17 Jun 2007 #0724.html

Des and Justin to Beijing

. . .

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.

"Well, once again I am behind on Thoughtlets. At least this time it is only being behind 5 Thoughtlets: this one about arranging for and taking Des and Justin to Beijing; 0725.html about the rest of the trip to China, and going to St. Louis for Dallin Spencer Nelson's blessing; 0726.html about my week alone in Houston and then going to Salt Lake for Bobbie Sophia Waldron's Blessing; 0727.html about our week in Calgary with Ben, Sarah, and Ethan; and 0728.html about our return to Houston and some overflowing anger and hurt. I've had the computer set up all week at Ben and Sarah's and have kept up with that week's Thoughtlet and I finished it and the next one prior to writing this one. I did pull notes off of my swallow sheets and from e-mails prior to leaving to go to Salt Lake and Calgary, and so hopefully I'll catch back up and will not fall several months behind, like I did last summer.

My notes for Monday, the 11th of June, are dominated by numerous e-mails to and from Justin and Des regarding setting up their trip to Beijing. There were visas to obtain (Marueen got mine, Andrea got Des', and Justin got his own), Justin and I had to get new passports, there were questions about access to the Internet, questions about hotels, questions about transportation like: Where are we meeting in San Francisco?, How do we get to the hotel?, and How do we get around Beijing?, etc. As with too many parts of my job at Geokinetics these days, I had a bad attitude about the trip. I wanted to stay home and spend the time with Colby and Taylor and Halle and Melanie and Jared. I figured the trip was going to be a waste of time and money and that I would not be able to make much progress on collecting cash. I'm writing this after the fact, and this is in fact what didn't happen, so maybe I wasn't as sure of this going into the trip as I thought. Anyway, the opportunity to take Des and Justin did make up for having to make the trip, and so by Monday evening I was settling into all of the stuff which needed to be done to make a trip like this work on such short notice.

Monday, Les and I received notification our paper accepted for SEG in San Antonio was accepted. It will be given on Wednesday, 26 September 2007, (0739.html), and is titled "3D data volumes from well logs." I expect the idea of creating seismic volumes of geophysical rock properties will prove to be one of my major contributions to Geokinetics, when we look back on my time working for them. It is interesting how a small idea like this can slowing take on a life of its own, and grow to be a major business aspect. While the idea is growing it takes someone like Les to nurture it, and to turn the idea from a concept into software which can generate the product, which in this case is sand percent volumes, Vp Sand volumes, Vp Shale volumes, etc. And even after the idea becomes a viable product and the company starts to make real money from it, the origin of the idea tends to be forgotten and discarded. Oh well! I recognize I do need to work on having a more positive attitude, and to be more thankful that Geokinetics allowed us to stop the financial hemorrhaging accompanying my efforts to start Dynamic Resources Corporation with insufficient capital.

On Monday I also received a nice note from Matt Reynolds. Matt had asked me to be a sponsor of his final school project, basically to mentor his ideas and to give him feedback on the project at various stages. Matt wrote:

'Bro Nelson, First off I want to say Thanks! You Really hit the nail on the head. I feel like I am on the same pagewith you about music. I especially agree that there is a disconnect between classical music (or music in its purest state) and some of the mainstream music of today (Muddy, unoriginal, and dangerous). I know a lot of study can be done on this principle alone. I will begin to compile material about classical music's influence on our society. It will be interesting to really map this out through ages and see just how the music has changed (relative to technology). The dangers some music today is definitely a real world problem, thanks for bringing that up. And, yes a synergy resulting from pure science and the elements of classical music are at home with this instrument. This is an online course, Heather Bigley is the Instructor. The final paper and ppt is due on June 29th. I am scheduled to complete a writing assignment (all focused on the proposal) each week of this month. My next assignment will be a literature review (I will gather approx 20-30 literary sources from the library). Your have already helped me a great deal. If you could just continue offering a couple of suggestions here and there I would appreciate it. I will send you each completed assignment to assure you are on board with the project. I will also keep Vicki Mckay (faculty sponsor and UH professor of entrepreneurship) in the loop of correspondence. Congratulations on your all of your family activities. Thanks again, Sincerely, Matthew R.'

