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Where is Claire?
I thought she was in here somewhere…
I found her!
Archive for the 'Games' Category
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We had such a fun night last night! We started the evening with a round of Rock Band. Yes, we’re still playing that game. Yes, it still rocks.
We had something frustrating happen with the game a few months ago, right before I lost my voice. My hubby and I were on our last set of the night. It was a four song set. We finished it with flying colors. In fact, we’d passed one of the songs with 4 out of 5 stars and three of the songs with 5 out of 5 stars. The screen flashed something about 127,000 fans, and we were ecstatic! We’d already reached 600,000 fans, and our goal of reaching 1-million was even closer!
Then, we looked closer. It said we’d LOST 127,000 fans. WHAT!? We still don’t know what happened. A glitch in the game? Something had to be wrong. We’d rocked out those four songs, passed them with really good marks, and we LOST fans!? I was livid.
My hubby was upset too, but kept trying to remind me that it was just a game. He’s right. It’s just a game. But still! How could we lose fans after passing all the songs in a set? I didn’t even understand…and I still don’t.
Shortly after that, I had a lot of problems with my voice and it was hard for me to play large sets. We’d play Rock Band here and there, but not as much as before.
When my voice healed, we started playing again, and last night, we finally surpassed the 600,000 fan mark. Again. We closed out some venues and I feel good about the game again. We peeked at the Leaderboards (the list of where everyone online ranks), and there are bands out there with 342,000,000 fans. That’s more than THREE HUNDRED MILLION fans. Unbelievable.
Kudos to them, but who has that kind of time?
But, Rock Band wasn’t the only fun part of our evening. After Claire went to bed, we decided to watch one of our Netflix movies. Last night’s choice was Death at a Funeral. We haven’t laughed so hard at a movie in a long time. We actually had to pause the movie at one point, because I couldn’t breathe. (Now, that’s a good movie!) We both had tears streaming down our faces, and we still laugh about it today.
Death at a Funeral is a dramedy (a mix of drama and comedy) about a funeral (obviously). Some rather dysfunctional things happen and lead to a totally chaotic and hilarious fiasco. Personally, I think it has the feel of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead with a little bit of Grandma’s Boy and Forty-Year Old Virgin mixed in, yet it’s not like any of those movies at all.
It’s not for everyone. We have friends that we know would love it. And, we have friends we know would hate it. So, if you see it and then wonder what in the world is wrong with us, I apologize. If you see it and then hurt your ribs laughing, don’t say I didn’t warn you. 
I think my hubby summed it up best when he said, “That movie was so funny! And, well, weird… Then again, so are we.”
Please answer the following questions:
1. What is the proper response to this statement?
“I WANNA DO IT MYSELF; DO IT FOR ME RIGHT NOW!”
A. Let her do whatever it is all by herself. (Um, sorry! Wrong answer! Try again!)
B. Do it for her right now. (Nope! Wrong! Aren’t you paying attention?)
C. Say, “Oh, look! A squirrel! I think I see a squirrel!”
Answer: C. Oddly enough (and thankfully), toddlers can be distracted rather easily.
2. What color poop will be created by bright blue and bright red Welch’s Fruit Snacks?
A. Blue (Considering they turn her teeth this color, this is a good guess…)
B. Purple (Much too logical…try again!)
C. Neon Green (bing, bing, bing!)
Answer: C. And, no I don’t know why. And, I’m sorry…we can’t have a quiz about toddlers and not talk about poop.
3. Which word or phrase is equal to an immediate time-out?
A. “Geez, Louise!” (nope, that’s acceptable and quite funny when she says it.)
B. “Oh my Pete’s sake!” (Still safe…and I love her rendition.)
C. “Momma, we’re not supposed to say that word, right?” (At least she’s understanding the rules…)
Answer: None of the above! Especially when she literally says “that word” in a hushed tone. Ha!
4. How many creatures, books, and fake food props will a toddler try to carry from one level of the house to another…at one time?
A. 3
B. 53
C. 78
Answer: B or C, depending on mood and/or type of improvisational skit that will be performed at the destination.
4b. How many items can said toddler actually carry effectively from one level of the house to the other…at one time?
