Chat !

A little bit of HG help from opensimworld.com
It happens every week, on Safari..

The group meets at the clubhouse, at 12 noon Pacific time 9pm CET.
Everyone grabs the Notecard with the landmarks and details about the trip, and at the appointed time, we all set off...

...well, most of us do. But glitches happen.
Maybe your avie freezes.
Maybe you get stuck in tp limbo, neither here nor there, and have to log out.

Perhaps you click on the wrong landmark, or can't find the notecard.
Maybe you're waiting at the Clubhouse on Teravus Plaza, OSGrid, not realizing that our main meeting point these days is on Francogrid! (There's a portal)

The Teravus Plaza clubhouse

Maybe your clothes fail to rez, so you rush home to fix the problem, and when you come back the group is gone.

Or, you show up late, and it's hard to figure out where people have gone.

Of course, you can just go fishing, like Aime Socrates. But if not, what can you do?

The obvious solution is to have a way to communicate with the group outside the Viewer. That way, even if you get logged out, or are on a region that refuses to let you send IMs to people on other grids, you can still find out where we all are.

There are lots of different ways to chat outside the Viewer. Skype, Facebook, G+ hangouts, even Twitter come to mind.
The problem with all of these is that there is no consensus among OpenSim people about which is good to use. Some people find certain websites difficult to use while they have their Viewer open. Some people don't like one or more of these chat providers, other people like them, but use an account name they don't want to share inworld.

The solution may be at hand. Satyr Gator has just introduced a Chat feature on his website OpenSimWorld.com. It is still in Beta, so we will be testing its robustness!
OpenSimWorld is free, and you do not have to have a region to be part of the website.
There is an HG Safari group in OpenSimWorld, which you can join also.
The chat feature on this site is not for the exclusive use of HG Safari, and we'll be using it mostly as an SOS resource. Both people who are hypergridding pros, and those new to HG are encouraged to join soon, so we can see how useful this will be when the hg gremlins make life hard for us!

Safari goes Past, Present, and Future

           Virtual worlds are ephemeral, we all know that, a hiccup on a server and all your stuff can be gone. Of course, a housefire can do the same thing in the real world, but it's a lot easier to lose, or lose touch with, things and people dear to us in our online existence.
HG ADDRESSES AT THE END OF THE POST

Tina Bey

           Tina Bey posted this video on Facebook recently,  telling the story of Arcauana, her region (hosted by the great Ken Savage) on OSGrid. How could we resist?

        In a lot of sci-fi films, we are presented with a universe full of different life forms all living together in (dis)harmony. Now, imagine if all the life forms in the the universe of sci-fi films were able to interact? The characters from Star Wars, Star Gate, Star Trek, and more. This is Tina Bey's premise. It is also an exploration in lighting and audio effects, so be sure to turn on Sound and read the instructions on windlight, for the best effect.

Safari Tours Turin and Counts its Blessings

This week the Safari experienced a symphony of building- a concert of creativity! HG Addresses at the end of the post.

          First stop was on OSGrid, the region called Torino Italy, with our hosts Alfiere Rossini, Lucy Rosadisharon, and Giuliano Carminucci. People hypergridded in from at least nine different grids to be part of the fun, and learn a little about Alfiere's build.
Thirza Ember: we need to study piemontese for our first stop tonight
George Equus: Hope  chat will be in English  :)  No parlare Italiano buono  :)

Safari heads for the Fests!

Mal Burns: reminder - AvatarFest starts this Friday and all weekend - http://avatarfest.net:6000         

      Shock horror - turns out Oktoberfest actually begins in September!
     This is one of the many things we learned on this week's Safari. We were invited by NextLife grid to come and see their fabulous Fairground and dancing region, where much of the Germanophile and germanophone opensim community are gathering during the two week festival. 

