23 Sep 2007 #0738.html

Laid Off

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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.

"I have been busy since September 20th. I have also been putting off writing about being Laid off. It is hard to admit to those you love and whom you want to look up to you how far from perfect you are. And it is not like you have not all seen this side of me before. In about 1994 Bob Sneider fired me (../0134.html, ../0324.html, and ../0510.html), although the last time I saw him before his death, and I reminded him he fired me, he was quick to say he did not fire me (../0547.html). In 2000 Kjell Finstad fired me (../0034.html), although it was really a mutual understanding. Jeff Hume was blaming me for Continuum's problems, when it was his management that was the problem. And so it was the right thing to leave and let it go where it was going to go. Oh well! Last year, when I was struggling with the fact Dad's farm was being sold, as well as the terms under which it was being sold, I got behind about as far as I am now in my weekly Thoughtlets. So there must be something about some events which makes them very emotional to me, and I seem to have a hard time admitting or accepting them. Oh well! Hopefully each of you kids will do much better than I have done.

Anyway, I have my notes put together for all Thoughtlets up to today, 13 January 2008, and I will get this Thoughtlet finished and start working on getting the others caught up over the next few weeks. Since I can, I will give you a preview of what is coming up:

The week started with a warning. As I get older, I become more and more cynical about who is going to what and how they will attempt to take advantage of me and those I care about. So when I received an e-mail on Monday from David Devor I passed it on to each of you, except Matt:

"Dear Family (except Matt, who I expect is being protected against this type of e-mail threat), I have found David Devor to be reliable over the last decade plus, and pass this e-mail on based on his concern. Since I stopped calling on Sundays, I miss connecting with too many of you. I would appreciate your suggestions how we can better stay connected. Both Andrea and I check our CEIVA every morning for new photographs, and it has been a while since we received any. Please send digital photos, so we can see what is new in your lives, from your cell phone or computer to

RN.66859A74@ceivamobile.com or go to http://www.ceiva.com/lmore/dpr/sending_photos.jsp.

Love, Dad/Roice/Uncle Roice Dear Associates, I don't know if this is a scare hoax but it's best to be alert. Best, David SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW TWO SUBJECT LINES TO BEWARE OF: I just verified this with Snopes and it is REAL. ALSO WENT TO TRUTH OR FICTION AND IT'S on their site also. PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it! If you get an email along the lines of "Osama Bin Laden Captured" or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment. This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS: You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached file called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be rece ived from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW"

Shortly after sending this e-mail, we all received the following response from Paul (8:28 AM):

"Couple of points 1. Never open an attachment on an email from someone you do not know... common sense. 2. Any email that says forward this to everyone you know is not worth the time to forward. I did a quick Google search for "Osama Bin Laden Captured" shows that this was at one time a threat in 2004, but if your virus protection software is up to date it is not a threat any longer:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp"

Guess I must admit I tend to paranoid about some things. And looking back, I still think it interesting the week started with this warning. Despite the story of the little boy who cried wolf, I tend to think it is better for each of us to be warned more often than not often enough. And I was already feeling some anticipation stress, as shown in the following e-mail I sent to John Gillooley at 5:30 AM on Monday morning:

"John, I am forwarding this to you based on two things Mike Schoemann told me on the way home on Friday. I need some advice and direction as to what you want me to do next. There is another message that came in last night regarding Tarim, it is in Chinese, and, based on several messages sent and received last week, I should have a translation by Yongzhong by 10:00 this morning. In addition, I would appreciate an hour of your time, at your earliest convenience, in my office, so we have access to my computer, to review a data mining and pattern finding presentation I was requested to put together for Pemex and a sequence stratigraphy strategy presentation I was requested to put together for Dave Johnson. Thanks and Best Regards, Roice"

John called at 10:00 and told me I will be laid off on Thursday. He told me the basic terms: Cobra for 6 months, plus a fee equivalent to four months salary. So the question started when I heard about Dave Johnson's firing (0733.html), continued when Lee Bell was replaced as President of the Processing Company (0734.html), worried about when watching TV presentations about worst case scenarios (0735.html), discussed over an ice skating competition (0736.html), and recognized was inevitable when Mike Dunn was fired (0737.html) has been answered. I called Andrea and told her. She seemed pleased. I was relieved. It will be so nice to get out of the trap I have felt myself in for too long.

