Bit of a bugger that there was an 8% swing to the Tories though. Hopefully, Labour can kiss and make up with the Libs though, so stopping 'Dave' from getting in. If so, I can't wait to start winding up avid posters on the the Daily Wail, Torygraph and Times websites!

...but these ideas were locked in dream land, as Tory Tortoise was yet to awake from hibernation, in his den inside the duck house, next to the helicopter pad, which was behind Tory Manor...

Not that I'm trying to politically polarise the forum, but I likedGordon Brown. And it looks like he's going to be out. I know itwasn't very nice what he said about that lady being a bigot, but I livequite close to old Rochdale and know what some people are like. Andnow it looks like we're going to get this:http://markgorman.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/cameron-bullingdon-dining-club2_468x420.jpg

Oh heck, there goes Sure Start, there goes most of the public sectorand in comes Big Society and spoonfuls of Dave's Austerity Medicine. If only Gordon would have listened to my audacious plans when I tried to call him up, but instead got a rude secretary. Well, I'm going to find Dave's number and if he cocks up, which he will, by heck, it's all going to kick off. Of course, if George Osbourne gets stuck with his sums, he'll probably be calling me anyway.

who shall I vote for?'

so I have voting rights

I'm a sentient being

thought the great Rhubarb

'I can think!'

How daft is this? It doesn't make sense. I like to think that I'm a savvy individual in that I can look at the ingredients of say, a pasty, and know exactly what all the constituents are and whether they are good or bad. But this, well, it does my head in. Try it - and please, someone tell me why it's so...

1) Begin by rotating your right foot in a clockwise direction.

2) Now whilst rotating your foot in a clockwise direction, with your right hand, draw a number 6 in the air.

3) Now, notice how your right foot starts to move in an anti-clockwise direction....

I'll bet there's not a person on earth, other than Sylvester Stallone, who can prevent their right foot from moving in the opposite direction. We're all going to be Drs in obscure subjects, so please, someone, tell me why this happens? Is there a way I can prevent this? It might get me on Britain's Got Talent, or even This Morning?

A belated happy birthday, Eska! Have some pixels in the shape of a gift box (gift)

Hmm, Keenbean, you've done everything you can on your part. You've tried to build bridges and extend the olive branch. It's sour grapes on this guy's part. Professionally, he is obliged to be a productive member of the research team, and as such, I don't believe he's fulfilling his role. I could be wrong here, but, as such, this is no longer about him feeling personally rejected by you. It goes beyond that to his role as a work partner you have to communicate and collaborate with. For this reason, try not to be too lenient towards him. View him as a member of your team who, for his own unprofessional reasons, is being unco-operative towards you. So what if, for his own silly reasons, he resents you? He's a professional who has to do his job properly; it is what he is paid to do. You can't do your job as well as you can without it. His inner turmoil if for him to resolve himself.
As such, I feel that if he persists, in the professional work environment, to cause you problems then you consult your superior about it. If that superior happens to be your supervisor, then so be it. You are not the cause of the tension, he is. It's nothing personal on your part; it's professional.

Well done, Chrisrolinski. You deserve this. I'm not a betting man, but I really think you'll get through the Viva with no problems. if you can get some more publications out of your PhD, in conjunction with experience of teaching, admin and supervising MA students, it will leave you in a much stronger position for a more permanent lectureship. At the very least, it gives you time to plan and breathe.:-)

Thanks Sue2604, Eska, Teek and everyone who had a look at my brain. I'm going to see my GP about all of this because I shouldn't be emotional while analysing data. It's really weird because my PhD is moving forward (I've had a paper accepted, my supervisory team are the best bunch you could ask for and my conference presentation went really, really well) and I'm making some progress everyday but I just feel really sad and trapped. My mood is horrible even though, if I'm honest, I don't really have a reason. I'm more disappointed in myself really, just really let down, so definitely an appointment with the doctor. I haven't been for years anyway, so I'm not wasting NHS resources as I'll make my GP take my blood pressure at the same time. I think 'God, just pull yourself together', you're a man and everything like that. God, bearing my sole there.

Anyway, there are definitely positives. Despite my lamenting, there are definitely positives. I can now present to a room of 200 or so top professionals without feeling scared. I can write, get published, sound like I know what I'm talking about (if not, just scratch my chin and nod sagely) and my old lecturers have a lot of faith in me. Intellectually, I've come on in leaps and bounds and can learn new things really quick. Haha, I'm very good at damage limitation too. As I realised during my conference presentation, by saying things like 'good point', 'that requires further research' and my favourite 'there are no clearly established guidelines, so I felt this approach was most appropriate (justification for my PhD statement), I can leave a debate relatively unscathed. If my PhD goes nowhere, I'll become a politician I think.

It's very nice to be a member of a little internet forum full of a lovely bunch of other students who listen to one another and try and help one another out. It's not Oscar speech time, but I owe a lot of my PhD progress to this little forum and all the unique little characters that inhabit it. Thank you, you lot x

Do you think a PhD can trigger a mid-life crisis in your late 20s? Do you think that...erm...it can turn you into a disconnected individual? Grumpy? Impatient? Short-tempered? Pfff...let me just, metaphorically, put my brain on a lab bench for a second so you can have a look at it. I know it sounds melodramatic, but it's been a horrible few weeks. Let me explain.

My mood currently ranges from very briefly being happy and jumpy to most other times being in the depths of despair, several times a day. Objectively and rationally, I have no need to be because nothing has really changed over the past year, it's all the same. I'm still working really hard everyday and I like to think I'm making progress, my supervisors are really happy with me, but I feel like shxt. Sleep consists of a Kalms induced haze, which doesn't knock me out until around 3am (still waiting for it to kick in now) so I feel totally drugged up the next day.
I'm living with my family at the moment and I've stopped talking to them properly, not because they've been rude. I just feel really resentful towards them, and they've done nothing wrong - I don't know why because I've no reason to They must think I'm such a jumped-up idiot.
I honestly just feel like life is passing me by and I don't know what to do with myself. I work on my PhD everyday and nothing will stop that, but I have seriously thought about just packing it in. It won't happen though because there's nothing else for me to do. I won't have any purpose then.
But I don't laugh much any more, I don't make other people laugh and I'm not very cheery. I'm quiet, withdrawn, don't really feel comfortable around other people, at the moment, because they must think I'm strange. So yeah, really not that good.
In other news on how my PhD has changed me though, I've quite an impressive bursa on the middle finger of my right hand through all the writing with a pen I do (I'm old fashioned in that I have to my PhD in pen before I then type it up) and have got very short finger nails, so can prepare food much more hygienically than that Jamie Oliver ever can.
It would be nice to here how doing a PhD has changed other people, hopefully in much more positive ways (up)

Hmm, OP. Have to say, we might be more forthcoming with help if you can, perhaps, let us know exactly what kind of professor of which subject in a German university you seek. I'd recommend Google, but not in your case. It brings up 29, 200, 000 pages. If it, say, takes you a minute to check each page, then you'll spend nearly 6 years searching 24 hours everyday - including Christmas day. I don't know about you, but I'd be feeling pretty unmotivated about the idea of doing a PhD by the end of it.