I've been neglecting this blog and took a hiatus from drawing when I came home from a trip abroad at the end of February due to job-hunting-- mainly, I felt guilty using any free time I had to do anything but look for a job. 

Now that I am employed again (at a law library-- my first day is this upcoming Monday, eek!), I've been putting ink to paper again and have resumed with journaling my travels around Asia with Colin. 

Random note: I've recently treated myself by buying this pen. I've heard a lot of good things about the Pentel Brush Pen before, but haven't been able to justify its price (okay, I know $14 for a pen isn't THAT expensive, but it is compared to Sharpies and Micron Pens). The Pentel Brush Pen is AWESOME. I've used brush pens, specifically from the Micron line, a lot before when I've been too lazy to use an inkwell/actual brush, but having actual hairs instead of a felt brush makes a whole world of difference in inking! Also, the Pentel Brush Pen takes refills when it runs out of ink, so it's actually pretty cost-effective. 
I looooooooove it.

Here is the first 1.5 days of the trip. It's going to be a long time to document the entire thing, but I'm chipping away at it. 

Finishing this travelogue will take a while, but I'm enjoying the process so far. 
With it taking so long and having not even documented 2 full days of this trip yet though, China, Korea, and Japan seem so far away. 

In any case, here's a souvenir from Korea-- in order to go to the JSA at Panmunjom, you have to sign a waiver saying you won't scoff at North Koreans or, most importantly, point at them. Also, that the United Nations Command isn't accountable if you get shot/killed:

Since the histories between the U.S., Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan are so  deeply intertwined and have affected each other so much (Cultural Revolution, Korean War, WWII, etc), I hope to be able to have that come across in my travelogue as it develops futher.

One last one before I go: 

Got A LOT of errands done this weekend, saw A LOT of lion dances, got a little bit of last-minute language-learning cramming done (where Colin's in charge of memorizing some Korean survival-phrases and me Japanese-- and yes, I am failing). 
Then off tomorrow morning! 

I, undeniably, have had a lot more time on my hands since I've graduated from library school (I have a master's degree now, guys! But no job!). Due to such, I've started journaling again and am treating it as a pseudo-project which I hope to continue with so that it can become a travelogue and more fleshed-out project, in the vein of Carnet de Voyage or French Milk. 

Here are a few pages:

This is Lyla back in November, when she was only a few weeks old: 

This is Lyla now, at ~3 months. They grow up so fast! (eyes changed from gray to brown)

I really do hope to be able to keep up with journaling more regularly. 
It's time-consuming, but I like doing it, even if it's to a vacuum. 

I wish I was still young enough to trick or treat. 

I have plans to go out and buy some heavily discounted Halloween candy tomorrow though, which-- while not as good as getting free candy-- is a good-enough consolation prize, I guess. Still miss the days of getting pounds of free candy and making trades at then end of the night. Childhood, man.   

I'm going to be a quarter of a century soon. In less than 5 days, actually.  Holy smokes! 

I finally got around to going down to the gun range (West Side Rifle & Pistol Range) yesterday with Colin to go shoot some firearms for the first time, crossing that off of the bucket list. All we could shoot were .22 semi-automatic rifles, being in NYC and without any handgun licenses, but it was a good beginner firearm to learn with. Very little/no kickback, easy to load/reload. Loading up 10 magazines with 5 rounds each (50 rounds total) really hurts your fingers after a while, and you get lead all over your hands--but at the end of the day, neat learning experience.  

Next up is to find a place in PA or NJ to shoot a Glock or a fully automatic shotgun. Because why not? 

On a completely different page now, in between working on my thesis (fair use/copyright in the context of visual arts) and homework, I sometimes entertain the idea of making children's books: 

Colin and my 4th 'anniversary' kind of came and went this weekend without any fanfare, ha! Minus the gun-shooting. 

As a reiteration of last year's blog post around this time (http://www.dorisyen.com/1/post/2010/10/rallies-anniversaries.html), because we never really decided on any specific event/date to mark our anniversary, it's simply that "we met on Halloween weekend, so I guess Halloween weekend is our anniversary".  

I looked through my old sketchbooks and found the pages I did for that weekend in Montreal back in 2007 (see below).
 