I responded with:

'Matt, Look forward to reading your various assignments. As mentioned, I leave for China on Wednesday morning early, and sometimes I have e-mail challenges while there. I will be back a week from Thursday, on the 21st. A couple of thoughts about classical music: (1) As we grow older our attention span gets longer, and our taste in music changes. I think there is a relationship here. Youth like music with a fast beat (short attention span), and older folks like music with subtle changes and complex inter-relationships (which requires a longer attention span); (2) Many today think classical music is irrelevant and boring, and yet babies who have had classical music played to them while they are growing up tend to be better natured and happier. Best Regards, Roice'

Mike had wanted me to leave for China the previous Friday. Because I needed to get a new Passport (mine expired in September and the Chinese will not issue a Visa unless the passport is good for at least 6 months), and a 12 month multi-entry visa, it was not possible to leave before Wednesday. I ended up getting my passport back on Tuesday just a few minutes before I left the office the evening before catching the plane. However, the main reason I postponed leaving until Wednesday morning was because I had set up a meeting with Dr. Jory Pacht. Jory was an early supporter of the HyperEdge Expert Association. A couple of years ago he formed a partnership with some financial types and they got some investment money to purchase oil fields and enhance the production of these fields. They were very successful, and I read about their getting $30 million for a new round of field purchases in The Houston Business Journal. I considered contacting the company that invested in Energy Quest Resources, Quantum Energy Partners (http://www.quantumep.com), and decided it would be better, based on the run at Pine Brook Road Partners, to start with someone that knows me before going to the investment source. So I put together some web pages for Jory (see http://www.walden3d.com/dynamic/EnergyQuestResources), set up a lunch, and sent him the pages to review. Jory was on vacation the previous week, and so this Tuesday was the first time we had a chance to have lunch together. Tuesday morning I received the following e-mail from Jory:

'Roice: Before we meet, you need to understand what kind of company we are. We buy and enhance old fields with the intent of selling them as a package in a few years. Most of our deals come through brokers or personal contacts. We do not do exploration or any type of regional analysis. Therefore, we may not have a need for many of the products you offer. I apologize for being so blunt, but I want to be honest. If you have a deal, or know of a deal, with PDP production, we would be very interested in doing business with you. We probably would not fund drilling of any prospects, unless they come pretty close to proven reserves (i.e. shallow bright spot production). That being said, I am looking forward to meeting up with you again.'

Tuesday I also sent and received 9 e-mails about cashless Geokinetics stock option sale. I ended up deciding to wait until after the travel to make the next step in deciding whether to sell our Geokinetics stop options or not. They have all vested now, and it is pretty hard to believe they will increase in value very much over the next few months or years, and it would be nice to finally be out of debt again, and to have enough money to do some of the things that need to be done around the house.

I'm not sure when I used up the last of the antibiotics Dr. Solis gave me to take to China before. And it seemed appropriate to get a new batch before this trip with Des and Justin to Beijing. Robin, the nurse, would not prescribe them over the phone this time and so I ended up making an appointment for 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon. It had been over a year since I was last at the Doctors office, and so I knew they would want to take a blood sample. The bottom line, is my "lunch" with Jory Pacht turned into a discussion at his desk. He did go get some grapes at one point, but because I was fasting in order to get the blood test, we did not go out to eat. Jory made it very clear there was not place for his company working with the examples I put together for him on the web site. Oh well! However, we had an interesting conversation about what he wants to do after this next round. His Dad is encouraging him to give back to society and to teach at a University for $1/year. We talked about SUU, and how much he loves it there. He is worried because his wife needs a large Jewish community for support. We talked about my water projects, and my recent interest in extracting water from clays. I anticipate our friendship is going to continue for many years and we will end up doing some interesting work together over the coming years. Since we talked for about an hour and a half, there was time to go back by the office before my Doctor's appointment. Also I needed to get my passport and my new Chinese Visa.

When I got back to the office, I met with Brian Schulte, who had put together a summary of the Tuha processing report. There were some formating problems with it, and we finally got it sorted out just as my Passport and Chinese Visa arrived at the office. There were also several e-mails back and forth with Paradigm regarding griding the Top Salt interpretation I had done. When everything was put together, I packed up and headed for Dr. Solis' office. Needless to say, I was there right at 3:30, and ended up waiting 45 minutes before I was able to get in to see him. In the waiting room I read an interesting article about cognitive behavioral theory. This is a new positive thought feedback approach to psychological analysis. It seems like all 10 of my kids, as well as Andrea and I, could use some sessions with practitioners of this approach. Dr. Solis is very nice to me, and I think he genuinely enjoys seeing me and talking to me. He told me some antibacterial soap to purchase to get rid of the zits on my thighs and legs, and gave me some prescriptions in case I get sick in China. I was back at the house about 6:00 PM by the time I had filled the prescriptions and run some other errands. I remember being able to play with Colby, Taylor, and Halle in the evening, and I stayed up most of the night getting stuff ready for the trip with Des and Justin to Beijing.

