Yep, still around for a bit, have just had something to eat and am back on the case.

Lara, I loved your train to deadsville comment - really excellent, LOL!!!! And your Elvis concert outing, very funny too - oohh wouldn't it have been great to see the real thing at the start of his career, must have been exciting!! Good luck with your subsections tonight!

Armendaf, you've got loads on if you've got a meeting as well - good if you've got the extension sorted though, should get you back on track for submitting. Thanks for advice about doing any little bit, you are right, it all needs doing and takes time.

Train to deadsville...what a brilliant song title it would be hehe!! The Monkees, eat your little wholesome hearts out - Clarkesville's got nothing on us.

Anyway, just about to start rejigging my first chapter after chopping bits out of the other 2, should give me a better place to start tomorrow. See you later.

Hi girls,

Clocking in for the night shift as well. I don't know how long I'm going to last, but I'll give it my best :-s Hopefully I'll make some progress.

Back soon with some update

Hi everyone.....
Must be the only first year PhD student to put my attendence on this register.... Just that I have been writing my project proposal for a gud 2 weeks and with a lot of mistakes.... Just have to IRON out the clinks..... I just want to present it on Monday, so that I can start with my experiments as soon as possible....And also there are a few sections of my proposal that I need deeper understanding of... so here goes!!
Hope we all have a productive night on....:-)

Hello!

I've calling it a night now - at least I've done the corrections from my first load of feedback for this chapter, and done some editing. Better than nothing! Don't want to sound indecently pleased with myself (but obviously I am going to do just that haha!) but I read through the feedback from my old chap4 and it was full of great comments, things like another excellent/wonderful/chapter/ paragraph etc!!! 8-) At least it means that one won't need a huge amount of corrections - woohoo! Maybe I'll get all 4 chapters done by Oct after all at this rate.... I'm still cutting it a bit fine though.

Armendaf don't worry if you don't get much done, you've had a long day, haven't you.
Lara hope you've made enough progress on your little sections tonight and get a proper night's sleep too.
Hi Pari!

Goodnight!

Hello fellow night-owls! *waves*

this is just a quickie message, just for attendance hehe. i just had a break and now i am back at my desk. my break lasts the same amount of hours that i've worked! naughty me.

but i am glued to my chair for the next two hours, with Elvis keeping me company ;-)

from my last update, i have completed half of section 2. i got the second half now to tackle :-s this face isnt cause i am frustrated, its my "battle face" as Armendaf so cleverly coined the term hehe.

Pari WELCOME! nice to see a new recruit, good luck with your assignment, and you will definately have company this weekend!

Ruby, loved your message, really cracked me up ! and i agree that would be a very cool song title hehe thanks for liking my term deadsville lol. and yah thanks i will definately get some sleep once i have done the results section. and WELL DONE you for doing so much today! you're a star. and you should definately rejoice in those lovely praises and comments, you clever girl you ;-) well done

Armendaf, hope your writing is going well!! and good on ya for coming in for the night shift. (up)

*looks around* anyone else burning the midnight oil ? working away on their thesis tonight?

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 00:12:25 =======
*sticks his head in*

Hi, I'm still here. For the late and few hours that I've put in today, it is coming around not too bad actually. I'll try to make the most of it and finish this subsection I'm working on and the link with the next one. I'm not quite sure for how much longer though since I'm a bit tired now.

So, one last push :-s and then to bed. I'll come back to see how you are doing before that.

That's it for me. Too tired to go on. I hope you did some progress, and that you are in bed resting now. See you tomorrow :-)

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 14:25:44 =======
Well done Armendaf for pushing through!!! very impressive (up)
---
my update from last night, i forced myself to finish section 2 of my results section, so i ended up staying up till 5am. and finally finished section 2 (hurrah!) total productive time i worked yesterday was 8 and half hours.

then went to bed like at 5am. have realised the maximum hours i can work in a day, no matter what, is 8 hours.
--
and then today, i wake up at 12pm, and for once, i am looking forward to finishing the last section of the results computer. and feeling all positive and happy that there is a chance i might get my chapters done.. so i turn my computer and then.. .

NOTHING!.

yes my computer has decided to take a vacation, it's tired and does not want to work anymore, it doesnt care that i have a deadline in less than 2 weeks. and i am thinking the "powers that be", decided its just not dramatic and exciting enough that i have a deadline at the end of the month and 7 chapters yet to write and complete, so 'lets thrown in a crashed computer into the mix that should make things abit more interesting'!
:-s

after spending a couple of hours trying to get it to work, and using my padwan powers of mind control *willing* to turn on, nothing has worked. so screamed and threatened my comptuer that i will throw it out of the window. eventually through tears of frustration, i gave up, tried everything, system restore, using safe mode. what happens, is that the windows logo turns on, and then it just goes blank.

i have given up now, after eating three packets of hula hoops (i eat when im stressed) and i am now transferring all the files from my d drive from my desktop computer to my 2nd back up external harddrive, (luckily the computer turns on in safe mode so i can access all my files).. and i will have to use my laptop now, which thinks its in the prehistoric era, it is excrutiating slow, but i am lucky i have a backup laptop to work on. so i cannot complain. its not ideal working on the laptop, but with the deadline looming, i will have to make do!

in the meantime, will find out if i can get my desktop computer fixed, will ask my dad to phone a family friend who fixed it last time.

i;ve said it before and i will say it agian. your computer is in two states, it is either CRASHED or it will CRASH within the next hour! so backup as much as you can, and then backup again and again.

anyways moving forward! have to stay positive and not dwell on what i dont have but what i do have. so going to work on my laptop for the rest of today. and then think whether its worth trying to fix my desk top computer or working on my laptop for the rest of my thesis and just get my chapters done. and then get it fixed once i've finished writing my chapters.
---
my aims for today:

1. complete section 3 of results section chapter 3.

