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Long Form Content Proposal

2023.05.30 17:11 idunknow2 Long Form Content Proposal

I currently feel FFXIV is missing a form of a true long term grind form of rewarding optional content. Current forms of “grindy” content often are limited to a singular aspect or area of the game with rewards that are largely fashion based. I.e. relic weapons, relic crafting/gathering, castle in the sky achievement, ranked PVP. Relic weapons offer short term benefits before they are outclassed by the next expansion and other grindy content like hunt achievements only offer skins/mounts.
I am proposing a long term activity targeted at players who have the feeling of “what should I do now” by providing a carrot that leads them around all game activities. The reward that would make this more interesting would provide a player with an exclusive quality of life benefit that is not seen with current rewards.
Proposal: Have players complete major grinds across all activities FFXIV has to offer while offering them freedom on how they interact with those activities. (i.e. Blue Mage, Eureka, Hunts, Fishing, etc).
The reward would be a choice of an exclusive weapon skin + exclusive emote + QOL benefit such as (generate a free materia of choice per day, unlock a second chocobo saddle bag, unlock a set of color dyes permanently without the need for paint cans, etc). The reason for it unlocking 1 weapon skin is to provide incentive to repeat this grind for all classes providing more “optional content.” The only piece of equipment that truly feels 'legendary/exlusive' are Ultimate weapons due to their accessibility for non-raiders. I would like to see a legendary piece open up for other types of players.
The Grind: The only piece of content that rewards you for truly experiencing the entire game is the Triple Triad card mount which requires you to fill a massive amount of your card collection. These cards require you to repeat dungeons, trials, raids, beast tribes, crafting, blue mage, eureka, gold saucer, bozja, etc. Let’s scale this up a bit. The idea is to collect unique exclusive items that are only rewarded after completing a 'grind' in a certain activity. Collect enough of these unique items to trade into a vendor for your reward.
Here are examples of systems & associated grinds:
The benefit of forcing players to interact with multiple activities is introducing players to activities they may not normally engage with. This could also increase population for such activities. However if players does not enjoy a certain system such as PVP, this can lead to frustration. I would propose that the player has to complete for example 16 out of 18 of the activities which can lead to some choice for the player. An idea like this would not be difficult to implement in game; it reuses old systems and should require little development time while providing a large amount of 'content' which would make something like this a quick and easy win for developers I hope.
This may seem like its only for the few, but having something to chip away at everyday and something to awe at can add a new experience to the game for many. I'll go touch some grass now.
submitted by idunknow2 to ffxivdiscussion [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 17:10 BL_Classics Takumi-kun Series -- Interview with the Lead Actors (translated by me)

Link to original interview: https://www.moviecollection.jp/interview/197565/?4
(Their photos are marvellous, please check out the web page!)
Link to theme song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dBJDewXIc&t=19s
(It's a lovely, gentle song. Do give it a listen.)
​
Interview with Morishita Shion (Takumi) and Kato Daigo (Gii). I will abbreviate them as M and K respectively. I'm still learning Japanese, so this is the result of my own limited knowledge + Google Translate + Jisho.org and some guessing.
Q: Can you tell us how you came about to do this role?
M: I auditioned for it and at the final screening I had to read the script together with Daigo-kun. I was really nervous.
K: I was invited to audition for the role and when I saw Shion-chan, I immediately thought 'he's definitely Takumi!'. He matched exactly the image of Takumi that I had in my mind.
M: I'm really happy to hear that.
K: Well, from my point of view, he's my junior, and he's cute, so I wanted to make things easier for him.
M: Daigo-kun has a certain aura about him, he's always the centre of attention, idolised by everyone. To me it seemed like he was perfectly suited to play the role of the cool and popular Gii.
Q: The two of you played Takumi and Gii, so can you tell us how you felt about being associated with such a legendary BL novel?
M: After getting the lead role, I was ecstatic. But as the filming came nearer, I began to get nervous. A BL novel with so many fans, with a 30+ year history, such a highly valued work -- I wondered if I would be able to do it justice.
K: This was my first starring role in my first film. I've acted on stage, but still my career was only about 2 years in. And I had so many younger co-actors too. Anybody would feel pressure in this situation, but as one of the lead actors, I felt it particularly strongly.
Q: Just as you're wearing now, were you able to get into the feeling of your roles when you wore the traditional light blue school uniform?
M: I thought 'Oh, this feels real!' (laughs). From now, my life at Shidou Academy begins!
K: I was reminded of my school days. Like that morning when I didn't eat my breakfast and was scolded by my mother! (laughs)
Q: What did you understand about the characters that you portrayed?
K: Gii is an all-round desirable guy (rich, handsome, cool, popular), and fans can be particular about how such a character should be portrayed. I was a little scared that I wouldn't be able to do it properly, but in the end I decided that I would deliver the best version of 'Takumi-kun Series' that Shion-chan and I can deliver with our unique capabilities.
M: 'Human contact phobia' is one of the key attributes of Takumi, and I wanted to stay true to that portrayal of Takumi, just as in the original work. However, as filming progressed and I discussed the scenes with the director and with Daigo-kun, I came to realise that there was no prescribed 'correct' way to express the character, and that it would be okay to put my personal stamp on the portrayal.
Q: Please tell us about the similarities and the differences between you and the character.
M: I have many similarities with Takumi. I am also 173 cm tall, I too come from Shizuoka, and my blood type is also B. I don't know what his weight is supposed to be though. Like me, he is reserved and has conversations with himself, so we have many points in common. That made it easier to get into the role.
K: I was attracted to the character of Gii because he and I are very different. I tried to remember how the popular people from my school days were like, what such characters in anime are like, what kind of feelings such a perfect-seeming person might have. For example, what would he be thinking even when he doesn't say anything to Takumi? These were the things I kept in mind for getting into the role.
Q: Was there anything in particular you did in the approach to the acting?
M: Before the filming, Daigo-kun let me stay at his place. He said I didn't have to go back to my place.
K: I wanted to read the script together and I had a lot of things to discuss at that stage. I think it is good for co-stars to have a place where they can converse easily. My seniors were very good to me, so I want to support my junior even if it is in a small way.
M: I am really thankful. Daigo-kun is good at taking the lead, just like Gii, so our relationship grew naturally and this helped our performance on set.
Q: Please tell us about some episodes during filming.
K: Out of all the scenes between Gii and Takumi, the kiss scene had the most number of takes!
M: I lost count of how many times I messed it up!
K: Rather, it was more like filming it in many different versions
M: I was tentatively trying out different ways -- is this how Takumi would do it, nope he wouldn't do it like this at all, etc -- a lot of trial and error.
K: We tried out various approaches. It was a good experience.
M: When you see the kiss scene, please think of it as the result of all our experimentation! (laughs)
Q: Now I want to see all the NG cuts!
K: Sorry, we can't show you all of them! (laughs)
Q: There are many heart-throbbing scenes in the film, but are there any scenes when you felt your heart pang towards your partner?
K: Oh yes, there was one! When Shion-chan looked up at me in one scene, I felt a genuine pang in my heart. I thought it's good that I'm tall!
M: The kabe-don scene. Since Daigo-kun is taller than me, when he did the kabe-don, my field of vision was filled with his handsome face and I felt a real pang in my heart. Now I know why girls like kabe-don scenes!
Q: The kabe-don scene is a must-see! Kato-san, you also sang the theme song for the film. Please tell us how that happened.
K: Since I love music, being able to use my song in my first film and my first starring role feels like winning a treasure in my life. I had already done the song, but the director said it would be good for the film. I feel it has a strong connection to the work.
M: It's awesome to have Gii's voice singing at the end of the film. The lyrics sound as if they were written for Takumi, and you can imagine Gii singing it.
Q: Finally, a message for all those who will see the film, please.
K: This is a work that depicts pure love. You can see the viewpoints of different characters and I think you will enjoy discovering many things. I hope that you will see it again and again.
M: There are many fascinating characters and many heart-throbbing scenes. Apart from Takumi and Gii, you will see the emergence of other couples, and lines that foreshadow events in the subsequent works. I think it will make a path that fans can follow. Please enjoy watching it.
submitted by BL_Classics to boyslove [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 17:06 axisokdev I documented the winner character of every 2023 Strive tournament I found on YouTube

Personally, I don't like tier lists, especially because they're extremely biased and don't represent actual results. So what does represent results? Well, what else if not the results themselves?
So, I decided to make a "tier list" based on real data with video evidence. These videos were all found by searching "guilty gear strive top 8" on YouTube and sorting by newest. Then I went through them one by one, checked what character won really fast (very likely to have made several mistakes) and made a list. I could keep going, but I already spent a few hours on those so I decided to stop on the first tournament of 2023. Plus, we probably don't want to include too old videos, as the difference between patches would be too big to ignore.
Also, there are several missing because for some reason they're either not on YouTube at all or they didn't show up in the search (notably baccpaBrawl has several missing on search, but they are available on the channel), don't take that as a list of every recorded tournament in 2023 because it's definitely not. And again, there's definitely mistakes somewhere, I did not check every video twice and some links might be broken/lead to something unrelated for some reason.
So, here it is, the results:

Tournament winners

Win count

So, what conclusions can we draw from that? Well, I would personally ignore everything at or below 2 wins, as I'd say that's where you can see a singular player carrying the character that one time or two. I would also like to point out that many of the character wins are from the same very few players, which could change the way you think about the list, but do remember that if they're sweeping consistently maybe the character is good after all.
Those things aside, I do think that the "tier list" formed by those wins is decently accurate. It would be interesting to check every single one of those videos and include more players from the top 8, maybe that way we'd see some obvious characters that are missing like Baiken. But it might become slightly more of a popularity contest, which could go against the original goal.
I wouldn't say this is a tier list of which character to pick if you're new to tournaments and want to win, but instead a tier list of which characters are more likely to win any future tournament. I'd consider anything below Zato to be the underdog, and everything above to be one of the favorites to win it all. Why is Ky up there with the big boys? I don't know, I guess Dany is just built different.

