cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
"As we walked back to the hotel from lunch on 16th street in Denver on Saturday, we saw Houst Berkhout. Houst is a very famous geophysicist who has done a lot for the development of seismic processing, particularly a process called migration. I reminded Houst about our wonderful dinner at des Indes Restaurant in The Hague, and specifically about the South American harp I heard there and how this became the basis for Sara Ellen getting a harp and later Loralin Jones playing the harp. He replied, `You remember all of that? We were younger then.' The last phrase stuck with me all week, and so it is my theme for this week's Thoughtlet.
I've already mentioned going to the Ice Breaker and Andrea's introduction to the new GDC sales staff (0441.html). We ate hors d'oeuvres and each had a small glass of US$4.00 sprite. It was good to see old friends. From 24 years of active participation in the SEG convention, and after 34 years of membership I do have a lot of friends that attend this convention. And for the most part they are good people. Geophysicists tend to be honest and to have integrity, specifically because the data forces integrity. One can not tie seismic sections around loops without integrity, without honoring the data. The result is those who look for the quick fix, or the quick solution, or the quick buck tend to be weeded out and do not stick with the SEG. Especially when we have hard times like the last 10 years have been. So, even though most of them drink, most of the members of the SEG are men and women of integrity, and are the kind of people I enjoy being around. Both Andrea and I were tired by the time we got back to the hotel, and we went right to sleep.
Monday first thing was Interpretation Committee Meeting. Tracy Stark had handed over the committee chairmanship to Hans Seline since I last attended one of these meetings. I brought up the Infinite Grid(SM) / Knowledge Backbone(SM) ideas again, and yet again there was a lot of interest expressed. I will try once again to get the SEG interested through the Interpretation Committee. Bob Sheriff invited me to the Trustee's lunch. This is where they ask you to donate to the SEG Foundation. I actually forgot about it, I was so busy working the floor, and ended up eating alone at the cafeteria. Someday I would like to give a nice contribution to the SEG Foundation. After all, my first college scholarship after my mission came from the SEG.
I spent some time on Monday looking at two Chinese Posters. They described some of the geologic problems we have been talking to the Chinese about. The first was about losse in the Tarim Basin. This is an alluvial fill that has low seismic velocities and buries canyons and other complex topography. It is very hard to get good seismic data through losse. The second was about small pinnacle reefs on the edge of ancient shelf breaks, like off of the western coast of modern-day Florida. The Chinese groups are doing some very good exploration work.
At 4:00 Dave Johnson, President of Geokinetics, Lee Bell, President of GDC a subsidiary of Geokinetics, Lynn Turner, President of Quantum Geophysical a subsidiary of Geokinetics, Mike Dunn, Vice President of Business Development for Geokinetics, and myself had a meeting at the BGP booth. Setting up this meeting was my number one objective for the SEG Convention. On the Chinese side were Xu Wen Rong, Vice-President of CNPC, Wang Xuejun, President of BGP, Guo, President of BGP International, Qian Rongun, Chief Geophysicist of BGP, and Wang Tiejun, Vice-President BGP International Processing. Since people who compete with GDC have knowledge of these Thoughtlets, and since I have not seen a need to limit access by password yet, I will not go into details of the meeting. It is appropriate to say the meeting went much better than I thought it would, and there are even more opportunities for working with the Chinese than I thought. I felt very good about my contribution after this meeting.
After the meeting, Andrea and I took Riley Skeen out to dinner at Willie G's, whose first restaurant was a block away from the GDC office. It was good to catch up with Riley. He is doing very well with his new company, which sells satellite surveying equipment. After dinner, I walked out to his car and got my computer and gave him my presentation about Red Cove (0436.html). Riley said he would be glad to come down to Cedar and help me survey in the property. However, I don't think he was sold on my idea of turning this into a prototype 21st century city. Oh well! Maybe I am out in left field. At least Andrea has found a way to live with my obsession - she calls it my hobby, and says it is better than golf.
