03 Oct 2004 #0440.html

Poza Rica

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Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, Matt via hardcopy, and Brian,

cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

"Finally we got the e-mail forwarding working again. Wednesday I resent Thoughtlet 0435.html and Thursday Paul, Melanie, Sarah, and Bridget acknowledged receipt. Bridget note also said:

`Dear Uncle Roice, I just wanted to let you know that I did get the Thoughtlet today. My Mom had told me that you were having difficulties with the system, so that's why I didn't e-mail to let you know that I wasn't getting them. Thanks for writing them, it's good to hear how the family is doing. We're doing well here. We've just been busy with the normal stuff and we've found out that we're having a baby girl. We're so excited and can't believe how fast it's going (we only have 4 months left). Well, thanks again and good luck with everything that you're doing. love, Bridget'


Thursday Robert Shirts sent us a note saying:

`Hello All, This mission thing can be exciting. After Janneke accepted her call and sent in her letter, Salt Lake decided to reassign her. So she is going to be serving in the Toronto Canada West mission and will be reporting to the MTC in Provo on October 13th. She has two whole weeks to get ready for the change but since she has a current passport already this will not be a lot different. Her trip to china will be postponed for a couple of years, 18 months at least, but China will still be there. (Nan, you have to stay there until after the summer of 2006, please!!!) Thanks for all The Shirts'


Friday Ben acknowledged receipt, Saturday Aunt Sara, and Sunday Audrey wrote:

`Roice, I did receive your latest thoughtlet with no spam. Thank you for wanting to stay in touch with me. It has been a really hard month and to know that you care has really meant the world to me. Trials are funny things, they humble you and teach you about yourself and the ever needing desire to be close to the Lord. My ward has been so helpful. My roommate went and talked to the bishop and he asked how I was doing? She said fine under the circumstances. He also went onto say that this ward was really blessed by their willingness to serve. What a great blessing service is!! I love that the church is based on so many good works, one of them being service, and allows us to grow closer to him as well as strengthen relationships here. Thanks for being here for me!!! audrey'


Then Sunday, Aunt Sara wrote:

`Dear Roice, Part of the thoughlet didn't transmit. It sometimes just stops in mid-sentence. In response to comments on Uncle Lloyd: The idea of an "eye for an eye" was an improvement in human interaction because the model before was "you hurt me and my tribe wipes out your tribe". This is what he's talking about with Iraq. If we kill an Iraqi then his family is by culture bound to kill us. Thus by killing between 15,000 and 30,000 Iraqis depending on whose figures you believe, we have ignited the hatred of lots families who believe in revenge killing. Also, the bunker busters are tipped with depleted uranium as are the anti-tank shells. According to Helen Caldicott in the New Nuclear Danger, 70 percent of the shell is vaporized and converted to tiny particles of oxidized uranium 238. Also, a third of the American tanks have uranium armor plating so those in the tanks are contaminated. In other words we have contaminated Iraqis and American troops for a future of cancer, birth defects, and misery. Of course you realize that the Bush administration wants to restart testing in Nevada so we are again going to be in the line of fire. This is a crucial issue in the election and yet no one seems to be addressing it except Congressman Jim Matheson. That's why there is a Matheson sign in our front yard. My second point is that the Bush administration seems intent on bankrupting the country. I do not see how conservative people can accept the huge deficits. I foresee high inflation and rising interest rates as a response to this administration. The tight job market continues and the government spending is out of control. So for moral people to continue to support a person who has killed thousands, spreads the horror of radioactive contamination, and is destroying America's financial foundation is beyond my understanding. I will vote for Kerry. We will agree to disagree because neither of us will change the other's mind. Love, Sara'


I agree with most of these points, and as Aunt Sara stated, this does not change my mind. Hopefully each of you are also forming your own opinions, and my comments are only one factor in your individual decisions. I realize Kerry is a Catholic, and is personally against abortion, sort of. However, it is part of his party's platform to kill babies, and I can not get past this issue (I love you guys too much, and have taken too much flack for too many years by liberal scientific colleagues about not killing some of you, rather than letting you be born). Specifically, I can not understand why people can not realize there are orders of magnitude more deaths by abortion each year, just in our country, than have occurred on both sides in the Iraq war, or from all of the nuclear tests that have ever happened http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_fact.htm gives the numbers as 1,211,000 in 1995; 1,222,000 in 1996; 900,000 in 1997; 884,000 in 1998; 862,000 in 1999; 857,000 in 2000; and it continues today). I've worked too hard to give my 10 kids and step kids a chance to live and enjoy a reasonably good life to ever justify the selfish driven murder of hundreds of thousands of God's children each year. And then there are the Gadianton Robber issues. So, even with Aunt Sara's rational and logical response, I will proudly vote for Bush. And I love my sister and I respect her right to choose for whom she will vote.

