Thursday, May 25, 2017
Three years of HGSafari
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Safari Does Stuff
We landed in the shadow of a Linda Kellie creation, the Autumn Castle, a symbol in a way of the share-alike mentality this grid is famous for. Then we moved over to Nerdpol region, distinctly different in design... time for some fireworks!
Bill Blight's Beers and Cheers
George Equus: Hi Bill
Lucy Afarensis: rezzed fast for me
Bill Blight: great, I like to hear that
Sunbeam Magic: wow Bill you got all dressed up for us he hee
Bill Blight: yeah actually put a shirt and shoes on .. I feel overdressed
Thirza Ember: Beers and cheers that sounds like fun
Bill Blight: yes we have it every tuesday and friday nights... Sunny was the inspiration for it... she has the morning Coffee and Chat, so I spun one on the other side of the clock... Sunbeam could very easily inspire both beers and cheers ... LOL
Sunbeam Magic: shuffles feet and looks down at toes
Thirza Ember: Bill, so what's the story of the grid?
Bill Blight: well, I am disabled/retired .. Been in virtual worlds since they existed , and was starting to get a little disappointed in the state of some of the community. So I formed this grid with the motto of "Social not Stuff" Want it to be a place to come and DO things with friends not just compare inventories ..
snowbody Cortes: great motto !
Bill Blight: So I started building this grid with destinations to DO things in mind, not just shop. Stuff is great, people are better ..
Thirza Ember: You're well known for your scripting prowess
Bill Blight: well if it flies or drives on water here, I did the scripts from the ground up, so I'm not too shabby, I run the bleeding edge of OS code here, the latest and sometimes not the greatest, but I script specifically for it... my scripts are not made to work anywhere, tuned for here. Some grids that are on older code, sometimes don't like to talk to me, for the most part things work ok better most of the time... something about how I build, You will not see cramped or crammed spaces on my builds. I build wide open. Love the big spaces. more room to cam and move the most cramped places on my builds here are the houses, and my bunker which is camouflaged up on the hill
Thirza Ember: thanks Drang for the TP, crashed again
Bill Blight: Welcome back Crash .. I mean Thirza
snowbody Cortes: eheh
Sunbeam Magic: can we see your soccer field ?
Thirza Ember: that is an amazing game
Bill Blight: there is a HG safari tp there to the stadium
Lucy Afarensis: that worked well
Bill Blight SCORES!! for, Team FIRE
Flidais Merlin SCORES!! for, Team WATER
snowbody Cortes: super Bill !
Bill Blight shouts: if your scooter gets out of wack, click it and hit the "UPRIGHT" button
snowbody Cortes: ahahah Lucy
Lucy Afarensis: oops sorry
Sunbeam Magic: kick ass fun !!
snowbody Cortes: :))
Flidais Merlin SCORES!! for, Team FIRE

snowbody Cortes: I hold him ! go for it !

Bill Blight: everybody having fun?
snowbody Cortes: yes Bill !
Lucy Afarensis: glad this is virtual
snowbody Cortes: a very good job Bill !
Sunbeam Magic: we got to get grid teams going ;))
Bill Blight: some chat lag but with this many people moving this fast not surprising
Sunbeam Magic: working great for me
snowbody Cortes: snow is dead
Bill Blight: click your board.. there ya go
snowbody Cortes: ty done ! I got it ! Sun as the ball ;)
Sunbeam Magic: hey i was gonna make a goal!!! WINNNNNNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Flidais Merlin: that is a lot of fun

Sunbeam Magic: yeah I could play for hours
Flidais Merlin: yes and fast
Bill Blight: .9dev with ubODE physics
Sunbeam Magic: where next Bill ?

Bill Blight: jet ski track .
But it was already midnight here in Europe and better angels demanded a sensible bedtime... so we left our American cousins to the watersports, with a promise to return. 'Social not Stuff' is an excellent credo, one to live by.

