wow, and I thought Hollywood chose some messed up children’s name!  Hello Apple and Pilot Inspektor; be VERY happy that your parents weren’t as cracked as the couple from New Zealand who named their child Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii!  The 9 year old, who goes by K and lives in fear of anyone finding out the true, given name, was removed from parent’s custody pending a new name assignment.

The judge declared that naming a child something as odd as this constitutes child abuse.  Do I agree?  Yes, in a way I do.  When a child has an extremely horrible name, it follows them around forever.  Your name is a large part of your personality.  If a child is a TDTHFH (hey, Prince!) what does that say about them?  I, personally, would think that my parents were pretty screwed up and would try to escape them whenever possible.  Could that lead to a link between screwed up names and bad behavior?  I believe it’s possible.

The question is: are the parents on this planet enough to even parent this child given the fact that they gave their flesh and blood a horrible horrible name?  Are they completely clueless?

A name means a lot to a person - take the case of Hannah Montana, arguably one of the most popular teen/tween sensations of the moment.  Her given name, Destiny Hope, was legally changed to Miley, the nickname her father gave her as a baby.  I would have to say that in the realm of Hollywood names, Destiny isn’t too bad, but still, the girl clearly did not identify with that name and wanted it gone.

One question comes up though: why didn’t this child simply go by the name of Talula?  Yes, it’s horrible (Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’s child, Talulah Belle, recently had her name legally changed to Lula) but it’s certainly better than the whole, long, drawn out monstrosity.  I would guess that the child wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with such a horrible name.  Can you imagine being called in for dinner?

“TALULADOESTHEHULAFROMHAWAIIIIII….DINNNERRRRRRRRR!”

I hope the child changes her name to JANE.  Take THAT Mom and Dad.

It’s interesting to me that as a freelance designer, I am still susceptible to the type of backstabbing I thought was primarily the venue of the ‘face to face’ world.  I’ve discovered recently that it runs rampant everywhere - or I guess I should say everywhere there are PEOPLE.

What is it that makes people stab other people in the back? Is it simply the desire for money or some sort of gain? Is it the need to appear smart and useful to the boss, even if it is a remote boss?  Isn’t there any loyalty in the world at all!

Let’s break it down for all you backstabbers, or if you are thinking of becoming a backstabber, read on:

1. the Boss cares only about his or her ‘nexts’: next client, next big check, next big break, etc. That can also mean next worker who is better than YOU.
2. the person you are being nasty WITH may very well be playing YOU, too.
3. what goes around comes around; that’s a fact of nature.

So, the next time you’re thinking of yourself only and what you can do to make yourself feel better, consider the feelings of others, as well as the list above.  Maybe it will make you think.  But probably not.