Safari Park

Alizarine Goldflake: what does it take to get a sim here?

Wizard Gynoid: a very big ship

We still do not know what Mal Burns was doing in that garden, and perhaps it's just as well. I'm certainly not going to be the one to ask him, he is a TV personality and we all know what they are like...

Mal Burns

           It was a tough night for safarying; we lost Pathfinder Lester before we'd even begun. But Ferd Fredrix showed up in this amazing avatar, apparently an Autocad freebie, which we all loved. And thanks to Mercalia Beck, we have a new Clubhouse friend, a chatty crocodile, who you are welcome to go and feed. He's on the patio.

          Our first destination, the Jurrasic Park of Sarah Kline and Ada Massenberg, should have been a walk in the park since it's right here on OSGrid and is on a Var region, which theoretically should have been able to take the strain of a mere 20 avatars, and they were expecting our visit. Strangely, the lag was palpable, the brilliant and funny builds failed to load, people were frozen or found themselves at 1,1,1 coordinates. Tp'ing to other parts of the region helped a bit, but for many it was just too eye-watering.

          Some struggled even to jump at all.
Cherry Manga: trying trying
Cherry Manga: ok doesn't work
Cherry Manga: don't lose time with me and enjoy the safari
Thirza Ember: this is not wasted time. This is the point of the safari. to help people make hypergridding work for them
          She went to LBSA Plaza. Landmarks are great, sure, but your Map is your bestest friend. Everyone wants to make hypergridding better with a script, or a HUD, or a gate, but in the end it's about you and your map, being aware of your surroundings, and figuring out strategies to get from A to B, like jumping to the Default region of a grid when the all else fails.
Thirza Ember: put this in your map so you can see the region in your map: "Ada and Sarahs Jurrasic Park" then hit Search - it helps sometimes
Cherry Manga: I'm there after a crash, landed on a brontausaurus
          Hypergridding is voodoo. Your juju is your perseverence, and maybe helping someone else stick with it is the best fun of all. People go quiet and we can't always tell if they are struggling, or just busy having fun. Not everyone experienced Jurassic Lag. Look at Fuschia, who found King Kong and is guaranteed a week of charmed life.

It's like the Via Francigena.
          After the collapse of the Roman Empire, much of Europe was engulfed in a hungry, muddy, fighty period called the Dark Ages. They weren't cavemen or anything, there was still life and intellectual thought going on in Europe, and people who had the traveling bug still went exploring. The pilgrimage was your best excuse for leaving home and seeing the world, but getting to Rome was a tough proposition; the old Roman roads and cities were worn out or gone. Pilgrims got lost in marshes, on freezing mountain passes, killed or enslaved by brigands, or completely lost in the long journey South from places like Denmark and Cumbria, and back again. But gradually, the random trackways consolidated into a much more reliable route, and hospitality and security (even ancient credit cards!) trade and communication eased the traveler's lot, as documented by Sigeric the Serious in the 900s and in this pretty cool blog  in 2011.
         Medieval meanderings seem an appropriate metaphor for Safari. We sally out hopeful into the semi-unknown. Not all of us make it back. Anyone who wants help has only to ask. We have Sara fari back at the clubhouse always ready to get you back in touch with the group, so there's no reason to miss out even at a later stage in the event.
            There are so many opportunities in Open Sim, and the period of being a hypergridding noob is really quite short, if you give it a chance. This platform is growing larger, more stable, with more lovely free content every day. Can you really afford to be an SL stay-at-home?

          Speaking of opportunities, our last official destination of the trip was TanGLe grid, that rare thing, a commercial grid with its own currency but open to hypergridding, where Isambard Kingdom Brunel (no relation) organizes excellent Expos on - you've guessed it - Expo Island. Look for him in InWorldz and SL and OSGrid as Peter Veliz, if you would like to get involved with a show. About half the original group was still with us at this point, and probably 80% had crashed and had to re-make the trip from OSGrid back to TanGLe, but nobody seemed to mind too much, it's all experience. 

We were there for the last night of the Fashion Expo, (next up is Air and Space!) and everyone took the opportunity to admire the underwear. Although some of us might not need it.

Serene Jewell

Walking was not an option, for some reason, but the Haunted House was excellent. 

Tangle Grid funfair 

The rides were fast and furious especially the little planes where I nearly up-chucked all over Alizarine Goldflake (too much popcorn!)

Some of us were not wearing undies. Nuff said.