2. write discussion section of chapter 3

3. transfer all phd files from external hard drive 1 to external hard drive 2

once, i have finished chapter 3, will reward myself with a long hot bubble bath and relax. my body feels tired today, probably cause of the late night last night. my brain is awake though.

:-s indeed! never was the battle face more appropriate than in this occasion. On the bright side Lara, you've already done the right thing, you backed up all of your work, you have a back up computer, and you even have somebody who can take care of it. That is fantastic strategic thinking, long before this little tragedy happened, you have already dealt with it. Good girl! Now, keep on working on the laptop, for the time being, and let your Dad's friend fix the desktop one at his earliest convenience and when it's up again, you just migrate back to format and print the thesis... See? You are grand 8-)

I also got up a bit late and took me a while to get started, but here I am now at chapter 3 as usual. I'll be back soon to report on progress. Best of luck!

Hey everyone!!!!
Lara!!Gud that u got everything going on well despite the hitches... U r inspirational.... And thanks a lot for reminding me to back up my data (me almost forgot) And I dont wanna learn it the hard way.
Did a lot of reading yesterday but not much writing.. Have to sit and put my thoughts into words. Spent most of the day cleaning my room and I have friends over for dinner... So this means another night in with all u nice people!!!
Lets slog it out together!!!!:-)

Hi,

Blimey Lara I'm so sorry about your computer problems. The sods almost have minds of their own, set to thwart us when we really don't need it. So glad you've backed it all up though, a bit of paranoia really helps in those cases. I hope your dad's friend can fix it for you asap (fingers crossed, and any other superstitious unscientific things I can think of.) Good thing you've got the prehistoric laptop as a backup, even if not perfect at least you can carry on with stuff. Bring forward the bubble bath with a bit of Elvis if you get sick of it, makes me work better after a crap day.

Armendaf, impressed by you carrying on last night, excellent stuff! Good luck with chapter 3.

I've been at my mum's all day as it's her birthday, really nice afternoon, but I was itching to get back to work after a while. I'll have something to eat and be back later for the night shift.

See you later - hope it's going ok, Lara.

Thanks so much for the message Armendaf, you really made me smile :-) battle face indeed! how is your chapter 3 going? I am determined to get mine done today hopefully!! grrrrr :-s i'm still working on the last results section. and then once that's done, i gotta write a discussion section, which will take ages no doubt!
--
Pari, thank you so much for the lovely compliment, i appreciate that! nice to have you attending the night shift later on tonight, i will be happy to have the company. hope you had a lovely dinner with your friends :-)
----

Hi Ruby :-) Thanks so much for your message. i like your idea of bringing forward the bubble bath. i might just do that!
glad you had a nice afternoon at your moms. and that's really good that you were itching to get back to work. sounds like you're in the zone ! hehe.
---

well update so far: i've worked for about 3 hours, then took a break and just had dinner, now i am clocked back in. and have glued myself to my chair until i get my last section of the results section done. :-s like Armendaf (btw what does your nickname mean?) said it's war!! take no prisoners grrrrrrrrr. lol i am determined to get the result section done once and for all!!!

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 22:02:04 =======
======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 20:56:45 =======
So many choices! I'm again working to the music of the Proms; but tonight there is Proms both on BBC 2 and BBC 4... I love the Proms! Next year when I have my life back there are so many things I want to do, and the Proms are right at the top of the list.

I didn't get much done during the day, but I'm ready for the night shift now. It looks like I'm becoming a bit of a night owl myself. I suppose it is easier to concentrate in the evenings, if one is not too tired, that is ;-) Chapter 3 is actually not doing too bad. I've been struggling with this section that I've been considering the first half of the chapter, so I'm working on several subsections within; but since the subsections are progressively narrowing the focus on the core argument of the thesis, I need to maintain a high level of detail in the discussion. So, what's happening is that each subsection is getting longer and richer that the previous one, until I got to the point that I realised that I actually do not need the original sections; each subsection actually stands out on its own with its own argument. To cut a long story short, that first and second half of the chapter I was working out earlier doesn't make any sense any more and I've gone well over 70% of the overall chapter already; apparently I'm closer to finish it than I thought. Yay!

Rubyw, you must have had a great time with your mum, and I'm sure she did too. It is good to have you back keeping us company. My user name, Lara, Doesn't actually mean anything, it is just one of those made up user names assigned by the IT department in college; they just collapsed my name and surname into a 8-letter word. I'm sorry it doesn't have such a nice story behind it as TG's does :$ Pari, how is your proposal coming along? Sounds like something we do in my uni that we call transfer paper; you write this proposal and have a mini viva to transfer from MLitt to PhD register after your first year. Is that it?

So... Back to work :-s

Armendaf, you should definately go to the proms next year!!

i know what you mean, i have this list in my head of all the things i want to do once i submit my thesis. i want my life back!!! i'm so out of touch with friends, i just called one of my old best friends but he was busy so only had a 1 and half minute conversation. and my other friends i've emailed and spoken to them probably like once in over 2-3 weeks!

but the sacrifices we have to endure, cant afford to get distracted right now, so friends are in the freezer for now.

i'm currently listening to some Damien Rice. and i am on the very very last bit on the last section of the results section. so close to finishing!!
==

Armendaf, well done on getting so far ahead in chapter 3, that is absolutely brilliant! well done you.
nice to have you on board for the night shift though.
--
well back to chapter 3, as soon as i am done, i am taking a break! i've been glued to the chair since 7.15pm.