Crash, Boom, Bang

Just so that some things make sence; on December 13, 2008 I killed a lampost and my bike... myself? well thats gonna take some healing...

This Game Sucks

I am a hairs breath away from being put of the boy / girl game and seeing if I can shape the world by marrying my bike! That would be fun though, imagine if I can pull that off, people will beable to marry computers and the likes in the future...

Anyway, why am I in this point of view? I am sure you are dieing to know... okay not quite. Firstly let me warn you before hand that there is alot of back story and will be in this thoughout this post.

Okay, I saw my one of my best friends off today. He is leaving for Canada (again) and while I might not cry as much as him, well it hurt like a sunofabitch. So my solution was... lets go have a drink or a 100. Unfortunatly, as per an omen that he was not to leave (or just my typical fracking luck) a lighning bolt had hit a sub station and thus my favourate pub was well... in the dark. So upon getting back I decided that I would walk (yes had better ideas in my life. I did however realise that I have become an unfit SOB) to the Dros down the road (that is if 3Km is down the road).

Anyway, got there and ordered a beer, and anouther, and anouther, and anouther...

After awhile a girl walked in... not that I was in the mood for conversation, I was more trying to figure out what and what not was stopping me from heading to Canada and getting the Frack out of this country... Anyway, time passed (I think 2 beers) and nothing was said till she wanted to head to the bathroom and she asked me to look after her bag... Shiney! Not a problem, thats something I can do, thus I did.

To cut a short story long, she was in the bathroom for less time than any woman I have ever known... (That is if I am dishonest, there are 2 others; one is a Lesbian and the other... well she is comming.)

BUT! Now that I think about it this is a good time to bring her in... now the trick is to keep this very vague... lets say the following; she was probably the best lay I have ever had (crude? I know but like I care), she made me look saine (a feat in itself), and the little fact that she was 24 and had a kid... was having probs with the daddy and thus well I was sorta around.

Shit that was not all that vague...

So the point?

Well getting back to the evening... after awhile of me trying to figure out how to get the hell out of this country and into anouther as well as what is keeping me tied to it (here I will say that the fact that my beer might just freeze if I walk outside is a pretty good deterant). She interupts my deap thoughts... okay not so deap.

Anyway, well we chat about the usual... work, location and weather... *Yawn!* as well as the whole buddy overseas thing... during wich I say I have nothing other that ny bike keeping me here other than the weather (hence the chat about the weather... see it wasn't that dull)

Then she says: "I'll tell you my story."

Turns out she is married (still trying to figure out the entire story of why exactly she wasn't wearing her ring), she has a kid and is the same age as me. But (Frack! I hate that word) she4 has an issue with her hubby... bla bla, her problem not gonna bore you all with it but this brings me to the big question...

DO I HAVE A FRACKING SIGN ON MY FOREHEAD THAT SAYS PEOPLE WITH ISSUES WELCOME!

Okay, I think that some of this is because she looks and has the mannerisums of the previous... lets say nameless chick from before that I sat there, as per before and listened to all the shiite.

So the point?

Thats simple, my bike is simple: petrol, oil, and a service now and then she is happy and I know when she is happy. My luck with the so called fairer sex? well that I think I have covered pretty well. Now, I have a thoery (Might be fueld by male ego, but you know what? I am one and have one).

R20 says I could have gotton her into bed. With a pretty devious, underhanded, way too alas... I am to god damn nice and decided it might be best if she plays with her hubby instead of me. Honourable I know... I am the shining beacon of honour... but to be honest I have just had too much of the whole emotional baggage thing. So I ask again:

DO I HAVE A FRACKING SIGN ON MY FOREHEAD THAT SAYS PEOPLE WITH ISSUES WELCOME!

Anyway, thats life...

The First Day

When the Morningstar fell things where different,
they fell for their own fate,
Justice was served...
and the justice was mine.
They fell for the lack of love,
Since then others have fallen for the excess of there of.
I am one.
Where love meets hate is a fine line,
One that few, seldom cross.
Those that do end up battered,
bruised,
hurt,
killed.
But some,
only some,
actually take that faith and pain.
Make it their strength,
I have,
and always will.
I have felt weary,
I have felt pain,
I have felt defeat.
These are things that I fight against.
These are things that I care for.
These are things that I kill for.
But what can I do?
No longer do I have Devine Will.
No longer do I have my flaming swords,
One black and one white.
No longer do I have my wings,
my beautiful wings.
But I am Gabriel, Archangel of Justice.
No, sorry, I am just Gaebriel.
I am after all now a mere Mortal
But the fight remains the same.
And it is a fight I’ll never cease.

