What I did today was nothing out of the ordinary, I spent some time looking over academic stuff, trying to prepare for the following semester, only to realize that to this point I have done everything I can. I can’t go any further unless my advisor replies to me or returns my call and gives me a registration PIN.

Upon realizing the fruitlessness of my attempts and my staring at my record in Banner, I opened up GITI’s code and started playing with some things. I didn’t do anything revolutionary, but I did add a few cool features, such as the ability to treat classes that only prospective differently from classes that are registered. Months ago I created a distinction in the storage of the courses, "planned" or "anticipated" courses are 0.1 and courses that are registered are 0.2. Nothing too complicated. Today I added the ability to store and retrieve the registration code information for the classes (the number that lets you register quickly and not have to dive in the schedule to register), and optionally move the classes to "registered" (0.2) while viewing the information. Additionally, I did something I should have done YEARS ago, I can now add all of the classes for a semester from a single institution in one form (only saves me about 2 or 3 forms, but my furry buddy with only one school will only have to enter data one time). In general I am working towards making GITI’s Education management functions a little more user friendly since I am no longer the only user. I will eventually get around to being able to add multiple assignments at the same time, but I’m not quite ready to perform that type of magic just yet. On the class side, I’m also considering create a page that is basically a "syllabus input form", where a student may go once starting the class to convert the mess on the syllabus to a useful set of data (grade weights, assignments, special considerations, perhaps even special grading policies if I get bored). If I truly get bored I can create a mechanism for planning in-person courses… perhaps a little Java or something and I can drag and drop courses on to a calendar to see how they fit.

I haven’t done a lot else in terms of actual stuff, but I have contemplated more fixes in GITI as well as my desire to start bonsai. I might have to write a "horticultural logging" module for GITI to fill in the time while I’m waiting for the bonsai to grow.