The PTE Core Writing section is a crucial component of the Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic, designed to assess your ability to communicate effectively in written English. This section typically includes tasks such as writing an essay and summarizing written text. Here's what you need to know about each part:

1. Essay Writing: You'll be asked to write a 200-300 word essay on a given topic. This task assesses your ability to organize ideas, develop arguments, and use proper grammar and vocabulary. A good essay should have a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Focus on providing examples to support your points and ensure your writing is coherent and cohesive.
2. Summarize Written Text: This task requires you to read a passage and summarize it in one sentence of no more than 75 words. It tests your ability to identify main ideas and condense information without losing the essence of the text. Practice paraphrasing and using complex sentence structures to convey the main points succinctly.

Tips for Success:

• Practice Regularly: The more you practice, the better you will become. Use sample prompts and past papers to hone your skills.
• Time Management: Make sure you allocate your time wisely during the test. Spend the first few minutes planning your essay and the rest writing and revising.
• Grammar and Vocabulary: Strong grammar and a wide range of vocabulary are essential. Reading extensively can help improve both.
• Seek Feedback: Use resources like Alfa PTE for practice tests and feedback. Their guidance can help you understand your weaknesses and improve your writing skills effectively.

Remember, consistent practice and familiarizing yourself with the test format are key to doing well in the PTE Core Writing section.

He was drunk driving. I was with him hours before it happened. I was begging him to stay home with me. I warned him about his speed of drinking. He said “don’t worry” and “you just get butthurt because I’m with my friends.” Well now he is gone forever. When it happened, I was asleep and his phone call woke me up. I was too tired to answer and assumed it was just a drunk call of him telling me he missed me. I am torn that I didn’t answer. Everything is completely fucked up and everyone’s world is upside down. I spent every second possible with this man from day one. We slept together every single night for 3 years straight. We only fought about his alcohol consumption. I keep thinking what if and why why why and I feel like I should have been there with him and this wouldn’t have happened. Now I can’t sleep. Im never going to wake up to him again, feel his love, his body, his hugs. I can’t eat. I would only eat meals with him. Every time I eat I think about him and get sad and can’t eat anymore. I cry filling my water cup because he used to do it for me.
I don’t know how I’m going to resume my life without him.

