I know things aren't really conspiring to piss me off, but it sure seems like it.

I've been trying to do job applications, and yesterday I ran across a weird phrase in one that's due relatively soon: "evidence of scholarly work." After some searching, I realized it's a phrase commonly used in tenure evaluations, but I've never seen it in a job application for my field.

So, I did that. Or I did something for it, following a bunch of jumped-together guidelines from different sources.

Now, the online version of my course evaluations have disappeared entirely. We used to be able to access them and print out summaries at will -- very useful for job applications. Gone. They're totally gone. I didn't print out anything for last semester, so I'm staring at four packets of originals wondering how on earth to condense them down.

Finally, the career services office at our school (yes, I'm treating the whole office as a living being) is refusing to recognize my existence. I have to get two applications out this week, and I feel like it's just not going to happen.

Have been walking around the house cussing up a storm, this morning.

On the half-full side:

• My paper was accepted for Cool Smaller Conference next spring. My acceptance letter from the section head started with "how cool!" before getting all formal.
  
• My primary advisor emailed me back with comments this morning on chapters 1 & 2. The comments weren't rave reviews, but they were along the lines of "I don't do this kind of work and so I can't comment much, but everything you've written is solid and makes sense to me, so I will leave any serious revisions up to Other Advisor."