Releasing the Fifth Volume of Matrixing Karate: Master
This is the official announcement that ‘Matrixing Karate: Master,’ has been released.
It was actually finished a couple of weeks ago, and it has had time to get up on Amazon, and it is in the createspace bookstore, so it’s time to make it official.
Release of final volume of Matrixing Karate Series!
The first volume of this pivotal Karate series was dedicated to fixing basic movements. Volumes 2 – 4 were aimed at explaining matrixng principles, introducing matrixing graphs, and so on. Volumes 1 – 4 were based on the Matrix Karate course available at MonsterMartialArts.com.
The fifth and final volume is a bit different. It is based on a series of manuals written over the years, and upon the ‘Create Your Own Art’ video course.
The thing that makes this final book so important, and sets it apart from even the books it was based upon, is that it goes through the history and concepts of Matrixing and details exactly where each concept came from.
Thus, you are taken on a journey, from the first martial art studied by the author, Kenpo Karate, through each and every martial art he studied. This includes detailing concepts from separating two arts successfully (Kang Duk Won and Kwon Bup) and developing a third based on those two. (Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt). It goes into the exact influences that resulted in the development of matrixing, including the original matrixing lists from the 70s and 80s, and leads right into the creation of the Matrix graph.
One thing that may be surprising to students of the martial arts is that the author developed matrixing without the matrixing graph. Instead, he used lists of techniques, reworking the lists for every concept he encountered. This actually entailed, literally, thousands of lists. Thus, the development of the Matrixing Graph is a bonus to the martial arts of unparalleled value.
The book may be found on Amazon. It is paperback, and students of the martial arts are encouraged to get the earlier volumes first, that they may better understand the import and significance of this volume.
I am currently living atop a mountain, caretaking a ranch, and putting together a ‘dojo in the sky.’
If you have lived on a ranch you know how rough it can be. The wildlife is hard at work surviving, and even the tame livestock can be pretty fierce.
The ultimate warrior in ALL the martial arts!
The mice, for instance, will crawl atop your warm motor and chew on the wires. Thus, we need cats, fierce cats, to control them.
But the cats are risk from coyotes, so we need fierce dogs to protect them.
My dog happens to be ‘city stupid.’ He wants to hide in the cabin all night and snooze. And even if he did go out and patrol the property, Mrs. Coyote is liable to give a yodel and lure him out…a fresh plate of coyote food.
So I talked to my partner about the situation, and he said, “Al, I’ve got just the dog for you,” and a couple of weeks later he brought out a pregnant Malenois.
A malenois is a small version of a German Shepherd, it has smaller jaws so it won’t break bones and cause lawsuits.
This particular Malenois earned a quick reputation as ‘The Hell Bitch.’
First, it rolled my Labrador over, introduced the poor, loving smurf to the matriarchy.
Then it went after the cats.
Cats! But it was supposed to protect the cats.
My partner said, “I‘ll bring you a couple of feral cats.”
But we had feral cats! And The Hell Bitch had made short work of them!
My partner didn’t think about that; didn’t consider that he was just bringing up more ’dog food,’ and a couple of weeks later he brought a couple of feral cats to the ranch.
“These guys are extra vicious,” he promised, and he let the first one go.
ZING! The Hell Bitch was on that cat like a rocket, and the cat disappeared into the wilderness.
My partner just smiled. “She’ll show up later,” then he released the second feral cat, and that was when I met the ultimate martial arts warrior.
Before I tell you about this warrior, however, let me tell you an old story.
Two samurai decided to see which one was better. So they exchanged invitations and arranged a meeting.
One morning they both arrived at a clearing.
They circled, and then stepped towards each other.
They drew their swords, and they edged closer and closer. They arrived at striking distance, and became motionless.
Hour after hour they stood there, each waiting for the other to make a mistake, to leave an opening.
Finally, just before dusk, they backed away from each other, sheathed their swords, and bowed.
One of them had made a mistake, an internal flinch, a moment of lost concentration, and the other had seen it. They never acknowledged who was the better, but they both knew who had won and who had lost.
So my partner released the second feral cat.
“Mew.”
He was white and orange, and he crossed the yard, coming straight for The Hell Bitch.
The Hell Bitch. whose name was Bel, gathered her legs, prepared to leap upon the cat.
