Sage Days, Baby

I'm fresh back from Sage Days 42 at the beautiful Wallace Falls Lodge outside of Seattle. It was heavenly, my nerdy programmer self just out of her Häuschen with all of the coding going on around me, and my runner self was overjoyed at the oh-so-mild climate of the pacific northwest.

For those not in the know, Sage is an open source computer algebra system. It's sort of like Mathematica, except really buff, covered in tattoos, and riding a Harley. Plus it's open source, which means that regular people (like me!) get to write code and help develop the software. So, Sage Days is a week long intensive coding session, where we focus on beefing up the library for a particular area of math. For my team, it was arithmetic dynamics.

Sound fun enough for ya? It gets better! Between marathon coding sessions, and intense discussions of arithmetic dynamics, we found time for some sage themed recreation. So, for your enjoyment, I present the Sage Days 42 theme song. Sing to the tune of Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe."

Sage Days, Baby!

I opened sage in a shell, I wanted torsion mod l, but my computer's a Dell, and now it's in my way.
Coding Python's like bliss, the others I'll never miss, I wasn't looking for this, but now I'm at sage days.
My code was flowin', traceback message glowin', what's that error showin',
Where you think you're going, Aly?

Hey, I just found it, this curve is crazy, but what's the torsion? Compute it maybe?
We want to localize, this curve baby, it's j-invariant, is CM maybe?
It's in another ring, and this is crazy, but here's the number, coerce it, maybe?
And all the other boys, try it mod p, but we just patched it, sage days baby?

We uploaded a file, takes some time to compile, I let it run for awhile, but now it's in my way.
My example revealed, it wasn't totally real, so I extended the field, something's in my way.
My code was flowin', traceback message glowin', what's that error showin',
Where you think you're going, Aly?

Hey, Kristin Lauter, this curve is crazy, but what's the torsion? compute it maybe?
We want to localize, this curve baby, it's j-invariant, is CM maybe?
It's in another ring, and this is crazy, but here's the number, coerce it, maybe?
And all the other boys, try it mod p, but we just patched it, sage days baby?

Before sage came into my life I missed it so bad, I missed it so bad, I missed it so, so bad
Before sage came into my life I missed it so bad, and you should know that, I missed it so, so bad,

This doesn't look right, to me baby, where's the source code? Patch it maybe?
It's hard to program, all night baby, but we're at sage days, so more wine, maybe?
And all the Magma boys, try to charge me, it's open source here, at sage days baby

Before sage came into my life I missed it so bad, I missed it so bad, I missed it so, so bad
Before sage came into my life I missed it so bad, and William knows that.

Sage days, baby!

Yeah, Magma Boys, ya heard me.

I was lucky to have some time to burn in Seattle after the conference. With this time, I did the natural thing that one would do in Seattle: drink beer and look at art!

Why do Chihuly's pieces look like delicious candy?

<3