Dead Battery
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.
"A dead battery seems a funny thing to write about after
writing about a second major change in the vector of my
life. Oh well! Life is full of false starts and full stops.
And there is nothing like a dead battery to bring things to
a full stop.
Monday Rachel arrived for a brief visit. I have in my notes
the words `Might not come back,' and do not remember the
context for writing this. That evening was
my turn for Family Home Evening. I choose to write about
genealogy, since I had been working on typing in all of the
data in my four generation sheets to turn into the Bishop
as part of his challenge to the ward. It was an interesting
discussion, and Andrea really got into the discussion when
she talked about her ancestors. We had not talked much
since I treated her rudely at the City Creek Motel in Salt
Lake (0519.html) on the Saturday morning after Audrey's
reception.
Tuesday morning when I went out to leave for work was when
I found the blue car had a dead battery. It was inconvenient
for Andrea to get it fixed, so I took the old battery out,
went to the auto parts shop, bought a new battery for about
$25, came back, cleaned off all of the corrosion, and put
the new battery back in. It ended up taking me a lot longer
than I thought it would, and I did not make it to the office
until about 10:00 AM. Oh well! Dave Johnson saw me as I
was coming in, and when I gave my excuse, he said, `I do
not keep up on those kinds of things.'
Wednesday Dave gave a lunch talk to GDC employees about the
work we have been doing in China. It was well received,
and he did a very good job. We had beef stir fry for dinner.
Thursday Scott Smith was in from Detroit to work on the
dTIPS application. Mike Dunn took several of us to lunch,
and I had a very good salmon salad. There were several inituitives
I had been working on that all seemed to come to a dead end this
week. I've included text from various e-mails below to make the point why this week seemed like a dead battery on many fronts:
Dear Grier,
Thank you for calling back.
Several investment opportunities with significant financial upsides are
available through Geophysical Development Corporation (GDC), Dynamic
Resources Corporation (DRC), or Walden 3-D, Incorporated (W3D). I will
summarize the range of opportunities in this note, so you can use your
investment filter to determine if you have any interest in discussions. My
tendency is to work at the bleeding edge of oil and gas exploration
technologies, as summarized on the attached resume. The issue investors have
with this focus is the downsides of (1) little historical cash flow, (2) only
IP asset collateral, and (3) working where contracted pro forma cash flows
are typically not yet available. The positive side is that we know the oil
industry, we are committed to working in the oil industry (see the quote in
the recent Economist article on the oil and gas industry the week of May
1st), and we know who to put together as a virtual team to optimally pursue
specific opportunities investors are interested in.
First, a description of the commercial vehicles.
GDC was formed in 1982 when Fred Hilterman left the University of Houston,
where he had hired me to manage The Seismic Acoustics Laboratory. Over the
past 20 years GDC has consistently been a technology leader in providing
geophysical services, specifically inventing AVO (Amplitude-vs-Offset), which
is a seismic processing and well log modeling technique for direct detection
of hydrocarbons. GDC's sister company, Quantum Geophysical, which is also
owned by Geokinetics, Inc., a NASDAQ over-the-counter bulletin board public
company, has three land seismic crews which operate in the lower 48 states.
Geokinetics has about 250 employees and is one of the few full service
geophysical contractors not yet purchased by Halliburton or Schlumberger. I
anticipate an investor could purchase these three companies for 1+ times
earnings.
DRC was formed in January 2001 to demonstrate a networked virtual oil
company. We packaged about 60 exploration opportunities ranging from rank
wildcats to exploitation of proven fields. We never had any investment, and
so I still own 100% of DRC. We also never had the cash to purchase leases
and actively pursue the opportunities we identified. When personal cash flow
required, I put DRC on the back burner and took a job with my old colleagues
at GDC. I retained the rights to exploit the technologies and exploration
opportunities developed at DRC and W3D. DRC was established as a vehicle to
enable risk calibrated investment in the exploration side of the oil
industry.
W3D is my personal business incubator and consulting firm, which was put
together back in 1989 and incorporated in May of 1990. You can read about a
few of our activities at http://www.walden3d.com. W3D is and always will be
100% owned by myself.