“Mew.”
The cat walked right past her.
Bel growled and barked.
The cat ignored her, came to my wife and rubbed up against her leg.
Bel circled, snarling and snapping, waiting for the moment of weakness so she could charge in and tear the tabby apart.
“Mew.” The cat walked past me, up the steps to the house, and went in.
Bel followed her, looming over her, drooling and moaning with the desire to fight.
The cat jumped up on a chair and curled up.
Arrrooo! Grrrr! Bark!
Drool and slobber foaming out of her mouth, Bell snapped her jaws over the hair of the cat.
The cat rolled over and went to sleep.
Two days later, totally defeated, her whole DNA betrayed, her pregnant bitchery stymied, Bel took sick. She nearly died before my partner could come get her, hook her to an IV and drive her to an animal hospital.
The cat, you see, never showed a weakness. Did not hesitate or falter, and entertained no thought of resisting, of cringing, of shrinking, of reacting to the mad, foaming, insanely rabid hound.
The cat manifested, exactly, the attitude of Daniel in the lion’s den.
My question is this: how many of you have this concept in your martial art? How many of you can claim to have ever demonstrated even a fraction of this kind of behavior?
And, can you see this type of attitude emanating as a result of your training?
Karate, Gung Fu, Taekwondo…no matter what martial art…they need silence to grow.
My first hint of this was the ‘empty’ in Empty Hands, which is the literal translation of Karate.
Empty hands, and empty mind. A zen thing.
Be silent, my friend, and hear yourself think…
Not how many tournaments you can win, not how ‘bad’ you are, but how silent you can be.
A light bulb depends on space to create the spark that lightens society. Is not space emptiness? Silence?
The human being is a light bulb, a machine through which sparks energy. But he blathers so much that there is no silence, thus, he never turns on those extra sensory perception tools like telepathy.
He is left with the sound of his body, a noisy thing that obscures his real thoughts.
A human being must create silence, and then the light bulb can go on.
When there is no sound he can create silence.
When there is no sound he can listen…and hear.
Hear what?
Hear his own thoughts.
Hear the thoughts of others.
When I was in the city I found it difficult to work out. I had done martial arts in such a way, and for so long, that I wasn’t interested in speaking, and the speaking of others disturbed the silence.
Humans are a loud variety.
Their heads actually make enormous noises, but the noises are beneath the human band of hearing. Thus, he is guilty of noise pollution, a machine trundling through life making squeaking gurgling sounds that are deafening to animals, but nothing to himself. He has made sure he can’t hear his own noise.
A polluter.
When you create enough silence the world speaks to you.
You can hear the animals look at you.
Animals are silent. They know how to listen. They never bothered to learn how to speak. Their ‘speech’ is more in action, pose, posture, grin.
Humans are so miserable.
They talk and they talk and they talk, and the world never listens.
Try the martial arts.
Try them blindfolded in a room without lights late at night.
Move by using your imagination.
Do your karate or kenpo or aikido in silence, lessening even the slither of bare foot over carpet, doing without noise.
Until not even your breath can be heard.
Breathless Martial Arts.
When you finally succeed in making perfect silence, then will you hear the true martial arts.
Then will you hear the world.
Then will you hear yourself.
Al Case has been studying the Martial Arts since 1967. Tai Chi Chuan is perfect for creating silence in the Martial Arts.
Okay, heres a shocker for you to think about–you are learning the martial arts using the slowest method of education in existence in the world. Its true. And it is propagated through the mysticism and awe of attaining something that, should you use an updated method of learning, would speed up your learning up by a factor of ten.
The martial arts work on a method that has worked for the history of the world, for monkeys. This is the monkey see monkey do method of education. Using the monkey see monkey do method of education, you are trained to memorize random strings of data.
Thats absolutely right, random strings of data. In fact, to be perfectly accurate, it is random strings strings of random data, and everything is tied together through mystical concept. Not logical concepts, but mystical concepts.
That system of kung fu you’re practicing, the one based on an animal–I have never heard of an animal being logical. Oh, you fight like an animal would fight, in concept. What youre saying is that the movements that resemble how an animal would move have been gathered together so you could copycat them.
Copycatting is not a concept, and it is not being logical in any sense.
