Week 4 - King Ra (1-1) vs. Zenland (1-2) - ZENLAND WINS 6-5

[Mike Wrecka]

http://i.imgur.com/uAJesXX.png
Season 2

Rules

Verse Due Date - Thursday 23:59 PST

Voting Deadline - Sunday 23:59 PST

Line Limits - 16 - 48 Max can be higher if both agree

Voting - Must vote on 3 battles and post voting links in this thread, preferably all in one post.

If you don't vote on 3 battle you will be given a loss. If you lose by votes and don't vote on other battles you receive a one week suspension.


Topic

Sun


Good Luck King Ra. Zenland

[Zen]

Hello, Newman.

http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?t=25120
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?t=25112
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?t=25115
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?t=25111
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?t=25113

[King Ra.]

Epic approved.

http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?p=185462#post185462
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?p=185509#post185509
http://www.netcees.co/showthread.php?p=185497#post185497

[Zen]

Sands of Time

"The heat it exudes reaches the deepest tombs,
From the leaves in bloom, and even the moon.
At its peak at noon you can see it loom
Overhead, but it's leaving soon."
The knower said as he held his bleeding wound.
"The sun's caress has done its best
But I must confess it needs us too.
Its love's the chest we're breathing through.
What's wrong my student? You seem confused?"
I couldn't answer, but I believe what he speaks is true.
"Master get on your feet we need to move."
We crawled from the oasis that provided us shade
And stepped into the violent rays of the sun's silent gaze.
"Student this is the worst time of day
To move, you must wait and listen to what I'm trying to say
Before my mind decays."
Just then he fell and dropped in the sand.
"Master you've got to stand!"
"I can not, but you can.
Never in our mind do we live to fall,
But the blessed will find the will to resolve.
For the cursed, the pressure of time will wither and dissolve.
I loathe the lies of those seldom prepared
That control minds with tales that scare;
The sinner's at fault, but the devil's everywhere."
He closed his eyes yet I still felt his stare.
The old man died as he exhaled the air
That built in his chest. Then I looked to the hill to the west
And saw the soldiers wielding a silver crest
Of the church instilled on their breast.
"The old man is dead. Let's kill this pest!!"
I tried to run but my bones were confined
To sit still right in the soldiers line...
But then the sun vanished
They were left frozen inside this moment in time
In their only home, the mind.
But The Knower had shown me the light.

The coldest of souls never grow old.

[King Ra.]

The legend stated,

Ausar laid in pieces. Set's rage reached it's peak.
He glanced sharply at Auset then disappeared in a blink.
Summoned the darkness to spread Ausar's carcass
across every valley & creek. Auset forced to search
for her husband's remains as she silently weeped. After
thousands of miles & weeks, she gathered each and every
piece & with Anubis assistance bound Ausar back together.
Lo & behold: they resurrected the King!
It wasn't long until they consummated & Auset would concieve,
the Prince of the King, Heru, who sought the throne- which he later achieved.
and so it began,
primitive man's greatest fear was the darkness, Set's fumes.
A tomb for the dearly departed whom laid in Death's womb.
The thief's theme, a nights harvest. Discreet schemes that spell doom.
When the sun set, the dangers within roamed about under a crescent moon.
It's hidden history (or not)- an ancient story of old.
Since the beginning of time, when many nations arose.
If you read between the lines all the lies will unfold,
the Truth will start to shine even if others oppose.
The salvation of mankind: the Sun rising above the horizon.
The Cosmic Lion, fiery mane vibrant, every man's soul ignited.
Consciousness heightened, exuberant triumph like when the
Sun dies on the Cross.
It's a universal concept that was once known but is now literally taught. S'why the whole world is in zombie phase because the inner-G's lost.
But the awakenings fought, minds enlightened when infinity's sought.
Think of all the bloodshed that religious beliefs wrought,
when all the loves dead from the vicious deceit brought.

Heru is a symbol of the Divine, the Sun when it shines,
of a cosmic design, when the celestial bodies align.
It was always a sign-
metaphysical truth cloaked & meshed within hieroglyphic confines.
Only those initiated & wise could ever decode the message then rise.
Like the ascension of Christ who understood the absolute truth when all thought it was said done.
It's histories greatest story ever told: The Rise & Fall of the Sun.