Second, a summary of the investment vehicles.
Geokinetics provides a positive cash-flow investment option. There will be
over $50 million in cash flow in 2005. With high prices, the geophysical
contractor industry should start to expand again. Competition is tough,
including the Chinese (BGP, the Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting), the
French (Schlumberger and CGG), Halliburton, and numerous small shops. One
option is to consolidate several small acquisition and processing shops into
a more competitive U.S. geophysical contractor. The better option is to
strategically use GDC and Quantum technologies for proprietary advantage in
exploration, which can be done without a purchase and through a couple of
long-term services contracts with an exploration company.
DRC is a viable vehicle for pursuing an active exploration program (see
http://www.walden3d.com/d). Given an investment of $10-25 million, DRC will
provide ranked exploration opportunities worldwide, depending on investor
focus. We have a 100 million barrel opportunity in Illinois, a 50 million
barrel opportunity in Michigan, and numerous other opportunities in Colorado,
Wyoming, West Virginia, the Gulf Coast, etc. Some of these opportunities are
at the same scale as the recent overthrust discovery near Richfield, Utah.
The next step on many of these opportunities is to pursue a leasing program
The investor(s) would own 100% of all leases and discoveries until receiving
a predefined return on their initial investment, after which DRC and
participating network members would become a 50% partner. For instance,
investor return might be 200% if paid in the first year, 300% return if paid
in the second year, or 400% return if paid in the third year or beyond. DRC
has retired presidents and chief scientists of major oil companies who will
act as a vetting filter for ranking and jointly deciding with the investor
which opportunities to pursue.
W3D (http://www.walden3d.com) provides a virtual general contractor for
technology R&D and implementing urban planning experiments. For instance, we
have spent a half a dozen years working with FSI Services Ltd.
(http://www.fullspectralimaging.com) to develop a business plan for
capturing, hosting, and distributing over the Internet high resolution, color
calibrated and dimensionally stable images of both drill cuttings and slabbed
core. FSI Services is close to major contracts with Pemex (Mexico) and
Petronas (Malaysia), and an investment document is available upon request.
This technology has the opportunity to make the same fundamental change for
geologists and petrophysicists which 3-D seismic made for geophysicists in
the 1980's.
More radical research projects relates to gas hydrates, which are by orders
of magnitude the largest mineable source of hydrocarbons on the planet, or
solar chimneys. There is a 3 TCF (trillion cubic feet) thermogeneic gas
hydrate plug near the Conoco-Phillips deep water Joliet Platform in the Gulf
of Mexico, which has a pipeline and other necessary infrastructure for a
practical experiment. Building a geodesic umbrella over this deposit
(http://www.asidesign.com), and dissolving the gas hydrate plug with hot
water or microwave technologies controlled by NASA's Robonaut could provide a
whole new source of energy for the U.S. Or imagine expanding on a 1981
experiment in Manzananes, Spain and the plans to build a 1 km (0.62 mile)
tower in Mildera, Australia to generate 200 megawatts, or enough energy for
200,000 homes. A 2 1/2 mile diameter greenhouse at the base will feed hot
air into the tower where 32 wind turbines will generate power. Australian
costs of A$750 million can be substantially reduced by building this type of
solar chimney up the side of a mountain in the Western U.S.
Third, a summary of interest.
The network behind this e-mail has spent multiple careers developing best
practices and becoming the most experienced scientists in our industry. We
are interested in finding an investor who can catch the vision of the
opportunities we can provide. For instance, I just returned from my 33rd
trip to China, where we demonstrated to some of the largest oil fields in the
world that we can use GDC AVO technologies to directly detect hydrocarbons in
their fields. I believe the opportunities are limitless, and simply need to
be pursued using a logical, risked, ranked, and vetted process. Everybody is
smarter than anybody, and we have collected a unique team of professionals
which truly trusts each other and which knows our limitations. We are
interested in finding a financial partner who shares our values and catches
our vision.
I look forward to learning the results of the application of your investment
filter to this e-mail.
