Today i was back doing the online survey thing at NUS. I sat in the computer lab from 10am to 5pm and there were only 5 participants who came. Haha. Not that i minded actually; it was nice to have the peace and quiet :)

I'd thought that i could do my own work, but instead, i spent the whole day pasting receipts on paper so that they can be photocopied and submitted for claims. The whole idea of this baffles me. Why do the receipts have to be stuck on an A4 paper to be photocopied? Why can't we just submit all the receipts to whoever is supposed to be doing the payment?

It really shows a lack of trust that the administration requires proof of every single receipt. But even if they lack trust and want proof, we're submitting our payment records along with the receipts, so is there really a need to waste manpower, paper and glue to stick all the receipts down for them and then calculate subtotals on every page? We could just arrange the receipts in order and tally it with the excel file, tie it up with a rubber band and let them double check if they want. Why create all that extra trouble?

And what i find the lamest is that they are paying me, a graduate, a graduate research assistant's pay to stick receipts on paper! I'm not complaining since it obviously benefits me, but they're really wasting their money. It's seriously brainless work! I'm sure there are plenty of undergrads who would be happy to do the same thing for less pay. This is so inefficient. It would have been more so if i'd really gone back on one day specially to stick receipts as originally planned :P

Thankful for: the granola bar i got from YC that became my lunch, saving me the trouble of having to buy lunch. Haha :)