If you'd like to listen to me read this story click here.
“From Lieutenant Bren, UEF Shepherd
“To Captain Sassen, KCS Victory
“Captain, I continue to learn many things about the humans. Again, their sense of community is their strength. Their Shaa is strong, although they do not have a similar word and concept in their language, as I learned recently. I would like to continue this assignment beyond the previous estimated time. Please consider an extension, send to the council if necessary. I would also like to ask the council to review the request I have submitted to share some aspects of faster than light technology. Their current methodology is primitive, unstable, and, to a certain extent, dangerous. They are very close to discovering standard spacetime warping, and for that reason I don’t believe it will violate our technology sharing guidelines. Further details are in the formal request I submitted.
Bren paused, he knew protocols were against this request, but the humans were so close, he hoped the council would consider it. The council could make exceptions if he could show them that the humans demonstrated a non aggressive attitude. He remembered one more thing to add to his letter.
“Klaan philosophy regarding the deceased is an important part of our culture. While many are matter of fact about it, the rituals and sacraments have allowed us to function more efficiently as a society. I have learned about some human rituals, and their essence of Shaa. Two days ago we came across our thirteenth ship…”
Two Days ago
“Captain, the ship is on course, and seems to be functioning properly. However, the radiation emanating from the ship is at lethal levels. It’s highly unlikely anyone survived.” Captain Gardner looked at Commander Klein, taking a deep breath before speaking.
“Commander, prepare to scuttle the ship. Full honors. We don’t want to send a dirty bomb across space.” Commander Klein acknowledged the Captain, calling Bren over to his workstation.
“Bren, can you come look through this information?” Bren approached Klein’s station and looked over his shoulder. Klein pointed at the screen. “These readings, that seems to be the deceased passengers, correct?” Bren nodded then pointed at another reading. Klein agreed curiously. “That’s the one I don’t get. It looks like the life sign of a hibernating human, but it’s distorted.”
Gardner turned to Klein. “Is there a problem?”
Klein looked at Bren, then back to Gardner, “Sir, I think we’ll need to investigate, I can’t confirm that everyone is deceased.”
“How many people Mr. Klein?”
Klein and Bren conferred and Bren answered. “That’s the problem sir, we read 36 pods, most of which are non functioning.” Klein finished the thought.
“Most of the pods appear to be unused. The others are not allowing clear readings. Possibly due to the radiation?” They had encountered several ships with various levels of radiation exposure, likely due to a nearby nuclear blast. This one was the heaviest they had encountered. Klein continued. “This ship had to have gone right through an active explosion. The radiation is still intense.”
Gardner grimaced, while they had protections against radiation poisoning, it was tedious. Any items retrieved required scrubbing with radiation protocols. Patients needed extra medication beyond the standard inoculations, which protected against various types of radiation, mostly radiation found in space. But, they had to be sure. “OK commander, only you and one other, make it quick.” Bren volunteered himself.
“Captain, I am better protected against this type of radiation, I could join the Commander.”
Gardner thought a moment. “OK, just the two of you. Take every precaution.”
Markings on the side identified the ship as North Korean. That explained the radiation as a still unknown saboteur had detonated all of North Korea’s nuclear weapons at once. Sadly, the entire country was reduced to rubble. Although humanity had created effective radiation treatments, cleaning North Korea was taking longer, due to the massive amount of radiation released all at once. Some Koreans had survived, but North Korea, as a country, no longer existed. South Korea was now just Korea, having taken on refugees and stewardship over the cleanup. The reunification of Korea was a Pyrrhic resolution.
Bren and Klein entered the ship. Although it looked shoddily built, it was one of the few ships they had encountered that was fully functional. As they moved to the cargo area the problem became obvious. Crew members littered the area, some partially in their pods. The radiation had knocked them out before they could enter the pods. Bren scanned the area. “They are dead sir, it looks like 33 humans.”
Klein looked at them, some on the floor, some climbing into pods. He recalled the anomalous readings. “So there are three more pods?” Bren continued scanning, stepping carefully over the bodies.
“Commander, the readings on these hibernation pods is unusual, there appear to be several different metals in use, there is no consistency.” As they made their way into the depths of the cargo area they found three pods, hidden away behind stacks of cargo, still functioning. Bren approached them. He scanned, then turned to Klein excitedly.
“Sir, these three are alive, they are quite sick, but the pods appear to have shielded them enough to survive the radiation.” Klein stumbled into the area, looking at Bren’s scanner.
“If we wake them they won’t survive long.” Bren agreed. Klein pushed a button on the arm of his protective suit and called Gardner. “Sir, we have three survivors, They won’t survive long once they are brought out. We will need shielded gurneys to move them directly to the medical bay. Please send three patient pods and four rescue team members to facilitate the rescue.”
Bren and Klein checked their exposure time as they waited for the others to arrive.
Once the rescue team had arrived they cleared out the three crew members quickly, heading straight to the medical bay. Klein and Bren were ordered to undergo more extensive medical tests and spent the night there.
Early in the morning, Bren was explaining Klaan humor to Klein. Klein was not impressed. “So, simple mistakes are funny?”
Bren smiled, “Yes, inverting variables in a navigational equation can be quite satisfying.” Klein looked unsure as Bren added, “But the real humor comes in absurd endeavors, which can take several days or weeks to develop. The payoff is substantial.” Klein was about to speak when they were surprised to see one of the Koreans stir. He looked around, confused, and then startled to see Klein and an alien. Bren had accessed the Korean language program and spoke to him in perfect Korean.
“Do not be afraid. You are on an Earth ship, The Shepherd. Earth is a different world than when you left. I assure you, you are safe here.” The Korean calmed a bit, looking for his comrades. Bren continued, “I am sorry to tell you that only the three of you survived. You have extreme radiation sickness but medical advances have created effective treatments and you are all expected to recover.”
The Korean asked, “What happened?”
Bren turned to Klein, “He wants to know what happened.” They were interrupted by the arrival of Captain Gardner and an Ensign.
“Bren, this is Ensign Choi, she speaks Korean and will be the liaison for these men.” Choi immediately went to the Korean man and began talking. Bren watched as the man apparently learned that his country was gone. The look on his face touched Bren deeply. He appeared to be in physical pain upon hearing the news.
Gardner turned to Klein and Bren, “Are you cleared to resume duties?” Klein nodded and Gardner continued. “I had hoped to avoid a conflict but you may recall the previous rescue of the ship Justice 4.”
Klein grimaced. Just a day before finding the Korean ship they had rescued a ship that was clearly affiliated with the Justice Party. Although it was never confirmed, the Justice Party claimed responsibility for the three nuclear warheads that decimated Los Angeles to start the war.
The Freedom Party quickly formed in response, but since there were no geographical divides the initial stages of the war were particularly gruesome. Political strongholds of each party were destroyed by nuclear weapons, killing members of both parties, as well as the undeclared; more than half of the country that claimed no connection to either party. The complication was certainly due to the fact that a Freedom Party ship’s passengers were already on board. Gardner confirmed Klein’s assumption.
“We assigned quarters to the passengers of the ship, Justice 4, and initially there was no problem, until someone saw an insignia on someone’s shirt. The Justice group refused to be quartered on the same floor.”
Klein grimaced. “The Freedom passengers were on level three, right? Just move the Justice to two?” Gardner smiled.
“The Freedom passengers decided that they wanted to be above them, so they refused to stay on three if the Justice moved to two.”
Klein scoffed, “We’re in space, there is no above and below, we may be sideways now for all we know.” Gardner agreed and as the three men entered the passenger common area, the leaders of each group swarmed them.
As multiple men chattered and made demands at once Gardner raised his hand and finally got them to calm down. “We came across a heavily irradiated ship and we want to allow the surviving crew to be involved in the Honor ceremony when we scuttle the ship. They are in the medical bay. We could be here for a few days depending on their recovery time. That means you all can’t stay here in this room. You will need to accept room assignments.”
The men all began shouting again when Bren stepped forward, raising both hands which, somehow, stopped everyone immediately. Bren spoke.
“Captain, I may have a solution.” Gardner looked hopeful.
“Go ahead Lieutenant.”
Bren lowered his hands. “My people have a method for solving disputes that goes back several thousand years. It is specifically designed for this sort of post war dispute.”
Everyone was rapt as Bren continued. He smiled and stuck his arms out to the side, palms up. He spoke loudly in a commanding voice, “Feats of Strength!” As he said ‘strength’ he raised his arms over his head and clasped his hands together. Shaking them with a determined grimace. The men pumped up their chests and murmured agreement. Gardner looked at Bren curiously. “Feats of Strength?”
Bren nodded, “Yes, although that is rarely the form it takes. We stopped fighting to the death centuries ago.” The men seemed a little less enthused.
Gardner asked, “What does this entail?”
Bren smiled, “We choose a contest, and since it is a test of strength, we add,” he paused, searching for the correct word, “complications, as we go.” He looked around, and sensing no objections, continued. “I would suggest… bowling!”
Gardner and Klein stifled laughs as Bren looked each group straight on and asked, “Are you prepared to compete for your pride?” Hesitantly each group agreed. Bren went on, “I will administer the contest, the rules are simple, I can add any difficulties I choose.”
The leader of one group looked at Bren, confused, “Difficulty?”
Bren nodded, “For example, we could start by bowling with the non dominant hand. Perhaps with eyes closed, or while… singing.” As the men started to take Bren less seriously he puffed up and seemed to get taller. “You have accepted the challenge, do you agree to go forward?” The men looked at each other, unsure, but finally nodded and started to get excited.
Bren stated one more rule, “The final outcome is that the winners will be allowed to choose their quarters,” the men nodded and mumbled until Bren cut them off, “But the winners must also host the defeated team to a feast in their home.” He looked around and felt he had everyone’s attention. “There is no human term for this, but the Klaan call it Shaa. It is the knowledge that everyone on the planet is connected. In our case, on this ship. We are all part of one physical organism, collectively called the Shaa-a-ren.”
The men looked around, slightly less excited but committed to the contest. Bren stood straight, and addressed the room. “Each team will choose four champions. The contest will start in sixteen hours. Spread the word, in the original Feats of Strength great crowds cheered on their warriors.”
With that the groups of passengers separated into huddles, deciding on their champions. Gardner turned to Bren. “Feats of Strength? Shaa-a-ren?” Bren looked at Klein and the Captain.
“Yes sir, the rules are adaptable, but Shaa is a sacred concept to the Klaan. I assure you, this method of conflict resolution has an excellent record on Klaan.” Klein and Gardner shared a curious look, when Bren noted excitedly, “We will need to prepare the bowling lanes for an audience. The crowd is a critical part of this event! Captain?”
Gardner shrugged, “Commander Klein, let the crew know that they are invited to a Klaan Feats of Strength event.” Klein shook his head as he walked toward the bridge to deliver the invitation.
In the medical bay Gardner, Klein, and Choi spoke to the three Korean men. Gardner had offered them several option for disposal of the irradiated ship. Choi translated for the Captain. “They said they are not overly concerned with the ship’s disposal. They only ask to be able to watch as it’s done.” One man, who identified himself as Colonel Han spoke. “Captain, we do believe you when you say things are different. We also hope you understand that the official stance of our country,” he paused, as the country no longer existed, “The stance is one of no religion. However, there is a thread of Buddhism among us, and a prayer service to commemorate the men who did not survive is kindly requested before the ship is scuttled.”
Gardner nodded and asked Choi if she could make arrangements. Colonel Han spoke again. “Captain, is it possible to finish in time for the contest? Your Mr. Bren extended a personal invitation.”
Gardner was surprised, but agreed.
The next day Choi, Han, Gardner and the other Korean men stood on the bridge, watching a large monitor. The Shepherd had shut down the ship’s engines and shined lights on the ship. Choi had arranged the prayer ceremony, and the three men seemed at peace with the situation. Gardner looked at Colonel Han, who looked at his companions and nodded to the Captain.
“Commander Klein, you may proceed.” Klein stood, as did the rest of the crew. Captain Gardner spoke. “It is with great respect that we send these 33 passengers and their ship to space. This ship served them well, and now all will be committed to the great expanse.”
Klein blew a military whistle and launched two missiles. The missiles flew directly to their target, detonating and turning the ship to dust, to scatter among the backdrop of the stars. Gardner spoke again.
“Your lives will be remembered as your final destination has been reached. Godspeed.” He saluted and the crew followed his salute. The Korean men somberly saluted. The crew held their salute until Choi had ushered the Koreans off the bridge. The crew resumed their duties silently for a moment until Gardner spoke once again.
“If you have arranged to go to the Feats of Strength event, you are relieved, once the skeleton crew is in place.” A few crew members entered to man the bridge as several others headed to Bren’s event.
Bren quieted the crowd. Klein was surprised at the turnout. The crew of both ships sat intermingled with Shepherd crew. Choi ushered in the Koreans, stoic, but seemingly looking forward to the distraction the contest would provide. Chairs, benches, and cargo containers had been constructed into makeshift bleachers, and they were packed. Food and beverages had been prepared and in general, it was a festive atmosphere. Bren entered the center of the space and raised his hands, facing his palms out, and turning in a circle.
“My friends, you have accepted me into your ship and crew and I am grateful. It is with that gratitude that I happily share the Klaan tradition of… FEATS OF STRENGTH!” The crowd cheered and Gardner looked around, wondering if he should have assigned security for the event.
Bren lowered his hands and the crowd silenced. He spoke again in a low voice. “Shaa is a Klaan belief that we are all connected. That the people assembled here are all part of one single living organism. We are all a part of Shaa-a-ren. We are each other. We are one. We are Shaa.”
He smiled and waited as the crowd seemingly held its breath. Then he clasped his hands over his head and shouted, “LET THE GAMES BEGIN!” The crowd roared as the eight men prepared to bowl. Bren explained the rules. “The standard rules of bowling and scoring apply. The automated system will keep score. I will add rules as we go. The first additional rule is that all bowlers are required to throw the ball with both hands. Team Justice won the random generated decision to go first. Proceed.”
As expected, bowling with both hands was awkward, and the bowlers threw gutterballs and generally left a lot of pins standing. No one was bowling well, but the men were laughing at each other anyway. After two frames Bren stood and spoke. “Time for a new rule! You must bowl with your non-dominant hand!” The bowlers grunted and grimaced. Bren was excited, the concept of a dominant hand was new to him. Human brains fascinated him and when he learned of right or left handedness he had spent hours asking people to use their non-dominant hand for daily tasks.
The teams bowled slightly better than before, but neither team was lighting up the scoreboards. Only one strike had been thrown, and truthfully, it was a mistake. Something went wonky with the magnetic system and changed the ball’s trajectory.
The crowd was cheering when a bowler knocked down three or four pins, and the teams were getting irritated, so Bren changed it up again. “Starting now, you must do two complete turns before throwing the ball.”
As the bowlers made themselves dizzy, the crowd’s excitement escalated. The bowlers had begun cheering each other on, regardless of which team they were on. The difficulties Bren was introducing made the two teams bond over the challenges. The crowd was eating it up. Even the Korean men were enjoying the show. Finally they reached the final round. Team Justice was up by seven points, it was anybody’s game.
Bren stood and called for quiet. “I would like to thank you all for joining us tonight. I hope you have felt the Shaa. You are all part of the Shaa-a-ren here on the Shepherd. Even as you go on to other ships or planets, this connection is now a part of you all.” Bren looked at the Koreans and bowed deeply, speaking in Korean. “You have lost much, your crew, your country, perhaps family. However, today you have gained Shaa and we are happy to have you here in this Shaa-a-ren.” He bowed again and the Korean men bowed deeply back to him. Bren turned to the crowd.
“For the final round, we have the ultimate test. Each team will switch lanes and complete the other team’s final score. However! A gutterball counts as a strike, so you cannot intentionally throw the game. You can choose to bowl with both hands, or your non-dominant hand.”
The teams switched lanes and began, with Team Justice putting up several points for Team Freedom. By the time they reached the last ball the game was tied. The men looked at each other, then conferred. They nodded and each stepped up to the lane, carefully throwing simultaneous - and very intentional - gutterballs. Bren raised his hands, quite pleased with himself.
“The game has ended in a tie!” He called the teams to him. “It seems that the outcome has not solved our problem. How would you like to choose the winning team?” Bren smiled, fairly certain he knew the answer.
The captain of Team Justice spoke. “We will both stay on deck three.”
The captain of Team Freedom joined him. “And we would like to host all of you for a feast on deck three tomorrow!”
The crowd erupted in cheers. Captain Gardner spied Bren speaking with the Korean men, they seemed to be thanking him. Choi moved to the Captain. “Bren knew exactly what to say to them. This Shaa business really made a difference.” Gardner smiled and watched as the men walked to the food and beverage stations and joined in the celebration. Gardner went to Bren, who was now talking to Klein.
“Lieutenant Bren, I must commend you. Your Feats of Strength and Shaa-a-ren was an unqualified success.”
Bren smiled. “Captain, Shaa is a very trusted solution to many problems.” He held his hands out, palms up and fingers sticking up. “We are all digits on the same hand. Once the men started to bond over their shared experience they began to feel the depth of connection. Shaa-a-ren connects us all, sometimes you just need to reach out and feel it.” Klein nodded, holding out his hands as Bren had done. Bren smiled again. “Commander, you have now experienced Klaan humor, in its long form. How often did you laugh as the men dizzied themselves and fell, or threw bad balls, left difficult splits, or danced with their opponents?”
Klein looked at Bren curiously. “You did this all just to…” He looked at the Captain in shock and finished the thought. “… To tell me a joke?”
Bren smiled, “It was a happy coincidence. Shaa-a-ren is very real, as is Klaan humor.” He hummed a tune as he walked away. Klein and Gardner looked at each other, questioning what had actually taken place tonight. Gardner shook his head as he patted Klein on the back, blending into the celebration.
“It doesn’t matter Mr. Klein, it worked.”

