14 Jan 2007 #0702.html

The Boss - A Novel

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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.

"The book, 'The Boss - A Novel,' Arrived on Tuesday. I finished the 341 pages Friday night, just before Numb3rs. The acknowledgements on page 343 includes:

It was flattering to read:

The reason is that during my day with Stan Pottinger (../0319.html), I had introduced him to one of my more way-out ideas, which I called seismic holography. The idea is that you image the subsurface with two seismic sources, each with the same constant frequency, and then record the resulting interference pattern as a hologram on an array of seismic receivers which are placed on the topography or sea floor. A hologram is actually the film that records interference patterns from mono-frequency light (laser light) and reflections off of 3-D objects. When this film is illuminated by the same mono-frequency light it creates a 3-D image. Anyway, the technical basis for the entire novel is this idea I have been playing with since I went to work for Mobil Oil back in 1974, which I do not ever expect to turn into anything that really works. The novel has about four descriptions of sexual activity which are verbal pornography, and other than that it is a pretty good read. I read to and from work, at lunch, and then finished the book up when I got home from work on Friday, so it is a quick read.

I spent the evenings this week catching up on Thoughtlets, and e-mailing out ../0641.html through ../0646.html, and responding to e-mails. There were a couple of very interesting phone calls on Sunday evening. Matt called Andrea and told her he is planning on going on a mission. I almost put something about this as the title for this week's Thoughtlet, and I want to see how strongly Matt sticks with this plan over the next few weeks first. Melanie called and one of the things we talked about was vitamins. I also almost put something about this as the title for this week's Thoughtlet. As this discussion might be of value to the rest of you, I will summarize my part of the discussion:

• My Dad encouraged me to take vitamin E every day. I have done this faithfully since the early 1990's. The worst side effect I'm can attribute directly to this is the color of my hair has stayed the same and has not turned gray yet.
• There was a Noble Prize winner who said vitamin C is the wonder drug. I have also been very good at taking a vitamin C and drinking a glass of orange juice each day.
• After Mom's stroke, Dr. Levin told me I should take asprin twice a week. He stressed it should be the enteric safety coated asprin, which does not have the same effect on the stomach. I take asprin every Monday and Friday morning.
• Everyone knows it is good to take a multiple vitamin, and so I have taken a multiple vitamin for years each morning.
• When Grandma Hafen was getting older, she talked to me about problems with bones, and something else I can't remember right now. Anyway, because of this discussion, I started taking a vitamin D each day.
• When Dr. Levin retired and I started going to Dr. Solis he told me I need to loose weight. Still do, and I am working on it. He suggested I take a natural herb called 'saw palmetto and nettle root.' I'm out right now, and Andrea orders a new bottle when we can afford it. I have not seen any particular value, especially related to weight loss.
• Dr. Solis had me take an anti-inflammatory last year when my hip hurt so much. He also took an x-ray of my hip joints, and said there was no problems structurally. The anti-inflammatory worked, and so he suggested I take 'Turmeric Extract.' I have, and it stopped the hurting in my hip, my knee, and other joints. Impressive results.
• Uncle Des has made a big deal about natural ways to control the bad clorestral. One thing he does is to mix flax seed with cereal. I take a flaxseed oil supplement.
• I've enjoyed the books of Dr. Weil. He is the first place I learned about omega-3 fish oil, and I have been taking one of these horse sized supplement pills for a couple of years.
• Andrea read about something that helps with allergies called nutrilite. I've been taking one a day for the past 4 months or so. There did not seem to be much change during rag weed, and I have no opinion as to whether this is worthwhile to take or not.
• Lastly, for several years after I dislocated my shoulder, falling on the ice in Denver, my fingers were numb. I went to a specialist, and he gave me exercises and told me I would never get full feeling back. Dr. Solis told me to take Vitamin B, as it helps regenerate nerves. I did. It did. Then my fingers started to feel numb again sometimes, and I read this is a natural consequence of too much vitamin B. So I no longer take vitamin B.

Melanie sent me the following e-mail on Tuesday in response to something I had written in the Thoughtlet I just converted to html and sent out (probably ../0642.html):

On Tuesday Roice also sent me an e-mail challenging me to play a game of chess with him. This has been fun. Especially since I'm winning right now. Time will tell. On Tuesday and Thursday there were nice e-mails from Sean McQuaid (../9819.html, ../9945.html, ../0018.html, ../0324.html, and ../0403.html). I anticipate I will be working with Sean in the future. I won't quote his e-mails because they include business plans and such.

Wednesday morning on the way to work with my car pool was when I actually started to read 'The Boss - A Novel.' Luis Viertel was back from his holiday in Spain, and spent some time with me on Wednesday. We were talking about eating too much, and I told him I anticipated one of my biggest issues is stress. He said his issue is not stress, rather it is anxiety. We had an interesting conversation about the difference between stress and anxiety. Anxiety is what we are worried about what will happen, and may not have any basis in fact. Stress is reactions to things which have happened, although again their relevance to our well being may not have any basis in fact.

