Wednesday, January 28, 2009

We now have more than 120M points!

This week we reached our minimum goal by gaining about 0.9M points! This leaves us in 11th place in the real leaderboards with more than 120M points! We would have passed our friends "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 10th if they hadn't also played today (only 23K behind them now). We played 14 songs, so that gives an average increase of 65K per song.

Next week, both "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and our band will likely pass "Taco & 3 hung lo", moving us up to the 9th and 10th positions. We have been climbing very fast these last few weeks!

Highlights:
- We try some songs on easy and play just the energy sections to plan our paths and it pays off, leading to a few big increases. It's quite funny to play songs like "Welcome to the Neighborhood" when no instruments can be heard except the overenthusiastic singer...
- Our best increases were for "Girl's Not Grey" (244K, 34th to 10th), "Ramblin' Man" (171K, 41st to 29th), "Welcome to the Neighborhood" (136K, 36th to 16th), "I Was Wrong" (75K, 21st to 7th), "Night Lies" (69K, 33rd to 19th) and "Spoonman" (62K, 35th to 19th)
- The 3 Macas (2 returning Macas + 1 ex-Maca) and Sylvie play an easy song on alternate instruments when DMan has to leave ("I Was Wrong"), allowing us to reach the 120M point mark

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Goal for tonight: solidify ourselves in the top 10

This week our optimal goal will be to go from 12th to 9th in the real leaderboards by beating "Taco & 3 hung lo", "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "Megadeaf".

Although not the reason for having the session tonight, playing earlier this week will help us move past our friends "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", who have a tendency to play more than once per week to protect their lead.

We are currently in 16th place but there are 4 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 5 and 12).

To reach our optimal goal of 1.8M points, we will need an average increase of 150K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 75K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 50K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 0.7M points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "Megadeaf" for 10th place
Main: Gain 1.2M points, to have a decent lead over "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND"
Optimal: Gain 1.8M points, to beat "Taco & 3 hung lo" for 9th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 30):
1. "Souls of Black"
2. "Ramblin' Man"
3. "Panic Attack"
4. "So What'cha Want"
5. "That's What You Get"
6. "Rock'n Me"
7. "Livin' on a Prayer"
8. "E-Pro"
9. "Alabama Getaway"
10. "Welcome to the Neighborhood"
11. "Spoonman"
12. "Lump"
13. "Give It All"
14. "Bodhisattva"
15. "Our Truth"
16. "Girl's Not Grey"
17. "Colony of Birchmen"
18. "Battery"
19. "Ace of Spades '08"
20. "Pump It Up"
21. "Painkiller"
22. "Night Lies"
23. "De-Luxe"
24. "You Oughta Know"
25. "Testify"
26. "Shooting Star"

Friday, January 23, 2009

Another good increase, 1.5M points!

This week we reached our main goal by gaining about 1.5M points! We would have passed our friends "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" if they hadn't also played today. We played 26 songs, so that gives an average increase of 59K per song.

Highlights:
- DMan starts off the session with 4 FCs, matching his performance from a few weeks back
- Trapper helps us coordinate paths once again so his title changes from "Roadie" to "Path Master"
- Phoenix borrows Bongoo's new kickbox to plug his KD-8 to the RB drum
- Our best increases were for "Round and Round" (177K, 53rd to 15th), "Mountain Song" (171K, 44th to 8th), "Painkiller" (167K, 43rd to 31th), "The Trees (Vault Edition)" (116K, 49th to 17th), "Spoonman" (113K, 59th to 34th), "Uncontrollable Urge" (110K, 40th to 23rd) and "Master Exploder" (105K, 52nd to 25th)
- Bongoo gets 100% in the first solo of "Carry On Wayward Son" for the first time, then manages to do the same two more times after some other band members miss early in the song
- Phoenix does his "Visions" dance after the session, a future Youtube video perhaps?

Beer of the week #5

Even in the world of unemployment it is very important to savor the moment. Of course you all guessed it is time for the beer of the week!

Since we no longer have jobs to tend to in the morning, it is the perfect time to start drinking some quality beer. Tonight’s beer list is longer than usual:

1) Kawartha Lakes Brewery Raspberry Wheat beer: This one smells like raspberries, but the taste is slightly off. This beer is very weak (4.5% alcohol) and has a raspberry taste but it doesn’t mix too well with the overall taste of the beer. Overall it is fun to try but I wouldn’t buy a 24.

