Dateline: Hotell Bryggen Orion, Bergen Norway, 20 February 2005

I was hallucinating at the end of the my last post. No eggs, but some interesting meat substances. Ate so long I barely got on the plane in time. Had a row to myself.

Took the pill for the flight from Iceland to Oslo and missed the entire thing. It was boom-chaka-lak-huh? Started reading an article in Newsweek and never finished it.

Weird, but no one asked to see my passport in Norway when we landed. When I flashed the badge in Iceland, I entered ìScandanaviaî for real, so nothing more required.

I was pretty groggy getting off plane is Oslo, and it took me a while to realize I needed to grab my checked luggage, even though I was ticketed through to Bergen. But that was what was weird: I had to pick up my luggage and resubmit it for the domestic flight component, but I didnít have to show either a ticket or my passport. So the drill was sort of like landing in a new country (move your luggage) but then not (no customs).

Fell asleep in lounge waiting for plane. Nice older guy sitting next to me tapped me awake or Iíd be there still. No biz class on third leg, and that was disappointing, since I slept through it all (the hot towels, the wine, everything!) on the second leg.

Then again, some sleep is required.

My naval commander host is waiting for me at Bergen airport with a copy of my book, so I recognize him versus vice-versa. I donít follow the Esquire fashion rule of dressing up for plane rides like theyíre still a privilege. No, I go comfy in some stylish casual my wife bought me for the China trip.

He drives me to Bergen and I take in the sites along the way. Pretty warm here. Snow-capped mountains a plenty, but little snow here on coast. Much like Rhode Island to be exact. Bergen is the second biggest city in Norway at just under a quarter-million, but itís really dispersed among these seven mountains that pop up along the coast, so you donít really get a sense of big city.

The old-town center here was one of the key pillars of the Hanseatic League from way back way back, so lotsa early Germanic influence here in architecture. Reminds me a lot of St. Petersburg, another northern port city with lotsa early Germanic influence. In many ways, this place feels like the closest Iíve come yet to revisiting Leningrad (the name of St. Pete when I lived a summer there in 1985).

The ìhotelî weíre staying at isnít the best, but itís one the Norwegian navy has a deal with. Nice enough, in a mid-level British sort of way, but I would have taken the Radisson down the street with its broadband in every room. I have to type this on my Mac in my room and then memory-stick it into the public PC in the lobby. But that beats trudging to the Internet cafÈ way down near the McDonaldís.

Hmmm, McDonaldís . . . .

When I arrive with my commander host Odd (pronounced Ode, as in ìOde to Joyî), we sit and drink coffee with Chet Richards and his wife. Chet Richards, you may remember, reviewed my book, and my review of his review started a bit of snarky emails between us, making me a bit apprehensive about meeting him, because we have to get along over the next three days (I talk tomorrow and Tuesday, he talks Tuesday and leads plenary on Wednesday with me and Col. Thomas X. Hammes, USMC, author of The Sling and the Stone, a good book on Fourth Generation Warfare I used in Vol. II.

After two hours of chit-chat, in which I discover Chet to be a really nice guy and I believe he finds the same in me (proving yet again the old bit about avoiding judgment on anyone based on virtual contact), I head up to the sixth floor and my room. Put my pants in the Corby (which I loved so much from my talk at Parliament in London in late 2003 that I had Vonne buy one for me for home), iron my shirt for tomorrow, shower up, and then start working the brief (many nits to fix in transfer from PC to Mac, but no showstoppers). Still, some real work to do because tomorrow I will give the max version of the brief (like the one I used for the June 04 CSPAN taping) and I havenít done that big version in about five months, so much to update.

I go out for dinner with the Richards to a local restaurant. I have a fab seafood salad (I figure, Iím in fish capital Bergen, why not?). We talk over the meal for a solid two hours, and itís very nice. Chetís a natural mentoring sort, like most retired military, so you learn a lot over a meal. He is very curious about Vol. II, and so I try out the material in bits and pieces, and as usual, this process makes me feel ever more excited about how good I think that piece will be. Markís right: I keep thinking that all this stuff is hugely obvious to everyone but then I have to understand that no one thinks the Core-Gap and everything else connected with PNM in the 24/7/365 way I do, plus a lot was left unsaid in PNM, so this material is definitely Vol. II (not a sequel but an extension) but also very new and unique.

Not sure I said this one before, but Vol. I should be thought of like a pennant turned backwards. In terms of content, the pointy end of the pennant begins at about 1973 and the fat end ends up at 2004. PNM wasnít really about the future at all, but about figuring out now and how we got here. Vol. II is the opposite of Vol. I: this time the pennant is turned right-ways, with the fat end starting in 2005 and the pointy end reaching until about 2025-2030. So the book is mostly geared toward the next five to ten years, with only a small portion reaching out to the 2025 timeframe. I attach a small graphic to explain it further.

(Oops! Forgot in original posting of this message! Here it is the next day:)

Richards seemed to really like that explanation of the content difference between I and II, as does everyone else I explain it too. Itís a good image for me, helping me understand the two booksí center of gravity. Vol. I really had to focus most on explaining the world since 9/11 and Vol. II really has to focus most on explaining the world over the next five or so years, because that, as Neil Nyren points out, is what people really want most in this sort of sequel, not some fantastic trip to 2025.

Anyway, a weird sort of truncated day, tacked onto yesterday, but enjoyable thanks to the Richards and Odd. I will work the brief as required tonight and then pill my way to sleep so I can perform for a solid six hours tomorrow.