All the Fun of the Fair

lifted.pixel: I am already enjoying this corn cob 

You're still in time! Just two weeks before OpensimFest begins, and there are still a few FREE parcels of land available, where you can show off your creativity, get publicity for your region, grid, products, or group. Don't miss out, go to OpensimFest.com and get the ball rolling by registering today!

This week the extraordinary Jessica Pixel filmed our adventures, so watch that, if reading is not your thing. Click here to watch it on Youtube

This week's Safari was to Cuteulala Artis' sims on Winxtropia, and then to the OpensimFest grid to catch up with Fest coordinator Shelenn Ayres. HG Addresses, as always at the end of the post, and this time let's mix it up by telling about destination two first.
We met up with Shelenn on Zen, one of the regions of Opensimfest grid that is closest to being finished - only about two weeks are left, so everyone is in the final rush before testing and checking leading up to the Opening, on July 8th.
Thirza Ember: First question, Shelenn - Opensimfest - what made you take it on?

Arthur in Pangea, with Terra Merhyem

On Pangea Grid, there is an Art and Culture Festival going on, and to kick it off, Terra Merhyem has prepared a magnificent region celebrating the Arthurian legends, on a region called Avalon. 

Afterlife at Amerika art

Terra joined in Second Life in 2016 and immediately got started with art shows featuring both 2 and 3D art. 

She twice qualified for a sim at the LEA and in 2021 also had a SLEA region. She's had going on for thirty art shows altogether in Second Life, and has two permanent exhibitions, at The Galleries  and at The Peace Gallery 

Terra came to Opensim thanks to the art initiative Amerika Art, the brainchild of Art Blue with Juliette Surrealdreaming. You can find the installation among a constellation of important SL names like Glyph Graves, Thoth Janssen and Bryn Oh, on the Amerika regions of Craft Grid. 

If you would like to see the exhibition just go to Craft Grid, type into your Map Amerika and when you get there, look for the funky little chairs deep in the bowels of the pyramid. There are various rooms that enable you to travel to the installations, most many thousands of meters above the ground. There are plenty of installs, all following the theme of an afterlife in various ways, to choose from. It only took me about 45 minutes to find Terra's.

But worth it. Terra's build 'The Afterlife' is a spectacular sculpture soaring high up into the night sky, full of fire and energy, a bit like the lady herself, and from that positive experience on Craft Grid, great things have happened. Was it easy to connect with people in Opensim?

Safari goes Little and Large

This week was all about the great and the small. We started small, on Weelandia, Digiworldz grid - full HG Addresses, as always, at the end of the post. 

Small inconvenience getting to Digi - well, a very big obstacle for quite a few, who could not navigate the rather daunting ID process. So our group was not as big than it might have been, which is a shame, because Digi is a nice grid with lots to see. But that's part of the Variety of Opensim, everyone has their own strategies and concepts about grid security and community. You have to like difference to love the HG.

Because none of that could stop us from visiting with the lovely Nebby Newman, in company with aminata Potez, for an extraordinary visit to a true gem of a sim, Weelandia. 

Safari goes to Hell and Back

Come quando la nebbia si dissipa,

lo sguardo a poco a poco raffigura

ciò che cela 'l vapor che l'aere stipa...

Dante, Inferno XXXI

Beth Ghostraven: Hi Ubit!

Luna Lunaria: Hiya Ubit :-)

Ubit Umarov: nice regions stress your arrival :)  You bring own chairs..  good idea.  i was about to rez a few boxes.. no need

Lux Tergeste: Thank you Thirza for the handy chairs :)

Beth.Ghostraven: this dress is stain-proof anyway

Safari goes to the Docks

This week, two Beatles related builds! One recreating Liverpool Docks, and the other recreating all the joy of the Yellow Submarine. Both exploring a time long, long before you or I were born, naturally. Liverpool is a city with a rich, sometimes troubled history. A port city from the beginning of the 1700s, the ships that plied the Transatlantic routes carried all sorts, manufactured European goods, American cotton, tobacco, sugar, and people - immigrants, but also slaves. The famous Penny Lane immortalized by the Beatles is named after James Penny, described by some as a slave merchant, although the jury is still out on that. One thing that is without a doubt is that the Beatles are Liverpool's number one export, the pride and joy of the city. A huge Beatles museum is located a converted warehouse building on Albert Dock.

We start with a truly amazing trip to Kitely, and the Old Liverpool Dock. This region is normally closed to the public, so our visit was a little bit of HG heaven, and our host Graham Mills has done a

The Sponsors' Tale

 Organizing a big festival is always a huge headache, and you really have to take your hat off to anyone with the nerve to do it. They often end up making a significant financial contribution too, because the setting up of a temporary grid costs rl money. 

This year, the total cost of running the festival is $1040, and a little more than half that has been pledged.  One way that you can help out with it all is by becoming a Sponsor. 

