My father's friend Mark is going to Boston this weekend to attend the Annual Hot Stove meeting that the Red Sox host. This year, the meeting will feature Theo Epstein, Terry Francona, defending AL MVP Dustin Pedroia, and Peter Gammons (my father's email also said it would feature CC Sabathia, but that had to be an error, right? The guy just signed for over a hundred million dollars with the Yankees; I hardly think he's showing up in Boston for some Red Sox-organizing Hot Stove talk). My dad asked (because Mark asked) what questions I might suggest that Mark ask of the assembled stars of Red Sox Nation. So I proposed a few questions, but quickly realized that I could probably answer them (the questions I proposed and their hypothetical answers are below). If I can answer the questions, then what's the point of asking them? So now I'm asking you; if you could ask Theo a question, what would it be?
Here are my questions and answer -
"Will John Henry's recent stock market troubles (his net worth is estimated to be down to $860 million) cause Epstein to be more budget-sensitive and restrained in spending than he has in the past? What are they going to do about the catching situation, hope that Tek comes back at a discount, or is Bard really considered the solution? And I just read that Baldelli and Smoltz are close to signing; what are the expectations for these two very talented but injury-prone players? Is Baldelli going to take on the Coco Crisp role, or will he fight Ellsbury for the starting job? And is Smoltz expected to start or be used in the pen (once he's ready in June - I guess it's really too early to tell)?
Will Clay Buchholz and Justin Masterson get a chance to start coming out in Spring Training? Or will they be reserved for pen roles until they prove their ability to succeed on the Major League stage? And what other minor leaguers might step into a role with the Sox this year, the way Lowrie and Masterson did last year and Pedroia and Ellsbury the year before?
Now, for the answers:
A) "Clearly, in these rocky economic times, everyone is feeling the pinch, and we are no exception. However, we have always been careful to spend within our means, and we will still make every effort to put the Championship-caliber team on the field that Red Sox Nation expects and deserves, without burdening ourselves with overpriced free agents who will not fit in with the chemistry on the team. That's why we've been focusing so much on developing from within and then paying to lock up guys like Dustin here, who have come up with us and have proven their mettle in Boston."
B) "Obviously, we loved Tek and what he did for us, both on the field and in the clubhouse. We've been in talks with him consistently, and have told him we'd love to have him back, but we've made what we feel is a fair offer and right now the ball is in his court. In the meantime, we've signed Josh Bard, who is an experienced player who had some very successful seasons catching full-time in San Diego. We feel comfortable with Bard as the main starter, but we are definitely looking to add depth to the catching position on our roster."
C) "With Baldelli, he's someone we've had our eye on for a long time; he's obviously a local kid, and very very talented, and we're thrilled to be able to add him to our team. He certainly has the talent to start every day, and in the past few years if we have had an outfielder or two get injured, we've needed some depth at the position, which Baldelli certainly gives us."
D) "As for Smoltz, he's a great competitor, a future Hall-of-Famer, and we know the kind of leadership and talent he brings to the club. He's still rehabbing from his surgery, but our doctor's have examined him, and we think he's on course to be back with the team by June. That's still a long way away, of course, and we'll see how things progress, taking things one day at a time."
E) "Buchholz and Masterson are guys like I was talking about earlier, young players we've developed, who we want to bring along to help the Red Sox continue to succeed for the next decade. While they've both shown great potential, you never want to push them too hard and rush them, so while we expect both to be excellent starters in the long-term, for this season we will probably start them in the pen."
Now, if I already know the answers, then why ask the questions? Because maybe Theo will surprise me, I guess. Anyway, I think you told me once that lawyers learn never to ask questions they don't know the answer to."
I also just thought of one more question to ask Theo:
Do you ever reflect on your decisions and evaluate your personal successes and failures to make better decisions in the future? If so, what sort of adjustments have you made as a GM to improve the chances of success that the Red Sox have, based on those evaluations?
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Purpose
I have not, to this point, shared the URL or web address, or mentioned the existence of these writings to anyone other than my spouse. I suppose that normally when one creates a website, one seeks to encourage as many people to read it as possible, and therefore one invites all one's friends to see the page, posts links to it on other people's sites, and basically promotes the hell out of it until it establishes a regular and consistent readership.