Biking, A life.

Very few people have actually experienced the life of a biker. Thus I, a biker for 10 years (yes, I know that for some that still makes me a spring chicken, but hey), will now bestow appon you the life and style of a biker. No, not a weekend warrior (a person that owns a bike but will only ride it on weekends if the weather is perfect) but rather the life of a true biker, one that rides day in day out, through rain or snow or gloom of night and needless to say when the mercury drops to Zero Kelvin… okay maybe not then.

The first thing that I would like to address is the stigma around bikers. For some reason people out there seem to think that bikers are mean and nasty people (maybe it’s the leather, but I am yet to see handcuffs and whips). I can assure you that this is by far not true, okay maybe the Hells Angles but I have been out drinking with them and they too are the most awesome people out there. Bikers, in truth, are fun loving people; they ride for the freedom (I’ll address that later) and try and have as much fun as humanly possible. Sure, there is the little problem that if you screw them over, they have a slight tendency to break you but I see that as your fault… after all, you stopped the fun.

For the most part bikers (please note; there are a lot of new bikers out there that have started riding as bike prices have dropped. I do not deem them as bikers, as none of the rules that bikers adhere to are in these people) are extremely courteous people. We the bikers do not see cages in a bad light (okay other than the fact that they crash, catch fire and the driver burns to death). We merely see them as obstacles in the path of our freedom and fun. There are plenty of things that us as bikers do that may cause problems, but that is our problem, not yours.

Anyway, I am sure that you are far more interested in what it is like to ride a bike instead of my rambling about image and life… So let me share it with you (See, I am nice and courteous). First let me state that there are many different types of riding; the freedom ride, the traffic ride, the miserable ride and the utter terror ride. I’ll address each of these in turn.

The freedom ride, this is the ride that bikers live for. It is very difficult to describe the actual feeling but I will try. Firstly let’s define freedom. The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary describes freedom as; "the condition or right of being able or allowed to do whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited". Now let me state that there is, in truth, no such thing as true freedom, we need rules to exist, and one of those rules is gravity (one that can be a serious problem for a biker… I know). Anyway, it is on these freedom rides where the world fades away and life is truly worth living. Remember those dreams that you had as a kid where you could fly? Well that’s it. There are times where the bike just seems to disappear from under you. You look at the place you intend to go and that is where you go. Of course, it’s not as easy as that, there is a lot that happens; changing gears, clutch, accelerator but all these things fade, you do them as naturally as you breathe. In it’s place the feeling of freedom and joy. However, this freedom is also the one thing that makes it so dangerous and it is.

Then there is the traffic ride… Okay, these could be better but they are part of the life we have chosen. So let me try and paint a picture… Ever play those funky games at the arcade where you are the airplane (seen from the above) and have to fly through a canyon while the badguys are trying to shoot you and fly into you? As the stages progress the screen ultimately becomes full of objects and you somehow, even though you have no clue how, survive? Well that’s about it. One very important thing of riding in traffic is that as your experience grows you start learning to listen to your “biker sense”, something spidy wishes he had. This allows one to know what cages are gonna do before they even know themselves. Sure there are tricks and telltale signs that you look out for that can give you hints (see the top 5 worst drivers – a biker’s view for a hint). So basically riding through traffic is; judge, break (front or back… yes, we have both), accelerator, clutch and gears. This combination can of course vary to any one of the 720, different variations available to you. To be honest, it’s not fun but as long as you are courteous to the drivers they are pretty courteous to you.

Next up, the miserable ride; these suck, these are the rides where you just wanna curl up and die, okay not quite but you still never even come close to wanting a cage. They are however, still quite miserable. These are the ones where water is falling out of the sky at a speed of 600km/h, your under garments are soaked through and (in the case of a guy) your balls are lying in a ice cold pool of water (graphic yes, but it gets the point across). Other examples of a miserable ride would be when boulders, the size of bowling balls, made of ice are falling out of the sky, turning your helmet into a bowling pin and of course the odd typhoon that sneaks up on you and turns the entire riding experience into a 45° riding angle affair. YAY! Not what we live for but I guess its life.

Then, the one we all fear, the ride of utter terror. I have had very few of these in my life, and all of them are when your visibility is reduced to the inside of your visor. Now if you take into account that the inside of your visor is about 5 cm from your nose it is, well, terrifying. The first of these wonderful experiences was while cutting through traffic. There was a felt (bush for internationals) fire and the smoke, thick as maple syrup, was blowing across the highway. Now picture cutting through traffic, knowing that there are cars to the left and right of you, knowing that they can see you just as much as you can see them and knowing that there is nothing you can do other than pray. Religion is at times a very big part of biking. Fortunately, the biking god (I think his name is Loki), is for the most part a very forgiving god albeit with a sick sense of humour.

Thus far I have been very carefully avoiding the… relatively large downside of biking that I mentioned before… gravity. You see there is a small problem, as soon as the bike really disappears from underneath you (this is actually quite odd because it always seems that the bike goes one direction and you go the other, the odd thing is when you get up you are right next to each other) is that you are pulled to earth. I can share with you from my experience that earth covered with tar and stones really hurts, for some reason. In my years of riding I have lost a lot of skin, injured a knee and my wrist but this will not stop me. I have had friends who have had their backs broken and an “elder brother” who died. I have had girlfriends and friends scrape me off the tarmac and even cops treating me for shock (who’d have guessed), but still, I will not stop.

But to sum up, bikers “Live to Ride and Ride to Live”. It is the thing that fuels us through this cruel thing called life. I am sure that there are plenty of you out there that can not comprehend this life, but in all honesty there are plenty of others like us; people who jump out of perfectly good airplanes, people who jump off bridges and people that like snowboard down vertical mountains. All of us do this for one reason and one reason alone, it makes us know we are alive.

Top five worst drivers, a biker’s point of view.

First some background story. I have been riding bikes for a pretty long time; on and off (i.e. whenever my bike was actually operational) for 9 years. Now I know that some people (who would generally be classified as older and wiser, not that I would ever really classify riding a bike as wise, let alone sane) would say that, that would make me but a spring chicken, but for others, me included that make me pretty much a veteran. Especially when it is your primary form of transport, yup, I ain’t no weekend warrior.

Sure, there have been thrills and (to many) spills but now I can finally say that I have my first real bike. The first one that I had was a BMW R60/5 she was a trusty old bike (actually her personality was that of a jealous woman, but as long as I loved her, she loved me) that was 2 years younger than I am old. To be brutally honest it was not in the best of shape for two reasons. Firstly there was the problem that plagues all aging motor vehicles (and humans for that matter) things started breaking. Secondly, was the small problem of her rider being a little insane let alone suicidal. Finally on one fateful night, she met her demise in a corner… While that is a bad thing I assure you it is also a blessing. You see there is one innate flaw in having an old bike, it quite successfully devours all the money that you could and would have used to buy a newer one simply to keep it running. So with her demise (and a great deal of saving), I got my baby the R 1100 S Sport.

Anyway, the point of this little bedtime story is to point out that I have now had +/- 9 years of road experience and seen a lot of changes in people and bikers (yes I do differentiate) and their driving/riding attitudes. If you had asked me about 4-6 years ago who was the worst on the road my response, as would many others, would have been automatic: “Mercs and BM’s” However things change and, as it is said time slows for no man, except of course if you are travelling at the speed of light of course, a speed I am yet to reach. So now we get to the top five worst car drivers on the road, let the countdown begin:

First place is a new entry and is exclusively held by BFB’s (Big Fucking Bakkies), more commonly known to their owners as 4X4’s or even double cabs. The reasons that I give these drivers the so called honour of this position are numerous. Firstly, the vehicle itself is flawed, not so much by design but more by stupidity. An off-road vehicle as the name implies is supposed to be used off-road (yes some people don’t grasp simple facts like this). Thus it has a number of design features that makes it suitable for its intended use; some of these are:

It has a very high wheel base, this allows the driver to easily navigate boulders and other obstacles that he may encounter with the vehicle during its intended use, the downside is that this quite successfully raises the all the mirrors to the perfect height to reduce their effectiveness to zero. Then there is the fact that they are very large vehicles, used properly, this helps with stability and allows for a large amount of gear to be carried while bashing through the bundus. On the road however this size provides a perfect moving wall that reduces the visibility of those around them to just more than nothing. Yes, just like with real walls they are not built of glass and thus you can’t see though them.

The other side effect of a vehicle that size is the power trip, “Look at me I am so big, I can do whatever I want!” No you can’t. It seems to be commonly though that the law is just there for smaller objects, while BFB’s are exempt, but let me assure you that Newton was right when he stated that two objects of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Yes, I know that these complex scientific laws are difficult for some to grasp but they are still in effect no mater what you believe.

Second Place (Previously First Place) are the Mercs. We have all heard the story that with the price they paid for the car that they own a piece of the road. Personally, I agree and will be happy to grant them their own little piece of tarmac. But please understand, if you own a piece of land it doesn’t exactly move with you, so please take your little piece of tar, I’m sure that there is plenty out there for you to own, preferably in the Karoo or somewhere harmless to others.

The other issue with Mercs, while I have yet to actually go and enquire about this, it seams that their indicators come as an optional extra, at the price of 20K per indicator. Now I can understand that with the cheapest Merc being a mere pocket change of 182K that this would push the price up by 80K resulting in a whopping 262K, now that amount is not to be sneezed at. It is however, a problem when it is against the law to not have indicators on your vehicle and it is also against the law to not indicate while turning. So my (humble) advice would be; buy a Palio II. The flickers cost about the same but they’ll even throw in a free car.

Third Place (New Entry) is the VW Golf, not the Golf 5 or the GTI as one would expect, no this one is actually a surprise, they are the Chico and Citi(1.4i) Golf’s. This new arrival does surprise me somewhat, as for the most part these people should know better, and I can assure you with current property prices they do not own the road. I could of course, take a shot in the dark (which I will) and say that it is due to the fact that their flickers cost less than those of the Palio II, but I seriously doubt it.

I another guess could also be that they are trying to prove that their little car is not as bad as people think. If this is the case, please sit down, take a deep breath and listen, it is as bad as other people think. It is under powered and does not have any of the luxuries that you get when you pay for a bigger and better car (like the Golf 5). Please, accept this as fact; I can assure you that your car has absolutely nothing to do with your penis or breast size, let alone how attractive you are to the other sex.

In Fourth Place (Previously Second) is the BMW. With BMW’s prices dropped the BMW is now a far more affordable car to the average man, thus there are more and more normal (please note: Normal is a relative term) people are able to afford them, resulting in their somewhat significant two place fall from glory.

Unfortunately, the underlying problem is still there. While there are the new and improved drivers there are also the people that still cling to the fact that a better car (over)compensates for certain things. I guess that this belief more or less follows the logic behind retail therapy, another thing that does not actually work, but is totally unrelated to this topic, so let me get back to the point.

The car itself is of a great design, and incorporates the all powerful German engineering (unlike the Merc that has become American engineering, pity). This brilliant design does come with one very important bonus feature, the flickers are not an optional extra, and people say the Germans are bad people. What’s even more astonishing is that for the most part, the drivers of these cars have even found the little leaver on the left of the steering wheel that actually operates these curious little devices. They have also, however, forgotten where the fog light switch is located, I guess there is a price to pay for everything and that the lesser of two evils is better.

Fifth Place is a surprise, it’s not a car, in fact it’s a bike; sadly it goes to the F 650 GS (New Entry), okay this isn’t the only type but it s a good example. As mentioned before BMW’s prices are more affordable than ever before the F 650 GS (and its variations) being the most popular. The problem is that this new and improved price has drawn a great deal of new riders, while the common misconception is that it is easy to cut trough traffic I can assure you that it is not, in fact it is very dangerous and demanding, more often than not you arrive at your destination totally drained. With experience, riders do develop a form of (what I call) biker sense, this allows for a pretty accurate precognition of what the cars are going to do. There are times of course, as is the natural order of things, where this can fail (most often when BFB’s are involved), but it is still your lifeblood.

These people (yes, people, not riders) also have a tendency to clip mirrors of the cars. This is causes a two fold problem; the first being that those cars can no longer see bikes, and the second is that if they actually do see the bikes that they now have a grudge.

