Recently in Travel Category
Looks like CCP has posted video of one of the coolest parts of FanFest -- DJ Margeir and his 16-piece symphony orchestra. I tried taking a few pictures of this while I was there, but they didn't come out super-great. This is well worth listening to.
Well, after a very long day of travel yesterday, starting at 0330 Iceland time and ending at 2100 Chicago time (well, at least until my drive down to Champaign this morning), I'm back home. Many apologies for not really blogging about anything during FanFest (having been a bit busy) and my thanks to Marc for picking me up from the airport and Sam and Gracie for putting me up for the night -- I don't think driving home after that would have been such a good idea.
FanFest was as good or better than last year (Caldari theme = win), but the highlight of the trip was definitely the 4x4 tour, which was amazing -- it was great to get out of Reykjavik and see the rest of Iceland, which was gorgeous. I took over 100 pictures I think, and I'll probably put them up on a Picasa album or something, since posting them in the blog would be a bit cumbersome. However, standing on the same rock where the Althing was first held was a pretty awe-inspiring experience (even if it's not particularly much to look at right now -- just a big rock with an Icelandic flag), and the natural wonders of Iceland -- from the Golden Waterfall (Gullfoss), crystal-clear waters and glacial ice to geysers and steam vents -- are beautiful. The true power of the planet's natural processes is fully on display in Iceland like I've never quite seen elsewhere, though places like Mt. Rainier (pictures of which I'll also post one of these days) certainly show limited aspects.
Highlights from FanFest itself for me were the various presentations by the content team, where I heard a lot of very good stuff about what they see needs to be done with Eve -- especially fleshing out the backstory and a significant amount of world-building, something I've been waiting for for a long time. When they get around to uploading those videos to CCP's YouTube channel, I highly recommend checking them out.
Most of the information on the upcoming expansion -- Dominion -- wasn't too much of a surprise, since informaiton has been coming out in dev blogs pretty regularly over the last few months. In this case, a wise move from CCP since the systems being changed are pretty core to the game for a wide swath of the player base. The big thing people were waiting for was news on Dust 514, which came during the big presentation on Saturday. To be fair, I am not especially excited about it, since I am not the target market, and the presentation didn't really do that much for me. It looks like an FPS (and a serviceable one at that), but the truly innovative or interesting part of it isn't really graphics or physics effects but how it fits into Eve and how it works -- and the presentation didn't really have much about that.
The party Saturday night was good, though I preferred last years, really -- this year, they'd moved the lounge areas inside the party area itself, which was annoying. I don't dance, really, as anyone who knows me will attest, and I much preferred sitting around and talking with people -- pretty much impossible when you're being bombarded with loud music. They also made the decision to let in the locals for the party, which led to a very strange clash of crowds -- the women's bathroom, empty most of the weekend, was packed with women in clubbing outfits, many of which seemed confused as to why this party was filled with internet spaceship nerds.
Overall, a fun experience, and I wish I had more to say -- unfortunately, the last week is a bit of a whirlwind for me, especially with everything being rather hectic back home here, and I'm looking forward to getting back into my routine. I wanted to get this post up though, and I may revisit this again when CCP puts out videos from FanFest and I can refresh my memory. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this....
I think Oveur as Technoviking is the best part.
FanFest was as good or better than last year (Caldari theme = win), but the highlight of the trip was definitely the 4x4 tour, which was amazing -- it was great to get out of Reykjavik and see the rest of Iceland, which was gorgeous. I took over 100 pictures I think, and I'll probably put them up on a Picasa album or something, since posting them in the blog would be a bit cumbersome. However, standing on the same rock where the Althing was first held was a pretty awe-inspiring experience (even if it's not particularly much to look at right now -- just a big rock with an Icelandic flag), and the natural wonders of Iceland -- from the Golden Waterfall (Gullfoss), crystal-clear waters and glacial ice to geysers and steam vents -- are beautiful. The true power of the planet's natural processes is fully on display in Iceland like I've never quite seen elsewhere, though places like Mt. Rainier (pictures of which I'll also post one of these days) certainly show limited aspects.
Highlights from FanFest itself for me were the various presentations by the content team, where I heard a lot of very good stuff about what they see needs to be done with Eve -- especially fleshing out the backstory and a significant amount of world-building, something I've been waiting for for a long time. When they get around to uploading those videos to CCP's YouTube channel, I highly recommend checking them out.
Most of the information on the upcoming expansion -- Dominion -- wasn't too much of a surprise, since informaiton has been coming out in dev blogs pretty regularly over the last few months. In this case, a wise move from CCP since the systems being changed are pretty core to the game for a wide swath of the player base. The big thing people were waiting for was news on Dust 514, which came during the big presentation on Saturday. To be fair, I am not especially excited about it, since I am not the target market, and the presentation didn't really do that much for me. It looks like an FPS (and a serviceable one at that), but the truly innovative or interesting part of it isn't really graphics or physics effects but how it fits into Eve and how it works -- and the presentation didn't really have much about that.
The party Saturday night was good, though I preferred last years, really -- this year, they'd moved the lounge areas inside the party area itself, which was annoying. I don't dance, really, as anyone who knows me will attest, and I much preferred sitting around and talking with people -- pretty much impossible when you're being bombarded with loud music. They also made the decision to let in the locals for the party, which led to a very strange clash of crowds -- the women's bathroom, empty most of the weekend, was packed with women in clubbing outfits, many of which seemed confused as to why this party was filled with internet spaceship nerds.
