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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary Ng who wrote (52070)	9/14/2001 8:01:07 AM
From: gugie	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 70976

Maybe it's time to start leaking a little AMAT into this thread. I was in Taiwan on a business trip for Applied when all hell broke loose. Of course, I'm still here. My original schedule was to go home just after SEMICON Taiwan, which runs the beginning of next week. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is a realistic possibility. The hotel I'm currently at in Hsin Chu, just south of Taipei, has several people stuck here that were supposed to go home a day or two ago. The number of short and sandal wearing Americans I see at the hotel buffet breakfast is increasing daily. These same people were wearing slacks and ties just a day or two ago. Just yesterday the company announced that no American-based personnel will travel to Taipei to support the AMAT booth. Typically the booth is manned by ~2/3 local sales, marketing, and technical support, 1/3 from the product divisions, most from Santa Clara, some from our metrology division in Israel. The local account team is scrambling to fill in, and in typical Taiwanese fashion, they're not complaining, working long hours and adapting quickly. I'm taking on some additional responsibilities as one of the few from Santa Clara that made it. By some luck the equipment for the show went out a few days before all hell broke loose. Cell phones and air time are pretty cheap here. I bought one about a year ago when it was obvious that I'd be travelling a lot to Taiwan. You can go to any 7-Eleven (a few thousand of them, about one every 4 blocks it seems) and buy $20 or $40 phone cards, which you can use to fill up your account. Since my wife's been pretty upset the last few days, as most everyone has, it's reassuring for her to know she can contact me anytime, even though I'm thousands of miles away. Talking every morning and evening to her, plus the occasional midday message has only cost me about $20. After reading about the brave souls on the doomed flights making that last call to a loved one, people calling from piles of debris to help rescuers locate them, emergency personnel from various agencies finding that this is the only common communication method they have, even the little extra assurance it gives my wife and I, I don't think anyone can look at these things as luxuries anymore. Even though I feel pretty lonely right now, even more so than usual when I travel on business, reading all of your posts makes me feel a little better. I've been mostly a lurker here on SI for the past few years. I thought I'd put in my two bits to the conversation. I feel like I know a lot of you. Gottfried, the retired German, sailing on the SF bay, always seeming to add the voice of reason when things get a little heated. Tito the Yo-Yoin' stair case buildin' man, whose LEAP theories I'd like to try out some day. Sun Tzu, whose future book I would pay for just for the quality of writing and thought. Brian Kerecz, world traveller, adventure seeker, poster of all things AMAT-Brian is it true that you have hacked your way into AP, Reuters, et al so that you can post info to this thread before it's printed anywhere else, or does it just seem that way? Katherine, who I've used as my part-time personal tutor in both the business and sometimes the technical end of the industry that I've been part of for 9 years now. Lone Star, as proud a Texan as you can get. Michael97123, whose escape from hell I was happy to read about recently. Plus all the rest of the regulars... Sure, I disagree with your views sometimes, and think many of you get a little too fired up writing nastigrams back and forth (Cary, are you listening? Maybe it's time to take all of those people off of your ignore list. Everyone's putting down their swords and being civil, posting much more important stuff than the latest theory of the ups and downs of AMAT stock. This lurker humbly asks you to rejoin the conversation). Mostly, though, it somehow feels good to read your posts. I guess that writing this is somehow part of my healing process. I'd be honored to have someone click reply on this post. Your humble correspondent in Taiwan, Mark