Wow you're both great swimmers! I usually do either 10 or 20 lengths of breaststroke when I go and always feel dead proud of myself ha! I do go after I've been to the gym though!

I'm still bored of my journal article, but want to get a first draft done by tomorrow. I only need to write the intro/background section and I have a plan so it should be fine. I also really want to make some cakes today!

Goal 1- practice presentation
Goal 2- write intro/background section of journal article
Goal 2- make cakes!

afternoon everyone!

I am back from swimming, and did 6 length breaststroke and 10 length freestyle. I am learning freestyle, and quite happy with my progress, even though it is almost one year since I begun to learn from last summer. During this last push of PhD journey, learning freestyle has brought me quite a lot of joyful moments. I am calmed down and forget about stress by floating in the water. What did you girls do in the gym? I only do treadmill in the gym. The weighting area are full of guys, I can hardly squeeze in. And all the machines are way heavier loaded than I can handle.

Button, cake.....I like cakes....especially home-made cakes with pleasant fragrance. Batfink, hope you can focus and be productive today, Paralympic Games is a good reason to be distracted though!

my goal yesterday,
1. revise the notes (1t) -- done.
2. write code (3t) -- half done.
3. test (2t) -- didn't do it.

my goal today,
1. svn checkin yesterday's progress. (0.1t)
2. rewrite the notes to make it more convenient for coding.(2t)
3. write code for second part of 'hypothesis testing' (2t)
4. test the code and document the numerical results (4t) -- this part might take me longer time as I don't have any test case designed in mind.
5. svn checkin yesterday's progress. (0.1t)

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2012 15:27:36 =======
Oh, I want to learn freestyle, I usually swim breaststroke but really should vary my stroke for maximum benefit. How are you learning, Benyaya, have you taken lessons or done it another way? The Swimfit website helped me improve my breaststroke but I've not tried to follow it to learn a new stroke completely (well, I learnt it badly when I was a child but have forgotten everything about it since then).

And swimming after the gym sounds like a really nice thing to do (but tiring - any lengths at all after gym sounds impressive!). I was going to join a gym when I moved house but I can't afford to go swimming and also go to the gym so am concentrating on swimming instead.

Anyway, I've read the paper about the method I'm using, and have designed my model. Next stage is to test it, but I'm feeling very tired and headachey, I may take an hour or so as a break and see if I'm feeling up to it after that. Too long staring at the laptop screen!

I've actually just left my gym for the same reasons really; too expensive and I wasn't going enough! So I want to get back into swimming, but I also fancy playing something like squash or badminton with hubby; not too challenging and fun (although mt hubs is very competitive!)

Sounds like you've both made progress- well done! I've finished the first draft of this journal article I've been writing yippee, it still needs a bit of work though, particularly the background section. I didn't get round to baking though so I'll be doing that tomorrow!

goodevening everyone,

Batfink, I took a lesson with about 20 classes last summer. After the class, I can struggle 1 length, that was struggle with all my strength, have to take a break for at least 1 min after a length. I feel its very hard for a breaststroke swimmer to switch to freestyle, for breaststroke, kick is the key, for freestyle, pull is the key. On the other hand, if you keep practicing, you will learn it, just might take longer time.

my goal today,
1. svn checkin yesterday's progress. --- done
2. rewrite the notes to make it more convenient for coding.---done
3. write code for second part of 'hypothesis testing' (2t) -- not yet
4. test the code and document the numerical results (4t) -- this part might take me longer time as I don't have any test case designed in mind. --- not yet
5. svn checkin yesterday's progress. (0.1t) --- not yet

my goad tomorrow,
continue accountabilities which are not done today.

Morning everyone!

Well I managed to squeeze a bit of baking in yesterday, but I really want to make lots of cupcakes today as I have family visiting at the weekend. So I fancy a leisurely afternoon doing that! But first I need to:

Goal 1- practice presentation
Goal 2- read over journal article and edit
Goal 3- decide what to wear for conference!

Have a great day all (up)

Morning everyone.

A late start for me today, I went swimming first thing and have just been faffing around not getting started on work since then. Must focus!

Yesterday I tested my model and couldn't get it to work, but while I was swimming a solution came to me (that's one reason I like swimming in the morning, it clears my mind and quite often I get insights into my work). So, the first task of the day is to check my data to see if the solution is possible, and then if it is I can adjust and re-test the model. If not I'll be puzzling over how to get it to work. Fingers crossed!

Well done Button on finishing the journal paper!
And Benyaya, the thing about switching from breaststroke to crawl is interesting, wonder if that's why the few times I've tried crawl recently it's felt so unnatural.

