Nebula Week Day 2: If I Can't Get to the Nebulas, At Least My Pins Can

Michael A. Burstein and Sean Sullivan Photo copyright ©2010 by Nomi S. Burstein. All rights reserved.

The picture above is of me and Sean Sullivan, a friend who has photographed space shuttle launches in the past and is doing again this Friday for the Aiken (SC) Standard.

Sean contacted me last week because when he goes to photograph shuttle launches, he likes to bring items of sentimental value that people would like to have brought along. Sean asked me if I had anything that I might want him to keep in a plastic bag hanging from one of the camera tripods, and the moment he asked, I knew what I would want him to bring.

It's a little hard to see in the photo because of the flash, but the box I'm holding contains a Nebula nominee pin and a Hugo nominee pin. Whenever writers are nominated for Hugo or Nebula Awards, they receive lapel pins to wear even if they don't win. In my own short story writing career, I've received a bunch of these pins. The Hugo pins all look like little rockets. The Nebula pins (at least, the original ones) display a galaxy with stars flying out of it, artwork done by Bob Eggleton.

Sean didn't realize that the Nebula Awards were taking place in Florida this year, nor did he know that SFWA has arranged for members to view the shuttle launch. As I mentioned before, I'm unable to attend the banquet this year, which is doubly disappointing as I'm also missing a shuttle launch. But thanks to Sean, two of my award pins will be present, and who knows? They may bring me luck.

In fact, we've got one more item going with Sean to Florida. Nomi lent him one of her tripods, so when we get it back, we'll be able to tell people that we own a tripod that was used to take pictures of the May 2010 space shuttle launch. How cool is that?

Facebook Community Pages?

Anyone have an idea of what these Facebook community pages are meant to be? I ask because they apparently created them by mining Wikipedia, and since I have a Wikipedia entry I now also have a Facebook community page.

It seemed to me prudent to click the "like" button, which apparently means that my friends on Facebook are getting the status message "Michael A. Burstein likes Michael A. Burstein." Well, that is true, I suppose.

I also signed up to help make the page as good as it could be. Why? Well, because the page has the following message:

Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic. If you have a passion for Michael A. Burstein, sign up and we'll let you know when we're ready for your help.

Since I surely must have a passion for myself, there you go.