Thursday, March 22, 2007

A Confusing Automated Message Does Not Quite Undermine My Grip on Reality

This evening I signed up for an online class with the University of Texas extension service. In one area of the form, I had to tell them whether I was concurrently enrolled at UT or any other college, and I indicated that I was not. When I submitted my request, it came back in big red letters telling me OUR RECORDS INDICATE THAT YOU ARE A STUDENT AT UT THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO CHANGE THE BIG ASS LIE YOU PUT ON THAT PREVIOUS SCREEN YOU LYING LIAR. But since I am most definitely not a student at UT, I didn't change anything on my form and sent it in anyway, taking my chances that the human being reviewing my form will be able to figure out that I am not, indeed, a student at UT, I have never been a student at UT, and I have never even applied to UT. I admit that I did look to see what I would need to take to get a second bachelors, a B.S. in Mathematics Option III: Mathematical Sciences Specialization in Statistics, Probability, and Data Analysis (including 6 hours of history and 6 hours of government that I didn't have to take at Rice), and I am thinking about applying to their MS in Statistics program at a later date in case my direct to extremely good PhD in social psychology program thing doesn't work out as I want it to, but that is as far as it goes. Maybe I am personally caught in a time loop and am already taking linear algebra at UT. If so, I'm in serious trouble when my final exam comes up in a few weeks. Or maybe their system is just screwed up. I'm going with that well-known rule of thumb: Do not ascribe to a breakdown of the space-time continuum what can be attributed to the incompetence of government employees. (I should know.)

3 comments:

Tam said...

But Sally! Don't you remember our UT graduation ceremony back in 2002? I remember it like it was yesterday.

Sally said...

Did I get a PhD?

rvman said...

It isn't seared - SEARED - in your memory?