Best Regards,
Roice Nelson
cell: 713.542.2207
attachment: resume
Don and Luis,
A brief report on what I heard in conversations with each of you.
Don has created some new volumetrics based on the Mexican data. These
are available if it will help sell his processing in Mexico.
Luis has been pursuing the $2 million contract, and has not pursued the
NRG / STR processing yet. He can not get any money for it anyway, until
the contract is signed. He will pursue Vossler's processing over the
next few weeks. It would be helpful to have the new volumetrics data.
Don has created a white paper on using his technology to identify fizz
gas. Don I would love to give you feedback on the paper, and I do not
have a copy. I anticipate Luis would also be very interested in
providing you feedback.
Luis's contact information is: Luis Viertel, 011.52.899.934.5166, cell
1: 011.52.8991.57.0593.
Don's contact information is: Don Vossler, 281.437.9144,
cell: 281.650.7730.
Best Regards,
Roice
Michael,
Lot's can happen when one is gone for four weeks. I did not make it to
Tibet this trip, and so I did not use any of the data you kindly sent to
me, yet. I was so busy before I left I did not get a chance to tell you
I can not open the cover.msw and sect1_intro.msw files. I briefly
reviewed the other files the night before I left. What a neat project.
I would like to get a copy of the files I could not open before I go
back in a month or so, which is hopefully when we will go to Tibet.
As the note from Mike Dun, copied below shows, it looks like there is
progress on your funding. Is there anything you need us to be doing to
prepare for starting work? This is now real enough I would like to get
a scope of work you expect from GDC so I can put it into our operations
plan.
On my way home from China and a daughter's wedding in Salt Lake, I was
in Washington for a couple of days last week at the IEOS Public
Engagement Workshop sponsored by the Interagency working group on Earth
Observations (IW-GEO). Most of the information can be obtained from
www.strategies.org, and I expect there is a lot of overlap with your
project. I further expect there is some value with you contacting
nancy_colleton@strategies.org to explore this overlap. For instance,
the leader of the Energy Break Out Group was from the Department of
Transportation.
Hope your funding bill finally passes in the next couple of weeks and
that we can get after working together.
Best Regards,
Roice
Dr. Pearlman,
Thank you for spending time with me last week at the IEOS Public
Engagement Workshop.
I was fascinated with your non-reaction to the research ideas shared
with you, and how our conversation stopped after you read the page.
This note is a request for a reaction to the ten ideas shared with you,
now that you have had a week to background think about anything which
was of interest.
Certainly Phantom Works is involved in research projects at the scale
referenced. The opportunity I would like to explore is whether a group
of talented and experienced geoscientists can be of support to your
efforts. We know how to keep a secret securely secret. We are
interested in expanding our services, and see discussions with Boeing
and the government as a strategic opportunity. Are the first
exploratory steps a confidentiality agreement and security clearance?
Thank you in advance for your comments.
Best Regards,
Roice Nelson
Grier,
Thanks for following up. I did receive your note yesterday.
I look forward to working with Eric. I have never focused on the financial
side, although I have made millions of dollars (some say hundreds of millions
of dollars) for others. I anticipate with Eric's 8 years of experience and
his financial background, and my 35+ years of exploration and technology
experience, we will learn a lot from each other.
As I referenced in my first note, the quote in the April 30-May 6 issue of
The Economist, in the section labeled "The bottomless beer mug," points to
the fact most oil company management has been replaced by MBA's who
understand business risk and who do not understand geologic risk. The result
has been exploration on Wall Street, where these folks are comfortable,
rather than seeking a new overthrust trend, like the one Wolverine recently
proved in Utah (see attached map). The discovery well, the 17-1 King Meadow
Ranch, hit 1,000 feet of Navajo Sandstone in late 2003. This well began
producing in May 2004 at 900 barrels per day, and, with a second well,
Wolverine has produced over 210,000 barrels of good quality, 40 degree
gravity crude less than a year. At US$50/barrel, this is in excess of US$10
million for the first year of the first of a conservatively anticipated 10
fields in the new trend. Given 10 years production and 10 new fields, this
adds up to a real interesting return for investors. Especially if the
funders retain 50% ownership and are able to double or triple their initial
investment before sharing any upside with the finders.
