The Stars of Exupery

 There is a kind of law of the shortest distance to the image, 

a psychological law by which the event  to which one is subjected 

is visualized in a  symbol that represents its swiftest summing up.

                                        Wind Sand and Stars, A. de Saint-Exupéry

He fell out of the sky in 1935. 

Antoine de Saint Exupéry was born into a noble but impoverished family of Lyon, France in 1900. He became a pilot in the years between the world wars, transporting people, mail, and goods around North Africa and the Med, frequently flying over the Sahara. That desert, and its peoples, were so far from the modern hazards of life in Europe in the 1930's, that they captured his imagination and, along with his other adventures in far flung places, gave life to a series of books, rich with limpid prose, exquisite descriptions, and timeless reflections on life and love. 

It was in the Egyptian part of the Sahara that De Exupéry crashed, during a race from Paris to Saigon, in 1935. Of his many plane crashes, this one - and the 4 days that it took him and his copilot to be found - were the most influential on the rest of his life. Hope and fear, mechanics, mirages, and hallucinations, coffee and oranges, and a passing Bedouin got him out of the situation, and no doubt led to Saint Exupèry's career as a writer. 

The best loved and most widely distributed of his works is The Little Prince. It's one of those books that everyone should have read, and once read, you will probably decide to read it again. It's a short read, most people can get through the whole book in about an hour.

The planets

A Mobius Spring

Springtime is here on Mobius Grid with lots of good news and innovation! 

The unusual and colorful Mobius grid, inspired by all things Sonic the Hedgehog has recently re-opened its doors to OSGrid  gridjumpers, just in time for their Easter Hunt event, held on their big Welcome sim.  Grid address, is, of course, at the end of the post. 

The look of the Easter Hunt game is unmistakable and charming - this is Cream, an NPC who is part of the fun. Green Hill Zone is the sim most visitors know best, but don't neglect a visit to Lunaria, the gallery sim  belonging to Luna Lunaria, in all its violet glory.

Along with its signature look, Mobius Grid is all about innovation and making the best use of all the features the Viewer offers, so when you arrive you can participate in an Experience rather than just going around doing your own thing.

The Gift

– Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est très simple :

on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur.

A secret, a heart, a book, a voice, a concept, a collaboration, and a sim. A gift.

It began with Unadecal Masala. He runs a region hosting service, where you can rent a fast, efficient region connected to OSGrid, and I think other grids too, but you should ask him. He has always been a supporter of the Safari and Opensim Arts in general, and he offered a space for a project by and for the Safari. 
The idea of doing an event  this season to mark the 122nd birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupery was already on my mind. His most famous text is The Little Prince, written in French but translated into over 250 languages and dialects, making it one of the most international and best loved books in the world.

But who to take on the job of imagining the book for opensim? It could only be one person, Wizardoz Chrome, machinimer, conceptual artist, word lover and a brilliant and delightful collaborator, not to mention one of the founding members of the Safari. She soon involved others, including Tina Bey, Art Blue, Venus Adored, and Cherry Manga, who presented each of us with a white animesh rose, freshly invented by her, on our arrival on sim Exupery. A truly international group to celebrate these sublime words that have resonated in hearts all around the planet.

Best Practices in Jumping

 Anyone can leap about in opensim, exploring regions by themselves or maybe with a friend. We've all done it, often finding pleasure in the big empty spaces of the hypergrid. But it is also fun to grid jump  with a crowd, to meet the grid owner, or sim builder, and spend some time laughing and dancing and learning more about the infinite variety of opensim. 

But traveling in a pack can create its own unique problems. So what makes for a successful hypergrid trip en masse? Our group is called Safari, because there's a good chance you won't survive to the end, and there are dangers lurking! I asked a bunch of Safari regulars who have joined our trips many times to give their advice for a successful and enjoyable trip around the metaverse.

Safari Summer... of Arts

        Plans change, and sometimes that's a very good thing. This week the plan was to spend just a little time taking a look around the Summer of Arts region on Metropolis, and then move on to a music event. 
        Apart from the general insanity, and the opportunity to make new friends, the underlying purpose of the Safari is to practice grid jumping, that's why we usually have two three or even four different destinations each week. But due to a last minute cancellation, the 72nd consecutive Safari was all Metropolis all the time. And boy, what a fantastic time it was too!
        As usual, the Safari began on Teravus Plaza, OSGrid. Teravus is a residential sim, we occupy the south west corner of it, right next to the waterfall. You will find the Group Joiner poster by the elephant. Every week a new Notecard + LM folder is prepared and you can get your copy from the sign marked LANDMARKS by the main entrance to the Clubhouse. I usually only do it at the last minute when all the panic has subsided. If you belong to the HGSafari group in Metropolis or OSgrid, you should also receive the information via group notices. Events are posted in a community on G+ called Hypergrid Safari, and a  group in Facebook, so find us there, if you use suchthings. 

