Not the intended effect, I'm sure.

A great ad from the U.S.'s National Drug Control office. Makes me wish I was high.

Why there's a pot of coffee brewing

They’re waiting. Perched on the edge of my desk. Silent, complacent, knowing I can’t avoid them forever. Student essays. Sigh.

Sibling rivalry

Some of you may remember the entertaining photoshopped picture of me that went out as an invite to my birthday celebrations last summer:
Not liking to be beaten at his own game – my brother’s photoshopped picture advertising his birthday celebrations (25, my gawd) this past weekend:
My brother looks better in a gold bikini than I do. At least I've got bigger breasts.

Glimpsed

An old couple standing still in the metropolitan rush hour. Aging more than gracefully – unashamed grey and white hair, stylish lines in classic styles. Him: weighing the coins in his hand as he stands in front of a parking meter. Her: reading the instructions over his shoulder, an arm hooked through his. She lifts her head slightly and brushes her lips against the arc of his cheekbone, he turns to her and smiles, pulls her closer. He feeds the meter.

I saw this on my way to the metro after work today, pulling someone else’s vignette into my own preoccupations about what I want. If anything, maybe it’s this. Not pop song love, not poetry love, but quotidian, powerful, wordless shared looks love. And more – I might even believe in it.

And they weren't even fermented.

I love grapes. Love them. I hardly ever have them (except at Xmas, since one of my aunts always comes bearing bags of grapes) because they’re expensive and because and I tend to buy more portable fruit like Granny Smith apples. White seedless grapes (my fave; Welch’s makes a white grape juice that’s just delicious) were on sale at the grocery store this week, so I've been mindlessly popping them into my mouth all day. And now I have a terrible stomachache. I had no idea it was possible to eat too many grapes, that I even had a grape threshold. I've been bested by a small indifferent fruit.

A different kind of live journal

My department’s shiny new online journal – avenue – launched today. Yours truly has a column about television (no surprise there), which will be regularly updated. Ideally. Check it out – it’s a little more erudite than this. Ideally.