I was reading the Saturday paper in one of my breaks from writing, and I noticed a bit about University Challenge. This year apparently one of the boys answered nearly all the questions for his team, and has been praised and already has a 'fan club' - bit of a contrast to when a girl did the same thing and was more or less told off for hogging the limelight and being a 'know it all' - in these days of 'equality' should someone be writing a thesis on why this should be? - or do we already know the answer??:-)

i see it isn't only me who watches the rubbish TV then. When I'm working in the evening, more likely now the light is better at night - I find energy saving bulbs toooo dull to make bookwork easy, expecially the old books, which seem to have smaller print, and dodgy printing. I sometimes put a folder of 'need to do' reading on the table by the chair, but inevitably it doesn't get opened - the thought is there though :-)

I don't know if I cope - or lurch from one crisis to another! Well maybe not quite like that. Easter hols were supposed to be time for writing up a chapter, but now the weather has turned nice I want to get out into the garden, I had an emergency committee meeting last week - I'm chair of the committee, so had to go. I've promised to do a couple of presentations. i need to sort out the whole of one year's practical curriculum for next week...and when I go back I will be one full time staff member down as she has taken another job, and I have plan some training for the admin person who I want to be the replacement for the person who left, to come into the lab -that might sound quite bizarre, but she is very practical minded, willing to learn, and unlike the person she is replacing sets things out nicely as I like it, doesn't do things she doesn't know anything about without asking, will do what I say, not what she thinks, and is eager to learn. the drawback is that up until half term she is only getting one hour per day, but if she is OK that will become full time after that, but for the next 6 weeks we will struggle so thesis will take a bit of a back seat, so I need to crack on now and hope to get the chapter finished today in semi rough form, so I can give it a day or so to mature and then get it up to scratch to send off. hopefully that will give me a week or so whilst they read it to do other things before getting back to that again. Its a bit of a treadmill really, but worth it in the end - I hope! I regard the other things as 'thinking time' :$

well they are both in the same area, and know eachother well, I would say they are friends, but not sure if it goes quite that far, but with a slightly different take on the subject, second one is more...traditonal I suppose, whereas the other is quite up for new approaches and angles. It is hard to say who is the best one to follow, so what I'm doing is taking the long view of the thing and tryng to incorporate some of what this second guy wants into this chapter, whilst reatining all the rest for use later. I can see where he is coming from - up to a point, but because he is probably the leading expert in this country, and probably the world in his own niche, it gets quite hard to disagree. I've said to him on occasion that I know exactly what he wants me to say, but I'm not going to say it, because i don't think he is right in my particular study (he doesn't know much about my particular area). The other one is much more open to just seeing how it pans out as he says I'm the expert in my bit and he is learning from me, the trouble is he has moved to another uni now, so is not around to chat with the other one as I suspect he used to do. i am going to take the second ones advice up to a point, but then I'm going to tell him that the rest of what he wants will appear in another chapter when I've got that one written! Plus I think the first will have more influence on who gets to examine it, so thats the one I will take most notice of in the long run. :$

I was at a meeting last week, and we got round to talking about how people fit the thesis into their life. One of them said that every morning she spends 3/4hour reading whilst her hubby gets breakfast sorted. I couldn't work like that even if it were possible. I think this is too short a time to get anything out of the reading. Another said she insists on having an hour when she gets into work - she is a lecturer at the uni -when she works on her thesis and has booked this time in her diary and nothing gets into this slot at all, ever. others said they do this too, but are all academics. Not working in the uni I could never do this, I can be asked to do something before I even get my coat off sometimes and would never say it's not in the diary so go away for an hour but does this principle work, say you said I will do this between 6-7pm every day, would this be productive? I'm not sure I could work like that but would it help me to work through the 30 odd books I have to get through sometime reasonably soon? I'm thinking I would just forget what I have read--not that I remember it all anyway of course

I'm in the same position too...perhaps its universal? I had two chapters ready to go, and enthusiastically received by one only to go to a meeting with the one who has really been out of the loop for months, who wants me to change it all around. I'm also having a bit of trouble getting them to get on and arrange the bits they have to do, I'm sure they are supposed to know what they have to do, but sometimes I wonder, its all very well them saying they have loads to do, so do I, and at least they are on campus so can pop in to see people. :-(. I'm having one of those time when there is too much to read, and too many notes to include, and I have forgotten half of the stuff I've made notes on, so I'm going to have to go through them all AGAIN. :$.

