Still More Relay Track Sneak Peeks

 Work continues on the various Relay builds. At RFL Stage, Silver Howler was working away (since this picture, the place looks a little different).

RFL Spirit was given to artist Fiona Fei to work with, whom made quite a decorative scene.

In RFL Strength, I took a kite for a ride.

And what will be revealed here?

Of the Sunbeamer camp, the main feature will be a game, "The Prince and the Spot Game." 

More to be revealed tomorrow morning, which is the day the Hopefest begins, Wednesday June 9. Saturday June 12 to Sunday June 13 is the day of the Relay Weekend.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan
  

Relay Track Sneak Peeks

 Work on the Relay track continues. While we can't show you entire campsites, yet, we can show you sneak peeks. Here's one from the Sunbeamer camp.

Nance Clowes' exhibit had this character laughing.

The T-1 Radio station, where the music will be played and any discussion heard from.

 One camp had a roller coaster on it. How big is it and what else is there? You'll see.

The Hopefest begins Wednesday June 8, and the Relay Weekend takes place Saturday June 12 to Sunday June 13.

More to come.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Relay Track Update

 With only a few days to go before the Hopefest, and six until the Relay Weekend, the various teams are busy building their campsites. This includes Team Sunbeamers. Located at RFL Celebrate, I can't show much of the camp, yet. But Shockwave Yareach and Cynthia Farshore are constructing a good one. 

Since reaching Sapphire level fundraising late last month, the Sunbeamers have continued to bring in donations. Ĵäηūş Ȥєקんץяɨηє Ⓑɨƙςɨη (Mariru256 Resident) informed the Newser that last night a raffle in behalf of the RFL Sunbeamer team at the Gathering Oak hangout had concluded. Of the ten tickets, the winning one belonged to Crystal Sabre (CrystalAmber69 Resident). The prize was a *HEXtraordinary* Fennec Fox Wanderer (cream). 

As of the writing of this brief, Team Sunbeamers has raised a total of 790,003 Linden dollars.

Meli's Maniacs have also been at work on their campsite.

Looks like someone really put their foot down with this build.

No, they don't work for Santa.

Should we really be afraid, or is the description a "mis-gnomer?" 

The Hopefest begins Wednesday June 8, and the Relay Weekend takes place Saturday June 12 to Sunday June 13.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shutan
 

Resceduled: Songbird At Grendle's Today, "Bid Me" Events For Sunbeamers Extended

Due to unforeseen events, two events in Second Life will be happening at different times than originally scheduled.

On Saturday April 8, Songbird (Songbird1028 Sorbet) was scheduled to give a live music performance at Castel Bufo (AKA the "Fool's Castle") over Grendel's Children in the Avaria Tor sim. Unfortunately, the event was postponed due to technical difficulties. It has been rescheduled to today, April 20, at 12Noon SL time, "One last chance to break the dinosaurs while listening to the Amazing Songbird!!"

To get there, get to the Grendel's telehub, then sit on the nearby rocket for a quick ride to the castle.

Avaria Tor (133/135/302)

*  *  *  *  *

The "Bid Me" events being held by the Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamers were originally scheduled to end last night at 8PM following the conclusion of the party at Club Cutlass, where the kiosks for the event are located. But team Captain Rita Mariner is in the hospital for kidney stones, possibly for a few days. So the conclusion of the "Bid Me" events has been postponed until her return, possibly at 8PM Friday April 21, or Saturday April 22.

The Newser wishes Rita Mariner a quick and reasonably painless recovery (at least as painless a recovery one can expect from kidney stones). In the meantime, people are encouraged to make further donations for the Relay for Life at Club Cutlass's "Bid Me" events.

Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

Bixyl Shuftan

More "Bid Me" Events For RFL Team Sunbeamers

Today the time period of the Relay for Life team Sunbeamer "Bid Me" events for team captain Rita Mariner and Ranchan Weidman from last week come to an end. But for those wanting more of the "Bid Me" fun are in for a treat as there are a number of new ones. A couple days ago on Monday, there were eight announced, the kiosks all at Club Cutlass.

We have 8, yes 8 BID ME going and 1 Auction now running at Cutlass.  So please find the time to come over, check them out and BID on them, if you so desire.

