Buy a raw cod and slap some of the stuck up, boring postdocs with it.

Followed by pouring ice from the ice making machine down their lab coats. 8-)

Don't worry about. More embarrassing things can happen. It's called life. At least you have the excuse you were drunk. They won't even remember it (or most of it) in a month or so time. I bet they've done worse things in important company in their time.

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Have you tried the technique? Maybe your supervisor is onto something. Just because it says in a paper it doesn't work, doesn't mean it won't. Also in any research project, there is trail and error until you find the right way of doing something. It'll be too easy just and not much of a challenge to be spoon fed a guaranteed way of getting good results. I only had 2 months to do my MSc project and there was an issue with one technique which held up writing my thesis. I eventually found a number of papers pointing out a crucial stage of the methodology my supervisor left out. I discovered it two weeks before the deadline. Oh well, it worked out in the end and now I'll never forget it.

You have still a very long time and it sounds like you're spending too much time researching, instead of just trying it out and seeing for yourself. I'm on a 2 year project at the moment (not study) and 5 months in I've already made many mistakes and had numerous failed experiments, only to learn from them and improve my techniques and now I'm starting to ripe the rewards of my hardwork by getting very interesting results. :-)

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I read today that someone got a PhD in texting, which is just sad. She only examined the texts of around 250 people, which isn't a lot, and therefore not repersentative....and it took her 3 1/2 years to do this! Sounds very boring and pointless (apparantly one of her conclusions were the texts were pointless :S). I'd rather watch paint dry! She also claimed that texting doesn't affects language skills...maybe if she spent the time examining children's and teenagers' writing skills instead she'll think differently. She hopes to study texts made by children next...but children shouldn't be texting in the first place....

I found my research position on jobs.ac.uk. It also advertises jobs aboard. I got it with a master but it's in microbiology.

Hi as there's now an university jobs section in the website, there should be a forum for it too. It would be great to chat to other university staff.

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Btw if you have PhD, how can you feel timid and stupid? Your PhD had to be accepted...isn't that enough assurance in your competence?

I feel like that in my job sometimes...but my project so far seems to be going well. Every mistake or piece of theory I don't remember makes me feel like this. I expected so much more of myself. I feel like with my education and experience I should be better.

How does this disturb your work? Are they noisy? Do the men intermediate you? (Like by sitting around watching tv, being in your way).

If it's all out of your way and it's just a matter not agreeing with her lifestyle, I'm afraid that's life and sometimes when living with other people, we have to put up with stuff to a certain degree. But if it's actually affecting you substantially, as in you can't get work done, then you could try talking to her, like asking her to put music down or whatever the problem is and explaining why it's disturbing. Alternately you could study elsewhere like the library, which could save arguments and bad feelings. Speaking from experience.

I got one of the jobs. A research position for 2 years at the uni of Birmingham. So my future is secure for now. :)

I can see why if you can only see your partner once a month. It's kind of takes the point away from having a relationship (no offense, I say it out of sympathy). I advise that you look into ways of meeting up with her more often. Like by saving up, asking friends to drive you over and you pay part of the gas (if they're are proper friends they should understand). Also booking in advance might get you cheaper fares.

You could take some time off and go down and stay at hers for a while. There's no need to be alone, I know you said you're poor, but if you could afford a cat you can afford to spend more time with your partner. Being frank here.

Hi thanks for the reply. I have two job interviews coming up, so at the moment the situation doesn't seem as drastic as before. I've since gone off the idea of doing another master.