Who says learning can’t be fun?

Like Gary Vaynerchuk says, if you want to earn a Master’s Degree in NFTs, spend 50 hours in a Twitter Space.

MetaParty Vibes is taking that a step further, by not only hosting a Twitter Space every week with Kolorful Designs, but also venturing into the Metaverse, exploring different platforms, and different plots of land. We go to various performances in Decentraland, Voxels (formerly Cryptovoxels), and Spatial.

Getting to talk to the different MetaPerformers after their performance is like getting to go backstage IRL (In Real Life), yet it’s much more than that. As I have been backstage IRL, and you don’t have time to ask them questions on what inspired them, or what they use to put on their virtual performance. Respect to all the MetaPerformers who have joined our spaces, Shark Anthony, Serena Elis, Jack Frost, Mr. Swe, Dope Stilo, apologize if I miss any as there have been quite a few!

Like there was at the Metaverse Music Video festival at Afrodroids Lab. This past Monday night, we went on a weekly adventure with ABC Decentraland, where we are taken to various, previously unknown places to Kolorful Meta and myself, and able to not only learn about them but talk to the developers and owners of the plot of land!

We visited the Pride Parade and the Pray Forest, which was a unique experience. The week before that, we had our first Amusement Park Experience in the Metaverse! Getting to share this with other like-minded peeps has been transformative.

Web 3 is not only a revolution in Blockchain Technology, it a revolution of thought. It’s artists coming together to say, enough, it doesn’t have to be this way. Who says it has to be this way? Who is it serving most? Why is the owner of Spotify a billionaire? Why aren’t self-published authors allowed to share shelf space with nationally published books? At least a section?

Now, in the Digital Pangea that Web 3 is, I can create my own shelf space. I, and many others, can reach, speak to, and interact with people, no matter where they may physically be on the planet. It’s much more than written text, or video calling, we are sharing this virtual space as digital avatars, avatars that we get to create, get to be who we have always wanted. No longer prejudged by what our physical avatars may be, and for some, those avatars don’t reflect who we really are. Again, a revolution of thought to recognize and respect this.

Sharing this time with others has been truly revolutionary for me. I have spent the past decade creating art, mostly alone. I have had to make so many sacrifices for Bleace since deciding that is what my life’s work was going to be back in 2009. I was going to chase Bleace or die trying, yet I feel like I went against that when I took a corporate job. It felt like I took an out, it took time away from Bleace. I had to work on Bleace around my corporate schedule, which was very demanding, working 45-65 hours a week, think the most was 91 hours. But I always found time to work on Bleace, no matter what. If it meant getting up at 5 am to write for 2 hours before work, or staying up late to 3 am to work on something, I was going to do it. It’s my life’s passion.

In 2020, I had to have heart surgery. Five days I spent alone in that hospital. It put into perspective everything for me. It completely changed my life. It brought me back to 2009. It forced me to ask why? Why am I here? One thing, I didn’t think of when I was lying on that hospital bed, was money. What good was it? Was it going to save my life? Was it going to give my life meaning? Is that why DaVinci painted? Is that why Einstein calculated? Why Muhammed Ali protested? No. Like the Joker said, “it’s not about money, it’s about sending a message.” Great line by great screen writers in the Nolan brothers (Christopher and Jonathan).

That is what I am making my life about, sending a message. I have been so inspired by these Twitter Spaces and by everyone that I have met in Web 3. The greatest currency there is in this universe, is the effect you have on others. That is what I am going for. But since being on that hospital bed, and have to undergo surgery, I felt like I died on that table.

Ride the Snake,

See the world

Through a second take.

The experience with my heart surgery, also brought me back to my childhood when I suffered a severe head concussion on my first day of fifth grade. I forgot everything. I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing there. When my mother came after the school called her, I didn’t know who she was, didn’t recognize her. Can you imagine how scared my mom must have been, looking at her 10 year old son who didn’t recognize her? I can still remember the look in her eye. I could see it again 20 years later, lying on that hospital bed. I had to stay up all night, couldn’t sleep, and by the next day I could remember everything, just had a headache. I remembered who I was, but I had changed. I, even then, became unafraid of death. I thought about it often.

