well...i pulled my first work-related all-nighter of the year last night. i've had a few since august, but before they were just caused by an overload of diet coke and concern, not Work Stuff.
and i guess this might not be entirely true because i did sort of doze in and out for something like 45 minutes or so before my 80db demon-possessed-foghorn/alarm clock went off and my heart rate went from 50 bpm to 350 bpm faster than a bear goes from just hanging out to eating your legs. so sue me.
oh man, that was so 90s. i'm so "fresh prince of bel-air" today. or is it still yesterday?
anyway, i came up with my class plan for today at around 5am last night, so i'm thinking it will probably go perfectly smoothly and without a hitch.
see, this is the problem when i start working on grad applications. there are just so many little, frustrating details, and so many little, frustrating forms, that once i compile all the requirements for all the schools, i go completely OCD and have to really crazily spend like 40 straight hours getting a large portion of that list completed at the expense of everything else including eating and monitoring personal hygiene. otherwise i just sit and worry constantly that it's too much and it's going to overwhelm me.
well, i filled out five online applications yesterday, made arrangements for various letters of recommendation, mailed requests for most of my GRE score reports and transcripts, and did some other things i'm not proud of, but goddammit, i might actually be able to sleep soundly tonight. once i put in another 12 hours of work or so on the statements of goals and critical writing samples, that is.
this brings me, indirectly, to another point: KSU's flashline service. how the hell did KSU, of all places, manage to invent a student UI that is intuitive, actually helpful, and customizable? it baffles the mind. i've been using WSU's student UI for two years now, and let me tell you there are parts of it that are easy as pie, and there are parts of it that are easy as moldy pie, which is to say not easy at all. but here...i know my metaphors are a little crazy, so here's a solid example. yesterday i had to request a bunch of transcripts. so, i log on to flashline, click immediately on the "request official transcript" link under the really obvious "offical documents" (or something similar) tab, and there's a quick form to fill out addresses, names, etc...then you click on how many copies you want, hit "submit" and you're done. that's it. here's the comparable task using myWSU. first of all, you don't use myWSU at all. to even find the link to the transcript request pdf, you have to either spend 45 minutes surfing the entire WSU internet infrastructure, or if you're used to being forced to do this, you type "request official transcript" in the search box on the homepage. this, as mentioned, will bring you to a pdf. you save, the pdf, then have to find somewhere to print it out (in my case, the avery computer lab). you print out a copy for each transcript request you need, then fill them all out (the form itself is as byzantine as heavy cavalry and doesn't need to be explained in detail), envelope them all up, and mail them by campus mail or walk them the 20 minutes over to the graduate school. oh, and did i mention that each request form includes a space for your credit card number, since it costs 5 dollars for each copy of your transcript you send out? this is especially awesome if you're applying to five grad schools x 2 copies per school = 50 dollars. it was even better last year when i was applying to eight schools. this is merely a taste of handiness that is flashline. i may have many various gripes about KSU, but not in this regard. carry on, gentles.
oh man. i have to be at least slightly aware in 30 minutes in order to teach composition. that's a bad, bad thing. thank you for enduring my rant on college UIs. stay tuned later for another rant (most probably) on various department of english graduate school websites.
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