Who's been to RFL?

The actual Relay part of Relay for Life is this weekend, officially from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, though the sims are open now. Different communities have contributed builds, and the RFL committee has created a walkway through them. I'm told that corporate donors contribute matching funds, depending on how many avatars actually traverse the course. (Note: there are relay stations throughout with free "Walk and Talk" gadgets, that basically are chimeras that allow one avatar to drag a whole bunch of other avatars after them through the walk).

Some of the builds for this year are VERY impressive. If you get a chance, drop by New Babbage's set of builds, iincluding a gallery of machines which is practically a tutorial in Steampunk building, a Mars landscape and biosphere, and more. The Cartel's own Annabelle Babii gets my vote for excellent thematic relevance with her Breast Cancer roller coaster --- this is a BLAST to ride, too, and has some great views of Kamilah Hauptmann's amazing Metropolis build.

There's a lot to see here by some of SL's most creative builders. Which were YOUR favorites? Here's a map of the course:



.

Woot AnnaBelles rides always Rock!! I'll check it out for sure

Thanks for the mention of RFL!

Babbage has an *incredible* build, Steelhead has a camp in Wellness if I recall correctly (southeastish), and Caledon's camp is right smack on the start line, top center. Much thanks to Equine McMillan for an amazing camp build again this year, and if you go near, turn your sound on!

We are over represented this year with Kami's stunning Metropolis build (Kami is the Vicereine of Caledon). Of course Metropolis is sliiightly ahead of our thematic time period. But oh I wish it wasn't! It's amazing. Remember to look up! My favourite sitting place, I think, is in the last 'car' of the sky train of Metropolis (it's got more to it than the ground level one). Try to guess which seat I'm talking about

I asked Charlene Trudeau for a LM to her build, and she laughed and said I'd need a landmark for the entire track! She's done an amazing job. Our own Zenmondo Wormser also did huge amounts of time consuming, difficult issue tracking and resolving with the RFL kiosks you see all over the grid. And I can't say enough good things about our RFL captain, Kiralette Kelley, who has still even in the midst of this recession turned out an absolutely amazing response of donations.

Of course, I haven't had a chance to see everything else, but we are all a *small* part of something absolutely amazing, and far bigger than ourselves.

Some machinima of the past...

http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/node/4224

See you all at RFL tomorrow!

I'll definitely go have a look!

I'm always a bit leary when I see things that refer to RFL in SL because it's way too easy for people to scam others by using a reference to a cause....It's great to see something that's actually working the way it's supposed to with-in SL.
I was also really stunned and impressed with the respons to the MS events I've been involved with.....at the end of the day.....even with all the cranky complaints about SL being spewed on these forums.......there's still something totally awesome going on in the virtual world that benefits the real lives of others. I think it's what keeps me sticking around to see happens next.

The Victorian sims are very impressive, but tres tres urban!

If you're more in the mood for serenity, try the sailing sim (they won last year's RFL build competition): http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Celebrate/254/217/25

This is like a microcosm of SL's immense sailing world. There are big lovely boats in drydock, a marina which is not only pretty to look at from the reedy shore, but where you can take out takos and fizz's yourself. And a small racecourse. Watch out for the (grumbles that she always knew there'd be trouble with these things when she saw them on Nature).

Or, if you just want a hoot, try the Western area: http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Unity/118/2/2

I'd never seen an old west build by this creator before, it's very well done! Rodeo, anybody?

There are some of the most incredible builds this year...it blows me away every year..but this year is better than ever! And the Lindens have created a special RFL Linden Bear where all proceeds go directly to RFL of SL that are out on Xstreet!
https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&CategoryID=458

Milla..I can understand your concern about scams...but I can assure you that we have special koisks and venders where the lindens it receives go directly to the ACS. Each and every donation is recorded..but if you really feel insecure you can go directly to the RFL of SL section at the American Cancer Society website and donate directly there. You can even get a reciept emailed to you if you go that route.
http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/secondlife

And Zenmondo Wormser deserves a huge amount of credit for keeping our vendors and Koisks safe and secure!

My favorite part of Relay is the Survivior Lap which starts at 1:00pm slt today...if you cannot get there to see all the wonderful, amazing builds...be sure and go to that if nothing else. This is the reason I Relay...for the Cancer Surviviors and Caregivers Lap. It is the most moving experience I have ever had in Second Life. And visiting the camps or participating in the themed laps...or cheering our surviviors on...none of it costs a single Linden

Do NOT miss this exhibit! Lag's not bad, but I went early

Yeah, I just ran the course of the relay races that take place later today; some very impressive sights on the journey. Popping back in now to study them in detail

I got round a few...incredible...people put SO much work into this, humbling.

