Felt really tired yesterday, so i went to sleep early-ish. good thing today is a public holiday, so i could sleep in a little. i typed "repay my sleep debt" at first, but deleted it because i don't really have sleep debt now. i guess it's just the weather. i did have a strange dream though, about the older BPS brother. in the dream, i was living in the bishan house, and he told me that his mother had kicked him out. there was something else about him being secretive not wanting to tell me something, which is actually quite par for the course as far as these brothers are concerned. i don't remember how the dream ended, though.

gave the super-fluffy omelette another go today. despite whisking until my arms were sore, it still turned out pretty much the same as the first time. don't think i'll be doing that again in a hurry, if even at all. too much effort. i also made ginger chocolate for the office this past monday. to be exact, it's actually ganache (known in japan as "生チョコ" - nama choko, or raw/fresh chocolate) pieces made with ginger-infused cream and with bits of ginger mixed throughout. i felt that it was lacking in ginger flavour, but the people in the office seemed to like it. i think what i'll do differently next time is grate the ginger, instead of mincing it by hand. also bearing in mind that the next time i make this will be for kids, i'll probably go for a mix of milk and dark chocolate, instead of pure dark chocolate.

decided to explore my japan options further, so i googled for more IP firms in the osaka area. my search turned up 3 prospects, and i'm most hopeful for the one that invites applicants to send inquiries to them in english. bonus is they're part of a group that has an office in singapore! there was another company that listed "in-house english conversation enrichment/support" as a staff benefit, which i thought was quite amusing. it's actually the company which i'd most like to join (just based off the impression from the website) because they offer flexi-work, exam leave, and some other nice asides. it seems to me like they are the most supportive of their staff going the patent attorney track.

before all that though, the big questions i have to answer are: (1) is this going to be useful for me? (2) how relevant will this be to my future career? yes, it's hypocritical when you consider my current job, but the plan has always been to go back into something science-related (that isn't teaching) after JET. for question 1, i'd say that it would be useful, because if nothing else, it's work experience. maybe i'll prove myself to be able to handle working in "real" corporate japan. or i might regret leaving the slack life. either way, it'll allow me to find out more about myself. question 2's answer is a bit more complicated. it's relevant, but not entirely. let me explain. it's relevant in the sense that it's in the right industry, ie. my resume will show that i worked for however long in an IP firm. at the same time, the IP laws in each country are different, so the practices will differ as well. but i figure that the core principles are more or less similar. one reassurance is that i'm eligible for a refund of up to 5 years of the pension fund money (CPF) that i paid, so if i decide to leave after a year, i can still get everything i'm due.

just took a look at the patent attorney qualifying exams in japan. as japan usually does, it offered various breakdowns of the candidate demographic. it blew my mind that some people took the exam for the 21st time and above this year, especially when i know that this is an annual exam. the oldest candidate is over 70 years old! they also posted the questions for the legal and technical sections, and i was able to get the gist of what most of the questions were asking for the chemistry option. it's actually about undergrad level. admittedly, i've forgotten a good chunk of them, including fischer projections and entropy calculations. but the knowledge is regain-able with some study. the big problem, however, is how to express it in japanese. i'm fairly confident that i could pass the exam if i was allowed to answer in english, and even more so if they gave me the questions in english too! but my japanese vocabulary simply isn't up to scratch as far as technical terms are concerned. also, assuming the test paper is all the candidates get, they won't be allowed to refer to a periodic table. i think that while it wouldn't be impossible for me to qualify as a patent attorney in japan, the process will take far more effort than it's worth. so here's the plan: i'll send some emails out to the IP firms i have in mind. i expect that most of them won't reply, or if they do, it'll be a polite GTFO. but hey, no harm in knocking on more doors.

having said that, i think i should work harder on finding employment outside of japan. if my eventual goal is to end up qualified as a patent attorney, i'd be better off doing it in australia or singapore. i saw that one potential IP firm has a more or less permanent ad up on jobstreet, which makes me worry that they're another revolving-door company. worse is their website isn't advertising any vacancies at all. my top choice for singapore (the firm that my junior is now in) isn't hiring chemists at the moment. with luck, that'll change by 2024.

-random thought of the day: Shower, then sleep.-