I have the idea that this exists already, but I haven't been able to google up confirmation. (Of course, I don't know what it's called if it does exist.)
You should be able to send a text message to any cellphone that you can see. Just kind of beam the message through the air, like how a remote control works.
Why not just go over and talk to the person? Maybe they're busy. Maybe they're too far away to get their attention (walking down the other side of a busy street, for example). Maybe they're a stranger and their zipper's undone and you can't figure out how to say that in person tactfully. Maybe you want a really smooth way to hit on them by just sending them your phone number. Maybe you're exchanging phone numbers anyway and it would be easier to just beam it straight into each other's phone instead of you dictating your number to them and then they dictate your number to you.
At any rate, it's an option that should exist.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Recurring elements in my dreams
Two things have been recurring in my dreams every night for the past couple of weeks.
1. A woman who wants an arranged marriage to two men. In the dreams, she's a close acquaintance/casual friend, but it isn't anyone I know IRL. She wants to be married to two men and is putting out personal ads and using matchmaking services to find appropriate candidates. Just to make things more interesting, she doesn't want two men who know each other already - she wants to meet and court them both separately - and she wants to marry them both at the same time in a single wedding ceremony. This all has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot of my dreams. She's just someone who's around and I happen to know these few details about her personal life. It's like how on Corner Gas, Wanda has a child but the vast majority of the time that's irrelevant. Or on Dexter, that guy with the hat (what's his name?) is having marriage troubles, but most episodes it doesn't show up and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot.
2. Your sense of self is fully formed at the age of 32. This is frequently presented in my dreams as an indisputable fact. You know how there's that recent meme that your fertility starts declining at age 26? This idea is everywhere in a similar fashion in my dream universe. It's quoted in magazines and people make life decisions based on it. Last night in my dream, there was an ad in a newspaper for a famous hairdresser who was about to retire, and the ad was encouraging everyone to book an appointment with her today because you want to have good hair before the age of 32 so your sense of self includes good hair.
1. A woman who wants an arranged marriage to two men. In the dreams, she's a close acquaintance/casual friend, but it isn't anyone I know IRL. She wants to be married to two men and is putting out personal ads and using matchmaking services to find appropriate candidates. Just to make things more interesting, she doesn't want two men who know each other already - she wants to meet and court them both separately - and she wants to marry them both at the same time in a single wedding ceremony. This all has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot of my dreams. She's just someone who's around and I happen to know these few details about her personal life. It's like how on Corner Gas, Wanda has a child but the vast majority of the time that's irrelevant. Or on Dexter, that guy with the hat (what's his name?) is having marriage troubles, but most episodes it doesn't show up and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot.
2. Your sense of self is fully formed at the age of 32. This is frequently presented in my dreams as an indisputable fact. You know how there's that recent meme that your fertility starts declining at age 26? This idea is everywhere in a similar fashion in my dream universe. It's quoted in magazines and people make life decisions based on it. Last night in my dream, there was an ad in a newspaper for a famous hairdresser who was about to retire, and the ad was encouraging everyone to book an appointment with her today because you want to have good hair before the age of 32 so your sense of self includes good hair.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Things They Should Invent: custom-made porn
This idea was inspired by this Savage Love column (most obvious content warning ever: it's a Savage Love column about porn - proceed accordingly) where the guy is looking for het femdom porn with werewolves and vampire themes targeting a female audience (with a laundry list of sex acts he doesn't want to see in said porn) and Dan Savage is all yeah, good luck buddy.
There's a business opportunity here! Customers send in requests for porn that meets their exacting specifications. The pornographers calculate how much this porn would cost to make and how much of a return on investment they can expect to get. Then they give the customer a price that constitutes part (but not all) of the cost of making the porn. The better the projected ROI, the less they charge the customer.
So if the customer agrees, they make the porn and give it to the customer. But THEN, they also sell the porn through their website, and split the profits with the customer by the same proportions that they initially invested. So while the porn is significantly more expensive to the customer to start with, they can make money back and maybe even turn a profit. So if woman-centric het femdom vampire porn has a larger audience than the marketing department expected, the dude who wrote into Savage Love could get rich. If not, he can still get his niche porn for the right price even if he's the only person in the world who wants it.
Other possibilities that would make it more interesting but I'm not sure if they'd wreck the business model:
1. If the customer can't afford to have their porn made, the pornographers can still keep the idea. If they use it sometime, the customer who submitted the idea gets the porn for free but doesn't get a cut of the profits.
