Articles Archive for March 2010
|
To celebrate the recent release of the reasonably-acclaimed memoir “Everything Is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of An American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong,” the entire JasonMulgrew.com family cordially invites you to view the second installment of “A Life in Pictures”.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
1) Join the flickr group and submit your unfortunate childhood photos.
2) A SECRET COMMITTEE chaired by yours truly will then judge how bad/embarrassing/unfortunate your childhood photos are.
3) The ten best photos will be posted here on the site, along with captions provided by me, in order from “incredibly unfortunate” to “this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
4) All winning photos will get links to whatever page or blog they wish (free traffic, baby!).
5) The top three photos will win all sorts of goodies, including signed copies of my reasonably-acclaimed memoir, “Everything Is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of An American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong,” which has some seriously embarrassing childhood photos.
6) The winner of the EIWWMYLIP contest (the person who submits the absolute worst photo, likely something on par with the lesbian picture in my book) will get the signed copy of my book, a boatload of some of HarperPerennial’s other finest titles, and a Polaroid of me using the restroom.*
[* I don’t think I can legally do this, but let’s discuss offline.]
The winners will be unveiled on the site in early May, so get your unfortunate and embarrassing childhood photos in now. Remember, there is nothing that can be done about how retarded you looked in the past, so you might as well just make fun of it.
Good luck and godspeed.
- On Friday, we broke our personal record and ordered $145 worth of Italian meats and cheeses (ten and a half pounds total, plus three pounds of roasted red peppers). We then spent about 13 hours, starting at noon (everyone took the day off) at my buddy’s place in Brooklyn eating, drinking, gambling, watching basketball, playing drinking games and being perfectly typical red-blooded American males. Clichéd? Yes. Glorious? Fucking A.
- A handful of us went out to a nearby bar around 2am, and that’s when things got fuzzy. Conservatively, I would estimate that I had the equivalent of 30 beers in the course of the day (this is a serious guess). This would explain why I sent the following text messages at 4:17am to my lawyer friend, a girl I made out with once years ago whose last name is similar to my lawyer friend’s (and who I’ve had minimal contact with since), and the letter “Y”:
“We need to talk tmrw”
“Legal no worries”
I have no idea why I would need legal advice at 4:17am on Friday night. The letter “Y” was totally useless in this department, though.
- We had our fantasy baseball draft at Foley’s in Midtown on Saturday (specifics below). I had, I would say, one of the top ten hangovers of my life, and before meeting the guys at 2pm for the draft, I’d drained my entire apartment building’s supply of hot water TWICE by taking long, hot showers, trying to recover. It didn’t work. Rough day for ol’ Uncle Jason.
- Foley’s was fun, but approximately 82 degrees. Between the hangover, the heat, the greasy food, and the beers, there were at least three separate occasions during which I thought I was going to have a stroke. Again, rough day.
- Just as the draft was winding down, Foley’s two celebrity bartenders for the evening showed up. One was Jenn Sterger, who is famous for something (my guess: the boobies), but who is also in that rarified air of being so-hot-that-it’s-not-safe-to-be-that-hot (I mean, really, she can’t walk the streets alone). The other was Jay Williams. No, not the chauffeur murderer, but the former Chicago Bull and Duke All-American. What’s interesting is that two buddies of mine in the fantasy league know Jay Williams from growing up in NJ, so Jay was talking to us the whole draft (the end of it, at least). Not only that, because Jay was there, Jenn figured we were safe and also spent our draft with us. So I was drafting Francisco Liriano while Jenn Sterger and Jay Williams sat two seats away from me. I probably should have offered to sign something for them, ideally Jenn’s boobies, since I’m famous and all, too. But boy, I was in no shape to mingle, as the “hair of the dog” approach totally let me down and left me run down. I’m definitely getting old.
- Speaking of, we had to take a buddy (who shall remain nameless) from the bar at 10pm, as he was spitting on the floor with his eyes half-closed and mumbling incoherently. This is what happens when you have kids. Weak sauce.
- Everybody left early Sunday morning and I spent my day planted on the couch, masturbating like a mental patient, before meeting some friends for evening drinks, which kept me out until 2am and made Monday not so fun.
