juno, sometimes i'm more nervous in front of strangers - if i think i will be in touch with these people in the future (or, would like to be) and my presentation is going to be their first impression of me.
but usually, i am a confident speaker. i think i get my confidence from the fact that usually i am totally un-worried about my "impression" on people when i talk. i tend to be (sometimes embarrassingly) honest - my talks can be full of "i don't know" or "i think this might be...". somehow i just have this innate belief that my best is good enough, so there is no need to pretend anything else. i actually think that it's probably this confidence, which i think is visible, which lets me get away with not-so-good presentations (content-wise). good content presented insecurely comes across less well than little/bad content presented confidently...

in terms of tipps: i like using my little logitech presenter. you hold it in your hand and it has got buttons to switch forward/backwards on the ppt. that way, if you move around while talking (or even if the lectern is simply not immediately next to the computer, so you have to bend down, for example, to reach the computer), you don't have to keep going back to the computer to get to the next slide. your presentation flows more smoothly. also, there is a laserpointer included in the presenter which you can use to point out details on the slides, for pictures for example. it also includes a timer: you can set the presenter to buzz in your hand when you have 5 minutes or 2 minutes left. i find that little "toys" like this help you make more use of the possibilities that ppt offers. it also makes me feel more "professional" and thus helps with nerves.

sometimes i find talks without powerpoint better than those with. powerpoint tends to make people lazy. i prefer a good, thought through non-ppt presentation to a bad ppt presentation.
in my book, ppt slides should not contain "prompters" for the speaker. why should the audience see your prompters? write your prompters on little cards or a sheet of paper. what the slides should contain is anything that makes the presentation more understandable, illustrates a point, makes it interesting and lively (if late in the day for example), helps the audience focus on the key point of all the things you are saying, helps them understand where in the presentation you are at, etc. sometimes quotes: if you are going to read out the whole quote anyway, it could help for understanding it precisely, especially for members of the audience who are non-native speakers.

hey cheeky,
i believe that those lists refer to the possibility for people wanting to study at that institution to apply for 1+3 and +3 funding. it has nothing to do with your MSc being good enough or not. it is not just you who has to qualify, your institution has to qualify, too. so, if your institution of choice for your PhD is not listed as a +3 outlet, you cannot get +3 funding for studying there - no matter how good your grades & qualifications.
to see if you yourself qualify for +3 rather than 1+3, you need to look at another list: the list of ESRC recognised Masters degrees. if neither of your masters is on that list, chances are slim (but not hopeless). perhaps you can make a case that you have equivalent education through your two masters and maybe some work experience or something.

so the next question is: does your post involve (formative) essay marking? if yes, how many essays per student, and how many students in those 6 hours, or in short, how many essays of which length, in total? that's what you need to consider, i'd say, and perhaps negotiate extra pay for the marking.

i think the question you need to ask is, would you be teaching 6 different topics, or one topic to 6 different class groups? cause that makes a significant difference to prep time! (or, 2 topics to 3 class groups each...)
i taught 2h this year, two groups of the same topic. i found prep time to be not a real issue at all. i went to the lecture (1h), i discussed the topic with my fellow class teachers (45min), did the reading (time varying), and put together a plan for the class (15min). sometimes i made a handout or a short powerpoint or quiz, that would take me an extra ca. 15 min.
however, i found the essay marking to be brutal. one batch of essays (25) took me about 10 full working days to get through (i was not the fastest, but tried to make comments that would be at least minimally useful).

on the other hand, some of the most successful PhDers are those who do not "get married" to their PhD, but rather look at it as a 9-5 job. the PhD need not be such a huge, difficult, life-changing thing (although of course, often it is). so if you have a good supervisor, nice colleagues, funding, an interesting topic, you could do just fine, even without being totally and completely fascinated and committed. or maybe THANKS to not being completely fascinated and committed. it helps to put perspective on some issues.
on the other hand, most likely you will reach a point at some time where you find interest and motivation waning. can you see yourself carrying it through even though?

