Yep, that was a short vacation. Sometimes, however, it only takes a short time away from Second Life to ferment new ideas. This time I’m back to construct a new main terminal at the aerodrome.
Oddly enough, a main terminal was something we’d planned to build since the founding of Abbotts Aerodrome in early 2004. We even made a start on a grand art deco style edifice, but somehow it didn’t work out, and we ended up building a collection of hangars and shops instead.
I suspect the reason the terminal has been delayed so long is that, when you think about it, it’s completely useless. In real life, terminals are designed to process passengers and shuffle the masses around like sheep, in and out of secure zones, through checkpoints, and past assorted food courts and shops, where they’re separated from their money. Abbotts Aerodrome is, in reality, not a transportation hub. With free teleportation, nobody actually needs to travel by airplane, and security really isn’t an issue.
Even so, I want a main terminal because it completes the illusion. I just saw Tom Hanks in “The Terminal”, and it inspired me to recreate the lifeless artificial environment that is an international airport.
Who can imagine an airport without maze-like, velvet-roped queues, and a luggage carousel? What’s an airport without the generic white tile floor, sterile waiting areas, and plastic plants? So I’ll go ahead and build all that, even though we don’t technically need it. Maybe it will attract groups of people lingering near the arrivals gate as they return from the Abbotts-Gray round trip.