"For about a year now I have been Sam Adam's `The Wealth of Nations' at lunch at GDC since going to Rita Hathorn's daughter Julie's Jain wedding (../0351.html). I remember because I took the book with me to the wedding in case we were sitting around a long time, and picked up a donation slip, which I have continued to use as a book mark for the last year and a half. Recently I included some possible stanzas for Prime Words, which came from this reading (0530.html). This week I came across a passage which I have been contemplating ever since reading it:
My little thought for this week is that folks that lived a long time ago, were pretty smart, and knew a lot, which there is no reason for us to relearn.
I had never heard of the word `chimerical' and after looking it up I learned that it means `unreal, imaginary, or wildly fanciful.' And it was interesting to see how the word `projector' was used in 1776 by Adam Smith, basically referring to a project business plan, or a projection of some project which might be undertaken. Reading about those `who would employ the money in extravagant undertakings, which, with all the assistance that could be given them, they would probably never be able to complete' brought to mind many of the ideas and status reports I have given in these Thoughtlets, specifically including:
It also brought to mind some of the songs I have written, and some of the specific verses in those songs, including:
It is easy to come to the conclusion I am a chimerical projector, with what ever good or bad this label means. And certainly this week was spent seeing this fact played out over and over and over.
I mentioned last week that Rick Zimmerman called Saturday night when we were at Frank and Cindy's house for dinner (0532.html). He called back Monday evening, and we had a fairly long conversation. I sent him an e-mail about 4:00 AM on Tuesday, and he called back Tuesday afternoon with his team on the speaker phone. It was a weird call, with no comments by members of his team. I have not heard back from him since this call. I'm beginning to expect pursuit of the 130 opportunities I've outlined through Dynamic Resources is being a chimerical projector.
Tuesday Les Denham and I were talking, and he gave me a status on Emerald Energy. Turns out that Shell drilled another well in the Elepa field, which is a major discovery. It was right next to OPL-229 (../0228.html, ../0229.html, ../0230.html, ../0235.html, ../0236.html, ../0237.html, ../0238.html, ../0239.html, ../0241.html, ../0243.html, ../0244.html, ../0247.html, ../0248.html, ../0249.html, ../0309.html, ../0311.html, ../0316.html, ../0319.html, and ../0341.html), and Jude wanted a drilling location so Emerald can unitize the field and get Shell to pay them for hydrocarbons extracted. This could be a very big number, and of course I have nothing in writing saying I will be paid a percentage. There was always talk about this, until I started to push hard to be paid $50,000 for all of the work I did for the indigenous oil companies marginal fields. Definitely chimerical projector.
Each morning this week I was talking to China. On Wednesday, Jialin talked to his contact at a major Oilfield in the west by phone and was told to pick up the seismic and well data. However, GDC still does not have a contract for processing this data. I also learned that I had been in the background on an end-run around the purchase of Unocal purchase by Chevron. The idea was to purchase the U.S. Unocal assets ($5 billion) and let CNOOC purchase the overseas assets. It is amazing how close this was. As close as possible for a chimerical projector.
When I got home Wednesday the following e-mail was waiting from Albert Boulanger:
I bought the first SpaceGraph for the Seismic Acoustics Laboratory when I was General Manager there in 1981. Amoco and Conoco each bought one also, based on our purchase. The SpaceGraph was a true 3-D display that bounced a computer image off of a mirror that was moved in space by a big woofer at 30 frames per second, creating a virtual image that was true 3-D. It is described in some detail starting on page 199 of my book `New Technologies in Exploration Geophysics.' This is definitely an example of being a chimerical projector.
Thursday Steve Salt and I baby-sat for Relief Society. The new girl from my CTR Primary Class (0529.html), Morgan Bancraft and her two brothers were the only participants. I found out Andy Schultz was back from his trip, and called him and encouraged him to take Susan Keller out before he headed back to the `Y.' I don't think he did. As I was leaving to come home I received a call from Ajay Kalsi (../0320.html, ../0321.html, ../0322.html, ../0323.html, ../0324.html, ../0328.html, and ../0329.html). He called from Houston and offered me a me a stock option if I help him find a CFO and 2 Board Members to take Phoenix Hydrocarbons public in the U.S. to raise money for drilling. I sent an e-mail to Dave Johnson early Friday morning summarizing the opportunity, acting like a chimerical projector.
