Flip Phone Predictive Text

Here are some words that are in my flip phone's predictive text. Countries like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovkia, Suriname, and Zimbabwe. Places like Mogadishu and companies like Exxon. Fancy words like disintegration and precognition.

Here are some words that are not on my phone. Penguin, raccoon, panda, rhino, mustang.

I'm gonna be on the level here. In the grand scheme of things, I can type the word "panda" into my phone by pressing 726632 or the word "raccoon" by typing 777222222266666666 with sufficient pauses in between the numbers so the phone knows when to start a new letter. I honestly, sincerely, have zero problem with that.

My fucking question is, who the fuck decided that Czechoslovakia, a country that dissolved in the early '90s, is a more common word than "raccoon." Here's a text I would send my wife "Baby, don't put the trash out until morning, the raccoons in our neighborhood have been getting into trash cans again." Here's a text I would not send my wife. "Baby, I'm moving to the area that was once known as Czechoslovakia. I hear they don't have raccoons there."

My theory is that they have names of big countries and cities to make texting easier for business people who might have a need to talk about said big countries and cities. If that's the case, I want to wonder what kind of go getter businessman is using a fucking flip phone in 20fucking17. My sympathies to that poor bastard.

The Matrix

I rewatched The Matrix the other day. I remember when this film first came out, I saw it in the theaters and was BLOWN AWAY. The special effects were mind boggling and the action was like nothing I've ever seen. That was almost 20 years ago and honestly, it's showing its age. The Watchowskis made something amazing, but looking back after what we have today, their execution was pretty stunted and some of them kind of got in the way of the flow of the action. Nowadays, the special effects are much more subtle and seemless and if you don't know what you're looking for, you're gonna miss them. It's something you kind of take for granted until you go back and see The Matrix again. That said though, ground breaking film at the time. Kudos to those guys. They made something cool.