"All hail Heru! Son of Ausar the King!
Prince! Peacemaker!
Ruler of the Day! Watcher of the Night!
Who lives Forever & Ever!
All hail Heru!"

Amen.

[Just Write]

this was definitely a dope battle, definitely botw material.

Zenland,
pretty descriptive as far as planting a story in my head of two guys out in the middle of the desert, the teacher and the master (said knower) which I was feeling up until he seen the dudes with the crests on the hill. wish you would have went into detail a little more about who or why they were after you, just didn't seem complete right there. other than that i thought it was a good story that was executed well mechanically.



King Ra,
another great verse. reallylike the way you tell a story. it's almost written like it was a broadway play or something, either way i enjoyed this very much. the tale puts me in a medieval time feel, real knights of the round table type shit. my only problem is i didn't feel satisfied at the end. like i wanted to know why he was a peacemaker and a great king like the bold print at the end describes. idk just felt like it was cut short and almost dissapointed me.


this is a tough vote but i'm going to have to go with king ra just because i think the parts of his story that were good outweighed the lack of that missing stanza feel i get and although i really enjoyed zenlands verse as well i think he didn't come quite hard enough to handle ra this week. absolutely great battle guys

[Adonis]

Voting now, but Epic approved Leaned me tho.

ZEN - First read I have to say, much improved flow. I prefer these shortened lines because when you use longer lines I feel like you fit in TOO much rhymes. These shortened bars didn't hinder that, just highlighted the amount of flow and rhyme as doing so is more difficult in shortened lines..

""The sun's caress has done its best
But I must confess it needs us too.
Its love's the chest we're breathing through."

Sounds like a love ballad to the sun thus far. I enjoy the beginning as you leaped head first into the knower's injury and went from there. I'm a bit confused by the ending. It read early on as you saying the heat being overcoming and such, almost like the world was ending in a blaze. Then the sun disappeared and froze an army. Strange events, must you consistently write in the drug realm? Flow was dope, concept was good??? Although I have wishful thinking in what concept was, because execution of solid concept was weak. A bit jumpy, almost like a dream, but it was a story.

Newman - "Summoned the darkness to spread Ausar's carcass
across every valley & creek. Auset forced to search
for her husband's remains as she silently weeped. After
thousands of miles & weeks, she gathered each and every
piece & with Anubis assistance bound Ausar back together."

Flow wise, this right here turned me off from the start, which is sad because your concept is dope as all hell. The breaks in lines hurt my eyes, meaning a sentence being broken into a bar. Then it's wept at that, IDK, I just couldn't catch any semblance of a flow in this portion. Moving on.... "The thief's theme, a nights harvest. Discreet schemes that spell doom." Then you go and mindfuck me with this inner rhyme and dope flowing thought, asshole. I saw you post something about living with it"", I assume you meant the double line where you forgot to press enter. For shame King, you sneaky ways of correcting it astound, like a thief in the night. Again, the concept is something dear to me, the style anyways, this ancient lore shit resonates with me on some metaphysical level and I love every instance of its existence. Dope verse, but that begining might come back around brother.


Zen had a dope story that played tricks on the mind, whether intentional or not, I personally enjoyed that aspect. Top notch writing from both aside from the part I highlighted that I really didn't like at all. RA I sort of get the flow in the begining, i see the middle words rhyme but I just am not a fan. King breathed life into a very old tale and did so very well, giving it his own twist connecting to the topic.

In the end, it's very hard for me not to vote for lore, and the old tales breathing life because thats what I read about on my free time. So seeing a verse in the aowl just, resonates, and I have a preference for them types

So....

v/King Ra

but this was a close, close close battle. In the end, King had just the write concept to swoon my votes. Dope verse Zen, but like I said, he wrote something right up my ally, preference thing my brethren

[PancakeBrah]

