Christmas at Kings

How I love this place, and how I'll miss it.

If Only The Tree Had Been There...

Through a series of misunderstandings and mishaps, the McGarrys, Lynch and I gathered on campus to see the tree lighting.  However, there was no tree (due to snow and date mishaps).  And it was very, very cold.  So this is us, enjoying the... um... time together.  Or something like that. 

Officially Official

That piece of paper is the most expensive thing I've ever owned.  And the hardest to obtain.  Lynch, you'll get your own soon enough!  Kenny, thanks for being my family and photographer for graduation!

The Printer

As you may or may not remember, I got kicked out of my uni office back in June, which meant no more access to a printer.  This is especially annoying when at the last stages of the thesis, as printing out copies for binding and vivas and whatnot is taking place.  Lucky for me, I've got great friends who let me stick it to the university by using the printer in their office building. 

Thanks, Lynch!  You really are the best.  Especially for getting toner twice and getting told off for it.  ;)

QML

I spent five horrible hours in QML (that's the Queen Mother Library, for those of you not from Aberdeen).  It was miserable.  It's a terrible old grimy clausterphobic building, and they didn't want to let me in since my student id has expired, despite the fact I'm doing corrections for a degree from here.  And they wouldn't let me take out a three-hour heavy demand book I needed for the same reason, even though it's the only copy they have.  And I had both my old id and my letter stating my corrections.  Jerks.  I hate that place. 

So I didn't take a picture of it.  Or rather, I did... but I'm not using it.  I'm using one I like instead:

University Admin At Its Finest

I got this in the post today-- the form for registering for graduation.  It came in a letter with my list of corrections, which was another fine example of university efficiency.  The corrections part was fine;  the part telling me about graduation gave two different standards in the same paragraph (unless you have everything finished completely by the deadline to register to graduation--which is 15 October-- you can't graduate.  But don't wait to get your results and be finished--register now!).  And this?  Someone printed this off, looked at it, and thought, yup, that's good enough. 

Whatever. 

Autumn on Campus

Apologies for the delay in these... I realise it's now nearly a month later than what the post date will say.  I haven't had the time to upload photos to my computer, and once I did that, it's been about a week since I've had time to upload them here.  Sorry!  =)


This is the statue of the student, outside New Kings.  I mostly like the ivy changing colours, and it makes me miss all the red ivy that used to grow on Kings.

Oh. My. Life.

Yeah, I can look happy now.  This morning I suffered through two of the most intense hours of my life thus far... and I'm so glad that's over! 

The story of the viva will be saved for another time and place.  The emotions will be chronicled here, briefly. 

Beforehand: stage fright. 
During: intimidation, nerves, near-tears twice, some thankfulness.
After: relief (I cried.  From relief.  Brian laughed at me, but not in a mean way.)
Home after: happy happy joy joy! 
Later: disbelief. 
At the party: relief (again), thankfulness (mostly for friends to celebrate with me), giddiness (champagne).
After the party: exhaustion, disbelief, oh-sh*t-what-now, adrenaline crash let-down. 
Bedtime: nervous (again), and the mood swings start... I wonder how long this will last? 

Whatever.  I'm done.  For now, that's got to be enough.  =D

DONE!!!!

Today, I submitted my thesis.  That's me, empty-handed. 

I got very little sleep (like, two hours) because I couldn't stop my brain: what if I've not used someone obvious? what if I forgot something? what if it sucks? what if my formatting is all wrong? what if....?

Then I finally got up and ready, and headed in to Lynch's office.  She let me print out my 252 pages there, using university ink, since the uni had kicked me out of my own office.  I made sure my formatting was as good as I could get it, since uni uses Word 2007 and I don't, and then printed it off.  From there, I headed to the libarry--where I had to be let in and sign the book, since technically my student status expired in May--to get another copy made and turn them both in to the bindery.  The libarry guy was an idiot, and sold me copy cards that I couldn't even use (well, I could use them, but not to use the automatic feed to copy all my 252 pages. Turns out it charges you two copies for each page you don't do manually... what?! Seriously?!)  So after I did about 40 pages manually, because I couldn't stand to have wasted that £30 on copy cards (grrrrr!), I finally gave up and turned it all in to the bindery to finish copying and then bind up in the cheapest and quickest manner possible. 

After that frustration, I went back to collect Lynch and we went for a poddle--through the botanical gardens, around Seaton Park, and back around to uni in time to go pick up the two bound copies.  A little freaky, to hold those 'official' things in hand... and then to Registry, where we waited and waited in line and finally got to turn them in.  The lady was actually very nice, and was excited for me--which is funny, because usually the folks working there are like robots who don't give a darn about the people they are serving.  Lynch took photos, and wrote me a Thesis-submitting song, which she performed on the way back to her office, where we enjoyed Cockroach Clusters and Toffee Cappuccino coffee. 

I highly recommend having a photographer, singer-songwriter, companion walker, and party coordinator when you submit.  All in one person is even better.  Thanks, Lynch! 

Now it's just the wait for the viva...

Health and Safety!

The fire door that should always stay open at the back of Lynch's office, the one that takes us out to the garden, is now locked.  And bolted.  And impossible to get out. 

This is dangerous.  And very sad.  No more work picnics.  Boo-hoo! 

Hello, lovely garden.  I can only enjoy you through the window, now....