“It was a fantasy of mine to become a DJ ever since I signed on to SL because music is a passion of mine,” says Mike Kesten, a DJ in SL after graduating from the Blue Moon DJ Training Academy. “I went to another so-called DJ school, but felt completely lost. I loved it here, so this was a dream come true.”

Kesten now does DJ work at least six days a week in SL and may consider doing it in real life sometime in the future.

“The training I received here and what I do now has completely changed my SL life,” Kesten says. “I learned and now I can do what I love.”

The Blue Moon DJ Training Academy is the brainchild of Kasha Morgath. She works closely with Kiara Lanzet, who focuses on the host/dancing side of the academy.

“We saw the need for professional training,” Morgath says. “Most of the schools here in SL simply are not equipped to provide good training. Many of us at the academy also are entertainers in real life, so we know what it is like. We offer training and hands-on experience, not just videos or papers to go through.”

The academy has three floors of classrooms and a mockup of a SL club so students can get the feel for what it will be like when they start working.

“Some clubs do their own training, but they don’t usually have a lot of time to do it,” Lanzet says. “We make sure the students are well-trained here at the academy.”

DJ students go through two weeks of training. The first week is in the classroom, while the second is an internship. Classes range from what it means to be an Internet DJ to voice and emote training.

“I can teach all day, but the student needs to be dedicated to learning,” says Joslyn Bonetto, an academy instructor. “I help with voice control, explain streams and software, musical genres and timing. I talk candidly to the students about his or her voice. However, if a student is very knowledgeable about the music, the student doesn’t have to speak.”

Bonetto says a great deal also has to do with stage presence. “You have to engage the crowd or it doesn’t matter how great you sound.”

The internship consists of training at SL clubs. This gives students the opportunity to work with different music genres, listeners and styles. Students start with one set per evening and then more as they progress.

Students who go through the academy must pass a test at the end of two weeks to be certified as a graduate of the academy.

“I personally make sure the student is certified before we release them,” Morgath says. “Our reputation is very important to us, so the students know right away they have to pass the test. The academy is not a hobby for us, it’s our passion.”

The academy does not guarantee that students will find a job after graduation. However, it does act as a placement agency and has recently hired India Cerise as a marketing instructor to help the students.

“We teach DJs, hostesses, dancers or anyone else how to market and promote themselves,” Cerise says. “We have three levels starting with image and business development, branding strategy and professionalism. The next levels include video portfolio development and group or one-on-one coaching.”

Morgath and Lanzet say there are minimum computer requirements that are needed by the students. Prospective students are encouraged to contact one of them for more information.

“But the biggest requirement is the desire to learn,” Lanzet says.

For Mike Kesten, the academy’s help and that desire to learn has enabled him to fulfill his fantasy of becoming a very busy DJ in SL.

Presumably you've followed my advice and had the builders in laying your newly acquired house. Either that or you ignored my Essential List for Second Life prefabrications and found your very own place. Either way you'll have further tasks ahead of you. One of those tasks is gardening. Yes that's right readers it's time to don those cardigans and slippers and make your parents proud, it's gardening time!

It's true to say that even the most magnificent houses and buildings in Second Life would look naked without some attention to the foliage surrounding them. In order to stop your prized possession looking bare and satisfy yourself that the mortgage is indeed worth it, you should take time, and care to plant your virtual home with the flowers, shrubs and trees that suit it best.

Welcome once more to a Second Life Essential list, this time for the practicing gardeners out there among you all. It's of course wise to point out that there are vast garden centers and options for foliage in Second Life, I couldn't possibly cover them all so I will try my best to offer my personal favourites in order to give you a start!

Heart

Without doubt Dolly & Lilith Heart's Garden Centre is a one-stop shop for the majority of your gardening need. Low prim, high quality plants are on offer on the 6 sims that make the Heart empire. Starting on a mainland sim it's unmistakable the growth Heart has had since it's inception in 2006. One you learn the plants on offer at this immense garden centre you'll begin to notice Heart plants all over the grid. Clearly a popular solution to your gardening needs.

Whether you're looking for Tropical plants to feature in your idyllic beach home, or marshland plants to feature in your very own forest, Heart won't let you down. With Topiaries and Arboretums you can add further depth to your landscaped home. Heart is mostly made of prim plants, there are a few sculpt options here however but the majority of plants and trees are textured prims.

