jonathanhickman.com

What do you think of nicknames?

I’m not talking about names like “Shadow,” as Henry apparently wanted to be called when he was younger. I’m talking about name shortenings or common nicknames - Jon for Jonathan or Polly for Mary.

I’ve always thought you should name a child what he’ll go by. So if you plan to call him Jon, name him Jon or John instead of Jonathan (my parents called me Jonathan, but I didn’t want to learn to spell the whole thing in kindergarten, so I switched to Jon).

Actually, I think there are some exceptions to this. Joseph is so often shortened to Joe, for example, it gets away with it. And then there are the more flexible Catherines, where people like Katie might go by different names at different times.

But I don’t understand having a child go by her middle name or a name that’s completely different.

One of Katie’s top name picks right now is Jonathan (call him Jack). I’m not so opposed to this idea that I wouldn’t consider it, but I’m just not sure I could do the nicknaming.

Should I get over it?

The cost of bottled water

I ran across this the other day and thought I’d share:

Fiji, one of the more expensive store brands, is now the number 2 selling premium bottled water in the US.

At $1.50 and up per bottle, Fuji is not cheap. Some will say that a thing is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, but others wonder how much the water is really worth. A reader asked Triple Pundit what the true cost of a bottle of Fuji water was. Sustainability Engineer Pablo Päster responded, calculating the (approximate) production and materials costs of a 1L bottle, travel/shipping expenses for shipping both full and empty bottles and, of course, the water itself. In the end, it comes down to a cost of approximately $.22 per bottle, leaving a $1.28 (or more) profit for the manufacturer and retailer.

The Real Cost of Bottled Water

Getting an accurate reading

Last week I bought a neat little gizmo for my desk at work. It tells me the temperature inside and outside, and it gives the time and date - synchronized to the NIST atomic clock in Colorado. I can now see the exact time, date, and temperature with a glance. Pretty neat, huh?

A few years ago, I was driving a beat up old pickup truck. It was the first car I’d ever owned, and I loved it, but it was far from trustworthy. In the last few years I drove it, anxiety welled up in me every time I got behind the wheel. In one short period I replaced both drive shafts and the clutch - which needed to be replaced again, and I spent a ton of money on the transmission. And that’s not counting the body work I was putting off. I spent two or three thousand dollars in just over a year just keeping the thing on the road. When the mechanic said the engine was next in line to be replaced, with the transmission not far behind, I happily gave the truck a goodbye party. Coincidentally, I lucked into the option of getting a ‘94 Subaru through my family, for practically nothing.

For the first time in my life, I had a car that got better than 14 miles a gallon. And I could actually talk in the Subaru while cruising at interstate speeds. And best of all? The car didn’t require expensive fixes every three months.

But one fix I never could justify for the car was getting the speedometer working. I discovered after a few months that I wasn’t necessarily going the speed I intended. On a flat stretch of the interstate, the car reads about fifteen miles an hour faster than it actually goes, but if you go down a big hill, it doesn’t really respond. I had a friend report to me once that I had been driving over a hundred miles an hour - and I thought I hadn’t strayed from ten miles an hour of the speed limit.

Now that I know the car has this problem it’s fairly easy, albeit frustrating, to work around. I just have to keep an eye on other traffic and be extra cautious when my radar detector goes off, because I can’t really tell if I’m speeding.

So here’s the thing: sitting at my desk, I can tell you the exact time with a glance. Without standing up, I know the temperature outside and in, all from a fifteen dollar toy from amazon. But when I get in my car, I can’t even tell you how fast I’m going.

Oh well.

April 2

That’s the day we get to find out if our baby is a boy or a girl.

I can’t believe I’m going to have to wait that long, but I’m excited, too.

And there’s something in the waiting that is fun. Instant gratification is boring, in a way.

April 2. A whole month away.

April 2. Just a month away.

Wow.

I hate my poor handwriting

At my job, I spend a lot of time writing. And every few days I look down and think “man, I hate my handwriting.” It’s insanely messy, and I have always wished I could improve it.

Has anybody had any luck with improving handwriting? I’ve tried writing slower, but it doesn’t seem to work for me.

Maybe I just need to repeat the third grade. Bonus: I’d learn my times tables this time.

Dear dogs:

Yes you, Fiat & Mabel.

Why must you bark so much when I let you out? And if something out there is so exciting or so threatening or just so plain interesting, if you must protect us with your fierce woof, why then do you come running inside so quickly when I so much as crack open the door?

Sign my guestbook

If I don’t know you, feel free to say hi on my guestbook and let me know who you are and how you got here.

Thanks!

Months or years?

I’ve always thought it was awkward the way new parents count their baby’s age in months instead of years. It’s taken me until my wife’s pregnancy to realize how much more sense it really makes to do it this way. And if the child isn’t even two years old, there’s a lot more to learn from “she’s fourteen months old” than “she’s a year old.”

But I still think it’s kind of funny. And it’s harder to remember for most of the rest of us, especially since every time I ask how old a coworker’s daughter is, the answer is likely to be different. I have a hard enough time remembering these things when they only change once a year!

I can never remember how old my niece is, for example. And I’ve always thought this was more of a mom thing, going by months instead of years. But my niece is a funny exception. I think I heard the other day that she’s 18 months old, but her mother - not her father - refers to her as two years old instead.

So I’m with Cathy and I’m not. And I guess I’m curious to see where I’ll stand in another year or two. I definitely can’t see wanting to rush anything.

Currently reading

How to spell Jonathan

This is related to my previous post and people who misspell “Jon.” Someone sent this to me last week and I’ve been meaning to put it up (thanks, Steve!).

Back to baby names

I am extremely picky about baby names. I only get one chance to name this baby, and I want to get it right.

I’ve got a small list of girl names I’m happy with - Clara, Charlotte, Georgia, and Annabelle come to mind. But I’m not quite there for boys. Currently, I like two names - Noah and Samuel - and both of them are too popular for my tastes.

Actually, it has nothing to do with taste. Growing up, I was one of a million Johns. The fact that I didn’t spell my name with an H seemed to make no impression on other people’s pronunciations. I hated being one of three Johns in any given class. I had a Jonathan roommate in college, and several close friends were also John. It’s not the end of the world having a popular name. But I don’t want to do that to my kid if I can help it. (I found it especially annoying that my name was both very popular and always misspelled, too.)

I’m stuck. I can’t come up with any guy names I’m happy with that aren’t in the top twenty (using the baby name voyager). Luckily, I’ve got some time and a patient wife. But I need to start making some progress.