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As developed trying to finish a Phd with worsening cfs, and then doing Coursera courses with even worse cfs. I initially wrote this in response to a particular person then realised that in the meantime they'd dropped the class, making it unhelpful. So I guess advice part zero is: sometimes the smartest choice is not to write the essay at all. But if you're going to...
Just sit and type out whatever stream of consciousness thoughts come into your head. Make note of (a)any main ideas which seem good (b) anything you'd like to explore but need more info on. Take a moment to look at your draft and decide if you want to change anything about the overall structure/theme.
Then sit and slowly hit your head against each of the smaller parts. Research any holes. Turn each small idea into a complete paragraph/section. Don't worry about the bigger picture, or about being good.
Throw it all together. Do a rough read through to find any major errors or inconsistencies that jump out at you. Halfass an intro and conclusion by just smooshing together roughly one idea from each paragraph/section with some attempt at an overarching theme.
Once all that's done, consider trying to make it good. Accept it probably never will be.
Hand it in anyway and feel GODDAMN PROUD.
And if you can't do any of that, that's ok.
Just sit and type out whatever stream of consciousness thoughts come into your head. Make note of (a)any main ideas which seem good (b) anything you'd like to explore but need more info on. Take a moment to look at your draft and decide if you want to change anything about the overall structure/theme.
Then sit and slowly hit your head against each of the smaller parts. Research any holes. Turn each small idea into a complete paragraph/section. Don't worry about the bigger picture, or about being good.
Throw it all together. Do a rough read through to find any major errors or inconsistencies that jump out at you. Halfass an intro and conclusion by just smooshing together roughly one idea from each paragraph/section with some attempt at an overarching theme.
Once all that's done, consider trying to make it good. Accept it probably never will be.
Hand it in anyway and feel GODDAMN PROUD.
And if you can't do any of that, that's ok.
I once wrote a book about how to work out the name of a thing called a "black box group."
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Since the server is down until who knows when, and I very occasionally find it useful to link to: a description of what my Phd thesis is about, much the same as the link I posted here last January. I tried to make it as accessible as possible but I will understand if the math phobic of you choose not to click :D Sorry for all the tables.
( Warning: contains maths and bad puns )
( Warning: contains maths and bad puns )
I have no idea how relevant this is to other people (especially those who actually are cut out for academia!), but thought I should get it down before the whole thing becomes a blur. Very much based on my experiences as a computational mathematics student in Australia. This is just off the top of my head, I may add to this later.
Two major things:
( Read more... )
Two major things:
- (Pretty much) every single Phd student ever feels like a lazy failure. Seriously, read Piled Higher and Deeper, it's not just you.
- If part of your motivation in life up until now has been jumping through a set of hoops to prove how clever you are let it go.
( Read more... )
I've been happily listening to Science Show podcasts on Eowyn (my pda) on the way to work, but feel like a bit more variety. So, any recommendations?
Went to Katies Pirate Party, it was totally brilliant. Pictures forthcoming. And yes, another example of the young guard forgoing the traditional medium of email for those new fangled hand delivered invitations sealed with wax. Pfft. These whippersnappers have no respect for tradition.
Also: Graduation pics! Including a few shots of Mesh, who graduated on the same night.
Had to do birthdays today, got myself covered in icecream cake. Was repeatedly put in the situation of being able to eat as much leftover chips etc as I wanted and then throwing the rest away. Must never do birthdays again.
I am so happy lj has notifications now. EDIT: See, and now I will notice when I am periodically friended by random strangers. *waves to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dirtyfilthy* (Apologies if you're not actually random, not that I have a problem with random strangers regardless :))
Went to Katies Pirate Party, it was totally brilliant. Pictures forthcoming. And yes, another example of the young guard forgoing the traditional medium of email for those new fangled hand delivered invitations sealed with wax. Pfft. These whippersnappers have no respect for tradition.
Also: Graduation pics! Including a few shots of Mesh, who graduated on the same night.
Had to do birthdays today, got myself covered in icecream cake. Was repeatedly put in the situation of being able to eat as much leftover chips etc as I wanted and then throwing the rest away. Must never do birthdays again.
