Daddy

The first man I loved was my father, he was big and strong; he would carry me in his arms when the floor was dirty and scare away the monsters under my bed. He used to sing to me, keep me safe and explained the world to me. He's gone now, but I can still feel his love and his arms protecting me from harm; when the time came and he got sick, I sang to him, kept him safe and scared the monsters under his bed, held his hand when he needed me the most and made sure, without the need for words that he felt and knew how much I loved him, without any room for doubt, as he deserved nothing less.

The last week he was in the hospital, he would still flirt up a storm with the nurses, which made him very popular; due to RL constrains I could not visit him as much as I would have liked, most likely because a part of me refused to believe he'd be gone soon. My father was very self aware about his looks -he was a very handsome man, even in his old age- but refused to be shaved by anyone on the floor, he wanted me to be there and do it for him -and like I said it took me a few days to make it to the hospital-. When I finally made it, I was the one to shave him after quite a few days; he died the next day.

I have spent most of my adult life, and more so now that I have kids, making sure I get to be at least half the father mine was, and quite inevitably something that you fight most of your young life so it won't happen, I have seen more and more of my father in me -which is never a bad thing when you had the father I have- and strange as it may sound, I have honored his memory by passing onto my SL sons what he taught me, trying to make of them better men -so there is also a bit of my father in them too-. Zachy the people magnet, the one everyone instantly loves and asks for when he's not around and Skylar, the strong silent type who lives to do right by others.

I do not know what the future holds for me, but for what is worth I am happy that life -and more so SL- gave me a chance to experience parenting first hand, unlike RL, those who become parents do so on their own choosing and after having given this some thought. To all of those SL fathers out there and even the great examples to follow in RL of loving dedicated parents, I wish you all a happy father's day.

It takes an average man to make a child, it takes a great man to make that child a good man. I can only hope I am half the dad mine was.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Being Human

As every year, I proudly joined the Stand 4 Love initiative, which stands for equal civil rights when it comes to marriage, not only in the US but world wide; marriage is after all one of the things we strive to accomplish as human beings, to be there for our spouse, to take their names, look after them and start families, something that is negated to us by simple concept and that most European countries are slowly adopting, seeing how it is a necessary step for our society.

So as every year, I took my pic, wrote something short and nice about my point of view in the topic and shared it on all social platforms I could possibly think of. As I was reading reactions, shares and comments -yes, I do take the time to read those-, my youngest son directed my attention to something that was being shared and "liked" as well and on a very delicate current topic we both feel very strongly about for a number of reasons, and that is the US government's passing of a new law that would instantly grant citizenship to a large number of people that live in conditions that are close to slavery.

After being insulted for speaking my mind on the topic and how ironic I found it for someone trying to get equal citizen rights on something as basic as marriage, but wishing to deny a large number of the population of a country basically built by immigrants, just because they didn't happen to be born at the right place, it was pointed out that immigration was a law and if it had been broken people needed to be punished and processed for it and that the right to access a citizen status was in now way form or fashion a human right or in violation of it.

I then proceeded to do a bit of research and here they are, as it stands today: Right to life, Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. Freedom from torture, It is considered to be a violation of human rights, and is declared to be unacceptable by Article 5. Freedom from slavery, Freedom from slavery is an internationally recognized human right. Article 4 (many immigrants, while trying to get a chance on a citizenship, do work on some form or fashion next to slavery, where their bosses take advantage of cheap labor and where most of the time, acquiring debt for basic things as housing or health care makes it next to impossible for these people to escape these forms of modern slavery) Right to a fair trial, Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal (immigrants seldom do by the way) Freedom of movement, the fundamental right to travel, move and relocate wherever (yes, indeed IT IS a human right and deportation and incarceration for not holding a citizenship is in fact in direct violation of this)

The list goes on, but these ones about cover the topic at hand. We can't be nit-picky about what freedoms we choose to support and which don't, specially when immigrants are human beings like you and me and pretty much like you are demanding the freedom to marry the person you love, they are simply asking to live without fear of prosecution, just for existing. About half a decade ago, the Spanish government passed a law very similar to the one being proposed here, and surprise, the world didn't end and yes, thousands of "third class citizens" were legalized.

