Ever wonder what happened to Ed McMahon? You know the one who was Johnny Carson’s side kick, Or the one who promised to visit you with a million dollar check. You know “You may have already won.”

Well Look at this headline:

Ed McMahon’s home in danger of foreclosure

By CHRISTY LEMIRE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - For years, Ed McMahon promised wealth, comfort and happiness as a pitchman for the American Family Publishers’ sweepstakes. Now, he could use some of that cash himself.

So what happened? Like I tell me students all the time: You have to know how to read the numbers. Ed McMahon could not read the numbers.

Read the article and you will see that he had a 4.8 Million Dollar Mortgage. 4.8 Million dollars? How can that happen from this man? Did he not make enough to put down a larger down payment? Clearly he did not know or understand the situation. He took out the 4.8 Million loan and took out a $300,000 home equity line of credit. This was after he received a $7.2 Million Dollar settlement for problems related to mold.

My favorite quote from the whole article is this

Bragman said there was “a certain irony” in the fact that McMahon has always tried to connect with average Americans, and now he’s experiencing some of their same problems.

Well it is true and it is sad. So many people, including me, put too much emphasis on your home growing in value. It is OK to roll all your debt into your home because it is always going to go up right? Well not always.

It may make sense to invest in a piece of property for capital gains in a long term investment. Or in other words if you want to buy a house to get more money out of it is to do it in the long term. Too many people see this and take money out almost yearly. And for what? To make more investments, to increase their financial portfolio? Or is it to buy a new flat screen TV. It is to put in a pool to increase the “value” of the house. But if you are taking out a loan for this it really is not increasing the value is it. It is counter productive. The value may go up, but your equity. You used it up with the loan.

So this gets back to financial education. When you don’t understand completely how things work you get taken advantage of. We are in America having problems with house lending. Ed McMahon proves that it is happening to everyone. Everyone is in jeopardy. But, are the banks in jeopardy. No they are still making money. They still have properties to foreclose on. They will get paid in the end. They may not get as much as they hoped, but they will still get paid.

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If you have read Robert Kiyosaki’s books you know that one of his big griefs is that schools do not teach proper financial knowledge. After working in the school system, in primarily low income and first generation middle class schools, I have come to not only agree with this statement, but to say that this lack of financial Knowledge is about to seriously hurt us as a country.

I don’t to come across as a doomsdayer here. I don’t believe that we are already in full crisis mode, but I do see us racing toward that. Without the proper financial knowledge the poor and the middle class are just going to get weaker, and the rich are going to get stronger. There is going to be an ever widening gap.

For me growing up in a solid middle class family I was not given any financial knowledge at all. As a matter of fact speaking about money was almost as bad as speaking about sex. My parents were deeply in debt, and they still are. As I learn more I am beginning to realize that my parents are even deeper in debt than they think. It is a shame.

So who has to make up for it? Well in my case it is me, my brother and sisters. But are we going to be in any better shape? Not without learning on our own. The only financial knowledge I got in school was how to balance my checkbook, and an elective class on the stock market crash of the 20’s and the Great Depression, and most of that class was on the Great Depression.

It is an evil cycle to get into and very difficult to break out of. In our school we say we give education about finances but it still is taboo. I run a game at the end of my Algebra class that I call Rich Student. Yes it is a total rip off of Robert Kiyosaki’s books, but it does not have anything to do with his game. The discussions in the class are limited only due to time. We talk a little bit about how Real Estate works, a little bit about how the Stock Market and true investing works, and we talk about developing incomes on line. Some students get it right away and do well, some never understand. But, if the students don’t have me as a teacher they will go their whole career without getting any financial education at all.

Lets talk solutions, not problems. So what is needed?

• Budgeting Skills

  We need to go beyond balancing the checkbooks, beyond saying simple subtract our bills from our paycheck, and start teaching what the rich already know. We need to teach our students to pay themselves first and if they can’t pay their bills they need to either figure out how to eliminate some, or find more money somewhere.

