======= Date Modified 05 Jan 2010 11:37:43 =======
SORRY FOR CUTTING SHAMISHANC'S POST ---MY BAD!!!

Shamishanc,
Without going into too much detail, I would advise you against switching so soon. Find out from other students what is her modus operandi and adapt to that. There is never going to be a time when you have everything going a-ok so just have to accept the bad with the good. She has got you funding in a lean time, which is good. Yes, your head is gonna be wrecked from the fineky nature and the office politics, but from the forums, that is the norm. Academia has more backstabbings than a boxset of "Rome" dvds and more egos than the Real Madrid dressing room, so just accept it.
I would suggest holding your powder dry for another six months, keep everything above board and do as your supervisor suggests for now. Get what is needed to be done over the next 6-9 months set and maybe ask her for advice as how to improve your writing (you will be effectively mimicing her writing style in time). Also, and most importantly, maintain some semblance of life outside the dept. so you can switch off from the nonsense. It is difficult, but it still sounds that she is a good supervisor behind it all. You just have to adapt. Keep in there!!

P.S. Who gets on with their boss anyways? It could be worse - ya could be married :p

All part of the service!
Have a phrase, song or something to remind you of the fact that he is an insignificant person who is probably scared of being shown up. May I suggest Metallica's "Don't thread on me!" or Lamb of God's "Omerta" 8-) If ever feeling a bit down or intimidated, remember the phrase, song, vision and it'll kick the proper sense into gear and have a laugh at his stupidity.

Enjoy the break and surround yourself with people that care and remember - it is these people that matter! Good luck with your work (up)

======= Date Modified 18 Dec 2009 20:19:36 =======
Stick in there Someone3 ... you took this Phd for yourself, not for the nitwits sake and even if he does make statements behind your back, so what? Any fool who takes him seriously is just doing so cos they don't want to end up on his hate list. The only people that matters is your supervisor, your family and your friends.
Next time he actually does start taking bits outta you, do a Steve Martin a la Roxanne and actually agree with his insult but come up with something better. I know that we all go thro' the confrontations in our mind and we win whereas in reality we trip and stumble. It is difficult, but please don't let this prick get in and ruin your good work. Dunno if you have kids, but look on this Phd as being your kid - would you let someone threaten it - no way! So what if you have to blow off steam in the process - a supporter of not bottling it up. He will be the one with (mince) on his face and looking a right (turkey)

Get your sleep back in order and if needed, actually ask your supervisor are you actually doing the requisite level and quality of work (it will at least confirm that the main aim of numbnuts is not working)

Here - get this book, read it and use :-)
http://www.amazon.com/Viva-Repartee-Comebacks-Historys-Wordsmiths/dp/B0013L2EL8

Last thing - look forward to the break and enjoy it ... and ya ever want a few retorts, you have a gang of volunteers here to help ya.

Ok the real last thing - this dumass is at best only gonna be in your life for a while ... ya won't be marrying him or working with him directly. Remember that! And if that fails start going out with one of the rugby/karate/glass eating team
:p

======= Date Modified 04 Dec 2009 00:43:33 =======
Jaysus - what colleges are ye all studying at? Most of our crew look like constipated bulldogs chewing wasps!

PhdSmug - get a group of friends and go for a city break and see another side of the world. I don't mean to go slutting to get him outta your head (sorry for the crudeness) but just go see some part of the world you want to and realise that these opportunities are there for ya if you get your act together and get this PhD out the gap! Sometimes it takes a bit of a different perspective to get clarity - and who knows, maybe there is a better looking Chad/Stefan/Luigi on the way. You have time in the first year as it does get busier.

As for the meetings, if there is no set format, get one! Have written reports submitted and minutes to follow. That way
a. You have a script to follow if stuck
b. If he is to give feedback, you don't need to talk. It will also impress him on a professional level.
c. Most importantly, you are writing! Dangerous Liaisons besides, it is crucial to start writing ASAP.