Timestamp + photos
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Lens glass and body in mint condition. Purchased from KEH last year as LN-. Comes with caps and hood + a 82mm UV Filter. Looking to sell because I just haven't found much use of it and want to put the money towards some different gear.
Some sample photos I recently took with the lens

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Author's Note:
7700 words, broke Reddit's character limit, so you know the drill. Will be split into two parts, both posted today. Enjoy!
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"Stop! STOP!"
The terror in Kismet's voice rose higher as death drew nearer. He fled from Rob's grasping hand, but a Purge Divinity-infused fingernail managed to graze him, carving out a scoop of divine essence as if flaying a mortal's skin.
Kismet let out a screech as the Purging energy added to his growing collection of scars. A dozen small holes now dotted the surface of his mana-body, looking like he'd been pockmarked by wasting disease. Each wound represented a moment where the god had narrowly escaped with his life.
If those injuries had been inflicted by any other ability, then he could have rejuvenated himself in the time it took to blink. Purging energy was not so kind as that. It was purifying wrath in the shape of a Skill; their vengeance given form. Whatever divinity it touched, it extinguished.
As if cleansing the universe of a sickness that had infected it for far too long.
The BERSERKER continued his unrelenting advance. In response, Kismet threw up a frantic barrier of mana. It was strong enough to deflect one of Ragnavi's Annihilation beams–
And Rob blasted through it like paper mache. His charge sent broken shards of energy scattering across the divine realms. More mid-air rifts tore open, the HUMAN's aura strangling the surrounding area in a vice grip of power. Purge Divinity seemed to glow with light emanating straight from the pits of hell.
None of which was anywhere near as unnerving as the murder contained within his piercing gaze. When Kismet met Rob's eyes, he saw the end of eternity fast approaching.
The god's next barrier was just as frantic. However, this one was not comprised of mana, but of solid matter. Kismet summoned the hardest, most dense substance known to the mortal realms, then transmuted it into something that otherwise could only have been forged inside the heart of a dying star. It was many times more durable than the impossibly tough walls of an aberrant Dungeon.
So when Rob demolished it with a single punch, he actually had to put a bit of elbow grease into his windup.
Another wall materialized in front of him. He crushed it, then the one after, and the one after that, lashing out with bestial ferocity. The BERSERKER plowed through Kismet's hastily-built defenses like a bulldozer of fists and savagery. Rob was knocking them down as quickly as the god could make them, relishing the sensation of being able to vent his anger on targets that weren't fucking running away.
Then the twelfth wall fell – revealing a monstrous, spiky, fanged behemoth concealed behind.
Rob paused, momentarily taken aback at the sight of a mundane creature within the divine realms. 'Mundane' in relative terms, anyway. This monster was on par with a newborn Blight, radiating power that would have sent ordinary fighters sprinting for the hills.
It was also barely cognizant of its surroundings. The monster stared at him with unblinking, vacant eyes, just the tiniest glimmer of awareness present in its gaze. Rob noted that segments of its flesh were bubbling, as if the creature was fresh out of the oven and still needed to settle.
He couldn't help but feel a modicum of pity. This was yet another thoughtless creation, condemned to existence by an uncaring maker. Even monsters deserved better than that.
Rob caved the beast's head in before it could realize that it was alive. Pity was not the same as hesitation, and this was the only mercy he could afford to grant right now.
Didn't matter. Kismet's pawn served its purpose. In the brief instant that Rob spent getting over his initial surprise, the god had teleported to safety. He was already planning his next stunt that could buy him a few precious seconds of survival.
The HUMAN grimaced as he turned to give chase, unable to suppress the burgeoning sense of unease growing within his chest.
It almost didn't seem fair to feel that way. Rob knew he was winning – at least on the surface. Any outside observer would've bet their life savings on him, especially after the show of overwhelming superiority he'd just displayed. Kismet had been at a disadvantage before Never Forget Your Rage's recent upswing, and now it was no contest. Rob was confident that he would still be stronger even if the eight gods merged into one super-deity.
He also knew that he was living on borrowed time.
Whenever he moved, or activated a Skill, or even breathed...the sensation was there. Strength accompanied by incongruous frailty. Like background noise that kept getting louder with every action he took. His body felt close to pulling itself apart, as if his very molecules were a hairsbreadth away from coming undone.
It was different from Soul Instability. Whereas that threatened to collapse his soul, this frailty was an affliction of the flesh. The longer he fought, the more his physical form was at risk of popping like a balloon.
Such was the price of constraining godlike power within a mortal shell.
"Stay back!" Unaware of the turmoil fermenting in his assailant's mind, Kismet threw up his hands and...inverted...space? Rob didn't have a name for what he was seeing. Rather than stopping to puzzle out this latest brand of divine bullshit, he sent out a pulse of Purge Divinity, canceling whatever esoteric effect Kismet had been attempting to produce.
His Purging energy scraped against the divine realms like a cheese grater. Five rifts immediately tore open near both Rob and Kismet, with the god anxiously retreating from one that appeared just inches away from him. A low rumble echoed around them, and for a moment, they felt struck by an abrupt feeling of vertigo – until the realms gradually stabilized, righting once more.
For now.
Rob eyed the rifts with a detached, clinical gaze. An endless sea of mana resided behind them; the bedrock of the system itself. While he recognized that the rifts tearing open was bad news, he also couldn't really muster the energy to care. Between his overflowing rage, overtaxed body, and overburdened soul, minor details like the impending destruction of reality were hard to give much focus.
There was a way to fix all of that, of course. Rob couldn't outright deactivate Never Forget Your Rage – not without losing its bonus stats. But he could attempt to ease the storm of fury in his heart. By lessening his anger to more reasonable levels, Never Forget Your Rage would put less strain on both his body and the divine realms.
The notion forced a peal of hideous laughter to claw out of his throat. Lessen his anger? He'd have better luck trying to douse a volcano with a garden hose. No. For a wildfire that had grown this out of control, the only thing to do was stand aside and let it burn, burn, burn.
Until naught remained.
"I said stay back!" Kismet bellowed. He lifted his arms into the air. "Begone!" One moment later, Rob's vision was filled with scorching light. An apocalyptic geyser of mana burst forth from underfoot, intense and searing. It stripped the flesh from his bones in no time flat, powering through Almighty Resistance with pure, unmitigated violence.
And it still wasn't fast enough. Rob flickered a Purge Divinity shield for just an instant, allowing him to escape the geyser with his upper body – and most of his HP – intact. Lifesurge swiftly patched him up, leaving both combatants right back where they'd started.
Slowly, Kismet lowered his hands. They were shivering. "What are you?" he whispered. "Why are all my efforts in vain?"
To be honest, Rob was mildly impressed that Kismet had held on for this long. The god's combat efficacy was increasing as time passed, improving from panic-spamming teleports to more inventive maneuvers – as if he was learning how to fight on-the-job. He'd also stopped draining the other gods to supplement his power, having found an alternative source of fuel: mana seeping out from the sporadically-opening rifts.
It was the one silver lining to fighting an implacable BERSERKER so powerful that he fractured reality. Whenever Rob utilized Purge Divinity, more rifts opened up in the realms, and more mana leaked out from inside. The gods had invested that energy into the system millennia ago, and it typically would've been off-limits until they closed up shop and left Elatra. Kismet was making use of it now, absorbing the extra mana to strengthen himself, like a lifeline barely keeping him afloat.
The god's tenacity was...calling it 'admirable' would be going too far, but it did warrant a sort of begrudging respect. As someone who'd tangoed with multiple Blights, Rob knew what it was like to square off against a frenzied beast that could end him with a touch.
Being the scary one was a nice change of pace.
In exchange, Kismet had graciously donned the role of their battle's Combat Class user; fragile, outgunned, and pulling improvised maneuvers out of his ass for a chance at victory. The god could finally feel what it was like to be vulnerable. How exciting! Rob was more than happy to assist. Learning experiences such as these only came around once an eternity or so.
Flippancy aside – while Kismet still possessed room for improvement, this was the most that could be asked of a deity who hadn't seen combat in literal eons. His biggest fuckup had been taunting Rob in the wrong ways, but he couldn't have known about Never Forget Your Rage, that was an excusable oversight. By all other accounts, Kismet was performing adequately.
Even so...
"YoU aRE noTHinG."
The sound of Rob's voice caused two fresh rifts to open up. Kismet flinched, casting a teleportation spell out of pure reflex. Without pause, the HUMAN resumed his hunt.
Nothing. Perhaps that statement was hyperbole – yet it rang true nonetheless. While Kismet may have been a creature of supreme divinity, on the field of battle, his pedigree meant nothing. In the face of an implacable, unstoppable foe, his power was worth nothing. Very soon, he would be nothing, consigned to oblivion by Purging energy.
Rob couldn't help but unfavorably compare Kismet to the final Blight. Weren't these supposed to be two sides of the same coin? Each one-half of an original transcendent Will? Yet the Second Will had brought Rob to the edge of despair...and Kismet was fleeing like a cornered rodent. It was difficult to reconcile the two divinities as theoretical equals.
Although he knew that was an unfair comparison. Rob had fought the Blight before learning Limit Break and Never Forget Your Rage. Kismet wasn't weak.
The HUMAN was just far too strong.
If he rematched the Second Will today, he would beat it to death with his bare hands.
"Look at what you've wrought!" Kismet swept an arm out, gesturing towards some of the many rifts that Rob's presence was tearing open. "Do you understand what will transpire if you persist in this folly?! If the divine realms shatter, then so will all of Elatra! You are on the brink of destroying everything which you have striven to protect! Cease this–"
"CAN'T."
In a flash, Rob dashed forward and scooped out a chunk of the god's mana-body with Purge Divinity. Before he could do more, Kismet shrieked with pain and teleported away, leaving the BERSERKER to crush his prize between five clenched fingers.
"FoRCed mY HAnD." He located Kismet again. "NO GOING BACK."
Stopping wasn't an option. If the divine realms crumbled and Elatra imploded...well, that would be a faster end than what the gods had in store for its people. At least this way their deaths would be quick and hopefully painless – and his friends wouldn't be turned into Skills tortured for all eternity.
Still, Kismet did have a point. Destroying reality wasn't exactly the ideal outcome. There had to be a way to speed up the conclusion of their fight. Rob was certain he would win if given enough time, but he couldn't guarantee it would be before either his body or the divine realms collapsed.
{Ascend.}
Like a snake slithering through a minefield, Leveling High skirted past the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raging within Rob's mind. He attempted to tune out its voice, yet Humanity's curse refused to be denied, the static loudening until he was compelled to respond. Quit distracting me, he snapped. In case you haven't noticed, I'm FUCKING. BUSY.
{You seek to ensure victory over those who rule above,} Leveling High continued, without missing a step. {As do I.}
Then sit back, shut up, and–
{Ignoring your deficiencies will not make them disappear. This body is...feeble. Incomplete. Unfit to wield the power contained therein. Like a polished sword attached to a brittle hilt, liable to snap in twain at any moment.}
Rob grit his teeth. He couldn't deny Leveling High's assertions. Normally he'd just tell it to piss off, but considering how much was at stake here...
With a feeling like he'd sat down to deal with the devil, Rob sighed. Then what do you propose? That we upgrade my body somehow? I don't think putting more points into Vitality would help, even if I had any to spare. Me being so juiced up on stats is half the problem.
It shook its head. {You have far surpassed the limitations of mortality. Strengthening your power further would be akin to pouring water into an overflowing cup.}
So we...what, increase the size of the cup?
Static akin to laughter echoed inside his head. {We do away with it entirely.}
An icy chill began creeping up Rob's spine, as if the cold hands of fate were working their way towards his neck. He recalled a system notification from days before – 'Your Race has morphed from Human (?) to: Ascending HUMAN'.
Not Ascended. Ascending.
Weeks-old memories came surging to the forefront. 'The Heartkiller is closer to our form of life than those you call friends,' the Blight-child of Elysium had once said. 'As long as you continue to live, eventually, you will become an existence with the power to crush the Others and free the Skills from their shackles. You are no longer one of the Ephemeral. Now, you are a cocoon, metamorphosing into something grander. When you emerge, you will be as the Eternal.'