To stress the importance of my last e-mail, my response to your invitation
was to open the door, with a generous business model, for Prospect Energy
Corporation to exceed the returns Wolverine is making, while assisting in the
reinvention of the oil industry as a virtual corporation. And we have the
technical expertise in our network to help with your e-mail issues. To be
specific, I expect I can have one or more of my colleagues in New York visit
your office as my trusted representative later today or tomorrow to answer
questions and provide references, if this would be helpful.
I look forward to hearing from Eric, and to taking the next steps in this
discussion.
Best Regards,
Roice
Dr. Eckman,
It was a pleasure to meet you at the IEOS Public Engagement Workshop
last week. You requested some contact information for the key
profession societies in oil and gas exploration and production. They
are:
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG),
www.seg.org, President Craig J. Beasley, cbeasley@seg.org,
713.689.5814.
- American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG),
www.aapg.org, President Patrick J.F. Gratton, pjfginc@aol.com,
800.364.2274.
- Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), www.spe.org,
President Giovanni Paccaloni, president@spe.org, 800.456.6863.
I know Craig, but not the others. For your reference, between the 250
employees of the company I work for, Geokinetics, Inc. and its
subsidiaries Geophysical Development Corporation (GDC) and Quantum
Geophysical, we have extremely strong ties to most aspects of the
upstream energy industry.
The company is interested in expanding our services, and I see
discussions with NASA and the government as a strategic opportunity,
which is why I was at the workshop. Is there an opportunity for a group
of talented and experienced geoscientists to support to your efforts to
distribute NASA technology to the energy industry? Rather than spending
technology transfer dollars through NASA personnel (which accurate
accounting would show to be very expensive), is there an opportunity to
outsource the energy portion of this technology transfer to a technology
company like GDC?
Alternatively, are there energy research areas we could work with
NASA on? You mentioned that there are 3 year projects which are funded
to the tune of $250,000 per year. I went to http://nspires.nasaprs.com
and reviewed the opportunities there. The only study I saw with energy
in the title was A.11 NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study. You mentioned
there were only a few submittals for energy related research projects.
Could you point me to these research projects?
It seems to me like NASA would get more bang for the buck by opening up
bids for industry generated proposals, and then selecting those that
relate to NASA priorities. For instance, I have had discussions with
John E. James IV of JSC's office of Technology Transfer and
Commercialization for a couple of years regarding Robonaut. I've been
told we will receive a license to use this technology for deep water
exploration and oil field fire fighting. My key commercial idea is
related to gas hydrates, which are, by orders of magnitude, the largest
known source of hydrocarbons on planet earth. There is a 3 TCF
(trillion cubic feet) thermogenic gas hydrate plug near the
Conoco-Phillips deepwater Joilet Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which
has a pipeline and other necessary infrastructure for a practical
experiment. Building a geodesic umbrella over this deposit (similar to
geodesic habitats needed for the moon and Mars), and dissolving the gas
hydrate plug with hot water or microwave technologies (the people at
JSC tell me NASA has several patents in this area) controlled by NASA's
Robonaut (what better way to practice working in space than in the
hostile environment of deep water) could demonstrate a whole new source
of energy for the U.S. How would one go about getting NASA's attention
on an idea like this?
Good luck on your presentations, and I look forward to your comments.
Best Regards,
Roice Nelson
Mike,
Mike Dunn was telling me about your Japanese client looking for Gas
Hydrates.
This is an area I did quite a bit of work in before come to GDC. The
attached three files demonstrate there is a possible link between known
volcanos and known gas hydrates. This connection might be as simple as
temperature, or as complex as abiotic hydrocarbon seeps from the
mantle. I'm not sure you want to pass this on to your Japanese
connection immediately, but the map shows there has been some thinking
about how to approach gas hydrate exploration globally.
