Goals for 2010

Lucy’s LJ post reminded me that I hadn’t posted this yet. I’ve been thinking about what I want to achieve in 2010 for the last few weeks, now that my general situation is stable—as opposed to previous years where I have been flipping between courses, jobs etc. So, my goals for 2010 in no particular […]

Merry Christmas

Quick thoughts from today: I now have every James Bond film on DVD, thanks to my sister. Doctor Who was awful—if you haven’t watched it yet it’s probably not worth the trouble. Purchasing the majority of presents for yourself from other people online and then getting your mum to wrap them immensely improves the whole […]

Master of Philosophy

Yesterday I had my MPhil viva, which somehow I managed to pass, despite having spent the last two weeks worrying about it. I still have to make some minor corrections requested by the examiners—things like “this section would be clearer with a diagram”—but assuming that I complete those by Christmas, I’ll get the certificate sometime […]

LugRadio Live 2009

At an hour which should never be seen on a Saturday morning, I hauled myself onto a train to Wolverhampton for LugRadio Live 2009, after Lucy kindly let me have her ticket. I hadn’t been to previous LugRadio Live events, but I’d been assured that they were not to be missed. Starting with the good […]

Currybeer web site

For those of you who are regular or potential Currybeer attendees, the social event now has a new web site, currybeer.com, and two mailing lists for announcing and discussing the socials. For anyone who hasn’t been before, Currybeer is a social event in Manchester, held on the first Friday of each month. The premise is […]

Thesis submitted

I have now handed in my thesis—fully printed and bound. According to the graduate office, they expect the examiners to report within six weeks, so in theory I could hear back as soon as the end of October. However, I can’t do anything until the University gets back to me one way or the other. […]

Thesis finished

After almost two years of research and writing up—a process hampered somewhat by needing to combine both tasks with running a freelancing business or having a full time job at the same time—my thesis is ‘finished’. At 121 pages, it is quite a substantial tome, containing about 80 pages of solid text, 30,000 words and […]

Autumn clean

This weekend I’ve been recalled back to my parents’ house to clear my old room so that it can be redecorated, which means going through the enormous amounts of stuff I’ve collected over the years and throwing out as much as possible. Some of the things I’ve found whilst sifting through the piles of paperwork […]

Thesis (almost) finished

Got an email from my supervisor today, just a few minor changes needed to my thesis and a final summary of conclusions saying how brilliant the research is and then it is ready to submit! With any luck, I’ll be able to make the changes by Saturday, do one more full check for spelling/grammar mistakes, […]