Well multidisciplinary isnt that the Phd buzz term these days lol!

So tell me this everyone how has this week gone for you all???

xx

Hello there Liminal, actually multidisciplinary is a real pain when you're grappling with different bodies of literature, believe me. It has driven me mad today.

I'm handing in a big draft tomorrow and everything takes sooo long.... the later it gets, the more my expectations of what I'm handing in drop, I keep thinking oh no, can't do that tonight so I'll put it in as a footnote so the supervisors know I know what I've got to do, but it's SO tedious. I've got about 100 images altogether and perhaps very stupidly I'm doing it in Word, which is crap at image handling. I'll be at it until very late tonight, I'm afraid - surprise surprise!! The only good thing about it is that it's completely brainless, so I can listen to a bit of music without getting distracted. I can't bear being stuck in front of the computer for days on end, but there's no way round it really... someone at college on Thursday just got her thesis draft back from KallKwik with its temporary binding and it looked really good, her husband had done all the formatting for her!!! How nice to just tell someone else what you want and they do it for you... anyway, that gave me a shock seeing hers, as we're at the same stage and I was just going to bung it into a ring binder, but that seemed really sloppy after seeing that one so I've been desperately trying to make it look nearly complete since then, not just visually but as well as the written work and it's too much. There are 2 chapters I never had any feedback on a few months back and they're making me really anxious now. My second sup hasn't seen them at all, and I'm really worried he'll think they're crap and as I said it was all coming along ok, he'll think WHAT on earth was she thinking - OK??? How deluded can she get??? I keep telling myself it's only a second draft and of course there'll be loads to do afterwards till Feb, but it's hard not to worry.

Well, after tomorrow's hand-in, I'll have a week off from Phd stuff until I get the feedback. I keep popping over here in the hope of seeing other virtual sloggers but it's been really quiet today. What irritated me a bit earlier was really nice understanding non-PhD people (real life ones) offering me advice and wanting to help, but it's just not really viable... they don't really get what I'm doing and so all their nice comments just sound a bit inane really, though it's well intended I know.... sometimes I think they think what's all the fuss about, it's only an old thesis for heaven's sake!! Having said that, I'd better get back to it for a bit and make another coffee and think of what to listen to next....

Did you know your thread was going to turn into a general rant-fest??!?

I didnt know it was going to turn into a rant fest ruby but im totally pleased it has!

Ok Ruby I know what youre going through, no inane comments from me I get it. If it helps Im submitting sept and I totally have nowhere near half of mine done. But thats just the way I work. May I reccomend closing your eyes and pressing on your work to your second supervisor, as painful as it is its nice to get more feedback from others. I tend to go into hibernation and not talk to any other people in my department doing phds because they scare me with how much they say they have done. I need people to tell me how little they have done too to make me feel better lol.

Listen remember dont compare yourself to everyone else Ruby yours is very different and so what she has someone doing her formatiing thats just her fortune I suppose but most people dont. I think binding it and all will just make it look better, so that can be why she did that.

I know all about interdisciplinary, I have a humanities phd with theatre, phenomenology, anthropology and architecture all mixing through, trust me I know what a pain in the behind it is. You can only go at your own pace. I recommend putting big reminders in a different font or a different colour in the text saying things like 'second sxample picture to go here' I do that with production pics and pieces of chapters which havent been done yet. It helps because it shows you what needs to be done and where it goes and it shows whoever is reading it how it all comes together.

Dont panic ruby sweetie, do what you can do, dont compare yourself ok? And binding is just a bit of guilt its what inside that counts...where have I heard that before.

xx

Aw thanks Liminalplace, really kind words!! :-)

I'm really glad you're another interdisciplinary one, it's great and really interesting to do but the literature is hellish sometimes, it seems to multiply your workload and is a bit of a challenge methodologically, as I'm sure you know! I couldn't bear to engage with subcultural theory this afternoon, it's only for one chapter too but I'm certainly making heavy work of it, so I've decided to just put loads of footnotes in with what-to-do-next notes to myself - my sup likes that and it will show I've listened to their feedback in the past. Oh well, I've finished formatting another image heavy chapter so not too bad I guess. 4 more to go and then off to bed.

Actually that other student is another jewellery one, but our approach and supervisors are totally different. I think I'll carry on with this temp binding plan as my sup gets a bit anxious about technical stuff and is very keen on the visuals, so it might allay her fears a bit. To be honest I'd rather get the bulk of the hideous formatting done now even though it's knackering and dead boring and spend the next few months reading/rewriting my text - that's what I'll get examined on, my examiners are an anthropologist, a sociologist and an architect. Your PhD sounds interesting btw, what's it on vaguely, if you can say without compromising your anonymity...?