There were so many unreal, imaginary, or wildly fanciful projects and discussions this week, that when I came home on Friday, I just put up my feet, sat the laptop computer on my lap, watched an old Jane Wyman movie with Andrea called `Magnificent Obsession.' Then we watched a repeat of Numb3ers, all while I continued editing my word count of the Book of Mormon in my ongoing search for the finger print of God. Opps! There I go being a chimerical projector yet again!
Saturday morning I got up and mowed the lawn. Andrea came out and worked in the yard, and kept working in the yard until past noon. It was hot, and so I came in, got cleaned up, and spent the day watching history channel specials on the Anasazi and the Maya, as well as old Cary Grant movies, while I worked on editing the Book of Mormon word triplets. It would sure be nice if one of these big deals would come through so I could hire someone to write the software to automatically do the patterns, and patterns of patterns, and patterns of patterns or invariant polynomials. Oh well! Matt called and asked what is new. I told him the grass grows, it has to be cut, then the grass grows, and it has to be cut, then the grass grows and it has to be cut. He didn't think I was funny. I did. My source of relief after spending all week being a chimerical projector.
Sunday morning, the 14th of August, was Stake Priesthood Meeting. It was a good meeting, with excellent talks about the importance of reading from The Book of Mormon daily. I have not been doing this since I went to work for GDC. Oh well! I did write two possible Prime Words stanzas from President Pickerd's talk:
I was tired from all of my movie watching on Saturday (and I can't figure out why I don't loose any weight), and so I took a nice nap after church. Heather called and had a nice talk with Mom. My main concern about the conversation report is the fixed-pie game (../0124.html) of `someone in California's salary is bigger than mine,' which did not sound like her words. We went to an Eagle Court of Honor for Mitchell Branning and Nathan Salt at 5:00. I enjoyed the conversation with Sister Branning's Mom. Then Andrea and I finished cleaning up the Relief Society Room and getting it ready for her seminary class. Talked to Roice in the evening. The wedding is set for Friday, January 6th, at 7:00 PM. Sounds like plans for those who come here for the Christmas visit are becoming more firm. Ben was taking a nap. Paul and Kate sold their condo and got a little less than wanted. They hope to not have to make two payments in September. Aunt Sara called and had a visit from Heather and Bob. Heather looks good, and Brian had a strong reaction to Bob's influence. Melanie and Jared spent the week in San Antonio and Schliterban on vacation and Jared spent four hours in a dentist office watching what dentists do. Audrey and Joshua were just coming home from Bobbie's (Joshua's mother's) birthday party. Sara was just going to sleep and sounded happy. Rachel has been working every day at Burger King and is not all that excited about school starting again. Rob said he would bring a movie over for Family Home Evening (and eat dinner with us) tomorrow evening. Matt called Saturday and was busy with friends, so he only talked to Mom. Oh well! I worked on this Thoughtlet, played the guitar, wondered what was happening with Christian Singfield and FSI (../0018.html, ../0052.html, ../0103.html, ../0104.html, ../0107.html, ../0109.html, ../0110.html, ../0120.html, ../0204.html, ../0207.html, ../0208.html, ../0209.html, ../0210.html, ../0211.html, ../0214.html, ../0216.html, ../0217.html, ../0223.html, ../0237.html, ../0320.html, ../0324.html, ../0333.html, ../0420.html, ../0424.html, ../0425.html, ../0450.html, ../0451.html, 0503.html, 0505.html, 0507.html, 0509.html, 0511.html, 0513.html, 0523.html, 0525.html, 0526.html, and 0529.html), and thought about all of my unreal, imaginary, or wildly fanciful projects and about being a chimerical projector."
