I went for a horrible interview for a job, and realized that my personality just wasn't suited to working in business. Decided to do a PhD as a way into research/academia. Also, it helps that my other half is still studying and so is easier for both of us if we are at the same stage career wise.

Young person's cards on trains are not valid for season tickets or when travelling at peak times, unfortunatly :-(

Just thought id update, he's replied to my email so obviously just ignored the first mistake one! He did get very defensive about some of the stuff i wrote in my book review, but i still maintain that it is a good and fair review.

Used to watch seseme street when i was little, then power rangers and spiderman cartoons, then the babysitters club, ... am sure there are loads more i can remember. Round the twist, .... , this is hard work seen as it wasn't that long ago!

Well...I tested the recall function in outloook using my hotmail account and it just sends another message saying that this has been recalled!?! I just ignored it in the end, and pretended it didn't happen. I have sent another email with the review attached. I suppose if he brings it up i can explain it away with some technical malfunction thing, but i doubt it will.

Thanks for all your stories guys, they have made me feel much better about it and at least it was only a link to the book on amazon after all!!

Yeah it was just a link...I am going to follow it up pronto with a proper email with the book review saying thanks for the email and i liked the book...hopefully he will just ignore the first email!

Ok- I recieved an email this morning from an author whose book I wrote a book review about. Which is really good- he wants me to email me a copy of the review, as he can't get hold of it.

Which got me thinking...if he hasn't got the book review how does he know my name, and more importantly my email address?

I then had a look on amazon, and discovered that my name is there under the review section of the synopsis. I was slightly amazed at my name being on amazon, and wanted to email the link to my boyfriend...but i mistakenly replied to the email that the author had sent to me with the link.

Ahhhhhhh!!! I am so embarressed!! What do i do?

A) Ignore it, pretend it never happened
B) Send an email saying please ignore previous email and some lame excuse!

The only thing I have to be thankful for is that it is just a link and i didn't write anything else in the email! Please help!!!!

SMELT

Wayhey...downloaded FireFox and installed leechblock, it is great I cannot access any of the websites I usually would use to procrastinate between 9.30-12.30 and 13.30-16.30. Hopefully this will increase my productivity!!

Sylvester...does this thing work with Internet Explorer or only firefox? If so how can i download firefox...I think this is just what i need as i spend far too much time on websites and not on my work!!

I can't believe you posted this website....I am working on a paper with one of the creators of this website (a different department at my uni), on a paper looking at the frequencies of different surnames in districts. The dataset has 5.5 million observations!!

gold

ROOST

cole

28.08.08

Ok you've got me. It's definatly a post Bank holiday slump. Or at least I hope it is, oh god, the other option being that i have completely lost my phd-mojo is too horrible to contemplate. Plus tomorrow I am going to the emerald isle tomorrow to see my big brother and so am only doing a 3 day week and it's the knowledge that I'm not doing as many hours makes me think that idon't need to have produced so much work.

Last night had a complete meltdown and now my boyfriend thinks I'm crazy. :$ Who knew that the pressures of a brother-in-law that keeps giving me death stares, moving house, spending 3 days at my brother house whose girlfriend seriously dislikes me- oh, and a little thing called a PhD could result in a complete inability to do anything. All I want to do is sleep today...

So I suppose that is why I havn't been posting. I should be posting aims and my achievements but don't really feel like I have achieved anything. But at least this diary records the lows as well as the highs and is true to the overall PhD experience. I think when I first started on my PhD journey I expected that there would be times that were difficult but until you actually experience them I guess you don't know how it's going to make you feel and affect your work.

Sorry, this post is a bit negative and has turned into a bit of a rant. Am off to find my positive hat now to put on! (up) Now, time to be proactive. If I get one thing done this afternoon and manage to tidy and order my desk ready for monday, then at least I have achieved something!