M is for Music

Morlita Quan's Second Life adventure started 16 years ago, and it was pure boredom.

Morlita Quan:   I even remember myself thinking : " Ok, I won't stay here more then two days". But as you well said, SL is a nest of creativity and very soon, I had the luck to meet persons there who used SL as a professional tool for art and music, and not like a simple social game. 

Morlita at her new, as yet unfinished, gallery on sim MorlitaM on OSGrid.

Sixteen years later, Morlita is still working on projects that overlap between the real and virtual worlds. Recently she has revived her interest in Opensim, and has an exciting new sim on OSGrid - address at the end of the post, as usual!  What, though, makes virtual worlds a special place to be creative?

Safari Countdown

 It's just ten days until the new season of  HG Safari begins, on Wednesday September 4 at 12 noon Pacific time. otherwise known as SLT or Grid Time. 

If you are familiar with our region on OSGrid, please be advised that the OSGrid region is no longer online. HG Safari now has a new home.

The new Clubhouse is located on the grid HG Safari, here's the address:

grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HG Safari

Once again, we will have ten weeks of visits to different grids and regions all across opensim, visiting art and tech builds, some representing real places, others inspired by fiction and fantasy. It will be an opportunity to make new friends, meet builders, learn about projects, passions, and of course problems that all come together to make up the Opensim experience.

Austin's Eye

Opensim can be  a tough place to get your arms around. It's like Second Life, but it also has distinctive features in terms of the technology and the culture. It's a dislocated, often quite mysterious place, in the sense that people often give a lot of weight to their subjective experience when talking about 'how opensim works'. 

That's a fun way to live the adventure, but solid information about resources, innovations, and changes to Opensim, (and where the two are related, in SL) is a must for anyone who's serious about understanding the platform. An outstanding source of knowledge is Austin Tate's blog. 

Ai Austin on RuthandRoth region OSGrid

Austin Tate, known inworld as Ai Austin (pronounced 'eye' not A.I.)  is an Emeritus Professor of knowledge-based Systems at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. 

His career in Information Technology started in the 70's, but his interest in computers goes back even further. We chatted during a tour of three sims on OSGrid, and you will find the HG Addresses at the end of the post, as usual.

It takes an eye for detail, and a talent for sharing complex knowledge in a way that works for both experts and casual readers, and Ai has achieved this with his blog, making it the go-to read for anyone trying to parse what's currently happening in Opensim.

One of the community projects he has consistently championed is the idea of an original open source mesh body for Opensim, called 'Ruth' and 'Roth'. That's the theme of the sim where we met up.

RuthandRoth sim has resources, information and teleports 

Ai Austin: This is the Ruth2 and Roth2 home region as you might know. Its where the open source Ruth2/Roth2 mesh assets and avatars are made available. The NPCs here are examples.

Thirza Ember:  Can you tell me a bit about how you got into computers to begin with?

Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists. 

Jimmy's Europa

 Jimmy Olsen's Europa has expanded! Most of you have already been to see this imaginative cityscape with its great Mall, sci-fi architecture and gadgets, and fabulous taxis, and soooo much more.

 HG Safari did a little tour last year - it was the season premiere, and (since we only have about an hour for each visit)  we only got a taster of this huge complex around the central build.

And now four months later the build has expanded even further.

Boom! another eight regions surround the original Europa. Seven are visitable, the eighth is a Sandbox, and there are multiple ways to see this build. You can use this greenish TP board to jump to Europa Raceway, Farm, Ranch, Mines, University, Colony, and Spaceport,

Lots of transport choices on Europa

 Loving that font, too - just comprehensible enough to make you feel like you're reading a foreign language you'd almost forgotten. A trip abroad without leaving your chair! Imagine the savings.

Victor's Great Gatsby

A great Great Gatsby build is taking shape over on FreeLife grid, and it has all that Long island loveliness that's a perfect match for the hot summer season of inworld exploration.

 It's built by grid owner, Victor DeAngelo. Free Life Grid came online approximately seven years ago, but Victor's virtual life journey began at another totally separate world from OpenSim called The Utherverse.  

