17 Apr 2005 #0516.html

Trip Preparation

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Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."

These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.

"On Monday, May 30th, I wrote a Thoughtlet about the week of April 10th about New Orleans (0515.html). Now it is June 19th, and I'm writing the next Thoughtlet in line, and so I need to adjust what was written as a preview to upcoming Thoughtlets. This adjustment includes deleting 2 and adding 5 planned Thoughtlets:
# 0517Sara Ellyn & Sarah Elizabeth24 Apr 05;
# 0518Overnight Trains01 May 05;
# 0519Joshua & Audrey Waldron08 May 05;
# 0520My Second Sixth Anniversary15 May 05;
# 0521Dead Battery22 May 05;
# 0522Matt's High School Graduation29 May 05;
# 0523Virtual Stake Conference05 Jun 05;
# 0524Magnet for the Bizarre12 Jun 05;
$ 0525Truth19 Jun 05;
# 0526Investment Deadline26 Jun 05; and
# 0527Empty Nest02 Jul 05.
How does the saying go? `The faster I go, the behinder I get.' I understand this saying based on the past few weeks. One interesting side effect of trying to remember what happened 11 weeks ago is that I can integrate what happened since the week into what I'm writing about. For instance, themes, like the importance and failures associated with making a call to repentance, become fairly obvious when looking back over the last several months.

According to my notes, the week of April 17th was a very busy week. Monday morning I met with Don Vossler at 7:30 AM at GDC to get some test processing which he had done for the trip to China and for Pemex. Tuesday morning I was at dGB's office at 7:30 AM and Friso was helping me get data loaded for the trip to China. Tuesday was the day I finished the white paper on indexing for IW-GEO (the Presidential Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations). I didn't expect anyone to pick up on it, and two months later no one has. However, I think it is important. For those interested in reading it it is at: http://www.walden3d.com/whitepapers/IW-GEO_Indexing_Strategy.pdf. Tuesday Andrea bought tickets for Sara Ellyn to fly from Beaumont to IAH to Salt Lake City on May 5th for Audrey's wedding. Tuesday evening I took a couple of academics from the University of Maryland out to dinner for Rick Zimmerman. It was an interesting discussion, and they obviously know nothing about the oil and gas exploration and development industry.

On Wednesday, Sara left me the following note on my table:

`Dad, Matt and I stopped by to say hi. And we're giving a presentation for 6th graders tomorrow so I borrowed your outfit for Matt to wear. I'll bring it back tomorrow. Hope this is all right. See you later. Love, Sara'


Based on what I've learned since then, I'm not sure I agree with exposing elementary kids to the idea of going into the Peace Corps. I had originally planned on Sara to give some talks to the kids at church. However, she hasn't been in town long enough to discuss this idea, let alone set it up. Oh well! I guess things like this work out just fine without me getting in the middle of it.

As part of my trip preparation I sent the following e-mail letter to Ed Rogers on Wednesday, the 13th April:

`Ed, Thanks again for breakfast. This note is to follow-up on our discussion, the last minute before I leave for China. The science-religion book is at http://www.walden3d.com/OpenMind and I look forward to your comments. I have not connected it to web pages where the Google robots can see it yet, and based on all that is going on right now will probably wait until I get back from China in mid-May to connect it. I have got no feedback from IW-GEO (Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations) on the white paper we discussed, and so I have no idea if something will come of the attached white paper. I did provide a copy of it to the Dean of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences last night. The file is 2.4 MB and so I put it where you can download it, rather than try to get through your mail system (http://www.walden3d.com/singfield/IW-GEO_Indexing_Strategy.pdf). We did not talk about my ongoing efforts to create the same kind of revolution in the geological side of exploration as we did in the geophysical side with 3-D seismic using digital imaging of cores. A document prepared by an Australian lawyer who is on the Board of FSI is at http://www.walden3d.com/singfield/FSI_Systems_Intro_Ver05.doc for your review. I am promised 5% ownership in the company, and 10% if I come up with someone who makes the initial investment. We are well along for prototypes at Pemex in Mexico and at Pertimena (sp?) in Malaysia. It is very exciting stuff, and I pass it to you to keep you informed and in case you know someone who might be interested in a risky investment. I leave for China early in the morning, and my cell phone works most places over there if you need to contact me (713.542.2207). Best Regards, Roice'


On Wednesday I also received an e-mail letter from Rhonda Hartmann saying she is starting a job search and wanting me to be a reference. We never know how paths with friends and acquaintances will cross (0524.html).

