Sandra and I decided to apply LJ-only nicknames to our kids to facilitate story-telling without using their actual names…
Storytime:
Sandra and I sat down to watch “Big Fish” after putting the kids to bed. (note: I cried. Not ONE helicopter chase.) During the first Town of Spectre scene the baby monitor alerted us to the fact that Gleek was calling. Sandra took care of her, while I paused the movie.
20 minutes later, Gleek’s up again… this time she’s UP up, or rather DOWN up, having come downstairs to the kitchen in a sleepy, grumpy state. I offer to help her, but she wants nothing to do with me. Won’t even let me pour the milk. Sandra tries to give her a cup, but Gleek insists on getting her OWN cup, doesn’t want a glass, has to be a CUP — YELLOW, and the yellow one is dirty. So Sandra passes it to me, I wash it, slide it into the cupboard as Sandra carries Gleek the long way round, and lets her fetch her own cup. Gah. The machinations we contrive in order to appease this three-year-old girl.
She ended up waking one more time before the movie’s end, and Sandra explained to me that she’d spent a lot of time out in the sun today, and was probably genuinely thirsty every time. Well DUH. Little 35-pound body doesn’t have nearly the stores of liquid it needs, and when you try to pack it with fluids you end up in the bathroom at 3am.
End story.
Okay, that felt reasonably natural, replacing my child’s name with the name of a fictional monkey. In fact, I’m probably too comfortable with it.
To bed. There’s cartooning to be done tomorrow.
I could have sworn…
That “gleek” was the name of one of those Shlock-like things from Hannah-Barbara’s “Thundarians”
Or am I wrong?
Re: I could have sworn…
The blob thingy was Gleep from The Herculoids which you seem to have confused with Thundarr the Barbarian!, which features a different big dumb barbarian, curvaceous scantily clad woman, and only one monster whose dialogue can be summed up as “RArrrr”, “Grrrr”, and “RArrrr”. Gleek is the monkey from the Superfriends that came with the Wondertwins from wherever they come from.
I’m a big fan of the nicknames on the blog page. In fact just about everyone I ever blog about is nicknames. The advantage is that I get to pick the nickname. Muahahahahaha.
Also, About the CSI Shlock story arc…
I’m getting this feeling you don’t like the character Nick… 🙂
Re: Also, About the CSI Schlock story arc…
I don’t mind him, but he’s not my favorite. I think my favorite CSI characters are, in order:
Grissom
Al (the coroner)
Greg
Kathryn (sp?)
Warrick
–Howard
Re: Also, About the CSI Schlock story arc…
Catherine, according to IMDb.
I confess that my wife and I have a hard time keeping track of the names of the various characters on CSI. Grissom and Brass we have no problem with, but we wrack our brains on the others. Usually, it’s “the lab guy with the spiky hair”, “the black guy”, “the coroner”, and “Her. Not HER her, the OTHER her.”
…I find it amusing that you used a fictional monkey’s name, as well…
…Given that my usual descriptive phrase for the human race in general is ‘you STUPID monkeys!’
…I suspect your daughter is (hopefully) smarter than the vaerage human I’m referring to, however, as most of mine are immigrants both legal and illegal coming to gamble.
Or mine…
“Over 6 billion evolved primates on this planet, and I’m stuck here surrounded by the ones nature didn’t select…”
On the nickname…
Poor girl, now everyone will think she’s a monkey…
Re: On the nickname…
That’s.
The.
Point.
🙂
Re: On the nickname…
She IS a monkey. I was in a mommy-daughter gymnastics class with her. The teacher was talking about the importance of encouraging kids to take risks. I looked around at all the other kids sitting quietly in laps and then at Gleek who was clear across the room hanging upside down from the uneven bars. Risk taking is not a skill this one needs to be working on.
Re: On the nickname…
Ha! I knew I wasn’t alone. I’ve got photos of Pirate climbing a tall ladder by herself at only 18 months. Scared me silly but she’s got prehensile toes like.
Why?
“Sandra and I decided to apply LJ-only nicknames to our kids to facilitate story-telling without using their actual names…”
Not judging, just wondering, why?
I mean, the way I reckon it, ther aren’t a whole heck of a lot of “Morts” in the world.
And since I gave up on handles a long time ago, my LJ name is my name. And then my wife is on LJ, so there is here name.
Then the geographical info dropped into LJ(for instance, just by mentioning Cicada’s people can narrow down my state)
All together makes it very easy for one to find out who I am, where I am, and easily extrapolate that to my kids.
So I don’t see a point in using fake names for them.
Are there really enough Howard Taylor’s, married to Sandra Taylor’s, who are Mormon’s in your area to make the added layer of confusion worthwhile?
Or is it one of those minimize risk things, where the risk is infintismal, but you figure it doesn’t take much effort on your part so you might as well go the extra step and try to minimize risk?
Or is it some other reason I’m missing?
It’s simple, really…
It’s simple. I chose to be “famous” (or “infamous.” Whatever — I CHOSE.) Sandra ALSO chose. And both of us chose to do so using our real names.
Our children are not yet prepared to make that choice. Their names are their own — not mine nor Sandra’s to drag around and bandy about in public places.
I hope that once they ARE prepared to make that decision, they’ll choose the path I’ve chosen — be known by your own name, and make that name look good by attaching it to worthwhile activities, writings, etc.
–Howard