Second Life Future Salon

Some More Relay Links

A few more links about the Second Life Relay For Life from my more immediate blogosphere:

•Fighting Cancer, the SL Way, from Second Tense
•Hope Streams Eternal, from New World Notes
•A Real Event In A Virtual World, from Wheii.com. I met the author, Rob Vitalini, on my recent trip to Budapest. More on him and that in an upcoming post.
•Be The Change, from Torley's blog ("...I'd like to mention is that in doing [the Relay], there was sort of a shortwave SL blogosphere. I've seen blips a few times before with community events, but when the same significant impact is mentioned on several SL-related blogs, that's a promising sign of bigger and better things to come!")
•Successful Relay, from Quitting Electricity. This is a teaser post on Jade Lily's blog. We're all waiting for the real dirt on her experience, as the ghost in the machine of the whole thing, and plans for next year.

Please post more links in the comments and I'll move them up to the post body.

SLRFL Final numbers are in!

I am pleased to announce that the final (unofficial since it will probably go up by a dollar or two) totals for the SLRFL are in.  We raised a total of $5,411.00 from our relay event.  The overwhelming majority of that money was raised in lindens by our Relay For Life participants.  We raised just over $4,700.00 in linden donations and I can not be happier!

The American Cancer Society thanks everyone who participated in the event.  We are especially thankful for the support of Keith Morris, and Jerry Paffendorf.  They were able to enlist the services of some of the most talented people in SL including - but not limited to; Csven Concord, Trimda Hedges, FlipperPa Perregine, Lyre Calliope, Hudson Stryker, the SL Air Patrol, and the whole Radio Radio staff.  Thank yous also go to those who built campsites, provided blimp rides, and ran the track.  We were glad to see the return of Torley to SL, and hope that as the community grows, so will the philanthropy. 

Thank you all again!

New Relay Tally (Not Over Yet)

Late last night Jade Lily wrote to the Second Life Future Salon Yahoo! group with the news that we're up to US$4,278.56 in Linden dollar donations for the American Cancer Society!!!, not counting the credit card donations made through the cancer.org/slrfl site. As soon as we find out the combined tally I'll ask Randy Moss to post an official announcement here. It will be very, very close to the $5,000 goal.

Bino's SL Relay For Life Picture Albums

Bino Arbuckle wrote to say he'd documented all the Second Life Relay For Life campsites as well as some other Relay action. And my did he ever. Check out Bino's Relay albums on Snapzilla. He's got it all down for posterity. Thanks, Bino!

Second Life Relay For Life Over But Not Out

[to view all Second Life Relay For Life posts, click here]

Well, official festivities are now over. Not sure how long the track will stay up, might be a day, might be a few (keep checking in to see, and I'll post when I find out it's down (Relay background and directions posted here)). Donations to the American Cancer Society can still be made in Second Life and via credit card at cancer.org/slrfl until midnight of August 30th. That's the absolute deadline based on the end of their fiscal year.

How much were we all able to raise? Well, in virtual currency alone we raised $3,500US!!! as of 12:30 PM PDT. This doesn't count the e-payments to cancer.org/slrfl or through SL Boutique which we have no tally for as of yet. The big goal is to reach $5,000, so please keep this in mind for any last minute donations you might be considering. We're almost, almost there! And as a final Relay action item, please check out the Terra Nova post and if you have thoughts, leave them there. They'll reach a much wider audience in the broad virtualworld-o-sphere (or whatever :).

I had such a good experience at the Relay, it just blew me away, and I feel great that I could do my little part in planning and pushing it forward with Jade Lily and Randal Moss (and then just surrender to the flood of everyone pitching in!). I'd also like to thank my colleagues at the Acceleration Studies Foundation for supporting the time that I put into these kinds of projects and recognizing their futures value.

Here are some final pics for the day. I've got lots more I'll try and figure out something to do with too.

Relay visionary Jade Lily addresses everyone in the ampitheater at the closing:

A sea of names speaks at the Silent Auction:

One of my last laps, run with a group automatically using the Walk and Talk device (forget fingers, let your script do the walking :)

A close-up, following the leader on her bouncy ball :)

SL Future Salon blog contributor Sven appears (after I missed him yesterday)! Also future salon regulars Sue Stonebender (center) and Hank Hoodoo (right):

After many hours, video hero Trimda Hedges finally shuts down the stream only to be robbed by a gun slinging Deadwood extra! The humanity!:

Search for more Second Life Relay For Life pics on Snapzilla (probably most effectively by dropping "relay" into the search bar). And please let me know what other sites are carrying Relay coverage so I can point links their way. Unfortunately I didn't get pics of all the winning campsites (except for avatar Authentic's citrus cat entry, which I did finally choose to win for funniest :-) and silent auction items. Would love to post those for everyone to see.

Thanks for coming with me on my first live blogging experience. Wish I could have captured more. Can't wait till Firefox is so integrated with SL that I can post from inworld without skipping a beat :-D

Terra Nova Blogs the SL Relay For Life

Betsy Book has a new Relay post up on Terra Nova with some really nice pics. Check it out and chime in there with your thoughts on the event!

Relay Bot?! Or Virtual Prefontaine?

I've been fascinated by this pink-haired avatar in teeny blue shorts who I believe has been running around the Relay track at top speed since 8 PM PDT last night. Is this a Relay bot? I love it. Someone clue me in. Letting Your Fingers Do the Running (NY Times article on the SL Relay) indeed :-)

Circled in lower right:

Luminaria Rally! Close to the End of the Second Life Relay For Life

Time is winding down and there are still luminaria to light around the track (they light in a variety of colors with a minimum donation of 250 Linden dollars (approx $1 US)). If you're out of Linden dollars, hawk your MC Hammer animation on the open market and get back in the game! :-) We're trying to circle the entire track with virtual light. Still very doable, though we only have around a 1/2 hour (until approx 11:30 or 12 AM PDT).

Come in and light these bad boys up!:

Second Life Moment on the Street

Just ran out to grab breakfast and as I was walking down Bedford Ave here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it just looked an awful lot like the Second Life Relay For Life to me. Some random Williamsburg Flickr pics here. Runners, strange vehicles, video games, wacky signs, crowds, hugs, furry animals, costumes, witticisms, etc. Wonder, if we can get the hipsters to participate. Maybe manufacture a big, purple Relay kiosk and stick it on the street...

Second Life Relay For Life Approaching $3,000!

So I rolled out of bed and within 30 seconds was back in the Relay. I IMed Jade and found out we've raised $2,800US so far, or another $800 since 8 hourse before. If the pace keeps up, plus online donations through http://cancer.org/slrfl which we have no tally on right now, we just may hit that blue sky goal of $5,000US.

I'm going to grab some iced coffee and post more pics. There's an item called the Walk and Talk available at the start of the Relay track that lets your avatar automatically follow another around, so large groups can swarm laps and chat at the same time. Really cool. I took a pic this morning, but somehow, like would sometimes happen when I used to drop off analog film at the A&P during my childhood, the pic just didn't come out (or, you know, failed to upload in this case, ha). Will snap more.