Talk to a friend about this - it is good that you haven't told anyone in the dept. as academia is a poisonous place once these things get outta hand (Chinese Whispers ... TO THE MAX!!). But you do need to have someone to confide in and for want of a better word, be the angel on your shoulder.

You have a good relationship with your supervisor and that is worth its weight in gold (give a look thro the forum for evidence). It's like the attitude towards any fine looking students you may have in your classes ... "Teach em, don't touch em!"

Blue,
Sorry this isn't directly going to answer your question but check on sourceforge.net for any programs that will do analytics. It is the main source for Open Source software so ya might get a few pointers there. It is certainly possible but as regards dedicated tools to do this, sorry.

Going with a punk theme, obviously the Misfits would be too obvious a name. Sticking with the rhyming theme, instead of the Dead Kennedys, how about the Dead Phd's?
As for songs, we should cover one of the best songs from the album of the year, "Wavering Radiant" by Isis. Think it sums up the thinking of doing /actual duration of the damn Phd ... '20 Minutes 40 Years'

Sue - depends on how much time you have to spare but I would deffo go Endnote!!!
There maybe problems with libraries but nothing ya cant get done! It is way better than leaving it to manual sorting it out.

Have you a day or two that you can spend doing this?I don't mean two full days solid, but get the 20 most important refs and work from there. Even downloading them from google scholar.

Sorry for the rameshing - its Friday night and pi$$ed! I'm an Endnote convert (started my masters using it, turned against it, but now using it full scale for the Phd). It is good also for sorting out refs before you start writing. I will follow up on this tomorrow ... oh god another hangover!! I need Ice Cream!!! I swear I will follow up before the wkend is out!

Kezia - small tip!
Use mindmaps to get the ideas to fruition. If you can, then incorporate this into having a mind-map of all your various sections. Freemind is a good mindmapping tool which allows you to link documents i.e. have a summary stored in the folder of each of your folders (even in subsections). Then, you can link each subsection into the main Freemind Mindmap (stored in the main PhD folder).
Without sounding patronising, a mindmap is basically where ya draw a centre "bubble" of the main topic with all the sub-topics as extensions. Freemind helps this process and because you can link different mindmaps you can have an electronic representation of what you would do on a whiteboard.
Only a tip but more importantly, don't worry about the amount of literature - yes, it is unsurmountable but all you need is a handful of decent papers backing up your research.

EV - at the end of the day, we all bleed red! Do you think that whatever "expert" in your field suddenly woke up one morning and had all the answers? It takes time! By the way, some experts solely rely on knowing a cartload of acronyms and not knowing the basics - smokes and mirrors to hide their weakness!
I am sure that there is one aspect of your life that you know that you can do just as well as anyone else ... ya can cook a mean pot roast or just maybe you can f&rt the National Anthem ha ha!

Kez - like what Teek said, the "guilt" will be there for a long time. You just have to accept it but realise that you need to sort out other elements in your life. The Sunday hangover (as in now ... urrgggghhh!), teaching part-time, holidays (take at least a two week block in summer) are all times when you will have that current problem of the PhD zinging about the brain. Ya just have to shut it out and accept it. I suppose the best way to do that is actually get stuff written down to keep a track and sort out the clutter.
In the same way, this will help with the other issue of dealing with the tsunami of papers on your topic. Get writing! It is never too early to start writing and the idea will take shape from that. Even a document outlining the key findings of the literature. There is a feeling in the first year "ah sure I'll write it later". No - read it, record it and try to place that work in the context of other work. Writing also helps with the other problem of documenting important papers. Trust me - no matter how stand out a paper is you will forget. If you do find a good paper, check its citations (in scholar.google.com). That will give you the related work.
Last bit - have a defined goal for the end of first year. Identify a conference you would like to present at (www.conferencesalert.com).
You probably ask yourself "what have I left myself in for?" every so often. Don't worry - we all have and still do! It is a hard slog but so long as you treat it as work and also remember that there are other aspects of your life, you will get there.
Good luck and keep on trucking ... I need a berroca ... not well!