Paradise of Jade
Our second stop this week was on Jade Serenity's smallish grid.
Jade was waiting for us on Serenity.
Bink Draconia: hello jade
Thirza Ember: another notch on everyone's hypergrid belt
Sunbeam Magic: Love Jadeyland ! and Jade !
Lucy Afarensis: Hi Jade
Jade Serenity: welcome to my desk top computer LooL!
snowbody Cortes waving in between the keys :)
Thirza Ember: my main computer is offline this week so I'm on a steam-driven machine so apologies if I am a bit slow
Lucy Afarensis: You can run them on steam ?
Drang Po: you can access opensim from steam?
Sunbeam Magic: Steampunk Thirza Woooot hoo!
Thirza Ember shovelling coal into this thing, it's thirsty work
George Equus: Hi Jade. tp was fast and all rezed just fine :)
snowbody Cortes: she supposed to run 2 thirzas on that pc .. so it wrote her 10 or 20 OMG .. then it crashed ;)
arcanquest frank: hello :)
Jade Serenity: the notecard giver over here has story and LMs for you, there is Hope forest, and a place of whimsy and a floating dance island and a medieval town
Thirza Ember: I love the names here.... Serenity, hope... all positive vibes
Lucy Afarensis: There was a sim called Serenitie on sl or something like that I used to visit. any relation to that ?
Jade Serenity: no I lived in Winterfell in SL
Spike Sol: its a great region here
Sunbeam Magic: how big a var is this ?
Jade Serenity: 4x4, it is all on my desktop computer.
Bink Draconia: i grabbed the nc and i will explore this region another time. it looks really great and i am curious about all the places here .... but for today i have to say: good night everybody
Flidais Merlin: 'nite

snowbody.Cortes: Linux can renew an old hardware ;)
Jade Serenity: i am going to click my "Media" and head to the dance island
George Equus: Linux and me are not compatible :((
snowbody Cortes: no George ? aww
George Equus: run it on Windows 7 Pro, UNIX is too complicated stuff for me
Lucy Afarensis: Just had a windows server crash with ransom ware
snowbody Cortes: well that's true George but some distribution like Ubunto are very user-friendly
Drang Po: yes and I have setup step by step for ubuntu on our website :)
Jade Serenity: if you like "weather" there is a weather map in the beach house
George Equus: The forest is quite wonderful!
Jade Serenity: you should be hearing Jazz music here
Sunbeam Magic: I love to explore ;))
Lucy Afarensis: This really works well for a home computer, maybe you all could visit my home studio in michigan some time
snowbody Cortes: I love to explore as well
Thirza Ember: where in the world - the real world - are we, Jade?
Lucy Afarensis : maybe you all could visit my home studio in michigan some time
George Equus: Working very very well Jade!
Jade Serenity: Connecticut, US

Jade Serenity: i am thrilled you can here the jazz music
Thirza Ember: WHOOOOA Drang Po looks like James Bond ... or john Travolta? looking smoooooth
Drang Po: tryed this on with out looking at my self...
Jade Serenity: i thought it quite nice Drang :D
snowbody Cortes: "my name is .. James Drang ...."
Drang Po: Drang, James Drang
Thirza Ember: how long have you been in Virtual Jade, and were you always a builder/landscape maker?
Jade Serenity: oh I started on Zetaworld a complete newbie. I still cannot create...my friend helped me download and run opensim on my pc
Thirza Ember: it's a beautiful environment and we haven't broken it!
Jade Serenity: still dancing to meditation music? ..... aw you guys are really sweet
Sunbeam Magic: Safarians dance to anything lol
Lucy Afarensis: or sit on it
Sunbeam Magic: Bartender, give that guy in the white suit a 'Martini, shaken not stirred'
Jade Serenity: 11 people.... two still at the home plate
Thirza Ember: we need more medieval clothing so we can do a medieval safari here... we can dress up as robin hood and his merry men
Jade Serenity: my town is a poor one- but I am setting up some castles to the south
Sunbeam Magic: I do believe a medieval fairy would still look about the same though rofl
Thirza Ember: Drang can be the Sheriff, I volunteer me and Sunbeam to be Wenches
Sunbeam Magic: I'd be a wench, they are like blondes of that century, they had more fun !
Jade Serenity: giggle, I have a couple wenches in the town at the pub
Thirza Ember: we could be girl plumbers, sunny... wenches with wrenches
Sunbeam Magic: we could fix everyone's pipes
Thirza Ember: George can get some medieval socks, Flidais has a name that already sounds medieval
Flidais Merlin: Yes Arthurian, called Taliesin in SL
Sunbeam Magic: Flidais (pronounced flee-ish) is a complex Celtic Goddess with many differing stories and aspects
Flidais Merlin: did you just make that up?
Sunbeam Magic: no I googled it ;))
Flidais Merlin: I took the names from the Gay Gavriel Kay books - the Fionavar Trilogy
Sunbeam Magic: I always wonder where folks get their names from
Tosha Tyran joined us at this point in the Safari. If you ever want to join the group but can't make it at the very beginning of our trip, just friend one of the Safari regulars, and ask them for a TP, they will be happy to bring you over to join us! Sunbeam Magic: TOSHA!!!!!!!! huggles
Jade Serenity: whats a tosha?
Sunbeam Magic: an extremely talented gal ;)) she is on Craft. She was in SL with Lumiere Noir who passed a way a few years ago now... he did the Ivory Towers

