Thursday, May 22, 2008

Lurking in Facebook

I admit to it. I love to lurk around Facebook groups and read them, but not join them. I used to join groups, but then there were just too many, and what's the point anyway, unless it's something you are really interested in and actually want to comment on. So I did a Facebook cleanout a few months ago, but I still browse groups and have a good read. Tonight I found two interesting topics, that, although I didn't actually want to join the groups, I still wanted to comment on...so here it goes.
1st, One of the parenting sites had a huge discussion going about baby names and I just had to laugh as I was reading it. I have my own guidelines for naming kids and they come from my job...I've taught thousands of kids in the past 10 years. If you are looking for something original, great! But take the time to really look and see if it is original. Why do you think we have a 1001 Michaela/Mikayla/McKayla/Mackaela...'s hanging around? Everyone thought it was this wonderful original name, but just like I was Krissy D. Growing up, now there are McKayla S's etc. Point of note, if a "now" celebrity has a cool name that you like (or a child with a cool name that you like) chances are if you choose that name, someone else (or many someone else's) will be naming their children that too. Because yes, I've taught my share of Mariah's and Shania's and now we're working on the Kira/Keira/Kirah's of the day. And you can be pretty sure that the Shiloh's of the world are coming up. And please, please, please spell you kid's name in a recognizable way...you may think it's cool, but really, think of the hassle you are causing your kid by naming him Xyuler instead of Skylar...is spelling really that important to you? By all means, pick something you like, but it's really easy to check if it's a popular name or not...do a quick google baby name search, there are lists going back years (seriously, you can find the past hundred plus years if you look hard enough). Otherwise you'll end up like one of my collegues who is disappointed that her son Logan is one of 3 Logan's in his kindergarten class...she loved the name and thought it was so orignal when he was born. (another trick, talk to a teacher friend of yours to check out your possibles...she/he will be able to tell you how many kids have that name...and any positive/negative associations that name has among teachers)

2nd...I actually am considering joining this group, but I'm not convinced yet...it's the "People Who Don't Read Anything Are F****** Morons" group. It's no secret that I'm a total bookworm, so I really loved reading the posts in this group. The topic that caught my eye was the "Has a book ever made you cry?"...ummm yes.
I fully admit to crying (and sometimes bawling) through the following books:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks
A Child Called It by David J. Pelzer
Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazer
Those are the ones that come to mind but I am sure there were others too. Unfortunately for me, the next book that I'm reading from the library was mentioned serveral times in the discussion, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini...it's one of those books that I've been wanting to read but haven't and now I'm getting around to it. Anyways...it made for an interesting thread and I'm curious what books you, my friends have cried though?

1 comment:

Jilly said...

Nicholas Sparks is soo bad as a tear jerker. I read his one about the preacher's daughter with cancer and taught it in Comm 11 and it made me cry. Umm . . . I really try to read funny books, so its hard for me to remember the last one I cried over other than that. I think I cried in LOTR when Gandalf died, and when Boromir died the first time I read it (I was 12). Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card made me cry and stay up until 4am several nights running. Those are the main ones that come to mind.

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