Graham Mills' Age of Steam

   Our final destination this week was on Kitely,  with Graham Mills, a talented builder, educator, and story-teller. Named, Age of Steam, the build celebrates the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company  

Graham Mills: this is a recreation of the world's first railway station 
Don Smith: Nicely done Graham, i was here recently, loved it

Graham.Mills: opened in 1830 and closed in 1836 because it was too small, all before photography, so just paintings and sketches to go from. The opening day was 15th Sept, there were 750 guests, amazingly complex to organise; the army must have helped, Wellington was guest of honour, he was Prime Minister at the time and rather unpopular he got a particularly rough time at the other end of the line, Manchester, 30 miles away, a lot of folk didn't want the railways either as they thought it would ruin the nvironment and put poeople out of a job, which was true in part.
Serene Jewell: Darn railway/automobile/internet/cellphones.... 
 Praline B: wow this build is awesome and all in prims
Graham Mills: normally 4 horse-drawn omnibusses would bring 1st class passengers here, you had to book the day before, on the opening ceremony they came in their own carriages -- there was a one-way system outside. The railway carriages were incredibly tightly packed, 26 was a typical number
Serene.Jewell: Pretty crowded

Graham Mills: most were 4-5 coaches on opening day, yellow were first class, blue second class
Serene Jewell: Let the random sitting on things begin!
Graham.Mills: all sorts of ways to make second class passengers miserable, not least Embers from the firebox, lol many complaints of damage to clothing at the front is a pilot wagon, this was used for brakes
Thirza Ember: some scary umbrella accidents too i bet
Serene Jewell: Lots of stepping on dresses I'm sure.
Graham Mills: the dresses were huge in those days major issues getting into carriages, but folk were used to stagecoaches,  so nobody thought proper platforms necessary. This is the first ever railway shed and incidentally platform, although it was poorly designed as the pillars sometimes meant you couldn't open the doors
Serene Jewell: I need a ticket!
Kurtis Anatine: That will be 1 shilling please
Graham Mills: this was the train used by the Duke, the VIPs and the Directors of the company, it started in the tunnel and they pushed it out -- nice theatrical effect, gasps from the audience, three bands are playing, the Duke arrives. Thousands of people around cheering. He waves to everyone. He's dressed in black but has a sensible thick cloak on (the King had just died)... Notice anything?
Graham Mills: No engines!! They made the tunnel too small!

snowbody Cortes: wow!
Thirza Ember: that is hilarious
Praline B: yes lol
Graham Mills: but there was a slope anyway so they couldn't use engines (which liked it flat) so they ran the carriages down by gravity and up by rope or donkeys, so to get started the staff would push the train - technical, eh?

          We walked through the dark tunnel to the next station Edge Hill, which is where they coupled trains, the dark interior made us al think about how much soot people must have breathed in back then.
Kurtis Anatine: this is where coal lung came from right?
Serene Jewell: What are the barrels for?
Kurtis Anatine: i think its for water isnt it?
Graham Mills: This is where they coupled up the locomotives, the barrels are for water -- to make the steam - easy to forget they needed water, but they were on the outside of town - no mains water, so they pumped their own. The arch above me has stationary engines, one in each tower; they powered the rope for hauling the trains, and pumped the water, the arch was a signature build, but cleverly hid all the techie stuff :)
Serene Jewell: People are ingenious.
Praline B: coming from indian architecture?
Graham Mills: yes -- asian, unusual as most was neo-classical, ie Greek
Praline B: ok ;)

Thirza Ember: people must have thought they were living at the end of one age and the beginning of another.. like the Moon landing... life would never be the same
Graham Mills:it was a momentous step -- travel had never been so fast they moved vast quantities of coal, and fresh food; cities and factories became possible, one end of the country was soon connected to the other - railwaymania began
Serene Jewell: So many people that had only known there one small area would be changed by traveling on railways.
Praline B: yes, a real step , revolution, how exciting it was at this time!
Thirza Ember: what got you interested in this station and event?
Graham.Mills: um, I work on Crown Street. Never knew it had such a pivotal role. Decided it was a good subject for a build,  it's a public park now, so i can do mixed reality.
Praline B: Really interesting build Graham, I very glad to revisit this part of the steam history! This build is really realistic,
Serene.Jewell: So, someday people can take their iphone and see what the park used to look like by viewing your recreation, Graham.
Graham.Mills: yes, Serene, it's easy enough to capture panoramas already, RL to Opensim to AR To RL, that's the idea, connect ppl to their heritage, release an OAR, let them work with it.
Praline B: that works fine Graham ;))
snowbody Cortes: super
Graham Mills: trying to get cultural and historical organisations interested at city level, some progress - I would, of course, like to get the trains running, maybe next 15th Sept
Thirza Ember: that would be wonderful also, but they tell a story here in the statio that is very interesting
 snowbody Cortes: it seems all alive

