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.
"`Remember the Alamo' has been ringing through my ears all week. It started on Tuesday, the 2nd of January and Aunt Sara's birthday, while I was writing last week's Thoughlet. Andrea was busy taking down all of the Christmas decorations. Matt was helping her. Then the phone rang. It was Ken Turner. He had just found out from Judge Eccles that his new painting of a bull elephant, the mascot of the Republican Party, is going to be shown at the Inaguration of President George W. Bush. Furthermore, Ken is going to get two Giclee prints of his recent painting `Remember the Alamo' (http://www.walden3d.com/hgol/Turner/SanJacinto.html) funded by his childhood neighbor, long time friend, and mentor, the art and antiquities expert and collector Allie Al-Abssi of Ishtar Internernational in the Galleria, to let Judge Eccles give a copy to President Elect Bush at the Inaguration and to the new Texas Governor Rick Perry. Just maybe Heritage Galleries On-Line is going to become known during the month of January (http://www.hgol.net).
At 11:30 on Tuesday I went to lunch with Blaine Taylor, Mike McCardle, and long time acquaintance Dr. Heloise Lynn. Heloise is a Stanford Ph.D. whom I have known since she was a student. She is the world expert on anistrophy, which is a geophysical speciality tied to how seismic velocities can go faster in some directions than in other directions due to fracture patterns and stress-strain relationships. She has spent the last 16 years doing studies for the Department of Energy, which have resulted in the identification of potentially 4 TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet) of undrilled gas in place. The lunch was to start the process of determining whether Dynamic could be her representative in selling these drilling opportunities to investors. My friend Blaine Taylor (../9721.html, ../9808.html, ../9833.html, ../9837.html, ../9839.html, ../9842.html, ../9845.html, ../9846.html, ../9847.html, ../9852.html, ../9909.html, ../9911.html, ../9912.html, ../9913.html, ../9930.html, ../0009.html, 0024.html) set up the meeting. Janet Wood, Andera's secretary in the Young Women's Presidency was our waitress. The opportunities are exciting, and bring to mind the opportunities at the founding of Texas when the words `Remember the Alamo' were ringing through the air.
Wednesday night the Priests were responsible for the Combined Activity. They had only found out on Sunday, and decided to have a `BOM Awards' (Book of Mormon Awards) movie night. We started of with Roice's video tape from when he was a Teacher in 1988: The Death Ray Music Machine. Then we saw the Priest's movie from when they were teachers showing the story of Coriantumur in the book of Ether. Amazing how movies 10 years apart were so similar. Guess kids stay the same. Then there was movie after movie after movie of kids showing their interpretation of parts of the Book of Mormon. There was Paul doing the snake across the floor, and Sara made a brief appearance. It was fun to see the movies, and there was also a lot of painful memories and hurt brought to mind. I'm sure part of my emotional lethargy Wednesday evening was an unintended emotional response to e-mail news earlier in the day. It is bitter sweet and hard to see those I love admit being less than honest and open, especially when they justify choices by in effect blaming me for having `forced' or `pressured' them to follow eternal principles, and yet it is nice to see some openess and honesty. Hopefully I will be able to fashion a response which is logical and non-judgemental and builds bridges. I have been very busy this week, and have not had the emotional energy to respond to this e-mail yet. And I need to remember the other e-mail I received on Wednesday before I charge off to war shouting `Remember the Alamo.' It was from Heather, and Heather I hope it is OK I include your note here:
I have a big meeting next Tuesday, and I'm preparing material from our visit to Flower Mound where I collected data to document the exploration opportunity in Rio Grande County, Colorado just before Christmas (../0052.html). I worked on it Wednesday night after we got home from YM/YW, all day Thursday, and until 2:30 on Friday morning. The results are not very complete yet, and they are at http://www/dynamic/AMI007. When I went to bed on Friday morning I could not get to sleep. I finally fell asleep about 4:00 AM, and it was hard to wake up at 6:30. I felt like those at the Alamo must have felt when Santa Anna finally attacked them just before dawn. Remember the Alamo!