Granted, I am only a week in, but I have not done any of these things yet, and frankly at this point, do not expect to. Which begs the question, why not? Why write if I have no intention for anyone to read? Is this the equivalent of a typed diary? If so, why post it on the Internet? Do I hope that people are going to simply stumble across this page and be so entranced with my incredible writing skills that they will bookmark it and come back day after day? If so, where did I get such an arrogant and at the same time naive idea?
Part of the answer as to why I have not publicized this page comes from yesterday's post (the one directly below this one), which is that if I publicized the page to my friends, that would really take away the anonymity of it. It's hard to maintain a pretense of anonymity and then tell your parents that you are writing a website. "Oh Mom, Dad, let me tell you about this great website I 'found,' here's the address, and oh yes, the author does seem to superficially resemble me, but pay no mind to that."
Also, by inviting people to read my website, I would be presuming their interest in my life or at least in my thoughts (since so far this website deals very little with my actual life, but deals a great amount with the meta-level discussion of what I want these writings to be). At this point, I cannot claim that there is much on this site that is of any interest to anyone, other than myself.
Extending that thought a little bit, there is as yet no subject that these writings are devoted to, that would make it easy for me to send a link and say "here's a new blog about ______," filling in the blank with whatever subject is my area of expertise or interest. For one thing, my areas of interest are relatively broad, while my areas of expertise are either non-existent or uninteresting. I am greatly interested in baseball, for example, and the few blogs I frequent tend to be baseball-related. However, as an interested outsider, I do not see where I can really contribute any more than the already extant blogs by interested outsiders. Perhaps I might have ideas here and there that merit publishing, and if so they will certainly appear in this space, but I do not see myself having original content for 365 days of writing about baseball, at least, not writing that would add anything to the plethora of writing that already exists on the subject.
On the other hand, the ins and outs of my job, which I know quite well, are so specific that I doubt anyone other than a handful of people out there really care. I care, quite a bit, so I expect several days will consist of me writing about my work, but again, it isn't exactly a subject that people are rushing to read blogs about.
Which brings us to another point: I have to this point studiously avoided calling this website a blog, referring to it variously as a website or as my writings, depending on what the context called for. I have even gone so far as to title the website "Ce n'est pas un blog," a reference to the Rene Magritte painting "Ce n'est pas un pipe" or "This is not a pipe." The painting was of a pipe, but as Magritte was so cleverly and accurately pointing out, the painting was not in fact a pipe, but was instead a painting, a representation of a pipe.
I am not nearly so clever or so accurate. For one thing, I have established these writings on blogger, which would seem to qualify it as a blog, my title notwithstanding. For another, what constitutes a blog is so ill-defined and so flexible that any informal series of web postings would seem to meet the criteria, and my writings so far are certainly an informal series of web postings. Furthermore, unlike many in the more mainstream media who seem to scoff at the concept of "bloggers," I have no qualms with blogs or bloggers. I frequent a few blogs, namely:
http://www.aarongleeman.com
http://joeposnanski.com/joeblog
http://www.ranyontheroyals.com
http://www.bucsdugout.com
Like I said, they are almost entirely baseball sites. I have no problem reading them and the amount and quality of content at those blogs exceeds much of what is in the mainstream press (or at least, much of what is in the lowest-common-denominator mainstream press, the MLB.com, AOL.com, equivalent. Slate.com, though not a blog and definitely mainstream, has very high quality work (although to be honest, I haven't read any articles there since September, and the blogs on the site were less interesting than the journalism on the site).
Successful blogs seem to have at least one or two things going for them. They are either devoted to a singular specific subject that also interests a number of other people, or the life of the person writing them is of sufficient interest that people will tune in voyeuristically to read of it. One of those two things, and high-quality writing of course.
At a Ben Folds performance at the Beacon Theater a few years ago, Ben (introducing "Army") described his songwriting process as the "American" style of songwriting - take something that has happened to you, write it down, and put it to music. This is typical not just of American songwriting, but of American blog-writing. Here's something that happened to me. Here's something I believe. Here are pictures I took. Put it out on the Internet and invite people to read it.
