I remember when I started my PhD I had the exact same thought. After a few months, I wondered how I would get through all of the articles that had potential relevancy to my topic. Take it slow and plan it out. Start with a list of key words you know and find some sources on those. As you read through them, take note of the sources they use, especially if it was in a paragraph that you took some notes from. These will help you build you keyword searches up faster then you realize. Keep hacking away at the lists; remembering that some will be more useful than others.

As you focus, the list will get thin again because you know what you are looking for and can do so efficiently. But keep track of journals and authors that are repeated in your lists, that can help you find other hidden gems in those sources.
Good luck and enjoy the ride!

Just tossing some ideas out for you that I have noticed from social interactions. If he is a person that does not normally receive any sort of human physical interaction (I'm talking not even a pat on the back or things as simple as that), something as simple and routine as a hug for you could be completely out of the norm for him. So that would easily be construed as a sign of interest. (I was like that just after my separation and divorce several years ago with a totally shattered ego. It lasted for a little while, but eventually i got my head back round again.) I should think it comes down to what is considered normal for the person. I don't think he is acting as a weirdo just from that exchange, he is just not used to any sort of human physical interaction or emotional support (is my non-educated guess).
Ultimately, you have to go with what you are comfortable with though, or it will just add to stress and feeling uncomfortable.

Hi Paige,

I got the financing from my university, not the hosting university/organization. My uni (I feel odd saying it's mine) doesn't advertise that they have money set aside for discretionary spending, but if you ask, they might have some budget left over. It is earmarked for that purpose too, just they would rather have it kicking about for shifting to other 'better' things I think, if it doesn't get used up. It is a bit of a crap shoot if you are at the end of the fiscal year, but if they have turned the books over, the coffers are full again and a better shot. The only trick here is that you have to be presenting, not just attending. Hope they have a similar for you at your university.
Also, a friend of mine mentioned this morning that she was attending for free because she was volunteering at the conference.

Good luck in finding the money.

I am a self funded PhD as well. I was able to secure some money from the school for the conference. They have a policy here that if you are presenting, they have 'extra' money set aside to help you get to the conference. I had to go and ask the head of the research student whatever their official title is and fill out a form to let them know expected costs. You could try something like that, just asking on the school or dept. level.

I did this first year too. I found that I was most likely to fall asleep between the two hours after lunch. Also, in the afternoon on a really sunny day when the sun came in and made everything so warm and cozy. zzzzzz
So it may be that certain things trigger you (food, too high of a comfort level, etc.) to get your sleep while reading papers? What I did was to have saltier lunches to raise my blood pressure some days, and then hit the coffee for other times. The other thing I did was to walk around while reading the papers from time to time. The other PhDs thought I was a bit crazy, but it helped a lot. I did notice that I had more trouble finding a comfort spot if I was taking notes more often, even notes that were irrelevant to the paper at hand.
Sweet dreams... I mean happy reading. :$

Another option you could explore, especially if you are 100% convinced you can finish in the 4 years, is your school's policy on "stopping the PhD clock" retro-actively. I know my uni will let that happen if personal situations occurred (which you seem to hint at) that would have disrupted your PhD progress, but you couldn't not have predicted until after you saw how much time you lost.

A friend of mine recently had to do this for his first year as his supervisor lead him down a project that, in the end, had nothing to do with the PhD. I don't know how this will play out, but it is an option I would look up if I was you.

Remember that very soon, people will try to look you up on Google/Bing/Yahoo/etc. to get a better grasp of your research, past, etc. Facebook is not a very hard site to 'open up' and see all of those fun things about you that you don't want to be seen. Rule of thumb: if you don't want your supervisor (or other professional contacts) to see it, don't put it up online.
As for friend or not, that is a personal call. I wouldn't mind having my sup as a 'friend' as it would open up their network of other researcher friends that I might be able to do future research with, should interest align. It is a networking tool that has several elements of social life incorporated into it. But ignoring the request is probably the easiest way of avoidance. If I was you, that would be my plan, most people forget about it after a while and don't bug you with 'why haven't you accepted yet' stuff.

Before I started the field work phase (1,000 miles away from my uni) I worked from the office. Most of the time, I am one of about 2 or 3 students there. We have shared offices that can accommodate up to 20 people between 2 rooms. I enjoy it because it gives me the chance to talk out my ideas from time to time with somebody, and let them critique them. I rather like having my home space as my 'home' and not 'study' space. It is all about mental separation for me. When I did work from home, I had trouble shutting off... so food was burnt and sleep was not restful. But that is just what works for me.

This was not my path, but one of my good mates has done exactly this. The trouble he ran into was that he got too into the project as a consultant (which he did before starting the PhD) and not enough on the research side. As a result, they had to retro-actively stop the clock because it didn't yield any PhD worthy material (or something to that effect, this is me translating as I remember our conversations). So the warning is to keep your eye on the prize and try to keep notes on how it might work with your PhD. Review how this could start to work into a PhD with your supervisors regularly, even if it annoys them, you are paying them (via the uni) to supervise you towards a PhD - you are not a cheap lab tech, consultant or whatever is appropriate for your field.

Hmm, I think I will step out of the shadows on this one as I love side-tracking myself. It is a fun hobby to do when I don't want to do important (relevant) work. This tends to happen more when I am in a funk over my PhD. So I feel your elation/annoyance on that one. However, I have had to discipline myself to doing it in one of two ways, depending on my mood.

1) Take an hour to 1.5 hours to write about the new idea and get it out of my system. This is if it is just a bit of a flight of mental fancy. I had to set the timer on my watch just to keep it constrained. After that, no more mental deviations for the day. Make it fun, get a coffee or have your lunch break while doing that... that way, the time off is really time off anyway that you had planned. Just have to keep a cap on those.

2) The more nagging ones that won't leave me alone I use a different trick. I'll write it down and promise myself that I will play with it that evening. I tend to treat my PhD like a job, working set hours unless I am really behind the 8-ball. Doing this allows me to treat it more like a hobby. I have tried not working on it that evening though, and the next day I pay. It will attack my bring with a vengeance, especially if it is a reading day.

Also, you make a strange reference to something called "dating", what is this dating that is gratifying? When do you find the time to go on these "dates"? Good on ya for finding time for non-academic based distractions.