Safari gets a Fair Shake

       Two destinations this week, and both of them are about connecting and sharing across grids. Two hosts, Satyr Gator and Ozwell Wayfarer, both of them keen builders who have done that extraordinary thing, they have looked up from their own work and beyond their own creativity, and decided to do something for the greater good.

Ozwell Wayfarer and Satyr Gator

          Our first stop was on OSGrid, Satyr Gator's sim opensimworld full HG Addresses at the end, as usual. 
        This is a lovely imaginative build where you can find the famous beacons available - the beacon you'll need to add your grid to the opensimworld.com website which allows people to find your region, club, shop or institution in the massive universe of ... well, open sim worlds, there's really no other way to put it. 

        Get your beacon, but explore the rest of the region too, there are NPCs and spaceships and a lovely psychedelic dance floor. But for our group, there was - let's say, a certain amount of lag.

Happy EVER After

 When the French invite you to dinner, you'd be crazy not to show up. When they say 'dinner theater', then even more so.  

            Grid EVER is the virtual home of the University of Strasbourg, and the performance was 'Au fil de l'eau' by Ann Rocard, performed by the Adret Theater Players - Jenny Bihouise aka Cheops Forlife and Lorenzo Soccavo are the guys behind the event. The audience was limited to just 15 avatars for technical reasons, and it was the perfect size for the group.

Safari gets Tangled and (almost) Terminated

This week we got some answers to questions like 'What's going on with this year's opensim convention?' 'How many times do you have to crash before you get to TanGle grid?' and finally, 'What's it like to have your own personal Terminator?'
Of course, there were other, perennial questions, such as 'Where's my hair?' 'Am I naked?' and 'Who is UMMA?' - all things that anyone who's been on Safari has heard - and said - many times before.

Joyce Bettencourt

Joyce Bettencourt, co-owner of AvaCon grid, and local residents Sun,Tzu and Frans Charming welcomed us to the main plaza decorated with Ruben Haan artwork. After the usual - lovely - flurry of meeting, greeting and friending, we got right down to business.
Jessie Campbell: so I beg the question...what IS Avacon?

Joyce.Bettencourt: hi all, so AvaCon is a 501c3 nonprofit org... we have organized a lot of virtual worlds, things like the Second Life Community Convention that took place in real life in Boston in 2011 and Oakland CA in 2012, and also this past year's Federal Consortium of virtual worlds conference
Selby.Evans: 501c3 is non-profit
George Equus: Tax exempt non profit right 501?
Joyce Bettencourt: which means any money donated would be tax exempt and able to be deducted if you are in the United States. It also means we can't make a profit, all funds raised go towards programs, and the resources and staff needed to support them.
Thirza Ember: this grid is made for conferences that's why it's so robust.
Jeff Kelley: How do you make it robust?
George Equus: lots of titanium probably
Thirza Ember: underpinned by a giant dev who never moves

Joyce Bettencourt: we have also helped organize with the OpenSimulator core developers the OpenSimulator Community Conferences. This grid functions a lot like our virtual office and event space, along with hosting others like the Virtual World Best Practices conference presence in OpenSimulator, and several unique projects from other AvaCon folks like Fleep Tuque's Primland build that is a colorful, game-like how to build in OpenSim walk through... influenced by the game Candy Land if you remember that, and also Nebadon Izumi has a region here that has a lot of his work in progress and interactive objects in his studio - that is the Oni Kenkon Creations region.

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. 

Bon Voyage Justin

        No trip this week, just a quick tp over to OSGrid's Event Plaza, for 3 hours of music and chitchat.

         Justin Clark-Casey, who has for several years been a key member of the OpenSimulator core developer team, recently announced he was stepping down from the project to focus on his new job.
He wrote about it here, if you'd like to know more.
Well, we couldn't let him go without a party!

A Pale Safari

Wonderful architecture this week on a rip roaring Safari. A number of new friends joined us on Teravus Plaza, OSGrid, where the Safari generally starts out. It's always hard to tell if they're just curious about our group, or actually want to gridjump with us.
 If you're new and shy and not sure if you're going to be able to make the jumps, please go ahead and IM Fuschia, Wizardoz, or me and we will make sure we get you to the first destination. It is extremely common to crash when you're new to hypergridding, so don't hesitate in asking someone to shadow you on your first few trips - that's what the event is really intended to do - help everyone get comfortable with hypergridding!
Also to mess about, obviously.

Anyhoo, there was some doubt whether our first destination could possible stand a lot of avies arriving all together. We never let that bother us, of course. Here is a diagram of what generally happens.
Sirin Peccable couldn't be there on the day on Atoll Lost, but Francogrid Femme fatale Praline B was on hand to welcome us and tell us a bit about his regions. (freebies! woot!)  As usual, the addresses for these destinations are at the end of the post.

Praline (right) welcomes us to Atoll Lost, Francogrid

Safari goes Looking

This week for our first destination, Mobius Grid wanted to do something special to mark the 16th anniversary of the launch of the Dreamcast console, an iconic piece of gaming equipment that changed the virtual lives of many a young(and-not-so-young)ster. We were looking for some gamer fun, and we found it.

A party ? You better believe the Safari wanted in on that! To try to blend in on Mobius, which is in layman's terms a 'Sonic the Hedgehog-themed world'  most of the safaristas donned appropriate furry attachments, some like Jessie Campbell and me for the first time.