maybe it's just a nickname

I try to keep my judgmental side at bay. I really, really do.

However, am I really a bad person because the first thing I do when I receive my monthly Parents magazine is skim through it looking for the terrible names people saddle their children with? Is it really wrong that I spent less time looking at Ace when he was in the Brookhaven newspaper a couple of weeks ago than I spent laughing at other children's names, specifically J'Otis and Teddyrecious?

Google Reader has a function that somehow looks at the blogs you subscribe to and finds related blogs, then recommends them to you. Natch, I have a crazy ton of mommy-blogger feeds, so I get a lot of mommy blogger recommendations. Sometimes, I'll find a recommendation I like only to realize I can't read that mommy's blog because she named her child Calliope-Breeze Fire or something like that. Every time I read that Calliope-Breeze said her first word, or took her first step, or tried for the first time to go by the nickname "Callie" and why would she want to do that when her name is so uneek and original, I'd have to giggle a little bit inside, and it'd just be WAY too distracting.

In 99.9% of cases, I fully support other parental choices, even if it's something I wouldn't do. I realize that different parents have different parenting styles and different children have different parenting needs. But by George, were Jason Lee (of My Name Is Earl fame) my friend, I might've had to try to talk him out of naming his child Pilot Inspektor. I like to think the kid would've thanked me.