... and the shooting gallery where I discovered Serene is a very good shot, so better keep all my bark-related quips to myself.
Fun? I should say so.

Serene Jewell, armed and dangerous

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.

Spike, SIDA, and Sara Fari

          They say it's wrong, but it's not. Traveling in a group of twenty-plus avatars from grid to grid, I mean. Not that other thing, which is very wrong and you really need to quit.

          Every Wednesday, in the three hours of the Safari, we lose people. Some just drift back to more important things, some get bored or called away, some don't realize that we are still online even though we show up offline - a simple IM will resolve that, and get you back with the group! - and sometimes we all get frozen or can't see much but then there are moments like this, from yesterday, on Francogrid's SIDA monument to AIDS victims, when it is just so worthwhile...
          There are three things that go wrong when hypergridding, one is Attachments disappear, we are working on a Safari strategy for that, two: people get lost, ditto, and three: some grids and/or servers just can't take the strain, but even here, the outlook for the future is good. 

          Meet Sara Fari. During each Safari, she is going to hang out at Teravus Plaza, Osgrid, at our main HQ. If you get lost, go back to see her. She will let us know where you are and we will tp you to where we are.  

         This is us at our first stop, looking at the HG Safari stand, part of the OSGrid 7th anniversary party. We're on the North sim, there are two other 0.8 Varregions hosting exhibits, OSG7BW and OSG7BE. Try saying that 3 times fast. Hey, that's Pathfinder's Map on the ground with pins in it! How long till someone sits on a pin, I wonder. 
Oh too late.

         After Francogrid,we visited the Metropolis grid TP center that is on Spike Sol's home computer - yes home computer! In 21! and we didn't crash it! 

          That's not to say we could see everything: it isn't built for numbers. But we visited, and I hope made Spike realize how much her fantastic collection of Metropolis destination portals means to the hypergridder. Likewise the genuinely wonderful friends on Francogrid who are always so welcoming.
          After Metropolis, it was time to try visiting Pete Camino's Firefly-themed build on sim Landfall and surrounding on OSGrid. I say 'try', Pete warned me before hand that they might not take a lot of avies all at once. Indeed, many of the party had departed, and many crashed like me; only to come back online to find this going on. Not even the presence of Pathfinder Lester was enough to rein in the madness.

Pathfinder , OK I can see that happening. But Nara of Nara's Nook? *looks shocked*

          This region is wonderful. Pete has made available dozens of different spaceships for you to copy and fly. There are interesting buildings and a variety of shops 'selling' firearms, furniture and more. We were too much for the place, and gradually decamped, returning to HG Safari's home on Teravus Plaza, where Mal, Allelia, Miso, Mr Mips, Wizzy, snow and I exchanged Movie Gestures, and pondered on this travesty to the spirit of safariing.

Seven Year Grid

OSG7BW

OSGrid turns seven this month. Take a look at a map of the grid, and you'll notice it is mind-bogglingly large. Those are not simply cookie cutter regions or abandoned builds, either; the variety and wealth of creativity going on here are equally impressive, not least because, as a non-commercial grid where resources are less plentiful, a lot of ingenuity goes into making even the simplest thing. Just a little bit of the magic of OSGrid is on show at the birthday celebrations, held officially this weekend July 26 and 27.  There are three exhibition regions this year, OSG7BW, OSG7BN, OSG7BE plus a performance region, and the sims themselves are special, because they're the new 0.8 release Varregions, much bigger than an ordinary sim and with many other bells and whistles. This also means to get to the show, you need to depart from an upgraded sim... long story - the simplest answer is, go to sim LBSA, and teleport from there.
All kinds of interests and initiatives are expressed through stands and exhibitions, from the real life natural world to the history of virtual environments, to building and scripting ideas

Jeff Hall, for example, is a forestry engineer in the real world, has a fascinating exhibition on trees and the way they make our world beautiful and livable. Enjoy the woodland feel, complete with owls and boards giving some pertinent lessons in the way our planet's forests are being maintained - or not. He has a particularly interesting element, the tallest tree in the world. The best bit for me is the part of the install where you go up to the exact height of the tallest tree, and you can actually feel what it must be like for a bird or an insect to perch up at the top, and it gives you renewed respect for our barky friends.
Fabulous creators Sarah Kline and Ada Massenberg have a completely different build but equally useful and interesting, it's on how to build better, in scale and proportion.

