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"Acronyms are interesting to me. Although it is not correct English, I put initials in the same catagory. In almost any type of technical work, there is a language built up around acronyms and initials. In my mind, there are three reasons for this phenomenia: (1) convienience; (2) laziness; or (3) job security. It is simply easier to say POSC, rather than `The Petrotechnical Open Software Foundation' or USA rather than `The Unitied States of America' or LDS or even `Mormon' rather than `The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.' I will let you judge as to whether this is convience or laziness. Maybe it is a combination. Now if you are participating in the RC-SIG, since `Reality Centre' (RC) is a trademarked name of Silicon Graphics, you are promoting a Special Interest Group (SIG) which justifies your company division being in existence. I will write later in this Thoughtlet about being the organizer for the North American RC-SIG, and the name has become the major stumbling block to getting this SIG off of the ground. Similarily, I mentioned to a friend this week that at the `Tools For Community Design and Decision Making' conference in Stuart, Florida last week we started talking about the establishment of abcd.org (Association for Better Citizen Decisions), and they shot back the words, `Well I bet the acronym came first.' It actually didn't, yet I understand their sarcastic response.
As I think back across the timescape of my life, there have been thousands of acronyms and initials. The first one, which I can't remember, was related to a philosophy paper I wrote at The `U' (The University of Utah). I remember working really hard on this paper about Henry James, and then having it turned back to me as incomplete because I had only regurgitated material, and had not put original thoughts into the paper. So I went to my typewriter and stayed up all night writing a several page summary of my feelings about William James philosophy. It was built around an acronym I invented, and which I now can't remember. This was the original basis for the creation of the character Henry William James (the philosopher William James had a brother named Henry who was a playwrite, and the first name of the author of `On Walden Pond' was Henry (Thoreau). Henry Willimam James is the lead character in a novel I started in 1988. For those I have told about it in some detail, they have told me I invented a shadow or a pen name of myself. The name of the novel is W3D, which are initials for Walden 3-D. I was writing this novel to present the importance of building cities around people rather than cars when I decided to incorporate myself. My first name selection was T.H.E. Corp. This stood for Total Heterogenous Environments Corporation. However, my lawyer, Eddie J. Rogers, discovered the name THE Corporation was taken by a group in Florida: `Totally Homosexual Environments.' About the same week I went to Lake Tahoe to represent Landmark at the annual SEP Consortium Meeting (Stanford Exploration Project). At one point I was bored, and so I went for a walk way back up in the mountains. I recall I had hurt my ankle pretty bad jogging, and it was really sore as I went on this several mile hike in the mountains. As I was walking I remembered the future (Alma 13:1), and realized I should name the company after the novel I was working on. Thus was born the name Walden 3-D, Inc.
At the University of Houston we went overboard with acronyms and initials. I was hired by SAL (The Seismic Acoustics Laboratory), and we formed the AGL (Allied Geophysical Laboratories) of which I was the GM (General Manager), which consisted of the FRL (Field Research Laboratory), WLL (Well Logging Laboratory), RCL (Research Computation Laboratory), SAL, and IPL (Image Processing Laboratory). I think Universities professionals are both lazy and trying to insure their job security by inventing new languages, which they need to be around to interpret. Natural language computers are going to put the negative components of this group out of work within the next two decades.
This use of acronyms and initials carried over into Landmark Graphics. Early on, when we first selected the name, we just had to have an acronym or initials that meant something else. I remember writing for the SAL Newsletter about plans for Landmark to build tools to `Mark the Land.' One day the founders were going in a car someplace and we came up with: LAN (Local Area Network, Andy Hildebrand's contribution) DMA (Direct Memory Access, John Mouton's contribution) RK (Roice's or Rock Knowledge). The New York Stock Exchange initials for Landmark became LMRK. Guess what my ego thinks of every time I see LMRK someplace?