Thirza Ember: I hate to break it to you guys... but our time here is up, we're due at Bill's place...: hugs Jade and thank you for sharing this special place
George Equus: Thank you very much Jade
Tosha Tyran: this really is a beautiful place
Jade Serenity: this place is always running,: never off... thank you SO much for coming
Jadeyland jadeyland.kikiki.org:8002
Thursday, May 11, 2017
It Takes Two
They say it takes two to tango, but in the case of our second destination this week, it was really a case of three... we visited Condensation Land on Metropolis, to talk to Zonja Capalini Ludmilla Writer and Plastichansa Bade about collaboration in art and the journey these regions have taken from SL, to an eponymous mini grid, to their current home in one of opensim's favorite grids.
Mal Burns: Hi Zonja, allJuliette SurrealDreaming: wow Zonja, looking pretty cool there
Zonja.Capalini : Thank you! It's impressive to see all of you coming at once :)
Wizard Gynoid: Hiya Zonja. We've met in the multi-verse years ago.
Juliette SurrealDreaming: yeah instead of mass exodus we are mass becoming
Thirza Ember: We just had a presentation about the Kokua Viewer, I feel smarter, yet dumber at the same time
Juliette SurrealDreaming: lol omg i know what you mean Thirza
Wizard Gynoid: Zonja and I first met prolly five years ago. We are both Klein Bottle experts.
Zonja Capalini: First of all, Plastichansa, then creator and owner of BRBP, the wonderful island we were going to visit, sends his apologies ...A RL commitment didn't allow him to be present Anyway, he's left here an NCP of him
Ludmilla Writer: Explica que estoy presente pero no escribo bien en inglés, por favor, Zonja
Zonja Capalini: Actually, two of them :) There's an npc of Libdescent, an alt of him, at the bar
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LibDescent NPC |
Zonja.Capalini: Then, also: we have Ludmilla Writer here. She's one of the creators of Arrabal Tango Club! The other one being Favio Piek, but he seems to have left virtuality, which is a pity... Inside you'll find some gifts, and some notecards informing you of some basic facts about Arrabal
Zonja Capalini: Plastic has also created this sculpture in the center, and the moving HG Safari letters, and a number of other things :) What's in Arrabal? On one side, the tango club -- there's a dance ball stuffed with plastic's npcs, which we'll be able to try later. People who came here liked to take snapshots of the club, and donated these snapshots so that we could make an exhib
Arielle Delamerlibre: do you have regular parties?
Zonja Capalini: No, not for the moment, Arielle. The exhibition is at the right of the club. I've also put six (iirc) TV sets over there. These TV sets will show you pictures of parties celebrated at arrabal, Even a wedding party :) Decoration was decided by Ludmilla and Favio... You can read the story of Arrabal here
Ludmilla Writer: I love Arrabal... It's a very beautiful place in SL and Here, now, too
Arielle Delamerlibre: okay thank you a nice environment so far. has to come to life