Im going back later...to light up a few lumineres

I cannot for the life of me seem to remember that RFL means "relay for life".. Every time I hear it I think "real F'in life"
just shoot me

I just saw on the login screen that this is a two-day fundraiser.
Wut? All this work for two days? How can someone possibly see even a good part of this in two days?
Or will the displays themselves stay up longer?

The displays will stay up a bit longer. But the actual "relay" is 24 hours long - from noon today til noon tomorrow. And already it's been just about the busiest event SL's ever had, for the time period involved.

Sims are crashing here and there, but to LL's credit, they are bouncing them back up in record time.

This is the first time I've ever done the relay, it's a lot of fun if you're in a group chat about it at the same time!
.

I'm on the Purple Tears team (it's kinda part of Camp HardKnock, in a way), and we're currently going down the road.

(Yay for the walk and talk)

Hey Mari,
We saw a bunch of kids in purple t-shirts near a carnival, but I didn't see you among them.
We misplaced a newbie there, too. Busy busy event.

Interestingly, even though RFL is utterly crammed with prims and people, it was not even remotely as laggy as the recent hair fair (High-particle builds and batches of runners excepted).
Someone could sure take a page out of this book!

Yup! That's our group.

I did spot 3Ring, Claire, and Crazod amongst the crowd. Sorry I missed ya. I did get some din din in the middle of it all.

Just got back from visiting the RFL and its was incredible! kudos to all who donated their time to build this years incredible displays! I’ve got to go back and ride that roller coaster though. Everyone should visit this multi sim display.

Wow, I hate to think how horrific that must have been, then! Running the course in the morning took 35 minutes. I started the actual relay at 2.45pm and got in at 5.30pm Really looking forward to exploring some of these sims in detail.

Lag Notes:

1. Having so many of your team members on the side of the road that it takes five minutes to walk by: Bad.

2. Having so many of your team members on the side of the road that nobody can enter the sim: Very Bad.

3. Blocking the road with your team: Very Very Bad.

4. Having your team firing particles: Very Very Very Bad.

5. Showing up with an avatar rendering cost of 132,113: Fail.

6. Discussing how bad the lag is on voice chat: Ironic Fail.

7. Having a formal dress lap, driving up all avatar rendering costs: Epic Fail.

Seriously, I would love to have had a chance to explore, but the lag was so bad I couldn't even finish my last lap. I wish the RFL sims would be open for a week or two, as I remember they were two years ago. I'd love to see more.

These big celebrations are one of the few places where cutting attached prims and scripts does seem to help. It also helps, though, that most of the builders for RFL are clue-full, and built amazing projects without using every 1024x1024 texture on the planet. I did two laps with my ARC of 1 (including shoes and hair, tyvm!) in about an hour each (minor RL breaks, SL explorations and distractions included). We even made it through Tree of Lag (er, Life) both times. However, I did have to skip over a down sim once.

I had on ARC display for a bit, and saw one person with an ARC of over 8000. OK, ARC isn't the best measurement of anything in the universe, but that's extreme!

edit: the relay is over in half an hour I think, so avatars will be leaving soon. Get in and explore if you haven't already!

Annabelle's fabulous roller coaster:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Prevention/2/28/40

Sailing for RFL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Celebrate/254/217/25:

Babbage does Mars:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Mars/26/239/40

Babbage Exposition:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Imagine/182/124/32

The Old West:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Unity/118/2/2

Tour de France:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Tour%20deFrance/18/237/25
.

1 user agreed.

It would be nice to see it stay open for a week or so. There are a lot of really great builds there I'd love to spend time getting a better look at.

oh, i was there last night with a small group. was fun.

ran into Tex, Bodhi, Mari and few others. totally fun night and the builds were amazing! i will go back again to see more.

Just got back from inworld, talking to some of the zany people who stayed up and ran their avatar through 24 hours of Lag... check out the total laps leaderboard here!

http://slrfl.maintree.com/

Team Caledon was heavily represented, for those of us who know the individuals we had about 1/3 of that leaderboard!

http://www.integratingsl.com/teamtotals.php

Congrats to everyone on there; while the 'big groups' get a lot of the fame (Team Caledon came in 10th this year with $L 1.5 millions) it's actually the incredible number of teams that rounded out the difference.

Over a quarter million VERY real dollars raised by Second Life teams collectively!!!

And one last shout out to New Babbage RFL and the Steelhead Salmons, it was great to see our 19th century grid so well represented!

I have been sneaking around there, and I just have to give one more shout-out to the New Babbage crew for a *fantastic* build. I am predisposed for the retro-futuristic style (and Metropolis is a more than worthy entry, too), but the New Babbage crew just pulled out all stops.