Setbacks, conferences and a lot of reading - Astrophysics PhD Year 1

1 year ago, I moved to Cardiff, Wales to start my PhD in Astrophysics studying simulations of galaxy evolution.
It's been an utterly wild year so let's have a look back at what I've done, what's been challengings, and I'll try to offer some advice to anyone starting their PhD (whether that's in Astrophysics or something else)

Join the Discord:   / discord  
-------- II --------
Watch me live on twitch -   / thomastrosci  
Insta -   / thomas.rintoul  
X/Twitter -   / thomas_rintoul  
Email: [email protected]
-------- II --------
Gear Used:
Camera: Canon EOS 70D
Lenses: Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 G2
Microphone: Rode NTG2
Images and video from the public domain or from creative commons sources.
-------- II --------
Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Who am I? What am I doing?
01:56 - Wait... what is a PhD?
04:22 - My PhD is weird...
05:28 - Starting out
09:22 - The Technical Bit
10:52 - An early setback
12:18 - Conferences and travel
15:18 - Year 2 and beyond...
17:55 - Reflecting on year 1
18:34 - Advice to new PhD students
22:54 - Conclusion
-------- II --------
Hi, I'm Thomas, a first year PhD student at Cardiff University. This is my channel where I share my experiences of academia and pieces of Physics and Astronomy I find interesting.
If you enjoy videos from Simon Clark, Dr Becky or Ruby Granger, I think you'll enjoy my videos!