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.
"Last night was the culmination of a years worth of work by Ken Turner and company. There was a banquet and art exhibition at The Falls, the number one golf course in the Houston area according to the Houston Sports News in 1999. This is a fenced retirement community about three miles from Ken Turner's place, and just down the road from where Fern and Reed Peterson had their place. There are many deer and also exhotic animals running wild on the grounds. The clubhouse is like a typical country club clubhouse. Ken and several associates had hung or set up two rooms full of art work, the main dinning room being a very large room. There were 150 signed up to attend, and although I did not count heads, it seemed like there were at least that many people there. The event was called `Art in the Wildflowers.'
You can check out a description of `Art in the Wildflowers' on the web at http://www.walden3d.com/hgol/Festival2000/artInTheWildflowers.html. This is part of the hgol web pages I have been talking about working on in my spare time in some of recent Thoughtlets (see 0010.html and 0011.html). I wish each of you could have been there. Matt and Rob, I was afraid you would have been bored to death. Rachel is ill. Sara had a concert. As I recall Melanie, Jared, and Roice were busy, although maybe I forgot to ask. If so, I'm sorry. Audrey, Bridget, Paul and Kate, Ben and Sarah, and Nate and Heather are too far away. We did take Austin Beckstrom, who is Priest age and in my Venturing Crew and is very interested in art (he studied art in Italy last summer). Austin seemed to have a good experience.
As we drove up to the Club House, the car behind us parked across the way, and I realized
David Hicks, the other artist in New Ulm, started the evening off. He was Ken's professor at the UH some 30 years ago. He helped and encouraged Ken to paint in how he wanted, which happens to be as a classical artist. He described the evolution of Art in the Wildflowers. He introduced Ken, and Ken was off doing something and missed it. He came in later and also talked. The winner of the Lajos Markos Art Scholarship was in attendance and was introduced. He served a mission in Los Angeles and returned about three years ago. The couple sitting with Andrea and I had helped him get recognition for some Junior High School art work some 10 years ago, and she was estatic about him winning the award. Joe Roberts, in his enthusiasm to promote Ken and after too much wine, tried to do an open auction of Ken's latest painting, Sam Houston (http://www.walden3d.com/hgol/Turner/SanJacinto.html) at San Jacinto. The evening was billed as a high class evening, and there was a silent auction planned. Joe's actions caused the people at our table, and several others in the audience, to not bid. David Hicks took control and sent Joe home. I wish over the last 17 years I could have reached Joe and taught him the truth and importance of The Word of Wisdom. It was defininitely a stressful evening for Ken, and he handled everything professionally and with grace. Oh that we could all always do so good, especially after working several 18-20 hour days, having visitors staying at the house, and otherwise being in the midst of a stress overdose.
As we started to drive back to Houston we got a call from Rachel who is ill, has a bad ear ache, and wanted to know when we would be home. Austin was following us, we didn't want to lose him by driving too fast, and it seemed like traffic was extra heavy. We finally got home from Art in the Wildflowers at about 11:50 PM. Rachel was doing a little bit better, although she spent all day today in bed. Rachel, I'm glad you feel a little bit better tonight.
Even though it was still winter in Provo, Paul's description of `How I proposed to Kate' was an exercise of Art in the Wildflowers. Paul wrote:
Paul, a couple of comments. First, roses and daisies really aren't wildflowers, and so I had to stretch a little to get your story to fit within my theme of Art in the Wildflowers. Second, how can you be a `man' (`lucky man'), when I'm your Dad, and I'm still `The Kid?' Kate, I need your e-mail address so I can start to send you copies of these Thoughtlets, and you ought to send me some comments, or your version of Paul's story, to be documented in the Thoughtlets.
As far as how this week went, it was like Art in the Wildflowers. Monday and Tuesday I went to the Landmark Technology Conference. Good talks, and lots of interesting stuff. Doing this right after having gone to the GeoQuest Technology Forum was particularly interesting. The keynote speeches at each of these events deserves a dedicated Thoughtlet, and so I will keep these notes for some week, in the not too distant future, when the theme of that week fits Henry Groppe's talk on `World Oil Outlook,' or Nicholas Negroponte's talk on `Being Digital.' Sara, I did give your resume to Suzie Peebler, and she is interested. I will call her this week and see if we can set up an interview for you when you are down here this next weekend. Monday evening Matt had a baseball game, which I was late getting to. His team won again. Tuesday evening I met Roger Anderson and team at Guadalajara's. They had their big meeting for funding and the Technology owners told them they do not want Vpatch to be working with the group they were talking with. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. There is so much momentum, I do expect Vpatch to be funded in the next few weeks. I worked on the Heritage Gallery Online web pages the rest of the evening, after I got home at about 7:00 PM (http://www.hgol.net and http://www.walden3d.com/hgol).
