Chasing the Safari

RL comes first, we all know that, and for a lot of people, that makes joining the Safari impossible. Same happened to me this week. But while some weeks, the group visits specially opened sims or one-off events, this week's destinations are all easy enough to visit when the fancy takes you. And very worthwhile too. Just grab the LMs from the Safari clubhouse, for your convenience they are available at Teravus Plaza on OSGrid, as well as at our usual rendezvous, HGSafari sim on Francogrid. If you made a  LM to our Francogrid clubhouse more than two weeks ago, it will no longer work, as the sim has been moved onto another server. But if you put our hg address into your map, you will find it OK. That address? hg.francogrid.org:80:hgsafari
This week the first destination was something of a load test for the group, and by all accounts it stood up well to the onslaught of the safari waifs and strays. The grid in question, Sailonbye, (full HG Addresses at the end of the post) is a mini grid that brings together three of opensim's greatest virtues: a sense of place, a talented builder of original content, and a generous heart.

Safari does Particles and Prims

         There are some weeks when, I'm not going to lie to you, organizing the Safari is like boxing an octopus while wading through molasses. And then there are weeks like this.

Two stops, with a retro feel. Our first stop on Metropolis grid, at a place with a name you may well know... The Lost Gardens of Apollo. 

There. You're sighing. Well, if like so many of us you came into SL in that golden age around 2007, you may remember it.

Safari goes Under the Radar

            Small grids! Hypergridding was made for them. We visited three outstanding examples this week. All three are open 24/7 and are worth visiting by yourself for their art, charm, freebies, music and information. Full HG Addresses at the end of the post. 

          First, Isis Ophelia's grid. Arcana. This grid is just exquisite. It's based on Epic Castle (here's a link to Austin's excellent blog post on the subject) plus extras from Kitely Market, and of course original touches by Isis herself.

Isis Ophelia rocking the shoulderpet

 
How do Safaris begin? Imagine a whole glorious mess of 'hello!' and 'hey! how you been' and 'welcome' and 'have I rezzed?' comments. 

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 1: Safari Has Visions

                  This week's trip took us to two grids, Great Canadian and RefugeGrid, both operate on US time so we met at grid time, which was an hour earlier for European gridhoppers. Next week we're doing all Euro grids, and will be starting at 9pm CET. Our aim? Confusion, of course.
This is part 1 of two posts.

Aacme Cityscape

          But there was no confusion about our first destination, at Aacme City on GCG, the home of Visionz magazine, which celebrates its first anniversary this week. The magazine is a great example of all that is best about OpenSim. It is a produced by a team, but newcomers and contributors are welcome; it spans all hg enabled grids, rather than being virtually nationalistic about one place; it's free, and offers free advertising space; and it's a positive, upbeat source of information - a ray of sunshine across the hyperverse, one might say.... Visionz publisher Sunbeam Magic said a few words at the champagne and cake do in the office above the shop, on Great Canadian Grid. HG Address at the end of the post.

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.

NPC-fari

          Just two stops this week but boy were they both detail rich. It was NPC week on Safari, so of course our first stop had to be the spiritual home of the non player character, Nara's Nook, a grid that has storytelling at its heart. HG Addresses, as always at the end of the post. The arrival sim on the Nook is Greyville, and it has a new look.