Then there have been the companies I've started: CGS (Computer Genealogical Services), LGC (Landmark Graphics Corporation), CCC (China Cattle Corporation), W3D (Walden 3-D, Inc.), HMC (HyperMedia Corporation), ASI (Advanced Structures Incorporated), DOG (Dynamic Oil & Gas Corporation), CoRe (Contiuum Resources International Corporation), CES (Creative Enterprise Solutions), and surely more yet to come. The initials, which in some cases is an acronym, often tell the whole story, especially to the initiated. I find myself shrugging my shoulders when someone says LGC (because if I had some financial intelligence our family would have a lot of money in the bank), or wincing in emotional pain when someone says HMC (because it brings back memories about how I was taken to the cleaners by a untrustworthy convert). Acronyms and initials can stir emotions.
Of course, there are the church acronyms and initials: BOM (Book of Mormon); D&C (Doctrine and Covenants, unless you are a gynecologist); JST (Joseph Smith Translation); GA (General Authority); BYC (Bishop's Youth Council); HT (Home Teaching); VT (Visiting Teaching); YM (Young Men); YW (Young Women); MIA (Mutual Improvement Association, until the Viet Nam War taught us it stood for Missing In Action); RS (Relief Society); MP (Melchezedec Priesthood); AP (Aaronic Priesthood, or if you are on a mission it stands for Assistant(s) to the President); DL (District Leader); ZL (Zone Leader); BIC (Born In the Covenant); CTR (Choose The Right); ETTE (Endure To The End); etc. I expect you all get the idea.
As I look back over last week's continuum, I see both acronyms and initials plastered across the space and time I inhabited. Except, like most of the topics of these Thoughtlets, they are this topic cohabits most of my weeks. Monday was spent catching up from being gone last week. Andrea left in the afternoon for IAH (Bush Intercontental Airport) and a CO (Continental flight) to go to Nate's Mom's funeral. I picked up Rachel from soccer practice (about 20 minutes late), read the paper, ordered two large pizza's (supreme and Canadian bacon and pineapple), picked up the two missionaries in the ward, and got back to the house just in time to pay for the pizza. The missionaries loved the pizza. I sang them some songs. `Foggie Learns' The Gospel' just isn't the same singing it alone. Oh well! We made several calls on the way back to their apartment. Rachel and Matt and I decorated the Christmas Tree in the Living Room for Family Home Evening. Matt had some homework to work on when I got back.
Tuesday was mostly a day of catch up at the office. Worked on several different WIBNI (Wouldn't It Be Nice If) projects, including reworking my presentation to be given on Wednesday, and fixing the color map on the amplitude extractions in the Fantasy demonstration. I got to Taylor late and missed Rachel at soccer practice because they got out early. Oh well! Came home and fixed some speghetti, then went and picked up Rob. We all ate too much, and I didn't realize the Kessler's Hannukah Party was a dinner. Oh well! Matt, Rob, and I got two dinners. Rachel came back to the house early to study for tests after the program. It was interesting to hear them recall the history of how the oil for the temple lasted 8 days, when there was only enough for one day. It was especially touching to listen to the songs. I volunteered for us to host a Hannukah party next year.
Wednesday was the POSC Annual Meeting (http://www.posc.org/ then click on events or logistics). I gave a modification of my talk `The Impending Obsolescence of Maps.' Everyone who hears it seems to really like it, and I'm getting enough feedback now, I actually believe folks are learning something new from this presentation. I left early to go pick up Rachel. This time I got to Taylor in time to pick up Rachel. Matt had a bunch of homework, and he stayed home from scouts and actually worked on it. I was hosting a carrer night with Lyle Rowbury talking about his work in marketing and real estate at Exxon. He did a wonderful job, and the sad thing is it was the first time he had been asked to talk to a scout group about his work. Oh well! Matt and I worked until almost 10:00 getting his homework typed up. I am curious to see how he did on it gradewise. Should find out Monday. Andrea got home about 1:30 AM, and I was so tired I didn't even hear her.
