"I enjoyed the Sunday Awards Ceremony and Ice Breaker. Andrea and I wear these bright yellow ribbons acknowledging me as a winner of the Cecil Green Enterprise Award Recipient and her as the spouse of someone receiving this recognition. I guess that this has come to mean more to me over the years since receiving the award (../1999/9945.html.
In attending the awards ceremony this Sunday afternoon, it was gratifying to see several friends be recognized. Xu Wen-Rong received SEG Life Membership for "helping enhance China's involvement with SEG" for growing BGP "from the geophysical arm of the national oil company to one of the largest and most competitive seismic acquisition and processing companies in the world" and because "although Chinese geophysicist have been interacting with SEG for more than 25 years, the quality and quantity of these interactions have improved dramatically over the past five years under the leadership of Xu Wen-Rong." Brian H. Russell also got life membership. Most important to me was Alf Klaveness, who received a special commendation, which reads:
Some of the things not said include Alf's donation of the first analog synthetic seismic system to the University of Houston (which is when I met him), the fact he had bought 50 acres at Westheimer and Post Oak (where The Galleria now is) the Saturday before Pearl Harbor (he got his deposit back and turned the property back in order to go into the Navy), he lost a rig and several people when it hit shallow gas and his pulsar patent and fire escape patents are largely driven by a desire this never happen again, at 94 he still does his exercises every morning, he has invented a new type of helicopter using counter-rotating blades like on a submarine propeller and has prototyped it with bicycle wheels in his garage, etc. Alf treats me like royalty and is better than anyone at building me up. I consider Alf one of my most true friends, and I think he feels the same for me.
At the Awards Meeting Norman Bleistein, who I worked with on several projects at the Seismic Acoustics Lab, and Jamie Robertson, whom I have talked with several times - most recently about global warming (../2002/0206.html) - received Honorary Membership. Robert Graebner received the Maurice Ewing Medel, the most prestigious award the SEG provides. Bob was a principal at GSI (Geophysical Services, Inc.), and the closest I came to working with him was when he was working with Bob Hardage at BEG (The Bureau of Economic Geology) and I was consulting there at the same time. Maybe I'm just getting old, and it certainly seemed like I know a lot of the key contributors to our profession of geophysical oil and gas exploration.
Monday morning I attended The Leading Edge Forum on `The Energy Supply Challenge: This Time Is It Real or Imaginary?' I submitted a question to the panel about the near-term and future potential of Canadian tar sands, Utah oil shale, and gas hydrates. The best answer was from the President of ExxonMobil, Tim Cejka, who said they are reinvesting heavily in the first two, and do not see much future for gas hydrates because of the environmental sea floor changes created when mining them. His answer about gas hydrates came across as scripted, and made me wonder if it was a smokescreen to keep others from being aware of their efforts in this area? I wrote out another question, but did not get it to the floor monitor in time: `Considering U.S. deficits, the issues of urban sprawl, transportation generated pollution, and the cost of producing hydrocarbons from unconventional sources, do you recommend the U.S. tax hydrocarbons at European levels?' Since the question was not asked, there was not an answer. Oh well!
Monday I was talking to Jim Allen and learned his Nigerian stuff did not work out. It is so sad to see an entire country caught up in graft and deceit. Oh well! Shortly after this I came across Jamie Robertson. He passed on the sad news that Ramona died a few weeks ago, and then two weeks later Bob Sneider died. Even though Bob fired me, I have tremendous respect for him. I also feel very sorry for him, as he spent his whole life struggling to overcome the mommy - daddy stuff associated with having an alcoholic father. Of course, his son John is prepared to take over the family business. And I'm sure he will do very good at it.
In fact this idea of children taking over their father's business was kind of a theme at this SEG's 75th Houston Convention. I learned that Julie Downey (her maiden name) has left Marathon, where she was working with Wade Hutchings, and is now full time running the family oil business. This theme made me wonder why none of my kids have any interest in my profession. I guess I just blew it. Maybe it is why I enjoy telling about Paul's decision to study mechanical engineering so much, with it's clinching statement, `No, Dad, there isn't enough room for both me and you in that profession!' Oh well!
Monday night Andrea drove down and met me so we could go to the Chinese BGP Open House together. It was a nice party, and I was surprised about how many of the folks I know. As we were walking in we saw Susan Graul, who Andrea had met at the Salt Lake City SEG. She told Andrea, `I'm not ready to become a Mormon, and I do want to work on my genealogy. Shortly after this Kathy Hilterman kind of attacked Andrea. She has read an anti-Mormon book, and my interpretation is she is protecting her best friend Susan Graul from the Mormons. Fred even asked Kathy to take her foot out of her mouth, which is unusual, because usually it is Fred with foot-in-mouth disease. The whole exchange was very interesting to me.