Graham Mills: well, as you may know, the opening ceremony was a disaster after the triumphal departure - the local Member of Parliament was killed, run over by a loco, so a very gloomy return!
Serene Jewell: Saving the gruesome bit for last, Graham? :-)
Graham Mills: very hostile crowd at Manchester- Hasty return - engine failures, engines in the wrong place, 3 engines ended up pulling 24 carriages -- very slowly, but the next day they ran an excursion and the day after that opened for business and never looked back!

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:age of steam

SafariMania

          So, this season of the Safari, we are going to be promoting builds with some kind of - let's not call it educational benefit, that sounds too dry, but the idea is that we all come away from our tour feeling like we now know something we didn't know before. First up, Anachronia sim on the German language grid, Dorena's World.
          HG Addresses at the end of the post, as usual.

          Dorena and Anachron, the grid-mama and grid-papa were there, along with other residents like Uwe Furst, Lureen Persephone, and the lovely builder and creator Klarabella Karamell, an authentic opensim heroine. We first sat down which really helped with the lag that comes when a region is bombarded with a dozen or more avatars arriving from multiple grids.

Gor and More

This week two destinations, both fun and at the same time quite serious, in that they deeply connect with the real world beliefs, creativity, and endeavors of their creators. HG Addresses as usual at the end of the post.

          Despite some craziness in hypergridding which slowed down our arrival on Destination one, Counter-Earth grid, pretty soon about 15 of us were at the arrival area at Sardar Mountain, which in the books is a marketplace where it seems anything can happen, from the dangerous to the delightful. There are community evenings on Counter-Earth Grid, at 8pm Pacific Time, and there are organized games of Gorean soccer, and they are working on getting combat events - the arena is ready, just some scripting left to do. For those in the Antipodes, you may like to join the New Zealand cohort on this grid, so there's something for everyone.
If you visit the grid, be sure to leave some feedback on the OpenSimWorld page

Back on Safari

Sound artist Morlita Quan, check out her music here

... And we're back.
The first Safari of the new season was a celebration of creativity, style, sensuality and above all the free open source ideals of Francogrid, and the wider hyperverse of OpenSim.

Fest'Avi is always about the body beautiful. It is about creativity and a practical need for more original avatars for people to use and share. Anyone can contribute an avie, and this year there are about 19 different models, some very human-like, some romantic, some very unusual.
Here are the avie makers this year: Sunbeam Magic,  Archael Magic, Canonboymaty Duffield, Zany Foxtrot, Serene Jewell, Praline B, Shannan Albright, Meilo Minotaur and of course Cherry Manga, whose artistic imagination and passion are the fabric upon which these avatars are displayed.

Sun Sets on Safari

Thai Low: allora abbiamo resistito al terrore delle griglie: HG Safari!

           Just for a few weeks, the Safari will be taking a break. This was our 110th consecutive week jumping from grid to grid, and it's time to take a moment, hose out the clubhouse, reorganize the landmark giver, purge the cache, and have a bit of a rest.

An Arrowing Safari

Yellow Submarine time! Safari headed off to Pepperland this week. It was about a year ago that we last visited Mudpuddle Cleanslate and Chelsea Louloudi's Beatle-inspired world. HG Addresses at the end of the post, as always.