Copycatting is doing what youve been shown…or, in the martial arts world, sold. Lots of money in selling copycat methodology, because you can just keep rearranging the strings of data and fooling people into thinking they are getting something scientific.
Now, you might think that I am down on martial arts because of what I have said. The opposite is the real truth, however–I am so in love with the martial arts it is unbelievable. I dont, however, believe in learning through antiquated methods.
What I do is take the mysticism of the martial arts, utilize logic to line it all up, and learn ten times faster than the next guy. This method, a vastly different than any method you have ever seen, is called Matrixing. Matrixing is an actual scientific method–it is not the latest fake-scientific-wordage (cyber cranial digitation, neural brain synapses, and that sort of made up so on) that internet marketers use to sell their gimmicks.
The inquiry I often get is how does it work. Consider: if you had 4, 5, 3, 8 and a shaved donkey, you wouldnt know how to count. If you had 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on through all of your digits…you would know how to count.
What I do is align the martial concepts in the correct sequence, so there are no missing numbers, no out of order numbers, and no ridiculous concepts tossed in. When people learn the martial arts in this fashion it is possible to learn, as I said, as much as 10 times faster. Of course it all depends on the person learning, and whether they have a basic education, and etc.
The above all being said, it was not an easy thing to figure Matrixing out. In fact, it took me over 30 years, as there was no precedent for what I was doing. The job is completed, however, and martial artists the world over need no longer be trapped by–the slowest method of learning in existence.
Here’s a great article on a more brutal form of martial arts training using…a Tiger!
I practice real Aikido, and the rest of the world doesn’t.
Don’t you just love a knucklehead statement like that? I mean, the fellow who makes it has broken rule number one: he thinks he is the only one, and therefore he is knee deep in loco.
That said, let me give you a rundown on real Aikido, and what the rest of the world is practicing.
If you are learning a tradition with respect, no matter who the teacher is, no matter what the argument is between form and function, you are learning real Aikido. And, hey, while we’re at it, this statement extends to other classical martial arts, such as karate or tai chi chuan, or whatever.
And, to put it another way…are you learning, or are you fighting?
Now, here comes the part where I offend people. The UFCers and the MMAers are fighting, so they are not doing a martial art. They are doing a martial sport.
A lot of people get upset with me when I say something like this, they take it as a personal attack,and then explain how their school is different.
And that is the dividing point, is their school teaching, or is it promoting fighting?
It is a simple question, with a simple answer, and Beavis and Butthead can’t answer it.
You know Beavis and Butthead? They are the fellows with bad grammar who go to forums and sites and drop comments like UR STOOPID! (note the misspelling), and F*** U! (No asterisks)
Brilliant fellows these, and they don’t study real Aikido. They study ca ca humor and eat with their mouth open and it’s really important who won the fight.
But it’s not important who won the fight. What’s important is whethere an individual is actually learning, becoming more disciplined and aware, exploring the manifestations of spirituality that a human being is.
The real fight, you see, is not between the gladiators in the ring, it is between the edification of the human spirit, and the degradation of the human meatball.
That’s why I study real Aikido, and that is the dividing line one must find in their own art if they are to win the martial art war.
I practice real Aikido, and the rest of the world doesn’t.
Don’t you just love a knucklehead statement like that? I mean, the fellow who makes it has broken rule number one: he thinks he is the only one, and therefore he is knee deep in loco.
That said, let me give you a rundown on real Aikido, and what the rest of the world is practicing.
If you are learning a tradition with respect, no matter who the teacher is, no matter what the argument is between form and function, you are learning real Aikido. And, hey, while we’re at it, this statement extends to other classical martial arts, such as karate or tai chi chuan, or whatever.
And, to put it another way…are you learning, or are you fighting?
Now, here comes the part where I offend people. The UFCers and the MMAers are fighting, so they are not doing a martial art. They are doing a martial sport.
A lot of people get upset with me when I say something like this, they take it as a personal attack,and then explain how their school is different.
And that is the dividing point, is their school teaching, or is it promoting fighting?
It is a simple question, with a simple answer, and Beavis and Butthead can’t answer it.
You know Beavis and Butthead? They are the fellows with bad grammar who go to forums and sites and drop comments like UR STOOPID! (note the misspelling), and F*** U! (No asterisks)
Brilliant fellows these, and they don’t study real Aikido. They study ca ca humor and eat with their mouth open and it’s really important who won the fight.
