Who Goes There

This week's first destination was to one of the wonders of Opensim, the Doctor Who region on Littlefield grid, often known as lfgrid because it's shorter! As usual the full HG Address is at the end of the post. The sim creator, Toy McBride, lives on the other side of the world to most of the Safari-goers, so she wasn't able to join us in person.

Dirk Mathers

However Dirk Mathers, one of the founding members of Littlefield grid, a master scripter and none too shabby builder in his own right, was kind enough to step in as guide. He's a knowledgeable Whovian, but even he admitted to getting a little lost in this build, which is encyclopedic and labyrinthine. Much like the long, mysterious and twisted plot of one of the most popular ever sci-fi shows on TV. 

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past half century, you probably know that Dr Who is a British TV show for children which began back in 1962, took a hiatus in the 90's and came roaring back in the naughties to an even wider audience of all ages, and it is still going strong.

Rural Retreat

In a corner of the gloriously rural Ruritania region on Littlefield Grid, is a beautiful old barn, converted by sim owner  Xi Shi into an airy art gallery,

It's a perfect little jewel set in a many faceted 4x4 VAR build that celebrates so many aspects of England that is will take you hours visiting and contemplating in order to take in all the delightful details, as it draws you back to another time, not just in the style of the vehicles and the road signs, which belong to the era of Dr Who's TARDIS, but also in the allusions and references to UK film and television, gently reminding you of classics like Brief Encounter, and the Two Ronnies discussing fork handles - or should that be four candles - to mention only two of the dozens of 3D throwbacks... make sure you have your wits about you, or you'll miss a lot of the fun. The HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Littlefield Eleven

Littlefield Grid turns 11 years old as an independent grid and they're celebrating!

From Nasa to Firestorm, Littlefield Grid is celebrating the past and the future

There's a special Anniversary region on the grid where many of the grid's residents have set up displays that illustrate the range of builds that you can visit here. There's also a gallery that explains the history of Stonehaven, from the days of SL onwards.

All Things Must Pass

Thirza Ember: this week, it would have been the 73rd birthday of John Lennon, so I was looking for a beatles destination for us... the first destination today is the RL garden of George Harrison. It was designed and built by Mudpuddle Cleanslate, I hope you will enjoy it.

Star Ravenhurst: Sounds awesome Thirza

Thirza Ember: you may remember Mudpuddle's other build Pepperland and Pepperland 2... they are also here on Littlefield as is his build for Van Gogh, called Arles.

James atLLOUD: OH yes, very much.

Thirza Ember: he is very particular about the details

SIWAS S: (de:en)  I am excited 

Thirza Ember: welcome to Friar Park, this is a real house just outside London. Mudpuddle Cleanslate is a big Beatles fan - he built this; he is a professional at graphic art... as you can see

Star Ravenhurst: Nice entrance!

Forest Azure: some dog!

Rural Ruritania Rules!

'You're a good fellow. Oh, you're English, but you're a good fellow.'

Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda

Xi Shi's rural Ruritania build was our second stop on Safari this week, it's located on Littlefield Grid and although rich with scripted gems all over, was really easy to rez on. Our point of arrival was the glorious green cricket pitch, where Xi and some of her closest friends were there to meet us. Address, as always, at the end of the post.

Dozens of movies, and numerous talking figures to help you guess just which screen gem is being hinted at in the form of tableaux and vignettes spread around this lovely sim. Add an impressive train line, some delicately beautiful mesh architecture, and you have a region fit for royalty. In the usual spirit of our Safari trips, this is not an exhaustive tour of every single feature, but a glimpse - after all, the point is that we all visit these delightful venues again, and often. That's our goal.

For simplicity's sake, the included NPC dialogue throughout this article is shown in italics.

postman: pedals off sharpish before the bus comes

Road-roller driver: Eh watch out for crazy drivers 'ere! I just had a fellow tear away from me and nearly 'it the bus after 'e stopped and asked where a bloke could 'ave some fun in this place. I just pointed 'im to the 'arbour and off he went like shite from a shovel !! Loony bugger

Xi Shi: I think I might have to translate some of that for a few

Alan Scot: *-* YeSS! *-*  whats a shovel ? ( kidding)

Tina Bey: hola a todos

Xi Shi: oh my, all at once... ok who's batting first?

Mal Burns: nicely mowed lawn!

chasty Slavicz: Hi Star and Jupiter. Ard, Mal, Frank, welcome

TeriMar Galuptra: Should we be wearing heels on the cricket pitch? It's worse than football boots...

