Someone was having a problem solving for the roots of a 4th order polynomial to use in a model - I think the problem was that the quartic equations have a few special scenarios. And it occurred to me that in real life, with the numbers you are given, you'll probably end up with complex roots - ones that are part imaginary - because you can't make the equation have the nice, aesthetically pleasing swooping, sultry curves that were always given to us in math class, the ones that give us 4 real roots. And no one really gives a crap about imaginary numbers.
An away message: "If you touch a rock, you touch the past. If you touch a flower, you touch the present. If you touch a child, you touch the future."
Some corollaries: If you touch a rock and throw it at a child, the rock touches the future. If you touch a flower and throw it at the child, it does nothing. If you touch a child and throw it at a rock, the child is touching the past. If you touch a child and throw it a flower, it does nothing. If you touch a rock and throw it a flower, it might smash the flower if it is big enough. If you touch a flower and throw it at a rock, you will probably have killed the flower.
I met a friend for lunch today - beautiful, charming, neurotic, hilarious friend. We saw a woman ordering shots of what we believe was beer. About a dozen of them, for herself. I drank water.
You will remember a guayabera, destroyed almost a year ago. I will have a new one soon - a Mexican wedding shirt fit for the king of Mexican weddings.
An idea: have people give keynote speeches on subjects they do not know much about. Ensure that no one in the room is an expert. Because when a literature professor is babbling about cinematic lighting strategy, you don't want a lighting designer interrupting or rolling their eyes.