Answer: A, unless there is a bag involved. We love bags. They’re so handy.
5. What is the expected result when toddler can’t carry all items and/or refuses to put the items in a bag?
Annnnnnnnnnnd, that brings us back to the first question!
Yea! You’re right back where you started! Thanks for playing! Until next time…
At 5pm, Claire had had enough of me working my day-job and told me it was time to go downstairs and sing. I was in a good stopping-place, and it was time for a break!
So, sing we did! The last two songs in the Vocals List are completed! All 58 songs have been passed in Expert Level, so I no longer have the “but I’ve never even heard this song before!” excuse. And, I didn’t get any achievement points for it, but I “earned” a silver microphone to go with the gold one I got for completing the original tour.
I will say that one of the last songs (second to last, actually) is originally sung by Timmy! Yes, Timmy! of South Park fame. What? That’s a real song? How funny!
In honor of there being two Rock Band Updates today, here is a neat webcomic I found at xkcd.com:
A direct link to the comic (by Randall Munroe) can be found here.
Real or not, Rock Band sure is fun!
It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on our escapades in Rock Band! This last weekend was full of good stuff.
I already mentioned that I completed the Vocal Tour in Expert. Well, my hubby completed a Guitar Tour in Medium and a Drum Tour in Hard! AND, he successfully completed ALL the drum songs (including the bonus ones) in Hard. ROCK ON. (I’m currently two songs away from finishing all the bonus songs in Expert. I don’t think I’ll ‘win’ any special achievements for it, so it’s just something my OCD is making me do I’m doing for fun.)
Edited to add: I completed it! Check it out here.
And, as a band, we have over 600,000 fans. The fans. It’s always about the fans. Our goal is to finish a full city tour (We’ve played in a bunch of cities, but we’re really close in Rome.) and gain 1,000,000 fans, whichever comes first…or both! Hopefully our gear holds up! My hubby has already broken one drumstick and had to do some repair to the drum pedal. This Rock Band stuff is hardcore; I tell ya!
On Sunday, we joined some of our friends from the West Coast online and rocked it out. We had so much fun! They had just gotten Rock Band for the Xbox 360 that week, so they were still new to the whole thing. But, that didn’t stop us from having a great time! The only challenging part was that you have to play different roles, and there were two lead singers…me and one of our friends. So, for the first couple of songs, I sang and she played the drums. For the rest of the evening, I handed over the mic and tried my hand at the bass guitar. My hubby handed the drums over to our other friend, and he played lead guitar. It’s actually a lot of fun. (I’d played the bass guitar a little bit during our Thanksgiving Tour, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it.)
After our West Coast friends had retired for the evening, I sat down at the drums and did the Drum Tutorial. I then played a couple songs. I now have a bigger respect for my hubby! They are pretty complicated, but not too bad on easy mode. (Granted, the man has played the real drums for about 20 years, so he’s a tad more experienced than I am. I’d like to say that my years and years of playing the ‘real’ guitar help with the Rock Band Guitar, but it’s totally different. The drums, from my understanding, are pretty similar. Singing is singing, and that’s still my favorite part.)
My hubby jokes that he’s going to get me a mic-stand and make me sing AND play bass guitar. On some songs that may actually be possible. Insane, but possible. As long as we don’t lose too many fans if I mess up. Because, at the end of the day, it’s all about the fans.
Oh, and because I recently got my hair cut, I’ve updated momma’s photo:
momma
And, here is a picture of my hubby:
animal
What an awesome name for a drummer! Personally, I think the mohawk makes the whole outfit. And, yes, he looks exactly like this in real life. (or not) Ha.
So, that’s an update regarding the addiction that is Rock Band. I had no idea this would be so much fun.
ROCK.
ON.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know of my obsession newfound liking of the game, Rock Band on the Xbox 360. I recently finished “a tour” in the Expert Mode, which was a goal of mine. (Hey! Don’t laugh. We all need to have dreams.) I had mentioned then, that the only other thing I wanted to accomplish with the game was to sing one of the songs 100% correctly in Expert Mode. Then, I could just play for fun and not with some goal in mind. (Me? OCD? Why do you ask?)