Overall, a fun experience, and I wish I had more to say -- unfortunately, the last week is a bit of a whirlwind for me, especially with everything being rather hectic back home here, and I'm looking forward to getting back into my routine. I wanted to get this post up though, and I may revisit this again when CCP puts out videos from FanFest and I can refresh my memory. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this....
Just so no one thinks I'm dead, I am back in Iceland for FanFest at the moment (which starts in about 15 minutes here). I got here Tuesday evening and was pretty wiped out, and yesterday I was on a 4x4 tour of the Golden Circle (where I took a ton of pictures -- will be posting them somewhere when I get a chance). I'll try to give more updates in the days to come!
Well, I don't have much time to make a real post right now, but I got back from Seattle yesterday and I'm now in a bit of a tizzy trying to get everything sorted here before I leave for Iceland later this month. Some quick updates though:
- Seattle was awesome. PAX was awesome. CCP's party was awesome. Pictures may follow soon, I just haven't had time to go through them; unfortunately, I didn't take as many as I had hoped for a variety of reasons.
- I really hope I don't have H1N1 (see bottom). It would be incredibly inconvenient, but I do admit I'm getting a case of the sniffles. If it comes up with anything else I think it will be time to head to the doctor.
- When travelling with someone, if their schedule does not match yours, it can be very frustrating for both parties. Likewise, some people need to learn the value of The Plan(tm). :)
- Anyone know anything about selling a house in the fall/winter months? Alternatively, is there anyone looking for a small, reasonably priced house in Champaign in the very near future?
So, in a bit of a happy coincidence, I find myself back in Seattle on the 20th anniversary of Shadowrun. Eric and I spent last night in Chicago and flew out here this morning, in preparation for the Penny Arcade Expo. It's been about four years since I've been here, and it's Eric's first time taking a cross-country trip without the folks being involved, so it's a bit of a big deal.
Seattle's probably my favorite US city (at least, of those I've visited) -- I'm not sure why, entirely, but I know that as soon as we got on the shuttle to head to the hotel, I was probably in the best mood I've been in in weeks, if not months. Of course, any sort of vacation might have had the same effect, but Seattle really is such a beautiful place -- green everywhere, and you can see the trees with all actual terrain, instead of it just being...well, flat. It is easy to walk around and it seems to have a lot of character packed in a small space.
We just took it easy today (Eric was a little wiped out too), but we did do some walking around, just down to Pike's Place Market for lunch and dinner -- yeah, maybe a little touristy, but it's a really cool part of the city to me. We had lunch at Bayou on First, a Cajun restaurant near the market which was kind of a little hole in the wall, but it was pretty good for what it was -- I had a gumbo that was pretty tasty on a day like today, which was cool and drizzly. A little overpriced, maybe, but I sort of expected that for the area. For dinner, we went to Matt's in the Market, which Eric picked out -- though he appeared to have missed the prices (something not to forget next time!). On the other hand, I think mine was at least worth the $25 -- and that's something I wasn't sure about when I ordered, considering what it was: squid ink fettucine with chorizo-stuffed calamari and cherry tomatoes in what I think was a ginger sauce. I wasn't sure when I ordered, but it ended up being amazing -- I guess it's hard to go wrong with chorizo, and the squid ink doesn't really flavor the noodles at all (but it makes it look pretty striking). Eric took a picture, so when I can get it from him I'll stick that up for folks to see.
Tomorrow, Eric and I are heading out to Mt. Rainier for the day, which I'm really looking forward to. But, it does mean a bit of an early day again -- it will be nice to take a bit of a breather on Thursday before going into full-on con mode.
Seattle's probably my favorite US city (at least, of those I've visited) -- I'm not sure why, entirely, but I know that as soon as we got on the shuttle to head to the hotel, I was probably in the best mood I've been in in weeks, if not months. Of course, any sort of vacation might have had the same effect, but Seattle really is such a beautiful place -- green everywhere, and you can see the trees with all actual terrain, instead of it just being...well, flat. It is easy to walk around and it seems to have a lot of character packed in a small space.
We just took it easy today (Eric was a little wiped out too), but we did do some walking around, just down to Pike's Place Market for lunch and dinner -- yeah, maybe a little touristy, but it's a really cool part of the city to me. We had lunch at Bayou on First, a Cajun restaurant near the market which was kind of a little hole in the wall, but it was pretty good for what it was -- I had a gumbo that was pretty tasty on a day like today, which was cool and drizzly. A little overpriced, maybe, but I sort of expected that for the area. For dinner, we went to Matt's in the Market, which Eric picked out -- though he appeared to have missed the prices (something not to forget next time!). On the other hand, I think mine was at least worth the $25 -- and that's something I wasn't sure about when I ordered, considering what it was: squid ink fettucine with chorizo-stuffed calamari and cherry tomatoes in what I think was a ginger sauce. I wasn't sure when I ordered, but it ended up being amazing -- I guess it's hard to go wrong with chorizo, and the squid ink doesn't really flavor the noodles at all (but it makes it look pretty striking). Eric took a picture, so when I can get it from him I'll stick that up for folks to see.
Tomorrow, Eric and I are heading out to Mt. Rainier for the day, which I'm really looking forward to. But, it does mean a bit of an early day again -- it will be nice to take a bit of a breather on Thursday before going into full-on con mode.
