Monica's Venice

 It sometimes happens on Safari that there's a last minute emergency. It's a tribute to the platform and its people that this is a very rare event, but it happened this week when just about twenty minutes before go time, our lovely host Monica Chanel discovered her internet wasn't working so she would not be able to join us to show us around her build, on Bloodmoon Grid, called Venice.

Monica Chanel, on her region VENICE

Thirza Ember: Here we are in VENICE on Bloodmoon grid

SoA BAD: Don't forget to give me the 10 EURO entrance fee

Star Ravenhurst: Loaded fast for me too

Dings Digital: ooo nice, that is where the good books are

Thirza Ember: Sadly just a few moments ago, our host Monica discovered she could not get inworld, she has problems with her internet, she is very sad about that

Lavia Lavine: Awww that stinks, I would be pretty upset too

Thirza Ember: but we can take a bit of a tour in company with Pierre here Pierre is co owner of the grid, so he can tell us a little bit about Bloodmoon grid as we walk around

Lavia Lavine: The internet is unpredictable

Pierre Segrov: Welcome everyone

Luscious Leshmor

 Our second stop this week was on Genesis Roleplay Grid, and our host Lavia Lavine has woven many great stories on her various builds. This time, we went to see Leshmor a luscious fantasy region with a deep and rich backstory to every part.

The official landing point where the Beacon is located is a small room, possibly a prison, in an ancient tower. We were soon teleported away but not before Taarna stepped up on the table! 
Dings Digital: beer and bread, who needs more?

Thirza Ember: Taarna if you're going to stand on the table, you better dance

Pete Taylor: cosy :)

Taarna Welles: ?? I'm on the floor in my screen?  But I can dance :)

ArtDestiny Turns Five

This month, ArtDestiny grid celebrates five years of fun, art, and contributions to the Opensim community. It was fifteen years ago, back in 2011, that RL couple Loru and Tryad found their way to OpenSim.  

Like so many of us, they were previously in Second Life, and after making 'the great leap' they made their home on OSGrid. 

While everyone on ArtDestiny grid is a talented and valued opensimmer, cultivating a wonderful sense of international camaraderie, there's no doubt that Loru is outstanding, and is a much loved figure across Opensim. She has always given so much time and so much of her talent, patience, and understanding to our community, I'm a huge fan not only of what she has achieved, but the way in which she has done it. 

At the Hypergrid International Expo conference last year she gave a wonderful talk about the need for tolerance, for embracing the opportunities of virtual worlds and living our best life here rather than trying to bully others into conforming with our prejudices or ideas, or trying to turn a misunderstanding or a difference of opinion into some pointless drama. As if the world didn't have enough drama. Loru's words and wisdom often come to mind when I come across someone who wants to play pixel police across the hypergrid, I admire her very much. 

Pangea Festival 2026

The 2026 edition of the Arts and Culture festival on Pangea grid is about to get started, don't miss this opportunity to enjoy imaginative builds and thought provoking exhibits. 

The festival, first held in 2022,  is organized by Lampithaler Artist with of course lots of tech input from the other Pangea residents, and the event is held on various regions all across Pangea, over many months. 

Lampithaler Artist

Events are posted on the Pangea website and also in places like the Events page on OSW, in the Pangea facebook group and so on. 

The whole thing kicks off on Friday April 24 at 8pm in Germany, 11am Grid time, with of course a dance party. It's a chance to celebrate the 20 years of Virtual Cologne - yes, all the way back in 2006,  Marlon originally had a virtual Cologne region on Second Life. Since then of course he discovered the opportunities of Opensim, and Koeln is at the heart of his grid Pangea! 

Rocking on Redwood

Our second destination for this first week of season two was Neverworld, the lovely Redwood Bay, HG Address at the end of the post as usual.. This is another crucible of creativity, in keeping with the theme of our first stop, people making wonderful content in Opensim. Our ship was a classic example of legitimate crossover between SL and Opensim (you can read more about that here if you're curious) and of course the Neverworld core team of creators - people like Nexus Storm and Mr Smokes, to name but two, are legendary for their builds. The Neverworld Marketplace too is a good source of original content, another one for Moonrise's list I guess! But our focus was having a few laughs, a bit of a dance and some April Fool's fun on a lovely cruise around some of Neverworld's signature sims. Organized by the great Gundahar Bravin, we were welcomed aboard by Govega, the grid owner, and also Joshua, Nine, Kaleera, Dakota and more - Neverworld's reputation as a crowd-friendly grid was confirmed once again!

Captain Ron: shouts:  Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, we'll be getting underway very soon. Be sure to find your positions before we set off. Anyone not securely fastened may fall off the vessel. Enjoy the cruise and Thank you for joining us!  This is sure to be a fun and exciting adventure with great entertainment!

Dakota Steel: Yay!!

eva Nowicka: I prefer to sit down today... I fear Gund's jokes

Gundahar Bravin: Everyone situated? Media is Playing as well!

Kaleera Lefevre: I don't think we lost anyone, did we?

Nine Zero: hope not

Govega Sachertorte: throw out some lifesavers

Gundahar Bravin: The Coast Guard is active if we did

Thirza Ember: captain Ron seems pretty athletic, if anyone falls in, he can save them

Gundahar Bravin: He is a buff, must be all the Rum

Captain Ron multitasks as both helmsman and DJ.

eva Nowicka: I'm wondering why Josh is carrying a machete on his back... are we in danger?

Mokey Monkey: it's a safari!

On the Reef

Moonrise Azalee: Okay - well, Hey everyone, welcome to Ravens Reef- a small town, urban 4x4 region- It's a fictional town with a modern North American pacific coastal theme - Roleplay is encouraged here but not mandatory. Ravens Reef was inspired by a few different things - first, I really loved the little immersive regions I found in The Big Grid, but these places came and went pretty quickly it seemed - I would fall in love with a place, then one day it would be shut down, which was sad - but while in InWorldz, I met Curt Halberd who created very realistic builds, and who created a town called Backwater that felt so real - I would wander around his little town, able to imagine myself living there, and I loved how it felt.

Moonrise Azalee: I realized I wanted to make something like that, something I knew I would be able to financially afford for the long term, a place that people could go to and maybe create their own story in a small town setting, and so Birchglen, Ravens Reef was born - it existed in a smaller form in InWorldz, but I had a large land mass in OSGrid where I continued working on it, with help from Curt, and eventually I brought it into Kitely since I had already been a resident here as well.

Moonrise Azalee: It has also been in 3rd rock grid, because i liked the idea of it being always online, but when 3rd rock grid shut down Ravens reef remained here permanently

Moonrise Azalee

Moonrise Azalee: Something that was important to me was to use content from some creators I really enjoy and admire, Curt Halberd and his REALized Mesh, as well as Koshari from Four Winds, Chic Aeon and many others - it can be a challenge to find good, legitimate content in OpenSim but I wanted to show that it was possible - there are some urban buildings that are actually sold on Marketplace in the Big Grid with permissions to bring outside of that grid into OpenSim, and there are of course the  Arcadia Asylum, Urban builds - there are other things that from the process of going from one grid to another have lost the creators names , or some items that may be questionable, but the intention was to build a town that could showcase the work of OpenSim creators.