Actually, it’s a silly question.  There’s plenty of civilization up here, it’s just well spread out over a beautiful landscape.  I’m currently posting this from Points North Landing in far northern Saskatchewan.  It’s beautiful up here and the people are about as friendly as you can get just before expecting warm pies to be forced upon you because you look like you might not have eaten in the past hour or two.

No idea how far north “far northern Saskatchewan” really is?  Check it out on this google maps image.

So basically, the last place a trucker wants anything to go wrong.  There’s a single shop up here and the labour is expensive (because it’s hard to come by) and the parts can cost upward of $200 just to ship up here.  A $13 seal up here can cost upward of $180 if the truck shop doesn’t stock it.  Some parts come expedited by plane, some by truck and all with a heavy price tag.  Many parts are double, triple or even more than the cost of what I’m accustomed to.  So of course, it’s with a great deal of frustration that I got out of my truck after uploading some gravel that I saw this.

If you’re wondering what that is, it’s a bear wheel hub.  Basically, there’s a cap and a seal that are supposed to be screwed on there covering that orange thing up.  That cap and seal keep oil in the hub which lubricates the wheel bearings (both inner and outer) and ensure that the axle doesn’t heat up and either seize or light on fire.  In either case, there are potentially thousands of dollars of damage and this far up north, thousands more and no options for immediate or even distant future repairs.  Take a closer look and we can see what might have contributed to this problem.

That orange, spring loaded ring is supposed to lock that giant nut it’s sitting in, into place.  On the lower right hand side, you can see that the orange ring has a little rectangle shaped tab sticking out.  If you look to the bottom of the hub (in the centre) you’ll see a corresponding rectangle notch.  The orange tab is supposed to be sitting in the notch on the hub.  This keeps the giant nut (the nut holds the inner and outer bearings in place) from rotating and backing off.  In this case, because it looks like the orange ring is undamaged at the tab, (or anywhere else) and thusly that it was not installed properly, it failed to keep the nut from backing off and that’s why the hub cap and seal popped off because of all the outward pressure.  Surprisingly, none of the bolts on the hub cap and seal were stripped meaning I was not going to have to have a new stub installed.  Unfortunately, because the bearing and the inner seal (on the other side of the tires) was exposed to dirt and other grit, the bearings were slightly damaged and the inner seal gave way meaning all of the oil in the hub leaked out.  Crazy huh?

When I found this at the pit, I was lost for words.  Here I was, hundreds of miles from anywhere and a wheel axle that was essentially farked.  I couldn’t keep running with the axle as it was, it would have lasted maybe an hour if I was lucky before seizing and becoming ripped apart.  Luckily, the guys working with Asiliy Crushing helped me out with a new hub cap and seal and some gear oil to get me as far as I would need to go to get to the Points North Landing truck shop.  We jacked the axle up and took the nut off and the outside bearing out to clean out as much of the grit as we could.  Honestly, there’s only so much you can do in a gravel pit though.

When I got to the Points North shop, the mechanic took it apart and gave me some good news.  The hub was undamaged and the inside and outside bearings will safely last me until I get back home from this job.  The inside seal and break shoes had to be replaced, but this was the extent of the damage aside from the bearings being badly worn for being only a few weeks old.

The worst part of this is that this hub, seals and everything pictured above (even the steel rims) was completely replaced about 1,000-1,250 kilometres ago because the seal gave way letting all the hub oil leak out resulting in the axle becoming seized.  In case you’re wondering, this should have lasted much longer obviously.  There is more good news though.  I’m not on the hook for the bill.  The shop that replaced these parts is covering my cost of repairs while I’m up north and kudos to them for it.  They’ll also be replacing the damaged wheel bearings.  It’s far too often that you’ll run into a shop where they’ll try and find a way to weasel out their responsibility in a case like this and so I’m not posting a condemnation of this shop nor any information about them because they’ve made good on their mistake.  It would be malicious and terribly unfair of me to single them out now.  When I dialled their number, I was fully expecting resistance but what I found instead was a shop ready to make good on their error without hesitation.  It was honestly refreshing and brought me from being severely pissed off, frustrated and on the verge of panic, (my finances aren’t exactly set up for this kind of repair right now) to a calmed sort of contentment.  It was honestly unexpected and gratifying to know there’s some one out there not trying to screw a trucker out of their dollars.

