Belford is the university of choice for those who rejected Harvard, Cambridge, MIT and the like.

Responded as well - though my schedule is a bit unpredictable at the moment!

Jepson, I think Checklike may be a fellow alumnus of mine from Belford. We are known for our expertise as editors of high impact journals such as "The Interplanetary Journal of Mongoose Studies" and "GOAL! The International Journal for Football Chants".

I picked up (and the examiners too) about a dozen typos in my submitted thesis. And I still have two that I have noticed in my final bound and published one (that neither myself nor the examiners picked up!)

Oh and I just read "bootstrapped regressions" and smiled. It doesn't take much to cheer up an agitated statistician :-x

Well I'd certainly be interested (up)

Stressed, I may not like some of them, but I draw the line at pissing on them :p

Hopefully I'll have news tomorrow!

And Sneaks, it's possible the other person hasn't decided yet - I know how infuriating it is though. Have you tried contacting them to see?

Are you an impatient type like me who just wants to know things straight away? Or are you able to just shrug things off and wait patiently?

I'm waiting for some news and it feels like every minute is just dragging past as slowly as possible. Plus I couldn't think straight at work and ended up pissing off some of my colleagues (no bad thing, one in particular is a dickhead so was quite funny to watch him get irate because I wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to his incessant babbling).

I think I will go to Ikea tonight to take my mind off things. Who wants to come 8-)

After a crappy day at work, the responses have definitely made me laugh very loud!

Especially after being woken up at 5 am by said cat miaowing and scratching at my door to be let in...

I shall have to try patience and hope he finds a new place to sleep. I'm really bad at being patient so we'll see!

My landlord's cat has taken to sleeping ON the stairs of late. Before he would sleep on the landing, which wasn't too bad although it's quite small and I would end up having to step over him in the morning to go to the bathroom.

But now he's taken to sleeping on the stairs themselves so I have to step over moving down at the same time.

I've tried talking to him about it but he just looks at me, gives a meow and curls up on the bed against my legs. Do you think I should try hypnosis? Cat spells? I fear I'm going to end up falling down the stairs one of these days...

Hi 4matt, I certainly understand your predicament as I've been through it a bit myself. I graduated this year and, whilst I have a relatively good job, I don't own a house or have a relationship and I turn 30 in 6 months time. I've moved so much that it generally becomes difficult and I think I've just got used to not settling down. I am lucky to have some good friends, but they are all over, I don't really have any here.

However, a PhD can bring its own rewards. It's tempting to thing of a PhD as a student life extended but it really is a fulltime job. I'm not sure what area you're studying but PhD skills are useful and transferable if you don't want to stay in academia.

LIke AL says, are there any socieities at uni that interest you? When I split up with my ex just before the start of my third year, I was feeling quite low, and took up an evening class at a different Uni. It was a real booster - I met new people and made good friends with one of the girls on the course. It was also fixed time away from my own uni and from home where things were still a bit unstable. It's just good to get out and meet people, even if it is hard to do so.

And yes, this is a great resource. Nothing self indulgent about it all - it's better to get it down than let it bottle up and eat away at you (as I've done way too many times).

Sorry if that sounds a bit rambly, I tend to put things down as they come straight into my head! Happy to chat further to you if you want to send a PM.

Look for a rash of pad devices coming up shortly - the samsung one looks pretty good. Would I want one? Not really. SImilarly with 3D tv, don't watch enough to make it worthwhile.

I must admit I'm tempted by the new iphone nano - i have an iphone but it feels a bit clumsy when going out for a walk and wouldn't mind something a bit smaller.

I also need a nosehair trimmer (well, it is a gadget in my book!).

On the flipside, at least someone did come and point to you out what points you could improve. It would have been too easy for nobody to say anything (as sadly too often happens). Try not to worry too much about it, it's over now, and instead focus on what you can do to improve.

I will stress UP TO.

That's a whole different ballgame from "Salary at 40K" or "Starting salary 40K".

Yes - YOURSELF.

By all means ask for help from supervisor or others who have done PhDs their opinions but it should be YOUR OWN WORK - Including how YOU edit it and what YOU choose to put into it.

It sounds to me like it's either been compromised (as happened to my account and really isn't that uncommon) or he's been posting things he really shouldn't have been (in which case you agree to their T&Cs when you sign up and hard cheese if you get caught out).