For as little as three bucks you can get kudos and publicity, and brownie points with the higher power, so why not consider helping out? OK I may be lying about the higher power, let's call it the HG power.

There are lots of levels at which you can contribute, and each one brings a bigger slice of land, publicity and warm glowy feeling, although the last might just be the wine, so don't quote me on that. 

Any extra money generated by the sponsors will be shared out among the performers - there will be about 90 over the 17 day event. 
Here are some stories from people who chose to go ahead and put their hand in their pocket for OpensimFest. How hard is it to sponsor? why did they want to do it? What do they hope to see at the event?

Notes on a Safari

 This week two great musical guests, Joao Frazao and Moses Rae. Dang, even their names are musical. As usual HG addresses are at the end of the post.

Starting with destination two in this post, just to mess with your head. 

Belfast and Japan - Photo Finish

History featured strongly in this week's safari as we visited little slice of Asia and of Europe on two grids, Discovery and OSGrid, and found out about a past that may have passed some of us by. It's also a journey into the passion of builders, scripters, and virtual residents, as the kaleidoscope of creativity continues to enthrall us. HG Addresses as always at the end of the post. 

First up, the new project on the Belfast regions of Stiofain Mactomais. Known best perhaps for his music venue the Maritime, modeled on the real club of the same name where Van Morrison got their start, there's much more here - poetry, real world architecture, an exhibit celebrating the Belfast-built Titanic. 

This visit was to the Falls Road, and a project that can be enjoyed using your phone, Oculus rig, or as we did simply inworld.  Called the Belfast Archive Project, t's all about bringing the social history of this part of the world back to life in a vivid and accessible way. We met outside the inworld version of the historic Conway Mill.

Three Good Reasons...

Opensim Fest is still more than a month away,  but plans are already well in hand for this unusual event. A dedicated Festival grid will be home to a true meeting of minds as people from all over the hyperverse set up their exhibits and stores, and dozens of performers keep the party atmosphere going, each in their own way. 

Particles by Torben Asp

If you haven't registered for your free 'ticket' yet, don't delay. It will make it possible for you to sign up as a Greeter, or Performer, Sponsor, or Exhibitor. But wait - Still feeling a bit 'meh' about joining in? Here are three good reasons to get interested and involved - three performers who will be sharing their original content with us at gigs during the 17 day long event.

Come Fly With Me

This week's Safari was something of a time-travel trip of the mind as we visited two very different imaginings.  First on Kitely, at the International Spaceflight Museum where we saw the optimistic imagined future of colonizing Mars, and secondly, an imaginative past of empires and honor, on the grid CounterEarth. HG Addresses, as always, are at the end of the post.

I love ISM on Kitely, there is a stateliness and grandeur about the region.  A veritable forest of rockets dominate the Museum Ring part of the build, with ships, satellites and rockets from all over the world.

 The creators here include Kelly Bucklaew and Asterion Coen with smaller contributions by Samuel Greenway,  Ai Austin, and Miguel Rotunno, but the lion's share of the building is all down to the man himself, Mike Lorrey.

Aedifex Rex: the art of Nyx Breen

If you ever spent any time in the temples of art in Second Life, you will have come across the work of Nyx Breen. Based in Massachusetts, he has a long career as a real-world fine art photographer, and in virtual, a list of winning entries as long as your arm, in particular at the  UWA, the virtual campus of the University of Western Australia. 

After more than a decade of nurturing and rewarding digital art and artists, the UWA powered down in Second Life back in 2020. I thought the place was gone forever, but the great JayJay 'Zifanwe' Jegathesan tells me that the original UWA sim persists there, along with Nyx's Moreton Bay Fig. I asked JayJay about his friend and collaborator.

Kicking off in Canada and Japan

Finally, a true Safari! Earlier this year, on Season One, we had ten whole weeks of trips around the hyperverse without crashing a single sim or having any unexpected hiccups, in the main. That's disappointing, in a way, because for me, the Motto of OpenSim is Liberty, Variety, Instability. 

You've got to have a bit of danger, be kicked off a few sims, freeze, swap avatars, regroup at the clubhouse a bit. That's what adds to the fun, and the sense of group, the best bit of all in a Safari. That said, if you crashed or couldn't get into the two destinations this week, everyone who was able to do the tour will tell you they are both amazing builds, and merit a visit whenever you have the time. Both are huge, and give you the sense of the Great Outdoors, Indoors. 

The Queens of the Castle

               Imagine walking along a beach. Alone, or with a friend.  

Beaches are nice, but they can be awfully samey, same ole trees, and sun, and sky, and sand. 

That's why you often see people on beach holidays reading a book under the ombrellone. 

Now imagine that, instead of bringing your own book to the beach, you could go to a beach littered with books that you could jump inside of, where you will discover action, adventure, humor, and even the meaning of life... is that too much to ask? 