So, search out some google images for Points North Landing if you like.  It’s a heck of a place and at night, it’s calming and peaceful to be in the middle of nowhere with hardly anyone about within hundreds of miles.  Just for the love of octopus, don’t break anything!  It’s gonna cost you an arm and a leg if you do!

Here I sit…no…no wait.  perhaps quoting bathroom grafitti isn’t the best way to start a blog post.  Apologizing for not posting in a month also isn’t the best so I won’t do that either.  I do have something to apologize for but apologizing for that would seem so self serving.  I mean granted I’m definitely the centre of the universe (or at least in close proximity) but I don’t want to seem like a blow hard.

IN THE NEWS:

some Nigerian dude tried to down a plane.  This really isn’t interesting to me and so I really don’t have a lot to say about it.  What’s more interesting to me is the reaction of others and the response by nations which have done so much to attempt an increase in the effectiveness of their security at the expense of our rights.  It was the passengers and airline staff that caught this guy near the end of the flight, not the government which has done so much to intercept crazy idiots like this.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on a terror watch list and from what I understand, it had been reported to the American authorities that he had been “radicalized” before the incident on Northwest Airlines flight 253.  everything was there and available for a paranoid nation to pounce on some one who likely had every intention of killing a bunch of people.  Oddly enough, in a post 9/11 world with hypersensitive and bloated law enforcement agencies running around in every corner of the country, not a single American saw fit to track this guy down and stop him from flying.

I think a part of this is linked in great part to an incredibly unjustified and unmanageable domestic security policy on the part of the United States.  It’s almost a schizophrenic kind of policy really.  in an attempt to make the nation free, people have to give up some general freedoms and bow to the wishes of the state who knows how best we must manage our security.  I dunno…I could make some hay of this one but three paragraphs is enough.  i guess I just don’t think this hypersensitive security stuff works and this is perhaps proof positive of that.

MUH TWUCK!:

My purple beast (No, not that one) and the trailer is being subjected to it’s biannual inspection.  Oddly enough, it seems it will only cost a few thousand dollars.  I was expecting it to a be a tad bit worse but hey, it’s all good.

I’ve been at home enjoying the holiday season by doing a lot of nothing and trying to figure out how much of something I can eat before it makes me sick.

This coming summer, I have a decision to make.  Should I lease a truck for a few months to add on to a second contract that is seasonal or buy another older truck to run the highway and attempt to find more work for it later on?  All in all, I really just want to figure out what will be the least amount of headache.

APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT?!

Earlier on (about two posts back) I posted that I would be funding a $5,000 KIVA lending account to help stimulate economic activity in third world nations.  unfortunately, I will not be able to live up to the commitment and I feel especially bad about that since some one by the name of Gary was inspired to find his own account due to my posting.

I got caught up in my own glee and was just ecstatic about being able to help people in a far off land in such a practical and ethical manner.  I kind of threw other considerations to the wind such as insurance premiums, cost of equipment repairs, unexpected work stoppages and so on.  As a result, I am only going to be able to fund a $1,000 account in the new year but I sincerely hope that over this coming year, I’ll be able to add to that amount in a very significant manner.

So, I do apologize to anyone who read my post regarding a $5,000 commitment to fund a KIVA lending account.  I can only live up to 20% of that obligation and I do honestly feel terrible about that.

UGANDA:

I’ve been hearing a lot about Uganda recently and have been horrified about the content of what I’ve heard.  If you haven’t heard recently, the Ugandan parliament is set to pass a bill that would include the death penalty for homosexuals “convicted” of certain homosexual acts.

Now, this has managed to stir up a lot of angry discussion and I’ve very glad to see religious groups, conservative groups, and others give it a wholesale kind of condemnation.  Sweden is even threatening to remove foreign aid should the bill pass.  Though no one has been convicted of homosexual acts in Uganda, (Anti-homosexual laws are already on the books) this kind of law would make it entirely possible for hate filled people driven by fear and ignorance to take the lives of people for absolutely no good reason what so ever.

what is perhaps most disturbing is that religious groups inside Uganda are pushing the bill like it’s in danger of going out of style…which it already has one would hope.  Showing how dangerous religious ignorance can be, there are even Christian leaders in the nation who fervently believe that Uganda should cut diplomatic relations with other countries that want Uganda to accept homosexuals as regular citizens like every one else.  In other words, if the world isn’t as backward thinking as yourself, ignore it and cut down the number of dissenting voices you will hear.  Ignorance knons no enemy like diverse opinion and intellectual exploration.

