======= Date Modified 13 Jan 2011 09:02:30 =======
oops, posted twice for some reason!

Hey everyone

@Batfink - I think I get what I'm doing, its just the data has a lot missing. AMOS doesn't deal with missing data very well unless you impute it (and then I have no idea what I'm doing). Mplus - which is more like doing it in SPSS syntax works with missing data....but I haven't got the program and can't afford the £100 it costs (especially as this isn't my PhD work!)

I have to do some analysis today, but I also need to get some other work done before hubby comes home tomorrow evenign (as would be nice to spend some time with him as not seen him since sunday)

Goal 1: work out what I'm supposed to be doing :p

Right I've worked out what I'm doing :p

Goal 1: COnduct statistics and write up in nice format for sup.

Crap, crap, crap. I have just spoken to the research office at the uni I am applying to do my Postdoc at and have been told they need the application completed 10 working days before any deadlines. This gives me until next Tuesday. Crap, crap, crap. I have gone into total panic mode. Next goal get in touch with the lady who needs to project the costs for me (why isn't she answering the phone!) and try and give her the info she'll need.

My next goal is to make a list of the costs of the project (how the hell am I supposed to decide right now where I'll be tarevlling next year?) and to email these to my mentor.

Tonight is going to be a long night :-(

Good luck star-shaped! And - umm - remember to draw breath too!

Sneaks - sounds like you have a much better idea of all that stuff than me (to be expected, given that you're a lot further on with the phD!) - hopefully one day I'll know all this stuff too....

Made good progress this morning, feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with the design of my questionnaire. Going to tidy up the current draft a little then leave it and come back a little fresher tomorrow. This afternoon, I'll do some brainstorming of interview questions and then read some journal articles.

Hi all, finally need to get serious and motivated! Parents have gone home now my twin baby has had his operation. Babies happy and packed off to childminder. Quiet and peaceful house, yeah!

My thesis editing is getting tedious.
Job 1. Having lost 6300 words, have just 700 left to lose.
Job 2. Ch3 Graphs to finish annotating.
Job 3. Ch 4, 5 and 6 graphs to annotate and add in.
Job 4. Add reference list
Job 5. Compile list of abbreviations.

That should keep me going for about a month lol. Will make a start today :-)

Setting up Mendeley and hoping to read a previous thesis.

Phew, everything is working out OK. I have spoken to my mentor who was very pleased with the Case for Support I sent to him last night. He has also managed to negotiate an extra few days on the deadline with the research office. So maybe I will find time to sleep tonight after all!

My next goal is to go through the case for support I'm trying to write for a different grant which I'm finding really difficult as it a 'real' grant rather than a Postdoc. I am meeting my supervisor about it tomorrow. There are loads of things I need to ask her advice on so I will make a note of each of these.

Hope your baby is okay after operation Dunni :-), puts things in perspective which I am sorely lacking just at the moment.

Goals should be in manageable chunks I know but all of a sudden the heat has been turned up and those chunks will have to get bigger. Of the group who started at the same time as me (all sorts of different topics) three of us are expecting[ed] to submit this summer. My target had been August but now it seems a first (full) draft is expected March/April for a July submission. Therefore I just have the one goal, ie to write up my PhD!

A friend of mine successfully passed her viva a week ago (only one minor correction, should take about an hour). Her advice to me, on sensing my total panic (and I pass it on to anyone who is interested), is not to be tentative in the analysis section and to have faith and be, and sound strong. Easy, right??

I can do it :-), no I don't think I can :-(, I can do it:-)

Am totally panicking

urgh, just had to pay uni tuition fees before they send bailiffs round :-( hate tuition fees :-(

Right. My next goal is to finish drafting out my Case for support (which I'd expected to have finished before lunch, before I got sidetracked).

Hi Ady, yep baby battered, bruised and now with incision infection, arghhh! V clingy during the day so no hope of working but am valuing the child free time. An emotional rollercoaster that leaves me little motivation for my thesis!

Sacrificed a small tree by receiving a printed copy of my thesis today. I have some editing and figure inclusions but it gives me a paper copy for formatting inconsistencies (or a new door stop and a years supply of toddler drawing paper :-x ). Submission seems more real now :-)

Ady - what is your friends secret, I dream of minor corrections. I totally understand your panic about writing it up. Seems like an insurmountable task but you will do it. As you can see my task are getting bigger too lol.

Sneaks - don't you love the universities 'happy new year and pay up or else' correspondance. I am theoretically due one soon but had a 6 months intermission so shouldn't pay til Sept 2011, sure they will forget! Will submit by then I hope!

My friend's [literally] one minor correction is to insert one paragraph stating her ontology/epistemology explicitly. They said it was there but needed to be stated more strongly. She is very strong on theory with the result that her viva, apparently, was very methodology focussed!!