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Thanks! I sent off what I could, that I think is actually quite good. And have kept back the stuff that is in-draft progress away from the supervisors as I need to work on it.

I kind of need the chapters I sent off to be approved by the sups because those are the most original ones with the hard sources in them. Sigh. Here's hoping.

Yes, my office is plastered with post-its, books, old plates with crumbs on, stained cups, crossed out drafts. ;)

I think I might take Monday off. Too tired. Well, off, in that I will be applying for an academic job!

I will also go food shopping and buy treats to scoff.

Good luck with everything you have to do too. I am hoping that I will still be on to complete in say mid April.

(montage from Rocky or GI Jane . gritty determination I have, if not the muscles of steel)

I plan to live for a month on savings and my interest free credit card. i plan to get a temp job asp. hence why I wanted to finish on time. But can't be helped now.

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been really motivated in the past, but have burnt out of late. I took too much on with publishing 3 papers and a contribution chapter (one which needs corrections by the end of the month!! ) :-( as well at the thesis which has taken its toll. Kind of just run out of steam now.

but will try and get back on track, after a walk!

(snowman)

I am going to go for a walk for a wee bit and clear my head for half an hour after writing down what I need to do for the rest of the day. must get away from the screen!

I'm so burnt out with the thesis and just want to throw the computer, books, and notes out of the second-floor window into the snow!

i really wanted to get it all done this month. I just can't do it. The old drafts needed too much work. And now I feel like a failure and just worn out. The money runs out in two weeks, and there is no way I can get it all done by then.

At least by late tonight/ early hours of tmrw I will have the three core chapters done.

Meaning that next month I will need to write the re-draft the last chapter, the intro, and the conc.

Urgh. So miserable sat here in a foreign country with nobody to look after me whilst writing up. So tired and just fed-up. I think I'm just too tired to cry really. :-((sprout)

Before about mid-day on Monday or early afternoon I must hand in thesis draft number two.

Before then:

1) redraft introduction
2)redraft conclusion
3) redraft sections of chapter one
4) redraft sections of chapter two.

Must get this done. Will count the tomatoes....

Tried. so tired.

Hah!

I think "Call the Shots" by Girls Aloud is strangely apt...

"I won't cry for all the hunger in my heart, no
I won't cry because I've made it through this far"

welcome back to the all-night thread.

I think this song is appropriate somehow: Rihanna "Rehab" - although instead of JT, the thesis is "my disease......And I'll never give myself to another
The way I gave it to you
Don't even recognize
The ways you hurt me
Do you?
It's gonna take a miracle to bring me back
And you're the one to blame"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUpsX7ihHdY

:$;-)

I am a humanities PhD student so the only advice I can offer is general. I would say, that although it is a late stage, you can perhaps still turn things around. I floundered around for long periods of time in both the first and second years of my PhD, only finding the better sources for my thesis in the third year. Now I have crossed the three year line, and will be handing in soon at three and a half years. I have saved my thesis, which could have been sunk (though might still be at the viva), by taking the source material that I have and plugging it into area of theoretical interest in the historiography of the period I am researching. So don't give up, sometimes it is possible to save things later on. Some of my better ideas are only coming along now when writing-up at the last minute. Good luck.

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[/quote]


wj_gibson, it is a bit bad, academia, at the moment, isn't it? But I think that the blanket assertion that we're all doomed and unlikely to get employment as lecturers or researcher is a bit inaccurate. Some areas of research have much more money available to them than others (external sources) - and that's about it really. I just think that all the research that we'll be able to do will have to carry societal value (REF!) - and there won't be nearly as much research for the joy of learning and discovery.

[/quote]

Yes, and this is the reason I know my future as a researcher is doomed. The "societal value" of my field, eighteenth-century history, is far from immediately obvious to policy makers and external funding sources. As such, I would expect in the decade for a lot of university history departments to atrophy away. Whole areas of expertise are already been cut away from some departments, and will not be replaced by new staff or new graduate students. This means, sadly, that "history" in a generation will be a lot more limited in scope.

I too think that WJ Gibson's frank response it a pretty much accurate reflection of the reality of the academic job market.

There really is nothing out there. And too many people were experience being laid off, and other phds and postdocs, competing for the scarce jobs that do become available...

So, really, I am going to have to go elsewhere..I just don't know where...

Must stay awake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(need to change music from swedish female songstress similar to Dido - to something upbeat!)

A few more hours and i am done with this chapter....

Yes, it is -4 here, so plenty of fresh cold air coming in through the open window to keep me awake!

Going to spend most of the night sipping tea.

Can't wait to get this thesis done. I need to get it out of the way and move on with life.