-agency beating us up.  But that sounds like topics for another blog… about which I’m probably still not qualified to write.

3. Last week, I spent a lot of time wasting effort, brain cells, and time on things that were not important and not urgent.  I was able to still clear out the urgent/important tasks later in the week, but probably should have put aside the non-urgent, non-important stuff much earlier in the week to create less urgency late in the week.

That leads me to the theme for this blog: sometimes we make up things as a distraction from the actual problems we have.  We are all given the same amount of time to live each day, so I suggest that maybe we need to work on the things we can actually fix in the near term rather than just adding needless complication into our lives for the sake of obfuscating the real problems at hand.

So the challenge this week:

1. Remove the distractions, get to the core of the problems.
2. Create innovative solutions, don’t just be an expertly rehearsed describer of the problem (aka complainer).
3. Spend time working on the important stuff before it becomes urgent stuff.
4. Put aside stuff that has no visible or workable solution in the near term.  Leave it for the universe to work out a little more first.
5. Limit yourself to a small amount time to work on “pet” problems — you know, the ones you really want to think about but which you already know will bear no fruit and which you really can’t or shouldn’t be spending time on.

I used to spend days on end in the movie theaters in December and January, trying to catch every film that I thought would have a chance at winning anything at the Oscars.

I still love a good film, but I just can’t bring myself to watch this bloated, self-congratulatory broadcast anymore.

I can’t bear to sit there and wait for Michael Moore, Sean Penn, and friends to get up and blather on about their personal views.  Not that I don’t agree with some of them or think they have a right to express them, it’s just that I don’t agree with the tone or sentiment and find it inappropriate to the occasion.

The acceptance speech itself has changed from being an opportunity to gracefully thank the hundreds of people that it took to help you win that meaningless award to a 25 second sermon at the bully pulpit.

Maybe the Oscars broadcast should just be renamed to the commie-conversion hour.  Put out a press-release for pity’s sake.  I’m done with your golden statues.

As if anything Cher says these day is relevant to anything…

But I think it’s pretty funny that she shows how broad-minded and in touch she is saying that all Republicans are either ‘rich or a Born-Again Christian’.  She almost said ‘white’ in between there.. but hesitated when she realized she was both rich AND white.

And now I can already hear the chorus of the conservatives singing in my ears:

Them Hollywood elites are just out of touch, un-American, and are ruining our country.  They use their celebrity to spread their misinformed views.  They are just rich, spoiled, out of touch pansies who would never sacrifice anything for our country and who just complain really loudly using their big mouths.  Shut up and sing.

It’s no shock that Republicans hate celebrities (with the notable exceptions of the Governator, Chuck Norris, and Jesse Ventura), and hate them even more when they talk out loud and it’s not in an action/comedy/romantic/thriller movie.  (It’s almost like there’s a point system: do a good job in a movie +10 points, say something against my political beliefs -1 points.)

Well, you know what… I don’t care if they talk.  I think they should just be able to say whatever they want. Our great nation gives the right to every individual to be just as stupid as they want to be, and the only penalty you pay for stupidity of the mouth in this country seems to be an accrual of more fame.  (I can see now why stupidity is a growing epidemic.)

As for me, I see a key difference in my attitude toward these people than some of my fellow Americans.  If I don’t agree with them, then I just don’t listen to them!   Some of my dear, fellow Americans, on the other hand, just get pulled in time after time like a moth to the flame, complaining each time a little louder when they say or do something stupid.

The biggest mistake that people make, though, is to associate ‘celebrity’ with some kind of super-hero-esque sense of responsibility and/or morals.  “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Sadly, this doesn’t exist.  These are just normal, creative people who by a stroke of luck have had successful entertainment careers.  They don’t see themselves as having any such responsibility.  On the other hand, they consider themselves to be as free-to-be-human as any other normal American – or even less so because they are rich and can buy their way out of trouble!  My guess is the “A list” just see themselves as people who just keep getting microphones shoved in their faces – so apparently someone must be interested in what they have to say – so they might as well oblige.