i've heard good stuff about jabref too. however, if you use MS Word, i believe the function where you insert citations directly from the database to your text is not available, i think it only works in latex etc.
so if you're not working with MS products, it's really good. else, you might find key functions not available.

i have a cat, lucy, we got her some 2 months ago from the pet home. she's about 10-13 years old and nobody wanted her anymore because of her age, and because she was very shy and scared in the pet-home and wouldn't let anyone approach her.
she has settled in wonderfully. she follows us around all the time and always finds a place to sleep in the same room where i or my partner currently are. just this morning, as soon as the alarm clock went off, she jumped on the bed and started walking all over us, making it very clear that it is now breakfast time she still doesn't like being picked up and only rarely cuddles on my lap, but we're getting there.
now i just want to stay at home all the time to cuddle my cat and so we can keep each other company!

i'm a committed endnote-user.
- yes it does take a little getting used to in the beginning but it's worth the time 1000 times over.
- as has been said, the huge advantage of endnote is that it is very widespread. there are very likely courses at your uni and the IT-helpdesk would come to help you if you had a problem, and probably half of your colleagues use it too, so they would be a first point of reference for any help/questions.
- endnote also has these online functions (weblibrary, your references always accessible etc.) but i think that costs extra.

question: when you say you downloaded it, did you "buy" it? the freely available endnote-stuff are usually not the whole programme but rather just the web-version or something. the whole programme is quite expensive, even at student prices. that might be the source of your confusions.

i would also try the "paste special". maybe there is even a better version than the "paste as picture" though. just try them all out and see which one works best!

paste special is quite a useful tool in many situations, and far to little known. probably because "ctrl-V" is one of the few very well known keyboard shortcuts - ergo people never look at the menu - ergo you never realise that "pasting" goes far beyond just simple paste!

laney, the inheritance bit is because basically, you were already entitled to your inheritance before you got married, just that that person hadn't died yet. so it's part of your pre-marital belongings, not part of your earnings during marriage.

and, as with other pre-marital belongings, if you use that cash to pay for something, that something is yours (or at least the part you paid for personally) and not your partners.
but for housing there are some special rules, such as: even if the house is in your name only (is yours only), there is no way you can make your married partner leave, short of divorce or a court order in case of violence. due to being married, you gain the right to live in the "family house". so even if the house fully belongs to your husband, if he hits you, he has to leave if the court so orders, and you get to stay.

sillybilly, i think my outlook on marriage is quite realistic. it goes: you can hope it will work and the chances of it working increase with the effort you put into it. but you cannot count on it working. ergo, you have to consider "what if". knowing myself, i also believe that it has most chances to be successful if i "keep my own life".

statistics say that those couples who lived together/were together for most years before they got married are much more likely to break up than those who get married soon after getting together. what do you all make of this? i guess it bodes ill for my partner and me, as we've been together for 7 years and lived together for 4.5 years...

hang on a moment, can someone explain please? if pre-nuptials aren't legal in britain, is there just one and one-only form of marriage contract? i know that in switzerland, there are three versions - a standard one and two others that you can sign up to. standard is more or less "shared gains": anything that either person of the couple earns throughout the time they are married belongs in equal parts to both of them, but anything either of them owned before they got married, and personal inheritances they receive, keeps belonging to them individually. but you can also agree to "divided goods": in this case what each person earns remains his/hers. in either case, marriage entails a duty to support each other, no matter if you decide to share your money or not. so can someone clarify: if i were to get married in britain, would half of what i own immediately belong to my hubby? (and vice versa) or are there options to that?

i'm not saying this cannot make happy partners and families. just saying that i myself would not be happy in a relationship to which i feel both partners do not commit equally.
i also feel a bit affronted by your implying that this "kind of relationship" is somehow wrong, not good. correct me if i'm incorrect and it was not a rhethorical, but honest question. if i do get emotional about it, it's mostly because people (such as you, maybe) do not accept my opinion which is an opinion about my own situation and thus i expect others to respect it as much as i respect their choices about their own situations.