Ōpunguriddo

On this round planet, distances are no object, and in the virtual, you can teleport to a grid on the other side of the world in a moment. But one thing that can defeat us is the time zone issue. A quick glance at opensimworld.com will tell you that Opensim is at its busiest in the hours of evening in Europe and the East Coast, let's say from 11am to 8pm SLT. That translates to 4am to 1pm, in Japanese time - yawn! work! ...not an ideal time to get inworld; the Opensimmers of Oceania can also relate, no doubt.

Teddy Dragoone

That makes it even more special when there's an opportunity to hear from someone who's not in your usual time window. Meet Teddy Dragoone, class of '09 in Second Life. We met on the newly minted Open Grid, and I asked him to tell a bit of his story.

Safari Finale 2025

 And so here it was at last, the Season Finale of HG Safari - in fact, the finale for the whole year, and where better to end our long journey than at a futuristic build most definitely not possible in real life even with all the cool light effects that galleries and concerts now can give people, none of it really compares with Nyx Breen's combination of 3D objects and environments, lights, particles, animesh and EEP. If you're not sure what EEP stands for, there is a nice big fat link for you. 

Nyx Breen wearing a special shiny outfit designed to enhance the Finale experience

It's been, what, two years, maybe a little more than that, since this new way of manipulating the environment in your sim was launched, and for many residents and builders, it's probably seemed a bit too complicated, so they have perhaps grabbed some freebie EEPs to liven up their sim, and left it at that.

Not so Nyx Breen, who in his RL career is a photographer of great talent and so is preternaturally in tune with the importance of ambience in terms of light and density. He has turned EEPs into such an art form, on sims that the folks over in the other place can only dream of - vast cathedrals of color are here in Opensim for us to enjoy, to wonder at and of course, to dance in.

Vets in Neverworld

 Tig Eberdene: If you wish, you can click the box by the sign here and receive a poppy to wear. Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate. I am a Canadian veteran so I very much agree

Beth Ghostraven: Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate ...maybe "celebrate" isn't the right word - I think I mean "honor)

For our first destination of the day, the HG Safari crew landed in neverworld to explore ways to remember those who have served in the Military, with two veterans, Tig and Troy. Though each served ina different country, and have independent regions on Neverworld, they have found unity of purpose in the way they'll celebrate on Monday the many lives dedicated to the various branches of the armed forces. The event will be posts on Opensimworld and Facebook, and the HG Address to get to Georgetown (and to Troy's aviation collection, on Painted Sky) you'll find at the end of the post, as always.

The commemoration area is right next to the forced landing spot on sim Georgetown

Tig Eberdene: As you arrive in Georgetown you can see we are set in autumn right now. The setting is to be as how it is in Real life Northern Ontario.  Georgetown is a special place, named for my father George Thomas Wilson. He was a WW2 veteran and my personal hero.  My aim in Georgetown is to make it feel like a real place. There are 3 2x2 sims here, which are all based off a combination of places I have been or lived in RL. This sim is the downtown area. The sim directly to the North is homes for anyone who wishes to live in Georgetown, as well as a small lake and Provincial Park.

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.

Mike's Towns End

Our second stop this week was with the magnificent Mike Townsend, friend of the Safari and frequent tripper with us back in ye olden days when it was a three hour, uncertain slog through any number of  destinations. These days, Mike is busy with his Tropicana sims, where you can rent a bit of pixels for yourself in some very atmospheric places! HG Addresses at the end of the post - but you knew that already.

Coming from another grid, we all met with a fair dose of lag but the welcome was warm from both mike himself and a bunch of Tropicana friends.

Mike Townsend, flanked by Blancanieves and Tina Bey

Mike Townsend: Welcome everyone to Tropicana Village, If everyone is ready we can start the tour

Leoa Urmah: (pt:en)  I'm very ready

Mike Townsend: We will explore the area around the abandoned village and then take the path to the Trailer park. In a state of part ruin and abandonment there is still evidence of people living here. Lets walk to the trailer park.

This part of the build is a great mix of grunge and rundown architecture, with everything from nodding donkeys to a nice red phone box. Walking among all these detailed elements proved to be tricky, to say the least, but while we lost Mike for a moment, most of us were able to power through it. OSgrid's ongoing inv issues and unexpected kicks, when paired with a mass avatar event, kind of reminds us what a privilege it is in reality to be able to be part of a global community, despite the ructions of RL with its solar flares and political shenanigans.

