No, I can't say I ever did. There are ways to discuss things and take action without resorting to sniping and sarcasm and just makes you sound a little unprofessional.

Unprofessional in the extreme. And not fun to be in the middle when it all goes wrong... *DanB takes a withered tone of experience he'd rather not have had*

If DanB hadn't been very naughty and got banned under a previous incarnation, he would have had 5 stars by now :-x

I never know the insistence on using SPSS. It's actually a really pretty rubbish piece of software and there are much better alternatives on the market.

Dr DanB, statistician to the stars*

*may be expanding the truth slightly.

OMG 404, a blast from the past!!!!

Now all we need are some mooncups and Clara van der Akker to turn up and wahey!!!

When I had my interviews for PhD (about 5 years ago now but I can't imagine much has changed) they were all fairly standard - why do you want to do a PhD, what interests do you have in the subject area, what do you think are your strengths and weaknesses, what are you hoping to get out of a PhD.

The "why do you want to do a PhD" is particularly common - I had a lovely cheesy line about "not just looking for answers, but looking for new questions".

I like your style. I must admit I have done something similar, though I tend to just end up writing letters of complaint. I kid you not, I once complained to a supermarket that the path to the carpark sloped to one side so it was difficult to push my trolley to the car. 10 quid voucher, thankyou very much.

I LOVE the meat feast pizza complaint though! Maybe I should try it... should I sign my letter Dr DanB as well, just to be really arrogant about it?

Hi Mrrox, what field are you in?

http://www.conference-service.com/conferences/index.html has a list of Science ones. I used to have a great link to some Maths ones but can't find it.

Well 10-12 hours of productive work in a session is probably unrealistic but when needing to get my thesis finished I would often do it and rotate the tasks. So in terms of productive written work it might only be 4-5 hours, a few hours of various breaks, and then the rest doing formatting etc so making tables from data, adding entries to the bibliography I might have missed. I did a maths based PhD so I had to format my thesis in LaTeX which is challenging in its own right sometimes. But I certainly didn't do days that long every single day, it's just not necessary and counterproductive (in my opinion).

Happy Birthday Wally!

And I turn 29 in a couple of months and have no intention of doing any of those (that I don't do already). Especially Brut, ugh, I'd rather smell of cat vomit.

Why not delay those until the big 3-0 ? Yeah, that sounds like more fun to me :D

There it is, from the printers. 3 copies, 2 for uni and one for me. Mum cried at the acknowledgements bit where I mentioned my nephews.

Feels weird. Only graduation now to endure. But I have this brick looking at me, with my name on it. That I wrote. That I spent years working for. It's just... there.

How did others feel when you got it in your hands? All those years in a few hundred pages. Feels very odd!

Yeah I did that too when I moved in for PhD, but only have one flatmate now and he's a postgrad and really busy and said himself the other day doesn't really have any friends here! What a pair we are! Although he's only here for a few more months and I'm here for god knows how long so better get some friends or I'll go mad.

I do have one friend who lives nearby but I don't want to be hanging around like a bad smell all the time!

Thanks, Delta and 404.

Actually I did just check out gumtree and they have a music section - I've been wanting to team up with someone to do some piano duets for a while so that might be a good start. And someone offering free Japanese lessons...

Do you find it hard to make new friends when you move somewhere new? I guess at Uni it's easy as you end up with lots of other students, even at PhD level, and find friends but what about when you get a job and move? How do you find some people to just hang out with and make life a bit less dull of the evenings? Especially when all your new colleagues live miles away and commute or have their own partners and friends etc?

Signed, Dr Billy NoMates

To be honest, two weeks would be more than plenty, I would email tomorrow. Don't procrastinate, there is plenty of time for that when you do your PhD ;-)