Hi Girls,

Just checking in. I'm glad to have you at the other end of this forum keeping me company. Today I read another paper while having breakfast and no I'm ready (as ready as I can be, I suppose) to finish that section. So I'll get to it and come back later to report on progress.

Talk soon,

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 13:49:25 =======
Good luck Armendaf! wow that's dedication reading a paper over breakfast. good luck with the section!

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it's 13.45, and my original plan of just making myself work for 15 minutes turned into 2 hours.

from my last login - in the past two hours, i have trawled through the internet and pubmed looking for articles on cancer stem cells, which will form quite a big foundation to my discussion. got loads of more papers to help me understand the theory, concepts and get a good understanding of it.

next aim will now be to read through all the papers and highlight good bits; but taking a lunch break now, because i am hungry:p

Hi Lara and Armendaf,

Sounds like we're all plodding on ok - good stuff!

Since my last login, I've written about 300 words, skim read 3 books and 3 very tedious articles looking for references to finish this section. I wasn't going to look for refs today, but I got sick of sitting in front of the pc and wanted a reason to sit somewhere comfy and have another cup of tea and bit of toast. And I popped out to the shops earlier too, to stretch my legs - very humid out there today, but not indoors, luckily for me!!

Better get back to it before I forget what I've read. See you later.

Hi Lara and Rubyw,

I've written some additional 500 words to that section and I'm probably half way through it. This was new writing and what comes next is to edit all that other bits and pieces that I dragged from other papers, so hopefully I'll see much better progress from now on.

I need a bit of a break and to sit down on a confy chair away from the computer, so I'll go have a snack; but I think I'll have to go through another paper while I'm at it.

From your posts I'd say that we are actually getting quite a few things out of the way, so I'd say we are making good progress, aren't we?

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 20:43:57 =======
So, I'm ironing the chapter and it feels like I'm making progress since I go through it a lot quicker -as I said there is a lot of material already written in this section- the downturn is that as I edit and trim it down from redundant information, the word count goes down. :-(

I just hope that it does not get too far below the 9000 mark before I can start filling in some more gaps with more new writting, which will make it very slow again, and worst, I'll have to re-read more papers. :-s Will it ever end??

Anyway, right now I'm pretty tired and I'm heading home to have some dinner; later I might come back to it.

How are you girls doing?

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 20:54:00 =======
logging in - its 20.36. well i've done nothing since my last login. *hangs head in shame*.

my lunch break turned into a whole day break! i ended up taking a nap, i felt tired. and then didn't want to face the mountain of papers i have accumulated - that were waiting for me to read. but i have dragged myself back to my desk and going to plough through all the papers tonight. i only have today left to finish all the reading.

i am going to work late to make up for my unproductivity today. no excuse, i've just been lazy and just couldnt face all the papers i have to read and understand. it's a new subject to me, so i have a hard time understanding it. my sups threw in the project at the very end of my phd, because of "political" reasons, but trying to understand this topic without being taught anything, is taking some time, more than i anticipated.

i hope to get in about 5 hours of productive time , i will work until 2am.

stars *timer* I will report back after every hour to confirm that i am sitting at my desk reading papers.

i just need to get all the reading done today, so i can write the discussion section tommorow.

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 20:49:44 =======

I can definately relate to that! i will see your:-s and raise it by 2! :-s:-s

but well done on working the whole day, that's really great, and dont worry about word count so much, as long as you get the content across, doesnt really matter so much how many words you use. sometimes consise is better! sometimes we dwell too much on quantity, i say quality matters most. so your editing is making it for a better piece of writing. so well done you.

get some dinner and some down time. you deserve it(up)

Thanks Lara, will do :-)

And I pay your :-s:-s just to see your game (pile of papers, that is) lol

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 20:55:35 =======

LOL your message made me laugh, thanks for that :-)

Yep, I'll echo the :-s:-s:-s

Armendaf- sounds a really productive day for you - lots of stuff to edit down - very good, wish I was in that position! Have a nice rest (up)

