unfortunately the nature of a forum is that people generally only come on here when they have a problem, not when things are going well! so the majority of posts can be a bit negative.

so in the spirit of positivity here goes:

1) i can work to my own timetable
2) i am, basically, my own boss!
3) i can choose to a large extent the direction i take my research in
4) i can work at uni, at home, or at my industrial sponsor and no one minds!
5) i get to work with some incredibly intelligent people and ask them all the stupid questions i like
6) if i'm not enjoying a particular area of my work, i don't have to do it! i can change the direction of the research, or just leave it for a bit and come back to it later
7) i am becoming (slowly!) an expert in my field, and people are starting to ask ME to explain things to THEM for a change!
8) one day, people will call me DR.....!!

these are just the first things that popped into my head, in no particular order, i'm sure others will be along soon to add more....:-)

i'm not sure i fully understand what the problem is here - why can't you publish the work? what is stopping you? if you have a manuscript that could be submitted to a journal, then tell your supervisor you are going to publish it, and that you will be putting his name on the paper. why would he disagree? also, publications are not the be all and end all, and you need to focus on your thesis as a priority. publications should be a definite second. but if as you say you have a draft manuscript ready, then polish it up and send it off!

ouch, what a horrible situation! but yes you are right, it won't do you any good to continue to work with this guy, so you just have to bite the bullet and tell him! i would try and include something along the lines of how grateful you are for his help/the experience you gained (however you can dress it up!), and how it is regrettable you can no longer work together, etc.. this will hopefully soften the blow a bit! and good luck - i don't envy you one bit :-(

hi, just wanted to reiterate all the advice you've already been given, and also to say that 7th july wasn't all that long ago, so don't panic! try not to think of it as 'lost' time, otherwise you will feel that you will never catch up and the situation is hopeless. instead, start fresh from now, and forget about the unproductive period. we all go through these periods, i have ahrdly achieved anything in the last 3-4 weeks and was starting to worry about it, but then i figured that there was nothing i could do about it so i just had to get on with it. i took this week as a fresh start, clean slate (not beating myself up and making myself feel guilty!) and already today i have achieved a few small things (and i mean v small!!) and am starting to feel more positive.

so don't dwell on what you haven't done, focus on what you will achieve in the next few hours/days/this week, break everything down into little achievable chunks, and take it slowly until you get back into the swing of things. good luck :-)

i love the goodfood website, they have a search function so if you just type in what ingredient you have it will find loads of recipes for you.

also, chilli is super easy to make, i use the following recipe:

1) fry off some mince (a 500g pack will make 3-5 portions, depending on how hungry you are ;-) ) , along with 1 onion, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper (chopped into smallish chunks)

2) once the mince is browned, chuck in a tin of tomatoes, a tin of kidney beans, and some chilli powder (or cheat and use kidney beans with chilli already in!)

3) simmer for about half an hour

4) eat!! it is good served with rice, or on a jacket potato, or anything mexican like tacos, tortillas etc, or even pitta bread

it tastes even better the next day when all the flavours have combined, and also can be frozen (as long as you defrost thoroughly and reheat really well - don't want to give you food poisoning :$ )

i am a vegetarian and use veggie mince in this recipe, which makes this sort of cooking loads easier as you can grab things out of the freezer and then just bung them in the microwave from frozen when you can't be bothered to cook!

great advice from everyone - i did my BSc in biochemistry, then a masters (MRes) in bioinformatics, followed by a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences. (my masters sort of bridged the gap, but was still fairly unrelated to my phd in many ways - but it was invaluable to prove to my phd supervisors that i was capable of independent research).

======= Date Modified 04 05 2009 15:05:23 =======
Hi everyone,

I'm stuck in statistics hell and am hoping one of you clever people can help me get out of it (and yes that was shameless flattery ;-) )

basically, i am attempting to compare two groups of data that look a bit like this:

drug observed value predicted value
drugA 3 3.2
drugB 6 7.8
drugC 25 20 etc etc

basically, my sup has suggested i use a t test, but being a complete stats numpty, i have no idea which one to use! am i right in thinking that because the data is related in some way (i.e. there are observed and predicted values for each drug individually) that i need a paired t test? i am confused, because although the data is related in this way, it is also unrelated, e. the observed value has no influence on the predicted one, if that makes sense! (not like say taking someone's blood pressure before and after an event, where the two measurements are taken from the same person)

hope someone can clear this up for me....