(In the same vein, I also found the old an old receipt for a birthday meal I had at the Hamilton Inn in 2007-- one that Kat and I had a recent conversation about, which she couldn't remember. But yep, it was on my birthday, there were 4 guests, and it came to a total of $102.28.)

That was a really neat weekend. 

And to think, Colin said that he almost decided to not go on the Montreal trip because he had "too much work" to do that weekend (and also because of the whole not-being-an-art-major-thing and thus having no real reason to be on the trip in the first place, that is). 

I've been waiting since HIGH SCHOOL for this book to come out. 
Seven. Whole. Years! 
Seven years of constantly checking his blog and seeing what new benchmark had been made (like the 500 page mark). Finally- 672 pages of an amazingly masterfully crafted, gorgeous work in my possession. I read it over this past weekend, and am already looking forward to re-reading it. 

The design of the book, the calligraphy, the storytelling, and the drawings are all equally breathtaking. It's not a comfortable read, being very dark in multiple ways (one of them being the multiple sex scenes, including those involving rape and a sex with a child), and the story is largely propelled by agony and loss - but it's beautiful regardless. 

Drawing influence from Arabic calligraphy, Islamic art, and the Koran, the artistry in the book- from start to finish- is a marvel. I can't even IMAGINE the kind of dedication and perseverance and SKILL it takes to be able to be so meticulous with each and every page, especially with something this voluminous. All six hundred and seventy two pages. By one single person. With just paper, rulers, pens, ink and one's own hands. It's kinda inspirational when I'm in a productive mood, and discouraging when I'm not (the ole, 'I'm never going to be able to produce anything as amazing or just-plain good as this! Why bother doing anything?')

In any case, I got my copy of Habibi on its release day, and got it signed-- so it's pretty much one of the most awesome things I own now. 

Also got a fan snapshot (which, believe me, I would not have had the balls to have gotten if it wasn't for everybody else getting them, and because Thompson seemed really gracious about it and happy to oblige us all) . 

Oh yeaaaaaah, soakin' up the talent by osmosisss.

If I ever produce something half as good as that book, I'd be satisfied with myself for the rest of my life. 
Welp, have my goals set. 

Here's an example of me feeling creatively discouraged:

Here's me breaking out the ink jar [and out of the funk] and scratching out a drawing:

Kinda similar to my last one, but this one is based off of being in Venice, while the other Bruges. On a canal kick, I guess.

This one I did today is based on how there's been this bamboo plant growing in a small glass soft drink bottle in my house now for what seems like forever-- probably for 10 years now. I've never paid much attention to it until recently, when I noticed how top-heavy it looked.
Not having quite fully outgrown its container yet, but silly-looking nonetheless.

And this is me playing around with color from a few days ago, which isn't my "thing" typically, but I still enjoy experimentation. 
I personally think that the first set works, and the second set doesn't at all. Trial and error, is all. 

What's come out of these experiments is a potential idea for a new project. Maybe one that I can actually finish! I just have to actually get started, heh. I'm still milling around with it, and feel guilty working/thinking about it sometimes when I should be doing schoolwork, but I'll find a more comfortable balance soon enough. 

The only things Colin and I did on our 9-hour layover back in lovely Amsterdam?

Had a 15-minute train ride from Schipol Airport to the city center, walked to Vondelpark, took a long nap on the grass, woke up, purchased a king-sized cone of pomme frites (slathered in sauce, of course), ate it next to a canal while tourists waved as us from boats, and then returned back to Schipol. 

When we finally arrived in Tel Aviv, we were quite jetlagged and tired, arriving in the dead of the night around 4am. Trying to figure out the train system, with most of its relevant information in Hebrew, was a pretty confusing ordeal. 

After an exhausting while, we managed to find our way into the city, and then- after much much more trial and error- we made it to Colin's advisor's flat, which was graciously offered as a place for us to stay for a few days while they was out of town. 

The few days spent in Tel Aviv did us some good, being able to take the time to re-cooperate from jetlag and to orient ourselves to a new country. We spent most of our days in Tel Aviv walking: exploring supermarkets, the shuk (market), the seaside, the ports, Old Jaffa, etc. By the time we were through with it all, we had walked the entire length of the city along its coast, and then some.

Swimming in the Mediterranean during the sunset is simply awesome- very warm waters. 

