cc: file, Sara and Des, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Eric and Annette Krueger, Eric and Renee Miner, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, and Ivan and Chell Warner.
"There is a lot I want to write about this week. However, it is 11:30 Monday night. I flew back from Utah earlier today, wrote an abstract for the AAPG in Salt Lake which had to be sent in today, and spent the rest of the evening working with John Amason on Walden Visualization Systems (see http://www.walden3d.com/wvs). Bottom line is I am too tired to write too much, and I want to get this off to Paul in the morning, so I will see what words I can isosurface through the thoughts flying through my mind.
You may be asking yourself: `What is an isosurface?' It is a surface created through a constant amplitudes (thus iso-) in a 3-D volume of data. The reason I want to Salt Lake City was to work with the EGI (Energy & Geoscience Institute) and SCI (The Center for Scientific Computing and Imaging) at the University of Utah on applying medical isosurfacing technology to seismic data. The technology was developed for allowing computer scientists to assist Doctors in identifying boundaries between bones and muscles, between lungs and hearts, etc. They use 3-D CAT-Scan (Computer Aided Tomography) and NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) data volumes. We applied the same technology to a couple of seismic volumes to identify particular sand bodies. The results are really spectacular. For a snapshot you could look at http://www.walden3d.com/wvs/gifs/f21s8s.gif or if you have some time and/or good bandwidth and a large monitor go to http://www.walden3d.com/wvs/gifs/Poster_F21_sand.gif. Alternatively just look at this Thoughtlet on the web and I will post a couple of the most impressive images of the F21 Sand, which will allow me to easily print them out for Paul (http://www.walden3d.com/hrnmen/1997/9740.html).
Speaking of Paul, we received his best letter yet today, other than his referring to my encouragement to write as a `rebuking.' He referred to how busy I sound. I remember at one of the first PAIRS sessions they said we all react to stress by doing one of several things. The one I was positive I do not do was distraction. However, I fully recognize my activity level now, as well as many other times in the past, is simply a way to distract myself if a positive manner. I hope to someday figure out how to build a distraction isosurface through time, mapping out reasons for my choices. Anyway, some of Paul's key comments:
Back to the discussion about me being too busy. I left for the airport to go to Salt Lake at 5:30 Thursday morning. Arrived at 10:30 and went straight up to the University. Our long time friend Ed Gray was waiting for me in Dr. Levey's office as we had arranged by phone and spent the afternoon with us. With an hour break to check into the hotel and take a brief nap at dinner time, we basically worked straight through until about 11:00 Utah time (midnight Houston time). The results were so exciting I woke up at 5:00 and could not get back to sleep. So I went downtown and went through an endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple. It was wonderful. Got back to Ray's office just at 9:00 when he asked me to arrive. We worked until 6:30, creating the pictures referred to above, and then I drove to Cedar. Got to Sara and Des' at about 11:00. Slept in Saturday morning. At 9:30 went to Mountian Books and bought several neat new church books. Then watched Conference at Sara and Des'. Drove to St. George and stopped to see Grandma Hafen, then went over to Porter's and watched most of the afternoon session of conference in Mom's room. We went out to dinner at a new Italian restrauant, which was very good. Your Grandma Nelson is not doing very well and she does not move around very well. She loves you all and wanted me to tell you all hello. She would sure like a letter from each of you.
After taking Mom back to Porters I went to Bloomington and found where the Priesthood session of Conference was being broadcast. President Hinkley announced they are building a temple in Houston. Brother Law told me it will be up by Compaq. After conference I went out to eat ice cream with my cousin Claude Warner and his son Zac. It was a fun discussion, and almost made up for not being able to take Rob out for dinner after Priesthood meeting. I spent the night at Grandma Hafen's. She had a whole bunch of Golden J. Kimball stories for me to read. They are funny. Sunday morning I watched Conference with Grandma Hafen. President Hinkley's talk was truly wonderful. Then I went to visit Mom, who was worn out from the outing yesterday, and went over to Claude and Katherine's to watch the Sunday afternoon session of conference. What a neat family! As I watched Emma run after the phone I could see Sara and Melanie doing the same thing. They have the neatest little bird called a cockatiel, which has this neat feather on top of its head. It would walk along the back of the couch and sit on Katherine's shoulder, then go to the kids, then to Claude, then to me. I think I am going to get one of them to keep Einstein and me company during the week.
Then I drove back to Cedar and stopped to say hi to Sara and to Ray Gardner. Got to Salt Lake about 11:00, slept until 7:00, got to the University at 8:00, caught the plane at 10:00, got back to the house at 3:30, wrote the above mentioned abstract by 5:00, picked up Larry Law at the bus stop at 5:30, and then worked with John Amason until about 11:00, with a brief break for bar-b-que. I am not complaining, because I am thoroughly enjoying the stuff I am doing. I even stopped to check the chess games. Rob moved (http://www.walden3d.com/dialog/rob) but Ben didn't (http://www.walden3d.com/dialog/chess). My friend Rick Hawthorne sent me an e-mail about playing chess, wherein he reported:
I had an e-mail from Ray Levey at 11:00 Utah time (midnight), and from Bowen Loftin at 12:31 and 1:02 AM. Bowen said `Look who's calling the kettle black,' in response to my telling him he was working too late. Maybe it is just a distraction, and maybe it is just the way I am made up. Whatever the case, I am certian there is an isosurface through the space-time continium of my life, which is centered around keeping busy. I hope each of you will find as positive an outlet for your energy."