A key commercial idea related to gas hydrates is related to a 3 TCF
(trillion cubic feet) thermogenic gas hydrate plug near the
Conoco-Phillips deepwater Joilet Platform in the Gulf of Mexico. There
is a pipeline and other necessary infrastructure for a practical
experiment here. Building a geodesic umbrella over this deposit, and
dissolving the gas hydrate plug with hot water or microwave technologies
controlled by NASA's Robonaut (which I'm suppose to have a exclusive
license to use in deep water, which I will actively pursue with a
commercial driver) will prove the value of gas hydrates. My colleagues
at Cornell can get us in front of the folks who control this deposit.
Given money for a research project, I believe we can take this project
over.
Good luck and let me know if I can be of any help.
Best Regards,
Roice
cc: Mike Dunn
Bill,
My colleague Sam LeRoy provided the information below. Geophysical
Development Corporation (www.geodev.com) would love to enter into a long
term contract to support your work on the Yamal Peninsula. Let me know if I
can be of further help.
Best Regard,
Roice
Sam LeRoy wrote:
> Roice,
>
> Bill Bosler may want to look into these programs:
>
> NEOTECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS LTD. ("Neotec")
> FORGAS Gas Field Deliverability Forecasting and Development Scheduling
> http://www.neotec.com/prod.html
>
> eProduction Solutions, Inc.
> WellFlo modeling program:
> http://www.ep-solutions.com/Solutions/EPS/WellFlo.htm
>
> EnSys Yocum PVT Properties Program
> http://www.ensysenergy.com/Yocum%20Software.htm
>
> IHS Energy
> OilWatTM/GasWatTM Material balance analysis
> http://www.ihsenergy.com/products/producingsystems/oilwatgaswat/index.jsp
>
> ... Sam
Scott,
Sorry I have been out of pocket so long.
I just reviewed the web pages. They look very nice, and very much like
they did before with the new connections. For instance there must be a
different page for processing and for interpretation. What happened
regarding the approval process? We need to get that set up, so
different people can be assigned to keep up with things. For instance,
Quantum had a helicopter crash this morning, and negative as it is, it
should be on our news page, specifically with a daily update on the
health of the employees. Two were injured, and one was life flighted to
the hospital with a serious head injury. It will be on Good-Morning
Today tomorrow, and we should be ready to react to this kind of spike
event.
Also, what happend to my IG experience map? Have you done any work on
this? Dave is very interested in this, and this has the potential of
being a very big issue within the next week or so. So be ready. Come
and see me when you have a chance.
Best Regards,
Roice
Marjorie,
It was a pleasure to meet you at the IEOS Public Engagement Workshop
last week.
As requested I have spent some time at http://esg.gsfc.nasa.gov. It
appears there is a lot of interesting information there, and, for me, it
is unusable. Zooming in on the satellite photos was terrible. The
screen kept jumping back to the top left corner, and then it was
necessary to scroll to the area of interest. It was not possible to
tell what different types of data were available at the various scales.
Please compare this navigation approach to one I use for project work, a
semi-public version of which is at: http://www.walden3d.com/d/ig. There
are some public links to project work for the Cook Inlet and Nigeria.
These pages are based on my Infinite Grid(SM) index system. It is easy
to navigate to an area of interest, and then you can zoom in as much as
you want. A newer version of this is one of the indices to a book I
work on every once in a while. It is at
http://www.walden3d.com/openmind/AIV/index.html. Note how the more
detailed index, which is at
http://www.walden3d.com/openmind/AIV/IG4_index.html, goes to a page that
will eventually give lists of information and links related to a
specific spatial location. I think it is useful, and I look forward to
your comments, or the comments of others at NASA about whether you
agree.
The text document searching was extremely slow, and once I was in there,
I could not get back out to the starting page. It was necessary to
re-enter the original page I typed in. Very frustrating.
I anticipate the government shouldn't try to compete with commercial
operations like amazon.com or google.com, and this web site is set up to
do that. It makes sense to me to outsource the commercial front-end to
the NASA Earth-Sun System Gateway to someone like amazon.com or
google.com, who have strong commercial drivers to make portals work for
the end-user. There is no question but what they would do it for a
small percentage of sales.
As you can see, I write what I think. Hopefully these words are not
offensive. I also like to hear what others think. I'm interested in
your reaction to my white paper on indices, as well as your reaction to
these comments.
