This is the news everyone tried to guess what it was. Virtual beach region which is our current welcome region is getting a major upgrade!

I would like to thank Darci Viper and Lilly Sparks from OS grid for doing the complete rehaul and putting up with me. They have put a lot of effort in the region, I have done a few things but the credit really goes to them.

Also i want to thank Cuetulala artis aka bloom peters for working on a special project in there i cant yet reveal.

When it is finished, there will be a reveal party, stay tuned for details.

Dear Lily Sparks. I don't know if you will see this, but I made you a special version of my mesh object vendor. It is just for textures. All you do is copy & paste the textures into it. That's it. No renaming, No muss, No Fuss. It just works and is very low lag and super low cpu usage. :) It's at cyberdatastorm.com:8002:SandBox Make sure to get the one that has the textures on the face, there are TWO vendors there one for objects and one for textures and they look just alike. The texture vendor I stuck some seamless elven wallpaper textures in so you could tell them apart. :) Your Friend Cyber

"Tanze mit uns in den Mai!

Feiere einen schönen Abend voller Rhythmus, Spaß und guter Gesellschaft.
Treffe tolle Menschen, genieße die wundervolle Atmosphäre und tanze zur guter Musik.
Lass uns gemeinsam den Frühling willkommen heißen und tanze mit uns in den Mai!
Los geht es ab 20 Uhr wir freuen uns auf euch .

Dear friends of fairy tales
Cloudshead Worldheart
will be closed for a few days,
due to a major grid update
As soon as all work is completed,
we will let you know!
Thank you for your understanding!
Warm greetings
Lampithaler
______________________________________
Liebe Märchenfreunde,
Cloudshead Worldheart
wird für ein paar Tage geschlossen sein,
wegen einem großen Grid Update.
Sobald alle Arbeiten abgeschlossen sind,
werden wir es euch wissen lassen!
Vielen Dank für euer Verständnis!
Herzliche Grüße
Lampithaler

Stag Hollow is still under construction and it is a cooperative effort among various grid members. It took a little searching and a lot of editing but here we have a whole herd of buffalo grazing in the valley between the town and the Indian camp. All are welcome to visit and if you'd like to have a home on this region we can discuss particulars. There is a hot air balloon to ride or you can find a horse rezzer in the stables of the blacksmith shop. Tour the hotels and restaurants and enjoy the many homes and businesses in this small town of Stag Hollow. There really is a lot to see here and I believe you'll enjoy it. Blessings and much love, Lavia.

Allow us to invite you to join our Friends of The Genesis Roleplay Grid HUD. Here we'll place a walk through (collision) teleporter with your logo and grid address so that when people walk through they will be teleported to your grid and the region you select. At Genesis Roleplay Grid we are working to create a more positive and cooperative atmosphere in Open Sim and we're doing it by networking grids and sharing anything that we can to help our "Friends'" grids succeed. The process is easy, contact me, Lavia Lavine, and send me your logo and the address and rezz point for your grid's chosen destination, and that's it. It's just that simple. Why do we do this? Because we want to and we can. I will also be forming a group for this for all "Friends of GRPG" to join so I can send notices and other information to those who join. Blessings and much love, Lavia.

Sakuragawa (Cherry Blossom River) has neat boats to float down the river! Make sure you have your media sounds on to hear the Japanese music in the distance. three.hills.grid.outworldz.net:8002:Zensational thank you, @FerdFrederix

Let's talk about child avatar criteria for a moment.

This is Juno, my little in-world sister. Little as in one year younger. What she's wearing is something she isn't too unlikely to wear these days. It's still quite chilly outside after all.

Those of you who know her won't doubt that she's a grown-up woman. But there's a whole lot about her that may qualify her as an underage avatar. I'm not even joking.

Yes, on the one hand, protection against paedos and their unlawful ageplay is a necessity; see also Safine's most recent post: https://opensimworld.com/post/108176

On the other hand, paedos are trying to circumvent countermeasures. Add to this the most recent drama about Lindens being directly involved in sexual ageplay in Second Life.

As a result, sim owners ramp up their countermeasures. This goes well beyond more and more sims redefining the Adult rating as "G-rated, but no child avatars allowed". It's likely that the signs that an avatar is underage will be "upgraded", too.

And the wide-spread anti-underage paranoia has made them absolutely ridiculous quite a while ago already. There's so much that could qualify Juno here as a kid.