Fun zone

One last thing I wanted to do, as this might be more representative of the actual power level of a character. Just keep in mind that these are some arbitrary numbers and calculations and there aren't enough samples to draw any conclusions even if they were scientific. The numbers don't reflect reality at all, it's just for fun.
I'm taking the popularity on 2100-2200 elo from Rating Update (as of writing this) and dividing the percentage of wins by it. What that gives us is a number that is bigger if a character is not very popular but wins a lot, and lower if a character is very popular but doesn't win much. A number of 1 means the character is in line with what you'd expect, higher means they're winning too much and lower means they should be winning more. Again, 49 tournaments is not enough and the numbers are going to look funny.
We could somehow include the amount of different players using each character, but while we could pretend that would be closer to the truth about the character being good or bad, I think the number is already meaningless enough as it is.
So I think what we learned from this is that May is severely underpowered and needs some buffs. S dolphin will be +0 on block on the next patch, boys.
submitted by axisokdev to Guiltygear [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 17:02 ZachTheLitchKing [CW] Smash 'Em Up Sunday - The Petty Crusade

Original Prompt

The Petty Crusade
Port Adriel. One of the scummiest cities in the Empire. When the humans took it back in the war it had been a crown jewel along the coast. Now? Now it was a vacation destination for workaholic paladins like Aisling. One of the most decorated members of The Order, Aisling the Bright chose to use her annual week of R&R to assist the city guard of Port Adriel. Helping them knock some petty crimes off of their books gave her the feeling of doing good that she needed, and made their numbers look better.
Win-win.
Today she was after a young man named Liam who was accused of selling faulty or fake enchanted items. If he was doing so, then he was an idiot for naming his shop Liam's Discount & Refurbished Enchantment Emporium. Aisling had to admit that the painting of a rusted sword glowing with a magic aura had a sort of eye-catching charm, but if crooks could get away because of good marketing then the city would look nicer and feel worse.
The tiefling stepped inside and glanced around as the bell over the door rang. There were many weapons, and none of them were secured by any chains or behind glass. She saw a couple of very large pistols that looked to be far too heavy to hold in one hand. A Giant gunslinger, maybe? she thought as she hefted one. It was even heavier than it looked to be and her arm trembled just trying to lift.
"Please don't touch the merchandise," a voice said from her left. Aisling saw a man enter the room; tall and broad-shouldered with a rotund belly, he had a familiar look to his face that instantly flashed the paladin back to the rebellion a few years ago. A young man, tall and fair and much more fit, had led an uprising after his grandfather was executed. Aisling did not know the politics of the situation, only that the old man had been an upstart some years before. She had no opinion on the execution, but the rebellion? Well, it had ended because of her.
"Liam, I take it?" Aisling asked, setting the gun back down and walking over to the counter, "By the gods you're tall."
"Yeah, I get-" Liam finally looked up from the clipboard he had been paying attention to and his eyes darkened. He recognized her as much as she recognized him.
"Listen here, cupcake," Aisling said, leaning on the counter with one armored hand while the other relaxed on the hilt of her sword, "Here's how it's going to go. You're gonna put down that clipboard, step around the counter, and get on your knees. You're gonna put your hands behind your head. I'm gonna cuff you. Then we'll take a nice walk out to my carriage where you'll get inside and no one will see this, so you can save face or whatever matters to your kind. I don't know, and I don't care. Then I'm gonna take you down to the station and hand you over to the city guard." She loved to talk and every word she said was interesting.
"But I-"
"Bah, bah, bah," the cocky tiefling shook her finger, "It doesn't matter, and I don't care. You stand accused, and I'm just here to bring you in. If you're innocent they'll let you go and if not, I just made their jobs easier. Despite the, uh...weight you've gained in the last few years you still look like a guy who can give a few underpaid guards a run for their-"
As soon as Aisling said 'run' Liam did exactly that. He turned and booked it into the back of the shop. Aisling sighed and touched a crest on her armor. It instantly doffed; melting away in the front so she could jump out, the great sword she wielded firm in her grip. If the fat, failed rebel wanted to run, Aisling was more than happy to give chase. It would be fun.
This was a vacation, after all.
---
This is an Alternate Universe of u/poiyurt 's The Reluctant Crusade. Give it a read!
submitted by ZachTheLitchKing to TomesOfTheLitchKing [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 17:01 YourBrilliantLayer A Comprehensive Guide to Hyperpigmentation and How to Treat it

Hey-Oh! So, I see some form of this question multiple times per day in various skin and personal care subs: How do I deal with my hyperpigmentation? I also asked myself this question a few years ago. See, I'm prone to freckles and a little melasma and I set out to figure out a way to solve it with years of research, trial and error, testing, talking to dermatologists and professionals, and scouring every medical article I could get my hands on. I wanted to share my findings and research since this is a common concern, especially among people in their 30s. This started as a small post about my routine and ballooned into a massive book about hyperpigmentation. I hope it's helpful!
DISCLAIMERS:
This is going to get long because I wanted to cover everything re:hyperpigmentation. But for your reading pleasure and ease, I have divided this post up so you can get whatever information you need:
Table of Contents
  1. Types of Hyperpigmentation
  2. What Causes Hyperpigmentation?
  3. How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 1: The Ingredients
  4. How to Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 2: The Routine and Recommendations
  5. Body Hyperpigmentation
  6. Nuclear Options
Let's get to it!

Types of Hyperpigmentation

Hyperpigmentation refers to excess melanin production in the skin, but it can actually take a couple different forms. Knowing the type of hyperpigmentation you're experiencing is key to understanding if and how it can be treated.
Freckles: Freckles are incredibly common, especially for people with lighter skin tones. They are small, brown or reddish-brown dots often clustered on the skin. They develop on the surface and are not raised bumps. Freckles can appear anywhere on the body but are common on the face. Freckles are permanent, but the color, contrast and severity can vary and be tempered.
Melasma: Melasma appears as dark patches or splotches around the face, though usually found on the forehead, upper lip, and high on the cheeks. Melasma forms deeper in the skin and appears more amorphous than freckles, moles, or age spots. It can create a “muddy” appearance and is very common among pregnant and postpartum women due to hormonal factors. But it can literally happen to anyone and anywhere on the body.
Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation (PIH): Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) occurs when damaged skin forms melanin during the healing process leaving dark spots. This is common after acne, injuries, eczema, burns, and other trauma to the skin. Exposure to UV rays during healing can make PIH worse. Post-inflammatory erythema (PIE) is similar, but leaves pink or red marks on the skin as a result of damage to the capillaries from injury or inflammation. Basically, when skin is compromised by injury, as part of the immune response cells will begin to generate melanin in an attempt to prevent further damage from UV exposure, so what will happen is the wound/legion/blemish will heal but the pigmented skin remains.
Age Spots: This is kind of a forgotten form of hyperpigmentation. Sun spots, also referred to as liver spots, and solar lentigines are large spots/patches of dark skin with distinct borders. They vary in color from light brown to almost black. They develop on the surface of the skin usually later in life, but reflect damage that often occurred from improper sun protection at a younger age. They can appear on the face, neck, chest, hands, and arms, usually on areas that had UV exposure. For many people, they can begin to appear in your 30s or 40s.

What Causes Hyperpigmentation?

There are a number of factors that can contribute to the formation of hyperpigmentation. Generally, it forms as the result of a combination of genetic and environmental influences. Everyone is unique, but these are some of the most common causes of hyperpigmentation and dark spots:
Genetics can play a role in the development of hyperpigmentation and dark spots in several ways:
Sun (UV) Exposure. In addition to genetic determination of melanin production, UV exposure is the leading environmental cause of hyperpigmentation and the formation of dark spots. Melanin is the pigment that provides color to our skin, hair, and eyes. It acts as a natural sunscreen (but don't treat it like natural sunscreen!!! This isn't the point of the exercise), absorbing UV radiation to protect the skin from damage.
When the skin is exposed to UV radiation, the melanocytes (cells that produce melanin) in the skin go into overdrive, producing more melanin to protect the skin from further damage. This increased melanin production can result in dark spots or areas of hyperpigmentation on the skin.
Hormones. In addition to genetic determination of melanin production, hormones and hormonal sensitivity is a leading internal cause of hyperpigmentation and the formation of dark spots.
One of the most well-known examples of hormonal hyperpigmentation is melasma, a condition characterized by dark, amorphous patches on the face, particularly on the cheeks, forehead, nose, and upper lip. Melasma is often associated with hormonal changes, such as those that occur during pregnancy, hormonal therapy, or birth control pill use. The hormonal changes can stimulate an increase in melanin production, resulting in dark spots or areas of hyperpigmentation. This can happen irrespective of UV exposure, though the sun does exacerbate it.
Hormones can also affect melanin production by altering the skin's metabolism and pigmentation pathways. For example, high levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands during stress, can trigger an increase in melanin production, resulting in hyperpigmentation.
Inflammation, Injury & Trauma to the skin can result in hyperpigmentation by triggering an increase in melanin production. When the skin is inflamed or injured, it triggers a response from the body's immune system, which can stimulate an increase in melanin production as a protective measure.
For example, acne breakouts or other skin injuries can result in post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), which is characterized by dark spots or areas of discoloration on the skin. The dark spots are a result of an increase in melanin production in the affected area, which occurs in response to the inflammation or injury. In addition to acne and other skin injuries, other conditions that can result in PIH include eczema, psoriasis, and insect bites.
Medication Side Effects. Certain medications can cause hyperpigmentation on the skin. Medications that can cause hyperpigmentation include:
If using these medications is necessary for your livelihood, it is not recommended to stop their use without the recommendation of your doctor.

How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 1: The Ingredients

When looking for skin care products to treat and prevent hyperpigmentation and dark spots, it's important to look for ingredients that can help encourage cell turnover, curb melanin production, and block harmful UV rays. A lot of these things overlap with treatments for other conditions like acne and general anti-aging, but I've noted ones that specifically work on the mechanisms controlling melanin production. Now, this is an extensive list, but I know it doesn't have everything. I've included the ingredients that had the most compelling evidence and/or worked the best for me or people at my practice. But it's also not necessarily a shopping list. You don't have to have all of these things to treat hyperpigmentation, but I'll get to that in the routine portion. This is more to be used as a tool that can help you diversify your routine if you find one ingredient or another doesn't work for you. And it can help you determine if a product targets hyperpigmentation based on its ingredients. There's lot's of options. Some of the key ingredients to look for include:
Retinoids that increases cell turnover. Retinoids like tretinoin, adapalene, retinol et al, can help treat hyperpigmentation by promoting the turnover of skin cells and increasing cell growth, which can help fade dark spots and improve overall skin tone by replacing pigmented skin cells at the surface. While retinoids are extremely effective, they do have some caveats. First, they can be sensitizing to a lot of users, but this can be tempered by using different form functions, different application methods, or different concentrations. Second, because it's constantly turning over skin exposing delicate new skin cells to the elements, it can actually worsen hyperpigmentation if you're not vigilant about sun protection and avoidance. Tretinoin and other retinoids are firewalled behind a prescription in some countries and may be more difficult to obtain. But retinol/al is available in OTC forms.
SPF represents a class of many ingredients designed to protect the skin from UV rays and the damage that occurs from exposure. UV exposure is one of the biggest causes of fine hyperpigmentation and wrinkles so adequate protection is essential. I know I'm not winning any science awards for this declaration, but a lot of people who struggle with hyperpigmentation aren't adequately protecting themselves from the sun. But you also have to be kind of realistic. Even with perfect protection and avoidance, sometimes your hyperpigmentation will still flare. This happens during the summer for a lot of people and something even I grapple with. The key is to do your best and SPF actually works well with numerous other ingredients (like the ones listed below) to help solve that problem.
Arbutin is a Tyrosinase Inhibitor that blocks melanin production. Arbutin, or the synthesized version called alpha arbutin, is a favorite brightening ingredient because it's a slow-release derivative of hydroquinone that inhibits melanin production. This results in both healing and prevention of dark spots, especially when paired with topical acids. It metabolizes on the skin into hydroquinone which is super effective for hyperpigmentation while being a less controversial and hard-to-come-by ingredient than pure hydroquinone. More on hydroquinone in part 6.
Tranexamic acid is another Tyrosinase Inhibitor. This was first used in wound care and it was found to have profound effects on hyperpigmentation. Although it's an acid, it's not a chemical exfoliant, kinda like how hyaluronic acid is not a chemical exfoliant. The exact mechanism by which tranexamic acid works to reduce hyperpigmentation is not fully understood, but it is believed to work by reducing inflammation by blocking plasmin which contributes to melanin production when unchecked. It is particularly effective in treating melasma and one of my personal favorite ingredients.
Kojic Acid is another Tyrosinase Inhibitor. Kojic acid is a natural skin brightener that is derived from various fungi. Kojic acid can also help to exfoliate because it's a slight chemical exfoliant, which can remove dead skin cells that contribute to hyperpigmentation and improve overall appearance. But it does both things: block melanin production and turn skin cells over.
Azelaic Acid has a lot of things going for it that can help with hyperpigmentation. It's an anti-inflammatory and antiseptic that disrupts melanin production. Azelaic acid works by inhibiting the production of melanin in the skin like those other tyrosinase inhibitors. In addition, azelaic acid also has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, which help to improve the overall health and appearance of the skin by reducing melanin production as a result of injury or inflammation. It's also an anti-acne ingredient that can address the root cause of PIH by reducing acne on the skin. It's pretty awesome and available in OTC and prescription strengths.
Niacinamide is another one that directly and indirectly addresses hyperpigmentation. It's a skin soother that decreases inflammation and it naturally reduces sebum production which can curb acne which can curb PIH. It actually took me a little while to figure out that this was another solid hyperpigmentation treatment for these reasons because I used to look at it as being more of an acne treatment. Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that works by inhibiting the transfer of pigment within the skin, which can help to reduce the appearance of dark spots and uneven skin tone. So while it doesn't block tyrosinase, it prevents transfer of pigmented skin cells to the surface.
Vitamin C aka L-ascorbic acid is an antioxidant that fights free radical damage. It treats and prevents hyperpigmentation in three ways. First, it reduces free radical damage from UV exposure which helps increase the effectiveness of SPF when worn together. Second, it is also a tyrosinase inhibitor that blocks melanin production. And finally, vitamin C encourages skin cell turnover. The key is finding a nice stable version of it.
Glycolic and Lactic Acid. Since this list is getting long I am going to group these together. Glycolic Acid is a water-soluble alpha hydroxy acid that penetrates into the pores to treat pigmentation by providing general exfoliation and resurfacing of the skin. The result is improvements in dark spots, texture and other signs of aging. Lactic Acid is also an AHA but with a slightly larger molecular size than glycolic acid so it doesn't penetrate as deep and acts more as a surface exfoliant. As a result it provides more gentle exfoliation to buff away surface pigmentation with an added benefit of acting as a humectant to seal moisture into the skin.
Licorice Extract is a plant extract that inhibits melanin production. Licorice root extract contains a compound called glabridin, which has been shown to have skin brightening effects as, you guessed it, a tyrosinase inhibitor. In addition, licorice root extract also has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help to reduce redness and inflammation associated with hyperpigmentation. I'm seeing more and more of this pop up in skin care.
Soy Proteins are another plant extract that inhibits melanin production. They contain compounds known as isoflavones, which have been shown to help reduce the amount of melanin produced by melanocytes in the skin. Additionally, soy proteins have antioxidant properties that can help to protect the skin from damage caused by free radicals, which can contribute to hyperpigmentation.