A Fact and Fantasy Safari

          Sometimes we think of it as a fail, but one of the virtues OpenSim is that it has no theme, beyond its variety, liberty and instability. Everyone does what they feel, and it's a testament to the inherent positive spirit of, well, humanity, that here are so many grids and regions that celebrate beauty, generosity and goodness, without being self-conscious or coy about it.

          This week, the Safari visited three grids, Saraneth region on Ignis Fatuus, ArcadiaShop on OSGrid, and three sims on Craft Grid, Hildesheim, Heritage and ESOC. HG Addresses, as usual, at the end of the post. Some builds are factual, some are pure fantasy either of an original form, or developing beloved stories or images, but all of them teach us something.

Carima to Raious: Safari gets Ed-ucational

          From Middle Earth to the inside of an iPhone, that was this week's epic - and surprisingly smooth - Safari. 
          First up, the sims belonging to the Carima group on Metropolis.

           Primus, Anna and the gang were there to welcome us to this huge, heart-breakingly lovely region. So what's the Carima story?

True Grid

 Matilda Charron came on Safari!

Matilda Charron at the clubhouse

          Now that is true grit. The Safari begins at like 3 am, Mati's time, and we were so glad she decided to join the fun and games this week.
          And what a game of it we had.  Generally speaking, hypergridders like to be able to jump directly from A to B. Having to go through Welcome sims or make multiple leaps to reach one's destination is not a huge burden, but obviously, if somebody builds a region and wants people to visit, then it would be good if they made that as easy as possible. Is that dumbing down? I hope not. The 'idiot-proof' opensim viewer we're always being promised doesn't matter to me, mostly because I'm not that interested in meeting idiots. HG accessibility is, however, key to making it worth your while to build worthwhile, quality installations and regions.

Safari Turns Two

Truelie Telling

Two years of grid jumping, and to celebrate, we had a great party, thanks to many wonderful guests and some fantastic music! Sarah Kline said it best, seems no time at all since we were celebrating our first anniversary right here on Event Plaza.

A Hearty, Arty Safari

         Some seriously fun art in OpenSim this week for the Safari, on two excellent art-friendly grids. HG Addresses at the end.
          First up, Francogrid and Michaël Borras aka Systaime with his show "Curating Money" curated by Wrong Grid organizers Ellectra Radikal and Frere Reinert.

Nara's Nook Fashion Show

 'Flu time for your intrepid reporter, but that didn't stop the Safari! This week, just one destination, but plenty of fun on Nara's Nook grid, which is a writer's colony run by Nara Malone.

The idea for this event was to showcase many of the clothes made in opensim, for opensim. You can read more about Nara's show on the grid's blog here

This was an encore performance of the event held the previous weekend on a special sim. The organizers included Avia Bonne  knowns for her many splendid opensim builds as well as her real life paintings and drawings, and Jessie Campbell who is a fabulous manipulator of NPCs and has brought burlesque shows inworld up to the highest levels.

Lost Light

One of the giants of virtual worlds, Lumiere Noir, died about a year ago, on August 10, 2015. He had been ill for quite some time, but his passing came suddenly, sending shockwaves through the community of virtual worlds where he had long been revered as an inspirational educator for hundreds of builders. 

Lumiere Noir on Craft Grid in 2011

The expression 'Ivory Tower' was coined in 1837 by the French writer Sainte-Beuve and it means a frame of mind, or sometimes a place of scholarship and learning, that holds itself aloof from the less educated, everyday happenings. That's rather ironic, considering Lumiere's lifelong desire to inform and assist others to be part of the building community.

Safari Goes Lusitanian

For week 101 of the Safari, a special themed week celebrating Portugal! Lots of Lusitanian references, plus a concert by Joao Frazao, to enrich the evening.

Belem Tower, on NiSi Festival region, Metropolis

We began our adventure as usual on Francogrid, at the clubhouse. I don't know why we never actually 

g inside the clubhouse, I guess we just like fresh air. Tht big geometric shape is an invention of Wizard Gynoid, you can buy one from a 3D website service she has set up, and you too can have a RL copy (although not that big!).