I was at IAH airport first thing Wednesday morning, June 13th. There were no particular problems at the airport. I was the first one to the boarding area in San Francisco. I did not have a boarding pass, and they would not give me one. Justin was the next to arrive. He did not have a boarding pass either. About the time they started boarding, Des wandered up. He did have a boarding pass, and so he went ahead and got on board. Finally they called Justin up, he got his boarding pass, and got on, and then I got my boarding pass. I got a seat with an exit right in front of me, and so there was plenty of room to stretch my legs out. I don't remember much about the flight. However, my notes specify a possible stanza for Prime Words written from one of the three movies I noted watching:

'When love and duty are one Then grace is within (a) When separately done There is a loss of rhythm (a) The Painted Veil, UA 889, San Francisco to Beijing 13 June 2007

I also watched 'Bridge to Tarabithia' and 'Wild Hoggs.' All three movies are pretty good. I liked 'The Painted Veil' best. 'The Bridge to Tarabithia' is a good movie for older kids, although it is sad how there is an unexpected death in the movie. 'Wild Hoggs' is about mid-life crisis coping, and is mostly just slapstick humor. Des, Justin, and I were sitting in different sections of the plane, and did not see each other, except when I went and took a photo of them. There are 111 photos and 17 movies from taking Des and Justin to Beijing at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070612-21_Des_Justin_Beijing/. But once again I get ahead of myself. Jialin was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived Thursday afternoon, and he drove us to the hotel. He gave us an hour to change and get cleaned up, then met us in the lobby, and took us to look for suits. Traffic was terrible. We did not go that far, only down by the Forbidden City. Jialin thought he knew where a famous suit place was, and he didn't. We finally found a suit place, and it was really expensive. I bought three silicon ghosts, which when you throw them on a window or a table, are squished by the force of the throw, and grow back to a ball, like a ghost coming out of the surface. They are fun. We did not purchase any suits. We had a nice dinner with Jialin Thursday evening. The conversation was very frank, hitting all of the major topics one is not to talk about. We were surprised to hear Jialin say he is willing to go into the service and go to war to fight for Taiwan. We talked about the one-child policy. We talked about Hong Kong. We talked about the massacre. Des and Justin were fascinated with the conversation and the openness of Jialin to talk about all of these different things. I was falling asleep by the time we got back to the Kunlun Hotel. However, I still hooked up the computer and read e-mail. The best note was an e-mail from Ethan:

'Dear Grandparents, Yesterday I went to Fish Creek Park. I saw giant ant hills and two black butterflies and I saw three or four spiders. Momma got to go to Fish Creek Park too. It was a lot of fun. We even saw, I think I saw two ladybugs. And we saw yellow bark. My friend Ted said that he saw with his group a baby spider under the log that we had just looked at. We saw a big one that I think may be its parent. I learned more about bugs and I know that it's special about wildlife. It's Wednesday, June 13. I got to see five butterflies come out of their chrysalis in the net that we have for butterflies. But I think one of them died. (whispered) But four of them were okay, but they didn't open their wings. The one that just opened its wings was the one that died. It has spots around black for the border of the wings. And it was reddish-orange inside the wings. If it was reddish-orange than the butterfly would be poisonous. Bright colors make them poisonous. Even if a butterfly has bright and dark spots it's still poisonous. We had a lot of fun seeing it. And we saw (this is going to be gross) butterfly poop!!! It was really gross, it was red. I don't know if red poop is supposed to be that but it sure was weird. We got to play Ty's (my neighborhood friend) Sudoko game. Instead of numbers they used pictures of animals. That's all for now. Love, Ethan'

