Petr on Pride

The Chair of Second Pride, Petr Hastings-Vanbeeck shares his final thoughts on the past year as an elected member of the board.

Petr also, sadly, discloses that he does not intend to run for re-election in the coming elections.



Read Petr's post Confessions of a Digital Daddy Bear; PRIDE.

GA SummerFest 2014

The Gay Archipelago's Pride celebration, the GA SummerFest 2014, starts on Friday July 11th and goes on until Sunday July 20th.

For more information about this Pride event please visit
GA SummerFest 2014 Main Page
GA SummerFest 2014 Destination Guide
GA SummerFest 2014 Calendar.

The event is also a celebration of the Gay Archipelago´s seventh anniversary.
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Clear your calendars, guys and gurls, this should be a lot of fun!

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"safety zone" Photography by Charlie Namiboo

If you wish to see more of Charlie's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

Parvin to the Rescue

Yesterday the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Solace Island and Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, was close to a nervous breakdown.

The laird was puttering about at his ongoing supersecret project - which is to be revealed to the world in the not to distant future - but there was a building thingamabob that he just couldn't get quite right despite having been at it for hours. As he saw that Parvin, a.k.a. Xcept Atlas (left, archive photo) the laird's friend and the Market Lead of the Gay Archipelago, was close by the laird in his desperation called out to him for help.

Parvin swiftly responded to the cry for help, took a look at the problem at hand and said in a calm voice: "Well, I am not a builder but I am good at maths and I believe this issue can be solved with three prims, a square, a triangle and a semicircle." Whereupon he immediately started working on proving his point.

The laird looked on in wonderment as the brilliant man worked on the solution to his difficult situation. Parvin was done in less than  five minutes. The result was amazing and the botheration was completely solved to his satisfaction.

The laird was so relieved and overjoyed that he was prepared to knight the beautiful and highly respectful young man on the spot. Uncertain whether that would fit into the rest of Parvin's chosen existence in SecondLife the laird instead settled on giving him a gold medal for his excellent service.

I of course at once contacted Rico, the Lead of GA, to inform him what a brilliant and accomplished Market Lead he had.

When Tomais arrived at the scene he was put to work on texturing the prims according to the lairds wishes and his own better judgement. 

Let me tell you, the final result is stupendous and fabulous, as you will get the opportunity to witness with your own eyes in the near future. 

I am a man with no real talent for SecondLife, which so highly relies on the creativity and skills of it's resident's. However, to paraphrase Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire", "I have always depended on the kindness of my family and friends."

I do have a knack of inadvertently surrounding myself with an abundance of amazingly skilled and talented family and friends who can help me out and guide me whenever I need it. I love them all dearly!

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Barcelonamaria Heart

For more information about the The NOH8 Campaign and how to join it in SecondLife please read my previous post The NOH8 Campaign in SecondLife. There you will also find instructions on where to find the necessary duct tape and cheek painting free of charge.
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If you would like to be a part of the NOH8 Campaign on this blog please send me your picture (full perm), I will be happy to post it. Name the picture NOH8 and your avatar name and drop it on my profile or send it to my email lundamats@gmail.com.

Additional Feedback

I already filed my response to the survey a while back, but today I sent in an addition to my previous responses, as I had come to the conclusion that I had not been specific enough in my earlier response. So today I filed the following addition.

What did you like best about the festival?

1. The lesbians were back - and I love it!
2. The parade is back - and I love it!
3. The wonderful serene Chapel
4. The beautiful builds
5. The event was extremely well organized with little or no confusion, the board members and their assisting teams did a splendid job.
6. Three sims worked great! The smaller area kept the space close and increased the chances of running into old friends and acquaintances.
7. The sims were restarted every day which mostly kept lag at a reasonable level.

What suggestions do you have for the 2015 Second Pride Festival?

1. I would like to see a new beginning for the Names Project, i.e. the so called AIDS Quilts. It is not acceptable that whether or not donated quilts are displayed or not is dependent on an individuals whims or requirements. This is something that Second Pride can and should do for the LGBT community.
2. Try to get a few more live acts, I know there are singers and musician who would love to take part.
3. I always loved the plays that Marcus Steeplechase and his buddies enacted during Pride, it would be wonderful if we could get something like it back.
4. Poetry readings perhaps?

Please don't get me wrong, I love the DJ's and the parties but options should be provided to a greater extent, the community is diverse in it's needs.

Darn! I forgot to mention that I missed the combats between Gay Gor and Romanum from last years Pride. The people participating in that were a fun crowd and I had a great time watching and chatting there last year.

Overall, the Festival of 2014 was the best ever!

If you haven'r taken the survey yet, please do so here 2014 Second Pride Festival Feedback

Post-Second Pride Hug - Day +1

Sarco Halderman

On the Monday morning after Second Pride had ended I met DJ Sarco when he was doing a set st Stiges (Yes. it is Stiges - not Sitges, I checked three times.)

We both realized that a hug was imperative, Pride or no Pride...