cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, Pauline Nelson via Aunt Sara, & Maxine Shirts
"On December 11th of 2001 I built a 32 web pages for a software
package called SpotFire, including the image to the right which shows
a map of my travel log through that time. I've referred to
this software several times in the past (../0145.html,
../0148.html, ../0149.html, ../0152.html, ../0203.html,
../0205.html, ../0206.html, ../0210.html, and ../0229.html).
They had training on a subset of their software on Wednesday
and an Energy User's meeting at Anadarko on Thursday. I
attended both. Fascinating.
However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me describe the rest of my week first. Last Sunday was my first time to go Home Teaching with Scott Whitrock, my new Home Teaching Companion. Steve Holleman has been called as Matt's Home Teaching companion. Steve and Matt hit it of well when we used to Home Teach him, and I'm optimistic it will turn out well for Matt. Scott and I visited the Riches, Hayden Hudson, the Jaspers, David Moore, and the Schmidts. We will hopefully be able to go see Bret Thompson today. The Riches, Jaspers, and Schmidts are the only families actually assigned to us. We had a good time, and it brought back good memories of going Home Teaching with Roice, Ben, Paul (for only a short time), and Rob (for only a couple of times). As I think of and look forward and see times of terrorism and trial, I am more convinced than ever the importance of programs like the church's Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching Programs.
On a family basis it is sort of like Thoughtlets and weekly calls. I seem to be getting more comfortable talking on the phone and enjoyed the conversations with Roice, Ben, Paul, Melanie, Sara, and Mom last Sunday. Sara wants to do the camping trip we have talked about the 7th and 8th or 10th-12th of March. Roice is only available on the weekend. Ben said Sarah and Ethan might be interested. Melanie is not sure if Jared can get off. It will be interesting to see what happens. Still don't talk on the phone much to Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Rob. Maybe the time will come this will be the right thing to do.
Monday was President's day. However, Matt still had school. However squared, Andrea pulled him out after second period and they went to College Station to watch Roice race his motorcycle. Andrea also took a box of computer books to Ron Szabo. They had a good day, with a picnic lunch. I went down to the Galleria first thing and had a meeting with Chroma and a couple of consultants. The consultants reviewed a couple of Prospects Chroma has developed. Swede set this up, and if I'm able to sell it to them or to someone else, there is a nice cash bonus and an override for us. IBM China still hasn't paid. Oh well!
Tuesday I talked to Horace Snyder (still not funded), left messages for Jim Angellilo at FakeSpace, e-mailed Jim Gray at MicroSoft to see if he could be turned around, and sent a confidentiality request to Gene Minnich of Magic Earth. Everything tied to finances seems to move so slow these days.
Friday I sent an e-mail to Rick Zimmerman, and left a voice mail message. There was no response. Oh well! There was some follow-up on other calls and e-mails. In the evening Matt and I went on the first campout we have done together in quite some time. It was a survival campout, and it rained really hard until about 2:00 AM. Matt ended up sleeping in the car, as did three of the other boys, while seven of the boys did go out and make a debris hut and sleep at least half of the night in it. Saturday was a beautiful day. The kids had fun blowing a horn made out of a cow horn, building fire with flint and steel, and attempting to make fire with a bow. Magnifying glasses and batteries worked better. It was like the movie `Castaway' when one of them got a fire to start up. Matt missed his Sea Cadet's, and Andrea went to help with supervision. Andrea also took two of her walking ladies to the church for a Stake Relief Society Service Project. It sounds like this was a very special spiritual experience. In regards to the campout, I wrote the following ballad:
Shortly after we got home and cleaned up my friend Bjorn
Wygrala from IES in Julich, Germany arrived. We had a
very nice evening. They have progressed an immense
amount since I was working with Dr. Welte back around
1990. Their software models temperature and pressure
changes in geologic basins over time, and then models
fluid generation and movement within the basins. There
is a direct tie with the GeoTools modeling building
package available from Geo in China, and I'm optimistic
this relationship will become one of the key components
of the Chinese Joint Venture. Andrea fixed a wonderful
meal, and Bjorn and I talked from 4:30 until about 9:30.
I'm sure there will be much more said about this software
and how our working together goes over the coming months.
Bjorn's computer screen saver looks like Roice's picture
on his motorcycle, except he is red instead of green.
Bjorn assures me it is completely safe. Oh well!
This morning was Stake Priesthood Meeting. Our Ward provided the Men's Choir. Matt sang too. It was a good meeting. I was particularly touched by Michael Cahoon's detailed description of how he reactivated himself in the church and the impact the last year has had on him. He is a good kid. Called me a few minutes ago to remind me we have Choir Practice before Sacrament Meeting.
In regards, to Wednesday and Thursday and SpotFire, there are pages I could write. I won't. It became obvious during the training I had recognized a few years ago the beginning of another trend which will have a major impact on the oil industry. The training was at Riverway 2, by the Galleria. I was one of the first ones there. One of the last ones to arrive was Mark Ruths of Chevron Texaco. Mark was a key player in Chevron's Chevis internal interactive interpretation system and we have known each other for years. SpotFire just hired a new sales lady away from Landmark, Larua Dye. The other salesman in attendance also came from Landmark. Laura told me about one of her friends at Landmark who when asked about why he decided to go to work for Landmark described meeting this reasonably articulate guy who was very nice, and decided to go to work at Landmark because of him. It was a very nice compliment. There was also a guy named Steve Rasey in the class, who retired from Texaco, and is working with SpotFire full time. I was able to give each of these folks a demonstration of the things we did back in 2001 using SpotFire by calling up my website. They were each suitably impressed, and I expect there will at minimum be some consulting work come from this.
The SpotFire Energy User's Meeting at Anadarko on Thursday reminded me of the early Landmark User's Meetings. I ended up giving a brief unscheduled demonstration to about 30 of the attendees during the lunch break. Then I got a call from Jude and Dr. Egebogah requesting me to come over and meet with them. So I ended up leaving the user meeting early. Emerald does not have funding yet, and the things they say seems to imply there are still viable funding groups. They want me to work for free, and I explained I can't do much of this type of work. We will see where it goes. I did talk to them about the possibility of VRMT representing SpotFire in Nigeria, and they are interested. We also talked to Conoco-Phillips and I later called up Johnny Kopechy about getting a quote to help them drill the first three wells. I was down after this meeting.
However, Friday morning, I put together a proposal for John Dinning, Director of North American Sales for SpotFire, and a long time acquaintance. I remain optimistic there will be some good thing