Linkup Opens its Doors

 Five friends  have set up a new grid and the opening party is today ! Starting at 10am SLT, there will be dancing and celebrating for four full hours with DJs and live singers.

The grid's called LinkUp and as the name suggests, the emphasis is on sociability, with many opportunities to play, to learn, and to chat together.

The five friends are Winter King, Dave King, Whisper Carfield, Sofee Supermarine, and Ted Junior. They've been working hard over the summer to bring the grid online, and it already looks very bright, friendly, and easy to navigate - with so many years of experience, that comes as no surprise. 

They have known each other from the days of Zangrid - to give you some perspective about how long these guys have been pals, I looked up the last times Safari visited that lovely but now offline grid, turns out it was back in 2016 and 2017. Of course, the past decade has brought with it all kinds of technical knowledge, and now they're in a position to open their doors to the hypergrid on a platform tailored for getting together.

Ted Junior: We want to link up everyone who contributes something special to OpenSim — whether it’s fashion, building, education, amazing places, events, creativity, technology, and so much more. By working together, sharing our knowledge, supporting each other, and bringing our different talents together, we can build something stronger as a community.

Thirza Ember: Can anyone join? What about if people have technical questions about Opensim and need some help or support ?

Ted Junior:  At Linkup Grid we believe in helping one another in any way we can. Anyone can join, it's easy to make an avatar. Whether you need technical assistance, publicity, creative support, or simply someone to work together with, we want to be there. Every person has something valuable to contribute, and together we can create connections that bring us closer.

The grid's just getting started but there are already a range of different styles to the sims here, this photo shows Summer Vibes, with boats and waterfront houses. But there is a strong emphasis on group activities here.

Ted Junior:  Yes, there will be AI, DJ, and building classes, at our dedicated Education building. Go there and you can find all the info. 

Sofee Supermarine: There will be regular events for Fishing, Greedy and BINGO during the week. There will be some special events too, but talking with people is more important then partying all day. And just having a chat with people is important to us.

The party begins at 10am SLT today Friday September 4 at 

hop://login.linkup-grid.com:8002/LinkUp%20Welcome/118/70/23

Safari gets into the Zone

Our first outing for the 2026 Fall season of Safari was on a new grid, called The Zones, which is the home of Kimm Starr and Cooper Swizzle. They have prepared an interactive build, or Experience, that is colorful, fun, and breathtaking, on the theme of 'Day of the Dead,' which is also the name of the sim. We were delighted to be invited to see it and while about halfway through our visit, there were some technical problems, it's clear that this is a lovely build you should see for yourselves! The HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

It was so nice to see many people on the trip, new faces and regular safarians alike. As you know anyone who wants to join us is welcome, so don't feel shy, come on over next week and be part of the event! Of course, no guarantees your bits and pieces will travel at the same speed when you grid jump...

Ayla Alvarez: I don't want to say hello until I look like a normal human avatar... ah... there I am...  phew!

Alex Salamander Hello everyone :-)

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Alex

Mike Fleetwood: hello everyone

Tutz Zabelin: hi to all new

Cooper Swizzle looking drop dead gorgeous

Cooper Swizzle: Welcome everyone.  We will begin at 5 after 12 so others can join us and rez in. In the meantime, if you turn your sound on there is music. Welcome Ayla, and Neo. Hello Alex.

Kimm Starr: We will start in a couple of minutes... please check your environment is set to midnight and your in-world sound is on

Max Well: hello everyone

Cherry Manga: Hi all!

James Atlloud: wow, so many stars in the sky!

Jade Serenity: yeah and clothing :P

Marlon Wayne: Huhu Yara

Cooper Swizzle: Hello Koshari

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Dorena

Cooper Swizzle: Please come stand behind the yellow line...

James Atlloud: define 'behind'

Safari at the Crescent

 Yay back on Safari!  Oh, and there are ten weeks of Safari this season, so join us soon if you can! Wednesdays at 12 at the Clubhouse. Our second stop this week was on Winxtropia (addresses at the end of the post, as always). 