Friday Justin and Des went to the Forbidden City and walked around the back alleys on the other side. I spent the day with Jialin and Geo. It was a long day, with lots of argument and recriminations on both sides. Oh well! They did give me a list of things needed for the Tarim Report. One of the biggest issues was the need for a PowerPoint file. We also set up Fred's presentation to be about July 18 (0729.html). This gives him 2-3 weeks to prepare what to turn in, and then for Jialin to translate the report into Chinese, to create a PowerPoint, to get the rest of the required data volumes, etc. Jialin went on about needing help, about how Geo not helping, and about the cost. Jialin stressed the importance of looking at Da Qing technical contract in detail, and how we will still have to do the report 2-3 times in order to get the report correct to their satisfaction. There is a big penalty in the contract for being late. Jialin was optimistic Geokinetics would be paid1-2 weeks after the final report, and it will take 1-2 weeks after this for Geo to transfer the money. There was an old Chinese consultant there, who was giving advise to Geo. The whole experience was surreal. I was glad when we finally left and I was able to go back to the hotel and talk to Justin and Des about their first day in Beijing.

Both Justin and Des were very positive about their first day in Beijing. Jialin had set up a dinner with his parents. This was the first time I had seen Yan Dunshi in a long time. It was a nice dinner. Des had brought all kinds of interesting presents. They were all wrapped. We learned that when a Chinese gets a wrapped present, they hide it, and open it in secret. So we never were able to explain what the various presents were, nor answer questions, nor see their reactions. Guess it is better not to wrap presents if you want to see any response. It was a nice evening, and I think the digital photo to the left summarizes the feelings of the evening. We did not play guitar and sing, which I found disappointing. Oh well! We got back to the hotel about 10:00 PM, and at 11:30 PM Jialin showed up with two young girls whom he had hired to take Justin and Des to The Great Wall. I was going to go, and after the meeting with Geo, I decided to stay at the hotel and to turn the Tarim word report into the required Tarim PowerPoint files. Oh well!

So Saturday, the 16th of June, I spent the day sitting in front of the computer building extensive PowerPoint files. I think I did an exceptional job, and, of course, no one at Geokinetics will ever realize what I accomplished on this Saturday. Guess that doesn't matter. Even though I had to leave home while Melanie, Colby, Taylor, and Halle were staying at our house, I was able to bring Des and Justin to Beijing. Saturday there was an e-mail from Marc Roulston, whom I had go by the house because the Linux system had shutdown during a thunderstorm and power outage, and Andrea could not get it restarted:

'Roice, I checked on your system today. I fixed the following things: 0 - Booted the system up. You had a power failure and the UPS brought the system down. 1 - reset you KDE environment which now has re-enabled Konqueror access 2 - checked the USB drive (that was the one showing the errors). There are no errors reported when I checked the disk. What you experienced may have been been caused by a temporary device error. Was it plugged into the front USB port? If so you may want to try plugging it into one of the USB ports on the back. That would change the USB bus being used to access the disk. 3 - Fixed the unicode error by deleting the offending messages. The emails had bad characters in them (and they were junk). Marc'

Des and Justin and I went to the Chinese Acrobatics Saturday evening. It was as good as usual. And they are making a lot of progress on improving the facilities. I don't remember what we did for dinner that night, and I did not take any photos of it, so my memory is gone the way of old age. Oh well!

Sunday morning, the 17th of June, Justin and I got up and went to church. It was good to see friends, and most of the folks I know had left on vacation. There were two new members of the Branch Presidency. Mack Coleman was released as the Elder's Quorum President. His wife said he is off trying to save the world. Reminded me of someone else I know. There were two guys from Utah at church: Robert Waits and Dan Owen from H2Oil Recovery Services Salt Lake. They have ways to clean up dirty water from oil and gas wells. Interesting connection. I had to leave church after Sacrament meeting in order to get the airport in time to catch the plane to Uramuchi City. When I got back to the room, I did not have much time to pack and to get out the door. I felt like I intimidated Des. Justin later reported he really enjoyed talking to professional folks at church, lawyers who work in international business and who are doing what he sees as an option for his career future. There was a lot more interaction with Des and Justin in Beijing the next week. However, since I caught the plane to Urumuchi, and was gone Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I will write about the rest of our adventures in the next Thoughtlet (0725.html). However, I will include the two reports Des and Justin sent me about Beijing here. Justin sent me the following on Thursday, July 5th, and since I have not finished up this Thoughtlet yet, this seems like the place to post it:

