The LHC...
I have a lot of fangirl stories of more normal varieties, but that era of my life ended rather messily in ways which are not nearly amusing enough for B3ta. So I won't bother with those. However, I still have a bit of fangirl in me which got directed in a rather odd way last year.

I had ended up on a PhD programme which resulted in me getting a CERN access card last summer. I establised around July when I was working there briefly that I had legitimate access to the CERN control room, but went home in August.

Being a board full of geeks, most of you should know why 10 September was a day I was very much looking forward to. It was the day the LHC would be switched on and the world's media attention turned to CERN. I tried desperately to find an academic reason to be there (free flights), my supervisors annoyingly found an excuse to send me there on 4 September and then promptly back to the UK the next day. But remembering that

1) I still had a CERN access card
2) Easyjet exist and fly to Geneva

I wasn't going to be stopped so easily.

About 10 days before I decided I WAS going, and 2 friends decided to accompany me. I didn't even know if I'd be able to get them in, and heard that the event was going to be broadcast in the auditoria which sounded awfully like we were going to be discouraged from the control room.

Now comes the real obsessive fan bit. We arrived at about 11pm the night before, and knew that even looking for accommodation was pointless. We made our way to the site with the control room, security let all 3 of us through, then the people at the control room willingly let us in! It was 2am...no-one was there except the people actually operating the machine. Oh yes, we were officially the biggest LHC fans IN THE WORLD.

We felt a bit awkward there, deciding we'd just get kicked out later we made our way back to the main site to watch from an auditorium after a few hours attempting to sleep rough outsite the restuarant. It soon became clear that they were letting people in the control room, I went back there after they'd got the beam around once but by then they'd tightened security and my non-CERN friends weren't even allowed on that site. But we could still all say we'd flown to Geneva, been in th LHC control room at 2am, slept rough and been at CERN to see the biggest science event of our lifetimes so far.
(GothicTechie, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 8:57, 15 replies)

Winner!
*clicks with the force of a neutrino tied to a brick*
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 9:47, closed)

I'm sorry to say
that this post might as well have been written in Cantonese as far as my understanding it goes. I have not got even the faintest clue what you are talking about here.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 9:48, closed)

.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 10:01, closed)

This is cool
You win the [chart cat] medal of honour for services to geekery
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 10:17, closed)

Click!
On behalf of all physics geeks, I salute you.
(Concrete Cow, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 10:27, closed)

It's okay
we all lust after Prof. Brian Cox.
( monkeybananaraffle, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 11:26, closed)

I forgot that factor...
I did actually see him from a distance when I went into the control room later in the day, but was too scared to talk to him. He actually looks almost old enough to be a professor in the flesh.
(GothicTechie, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 13:01, closed)

I like this. A lot.
Also, it makes me feel better about going sightseeing to a nuclear power station last week.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 11:38, closed)

I did that when I was a child.
Visiting nuclear power stations is SO 1980s.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 12:53, closed)

We didn't visit
so much as lurk, walk around the perimeter fence, and find the steamy outflow. It was great. Also, don't knock the 1980s. They had better cars then, and better power ballads, and Angel Delight.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 13:20, closed)

I have angel delight
in my cupboard tempting me with it's buttery scotch goodness, I have yet to take the plunge
(imp123, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 15:02, closed)

it is like eating
1980s air. 1980s air with a delicate chemical aftertaste. Best mixed with a crushed up Flake to add substance and make it tangible enough to be anchored to a spoon.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 15:34, closed)

@ Imp
Hey, you got in the way of some Enzyme-CCHB interplay there, you ruined the moment.

Anyone else think these two are like David and Maddy in Moonlighting?
(Apathyman Prepare to be underwhelmed..., Mon 20 Apr 2009, 14:01, closed)

Been there!
I can remember as a kid being obsessed with nuclear power plants, and during one particular drive to a family member's house, we'd always pass by a power plant that had those iconic cooling towers. I remember how disappointed I was when we stopped by one day to check it out (I'd been only begging my mom for hours) only to find that it was a coal-fired power plant.
(FleetlordVT, Sat 18 Apr 2009, 6:37, closed)

Very cool
*clicks*
(annexed, Mon 20 Apr 2009, 13:33, closed)