Safarying

Thursday, May 21, 2026

A Pocket Safari

Our second stop this week, after the intense colors and sensations of Nyx Breen's build over on Pangea grid, was a landscape region, all swamp, woodland, and subtle colors. Pandanus Pocket - what an intriguing name! The HG Address is of course at the end of the post. Landscaper Chelsea Louloudi has been in opensim for well over a decade, and has recently found a new home on Wolf Territories Grid, where she very kindly offered to show us around her latest creation.
Thirza Ember: Hey everyone, It is very VERY early in the morning in Australia, where our hostess Chelsea Louloudi lives
Chelsea Louloudi: Hello Everyone!
Bink Draconia: =(-,-)=HuHu =(-,-)=
Yara Eilde: Hello Chelsea
Max Well: hi
Thirza Ember: Chelsea has a translator orb, so that can help everyone understand our conversation (I wish it had a setting for typonese): on her head
Chelsea Louloudi: ahaha Thirza...i'm getting a good giggle Welcome Everyone...great to see you!
Thirza Ember: you guys remember Chelsea's work, she did collaborations with Mudpuddle - remember the Pepperland sims?
Nara Nook: Yeah :)
Jame Atlloud: oh yes
Thirza Ember: over to you Chelsea - I hope you have plenty of black coffee
Chelsea Louloudi: I do Thirza! earlier than i calculated
Thirza Ember: tell us the truth what time is it there
Chelsea Louloudi: 6:06 am
Dings Digital : good morning!
Chelsea Louloudi: morning Dings :)
Nara Nook: Thank you for getting up so early
Chelsea Louloudi: So Welcome to Pandanus Pocket Why "Pandanus Pocket"? The Pandanus is a tree that is common in my part of the real world in the sub-tropics... the name has always appealed to me, as it conveys that tropical feel.

Thirza Ember: that was absolutely not the answer I was expecting
Forest Azure: it is a good tree for lothorien!
Chelsea Louloudi: On this deck is an example of Pandanus tree and it's fruit, which is edible and the leaves are also used in cooking.  Take copies for yourselves. Also on this deck is a stand containing landmarks of my favourite shopping destinations and also interesting places. Just touch it and you will receive a folder. The treasure chests also contain some goodies.

Breen There, Done That

It was the last but one Safari of the season, next week is our finale, until September when the Fall season begins. If you're interested in having us come visit your region or your grid in the Fall, don't hesitate to send me a message on Opensimworld or whichever social you can find me on.
As usual we met on the HG Safari grid where that big yellow prim contains the LMs and a very short notecard with info about the trip. But in just the twinkle of an eye it was time to head for destination one, on Pangea, the art-friendly grid owned by Marlon Wayne and Tutz Zabelin, who were there to welcome us.
Marlon Wayne: Hello everyone
Tutz Zabelin[sv→en]: Hi all
James.Atlloud: Nyx, this is amazing.  Is there a pbx reflection in the sky?  It's CRAZY!
Nyx Breen: EEP effects... have a few, and for sea also
Thirza Ember: I guess I messed up the LM somehow but we are all here now, apologies for any delay
Nyx Breen: welcome Havoc, hello and welcome everyone, please have your shared environment on and max your graphics
Arriving on Immersive 3 is intense!
Nyx Breen: up we go
Angelic Kisses: oh wow
Nyx Breen: Since my first foray into Second Life in 2005, I have been captivated by the world of Virtual Arts. My journey has been a testament to my unwavering passion as I've delved into all the opportunities available to artists. 

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Scenes and Dreams on ArtDestiny

 The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; 
but still there is much that is fair,
 and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, 
it grows perhaps the greater,
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Book 2 Chapter 6

We visited ArtDestiny grid this week as our first stop, (HG Address as usual at the end of this post) in part to congratulate this group of friends for the 5th anniversary of their grid, but also to witness some of the remarkable creations to be found here. If you've read tis blog before you will be familiar with Stormy Scorpio and her regions on the grid that have an ingenious duality. 
Stormy Scorpio on Lothlorien
High in the sky - no, in outer space, perhaps would be a better way to put it - you'll find a dozen Star Trek spaceships, explorable and fully loaded. At ground level, and working kind of like the holodeck environments from Star Trek TNG, you have a gently glamorous landscape, full of elven architecture.
LMs for our trips are in this simple, giant prim at the HG Safari clubhouse 'waiting room'
But of course, before that, we all met up at the clubhouse on HG safari grid. Some folks arrive plenty early so they can get the LMs and have a chat before we depart for our first stop, but there's also a rush of folks in the four or five minutes before go time. If you arrive a little late, or maybe can make just the second hour, don't worry, you can still grab the landmarks and join us, the more the merrier!
Thirza Ember: hello Isabelle,  you have the LMs ok?
Isabelle Sun[de>en]: I only have this one from  OSW 
Thirza Ember: in this prim, the Lms for today...
Isabelle Sun[de>en]: bought :-)
Thirza Ember:  sometimes, there is a last minute change, for that reason I do not publish the full destinations in social media, it would be too complicated to go around and modify the publicity everywhere, so to try to avoid confusion, the only place where you can get  the guaranteed correct destinations is in this box
 Isabelle Sun[de>en]: Okay, that's well organized

