Why is always that after convincing yourself that you can’t make any progress on something, you can take a 10 hour break and then breeze through it. Well, ok, not breeze so much as stumble awkwardly cutting corners every here and then, but still get through it! I might even have an answer for every question, not just some random mathematical symbols strewn about the page. Now I feel like I have loads of time, with 2 hours left to write my good copy before it’s due… ah sweet luxury. And now, in honour of PDE’s, some quotes from class:

Student, about hypothetical people on a road: “Where are they going?”
Prof: “Texas. Texas is heaven.”

(Prof bangs head on chalkboard) “I’m sooo tired…. does anybody else have a 2 month old baby?”

“This is the chain rule. You can give this to a chimpanzee and they’ll get the answer eventually.”

Student: “Where did those equations come from?”
Prof: “Pulled out of a hat.”

(Trying to explain causality in 3 dimensions) “It’s like when Sauron died in Lord of the Rings and there’s this big wave of dying orcs…”

“Philosophically, this is a little bit suspect.”

“Philosophically, this is really problematic.”

And finally, “It’s like magic!”