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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Friends, family, countrymen,

Lend me your....reading ability?

Silly Shakespeare. Anyway, it's been slow, still. I have news though, we received our dockets at work...so I do real work now. Since with the government, everything is up in the air until it actually happens, I know officially know my art unit, which is 2874, or, to the layman, Fiber Optics and Waveguides. Sounds fun doesn't it? I thought so too, until I realized I wasn't taught a lot of fiber optics in school. Who would have thought I would use any of that "physics" stuff I learned at school.

Fiber optics! Wow! I've actually started deep into my first case, and at the start, I had no idea what the patent was talking about. I'm not at liberty to disclose it, but I've learned a lot already! So much learning. In fact, yesterday at work, I truly believe time passed the fastest for me. I sat down at 7:30am sharp, to start working, and the next thing I new I was standing and stretching and it was 9:30am. Got up to ask a question and it was 10:30. We went to lunch at noon, before I knew it I was walking to the convenience store to buy a soda, and then I was on the metro. Even the metro ride was quick, and traffic was amazingly light, so I made good time home. Great day...

That's about it. I'm starting to examine real patents, and that's the only thing that's different since the last weeks posting. I should really try to write more, but I'm dead tired. I understand what all those "adults" were talking about. I don't like being an adult :(

I don't like Sen. Lieberman either, he's hurting the democrats in the upcoming election. Jerk. Step aside my friend, let Lamont do his job. I saw Lamont on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was very interesting and I think he'll do a good job. Not that it'll impact my life, unless he ever runs for president.

That's my random thought for this post. Coming soon, an update after my first week of real work, and a random thought about gasoline prices.

John :)

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wednesday,

Wow, I'm terrible at remembering to update this. I wish I could sit down and think to do it everyday, but I can't, plus I'd quickly run out of things to write.

Work has been going well. It appears I'll be in the Fiber Optics work group, as I had anticipated, at least for the last few weeks. I should be getting my "docket" with my real cases that I'm responsible for, at the beginning of next week. That'll be fun, I'll be busy every minute at work, for the rest of my career at the PTO.

Another note at work, I missed out on a bonus given to new hires. The "redtape" stopped the paper work from going in before my class in May, or the class in June started. The class in July gets their hiring bonus with their first paycheck, totalling approximately $7600 for my pay grade...sucks big time missing out on that. Oh well, I'll just have to pray they decide to give it to us at another time, maybe when our 8 month training expires. I'm worth it, they'll want to keep me :)

Everything else is pretty slow going. I just got home from work, I'll go make dinner, take a shower, and have a few minutes to put my feet up before amanda gets home. Then I'll talk to her for a bit and go to sleep...just like every work day... I live for the weekends. Once I get my docket I may get to have a little more flexibility in my arrival time at work, and after 6 months, assuming I get my promotion, I'll be able to work for comp time (I work and accrue leave instead of overtime pay) That'll be really nice, being able to get a few extra days of leave off whenever I want. It'll allow me to go to MI to see amanda for spring break, and for other trips through the year. Maybe we can go to florida or something instead, who knows?

I've started shopping around at places to rent in the area, as we'll get our own place when amanda moves to VA. So exciting.

That's about it, it's pretty slow going in this area. It's been quite hot lately, but not like it was, I'm very thankful for that. I can handle 85, but 105 is way too hot for me. The humidity is the worst though.

I'll be in MI from August 31st to September 1st, and I'll be in Saginaw for a few hours one of those days for sure. Amanda is inheriting my old queen sized matress and box springs, so we'll have to go pick that up unless she can make it down there before then. With that date quickly approaching, (about two weeks) I doubt they'll have a chance to get it before I come. That's fine with me, it gives us a great excuse to make it to Saginaw.

That's that. Not much else has happened. I'll write more again, I just don't know when :) I'll try to be better though, I'll write a note on my whiteboard. Until then, take care.

John

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Yay Tuesday!

Tuesday is almost over and that means after tomorrow I'll be more than half way done with the week! That's exciting to me.

Amanda left yesterday morning before I went to work! It was very sad to see her go, we had so much fun. We did so much, shopping, saw a movie, went out to eat with friends on saturday, went to the zoo, spent a lot of time in DC, went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History! That was about it...we didn't didn't even hang out that much, we were on the go a ton.

It was so fun having her around here, especially since I have my own car. Last time she was here was the day after I moved to the new place, I had nothing settled, no car, and there wasn't much to do. It was very hot as well. Much hotter this time, as we're having record temperatures, just like the rest of the country, however, this time I have my window AC unit, which saves the day. I miss having her here already, I can't wait for her to move here forever. I'll add a couple pictures of us at the end.

Work has been going great. It's been a pretty slow couple weeks, but I'm getting a lot done. We have mini technology fairs today and tomorrow, where we get to see all the different areas in our field. Our supervisor even said if we asked for a certain area, she'll try to get us there. I'm going to try to get into the Radiant Energy field, with a subfield of Invisible Radiation. I'll be examining things like smoke detectors, radar detectors, radar jammers, radiation counters, things like that. There's TONS, and it's right up my alley. I'm stoked.

Anyway, this was a quick note, I'm about to go take a shower. I'll be back in MI August 31st-September 4th, I think. Then again for Thanksgiving, I think, and for Christmas I should be there 10 or 11 days, I'm going to be able to take the whole week between christmas and new years off, so I'll be around then too, I think! :) Nothing is set in stone, but there's a good chance I'll be back all those times. Anyway, that's all! :)