cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"What a week. Like every other week, there were 7 days. However, unlike every other week, it is Monday evening at 10:15 PM and I am just getting down to writing my weekly Sunday Thoughtlet. Oh well! Always have struggled with my abcd's. This ongoing struggle is one of the reasons I work hard at writing songs, things like Prime Words, and these Thoughtlets. I get great comfort from the scripture which says:
Last Sunday after Church there was Ward Choir, then Stake Choir with Epiphany Catholic Church, then writing my Thanksgiving Thoughtlet. I got up Monday morning and packed for the week, and was in my office by 7:45 AM. At 8:00, Gary Young arrived with the full proposal for the Immersibles, edutainment theaters for malls, town halls, etc. Ben, if you really want to start looking at a significant business opportunity, this is one. I'm very excited about what Carolyn and Gary have come up with. I talked to Kjell Finstad about it this morning, and even though he thinks it is a good thing, I don't think he sees it in the same way I do. I don't have the notes at home with me, and so I won't try to explain this business opportunity tonight. At 10:00 AM Mary Jane Naquin from The World Future Society came by Continuum to see a demonstration and to determine if they want to have Continuum be part of their annual convention in Houston. She was very excited about what she saw. The afternoon was spent working on a variety of things so that I could leave the office for three days. I was a little late leaving for the airport and arrived just in time to get on the airplane to West Palm Beach, Florida at 6:30 PM. I arrived at 10:05, as scheduled, and went out to find Jeff Winston from Boulder waiting for me with a convertible.
We got to Jenson Beach about 11:00 PM, and checked into an ant infested Mom and Pop motel with no phones, no maid service, and a bayonet knife and scabbard stuck in the springs of the living room couch so it would not fold out into a bed. I drew the couch, and as I worked on getting it untied and pulled out, I realized it was going to be a long week. The proprietress was named Mary, and when I gave her the foot and a half long knife and scabbard, she said, `We havn't had any of the kind of people who would use this stay here for several months.' I started reading another Tom Clancy (and this time co-authored by Martin Greenberg) Novel: Power Plays - Shadow Watch. By the time I went to sleep at midnight (1:00 AM Houston time), I was on about page 85.
Tuesday morning we got up at 6:00 and went for a run. Jeff is about 4 years older than me. He served a mission in France. He studied with Ray Gardner's older brother Tom under Ian McHarg, the father of modern town planning. He is a Bishop in Boulder. He is the town planner for Vail and Steamboad Springs, Colorado. And he can definitely run farther than I can. We jogged down and across the bridge which crossed the intercoastal waterway. Beautiful morning. Chilly enough to feel like winter. Clear and green and even the Morning Glory's looked pretty. When I was growing up, one of the things I learned to really dislike was Morning Glory weeds. They would get in the corn patches and you couldn't kill them, except with a hoe. Dad and I would spend hours digging up or spraying morning glory. In Florida, along the road, they almost looked pretty early in the morning.
I won't go into the conference in detail. It was called `Tools For Better Planning.' It was the third conference in a series. There were representatives from many Federal Agencies (DOE (Department of Energy), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), HUD (Housing and Urban Development), DOI (Department of Interior), Department of Agriculture, as well as vendors (ESRI, Orton, Continuum), non-profit organizations, State Agencies (New Mexico State Lands, Appalacia Authority, Bay Area Council, etc.), universities, developers, planners, etc. There were talks by Federal Agencies, by vendors (I gave my talk: `The Impending Obsolescence of Maps' on Wednesday morning), The New Urbanists (the Developer of SeaSide, Florida was there), and planners. There was an outdoor fish fry and cold and windy discussion Tuesday night, runs Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and a group dinner on Wednesday night. I docummented the conference talks, my notes, and some brochures with 155 digital photos (http://www.walden3d.com/abcd). When I moved the files over from the PC, they were all trunkated to 8 characters, and so the pictures are not very easy to read right now. I worked on it most of Saturday and even some on Sunday, and will be picking at it for the next several weeks to clean it all up.
This was probably the most exciting conference I have ever been to. I guess it resonated so much because it was about what I have been thinking about ever since my first day tracting on my mission at the White City council housing project in West London. When I saw how people lived there, I couldn't help but compare it to the environment my Dad's cattle lived in. I saw the Londoners coming up on the short end of the stick. I'm sure this view is largely driven by my interest in outdoors and open space. This morning of tracting motivated my first letter to Ray Gardner, which eventually resulted in the creation of Walden 3-D, Inc., the Barker Project over on Maudeen Mark's land and the accompanying hot air balloon ride for several of you kids (http://www.walden3d.com//design/W3D89A), as well as all of the other events in this field of study which have happened since 1970. I learned a lot at the conference. I see a wonderful place to implement the edutainment centers Carolyn Sumners has designed.
