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Millari is home!

Yesterday, we hosted another Church Of Otis Bad Movie Night. The Pope, St. Watserface (& Concubine) and Syd joined us for two entertainingly poorly made films. The first was Modesty Blaise, a mid-60s action flick with five different directors and a female lead who spoke no English and learned her lines phonetically. It did, however, have both Terence Stamp as an appealingly roguish criminal and Dirk Bogarde as an evil mastermind with a horror of violence and a different color theme in each scene. It had random costume changes, a musical number, and lots of bad accents.

The second was King Of The Zombies, a 1941 flick, just over an hour long, about a Nazi scientist in the South Seas, a voodoo cult and zombies. It was as dumb as one might imagine, and also featured tons of blatant racism, especially around the character of Jefferson Jackson, the black manservant to one of the white leading men, as played by Mantan Moreland. I see that Moreland played a lot of cowardly black servants in the 30s and 40s, and was considered funny, but with the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the 50s, he was seen as emblematic of rejected stereotypes. It was uncomfortable to watch, especially since he really was hilarious, thanks to excellent delivery and perfect comic timing. Also, honestly, he seemed the smartest and most interesting character in the piece. I'd love to see more of his work.

Today, _usakeh_ came out for the day, and we watched the first couple of episodes of Life On Mars (the original BBC version with John Simm). I had heard it was fabulous, and it did not disappoint. We'll watch more later, in tandem.

Today I took a vacation day, and watched the Obama inauguration, and then celebrated my friend Suave's birthday.

The inauguration was the best I have yet seen. The music before hand was moving, and the Benediction at the end by Joseph Lowery was great (I loved the colloquial language and rhyming structure at the end), even Rick Warren's invocation was pretty good. I thought Obama's speech was moving, too. Perhaps not a timeless address for the ages, but a thoughtful, well-written invocation of national ideals, a repudiation of Bush, and a call to collective action, all of which is what we need right now. So, a great kick off to the Obama presidency, and not a moment too soon.

Suave's party in the evening was OK. Lots of 20 something hipsters with whom I had little connection, though I did meet a guy who used to teach computer animation at UMass who apparently knows

anzovin, and had a long conversation about why Fringe is wretched, the politics of tyrrany, stuff I didn't know about my old college, and the wisdom of grad school with Ranger.

The really cool bit was the four hours Suave, K, Ranger, and I spent playing Arkham Horror. Man, that game is fun.

One thing I have to wonder: how can Christopher Hitchens be so smart and yet SO STUPID.

In light of all the comparisons between Obama and FDR and/or Lincoln, this article from the Nation in 1933 seems apt.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: The crowd singing Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye to Bush's departing helicopter.

This past weekend, M and I went back East. We drove out on Friday evening after I got out of work, and went to Sol Azteca for supper. (Pollo a la pimienta, mmmmm), and had dinner with Papi and Gato. Then we went back to M's family homestead, where we went to bed (though I stayed up and watched the end of game 2 of the Sox/Angels series.)

On Saturday, we slept late and had a lovely and leisurely breakfast with Papi and Mami. Eventually, we managed to collect ourselves and drive to Somerville to stay with

wandelrust and

omnia_mutantur in their beautiful new home. We had lovely chats and walked around Mission Hill, checked out Hub Comics, went out for tasty Greek food, and then back to the house. OM schooled us all at boggle once again, and then we watched Snatch on DVD, which was just as funny as I recalled. (Brad Pitt and his adorable accent!) And, wow, that movie is well acted, well filmed, and well written, but really blows me away is how well plotted it is. I hope someday to be able to do something like that myself.

Sunday, we went for brunch with both of our families. The food was OK, and the socializing as pleasant as one might expect. I have to put learning Spanish on my to do list, so Mami is more included.

Then home, to do lots of much delayed house cleaning, watching the VP debate on tivo (with nerf guns), and then bed.

Married life is good.

Current Mood: cheerful

Our friend Arnaud is visiting from France for the next week. I haven't seen him in four years, and it's good to catch up. He arrived late yesterday, and after he went to sleep, I stayed up later because a friend wasn't doing well. (Sadly, said friend will be spending a couple of days in a psych ward--let's hope it's a short stay.) Anyway, I slept late.

