distribution in an inner product (inner product spaces) Sorry for the dumb question.  
Suppose I'm in a general inner product space.  How would I compute something like the following? 
$$\langle x - \alpha y, x - \alpha y\rangle$$
where $\alpha$ is a complex scalar.  Is the following right?
$$\begin{align}
\langle x - \alpha y, x - \alpha y\rangle &= \langle x, x\rangle + \langle x, -\alpha y\rangle + \langle -\alpha y, x\rangle + \langle -\alpha y, -\alpha y\rangle \\
&= \|x\|^2 + \Re({-\alpha})\langle x, y\rangle + \Re{(-\overline{\alpha}})\langle x, y\rangle  + |-\alpha|^2\|y\|^2 \\
&= \|x\|^2 + 2\Re{(-\alpha)}\langle x, y\rangle + |\alpha|^2\|y\|^2
\end{align}$$
It is mostly the negative sign that is throwing me off.  I wasn't sure whether I should use minus instead of the plus between my terms.  

The "real part" should appear after summing the two central terms because such a sum has the form $z+\overline{z}$ which equals to $2\Re(z)$ (in your case you have this for $z=\overline{-\alpha}\langle x,y\rangle$).
Here is the step-by-step:
$$\begin{align}
\langle x - \alpha y, x - \alpha y\rangle &= \langle x, x\rangle + \langle x, -\alpha y\rangle + \langle -\alpha y, x\rangle + \langle -\alpha y, -\alpha y\rangle \\
&= \langle x, x\rangle + (\overline{-\alpha})\langle x, y\rangle + (-\alpha)\langle y, x\rangle  + (-\alpha)(\overline{-\alpha})\langle y, y\rangle \\
&= \langle x, x\rangle + (\overline{-\alpha})\langle x, y\rangle + (-\alpha)\overline{\langle x, y}\rangle  + (-\alpha)(\overline{-\alpha})\langle y, y\rangle \\
&= \|x\|^2 + (\overline{-\alpha})\langle x, y\rangle + \overline{(\overline{-\alpha})\langle x, y\rangle}  + |-\alpha|^2\|y\|^2 \\
&= \|x\|^2 + 2\Re\left((-\alpha)\langle x, y\rangle\right) + |\alpha|^2\|y\|^2
\end{align}$$
