I have been working on the data for my thesis. :phanvan I don't have it all completed yet, but I have to present a seminar in two weeks on the data that I have right now. I've been entering it into Excel. So far, I have 25 pages of an Excel spreadsheet, and I still have 10 double-sided data sheets to go through and enter the data from them. I have a crappy sample size (full data on only 3 nests and partial data from one, so far), but I have about 900 data points so far, not counting what I haven't entered into Excel. This is going to be SO much fun to analyze. What makes it even better is that I am only halfway through my big-ass box of videotapes, which I'll have to finish for my thesis.

Kill me now.:faint:

Eeeegads! Sounds like you are not going to be having any fun anytime soon...

Good luck plowing through it all and drink lots of caffeine.

Hey, this is part of higher education. Personally, I can't wait to know what you found out. My own dissertation was a little over 300 pages long and mostly boring. But your research is interesting. Keep us posted.

Think outside the box. This is easy advice, I know, but I have a friend who has already completed a doctorat in chemistry and who is now working on one in philosophy and who is able to do this with great success.

Let me explain: because his early training was in Islam he is - though not a theist - able to introduce, thanks to his early training, an approach to his studies that is not Euro-centricist and is able to spot and isolate certain questions which are ignored by the rest of his fellow tribe of philosophers. He is a gifted man and he has the added luck of being allowed to see outside the box which most folks working in his field would be constrained by.

But I must confess, now that I have heard his story, that I would be inclined to cheat. I would want to rope a student who was dealing in a similar field that he have a look at my work with the trade-off that I would look at the work in his/her field.

Of course the trade off would be that we, as scientists in neighbouring fields of research, would swap both knowledge and, well, hunches, and the point of the exercise would be to break outside of the boxes in which we find ourselves so reluctantly and carelessly trapped.

I lucked into a Master's program that doesn't require a thesis. We can do one, but we also have the option for a comprehensive exam or a portfolio (all three requiring oral defense). I had identified two programs, and opted for this one because it has alternative graduation activity choices, and ironically may end up writing a thesis after all.

Laurend - can you abstrat any behaviors you see from the tapes, or do you have a specific aspect you're supposed to observe?

Green's point is very good. I tend to do the same thing, and it has allowed me to get a lot of things I really consider "duh" to get published, because they weren't "duh" to someone else. So go with your instincts, as corny as that sounds.

Been there, done that.. I found that the best $ I spent on mine was hiring out a professional statistician, to crunch the data for me. Lots of math professors will do this on the side. I ended up hiring my old college Alegrabra/calculus teacher to do it for me. Saved my butt, and allowed me to concentrate on the writing. Hang in there!.. it's worth it.

Laurend - can you abstrat any behaviors you see from the tapes, or do you have a specific aspect you're supposed to observe?

I am observing the provisioning behavior of the parents. That is, I'm looking at how often the males feed the young vs. the females, and the prey items each one brings to the nest.