Victor DeAngelo: That was eleven years ago.  It was there that I owned a large modern city where I rented out storefronts to business owners to provide links to their 3D stores.  The social life there was amazing but the graphics, compared to OS, are quite primitive.  It was one of the other builders, with whom I was associated as a provider of completed layouts, who first discovered OS.  She invited me to come and try it.  Of course, I was immediately hooked.  I rented a 3X3 from a grid owner who has since passed away.  After that, I was provided with the same size region by another grid that has since disappeared.  After those two situations, I made up my mind to own my own grid.  I downloaded Fred Beckhusen's "Outworldz" software which enabled me to set up Free Life.

3rd Wind, 3 Months In

 The 3rd Wind steering committee had just finished their meeting in the Infinity Classroom,  and were getting ready for the weekend community meet-up.  How lovely to be back at the Lyonesse Colony, now located on Zetaworlds grid.

It has been just about three months to the day since 3rd Rock, one of Opensim's oldest grids, closed its doors due to a series of events that had nothing to do with the solidarity and friendship of the residents.

Kestrel Roffo, Nila Mari, and Dolfke Barbosa

 As a group, they decided to find a new home (you may have read a bit about that process in this post). It's a story worth telling because, out of what could have been a huge tragedy, has come a great success story.It was so nice to meet up with old friends and new, the elected members of the 3rd Wind community steering committee. 

The committee includes Jedburgh Dagger, Ellemir Maven, Kestral Roffo, plus Dolfke Barbosa, who is Chief Security Officer in the Star trek Infinity group, and also there to help solve any issues 3rd Wind members may experience on the new grid. Then too there's Nila Mari who's the 3rd Wind Treasurer,  and produces the Starfleet Infinity Newsletter. And finally Alia Soulstar -  she is tireless in her work for the Starfleet rp group and the wider 3rd Wind community, doing a lots of building, organizing, researching and planning.

Alia Soulstar: Nila is a community asset who just happens to be a lovely person on the side

Dolfke Barbosa: Nila does a few excellent jobs here for us all - we have a newsletter too, right Nila?

Nila Mari: for Starfleet Infinity we do

Dolfke Barbosa: Due to Alia's and others great work, I am able to call this here home again, Thirza, and much from 3RG is imported here, Land as well as Avatars

Touring the Starfleet Infinity build, you'd be forgiven for feeling nothing had changed for this RP group. In reality, after it became abundantly clear that the old grid couldn't be saved, a huge amount of work had to be done retrieving .oars, rethinking the way the new regions would be laid out, and transferring personal and group inventory. That was after the group did plenty of research and some serious thinking before choosing their new home, an enclave on ZetaWorlds grid. 

AviWorlds: Josh & Co

Sometimes, seeing is believing. AviWorlds owner Josh Boam discovered Second Life thanks to a friend who told him that 'there was a place you could live a virtual life and do anything create anything and meet people from around the world'.  

Josh Boam: I did not believe him it was all so much to take in so that night I went home and joined.

Josh Boam

In Second Life, Josh split his time between running RP regions and building stuff - JP Collections opened in 2008 and is still on SL Marketplace offering furniture, aircraft, buildings, and Josh's main love, yachts - he went on to build 100 different watercraft.

But, as we all know, SL is pricey!

Josh Boam: At one point our Friday Harbor RP had over 15 regions and the cost to run was just way too high, so in 2014 I was turn onto the open simulator platform by some friends.  It was at this point I could see the profit that could be made by running your own grid, and thus SkyLifeGrid was born.  I ran Skylife for many years and learned over the years more and more about the backend of opensim.  Having no previous knowledge of opensim or databases or anything I studied the code for opensim line by line during my working days and was able to develop a system that worked for me.

Racing in Pangea

Looking for somewhere new to put the pedal to the metal? Do you have the heart of a Marshal?

Whether you're an expert racer, or just a crazy driver, Pangea grid would love to have you come over and help test their new race track on a dedicated sim set up for an event set to be held in October, the Pangea Go-Kart Cup.

