Flight of the Conchords is fantastic! I too highly recommend them to all.

most research councils in the UK stipulate that you need either a 2.1 or a 2.2 and a masters, so technically, you are eligible for funding (i'm sure you already know that!). But whether you get funding or not depends on so many other things, e.g. relevant experience, motivation, communication skills, intelligence, specialist knowledge e.t.c. In most cases, it's these other things that you will be judged on.

(I think this is vaguely relevant)...I only got about three hours sleep last night, completely spaced out today, cannot focus! Off to a seminar in a bit, no way on earth am i going to stay awake. I know i'm not going to be able to focus on work this afternoon either, WHAT A WASTE OF A DAY!!!

Sort of, eddi. my sup has his own office, and i am outside in an open plan area with other postgrads/docs, so we are not in each other's faces all the time. When i see him, though, i feel more inclined to work harder (prob a good thing), and the days he is away, i have a more relaxed approach to my work (prob a bad thing!). So i suppose if i was no where near my sup, i would get nothing done.

You're a braver man than me, chris

Hey eddi, i'm going through the exact same thing at the moment. So much to do, and so hard to focus. The only thing that keeps me awake is the intermittent shot of adrenalin that goes through me everytime my supervisor walks across the office. I've tried taking a break/doing other things but that only makes me feel more guilty, and i return to the 'real' work even more stressed. Hope we both snap out of it soon!!

That sucks girlie. This happened in my lab too. I got off easy, i just lost a few spare bits of tissue samples. But other people in my group lost hundreds of pounds worth of compentent cells, cDNA libraries, hundreds of tissue samples, all sorts!

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I often think it would be good if i take one aspect of my experience and make a career out of it (e.g. writing) but then i realise that my heart isn't truely in writing and i would miss out on all the aspects of evolution i enjoy the most (e.g. lab work) plus i have no training as a journalist!

Sorry i can't actually offer any advice! But i just wanted to point out that this must be a very common feeling amongst budding evolutionary biologists everywhere.

I found this the other day, it might be of some interest:

http://www.iob.org/general.asp?section=education_careers/education_iob/careers/week_life

Odd feeling of deja vu, did you post something similar to this a while back? Anyhoo, i'm in evolutionary biology too, and i often worry about the same thing. My research experience is in genetics/ecology/biodiversity and i struggle to see how any of my lab experience/knowledge is transferable to biotech/industry type research (i don't know one end of a protein from the other). I fear that i have left myself with little choice but academia.

We have a postgrad society, although its only been running since october last year. It's really good, there's usually socials every other week, mostly alcohol related! they do things like quizes, drinks, dinners etc. It is really good to meet like-minded people, and to have some fun.

Good stuff, well done!

ah, you'll be fine. Bucket loads of confidence, award winning smile, what could be easier?

I'm feeling the odd cosmic energy xeno. Haven't been able to drag myself out of bed before 9 all week. I've acheived nothing today, despite having so much to do. my research has actually been going better than ever in the last 2 weeks, so you'd think i'd be more motivated, but there is something stopping me from getting stuck into real work. Must be the weather. It's all too much for me!

I often feel like I don’t want to complete my PhD too (I’m in my second year). But then I realise that I’m just looking for the easy way out, because deep down I’m a lazy git and I would prefer NOT to do hard work when I have to. I guess you have to ask yourself whether you’ve genuinely lost all the passion and interest in biology/science that you started with, or whether you are just looking for the easy way out of PhDhood? You don’t have to answer! Just be honest with yourself and have a think about it.

lol! oh my god, i can't bare it