Today, we lazed about, watching some Monty Python episodes. This evening, we went over to UMass and watched the Amherst fireworks, which were lovely. After a bite at the diner, we went to Friday Night Rewind (thanks to

sundart for getting us tickets) to 1996's tour de farce Independence Day. I didn't remember the details very well, but it certainly punished me for knowing things as much as I recalled, and the story was full of ridiculous and unlikely coincidences. And bad acting, too. However, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch were lots of fun, and watching this cheese-puff patriotism was greatly improved by the rewind crowd, who had seen it before and helped coat the stupidest bits with irony to ease them down my throat. Best part of the screening: a tie between

kjpepper stripping the H, the N and A from a HANCOCK visor; and trading snarky comments with reigning Pioneer Valley Queen of Snark,

sydneycat. Hurray! Tomorrow, I'll take Arnaud to game night at the store, and next week, we'll go camping and hiking for a couple of days. And next weekend, we'll throw a little birthday party for my mom. Ah, it's nice to have a few days off in a row.

ETA: Today, for the first time since she joined our pride, Tilda caught a mouse and brought it inside. Then, an hour later, she caught another one. I don't know what's up with that, but I hope she doesn't keep bringing them inside.

Current Mood: sleepy

July was quite a month for me. After my wedding and the hullabaloo of Connecticon (at which the store did really well), there was Secretive's wedding on Long Island. Well, actually, there was a nice evening with friends and seeing Margaret Cho, who was pretty funny, though she did some material I had seen her do before, so I wasn't as amused as I was the first time I saw her. God she's cute, though. Then, there was a fun evening of gaming on Bastille Day, and Secretive was able to join us, perhaps for the last time. Then, on the 15th, Secretive, MAMEd, and M's ex (for whom I can't think of an appropriately cool adjective) went to Fenway to catch a golden moment for the Red Sox. Curt Schilling pitched masterfully, Big Papi hit a triple (he's not a fast runner), the weather was clear and temperate and the evening was just beautiful. It was the one good evening, and the one good game the Sox played, that weekend.

The day after that, my parents threw a wedding reception for M and me. It was a lovely evening in their backyard, with a lot of their friends and family that we couldn't invite to our wedding in attendance. I had a nice time, chatting with people I hadn't seen in years, and feeling comfortably grownup, in a new way, talking with all these much older adults as an equal (that became the unofficial theme of the evening for me--recognizing, and being recognized as, a married responsible adult in his mid-thirties.) We received some lovely gifts and a tidy amount of money, enough that I felt a bit uncomfortable. (Not quite enough to cover the costs of our wedding, but still, I'm touched by their generosity.)

(OMG, there's a rabbit sniffing at the bushes on our back deck right now. It's so beautiful! oh, it's gone. Sorry, Feisty, you snooze, you lose. And, just now, the AC has switched off for the first time today. I guess the heat is breaking.)

So, Secretive's wedding... really, this should be a post all its own, but here goes:

Millari stayed up really late the night before we drove down on Thursday the 20th, clearing her decks of work so she could go. I stayed up in solidarity. Ugh. There was a rehearsal and dinner that night, starting at 5pm. (I was to do one of the readings, from Walt Whitman's Song of the Open Road, so I needed to be there.) We left later than we had planned (as is usual for us), getting on the road at 2 PM. Millari drove, and made very good time. We got down to New York, over the Throg's Neck Bridge and onto the LIE by 4:30. We were about 15 minutes from the hotel when Secretive called, asked where we were, and when I told him we were approaching exit 36, told me to take that exit. So, we did.

He directed us to a Barnes and Noble, and told us to wait there for him to pass by on his way to the rehearsal, so that we would all be more or less on time. So, we did. (While this was going on, G called from Tucson, and asked me to agree to be Z's back-up guardian in case she and F should both die in the next few years. This sparked a big talk about children for M and me, which we're still having, really. Anyway, we told G and F yes eventually. But this is demanding some real attention during all of the following.)