You can purchase plants in many ways at Heart. You can chose to walk along the classically laid out garden centre and purchase plants individually or you can also purchase sets with an additional discount if you're looking for more than one or two plants. There are also vendor walls in place where you can see the offerings in the categories of landscape architecture, rock formations, tropicals, flowers, marshland and trees in one complete place. Fairly new to the offerings at Heart are the Meadow Patches; expanses of flowers helping you cover a larger area with these richly textured plants and all relatively low prim. Also if you're not sure about which plants should go together or not, Heart has some offerings of complete layouts saving you the trouble of placing the prims etc. The prices at Heart are also competitive, allowing you to give your Second Life home a true living, breathing feel.

Botanical

If you have wandered the pathways at Heart and not found what you're looking for, or perhaps you want some sculpts to aid you in adding depth to your gardening in Second Life, then Botanical at Straylight might be the very place for you. Another truly popular location favored by many sim owners, the trees especially are among some of the most realistic you can purchase in Second Life.The area at Botanical is somewhat different to Hearts manicured walkways, and owner Kriss Lehmann chooses to go down the location, location, location theme. You can see all trees and plants in-situ in this beautifully crafted sim. Also there is a central area with all the packs and options laid out for those who want to browse a store rather than a sim.

Botanical does offer a smaller collection of flowers than Heart, favoring more sculpt trees and further landscaping concepts. The sculpt walkways and water on offer at Botanical will help you to recreate mulch walkways and flowing streams on your sim while the particle effects of the Will-o-Wisp and Butterfly emitters will help to add some fantasy to your creations. In addition you can purchase wonderful firefly emitters, light beams, rainbow beams and sound effects depending on the area you're creating.

New Trails

Following on from the sculpt goodness of Botanical the next logical step for gardeners would be New Trails. Situated on another lovingly crafted, landscaped sim, the products on offer here are equal in quality to Heart and Botanical.

Taking a walk towards the shop area through ruined pillars you walk among the trees which help show you one of the reasons I really love New Trails, the textures, especially on the trees feature a wonderful fantasy-esque feel with almost glittering leaves. You can bear witness to another favourite product of mine and that's the light beams. Of course Botanical also features light beams and rainbow beams which move in time with the SL sky, but the menu-driven beams on offer at New Trails offers great diversity in colour and length, adding great depth to the lit areas in your virtual garden.

The shop at New Trails is tastefully located in a greenhouse building and offers you many options when purchasing your plants, even a copyable version for those of you with bigger parcels to cover. The majority of the stock here is a little more on the fantasy edge of foliage than reality, however there are still options for those of you who prefer realism over fantasy. You can even buy Bonsai trees at New Trails and they do look fantastic! Relatively new additions to new trails are the wonderful 1 prim sculpt flowers. Still a small range of those, they will help you cover a larger area if prims are at a minimum.

If you fancy something a little on the quirkier side of realistic garden accessories, then there are a few small places which have some specialized trees and such. Akeyo is one such place. They only in-fact feature one garden piece and it's the topiaries pictured below. They are simply brilliant, and I personally love them. You'll also see them featured in many sims who chose to be a little less mainstream with their planting.

Of course another very popular location is Happy Mood. A wondrous feel good sim, which features some of the most adorable bunnies in Second Life, also has a small yet succinct selection of garden essentials including the gorgeous clock tree which I'm sure will make a fantastic addition if the theme of your house suits it!

If water plays a key point in your landscaping, you might want to check out the options available at Artis Natur brought to you by the Adam & Eve creators Sachi Vixen and Damen Gorilla. There are multiple textured styles for waterfalls and streams at Artis, along with low prim sculpt trees (which you can touch to change the seasons) and wildflower beds with particle emitters for butterflies and bugs.
No matter what your garden theme is, you'll be sure to find something suitable in Second Life, the places mentioned above should hopefully aid you to make a start on your quest to become the next great landscaper.

Finally an impassioned plea. It's very easy to be tempted by textures and full perm sculpt maps the gardening markets appear filled with of late. While these do help in many cases keep costs to a minimum it is also true that many are also lower quality than you'll buy in these Second Life garden zones. While it is true that unplanted lands look barren, it is also true that low quality sculpts/ textures won't help you achieve an atmosphere. Your home, your store, your chill out zone should leave its visitors with an emotion. If it's dark and grungy or a fantasy realm or even a lush woodland forest it all leaves your guests with an emotion, please make sure the lasting memory or your land isn't of low quality.