Java - yeah, there is that aspect, but hoping to sort that out this week. There would seem to be a Sea Change of attitude from the supervisor so just gonna define it exactly. I am looking at the use of OSS by SMEs for collaboration and there are various cross-threads so gonna pick two-three and stick with them. The technical aspects are a bit daunting but got a good crew for that where I "work".
As regards your own situation, I had to do the same thing i.e. even though I had still to define the idea, I couldn't just leave the other bits. Don't worry - it will come together. It was actually Thursday, when I picked up a book by a leading author in the field and in three paragraphs, there was an encapsulation of the idea. I typed it into the current document (an outline), highlighting the main parts. Keep on trucking and you will get there. Impose a deadline though and don't read too much more - you know your stuff!

Finally!
Although some initial case study work done, I have been to and fro with exact ideas for the exact area of research. Finally, today, the supervisor agreed and while I am under no illusions that there is a long road ahead, it is a bit straighter and less deadends!
I can handle having to work part-time to fund meself and the new commute (moving into my own gaff is without doubt the best thing in a long, long while), but that was without doubt, the biggest of the troop of monkeys on the back.
Just thought I'd share one of the better moments and for people stuck in ruts, remember the words of Josh Bilings
Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.

Jojo - assuming you have got all your refs stored in EndNote (ideally with a few of your own notes), why not print out ALL your records and take maybe half a day to actually read thro' what you have read and it might refresh the memory. This is actually easy to do. It may mean you make up a style that displays the EndNote Ref# but to do that ...
Edit - Output Styles - New Style - Bibliography - Templates
Modify all the relevant Output Styles to show specific fields (insert relevant fields (EndNote Record #, Author, Title, Abstract, Notes, etc.,). You can copy & paste one style to the next Reference Type. Once closing this window, give this style a new name (My_Reading or something applicable).
Then, open up your main library, select all references with "My_Reading" style set. Go to Edit, Copy Formatted. Open a Word Doc and then paste. What you will see in the Word doc is a list of all your refs. You can then go over old papers that you did read and you will see ones that will spring out as being important. I have modified some of the actual EndNote fields for "Area" and "Importance"
I am sorry if this seems long-winded but I use that sometimes to just go back over stuff I know that I have read. I can send on the style if needed.

Ardelia - I thought I was the only metalhead doing a PhD ... went to see Isis last night - unreal!!! Massively underestimated and misunderstood genre but one where there is a lot of good messages too! As for Killswitch, was a fan but more into Neurosis/Isis these days. Look up some Steve von Till's solo stuff ... you will love "This River".

Don't let fear be a motivator. You are your own motivator. I am really going to go out on a limb here but it would seem that this is not a matter of supervision, but self-confidence ... I mean how can this bit€h stop you teaching!!! There is absolutely no justification unless it is infringing your studies EXCESSIVELY. Chances are, you are in this Phd with some intention to teach in the future! And your proactive stance on journals/conferences has to be commended!

If I understand right, you are just starting your second year ... this nimrod is expecting too much from you at this stage. I think you need to realise a few things. 1. You decide when this thing is finished - not her! There are options open as the other posters have said. Of course this will mean upsetting the apple cart but so what? Conflict in life is inevitable - it is just 90% of us don't want it. 2. Keep on working - so long as you keep working and producing stuff in a professional manner, she can't touch you 3. You are not worthy of these personal stings, so without you resorting to such low measures, just remember that this is the way of a bully. This will take guts, but if it goes too personal, ask this bit€h to explain the context of her remarks to your work and how is that meant to help. Find out casually how her other students find her.

I am in no way saying that this is easy and it does take a lot of effort and self-control to stay calm, but f**k it, you are not worthless. Most bullys are all bluster and sometimes it takes calling their bluff to show that to them. Maybe, just as a precaution, talk to your Post-Grad advisor as to the possibility of co-supervision/changing ... not to do now, but if you know in the back of your mind what the process is, the feeling that your future is solely in the hands of Queen Bit€h may disappear.

Keep on rockin' ... we must get a metal forum going (these guys talking about X-Factor don't know the difference between an Opeth and a Limp Bizkit :p )