Check out this video while thinking about all of this: You Don't Have To Wear A Fedora, But You DO Have To Be A Decent Human Being, after all our strength lies in our diversity.

I not only stand 4 love, but for equality for us all

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Fun

The last few weeks in second life have been nothing but complex and busy on my end, reopening my home club, moving my family to a new sim and moving my flagship store to a more cost effective space, have been among the many things that have kept my attention.

I recently applied to be one of the DJs to entertain the crowds during the SL10 celebrations and I was nothing but surprised when I was contacted to be a part of the events. Most of what I do in the platform, I do for the fun of it. I design. and sell my products when I have time and I get pleasure out of what I'm designing or doing; if I get none of that it simply gets postponed to when I feel in the mood.

Same goes with DJing and clubbing in SL, something that many in my opinion tend to take far too seriously. As a club owner I have seen and dealt with pretty much anything you can think of, but something I never tolerate is bullying of any kind or humoring power trips from anyone in charge.

Some may say I am a difficult DJ to deal with, but that is not necessarily true -to an extent- as my demands are usually quite simple; I don't care how awesome you think you and your club are, I could care less if Senator Linden himself came and became your buddy or how much "control" you seem to be under the delusion paying me for my services gives you -I never ask for payment for my services, but if you choose to pay me on top of tips, I'll accept that as tips, the minute me, my time and that of my groupies, VIPs and followers seems to be wasted and is no longer fun for me or them, I'll take my things and leave off to better things.

Anything I do, I do for fun as I am investing my free time to do something I love and am limited on doing in RL, I certainly do not log in to stroke anyone's ego, not even my own; in the end I'd like to believe that the fact I do this for the fun of it reflects on the general result, if you are a DJ or club owner that does this for profit and are only worried about the sole fact, my best wishes for you and your projects, but I refuse to spend my time with bullies and money whores, there's a thing called RL for that.

Do it for fun... you'll see how the outcome turns out to be a lot different.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Letter to me

A few days ago, a new "privilege" was added to the many tasks I have to oversee on my RL job, and this one would be of making a playlist of songs, guess word got around somehow on what I do on my free time, but I readily agreed to engage in such a task, since not only do I love sharing music but how it can alter moods, trigger memories and so on; music is simply put one of the best things mankind has, but I am drifting from the topic.

I put a lot into the songs that, not only had some meaning to me but that carried the right message or mood, and of course I had to include one of my son's favorite performers, Brad Paisley. The one song that inspired this article would be "letter to me", the song had me wondering about the things I would tell myself, or the me from the past if I could.

Would I try to rectify my past mistakes and errors of judgement? Very unlikely, I still believe to this day that we always learn from everything we do, even the hard things in life that feel are going to split us in half come with a lesson, life is nothing but a constant learning experience. I'd ask myself to just hang in there and remember that nothing is as bad as it seems and that believe it or not, you have more guts that you give yourself credit for.

I wouldn't discourage myself from ever creating "Spike", who is in fact a lot more me than I'd like to admit; I know there will be times when I will seriously consider just giving up and find myself something better to do with my free time, but then I'd miss out on the greatest gifts the platform has given me, my sons, we may fight at times, disagree a lot but having them in my life, all thanks to SL has no price; I would beg myself to not be so trusting, specially when it comes to "friends" in the platform, quick with a smile and praise, but nowhere to be seen when things get difficult.

And I'd beg me to hug my RL dad, a lot... I wish I could do it a lot now and hear him complain about it, but sadly I can't. The best advice I could give myself (and potential SL users) is that as real and intense as SL relationships may feel, it is still SL, very few lucky ones have found true love in there and to be frank? being single is not the end of the world and in your case, being single seems to be the best state for you.

I'd end my letter to me giving me the best advice a parent can receive, which would be to cut my boys some slack from time to time, just because you know better doesn't mean that they have to do as you say all the time, life is after all a constant learning experience.

P.S. Try not to be too sad when they grow up and wonder off and don't visit as much, it just means you did a good job.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls