Advent Neighborhood

 Osgrid is back up, or kind of back up, not entirely convinced by it, from a performance point of view, but it's a good omen, and another promise of good times ahead is the start of the Advent build by Ange Menges and Nani ferguson. Ange and Nani have been consistently building festive, ephemeral regions for over 12 years in Opensim (and worked together before that back in SL) so they're used to the vagaries of the virtual. They have set up their latest creation Advent Calendar on two grids, Zetaworlds and OSGrid. 

When you arrive there's the usual poster board but this time, no HUD, it's just up to you to go out wandering around the snowy, bosky neighborhood and seek out structures with numbers on them. 

Pumpkins and Prizes on Yaksha

 It's that time of year again and we were guests of Nani ferguson and ANge Menges on their Halloween Hunt this week. The sim will be open until November 6, so you can come back and complete the Hunt, if you wish. It's called Yaksha, over the years I've often asked Nani if there's some sort of storyline or cultural reference behind the odd and distinctive names they pick for their sims, and she's always said something like 'it's funny' so I'm guessing this year is much the same. You can invent your own etymology - bonus game! The full HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

Ange Menges: Welcome to all the safarista, you don't have a lot of time, so I will help a little those who want to play the game. You can visit the sim as you like, and for those who want to play the game, start by reading the panel carefully. In the region you can find 10 laughing pumpkins that will give you a gift.  Follow me inside the castle so I can show you one.

Snack-fari?

The HG Safari clubhouse on OSGrid is closing down, because now the travel group's main HQ is on a dedicated grid, hopefully you already know that if your planning on joining us in the next season of trips. 

The HG Address of the new sim is at the end of  the post, where it belongs.

New HG Safari sim

So - exciting times, but it is a bit of a sad goodbye to the sim that Ange Menges gifted in the fall of 2021 when it became very clear that our old home on FrancoGrid wasn't going to be viable any more as our main base for the revamped HG Safari group.

The FrancoGrid clubhouse, 2015-2022

Over past months, regular visitors to the HG Safari sim on OSGrid may have noticed gentle reminders that it's closing, as the land got smaller and features like the Archive House, the Self Guided Tours, the Marketplace, the dancing places, and the mesh clothing store, Meshanthropy, all gradually disappeared.

 Leaving just the mountain in the osgrid ocean. 

Egg Static

Hunting easter eggs - it's your classic springtime activity, and once again Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges have been working on a delightful storybook build that, as usual, will be open right around the holiday weekend, and then gone for good. 

The build is, of course, not yet open - hey Easter isn't until the end of the month! 

This sneak peek gives you an idea of the charming style of the region, called Dhoglin, and located on OSGrid. 

The regular Safari tours are on a break, but there will be a special event for hunt lovers, at the usual time, 12 noon SLT or 9pm in Europe, on Wednesday 3 April, if you want to come and join in the fun!

Xmas Hunting at Whitemeadows

It's that time again, so pull on your warmest jumper and get grid jumping! Ange Menges and Nani Ferguson are about to unveil their latest Seasonal Hunt region!

It's on OSGrid and it's called Whitemeadows, and the big opening party is on December 20 at about 12 noon SLT.

The look and feel of the region is very different from the last Menges/Ferguson Hunt "Ankhtyfy" in October, which was all about aliens and monsters. This time, it's a classic winter wonderland with more of a real world approach, a pronounceable name, and cozy corners in which to sit and drink in the beauty of the sim. And, why not, a snowmobile to speed up your race around the region, following the clues.

This treat has a whopping 40 clues to solve, as usual with help from the handy HUD that combines a photo with a clue. Last time, the game was devilishly difficult, and few finished it. This time, not only there are a lot more rewards, but it's also slightly easier to navigate the build. So drink your egg nog and get your reading glasses, this is one challenge you'll be glad you took up. 

Here's the statue at the start, her light points you in the right direction, but don't rush off quite yet. Beneath the 'How this Works' sign, you will find a box with the HUD in it. Without that, you can't play.

Ankhtyfy Fun

Our first stop this week was on OSGrid, a Hunt by Francophone creators   Nani ferguson and Ange Menges. It began with a bit of a hiccup, as the region kind of threw a loop when 20 people showed up. This almost never happens on Safari any more, luckily we could easily regroup at the Clubhouse and just jump back after a couple of minutes when the server pulled itself together.

Arriving on Ankhtyfy

Lucy Afarensis: Interesting start today

Thirza Ember: lol that was a quick safari!

Forest Azure: maybe i should do some exercises meanwhile, since i'm dressed for it

Thirza Ember: lol Forest you are ready for a quick getaway

Taarna Welles: In the meantime I'll make a cup of tea. Brb

Mal Burns: all i found was a TP gate which unleashed loadsa monsters when i touch it, this quest gonna be hard I think... hope reboot wait is not part of quest lol

James atLLOUD: isn't it all though? Ankhtyfy is fairly close to the region.  World map doesn't show it offline.

Thirza Ember: osgrid map is notoriously slow, James

Ange Menges: Sorry for the problem . So we are late

James atLLOUD: I don't think avatars were harmed tho

Forest Azure: /me's toes are hurting from standing on them all the time

Minord Loup: re bonsoir a tous

Ankh - st

 It's almost Halloween, and in Opensim that means ghouls and ghosties - big time angst! or in this case... ankh-st.

