myResearchSpace

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 ...

Today, instead of making any instantly-recognisable progress on my thesis, I've spent many hours playing Squish. No, it's not really a fun game. Note that it is typically played using LaTeX. I'm not sure whether it adapts easily to Word. Here are the rules: 1. Your supervisor will usually initiate a game of Squish. A typical ...

It would be really great if someone would invent a thesis detergent. You know, something to get rid of those annoying marks they always seem to pick up when they go off to visit with the supervisor. I mean, you send it off to them all nice and clean, with sparkling white margins. Then a few days later they come back via Information Superhighway ...

(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) ...

I wonder if the stresses of PhD research was what Mylo had in mind when writing the song ''Dr Pressure''? Somehow, I think not, but you never know... Anyway, I am starting to feel those stresses as I look at my diary this morning and realise I only have about 50 days left to finish! All I can really do is take it one day at a time and just get ...

Another fortnight, another meeting. Another meeting, another change of notation. Yes, I'm learning the new dance step called the Notation Rotation. And this proves that it really does take two (or three, if more than one of your supervisors gang up on you) to tango. You make the first move. You put forward one notation for something. This is then ...

I want to say I'm sorry to people who may have been waiting for a blog entry from me for a while. I don't have a much of an excuse. It's not like I've been away on holidays or something. Although I enjoyed the two extra days away from writing last weekend, I've put in some work on my thesis each university working day. This is in contrast to ...

I have spent the past few days editing my 'background' chapter of my thesis. Not surprisingly, it's the longest chapter. The problem was that it was TOO long. The other problem was that all of it seemed relevant for inclusion. It was thus difficult to find parts that I could cut. One skill that I have learned while doing this is how to say things ...

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 ...

...there is now not a question. It's not to be. Let me explain. This is my latest gripe about the writing style of my supervisors, which hence affects what writing style I'm allowed to have in my thesis. Apparently, I'm not allowed to use any conjugation of the verb ''to be'' before an equation. Here's an example to clarify things. In quite a lot ...