Lee Bell came in and talked to me about the church for a long time. Did not have time to talk to me about the Stratigraphy Strategy, but told me all about "The Bible Unearthed" and work done at Hebrew University that demonstrates there is very little if any archeology information supporting the Bible. Interesting! And folks tell me The Book of Mormon can not be true because of a lack of collaborating archeology support! I sent a note to my lawyer, Ed Rogers, telling him about the change. We never got together, and were able to make sure everything is OK and I am legally covered via e-mails and phone calls.

Roice sent me this note on Monday:

"Hey Dad and Andrea, this was from a while ago, but the pig races near you guys made it onto national TV :)"

http://katytimes.com/articles/2007/02/08/news/01news.txt/ and http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/rob_riggle/index.jhtml?playVideo=82843

I told Roice about what is written in these Thoughtlets, in my response (see 0639.html, 0706.html, and 0731.html). I did not pass on my news to anyone other than Andrea and Eddie. On Tuesday I learned from Les Denham our paper is being given at 10:30 on Wednesday next week at the SEG. On Wednesday I sent the following to Lyle Rowbury:

"Lyle, Anything on the confidentiality yet? I would like to meet with him Thursday for lunch or anytime in the afternoon, or anytime Friday or Saturday, if he is willing to sign the agreement. I will be out of town at a convention next week, and it would be nice to know whether there is any opportunity to work with him in any of the three proposed ways before I leave. Thanks for being the middle man and giving me some credibility I feel I don't have working alone. Best Regards, Roice "

I also sent a note to Melanie:

"Melanie, Thanks for the calls and the new photos! I especially liked the one of Colby in front of the school bus. Brought back lot's of memories. I'm sure I've told you about my first day at school, and if not here it is again. Mom was isolated on the farm, and I became her toy. We played and did stuff all day everyday. She would play the piano and I would sing musicals with her. Then school came and she was so worried about me becoming corrupted. She talked about being scared to death the first time she put me on the school bus, and waiting all day for the bus to bring me back home. When I got home I walked in the house, flipped her the bird, and said, 'Mom, did you know that is a dirty word?' Love, Dad"

Melanie responded with:

"LOL! That is funny dad! And I can feel grandma's pain of waiting for the bus... she must have felt a little like I did when Colby came home in love, ready to get married, and with his 1st kiss after only 2 weeks of school! I'm not sure if the message I sent with the photos went through but our digital camera broke and so I'm not sure how many more pictures we will be sending for a little while... we are using disposable cameras for now. Love you, Mel"

Melanie sent another note about Colby falling in love. I won't include this in the Thoughtlet, as I don't think Colby would like me to. It is hard to guess on these things. I hope each of you will give me guidance regarding what you don't care if I include in my blog, and what you want kept between us. I realize I tend to error on the side of being too open. Maybe that is part of the reason behind being laid off.

Sara Ellyn sent me a note:

"Dad, I've tried Claritin, Claritin D and Chloretrimeton this year and none of them are working. Do you know if your body gets used to these over time? Any suggestions for something else? This is the worse they've ever been and can't figure out why. Sara"

I responded with:

"Sara, The one that works the best for me has Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Pseudoephedrine HCI in it. I expect you can get used to it, and it still works pretty good for me, as long as I don't get out in it. The sneezing has not started yet for me this year. Usually starts the weekend of the Katy Rice Festival. I had one friend tell me my allergies are because I grew up in an angry home and have never got rid of my anger. Interesting theory, and I don't buy it. You do know that when I was about 5, I was taken to an allergy doctor in Salt Lake, they did tests on my arm, and then they had me take shots once a week until I left home to go to college. I used to have to fly alone to Salt Lake to see the allergy specialist and the dermatologist, who shot x-rays at the cysts I got on my face. I hope all of that money and effort did some good. I'm sure they know a lot more now, and I expect your insurance through Dell will cover most of the costs of seeing an allergy specialist. I'm sorry I have left you with such a negative legacy. Love, Dad"

Sara responded with:

"I was hoping we'd avoid the apology, as there's nothing either of us can do about it. Really fishing for advice, not for you to feel bad. Thanks for the names. I think I may have to go to a doctor, it's gotten unmanageable. They've already been going almost a month for me. Ragweed is high right now, surprised it hasn't hit you. Thanks again. Sara"

I measured Mike Dunn's furniture. It is too big for office at home. Tuesday evening I went to Rice University to listen to a senior researcher from MicroSoft talk. It is interesting how quickly I had become accustomed to the cocoon of being a full time employee at GDC/Geokinetics.

