Divine Safari

          Just two destinations on this 48th consecutive Safari, but this was a week when less is more.  That's what we told ourselves, as we all kept losing our hair. What is up with that? For months, hair loss has been a rare event when grid jumping, and now it's back. What we need to do is sit down with a dev and.... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

First stop, CrazyEaster.

Safari Lessons

          Yay it's nice to be meeting on OSGrid at the ole homeplace again. 

          But no time to feel homesick for Francogrid, because our first stop this week was on that very grid. Sim Avatar crashed - had to be an omen - but a second top secret alternative destination was immediately made available. 

           

Safari goes extramural

         This week Littlefield Grid celebrates two years of existence, and Walter Balazic and friends are celebrating with a gigantic fair on Littlefield Anniversary sim. In honor of the event they have put up a VAR region, and all kinds of residents have contributed stalls stands and exhibits showing the talent and wide range of interests of Littlefield folk.

Walter Balazic: it's a fairly large VAR, so there's a lot to see. I've been looking at it for 2 weeks now, so it looks small to me now! The users here love to build.  Mudpuddle put an interesting Yellow Submarine display up. The Germans put a village up, I put a little display up, I really never build, but it's the one behind you. People do things that are geared toward what they know, mine is all prim and minor scripting, cause that's all I know. Some people are really good at mesh and focus on mesh things.

Safari by the Numbers

          Tip Corbett in the real world Gregory Hall put on a wonderful concert for the Safari this week, inspired by conversations with Wizard Gynoid on the theme of "The Aesthetics of Advanced Musical Scales in Words and Music". 
          Originally the concert was due to be on the HG Safari sim on 3rdRockGrid, but the grid showed up as offline until just before the Safari was due to begin, so the event reverted to Francogrid. That meant we missed out on seeing most of Wizard's geometry. These are some highlights of what happened, and here is the link to the audio of the whole concert. 
          As ever, URIs for this week's destinations are at the end of the post, which alone cannot do justice to Tip's lovely voice on stream, let alone his magnificent music.

Tip Corbett:  And... Welcome to the sim! This is going to be lecures and playing, which is something I really like, and I like feedback, so if you want to give me feedback, that's a gift you can give me.
          (go ahead and do that, by finding and subscribing or liking his pages on Facebook, on Youtube, or on his website GregoryHall.org.)

Live Long and Gridjump

          This week's Safari event had plenty of competition, and that is a great thing. It's a tangible sign that OpenSim is far from a collection of empty grids. From the inauguration of the new Hypergrid sim on Francogrid, to the VWBPE Conference on Avacon to the weekly dance party on Metropolis to 3rdRockGrid's regular live music concert hosted by Zinnia Frenzy,  there was plenty to do. 
          But for the Safari, this week was Spockfari, a chance to honor and remember Leonard Nimoy, and to visit two extraordinary Star Trek builds in OpenSim, on 3rdRockGrid, and LostWorld. 
          URIs of each region are at the end of the post.

USS Davy Crockett

          First stop was on 3rdRockGrid, the home of the USS Davy Crockett, which is ... Fascinating.

Selenmoira: Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome aboard the USS Davy-Crockett. If you like, we have prepared a champagne bowl over there.
Truelie.Ellen: just a sip... must stay rational
Fuschia.Nightfire: champagne!  oh cool, it gives you the whole tray. That should keep me going for half an hour or so.

Pick and Choose

It's time for you to give back!
Please help us with a new project, Safari Suggestions. The idea is to give every hypergridder the chance to name five memorable places in open sim, and share their thoughts and Landmarks with others. This is not a popularity contest, but more a chance for you to let us know a bit more about you and your tastes.

You can suggest your own sim, or not, there's no rule against self promotion. Don't feel you have to put the five most 'important' places, or limit yourself to Safari destinations. Maybe you like art, or education sims, perhaps let people know about some good free shopping regions, or tell them about community or music events. It's up to you.
It's harder than it sounds! Can't remember the name of a place we saw while on Safari? 

Looking back through this blog may jog your memory, or the Safari Archive inside the clubhouse may also help.
Once you've chosen five places, what next? 

Safari crosses over

            Institutions. We all love them, and most of us belong in one. This week three SL/opensim crossovers were our destinations, each one an epic in its own way. First up,  Seanchai Library which this month celebrates seven years since it was founded in Second Life. That's a big deal when you think of all the performances that this group has put on, and all the money they have collected for charity too. We met on sim Inis Arcain in Kitely to hear the short story 'The Bard' performed by Caledonia Skytower. This is a tale of druids and warriors and ancient angst, and one of the most memorable menacing laughs in the metaverse.

          Caledonia set things up so we could hear her via streaming anywhere on the sim, making it possible to go wandering around the build without missing any of the story, also making it easier on those of us who find that Voice does not work well when