At Home with the Hopsons

Taarna Welles: now we get to the fun part

Taarna Welles

Most people in Opensim have heard of the Dutch creator of inworld goodies, Taarna Welles. Her home grid, Bubblesz, is one of those special places where original content, freebies and art come together in a harmonious whole. If you haven't been to LaBaronnie and Savvy, you're missing a little bit of OS heaven and history. 

The Hogwarts-inspired landing point on Bubblesz grid

Beyond making clothes and accessories for men and women, Taarna has always enjoyed creating landscapes. wander into the woods of Savvy and you'll see that - visit close by Hidden Leaves and the adventure continues. More recently, in the past year or two, Taarna has been working on a new region, Domadun. It's inspired by Harry Potter, the films and also the video game. You can tell how much Taarna is intrigued by the HP look when you get to the Bubblesz Welcome sim, where the portals that take you to the grid's different sims are themed around the game of Quidditch. 

Fashion Show

Belze and Chubby Cherub have their own grid called Chubelz. The grid name combines their two first names  and yes, it did take me like 2 years to figure that one out. 

Belze and Chubby at the Halloween themed Chubelz Modenschau region

Part of Opensim's vast and highly creative archipelago of fairly small, semi-private grids, Chubelz is one of those places that is already on your HG asset-searching radar for a while, and if not - then about time! On their grid's welcome area you can find everything from tattoos to eyes, shoes, jewels, and formal wear, making it a 'must LM' for anyone looking to get some great content for free. They regularly advertise their latest releases on Opensimworld - it's often stuff that will bring a smile to your face, and outfits and accessories themed for the time of year or special holidays.

It's Halloween season, which is the perfect time to have a Fashion Show or Modenschau with a Gothic theme. It's been brewing for a while...

Belze Cherub: We had the idea for a long time and have now implemented it

The fashion show will be on Saturday October 25 and it starts at 7pm Berlin time (that translates to 10am SLT) has its own dedicated sim which will be open to the public from 8am SLT so we'll all have plenty of time to get there before the fun begins, and completely rez. 

Remember that these events always get a crazy number of avatars, so being fashionably late is probably not a great idea - the early bird gets to see the outfits.

Dr Snow and the Water

 Long before "You know nothing, Jon Snow" became a meme, there was another John Snow, a doctor, whose battle against ignorance and mere lore has changed the way we see the world.

Throughout history, the predominating belief has been that sickness and plague were either sent from God as a punishment, or caused by something in the atmosphere. 'Malaria' is Italian for 'bad air' and the same term in Greek 'miasma' was the explanation given to contagious disease by Galen around the year 200 AD. 

Keep reading, we get to Opensim if you're patient.

It may seem unbelievable, but for almost 2000 years, right up into the Victorian era, people continued to put their faith in the miasma theory of how sickness spreads. Not everyone thought so, of course; pioneering physicians and early scientists  propounded 'germ theory' (germ is the the Greek word for seed or spore) first in the 1500s and later in the 1700s, but it never got much traction. 'Miasma' made more sense as the explanation for the diseases that hit hard in places where the poor lived in stuffy, stinky, cramped conditions. It was just bad air that was at fault.

NPC John Snow on Epidemiology, Avacon grid, and a couple of RL photos of the man.

John Snow set out to prove this wrong. In 1844, when he was 31 years old, Dr. Snow set up practice in London's Soho district, a melting pot of breweries, brothels, slaughterhouses, theater people, refugees, and penurious local tradesmen and women. Most people got water in buckets and bottles from the nearest public pump, which served for drinking, washing, and any other uses.  A few could afford to have fresh water piped to into their homes by a private firm, but everyone almost certainly had a cess pit for sewage and other household waste.

Serenity Now

Euthymia is a medical term, and a philosophical one. It refers to the normal state of mind, neither too up or too down, a perfectly balanced humor. Epicureans to refer to a state of cheerfulness, when you don't let things get to you but just keep calm and carry on.These days, when acquaintances bombard you with 'how I'm feeling right now' memes on social media, (remember when people used to keep that stuff in their super secret teenage diary?)  and where politics has everyone's blood pressure at max, not to mention the stresses and strains of health, finances, and family, what could be better than some nice reasonable calmness?

Dings Digital: is everyone there 

Thirza Ember: yes

Dings Digital: Welcome to „Ataraxia - Tranquility as happiness“. It started as a hobby project garden, and then grew beyond that. A smaller version was presented on OpenSim World Fair. We will have a kind of philosophical art walk. It is about the idea of tranquility and its connections to art, science  and the question of what it means to live well. You'll encounter a variety of things, but all are linked by this shared theme.