I am so happy lj has notifications now. EDIT: See, and now I will notice when I am periodically friended by random strangers. *waves to
dirtyfilthy* (Apologies if you're not actually random, not that I have a problem with random strangers regardless :))
BOW BEFORE ME MORTALS
Sep. 20th, 2006 10:46 pmI have a Phd and YOU DON'T!!(*) I am a doctor! Of MATHS! Shrivel into the insignificant slugs you are before the incalculable glory of my doctory presence!!!!
I don't have any photos yet, so here is my highschool graduation.
EDIT: have to rush to work, but thank youse all :)
(*)unless you do.
I don't have any photos yet, so here is my highschool graduation.
EDIT: have to rush to work, but thank youse all :)
(*)unless you do.
Anti-climax
Jun. 27th, 2006 01:17 pmWell..it's done. I have handed in my phd (all 8 copies of it).
I would probably feel a lot more enthusiastic about this if I wasn't feeling so crappy. I think all the adrenaline from the last few weeks of waiting has gone sour, so I'm sleepy and grumpy and feeling generally under the weather (I actually called in sick for work tomorrow, since as always the first symptom of me not feeling well is a sore throaght)
In fact I'm seriosuly considering not going to Terracon, though I think I'll wait and see if I feel better by Friday. I thought about offering up my ticket to someone else, but I think I'd rather give myself the chance of going and if neccesary let unisfa keep the $65 to buy more muffins or something.
Still, Sarah and Jocelyn, you may want to consider buying your own packet of pasta and bottle of sauce, though you're welcome to stop by my house and pick up mine if that's too much trouble :)
Guh. I may go lie and read some more. Still, though I may not feel very excited about it now at some point it's going to hit me that I never have to do any work on my phd again, and I'll feel pretty chuffed. Well, unless you count the paper my supervisor wants me to cobble together out of the first half, but I can take as long on that as I want.
I would probably feel a lot more enthusiastic about this if I wasn't feeling so crappy. I think all the adrenaline from the last few weeks of waiting has gone sour, so I'm sleepy and grumpy and feeling generally under the weather (I actually called in sick for work tomorrow, since as always the first symptom of me not feeling well is a sore throaght)
In fact I'm seriosuly considering not going to Terracon, though I think I'll wait and see if I feel better by Friday. I thought about offering up my ticket to someone else, but I think I'd rather give myself the chance of going and if neccesary let unisfa keep the $65 to buy more muffins or something.
Still, Sarah and Jocelyn, you may want to consider buying your own packet of pasta and bottle of sauce, though you're welcome to stop by my house and pick up mine if that's too much trouble :)
Guh. I may go lie and read some more. Still, though I may not feel very excited about it now at some point it's going to hit me that I never have to do any work on my phd again, and I'll feel pretty chuffed. Well, unless you count the paper my supervisor wants me to cobble together out of the first half, but I can take as long on that as I want.
My supervisor emailed me last night, and by 8am I'd done everything she asked. More importantly, she basically said "Do as many of these as you can,. but really just hand it in". Woot! So I am so handing it in tomorrow. I'd hand it in today if it wasn't for stupid uni being closed on Sundays (damn you uni!)
Anyway, I had nothing to do and was (am) all hyped up on a third of a cup of tea (mmm..tea. I love tea, I wish I could drink it more often) so sorted through the folders of papers and drafts I've accumulated over the past 6.5 years (counting honours) resulting in...THE PILE:
It'd be a lot bigger but I had periodic cleanups. So..anyone know if Terracon has fireplaces? I feel like burning some drafts >:D
The stuff I'm keeping (about half of which is notes from relevant 3rd/4th yr units) is the pile of coloured folders behind, plus the shoebox of misc unsorted papers.
Anyway, I had nothing to do and was (am) all hyped up on a third of a cup of tea (mmm..tea. I love tea, I wish I could drink it more often) so sorted through the folders of papers and drafts I've accumulated over the past 6.5 years (counting honours) resulting in...THE PILE:
It'd be a lot bigger but I had periodic cleanups. So..anyone know if Terracon has fireplaces? I feel like burning some drafts >:D
The stuff I'm keeping (about half of which is notes from relevant 3rd/4th yr units) is the pile of coloured folders behind, plus the shoebox of misc unsorted papers.