For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.

Lore of Loru

This week for our first destination of the Safari, Loru Destiny allowed us to come see "DestinyLore", an installation she first mentioned to the public eight months ago, with this video on YouTube

Designed to be visited by one or two people at most, our trip was an interesting experiment in mass tourism in a confined space, and also an excellent load test. 

Loru Destiny: Hello everybody and welcome to my exhibition. I'd like to tell you about this exhibition a bit. DestinyLore invites you to enter my world. In this exhibition I have visualised personal experiences, thoughts and feelings with the tools that opensim offers me. Sometimes I have also worked with sounds or music. Some things here are interactive. So I ask you to follow the instructions. 

Loru (center) with her painter husband, Tryad Destiny

Loru Destiny: There is no guided tour. Like in real life you decide what you perceive, how you process it, and what you don't like or want.  I am only the narrator, you are the active ones. Sometimes there are texts. What I have written is not the final truth, it is my truth. I am happy to talk about it with you.

This build is divided into 5 parts, each has its own theme:

 - Opensim! (the place where it all begins)  - I am a human being  - Brainwalk - Find yourself  - Peace is an inner process   - Reality is what you make of it

So Fine, Safine

 Yeah... it's only just the beginning of October, but this year on Safari we're going to be overloading on Halloween , so if it's not usually your thing, we ask your indulgence because this festival is a huge creative trigger in virtual worlds. Between the costumes, the colorful accessories, the possibilities for scripting spooky things and weird effects, there's a lot to work with in the building gap-months between, basically, Easter eggs and Christmas trees. 

We are beginning this ghoulish month with a flourish, on the lovely Friends Grid where we met Safine Mahoe and Zuzu Bahro. Complete HG Address of the venue is, as always, at the end of the post.

Safine Mahoe: Welcome to the Haunted Halloween Isles!  

Ankh Senaton: hello Zuzu, I saw your art gallery, I like it

Bink Draconia: hi safine and zuzu

Zuzu Bahro: We're glad you're here.

Safine Mahoe: My name is Safine and  I am honored to be included in HG Safari, and appreciate everyone  coming out today.   We want to help with your Halloween decorations, so you will find many items available for copy, lets start out in the Pumpkin Patch... this area is not haunted....but certainly Halloween

 Zuzu Bahro and Safine Mahoe 

Safine Mahoe: The Halloween  region was made by myself and Zuzu Bahro.   Please note, there are 7  different Halloween areas to see, ranging from the extremely fun and seasonal Pumpkin Patch to the terrifying, dark Zombie Hunt.     There is a  round tp stone at  the landing point which will take you to all the areas. Today we will just see a few. areas because of time.

Ankh Senaton: I need some pumpkins for my pies

Thirza Ember: so before we go too far, can you tell us how you two work? who does what? I love to hear about collaborations

Love and the Lake, on Ignis

We are halfway through the current Safari season, so of course, it's already time to start thinking about the next one! If you're interested in showing the HG Safari tour group,  get in touch with Thirza Ember ono OSGrid, but first, read this page for Safari Hosts, it explains in excruciating detail how the trips work, what to expect from the group, and will help you avoid common pitfalls. That said, we have plenty still to see on this season, and our tour of Borderlands on Ignis Fatuus Grid was a treat! The HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

Nadir Rae

Best sellers in the 21st century are often fantasy and romance novels, adventures, and life hack books - and ever more frequently audiobooks, as people like to be read to, rather than read. The Middle Ages were pretty much the same! The legends around Viviane, Merlin, Arthur and all the gang of the Round Table are a mixture of magic, love stories and battles, with a lot of contemplative allegories mixed in. Nadir has perfectly captured this on her build, which is as large as it is full of detail. As always, we only had an hour to see it, and so of course there's more to go back and revisit.

We arrived at the church by a great waterfall.

