cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
"Monday I started listening to a new tape from Audio Tech on my commute to GDC. The theme of the message seemed to go with my title at GDC: Vice-President of Interpretation Business Development. From the tape came the following possible stanza for Prime Words:
Monday evening we went to the Taylor Choral Department's
Scholarship Concert, A Night of American Opera, featuring
Dr. Melanie Emelio, soprano and the Taylor High School
Chorale. Hard music, and a good program. They sang
selections from Porgy and Bess: `Oh, I Can't Sit Down!,'
`My Man's Gone Now,' and `Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way;' from
Susannah: `Ain't it a Pretty Night,' `Come Sinner,'
`The Trees on the Mountains;' from The Tender Land:
`Laurie's Song,' `Promise of Living,' `Long Time Ago,'
and `Stomp Your Foot;' and from Bernstein: `Tonight' from
West Side Story, and `Make Our Garden Grow' from Candide.
Tuesday was Fred's consortium meeting. Before the meeting I gave him a document from Mike Dunn. He refused to sign non-binding agreement and was quite rude about it. It was an interesting meeting. The group he is working with from Pasadena are doing some really interesting work. It will be interesting to see if he gets the funding to do what he is striving to do. I think I could help him, like I did at the Seismic Acoustics Lab in business development, and Fred seems to be more paranoid than ever. Time will tell as to whether we work together at all or not.
When I got back to the office there was a message from a van pool, which Andrea had signed me up for. It costs $70/month to get in a commuting van. I spend about $15 per week for gas, which is about $60/month. There would be a lot of extra time waiting for the van and picking people up, and so I will just keep commuting.
Wednesday I put together an e-mail for Pemex on the reprocessing of the Kama 3-D which GDC has been working on. I didn't think the results looked very good, but the processors were very positive about it. Also, I had a discussion with Dave Johnson about the Chinese and where all of our discussions are going. I told him the most important thing was for me to get the actual stock options I'd been promised. We laughed. The next morning there was an electronic copy of my offer letter in my e-mail, basically saying this is what you get, which is all that I got relative to my stock options. I will share parts of this letter, because it is where I first learned that my responsibility at GDC would be called Business Development.
The original letter was signed by Dr. Lee Bell, who was
hired during the month I was working as a consultant for
GDC. The letter was written by Mike Dunn. I've always
pretty much reported to Mike and just copied Lee Bell on
e-mails and reports.
As I was leaving Wednesday night Lee told me he wanted me to demonstrate Fred's software at 8:00 Thursday morning to Rode Drecen meeting. I did this, and then Rode and I had a long discussion. I've known Rode since he worked for Teledyne, and have watched him pocket about $20 million (../0230.html). Rode described his investment philosophy, and how he likes to keep a very short lease on anyone he invests in, down to `telling them when they can have sex and when they can't.' Joe Roberts has set up meetings with Rode several times trying to get Rode to invest in some of my ideas. After this discussion I was very glad I never accepted any money from Rode. Lee Bell was in one of those discussions just before I went to work as a consultant for GDC. I learned how Rode is planning on using his purchase of a Croatian geophysical company to develop software at a large discount over what it would cost to develop in the states. His goal is to become an oil company, and I realized how he sees the same opportunity I saw at Dynamic Resources. Wonder if he will be able to do better than I did. I told Rode about the discussions Mike Dunn and I have been having with Velocity Databank. He was surprised to hear this.
Later in the afternoon, Lee Bell came in to get a download on my conversation with Rode. He did not know about the Velocity Databank discussions because he had not attended the meeting. I thought I'd copied him on the follow-up e-mails, but evidently not. We went through several things like this. It was really my first discussion with my boss Lee Bell. In the middle of the discussion Colby called to tell me `Thanks for the balloons.' Andrea had sent Halloween decorations to each of the grand kids, and Colby had just got his. We didn't talk, and when I called back Colby was having a nap. Oh well! It was during this talk that I learned what Lee Bell's view of Business Development is. It is a fancy title for a salesman. I do not consider myself a very good salesman, and it was more than a little disconcerting learning what my boss considers my job to be, and contrasting it with what I thought I was hired to do. Oh well!
Friday evening we were late to last away Taylor football game Andrea and I will probably go to. It was at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory High School, who are the Crusader's. I doubt if there are any Arabs in that school. We were late because Andrea was judging a debate tournament at Taylor High School. The score was 0 to 0 when we arrived just before the 4th quarter started. Taylor got a field goal, they got a field goal, and we got another field goal for a final score of 3 to 6, with Taylor winning. I thought I heard they announced that Cinco Ranch beat Katy by a big score for their Homecoming game. However, it was another team that Cinco Ranch beat.
Saturday morning Andrea and I went to a Genealogy Workshop at the Stake Center. I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words:
On Sunday, in sacrament meeting, Marion Pickerd talked and I
extracted two possible stanzas for Prime Words from her talk:
Sunday evening when I was calling you kids, Melanie told me
a a conversation between Jared and Colby worth repeating:
Sort of reminded me of my understanding of my job
responsibilities, am I salesman or am I responsible for
Interpretation Business Development."