 Sarah Klein: I missed the first 2 Birthday celebrations here in OSGrid. It wasn't until the 3rd one that I had a stand. (here's a video of that). We used the same set up from the previous years and it was an impressive build by Adam Frisby and others. There were 4 regions, which the next year was turned into a Megaregion. We had a few problems with that though and the amount of people it could hold initially, but now we have Var regions and other improvements - it's so much better! This year there are about 50 exhibits across 3 var regions compared to about 30 across 3 regular regions last year so Vars definitely have been an advantage to us, there are always many new faces joining the exhibitors each year which is always encouraging and makes for a great exhibition. Looking at all the amazing creativity amongst the community here is certainly enjoyable and last year we left the regions up for a couple months afterwards for people to see. The party and music at the end is always great fun! 
          There's Danger Lytton's OSMax Theater, and Caro Fayray's Tree of Life, Samuel Greenway's Hatteras Lighthouse; Nebadon Izumi's stand which will teach you more about the Periodic Table than you've a right to know.

OSG7BE

          There's a Roman Bath and Temple right next to a Greek fantasy night club. There are goodies from Wickenshire, Lani and much much more. Some builds are still in a work in progress, the fun doesn't start till Saturday,  but it's clear this is going to be quite an event.

            Gimiso Cerasa's script house, to Tina Bey's hot and hollow hill that represents the heart of football players, are two more unmissable stops. Wizard Gynoid has a geometric tower, with a meeroo barbecue on the roof.  Each of the birthday sims has its own dance hall, and there will be live music with Truelie Ellen on Sunday.
          Fuschia Nightfire has put together HG Safari's contribution, including a machinima showing some of the many grids we have visited so far.

OSG7BN

OSG7B starts on Saturday 26 July. See you there!

Safari High

          You know you've been on safari when the trip starts out with an elephant farting, and ends with a dinosaur eating a giraffe.

          The new HG Safari meet up point is still in OSGrid, but we moved to a different sim, Teravus Plaza, a homestead township where the weather is less picturesquely stormy. Probably just as well, since a whopping 24 people showed up for our trip this week. I'm not sure Ilha Magica could have taken the strain.

          There is an indoors to the clubhouse, with freebies, and chairs, a TV showing some of our exploits, 'helpful' posters, and a patio with a meeroo cooking on the barbecue, but everyone ended up in the front yard, somehow. Please drop by any time. TP to Teravus Plaza and look for the waterfall. We are next door. Feel free to grab freebies, get the notecard with LMs to freebie stores, and do not forget to click on the elephant's tail.
          It was so cool to have valued regulars with us, and also lots of new friends along, including SL pals like Apmel and Desdemona Enfield. Finding a look that works for you on a grid without all your favorite shops, let alone marketplace, is a challenge and they both made it work in different ways.

Apmel Opensson and Desdemona Enfield. Apmel is the one with pants on.

           Just friending everyone took about 5 minutes. Why friend everyone? Well, obviously they're all exquisite human beings, but on the practical side it makes it easier to keep track of who has crashed or lost the group, and you can tp and chat to someone when you're on another grid. Sometimes. 
            Fuschia Nightfire had organized our first jump to a truly lovely ensemble installation called Dreamtforest, on a tiny grid which frankly I doubted could take the strain of two dozen avies. Art Blue aka Ervare Farroretre was there to meet us. He explained how this build is part of the RL contemporary art expo, the Santorini Biennale, and that it's an interactive install. You get a tree from the dispenser near the big blue stargate, and then plant it and water it. I'm not sure how you water it, but I have my suspicions. Anyway, then it grows leaves and such, and you can go back and visit it, and see it develop. 

          We are those tiny dots and clouds on the tray being held by the gardener high above the lush vegetation of the adjoining sim. It is a place to return to, not only to visit your tree, but to explore. Here's a link to get more information about what it's all about.

          Safari lasts more than 3 hours usually, and nobody expects anyone to stay for the whole thing because you people have lives to live and Wednesday is often a busy time. Not only that, jumping is frustrating and laggy and annoying at the beginning, so it's only natural that people get fed up and go off to do something more comfortable and/or productive. So it was quite a shock to find  that almost everyone was able to stay with us to make the next jump, to Calchester on Kitely grid.

Calchester panorama

Some were able to use the Landmark, some used the map address, others needed a tp, some hopped back to OSGrid and then on to Kitely, some had to change sims in order to get the Landmark to work for them. We haz strategies. There's been quite a bit of talk about making a HUD for Safari, and while I appreciate the thought, honestly, hypergridding is way too unstable right now for that to be a viable option. But it will be, in the near future. For sure. 