Only the most horrid, wicked and vile people could talk of loving homosexuals and propose their potential death at the same time as Ugandan Member of Parliament David Behati does.  He is a rotten human being who has both accepted the responsibility of leadership among his people and cast aside any semblance of responsible intelligent thinking.  He and his ilk are frankly a disgrace.

ARROW TRUCKING (Tulsa, OK):

I realize that this will not affect many people but it hits close to home for those in my chosen field of work.

Imagine working for a company and being given no hint that you’re about to be laid off.  Imagine being hundreds of miles away from home and finding out quite suddenly that you are laid off.  imagine that you find out not via a short meeting, a phone call or even a text message.  Imagine finding out when you make your own phone call to ask why your fuel card doesn’t work as you stand next to a fuel pump with a near empty fuel tank.  No one’s on the other end, just a short recorded message telling you to turn in your truck to get a bus ticket to get back home.

This is how hundreds of drivers found out that their employer, Arrow Trucking out of Tulsa Oklahoma, had laid them off.  It’s a terribly cruel manner of telling people that their jobs are no longer there.

Larger companies that operate on paper thin profit margins can experience huge upsets when the price of fuel changes by only a few cents.  for drivers, this puts them at risk of losing their jobs at any minute should they be working for a company that is unable to absorb increased costs of business in a very competitive field.  That being said, poor management is often the reason for larger firms not being able to absorb said costs.

I’m quite sad to hear of the fate suffered by Arrow Trucking drivers.  I sincerely hope that many of them aren’t caught in an employment gap because of this.  As for Doug Peilsticker, the former owner of the now defunct company, I hope that he is properly called out for letting his company go to shambles after the reputable stewardship it was privileged to under his late father Jim.

On the plus side, I did hear of a number of companies seeking out the laid off drivers as priority hires and others seeking out Arrow Trucking drivers at truck stops offering up sandwiches or even assistance getting home.

MORE MARIJUANAPHOBIC MORONS:

Recently, a study was published that suggested that cannabis use in adolescents may have irreversible long term negative affects.  Linking cannabis use to schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, the authors concluded that cannabis use possibly disrupts the development of the serotonin and norepinephrine systems in growing young folk.

The trick?  They weren’t studying THC or cannabanoids present in cannabis.  They tested the effects of a chemical called WIN55,212-2.  If you’re wondering what it is, it’s something that causes the body to react in ways that are similar to how one would react if one ingested a similar cannabnoid found in cannabis but to a much more notable degree.  It is structured entirely differently than any cannabanoid found in cannabis and comparing it to THC is kind of like comparing apples to oranges concluding that since both are fruits, they must be the same.

I’m awfully tired of this horrid and desperate want within the scientific community to find facts that support an agenda.  Whether it be about drugs or creation science, I really am becoming resentful of scientists who claim to be ethical while engaging in study that is plainly deceptive and often driven by an agenda.

Could people just get over weed already?  Please?

So there it is…about a month worth of blogging or so.  there’s more but my fingers are bleeding.  G’night!

During every working day, I wonder what may go wrong next.  this is probably not the best way to approach any job or general task but I just can’t help it.  Will the tarp on my trailer get stuck for some reason?  Will a loader operator accidentally rip a hole in the cab of my truck?  will I get stuck in that muddy field we drive through seeing as my vehicle weighs north of 45 tons?  Will a vampire cat innocently fly into my field of vision with no malicious intent directed toward me but end up startling me and thusly send me flying into the ditch before figuring, since I’m already injured, the vampire cat may as well feast on my bloodied remains even though he didn’t think of it before but hey, I’m just laying there right?

Yeah…there’s a lot that can go wrong but thankfully, most of it doesn’t and I did manage to escape the vampire cat that one time time.  I still receive threatening letters from him but they’re all in e-mail and he doesn’t actually know where I live.  I’m actually impressed that he can type.

Anyhow, something actually most recently did go wrong and while I’m kinda stressing out about it and even though it promises to be an expensive incident, it had a very very cool streak to it.

