Worldcons & Entitlement Culture

As I expected, L.A.con IV will not have convention-provided internet service because the amounts the hotels and convention center want to charge for it are absurdly expensive. I should be, but am not, astonished at the people who have complained that the convention should do it anyway, who have said, "But [fill in local convention name here] held somewhere else has free access; that means you should, to," or assume that the L.A.con IV committee only just now noticed the situation.

Internet access has been one of many, many things the committee has been chasing down. Despite what some people may think, I expect it was not the most important thing. In fact, there were a lot of more important things. I know from my own experience that one of the hard parts about chairing is having to pick between multiple things when you'd like to have them all. You can't always get everything you want. Deal with it, folks! If you need internet access that badly, you can buy it yourself from the hotel or convention center. Would you really be happy to see your membership go up by enough to cover the cost of "free" internet service?

Some things are more important at a Worldcon than free internet service. Holding the Hugo Awards or the Masquerade, for instance.

Worldcon Wi-Fi Junkies

Loathe as I am to drive people out of the convention's hotel room block -- if we underperform on the room block, it will cost the convention a boatload of money om attrition fees! -- but it appears that the Clarion Hotel, which is a half-block further away from the Anaheim Convention Center than the convention's two main hotels, appears to offer free wi-fi to their guests. Competition again. I reckon if the Marriott and Hilton perceive that the Clarion is siphoning off their business for that reason, they might eventually make the wi-fi free. But it won't help us much.

I just wanted to let people know this because if not having a free internet connection is the sole determinant of whether you will be able to attend L.A.con IV or not, I'd hate to see you bail just for that reason. (Besides, if you bail, the con loses the room-nights anyway.)

Pain in the Head

Astonishingly, the work I did last night did not need to be redone, and another project that looked like it would take all day took a last-minute turn for the better and only took thirty minutes. I still have things to complete, but they are "get them done over the weekend," not, "must be done by 5 PM PDT Friday."

The pain in my sinuses did not improve much, so it wasn't fatigue as I thought was possible. I called my doctor and they had an open slot for 3 PM, so, Spare the Air Day or not, I drove to Palo Alto this afternoon. He looked me over, told me that my diabetes control looks good (a few recent high readings to the contrary notwithstanding). I need to get back on the weight-loss trend I started after he first diagnosed me, when I lost sixty pounds quickly. I'm not running a fever, but it does indeed look like a sinus infection as an after-affect of that darn cold. He prescribed me a series of antibiotics and told me that if I was not better in a week to give him a call. (Of course I got the usual thing about taking all of the antibiotics even if I start feeling better, etc. I have no desire to help breed super-bugs; the ordinary kind are bad enough.) On the bright side, since I'd had my blood test a few days earlier than usual for my regularly-scheduled diabetes checkup a week from Monday, I can cancel that appointment, because we covered the necessary ground today.

I carefully made my way back home -- the swelling in my sinuses is affecting my balance, it seems -- and now plan to take up the study of the inside of my eyelids for an extended period. I've had about five hours sleep in the past three days, and it's time to pay the piper.