What a stress. Glad you havn't lost too much, from the title I thought it was the whole thesis!

I was amazed WORD coped with putting my thesis together, especially as my word computer is slowly dying.
During my PhD I was quite lax about backing up, but during writing I was so careful. I also emailed a copy of whatever I was working on that day to myself to make sure if my computer and all my data sticks died I'd still have them.

How on earth do you end a PhD? All I have left to do is write a final paragraph to draw this to a close, get word to make the contents page, then I can print and bind this thing. But I just can't seem to write it.

The other theses I've looked at have a final paragraph summarising the thesis. But I feel I've kinda already done this. My Supervisor thinks I should go down a 'life, the universe and everything' route, talking about what I've learnt, how wonderful I am, how I am passionate about research or something like that. This doesn't seem quite right either. I feel I'm writing a statement for a job application!

He's put some chiched statements in the margin like "raised as many questions as its answered" and "highlights the power and limitations of......." .. except I kinda feel I've more highlighted the limitations than the power!

i wish I'd spent the last four years searching for a perfect quote to finish up on. Sadly I didn't. Any tips would be gratefully received. I have to get this done first thing tommorrow.. eeek!

I just checked the date 100 days ago (17th June) and thinking back to what I've achieved since then it's definitely doable. But be prepared to work every weekend too as you get closer to the deadline. I found I had a lot of reading to do, but having specific references to find really focussed my reading.

I agree on the formatting. getting everything in the right formatting at first will (should?) save time later. I wish I'd done things properly in word using styles properly as it would have saved me some time later.

Good luck

Catalin Bond 6 days to go! (aagh!:p

I have to agree with Keenbean, if you feel not coming out is causing you stress then tell people. On the other hand if you feel it may make thinks worse then you don't have long to go and the rest of your life to tell people. I have to ask - and not necessarily to tell people on here, but as something to think about - why do you think thigs might have gone better if you'd come out sooner? Is there anything specific it might have helped in? Is it possible you are interpretting problems as being due to this, when in reality they may have been there anyway? Having no idea the details of your situation these comments may be complete rubbish.

My only personal experient was my sister came out when she was 21 (I was 19). She decided to wait until she was in a relationship to tell people as she felt she wanted to be sure about things before telling friends and family. I was surprised because I had not seen it coming at all, and we were pretty close growing up! But it hasn't changed how I view my sister or our relationship at all.

Anyway loved your WWJBD! I wonder if Jack Bauer would have got on and finished my thesis by now? I suspect not!

Dear Rhea,
I'm glad someone else managed to access the article. I could get it, but have an annoying thing on my laptop (or is it my browser?) where I can't save some articles. If you don't have it by Monday I could get it to you by then from my Uni computer.

I really hope you manage to get past suicidal thoughts. Doing a PhD can be a lonely and at times frustrating/upsetting/depressing process but it really shouldn't drive you to having suicidal thoughts. Writing up is the worst bit (well it is for me) when are you aiming to finish? I have a week to go an A LOT to do. I know I don't know you but I'm sure you are intelligent, that article doesn't look like the easiest of topics. Anyway PM me with your email if you still need the article monday and I can send it to you.

I rent and I don't want to .... why?

I'm sick if having to deal with letting agencies, and their pay-us-lots-of-money-for-us-to-do-nothing attitude.
I'm sick of not being able to get a cat as most rentals ban pets. Even if we got one here we'd struggle to move.
I'd like to be able to decorate the way I want. Maybe get some nice furniture. There's no point now as I've had to get and then get rid of furniture each time I've moved.
I'm also fed up of not having stability and security. I've moved 9 times in the past 10 years. Which alwyas costs a lot.
I'm fed up of landlords who say they'll fix things and then don't. We had no oven for 2 weeks at the start of the month. No smoke alarm for a while either.

The only pros of renting I can think are the flexibility of being able to move for a job elsewhere, which may happen in research. and the fact that if something does break down it's not my responsibility to fix it.

I put aside any spare money that I could to live on once my finding finished. I have two weeks til submission and then I do NEED to get a job, but I have managed to live ok during the writing up period.

ANd if you finish in three years, the money could always go on a holiday. My plan was 1/2 weeks in the carribean ...... didn't quite work out that way!!

That's terrible. If he's too busy to do a reference he could at least tell you to ask someone else.
I'd agree with Keenbean about trying to find another person who could do a reference. The applications I've been doing have geenrally asked for two, but often have space to put three, that was if he doesn't manage to do it for you again, you'd still get two in.

Thankfully the jobs I've been applying for don't need a reference with the application as my supervisor is also very very busy. I don't put his contact details on the form, but put his secretary on instead, as otherwise they'd never never get done.

Oh and in my waffle I forgot to add - It's been no use to me academically. Though I know peopel wo recruited participants through it. I've set it so people who search for me on google don't find my facebook page, so it wouldn't be much use for networking.

What a lot of anti-facebook sentiment....
personally I've found it very useful for keeping in contact with friends who live in other cities, and arranging social stuff with people who live near by. MAny social events I've been to during th PhD I've been invited to or found out about via facebook. People often talk about PhDs being quite isolating so I think this aspect has helped.

I think facebook can be what you want it to be. Some people stay in contact with a small number of people, and don't post much, some people use it as a procrastination tool (I'd put myself in that category) I like to see what people have been posting, and sometimes people I don't know well are the ones who I find updates very interesting from. Fer example someone I met 10 years ago in Thailand, now lives in New Zealand and has posted lots about the recent earthquakes there that barely make our news. I'd not be in contact with her at all if not for facebook. I on;y have one 'friend' I've never met (long story why) I keep meaning to delete her but she posts really nice photographs of scenery and stuff!

As for privacy settings these are changable (though facebook do change them .... you normally find out by someone moaning about it in their status! and they're easy to change back how you want them). Peopl can tag you in pictures, but they can be un tagged if you don't want them. People worry about the fact people can put your picture on facebook without you knowing, but they can still do that even if you don't have an account. At least if you have an account you know what pics are on there.

Good luck to everyone aiming for the end of the month and congratulations to those who have submitted.
I can't quite believe I've only got 16 more days to do this. But looking forward to sitting down on the 1st Oct with nothing to do (except get a job, write a couple fo publications, panic about the things that didn't make it into the thesis..... but you know what I mean :p)

@jinandjazzz no not Kiwi - just uded to wearing flip flops to work :$ Meant to get some shoes at the airport, but didn't quite consider that heathrow would onlt have expensive shops. Gatwick has accessorise and the like!

Still think I looked smarter than most the guys who were in jeans and trainers!

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try the table one. Not sure what the issue is, it's not that the equation is being obscured as there is a papragraph of text between the offending picture and equation!

Will try fiddling with it tomorow but if all else fails I'll make the picutre bigger so the equations end up on the next page!

oK, have now discovered it's not the equations that are the problem, it's the image slightly higher up the page. if I delete it the equations come out fine, or if I make them on the next page.... fine again. A section break between them didn't sort the problem. It appears I'll either have half a page blank or I need to write another paragraph to fill the gap! Unless I can figure out why having an image interfers with the equations on the same page. Three weeks til submission I really don't need this :-s

Anyone got much experience of equations in word? I got to grips with drawing/writing them in (finally....look A LOT off faffing to understand how the process works!). The problem I now have is with printing them. I have four equations, two print fine, two just come out as a line. If I cut and paste into another document they print. If I then paste back into original they won't again. I tried re inserting....still won't print. there seems to be no difference between these two and the two that won't print. Any ideas?

I can insert them as a picture, but then the resolution is rubbish. :-s