cc: file, Grandma Hafen via Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner. Diane Cluff, Andrea Shirts, and Heather and Nate Pace
"My friend Blaine Taylor sent me the following e-mail:
It seemed like this was a very quite week for me, and yet it seems there is no time for anything. Monday I took an employee from the Perth, Australia office down to the University of Houston to see the VETL rocket science. He was duly impressed. There were five others from our office with us, and I described the history of the lab all the way down and my view of the future all the way back. It was fun. We got back just in time for an organization meeting for the GCSEG Symposium, which I have mentioned several times. It's a pretty big deal and I always wonder why I get so involved in so many things like this, and I usually don't wonder why until after the projects have become full time jobs for several people. Oh well! Tuesday Steve Slawson set up a meeting with an acquaintance of his to talk about Virtual Tradeshows. Pretty interesting ideas. He is setting up a nice web site, and then he charges a company $200 per month to advertise on it. When I tell acquaintances I am engaged, they always ask if I'm moving to Cedar City or if Andrea is coming to Houston. This Virtual Tradeshow stuff is the kind of business I could run out of Cedar City. However, Rob's in Houston and I do enjoy my job, so I guess we will stay here and Andrea and her kids will move to Houston. Oh well!
Wednesday and Thursday I spent a lot of time working on the Symposium, and working with Roger Anderson and Blaine Taylor on the Boeing business plan. It has come together very nicely. Friday morning I went to the first formal training class I have been to in several years. It was on MicroSoft's Outlook, an e-mail and calendaring program. Certainly not rocket science, and yet it takes some practice to learn the user interface language and how to effectively accomplish this kind of stuff. Friday afternoon was more work on the Symposium and Business Plan. Friday evening I went and saw the Italian movie with English subtitles named `Life is Beautiful.' I recommend all of you go see it. There is always someone who has had a harder time than we have had. In fact, there is very little in my life to complain about and feel sorry about, even though I have spent too much of the last 10, and particularly the last 2 years immersed in self pity.
Saturday was spent at the Galleria Marriott in a Turorial as part of the 1999 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference called `The Art and Science of 3D Interaction.' Good stuff, and truly the basis of rocket science. One thing that really struck me is that I am about twice the age of the workshop organizers and most of the folks in the audience. It is hard to accept one is getting old. Hopefully working in an area which truly attracts the young and the bright will keep me young too. After leaving the workshop, I went by the office to pick up some stuff I forgot, and got out to Katy just in time to go and see the movie `Message in a Bottle' with Kevin Costner. I enjoyed it, although the ending was very sad. Today I skipped church and spent all day at another workshop tied to the IEEE VR99 Conference. Today's workshop was `Virtual Reality in Geosciences,' Bowen Loftin at the VETL was the organizer, and I was the afternoon panel moderator. It cost Continuum a lot ($430), covered some stuff slightly different than I had heard before, was enjoyable time with colleagues who think the same way I do, and I wish it wouldn't have been on Sunday. Oh well!
It is interesting how high tech (rocket science) the stuff I am working with is preceived to be. I remember when I was about 24 and an institute teacher at the University of Utah asked me what I was planning to do with my life. I told him I was going to move to Texas (I'd already accepted the job with Mobil Oil), work for the oil industry, and make enough money I could afford to serve another mission. He said, `Don't worry about how much money you make or how much training you have. Just buckle down and work hard and one day you will wake up and be one of the leaders in your chosen industry. And the money will come, if for no other reason than the Lord can use the tithing to build the kingdom.' I guess my advise to each of you this week is a repeat of the above. It really doesn't matter if we are an engineer, or an accountant, or a graphics artist, or an assistant to an optician, or whatever. What matters is our attitude, and how well we learn and improve our job. Everything else works out to teach us the lessons we need to learn in this test called life."