Tuesday morning early (4:00 AM Denver time) I called Sara Ellyn on my cell phone. This was when I first learned that she had been diagnosed with pre cancerous growths in her cervix, and that she had an emergency medical evacuation to South Africa for treatment. I have caught up notes on conversations and letters, and those interested can read what little I know at:
http://www.walden3d.com/benin/letters
The GDC booth was against the back wall, off of the isle leading from the main entrance. There was not much traffic in back of the big Sercel booth. Oh well! We got pretty good at going out and finding people and then bringing them back to the booth to show them what we are working on. I spent time working on my paper in the visualization theater on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. So it was more than a little disappointing when my paper did not go very well. Neither Magic Earth nor dGB were able to properly demonstrate their visualization of GDC rock property volumes on the big screen. Turns out that in both cases they lost control because of the edge blending between the two large projection screens. Oh well! At least I had taken screen captures and I had all of the screen captures as slides in a PowerPoint presentation, which I was showing at the same time the demonstrations were to happen. That part went as planned. Also, my talk was not until 4:40 PM and there were not very many people in attendance. There were some good examples that were put together putting the talk together, and I was able to gain insights into a presentation weakness. Andrea mentioned that I stood pigeon-toed, and did not project as well as I could have. Guess this shows I'm basically insecure. Oh well! I think of all of the presentations I have given in all of the places I've given them, and the only response is `we were younger then.'
After the talk, Andrea and I went back to the room, and she changed into her formal outfit. She looked really good. We went to the President's reception at the Marriott a couple of blocks away. Andrea had mixed up the days for the President's wife's luncheon. It was on Monday, and she thought it was on Tuesday and had gone on a tour of Red Rocks on Monday. They were kicked out of Red Rocks by the Secret Service, because President Bush gave a talk there on Monday afternoon. Kathy Duncan had invited a few friends to a special luncheon. Peter and his son played guitar and violin at the luncheon. It was very nice, and Andrea was still apologizing for missing it during the reception line at the Presidents Reception. Oh well!
From here we went back down to the Brown Palace, which shares a parking garage with our hotel, The Comfort Inn, to the Saudi Aramco party. My friend, Les Hatton, whom I had not see for years was there. Les is a real character, bigger than life. He was one of the founders of Merlin Geophysical, and is an outstanding mathematician. Last time I talked to him he had left the geophysical business and was teaching guitar lessons in his loft. We had a lot to get caught up on. Riley and Andrea did not seem to know what to think of my friend. It turns out Les has formed a new band, and they have been playing all across Europe. They had 10,000 people in a concert in Southern France a couple of weeks ago. If any of you are interested in learning more about their stuff you can go to http://www.juniperhillblues.co.uk. I talked to Rick Chimblo and a couple of other friends from Aramco. There should be some nice opportunities for GDC there. It turns out that up until two years ago GDC had an ] open contract with Aramco. Andrea was sitting down in a corner by the time I was ready to leave.
From the Brown Palace we walked back up to the Marriott to the Presidential Jam Session. Peter Duncan had told me he wanted me to play and that he would have a lot of extra guitars there. Andrea and I grabbed a couple of chairs and set them at the front next to the dance floor. Mike Forest came and sat by us, then Alister and Mary Brown, then Kathy Duncan, and others. The music was all very loud and not my style. Sara, it wasn't the right place to play your song, and I ended up not going on stage. However, I got Peter to invite Les Hatton to the stage, and Les ended up playing guitar the rest of the evening while we were there. Lee Bell came by and pointed out how the music was better than if they would have had professional groups playing. It was OK. Certainly loud. Andrea and I danced some and had a good time. We left about 11:00.
