module ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::String::Conversions

def ord

'a'.ord == 'a'[0] for Ruby 1.9 forward compatibility. 
def ord
  self[0]
end if RUBY_VERSION < '1.9'

def to_date 

def to_date
  ::Date.new(*::Date._parse(self, false).values_at(:year, :mon, :mday))
end

def to_datetime 

def to_datetime
  ::DateTime.civil(*::Date._parse(self, false).values_at(:year, :mon, :mday, :hour, :min, :sec).map { |arg| arg || 0 })
end

def to_time(form = :utc)

Form can be either :utc (default) or :local. 
def to_time(form = :utc)
  ::Time.send("#{form}_time", *::Date._parse(self, false).values_at(:year, :mon, :mday, :hour, :min, :sec).map { |arg| arg || 0 })
end