"It was kind of a quiet week, which is shown by my title for the week: compost. The dictionary defines compost as:
Over the decades as I have pursued the ideas behind Walden
3-D, I have collected information about composting as a way
to recycle material from the integrated city. Back in about
1988 I built a compost pile in back of the greenhouse next
to the brick wall and the air conditioning fans. And so
lawn cuttings, leaves, and other organic byproducts have
been dumped in the compost pile for some 17+/- years.
Yesterday I got in the compost bin for one of the first
times since setting it up and used a shovel to turn it all
over. Parts of the pile are very good soil with giant
earthworms. And parts of it are layered leaves that are
dry and moldy. And by turning it all over, I expect that
it will decompose more evenly, and will be usable over the
next few years as fertilizer for the greenhouse, the roses,
and the flower beds. In fact, a large part of it is useful
for this now.
One of the basic principles of my life is to spend minimum time doing things which can't be used later or again. This is one of the reasons I have never been interested in spectator sports. The exercise from participating in sports is good. I also enjoyed watching Roice swim, Ben play soccer, Paul in band, Melanie cheerleading, Sara in gymnastics, Rob in baseball, Rachel in soccer, and Matt in soccer. These are spectator sports, but spectator sports with a vested interest; the growth and development of loved ones. Most of the projects important to me are things I work on for years. I might spend some time focused on finding patterns in the Book of Mormon, and then not work on it for six months. Then I pick it up again, and eventually there are some very interesting results to report.
Certainly my work in geophysics has been like that. At Mobil I built on what I learned at Amoco, the University of Utah, and Pan American. At the Seismic Acoustics Lab I built on what I new before. At Landmark I built on all of this and the results were heralded as revolutionary. At HyperMedia we built on this technical foundation, as we did at Continuum Resources and Dynamic Resources and as I am now doing at Geophysical Development Corporation. One could consider all of this as intellectual compost. And the enhancements accomplished at the various stages of my career are simply turning the compost pile to create new fertilizer to be used in a different way in the new company or opportunity.
As far as my week went, it was a good week on most fronts. It was Rachel's Spring Break, and I was not in China with her and Heather or someone else. This was probably my biggest disappointment. Oh well! On Monday afternoon I had an appointment with Dr. Janecki, a Polish immigrant with a strong accent, who is going to do a colonoscopy on me tomorrow morning. He does the procedure either at Christus, which is in walking distance, or at Katy Memorial, which `tends to be less expensive.' I choose the less expensive option, even though Andrea will have to drive me out there and pick me up. Monday night we watched our new addiction, `24.' The nuclear reactor simultaneous meltdowns were far fetched, and much of what is happening now seems very realistic. It is scary how powerful of an influence terrorism has become our modern society.
Tuesday at 10:00 we had a review of some modeling of one of the wells done by Fred Hilterman's Chinese student. Excellent work. Then we had a review of the well log modeling work Peg Guthrie had done. It was also very good. The rest of the day was spent reviewing the work Pan had done on processing the seismic test lines. The whole day was a high, and I came away from the meetings strongly believing that GDC has unique technology to offer the Chinese. It was a good day. I left the office at 4:15 and was out to the house by 5:00. Dan Jones joined us, and the four of us went up to help at the Bishop's storehouse. Matt was not sure he wanted to go, and I think he really enjoyed providing service. He has now completed his 40 hours of community service, and so he went up with us just to prove he can just do service for the sake of service, THE important compost of life.
Wednesday I was very busy getting several different things done. First thing in the morning I meet with Lynn Turner, President of Quantum Geophysical, about their web pages. He wants to stress their permitting division and their field processing QC work. As well as their work in the transition zone, and the fact they have worked on tough environments all over the United States. He is preparing a spreadsheet for me which will allow me to map out where Quantum has collected seismic data as Infinite GridSM cells. Another part of Wednesday's work was following up on things from the China data meetings on Tuesday. In the evening, Tony Traweek came for the first time in a couple of weeks. His wife, Shauna Traweek, has breast cancer. They will be operating on Good Friday. He is a good man, and based on him, I'm sure she is also special. I would appreciate if each of you would include Shauna Traweek in your prayers. I know these prayers can have a significant impact on healing processes. Tony helped me get seismic offset data from one of the large Chinese Oilfields loaded into Landmark.
