myResearchSpace

Today marks 500 days since I officially began writing my thesis. Notice that I didn't say that I've been writing for 500 days, because there are some weekends in there when I didn't do any writing. I really had hoped to have submitted before the big 500, but alas, yet again, the dream has died. In fact, when I mentioned to one of my supervisors ...

I'm sorry to say, but today marks my 4 1/2 year mark of being a PhD student. And I am even sorrier to say today that my scholarship expired. So, I'm going to be 'roughing it' until I can find any sort of employment, the search for which is still being unfruitful. I submitted my nomination of examiners form this week, so that should be on its way ...

(a small diversion - has anyone else ever confused the beginnings of the songs ''Under Pressure'' by Queen and ''Ice Ice Baby'' by Vanilla Ice? 'Cause I have...) Well, I've just finished a meeting with my supervisors. The first piece of news was that one of our potential examiners has left on summer holidays (he's from the northern hemisphere) ...

On the weekend I passed a milestone that I had hoped I would never come to in the first place - my fifth birthday whilst a PhD student. How naïve I was to think all those years ago that I'd be finished in three years, three and a half at the most. It has now been well over four years since I started down this path. The one promising piece of ...

Cue the very 80s sounding music of the same title that has been used to death for just about every Australian election television coverage that I can remember. With some fair amount of horror, I realised today that I am meant to submit my thesis in 100 days. Cue doomsday-esque music and evil maniacal laugh. I REALLY don't want to have to ask for ...

...to me! With all the talk of weddings on here lately, I thought it only appropriate to recognise my own anniversary. And no, I'm not married. It has been exactly one year since I started writing my thesis. Sure, I started planning its structure well before then, back in 2005. But the first genuine words of paragraphs were input through this same ...

One of my most cherished possessions in recent weeks (/months) has been a set of headphones and some music I have copied across to my computer from CDs. ''Why?'' I hear you ask. It's an interesting thing to cherish. One reason is that the music can relax me when I feel stressed. The other reason is that it can drown out noise, say from the ...

I was recently informed by a third party that my co-supervisor has had constraints imposed upon them by an employer so that apparently they are only allowed to spend half an hour a week on me! I have a one hour meeting each fortnight, which translates to, you guessed it, half an hour a week. These meetings are held simultaneously with my main ...

And so I now have a hard deadline (although technically I had one before, just not so much in bold print) to submit my thesis in the next six months. With that realisation comes pressure...pressure to get it done, so that all my supervisors (and I guess me, but you know I don't count for much) are happy. On the other hand, as I approach the four ...