and also, i am going to make a list of questions and problems to ask my 2nd sup, as i encounter them , so when i have my meeting with my 2nd sup, i'm all prepared with my list of questions.

so i've started a brand new page in my "paper memory notebook" titled.

"questions, queries, and help" july 14th 2008.
=======

miss spacey nice to hear from you! and i need a bomb aswell to get my butt into gear!

then woke up at 12.40pm and read my email from my 2nd sup, telling me they are both away from august 15th till mid sept! so there goes my plan of giving them my final draft to look at. so basically gotta extract all the help and feedback within the next 3 weeks before they go!

so been phaffing around and rethinking my plan and approach. so basically. i have to get all the help from them within the next few weeks before they go. which in a way is good. but now i have to rethink my strategy. so now i am going to concentrate on the *results* chapters for the next 3 weeks.
and complete:

chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5. and also chapter 6, which i can get help from my 3rd sup (i'm hoping!).

Sillybilly well done on your success on your lit review!!

Tractorgirl, I also enjoyed being outside! i kept saying to my brother, look at the sky, its so blue and beautiful!! lol well i kept saying that to anyone who was standing next to me. hahaha. but yah felt so nice to be outside!!! basically took the day off yesterday aswell. came back home and did some tidying up, and then looked through shed loads of papers and lab books looking for my notes on stats, found them eventually, went to bed at 3am. and made a plan!

once i get their feedback from the summary, i will ask my 1st sup, when he is prepared to sign my exam entry forms. and bring them with me when i have the meeting.

Thanks for the advice HazyJane.

okay so here's my plan. i will wait for their feedback and advice regarding the summary outline and then arrange a meeting with my 2nd sup and ask her for help with certain things i am stuck on, mainly the stats. and a few other things.

and then ask her, if i can give her chapters as they are completed, now that i am aware that she is going to be away from 15th august until mid sept.

basically. i am going to get all the help i can before they go away. because come september it will be too late. as i need to submit my thesis by sept 30th.

i agree, i need to go in and have a meeting with them. so i will ask my 2nd sup, when she is free for me to come in and have a meeting.

it is better to get the help i need from them now before they go away.

also chapter 6. which was supervised by a 3rd sup. i was thinking of asking him to look over my chapter, once ive completed it. do i send him an email today. and say something like, (i havent contacted him in months and months!) and say, once i've finished my chapter, would you mind looking over it and i would really appreciate some feedback and advice on how to improve it further. or should i wait till i've actually finished the chapter, and then approach him? and no need to give him "advance" warning?

he's abit scary and intimadating too!

help please

as joan bolker states in her book. now is not the time, to learn how to do sophisticated analysis but perhaps get someone else to do it for you. and then learn the fundementals behind it.

this is all my fault. i should have written my thesis last year instead of phaffing around with papers i really really wish i had gotten the letter of termination last year. i just kept avoiding thinking about submitting.

anywyas do i ask my 2nd sup, who i can speak to , that can help me with the stats? now that shes too busy ?

the only problem i have. is i really wanted help with statistics for chapter 5. my 2nd sup said the analysis i did is VERY BASIC. which i agree.

she now has told me she is very busy. so ergo wont be able to help me with improving the data analysis in particular the stats part.

so who do i ask for help on how to do statistics?
or do i crack open a stats book? or maybe ask for one to one tuition with a stats student or something?

i dont know how to do pairwise comparisons and i was thinking of doing chi-squared test, but dont know how to sort out my data to do that properly. im really bad at maths and stats!! is it too late to learn stats? ive always just focused on the biology aspect!

so this is what i think. they read the summary. give me feedback , tell me to include x.y.z. tell me first draft is rubbish lol. and im basically told to just get on with it, and take responsibility for checking my thesis myself before submission.

that is all fine. i dont mind at all, if they dont have time to read my final draft of thesis.

so i'm abit stuck now and basically buggered!

i was planning on giving them my thesis by 18th of august, for them to read and give me feedback and then have about a month to do final corrections. but obviously that aint happening! since they are both "away".

so what do i do?

i have given them my 1st draft, which is "incomplete" which they are refusing to read, becuase it's too long (180 pages) and they are too busy, obviously now i know *why* as they are preparing for this conference. so they asked for a summary of my 1st draft instead. which is fine. i dont mind, i understand they are too busy to read my first draft. and dont have time. i understand and i dont mind.


i sent the summary to them yesterday. we will no doubt have a meeting within the next few weeks when they can find time to see me. and once they have read the summary.

okay peeps i need your advice!!!!

i just recieved this email from my second sup, after sending them my summary/outline.

Hi Lara,
Just so you are aware, I will be away from 15th Aug to sometime in Sept. I am not sure when yet. I have a lot of things that need to be done before I go to the conference in Aug.

***** (1st first sup) is away in Aug too.

Regards

****(2nd sup)
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LOL your message about the terminator coming to get you on the 30th september made me laugh!! well at least it will be the two of us on the run! safety in numbers and all that!
--

awwww I am so happy I could help!! My pleasure!! well done!
i love your eureka moments!

the above taken from the website on how to deal with procrastination:

http://davidmaister.com/blog/18/Done-at-Last-Thoughts-on-Procrastination

which a forum member once told us about! but i cant find that thread anymore lol

"But there are deeper reasons for procrastination, and one is depression, which can make concentration difficult. Perfectionism, self-doubt and relentless self-criticism can also accompany depression—if you don’t think that what you will do is very good, or good enough, it’s hard to begin."Wendy Leibowitz

{quote}
"Divide everything you have to do into smaller, easy bites.

Set realistic time goals to complete your bite-size tasks, and then plan to take a break.

Promise yourself that you will only work for ten minutes.

Adopt the mental dump approach: just do something and plan to change it later. You can always revise what you’ve done. Most work needs refinement. Drafting something –anything – helps you to avoid your saying, “I didn’t do anything today.” You did, it just needs further work!

Tell yourself this is not supposed to be the best thing you’ve ever done. Tell yourself that you can write a “B” assignment. A completed assignment that is adequate is better than the best thing you’ve ever done that exists only in your head." {unquote}