2. If the pornographers think an idea is commercially viable so they don't charge the customer very much, the customer can choose to invest a greater amount and thus get a greater share of the profits.
There's a business opportunity here! Customers send in requests for porn that meets their exacting specifications. The pornographers calculate how much this porn would cost to make and how much of a return on investment they can expect to get. Then they give the customer a price that constitutes part (but not all) of the cost of making the porn. The better the projected ROI, the less they charge the customer.
So if the customer agrees, they make the porn and give it to the customer. But THEN, they also sell the porn through their website, and split the profits with the customer by the same proportions that they initially invested. So while the porn is significantly more expensive to the customer to start with, they can make money back and maybe even turn a profit. So if woman-centric het femdom vampire porn has a larger audience than the marketing department expected, the dude who wrote into Savage Love could get rich. If not, he can still get his niche porn for the right price even if he's the only person in the world who wants it.
Other possibilities that would make it more interesting but I'm not sure if they'd wreck the business model:
1. If the customer can't afford to have their porn made, the pornographers can still keep the idea. If they use it sometime, the customer who submitted the idea gets the porn for free but doesn't get a cut of the profits.
2. If the pornographers think an idea is commercially viable so they don't charge the customer very much, the customer can choose to invest a greater amount and thus get a greater share of the profits.
How Elizabeth and Anthony's relationship could have been made convincing without changing the overall plot
1. After Anthony rescues Liz from Howard, they get chatting and he hints at the fact that his marriage is having trouble, but waves off Liz's concern because her ordeal is much more important.
2. Liz is subpoenaed for Howard's trial just before the end of the school year and has to head south early. Susan is called in to replace her. The trial takes up the better part of the summer. Grampa has his stroke while Liz is still in Millborough, and after much soul-searching she realizes she can't leave at this time, finds some kind of contract teaching position, and subsequently gets turkey-dumped by Paul. This gives Liz a perfect excuse to stay with her parents for however long the plot requires (was it actually necessary to the plot? I don't remember it being but I might be forgetting something), and sets the precedent of her changing major life decisions out of consideration for Grampa's health, which makes moving the wedding earlier a less WTF decision.
3. During the trial, we see Anthony quietly being perfectly supportive of Liz. This isn't a plot point, it's just regularly going on in the background while the plot goes on over top. He pats her on the hand and gives her a sympathetic look, he hands her a timely cup of tea unbidden, and in at least one instance he is able to comfort her when her parents' attempts at comfort misfire in that tragicomic way attempts to parent adult children often do. I'll even allow once instance where Liz bursts into tears and Anthony holds her she cries herself out, and, in keeping with general FBOFW practices, I'll even allow him to thought-bubble something schmaltzy about how it feels good or right to hold her or protect her or help make things better for her or that he'll always be there for her or some other such thing that's swoony if you approve entirely of the relationship and the context and nauseating if you don't.
4. After the trial, we see Liz and Anthony socializing a few times truly as just friends before they even begin to consider a romance. It isn't a plot in itself, it's just going on in the background. They're having coffee together in a plotless wordplay strip. They're walking down the street together when Liz's cell rings with a message from the main plot.
5. At some point, any time after Liz returns to Millborough, Anthony confides in her about a parenting issue and she has some insight (since I assume she does have child psych training.) It would read just like other parenting strips (e.g. where Robin wouldn't sleep through the night or toddler April jams a banana in a typerwriter) and could be either a single strip or a week-long plot, depending on what works. The focus is Françoise, not the Liz/Anthony relationship.
6. At some point, Liz and Anthony are shown totally geeking out over something together. Reciting Monty Python or singing musicals or playing Wii together or, since this is FBOFW, having a pun war.
7. At some point, we see them being just completely silly, like snowball-fight silly, and collapsing into giggles afterwards. The giggles can segue into foreplay (or what passes for it in a comic strip) if their relationship has reached that point yet. Or, if it can be executed properly, this can be when and how their relationship reaches that level.
8. At some point, they're seen working together on a projectish thingy - preparing dinner, wallpapering Liz's new apartment (does anyone wallpaper any more? It makes a fictional good project, but I don't know if it's even in style any more), putting together a very complicated toy for Françoise. This can be the plot or the background action (background is better, I think). They can be talking exposition or trading wordplay or talking about The Relationship if The Relationship has started already, it doesn't really matter. The point is that they be seen working well together and taking for granted that they're working on a project together (we don't see any "Thank you ever so much for helping me with this!" "No problem, that's what friends are for.")
