Overview of button

Recent Posts

Interviewing participants- anyone ever do this?!
B

Thanks to both of you, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has experienced this!

The exercise thread
B

After my two months of NO exercise, I'm now off to Frankie and Benny's tonight :$

Interviewing participants- anyone ever do this?!
B

Hi guys, so I've been doing a few interviews recently as part of my MA, and at the moment I'm transcribing one.

What's bugging me though, and what has frustrated me in the past when transcribing, is the fact that I walk past obvious opportunities for the participant to discuss something in more detail. Instead of, for example, asking them to go into more detail and why they say/think something, I just move onto the next question and it's driving me mad!

Does anyone else ever get this? For the more experienced interviewers, will I get better at probing a bit deeper for responses? I hope so!

button x

funding for social science masters
B

Hi Ian,

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get funding solely for an MA. I'm doing a funded MA in the social sciences at the moment, but I'm doing an ESRC 1 + 3, meaning I have to start my PhD in September/October. Lucky for me I want to do a PhD though!

Maybe consider other options, but keep looking!

button

What's your all time tomato high?
B

Quote From sneaks:

how do you squash two tomatoes together?


Sneaks, if I want to work for longer than the 25 minutes, I either just close the website when it says 'break' and then start it up again straightaway, which means you don't have to have a five minute break it just starts a new tomato.

OR when it says break just ignore it, don't click it to write what you've done just leave it....then once you've had enough click it to write what you've done and the time will have carried on. Usually when I do it like that and I've worked for say 50 minutes, I write 'worth 2 tomotoes' in the box where you write what you've done, then I know at the end of the day that I've actually done more than the amount that it says!

I hope that makes sense!

Guilty Pleasures?
B

Quote From sneaks:

for any hills fans http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1244464/Heidi-Montag-Before-plastic-surgery.html

I will stop downgrading the forum now :$


Her face looks awful and her boobs are ridiculously huge- not a good look!

V embarrassing situation
B

Quote From sneaks:

Quote From button:

I keep hearing about this twilight malarky and I'm not sure whether I should fall into its traps and see what all the fuss is about! I actually bought the first dvd for Christmas but haven't got round to watching it...anyone know how the books compare to the films?

I do need a new book to get my teeth in to- there's only so many times that you can read the Harry Potter series!



It is great for very easy to read trashy fiction, which is soooo good compared to scientific journals where participant x did this and participant y.........

If you liked harry potter and are female I would say these books are for you. I also read cecilia ahern books, they are big print so easy on the tired journal reading eyes, and really quite bad, so a great relief from the intensity of PhD reading! Off to start new moon!


I love Harry Potter more than life, and I'm pretty sure I'm female...oh dear, I think an addiction to twilight is going to develop!

Guilty Pleasures?
B

Quote From sneaks:

With you with the Harry Potter thing - and I nearly went to orlando for honeymoon just for the rides, but the humidity put me off a bit - am a cold weather person (so I went to africa:p ).

The hills is addictive. My other half is always saying "but its all scripted" but even though I know that, I can't take my eyes off the screen! The english version wasn't as good though.


My boyfriend does exactly the same- he thinks it's hilarious to constantly tell me that it's scripted while I'm trying to watch it! I do hope it's scripted though- people can't seriously live like that!

V embarrassing situation
B

I keep hearing about this twilight malarky and I'm not sure whether I should fall into its traps and see what all the fuss is about! I actually bought the first dvd for Christmas but haven't got round to watching it...anyone know how the books compare to the films?

I do need a new book to get my teeth in to- there's only so many times that you can read the Harry Potter series!

Guilty Pleasures?
B

My guilty pleasure is watching The Hills. If you haven't heard of it, it's a (supposedly) real-life programme usually on MTV/Channel 4 which is about a group of young people who live in LA, have loads of money, and do absolutely nothing. It's the crappiest programme ever, but it is so unbelievably addictive. I have all of the series on dvd, and I never get bored of watching them over and over. My boyfriend also recently realised that the latest series is on TV, he made the mistake of telling me, and now I watch it even more! I always google it to find out the latest gossip, I feel like I actually know the people in it.

My second guilty pleasure is anything to do with Harry Potter...although I'm not embarrassed about this, he is incredibly cool. I think I've watched each of the films at least fifty times, I watch one every week and I am yet again in the process of reading all of the books (on number four at the moment!) But it does get worse- I have made my boyfriend promise that when we get married we can go on our honeymoon to Florida so I can visit the Harry Potter themepark :$ at 21 I'm a little worried that this is rather odd.

So there you go, the reason why I never get any work done is my fascination with The Hills and Harry Potter!

How to lose the post holiday weight??
B

I swear by weightwatchers...means you can still eat what you want but you just have to limit it to the amount of points you're allowed...always works for me! When I was dieting I also exercised 3 times a week, and I lost 2 stone!

You don't even need to got to weightwatchers meetings, I never, just buy all the books and stuff on ebay!

button

Geek-tastic presents - what did you get?
B

Wal, my mum insists on buying me those bic bumper packs everytime she sees me...I have a major surplus of them, although they all either have chewed lids or no lids at all due to said lids being already chewed to pieces...a very bad habit of mine.

I got some paper clips for christmas...although I was quite disappointed as I was looking forward to getting those stripy coloured paper clips, but I only got plain ones :( sigh.

Anyone else struggling today?
B

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! Having a really bad day today- I've managed to do all of my MA assignments that were for modules in term one, and now I've just started a few more modules but we've not got info about those assignments yet...so really what I should be doing is getting on with my dissertation. From 9am-1pm I sat and looked at my computer at home, finding all sorts of reasons why I needed to go on facebook and PGF. Then I decided to nip into town and go to my uni library with the hope of getting more work done...I then sat looking at a computer there for three hours!

I don't know why I can't get motivated today, the doom and gloom weather doesn't help either! I think I'm going to give up and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day :(

Please can I ask a question about hair? (Inspired by Satchi)
B

Whatever you do Wal, don't get rid of your curls...I watched my friend go from a head full of curly locks to him having it poker straight everyday, and it saddened me!

Saying that, my boyfriend hasn't got a curl in sight. He's got blond/mousy coloured hair and he just puts some weird stuff on it every morning (I've just asked him and it's called vo5 matt clay) which makes it spike up slighty but not in a retro Gareth Gates kind of way. It's not gel so it looks good. It literally takes him about 2 minutes and he looks gorgeous! Okay, maybe I'm biased, but he does have good hair!

Although Daniel Craig is always a good one to go off. Let us know what you decide!

mytomatoes users
B

Mytomatoes does take some getting used to!

Wow, KC, 13 is great! I managed 11 today and then went out for tea, so I don't think either of us has done badly today!