Here's what we learned from the lovely Bloom Peters of Winxtropia grid who had lost of news about things she's been building recently. There's quite a bit of info on the same subject in this blog post 'Giddy About MIDI', but yesterday's visit geve everyone the opportunity to meet with her in person. We met on Crescent Melody region, under this dome, where the animated orchestra resides.

Bloom Peters: Welcome all. Please,  enable your mic for this experience

Petlove Petshop: Hi Bloom!

Farstar Enoch: hi all

Boujee GamerGirl: hello!

Dorena Bree: i like the sky, its really pretty

Ayla.Alvarez: I'm afraid to ask what the buffer rate is

Bloom Peters: so far 190... not bad. Smart buffer is critical for timing

Bloom Peters: you are free to chat before the show case of course. Today will showcase a brand new viewer created.. as soon as thirza says she is ready. If your mic wont activate do a relog

Farstar Enoch: You need mic enabled to hear the music

Petlove Petshop: ahh ok!

Jade Serenity: i have no mic but i have voice enabled

Bloom Peters: yes that's perfect, as long as u get the dot hehe, you only need to enable Voice checkbox

Neo Cortex: Unfortunately I don't have that voice client on Linux

Nara Nook: I don't have voice either

Thirza Ember: i have voice but it doesn't kick in immediately in a big group but i am sure it will soon!

Bloom Peters: For those who cant get voice not a problem links will be provided for youtube demonstration

Dorena.Bree: great

 Farstar Enoch: Bloom has it all covered

Bloom Peters: this everyone?

Thirza Ember: looking... yes i think so...

Giddy about MIDI

 You already know this, but MIDI files, although often used for music, aren't like your average audio file. Instead of saving a continuous set of notes or sounds, like say an MP3 file, MIDI  (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) makes a tiny file out of every single noise. That means, each one can be tweaked to change the tone or the tempo, but it also means that you can assign each note on a keyboard to an inworld object, which would then move, make a sound, or do something else.

If like me your brain is now semi fried at this concept, yet intrigued by the possibilities, why not check out the work of Bloom Peters over on Winxtropia grid. She has been bringing MIDI to virtual worlds, so that you can either animate a fantastic 'orchestra' to move and play sounds forming a melody, has been the dream of Bloom Peters of Winxtropia for many years. 

If you've ever visited the region Crescent Melody, you may already be familiar with the core idea behind her MIDI project. Cats and instruments and clapping hands all move to the command of the MIDI tune being played. Here's an example if the Safari crew dancing on the sim some time back... these cats are a classic example of how Bloom ties each MIDI 'note' or file to a specific object on the build.

So this idea is far from new to Bloom, but her real aim is to make it available to other people. As she says, a musician could develop it to make any object move or flash or change color, creating a really bold and immersive experience for the audience, or a very cool video to go with their music.

Therefore the next step was demonstrate the interface and explain how it works - there's a blog post with some info about that here and the Safari visited Crescent Melody Studio to see the 'inner workings' of how to match up notes to 'instruments', here's a pic of that, as you can see it's a very complex piece of kit. Yes, it's quite complicated, but Bloom has done a great job in setting up lots of visual stuff to help you understand how to use the program.

revamped Crescent Melody Studio

Over the summer, the project has been 'blooming' in a bunch of different directions. For one thing, Bloom been redeveloping the instruments that she uses, as shown in this pic. 

Bloom Peters: The Safari visit on September 2 will be the final use of the old Crescent Melody Region because a new one is being made on the side, but this time enabling microphone is required for crescent melody since I am no longer using in world sounds.

On top of rethinking the instruments, Bloom also wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to use the tools, so she has created her own version of the Viewer, with added tools. These include a build-in mp3 player...

 ...real metal effects and fancy glowing  lighting effects, called Volumetric Lighting...

...and some remarkable enhanced weather...

Bloom Peters: The viewer also has storms built in still being worked on, here is a video of it. The thunderstorm affects the lighting in the region too, and all the rain and stuff is completely viewer sighted optimized. And works in every sim and second life also the water has been made 3D.

