Pandakon 2013-good,good memories!

I have just been at my first anime convention ever,and it was AWESOME.I had high expectations for it,but even those were trumped.Right now while I am still writing this blog,Pandakon still hasn't finished(right now it's 23:37,Pandakon will end at 03:00).

The attendance was much higher than it was anticipated. Ofc. this convention is still very very new so it wasn't like 10000 people,but still It was pretty crowded from the very beginning.There were enough cosplayers and they were all willing to take photographs.

Well at the beginning of the convention there were origami workshops.These were interesting,however I failed at my first try to make a origami swan.Then there was a lecture about japan its culture and it contained many pictures from Japan.There was also a lecture about the lolita subculture.There was a workshop about draing in the Japanese manga style.Also there was a workshop about the lolita style of clothing and a lecture about how to make bento lunchboxes.There were anime projections as well.

However I would say that the highpoint of the convention were the cosplay and outfit competitions.During that time the hall was full of people and it was sweaty...you know.But the weird thing is that after the cosplay competition a set of completely new cosplayers arrived.

After that there were karaoke.At that time I took the chance to go to the local student caffeteria to eat some dinner.When I came back karaoke was still on so I got out and chatted with my mates for a while.After the karaoke they announced the winners of the cosplay competition.One winner was decided by the jury,the other was decided by voting.Both of the winners totally deserved to win the competition.

After the winners of the competitions were announced all that was left was a j-pop/j

Also during the whole time of the convention you could buy,sell or exchange mangas and collectible items(from now on known as "loot").And I didn't get out empty handed.

So here are the photos from Pandakon:

So this is the loot i got from Pandakon.I exchanged my Negima volumes 1,2,3,4 for volumes 5,6,7,8.I sold 3 of my Death note volumes(4,5,6) and bought Pandora hearts volumes 1 and 3.I am especially fond of the fate/stay night excalibur key-ring,it has both the sword and the scabbard.

Here I took some photos with the most impressive cosplayer.Notice the gun?I wonder how many hours did it take to prepare this cosplay.Anyhow,she deservedly won the cosplay competition by vote of the public.She cosplayed as Seras Victoria from Hellsing and Hellsing ultimate.

This one is hard to see,but this is a Mikasa cosplay from Shingeki no kyojin(Attack on titan).

And here is a Suigintou(Rozen maiden) cosplay which I liked a lot.Too bad it didn't even get 2nd or 3rd place in the competition.

And here is me posing with the one and only L from death note!

A picture from the manga drawing workshop.

Two almost identical pictures of a Christa cosplay from Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on titan).In the cosplay competition she was the jury's favorite and she won first place.She totally deserved it.

This is a group photo of all the cosplayers after the actual cosplay competiotion.

This one is very blurry,anyhow,this was from a stall selling homemade pixel art merchandise.

A stall from an active anime community in Croatia.

A stall selling voodoo dolls huh,huh :| :(.I am not sure what to think of it.

Those were nominated as the best cosplays.

And here is a group photo of all the cosplayers and outfit competition competitors.

Wow,lengthwise this is probably my longest post yet XD.

Written by:Mario Kamenjak

Ubuntu 13.10 mini review{Updated}

Up until lately I have been using Ubuntu 13.04,and a few days ago I upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10.Now I will write a mini review of Ubuntu 13.10.

The problem with writing a review of Linux Ubuntu 13.10 is that there is not much to write about.Most of the changes were either bugfixes or were changes under the hood.

Standardly the new version brought new versions of everything:kernel,Libre office,gui...

I have had just a minor problem while upgrading.Since I have both KDE and unity installed I had to uninstall unity before I could upgrade,and later reinstall it.

Now let's talk about some bugs I have had in 13.04 and if they are fixed in 13.10:
-GPU overheating with standard drivers-This bug is still here.I have found a kind of fix.I basically have to shut down hybrid graphics from the bios.The problem with that fix is that my Radeon gpu is the one which is deactivated in that case.
{Update}
-With some toying around it can be fixed:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver#Kernel_3.11.x_.28Ubuntu_13.10.2BAC8-Saucy.29_and_Later
-I even installed the proprietary drivers without a problem like this:
http://rudrageek.com/linux-now-supports-hybrid-graphics-systems-ubuntu-13-10/
-Can't create online accounts-Luckily fixed.Now I can synchronize my g+,facebook,and whatever accounts into applications like shotwell,empathy and whatever I want.
-Luckily I did not find any new bugs yet.

Now let's talk about whatever small changes I have noticed in the new unity GUI.There were some new nice icons,nothing big.Also dash now finally supports smart scopes.It is basically a tool which you can use to search online websites without a browser and you search them together with your local programs and files.And those smart scopes are pretty configurable,you can disable them,leave them as they are or configure them in more or less any way you want.

And what is my verdict?It is an improvement over 13.04 and for now I plan to stay on it.

Music

So...for a while already I have wanted to write a post about music.I will write about which music genres I like.I will end with the ones I like most.

Keep this in mind:I am a normal(more or less) guy,those are just my opinions,I don't hate,judge,discriminate or even dislike other people just because they don't listen to the same music I do.

90's techno:Yeah,occasionally there are some good old school techno songs like voodoo people...

Classical/neoclassical:Sometimes I like that refined sound.Especially when the song/composition is a bit lively,or when it is quite dramatic.

Ska:This one happened accidentally.Ska songs were often played in a club which I liked to visit.All of a sudden I noticed that ska makes for some very relaxing background ambient music.

J-pop:I watch loads of anime,that came with the territory.After watchings tons of anime ending/opening songs you gotta start liking some of them.

Now let's go to the genres I like more...

Rock:A very very broad genre with multiple dozens of huge subgenres so you really have a choice.I am kind of at a loss of words here because most of us have a basic idea what rock is.The best thing about rock is how it is unpredictable,especially its tempo can range from slow mellow songs to fast hard rock songs.Plus it incorporates other genres I have or will mention in this post.

Punk rock:Oh yeah...I like its 'no fucks are given' attitude,its songs,its lyrics.Punk rock is...punk rock is about having fun,but it is just as much about being serious.There are those songs which are clearly just designed for having fun and then there are more serious songs.There is traditional punk rock and there is hardcore punk.Another thing I like about punk is that it often has very smart messages in its lyrics.

J-rock:I already said that I like J-pop,and I also already said that I like Rock.Well then how could I not like J-rock?Of course I like it,I love it.

And now my favorite genre...

Metal:I love it.Everything from it.Old school or new school.Traditional heavy metal or extreme metal.Black,death,gothic,symphonic,progressive metal...Basically when I listen to it I feel like that music has so much raw power,and almost like some of that power is transferred to me.Yeah,I know this last sentence sounded absurd but,we are talking about music.Metal also has loads of subgenres so it is hard to get bored of it.For me Metal is the opposite of boring,it is about excitement when the riffs are just great.

Anyhow,so much about that.I just hope you will be fair and not judge me because of the music I listen to.

Have a nice day :)