No, I haven’t abandoned my blog, although Facebook has ensnared me with it’s bite-size communication powers… look me up in there, and we might be friends. Or we might not. We won’t know if we don’t try.

Thesis Update: After a nightmare with the statistics that delayed us for 2 weeks, it’s done. Tomorrow (26/9) I’m getting and adding my supervisors’ last batch of corrections, and then it’s off to the print shop. Although I have to do the pages with images myself, as it requires paper that “doesn’t go through” their machines. And I’m talking about a University print shop, the only place that will print and bind your thesis according to University regulations! I hope these X-Files phenomena only happen in Bradford.

I’ve also been applying for a few jobs close and far away. Haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m praying that the Lord will open His doors, in His way and His time. He hasn’t disappointed me yet, which I can’t really say for myself. This is what we call Grace, and I’m getting to know it more and more.

Well, I hope that once the Thesis is in and I’m preparing for my viva in late October, I will be able to resurrect my blog to it’s former glory. Well, you know what I mean. “Glory” is just a figure of speech, and it’s too late to be giving one.

Did I mention I’m on Facebook?

Hi everyone!

Yes, ’tis I, the toiling PhD man. And toiling I am indeed, since I seem to be stuck in a never-ending Thesis-whirlpool. Let me explain.

Originally, I was supposed to actually send the finished Thesis for reviewing by an examiner (in Germany) on August 15, with a view to have my PhD viva (“defence”) sometime this week. Well, on August 14 it became clear that that little pie-in-the-sky dream was not going to come true, and so we decided that it would be best to just submit the full final draft for revision by my supervisors by August 25, when I was going to leave for Athens. And so I did, only to return and find out that my PhD viva is now scheduled for October 23, and I have 10 short days to add my final corrections to my Thesis, print it, bind it and post it to Germany.

The good news is that I get enough time to prepare for my examination – almost five weeks! And the little meanwhile, I’m trying to get a job and re-start my life that seems like it’s been on hold for four years now. But I know that all this is part of my God’s plan, and I’m excited when I think that He has my days in His hands.

Hello from sunny, burning Greece.

Yes, I’ve been here since August 26 and I’m going back to Bradford on September 5th. In the meantime, I’m soaking up some necessary sunlight that I’ve been deprived of for the past, well, four years. This, of course, is a direct result of living in a lab. In England. In Northern England.

Right now I’m in a cheap public Internet place with my sister, surrounded by Greek geeks playing World Of Warcraft instead of enjoying the summer outside. I suppose if you’ve got it all the time…

As for my Thesis, after a week of generally sleepless nights full of coffee and Red Bull, I managed to send my supervisors the “finished”, mangled version around 4:30 am last Saturday, a couple of hours before I had to leave for Manchester airport… suffice to say that by the time I got to Athens, I hadn’t slept in 39 hours. Hooray for the modern life.

And now I’m waiting on my supervisors’ final corrections while doing some of my own. It’s a never-ending document! I keep adding Tables of Contents/Figures/Tables, Lists of abbreviations (alphabetically ordered), formatted Headings and correcting a seemingly infinite number of typos… I tell you, writing novels is far more fun.

Anyway, we should be ready to print it and send it to my external examiner in Germany sometime next week. And then it’s the long wait until my final examination (“viva”), which, if all goes well and they don’t ask me to repeat and re-write my entire PhD, should give me that glamorous “Dr” before my name. Okay – maybe not that glamorous.

Meanwhile, I’m spending some time with my family (including my little super-cute nephew) and looking/applying for jobs. Mojgan is in Tehran visiting her own family and I can’t wait to see her again next week.

It’s good to be finishing, though the hardest hurdle lays ahead. But it’s always like that. Like they say: “If the mountain was smooth, then you couldn’t climb it”.

A lot has happened since I last wrote, and I still don’t have much time for this entry.

Thesis-wise, our initial deadlines were considered to be unrealistic, so now I have to submit my final draft to my supervisors by this Friday. Which kind of gave me a breather…

In other news, I’ll be going to Athens on Saturday, until September 6th. And when I’m back, it’ll be time for the viva (probably in early October now) and, hopefully, a job.

And that’s it. Sounds dry, I know, but that’s what happens when you write a scientific thesis.

Hi there! If you are reading this, it’s either because you are wondering what I’m doing, or you got lost on your way to YouTube. If you belong to the former category, I’ve prepared for your convenience a quick list of his news, which you can get through in 10 seconds if you only read the words written in BOLD. Bonus points if you discover the magic phrase!

Here we go…

“I am writing a doctorate Thesis.”

A statement like that should go a long way in explaining why I haven’t written an entry, or anything else for that matter, in three weeks. It’s also what I tell people when they ask me why I haven’t acrrued the fortunes of Croesus as I rapidly approach 29. There is a certain mystery enshrouding those words that effectively stops any further enquiries concerning the direction of my career/finances/life, and is merely followed with that bland nod of the head and change in conversation that we all have come to love and abuse. “I am writing a doctorate Thesis” – if you use those words, make the most of it. And if all the above means nothing to you, then you’ve never done a PhD.

“I am looking for a job.”

Well, sort of. Applications for Research Fellowships (aka “Postdocs”) have been submitted, fingers have been crossed, hopes have been grown, and doors have been shut. Almost all of them so far. It’s one of the reasons I have temporarlily suspended agency submissions for my novel – there are only so many rejections you can handle while “writing a doctorate Thesis.” Like my good friend History-PhD Nikos says, “the words I’ll need for after I get my PhD are ‘do you want french fries with that?’ We’ll get there, man, we’ll get there – eventually, every Professor retires.

“The Internet hates me.”

Really. Monday, my connection is fine. Tuesday, it’s fine. Wednesday, it’s gone. Boom. Barely there. Why is that important? Because when you’re “writing a doctorate Thesis” from home, you might occasionally need to download a paper, and send emails to your supervisors. Yes, and surf the Web sometimes – there, I said it and there’s no shame to it. Man can’t take a break from hours of adjusting graphs, tables, figures and making four years of data look like he’s single-handedly saved the world – nay, the UNIVERSE? That’s where a little Web-browsing comes in hand. Keep in touch with the world you’ve just saved. Anyway, the lack of it is registered as yet another hurdle in this Oddysey we call “my PhD”.

“I see dead people”…

…at the British Museum. Seriously. Mummies. Sarcophagi. Tombs. Sculls. Skeletons. They even had an entire excavated grave with the dead guy still inside, nicely preserved. Imagine that: thousands of years after you die, they dig you up and put you in a fishbowl for all the world to see. Bet that organ donor card looks real tempting now, huh? We visited the Museum last week with Mojgan, whilst in London taking a break from “writing a doctorate Thesis”. Mojgan was surprised to find half of Persepolis in there, while I, proud Greek that I am, cast a saddened eye on the Parthenon marbles that Lord Elgin stole in the 19th century from Athens. I’m sorry – did I say “stole”? I meant “plundered”.

I wanted to show some pictures, but with my current Internet speed I would get tenure before they uploaded.

Well, that’s pretty much it.

No really. That’s it. I wish I had more stuff/time to write, but I can’t. Why? Because “I am writing a doctorate Thesis.“