Dateline: SWA flight from BWI to PVD, 8 June 2005

Finished late yesterday and drove into the night to Carlisle PA. Got on base at the Army War College and slept in the historic Washington Hall, so named for a certain US Army officer who led two expeditions in the French and Indian War from that location. I had this huge suite, with 15-foot ceilings all around. I had stayed there once for two weeks during a CPX, command post exercise, where the players at Carlisle pretended to be the national command authorities to the Pacific Command's actual leadership out in Hawaii. Kinda sucked, a Honolulu wargame lasting two weeks and I spend it all inside windowless rooms in a gaming facility in PA. Still, the hot wash following the game was in Honolulu and that lasted a week as we wrote up our report. Got a lot of great hiking in both times I did this.

Gave a 1:45 version of the brief today at the Army War College's big end-of-the-year symposium where all sorts of public and private VIPs are invited to join the student body in receiving a host of big talks. Great theater and great audience. Great Q&A after. I did a short 15 minutes in one seminar following, as a thanks to host Col. Al Stolberg.

Then a mad dash from Carlisle to BWI, catching my plane.

Here's the daily catch:

■ Harvard & Wisconsin: a toss up

■ The retrenchment in Russia is real, but not unexpected

■ Globalization: a very good thing for the average American pocketbook

■ Security leads the way in rule-set creation after 9/11

■ SysAdmin work is tough on marriages