For creators, All Hallow's Eve is The Festival par excellence, because it offers the possibility of all kinds of visual cues, jump scares, and jokes, not to mention tricks and treats for friends and strangers, leading to a positive building boom all over the hyperverse. 

On Absalom

The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; 

March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath; May, Thrimilchi;

June, Litha; July, also Litha; August, Weodmonath; September, Halegmonath; 

October, Winterfilleth; November, Blodmonath; 

December, Giuli, the same name by which January is called.

The Venerable Bede, De ratione temporum 15

Blame the Bede for Easter, for it was he who immortalized the goddess Oestre. Without him, the name of the ancient English goddess of fertility, and the month that belongs to her, would have been lost to the ages. It's the season for new beginnings and old traditions, and one of those is about to happen on sim Absalom, in OSGrid.

Perhaps  another run-of-the mill Easter Egg Hunt or something difficult? Wrong on both counts! Pas de souci, Ange promised, it's not one of those super complicated games where you have to follow clues and match photos with locations on the build. Pas de quête cette fois ci, he said, une simple chasse aux oeufs avec 10 cadeaux. Well, a girl needs all the cadeaux she can get, and anyone can chasse an oeuf, am I right?

Mouse Look

 If you like ice and mice and gnomes and Hunts with useful gifts, then the upcoming OSGrid hunt by Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges - an opensim season stretching back a decade! - is for you.

The sim's name is Khione, a wintry figure from Greek Mythology - daughter of an Athenian princess and the North Wind - who has risen to fame thanks to the Percy Jackson novels. But let's stick to openim ... this Hunt as always begins with a little backstory and aHUD, supplied by the Snowman.Use the HUD to find the next place to go. 

Open Season

 The first real Safari after a pause of over three years, and about thirty people showed up! Would we survive to the end? And not just because the first destination promised death by dinosaur - would lag or confusion defeat us? 

The answer was a resounding No! Thanks to all those who showed up for this Hunting and Fishing Safari, where we played, stepped in dino dodo, fished, got squashed, fished, crashed boats... and, most of all, thanks to Ange Menges and Royale Mobian, the hosts of the two hours of the Safari. As always, the addresses of the two destinations are at the end of the post.

Fully Loaded

            Billy Bradshaw asked if we could do a quick Load Test on TGrid before we headed to our first official destination this week.

             If you've been doing anything more than sitting at home alone dropping cubes off towers or checking the hiccup time you get when you cross a sim boundary, you will know what a horrendous condition intergrid communications has reached. For many months now, sending offline IMs to people on other grids - which used to work just fine - fails more often than it works. When this started, it took me a few days to notice that the 'User not online. Message saved' message was actually saying 'Unable to send instant message. User is not logged in.' which caused some really amusing headaches. But of course, now we have all learned that to be sure your reply gets through, you must actually go to the other person's grid to send it. 

Sun Sets on Safari

Thai Low: allora abbiamo resistito al terrore delle griglie: HG Safari!

           Just for a few weeks, the Safari will be taking a break. This was our 110th consecutive week jumping from grid to grid, and it's time to take a moment, hose out the clubhouse, reorganize the landmark giver, purge the cache, and have a bit of a rest.

Smokin' Safari

        It's that time of year when we are all subjected to a sort of mass hallucination that the whole world is knee deep in presents and snow, family and mistletoe. 
         That makes it refreshing, not to mention healthy, to take a minute to realize that not all cultures, lifestyles, or climates, are the same. 
         Safari began as usual on Teravus Plaza.

       

The Snowind Swansong

          It is their swansong, and so it is up to you and I to make the most of it.  After many years of providing fun and delight to their fellow residents, in the form of their seasonal treasure hunts, Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges have decided to take a break.  

   
          Ange and Nani's Hunts marked things like Easter and Christmas, which provided a convenient deadline to them, and a signal to us that there would be hours of fun to be had.

Non Stop Safari

       Nothing but movement, movement, this week - heck, even the musician was whirly  - Whirli Placebo, to be precise, but we will get to that later. All hypergrid addresses are of course at the end of the post, so you can go and see these places for yourself if you wish.
       We started out at the Clubhouse, as we always do, on Teravus Plaza OSGrid, with 3 destinations lined up starting with Kodinpump, a prize hunt build simultaneously available on OSGrid and Metropolis. 

The Trick of Treats

      Kodinpump is the latest build by Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges. Available contemporaneously on two different grids, Metropolis and OSGrid, it is a Hunt, and celebrates the Autumn season with a Halloween theme.

      Kodinpump is a mesh build, richly embellished with capricious pumpkins that answer you back when you speak to them. Some will give you gifts, some insult you, and some will throw you off the sim. I absolutely love it.

        The regions will be open for a limited time, just a few weeks, so do not delay your visit or you could very well miss it. The HG Addresses are as always at the bottom of the post.

      The setting is Kodinpump, a care-worn, weatherbeaten port, complete with sailing ships and netshops, and a bridge to nowhere. Or is it?  In the center of this Lovecraftian town you will find a rowdy tavern, merchants and their goods, and large stone-faced houses fringing a broad square that looks out onto the endless Offsim Sea.

Divine Safari

          Just two destinations on this 48th consecutive Safari, but this was a week when less is more.  That's what we told ourselves, as we all kept losing our hair. What is up with that? For months, hair loss has been a rare event when grid jumping, and now it's back. What we need to do is sit down with a dev and.... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

First stop, CrazyEaster.