Safari Goes Off the Rez-ervation

           Last Safari for a while, but three destinations well worth you visiting. The HG Addresses (that's the bit you copy and paste into your Viewer's Map feature) at the end.
Why give the destination address in this format? It's because the low tech approach (you simply Highlight text, Ctrl C, then open your Map and Ctrl V into 'Search') works for all Viewers. 

Adrean Flux

             Our first port of call was Miranda the Welcome region of Adrean's World. Usually grid owner Adrean Flux is not available during the Safari hours,  since she is in Florida. So it was a great treat to get the opportunity meet her. the grid has about 500 registered users, not surprising since the grid was founded in 2010.
         

Miranda

           There are about a dozen regular users, including a small colony from Brasil. and the mainland region is a var with a uniquely Floridian feel to it. Here, you can take the subway,

go bowling

dance in the Mayan Pyramid...
visit the Fairgrounds...

...or check out the free shopping...

...about a dozen of us arrived, amid a bit of lag and LM failure

Arriving on Adrean's World

  Thirza Ember: Minya is brand new to the safari and managed to get here, congratulations!  Not too many people's hair arrived, lol including mine... I guess they will be along on a later train.
Adrean Flux: i can see it
Minya Var: we have nice skulls

George Equus: Earlier today everything rezed pretty much instantly, something must have occurred since... only 11 here now
Adrean Flux: thats cus Spectrum took over Brighthouse [internet provider woes] ... Thirza am I correct in thinking HG Safari came out the Hypergrid Adventurers club for the reaction grid ?

Thirza Ember: Yes, that was the inspiration, the great Pathfinder Lester... oooh here is Minya's beautiful blonde hair!
Adrean Flux: I have a tour bus, shall we try it?

       We all jumped on board, and after some sassy chat about the driver, off we set across this truly vast living space. The var region is a great invention, as is any kind of mainland build, because it gives you a feeling of space and place. It can play havoc with out-of-towners like the HG Safari chums for a number of technical reasons we needn't mention here.
       This is a grid worth visiting, you'll find people there in the evenings, Florida time.

          Next up, Ramesh Ramloll's region RezMela Sandbox, on Kitely. This was a suggestion by Sunshine Szavanna, and a great one. Ramesh is working on virtual world tools he hopes to sell to researchers and educational institutions, through his company RezMela.

Ramesh Ramloll

             We were lucky enough to see two of his ideas at work. First up, bringing the real world inworld, at least in picture form. At about 100m above the woodland scenery of RezMela Sandbox is a cube.

            The sides show Media on a Prim, so you'll probably want to use Firestorm Viewer, and make sure you have Media set to play automatically, in Preferences - otherwise you'll only see white walls.
You stand inside a giant cube and then a script loads a panoramic picture from Google Streetview. Or in our case, dance, of course. There's a blue grandstand, for those who wish to sit, and that adds a bit of perspective to the effect. As did Lucy Afarensis, with her new giant avatar!

Giant Lucy dances in a safe corner (left)

           Half the group showed up about an hour early, so the presentation became somewhat confusing, and had me thanking the lord this was the last bout of stressful avatar schizophrenia I will have to deal with for a while, but it was very interesting to see places in South Africa, Asia, and so on...

....parts of the world most of us will ever get a chance to visit in person.
     Then to mix it up, Ramesh invited us to suggest a link, here's Yara Eilde's suggestion (if chat lag has not gotten me confused)

 Perhaps the most awe inspiring was this panoramic pic of an ancient Egyptian site at night.

               Ramesh has also developed thin 'streetview cube' to work on an even bigger scale. The sim floor becomes a map, and a cube passing over the map will show you the Street View of that part of the map. Can you see the hand in the middle of the picture? Definitely worth going over to meet Ramesh and play with his toys.

Sim-sized map of Manhattan

            Then we looked at another project, an instant rezzer, little bit reminiscent of our visits to Nara's Nook and the instant environments in the Nookette's story telling projects, hands up who misses Nara, hopefully she will be around more later in the year.

            Ramesh's take on instant rezzing has a decidedly more industrial-military feel, but equally impressive to stand in the control tower and watch him make skyscrapers and cooling towers pop up out of nowhere.
If you're interested in his project visit the website RezMela or try contacting him in Kitely or via the RezMela page on Facebook.

               And finally, some music on Endivatomic grid.

             Thai Low, the lovely Christine, together with the Endive regulars....

HG Hero Thai Low

 ... friends from OSGrid and Craft, and the wonderful Joao Frazao  brought the Safari 2016/17 season to a close with some great World Music followed by a live concert, one of joao's best so far, with many songs from his albums, and some Fado thrown in for good measure. if you don't know Joao's music, you are missing out! Find it here, on his website www.joaofrazao.net  and come hear him play, as he often does, in opensim.

Joao Frazao

               We met on Stonehevent region on Endivatomic Grid, one of the prettiest and most stable small grids in the hyperverse. The grid is inspired by Italian and French culture, and has some great regions, varying from a traditional outdoor restaurant to a modernistic dance club.

Lucy Afarensis... she's a big girl

               As you can see, we were a pretty varied group ourselves, those who survived right down to the end of this wek's journey.  Let me take a moment to thank all the safari regulars who come along, brave the lag, admire the various worlds we visit, teleport the lost, compliment the hosts, post pictures and make the journey all the more fun for me. I love you all.

Flidais Merlin dancing his heart out

             If you're not a regular, you can be - all are welcome, no experience necessary, the only 'dress code' is to be pleasant.

 Visit Endivatomic'e Stonehevent any time, set your Viewer to night or Midnight, and enjoy the ambience in this mystical place. Or not, whatever gets you grooving....

Siberiaaaaaaa

                   As we did last year for the Safari Finale, there was dancing in the giant stone circle, partly to make a late celebration of the summer solstice, an arrivederci until September for our weekly meet ups, and for me personally, the chance to make a solemn vow not to teleport anybody anywhere any more... at least for the next eight weeks.

              And so endeth the 2016/17 Safari. See you soon. But not too soon.
HG Addresses
Miranda, Adrean's World Welcome region                    adreans-world.from-fl.com:8000
Ramesh Ramloll's region RezMela                                grid.kitely.com:8002:rezmela sandbox
Stonehenge event region, Endive style                          endivatomic.eu:8002:stonehevent