2) Kawartha Lakes Brewery Nut Brown Ale: A weak version of the Rogue Nut Brown Nectar. Although it is much cheaper, I would recommend investing a bit more and going for Rogue. If you are curious this one has 5.1% alcohol.

3) Duvel: A very fruity and strong tasting Belgian beer. Watch out when pouring it because I had about 5 inches of head in my glass and no beer. :) It has 8% alcohol content and is best drank out of a glass.

4) Bornem Tripel: No this is not a typo, it is yet another Belgian beer. I would say it is very similar to Duvel (fruity beer) but the taste is very weak. Maybe it is because i drank it right after a Duvel? It is a 9% alcohol but the alcohol taste is very subtle. Anyways, try it out, it's a good one.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Fanmail #4 - Help a Maca in Need

From: Julie P.
Sent: Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Subject: RE: The Macas are now Rejects

Hey Guys,

Just read the bad news on your blog and was wondering if there is any way we could help out. Its never fun when this recession stuff hits close to home, but if people can come together and support each other, it helps make things a little easier.

Jewls

Thanks for the email Julie.

I'll admit that, at first, I had mixed feelings about Bongoo, Phoenix and Raikan being laid off. Losing one's job is something that I would never wish on anyone (well, except for a certain past boss), and although I was a little happy to no longer be the only Reject, I was greatly frustrated at what happened to them, and how they were pretty much victims of circumstance.

That being said, if anybody out there wants to help the three Macas (I figure its once a Maca, always a Maca) then there are two ways you can help:

Make a Donation using PayPal or a credit card

If you've been using the Rock Band Score Reader, I would invite you to take a second and donate a dollar or two for the development and testing efforts of both Bongoo and Phoenix. Both have worked many tireless hours developing and testing this very useful tool, and it is now used by players and bands from all around the world.

Purchase from our Online Shop!

If you want something to show for your donation, then you can browse the 3 Macas and a Reject Online Shop. The shop, which is still in its infancy, contains many interesting products that you can purchase for a fair price.

New to the shop this month!
They're Buttons You Know!!! Mens T-Shirts
Price - $21.99 USD

They're Buttons You Know!!! Womens T-Shirts
Price - $21.99 USD

Both shirts contain the following design on their front:


So there you go, a couple of easy ways to help our friends. Thanks for sending us your email!

DMan... (aka the Reject)

PS -> All proceeds from shop sales will go to help the 3 Macas in this time of need.

PPS -> Phoenix, stop fooling around with the drum pads! ya newb...



Have Fanmail you want to send us? Then open up your email and write to: "rejected.fans@live.com"!

Goal for tomorrow: get back to 10th

In our first post-Maca session, the optimal goal will be to get back to 10th place in the real leaderboards by beating "Megadeaf", "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "Summit Forces (^.^)". A new superband (online band, see Score Hero for details) has emerged, "Broken Mojo", hence our need to beat 3 bands to get back to 10th place.

Congrats to "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" on having two good sessions in the past week and moving up by 1.5M points! We'll try to match that point increase tomorrow.

We are currently in 18th place but there are 5 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (in positions 1, 2, 4, 9, 11 and 14). One of those bands, "Summit Forces (^.^)", is 1.1M points ahead of us without the inflation.

To reach our optimal goal of 1.7M points, we will need an average increase of 142K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 71K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 47K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1.1M points, to beat "Summit Forces (^.^)" for 12th place
Main: Gain 1.4M points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 11th place
Optimal: Gain 1.7M points, to beat "Megadeaf" for 10th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 35):
1. "Spoonman"
2. "Round and Round"
3. "Master Exploder"
4. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
5. "That's What You Get"
6. "Mountain Song"
7. "Eye of the Tiger"
8. "Painkiller"
9. "Panic Attack"
10. "White Wedding (Part 1)"
11. "Souls of Black"
12. "Ramblin' Man"
13. "De-Luxe"
14. "Battery"
15. "Uncontrollable Urge"
16. "Feel the Pain"
17. "Colony of Birchmen"
18. "Livin' on a Prayer"
19. "So What'cha Want"
20. "Rock'n Me"
21. "E-Pro"
22. "Carry On Wayward Son"
23. "Alabama Getaway"
24. "Pump It Up"
25. "Ace of Spades '08"

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Macas are now Rejects!

