Names

Naming trends are something I just don't understand. Some celebrity makes it big and suddenly a significant number of newborns are named after him/her or the character he/she portrays. Are their parents under some strange assumption that the babies are somehow connected to their namesakes? Or did said celebrity simply remind America that the name existed?

One of my favorite names is Caitlin. Thanks to the soap opera Sunset Beach(brought to us by the late Aaron Spelling, may God rest his soul), we now have several second graders named Caitlin. One local teacher complained because she had four Caitlins of various spellings in her class at once. Seeing as how most Caitlins are now 7-8 years old, we need a new crop, so come on, America. Bring on the Caitlins!

Then there are mysterious names, such as George. I, for one, have never met nor heard of a child named George. There are, however, many adults named George. Where did all the Georges come from? Are they born fully grown? Do they grow up using nicknames to keep the true number of Georges a secret? This George conspiracy must be exposed!

Blogs

I know what you're thinking, reader. Two posts in one day. It doesn't happen very often. Banner year for the soap box.

As I sit here, sipping my seasoned(read "day-old") coffee, I am surfing the internet, reading other people's blogs. There are some really fascinating ones out there.

For a fun blog-reading experiment, I started following links from blog to blog. I found quite a few that were more interesting to me than my own, but perhaps I am ill qualified to judge my own blog, as it's all old news to me.

What is it that we find so fascinating about reading other people's thoughts, stories, experiences, etc.? Is it the comfort of connecting to another person without the responsibility and emotional risk of a two-sided conversation? Or am I overthinking this?

What do you think, reader?

The Wonderful World of Fanfiction

Fanfiction(fanfic), for those of you who don't know, is fiction based on characters of television, books, or movies. It is just for fun and nobody makes any money from it.

I started writing fanfic about 7 years ago, but gave up on it, leaving a great cliffhanger ending on my story. I still haven't finished that one.

This year, I started writing again and I had forgotten how much fun it can be. I write my stories in installments, which I post on a web forum. I write short installments, so I can stay ahead of the postings(I only post one part a week).

Feedback is the best part. It's so much fun to be able to interact with my readers.

Fanfic is great practice for those with serious literary aspirations. There is little pressure. Your readers don't expect your work to be good or even necessarily believable, but they let you know when they really like it.

I highly recommend it as a writing exercise or a relaxing hobby.

We Are Running the World???

My mom talks about how the "grown-ups" are supposed to be running things, not people her age. Now I know what she's talking about.

Now people my age are doing important things and helping to run the world. It's kind of scary. When did this get dumped on us? We shouldn't be running anything. We're the kids.

I can't even begin to imagine my children being old enough or mature enough to do anything as important as running the world, but it's not so far away.

All you parents out there, remember that you are not raising children, you are raising future adults. Those cute little kids will one day be making important decisions that will affect everyone and everything.

Funny Names

This site has a list of names(some of them clever) people have used.

http://members.aol.com/pinjunkie/

Super Mom to the Rescue

This morning I had a crash course in speed baking. The kids with summer birthdays have assigned "birthdays" during the regular school year. Yesterday, my 3rd-grader found out for sure that hers is TODAY. I had to bake cookies.

I decided to bake sugar cookies. I got the dough all mixed up and realized it had to chill for two hours! This is one of the reasons I never bake sugar cookies. It might help if I read all of the directions first though, huh?

So I wondered if maybe I could chill it faster in the freezer. I didn't get to find out because I subsequently forgot about the dough and went to bed.

I woke up this morning, hit the snooze button, then remembered the cookies. (This "Oh Crap" moment brought to you by tired mothers everywhere.) It was almost 6:00 a.m. and I had to wake the kids up and the baby was crying. This was a job for Super Mom!

I had about 45 minutes to bake cookies and get kids off to school. Chocolate chip cookies to the rescue. I could practically make them in my sleep. I'm not talking "break-and-bake" wimpy stuff. I mean real cookies. [I would like to take this moment to thank God for microwaves, babies who decide to go back to sleep, and ovens in which you can bake a dozen and a half cookies at once.]

The dozen came out nicely, but the half dozen were overcooked a bit(read darn-near burned). So, I figured some poor kids would just have to be satisfied with smallish extra-browned cookies. Luckily for them, I managed to get another dozen baked and cooled enough to replace them before the bus came. The day is saved!

Now I shall hang up my Super Mom cape for the day.