Safari goes Metro

          Uncertainty in the metaverse - think that's gonna stop us? No Way! Nara Malone and Zetamex's Timothy Rogers have very kindly made us a temporary home in Metropolis while the OSGrid Raid problems continue.

But there is no reason to be fainthearted... I even found a replacement top hat for Mal Burns, when he joins us next. How long will it take to get OSGrid back? Nara pointed out that when Metropolis had some technical unpleasantness some time ago, they were offline for a month. OSGrid is well into its second week, but it will be back. And Han Held reminded us, in the safari after party, that one should always make a backup.
Han Held: You should make an IAR of your region.
Fuschia Nightfire: What's that?

Scifari

So, the days of Disappearing  Attachment Syndrome are numbered, and in many places already a thing of the past! 

And who do we have to thank for that? The lovely people of Kitely Grid, who have donated a patch to OpenSim core that fixes the problem! 

Obviously, older versions may still give you pause (or not give you paws, if you see what I mean) but this week's Wednesday Safari was a hair-tastic treat. If you want to know 'how' they fixed it, and can read Simulatorese, look here.

We had more than thirty avatars from eleven different grids joining us at the Clubhouse this week, which was officially called 'ContraptionFest' and this event looks like becoming a regular feature of the Safari, because it was thoroughly entertaining (once you got a handle on how gears work). 
It is great to play around with vehicles by yourself, or with a pal, but when you're on a gigantic Varregion, with a huge group, it adds a whole other dimension to the experience. Lifted Pixel shared a scripted toy comprising blue blocks which was hilarious, and I'm sure we will do many more physics tests in future Safaris.
Everyone had their own take on Contraptionfest, and their choices revealed a little bit of their personality. Some used the two vehicles included in this week's LM package, while others went to the mall and brought back a variety of land and flying machines, hovering above us or landing among the crowd. 
Sandbox Plaza is the size of four normal sims, with no sim boundaries. It's breathtaking to be there on the sand, it's like a proving ground in Nevada or on another planet.
At Lani Mall (that's sim Lani on OSGrid) you will find a couple of dozen small shops by a host of different scifi creators producing avatars, weapons and tools, skins, just about everything you can think of inspired by all your favorite Tv shows, movies, along with original ideas. The mall is one of the Landmarks you will find at the Clubhouse on Teravus Plaza, if you want to retrace our steps. We're talking quality and fantasy. Contraptions like the spaceships of Pete Camino, the spankingly cool Tron bike of Tina Bey, and the physics-enabled Curiosity Rover and Bullet Gocart of Cuteulala Artis. 

We set up some prims on SandboxPlaza III in OSGrid, and played around there. Turns out Fuschia Nightfire is deadly behind the wheel, and doesn't care who knows it. I on the other hand, crashed my vehicle and then abandoned it. Gears schmears.

          But ContraptionFest was sandwiched between two other outstanding destinations.  30 made the jump from OSGrid to Dorena's World, our first stop.

DorenaVerne and Anachron Young with Mal and two Art Blues

 Anachron Young, Dorena Verne and other native Doreneans made us exquisitely welcome with a party, lots of dancing and some great music, the perfect start to the trip.

I think we were all amazed by the experience not only of getting there but also of begin able  to cam around the lovely builds, while dancing... or sitting at the bar...

And after ContraptionFest, we moved on to Joe Builder's USS Enterprise. 

 This amazing ship is on 4 sims, and is only one tiny part of the Lost World Joe has put together. From the Welcome region I counted more than a dozen portals leading to themed areas including a wonderful junkyard, an abandoned city, a terrarium and way more.

Joe Builder

He made available free to copy 3 of his impressive collection of ride-able vehicles, a flying bus, a helicopter, and a jeep, and we entertained ourselves on the Bridge, with Wizardoz Chrome wearing that fabulous Predator avie - which goes invisible... this is a pic taken through her.

I got to use the all 40 of my Star Trek sounds... 

and with Serene, found the bar! And no, I can't share the photo of the handsome barman with you. That would be illogical. Go see for yourself.

So near, safari

This week's safari was a bit of a change of pace. We met on Miguel Rotunno's sim, Ilha Magica, in OSGrid, and there were about 8 of us, which was a nice number - some cool new friends from Kitely were there, and even SaveMe Oh popped over to wish us well on our travels. We have plans for a machinima competition in open sim, I hope she and many more of you will join in, more about that in coming weeks.