9. Once the relationship starts, we see at least two instances of snogging, at least one lustful look with thought-bubble, and handholding whenever realistic. They don't have to be the plot of that day's strip, they just need to be happening.
10. We see at least once instance of snogging interrupted by parenting needs.
11. At their wedding, when Liz finds out that Grampa is in the hospital, Anthony is right there with a protective arm around her or hand on her back, a look of concern on his face.
2. Liz is subpoenaed for Howard's trial just before the end of the school year and has to head south early. Susan is called in to replace her. The trial takes up the better part of the summer. Grampa has his stroke while Liz is still in Millborough, and after much soul-searching she realizes she can't leave at this time, finds some kind of contract teaching position, and subsequently gets turkey-dumped by Paul. This gives Liz a perfect excuse to stay with her parents for however long the plot requires (was it actually necessary to the plot? I don't remember it being but I might be forgetting something), and sets the precedent of her changing major life decisions out of consideration for Grampa's health, which makes moving the wedding earlier a less WTF decision.
3. During the trial, we see Anthony quietly being perfectly supportive of Liz. This isn't a plot point, it's just regularly going on in the background while the plot goes on over top. He pats her on the hand and gives her a sympathetic look, he hands her a timely cup of tea unbidden, and in at least one instance he is able to comfort her when her parents' attempts at comfort misfire in that tragicomic way attempts to parent adult children often do. I'll even allow once instance where Liz bursts into tears and Anthony holds her she cries herself out, and, in keeping with general FBOFW practices, I'll even allow him to thought-bubble something schmaltzy about how it feels good or right to hold her or protect her or help make things better for her or that he'll always be there for her or some other such thing that's swoony if you approve entirely of the relationship and the context and nauseating if you don't.
4. After the trial, we see Liz and Anthony socializing a few times truly as just friends before they even begin to consider a romance. It isn't a plot in itself, it's just going on in the background. They're having coffee together in a plotless wordplay strip. They're walking down the street together when Liz's cell rings with a message from the main plot.
5. At some point, any time after Liz returns to Millborough, Anthony confides in her about a parenting issue and she has some insight (since I assume she does have child psych training.) It would read just like other parenting strips (e.g. where Robin wouldn't sleep through the night or toddler April jams a banana in a typerwriter) and could be either a single strip or a week-long plot, depending on what works. The focus is Françoise, not the Liz/Anthony relationship.
6. At some point, Liz and Anthony are shown totally geeking out over something together. Reciting Monty Python or singing musicals or playing Wii together or, since this is FBOFW, having a pun war.
7. At some point, we see them being just completely silly, like snowball-fight silly, and collapsing into giggles afterwards. The giggles can segue into foreplay (or what passes for it in a comic strip) if their relationship has reached that point yet. Or, if it can be executed properly, this can be when and how their relationship reaches that level.
8. At some point, they're seen working together on a projectish thingy - preparing dinner, wallpapering Liz's new apartment (does anyone wallpaper any more? It makes a fictional good project, but I don't know if it's even in style any more), putting together a very complicated toy for Françoise. This can be the plot or the background action (background is better, I think). They can be talking exposition or trading wordplay or talking about The Relationship if The Relationship has started already, it doesn't really matter. The point is that they be seen working well together and taking for granted that they're working on a project together (we don't see any "Thank you ever so much for helping me with this!" "No problem, that's what friends are for.")
9. Once the relationship starts, we see at least two instances of snogging, at least one lustful look with thought-bubble, and handholding whenever realistic. They don't have to be the plot of that day's strip, they just need to be happening.
10. We see at least once instance of snogging interrupted by parenting needs.
11. At their wedding, when Liz finds out that Grampa is in the hospital, Anthony is right there with a protective arm around her or hand on her back, a look of concern on his face.
Things They Should Study: how does vocal register change when speaking another language?
When I'm speaking another language, I tend to speak at a lower pitch. In French (my second language and the one I use most often) it drops a little bit, not very noticeable. I lose access to the higher pitch that I use in English for casual-young-female and customer-service-perky, but I'm mostly within a natural range. But by the time we get to Polish (my fifth language, the one I speak worst of the language I can even remotely claim to speak, and also the one that's least similar to English) my entire register drops a whole octave and I can't even reach my normal pitch. (I am physically capable of speaking Polish at a higher pitch, but I'd have to make a very deliberate effort. In the course of normal conversation, trying to think of what to say and how to say it in the other language and how to pronounce it properly, my pitch drops.)
