Monday, October 12, 2015

Monday Meanderings - October 12, 2015

First Meandering ...

It's time for Bookmarked Bargains. A ton of great books are on sale from October 12-16, including my novella, Second Chances 101, which is on sale for $.99. Click here to check out the other books.

And, as always, there's an awesome giveaway, so be sure to scroll through a list of books to get to it.


Second Meandering ...

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about a class I attended that was taught by psychologist Bruce Christopher about dealing with difficult people--and getting results. 

He went over:
  1. Types of difficult people
  2. What they do and why
  3. What you shouldn't do
  4. The surprising effect of interrupting the difficult person's patterns.
As I was listening to his presentation, I saw huge motivational questions for characters.

Here's snippet of him on a video teaching this topic. It really begins 1:39 minutes in. Then it leads into another presentation he does about the differences between men and women. He's very funny and really knows his stuff.



Third Meandering ...

Best personal League of Legends weekend ever. 

When you play this game (the easier levels like I do right now), you play with four other real people against five bots. The game is simpler against bots. When you're ready to up your game, you go against humans. Yeah. I get spanked. My sons play the game and get impatient with me because real humans are so much better (and craftier) than bots are. I wish there was a level somewhere in between. 

Anyway, Karma is probably my favorite character to play. She's support--meaning she helps the champion she's teamed with--but she can also kick butt.


On Friday, the person I partnered in the bottom lane with said I was "the best support ever." *grins* I ended up with 31 assists (kills that I helped with) and something like 11 kills myself. Then in another game, I was asked afterwards if I was a smurf.

Smurf, you ask?

Just so you know, for someone like me, that's an ultimate compliment. See, there are some amazing players out there. In fact, right now the Worlds championship is going on.

I LOVE esports. Who knew? 

Just so you know:
  • More people watch League games than watch the Super Bowl.
  • ESPN even did an issue that touched on esports and focused heavily on League.
  • ESPN's webpage is covering the Worlds' championship games. 
Back on topic.

A smurf is when a really good player creates a secondary (smurf) account and plays with less skilled players. They frequently do that when learning a new champion.

My score is the one on the top (I was playing Karma again) in the picture to the right. The 9 is for my kills, the 1 is the number of times I died, and the 22 is the number of assists. 

The second score belongs to the team member I was supporting. 

We're randomly put on teams by the computer, so I don't know the people I play with. Sometimes we don't match up so well. They don't get what I'm doing to support them, and they fail to take advantage of kills I set up. But it can be magic when things work.


Sorry. This post is already longer than I intended it to be.

Questions for you ...

Have you or anyone you know dealt with difficult people? Ha! We should ask ourselves if we're the difficult people. Have any secrets to share?

What about League. Do you or anyone you know play it?


23 comments:

  1. You don't look blue...
    I think it is really awesome you geek out with your sons and play League of Legends! That is so cool. I don't do online games, but I have friends that are really hooked on that one.
    More tips on dealing with difficult people are always appreciated, because there are so many difficult people out there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love playing with the boys (men now). For me, that's the ultimate way to spend new Year's Eve.

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  2. That's awesome you play this with your sons. Like Alex, I don't play online games.

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    1. It's my relaxation and my reward when I stick to my writing deadlines.

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  3. When I worked as a teacher there were kids who had police records in some of the classes... so yes, I did deal with difficult people. I always feel the parents of difficult people should be locked up in jail :)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah. I think you've got that right. I used to work in a psychiatric hospital. So often the docs would say a lot of the kids didn't belong in the adolescent treatment center--their parents did.

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  4. Had to deal with difficult people a time or ten, ignore them mostly at my den. haha never knew what smurf meant. Awesome you get to play with your sons.

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  5. I have definitely dealt with difficult people. I have learned to be compassionate towards them because I know they are suffering and unhappy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's was one of the insights Bruce provided. The results when you approach them correctly can be awesome.

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  6. I have not played LoL I play the Blizzard version Heroes of the Storm and of course still jump on WoW from time to time. I actually think games are great inspiration. Plus is always something fun to do with the family.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're also huge StarCraft fans. One son is more into Heroes than League, and we've played with him. Seems Heroes is a less complicated version of League. Great fun with the family. And I used my StarCraft experience as a way to bring love interests together in one of my books. :)

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  7. I've dealt with difficult students, their parents, and coworkers. They're everywhere I go. I've gotten better dealing with them, but tips are always helpful. If they're wearing too much armor, I may not be able to reach them, but some of them have lowered it and have accepted my kindness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kindness can often be the key. But not always, sadly.

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  8. Difficult People - Ha, ha, ha! The more I deal with them, the better I'm becoming at not being one. Ha! I actually can learn new tricks. I think that's the plus at being over 50, at this age you're actually sure you don't know everything and can learn something new. I hate to admit it but I know I've been a difficult person at times, hopefully more times in the past than recently. Life is a little too short to deal with difficult people and I don't want people avoiding me because they think I'm difficult.

    Gaming - If it goes beyond Candy Crush or Words with Friends - you've completely lost me. HA!

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    Replies
    1. I try not to be difficult. Sometimes we have to be.

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  9. Difficult people are all over. I deal with them for the most part by being easy to get along with and trying not to get overly worked up about their difficulty.

    I have no idea what League of Legends is, but when I played World of Warcraft, my main character was a Holy paladin, so I sure get the 'support' thing. I always made sure I was doing more to help the raid than just standing in the back throwing heals around.

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    Replies
    1. I was never able to get into WoW but I enjoyed playing versions of WarCraft for the PC. We'd use a lan and have the family play together.

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  10. I have dealt with many difficult people throughout my career. Luckily my mother is Queen of Dealing with difficult people and so I learned from the best on how to cope and not become stressed in any given situation. (a stiff drink after the fact did help that though :)). Now, I am glad I had those experiences because it taught me how not to be.

    Have a great week, Donna. Great post!!

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    Replies
    1. That is really good to have someone who could model appropriate behavior. So useful!

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  11. I didn't know anything about League, but it's clearly a big thing. Very cool!

    Something tells me you're looking forward to Halloween... :)

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  12. Difficult people are all over. Everyone collides with one at sometime in their lives.

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Comments brighten my day.

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