The above picture almost got me in a lot of trouble. I took this during the first day we were in Israel, before I realized the full of extent of the country's (not necessarily unjustifiable) neuroticism and paranoia when it comes to security. As soon as I had my camera out, people came out of the building. And as soon as I snapped this, I had two guys with their sights on me. For some reason I didn't get stopped, questioned, or bothered otherwise in the end (most probably on account of my looking like a blatant goofy tourist), though Colin's convinced that I was ::thisclose:: to getting detained for taking this nothing-to-write-home-about snapshot. Or at least close to getting my camera confiscated, and having to face a line of questioning about my picture taking.

In looking up information online regarding the issue of security and taking pictures of the American embassy, I came across an opinion that I wholly agree with:

This sort of thing always strikes me as the stupidest kind of ad-hoc "regulation" possible -- and usually created by people who don't know how else to make things seem "secure". Two gaping problems: first, attempting to stop people from knowing something that is accessible to all (the information contained in a picture of a public place), and second, relying on stopping them by having gun-toting goons look for the only the most obvious sign that it is happening (someone holding a big camera). 

What do they think, that the average person who takes a picture is doing it for "intelligence gathering" purposes? And that someone who really wants the picture won't be able to get it by surreptitious means? Do they check everyone's bag and person for hidden cameras? How about if I just don't hold the camera up to my eye, or set it to take pictures automatically? I guess that's not a threat, then? 

ok, there is something (although very weak) to the idea that if you enforce something like that, it will be that much harder for someone to really take a picture for nefarious purposes. But still, who do you think is going to be smarter/better at it, the person looking for traditional threats, or the person trying to come up with new ways to defeat them? 

in general, this type of "rule" is silly.


There's much more of this type of security theater that goes on throughout Israel, such as with the 'security checks' at the central bus stations of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Entering and exiting each station can be a nightmare at times- imagine if prior to being allowed to enter or exit the building, that the (pardon my French) clusterfuck of people at Port Authority have to go through metal detectors, and that their luggage have to go through xrays or be opened up/searched. 
It'd be a crazy clusterfuck, right? 

Well, it's not any more orderly in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, either. If you're lucky there'll be the semblance of a line going on, but chances are it'll be a crowded free-for-all. 
But hey, sacrifices and inconveniences have to be made to make everyone safer, right? The country does have many enemies, and is interested in its self-preservation and the safety of its citizens.

Yes, sure, although I see little point in hoisting my luggage onto a small podium, walking through a metal detector, waiting to see if anyone actually wants to check my luggage- still on the podium- and finally just retrieving it and being on my way since it's clear that no one really cares to check, seeing as how 60 other passengers are shoving to get past security that same instance to get to their terminals and make their connections. It's such a dog and pony show. 

Not that all the security efforts in Israel are pointless, to be clear. To a certain extent, I understand why Israeli airport security needs to be tight, and they do a decent job in that it didn't feel like sham-security (though it was long and tedious for sure, and included having my luggage completely taken apart and of multiple things going through multiple xrays and of me going through multiple lines and through a fair amount of questioning).
And, when we witnessed a street in Jerusalem shut down entirely because there was a piece of abandoned luggage at a light-rail stop, I thought they did a good and quick job with its investigation and with getting the street opened back up. 

As a side note, coming home from my internship today I saw the usual horde of cops inside my subway station stationed at their table ready to "randomly search" people, so it's not like NYC is that much better. 

Masada is one of Israel's National Parks, located in the Judean Desert in the Dead Sea region of the country. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the fortress built by King Herod upon a plateau 1,480 ft above the level of the Dead Sea was used as a rebel stronghold after the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 CE. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the last of the rebels fled to Masada and joined those already at the fortress.

Legend/history (as recorded by 1st Century CE historian Josephus Flavius) has it that in 74 CE, the Romans laid siege the mountain. After spending months building a ramp and battering ram to breach the fortress, the Romans finally broke through to find that the 960 Jewish inhabitants of the fortress has taken their lives the night prior, choosing death rather than slavery to the Romans. 

Staying in Masada for a few days, we used it as a home-base for exploring the Dead Sea region.

"Go up to it!" 

"Now, point at it."