The B&N was on a busy road, with two-way traffic, along a dense commercial strip. In order to join Secretive's motorcade of people he was leading to the rehearsal, we would have to make a left turn across both lines of traffic, in and out of a busy multi-store driveway. So, we started driving down this road shortly before the caravan arrived, driving slowly (and pissing off many New Yorkers) so they could pass us. After five nerve-wracking minutes, we managed to swerve in and join the others. At which point things got worse. Secretive is a terrible driver to follow. He drives too fast, he guns through red lights, and generally drives like the Masshole he is. The four cars following him became widely strung out. Millari, because of years of practice following her dad around strange places around the world, was up to the challenge, but the others got periodically lost. After half an hour, though, it became clear that the basic problem was that Secretive was also lost. In fact, it seems that he had never been to the church before and had only the vaguest idea where it was. We were seriously discussing bailing on the whole affair and heading to the hotel when someone told him where to go and we made it to the chapel an hour late.

The building itself was charming, with huge windows looking out on lush, tall trees. The rehearsal was pretty quick for an elaborate to do. Then, we went to a upscale Italian restaurant owned by the bride's sister for a tasty dinner. While there, I got to chat for awhile with Veritas (whom I think I have mentioned under that alias before. He spent some time a few years ago trying to retrofit the OverPower CCG before abandonning that to develop his own CCG. It will be debuting this fall, with previews available at GenCon, from his company, Veritas Games.)

We then went on to the hotel, the Inn at Fox Hollow, owned by the bride's uncles, which was an upscale place. Our room, which was comped, was a suite featuring a kitchen with full fridge and stove, a couch and easy chairs, plush bathrobes, a comfy bed, and wifi. (See their website here: http://www.theinnatfoxhollow.com/indexflashver.html) ;

Millari is home, so I'll post about the wedding itself later.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Sox playing Cleveland on radio

For M and I, the day began oversleeping meeting my friend Joke (who had also arrived very late Saturday night) for breakfast at Sylvester's, which was as good as always, though I was so full from the previous night that I could barely eat my waffle. This was the first time I'd seen him in 8 years (since his wedding) and Millari had never met him before, so we ran over time because I wanted them to have a little time to get go to know each other...and I wanted to show off the store, too.

We got back to the house after folks had started to arrive, but I guess it worked out OK. I actually had to go and lie down for a bit, because I felt queasy. Then, there was an amusing hour or so wherein people would exhort M and me to go and get dressed, that it was our day and we should stop doing things, and then two minutes later would come and ask us where something was or what we wanted folks to do about something or other.

Eventually, I put on my expensive new tux (a Canali, which I bought at Yale Genton and had tailored by the folks at Cassandra Holden's shop--thanks

sydneycat for the recommendation) and Millari put on her gorgeous (and super cheap--she spent as much on two dresses as I did on shoes for this shindig) green dress, and did her makeup, and finally everyone was here (except for one of M's dear friends, who came down sick at the last minute, alas) and then...

Well, then everyone gathered in the garden, and Millari, my brother the Best Man, and I went out of the bedroom onto our deck where Karen Cadieux (from the Easthampton mayor's office and who served admirably as a our JP) awaited us. Our friends and family started cheering and clapping as soon as we opened the curtain.

Karen read a lovely preamble that she had brought with her, and then M read me the vows she'd written at 3 AM that morning. They were beautiful, and made me cry, and she'll posting them in her LJ (link TBA). Then, I read her mine, which were as follows:

Michelle, there are many reasons why I love you. I love how you laugh and smile. I love how you hold me. I love how you look when you are intent upon something and you don’t notice me looking. I love your sense of adventure. I love the joy we share in stories. I love the stories we create together. I love the way that you encourage and inspire me to choose the life that I want. I love the way that you light candles instead of cursing the darkness.

For all these reasons, I am going to promise you now in front of our friends and family what I have already promised you. I promise to put our relationship before everything else in my life. I promise to be your friend, partner and lover for all the days remaining to me. I promise to be a husband to you, a son to German and Martha, and brother to Gabe and Alana.

Then, I ad libbed something like the following: I give you this ring, as a constant reminder of our love, and that we are a team.

Then, everyone cheered.

Then, we sat, and ate the delicious food that we and friends and family had made, and drank lots of tasty drinks, and had the scrumptious cake made for us at the Henion Bakery (which we served with ice cream from Herrell's--thanks to

omnia_mutanturand

wandelrust for picking those up for us, and cooking, and helping arrange the jewelry, too) and danced. A dog from somewhere nearby got loose and crashed the wedding, in a totally charming 'hi, I'm friendly and I'd really like some food' kind of way.