The good news is that once natural selection (I love Darwin) has taken place and the non worthy have been weeded out; those that are left actually grow up to be spring chickens like me. The other good news is, that with the increase of the traffic between lanes, the car drivers themselves are far more aware than they have ever been before, thus making life far easier. But (yup there is always a “but”, isn’t there) the problem is that we now have to cope with the bikes themselves, bikes that couldn’t take a gap if they received a written invitation, bikes that think that their mirrors are ornaments.
But hey, this is the life that bikers have chosen. We have balanced the good against the bad. We have looked at the possibility of developing a serious sense of road-rage and spending the next couple of years in jail for mass murder against taking our life into our own hands and taking on the terrors of the road. We have weighed the wind, the rain and the cold and found that we would rather put up with all of those for an extra half an hours sleep. I do not expect anyone to heed what is written here it is just an FYI. Just remember, we are the ones that drive for you.

Body Language

Body Language is a very important part of communication in all creatures throughout the world, human and otherwise. During the mating period many animals let the fact that they are interested (or not) in each other be known through body language. Most fights are also avoided through this method whenever there is rivalry in the group.

Same with humans - we too use this process of silent communication to get our point across; sexually, aggressively or even in plain communication. It is a well known and researched fact that men communicate with each other using body language, even more than woman do.

Personally, I think this skill developed over thousands of years with men trying to communicate while woman where talking between themselves in the same cave. This of course came a long time before men were allowed the sanctity of their garage, but by that time this skill was deep seated in men’s genetic makeup.

The problem is, however, that men and woman have two very different dialects as far as body language is concerned. One is very pronounced (male), filled with sound effects and large sweeping movements, while others (female) use a nice, discreet and almost impossible to decode dialect.

I have seen plenty a woman confused as hell after listening to a conversation between males. While men of course have little to no clue what was said between two women, seeing as they generally doze off between all the verbal details that is included in the discussions. However, the fact that women are verbal does not mean that they do not use the intricacies of body language between themselves, but almost never to get the point across.

The problem? We expect each other to understand our dialects. Let’s go to the bar and/or nightclub scenario. Can someone (anyone, I’m begging) tell me what: “Okay, we have been looking at each other for the last hour. I like you, so now would be a good time to come over and ask my name.” is in woman body language? Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top and chocolate sprinkles.

But then again - maybe you shouldn’t waste your time. I am so daft in that regard that even a woman saying: “Take me now” probably won’t get through (or has ever).

On the daft topic here is an amusing little anecdote. While I might be daft as far as the whole flirting and body language thing goes I am definitely not as daft as one of my buddies. Let me lay the scene.

The Doors (for those of you NOT in civilization; the Doors is an Alternate nightclub, actually THE alternate night club. Originally based in Marshal Street, Johannesburg, where this took place, till it moved to Edenvale.).

Anyway, there we all are on the dance floor having one of the greatest times of our lives, a very large quantity of alcohol and even more cigarettes under our belt (yes this was before our Minister of health got bored), when all of a sudden this bombshell rocks up in our group and starts dancing in front of my buddy. No less than three times did she raise her (considerably short) miniskirt for him to have a peek - and that is not even counting the way she was dancing.

Now this is not the way that I like my women - a little too forward for my liking - but the boots were good. But that is slightly beside the point. Little old daft me could see that the amount off effort needed there was even less than asking her name, and more along the lines of pointing the way to the car. My buddy on the other hand didn’t have a clue. Only after the fact, on the way home when we told him, he caught on ….. and you should have seen his face.

But back to the point after that distraction - all this miscommunication is really annoying. I am sure that there isn’t a single male or female (wild animal) that does not understand each other. So why the hell are we so different? I mean - if the entire point is to talk without talking should we not understand each other? I sure as hell think so.

Now you are probably asking why I decided to write this. Well it is actually quite simple. I am sick and tired of women trying to say things like: “You bastard! How could you forget our anniversary”, or “It’s my birthday today you dolt!” and not being able to understand it. I am sick of people telling me: “She likes you”, or “She was all over you”, when as far as I was concerned all it was, was a nice conversation.

Hell, to be honest all I really want is to be able to understand women full stop.

Bigger is Better

After watching Rollerball (the original) and Resident Evil I realised that in almost all movies Mega Corporations are displayed as bad and/or evil. However, I think that it is not as bad as everyone thinks as long as there is just enough competition to keep things moving and improvements happening.