Thursday morning was the big day. I was laid off. The following photos or John Gillooley from a movie taken of the actual event describe more than my words can what it was like.

It was interesting John agreed to read the book I had recently completed: "The Speed of Trust." I wonder if he did? I still have not got it back. It makes a wonderful prop for the above photos. Later in the day I received the following note from John Gillooley:

"Maureen We agreed to sell Roice his laptop for 50 bucks and the Sun workstation and monitors for 1 dollar. Will you and Roice please get together for whatever paper work we need? He will take these today. Thanks, John John Gillooly VPUSA Geokinetics Processing & Interpretation"

The rest of Thursday was a very busy all day. I had brought a change of clothes. I spent the day and packed up my office. Luis Viertel helped me. He also told me about how "Rats are the first ones off the boat," and "You can tell who your friends are by how they react when you are fired." Peg Guthrie gave me prices for digitizing logs and 1-D synthetics: 1-10 $850; 11-20 $650; 21-30 $600. I still expect this connection to prove useful over the coming years. In the evening, Andrea and I had already agreed to go to the temple, and this was a good source of comfort.

Friday included a nice note from Sarah Johnson Nelson:

"Hi Nelsons!! I uploaded some more pics and journal entries, so check them out when you get a sec. Ethan started a hip hop dance class this past week. It was so funny to watch, but he had a really good time. There were 11 girls and just one other boy in the class - thank goodness for him. Also, Ethan goes for two more ice skating practices before he knows his final team placement. I'll try and take pics once that happens 'cause right now it's not final. And finally, posted pics of Ben this week. He went to the doctor today to see if he broke his nose! Yes, it was during a soccer match. He got fouled to the ground and his face did a nice scrub on the grass causing some beautiful scars and a black and blue nose. Won't get the x-rays until next week. S"

I had made arrangements with Lyle Rowbury to use his truck and trailer, and with Rob to help move material. Rob picked up the Prius and went down to the office and moved all of the boxes in the hall next to the service elevator. Lyle and I went and had a meeting with John Herrin, the owner of the Deerwood property. It was a good meeting. He is planning a very complex home on the property. He is receptive to what I am proposing. He had the neatest granite structure in his lobby, which is a type of xylophone. I left his office optimistic being laid off will lead to a wonderful new world. Time will tell.

Rob had most of the stuff moved when we got there. Again Luis was right there to help. Carlos Venegas, Les Denham, and Dave Agarwal also helped. Lee Bell saw me in the hall and did not even acknowledge my existence. There was a lot of stuff to move to the basement, load on the truck and the trailer and in the Prius. We filled each of these to the brim in cleaning out the office. I was absolutely wiped out by the end of the day. Lyle left after we got everything off of the truck and trailer and onto the lawn. He was worn out. I would never have been able to get it all done without Rob's help. THANKS! It was a long hard day.

Saturday I sent the following note to Les Denham:

"Les, Please change my affiliation on your paper to Walden 3-D, Inc. and put my web site under my name, www.walden3d.com. You can put an * that says this work was done while I was employed at and you were consulting for Geokinetics, and put the web page of where the paper is at their site under this. Expect it would not hurt to put your web address under your name. I will be in the room, handing out cards and new brochures. Regarding the computer, there is obviously no time before the convention. Once it is ready let me know, and I will bring the Prius down and meet you and Nicolas or Pravin or Dev at the north revolving door at whatever time you tell me to be there. I'll talk to you about the AAPG Convention at the SEG. Any ideas for a joint paper? What about a Mompos or Tecton or Emerald case history with one of those companies. My goal is to get a back-log of consulting and to keep the pipeline full, with overflow to you and the rest of my NetWork. Part of this is keeping my name in front of the community, and so I am now more interested in doing more to support professional presentations at places like AAPG. Best Regards, Roice "

