Hi Everyone,

I did no PhD work yesterday - just back to teaching and then a bit of shopping in town, from which I got home at about 5:00pm, knackered. I meant to write in the evening, but didn't :(. Just made a lovely dinner of gratin and lamb cutlets, and then slumped in front of the TV.

Today I had a friend and her little baby round for lunch and then we went for coffee and German cakes at my fabulous local cafe this afternoon. I meant to write for an hour or two before she came, but spent the morning fussing over loo cleaning etc, bread buying and cooking etc instead. BUT I am now about to get some work done... So I will report back in a while. Speak then. Sneaks - you are so busy and productive you make me feel guilty...

======= Date Modified 03 Oct 2011 22:56:17 =======
Hi all,

I did 3 bouts of writing today - 1 of an hour and 2 of 45 minutes. So that's good. I also heard I didn't get an interview for a one day a week post at one of my teaching unis. I had expected to so it was a disappointment. I had a good old cry and moan about it.

However, I have concluded that I will make the most of the extra time and really push for my PhD, something I haven't done for quite a while. So that I will enter the hall of fame sooner rather than later. And get an even better job.


Well done Enmaki! What a feeling, to get your chapter finished, it must be a lot like this: 8-)

he he he, I was just thinking is it normal to be this knackered at this point in the day.

Just done an hour of editing/re-drafting and feell like a need a kip and a bit of lunch afterwards. Editing really wears me out. I didn't get up 'til 8:30 though...

Am very happy with what I've done though - I re-wrote the introductory paragraphs, and put in a couple of new ones. They're all ok now.

Tea and toast finished, plus I've had a moan to my aunty on the phone. So now I will get started. Will read through my draft first, then go to my writing den in the hall for full concetration. See you later XXX

Hi Sneaks, Skig and anyone else who is reading, I hope you don't mind if I gate crash the thread. I have ONE major goal today. And that is to write/edit for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I am re-drafting a very long chapter - getting started on the second half of it today. I need some toast first though because I am starting to feel peckish.

Have faffed about on the internet for an hour, on the back of writing a work email, :( oh dear. Although I have resisted Fraisier, which I consider something of an achievement.

I need to get started - will pop back when my toast if finished.

How do people cope Bug, do further research projects help? X

======= Date Modified 01 Oct 2011 22:36:27 =======
Thank you so much for this Bug. It's really good to hear from the other side...

I find your last point the most useful! 'Sometimes you will be misunderstood. At other times people will change - but the PhD monster will not stop and wait.' And nor would I want it to... I think I will be bereft when it's all over.

Hi Ellain, I get like that sometimes too, worse, in fact. I call first years the 'liittle bas*ards' in my mind as a term of endearment towards the end of the autummn term. Last year I had a particularly rotten group and I swear I had nightmares about one or two of them.

But I also love them a lot of the time too. I have caught myself refering to the first years as 'darling' a few times, the way my aunty does with me, usually after Christmas when they have become house trained and lovely - I have to make a real effort not to. Luckily I am a woman, so maybe that's not as bad as if a bloke did it...

I find undergraduates, especially first years, are a lot like toddlers. Horrendously demanding as they test out boundaries and your patience, but also wonderfully endearing as you watch their charcaters and subject skills grow.

My friend has been lecturing for 10 years and she 'hates' them all... Can't bear them most of the time. But loves them really.

I think a lot of this has to do with understaffing. I'm sure if I had less students per pound I am paid I could attend to them properly and they wouldn't stress me out so much. Don't feel guilty, you're just coping the way you have to. It is tough to handle so much responsibility in under-resourced conditions.

Hii Sneaks, yes I have found that asking questions is a good way to engage the studes, but the degree of success you might get with that approach can depend on group size. With 45 it's great and you can get a really good patter going, but, I have found with groups of 90/100 plus it's not so good; although still better than just talking 'at' people. My teacher training taught me that just talking is the worst way of teaching people - making them passive, and they'll quite quickly switch off and stop thinking about the subject. I suspect this is why I don't really like giving lectures. In my ideal world there would be no lectures, just interactive sessions.

Hi JStanley, I've given quite a few lectures during the 5-6 years I've been a sessional - probably an average of about 6 -7 per semester (although much more last year), so nothing like as many as full-timers. I find things go much, much better if the subject matter is close to my research topic, and like you I tend to repeat when I'm not sure of a subject - as if I am going over it for myself. It is hard to be confident when you don't really know what you are talking about - and everyone expects you to be the expert.

I am in awe of people who give dynamic engaging lectures week after week! I hope to get there one day...

Thank you Tester for your wise and encouraging words. They were very pertinent for me.

Hi Irritated, I took amphetamines once and I just talked and talked and talked... utter drivel. Over confident nonesense spewing from my mouth. And then the come down; my god: Paranoia like I have never known before or since. This girl is not in a good place and I'd bet what she turns out while on whiz is crap. So try to ignore her and take comfort in the knowledge that she is almost certainly not writing well. She is in a dreadful state though, a fact which may help you forgive her annoying condescensions.  Good luck.

======= Date Modified 09 Sep 2011 15:48:52 =======
I have learnt that I can endure financial insecurity and skintness for far, far longer than I ever thought possible; that there is an awful lot to writing well... and that I will get there in the end. And that if anyone ever wanted to prove that I am crackers, the years I spend doing this PhD will be their ace card.

Hia Wally! Good to see you around here again, with a poem too, no less.

And thanks for reminding me how much I felt like a fish out of water away from academia, in my earlier jobs. If I had some money now I think my current life would be superb most of the time - apart from (rightfully) stroppy undergrads.

Is your job in Oz, I've heard it's great for academics over there? Good luck, I am sure you will do brilliantly - and have a nice trip over there too.

Thank you KB and McBeefy. What you say makes perfect sense - it's an egg head thing, not a gender one. And now you mention it, I can remember feeling a bit like that as an undergrad.

XXX

Hi all,

I have been doing some online dating lately and have made some remarkable abservations.

I am registered on two sites. On one I say I am a PhD student and lecturer (the honest approach) and on another I don't (being creative with the truth).

I get about 300% plus more responses to the non-PhD profile page than I do to the other one. It's a very dramatic difference and I find it quite disheartening.

Why do you think men dis-like qualified women so much, and isn't it sad that we have to lie about this?