How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 2: The Routine and Recommendations

This is adapted from numerous comments, posts and DMs I've written on the topic and also comprises a large portion of my own personal routine and routines we recommend to patients. This is a generalist routine meaning it targets all the forms of hyperpigmentation I've mentioned; freckles, melasma, PIH, and age spots though it can be tweaked to address these individually more specifically. This is really my jumping off point for people to get a good idea of what they can achieve as a baseline with OTC ingredients before fine tuning or enlisting the help of a dermatologist. For a lot of people, this is enough to fully resolve, but even if it gets you part of the way there, this should give you a good idea of reactivity.
A few caveats:
Alright, let's get to it!
AM routine -- The Goal: Heal, Protect, and Prevent. In order of application following a lukewarm water rinse:
The combo of C+AZ+AA+SPF is an absolute powerhouse for healing existing hyperpigmentation and preventing new hyperpigmentation from forming. It makes your SPF more effective, it inhibits the production of melanin from UV exposure (not your natural melanin production though), and it speeds cell turnover with dual antioxidant action and gentle chemical exfoliation. The result is brighter skin in a few months of consistent use.
For Azelaic Acid, this is the ingredient for serious treatment. It's considered one of the most effective ways to reverse melasma aka serious hyperpigmentation short of hydroquinone -- which is both controversial and hard to get. It brings a little bit of exfoliation to the table in addition to inhibiting UV melanin production, but it also has a slight antiseptic property which can help with acne. Paula's choice Azelaic Acid Booster is the only one I've really tried after sampling the Ordinary's in-store and not liking the texture. I get about 6 months out of a tube and a little bit goes a long way.
For Alpha Arbutin, the Ordinary's formulation is pretty solid. I prefer the Ordinary's AA 2% + HA as opposed to their AA 2% + Ascorbic Acid 8% as I don't believe the quality and stability of their Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is great. That's why I opt for a separate Vitamin C serum step. But the AA + HA also has a little bit of lactic acid in it which provides some gentle exfoliation and encourages AA deeper into the skin where it's more effective. Lactic acid is mild enough that it's safe for use in a morning routine, but you still want to protect with SPF. There are a couple AA products floating around but I think TO's product is probably the best, most straightforward one. Alpha Arbutin metabolizes into hydroquinone on the skin so is basically one of the best OTC pigment correctors you can get.
For Vitamin C, the gold standard really is Skinceuticals CE Ferulic. This is stupid expensive though so I’m going to suggest Timeless Vitamin C. I like that it comes in an airless pump that prevents oxidation over time. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that increases the rate of skin cell turnover bringing forward new, skin cells while simultaneously improving the effects of SPF. It's a great foundation for a fix.
These ingredients can be layered on one right after the other then topped with your moisturizer (I like a basic one like cetaphil daily lotion), then topped with your SPF. The SPF I would recommend is Canmake UV mermaid gel in clear as this will not leave a white cast on your skin and it’s generally a very elegant SPF. It's SPF 50 which means it gives really good protection, but there are numerous SPFs you can try. I personally like anything from La Roche Posay, any Neutrogena SPF that's not formulated with ethylhexylglycerin, Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen, Biore Aqua Rich (another Japanese brand), Trader Joe's SPF if you can get your hands on it, and EltaMD.
Of all the products I’ve tried that could act as a stand-in for vitamin c, azelaic acid, and alpha arbutin, there’s one Japanese serum from Hada Labo called “whitening lotion” which has had the biggest impact on my hyperpigmentation in a single product of anything I’ve tried. This might be a little too effective though, I actually find that it washed me out within the first 2 weeks of twice daily use, so now I only use it in the morning. And I’m not a fan of the translation… which is a direct but mistranslation. It’s not a bleaching lotion, it also relies on a form of vitamin C and tranexamic acid to brighten skin. But it's a really interesting to try if you wanted a simplified morning routine in which case I would apply this, then your moisturizer, then your SPF.
PM routine -- The Goal: Renew and Reveal. In order of application:
To cleanse, I have a really basic recommendation that will remove your SPF, makeup, and any grime/sebum from your day. Start with Cetaphil gentle cleanser. This is a gentle, hydrating cleanser that will break up your SPF really effectively. Massage in and rinse. Then apply a foaming cleanser, I recommend Cetaphil daily cleanser which foams. This will sweep away anything that’s left and give you a good foundation for the rest of your routine. While this doesn't directly help hyperpigmentation specifically, it's a critical step especially for people who are acne>PIH prone. It also gives you a nice clean slate to apply the rest of your skincare. I've tried dozens of cleansers but always come back to these two as good basic options.
For your Buffer this is an important step that can be done prior to using a chemical exfoliant or retinoid: applying an occlusive that will block the active from more sensitive skin. I recommend buffering around your eyes and nostrils with La Roche Posay Cicaplast balm because it kind of doubles as a nice eye cream, but this can also be done with basic vaseline or aquaphor for a more budget-friendly option.
For Tranexamic Acid, my holy grail TXA product, La Roche Posay Glycolic B5 is actually a multipurpose serum that combines ingredients to treat hyperpigmentation with chemical exfoliants. It contains two hyperpigmentation heavy hitters -- Tranexamic acid and Kojic Acid which are great for melasma -- and two exfoliants -- Glycolic Acid and Lipo-Hydroxy Acid (LHA) which is like fancy salicylic acid -- so it both reveals new skin cells that are less prone to pigmenting from UV exposure while sloughing away your old skin cells. You can use this 2 or 3 nights per week. On off nights, just cleanse and moisturize.
For a Retinoid if you can get prescription tretinoin, this is going to be the best bet. Your doctor will advise you on the concentration. More on that in part 6. It will help speed up the rate of cell turnover bringing new, unpigmented skin cells to the surface faster. Some other OTC options include differin (which is rated more for acne but uses the same mechanism for cell turnover so it's also effective in this use case) and retinols. Now, I haven't tried every retinol on the market but I have two that I stand by: SkinCeuticals retinol and L'Oreal retinol serum. The SkinCeuticals is, in my opinion, the closest to RX tretinoin in terms of efficacy, but it's a little pricey. The L'Oreal also does a really good job and is a little more affordable. It's currently my go-to OTC on the days I'm not using my RX retinoid tazarotene. You can use this 2 or 3 nights per week. On off nights, just cleanse and moisturize.
** My recommendations for tranexamic acid and retinoids CANNOT be used in the same night. You'll nuke your skin. And for most people, both aren't necessary, you can get away with using one or the other. If I had a preference, I would say use the TXA serum instead of a retinoid, but if you can build up a tolerance to using them both without damaging your barrier, they work really well together. So, proceed with caution. If you want to use both, use them on alternate nights and give yourself a night or two without either to let your skin recover. For me personally, I do retinoids on Sundays, and Wednesdays, chemical exfoliants on Mondays and Thursdays, and I let my skin rest (cleanse, moisturize, squalene oil) on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
On top of whichever active you choose, apply your moisturizer. You can use the same one you use in your morning routine, the Cetaphil daily lotion as it’s nice and light. I also like La Roche Posay Toleraine double repair for a ceramide-based cream alternative if you want something richer. You do not want to "slug" over actives. This advice gets mixed in a lot. Slugging refers to applying an occlusive layer over your skincare such as vaseline, aquaphor, oils like squalene oil, or healing balms like La Roche Posay Cicaplast balm. While this can be done on hydration nights, it should not be done on nights when you're using chemical exfoliants or retinoids as this may make them too effective causing irritation and breakouts.

