Hi, I'm Tom.

I'm a physicist. I like anything that is smokey: campfires, smoked salmon, Lapsang Souchong tea, Smokey Bear "only YOU can prevent wildfires" etc. I prefer the imperial system to the metric system.

Hmmm, perhaps this is a good way to get to know me...here are the things I enjoy, weighted with how much I like each one: http://www.knowthyselfknowothers.com/tomblah.html.

(Disclaimer: I'm setting up that site...)

I usually communicate through the use metaphors, cultural references and implications rather than the literal. I'm a little eccentric, absent minded and something else.

I used to do physics at the Australian National University (quantum atom optics). I miss it and will probably return someday.

Right now, an awesome startup, http://get.gomi.co.

We're in the process of chasing capital, so.....working long hours with hardly any money....girls, form an orderly queue :).

Cultural references.

I'm forever saying things like "that's like in that episode of community where Abed said...".

Being meta.

Making people laugh. My profile isn't really that funny, tho. I tried to make a few jokes ... but they came across as too jarring and culturally insensitive.

Making a "drip" noise with my mouth. I learnt it back in 2002. But now it's turned into a bit of a tic: if someone says something lame, I'll wait for half a second and make the dripping sound. It causes great hilarity and offence.

Coming up with ideas for the way things should be.

Physics.

I make a lot of jokes to break the ice.

(Shameless plug: http://www.knowthyselfknowothers.com/tomblah.html).

I love Mad Men. The first two seasons especially are just really, really, really...good. Also love the West Wing for the glorious idealism. Breaking Bad for the interesting plot-lines. And Community because you can watch it many times and still be hit by clever and subtle jokes.

I love the 20s and 30s, swing jazz...I want to buy an old radio and retrofit it so I can plug my iPhone and stream... music sounds better when the mood is right.

Can't get enough of pyschedelic folk and rock. I also love the 50s, especially Mad Men-esque music (e.g. Julie London's Fly Me To The Moon). Any type of music where you can close your eyes and BAM, you're right back in that era, Midnight In Paris -style.

Greg Egan writes some very good hard science fiction (e.g. no faster than light travel etc.), with some awesome insights into how the next few millenia might be. If you like physics or ontology then Permutation City is a pretty darn good read.

I enjoy reading Hunter S. Thompson, but he could have done so much more with his life. He wrote a great section in F&L On The Campaign Trail about two corrupt politicians...so black and so dark and so funny. He would have made a great political fiction author.

I like all kinds of movies, not really snobbish at all.

I drink a lot of Lapsang Souchong tea. I've become so used to it, I have to make it a double to get the same kick.

* Time enough to think.

* Stimulating people, ideas, and hilarious jokes.

* Cycling (especially long distance rides between cities...very liberating)

* 60s music.

* Lapsang Souchong.

* Hildegard von Bingen.

How best to do something, no matter how insane.

Thinking and socializing.

Part of me wants to get married and find a nice house. A white picket fence in middle America. A pie cooling on the window sill. Plenty of window-sill pies.

If you like talking in depth about physics or any type of science

Or if you're vaudeville

Or if you think that I'm about 5x more interesting than most people you read online. [In maxwell smart voice]: Would you believe 3x as interesting?