The Date Stamp

Ugghh… I begrudgingly sat down and started my daily, science homework. The top of the worksheet said, name and date. I quickly filled out the name. But, when it came to the date, I wondered, what day is it? Is it Monday? Wednesday? I don't even know at this point. Every day since COVID-19 started has felt like the same over and over again. I looked up at my calendar. Then, I realized I didn’t even know what month it was. How am I supposed to figure it out? So I decide to Google it. Thank goodness Google existed or else I would be totally doomed. 

I figured I needed to come up with a plan to keep track of the days since I had been searching the day up on Google for what seemed like months now. There was no way to define a Monday between a Friday. They all were just so boring and every day blended together. In fact, one day might as well just be a month. I knew I could just use Google to find out the date, but I didn’t want to have to rely on Google all the time. And, what if the guy who has to put up on Google forgets one day? What would I do then? 

That is when I came up with an idea. What if everyone had a stamp on their forehead so you could always know the date by looking at people? I got out my sketchbook, and started to draft up a design. The Date Stamp I would call it and it would leave a big red stamp on people’s foreheads each morning with the date. I made up a prototype, and went to work. 

***

Fast forward 10 years. The Date Stamp took off. Everyone was now putting a bright red stamp with the date on their forehead every morning. The government now required it and you could not leave your house with the The Date Stamp. People seemed to be happy with the Date Stamp until one day a rich, fashion celebrity complained that The Date Stamp was too obnoxious. The celebrity started telling all her followers to protest against The Date Stamp. What was I to do now? This celebrity was very famous and would surely make it so that people hated The Date Stamp, and the government contacted me and said I needed to fix this. I knew that I needed to make the Date Stamp even better or the Date Stamp would be nothing but history. 

First step: prototyping. I already had my base. Now I needed to figure out something that was less obnoxious, but still be able to know the date. We were going to need a more innovative technology. I first tried to have the Date Stamp was on your back.  But, that was still too obvious. Then, I tried making a brain implant. But, the people who had it implanted went all cuckoo with side effects. I had one last idea. If it didn’t work, I was sure I would be doomed. I came up with a projector that would project the Date Stamp into the sky. But, when it was sunny you could not see it at all. 

I felt defeated. What a failure. I decided that I would give it one last try and if not I would stop. I was brainstorming new ideas ,and I decided to take a break. While I was browsing my phone during that break I saw an ad marketing heat sensitive ink. BINGO! How didn’t I think of this? Suddenly, an idea came to my mind and I got an inspiration from that idea. I could take the ink that I used to make The Date Stamp and make it so that if you didn’t want the stamp to be visible you couldn’t see it. But, if somebody asked for the date you could show them by thinking hard about the date and the stamp would momentarily appear.  My ink would not be heat sensitive, instead it would be controlled by your mind and thoughts. 

I got to work making the special ink. It takes time and many trials, but I eventually get the formula just right. But, I am met with another problem. How are we supposed to get rid of the previous ink on our heads?  I tried all the possibilities possible, but I just couldn’t get the ink off. So I had to find a new way to change the old ink into the special ink. Since we can’t remove it, we can just change the ink. I tried to put the ink through a chemical reaction so that it would change it to the new by first mixing it with Dalimight and electricity. This got me to an ink that was totally invisible. Next, I added Yelfide with water so that the ink would appear when you wanted it to. Then I needed to add the Sumtinite so that the ink would disappear on our command. 

Now the old ink was changed into magical disappearing and reappearing ink that was yet another problem. It was too expensive! How was I going to give this to all the world? I tried all the possible substitutions for the chemicals, but there wasn’t anything less expensive. Then, I had an idea. What if I just make the previous ink invisible and put my new ink on top. Because that new ink was pretty cheap. It was only the process of changing the old ink into new ink that was expensive. 

This works and I am able to distribute it to the world. Now everyone has the date and the supermodels are happy. I never dreamed that I would become a trillionaire by selling stamps and that COVID-19 actually would have a really big positive impact on my life. I will never stop innovating and upgrading my stamps. They are my new passion and joy, and I would have never figured that without COVID-19. That is my story of how I invented the Date Stamp.