First things first.. Gabe called me tonight to tell me that he won 1st place in the jump and 2nd place in the rails at tonight’s Night Rider competition at Bolton Valley. Whooooo-hoooooo
I was bummed to be down here in NY missing it.. it was so cool he called to tell me. I’m so proud of him.. I love the whole Wednesday night thing up at Bolton.. I love watching the kids compete… while we sit inside all warm and cozy.
Today was fun down here… but no jumps or rails. We started with a 7:30 tour of the 300mm fab here in Fishkill. For all the work I’ve done on chips that are built here… I’ve never actually stepped foot inside the production floor. Our host Raminder had arraigned it .. it was so amazingly cool. The whole 5 billion (yes B-illion) dollar building is run by robotics…The whole building can run itself automatically. It’s like the matrix.. machines moving machines around to help build tiny machines.
To go into the production floor we had to suit up.. the whole works, booties, hair net, face mask,
hood, gloves, bunny suit…
Here’s Jane (China)
… and Joanne (US)
and .. me.. I think ?
and Hugh (UK) I think
This must be Carolyn (australia/US)
and John (Canada)
Trust me, we are smiling !
I’m pretty sure this is me also …
Our tour lasted an hour. It was truly awe inspiring that that many different machines could be hooked together to work that efficiently.. The high point was seeing the $50 million dollar deep UV immersion stepper.. what a cool piece of machinery !
After the tour, we had to quickly dash to teh cafeteria to do a round table with the Fishkill employees.. I met these guys Orazio and Donato Forlenza .. They were a riot. they’re acutally brothers working in the same department.. (Let’s see Forlenza .. is that an Irish name ? ) Donato is going to a wedding in India .. I showed him some pictures from our trip.. He’s going to let me know how his trips go.. He’s not sure he likes Indian food.. I told him to pack a lunch.
Here’s all the Academy TC and the Fishkill TVC before the panel
Here are some of the folks who showed up for the panel..
And here’s a quick shot of my fellow panelists.
I had many freinds in the crowd including Bhavna.. in profile you can almost tell that she’s expecting her first baby in April !
The rest of the day was very good discussions with the TC. … Not much I can report on here.. but there’s a very good ernegy abotu the group now. We worked until about 6.. then I zoomed off for dinner wit my old boss and very good freind Kevin. We had a really great dinner.. at a Thai place in Beacon.. I absolutely love talkign with Kevin he is such a cool and interesting guy.. we talked families, work, music, hiking.. I never get tired of listening to him
which is not to say that I never get tired… I’m about to fall asleep .. so time to sign off… Sleep tight all.. sleep tight Sam..
-me