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

Like some of you may already know, I met a lot of SL friends in the atomic world.

True friendships have developed between some fo us and with the others there is a merry relationship with a lot of conversation and laughing whenever we meet.

The groups of  bSL (before SL) and aSL (after SL) tend to blend, mixing the two worlds in a wonderful and unexpected way.

Yesterday I went to the airport with two friends to pick up a SL friend who is coming over for a short holiday. She came from the UK and it was “love at first sight”. The wonderful lady I met in SL was even more wonderful in person.

We went for a drink by the river, under the beautiful Lisbon sun, and we sat there talking about everything and nothing, from politics, to history, music, SL (of course) and we totally lost track of time. The sun was already low when we left with a warm feeling inside.

Later at home I couldn’t stop thinking how wonderful it is to be able to meet beautiful people and share a bit of eachother’s lives, may be even make a difference.

Afterall friendship has no country and it speaks its own universal language. Does it really matter where it begins?

When you hold somebody’s heart in your hands, your head twists and turns.

And I have the proof

… to all my friends who were at the studio last night and to all those who sent e-mails, plurks and IMs wishing me good luck.

It was fun and Paisley is a wonderful host as well as all the team members in SLCN-TV.

For all of you who couldn’t be there, please follow this link and watch the interviews, which were really interesting and hear TJ singing. Promise it will be worth it.

Ibrahim sent me the pictures bellow. Thank you my friend!

It was 2 years ago (geezz I’m old!) that I first heard Paisley Beebe in SL. She has this wonderful, clear and warm voice that, even if you aren’t a jazz fan, will make you travel to beautiful worlds.

Later on it came to my knowledge that she hosted this great talk show at SLCN.TV and whenever I could I went there. Being on GMT didn’t make it an easy task though once it is transmitted live on sundays way after midnight.

Two weeks ago I had an e-mail inviting me to be a guest at her show and talk about my latest exhibition (see post bellow). You can’t imagine my face looking at the email and reading it over and over again to make sure I wasn’t wrong, competely chin dropped. Still have to find out who am I to blame for this. Whoever it was a big thank you!

But it was true and after the sound check yesterday with the lovely AutumnFoxx Sutherland (the show Director) I will be interviewed by Paisley on Sunday March 22nd.

The audience must be there at 5:30PM SLT, so if you want to attend please drop me an IM inworld and I will give you the Landmark for the Sutdio.

Meanwhile if you are curious you can see the latest episodes here or visit this site

If you would like to see the exhibition please drop by at Mainland Gallery. The exhibition will still be on until the end of March.

It has been almost a month since I posted here, but I have been really busy in RL and in SL between Hunts and preparing my first exhibition I haven’t had much time left for writing.

Now the hunts have calmed down, so inventory sorting is the next step *sigh

Anyhow, the pictures for the exhibition are now ready and I leave you here the invitation to drop by at the Opening.

This exhibition is born from a challenge made to me by rm Sirbu, after she saw some of my pictures in Flickr and Koinup. I was a bit reluctant at first. In my 2+ years of SL I haven’t been much on Mainland except for some shopping or to get material for blogging, and the idea I had of Mainland was probably the same as yours: lots of clutter and chaos.

I ended up taking the challenge and decided not to go to the recently rezzed sims like the Nautilus but, instead, explore the old Continent and glad I did it.

Starting walking down Route 8 I found gorgeous places along the way, which easily match any private island and I will try to show you some of those places in this exhibition.

The creativity of Second Life residents doesn’t stop to amaze me and I hope that, like me, you will go down the Linden Roads and let yourself be marvelled by lots of lovely spots that emerge at each curve of the way.

rm (Xaraz) and Timo (TD Realty) were kind enough to find me a place for the exhibition and thus the “Mainland Gallery” was born.

Leave you here the taxi and hope to see you there next Tuesday, Feb 24th at 02:00 PM PDT

I know I haven’t been writing much here and I apologize to my readers (yes, all three of you) but between preparing two exhibitions, doing research and taking pictures for Right Click Wear (did I tell you I hate shopping?), opening parties, exhibitions and rezz day parties, my SLife has been so busy I hardly have time to breath. Oh! and shall we not forget the good old inventory cleaning after the holidays *sigh

Anyhow yesterday me and Blue went to this place called Native Lands for her to take some pictures of native American outfits. There is a complete lack of good native American clothing in SL. Com’on dear designers start doing some good outfits. I bet lots of us would love to have those Indian costumes.

But I digress! The point of this post is to tell you that what started to be a “work night” ended up as an adventure. The Island is beautifully build, full of gorgeous Indian artifacts, some stores, lovely houses, some of them embedded in the Grand Canyon wall and – drum roll here – a rock climbing wall.

Blue decided to try it and, although I have fear of heights, I decided to tag along.

We started kind of well but then my foot just slipped and I had to hold on to Blue’s ankle and couldn’t hold on for long and there I went down the hill from I don’t know how many feet high right to the stone floor…

After all the Christmas goodies is time to go for a stroll to burn all those extra calories. I saw this gorgeous picture of my good friend Looker on Flickr and just had to visit Athan and explore the beauty you could foresee on his pictures.

The island is simply chin dropping. From the cathedral to the small medieval village, lots of nice corners to discover and even the shops are so well blended into the whole landscape and atmosphere, that shopping takes a new meaning.

Leave you with some of the pictures and you can see the rest of it on my Flickr set in high resolution.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And be sure to check under the sea at the bay… you’ll find some great surprises there.

A view of an alley in the medieval village

View of the chapel

View from the landing point