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

Although this is a Second Life related post, in fact it made me think about all my beloved ones that are gone and specially in this month.

My grandma had her birthday on the 24th, my mother on the 26th and a recent friend (who I first met in SL) would be having her birthday today.

I don’t do the cult of death like it is so traditional in the catholic religion, don’t go to the graveyard to see a stone just laying there. People I love are always in my mind in heart and I miss them terribly, even though many years have passed since they are gone.  However, this Memorial LL build and the way Raul talks about it made me think that may be having a quiet place to put my pixelated self and let my atomic brain digress would be a good idea.

Today after work I will be there, putting a candle in the virtual sea and wishing happy birthday to those I love, no matter time or space,  and that are with me every day of my life.

(Picture taken from here)

Yesterday was a liberation day for me as well. Finally put an end to a too long opened chapter of my life and now I can move on without regrets or weights upon my shoulders.

Thank you all for all the support you have shown me during this hard and difficult year. Love you all.

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?

And I have the proof

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!

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.

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

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…

Just like stores count inventories and do sales, people make a balance of the year that is ending, discarding things and making plans for the coming year.

And this goes on over and over again.

As years went by, I started to notice that what was discarded and being planned repeated itself. So one fine first day of a far year I decided never to do New Year’s wishes anymore.

Instead I started to live one day at the time, not making many plans, ’cause the Universe has its ways of making them fail.

So I try to be a better person every day, take the most of the good moments and forget the bad ones on a daily basis. Talk to the people I love whenever I can. Don’t get bored with minor things.

To sum it up I try to enjoy every minute of this short life of ours. Take me most of every experience, good or bad, which makes me grow as a human being. True I sometimes don’t succeed in doing it, but then again I am only human.

Nevertheless I am a happy person. Happyness is not a permanent state. It comes and goes. But somehow being aware of small things makes that happyness long. A rainbow in the sky, the smile on a friend’s face, a sentence in a book, that song playing on the radio, a “thank you” from someone or the “have a good day” from the waiter at the restaurant.

Seize the day, try to see the beauty of things and feelings every day, discard the bad things (and people) of your life and you will see that when the year ends life has been a lot brighter than you thought it would be.

May you all have a wonderful life, no matter whar the calendar says.