This type of process requires that the writer have a very high opinion of the interest of his or her life. Think of the self-consciousness that such writing requires, and the self-centeredness that those writers possess, believing that their lives merit an audience. I, too, used to be so self-centered. When I was in middle school, 6th or 7th grade, I used to wish that a video-camera could be placed in my eyes, to see what I saw, while a narrator read the thoughts that flew through my mind. At the time, I believed that it would be so interesting, dramatic, epic even. Those thoughts were the same type of thoughts that inspire people to appear on reality TV shows, I'm sure. And undoubtedly, the same thoughts have inspired many blogs.
I no longer feel that way about myself. Reality television has ruined it, perhaps, or perhaps as I have aged, my life seems much less interesting. Perhaps it is less interesting. Certainly when I was 13, I imagined I would do much more exciting things than I heretofore have. In any case, that exhibitionist, self-aggrandizing quality is not, I don't believe, the underlying reason for me beginning these writings. And for this, and other reasons, I am choosing not to think of this as a blog, even though, as I suggested earlier, it undoubtedly qualifies as such.
But all of the above stills says little about the purported purpose of these writings, and of posting them on a website.
I am writing this not to entertain my friends, not to inform or impress some random readers on any particular subject. I am writing this for me, and for me alone. I am writing because, as I said in my first post, I need to write and more specifically, need to think. While I may no longer believe that my life is a fitting subject for an epic, I apparently still think my thoughts are worthy of further inspection. But thoughts run through ones mind faster than anyone can grasp them, and it takes putting them on paper, exposing them to the light of day, to really examine them, to really elucidate them, further them.
So these writings are for my benefit. If anyone else enjoys them, benefits from them; if you enjoy or benefit from them, then good for you; good for them.
Granted, I am only a week in, but I have not done any of these things yet, and frankly at this point, do not expect to. Which begs the question, why not? Why write if I have no intention for anyone to read? Is this the equivalent of a typed diary? If so, why post it on the Internet? Do I hope that people are going to simply stumble across this page and be so entranced with my incredible writing skills that they will bookmark it and come back day after day? If so, where did I get such an arrogant and at the same time naive idea?
Part of the answer as to why I have not publicized this page comes from yesterday's post (the one directly below this one), which is that if I publicized the page to my friends, that would really take away the anonymity of it. It's hard to maintain a pretense of anonymity and then tell your parents that you are writing a website. "Oh Mom, Dad, let me tell you about this great website I 'found,' here's the address, and oh yes, the author does seem to superficially resemble me, but pay no mind to that."
Also, by inviting people to read my website, I would be presuming their interest in my life or at least in my thoughts (since so far this website deals very little with my actual life, but deals a great amount with the meta-level discussion of what I want these writings to be). At this point, I cannot claim that there is much on this site that is of any interest to anyone, other than myself.
Extending that thought a little bit, there is as yet no subject that these writings are devoted to, that would make it easy for me to send a link and say "here's a new blog about ______," filling in the blank with whatever subject is my area of expertise or interest. For one thing, my areas of interest are relatively broad, while my areas of expertise are either non-existent or uninteresting. I am greatly interested in baseball, for example, and the few blogs I frequent tend to be baseball-related. However, as an interested outsider, I do not see where I can really contribute any more than the already extant blogs by interested outsiders. Perhaps I might have ideas here and there that merit publishing, and if so they will certainly appear in this space, but I do not see myself having original content for 365 days of writing about baseball, at least, not writing that would add anything to the plethora of writing that already exists on the subject.
On the other hand, the ins and outs of my job, which I know quite well, are so specific that I doubt anyone other than a handful of people out there really care. I care, quite a bit, so I expect several days will consist of me writing about my work, but again, it isn't exactly a subject that people are rushing to read blogs about.
Which brings us to another point: I have to this point studiously avoided calling this website a blog, referring to it variously as a website or as my writings, depending on what the context called for. I have even gone so far as to title the website "Ce n'est pas un blog," a reference to the Rene Magritte painting "Ce n'est pas un pipe" or "This is not a pipe." The painting was of a pipe, but as Magritte was so cleverly and accurately pointing out, the painting was not in fact a pipe, but was instead a painting, a representation of a pipe.
