I know what you mean sneaks, although today I've sunk into such a pit of despair that I don't even think the evening work will happen. I wish I had a dog to walk.

As for my hubby, he's next door also working from home, and from his continual typing and conference calls comes a crushing reminder of my relative inadequacy.

You may be right that there's something going on, a quick glance at facebook sees expletives and misery in the status updates of almost everyone I know - what has happened?

I know this is an oldish thread now but oh catalinbond, how you've summed up my feelings today. I simply cannot be arsed. I just don't care. I must be the laziest bastard alive. I've tried to be positive, I've tomatoed, I've had nice tea, but I really no longer remember why I'm doing this. Writing the thesis just equals further stress in revisions, defence and career struggles. The idea of hacking away at this seemingly endless document just feels like more than I can face.
I know this phd lark is expected to be an emotional rollercoaster, but I'm motion sick now and I want to get off.

I would apply, absolutely. Showing you're determined to do a phd can only speak well of you. With funding so tenuous and studentships so competitive, no one should reasonably expect you to put all your eggs in one basket. Get in there!

Drat, got a bit pleased with myself on Monday and then totally wasted yesterday. Every time I open the dreaded T I have a hideous moment when I can't help but think of the document in its vast entireity *shudders*.

Still, need to work on chapter 4, as a bare minmium I want all the methodology section done today, preferably a chunk of results as well.

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Hey Bonzo,
Glad the meeting went well and congrats for responding so constructively! I'm not sure how the university would sit on your changing supervisors so if you do go ahead it might be worth discussing with your head of dept first.

Hooray for non-charging plumbers and cancelled meetings! I totally wasted yesterday as well so trying to crack the whip at myself today.

But if all you did was perform preliminary experiments with no publication, ie - presentation of data - how can you be accused of MISrepresentation of data? I take it your phd offer was withdrawn post references but prior to starting? Is there any way you could get someone else in your old department to vouch for you and reclaim the offer? Certainly I would use someone else as a referee in future.

I may be wrong here but I strongly suspect you have a legal case against this woman. If she caused you to lose your phd through allegations that she cannot substantiate then you'd have every reason to sue her. As far as I know she cannot allege misconduct unless she's carried out an appropriate investigation into the matter. I think senior academics get used to throwing their weight around and assuming they're above such things as employment law, they're not!

I'd look into it, both for the sake of your future career (why should you lose out over Ms Hitler?) and to stop her bullying others.

Mine were atrocious, I cringe every time I have to put them on an application form and just pray that they'll assume it's a typo! It really annoys me as all my results before and since are pretty high.

I went to a large convent school, it was a state school but probably marginally "better" than a lot of the non-religious ones in that area. I hated school until sixth form, didn't fit in and missed up to a third of it some years due to psychosomatic illness. But I got good grades, was on the Oxbridge list and so on....until A-levels. I loved sixth form, found my niche, and my grades went through the floor! The school persuaded my uni to take me anyway but I've never felt terribly bright since. I think I was reasonably lucky in my education, it was good for a state school and I don't imagine that my teen years would have been less painful anywhere else :p

Buy New Moon and cheer yourself up with it sneaks :-) you deserve a bit of joy to get you through these revisions.

Well the word count has gone a bit negative on account of editing, but I clocked up over 1500 fresh words today so that's a good feeling :-) Needed to as well given yesterday was a staring-into-space fest.
Want to see if I can get this next chapter done (well, all except the missing data bit) by the end of the month, then head back into the lab for final experiments.
But for now, some rehab in the pool and then dinner with friends.

Hmm, I can understand your concerns. When the purpose of research is to uncover the truth (or at least some reasonably unbiased interpretation of it), then altering your results because of corporate interests must feel a bit fraudulent. Makes you understand why journals insist on disclosure of all conflicts.

Do the alterations actually change your conclusions, or just make them a little more murky for the reader to discern?