I asked Andrea to take Audrey to Park-And-Ride, and I did two last minute things, both of which turned out to be unnecessary. I typed out the shareholders in HyperMedia Corporation and how much I feel morally obligated to return to them (http://www.walden3d.com/hmc/shareholders.html), and I found a slide I had prepared for an Exxon-Mobil meeting on gaps and redundancies (../0010.html). Wedesday morning there was an article in the Chronicle about Landmark purchasing Petroleum Geo-Services Petrobank Data Management business for $179 cash. This is the company Blaine Taylor and I did an IDEF-0 model of in the fall of 1998 (../9839.html). I expect it was not an insignificant percentage of the valuation that was created by the information model we built. The result was I sent the following e-mail to John Gibson before breakfast Wednesday:
The meeting with John Gibson was on Friday morning from 8:30-10:30. The meeting was interesting, and weird. I started off telling him my comments about IDEF were a repeat of a presentation I gave to Bob Peebler, the previous President of Landmark Graphics, about 6 years ago, and Bob had told me I was 3 years ahead of Landmark. I acknowledged I was probably now 3 years behind, and I think both John and I left thinking this is about right. The weird part was John's diatribe about the 4th Landmark employee to commit suicide, which happened last week, and about how he was bipolar and his girlfriend had just left him. I listened to him feeling as if someone had fed him words implying I am bipolar and am on the verge of suicide (see ../9835.html for admission of my one second flirtation with this option maybe 8 years ago). John said he was interested in using me as a consultant and that he will think about my IDEF message and see where it goes. I walked out of the Landmark building finally convinced the Knowledge Backbone (SM) will never be sold, and that my best option for meeting my self-imposed moral obligation to HyperMedia shareholders is to use the technology to help make Dyanmic successful, and then to use some of this money to pay back the HyperMedia shareholders. We can remember the Alamo of our life, and we don't need to refight the battles again and again.
Andrea and I took Audrey out to lunch Friday as a going away present, since her last day at Baker-Botts was Friday and she returns to Utah Sunday morning. She wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, and so we went and watched naked midgets run around a music video. Needless to say, I am not very impressed with music videos. However, it was nice to spend time with Audrey and Andrea, to buy her a Houston Hard Rock Cafe shirt, and to spend a few minutes not focused on business thoughts. When we got home I spent the rest of the afternoon working on Rio Grande County. Andrea and I had the Ward Young Men/Young Women annual planning meeting from 7:00 until 9:00. Audrey had a date with a tall good looking returned missionary from Brazil, and they ended up watching Frequency (../0018.html) at the house. I worked until 1:30 AM, and as I said good night to Audrey and her date, I thought to myself how tired I was, and then `Remember the Alamo' and how tired they were.
I got up 6:30. Andrea had been up exercising. Matt and Rachel said they changed their minds and did not want to go to San Antonio with us. I came down pretty hard on Rachel, and she resonded, `You know why none of your kids like you, it is because you push them away!' Unintended pressure and force. Rachel stayed home, Matt went with us rather than stay and clean out the garage. Matt was worried all day that Rachel would throw his legos away while he was gone. His fears, like most of my fears, turned out to be completely unfounded. It was my second time to visit the Alamo, the first probably being 15 years ago. I won't repeat the history, since most of you have had Texas history. It was a beautiful day, although a little chilly. The way they have reorganized the museum and tours is wonderful. The new IMAX movie is really good. It really struck me, how the impact of an individual, Travis, on the history of Western Civilization is phenomenal. Leading men to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, he opened the west for non-catholic immigration and provided the basis for our ancestors to help settle Utah and provide our rich heritage. As we rode back to Houston, I kept thinking `Remember the Alamo.'
Andrea drove part of the way to San Antinio and most of the way back. I used the time to write a document to prepare for the big meeting on Tuesday next week. It summaries investment opportunities in Dynamic Oil & Gas Corporation (see http://www.walden3d.com/dynamic/investment.html). I am very excited about the way things are going, and am looking forward to making Dynamic Oil & Gas Corporation a significant player in the E&P business. If this success happens anywhere near how it is mapped out in my mind, I intend it to make positive difference in a world that `promotes prornography and prohibits prayer' as described in a tape by John Bytheway, which we listened to in the car. We got back at 6:00 and left for the Leadership Session of Stake Conference at 6:55. It was a good meeting. It was the first time I had seen Nel Turner since she broke her leg. Ken is overwhelmed, and very excited about the inaguration. The few can make a signifiant difference. Time will tell where all of our activities are going. In the meantime I hope and pray you all `Remember the Alamo!'"