Morning all.

Aims for today - carry on with doing a restructure for chapter 1 on paper, until 12 noon. Scruffy scribbled plan is fine, as long as it's the whole chapter in its new shape with subheadings and I know where all the content goes. Even if there's too many subheads that are too obvious and it's a bit 'playschool' that's ok as I can delete them afterwards.

Anyone else around today....?

Anyway, I'll get on with it now as I'm back at work on Wed so the clock is ticking, and I will be cross with myself if I haven't done enough by then.

*yawn*

But I'll have a coffee first...

======= Date Modified 14 Sep 2008 20:08:06 =======
Hi everyone,

Krashty, congratulations on getting to the printing out stage - excellent work!! Hearing about others getting to the end is great, as it seems so far off sometimes when you're struggling along.

Armendaf, I'm doing the same as you really, restructuring.... I'm more worried about getting sucked into the whirl of stress when term starts than anything else, it's always chaotic in the autumn but there's other stuff going on too, so it's a bit of a strange atmosphere at the moment - not really conducive to doing PhD work as well.

Lara, hope your work is going well. What happened with the dead pc situation?

Pari, good luck on finishing your work tonight.

I've had enough for today I'm afraid, am really tired and fed up with it. Restructuring this chapter is a nightmare, I've ended up going through each flipping paragraph and working out where they should all go, whether another chapter, a different section or whatever. I don't know if it will work or not this way, but I don't think there is an easy solution really, so maybe it's what looks like the best compromise of several choices. I know it's the worst chapter to rewrite as it's got to be well structured and argued as it's one of the strongest theoretically, and when this is done the rest should be easier. Sorry to moan, I'll watch some telly and have an early night, I think. It'll look better tomorrow and there's still time to catch up with my deadline.

Hope the rest of you workers get lots done tonight!
See you tomorrow.

A happy medium might be better - enthusiasm for your research topic is more likely to appeal to a potential supervisor than being 'just interested'. The 'lifelong passion' may or may not come later. If you're not really that curious about what you're researching, you are less likely to sustain the motivation to see it through to completion. A keen student looks a better bet to see it through to the end, rather than someone who doesn't sound bothered one way or the other at the very beginning.

Also think about why they might want to supervise you - why they are the ideal person for your proposal and not someone else in that field, and why it would be interesting to them to be involved with your research. Unless they're being pressured to take on new students, they need good reasons to take you on, rather than to swell the student numbers or just because you want them to.

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 23:39:00 =======
Hello!

Well, that'll do me for tonight. Can't say I've done much apart from tinkering with this first chapter but no doubt I'll speed ahead with it tomorrow!

Lara, I hope you get the results section done tonight - you're nearly there!!

Armendaf, it's great that you've got so far with chapter 3, a lovely discovery if you're nearer to the end than you thought - yay indeed!!

Pari, thank you - my mum did seem very happy!! I probably neglect my family horribly at the moment with all this PhD stuff, but not forever! Hope your work goes well tonight.

List of things I want to do after submitting???? Oh yes, that 'getting a life again' list!!! Haha, I know it well!!! Mainly like your two lists really...

Catch up with friends and family
Go to lots of exhibitions
Go to more gigs
See more films
Do a bit of DIY
Start doing some gardening again.
Sleep a lot
Sort out my clothes and do a bit of shopping for new stuff.
Start thinking about work-related things a bit without actually doing them (thinking is nice and will be quite enough at that point!)...mainly a good idea for my fellowship application for the next academic year, and an idea for something for a festival being organised for next summer.

Hope you get a good evening's work done, night owls!
See you tomorrow.

Hi,

Blimey Lara I'm so sorry about your computer problems. The sods almost have minds of their own, set to thwart us when we really don't need it. So glad you've backed it all up though, a bit of paranoia really helps in those cases. I hope your dad's friend can fix it for you asap (fingers crossed, and any other superstitious unscientific things I can think of.) Good thing you've got the prehistoric laptop as a backup, even if not perfect at least you can carry on with stuff. Bring forward the bubble bath with a bit of Elvis if you get sick of it, makes me work better after a crap day.

Armendaf, impressed by you carrying on last night, excellent stuff! Good luck with chapter 3.

I've been at my mum's all day as it's her birthday, really nice afternoon, but I was itching to get back to work after a while. I'll have something to eat and be back later for the night shift.

See you later - hope it's going ok, Lara.

Hello!

I've calling it a night now - at least I've done the corrections from my first load of feedback for this chapter, and done some editing. Better than nothing! Don't want to sound indecently pleased with myself (but obviously I am going to do just that haha!) but I read through the feedback from my old chap4 and it was full of great comments, things like another excellent/wonderful/chapter/ paragraph etc!!! 8-) At least it means that one won't need a huge amount of corrections - woohoo! Maybe I'll get all 4 chapters done by Oct after all at this rate.... I'm still cutting it a bit fine though.

Armendaf don't worry if you don't get much done, you've had a long day, haven't you.
Lara hope you've made enough progress on your little sections tonight and get a proper night's sleep too.
Hi Pari!

Goodnight!

Yep, still around for a bit, have just had something to eat and am back on the case.

Lara, I loved your train to deadsville comment - really excellent, LOL!!!! And your Elvis concert outing, very funny too - oohh wouldn't it have been great to see the real thing at the start of his career, must have been exciting!! Good luck with your subsections tonight!

Armendaf, you've got loads on if you've got a meeting as well - good if you've got the extension sorted though, should get you back on track for submitting. Thanks for advice about doing any little bit, you are right, it all needs doing and takes time.

Train to deadsville...what a brilliant song title it would be hehe!! The Monkees, eat your little wholesome hearts out - Clarkesville's got nothing on us.

Anyway, just about to start rejigging my first chapter after chopping bits out of the other 2, should give me a better place to start tomorrow. See you later.

tights

dole

pale

nose

Morning all,

I'm not cruising through this either, it's a horrendously tortuous process at the moment. Yep Lara, wading through a swamp sounds about right. We are swamp things. Oh well, even tacky B movie monsters emerge from the black lagoons and swamps eventually, don't they, so there is hope for us normal humans!! At least you did the table even though it took ages, it would be such an easy thing for an examiner to spot a sloppy mistake in it, if you hadn't done it right - so you've saved yourself from doing another correction in the future!

Armendaf I was wondering that too, when are you planning to submit? I'm scheduled for Jan 09, or Feb at very latest and then my time is up!!! It's now or never, as Elvis puts it so very succinctly. Loads of time compared to you two, but have to be careful and stick at it, as juggling it with work needs seriously rigorous timetabling etc.

Anyway, I'd better get on with it, I need to try to get this chapter done and another started by end of Tuesday. See you later.

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2008 09:41:41 =======

slime

dwelt