• Credit Scores

  It seems to me that the middle class and the poor must rely on their credit scores more an more to get out of where they are at. How do we protect this? How do banks calculate this. Most students, and probably their parents, have no idea what this means. They need help to get out of where they are at. That help is so dependent on this score. Students need to understand more about this.

• Real Estate

  Not only do the students not understand about houses they are misinformed. Houses may be an investment if bought properly, but they are not an asset. Students have no idea that they can pay up to 4 times the purchase price for a home after all their payments are done. They have no idea that a larger down payment and a better credit score will result in lower payments. They have no idea how to buy a house that will result in an income generation.

• Investing

  Students are completely confused about investing. They think that their parents are investors because they have a 401K or some mutual funds. They have no idea what it means to be an investor and invest in companies. As a matter of fact most students are afraid of investing in companies because they think that it is too hard. They don’t understand how to do it so they don’t. They have no idea what the difference is between a mutual fund, a retirement plan, and what stocks, or shares in a company are.

It is a no wonder that underprivileged kids think that the only way that they are going to make money is to play sports, rap, or deal drugs. It is sad that those are their heroes. If you disagree substitute teach in a public city school and listen to the conversations. You may be surprised at what they talk about.

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Act As If II Podcast

On Sunday I posted an article about acting as if. Simple acting as if you already have something will bring more of that thing to you.

You want to be successful in business? Act as if you are and people will treat you that way. They will offer you more opportunities, more responsibility, and eventually more success.

So what can you do now? If you are spinning your wheels, wondering what can be done to get you out of where you are at, if you are looking for a change what can you do?

I have a little story for you. I told this to my 9^th graders. I hope that you can translate it to something you can use.

I would guess that somewhere in your city there is some sort of financial district. Somewhere that has some really big buildings. You know the nice shiny ones with tinted windows that go right up to the clouds.

If you are in a small city like the one that I grew up in you may have to go to a larger city to find such a place. This will make it even easier since you will not know anyone there.

Go downtown to that area sometime during a normal work day. Make it a Tuesday or Wednesday. Help break up the monotony of a regular work week. Dress nicely but casual. Dress business casual. Dress to make an impression, but be humble, that is the sweet spot.

Look for the suits. They will look like bustling ants scurrying from building to building. Watch them for a few minutes. Look at which building has the most traffic, then follow them in. Ride the elevator up with them. Get out when they get out. Find the largest office on the floor and walk right in.

Now just before you go in look at the name on the door. Companies are proud and they will display on the door their name and what they do. Walk into “KIP Inc. Financial Services to the World”.

There will be a receptionist, secretary, or some other person sitting at a desk right up front. This person is the gate keeper of Midevil times. They will most likely ask if they can help you.

Say “Yes. I would like to get into Financial Services” or what ever else their door says “and possibly work for KIP Inc. I was wondering what I should do to be able to get a job. Is there a manager, or possibly the president that I can speak with for a few moments?”

About 85% of the time it will work. Say it with a smile (see my post on smiling) Stand at the desk and let them call the person in charge, don’t go away and sit down. Don’t leer, just stand there with a nice smile. Act as if they are going to do this for you.

Soon the president or manager will come in. They will probably say something like “Come on in but I only have about 5 minutes for you.” They really don’t but they like to act really busy.

They will probably lead you through the company. Past all the workers at their desks. Casually look around and observe what is going on. This will give you a good idea if you really want to work in this type of company. If you feel good about the people that are working around you then great, you may have found a place that you would like to work. If it is a bit scary for you then that is good too. You may not want to work at this company but you will still get something out of asking the manager for his opinion.

When he sits you down to talk to him simply ask one question.

“What do you do, and how can I do it?”

It is very powerful. Watch the beginning of In Pursuit of Happyness and see what happens. Watch the rest of the movie to see how hard you will have to work to really get what you want.

The manager/boss/president will be very happy to tell you all about what they do and how they got there. You may or may not want to do the same thing, after you ask a few of these people you will begin to see common things come up.

What can you learn? What can you find out? How valuable would this be?

SCARED? Good! How bad do you want change? Try it, it might even be fun.

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Warning: Rant and Personal Views here. Some may be controversial and offending to some.