The sad thing is that my Repulican friends are mostly right.  Most of these folks live in such a  narrow world (mostly because of their careers and celebrity status) that they really are out of touch and really don’t have a clue what’s going on around them.  It’s just that their my Republican friends’ complaining tone is often more shrill and 2-year-old-esque than that of the celebrities they hate so much.

They’ve resorted to using children.  Check it out:

Now, in “showbiz” there’s one rule that everyone knows: Never work with children or animals! Why? Because they always steal the spotlight!  This might have been what Microsoft was going for.  I mean, who can deny the cuteness of the four and half year old on TV?  Will it make people want to buy Windows?  Probably not.

Really, I think they’ve finally hit the nail on the head with this latest metaphor.  Apple is wrong!  Microsoft is right!  A red letter day!  PC isn’t a nerdy, quirky guy with a bad haircut and no fashion.  No, PC (Windows) is a four year old child!

“I’m a PC and I am four and a half,” she says!

Why is this so fitting, you ask?  Well, the four year olds I know are known for:

• general instability
• never working when you need and doing a terrible job when you finally get them to work
• fits, tantrums, and illogical behavior
• insistence on doing a task THEIR WAY
• inability to understanding or comprehend simple instructions
• takes forever to get going on some mornings
• and takes forever to shut down at nights

Hmm… the only thing worse would be to  make Windows a TEENAGER instead!

I just hope you didn’t miss this stunning performance…

Really… it’s no fair that the women have different events than the men.  Plus, they get to wear cute little hair accessories.  I say, “Equal Gymnastics Rights for Men!”

(Thanks, Erika for sharing the hilarious video)

But for all of the Olympic staples (the music, the rings, the McDonalds sponsorships), nothing surpasses the ubiquity of Bob Costas.

Honestly, what does this guy do during the odd numbered years?  You never see him anywhere until the Olympics, where he busts out of television hibernation to do hours upon hours, days upon days of anchoring the NBC Olympic Sports desk.

How does this guy do it?  I’m pretty sure they have to go get him out of mothballs every other year, because he is completely unchanged from year to year as well.

Also, a peculiar thing… he hasn’t aged in the 16 years I have recollections of him.  Hmm… is Bob Costas… an android?  Something is not quite right here…

Oh yeah… and Go USA… #1 #1 #1

Since 2005, however, I have been only cursorily involved in a few things. Lately though, I’ve seen a lot of shows… more in the past two months than in the past year, I think…

• All’s Well that Ends Well
• Dinner Theatre/Melodrama
• Othello
• Noises Off
• Wicked
• A Little Night Music
• Sound of Music
• Les Miserables
• Jersey Boys

The problem is, seeing all this theatre has made me super “trunky” for going back and doing it again.

Before you get any grand visions of me being some kind of Gene Kelly or Frank Sinatra, just stop right there.  While I really enjoyed performing in High School and College, I was enough of a realist to know that I could never actually get people to pay money to see me do it professionally.  My talents were always more geared toward the business and management side of entertainment.

Mostly, I worked as a stage manager, which is basically a middle management position between the producer and the actors, where you manage the actors.  It has very little to do with sets or lights or sound or “techies”.  The stage manger is little more than a coordinator for those other technical elements.

Working in the theatre is grueling, both physically and emotionally.  It involves terrible hours, low pay, few perks, and an insane amount of stress. So why exactlty do I miss it then?  Why would I want to go back?

I think it’s for the people; those amazingly creative people who are (generally) such a joy to work with.  There are exceptions, but on the whole most everyone who can make a career out entertainment is just happy to have done so and is not too full of themselves.  The others (divas) find that they don’t work long in the industry, because for some magical, mystical reason it gets harder and harder for them to get hired. (read: managers and producers openly and consitently talk about who the problem children are that should be avoided in the future)

So what am I to do?  Well, I’m not sure.  I’ve thought about trying to stage manage or perform in some community theatre, but after having worked professionally, I’m afraid I’ll just be turned off by the amateur-ness of it.  I have some ideas about producing some local events or concerts, but that is a financially risky endeavor and I’m afraid I lack the local contacts to make that much of a reality in the short term…

Any ideas?  How do I scratch my itch?