Thirza Ember: What does that mean?

Bloom Peters: The raindrops respect structures and therefore do not rain through roof. It does not rain inside of houses too. The rain particles bounce off the houses and the meshes. 

Bloom Peters: There is physical water now which makes things sitting on top of it float up and down, hey don't shift out of position. You can now go for a natural swim and float on water and swim inside. The Avatar floats on the waves and follows their curvature like the objects. The viewer automatically forces swimming animations which overtakes any other animation when you're in water.

Yeah, that's a lot to take on board! To return to the MIDI part of all this gorgeousness, this video shows  one of her performances, and you can see the window for the MIDI tool.  

Bloom plans to release the new viewer on September 2 at the Safari event, so of course you should join us! Or at least read the blog post about our visit the day after. The package that those who want to try this experience will consist of two things,  the Crescent Melody region, predisposed for bringing the MIDI tracks inworld, and Bloom's Viewer, which has not only the MIDI tools, and the modified Viewer with all the above-mentioned extra tools built into it. 

Bloom Peters:  Just to make it easier for people to understand, here's an image of the interface of crescent melody as it shows people can connect midi input devices and output devices too as well as game pads and VST, like this...

Bloom often posts about the development of her build on the HG Safari Discord server, so if you want to join that and check it out, her handle on Discord is AfroSniperGirl. That invite to the Discord server expires after about a month, but get in touch inworld if it's explored by the time you're reading this.

Important point - You don't need to have the modified viewer to be able to attend a performance of MIDI music, because that just comes through Voice, but it's what the person setting up the MIDI tune and corresponding moving parts will need to use to efficiently set up their installation. So what exactly are we talking about with the modified viewer?

Bloom Peters: It's just a normal PVR Firestorm with the custom stuff added it even has weather. And all of it is built into the viewer so anyone will be able to play anything they want and it will come with the OAR studio, The viewer will come with an oar with all 140 MIDI instruments. 

Thirza Ember: There's always some resistance by people to download a viewer that's not from the firestorm page (they always give dire warnings) so what can I say to non techy  folks who worry about that?

Bloom Peters: You might not want to use it as your main daily driver of course, it could have some odd bugs here and there. But for making movies and videos and midi trigger events or someone who wants to be in world musician could use it and find it handy for a performances. It would be released as something they would either choose to use or not there is nothing I can say that would convince people that it would be safe. Especially since it's not signed. 

Bloom Peters: However in crescent Melody tab it does have my contact information that's kind of like my you can trust me blueprint I certainly wouldn't tattletale on myself!! 

Bloom has even ported the same technology to Second Life. 

Here is SL Thirza, who earlier this week made a rare trip to the old place (specifically a parcel on sim Astral) where Bloom, aka Cute Potion, has a mini version of her Frutti build from Winxtropia. Here, rather than the big Crescent Melody orchestra we all know so well, Bloom has constructed a wearable mix of instruments, hands clapping, and so forth, like a one man band.  From the back view you can see the piano keys lighting up as she played the melody, and from the front, some very intense rythyms.

She showed off this instrument inworld to a party of friends, and I must say that for me, although textures were a bit slow in arriving, the music and the corresponding lights and movements were immediately flowing in sync - a lively performance!

Oh, and one last thing...

Cute Potion (apollosmile): i modified UBODE to support Hinges

Thirza Ember: oh nice! hinges on doors you mean?

Cute Potion (apollosmile): ya, exactly, and on roller coasters... supports multi dimension coasters now, which was impossible before,: it can now support this roller coaster which I am making haha 

Cute Potion (apollosmile): hehehe

Creativity makes you happy! Join us on Wednesday if you can

HG Addresses:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Astral/225/212/23

Safari Reentry

 After a long sultry summer, at least in this part of the world, with lots of distractions and complications when it comes to being inworld, the Safari mechanism is creaking back into gear in time for our first trip on September 2. It will begin at the usual time, 12 noon SLT, which is 3pm on the East Coast and 9pm in Paris. If you use Opensimworld,  Discord or FB or Mewe you can get regular reminders of events, and there's usually a reminder on the day in the HG Safari group on OSGrid..