As some of you know who have been following my blog I am a public school teacher and a football coach. Me and my wife have been looking into many different avenues to be able to teach and give what we have. The current school system just does not let us do this. Why?

They are factories. I am sorry people but not everyone is an expert in schools. One of the problems with schools is that everyone thinks that they are experts. Why? Because everyone has been to school. But they have only seen one or two parts of what school is.

Everyone has seen school from a students stand point. Yes it is boring, yes some of the teachers can seem apathetic. Yes you probably didn’t like it. Why? It was not stimulating enough, it was not interactive enough, and for most of us it just was not challenging enough.

The teachers are not apathetic, they are board to. So why don’t they do anything about it? Because you have not seen the other part of education. Very few have. I know. I have been in schools now for 7 years, early in the morning. You know who is there early in the morning? Teachers and Principles. Thats it. Don’t try to say that you know how things are. If you have had a parent meeting early in the morning you still don’t know what it is like. You still don’t see teachers scrambling to use broken copiers, outdated books, limited resources, and limited time. You don’t see the struggles that many teachers go through.

If you are reading this and you are a teacher who has these resources then you are one of the lucky ones. You don’t have it made, but you are getting closer.

What about after school? Yes many teachers leave within the first 15-20 minutes that school is over. But what do they do at home. Most of the time they leave because school is a very negative place. Teachers like to bitch about the latest problems with Principles, Students, Parents, the School Board, our President, whatever. No one is immune. It is not harmful, it is just venting. But it is extremely negative.

So they take their work home so that they can do it in their own setting. Most teachers have homework. If you are one of the lucky ones (I am included in this) then you have a system set up in your classroom that lets you be done at 2:30 or whenever you school lets out. But it takes years of planning until you get to that point.

Back to the factories. To get to that point it has to be run like a factories. The worst possible system for a school to be run. It just does not work. It is not innovative, it is not creative, it is not real learning. Concepts are being replaced by techniques to get the answer right. True learning is being replaced by memorization. We have the technology and the ability but not the means. It is very frustrating.

Why? Because we are tested. Not just our students. Teachers can be hired and fired from tests. Students just have to take them to pass. Not teachers. No matter what anyone tells you teachers are judged based on how well their students do. It is unfair because these tests take all the learning out of schools and limit themselves to rote learning just to get students graduated so that the school gets enough money to pay the staff and turn on the lights. It is a sad sad time in public schools.

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I saw this video on Stumble and then went to YouTube to see if I could find it. So I typed in success to see how far and how hard I would have to look before I found it. I had to look all the way to the bottom of page 5 before I found it. My previous post from TED was on page one.

It is so sad to be in the schools every day and see just how little opportunity that the underprivileged kids have. I don’t just mean black students either. I have Latin Americans (Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, San Salvador), Kurdish, Africans (Congo, Egypt, Sudan), Laos, White kids, and more. They are all in the same situation. It is not that there are no opportunities, it is that they do not see any opportunities.

So this is the problem. These young, smart, men, and women on these videos are great. They are great role models. They are preaching the right message. They are preaching that everyone has a chance, everyone has a right to succeed and there is a simple way to do so. You work hard, you persevere, you don’t give up, and you simply work through all the negativity.

That is not so easy for these students. I try my best in my class to teach my kids not only Algebra, but to teach these students through education that they have a chance. They just have to work hard, they have to put in the time, they have to do something to be something.

It is great, I see their eyes light up, I see their posture change, they begin to smile, and they go to work.

They act like this because many times this is the only time that they ever have anyone say anything good about them. It is the first time that anyone has ever told them that they have a chance.

But what happens when they leave my class room? They hear profanity in the hall ways, they see their friends cutting up in class, they are told that they don’t have to do their home work. They go home to fatherless and motherless houses. They don’t have family around them when it is time for them to go to bed. They don’t have any positive influences.

They watch negative TV. They listen to negative music (and I don’t mean rap, I mean the violence and the sexual mistreatment in many of the songs that they listen to). They have nothing but negativity in their lives.

So what happens? The next day when they get back to my room they don’t have their work done. As a matter of fact they have not done one problem since they left my room the day before. I say what happened? Why did you not do your work? Do you not remember what we talked about yesterday?