Thursday the POSC Annual Meeting Continued. Also, I sponsored the first North American RC-SIG meeting. We had a dozen folks from about 8 oil companies and 3 contractors. It was neat. Good people. We started off with a collaboration between our Houston and London offices, then Darrel Fanguay, who joined us in London from CAD Centre talked about the formation of the London RC-SIG. This was followed with a question and answer time, and then we did some organizational stuff. The importance of what something is named became evident as the meeting progressed. Eight folks took assignments to help with the first formal two day meeting, which will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 31Jan00 to 01Feb00. There was one lady who came in upset that I had got GSH sponsorship. She left a happy camper. Maybe I should be a politician? In the afternoon I listened to the POSC talks. The best talk was by the Director of the Federal Geographic Mapping Agency. He is charged with getting all of the maps in all of the different government agencies in a common format and making the data available to people. It is exciting, and it fits directly in the middle of the meeting in Florida last week. In fact, he meets with Scott Bernstein in Chicago, who was one of the key drivers to last week's meeting. I worked until about 6:00. There was nothing planned for the evening, and I ended up watching `The Magnificant Seven' and working on catching up on mail files. Andrea was busy catching up from being gone. She says there were a lot of folks at Nate's Mom's funeral, and that there was a very good spirit there.
Friday Jeff Hume was back in the office for the first time in a month. He can really be negative. Some of it is for good reason, and some of it is just to pass on his frustrations. Maybe watching him and the pressure he has put himself under is why I have no desire to be the President of a company like CoRe. I spent a couple of hours at lunch time taking Bowen Loftin, Carolyn Sumners, and her husband Gary Young to lunch. Tieing in the Federal Money I learned about Thursday afternoon through Bowen and the UH for funding an Immersible at the Planetarium is very exciting to me. I missed the CoRe explorer meeting because Steve Goldsberry, who I worked with at LGC and SGI (Silicon Graphics Incorporated), and who is now the President of Paradigm Geophysical's North American Operations came by. He basically wanted to know if Continuum is for sale. We had a great conversation. He has had to have his colen replaced, and to have chemotherapy for cancer, and he is 10 years younger than I am. He and his wife adopted a daughter last year, and so there is also good news. I was so tired when I got home I fell asleep on the couch. I got up and went right to bed at 8:30. Then I woke up at 1:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I worked on catching up e-mail from 1-4:00.
Saturday started with a CES conference call at 8:00. We had stake choir practice from 9-11:30 AM. Rob came over. He and Matt and I went out to lunch at the local donut shop, and Rob and I went to see `The Omega Code' in the afternoon. In the evening Andrea and I went to The Indonesian Consolate to a Indonesian Christian Service with one of the ladies she walks with each morning. It has been a long time since I have been to an evangelical meeting. I enjoy them, and usually the doctrine isn't too far off what the scriptures teach. We got home and I worked on mail and caught up Nate's Family Updates (http://www.walden3d.com/nate), and I went to sleep after Rachel got home from the Katy football game. Andrea stayed up and baked.
Today was a typical Sunday. We did go to church a half hour early to practice with the ward choir for the ward Christmas program. It was quite good this year. We thought Rob, Melanie, and Sara were joining us for dinner. Oh well! We went to the church about 6:15 for the annual joint Epiphany - Katy Stake joint choir. Rachel saved seats for Bob and Suzie Peebler. Bob is the President of LGC, and I talked Suzie into leaving Texaco in L.A. and coming to work for Landmark back in the mid-1980's. She now works for a small oil company in town. They came by the house afterwards for desert and to talk. We spent most of the time talking about temples.
President Jones was really funny in his introduction. He said, I'm sorry to announce this is the last of these joint Catholic - LDS concerts, and he stopped while the entire audience gasped, then he continued `of this millenium.' At the closing remarks, Father Jack Dinkins said his heart stopped when President Jones said this. He also said `this past hour is one of those times when time and space become one with the eternal and we step into God's continuum.' It was a lovely evening, it's been a wonderful week, and I hope as the holidays progress your days are all full of positive and upbuilding acronyms and initials."