Safari gets Tangled and (almost) Terminated

This week we got some answers to questions like 'What's going on with this year's opensim convention?' 'How many times do you have to crash before you get to TanGle grid?' and finally, 'What's it like to have your own personal Terminator?'
Of course, there were other, perennial questions, such as 'Where's my hair?' 'Am I naked?' and 'Who is UMMA?' - all things that anyone who's been on Safari has heard - and said - many times before.

Joyce Bettencourt

Joyce Bettencourt, co-owner of AvaCon grid, and local residents Sun,Tzu and Frans Charming welcomed us to the main plaza decorated with Ruben Haan artwork. After the usual - lovely - flurry of meeting, greeting and friending, we got right down to business.
Jessie Campbell: so I beg the question...what IS Avacon?

Joyce.Bettencourt: hi all, so AvaCon is a 501c3 nonprofit org... we have organized a lot of virtual worlds, things like the Second Life Community Convention that took place in real life in Boston in 2011 and Oakland CA in 2012, and also this past year's Federal Consortium of virtual worlds conference
Selby.Evans: 501c3 is non-profit
George Equus: Tax exempt non profit right 501?
Joyce Bettencourt: which means any money donated would be tax exempt and able to be deducted if you are in the United States. It also means we can't make a profit, all funds raised go towards programs, and the resources and staff needed to support them.
Thirza Ember: this grid is made for conferences that's why it's so robust.
Jeff Kelley: How do you make it robust?
George Equus: lots of titanium probably
Thirza Ember: underpinned by a giant dev who never moves

Joyce Bettencourt: we have also helped organize with the OpenSimulator core developers the OpenSimulator Community Conferences. This grid functions a lot like our virtual office and event space, along with hosting others like the Virtual World Best Practices conference presence in OpenSimulator, and several unique projects from other AvaCon folks like Fleep Tuque's Primland build that is a colorful, game-like how to build in OpenSim walk through... influenced by the game Candy Land if you remember that, and also Nebadon Izumi has a region here that has a lot of his work in progress and interactive objects in his studio - that is the Oni Kenkon Creations region.

Jessica Pixel: joyce have you any news on opensim community conference this year and have you heard of avatarfest coming up?
Joyce Bettencourt: As for OSCC, we are working on a scaled down event of presentation, along with a call that will go out for folks to do their own events and add them to one big scheduled celebration. Is Avatarfest what Han Held was talking on planning
Unknown UserUMMAU42: Yes - that has a google plus group [Here is the G+ page for that!]
Thirza Ember: avatarfest is holding a special after-fest event for the safari - a safaravatarfest!
Joyce Bettencourt: with some of the changes to core developers and a lot of business of folks over the summer, it seemed a smaller formal event made more sense this year, and with cross promoting any of the other Avatarfest events and others who want to hold them.
Selby Evans: Avatar Fest, celebration of the Hypergrid community. Nov. 13-16.
Sunbeam Magic: Nara' s Immersive Edge will be the grand event of the end :)
Joyce Bettencourt: well we use a schedule web app that we could also list those and others events too, and our day of presentations that is being scheduled for Dec 5th. - so the overall mission of AvaCOn is to support the users and developers of virtual worlds / metaverse technologies like OpenSimulator, SL, etc so helping to support these events, and also we have done that through holding a Metaverse Cultural Series of events.
Jessie Campbell looks around and thinks we have our own AviFest here!

                      We took a quick look around Fleep's Primland build, which is a really charming way for anyone to learn about building, and not just noobs - there are dozens of hints that even a quite experienced builder can benefit from.

Here's a photo of Truelie wearing all her attachments - skirt, hair, shoes, even a hat. It would be the last time most of us saw that level of complete wardrobe-ness for the rest of the Safari.

Our next stop was on TanGle grid. Peter Veliz, sometimes known as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is point man for the regular Expo events on tangle, which the Safari has visited in the past. 

This week, their Steampunk Fair was due to close, but they kept it open just a little longer so we could visit.

The 20+ avatars who departed hopefully from Avacon, however, encountered severe hypergridding problems, mostly getting stuck in that Teleport limbo where the only thing you can do is log off - and even that can be difficult, I find that I have to open the Task Manager (Control-Alt-Delete in Windows) and use that to close the viewer when it freezes in a teleport.

Tangle grid is set up so you first arrive on the HG Station sim, and have to look for the teleport door to the Expo sim... it's not hard to find, if you know what to look for and are completely rezzed, but for a newcomer, or someone whose patience is running out after multiple crashes, that can be one more layer of complication they don't want to bother with. Frustration runs high when you crash six or seven times, especially in a hypergrid group like ours, where all the people you were just talking to now appear to be offline. They aren't - it's just that until you open an IM with them, or you are both on the same sim, you can't tell that - and that creates a sense of 'the party's over'.