But it’s not important who won the fight. What’s important is whethere an individual is actually learning, becoming more disciplined and aware, exploring the manifestations of spirituality that a human being is.
The real fight, you see, is not between the gladiators in the ring, it is between the edification of the human spirit, and the degradation of the human meatball.
That’s why I study real Aikido, and that is the dividing line one must find in their own art if they are to win the martial art war.
Happy first day of the week!
Happy first workout of the week!
Make it a good one,
lose yourself in it,
and your whole week will glow.
True.
Okey doke,
thanks to all who are on the Kang Duk Won course,
don’t forget to set aside time each day,
whittle away at the art,
make it your own.
And,
congrats to Master Instructor Wilhem Stockinger!
Here’s his win…
I had a breakthru in the master instructor course yesterday, man the pieces finally came together…I was…screaming in ecstasy and joy…you are a genius master Al! I am so much more grounded and aligned in movement, it’s fantastic.
I finally got the missing pieces to what was once 6 years of Iu ryu jujutsu, 2 years of Gracie jujutsu,a few years of Muay thai kickboxing, and some Krav Maga and so on…I know I never mentioned my background since it fades away against yours and I was not enrolling into your course to talk about my past but to learn. And I did learn a tremendous amount, which not only corrected my faulty basics in form and execution, but also gave me understanding of form. Sensei, the 6 secrets, man, this is all Jujutsu theory I’ve been trained in for years, but nobody ever explained the principles, unless by practical example, but never the principles behind it. The why and how, not just the what. It was so enlightening. I am starting all over, but now the proper way. Thank you so much. I finally got the crack of technique over strength, of body mechanics over brute force. I am excited to be in the martial arts again. You are the real deal Shihan Alton Case. God bless you!
No,
thanks to you, Will.
Breaking through,
sharing your win,
somebody else is going to be
encouraged to make it, too.
And,
for everybody,
it’s easy,
it’s just how to fix your thinking.
Which makes it the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
Like Will says,
everybody talks about it,
without ever talking about it.
They talk about the surface
and never go into the depths.
They never go into why things work.
Endless drills,
endless techniques,
without ever telling you why.
So,
thanks again Will.
Persistence and tenacity in the martial arts,
that’s what you represent,
which are characteristics of good martial arts.
Okay!
I’m going to write an article on this,
it follows along with what WIll says above,
but I thought I’d mention it here, first.
I like to talk to the intelligent first,
then the masses.
Grin.
Do you know why I teach so many Martial Arts?
Why I am always open to new arts?
Why I listen avidly
when my fellow martial artists talk,
instead of opening my own yap?
It’s true,
like as not,
when the talk starts
I find it much more educational
to listen.
Well,
the reason is this.
If you were drilling a well,
you would need a stable base,
so you could build a high drill,
so you could drill deeper.
When you learn more martial arts,
when you toss the techniques around in your head,
compare and contrast,
fit them into the matrix of all techniques,
then you are building a wide database,
and you can then build a high drill,
and drill deep into your soul.
Data holds you together.
The more data you have,
the more held together you are.
Or,
think about it this way.
If you were going to build a telescope
to see to the furthest star,
then you would need a solid base,
so the telescope wouldn’t be shaken by wind or rain,
or any other force.
Then your sight would be solid and true,
and you could see to those far stars,
without them shimmying and shaking
and being a blur to your sight.
Do you understand?
The more you know,
the deeper you can dig into yourself,
the more of yourself
you can understand.
Simple,
eh?
Yet,
the work to make a wide database
especially in the martial arts,
with all the technique and styles and opinions and…
it can get pretty tough.
And,
it can get tough to keep it all in order,
which is one of the blessings of Matrixing.
Look,
people study,
they get a thousand techniques,
and it can take twenty years to sort it all out,
to learn to think about things in a way
that it all makes sense,
so that all of the data is at your fingertips,
instead of buried in the mass of
thousands of techniques.
So,
instead of lumping everything together,
and training like crazy.
You just put your techniques into a matrix,
fit that matrix to a larger matrix of all martial arts,
and the procedure gets REAL fast.
Oh,
like Will said above,
it can take time,
but not as much,
but,
the rewards once it all clicks,
there’s nothing like it.