Wednesday was pretty slow in the booth. Several of us went to dGB for a 7:00 AM meeting. They arrived at 7:45 AM. My work on building a Knowledge Backbone (SM) for prestack depth migration ended up being the basis for the discussion. Other than this meeting, I spent most of the day in the booth and going out to find people to bring back to the booth. Again, it was a pretty slow day. Fred Hilterman had a talk. He had a packed room. I stayed in the booth so some of the GDC folks could go. Right after this I left for the hotel with Mike and Richard. Andrea had packed and was waiting for us. I got lost leaving downtown. But we eventually made it to the airport.
Andrea and I ate Chinese food at Stapelton Airport. It was Wednesday, the 13th Oct 2004. The quick Chinese food place we went to had packages of 8 fortune cookies. I bought a package and this is how they divided out:
Several friends were on the same flight or the flight to Dallas that left about the same time as ours to Houston did. It was fun to catch up with them. Of more significance, we watched the third debate on Frontier Air as we flew to Houston. It seemed quite a step in technology to be able to watch a live debate on a plane flight. Especially since it only been a few years ago that Roger Anderson and I had technology disclosure meetings with Boeing where we learned about the transponders which would soon make it possible for commercial airplanes to have real-time television coverage (../9903.html, ../9904.html, ../9906.html, ../9909.html, ../9910.html, ../9911.html, ../9912.html, etc.). I've already said my piece about the election, and so I will not repeat my strong negative emotional reaction to JFK wannabe. When we got on the Park 'N Ride bus Hans Seline, Chairman of the SEG Interpretation Committee was on the bus. We had an interesting discussion back to the car. In fact we didn't finish, and Hans ended up coming to the office the following week to continue the discussion.
The following note from Melanie came in on Tuesday, while we were in Denver:
I responded with:
Thursday evening we went to the `Fall Premiere' of the James
E. Taylor High School Choral Department with directors Jeb
Mueller and Amber Ward and Accompanist Vicki Dooman. Matt
is in the Concert Choir and they sang `Deo Dicamus Gratias'
(To God let us say thanks. Let us give praise to the Lord)
by Johnson, `Black is the Color' arranged by Fettke, and
`Shut de Do' arranged by Hayes. It was a first class
performance and as I later told Calli Jones, Gary and
Roetta Jones' youngest daughter, I would like to go back
next year, even when Matt is not performing.
Friday we had a follow-up visit by BGP. There were 4 Chinese visitors and both senior US consultants. I brought Xu Da Kun's poster, and put it up by the entrance to the conference room, and Mike Dunn brought an ancient Chinese painting he bought and put it on the other side. The meetings went very well. It was the best and most integrated presentation I've ever seen GDC give, and I learned a lot about what the company can provide. I've just been there seven months, so it's about time. The Chinese left just before lunch. It was the first time I've been able to read for weeks at lunch. My lunch reading is `The Wealth of Nations' by Adam Smith, 1776, republished in 1986 by Penguin Classics. On page 217 there is a quote worth remembering:
Too bad I hadn't read and understood this in the months
between Landmark's going public and HyperMedia's demise.
Friday night we went to the Taylor football game at Rhodes Stadium against Katy High School. Taylor lost big time in last two minutes of second quarter. Oh well!
Saturday was spent edging and getting ready for Andrea's friends. That night Matt and Andrea and I went to Nara, the Japanese Restaurant I used to go to when officing at Energy Innovations (../0207.html, ../0219.html, ../0250.html, and ../0334.html). Then we went to the Westchase Cinemark to see the Chinese movie `Hero.' Good movie, except for the suicide ending, which seems to be a standard Chinese theme. The people attending that movie theater are sure a lot different than I remember when I used to go there every weekend. They are mostly minorities, i.e. blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Maybe I don't remember very well, or maybe we were younger then.
On Sunday, the 17th of October, I wrote two possible stanza's for Prime Words at church:
And thus it was, and hopefully someday one of you will find
something useful in what I've written. At a minimum you will
be able to look back and say, `We were younger then.'"