BIXYL will go Toshi mini Fox if he loses
BRANDI - will go young innocent mousie, if she loses
RITA- will go back to my first hideous avatar, if I lose
NYDIA is auctioning off a music video of your making

Perri is offering to go BLUE VIXEN or CHOCO BUNNY
Four of her friends are offering dates.

Since the announcement, there's been one more Bid Me added, another one for a date. for a total of ten events.

To fill in the details, Brandi Streusel is offering to stay a child/cub avatar for a week. Rita is getting into the Bid Me for a second time, this occasion offering to change into her first avatar, her "ebil tan rat." Perri Prinz has two options besides keeping her her bunny self, blue vixen, or as it will soon be Easter her chocolate bunny avatar. At least 3000 Lindens are needed for them to keep their new look for a week.

Four of Perri Prinz's friends are also up for date auctions: Christine Rhodes, aka "The Magic Fox," who DJs at Xanadu on Sunday nights, and Vicki Anderson, Kacey Carver, and Clover Lappina. Kacey is fairly unique as she has a pinkish squirrel/skunk hybrid appearance. There's a minumum 1000L to bid them a date, which will last about three to six hours.

Nydia Tungsten had a different idea: an auction. This time the winner gets to choose what she'll do a music video on, picking the song, dancers, and location (subject to her approval). Skylark Lefavre is also offering a date, with a minimum bid of 5000, the details being nothing more than a hug or cuddle and no outfit more revealing than a bikini.

And then, there's me. Last year's "Fox Avatar Challenge" resulted in me going tiny for a while. So this year, just the Tokushi tiny fox is up. 5000 Lindens means I get shrunk down for a week, with another day for every additional 2000 L (rounded down) raised. Since yours truly has reporter duties, I reserve the right to go back to full size when doing an interview or similar work. Otherwise I'm stuck at kneecap level. Last year, I ended up spending eight days as a tiny. How high it will be this time, who knows.

The "Bid Me" events will be around probably for two weeks, until Wednesday April 12, until the totals are finalized and the results announced. But don't wait too long. Before you know it, your chance to give me the "tiny toss" will be gone.

The kiosks are at Club Cutlass at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

Bixyl Shuftan

A Busy Weekend

Quite a bit happened this weekend. If one counts Friday, there was the Linden Snowball Fight and the Team Sunbeamers party. But there was the Giant Snail Cross-Sim Race (see below), The VWBPE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education) Press Day (picture above), the event itself starting on March 29, the Relay Rockers "Skunk Aid" party, and more.

We've gone into detail about the Sunbeamer party. More on one or more of the others later.

The Relay For Life Season Kickoff

It's been many months in planning, but once again the official Relay for Life in Second Life fundraising season is under way. This year's theme: "Passport to Hope." On Sunday March 5, the Relayers held their "Kickoff" event, the traditional launch of the Relay season that culminates in July with the Relay Walk, and ends in August. Bixyl Shuftan was there as both the Newser's reporter and a representative of Team Sunbeamers.

See the pictures in Events.

Relay for Life Sunbeamers: Bid Rita (Avatar of Your Choice)

The Relay for Life fundraising season is under way. And that means Team Sunbeamers is raising funds for the American Cancer Society. For it's first event, the team captain, Rita Mariner, has put herself on the line with a "Bid Me" event.

I have started a BID ME Avatar of your choice (if I have it in my inventory).  At Cutlass.  I will stay that avatar for a minimum of 1 week per 5,000L bid.  This is for the RFL to kick off our quest for Gold again.  Long way to go.  There will be be other BID ME offers.  This is but the first. 

Two kiosks have been placed side by side in the lobby of Club Cutlass, the room in front of the dance hall. The one on the left is for those wishing to keep the "killer rabbit" as she is. The one on the right is to change her.

I asked Rita for further details. She told me if the "Bid Me" succeeded, there would be a good deal of choice for the bidders to make, "I have a large selection, so you can pretty much get what you want. ... I'll let it run 2 weeks. ... It will end at the end of the dance."

Already someone else has volunteered for the second Bid Me event to follow just after Rita's. Whom is it? Details to come.