So pretty much it was a dynamite weekend. The next boys weekend will be the weekend of September 18 in New Orleans. I should be recovered by then.
************
[If you don’t care about fantasy baseball, skip to the next section. I don’t think there’s a single joke in here, and if there is, it ain’t worth it.]
So far, I’ve done two of my four fantasy baseball drafts, including (as mentioned above) my main league last Saturday. It’s a four player keeper league, so I already started with Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Evan Longoria and Chris Carpenter (holla! – though I don’t love Carp). It’s standard five categories for pitching, but OBP instead of AVG and TB instead of HR. My team is below (parens indicate the round in which the player was drafted, but remember, there were four keepers, so when I say “4” it’s really the 8th round of the universe of players). I had the third overall pick in the draft.
C: Matt Wieters (4)
1B: Derrek Lee (5)
2B: Chase Utley (K)
SS: Hanley Ramirez (K)
3B: Evan Longoria (K)
OF: Grady Sizemore (1)
OF: Bobby Abreu (3)
OF: Torii Hunter (6)
Util: Nyjer Morgan (9)
Util: Michael Cuddyer (12)
B: Placido Polanco (15)
SP: Chris Carpenter (K)
SP: Josh Beckett (2a)
RP: Francisco Cordero (7)
RP: Jose Valverde (8 )
P: Leo Nunez (17)
P: Cole Hamels (2b)
P: Jorge de la Rosa (10)
P: David Price (11)
B: Max Scherzer (13)
B: Ben Sheets (14)
B: Francisco Liriano (16)
B: Dice K (18)
The team follows my four basic tenets of drafting:
1) Look for speed guys that contribute in other categories (Five guys – Utley, Hanley, Sizemore, Abreu and Hunter – could each go 20-20+; I’d put the over/under for those five guys, health permitting, at 115 HR and 110 SB);
2) Always target high OBP guys, as that’s hard to make up (Lee, Utley, Hanley, Sizemore, Abreu each have career OBPs of .380+ or thereabouts);
3) Always target high K pitchers (I don’t think any pitcher on my staff has a career K/9IP of 7.5, except for Carp, who is not totally lacking here); and
4) Try to get at least two closers who will not lose their jobs (Cordero’s making a fortune to close, Valverde was acquired to close).
Some general thoughts:
- I had to overdraft pitching by taking Beckett and Hamels with my two picks in the second (I’d had an extra from an in-season move I made the previous year), but Carp is a real unknown to me. Love Beckett: contract year, great team, ground ball-ish pitcher with improved team defense. Love Hamels, although all the spring training hype required me to draft him a little higher than I would have liked. Overall, I’m pretty comfortable with those three at my top, and I like de la Rosa’s potential (and think that Rockies team is going to be just dynamite this year).
- I don’t necessarily love Wieters, because he broke my heart last year. But this is a keeper league. In non-keeper leagues, Wieters is going in the 9th round. I got him in a keeper league at the end of the 8th. Great, great value.
- Speaking of, I will likely be keeping Utley, Hanley and Longoria forever. Not so much with Carpenter. This means I’ll have to keep a different fourth guy next year. This is why I drafted Sizemore, Wieters and even (believe it) Hamels. I’m assuming that one of those guys will be my fourth keeper next year.
- Check out the poo-poo platter at the end of my pitching staff: Price, Scherzer, Sheets, Liriano, Dice-K. Yikes. My thinking is that if at least one of these guys work out, I’ll be happy (and I knew Dice-K would start the season on the DL, so for the last pick in the draft, as someone I can put on the DL and free up a roster spot for on day one, not a bad pick). You’ll see a theme among these five: all of them have shown flashes of tremendous talent before, all are high K pitchers, all (with the exception of Sheets) are pitching on good teams. Sheets and Dice-K have been awful this spring, Price and Scherzer ok, and Liriano is filthy. I predict that by season’s end, two of these guys will be at least SP3-caliber pitchers, two will be abominable, and one will be ok – all for SPs I took after the 14th round overall.
- Best pick: Placido Polanco. Career .303 hitter. Batting second in the best lineup in the NL, between Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. Will have 2B and 3B eligibility five games into the season. In the past three years, has averaged 145 games, 92 runs, 9 homers, 66 RBI, 7 steals, and a .311 average (with a .356 OBP). I’m calling it right now: 110 runs, 14 homers, 74 RBI, 11 steals, .310. At 2B and 3B. In the 19th round. Yes, please.
