Skin deep

On a personal note, I was relieved after a visit to a dermatologist last Thursday. A few weeks ago, after I trimmed back my beard to cope with the summer heat, I found a brownish blotch on my cheek I had never seen before that had appeared under the beard. I had never seen a spot like this before, and I had never seen one that just "appeared". Of course, I thought it might be skin cancer.

This was my first visit ever to a dermatologist. He said what I had was a seborrheic keratosis, a benign growth that comes with age. He examined me and said I had a couple on my back, I just didn't know they were there.

No treatment is necessary. I will just let my beard grow back over it. Although I had to spend a little money for the visit - most of the cost is covered by my insurance - it was worth it for the peace of mind.

I had to work today, but the office was closed for business and the news staff came in and knocked out the Monday paper with blazing speed. I got there by 6:30, and everyone else came by and we were done and the paper was rolling off the press by 10:30 a.m.

A lot of people I know in the genre writing field spent this past weekend at DragonCon in Atlanta. Early Sunday morning while cooking breakfast I was watching CNN News and they had a long report on the event - a number of interviews plus extensive footage of the parade. DragonCon attracted 45,000 people, which sounds small compared to ComicCon, but as one of the people interviewed pointed out, ComicCon is run by a company, while DragonCon is the largest fan-run convention in the world.

Looking forward to FenCon at the end of th month.