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The Case of the Mysterious Tables
Jan. 30th, 2008 09:14 pmI really am a bureaucrat.
Today I found two online tables of languages with their associated three-character codes. And instead of moving on to something more interesting, like a normal person would, I thought to myself, yikes! how do these compare to that hand-written table of languages (and associated three-character codes) that I recently coaxed out of one of my colleagues? Who made them? Who updates them? What are they used for?
And the reason I want to know? Because I'm trying to decide whether to and how to modify my own tables of language courses.
Sick, I tell you.
Except of course that's not the real reason. A control freak, which I am not, would want her tables to be complete because neat and complete tables are a beautiful thing. Whereas I don't care at all about the elegance of secret, hidden tables, at least not directly. What I'm hoping for really is that if a student gets transfer credit for language courses that we no longer offer, we can still get our system to automatically show those courses as counting toward the degree, as they should, instead of requiring an override first, or at least we can make it so that the overrides require one step instead of six.
Although no one I have talked to so far has any idea where these tables came from or what they are for, my investigations have already led me to two new pieces of data including one about how my system works (eight years on the job, and still ignorant).
Journal entry of the day - Artist Formerly Known As at 15 Minute Lunch. This guy is treating some drawings he did as a kid as though they were archeological finds with evidence as to what was happening in his life as he drew them. I had to stop reading this at work because it was getting too hard to laugh silently. Also, the tears coming out of my eyes were less than professional. I stopped right about here: "The most confusing thing about this drawing? I have no recollection of my brother ever wearing a tiny top-hat with two ants on it, who are also wearing top-hats. Never. Not even on weekends or holidays."
Today I found two online tables of languages with their associated three-character codes. And instead of moving on to something more interesting, like a normal person would, I thought to myself, yikes! how do these compare to that hand-written table of languages (and associated three-character codes) that I recently coaxed out of one of my colleagues? Who made them? Who updates them? What are they used for?
And the reason I want to know? Because I'm trying to decide whether to and how to modify my own tables of language courses.
Sick, I tell you.
Except of course that's not the real reason. A control freak, which I am not, would want her tables to be complete because neat and complete tables are a beautiful thing. Whereas I don't care at all about the elegance of secret, hidden tables, at least not directly. What I'm hoping for really is that if a student gets transfer credit for language courses that we no longer offer, we can still get our system to automatically show those courses as counting toward the degree, as they should, instead of requiring an override first, or at least we can make it so that the overrides require one step instead of six.
Although no one I have talked to so far has any idea where these tables came from or what they are for, my investigations have already led me to two new pieces of data including one about how my system works (eight years on the job, and still ignorant).
Journal entry of the day - Artist Formerly Known As at 15 Minute Lunch. This guy is treating some drawings he did as a kid as though they were archeological finds with evidence as to what was happening in his life as he drew them. I had to stop reading this at work because it was getting too hard to laugh silently. Also, the tears coming out of my eyes were less than professional. I stopped right about here: "The most confusing thing about this drawing? I have no recollection of my brother ever wearing a tiny top-hat with two ants on it, who are also wearing top-hats. Never. Not even on weekends or holidays."