The Blight-child had laughed at him, then. 'After joining us, preserving these worlds will no longer be your desire.'
Rob grimaced. Denied, he flatly told Leveling High. Whatever you're about to suggest isn't happening.
It scoffed at him. {Your prejudices blind you. Do you think the gods have need of physical bodies? Does it hinder them in any capacity? No – the opposite. By definition, infinity cannot be constrained. Discard this useless flesh, and your conquest of the divine realms is assured.}
Maybe you didn't hear me when I said–
{By all means. Spurn my counsel...and condemn your friends to death. Shall their lives be worth it, in the end?}
Rob sucked in air through clenched teeth.
{Ascend.} Leveling High purred with anticipation. {You are bound by a prison of meat, bone, and blood. Break free. Finish what has already begun. Gaze upon the tapestry of infinity in all its dreadful splendor. Seize victory not as a Human, but as a completed, transcendent HUMAN.}
With a scream to drown out the static, Rob chased after Kismet again and again. The god was in full-on panic mode, eschewing offensive attacks in favor of perpetual retreat, focused wholly on keeping the BERSERKER as far away as possible. He would teleport the instant that Rob laid eyes on him, frantically stalling for his life.
It was – quite unintentionally – providing evidence to Leveling High's claims. If Kismet was on the defensive, catching him would take time they might not have.
I... Rob narrowed his eyes. How would I finish Ascending, anyway? It isn't like I can just flip a switch and make it happen.
{Incorrect.}
He blinked. WHAT?
{You have long since achieved the qualifications for true godhood,} Leveling High explained, in a lecturing tone. {There is no milestone that remains necessary to achieve. Rather than needing to overcome some hurdle of strength or power, the obstacle barring your path is more...arbitrary. Self-imposed.}
Humanity's curse seemed to peer into his soul. When it spoke next, its voice was filled with disgust. {You remain mortal because you wish to do so – both consciously and subconsciously. The Ascension of a nascent deity has been obstructed by cheap sentimentality.}
Rob almost started an argument over its usage of 'cheap', but he exercised restraint, keenly aware that there was bigger fish to fry. Can't do anything about the subconscious. I am \not* activating Melancholy Resistance.*
{Nor should you,} Leveling High remarked, shuddering at the prospect. {A grand statement of intent will be sufficient to shift your mentality. I believe...yes.}
The static churned like a hive of buzzing wasps. {When you next tear off a piece of the leader god's mana...even if just a sliver...devour it. Gorge yourself on their essence.}
Bile threatened to rise to the top of Rob's throat. Seems excessive, he mused, trying and failing to keep his tone lighthearted. To become a god, I eat a god? Wouldn't that make me a divine cannibal?
{You ARE a cannibal.} Leveling High's voice wavered, its veneer of helpfulness slipping to reveal the madness that lay beneath. {What do you think you've been DOING for nearly a YEAR? You kill, ingest your prey's Experience, and MAKE THEIR POWER YOUR OWN. This world is one of consumption and parasitism – devouring a god's essence is merely a more HONEST variant of THE SAME actions.}
...You clearly weren't paying attention during Diplomacy's PR lessons. Rob pursued Kismet once again, pressing his fingernails into his palms when the god hurriedly teleported away. There is such a thing as being too straightforward. If you want people to listen to you, then maybe dress up your words so they don't sound so horrifying.
{BUT AM I WRONG?}
Rob had no answer to that.
Bolts of divine mana peppered his skin. Kismet had barely managed to squeeze an attack in-between his escapes. The bolts ricocheted off Rob's skin like ping-pong balls, leaving minor scrapes and nothing more. It wasn't anywhere close to bypassing Almighty Resistance and his massive HP pool.
Yet it also reminded him of the mana-spears that Kismet had sent towards the rest of Riardin's Rangers. His Party members only possessed a shared, diluted version of Almighty Resistance, and their HP was a fraction of his. If Kismet aimed another attack of that caliber at them...how many would perish, right then and there?
Was Leveling High correct? What point was there to sentimentality if it just got his friends killed?
In truth, Rob knew that it didn't really matter if he completed his Ascension. Based on what he had planned for himself after the gods were dead, little would change either way. Still...he also knew that Ascending would be a one-way trip. No take-backs. If he went through with it, a fundamental part of him would be irrevocably altered.
Something twinged in a corner of his mind. It wasn't Leveling High, or his rage, or any of the other emotions currently dominating his headspace. This was a familiar friend; perhaps Rob's #1 most trusted confidant since he'd first set foot in Elatra. One that had rarely ever steered him wrong.
Paranoia.
And at the moment, it was telling him to be very careful before jumping into the deep end.
Ten teleports.
{What?}
Give it ten more Kismet teleports, Rob said. If I haven't dealt him a serious injury by then....I'll do what I need to do. He grimaced as Kismet vanished before he'd even finished the thought. Ten starting now.
Leveling High's static quieted. It resembled a patron at a restaurant who'd ordered their meal, and was waiting patiently for the main course to arrive.
Rob didn't waste time being offended over its nonchalance. Free of distractions, he immediately swept his gaze across the divine realms, pinpointing his quarry in a micro-instant. The BERSERKER dashed forward, pushing his body as far as he could, layering Rampages on top of Dexterity that made the laws of physics want to curl up and weep.
Kismet was prepared. He'd drawn more mana from the fractured rifts, quickening his speed and reactions. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep his head above water, not yet outpaced by their continually escalating arms race.
The HUMAN struck, the god fled, and both were left in the same position as before.
{One.}
Rob turned on a dime, charging without needing to look. He'd heard the moment that Kismet's teleport ended. It afforded him a split-second head start.
A gravity well suddenly appeared below his feet, as if a miniaturized black hole was weighing him down. Apparently, Kismet had set it up ahead of time as a just-in-case trap. Rob pierced through the spell's area of effect before it could ramp up to something dangerous, but his pace was slowed by a hair in the process, and his prey escaped.
{Two.}
You know what? Screw this. Rob whirled away from Kismet's newest location and blasted straight towards one of the lesser deities that his Party members were fighting.
He'd been too hung up on getting even with a hated foe – when there were seven other juicy morsels for him to play with. This way, Kismet would either sit back and watch as his allies were massacred, or the god would be forced to act instead of running like a goddamn cowar–
Sense Mana alerted Rob to magic gathering behind.
Pivoting, he leapt into the air. Rob superimposed himself in front of Kismet, bodyblocking the rainstorm of destructive mana that was about to be unleashed upon Riardin's Rangers.
Due to his swift response, the attack was released early. A simple Purge Divinity shield prevented him from incurring any damage. Rob still felt no sense of triumph as the mana dissipated around him. He just wasn't fast enough to kill the lesser gods and protect his Party at the same time – or at least not fast enough that he should gamble their lives on it.
Kismet disappearing a moment later didn't help matters either.
{Three.}
Frontal assaults weren't guaranteed to succeed, and targeting the other gods was a no-go. Could he take Kismet by surprise? Increase his Dexterity?
Rob contemplated mining Never Forget Your Rage for more stats, but swiftly vetoed the idea. His body was already struggling to hold itself together. Putting additional strain on a shaky foundation seemed...unwise.
Plus – at the risk of eating crow in the near future – he didn't actually think it was possible to feel angrier at the gods than he was right now. Seriously, what was left?
He hated them for sending him to a fantasy deathworld. He hated them for tormenting his friends and family. He hated them for being partially responsible for the Blight. He hated them for what they'd done to Elatra and Earth. He hated them for all the lives they'd stolen. He hated them for being the living embodiments of indifference and cruelty. He hated that they fostered good PR among the people they oppressed. He hated how monsters of such craven hypocrisy were also immeasurably powerful. He hated the sensation of divine mana crawling on his skin. He hated the unsettling sound of their voices. He hated their bizarre formless appearances. He hated them for being pompous pricks. He hated whenever they tried to relate to him. He hated whenever they didn't.
Most of all, he hated that they were still alive.
Even if he found out that they'd personally antagonized him since birth or some petty nonsense like that, it wouldn't measure up to the litany of transgressions they'd committed thus far. The blazing inferno within his soul could burn no hotter. Should burn no hotter. For his sanity's sake, if nothing else.
Kismet teleported. It wasn't in response to anything. He'd merely anticipated some sort of action – and was then baffled afterwards when he noticed the rampaging BERSERKER standing quietly in deep thought.
{Four.}
Rob advanced. While he didn't have a plan yet, he'd also learned that if he gave Kismet the slightest amount of breathing room, bad things tended to happen.
Can any of my Skills give me an edge? Unfortunately, he didn't think so. As usual, his lack of ranged options was biting him in the ass when it mattered most. Almost everything he could use required getting in close – which was the whole freaking problem – and none would be more effective than Purge Divinity, regardless.
Maybe I could set up a Waymark point, then catch Kismet's teleport with one of mine...no, that won't work either. The odds of him popping in next to a random Waymark point are slim. Could fill the battlefield with lots of Marks, but even then I have to consider the Skill's activation time. With my current Dexterity, it'd honestly be faster just to run at him.
The vast majority of his abilities simply weren't up to par in a clash with divinity. Limit Break, Purge Divinity, and Never Forget Your Rage had been specifically designed by the Skills to facilitate deicide. Something like Power Slash couldn't possibly compare to jailbroken stats and a touch of death.
As an act of defiance against his own logic, he cast Enmity, the only ability that could feasibly hit Kismet at range. The god casually shrugged off its effect before promptly escaping.
{Five.}
Like a frustrated animal, Rob snarled and gave chase. Just need to keep trying. Kismet isn't perfect.
{Six.}
Sooner or later, he's going to mess up.
{Seven.}
He's going to mess up.
{Eight.}
HE HAS TO MESS UP.
Suddenly, Kismet transformed his right hand into a blade of mana. With one harsh motion, he sliced open his own left arm.
By now, Rob had conditioned himself to never stop moving forward, even if something shocked him – which this sight very much did. His mouth dropped open, and Leveling High paused in the middle of eating its metaphorical popcorn. They still kept advancing without an iota of hesitation.
And ran straight into the mana cloud leaking out from Kismet's wound.
Rob blinked, opening his eyes to a wonderful day. The twisting plains looked dazzlingly beautiful, with fauna and plantlife lit by rays of effervescent light from the twin stars shining above. People cheerfully went about their day, happily shaking their trunks in shows of greeting, or rattling their scales to initiate merry games.
All was at peace.
Until – in unison – everyone froze. The tumult of life went quiet in an instant, replaced with pensive silence.
As if they'd been struck by the creeping, pervasive sensation of being watched.
A sound rang out. Half of them immediately fell over dead, fluids gushing from their ruined bodies.
The survivors could only lay there, crippled and in pain, as more people slowly rose into the air. Invisible fingers seemed to pluck them from the ground – and then began ripping off their limbs, one at a time, like a child dissecting butterflies–
Rob dragged himself back to the present.
It had taken much less time than before to recognize what was happening. Now that he knew what to expect, experiencing the remnant souls' lives wasn't so different from the dreamlike quality of an Attunement vision. Although...realizing that he'd witnessed the end of a world preceding Elatra did cause his thoughts to hitch for a single moment.
Which was just enough for Kismet to forge a spear of mana, then send it plunging through Rob's eye, skull, and brain. Its tip was forged to shred anything it touched, no matter how durable or Resistant.
The god whooped with glee – only to wince as the HUMAN's sole reaction was a long, drawn-out sigh. With an air of exasperation, he reached up and yanked the divine spear free with a nauseating splorch.
His eye had been reduced to a seeping red mess. He closed its eyelid. When he opened it again, the orb within had already Regenerated, now sporting an unamused glare.
It was something of a unique moment. Mid-battle events didn't typically leave both combatants feeling disheartened. The all-powerful god was losing faith that he could ever hope to stop Rob's onslaught...
And the BERSERKER didn't know if he could justify continuing on like this. His body still felt like it was pulling itself apart; if anything, the sensation was growing more pronounced as their battle progressed. While Kismet would make a fatal mistake eventually, Rob couldn't guarantee that he would last long enough to capitalize on it.
Unless he followed Leveling High's advice and–
With a howl that shook the divine realms, Rob launched his stolen spear at Kismet. His aim was true, yet it sailed through empty air, the god's afterimage tauntingly fading away.
{Nine.}
Final chance.
​
--
​
Link to Part 2