In Rollerball, nations and governments were abolished and in their place there were five Mega Corporations that ruled the world. The Mega Corps had abolished famine and poverty elevating everyone in the world to at least a middle class standing. However, this comfort and luxury came at a price - the people had to forfeit their freedom and right to vote.

Now while this might be a scary thing to most people I don’t see how this is all that bad. Mega Corps are the things that keep the world turning and indirectly they rule anyway, but if they could abolish poverty and hunger - why not? What would really change?

However I do not want to argue the fact that Mega Corps should rule the world, but rather that they are not as bad and evil as people always seem to make them out to be.

Everyone is very willing to jump on the inquisition bandwagon and witch hunt the big boys without looking at what they have done. Let’s take everyone’s favourite, Microsoft - they are by far the biggest Operating System (OS) and Software development house in the world and the bane of any small development house.

But what have they done for us? Simple - they have made the Internet accessible to more people by supplying a free browser with their OS but people call this monopolising the Internet. Okay - so to not be one of those people out there that use Microsoft’s Browser, I can now log onto the net and download a score of other ones. But I ask HOW do I download it without a browser in the first place? Can I call Netscape and wait for them to deliver to my door the new free copy of their browser?

Then there is the fact that Microsoft refuses to make their code open-source. Why the hell should they? Firstly, they have paid their developers for that code and it is thus their intellectual capital. Secondly they are by far the best out there anyway. It’s not like Mercedes is going to give their latest plans to BMW free of charge. So why the fuss with a software house that does the same?

Another problem with going open source is that there is absolutely no control over what happens to it, and soon that which was good and standardised becomes millions of bastardised copies of the original, making the entire software world even more confusing than it already is. By keeping their code to themselves and releasing it to those people that they deem should have it (yes, they do this) they keep control.

Now - if all those people out there that are not IT people are still awake and with me, I will move on.

What of things like Medical Companies? Why not merge them into one and get a standard of drugs out there that is the same across the board. I am sick of walking into a pharmacy and asking for a drug that is supposed to do something and the one they give me doesn’t bloody work, while I know perfectly well that there are ones that do.

With one huge Mega Medical Company there would not be billions wasted by two companies researching the same thing. Instead the research can be channelled and directed in a common direction. By doing this the result is the basis for opening up millions of others of directed and orderly research opportunities, thus allowing man to advance far quicker than we currently are (at least in the Medical field), even though this advantage can actually be carried across to just about all types of companies.

Then a Financial Institution, one huge conglomerate of people that look after money and everything to do with it. Think on this one a bit, as it is actually by far one of the biggest ones with the most far reaching influences. Standardisation of economy would be one of the first things to come out of this. No more unseen fluctuations, no stock market crashes.

With all the people in the world working on a financial solution for basically the entire world how long do you think it would be before the world’s finances become greatly simplified? There would be far fewer ‘variables’ in the equation of financial projections and the likes.

Even the Stock Trading Companies can jump on this bandwagon, all of them working together to regulate the entire worlds’ needs and demands, but with proper and organised projections to work on - things that do not exist in the current system.

Now I hear a lot of people crying: “But there will be no competition and things will spiral out of control.” In a sense this could be true, but for the most part the Corporations themselves will regulate the prices. They all depend upon each other in the end and by doing one company in the circle continues around until in effect you do yourself in, and there isn’t a company in the world that would want to do that.

People can also scream that the quality might drop if there is no competition, but yet again all the companies would be each others’ watch dogs. If the quality drops then it impacts the others and those will impact back on the previous one in some way or another.

In fact, I think that there is a pretty fair chance that it would become better, and so would the prices. Just think about it - there would be no reason to make an exceptionally good product to sell for an exceptional price or an absolutely terrible product for next to nothing. Instead for the most part the things will be a good product for a good price.

Of course if they are really bright they could still make the other two lines, but it will probably be widely known that these products are better or worse. What’s more - piracy will very rapidly become a thing of the past. No more Ra Baines instead of Ray Bans; no more NiKes instead of Nikes.

I say - for a better and far simpler world - bring on the Mega Corporations. They will simplify the world we live in no end and quite easily cut out a lot of the serious problems that we currently have.