Dings Digital

Dings Digital: One link is the poem "On the Nature of Things" by the Roman poet Lucretius written around 50 BCE. It is a hymn on the natural world, life and ataraxia - the tranquility of mind. There are countless examples in art and science that were inspired by this poem. We’ve selected a few of them to share on this region. The region was designed by Uta Warbaum and me, and is not intended as instruction, but rather for exploration and enjoyment.

Dings Digital: this mosaic is an ancient source for the idea, somewhere there is the word Euthymia, which is to say: be well, be tranquil

Thirza Ember: history, philosophy, beauty and tranquility all in one place...

Dings Digital: yes, a kind of philosophical art walk...

One For the Road

SIWAS S: Hallo zusammen

Wyldewen Veil: You’ve crossed the unseen threshold — through cloud and current, past memory and time — and now the Veil parts for you. Before you lies Wyldewen Veil: a hidden realm adrift at the edge of wild nature and ancient magic. Beyond the open door of your plane, a new world awakens. Here, the air hums with mystery. Roads wind through forgotten forests. Waters whisper stories to those who listen.  Choose your path — by motorcycle or vintage auto, sailboat or hoverboard. Explore beaches kissed by twin suns, caverns where echoes remember your name, and towns that never show up on maps.  Stay as long as the Veil allows. Breathe deep. Let go. And let the Wyld remember you.

Star Ravenhurst: Welcome to Wyldewen Veil!  It will take a bit to rez. 

James Atlloud: How do we pronounce Wyldewen?

Tosha Tyran: Now that is a change :)

Petlove Petshop: also stunning!

Dings Digital: oh another moon, this is the real thing

Kimm Starr: It looks amazing!

Star Ravenhurst: The region is still under construction, so pardon anything you see unfinished. Enough is done to have a tour, so I hope you will enjoy.  Eventually I will have Lore and stories in place, but for now, we will tour it as it is.

Dings Digital: when is a piece of art finished?

Tina Bey: nunca jajajaj

Star Ravenhurst: This is a 6x6 region with two airports and many modes of transportation. Today we will be taking a plane tour, F-222. As we move along, if you drop your camera below, and behind the plane, you will get a good view as we go along. We can thank Kimm for the moon

Nara Nook: see the airplane taking off, so cool

Star Ravenhurst: We are going to board the plane grounded F-222. This box has a map HUD

Tina Bey: y nuestros billetes ?

Tosha Tyran: te olvidaste el tuyo, Tina? que desastre!!!

Dings Digital: will they serve food?

eva Nowicka: This is going to be worse than the bus incident :D

NWG Hits the Decade

Neverworld Grid turns ten this week, with great fanfare, on the Expo region which features a glorious golden sky and lots of great exhibits including a picture gallery with avatars transformed into photos of real people. 

The party was still on when I stepped away to write this, with a great set by Zoree Jupiter. I asked a few Neverworlders about their life here, beginning with Nexus Storm, and grid owner Gov herself.

Govega Sachertorte, and Nexus Storm

Nexus Storm: NWG is friendly , we like to be a joined collection of sims and people working together to create and have fun. For myself I just like the easy going environment ..we have a some great places to build and people always help out when asked... I'm just a Neverworlder through and through.

Govega Sachertorte: I decided to come to opensim after about two years active in SL, I had a store, but I wanted to do more than that. I bought land but it was getting expensive. I was looking for a better option, something similar to this but less expensive... I ended up in a grid called Free Open Sim, run by Mattie McBride and Tim Huxley. They were so nice.  And then we moved to osgrid, we were there a few years, and then I decided I wanted my own region, and after a month of renting I learned how to self host a region.  Soon a friend offered to build me a grid. That was Randall Flagg from osgrid, and that's how Neverworld Grid began. Today, we have a little over 2000 residents.

Role Models

 Our second destination this week was to Wyldwood Bayou Grid, which is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month. Wyldwood is best known for two activities, the music events at venues like Hot Daddy's, and for its Roleplay, and it was the latter that we went to see. 

The RP hub region is a very beautiful place to visit, and full of information about how the groups here work, the backstories and rules, times and types of activities they do here. We arrived in our usual raggedy piecemeal manner.

Petlove Petshop: ty whoever tp'd me!

Forest Azure: pet, you have clothes!

Nara Nook: skin would be nice but I am happy just to have clothes

Dorena Bree: me too Nara

Forest Azure: well, nara, you were nothing but skin in the caves

The welcoming committee. Our guides were Fitheach, left, and Tessa, center.

Thirza Ember: That green tea diet seems to be working, Xenon

Xenon Darrow: It is! Of course...all those tannins are making me a bit rusty...

Contessa Lacombe: Hi everyone!  The WWB Roleplay Hub was formed to give the Wyldwood Bayou Grid roleplayers a venue to exchange information and set up roleplaying between their groups and other roleplayers on Open Sim grids. Crossgrid roleplay offers the opportunity for roleplayers to connect their stories to those of other groups and gives all of us the whole Hypergrid as a playground.