Zonja.Capalini: And you will find tons of interesting pointers in the notecard, when you buy the HG Safari thing with the flashing light bulbs... In the exhibition you'll find photos from Andromeda Volare, Jaja Lubitsch, Ro8 Avro, India Leigh... Sura Abismo, Favio Piek, Ludmilla Writes, Mikil Tiki... Regarding the migration, we were caught in the Openspace fiasco, I was paying for two full regions, And converted one into four Openspaces, Then the price was raised from 75US$ to 125$, Obviously, there was ample outrage... First we migrated to Openlife. Then we created out own mini-grid,: Hosted in a shared machine, On a *slow* SDSL line,: But it worked, The mini grid allowed free registration and had up to 100 users at the time.
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Ludmilla, 'Plastichana' (NPC) and Zonja |
Zonja Capalini: Then I had problems in RL, stopped caring, the machine had no maintenance, the database got corrupted, and finally we closed the SL version of Arrabal... Because my RL crashed, and required a cold reboot :), I don't like to mix levels, but it was horrible. All my attention was required IRL
Arielle Delamerlibre: yeah sometimes it does
Zonja Capalini: Then, one year ago, Ludmilla by chance met Plastic. He told her that he was attempting to recreate the full Condensation archipielago from his memories alone! I entered SL and talked to him, I had lost all my technical expertise, but I still had some very old OARs. They didn't work with the then current version of Opensim. After some iterations, we had Condensation running.: I asked Plastic to co-maintain Condensation with me, and he kindly accepted. And we have since established a creative partnership which is fantastic for both of us :).
Arielle Delamerlibre: I will see the further development and I will dance Tango here
Zonja Capalini: You can read a quite detailed account of the story of Condensation here . And of course today's meeting will have a video and will end up in a TV set here :)
Thirza Ember: We need more dance animations in opensim, for the Tango would be great... is this site any good for finding useful dance animations? https://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/daz-friendly-release compared with when we first found opensim, there are so many more free and opensource resources available
Billy Bradshaw: I have used some action type animations, the dance routines require additional work
Zonja.Capalini: Yes, absolutely. Now the performance of Opensim is outstanding
Pathfinder Lester: very true...more content...better performance...
Zonja Capalini: Even in SL, in 2007, with so many people the sim would have difficulties
Thirza Ember: half the problem is tht we just do not know what free resources are out there
Pathfinder Lester: yes, finding the stuff! lol
Zonja Capalini: And for a very reasonable price...: Metropolis isn't cheap, and still, 30€/mo for a 1024x1024 is a bargain...And with the introduction of mesh, you can have many more objects, since the land impact decreases... What I love of Opensim is that you can always come back and make it a little more beautiful, a little more detailed, a little more perfect. It's like a picture that you can always perfect more and more...
Thirza Ember: and unlike SL, there is less stress about money and time... you can take a long time to make your build
Zonja Capalini: Exactly. The people I'm meeting here are much more focused on creating and sharing