I didn't think much of this until I saw some stand-up comedian on TV talking about how he has a Francophone wife/girlfriend/whatever, and how her pitch drops when speaking English. This has me wondering if it's a common phenomenon. Does pitch always drop in the other language, or does it rise sometimes? Do certain target languages (or target languages in combination with certain mother tongues) consistently cause pitch to raise or lower? Is the phenomenon the same for both men and women? Is it related to how similar the target language is to the speaker's mother tongue?
I didn't think much of this until I saw some stand-up comedian on TV talking about how he has a Francophone wife/girlfriend/whatever, and how her pitch drops when speaking English. This has me wondering if it's a common phenomenon. Does pitch always drop in the other language, or does it rise sometimes? Do certain target languages (or target languages in combination with certain mother tongues) consistently cause pitch to raise or lower? Is the phenomenon the same for both men and women? Is it related to how similar the target language is to the speaker's mother tongue?
Things They Should Invent: Kernels in movie theatres
Kernels sells awesome popcorn. Why do they not have locations in movie theatres????
Possible new academic year resolution
My new year's anti-resolution is working well, so I'm considering starting another for September, because after 19 years of my life spent in school it's still the psychological new year.
Potential resolution: when shopping or considering a new purchase or new ongoing spending, I don't have to worry about good value for money, I don't have to worry about whether I'm getting screwed over price-wise. All I have to do is stay in the black. As long as I don't fall into the red, I can spend whatever money I want on whatever I want. If I feel after the fact I didn't get my money's worth, I don't have to buy it next time.
I'm not sure if I'm going to go with this resolution. It feels risky, but I think it would reduce stress.
One thing I love about being a grownup and living alone is that when I do decide to make some kind of change in my day to day life, I can just quietly do it without telling anyone. (Yes, I know I blog some of them. I don't blog all of them.) When I was a kid, I'd usually have to tell my mother if only for logistical reasons, which made me feel like both my idea and my ability to execute my idea are up for scrutiny. I like being able to do things without anyone noticing.
Potential resolution: when shopping or considering a new purchase or new ongoing spending, I don't have to worry about good value for money, I don't have to worry about whether I'm getting screwed over price-wise. All I have to do is stay in the black. As long as I don't fall into the red, I can spend whatever money I want on whatever I want. If I feel after the fact I didn't get my money's worth, I don't have to buy it next time.
I'm not sure if I'm going to go with this resolution. It feels risky, but I think it would reduce stress.
One thing I love about being a grownup and living alone is that when I do decide to make some kind of change in my day to day life, I can just quietly do it without telling anyone. (Yes, I know I blog some of them. I don't blog all of them.) When I was a kid, I'd usually have to tell my mother if only for logistical reasons, which made me feel like both my idea and my ability to execute my idea are up for scrutiny. I like being able to do things without anyone noticing.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Someday?
Elizabeth says "I'd like to have a baby someday."
I know it sounds mad crazy nitpicky, but the use of the word "someday" sounds so wrong to me in this context. I'm Liz's age, and I cannot imagine a woman my age - especially when she's married and her career's established and her husband's career's established - using the word someday there. She'd have a timeline - she'd say "I'd like to have a baby within the next five years" or "I'd like to have a baby sometime after Françoise starts kindergarten." Or if she isn't so into strict family planning, she'd just say "I'd like to have a baby" and let nature take its course. (And actually, now that I think about it, she'd probably say "we" instead of "I".)
"Someday" would be used by teenagers or by people who don't know whom they'd have the baby with or who don't know when they're going to be able to afford to have a baby or for whom there are too many factors still up in the air to allow for long-term family planning. It sounds so wrong coming from a 27-year-old newlywed with a stable career. If this were a translation, I'd cross it out as being unidiomatic.
I know it sounds mad crazy nitpicky, but the use of the word "someday" sounds so wrong to me in this context. I'm Liz's age, and I cannot imagine a woman my age - especially when she's married and her career's established and her husband's career's established - using the word someday there. She'd have a timeline - she'd say "I'd like to have a baby within the next five years" or "I'd like to have a baby sometime after Françoise starts kindergarten." Or if she isn't so into strict family planning, she'd just say "I'd like to have a baby" and let nature take its course. (And actually, now that I think about it, she'd probably say "we" instead of "I".)
