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. 

Safari Goes Looking - a little more

 John Snow: Ahhh, glad you made it. I'm told by my old colleagues at Westminster Medical School that you are one of their finest graduates, Stephen. I am in need of a skilled yet young-minded doctor to help me with an investigation of utmost importance. Do you feel up to it? (say "yes" in local chat).

Cholera, and OnLook might not sound like an appealing mix but for this week's Safari it was a wild ride through space and time!

Our second stop was a big change of theme, but also extremely well thought out. We went to REDGrid, which is the virtual world belonging to Ball State University. Dr Stephen Gasior uses the 3D environment to help students learn about investigating epidemics to figure out the cause.
Getting to REDgrid was no picnic, because the hypergrid was spitting back landmarks - but as you all know by now our Safari notecard includes the low-tech HG Address for each destination.

 At REDGrid on a sim named after pioneering medical detective Dr Snow.

Fuschia and me blend right in with the Victorian ambience

It's called 'Virtual Epidemiology Investigation' - a series of NPCs explain about the theories held in Victorian times about what caused cholera. The visit starts in the classroom with the received wisdom of the time, and with the help of a HUD, follows in the footsteps of Dr Snow by allowing the student to interview various sufferers and survivors of cholera, trying to understand the anatomy of the outbreak. It's interactive learning - you're meant to respond to questions and answers given by the  NPCs. Some are funny, some poignant, all very lifelike!

Death and the Diva

 We keep going back although I'm not sure any of us become any the wiser. 
Art Blue's latest theater production is called "True Death" and the Safari was invited to load test the sim. 

Load testing, that's something we do understand, and we're good at it! This was week 68 of the Safari, so you might say we're experts at this point.

Dancing with Doro

 Feriae Quinquennial and 1001 Nights are two wonderful regions by Dorothea Lundquist on OSGrid and really they're two of the regions we should be most proud of for their fabulous atmosphere and the quality of the textures and constructions. This was the first half of our trip, you'll find the photos of our second stop in the matching post called 'Mill-er Time' - a punny reference to Graham Mills, who puts up with a lot of ill-advised humor. He's a good guy.

Feriae in the mist

 First up, the is a Roman themed build, Feriae Quinquennial which is a reference to the 5 year festival for OSGrid, no mean feat with all the turmoil of testing, crashes, competition and so on. OSgrid is going strong now, better than before and we can only hope that things continue to improve, and grow. It will do, if we encourage and support the devs, so i guess we need to be nice!

Mill-er Time

Graham Mills has a lot to put up with. He's a man with a huge amount of knowledge to share with the community, and along we come and just stare and joke about the whole time.

Graham Mills

Graham Mills has been on Kitely for a couple of years now, previously his builds were located on New World Grid. He likes the stability of Kitely and the opportunity it gives him to turn into 3d models all manner of science - related builds that astound and delight for their intricacy, beauty and the lessons they teach.

Every time I see one of Graham's builds it's even bigger, better, Mill-er than the last, and always making science more approachable. The guy works hard to get the message across!