Thirza Ember: I know, like Cendres, Plastichansa is a big fan of the free share alike community, that's an important part of the experience,
Zonja.Capalini: Yes, he's so generous with everything he creates
Cendres Magic: for me, in opensim, no chain
Zonja Capalini: Yes :) The only problem I have is that I can't log in as often as I would love
Cendres Magic: specially thanks to hgsafary helping to discover
Thirza.Ember: We are having a big party on May 24 to mark the 3rd year of this adventure...it's nice that Wizard Gynoid is here today....she was my first 'victim' on May 20, 2014
Pathfinder.Lester: guinea pig?
Wizard Gynoid: I thought Thirza was my first victim.
Thirza Ember: yes wiz, we were reciprocal victims
Wizard Gynoid: Thirza and I hosted the Safari every Wednesday without fail for a year.
Thirza Ember: To mark the three years of Safari, we will have 3 hours of music and I hope many will come... on FrancoGrid today, Nino Whitman made available a region, on its own server, it is another example of the generosity of opensim... so we can (in theory ) have 200 people... so spread the word!

Zonja Capalini: Well Condensation Land turns 10 this month... We'll be celebrating on Sat the 27th I think
Pathfinder Lester: congratulations!: that's quite a milestone
Zonja Capalini: It's an enormity :)
Thirza Ember: the great thing about opensim is even after 3 years we have not exhausted the number of places to visit, or revisit, because many times 1 visit is not enough to see it all
Zonja Capalini: Sure, it's so huge that you'll never finish it...
Wizard Gynoid: This avie has logins on dozens of virtual worlds.
Mal Burns: think am now 12 yrs - but that dates to before i escaped walled kindergarten
Thirza Ember: Mal you don't look a day over 9
Mal Burns: tks Thirza!!!
Zonja Capalini : But I don't move much, to say the truth -- I spend all my time creating and filming :)
Mal Burns: nice films Zonja
Thirza Ember: that is really the paradox of opensim... it's important to take time to be creative, but if we do not support each other, by visiting the builds in other places, then there is no 'audience' and the creativity can stall, it needs to be a flow of both making and sharing, also, because that's how collaborations can happen...for example: there is the Kroatan Photo competition... anyone from any grid can give a photo for the competition... the photo should be something funny or strange that happens in opensim... it can be taken on any grid... that's the kind of multi-grid experience that really helps the hypergrid to become one family
Pathfinder Lester: Thirza, I remember back in the old days of the Hypergrid Adventurers Club, sometimes I would have trouble finding new places to go. Amazing how that has changed...
Zonja Capalini: Exactly -- that's why Plastic and me are so happy to cooperate, we are each one the audience of the together one :) I think the HAC came once to Condensation, but I might be mistaken...
Cendres Magic: lot of things around - great
Zonja Capalini: Yes... It's very detailed... You can spend a whole afternoon here and not finish with Arrabal...That's why I'm trying to document it all.. It's a lot of work, but I think it's worth it
Billy Bradshaw: I will test the dance facilities

Billy Bradshaw: Big girl, but I shall mange :)
Thirza Ember: bad internet tonight... it's like what we were saying with Gavin, talking about the Viewer.... when everything works perfectly, we don't appreciate it... it's only when there are problems that we notice
Zonja Capalini: Well we had router problems yesterday, I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to properly host the meeting...So that I tried tethering using my phone's 4G. It works perfectly ...in the end I've not had to use it, tho.
Billy Bradshaw: I find if I change my socks things go so much better
Thirza Ember: Billy's Universal Sock Theory also works
Billy Bradshaw: Quantum socks
Zonja Capalini: Yes. I'm used to a level of performance and smoothness that's vastly superior to the SL of 2007 here...
Billy Bradshaw: This chick tries to remove my specs I swear !!
snowbody Cortes: lol Billy
Here is Zonja's vid of our visit, please, take time to watch it, it's beautiful, and some amazing quality shots, proving that HG Visitors do not necessarily mean impossible lag on a region.