As I troddled down the road on my way to a landfill located just a stone’s throw away from the American/Canadian border, I heard what I thought sounded almost like flapping rubber.  “What an odd sound” I thought as I tried to figure out where it was coming from.  Off went FOX News Talk radio as I made every effort to determine whether or not a tire had blown out.

After a few seconds, it seemed as though it was perhaps coming from the front of the truck but that was impossible.  If a steering tire had blow out, I would definitely have felt that and likely would have been facing vampire cat in the ditch.  You know, he doesn’t even have wings so I’m not sure how he pulls off the flying bit.

I decided it was time to pull over as the noise started to get a little louder.  I was led to think that perhaps I could track down this noise were I to pull over and have a listen outside.  Suddenly, the origins of the nasty flapping sound became all too obvious as it turned from a flapping to a clattering and every time I shifted down, it got worse.  By the time I was pulled over on the shoulder by Ceylon, SK (Approx’ population 90) I was hearing noises that could only be coming from a very unhappy transmission.

After calling a friend of mine for advice, I shut the truck down, tested the shifter to see what it could do and grabbed a socket wrench for no other purpose than to achieve the possibility of dipping my finger in transmission oil in order to taste it and see if it was “brassy” or otherwise metallic in taste.  guess what.  It tasted like synthetic oil!

Since the truck could still move, I figured I would forgo the idea of calling for a tow and limp to a near by CASE I H agro dealer in hope that they could work on my transmission.  After limping to their location in Pangman, (about 27 kilometres) I was referred to perhaps one of the neatest shops I have ever been to in the small town of Radville about 50 kilometres away.  With a clatter and rattle coming from underneath the truck, I went on my way leaving the agro dealer behind for the small shop owned by a fellow named Dick who seems like a very friendly guy.  After getting me a loaner truck to get rid of the load I had on my trailer the next morning, his mechanics got to work on my transmission and when I got back, an incredible show started.  I’ve never seen inside my transmission before and they managed to take it all apart and even let me watch and snap a few pictures.

This is at the end of the transmission furthest away from the inspection plate that you can take off when the transmission is still mounted to the truck.  In other words, there was no chance the mechanics would have seen it without taking the whole thing off as they did.  The gear at the bottom there is missing three teeth that have been snapped off.  This was likely done by me after purchasing the truck but I can’t for the life of me remember an incident where that could have happened.  Regardless, the incredible amount of torque it would take to snap those teeth off the gear simply wouldn’t be done by the transmission all on its own.  This is likely going to be an expensive part.

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t exactly explain the sound my transmission was making either so the call was mine.  It needed to be dismantled to get at that gear anyway, did I want it all fully inspected?  The answer was yes and the show that followed was amazing to me.

This is a set of the gears from inside the transmission.  There are two other similar looking gear assemblies that came out making a set of three shafts that work in concert together.  underneath each of the gears are timing gears, sprockets and bearings that all move in concert in specific time to each other.  All I can think at this point is that whoever invented this device had to have been an exceptionally talented individual.

These are pieces of one of the gear assemblies laid out on a bench as well as some other part of the transmission on the left there that I am told, facilitates the switching of gears sliding from one to another.  The shaft near the upper right hand corner is what the gear assembly sits on which you can see in the second picture above.

This is the rearmost end of the transmission which was also later dismantled.

Finally, the star of our first image above.  You can see clearly now where the teeth are missing and sitting just below it are two of the three that were snapped off.  The third was eventually found in my PTO (Power Take-Off) which is used to pump hydraulic oil to my trailer to raise the box in the air so I can dump a load I have on.  These teeth fortunately didn’t get tossed around in the transmission but fell to the bottom of the casing instead.

I was incredibly impressed by the mechanic that took most of it all apart with the help of a younger fellow in the shop who had about as much experience with transmissions as I have.  The mechanic got at the casing with air tools and detached each gear by hand with a swift and determined type of motion.  After finally seeing my transmission splayed out on multiple work benches (all having been cleaned off before hand) in the shop, all I could think of was how screwed I would have been had I attempted any of this myself.

About an hour later, the better half of my life came to rescue me from Radville as my truck will almost certainly be in the shop until Monday.  Putting it in on Tuesday Afternoon, this means almost a whole week that my truck will be earning exactly zero dollars.