'After a couple of weeks at home thinking about how to describe China to people, or at the very least Beijing, I see that China is much like someone that has recently joined the dating scene and is going on or getting ready for a first date with the world. Its a pretty polite, trying to dress itself up to present itself in the best light possible, guarded in what it shows, and a little bit awkward at times. It is difficult to say how the Chinese act towards one another, so really I can only reflect on how the Chinese treat Americans touring in China. Hence the dating analogy. People often act different towards strangers they're dating as opposed to their family at home. For the most part the people were polite to us. The servers at the restaurants are polite and helpful to the point they practically hover over you making sure that you have water or tea in for Des (making sure if he took a sip that the water was filled up to the brim). You don't feel like there is any rush from the restaurant people to eat and get out, or that you're wasting their time by asking for something like your food, which is different than so many American servers who practically roll their eyes when you ask for, say, an extra napkin. And the Chinese aren't even working for tips! The people who sell stuff at the markets are different from the restauranteers in that they are all over you trying to sell stuff, grabbing your arm at times but what was always interesting to me was that they still generally said "Sir" and had a smile on. There is a subtley to the Chinese that is a contrast to Americans. The markets are a good example of this. These people are are polite like foxes who are trying to lure you to their dens. Beijing is trying to dress itself up the best it can, particularly for the Olympics. They have built some incredibly cool stadiums and the like. The construction is going like crazy. What was really interesting to me though was when Des and I from Tiananmen square down to the Temple of Heaven we were walking along this sound wall with a nice facade but when you looked through one of the doors back into the neighborhood there were these broken down hovels of homes. The wall didn't take away the poverty, but it did it's best to put a clean face on it, and mask what is a harsh reality for many of the Chinese; poverty. I don't think China (and in all fairness most countries have this problem as well) knows how to deal with the poorness of its people. This also speaks about how China is guarded in what is shown to people. It knows that the major tourist sites are where the tourists willi be drawn, so it will make sure that those are kept up, but it will build walls around the poorest, so as to hide that blemish upon the face of the city. China is a little bit awkward at times. It avoided the dating scene for a long time, particularly with the West and is making an effort but still not totally sure how to act. One of my favorite examples of this is the choosing of english names by those Chinese who work in tourism, hotels and restaurants. Sometimes the name choice is fine, like Nancy, however someone needs to take Darling aside and explain to him that his name is a little girly. Beijing is making an effort to make the city user-friendly to Americans, but it really needs to hire someone from America or the UK to come and fix signs that say things like "mind the hilly road". So long as you have a hotel that can write things down for you can get around China. Otherwise the taxis, buses and subways are more than a little bit awkward. Having said all of that, I had a great time. The temples, palaces, Great Wall, etc. were amazing. The food is great, although I will admit that my american belly would have compelled me to go find a Subway sandwiches if I'd been there much longer. You can only eat Chinese food daily for so long. You've got to give credit to any country that has lasted that long. China is doing an exemplary job of maintaining its heritage, which is really what is drawing most tourists to the country anyway. Would I go back again? Yep. As the Minnesotans "You betcha". Thanks for the great trip Roice. I appreciated it more than I can say. Justin'

Uncle Des sent me the following about a week later:

'Hi Roice: Hope this email address works. Please reply if you receive it. Thanks so much for the trip to China, I enjoyed it greatly. The highlights of the trip for me included the following: 1. Justin's dance complete with snake, hip waggles and hair whips. 2. Incredible meals - especially at the fancy old fashioned chinese restaurant. 3. Visit to the Summer Palace. This was so much better than the Forbidden City. I'm so glad we visited the Forbidden City first -- it would have been an anticlimax otherwise. 4. Visit to the Ethnic Folk Culture Park. This was very revealing. The chinese government has invested large sums to build this park, in order to counter counter the bad publicity of their treatment of ethnic minorities. The mismanagement of the park is now quite obvious. It has an overall neglected feeling. The performers are just going through the motions. There are a number of attractions closed and obviously in need of repair. It will be very interesting to see the reactions of the world press to this park – the effect might be exactly opposite to what was intended. This trip will really increase my interest in the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics. Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity. Cheers, Des'

As mentioned above, I left the Kunlun Hotel about noon and went to the airport to fly to Urumuchi City. I will write about my adventures in Western China, and about the rest of Des and Justin's trip to Beijing in the next Thoughtlet (0725.html)."

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.)

. . .

Copyright © 2007 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.