Contest Rules For Best Song Of The Month • Updated May 19th, 2024

Click here to see summary of changes.

Best Song Of The Month Contest

Music Or Lose It hosts a monthly Best Song Of The Month contest at this musicorloseittv subreddit community. There is no cash or monetary value prize at this time. This contest is simply just for fun. Winners earn the enjoyment of being voted the best. Winners may cite the win in their biographies and social media posts.
The moderator (mod) is available to help music creators with the entry process, eligibility requirements, and deadlines. Music creators are allowed to contact the mod to ask questions about the contest anytime and mod will reply as soon as possible.
Definitions
Music creator: refers to a solo creator, band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo.
Brand identity: refers to how a creator presents themselves as an entertainer making music for the general public. For example, Simon & Garfunkel as a duo is one brand identity. Paul Simon solo is another brand identity.

Process & Deadlines

🟡 Round 1
1) Discovery ◦ Each month, moderator keeps track of songs shared at this musicorloseittv community.
2) Notifying Music Creators ◦ When a likely eligible song is seen, the u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creator of likely eligibility within the qualifying song’s post. The reply will indicate, “⏳ This song appears eligible for the Best Song Of The Month contest. Please provide the following information…” If the song is confirmed to be eligible by a mod, the mod will make a reply “🟨 This is confirmation notifying you that this song is eligible and in consideration for the Best Song Of The Month contest…” within the qualifying song’s post.
3) Determining Contestants ◦ The Music Fan man will evaluate all eligible songs by the month’s eligibility deadline. He will then at his discretion choose up to 5 songs to compete.
3) Finalists Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the top finalists (up to 5) in a post tiled “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year).” This announcement will be done in a post made 4 days before the final day of the month. The post will be made sometime in the morning. The songs will be listed within the post in a manner most representative of music diversity as determined by the musicorloseittv profile mod. All songs available on YouTube will be included in a playlist titled “Best Song Of The Month Contestants • (Insert Month & Year)” hosted by the musicorloseittv channel on YouTube. Songs not available on YouTube will be excluded from the playlist. The playlist will be mentioned in this post. The available playlist will help voters get familiar with the songs.
The u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creators of qualifying for the contest in their post of the song. The reply will indicate, “✅ Congratulations. Your song qualifies for the Best Song Of The Month contest…”
4) Voting ◦ The “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year)” post will specify a duration of 3 consecutive dates during which music fans can vote for only 1 of the top finalists. Voting occurs by the voters making a reply to the post in the following manner: “🗳️ I vote for….” Failing to vote in this manner will result in vote not being counted. To best ensure vote accuracy, voters must not use the “🗳️” emoji anywhere else in the post’s comments section. Music creators may vote for another music creator yet may not vote for themselves. For music creators, it’s “word of honor” voting. The top vote earning song within these three days will become the winner.
‣ Community moderator profiles musicorloseittv and onesongoftheday will abstain from voting. Also, themusicfanman and any special judge involved will also abstain from voting - unless they’re needed to serve as a tie breaker, in the event of a tie preventing a clear winner. If themusicfanman and any special judge involved are needed as a tie breaker, they must come to a consensus to achieve tie breaking. If no special judge is involved, then themusicfanman alone will serve as the tie breaker.
🟢 Winner Declaration!
Declaration Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, on the final day of the month, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the winner in a post tiled “Congratulations! 🎉 Best Song Of The Month Winner (Insert Month & Year)” in a post dedicated to celebrating the song. Using the sticky-post feature, the post will be prominently displayed the home page of the musicorloseittv subreddit community for ≈ 24 hours.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
My song “Song Title” won:
🏅Best Song Of The Month By Community Vote
(Insert Month & Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.
🏆 Song Of The Year
A similar Song Of The Year vote will occur in December. It will be similarly organized and scheduled to conclude on the final day of the year. To determine a Song Of The Year by the end of the year, December’s monthly contest will only be ≈ 2 weeks. Why? Because we need time to conclude The Song Of The Year vote by the end of the year. Additionally, this is a busy time of year for many people. What’s more, non-Christmas music released in December is typically overshadowed by Christmas music. It seems to be a bad idea to release new-original music in late December. See opinion commentary: The Best And Worst Months To Release Music.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
🏆 Best Song Of The Year By Community Vote
(Insert Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.