I found an audience interested in taxonomy. There were several who stayed on Thursday to listen to me give a brief summary of the Knowledge Backbone (SM) (http:www.walden3d.com/hmc/knowledge_backbone/p01.html). The key result was a general agreement for the formation of a new group, which we tentatively named ABCD.ORG, or The Association For Better Citizen Decions. I volunteered Southern Utah University for the next meeting. Scott Truman told me today that this was fine and he would help us put together a first class meeting. Jeff is on the guidance council. I am on the Taxonomy subcommittee. The conference organizer rode back to West Palm Beach Airport in the back seat of the convertible. He says it is very windy back there. We got to the airport at 2:30 PM, and there is only one direct flight to Houston per day, at 6:00 PM. So I read Tom Clancy. In fact, I had about 10 pages left to finish when I got back to Houston, and so I sat in the terminal and finished the 355 pages of the book before going and getting the Lexus and driving home.
Friday morning started with a visit to the dentist. I wore my new teeth from my 50th birthday party. The receptionist at Ron Crabtree's didn't even crack a smile. Neither did the girl who took me back and gave me a chair. I took them out while the hygienist cleaned my teeth and took X-Rays. Ron loved them. It was nice to see him laugh. Rob, he is sure positive about how good of a Home Teaching Companion you are. I'm proud of you. Home Teaching is not always easy, and yet it is always rewarding. At the front desk I explained the teeth are false, and the receptionist was very releaved. She was almost sick to think someone had teeth like that. She `felt so-o-o-o-o-o-o bad for me, yet she didn't say a thing.
At work it was a day of catch up on 66 e-mails, half a dozen voice mails, an several people asking questions. Interesting how fast things build up in the office. I was the speaker at the weekly CoRe Exchange employee meeting for the second time (the first time was reported under the title Song and Dance: 9940.html). I had my guitar in back of the screens, and so when it was my turn to talk, I walked back, put in my fake teeth, and walked across in front of the screens carrying the guitar. Then I sat it down, amid laughter (or maybe fear I would play again), walked to the front center of the room and said `I went to the dentist this morning.' There was a good laugh. I gave the presentation Jeff Winston, Rick Duran, and I put together for the Southern Utah Rural Development Summit (see 9936.html). There were no questions, and too often I wonder if I've missed the boat, or if my audience is standing on the shore and doesn't understand I am heading out to sea. Oh well!
Friday evening we just stayed home and watched some James Bond movies on TV. Saturday morning started with a run, then from 8-9:00 there was a CES conference call. From 9-11:30 was choir practice. The rest of the day was spent organizing the slides for abcd.org (while watching 4 different James Bond movies). It was a fun day, and I was tired by the time the last movie was over at 12:40 AM Sunday morning. Andrea and I did go to the Webers to wish Daniel God Speed as he prepares to leave for his mission to The Czech Republic. I wore my teeth. It was a fun visit. Rob's old girl friend, Lindsey Weber, took a picture of Doug Hastings, Daniel, and the teeth, which she promised to post at the church. I expect it looks pretty similar to: http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/RBN1a_RoiceNelsonFamily/FiftithBirthday/P18Teeth3RoiceJrBillHagen.JPG. We have good friends. And it is so nice to see how Andrea has been accepted and adopted by everyone. She is making a very positive impact in Houston. I bore my testimony for the first time in about two years in Fast and Testimony Meeting. I am so thankful for my testimony, the iron rod (I Nephi 11:25) in my life. We decorated Christmas Trees, and I worked on moving the 155 slides from the PC to the Sun. We also went to Ward Choir, to Tithing Settlement with Matt and Rachel, and listened to The Frist Presidency Christmas Message, watched the live nativity, and looking at all of the different nativity sets in the church. It was a nice evening.
I didn't mention the most important thing of all this week, at least it certainly was the most important thing to happen in Heather and Nate's lives this month, and maybe this year. Nate's Mom has been struggling with cancer for some time. She died Friday. She is only a few years older than I am. Andrea went up to Cedar today to go to the funeral. Transitions are hard, and Nate I sense how close you were to your Mother. I'm sorry for all of us. I waited until the last paragraph of this Thoughtlet to mention your grief, mostly because I wanted to stress to you, and each of the other kids, life goes on, even after a loved one leaves us. It is a hard concept and I believe it is the basis behind why our Savior once taught `Let the dead bury the dead' when he was in Galalee (Matthew 8:21-22). Nate, I havn't read your e-mails of this last week on purpose. I've been travelling and busy, I've been preoccupied with abcd.org, and I want to be able to sit down and think about what you have written and write out an appropriate response. It is easier for me to write now than it used to be, and yet I still struggle. Realize it has taken over 2 hours to write these few words. Hopefully there are some patterns or concepts hidden in these pages which will prove to be of usefulness to one or more of you kids. Nate keep your chin up and get after the rest of your life. I make my efforts because I love each of you, and I believe Thoughtlets are an appropriate fruit to demonstrate my love. Have a great week."
