Christmas cards

December, Christmas is right around the corner. That means it's time to send out the cards again.

Last year, I was still kind of in the blues of the lost relationship of the Christmas before, so I sent out none. This year, with many good friends and many people to thank, I 've got the biggest amount of cards to send out in my life. I usually only send to my cousins, but this year, I've decided to expand my target to good friends, and the professors that wrote recommendations for me. As for friends, I've got classmates, club mates, and even new friends that I met in the US this summer. Now, it's kind of hard to decide who to include in the list...

So I made the list, and went card shopping on Thursday. I had to say that it was not a good experience. About 60% of the cards were either too ugly or low in taste. 80% were too cute in design, looks like they are either for middle school girls or couples. Like, hay, I don't want that much glitter, cute animals, or hearts, dude. This is Christmas, not Valentines!!! What's more, I even see reprints of the cards that I bought, and sent two years ago. Do you make new designs??

So, sifting through the junk, I just got half of the amount that I needed. Guess I would need to do more card shopping elsewhere in the weekend.

There were these cards that cost 40NT (ouch!), and there were discount cards that seem like left over stocks from previous years for only 4NT each (err...). Picking discount cards for friends makes me feel a little guilty, but hay, some of them had better design then the newly printed 30NT cards, and the ultra low price really saves a lot. I could get 10 of those for the price of one expensive card! So, yeah, I did get some 4NT cards, and some others are in the 10~20NT price range. No matter how cheep these cards are, I feel that they are a lot better then "e-cards". Those on-line "e-cards" are flashy and free, but are too easy to send, need almost no effort, and feels more commercial then friendly; in other words, they feel more like spam. With paper cards, you at least get to open the envelope, and touch the handwriting. You really feel that the sender cares about you.

Sure, I'm a geek that use modern digital tech to do many things in every day life. I adapt these tools more then most people. But in some parts of life, I still like the old fashioned way.