I spent Thursday and Friday interpreting the seismic offset data. I could go into detail, and I won't because very few reading this would be interested. The results are fascinating, and could have some pretty significant impact on gas exploration in China. One never knows the impact of the professional compost we build up over the years. Maybe this is a better interpretation to Aunt Marie Krueger's experience at the St. George Temple (referenced in ../0414.html, but not quoted, and I can not find the paper she wrote out for me describing this experience. Oh well! Hopefully it will turn up someday.). Thursday evening I worked late on the China project.
Thursday I received the following e-mail from John Benard, which I think is appropriate to pass on for review by those who read these Thoughtlets:
Friday evening there was a ward party at Peckham Park in
Katy in conjunction with a cub scout pack meeting, campout,
and fishing experience. I was asked to play the guitar for
some campfire type singing. So I typed out the words and
the guitar chords to the following songs:
There was about 20 people there, and we sang all of them except 4, 13, & 14. I had fun. Pat Heaney, who is Pat Gray on Talk Radio in Houston, is in our ward. On the radio he makes fun of the German language, playing some nice soft music and talking about German as the language of love, then making all of these guttural sounds, which sound German, and which do not sound like love. He was sitting right by me, and when we turned to Edelweiss, I turned to him and said, `I was hoping you would be here so you could talk to us about the language of love.' He laughed. And then when we sang the song, he sang out, and really has a nice voice. I ate two chocolate bars, which was two more than I should have. Brother Beckstrom talked to me again about how much he liked the message behind my talk last week (0511.html). We went home and watched Star Trek Enterprise, which I had recorded while we were gone. It was a nice evening. After the show I noticed an e-mail from Jialin, and called him and we talked for over an hour. There is a lot happening in China. I will be going back on the 15th, and so will miss Paul's graduation. Oh well! I will write much more about this over the coming weeks, as the trip unfolds.
There was a nice letter from Melanie with two very cute photographs in it, and a sheet of paper that reads:
Yesterday we slept in. Matt did not want to go help with
the scout fishing activity. He did some yard work. I
worked in the yard from 10-12:00, and Andrea worked from
9-1:00. This was when I turned over the compost pile and
when I cut down branches from the tree back there that were
almost hitting the house. Matt was having a feel sorry for
himself party, and he missed the choir party and ended up
staying home and playing lego all day. Andrea and I went
to the rodeo with Frank Hamtak and his wife Cindy Overton.
They had $30 tickets in the East VIP Section. It was nice.
It was the finals, and so we got to see the best of each of
the different events: bareback bronco riding, calf roping,
bull riding, barrel racing, etc. Reminded me of my youth.
The new stadium is very noisy, and it was still a very nice
evening. We stayed for most of Clint Black's performance.
Then we went back to Frank and Cindy's and ate a venison
casserole which Frank had prepared. We do not do this
type of thing often enough. I had a text message from
Jialin while we were there, and tried to call him back.
When we got home, I was able to get through. Communication
can prove to be a real challenge too often.
Today was a nice Sunday. Because of the late night phone call to China, or maybe because of the long hours all week, I slept in until 10:00. We have the 11-2:00 services this year. I guess I've grown to figure that writing 4 possible stanzas for Prime Words, makes it a nice Sunday. They are:
Both Gospel Doctrine and Priesthood were about missionary
work. In the High Priest Quorum lesson, David Chandler
started off by asking how many had been converted while
adults, and then if anyone remembered their missionaries.
Hand after hand went up, and missionary names were shared.
Then Collins Steward said, `Y'all need to remember that
somewhere in the church someone is sharing your name the
same way today because of the missionary work you performed
for them.' It was a nice way to end church, and is a nice
way to end a Thoughtlet about the lasting fertilizer of life,
i.e. about compost."