"Monday I received the POPS Newsletter, with the minutes from the previous meetings Historian Report. What a great way to start of the week:
I read this to Dave Johnson and Lee Bell when they came to visit me. They both laughed out loud, even though they represent polar opposite sides of the political spectrum. In some ways I feel like Pepper must have felt like. Effective the first of November I was transferred to the Depth Migration Group. There has not been one thing for me to do since I was transferred to this group because the leader of the group is loading the seismic data I will be working with. So for the most part I have been cleaning up other projects, working on China stuff, and in general attempting to not to cause any waves. As much as I don't want to be working on temporary projects, i.e. projects no one will remember in five years, and probably no one will remember in 12 months, I do not like to receive a pay check from someone unless I am doing what they want me to do.
I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, and Luis came in and could sense where I was, since he is in the same place. He has worked for over three years to get a contract finished with Pemex, and there is an entirely new round of political maneuvering going on. The contract had to be signed by a group in Houston set up to sign all contracts with Pemex. Luis finally got this signed about 3 months ago. However, the Pemex lawyers in Mexico City have finally sent it back with a bunch of changes they want made. It has become a political football, with GDC set to be tossed around and to get beat up and bruised no matter which side of Pemex wins. So he came in and sat down and became very philosophical. 'So Roice, what do you want to do?' So I made a list on the board of the things I thought would be worthwhile to do. Then we talked some more. Then I looked back at the list, and asked, 'Luis, do you know what would tie almost all of this list together?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'The Exploration Game that Gerry Gardner and I put on in Kristiansand South, Norway in early 1982.' Luis asked me to tell him about it. So I got the May 1982 Seislab Semi-Annual report off of the shelf, and told him about The Exploration Game.
The game was mostly designed by Dr. G.H.F. Gardner, who took Keith Wang's place when Keith left the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Houston to go back to school to study radiology. I had been the General Manager of the Seismic Acoustics Laboratory for about a year when this happened. Then about six months later Fred Hilterman left to found Geophysical Development Corporation, and John McDonald took Fred's place as the Principal Investigator for the College of Natural Sciences. Since I had things running smoothly, the transitions were not really noticed, and I continued to run things while Gerry and John settled in. The workshop following the Norwegian Petroleum Society's biannual conference in Kristiansand South was one of Gerry's first major projects for the newly created Allied Geophysical Laboratories, of which I was the General Manager. The following notes were taken from the report we published about the first Exploration Game.
The first day of the three day school was a lecture review on 3D physical and theoretical modeling, 3D velocity analysis, and interactive 3D interpretation. We illustrated Dan Koslof's work with Fourier forward modeling and some of my early work in interactive interpretation with 16 mm movies. The second day was an interpretation project using 2D and 3D seismic coverage across the twin lobed faulted delta (SALDEL) Fred had built and used for several of the schools he had taught. The third day was the first instantiation of The Exploration Game. To quote from the description it was a "3D interpretation work problem ... based on a complex 3D physical model with pinchouts against a contoured unconfirmity, fault diffractions, and multiples included in the model. Two-dimensional theoretical modeling interpretation aids, includes horizontal time-slice interpretations.' There were sixty-two (62) explorationists signed up for the workshop. We provided a reference manual for each participant on registration, which included numerous papers presented at SAL (Seismic Acoustics Laboratory) semi-annual meetings, reviewing activities of the Allied Geophysical Laboratories, new technologies, SAL physical and theoretical modeling activities, and interactive interpretation techniques. This review included the wedge snapshot movie Dan Koslof and Edip Baysal put together, the Adage interactive interpretation movie Ricard Verm and I put together, and the Geosource movie on using 3D color graphics to aid geophysical analysis that Wulf Massell and I put together. Looking back to 1981, we really were breaking new ground with this work.
The SALDEL interpretation project was divided into two parts. The first part participants attempted to map the structure with too little spatial coverage. Then infill seismic lines were provided across the structure, and then the correct interpretation and Fred's description of how to do map migration were reviewed. A video presentation showed the SAL modeling tank, interactive interpretation of the SALDEL model, and use of the Adage interactive interpretation programs. Then the work Lowell Harris from the Mayo Clinic and I did using his projection imaging techniques was presented. The video compared the raw tank SAL modeling tank data with the a 3D migrated version of this data.