Best Regards,
Roice Nelson
To summarize why these are e-mails are like dead batteries:
- Grier was only interested in providing investment against proven assets in the ground, and not exploration.
- I've been able to make no progress on getting Don Vossler's NRG and STR attribute technology accepted at GDC nor by GDC customers and Don is broke.
- Michael Haulk provided me all of the data from his seismic acquisition in Tibet, and there has not been time on past trips to make it to Tibet.
- Dr. Pearlman, who is in charge of research for Boeing's Stealth Operations, emotionally reacted to my `10 government scale research projects,' and immediately slammed the door and had no interest in further conversations with me.
- Grier did follow-up and have a young lawyer/accountant tell me there was no interest in working with me on exploration projects.
- Dr. Eckman wants to talk about IEOS and IW-GEO concepts with professional societies, and I gave him the contact information. He sent a thank you note, but this is certainly not the change in the vector of my personal and professional life I anticipated.
- Sometimes I feel like I'm John the Baptist shouting in the wilderness on things like gas hydrates, and there has been no follow-up since the note was sent to Mike Bennett and he said it is all being handled by Dave Johnson
- Bill Bosler became a friend when we were doing the HyperEdge Expert NetWork, and he is involved in a big project in Russia. It is doubtful if anything will come from this follow-up with Bill.
- Scott Stolz is doing the GDC web pages, and this is one of the things I have been given responsibility to manage. It always seems stuck, and usually can be traced to Richard Verm and resource allocation.
- Marjorie was one of the people most interested in my comments at the IEOS Public Engagement Workshop. However, she either did not get my e-mail or did not like my suggestions, and so it was another dead battery.
Friday morning I was listening to the Pat Gray show as I went
into work. He quoted the Judge in the Michael Jackson trial
as saying `Larry King is irrelevant' and then said, `Don't tell
me that all of the judges are out of control. This judge is
right on track!' It got me laughing for a minute, for the
first time this week. Friday night Rachel, Matt, Andrea,
and I went to see Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith.
It was OK.
Saturday I was still reading papers, mail, e-mail, and catching
up from having been gone a month. When Sara Ellyn gave me two
wallet photos of her when she graduated from High School I stuck
them in the mirror where I shave. When Matt went to his first
Junior High dance and gave me a wallet photo, I stuck it there
also. Every morning since these events, when I have shaved, I
have looked at these photos and said a prayer for those I love.
There was also a ticket to the Nauvoo Temple Dedication broadcast
(../0226.html). I took them all off of the mirror and put them
with my scrapbook stuff. I guess it is time to let go and just
continue to hope my prayers can make a difference with the free
agency of those I love. There were also some conversations
with Paul about the Ken Turner painting of `Nephi's Vision' and
the frame that was still at the Cedar City Welfare Center. I
had forgot to call during the week. Paul was leaving Provo,
and I was emotionally overwhelmed with all that was wrong with
my life. Upon reflection, I guess it is easier to change out
an automobile's dead battery than it is to change out an
emotional dead battery.
