In May we went to Seattle. Despite living only 2 hours away for 5 years I’d passed through it but never went as a tourist. Congratulations, it’s time for my slideshow of photos of telegraph poles. How exciting.

Pike Place market, taken from a place that’s not a Starbucks.

We of course went to the Nerds museum. Nirvana and science fiction. Where could we go wrong.

Superman. The real one. Not the current disappointing movie ones

The Princess Bride wedding dress. And the Dread Pirate Roberts. And his name is Inigo Montoya, you killed his….

Mr. Fricking. Pointy. Highlight of the trip.

Moon after the super moon. Not quite super but close. Super on a kind of Meh day.

As you probably know I’m a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fan. If you didn’t know that then, hello? Have we met?

So when I needed to name my computers I’ve had Cordellia, Spike, Faith, Kendra and of course my server is called Buffy. And Buffy, having super powers runs virtual machines as well. One of which is called Angel. So Angel is on Buffy. Or is it in Buffy?

Which probably means he’s pretty happy. And long ago gone evil.

Which makes sense as that virtual machine runs my accounting software. Which was evil to begin with.

Strange how things work out.

We went to see the fertility specialist yesterday and he convinced us that we should continue to try. Seemingly the embryos in the freezer are top quality. Herself is more in to trying again than I am.

I really thought we were done with this. It sucks that it didn’t work. Really sucks. But this constant state of uncertainty is worse. Come on and open the box for once and for all.

Schrodinger’s cat can be dead or alive, but no more of these 9 lives.

Today we opened the box. Twice. Once with pee and again with a more definitive blood test. The answer was a definite no. No quantum in two states at once. The box was opened and the cat was dead.

So that was the last go for us. Now it’s on to bigger and brighter things. Life is going to move on and so are we. To a smaller house for a start. (Do you want to buy a nice 4 bed, 4 bath in South Surrey?). We can do more travelling. Spend less on medical expenses.

And have sex for fun. With humans. Not plastic cups. And not in a McDonalds.

I’ll explain that last bit some other time.

#sadface.

With the Schrodinger’s cat experiment a cat is sealed in a box with a radioactive source that has a 50% chance of decaying (the isotope decaying, not the cat). If the isotope does decay a monitor will detect it and release a poisonous gas. At which stage the cat starts decaying too. However until you look in the box you have no way of knowing if the cat is alive or dead. This is supposing such things as you haven’t left it there for years and forgotten to leave food. Also that you’re deaf as if you lock a cat in a box sooner or later it gets loud.
Anyway, until you open the box there is no way to know if the cat is alive or dead and in quantum computing it exists in both states. So until you open the box the cat is both alive and dead. And angry at being locked in a box.
Strangely the chances with IVF are pretty close. Except it’s 2 cats in the box and there’s a 60% chance that the radioactive source didn’t decay. Or only got one. 
We put in 2 blastocysts last week. Which is cool in a nerdy way since they were frozen and reheated. Probably in a microwave. Cryo-stasis. But in a quantum world there’s 0, 1 and 2 all existing at once. Possibly but not likely more. All both alive and, well, not alive.
The suspense is killing me.
Tomorrow we open the box.

We’ve decided it’s time to move. Since I went and found an actual office we no longer need the basement. That said I do like the projector, 10′ screen, surround sound, comfy couch and beer fridge.
So we’re downsizing which is what most couples in their thirties do. We’ve been gutting the house. I think half of the Salvation Army shop in White Rock is our stuff. We also got a storage container and filled that. Even then it wasn’t enough for our realtor so we stored even more, dumped even more and suddenly our house is huge. Professional cleaners in (it is herself’s dream come true) and the place looks good.
But I am wrecked. I swore after the last move that I wouldn’t do it again but here we go again.
Anyone want to buy a ~2100 sq ft house in South Surrey? Discount if you help me move?

You shouldn’t but it’s hard not to. In this case it didn’t hatch.

IVF fail.

Gutted.

Seemingly it’s polite when saying something bad about something to say something good about it before and after. The shit sandwich. Kind of like;
I love your shoes – bread.
But you’re an ugly fuck – shit.
With great hair – bread.

So let’s talk about the Hobbit in 3D High Frame Rate.

The CGI is amazing. Like unreal. When Bilbo is next to Gollum there is no difference between the two in this very high definition, high frame rate, 3D,extreme detail shot. Gollum is amazingly real.

But it’s too real. I’m not sure how to describe it. In part it’s like the lighting is off. It looks like a cheap reconstruction for some documentary. But you become too aware of what you’re seeing. You can go to a play and a single table and 2 chairs on an otherwise empty stage becomes a kitchen. The story takes over and the details don’t matter. But put in too much detail and it’s distracting.
When you see a behind the scenes shot of a TV show or movie it can be hard to relate it to the show you will see. It’s obvious it’s actors on a set. That happens in the Hobbit in HFR. Without needing to see cameras and a director you still see actors on a set and miss the story. It’s not hobbits and dwarves fighting in a cave, it’s actors dressed as hobbits and dwarves with a rocky background.

And lastly it’s the Hobbit. From the same people behind Lord of the Rings. Go see it, in normal, 3D, IMAX or HFR but go see it.

We’ve been looking at new homes online. It could be time to move. One of the fun things is deciphering Realtor speak.
Cosy – tiny.
DIY’ers dream – dump.
Quaint – ancient.

But my favourite so far is from Block 100 in Vancouver. Amenities include a bicycle washing station. Yes it includes a garden hose.