2008 SLRFL
Well, I didn't have much to say about it this time (or anything else, lately- sorry about that), but I did participate in the 2008 Second Life Relay for Life this year. Not a whole lot of substance to add, really. The Relay fundraising volunteers put in an astounding effort, and raised over L$55 million for the American Cancer Society. That's over US$193,000!

My team, the Relay Raiders, pulled in over L$10 million, or about US$35,000. I wasn't able to participate as much as I would've liked this year, but between the proceeds from Mo-Tech Industries sales in-world and RL donations, I did manage to raise about L$169,000 (around US$640, over twice what I managed last year). Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! And, like last year, the Jail-an-Avatar event was a smashing success, raising a couple million Lindens between the five teams that participated. I only provided scripting and construction services for the jails, and technical support during the day-long event, but I'm still proud to have been a small part of it. All told, I think we can call this year's Relay a success.

On a personal level, I didn't get to do as much with the whole treadmill stunt this year. I'd actually planned on skipping it altogether, due to RL conflicts on the day of the Relay, but ended up hopping on the contraption and joining in late for a few laps. Since it was something of a last minute impulse, I didn't even try to setup the webcam and such (like last year). Shown at right are photos of the mileage and time readouts for two sessions. The top one was taken at precisely 99:59 into it, just before the timer rolled over to zero. A few moments after, I took a misstep off the back of the treadmill and twisted the heck out of my ankle. Nothing too serious, but it pretty much put an end to walking for the next few hours. I ended up logging out in disgust, and getting some sleep instead.

The bottom picture was taken at the end of the Relay Raiders' victory lap, the following morning. By then, the swelling had gone down, so I decided to run the final lap on the treadmill. All told, I walked about seven real life miles, and approximately 26 in-world kilometers (give or take distance lost to lag and poor steering). Quite a bit less than last year, and less than I'd hoped, but enough to make the point... Whatever that might have been. I suppose it was kind of a neat thing to do, the first time, but I'm just as happy I didn't make a big deal out of it this year. It's too easy to cross over from fundraising publicity stunt to self-aggrandizement. And I already have a weblog for that!

Incidentally, I'd like to offer a nod of thanks to Moo Money over at Massively for featuring last year's promo walk video on the July 20 Cinemassively feature. It's nice to be remembered! Not that it matters overmuch, but the 23 miles mentioned was spread out over the actual '07 SLRFL event. (Yes, I was stupid. My blisters had blisters.) I have no idea how many miles I'd actually walked before that film was made. As part of my morning exercise routine, I did somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles a day, every day, for at least the preceding four or five months. I suppose that adds up to quite a lot, even if it was done in hour-long chunks with a day's rest between. I know I made at least one pass down every road on the mainland continents at the time. One way into the record books, anyway.
Posted by Moriash Moreau at 12:11 PM