I am not nearly so clever or so accurate. For one thing, I have established these writings on blogger, which would seem to qualify it as a blog, my title notwithstanding. For another, what constitutes a blog is so ill-defined and so flexible that any informal series of web postings would seem to meet the criteria, and my writings so far are certainly an informal series of web postings. Furthermore, unlike many in the more mainstream media who seem to scoff at the concept of "bloggers," I have no qualms with blogs or bloggers. I frequent a few blogs, namely:
http://www.aarongleeman.com
http://joeposnanski.com/joeblog
http://www.ranyontheroyals.com
http://www.bucsdugout.com
Like I said, they are almost entirely baseball sites. I have no problem reading them and the amount and quality of content at those blogs exceeds much of what is in the mainstream press (or at least, much of what is in the lowest-common-denominator mainstream press, the MLB.com, AOL.com, equivalent. Slate.com, though not a blog and definitely mainstream, has very high quality work (although to be honest, I haven't read any articles there since September, and the blogs on the site were less interesting than the journalism on the site).
Successful blogs seem to have at least one or two things going for them. They are either devoted to a singular specific subject that also interests a number of other people, or the life of the person writing them is of sufficient interest that people will tune in voyeuristically to read of it. One of those two things, and high-quality writing of course.
At a Ben Folds performance at the Beacon Theater a few years ago, Ben (introducing "Army") described his songwriting process as the "American" style of songwriting - take something that has happened to you, write it down, and put it to music. This is typical not just of American songwriting, but of American blog-writing. Here's something that happened to me. Here's something I believe. Here are pictures I took. Put it out on the Internet and invite people to read it.
This type of process requires that the writer have a very high opinion of the interest of his or her life. Think of the self-consciousness that such writing requires, and the self-centeredness that those writers possess, believing that their lives merit an audience. I, too, used to be so self-centered. When I was in middle school, 6th or 7th grade, I used to wish that a video-camera could be placed in my eyes, to see what I saw, while a narrator read the thoughts that flew through my mind. At the time, I believed that it would be so interesting, dramatic, epic even. Those thoughts were the same type of thoughts that inspire people to appear on reality TV shows, I'm sure. And undoubtedly, the same thoughts have inspired many blogs.
I no longer feel that way about myself. Reality television has ruined it, perhaps, or perhaps as I have aged, my life seems much less interesting. Perhaps it is less interesting. Certainly when I was 13, I imagined I would do much more exciting things than I heretofore have. In any case, that exhibitionist, self-aggrandizing quality is not, I don't believe, the underlying reason for me beginning these writings. And for this, and other reasons, I am choosing not to think of this as a blog, even though, as I suggested earlier, it undoubtedly qualifies as such.
But all of the above stills says little about the purported purpose of these writings, and of posting them on a website.
I am writing this not to entertain my friends, not to inform or impress some random readers on any particular subject. I am writing this for me, and for me alone. I am writing because, as I said in my first post, I need to write and more specifically, need to think. While I may no longer believe that my life is a fitting subject for an epic, I apparently still think my thoughts are worthy of further inspection. But thoughts run through ones mind faster than anyone can grasp them, and it takes putting them on paper, exposing them to the light of day, to really examine them, to really elucidate them, further them.
So these writings are for my benefit. If anyone else enjoys them, benefits from them; if you enjoy or benefit from them, then good for you; good for them.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Anonymity
J Hench is my real name. Actually, my real name is Jayson, but since my parents chose to spell it oddly, (or, as they probably thought, uniquely) I ended up being called "Jay" by teachers, friends, friends' parents, frequently enough that that abbreviation of my given name stuck. I, in typically clever pseudo-phonetic internet-ese have abbreviated the name further, to simply "J". Period outside the quotes, because, as you'll note, there is no period after the J, as though J did not actually stand for anything, but was simply my given name (though it does in fact stand for something, as noted above). Also, leaving the J without the first name will in theory (though perhaps not in fact) make it more difficult for anyone who stumbles across this page to Google me and discover those unfortunate pictures of me taken at the office party, or my credit card number, or the fact that I am Client No. 8 (one better than the former governor). Or whatever other goodies we are supposed to be afraid will undermine us if we reveal our identity online.
Or perhaps J Hench is an alias, a clever disguise, meant to hide my true identity. In fact, it may refer to the fact that I am some sort of Hench-man for some nefarious plot that is certain to destroy Western Civilization as we know it, starting with the Internet and eventually taking over television, radio, satellites, and the bureaucracy. This is merely a front, a mask that I wear.
