"It was nice to be home. I am getting too old to travel as much as I tend to do. My left knee still hurts, my left hip has started to hurt pretty bad. Oh well! Guess we do what it takes to pay the bills, even if we are too old. Maybe Satan, and his control of money, as used to buy up power and to force us work to eat, really is the God of this telestial world. I think there is a real jewel in the writings of David Devor, Project Mind, namely the observation happiness comes as we eat to work, rather than as we work to eat.
I even enjoyed the commute to GDC this week. This is because now that Lizabeth Rey quit, Carlos and I have worked out a car pool plan for the HOV lane. We have to be on before 6:45 AM if there are only 2 of us, and we strive to leave the office at 4:00 PM, or 4:45 at the latest, if we are there by 7:00 AM. Carlos drives both ways. In exchange for reading or sleeping, I provide the car and the gas. Carlos' car sounds like it will explode at any time, and so he is happy not to have to drive to the office, and I have enjoyed the reading time. This week I was reading `The Map That Changed the World' by Simon Winchester. It is an excellent book about William Smith and the birth of modern stratigraphic geology in England. Absolutely fascinating. But since none of you have shown any interest in geology, I won't do a detailed book report. However, I do encourage you to read the book someday. Maybe it will help you catch a glimpse of why geology is so fascinating to me.
The big news this week was Tom Concannon of Geokinetics finally gave me a Geokinetics stock certificate for 8,000 of the stock options which I am vested in. I vest in another 8,000 shares on April Fools Day. And maybe that is what I am, for selling the shares. However, we needed the money for college tuition, and there did not seem to be another alternative, other than increasing credit card debt, which Andrea is absolutely against. I understand her disbelief in my projects, because no cash has come out of these projects since we got married. Oh well! I do eat to work, and so often this means there is not payment for the work in the short term, and sometimes not even in the long term. However, as verses five and six of my song `Open My Eyes Please - A Prayer' states:
Anyway, as per Merril Littlewood's instructions, I found the closest office of TD Waterhouse, on South Post Oak across from the Galleria, visited them with the stock certificate, signed over the certificate to them, set a price of $2.30/share, which was 30 cents higher than the GOKN stock had sold for the previous year, and put it on the market. By Tuesday we had sold $5,013 shares of stock, and by the 15th of December we had sold all $18,371.35. The bad news is that after the 15th of December the stock price started rising, and as of the 15h of February it was selling at $3.60/share. Oh well. Guess this is why I don't play the stock market, and only bet on stock I create and feel like I have some control over or insight into the technology opportunities behind the stock.
Of more relevance to me than stock or money, on Monday, Audrey's birthday, there was a message sent:
And a response received:
Following along this same line, on Tuesday there was a nice e-mail from Mary Lunt:
Wednesday, as I was walking the stairs at lunch, was the first time I remember meeting someone else walking the stairs other than Carlos. He wasn't as serious as me, specifically since it is the only time I ever saw him walking the stairs, and I do it most days at lunch. I have a note that Rick Zimmerman called me on Wednesday, and I don't remember what this was about. Maybe this was the day I went down to his office and showed him and his team some details about the work Don Vossler did with his seismic survey. Also, John Parrish, one of Wulf Massell's friends was in the office doing some consulting work for Lee Bell.
This was the week that I made the leap of faith and paid $500 which we do not have to purchase Sketch-Up, the software I was Jeff Winston told me about and that I was testing out when in China (0547.html). I spent some time during the week, mostly at night while watching TV with Andrea, building a model of fluid and temperature migration from StratAmp extractions of seismic amplitudes from the BAB ((Far-Near)*Far) seismic data created for one of the Chinese Oilfields. A couple of screen captures of the model at different angles are shown on the photo below, and by clicking on the photo it will bring up a 5 MB animated gif file which shows the model rotating in 3-D space.
Click on image to go to a 5 MB animated gif of this model rotating
It turned out that my bosses were sufficiently impressed by the model which I built that they let me expense the purchase of Sketch-Up. I have since used Sketch-Up to build some very interesting models of my new city ideas (see ../0604.html), and anticipate this is just the beginning. It is a lot of fun.
On Thursday, I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words from the page 263 of `The Map That Changed the World':
Friday there was a nice follow-up note from Bob Mishler (0548.html). For completeness, I include it below:
Saturday evening was the Nottingham Country Ward Christmas Party. It was one of the nicest Ward Parties since I was Chairman of the Ward Activities Committee. Dinner and a theater. I took several digital photos (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/NottinghamCountryWard/051210_NCW_Christmas_Party). A local theater group put on part of one Charles Dicken's plays for us after the dinner. They were kids, and they did great. We had a good time, and it was nice not to need to clean up after the party.
At Sacrament Meeting, on the 11th of December, I wrote another possible stanza for Prime Words, based on the talk by the High Councilor speaker, Michael Sky (b):
Sunday night was the annual joint concert with Epiphany. Father Jack was as funny as ever. He told everyone how President Pickerd had given him a CD of `The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.' He said, `After tonight, I'm just going to through that CD away.' Then he said, `Can you believe we have been doing this for 12 years. Let's make it another 12 years. Of course, Mike won't be here in another 12 years.' Jennifer and Rich Lozier next door came to the concert. Don Vossler and his wife came over before the concert, and we all went over together. Then the Loziers, the Vosslers, and several friends from church came by the house for a party afterwards. My friend Frank, whom I enjoy singing with each year, except the last two years, also came over to the house. He said Andrea came up to him and said, `Are you Frank?' He then told me he said, `I hope so!' It was a lovely evening.
Andrea had gone all out. It reminded me of the Christmas Parties Mom used to have every year on Christmas Day, when the Gardners and the Carpenters and the Jones and the Leighs would come out to gawk at our presents, play with them, and eat one of Mom's fancy lunches. I really did enjoy those parties, except for the showing off of the Christmas presents. I especially enjoyed the year The Keynotes played for the party.
I think it was about the first time we have had the Loziers over. They are really nice people, and I enjoy both of them. It was fun to catch up with Frank. His wife died a couple of years ago, and he has been dating his girlfriend from High School (remember Frank retired several years ago and is about 77 years old). His old girlfriend lives in Pennsylvania, and so Houston is culture shock. Frank promised to keep us updated on what happens. The Vosslers were a lot of fun, and we do have a lot of interests in common together. She is a Volunteer Ranger at Brazos Bend State Park. And I'm not sure why, other than the fact it has been several weeks and I am old and loosing my memory, but I can't remember who from the church joined us. But it was great to have them there also. Guess this shows I need something to keep track of all of the things which happen in 3D and across time. Something like Sketch-Up."