Body Hyperpigmentation

Ok, I need everyone to be a grownup for two seconds. These products and methods (both from the prior section and this section) should NOT be used on your genitals. First, you can cause serious irritation or infection by applying active skincare to your genitals. Second, it's really not going to do anything to change the pigmentation of the skin there. The skin on your genitals is different than your body and facial skin and it pigments in different ways for different reasons so it's not going to respond to topicals the same way the rest of your body does. Don't even try it.
To be perfectly clear, these are the areas you should not be applying skincare: labia majora, labia minora, vaginal entrance or vagina, clitoral hood, perineum, anus, intergluteal cleft aka inside your butt crack, penis, or scrotum. And I say this as someone who chaffed the precipice of her "intergluteal cleft" in an unfortunate crunches-in-the-wrong-gym-shorts accident leaving me with some deeply incriminating hyperpigmentation and earning me the nickname "skid mark" from my ever loving boyfriend. It faded after a year but you can still send prayers.
These are areas you can apply skincare but do so with absolute caution and at your own risk: bikini line, mons pubis, inner thigh up to the groin fold, butt cheeks.
Ok, now that we've got the disclaimers out of the way, let's move forward. Hyperpigmentation can also occur on body skin for the same reason it appears on the face, but it can also be triggered by friction. And because body skin is different from facial skin, it requires a slightly different approach. This is my recommendation for both hyperpigmentation and KP (Keratosis pilaris) because they rely on the same mechanism for treatment: chemical exfoliation.
In the case of body hyperpigmentation, I recommend a two prong approach: a body wash in the shower and a topical treatment to be used after. Oh, and SPF again if there are areas that are exposed to the sun, and I have a holy grail SPF recommendation for this.
Now you may have noticed in my facial skin recommendation that I did not mention CeraVe as a treatment brand. I have posted numerous takedowns of CeraVe on other threads so I won't rehash them here suffice it to say that it's no longer a brand I can in good faith recommend since it's acquisition by L'Oreal. This is often the brand that's considered when treating KP on the body, but I don't believe their formulations and ingredient quality works for everyone.
For the body wash, I recommend Neutrogena body clear with Salicylic acid. This is an exfoliating body wash that will help clear away dead skin cells on the surface allowing new ones to come through. To be effective, you want it to sit on your skin for a little while. I recommend lathering it up and applying it after turning off your shower faucet and letting it sit for 2 or 3 minutes. This is when I like to knock out shower emails. Then rinse away.
On towel dried skin after your shower, apply AmLactin Bumps Be Gone. Again, this is formulated for KP but the reason I like it is because it contains lactic acid which will also give the assist on brightening hyperpigmented body skin. The wash and this should be effective, but you might also want to mix in a few drops of the alpha arbutin serum I recommended for your facial routine, maybe three drops per application area (each leg, each arm, chest, etc). I generally don't encourage facial products on the body because it's not an economical use for them, and also because body skin is a little more resilient and doesn't need skincare that's formulated for more sensitive facial skin. The AA serum from the Ordinary is very affordable however and is a good hyperpigmentation generalist.
Another one that I mentioned in the facial hyperpigmentation portion that can work well on the body is the Hada Labo whitening lotion. Again, this is formulated around tranexamic acid which is very effective for hyperpigmentation and a little bit if this stuff goes a long way. I buy it in bulk from Japanese Importers though it's also available on Amazon for a slightly higher price. If you find yourself in Asia, stock up on it. I use this specifically for fading tan lines that happen (even with diligent/neurotic SPF use) around my fitness watch and the straps of my workout tops that I run in.
You also want to wear SPF on areas that are exposed to the sun to prevent pigmentation from occurring. The one I absolutely love that’s not your 90’s banana boat is Aveeno Protect + Hydrate lotion with SPF 60. This is a great SPF for a lot of reasons: it finishes like a lotion instead of a sunscreen, it dries down totally clear, and it has a pleasant, slight sweet scent. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being bare skin, 10 being banana boat slathered on by your mom in 1997, and regular body lotion being a 2, I give Aveeno Protect + Hydrate a 2.5 in terms of texture and feel-finish. I use it as my daily lotion on my neck, arms, shoulders, and chest. If you're more active you might need a heavier hitter here like a sport sunscreen.

Nuclear Options

In general, I recommend trying OTC topical solutions for any skin concern before heading down the in-office procedure route. Part of this is because you can usually put a good dent in what you're struggling with by using OTC topicals, making in-office procedures and RX treatments easier and more effective. Part of it is so you have a good maintenance routine in place to use after the fact to preserve the results of your in-office procedure which can sometimes be costly. Lastly, while some procedures can solve the immediate problem completely, topical skincare can be really effective at treating other adjacent conditions like redness, acne, and fine lines.
Side note: I haven't listed every possible compounded medication because there are a lot, and many compounded meds are formulated to tackle multiple issues like acne and hyperpigmentation. I also tend to favor single note skin care (aka, products with very few ingredients) as this allows you to combine or remove certain actives and gives you a better sense of reactivity.
For tougher-to-treat hyperpigmentation such as melasma, if your topical routine doesn't totally clear the problem in 6 to 8 months, a visit to the dermatologist might be helpful. Here are the heavier-hitting procedures and topicals that can go the extra mile after you've exhausted other options.
Medical Grade Peels: Medical grade chemical peels can be done by dermatologists. Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) or phenol peels may be done for cases of severe hyperpigmentation, but high concentration BHA or AHA peels are also commonly used. I do these twice a year. Because of the strength of the acids used, these must be done by a medical professional with careful followup.
***IPL Therapy and Laser Therapy may not work for everyone and in some cases may exacerbate hyperpigmentation so you really want to work with dermatologists with a lot of experience in treating cases similar to yours to determine if these interventions are appropriate for you.
IPL Treatment: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) therapy can treat hyperpigmentation by targeting the melanin in the skin with a broad spectrum of light wavelengths, heating and breaking the melanin down. IPL is particularly effective for treating sun damage and age spots, as well as other forms of hyperpigmentation. The treatment is relatively non-invasive, with minimal downtime, making it a popular option. This is also a great treatment for the redness associated with enlarged blood vessels (often confused for broken capillaries) on the surface of the skin which can also appear alongside hyperpigmentation. There isn't any clinical evidence to support at-home IPL devices being effective in the same way. That doesn't mean it's not possible, it's just not studied enough to be certain. Most at-home IPL devices do not operate in effective wavelengths the way professional grade ones do.
Laser Therapy: Fractional and CO2 lasers can be used to treat a range of hyperpigmentation issues, including sun damage, age spots, and melasma. The treatment works by removing the top layers of skin, which contain the excess pigmentation, revealing fresh, healthy skin cells underneath. The lasers also stimulate the production of collagen, which helps to improve skin texture and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Hydroquinone: This isn't an in-office procedure like the aforementioned treatments, but it is firewalled behind a prescription meaning you can only access hydroquinone in effective concentrations by working with a doctor. This is a somewhat new development at least in the US following some covid-era rejiggering of prescription clearances. HDQ is controversial because it's a skin bleaching agent which has some cultural implications in places where light skin is favored over natural pigmentation. HDQ technically works the same way other OTC tyrosinase inhibitors do (in fact arbutin actually metabolizes into HDQ when applied to the skin), pure HDQ happens to be the most powerful version of them. It lightens any skin it touches, not just hyperpigmented skin in higher concentrations which can make it tough to use. This effect isn't as profound in the other tyrosinase inhibitors I mentioned making them much easier to use over HDQ which, in high concentrations, must be dotted on the skin in only hyperpigmented areas. So HDQ is really reserved for intervention in extreme or OTC treatment-resistance cases.
Tretinoin and Prescription Retinoids: This is going to be dependent on what part of the world you're in, but in a lot of countries, tretinoin and its counterparts like tazarotene are only available through prescription. I mentioned retinoids in the routine so if you're able to get your hands on a prescription from a doctor, it may be more effective than OTC retinols. Most doctors will prescribe a retinoid over hydroquinone, so this is usually easier to procure and can be quite effective on its own as a hyperpigmentation treatment. OTC differin is the only retinoid available over-the-counter (in the US) which can also be used for hyperpigmentation.
Prescription Azelaic Acid: This is another one that's available in lower concentrations over-the-counter (which can still be quite effective) but there are prescription strength grades of azelaic acid. This is usually reserved for rosacea treatment as it tends to target redness and flushing, or as an acne treatment because of its antiseptic properties, but it can also be an effective hyperpigmentation treatment for its tyrosinase-inhibiting ability.
If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope this information is helpful. While it is extensive and based on massive amount of research, experience, experimentation and work with professionals, it may not be perfect and it may not be suitable for everyone. Feel free to offer any constructive criticism or ask any questions in comments. I am always open to expanding my understanding.
submitted by YourBrilliantLayer to 30PlusSkinCare [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:57 Doomburrito [NM] Executor Super Star Destroyer - Two Winners! - 96 spots at $2/ea

Item Name Set Number: Executor Super Star Destroyer (75356) x2
Lego Price: $77 w/tax x 2 = 154
Shipping: 16x12x4, 3lbs via UPS, insured = $19 x 2 = 38
Raffle Total/Spots: $192, 96 spots @ 2 each
Price justification: Lego.com
Call spots: Y
Spot limit per person: N
Duration of spot limit: N/A
Location(Country): USA
Will ship international: Y, winners outside main 48 states pay overage
Timestamp pics: https://imgur.com/a/okuWb1b
Description: Bot will be called twice. Same number cannot win twice, same person can.
Payment required w/in 10 minutes of raffle filling. Drama is 5 min.
PM me if you need PayPal

Cash App Info: https://cash.app
​
Tip BlobAndHisBoy
Number of vacant slots: 63
Number of unpaid users: 5
Number of unpaid slots: 27
This slot list is created and updated by The EDC Raffle Tool by BlobAndHisBoy.
1
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6 ssj3dvp11
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24 probablynotahobbit PAID
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42 probablynotahobbit PAID
43 AstronautLawyer
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58 ssj3dvp11
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83 Theserialchiller- PAID
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submitted by Doomburrito to lego_raffles [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:56 CocoLenin The Greatest Whig - A Winfield Scott Timeline

The Greatest Whig - A Winfield Scott Timeline submitted by CocoLenin to imaginaryelections [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:45 MGuedes007 Let's recap the season and what's next

I know a lot of people are probably still in their feelings about last night but damn... let's recap a bit the season:
1- Ime fired, so Joe has to assume the coaching role (with this the Celtics lose a coach, and the assistant coach, since Joe has to step up);
2- Danilo Gallinari doesn't play the WHOLE season due to injury;
3- Celtics lose multiple people from coaching staff (Will Hardy, Damon Stoudamire...);
4- Rob.Williams is injured and misses 2/3 of the season;
5- Tatum injures his left wrist and has to play the rest of the season/playoffs like that, and probably will have surgery;
PLAYOFFS
6- Brown hurts his hand due to a vase (are you serious???????), and plays injured;
7- Brogdon gets injured during ECF;
8- Tatum gets injured in the first playoff game 7;
​
I'm not tryna cope or remove the blame from anyone (even tho I think we'd win if Tatum wasn't injured), but I don't think pointing thingers is the answer as well. So, what are the keys to the off-season?
1- Keep Joe and get him a proper coaching staff, I don't think the problem is Joe at all. You can't blame a 34 year old coach for the season they had. The stakes were TOO HIGH for him, especially in the circumstances that he got the coaching role, plus the amount of coaching staff the left didn't help. Also, I don't think we'd be looking for a new coach if a coach like Monty wasn't on the market. Plus, these players have been making the same mistakes with every coach, and have you seen what happened to the Suns in the playoffs these last few years? Have you seen how they were eliminated?
2- Don't trade Jaylen. It's kind of absurd how such a good scorer doesn't have any drawn plays. Felt like sometimes Smart found him in offense, or Brown just had to do everything by himself. I think Brown is a better scorer than Tatum (even tho Tatum is better all around), but he doesn't get any help on offense. Jaylen has been getting better every year, but somehow his handles and 3pt% got a bit worse this year, which idk if it was due to the injury. I'd still like to negotiate his contract and see if he would accept less than the max, due to how he performed these playoffs, and give him incentives like bringing player X or Z.
3- Get Rob more involved in the offense. Please, if someone has KG's number, call him a tell him to show up at Rob's house. He's one of those players that has such a big potential but for some reason, he looks shy on offense. Make him work on post moves, and on a floater.
4- Who should we trade? There's 5 players that should be locked in for next season: Tatum, Brown, Rob, White, and Brogdon. And I'm not saying to trade Smart or Horford, but there's a conversation to be had. This team needs a good ball handler, because Tatum and Brown look like they don't know wtf they're doing a lot of times, even tho Tatum's playmaking is getting much better. I'd like to keep Smart, but we can't keep 3 guards, plus a new PG. I feel like you either trade Brogdon and get a good offensive PG, or trade Smart. It's also time to start looking for a replacement for Al. His defense was really good these playoffs, but his offense fell short. I don't know how many years he got on his legs, but I'd like to keep him while we can because Rob feels too immature sometimes to be the main center.
Brad also needs to know wth he's gonna do with players like Houser, Pritchard, Gallinari, Blake, etc...
​
What's your opinion? I don't think that I'm right or wrong, this is just my POV as a fan.
submitted by MGuedes007 to bostonceltics [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:30 2_Blue Sitting in his tower, surrounded by brass doo-dads, watching naked librarians sunbathing on the rocks below while sipping $100 wine from Dixie Cups, yes, Larry has given a great deal of thought to what he'll do when he wins the lottery . . .

submitted by 2_Blue to walkingonsand [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:29 LeagueOfChesster Unlock Your Potential with a Friendly and Affordable Coach - Over 1,000 Successful Sessions in 2022 Bundle Discounts Available Free Consultation, Analysis, and Sessions Limited Openings for May.

