"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

Today was not trending well. It was looking like another one of those days when you knock over everything you reach for, you hit the wrong keys, repeatedly, on the keyboard, and every strap or hook on everything you touch finds some improbable way to get looped around some protrusion, either dragging it out of your hand or forcing you into a comic Roadrunner/Coyote style sudden deceleration. This on top of being stood up for a date last night (*not* by the SCAdian), getting the wrong drink, *twice*, with the fast -food meal I ordered on the way home, and getting ferocious indigestion at 2am (lesson learned: don't eat fast food late in the evening when you're already upset).

But coming to work, I got a dose of perspective. As I was driving along on the Beltway at about 60mph, a vehicle in the right-hand lane pulled out in front of me suddenly and with no warning. He was remarkably close in front, maybe a car-length or less. It felt just like any of the "far too realistic" collisions I've seen on film

I had time to think, "Oh, crap, this is goign to be bad," to start to break and realise that was not going to keep us from colliding, and to swerve around him jsut enough to avoid hitting him while not hitting anyone in the lane to the left (I really don't recall if I knew that it was clear or not). I retained control the whole time, did not fishtail, and did not lose a tremendous amount of speed. So I think it would have been a pass even in a protective driving course.

I located and kept an eye on the vehicle, which proceeded to pursue me. The driver sped through traffic and pulled up level with me, rolled his window down, and pointed at me, saying something that I assume was his attempt to blame me for the near-collision. I suggested, with words and gestures, that he get lost. He looked disgusted, rolled his window up, and sped off through traffic. I moved over several lanes and continued to monitor his location until we were no longer on the same stretch of highway.

But, you know, after that, I would be OK if I dropped a stack of papers or got the wrong drink with my meal. You can't drop things or be pissed off by bad service if you're a smear on the road.

I slipped, walking out of the bathroom last night after going in to (IIRC) wash my face and hands after coming home. My left foot slid under the corner of the open door, skinning two toes and digging a (relatively speaking) big chunk out of a third. It hurt like bloody hell (lots of nerves in the foot, I guess). astrongteacher was nice enough to clean up the damaged digits and put band-aids on them; I could replace them this morning after my shower, but last night it just hurt too much. I kept a bag of frozen peas (with mint :-) on them, off and on, while we watched the season finale of Treme, and the piggies felt much better by the time we went to bed. They are (mostly) normal today. Doesn't feel like anything's broken, thank goodness.

Other than that, last night was very nice--I got to hang out with the Thursday Night Boys and introduce them to a new wargame, which was a success, with people asking me to bring it back again. Nicest of all, it's a set of rules that gr_c17 bought me a while back that I've only had a few chances to play, but which I quite like, and it allows me to use some figures I bought AGES ago and had never done much with before (6mm Heroics & Ros Seven Years War Austrians and Prussians). Also, I get to go hang out with some of the lads tomorrow and game, before coming home and having a nice cookout with E and some of our neighbours. SO, life is pretty good right now, injuries notwithstanding.

20/50: Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid. Another tremendously good book by AR, showing what an able reporter he is, with a tremendous grasp of detail, amazing access, fearless in sticking to dangerous subjects (I really worry about him given recent events in Pakistan). He does have one problem with writing, in that he deals with narratives in such detail that sometimes he will pursue one thread and then backtrack and deal with another thread over the same period of time. It makes it seem a bit like hearing the same story over again, and I'd like it better if he integrated the threads better, but given the level at which he is writing, I realise that would sometimes be difficult.

I found reading (which is to say, listening to) this book very tough at times. We (the US) have done so much so badly in South Asia. It is a tricky place, and some of its problems are perhaps beyond any real solution. But we have made obviously bad choices--bad for the people who live there and also bad for us. Bad in the practical sense that the results of our choices have made us less effective there and made it harder for us to pursue our goals, but also bad in a more absolute sense, one of moral action. Supporting dictators, condoning bad and vicious rulers, bankrolling terrorists or turning a blind eye to their operations, using torture to extract information, using powerful, indiscriminate weapons of war against poorly discerned target, ignoring the rights and needs of civilians functionally under our protection...the list is very, very long. Most of it was done by an administration I opposed and hated, but it was done by the US nonetheless, and it makes me sick at heart. We allowed ourselves to be manipulated by some very, very bad people, and we did some things that were very, very bad ourselves, sometimes promising ourselves that the ends justified the means or other times not even considering or caring about the nature and consequences of the means.

But Descent is an excellent book, and if you are interested in what has happened in Afghanistan in the past decade (his narrative ends in about 2008) and want to get a really good grasp of who the players are and what the stakes may be in South and Central Asia, I strongly recommend it.

Books in progress

Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn
The Sultan's Seal by Jenny White
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
Islam by Karen Armstrong

Poor Phil. My chum Phil showed up at my place this morning, with beer and wargaming figures, all ready for our gaming day.

Only problem was that our gaming day is *tomorrow*.

I gave him a cup of coffee and we had a good chin-wag.

Now back to finishing the first ep of George Gently so I can get out and enjoy some of the beautiful day outside!