As many of you know, Lindsey, Cassidy, Caleb and Mom came down to visit me the weekend of the 21st. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I'd like to think we managed to do some different things during the trip. I'm going to try something different here and rather than post pictures, I will try to post an album. So let me know how you guys like it compared to a regular posting of pictures.
Day 1:
One of the things that Lindsey told me straight away was that they finnaly wanted to go up the Washington monument. So on Friday morning I took the metro into DC, leaving a little before 7, and got some tickets for the monument. I got there a little before 8:00, and already there was a line. The ticket booth first open at 8:30, and by then the line had pretty much tripled. But the tickets were free, and I had my choice of pretty much any time during the day.
The Monument was pretty cool. As many know, the law in DC is for nothing to be taller than the monument so that you can always see it on the skyline. As such, it is the highest point in all of DC and no better view of DC is to be had in my opinion. It was definitely worth getting the tickets early in the morning.
We also got a chance to visit the Holocaust museum. I would definently say that this is one of the best laid out, and moving museums I've ever seen. The museum started at the beginning setting the stage for how the holocaust started, what motivated it, and then followed through the the end, as the camps were finally liberated and the allied forces freed the surviving jews. It was well laid out, and powerful. The only concern we had was how well Caleb would understand and handle it. Luckily there was a children's area we brought him through before so he got a brief overview of what it was before we went into the main proper. Once in there.... its hard to say how much he understood. I think a lot, but I"m not sure how much sank in. I would definently say it is worth going to, and plan on spending a few hours there, as there is tons of material. I felt like we barely scratched the surface.
After that museum, I managed to meet up with Ken, Becky, and Samantha while Lindsey, Cassidy and Chrsity played the local scene with a jazz thingy in the sculpture gardens. Samantha's brother recently got a job with an airline, and so as family she gets discounted tickets. So she came down to visit Ken and Becky, and they brought her up to DC to hang out with me. Which was a blast, it was very nice to meet up with old friends. We grabbed Caleb and browsed through the air and space museum, while the girls went to the jazz, and managed to find a pitcher of sangria. After we browsed around for a bit we headed back to a restaurant, had dinner, and ended a rather fun day.
Day 2:
The day started out with me going to Karate for a few hours, I had my private lesson, as well as needing to help out with Kid's class, and teaching a couple of kids their own lessons. Caleb was able to join as well, and by all accounts he seemed to have a blast. He was definently sweating at the end, and says he had a really good time. Now everyone just needs to remind Lindsey to enroll him at a local school now that she is on a more set schedule :-p.
After I got back from Karate we all jumped in the car and headed down to the Shenandoah national park, to skyline drive. Basicaly what it is is a 100+ mile long road through the mountains int he Shenandoah valley. The views were pretty amazing, and there were camping grounds, rooms to rent, and more hiking trails than you can shake your fist at. I loved this drive because there were tons of overlooks, and Mom was able to join us and experience the beautiful drive through the mountains. At one point Lindsey, Cassidy, Caleb, and I did a short hike down to a waterfall. The waterfall was quite nice, and was well worth the all up hill hike back to the car :-p.
Day 3:
On Sunday I managed to get everyone up early so we could head down to Baltimore. Once there we went to the science center. The great part about this place was that it was all hands on activities for Caleb. They really had some fun exhibits set up, and with admission came free imax tickets (we saw a movie on the grand canyon) and planetarium. The planetarium was pretty amazing, I don't remember the last time I have been to one, but I had forgotten how much fun they were. Everyone else agreed, as we went to two shows :-p.
After the science center, we headed down to the harbor there and found a restaurant. After convincing everyone that they didn't really want to go to the pretty much all sea food restaurant.... we found a nice little restaurant and had a good meal. Caleb even managed to get the waitress to give him some free ice cream! After dinner we headed home, only getting lost in Baltimore briefly...... as a side note, gps's are cool.