I also sent the following note to John Herrin, owner of the Deerwood property:

"John, It was a pleasure to talk with you yesterday, to discuss my thoughts, and to see the plans for your house. It is exciting to see someone else with a dream, and to see how you are pursing the dream. However, in this case, I do hope in the end you decide not to pursue your house, as I think the concept I presented would be exciting, challenging, and a great way to start a giant business opportunity, as we discussed. The web site I have put together is at http://www.walden3d.com/w3d/design/Deerwood/index.html, and the section I still need to rework is the .../technology.html. Hopefully I will get to this today, as I will be involved in a geophysical convention in San Antonio next week. Let me know if you want your name taken off of the above referenced page, or if there is something else you see you would like changed. For instance, it would be interesting to put several images of your planned house at this web site, specifying this is the alternative you are considering for the property. I realize there are many developers with track records you can take this project to, and I hope you will consider giving me a time window opportunity to demonstrate what my NetWork can do with your property. Hopefully by sharing my thoughts, I did not increase the value of the property to such a degree that my project becomes financially impossible. To me, the best way to make sure you realize value for the higher and better land use my concept brings to your property is to give you a percentage of sales as part of the property purchase price. This would also encourage you to help me get the other 4 acres included as part of the project. I know we can leave you and your wife an artistic legacy, written in new material sciences. Best Regards, Roice"

Then at noon I sent this to each of you:

"Dear Family, This mass e-mail is to inform everyone I was laid off at Geokinetics on Thursday. When Rob helped me and Lyle Rowbury move two big pickup loads of stuff from the office yesterday, he explained it is better to say laid off, than fired or terminated, because the latter two imply it was based on something I did wrong. Once I sign the severance agreement, I am required to say I voluntarily resigned from employment. Geokinetics is going through some growing pains, and to cut costs there were several folks laid off in accounting, H/R, as well as the processing and interpretation group I have worked for for almost 4 years. When I went to work at Geokinetics there was a 4 seismic crew acquisition division called Quantum Geophysical, and the seismic processing and interpretation group, called Geophysical Development Corporation, or GDC. Two years ago Geokinetics purchased Trace Energy, a Calgary based seismic acquisition company, and then a little over a year ago they purchased another seismic acquisition company, Grant Geophysical. Geokinetics is now the fourth largest land seismic acquisition company in the world. Seismic acquisition now makes 97% of the income of Geokinetics. The processing and interpretation side of the house has lost money most of time I was employed, and has just starting to break even. I have had three bosses during my stay at Geokinetics. Dave Johnson, president, was in my office most mornings he was in town to talk about strategy, plans, projects I was working on, and new ideas. It was a lot of fun, and we became good friends. Mike Dunn, Vice-President New Business Development for Geokinetics, had spent 3 years recruiting me, before I went to work for GDC, and my entire time at GDC I worked for him. We had a disagreement a few weeks ago about continued free use of one of my Landmark Graphics lifetime licenses (He had told me I would be compensated for the use of the license when I went to work, and when I showed him it was over $100,000 worth of use over my time at GDC, he went out and bought a SMT license and paid me a total of $13,000.). Despite this money disagreement, we are friends. Lee Bell was the President of Geokinetics and he gave me my offer letter, and was who I officially reported to. Lee mostly talked to me about the church, and we had very interesting and far ranging intellectual discussions. A year ago, the Board of Directors did a 10:1 reverse split of the stock. This pretty much guaranteed my stock options, which I am completely vested in, would never be worth more than about $100,000. When I accepted the job, I figured we could make them worth at least one order of magnitude more than this. The reverse split was preparation to move the stock from penny stock to the American Exchange. When this happened, the stock price started at $27/share and climbed to $34.50/share. However, it has been a very wet year worldwide. One day last quarter all 20+ seismic crews were shut down because of rain, from Texas to Bangladesh. When crews can not work, they do not generate cash, and there are still very large expenses. The bottom line is the second quarter reports to the stock market did not meet projections, and even though the backlog has grown, the stock market discounted the stock value and it dropped to $17.50 per share. I am several weeks behind on my weekly blog, thoughtlets, because Dave Johnson was fired as a scapegoat, it was obvious to me something would happen, and I did not want to worry everyone in the family. A week later Lee Bell was moved out from being the President of the Processing and Interpretation Group. This week he has taken a job as Chief Geophysicist for Geokinetics, responsible for new developments in both acquisition and processing. Last Friday, a week ago yesterday, Mike Dunn was fired. My turn was Thursday, and I knew it was coming. The company has become a place where it is no fun to work at, and I have always absolutely hated the commute on the Katy Freeway, one of the worst commutes in the United States according to the Houston Chronicle last Monday. Geokinetics gave me several months of severance and Cobra. They are talking to me about three consulting jobs: helping them get payment from the last two jobs we did in China (a few weeks work and a trip to China for Melanie and Jared, so get your passports and babysitters ready); working with Pemex on data mining and pattern finding (this could be several years of consulting and is outside the Geokinetics new focus on seismic acquisition); and doing seismic interpretation on a big Pemex job Geokinetics been approved to bid on, decided not to bid on, and are considering outsourcing to Mike Dunn (Again, this could be several years of interpretation work at home. It involved outsourcing interpretation, drilling, and producing wells for a specific area around Poza Rica, and is a billion dollar contract. Mike Dunn is positioning to manage the project and to do the seismic interpretation and well location, which he would outsource to me. If he gets this, and there is a good chance he will, his part will be about a $50 million project. He has told me I will be his partner to get the seismic interpretation part done, and because I held firm on the Landmark licenses, he knows he is going to pay a premium to get my services, at least until he makes up for what I was not paid over the last few years.). Andrea is OK with the changes. The timing is great for me. With oil at over $82/barrel there is a lot of need for my expertise. I was bottled up in the pre-stack depth migration group at Geokinetics, and could not really do what I do best, which is find new oil and gas. The SEG Convention, our major annual professional convention is next week. I will be there passing out new brochures and cards, and seeking consulting retainers. Les Denham and I have a professional paper being presented on Wednesday, and I have already talked to several folks about getting put on a consulting retainer with their companies. I have redone my web site to highlight projects I've done in the past, which can be repeated for folks as a consultant. I'm very optimistic this is going to lead to nice opportunities, including, hopefully, funding of Dynamic Resources Corporation to pursue oil exploration on the boundaries of geopressure pods, which is a radical new exploration plan we have put together over the last few decades. Probably more than you wanted to know, and I figured it is better to send out this than let you hear parts of what has happened through rumors. Love, Dad/Roice/Uncle Roice"

