Lost Light

One of the giants of virtual worlds, Lumiere Noir, died about a year ago, on August 10, 2015. He had been ill for quite some time, but his passing came suddenly, sending shockwaves through the community of virtual worlds where he had long been revered as an inspirational educator for hundreds of builders. 

Lumiere Noir on Craft Grid in 2011

The expression 'Ivory Tower' was coined in 1837 by the French writer Sainte-Beuve and it means a frame of mind, or sometimes a place of scholarship and learning, that holds itself aloof from the less educated, everyday happenings. That's rather ironic, considering Lumiere's lifelong desire to inform and assist others to be part of the building community.

Safari Goes Lusitanian

For week 101 of the Safari, a special themed week celebrating Portugal! Lots of Lusitanian references, plus a concert by Joao Frazao, to enrich the evening.

Belem Tower, on NiSi Festival region, Metropolis

We began our adventure as usual on Francogrid, at the clubhouse. I don't know why we never actually 

g inside the clubhouse, I guess we just like fresh air. Tht big geometric shape is an invention of Wizard Gynoid, you can buy one from a 3D website service she has set up, and you too can have a RL copy (although not that big!).

Our first destination was Carlos Loff's project to build the city of Lisbon in opensim. He has a grid of his own, and his plan is to recreate the entire metropolitan area, with all the monuments and geographical features - that's quite an enterprise!

The 'is' and 'isn'ts' of Virtual Money

We love what you do when you do it with heart

Truelie Telling, the Safari song

It may have been Pathfinder who brought it up, at this week's Safari, the subject of some sort of hypergrid friendly virtual currency. His comment was to the effect that it would give him the opportunity to support content creators. There followed a little polite but determined chorus of 'hypergrid currency?? thanks but no thanks' from many of the other attendees. Why is it that? What is it that makes people like me feel so passionately that the predominantly no money culture in open sim is the better way?

Safari One Hundred

This week, a little celebration to mark our one hundredth consecutive Safari. There was music, last minute panic, interesting conversation, lag, unsolicited boobage, laughs, and failed Tps. So much like any other week!

First up a Truelie Telling concert, on hgsafari sim, with the added bonus of the Guess the Grid competition, organized by Wizardoz Chrome. There are 25 images spread out around the sim, devilishly hard to find, and once found, you've got to guess what sim they are on! You will find the grid names and their hg addresses in a poster marked Guess the Grid Answers, at the Clubhouse on hgsafari sim, Francogrid. The winner on the day? Probably Sunbeam Magic got the most right answers, and Freewee Ling was the champion of finding them... she found fifteen, though confessed she couldn't identify any of the grids in the pics!!

Chasing the Safari

RL comes first, we all know that, and for a lot of people, that makes joining the Safari impossible. Same happened to me this week. But while some weeks, the group visits specially opened sims or one-off events, this week's destinations are all easy enough to visit when the fancy takes you. And very worthwhile too. Just grab the LMs from the Safari clubhouse, for your convenience they are available at Teravus Plaza on OSGrid, as well as at our usual rendezvous, HGSafari sim on Francogrid. If you made a  LM to our Francogrid clubhouse more than two weeks ago, it will no longer work, as the sim has been moved onto another server. But if you put our hg address into your map, you will find it OK. That address? hg.francogrid.org:80:hgsafari
This week the first destination was something of a load test for the group, and by all accounts it stood up well to the onslaught of the safari waifs and strays. The grid in question, Sailonbye, (full HG Addresses at the end of the post) is a mini grid that brings together three of opensim's greatest virtues: a sense of place, a talented builder of original content, and a generous heart.