Zenland -

Pretty good. There's a lot of possible interpretations of your verse, I think. To me the themes of religion vs. the 'knowledge' of the Knower, the frozen in time in your mind, the sunsetting, and the single line post script seem to point toward maybe not atheism but freedom of thought outside of religion. Although the sun, which is usually a symbol of life, setting and freezing the religion in his mind gives me pause towards this interpretation. I'm sure I've missed your intended point but I'm sure if you explained it in plain talk it'd be one of the multiple I ran through while reading and re-reading this. As for the language of the piece and mechanics this was mostly good. I enjoyed your off-kilter rhymes at the beginning which is something I remember you employing against Rawn in Week 1. As in, taking two sets of multi's with the same vowel sounds and creating different schemes with them in the same lines. The rhyming throughout was a strongpoint; only one or two instances of rhyming that hung me up in the reading as a bit forced which is a very good rate of return. The 'flow' was smooth throughout. I'd say that my favorite part of your verse was its readability. I found myself reading it over a few times just because it flowed from point to point so well. The deft use of dialogue helped that. Dialogue is a difficult thing to write period, let alone when you have the constraint of rhyming but you pulled it off well. My only real nitpick in terms of wording was

"Never in our mind do we live to fall,
But the blessed will find the will to resolve."

where there should be no 'But' at the start of the second line. The ideas in each line are the same, not opposed, so the 'but' is incongruous. There was one spot near the beginning of the verse where you used past tense whereas the rest of this verse is present tense. Those are minor faults. I enjoyed reading this even if it was a bit to vague for me to properly pin down your meaning. Thanks.

King Ra -

Decent. There were portions of your verse where you had intricate styling in your schemes and fresh rhymes. There were other portions, though, were you used hackneyed rhymes with words people use to sound intelligent, all in succession. Specifically the end of your first verse. My eyes glazed over when I read that as I've probably read some combination of that specific rhyme pattern and wording dozens of times before. Your subject matter missed for me, personally, but I won't hold that against you. The subject matter you selected, that I didn't like, was written and handled well and that's what should count. The second half of your first verse, before the aforementioned rhyme scheme, was great in terms of relation to the topic. You gave the sun its due majesty and you can almost feel the awe and power bleeding out of the verse. I thought your last two 'verses' were much weaker than the first and just due to length. I can understand the inclusion of the second verse as it completes the idea and allusion of the first, but the third was a bit of atmosphere that I could have lived without. Sometimes less is more. Thanks for the read, it was interesting.

Close battle, two entirely different verses both in content and structure. I felt that Zenland's verse was smoother and was more effortlessly synchronized in idea and technical ability. Good battle, glad to have had read it.

v/Zenland

[Mike Wrecka]

dope battle indeed. you guys really stuck on the topic more than any others ive read this week. im happy to say my genius inspired these verses. lol.

Zenland - really enjoyed this verse. I was picturing a teacher and a student in ancient Egypt. the teacher explaining the sun to his pupil. the best part was that you described the sun in the exact terms that I would envision them using in that time period with their limited understanding of science and the universe. yes they thought the sun died everyday and resurrected, which I wish you added to your verse. maybe you weren't talking about the Egyptians specifically but a civilization in that area around that time. you veered off that track later on in the verse and it lost that charm for me. and the rhymes got real simple towards the end. needed more multis. but real good verse

King - king went old school topical on this verse. using the ancient names and such. it was similar to zenlands in some ways. technically it was superior. and the vocab impressed me in some spots. really liked this verse as well. but to me it didn't really keep my attention as well as Zens. I don't know why it just didn't

overall - this is going down to preference and I slightly preferred Zens out of the two very good reads. thanks guys.

vote - Zenland

[Angkor]

Zenland - word this was ill, kid. I liked this alot. as others have mentioned, the flow and rhyme were very impressive. The story appears to be about two fugitive on the run from a religious sect. Like Pancake, i also saw it as a commentary on religion, however i saw it in a slightly different way. "Master" is an understood alias of Jesus. I'm certain i'm off but i walked away from the piece with the notion that perhaps the residual belief and laws of Christianity (as we know it) isn't as intended by the founder: Jesus Christ. The parallel between the "Master" and Christ (aside from the name) was that Christ was also an enemy of the dominant religion of the time. One can easily interchange the crescent symbol of the church for the Pharisee who went after Jesus. Despite slight variation in story, the central idea i got from it is "The truth shall set you free". I'm 100 percent i'm off here but it was fun creating my own interpretation. very nice, son.

