PhD Deadline

21st Mile

2008-03-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

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

1 chapter handed in, 6 to go. Lordy.

2007-07-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-05-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

Isn't google clever?

2007-04-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

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/

Lots of very good PhD links on one page

2007-04-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Good Links

Writing a Paper

2007-04-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

PostSecret

2007-04-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've just discovered this new blog, PostSecret. It's a community art project, with the concept being that contributors anonymously post a card to the keeper of the blog. These cards are artistically creative, and reveal a deep secret that has never been told to anyone before. Some of them are sad, some cruel, others are hilarious. It's very thought-provoking and very immediate. It's definitely

Bottom of the top of the pile

2007-04-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

A recent survey by U.C. Berkeley found that 95% of all graduate students feel overwhelmed, and over 67% have felt seriously depressed at some point in their careers.

I've taken this quote from the ever-brilliant PhD Comics site. You have to wonder about the oddity of a system that makes people who spent their college years near the top of their classes feel so inadequate?

What is the sound of one researcher thinking?

2007-03-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thought of the day #1: What is the sound of one researcher thinking?

One thing I dislike about research in science is the lack of explainability in plain language. My daily tasks, the theories behind my work, and the results I produce are only understandable with years of learned technique and theory. Explaining the realities of my work to a non-scientist, and to a certain extent a scientist not