The answers are all the same. “I lost it, I did not know how to do it, it is in my locker, I left it at home.” No, they did not do it. Not because of them, but because of the outside forces.

As a society we need to do something. We need positive role models to overtake all the negativity on the streets and on TV. We need to celebrate the good things that have happened. We need to treat everyone like they are the next best thing to happen.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

Read it one more time very slowly.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

Break the Cycle.org
See all the Videos here

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Do you believe in the difficult things?

Having belief is one of those things that I am beginning to realize that maybe I am taking for granted. It is very difficult to describe. It is very difficult to explain the difference between being able to act as if you believe and actually believing. Let me try to explain with a true story.

While I was in college I was coaching a youth baseball team. This team consisted of 2nd and 3rd graders and was the first level above t-ball. Some call it coach-pitch, where the coaches lob easy to hit balls to their own players in order for them to get better at hitting the ball. In our league the players pitched the first three innings and the coaches pitched the last two.

That year, and every year before that, team McDonald’s was undefeated. Before the season started there was a draft, just like there is in pro baseball. The idea was to get as many players from your neighborhood or the friends of your kid that you were coaching, assuming that you were a parent. I was an older brother. Most of the dads sat in a classroom and browsed lightly through the list of players who had signed up. Picked a few that they knew and then just kind of went alphabetically down the list. Then there was the McDonald’s coaches.

McDonald’s sat over in the corner with papers upon papers of all the players. They had actually scouted the t-ball games and listed every player in order of how good they were and drafted accordingly. To put it in simple terms it took me about 30 seconds to make a pick and it would take a huddle of 4 grown men about 5-10 minutes to pick every round. It was a painful experience for everyone else. We just wanted to get it over with and get back home.
So of course McDonald’s was stacked. They had not lost a game in 4 or 5 years, and it looked like they would not lose a game this year. Every game was a blowout and many were called after the 3rd inning due to the mercy rule. They had nice clean uniforms with McDonald’s in the familiar red and yellow across the front, and their names on the back. Even their helmets were shinny new and red. They were a machine.

Our team? I don’t even remember our sponsor that year. We had generic yellow and blue uniforms with cheap white pants and a cheap mesh hat that was uncomfortable. Our batting helmets were the traditional dark blue, dirty, and warn. Our bats were few and far between and every year we hoped that some parent would go out and buy one that the rest of the team could use. It was a mismatch.

But somehow we were 3rd in a 12 team league and of course McDonald’s was first. The mid season showdown was upon us.

The night before I would sequester myself to my room and make out the lineup. I was still in college and came home for the summers so I was still living with my parents. Of course everyone on the roster had to play so through careful planning I would make sure that my best players were always on the field with my weaker players to give us a good balance. I would also make sure that I played my weaker players early and my better players later so that if we needed to we could hold off a late charge by the other team. I had a feeling about this lineup. I was confident. It wrote itself. I checked it over a few times, I counted everything up twice to make sure that everyone had at least their minimum playing time. We were ready.

I seem to remember that the game was on a Tuesday night. It was late in June and it was beautiful. The ball park was filled with parents and players and all 12 diamonds were in use. We were on the field that was furthest from the parking lot. A nice field in the corner of the complex with a nice shade tree over one dug out. Of course McDonald’s was already there with that dugout when I got there an hour before the game started. We sat starring directly into the sun.
As the game got closer we took the field and had our warm-up. Everyone on the roster showed up. I won’t lie I wanted a few players to miss the game, and it was actually rare that all the players showed up. We had a really good warm-up.

Just before the game started there was a little electricity in the air. Even though they were only 2nd and 3rd graders they knew what the game meant. They knew that the other team had not been beaten. They knew what the chances were. The parents definitely knew what was happening. They started to crowd the dugout to give last words of encouragement. It was a little too crowded for me so I took the whole team out to left field. We got out there just before the first batter was due up.