After hiking hundreds of feet up the impossibly difficult trail (the "for fit hikers" one) in the midday sun, we dived into the nearest spring we found upon descending. Very peaceful swimming/wading/cool down.

Next stop, walking to the Dead Sea:

If you look veeery carefully, you can see the winding path on the side of the mountain- the Snake Path.

Next stop...

We spent the most amount of consecutive days of our trip here in Jerusalem (but overall maybe an equal amount of time as Tel Aviv), with our hostel being a short 10-minute walk to the Old City. The city's light rail had just started running a week prior to our arrival, and (I suppose as an effort to publicize the new transit system) they were offering free rides until early September. The light rail has a stop right in front of our hostel, so we were able to utilize it a good bunch. 

We had plans to hit up the three of the holiest/religious sites in the Old City:

1) The Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall), the retaining wall King Herod built to surround Temple Mount and the ancient Temple. Since the precise location of the ancient Temple is not known, the wall is a remnant of the time period and has become a holy place by proxy to the Jews. 

We visited the Western Wall a few times, including once at sundown on Friday night to watch people welcoming the sabbath. No photo-taking on the sabbath, so there are no pictures, but it was a great night for people-watching. Everywhere you turned were folks in fabulous outfits and soldiers with guns (who are actually everywhere in Israel, so it wasn't that much of a spectacle, except there were certainly more of them hanging out in the Plaza that night- also, they were singing and being merry).  

Modest dress is required (no exposed shoulders or knees- for both men and women), and there is segregation of men and women when visiting the wall.

2) The Church of the Holy Sepulcher:  believed by Christians to be where Jesus was crucified by the Romans, then buried, and resurrected (the stations of where each event occurred are labelled throughout the church)... The sites were determined by Helena, mother of the Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, in 326 CE when she was visiting the city of Jerusalem, and the church was then built. 

Upon entering the church, immediately in front of you is the pink Stone of Unction, where it is said that Jesus was prepared for burial. People rub it, and rub things on it (scarves, trinkets, etc) to... soak up its sanctity.

The tomb (station XIV) is also in the church, encased in a pink marble edifice, in the rotunda to the left of the main entrance. Seeing the impossibly long line and being non-religious folk, we decided that we didn't really need to see the space determined by Helena as Jesus' semi-final resting place. Instead, we went up the steep steps to get to the Golgotha, where at the central chapel, under the alter, is a silver disc with a hole where the cross is proposed to have actually stood (station XII). 

3) Temple Mount, or Haram Esh-Sharif: Failed. We weren't able to get in. We arrived to Jerusalem on a Wednesday, tried to get in on Thursday and failed (it's closed to non-Muslims on Fridays and Saturdays). 

In any case, The Temple Mount is a big religious enclosure/plaza. The original Temple was enclosed there (Romans burned it down in 70 CE, around the time the whole Masada seige happened), and there's a great rock there, now under the Dome of the Rock, that is said to be where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. This also may or may not be where the Second Temple was built, and where Muhammad ascended up to heaven on his flying horse to meet with God. Yeah. In Temple Mount is also the El Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy mosque in the world (after those in Saudi Arabia- Mecca and Medina).

Our guidebook was a little spotty about the limited access hours to Temple Mount for non-Muslims, as were suggestions/information online-- apparently the plaza is open Sundays through Thursdays for a few hours in the morning, and then for about an hour in the afternoon (our book says 1:30pm to 2:30pm).  

After asking around a whole lot, there's only one gate we could have entered from (Mughrabi Gate), which is a ramp/bridge thing from the Western Wall Plaza:

Too bad it never opened. Sure, there were other entrances to the 35-acres of Temple Mount, but they were off-limits to us, which was off-putting (guards turned us away). Though we knew that even if we had been able to access Temple Mount we would be denied entry into the interiors of golden Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, we at least wanted to get on to the plaza! 

Incredibly frustrating. And to think, that years ago during peaceful days, all this was open to everybody (including the Dome of the Rock and the mosque), and that all you had to do was buy a special entry ticket for a small fee. Due to current politics though, the Waqf (Islamic Trust) has barred non-believers indefinitely from entering buildings on Temple Mount and have limited general access hours, which is something that though I understand (why have non-believers gawking around at my place of worship?), I obviously do not believe in.
Holy sites belong to God, not man-- so why does man keep the keys & lock them up? 
 