Fantasy With Friends

Safine Mahoe: Hello Everyone!
Zuzu Bahro: Hi everyone
Dings Digital: Hello :-)
Alex54 salamander: Hello :-)
Thirza Ember: did my clothes survive the tp this time?
Safine Mahoe: everyone looking good
Thirza Ember: LOL 'looking good' could be different to 'fully clothed'
James Atlloud: yes, all green and pink
Safine Mahoe: Please click on  the translator  ball above
Forest Azure: i see a lot of tags with no people attached
James Atlloud: some things are taking time to arrive
Forest Azure: bodies?
Thirza Ember: Zuzu looks like she stepped out of the pages of a fairy story, and Safine's wings are magical - half invisible, so delicate

Friday, May 8, 2026

Hunting on Coralys

Our first stop this week was on Ignis Fatuus grid which has always been a favorite for Safari, since  Max's regions combine extremely beautiful fantasy with an elegant gallic style. Coralys is a recent addition to the dozens of builds, often made in combination with Max's partner Nadir Rae but this one is a solo effort. As always the address is at the end of the post.
Nadir has been very busy recently making a new region, Courant d Art, featuring world class art, which got a shout out on Hypergrid Happenings recently - that's a weekly short on Youtube that features upcoming events and news, and is part of the Inworld Review show. 
Nadir and Max
There were about ten of us Safarians on Coralys, together with the welcome company of Vlad and Vanessa VanHelsing of Bloodmoon grid, always nice that the francophones support each other's events. A special shout out to Nadir who has a long standing commitment to DJing in SL on Wednesdays but who always seems to manage to be there for us, and of course, Prodyck Theas who livestreamed our event on Twitch. All this, plus the wonderful Roff Kisses who took a bunch of lovely pictures and shared them with us on the HG Safari group on Facebook. We are surrounded by excellence!

Around the World on Creative Landform

Our second destination this week was on Altternate Metaverse grid (call it AMV for short) where we met up with Zelle Mist, Sofee Supermarine, and Ted Junior, to tour Ted's build Creative Landform.
Sofee Supermarine
Zelle Mist: Welcome. good to see you all
Sofee Supermarine: Hi Hello everyone Welcome to Japan the land of the Rising Sun, Ted will be here in one minute
Ted Junior: hi everybody What you going to see today are 5 different setups, the one we standing on is Japan
Dings Digital: looks beautiful
Ted Junior: we can walk around if you like, its not so big... a small harbor with the boats
Thirza Ember: what inspired you to make a build with 5 styles all on one region, Ted?
Ted Junior: well the thing was that i wanted something different,  so I put some major cities... here in Japan is the freebie isle

Friday, May 1, 2026

Art Still Standing

Film makers, builders of figurative, immersive, animated, and multimedia art, Zonja Capalini together with Ludmilla Writer and Plastichansa Bade have roots in the Opensim art scene going back well over a decade. Here, for example, is Zonja's build at Avatarfest a hypergrid community festival that was such a joy for so many of us.
When hypergridding was still not an immense thing in opensim, Zonja invited me to make an avatar on her minigrid Condensationland to review the art over there, and it was an unforgettable experience to wander the installations and drink in the landscape there, it led to this blog post from 2012 

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Breaking Banham

Our second stop on this week's trip was on Arkham Grid. We lost a few at the first stop, so it was quite a small group - but very enthusiastic about visiting another art region by Felix Mafia. Felix, his partner Sharon, and Grid were on hand to welcome us. HG Address as always, at the end of the post.
Not too many of us and for once, we didn't break anything - although it remains to be seen if James poisoned the fish. 
Most people think of Arkham as a place to grab freebies, and while there is that side to the grid, there are also dozens of installations by Felix that merit a visit. This one, Banham, is a s Cyberpunk Futuristic Egypt. 
Grid, Felix and Sharon were there to meet us
Felix is Italian, and while his English is good, our visit at 10pm at night, Rome time, is a little late in the day to be fielding questions in your second language. Luckily Grid Admin, a native |English speaker as well as grid guru, was on hand to help us with lots of info that contextualizes the build, and really brings it to life. He told us that the title of this very cinematic build could be Banham Region “Your heart may be much older.” A vision of the future where past and destiny collide - that's at the back of this extraordinary place.