Well, Friday night, as my hubby and I were playing a gig, Claire, our biggest fan, kept begging for us to play “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So, we set up a play-list and included that song. I set my level to Expert in hopes of breaking my 99% streak and finally winning the achievement. When we got to the end of the song, we both knew that we’d rocked it out, and sure enough! The screen showed that I got 100%! But, where was the fame and glory associated with it? The little green achievement circle didn’t make its blooping sound and pop onto the screen. Denied!? Apparently, you have to be in a Solo Tour to win achievement points like that? Bummer.
So, when the drummer’s leg finally went out (that’s what he gets for getting the day off and using it to go skiing), and he requested a break from all the action, Momma switched to the Solo Tour mode, determined to repeat her 100% on “Dani California.” With Claire dancing around the room and singing along into her pretend microphone, Momma pulled it off and actually hit every note perfectly, unlocking the illusive five gold stars.
Claire wasn’t quite sure why Momma dropped her microphone and started screaming with pure joy when the song ended, but she didn’t let that stop her from celebrating. Of course, Momma and Daddy had different reasons for rejoicing: Momma had reached her goal, and Daddy was happy that he didn’t have to listen to the song on repeat for the rest of the night…
Well, last night Momma (and ‘momma’) completed all the songs in the Expert Level in Rock Band! This was my main goal and not an easy task. Actually, it was a lot easier than I anticipated…until I got to “Reptilia” by The Strokes. Yeah, I’ve never heard of that song either. Somehow I’d passed it in the Medium Level (a week or so ago, I completed all the songs in that level and decided to jump right to Expert. I sang one song on the Hard Level and got 5-stars right away…you only need 3-stars to pass the song, so I decided to spend my time tackling the Expert Level. Beating that level will automatically give you points for the levels below it.)
Anyway, “Reptilia” was wiping the floor with me and my microphone. I just could not get it. The way the game works is if you’ve built up some ‘points’ you can mess up a portion of the song and still move ahead if you can pull it all together quickly. The problem with this song was the fact that the first part of the song was extremely difficult for me, and by the time I made it through to a part of the song I could actually sing, the screen would flash red, and because it was the beginning of the song, I had no points built up to save me. I’d fail the song and get boo’ed off the stage. And, that’s really tough on my rockstar ego!
So, Claire and I found the song on youtube and I made it my personal mission to master it. (Yes, I’m a dork.)
Here it is, although, I don’t care to ever hear it again. Of course, after listening to it on repeat all day, it kinda wears on ya.
For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here is the link.
So, last night, Daddy had been invited to play in someone else’s Rock Band. While he went to be a traitor play drums and guitar with his friends from work, Momma and Claire had their challenge for the evening. Beat “Reptilia.” Move on in the game. (It was the last song to complete before moving ahead…you can’t move ahead until you’ve properly sung each song in the “city.” And, if you’re stuck on one song: too bad, so sad.)
I put the game in practice mode and tried something that I’d been working on all day in my youtube sessions. The lead singer’s voice is so bizarre to me and impossible for me to match. So, I had been playing around with octaves. You don’t have to match the voice or octave if you can match the note…so I tried it in practice mode, and by my calculations, I had just enough points to maybe pass the song!
So, I went into the “play a gig” mode and chose my White Whale of a song. Whatever I’d done with all my youtube practicing worked! I passed it with no problems! Success! It was all a breeze from there. In two hours, I’d sung through all the rest of the songs in the remaining cities, and had beaten the Expert Level.
So, where do I go from here? Well, there is an achievement you can earn when you sing a song at 100% in Expert Level. I’m so close with “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m at 99%. This is another of Claire’s favorite songs at the moment. She calls it “Californay” and begs for me to sing it. A lot. All day. Hence, the 99% rating and huge score on that song.
I also have a huge score for “In Bloom” by Nirvana. So, I may try to get a 100% score on that one, too. (And, yes, Claire runs around the house singing “Don’t know what it means……..don’t know what it means……” Ha!)
And, to get “Reptilia” out of your head, here is “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers:
For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here’s the link.
You’re welcome.
One of my friends posted an article on her blog about the “Free Rice” game. I’d seen this little logo on other blogs, but I didn’t really know what it was. I trust her judgment when it comes to these kinds of things, so, I decided to check it out. Plus, she said that even snopes.com talks about it, here.