Such a shame, considering that Islamic art and design is some of the most crazy-gorgeous beautiful stuff in the world (just think of the Alhambra), and it is a pity that we missed it. 

Oh well, Colin has a snapshot of me somewhere with the Dome of the Rock in the background or something. 

The rest of the time in Jerusalem had been interesting. We were in the center of a really lively part of town, on a constantly busy street which became home to tons of street performers at night. The area was littered with shops, cafes, food stalls, ice cream/frozen yogurt shops bakeries, etc. We had lots of awesome relatively cheap food (including this one totally hard-to-find, hippy, cozy soup place at night that just served soup and beer-- the soups came with a large amount of bread/butter/pesto and was amaaaazing). Pita falafel were another staple (schwarmas for Colin). 
People in Israel seemed to be late eaters, with most of the dinner action happening past 8-9pm, which is the way I like it. 

Everything closed down Friday at sundown though. We thought that might have been the case, though we weren't sure to what extent places would be closed, since we were outside of the Old City and since everything had been so incredibly lively during the week. Still, in anticipation, we purchased some fruit and some bread from the Machaneh Yehuda market on Friday afternoon so that we would have something for lunch the next day- very glad we did so. Everything shut down for the sabbath, and our area became a ghost town.  

Despite this, there was plenty still to do in Jerusalem during the Sabbath-- for one thing, the Old City doesn't close (though the Jewish Quarter was quiet), so it was a good time to wander around the various other quarters (Christian, Muslim, Armenian). 

Some museums weren't closed either-- did the Tower of David Museum on Saturday and learned a whole lot about the history of Jerusalem (kept getting conquered, people kept getting slaughtered/enslaved, people kept burning stuff down).

On Friday we had gone to the City of David outside the Old City near Dung Gate. 
The highlight was sloshing around Hezekiah's Tunnel, which was an ancient tunnel dug underground to bring water from the Silwan to the City of David in Jerusalem. The tunnel is long (about half an hour to walk), low (the ceiling was under 5 ft at times), incredibly narrow (like, 3 feet across), completely dark (bring a flashlight), slippery and wet (you're walking in knee-high water, after all). Not for those who are claustrophobic, and once you go in there's no turning back, as it's definitely single-file. Colin and I were stuck behind a tour group down in the tunnel, which I actually found comforting-- the guides cracked jokes the entire time.
Kind of incredible to think of how the tunnel was chiseled all those years ago, and how long it must have took.

After our time in Jerusalem, we headed back to Tel Aviv for some more sun, city exploration (walked throughout Neve Tzedek, hostel was in Florentine), and swimming in the Mediterranean. 

Colin took me to the airport on Monday- he's staying behind in Israel for another week.
So, two non-believers visit the Holy Land for two weeks and what happens? Terrorist attacks in Israel, political revolution in Libya, earthquakes and hurricanes back home. Ha! 
Got back home on Tuesday, had my first day of classes (6 hours!) on Wednesday, and had my first full day of my new internship at the ACLU Archives today. 
Ready for a three day weekend, for sure! Too bad homework's starting to quickly pile up.  

Returning back from break (even though I didn't actually go anywhere for the holiday) is kind of rough-- but having a short break from work & school was most excellent. I can ::just:: hear my assignments calling me to brush up on actionscripting and to quit this darn blogging... 
(I hate actionscripting).

I helped my brother, who came back home from school for a few days over the Thanksgiving break, make pumpkin cheesecakes on Thanksgiving Eve. Turns out, a hugely disgusting amount of cream cheese-- pounds and pounds of the stuff-- goes into cheesecakes...

There were no cheesecakes left by Saturday. Not a single one.

Brother was in charge of making, well, everything Thanksgiving-meal related, from mashed potatoes to stuffing to sweet potatoes to gravy to the turkey.  


We got the smallest turkey we could find, which was still a 16 pounder. It actually turned out to be an appropriately sized bird, and was pretty much completely eaten by the end of the Thanksgiving meal ( held at my cousin/bff !'s house, with lots of family friends invited, including my neighbors-- the adults just made the entire day a majong-playing day). 

