Here's My Man
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.
"Sunday morning I was definitely tired, and bruised, and scrapped
up, and wondering why I enjoy manual labor so much. Primary
Class went well. I wrote a couple of possible stanzas for
Prime Words during sacrament meeting talks:
<![CDATA[ `You have not failed
Until you quit trying (a)
Heavenly Father always helps
When we are doing our best (b)'
(a) Gordon B. Hinkley quoted by (b) Mitchell Branning in
Nottingham Country Ward Sacrament Meeting on 09 Sep 05
`How can you see
If you don't look
A daughter's words
Applicable to conference' (a)
(a) Joyce Burnham's farewell talk in the
Nottingham Country Ward Sacrament Meeting on 09 Sep 05]]>
Monday morning I was at Bush Intercontinental early to go with
Mike and Mike Dunn to Reynoysa to participate in
`Simposium Plays y Yacimientos de Aceite y Gas en Rocas
Siliciclasticas Reynoysa, Tam.' The flight was to McAllen, Texas,
where Luis Vietrel met us and took us to Reynoysa. There was a
Pemex conference, and I was one of three GDC representatives.
I had spent the previous Thursday and Friday putting together
a presentation on fault shadows, based a little bit on the work
of GDC and mostly on the work of Dick Coons.
The conference was in the Reynoysa Holiday Inn. We arrived about
10:00. There were two large rooms next to each other. One had
presentations to several hundred geoscientists. The other had
several dozen booths. We were set up in one of the booth areas
in the back. There was not much traffic. However, Luis did
a good job of going out and finding key Pemex managers and
bringing them to the booth. There was one key decision maker
we were charged with presenting to. We did. In fact we had
his attention for about 45 minutes, and he seemed to like what
he saw.
Pemex is politics in Mexico. There is a Presidential election
this next year. Pemex budgets are frozen until after the
election. Specifically because the head of Pemex is appointed
by the new President, and he might reverse the way the money
is being allocated. Also, because the budgets are used to fund
political campaigning. It is interesting how my career has
placed me right at the heart of so many significant changes in
our society. However, this is one where I do not think there
is much of a chance to change the way things are happening.
In fact, GDC is definitely the tail that is being wagged in
this case. The $3 million contract Luis has been chasing, and
which has been approved, has been moved to the seismic processing
group in Villahermosa. At dinner that night Luis was in a big
funk because of the politics surrounding closing the contract.
Luis took Mike, Mike, and myself back across the border to
McAllen and a hotel across the street from the airport.
Mike Schulemberg had a 5:30 AM flight because he had meetings
with clients. Mike Dunn and I had a more civilized flight at
about 9:00 Tuesday morning. We walked across the parking lot,
caught the plane to Bus Intercontinental, and were back at the
office by 1:00 PM. There was a lot of clean up related to the
Tiles and other things I had put on hold to do when we got back.
However, Carlos had got an ride into work, and so we were able
to leave take the HOV lane back to Katy. It seems we worked
until almost 6:00 and got on the HOV lane at 6:00. From 5:00
until 6:00 you need to have three people to get on the HOV
lane. I do recall that I dropped Carlos off and went to Dick
Coons' house to drop off a copy of the presentation I made
in Reynoysa using his data. Dick passed on to me that Exxon
Block 1153 in South Padre Island has a very good AVO in the
fault block adjoining a well they drilled with good gas shows
at 15-17,000 feet. This block is only 10 miles from the Mexican
border, and is a tremendous opportunity for Pemex to learn US
technology. The idea is for Pemex to farm-into the Exxon block,
drill a new well, and learn from the process. Niel Goins from
ExxonMobil, who I used to work with at Mobil, is now the ExxonMobil
country manager in Mexico, and I met him at the conference.
I passed the info on inside GDC, and nothing has happened. Oh well!
Jeff Jurinak asked me to be a Team Leader again this week
(0541.html). And I recall the need to
hurry and leave Dick's house in order to get to the church in
time for a 7:00 planning meeting for figuring out who would
help with this week's work. I got there just a few minutes
after 7:00, and one of the other Team Leaders was not there yet.
After the meeting, I was walking by the Clerk's office, and
Harold Bernham, said `Here's my man!' He was talking to Steve
Holleman. I asked him to explain what he meant. He reminded
me when he first moved into Nottingham Country Ward and we
were called as stake missionaries at the same time
(../1997/9716.html,
../1997/9717.html,
../1997/9724.html,
../1997/9728.html, and
../2000/0016.html). Harold
was traveling a lot. Because of my feelings of insecurity and
failure tied to the divorce and related fallout, I deflected
any opportunity for leadership. Harold reminded me he was
called as the Ward Mission Leader, and I was actually the
one who did the work, had the weekly meetings, and kept the
program going somewhat like it should have. Then Steve
Holleman, quiet Steve, said, `Roice has been the main man
for a lot of us.' Harold asked what I was doing at the church.
I explained that Jeff had asked me to help with the hurricane
relief work. Steve piped up and said something like
`and it continues.' The conversation felt good, and I left
the church feeling pretty good. It is amazing how a few nice
words can cheer one up and help make life seem worthwhile again.