They sat around me, all those little eyes on a 20 year old. This is all I said. “You know what? I believe we can win”

I will never forget the look I got from them. I could tell every one of them believed. They only believed because I did. They all broke into a grin and we trotted back into the dug out.
The first inning we scored 2 runs against their best pitcher. I knew he was their best because they did not pull him. We ended the inning with two runners left on base.

Our ace pitched well and held them to one run. They hit the ball but we played well in the field and made outs. It was a victory in itself. That was the good news. The bad news was that we were now heading to the bottom of our order. McDonald’s bottom half was probably at least as good as our top half. Our bottom half very rarely produced any runs.

We started off with two straight hits. It was fantastic. We had no outs and the three worst batters up. Bang! Hit into the outfield drive in a run. Bang! Hit into the outfield another run. Our worst batter was up. I am not sure if he had a single hit all year. BANG! Right into right field. So hard that it went all the way to the fence. Everyone went crazy. Two more runs scored. My third base coach was so excited that he did not realize that he would be coming around and failed to tell him to stop. It looked as if my worst hitter would have an inside the park home run.

It was close but he was tagged out at home. The dugout emptied and the team mobbed him. 4 runs one out and we were back at the top of the line up. We had three more hits and scored two more runs. 6 runs against the top team. We were definitely believing. They went through three pitchers that inning. The rule was that one pitch in an inning counted and the players were only able to pitch one inning. They could not have many left could they?

They came back and scored 3 and it was now 8-4 I knew that if we were to win we would need to build a lead with the kids pitching. Once the coaches pitch everyone hits the ball so fielding is the premium. I knew that they could hit the ball.

They held us to one the next inning and they got two. It was 9-6 very high scoring in a normal game for kids pitch, and very very high scoring for any team against McDonald’s. Now it was Coach Pitch. We lobed them in nice and easy and teams frequently scored 6 and 7 runs an inning.

We scored 3. Their defense was better than I expected. They scored 6. We played well but they had runners on base and we had a double play at home plate to end the inning.
Score 12-12. We were getting nervous but there was no time that we felt like we might lose. We were also back to the top of our order.

We hit the ball all over the place. They were scrambling. One hit after another it was great. Our players were just running and the whole place was excited. I stole a glance at the McDonald’s dugout. It was a combination of disappointment and panic. I don’t think that they knew what to do.

We scored 5. It was now 17-12. A very high scoring game. You would think that the defenses were no good but it was a great game. There were very few errors and the pitchers really did not pitch bad, at least for that age. All you really hoped for was that your pitcher could get the ball over the plate so there would not be many walks. Both pitchers were doing so and the players were just hitting the ball all over the place. Right field, left field, up the middle. It was like watching a good semi-pro game. It was exciting.

My best moment came right now. As I said earlier I sat down and planned out my lineup and where every player would be at every inning. I could have changed things around that inning to make sure that we had our best players in the field…but I didn’t. I stuck with the lineup. They went into the field, all were confident. The first hitter pulled it right into right field. Remember the kid who never had a hit until this game? Yes you guessed it there he was. He stuck his glove into the air. The ball seemed to hang. His body twisted back away from the ball but he held his glove in place. The ball hit his glove and stuck there. He caught it. Me and the dads who were helping me as base coaches all gasped a huge sigh of relief. I stepped out of the dugout.

“Thats one” I said acting as if I knew he would catch it all the time.

They then went on to real off three straight hits, scoring two. It was 17-14. Getting close. Man on first. The kids never panicked.

The batter up hit one down the right field line. A ball that if fair would have certainly been an inside the park home run. There was no way my right fielder would have made the play even if he was a good fielder. Somehow the McDonald’s coaches had taught them to hit it to right field. A very difficult task even for pros. The next pitch was nice and easy. The batter drilled it to our second baseman. It was a catch-em-out, tag-em-out. A single handed double play. The game was over!

Our players stormed the field, it was if we won the championship. No team had beat them in at least 4 years. Until now.

The second best time came while I was walking back across all the other diamonds to the parking lot. We were on our way to get ice cream (of course). I was carrying our equipment bag and walking with a few of my players.

“What was the score?” one of the parents asked.

“17-14” I didn’t even have a chance to get it out of my mouth, one of my players spoke up.
“We won!”

