Thank you, PhDBug. I hope that I'm not hijacking the purpose of this thread, but just bear in mind the following. We're all different shapes and sizes, we all have our own little idiosyncrasies and habbits - you need to see things more idiographically. You can't just look at yourself and suddenly think you are a nerd (a term which can never be qualified anyway) because you can't see yourself objectively. After all, your reality is not anyone else's. So I sincerely doubt any member of this forum, or anyone that you know, would think that you're a nerd.
In fact, from my more objective perspective (because I don't know you and have no personal connection) you're in a fantastic position. You're a brilliant PhD student making waves, with the admiration and respect of those around you. Academia being the small world that it is, your reputation will carry you far. You can be and achieve absolutely anything you want - and you well deserve everything that's coming to you.
Relationships come and go (when you least expect it - a cliche, but so true), as people change, but your career, your reputation and the love and respect of those that are close to you never will. I don't think you can control or predict when you will find the right person. Just realise your true worth and let that person come to you - because he will.

Geek or nerd, I wish I knew.
I may not be either, since I don't know what to do.
I do my work with my crayons and pencils,
But then I've never, ever, ever used a stencil.

Geek or nerd, who's who?,
I listen to my music and shake my booty,
and I used to have a girlfriend who was like a Rolls Bentley,
But did she leave me cos I'm of nerdy gentry?

Geek or nerd, I just don't know,
you see, I'm the kind of guy who just goes with the flow,
I'm up at dawn, just doin' my work,
But I can get angry and act a jerk

Geek or nerd, I suppose I'll never know,
but then, I'm just a PhD student and an average Joe,
I work all day and I work all night,
and in a dark tunnel but at last I can see the light!

Wow, I've not sat on my throne for ages. Better blow away the cobweb.

Right, let's see if I can wade in with my world-weary perspective and hard-earned knowledge. In a word, Valentine's Day is crap. It's just part of some vast, cynical corporate machine (sorry, running out of words today, so having to resort to hackneyed phrases), probably part owned by Staples, WH Smith and Google (which now seems to have a hand in everything), with the sole intention of purveying cards wit glitter and the promise of love for a bare minimum of about £2. I don't mean to wax lyrical (sorry again...), but I hate Valentine's Day.
Here's my advice on finding love - and I haven't plagiarised it or anything, just adapted it from a corny film starring another one of my arch nemeses, Kevin Costner. It's called the Build Them a Field Principle. It does get a bit cognitive this, because it's all in the mind. But I'll have a proper PhD, unlike that Paul McKenna. Ready? Let's go...

If you build them a field, they will come. A phrase originally referring to building a bespoke field for base ball playing apparitions, this can in fact be applied to all aspects of life. Metaphorically, it can be taken to mean 'create the right circumstances, the right frame of mind - and you can have what you want', which can include things like a PhD in 3 years or even a loving, monogamous partner. It's also important to be as open and friendly as possible too, because misery, and loneliness funnily enough, love company. If you've ever wondered to yourself, as you've sat at your desk working, why the Flash Harry with his mobile phone is such a sensation or Chatty Cally is such a hit with the guys, it's because they're open, chatty, well versed in popular culture and they've got their fingers on the social scene pulse.
Marketing, a term often abused in dreadful ways and frequently taken out of context, is an integral component of the Build Them a Field Principle. They're not going to come if your field does not have an ice cream van. Metaphorically, this means you've got to market your assets, put yourselves on display. Eschewing any notions of vulgarity, by this I mean putting on display what you've got. So show off you lightning wit, cultural awareness and so forth. Birds do it, bees do it (well the male drones) and I was amazed to discover that cat fleas do it. So there has to be something in it.
So there you have it, a practical and easy to apply approach to relationships this Valentine's. A word of caution to all the ladies of this forum though...There are a species of men classified as Players, who are only after one thing, called one-night-stands. So be safe and use your judgement and intuition (and if it's impaired by drink, ask a mate to use theirs).

My case in point...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249195/Big-freeze-set-return-snowfall-forecast-parts-Britain.html

# Heavy snow warning issued for South East...DUN
# Snow falls could continue into next week...DUN
# Freeze brings new grit supply warning...DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

What they forgot to add is...

# Feral youths from unemployed families of ill repute expected to roam the streets, in packs, throwing snowballs
# UK expected to go into triple-dip, spiralling recessions as snow takes hold.
# Mass panic, hysteria and thousands of death expected as bread and bananas run out through panic buying.
# UK carrot farming industry expected to be devastated.

I'm sure they'll amend it though...

Don't worry too much, if that's possible DrSeeker. A year is a long time in academia and the media has this awful habit of making things seem as bad as possible - it creates web traffic, sells advertising and ultimately hard copy. The recent spell of significant snow fall, according to the Daily Mail was supposed to extend into March. Oh, and according to The Times, Chicago is experiencing the 'snowpocalypse'. The Daily Telegraph recently told me that we're running out of soil (wtf?), so expect mass famine in a few years. But not if planet X crashes head on with our planet in 2012!