- Worst pick: Max Scherzer. The nachos had just come out, I had to pee, and I had just yelled at everyone for taking too long (and now people were yelling at me), so when this pick came up, I was in a bad place. I mean, I like Scherzer, but not in the goddamn 17th round overall. But, I can live with it. Still, if there’s one guy that I’d cut if I had to, it’d be him (also, not huge on Price at 15th round overall, but I’m more ok with that).
- Guy I wanted most but didn’t get it: Tommy Hanson. Not because I necessarily think he’ll be a monster this year – I think he’ll be good, but I think his innings might capped and his ERA will be comfortably above 3 – but because I had him last year. I followed his every start for the Gwinnett Braves, and when he came up, he dominated for me. So I felt like he was my special project. But, alas, it is not meant to be. But this “love” for a player is what happens when you have a keeper league (I was on Longoria before 99% of the fantasy baseball universe realized he wasn’t Eva’s brother).
Overall, I feel confident going for my third consecutive title in this league. God, I can’t wait for baseball to start.
************
Six Songs
“Bang Pop” Free Energy
I know I pimped these guys on the last Six Songs, but between now and then, I saw them at Mercury Lounge here in NYC. And I’m calling this one, too: they’re going to be big. And remember, the last time I saw a musician at Mercury Lounge and said he was going to be big, it turned out pretty good for him. Point: I know what I’m talking about. Hop on the train now before there’s no room left. If you like parties, and you like rock, and you like fun, you’ll like Free Energy. Truth.
“Light My Fire” Will Young
Two nights ago I was cleaning my apartment (ok, I was eating the reuben mac and cheese from Macbar while waiting on hold with Time Warner because my cable had been shut off due to a $290 past due balance because I haven’t opened up a piece of mail that doesn’t say “IMPORTANT TAX DOCUMENT ENCLOSED” in about five years), when this song came on over the iPod speakers. And it is just a lovely little cover. I’m not going to say it’s better than the original, even though I hate the Doors and think they’re one of the most overrated bands of the 20th century, because a cover has to be really, really, really, really good to be better than the original. But still, just a lovely little ditty.
[I may hate the Doors, but the anger I feel toward them is nothing compared to the wrath I feel toward KISS. So, let me get this straight: you guys play bad music dressed as demon clowns; one of your lead singers is the most repressed/closeted homosexual in recent memory; and your other lead singer has never had a drink in his life and has sold the band’s likeness to essentially everything in the universe – I work at a mega law firm and would not be surprised if one day I picked up a piece of our bond paper and beneath our firm’s name, there’s the Kiss logo. I’m convinced that Gene Simmons got into music not for the love of rock and roll or even for the women, but because it was a money-making opportunity, not unlike one would get into coal or semiconductors. He is the anti-artist, and if you don’t realize this, you’re a jerkoff.]
[…]
[…calming down now…]
[…]
[Ok, I’m better now.]
“Keep the Lights On” Wave Machine
And then this song came on after “Light My Fire” and I started dancing. Likes: bass grooves, falsettos. Dislikes: Doors, Kiss.
“Head Over Heels” The Go-Go’s
In addition to being almost overwhelming sexually attracted to Belinda Carlisle, this song makes for some fun. Don’t judge.
“Airplane” The Local Natives
Intense, elegiac. I wish I could write more, but I have to save up my energy for the next one.
“Keep On Running” Spencer Davis Group
Let’s look at the lyrics to this song:
Keep on running
Keep on running
Everyone’s talking about me
[Break, repeat second verse]
Keep on hiding
One fine day I’m gonna be the one
To make you understand
I’m gonna be your man
Running from my arms
One fine day I’m gonna be the one
To make you understand
I’m gonna be your man
Make me feel so bad
Everyone’s laughing at me
Make me feel so sad
Is it me, or are these lyrics to this song, well, kinda scary? “You run and you hide but one fine day, I’m gonna to make you understand that we belong together”? “Everyone’s talking about me and laughing at me, causing me anguish and pain”? “But you just keep on running from my arms, my arms that are reaching out to you, because one day, one glorious day, I’m going to make you love me”?