Phun with Photoshop
Jun. 24th, 2006 05:03 pmMy supervisor told me she wouldn't be able to get back to me with any more corrections till tommorrow (leaving two days to do the corrections and hand it in! Eeeeep!!!) so I've been spending my time doing all the stuff I was planning on doing in my proper time off. The house is very shiny, I have practiced my shows for work (though I may try to co-opt people to help me learn a two person script at Terracon, since I need to learn it for the day after) and I'm at level 30ish in Bonnie's Bookstore.
Last night I decided it had been far too long since I did any drawing that wasn't comic-related (and thus more rushed craft than careful art) and flipping through my old sketches came accross "an irritated demon" which I decided to expand on: I give you Angel and Demon *bows*
Ok, not very original and somewhat flawed but it was fun to do, and I'm moderately proud of it :) I don't normally put my pictures online butlilysea did ask (I looked up some of the reference pictures while we were on the phone)
Hmm...and now I'm out of things to do again. Maybe I'll play God Of War, Cam's been going on about how fantastic it is. *goes off to keep self occupied*
Last night I decided it had been far too long since I did any drawing that wasn't comic-related (and thus more rushed craft than careful art) and flipping through my old sketches came accross "an irritated demon" which I decided to expand on: I give you Angel and Demon *bows*
Ok, not very original and somewhat flawed but it was fun to do, and I'm moderately proud of it :) I don't normally put my pictures online but
lilysea did ask (I looked up some of the reference pictures while we were on the phone) Hmm...and now I'm out of things to do again. Maybe I'll play God Of War, Cam's been going on about how fantastic it is. *goes off to keep self occupied*
beauuuutiful speech bubbles
Jun. 20th, 2006 08:25 pmSpent today waiting for my supervisor to get back to me on my revisions based on her suggestions (in case you're wondering, she was happy with most of my corrections, so as long as she gets back to me soonish I'm on track and all is well) So, to fill in time I:
I don't expect people to reread them all, but look at the difference: Here's the original page 4 and here's the new version. Well, I'm proud of it anyway. And yes, they're a bit small now. Eh.
Oh, and can people tell what's going on in the new version of the Chapter 1 title page?
- napped
- watched "Jersey Girl" (odd mix of sentiment and crassness, but watchably mediocre)
- Redid all the text on those ACOS pages with handwritten text
I don't expect people to reread them all, but look at the difference: Here's the original page 4 and here's the new version. Well, I'm proud of it anyway. And yes, they're a bit small now. Eh.
Oh, and can people tell what's going on in the new version of the Chapter 1 title page?
I know many of you have exams, but I am in my own special little ball of stress right now. My Phd is due(*) on the 28th. That is, twelve days from today. To hand it in, I need at least one of supervisors to have read, checked, and approved my corrections. The description of these corrections takes 13 pages, and they are scattered throughout my 170(!) page thesis.
A week ago, I emailed all my supervisors with the corrected thesis (I would have done it earlier, but had a cold, then reflux, then my ear got infected. Guh.) Only to have Supervisor 1 (who is the only one familiar with all the maths) to reply with "Oh, but I'm leaving the country for four weeks. Tommorrow."
Supervisor 3 is in Hungary busy with a new baby and hasn't replied.
Supervisor 2...is apparently going to email me with her comments later today. Will she say it's all good? Will she say "You need to redo all of it"? Will she be baffled by the sections she's unfamilar with?? Argh!!!
I mean if neccesary I can go overtime, but that will almost certainly mean missing Terracon :(
Also, I lost one of my piercings when it got Horribly Infected.
On the plus side..uh...I saw Cars. It was ok. Also work is going well apart from feeling sleepy and having sore throats more than I would like.
(*)Yes, I already handed it in. Then it was marked, and I was given four months to fix all the errors they found. This is the usual way of such things, afaict.
