Love to Verna

DJ, builder, landscape creator, loyal friend, photographer, and welcoming hostess at so many events, Verna Avril has been a valued friend and a familiar face in Opensim for a decade. Her long career of creativity in virtual worlds, going back to the days of Second Life.

 Here's a shot of her handiwork from 2012, on a sky platform on a SL sim called Sharks Cove. The environment she made here was called ' Dragon and Angel Palace' and Verna's love of fantasy comes through, all these years later... 

Verna's Dragon and Angel Palace

... but of course, SL could never be big enough for such a passionate builder! 

Verna landed in Osgrid back in 2012. She has accounts on several different grids, but Osgrid is home to most of her building projects. In 2022 she told me she had ten 4x4 regions, many of them rich environments, and several under construction. She's always been a big thinker - whether it's landscapes, roleplay, or having fun.

Right now, Verna is battling health issues, but even if she's not inworld, she is definitely not forgotten.

Lots of friends all send the same message - prayers, good wishes, and a reminder to stay strong! They include Jaime Wright, Mystic Moonlight, Ozzmosis Ozzy, DJ Purr, Hyacinth, Destiny, Dan, Quaesar Agnomen, Unadecal Masala, and Kylie Brimmer.

Event Plaza

Victoria Logan: Dear Verna, in each of your sessions as a DJ, I have been able to travel through my memories and enjoy your music. Excellent person always willing to help, I know this from my own experience. My hug is with you.

Super Scuba

 Safine Mahoe is an Opensim goddess, but you knew that already, this week for our second destination we visited her tour de force, an underwater build on Friends Grid,  called Aquamica.

We were delighted that Zazu Bahro and Tonykasjohny Resident were also present to welcome us to their fabulous grid, and join us on a walk through the water and help out with information, and when some of us got lost and needed a tp. 

Tony and Zuzu 

Safine outlined the plan for the day, and also reminded us of an important teleport requirement.

The Mysteries of Atlas Island

Our first destination of the day was on Dorena's World, a German-language grid with a long history here in Opensim, and always a treat to visit. Dorena and Anachron, the grid owners, were on hand to greet us, along with friend of the Safari Jupiter Rowland and his sister Juno.

We've visited lots of sims over the years, including the Beatles themed Strawberry Fields, the art sim More than Lights, and the social destination GridTalk and so on, or und so weiter, as they say here. This time our visit was to Atlas-Insel.

Dorena Verne: So, this region created Anachron single-handedly :-)

Luna Lunaria: great to see everyone

SoA BAD: hallo Dorena, hello all

Thirza Ember: takes me a minute to see colors... But we are all here

Dorena Verne

Luna Lunaria: You forgot to switch out your eyeballs again Thirza?

Star Ravenhurst: Region rezzed fast, but avatars are slow to rez for me

Dorena Verne[de→en]: See you all in color and completely, nice :-)

Anachron Young[de→en]: As Bruce Lee once said: Look at your eyes!

James Atlloud: wait, do I have eyeballs? oh  I do.

Luna Lunaria: lol James

Anachron Young

Leonitas Lionheart: nice to see you again Dorena :)

Dorena Verne[de→en]: I'm very happy too, thank you :-)

A Var Var Better Thing

Govega Sachertorte

We met on Little Willow Bay region, redolent of Jerry Garcia, whose art plays a pivotal role on  Neverworld Grid, famed for its many huge themed builds, often the destination of HG Safari trips, invoking everything from history to fantasy to TV shows and films, to the wide open spaces of the American continent. Govega, owner of Neverworld, explained a little of the background to the recent changes on the grid.

Govega Sachertorte: so you know last year we developed the roads sims, starting with cloudburst and shadowlands.. we were simply having so much fun that we decided to expand. We were having crashing issues and, turns out, all our var regions were different sizes, so Una said his OCD was crazy over that, and said we MUST have the SAME sizes for all var regions if they are attached

Thirza Ember:  he is one of many ocd people that can save your bacon

Govega Sachertorte: Yes! and that solved our problems. So once we started fixing the sizes, they all had to be 4x4s

French Respects

A beautiful buddhist bell was tolling in the wide and serene plaza on Francopholie grid, where a new build was inaugurated on Saturday.

Among those present were Edenette Catherinette, Ladyka 007, Minord Loup, Prodyck Theas, Pierre Segrov, Max Well, Nadir Rae, Sweety2 Jefferson, Vanessa and Vlad Vanhelsing, Athena Fira, Baal and Hina Starfall. Tristan Dehaie was the master of ceremonies.

Tristan, Nadir and Minord, among the first to arrive

People arrived gradually from about nine pm Paris time, beginning with Tristan, Nadir, who was in charge of the streamed  music for the event, and Minord Loup, owner of Francopholie which is a tiny grid aimed at helping French language users of Opensim to connect with each other, find resources, answers to technical queries, and the community generally. Gradually, the group grew. Here they all are, the lady with the wings is Edenette, more of her later.

Going to the Goddess

Our second destination of the week was over on Alternate Metaverse Grid, with the lovely Lynnestra Parker showing us around. We were sorry to learn that Maldrul Smith, a good friend of Lynnesta who DJs regular music events on Lynn's region, wasn't able to be with us due to RL. We were able to learn a lot about the sim from these informative boards when we arrived... this is a place of spirituality, myth and healing... with a fair dose of humor and fun thrown into the mix.

Thirza Ember: Thanks for agreeing to show us Airmid, Lynnestra!

Star Ravenhurst: I am excited to see it!

Lavia Lavine: It's positively gorgeous here. It's very relaxing

Lynnestra Parker: In Irish mythology, the goddess Airmed (also given as Airmid) was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. With her father Dian Cecht and brother Miach, she healed those injured in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh. I created this Armid to give people a place to relax and possibly heal.

Safari Does Anarchy

So what's new, I hear you say... anarchy on Safari is our default position. But this is another genius build by SoA BAD who, together with his partner in - crime? no, creativity - SIWAS S, met us on the Sons of Anarchy sim on their grid CCI. HG Address at the end of the post as always.

SoA BAD: First of all, welcome to California, in Charming, the fictional hometown of the Sons of Anarchy. We are here at the original Sons clubhouse.

SoA BAD: Famous people of the series will find everything here on this sim that was important in the series and where the most important scenes took place, such as the Sons' weapons depot in the mountains, police station, hospital, horse farm,

SoA BAD: ...as well as the "Casa Casa" in the red light district and the cafe and hairdresser in the center of town.

Star Ravenhurst: I love SOA! This looks awesome!