King Ra - So after reading Zen, i had a strange uncanny feeling when i got done with yours. I feel there are quite a bit of similarity here. They both share the theme of "truth" or ultimate truth. I'm somewhat familiar with Egyptian mythology and i thought it was interesting how you linked it to Christianity. Sun/Son cross. Fiery Lion (dope imagery btw)/Lion of Judah to represent Christ, i think. This definitely had a touch of paganism about - dismissing the scripture as nothing but a story and that the real miracle, salvation and power comes from what is already seen; something we have perhaps lost touch with:

It's a universal concept that was once known but is now literally taught. S'why the whole world is in zombie phase because the inner-G's lost.



Vote - this is a very very tough one to vote. no lie. Both were rooted behind very VERY interesting ideas. The stories were both engaging to me. So with that said, there's really no other way to judge besides the technical aspect. And going by that criteria, i have to give it to Zenland. But word, great battle for sure. King Ra's on my top 5 writer of this site so this vote definitely was surprising to me as well lol. Good shit, yall.

[Frank]

topic: sun

zenland.
"The heat it exudes reaches the deepest tombs,
^baking imagery.
From the leaves in bloom, and even the moon.
At its peak at noon you can see it loom
Overhead, but it's leaving soon."
^worded it like a flying saucer
The knower said as he held his bleeding wound.
"The sun's caress has done its best
But I must confess it needs us too.
Its love's the chest we're breathing through.
What's wrong my student? You seem confused?"
^"whats wrong student" was nice progression but the scheme was sounding so good it was a shame you couldn't find another way to say it.
I couldn't answer, but I believe what he speaks is true.
"Master get on your feet we need to move."
^I like the progression and how "we need to move" ends the scheme.
We crawled from the oasis that provided us shade
And stepped into the violent rays of the sun's silent gaze.
"Student this is the worst time of day
^dope
To move, you must wait and listen to what I'm trying to say
Before my mind decays."
^/ablaze/decay/same shit
Just then he fell and dropped in the sand.
"Master you've got to stand!"
"I can not, but you can.
^here is an example of structure critique. if "but you can" is one line lower, on a separate it becomes that more powerful.
Never in our mind do we live to fall,
But the blessed will find the will to resolve.
For the cursed, the pressure of time will wither and dissolve.
I loathe the lies of those seldom prepared
^loath the lies, seldom, good vocabulary dating back to the first line, somewhat keeping with a theme.
That control minds with tales that scare;
The sinner's at fault, but the devil's everywhere."
He closed his eyes yet I still felt his stare.
The old man died as he exhaled the air
That built in his chest. Then I looked to the hill to the west
And saw the soldiers wielding a silver crest
Of the church instilled on their breast.
^good writing
"The old man is dead. Let's kill this pest!!"
^i didn't like pest - some more ancient slander would've done.
I tried to run but my bones were confined
To sit still right in the soldiers line...
But then the sun vanished
They were left frozen inside this moment in time
In their only home, the mind.
But The Knower had shown me the light.

The coldest of souls never grow old.
^uh.


pictured the scorpion king while reading this. this was very well written. you slowed down time here and really wrote something poignant this week. the imagery was outstanding and the flow of the story progressed at a novel like pace with a rapper like flow. only setback was the ending was a little lackluster losing steam towards the very end where a more over bearing moral light should of been shed.

King Ra
Ausar laid in pieces. Set's rage reached it's peak.
He glanced sharply at Auset then disappeared in a blink.
Summoned the darkness to spread Ausar's carcass
across every valley & creek. Auset forced to search
^"across every valley & creek" was brutal.
for her husband's remains as she silently weeped. After
thousands of miles & weeks, she gathered each and every
piece & with Anubis assistance bound Ausar back together.
Lo & behold: they resurrected the King!
^stylishly written.
It wasn't long until they consummated & Auset would concieve,
the Prince of the King, Heru, who sought the throne- which he later achieved.
and so it began,
^"and so it began" stands alone here.
primitive man's greatest fear was the darkness, Set's fumes.
A tomb for the dearly departed whom laid in Death's womb.
The thief's theme, a nights harvest. Discreet schemes that spell doom.
When the sun set, the dangers within roamed about under a crescent moon.
^building off imagery zenland came through with already. i like that.
It's hidden history (or not)- an ancient story of old.
Since the beginning of time, when many nations arose.
If you read between the lines all the lies will unfold,
the Truth will start to shine even if others oppose.
The salvation of mankind: the Sun rising above the horizon.
The Cosmic Lion, fiery mane vibrant, every man's soul ignited.
^cosmic lion fiery mane vibrant - electrifying depiction
Consciousness heightened, exuberant triumph like when the
Sun dies on the Cross.
It's a universal concept that was once known but is now literally taught. S'why the whole world is in zombie phase because the inner-G's lost.
But the awakenings fought, minds enlightened when infinity's sought.
Think of all the bloodshed that religious beliefs wrought,
when all the loves dead from the vicious deceit brought.
^i like the language of this, very noble

