so instead he fancied his chances better as advisor to the newly elected PM.....

That's brilliant Natassia!!!! That's pretty much the process I went through and I started my PhD last September with no more formality - i.e. no more interviews, presentations etc. It sounds to me like you are definitely in (up)

I,m only nine months in but have already gained 1 stone - brining me from 8.5 stone to 9.5 stone!!! How enormous will be after 3 more years













:-(

the rhythm of life was clanging incessantly

Yep did the on-off trick alright Sneaks but no joy :-(

I'll just have to hope the bf can fix it tonight - he loves messing around with those kinds of things - I on the otherhand have absolutely no patience for it :$

I spent a couple of hours this morning trying to fix my internet connection at home but failed miserably - It was working fine yesterday :-s

Thus far today I have met with someone to discuss some lab work that I want to make a start on. Yay!!

I was going to spend today looking at models which I don't really understand but I have just come across a 4 year old thesis that looks like it could be very useful so I think I'm going to spend the day reading that.

Goal 2 - read thesis

Incidentally, how different does your work need to be from somebody elses to count as an original contribution to knowledge?? The thesis I just found looks at a broad family of materials (my material is in that family) in a similar way to which I have been intending to look at my chosen material. Essentially they are trying to answer the same question about a group of materials as I am about my specific material. Is this bad? Should I be panicking??

That's really awful Eska - I can never understand people who undertake the the responsibility of a pet and then allow their health to deteriorate by over-feeding/under-exercising etc. My giant doggie gets her 2 walks a day - half an hour in the morning and at least an hour in the evenings during the week. At the weekends I can spend entire afternoons out and about with her and she loves it (so do I)!!! Still anytime I put on my shoes she gets really excited as she expects to be going out so I feel dreadful heading into the office :-(

Goal 3 -DONE

I know it's early but I'm seriously contemplating giving up for the day even though there are 3 incomplete goals hanging over my head. The office is so stuffy and I'm getting sleepy :-(

Hmm, I'll finish the next tomato and then make a decision - that will make 8 - although I didn't count my pre-lunch work.

Goal 5: done
Also I found some of the people who I've been trying to chase up so part of Goal 2 done :-)
Goal 6 next

Congratulations Algaequeen (up)

I got my 2nd star today 8-) Woohoo - much appreciated!!

so the secret olive recipe divulged by ...

Sorry Teek - it took me forever to write that so nobody had posted when I started but you had by the time I posted :$

Hmm nobody seems to have replied yet and I'm definitely not the best person to ask but I'll give you my 2 cents.

I'm, in a related field to you and began my PhD about 10 months ago straight after my undergrad. I applied for an advertised position on a topic on which little work has yet been done. In my case, I stayed in the same school where I undertook my undergrad so it was a relatively painless procedure as the graduate school were already satisfied with the quality of my degree. The only thing my supervisors quizzed me on was my motivation for undertaking a PhD and my enthusiasm. Now, I always knew that I wanted to go into "something environmental" and that I wanted to be a scientist (I'm talking as a kid here) so the enthusiasm for the area in general was there but definitely not the specifics. I looked into the area briefly for a week or so before the interview as it happened on very short notice and I had a couple of ideas to just throw out there at the interview but I definitely didn't go into detail as I hadn't had the opportunity to study the field closely and that was understood.

Are you applying for advertised positions Wolfbane? Or are you intending to put together your own proposal? I think it might be prudent to take some time to figure out what area you are most interested in/ will be most useful after completion / you can get funded in? I mean figure out your motivation and start to narrow down your topic a little. By all means apply for positions you are interested in - the practice will help. You obviously have the intellectual ability to be considered for a PhD so I think your potential supervisor may be interested in your drive and motivation so pick a topic you think you can stick with for 3-4 years. It's not easy to know that at the beginning but at least consider it.

i'm sure somebody more experienced will be along in a while to give you a better response. Best of luck (up)

Goal 1 - DONE - made it to the office woohoo!!
Goal 2 - tried but failed - people unavailable until next week - which is a setback as it means I can't progress with setting up with expts til then
Now onto goal 3.

Keep up the good work Button - you're doing great (up)

Yesterday goals 1, 2 & 5 DONE. I tried to chase up the people I need to talk to but they weren't in.

For today; Goal 1 - get to office
Goal 2 - find the people I need again
Goal 3 - look at website I found the other day for project ideas
Goal 4 - finalise conceptual model
Goal 5 & 6 - try to understand fully the process I need to model x 2
Goal 7 - look for potential models to use

So I've got alot on today but hope to spend at least ten hours in the office (if I ever make it in!)

Good luck everyone (up)