Day 22174

I have a new favorite phrase that has become a standard thing online; “I hate this timeline.”

Not only does it speak to the things happening in the world these days, but it speaks to my geekier sensibilities. By referencing a timeline, the phrase implies that someone had gone back in time and change something that has resulted in a different series of events that what was supposed to happen.

The timeline has gone off track and the implication is that someone needs to go back and fix it. Having written a time travel novel, I have a vast appreciation for this trope. Sure, there has been numerous stories written in which our intrepid hero will go back in time to kill Hitler or save JFK from getting assassinated.

So, the question becomes that if you could travel back in time to tinker with things in order to create a “better” timeline, what would you do?

Personally, I would go back in time to Monday at about 10:30 a.m. and talk myself out of having Taco Bell for lunch.