function relative_created_at(counter) {
    var id="tweetNumber" + counter;

    var time_value = document.getElementById(id).value.toString();

    var created_at_time = Date.parse(time_value.replace(" +0000",""));
    var relative_time = ( arguments.length > 1 ) ? arguments[1] : new Date();
    var wordy_time = parseInt(( relative_time.getTime() - created_at_time ) / 1000) + (relative_time.getTimezoneOffset()*60);
    var returnString;

    returnString = "(";

    if ( wordy_time < 59 ) {
        returnString = returnString + 'less than a minute ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 119 ) {       // changed because otherwise you get 30 seconds of 1 minutes ago
        returnString = returnString + 'about a minute ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 3000 ) {         // < 50 minutes ago
        returnString = returnString + ( parseInt( wordy_time / 60 )).toString() + ' minutes ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 5340 ) {         // < 89 minutes ago
        returnString = returnString + 'about an hour ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 9000 ) {          // < 150 minutes ago
        returnString = returnString + 'a couple of hours ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 82800 ) {         // < 23 hours ago
        returnString = returnString + 'about ' + ( parseInt( wordy_time / 3600 )).toString() + ' hours ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 129600 ) {       //  < 36 hours
        returnString = returnString + 'a day ago';
    }
    else if ( wordy_time < 172800 ) {       // < 48 hours
        returnString = returnString + 'almost 2 days ago';
    }
    else {
        returnString = returnString + ( parseInt(wordy_time / 86400)).toString() + ' days ago';
    }
    if (0 && 0  ) {
        function capitaliseFirst(str) {
            firstChar = str.substring(0,1);
            remainChar = str.substring(1);

            // change case
            firstChar = firstChar.toUpperCase();
            remainChar = remainChar.toLowerCase();

            return firstChar + remainChar;
        }

        returnString = capitaliseFirst(returnString);
    }

    returnString = returnString + ")";

    return returnString;
}