It was extremely busy at the office getting everything ready for the trip. There was a new PC to purchase for Frank. There was a Sun workstation to rebuild and get all of the software loaded on it to take over so Frank could do modeling in China. Richard Verm refused to help in any way until the very last minute, and then he helped with stuff that turned out to not be that important. The important stuff, he was able to say he had not helped with it and so he didn't understand why we were so incompetent and could not put things together right. Needless to say, working with Richard at GDC has not at all been like working with Richard at the Seismic Acoustics Laboratory. In fact, it is rapidly becoming more of an issue than the commute down the Katy Freeway, and that means it is really, really, really, really, really annoying. Oh well!

Thursday was the day to tie everything together in our trip preparation. Richard came it at the last minute and helped me tie wells into the seismic volumes. However, he did nothing to help make sure the software was correctly loaded, and two months later I'm still fighting battles because of this. Several people did help, and it was 9:00 when I finally left the office. After all of the computers were placed in the car, and as I turned onto Woodway I had a stroke of inspiration and realized it was possible the main power chord for the Sun might not have been packed. So I turned around, got the guards to let me go upstairs, and sure enough, there was the power chord. Imagine trying to replace a power chord in China. On all of the trips I have taken over all of the years I have been taking trips, this type of inspiration has consistently proven to be a key component of the trip preparation. Sometimes it seems I'm just being paranoid. And sometimes even though I trouble and triple check things, I forget something. However, on more occasions than I can count or remember I have had brought to mind things which I need to do, which turn out would have been critical to the entire trip. Hearing a voice in my head tell me to turn the car around and check to see if a power chord was packed, and following this voice, may seem like a little thing, and yet it is a strong witness to me of the blessings flowing from strictly living the Word of Wisdom:

`And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures.' D&C 89:19


When I got home, Sarah Elizabeth was just starting on taking all of the braids out of Sara Ellyn's hair. It took several hours, and there was a big pile of hair and fake end hair on the table when it was all finished. The evening's progress is shown on the digital photos starting at: http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/07_Sara/0504_China_Trip/DSC01038 and continuing through .../DSC01043.JPG. I was getting music together and practicing to sing in the park with Jialin's father, and ended up singing two songs for Sara Ellyn (her song) and Sarah Elizabeth (Roice's song). It was a nice evening, and seemed like a good start towards what I hoped would be a wonderful trip. The girls went to sleep about 2:00 AM. I stayed up all night catching up on various things. For instance, I wrote the following note to my cousin Darrell Krueger:

`Darrell, Congratulations on your outstanding accomplishments. I am sure they bring great fulfillment. I would love to come up and support you at the library naming ceremony. However, I will be traveling from Hemi City to Korla City via Urumuchi in far northwest China on overnight trains on the 29th. I would rather be in Winona than in the Tarim desert. Oh well! Thank you for sending copies of the announcement to my kids. I consider this very positive, especially since several of my kids are not active in the church and are not thinking about the kind of things you have been blessed to accomplish. Hopefully Andrea and I will move to Cedar in the next few years, and there will be time, between missions, to get to know each other better and to do some fun things together. Best Regards, Little Roice (at 245 pounds, I really enjoy saying "little" when we communicate every few years)'


As we left on Thursday morning I was concerned that my trip preparation was not sufficient for what needed to be accomplished. Oh well! Isn't that the story of our lives. We probably did not feel prepared when we came here from the pre-existence. If we are blessed, we might make a few hundred trips during our lives, and often our trip preparation is insufficient. And when we return to Heavenly Father, to report on our life trip, we will see how totally unprepared we were. Thanks be to an elder brother, Jesus Christ, who is our advocate and has taken on all responsibility for our inadequate trip preparation "after all we can do" (II Nephi 25:23). On the freeway the car was wandering all over the freeway. I put it down to the bags and people in the back seat. I just got the car serviced this week, over 2 months later, and it turns out the back two tires were under inflated by over 10 pounds each. We haven't noticed the wandering front end since the tires were filled up and there was an alignment.