This competition will feature as part of the Pangea 4th birthday festival, they are planning a whole series of different activities. You will be seeing the details pop up in the socials, also don't overlook their website (worth bookmarking) called https://pangea-grid.com/ ...and right now, if you like your sport sitting down, you could be a huge help! 

What's the idea? Let's ask  Karsten Runningbear, the grid's script guru, what he and the Pangea Grid team, led by Grid Owner Marlon Wayne, have in mind.

Karsten Runningbear: you are welcome to try the track and give your feedback, so we can make the racing experience the best it can possibly be before the big day. In particular, there is an information evening tomorrow, Friday, 9 August between 11am and 1pm SLT (that's from 8-10pm, Berlin time). The focus of this evening is the planning and organization of our upcoming birthday go kart race. 

Lil Bit More JOG

 Just as I publish a post about JOG, yet another cultural event happens there that's worth recording.

The summer festival called Obon, sometimes just called  Bon, is a joyful celebration of the dearly departed, and a moment of reflection about all the positive ways in which our ancestors near or far  have affected our lives, a sort of spiritual giving of thanks.

Looking down from the castle at the party venue

Mint B's region is a classic, with Cuteulala's castle as the backdrop to the main dancing area. There's a cool romantic midsummer moonlight feel to the sim, perfectly contrasted by the red and white colors of the festival - those are lucky colors!

I really love the little ghosties that dance around the central tower or yagura.  

The Jogged Heart

井の中の蛙 大海を知らず

A frog in a well knows nothing of the great sea

Doguu by Daiki Aabye 

On a hot day, there's a cool grid to wander through half a world away from Europe and on a very different planet, culturally. It's the Japan Open Grid, called JOG for short.

The main part of JOG is the great square continent, with the region Jog Central at its heart and all kinds of builds surrounding it, those closest to the middle have a permanent feel, like the 5 year anniversary Grand Staircase, the shopping regions and JOG Meet...

...and of course Dejima, 'Exit Island', as it was called, the one point at which, during the Edo period,  the West could interact with the Japanese culture and economy. We are talking the long period from the mid 1600's to the 1800's. 'Exit through the gift shop' comes to mind.

This, of course, was a period when Japan was trying to have as little as possible to do with outside cultures, in a bid to preserve their own culture and to repel the less attractive effects of western culture.  It meant, however, that the traditions and philosophy of the country were protected while a bit-o-bartering could go on undisturbed.   

Torch For a Nation

Marcel Mosswood lives and works in Indonesia... and Opensim. She started in Second Life (SL) around the year 2010. Six years later, she discovered the flexibility of Opensim, particularly for its potential in terms of creating education-friendly environments. A lot of hard work, learning, building, organizing and networking, and today she has her own school grid, called, Suluh Bangsa.

Marcel Mosswood: it means 'torch for a nation'.

Arrival sim, Suluh Bangsa

This sim she put together in just five days... she is a quick worker, and the design is very bright, modern and airy. You'll see some familiar, elegant and modern architecture. There's a lot of energy on the sim, which is surrounded by a tramway, and the central torch has delightful images projected on the marble.

Lessons are taught inworld using Discord, because the quality is way better than Vivox, and Marcel has a group of teachers, as it would be impossible to do everything on her own. She learned building in SL and has also been studying Blender, plus so the look of the grid is unique to her vision of a place for learning. 

Since this is a school grid, set up to educate students aged from 7 to 17, it's not open to the public - Marcel kindly let me in with my own student avie - check out the shades!

Thirza Guest

Will You Participate in 3px ?

DeReOs grid is approaching its 10th Anniversary very soon, and you're invited to participate! 

DeReOs grid

DeReOs is a beautiful grid of about a hundred regions. It is home to one of the oldest dance clubs in opensim, the Blue Wave, as well as lots of art. And pretty soon, there will be even more hypergrid art on show...

Akita Sonoda: We're looking for your wildest, most beautiful, and innovative artworks for an exhibition called "3px" (pronounced: Three Pix), which we'll be opening on our Grid birthday.