Yay, I got my model to work. Very happy, and relieved. It doesn't give the results I was hoping for, but never mind, I was kind of expecting that and at least it works!

I've run out of brain energy to do any more work today, so I'm going to look at a couple of job adverts someone suggested I think about applying for and then go to the pub to meet my friends for a couple of drinks. Back to work tomorrow.

Hope you all had good days, and if you're not back here tomorrow have good weekends!

======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2012 14:37:18 =======
Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday, I focused on working, not faffing about online, and made some bits of progress. As a huge procrastinator, I always need to remind myself: "Need to focus, not too much rambling if I want to be productive." I waked up at 5 am today, kinda get used to that. I might have a nap after lunch.

Button, nice job to have done the paper quickly! Batfink, glad you got new model to work, so swimming helps.:-)

My goal yesterday,
3. write code for second part of 'hypothesis testing' (2t) -- done
4. test the code and document the numerical results (4t) -- this part might take me longer time as I don't have any test case designed in mind. --- half done
5. svn checkin yesterday's progress. (0.1t) --- done

my goal today,
1. document the numerical results

Morning everyone.

I didn't do any work yesterday - I was feeling tired and a bit earachey so I did some jobs around the house, went shopping to buy a jacket for my job interview, and lay on the sofa watching TV instead. Felt good! Time to get some work done now though.

I'm not in the mood for my data analysis today - will come back to that tomorrow. Today I'm going to do some more reading for meeting with supervisor on Tuesday, and also start planning my presentation for a conference in just over two weeks (eek!)

Morning all!

Batfinkl and Benyaya, looks like you were busy over the weekend! I did absolutely nothing for 2 days, which was lovely.

I have a busy day today though, finalising things for my conference at the end of the week. I also wanted to get a basic plan together for another journal article I'd like to write, so I can get down to it straight away after my conference. And as if I wasn't busy enough, sup has given me feedback for a previous journal article I've written, which will keep me busy! I'd like to get that sorted today but not sure that will be possible. I'll give it a go though!

Goal 1- finalise conference presentation
Goal 2- do basic plan for next journal article
Goal 3- edit previous journal article based on sup feedback

Have a great day everyone!

Sounds like you're busy today, Button!

I've been swimming and checked through my email this morning (which included a message from the editor of the journal I sent my paper to, saying it's of interest to the journal and is now being sent to reviewers - yay)

I've got loads of things I need to achieve this week - mainly making good progress (i.e. approaching finishing) my data analysis, preparing for next week's job interview, writing the draft thesis ready to send as complete a thesis as possible to my supervisors in 2 weeks, and preparing my presentation for the conference in two weeks. Yikes!

I need to break these tasks down to make them at all manageable. Today, I'm going to:
1.) Pull together everything I've got so far on the thesis to see where I am and what easy wins I can do first
2.) Make some more progress with testing my data analysis model
3.) Prepare for discussion about literature with supervisor tomorrow/for job interview questions on same topic

Should keep me busy! Good luck everyone else as well!

Well done about your journal article Batfink, that's great news!

I've done goals 1 and 2, which means I've got the rest of the day to work on editing a previous journal article. I want to get the easy bits sorted before lunch, and then I'll have the afternoon to sort the not so easy edits!

Hi all!

I've not managed to catch up with the posts from the last week but I hope you're all well.

I ended up taking last week off as tiredness is really affecting me now and I'm also going to have to cut down on the hours I work on the thesis from now on. I know it's for the best but I can't help worrying at the moment as I'm behind already.

I decided to go to the local uni's library for the afternoon which was helpful as I had no internet connection so that helped. I've finally managed to finish my journal article. Will have a last read tomorrow before emailing it to sups and then crack on with thesis. I only have another few weeks before mat leave so will try to make the most of it.

Well done with finishing the journal article, Skig. And it's hardly surprising that you're feeling so tired, do take it (relatively) easy, your health is far more important than your PhD!

I'm starting to feel a little panicked about how much I have to do in the next two weeks. My brain feels very fuzzy and unfocused and I feel like I need to be sharp and making clever decisions that I'm just not capable of. Oh well, I'm sure it'll all come right, and the deadline for the thesis that I have coming up is not set in stone, after all.

Tasks for today:
1.) Admin bits - printing stuff off, sending a few emails (am half way through this at the moment)
2.) Prepare for this afternoon's meeting with supervisor
3.) Plan the structure for writing up my current data analysis
4.) Start planning conference presentation