thanks! :-)

i'm with starshine on this one, i'd go for 'the smith et al (2001) paper' and avoid the problem altogether!

i attended my universities (non-compulsory) time management course for postgrads a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, it was a complete waste of time! they made us fill in a timetable of what we had been doing in every half hour time slot for the last week to highlight when we worked best/were most productive etc, which wasn't much use as I already know I am pretty much useless until around 10.30am! we then had to fill in a 'personality' questionaire, and on the basis of that they split us into 2 groups (the planners and the non-planners apparently), and as a group we had to discuss what we felt were our main reasons for wanting to manage our time better. unsurprisingly, both groups came to pretty much the same conclusions: too much work, too little play. great, complete waste of my morning, i could have told them that within 5 minutes and spent the morning doing something more productive instead!

ok, here goes....

Monday: thanksgiving

1) me and my family are all happy and healthy
2) my new kitchen floor which was laid yesterday that i LOVE!
3) I've been learning new recipes and testing them out all week, and most of them turned out pretty good!

Tuesday:
my bf and i went to New York in Jan for my birthday, and we went on a boat trip to see the statue of liberty. it was -14C and i was freezing, but it was such a beautiful clear day, the hudson was nearly completely frozen over, and we could see the plane that had crashed into the river the day before, and i just felt lucky to be alive i guess, if that's not too cheesy!

Wednesday:
my future self will be writing from home, dog at my feet, kids at school somewhere, husband at work, and i will be working communicating science to a wider audience, and getting people interested in what i am writing about! i may not be making any amazing scientific discoveries myself, but i will be working to make sure that other people's work does not go unnoticed by the world.

ps. just wanted to add, glad you are feeling better PhdBug!! you seem to work so hard all the time, its ok to sometimes admit you need some time off and let yourself take a break now and then!! ;-)

i think it would be a great idea, i'm full time but based with my industrial partner and rarely go into uni, so i often feel a bit isolated! i'm also in the north west....

i once heard of someone who's phd involved painting the feet of mice with different coloured paints, letting them run around, then measuring the distances between little multicoloured footprints (or should that be pawprints? what DO mice have on the end of their legs...? discuss...!) always thought that seemed pretty weird :p

i also read the other day about a student who is studying the biomechanics of cheetahs running, so they spend their days videoing cheetahs. maybe not that weird, but sounds fun!

my phd is pretty dull, but i used to work as a research assistant for a vet school, and my job was to travel the country videoing horses who have a twitch ;-) (or 'headshaking' as the official condition is called)

i was in a similar position to you not so long ago, and it is extremely frustrating knowing you can afford a mortgage and not being allowed to have one :-s however, my situation is slightly different to yours, as my partner has a 'normal' job and salary. even so, we were turned down by numerous places who refused to accept my stipend point blank (including Britannia, Barclays and Alliance & Leicester if i remember rightly).

we went to a whole of market broker before we started looking, who promised us it wouldn't be a problem. so we found a gorgeous house, put an offer in, and our broker mysteriously disappeared... he wouldn't return our calls (he works for a large well-known company btw) so we thought we were stuffed. but we thought we would keep trying anyway, so i trawled the high street getting turned down left right and centre! the halifax accepted my stipend in principle but wouldn't lend us as much as we needed. so eventually we got ourselves another independent broker and put in an application with C&G. and the good news is that after a LOT of problems along the way, we were finally accepted for a mortgage back in april, and are now happily settled in our new house :-)

we had to stump up a much bigger deposit than originally planned (25%) but it was worth all the hassle in the end. my advie would be keep trying, although i know that in my case having a partner with a job made a lot of difference. C&G also counted 75% of my stipend rather than the full 100% (god knows why!).

good luck ;-)

riding my horse is the best way to get away from phd stuff. i also volunteer to help out at as many equine events as possible, and also do a bit of teaching for my local pony club. it's fantastic - you get to be outside all day, watching horses, and watching the kids enjoying themselves. now if only i could get a phd in it my life would be complete.....!

sorry to hear you are feeling so down, as you have said, no phd is worth it! a leave of absence sounds a really good idea. i would definitely speak to your sup face to face, it may be horrible and you may cry, but i think it will come across much better. that way your sup can see what a difficult decision it is for you, and that you are not finding it easy.

best of luck (up)