Entries tagged with “Iceland” from Things You Don't Care About
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!
All right, I know this is long overdue and I apologize; Fallout 3 has been devouring my free time this week, I have to admit (I'll post a full review later, after I have played through the game entirely, but the short version is that it's very good -- the Zero Punctuation review sums it up pretty well). This is going to be a big article, and I'm going to put most of it behind the cut, but I think I'll start with this picture to whet your appetites. You can see the full size version in the photos panel to the right -- sorry this is a little clumsy, I'm still working out sticking stuff like this into MoveableType, so I'll try to go back and fix these later.
These are the mountains rising up over the sports complex where FanFest was held, with a gorgeous cover of clouds hovering over them. This was a pretty breathtaking view, and I took this picture at around 1000 on Friday, so you can tell how long it takes for the sun to actually rise in Iceland during the waning months of the fall.
Okay, real coverage of my trip is behind the cut, so let's get started....
These are the mountains rising up over the sports complex where FanFest was held, with a gorgeous cover of clouds hovering over them. This was a pretty breathtaking view, and I took this picture at around 1000 on Friday, so you can tell how long it takes for the sun to actually rise in Iceland during the waning months of the fall.Okay, real coverage of my trip is behind the cut, so let's get started....
Continue reading FanFest in Review and Reykjavik in Pictures.
Today is my last full day here in Iceland, which gives me a little time to reflect on the last few days (but a full roundup of FanFest will have to wait until I get back and have some time to go through my pictures). It's actually sunny today for the first time since Wednesday, though I've spent almost all my time over the last few days either inside the FanFest venue or out with various people around here.
Visiting Iceland has been a really interesting and fun experience, especially being here and spending time with people from all over the world. While GenCon always has a lot of people from outside the US, here at FanFest, the attendees are mostly from outside the US -- I've heard people speaking dozens of different languages, not to mention English with as many accents, and it really gives you a feeling for the fact that the world is a much bigger place than you can possibly realize when you spend most of your time in a single place. I've been able to meet a lot of people I have considered friends here, even though we'd never met in person before, and I will be taking home a lot of great memories.
The most fascinating thing about being in another country has been seeing all the little differences between being here and being in the US. Nearly everything here seems a little smaller (including my bed in the hotel room and the bit-too-small duvet), the smell of sulfur when you run the hot water (due to the fact that hot water here comes from geothermally-heated springs under the ground), the fact that you get a yellow light before a green light on the traffic signals, and the way cars actually expect to cede the right of way to pedestrians (quite a change from the mess on campus, for sure). I think just being exposed to a different way of doing things and a different environment has been incredibly healthy for me as a person.
The worst thing about this trip is that it really hasn't been long enough for me to really feel like I have learned as much as I should about this place, and I wish I had time to learn the language and culture here. I was really excited about coming here, and it has not been a disappointment; I can't wait until I get the chance to take a trip like this again.
Visiting Iceland has been a really interesting and fun experience, especially being here and spending time with people from all over the world. While GenCon always has a lot of people from outside the US, here at FanFest, the attendees are mostly from outside the US -- I've heard people speaking dozens of different languages, not to mention English with as many accents, and it really gives you a feeling for the fact that the world is a much bigger place than you can possibly realize when you spend most of your time in a single place. I've been able to meet a lot of people I have considered friends here, even though we'd never met in person before, and I will be taking home a lot of great memories.
The most fascinating thing about being in another country has been seeing all the little differences between being here and being in the US. Nearly everything here seems a little smaller (including my bed in the hotel room and the bit-too-small duvet), the smell of sulfur when you run the hot water (due to the fact that hot water here comes from geothermally-heated springs under the ground), the fact that you get a yellow light before a green light on the traffic signals, and the way cars actually expect to cede the right of way to pedestrians (quite a change from the mess on campus, for sure). I think just being exposed to a different way of doing things and a different environment has been incredibly healthy for me as a person.
The worst thing about this trip is that it really hasn't been long enough for me to really feel like I have learned as much as I should about this place, and I wish I had time to learn the language and culture here. I was really excited about coming here, and it has not been a disappointment; I can't wait until I get the chance to take a trip like this again.
Good morning ladies and gents from Reykjavik, Iceland! I got in here about 3 hours ago now after my 5 hour flight from Boston, during which I don't think I slept nearly as much as I should have. I wanted to take a nap, but I can't check in to my room yet, unfortunately. So for now, I'm camped out in the lobby with some other FanFest refugees and waiting to get in.
Right now, it's almost 0900 local (which is also GMT), and the sun is just starting to creep up -- I'd say it looks like it does around 0630 or 0700 does at home. Streetlights are all still on and you can't see much other than a blue-tinged grey sky (though that may be because of the overcast skies). So far, Reykjavik does not strike me at all like a city only a bit larger than Champaign-Urbana; it seems almost like a Chicago suburb in terms of the traffic, the road structure, and a lot of the architecture, with modern glass and steel mixed with smaller buildings that seem a lot like older buildings I've seen in New England.
Yesterday was not without it's troubles, unfortunately -- my flight out of Chicago got cancelled due to mechanical problems, so instead of getting to Boston at 1330, I ended up getting there closer to 1700. In retrospect, that 7 hour layover I was griping about ended up being a good idea.
Anyway, not too much to report yet -- I haven't taken any pictures but hopefully I'll be able to do some of that later today and tomorrow and get those up here. I just wanted to make a quick post before I forgot to let everyone know I got in okay.
Right now, it's almost 0900 local (which is also GMT), and the sun is just starting to creep up -- I'd say it looks like it does around 0630 or 0700 does at home. Streetlights are all still on and you can't see much other than a blue-tinged grey sky (though that may be because of the overcast skies). So far, Reykjavik does not strike me at all like a city only a bit larger than Champaign-Urbana; it seems almost like a Chicago suburb in terms of the traffic, the road structure, and a lot of the architecture, with modern glass and steel mixed with smaller buildings that seem a lot like older buildings I've seen in New England.
Yesterday was not without it's troubles, unfortunately -- my flight out of Chicago got cancelled due to mechanical problems, so instead of getting to Boston at 1330, I ended up getting there closer to 1700. In retrospect, that 7 hour layover I was griping about ended up being a good idea.
Anyway, not too much to report yet -- I haven't taken any pictures but hopefully I'll be able to do some of that later today and tomorrow and get those up here. I just wanted to make a quick post before I forgot to let everyone know I got in okay.
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries tagged “Iceland”.