Winter, Water, and SafarAI

What's it like, going on safari? 

Well, imagine trying to order off a high-class menu while riding on a train travelling through a hurricane. And your clothes keep falling off. In quicksand.
Four excellent destinations, which produced as usual a sort of 'if it's Tuesday, this must be Brussels' sensation. These are all places worth visiting again (and again!) by yourself or even better, with a friend.

Mattie Mcbride's festive forest, on Paradise Island, Metropolis

First Metropolis, to Mattie Mcbride's Paradise Island, and second to Tangle grid for the Expo. Similar theme, very different scales, from Mattie's exquisite winter market, full of baubles and tinsel, to the three sim extravaganza on Tangle. 

Paying Thanks

Thanks to everyone who came to see my knickers this week on Paradise sim in Nara's Nook. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and this is a mediation on why none of the things I make are for sale. Anywhere.
OpenSim  freebies have a reputation (fostered by people who want YOU to pay for THEIR Content) for not being very good. When someone says to me, as they did this week, "Oh yes, I put out some crap - I mean basic items - as freebies", that makes me sad.  My content is free because I want to crush that 'free=Crap' nonsense out of existence. There are a growing army of creators providing amazing avatars, houses, mesh items, and so on without charging anything.  I want to be a part of that. In the olden days in SL, it was a village where people shared and worked together. There are still many pockets of generosity in SL, but in many ways it has sunk into the same grasping, money-oriented economy you can find in the real world. Let's not permit OpenSim to fall into that trap.

A Tale of Two TPs

'Safari' means journey in Swahili, and the hypergrid safari is really two journeys in one. 

There's the sightseeing trip, of course...

...but there's also the 'I'm going to beat this 'Identity Not Verified' crap if it kills me' journey, and last night was perhaps our greatest ever triumph in that department. 

German Grid is a hypergridding Shangri La. Dabici Straulino summed it up in an IM.

Dabici Straulino

Dabici.Straulino: My curiosity is driven by the fact that I have never been able to visit German Grid and this what ever the multiple ways I tried.  I just checked using the LM to Folkcafe - same problem - unauthorized teleport.  and I tried with the second destination, Star trek - same message Any ideas why I experience this - and I am quite good with hyperjumps in general.

Attention Spike

There are some things that are really hard to get your mind around. 

One is the relative size of the planets in our solar system. Another is German. A third is Spike Sol's smexy girl avie, even more mind bending when you hear his voice.

Where were you listening to Spike Sol's voice? you ask. Right now.

Safari Spanks the Vortex

Bolle Zijde: I need to warn you, no spanking on my butt.

Yeah good luck with that Bolle. There are times when open sim is so unstable it drives you crazy, and then there are times when it is so efficient it's shocking. Have you noticed that quite often both things happen in the same five minutes?
Many new faces joined us this week on Safari. We started out in Francogrid on the new HG Safari base. The sim is called hgsafari so it's easy to find. This week the Lingerie shop on Nara's Nook sort of took all my time so there aren't as many poses and places to sit as there ought to be in the new clubhouse. By next week that should be fixed. 

Lingerie store on Nara's Nook

          Speaking of lingerie, the 'let's fix up your open sim avatar' service, Safari Confidential, got started this week with Betty Tureaud. The idea is that you help someone to go hypergrid shopping. Anyone can do it, it's your civic duty, kind of. Think about it. It is so frustrating when you've had a smart sophisticated avie in Second Life for years and years, and suddenly you're in Open Sim and are a cloud, or walking like a duck, and don't know how or where to go to sort yourself out. 

So, those of us with a little more experience can reach out by taking a friend shopping, hold their hand while they fix  their Ruth hair, and help them get the necessaries. 

If you don't know where to go, there are some appearance oriented Freebie LMs in a dispenser at the Clubhouses on sim hgsafari, Franco and Outlands, on Metropolis. And if someone helps you - Pay it Forward! help someone else!

Taarna Wells' shoes on La Baronnie (Metropolis)

The many weird and wonderful mesh avies on offer are lovely, but they aren't Betty's style, so we sought out some more orthodox attachments. We visited Taarna Wells' legendary shoe store on la Baronnie, and then jumped over to Craft to take a look at their many Free shops. Hydra, the arrival sim on Craft, is undergoing a massive overhaul and it is great, much easier to jump straight to the sim you want. 