It has been long enough ago that I do not remember all that happened that week. Going by the notes on the back of my swallows counting sheets, I was started working with Mary Cole, who now works for Magic Earth, which is now a Landmark Company, which is now a Halliburton Company, on my talk for the SEG Visualization Theater in Denver (0442.html). I remember being very busy at work, and so this is probably why there are not many notes. The key activity for the week was my flight to Macallen, Texas on Thursday night. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Reynosa. This was the night of the first Bush-Kerry Presidential debate. I ended up going up to my room and watching it. Then early Friday morning caught a cab to the airport and flew to Poza Rica with our agent Luis Viertel. Luis told me that the Spanish newspapers all reported that Bush won. I didn't think he did very good because he looked so sullen and angry. I was right. Oh well!

We got to Poza Rica, where Randy served much of his mission, about 8:00 and were in the Pemex offices by 9:00. As we drove through the third world jungle, I couldn't help but wonder how much it is like where Sara Ellen is at. Work in Pemex is pretty laid back. There was a lady in the office we were in that worked for Landmark and who came to Pemex from Venezuela. She asked for my autograph. So, now I'm famous, it seems appropriate to get full of myself, again. I hope not. The important manager we flew to Poza Rica to meet was tied up, and we were not able to talk to him before lunch. He had some others rounded up and I started on my presentation to them before lunch. We talked about 2 hours, from 12:00 until 2:00, and then we broke for lunch.

The took us to lunch on a place on the other side of town. The drive to and from involved driving over a very steep mountain, with sidewalks and houses built on 30-40 degree slopes. As we drove over the mountain, I couldn't help but think of my plans and dreams for Red Cove (0436.html). Lunch was at `Max & Miligan's.' I had prawn fettechini. Really good homemade noodles, and there was not very much sauce. Very nice lunch. However, everyone there talked Spanish for two hours. So I looked out the window and watched the rain come down. I got thinking about Paul's Master's Thesis, and how he has had to start over. My mind wandered to flow, and the kind of air and fluid flow modeling Paul want's to build a visualization engine for. Then I got to thinking about other kinds of flow, like traffic, money, work flow, and pictured a generalized mathematical solution to flow. This is the kind of thing that can get someone a Noble Prize. Paul deserves this. So when I got back to the hotel in Reynosa, I called Paul and we talked through my weird ideas. Paul, I was glad to see you quickly agreed they are weird. Oh well!

Lunch at Pemex is from 2:00 until 4:00, and then they work until 9:00 in the evening. After getting back to the Pemex we got the group back together and restarted the presentation. I had put together about 200 slides on Thursday, because this was suppose to be a 4 hour seminar. The guy we came to see finally came into the room about 5:00. So from 5:00 until 6:30 we went super speed through the material I'd prepared. It went well. We really needed to leave for the airport by 6:00. We got in the cab about 6:35. It was a mad cap taxi ride to the airport, over sidewalks, up back alleys at 80 miles per hour, etc. The result was only to find the plane back to Reynosa was a half hour late. Luis' wife picked us up and they dropped me off at the Holiday Inn Hotel. I got up early Saturday morning, and after having to wait for them to call another cab that could go across the border finally made my way to the Macallen airport. I got to the airport as they were loading the plane. I made it, and was in Houston by 7:30 AM and back at the house by 8:30 AM.

It was General Conference weekend. I had told Paul I thought the two new apostles would be international, and one would be from Latin America and one from the Far East. One of the new Apostles, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf is from Germany. The other one, Elder David A. Bednar, was the President of Rick's College. Guess that shows how good my inspiration is. NOT! Oh well!

In my Sunday calls I learned that Colby fell down and had 3 stitches put in above his left eye earlier in the day. It is hard for a Grandpa to accept that one of his grandsons is no longer perfect. Oh well! Also, I learned that Rachel won a 20" flat screen television in a soccer raffle. She has never won anything before and it made her feel a little bit like the wonderful, special, talented, beautiful, intelligent, strong young woman she is. Right Rachel? Maybe I'll be able to convince you of these truths when the day comes I'm able to take you on a trip to someplace like Poza Rica."

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 2004 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.