Were these lyrics written by Steve Winwood over a pint in a London pub, or by some large, bald-headed mentally-challenged man, scribbled in crayon on the wall of his bedroom in his mother’s basement, shortly before he masturbates to the shrine he’s created of the cute neighbor girl who’s too afraid to even say “hi” to him? Especially if you replace “sad” with “mad” in that last verse, I mean, this is the type of stuff that serial killers write before they go out on the hunt.
And so we bear witness to the power of music. Next time you’re rocking out to your favorite catchy tune, be sure to listen to the words.
[Next week we examine “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as a date rape anthem.]
[Have a good weekend]
And boy, do I miss the Cartoon Network. Others have come after it, but they just can’t compare.
As many of you know, I am (almost clinically) addicted to fantasy sports, specifically fantasy baseball. Not only does it enhance my love for the sport, but it also helps pay my bills (last year I won just about a month’s rent playing fantasy baseball, and remember, I live in NYC). So I love it. And I’m good at it. So I love it more.
Every year in preparation for my baseball drafts, I had routinely prepared what was known among my friends as the Fantasy Baseball Super Secret Sheet (not a great name, but hey, at least you know what it is). The sheet consisted of four tabs: one for hitters, one for pitchers, and one each for NL and AL depth charts. It also contained all sorts of stats for the players in the MLB universe, as well as my personal tiered rankings. And I didn’t share with anyone – even friends who were in different leagues – because I spent about 100 hours of my time creating it, formatting it, updating it, and ranking the players. So get your own damn rankings.
Last year, for the first time, I decided to offer the sheet to you guys for the small sum of $5 (even though I had some serious gambling debts to pay off). I figured it was a bargain, because most fantasy baseball magazines are published and researched in January and cost $10. So for half the price, I was providing completely up to date rankings lists (and depth charts), all in an easily sortable Excel spreadsheet, which one could manipulate on his/her laptop during his/her draft.
And the response was overwhelming. And I mean “overwhelming” in the most literal sense – those who bought it not only wrote expressing their thanks and complementing my research and the ease of use of the sheet, but my inbox was inundated with these emails and other asking follow up questions, discussing certain players, talking strategy, etc. It was crazy. And so being a true capitalist, I thought that this year, I’d up the price to $10. The thank you emails (pre- and post-draft) made this an easy choice. As did my even more significant gambling losses during the most recent NFL season.
But we’re going to do something a little different this year. Simply: if you can prove to me that you’ve bought my book (currently $10.07 on Amazon), I’ll send you the sheet for free. Using my alternate email address – eiwwme@gmail.com – you can send me a phone pic of you with the book (or you with a receipt for the book) or forward me the email from Amazon or Borders.com or BN.com confirming your purchase, and the sheet is yours. Alternatively, if you don’t want to buy the book, you can send me $10 via Paypal to eiwwme@gmail.com and I’ll send you the sheet. So to recap: about $14 will you get you the sheet and my much beloved book (awesome!), or $10 will get you just the sheet (what – you don’t like reading and fun?). Your call.
(And if it looks like you’re taking the cell phone pic while holding the book at a bookstore, I reserve the right to refuse to send you the sheet. Jerkoff.)
A little about the sheet this year:
- There are the standard four tabs (hitters, pitchers, NL and AL team depths charts).
- 231 hitters are ranked, and 134 pitchers (that’s a total of 365 ranked players, though stats for a few hundred more are in the sheet).
- There are 41 columns/statistical metrics for pitchers and 26 for hitters (hitters are easier and require less work)
- We added some additional stats this year, most notably BABIP (both for hitters and pitchers); left on base percentage (LOB%), FIP (Fielder Independent Pitching on an ERA scale) and F-E (FIP minus ERA) and for pitchers; line-drive percentage (LD%) and home run to fly ball ratio for hitters (HR/FB), and several more. If you get the sheet, I’ll send an email explaining the importance and use of these stats.
- I’ve also noted which players are in a free agent (FA) or option year (Op) in their contracts, in order to highlight those guys who might have a little extra incentive this year.