Hooray for Monterey

 Our first stop this week was in California, on the misty, mysterious, magnificent waterfront of Monterey. This build, on Groovyverse Grid, was a group effort, and so we not only got a glimpse of some terrifically well done landscaping, but also of a warm generous welcoming team of builders. 
Our Guide was Dee Zee, on horseback so it would be easier for the gang to see where she was going - great idea! and on hand to meet us was Grid owner Hyacinth Jean, builders Herbie Haven and Doc Indy

dee zee: Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid. My name is Dee, I am another of the builders and will be acting as your host / guide while you are here.  Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid.  We thank you for visiting us today and hope that you enjoy your visit.
Thirza Ember: mmmm smell that ocean air
Forest Azure: /me sniffs
 dee zee: First off, I would like to introduce two of our "primary" builders  here with us today.
 Herbie Haven  and Doc Indy.  They are both wearing our  Cacophony Society group tags.
 Also, please say hello to  our grid administrator/owner,  Hyacinth Jean.
Lavia Lavine: Hi Hyacinth Hey everyone sorry I'm late.
Arwen Evenstar: Hi Hyacinth
Dings Digital: Hi all
Hyacinth Jean: Hi everyone :)
eva Nowicka: /me waves
Thirza Ember: have my meds kicked in or is Hyacinth on a reindeer
Hyacinth Jean: This is clearly a ferret.

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Trouble in Tromsø

 Our second stop this week was a late substitution and a welcome return to one of the funnest places - the revamped Tromso region on Wolf Territories Grid. 
Jimmy Olsen the creator is always working on refining his builds and with the help of his close friends Tessa and Xenon, the trip was guaranteed to have us laughing from the get go. It's a large, mountainous VAR with an excellent road system and teleports to all the main attractions and features the real world weather conditions of Norway thanks to a scripting system (available for free) that reads the latest meteorological conditions, the time of sunrise and sunset etc, and then reproduces them inworld. Just another of the fabulous freebies of Opensim that inspire us all to give something back to the community according to our own talents and abilities.
One of the many innovations on the region is the use of the Expo Center as a temporary gallery. People from anywhere in the hyperverse may exhibit here, the shows stay up for about a month, and occupy the entire ground floor of the most prominent building on the sim, the one by the Landing Point. 

Skates on with Tina

Tina Bey's art has garnered her a huge following of admirers and collectors. Her sixteen year long inworld career as a digital creator in open sim is founded on her studies at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires; her imagination and passion for science fiction, environmental causes, and a love of play - bringing humor and a lighthearted sense of youth into our often world weary realms -  inform and give flight to those very creditable foundations.
This new build, which has been an ongoing project for several months, finally got its big opening with a HG safari visit, our first destination of the fourteenth Safari trip of 2026. The location of the event - Star Ravenhurst's grid TenthDimension. The region, Imagination Island (full HG Address at the end of the post) is an annex to the main gallery, Le Beau Retrouve, which opened in the summer of 2024. 
We were all invited to wear skateboards to take the tour as they are fast and fun. Most of us got ours on before we left the clubhouse, but they were also available on the region so if you jump over to view the sim, look  for the green and black rezzing area and take the board from one of the boxes.
Star Ravenhurst: Welcome Everyone!
James Atlloud: Loving the colors here!
Forest Azure: oh, snow! cold feet!
Tina Bey[es→en]: please read the posters hehehe....  all is free, as a gift
Thirza Ember: ahahah of course Lumi is the best on the skateboard
Luminalore Resident: Hahah you know me too well now. XD
Tina Bey[es→en]: let's start!!! follow me
James Atlloud: Tina has a one-wheel board!! <jealous>

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Safari Gets Sky High


Marlon Wayne: Hello everybody
Yara Eilde: Hallo Karsten :-)
James Atlloud: I feel some crashin' in my future!
Karsten Runningbear: hi james
Dings Digital: that is the kind of optimism we need
Karsten Runningbear: most people crash only one time :)
Karsten Runningbear: hello everyone welcome to our little airfield... we made some extra things... first please change visibility to 1024m if possible. Its a 6x6 var sim. We made airplanes usable for everyone, 2 fighter planes, which can use a race timer, or fly just for fun, a rescue helicopter, 3 waterplanes, and a Zeppelin, scenic flight with explanations.
James Atlloud: PLANE!!
This was our second stop of the week and what a treat!

