Venus

Ever since ancient Greece, women have been the most unsung social triggers in history; they have done all of the hard work, but in the shadows and have never received any recognition for their hard labor other than the satisfaction of a job well done. I often ask myself how many of the historical changes have been in fact the brain child of a woman "behind a man".

There have been a few throughout history that have made the difference  in their chosen field, writers like Virginia Wolf, painters like Frida Kahlo and even political figures like Eva Peron or Shirley Temple -indeed the sweet child who tapped danced grew up to be a renowned international political figure- and most have done all of that while being also devoted wives and mothers.

Equality is not so far ahead, and do not confuse equal rights with being the same -a mistake most people fighting against equal rights tend to make-, the so called "minorities" do not want to be like the rest, we thrive and grow on our uniqueness, find strength in those things that make us special and all we ask for is to have the same rights that you were born with.

Women don't want to be men, why would they? they are fine as they are. Why is it that some people find women in power emasculating or what's worse, masculine?; our mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins and nieces all want the same, to be paid the same as the rest, to be given fair treatment at the work place and to be simply given a voice as loud as yours, and ever since they got the right to vote, it has laid a ground for all of these things to slowly come to pass.

In second life I have met many incredible women who are ground breaking and are making an difference, I am both privileged and honored to have met them and even call some of them my friends, to all of you out there, in RL or SL who happen to be an important part of my life -or not- happy women's equality day.

There's still a lot of ground to cover, but the fun part about reaching a goal is the journey, not the destination.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

FAITH

Faith as defined by the Webster dictionary, is loyalty, fidelity, allegiance to duty or person, as well as a firm belief for something for which there is no proof, hence requiring complete trust. When it comes to second life, there are many places or people where we generally place our faith; this being a lover, a family, a social group, an association, a bloodlines clan among many others and no matter how much we claim to know about something or someone, being the way that it is, things in second life require at least some level of complete trust, as we do not always have proof .

I've seen good friends manipulated, cheated on, mind fucked, lied to while the truth is bent beyond recognition; even have suffered it myself and there have even been times when due to this sense of misplaced loyalty, some people have seen fair and fitting to grief and destroy anything on their wake. Recently I have decided, after a few changes here and there, to simplify my life in hopes to improve it, or at least to make it more pleasurable, which has of course required a bit of spring cleaning, namely muting, defriending and removing those who I think are no use or are simply put, not worth the grief or extra effort.

I have gotten into the habit of heading over to spurts at random moments of the day, whenever I have time to kill or am working on article drafts or designs for the shop that require next to none attention - funny place this beach, people don't really IM you, most come to look pretty or go semi afk like I do-. Most of my visits here an rather uneventful, unless I run into a familiar face or a good friend decides to ask for pics for their blog -check Ryce's and you'll see what I mean- either way, something that does happen often when I am IMed on here is that at least on every other visit, I get IMed by someone from bloodlines telling me about the wonders and benefits of their clan and how I should totally join.

Somehow the fact that I lead my own bloodline seems to escape their notice, but they still get extra points for efforts. I do not see much harm from this form of clan PR -being a part of one myself- some people indulge on, but did make me realise why bloodlines is not exactly popular in some circles. Bloodlines players in second life have become SL's Jehova's witnesses "you should totally visit our clan", "we will make you a King", "I have a room full of virgins" and so on.

When I kindly mention that I am just not interested, am in fact semi retired and that my clan doesn't hunt, and that we are in fact closer to a family or sanctuary for those who just don't want to live under any drama, clan pressure or expectations and that we are all happy it works this way, they generally gasp in horror or walk away, as if I were some sort of a BLs heretic -sometimes I even get insulted, which of course always amuses me-

I am happy that your chosen way of life is working so wonderfully for you, but I have decided to simplify and call family only those who act like such, life is too short and second life too varied and extensive to focus on minor things that only benefit a chosen few. Remember that faith is like a Penis, is good to have one, is good to be proud of it, but don't shove it down my throat or expect everyone to think or say that yours is the most wonderful and perfect one that has ever existed.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Almost Human

The human condition has always been something very straightforward to me, you are born, you grow up, you make something of yourself, you find your niche, find a person to love you for who you are and move from there.

But that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case in some countries or to be more specific for the LGTB community. If you dare love the "wrong" gender, depending on where you had the fortune -or misfortune in some cases- to be born at, you may have it easy or difficult, all influenced by the specific social surrounding you may have to endure.

I've always welcomed the Olympics and Eurovision -the latter more regularly as it happens every year- with both happiness and expectation; I love being a witness of how countries set aside their differences to work on a common goal, this being sports or music, showing that for the right purpose, we can function as a collective to represent mankind and how varied and complex it is.

This sadly is not the case of the Russian winter Olympics in the coming year, and needless to say it wouldn't be the first time a group of countries boycott the Olympic games, but I firmly stand on the belief these games need to be moved to a more congenial location to the spirit of the games hosted. A petition initiated by George Takei to move the games from Sochi to Vancouver is gathering steam and strength and more than 75000 people have already signed it.

With sponsor deals and 51 billion already spent on these games, it'd be a good lesson for the country and the government to learn the difference between enforcing laws -despite how we may feel as a collective on the topic- and using such laws as an excuse to treat a group of people as nothing but anything next to human, enabling hate, torture and public humiliation to be forced, while the rest of the world watches, just because you were born loving the "wrong" gender and in the wrong country.

It is time for us to take actions into our own hands and sign the petition

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Gossip, Pride, Lies, half truths and other monsters

One of the things I have learned recently in life is that words have a powerful effect on people, depending on how you word something and under which context you say it, it may have an effect or another, words can hurt like fists or have an incredible healing power, more so -as I have mentioned before in other articles- in SL, where all we have -or at least 90 % of our communication is- based entirely on text and words.

I for one, am the type of person that values friendship in SL as something precious and do have in fact a close circle of friends I am very proud of calling my SL family, people that have been with me through thick and thin and, share my victories and tolerate me when I have a bad day; something I appreciate when recently, the people you can trust blindly in SL seem to be lacking, but it's really nothing you can personally blame yourself for, it comes with the platform, where people hide behind an avatar and show the best and most of the times, worst of themselves and quite often, finding you as the target of gossip, lies and secret agendas this close friend or acquaintance had and you didn't know about.

Second Pride has been recently a true example of all the thing that are wrong with the platform as a concept and how the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I am sure that most people running in the elections have the best of intentions and want to do a good job that will represent and benefit the gay community in SL as a whole, but sadly, I for one do not feel myself represented by the organisation and after the non ending drama oozing from the campaigns, I stand firmly on my very safe distance, since I learned this organisation existed.

There have been many people in our community that didn't need a fancy title, some form of recognition or even winning an election so badly as to badmouth and embarrass themselves while perverting what I believe was created from good intentions and the wish to change our reality while making us proud of being who we are; these people did start change in SL, but from anonymity, humilty and doing the hard work that some don't wish to do, these people created wonderful things as the gay archipelago and many other things in SL that do represent us as a whole and brought us some form of recognition, people whose names seldom get mentioned, but their work is there, at plain view for everyone to see and whose hidden agendas was the greater good.

Take the hint, our community as a whole is embarassed and bored to the end and back from all the gossip, pride, lies and half truths that seem to be on the rise in these elections and that are truly doing no one, no good.

If you really want to do some change and do some good, do the hard work and leave the dirty politics and drama, to those who only seek recognition and praise.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls