LoL: Ashe

Dabbled in a little non-Soraka the past few nights, as we were without either of our typical AD fellows for a while. Of course, Neil had to be a troll and pick Soraka as soon as my back was turned! I don't begrudge anyone to play Soraka, I suppose. It's a relaxing way to play the game, and my personal favorite. But Neil plays her as battle-Soraka, and I just can't get on that bandwagon.

I'm not the best AD carry in the world, as I've discussed previously. I usually leave it to Xian, who froths at the mouth every moment to see someone's hopes and dreams destroyed.

It makes for a super good assassin, and a terribly scary spy in TF2. Me and Lin, we like to facilitate the success of others, and save lives. The only way I can convince myself to play a carry at all, is by telling myself that I can save lives by murdering every single person on the other team, as fast as possible. This, unfortunately, does not make me better at last hitting.

Anyhow, we had reasonable success, but I'll assume it wasn't me as much as it was the other people in my party, stepping up their game because there was no healer, and the fact that there's 5 people's worth of damage/tanking in teamfights, instead of 4 people and a Soraka. The one extra stun/initiate is very helpful as well. I usually have a pretty solid arrow, but I have my off games. One game I managed to miss with nearly every one, just barely grazing every single member of the other team. Disheartening. Anyway, I was owned solo versus Jarvan/Ashe top lane in one miserable game that ended at 20min surrender, and then owned with a Taric babysitting me against a Miss Fortune/Lux lane, and then promptly played an excellent game with a Taric versus a Jarvan/Miss Fortune lane in the very next game. I want to say that the first Taric was too aggressive and got us killed, but the second was super aggressive and nearly got us killed - in the end, as I may have said before, my fate seems to rest entirely on the (somewhat unpredictable) skill of the other team, and not my own.

Today: Positive Outlook

Debriefing from Executive Decisions: After obtaining my chair and putting myself in "The Thinker" pose, I came up with a timeline. It was just like on those cop shows, where they draw out a timeline with the pictures and the evidence pinned up on it? Like that.

Naturally, it turned out that this was not 'planned enough', and things generally ran late and/or didn't go as planned. Not that everyone had a horrible time, they seemed alright, and besides, it seemed to me that even if I had nailed down everything, things wouldn't have turned out perfectly anyhow. I think that raises more questions about the resolution itself more than my execution of it. We can't propose to finalize all events before they happen, especially when so many other people are involved.

Today I'm going to keep a Positive Outlook.

Being negative is no crime, I do enjoy me some (hopefully harmless) complaining about things, as it helps to pass the time in entertaining fashion. What we'll want to keep in mind is the kind and depth of negativity we're putting out into the world. Too much and too often puts your listeners in a bad place, for no real productive purpose. I suppose the old adage of "if you've got nothing good to say, don't say anything at all" may hold some merit. Pure negativity isn't often constructive or educational or even entertaining.

It's not going to be hard for me, compared to some of the people I know, I'm incredibly positive all the time, so there will be two corollaries. First, it will be a difficult thing indeed to create a group dynamic of positiveness. Having a positive outlook simply does not, in my experience, rub off on those who are naturally negative. I will have to think on that. Second, perhaps it is possible to overdo a positive attitude. I will need to be 'positive', without being 'complacent'.

Today: Executive Decisions

Debriefing from Cleaning: One can never really finish cleaning, philosophically speaking. But this is pretty literal - I didn't get done. It IS better than when we started, and that's got to count for a lot, if I may say so.

Today I'm going to make some Executive Decisions.

Big group gathering this weekend, and it's going to be up to me to take charge this time. Order people around. Make sure things are secured. Captain this ship and boldly go, etc. etc.

It's time (maybe well past time) to get this party organized. But there's always the tricky undersides to captaining a crew - who will resent which decisions, and what kinds of decisions are stepping over my boundaries as Captain? It will take some serious pondering.

And maybe an executive-style chair to ponder in. I think that may be the first order of business.

Today: Clean

Debriefing from Give People a Chance: Failure! Xian just told me a story about some stupid people, and my only reaction was: "stop telling me these stories and just set those people on fire, already." So.... definitely no progress there. (Even if Xian agreed with me!! Then again, he has a reputation for setting folks on fire. He's a little bit avoided at work, if you know what I mean...)

I did have a good day of Poker Face, though. I had one of those epic work meetings that lasted 4 hours, and went straight through lunch. My head hurt, my stomach growled, and the topic wasn't even relevant to me, but I put on the best blank, attentive face you ever did see and gutted through. So, not bad, if I say so myself.

Today, I'm going to Clean.

Because damn it all, it is awful up in here.

Today: Give People a Chance

Debriefing from Eat Poorly: It's always good to have an occasional cop-out resolution - to resolve to do something bad, so that your intentions are clear and honest from the start, and you don't feel like you betrayed yourself or violated any principles. Yes, I occasionally eat poorly, but I won't feel bad about it if I intended to eat poorly for this one day. Someday, we will make it our resolution to eat healthily, and on that day, I will stick to that resolution as I did this one! (Hopefully.)

Today I'm going to Give People a Chance.

Those who know me well all have independently come to the same two conclusions, with no prompting from me or anyone else:

1) I start out hating everyone I meet. Everyone is in the doghouse until they prove worthwhile.

and 2) The more I like a person, the worse I treat them.

Now, I don't particularly like or support either of these conclusions, personally, but each has been identified independently by so many people I can't really ignore the evidence.

And it's not that I treat people that I like badly, I just am able to maintain a fake-ish facade of politeness for people I don't intend to see often. Don't you do that? So it turns out that I seem nice to people I can't stand, because I just want to be out of their presence without anyone getting choked, and I seem mean (by comparison!) to the people I like, because I intend to see them again, and hell if they're going to continue that nonsense. So, it's like that. Makes sense to me, anyway.

Today I'm going to give new people a fairer shake. Usually when I really get to know someone, I find out a few positive things about them, and can finally stop hating them quite so much. If I gave people a chance from the outset, maybe we can shorten this process up, and have it involve a little less choking.

Red Mill Burgers

Apparently something close to famous in Seattle, my hero Adam Richman ate there once, and that is always good enough recommendation for me.

True as advertised, they had some kind of Great Wall made of bacon sitting ominously in the kitchen, for reasons us lesser being probably couldn't hope to understand. There was also a picture of some employees showing off this slightly peppery bacon bunker to the press, cleverly disguised with bacon mustaches. The bacon-stache! A new classic.

Fortunately, fame and TV specials seem to have not given these good folks a license to phone it in. The burger was good, the atmosphere was good, the portions were good (on the burgers, anyway. The shake, fries, and onion rings are small-ish) and the prices were not too terribly out of control. Oh, it was expensive for a pair of burgers, fries, onion rings, and a shake, but at least it was still high quality. Nan opted for a double-bacon double-burger, and that thing was probably better material for bench pressing than casual lunching - he was food coma'd for the rest of the day. I got a Bleu Cheese and Bacon Burger, and it was very fine, if messy.

Today: Eat Poorly

Ugh, Wednesday already?

Debriefing from Aim Higher: Well, not much got done there. But let me talk about a few other resolutions that seem to be relevant.

Show No Weakness: This involves a lot of a previous resolution to limit my speech. The less you say overall, the less weakness you show. Also, something to consider, is the fine line between showing no weakness, and plain being a jerk in order to compensate.

Be More Firm: Again, must tread that line of not being a total jerk, but also must find a balance between this and another previous resolution of not being a pessimist. I want to be firm about things, but I don't want to reject things out of hand. I ended up conceding on Being Firm in order to not violate the other resolution. But now that I've tried it once, never again. More Firm on that.

Today I'm going to Eat Poorly.

Some days it seems that everyone around me is some kind of health nut, and looks at me like I'm a disgusting pig when I'm ... well, admittedly I'm usually elbow-deep in some baby back ribs or bacon-covered bacon, or something. But not today! Today, I'm going to eat some decidedly lousy food, and no one will deter me!