- And of course, you get the standard Jason Mulgrew touches: sortability by multi-position eligibility, my tiered rankings, and my “I LIKE” column (a sampling of guys I “liked” in last year’s sheet, on my way to two wins and a second place finish in my leagues: Bobby Abreu, Shin-Soo Choo, Carl Crawford, Raul Ibanez, Justin Upton, Jayson Werth, Joey Votto, Ryan Zimmerman; Jonathan Broxton, Matt Cain, Chris Carpenter, Tommy Hanson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson, Clayton Kershaw, Javier Vazquez – go ahead, those of you who bought the sheet last year can look it up).
Still don’t think it’s worth it? Like me break you off a little knowledge.
Do you know who I really, really don’t like this year? Matt Cain.
I know, I know – I just pointed out above that I liked him last year. And I did. But while Cain was good last year, he was even more lucky. For example, his BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play) against was .268. The league average was about .297. That implies that Cain got some breaks or some help from his fielders. Further, Cain’s strand rate (or LOB%) was 81.6%, whereas league average is about 73.9%. Again, luck, and some mighty good middle relievers helping him out when he left games. Finally, Matt Cain’s was FIP was 3.89. FIP is, as mentioned above, Fielder Independent Pitching on an ERA scale. As the name implies, it’s a number that equates to ERA form independent of the caliber of fielding behind a pitcher. Cain’s actually ERA was 2.89. This difference of -1 further proves that Matt Cain was a lucky little SOB last year; he pitched like a 3.89 ERA pitcher, but his actual ERA was 2.89.
Now, is Matt Cain dog shit? Of course not. But is he a top 15 pitcher? Oh lord, no. As for someone who might be a top 15 (or even top 10) pitcher, there’s a guy I like who had an unfortunate BABIP of .336 last season (remember, average was .297). His strand rate was 61% (average = 73.9%). And his F-E (FIP – ERA) was an absurd +1.71; he pitched like a 3.35 ERA pitcher, but ended up with an ugly 5.06 ERA. The guy? Ricky Nolasco (who also averaged over a K an inning, to boot). I’m not saying that Ricky Nolasco is going to finish as a best pitcher in the league, but rather I’m only pointing out a few things that might make you bump Nolasco up on your draft boards.
(And I know that these are rudimentary explanations using big name pitchers. But I’m trying to be gentle here, as not everyone is as good at fantasy baseball as me and you, Fantasy Nerd Reading This Right Now and Huffing About How It’s Obvious That Everyone Likes Nolasco and Who Is This Mulgrew Guy Anyway.)
But all this and more is in the fantasy baseball draft sheet. Once again, send proof that you’ve bought my book to eiwwme@gmail.com and I’ll send you the sheet. Otherwise, fork over $10 via Paypal to me at the same email address and it’s yours.
And good luck this season.
This is the first signing we have scheduled so far, but there will be additional ones, all of which I hope will follow the formula of read-sign-booze. Sometime in the next few weeks, we’ll get the dates for NYC, Boston and LA. I will also likely make it to Seattle and Denver. Then there’s a host of cities that I’m going to try to get to, but I can’t be totally positive about. Included in these are Chicago, San Fran, DC, Cleveland and Milwaukee.
What should be interesting about the Philly signing is that a number of the book’s “characters” are scheduled to appear, including:
- my dad!
- my mom!
- my sister!
- Floody and Jimmy the Muppet!
- and a host of others*!
(*Note: My brother is in law school in Virginia and will likely be unable to make it)
Therefore this will likely be the only signing that, if you should so desire, you can get both me and my dad (and potentially others) to sign your book (awesome!). So put it in your calendars, tell your friends, and hope to see you there.
(Shameless plug time) While I will (of course) post the dates and locations of the signings here on the site, a good way to keep up to date is by joining the book’s “fan” page on Facebook (if you’re a Facebook person) or by following me on Twitter (if you’re a Twitter person). You could always also be my friend on Facebook, as well.
Lastly, thank you for all the positive feedback you’ve sent me about the book. As I’ve said all along, the best way you can show your support is my recommending it to others, as a book’s success relies almost totally on word of mouth. So keep pimping that shit out, and if you come to a reading, I’ll buy you a beer.*
(* I probably won’t be able to afford to buy you a beer. But I’ll definitely give you a high-five. I think this is a fair compromise, no?)