Towards the beginning of the evening the Chinese, as they always do, wanted to give some lectures to their guests. However, everyone was talking, and kept talking and eating, and ignored their hosts. I felt very sorry for Mr. Wang, the President of BGP, because he struggles with English, and he had this big speech he needed to go through. Then Xu Wen-Rong talked. I found his comments the most exciting of the entire convention. And most of those in the room did not even hear what he said. He declared the new mission statement of CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation):
This is not providing oil and gas to China. It was not providing petroleum to Asia. It was the high road, we are going to solve the energy problems of the entire world. Compare this to BP's mission statement of `Beyond Petroleum,' which is kowtowing to the environmental whackos. I found the whole experience somewhat surreal, and very exciting. China is flexing her muscles and will replace the U.S.A. as the world's super power. I have no doubt about this, simply based on the lack of basic moral decency exhibited in the U.S. today on television, in movies, and in everyday interactions. Andrea really likes Georgeanne Massell, and every night we seemed to end up spending a lot of time with Wulf and Georgeanne. The evening was very nice. It was flattering to have Mr. Xu come up and spend 10 minutes talking to me. Mr. Yao, my neighbor and his classmate, was with him. We had a very nice discussion.
Tuesday morning I went to vote at Pattison Elementary. The key issue was the Texas Constitutional Amendment specifying that marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman. It passed by 70%, so I guess I didn't need to be late to the SEG Convention, and my booth duty. However, this is certainly an issue I feel very strongly about, and it felt good to vote. There was a little more activity in the booth than on Monday.
However, I was looking forward to the evening activities. Andrea came down for the Presidential Reception, and I met her in the parking lot about 6:00 PM. Craig and Betsy Beasley were the outgoing President and spouse. I've been very impressed with Craig's reaction and efforts on behalf of the society for those affected by the Tsunami (0501.html) as well as hurricanes Katrina (0536.html, 0537.html, 0538.html, 0539.html, and 0540.html) and Rita 0539.html, 0540.html), and 0541.html). I do not know President-Elect Terry Young and his wife Nadine. It was interesting that their son was in the reception line with them. As I shook his hand and learned that he is a practicing medical doctor, I could imagine having all 10 of you kids standing in the Presidential Reception Line at an SEG Convention sometime in the future. Who knows what the future will hold.
We talked to Wulf and Georgeanne. Ate some food, and then went to the SDI Happy Hour at Dalji's Izakaya Japanese Tapas Bar a couple of blocks away. Tom Morgan, who was one of the two Ph.D. students when I was working at the Seismic Acoustics Lab was there, and it was good to catch up. He has left his work at the New Mexico SETI array, and has started an oil company. Interesting. After eating some nice Japanese appetizers, Andrea and I walked back down to the Presidential Jam Session. Andrea had brought my guitar down, and I carried it in. However, I did not get up and play it. It was too loud, to fast, and the kind of stuff I play does not feel like it fits in this environment. Peter said variety is the spice of life, and he made an opening for me to play about 10:00. However, all the kids had left, and for the reasons already stated I decided not to play. However, I did have a nice talk with Rick Chimblo, former Chief Geophysicist of Saudi Aramco, who is retiring to Tuscon. He is convinced oil will never fall below $50 per barrel again. We talked about my ideas for thermal chimneys, and I encouraged him to visit Biosphere II. It will be interesting to look back in a few years and see if anything has come of this firendship/acquintanceship.
Wednesday I spent some time talking to Mike Forrest about the Rose consortium. Blaine Taylor called and asked if he could use me as a reference, which, of course, I told him he did not need to ask. He responded it is only polite to ask. I went to the University of Utah luncheon in Four Seasons Hotel. They have got approval to go ahead with a new building for the department. They still need the last $1 million donation to finish off their fund raising. I do not know any of the folks who were there, except for Gerry Schuester, the professor. Oh well!
Back at the booth, I met Bengt Larssen of Western Geco. I told him my great grandfather was named Bengt Nelson, Jr. and that his father was Bengt Nelson and that my second son is Benjamin Bengt. He is a friend of Lee Bell's. We had a nice conversation. There were also phone conversations with Christian Singfield, and I put a name with a face, namely Mike Hagney of Sun, who is one of Chris' Board Members for FSI. The most exciting booth action of the convention happened as we were getting ready to shut down. Donna Venebold, who worked contract for Unocal under a contract with HyperMedia Corporation for several years, stopped to say hi, and to tell me what a significant impact I have made on the oil industry. Then she asked what I have been doing. I showed her the work we have done with Spotfire on the Tiles, and she got extremely excited. She went and found Jim DiSieana, and I gave him a demo, and we were told that we are going to be doing several things with their new group. Unocal was purchased by Chevron, and they are being merged into the Chevron organization. Chevron is a big Spotfire user. I was quite excited about the whole exchange. I also learned that Bill Hotmann, whom I had attempted to work with at Halliburton (../1999/9945.html), is Cindy Peevy's oldest brother. What a small world it is.
Andrea arrived before the booth activity finished. After we had taken down the booth posters, etc. Andrea and I walked over to the Hilton to go to the 75th Anniversary Galla. We walked in with Wulf and Georgeanne. We ended up sitting with Gijs Vermeer. The food was OK. The program was low class compared to the kinds of programs put on at EAGE Conventions. The highlight was when a Marilyn Monroe wannabe came out of a 75th Anniversary Cake, and they shot confetti out of the cake all over the room. We didn't dance. We talked to several different people, including a lady who insisted on having her photo taken with Andrea because they were both wearing Chinese blouses (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/GDC/051107-09_75th_SEG/DSC03018.JPG). It was a nice evening, and a nice close to a week with four date nights in a row. Life is hard, and it can still be enjoyed.
Thursday morning I went into the office. Seemed like there were way too many things to do. Don Vossler met me with his reprocessing of the Ji Dong data. He had processed above and beneath the volcanic horizon I picked. I also attempted to make arrangements for Gijs Vermeer to meet with some of the principals at Quantum. However, that never happened. I made it down to the SEG Convention in time for a couple of talks I wanted to hear, including one on ground penetrating radar, and Fred Hilterman's student's talk on automatically recognizing fizz gas. Dick Edwards joined me for the last talk. We left and went over to the Four Seasons, where we met Christian Singfield and Chuck Edwards, and went upstairs to meet with George Stephenson and Sadar Ghalib (Gabby). It was a very good meeting. Gabby told Christian he would fund his operation if Saudi Aramco expressed interest in his technology. I left this meeting early and walked over to Rick Zimmerman's office to pick up the seismic data for the first Vossler test (0547.html). I did not have any money for parking and so I had to leave the car at the convention center and walk over to get the data and back to pick up the car. Oh well! It was good for me to go for a walk. Still hot in Houston. I got back to the office in time to head out for home on the HOV lane with Carlos.
I went home, picked up Andrea, and we headed north to meet Paul at the Houston Temple. The session was full, and so we went out to eat at a Chinese Restaurant next to Nauvoo Books. My fortune read `One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears - by listening to them.' Andrea's fortune read `You will reach the highest possible point in your business or profession.' Hopefully they were just reversed, as to who should have had which fortune. As I finished getting dressed there were two of my friends from Landmark: Bill Keetch and Dick Shaney. They were just leaving the temple, where Bill's son had just taken out his endowments prior to leaving to serve a mission in Philadelphia. He had some very nice words to say to me, including `I wouldn't have a job if it weren't for you.' Dick repeated the same thing. I found it interesting, especially since Bill Keetch's comments were one of the main reasons the BYU professor that interviewed me was not interested in offering me a position to teach at BYU (../2002/0211.html). I don't think Bill was malicious, I think he just wants the position, and was doing some fixed-pie protection of his possibility of getting the position. I took Paul out of the chapel to meet Bill and Dick. Bill introduced me to his wife. Nice people. Andrea and I were the witness couple.
Friday morning I had my annual dentist appointment. I had to call Don Vossler and have him come in later to pick up the Zimmerman data. He had results for me by Monday morning, and I presented them to Rick and his team on Tuesday. To me this is absolutely amazing (0547.html). I continued to attempt to get Gijs and Quantum together. It never did work out. Oh well! There was a lot of catch-up work to do at the office once I had made the hand-off to Don. And one of the main things was to work on interpreting the faults for the Ji Dong 3-D seismic survey.
When I got home Friday night, between `Three Wishes' and `Numb3ers', I prepared an investment update letter for those who invested in FSI. It said:
Saturday I spent most of the day working on the Ji Dong fault interpretation. I was going to go over to Vidor and help Melanie and Jared with their fence, but they didn't have water to make cement because of a bacteria in the water treatment going on, and I needed to work on getting ready for my trip to China.
On Sunday, after teaching my primary lesson and going to sacrament meeting, I came home and worked on catching up these Thoughtlets. And I got as far as outlining the basic things that happened at the SEG's 75th Houston Convention."