Despite my vegetarianism, I found the turkey-cooking process wholly fascinating:

After posting those snapshots up, all I can see is: 

End result. 
It smelled great. 
I miss turkey. 

The stuffing and mashed potatoes were good though. And the green veggies. And the cheesecake. Goodness I want more pumpkin cheesecake (::whine:: despite the amount we made, all I had was a small sliver). Oh well- there's always Christmas for more pastries and foodstuffs.  

What happens when I give in to my cats: 

And a non-cynical (break from my ole- blah blah blah Stolen land! The death of millions of Native Americans! The slaughter of millions of turkeys! Boo, why do we even celebrate this holiday?!) reflection on Thanksgiving:

Tommy's an indoor cat, but loves to go outside to explore and hang out in the backyard.

He's smart and knows how to climb up to my second-floor bedroom windowsill-- that's where he sits until I notice him and let him back into the house.
He's dumb because he gets into territory fights with the neighbor's cat. Granted, he's never been seriously hurt though. This is as hurt as he's ever been, and he looks fine-- just goofy. The scratch isn't an open bloody wound, doesn't seem infected. It just looks like he's been shaved of a bit of fur. Serves him right for being a bully. 

I'm attempting to work on/start a painting now as a side project, but we'll see how that goes with juggling work and school (finals looming, yay!). Also looking into summer internships (which I thought I'd be getting a head start on, but seems like I may be starting a little late? Or right on time...).

Turned 24 last week on a rather uneventful day (wake up. work. school. sleep). Celebrated the next night, and had a lot of fun! Low key, good food, good company, & harmless mischief (heehee).

And my loot! I'm not normally a materialistic person (I meeeean it)-
but my loot was amazing. Colin gave me a relief print of a Woodring drawing:

It's seriously awesome.

It looks more awesome in person, because you can see all the small details. The work is titled "Squeaker in the Woods" (seen faintly on the bottom of the print). 

I like relief prints a lot and think they're amazing. Regarding prints, this was a series of 100 (as indicated in pencil on the lower left), and is the 83rd print in the series. The artist's signature is on the lower right.

I'll admit, I wasn't the best printmaker in school (or the best history of printmaking art history student!), but I can still appreciate this print for what it is!
Printmaking experts feel free to chime in and correct me on anything though...

First off, you can tell that it's a relief print, as opposed to an intaglio print, pretty easily.
A relief print (like woodcuts or linocuts) is done where the black/inked parts are what's left on the block, and the white part/uninked parts are carved out. Think of it like an ink stamp-- the raised parts of the stamp would get ink it when you smoosh it on an inkpad, the carved out parts don't get ink.

With all the small spaces of white and black in the print, it's amazing that it was done so neatly. Can you imagine carving out all those small spaces to create the white portions of the drawing? Or how to just leave a small strip of black (like around Frank's feet)? Harder still for an artist- when printed, relief prints appear in a mirror image than what's carved on the block/plate.

When you look at the print, you can see that all the inked parts are indented deeper into the paper (as would happen when the block/plate goes through a press), which is how you can tell that it's a relief print.

Intaglio prints (like etchings or engravings) are the opposite-- the etched/carved away lines from the block/plate are what becomes the inked lines. With intaglio, after the etching/engraving/drawing is done, the entire plate is inked, and then the surface is wiped clean. Therefore, the ink sits below the surface, held in the lines of the drawing. The drawing gets printed with the high pressure of a printing press.   

alright.that's.it.for.the.amateur.arttalk

Then, with Kat's and Sean's present....
It was wrapped.
After the wrapping was removed, there was a cardboard box.
After the cardboard box was opened, there was another box.

Old-timey mildly dusty box... what can you possibly be?
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Antique (functional) typewriter!!!

It's a Remington Rand #5 from the 1930s, and is still perfectly functional. My mom actually asked me why Kat and Sean would get me something that was "so old", haha.
"That was the pooooint, mum."
They got me extra tape too. I hope that I'll still be able to find typewriter tape for this thing 50 years from now.

I learned from the internet that:
"The most famous feature of the Remington 5 was its praiseworthy red self starter key, which is akin to today's "tab" function. Instead of counting out the spaces to indent paragraphs, one quick click on the self starter key would be equivalent to five spaces, while two clicks would give you an instant 10 spaces."
See red self starter key below.