Max Well [fr→en]: good evening to all of you, thank you for coming

Dings Digital: I can see myself live on TV, hooray

Arriving by torchlight on Borderlands

You too can see yourself on live TV if you come on Safari, as Lifted Pixel aka Jessica Pixel often livestreams our events on Youtube - here is yesterday's visit, as seen through her eyes.  The arrival point is an old church, it's the place where Nadir and Max had their big wedding ceremony, so it holds many memories for the virtual as well as representing the departure point in the journey around the region's story. Nadir gave everyone a torch on arrival.

James Atlloud: Thank you for the torch

Venus Love [fr→en]: watch out for the wigs lol

Tosha Tyran: yeah, I already tried to set Mal on fire... but he seems to be of stone

Forest.Azure: i'm very naked... and no face

Venus Love: lol yes forest 

Tosha Tyran: I thought that was your costume

Weekend at Winx 1

 At the end of a long week, what better way to relax than visiting a nice resort in good company.

Off to visit with Bloom Peters, famed throughout Opensim for her funfairs, scripts, castles. mesh, and of course her grid Winxtropia.

Bloom wanted to show me a sim she has been working on. She's a creature of passion when it comes to creating. SHe has several different projects going, but has put much of the planned work on hold to focus on this fun place, the Frutti Music Bar. it's a region and a resort, all in low lag mesh, and just adorable.

Bloom Peters: Welcome to Frutti Music Bar

Thirza Ember: wow love the look

Bloom Peters:  It's designed to push animesh and dining experience, every NPC does their job. Use shared environment, you should see an orange like night

Thirza Ember: the menu is making me hungry!

Safari Gets Romantic

 The City of Light and the Island of Bled - two very romantic places in the real world, and also, it turns out, on the grid SV3d. This was our second destination of the trip, and a big thank you to Minord Loup for helping this event come about! The HG Addresses of the places we visited are, as always, at the end of this post.

Island of Bled

SV3d is a largely French speaking grid and we were guests of Draghan Marksman and his husband Belko Rau, and the very talented builder Glenn Dayafter. The trip began on a gorgeous sim with a distinctly non European name  ChomromDontri.

kjs Yip: it's a long stairway...

Glenn Dayafter: Yes :)

Belko Rau: It is in original island 99 stairs

Minord Loup: bonsoir a tous

LadyKa.007: Good evening to everyone who arrived :-)

At the top of this magnificent staircase, a beautiful square awaited.

Gino's Butterfly

Dale innis asked why we meet, and where we meet, before heading to destination 1 on Safari.

The 'why' is simple. If we all meet together before jumping to the first destination, then I can let the hosts know how many people to expect, so it's easier for them to know when to begin their presentation. Meeting at the Clubhouse means anyone new can make some friends beforehand, so they can ask for help if they get lost. Also, there are often last minute changes to the Safari, so if you come to the Clubhouse, you'll have the latest news about what's going on. Lastly - have you ever invited a group of friends over for a meal, and one person shows up waaaay too early, and you don't know what to do with them? We want to avoid that situation, which is embarrassing and stressful for our hosts.

Dale Innis and Karima Hoisean, on Gino's Butterfly

The 'where' is simple too. We meet at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid and there's usually someone on the sim to welcome you half an hour before the event begins.

Thirza Ember: welcome Kjs, bonsoir Prodyck, grande soiree pour les frenchies ce soir!

Prodyck.Theas: hellooo... On va voir ça :)

kjs Yip: Hi, I know I'm early, but I don't want to be late...

Thirza Ember: omg Kjs sitting on that Hand chair I made... I feel very proud and happy now

kjs Yip: It looks very comfortable...

Tosha Tyran: incl. one finger for back scratching

kjs Yip: It's the thumb...

Kjs Yip on hand at HG Safari clubhouse

Thirza Ember: i hope it doesn't leave fingerprints on the clothes! I am really happy that Prodyck says he will be one of the French speakers at HIE in 2025. it's going to be a great event

Tosha Tyran: I am sure it will be! Hi Prodyck

kjs Yip: Hi all... I'm a newbee at the safari, please be kind ...I try my best to run behind you...

Tosha Tyran: if you want, kjs, I take you by the hand,  or better yet: Forest will, heheh

Forest Azure: you can always tp to Thirza's head, kjs, she likes pple landing on it

Thirza.Ember: I have big hair so it doesn't hurt me if you tp to my skull

Tosha Tyran: Holzkopf

The End of Discovery

 Discovery Grid is closing, and will be gone by December 15. The news was announced at a grid meeting last Saturday. If, like me, you're busy on Saturdays and missed the meeting, you can get a recap of the main points of Balpien's announcement here. 

