NUIG's bureaucracy must not like me

This semester has been a doozie for administrative issues in my life.

First, there was the thing where I didn't get registered with the university-- when I went and asked about it, it turned out that my PhD program wasn't even in their system. (That one wasn't just me, of course, but all 13 of us in the TCC program; still, I was the one who discovered it.) Then, there was the part where my login information for the university's computer system got mysteriously blocked. I wasn't able to use the NUIG wifi or any of the school's computers. Computer services never did figure out what happened, but eventually they fixed it and reset the password.

Now, there is yet another problem with my stipend. We normally get our monthly stipend transferred around the 23rd of the month, or if the 23rd is on a weekend then the nearest Friday. Since this month the 23rd was on a Saturday, I figured it would come on Friday 22 October. When that didn't happen, I thought "Well, maybe they're rounding it back, and I'll get it the Friday after the 23rd." Which is today! But I checked this morning, and still no. This wouldn't be too big a deal-- except this is a really skinny month for me, what with my annual €150 immigration registration fee. (I usually have about €150-€200 left over at the end of the month, so this fee pretty much tapped me out.)

So this morning I emailed Marie, the Moore Institute's most excellent secretary, asking if she knew what was going on with the stipend. This is the response I got:
Hi Ayla

I have spoken with Research Accounts and there has been an error over there where your end date had been set to 2010 in stead of 2012. They had done this with all the students but managed to correct all the others except yours. Darran is going to arrange to transfer your stipend into your bank account but tells me that unfortunately this may not happen until Monday as the person in Accounts is out today and he’s not sure if anyone else over there will do it.

Wow. Administrative errors strike again. This is not the first time that I have had problems with my stipend. I'm pretty annoyed that there is apparently only one employee in the university who deals with Accounts. "Oh, he's out today, so you can't get the paycheck we've owed you for a week." What the hell, NUIG.

Oh well. This is exactly why I have a credit card: emergencies. I actually used it for the first time ever this week-- to buy groceries. And it's possible that the money might get transferred this afternoon anyway. You know, if someone in the Accounts office decides to do it.


After all, it would be nice to have money for the weekend... because it's Halloween! Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. Even though my costume this year isn't exactly an original for me, I still love any excuse to dress up. I love seeing big groups of people wearing costumes. I love dead leaves and crows and spooky trees and pumpkins. I love Halloween!

Contrary to popular belief, I am not in fact a Ghostbuster.

I had high hopes for today, high hopes indeed. I was going to do laundry, work on a paper, clean-- in short, actually be productive on a Sunday for once. Instead, I talked to my mom on the phone, talked to Jim online, and watched Ghostbusters. Oops. (Well, theoretically, I could still work on the paper. But it's too late now for the laundry at least.)


Last night, there was a small Hallowe'en parade down Shop Street, the pedestrianized shopping area in the city centre. The parade wasn't very long, or very good-- a stiltwalker, some weird giant puppet things, and a band in costumes-- but after the parade there was a very cool fire show! The show was put on in the churchyard at the medieval church, which was incredibly cool in itself... the place has a spooky atmosphere even in bright sunlight. To watch the show, spectators had to stand around on the other side of a tall spiky wrought iron fence, which just added to the effect. Also the fact that it was hosted by a church made me happy-- there are lots of church groups in the U.S. that condemn Hallowe'en for being evil, instead of embracing it for being cool!

So what do I mean by "fire show"? First, there were pyrotechnics-- lots of flares and roman candles going off in choreographed sequences. There was a large metal tree, with curling branches, that stood mysteriously off to the side. There were fire belly dancers-- three ladies with metal fans that had flames along the edge. There were a couple guys who juggled flaming torches. There were four people spinning poi with flames. They each put on an individual show, then all came out at the same time. At one point, roman candles went off from the church roof. As the finale started, the metal tree suddenly erupted into flames, looking like a huge burning tree in the churchyard, as the performers danced and juggled and tossed fire around. At the very end, there were fireworks. It was cool.

Afterward, I went back to Jenn's apartment, where we were joined by our friend Jason, to watch The Exorcist, drink wine, and eat chocolate. Overall, a good way to spend Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en!

I am up way, way too late. 'Cause why? 'Cause I was carving pumpkins, that's why!

Every year, my tradition is to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas as I carve my pumpkins. It might technically count as a Christmas movie, but this song always gets me super-excited for Halloween:

This year, I had two pumpkins to carve-- one was purchased for my friend Bri, but she hasn't had the time to come carve it, so I went ahead and did it myself. So, the fruits of my labors! (Click to embiggen... and apologies for the poor quality of the photos, my camera's batteries are dead so I had to use the laptop's built-in webcam.)

XD


A Clockwork Pumpkin!

I had a hard time getting a shot that showed the eyelash things. But I figured I had to do this, because after all I do own a bowler hat.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have two pumpkins' worth of roasted pumpkin seeds to eat. Which is of course the best part of the whole carving experience.