Due to the very anonymity of the Internet, a sort of self-regulation has developed. Anyone posting online could be . . . well, anyone. I could create a new username and post critical comments, hoping to start a controversial flamewar that would draw attention to this website. My daughter could be typing this right now as I dictate to her (or my husband as I dictate to him, or Superman, as I keep him in his chair in front of my computer by surrounding it with Krypton). Since anyone could be anyone, it is important for everyone to establish some credibility, and the easiest way to do that is to be open and honest about who one is, what one does, where one lives, who is in ones family, the openess and honesty lending a credibility to each internet alias' existence, lending it a grounding in a reality other than the virtual kind.
On the otherhand, that very openess and honesty leads to the risk of being victimized, taken advantage of by ne'er-do-wells. Or it could result in offending those whom one is close to and chose to integrate into ones narrative. Or it could result in being exposed as a hypocrite, atheist, liberal, philandering, commie-pinko-bedwetter, and unpatriotic to boot. Or as a partier who likes to dress up as a fairy when he has called in sick to work.
So, what to do, what to do? If I chose to write as myself, under my real name, about the real people in my life, there is a lot of risk of potential damage to my real life. On the other hand, choosing to remain anonymous on the Internet, while being better for my non-virtual existence, potentially undermines anything I say on this website or any other. The solution I have developed for the present is to devise a transparent alter ego that will be my moniker for all my posts here until I come up with a better one. I may post about real people and about my real life, but I may disguise it so as to be unrecognizable. On the other hand, I may use the real names and places, and hope that you will be unable to tell which is which (and hope that the real people whom I might be making offensive comments about do not end up reading this). In short, I cannot guarantee that what you read here will be a fair and accurate, non-fictitious portrayal of reality (or even my reality), nor can I claim that everything will be a fiction, a story, or falsehood. I myself am not yet sure which route I will take in my writings.
The obvious questions that have arisen in my mind, but are as yet unspoken and therefore unanswered is, what is the purpose of these writings? Who are they for? What do I hope to gain from them? These are important questions, that need to be pursued, but alas, my thirty minutes are up, and my spouse is getting tired of reading David Foster Wallace while waiting for me to finish typing. Adieu until tomorrow.
Or perhaps J Hench is an alias, a clever disguise, meant to hide my true identity. In fact, it may refer to the fact that I am some sort of Hench-man for some nefarious plot that is certain to destroy Western Civilization as we know it, starting with the Internet and eventually taking over television, radio, satellites, and the bureaucracy. This is merely a front, a mask that I wear.
Due to the very anonymity of the Internet, a sort of self-regulation has developed. Anyone posting online could be . . . well, anyone. I could create a new username and post critical comments, hoping to start a controversial flamewar that would draw attention to this website. My daughter could be typing this right now as I dictate to her (or my husband as I dictate to him, or Superman, as I keep him in his chair in front of my computer by surrounding it with Krypton). Since anyone could be anyone, it is important for everyone to establish some credibility, and the easiest way to do that is to be open and honest about who one is, what one does, where one lives, who is in ones family, the openess and honesty lending a credibility to each internet alias' existence, lending it a grounding in a reality other than the virtual kind.
On the otherhand, that very openess and honesty leads to the risk of being victimized, taken advantage of by ne'er-do-wells. Or it could result in offending those whom one is close to and chose to integrate into ones narrative. Or it could result in being exposed as a hypocrite, atheist, liberal, philandering, commie-pinko-bedwetter, and unpatriotic to boot. Or as a partier who likes to dress up as a fairy when he has called in sick to work.
So, what to do, what to do? If I chose to write as myself, under my real name, about the real people in my life, there is a lot of risk of potential damage to my real life. On the other hand, choosing to remain anonymous on the Internet, while being better for my non-virtual existence, potentially undermines anything I say on this website or any other. The solution I have developed for the present is to devise a transparent alter ego that will be my moniker for all my posts here until I come up with a better one. I may post about real people and about my real life, but I may disguise it so as to be unrecognizable. On the other hand, I may use the real names and places, and hope that you will be unable to tell which is which (and hope that the real people whom I might be making offensive comments about do not end up reading this). In short, I cannot guarantee that what you read here will be a fair and accurate, non-fictitious portrayal of reality (or even my reality), nor can I claim that everything will be a fiction, a story, or falsehood. I myself am not yet sure which route I will take in my writings.
