A Final Post

It's been a while since I've posted on this site... In the final stages of the writeup my internet usage went way down. I cut out blogging, gmail chat, emailing, along with other things such as cooked dinners! In the process I managed to finish my thesis, unintentionally and temporarily lose a lot of weight, sit my viva, earn the letters Ph.D. after my name, and a gain bunch of invaluable skills that are worth more than those letters. After finishing, I didn't feel like looking at anything Ph.D. related, so I put off finalizing this blog. I decided though that I'd like to make a final post to thank anyone who read or commented on this blog, and to wish anyone who stumbles upon it good luck with their own research.

21st Mile

Right, I feel like I've reached the 21st mile of a marathon and I'm hitting the wall. After a very long hiatus I've decided to post again. Since I've last posted I've written and edited six chapters and a paper and am currently writing chapters 7 and 8 simultaneously. I can definitely see the finish line, but the last five miles will be the toughest... I hope to post a few presentation/thesis typesetting/design tips here if I get the time over the next few weeks.

1 chapter handed in, 6 to go. Lordy.

One chapter corrected by my advisor, six to go. Getting a bit overwhelmed as I need to do this roughly at the rate of one chapter per two weeks. The work is done and I have something written for most of them, but they have to be cleaned. Oh dear.

Heaven's Carpark

I took this on a recent observing trip to La Palma, Canary Islands. The bottom half of the island was covered in clouds for the whole trip, while the astronomer's residence and telescopes had blue skies. This is the residence carpark, with the clouds pictured below. One of my office-mates pointed out that it's like a photoshopped image of Heaven's carpark.

Who to talk to?

I havent been posting lately because I've realized that I only have a few months to finish writing, and reduce one more dataset. I still have to do some error analysis on my results which involves learning some more statistics. I don't know if I can do it by my first deadline.

It's starting to get me down... I don't know who to talk to about it. But I'd like to, for stress relief. I can't talk to my office-mates, who aren't finishing till next year. I don't want to rub the fact that I'm finishing in their faces, and plus they can't understand the unique level of obsession that comes with the final months. I could be brushing my teeth and thinking about a plot or something. Or at coffee with the guys and thinking about a paragraph. I'm sure someone elses thesis is incredibly boring, but its all I can handle right now.

I can't talk to an academic, they'd probably try to tell me something sensible, like to slow down. But I really want to be finished.

Anyway, rant over.

Isn't google clever?

By some coincidence, I discovered this article on Google's spellchecking capabilities today, Spelling For Muggles, while also realising the difficulties some scientists have with spelling. One of my colleagues who works in instrumentation could tell me anything I wanted about physics or astronomy, but when he asked me to check an email for him, I noticed it contained numerous phonetic spellings/misspellings. Weather for whether, for example.

According to the article, Google is even cleverer than I thought. It has a built in spellchecker. I typed in 'my read hat' thinking 'my red hat' and Google suggested 'my redhat'. Then I tried 'the whether', and it suggested 'the weather'. I realise there are a lot of possibilities and the intended result isn't guaranteed, but I was wowed by its connections of phonetically similar words. This is great for those who find spelling tough, or those who make typing mistakes in searches. Chances are, Google might still get it right.

Lots of very good PhD links on one page

Good Links

Writing a Paper

I've been pretty bad lately at posting because I'm writing my first paper (my first first-author refereed one, that is). I've been working all sorts of hours and it's gone through numerous drafts. I haven't even passed a draft onto my advisor yet. I'm finding that there's nothing harsher than the inner critic and I keep cutting down sections. I'm questioning both the writing and layout afresh every time I look at it. The intense concentration is also killing the part of my brain that knows the words for everyday items. If this goes on any longer I'll be pointing and grunting at stuff within a week! Blog posts will become monosyllabic splats like 'Euch' or 'Tired. Sleep' or 'End!'. I think I need a holiday :)