Our first destination was Carlos Loff's project to build the city of Lisbon in opensim. He has a grid of his own, and his plan is to recreate the entire metropolitan area, with all the monuments and geographical features - that's quite an enterprise!

The 'is' and 'isn'ts' of Virtual Money

We love what you do when you do it with heart

Truelie Telling, the Safari song

It may have been Pathfinder who brought it up, at this week's Safari, the subject of some sort of hypergrid friendly virtual currency. His comment was to the effect that it would give him the opportunity to support content creators. There followed a little polite but determined chorus of 'hypergrid currency?? thanks but no thanks' from many of the other attendees. Why is it that? What is it that makes people like me feel so passionately that the predominantly no money culture in open sim is the better way?

Safari One Hundred

This week, a little celebration to mark our one hundredth consecutive Safari. There was music, last minute panic, interesting conversation, lag, unsolicited boobage, laughs, and failed Tps. So much like any other week!

First up a Truelie Telling concert, on hgsafari sim, with the added bonus of the Guess the Grid competition, organized by Wizardoz Chrome. There are 25 images spread out around the sim, devilishly hard to find, and once found, you've got to guess what sim they are on! You will find the grid names and their hg addresses in a poster marked Guess the Grid Answers, at the Clubhouse on hgsafari sim, Francogrid. The winner on the day? Probably Sunbeam Magic got the most right answers, and Freewee Ling was the champion of finding them... she found fifteen, though confessed she couldn't identify any of the grids in the pics!!

Chasing the Safari

RL comes first, we all know that, and for a lot of people, that makes joining the Safari impossible. Same happened to me this week. But while some weeks, the group visits specially opened sims or one-off events, this week's destinations are all easy enough to visit when the fancy takes you. And very worthwhile too. Just grab the LMs from the Safari clubhouse, for your convenience they are available at Teravus Plaza on OSGrid, as well as at our usual rendezvous, HGSafari sim on Francogrid. If you made a  LM to our Francogrid clubhouse more than two weeks ago, it will no longer work, as the sim has been moved onto another server. But if you put our hg address into your map, you will find it OK. That address? hg.francogrid.org:80:hgsafari
This week the first destination was something of a load test for the group, and by all accounts it stood up well to the onslaught of the safari waifs and strays. The grid in question, Sailonbye, (full HG Addresses at the end of the post) is a mini grid that brings together three of opensim's greatest virtues: a sense of place, a talented builder of original content, and a generous heart.

Safari does Particles and Prims

         There are some weeks when, I'm not going to lie to you, organizing the Safari is like boxing an octopus while wading through molasses. And then there are weeks like this.

Two stops, with a retro feel. Our first stop on Metropolis grid, at a place with a name you may well know... The Lost Gardens of Apollo. 

There. You're sighing. Well, if like so many of us you came into SL in that golden age around 2007, you may remember it.

Safari goes Under the Radar

            Small grids! Hypergridding was made for them. We visited three outstanding examples this week. All three are open 24/7 and are worth visiting by yourself for their art, charm, freebies, music and information. Full HG Addresses at the end of the post. 

          First, Isis Ophelia's grid. Arcana. This grid is just exquisite. It's based on Epic Castle (here's a link to Austin's excellent blog post on the subject) plus extras from Kitely Market, and of course original touches by Isis herself.

Isis Ophelia rocking the shoulderpet

 
How do Safaris begin? Imagine a whole glorious mess of 'hello!' and 'hey! how you been' and 'welcome' and 'have I rezzed?' comments. 

Sound Advice for OpenSim

This blog mostly talks about things you can see in OpenSim. But until they finally allow us to have Smellyvision technology in virtual worlds, Hearing is the second most important sense after Seeing.

The Lost Gardens of Apollo on Metropolis,
the venue for an upcoming Torben Asp concert for HG Safari

 And when it comes to audio, the hyperverse has a fine variety of interesting and talented music makers, many of them are also builders or designers too.
             Maybe you're musical and would like to share your talent, or your music collection, with the community. How would one go about doing that? 