How easy our memory can be so easily taken from us. In a blink of an eye, we can forget everything. Reminds me of Men In Black, flash, your memory is gone. I still suffer from severe migraines and it’s from not only that head concussion but a subsequent one I suffered a few years later when I fell off a horse and hit my head in the exact same spot. Again, there was a bright white flash, I see a black train in the distance, it comes straight toward me, and right as the bright headlight is about to hit me, I wake up. Dazed and Confused. No name, not knowing why I was there or from where I came.

I tell this story, only to say that I would rather live a short life filled with utter joy and passion, than a long life filled with misery, working at a job that stresses me out, being an avatar that doesn’t reflect who I am on the inside. I refuse to live that way, as many in the Web 3 space have. I don’t know if their conviction in this is as strong, as like Drake, I made a decision last night that I would die for it. I made that decision in 2009, and made it again in 2020 after having heart surgery. Bleace is my why for this earth, I understand that there are bills to pay, and I can only hope to be able to pay them through my passion.

People so easily say the phrase, starving artist, without know all of what they are saying when they do. What does it say about the society these artists are living in, that would allow them to starve to death? If I do starve to death I surely wouldn’t be the first artist too, and sadly I won’t be the last. But before I do starve to death, I promise to give it my all, each and every day that I am alive. I am going to Wake and Be. I have completely simplified my life, had to as with my heart condition, and the severe panic attacks that ensued, I have had to lower my stress considerably. My therapist made me question, what is really important? Told me that no other person has ever made me angry, only I made myself angry. To this day, was one of the hardest truths I had to swallow.

I say this only to let others know, that I recognize what the phrase, Your Vibe attracts Your Tribe. That can be a positive or a negative. Looking back at the different phases of my life, who were my friends when I was getting into trouble? Who was I around then? Who is around now? I have had to make harsh sacrifices, that were not only not fair to me, they weren’t fair to those who wanted to be around me.

Since 2009, I have put Bleace above all, with the exception of 5 years spent at a corporate job. I put fear of what others thought of me, fear of not being able to pay bills, ahead of my passion. In this state of my life, I am saying that I am comfortable with what I am doing. While lying on that hospital bed, I asked myself, what if I did die, would I be content with what I left behind? Did I do all that I could? Was I conscious of the effect I had others? Did I make sure to leave a positive imprint on their day? One that they will remember for all time?

That is what I intend to do with my time here in Web 3. Leave something behind that will have a positive impact on not only those around me in this present moment, but those who my soul’s energy has yet to meet. I do believe that this Blockchain Technology, the ability to send funds anywhere around the world at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time, along with Cryptocurrency and NFTs, is going to change lives. It’s going to put food in the mouths of starving children. It’s going to bring the internet to more people so they too can have access to more readily available information, many times needed to improve their state of well-being.

We, the collective we, are going to create wealth in places where it is long overdue. To those who do have access to the internet and can explore these virtual worlds, on these various meta platforms, they can now verifiably own their digital assets like virtual real estate, digital fashion in some of the most space of the art epic games out right now. Some, you don’t need a VR headset, all you need is a phone, with Spatial they even have an Free App, with Cryptovoxels, it works right on the phone browser. Absolutely love the accessibility of those platforms as developers have to take in account who is going to be accessing these virtual lands and the fact that not everyone is going to have a desktop. MetaParty Vibes may sound juvenile, but I ask you, who says we can’t learn more from the youth than we can the elderly?

We all need to be more open minded to new ideas, not fear new technology because we don’t yet understand it, stand under it with awe. Let us learn and have a good time doing it, we aren’t here for a long time. Don’t take life too seriously, you won’t get out alive anyway. What will live on after your gone? What are you going to leave behind? That is a question everyone of us is going to have answer sooner or later. I am fully aware of my actions and am contempt in my convictions as a true indefatigable Multimedia Artist until my dying breath. I refuse to live a life that has, just over the last century, a blink of an eye in terms of all human existence, been normalized. What Web 3 has done, is asked why? Who does it best serve? The majority or the minority?

Sharing Helps Everyone Win (SHEW) as our friend Awed Job likes to say. Once we can solve selfish greed in our species, we can keep more from starving to death. Let us Go Further Together, one step at a time, and create a better virtual world and physical world, they can both progress. Our impact upon this Earth can take a more positive one if we collectively choose to do so.