It’s not just studying hard forever,
that is taken for granted…
it is making sense out of it quickly,
as fast as you input data and techniques,
that’s how fast you have to make sense out of it all.
Oinky Doinkey!
That‘s about it,
got nothing left to say,
and,
besides,
I’d rather work out than talk.
I’d rather dig deep
than open my yap.
I haven’t done much gun training, know only a little about gun control, so when my wife asked me about it I had to rely on what I’d heard and basic martial arts training. This all boiled down to five basic points. Continue reading →
I’m always fascinated by martial art weapons.
It’s so nice to think that you can stand back and defend yourself
without ever getting your hands dirty.
The problem is that I don’t like many of the martial art weapons out there.
I like the Chinese sword.
It is delicate and quick,
like a knitting needle.
Great martial art weapons
I like blow guns,
they are silent,
foldable,
you can make poison darts.
I like two sticks,
they are fantastic for training.
And I like a few others,
but most martial art weapons are too heavy,
or confined in their motion.
Now,
that said,
I probably never told anybody this,
but my father was an engineer.
Actually,
he made prototypes.
At first he worked for a small company named Ampex.
He was responsible for materials and machining
for the original tape recorders
back in the fifties.
In the sixties he went to Memorex,
became the prototype engineer,
again,
responsible for machining exotic materials.
Now,
let me bridge this to the martial arts.
In his spare time
he used to play golf,
and he started putting together weird golf clubs.
By weird,
I mean that he had access to space age materials.
And he started making golf clubs
with titanium shafts,
fibre glass shafts,
heads made out of…whatever,
and so on.
He probably invented a couple of things,
but he never bothered with patenting,
the companies he worked for
were pretty obsessive about patents,
so he didn’t bother.
He knew if he patented a golf club
one of those companies
would claim it was theirs.
Seriously.
Anyway,
the reason I bring this all up
is that I don’t see any martial art weapons
using space age materials.
There’s a couple of things out there,
especially knives,
and there’s some other oddities,
but when is the last time
you saw a sword made out of some exotic material,
kept a better edge,
even if you used it to pound in spikes?
I know there have a been a few things made,
but not a lot.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a staff
as light as fiberglass,
but virtually unbreakable?
A sword that actually bends?
Now,
I can see problems with some of these things,
for instance,
something might not have the weight,
and you do often need weight in a weapon,
but if you put an exotic metal blade on the end,
it would be as quick as a knitting needle,
but longer than a Chinese sword,
and it might put a whole new slant
on fighting with weapons.
Man,
I can think of all sorts of problems,
but it would be fun to make something like that,
see what the probs are,
then reinvent it again,
and eventually focus
on something better.
The whole thrust of war
has been for better machines.
The machine gun revolutionized warfare.
Then along came the tank.
The submarine,
the blimp…and the plane.
So why not the martial arts weapons?
Think about it,
a heat seeking nine section chain dart.
Or,
a laser guided samurai sword…
Well,
perhaps I’m going a little too far,
but if necessity if the mother of invention,
imagination is the father of invention.
All right,
let me share a win…
Al,
I just wanted to say that I think that your Blinding Steel program is a great addition to my students escrima training. I have been teaching them the Heaven Six patterns and found that your concept of the Circle of Blocks is a great way to enter into these patterns. The ability to flow from the circle to the heaven patterns is a great way for the students to learn movement, striking and blocking with ease. The nine square concept made it very easy for them to see the angle of attacks that can be delivered at any given time. It also is a great way to remove the fear of being struck during the disarm section of Blinding Steel. Excellent info once again. Well done Al, well done. I just want to say thank you and keep up the great work.
Michael G
Thanks Michael!
And for everybody,
my programs,
and especially the Blinding Steel,
are martial arts by themselves,
but their real purpose
is to clarify all martial arts,
and you can use them
with your martial art
no matter what martial art it is.
Anybody who teaches martial art weapons,
should consider implementing blinding steel.
Anybody who teaches Karate,
should start of with Matrix Karate.
And the Shaolin Butterfly
should be taught before traditional Shaolin.
Don’t you understand?
These are unique and whole martial arts by themselves,
but they expose and clarify
and give a big, whomping, huge,
kick in the butt
to all the traditional martial arts.