But, much like I have counted on you in the past for assistance (mostly related to make-outs, music recommendations, and fantasy baseball tips), I call upon you once more, my friends, as the battle is only half won. Yes, having a book actually in the stores and available from online retailers is a big, big step. A vital step, really. But as many of you know, my ultimate goal is nothing short of fame, fortune, a few (incredibly awkward) orgies, and a drug dealer with whom I have a “regular.”
(Wait, I kinda already have that last one. Although I think he’s dead or in jail or something because I haven’t heard from him in weeks.)
In order to help achieve this goal, I humbly ask for your help. There are two ways that you can make all of our dreams come true.
Buy a copy.
Seriously. This would help.
If you have the means, I would even suggest buying two, as the book makes a great gift for any person in your life who likes reading but not reading really hard stuff and enjoys seeing some pictures and maybe even laughing a little bit. Also, reasonably educated stoners. I bet they would like the book, too. And people who have “crazy” families.
So basically people who like to read but not read, like to laugh, like to look at pictures, possibly are stoners, and may or may not have a crazy family. It’s a wide demographic, really.
You pimp the shit of that book.
Few things need more help to succeed and “pimping” than a little old book. There are no TV commercials for books. No huge billboards on the side of the road. No sports sponsorships (“The 15th Annual Everything Is Wrong With Me Match Play Championship in Tucson, AZ”). Nothing. A book success depends almost entirely on those who read it and recommend it to others.
So if you:
- Have a blog
- Have a Facebook, Twitter or MySpace (other social network stuff that I don’t even know about) account
- Are in a book club
- Are an active member of an online community that uses messageboards
- Have a family, co-workers or friends
I ask that you consider recommending the book.
You can think of it in terms of a geometric progression (says the guy who scored so low in the math portion of his first PSAT that he didn’t get a number but rather the word “RETARDED”). Let’s say you recommend the book via email to ten friends. Of those ten, let’s say five completely ignore the email. Two read the email, but don’t buy the book, as they have severe drug problems and can’t afford it, even though it’s incredibly reasonably priced. And three actually buy the book.
Let’s say further that two of those three really enjoy the book (but let’s be honest, it’s going to be three of three). Those two then recommend the book to ten each of their friends. Then, the cycle repeats. Maybe one person who likes it uses it for his/her book club. Maybe another tweets it to his/her followers. Maybe another writes a review and includes the cover of the book in his/her blog. More geometric progression. More people. More success and thus more potential for orgies with, like, a ton of smoking hot ethnic chicks.
So I ask you, friends, to pimp the shit out of my book. Put it on your blog and your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages. Suggest it for your book club. Write about it in your messageboards. Write a quick email to your friends, family or co-workers (or, if you got one from me today, forward it on). These are small, easy steps that you can take that can have a profound effect.
I know that it may sound corny or fairytale-ish, but this is really how this stuff happens. To wit, two weeks into its existence I emailed this here blog to a dozen or so buddies. Six years and about 200 million hits later, here we are. So you gotta trust me when I say that word of mouth is the igniter of revolutions, the launching pad for careers, and the starting point for the aforementioned orgy parties.
(One thing that’s important, if you so choose to pimp: please be sure to include the link to order the book, which is here: http://tinyurl.com/eiwwme. The goal is to make the book as easy to purchase as possible, and you can’t make it much easier than including a link that takes you right to the Amazon page.)
And what, you might ask, is in it for you? As of now, I can only offer you two things. The first is my thanks and heartfelt gratitude. Not great, I know, but it’s all I have right now. I’m working on other stuff, but you live so far away.
The other thing I can offer you is a promise. A promise that, if I should get any real fame or celebrity out of this, I will be the best effing famous person I could possibly be. I have all key elements to make it work: self-destructive, mildly socially anxious, very fertile (extremely fertile, actually), occasional displays of sociopathic behavior, dangerously low self-esteem – yet while still being (dare I say) humble and (some would say) a nice guy. The one tiny thing that’s lacking is, you know, the fame part. But we’re working on that.
So, friends, godspeed. Together, we are unstoppable; we always have been, and we will continue to be. Now let’s start pimping the shit out of this book and start putting together a solid orgy playlist. (I’m not sure if it’s more of a Sigur Ros thing or an Andrew WK thing. Suggestions welcome.)