Vigo Baby's Rhapsodies

Christmas… Gifts, Cards, and Giftcards

I love Christmas, because it comes every year, punctually and faithfully, rain or shine… We are having a rainy Christmas in Northern California this year, just like the ones I used to have in Taipei. In the days of yore when walking down the cold damp Taipei streets, my friend and I would stop once or twice or thrice, to be dazzled by the glittering Christmas decorations, to be serenaded by that enchanting Bing Crosby ----

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow….

I always longed for a real White Christmas! And it did come for me, when the biggest snowstorm in 10 years and I happened to visit Boston at the same time: stores closed, subways stopped, school exams postponed. Imagine being stuck in the research lab during the holidays, accompanied by a dozen or so computers and a dozen or so donuts ---- our only foods during the confinement, once fresh from Donkin Donuts a few days ago ---- and people ask why I don’t eat donuts now?

That white Christmas taught me to be grateful for Christmases of any color, green, blue, yellow, even orange ---- we might get what we wished for, sometimes more abundantly.

Christmas is a season of giving, or as the commercial folks say, gifting! Although I go to the malls, touch the merchandise, and wait in the lines, I haven’t done serious Christmas shopping for ages ---- what would you give to someone who has everything he needs, and does not want anything he does not need? And because we always get out of town during the holidays, decoration is by default kept to a minimum; i.e., none.

But this year, VB household undergoes a revolutionary makeover, when an exceptional gift ---- a set of three stocking holders ---- arrived right after Thanksgiving. The fact that not only did the dear “gifting” friend share pictures of her terrific decoration but I would be stuck in town this season, leaves me no excuse but to dress up the fireplace. What do I need to bring out the essence of Christmas besides the stocking holders? Cards, of course!

Nowadays it seems that *most* cards I receive are from people who want my businesses ---- no, I do not want to make it sound like I am important and unloved, because neither is true: I am only a small potato (or a peanut, rather) who has no influence on any business decisions, and I do receive greetings from friends and cards with their personal photographs. But in order to protect the innocent, only generic cards will be displayed.

The intelligently designed fireplace with my new found talents. In the center are the JOY stocking holders holding no stockings.

A card from a world renowned semiconductor foundry gets special attention:

Scanned and cropped black-and-white image of the inside of the above card. The polka dots on the tree depict the relative sizes of the silicon wafers (6”, 8” and 12”), and the gold strings of the trunk the relative dimensions of the transistor gate lengths in various technology nodes (0.5µm down to 65nm). And what’s the problem with transistor scaling? (Hint: reference the trunk!)

One might have noticed that something is missing near the fireplace: Where have all the gift boxes gone? Why, it’s the idea of “gifting” with giftcards! It’s convenient (for both the giver and the recipient), and extremely environmentally friendly ---- reduced packaging and wrapping!

posted by Vigo Baby at 11:54 PM