Wright's Vacation 2006
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.
"Melanie, Jared, Colby, Taylor, and Halle came to visit us this week, as they started their week long Wright vacation 2006.
My notes are really sketchy for this week, and for the following three weeks. It appears I did not write down any notes. However, it also appears I made a few notes on the computer in the files I created for each of the Thoughtlets. In addition I have my e-mails files, and so most of the information I have about the month of August will come from these e-mail's. The good news, at least for me, is that once I have written these four Thoughtlets, all of the others are already written, at least up to this week, the 10th through the 16th of December (0651.html), and so all I have to do is to convert these text files to html. I could possibly get them all done before we leave for Utah on Christmas day, and I don't think I will push to do that. I think I will still dribble them out one a day to those I mail or e-mail them to. I was thinking I would put them on CD's and send them as a Christmas gift to each of you. However, if you are interested, they are on-line, and there is no need to clutter your library or your garbage can with something you won't look at if you are not interested in it or if you are always mad at me because of mistakes I made in raising you. So I will be putting a note together later today, along with our Christmas gift for 2006, offering to cut a CD of all of the Thoughtlets for any of you who are interested, at any time you make a request for the same. This way those interested will get a copy, and those not interested won't have to hide it or throw it away, like the Prime Words book or the Christmas 1999 Thoughtlets book I have forced on you as gifts in the past.
Monday after work I took Peter Shirts to Airport. He did not get the job. I was disappointed, as it would have been nice to have him here in Houston with us. He was disappointed, because I think he was very interested in the job, and the job was won by someone with more experience and better political connections. Oh well! On Monday I sent the following e-mail to Roice Krueger regarding An Open Mind:
<![CDATA['Roice,
I don't think I communicated what is in my mind very well. So I'll make a second attempt.
1. I still feel really bad that your family, particularly you, lost so much money with your investment
in HyperMedia.
2. You have at least met Jan Miller. I sent my initial request to her, copied below, based only on an
article in the Houston Chronicle. This was before the reunion. I've never even had confirmation
of receipt. When I called I was told they take 4-6 weeks to respond.
3. Based on our conversation at the reunion I packaged a hardcopy version of the book with the
cover note you inspired and sent it. I called the Thursday after it was received by Fed-X and
got confirmation it had been received. There has been no other communication.
4. The e-mail says I'm asking for an advance in excess of Joel Osteen's, which was $1 million.
This, of course, is completely negotiable. The comment was based on my perception of
market potential. My thoughts were $100K for each chapter as it is delivered (10 chapters),
and $100K each for the spatial index, for the temporal index, and for the matrix, which are
part of what has been delivered with the first two chapters.
5. To realize this kind of an advance, I need an agent. Who better than Roice Nelson Krueger.
You certainly know the industry better than I do. You know Jan Miller. You know me.
You know how to sell. I could pay you a 3% commission plus a bonus of the amount you
lost with HyperMedia if you can meet the numbers specified in 5. Everyone wins.
Does this make sense?
Best Regards,
Roice']]>
Big Roice responded with:
<![CDATA['Roice,
Thank you for your message. I have not yet found out about what is the norm for commissions in the
publishing industry. I am hoping to have a meetingwith Greg Link this week and should be able to
get the detail at that time.
You have mentioned the investment in HyperMedia a couple of times. To me I realize there is a risk
in all investments. It didn't pay off. That is okay. That was part of the risk. So it is something I have
literally "forgotten". You owe me/us nothing.
I am complimented that you feel I can assist you however the publishing arena is not my specialty.
I know a little about it because of being part of Covey Leadership Center when the 7 Habits was
launched, but I was not intimate to all the details. Selling the book would require a great deal of
expertise, time, and focus all of which I believe I would come up short on at this time. I don't think
I am your man. Thanks for asking anyway.
Let me check with Greg Link when I when with him this week who may be a good person to assist you.
Respects,
Roice']]>
On this same Monday, I responded back to Big Roice with:
<![CDATA['Roice,
Look forward to what you find out. I think you sell yourself short.
I won't mention HMC again, at least until I give you a check.
Thanks for your prompt response.
Best Regards,
Roice']]>
And thus ended the month of July in the year 2006. On Tuesday evening I went to the airport to pick up Andrea. Originally the flight was to arrive at IAH at 7:34 PM. Then I got a call from Phoenix saying it had been delayed until 10:53, then another call saying it had been delayed until 1:30 AM. This was all on America West. I did not pull into the parking, and the security guys will not let you park for this many hours, and so I ended up finding a place to park and going to sleep in the car while I was waiting. The whole experience was enough of an issue to get me to seriously reconsider my strong feelings about moving home to Cedar City, especially since I know the rest of my life will always be tied to Houston and the oil industry. It was good to have Andrea home again.
Wednesday I must have watched Star Trek, because I wrote the following possible stanza for Prime Words:
<![CDATA['This is just a thing
Things can be replaced
Lives can not(a) be replaced
Be careful what to cling to'
(a) Lieutenant Commander Data, on Tau Sigma Five, Star Trek, 02 Aug 2006]]>
Thursday I pulled an all nighter at GDC, working on an interpretation of the Tarim 3-D seismic project for for Dave Johnson's trip to China. I made a map of the "tank thickness" for the reservoir. It was an interesting project, interesting geology, and I am getting too old to work all night on stuff like this. Oh well!
Friday there was the following e-mail note from Melanie:
<![CDATA['Hey dad,
We signed Colby up for a soccer club that starts tomorrow morning so we decided to wait until after his
little game to come to Katy. I think it starts at 8:30 & we plan on coming to Katy right when its over.
On Sunday night, we may go spend the night with Jared's cousin that lives in SugarLand before we
leave for Corpus on Monday. Can't wait to see you guys & go swimming!!
Love ya,
Melanie Wright']]>
Saturday night Melanie and Jared must have spent the evening with Marti, as my notes say that Andrea and I went to the Landmark Theater in Greenway Plaza to see the movie 'Prairie Home Companion.' I enjoyed the movie, and it is not a Grandkid movie, nor is it a movie I will go out of my way to see again.
Sunday the Wright's joined us at church. Colby was very good in Primary. I still remember how much fun it was to watch Melanie interact with members of the ward. We have a new member of the ward, Sheehong (phonetic spelling), who knew Melanie from Institute at UT Austin. Melanie wrote to me this week that they are a very neat couple and good friends with Kurt Williams. Turns out Sheehong and his wife have purchased a house in another ward, and so they have just moved out of our ward. Melanie also mentioned in the e-mail this week, that the Sunday they visited was the week Andrea gave a presentation to the ward members on the Seminary program for this year. The only other note I have is a quote from Melanie saying to either Colby or Taylor: 'Your sister is not a toy!' And that is all I can write about regarding the Wright's vacation 2006."
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.)