Yeah, it's going to be difficult for all of us, I think. And, yes, it may take most of us much longer to find a job. My tactic is just not to worry about it at the moment - what will be will be. I have one primary function - and that's to get my PhD. I'm not burying my head in the sand like an ostrich, but all this constant worry (I suppose about everything in general) takes the fun out of everything. And I find it becomes a vicious cycle as you're doing your PhD because you worry about getting a job and hence what the point of you doing a PhD is, and so forth. The fact is, universities are big business in this country, we are key to a knowledge-based economy and academia will right itself - sooner (hopefully), rather than later. It's always good to have a back-up plan in the interim as well.

Oh, and we're international superstars as well! If good ol'Blightey wants a cranial lobotomy, we'll just bugger off where the grass is greener in other countries (where we're able to). For instance, my favourite socialist Obama, has just increased funding for HE in the US by 31%, since he recognises how important it is.

Phd_fh, I think that having acquired a 1st class degree from a prestigious institution you are certainly not incapable, so you can get that out of your mind. I think that the problem is that your supervisors are expecting too much of you and are being too critical. Doing a PhD is not about re-inventing the wheel and not a case of creating amazing results or developing new theories. I have often said this, but doing a PhD is about training to be a researcher and demonstrating your development. So what if you don't do amazing research? You only have 3 years to acquire all the skills you need, perform data collection and analysis and then write it up. You've probably heard this before, but your best research is done after your PhD, when you've learnt to be a researcher.
I think that your supervisory team is too critical and you need to approach them, tactfully, and talk to them about how you feel after you have had your meetings with them. If anything, your supervisory meetings are supposed to motivate you, not the other way. It's really nice that they take such and interest in your work and work with you so closely, but their comments and actions do you no favours. If they think it fare to countenance disappointment and roll their eyes, then ask them what you need to do, what they expect - ask them to be more constructive in their feedback. Given your description of their actions, it seems that you can never hope to please them by being passive. And you're now at the point where you are fearful of actually doing experiments, lest they act disappointed, then I think you need to be more explicit about what you plan to do with them and act upon. If they say something like 'well, whay are you doing that?', then you can explain your aims to them and what you hope to achieve and see what they think. Just explain to them, that you need a bit more guidance to satisfy their standards (it seems hard to know what they want).
On an unrelated note, I have often anticipated that this is a major problem of these prestigious institutions - expecting you to run before you can walk, like some assembly conveyor belt on high-speed.

Hello everyone. I haven't disappeared or owt and still intend to remain an active member of the PGF par-excellence! I had a meeting with my supervisory team on Monday and it was one of those really intensive meetings, where they say "right, what have you done and what do you need to do..." Anyway, we've basically agreed to have my PhD, my enormous, maze-like contribution to human knowledge about not very much, done and dusted by Chrimbo (better get started then). And guess what? They also want me to write a methodology book for my discipline and have been talking about getting in touch with Elsevier concerning getting some kind of publication arrangement in order. It sounds really amazing, the idea that little me, cheap-skate, Hollyoaks-watching, Coronation Street fanatic could actually write a book. I'm also in the process of trying to select a viva-examiner (we already have one sorted), so I've been busy, busy and busy on top. Contractual agreements with my uni also mean that I've had to start teaching again, so that has further snapped up my time.

Sneaks, I'm dead sorry that I've not yet got all of DNS uploaded, but whatever you do, save you pennies, because I have it, use it (not very much) and it works fine. Promise I'll sort it one way or the other for you this week.

Eska, I think I understand what you're saying, though you're often too profound and intellectual for me to completely understand (a compliment, by the way:$ don't expect any more (kidding)).

Not to begin one of my Oscar winning, And-I-never learnt-to-read performances (Waynes World 2 (1993), I agree with Sue2604 (2009), who postulates that a major advantage of the PGF is the great sense of community it creates amongst users, almost a virtual form a valium for the wayward and lost-at-sea amongst us. It's been really hard to try and stay away from this forum whilst I've tried to act on the recommendations from my meeting, but I think it's great because the way of the PhD student is often a lonely one (particularly those of us who are in the social sciences and health sciences) and it's just so nice to be a member of such a lovely and mature (Sneaks excluded) forum. I don't have the time to see my friends in the real world, so it's so nice to chat to like-minded (out of necessity) people in the virtual one. I could phone them up, cos as Bob Hoskins says "it's good to talk", but not at 35p a minute.

Well, I've got till the end of the year and it's not all bad, and I can see the light at the end of a very distant tunnel (I think it's a vacancy sign in my local McDonalds), so onwards and upwards.

Of course, we could in fact be aliens in the true sense of the word. Current thinking also suggests that many of the chemicals that make us up could be contained within meteorites that crashed down to Earth when it was a young 'un. I used to do biology when I was a youngster and found this kind of stuff fascinating...

Read this link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6197228.stm

dunn dunn dunn dunnnnnnn!