push( @next_cell_arr, $protein_matrix[$row][$col+1] );

        push( @next_cell_arr, $protein_matrix[$row+1][$col+1] );

        push( @next_cell_arr, $protein_matrix[$row+1][$col] );
    
        # - debug
        #$arr_len = scalar @next_cell_arr;
        #for( $var = 0; $var < $arr_len; $var++ ){
        #    print $next_cell_arr[$var];
        #    print "\n";
        #}
        #print "\n\n";
        #exit;
        # - debug
        
        # - if all values are equal, then the sequence gets a match of suffers a mismatch (diagonal move), and not a gap penalty.  This also saves me from having to compute the max of the three cells
        if( ($next_cell_arr[0] == $next_cell_arr[1]) && ($next_cell_arr[1] == $next_cell_arr[2]) ){
                push( @sequence_2_arr, $protein_matrix[0][$col+1] );
                push( @sequence_1_arr, $protein_matrix[$row+1][0] );
                $dowhat = "diagonal";
        }