Write here anything you like. All replies to this entry will be screened. Please leave contact details if you want me to reply without un-screening your comment if I don't already know how to contact you.

The journal is mainly friends-only posts, so put a note here if you'd like to be added. Final decisions are mine, of course, but if we've met at an event somewhere, it's quite likely anyhow.

just not posting. I've got a Twitter and, Facebook, both under the name 'topbit'.

So much for planning to post. Since everyone else is, and I've just gotten back from the London Poly Meetup, I thought I may as well.

So, here's something I can just dash off. If you were are Bicon 2011 and remember me, and would like to say hello, or anything else, feel free to do so below. Posts here are screened (so they won't show) unless you say otherwise.

For me, it was a fairly chilled event. I helped to run the latter two "Fitting And Misfitting" workshops on Friday and Saturday, with karen2205 and Nim (WinoLJ?) and otherwise kept out of trouble, apart from the odd hug, and not enough snogs. Oh yes, and there was some rocket science.

I'll finally add that if you have any Bi or Poly events, please let me know if they are not already listed on the calendars at http://topbit.livejournal.com/tag/calendar

Yeah, you know who this is for.

At the heart of Abancens’ team’s detector, which is called a scintillating bolometer and resembles a prop from The Golden Compass, is a crystal so pure it can conduct the energy ostensibly generated when a particle of dark matter strikes the nucleus of one of its atoms.
To prevent interference by cosmic rays, the bolometer is sheathed in lead and kept underground, under half a mile of rock. It’s also frozen to near-absolute zero, the temperature at which all motion stops. At the edge of absolute zero, it’s possible to measure expected changes of a few millionths of a degree Fahrenheit.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/dark-matter-detector/

For some reason, they do talk about 150deg F though, with liquid Xenon. Compared to absolute zero, it's positively balmy.

well, looks like the RSS feeds are back...

Does any one have any misconceptions about me? Or more relevantly, do you have any thoughts - conceptions - about me, that you you may not be 100% sure of?

There are some things that are pretty obvious - I'm tall, and a geek (OK, that latter one is 'only' fairly obvious). Beyond that, I don't know. What do you guys believe about me?

Comments are screened, and anything interesting - and not completely pornographic - will be summarised and replied to as appropriate. Pornographic replies will be graded, and may be followed up separately ;P

edit: I'll wait till I've got a few replies or a couple of days, summarise the questions and add the answers.

( here's the badges so farCollapse )
We do need more steenking badges!

for a post-Bicon meetup, and I suspect, I'll be collecting a number of the Bicon badges for my little project of scanning as many as I can find (at least from this year, but also from previous events) for a bit of a gallery.

Over the weekend I'll assemble, and write what I hope would be the big follow-up - look out for that, as it will hav many wonderful links to how you can catch up with your new Bicon friends over the next year - and (not including Oxford tonight) as soon as the London Poly meetup on Tuesday 1st September - as well as a couple of other events on the same night! There are also likely to be a number of people at both Cardiff & Manchester Prides this weekend.

For those local to Oxford, I'll see you tonight and don't forget your badges! (even better - pictures uploaded of your badges).

I've got a number of filters I use. Unlike a lot of people though, I tend to use them for classification, rather than limiting the number of people that can see particular posts, though there are of course some that are aimed at some very particular groups, and just occasionally they are used to restrict access to posts.

The major filters are:

• bdsm (its been so long since I used this, I forget who gets tied up)
• bicon (if I've met you at Bicon....)
• poly (duh)
• my personal details (other ways to get a hold of me, such as other email & tel no) - often because I've got your own details
• and local (geographically close)

The posts on the page at http://topbit.livejournal.com/2004/08/03/ have custom-locked posts. If you can't see any at all (somewhat unlikely if you are on my friends list), then feel free to drop me a line here (posts are screened), or send a private message to my LJ Inbox.

Here's a tip for you: http://topbit.livejournal.com/security/group:NameOfFilter - replacing NameOfFilter with your own filter lets you see posts where yo have used a particular filter on a post. Figured as I spent time looking for it, it would be useful to have somewhere as well. If you can find an old post with a particular filter on it, there's a "group:" tagged link with the same format URL there.

