Bone-tired and back on the road

Dateline: SWA flights from Providence to BWI to Albuquerque Ö NO WAIT! . . . diverted due to severe weather to Amarillo TX for refueling . . . and then back to Albuquerque NM finally on 21 June 2005

My wife and I are married 19 years ago today. We've been together now for 23 years in all, having had our first date on 21 June 1982 ("Blade Runner").

Yesterday was a blur. During one cell phone conversation with my wife, I compared it to the frantic last day on the run that Henry Hill had (as played by Ray Liotta) in the Scorsese film "Goodfellas." No, I didn't see helicopters swirling above, but I did feel incredibly rushed, and I was operating merely on coffee instead of cocaine like poor Henry was.

It went like this: up at 6am to write the "World is Flat" review, then grab Vonne Mei and Jerry and drive the little man to his preschool, then go to vet's to pick up dog Bailey from his boarding, then drive home, then take off again on my own to get a couple of watches fixed, drop off a check at my bank, get the tank filled, stop by the photo shop to set up another round of author's photos (this time smile and look into the camera, Nyren orders), then rush to kids' school to see Kev star in class play (88 lines in 20 minutes), taping and shooting photos throughout, then race back home for quick shower and shave, then race back to photo shop to shoot new head shots, then race off-island to pick up Ben, son of collaborator Bradd Hayes and drive him back to house. Then the real work began: Ben and I move a series of absurdly heavy items from the basement to the garage and first floor, the killer being the 55-inch widescreen, which wasn't so heavy as it was too bulky. We finish at around 7pm and I drive him back, picking up some refreshments for me and missus as we celebrate our anniversary in the garage at 10pm while I wrap furniture and stack it all neatly so spouse can park her car inside the second bay. I am asleep around 0030 this morning.

I wake up this morning pretty damn sore again, but nothing too bad and only a few nasty bruises in odd places (not all from the moving).

Spend a couple of hours organizing business affairs and then bolt to the airport for two flights to New Mexico on a consulting trip (the first truly negotiated by The New Rule Sets Project LLC).

I will admit to some ambivalency to partnering myself to others in something beyond the sole proprietorship that has defined my consulting since 1998. Truth be told, the visionary-almost by necessity-doesn't play well with others. As soon as you connect yourself to others, two feelings tend to emerge for the natural lone wolf: resentment at having to account for others and a feeling of being trapped by the scheme. The visionary wants no encumbrances, but simply the freedom to go where the ideas take him. Once you embed yourself in organizations of any sort, you worry about altering your calls in order to preserve your equities. The question is whether or not it's better to have no equities and simply contract everything to agents, like I've done with most of my work right now (lit agent, speaking agent, sort of a article agent in Mark Warren at Esquire, etc.).

The counter arguments run toward efficiency and extending your reach and network and influence. But again, the fear lingers, as it did with me regarding the aborted journal: why take people's money and then have to deal with whether or not they approve of everything you write? Why not keep it as free agent as possible, owing nothing to no one?

No easy answers. I will naturally experiment in a variety of directions, trying to figure out the best mix of players, organizations, and relationships in my constellation. I do have an irreducible group of stockholders known as my family. So whatever yields the highest returns for them will be what wins out in the end.

I intend to remain rather ruthless in that regard.

Along these lines I am vectoring toward a meeting with my lit agent Jennifer in NYC next week. She wants to talk over a variety of issues and opportunities. I am looking forward to her usual pragmatism. Plus, this will be only the second F2F we've ever had since our original one back in the spring of 2003. Expect a F2F with Warren next week as well, something I always enjoy.

Here's the catch-up from the effective long weekend:

■ The power of unconventional thinking

■ The elections in the Mideast

■ The numbers game in Iraq

■ Locating China in history: 4 new data points

■ SARBOX for the non-profit world

■ Who's really winning the ideological struggle

■ It's so often a women's thing inside the Gap

■ Flying cars: a beneficiary of the 9/11 rule-set reset?

■ Millennium challenged

■ How the Leviathan's insider status is maintained

■ I want my MTV Desi!

■ Globalization favors the rule-keepers