Safari goes South

          People keep coming back. And new people joining. HG Safari is about friends and patience and sure some art also but mostly about the amazing possibilities opening up for creators and community, free and independent of SL. It is like standing on the edge of the prairie. Yes, it's not easy. You do have to think your way around the bugs, and compromise, and not mind if your hair gets stuck on your butt occasionally. But it is fun. A world of optimism and missing attachments.
          We met on Ilha Magica again. After weeks of thinking about it, I actually put up some freebie clothes. 

Nothing fancy or even meshy, just a few shirts and skirts. Where Pathfinder's group had a camp fire and dealt with real open sim news, we sit on the furniture and make jokes. But Wizard Gynoid asked a pertinent question.
Wizard Gynoid: why is it that every world's search works differently?. 
Thirza Ember: because every grid owner makes what they want of the material available. Each version of Open Sim is like this massive catalog of bits... the main stuff obviously you don't mess about with, but things like partners, Search, Map, they are extras, in a way. So when you set up the grid, you decide which bits are more important to you. Since it's a massive number of plug ins, everyone chooses the bits they care about most... 
          You may have a better answer than that - put it in Comments, it would be great to hear.

          Zaphod showed up. Or at least most of him. Before long there were about eleven of us. I say about; it's that kind of a club. It's really for people who are total novices, but all are welcome, as long as they are patient. Our speed is the speed of the slowest person, and we're not about to let anyone rush us. Very exciting to have soror Nishi along, and also Nara of Nara's Nook, along with Lucy, Siobhan, snowbody, Tuna, Miso, Fuschia, Wizzy and Wizardoz, and Avia Bonne . 

Hyperica

          So after about half an hour of messing about on Ilha magica, we tried to tp to Hyperica. Maria Korolov's sims are a way station beloved by many grid jumpers. Maria's many hypergrid gates aren't unique, and a number of them are broken, or mention grids that are gone, but that's exactly what makes it a place of history for open sim. I expect it will get re-vamped when she has time, and I will be sad when that happens.
          It was hard for us to get there because I forgot to say - let's not overload the server by all asking it to transport us in the same moment. That of course is the advantage of a gate, it makes hypergridding more structured. So there was a moment in which people tried different strategies, like changing sims and trying again. The odd thing was, when we got there, the OSGrid people who had been invisible at home were suddenly all there in full glory. We lost Siobhan briefly, and Nara a little more permanently. But no-one got hurt. 


          The idea was to practice jumping, and see that the foibles of the system are not your fault, nor are they permanent. It's still a system in flux, and we're all still learners. The format of a hg address is another interesting factor. In theory, you should be able to type the full address of the region you want to visit - here's an example, Ilha Magica on OSGrid's address is hg.osgrid.org:80:Ilha Magica  -simple right? But there are all kinds of things that can go wrong by doing it that way. is there a space between Ilha and Magica? Or is it that HTML thingy %20 ? My solution is to just use the grids main address (in the example, that would be hg.osgrid.org:80 ) and then type in ilha Magica when i get to the grid. 
          Grid Motu Topu was playing that game.First, the Map's like "Never heard of that place". I deleted the name of the sim, and voila! 
          Take the line of least resistance, that's the Safari way. 
          Anyhoo, we had a date with Ervare Farroretre one of the hardest names EVER to type, thank goodness he's called Art Blue in open sim. He has a whole chunk of grid Metropolis where he shows an amazing amount of art, most of it passed over from Second Life. The landing point for us was sim South Horizon. Metropolis has been doing an upgrade - it caused a few hiccups, and we couldn't go to Rift Horizon or do the Vulcanicus trip this time. Good excuse for a return visit!

Wizzy expostulates

          My tights had changed color, a lot of people lost their hair, Wizzy outdid everyone. Art Blue was immensely welcoming, but I think he thought we would be more ... together. Poor guy, Art didn't know what he was up against.
Art Blue: now all here you know to come?
Miso Susanowa: the grand subjectivity of a hypergate safari :D
Wizard Gynoid: i should wear undies under my mesh
Thirza Ember: yes Art, let's say we are all here
Art Blue: great Thirza, will you say a word first?
Wizard Gynoid: we are in germany?
Avia Bonne: yes

Tuna

Art Blue: we are in South Horizon
Thirza Ember: everyone, Meet Art Blue. He is going to tell you why he brings art into Open Sim
snowbody Cortes: :)
Art Blue: I shall tell?
Thirza Ember: yes!
Art Blue: great as I am a great talker and I talk long
Thirza Ember: I'm going to sit down then
Art Blue: so I made you a link as long talk mean long boring
Miso Susanowa: Yay!
Avia Bonne: yeah keep it short lol
Art Blue: the link is on the big plate "need painter today"
Wizard Gynoid: http://avatarkunst.wordpress.com/

Art, or Ervare, is an absolutely super guy. His enthusiasm and generosity just spill out all over his region. We got to see only a tiny fraction of it, by people like Jadeyu Fhang, Cherry Manga and we were messing about a lot of the time too, but we all came away with an overwhelming sense that this is a place to return to often, to admire the works but also be inspired by the enthusiasm and energy here. 
Art Blue: yes extended time capsule for some bigger contributors. I have 4 of such ... jadeyu, gem preiz, navah dreams, exy atreides, and 60 more smaller in vulcanicus, only with small items
Tuna Oddfellow: Lovely
Wizard Gynoid: so you are a collector of Virtual artworks that you are conserving on your grid
Art Blue: I shall mention ... all presentations are with stories, most of the stories are in a way well know in science fiction. You see here at this plate a good example. I look for stories that come with the art. I see myself here as a curator, a writer ... not as an artist
so my own work is not presented.

           There was a horse, and the inevitable photo op.

 WOOT Fuschia's' 'Restaurant at the End of the Universe' !

Don't Panic!

          We ended up in a sort of giant crane above the sim. 
          Gradually, people were having to go back to their real lives, but since Safari is meant to be a learning experience, it seemed reasonable to sneak in another Historic destination, just to help the newbies join the dots in their own head, so we went to Wright Plaza for a moment. The shops there seems to create an amazing quantity of lag, 

          But that was OK. Han Held joined us, and Avia Bonne gave me a handful of landmarks before she too left the group. 

          One was for Gimiso's G spot on OSGrid: there were only four or five of us left by then, which was a shame, because you can clone yourself there, always a laugh. 
           It was getting late, and time to log and post photos. The last thing I saw was this invitation to stop a moment, and think of the Scripters, without whom all this stuff would be so much less fun.