Looking for Trouble

I have a number of Google Searches active for terms like "Worldcon" and "Hugo Award," as part of my duties as Chairman of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. Sometimes they turn up discussions that I decide to join. Whether it's good to paint a target on myself is another question. This morning, my searches turned up this post about the New York Comic Con, where they've started charging "professionals" $45 to attend. This has turned up a number of interesting comments, including these from Tony Lee, whose post here started the story. (Quotes below lifted both from the body of the story and Lee's reply to it):

Is this a common thing, that professionals at cons pay for their tickets? I’ve never seen it at a UK con, WorldCon didn’t,...

And sorry guys, but I won’t pay out $45 for the privilage of working for you. I give a convention organiser my time and effort for the cost of a free ticket.

And also, rather telling if you ask me, this comment in reply:

...i allways assumed that Cons paid the creators, isnt that why fans show up in the first place, to meet the creators?

At the risk of making myself anathema to yet more people, I replied in some depth about some of the traditions of convention membership at Worldcons and other general SF conventions. I know that comic book conventions have evolved their own practices.

Frost on the Pumpkin (and Everything Else)

It was pretty cold this morning as I walked over to my father-in-law's house to get to work. While my computer lumbered to work -- which can take upwards of 15 minutes while it goes through innumerable anti-virus and anti-spyware routines -- I got the camera and took pictures of the frosty winter morning here in Mehama.

( Icy pictures behind the cut )

After these adventures in photography, I went inside, thawed out, and got back to work writing documentation for the database I've been developing. The early morning sunrise that showed such promise melted the frost, but has been replaced by overcast. If it were a little colder, I would expect snow.