Arriving in Calchester, Kitely grid

          Alexina Proctor and Prax Maryjasz welcomed us to Calchester, a 4 sim region, or 'world' as they call it in Kitely, with a truly enchanting atmosphere. There are castles, cottages, and creatures everywhere. If you're looking for a calming place to visit, this is perfect. Many simply cammed the regions, hence the standing-around pose here in the gazebo, but take time to ride one of the animals (find nessie if you can!) and just soak in the loveliness. 

          I went to take photos for a poster before the event, but snuck back several times, just to enjoy the scenery, which is probably very naughty because as I understand it, Kitely charges sim owners for every time somebody goes to visit. I hope not in this case! 

Foreground: our hosts Paislee, Prax and Alexina

          More gorgeousness on the Tolkein themed build of Paislee Myrtle, also in Kitely. I wondered what her response was to people who say that open sim is a 'desert'.
Paislee Myrtle: I say any virtual world is what you choose to make of it. Opensim forced me to learn how to make most of my own things.
Serene.Jewell: How many worlds have you built here, Paislee?
 Paislee Myrtle: hmmm... at the moment... 6 worlds. But there have been several more...in storage. I hope to start a straight up fantasy build soon. Have the flat land. If one gets in the flow...it goes pretty quickly.

Serene.Jewell: You do a lot with windlight settings.

Paislee Myrtle: yes. I love the option windlight offers. I tinker with them and make my own versions.

Serene.Jewell: That must take hours of tinkering. so many options.

Nara Mistwood: It's lovely.

Paislee Myrtle: not as much time as you would expect.

Alizarin Goldflake: soft and misty

Paislee Myrtle: after a while of doing it...you catch on to what to change and what to keep hands off of!

          The interesting thing about Kitely is that it gives you the genuine feel of being in another country with other customs. Like, you know, the way blowing your nose in public is considered very rude in Japan, or like the whole multiple kiss greeting you get in France. It's an underlying cultural difference that lets you know you're truly abroad. In OSGrid, the idea that you'd want money for the things you make is not considered 'quite nice'. It's like a social contract: If you take freebies, you ought to, in turn, make freebies, and pay it forward. But Kitely seems to be not like that. It's different. Different is good, seeing it helps us grow.

Paislee Myrtle's Ismadril region on Kitely

          By the time we'd explored both these regions, and taken LMs so we can return because boy there is way too much to see in one short visit, we were down to about seven or eight avatars. Nine weeks ago, when this adventure started, it was just me and wizzy. More than twenty is a bit mad, to be honest. Not what we expected at all. But we'll work on a plan to keep things managable and pleasant for all. 

          Six of us were still up for some grid hopping, so we did a bit of a tutorial: try to get to Triton Grid. 

The Fellowship of the Blam

Step 1. We went to Kitely Welcome Center, using the viewer Map. (Whenever trying to jump to a small exotic place, go to the 'main' sim of the grid you're on, it's more likely to work from there.)  

Step 2. We tried to jump to Triton via LM (didn't work) and copy/pasting the address (ditto)

Step 3. We went to Sanctuary Grid using the Map; that's sanctuary.homelinux.org:8012 For quick copy/pasting, I keep a grid-address Notepad doc on my desktop. Tip - need to quickly find out the address of a grid? Google the *name* + grid + 'URI'.

Sanctuary is home to dozens of hypergate portals or Blamgates; you arrive high up in the sky, and must go down to ground level on sim Eld, the main arrival region, to find them. 

          The Triton grid gate was hard to spot in the forest of portals, so we let Alizarin pick a destination - she chose Selea Core. Using gates is fun, but since it's a scripted item, if you click on it too much too quickly you just confuse matters. Four of us blammed there, me and snowy just copied the address into Search on our Map, and tp'd there that way. But the blam of the blamgate never loses its charm.

           Selea Core contains other portals, with a more futuristic look...

          Someone said, let's go to PMGrid! Where HG Safari has its new sandbox, and where soror Nishi has a sim full of lovely trees. Trees first.

          And then the HG Safari sim, which is just getting started. It's odd how sometimes your hair makes the jump and sometimes it doesn't. All those proxies probably. If you just went back to your home grid each time you jumped, that might fix the situation, but where would be the fun in that? Before long, the high jinx had begun. The T Rex (I call him Harrison) was eating the giraffe, and there was some funny business going on in the Official Landrover. Shocking behavior that is typical of this group. 
Nobody tell Bob.