How much? Not much!

Notes from out and about in Vancouver:

A photo of my coffee, from 49th Parallel espresso. It tasted as awesome as it looked.

I borrowed an out-of-tune bike and wobbled my way around U.B.C. My mother lives near the Triumf (there's something hilariously goofy about that acronym) Research Facility, where they do particle and nuclear physics. I'm not sure how they do it, to be honest.

But I found the following on their website, in case you're asking yourself, "what is the cyclotron":

What is the “cyclotron”?

A cyclotron is a special type of particle accelerator that accelerates protons as they follow a spiral path through it. The TRIUMF cyclotron accelerates particles inside an air-free chamber between the poles of an electromagnet whose magnetic field guides the particles in an expanding spiral path. The particles are accelerated by 'kicks' of electric voltage every half turn. When the beam reaches the outside edge of the tank, it is bent into pipes called beam lines, which lead to experimental halls. The cyclotron at TRIUMF, the largest in the world, accelerates 1000 trillion particles per second to speeds of 224,000 km/s, making TRIUMF's proton beam one of the most intense in the world.

Cool! I've also been told my proton beam is one of the most intense in the world. We have that in common.

Outside Triumf is this ring of 7 blossoming apple trees, with a plaque stating that they are direct descendants of Isaac Newton's apple tree, from which he watched fall the apple that got him started thinking about rules of gravity. (On a related note it apparently said on my grandparents' wedding announcement that my grandfather, Robert Lovett Duff Cuthbert of Pitlochry, Scotland, was a 'direct' descendant of Isaac Newton. However, I have discovered that Newton died a celibate, possibly gay bachelor, which puts this somewhat into question).

I locked up the bike and descended the long set of wooden stairs to Wreck Beach. It was too early in the spring to see anybody naked, but the beach was very pleasant.

I saw this sign on my grunt back up the billion stairs:

Today I rode the bus. Out the window I saw that Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School was having their "Annual Manure Sale" - bags of mushroom manure going for 4 bucks a pop. Ha ha! Catholic schools selling a load of manure.

I got off the bus and walked past the Faculty of Dentistry, except I thought for a second the sign said Faculty of Destiny.

I feel like I am studying in the Faculty of Destiny these days.