It’s not exactly good and this will absolutely be expensive when all is said and done but hey, it could be worse.  Vampire cat could figure out where I live right?

Hey, there’s a knock at the door.

Thanks for reading.

The title is a Star Trek reference.  Just wanted to make sure y’all knew that.  Weren’t tribbles awesome?  Another thing you may want to know about this entry is that it will contain some potentially exceptionally offensive language and descriptive situations regarding homosexuality.  In short, you’re a terrible parent if you’ve just found this in your kid’s browsing history…because you’re snooping.  Screw off man!

I’ve talked about how trucking has its ups and downs and about how I do enjoy it a great deal.  The common fair criticisms that are directed toward truckers get old and meaningless after a short while and you learn to deal with public misconceptions as a simple fact of life.  There are stereotypes that hold quite true however and homophobia in the trucking industry is one I have seen to be exceptionally well preserved.  Racism is also a powerful element within the trucking industry but it’s a complicated issue that is not motivated by simple hatred of a different skin colour.  It’s a different issue that I may delve into one day on this blog but for today, I’ll post about a particular story I was told by a fellow who’s word I wouldn’t doubt for a moment.  His Hell’s Angels tattoos and what he claims to be scars left by bullet wounds are quite a testimonial to his life’s history.  It’s a rough one.  No one can tell it quite like him though so I’ll simply quote his story from what I can remember of it.

One night when I was down in ________ state, I passed another truck on the interstate and he flashed his brights at me to signal I had room to pull back into the driving lane.  About two or three minutes later, he came up to speed and passed me.  After I flicked my brights to show him he had enough room to come back into the driving lane, he pulled in and flashed his marker lights and tapped on his brakes.  Right after that, he pulled off onto an off ramp.

Being a highway driver, i wasn’t sure what was going on.  Was something wrong with my truck?  Did I cut him off?  What was the deal?  So I followed him off the interstate and he had parked in a small truck stop parking lot.  He was kinda at the back where it wasn’t well lit.  So I pulled up beside his truck and parked.

I pulled my air brakes and right away heard my passenger’s side door latch clicking.  I always lock my passenger’s side door so I leaned over, unlocked the door and sat back and grabbed my hickory stick; the thing we use for clunking our tires when we do a circle check eh?  So he opens the door, steps up on my running board and puts his elbows on my passenger’s seat.  What he said at that point simply took me absolutely off guard.

“Hi Driver.”

“What’s up?  Is there a problem here or something?”

“Well no driver.  I just thought maybe you would like a blow job.”

Well I couldn’t believe it.  I hesitated for a second and after it sunk in what he had said, I took my hickory and whomped him over the head with it.  It was a good crack, like he had blood coming out of his forehead eh?  So after a second, he fell backward into the lot and I got out.  I walked around my truck and his eyes had rolled back into his head.  He was pretty fucked up eh?  So I’m thinkin’ “aw shit.  He’s screwed” and wouldn’t you know it, a cop car comes off the offramp with his cherries flashing.

So It’s a state trooper or whatever eh?  He gets out of his car, walks up the side of the truck and sees buddy there laying on the ground twitching around and me with this hickory in my hand.

“What happened here?” he says

“Well officer.  This guy came onto me and sexually kinda come onto me and I’m not that way so I said no.  I told him to get the hell out of my truck and I guess he slipped and hit his head on the way down.” I told him.

“That’s your story?” He said to me eh?

“Yup.”

So the trooper looks at the guy down on the ground and by this time he’s starting to come around and makin’ kinda loud noises.

“You wanna press charges then?”

“You know what officer?  I’m just driving out here, I’m from Canada and I don’t really wanna go through the trouble.”

So the trooper looks at the guy on the ground and just lays a fuckin’ boot to his head eh?  Just fuckin’ *CRACK* like it looked like it hurt.  Guy starts makin’ more loud noises and the state trooper looks down and says,

“Dirty faggot.  You should get out of here then and keep on your rout.  You don’t want to be late for your delivery down the road.”

And so I fucked off.  Oh man, they’re everywhere down there; fuckin’ homos.  You ever hear on the CB, “Anyone lookin’ for a good buddy?” you don’t give those fuckers a come back.  they’ll fuckin’ hunt you down and insist on doin’ something if you reply.

