Warm Winter Nights

I have been giving classes in Academia Portucalis since 2007 and, teaching not being a RL activity, I took it as challenge when invited.

My stage fright was not easy to overcome, but blushing on this side of the screen and using written text made it easier and step by step the fright was gone and I am already able to speak in front of an audience without mumbling.

I have been teaching there mostly common Second Life things, like avatar make overs, land and group management, general Q&A sessions. The last mini-course I gave there was about windlight and photography.

And now comes the true reason for this post. I was really overwhelmed with the results obtained. Not only the students kept making clever questions, but did in fact pay a lot of attention to the classes. When asked to do some pictures as homework the results were really amazing. Never knew that teaching could be so rewarding and I am really proud of them.

There is an exhibit of their first works going on in Owl’s Bay Art Gallery which you can see until the end of May. Please drop by any time and check their works (teleport in front of landing point).

Could not end this post without thanking Marga Ferrer and M2Life Paravane for the great work they are doing at the Academia and for making the Portuguese community a bit richer in knowledge within this Second Life of ours.

Leave you a couple of pictures from the classes and the exhibition.

Taken by Marga Ferrer during the class

As it happens every month, and once this initiative is bringing to light so many talented writers, we are starting a new short stories contest at Owl’s Bay. This time we have as partial sponsor City Lights, the reading club owned by our good friends Fokas and Hopes, so the two “second” places will receive L$ 250 each.

The rules are basically the same as before, but slight changes were made, so please read carefully

1. All residents older than 3 months in SL may present a maximum of 3 works although only one story from each author can be selected.
2. The stories should some how be connected to the theme “Once Upon a time in the Farwest”, once this is the theme for this month’s event.
3. Stories can be submitted in Portuguese and/or English.
4. The stories have to be non-published originals and may not exceed 6100 characters with spaces. A maximum of 6 photos can be added (one being for the front cover). If you decide to present a comics story, the maximum number of pages will be 6, with a maximum of 6 pictures per page and an extra for the cover.

Note: All the photos have to be taken by the author or it/he/she should supply to the organization a written authorization by the photographer. If no photos are delivered, Owl’s Bay Editions will be responsible for the front cover picture.

• All works must be sent until January 11^th, 2009 to owlsbay@gmail.com in .doc and .jpg files.
• The winner chosen by the jury will receive a L$ 1,500 cash prize and the book will be published and set for sale in Owl’s Bay Bookshop and other places that join the initiative.
• The next two best stories will receive a L$250 cash prize and also be published and set for sale under the above terms.
• The winners will be announced on the “Once Upon a Time in the Far West” closing party and the books launched at the same time in a date still to be announced.

For further information please leave your questions here in comments or send an e-mail to owlsbay@gmail.com.

Have fun and may the spirits of our ancestors be with you!

Like I wrote here several times, I am not a shopaholic. Not only because my former lousy connection turned shopping into a nightmare, but also because I am a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to spend Lindens on me.

However a girl has to keep her style and I like to dress up for every occasion and not to repeat the same outfit, thus an overflowing inventory, that no matter how many items I clean doesn’t get any smaller hehehe

Anyhow, my friends and partners at Owl’s bay are big a bit shopaholics and two weeks ago we were having our usual weekly sunday coffee (yes we are RL friends, though some of us met first at SL) and this idea just popped up: Why not a fashion blog?

Each of us has his/her own style and tastes, different approaches to fashion and we are crazy enough to do this.

So yesterday Right Click Wear was published. Feel free to drop by, make suggestions, give your opinion and if you like tell us what you would like to see there.

We are doing this just for fun and hope you will have fun reading it.

Like I have been posting, we are launching a short story contest every month at Owl’s Bay with the same theme as the Island for that month.

Last one was Once upon a time in a Fairy Tale – although one of my friends claimed it should be Furry tails hehe.  Anyway, leave you here the video for the cerimony, produced by BlueAngel Lungu, and hope that on next contest you can be one of the lucky winners. I will inform the new theme shortly, so that you can call the muses in time.

Better than any photo a movie gives us place to dream.

Carla made this beautiful machinima to introduce Owl’s Bay. Enjoy the travel and feel free to stop by and take a look for yourself.

Like I mentioned here, we had a Short Stories contest in Owl’s. Here are the winners:

1st prize (L$ 1,000+publication) – Poulana Tokyoska with “As horas inventadas” (The Invented Hours)

2nd prizes (publication) – Aggio Piaggio with “China – The Dream”

- Fokas Greenwood with “Cinderella Xing”

- Ted Greenwood with “Good Bye Bai Quien”

The delivery of the awards will be made at Owl’s Bay Bookshop on Saturday, October 25th at 02:00PM SLT / 10:00 PM GMT, followed by a party and Best in Chinese Wear contest.

Hope to see you all there and leave you here the covers of the books (click on the pic for larger view).

Like  I said before, we at Owl’s Bay like to make you guys happy so we decided to have a Treasure Hunt for you all to enjoy.

There will be 14 Chinese hats spread all over the island, both outside and inside the buildings and even in places so obvious that they may pass unnoticed.

The prizes will range from tatoos to shoes, clothing, games and decorations. Some of them are originals and cannot be found for sale in SL (not yet, at least).

The hunt will start at 02:00 PM PDT here and will be on until October 12th, so that you will have time to get all of the hats and don’t need to do it all at once.

Leave you here a picture of the hat for you to know what you are looking for.

Happy hunting and if you need anything feel free to IM me inworld.

Owl’s Bay is the new Open Space SIM I rented with some friends (and what a bargain guys!) and is soon to be officially opened.

Among the several events, which will be held during 4 weeks, we are launching a Short Stories Contest. Here are the Rules

1. All residents older than 3 months in SL may present a maximum of 3 works and just one story of each author will be selected.

1. The stories should some how be connected to the theme “Once Upon a time in China”, once this is the theme for this month’s event.

1. Stories can be submitted in Portuguese and/or English.

1. The stories have to be non-published originals and may not exceed 2 A4 pages. A maximum of 6 photos can be added (1 being for the front cover). If you decide to present a comics story, the maximum number of pages will be 6 with a maximum of 6 pictures per page and an extra for the cover.

Note: All the photos have to be taken by the author or it/he/she should supply to the organization a written authorization by the photographer.

1. All works must be sent until October 5^th to owlsbay@gmail.com in .doc and .jpg files.

1. The winner chosen by the jury will receive a L$ 1,000 cash prize and the book will be published and set for sale in Owl’s Bay Bookshop and other places that join the initiative.

The next two best stories will also be published and set for sale under the above terms.

Note: Owl’s Bay will retain a 20% percentage of every book sale.

1. The winners will be announced on the “Once Upon a Time in China” closing party and the books launched at the same time (date shortly to be announced).

For further information please leave your question here in comments or send e-mail to owlsbay@gmail.com.

Are you still there? Come on! Get your feather, pen or keyboard and start writing. We are waiting for your master pieces.

Have fun and may the Muses be with you!