Nashville Music Row: A Place to See, a Place to Hear- DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting..

Nashville Music Row is both a representation of Nashville, Tennessee and a live music venue. Nashville is, of course, home of The Grand Ole Opry music hall and mecca for country music fans and performers world-wide. 

The sim offers a guided tour carriage ride featuring Music Park, Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry, Tootsies Orchid Lounge, The Stage, and the Bluebird Café, all rendered as closely to their RL sources as possible and accompanied by both auditory and note card information about the RL sites. Here you will find a wide menu of live performances and may even be greeted by Ms Patsy Cline (in bot form) offering you group membership and event updates.

I visited Nashville Music Row and was impressed with the build overall. Especially with how much information was available about the various sights there. Even in the middle of the night when no one was around, it was an interesting place to explore. I even found myself trying to converse with Ms Patsy Cline and ask her about the sim until I realized that she was actually a bot. :) When I brought my partner, who had been to RL Nashville several times, she said the main buildings were, in fact, very good replicas.

I had the chance to speak with Immyour Destiny, one of the builders of Nashville Music Row.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day 2014 Interview with a Leprechaun

Leprechauns are synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day and Irish Folklore. The word itself means pygmy or little person.

They are said to be solitary mischievous fairies that take the form of a bearded old man, usually wearing a green coat and top hat. This is the most popular description of these creatures but according to different regions of Ireland, Leprechaun appearances vary. For example, in Northern Ireland they wear red coats, white pants and a pointed hat.  In other regions they have a sword or use their hat as a weapon. Legend has it they are greedy little shoemakers who like to hide their gold coins in pots at the end of a rainbow.  If one is caught, they must give the captor their pot of gold. In American culture, St. Patrick’s Day is observed by drinking heavily, pub crawls, fist fights and a reason to just act like a crazy Leprechaun. Being Irish doesn’t even matter to partake in this holiday’s activities.  To some, Leprechauns are considered to be alcoholic tyrants that cannot control their behavior once they are inebriated. That must be why people who observe this holiday in a drunken stupor justify their behavior once they recover from a massive hangover.

In Second Life, St Patrick’s Day is observed with clover adorned decorations, treasure hunts, parties and dressing in green. The SL Enquirer observes this holiday by searching for Leprechauns and harassing them for fun. Lanai Jarrico has some Irish in her and sees Leprechaun hunting as a sport. She goes hard at it usually after a few green beers and a buzz.

Interview with a Leprechaun

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Poetry: Let it Go By Doctorkaren Kanto

As I was struggling along my path

Stumbling, faltering

Barely carrying my load.

I happened on an old man

watching me with knowing eyes.

"If you want to move down your path, my child,

want to keep all that load,

one short piece of advice I give you:

Let it go.

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Drama in SL- DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting…

Drama... decried by many, disliked by most. What is it? Why does it happen? Is all of it bad? Can it be avoided? In this brief article, I will attempt to offer some answers to these questions.

In this context, drama usually refers to an expression or behavior that is "over the top" emotionally. The common emotions involved are anger, jealousy, and sadness. Someone expressing a great deal of joy is rarely described as a "drama queen", but sometimes even moderate levels of sadness may be so labeled. Perhaps the most common "drama" in SL relates to relationships, usually romantic or sexual in nature. Even there, different people will see things in different ways. One person may identify emotions as drama where another sees reasonable levels of emotion. For the purposes of this article, let's assume we are describing emotional expressions and behaviors that are so intense as to be likely to be seen as "drama" by most anyone in SL.

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The "Shape Doctor" of SL- DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting…

On my travels through SL, I happened upon an individual, Pertinax Greggan, whose profile caught my attention.

He professed to having some expertise with female shapes in SL and I just had to find out what that was all about. Prior to the interview, I asked him what he thought of my shape (this was made easier by the fact that we were both at a nudist sim at the time), and he offered several "corrections" that, when I tried them out, all were small but significant improvements that I have retained.

Karen: Your profile says you are a "Shape Doctor, making realistic female shapes as a sort of hobby, not to sell... I give them away!" What do you mean by "Shape Doctor"?

Pertinax: Well, there are positively hordes of women out there in SL who have tinkered with their own shapes and ended with results that are less than anatomically plausible, much less aesthetically pleasing. I draw photo-realistically in RL and, so I have a good eye for form and proportion. ((points to a drawing on his wall)) That is done with pencil and charcoal and some chalk... it loses something from the scan to SL, though.

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The CTS Wardrobe: Visual Clothing and Inventory Organizer- DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting…

Full disclosure: I have owned the CTS Wardrobe from Carlyle Theas
Solutions for many years now, and find it to be a most valuable utility,
second only to my AO. I am often on the Wardrobe support group helping
people accomplish their goals with the Wardrobe. I love the thing.







Simply put, the CTS Wardrobe is a device for seeing, organizing and
wearing clothes and other items from your inventory. It solves the problem
of "What does that piece of clothing look like?" by creating a visual
inventory, readily accessible from in-world.

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Being The Shoulder To Cry On- DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting…

Image by Justice Brentley

Every avatar in SL (except the bots) has a RL person behind it, and that real person is going to have real feelings. From time to time, those feelings may be distressed, and the person, through their avatar, may seek the help and support of others within SL.

That "other" may be you. In this article, I will attempt to suggest some guidelines that might help you with some of the common issues that arise including:

    Does that avatar really need to bring this drama to SL?

    Can I really help someone?

    Do I have to help someone if I don't really want to?

    If I started to help, can I stop? How do I stop?

    How do I know if I am in over my head?

    What do I do if I think I am in over my head?

Ok, let's begin.

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Blurring the Lines Between SL and RL -DoctorKaren Kanto Reporting…

There is, and has always been, a lot of discussion and even argument about the lines and boundaries between "real life" and "second life".

In this short piece, I hope to explore some of the issues involved in this, some of the potential dangers, potential benefits, and, ultimately, answer the question, "Can an SL relationship lead to lasting love?" In this, I am following many other authors who have written great pieces on the subject. This is simply my contribution to the mix.

For the purposes of this discussion, let's start with some definitions. Real Life (RL) is that set of experiences you have while you are alive. Second Life (SL), on the other hand, is a computer network-mediated means of communication and interaction. As such, it is just one of all the various ways you might communicate or interact in your RL. SL is a part of RL. SL IS RL. So those who assert that "this is a REAL person behind my avatar" are quite correct. Up to a point. Not all of RL is "the same thing". To understand SL better, let's look a moment at RL and the concept of multiplicity of personality.

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