I do already have a post on the top of my LJ journal, but since all the cool kids are doing it.....

Comments are screened, and will be deleted if required. Say if you want it left as unscreened (and visible) after any reply.

As another's post says - Be brave, brazen, outrageous, honest...

Little sleep over the weekend - and up to get to the announcements at around 9:30am, talking on Sunday night till midnight, and then up at 8am to pack and head over to the uni canteen for breakfast with the mjwin, sanjibabes, as well as a couple other people that were staying the night for whatever reason.

And now it's nearly two am. You think I'd figure it out by now. Oh well, just as well I've no plans (other than refilling the fridge at the local supermarket) tomorrow - and writing up some of the weekend. As sanjibabes said, much of it may well end up as thanks to many and various people - and hello's to new friends. There are already plans in motion for some get-together, but for now my bed awaits.

I'll generally just refer you to my post from 2007: http://topbit.livejournal.com/194612.html

Adding to that for 2009:
I'm on the team (again) this year (honestly, I can give up anytime I like though...). That does mean that I'll be heading up to Worcester on Wednesday to help setup, so the chance of me heading out on Thursday to shop is slight (I'd be doing it on Wednesday evening before the insanity kicks in). The rest about being available for hugs still applies though :-) There are also a number of people that will be specifically sought out for hugs - you know who you are!

I would add for those that are going shopping that the main Sainsbury's on Worcester appears to be quite new - and so is not on, at least my, satnavs. Best to bring a map and avoid a little adventure to find it.

Twitter, Facebook, friendfeed or Identi.ca, there's a dreamwidth dark-room orgy, and I'm there as well, with plenty of time on my hands, and plenty of opportunity to follow up on some requests....

There's already a bunch of you there, and various friending has been going on. Like others, I've currently got 2 invite codes left. Comment here, or IM me (@ LJ jabber) to get one of them if you would like it.

Thats a good start, just 12 hours after it was started, and there are 38 members already.

Tell your friends!
Bicon 2009 on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32691939976

I woke up at 11am, it's been 55 minutes and now it's five minutes to eleven. Gotta love it. This time yesterday - it was nearly noon.

http://www.queercents.com/2008/10/24/ten-money-questions-for-alan-cumming/
including "2. Are there financial advantages to being bi-sexual?"

I've just finished watching the first series of a 1978 BBC programme - Connections, by James Burke. It's a fascinating tour through history linking one item or technology and culture to another - the plough to villages, to clay pots, to writing, to taxes and engineering and beyond. If you have some time, look it up (I found it on a torrent website, but I understand it's also been released on video)

The last of the first series is particularly thought provoking, and specifically does away with the idea that history happens in little chunks - like the idea of James Watt invented the steam engine. Watt just fixed something that didn't work so well, building on so much that came before, a vital idea, but just another piece.

Intelligent television like this is a wondrous thing to see - like "Britain From Above", and Space (aka Hyperspace). This isn't to say that it has to be high-brow to be smart TV that inspires ideas - who could say that Mythbusters didn't inspire someone - as well as being thoroughly entertaining!

What TV, books, or movies inspire you to think about the universe?

Get a Nobel prize winner, sit him on a corner in New York City, and let him answer questions from passers-by. Street Corner Science

Will ye be feelin' Lucky when you google today?

and i forgot to check my eeepc battery, so not been able to get online till I got to a plug. lotsa food here at Wembley - mostly chocolate. The Elephpant is also getting some nice pics around.

I've found the Higgs Boson. It had rolled under the couch.

There's no need to look for it any more. Sorry, hope you didn't spend much time or money in your own searches.

slept in till 10:30, and since then, I've spent all day catching up with everyone online at LJ and Facebook (look me up - 'Topbit DeName'). There's so much to see, and so many pictures. Every time I go to LJ, there's more posts to read.

Also, since not everyone reads the comments - if you have any pics of me (and almost entirely from later on Saturday night), you are welcome to post them, named as Topbit - and send me a copy of the original - and a URL to take a peek at the rest you may be posting would be great. If you aren't going to post them, I'd still love a copy :-)