Invention - Relative Time

I know what are thinking, Relative time is not an invention, and it has already been discovered! Einstein has beaten me to the punch. Just follow my logic...

Yesterday I was meeting a friend for lunch and I was running late. I HATE being late, it's just hardwired into my brain that you leave early enough to get there on time, even if it means you are a little early. It just so happens that I had over booked myself and was running from "coffee with the guys from Dovetail" to "margaritas at Hula Hut with Whitney" and I didn't actually leave until I was already late (sorry Whitney!). Which got me thinking...

We have a clock in the kitchen which, as expected, tells the time. It is set about 7 minutes fast. I can't remember if we did this on purpose or not, but it provides a great deal of help in the mornings when we are trying to get J out the door on time. Almost every morning there's some sort of pleading about getting dressed or eating faster because "we're already late" (that's me doing the pleading, Ryan is usually saying "you are fine"). We rush around and then we walk out the door at 7:40 to walk the block and a half in a rush only to get into the class room to find that we aren't late at all. J has time to put his stuff away and have a quick hug before the bell rings.

So this "bending of time" got me thinking. It would be great if the same clock could be programmed to be a little early when I (or Ryan) got home at night. Then those days when you are walking in the door at 6:10 and dinner wasn't even considered let alone started wouldn't feel like such a let-down already. You could have that relief of walking in the door, knowing it's late already and looking at the clock and saying "whew, it's not as late as I thought!"

So this brings me to my invention. A personal clock. Of course, this would have to be implanted in your head because it only works for you, but that's just details. This clock would know your habits and have solutions for them...
Habitually late? the clock would know to lie to you so that you aren't 40 minutes late to your kid's birthday party.
Hate commute time? your clock adjusts the time it takes you to drive across town by telling you it's only taken 20 minutes to drive to Lakeway!
Kids want to stay up a few extra minutes? Presto! "See it's already 8 now! You've been playing for the last 45 minutes!"

Some points of your schedule are bendy - like you want the hour you have to spend with your kids to last a little longer... see you spent an extra ten minutes with them and still have time to get to the doctor's, but the hour you had to wait to see the doctor should only feel like 50 minutes.

Of course, there are things the clock will have to take into consideration... appointments, for one. All this bendy time has to be matched up to a real time schedule so that your clock can get you to your destination at the "real time" and meet your friend for Margaritas on time.

Happily some modern conveniences like DVR's eliminate some scheduled activities like "Must See TV". We start watching shows at all times of the hour and finish in 50 minutes (sorry advertisters!), so I feel like I am already bending time to my will!

There's a few things to figure out, but it seems plausible. Let's take that feeling "wow! the time just flew by" or "is this ever going to end?" and use it to our advantage.

Of course, now that I know that the clock in the kitchen is fast, we'll really be late.