About me
Hello there, my name is Coach Chesster(Yes, an obvious Chess reference, which is, by far, my favorite game). I've been playing League of Legends since season one, I've experienced everything from full AP Yi one-shotting my entire team to Tryndamere mains spinning around with a needlessly large rod instead of a sword. You could say I've been there during all the important historical moments of the game. I've been at the top of the ladder in Season 6 (Going between high Diamond and Challenger, based on how much time I've had to invest). I've competed in various tournaments, even being able to win a number of them, before I decided to get myself into coaching.
Coaching
I started the entire coaching thing during season 7 when one of my friends asked if I wanted to help him get out of that Diamond 4 hell. Ever since then, I was having a consistent number of sessions on a weekly basis, with my network of people slowly increasing(One of them actually gave me the idea to advertise on Reddit, which I did eventually accept!) I've coached more than 700 individuals ever since I started and I can proudly say I've had more than 500 sessions this year alone! So, if you are looking for someone who is around for more than 5 days actually add me.
Some of my personal coaching achievements include
Getting a player from Silver 1 to Platinum in just 5 weeks
Getting D2 to Masters in 2 weeks
Bronze 1 to Diamond, yes, this one happened as well, though it took slightly more time
Helping Duo players on NA reach Gold(They were actually stuck in Bronze 2 prior!)
Creating a coach from hard-stuck D2 after he got GM
Community
In addition to my services, I am proud to present to you our Educational community, which is steadily growing on a daily basis. Aside from Coaching, it is an amazing place to connect with other people, find friends and talk about the game all of us love and enjoy. Various events are held on a weekly basis, from 1v1 tournaments to Team Contests, with nice rewards being given out! Hint, you might win a free session!
All of our coaches have been vetted and verified, being certain all of you guys get the best service available! Every single one has peaked at least Grandmaster, with a minimum of 250 Coaching Hours to their name.
Discord Community: CLICK HERE
- Upon joining, message me in order to have a Role assigned!
Prices?
Prices for my sessions are negotiable and I can guarantee, they fall onto the affordable part of the specter!
My coaching sessions are oriented and tailored to each student's specific needs, and they do cover everything from theory to live coaching, in-game mentality, etc.
submitted by LeagueOfChesster to LeagueCoaching [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:28 YolkBrushWork Steiner Math

YOU KNOW THEY SAY ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. BUT YOU LOOK AT ME AND YOU LOOK AT SAMOA JOE AND YOU CAN SEE THAT STATEMENT IS NOT TRUE! SEE NORMALLY IF YOU GO 1 ON 1 WITH ANOTHER WRESTLER YOU GOT A 50/50 CHANCE OF WINNING! BUT I'M A GENETIC FREAK AND I'M NOT NORMAL! SO YOU GOT A 25% AT BEST AT BEAT ME! AND THEN YOU ADD KURT ANGLE TO THE MIX, YOU THE CHANCES OF WINNING DRASTIC GO DOWN! SEE THE 3 WAY AT SACRIFICE YOU GOT A 33 1/3 CHANCE OF WINNING. BUT I, I GOT A 66 2/3 CHANCE OF WINNING CAUSE KURT ANGLE KNOWS HE CAN'T BEAT ME AND HE'S NOT EVEN GONNA TRY! SO SAMOA JOE YOU TAKE YOUR 33 1/3 CHANCE MINUS MY 25% CHANCE AND YOU GOT 8 1/3 CHANCE OF WINNING AT SACRIFICE. BUT THEN YOU TAKE MY 75% CHANCE OF WINNING IF WE WAS TO GO 1 ON 1 AND THEN ADD 66 2/3 %. I GOT A 141 2/3 CHANCE OF WINNING AT SACRIFICE! SENIOR JOE?THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE AND THEY SPELL DISASTER FOR YOU AT SACRIFICE!
submitted by YolkBrushWork to copypasta [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:16 agusmastro One Night with Jon Irenicus. This is what happened.

Hey community!
A few days ago, I posted my EDH Bad Gifts deck featuring [[Jon Irenicus, Shattered One]] as the commander. Here's a quick recap of my original post:
Thanks to the helpful responses from the community, I made a few tweaks resulting in this updated deck version: DECK LINK FOR BETTER VISUALIZATION
Yesterday, I had the chance to test it in a 3-player edh game against a [[Gorion, Wise Mentor]] deck and a [[Zedruu the Greathearted]] deck. Here are my findings:
I wanted to share my experience here and welcome any recommendations as I continue to fine-tune the deck. I'd like to hear your thoughts on all this.Cheers!
submitted by agusmastro to magicTCG [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:10 Mytho0110 Day after Election - Mega Thread

Good morning folks.
First and foremost, congratulations to the UCP and Daniel Smith on their win. 49-38 is a closer race than I think any of us could have imagined. To think, only 5 seats separates the UCP from the NDP.
As the election has closed, we are seeing a mass influx of posts that are very similar to each other. In order to help with the spam of many election posts. We ask that people use this mega-thread to talk about all things elections.
Last night we had several questions regarding our decision to use multiple Mega-threads. The honest response is, we have a smallish number of mods and it was done to help us moderate the insane amount of comments and posts flooding in. Some fun statistics for you, last night we saw a total of 2,534 moderation actions (for context, in a month we normally see 9,000). To say we were busy is an understatement.
I would like to thank the majority of users for remaining civil and continuing to remain civil. We saw/dealt with a lot of uncivil comments coming from both NDP supporters and UCP supporters. I would not be able to quantify which demographic was worse, as they were each as bad as the other. The sad stat on this one, is we handed out 141 bans, ranging from 30 days to permanent last night. Remember, you are talking to another human being, it is fine to disagree and have different believes. Your words matter. And incase you needed a friendly reminder....
Our trollling rule is still in effect, and any trolling / uncivilty from any side regarding politics, results, or vaguely connected to this topic will result in a minimum of a 30 day ban, longer depending on circumstances. This is your only warning.
You can see the election day mega threads linked below:
Mega-thread 1/2 here
Mega-thread 2/2 here
Mega-thread 3/2 here
Mega-thread 4/2 here
Mega-thread 5/2 here
Mega-thread 6/2 here
Mega-thread 7/2 here
Mega-thread 8/2 here
Mega-thread 9/2 here
submitted by Mytho0110 to alberta [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:10 fresher1405 1936L Hull/Kennedy Guide

Visits: New York x 2, Rest in California (Im not sure, but it may not be necessary to visit NY at all)
This guide should get you 275 votes. There are a few places where more than one correct answer would be acceptable, however.
  1. I will run as a ‘dark horse’ unity candidate like President Cox once was. Myself and the late Mr. Mitchell Palmer once wrote a Democratic unity platform, and I will utilize it in my bid for the nomination.
  2. I shall ask President Cox to give a speech calling for harmony and praising my crusade to bring the differing factions of the party together. He holds great sway among the party faithful and would allow me to bypass the various faction leaders.
  3. I welcome the convention's decision...
  4. Smith and McAdoo must put aside their differences and encourage their supporters to come together; it will be 1909–12 again if Democrats handle themselves as intelligent, unselfish and patriotic citizens and party men should.
  5. The majority of people in our nation have no real voice in government except by the sufferance of the few in control. The forgotten men of our nation do their work, pay their taxes, and fulfill their patriotic duties, yet their contributions are erased or treated with disdain. I am the voice of the forgotten man, and I will deliver them justice.
  6. I advocate a three-point program to restore the American market abroad and end the Depression. Firstly, I will call a permanent World Economic Congress, Secondly, that the President should negotiate trade agreements, and thirdly, that Congress must pursue gradual readjustment downwards of existing tariffs.
  7. I support ending federal Prohibition and returning to the states the right to maintain or do away with it as they please.
  8. I will tell Governor Smith and Mr. Raskob that I will return Prohibition to the states. My own state is staunchly in favor of Prohibition, but I understand that theirs is against it, so a home-rule compromise would benefit all of us.
  9. We must expand federal credit to the states, so they can provide unemployment relief where they would normally be unable to do so and to facilitate the building of infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. We must also reduce working hours and support collective bargaining rights, for it is the workers who are suffering the most in this Depression.
  10. Damnit! We can’t deny it, and we certainly can’t admit it. Let’s have Kennedy campaign with his family at all times; hopefully, that’ll soften the damage a bit.
  11. There are some who believe that the war debts are cause for panic. I believe they are not, and suspending them has certainly done nothing to reduce the skyscraping barriers to trade. We must instead call a World Economic Conference to remedy the situation rather than succumbing to panic and division.
  12. We must support the democratic powers in Europe: France, England, the Danubian Confederation, and the Scandinavian nations. I would be willing to give them more credit provided they lower their tariffs with us. We should also support the demilitarized and condominium zones, they act as necessary barriers between hostile nations.
  13. Senator Glass and Representative Steagall have created a bill that will solve the problems inherent in our banking sector, I fully support this bill and, if elected President, would do everything in my power to see it passed. I also strongly support federal depositors' insurance.
  14. I will visit the Pacific Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. I will contact Vice President McAdoo to arrange a meeting while I am there, hopefully I can win the region with his support.
  15. I will create a Surplus Commission, which would set equalization rates for farmers while allowing for export control, so as to protect and increase prices without the use of tariffs. This is similar to McNary-Haugen, but I believe it is more effective.
  16. Senator Long claims to fight for the working people, yet he is just a corrupt demagogue whose Louisiana regime is infamous across the nation for its corruption and improprieties. Do we really want that same regime in the White House?
  17. We must reduce the burden of taxation, especially on rural Americans, A revision of income tax policy is necessary to balance the rates in a fairer manner. To offset these tax reductions, I would support some form of excess profits tax.
  18. Hold your horses; I’m not touching the subject; I’ll end up alienating a wing of the party if I do.
  19. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been displaced by the Dust Bowl crisis. They are in need of urgent assistance. If elected President, I will immediately create an agency to relocate and assist farmers and create temporary accommodation for refugees.
  20. This is a matter for Britain; any American involvement could destabilize our own nation.
  21. The affairs of Europe are not our concern, beyond trade, of course. I condemn these Falangists and want nothing to do with them. Europe is just too much of a mess right now. They should stay on their side of the Atlantic, and we will stay on ours.
  22. It may be a risk, but I shall hire...
  23. Maybe in future, but I would have to investigate the impact of such an action further, we don’t want to destabilize the markets anymore.
  24. Political machines are just a small part of a much greater problem. Corruption and greed are endemic in our political system; populists like Long and Olsen claim to be against such corruption, yet their regimes are just as corrupt; meanwhile, the Republicans are coated in immorality, and yes, so are some in my party. But No Longer, I say! No Longer! I shall launch a crusade against corruption and patronage across this mighty nation.
  25. New York is key to our victory! I want to campaign with all the big names: Former Governor Smith, Governor Lehman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and anyone else we can think of
  26. I strongly believe that no country has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another. Instead, we should pursue what I call the Good Neighbor policy of friendship and non-interference with Latin America. The United States should cooperate and trade with our neighbors in the spirit of Pan-American internationalism rather than seek imperialist domination.
  27. Support the League of Nations OR I suggest the establishment of a permanent international organization...
  28. I support the broad idea of an old-age pension, but I believe that the Townsend Plan is unfeasible. Instead, I have my own plan: a form of social insurance funded through monthly payments this should be more cost-effective and allow the states to manage sections of the program.
  29. I will make vague entreaties for tolerance between the races and will express my support for Anti-Lynching Bills, As I believe lynching is a barbaric and ungentlemanly practice.
  30. I will speak of unity and freedom. I will warn of the dangers of extremism and isolation and tacitly criticize Long as a demagogue. In this time of great uncertainty, we need a steady hand on the tiller, not those who would divide and alienate. My opponents will be unsuitable, unwilling, and unable to mediate or negotiate in times of great crisis. I will steady the ship.
If there are better answers than the ones mentioned above, do comment the same. Thank you!
submitted by fresher1405 to thecampaigntrail [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:09 boomtao Wondering about (my) resistance