The SALNOR workshop game, the original Exploration Game, followed, running from the morning of the second day through lunch on the third day. The general idea was to have a hands-on workshop, instead of lecture presentations. During the course of The Exploration Game participants were led through the traditional procedures of interpreting a complex geologic structure with specific sets of physical model seismic data. At 11:00 the game rules were red and the first data delivered to each individual. The 62 participants were divided into 10 groups named A through J.
Each group received a copy of the generalized geologic sequences, a location map, 2 seismic sections, and a synthetic trace defining the geology and model composition. The model materials are defined for each layer, which allows accurate determination of velocity information and reflection coefficients. Each team started with a different set of seismic sections. The remaining 19 lines were in packets for each team member, and were immediately made available for purchase from the government for $1M (million). Three teams were given $10M to start with and the other 7 teams each started with $6M. Before noon, 6 teams had bought all of the lines, 1 team had purchased 6 lines (at $50K each), and another team 4 lines. The other 2 teams made strategic line purchases and trades before the deadline ending the Part I data availability. Each of the teams buying fewer than all of the lines kept busy trying to trade for or purchase lines from other teams. The packets put together for each participant on all of the teams were labeled and controlled so everyone ended up with a complete set of the data. This part of The Exploration Game closed with bids for the first lease sale. The bids were due at 4:00 for the odd numbered blocks.
The second set of data was distributed to everyone while the lease bids were being organized between 4:00 and 4:30. This data set was re-shot along the critical dip direction. There were 23 lines collected at a 45o angle to the original reconnaissance survey. The remainder of the second afternoon consisted of the government announcing the lease holders, accepting drilling request for the first round of drilling, having each team turn in requests for one vertical 3D migrated section, one unmigrated time slice, and one 3D migrated time slice. No additional data were distributed on the second day. Drilling requests for the first round of lease awards were accepted at 5:00 PM, just before the government closed shop for the day.
At 8:00 AM on the third day, the well log results for the four drilling requests turned in the day before were distributed to the tam representing the drilling consortiums. There were 6 teams represented on the two drilling consortiums involved in this first round of drilling. Also, after the drilling results were out, copies of all of the 3D data requested the second afternoon were distributed to each team. At 9:00 the diagonal lines were no longer available for sale. However, at this time the base map for a 3D seismic survey was distributed to everyone. Along with this location map, one set of all 240 vertical sections was placed on a table available for everyone to use on a first come basis. A few 3D migrated vertical sections were also made available. In addition, a complete set of 1-bit resolution horizontal sections was also made available. A few of the time-slice sections were interpreted.
Bids for the second round of leases were due at 10:30. At the same time bids were closed, one additional set of data was made available for general evaluation on one side of the conference hall. This was a set of interpreted unmigrated sections along the diagonal direction of the model. At 10:45 AM the second round lease holders were announced. Following this and before lunch, the only additional information distributed was drilling results.
At 2:00 PM on the third day a 20-figure map packet was distributed to participants. The maps clarified what the team drilling maps should have shown. There were time maps to each horizon, some isochron maps, and critical depth maps. There was a fly that fell in the paleocene representing model material. At 1"=1,000' this scales to about the size of a dinosaur. Everyone got a good laugh when we told them about this, and especially when they could see on time-slices difractions from the 'dinosaur.' The course information was also distributed to SAL sponsors when interpretation workshops based on this model were requested. The summary started with a slide review of how the model was constructed, then a video presentation to show how interactive 3D interpretation techniques can aid the interpreter. Following this description of SALNOR, there was a discussion of several topics which came up during the workshop. These included a description of 3D velocity analysis and field examples of 3D survey problems. Then evaluation forms were distributed.
The evaluation forms showed it is important to know what an audience expects . The evaluation forms averaged a B+ overall. The criticism expressed by a majority of participants was the emphasis on economics and management, and not enough emphasis on the science and 3D seismic interpretation. The competitive format was enjoyed, as shown by attendees skipping breaks, leaving late for lunch or in the evening, as well as the general activity. The workshop attendees seemed to have an unrealistic view of interpretation, as projects are always plagued with unrealistic deadlines as in the workshop, and competition exists. The other encouraging general observation was the value of using 3D techniques as their primary exploration tool, and not just for field development. One comment was how easy it is to visualize the structure when an interpretation is done on the Adage and the line drawing representation is rotated displaying the 3D relationships.
Although the emphasis was not meant to be on economics nor on management, there were several observations of interest in this area. For example, of the three companies that were given extra money initially, two of them pooled their resources and ended up with the most paper money (Exxon and Shell equivalents). The other team with a monetary advantage started working alone and ended up in the middle as far as returns go. The activity did seem to mirror situations that occur in the real world. The announcement of lease awards brought cheers and clapping. The bidding was reasonably close. In fact, in the first lease sale one team, E, and a consortium, PIGS (D, F, I, and J), both bid $5M for the same block. The PIGS won the lease with a coin toss. There were offers to bribe the Government, complains about teams seeking partners form other teams in order to see their interpretations, secret partnership meetings, and even interpreters who worked on doing an interpretation.
In future versions of The Exploration Game it is important to have more of what the audience expects. This includes making maps from time-slices, examples of patterns that are shown on time-slice sections from different structures and stratigraphic sequences. Future workshops could follow the same basic pattern of data distribution as a method or tool to sell 3D seismic techniques to "nonbelievers." Or to demonstrate how 3D seismic can help with unraveling different geological environments. And the game could even be used as a tool to help managers to evaluate employee interests and capabilities.
I had forgot about specifics of this first version of The Exploration Game. I ended up spending the first few days of the week putting together an updated version for consideration by the management of Geokinetics Processing & Interpretation as a source of income and a way to market advanced geophysical techniques. The results of this work is available for review as a pdf file at images/The_Exploration_Game.pdf.
So even if the boss doesn't have a specific assignment, there are always things we can do. I also spent some time working on the exploration roots project I'm very interested in. I sent a copy of my work via e-mail to Sam LeRoy and went over it with Joe Roberts. Both of my co-inventors were very excited about what I've been able to put together. It will be very interesting to see if anything comes of this. The proposal is for someone to invest $20,000 for the first roots data set and for the cost of interpreting this data set. Then if the results are good to invest $1,500,000. to purchase leases and data, to reprocess and interpret this data, and to define and rank a set of leased exploration prospects. Dynamic Resources will earn a 5% ORRI (Over Riding Royalty Interest), and a 20% WI (Working Interest) Back-In once the investor has had a return of 150% of their initial investment. Joe is optimistic we can raise the money,and it will be interesting if this real-world instantiation of The Exploration Game goes anyplace beyond conceptualization.
Monday the article to the left was in the Houston Chronicle about a birder (someone who goes out and counts different kinds of birds) in Galveston who admitted to the deaths of dozens of wild cats who, which were killing the wild birds he loved to watch. He posted $10,000 bail, and if convicted faces a sentence of six months to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Boy am I glad I grew up where and when I did. Some of you might remember Thoughtlet ../0524.html, where I confessed to all of the wild cats I killed at the Byproducts portion of Nelson Meat Packing Company. Times certainly do change more than we expect and more than we want. Now we kill unwanted cats and dogs by putting them in a vacuum and exploding them. Help me understand the kindness of this approach.
On Tuesday, the 14th of November, I went to the GSH Luncheon. Tury Taner was talking about sound, and I wanted to see how it related to our sound patent. Also, based on my conversation with George Schultz, I wanted to prove to myself I could go to one of these meetings and not become depressed. I was wrong. The talk was OK. It was good to see friends. I sat at a table with Sam LeRoy, Mike McCardle, and Norm Niedell came and sat next to me. Norm was selling his technology, which Lee Bell and Richard Verm have consistently said is not valid. Norm quoted from a poem he had heard, which he said reminds him of me and him. I converted his words into a possible stanza for Prime Words:
Tury's talk was OK, and really didn't relate to the proposed sound patent. He talked about loudness - volume, pitch - frequency, duration - length, attack time - shape envelope, character - spectral content and harmonics, and phase - direction. He also shared a formula, which I didn't understand. It was interesting, and as I drove back from where the meeting is held, at the Crystal Palace right next to the Luby's across from Sam LeRoy's office, I couldn't help but find tears in my eyes. I kept telling myself it is my issue, that my friends were glad to see me, and trying to understand why I had such a strong emotional reaction. Later in the afternoon, after I got back to the office, Lee Bell came in to talk to me for a while, and I ended up telling him how I felt going to the GSH meeting. He drilled down a bit, and got me to say it is somehow tied up in the divorce, and my feelings of failure, when being around all of these folks who I have done so much work with over the years. Lee told me there was no valid reason for my feelings, I told myself the same thing, and there is no question about the fact it will be at least as hard for me to go to the Geophysical Society of Houston luncheon as it was to go to this one. Oh well! Emotions are hard for me to understand and to control. Hopefully the ten of you will do better with your emotions, learning feelings of up and down or of being accepted or rejected are just part of a very temporary version of The Exploration Game.
I had started making a big effort to catch up on my Thoughtlets by the end of the year. Most nights this week were spent writing a new Thoughtlet and getting it posted as an html file, e-mailed to Paul and Melanie, and printed and mailed to Matt. I wonder why I keep making his effort. It is very nice to have support and encouragement from 30% of my most important audience. Hopefully time will validate this effort is worthwhile.
Wednesday evening, just before it was time for the car pool, Lee came back in to talk to me some more. We still did not have the Redteck survey I will be working on for Noble loaded. Oh well! Lee took the conversation along one of the most familiar routes we have covered in conversations since I went to work for him 3 1/2 years ago, namely along the lines of the church. He started off asking me what I thought of the changes the recent election had brought. I told him I feel the republicans and democrats are simply two sides of the same coin. By the time the conversation was over, I had a map on my white board showing:
Andrea and I finished up the the last three episodes of the third season of '24' Tuesday and Wednesday night (0608.html). These shows are graphic, overacted, violent, and in general exactly opposite of a spiritual message. Guess it shows where I am at spiritually that I enjoy them, the concerns behind the messages they present, and the tension of the stories and plots and subplots presented. My compromise thought is the evils depicted are so evil, and the fight to overcome these evils is by such a flawed individual, that it gives me hope that my efforts on much smaller things, namely to help bring my family back to the Celestial Kingdom of God, has hope. I don't know. This is probably just a cop out excuse for enjoying the titillation of the drama.
Of course, sometimes life emulates TV drama. On Thursday we found out that $10,000 had been wired from the Walden 3-D, Inc. Bank Account for purchase of stocks. We were at the bank right after work, and had to close out the bank account, open a new bank account, and sign a bunch of papers. It turns out that anyone can request a transfer out of your bank account if they have the numbers on the bottom of a personal check. We had a check disappear earlier in the month, and it is our assumption this is where the thieves got the numbers. I have such a good account with the bank, they transferred the money, even though there was only about $7,000 in the account. Changing the bank account caused a big check to Workstation Integration to bounce (0652.html). This was my first serious encounter with identity theft. Chase handled the event with professionalism, and quite easily. However, it is not comforting to know people can do things like electronically steal that much money from you without you even knowing it happened.
Friday, Andrea said there was no way she would be ready in time to pick me up at the office at 4:00 PM. So I drove George in the car pool both ways. Thursday and Friday Tecton was in the office working on their interpretation project, which is loaded up on the Landmark Workstation in my office. They seem to be genuinely pleased with how the seismic processing has turned out, and with how the interpretation work is going. Les is heading up the interpretation work, specifically because I was in China and Mexico when there were some critical meetings regarding this project. So both days I worked and changed into my walking clothes (I'm doing 54 flights of stairs most days at lunch now) in the office across from where I sit, which was my first office when I came to work at GDC. When I got home I found Andrea had raked all of the front yard, so it would not look like no one lived in our house for the week we were gone. I had Home Taught the Minors on Monday night, and Scott Minor agreed to pick up our paper and put in our mail for $4/day for the days we are gone to St. Louis for Thanksgiving.
We got packed and out of the house about 6:30, and got to Vidor about 8:45. There was a lot of traffic still on I-10. Oh well! It was fun to see Jared, Melanie, Colby, Taylor, and Halle. In addition, there were 5 of their other friends there. Melanie and Jared do a date night every Friday, and one Friday in three they take turns watching the kids of two other couples. The kids were sure active and sure seemed to have a lot of fun. They got a little tired, and started to go after each other about 10:00. A movie was put on, and they all settled right down. It was almost 11:00 by the time kids were picked up and the three Wright kids went to sleep. Colby and Taylor slept with Mom and Dad and we were slept on their bed.
Because Colby and Taylor were up so late, they did not wake up before we left. Jared cooked a wonderful cheese scrambled egg and bacon breakfast with orange juice before he took off for work at Wrights Bar-B-Que. We had a nice talk with Melanie, and took some funs photos of Halle Nalise, like the one to the left (the other photos are at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/03_Halle_Nalise/061118_Halle_Nalise). One of the things to come out of this conversation is the idea of having a Nelson kid's day at LITE, where we let Colby and Taylor experience the Fire Cave inside the four wall cave. Maybe we could figure out a way to get Ethan and Grant and Ella to join us. Melanie is also interested in having the Young Women from her ward (she is the Young Women's President), and maybe the Young Men join us on this day. I think it would be a lot of fun, and that it is right in the middle of the mission statement of LITE. Andrea and I left about 8:15 for Lafayette and for Dirk and Carolina's wedding (0640.html).
We arrived at the church just as the first cars pulled up. It was really interesting to walk around the church grounds and to see the name Mouton on several monuments and plaques. Turns out John Mouton's ancestors (John was one of the co-founders of Landmark Graphics), donated the land for the cathedral to the Catholic Church. The first person I saw, as I was taking photos of the church, was Bowen Loftin. He looks good, having lost quite a bit of weight since I last saw him. He is now the Vice President and COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Texas A&M University at Galveston, and a Professor of Maritime Systems and Engineering. His wife Karen was with him, whose PhD is in microbiology, and it was the first time I have been able to spend time getting to know here. She was born in Germany and lived there until she was 10 years old. Bowen is very nice, and he had all kinds of good things to say to Andrea about me. It was quite flattering to be called visionary by someone of Bowen's caliber. When I told him I had gone broke and had gone to work for a geophysical contractor 3 years ago, he laughed and said, 'That is the story of Roice Nelson's life.' Then he commented about how when things seemed hard for him, he would think about the problems I have faced, how I have faced them with optimism and a smile, and he would carry on without complaining. He said, 'Roice, you have been an inspiration to a lot of people in ways you probably don't even realize.' He also said he wants me to come and visit him in Galveston, to meet with some of the professors working to develop a plan for when the next big hurricane hits Galveston, and to let him take us out to dinner at a nice restaurant. We will probably do this some Saturday after the new year. Also, Karen is into English horse ridding. She volunteers at the Katy Equestrian Center at least once a year to help with horse shows. Up until now she has always stayed at a motel in the area. She agreed to come and stay with us next time she does this. Karen and Andrea seemed to hit it off quite well. We also met Dr. Robert Stewart, Carolina's and Dirk's boss at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and his wife. He has been at the University for 4 years, and prior to that he was a government administrator in the Department of the Interior. If Carolina follows through on her comment about having me be on a technical advisory board for LITE(0640.html), then I will have quite a bit of interaction with Dr. Stewart.
Carolina was in a very pretty wedding dress. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and said congratulations. Then they closed the doors, had people enter the church from doors on the sides, and we were all ushered to our seats. The church was very impressive. It looks like it is all marble, and I anticipate it is painted wood. The Catholic service is unfamiliar. I was impressed with the marriage commitment for "as long as you both shall live," which sounds more positive and better to me than "until death do us part." In fact, if one believes in the resurrection, then this commitment is only lacking priesthood power from being a marriage for time and eternity. And it is one of those things you teach when there are opportunities, and do not stick in their face. After the wedding we were outside talking, mostly to Bowen and Karen, for about a half an hour. Beautiful day. Dirk had set up for a 3 hour Trolley ride out to the plantation where they had the dinner that night. We excused ourselves, because we wanted to get to St. Louis so we could go to church with Paul and Kate and meet their support group and friends.
Andrea and I changed from our Sunday clothes to our travel clothes in the church restrooms. Granite cabinet tops. First class. I realized much better the privileged class John Mouton came from. It helped me better understand how he has always been such true southern gentleman, a Colonel Sanders. We drove up to the freeway and went to the next exit, where we found a Cajun restaurant for lunch. We split a seafood platter. Andrea does not like Cajun food that much. I quite liked the gumbo. And then we were off to Batton Rouge and Hammon, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and St. Louis, Missouri (0648.html) a little bit after midnight. I watched the third chapter of my video course, "Science and Religion," taught by Professor Lawrence M. Principe of Johns Hopkins University. If all of the courses are this good, I would like to get and go through a whole collection of them. It brought back to mind the work earlier in the week, and specifically The Exploration Game."