I just noticed that the ‘Love Blossoms’ theme looks crap in Internet Explorer. At the moment I’m kind of torn. I feel guilty about how behind I am with website stuff, then I can’t be bothered doing it and surf aimlessly, checking the same sites repeatedly. Then I feel guilty about not doing anything, can’t face doing anything/don’t know where to start, and the whole cycle begins again. I think I’m just going to have to make a list, sit down and get on with it.

However, I also have the problem that I’ve already got a lot more university work than I thought I would at this point in the year. I’ve not even had a full week of lectures yet and I have tons to read, notes to write up, a translation to do and I’ve been told about dates for essays, presentations and exams etc. which will be coming up in a month or three. Grr. On top of that, I’m supposed to be doing the website for Nika’s society, doing stuff in the other societies I’ve joined, going to see a couple of plays (which apparently I have to go and see for Drama), and I wanted to do some volunteering work and write for the university magazine. As well as that I have 2 websites to work on, swimming and the gym, friends to see and a part time job. So much for worrying that I’d have too much free time on my hands.

Another annoying thing right now is work. They called me up on Tuesday afternoon asking me if I could come in for Wednesday afternoon, then called me Wednesday morning and said they were behind with a project and didn’t need me. I don’t mind the short notice they give me in saying, ‘We need you in in less than 24 hours’; what I do mind are the last minute cancellations. Or the whole, ‘Yeah we need you for a whole day’, when it’s actually only a few hours. It just messes me around so much, and they are always behind with projects so it happens quite a bit. They also said at the interview they were taking on quite a few students and they divide the work as equally as possible – and yet they call me in quite a lot at short notice. Ok, hopefully they don’t think I’m too crap at what I do. But I worked there over the summer and no other students did, so giving me more hours seems a little strange.

So when they called to cancel yesterday, they said they might need me this morning. I got up early to have a shower – and guess what? No call (yet). Typical that they don’t call when I actually make the effort to get up. (One time they called me when I was asleep and asked me to come in in half an hour, when it takes me that long just to get there). I’ve been really tired recently, and I can’t go back to bed because they may call any minute. I don’t have any lectures until 2 pm either. But at least after the two lectures I have this afternoon, my weekend will start. That leads me into another rant…

Apparently to be webmaster and get a webspace/url for Nika’s society, I have to attend a training session for an hour and a half. I’m really hoping it’s not going to be like I.T lessons in school where the teacher shows you something, then the class does it, for an hour and a half because I will go mad. I’d prefer it to be something like college – you get a list of tasks, work through them and you’re done. Or ideally, just get the bloody login details. I don’t need a mini-course in FTP, thanks. The best part about it is that it is 9-10:30 am tomorrow. My free day. Oh, plus the fact that my university email account isn’t working and therefore I have no idea whether my training session has been confirmed or not. I could end up getting up early and going only to find out it’s full/has been cancelled/whatever. Ditto for the community action induction I wanted to sign up for, which is around 2 pm tomorrow I think. I may have to go down to the actual office-place and find out what’s going on. I have to go to my lecture early anyway to go to the Post Office and find out how much it’s going to cost to send a package to Andy.

The final thing I’m annoyed about (apart from our still non-working boiler and suddenly Arctic temperatures) is the electricity/gas company. They keep sending letters asking for us to e-mail them with our e-mail address for our online account. They have sent us probably 6 or 7 letters about it. I have repeatedly sent them an e-mail (with no error messages at all) with our account number and our address, and clearly stating that this is the e-mail address we’d like associated with our account. But I’m still getting letters. Oh, and the water company keeps saying we haven’t paid the bill, when I’ve set up direct debit to pay it. So Nika phoned up and they said they hadn’t processed it yet. Then we get a letter confirming the phone call and saying it will be added to the records. Then a few days later – another letter saying we haven’t paid. GRRR.

I really hate technology sometimes. In fact, thinking about it, all my problems apart from uni work are technology-related in some way. Whether it’s the e-learning company I work for, crap databases and miscommunication with water/electricity/gas companies, e-mail or Blossom and Starshine *sigh*

EDIT: Just to add to the confusion – I’ve deactivated the top commenters plugin and it’s still working?! What the hell??