No shame in long breaks Lara!! It's so hard to force yourself sometimes, even with a deadline looming - I've just spent the past 2 hours watching the X Factor and NCIS and having a large dinner. Am really sick of this chapter now - finishing the thing doesn't seem to get any nearer. Since the last time I logged on here, I've only squeezed out another 300 words... well, I'd better hope that they're eloquent and perfectly formed sentences as it's pretty slow going. Oh yes, and I've made a list of all the bits that need stuff doing to them before they're finished and I can tick them off. There's 13 of them and I think I'd better do the nearly finished ones, just so I can have the pleasure of ticking something off my list so I don't dream about it tonight.

I'd better get stuck in, I suppose.... I'm glad it's a short chapter but it might be even shorter than originally planned at this rate. It's just an extra chapter that 'sets the scene' for the conclusion, so short and concise is ok here.

I'll try to manage a few more hours tonight. See you later...

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 22:25:22 =======
======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 22:22:03 =======

lol! @:-s

and thanks for the kind message : re long break. I really appreciate it. i know exactly! even though i have this deadline, i still find it hard to muster up the motivation. finding it difficult to keep myself concentrating on hours on end. so instead trying to take little mini breaks after every hour to keep my concentration peaked. according to studies, our concentration and attention spans starts to decline after the first 20 minutes or so, which makes me feel better.

good luck for the chapter, sounds like you're quite close to finishing. hope you get some good headway tonight. i will keep you company whilst you're still up (up)

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my hourly update: since my last login, i have read one paper, and then took a 15 minute break.

next aim: will concentrate for an hour and read more. *Starts timer*
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edit:

just saw a back to school ad on telly. and realised on monday kids and college /uni students starting back at school! we survived the summer without going completely bonkers.

a big congratulations to everyone who studied and worked during the summer months!!!!

Lol no definitely not close to finishing it, but nice of you to be positive on my behalf!! Still sitting here and staring at it, wondering which of the bits to get started on. Maybe I'll make a cup of tea and that'll help...

How do you know we haven't gone bonkers during the summer btw :p

I think it's a relative concept and we do have another day of this :-s

Hi Lara and Armendaf,

Hope you've both managed to get a bit more done. I've had enough for tonight - at least I've got over 5000 words done now, should manage the rest tomorrow. And I have ticked off *one thing* from my list - whooppeee. One sounds a bit sad really doesn't it, but better than nothing eh!

Anyway I'm off to bed, so see you in the morning.

That is fantastic progress. Jaysus! 5000 words, I wish I could write that much. Tomorrow I'll try again... what else can I do :p But now, I also am very tired so I'm going to bed as well.

Have a good night Rubyw.

Lara, great effort. I hope you finish your reading soon so you can go to bed.

Back in the morrow.

Hey Lara, Armendaf, RubyW , Tractorgirl and Everyone,

Thank so much for al your encouragement on my previous post.. that cheered me up so much …if I ever get to meet you all you will get a big hug form me (virtual hug for now)



I am so touched you all took the time to offer advice and sympathy…



Armendaf when I read what you said I feel like it is exactly my story …Lara thank you so much for the link

Rubyw thank you for your input, we are in very related fields (I am in social sciences- Management Information Systems) ..



Armendaf grt idea. I will start a new thread and post more about my research area and types of chapters I have planed, all your suggestions would be priceless and also it might help others structure their chapters as well…



It is great to see all of you all working so hard on your PhDs ever over the weekends.. hats off for all the effort , I am more than certain your theses would be worth all the hard work..



As for me.. it was such a lovely day, I couldn’t resist going out ..well had to anyway, I am leaving for more fieldwork to India in two days , (a few more interviews over the next three weeks) so had things to buy and get organized …



Thanks to everyone I feel uplifted to work on my report gain and intend to do so the first thing tomorrow….



Wish you all a productive day tomorrow



More soon…



Cheers

meera