Wednesday I thought I was going to be at the Landmark Technology Conference, and wasn't because it was just a day of golfing. There were a lot of things to catch up with at the office, and so it was good to have the extra day. Wednesday evening we spent our Venturing Crew time planning an art campout at Brother Turner's for both the Priest and Laurel age kids. It ought to be a fun time for the kids, and we will be doing this while the New Ulm Art Festival is still on, tieing it into Art in the Wildflowers. Thursday I went downtown to meet with a company from Concord, MA called Mitsubishi Visualization. They had contacted Wulf Massell, and he arranged for me to see a demo down there. Paul Sovelious was at the demo, and it was so good to see Paul again. He is still living in The Woodlands, and still working at Sam Houston State. The demo was really neat. They demostrated taking a 3-D volume of CAT-scan data and dissolving away data to leave the skull, or the blood vessels, or the interior of an engine block, etc. They are selling a PC board to do volume visualization. They came out to the office and gave a similar demonstration to the Continuum development team later in the afternoon. It looked even better on the big screens. After I left Wulf's office, I slipped downstairs to The Place (the indoor mall by my downtown office at II&T), and ate the vegetable dumplings I like so much. Then I hurried back to the office for a meeting with Ameriven about putting several theaters in Venezuela. This was a very good meeting, and was follow-up to a meeting last fall (../9942.html). The missionaries came over for dinner, and I ended up spending all evening getting ready for giving a CoReExchange presentation the next day.
Friday was busy. There were several on-fire e-mails which had to be responded to. I went to the developer's meeting at 9:00 AM. Peter Duncan had brought some problems to my attention on Thursday. Dave Ridyard and I talked about several concerns about things happening in the company. He also reviewed his latest financial projections and we had lunch at his favorite Thialand resturant. I had another meeting with Mike Dunn of GDC (0009.html and 0012.html) from 2:00 until about 3:00 PM. I enjoy Mike and continue to be optimistic that the Continuum thing is going to be pulled together for everyone's benefit in the end. I was back at the office, and gave the CoReExchange presentation at 4:00. Richard Uden, Peter Duncan, and Dave Ridyard had come in the previous day and said they are all going to be out of town and asked if I would give a presentation at CoRe Exchange on the work I have been pursuing with Exxon-Mobil Upstream Research. Later Richard sent out an e-mail which said `and possibly there will be musical accompaniment.' I gave my presentation about reinventing education and the Knowledge Backbone, and then invited everyone to leave. Then, in the spirit of Art in the Wildflowers and my previous Song and Dance (../9940.html), having created 34 web pages in two series (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Songs) which stepped through photos from the Camp Liendo camping trip (../9948.html and the Stephen F. Austin camping trip with the Venturing Crew (../9951.html), I sang the songs about these campouts while Andrea stepped through the pictures on the three big screens in the theater. It seemed fairly effective, and many of the folks stayed. In fact, I kept singing for about 45 minutes, and finally broke up when there were only 5 people still there. It was fun and I was wiped out. Andrea, Matt, and I went to `The Road to El Dorado' later in the evening, and I fell asleep in the movie and as soon as we got home.
Yesterday morning I slept in until 6:45. Andrea woke me up as she was leaving for her walk, and so I changed and caught up with her. I found a golf ball in the street up past the Henderson's house on the way to Fry. As I saw it, I thought this is one of those times where something is placed in my path which could change my whole life. So I picked it up and carried it with me. I caught up with Andrea on Greenwind Chase just before Baker Road. I threw the golf ball and bounced it by her, scaring her, as I caught up. Then as we turned up Baker Road I started to dribble the golf ball. It is hard to jog and dribble a golf ball. I thought, `This is a great way to exercise.' As I got better at dribbling back and forth from left hand to right hand, I realized how much better workout I was getting than just jogging. I thought, `If you get a golf ball company to print "The Original Running Companion" on golf balls, and sell them over the Internet, they could become the next "pet rock."' This could also be a fund raiser for the Venturing Crew house project. Of course, what are the liabilities if someone is focused on dribbling their golf ball running comanion and get run over by a car? Dribbling a golf ball is definitely a new kind of art in the wildflowers.