This blog is going to be a bit of a scattered catch-up (as opposed to a Catsup or Ketchup).

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

Loyal blog followers will know that I was gone for the last 2 weeks on my “summer vacation.”  I put that in quotes because it becomes somewhat less of an adventure when you’re an adult than when you were a kid.  I remember summer vacations that were full of surprise, excitement, and long hours in a small car.  But for some reason, those vacations were less stressful than the relatively painless ones I now take by myself to visit family.

The fun level of my vacation started quite high and tapered down from there.  But I did succeed in my goal of 1) stimulating the economy in 3 states, 2) eating cafe rio and in and out burger as much as humanly possible, and 3) spending quality time with my family.

Going on vacation, though, did remind me how much I missed my home here in TX.  By home I don’t mean house.  I mean my home.  My family and friends here.  The feeling that of all those other places I went, this is where I belong.  There’s no better feeling than coming home, and as my brother would say, “crapping on your own toilet.”

Highlights of the Vacation

• Flying to Cali next to a very talkative, very attractive young lady.
• Going to Wicked with Mom for her birthday
• Walking halfway from the Pantages Theater toward the Chinese Theater and realizing that it was WAY too far!
• Eating Shrimp on the barbie with frequent commenter Tio.
• Swimming with my nieces for endless hours under the mild California sun…
• Seeing my old friends, and finding out that the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side… just a different shade of green.
• Seeing Les Mis and wondering how Valjean could get through that show without dying of heat stroke.
• Cafe Rio.  ’nuff said.
• Going to my mom’s work and seeing my biggest American Idol fan club.  Go SWIM!
• Dropping in on my brother at the butcher’s counter and watching him sell meat to every little old lady in a motorized cart who passed by.
• Watching my other brother work on 3 cars at once.
• Single-handedly convincing each family member who could to come up to the ranch Thursday night. (one of my super-powers)
• 4-wheeling up to the mountain above the ranch, then taking a leak in the cool mountain air.
• Arriving at my sister’s new house after her ward and in-laws had already moved all of the heavy boxes and furniture into the house!  (I was on babysitting duty for the 4 girls… you tell me which was the harder job…)
• Whole house humidifier at TLS’ new house… I will visit more often just based on this fact alone!
• Jewish Pork Chops!  Thanks TLS!
• Wanting to jab the American Airlines attendant in the eyeball when I realized that my flight was canceled.
• Flying home next to a guy who watched a movie on his iPhone the whole way… AHHHGGGHGHG the JEALOUSY!  That guy is lucky TSA confiscated anything that I might be able to use to jab him in the neck and steal his iPhone3G.
• Arriving home to an URGENT email asking me to call my boss because he had a new project that was going to monopolize my life for the next 48 hours…

And with that… we’re in it again!

I’ve Got Gas

You’ve noticed that gas has gone down in price?  Oil is now back under $120/barrel.  All of the oil speculators are running away with their tail between their legs.  And guess what, America?  We did it!  Congratulations on showing the world (and ourselves) that we can actually decrease the demand for gas!  While some of the price drop can be attributed to speculators leaving the market, the reason why they are leaving is beacuse of the drop in demand.  Who knew you didnt’ have to drive your 13mpg monstrosity to work every day!?!  Congrats!

I Lack the Power

My power bill hit an all-time high this month… $320.  My eyes popped out of my head when I saw the bill.  What is going on here?!  And so begins my love-hate relationship with you, Mr. A/C.

