Something I’ve done very little of lately is blogging on my site. Good reason really, I’ve been really busy with my PhD. Just over eight months ago, I started my PhD in Solid State Physics, particularly looking at the properties of Gallium Nitride devices. Now I’ve made some time to blog – I’m not sure I’ve got much to talk about… so I’ll just ramble on for a bit about stuff you probably don’t care about.

Where to start?

First, if you were a follower of this blog purely for the Union Politics posts, or at least partly, then you may be disappointed, as I have left the world of Union politics completely. I won’t be writing about the elections that I mentioned in an earlier post – partially because I can’t bothered to do so, mainly because I stopped caring. My main focus has been my PhD, and as such, my life has slowly been crumbling away to make way for it.

For example, I was playing an online game called Travian. I was leading an alliance alongside two others, and I was enjoying it. However, I had less and less time for it, and to try and fit in my Travian commitments as well as all my other commitments was causing my health to degrade. It was a shame really, but it just went to show how demanding my PhD really is. While I miss the communications between the various players on Travian, especially with one of the leaders, I know it was the best move for me. On the flip side though, I can still get in contact with some of the members, so I haven’t lost that aspect of the game, which was the best thing about the game really. (Side note, I just lost the game…)

Moving on, it’s been quite difficult to keep up with real life activities too. I only managed to go karting for the first time this week, for the first time this year, simply because I’ve had no time, and it was good to finally meet a lot of the karters that I’ve seen sign up on the forum. It’s a shame I’ve not managed to race before this year, but hey, my PhD comes first. For similar reasons, I have also halted all work on my Facebook client, iDeskbook – mainly ’cause I have no time and the Facebook platform changes so quickly so often I generally don’t have time to fix compatibility issues with it, which is a shame, as I enjoyed building the program.

Now, it might look like I’m complaining about my PhD, but I’m not – I wouldn’t trade it for the world, my office mates are great (well, most of the time, there are times where they annoy me, and I bet vice-versa!), the department is awesome, and my PhD, while difficult, is really enjoyable. I just wish I had more hours in the day. I guess a point here really for anyone wanting to do a PhD is to make sure they are willing to put the effort in, and to be prepared to sacrifice a lot for it.

Well, I really don’t have much more to say at the moment. I feel like having a massive rant again about some people who, in my eyes, “just don’t get it” at the moment, from the small things, like the little jokes about me that go too far, to the bigger things, like being appreciated for actually doing something and spending money on things to make things easier for others, exploiting that great weakness that I seem to have – wanting others to be happy more than wanting myself to be happy. That said, I hope that I’m wrong, I hope that I’m reading too much into this. However, I won’t delve any deeper, and though my pessimistic attitude seems to be getting the better of me at the moment, I continue to hope for that which I believe will never happen, and I know I must buckle down and get on with what I can achieve, where I know can make a difference, be that via my PhD, or supporting those where I can – I might rant about it, but at the end of the day, I can’t go on without ensuring the happiness of others.

Anyhow, knowing the way things are going at the moment, I probably won’t get a chance to blog again for a while. However, going back to the PhD theme for a final point, I know I said about it being hard work, and PhDs are, but if you are offered one, then seriously consider it. The hard work pays dividends, and I wouldn’t trade this chance for the world – it has been an amazing year so far!