I took Matt to his baseball game at 8:15 AM. Their team was playing Ric Miller's team. Ric is a very dedicated coach, and is out to win. Their team looked great during warm up. Then they got up, stole bases when they got on, and after the first half of the first inning were three points ahead. I felt bad for Matt's team. Then one of Matt's team-mates hit a home run and it was tied 3 to 3 after the first. Andrea got to the game about 9:30. By the time I left to go to conference, the score was 8 to 5, with Ric Miller's team ahead. It turns out Matt's team won in the bottom of the last inning by 9 to 8. Andrea says it was like a major league game, even though the Pony League fields are way north of Katy. This was yet another example of art in the wildflowers.
Conference was wonderful, a completely different type of art in the wildflowers. My mind had been prepared in an unusual way, because of a book I was reading at Matt's game called `Why? Science Unveiling the Mind' by R Colin Johnson. To provide a context I will quote a couple of paragraphs from page 84, and I expect there will be an upcoming Thoughtlet dedicated to the topic:
As I listend to the tabernacle choir sing in the wonderful new Conference Center, I could not help but recognize why music is such an important part of the restored gospel. It is something which can not exisit if we are not actively involved. Just as the gospel can not exist if we are not actively involved. The gospel requires studying the scriptures, saying prayers, attending meetings, providing service, doing missionary work, going to the temple, and being involved. If we stop being involved, our testimony and the relevance of the gospel ceases to exist, like a song ceases to exist when time stops.
President Hinkley gave a particularly stirring example when he described his love for trees. Every year he plants trees in the spring. Some 36 years ago he planted a black walnut. It died a year ago, and he asked Brother Banks, a member of the Quorum of 70 who used to work with trees to come and look at it. He brought his two sons, who have kept his business going after his call to full time church service, and one of them suggested the tree, an excellent hardwood tree, be turned into a pulpit for the new Conference Center. The tree was cut and dried and worked into the beautiful pulpit President Hinkley was speaking from. The tree was dead, there were no longer the disparities of life, yet it's material shell had been transformed by supurb craftmanship to a beautiful pulpit. President Hinkley was speaking from the tree which had watched his children grow up, and despite his being in a large conference center, his words and tears were true art in the wildflowers.
Andrea got to the church just after his talk. She left just after the last talk to take Matt and Rachel to the Mall. I stayed and watched the new hour long video, which is the current apostles testimony of Jesus Christ. President Hinkley talked from the Jerusalem Center, among the wildflowers at the Garden Tomb, at the sacred grove, and in front of the Christus Statue at the Visitor's Center. Each of the apostles gave a stirring testimony of Jesus and His importance to each of us. Jeffery Holland, from St. George, talked from the Garden of Gethesemane in Isreal. In his talk at conference this afternoon he talked about the 184 grape clusters and 2244 window panes in the St. George Tabernacle (admitting to being bored during Stake Conference talks as a child), and specifically about the faith of pioneers like Peter Nielson who provided the money to purchase the panes of glass. I encourage each of you to read this talk in the Ensign, and to watch the video if you did not get a chance to see it Saturday or Sunday. It wasn't long after the video that Andrea and I left for The Falls and for our evening of Art in the Wildflowers.
The conference sessions today were great. Of course, I missed yesterday afternoon's session and the Priesthood session last night. Paul said Priesthood session was the best of all of the sessions. Matt and I will watch it on video, hopefully this week. I watched the Apostles video witness of Christ again today with Andrea. I didn't shed as many tears as yesterday, and the spirit bore witness of the truthfullness of their words. Sara brought by some lovely purple flowers and a nice thank you note for Andrea while we were at conference. Thanks! With these flowers, Andrea's other flowers in the back yard, two Ken Turner paintings, the signed Del Parson print Audrey gave us, Grandma Hafen's needlepoint of Calf Springs Ranch, the signed Roland Lee watercolor of the St. George Temple, Matt Deford's painting of the St. George temple, the print of showing Oslo when it was called Christiana, etc., we have our own home version art in the wildflowers.
As you each continue living (create disparities), I hope you will each choose to be involved in those activities of the gospel (referenced above) which do end up creating a pulpit (like the book of Thoughtlets given to each of you at Christmas) from which your ancestors will be able to proudly acknowledge your contribution to their lives and happiness. Living is Art in the Wildflowers. Live."