Eligibility

Here are the rules for the Best Song Of The Month contest organized by Music Or Lose It just for fun. The eligibility rules are intended to make this contest as fair as possible to the music creator participants.
**👤 Personal: **
Requirements:
✔️ Must be an actual human.
✔️ Must be 17 years of age or older.
✔️ Must be a music creator abiding by the rules of this musicorloseittv subreddit community.
✔️ Must be a music creator posting using either your personal profile or your brand profile as a music entertainer.
Ineligible:
🚫 Profiles run by publicists, music labels, or channels hosting performers.
🚫 People posing as other humans using imitation avatar type creations by artificial intelligence (AI).
**🗿 Music creator’s stature status: **
Eligible:
✔️ Unsigned amateur or unsigned professional yet lesser known.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with small to medium-sized record companies or seeming one-song-per-time type distributors.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with to a major label.
**📅 Release date: **
Eligible:
✔️ Your song must be published and accessible to the masses anytime between November 15^th of the prior year and 5 days before the final day of the current month.
**💽 Songwriting, singing, & recording: **
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the copyright owner of the song (lyrics and sound recording) or authorized/licensed to perform the song by the copyright owner as the first original performer.
✔️ An exception is made if your song is an authorized/licensed remix or includes authorized/licensed interpolation or sampling content by the copyright owner in collaboration with any other amateur music creator(s) or unsigned professional yet lesser known music creator(s). The aforementioned release date also applies to any remix, interpolation, or sampling content.
✔️ Collaborations within the aforementioned rules are allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest by the lead. Lead refers to the first person named in the collaboration.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Songs written by artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Songs primarily generated artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Cover, parody, nor artificial intelligence (AI) imitation.
🚫 Songs likely to be very divisive for political or religious/anti-religious reasons.
🚫 Collaborations within deceased music creators akin to “Unforgettable” by Natalie Cole featuring Nat "King" Cole.
🚫 Interpolations, remixes, or samplings of a song by a creator signed to a record company of any size or signed to a one-song-per-time type distributor.
🚫 Song with hard cussing. No variations of F word, S word, C word, D word, N word (er or a), ahole word(s), or sexually vulgar words.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Songs primarily about brands. For example: “I Love Driving Such-And-Such Brand Name Trucks.”
**👂 Recording quality: **
Allowed:
✔️ Professional quality recordings (live or studio).
✔️ Amateur quality (including songs record in a bedroom, car, outdoors, etc…) yet reasonably pleasant sounding.
✔️ Demos are welcome.
Ineligible:
🚫 Live records with too much interfering audience noise.
🚫 Recordings with excessively poor sound quality (abrasive on the ears, difficult to hear).
**📏 Song length: **
Requirement:
✔️ Minimum of 01:15 minutes up to 10:00 minutes.
**💻 Distribution venues: **
Requirements:
✔️ A song published and accessible to the general public masses at a well-known music website such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp.
✔️ A song uploaded to a channel hosting live performances is allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest directly by the creator and so long as the creator confirms permission by the channel. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ The song’s upload date must be visible at the distribution venue website.
⚠️ If you enter this contest with a Spotify or TikTok URL link, ensure you’ve provided a link for the entire song (not a teasesampler) in a manner that does not require login; ensure the publish date is visible; and be weary of looping flashing visuals necessitating a “⚠️Possible Seizure Trigger Risk Warning.” Failing to do this will result in ineligibility.
Ineligible:
🚫 Login required to access the song.
🚫 Payment required to access the song.
🚫 Uploads of songs directly to Reddit.
🚫 Links not fully available to the public such as an “unlisted” YouTube video.
**🖼️ Song’s artwork: **
Definition: artwork refers to the image/drawing/photo/visuals accompanying your individual song at a music distribution venue such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp. It is sometimes referred to as “cover art.”
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s accompanying artwork.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of the artwork if you paid to have it made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish the artwork as part of the presentation of your song.
✔️ Artwork primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s artwork uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material content, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the content as part of your song’s public presentation. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the song’s accompanying artwork (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Parody notably displayed in the artwork.
🚫 Visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
**🎥 Song’s music video (optional): **
Including a link to a music video is optional.
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s music video visuals including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of all the video’s visuals if you paid to have them made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ Visuals (including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos) primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s accompanying music video uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons or “free” material, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the copyrighted material as part of your song’s public presentation within the accompanying music video. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the video (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
✔️ Allowed music videos include “Official Music Video,” “Live Performance,” “Dance Video Version,” “Animated Video,” or “Lyrics Video.”
✔️ If you opt for an “Animated Video” or a “Lyrics Video,” you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire an animator or use AI or an app/software designed to create music video lyrics, you must be authorized/licensed by the animator or AI source or app/software creator to publish the animation and/or lyrics as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ If you opt for a “Dance Video Version,” the dancing and/or choreography must be originally created for your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire a choreographer and/or dancers or collaborate for free or for barter, you must be authorized/licensed by the choreographer and/or dancers to publish the video’s dancing/choreography visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ “Official Audio” type music videos are allowed so long as an accompanying still image complies with the aforementioned “Song’s artwork” rules. Alternatively, if the “Official Audio” music videos has moving visuals, it must comply with these above-mentioned “Song’s music video” rules.
✔️ “Live Performance” music videos may be made from your home/cafield (pretty much anywhere decent and reasonable) or from one of your well-recorded performances from a show. Be sure to avoid copyright and trademark violations in the video.
⚠️ Brief uses of music distribution venue logos at the end or start of a music video may be allowed at mod’s discretion, when the intent is to inform the viewer of venue availability of the song. This is however discouraged unless the distribution venue, at their website, specifies this is allowed. Music videos that display any trademark logos (other than the music creator’s own copyrighted logo) entirely throughout are ineligible.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Notable use of virtual reality program recordings.
🚫 Notable use of filters from apps/websites similar to Snapchat.
🚫 Parody of intellectual property characters prominently displayed in the video.
🚫 Notably visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Notable display of brand products with visible logos including but not limited to toys, stuffed animals, autos, hats, T-Shirts.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Limitations on involving minors (under 18 yo): no minors doing dangerous stunts; no depictions of minors participating in drugs/drinking/smoking or very sexual behavior (including sexual dancing); do not prominently feature children that are not your own in the video (exception may be made if a relative only allows you to involve their children).
⚖️ Quantities:
Requirements:
✔️ One song per music creator’s brand identity.
✔️ If a music creator uploads more than one of their brands’ potentially eligible songs, the music creator must inform mod which song they prefer to be included in the contest.
✔️ A music creator may win this Song Of The Month contest up to three consecutive times. If this happens, thereafter the creator must abstain from the contest for the next month and then may return to the contest after that 1-month eligibility hiatus.
Ineligible:
🚫 Every collaboration will not automatically be considered a new brand. For example, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss collaborating one time should not be considered a brand. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss making an entire album together should be considered a brand. Music creators attempting to enter multiple songs under multiple brand names will be scrutinized. If there is no social media presence for any additional brands, their songs will likely be rejected as “also eligible” by mods. If this happens, the music creator will have to enter only 1 song.
**🖱️ Accounts you may post from: **
Requirements:
✔️ Your post must be made directly from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you have a medical condition necessitating aid, on your behalf, you may appoint a publicist, manager, caretaker, helper, spouse, partner, friend, guardian, or family member to post from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is from a band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo brand, the post must be made directly from either from one of the members’ personal Reddit account profiles or from your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is collaboration, the post must be made directly from either the lead’s personal Reddit account profile or from the lead’s brand Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you want another song to be a part of the contest from another brand identity you are involved with, the song must be posted by a Reddit account profile for that separate brand – or one of the brand collaborators’ personal Reddit account profile.
👩🏾‍🏫 Presentation at this musicorloseittv community:
Requirements:
✔️ You must post a link to the song at this musicorloseittv community by tapping “+” on smartphone or clicking “+Create a post” on desktop/laptop. You must select the “My Song” flair.
✔️ Your post must be done by the “Title & Link Share Only method.”
✔️ The song’s URL you provide must be of the standalone song upload - not part of a playlist URL link.
✔️ You may post an audio only upload URL link (such as an individual song published at SoundCloud or Bandcamp). Alternatively, you may post a music video link from a venue like YouTube.
✔️ You may include a smartlink for the individual song (not album or playlist) within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ You may title the post whatever you want within the community’s rules and the contest’s rules. Remember: no vague titles; limit post title emojis to no more than 2 (if you decide to use them); and don’t request feedback.
✔️ Your post title may be done in the style of “Entertainer - Song Tile” (or something similar). Alternatively, the post title may be more elaborate. For example: “This Is My Latest Song. It’s About A Wonderful Time I Fell In Love.”
✔️ In your posts’ body-text section or in a reply comment, optionally you may share details about the song that you feel the audience would enjoy knowing.
**📝 Needed information: **
Requirements:
✔️ Within either your posts’ body-text section or within a reply comment at your post, provide the following information – as is:
❇️ Contest entry for your consideration:
• Entertainer's Name - Song Title:
• Published on: [Insert date & year. Refers to date published at your URL link source]
• Genre:
• I am an independent creator unsigned I am signed to [insert label name]
• Interpolations/remixes/samplings disclosure: N/A this song contains authorized/licensed interpolations/remixes/samplings [specify] of another song released since 11/15 of the prior year in collaboration with other unsigned music creator(s)[specify]. The link to the original song is [insert URL link – publish date from URL link source must be visible].
• Al disclosure: N/A. A portion of this [song/artwork/music video] is created by Al. Explanation: [specify if this applies to song/artwork/music video].
• Copyright disclosure for song: I confirm I’m the copyright owner of all the contents of this song (lyrics and recording) as it is presented including the artwork [(if applicable) and music video]
Copyrighted content I am authorized/licensed to use commercially in the promotion of my song include: [insert details]
• [optional/voluntary] Confirmation of substantial human involvement: A real human substantially arranged/compose this music. [Note: This type disclosure is strongly encouraged by creators who use instrument sounds and beats from apps/software in substation of instruments played live at the time of recording. This is especially encouraged for music creators who do not show their face and/or don’t show themselves creating the music in a music video or behind the scenes video. For music fans opposed to music primarily created by AI, this type of disclosure can be helpful and assuring.]
• Lyrics: [insert URL link or embed URL link into “Lyrics” text] [note if the lyrics are available at the upload source] [only if you're the copyright owner of the lyrics, you may entirely include them] [type “vocalized” or “instrumental” if applicable]
Ineligible:
🚫 Uploads of songs to Reddit.
🚫 No engagement pleas disguised as feedback requests in post titles nor in your posts’ body-text section. No feedback requests.
**👨🏼‍⚖️ Copyright/trademark compliance: **
‣ Important note: Aforementioned rules already state you either must be the copyright owner of the content you enter for this contest or you must be authorized/licensed to commercially use the content by the copyright owner. Aforementioned rules already state you must disclose use of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material. Mods reserve the right to ask for additional proof for confirmation. Suspected violations will be removed at mod’s discretion. You are strongly encouraged to upload your best, newest, utmost original content.
‣ Resources:
U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright in General https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
What Musicians Should Know about Copyright by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/engage/musicians
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use
**🤝 Mutual Support **
Requirements:
✔️ You must be active in the musicorloseittv community regarding mutual support and engagement with other posts. You must post a comment reply to at least two other posts of any kind at the musicorloseittv community before the final day of the month. Failing to do so will result in disqualification.
Ineligible:
🚫 Posting then ghosting the community.
**😎👍 Encouraging fans to vote: **
Ineligible:
🚫 You are not allowed to ask for votes in anywhere in the musicorloseittv community’s comments section.
🚫 Music creators may not offer anything to anyone whatsoever in exchange for voting for them.
Allowed:
✔️ If you see a music fan has voted for you, you may thank them in a reply comment.
✔️ You may make social media posts at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads or your YouTube channel’s Community feed to encourage your fans to join this musicorloseittv subreddit community and vote for your song.
Example post:
My song “Song Title” is a finalist for Best Song Of The Month at the musicorloseittv community at Reddit. At [insert URL link] please vote for me and my song. Thank you.
**📜 Rules adherence: **
‣ Important note: If you are new to the musicorloseittv community as either a music fan voting or music creator entering the contest, latitude may be given as you get familiar here. It’s up to mod’s discretion.
‣ Important note: This contest is just for fun. Likewise playing boardgames or cards with friends is also just for fun yet people expect rules to be followed.
**🕊️ Truthfulness: **
Requirements:
✔️ Contestants and voters are expected to behave honorably and ethically.
Ineligible:
🚫 If anyone is ever discovered cheating or being dishonest akin to author James Frey or music entertainers Milli Vanilli, they will be disqualified and also likely be banned from this community.
Additional Info
If you do not want to be in the contest yet want to continue sharing your songs in this community, it is totally ok. Please inform the moderator. A “Message the mods” option is at the homepage.
In circumstances where uncertainty arises due to an unforeseen issue not addressed here in this outline of rules, moderators reserve the right to approve or disapprove eligibility. Moderators reserve the right to disqualify any song for any reason. Unfortunately, not every contest can perfectly satisfy all participant hopefuls.
Just do your best, don’t take it too seriously, and have fun.
Thank you.
END

