Relay Weekend, Day Two

 

Sunday June 14 was day two of the Relay Weekend. Late the night before at 9PM SL time (Midnight SLT) was the Luminaria Ceremony, also known as the Luminaria hour. People were asked to be quiet and encouraged to pause their walking as they reflected on those lost to cancer. 

 

 The Luminaria Hour would be live on Youtube as well, luminaria floating upwards over ACS island. 

 

 

Some people pulled an all-nighter. Others got some rest, even if it was a few hours. Fortunately there were some snacks and drinks at various places such as the Roos With A Dream camp.

 

 Many were running to get as many laps as possible. While I planned to walk a few, I also talked with others, such as the Roos. 

 

 Some on the track insisted on using speed boosters, some leaving streak trails as they zoomed across the track.

 

 "Woosh for a cure" someone called it. There would be 25 people who would win the Chettah Award, also known as the cheater award, one making a hundred laps! 

 

 It should be noted the track had some of the most varied lengths. It wasn't just all brick and asphalt. There were stretches of wood. 

 

The ACS sim had glass bridges. ACS2 and three had wooden ones. 

 

 Once again, some creative avatars were going down the track, like this giant snail from the Giant Snail Races. 

 

and this small dragon bounding down the track

 

And there were also gryphons. 

 

 There were ponies (I ran into one when going to a sandbox to unpack something, told her about the Relay, and she came over and brought a friend).

 

 And these ... whatever they are. 

 

 

Ran into Zada Bury, who was filming the area for Drivers of SL.

 

 

 I would also check out a few other campsites, including the Second Life Cheerleading Squad's, of which I would climb the double helix and parachute off. 

 

 I would do a total of a bit less than the equivalent of four laps. And eventually at 10 AM was the closing ceremony. The lag was so heavy, I risked crashing if looking at more than a few complete avatars, my clothes turning white. 

 

 Again, the Closing Ceremony was broadcasted live on Youtube. 

 

 

From the video, Cynthia Farshore was there in her balloon. 

 

 

The Committee congratulated everyone for a job well done. There was some news that was a little sad though. After some years, Trader Whiplash and MamaP were stepping down from their leadership positions. 

 

 

After the Closing Ceremony was the Victory Lap. Many would do one more lap around the track. Some would also go to parties on the track. I ended up running into Mattie Carlton, the leader of Kitsunes For A Cure, that had just hit Silver Level fundraising.

 

It was an exciting Relay Weekend. But the fun at the track isn't over yet. The sims will be up for a few more days, with the "Flood Party" taking place sometime Wednesday. The Royal Ascot by Team ACTS is taking place in the Relay track this time, in a couple sims in the southwest, to Sunday June 21st. 

 

There's always "that guy" who takes down his camp early. So be sure to see the campsites while you can.

 

Go Relay!

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

At The Relay Weekend

 

 

The Relay Weekend started off with the opening ceremony, with over 200 attending.

 

 Because of the lag, the ceremony would be streamed, and recorded, on Youtube. 

 

 I would be there, but had some trouble with the lag.

 

 Then it was onto the track, first the Survivors and Caregivers lap, then the team lap.

 

 The track itself had some interesting camps, like the SLCS double helix build, standing over 360 meters high, each piece created when someone new touches the build panel. 

 

 

Cardboard cutouts seemed to be a thing this year. 

The "Wild Wild West" walker versus a giant cancer cell?

 

 

And there were the avatars from the Stay Puft Man and the fifty foot woman ...

 

 

To animal and tiny avies ,,,

 

 

To those who went rainbow.

 

 It was quite an experience. To see who walked how far, check out this website: https://rflofsl.org/leaderboard .

 

 More later. For now, need to rest.

 

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay! 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

SL Video: "Happy Birthday Second Life (Part 5)"

 

 

 (click here if the video does not play)

 From Draxtor Despres on July 14, "It is that time of year again where we celebrate the fact that Second Life - due to the ingenuity of its residents - has outlived many a Metaverses. Well, I don't personally find joy in punching down on worlds that came and went so let me be clear: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SECOND LIFE! YOU ARE MY ONE AND ONLY (even if others were to exist .... and they don't ... change my mind?) Join me if you see me and let's wander the grounds of SL21B ! ! !"

Cartoon of The Day: Why Walk On Hands?

 

 

 Taken at the Happy Vixen. This sphinx was going around walking on his hands. So why walk that way? Maybe his feet were sore. And why would they be? I could think of one reason.

By Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Cartoon of The Day: Lag Thick Enough To Walk On

 

 

 Taken at the Relay Weekend track with the help of Charlee Shuftan. After a sim crossing, the result was the "walk of lag" going slowly up.

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Picture of the Day: Robo-Chair

 

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Spooked Dreamscape shows off a chair that's actually a robot walker. He never did dance with it, possibly because those metal feet might scratch something.

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

SL Video: "Fantasy Faire 2018 in Second Life an Epic Walk Round"

 (Click Here if the video fails to play)

From Pryda Parx on April 2018, "I took a walk through the whole of Fantasy Faire 2018, all 15 regions. I saw lots of wonderful places and a dragon, some unicorns, a dinosaur, a tigers giving a ride and had a mishap in a library and got quite cross! But it was all worth it.

