Oh yes, I can waste a lot of time too! Try to limit it, but some days it feels like it's all I do...

Anyway, I've done a fair amount of work on the stuff I wanted to get done, and now I'm going home and meeting my other half in the pub. Going to totally relax tonight and have a day off tomorrow, then get back to it on Sunday. Yay for the weekend! Have fun/relax/do lots of work (delete as appropriate) everyone!

Many congratulations, sounds like it went really well!

Heh - I know that feeling!

Yes, I agree, the funding issue is the big one here.

The actual department you do your PhD in doesn't really matter, as long as the supervisors have the appropriate knowledge/background or whatever to supervise you (and if the staff from the department you applied to are now in the new depertment that suggests they will have). You won't have a PhD in American Studies, you'll have a PhD in whatever the title of your research is. If you can still do the project you originally wanted to do then this won't make any difference to that. (For example, I'm doing my PhD in an engineering department, but my actual project is mostly environmental psychology and this is the area that my PhD will actually be in, nobody will think of me as an engineering person.)

Does this really mean you won't be able to apply for the same funding? If your PhD is still looking at the same topic you might still be eligible, I don't know, but don't assume you won't be just because the name of the department has changed. If you are still eligible for that scholarship, then everything is fine. If not, there might be another scholarship that you can apply for, maybe within the university? Failing that, whether you decide to go there does depend on whether you can afford to self-fund, or want to look elsewhere for another funded place. But don't give up yet - it may be that this change in department name won't make any difference at all.

Good luck!

(Avoiding the tumbleweed as I enter the thread...)

I'm going to keep using this thread even if nobody else does! I find it really helpful to set out my targets for the day, and listing them publicly here feels much more binding than just making a list in my own notebook.

So, goals for today:
1.) Go to poster design training session (DONE but what a waste of time)
2.) Make a good start on document describing development of my methods and decisions made
3.) Finish early and meet my other half in the pub by 5pm!

Oh dear, this poor lonely thread! Are you still out there, Teek, or anyone else...?

Been away at a seminar for a couple of days, and then yesterday managed to do no work at all. Really don't know how I managed that! So today it's action stations, back to it with a vengeance. Was at my desk at 8.15 am and have until 4pm to get lots done (my partner's parents are in town, and are taking us out for a posh meal tonight, so that will be a nice reward!)

Goals for today, then:
1.) Sort out acceptance forms for summer school and send them off (DONE)
2.) Look at new methodology and discuss whether to follow this up with supervisor (DONE)
3.) Look at documents sent by researcher at external organisation (DONE)
4.) Reply to email from researcher at another university
5.) Start editing draft questionnaire
6.) Start writing document describing methods development
7.) Decide whether to arrange discussion of methods with Stats Advisory people

My first supervisor is the one who takes the lead, but my second supervisor is just as involved - he's less experienced at supervising PhD students so is learning the job of supervisor from my first supervisor as he goes along. They both attend all the meetings (unless they're at a conference or something) and comment on papers I write or on the methods I've been developing, etc, though tend to defer to each other's specialist areas as their disciplines are very different. We tend to meet every 2 or 3 weeks, depending on what there is to discuss, usually for between half an hour and an hour. It works really well - my first supervisor is very detail-oriented and highly organised, so he drives things forward, while my second supervisor is quieter but very thoughtful so tends to sit back and then come in with brilliant observations or new directions or sharp questions.

Heh, I've never had dreams about re-sitting exams, those sound more like nightmares!

A couple of weeks ago I did dream that I turned over in bed, and my second supervisor was there, and he and my partner were asleep with their arms around each other. :$ I woke up in a really bad mood with my partner as well, which on reflection might have been a little unfair of me...

I agree too I'm afraid. I wanted a 'none of these' option too on question 5 - I wouldn't trust any of those sources for the information you mention!

I agree with the previous comments - it doesn't sound to me like you're doing anything wrong. The concerns are about abuse of power, but in this situation, there's no power imbalance between you and the person you're seeing, and you're both at a very similar stage, so I can't see a problem with it at all. If you're worried, check your university's code of conduct (or whatever they call it at your institution) but I really can't see anyone taking issue with this. And congratulations too, you sound very happy!

Invigorated after a good swim this morning, so ready to tackle the next mountain of work... Actually, I've just got through a major period of deadlines and piling up of work, and I've achieved it all, and feel pretty good about that. Trying not to take my foot off the pedal too much, but at the same time I know I was starting to overwork and I don't want to burn out.

Goals for today:
1.) Prepare for site visit to organisation I'm studying on Thursday
2.) Read supervisor's lectures/seminar papers on new area of literature he recommended I look at
3.) Search for further relevant lit in new area

Yay, blagged my way through giving the seminar I hadn't really prepared for. Lucky I know the subject so well! Now I just have to write up notes from this morning's supervision meeting and I can clear off after that. Feeling very lazy at the moment!

Ooh, fantastic about the time off the RA work! Good luck with it!

Oh dear, MissinHome, hope you're feeling a bit better about it all now! But how you're feeling sounds really familiar to me - the paralysing fear of getting stuff wrong and ending up putting things off instead of risking being wrong, and then the pressure mount up, and it feels like something is blocked, and then the panic about getting done in time... It's paralysing. The way I get out of that is to take a deep breath, try to be calm, then make a list of all the tasks that need to be done, and start picking my way through them, starting with the easiest ones first. Once I get going it's all fine, but until I do it feels like I'm never going to achieve anything!

I could have used some of my own advice this weekend - I'm giving a seminar this afternoon to other PhD students/my supervisors about the main theories I'm using in my research - I'm the only person in my department who knows about them, so this is to share my knowledge. Except I haven't written the seminar yet. Eeeek! I spent all weekend avoiding it, and now I have hardly any time left, as I have a supervision meeting this morning.

Let's see if necessity really is the mother of invention!

Goals for today
1.) Write the bloomin' seminar presentation!
2.) Send an email to potential collaborator for future project
3.) Go to supervision session and write up notes afterwards
4.) Blag way through seminar and hope nobody notices......

Oh dear, not much response!

I really wanted to go on the demo, but it was a friend's birthday and he'd arranged lots of bands to play in a pub and everyone was going to be there including people who've moved away from my city, so I had to choose... and chose to go to the pub with my friends! Feel guilty about that, but can't make every demo I guess. Glad it was so big, anyway!