We'll keep the name for historical reasons but "3 Macas and a Reject" are now "4 Rejects"... Due to Nortel filing for bankruptcy and Macadamian's exposure to that situation, the company had to let go of a good portion of its employees.

To our fans: fear not as we will continue our climb in the "All Songs" Leaderboards! Watch out "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" (our old rivals and friends), we now have more time to practice! ;)

P.S. If said amazing Boston company (starts with H...) has any open positions for a web developer, a usability researcher or a quality assurance specialist, send us a message at "bongoo11@gmail.com"! :) EDIT: Just learned of the layoffs at Harmonix, good luck to all that were affected.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Beer of the week #4

Hi fellow beer club members. For this fourth edition, we have 2 beers that will make your head spin!

The first one we had was the renowned "La Fin du Monde" by Unibroue. It has a golden color and has a great balance of malt, fruit and spice. I find this one remarkably smooth given its 9% alcohol content. Note to self: drink this one slowly. :)

Our second beer was a Belgium one called "Piraat". Do you remember what I said about Goldeen Draak in the previous beer of the week post? I will have to say it is a closely related cousin to the famous Draak. It also has 10.5% alcohol but it tastes a bit less sweet than its cousin. I like it a bit more since it has a nice rye-whisky after taste. Another definite must-try!

That’s it for this week! Remember: always consume in moderation! If you find that too hard to do, buy the expensive stuff! You’ll have no choice but to ration it... ;)

The Macas are now in the top 10 for RB2!

This week we reached our main goal by gaining about 1.6M points! If you remove or lower the scores for the bands with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 4, 9, 12 and 14), we are now ranked #10! We played 19 songs, so that gives an average increase of 85K per song.

We are now ahead of our friends "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", but we expect them to pass us before next week's session.

Highlights:
- A big thanks to Trapper for writing down our homegrown paths during the session!
- Our best increases were for "Aqualung" (292K, 53rd to 12th), "One Step Closer" (219K, 37th to 6th), "Cool for Cats" (180K, 38th to 4th) and "Spirit in the Sky" (173K, 41st to 5th)
- We each get some FCs but we'll have to wait until next time to get a new FBFC (full band full combo)
- Phoenix does a very memorable version of "Debaser" on Vocals after the session... :)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Goal for tomorrow: March past the RB1 bands

This week our main goal will be to gain 1.5M points to become the best RB1 band in RB2 by beating "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", "March of War" and "3 on a Match".

This post had to be updated due to "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" playing on Tuesday night. Thanks Sebrun for the update via PSN! By the way, Score Reader stats just before the release of RB2 indicated that the "Happy People" had 79 #1 scores in RB1, far more than any other band (#2 was Slagathor with 50)!

We are currently in 18th place but there are 6 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (in positions 1, 2, 4, 9, 12 and 14), so we could be in the real top 10 tomorrow.

To reach our main goal, we will need an average increase of 125K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 63K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 42K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1M points, to beat "3 on a Match" for 17th place
Main: Gain 1.5M points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "March of War" for 15th place
Optimal: Gain 2.1M points, to beat the inflated "Taco & 3 hung lo" for 14th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 35):
1. "Master Exploder"
2. "Spoonman"
3. "Aqualung"
4. "You Oughta Know"
5. "Round and Round"
6. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
7. "Painkiller"
8. "Ramblin' Man"
9. "That's What You Get"
10. "Spirit in the Sky"
11. "Feel the Pain"
12. "Eye of the Tiger"
13. "Rebel Girl"
14. "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter"
15. "Testify"
16. "Mountain Song"
17. "Cool for Cats"
18. "Panic Attack"
19. "One Step Closer"
20. "Battery"
21. "Souls of Black"
22. "One Way or Another"
23. "Livin' on a Prayer"
24. "De-Luxe"
25. "Colony of Birchmen"

Friday, January 9, 2009

Beer of the week #3

Better late than never my friends! This week we tried two different beers during our session.

