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...

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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"

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.

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... :)