For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.

Lore of Loru

This week for our first destination of the Safari, Loru Destiny allowed us to come see "DestinyLore", an installation she first mentioned to the public eight months ago, with this video on YouTube

Designed to be visited by one or two people at most, our trip was an interesting experiment in mass tourism in a confined space, and also an excellent load test. 

Loru Destiny: Hello everybody and welcome to my exhibition. I'd like to tell you about this exhibition a bit. DestinyLore invites you to enter my world. In this exhibition I have visualised personal experiences, thoughts and feelings with the tools that opensim offers me. Sometimes I have also worked with sounds or music. Some things here are interactive. So I ask you to follow the instructions. 

Loru (center) with her painter husband, Tryad Destiny

Loru Destiny: There is no guided tour. Like in real life you decide what you perceive, how you process it, and what you don't like or want.  I am only the narrator, you are the active ones. Sometimes there are texts. What I have written is not the final truth, it is my truth. I am happy to talk about it with you.

This build is divided into 5 parts, each has its own theme:

 - Opensim! (the place where it all begins)  - I am a human being  - Brainwalk - Find yourself  - Peace is an inner process   - Reality is what you make of it

Marvelous Moonrose

The name Moonrose is such a romantic one. This week we had the opportunity to discover just how rich and varied are the regions on the grid, most famous for its Mall. This was our second destination of the day, and it had been really nice to see that Chrissy and friends were there to support Loru during our first stop, on the fascinating DestinyLore installation - you can read about that in a separate post.

Thirza Ember: Thanks you for inviting us, Chrissy and Dark!

Chrissy Coage: yw, I am very happy

Dark Wolf: just moment

Taarna Welles: Confession? :)

Dark Wolf: I'm NOT a owner. I made the technical side on the grid

Thirza Ember: well thanks for making a fast rez for us, Dark!

Arriving on Moonrose Welcome

Chrissy Coage: Welcome to the Moonrose Grid, My name is Chrissy Coage and I am the owner. 

Pangea's Birthday

 This weekend there will be a big party event to mark the 4 years of Pangea grid.

There's a parade, a ballet, a party, on 12 October from 11.00 am SLT on region Koeln not to mention en exciting GoKart competition. Marlon Wayne and his merry band of builders, scripters, and artists are celebrating a big milestone. Here's an in depth interview with the man himself.

Marlon Wayne: My virtual life began in 2006 in Second Life. Back then, I was fascinated by the limitless possibilities of this virtual world, where one could build their own projects and immerse in communities. I was especially drawn to virtual Cologne, partly because of my real-life proximity to the city. I quickly became part of a special family in the virtual city and was passionately involved in the carnival, as well as in music and show projects.

When Second Life changed its terms of service (TOS) in 2011, I decided to move to Avination. I was allowed to take my virtual version of Cologne with me, which remains an integral part of Pangea today. In Avination, I met many new people who accompanied me on my virtual journey, and some of them are now part of Pangea.

After Avination closed in 2015, I began looking for a new, stable grid that could be a reliable home for my vision and the virtual communities we had already built. However, the search proved difficult because many grids at the time were struggling with technical issues and unstable servers. Although I didn’t have the technical expertise to run my own grid, I was determined to try. I rented a server, but I knew I would need support.

sim Koeln as it looks today on Pangea

Luckily, I had already met Kitty Sarrassine in 2010, an extremely talented server administrator and programmer. Thanks to her technical knowledge and tireless effort, I was able to bring my vision and long-held dream to life: creating my own grid. Kitty supported me from the beginning and played a crucial role in making this project a reality.

On August 31, 2020, the first avatar of our new grid was born—Kitty Sarrassine herself. She worked meticulously to ensure that every detail was set up correctly and that the grid ran smoothly and reliably. After weeks of hard work, it was finally ready, and on September 27, 2020, the second avatar, Marlon Wayne, was born.

Bink's Ballet

 The bees and the flowers, what's not to love. They are pretty to look at and essential for life on this planet as we know it. Why not bring that spirit into Opensim, where cross pollination between builders, artists, tech people and of course the public create a veritable ecosystem of fun and fecundity. 

Bink met me on sim Koeln on Pangea to talk about her upcoming show. It's going to be on 12 October, at 11 am SLT so save the date, this is going to be a great opportunity to see something extravagant and also catch up with so many friends, and friends of the grid.  The HG Address is at the end of the post, but if you're a regular reader, you know that already.

Bink Draconia: I always wanted to create a men's ballet..Men's ballet is different... it's a funny kind of dancing. i don't know why, but just karsten Runningbear wanted to dance in a tutu for me... so i needed to create npcs for it.... (ok, that's a joke, i wanted npcs from the beginning^^)

Bink Draconia

Thirza Ember: hahaha well that is a funny idea, but Karsten is class so anything he is an inspiration for, will be very good. So your show will be part of the Pangea Birthday celebrations on October 12?

Bink Draconia: yes.... first Lampithalers rainbow parade will start at 19.00 CET, then the ballet and after that an art show by Lampi.

Thirza Ember: oh that's great, a nice mix of entertainment... tell me, what is the biggest challenge with the NPCs?

OSFest24 Begins

 OSFest begins today, on a grid that appears rather smaller than in previous years, but nonetheless containing a wide variety of attractions. I ran into Sally Cherry, setting up her store in the Merchants Zone. Hers appears to be one of only 3 stores being used, so if you're selling merch in opensim, it's not too late, they have room for you! The event runs right through to October 20 ao it will no doubt grow before they get to the final Burn party.

Sally also has a sponsor's exhibit space, where she has set up a display.

Sally Cherry: My Exhibitor exhibit is to celebrate my 56 year journey in medical laboratory science as a Medical laboratory Scientist

So Fine, Safine

 Yeah... it's only just the beginning of October, but this year on Safari we're going to be overloading on Halloween , so if it's not usually your thing, we ask your indulgence because this festival is a huge creative trigger in virtual worlds. Between the costumes, the colorful accessories, the possibilities for scripting spooky things and weird effects, there's a lot to work with in the building gap-months between, basically, Easter eggs and Christmas trees. 

We are beginning this ghoulish month with a flourish, on the lovely Friends Grid where we met Safine Mahoe and Zuzu Bahro. Complete HG Address of the venue is, as always, at the end of the post.

Safine Mahoe: Welcome to the Haunted Halloween Isles!  

Ankh Senaton: hello Zuzu, I saw your art gallery, I like it

Bink Draconia: hi safine and zuzu

Zuzu Bahro: We're glad you're here.

Safine Mahoe: My name is Safine and  I am honored to be included in HG Safari, and appreciate everyone  coming out today.   We want to help with your Halloween decorations, so you will find many items available for copy, lets start out in the Pumpkin Patch... this area is not haunted....but certainly Halloween

 Zuzu Bahro and Safine Mahoe 

Safine Mahoe: The Halloween  region was made by myself and Zuzu Bahro.   Please note, there are 7  different Halloween areas to see, ranging from the extremely fun and seasonal Pumpkin Patch to the terrifying, dark Zombie Hunt.     There is a  round tp stone at  the landing point which will take you to all the areas. Today we will just see a few. areas because of time.

Ankh Senaton: I need some pumpkins for my pies

Thirza Ember: so before we go too far, can you tell us how you two work? who does what? I love to hear about collaborations