Paela Incognito

Incognito? A little less these days. Anyone who's been around Opensim for any length of time will be familiar with the name Paela Argus, and if you've ever dropped in at LBSA Plaza on your way somewhere, or looking for some help, or company, you maybe have seen the attractive lady avie hanging out there. 

Recent events on OSGrid have given Paela even more visibility, so it seemed like a good time to get to know the person behind the screen a little better. Starting with the basics of good manners. 

Thirza Ember:  I know that nowadays you go by Paela Osgrid inworld, rather than Paela Argus. Do you prefer if people refer to you as ‘he’ or ‘she’? 

Paela Argus: I honestly don’t mind. People can use either “he” or “she” when speaking about me — it doesn’t bother me at all. In the virtual world, I present myself as a woman. It’s my way of breaking the realism of real life, keeping a clear boundary between virtual life and real life. This separation is very important for me — especially for the balance of my real-world marriage. Because first and foremost, I’m a husband and a father to a big family. And I take that role seriously.

Thirza Ember: You’ve been on OSGrid for a long time, Paela, what is the secret of your longevity? 

Safari Does Bad Driving

Oh yes, very  Bad - but in a very good sense! This was our second stop of Week 11 of HG Safari 2025, and like our first destination, this build is brand new.

Yara Eild, SoA BAD, and Alex Salamander

SoA BAD and Siwas have a new attraction on their grid, CCI - the Nuerburgring. Really, that should be 'Nürburgring' with an umlaut. But, as we all know, Opensim doesn't do umlauts, so there's an extra e in there. And speaking of 'extra', this build is extra in every way - extra large, extraordinarily detailed, and extra fun. The idea of having a Safari here came from two Safari regulars - Yara Eild and Alex Salamander.

Actually, that should be 'Nuerburgring with Nordschleife'  (the HG address is of course at the end of the post) and that is because this race track has a long and complex history. Nordschleife - the 'North Loop' - extends the circuit from just over 5 km to a whopping 21km. 

Safari Ferðast um Ísland

Back for season 2, and HG Safari was invited to come and do a 'ferðast', or tour, of Jimmy's recent build, Iceland, on Wolf Territories Grid. A nice big crowd showed up to inaugurate the season, which will last just seven weeks this time, ending at the end of May, so if you're thinking you might want to attend, don't delay. 

This lovely sim, our first stop this week, was built in a matter of a few days by Jimmy, and it absolutely captures the spirit of the island. HG Address - yep you guessed it, at the end of the post.

Jimmy Olsen, builder of Iceland

On hand to take the lead for the tour, the lovely Tessa and Xenon Darrow, a brilliant and funny lady, both were ready to help us find our way around this interesting sim. 

We arrived outside the Hallgrimskirkja, the Lutheran cathedral of Reykjavik, dating from the 1980's. 

WB Osgrid

 Welcome back, OSGrid! About a dozen people were on LBSA a few minutes ago when these pics and gifs were made. 

LBSA back up! with Admins Sarah Kline and Paela Argus. 

People dancing, chatting, laughing, working... and a lot of them trying to rebuild their avie. Ellen Tiratzo was there, talking about the best way to stop being a cloud. Carmen Ever, very smart, was totally prepared for this day. 

Carmen Ever: I had a folder with my outfit all ready, and so when I got here, I transferred it from Neverworld , and it loaded immediately

Una, IARs, and OARs

In the troubled period since OSGrid went into long term maintenance, Unadecal Masala has found himself in a unique position. He not only rents regions to people in OSGrid, he also rents full independent grids. Most of these grids are small and private in nature, but some are public and they operate their own land rental schemes. Una doesn't have a grid of his own, his motives are simple.

Unadecal Masala: As a mark of respect for their efforts in attracting members and building their own communities, I decided at the beginning that I would never compete with them by setting up a grid where I rent land. I do have a private grid, but this is for testing purposes only.

We met up on HIE region, in the Hypergrid Expo park, on which is still open, if you haven't yet gone around and picked up the LMs, information cards, and freebies. I wondered what Una's reaction was to the whole OSgrid situation, and what had been the effect on his business and his clients. First reaction?

Unadecal Masala: Absolute dismay. Borderline desperation. Not only because of the grid going into long term maintenance, but because of the total asset wipe. Almost twenty years of OpenSim history lost in the blink of an eye.

Easter Hunt at Mana

Literally speaking, 'Ignis Fatuus' means foolish fire, but there is nothing foolish about the fabulous builds on this outstandingly beautiful French grid. And once again, this spring, grid owners Max Well and Nadir Rae are making imaginations soar with their farfetched fantasies. An Easter Hunt, beginning on 20 April, is just part of the fun! 

Full HG Address at the end of the post, of course.

Here we are on Mana, on of a bunch of new regions springing up on Ignis - this is the region where the Hunt will be held. When you arrive in this intensely blue place, you're immediately reminded of the importance of music in the lives of these two creators, in particular, Nadir's love of piano which extends to her DJ work over in SL, something she's been doing for over a decade. Look at those waterside notes.

Prince's Maze

Prince Amor:  quite a bit changed since last, with OSGrid closing up etc.. we are setting just over 100 regions, of which 20 are public, the rest are residential.

We met on Maze Grid, Prince's principality since OSgrid went offline for long term maintenance back on 4 March of this year. It's far from being a small place. Alongside the many residential sims, now home to many of those who rented from prince of Amor back on OSGrid, there are twenty that are public spaces, with freebie areas or art and fan builds on them, all worth a visit.

The Welcome region has an open air down to earth feel to it, with places to play and dance and hang out, but also teleports to other points of interest and a large Building Supplies area, where you can quickly pick up anything you're missing. I wondered how Prince has been weathering the recent events.

Prince Amor:   I feel let down, that is pretty well it.  I have 150 users, so I have 100 renters that were all  OSGrid... most made it here though.

Thankfully between social media and word of mouth, it is a lot more difficult these days for a person to remain out of the loop when something big like this happens. Rather like an earthquake, there had been tremors for some little time on OSgrid, giving us all warning. Prince wasn't in Opensim when the last great outage of OSGrid happened, from August 2014 to around February 2015, but he wasn't unprepared for the events of this Spring.

Prince Amor:  This was, for me, the first Big One. Lots of minor ones I weathered along the way.  I would have my renters  make accounts on my Dreamgrid  so when OSGrid went down they could have access to their lands etc.. in December when OSGrid went down then I learned how to do the stand alone so I evolved just in time for the big one

Thirza Ember: so did you get your oars and your renters stuff out in time before the whole thing went down?
Prince Amor:   oars - yes, but .iars were a horrible failure for most part, the ip protections totally broke them making them useless. But the OSGrid admin made the right choice of course. Once that big 6 tb breaks, or whatever size...

Thirza Ember: Really, relying on one grid, no matter who is running it, is kind of risky. People who say it could never happen to them because they take more precautions, sure, but ... hubris alert.

Prince Amor:  that is right and we have seen it again and again with smaller grids,  no matter what they are running. I really didn't lose thing. I know some  totally missed it  but my people did pretty good. That is why I would push my people to have an account with the Dreamgrid and here even but when it happened of course I pushed them as hard as I could. We still have things pop invisible or whatever as they wipe that drive, textures in the stores etc...

Prince of Amor

Thirza Ember: you are now transitioning from landlord of sims on a big grid, to grid owner. That is actually a different role... you have gone from being maintenance guy, to the mayor of the place have you noticed that change yet, how are you coping with the role, and do you like it?