I haven’t re-invented the martial arts,
I have just figured out better ways to teach them,
how to make them work together,
how to figure out the lost (concealed) pieces,
and so on.
It’s like putting space age material,
on ancient weapons,
and getting something better.
Go to the Testimonials in the menu and do a search for your martial art!
Hi Sensei Al!
(On the Black Belt Course) Everything is working great! Thank you for the quick responses. I am enjoying the one on one videos. It may be cliche, but I do feel like I'm there. I also like the conversational style and the way you explain how you're teaching and why. You've got a new student for life. Thank you. ~ Daniel
What's interesting about Al Case's writings and teachings is there isn't any emphasis on 'the unknown' or 'mystery' behind martial arts. Al will slam this information in your face! Quite frankly the data isn't hidden, you'll find you're blind. ~ WG
Al Case is a powerful presence to be around, but if you can confront it, then you will not be sorry, for there is no one like him, and it is an extreme privilege and honor.
I used to read your articles in Inside Karate and was excited when I found your web site. ~ RV
As an old timer with thirty-five years of experience I was really bored, but your works have peaked my interest and shown me that there is much more to learn. I Thank You Again, Sincerely ~ CC
Where was this information 24 years ago? This course is one of the best things to ever happen to me. Thank you Al Case for the gift of knowledge!
Be blessed my teacher, ~ Rev. Ernest R
I bought the Infinite Fist tape YEARS ago and you know? I Keep going back to it! ~ KS
You are a master. You have opened me up to things that I have never thought of before. ~ KFM
I purchased your course on "Create Your Own Martial Art" and absolutely love it. I believe that your matrixing system is very unique. ~ DW
In my entire experience twenty years as a student and an instructor since, no one has contributed more to my martial arts education than you have. I started following your works twenty years ago and although I was young then I knew you had the True Art it was obvious to me even then. ~ Charles C
Students will know longer be slaves of poor instructors and practitioners. ~ Lonnie M
Win from Master Instructor Course
Let me start out by saying thank you. Thanks from all the martial artists who asked why. Al, I'm in the Security and Law enforcement field and carry Instructor credentials, so effective methods in combat and teaching them is what I constantly look for.
Win from Matrix Aikido
I just had to write to you to say WOW. Your INSTANT AIKIDO is great!!! ~ SD
My students have started coming up to me after class telling me how much more they are enjoying it, and that the classes have stopped being so ridged and now flow in a kind of give and take between me and them. I have stopped being a task master and started having fun and letting them teach me as well.
I did the Master Instructor Course and it hit me. The Basics that are so concisely communicated in this course including the Matrix principle IS the solution. It doesn’t matter what “style” I call my art, because all styles follow these same principles. It doesn’t matter how hard I train or how many repetitions I do if I don’t train the right way. And I would never become a master if I didn’t know how it all fits together. Now I do! I can honestly say that I am now on the path that I have always sought as a martial artist. Thank you Al!
I conducted a Matrix Aikido training class for a Security Team at a local manufacturing plant. I tailored the training according to their Use Of Force policy. As you know they need control and takedown skills. I knew Matrix Aikido would be the answer. The training plan you shared was boss. The class went so smoothly. The participants learned very quickly. By the end of the class you could see techniques of Monkey Boxing coming through. They were also able to create their own techniques. There was one female officer in the class who asked to become my private student. She was throwing, locking and taking down guys twice her size. The Security Supervisor wants me to come back and with more participants! I'll keep you posted. ~ L M
Have found your books and dvds excellent. My background is mainly in medical qigong but I practice Sun Style Tai CHi, BaGua and HsingI as well as Eagle Claw, Snake Style Kung Fu and several Wudang weapon styles. This is the first time I have had the underlying principles so clearly explained and in a way that they are immediately workable and demonstratable. I have worked through the Master Instructors Course, Aikido and Butterfly Bagua and have started to breakdown the Sun Hsing I using your matrix method. I was even able to teach a 70 year old friend of mine with no martial arts background your instant aikido where she was able to do some very accomplished locks and throws after the first lesson
Search the testimonials for your martial art!
Free Martial Arts Books
HERE'S SOME FREE MARTIAL ARTS BOOKS, MY THANKS FOR DROPPING BY.
Includes books on Bruce Lee, the Truth About Matrixing, the first Martial Arts book sold in America (It's a real hoot!), and much more!