Furlough

So with it ever looking more and more likely like the government will be shutting down here next week, some perhaps are wondering how that might affect me.

I am happy to say that the patent office will not shut down next week. We received notice from the Director that the patent office has funds to keep us open for a maximum of 6 days. Meaning that as long as the government doesn't shut down longer than 6 days, I should be relatively unaffected. Which is a relief. Don't get me wrong, I would have enjoyed the vacation.... just not the no pay part of it all...

That being said, if the government shuts down Rachel will still have to go into work, but might not get paid for it. She is considered to have an essential job, so she still has to go in. However, there is a chance that she might not get reimbursed even so. I read somewhere that someone is threatening to sue them in that case as infringing on the 13th amendment (no slavery).

Anyways, here's hoping politicians can do their jobs and work out a budget before they have to shut down the government. I'm hoping this all becomes purely academic....

Some long overdue Updates

First things first I suppose. Two weeks ago I tested for my new belt, which was a Full Green Belt. It was a lot of fun and what was so great, was that I was testing with a lot of friends from the Dojo. That is always a blast, as we all knew each other, and could just really enjoy the test. Even if it was one of the most exhausting tests ever, lasting 2 hours and 45 minutes of constant exercise and karate. By the end I was getting dizzy just standing there, from exhaustion and probably dehydration lol. But we all made it through it and it was a blast.

Then the next Tuesday at academy, the main instructor presented me with a test invitation for brown belt, in a week and a half. For brown belt there is a special advanced test, that takes place once every about three months. This particular one was scheduled for March 25th, or a in a week and a half from when I got the test invite. I was both surprised and absolutely honored to get a test invite for the next rank, literally a few days after I just tested for my previous rank lol. But at the same time, I was a little worried as I knew how exhausting tests were.

What made it worst last Saturday, the main instructor Sensei Santillo asked me "so, what are you doing cardio wise to train for the next next Friday?". Holy crap I had train physically for the test? And I only had a week? He kinda freaked me out to say the least lol. But in the end tonight's test wasn't so bad really. It turned out to be more technical than physically exhausting. Don't get me wrong, it was still physically exhausting, but it was more, getting tired from doing lots of karate, and less from doing tons of exercises, so it was more fun in my opinion.

Anyways, here is a picture I took of my most recent three belts, with their rank certificates.
As you can see, the Brown belt certificate is bigger, because it's better I guess.

In other news, as of Monday I will be promoted at work as well. This is a promotion to GS-13, and is a big promotion. It is a large increase in work, 15%, where all my previous promotions were a 10% increase. Also, at the end of 20 weeks, I start the partial signatory program, where I start being able to send out actions without them being reviewed by my boss first. At this point my production will increase by another 10%, so 25% more work than what I am doing right now. 20 weeks from now is Mid August, or about the time of our August vacation. But the good news is that it is also a significant jump in pay, and I get my own office.

As you can see, there are no windows whatsoever, making it feel like a large closet with a desk and a computer in it. Nevertheless, it is all mine, and I don't have to share it with anyone! Also as you can see, I found nice home for the painting that Caleb made for me. However, as you can also see, I still have plenty of wall space, in case Caleb ever wants to make some more paintings for me!

Also, as one more random aside, I got Rachel to get HBO on her cable so that I can watch A Game of Thrones on HBO next month!

Anyways, I know I have rambled on quite a bit so far. I know Stephen will complain. But then I think he is just jealous that I post more than just random youtube videos that I find online.

Patent Office in Detroit

Patent Office in Detroit?

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and PTO Director David Kappos will be holding
a press conference later today. I expect that they will announce plans to
open the first USPTO satellite office in Detroit, Michigan.

UPDATE:

It is confirmed here is the press release.

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 units are" 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.

Rumblings

So I realized that it has been a few weeks since I have last posted. I figured I'd jot off some random stuff, so at least everyone knows I'm not dead or anything.

I just finished watching "Spartacus" a la Netflix. This is a show that has been intriguing me. Specifically I love the area and period that it is representing. And this show has been surprisingly good. The pilot was horrendous. But every episode since has been amazing. It has a lots of violence, language and nudity, but the strength of the show was how it balanced character development. As any good show about the period they focused on political maneuvering as much as the action. Though don't get me wrong, the fight scenes always managed to be fun to watch, and well choreographed. They deftly wove the story around different characters, comparing and contrasting them deftly throughout the series up till the climatic ending. The ending was quite satisfying, as well as epic. I'm really curious where they will take the second season.

I have also lost quite a bit of weight. This has the downside, I'm finding out, of needing an entire new set of clothes. Which is why I was so happy that Kevin was willing to part with some. I must say though, it is nice fitting into a size Large shirts, and size 34 waist. I don't know the last time I can say I was there. Probably junior high school sadly.... Anyways I figure I would love to still lose about another 10-15 pounds minimum. My goal I think is to have a "beach body" in time for the Long Lake vacation this year.

In Karate I have started to learn the Chinese Dao, which is a Chinese broadsword. That has been tons of fun. So far I have learned "dragon set one" and I'm hoping that next week I will learn the second sword form. The ability to learn weapons like this was one of the reasons why I decided to join the karate school that I did. And I must say it has been a blast. I have two more lessons (i purchased five extra to learn the weapon) left, which is sad. But not the end thankfully lol. After my lesson this past Thursday one of the other students told me that he thinks I smile more when I have a sword. I don't doubt this to be true lol.

Work is going well I suppose. I just got promoted right around Easter, which should mean I have to do 10% more work. Though if that is the case, it seems to be going quite well. I do for sure enjoy the extra pay. And the other benefits is just that with the promotion my boss has to review my work less strenuously. So I'm still kinda curious how that will play out in the end. So far I really havn't noticed anything different. One thing I can say though, is that I called up an attorney to suggest to them an amendment for the case. Basicaly he was unable to reach his applicant (the inventor or the like) in order to propose the amendment. The reason? A week long holiday in Japan. That's right, 1 week, public holiday. I know a government worker complaining about lack of holidays is much a pot and kettle situation. But really. 1 week! I'm very jealous.

Okay, so enough rumblings. Hopefully at some point I will even have something interesting to blog about.... sadly my life isn't that exciting lol. Until then, vaya con dios.