Throwaway account and fake names for obvious reasons.
For some background, my wife Jane (24F) and I (26M) have been together for seven years. Her brother Jack was one of my good friends in school, and honestly I thought she was both hot and funny for several years before I finally worked up the courage to ask her out. I'm still in disbelief that she agreed, since I was definitely not the most attractive or most outgoing member of the friend group that she occasionally joined her brother to hang out with. Many a dumb, teenaged comment were made about how Jack's sister was hot, charming, etc. Jack always told us to knock it off, and ask her out if we had the balls. Well, turns out I was the first one the grow a pair, somehow.
And that sort of brings us to the problem. Three months ago, Jane gave birth to our son Jacob. We've been married for three years, and had decided that we wanted kids soon after the wedding. We waited a bit to improve our financial situation, which is now fairly secure. I am a civil engineer, and my salary has increased the point that Jane didn't have to worry about not being able to work for a while to both physically recover from the pregnancy, and focus on raising our son for a while. I don't at all mind her being a SAHM, and I make sure to clean up after myself at home so I'm not just offloading a bunch of chores onto her.
Overall, things are going pretty great. Jacob is healthy (and has a strong set of lungs), all the bills are paid, and Jane and I are both happy with our careers/roles. However, things hit a snag a month ago when Jane indicated that she felt recovered enough to resume having sex again, should I want. Our sex life has always been quite active, and I'll admit, not being able to be intimate with my wife for many months straight sucked, both physically and emotionally. However, I know that her physical condition was a lot more strenuous than mine, so I took care of myself in private and didn't say anything. However, I was quite happy to hear that Jane was feeling better, and that taking care of Jacob hadn't sapped all of her energy.
We had sex for the first time in five months, and immediately I noticed that things weren't quite as "snug" as they used to be. I'm pretty much exactly the average below the belt, and we had never had any problems with satisfying each other before, and I guess I wasn't expecting the difference to be as noticeable as it was. However, due to the fact that this was the first time I'd gotten more than a handjob in almost half a year, I didn't take significantly longer to finish than I normally would. Because of this, I didn't say anything about the difference in sensation, because even thinking about made me feel like an asshole. She'd pushed my son's entire body out of her, so complaining about how it felt to me seemed selfish.
However, the next time we had sex, it took me longer to finish than it did before the pregnancy. The difference was enough that Jane noticed it, and was subtly telling me to hurry up by the end, since she'd already finished and was ready to be done. When it took the same longer-than-normal time after that, she asked me if there was a reason why I couldn't seem to cross the finish line as quickly. I tried to tell her that it was just nerves, I was tired, etc, but she saw through that. She pushed, and I didn't want to lie to her. I told her that it "wasn't quite as taut as it used to be," my exact words.
She immediately became angry with me, saying that it was gross that I thinking about how she'd become looser after giving birth. Of course it wasn't going to be the same, she'd pushed out something way wider than my dick, etc. She said that it was extremely hurtful that I thought less of her based on her tightness, even though I never said that. She asked why it was taking me longer to finish than it took me before, and I answered with the words quoted above. I never said that was all I was thinking about, or that I thought less of her for it.
If anything, I love her more after having our son, because I saw first hand how much pregnancy fucking sucks and how she soldiered through with my help. She is the love of my life, and it felt terrible to be accused of only caring about how tight she was. I reminded her that I had initiated sex two out of the three times we'd had it after the pregnancy, so why would I do that if I was unsatisfied with her? It wasn't like I was unable to finish at all, it was just taking me longer to do so. I tried to sit down and talk with her the next day after she'd cooled off, but when I brought it up she just became angry again and refused to discuss it.
Needless to say, I haven't tried anything remotely sexual since this fight a week ago. She always kisses me on the cheek when I leave for work, but since our argument even that gesture has felt less enthusiastic, like she's only doing it because she's always done it and doesn't want to start another fight. I pray that she doesn't feel that way about sex too, but I don't know at this point.
TL;DR: Had sex with my wife for the first time after she gave birth. She noticed I was taking longer to finish and confronted me. I said that it was because it "wasn't quite as taut as it used to be," and she became angry and is refusing to discuss the subject with me.
AITAH?
EDIT: I have been receiving lots of a feedback, much of it saying that I have no understanding of anatomy and must be faking or imagining my observations. However, some commenters pointed out that the problem may be strained and/or damaged pelvic muscles, which would explain what I have noticed and angered my wife by admitting to. I did a bit of (admittedly brief; this post has only been up for a couple of hours) and found that pelvic muscle issues seem to be common after childbirth, something that I was entirely unaware of.
To clear things up, my formal sex education at school consisted of diagrams giving scientific names for all the bits and pieces, a one-sentence overview of what each part does, and a warning to use protection if/when we have sex. The mechanics of birth and what comes after were not explained beyond "The baby exits through the vagina." Clearly I should have looked into further along with my wife before she actually gave birth, but it is too late to go back now. I am going to try talking to my wife and showing her the sources I've linked below talking about what the problem might be, how it can be improved, and above all else, tell her that I still very much find her attractive and sexually fulfilling, and that I'm sorry for making it sound otherwise.
https://www.nct.org.uk/labour-birth/you-after-birth/your-vagina-and-pelvic-floor-after-giving-birth
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8766263/#:~:text=Vaginal%20laxity%20(VL)%20is%20a,descend%20from%20the%20normal%20position.%20is%20a,descend%20from%20the%20normal%20position.)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279110/

We recognize that wisdom tooth removal is a common dental procedure that many individuals undergo. It’s natural to have questions about the recovery process, including how soon you can resume normal activities such as speaking. In this guide, we’ll provide insights into the timeline for regaining speech abilities after wisdom tooth removal, ensuring you feel informed and prepared for your recovery journey.

Understanding Wisdom Tooth Removal

Experience care and comfort with wisdom teeth removal at Madison Dentistry & Implant Center. Our expert team utilizes advanced techniques to ensure a smooth extraction process tailored to your unique needs. Visit us to maintain your dental health and enjoy a quick recovery with our personalized and compassionate approach to wisdom teeth removal.
Wisdom teeth, also known as third molars, typically emerge during late adolescence or early adulthood. Due to factors like impaction, overcrowding, or misalignment, many individuals require wisdom tooth removal to maintain oral health. This procedure involves the surgical extraction of one or more wisdom teeth, often performed under local anesthesia or sedation for patient comfort.

How Soon Can You Talk After Wisdom Tooth Removal?

The timeline for regaining speech abilities after wisdom tooth removal can vary depending on individual factors such as the number of teeth extracted, surgical complexity, and the body’s natural healing process. Here’s a general overview of what to expect:

Immediate Post-Procedure Period

Immediately after wisdom tooth removal, it’s common to experience numbness, swelling, and minor discomfort in the mouth and jaw.
Speech may be affected initially due to these factors, as well as the presence of gauze placed over the surgical sites to control bleeding.
First Few Hours to Days
In the hours following the procedure, speech may be slurred or difficult due to residual numbness and swelling.
As the effects of anesthesia wear off and swelling begins to subside, speech may gradually improve.
It’s essential to rest and avoid talking excessively during this initial recovery period to minimize discomfort and promote healing.

First Week

Throughout the first week of recovery, speech should continue to improve as swelling decreases and normal sensation returns to the mouth.
While some patients may experience minor difficulties articulating certain sounds or words, communication abilities typically return to normal within this timeframe.
It’s advisable to speak slowly and gently to avoid placing excessive strain on the jaw and surgical sites during this early phase of healing.
Long-Term Recovery
By the end of the first week to ten days post-surgery, most patients can speak comfortably and clearly without significant impediments.
However, it’s essential to continue following post-operative care instructions provided by your dental surgeon to ensure optimal healing and prevent complications.
At Madison Dentistry & Implant Center, our priority is to provide comprehensive care and support throughout every stage of your dental treatment journey, including wisdom tooth removal. While speech may be temporarily affected immediately after the procedure, rest assured that your ability to communicate will gradually improve as you heal.
If you have any concerns about your recovery or speech during the postoperative period, don’t hesitate to reach us out to our experienced dental team for guidance and assistance. We’re here to help you achieve a smooth and successful recovery after wisdom tooth removal.