"Someday" would be used by teenagers or by people who don't know whom they'd have the baby with or who don't know when they're going to be able to afford to have a baby or for whom there are too many factors still up in the air to allow for long-term family planning. It sounds so wrong coming from a 27-year-old newlywed with a stable career. If this were a translation, I'd cross it out as being unidiomatic.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Google is scary smart
I wanted to go to The Weather Network's website, so I typed www.thew into my address bar, trusting the autocomplete to do the rest. The autocomplete didn't take for whatever reason, so I had this random www.thew sitting in my address bar dropdown.
So, as with everything in life, I decided to google it to see what would happen. I googled the w, no quotation marks or anything. The very first thing at the top of the page under Related Searches was The Weather Network.
So, as with everything in life, I decided to google it to see what would happen. I googled the w, no quotation marks or anything. The very first thing at the top of the page under Related Searches was The Weather Network.
Hairdressing FAIL
You know how sometimes with updos people have wispy little curls around their faces? I tried to make that happen (just the wispy little curls bit, not the updo).
I came out looking like an Hasidic rabbi.
I came out looking like an Hasidic rabbi.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Things They Should Invent: WhatHappensWhenThisExpires.com
Right now, somewhere in your home, is expired cough syrup. You are completely unaware of this, and won't give it a moment's thought until the next time you get a cough. Then you'll find your cough syrup, notice that it expired 18 months ago, and ponder whether you should take it. What will happen if you take it? Will it poison you? Will it just not work? Will you have all of the side-effects and none of the benefits? You don't know and it's difficult to google.
We need a website that tells us what happens to stuff when it expires. For everything in the world. Then we can make informed decisions. Animal products turn into food poisoning? Don't eat them. A certain over the counter medication simply stops working? Try it anyway to see if it does any good, and if not run out to the drugstore. Condoms stop working? Throw the out right away so you don't reach for the wrong one in a fit of passion. We need answers!
We need a website that tells us what happens to stuff when it expires. For everything in the world. Then we can make informed decisions. Animal products turn into food poisoning? Don't eat them. A certain over the counter medication simply stops working? Try it anyway to see if it does any good, and if not run out to the drugstore. Condoms stop working? Throw the out right away so you don't reach for the wrong one in a fit of passion. We need answers!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Things Youtube Should Invent (or, rather, reintroduce): shrink poor quality videos down to their original size
I don't have the technical vocabulary to describe this phenomenon, so please bear with me and feel free to politely put it in more grownup words.
When youtubes are poor quality (low resolution?), they don't have enough pixels to fill up the standard youtube screen size, so everything gets enlarged and the pixels take up more than one pixel's worth of space, making the whole thing look kind of fuzzy and pixely and poor quality. (If you don't understand what I'm talking about, take a normal-quality youtube and expand it to full screen.)
YouTube used to have an option where you could shrink the video back down to its original size. So you could have tiny and crisp, or regular and fuzzy, or full-screen and even fuzzier. I think they should bring that option back. I'm not a technical quality geek at all (the technical quality geeks in my life are apalled at my hardware), but even I'm noticing the poor quality and wishing for the option of a smaller but crisper image!
When youtubes are poor quality (low resolution?), they don't have enough pixels to fill up the standard youtube screen size, so everything gets enlarged and the pixels take up more than one pixel's worth of space, making the whole thing look kind of fuzzy and pixely and poor quality. (If you don't understand what I'm talking about, take a normal-quality youtube and expand it to full screen.)
YouTube used to have an option where you could shrink the video back down to its original size. So you could have tiny and crisp, or regular and fuzzy, or full-screen and even fuzzier. I think they should bring that option back. I'm not a technical quality geek at all (the technical quality geeks in my life are apalled at my hardware), but even I'm noticing the poor quality and wishing for the option of a smaller but crisper image!
My predreams are carnivorous
Last night as I was waiting to fall asleep, I predreamed that I was in my kitchen preparing breaded chicken. The chicken was in a baking pan thing, and I was expertly seasoning it as though I knew exactly what I was doing.
I've never prepared breaded chicken in my life. I don't think I know how to prepare breaded chicken. There has never been chicken in this apartment. And yet I was seeing this image in the first person. It was definitely a predream as opposed to a proper dream, because I was awake and deliberately shifting position as I settled myself in my bed and thinking about something completely unrelated, but I've never before had a predream image that did not come from reality.
