It's done! The relay is over and while we await the final numbers from Jade and her crew, I'd just like to thank everyone who jumped off the Eiffel Tower. Altogether, the Eiffel Tower BASE jumpers donated L$18,376 to the SL Relay for Life. So pick up your splattered avatars off the ground and give yourselves a pat on the back.

Congratulations and thanks to Jade Lily for creating such an amazing track and successful event. Rumour has it that the event raised over $38,000 US(!) in total. Excuse me for a moment while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

"AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-- *SPLAT*!" That's the sound of someone raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Saturday and Sunday, for the second year, Jade Lily and her team bring the the Relay for Life back to Second Life. Just like its real-world equivalent, the SL Relay for Life raises money by making people -- uh... avatars, I mean -- walk enormous distances for a good cause.

This year, Jade's team has booked 12 regions just for the event, and have terraformed it to look at least somewhat not unlike a world map. The relay route winds through each of the continents, in which residents have replicated the sights and sounds of some representative countries.

Walk through the Americas and see the rainforests of Brazil, a pyramid in Mexico, a New York streetcorner in the United States, and assorted trees, rocks, water, and a CN Tower in Canada. If you've ever been to Canada, you'll know that there isn't much else there.

The European continent starts in Ireland, with a replica of a street, complete with an Irish pub. In the UK, the southern portion of the island is dominated by Big Ben and the Millennium Wheel, while -- just like in real life -- everything else is sheep, stone huts, and henges.

From there, you can meander through the Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, and Italy, before winding up at a stunning vision of the Taj Mahal, which, as everyone knows, is right next to a major Chinese city. It's a short jaunt from China over to the islands of Japan, from whose green hills you can virtually leap off and land in South Africa.

Ok, so the scale, proportion, and occasionally location are maybe imprecise, but it's a remarkable build, and one that's well worth visiting.

For my small contribution, I build an airship terminal in Germany, from which you can take an automated airship sight-seeing tour around 11 of the 12 regions. As well, I set up BASE jumping from Kyra's recreation of the Eiffel Tower.

That's right. If you've ever wondered what it's like to jump off the Eiffel Tower, now is your chance to find out. Strap on a parachute, teleport to the top, and throw yourself into the wind. Oh, don't forget the part where you turn on your auto-deploy altimeter, or the last thing you'll hear is "SPLAT!"

I laughed my ass off when I saw this one. No kidding... it fell off and hit the floor with a meaty thunk. My dad snapped this photo in a picnic area on Galiano Island, BC. I just had to post it.



Naturally, if you're eating children, you want to keep the dogs tied up or they'll grab a leg or two right off the table.

It's Wednesday, folks, which means that Second Life is down for the latest update. SL addicts the world over, shaking from withdrawal symptoms, turn to other activies, like sparring in the forums, or trading silly links in IRC. You might ask, What does Cubey do during SL downtimes? Well... I'll tell you...

I start my day having completely forgotten about the planned downtime. I go to my kitchen, brew a pot of coffee, and plan my morning's work in my head. The beans are hand-roasted by a guy in Steveston BC, and are quite delicious. Much better than that Terrabucks swill. Steaming mug in hand, I sit down at my computer and log in.

After my seventh or eighth login attempt, the reality sinks in. SL is down. And that's when I start knocking my head against the monitor. Not hard -- just enough to make a good "bong" sound that kind of resonates a little. I think the precise note this produces is G sharp.

So after a good fifteen minutes of G sharp, there's considerable blood on the monitor, since that's the nature of head wounds. Though gory, it gives me a medium in which I can work. I'll spend a while finger-painting red airplanes on red runways, with little red workers in red jumpsuits driving red fuel trucks. This blessed reprieve from withdrawal is shortlived, however, since the blood clots and dries within minutes.

It's important, when deprived of Second Life, to distract yourself. Clicking Belaya's horrifying links in IRC works for only a short time, and pushing coins up your nose yields few positive results beyond a surprising ability to pick up radio broadcasts.

The best distraction that I've found is to strip naked, sit on the window sill, and scream the theme song to "Farscape" There are lots of good screamy bits in that one.

As an aside, if your neighbours object to the presence of a bloodied, screaming, naked person, you may wish to try the backup distraction, which requires a bottle of Vietnamese vodka, a toilet plunger, and two live ducks. Contact me for details.

By the time the police are done with me, it's around noon and Second Life is back online.

What do you do during SL downtimes?

VANCOUVER -- Tragedy struck in the early hours of the morning, when an unexpected death occurred in the home of virtual vehicle designer, Cubey Terra. Shortly after 8:00am, Terra's coffee maker expired, depriving the entire household -- namely Cubey Terra -- of coffee.

"It was horrible," said Terra, "When I found it, it was just cold to the touch. Quite dead."

No cause for the coffee maker's sudden death is certain, but the investigator on the scene suspects a failure in the heating element. Foul play has not yet been ruled out.

The coffee maker had been in continuous daily use since only August 28, 2005 -- less than a single year. A memorial service will be held for the coffee maker later today, after a quick trip to Canadian Tire for a new one.

A sharp-eye reader will notice the sudden appearance at the side of this blog of several new archive links, which date back to 2002. That's because today I took my CubeyTerra.com blog and mashed it together with my larger, but defunct blog, "Cubicle Dweller".

Cubicle Dweller was a blog that I wrote from the perspective of an office cubicle. While it's not necessarily about office life -- in fact, it's most often about anything but the office -- it reflects how I viewed the world as a drone writing user manuals for a software company. I wrote Cubicle Dweller obsessively for years, but eventually lost steam when Second Life took hold of my imagination... and all of my free time.

If you're in a reading mood, please feel free to browse the archived Cubicle Dweller entries. Links are at the side. Or, if you prefer hard copy, please do order Cubicle Dweller in softcover book form: "Raised by Penguins".

Arguably, skydiving is the single most popular sport in Second Life. If, that is, you consider falling from a ridiculously high altitude a sport. That's why more and more business owners are looking to install their own skydiving facility as an added attraction.

It's a great idea -- if you own a club or a shop, for example, you can draw a bigger crowd by giving them something fun and exciting to do. Or you can open a skydiving school, and teach the novice parachutist how to fall from a plane and not become a pancake. Or maybe you want to keep a private skydiving setup on the roof of your home, just for you and your friends.

Whatever the reason, here's how you can get started. First, pick up the basic equipment from my shop:

• A skydiving pod with either 4 or 8 seats. These come with a launch pad.
  
• A skydiving target. These are free. It keeps track of the top 20 best jumps and keeps stats on up to 25 individuals.
  
• Optional: A skydiving drop ship. This lets you fly groups of skydivers over a target and drop them.

Next, contact me in IM for a skydiving gear vendor. The vendor not only includes all of my regular gear, like the sport chutes, skyboards, helmets, etc, but also has the free items, like the E-Chute and Jump Tracker.

I can set up the vendor anywhere on your property and make it movable, so that you can reposition it if you have to. When you IM me, be sure to mention the location, including the X, Y, and Z position. Example: Abbotts(40,160,50). Alternatively, you can drop a landmark on my profile, and then let me know by IM.

I hope to see more of these facilities springing up all over SL. Happy landings!