Not at the Nook.         

Third Life's A Charm

 It opened its doors in July 2016, and now, it seems, this week it will be closed for good. Not to be confused with 3rdRock Grid, or the Brazilian 3D Life, we're talking about  DJTommy Seetan's grid, 3rdLife Grid. 

It was really only luck that this weekend I heard about the closure from Safari regular Lite House, and it felt like a chance not to be missed - a final tour. It really was a charming grid, and my visits have never been frequent enough, much to my chagrin.

At one time, you may recall, the grid was home to HG Visionz magazine, the brainchild of Sunbeam Magic and Minetheree Anthanaios, with writerly support over the years by  Jessie Campbell, Reyn Softly, Serene Jewell, Virtual Christine, Zinnia Frenzy, and Chopsy Bode.

Lessons in... Making it in Opensim

The following is a Guest Post by My Virtual Beach grid owner Trizaria Hunter, and  her 20 year career as a content creator in virtual worlds.

The best place to start is at the beginning, and that goes back to 2002/2003 and a game put out by Blue Fang Games and Microsoft Game Studios called Zoo Tycoon. While the creation differed greatly from what I do today, it was the beginnings of it all. If any of you have ever played

Safari SGT: Sauce by Maya Paris

 Personal:   are you flipped, gobby, arch, or tricky?
Would you like to be beckoned with an indistinct finger of mildness? 
  Where do you stand on soup?

A darkened room, 1800m up in the air. Red phone boxes. And immediately you're being asked to choose. Who are you? What do you like? What's your number? Should you jump? 
And you wonder - what is all this sauce?

Think about it. That camp yet classy British look. Having all your own teeth, or not.  Brewing. Fish eating chips. Being tempted to cross the line marked 'Do Not Cross'. Surprising sounds with poses and particles. 

What else could it be but a Maya Paris build?

This is where the inner joy of OpenSim becomes replete. 

Chester and the portals

 Chester and me have been pretty busy jumping around the hypergloop looking for destinations for the latest HG Safari project, the Self Guided tours, and we are pretty close to being done. We have nc blindness now, hopefully some wine will fix that. 

Lessons from a Hypergrid Honeypot

The following is a Guest Article by Nara Malone of Nara's Nook. 

You can visit her grid at world.narasnook.com:8900 

Follow Nara's writing blog at naramalone.com 

The Nara's Nook Grid blog is at narasnook.com

The backstory: Nara and two writer friends, Siobhan Muir and  Tina Glasneck, founded their own grid 'Nara's Nook' in OpenSim about ten years ago. After several years of experiments in digital storytelling on the hypergrid, the resident authors branched off into other projects, leaving the grid online, but unattended. That was not good - their distraction was exploited by bad actors, who damaged the Nook. Here's Nara's take on this experience.

Nara’s Nook grid was an intentional hypergrid honeypot, not originally with intent to lure troublemakers so we could learn to secure things better. We left the grid portal unguarded to empower potential users to slip in, watch shyly from the shadows if they needed to, and eventually to experiment with the various elements of 3D storytelling on their own or by joining our projects. There was always a pot of stone soup simmering on the back burner, a fresh baked something or other to go with it, and plenty of wild honey or wild spirits to spike brewing creativity. Our doors and windows were left wide open. We left the porch light on, and NPC powers enabled for curious wandering souls.

Outdoors Indoors and more...

 Season One of the rebooted Safari has come to an end, and perhaps you're wondering - is that it?

Well, no. A brief burst of taking it easy, then it all begins again.

Season 2 will begin on Wednesday May 4. The theme of the first trip will be "The Great Outdoors - Indoors".  First stop: the French Canadian grid Creanovale, in its Spring/Summer mode. The Safari has been to this grid, owned by Dabici Straulino and Kelso Uxlay a few times over the years, but we have never seen their Canadian Summer look, so that will be a first. 

Our second stop will be on the German grid of Achim and Dina Twisterling, Next-Life Grid. Next-Life is gorgeous mix of regions, and a party destination throughout the year, and we will be hosted on their impressive sailing regions. 

That's just the first of 10 weeks of Safari that will include events celebrating 'The Little Prince', The Beatles, Dinkies, Gor, Space exploration, Opensim's top dev Ubit Umarov, the city of Belfast, OpenSimFest, and the music of Moses Rae - to name just some of our planned stops.

In the meantime, do drop in on HG Safari region on OSGrid over coming weeks, there will be some new items there.

Closing at Crista's

             For the second part of our final Safari of the season, we decided to "fechar com a flor" and so the Safari group came to UCI Mondego to meet up with a true Diva, Opensim's own Diva Canto, aka Crista Lopes. These occasions always produce a lot of questions and interesting answers, and on this occasion, Crista was quick to get in the first question, where were we all from?