Safari Calendar 2024

 Another splendid year of opensim fun has drawn to an end and another is just gearing up - grid hopping in virtual worlds has never been more rewarding or reliable!  To celebrate the new year, here's a calendar that celebrates just a few of the loveliest people and places. 

This calendar is an inworld object, available at the HG Safari clubhouse, and if you hit the Calendar Info button, you will receive a Notecard that gives you the HG addresses and LMs to each of the places featured in the pictures. A big thank you to all the artists and builders who agreed to pose for the calendar, and to snowbody Cortes for invaluable help on the script. 

So who and where does this year's calendar feature?

Our cover artist is Luna Lunaria, seen here on her region Luxor, on Wolf Territories Grid. An absolute genius when it comes to texturing Luna is well known for her

Luna-see

Madness? Well if so, mad in a good way! Yes, it's that lunatic Luna Lunaria with some more mind-blowing creations! Today was the opportunity for many of us to take a first dive into Luna's Luxor build on Wolf Territories Grid - HG address as always at the end of the post - and really absorb the out-of-this-world quality  that makes up this colossal build. It's Egypt with a twist, the sci-fictional version of the place in all its iterations.

Since "scifiegyptology" is too difficult to say, why not just call it "heka", the  ancient Egyptian word for magic, and be done with it.

It is, after all, a heck of a great build. Ouch, sorry, stopping right there. 

Glimmering in a golden dress with uncharacteristic dark hair, to fit the Pharaonic theme,  Luna Lunaria awaited us at the landing place on Luxor.   

Luna Lunaria

Luna Lunaria: Welcome to my home everyone! As the blurb said when you entered, this is not only my home but it was also created to be a place of meditation, mystery, and peace for spiritual pilgrims. As a visitor you are more than welcome to explore Luxor however you wish, whether by flying, camming, boating, walking or using the teleport boards. Keep in mind that some parts of the region reward those who actually go to that location. Some areas have quiet songs playing, like the one you're hearing now at the landing located inside the glowing lavender object. That song is from Blade Runner 2049. Those songs are not streams - just turn up your sounds to hear them. Other areas can only be found by walking or boating. We'll see a couple of those today. The EEP environment and the lighting here are as much a part of the total experience as the structures themselves. If you are not using shared environment and advanced lighting model, the region will appear washed out and much less interesting. As the sign here says, this is optimally how your view should look if your system will allow it. By touching the sign, you can get instructions on changing your graphics settings. And by all means, if you can extend your draw distance, you'll be glad you did.

OSFest is Coming...

 Osfest is just around the corner, and people are getting busy preparing their exhibits, temporary shops, artistic installations, and theatrical and musical performances. 

A dedicated grid is being set up to host the event. There are a lot of moving parts as ever, and a theme that encompasses music, art, culture and history - plenty of scope to play with ! And  just in case you're curious, here is a little bit of a glimpse into the thoughts and experience of three participants, all doing something slightly different, to make this event shine.

 DJ Sofee is a familiar figure over on Alternate Metaverse Grid, along with the delightful Ted Junior. You may have read Sofee's monthly journal BlaBlaBla, it's full of news about AMV's people and places. Perhaps you've attended one of her FunSize Dinkie events on AMV, or seen her spinning tunes as a DJ. She's going to be part of the party at OSFest.

Sofee Giano: This year I was asked by Rosa Alekseev if I would like to DJ at the OSFest 2023 on the 26th and the 28th at 12noon for one hour on each date, I told Rosa I would love to, but going way back to 1860 to 1970 is a bit out of experience and knowledge of music for this genre and style which the OSFest is doing, so I will be playing more modern style Jazz with a twist to try to fit into this years theme. 

A Mobius Spring

Springtime is here on Mobius Grid with lots of good news and innovation! 

The unusual and colorful Mobius grid, inspired by all things Sonic the Hedgehog has recently re-opened its doors to OSGrid  gridjumpers, just in time for their Easter Hunt event, held on their big Welcome sim.  Grid address, is, of course, at the end of the post. 

The look of the Easter Hunt game is unmistakable and charming - this is Cream, an NPC who is part of the fun. Green Hill Zone is the sim most visitors know best, but don't neglect a visit to Lunaria, the gallery sim  belonging to Luna Lunaria, in all its violet glory.

Along with its signature look, Mobius Grid is all about innovation and making the best use of all the features the Viewer offers, so when you arrive you can participate in an Experience rather than just going around doing your own thing.

Moon-scape

 The second destination for the Safari this week brought us into contact with great architecture, in every sense of the word! We were guests of Luna Lunaria, who specializes in mesh builds, often on a very grand scale, and she welcomed us into her Emporium on Wolf Territories grid, rather than her art installation  'Lunaria', because it is on Mobius, a grid that is sadly not open to OSgrid residents at this time.  It's a great strategy to have different pied-à-terres on different grids, because the ups and downs of opensim are never that predictable  and a presence on multiple worlds makes you nimble!

The very nimble Luna Lunaria

The Emporium is what the name suggests, a store full of creations, all original work by Luna, which she sells both here and on Kitely and in SL. 

Safari goes Little and Large

This week was all about the great and the small. We started small, on Weelandia, Digiworldz grid - full HG Addresses, as always, at the end of the post. 

Small inconvenience getting to Digi - well, a very big obstacle for quite a few, who could not navigate the rather daunting ID process. So our group was not as big than it might have been, which is a shame, because Digi is a nice grid with lots to see. But that's part of the Variety of Opensim, everyone has their own strategies and concepts about grid security and community. You have to like difference to love the HG.

Because none of that could stop us from visiting with the lovely Nebby Newman, in company with aminata Potez, for an extraordinary visit to a true gem of a sim, Weelandia.