The first one was Unibroue's Trois Pistoles. I found it pretty good but not as good as "La Fin du Monde" (one of the breweries other strong beer). I found its taste pretty strong. And coming with 9% alcohol, you don’t want to drink too much of this one ;)

The second beer we had was perhaps the most unique I have ever tasted. Its name is "Golden Draak" and it is a Belgium beer with 10.5% alcohol. Some high % beers manage to pull it off without that overwhelming "rubbing alcohol taste" but Golden Draak didn’t care much to hide it. In fact, it must be brewed to make that taste even more pronounced from the looks of it. To balance it out, it is also very sweet which was kind of odd too. As weird as it may seem: I found it actually tasted good :). Overall I rate this beer as "So whacky you HAVE to try it at least once".
Talk to you next week!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Reached optimal goal to beat 3 on a Match!

This week we reached our optimal goal by gaining about 2.4M points! This allowed us to beat 5 bands, including the #1 PS3 band for RB1, "3 on a Match"! We played 25 songs, so that gives an average increase of 95K per song.

The "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" are still ahead of us by about 300K because they gained around 1.1M points tonight. We'll have to wait until next week to pass them. It's neat to have some competition with some of the original RB1 bands!

The band that was next after "3 on a Match" before this session started ("March of War") gets the glitch and jumps to 1st place! To balance this, one of the glitched scores was fixed ("The Dudes Abide Even More").

Highlights:
- We're getting much better at creating our own paths, we even got some of our groupies to help with notetaking!
- DMan starts off the session in style with 4 FCs!
- Our best increases were for "Let There Be Rock" (206K), "Everlong" (181K), Give It All (181K), "Battery" (177K), "Shackler's Revenge" (168K), "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" (159K) and "Souls of Black" (156K)
- After this great session, Phoenix and Bongoo celebrate by doing a very intense Metal marathon
- Bang Camaro plays a song off their new album on Conan O'Brien, future DLC perhaps?

Monday, January 5, 2009

Goal for tomorrow: Dream to Deliciously Club some Happy People

This week our main goal will be to gain 1.6M points to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", "The Billy Clubs", "Delicious Dropdeads" and "Chemical Electric Dream Machine" for 17th place. Once we pass the "Happy People", the last local band to beat in both RB1 and RB2 will be "3 on a Match".

We are currently in 21st place but there are still six bands with inflated scores (in positions 1, 2, 4, 7, 12 and 20).

To reach our main goal, we will need an average increase of 133K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 67K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 44K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1.2M points, to beat "Delicious Dropdeads" and "Chemical Electric Dream Machine" for 19th place
Main: Gain 1.6M points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "The Billy Clubs" for 17th place
Optimal: Gain 2.2M points, to beat "The Radio Service" and "3 on a Match" for 15th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 40):
1. "Go Your Own Way"
2. "Master Exploder"
3. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
4. "Everlong"
5. "Colony of Birchmen"
6. "Painkiller"
7. "Let There Be Rock"
8. "You Oughta Know"
9. "Souls of Black"
10. "Battery"
11. "I Was Wrong"
12. "Spoonman"
13. "Aqualung"
14. "Round and Round"
15. "Rebel Girl"
16. "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)"
17. "Give It All"
18. "Alabama Getaway"
19. "Testify"
20. "Uncontrollable Urge"

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Beer of the week #2

I have a nice long list for this great holiday 3MaaR session. Worry not, these beers were small bottles and we kept our senses throughout the day as you can see from our last results post.

Let's list last session's delicacies in order of alchool %.

1) Bruegel Amber Ale

At 5.2%, I found this Belgian ale decent in taste. As odd as it may sound, I found this beer tasted like apple juice... On the opposite scale of tastes, DMan found it tasted like ashes!? Don't worry, this is just the opinion of the reject ;)

2) Great Lakes Brewery Winter Ale

This brewery always comes up with some fancy and different ales. This complex ale (6.2%) had a lot of spice in it: cinnamon, ginger, orange peel and honey. The wonderful part is you can actually taste all four in every sip.

3) Rogue Hazlenut Brown Nectar

One of the band's favorites! A great "strong" beer (6.2%) with a full taste of hazlenuts. It is a bit expensive (~6$ for 650ml) but very much worth the price.

4) Bornem Dubbel

The second Belgian beer of the night (7%) was another dark beer. I personally found it too spicy and won't buy it again. I'd say its a stronger version of Bruegel (mentioned earlier in this post). guess I'll be the one to say it tastes like ashes this time :). DMan hated it so much he spilled it on my beautiful pink carpet!

5) Augustijn

Yet again a Belgian beer but pretty strong this time (8%). This beer was very different from the others of the session both in color (blonde) and in taste (sweet). It felt good after all these spicy ales!