Well long thesis short Ruby its about how limen constructs on stage illustrate a physical and metaphorical transformation within the production. So essentially its all about how scenography interacts with space and production and maps on to a wider contextual place...lol. Bored yet?
Any snoops with totally know who I am hehehehehe....

Well, you have lost me a bit but I'm sure it's very interesting! It would be very weird if you were at the same college as me lol!!

lol, I was chatting to a girl at a research course on Friday who was telling me she is always on here, and its freeking her out with all the people who say they cant move because they are working so hard.... lol

ooh I find that quite weird, with real life and this forum getting mixed up. Sometimes at college I wonder if any of the other students come on here, and I'm sure I must be giving them shifty looks or something. Some people would probably benefit from it so maybe I should mention it... I'm sure other people there peer over my shoulder when I'm on the computer and see what I'm doing, maybe I should ask them outright! It's not as if I'm horribly misrepresenting myself or anything.... it's just he thought of a certain slightly annoying person in real life being on here too, there would be no escape.

Dont worry about that. I like this place because of the honesty, people because they dont have to be themselves are more themselves, how very philosophic of me but you know what I mean. I think this place is for those of us who dont like being alone with our phd and need someone else to say go you or I know what you mean.

Yes, it is great for that, I wish I'd found it ages ago. It makes me feel normal, when there's not a lot about a PhD that is normal really lol, it's just such a weird experience in some ways - I had to go to a physiotherapist a few months ago about my knee and she had not long finished her PhD, and it was great because she just knew what it involved in all its obscure strangeness, not the same subject as me or anything, but still a very odd shared experience. I'm quite fond of all the regular people on here now, such different personalities and I like the way people are quite grumpy and sharp sometimes too. I wish there were more off topic threads sometimes though.

Hello all, I have been totally rubbish today havent done a thing. Thats very bad isnt it. I dont know at the moment Im just feeling very uninspired. Its all cold and horrid outside.
Have any of you even thought about Christmas yet? I havent even given it head space, was killing some time waiting on an appointment yesterday and did some wandering round the shops and its all christmassy there are loads of all these gorgeous decorations, and I just cant get in the mood for it at all. I would love to but really I dont much see the point, I usually think about it round the 20th and go out and grab some presents.
Thing is being a researcher youre often just working by yourself and quite often it takes the people surrounding you to get you in a christmassy mood. So im very non christmassy at the moment and I would love to be, but honestly its just more added expense decking the place out.
Any other Scrooges out there?

Have had the crapest week ever. No work has been done of consequence at all, grrrrr I just seem to be stressing loads and getting nothing done!!!

Third year student here too and I have done very little now for about 4 weeks... I just can't. I'm in this weird place where in my head its all OK. But how can it be all ok when I have done NOTHIING of note, I got out a 2500 report on initial empirical work findings but thats about it. But some how I feel calm and in control and very confident. I told my supervisor who looked very worried and said she never felt confident when doing her PhD and that maybe it was post-fieldwork pre-christmas euphoria!!

did say today was going to be a good one but its sliding already work wise....ooppsss......

Dazednconfused Im totally relating to you. Listen try not to worry about it too much -bit rich coming from me eh? But I find when I freak out about it it makes it ten times worse and 100 times less productive. Have u tried drawing a diagram? I find diagrams of my thesis very helpful. I just got some feedback and my brain hurts. I mean I actually dont understand some of the things my supervisor means, God Im feeling stupid right now!

All sounds quite familiar to me too at the moment. I've just had feedback from my first supervisor on my final draft and I've been veering between calm confidence of it all being do-able for a Feb submission, and that sinking sick feeling of sheer panic when it all seems hugely overwhelming. I went through all 10 chapters of feedback last night and didn't understand all of the comments. Maybe today it'll make more sense, though am still floundering a bit with the methodology, it's getting longer and longer, not sure what I am expected to do with it next. Sometimes the multidisciplinary approach seems overambitious and quite hellish in practice. I'll have to speak to her and it will probably become clearer if we talk it through. Hopefully!! It's annoying, because sometimes I think, yes, this looks like an almost finished PhD thesis, then a bit of paranoia sets in and I think I'm imagining the almost-completeness and it's really all flimsy crap. I must try harder to keep a happy middle ground or will lose the plot and get nothing done if I carry on like that.