Have Friend Will Travel: Why I am a Bad Daughter - or - How to Mess with a Loved One By Using AutoCorrect...

**UPDATE** As requested -

Disclaimer: Do not attempt to drink liquids of any kind while reading this article. Have Friend Will Travel is not responsible for trauma inflicted upon cats. We actually dislike cats. Nothing personal, we just prefer dogs.

By now we have all seen the screen shots of someone sending someone else a text message and instead of saying I love you it says I love penis - or something to that extent... The autocorrect function on today's smartphones can be a dangerously hilarious thing. For the haters, and you know who you are, yes, you can turn it off, but why would you take the chance of getting to "accidentally" send someone a dirty word or two? And also, shut up because your seriousness and lack of a sense of humor is making my head hurt...

Now, in the recent iOS 5 there is an option to take AutoCorrect and essentially make it your bitch. For example, if The Hubs sends me a text while I am driving I obviously cannot text him - "You freakin KNOW I am driving, why would you text me at a volatile moment like this?" So I grab my phone and type in WTFD (what the fword - driving), it will type it for me. Here's how you do it... and bear with me because there IS a point to this explanation - and also, you will want to do this to your loved ones when they aren't looking as well. I KNOW THIS!

Go into Settings -> Keyboard -> Add New Shortcut

When this option came out I almost lost my mind waiting for The Hubs to upgrade to iOS 5. He STILL hasn't... that's right... I put it out there! BUT WAIT! There was light at the end of the tunnel! My MOTHER received an iPhone from a couple that loves her dearly. She had NO idea how to work an iPhone... no idea what AutoCorrect even was... let alone how to click the X so that it doesn't change what you are typing... and to further that... she had no idea you could create your own. This was it! My big chance! So I told her I was going to check her settings (which I totally did), and I did the trick... I set up a couple of shortcuts for the words "Yes" and "No". Below are ACTUAL Screenshots - I just blacked out my mom's name for privacy (and because she would smother me as I sleep if I published her name).

Here is a Cereal Guy excerpt of our conversation... for some added drama...