Tuesday, December 06, 2005

What song plays during your victory dance?

It is the end of the semester. A time of frantic coding/debugging trying to get things wrapped up -- at least to a point where we're not killed by advisors or ourselves for leaving things wrecked -- before some time off. A time of finals for those unfortunate souls not finished with courses. The stress -- no snickering from those with real jobs, thanks -- brought on by these times leads to small moments of celebration when the bug is identified and corrected, when the research paper is saved for the final time and printed, when the trick to a difficult exam problem is discovered, etc

Lidia has been working for two days on an exam for her class and tonight found the trick to solving the next to the last problem. When that happened the mental soundtrack to her celebration was the Mexican hat dance. That seemingly odd selection led to a discussion of what songs come to mind when I celebrate. Queen's "We are the Champions" -- the main chorus, not the "we will rock you" bit at the beginning -- is the usual when code design is complete. Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" is the accompaniment when a bug is killed. In the interest of full disclosure I must also admit that Ace of Base's "It's a Beautiful Life" also plays through my mind from time to time during mental celebrations.

What song plays over the PA during your mental victory lap?