Neverworld's Niagara

Fifty meters deep at its deepest, and 35 km wide at its widest, the Niagara River and its famous Falls are without doubt one of the great natural wonders of the world. Sacred to the Iroquois and forming the border between the USA and Canada, the Falls sprawl over the history of the continent, in so many fields - natural history, geology, engineering, spirituality, tourism, bravado, ecology, brewing, and so many more.

If, for you, the idea of traveling to see Niagara is kind of pie in the sky, then you can do the next best thing and experience them virtually by going over to Neverworld. The NWG team led by grid owner Govega Sachertorte have done a wonderful job in suggesting the nearby towns and giving a really wonderful sense of the vastness of the river and the drama of the two falls.

People are often tempted to ruin a rl build by throwing in a random Stonehenge or Eiffel tower just to zhuzh it up a bit, which of course it doesn't. Long before the rise of computers the best kind of AI - Authentic Intelligence - the intelligence to let the place speak for itself. The sounds and sights here will transport you right into the spray.

ISM's 20th

It's a common belief - you could even call it a truism - that pixel creations in virtual worlds don't last long. Builds come and go, as do the people who make them. This week we made a return visit to a sim on Kitely that has proved this is not always the case. It's the International Spaceflight Museum which these days is an 8x8 VAR region, having grown quite a bit since our group toured it in 2017. 

The HG Address is as always at the end of the post. 

The museum, called ISM for short, was founded just over twenty years ago in SL and moved to opensim in search of more ... space (no pun intended) for way less money. Also for the building opportunities that outperform SL every time. 

Rosa Alekseev

The trip was facilitated by Rosa Alekseev a longtime citizen of the hyperverse, Kitely resident, DJane extraordinaire, community organizer, and member of ISM. To meet us on the day was Kat Lemieux.

Kat Lemieux welcomes us all - with Max and (in the space suit) Forest 

Legendary Mobius

Our first stop this week was on an unforgettable region on Mobius Grid, one of the most unusual and colorful grids in Opensim, run by the unparalleled Royale Mobian. It's a great place to visit any time, by yourself, but to be there with Royale, standing in for the grid's creator, was a real treat. 

Not only is the storyline of the Legend of Zelda an epic, the video game's history is also of legendary proportions - beginning in the eighties, the game continues to be popular and has grown with the technology - the latest version is Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment. 

However for most of the Safarians on this trip, it's associated with early gaming, with their youth and the wonderful sense of adventure and agency that Zelda supplied. This post about the Zelda 'back in the day' captures the vibe.

Zelda has interesting parallel with opensim in that there are opportunities to go out exploring and do side quests within the game and if you do, you will often pick up useful items, or gain experience that will come in handy as you progress from level to level. Just like the HG, but with less hair loss, and more sword-and-shield action. 

The sim and majority of the model work is brought to us by Diana Dismantled, says the Notecard you get when you arrive, which also credits Meme Resident with some of the extra model work, with a nod to the resident builder, Geminai Resident. 

A large landing area awaited the crew of the Safari, and while waiting for them I can't lie, I played with the Chaos while waiting, they are just too cute.