Domadun Fun

Thirza Ember: here they come!

Within a few seconds, the population of  Bubblesz Grid, which is a small personal grid belonging to mesh maven Taarna Welles, went from two to fourteen. You could positively feel the nerves - Would the grid be able to take the strain? Would we all be standing frozen in a pool of lag? Worst of all, would Locat Chat fail us? You know how we love our banter.

Taarna Welles on a quidditch teleporter

You may have read about this grid in an earlier post on this blog - this was a chance for the whole group to take a look, and the sim is open any time, if you want to explore it.

Bubblesz Grid Welcome Region

People kept on coming, - we met on the grid's Welcome sim, the HG Address is of course at the end of the post -  and for once, everybody brought their clothes with them! Each week, Safari goers are encouraged to dress in a lag-friendly way, keeping complexity as low as fashion and good taste will allow. You can do that in a lot of ways - use the original body, not mesh, check you haven't got one of those Hairs with an insane complexity (those may look good to you, but they're best binned, if they exceed 100k complexity, because chances are everyone else only sees a tornado of bits flying around your head), if you have mesh clothes that contain a lot of texture changing scripts, make a reference copy for safekeeping, and then delete all the scripts from the clothes you wear... there are lots of other common sense ways you can help the group. If you have a favorite strategy, put it in the comments.

Taarna's Mesh Wizardry

Many of us remember Taarna Welles as one of the few makers of good quality original mesh clothing, shoes and accessories in the first years of opensim, back when mesh was first coming in. 

One of the shops on Savvy

Bubblesz, Taarna's personal grid, still features her legacy build La Barronie from the olden days of Metropolis, and her more recent build, Savvy ,  features mens and womens clothing and footwear, a refreshing break from the aspiring crack whore outfits that make up so much of the apparel assets of our platform.

Ballerina stature on Savvy

More recently, Taarna has been working on a themed region called Domadun, adding yet another point of interest on this always interesting grid. You get a hint of the new region when you arrive on the Bubblesz Welcome sim... the portals are all decorated with a little witch's broom.

Butch Safari

This week, the Safari was in the business of raising Male Avatar Awareness. 

Even with the latest shopping survey on Hypergrid Business, finding what you need to create a look in OpenSim is always a challenge, and menswear is the toughest category of all to locate. 

Skins, shapes and clothes are all tricky. Shapes often give that gorilla look, shoes have traditionally been way too big and clunky, and hair varies wildly from super effeminate to frankly monstrous. If you don't believe me girls, then just go out there and try putting together a look you can live with. No wonder many men give up and go girly, or furry, or simply wear the same tee shirt and jeans for about ten years... I found this Shrek skin and shape at Lani Mall in Jorink Devin's shop... definitely a boy thing.
This week, the Safari goers were challenged to wear a male avatar and walk a mile in those moccasins (or steel toed boots, whatever) and we went out across the HG to sample the state of Male shoppingness for ourselves.

Schreck Thirza

Our first stop was on Bubblesz Grid, which is the small hg enabled grid of mesh enthusiast Taarna Welles. 

       

If you arrive at the Welcome sim on bubblesz.nl.8002 you'll see the portal that will take you direct to the shops. Taarna's personal brand is called ReMake Fashion.

Blue Safari

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who do, and those who don't.

          This week Safari began with music and a big ole crash. Wolem Wobbit played the blues for us on the dance floor on hgsafari sim. Wolem is working on a great performance sim on Metropolis grid, called Chicago Blues. 

Go visit if you get a chance, you'll like it.

It took a while for stream to kick in. Wolem did back flips while we waited. I was thinking of all the signage I should have put up to make it easier for people to understand where we are and where we're going, but let's face it, nobody actually reads anything.