Day 317

Today started off like most others.  I woke up, took a shower, and made some eggs for breakfast.  I made a mental note to go to the store after class to get butter, since I was almost out.


Class this morning was short because Dr. Foley had a doctor's appointment.  I told Dr. Foley that he should bring us doughnuts and coffee in the morning.  For some silly reason he didn't like that idea.  Nonsense.


We had a substantial amount of time in between classes, so there was actually a lot of good conversation.  Initially we began talking about how none of us are very good at making small talk.  Tim recalled one occasion where he was meeting for coffee with his wife's sister, so his wife made a list of questions and topics to keep the conversation going.  So I shared that I've done that before, especially if I don't know the person in question... I'll make a list of possible questions, reminding myself to say certain things, or to not do other things.  This led into a discussion about where to look when making extended conversation with people.  It can be intimidating if you always look people in the eye, but it can also be pretty odd if you never look people in the eye.  I'm sure there is some optimal contact/no contact ratio for maximum conversation comfort, but I am unaware of it.  Tim then asked a group question of "why are you studying to be an actuary?"  Tim had toyed with being a math major during his bachelor's but opted for musical performance, then teaching.  He had a less than excellent experience teaching, so he decided to attempt something more mathematical.  Kathryn took a career placement test and her top two careers were being a pharmacist or an actuary.  She hadn't intended on going to grad school and likes math, so here she is.  Jacob had something similar happen, where he was a chemistry/math double major and realized in his senior year that he doesn't want to work in a lab.  So he took a career placement test and being an actuary was among his top matches.  Timbo said that during his senior year at college a couple of actuaries came in to talk with his class about being an actuary and it seemed to be really enjoyable.  Paul worked as an accountant for about a year and hated it.  He has a degree in economics so he's trying his hand at being an actuary now.  Tim then asked if we imagine that we'll always be actuaries, which we merged with Timbo's question of "what would you do if you didn't have to work?"  We all imagine that we'll at least be actuaries for quite some time, but Paul is interested in starting his own business and Timbo has considered going to get his PhD in statistical analysis or biostatistics.  Tim said that if he didn't have to work, he would go take lessons with his old music teacher and go into performance, but on his own schedule.  Jacob said he would travel, probably take singing lessons.  Timbo and Paul agreed that they would probably purchase a few golf courses and just play gold all day.  I said that (and I just decided this at that moment) I would open up a restaurant where there was no menu.  Each day I would just make whatever I wanted to make.  It would always cost the same (like $6) and you might get spaghetti or you might get fish.  I just really enjoy cooking for people without any sort of regulations or restrictions.  Maybe someday....


Somehow we started talking about how certain people (generally people with autism) have remarkable mathematical abilities, like being able to tell you what day of the week a certain date is.  I've heard of a couple different autistic savants who had this ability, along with people who study combinatorics.  We also discussed people who memorize pi to absurdly precise decimals.  At this point I left to use the restroom and when I came back, even was just waiting intently for me to sit down.  Curious, I sat down and Tim says "Joel, how do people calculate pi?  We figured of anyone here you are the most likely to know this."  I ashamedly did not have an answer.  Well, I (jokingly) told them that all you have to do is divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter.  After we realized how silly this was and had a good laugh, Tim said he half expected me to give an explanation like "well, back in Ancient Greece..." because they all know my love of math history.  I told them that I know how to find the golden ratio two different ways, but not pi.  So we looked it up and there are many many different ways of finding it (which I will not get into here).  But we had a good time.  In other news, I think that when I retire I'm either going to open a 1-item restaurant or teach math history at a college.  Perhaps both. 


Then it was off to probability.  Today we just worked through some problems, with special attention to areas that were giving us difficulty (combinitorics, sums of random variables, and a couple other topics).  One problem in particular gave us a lot of trouble... and it wasn't especially difficult.  We were all just having trouble coming up with anything.  After the first hour of class my brain was just done.  Yay.


On the way back home I went to Wal-mart to get butter, alfredo sauce, and Ande's mint chips.  When I got home I ate lunch, then browsed the internet for a bit to unwind.  Then I did some life con homework, just going over the problems again.  Hopefully they stick for the quiz tomorrow.  Apparently when I'd gone to Wal-mart earlier I didn't get crackers, which were necessary to make meatballs.  I determined that it would be a waste to drive over there, so I walked.  It was a nice walk, but a little warmer than I suspected.


When I got back I started making dinner.  And cookies!  I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  Kimmy came up from Mount Vernon today, so I had dinner with her when she arrived.  After dinner we cleaned up, then Jessie and Richard came over to help eat cookies.  There were just too many for Kimmy and me to eat on our own!  So that was fun.  We talked about plans for the weekend and Jessie told us about how slow the hospital was today and I told them about my new idea for a one-menu restaurant.  It was good.


And now I'm gonna go to bed.  Good night!