it's going to be one of those days.

again.

system keeps crashing. big shock, when people keep trying to access it. memo to grandboss: i'll keep track of what phone calls i make, but that won't have much relationship to how much work gets done, since even if the people give me all sort of information i won't be able to enter it until your server recovers from its overload.

just fyi.

in other news, everyone is welcome to entertain me.

today's excitement

HR missed a time sheet.

i totally had it in before the deadline. okay, i e-mailed a co-worker to fax it in for me, because i was out last wednesday, but time sheets are to be faxed to HR by COB on wednesdays unless they notify us otherwise, which they didn't, and i'm looking at the fax confirmation sheet that says 4/7 13:57.

rar.

this is a 46-hour fuck-up. eleven of those hours are worth time and a half. i cannot wait until the next paycheck for that money.

[thunk thunk thunk]

[eta: or, the deadline could change arbitrarily with no special (i.e. beyond normal) notification, and i could be expected to read their minds. monday was the first night of passover, yo. i was at work for like five hours, running around like a headless chicken, darting out for two separate doctor's appointments, and leaving early enough to get to dinner before sundown. that's not the day to have a time sheet due by 5. rar.]

i'm not actually talking about this --

-- but i'm trying (cautiously, now) to begin to be proactive.

this is probably right up datlowen's street.

theferrett suggested a different version of that three-questions meme that's been popping up everywhere:

Ask yourself three questions. Then answer them. Place the answers in someone else's journal who you don't know, just to confuse 'em.

Be sure to leave out the questions.

try it. it's fun.

if this were baseball, i'd be in the freakin hall of fame.

from the university of edinburgh, in today's mail post:

Dear Ms Fox

UNCONDITIONAL OFFER OF ADMISSION AS A POSTGRADUATE STUDENT

Thank you for your application for admission as a postgraduate student. I am pleased to advise you that the University has approved your admission to study on the enclosed Terms and Conditions.

perhaps someone can explain to me how an unconditional offer can be extended on terms and conditions. it's got me stumped.

this is for a three-year PhD program, research only, no coursework, which frankly scares the bejeebers out of me -- in syntactic change. which is cool, but not precisely my thing; i suppose that was the nearest they had among what their people Do. so, on the one hand, PhD, and on the same hand, edinburgh, which i love; but on the other hand, not oxford, and still on the second hand, more expensive than oxford. can you believe that? by close to 1000 GBP a year, in tuition and fees.

for purposes of comparison, this is approximately analagous to, say, northwestern university charging $1500-2000 more for the same basic program than yale.

so, i doubt i'm going to do this one. however, i have two months from the date of the letter (02 April 2004) in which to respond. so i can afford to hang around for a bit and wait to see which if one of the oxford colleges has an offer for me.