“No way?” the parent exclaimed.

I just smiled and kept on walking. I knew what would happen behind me. It would be chaos. The whole summer baseball season was going to be turned upside down.

Now every team would think that they had a chance. Every team would know that McDonald’s was beatable. And we did it.

We did not win the Championship, we lost in the semi-finals. McDonald’s did win it all, and that was their only loss. But you know what? We were the ones to do it.

We did it not on superior players, certainly not superior coaching, we did it on belief. We thought we could win, and we believed we could win, and we won.

It was a magical moment that I will never forget.

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I have come across the full video about the boy who can see without eys, actually five parts to the video on YouTube.

I just find this kid incredible and inspirational. When I was learning and I was discovering what it meant to be a true leader and just finding me I learned some things. It was incredible once I learned them. The message, the examples, the results, the teaching, the learning, it was all around me. Now I find beauty, inspiration, and people to learn from everyday.

I know that there is a lot of skepticism around the secret, and there is some mysticism about the “new age” of thinking, but what I have found is that it is everywhere. It is incredible to me. It is fun to discover more all the time.

What I am trying to say is this. It is not new, it is not mystical, it is not a secret. It is real. It has always been there, and it really is hard to describe. So how do you get to know what I have found? Contact me and we can talk. Skype me, Email me, or leave a comment.

Here is the links to the entire film series.

[Part 1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLziFM… (10:51)
[Part 2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCe… (10:37)
[Part 3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikpNZO… (10:20)
[Part 4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Px-aP… (10:34)
[Part 5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNkJ1d… (05:12)

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I am having a really hard time with all the US bashing going on. This is a great country. I just saw an article on Digg that the headline really bothered me.

More than half of Americans—56 percent—say they’re not proud of the country

Well fortunately the headline was not true. What really it was about was the fact that they were not happy with the leaders of this country. I agree.

I don’t want to sound like an old man, but what happened to the good old days. The days where it was ok for The President to get up and say this is a great country. We are the best country. This country was meant for great things, for prosperity, and for wealth.

We again need a strong leader. We do many good things. The press does not like to report this, but it happens every day. What would happen if we simply pulled our support for causes around the world? Many countries would fall quickly into civil war and unrest. Many countries would starve through famine and drought.

To me the United States has always been a place where people could prosper through hard work and perseverance. It still is, but we now have people who want to destroy that. I have to sit in my classroom and watch good kid after good kid be destroyed by gangs. And they don’t even know why they get involved anymore.

Times are changing, but we still are a good nation. We are still a caring and giving nation. We still are the greatest society ever built. We need good leaders. We need better leaders. Please someone step forward and bring us back up. Put us back in front of the world.

We are Americans. We are the best.

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So it has taken me over a week to get over the biggest upset in history of College Football, yes the Appalachian State victory over Michigan. Yes I have ties to Michigan, although I did not go there it still is a big part of me and it was an embarrassing loss. I did not get to see the game live, and it was not on in our area, but I got to see the replay on Tuesday. Michigan was bigger the App State at every position, but App State was faster at every position. I cannot believe the team speed of App State. Michigan has always had a problem with fast offensive teams, the flaw has been exposed.

OK on to business. I have collaborated with another coach and we now have a viable, successful, and profitable website. It feels good to get that out of the way. It is hard to believe that it is as easy as coming up with an idea, deciding if there is a need, and then producing a good product.

If you a passionate about something, it is surprising how easy it is to produce a good product. It takes just as much time as anything else, but when you are doing something that you like it makes it much easier. The time goes by effortlessly.

When deciding on a project the process is simple. We will have an extended tutorial soon on the entire process. Find your passion. Figure out how you can make a good informational product out of it. Then check out these resources:

• Digital Point – Keyword Search
  A great place to search keywords. A rule of thumb, if there are a lot of searches for keywords that apply to your product, then there is interest and a need for you product.
• Clickbank – Product Marketing.

How would you like other people advertising your product for you and you only have to share in the profit? That is what Clickbank can do for you.

There is a lot of information associated with these two sites. It will get you started as we get things going on this side. More and more information will be coming to you soon.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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