Week 96 part 1: Safari Has Visions

                  This week's trip took us to two grids, Great Canadian and RefugeGrid, both operate on US time so we met at grid time, which was an hour earlier for European gridhoppers. Next week we're doing all Euro grids, and will be starting at 9pm CET. Our aim? Confusion, of course.
This is part 1 of two posts.

Aacme Cityscape

          But there was no confusion about our first destination, at Aacme City on GCG, the home of Visionz magazine, which celebrates its first anniversary this week. The magazine is a great example of all that is best about OpenSim. It is a produced by a team, but newcomers and contributors are welcome; it spans all hg enabled grids, rather than being virtually nationalistic about one place; it's free, and offers free advertising space; and it's a positive, upbeat source of information - a ray of sunshine across the hyperverse, one might say.... Visionz publisher Sunbeam Magic said a few words at the champagne and cake do in the office above the shop, on Great Canadian Grid. HG Address at the end of the post.

Week 96 Part 2: Safari Takes Refuge

          Ninety-six safaris is a lot. As we approach our 100th consecutive week of group hypergridding, seems like we're all aware of how far hg has come over the past two years.

DJ Pooh's splendid Honeypot region

          The safari is like a bumblebee. The laws of physics say it shouldn't fly, yet it does. When we began, no grids were set up with mass hypergrid tp arrivals in mind. Even today, many grids  - even big name places, with a good reputation for stability - tremble and even crash when we arrive. 

You may say, stop doing it. Yet, that is really the whole point of the exercise. Gridhopping alone or with a couple of friends is great too, but what we are here to do is to push the envelope, and raise awareness that splendid isolation, while it can be restful at times, is no way to run a grid on the HG. And we like to think that our relentless insistence on mass arrivals have made things smoother for the lone traveller, and made grid owners more conscientious and given them a greater appreciation for visitors of all dimensions.
          Because life is movement.

NPC-fari

          Just two stops this week but boy were they both detail rich. It was NPC week on Safari, so of course our first stop had to be the spiritual home of the non player character, Nara's Nook, a grid that has storytelling at its heart. HG Addresses, as always at the end of the post. The arrival sim on the Nook is Greyville, and it has a new look. 

Safari does Booths, Beaches and Butterflies

          Yay Safari. It's been one of those weeks. 
First up this Wednesday, Great Canadian Grid. HG Safari has a new embassy and outreach center there. Taking advantage of a special price deal for long-time residents, Mal Burns that been developing his dozen or so regions into a living space poised to welcome new residents, collaborators, and friends... maybe you're looking for somewhere to be creative? If you're interested in sharing your creativity via storytelling, design, film, tv or music, then read on...

         

Primary Safari

          Primary colors, silliness, clowns, free items, music and throwing away your worries for a little while in the company of some fun, interesting people, that's what it's all about. Cornflakes Week was a very musical event for the Safari, and as you can see *some* of us have got rhythm!

       

Butch Safari

This week, the Safari was in the business of raising Male Avatar Awareness. 

Even with the latest shopping survey on Hypergrid Business, finding what you need to create a look in OpenSim is always a challenge, and menswear is the toughest category of all to locate. 

Skins, shapes and clothes are all tricky. Shapes often give that gorilla look, shoes have traditionally been way too big and clunky, and hair varies wildly from super effeminate to frankly monstrous. If you don't believe me girls, then just go out there and try putting together a look you can live with. No wonder many men give up and go girly, or furry, or simply wear the same tee shirt and jeans for about ten years... I found this Shrek skin and shape at Lani Mall in Jorink Devin's shop... definitely a boy thing.
This week, the Safari goers were challenged to wear a male avatar and walk a mile in those moccasins (or steel toed boots, whatever) and we went out across the HG to sample the state of Male shoppingness for ourselves.

Schreck Thirza

Our first stop was on Bubblesz Grid, which is the small hg enabled grid of mesh enthusiast Taarna Welles. 

       

If you arrive at the Welcome sim on bubblesz.nl.8002 you'll see the portal that will take you direct to the shops. Taarna's personal brand is called ReMake Fashion.