hi Stachi, I think so, and if it's positive or negative value indicates whether the effect is positive or negative :)

whoo!!! congratulations on that chrisrolinski!! good luck for your article, I'm sure it'll be great! and good luck for your job interview tomorrow!!! I'll think good thoughts!! (up)

I just realised, not only do I feel unsure about most aspects of my thesis, after thinking about jobs etc, I feel like I'm trained for nothing....it's approaching *that* time, I've 7 months left, and everyone, in my department, at home, mates etc are all asking what's next...what jobs I'm applying for....and I don't feel like I know enough to do any job I'd like to! (sprout)

pfff my uni has refurbished the gym and now opened membership to everyone, which means that the price of membership has gone up 150% in 3 years....the pool is taken during the day for school children doing lessons, and only if you are a full member are you allowed in in the evenings, otherwise you're only allowed to pay (a ridiculous £4) at the door during 9-3.30.....total nonsense!
However, I ramble, I meant to say good luck for your big swim Wally! It's fun to hang your legs up over the side of the pool and lie upseide along the wall and see everyone swim upside down! :)

lol this thread made me laugh so much! I totally know the feeling, I seem to be going through concealer/highlighter make up pens at a rate of knots, the purple below my eyes is not even funny anymore....and I am a funny grey colour, and have had to start scrubbing my legs to compensate for the poor circulation due to sitting down all day, they are getting a funny purple hue now too....
as for Gollum, at the after-viva party my boyfs supervisor made plenty of references to how he looked very much like gollum in the last few months...he now looks like a normal human again thanks god! my turn though!

totally! my phd is in various areas that I've never worked in before, and I've not really got a 100% clear idea about any of them....it should be enough to pull me through though! You never really can know everything about a topic, that's more than a lifetimes work, and it's all part of the fun having something new to learn all the time....so I tell myself anyway, it's how I sleep at night! :-)
and one born every minute was so good last night, I cried! It has also terrified me about labour though!

Hi Alpacalover
I don't much to day in the way of advice except to get your second supervisor involved as much as you can in the writing up from now. Even if he's in a different field he will be able to help with structuring your writing and at least checking it all makes sense. Give what you can to you main sup, but as everyone else says, just ignore anything he says unless it's directly about your work, and try to find the constructive comments underneath all the bullshit. I have a sup exactly like this, wouldn't know how to be constructive if it slapped him in the face (which I've wanted to do many times) and I've sat and listened to him saying how crap my writing is, how it annoyed him reading my work, cursing all over the place...it's been so so hard but I don't let him get to me anymore, I just sit and say ok, ok, ok, but what do I do about this etc. Which I think annoyes him even more, but I enjoy that bit! :-)
Just think of all the experience you are getting from this guy, you've got plenty of experience in grant applications and dealing with difficult personalities, you've got a job that you really enjoy now which is a big thing so don't let him put that down! And your motivation for getting to finish...when you're done, you'll never have to have that fool supervise you again! get stuck in and get rid! and BIG HUGS!!!

Just....can't.....write.....today......

Hi Everyone! thoguth I'd drop in and see how everyone else is doing, I'm behind on writing my lit review chapter but I just can't seem to drag the motivation up to do it, I've spent all day getting distracted and losing concentration, even in the middle of sentences! As a result, I've written about 3 lines......I'm supposed to go to my dance class in an hour and a half, but I can't decide if I should go or not, if I do then I'm not working, if I don't then I'll just be soo sad and miserable cos I'm not getting a proper break fomr this...grrrr.....ah ho!