The new look Hydra, on Craft grid

 SL has loads of consumer blogs. The Hyperzette is excellent for outlining destinations, and of course there are many fine OpenSim traveler's blogs, but we need someone who's a consumer, not a producer to step in and hunt down the hair, clothes and skins and let us know where the best stuff is.  

Odd's Playground, Metropolis

Speaking of stuff, Safari went to Oddball Otoole's region on Metro this week. Odd's Playground is a dark, mysterious cityscape with a guitar museum, a free spanker, and so much more. At first, it seemed like the group was frozen, but in reality they were camming and picking up all the ...odds and ends.
Han Held: Log in to metropolis they said! It'll be easier to teleport they said! :P~~~~~
Miso Susanowa: hlo Wizzy. Are you getting the same winds as Patti?
Nara Nook: I found a candy machine
Nara Nook: by a Christmas tree.
Miso Susanowa: hi Han
Art Blue: guitar?
Art Blue: where?
Thirza.Ember: OK I may have lied. It is hardly the first time, Han.
Wizard Gynoid: winds?
PatriciaAnne Daviau: at home wizzy
Wizard Gynoid: oh . it was 26 degrees F last night
PatriciaAnne Daviau: we had gusts up to 60 miles an hour
Wizard Gynoid: i don't have the winds
Wizard Gynoid: just the usually passing kind

Truelie Telling: I see Art found the script library
strannik.zipper: script library?
Equus.Staedler: Really weird... had no trouble what so ever an hour ago HG tp'ing all over
Miso Susanowa: It's the safari, Equus; we are load testers
Tina Bey shouts: freebies..!
Equus.Staedler: Must be... I am new here :)
Wizard Gynoid: oh my goodness there's a dead body under a rug over here
Isolde Caron: trying to get the spanker working lol
PatriciaAnne Daviau: wow I cam around and all sorts of peeps show up
Pathfinder.Lester: lots of nice freebies around here
Equus.Staedler: Hi Thirza, glad I made it here... at loooong last
Pathfinder.Lester: and everything's frozen here. I feel at home.

Fuschia models Odd's battery powered facelight

Pathfinder.Lester: i hear spanking
Isolde Caron: ah good, it works
Fuschia.Nightfire: i love Odd's facelight, it's very subtle, you hardly even notice it
Pathfinder.Lester: OMG
Betty Tureaud: ops
strannik.zipper: Fuschia, that is quite the personal facelight!
Fuschia.Nightfire: i think the facelight is the only thing that comes with battery included
Isolde Caron: cant figure out how to spank someone yet. I'll figure it out another time, then I'll spank everyone all the time
Pathfinder.Lester: for those of you who like scripts, there's a whole tutorial area here with tons of scripts available for free... really nice

Alle Zeb and me at the Vector's Vortex arrival point

 It was difficult to get people to leave this wonderful sim and everyone is sure to go back because we all missed something, there was so much to see. 

Next up, Karima Hoisan's Vector's Vortex on Kitely. It's a space journey, complete with poem and flying book. You really have to go yourself to experience the Vortex, or get a video of it maybe; the sounds, the movement - it's all an exquisite journey. After vortexing, dancing. Oddball's freebies were everywhere.
  There were 28 of us at one point, we maxed out the dance ball. Equus Staedler did a great job of taking snapshots and sharing them with the group

Cosmic Safari Kitty in Kitely! Photo by Equus Staedler

Karima.Hoisan: wow cosmic salsa dance
Alle Zeb: Incredible here
Karima.Hoisan: ohh great photo
Nara Nook: love the cat picture
Thirza Ember: what a lovely safari
Alle Zeb: Yes Thirza!
strannik zipper: hahaha

Let's draw a veil over my wardrobe malfunction.