My sister provided the first and most detailed response:

"Dear Roice, Best wishes as you tackle the new adventures. I admire how you always have projects and plans and possibilities. We hope it will work out well for you. With the housing market at the lowest point in 16 years we are not optimistic about the farm sale, so unfortunately there will not be that help until the economy sorts out. It's certainly been a roller coaster year of potential and potholes. Hopefully we'll all manage to stay afloat. I'm nervous about Bridget and Justin as they have had to borrow a lot to keep going with law school despite his scholarship. Brian is at this huge crossroads in his life as I told you. He'll be back from Boston on Tuesday and we'll find out what is happening. Never a dull moment. It sounds like you have good contacts so good luck at the conference and we certainly hope the projects work out to your advantage. Love, Sara"

A little after 9:00 PM, Melanie sent this note:

"Oh dad, I am very sorry to hear about this... although you sound energized by the change of directions. I will call tomorrow and talk to you more. We're thinking about you... and Andrea. Colby's team won their first soccer game today - Colby scored 3 of the 11 points on their team. He's feeling pretty good about himself and enjoying soccer. It was fun being his coach today. Love, Mel"

I have no notes about Sunday. I know I taught Primary. I know that on my way from Sharing Time to Class, I stopped and announced to the Priesthood Opening Exercises that I had been laid off, so there would not be any rumors flying around the ward. Looking back, this was probably a good thing to do. I think I was very busy all afternoon getting ready to go to the SEG Convention early Monday in San Antonio. Hard to believe this week was exactly 11 years after the week I wrote the first Thoughtlet (../9638.html). It is sobering to reflect on the things which have happened over these 11 years. Despite the upside of not being chained to someone else's lack of providing direction, it is no fun to be laid off."

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.)

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Copyright © 2007 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.