Monday, May 13

A special place: Virtlantis where dissent is mandatory

This is another picture of the house I had at Second Life. At the fence I hanged pictures of people I admire: from left to right: Vanessa Redgrave as Julia; a graffiti of the poet Rimbaud; Italy's map (my grandma was Italian), and, the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

I love Vichen's graffiti that uses the leaves as the hair and you can watch it at this post.

I stopped going to Second Life because this Windows's version makes it impossible to use sound and talking to the friends I met - people from many countries - is the reason I go to this virtual place.
I have bonds with some people that are hard to explain for we have a connection that is not like a friendship in real life.
I'll try to make it come clear in another post.

A place I love to go is Virtlantis. We can practice English by talking about different topics that vary according to our mood - from our favorite dishes to "the meaning of life" which is the proposal when we feel out of topic: "Let's discuss the meaning of life." and the silence is broken with laughs.

There are numerous different activities in English and in other languages. I started teaching Portuguese and it was a great experience. I wanna do it again because it is very empowering and I never thought that someone would want to learn my language.

I tried learning Polish and Arab. It is so hard! I'm still learning English and French that are the two languages I've been studying since... ever for English and from high school for French. I lived in Paris for one years and, yes, they treat you well if you speak the language.
I rather dedicate my time trying to master these two languages I have the privilege of speaking.

It all for free. You don't have to pay for these activities at Virtlantis or at other language practicing community.

What I like about Virtlantis is the freedom of speech. Yes, a place we can dissent, better, a place where dissent is incentivated, as a matter of fact dissent is mandatory.
Of course you can tell the official version but usually you'll receive information from people who have connections with the independents who are trying hard to tell what is really going on.

Rambling is also encouraged as long as you leave time for the others. I abused my ramblings prerogatives a lot... Shame!

"Yes! I love Van Gogh but I think that people put too much emphasys on his biography in a way that it overshadows his work... and the movie that is seen by... so I read a book about him and a psychoanalyst said that the pattern of the wall paper indicated he was emotionally unstable.  This is crazy!... and since we are talking about Van Gogh who was born in The Netherlands and spent a brief period of time in Paris... France? Oh! Sarkozy was a disaster and...'

My problem is that I think aloud. I start making connections and... I have to thank those great people who were patience with me.