Hope you guys always remember this, and do your best to build
folks up. We all need to hear nice things.
We had another planning meeting on Wednesday evening, and I
was assigned to pick up a chain saw and portable ladder from
Mark Warden. Turns out he lives right next to Dick Coons, and
Dick had helped him on some projects. What a small world it is.
Thursday evening I went to the temple with Andrea. When we got
home, there were several e-mails worth documenting. The first
was from Steve Shirts, Andrea's youngest brother:
<![CDATA[ `DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses
the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a
row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the
middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... it is
Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!
DID YOU KNOW? As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two
huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower
portion of each door.
DID YOU KNOW? As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the
wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display
of the Ten Commandments!
DID YOU KNOW? There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the
Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.
DID YOU KNOW? James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The
Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon
the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity
of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves,
to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
DID YOU KNOW? Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of
our country said:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great
nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on
religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
DID YOU KNOW? Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by
a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer
since 1777.
DID YOU KNOW? Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution
were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.
DID YOU KNOW? Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would
overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law
would begin making law an oligarchy, the rule of few over many.
DID YOU KNOW? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:
"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have
done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and
unconstitutional?
Lets put it around the world and let the world see and remember
what this great country was built on. I was asked to send this
on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn...
It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is
very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the
Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our money and
having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell
the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!
If you agree, pass this on.']]>
There was also an e-mail from Michael Hauck:
<![CDATA[ `Hi, Roice. I don't plan to be stranger. In fact, I'm looking
forward to sharing with you the spiritual aspects of what's going
on. For now, suffice it to say that I am completely certain I'm
on the right path. It hasn't all been revealed to me, but I have
been receiving confirmation at each step along the way. I did the
things I was called to do (which were NOT easy to do), and in so
doing, fascinating and unexpected opportunities appeared. As to
my new gig, I want to keep the identity of the company under
wraps, for reasons which will be obvious when you check them out
at www.in-q-tel.org. I also plan to remain a resource for Fred
Turner on the remote sensing initiative. Fred is a wonderful man,
and I look forward to the two of you getting to know each other.
-michael']]>
It turns out that in-q-tel is an investment arm of the CIA, and
Dr. Hauck is responsible for finding appropriate investments for
them. He is very interested in my Infinite GridSM and
sees how this could be of use to the company
(0544.html). Then there were a couple
of correspondences with Ajay Kalsi of India, the guy who bought
Audrey and Sara and Andrea and me shoes in London and tickets to
see `Bombay Dreams.' This e-mail ended with Ajay's unique way of
saying `Here's my man':
<![CDATA[ `> If you have any polite comments you may send them to me
>
> Regards
>
> Ajay
>
> A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly
> a brand new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
> The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban
> sunglasses and YSL tie-leans out the window and asks the shepherd,
> "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will
> you give me one?"
>
> The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at
> his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure. Why not?"
> The young man parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,
> connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the
> Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to
> get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another
> NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution
> photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe
> Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in
> Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his
> Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.
> He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected
> Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads
> all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few
> minutes, receives a response.
>
> Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his
> hi- tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to
> the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep."
>
> "That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep," says
> the shepherd.
>
> He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on
> amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
>
> Then the shepherd says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you
> exactly what your business is, will you give him back to me?"
>
> The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, Okay,
> why not?"
>
> "You're a consultant," says the shepherd.
>
> "Wow! That's correct," says the young man, "but how did you guess
> that?"
>
> "No guessing required," answered the shepherd.
>
> "You came here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid
> for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you
> don't know a thing about my business.
>
> "Now give me back my dog!"
Ajay,
Thanks. I enjoyed the story, as did my wife and Dave Johnson when
I read it to them. However, both Andrea and Dave said I must have
written something to really offend you. If so, I apologize.
I will always call things like I see them, and it is absolutely not
my intention to offend. I would want to know if someone like Jory
Pacht was denigrating my name, and so, I passed this on to you.
With you, it is my intention to be a good friend, as it is with
Ward Abbott and others I have introduced you to. First, because I
like you, and second because I heard (maybe misheard) you tell me
in Salt Lake City that you need a friend. I believe real friends
warn their friends if they act like, or even if they might act like,
a too aggressive traveling shoe salesman.
If I have acted like the consultant in your parable, I apologize.
I do not want any of your sheep unless I earn them. As you
hopefully recall, my initial approach was to seek a fee for work
as an advance for an overriding royalty interest, where no override
would be paid until all fees paid were recovered from from my share
of the override. In terms of meeting my families needs, my view of
"earn" has been tied to hours working on a project. From this
perspective, I put in way too many hours creating a framework you
were not interested in and I was not paid for. I went broke doing
this for you, for Jude in Nigeria, for John in Shackelford County,
for Parker and Bob in Salt Lake, etc. The result was I had to take
a job and have to commute on the Katy Freeway, and have got in the
habit of blaming others because I did not enter into good business
relationships. In my weakness, I have not been a good friend, as
I have brought this up too many times, in unkind ways. I apologize.
My approach through Geokinetics has been the same my initial
approach above. We have contacts who are interested in funding
international projects in exchange for an ownership position.
This includes funding G&G work, like creating a stratigraphic
framework, as well as covering drilling costs. It seems to me
like this would be of benefit to you, and to me in the sense it
would provide me interesting work and a chance to work with my
friend Ward. However, you seem to be so busy protecting your
sheep from the wolves, that you have interpreted this suggestion
to create a joint venture and provide additional shepherds as an
attack by hyenas. Let me remind you this latest conversation was
requested in the e-mail copied below.
Anyway, I hope the above qualifies as the polite comments I read
as a request in the introduction to your parable.
Best Regard,
Roice
Ajay Kalsi wrote:
> Roice Roice Roice
>
> You really are a gentleman....this story of the consultant was
> sent by a friend from London and I found it amusing and passed
> it on to you for a good laugh. Think nothing of it. I am sorry
> you have taken it this way. I am a business man and like any
> mortal I make mistakes in picking friends. But after reading
> this last email I realize I have you as a friend for life.
> Good for you Roice you really are a noble soul.
>
> Anyway I am in Singapore with my family on holiday and will be
> back this weekend.
>
> Would like to hear what your friends are interested in funding
> for what piece of the action.
>
> Regards
>
> Ajay']]>
Friday we were invited to go out to dinner with George and Becky
Schultz. I was quite surprised. George went to work for GDC
(0503.html), and he seems to like GDC.
George and I are not what I would call close friends. However,
there are 20 different Thoughtlets where the word Schultz is
mentioned, many because Becky Schultz was Matt's Seminary Teacher.
My Open Mind project
was started as a result of their daughter Lori's comments in a
sacrament talk. George did not want her name specified on the
title page. And so I hid it with a link to a photo of her at
her wedding reception on page http://www.walden3d.com/openmind/006.html. We went to a soup and salad place on
Katy Freeway, which was most of the way down towards work. It was
a very enjoyable evening. And we made it home in time to see my
favorite TV show, `Numbers.'
Saturday morning I was up early to go to the church and to head
out to Orange Texas. I rode shotgun with Jeff Jurinak again,
which meant I didn't get to sleep on the way over nor on the way
back. Oh well! It is always fun to talk to Jeff. One of Jeff's
co-workers, and his neighbor rode with us. Jeff has very good
insights into lots of things. We got to the Orange Stake Center
right about 7:00 AM. When we walked in, President Ross, the
Orange Stake President, was there to greet us. We talked a
little bit. I mentioned Melanie is my daughter. Melanie, he
told me something I already knew, namely what a great young woman
you are, and how if you are asked to do something you always
get it done better than anyone else could and without complaining.
Then he said, `Her mother taught her right.' I smiled.
Since I am so far behind on Thoughtlets, I'm not sure which houses
we worked on this week. I recall there was a big pine tree down
across the street from the Orange Stake Center, which I took a
digital photo of. The photos at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/NottinghamCountryWard/051015_Orange_Team.
If I took the time to look at them I would probably remember the
work we did this week. I remember that Jeff's friend had a very
big saw, and he did a great job of taking down a lot of trees.
Once Jeff left me in charge while he went to check on the next
place we were going, and we decided there was a big tree that
needed to come down. It was next to someone else's house. I
went and talked to the young mother, and she called her husband
and gave us permission to cut the tree down. We tied a rope on
the top of the tree which was broken and hanging down. Then we
pulled as the tree was cut down. The problem was the broken part
of the tree hit the ground, and the bottom of the tree started to
walk along the fence line. It was scary. I could see the tree
going right towards Jeff's friend. However, it missed him, it
did not hit the house, and it fell where no one was. Cutting
big trees down is not simple. I also remember all but one car
of us stopped and ate at Wrights Bar-B-Que on the way home.
Melanie had just got back from St. Louis. Rob had helped her
drive up there and back. She brought Rob down to Wright's to
catch a ride back to Katy with us. Rob was quick to point out
that I was the dirtiest of anyone there. Oh well! Someone
piped up and said, `Rob, that's because your Dad worked harder
than any of the rest of us.' That was a nice comeback. We
were back to Katy by 8:00 Saturday night, and once again I was
completely wiped out.
Sunday evening I learned Ethan broke his big toe on his right
foot. All they can do is tape it to the other toe. He seemed
excited to tell me about getting it x-rayed. California is a
long way away, and we have not spent enough time with Ethan,
Ben, and Sarah. Oh well! I also learned that Audrey had
Lasik eye-surgery, and it went well. Lastly, in my weekly
phone calls to kids, I learned that Grant told Colby
<![CDATA[ `Now honey, I can't give it to you if you ask with such a
whiny voice!']]>
I wonder where Grant learned to say this, like this?
My response to Ethan, with his broken toe, Grant, with his
instructions for his cousin, and Colby, with his willingness
to help Grandpa haul fence pieces, is collectively and singly
simply `Here's my man!'"
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.)