Saturday evening we had just gone to bed when we heard a
large crash sound. Initially we thought Rachel must have fallen
in the shower. Then Matt went outside and said their was a car
wrecked in our neighbors yard. He went outside, and Andrea
and I both went and got dressed and rushed outside. The bottom
line is that there was a murder in front of our house. The
specific points that we know several weeks later are:
- three black men robbed 6 places in West Houston;
- this included stopping a car at gunpoint just before 10:00 PM
on Remington Crest where Dan and Linda Jones live, telling the
oriental people to leave their wallets and cell phones and run;
- they pulled up next to a young couple stopped at the stop sign
at Gulf Wind Court next to the Reeves our neighbors on the North,
a 26 year old black got out of the back seat and asked the driver
where Alief is, and when the driver said he didn't know, the
assailant shot him in the eye with a hand gun;
- when the shooter got back in the car someone saw that there
was a girl in the car and he got back out of the car and
started to shoot at the car, shooting three times;
- the driver, either as a subconscious reaction to the shooting
or a natural stiffening of his body after being shot floored
the gas turned to the left in front of Reeves, went past our
house, took out the mail box in front of the Lozier's, our
neighbors to the south, putting bricks through the front window
of his car and probably hitting him and certainly totaling his
black BMW into the crape mertle trees on the other side of
the Lozier's yard;
- the three blacks drove down Emerald Green and threw a wallet out
of the car down by Timberwind, which was retrieved by the police
- the boy, Alan Thielmier, who was shot graduated from Taylor
High School last year and he was going to Houston Community
College;
- Alan's older brother, John Thielmier, graduated with Ben and knows Roice;
- the ambulances were staged and kept off of our street until
the police arrived and gave an all clear so they could come in
- the police told our neighbor, Jennifer Lozier, that it `looked
like a gang initiation, where they are told to go shoot a rich
white kid;'
- the ambulances and the fire trucks were in front of our
house until about 1:00 AM, and the police were there all night,
and all the next night recreating everything that happened;
- the three blacks came back into the neighborhood Sunday and
did another robbery;
- the police caught the shooter on Monday, and have not caught
either of the other two several weeks later;
- all three in the car are believed to be from Attiscottia;
- Alan's father, Gary Thielmier, is a Geophysicist that works
for Unocal;
- when Gary was laid off from work at BP he participated in
the HyperEdge Expert NetWork, and this might have had something
to do with him getting a job at Unocal;
- Gary Thielmier knew me from at least three seminars and other
things I did which he participated in;
- Andrea was one of the first people to visit and take food
to Bonnie and Gary Thielmier, and has been back over there
several times;
- there were a lot (350+) of people at a town hall meeting that
was called as a community response to the tragedy (0526.html);
- Joe Roberts was told that Jennifer might have been run off of
the freeway as part of a gang initiation (../0438.html);
- there will be a lot more come out before we know everything
about what all is behind this tragedy; and
- there are 12 ditigal photos taken the night of the murder, two movies from the television coverage Monday night (including me driving into the driveway on the way home from work), 7 digital photos from the TV coverage, 5 digital photos from the Wake and the funeral, and 3 digital photos from the Katy Times at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/1307_Emerald_Green/050521_Murder_Emerald_Green
Sunday I was emotionally tied in knots. George Schultz was one
of the Sacrament speakers. I enjoyed his comments and derived
the following two possible Prime Words stanzas from his talk:
`Perfection and sanctification
Go together in the gospel
Be ye therefore perfect
Is a call to greatness'
`The Lord Jesus Christ
Sets the standard of perfection
Live the spirit of the law
And let the Lord be the judge'
I was so stressed out about the murder that I went and cornered
President Pickerd and Bishop Camp after sacrament meeting and
told them about what had happened. I didn't do a very good job
of explaining my concerns.
What I was trying to say is that this seems like a warning to
me. Possibly it is just ego, and yet I feel like I'm a bellwether
to things like problems with having computers in your home,
divorce, and now violence. It seems like I have always thought
that my background with the meat packing plant and the byproducts
plant was preparation for something very hard in the future. I
recall
a revelation President Taylor had and that was recorded in
President Woodruff's journals about how bad it is going to be
the next time the saints migrate to the west (Journal of
Wilford Woodruff, Dec 16, 1877, pp. 179-183, Pioneer Press).
Then there is the dream that Ken Turner had that there are
going to be thousands of tents out by his house in New Ulm,
the implication being New Ulm will be a staging area for helping
the Saints leave trouble. Anyway, I'm a camper, and we have an
emergency kit, and if there is a weapon of mass destruction set
off in Houston we will do our best to get along and to help as
many people as we can to get along also. I also told my High
Priest Quorum what had happened at the beginning of quorum meeting.
Then Sunday evening we went to Seminary Graduation, and a young
man named Tyler Juergens from Copperfield Ward provided words
for the following additional possible Prime Words stanzas:
`Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Four views of the same events
To help us know He lived
And still lives and loves us'
And hopefully, as has been the case in the past, the church,
the scriptures, prayer, and my Savior's love will provide the
recharge to my sometimes emotionally dead battery."
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.)