Zonja Capalini: Oh, I'm not good at making avatars. Plastic is great, tho. You should ask him :) And he's very unconventional, which is good... Look at the Libdescent npcs, for example, or the one I'm dancing with...
Thirza Ember: I think Billy is a bit at risk though
Billy Bradshaw: ha - live a little, Thirza
Zonja Capalini: Ah! Hadn't seen that one myself. It's superb!
Thirza Ember: that's the fun of group hypergridding, I find, the presence of a group is a sort of catalyst,: a load test but also it has an interesting effect on the way you see a region, changing its personality, somehow
Zonja.Capalini: Sure, one feels compelled to prepare everything so that it's beautiful...
Safari: Art and Science
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Gavin Hird |
Friday, May 5, 2017
Genesis Metaverse Grid
Gage Logan was the GMV mentor who kindly agreed to show us around. Now usually, when someone agrees to act as guide on a grid, they choose to showcase their own regions. So is was quite remarkable - and a testament to Gage's commitment and love of his inworld family - that he chose to show us regions belonging to Roffellos Kisses, (Angelorum Enim Est) Kit Capone and bonnie dean, (Bonova) and Kim song and Fred Blogs (Perfect Waters).
A bunch of people were on the Welcome sim to meet us, including grid owners Dragon Genesis and Candi Genesis. The source of any lag experienced by those coming in seems to have been down to Vivox, not for the first time in Safari experience. I you're not planning on talking, it really pays to uncheck the Voice option in Preferences before hypergridding, it can save a lot of trouble. That, and anything scripted you're wearing.
Dragon Genesis: have fun all :) and enjoy our homes
Candi Genesis: y'all will love Fred & Kim's place, amazing people those two
Aquarius Dragonella: they was the first couple I met here and we been like family since!
Getting to our first stop proved pretty challenging, but about half of us survived the crashing and made it to Roffellos Kisses' region Angelorum Enim Est. The lag kind of made it hard to raise draw distances too high, but he passed out a funny dance - so mission accomplished! I went back today to try and get some pics, sadly, the region was closed to outsiders.
Our second stop was a shopping region called Bonova built and run by Kit Capone and bonnie dean.
Lots of toys, carousels, trains and planes here as well as a store with clothes and so forth, all on sale for the local currency.
Sunbeam Magic: Cute place! I love the guy with the bagpipes.
Thirza Ember: Gage, tell us about this region
Gage Logan: This is owned by Kid and Bonnie... they are a bit shy lol
Kid Capone: Our land is not based on anything in Particular. It's a mixture of all sorts of wonderful stuff we just enjoy building no matter what. There is a lot to see here. Make sure you visit Versailles !
Gage Logan: ...and if there is something you want ...they will make it for you!
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The vast Bonova region, and beyond |
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The outstanding DJane talent of Fantasia Logan |
Lady Lissa: this is Fred and Kim's region
Gage Logan: Perfect Waters consists of three units, the Mall, Blue Waters Ballroom and the H20 Nightclub. To see the region at its best it is set to midnight. The Mall is a small cozy affair with stores by RFF, Anna May, Hair by Ulrika, Velvet Rhythms, This and That and Cats Claws. Blue Waters ballroom is for those romantic evenings, dining, music 24/7, chapel attached and couples areas on the balconies and surrounding areas. H20 Nightclub is possibly the best looking club in Genesis with regular live singers, dj`s, events and contests. A family atmosphere is promoted with everyone welcome. A good place to meet friends new and old.
Thirza Ember: i was taking a photo inside the ballroom, with the glass floor, very nice!
Aquarius Dragonella: the world would be an amazing place, if everyone just got together and partied!
Kim song: feel free to look around
Sunbeam Magic: Love the bubbles and dolphin talk !!!round
Thirza.Ember: wow we are an energetic bunch, even after all that grid jumping, we still have the stamina to dance
Maggie O: AND to have Fantasia to DJ for us! what an honor!!
Isis.Ophelia: we had power drinks before we left
Thirza Ember: i had wine, I won't lie
Kim song: whoot
Gage Logan: hahaha
Our host, Fred Bloggs, came in to greet us too
Maggie O: OOPS THE BOSS IS HERE!
Fred Blogs: WELCOME EVERYONE FROM HG SAFARI!! SORRY LATE..FUNNY THING CALLED RL WORK!!! So has everyone had fun while I`ve been working???
We couldn't deny it!
Lady Lissa: hey y'all, to keep up with the parties and events, check this link to the Genesis Events calendar... https://teamup.com/ks00a59b6aa516c720
The secret of Genesis is the community.
Gage Logan: When I first joined, I thought ok here we go another grid who has no one to help you find things or answer any questions i might have...BUT when I came on I was truly amazed ...landing here at this very spot ...and wow a what welcoming group!!! they all spoke to me ...showed me the freebies and asked if i needed anything else...They made me feel more welcome than anywhere I've ever been. And boy, did I jump in...but yet they were right there...ready to help me ..no matter what i did wrong and believe me i did wrong ..lol and now I want others to feel like I did and this is why I find it such a pleasure and honor to show ya'll ....our lives here on Genesis!
GMV Welcome sim grid.genesismetaverse.com:8002