quickie

Siri is useless.

The only thing she's good for is switching her language to German and having a pretend conversation during which you ask questions using made up German sounding words that she'll answer in actual German.

(In theory, Siri could be useful while driving, but she rarely understands what's being asked. It's easier to just look away from the road for a couple of seconds and do what you've gotta do, rather than explain something to Siri five or six times.)

...

This list of executed offenders on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website fascinates me. I check it like a blog. Some of the appeal is that I'm undecided on the death penalty. But that's not what hooked me.

I first like to read the death row inmate's personal info and criminal history, but I only read that because it's a pre-requisite for the main attraction: their last words.

I just find that very intense. It kind of gives me a weird respect for the state of Texas to post that.

Maybe there should be a blog or a book dedicated solely to people's last words.

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This is a well written article on a very interesting subject. (The changing role of women in society, and how it affects expectations to marry and have kids.)

and this is a pretty good follow-up interview with the author

It kinds of reminds me of Shelby Foote's quote from episode five of the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series,

"The Civil War was the greatest tragedy in the history of America, save women's suffrage."

(It doesn't really remind of that quote)


(Ok it's not a real quote. But wouldn't it be funny if he actually said that?)


(Especially if Burns waited until episode five to use that quote. He presents Foote as this extremely passionate and knowledgeable Civil War expert for four episodes, and all of the sudden after six hours of commentary, he reveals that Foote also happens to be a misogynist.)

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We went to the Michigan/Northwestern game last month. During halftime Northwestern put on a short ceremony to honor their national champion women's lacrosse team. Not many people were paying attention so the stadium was quiet while the public address announcer read off names of the players as they accepted their championship rings on the 50-yard line. After all of the players had been given their rings and trophies, the PA announcer concluded the ceremony by saying, "So congratulations to the 2011 National Champion Northwestern Women's Lacrosse team!"

The stadium was very quiet, and then suddenly two Michigan fans sitting next to us got up and shouted, "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Another Michigan fan sitting a few rows up turned around and told them to shut up and have some respect. And then the two boo'ers got mad and were ready to fight him. It was pretty funny. There is definitely such a thing as sports fans who are too passionate.

Here's a picture.

Remember when I blogged about finding that $100 bill while throwing stuff away during our move? I wanted to find a cool way to spend it, but a week went by and I hadn't come up with anything. So on the train ride to Evanston for the Northwestern/Michigan game, this big black guy walked into our car and held up a sign with what appeared to be his mugshot on it, and then in a loud commanding voice announced, "I am a convicted felon. I am looking for a job. It is difficult to find a job with a felony conviction. I will not to go back to prison, and I will not commit another crime. But until I can find a job, I need money to survive and so I am asking for anything you can spare today. This is not easy for me, I don't like doing this, but I will not commit another crime, so this is what I have to do for now."

Then he held out a little bucket to accept money.

All I had was that fucking hundred.

I took out my wallet and took long look at the hundred, then I grabbed it and started taking it out, and then I stopped and thought to myself, "Man, I wish I was the kind of person who'd give this guy my hundred. But I'm not."

I thought about showing him my wallet and saying, "Look man, all I got is this hundo. Any chance you break this?"

Or maybe just standing up and asking the train, "Can anyone break a hundred?"

But I didn't.

Out of fifty people on that train car, five were black. And four out of those five gave him money. And maybe one of the other forty-five gave him money.


Later that night I was at the stadium and had a few beers in me and was hungry, so I went down to get food, and all I had was the hundo. Being too lazy to walk back up and get smaller bills from Cindy, I spend fucking hundred on nachos. Here's the woman making change.

And then I thought, "Man, this is a Saturday night in America, and I'm here watching America's game with 50,000 fellow Americans. So I'm gonna indulge the American way. I'm going to overeat."

So ten minutes later I came back and got a polish sausage. And then I got a pretzel and a coke. And then I got popcorn. And by the end of the game I felt kind of gross.

...


I liked this song I heard on XRT's local show, and it wasn't on Shazam (which is kind of rare for me), so I googled it. They've got other songs on their website, but I only liked this one. (My computer's speakers don't really pick up the bass, so it's worth plugging in good headphones if you've got'em)