It seems the main reason why Balpien decided to shut down Discovery is that the internal economy of the grid has ground to a halt, with few merchants and money making sims, and a general decline in residents and regions.

It's always a shame to see a grid go offline, and one that's been around for over eight years is a loss to the general hypergrid community. But you still have a few weeks to go around and take one last look!

If you can't quite place Discovery among the many grids we have visited, here are a few reminders. The Safari has been lucky enough to tour here once or twice, beginning with a visit to Spirit Rock Ranch when the grid was just one year old. 

At that time our guide, Angel Discovery, explained how the grid was born out of friendships forged in Inworldz, so it's no surprise that, in his statement about the closing of Discovery, Balpien makes reference to that shambles of a shutdown that happened to Inworldz back in the summer of 2018, and vows to do better.  

Titanic going down

More recently we made a return to Discovery to see Kayaker Magic. He has a fabulous interactive Titanic build which is the scene of an annual party, to memorialize the sinking of that great ship - he very kindly let us see the dramatic sinking play out - so many details, with icebergs and lifeboats and flotsam and even rats deserting the ship!  The sporty Panthalassa region, with its opportunities for surfing, riding, hiking, and shooting dinosaurs, will surely survive on some other grid, it is a jewel of a sim.

Safari Maitai

May your journey and your drink never end, or be boring

Eiaha e pau to oe haereraa e to oe inu, eiaha râ e riri

Our second stop this week was on Alternate Metaverse grid, and a beautiful VARregion with low lag and dramatic scenery. As always, the HG Address is at the end of the post.

Thirza Ember: Welcome to Tahiti... waiting just a sec for any people are trapped between tps

Lynnestra Parker: Maldrul said he has to relog, he can't tp Star Ravenhurst: I hate when that happens, Microsoft did an update so that doesn't help

Thirza Ember: yes and that brings me to my next point... This region is by Yana Dakota - you can see her photo here Forest Azure: /me peeks Thirza Ember: it says 'offline' by her picture, that's because just a little while ago her computer did that update, and something went wrong, so Yana can't be with us today sadly. However, I have some of the background, if you'd like to hear about it... In RL, Yana in the Canary islands, like our friend from last week over on Astralia grid, Marpil (altho Marpil is a native of the Canaries, not sure Yana was born there). Star Ravenhurst: Oh wow! Small world.

Thirza Ember: Because Yana loves islands, she decided to make a sim all about Tahiti, as you may be able to see it's huge...

Call it Communauté

Community! However you spell it, it's important in virtual worlds.

Nadajdae region on OSgrid is home to Hella Yver and her partner Badr Norseman, and recently they've decided to open up the sim to social events for the Francophone community.

A little opensim history, which you probably know already. 

FrancoGrid was the best-known French grid, and arguably the oldest, it started in February 2007, and closed in March 2022 when the servers suffered an irreversible breakdown and the FG committee came to the sad decision that the grid was no longer viable. Just over a year later Metropolis Grid, the giant in the family of German-speaking grids, finally went offline (you may remember the wonderful party we had to mark the end of that era!). 

Metro and Franco - these two gaps in the Opensim scenery, not to mention Osgrid's 8 month 'hiccup' in 2014, brought home to most people that probably, the way forward was  to have lots of smaller grids, where people can do their own thing, and comfortably avoid people who have different ideas and uses for virtual worlds.

But little grids, though they lead to less drama, also fracture the community, making it less likely and less easy to stay in touch.

If you read this blog often, you already know of quite a few Frenchies in OSGrid - from the lovely Paela Argus, who for many years served the OSGrid community as an active admin member; Ange Menges and nani Ferguson are here, with their signature Hunt builds three times a year; and there's Cheops Forlife of course, with the Theatre d'Adret; not to mention the delicious Cherry Manga who has sims here and on many other grids. That's just to mention a few of the better known folks on OSGrid - there are many more, plus a whole archipelago of Francophone grids out there, many of which we have visited, from Ignis, to Creanovale, to Logicamp, to Vibel, to Atlas and more. Wondering where the other French grids and French creators are located? Well, Prodyck Theas has compiled a useful list on Artefactix, his interesting blog, you can see the grid list here.

