the JamLegend fever

I heard of it first from my best friend. It was one fine day at Plurk when she started raving about JamLegend. I didn't take note of it until she posted that she had extra invites. I asked for one, aaand... a few days hours after joining, I got hooked. I even bought a cheapo USB keyboard I can attach to my laptop just for this purpose.

JamLegend is like Guitar Hero, only ten times better. It's accessible to practically anyone: all you need is a reliable net connection, a trusty keyboard and good speakers. It is easily another reason to spend (waste?) more time online. It is free, but since it's still on private beta stage, membership is by invitation only (I still have 2 invites). JamLegend features songs from new artists, and the list gets updated every now and then.

As for me, I'm stuck with 3 songs that I have yet to master. I still can't play past the Easy level. First time I tried Mulholland in Medium, I got booed. Oh well.

Playing on Jam Mode
(picture from Dellwood)

There are programs similar to this game that can be played offline (e.g. Frets on Fire), but what I like about JamLegend is the ranking system and the possibility of challenging your friends to a duel or a showdown. It's Guitar Hero meets MMO meets Web 2.0.

(And I almost got myself a DS Lite last month just so I can play Guitar Hero: On Tour.)

a non-review: Amazing Cones

It’s past midnight and I’m still up.

I went downstairs to look for food because my stomach’s grumbling. I just realized I haven’t had a proper dinner yet. The last meal I had consisted of a can of Coke and a pizza cone. The boyfriend and I tried this place at Greenhills called “Amazing Cones” that serves pizza, well, in a cone. Pretty unusual, I know. Let’s just say that curiosity got the best of me. I was handed one of their flyers on our way to V-Mall. After rounds and rounds of looking for an appropriate screen protector for my laptop, I was craving for pizza and the flyer got me at the “mess-free” part.

The place was nice. The counters were kept clean, so there was no undesirable odor unlike in other fast foods. Basically, they just microwave their pizza cones. I’m not a fan of microwaved food, but we were there, tired and hungry. It took less than 10 minutes before our cones were served.

I had the supremo italiano. The verdict: except for the mozzarella cheese on top, the pizza cone wasn’t all that amazing. The crust/cone was fine, but overall, it lacked the pizza taste. A Jimini’s Pizza Bar would’ve been more flavorful. The price was pretty steep, too—PHP 70/75 for something close to the size of your favorite drumstick ice cream. Their ads also claim their cones to be mess-free, but by the time we were done with ours, our table was littered with crumbs. Handy, yes, but definitely not mess-free.

The idea is brilliant, but they could definitely improve on the flavor part of their pizza cones. This is not to say there will never be a next time because I still haven’t tried their ice cream, and I would like to be back for the bubblegum kool twist. :)

I took crappy photos with my camera phone so I won't bother posting them. You can see the Amazing Cones website here.