Before this month, we had been best friends.  We played together in the summer sun, sharing our innermost thoughts and feelings, giving each other life, and living together in a harmonious and mutually beneficial way.  But this month, you have betrayed our relationship.  You are now sucking the lifeblood out of me, and you have made me deathly reliant on you. You are on notice…

But not to forget…

You… Mr. Afternoon Sun.  I’m coming after you next!

]]> http://www.whiteeyebrows.com/back-to-the-blog/feed/ 10 http://www.whiteeyebrows.com/and-thus-we-were-manipulated/ http://www.whiteeyebrows.com/and-thus-we-were-manipulated/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:00:05 +0000 WhiteEyebrows http://www.whiteeyebrows.com/?p=328 And Thus We Were Manipulated
Why Mormon Pop Music and CES Videos Bug Me

A while ago, on my way home from church, I was listening to a mix CD of Sunday music. When the song “His Hands” came on, …

If you got it, flaunt it.

Well, friends, countrymen (and especially countrywomen in this case), in today’s blog I am going to make a case why if you got it, please refrain from flaunting it.

Summertime is here, and with the new trend of carrying cameras everywhere and taking pictures of everything you do, there is a plethora of fun-loving summer photos bouncing around online.  Lately, I have been surprised at the consistent level of… errr… “biz-nass” that seems to be plainly exhibited in people’s personal photos online.

Please, people!  Facebook, Myspace, and your blog are not your big break for a modeling career, escort service opportunity, or porn video audition.  Don’t you realize that most people looking at those are either your close friends and family — or random psycho stalkers if your profile is public?  Consider your audience, people!  You don’t want to give Aunt Mabel a heart attack, or give LonelyGuy73 any more impetus to track you down.  Spare us the skin.

Now, I’m not opposed to people looking good.  I’m all for health and fitness.  I’m just saying we should be a little more discreet about what we post on the vast inter-web!  What does it say about a person, when the sole contents of their online “profile” is dozens of scantily clad photos, and a plethora of comments from both genders reminding the person how “smokin’ hot” they are?  They’re obviously seeking some kind of attention.  Is their only contribution to society the fact that they look good without a shirt on?  Is their only function on earth to satisfy the visual ogling of others?

Some things were meant to be kept private.

This reminds me of axe murderer photos.  Huh?  No, not Dahmer and friends… I’m talking about the photos of most any couple pre-1900. Have you ever noticed that these couples never particularly look like they like each other?  Doesn’t it seem like a wonder that these people ever even reproduced based on the stack of bibles you could fit between them in these photos?

And yet they did!  In fact, I’m willing to bet they had wild and exciting personal relations just as we do today.  The difference?  Back then, private things were kept private.  Intimacy and the body was something that was shared exclusively, not broadcast on network television and certainly not discussed in the weekly bunco game with the girlfriends.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to go back to looking unnatrually unaffected toward each other.  We have, after all, had a whole sexual revolution in America since then, and I think we’ve benefited by being more open with ourselves, our family members, and our partners… but do we have to be this open?

Not convinced yet?  Let me offer one final argument.

No one ever says “if you got it flaunt it” to those who have a 200 IQ, perfect SAT scores, wicked vocabularly skillz, or who are rich.  In fact, if those people do flaunt it, it’s usually considered in very bad taste and quite rude to others.  Why then should it be acceptable for those who have the physical goods to just openly and blatantly display them for their own personal pride boost and to feed our already ravenously sex obsessed society?

But last night’s Tony Awards were something else entirely.  The Tonys are always a breath of fresh air compared to the self-importance of the Oscars or the celebration of mediocrity that is the Emmys.  Theatre people are for-reals.  They are my people.

But in last night’s show, there were just some odd moments.  And they weren’t those funny schaudenfreude moments when someone trips and falls on their pretty little face, it seems like most of the odd moments were planned and choreographed.

The acceptance speeches were over the top this year.  I thought we had reached a new level of weird when someone freestyle rapped their entire speech, but then Mark Rylance took the stage:

Amazing.  He gets a second Tony for Best Acceptance Speech Ever!