To be honest, it was lovely, but I don't remember it very well, because it was a little overwhelming. Like Feisty, I spent some time hiding in my room because I was having too much fun. Many people wrote lovely comments in our memory book, and we got many thoughtful gifts, too.

The party went late into the night, with some folks going to hotel to change and then coming back to help us eat some of the hoard of leftovers. And then, GFZ and Joke had to leave so they could catch their very early flights. We stumbled into bed.

Monday, we slept late, tidied up a bit, though Mami, Papi and others apparently spent hours doing most of it on Sunday. I'm so grateful to them for doing all that work so we didn't have to. Then, Rob, M and I drove to Boston, put him on Virgin Atlantic flight 12 and sent him home. I slept for a good part of the drive, I think, and I'm really glad that they kept right on having a great time without me. I'm glad that they have a bond apart from knowing me. (For that matter, one of the nicest things about the wedding experience was hearing from everyone how much they liked meeting everyone else, and what lovely friends and family we had. Which is true, but I always fret about folks not getting along, so it was such a relief that they did, and that everyone had fun.)

M and I took advantage of being in the city to stroll on the Common for a bit, and then had dinner at the Bhindi Bazaar, which is right at the end of Newbury street on Mass Ave, which I guess was our little honeymoon. Then home to collapse into bed again. Today, we rose late, and have spent the past four hours posting all of this.

And now, we're married. Thank you to everyone for help, good wishes, gifts, and love.

Current Mood: thankful

The Destroyer gave me two great gifts on my birthday--a brief case/new gaming satchel, and a book, The Translator by John Crowley. It's an excellent book, and Crowley writes a suggestive book, both allusive and elusive, in which not much happens, and it's all on the small scale of a girl's life, and yet it is a deeply moving and engrossing book. I recommend it to anyone interersted in good writing. I must find something to give in return.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Dead Can Dance in my head

(Can I pick exciting titles or what?)

millari and I worked very hard getting ready for our wedding last week. She did the hardest stuff, I think, arranging the food and music, and doing the lion's share of creating the table decorations. I took the lead on travel arrangements, finding a JP and legal paperwork, managing the guest list and invitations, and the rehearsal dinner. I did also do a lot of puttering around the house, cleaning, hauling, yard work type stuff. We made most of the big decisions together. Overall, it was a team effort, and I'm very satisfired with how it all turned out.

In fact, we did such a good job of arranging things in advance that we actually had time for some fun last week. The previous weekend, Lefty graciously covered my Saturday evening shift while MAMEd, Crafty, Millari,

wolfy and my brother shanghaied me to a murder mystery dinner theater in Boston. The theater was mediocre but the food was quite tasty, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of it all, so hooray for my friends. (As an aside, I hope MAMEd knows how much I value his friendship and all that he, Crafty and their kids have done to help us with the wedding. It seems astonishing that, at first, I had thought that Crafty didn't like or approve of me.)

So, Sunday was mow the lawn, run the errands, make the table decorations, pick gifts for the registries, make sure we invited everyone we could fit for the rehearsal dinner (even taking advantage of some late arrivals by friends and family to include some folks we just couldn't invite to the wedding for lack of space, there were still folks we couldn't invite. Oh, so frustrating.)

Monday, I worked as usual. Tuesday, I took delivery of the new futon and took apart my old platform bed (which is now for sale, and I should advertise it somewhere). Wednesday, after an enormous shipment of new comics at the store, M and I moved her drums to the basement and then did other stuff I can't recall, and then drove out to M's father's restaurant in Newton where we met my friend Rob, who had flown in from London. Papi and Mami were there eating when we arrived, and offered a wonderful welcome to our friend when he joined us. (He'd never had good Mexican food before, so I think he enjoyed it. I indulged in the Pollo a la Pimienta--so creamy, so good...)

