Honorary Citizenship Bestowed

Laird ❤ Linden Lab=True

So many improvements have been made in SecondLife over the last couple of years, that I have been thinking it was time to consider updating the landscaping at Southern Charm. As some of you may already know, the time lapse between me thinking of something to actually doing it is sometimes extremely long. However, at other instances, I just get tired with myself and do it right away.

Early yesterday I had been experimenting with my newly acquired snow HUD and Guyke, the Prince of Paradijs, had come over to assist me. I then realized that winterifying the landscaping convincingly would require so much more than just falling snow. The ground textures would also have to be changed and the all the trees and plants would need to be updated to the kind that change according to the seasons. It seemed rather overwhelming and I was a little hesitant.

The Prince of Paradijs started - ever so sweetly and subtly - informing me about the great developments that had been made by the gardeners and creators in later years to make trees "that don't look flat".

I let it slowly sink in and then I started asking him if he thought specific trees all over the place looked flat. Even if he tried his very best to be delicate about it, I came to the realisation that my son thought all my trees and plants were antiquated, flat and awful "even if they were once the best you could get...". My son is careful never to hurt my feelings and he knows how attached I am to Southern Charm, but I can always expect him to - eventually - tell me the truth.

Later Guyke and I were joined by my boyfriend Tomais and the three of us took a tour around the Arrival Area. "To hell with it", I thought to myself, and began returning or deleting trees as we went along. This is when I got called up by brother in-law Dej. "I see you're doing landscaping... if you have a moment could you remove some things here also", he said. My sweet Dej had been suffering for three years so I went over to his parcel and removed a load of ugly stuff.

After Guyke had left us to cater to Ziggy's needs and urges, and his own also no doubt, Tomais, Dej and I started looking for more eyesores to attend to. I then remembered the strange and ugly hill that was a remnant from when the sim had been subdivided into parcels, but now just looked weird. I asked Dej if he would mind if it was flattened out, he told me he would welcome it because he had always thought it looked strange.

Although I have never previously terraformed during my entire existence in SecondLife I thought, "How hard can it be, really, everyone else does it. You are the only one you know who leaves it to others. Come on, just do it!" Thought and done, I unblocked terraforming and started to level out the hill. I thought I was absolutely amazing at it and that it was really easy, even if I heard Dej talking to me in the background telling me to be careful.

A few minute later I looked at my work, It was astounding! The hill had been perfectly flattened. Unfortunately, as Dej and Tomais pointed out to me very kindly, the rest of the land all around us had been raised. The big lake on the sim was gone, the canals and waterways also and the seating at the Arrival Area was now under the ground. Hell and damnation what had I done!

"Call the Lindens for a rollback", I thought just as the other two suggested it. So I went on the SecondLife website and chatted with the kind Izzy Linden at customer support. He kindly informed me that I would need to submit a ticket about it. I did that promptly and told them that I had experienced a terraforming disaster, as I had not heeded by wise brother in-law Dejerrity Mycron's warnings to be careful.

With the holiday weekend and all I was not expecting anything to happen before Monday, but lo and behold, within five minutes of submitting the ticket I got a message from the wonderful and clever Elijah Linden that the sim was going to restart in five minutes.

As I told Tomais and Dej, the Lindens know that I love them and this shows they love me back. I would not be surprised if they actually have my portrait up in the company lunchroom right next to my darling Philip Linden's.

Izzy Linden and Elijah Linden have definitely made my Holiday cards list this year for their courteous and speedy assistance!