heheheh, you're right, it is like being Narnia! Better avoid the Turkish delight, just in case :-) Not that I've ever liked that stuff though....

I feel loads better today. How weird! Yesterday was horrible, the PhD all felt completely overwhelming and it really depressed me. I ended up just plugging away at various chapters till 11ish then called it a night. I've got 3 chapters (2 very long and image heavy) ready to put pics in and get printed for proofreading. There are a couple of odd refs that still need chasing up, odd footnotes, but if I can't get them in 2 weeks I'll rewrite them or delete them, it won't make much difference to the discussion - it's just extra supporting evidence.

Today bizarrely I feel ok about it all and like I can finally tackle the theory bits that need rewriting, so will get on with that. Why are some days so horrible and you just feel swamped by it, then the next day it seems so much more achievable???? oooh I wish I'd done food shopping yesterday though... no coffee is bad....

See you later Lara! :-)

wow Ruby! i'm so impressed you've had such a productive day. well done!!! :-)
am glad to hear things are going well for you.

yah i know what you mean, some days are just totally off and some days you just find yourself ON.


me on the other hand, was too distracted by the pretty snow hehe. but forced myself to read 6 pages from my thesis which i just finished now. going to bed now. see you tommorow. going to study hard tommorow to make up for my slacking today!

======= Date Modified 04 Feb 2009 01:54:05 =======
======= Date Modified 03 Feb 2009 19:56:25 =======
oooooops i've just been procrastinating all day. but i did manage to wake up at 10.30am which is a first for me. but only cause of the postman. but hoping to carry it on and shift my body clock once and for all. so no more going to bed at 4am!

feeling bored and restless today, not in the mood to study. but going to force myself to study regardless of lack of motivation and interest.

going to study till 7pm. and then have a break for dinner.

glueing myself to the chair

my aims:
1. review again and thoroughly understand thesis pages 7-12 - these pages are densely packed with conflicting theories and crisitisms of different theories, so really need to get a lock down and get the understanding of it all in my teeny tiny brain.
2. look up references from pages 7-12.
3. read references from pages 7-12.
4. make notes on the 3 main theories of metastases and compare contrast them. on how they differ and the critisisms of each and supporting evidence for each, and which theory my thesis supports.
====

EDIT:
uh did none of the above, but instead read the 6 pages from my thesis that were allocated for todays quota, thought it would only take half an hour, took me ages, as i was being so slow lol and kept getting bored. then kept wincing at how many times i repeated myself during my writing lol. oh well. a senior collegue did proof-read my introduction chapter and told me it read well. but my first sup for the other chapters says i repeat myself alot.

you know its so true what they say, when you leave a piece of writing for quite some time and go back to it. you really can see it with "fresh eyes". oh well i am not going to dwell on it nor worry about it. whats done is done. just hope it doesnt peeve off the examiners as my sup told me it can do.
==

gonna have dinner now, as i am really hungry. and just had a banana and water today. i will come back to studying later on this evening.
===

edit 2nd:
didnt come back to studying. going to bed now. aiming to wake up at 10am tommorow. see you folks tommorow for another fun filled study session and i say "fun" sarcastically :p

======= Date Modified 04 Feb 2009 14:10:36 =======
Hello. clocking in for the day.
my aims:

1. read 6 pages from thesis (pages 25-30)
2. make notes on mets theories
3. write a rough answer to 1 viva question
---

How is everyone doing? Ruby you okay? Anyone else out there?

hello

anyone out there?...

yesterday my internet decided to stop working, so spent the whole day getting back online. finally did it. yesterday managed to read 1 paper and 6 pages from my thesis before going to sleep.
--

todays aims:
1. read 6 pages from thesis
2. read papers about metastatic theories - i have 29 papers to read.

Hello there! :-)

Yes, I am here too! I'm not quite sure what I should do today that's of any use for the PhD really.... I got woken up too early by the postman with some packages - lovely to get my stuff, but a bit more sleep would have been good... :-x

Maybe I'll make a new timetable. That's always good for a Friday. I never finished that methodology chapter on Tuesday, but my sup was very sympathetic about my gloom and frustration. I think I'll aim to get both that chapter AND the following one done by the end of Tuesday, as that's another chunky rewrite that needs a lot of thought too. So today, well for the next few hours before it's dinnertime anyway, I'll read through what I've done so far, make notes and remind myself where I was with it before my stint at work pushed it out of my mind.

Had an interesting conversation with a colleague who passed her viva recently, it made the prospect marginally less scary. She said the mock was really useful as the examiners in the actual viva asked the same questions, so she had loads of notes prepared from that, very good insurance against a completely unexpectedly blank mind.

Good luck with today's reading Lara, I'll be around all weekend on here I should think (so what's new eh!!). See you later! :-)

Hey Lara! I'm out here!