Wednesday Dave Agarwal and I received an e-mail from David J. Prowsner of Netter, McClennen & Fish in Boston, Massachusetts confirming he will visit with us on Wednesday the 31^st of January regarding the SMT / Halliburton lawsuit they are defending. There was also a nice note in the mail from Sara Ellyn Wednesday evening. It reads:

Melanie sent me another note on Thursday, again responding to a Thoughtlet (this time ../0644.html):

I thought she was referring to 'An Open Mind, and she was actually referring to comment about getting a copy of "New Technologies in Exploration Geophysics,' as specified in an e-mail on Friday:

Now the last paragraph is a mouthful. And it certainly feels good to receive these kinds of words. I much prefer them to business e-mails, like this one I received from Joe Roberts on Thursday:

I responded with:

Friday I did not walk the stairs. Rather I went and ate fajata's and listened to Brian Schulte practice his talk for the GSH in the 20^th floor conference room. There has been a tremendous improvement in this talk since he was preparing to present it to the CSEG a couple of months ago. My friend from El Salvador, who was raised in New York, Carlos Venegas, sent me a note that they have finally updated their daughter, Audrey's, picture gallery. The pictures are at http://www.kastlegrafx.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=72. I am super impressed with how Carlos and Paula are teaching their daughter languages. Paula, who is from Taiwan only speaks Chinese to Audrey. Carlos only speaks Spanish, and Andrey is starting to answer his Spanish questions with Chinese statements. Everyone else speaks English to Audrey. Can you imagine the strength of a child having Chinese, Spanish, and English all their birth language? And they are expecting their second child in May, along with Audrey and Joshua, and Kate and Paul, and Bridget and Justin.

Friday while I was repicking velocities, I listened to 'The Culture Code,' a 2006 book by Clotaire Rupaille published by Broadway Books. I found it very interesting. It is based on psychological imprints, like how a child learns not to touch a hot stove by getting burned. The author has a three hour discovery session to identify cultural imprints:

• Hour 1: Participants told to assume he is a visitor from another planet, and they need to provide him with descriptions to help him understand the product he is going to work with them on.
• Hour 2: He provides them with a bunch of magazines, and they sit on the floor as small children and make a collage which describes the product.
• Hour 3: Participants lay on the floor on comfortable pillows, and to soft music, he takes them back to their earliest memories of the product.

1. Do not believe what people say. People respond with their cortex, not with emotions. He is looking for that which is distinctive, unique, and sensual.
2. Emotions provide the energy needed to really learn anything.
3. The structure, not the content, is the message.
4. The key window in time for imprinting a cultural code is prior to age 7.
5. In order to access the meaning of an imprint, you must discover the code.

Saturday morning the following e-mail was in my mailbox:

Tom was our first marketing agent for Landmark Graphics, and we have kept in touch over the years. He is also a scientologist, which isn't relevant, other than I know one other than just on screen with Tom Cruise or John Travolta. I responded with:

There was also an e-mail from Byron Arnason:

Byron was one of the trainees at Mobil when I was running Mobil Field Operations back in 1978-1979, and he and I have kept up with each other through the SEG meetings (../9945.html and ../0005.html). I responded with:

Later I received the following follow-up e-mail:

Saturday morning I was going to start to trip the crape myrtle, and Andrea was afraid they would be hurt by the forecasted bad weather. So we worked in the greenhouse to clean up two years of wild alavera growth. It is amazing how many hundreds, or maybe thousands of alavera plants have come from that one alavera plant I pulled out of Dad's kitchen window after he died. After purchasing some Girl Scout cookies on the way to the shower, and getting cleaned up, I worked on the Thoughtlets until Andrea and I went to see the movie "The Painted Veil," which was playing at The Landmark Theater in River Oaks. The time was misprinted, and so we had to wait an hour for the movie to start. This was our second time to go window shopping in this area while waiting for a movie. It was a very artsy movie. It does a fairly good job of describing the pain tied to adultery, and how this particular British couple, who were living in China under very dangerous circumstances, made it past the mistakes. I recommend the movie for adults. I did write the first two lines of a possible stanza for Prime Words based on the words of the head nun in this movie (a):

On Sunday morning church started at 8:00 again. It is early, and I like it early. Primary class went well. The kids are doing well in practicing our two songs (0701.html) for the Class Sharing Time on the 28^th (0704.html). Andrea fixed a feast for lunch. Spent the afternoon working on Thoughtlets and reading in the Old Testament. There was Stake Priesthood Meeting at 7:00 PM, which was also the time for this season of '24' to start. We recorded both hours and I watched them Monday night. After Priesthood Meeting I set up Andrea's class for Seminary, and it was almost 9:00 when I got home.

Since I was writing this Thoughtlet, I reflected a little bit on the novel I'd read earlier in the week. I recalled how excited Stan Pottinger had been when I described a special meeting I was invited to when 'The World Future Society' had their annual meeting in Houston. There were about 30 oil company bashing ultra liberals in this meeting with me, which I had been invited to because of my talk, 'The Impending Obsolescence of Maps.' In the introductions they had everyone describe their concerns for the future. I was about 2/3^rd the way around the circle, and when they got to me, I said, 'Since we are in Houston, and based on comments about the oil industry, I would like to put oil in perspective. Close your eyes and imagine oil was taken out of this room: no lights, no heat, no air conditioning, no paint, no carpet, no seat cushions, no clothes, no shoes, no makeup, no medicines, etc.' As I described how there were no more disparaging remarks about oil companies, Stan got excited and said, 'I have been told they will make a movie out of my next novel, and I can see someone sitting in a room and having all petroleum products stripped from their environment with computer animation.' He didn't put this in his book with anywhere this much detail. He also had one sentence saying the boss negotiated 10% ownership from Pemex on a well they were going to drill in Mexican Offshore Waters. The Mexican Constitution does not allow foreign ownership of natural resources like oil. He did use the letters AVO (Amplitude vs Offset) from Sam LeRoy and 4-D (time-lapse seismic) from Roger. He also named one of his character's Eddy J., which had to be after Eddy J Rogers, his Harvard classmate. Stan Pottinger was the Assistant Attorney General during the Martin Luther King days, he got the first blacks hired into the Virginia police forces, the web says he dated Gloria Steinam (one of the founding feminist of my youth), he can tell a good story, and he needed technical help for his book 'The Boss: A Novel.'"

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).

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Copyright © 2007 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.