Ilha Magica house

We really lucked out with destinations this week. Our first stop was Francogrid. Their Fest'Avi was last week, and they have launched a new range of full perm avatars,with lots of weird and wonderful looks for you to try. 

Francogrid arrival

Praline B, Cherry Manga, Phil, Gill, Cendres and all the guys and gals of Francogrid interrupted their weekly meeting at LeVillage to come over to sim Avatar and welcome us. It was immensely heartwarming. There are about 20 avies so far, and the plan is to add to the collection, so by next year, as Cherry said, there will be twice as many! It still very slightly a work in progress, not all the outfits were complete when she unpacked them, Wizard Gynoid tells me, so once you're grabbed your freebies, check in with the folks over there if you're missing a wing or a wingnut, and I'm sure they will sort you out.

From Francogrid to OSGrid, managed to lose a few Safaristas in the process, but bear in mind, our meeting time is the lunch hour/early afternoon in the US, not an ideal moment for many, and we much appreciated them joining in if only for part of the tour. We went to meet Avia Bonne on her sim DutchMountains. It's important not to add a space between the two words, or you may never get there! In fact quite a few people had problems jumping back to OSGrid. Your alternatives are, I suppose, two. Either move to a different sim within grid you're on, and try again or just log out and back in again, in which case you'll find yourself back on your home grid.

Avia's shops put the lie to the rumor that there's little or no mesh in open sim, or that you can't be a 'real' virtual designer unless you sell your stuff. She has everything from menswear to houses, dresses to sofas, (unmissable is Garry Beaumont's wall of manly accessories!) and it is all up for grabs. But please, don't actually grab the items! Take a copy, not the original. 

Duh, I know, seems obvious, but sadly, she keeps coming inworld only to find creations are missing from her stores, because someone took the shop 'original' by mistake. If you do use her creations, remember they took hours - even days - to make, so drop her an IM to say thanks. 

That's the open sim way. If you're not on someone's friends list, or are from another grid, you can still IM a person by clicking Edit on one of that person's prims, and in General, click on the Profile of the creator, then IM them. 

 Take a moment to pan away from the shops and see the full extent of her bravura. The sim has more than freebies to share!

 Avia has been in open sim, she said, for about 5 years, and has a huge portfolio of work on her regions, lots of Steampunk, plenty of fashion. Her generosity extends beyond the many free items she has made available, she's always quick to praise her fellow builders. 

Avia suggested we visit her neighbor Kathje Kitaj's sim, Hill Valley, based on the movie Back to the Future. The entire build is basically all mesh. It is amazing!

Next stop, the grid created by Vanish Seriath and his dear wife, El. The name is TGIB; it's pure poetry. The Grey In Between, The Good In Bad, The Ground Is Below, and a host of different meanings. The regions are poetry too, a tribute to the spirituality and charm of both halves of this lovely couple. All the anxiety of grid hopping seemed to melt away, helped perhaps by a quick dip in the lake.  Vanish explained about OpenSim Creations, which is of course an online 'community shop' for open sim items. I notice they also have a monthly building challenge, how neat! Vanish explained to me what a Var is - turns out you can have a variable sized sim now. I know, right? These crazy scientists! 

It was also a joy to listen to Miso Susanowa, who has been in vw's for just about forever, chatting about the early days of virtual living with DJ Phil and SSM back on Francogrid, as well as talking about the wonderful skin resource that Eloh Eliot put on line, oh centuries ago. Lag is probably the biggest headache in hypergridding. So many proxies, servers, signals, programs. It helps to have a second computer for Facebook or Skype or anything heavy that you need to keep open. Taking Ultra photos is a sudden pit of treacle. Inexplicably, people suddenly are reduced to a name tag and a head of Ruth hair.

 Fuschia looks invariably gorgeous in my viewer, I think it has a crush on her, but when Vanish Seriath, who had been along with the group from the start, took us to TGIB his upper torso disappeared. Does it matter? Not really, on the whole. There's a sense of being on the edge of a great ocean of progress and possibility in Open Sim, a world where people are in it not to make money but for the love of the game, the love of creating. 
Luckily everyone in the group is good at getting pictures, and a special shout-out to the lovely Wizardoz Chrome, who always takes such great shots. We now have a Flickr group too, for those who want to join there.
What about if you don't even have an open sim avatar yet? Don't let that hold you back. Sure, there is going to be an initial moment in which you'll feel dorky, or even invisible. You will crash, I can't lie. But we are in no rush, we'll wait while you come back on line, we keep FB chat open so you can send an SOS and get the hg address of where we are, in real time. Let me stress, it's not just me. You can also contact Wizard Gynoid, Wizardoz Chrome, or Fuschia Nightfire if you need help.  
Next week - the future, today! Join the Facebook group and page, both called HGSafari, if you'd like to know more.