"So this marathon to catch up on being behind 24 Thoughtlets (0608.html) is over tonight. Then to keep up, by Sunday I need to write 0652.html in order to have them all written, even if not all converted to html, before Andrea and I leave for Christmas week in Zion National Park. Counting Christmas week will leave 18 Thoughtlets to convert to html, which I will probably do over the months of January and February, so as not to inundate those who are reading this diary, as it is posted, e-mailed, or mailed. The only issue is there are virtually zero notes and zero e-mails to draw from to write a Thoughtlet about Fred Hilterman and my trip to Da Qing Oilfield. However, there are 101 photos and 8 movies to draw memories from (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/GDC/060822-31_FJH_DaQing). Actually, I need the PC, which is at the office, to review the movies, so I won't be using them to resurrect memories. And none of you will be interested in seeing me dance with a sari covered sari clad dancer with live snakes and two feet of makeup on anyway. So the movies don't count for memories.
As I close out the file, there is one document which I have not referred to in a previous Thoughtlet. It is called 'The Wall Street Transcript' and is about questioning market leaders for long term investors, reprinted from 10 April 2006. It is a series of Wall Street questions (How would you describe Geokintics and the business the company is in? What is it that distinguishes Geokinetics? What is Geokinetics' agenda for the next 12 months? Why should investors make GOKN a part of a longer-term investment strategy? etc.?). The reason it was in with the notes for Thoughtlets I was catching up on is because one morning Dave Johnson came in to talk and asked me to take a digital photo of him. There are 25 photos at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/GDC/060330_Dave which resulted from that visit to my office. The one used was Dave_Johnson_2bw.tif, with the tissue holder and tissue in back of his left ear edited out. I include this because I think it is interesting how many different things it is good to be able to do with some competence in the business world.
I do not remember all that was involved in getting ready for this trip. I just remember feeling unprepared, that no one was available to travel with me on short notice, and so I flew First Class with Fred. I felt really guilty about using a $9,000 plane ticket, when GDC is loosing money, when we are broke and need ever penny to make ends meet and to attempt to get out of all of our credit card debt, and still pay legal and accounting and computer support and telephone and other bills for both home and Walden 3-D, Inc. Oh well! Mike and Lee wanted me to be there with Fred to show him the ropes in China, and so I was. And I do think I helped Fred have a much better experience than he would have had without me there.
According to my passport we arrived in Beijing on Wednesday evening, where I caught an out of focus photo of Fred waiting for his luggage. We stayed at a new hotel for me, the Kun Lun Hotel. This is where Mike's friend stays when she goes to China to do business. Very nice hotel. There were two shipments lost by DHL, and the first thing I did on arriving at the hotel was find out where the DHL office in Beijing was, and catch a cab over to their office to pursue finding these two lost packages. We never found them. This was only the beginning of our frustrations. That evening we had dinner with Jialin. During the dinner I learned that chopsticks are a birds beak, while a fork and spoon are a tiger's paw. Interesting.
Thursday morning we were at the airport early, in fact over an extra hour early, to catch a flight to the town closest to the Da Qing Oilfield. I got some photos of the crowds at the airport. Fred had been to China once before. However, I think it was when he was SEG President or something where he was taken everyplace he needed to go. A flight, then a 2 hour drive to Da Qing Oilfield, then seeing oil pumps at every corner in town, was exciting and new to Fred. We checked into our hotel room, and Fred kept working on his presentation.
At 10:00 PM Thursday evening we were asked to go to the Research Offices to meet with the team and to make sure our presentation was acceptable for presentation the next day. It was not in Chinese. Fred was still working on what he wanted to say. Everyone was very frustrated. After we got back to the hotel we kept working on the presentation. At 1:00 AM Fred said, "This is enough! This is ridiculous! I'm going to bed!" Jialin took what had been done, stayed up all the rest of the night, and prepared the presentation the Researchers had outlined to us in Chinese. He was wiped out.
Friday morning was the first presentation to all of the senior management at Da Qing Oilfield. Jialin was the only one to talk. He seemed to hold his own very well, and despite being so tired was still did a good job of translation for us when something needed to be passed back to us. When we got back to the Da Qing Oilfield Hotel, Jialin crashed. Fred and I went out to dinner on our own that night. We asked the concierge to tell the cab driver a good restaurant, we went there, ate, took an out of focus photo with the waitress, and were able to make it back to the hotel with no Chinese between us.
They did have a good Chinese buffet for breakfast each morning. Saturday was spent in a big conference room at the Da Qing Oilfield. It was a very frustrating day. It was Fred's birthday and his and Kathi's wedding anniversary. The Chinese were just plain rude in the meetings. They questioned Fred's modeling work, and everything that was presented as if it had been prepared by amateurs. I came to better understand the depth of Fred's knowledge as I participated in the negotiations with Mr. Chen and his minions. It was an extremely frustrating day. In the afternoon we went back to the Researchers office and spent several hours trying to reconcile what data had been sent and what data had been received by GDC. The head of the team had brought his daughter to work. She was learning English. When there was nothing for me to do, I helped her practice her English, and her Dad took a photo of us. We ended up leaving Da Qing Oilfield to drive two hours to Harbin City to catch a 9:30 PM plane. However, the plane was late, and it was about 1:00 AM when we got back to Beijing. I caught a photo of Fred in the restaurant at the airport, which captures how tired he was after our marathon at the Da Qing Oilfield, which was only the first week of a two week China marathon (0636.html), which I hope I never have to repeat."