Day 4:
After a slightly lazier morning.... I got everyone to head out to a hiking trail. The trail was called the Billy Goat trail, and is located near the Great Falls park that I had taken Dad, Sara, and the kids earlier in the year. Once we were there Lindsey's friend Christy and her husband Perry met up with us and we did the 3 mile hike. The great thing about the Billy Goat trail is that there are lots of rocks to climb. It was a blast, and, I think a good workout. Caleb seemed to be having a particularly good time climbing over the rocks. My favorite part I think is the 30-40 foot rock climb about midway through :-p. At the end though, I just love the fact that here is this very great and fun, and scenic hiking trail.... all located within the beltway.
Later that day, Christy's husband Perry gave us a tour of the Pentagon. We started off walking through the 9/11 memorial which was very touching and well put together. Then we got a brief walk through the pentagon. To be honest, for some reason I thought it would be bigger... But that being said, it is massive. I'm pretty sure it would take me about 3 minutes to get lost in there lol. The tour more or less took us to a couple different areas where the different armed forces had hallways dedicated to them. Overall it was a pretty cool place to be able to visit, and I'm glad that Perry was willing to take us through there.
After the Pentagon visit we ended the evening at PF Changs with some great Chinese food. And hopefully, ended everyones visit quite pleasantly.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Change up at Work
As I believe I have mentioned before I currently examine in the art of photolithography, or more specificaly, photomasks which are used as pattern templates to transfer images on the nanoscale level in order to produce integrated circuits and semiconductors such as are used for computers and the like. As a result, this current field is very much more closely aligned, in my own opinion, to optical physics than to chemistry for example. In other words I often have to deal with how light interacts at the nanoscale level, how it works when passing through materials and the like. Needless to say, my chemical engineering background didn't have a ton of applicability to this field. Nevertheless this is an area that I have examined in for 3 years now, and I believe, have become proficient at.
But that is all changing. Alas, seemingly my own success and that of my immediate coworkers are our own downfall. When I first started, I was working on cases that were about 3 years, to 3.5 years old, from the time they were filed. Currently though I'm at 18-20 months. While that sounds like it is a good thing, it also means that we are flat out running out of cases. It turns out my boss has way too many people working in that area, and has decided to move us junior examiners off to another "docket" or technology area.
So off to electro photography I go. As I understand it, electro photography is best known as being used in printers. For example, next to me at my desk at work is an HP laserjet printer. Electro photography, or at least the area I will be examining, will include the toner that is used, so compositions and mixtures for example of the printer toner, as well as the roller, or the area where the ink is imaged onto the paper. In the words of my boss, electro photography and photolithography are in no way related. Which means I will, most likely starting at the beginning of next quarter (1st of October), be having to learn an entirely new technology.
Pros:
As I mentioned earlier, my current technology, with photomasks is more based in optical physics than chemistry. Electro photography will be more chemistry based. While I won't be dealing with chemical reactions per say, I will have to examine compositions, such as for example organic chains and halogens of organics and the like. So this will bring me a little more back to my roots.
When I first moved over to my current office my boss dropped one of my favorite quotes from him ever when he said "I don't want you guys having a split docket so that you don't realize how much easier other art unitsare" and when he talked to me earlier this week he shared with me that he believes that photomasks, which I currently do, is possibly the most difficult area to examine in the Chemistry Technolgy Center. So that means, in his opinion electro photography is much more straight forward area to examine. Hopefully then that means that once I do get familiar with it, it will be easier than what I am currently working on.
Each different technolgy area has different expectancies. In this case, the expectancy for electro photography will be a little bit less than it is currently for me, working on photomasks. Meaning I will have to do less work each week, or to think of it another way I have more time to work on these cases.
Cons:
Simply, I have to relearn an entirely new technology. In terms of how to do my job, that should all be the same. But all the experience and familiarity with the technology that I have gained over the past three years... will no longer be of any use. I will be starting from scratch, since the two fields are unrelated. What that means is that I will have to spend a lot more time on each case searching what is out there, because to be frank, I have no clue what is out there. It will be a true challenge to learn this new technolgy fast.
Starting next quarter I will be starting my promotion period, which means an increase in total work I need to get done by about 7%. Additionally, I will have some of my cases pulled and reviewed in preparation for my promotion. Since I'm unfamiliar with the new technology.... well I shall just hope for the best there lol. But after the promotion period, which is 6 months long, I will be a GS13, which has an increase in work of 15% of where I am now. Which is a big jump. Also at that time, I will be doing the partial signiture program, which is the program you get on so I can sign my own cases. Anyways, its a tricky time to have such an upheavel.
Printer toners involve organic chemistry as I mentioned above. The last time I did organic chemistry was when I was a freshman in college, or about 9 years ago. I'm just plain rusty lol. The last three years I've been doing optical physics more than chemistry and composition. So it will be an additional challenge just getting back into the habit of switching the scientific gears.
So anyways, thats what I get to look forward to in the near future. It will be challenging, but hopefully the pros will outway the cons. If nothing else, it is at least a change of pace. And I think that much at least won't be such a bad thing.
But that is all changing. Alas, seemingly my own success and that of my immediate coworkers are our own downfall. When I first started, I was working on cases that were about 3 years, to 3.5 years old, from the time they were filed. Currently though I'm at 18-20 months. While that sounds like it is a good thing, it also means that we are flat out running out of cases. It turns out my boss has way too many people working in that area, and has decided to move us junior examiners off to another "docket" or technology area.
So off to electro photography I go. As I understand it, electro photography is best known as being used in printers. For example, next to me at my desk at work is an HP laserjet printer. Electro photography, or at least the area I will be examining, will include the toner that is used, so compositions and mixtures for example of the printer toner, as well as the roller, or the area where the ink is imaged onto the paper. In the words of my boss, electro photography and photolithography are in no way related. Which means I will, most likely starting at the beginning of next quarter (1st of October), be having to learn an entirely new technology.
Pros:
As I mentioned earlier, my current technology, with photomasks is more based in optical physics than chemistry. Electro photography will be more chemistry based. While I won't be dealing with chemical reactions per say, I will have to examine compositions, such as for example organic chains and halogens of organics and the like. So this will bring me a little more back to my roots.
When I first moved over to my current office my boss dropped one of my favorite quotes from him ever when he said "I don't want you guys having a split docket so that you don't realize how much easier other art units
Each different technolgy area has different expectancies. In this case, the expectancy for electro photography will be a little bit less than it is currently for me, working on photomasks. Meaning I will have to do less work each week, or to think of it another way I have more time to work on these cases.
Cons:
Simply, I have to relearn an entirely new technology. In terms of how to do my job, that should all be the same. But all the experience and familiarity with the technology that I have gained over the past three years... will no longer be of any use. I will be starting from scratch, since the two fields are unrelated. What that means is that I will have to spend a lot more time on each case searching what is out there, because to be frank, I have no clue what is out there. It will be a true challenge to learn this new technolgy fast.
Starting next quarter I will be starting my promotion period, which means an increase in total work I need to get done by about 7%. Additionally, I will have some of my cases pulled and reviewed in preparation for my promotion. Since I'm unfamiliar with the new technology.... well I shall just hope for the best there lol. But after the promotion period, which is 6 months long, I will be a GS13, which has an increase in work of 15% of where I am now. Which is a big jump. Also at that time, I will be doing the partial signiture program, which is the program you get on so I can sign my own cases. Anyways, its a tricky time to have such an upheavel.
Printer toners involve organic chemistry as I mentioned above. The last time I did organic chemistry was when I was a freshman in college, or about 9 years ago. I'm just plain rusty lol. The last three years I've been doing optical physics more than chemistry and composition. So it will be an additional challenge just getting back into the habit of switching the scientific gears.
So anyways, thats what I get to look forward to in the near future. It will be challenging, but hopefully the pros will outway the cons. If nothing else, it is at least a change of pace. And I think that much at least won't be such a bad thing.
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