I could do without this shit

So there's a new "requirement" for the PhD now? I got an e-mail yesterday about a "Postgraduate Skills and Training Programme" which they're starting this year. It all has to do with stupid new regulations so the School can keep its 3 or 4-star rating (I'm not sure which it is). I'm not sure whether I'm confused or angry about it. Never mind that I REALLY DO NOT HAVE THE TIME FOR THIS, there are too many unanswered questions about how it's supposed to work. In the e-mail, they put speech marks around the word requirement - so is it a requirement or isn't it?!? It says we're supposed to do 30 days of scheduled training, 10 in the first year and 10 over the next two years. But I'm in my last year already; am I supposed to do the whole 30, or just 10 or what?! Will I get the certificate they talk about if I don't have the full 30 days? And we're supposed to fill out some questionnaire so we can figure out which programmes to book, but I can't access that questionnaire unless I book a session! Oh, and the questionnaire itself is non-specific to the point of meaninglessness. "At what level would you place your ability to demonstrate original, independent and critical thinking?" How the hell should I know? I just do what I'm told.

*stab-strangles the whole poxy thing*

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Know what I worry about? Running into my students around the libraries and other student areas. If a stranger had come into my tutorial yesterday, they wouldn't have been able to distinguish the tutor from the students. I know I would be confused and doubtful if I had run into any of my tutors working in the same places as me when I was an undergrad.

Yeah, I worry too much.

My teaching philosophy has come down to this: "Everything is the students' job; none of it is mine!"

(no subject)

To my supervisor: well, a lot of help you turned out to be. Just sending me straight to the official information which confused me in the first place >:8 Maybe the official people can tell me something useful.

Marzi's noisy neighbours reminded me: they're currently remodelling the back of the students' union here (Guthrie is behind it and of course, I get a room at the back of Guthrie) and last night, they had an engine running and running and running!! After 11 o'clock at night!!! And I've lost one of my earplugs and can't find it anywhere, and I need at least one of my windows open at night so I don't smother (my radiators are off, but you can't turn off the hot water pipes which feed the radiators and run around two sides of my room) >:8

This is a day for >:8 faces.

A couple of good things: I got Julie's mobile number, which I've been wanting, and she told me about some conference in Derry in a few weeks from now which she and Michael are going to, and she asked me along :) It's about the making of the book. It sounds interesting, if not at all relevant to my thesis, but hey! It's a trip away from Belfast, it's something for the ol' CV, and for once I'll be going with people I know instead of on my own.