Vernon Kay gets an honourary doctorate from the University of Bolton for services to comedy (?) - wtf is that all about!? Haha. I'm currently stressed to buggery, going through a really unproductive phase and then I find that, really, all I need to be is a bit of a celebrity, have some cheapo shows on ITV, make a few people laugh and bingo!
Maybe it's because I'm ignorant of what they actually represent, maybe it's because I'm being childish, but do you not think it devalues what we do? I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks of this. I mean, an honourary degress is one thing, but a doctorate...?

Well, I managed to catch the Midnight Express tonight, destination the town of Toil. Am I travelling solo, or is anyone else on board, working away?

Well, I've finally acquired some voluntary work - about 6 hours a week. I'm going to train as a voluntary health advisor assistant and work with people who have unhealthy lifestyles (makes me a hypocrite). There's about 4 hours of training I have to do prior - probably including how to approach the issue with people without getting a smack in the face! Have to say I'm really looking forward to it though. It should give my PhD life more variety than a cheese and tomato pizza at least. :-)

Damn, arrive late at the platform tonight so missed the Midnight Express! Ah well, I'll be boarding tomorrow and choosing an extra large carriage to fit all the work I have to do in.

Hi Jojo, I'm very sorry to hear about your losses. I can empathise with both your losses, though they didn't happen at the same time. I'm not yet suffering the pressures of the write-up stage - I have another year or so - but I have been really badly affected by a recent break-up I went through that has really impacted on my work. I still think about it everyday, and much of the time it can stop me working for an hour or so. Back when we broke up, which was a few months or so ago, I had to prepare for my interim. I had to take a bit of time off, spent a fortune on tissues and came to the conclusion: 'I'm getting this PhD after all this crap!'.
You are certainly not making excuses about your lack or productivity, not with what you're going through. The thing is, it could get a worse, in terms of how you feel, before it starts to improve (forgive my pocketbook psychology) and so I'd echo what the other posters have said - take some time off, have some 'me' time, grieve. YOu need to stay sane and you're not going to get much done anyway. You'll use the time more productively if you just take even a few days off. Your work means an awful lot to you and, believe me, even if you do take a small break, it won't have any bearing on whether you meet your submission deadline - you'll make sure of that. I know I did with my interim assessment deadline.

Wishing you well x

Walmsinski (up)

But Commonsense, it's a 'how-long-is-a-piece-of-string' question. A case of suck it and see. So it was a pointless answer for a, largely, pointless question. The answer you've given, in fact, is a useless as mine, with an estimation that varies by a factor of 3. What if it has lots of drawings in it? What if the OP is not an expert in what he is reading and assessing? What if he's a slow reader? A fast 'un? What if? What if? ;-)

Hmm, I'll use the Walminski Essay Assessment Time Duration Equation. Assuming you can read one sentence, consisting of an average of 14 words, at a rate of one every 2 seconds, that's 8,000 seconds to read it all without thinking about it. So divide that by 60: 133.3 minutes, or 2 hours 13.3 minutes. Now, assuming you have an IQ of 140, what I'd expect for your average PhD student, we need to times the length of time required to think about it by your IQ, then times it by 1 000 000 000, which I reckon is roughly the number of brain neurons you'll use when assessing the work (carefully), divide the answer by 10 000 000 (which is the Peasucker academic brain function constant) and then times that by the average total number of intellectual demands on the postgraduate brain in a day, which is 20. It will therefore take you exactly 190.42857142857142857142857142857 minutes to 'read (carefully) a 4,000 postgraduate paper, and prepare feedback comments on it'.

Hope this helps.

Hiya Lara, of course. I made a typo. The actual e-mail address is: www.doit.org.uk. It tells you about all the volunteering opportunities in your area and selects ones according to your skills and interests. :-)

Thank you very much for all of your suggestions, guys. I have a meeting at an organisation that helps match you to suitable voluntary work, according to your skills and what you want. I also found a really nice site with lots of stuff on too: www.doit.org There's some voluntary work going at a Citizen's Advice Bureau near where I live, so I'll try an go for that I think. What a lot of new experiences, I'd have there working with people from all walks of life! I'll let you know what happens tomorrow, after my meeting.

Oh, and Autocad? They can be acquired freely to try before you buy and see what you think? ;-)

Hiya Bonzo, what about Rhino?

======= Date Modified 30 20 2009 00:20:06 =======
With all this non-stop work that I do, I've not had the time to do anything else that is really worthwhile - I don't get to see enough of my mates, don't read for pleasure (it's more out of necessity!) and generally I just feel trapped and frustrated. Anyway, things came to a head tonight and I've made a really important decision. Nope, I'm not leaving my PhD - as much as it peeves me off at times, like some demanding mistress. I'm going to do lots of volunteer work in my spare time. It should be a welcome distraction and very rewarding, I hope.
I just thought I'd ask if anyone else does anything similar? And if not, what else they do to find distraction from their work - it might inspire me!

:-)

Hi Bettyspaghetti, like you, I have also had issues with my writing perspective and the matter of whether I use first person or third person. However, in my research I need to be reflexive as I am effectively the research instrument - the work I am doing is qualitative (quantitative in places too - yikes) - so it is important that I write in the first person. I therefore think that you, too, may need to get over the issue of writing in the first person and adopt it, since your research is reflexive.
Would I be in thinking that your research is strongly qualitative? If so, I'd strongly recommend the first person - it's the way forward. I used to think it was a bit, well, sissy to write in such a way, that it wasn't scientific. After practising the writing style I do now think differently! Qualitative research is so researcher-centric that it does not to be written in first person in my opinion. The danger in writing in the third person is that, during in your viva, your examiner might say 'lovely work, very pertinent, but where are you in it? How have you developed? What has been your journey?'
Sorry if what I've written sounds silly, but that's my reflection on it. I used to be a positivist before, initially reluctantly, embracing the Naturalistic Paradigm.

Hi, if you have a mate who's a bit tech savvy you can install Windows 7 RC1, which you can use for free for a year. All you need to do is download it from the Microsoft Website, burn it on a DVD as an ISO and install it from there. Heard a lot of good things about it and since you can use it for free for a year before paying for it - it ain't all bad.

If you need any further help and advice, I'd recommend the technical help section of the PC Format (www.pcformat.co.uk). They're a lovely group of people and they'll tell you exactly what you need to do. I always go there when I have technical problems.

Hope this helps (up)

I'm very much the same at the moment - I haven't done anything really this past week. Certainly, the nice weather doesn't help either. I just want to be outside and doing other things. Hopefully, I'm just going through one of my phases!