Second Life Relay For Life was a roughly 21 hour event, but combine it with sweet tea and you have a full scale emergency. Partway into the Luminaria Ceremony Walk, I really needed to use the restroom, but since I was filming and auto-walking, I couldn't leave my post. That's when I noticed my mom getting a drink in the kitchen ...
I gave her simple instructions to just let my avatar do the walking, and when she comes to a turn, use the left and right arrow keys. No sooner than I got in the restroom was she calling out to me in a panicked voice. I couldn't hear her, so I hurried back, and noticed my avatar in the water. She repeatedly told me that my avatar wouldn't turn. I just accepted this news and moved on.
While that's funny in itself, I reviewed the footage last night, and it tells a completely different story. I won't give away what happened, but needless to say, my mother will never be trusted to steer my avatar again. Do you have an avatar disaster story involving a parent or sibling? Leave a comment!
There are just 14 hours of Relay For Life left! I can't believe seven hours have passed already, but they have. The statistics so far are very impressive, with avatars growing by something like 100 an hour! Laps, however, aren't growing as fast. Take a look for yourself:
Current Count:
Avatars:1085 1101
Laps:639 664
Distance:7,748,841m 8,057,561m
Lap Leaders:
13 laps: DeltaDharmaDawn Aubret:
13 laps: Cubey Terra
11 laps: Marissa Goodliffe
9 laps: Lyr Lobo
9 laps: DrFran Babcock
The Luminaria Ceremony is up next at 9pm SLT/PDT. After that is a fireworks display put on by RacerX Gullwing. Don't miss it!
(I changed the figures because they updated right as I posted.)
The Survivors Lap was held at 3pm SLT/PDT. Residents were asked to line up alongside the road and observe about 30 minutes of silence in honor of the survivors. This year's lap was done a bit different in that their caregivers were also able to take the track. As the last survivor passed forged on, we were able to follow them and complete the lap.
Since W-Hat built the Ceremony Centre sim, a group of them lined up in formation to salute the passersby. There were so many! I was able to capture footage of a bunch of them coming through, by walking, running, rollerskating, particle floating, and flying. I hope you're as touched by the Lap as I am.
(Edited to change wording for more sensitive wording.)
There are a lot of residents cheering on specific teams, but with 32 sims, the campsites may be hard to locate. Christopher Sterling has provided me with a map of the locations, which I've deciphered and SLURL'd for you! Please keep in mind that the sims are listed in the order that they would go around the track, and the teams listed left to right, top to bottom.
Please read on for the complete listing of team locations ...
Second Life Relay For Life has only been open a short few hours, but already it has been marred by attacks on the 32 sims. It started about two hours before the event when a whopping *12* sims were down for the count. According to the Security team, they may have suffered an attack and asked that build be turned off. A short time later, all sims were back up.
That did not stop griefers from attacking the Ceremony Centre during Jade Lily's opening speech. Suddenly she was enveloped and standing on a mound of earth, instead of the stage where she had previously been. A creative individual terraformed the sim to raise and lower land. At this time, W-Hat is fixing the land since Lindens weren't available to roll it back.
Please don't let this stop you from visiting SLRFL! Hopefully that was the last of it as all precautions have been made to prevent further attacks. I hope to see you there!
The Pixels in Pink ladies are at it again! They've designed their campsite, appropriately named PiP Film Noir, to be a brilliant mix of greyscale and ... pink! The ladies, Torrid Midnight, Zyrra Falcone, Hosequeen McLean, Pukk Abel, Rose Farina, Stella Costello, Fallingwater Cellardoor, Nephilaine Protagonist, and several others, have created an element of mystery and awe that just calls to you.
A very tired, overworked Stella Costello mentioned that she was making a Machinima this morning and I'm sharing it with you! As you can see from the film, there are auctions, vendors, flowers, dancing, a theater, and even PIE! Please stop by and donate or purchase items if you can, as all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.
Just as a reminder, Relay For Life officially starts at 2pm SLT/PDT today, but the sims are open now to explore.
There are so many events going on within Second Life Relay For Life this weekend that you don't want to miss! The planners, including Fayandria Foley, Timeless Prototype, RC Mars, and Christopher Sterling, have graciously allowed us to reprint their schedule for our readers. Please note that the times listed are SL time, or PDT.
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
Official Opening at 2pm
2:00pm: Opening Ceremony to be held at the Ceremony Centre, including Opening Remarks by Jade Lily, Comments from our ACS Representative, RC Mars aka Randal Moss, and Instructions for the Opening Lap, with Christopher Sterling.
3:00pm: Survivor/Caregiver Lap
4:00pm: Relay Attire
6:00pm: Hats and Boots Lap
7:00pm: Mr. and Mrs. Relay For Life 2007 Pageant (Please note that the time may change, but T1 Radio will notify us if it does)
8:00pm: Barefoot Lap
9:00pm: Luminaria/Ceremony of Hope at the Ceremony Centre, with Poppy Zabelin
9:30pm: Fireworks, provided by RacerX Gullwing
11:00pm: Crazy Hair Lap (Wear your craziest hair, no matter what color!)
