Although my uni has a list as long as your arm of possible travel funds, thay all specify something that excludes me - like the travel has to be cultural, should broaden your mind(!), involve community work, be to North America, related to a specific subject area...and my department just gave me a big fat no! (they said my supervisor should pay for it, which is fair enough if he had the money!) The professional organisations belong to nearly always specify that the conference has to be organised by them. I did manage to get some money after a long search, but it was REALLY difficult and I certainly wouldn't have been able to find money for eight conferences! Maybe I'm just unlucky that those organised by the professional organisations haven't been relevant.

are you going to have to celebrate with her if she passes?

Where do you get the money from???!

just to clarify - it's not a rule that we don't go to conferences! I am allowed to go, although in practice it's difficult to find the funding, and have been to a conference by myself...

fifth line should read TYPICAL

Why don't you send her something in that flashing text you can do in word - I think it's called sparkle text?

Is it typical for an individual student to attend a conference on their own - i.e. without some other members of their group? The question sounds really daft now that I've put it into words, but stems from the fact that I'm in a situation where the other members of my group DO NOT GO to conferences, for a variety of reasons, and I don't like it! Believe me, I KNOW that we're not here primarily to be one big friendly group who go on holiday (conferences) together, but it is nice to find people who share your interests and enthusiasms. I don't want to go on too much, just to gauge whether my situation is tyical, and whether I am justified in feeling a bit grieved by it. The happy smiling group pictures that I see on the web don't fit with my experience of PhD life...I'm not looking for sympathy here, just feeling a bit down today because a conference that I'm NOT at is just starting as I write this :(

do you actually have the option of refusing?

Mia, scientists would ALWAYS publish jointly with their supervisor, even if the research was 'just' the supervisor's idea and the student did all the work. I want to have three papers published, but so far have none...and I'm in my last year, so I'm hoping for lots of last minute results. I think ONE paper (in the sciences) per PhD is about the average, but there are people in my department who have published 11 papers - so sickening. That's theoretical work though (that makes it sound awful, but I'd admire them a lot more if they had published 11 experimental papers - I'm not even sure that wuold be possible).

Okay, I checked the PhD regulations which say "To allow the thesis to be examined in time for graduation at a particular date, the deadlines" are May and September, so there is a subtle difference with what I had thought - IN TIME FOR GRADUATION AT A PARTICULAR DATE (summer and winter respectively) - but any time is okay... that's good to know.

yay! it's probably my favourite on the FIRST CD, I (stupidly) put the second CD in a different place on my mp3 player and forgot about it - d'oh. All week I've been thinking 'weren't there more songs than this?'

is anyone else listening to the new red hot chili peppers' album? Isn't the guitar solo at about 2.18 of 'she's only eighteen' the best you've heard in a while (from anyone)?!

he's gone! I'm not quite sure what we're looking at now?

Ann, I saw Fredddie glow too. At least you worked out WHY he was glowing though! I was just genuinely freaked out!

May 2007 that is...