Karima.Hoisan: Thank you all for coming
PatriciaAnne Daviau: it was soo fun!!
Nara Nook: Thank you Karima
Karima.Hoisan: I am so honored to have had you all here
Thirza.Ember: 28 avies, impressive Karima!
Miso Susanowa: ty Karima, thanks for having us!
Lucy.Afarensis: Really great Karima
Isolde Caron: yes ty
Fuschia.Nightfire: really love this experience Karima
Pathfinder.Lester: yes, ty Karima!
Nara Nook: such a lovely sim
Karima.Hoisan: My pleasure

Our final destination was PMGrid, where safari has a sim, currently full of excellent Fuschia Nightfire art. The piece de resistance is Ghost Castle, an avatar interactive installation. About 16 avatars arrived almost all together, and once again the voodoo of open sim kicked in. 
While some people could see everything, others - even using local avatars - saw only an approximation. Although the Art gallery textures all showed up fine. 

But that's safari for you. Every day is different!

This week's URIs:
Odd's Playground, by Oddball Otoole:  hypergrid.org:8002:ossd playground
Karima Hoisan's Vector's Vortex:  grid.kitely.com:8002:vectors vortex
Fuschia Nightfire's Ghost Castle and gallery: pmgrid.org:8002:san22

Waiting for Philip

Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Connected
Region found!
Teleport completed from https://opensimcc/region/Landing%20Zone%201/127/128/38
KN1 Conference Chair (42):
 *** ATTENTION *** (hit esc for best camera viewing angle)
  ******************************************************************
 For the best experience, enable automatic prim and parcel media under Edit > Preferences > Audio & Video tab > Check the *automatically play prim media* and *automatically play parcel media* boxes.
 ******************************************************************
~to read this again check your local chat log.
Pathfinder.Lester: hi Thirza :) just saw you there. lol
Mal Burns: WB Thirza
Thirza Ember: what is with these sit poses???
Pathfinder.Lester:lol, lemme try that chair... hm, ok for me
Thirza Ember: ok i am now officially the Problem
Mal Burns: renames them "perch" poses - AO maybe?
Gavin Hird: try turn off sit ao
Thirza Ember: you really think my a/o has that sit pose?
Gavin Hird: hehe
Mal Burns: think i see yr dance pose, something working
Thirza Ember: yes, and I am getting counselling for that

Safari Insanity

The first destination of the first Safari of the month, every month, is Art Blue's Futurelab.

Insanity, you say, and this time you'd be right: Cherry Manga's Insanity, a strangely ecru, disturbing, moving installation complete with not-right-in-the head avatars. Art talked about Faust, we kind of knew he would, that's how he rolls. 
Cherry floated through the air, we all did, including first time safaristas Dorothea Lundquist, whose legendary 1001 was one of our first attempted destinations when Safari started, and hopefully will be back on the calendar soon, and poet and artist Karima Hoisan whose Kitely based build Vector's Vortex is on the docket for next week.
John Pathfinder Lester: The Safari is mindblowing!

Conference Call

          There's this 'working relationship' deal you can do with Philip Rosedale that's an effective way to manage your productivity. I've been on to it for quite some time, and really enjoy it. Basically it boils down to this: he wastes absolutely no time at all taking an interest in any of my VW writing, schemes and projects, and in return, I do the same for him.
          This coming weekend is the opensim community conference, being held on a special little grid at this URI cc.opensimulator.org:8002. Fleep Tuque is the organizer, ably assisted by the guys who run - I almost wrote 'used to run' - OSGrid, along with many other opensim stalwarts, the lovely and endlessly entertaining Maria Korolov among them. The conference runs for two days, this coming Saturday and Sunday, and begins at 7am Pacific time both days, with five breakout venues, which means there will be times when there are five different events going on at the same time, listed as Business, Development, Research and Education, Community, and Learning Lab.

          Philip Rosedale is doing the Keynote speech on Saturday, which seems to be sending a lot of conference goers all wobbly and starstruck. When I was about 15 I remember thinking 'wow, Madonna is rich! how cool!' and then suddenly realizing that she was only rich because kids like me had each handed over our hard-earned five or ten dollars to hear her sing or strut her stuff. And it suddenly seemed a whole lot less admirable. Never done the 'fan' thing since then. Anyway, I guess Philip probably wants to sell OpenSim something, and his talk has the not-at-all grandiose title of  'What the Metaverse is'.