Warm Winter Nights

Feelings and relationships in SL are for real.
This said, sure there are people in SL that are just playing characters and don’t ever (?) get involved, or at least they say they don’t. But from my experience people do establish strong bonds between each other.
Friendships develop, and no matter if you never come to meet the person behind the avi, they aren’t less real because of that. Everyone I meet has a best friend in SL, whom they go to when they need a shoulder, when they want to share a laugh or even when they just need to share a warm silence.

But if friendship is something that most people find “natural” within virtual environments, romantic relationships are quite different and always raise a lot of discussion.
Romantic relationships in virtual worlds are common. Most of the people have a boyfriend/girlfriend or even a husband/wife. There is even a whole marriage industry installed, from fashion to catering (yes, there is catering in SL), to support it.
There are some people who started to be romantically involved in SL and then met, now being RL partners. But, in general, most of the SL relationships I know about don’t last more than 3 months. And people get broken hearted for real, as they get in love for real.

Feelings just seem to be taken to higher levels in SL. Both the good and the bad.

And how does this affect our RLs? How about the RL partners when they find out about the SL relationship?

My friend Looker Lumet wrote this post about betrayal in SL, which in fact led me to write this first one on the subject.

It is quite a wide subject to be approached in just one post so part II is soon to come.

Meanwhile let me know your opinion on this and if you have any experience you want to share, just let me know and I will gladly post it.

Like I told you here, me and siss had our first rezzday on the 25th. Our two good friends M2Life and Marga have also their rezzdays close to ours so we decided to have a formal ball – the first to be held in Portucalis
I leave here the invitation and if you need a limo just IM for one.

Waiting to see all of you my friends there (hope the SIM doesn’t crash hehe)

Inside my head ideas are kept in bubbles. They are there, playing around, some big, some small, some dark, some shining.

Some decide to make their way to my fingers and splash words all over the paper or the screen

Others make their way to the fingers but just burst before all the words can safely reach their destiny, lost forever

But those I really hate are the ones that don’t decide what to do. They start their way to the fingers, go back again, keeping on looping along the path. Com’on guys stop! You’re making me dizzy!!!

When we live somewhere for a long time, we tend to forget the beauty of the place that has grown familiar to us. Sometimes I walk around Lisbon (well, ok, drive hehe) just trying to see the city as someone who’s never been there and, each time, I find new wonderful views.

Decided to do the same in Portucalis through the “eyes” of the camera and guys I am really proud of our Island. Pardon me for the lack of modesty, but we all did a pretty good job there.

Leave you with some pics just to invite you to go there whenever you feel like it

My first avi has already turned a year, but the poor girl didn’t like SL much , so she backed away and is somewhere lost in the grid. Hope she’s OK.

Winter and Summer were born on the 25th of November 2006 and the twins soon made the grid there home.

Together we discovered new friends, explored a lot, learned a lot.

After 2 weeks we were renting our first house with a gorgeous private beach. In 3 months we bought our first land. In 7 our first island together with some friends.

Though each of us follows her own path, we are closer than ever. Looking behind so many things happened, good, bad, most of them wonderful. So many friends crossed our ways. Some stayed, others long gone but still in our hearts.

One year in SL seems like a lifetime and yet every day is a new adventure, always something new to learn, another friend to add.

This post is just to thank you siss for not letting me quit after those first 2 weeks when the grid seemed meaningless and with nothing to offer. Just to tell you that, no matter what, I’ll always be here for you.

Love you

Well guys, Halden couldn’t resist windlight (who can? hehe) and did his first video in our beautiful Portucalis.

I leave you here the You Tube version and the link to the High resolution version (it is really worth dowloading the divx to watch it)

When reading Gwyneth Llewelyn’s  post about Windlight, I came across a YouTube Video that caught my attention.

The first thing was the Smartboard interactive whiteboard they use at the presentation. The first time I ever saw this technology (don’t know if we have it here in Portugal) and it surprised me for the potential it has for educational purposes and also for companies that operate in Second Life.

Then I decided to google Greenbush and this Education service Center is doing a pretty good job. On their first page it states: At the core of every Greenbush Program is the unyielding belief that every student, regardless of geographic location, deserves equal educational opportunities. Take a look at the site and see the great job they are doing.

There are great educational programs in Second Life, and for those sceptics who think that SL is just a game and it is all about sex, you better think twice and don’t believe everything you read or see in the media.

 Congrats Greenbush and keep up with the good work.

After all this time, I decided to buy a piece of land to play a bit. I am still doing the landscaping, but with the Windlight on I just couldn’t resist showing you a couple of pics. The first is an areal view of Portucalis (there was a class being held at our “Green” Box) and the other two of my little corner.

Feel free to drop by any time

Like I told you some days ago Halden is one of the best photographers I know in SL, experimenting, always trying to learn more and more. Now, after some months of using his friends as guinea pigs models, siss decided to do an exhibit, called “Friends”, at Portucalis art gallery (Galeria LX) of some of those pics.

If you have some time, do drop by and take a look at Halden’s great photos.

Well guys, Windlight is ready to upload here. Prepare your cameras and let us see those beautiful pics.

Have fun