If you don’t already use snopes on a regular basis, I highly suggest it. I get a ton of Fwd’s from well-meaning people, and most of those emails can be debunked on snopes. I love that site!
Anyway, this one is true. (Speaking of which, some of the spam out there is getting to be sneaky! The original author will say, “I’ve checked it out on snopes, and it’s real!” when in fact, it’s not true! Shame on them.)
The link to the Free Rice site is here.
Or, you can get there by clicking on this logo:
(I’m going to try to get it on my sidebar, too, eventually. Tech Support is a tad busy at the moment, so I’m not sure when that will happen.)
The Free Rice Game is a vocabulary game where you’re given a word and then you have to choose the closest synonym in the list below. Clicking on a correct word will donate 20-grains of rice. (It was 10-grains of rice, but it recently jumped to 20-grains.) There is no cost to you, and there is an explanation on how it works on the site.
I’ll warn you. It’s addictive. So far, I’ve reached level 40, but to be fair, I haven’t had much time to play. I’ll sometimes play when Claire and I are eating lunch (how apropos), and it’s neat to see how many grains of rice I can donate in one sitting. Pretty cool!
I love things that make giving to a good cause easy. So, check it out, and play a few rounds!
The next installment of Lost: Missing Pieces is ready! I’ve been waiting since MONDAY to post this, but it just showed up on the website today. Check it out here.
I love Lost, and I’m going to try to post an update on these little snippets every week. (I thought they came out on Mondays, but the website lags behind the release to a certain cell phone service…so I’ll post them as soon as they come up on the website).
This week’s webisode deals with Jack and Benry (Ben/Henry) and a game of chess. In pure Lost-style, it’s really about much more than that.
So far, each of these little snippets: The Watch, Hurley and Frogurt, and now The King of the Castle has led up to major life changes in the lives of the characters. Jack’s marriage (and relationship with his father), which both deteriorate; Hurley’s date with Libby that never takes place, because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time (getting the blankets), and now we see Jack and Benry right before another major twist. (I’ll stop there and let you figure it out for yourself.)
As a side-note, I love chess! I haven’t played in a long time, because, like Benry, I don’t have many formidable opponents with which to play. Every time I play with my hubby, I kill him off in about three minutes (and that’s if I choose not to use my secret moves until later in the game). It’s not that he’s a bad player…it’s just that chess was an addiction of mine at one time, and although I never played competitively, it’s hard to turn off that competitive edge. Oh, in case you’re wondering, the move Benry does at the end is called “Castling“…interesting meaning, especially in the Lost context!
So, get going! Go check out Lost: Missing Pieces – The King of the Castle!
We were able to play a lot of Rock Band this weekend! Our friends Dick and Grace came over and joined our band. For the most part, they played bass guitar and lead guitar while my hubby played drums and I sang.
The game was so much fun that we accidentally played for FIVE HOURS straight! We went downstairs to our entertainment room to play around 3pm (after we’d all stuffed ourselves with wonderful food), and at around 8pm we realized it may be time to eat again. We’d been playing that whole time! Needless to say, we ROCKED.
After another round at the dinner table, we played for another THREE HOURS. Yes, we spent the equivalent of a typical work day in a band, and it was awesome.
Claire and I were able to do some more singing in the game throughout the weekend.
Here are some pictures of the character I “created” in the rock band. (The pictures may not be very crisp, because my character keeps moving around and I can’t use the flash to take the picture…) She is aptly named, ‘momma,’ since that’s what is screamed at me all day anyway. Plus, that makes Claire’s little pleas of “Sing it again, Momma! Sing again!” so cute…and appropriate.
I’m not sure what the score means, but it sure looks impressive.
Here is another picture, because you can’t see my rockin’ boots in the first one.
We named our band Nebulon 6, which is an inside joke. In fact, before Claire was born, our name for her was “Nebulona Roku,” (Neb-you-lawn-uh Roh-koo) which is a female version of Nebulon and the number 6 in Japanese.
But, after playing for a total of EIGHT HOURS on Thursday, we were in pain the next day! We realized that maybe we should rename our band The Oldtimers.
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