Boo!!!!
I need a good story, I've got one from someone I work with, but this will be mostly to humanities people so I need wow factor ones - although one of the people coming pleaded with me to do a presentation...as she said she couldn't wait to learn some more science, this time I'm taking along, amongst other things a gold leaf (well, aluminium leaf really) electroscope that is made out of a 2l pop bottle and a knitting needle, and a huge periscope which was made out of a box that some burettes came in

I agree, I think a note to say that the lateness is due to some personal circumstances that you are working your way through - perhaps it might be a good idea to indicate how long you think that might take, just so they know what to expect- and leave it at that. If they want more info they will ask for it. Do you not have a non-academic person/ supervisor assigned to you? We all have one here, although I've only met mine once and that was because we were unexpectedly grouped together at a session at the university, but at least I know someone is there if I need them.

this is just a quick question really. I'm doing a presentation soon and I just wondered if any of you could tell me what inspired you to study science? I'm really hoping it was something practical - not that I'm fishing of course.

for me there were two things, one was the first time I saw the collapsing can experiment - the one with that you boil the water in, turn of the heat source and screw down the top. The other was when my teacher decided to show us how carbon dioxide will put out a fire, he started the fire in a waste bin, then generated his CO2 - only he didn't make enough and had to use the real fire extinguisher to put out the now considerable blaze - health and safety was obviously not his top worry when he decided to do this, but it was quite exciting. I ought to add that a visit to the planetarium also had a part in it, but you can't hug a planet can you?

At the moment I am really a bit stuck. The idea/breakthrough bit is just sitting the other side of the fence and won't get to my side. I know its there, I can almost grab it...but not quite. I promised myself i would get this next chapter sorted by this weekend - I've got other stuff I need to do, and so much reading its unreal. I had a good go at starting another chapter which has gone well...but it isn't the one I'm supposed to be getting on with. I need silence to work to start with, to get the framework done, but after that it doesn't really matter, except I can't work to music, it makes me laugh when these people say put on music in class as it helps students concentrate, not everyone it doesn't, and of course there is the argument that you should revise under exam conditions because otherwise you can't recall stuff so well.

Once I've done enough reading to know where I am going I usually start writing without worrying about quotes to back up statements. Then when I have a good bit done I use my notes to find the quotes I need to back up what I have said.

What I want to know is how to keep loads of books in my brain, I've just re-read an article i must have read a year ago and its as though I'm reading it for the first time :-(

Incidentally - I don't think methodology does make sense, (hangs head in shame here, having written her methodology chapter and had it approved) but the book by Clough and Nutbrown 'A student's guide to methodology' might help.

:-)

i agree with the others that you should go if you want to do so, but I think it might be worthwhile just to drop your niece a short note to say you have found out about the event and will be attending to remember your sister, so that she will know you will be there, and it may defuse any scene that might occur if you are suddenly spotted. I assume she is quite young, relatively speaking, and this must have been very hard for her too, I imagine there is probably some underlying feeling of anger against your sister for 'abandoning her' and you are the target of that anger -sorry I'm not a psychologist, but you get my meaning, I'm sure. sometimes people turn on the very person they really want to receive comfort from in case they get hurt again. The rest of the family may well be being bullied, but may also be treading warily around her, giving her 'the benefit of the doubt' etc.. This will probably be a hard thing for you, whatever you decide but just go with your instinct and do what you think is best regardless of your niece, this is, after all, an event that will never happen again so you owe it to yourself to make sure you do not regret your actions whatever they may be.

It was my birthday last week - and I can outdo the lot of you. I do listen to classical music sometimes, although mostly the loud stuff, I hate the tinkle tinkle kind and am more likely to have a bit of heavy metal on really, although I can't work to music at all. I do read the broadsheets, but then I've done that since I was much younger. I still wear trainers etc. and do not go into gastro pubs if I can avoid it (but then I wouldn't go to a nightclub either of course!). I'm still a bit of a rebel at heart, and am nowhere near retiring to a corner. :-) I didn't do that before and I'm certainly not doing it now. The only thing you have to worry about is the number of candles on the cake may set off the fire alarm if you are not careful.

This is a difficult one, and as others have said there is no real 'right' time. However whatever people say, there are very few amongst us who can have it all, there are choices to be made. I gave up a very rewarding job, with research elements that were exciting and where every day was different, had my own labs etc. to have my children. There was no other option, my professor didn't like woment to be married, and if they had children well that was beyond the pale - I must add here that he would never get away with the same thing now, but he was over 70 at the time and came from a different era, and that's life. I stayed at home with them -luckily we could afford that- and I can't say I didn't enjoy that bit too, but there was no way back. I remember phoning up once when there was a drive to get people back into my field, and the woman who answered the phone and to whom I explained what I had been doing suggested that they needed someone to wash up in the labs, and would I like that job (well actually no I wouldn't). You may be in a better position with new employment laws, but all the laws in the world do not make the impossible possible. A few may successfully combine home, family and career, but as far as I can tell most have to compromise and it isn't an easy choice to make. On the other hand, you could be like me and start again in a completely different area once they kids have grown up:-)

I work on a different pattern, working in a school I tend to do research work involving writing during the school holidays, and at weekends when I can have longer stints, and maybe do some reading during the week,depending upon other things I have to do and the workload at school. For the last month I guess the school has taken over as I've been involved in loads of A level science practical exam work, but I have still had 'thinking time' which I regard as a very important part of research, only a week and a bit to go to the holidays when I can get the stuff in my head down on paper - or compter screen. :-)

I'm really not so sure about that one, not in the way he writes anyway, the writing appears to be more for the 'intellectuals' of the time rather than for those people who are the subject of his work. As I mentioned somewhere before, when I said I was reading Capital, someone said ' which capital is that about then, London?' Makes you think