I've never prepared breaded chicken in my life. I don't think I know how to prepare breaded chicken. There has never been chicken in this apartment. And yet I was seeing this image in the first person. It was definitely a predream as opposed to a proper dream, because I was awake and deliberately shifting position as I settled myself in my bed and thinking about something completely unrelated, but I've never before had a predream image that did not come from reality.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Where my priorities are
Long story how I came to be thinking about this, but today I realized: I don't care if someone steals my cellphone. I'd just buy a new and better one, not a huge deal. However, I would care very much if I couldn't get my phone number back (I don't know offhand how permanently attached to the SIM card the phone number is) because it's a 416 number. For a cellphone. I think I'd even decline to switch providers for a better deal if I couldn't take my number with me. I've been here long enough to have a 416 cell number, I want my Toronto cred dammit!
Why they need to stop renaming Toronto theatres
[the following is an unofficial transcript]
Me: Where's Spamalot playing?
Poodle: The Canon
Me: Is that the one where we saw it last time?
Poodle: I think we saw it at one of the ones on King St.
Me: No, I'm sure it was the one that used to be the Pantages, because I remember I was wondering about the chandelier.
Poodle: I think the Pantages is the Elgin.
Me: No, the Elgin is the Elgin.
Poodle: Okay, then the Pantages must be the Canon, so it's the same one as last time.
Me: They have to stop renaming these fucking theatres! I'm blogging this.
Me: Where's Spamalot playing?
Poodle: The Canon
Me: Is that the one where we saw it last time?
Poodle: I think we saw it at one of the ones on King St.
Me: No, I'm sure it was the one that used to be the Pantages, because I remember I was wondering about the chandelier.
Poodle: I think the Pantages is the Elgin.
Me: No, the Elgin is the Elgin.
Poodle: Okay, then the Pantages must be the Canon, so it's the same one as last time.
Me: They have to stop renaming these fucking theatres! I'm blogging this.
Things They Should Invent: quick and easy general fertility test
There are all kinds of ways to test if you're fertile (i.e. ovulating) today, and there's a lot of medical science that diagnoses specific problems that may cause infertility. But we could also use a quick and easy pee-on-a-stick type of test to give you a rough idea of how fertile you are in general compared with the average woman. It doesn't have to diagnose the reason behind any reduced fertility it finds, just the presence or absence (or, ideally, the degree) of fertility.
For example, I put a lot of time and energy and resources into not becoming pregnant. But I don't actually know if I'm fertile. I've never been pregnant, so there is room for the possibility that I cannot become pregnant. I'd really like if there was an easy way to confirm that I am in fact fertile before I go through any invasive and time-consuming sterilization procedures.
This isn't just applicable to the childfree. People who want children could do a quick general test for the presence of fertility to decide how much time they want to spend on "trying" or whether to go with adoption or artificial conception. People could take the test every year to see if (or how much) their fertility is declining as they age, and plan their lives accordingly. If you want to impress upon teens the importance of responsible sexual behaviour, you could have them take the test and see just how must of a risk they'd be taking. People who have recently had babies could see when their fertility returns and make their family planning decisions accordingly.
For example, I put a lot of time and energy and resources into not becoming pregnant. But I don't actually know if I'm fertile. I've never been pregnant, so there is room for the possibility that I cannot become pregnant. I'd really like if there was an easy way to confirm that I am in fact fertile before I go through any invasive and time-consuming sterilization procedures.
This isn't just applicable to the childfree. People who want children could do a quick general test for the presence of fertility to decide how much time they want to spend on "trying" or whether to go with adoption or artificial conception. People could take the test every year to see if (or how much) their fertility is declining as they age, and plan their lives accordingly. If you want to impress upon teens the importance of responsible sexual behaviour, you could have them take the test and see just how must of a risk they'd be taking. People who have recently had babies could see when their fertility returns and make their family planning decisions accordingly.
Things Ticketmaster et al. Should Invent: find best available seats over multiple days
Sometimes people want to go to a show on a specific day, which is what the current system accomodates. But sometimes you could go on one of several days. Like any Friday is fine, really, and you'd go on a Thursday too if it meant getting really good seats. It would be really convenient if you could search for the best available seats of all the shows, or of all the Friday shows, or all the shows in the one particular week when you'll be in town, etc.
Did they know alcohol was bad for fetuses in the 1950s?
Check this out:
Major Houlihan thinks she's pregnant, and she has two or three standard drinks in this scene. Her reaching for the bottle is context- and character-appropriate, except for the fact that she's a medical professional and has reason to believe she's pregnant.
Is she being irresponsible, or is she being historically accurate?
Major Houlihan thinks she's pregnant, and she has two or three standard drinks in this scene. Her reaching for the bottle is context- and character-appropriate, except for the fact that she's a medical professional and has reason to believe she's pregnant.
Is she being irresponsible, or is she being historically accurate?
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