[Jester's Trek] Two strikes
Two strikes
Two quick Fanfest notes, both of which tickle me for different reasons.
The PLEX for Good charity stream that CCP put on back in early December fo Philippines typhoon relief included various fun one-off activities. One of these was a demonstration of close-quarters fighting that included CCP devs acting as sparring partners for Icelandic MMA star (and CCP-sponsored fighter) Gunnar Nelson. The CCP employees involved (who included CCP Guard and CCP Dolan) were good sports about being bent and twisted in various painful-looking configurations by the fighter.
It was a funny bit! I'm not an MMA watcher myself but it was interesting.
Anyway, CCP has decided to repeat the funny at Fanfest. After the second day's festivities but before the Pub Crawl with a Dev, CCP is advertising "EVE of Destruction." This event is advertised as a longer mirror of the charity stream event:
During EVE OF DESTRUCTION, Nelson will face off against CCP Games staff members and special guests in 10 back-to-back, one-versus-one wrestling matches in a fighting cage on loan from Mjölnir MMA Gym, his home training ground.This tickles me because once it was announced that Nelson would be facing off against "special guests", one wag asked me if CCP had volunteered me to get my ass kicked in a cage match for the whole E1 thing. Plus one to you sir for the humor, minus 50 for wanting to get me killed, and the answer is "no, definitely not." ;-)
The other item on its face is not nearly so humorous, but my brain couldn't resist thinking about it in an odd way.
I'm not going to get into the politics of this, but because of a labor dispute airport workers at Keflavik International Airport are set to strike between 4am and 9am on April 25 and April 30, after striking today at the same time (they're on strike as I publish this). What day do most Fanfest attendees arrive? That's right, April 30. And that's the exact time that most flights from the U.S. land as well as a not insignificant number of flights from Europe. Keflavik International Airport is reporting there will be up to a four hour delay of outbound flights, but their website doesn't mention inbound flights.
Hopefully, the KEF website is accurate and inbound flights aren't affected. If the strike affects baggage handlers (this isn't specified by the KEF website), that's going to leave a lot of Fanfest attendees sitting in the baggage claim area awaiting bags. And here's the part where my brain is broken: the duty-free shop is right there, and this part of arrivals takes place in a large open area.
So all I could think of was dozens of spaceship nerds buying bottles of booze and starting the party early in the baggage claim area. Then buying another bottle of booze before actually leaving the baggage claim area and going through customs... kind of an amusing thought!
Fanfest in one week!
EDIT (23/Apr/2014): CCP has published a full description of Fanfest activities.
Source: Two strikes