A week ago, I emailed all my supervisors with the corrected thesis (I would have done it earlier, but had a cold, then reflux, then my ear got infected. Guh.) Only to have Supervisor 1 (who is the only one familiar with all the maths) to reply with "Oh, but I'm leaving the country for four weeks. Tommorrow."
Supervisor 3 is in Hungary busy with a new baby and hasn't replied.
Supervisor 2...is apparently going to email me with her comments later today. Will she say it's all good? Will she say "You need to redo all of it"? Will she be baffled by the sections she's unfamilar with?? Argh!!!
I mean if neccesary I can go overtime, but that will almost certainly mean missing Terracon :(
Also, I lost one of my piercings when it got Horribly Infected.
On the plus side..uh...I saw Cars. It was ok. Also work is going well apart from feeling sleepy and having sore throats more than I would like.
(*)Yes, I already handed it in. Then it was marked, and I was given four months to fix all the errors they found. This is the usual way of such things, afaict.
Taking advantage of your friendlistship
Mar. 10th, 2006 08:54 pmSo, you all care about me and want to help my creative spirit soar, right? Yes? Then can you please check out the new version of my homepage and tell me if it doesn't work in your browser. The problem with running safari on a mac at 640x480 is your viewing experience often doesn't match other people's...Any other comments also welcome, but mainly I want to make sure it isn't borken before I swap other pages over to the new css.
Note that I am still sick, so part of me is a worried the pretty page I see on my screen is just some delerium fuelled hallucination. Still, working on this (also making an index for my thesis and doing the easy corrections like Storjohan -> Storjohann) has kept me from getting too active, I'm at that point at the cold where I feel much less crap than I did yesterday so by comparison I feel super energetic, but in reality I'm still fatigued, just not as much. It is bitter experience that has taught me to bind myself to some stationary activity during this period or I just make myself Very Sick Indeed. And I have an interview on Tuesday! Where I have to give a presentation!! With my VOICE!!
*thinks*
Hmm, that's probably it for now.
Note that I am still sick, so part of me is a worried the pretty page I see on my screen is just some delerium fuelled hallucination. Still, working on this (also making an index for my thesis and doing the easy corrections like Storjohan -> Storjohann) has kept me from getting too active, I'm at that point at the cold where I feel much less crap than I did yesterday so by comparison I feel super energetic, but in reality I'm still fatigued, just not as much. It is bitter experience that has taught me to bind myself to some stationary activity during this period or I just make myself Very Sick Indeed. And I have an interview on Tuesday! Where I have to give a presentation!! With my VOICE!!
*thinks*
Hmm, that's probably it for now.
Passed with minor corrections!!
Mar. 2nd, 2006 05:00 pmFor anyone who didn't see me in my big red "Phinished" shirt: yes, I have passed. I have four months to put in some mainly very minor corrections (ie, consistently mispelling one of my examiners names, oops :)) and then I should graduate in September! The examiners reports were really very nice, lots of positive comments and fairly high marks(*). I knew if my supervisors weren't such perfectionists I could have handed in ages ago and passed, but noooooo :D
Annoyingly I have a big ol' headache, and that's after a 2 hour nap (I only just managed to finish reading the reports)
So I hope this isn't too badly written, just thought I should let you all know.
Also, tommorrow I find out if I get an interview for a job at scitech, fingers crossed!
Oh, and it turned out I hadn't told my mum we were going to england either. She was not amused :)
(*)It turns out you do get marks, getting a number from 6 (flawed) to 1 (exceptional) for six categories. One of them gave me a 1 for my Lit Review, yay!
Annoyingly I have a big ol' headache, and that's after a 2 hour nap (I only just managed to finish reading the reports)
So I hope this isn't too badly written, just thought I should let you all know.
Also, tommorrow I find out if I get an interview for a job at scitech, fingers crossed!
Oh, and it turned out I hadn't told my mum we were going to england either. She was not amused :)
(*)It turns out you do get marks, getting a number from 6 (flawed) to 1 (exceptional) for six categories. One of them gave me a 1 for my Lit Review, yay!
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