Let me sum it up.

First of all, her height. The most blatant sign and the only one that triggers auto-bans. She's "only" 1.74m which is 5'8½". Many childgates still run on default settings which ban everyone under 1.80m. And I guess their number will increase as more and more sim owners decide that 1.60m or 1.70m doesn't cut it anymore. I'm pretty sure Juno has fallen victim to childgates twice already.

The other criteria are purely visual.

Her shape is somewhat close to realistic. Her head is about ⅛ of her body height which is actually still a bit small for a real-life woman. By OpenSim standards, however, her head is rather large in comparison with her body height. This reeks of a kid shape.

Next, look at her skin tone. In early April in real life, this is a fairly typical skin tone. In OpenSim, however, grown-ups are basically required to have a deep tan. Even most goths have darker skins than Juno. The only avatars with such light skins are child avatars. Well, and Juno, but if you don't know her, you're easy to take her for a kid because her skin is so light.

Now, look at her face. Look at her lips. No pumped-up boat lips. This is what real-life lips look like, but in OpenSim, the only avatars with such thin lips are either male avatars or child avatars. Since she doesn't have a perma-stubble or a full beard, she can't be the former.

Anything else you notice about her face? Right, no make-up whatsoever. Practically all other adult female avatars out there at least wear lipstick. She doesn't even wear that. Well, sometimes she does, but not here, not now. Makes her look like a kid in comparison.

Speaking of make-up, look at her hands. No nail polish. AFAIK, not a single one of the popular female mesh bodies lets you go without nail polish. Especially Athena doesn't. So basically, if a female avatar doesn't wear nail polish, it's either a classic, mesh-less layer-and-prim avatar from, like, 2007 or a child avatar. And Juno doesn't look like she doesn't have a mesh body.

And her hair? Yes, that's a bob. In real life, it was a rather popular hairstyle in the 1960s. In OpenSim, hair significantly shorter than shoulder length is probably the second-most child-like girl hairstyle right after twin pigtails. As an adult woman, she should be expected to have a long lush mane. I've never seen a single female avatar with Paige hair. Black could be a saving throw because little girls are usually blond, but not necessarily.

Let's continue with her clothes.

She's covering a whole lot of skin, more than almost all other female avatars. Granted, most little girl avatars show a whole lot more skin, too. Just look at those super-short skirts that seem to be a requirement for underage girl avatars. But grown-up female avatars are basically expected to do the same. Thus, covering up makes her look less adult.

So does the rather loose fit of her clothes. Adult female avatars may be allowed to wear long denim jeans, but only of the skin-tight kind. But while Juno's jeans are labelled slim fit, they look rather like something a little boy could wear.

Her pullover gives the impression that she doesn't have a waist. You know what other avatars don't have much of a waist? Good thing she doesn't have a petite body because there's no petite variant of her body, otherwise she'd look almost flat in this pullover. Also, that shade of teal might be questionable at least. It'd be worse if that pullover was pink, but she doesn't have it in pink.

Finally, her footwear. She's wearing flat shoes. Adult female avatars are expected to always walk around on 6" heels. In fact, she's even wearing sneakers. Flat sneakers. Even tip-toe sneakers are questionable, but unless worn by a manly man, they're little girl material.

And if that wasn't enough, she's wearing them with white socks. The only hosiery adult female avatars may wear in OpenSim is nylon stockings, Zettai Ryouiki-style, showing skin on the thighs above. Socks are pretty much exclusively worn by children, so what does that make Juno?

I bet that if Juno wore this to events in places whose owners don't know her, chances are she'd be banned on the spot for being a kid. Good thing her usual party styles are of the kind that causes her to be accused of dressing like a grandma instead.

When I logged in to Sakuragawa this afternoon @JamieWright was visiting with a beautiful Hanami Dango gift for me, thank you Jamie. I was just loading an OAR when she arrived so it captured her for a bit in time, I am sorry I missed you Anna thank you so much for this lovely Hanami Dango :) I placed it on the plate so that others can get a delicious treat too.

New room added to the gallery with a collection of images entitled "We, robot". It is composed of images looking for how the history of our civilization would be if it were repeated, but by robots!

hg.osgrid.org:80:GavezDois

Two of the most visited and important monuments in Portugal are represented on the grounds of the GavezDois Art Gallery, in Osgrid.

