Lost Summer

 It was the year when we had a huge party to wish Bon Voyage to Justin when he left to go back to RL, Total Sorbet's Outbreak was the breakout pastime of  OSGrid,  and Opensimworld was in its infancy - before the highs and lows of Traffic Classification, and the Box with its merry band of prolix commentators. 

There was AvatarFest, and the gloriously Cherrified Fest'Avi. Inworldz and Twinity were still places you could go (hard to believe that Twinity didn't shut down until 2021), Blue Mars and Cloudparty were already gone. 

The idea that these were real options for the grid-trotter seems a little crazy nowadays, when hypergridding is so easy and facilitated with all kinds of directories and events calendars but back then, they were serious options. OSCC unveiled its treasure hunt, a super way to motivate people to visit all the expo sims, and there was much dancing during the event.... 

The year - in case you didn't remember it, was 2015. We were all so young and energetic! HG Safari trips had become a common event,  and somehow, not sure why,  for about two months this blog went silent.

Safari Goes House to House

        Three destinations, and all the Hypergrid Addresses at the end of the post, the first house of this week's trip around the magnificent metaverse was a lighthouse. 

          It represents a point of reference, of illumination, and security, while hinting at the feelings of loneliness  and isolation that can afflict all of us, any of us, at different times in our lives. Leighton Marjoram is here to help, specifically people dealing with gender issues, and where they fit in to the spectrum of attraction and identity.

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.

Safari One Hundred

This week, a little celebration to mark our one hundredth consecutive Safari. There was music, last minute panic, interesting conversation, lag, unsolicited boobage, laughs, and failed Tps. So much like any other week!

First up a Truelie Telling concert, on hgsafari sim, with the added bonus of the Guess the Grid competition, organized by Wizardoz Chrome. There are 25 images spread out around the sim, devilishly hard to find, and once found, you've got to guess what sim they are on! You will find the grid names and their hg addresses in a poster marked Guess the Grid Answers, at the Clubhouse on hgsafari sim, Francogrid. The winner on the day? Probably Sunbeam Magic got the most right answers, and Freewee Ling was the champion of finding them... she found fifteen, though confessed she couldn't identify any of the grids in the pics!!

Sound Advice for OpenSim

This blog mostly talks about things you can see in OpenSim. But until they finally allow us to have Smellyvision technology in virtual worlds, Hearing is the second most important sense after Seeing.

The Lost Gardens of Apollo on Metropolis,
the venue for an upcoming Torben Asp concert for HG Safari

 And when it comes to audio, the hyperverse has a fine variety of interesting and talented music makers, many of them are also builders or designers too.
             Maybe you're musical and would like to share your talent, or your music collection, with the community. How would one go about doing that? 

Week 96 Part 2: Safari Takes Refuge

          Ninety-six safaris is a lot. As we approach our 100th consecutive week of group hypergridding, seems like we're all aware of how far hg has come over the past two years.

DJ Pooh's splendid Honeypot region

          The safari is like a bumblebee. The laws of physics say it shouldn't fly, yet it does. When we began, no grids were set up with mass hypergrid tp arrivals in mind. Even today, many grids  - even big name places, with a good reputation for stability - tremble and even crash when we arrive. 

You may say, stop doing it. Yet, that is really the whole point of the exercise. Gridhopping alone or with a couple of friends is great too, but what we are here to do is to push the envelope, and raise awareness that splendid isolation, while it can be restful at times, is no way to run a grid on the HG. And we like to think that our relentless insistence on mass arrivals have made things smoother for the lone traveller, and made grid owners more conscientious and given them a greater appreciation for visitors of all dimensions.
          Because life is movement.

Safari on the 'Fly

          This week we went Back to the Future - in so many ways! Spike Sol invited us to join the party on sim Pyramid, OSGrid, organized by Samira Santanko at the Blue Wave Club. The mesh Delorean was without doubt the star of the evening, as well as DeeJane Samira's choice of music - which began with the soundtrack of the film. You'll find the info for getting to our destinations at the end of this post.

Photo by Spike Sol 

I guess it was a fair bet that this was not going to be a simple Safari. After 75 weeks, none of us expect things to be super smooth, but that announcement on the OSGrid splash screen 'mandatory update'  was bound to make the blood run cold.           

AAA Little Nightfire

          Flashing can be bad for people. But if you don't have a photosensitive health issue, then animated attached art - let's call it Triple A ! - is probably the best thing out there, especially when combined with live music. Fuschia Nightfire put on a cracking display for the HG Safari First Anniversary party this week, and it was interesting to hear a bit about what went into it. 

          First off, where did the inspiration for all the bright colors and attachments come from?
Fuschia Nightfire: I think it was Wizzy's idea actually. We were chatting about the party and said it would be good if we could get SaveMe to come, but realised that probably wouldn't happen, so we joked about making a NOT SaveMe performance, and I realised that with the dancing cat animation and the avatar starter kit, I probably already had some items that we could use. I also have some of her pieces on SL, so it was not difficult to look at those and make my own versions here, like the personal ban lines.

Thirza Ember: technically, did you find it a challenge?

Safari hops for the best

Meet Tosha Tyran, builder, benefactor and all round bella donna. How did a nice girl like her end up in a place like this?

Tosha Tyran: I got kind of frustrated with all the commercial stuff in SL and I was sick and tired of having to pay for every upload and wanted to advance building then some Italian friends told me about OpenSim and now I think it is really great - I wouldn't want it different I came - and hell it was frustrating too - more crashes then anything but with time and patient it changed :) I started later with Tao and Licu and Lumiere in Craft and - well - now I am here in Sanctuary which is one of the best cared for grids I think it is just great and the owner very friendly and helpful :) and I can build all I want I am present in Craft as well, but my favourite place is Sanctuary.
Her latest build, a Hopi Indian village, is on a sky platform above her sim Fire, on Sanctuary grid. URIs as usual at the end of the post.

Safari Collection

Stephen.Xootfly: yeah, sounds like a good strategy.
Stephen.Xootfly: which I think is also what Custer said as well.

The instinct to collect and share, that's what this week's Safari was all about. Accumulation, classification, and determination. But we're always all about being determined. We are also about not minding if our faces suddenly disappear.

If you classify writers, you end up with a sort of fractal mental image. Not in the Dewey Decimal sense; something more philosophical. Good writers and bad, there's your first division, followed by famous/unknown, ancient and modern, fact and fiction, drunk/sober, read and unread, short-works/long-works, prolific and writers-blocked, reclusive and sociable. It forms a sort of lopsided flowing tree of all the people who, whether they ought to or not, put pen to paper, fingertip to key.

Winter, Water, and SafarAI

What's it like, going on safari? 

Well, imagine trying to order off a high-class menu while riding on a train travelling through a hurricane. And your clothes keep falling off. In quicksand.
Four excellent destinations, which produced as usual a sort of 'if it's Tuesday, this must be Brussels' sensation. These are all places worth visiting again (and again!) by yourself or even better, with a friend.

Mattie Mcbride's festive forest, on Paradise Island, Metropolis

First Metropolis, to Mattie Mcbride's Paradise Island, and second to Tangle grid for the Expo. Similar theme, very different scales, from Mattie's exquisite winter market, full of baubles and tinsel, to the three sim extravaganza on Tangle.