Into the 3rd Wind

 It's almost here!!
The 3rd Rock Grid community  - they're retiring that name and going with "3rd Wind", wind being the next element after rock - are moving to an enclave on Zetaworlds grid.
This decision was taken after a lot of thought not only about finances but also grid security, size, and atmosphere. Considering how many different solutions were proposed to them, it's fair to say it wasn't an easy decision, which speaks well to the amazing solidarity and opportunities that opensim offers these days.

3rdRock Grid will become the
3rd Wind Community located on
Zetaworlds Grid

What was the best and the worst part of this experience? I asked two well-known members of the community, David and Alia, to give me some background.

David7 Bravin: The worst is on course the fact that 3rd Rock Grid is having to close after so many years. The best thing that has happened is that Alia Soulstar took up the challenge and has managed to find the 3RG Community a new home on ZetaWorlds

Alia Soulstar: Yes,  it was an extremely hard decision. 

David7 Bravin

Thirza Ember: how did the transition process work ?

Rock On

It's not the news that anyone wanted to hear, that 3rd Rock Grid will be closing its doors in May.  The longevity of the grid, and the circumstances that have led to its likely demise, make the news even more upsetting. But, I say, let's be positive. 

Write Plaza, da Vinci

Why be positive? First of all, because of all the wonderful places, events, and people of the grid who have given residents and visitors alike a dozen or more years of great memories. 

A Scifi, Scofi, TP try and try Safari

 Beacon opensimworld: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: 
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.    

        So, back to Metropolis for the Summer of Arts which has morphed into an Autumn and almost a Winter of Arts, which is fine by us - the more the merrier! If you have not been to Wanda Shigella's regions, you have time until the end of the year to enjoy the 40+ artists on show. 
       The addresses, as ever, at the end of the post.

Safari by the Numbers

          Tip Corbett in the real world Gregory Hall put on a wonderful concert for the Safari this week, inspired by conversations with Wizard Gynoid on the theme of "The Aesthetics of Advanced Musical Scales in Words and Music". 
          Originally the concert was due to be on the HG Safari sim on 3rdRockGrid, but the grid showed up as offline until just before the Safari was due to begin, so the event reverted to Francogrid. That meant we missed out on seeing most of Wizard's geometry. These are some highlights of what happened, and here is the link to the audio of the whole concert. 
          As ever, URIs for this week's destinations are at the end of the post, which alone cannot do justice to Tip's lovely voice on stream, let alone his magnificent music.

Tip Corbett:  And... Welcome to the sim! This is going to be lecures and playing, which is something I really like, and I like feedback, so if you want to give me feedback, that's a gift you can give me.
          (go ahead and do that, by finding and subscribing or liking his pages on Facebook, on Youtube, or on his website GregoryHall.org.)

Live Long and Gridjump

          This week's Safari event had plenty of competition, and that is a great thing. It's a tangible sign that OpenSim is far from a collection of empty grids. From the inauguration of the new Hypergrid sim on Francogrid, to the VWBPE Conference on Avacon to the weekly dance party on Metropolis to 3rdRockGrid's regular live music concert hosted by Zinnia Frenzy,  there was plenty to do. 
          But for the Safari, this week was Spockfari, a chance to honor and remember Leonard Nimoy, and to visit two extraordinary Star Trek builds in OpenSim, on 3rdRockGrid, and LostWorld. 
          URIs of each region are at the end of the post.

USS Davy Crockett

          First stop was on 3rdRockGrid, the home of the USS Davy Crockett, which is ... Fascinating.

Selenmoira: Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome aboard the USS Davy-Crockett. If you like, we have prepared a champagne bowl over there.
Truelie.Ellen: just a sip... must stay rational
Fuschia.Nightfire: champagne!  oh cool, it gives you the whole tray. That should keep me going for half an hour or so.

The Kids are Arles Right

James AtLLOUD: Thank yous to our hosts and organizers. W00t w00t.

If you'd been on Metropolis about 3 hours before the start of this week's Safari, you would have found Art Blue rehearsing his performance on a perfectly functioning Futurelab sim.  Art's Performance, which kicked off the first Safari of the month had as its theme 'open sim identity', although this being Art, it was a lot more complicated than that. But to help him illustrate the point, there were four Thirzas online, three of them hanging out in Futurelab, his combination workshop, theater, community sandbox and meeting-place sim, complete with Harry's bar. We sat in the Safari zoo and tested the stage as he went through his lines, little thinking that by 12 noon grid time, something sinister would happen.
 Here's Lena's 11 pm post on the Metropolis Forum *thanks, Google translate!*