At a con. I had been going for a Matrix look, but it was too hot to keep the jacket on. Luckily I had a tanktop on (and, not to brag, the bulk to fill it). I caught myself in a mirror and realised I had accidentally cosplayed Duke Nukem.

#pen #dukenukem #art #traditionalart #bicon #giannimatragrano

New year, new people arriving here... new re-intro post!

Jennifer here, old queer writer / musician / geek, based in Nottingham, England.

Music-wise, I write songs and play bass, as well as having violin skills and occasionally writing for orchestra. Latest just-for-fun music thing is practising on drum kit when I get the chance: nothing flash, just playing along to songs I like.

A big learning-interest for me right now is Systemic Modelling, a set of tools for catalysing collective intelligence in groups.

Work-wise, my main thing currently is the organisational side of (mostly online) courses for people to learn about SysMod. Being in & around all that is great for my own learning, so I'm pretty happy with work at the moment.

Covid-careful. Still following the science updates. Recently did a long blog post about having and mostly-recovering-from Long Covid.

Used to be a regular at BiCon the UK bi conference/ convention; dipped in again in 2025 when it came to Nottingham.

This year, I want to do more blog-writing and music-recording... and maybe catalyse a covid-careful social meetup of some kind, although limits of energy & time might hinder that wish.

In terms of party politics, right now I'm liking the look of what the Green Party are up to.

I've been on Fedi since late 2022 when I realised Twitter was headed down the dumper, and overall I really like it here.

Sometimes I post about little bits of sewing-mending I've done or button badges I've designed, or the odd pic (with alt text) of a tree or flower or moss.

Lived in Leiden NL for a few years as a child, went to school there, still speak some Dutch. I never seemed to see any Dutch tweets back in the Twitter days, I suppose because the algorithm there was segregating the languages. I like how the Fediverse software doesn't do that, thereby assisting me to keep that bit of my brain ticking over :-)

If you want to know more, ask &/or follow :-)

#intro #introduction #writing #music #queer #LGBTQ #bisexual #BiCon #CovidCareful #SystemicModelling #CleanLanguage #GreenParty #Nottingham #England #Leiden #BassGuitar #violin #songs #Songwriting

Hosted a BiCon pre-meet yesterday, online. Conveniently there were exactly 12 people there for most of it (not counting me), perfect for dividing into threes! I kept switching the groups so that people could meet different people.

We talked about how we'd each like BiCon to be, and how we could make it more likely to turn out that way.

Top tips: get enough sleep, eat enough food, and don't try to do everything!

Then we also talked about what contribution we might like to make - though I also said, just being there and being friendly and making BiCon more varied is a contribution in itself :-)

Several of the people who'd come along turned out to be already signed up to offer workshop sessions, so we heard a little bit about those.

Two tasks currently available if you want one are (a) keeping an eye on the Zoom setup for the hybrid events, (b) leafleting at Pride on Saturday, so that more people know about BiCon for Sunday. There's usually also opportunities to assist with being welcoming at reception.

In-person BiCon starts tomorrow, and runs Friday till Sunday. The venue is a couple of buildings belonging to the girls' high school, in between the Forest and the Arboretum. I tagged along for a site visit the other day and I think it's pretty good for air quality.

Apparently about 70 people have booked so far. It's also possible to buy a ticket on the day, so that might not be the final total.

As I reminded people last night, you don't have to be bi to come to BiCon! And if you _are_ bi, you don't have to be any particular amount of bi :-)

https://2025.bicon.org.uk/

#BiCon #Nottingham

BiCon comes to Nottingham this Friday!

It's a masking-friendly, though not mask-required, event, in a venue which is said to be pretty good for air quality.

There's also an online-only option, which I went to myself last year when the in-person side wasn't in Nottingham. We had a nice little group being companionable on the Zoom, with some of the in-person sessions running as hybrid.

You don't have to be bi to go - just bi-friendly and trans-inclusive. Typically it does include some non-bi people who just like the vibes :-)

Sliding-scale admission prices:
- in-person weekend tickets £65 down to £20
- in-person day tickets £40 down to £10
- online weekend tickets £20 down to £4.

Venue this year is two of the buildings belonging to the girls' high school, in between the Forest and the Arboretum. Nearest tram stop is High School. Nearest bus lines are brown, green, yellow, and purple.

There's usually a variety of session options in the day: some talky and some not; some bi-themed, some unrelated. In the evenings there'll be social space. Some people will go and march as a group in Notts Pride on the Saturday. I'm going to host an online pre-meet on the Wednesday evening.

Myself I've booked for the weekend, but in reality I might only make it to the online-Wednesday-pre-meet and the Friday, esp if I do go to Notts Pride on the Saturday. I might be all used up by Saturday night. (Even pre-covid I might've run out of steam by then :-) ) But if I didn't come in on the Sunday, I probably would still join in at least a little bit online.

More below on what I'm planning to contribute!

Feel free to ping me if you have questions :-)

https://2025.bicon.org.uk/

#bi #trans #Nottingham #EastMidlands #England #UK #BiCon #bisexual #bisexuality #queer #LGBT #LGBTQ