For most of her virtual life, Rita has been a purplish Kani bunny. She later changed the avatar to a slightly different one, but was still purple until a few months ago when she began sporting a white coat. But on occasion she has temporarily changed her looks, such as pink bunny, pony avatar, anthro pony, Lola Bunny, Pepe Le Pew, custom-made harem vixen, and human. What look will she have to take on at the end, we shall see.

The "Bid Me" will go on until Wednesday March 22 at 8PM, when the totals will be calculated.

Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Sunbeamers Relay For Life 3rd Annual Road Rally Information

Welcome to the Sunbeamers Relay For life Road Rally at Farshore Field. The purpose of this rally is to raise money for the American Cancer Society through donations. Even though there is a trophy and prize this is to be a fun and entertaining event and not to be taken as a serious contest. The following information is on how the race is run and what is expected. Also the field will remain open to aircraft operations so feel free to fly in or fly over the race.

To enter into the race requires a donation into the kiosk in front of the officials stand, this can be any amount. We ask that you do so with the attention of an official so as you can be recorded for timekeeping. Officials will be in yellow Sunbeamers shirts with Race Official flip titles.

There are three classes of racing, Cars/trucks, Motorcycles, and What is that? You may enter all three.

There will be 5 laps per donation. Additional donation can gain you 5 more laps to better your time.

The race takes place on Saturday July 30, and starts at 8AM SLT. At 4PM SLT the rally is over and the fast time for each class receive a trophy and $500 Lindens.

*Addition, the Press Release did not originally include the day of the event*

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pacific%20Waters/61/102/31

Cartoon of the Day

From the Team Sunbeamers camp at the Relay Weekend. Do you ever wonder who that skeleton in health or science class used to be?

From Bixyl Shuftan

RFL Track: The Flood Party and the TearDown

Wednesday July 20 was the last day to see the builds on this year's Relay for Life Weekend track. A few builds had already been taken down by the time the day started, and by mid-afternoon many more were gone. But some were still up such as "The Forest of Life."

While many Relayers expressed sorrow, the sad feelings were eased somewhat by the expectations of the "Flood Party." Starting in 2010 as a spontaneous act of funnery after one sim manager raised the water level by ten feet, the Flood Party has become an unofficial Relay for Life tradition in SL.

Tsunami Warning Targets RFL SIMS - Flooding Expected
The impact of RFL of SL's 2016 Season has triggered a Tsunami and its focus is on RFL Activities Sim.

Unlike the first one, subsequent Flood party events have never resembled the deep end of a swimming pool. A few involved only a few inches of water. But that would not be the case this time. People gathered at the RFL Activities sim at 4:30, where Trader Whiplash was DJing some tunes, and before long, some rain started, and the water soon covered the ground.

It wasn't much longer before the water covered the walkway around the stage.

Rowena Dubrovna, who showed up in her tiny otter avatar, was soon having trouble keeping her head over the water. Someone rezzed a tiny float tube for her to stand on.

The water would eventually get knee-deep for most (or thigh deep for this 5'1" fox). While not exactly deep enough for certain felines to get their merfolk tails and "turn catfish," still deep enough for everyone to enjoy it.

But not all was cheers for the Sunbeamer team. It was time to take down the builds at the camp, and Shockwave and Cynthia had waited until almost the last minute. But there were no tears. The build had been well documented, and had a place in the team's history as the first to win an award, "End of line."

And so, the Relay track sims, once home to dozens of exhibits, were once again empty. And in a few hours, the sims would be offline and closed to the public.All except for the American Cancer Society, which remains up the whole year. The Relay Weekend had truly faded into the history books. But there's still the "Wrap-Up" party next month. And of course a whole new season next year.

Stay tuned a few more articles on the Relay Track.

Bixyl Shuftan

Relay For Life Track Sneak Peeks

Work on the Relay for Life Weekend Walk track continues. For the Sunbeamer camp in RFL Support, the work is just about done with some adjustments here and there. This picture taken over the weekend shows team captain Rita Mariner with builder Cynthia Farshore.