So it’s a hell of a story and like I mentioned, considering where it came from, I don’t doubt its veracity.  It may be exaggerated in some bits seeing as embellishing a story is as natural among truckers as it is among Klingons recounting their battles against Star Fleet when there was no alliance.

Too nerdy to be a trucker?  Possibly.

Anyway, whether or not the story is true doesn’t really matter.  It’s equally as disturbing either way.  I joke from time to time about how “the gay” has infected my blog or about how I fear being raped in a dark ally by a marauding band of interior decorators but these are just humorous asides.  I have nothing at all against homosexuals and I’m frankly flattered if I get hit on by a fellow.  I’m not afraid of homosexuality but among the trucking profession, homophobia and the worst kind of fear is typically expressed through anger or even violence visited upon those who own up to being what they are.  Essentially, admitting openly to being homosexual and accepting something that takes some courage to admit to yourself to begin with is violently discouraged in the trucking industry.  Not only is it sad, it’s frankly a little shocking to my conscience.

There have been many conversations in which I fall silent or recuse myself from completely because not only will I fail to make any friends, I may quite easily make some enemies.  Whether it’s a professed desire to kill homosexuals, burn East Indians to death locked in mosques or how it is that Canada is being ruined by foreign cultures, there are many disturbing ideals that are carried throughout the trucking industry by many drivers.

I can’t end it there however.  I can’t just leave it at this or you’ll think trucking is a terrible cesspool for the most outrageous ignorance about.  While I may not be able to say this is the exception rather than the rule, I can say that these odd ideals are faced frequently with common sense and individual admissions that perhaps these ideas are not the right ones.  In other words, get drivers together in a group and you’ll hear stories like the one above.  Talk to them individually and you may get something much more reasonable or even entirely different.  In the trucking industry, I have met the most extraordinary people around in some cases and in others, just an average Joe.

The trucking industry is full of people and people are no different in the end really from job to job.  I’m not trying to make truckers out to be ignorant people fuelled by hate because we’re not.  I think it’s important however for the industry to recognize that there are a number of counterproductive prejudices that run deep within the profession that haven’t had a chance to be dealt with by and large.  Why that is, I’m not sure but it’s obvious that they are ever present.

So to end this lengthy post, I’ll leave you with a fond childhood memory that produced many a laugh.  Thanks to Saturday Night Live and creators Robert Smigel and JJ Sedelmaier, you too can enjoy an episode or two of The Ambiguously Gay Duo featuring Gary and Ace.

Ambiguously Gay Duo – It Takes Two To Tango – Watch more Funny Videos

Well boy am I ever royally pissed.  As a libertarian, I get testy when I’m told I have to pay for doing things that normally should just be a fact of life, payment or no.  Paying for a driver’s license for instance seems ridiculous to me.  It’s unreasonable for a governing body to first implement a requirement of the citizenry and then after that, demand payment for complying with the requirement.  Drivers license renewals should be free in other words and registration should be the same.  Well it actually simply shouldn’t even exist in my opinion but that’s not a widely shared opinion.

When I bought my truck, I understood the need to register for a GST number and by registering for my GST number, I received a business number as well.  I own a truck and I’m registered.  good to go right?  Well it appears as though the province wants me to register with them as well.  I figured that’s ok.  Good enough.  They want to know I exist and keep track of what I’m doing.  It’s stupid as all get out but hey, it’s not bothering me much.  So I decided to find out how to register with the province…and then my face went red.

The province wants $105.00 from me just to register my business?  Well frankly, they get a big fuck off from me and yes I’m sorry for the language but this is frankly downright infuriating and incredibly small minded to boot.  With all due respect (and there is very little due) I’m not going to pay anyone $105.00 just to let them know I’m doing business in their jurisdiction.  I’ll be happy to tell them I’m doing business and I’ll be happy to tell them the nature of my business but they don’t get me to pay them just to tell them.

If registration were free (and not to mention a little simpler for goodness sake!) as it is with the federal government, I would be happy to comply.  As it is, I’ll move as much gravel, asphalt, sand or whatever around in the province as I like and I’m not going to even think on giving the province money just so I can tell ‘em I’m doing it.

I’m registered with SGI and licensed/insured properly to transport goods within the province.  I’m registered with the feds and can report to them properly because of it.  The province’s corporations branch can kindly go screw itself however.