Thursday was a visit to the Science Museum, seeing old favorites like the atom smasher/lightning show, and enjoying the nifty exhibit on pattern recognition and perception and a 3D movie with images from Mars taken by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The blurb does not, in any way, convey how moving it is to listen to the scientists from NASA talk about their work and then see some of it in 3D. It brought tears to my eyes and helped me recall why I ever wanted to study science and its history. If you get the chance, see this show. (

gfish I'm thinking of you in particular.) Then, we went to see Jade Moran and picked up our wedding rings. Mine is a broad rose gold band with a leaf and vine design and an inset cabochon cut jade (perhaps not the swankiest stone, but I wanted a rich green color, and something durable.) The tiara wasn't quite done, but she dropped that off on Saturday, so Millari wore it (and looked wonderful) on the day. Pictures of it will be on the site someday.)

Thursday evening we rushed back home so we could see our hometown fireworks. Only, I somehow read the date as 2006 when it was actually 2002. But, we had a lovely late night snack at the Sierra Grill (too new for a website), and ran into N & J, and had a lovely chat with them. (I should add that the week before, they had taken us to the Iron Horse to see a great show by the band Devotchka. I recommend them.) Friday, we did more getting the place ready for a big party stuff, like hauling lots of trash, and finally setting up my old futon (which M has stained a lovely chestnut color) on the front porch. Friday night

fuschia came over to help with the party favors, and then there was dinner at India Palace and ice cream at Herrell's, followed by food coma back at the house and finally getting to see Dalek and then showing off some Venture Brothers. (Second season is growing on me.)

Saturday, things started to come together in that snowball-rolling-down-hill sort of way. Taylor rental dropped off the tent, tables, plates, cutlery and such. Papi and Mami showed up with a serving dishes, wine glasses, sangria, beer, wine, food (chiles in nogada!), and then spent hours setting it up for us, effectively catering our wedding for us (and the yankee in me really appreciates how much money this saved us). I spent much of the day answering the phone and the door (everyone asked me if I was nervous yet), stole a few moments to write my vows, and then Rob and I went out and bought champagne, got horchata from La Veracruzana, borrowed tables from the store (thanks, Lefty), and did more stuff I can't even recall. Then, we went to the rehearsal dinner at the Tavern On The Hill, which was a marvelous feast. (It's all good food, but I particularly recommend the Equinox Farm salad for the delicious novelty of vanilla salad dressing.)

Many friends and family were there, but I was especially pleased to see my uncle from Hawaii. In years past, there have been some awkward moments, but this past weekend was just wonderful, as he was funny and charming, but also helpful, loving and thoughtful. (Actually, he may not have changed at all. It might just have been me all along.) Anyway, I'm so glad he flew out to join us. (He brought leis for my mom, for Mami, and for Millari, which added an unlooked for element of grace and charm to the event.)

The dinner started at 7pm, and at 10:30 I dashed out of there to drive down to Bradley airport to pick up G,F&Z from Tucson. I took them out for a late dinner at the diner and a little time together, then a quick tour of the house, a browse of the shelves at Modern Myths so I could buy some manga for Z, then finally to the hotel. It was lovely to see them, and I'm sorry that their big move only allowed them to be here for 36 hours.

And then came Sunday.

Current Mood: touched
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Un Monde Mysterious by Dimitri From Paris

In a week, I shall be married. My friend Rob is in the air right now from London. Other friends and family will be flying in from all over the US, including Hawaii. We have gotten most of the preparations done for the wedding, but those last few will fill up the days ahead. I'm nervous, excited, and struck by just how easy it is to spend lots of money.

And Feisty is getting older. A few minutes of scrambling after the red dot, and she was happy to sit back and watch.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Love Is Blindness by U2

Saturday evening,

millari and I hosted

wandelrust and

omnia_mutantur for an evening of takeout falafel and the World of Warcraft board game. It took over 5 hours to finish one game, so we were all fading into exhaustion when it was done, but it was actually fun. The pieces are well made, the game mechanic balanced stategic and tactical concerns, and you get to pick up handfuls of dice and roll them to kill monsters, take their stuff, and gain XP. Not an everyday game, but a satisfying return to the fun of those early 80s all night D&D games with my friends.

Oh, and the wedding is now less than two weeks away.

Current Mood: cheerful

[Unknown site tag]I saw the film of Al Gore's slide show tonight with

sydneycat and

millari. It's an excellent presentation in itself, and the film adds a personal, reflective dimension, which at times felt odd, but which in at least two places improved Mr. Gore's message by interleaving events from his life and family history with his message about climate change. (Specifically, the scene from 1989, when he was holding Senate hearings on global warming, and his account of the death of his sister and how that led his family to stop growing tobacco.)