We now store gigabytes of music, movies, and television shows on our home computers. We can micro-target the content we enjoy, while filtering out that which we don’t. This is a far cry from the ‘olden days’ of buying a whole CD, cassette, or LP just to hear the one good song on the album.

We now ‘time-shift’ all our TV programming, watching what we want when we want. We can now download movies on demand through our cable providers or online services.

Leading the monetization and rights management control of this new digital content delivery world is Apple, with iTunes. Apple was the first to figure out how to partner with the content companies and produce a high quality, platform agnostic application that would be fun and easy for the user. iTunes has become the world’s leading digital media application because of these factors.

We have come far… but now consider this:

When I was in high school I had a small, modest collection of music. They were mostly hard to come by musical theater albums. These albums were expensive for a poor high school student, but they were important to me. Some even had sentimental value tied to the circumstances under which they were purchased. As the years passed, my CDs got lost, borrowed, scratched, or stolen. I had already paid and purchased the content, and yet I find myself now re-purchasing the same content!

Similar things happen in digitally acquired music. People who don’t backup their music can lose everything when their iPods are stolen. If you switch an iTunes account, you can lose access rights to the music you already purchased. If your computer gets lost, stolen, or if it crashes, you can lose a lot of money.

Also, what of the thousands of DVDs that people have purchased, which are now inferior to the new high definition formats?

The future of media, is not in content ownership. You won’t have to build a datacenter in your house to digitally store all those songs and movies you want to own. In fact, you already don’t ‘own’ the content you purchase outright. You are actually buying a license to listen to that music or watch that DVD for ‘private home use.’ You really don’t own the content at all.

So why do most of us buy and re-buy the same content OVER AND OVER during our lives if we have already bought their license for ‘private home use’ once?

Consumers need to demand that content owners honor their licensing of their content to us. Content providers (like iTunes) should track what you’ve purchased, but make that purchase available to you throughout your life – in upgraded formats as they’re available – in every format you want or need.

In my utopia, my iLibrary of DVDs would be available to me on demand over the network. It will know what content I have license to, and provide that content in the best possible format. It will track my content so it can never be lost, stolen, or erased.

Imagine… Entire bookcases and closets in America can be reclaimed from holding massive numbers of CDs and DVDs, and our media can be available to us on any device, any time.

I should also be able to buy and sell my licenses whenever I want, just as I could my CDs. If I want to get rid of an album or movie on eBay, I should be able to transfer that license to any other user on the fair market.

The content generation industry (we used to call these studios, as if it were art) will resist this, because it will ultimately mean less money for them. They also worried that digital distribution of music would make music piracy go up, when the exact opposite has happened.

iTunes has shown the incredible potential for digital media. Now they just need to close the loop and do the right thing for the consumer in providing digital rights management for all content, and having those licenses persist throughout my entire life.

I though Jon Stewart did all right as host, but I enjoyed Ellen more, and would love to see Billy Crystal do it again.

I wasn’t too excited about the OSCARS. I haven’t seen most of the contenders yet, due to being dreadfully behind in my movie watching, so I didn’t have many strong opinions… except for best song.

There were 3 songs from “Enchanted” by Steven Schwartz and Alen Menken. But percentages weren’t on their side, and the small indie film “Once” took home the award (deservedly so). The song “Falling Slowly” is simply intoxicating. I never get sick of hearing it. It is brilliant simplicity.

It was also ‘international’ night at the OSCARS. All four acting awards were given to actors born outside of the US. But beyond this headline grabbing first, it is important to note that the design categories and music were also dominated by foreigners. The only awards where ‘americans’ had an edge were in the technology and ‘nerd’ awards. Sound, effects, editing, etc.

What does this mean for Hollywood? I’m not totally sure. Is is a result of our society’s marginalization of true artists (as opposed to products like Britney)? Is it because we aren’t fostering enough art and encouraging our artists as much as other countries are?

