Beartracks... how I hate thee

It's the most wonderful time of the year... wait, no it isn't. I often try to make my ranting and raving as non-specific as possible so that everyone can understand and sympathize with my burning hatred towards subjects that I cover, but alas, this one will only be understood by those of us doomed to walk the hallways of a 97 year old university... yes, that's right, today I shall complain about school and the infuriating system that is BEARTRACKS.

It seemed like a good idea, although I always preferred the phone system. Oooh, looking to waste a few hours? Ask any person who attended the U of A, circa 10BC (er, before Carly), and they will go on to complain about 'back in their day...' where there was no new fandangled system for registering and you had to run around campus like a chicken with your head cut off and plead with each individual Prof to take you, and if your schedule conflicted - guess what? You get to start all over again. Granted, it was probably a pain, good exercise, but all in all, not the most fun thing in the world. Of course back then downhill hadn't yet been invented, nor had sliced bread so people stood around contemplating what the invention of velcro was better than.

These simpletons never had the benefit of talking to the phone lady, or learning that a rotary phone just doesn't work, best of all there was no internet! What a glorious time it must have been. Mail took weeks, and got lost (so you always had a good excuse for not paying that bill in time, or not keeping in touch, "because I hate you" doesn't have the same ring as "oh, your invitation must have been lost in the mail"). Enough about the internet in general, aside from online radio, I can't find anything good on it.

Beartracks is deceptively nice. I think that is the biggest problem I have with it. With nice pretty colours, easy to read fonts, and self explanatory buttons, I begin to feel at ease. No problem, I think, it's designed to help me out. They want my money, so obviously it will be easy for me to register...

The Byblis is a plant found in Western Australia. It produces small, but beautiful purple flowers, while its stalk is covered with fibers that give it a 'rainbow' appearance in the sun, lending to its common name of 'The Rainbow Plant'. It produces a sweet smell that effectively lures in insects, unfortunately for the insects a prize of sweet nectar is replaced by a gruesome death of being slowly digested, caught on the attractive fibers found on the leaves.

So it tells me that I can register for up to six, count 'em, six classes at once. I don't intend to, only taking five-ish classes a term, but in theory it should be quicker. Good, great. I can go home sooner. So I go through all the classes I want to take, throw them on the list... oooh I just need one more. Alright, so all I have to do is skip back to the search page, and wait... what's that? Error? You need to resend data? Alright, go nuts, resend it... and now it's back at the home page. But where are my classes? That's right, they've been devoured by the gaping void of cyberspace and no longer exist. Yup. So I'm back at square one. Since when did hitting the 'back button' make me want to kill myself... or better yet the creator of Beartracks.

I think that this is part of a test, some kind of crazy psychological experiment is taking place. They are watching everyone signing up for school, testing responses, waiting until you are close and then wham-o, everything disappears and you are left with a feeling of inadequacy at your inability to understand how to sign up for classes.

And the worst part of it all? At the end of this maze there is no cheese, just a long year of masochistic tendencies and depression... I love school.