Oops. Didn't get your joke, Coastman. Sorry.

Coastman - you are a misleading so-and-so. I am sure you told us once you had been away protecting the coasts. But you are really a physics geek!

I was the only girl in my physics class in my final year of high school - all those boys were so geeky. Funny, caring guys, but so nerdy! They used to stare at me during class like I was a different species.

If it is okay with you, I will keep imagining you as the hot surfie-beachie type instead.

Both my parents, my brother and my sister went to university - I am the first to do a PhD though.

When I was a kid I didn't know that you had to chose a course/field at uni - I just thought it was like primary school where everyone did the same work. When people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I just said "go to university".

A labcoat.

I am Australian and a cricket fan, so I am really comforted right now!

Okay, so I gave this whole 'write as much as you can for set time no matter how crap it is' thing - and it bloody works. I was having a brain freeze panic every time I sat in front of a blank page to write my final discussion, so as I said I would, I tried this technique today. I typed without really stopping (except to check the cricket score a couple of times!) for about 30 mintues. What I wrote was poor wording, bad spelling, lots of terms I would never put in my thesis (such as 'amazing'!) - but at the end I had 3 pages of writing which I am now finding easier to rework than an empty page.

Give it a go, fluffymonster, if you haven't already. It might work for you too.

I choose (a) Normal.

When I started, it took about 3 months for me to work out what I was supposed to be doing and the whole time I felt useless and a fraud for being at uni.

In the end, I only worked it out by asking my supervisor to explain everything to me like I was 10 years old. It was completely humiliating to have to ask that, but at least I understood then and could work out what I had to do to start. I am sure he has forgotten all about it now, so I don't care that for a couple of days afterwards he must have been asking himself "what kind of a moron have I taken on here?".

The whole sitting down and writing a lit review ASAP seems a bit pointless to me. I still find information now (4 years later) that I could have mentioned in the lit review - but back then I had no idea about looking beyond my immediate field for answers and ideas. I wouldn't stress about the LR too much. I am confident it will all fall into place for you in a few weeks. Good luck!

Gosh, loopylou, I am sorry to hear that. Maybe you need to talk to your doctor or find some ways that might help you minimise your stress. Meditation? Yoga? Exercise? Medication?

I read somewhere stress will make it happen and then a friend of a friend had it happen (she was going through a divorce). Since then I have worried that it will happen to me too, because in the last 12 months I have had all sorts of worries (not just PhD, but that was a big part of it).

Hope you get better soon, loopylou.

I agree, Ann. But it is only 9am here!

Have to share a highlight of my week with everyone. Got first draft of last results chapter back from my supervisor - it was 32 pages of writing he had not seen before. I had been scared because I thought I had gone off on a tangent with it a bit. Plus, I had been a bit brave and put in some of my own opinions on what other authors have claimed previously.

But his words were "smokin'" and "a very good chapter indeed"!!!! Wow! That is a very big compliment coming from him. I am so happy!

I have to agree with Life of Pi also - so unique.

H - The Lovely Bones made me cry too. I just loved the authors idea of what happens to us after death - no mention of religion or god.

I think it is unanimous, athina: Life of Pi, Time Travellers Wife, The Lovely Bones. Wish I could go back and enjoy all 3 for the first time myself!

I'm in the same boat as you, fluffymonster. I have a whole draft and can't put off the dreaded final discussion...it is todays task!

I'm in science, so it is just an overview of the mini-discussions and trying to pull them together to some final point(s). Other people from my lab wrote about 6-8 pages, so much shorter than socsci. I have a separate 'Future Directions' section.

My supervisor said the final discussion is also the time to comment/discuss any relevant work that has been published in my field since I started my PhD (my literature review/introduction is a snapshot of the field at the time I started my PhD, 2002).

I was thinking I would just try the 'make yourself write non-stop for 15 minutes without caring what you write or how bad it sounds' approach so that at least I have something on paper to work around. Maybe that approach would help you - no harm in trying it? Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Recently finished 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold and 'The Time Travellers Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. Would recommend them both.

Thanks brajbio. I had the alignment I wanted using Clustal, but just wanted a programme to colour the areas of homology for aesthetics. I found a free, downloadable programme online called Genedoc which did exactly what I wanted - it is great and free and useful for little luddite me. Genedoc finds the residues that are conserved and also allows for motifs such as active sites to be highlighted in a different colour. It was all for making my thesis look pretty. Thanks again.

How is sylvester not real? Is there a big secret I don't know about?

Nimrod, I think you are right - it is heavily dependent upon field. I am in science (microbiology mainly) and while I was a tiny bit slack in the first 2 years (not mega-slack though), I worked pretty damn hard for the last 2 years.

In the last 6 months I was trying to finish benchwork, my boyfriend had already moved 800 km away to live (with our dog and all our belongings...sob), time was running out, plus my scholarhsip had run out 6 months before, I was doing 10-12 hour days in the lab every day - Saturday and Sunday. I survived only because my mother-in-law brought me food parcels - she is a great cook!

DJW - you must be really efficient when you work and you must be really organised. You are lucky. No 5 hour days for me in the last 2 years. I guess not having to work with fickle bacteria would help.