In this video Abraham Hicks talks about "allowing" billions of $$ to come into your live. At 8:17 (cued up in the link: https://youtu.be/csJAlzSgof4?t=497) she talks about "guarding" your money when it comes in, which will block it and somehow make it dissipate. I have a question about that:
A friend and I sometimes play the lottery together whenever there is a big jackpot. He talked about immediately going to the headquarters of the lottery office with the winning ticket. I objected and came up with all kinds of rules and stuff in order to "do it right" and "smart": "No, we should first consult financial advisers to know where and how to park the money and have a notary office collect the money for us in order to stay anonymous. We should figure out to which (tax free) country/bank we can have this money send to in order to avoid having to pay a large chunk of taxes right away", etc. etc. From the point of view of "sensible" financial advice this would be the wiser option, as so many lottery winners go broke within a few years, not knowing how to handle money. But from a LOA point of view ...?
Am I creating resistance? Am I throwing up all kinds of blockages? I felt a little twinge when I said this in that conversation (as I am becoming more sensitive and alert to how I feel) - which makes me wonder!
I am curious to hear what you think about this! Thanks for your input!
submitted by boomtao to lawofattraction [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 16:03 Impressive-Bad-1500 Landscaper scammed myself and others

Throwaway account.
So, I broke rule number one of hiring a local contractor, in the Norfolk, VA area. I paid more money up front than I should have, roughly 2k. I realize how dumb I am, but that’s what I get for putting any faith in humanity.
Anyways, they came to do a landscaping job, gave me a reasonable quote and said they only required a small down payment to begin. I got a signed quote on paper with the itemized list of things to be done. They began work and knocked off a couple things from the list. Then they left for some more materials and to rent equipment. They asked me to pay the couple hundred-dollar deposit for the equipment, saying the one they had couldn’t fit in my yard. I was skeptical and asked a couple questions and got some pretty dumb answers, but I just assumed they were trying to get their local business up and running and needed a little help so I gave it to them. First big mistake. Because then the person continued to make excuses for other things and tacking on additional money. This whole time he was polite and professional, even calling me to give updates and all that. But it was starting to become more and more bullshit.
So I did what I should have done before even contacting the person to begin with, I looked them up. I had the person’s phone number saved as a contact in my phone, so some social media apps automatically ask you to add them. I’d noticed this person pop up once so I decided to check. The name on the account was different then the name he’s provided me and on his flyers/email. So I was like huh that’s strange, so I looked up the name and sure enough it was him.
Then I looked up their company name. They made it very similar to another bigger company in the area, which had many reviews on google, just to trick people. But I eventually found their reviews on local review sites, and then some scam tracking sites. That’s when I saw multiple people say they’ve done this exact same thing multiple times in the same area in the recent past. For very similar amounts of money. Now what little sympathy I had remaining is all out the door. I called and filed a police report, but the officer said at this point it’s not a criminal offense so they couldn’t do anything. Basically, because they started the work, now they’re just technically "working slow". But then he gave some examples of what I could do next based off some people he knew went through a similar situation. Including small claims court.
The information I know:
- Person used a fake name. Found them on social media
- Business is actually not a licensed business
- Lied about being BBB licensed and insured. Looked it up on their site.
- Found multiple people in same situation online
So my questions are:
- If I take this person to small claims court and win, I’ve seen sometimes that the defendant can literally just say they’re not going to pay up even right in front of the judge. So what’s the point?
- Am I allowed to reach out to the other people who got scammed, and see if they are interested in doing a combined lawsuit? And do the total damages accrue, causing the case to actually go to the district court if they are high enough? I saw somewhere small claims is only up to $5,000 in Virginia but correct me if I’m wrong please.
At the end of the day I’d much rather the person just finish the work, or pay me back. But if not, I would like to know what options I have. Thanks in advance!
submitted by Impressive-Bad-1500 to legaladvice [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 15:55 Notmiefault [Video Games] World of Warcraft: Is a Head Start an Advantage in a Race? The Answer May Surprise You!