On Centauri

 Our first stop this week was on Geo Portal's Outofthisworld grid. It's dedicated to his unique vision of the future and while Geo is not personally a mesh maker he has surrounded himself with some great talents, and on this grid you'll find the work of Luna Lunaria, Tina Bey and Symphony Vive, whose work was particularly being showcased during this visit.
We were provided with comfortable chairs, somewhere for us to sit as Symphony and Geo explained the ideas behind the region and of the grid in general.
Centauri arrival area
Geo Portal:  welcome to the last city of frontier Centauri creation of Symphony Vive we meet and she collaborate with this futuristic creation
Geo Portal
Symphony Vive: ty  Geo,  your ideas  and vision is  inspirational
Thirza Ember: you make a good team!
Geo Portal[es→en]: she create many creation at her mesh lab and I see ask her she can make city and she said ok and this is the beginning great futurist city to visit and explore  Rios  is to another helper and Zafiro,  plus Tina Bey. Also my friend Luna she is not was us anymore, only in spirit
MARICRUZ WORLD[es→en]: you have the imagination for movies
Thirza Ember: how long have you been working on this, Symphony?
Symphony Vive
Symphony Vive: We  Geo  and  I  have  been developing  this grid for several months....   bit  by  bit as  Geo  creates more areas to create the  vision.

Thursday, April 9, 2026

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 :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

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. 

Monday, April 6, 2026

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! 

Friday, April 3, 2026

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.

Friday, March 27, 2026

The Magic of Gimisa

  If you're an Opensim Oldbie, and still have your marbles, the name GiMiSa will stir some memories of adventurous scripting, and a small wonderland of a grid with lots of toys on it. Gimisa quit Opensim a couple of years ago to dedicate more time to rl pursuits and family. He leaves behind many traces of his life in Opensim, for example, on his user profile on the Opensimulator site, there's a neat glossary of OS terminology, which turns into a set of how-to's, explanations, scripts and a touchingly autobiographical survey of dozens of aspects of inworld creativity. On his website called  profil.gimisa.ca you will find a whole bunch of step by step tutorials covering subjects as diverse as removing megaregions, making mesh from a picture, and making a solar panel that tracks the movement of the sun in your EEP.   Despite having left the platforms in 2023, Gimisa was kind enough to respond to my request for an interview; here's what he said.
Gimisa
Thirza Ember: The early days of OpenSim were difficult and unstable. What kept you interested for so many years? Does it require a certain personality to 'survive' in OpenSim?

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 
It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.
Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds
Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair
Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike
James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?
Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?
James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.
Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!
James Atlloud: fertilizer

Safari on Track

The first season of Safari ended yesterday with two opportunities for playing - one classic and one brand new. Our first stop was on CCI grid with a return to an iconic build, Bikerworld, reputed to be the longest and biggest racing track in Opensim, by SoA BAD, the grid owner. 
SIWAS and SoA BAD, the owners of CCI Grid.
His name SoA comes from the TV series Sons of Anarchy, so it will be no surprise to learn this track is particularly made for motorcycles. SoA and his beautiful partner Siwas are both expert riders and can do the whole track in about an hour, going full blast from sea level, where you'll find the clubhouse and the group joiner and the various motorcycles that you can 'buy' and ride, to the highest point where there is a sort of gasoline dump with tankers and reservoirs. This aspect of motoring - filling your tank from time to time - is an essential part of the game, and you will need to get supplies a couple of times as you gradually rise up through the levels. The last time we visited we were all impressed by the way the region handled the lag made by the group, but that was over two years ago, so this was an opportunity for us to give it another whirl and remind ourselves of how much fun can be had here.
SoA BAD: Hello friends, welcome! Get yourselves a bike, but only copy or buy the bikes and then rez them yourself. Don't use the originals. Most bikes are also suitable for a passenger.  Additionally, you can find biker outfits in the display case on the left; also copy or buy them.

Thursday, March 5, 2026

A Visit to Shark-ham

Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.
There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.
Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae
were at the arrival point to welcome us all.
Felix Mafia: thanks for being here
Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore
Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.
Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way
Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha
Felix Mafia: welcome eva
eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you
Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!

The Tao of Shenn

 Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work. 
Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Cornflakes with a Twist

We hit Cornflakes Week with all the bright colors and primmy nonsense of a decade-long tradition this Wednesday, as the HG Safari crew teleported to the newly revived Cornflakes Tribute region, now back online, this time on HG Safari grid. 
For more about the sim in general, don't miss this post that takes a deeper dive into some of the details of the historic region. 
Whirli Placebo
We were honored to have Whirli Placebo as our musical guest, he has been there for us so many times over the years, what we found extra special is the music he shared with us... more of that later.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

IMAGE Awareness

IMAGE is a game system that Spax Orion of Ozone grid is working on with a view to making it available for free to other opensim grids. 
The name is an acronym for 'Image Matrix Action Game Engine' and right now it's up and running but needs people to come over and try it out so that any remaining bugs in the system can be worked out.
 So, ask yourself, could you 'sacrifice' a bit of time by going to sim Atrius, playing a shoot 'em up game, and then giving honest feedback, so that the IMAGE project can reach the stage that it becomes shareable?