Interesting coffee cup.

At the coffee shop east of my house, they have new coffee mugs that have a glaze and a lip resembling old-time metal camping mugs, but are actually really ceramic.

Neighborhood Developments.

The other week at the coffee shop down the street from me, I ran into my stoner neighbor from downstairs, who told me that the Latin Kings had tagged the front of our building the previous night.

When I got home later, I looked, and though it wasn’t on my staircase door, there was this big crown in white paint on the black door of my stoner neighbor’s apartment, which also opens up onto the front of the building and the sidewalk.

He said his roommate had texted the landlord to get it cleaned off, and that ours was the only apartment building to get tagged, since the doors to other apartment buildings are behind fences.

I’ve heard that the north-south street just west of my house is a boundary in gang territory and that five-ten years ago the neighborhood used to be a lot worse, but this is really the first major sign I’ve seen of that, compared to other places that I’ve lived.

I’m so careless with Home Improvements.

I’m very impressed by how good my two (half British) (half Sudanese) sibling friends are at home improvements.

Though their tiling is a bit off here and there, perhaps due to old crooked walls, their drywalling and painting is simply immaculate.

In comparison, my own attempts at caulking are so sloppy.

Last winter I caulked a bit around where the wainscoting separated from the walls in order to cut down on heat leakage, and I just smeared caulk everywhere when I tried to smooth it out with a wet cloth like you're supposed to.

Too, a few weeks ago, I was wiping down windows in preparation for putting up plastic on them for winter, and I noticed a couple glass panes had wood flaking away that opened up gaps where cold could come in.

So, I took out my unused caulk and went to seal that up, and the next thing you know, when I wiped it, caulk was all smearing up onto the glass.

Two old women walking, the other week:

1) As I bike past the parking garage of the police station near me, a(n old) (Asian) woman in sunglasses and a bright red coat with a bright red backpack is singing something operatic very loudly as she strolls along by herself, but when I look over at her and she catches my inadvertent smile, she grows solemn and stops.

2) As I stop to rack my bikeshare bicycle halfway through my ride, this (older) (black) woman on the sidewalk a bit down the block uses a white cane to hobble along in short skirts, high boots, a thin black jacket, and a leopard-print scarf, and every once in a while she pauses and hocks a loud spit.

Cute (Asian-American) children.

The other day midweek I was biking to school in late morning and there were 2 women leading this giant group of (Asian-American) 4-5 year olds in a line to a park building, probably for a class or something.

A car alarm was going off in the background, and somehow as I waited for all of them to cross the street, one kid started going "BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP" in rhythm to the alarm, and pretty soon the entire group of children was chanting it, and pretty in tune with the alarm, too.

Flashback to clubbing after the last Madonna concert:

Two dumpy (young) (hispanic) guys in white shirts and dark suspenders and pants and odd sloppy makeup had on these elaborate plastic bull horns like from the "Living for Love" video and related concert performances.

They said they had bought them online from the actual designer for like a thousand dollars.

My mother's evaluation of me...

The other day she said that I was an "overachiever".

I don't think I've ever been called that before, but it does seem to match up with my conscientiousness and efforts to always improve.

It makes a lot of sense, actually.