Here you can see one of them, the Pena National Palace, which is located in the Sintra mountains. Eternally grateful to the generosity of Ernest Moncrieff who built this magnificent building.

It is now open to the public and can be found in Osgrid's Destinations Guide. There will be a grand opening party soon!

hg.osgrid.org:80:GavezDois

Grab your dancing shoes and shimmering sequins, it's time to get your groove on! The disco fever is burning and Essensual has the cure with her dazzling new design, Fever. This sparkle-filled stunner is bursting with so much shine, you'll need shades just to look at it. Feel that disco beat and let the rhythm move you as you shine brighter than a mirror ball in this sensationally sequined style! Whether you're getting down on the dance floor or making a glittery entrance at any event, Fever's flashy glitz and glam is guaranteed to turn heads. So get ready to boogie the night away in this fantastically fun, light-catching look!

Tarot Table (The Celtic Cross) - BUG FIX. Thanks to 9 zero of neverworld for pointing out that in the dialog plus menu, setting menuidx=0 is no longer allowed due to scripting rule changes on some simulators. It worked on mine. But no matter, I have fixed this now to work perfectly.

Maybe we are old fashioned, Monkey and me. Today we remembered the lively weekends when people went out to dance and have fun together. Also here, in OpenSim.

This seems gone now. When I go somewhere I may find lots of people, but very little activity. One or two AVs talk or use gestures filling the screen, but most others are silent.

Sometimes they even stand wagging in total silence. Makes me think of the terra cotta warriors in emperor Qin Shi Huang Di mausoleum in China.

Mostly I love to stay for a while, listening to the music and dancing on my own. Sometimes exchanging a word with a friend. Then I get tired at being on the parking place and fly home to Caribou again.

Well, not much to say. Every grid does their own thing as they wish.

Caribougrid is here for you and everyone else. For now we have events three times every week and they are always open for everyone. Yes they will be more in the future.

Caribou is Adult rated and we hope that our friends come as 18+ Avatars, at any size small or large, so we can keep these islands open, advanced and safe for all. Ask me, Jeanne, if you are not sure how we see you.

Ask me also for private homes, hideaways and second homes. From villages and tropical islands to countryside and winter snow. From your own island to a village condo. Caribou Avatars have the right built in.

Avatars from other Grids please contact me and we see what and how we can arrange. We will always find solutions.

A caribougrid.com Avatar can be created at http://hg.caribougrid.com:16002 - and life here will be easy. Please note that our server checks automatically that your e-mail address is a real one.

And yes. All is free in Caribou.

Read more at www.caribougrid.com.

A warm hug to you all. Jeanne

After looking at the gold Buddha in the 360° snapshot from yesterday, I realized the gold can look much better so I retextured it. This is not pbr, it uses material textures, and adding lights around it will bring out the sparkle even more. This statue is free and can be found in the Asian room in the main store building.

Come see my latest creation at VallandShop,

SmallThongBulge is a rigged thong bulge for the athena Body.

features :

Rigged mesh Thong

Hud can stay and get out of the way

Easily remove your thong with button

4 Bulge size : from Tucked to Big

36 Textures to choose from

Materials aspect on/off

Why are people moving to friends-grid?

It’s not because of the 4 new race tracks opened at our Velocidad region.

It’s not because we have the largest, most detailed underwater build in open sim.

It’s not because the sailing here is soo fun and challenging.

It’s not because they heard about the new Friends Mall & Skatepark….opening in February.

It’s not because of our one of a kind Casino…an experience like no other!

It’s not because of the super fast servers

It’s not because of the amazing and rare horses found at our stables.

No, those things are nice
But they are not why people are moving to friends-grid

The secret is out

And word has been spreading fast!

People are moving to friends-grid
Because of our amazing residents!

That’s right……
The reason people are moving to friends-grid is

The PEOPLE.

Our community has people from all over the world…..

But we all speak the language of friendship….and we find ways to communicate and learn about each other’s culture.

We presently have a couple islands still available and we are looking for people who want to be a part of this amazing international community. There is no rent charged on these islands and they offer 10,000 prim.

We do not want everybody, but we want a few awesome people to make our community even better!

Contact Grid Hostess Zuzu Bahro or Safine Mahoe for details or go to friends-grid.com