Relay for Life has been in Second Life for years now, and for those of you that don't know, this weekend marks the celebration that the fundraising is done for the 2007 fiscal year! After this next week, the sims will disappear and fundraising will begin for 2008. As of 6pm SL time, they've raised L$26,885,975, which is a few hundred dollars short of $100,000 USD!
In the next couple of days, I'll be posting information and schedules for events revolving around SLRFL. A lot of work went into this from many teams. There will be auctions, pageants, and themed laps around the track, which takes over an hour to walk!
The official event starts tomorrow, Saturday, July 28th, at 2pm SL time (PDT), but don't let that stop you from checking it out now! To start your walk through all 32 sims or donate money to the American Cancer Society, head on over to RelayForLife Start.
Relay For Life has had a presence in Second Life for three years now, which means plenty of pink, pink, pink! With teams creating hair, clothing, and skins sold to profit RFL, Tiernan Serpentine has a different idea on what sells: FUN.
Tiernan has released a limited quantity bouncy castle, with 100% of the proceeds going to Relay For Life. It is a relative bargain at 150L and will surely provide hours of fun for you and your friends. It can be found on SL Exchange, or the Filth Magazine plot.
Are you selling an interesting item to benefit Relay For Life? Let me know!
I'm going fashion crazy today, but I can't help it! Shai Delacroix passed me an invite to a Date a Designer Auction put on by her Relay For Life teams, Shopaholics for a Cause and Shopaholics for a Cure. The event takes place on Saturday, April 7th, at 12pm PST on the Nuka Hiva sim. The attire for the event is luau, so bring your leis! Ten high-profile designers will be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Relay For Life. You own their products, but now you can own them for a couple of hours!
The designers participating are:
Blaze Columbia - Blaze
Forseti Svarog - Figments
Canimal Zephyr - Canimal
Digit Darkes - X3D Apparel
Lucas Lameth - Earthtones Boutique
Truth Hawks - TRUTH
Colleen Desmoulins - The Loft
Aradia Dielli - Perfect Image
Shai Delacroix - Casa del Shai
Pushbutton Skolnick - Pushbutton Industries
Auctioneers - Sean Clancy & Ryan Darragh - Second Man magazine
Today beloved Second Life resident and Relay For Life supporter, Feliciaa Feaver passed away after a long struggle with cancer. The grief we feel from her loss is the price we pay for the love and friendship she so freely gave. Painful as it is, it was worth it.
Fox Atomic recently held a Machinima contest in conjunction with Millions of Us to promote their new horror films coming out. Decomposing Monstre appeared to be the front runner in the contest, but was edged out at the last minute by Pierce Portocarrero. He ended up winning the First Place prize, which was $100,000L.
With the Lindens about to burn a hole in his pocket, Mr. Monstre sent an email to the kind Millions of Us staff requesting that the $100,000L be donated to W-Hat's Relay For Life team. Already around 14th place overall in the standings, Deco's prize money bumped them up to a shocking 8th place! It's moments like these that make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Good on ya, Deco!
Our compadres at Joystiq have posted an article on the Virtusphere, a virtual reality rig that promises free, actual movement. The article's final sentence asks "What game world would you like to explore in a giant, virtual hamsterball?"
Well, kids and kidlets, you already know the answer to that one. How fun would it be to roam around SL with one of these? My first thought was 'Too much fun', but now that I've had a moment to think about it, perhaps not so much. I'd say a good deal of my time in SL is spent sitting in chairs playing games, dancing, flying, etc. None of these require traversal of the landscape, rendering the Virtusphere useless. On the other hand, with the proper force-feedback mechanisms in place, it could be just as fun to take a run, a la the Relay For Life. What do you all think? Despite the unavoidable sticker shock that must come with a rig like this, would you use it?
Relay for Life officially opens tomorrow at 5PM PT.
I'm going to take a break from my country-by-country coverage of the Relay for Life project to fulfill a request by Jade Lily to list the members of my build crew. Managing a project this enormous with only volunteers to help should have been a nightmare for me, but it was more like a dream. These individuals really pulled together and worked like a family to make history in Second Life, and to really make a difference in the lives of real-life people.
Jolly Olde England was brought to us by the talented Timeless Prototype along with AngryBeth Shortbread, Christopher Sterling and CoyoteAngel Dimsum. Featuring cottages on the english countryside, a double decker bus, and the obligatory model of big ben, the real striking feature of RFL's United Kingdom is the London Eye Ferris Wheel. It's Big. Really really big. And it works too! It's a great place to park yourself and see the sights from high above.
There are just 14 hours of Relay For Life left! I can't believe seven hours have passed already, but they have. The statistics so far are very impressive, with avatars growing by something like 100 an hour! Laps, however, aren't growing as fast. Take a look for yourself:
There are a lot of residents cheering on specific teams, but with 32 sims, the campsites may be hard to locate. Christopher Sterling has provided me with a map of the locations, which I've deciphered and SLURL'd for you! Please keep in mind that the sims are listed in the order that they would go around the track, and the teams listed left to right, top to bottom.
There are so many events going on within 
Today beloved Second Life resident and Relay For Life supporter, Feliciaa Feaver passed away after a long struggle with cancer. The grief we feel from her loss is the price we pay for the love and friendship she so freely gave. Painful as it is, it was worth it. 
Our compadres at 