 One of the sim-wide non-team exhibits had a "Jungle Book" theme

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"

With the weekend getting closer, the work on the 36 sims is almost done. Though there is still a little more left to do. Stay tuned for more sneak peaks, and a preview of the Team Sunbeamer camp.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Prayer Lifter "

(Click here if the video fails to show)

From Becky Shamen on July 7, "Shockwave Yareach asked for a video to show friends in real life this prayer lifter, made for the RFL weekend event in Second Life." It should be noted there have been a few changes at the camp since the video was made, though the grounds just around the tower are as they appear here.

Team Sunbeamers Reach Gold Level

Yesterday June 11, Relay for Life in Second Life's Team Sunbeamers achieved another milestone. As their yearly Air Show in Pacific Waters was winding down near 4PM SL time, the last of the Lindens needed to put this year's team total over 315,000 Lindens were donated, and so the team had finally reached the coveted Gold Level.

Rita Mariner, the dual head of both the Sunweaver community and it's Sunbeamer team announced the news of the achievement, as well as the results of the "Bid Me Pink Part Two" event.

Beamers!  Today with the efforts of Cynthia, Shocky and many people bidding me PINK for 2 weeks, our team is now officially GOLD!  I am so proud of you.  Hugs and kisses all around!  To those of you who missed the Air Show, you missed one heck of a good time, lots of planes, cannons shooting parachuting, period music, good friends, aerial acrobatics.  Getting to the next level is NOT on my list, but we can still add to the pot and have fun while we do it

Rita would also credit Skylark Lefavre, the Sunbeamer's events coordinator, for their success in the event, as well as that of the team's season.

It's notable that sometime between 3:30 and 3:50, the team total was bumped up from about 230,000 to 301,000 Linden dollars, an increase of 70,000 Lindens or $280 US dollars. This person or persons, or "angels" as Rita referred them to as, so far remains unknown.

And so, the Sunbeamers have once again maintained their reputation as a top-ranking team. But they're not done yet. The team will continue to be a presence in multi-team events. And Skylark is reminding a certain fox reporter of his promise to "go pony" for a week should the team hit Platinum Level. And of course there are the preparations for the Relay Weekend in July. So it's hardly over for Team Sunbeamers.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

The Sunbeamers' Gold Trophy

It was June 27 when Relay for Life team Sunbeamer, the team of the Sunweaver/Angels community for the Relay for Life in Second Life, made Gold level. It was yesterday July 13 in which the team was presented with it's gold trophy.

The trophy is up on display at the Sunbeamer camp at RFL Strength.

Team Sunbeamers Reach Gold Level

Yesterday, the Relay for Life in Second Life's Team Sunbeamer passed the 250,000 Linden mark in the amount of cash it has raised this year, the equivalent of one thousand US dollars. And so achieved Gold rank among the Relay teams fundraising levels. The milestone was reached at the tail end of the Sunbeamer's "Road Rally" event in the Pacific Waters sim in the Sunweaver Estates, the community behind the Relay team.

The announcement was made in Relay chat at about 3:44PM SL time, "Ladies and Gentlemen , Team Sunbeamers has just passed 250,000 Lindens raised, we have now hit Gold rank." There was quite an enthusiastic reaction among the Relayers, "WOOT!! The Sunbeamers just hit GOLD!!!!" "Congrats!" "Congratulationsss !!!" "NICE!!!" "YAY Sunbeamers !!!" "GOOOOOOOOO SUNBEAMERS!!!!"

"Looks like cancer is having a really bad day again, something I love." "And one day hopefully it will have such a bad day that it is nothing more to fear then a common cold."

And for yours truly, it mean that a certain "avatar challenge" of mine had been met. Instead of a "Bid Me" event, like the "Bid Me Human" I did a few years ago when Team Sumweaver was the Passionate Redheads, I instead told the Relayers if my team reached Gold Status, I'd wear a purple otter avatar for a week when in public, unless doing Newser related things such as interviews. And so with the challenge met, I changed over.

So why the purple otter? Purple has been a rather important color for the Relay. And like skunks a couple years ago, there seems to be a thing for otters in the Relay this year, notably among Team Strange Journey. Cuddly Waffle here in the picture with me was happy with the "Urple otter" as she called it, her persona being that of a young child.

And so for Team Sunbeamers, an important milestone has been reached, heading into the last month of the Relay before the weekend walk with their heads held high.

Bixyl Shuftan