The obvious questions that have arisen in my mind, but are as yet unspoken and therefore unanswered is, what is the purpose of these writings? Who are they for? What do I hope to gain from them? These are important questions, that need to be pursued, but alas, my thirty minutes are up, and my spouse is getting tired of reading David Foster Wallace while waiting for me to finish typing. Adieu until tomorrow.
Discipline II
So much for discipline . . . After spending my 30 minutes in Day 1, I spent zero minutes in Day 2. Perhaps Day 3 will be better.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Discipline
I've decided. I need to create. I have too many pipe dreams; too many projects left undone (or, more likely, unstarted); too many ideas left unexpressed. They will all stay that way until I do something about them. So I am going to do something. If you want to consider it a New Year's Resolution, that's one way of looking at it. To me, it is just a question of setting time aside. Establishing a routine. If not now, when?
So here is the plan. I will devote 30 minutes a day to writing/working on this page. I'm not going to unequivocally state that it will not be more than 30 minutes a day. I tend to write a lot (when I write). It ideally will never be less than 30 minutes a day. That way, I will get my writing practice in.
Practice? Yes, part of the idea of this is that if I do not write, then nothing will come of it. One cannot be a writer if one never writes. Does this mean that I aim to be a writer? Yes, I suppose on some level it does. What kind of writing? I don't know for certain. But any writing practice at all will help me recover whatever writing skills I may once have had.
What will I write about here? Anything that comes to mind. Some thing, every day. At least then I'll be providing regular content. I expect that it will be a hodge podge of thoughts about things that interest me. I may end up focusing on one area. I may not. We'll see where it goes.
As part of the writing practice, I may also revise or add on to previous posts. My father once told me a story, as we were driving to my cousin's house in Vermont, about a poet who was staying at an artist's colony we passed on the way. The poet had come out of his room for afternoon tea after having spent hours working in his room, when a young poet staying at the same place approached him, full of enthusiasm.
"I've completed 15 pages of my epic this morning," said the young poet, flush with excitement. "What have you done?"
"I," replied the stern older poet, "have put a hyphen between the words 'fox' and 'trot.' Then, I removed it."
I, too, may spend my thirty minutes editing my posts, reconsidering them, re-writing them. When I do, I will keep the original post up, but will re-post the edited version as a new post, so you can see the work in progress. Not that you'd want to. But, at this point, this website has no audience. It is a website for me, therefore, not for the reader. At some point that may change, and then I am sure that I will change. But until then, I get to be selfish and do things my way.
Until tomorrow. . .
So here is the plan. I will devote 30 minutes a day to writing/working on this page. I'm not going to unequivocally state that it will not be more than 30 minutes a day. I tend to write a lot (when I write). It ideally will never be less than 30 minutes a day. That way, I will get my writing practice in.
Practice? Yes, part of the idea of this is that if I do not write, then nothing will come of it. One cannot be a writer if one never writes. Does this mean that I aim to be a writer? Yes, I suppose on some level it does. What kind of writing? I don't know for certain. But any writing practice at all will help me recover whatever writing skills I may once have had.
What will I write about here? Anything that comes to mind. Some thing, every day. At least then I'll be providing regular content. I expect that it will be a hodge podge of thoughts about things that interest me. I may end up focusing on one area. I may not. We'll see where it goes.
As part of the writing practice, I may also revise or add on to previous posts. My father once told me a story, as we were driving to my cousin's house in Vermont, about a poet who was staying at an artist's colony we passed on the way. The poet had come out of his room for afternoon tea after having spent hours working in his room, when a young poet staying at the same place approached him, full of enthusiasm.
"I've completed 15 pages of my epic this morning," said the young poet, flush with excitement. "What have you done?"
"I," replied the stern older poet, "have put a hyphen between the words 'fox' and 'trot.' Then, I removed it."
I, too, may spend my thirty minutes editing my posts, reconsidering them, re-writing them. When I do, I will keep the original post up, but will re-post the edited version as a new post, so you can see the work in progress. Not that you'd want to. But, at this point, this website has no audience. It is a website for me, therefore, not for the reader. At some point that may change, and then I am sure that I will change. But until then, I get to be selfish and do things my way.
Until tomorrow. . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)