And in other news...

In this morning's news I bring you a few observations from the life of Terri.

Recently, invited into a mentor's office to help with spreadsheets, I was calm until I heard the phrase "Are you good on (spreadsheet-application-name)?". This was when I panicked; thinking that I had to help with complex computations, vlookup statements I'd only heard about or even use a pivot table properly (as opposed to the playing around I normally do). I like to think that I'm proficient at spreadsheets - I'm in no way a super user but I use the common functions often. I learned from a friend who uses spreadsheets to write music for percussion instruments that spreadsheets can be used for almost any purpose and I use them a lot. As it transpired my mentor needed to add text annotations to a spreadsheet - very simple stuff. This is what I learnt: super smart people may not be spreadsheet people. One day I hope to be both.

Through frustration and fatigue I realised that Pyott's may not really want you to snack on their Provita crackers. This is especially true of the last 10 crackers in the packet. This is based on the fact that they're almost impossible to get out of the packet without force and breakage of crackers. Pyott's if you're listening: what are the chances of the little pull-tab strip on both ends of the packet?

Have I passed the Sustainable assessment test?

While working on my assignment for a certificate as Higher Education Assessor and Moderator, I've been pondering how to measure, I mean, assess my own efficacy. So I came up with an equation: insight gained + output product = f(time on task). Yes how nerdy of me - who else would consider describing their experiences by means of a mathematical relationship.

My pondering came from the fact that I've been working on this assignment and my insight gained has showed substantial increase and resulted in some implementation success. However the output product lags behind. So I'm now rethinking my equation - I think that there's an exponent or variable missing.

Maybe that variable is procrastination. It's been my honest opinion that procrastination as a life-skill is an emergent learning outcome of post-graduate study. Meaning that it's not planned on and sometimes has no intrinsic value - it serves only to delay submission. This blog serves as case in point: instead of working on the assignment I'm contemplating the impact of the insight gained on life outside of teaching. Does that mean I've learnt the art of sustainable assessment for life-long learning? Did I pass the test? Have I met the learning outcomes?

Make no mistake, this post will be in my assignment. Then it's not procrastination. Back to the chalk-board for equation derivation...

Excel carpal-tunnel

Nothing like early on-set carpal-tunnel syndrome as a result of number crunching in Excel. Today's been a data day and I've realised part of the reason I am so easily distracted on data-days: because with all the "shift+ctrl" +"ctrl+V" combinations my wrists take a beating. So much for speeding things up using keystrokes instead of the mouse. *clicky clicky* The distractions are often wrist breaks and they do help break the monotony of almost 2000 of the same keystrokes for just one page in a spreadsheet.

Just blogging this I'm intentionally dancing my fingers around the keyboard and flexing different muscles. I've seen people after carpel tunnel ops and it ain't pretty. *stretch, yawn, flex*

The positive spin on this is that I'm actually crunching numbers all to draw graphs so that I can formally unpack my results. There's a pearlescent lining here somewhere.