Gosh, isn’t panty world quiet at the moment?

Saying that a lot of us are students and it is *that* time of the year so it is only to be expected. Not only that the weather is picking up and most people would rather be outside or socialising rather than stuck indoors with just their ‘pooter for company.

So what’s happening with me? The good news is that I handed in my dissertation and essay a couple of weeks back. The diss was eventually 9,500 words approx with 15 tables and 14 graphs. After I printed it off I had to add my previous work in the form of proposals and ethics to it as well as a dozen appendices, x2. So I had two piles sat on my desk with a title page and a back page in pastel blue, and then it struck me. Those two piles of paper (we have to hand in two copies of everything) represented 60% of the 3rd year which is 70% of the entire degree. That meant that those two piles of paper represented 60% of 70% of £12,500…Gulp. I had a prolonged butterflies in tummy moment as my brain wrangled with that idea.

The good news is that my dissertation is so sophisticated and complex (my supervisor’s words, not mine) and original* that it is suitable for publication in the scientific journals. This means that I have to rewrite is as submitted papers for publication can’t really be more that 4-5,000 words (depending on the journal) and I can assume that the rest of the scientific community will understand what I am talking about so I can get rid of the language that I needed to use in my diss to demonstrate *my* understanding. After submission it will have to be reviewed by other scientists in that area to ensure that what I am claiming and feasible and my methodology is sound. All going well I then get published This means that if anyone else researches this area they have to cite me. I could potentially have future students memorising my name and my study for their studies. The thought of this is just brilliant.

On the back of this diss and it’s possible publication I am now seriously considering a Phd.  I have to prove I can do this in order to secure funding. It’s hell of a commitment for the next 3 years but I feel positive and I know exactly where to go with it because my studies threw up some extremely interesting ideas for further study and I want to follow them through. Plus I quite fancy having Dr. on my credit cards *grin*

In the meantime I have a degree to finish. Thankfully, because the diss was a whopping 60 credits, I only have one exam to do and that isn’t until the 20th May so I can revise at my leisure instead of burning the candle at both ends as I had to do with my essay. I should get my results during the first week of June because our graduation ceremony is 18 June. Oh and I’ve already bought my mortar board! It’s splendid. You’re not allowed to wear it until after the ceremony but I wore it whilst finishing off my diss and essay, as a sort of motivation tool. I set up a mirror on my desk and every time I felt my spirits flagging I looked in the mirror, saw my hat, and ploughed on. It may sound daft but it worked

Good luck and best wishes to all the other students out there xxx

*Unbeknownst to me two groups of researchers in the US had independently started looking at this area of research last year. They submitted for publication last July and it was finally online 18 April, just ten days before I handed in my diss. It’s quite funny that I considered it last June and thought I was original right up until the point that my neighbour waved the Daily Mail at me to say someone had already done my study. It does mean that I am not the first researcher any more but the good news is that my study is more likely to be published because my findings back up AND extend their two studies. I’m also chuffed because I have found more than those 4 established scientists and answered their own questions. I have been in contact with them to share some of my findings the ones that support and extend theirs (not my interesting ones…), and they are encouraging me to get published too.

Reviews are important. They let potential buyers know how happy previous buyers so that the buyer knows if they can purchase the product with confidence.

So imagine my delight when I saw all these wonderful reviews on Amazon…

Kugelschreiber

Who?

This is one of my favourite songs. I can’t listen to Mariah now without thinking about this clip

Some April Fool’s jokes are spectacular aren’t they.

Check this one out whilst you can - it’s only up for another 5 days.

Flying Penguins

He disappeared for a long time but now he is back …and about time too.

Click, read and post links on your blogs.

The Wall of Shame 

Phew. I feel as though I am never away from the computer!

I’ve manged to write up about 4000 words so far so I’m feeling a lot happier and the 10,000 isn’t looking as daunting now.  The only way I could stop panicking and ensure some decent sleep was to make a planner. I broke everything down into manageable chunks and popped them all into my day to day planner, crossing them out as I do them. Got to love Excel.

I’ve written up the Introduction (2044 words), and the Method and Results sections for the first study. I’m half way through prepping my voice files for the second study and I’m hoping to get E-Prime all set up by the end of Monday. Then, my planner tells me, I should be able to start collaring some males into being my participants. Once I have run one or two experiments I’ll be able to start writing up the second half of the Method section as I do the rest. E-Prime will collate and sort my data, then all I need to do is shove it through SPSS, write up the Results and then start thinking about the Discussion, which will need to be 2-3000 words I reckon.

I also have a 2000 word essay to write on offender profiling so I’ve started to research for that and should have a decent essay plan by Sunday evening…she says. If I manage to get it done I will be a good few days ahead of my planner.

28th April is looming closer and closer…

How fantastically bloody marvelous am I then eh?

After weeks of collating my data I was finally able to shove it all through SPSS (statistical analysis software) and after pouring over the output  (tables and graphs filled with zillions of numbers) I was chuffed to see that basically I am fab.

Out of the 11 different measures from the voice analysis 8 were significant, 2 were approaching significance and only 1 said nothing happening. Ya-hooooooooo.

So basically this means that…well…can’t tell you actually because before I hand in my dissertation I have to feed it through some software that will match what I have written against what is already on the internet. It’s to make sure that I haven’t copied anything. I’m allowed a certain % because obviously there are only so many words in the English language and so many combinations, particularly within a specialist area, but I’m not prepared to risk this % going up and someone investigating as to why and where. That would be an interesting discussion in front of the plagiarism committee wouldn’t it?
I will tell you in May though.  Maybe June.  It’s worth waiting for. It’s an original finding.

Meanwhile I am tapping away at the rest my dissertation.

*grin*

Do not got to Marks & Spencers.

Do not go to the Food Hall.

Do not pick up Rocky Road Mini Bites.

If you do. Just don’t open them.

I feel sick. 

…and the rest of Panty World!?

AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!

Don’t worry, the company Panty Hog  leases their server from is moving its datacenter to a new location and they say the move will take about twelve hours which will be about 11:00 am New York time. The company indicates that it will affect 600,000 websites so I expect we’ll see a bunch of panty sites down during that time.

Let’s just eat Easter Eggs instead……mmmmmmmmmmm………….choc’late