You may be familiar with my prior effort post describing the problem that Gaijin has in its analysis of statistics. You can find that post here for reference.
TL:DR for that post: Gaijin’s win rate-based balancing system creates a positive feedback loop for bad vehicles that generally pushes away bad players leaving only good players playing them, pushing them further up in BR. Same thing happens for especially good vehicles being played much more by worse players keeping the win rate suppressed, not because of the vehicle being bad but by a “skill issue” for lack of a better term.
Anyways, many people brought up good points and a lot of wisdom and personal experience that got me thinking of solutions. I am a PhD student in economic policy, so statistics is a daily activity for me. I asked my colleagues to look over a proposal to see if it is statistically robust, and this is the consensus balancing algorithm that would be better than what Gaijin currently uses. I won’t be explaining multi-linear regressions like I did statistical bias in the last post, but if you want a brief overview of what they are and how they work, please refer to these 2 videos:
Linear Regression (SLR)-- watch the first 7 or so minutes of this one
Multiple Linear Regression (MLR)-- this video is only 5 minutes so watch the full thing
Think of these videos as your daily brain nourishment for understanding statistics not just in War Thunder, but everywhere in the world.
When creating our MLR, we want to think of a model that answers a question about data that we have. In our case, we are going to be looking at causal inference. A popular example would be, what health factors of an individual would determine the risk of them having lung cancer. Relevant information for that regression would be a person’s age, history of smoking, diet, income, parent/family history, etc. By taking a massive dataset with all of this information, say of 10,000, we can fit a regression that estimates an individual’s chance of getting cancer by using data from an existing group. A sample model for lung cancer may look something like this:
Chance of getting Lung Cancer = B0 +B1X1+B2X2+B3X3+B4X4+B5X5
Where based on the dataset:
B0= Base Chance of cancer
B1= Effect of Smoking where X1 is a binary variable (0 or 1) whether a person has smoked regularly at any point of their life
B2= Effect of Family History where X2 is a binary variable (0 or 1) if a person’s family has a history of lung cancer
B3= Effect of Age where X3 is a person’s age in years
B4= Effect of Income where X4 is a person’s income
B5= Effect of Diet where X5 is a value of 0 to 100 of a person’s diet health, 0 being a perfect diet and 100 being horrible, ranked by an expert.
With this information, we can take any individual, person i, plug in their relevant data, and get the risk they individually would get lung cancer based on the body of data we used to create the regression. If we have an individual that is 60 years old, who has smoked, does not have a family history of cancer, has a pretty good diet (ranked 25/100), and has an income of $50,000.
We can get this person’s expected chance of getting lung cancer in the following equation:
B0 +B1(1)+B2(0)+B3(60)+B4(50,000)+B5(25).
Any Bx is what is known as the marginal change in expected outcome based on a 1 unit change of and Xx. Now, if we had actual values for Bx for every term, we would simply plug them in, and solve the equation given the individual’s recorded data. The outcome would give an expected chance of cancer for that individual. So, with that explanation out of the way, back to War Thunder.
To create an MLR model, we will have to identify what value we want to predict, and what kinds of data we will use to predict it. Since Gaijin uses win rate as their primary statistic for balancing, we will use that as the value we want to predict. To create a model that will be used as a baseline to compare all other subgroups to, we will assume we are using every single vehicle’s statistics for the past 6 months entered individually into a dataset to get a universal model for predicting win rate per game mode. This specific model will be for Ground RB. The value we are predicting is win rate, and the values we will be using to predict win rate are:
X1=K/D
X2=Point Captures
X3=Kill Assists
X4=Spotting Assists
X5=Shots absorbed and bounced
X6=Time per life
So a model would like like this:
Win Rate = B0 +B1X1+B2X2+B3X3+B4X4+B5X5+B6X6
With each of the B’s being the marginal change in expected win rate based on a unit change in any of the associated X’s.
Once we run the regression, we will get values for all the B’s giving us the expected effect each of these statistics has on win rate. We don’t know what this data is, so we don’t know what is statistically significant or not to keep in the model, so any one of these statistics could be insignificant, or surprisingly significant. Only Gaijin knows.
So, what do we do when we have the general model for win rate? We can correct for the bias encountered in the previous post by just looking at win rate by creating a player skill-adjusted win rate. Here’s what I mean:
What we will do is take the average of every account’s player statistics for the relevant game mode, in this case, ground RB, and input those values as X’s. This will output a skill-adjusted expected win rate. In other words, inputting the recent account statistical averages for the players playing a vehicle will output an expected skill-adjusted win rate for a vehicle. If a vehicle is below this expected skill-adjusted win rate, it should be a candidate to move down in BR, while if it is above, then it could be moved up in BR.
Imagine Russian premium 10.0 with the 2S38, TURMS, and T80UD. This is generally considered a very powerful lineup but played by generally worse-than-average players. In the current system, Gaijin will try to balance these vehicles to get to a 50% win rate regardless of the population that plays these vehicles, leaving them arguably under-tiered due to the skill level of the players. In the new system, all of the players who play these vehicles will have their past 6 months of player data averaged and plugged into the generalized win rate model to give an estimation of what that win rate SHOULD be based on the average skill level of the players. This could give us an expected win rate of 45% or maybe even 40%, but either way, it will probably be lower than the standard 50% that Gaijin balances their game around.
In cases with bad vehicles being played by particularly good players, they may still be seeing above a 50% win rate even though they’re overtiered. By decreasing their battle rating, it may DECREASE their win rate due to the draw of worse players to these now lower BR vehicles. This should change the population composition of a vehicle and combat the feedback loop problems described in the previous post.
If Gaijin is ever brave enough to provide anonymized player statistics and vehicle statistics, we can see the populations that play each vehicle and balance them around the power of the vehicle, not the prowess of the player. This, in my opinion, is a much better system than the current “balance all win rates at 50%”.
If you have any questions or want further explanation, let me know and I’d be happy to make an edit to this post to explain. I am also open to feedback on this rough model and method of balancing.
PS: The numbers in the models are supposed to be indexing and subscripted, which didn't paste over correctly from the word doc.

• 5hrs/week
• Salary: fixed 1,000PHP/week paid every two weeks. Deposit to your preferred e-wallet/bank account so you can save on fees.
• Tasks: mainly taking meeting minutes and doing Canva work, other general VA tasks
  
• PM or email me your resume at ellie.san0615@gmail.com along with a sample meeting minutes you've written down from a 3-5 min snippet of any online meeting video from YouTube.
  

Hi all, I'm moving soon, so cleaning out and trying to get together some money!
Shipping is not included in the prices, but I use PirateShip so I promise you're getting the best deal :)
Free sample for every $5 spent -- they are at the end so just take your pick.
Verification
Cleansing:
PanOxyl - 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Foaming Wash, 5.5 oz - BNIB - $4
Lancome - Miel-en-Mousse Cleansing Makeup Remover, 1.7 fl oz - BN - $10
Murad - Clarifying Cleanser, 1.5 fl oz - BN - $7
Cle de Peau - Softening Cleansing Foam, 20 mL - BN - $7
Pacifica - Coconut Milk Cream to Foam Face Wash, 5 fl oz - BN - $8
The Creme Shop - Rosewater & Coconut Towelettes, 20 ct - BN - $3
IPSY refreshments - Cleansing Face Wipes, 30 ct - BN - $5
Face/Body Moisturizing:
Wander - Dive in Moisturizer, 50 mL - BNIB - $40
Cure - Water Treatment Skin Cream, 100 g - BN - $10
Clinique - Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, 1 fl oz - BN - $4
AHAVA - Time to Hydrate Day Moisturizer, 2.5 fl oz - BN - $20
Hero - Clear Collective Prebiotic Moisturizer, 70 mL - BNIB - $6
Bath & Body Works - Tropidelic Body Cream, 2.5 oz - BN - $5
PINK - Honey Body Lotion, 3 fl oz - BN - $7
Spa Luxetique - Moonlight Magic Body Oil, 3.2 fl oz - BN - $5
ESPA - Smooth & Firm Body Butter, 100 mL - BN - $20
Skylar - Hydrating Body Lotion, 1 fl oz - BN - $4
Hemp Heaven - Coconut Body Lotion, 12 oz - BN - $6
SRMKND - Black Blossom Hand Serum, 50 mL - BN - $15
Serums/Exfoliating:
Cure - Natural Aqua Gel, 250 g - BN - $15
Sweet Chef - Ginger + Vitamin C Tonic, 130 mL - BN - $9
TULA - Exfoliating Sugar Scrub, 11 g - BN - $6
Clinique - Moisture Surge Eye Concentrate, 15 mL - BN - $3
Earth Harbor - Aurora Luminance Ampoule, 1 fl oz - BN - $14
Human+kind - Moisturizing Hand Scrub, 2.5 fl oz - BN - $5
Trader Joe's - Rose Water Facial Toner, 4 fl oz - Sprayed once, lid cover missing - $2
Miscellaneous:
Dolce Glow - Self-Tanning Mist, 6.4 oz - BN - $25
Bondi Sands - Gradual Tanning Milk, 12.7 fl oz - BN - $10
Kneipp - Mineral Bath Salt, 60 g - BN - $5
Natural Konjac Facial Sponge - BN - $1
June - Feminine Hygiene Wipes, ~8 ct - BN - $2
Degree - Cool Rush Antiperspirants Spray, 1 oz - BN - $2
Free Samples (Or $1 for 4):

• Caudalie Vinoperfect
• Gloves in a Bottle Lotion
• Peach & Lily Matcha Pudding Cream
• Derma E Crepey Skin Repair Treatment
• Derma E Crepey Skin Exfoliating Scrub
• Chanel Hydra Beauty Serum
• Compressed Facial Mask x 2
• Tarte Maracuja Oil
• Bobbi Brown Eye Cream
• PINK Coco Lotion x 3
• Sunday Riley Good Genes
• La Mer Moisturizing Soft Cream
• GlamGlow Youthmud
• Freeman Mud Mask
• FAB Niacinamide Serum
• SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense
• Biore Pore Strip
• Palmers Hemp Body Oil x 2
• TULA 24-7 moisture
• Bergman Kelly Body Lotion
• Replenix Redness Reducing AOX Cream
• It's Skin Propolis Formula
• It's Skin Syn-Ake Formula
• Renew Pure Radiance Oil

Schedule:

• Savage week 1: 10-16 hours per day until clear
• Everything else: 8pm - midnight Eastern (1-4 nights per week for Savage; 3-5 for Ultimate prog)

We’ll pick exact nights of the week for Savage post-week-1 and Ultimate prog by 8/8 consensus.
About us:
Although there’s been gradual turnover, some form of this group has raided nights-and-weekends in Savage week 1 since Deltascape, avoiding PTO. We started a week 1 clear streak at Eden’s Gate and broke it at Anabaseios with a 0.1% enrage on Monday night. Heading into Dawntrail, we decided to change our week 1 schedule to all-day-every-day until clear, while retaining a more relaxed pace for everything else. We also prog and farm Ultimates together as they release (pentalegends, but that’s not required). We play under the static name UNLUCKY.
Seeking:

• Past Savage week 1 clear
• Past Ultimate clear before passive power creep (i.e. before new consumables/geasync)
• 95th percentile logs in at least one Savage tier
• Willingness to split-clear lower Savage floors in week 1, and to split-reclear until first-set-BIS

Minisite:
I cannot include a proper link in the post body because reddit automatically nukes posts containing sites google com links no matter the subreddit. Sorry for the inconvenience.
sites. google. com/view/unlucky-ffxiv
Visit for group background, scheduling info, raiding approach, roster with fflogs links, sample strat materials, and more.

Is it possible for one's hips to get narrower from stopping / pausing HRT?
For context, I stopped HRT cold-turkey for a couple weeks due to a sudden concern about fertility, restarted two weeks later as I started to see remasculinization and didn't want to take the risk, and now I've been back on HRT for a month (with a blood test to confirm that I have high E and low T) but the effects are not what they usually are.
I've cycled on and off HRT many times before, when I was doing monotherapy, and never had any issued with feminization resuming when I restarted it. This time, however, I was on progesterone and spiro in addition to the estrogen, and my body is nowhere near as femme as it usually is after being on HRT for a month. My skin is not as soft as it tends to get after this much time, my psychological state doesn't feel particularly estrogen-dominant, my face looks a bit more masculine, etc.
One way or another, this changeup in my hormone balance is causing my body to remasculinize, or simply to not feminize, some things, but is there a limit to what this can change?
My hips grew noticeably wider as I started HRT at 18 and didn't have a particularly aggressive male puberty, but now my tailbone (I think?) hurts slightly and I've noticed that my hips don't appear as wide as they used to be. My gait (the way I walk) feels slightly more masculine, slightly more like it was before my hips got wider, yet I'm not aware of any way for human hips to shift from a feminine bone structure to a masculine one.
Am I just seeing changes to fat distribution or could my hips actually be reversing the growth they experienced from years of HRT?