Tierra de Marpil

"Abre el ojo y desparrama la vista"

Love it when we end up on yet another new sim where paying attention pays off, and you get the full benefit out of all there is to see and learn. 

That was the case at our second destination this week, as the new season of Safari began with an exciting visit to Cloe Kegel and Vins Watanabe's grid, Astralia.  We were guests of Marpil Grafenwalder who exploded onto the Opensim scene less than two years ago. She has been a positive torrent of creativity ever since. The region is Tierra de Volcanes, 'land of the volcanoes' and of course, the full HG address is at the end of the post.

Marpil Grafenwalder

Marpil's region Tierra de Volcanes is famed for its wonderful Mall up in the sky, but our visit this time was aimed at learning more about her homeland, the Canary Islands. 

The build at sea level is beautifully put together to combine art, entertainment, and RL information and we arrived in the colorful, highly detailed plaza. 

Arriving on Tierra de Volcanes

Marpil Grafenwalder: Hello everyone, and welcome to “Tierra de Volcanes".Tierra de Volcanes was born as an inspiration from the Canary Islands

Safari Fall

It's September, so it's time for a new season of the Safari! We also have a new base for meeting up, on a dedicated grid, the address is at the end of the post. As usual, the event began at 12.00 SLT and as always, Safari trips are on Wednesdays. This post describes our first destination, you can read about our second destination in the post called Tierra de Marpil.

Appropriately, our very first destination for the Fall season was God Fall, by Tutz Zabelin, on Pangea grid, and Tutz was on hand to tell us all about it.

Tutz Zabelin: For those I haven't met before, a short history about me and Pangea. In reality I am a girl from Sweden. And i have a background from SL where i started 2007. Pangea started 4 years ago. Marlon Wayne is the man who came up with the idea.

 At Pangea, we are a blending of different skills and, like me, just a builder. There is much much  more to say about Pangea, there is some information about this on the Welcome sim. You will also find TP board to Pangea's various sims.

Thirza Ember: nice EEP

Tutz Zabelin: I was supposed to invent and write a story about God Fall but my imagination has been stuck in sim Construction.

Luna Lunaria: I get that way also

Tutz Zabelin: But briefly about the history of the God Fall is: It is at the beginning of the creation of the Earth. Good beings from space, gods and goddesses, come in a spaceship. They come to help create the Earth and protect it from evil forces that threaten to take over. On the way to Earth, the good gods spaceship is attacked by evil aliens The goddesses on the ship then stand around the ship and protect it. They succeed in using their powers to drive out the evil ones.

Safari Countdown

 It's just ten days until the new season of  HG Safari begins, on Wednesday September 4 at 12 noon Pacific time. otherwise known as SLT or Grid Time. 

If you are familiar with our region on OSGrid, please be advised that the OSGrid region is no longer online. HG Safari now has a new home.

The new Clubhouse is located on the grid HG Safari, here's the address:

grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HG Safari

Once again, we will have ten weeks of visits to different grids and regions all across opensim, visiting art and tech builds, some representing real places, others inspired by fiction and fantasy. It will be an opportunity to make new friends, meet builders, learn about projects, passions, and of course problems that all come together to make up the Opensim experience.

Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists. 

Jimmy's Europa

 Jimmy Olsen's Europa has expanded! Most of you have already been to see this imaginative cityscape with its great Mall, sci-fi architecture and gadgets, and fabulous taxis, and soooo much more.

 HG Safari did a little tour last year - it was the season premiere, and (since we only have about an hour for each visit)  we only got a taster of this huge complex around the central build.

And now four months later the build has expanded even further.

Boom! another eight regions surround the original Europa. Seven are visitable, the eighth is a Sandbox, and there are multiple ways to see this build. You can use this greenish TP board to jump to Europa Raceway, Farm, Ranch, Mines, University, Colony, and Spaceport,

Lots of transport choices on Europa

 Loving that font, too - just comprehensible enough to make you feel like you're reading a foreign language you'd almost forgotten. A trip abroad without leaving your chair! Imagine the savings.