ooh all good ideas!! I used to ply netball at school then went to uni and never did a thing for 5 years, but upon starting my phd my boyf said the only way I'd handle the stress was to do exercise. So like a good girl I started back a the gym and it's true! I still drink (too much occasionally!) and I will never give up chocolate, sweets or buns ever ever, so it's def not for the body temple!
At the gym, I change things around a bit, but generally I do the rowing machine, which is great for just not thinking about anything except concentrating on breathing and your technique, some treadmill or cross-trainer and occasionally the weights when i know someone else there that i can chat to! My uni gym id definitely not full of super fit people, it's a real mix, in fact anyone super fit and toned tends to look a bit out of place! so don't let the thought of the gym out you off, it's not so bad! I also do a bit of scuba diving, which isn't really exercise expect when you're carrying about 70lbs of weights and tanks to and from the waters edge....yoga and pilates I do too, pilates is amazing for toning, not as chilled out as yoga as it's more about working the muscles but still relaxing, and I do dance classes. I find the classes are great, as I don't feel bad when I'm there, sometimes I do tend to cut the gym short if I've got a lot of work to do. But, personally, I find the best thing ever to do to get you a bit more fit and give you that rosy glow and to de stress, is dancing! Especially that home-alone-carlton-style dancing that you can do looking like a complete idiot, stick on some music and go for it!

my mums piece of wisdom that I've received ever since I was 13 and working on the burger stall in teh market....Dress for the job you want, not necessarily the job you've got :-)
good luck with the suit hunting, although if possible avoid those awful banker-type pinstripe suits, eugh! a nice subtle pinstripe is much better than that really obvious black and white thing! (sorry, personal preference!) (up)

Never fear Wally, you'll get there. I worked on a paper for a year and the journal I had spent all that time writing it for rejected it on the first submission, prob on just reading the abstract I'd imagine! I resubmitted it to another journal and it's possibly the fastest acceptance I've ever heard of (10 weeks from initial submission to final acceptance of corrections) :-)
I was totally gutted that the firs journal hadn't accepted it, but it's not so bad now, I know that it just didn;t suit what they were looking for at the time. So chin up, don't fret about the Duran Duran, I have a bit of an 80's Kylie Minogue session every so often, occasionally interspersed with the Jason Donovan duet Especially for You, we are allowed to do these things in dire times!!

hi ulysses
I had a bit of a problem with this when i first started too, as it's difficult to know how much you 'should' be doing when you are just starting out. what i did was talk to my supervisor about ow he felt i should be working and discussed my ideas for what i would like to do with him. he gave me basic 'office' hours and said that thats the minimum i should be working, if i got my work dont in that time then great, if not then i'd have to work more. I set myself little deadlines of when i wanted things done by, and eventually through trial and error i figured out how long it takes to do various things and could modify my plans etc. but generally, if you have something you want/need to get done, set yourself a time limit, and work towards that, like, if you're reading on a certain topic, give yourself the say to red and make notes on 4-5 papers. then when you've read enough to get a feel for the topic, give yourself a week to write a report on it, and see if you need to read more after that, or if you should take a different route etc. it's hard to say without knowing what field you're in, but think of what you want to do within your phd, then break that down into years, months, and eventualyl you'll get a feel for how much work you need to get done in a week or a month and go from there!
Hope that helps!

lol, wally i think i love you!!

as for the advice, everyone here has got it nailed! personally, I'd say don't be too nervous, enjoy yourself and remember if she agreed to a date then she obviously already likes you a bit!
good luck!!!

Hi there Wally

I just saw your thread now, mind if I join in?! Like yourself I have until the end of the year...well, ideally submit in September when my funding finishes but we'll see! and as for what I have left to do....good god....

chap 1: meant to be done by Sat/Monday...starting it today...
chap 2: kinda have the bones, need to fill it out and remember what I actually did...
chap 3: paper accepted, so just filling it out a bit with extra data, not too bad
chap 4: still have to finish the results analysis, write paper/chapter
chap 5: still have to start experiments...
chap 6: still have to start experiments...
chap 7: have data, need to wade through it all and see what it means....
chap 8: discussion/conclusions....not a hope in hell of starting that anytime soon....

I love science PhDs!!

(up)

when talking to non-sciency people, then I definitely come across as a geek, and all my friends tell me im a geek....but compared to other people in my lab i don't think im that bad! :-)