I often read this thread to check out everyone's progress.

You seem to be plodding along very well with your revision. (up)

I'm in a bit of a pickle finishing up one of my chapters. I have an 18 page bibilography just for one chapter - full of papers I haven't yet read (or read so long ago I cannot remember) and I'm submitting in the next few months! It looks like I'm going to have to cut things down by a considerable amount. Dare I say...but I think I'm doing too much research for one thesis, or at least biting off more than i can chew.

I'll be accountable today:
Add some final references into chapter 1.
Cut down my reading material for current chapter.

29 papers about metastatic theories??? Goodness, you really inhabit another academic world....it all sounds completely alien to me and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, but the very best of luck with them! (up)

Ooh hello Missspacey, it's nice to see you over here! :-) Pop over more often if you feel like it! (up)

======= Date Modified 06 Feb 2009 23:11:56 =======

======= Date Modified 07 Feb 2009 01:21:09 =======
i'm clocking out for today.
my progress today.
1. read 6 pages from my thesis. (i've started on chapter 2 'methods' chapter now).
2. study time in total - 2 hours. (not continuous mind you, but 15 minutes, 20 minutes etc, spread out through the day)
3. read 3 papers.

feel i am making snail like progress, but am trying to keep viva questions in my head and look out for relevant information in the papers i read, especially the big viva qs of "how would you further your research , ie future experiments"... hoping to get some inspiration or ideas from the papers, so far zilch.. but like they say, creative ideas take time to formulate.

======= Date Modified 07 Feb 2009 01:29:46 =======

Hello there, I'm going to get down to work now, though feel a bit sluggish still, haven't properly woken up yet. Have been faffing about since I got up and been out food shopping, but now it's time to settle in for the day with some chapters. Yesterday I looked through what I'm working on this weekend and didn't exactly do a lot, quite a lot of 'window shopping' on the internet though lol, but it's reminded me of where I'm at so better than nothing. As I was musing over extra bits for one of the chapters at breakfast, something must have sunk in overnight.

Lara, your day sounds productive! Keeping bigger viva questions in mind sounds like the way to go, especially thinking about how these extra papers might fit into it. That will show the examiners that you know and understand them, so even if you didn't write them into your actual thesis, you DO know what their relevance is to the topic. If they have to go in as corrections so be it, but extra points for you in the viva for pre-empting the examiner's questions.(up)

My aims for today are to get on with chapter 4, it's SO less tedious than the methodology section and it should remind me of the more interesting elements of my thesis. And I haven't read it since November, so at least I'll work on it with fresh eyes. And also, and I'm thinking this in a stern voice, I'd better have something tangible to show for today's aims by clocking out time tonight!

Better get on with it now. See you later. :-)

======= Date Modified 07 Feb 2009 14:09:08 =======
Hey Ruby! good luck with your writing today, and good idea to do something that doesnt make you run to the hills. and i feel sluggish today aswell, i think its something to do with saturdays, maybe our subconcious knows its a day off for everyone else but when your writing, everyday is a work day.
-----

Thanks Ruby for your kind and encouraging words! i keep forgetting what i've read in the papers, and dont really fully understand what they are saying. but then thats what revising - is there for, so that the next time you read through it, it will be more familiar and things will start to sink in. its a slow process, but one that cant be rushed.
from monday onwards, i'm going to start making notes to answer "viva" questions. i'm still really scared about the viva and feel that i wont be able to answer any of the questions. but i try not to think about it, but just focus on the task at hand.

tonight i'm going to the cinema with my friends, going to leave the house for the first time in about a month!! i've practically been in hibernation. so that will be nice :) i'm really looking forward to it. its a 3D horror film! cant wait :)

i think being cooped up in my study room for weeks on end, is probably not such a good idea. as it can get abit depressing and lonely. and most days i feel like i cant be bothered and whats the point and have nothing to look forward to. so now that the weather is getting abit better, i'm coming out of hibernation. i was so afraid of catching the flu or cold, and it disturbing my study time, that i didnt want to leave the house! if i carry on like this, i might start suffering from agoraphobia and and germaphobia!!

my aims for today
1. read 6 pages from thesis
2. read papers

Hi guys!

Well I got nothing done yesterday. I've come down with a really nasty cold/general lurgy type illness, and spent most of the day in bed with a migraine. I'm now doped up on a whole array of cold medications. Is it wise to eat a jumbo pack of Strepsils.... :p

Today, I'll do what I was supposed to do yesterday! I also have to sort out a software programme for drawing diagrams..grrr. Do you use any diagramatic software in the sciences, Lara? Any recommendations? I have some basic diagrams to draw (nothing fancy), so far it looks like I'll use Smartdraw. Powerpoint looks a little amateurish, and MS Visio takes too long to master.

When is your submission date, Ruby? It looks like you're on the final stretch. I'm looking at submitting around May.