Heru is a symbol of the Divine, the Sun when it shines,
of a cosmic design, when the celestial bodies align.
It was always a sign-
metaphysical truth cloaked & meshed within hieroglyphic confines.
Only those initiated & wise could ever decode the message then rise.
Like the ascension of Christ who understood the absolute truth when all thought it was said done.
It's histories greatest story ever told: The Rise & Fall of the Sun.


"All hail Heru! Son of Ausar the King!
Prince! Peacemaker!
Ruler of the Day! Watcher of the Night!
Who lives Forever & Ever!
All hail Heru!"

Amen.
^good show.


i read somewhere someone predicted that the votes would read ''real close, but....''
and that is the case, zenland i think you might have tooken my advice. almost every line was captured stunningly - however the ending could've used a rewording. i enjoyed it though. good flow backed by some wonderful imagery. king ra, you read zenland's verse, huh? almost identical , but I guess the sun evokes these type of sand warrior stories. you did some research or had prior knowledge of god of sun heru who I haven't googled but i trust your word in that realm. You managed to write something epically stylish. and go above and beyond and for that you barely beat out zenland who didn't shine as bright in the closing moments, where as his opponent did. eclipsing his effort.

vote - king ra

[e11even]

Zen- this was the tightest execution I've seen from you in this tourney thus far. There was strong rhyme emphasis and a more maturely written format in terms of how you conveyed your topic. The beginning and middle were pretty tightly woven, but by the end seemed slightly abrupt. Additionally, it felt like there were more things to explain here. Overall, really good piece.

Ra- Damn. This was your finest week so far. Very well mapped out, explained, and schemed. Flawless delivery and deep story choice. This drop was very well laid out and thought provoking at points. Good job.

I'm happy I managed to scrounge up the attention span to vote this week, as you two really upped the ante against each other. You obviously understand that there's more at stake, given that its obvious you two are certified contenders now. Great job to both of you for the effort.

In this battle you both chose story, seemingly war over religion. Zen, you managed to tell the story well technically, but seemed to a need a little more backstory details. Ra, you had a more complete and detailed story, and hour own spin on how to relate to what you wrote, gbus making it a more enjoyable read. MVGT King Ra

[YDK]

This was definitely a clash of styles lol Zen you used near perfect flow to tell a story and came through with a fresh concept and good execution. A strong drop my dude, I just wish it was longer to flesh out the characters more.
RA, I loved the story bro definitely a unique take on an old tale. Although the flow REALLY hindered me an made it hard to concentrate on the story an rhyme scheme at the same time you still used alot of originality that I could appreciate.
overall tho I gotta vote for Zen because it was written strongly an did lack too much in any certain department like I felt RA did. Good battle guys

[breathless]

Vote - Zen

This was really really hard to pick actually, Zen had the style and ra had the story, so it came down to who took the topic better and had the least shartings....

Highpoints...
Zen
I loathe the lies of those seldom prepared
That control minds with tales that scare;
The sinner's at fault, but the devil's everywhere."
He closed his eyes yet I still felt his stare.
The old man died as he exhaled the air

The way you slightly split some multies was superb, adding to the genuine dialogue feel as well, and many may say, oh seldom doesn't rhyme with tales and those don't rhyme with devil and still felt... I see what you did hear, here... And then the "o and I" 1st standard multis, fucking great, tony the tigered that shit

Ra
It's hidden history (or not)- an ancient story of old.
Since the beginning of time, when many nations arose.
If you read between the lines all the lies will unfold,
the Truth will start to shine even if others oppose

Good solid flow and rhymes, flipflopping ancient story/many nations was nicely done. But, the highpoint of this was because I was growing tired of the Egyptian mythology history lesson and this was a pleasant segue into where the piece was going


Lowpoints
Zen
The ending, I dunno, it just sorta culminated into nothing spectacular, like watching a souffle deflate, I got the connection to the love chest breathing through/sun vanishing, but I dunno, the soldiers seemed out to come out of nowhere in an awkward way, uhhh may have missed an allusion though...