"The timeline: 0:00:00​ - Falls of Hope, 0:03:01​ - Pools of Ethuil, 0:07:13​ - Astrid’s Nemeton, 0:11:39​ - The Bazaar Dungeon, 0:18:15​ - Sanoria, 0:21:34​ - Erstwhile, 0:26:08​ - Athenaeum Arcana, 0:34:27​ - The Story Well, 0:40:10​ - Severina, 0:43:42​ - The Halls of Story (got the caption wrong in the video, sorry) 0:46:41​ - The Willows of Nienna, 0:49:55​ - Tiny Town, 0:54:50​ - Aetherea, 1:02:14​ - Fairelands Junction, 1:06:36​ - Ardessa, 1:13:46​ - Falls of Hope"
   

SL Videos: "How Big Is The Map of Second Life, Walking Across the Map"

There's a man on Youtube who calls himself "How Big is the Map?" What he does is record himself walking across various gaming worlds such as "Ark: Survival Evolved," "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds," "Elder Scrolls Online," and many others. Most take a half hour to ninety minutes, though "Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall" boasts the biggest map he crossed, which took him about 70 hours in total.



Recently, WATM decided to take on crossing Second Life., in an avatar appropriately named "HowBigistheMap." But he ran into one complication obvious to it's residents: most of the place is private regions by themselves or in groups that are isolated from one another and accessible only by teleporting. But there were the continents. So he decided to talk across those, starting with Sansara. The journey took him an hour and a half. So crossing just this continent alone took more time than crossing most of the game worlds he'd spanned.



HowBigIsTheMap didn't stop there. He would go on to cross the continent of Jeogeot, which took him slightly less than an hour and a half. Then came his third and longest challenge, traversing the triple continent region of Corsica, Nautilus, and Satori. That took him almost three hours, which got him wondering how long would it take to walk across the whole Grid if it was possible.

Luca Grabacr came up with a kind of answer in her video in November 2015, in which she stated if all the sims were lined up end to end, it would take over 23,000 days to walk across them. Obviously that's not the same as crossing the map from one corner to the other. But these videos from these two people show when it comes to ground area, especially ground area with unique content, Second Life has the MMOs beat hands down.

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au
Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: RFL - Changes to Most Lapped Walked Awards Structure

After reviewing last year's volunteer feedback, the following changes have been implemented to ensure that everyone has a fun and quality experience on the relay track. These changes affect the Most Walked Laps Awards structure and are as follows:

1. Instead of awarding trophies to the persons who had accumulated the most laps, the acknowledgement will be awarded in three tiers, based on the laps completed.

2. The three tiers are as follows:
1 complete lap to 9 complete laps - 3rd Level Recognition
10 complete laps to 19 complete laps - 2nd Level Recognition
20 complete laps to 30 complete laps - 1st Level Recognition
31 laps or more disqualified from earning award recognition

3. We encourage speed boosters be saved for use AFTER the Event Day has ended.  We invite those, who like to use our track as an opportunity to get out those speed enhancing scripts, to enjoy the track from Sunday night (the 20th)  after 8pm SLT until the track is dismantled later in the week.  In fact, if YOU would like to organize the GREAT RELAY RACE for any day after the close of Event Day, let us know by IMing anyone on your committee!

Thank you for your feedback and cooperation, as we strive to make our Relay fun and enjoyable for all!

Sincerely,
The 2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Committee

"Journey On A Pixelated Road"

About four months ago I came across a website for Minecraft called Far Lands or Bust, where a man named Kurt began to walk across the length of one Minecraft world. For the record, that's roughly 32 *billion* meters (where one block is a meter). Technically, that would only take about 820 straight hours of nonstop walking, but I learned that Kurt has been doing this since 2011 and has only gone about 700,000 meters from spawn. Because the "Far Lands" (a place where the graphics get screwed up due to variables being overwritten) were removed a few versions ago, he's continuing to use an "outdated" version of Minecraft (Beta 1.7.3 where the current version is Minecraft "official version" 1.7.4 --- quite far apart in developments)

He is doing it for the charity Child's Play as he explains on his website (farlandsorbust.com) and in his youtubing of the episodes (currently at 327 episodes and counting). He's raised over $170,000 for it. I thought to myself "Y'know, that looks really fun. But they're episodes, they're taped, edited, and a far out of date version of Minecraft. No pyramids, no jungle temples, no trading with villagers, no nothing." So I thought I'd try and do the same, only I'd do my episodes live.

Thus was born "Journey On A Pixelated Road."

Come join me (Xymbers Slade) and give me something to talk about whether it is SL related or not as I attempt to waltz across the length of one (up to date) Minecraft world, updating snapshots and release versions as they happen. I'll be livestreaming from 9 PM to midnight my time (6 PM to 9 PM SLT) and continue to do so every monday, wednesday and friday if the idea takes off. I tried to do something similiar a weekend or two ago and got no visitors (when you advertise to 4chan and not even THEY show up to troll, something's not right)

www.twitch.tv/vladvenom --- there's a 20 second delay in the streaming, but I'll pay attention to the chat as best I can.

Xymbers Slade

Cartoon of the Day

Picture by Theonlyjohnny Resident

Caption by Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes from the 2011 RFL Track

I took dozens of pictures for the relay, but only a few could make it to the article. Here's a few more.

See more in Places.