Among the many things that have distracted me during the long break is a YouTube channel that you might enjoy - BobbyFingers . In a way, his channel is a bit like Opensim, although it's not virtual... with lots of passion going into very specific builds, lots of unexpected global connections, an open-ended, slow pace to the building process, and some amazing, thoughtful, and humorous creations.

Speaking of humor, the new season of HG Safari will bring us to twenty different destinations over the ten week arc, with visits to regions with poetry, art, and new inworld tech, as well as racing and riding, mazes and beaches; mermaids and goddesses, installations and vortexes. Or should that be vortices.

Second Sanctuary

Back again, sorry about that... distracted. 
Opensim is so full of interesting grids and regions, it's impossible to know it all, and there are always people and places out there worth discovering, or rediscovering. It's a place of joy, adventure, wonder and friendship, with zero jetlag and very little drama unless you go looking for it.

The HG Safari tours return on 2 September for another ten weeks of variety, vistas and vibrant destinations. One neat place that the Safari will be visiting for the first time during this upcoming season is 2nd Sanctuary Grid. Here's the welcome region, with handy teleports to the main places of interest.

This grid is owned by Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi. Now all you oldbies, don't be confused with the sadly long gone Sanctuary Grid by Shaun Emerald, famous among early HG explorers for Eld, the region of portals. 2nd Sanctuary isn't a new grid though, both the grid and its owners have been around for quite a while. Pete shared a few details about how he found Opensim.

Safari Signs Off for the Summer

Our second destination was on the Ozone grid, address of course at the end of the post. This is our last tour until the Fall, so we went somewhere with stunning effects.

We were making a return to Dismayland the theme park with a twist, or rather many twists, jokes, puns, insults, a place that is gleesome and gruesome at the same time. After navigating the skybox where the security guards are pretty alarming, we arrived at ground level in the entrance tent where Spax, the grid owner, was awaiting us.
Spax Orion:  Last time HG Safari graced these grounds, every single one of you got a taste of Dismayland swamp water. ::: THEN ::: Atrius Station: The game arena didn't survive the evening. The IMAGE party got hijacked and the presentation was delivered entirely by pigeons. You took the game home in pieces. Dirty Helga called it a masterpiece. 

James.Atlloud: nice

Spax Orion: What started as an iniquitous fun fair is now a virtual novel — the NPCs, the sideshows, the rides, the rubbish on the ground — every piece is a word in a story designed to mock the very reality you just escaped.

Spax Orion our host and guide

Spax Orion: I thought we would have a SCAVENGER HUNT in the middle of a minefield this evening. There are several fountains in this park. ONE is the fountain of youth. Almost every fountain is a liar! Watch your health! Find the REAL one, tell the GAME BOARD its exact object Name — then describe WHY. What did it do? What did it say? Where exactly is it? What's nearby? 

Forest Azure: ah, one last time this season on Thirza's head

Safari Meets Nick

Our last Safari for a while, and we went to visit some old friends who have recently moves to a new - and yet old? - home Confused? Well, that's par for the course on Safari. We were on OSGrid, to see their region dedicated to Nicola Tesla, Wardenclyffe, the HG Address at the end of the post as always.

Yara Eilde: Hello everyone

Alex Salamander: Hello :-)

Max Well: hello

camryn darkstone: Hello Yara and Alex, Max, welcome!

Camryn Darkstone

camryn darkstone: Welcome to Wardenclyffe! This is a reproduction of the laboratory of the famous inventor Nicola Tesla.  Tesla's story is fascinating. Walter and I wanted to build a place that would let people learn about him. You may not have heard of Nicola Tesla. But his inventions affect your life every day. For one thing, he invented AC current, which is why you are able to have electricity in your home. Tesla's arch-rival, Thomas Edison, invented DC current, but it was too impractical for widespread use. The conflict between Tesla's AC current and Edison's DC current is known as "The Current War". There was a recent movie about it, by the same name.

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. 

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

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

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 . 

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.

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>