We crawled from the oasis that provided us shade
And stepped into the violent rays of the sun's silent gaze.

You fucked the flow up in the second line...

"Student this is the worst time of day
To move, you must wait and listen to what I'm trying to say

Wait, no you didn't...

Before my mind decays."

Fucker

I dunno what you did there, but, you did all the wrong things in the right way, this is a good thing, but it made me mad


Ra
The whole beginning... Just wasn't feeling it much, went on too long, too many names and it wasn't down with enough lyrical gusto

The salvation of mankind: the Sun rising above the horizon.
The Cosmic Lion, fiery mane vibrant, every man's soul ignited.

Killed it

Consciousness heightened, exuberant triumph like when the
Sun dies on the Cross.

This is lined wrong or something...
Shoulda been
Consciousness heightened, exuberant triumph like when
the Sun dies on the Cross.

Whatevs tho...


It's a universal concept that was once known but is now literally taught. S'why the whole world is in zombie phase because the inner-G's lost.

Whoa now, did you have a fucking stroke? This is honestly what lost it for you, for me, here

But the awakenings fought, minds enlightened when infinity's sought.
Think of all the bloodshed that religious beliefs wrought,
when all the loves dead from the vicious deceit brought.

Then that, although good visual rhymes, it just doesn't sound right and actually comes off phonetically like a single syllable scheme, you got your dactyls and trochees backwards or something

Like the ascension of Christ who understood the absolute truth when all thought it was said done.

And that sealed the loss

[Certain]

Zenland: This verse was really good, probably the best I've seen from you. I loved it from the opening, where it felt like we were dropped in naturally mid-conversation. This reminded me of a scene from a kung-fu movie, where the master is teaching Zen patience to the pupil. The master was full of knowledge, and he was the one the army feared. But when he died, he gave his strength to the student. It's nice to use a little escapism in a story from time to time, and this felt like escapting the real world in favor of a more epxressive one. There was a lot of religious significance to this. But I felt you could have handled the writing of the knower's death and the recognition from the troops a little smoother. Shifting out to where the troops were for their thoughts seemed unnecessary; I would have preferred you stuck with one vantage point throughout, especially since we hadn't even been warned of the lingering army earlier. Dialogue this overt normally really bothers me, but here it felt like an important part of setting up the knower's spirituality and depth. It's great to see this level of originality here, particularly when the writing is mostly crisp.

King Ra.: I'm curious why you avoided the names we use much more often: Osiris, Isis and Horus. I'd heard of Ausar as another name for Osiris and knew the Osiris myth pretty well because mythology always was a favorite, but I don't recall ever hearing Auset or Heru used. (I looked them up and found they were the un-Anglocized names, which alone may justify your decision.) Anyway, that point is irrelevant. This was a very cool take on the topic, wrapping your own user name into the verse in a way with the well-known Egyptian myth. And I liked the logical connection you formed. This actually read like a persuasive essay in rhyme form, an interpretation of how the Osiris myth has defined modern religion's goals. I wish you had taken more time on that second stanza and less on the first, developing connections to how all religions ultimately are praising the sun. I'm not sure the connection to the Egyptian myth was as strong as you made it out to be because Set was not the God of night but rather generally viewed as the God of the dessert, with the battle being more about rain than sun. Still, had you not spent so much time developing that angle, you could have won me over with a wider variety of religious connections. As is, you presented a persuasive essay that wasn't backed by enough. And you were going against a really original story that also had strong religious overtones.

Vote: Zenland

[patrown]

Zenland - this read, so well. so, very, well. i'm almost out of time right now, but i want to make it clear you really outdid yourself here. great piece. amazing story telling.

King ra- best i've read from you so far. very complete, great execution to a hard topic. just enough, not too much. i can't complain about any aspect of this piece, and i enjoyed it throughout.

/v king ra - his piece felt complete at the end. both were amazing though. simply amazing pieces. if zen had woven some more profound statements into the conclusion of his piece i think he would have taken this battle with ease. this was a hard decision to make, but ill stand by it.