 All of which is a shame, because the Expo was truly excellent.

Here's our host, Isambard, in all his steampunk glory. The Expo was simply amazing, with most of the names you'd expect to see represented, from Aley to Vbinnia Radek. A sprinkling of steamy NPCs brought the festival to life.

George Equus: Absolutely smashing Isam!

Jessica.Pixel: yes i am finding endless things to cam at
snowbody.Cortes shouts: I love this sim

Thirza.Ember: how long does it take to set up a sim like this?

IsambardKingdom Brunel: usually a month to get every one involved if was just me on my own probably few days if i have things in inventory. I have a cool expo gift for every one just i ran out time completing in time so I'll pass you it in morning,

           And here it is, the Steam Devil, no mod/transfer, but apparently Take Copy works, if you want to get yours at the clubhouse. Thanks Isam!
             The Expo already has a wide range of events planned for 2016 - that means you can get involved, and be a part of the fun. whether you make clothes, cars, or some other crazy stuff, see Peter Veliz about an exhibition place at one of the upcoming Expos. 

                Our final destination was on Repudiator Quann's sim Ero. Rep has a lot of regions in OSGrid, he turned off a lot of them to make resources available for our arrival. He also quickly organized a place for the group to sit once we got there, and that made a big difference. Often seen with his skeleton avie, we were there to see something even more sinister!
                  We were there to meet him and hear about his year long odyssey, building a highly detailed Terminator avatar, using some totally original parts, and some parts borrowed and re-worked from other mesh models.
Repudiator quann: please give the server a bit time to load all

After a little bit of rubberbanding, we made ourselves comfy at the medieval table. Wizardoz wen all Predator on us, and - wait, is Spike one of the Borg by any chance? Wow that's quite a dinner party!

snowbody Cortes: hoo - nice castle - Alya can you pass me the bread please?
Lucy Afarensis: I am petting an invisible cat
Alya VonZ passes the bread
Truelie Telling: I need the mead
Cendres.Magic: some beer - rhum - or whisky could be fine
Mike Townsend: How do you know its a cat Lucy?
Spike.Sol: How do they fit together. a medieval castle and a terminator from the future?
Mike Townsend: Back to the Future?
Jessica.Pixel:it is mesh? it's so many little pieces omg lots of detail!
Thirza Ember: Terminator has good teeth, I like that in a man

Repudiator quann: my Avie is 100% Mesh, if your viewer don't support it you see me as lines. And set your objects to 4.0. I also rezzed 2 models a gold one and silver one, that are statues, and 1 NPC as terminator behind me.
Taarna Welles: @Repudiator: Can I marry you?
Alya VonZ: now you need that metal stomping sound when you walk:0
Jessica Pixel: lolol hearing a child laugh come from a terminator just now
Mike Townsend: Don't worry Jessica it was one he ate earlier *gulp
Repudiator quann: yes loll stupid gestures
Sunbeam Magic: its an unbelievable avatar Repudiator!!! Unbelievable! well done, thumbs up!!!
George Equus: Repudiator, how often do you have an oil change?
Mike Townsend: I want to know what toothpaste you use?
But it was a serious chat too, about rigging issues in particular. Repudiator explained how helpful this Avastar video had been to working on the shoulder/collarbone joint. In the end the secret to his success can be summed up in one work - persistence. Eight months of trial and error, perfecting the various parts, have culminated in this lovely model. It was nice to think that, here in open sim, where everyone has a go at one kind of building or another, he has an audience who could truly relate to his achievement.
Sunbeam.Magic: dedication at its finest!!
Wizardoz.Chrome: It is magnificent
About halfway through our banquet, we all crashed - but within minutes just about everyone returned, which says a lot about both the Safari spirit, and our interest in Repudiator's work. Interestingly, once the sim came back online, the chat lag and the missing clothes issues went away.

What a nice man. His next project is a reconstruction of the terminator world - he's already made a start with the Cyberdine building, the 'birthplace' of the Terminator. But note his willingness to be involved in other projects... need some help from a wiz at mesh avies? He may be your man!
Thirza Ember: but this has been fun, so I hope you will let us return another time
Repudiator quann: oh yes!! I will invite you sometime, when i have more build and maybe other projects and I also want to join someone project maybe to help as well.

HG ADDRESSES:
Primland on AvaCon grid             grid.avacon.org:8002:primland
TanGle Expo                                tanglegrid.net:8032:HG Station 1 .... then go through the door marked Expo
Repudiator's region           hg.osgrid.org:80:ero