So we got to the airport an hour and a half early, 6:00 AM, for our 7:30 AM flight. I attempted to change my return flight to stop in Salt Lake for Audrey and Joshua's wedding (0519.html). They wanted $550 to change the $850 round trip ticket to China. I said no thanks. The three of us were very tired as we sat down at the terminal waiting for the plane to load. We waited and waited and waited and they started telling us they were short a stewardess and could not load the airplane until she arrived. It turns out Nancy slept in, and she arrived at the gate about 8:00 AM. We were asked not to clap for her or to otherwise give her a bad time because she already felt bad enough. Then there was a mechanical problem, and the plane finally left Houston at 9:30 AM. This was 3 1/2 hours after we got to the airport and I was concerned we might not make our connection in San Francisco. Was all of our trip preparation going to be for naught?

So we arrive in San Francisco about 3 hours late, and hurry to our connecting flight to Beijing. There were very long lines through security, and it was very frustrating. By the time we got to our gate, the plane was already loaded. And Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana had not checked in yet. I left my business card with the person at the ticket counter and asked her to give it to Lloyd if they missed the plane. Their plane was also delayed out of Salt Lake City. Anyway, they made it, about 5 minutes after we did, and we were all on our way to Beijing.

Even though Sarah Elizabeth had stayed up most of the night she could not sleep on the plane. It was a long plane ride for her. I think she finally did catch a little bit of sleep. Sara Ellyn and I slept like logs.

Jialin was waiting for us at the airport with a van and a car. As we worked our way from baggage claim outside and across the street to where the cars were parked it became obvious that Uncle Lloyd has slowed down a lot since his hip replacement. While we were walking to the car, Sara Ellyn was asking Jialin what it was like working with her Dad. He told her `Roice is a work-acholic machine.' We all had a laugh.

We were taken to the Celebrity International Hotel where we checked in and then Jialin and his wife took us to a fancy restaurant owned by one of his brother's friends. It has just opened and is at the new museum of different Chinese cultures in the part that represents the type of buildings in Urumuchi and far Western China. We were among the first 200 guests and so we were each given a beautiful original Chinese vase. We had what for me is the normal awkward moments surrounding not drinking tea and alcohol. Then we had a feast. It was very nice, and probably very expensive, although we did not see the bill. After the wonderful dinner I suggested the owner give Sara Ellyn a tour of the kitchen because she wants to be a cook. They made everyone that went on the tour (Sarah Ellyn, Sarah Elizabeth, Aunt Luana, and it seems like some others) put on white coats and chef hats. They cleaned the entire kitchen before they took them on a tour. After they got back Sara Ellyn turned to me and said, `No wonder you like to travel. They treat you like a king.'

We went back to the hotel and our `little beds.' Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth noticed the size of the beds more than I did because they shared one. I slept well, and woke up on Chinese time. It took longer for the girls and the Warners to adjust to the time change.

Saturday I ended up spending all day working with Jialin and Frank attempting to get the Sun workstation and the PC working. At one point we plugged in the 115 Volt Sun workstation into a 220 Volt plug, and it sounded like 15 firecrackers went off all at once. After all of the effort we put in attempting to get ready for the trip this was one of the most disheartening moments I have felt in a long, long, long time. It turned out it only destroyed the power supply and Jialin was able to get another power supply. However, I brought over three computers (my laptop, a laptop for Frank, and the Sun), and they each had a different version of the GDCMOD software on them and each had a different database. It was a mess, and 10 weeks later we still do not have most of the stuff working. Frank just came to Houston and brought the disk from the Sun and his PC to see if we can get them working correctly before he goes back to china in about three weeks. There definitely was not sufficient technical trip preparation this time.

The idea of leaving on Thursday was that I would be able to spend Saturday touring with the kids and Warners. Oh well! It was a very frustrating Saturday. I got back to the hotel in time for dinner. Dave Johnson just arrived from Algeria, and he took all of us out to dinner. It was a nice evening, and I'm sure my frustrations with the hardware and software problems were shining through my attempts to be pleasant. Oh well! From my experience it seems there are always a lot more problems come up than you anticipate, and the key is to be able to meet and solve the challenges the best you can on the fly. It is also a good idea to do sufficient trip preparation."

Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me). Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me. Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes were shared with my family because I know how important the written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love. It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids and my family to be aware of my life and struggles. Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will aggressively pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets behind a password). The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, or you can e-mail me with questions or requests at rnelson@walden3d.com (note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).

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

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Copyright © 2005 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.