First, Fred Thompson finally dropped out of the race. Well… I can’t say “dropped out” really… I mean he was barely even running. He was more walking, skulking, or sauntering. Maybe he was mozying. Yes. Mozying. And now he’s undoubtedly back in his overstuffed armchair watching old Law and Order reruns (like the rest of us)…

Also, Bernanke announced that the Fed would cut interest rates by .75% yesterday, one of the biggest cuts in over 20 years. Way to show no one’s panicked in this country, especially in the financial sector… whoa! Big write downs again today by Bank of America and Wachovia… awesome. More correction…

BRING IT ON! I’m not trying to tempt the fates. I don’t want good hard working Americans to lose their jobs or retirement money, but I’m OK with some of those billion dollar hedge funds and executive bonuses to be brought down out of the sky. But there’s another, better reason for wanting our economy to slip… it’s the only way a republican will get elected this fall — and by then, we’ll have probably pulled out of this bagel anyway.

And who better to lead the republican party and the nation during a financial crisis than the man who made a fortune making turnarounds for a living. Americans will be desperate for an aggressive economic policy, giving President Mitt Romney the Carte Blanche he needs to clean house in our federal government and give us our tax dollars back. Every percentage point that slips off the Dow is one more for Romney.

Lastly and sadly, Heath Ledger died yesterday from an apparent overdose. He was a certainly a gifted actor, but it wasn’t his death that shook me… it was the fact that he was less than 2 years older than me. Talk about making you feel mortal… Sadly, Ledger will now only be remembered for playing a gay cowboy, (who incidentally is one of the most tragic characters in all cinema) rather than for the great body of work he had yet inside of him. Perhaps it is that loss that we should grieve most of all.

David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., struck an independent deal with the Writer’s Guild in order for his show to get back on the air by Jan 3rd.

Not to be outdone, NBC quickly wrangled to get Leno and Conan, arguably the only real assets and ratings kings NBC has left these days, back on the air as well, lest they lose some of their late night market share and advertisers to rival CBS. But, because Late Night and the Tonight Show are owned by NBC, not by an independent company like Dave Letterman’s show, they were unable to begin with their writers. Their brilliant solution? Writers! Who needs writers!

So Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien came back on last night without any writers. ERRR… umm… check that. They came back having written their own show (which is arguably crossing the picket line). Jay wrote his own monologue, making hay of the fact that he checked with his wife to see if the jokes were funny. Conan didn’t present much of an official monologue, just yammered on for an hour straight about the strike and had an unusually large number of guests.Even Dave, who had his writers, was sort of squirmy all night, obviously not comfortable with working while the rest of the industry languished.

The verdict on last night’s off-the-cuff late night episodes?? Yes, we need the writers… badly! The whole thing was just awkward, not because these guys can’t craft a joke, but because they all looked incredibly uncomfortable going on the air while their unions picketed. Even the guests squirmed.

Oh yeah, and Conan grew a beard in solidarity… who knew that guy could grow facial hair!?

So the real question is, how long can these guys last? They certainly won’t be able to remain funny for long just going out night after night and free-associating their way to a funny show. On the other hand, if they try to write everything themselves, they just won’t be able to fill the hour, or the material will be awful. Never mind the struggle they will be facing to get talent to appear, with other union members fearing to cross WGA picket lines.

So what is really going on here? How will this thing play out? In my opinion, Late Night programing will singlehandedly be the one to end this strike and put Hollywood back to work. I see it coming down like this: Leno and O’Brien will last about a week before they are absolutely exhausted from writing their own hour long shows. They make a personal, perhaps public, appeal to the execs and lawyers to get their writers back. NBC knows where its bread is buttered, and fearing the loss of their best programming the execs will be forced to re-enter negotiations with the writers and come to a quick settlement. Once NBC reaches a settlement, all the other networks will obviously have to as well.

Really, late night TV is the absolute best place to broker this solution. These programs rely heavily on writers so their hosts can just be funny (and not necessarily creative), but the programs aren’t necessarily “scripted” themselves, because of their variety aspects… a perfect storm.