24
Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."
These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas,
beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some
benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.
"So here we are at Hobby airport, with my computer plugged into a tower,
on our way to Rachel's graduation. It doesn't take much contemplation
to realize the way I have been writing the Thoughtlets needs to change.
I'm now 11 weeks behind, and counting, and so I need to stop limiting
writing of Thoughtlets to when I am sitting in front of the Sun workstation.
Thus on this trip I will start to write Thoughtlets as WordPad text files,
which I can easily copy into e-mail and html files for the Thoughtlet web
pages.
It is now twelve weeks later, and I am just starting to work on catching up
the Thoughtlets again. There has been a lot happen since Rachel's Graduation
(0619.html, and it is pretty obvious it has not been a smooth transition to writing Thoughtlets on the PC. So adding to what was written at Hobby Airport to summarize what is coming up, and assuming I can catch up 24 weeks, or almost half-a-years worth of Thoughtlets, here are
the titles for what I have outlined and am planning to write about:
It is funny to me that there are 24 of these Thoughtlets, and I named this Thoughtlet at least 12 and more likely 24 weeks ago. It's a sign! No, really, it's just funny to me. You see, Andrea and I have enjoyed watching the thriller television show "24," since we learned about it in the middle of the third season. In case there is someone reading this who has not heard of this show, it is the new "McGiver," or "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," or "James Bond" without the girls and technical support tools, or "Mission Impossible." The star is Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), and his task is to save the city, or the state, or the country, or the world, or the Solar System, in a period of 24 hours, one hour at a time. Kiefer's Dad, Donald Sutherland, was Hawkeye in "Mash." He is now the bad Senator in this year's "Commander in Chief," a White House drama about the first female President, which I think is meant to promote Hillary Clinton as a viable Presidential candidate.
As mentioned above, this was our second season of watching 24. It is on Monday night, and became our unspiritual Family Home Evening. I don't remember if we were watching this show before Matt left for SUU. I do recall that the reason we first turned it on was because of the strong recommendation Pat "Gray," the conservative talk show host who is in our ward, gave to the show.
The reason I selected this week to title the Thoughtlet after the show was because Sister Maureen McPherson loaned us the first season on DVD's. Starting after the Midlife Crisis' Valentines dance, Saturday the 11th of February, Andrea and I watched 4 of the 24 hours of thriller suspense television. We probably watched some more on Sunday. Then Monday night we watched this year's season show. Both Andrea and I were soon completely mixed up about what was happening when, and who was doing what to whom because we were mixing up the first season with the current season in our minds. Tuesday and Thursday evening we watched 2 hours each night, and my notes say we watched 2 hours on Sunday the 19th of February. So we watched about half of the season's shows this week. The following week we watched 2 hours on Tuesday, 1 hour on Thursday, and 5 hours on Saturday, and finished up the last few hours of the first season the following week. Guess it is appropriate to say we let ourselves become addicted to the action and the thrill and the other short term things which we are concerned you kids will become addicted to. I guess the adage holds true, namely that what we are afraid of is what we end up being involved with. Won't it be nice when the Savior returns, and there will be no more fears?
Even though the television show 24 dominated my week, there were a few other things which happened. For instance, on Sunday, the 12th of February, one of the families I Home Teach, Mark, Kelly Ann, Scott, and Hope Minor brought over some Valentine Cookies for us. We invited them in, showed the kids the magnetic pendulum, the virtual pig, the stereoscope, my rock collection, and let them each select a rock to take home. It is so much fun to see the amazement in the eyes of kids as they discover things they did not know before. And the cookies were really good. In fact, I would like to have some of them right now as I write this. Oh well!
This was about the time the User Update e-mail came in from Sketch-Up, which I include some of, just because it is interesting to me:
<![CDATA["SketchUpdate | February 3, 2006
"Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long."
- Ogden Nash
WHAT’S NEW
Among the dozens of replies that I received to the last Update, this was one of
my favorites:
"...I wish there was less fluff and more good stuff. I'm sure there are folks
who enjoy reading the musings of the latest newsletter writer of the week
(month/quarter/whatever), but I wish perhaps you could just maybe split the
newsletter into 2 sections, if you can't get rid of the fluff. I'd suggest a
"Fluff" section and a "Serious Stuff" section..."
In honor of what I consider to be a truly excellent idea, allow me to introduce
a new feature—the Sktchpdt. The Sktchpdt is a radically pared-down version of
the normal SketchUpdate; the "serious stuff" encapsulated conveniently into
something you could read while riding the elevator.
GOOGLE EARTH IS THE COOLEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD
To download Google Earth http://earth.google.com is to invite a world of
distraction into your life. Mornings, afternoons and evenings can be spent
flying around the planet, showing people where you used to live, zooming in on
your neighbors' backyards, and looking for government secrets in the Nevada
desert. There's no doubt that GE is nifty, and the fact that it's free makes it
even harder to resist.
We think that Google Earth is great, but we think we've found a way to make it
even better; we developed a free plugin for SketchUp that allows you to put
your own 3D content in Google Earth. Model anything you like on top of
photography and terrain imported from GE, then send back what you've built. It
appears in Google Earth, ready to save and send to whomever you like.
If you think that you might like to give it a whirl, download our plugin
http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=408 install it, and have fun. Remember
that you'll need Google Earth http://earth.google.com, too. Also please keep in
mind that since GE for Mac was released just recently, the Windows version of
our plugin is a lot farther along than our Mac one. Both are technically still
in beta (remember to save your work!), but are still loads of fun to use. We'll
keep making them better; check back often for updates.
HELLO WORLD
A couple of months ago, I came to work and realized that we're now an
international company. In addition to SketchUp Intergalactic Headquarters in
sunny Boulder, Colorado, our EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) operations
are run out of Munich, Germany, and our UK dealings are done out of a small
office in London, England. Download this Google Earth file
http://download.sketchup.com/nonav/images/sud/20060201/SketchUpWorldLocations.km
z (Mac users: save file and then rename to xxx.kmz) to check out our offices
around the world. Remember, you'll need GE to open it.
Our German squad
http://download.sketchup.com/nonav/images/sud/20060201/our_german_squad.JPG is
headed by Dieter, who says that the office is in Munich "because of
Oktoberfest". Clearly, we hired him for his acute business sense. In this
picture http://download.sketchup.com/nonav/images/sud/20060201/this_picture2.jpg
it's unclear as to whether Team Munich has any idea where they are. Other
members of the group include João (who speaks five languages); Reinhardt (who
insists on living near the Alps, entailing an American-style commute of thirty
miles); Jens (who is based in Kiel); Denise (who is now technically a citizen
of United Airlines); and Patrick (who is, apparently, "a fine lookin' man").
Present in Boulder for our Holiday Party last month, Patrick caused a bit of a
stir among the ladies of @Last. His good looks reminded at least one of our
executives of "a young Richard Gere". Judge for yourself:
http://download.sketchup.com/nonav/images/sud/20060201/judge.JPG A 2007
SketchUp Swimsuit Calendar is already in the works.
SALUT MONDE! HALLO, WELT!
SketchUp is available for download in five and a half languages: French,
German, Spanish, Italian, English, and International English (where we've
switched the defaults to metric, and the software takes a break at teatime).
Downloading SketchUp in another language is fun and educational—learn to say
"Follow Me" to people from all over the world.
Actually, our whole website is in the process of joining the Global Village.
Depending on where you are in the world, you'll see our website in English,
French or German, with Spanish and Italian on the way. Click on the "select
language" button at the top right of our homepage, www.sketchup.com, to check
out our current international options. For Americans, it's like a free trip to
Europe!
USER PROFILE
When I was in the Scouts, we spent almost all of our time throwing pocket
knives at each other and setting fire to everything in sight. It's clear from
this user story that the Scouts have come a long way in the last fifteen years.
Thank goodness.
Jim Bissel, who is a production designer in California, used SketchUp to design
the sets for Good Night and Good Luck, the George Clooney movie that's been
nominated for a bunch of awards. Click here to check out some of his models—
they're black and white, just like the movie!
TIPS AND TRICKS
Yellow Belt (Beginner)
Lots more free components are available for download from our website. We don't
give them to you as part of SketchUp because it would make the download huge,
but there are thousands of chairs, people, cars, trees, pools, dogs, clocks,
etc. just waiting for you to download and use them. Go get 'em.
Brown Belt (Intermediate)
Ever needed to make a bunch of evenly-spaced copies of an object in your model?
You can create a linear array (a bunch of evenly-spaced copies of an object in
your model) by typing the number of copies you want, followed by the letter
"x", right after you complete a copy operation. For example, to make three
copies of a window along the side of a building, you would make the first copy,
then type "3x", and hit Enter. Two more copies will appear at the same distance
interval, for a total of four windows. To create an even number of copies
between two objects, type "/" (forward slash) instead of "x". Learning this
trick saved my sanity.
Chuck Norris (Expert)
This one is really useful, and so simple you'll kick yourself for not thinking
of it first. When you're creating an interior view, turning on shadows makes
everything inside your space look dark. Leaving off the ceiling makes the model
unrealistic, and turning off shadows makes everything look worse. What to do?
It turns out that faces in SketchUp can be opaque on one side and transparent
on the other. Paint the inside of the ceiling with an opaque texture (so that
it looks right from the inside), and paint the outside with a transparent
texture. Set the opacity of this outside paint lower than 50% so that the sun
shines in. From the inside, the ceiling will look opaque, but furniture, etc.
will cast shadows. Fake shadows, of course, but they look better than the
alternative.
USER GROUPS
As a service to SketchUp people everywhere, we'll use this space in the
SketchUpdate to let you know about SketchUp user groups around the world. If
you'd like us to mention yours, drop us a line.
- Honolulu, Hawaii
For information, contact Matthew: EcoArcDesign@earthlink.net
Good luck, and happy sketching.
Aidan
aidanc@sketchup.com
------------------------------------------------
You're receiving this email as a result of downloading SketchUp. If for any
reason you would like to be excluded from future communications, or if our
records need updating you can change your preferences at any time in our <a
href="http://www.sketchup.com/prefs.php?ed56695c9f734">preference center</a>.
@Last Software, Inc.
1433 Pearl Street, Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80302
303.245.0086
www.sketchup.com"]]>
On Monday night Rob came over for dinner. He watched "24" with us, providing interesting comments, like: "This sure is intense!" and "You realize how stupid this is, don’t you?" On Tuesday night, before our two hours of "24," I went to the church and passed David Harlan off on his Genealogy Merit Badge. Tuesday was also the day we got the latest document from Christian Singfield, an invitation to invest in more 5 cent stock in Full Spectral Imaging. We decided we could not afford to, and so did all the others who invested in the last round of 5 cent stock.
Tuesday I sent out a report on the FSI investment:
<![CDATA["Ben and Sarah, Roice and Sarah, Jared and Melanie, Jackie and Glenda
(via Melanie), and Charles,
I apologize there has not been a progress report since November 7th. Christian
asked me not to. In November he had folks in Calgary tell him they were going
to invest, and then they just quietly disappeared. Similar things happened in
Toronto, and he finally went home to Australia to declare bankruptcy and close
down the project. And has happened many times over the last eight years, he had
another idea, is preparing another patent, and has come back stronger than
ever. He has started work on getting the shares printed, and when Walden 3-D,
Inc. receives a certificate, I will provide each of you a copy, and a written
commitment for your shares when and if the stock becomes traded.
My summary of our investment is:
(1) FSI is more viable than ever, especially with the formation of FSI Drilling
(NewCo) and a second source of income. Dividends of $0.50 to $1.00 per
share three years from now seems unbelievable, and the size of this
opportunity support this projection.
(2) Chris' switch in focus to drilling, instead of continuing to pursue
geological use of his existing technologies, is a stroke of genius. The
NewCo for drilling will be owned by FSI International, and so after he
sells off 40% for the $3 million he will raise, we will still have a
significant ownership position. And then the geological applications will
be self funded, and create more value for shareholders.
(3) The nondisclosure agreement with Chevron drilling folks appears to be the
straw which breaches the investment dam. The new patent Chris is pursuing,
relative to the Chevron drilling requirements, is specifically related to
deep water drilling.
I'm not a driller, and my understanding of the opportunity is:
(a) there is 2,000-6,000 feet of drill pipe hanging off of a deep water
drilling rig when start to drill a well.
(b) drillers do not know how far they have penetrated vs how much the drill
pipe has flexed.
(c) Using technology cement companies developed to weigh the gravel and mix
they are dumping into cement trucks, Christian has come up with a way
measure the weight of the pipe and the material in the pipe.
(d) Because mud pumps are positive displacement pumps, and every stroke raises
the mud a certain number of feet/meters, this gives FSI both a weight and
volume measurement, which allows accurate prediction of the penetration of
the drill bit.
This is an exciting innovation, and is worth more money than I can comprehend.
Chris is tying this technology to his existing geological technologies.
Drilling, unlike exploration, has a financial bottom line. If you can better
predict the drilling rate, the wear on the bit, and can cut down the number of
times the drill pipe has to be brought out of the hole, it saves big money.
The ChevronTexaco collaboration is going to prove this, create a market within
ChevronTexaco, get ChevronTexaco's Venture Fund to be the lead investor, and
bring the exploration technologies along to create a proof-of-market.
(4) Christian is doing a couple of things which are not typical business, which
is probably one of the reasons I am such a strong proponent. FSI is
providing 1,911,828 in kind shares for work done for free over the last
eight years. Most of these shares will go to Christian and his family.
However, based on conversations this week, I anticipate about 100,000
shares will come to Walden 3-D, Inc. With a $0.50-$1.00 per share dividend
per year within three years, this is a significant return on the time I've
Invested with Chris.
(5) The downside is Christian is still broke. So he prepared the attached
document, which I have told him he should have provided us with the funds
we invested last June. He apologized, and said it was the Canadian's
broker's fault. Christian has already raised commitments of $50,000. from
this call for investment, and as the document states is striving to raise
$100,000. This $100,000 will be used to close business in Malaysia, Turkey,
Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the U.S., to raise the $3 million for the
drilling NewCo, primarily to pursue the ChevronTexaco opportunity, and to
pursue what the geological opportunities we invested in. I had an e-mail
from Shiv Dasgupta at Saudi Aramco and talked to Dick Edwards at Fouad &
Sons earlier today, and anticipate Christian will be in front of the Saudi
drillers, who are raising their rig count from 50 to 150 rigs this year, in
Mid-March.
My friends in Pemex tell me they are ready to use FSI technology, and have some
very specific plans on how to do this. Chuck Edwards, proposed Chairman of the
Board of FSI, owns and is drilling the wells in Turkey, and he has committed to
use FSI as the mud logging company, if FSI can come up with mud logging units.
I've talked to Mark Ruths, the ChevronTexaco scientist who signed the non-
disclosure, and he says that if Chris performs against what he has described,
ChevronTexaco will be using and funding development of the technology,
including building several mud logging units to put out on drilling units. I do
not know the folks in Malaysia.
(6) A second downside, for anyone considering investing, is that the investment
is at the same rate as we invested before. So there has been no market
appreciation of FSI stock.
The positive news is FSI was not shutdown over the holidays. So the bottom line
of this report is that anyone who has invested can invest more, up until the
$100,000 has been raised. Christian wants anyone who invested through Walden
3-D before to do the same this time.
Andrea and I are considering using some commissions from some work done for the
Chinese, if the money comes in soon enough. I do not see our investment as
critical to the future of the project, it is purely an opportunity to increase
our shareholding. If you are interested in investing, call and talk to me about
it. My initial reaction to this turn of events is to do the same as last time,
i.e. keep a 50% promote on any shares purchased through Walden 3-D. So if
someone invests $2,000 they would end up with 2,000 shares and Walden 3-D would
end up with 2,000 shares. Let me know if you are interested. Christian has not
told me any deadlines on investing, and based on his current commitments of
about $50,000 I anticipate the opportunity will go away within the next week or
two.
Best Regards, H. Roice Nelson, Jr. Walden 3-D, Inc.
Subject: FSI International Corp Ltd Invitation to Invest Date:
Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:10:28 +1000 MIME-Version: 1.0
People, You are all receiving this because of your personal knowledge of me and
the project I have been trying to get off the ground for the last 8 odd years.
The attached document clearly states that this invitation is for friends and
other types. I consider all of you friends, (we won't go into what constitutes
the other types here) so that covers my ass should there be any jurisdictional
concerns.
Your comments and support would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Chris Singfield
FSI International Corp. Limited (Full Spectral Imaging)
PO Box 207 Sandgate Qld Australia 4017
USA Tel: 1-281-973-6148 Cell: 1-281-507-1166 Fax: 61-7-3869-4295
Australia Tel: 61-7-3869-0925 Mobile: 61-4-000-09312 Fax: 61-7-3869-4295
Email: csingfield@fullspectralimaging.com"]]>
Wednesday Melanie responded with:
<![CDATA["Hi dad,
Good news... however, we are not in a position to invest more.
Glenda does have an email address she checks regularly now, if you would like
to send future progress reports to her directly. Thank you guys very much for
the birthday gifts for Taylor & Jared - they are very much appreciated!
We are considering opening a 529 plan for our children and so as soon as we
decide whether we are going to go that route or just a regular savings account
for now in their name - we will use the $20 as her first deposit!
Thanks again & we'll see ya on Friday!
Melanie"]]>
Wednesday there was an article in the Chronicle which specified an interesting formula:
<![CDATA[ Body Mass = ( Weight / Height in Inches squared) * 703 .]]>
This is just something else to track, along with my swallows. Especially useful to track on nights when Andrea cooks spaghetti. Luis Viertel joined us for dinner. Luis and I had visited John Mouton's company, Object Reservoir, and they did a joint bid with us for a Venezuela company named Vetra working out of Monterrey, Mexico. Then Luis came out to the house and we had a nice spaghetti dinner and even better conversations. Luis and I have become pretty good friends over the last two years.
Thursday was another Chinese status day at GDC. We went over the work being done for Tarim, for Ji Dong, for Da Qing, and the status of the money transfers.
Friday morning I rode into work in Carlos' car. Andrea picked me up at 4:00 and that evening we drove over to Vidor for Taylor's birthday party. I called John Benard on the way to find out the status on the Newell Ranch well. He said it would happen within 90 days, that they have a location 1,000 feet from the ranch house, and that he is going to bring his guitar to Houston and spend an evening singing with me. None of this has happened yet. I keep hoping. The birthday party was a lot of fun. There were lots and lots of presents. We drove back to Houston after the party.
Saturday morning Andrea and I were up early, in our work clothes, and we went and helped plant trees along the Bayou that runs in back of the southern part of Emerald Green. It was the first time the Home Owners Association had set up this kind of a service project. It was fun. We got to catch up with several folks I've known for years. Bill McClendon told us all about his kids. Craig Cowgill told us his son Clay is now a cook in Vail. Bob Begbie, two houses down, replaced his outside wood with Hardy Plank. Rich Lozier, our neighbor, was also there. It reminded me of the time I went to Austin to plant trees with Sara Ellyn. Good memories.
There was a baptism right after we left the service project. Taylor Fontenot, Sherri Maddox' daughter, was baptized. Evelyn Nelson talked on baptism and on The Holy Ghost, and my 2nd cousin, Keith Nelson, did the baptism and the confirmation. After Tiffany Feil welcomed Taylor into the ward, Keith blessed Sarah Abigail. It was a very nice service, with a good spirit. Sherri's husband was there, and seemed to feel good about the services.
In the afternoon Andrea and I went to dinner with Jim Higbee, the member who is now GDC's lawyer in Beijing. We went from dinner at Landry's Seafood Restaurant to the adult session of Stake Conference. Rob joined us. However, we had to leave early because I had agreed to go to a musical with Don Vossler and his wife (0547.html). The play was "The Inspector General," and it was at the University of Houston. They built a new theater since I worked there, and so we went to the wrong place and were running all over campus to make it on time. We did make it on time, much to Andrea's chagrin. They did a good job and it was a lot of fun. After the play we found a Mexican place and had desserts and talked until after midnight. It was a very nice evening. It was a good thing it was Stake Conference, and there was not a lesson to prepare for Primary.
Stake Conference was nice. Barbara Salt and Brother Swan spoke. Matt's name was read from the stand as being in the Army National Guard. We came home, ate, and finished off the week by watching two more hours of the first season of "24.""
Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet"
(little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me).
Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They
were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me.
Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes
were shared with my family because I know how important the
written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and
forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of
daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love.
It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids
and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.
Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to
work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to
make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of
misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will
aggressively
pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets
behind a password).
The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at
http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets,
or you can e-mail me with
questions or requests at
rnelson@walden3d.com
(note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails
within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)