Frank Gresham: cricket time

Ernest Moncrieff: We are the village green preservation society

Forest Azure: i have no idea how cricket goes

Cosi Dumont: nor have i ... i only know its very british ... haha

Jupiter Rowland: Landing on a cricket ground like a Chesterfield sofa...

Alan Scot: that model airplane never crashes

Xi Shi: I'm hoping that wont change either!

Zadijah Ahmed: it is time!!!!!

Fallingwater Finale

 Camryn Darkstone is a gem of a builder, and this her version of Fallingwater is a triumph in every way. It's beautiful, it's harmonious, it's informative, and it's fun. 

Together with Littlefield grid owner Walter Balazic, she ported the sim from its original place of creation in SL to their grid almost ten years ago, when Littlefield opened.

Walter and Camryn 

The Fallingwater logo is not, as might seem, a Japanese ideogram. Instead it represents the shape of the house and its cascade, although perhaps you can see a F and a L in the pattern also.

The house is primarily a prim build, indeed, it was begun before Mesh was even a thing in SL. Yet the quality of the construction is so perfect that the house, as it does in RL, seems to float above the torrent.

An Arrowing Safari

Yellow Submarine time! Safari headed off to Pepperland this week. It was about a year ago that we last visited Mudpuddle Cleanslate and Chelsea Louloudi's Beatle-inspired world. HG Addresses at the end of the post, as always.

A Crash Dancing, Scope Riding, Anvil Dumping Safari

Jessica.Pixel: I decided to be human today so lets hope all of my hair makes it
Thirza Ember: I feel like hair like that deserves its own greeting
Wizard Gynoid: at least it's not up her bum

Ms Pixel and her remarkable hair

          There was loose talk at the 54th HGSafari about gorean virgins and Mal Burns, most of which I can't divulge.
Fuschia Nightfire: when I was a noob, me and a friend once did a parachute jump from a sky platform and landed in a Gorean village, where she was taken as a slave, and this is the absolute truth, I never saw her again

Safari goes extramural

         This week Littlefield Grid celebrates two years of existence, and Walter Balazic and friends are celebrating with a gigantic fair on Littlefield Anniversary sim. In honor of the event they have put up a VAR region, and all kinds of residents have contributed stalls stands and exhibits showing the talent and wide range of interests of Littlefield folk.

Walter Balazic: it's a fairly large VAR, so there's a lot to see. I've been looking at it for 2 weeks now, so it looks small to me now! The users here love to build.  Mudpuddle put an interesting Yellow Submarine display up. The Germans put a village up, I put a little display up, I really never build, but it's the one behind you. People do things that are geared toward what they know, mine is all prim and minor scripting, cause that's all I know. Some people are really good at mesh and focus on mesh things.

Safari Afield

It has been 44 days since OSGrid went down, and today on Facebook [via Ron Brown] came the good news: " The array was not able to be rebuilt from the cloned drives due to logical partition errors so the recovery service has performed a full recovery, restoring everything to a single 6 tb drive that the engineer said should boot and that all the files are intact. The additional costs, less the $2302.56 we have already paid them, comes to $2510. We currently have $3432.88 which would make our budget very tight (we still have hosting costs, etc).
Thank you very much for your patience and support! ~ Dan Banner "
if you would like to help by donating you can follow the link below 
http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/donate
Saying 'No news is good news' has not been great news for OSGrid's image in open sim, but they saved all our stuff, which is wonderful, and going on about the PR disconnect between management and users is pointless and anyway, has already been done.

Last night's Safari went to Metroberfest, but it wasn't all cakes and ale. This is the landing point of the fabulous four sectioned sim, but last night there was water and bare earth where there should have been buildings and free stuff, and I spent a significant amount of time up to my neck (thanks Miso).

Aaackangel

He is Open Sim's Angel of Mesh, a Blender guru, creator, and all round good guy, Aaack Aardvark of Littlefield Grid. Tomorrow, HG Safari has an opportunity to meet this teacher and creator who feels strongly that there is no reason why open sim creations should be any less in quality or detail than anything your find in SL.

A gentle, talented and kindly Argentinian, Aaack cancelled his account in SL about three years ago, after some four or five years of presence on the grid. This elegant store is a design that he first made (but never used) in Sl way back in 2007. Second life was great, but after a few years, he had grown tired of the mentality there. It seemed wrong to him that creators have to pay upload fees.
Aaack Aardvark: We creators are the ones making Second Life Attractive. Why should we be paying to herp the business of SL? In my book that makes no sense.