World of Warcraft’s latest Race to World First has ended, which means it’s time for another Hobbydrama post! Watching this season’s race, I was really worried that nothing truly drama-worthy would happen, things were pretty smooth for most of it. The gods of WoW must have heard my prayers, however, because right at the race’s end an incident, long-feared but never realized, finally came to pass.
If you’ve read any of my three previous posts on World of Warcraft’s Race to World First, then you’ve seen something mentioned about North America’s “Head Start”. I always put off talking about it because it never really mattered. Well strap in folks, because it finally mattered. Big time.
This is a story of timing, about what happens when two competitors aren’t playing under quite the same rules, and about what “fair” really means in a competition that was never really meant to be a competition.
Background
Released in 2004, the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most successful videogames of all time. Players create characters to do battle in the fictional world of Azeroth, a kitchen-sink fantasy setting where players fight dragons, gods, lovecraftian horrors, and each other. The game is heavily multiplayer focused, with pretty much all of the most difficult content in the game requiring a coordinated group of players to participate in. One of the most popular things to do in World of Warcraft is raiding.
Raiding and the Race to World First
A raid, in simplest terms, is a mega-dungeon consisting of a series of bosses that are designed to be tackled by groups of ~20 players. They are generally completed over weeks or months by organized guilds of players, who get together at scheduled times 2-3 days per week to try and work their way through them.
Raids are designed as a cooperative activity, but as with all things, some players got into enough to turn it into a competition. For WoW’s most elite players, it has become a race, the race to beat the Raid first.
While the Race for World First (RWF) has been around since WoW began, it really exploded in popularity in 2019 when top guilds started streaming their attempts. Whenever a new Raid is released, top guilds take time off work and play 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week, desperately pushing to become the very first ones to defeat the final boss of the Raid on the highest difficulty, called Mythic. Hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in to watch them stream their attempts on Twitch. While a number of teams compete, for years the top two teams have been Liquid (based in the US and led by Max) and Echo (based in the EU and led by Scripe).
Abberus, the Shadow Crucible
The newest raid, Abberus the Shadow Crucible, unlocked on May 9th of this year. Like the raid before it, they released every difficulty of raid simultaneously (as opposed to previous years where there was a week delay for the hardest difficulty). This once again meant that the top guilds spent most of first three days grinding gear through a nightmarishly boring process known as “split raiding”, something I covered exhaustively (and exhaustingly) in my last post.
What was more interesting, however, was that a few less competitive guilds went straight into Mythic and actually did pretty well, downing the first three or four bosses before the top guilds even set foot inside.
This wasn’t an anomaly, either - as Liquid and Echo would soon discover, Abberus was a surprisingly easy raid, the easiest in living memory. Bosses were falling over quickly, really quickly.
Now, this isn’t hugely surprising - the last race ended in disaster because it has been too hard from the start, so an overcorrection on the developer’s part seemed almost inevitable. Easy bosses also doesn’t equal an easy race - you’re competing against others, so what really matters is beating them fast.
A Rivalry Renewed
The top two guilds in the RWF for years have been Echo and Liquid. Liquid won their first race back in early 2020, the first time a team from North America had ever won a modern race. This was, at the time, chalked up by many European fans as a fluke owing to their ‘21st man’ strategy that other guilds soon copied. However, Liquid then won the next race as well, Castle Nathria, cementing their place as a RWF powerhouse.
That would be their last win for a while, however - Echo, inheritors to the European RWF dynasty, went on to beat them in all of the next three races - Sanctum of Domination, Sepulcher of the First Ones, and Vault of the Incarnates all went to Echo. It was starting to look like maybe Liquid’s success would be short lived.
Then, in Abberus, Liquid won.
(What, you thought I was going to do some long buildup? Really tease it out, have you on the edge of your seat about what the outcome will be? Sorry to disappoint, but like I said, the raid was pretty easy and drama free, not a ton to talk about before the last boss.)
Liquid were the first to reach Scalecommander Sarkareth and the first to kill him, downing the boss around 18:00 UTC on Monday, May 15th. Echo would kill kim the same day, just before midnight, about six hours after Echo.
And that’s when the RWF community exploded.
What do you mean Liquid got a Head Start?
To understand what I’m about to discuss, we need to make one thing really clear: the Race for World First isn’t an official in-game event. The developer, Blizzard, does not (officially) sanction it or (officially) make any allowances for it. Unofficially, they pay extra attention during the race and try to fix any bugs or balance issues that crop up more quickly than usual, and they absolutely benefit from the free publicity, but unlike things like Dungeon or PVP tournaments that are run by Blizzard and held on a tournament realm, the Race for World first is an entirely grassroots event.
The reason this matters has to do with patch timings. See, Blizzard is a US-based company. While they directly control their North American (NA) servers, servers in other regions like the Europe (EU) and Oceania have their own subsidiaries and partners that maintain them.
When new content is added to the game, it is done so via a patch, an update. During patches the servers go offline for maintenance. As such, you generally want patches to happen when the fewest players are online. In North America, that means patches are usually done on a weekday morning, while most of your players are at work/school; it’s also timed such that, if problems arise, the developers have all day to fix them without having to stay at work late.
Thanks to timezones, however, the best time to patch varies based on where in the world you are. In North America, patches happen on Tuesday at 10:00 am eastern. That’s 4:00 pm in Germany, however, right when everyone is logging on for the evening. As such, rather than rolling out patches at the same time as the NA and inconveniencing players and developers alike, the EU servers instead wait until the following morning to patch.
For most content patches, that isn’t a big deal, it’s a minor delay that affects nothing. For the RWF, however, in effect it gives North America a ~12 hour head start on the race.
If you’re like most new fans of the RWF, you’re probably thinking “okay, North America gets a 12 hour head start, so just give European guilds a 12 hour handicap, problem solved, right?” Unfortunately for everyone involved (except for degenerates like you and I who enjoy fandom drama), it’s not that simple.
How Useful is the Head Start, Really?
So the thing is, having a head start…it’s not a bad thing, per se, it doesn’t actively hurt you, but it doesn’t help nearly as much as you think it would. There’s a couple reasons for this:
  1. One of the most challenging and skilltesting part of the Race for World First is strategizing, coming up with clever ways to defeat bosses. However, this is really only that hard for the first guild to kill a boss - once someone figures out a strategy that works, everyone who comes after can simply copy the first guild’s strategy, maybe even improve on it. As a result, whoever gets there first has to spend a lot of time doing trial and error to figure out a winning strategy, time no one else has to spend.
  2. Bugs and balance issues are both extremely common in the Race for World First (as anyone who followed either of the last two races is well aware). More often than not, a race will have at least one boss who is pretty much unkillable when you reach him, either because the developers tuned him to be too difficult or because one of his mechanics is glitched and doesn’t work correctly. Blizzard doesn’t generally figure this out until a guild actually attempts the boss and discovers the issue, however, so whoever is in the lead has to waste even more time basically doing glorified QA for the developers.
As a result, while the start may look like it’s 12 hours long, in reality a lot, if not most, of that time gets eaten away over the course of the week(s).
On top of this, there’s a lot of other stuff in the RWF that’s not really “fair”, stuff you wouldn’t include if you were trying to design the competition from scratch to ensure the most skilled team always won. To name a few:
  1. Variability in gear drops
  2. Fluctuating server stability
  3. Fans who donate money, time, and gear to their favorite guild
  4. Hotfix timing (like the one that decided the last race)
Basically, the head start is just one issue among many, and far from the most impactful. What’s more, there’s no way to objectively quantify what impact it does have in a way that would be fair to everyone.
The thing is, up to this point, it had never actually been an issue. In theory, even if you think North America benefits fully from the 12 hour head start, it only matters if they win by less than 12 hours. Before Abberus, that had never happened before - both of North America’s wins were by at least a day.
In this latest race, however, their margin of victory was, for the first time, smaller, just over 6 hours.
Now, the general agreement between the top Guilds is that World First is World First; whoever kills the last boss first wins, period. When Liquid killed the final boss, Echo immediately pinned a “Congrats on the win Liquid” in their Twitch chat, acknowledging their win and conceding the race.
Thanks to this, all of Echo’s fans agreed that Liquid had won fair and square and congratulated them on a race well won.
Just kidding, they lost their fucking minds.
The Response
From what I could tell, most Echo fans were actually very sportsmanlike and reasonable, as was Echo itself (mostly - more on that later). However, thanks to the magic of algorithms, the most angry and controversial posts get the most visibility so there was no shortage of outraged Echo fans crying foul, saying Liquid only won because of their head start.
Here’s a few examples from the World First megathread over on /wow:
EU better as usual but NA gets the free early start pass because they're worse.
calling neck in neck with the massive headstart lmao. cope harder
Gratz Echo world first, killed within the NA headstart
Part of the drama was fueled by the fact that, the night before their kill, Liquid stopped streaming. See, most of the race is streamed on Twitch, for clout and those sweet, sweet advertising dollars, but Liquid, just as they were reaching the last phase of the last boss, turned their stream off for a few hours. During this time Echo also began the last phase, which they, unlike Liquid, streamed.
The reason Liquid went dark became clear the next morning when they started pulling again on stream. They had developed a really unique and clever strategy for managing the last phase of the boss, involving using careful timing and certain classes having immunity ability to basically skip a huge damage section and make the entire thing much safer and faster. They stopped streaming while they practiced the strategy because they were worried that, if Echo saw it, they would copy it and then kill the boss while Liquid slept.
Their fears weren’t unfounded. Upon seeing Liquid’s strategy, Echo tried to incorporate it, but by then it was too late, and Liquid killed the boss first. Some Echo fans saw this as fuel for the narrative that the head start does in fact matter.
The funny thing is that Liquid actually borrowed the “turning off the stream to protect a clever strategy” move from Echo, who had done the exact same thing against Sire Denathrius back in 2020 in a (failed) attempt to win that race.
As for Echo’s response to the whole debacle, it was congratulatory and respectful of Liquid but still pretty salty about the whole thing. After the race, Scripe, the Echo raidleader, said on his stream:
What a shit tier man…this was a good global release tilt for sure. It was fucking bad…the game is just not good, that’s what it is. Well played Liquid, but bad game Blizzard. That’s the TLDR of this whole tier… it really is a bad game in terms of competitiveness. It’s all about who gets first, and it’s not great to start late, it sucks.
Speaking personally as a Liquid fan, I have to agree with Scripe. Liquid played great and deserved the win, but it’s still frustrating for Echo, and for fans of the race in general, to have this clear issue of start times muddying the waters. It’s not an easy fix, however; Blizzard could open the raid simultaneously for everyone, but, due to how gearing and weekly resets works, that would only solve the problem if every race finished in the first week (unless they permanently moved to a global reset and patch time, which then complicates things for everyone else). The other option would be to move the race onto a tournament realm and make it an official event, but that would fundamentally change the event in a way a lot of people aren’t on board with.
Other Drama
While the head start was by far the most glaring and discussed bit of drama in this race, there’s a few other juicy tidbits that bear mentioning.
First, this race saw the best performance from a non-Liquid/Echo guild in years, with Method making a really strong showing and only being a few hours behind Echo. If you’ve read my previous post about Method, then you, like me, probably have pretty complicated feelings about this. (TL;DR from that post is that Method used to be the top Guild in the world until a MeToo scandal fractured the organization - Echo was formed mostly out of the raiders that left Method following the scandal). On one hand, it’s a great comeback story, and honestly it would be nice if the RWF was a bit more competitive, rather than always being the same two teams. On the other hand, Method fell from grace because one of their members was a sexual predator, something that there’s strong evidence Method leadership was at least somewhat aware of and did nothing about until it started giving them bad press. As far as I know several of the people who were in charge at that time are still there in leadership positions, so I’m not exactly rooting for them.
Another major complaint about this race was the tuning - as I mentioned before, this raid was the easiest in a long time. Blizzard once again released Mythic alongside Heroic and Normal, which meant the first three days of the race were in miserable splits. Once Echo and Liquid started Mythic, it only took them another three days to clear the race, so they spent as much time grinding gear as they did actually progressing. The total pulls for the entire raid were actually less than the number of pulls it took to kill just Halondrus, a single mid-raid boss from two raids ago. RogerBrown, Echo’s co-GM, tweeted:
Very weird race this time. This raid was probably the worst tuned one since Emerald Nightmare [note: Emerald Nightmare was a raid from 2016 that took less than 24 hours start to finish]. 3 days of splits, for just 3 days of progress aint fun. I would take Sepulcher over these 'bosses' any day. [note: Sepulcher is that race that took 3 weeks and broke a lot of world first racers’ will to live]
A much funnier bit of drama involved another one of Echo’s players, Gingi. Before the race, he shittalked Liquid’s raidleader via tweet, saying “I hope you beat Method this time!” (basically saying “good luck getting second place”). After their loss, Gingi tweeted:
Still amazes me how people can’t have a civil discussion and see things from both sides. Actually got so much brain rot reading the most stupid takes. People saying perfect tuning for this tier is one of them. 2.5 days of mythic progress. Same amount of time on splits.
Many fans were quick to point out the hypocrisy of complaining about a lack of civility in discussions, then in the very next sentence referring to those you don’t agree with as having ‘brain rot’. There’s a whole reddit thread about the tweet exchange that’s pretty entertaining.
Takeaways
Overall this was a pretty fun race. It was nice to see Liquid take a race off Echo; even if you’re not a Liquid fan, competition is always more fun when it feels like there’s multiple parties that could win. While the tuning wasn’t great, the bosses themselves were still fairly interesting, and there weren’t any serious bugs that made everything grind to a halt like in several previous races.
At the same time, however, this race has added fuel to the fire for fans demanding a global release for the raid, to fix North America’s head start. I don’t think I’ve properly explained just how annoying the whole thing is for fans of the race - the head start itself is frustrating, but even more so the fact that it dominates the conversation. Every single race people complain about it, talk about how it’s not really fair. It can feel like the only thing anyone ever talks about… and that was before a race had ever been (theoretically) decided by it. Now that NA has won by less than the head start, the complaining is only going to get worse.
We’ll see what, if anything, Blizzard does about this moving forward (my money is on ‘nothing’ but I’m prepared to be surprised).
Thanks for reading, and huge shoutout to Starym, his coverage of the race was really helpful in finding quotes and timings for everything
submitted by Notmiefault to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 15:50 jakeloans Fun in EU4

Hi all,
I stopped playing this game in the end of 2020, somewhere around governing capacity. I am not entirely sure, because I still watched some streams and sometimes opened the game, but those hours were minimal (for EU4 standards).
The reason I stopped playing was that normal mode was too easy, and very hard was too tedious. It was not even that difficult, but those battles in the 1600-1700's were ruining my PC. It was slow, and the only thing it required was to notice my stacks being attacked by the AI on time. Also, if you would attack a country for the second or third time, they would be ready to field a new army (in comparison to normal, when the second/third war is a easy win).
With the new release, and having played all my other games, I returned back to good old EU4. I played a campaign in India, I won the surrender of Maine in a solo-fight vs France, and switched religion to Anglican, ruining my campaign because even taking one province was a coalition. (so it was no longer fun)
I tried a relaxing game as Castille, but I went over my government cap like crazy (at the moment I integrated Aragon and Portugal to take full money). The reason I integrated both, was because I was missing money to build monuments.
I played a game as the Pope and Brabant, but both were too easy / too difficult. I was number 1 in the Great Power list at the start of the age of absolutism, but I did not have anything crazy to go for. I managed to get my income better under control, but I only made around 1600; 100 ducats / month extra. (which seems too low for me with all the institutions, monuments etc).
I tried to get my absolutism up as the Pope, but it went slow af.
I started a campaign as Byzantium, solo-ed a war against the Ottomans (build fleet, wait till all troops are over, fort rush, blockade port), and again around 1600 I stopped. Number 1 in power ranking and not a real future to world conquest, and very confident I would form Rome if I would focus on this. (almost fully owned Genoa trade region and owned every necessary province + full Egyptian trade region). I had more problems to get my income under control.
Then I started a nice relaxing campaign as the Incas. Even before bordering any colonial nation, they declared on me, so I was unable to reform the governments.
I made a second attempt by rushing to the Colombian area, but at the moment I bordered them, (4 techs behind), Castille and Portugal were able to land the double of troops.
When I tried to just surrender, I lost my interest, because I lost more than half of my land. (released nations, guaranteed by Portugal for over 20 years).
So, I am definitely making mistakes in my campaign, but I don't feel the real challenge. (except to blob at world conquest level, and world conquests are somewhat boring)
Does anyone have a fun idea/mod? I still like the game, I like to watch, but have really no clue what to play.
For anyone suggesting mods, please don't recommend mods who are going full overboard (Meiou and taxes for example).
submitted by jakeloans to eu4 [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 15:46 CrowSMP Why do taxes have to be so painful?