The earth's climate is, of course, an immensely complicated system which we'll never completely understand, but Mr. Gore does a fine job of making clear what we already know, what that clearly indicates for our future as a species, and, happily, holds out hope that we can still make a positive difference. I hope everyone in the US sees it. I hope that we are all convinced by it, and that we, and the rest of the world, act now to save ourselves.

Seeing it, I am reminded of something that struck me late in my stint in grad school. Starting in the 70s and on into the 90s, many scholars (such as Latour and Woolgar, Shapin and Shaffer, and Sandra Harding)in the history of science worked to explode the idea that science was a privileged viewpoint, that it was uniquely truthful, all-encompassing, and authoritative in its pronouncements on all things, by its very nature. It's thanks to these scholars that people like W. W. Rostow are historical artifacts and not mainstream thinkers today. However, the baby that's been lost in the bathwater, that critics like these assholes have also missed, is that scientists are, first and foremost, people who care deeply about evidence. Rhetoric matters, Experience matters. Funding sources matter. Politcal ties matter. Class, gender, nationality, theoretical commitments and all sorts of other things shape the questions asked and frame the debate over the answers given all matter, but the professional culture of science with its sedulous concern for data matters, too. And while that sub-culture is just one among a vast multitude, its practices are designed toward one goal: understanding the universe better than we do now. And that means that scientific expertise, while it can be bought, bent and broken, nevertheless has a resilience and insight into the world that we ignore at our peril.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Let's Go (Norhing For Me) by New Order

I have been playing RPGs since I was 10, and over most of that time, they have been a major source of comfort when I was stressed and unhappy, which was almost constantly in my childhood and adolescence. So, I'm not surprised that I have been thinking about gaming a lot these past days. Sometimes it's the creative, interesting game-thought, like wondering if Jordan Melhedan would be able to connect the dots enough to ask Sabbath what happened to his father, and what would happen if he did. When I'm really struggling with my feelings, I shut them down, and then I wind up just crunching game stats in my head, over and over, like Humphrey Bogart with the ball-bearings. This often impedes my ability to concentrate and, in this case, work on the school project that is the cause of my stress in the first place.

Today, things are a bit different. I also have to finish my comps, and that means an exam and an oral defense, a meeting with three professors that depends upon all of us being there in the room together. John, it seems, can't do it at the end of August, and I can't do it earlier, because I'll be away. It must be done by August 31, however, because my eligibility ends that day, and it's too late for to try to extend it, aside from the hoops that would involve. Larry, however, seems to have already set the wheels in motion to get me another semester. This is a great weight off my mind, and I feel good about that.

The problem is it's 1:30 in the afternoon, I have been up since 9 am, and this post is the most useful thing I have done today. (OK, I re-read Mona Lisa Overdrive and a bit of Neuromancer. Wow, what a difference 20 years makes. Then, too, remember what computers and the net were like back in 80s?) It's hard to get my shit together without a sting of fear to drive me.

So, I'm going to go out, have breakfast, go to UMass and see if I really can get this extension, and then come home and write an intro to the fucking paper. No therapy tonight, so I should have enough time.

Happy things: Feisty has taken to sprawling across the table between keyboard and screen. She's so beautiful and happy to be with me, it really makes my heart catch a little.

OH, and Syd, I found the hedgehog you gave me. He's perched, too. Yay for mascots!

Current Mood: apathetic
Current Music: Midnight In A Perfect World

M and I watched this last night, so I have at last seen it. I thought it was a pretty good film. I quite understand fuschia's little thing for Monica Bellucci, and for the other pretty young thing, too. I found the story itself an engaging mix of Enlightenment rationalism and Hollywood hokum. Since in a weird way the film is all about the revolution, and since that is still a very live topic in French society, I wonder how the French audiences understood the depiction of aristocrats in the film. I detected a lingering sympathy for them.

I also had no idea that the Mohawks knew kung fu, but I probably shouldn't make too much of that. Certainly, the fight scenes looked a lot cooler than many others I have seen. And the CGI beast was surprisingly good.