Gino's Butterfly

Dale innis asked why we meet, and where we meet, before heading to destination 1 on Safari.

The 'why' is simple. If we all meet together before jumping to the first destination, then I can let the hosts know how many people to expect, so it's easier for them to know when to begin their presentation. Meeting at the Clubhouse means anyone new can make some friends beforehand, so they can ask for help if they get lost. Also, there are often last minute changes to the Safari, so if you come to the Clubhouse, you'll have the latest news about what's going on. Lastly - have you ever invited a group of friends over for a meal, and one person shows up waaaay too early, and you don't know what to do with them? We want to avoid that situation, which is embarrassing and stressful for our hosts.

Dale Innis and Karima Hoisean, on Gino's Butterfly

The 'where' is simple too. We meet at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid and there's usually someone on the sim to welcome you half an hour before the event begins.

Thirza Ember: welcome Kjs, bonsoir Prodyck, grande soiree pour les frenchies ce soir!

Prodyck.Theas: hellooo... On va voir ça :)

kjs Yip: Hi, I know I'm early, but I don't want to be late...

Thirza Ember: omg Kjs sitting on that Hand chair I made... I feel very proud and happy now

kjs Yip: It looks very comfortable...

Tosha Tyran: incl. one finger for back scratching

kjs Yip: It's the thumb...

Kjs Yip on hand at HG Safari clubhouse

Thirza Ember: i hope it doesn't leave fingerprints on the clothes! I am really happy that Prodyck says he will be one of the French speakers at HIE in 2025. it's going to be a great event

Tosha Tyran: I am sure it will be! Hi Prodyck

kjs Yip: Hi all... I'm a newbee at the safari, please be kind ...I try my best to run behind you...

Tosha Tyran: if you want, kjs, I take you by the hand,  or better yet: Forest will, heheh

Forest Azure: you can always tp to Thirza's head, kjs, she likes pple landing on it

Thirza.Ember: I have big hair so it doesn't hurt me if you tp to my skull

Tosha Tyran: Holzkopf

kjs Yip: hi Yara...

Yara Eild: Hello everyone :-)

Alex Salamander: Hello everyone

Taarna Welles: Hi everyone

Tina Bey: hola a todos!!

Mal.Burns: Hi folks

...and just like that, we rushed off to Kitely. Karima and Dale were on hand to welcome us at the start of the automatic tour. 

There were about 15 of us on the sim, which seemed to rez pretty fast, although opensim continues to have issues with textures so the occasional person seemed to be all white, and people with very complex and probably beautiful avatars looked strange and/or naked -  thus defeating their purpose to look spectacular. 

There are no rules about what you can wear on Safari, but if you're hoping to look nice in a big group then the old expression  'less complex is better' definitely applies. In theory, anything you're wearing should automatically travel with you, but it's worth making sure that your outfit is in your My Suitcase folder,  if you have one. Personally, I stick to a Legacy body for Safari trips, and make alpha layers for any mesh clothes I'm wearing. Legacy puts less strain on the sim being visited, and legacy layer undergarments guarantee you're not parading around naked for the first five minutes. But everyone's free to dress however they like, of course. 

Karima Hoisan

Karima Hoisan: Welcome all, we will begin ... Gino’s Butterfly is an automatic tour that goes through the different stages of a man’s life.  Gino was a personal friend and family mEmber of mine for 35 years.  He was a very warm unique man and  a talented fashion artist.   I felt his life was well worth preserving on his very own world. I invite you to touch either big  butterfly in the back,  on either side of the drawing to get a notecard. At the bottom of the nc, are all the teleports for the highlights of the tour. Please have sounds turned up and Media to play (enabled) and  filter turned off. We are using media  ( not music) to tell you about each area as you fly through.

Sit here to enjoy the ride!

Dale Innis: Is mostly everyone here do we think?

Thirza Ember: yes, I think all are here

Karima Hoisan: Every section has an audio explanation and it if it doesn’t come on automatically, please toggle your media icon above.  Make sure you have volume up on media When all are here we will turn on the Bubble. To sit on the chair just touch the bubble and you will be seated. As soon as one sits in the chair and then flies off,  another bubble  will appear about 6  seconds later  and the next avatar can touch the bubble , sit and follow…After this first chair at the landing, it is all automatic (we hope)

Karima Hoisan: When you arrive at the house, at the end, you will be unseated.  In front are set up many chairs  just touch a chair to sit and your camera will be taken over by us. If you want to “cam around”  afterwards clicking on ESC  will bring your camera back to the correct position. This is the end of the tour and the title of this world will be revealed. We will meet up altogether at Gino's house at the end of the tour

Flying along the catwalk

The trip around the region combines a narrative and sound effects with landscapes and images reflecting the different parts of Gino's long and very creative life. W floated pas the part where eh fought in the Korean War,

green-grey and complicated and full of gunfire...

You're supposed to take the tour solo, but it's kind of fun to go together
- here's Forest and myself, sailing around the build

There then comes along the life of the stylist, in the big city... there are the skyscrapers and big names like Tiffany and Rodeo Drive

Floating past the cityscape

When you see Tiffany, it's worth jumping off to explore the maze and this outdoor gallery of colorful paintings and sketches.

Later in life we come to the more rural part of the story, even here drawing and designing are dominant in Gino's life.

Finally, at the little mauve house, we sat in the room to see the final show on a big screen.

 Karima's video slideshow showed images of her lifelong friend Gino, and explained how he came to live with her, and about his final years, with so many recollections of a full life lived. 

It's a lovely video, where Karima explains how, very close to the end of life, Gino lying in bed agitated his arms. When they asked him why, he said he was getting ready to be a butterfly. It's a very moving tribute to Gino, turned into 3D with a gorgeous blue butterfly floating off at the end, leaving not a dry eye in the house.

We ended our visit with a quick Q&A before heading to Destination 2 on grid SV2d.

Thirza Ember: I have a question for Karima... what made you get the idea to turn Gino's life into a virtual build? rather than a poem or just a video I mean.

 Karima Hoisan: well it was grief, truly,,,I started it the day of the funeral. He had such an interesting life, and such an amazing death in our house..my whole family was with him when he flew away, I just wanted to capture that. I just told his story as well as I could,I felt this great responsibility to do it right.

Tina Bey: It's a great way to grieve, very wise of you to have done everything virtually, you can sense it in the spirit that is here!! You have created a fantastic place.

Hella Yver: i agree so good !

Karima Hoisan:   ahhh I have tears now... really I need to confess something: one day when the sim was almost done, I had this terrible thought -  what kept me from doing this while he was alive? Omg it killed me..why didn't I ? he would have loved it so. And to see all of you over my shoulder...

Badr Norseman: At the end you did Karima, with a great result.

James Atlloud: I've thought the same karima, but it's not a mistake - it's just living in real time.

Dale Innis: I'm sure he loves it now

Karima Hoisan: thank you for saying that. Yes..I feel he enjoyed this night. Please come back again where you can take your time exploring it all.  As always, it’s a pleasure and  always fun to have you visit  our world.

Ankh Senaton: I will come back Karima !

James Atlloud: thank you!

Hella Yver: I will !!! such emotion...

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:Gino's Butterfly

Remember, Kitely sims are not online 24/7 they are only online when someone's there. So if you try to Hypergrid jump when the region is empty, you will probably get a ' Region does not exist' message. The trick is to first jump to Kitely Welcome and then try the HG Address, or LM. 

To get to Kitely Welcome, put this address into your Viewer Map  grid.kitely.com:8002