** I have some serious mental illnessess and the lines of argumentation you have all chosen to take have shattered my faith in my fellow canadian. Very few of you showed even a shred of empathy for me when I am clearly very frustrated and lost in this situation. I could have been more eloquent, but mental illness often clouds your judgement. Thanks for all of the help. I am going to take my own life now. There is no point in playing this stupid game surrounded by people who don't want you to win and to be quiet when you lose.
​
For the majority, they probably aren't. But paying my taxes is like a game of 2000 questions with my CPA. Can't I just give you my social insurance number and YOU do everything else? I don't know what the point of keeping receipts and tracking every little thing just to save 100$ in the end. I don't fucking care. This is way too fucking complicated for trying to GIVE THE GOVERNMENT MONEY. Fuck it. At this point I am tempted to just wait for the CRA to serve me and tell me exactly what I owe so I can just pay that off. Which begs the question, why don't they fucking do that in the first place? This is a waste of my time and freedom
submitted by CrowSMP to PersonalFinanceCanada [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 15:40 Xethernety Kraken Robotics Reports Q1 2023 Financial Results with 38% Year-over-Year Revenue Growth

Kraken Robotics Reports Q1 2023 Financial Results with 38% Year-over-Year Revenue Growth
KRKNF (ASK @ 0.4099)
Management Reiterates F2023 Guidance of $66-78 Million in Revenue and $12-17 Million in Adjusted EBITDA
Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF) ("Kraken" or the "Company"), announced it has filed financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (“Q1 2023”).
"With more than $120 million of large contract wins since the beginning of 2022, we are seeing an acceleration in end market demand driven mainly by a heightened geopolitical focus on maritime security and growth in offshore renewable energy," said President and CEO Greg Reid.
“We have started 2023 on solid footing.
Q1 is seasonally our slowest quarter, and we expect to see accelerating results throughout the year driven by defense contracts in hand and normal ramping of activity in our services business focused on offshore wind.”
Q1 2023 Financial Highlights
  • Total revenue was $7.6 million versus $5.5 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2022 (“Q1 2022”), a 38% increase.
  • Products revenue was $5.3 million compared to $3.7 million in Q1 2022, a 43% increase, which was driven by a record number of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) being delivered, work on our large subsea battery order received in Q4 2022 as well as production of a KATFISH™ high-speed towed synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system.
  • Services revenue increased 26% to $2.3 million over Q1 2022, driven by completion of a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) contract utilizing our KATFISH system.
  • Gross margins in Q1 2023 were 59.4% as compared to 32.9% in Q1 2022 and increased due to a change in product and project mix.
  • Adjusted EBITDA1 for the quarter was $0.9 million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.4 million in the comparable quarter. The impact was due to higher revenue and improved gross margins.
  • Net loss in the quarter was $1.3 million, compared to net loss of $2.6 million in Q1 2022.
  • Cash balance at March 31, 2023 was $4.0 million. Subsequent to the quarter, payments on large projects totalling over $8.0 million were received.
  • Total assets were $65.2 million at March 31, 2023, compared to $63.9 million at March 31, 2022.
  • At March 31, 2023, Kraken had $13.8 million in previously awarded non-repayable funding to draw upon from government agencies and project partners for research and development. Of this, $2.2 million of cash has been received for contracts to be completed.
Q1 2023 Operational Highlights
Product Business
  • During the quarter, Kraken announced $2.8 million in SAS purchase orders from defence customers. These systems will be integrated to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for use in minehunting and security applications.
  • January 10, 2023: Appointed David Shea to Chief Technology Officer.
Service Business
  • Q1 is seasonally the slowest quarter for our Services business given offshore weather conditions in our main operating geographies.
  • During Q1, Kraken completed a 200-kilometer KATFISH seabed survey in coastal waters of a large Asia Pacific country.
  • During Q1, Kraken completed several smaller sub-seabed services jobs (cable depth of burial and boulder detection) for offshore wind projects.
Operational Highlights Subsequent to End of Q1 2023
Outlook for 2023
Kraken Robotics reiterates its financial guidance provided on May 1, 2023.
For fiscal 2023, we expect revenue to be in the $66 - $78 million range and adjusted EBITDA in the $12 - $17 million range.
The mid-point of our guidance range ($72 million in revenue and $14.5 million in EBITDA) implies revenue growth of 76% over 2022 and adjusted EBITDA growth of 275%.
Capex in 2023 is expected to be $5-$6 million.
​
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, Adjusted EBITDA is useful to securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in evaluating operating performance by presenting the results of the Company on a basis which excludes the impact of certain non-operational items which enables the primary readers of the MD&A to evaluate the results of the Company such that it was operating without certain non-cash and non-recurring items.
Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as earnings before interest expense, interest income, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense and non-recurring impact transactions, if any. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is defined at Adjusted EBITDA divided by Total Revenue.
https://preview.redd.it/du43m16o2z2b1.png?width=706&format=png&auto=webp&s=1598ebc5690693ad804572c7ffc6cfe4228a7d8a
ABOUT KRAKEN ROBOTICS INC.
Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX.V: PNG) (OTCQB: KRKNF) is a marine technology company providing complex subsea sensors, batteries, and robotic systems.
Our high-resolution 3D acoustic imaging solutions and services enable clients to overcome the challenges in our oceans - safely, efficiently, and sustainably.
Kraken Robotics is headquartered in Canada and has offices in North and South America and Europe.
Kraken is ranked as a Top 100 marine technology company by Marine Technology Reporter.
LINKS:
www.krakenrobotics.com
SOCIAL MEDIA:
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/krakenrobotics Twitter www.twitter.com/krakenrobotics Facebook www.facebook.com/krakenroboticsinc YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMyaMQnneTeIr71HYgrT2A Instagram www.instagram.com/krakenrobotics
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2023.05.30 15:40 Xethernety Kraken Robotics Reports Q1 2023 Financial Results with 38% Year-over-Year Revenue Growth

Kraken Robotics Reports Q1 2023 Financial Results with 38% Year-over-Year Revenue Growth
KRKNF (ASK @ 0.4099)
Management Reiterates F2023 Guidance of $66-78 Million in Revenue and $12-17 Million in Adjusted EBITDA
Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF) ("Kraken" or the "Company"), announced it has filed financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (“Q1 2023”).
"With more than $120 million of large contract wins since the beginning of 2022, we are seeing an acceleration in end market demand driven mainly by a heightened geopolitical focus on maritime security and growth in offshore renewable energy," said President and CEO Greg Reid.
“We have started 2023 on solid footing.
Q1 is seasonally our slowest quarter, and we expect to see accelerating results throughout the year driven by defense contracts in hand and normal ramping of activity in our services business focused on offshore wind.”
Q1 2023 Financial Highlights
  • Total revenue was $7.6 million versus $5.5 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2022 (“Q1 2022”), a 38% increase.
  • Products revenue was $5.3 million compared to $3.7 million in Q1 2022, a 43% increase, which was driven by a record number of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) being delivered, work on our large subsea battery order received in Q4 2022 as well as production of a KATFISH™ high-speed towed synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system.
  • Services revenue increased 26% to $2.3 million over Q1 2022, driven by completion of a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) contract utilizing our KATFISH system.
  • Gross margins in Q1 2023 were 59.4% as compared to 32.9% in Q1 2022 and increased due to a change in product and project mix.
  • Adjusted EBITDA1 for the quarter was $0.9 million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.4 million in the comparable quarter. The impact was due to higher revenue and improved gross margins.
  • Net loss in the quarter was $1.3 million, compared to net loss of $2.6 million in Q1 2022.
  • Cash balance at March 31, 2023 was $4.0 million. Subsequent to the quarter, payments on large projects totalling over $8.0 million were received.
  • Total assets were $65.2 million at March 31, 2023, compared to $63.9 million at March 31, 2022.
  • At March 31, 2023, Kraken had $13.8 million in previously awarded non-repayable funding to draw upon from government agencies and project partners for research and development. Of this, $2.2 million of cash has been received for contracts to be completed.
Q1 2023 Operational Highlights
Product Business
  • During the quarter, Kraken announced $2.8 million in SAS purchase orders from defence customers. These systems will be integrated to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for use in minehunting and security applications.
  • January 10, 2023: Appointed David Shea to Chief Technology Officer.
Service Business
  • Q1 is seasonally the slowest quarter for our Services business given offshore weather conditions in our main operating geographies.
  • During Q1, Kraken completed a 200-kilometer KATFISH seabed survey in coastal waters of a large Asia Pacific country.
  • During Q1, Kraken completed several smaller sub-seabed services jobs (cable depth of burial and boulder detection) for offshore wind projects.
Operational Highlights Subsequent to End of Q1 2023
Outlook for 2023
Kraken Robotics reiterates its financial guidance provided on May 1, 2023.
For fiscal 2023, we expect revenue to be in the $66 - $78 million range and adjusted EBITDA in the $12 - $17 million range.
The mid-point of our guidance range ($72 million in revenue and $14.5 million in EBITDA) implies revenue growth of 76% over 2022 and adjusted EBITDA growth of 275%.
Capex in 2023 is expected to be $5-$6 million.
​
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, Adjusted EBITDA is useful to securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in evaluating operating performance by presenting the results of the Company on a basis which excludes the impact of certain non-operational items which enables the primary readers of the MD&A to evaluate the results of the Company such that it was operating without certain non-cash and non-recurring items.
Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as earnings before interest expense, interest income, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense and non-recurring impact transactions, if any. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is defined at Adjusted EBITDA divided by Total Revenue.
https://preview.redd.it/0hriwm1n2z2b1.png?width=706&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee17e416d4a65cbbc0d0122de7b91b2f6f8eb946
ABOUT KRAKEN ROBOTICS INC.
Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX.V: PNG) (OTCQB: KRKNF) is a marine technology company providing complex subsea sensors, batteries, and robotic systems.
Our high-resolution 3D acoustic imaging solutions and services enable clients to overcome the challenges in our oceans - safely, efficiently, and sustainably.
Kraken Robotics is headquartered in Canada and has offices in North and South America and Europe.
Kraken is ranked as a Top 100 marine technology company by Marine Technology Reporter.
LINKS:
www.krakenrobotics.com
SOCIAL MEDIA:
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/krakenrobotics Twitter www.twitter.com/krakenrobotics Facebook www.facebook.com/krakenroboticsinc YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMyaMQnneTeIr71HYgrT2A Instagram www.instagram.com/krakenrobotics
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2023.05.30 15:38 HeyitsmeThad So what comes up next?

Logan Roy planned on selling the company, that was his succession plan. He didn't see any of his kids as being a viable option, and maybe that is a sign that he thought the company was dying anyways.
So did Tom really win? He get's to lead a company in Waystar-Royco that has it's own problematic issues, and answer to a maniac who has his own company propped up by fraudulent numbers. He may be the ultimate fall guy as he has been treated the entire time, and Shiv will be a quiet force that may be working against him because she is close enough to not let it go (that may be her ultimate curse).
I honestly don't think Kendall and Roman will just disappear. I think Kendall has some deep seated issues which may always get in his way, as with Roman, however, I think after they lick their wounds, they end up running some sort of venture.
Con is going to remain the happiest trust fund baby.
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