By any other name...

So I feel compelled to start writing now, but I really not sure what I should be talking about, so it's free association time, I guess. Let's give the ol' noggin a shake and see what comes out.

I'm watching the Director's/Writer's Commentary to Juno right now--third viewing in five days--I'm still not sure when I'm going to send this back to Netflix. It's a decent commentary, not the best I've seen, but pretty good. Entertaining, if nothing else--they're both pretty clever. Not really sure why movie is clicking with me the way it is...something about the film's voice...sardonic, sweet, honest. Diablo Cody, in short, rocks. Jason Reitman's not too shabby himself--two solid comedies in a row, both very different in tone, look, and composition.

Diablo Cody is, obviously, not her real name. Awesome pen name. Assuming I ever get to the point of trying to sell a novel, I've got a pen name ready to go--had it since my sophomore year in college, but it's nowhere near as cool as hers--frankly, I'm jealous.

I don't know why I can't stand to see my first name in print, just don't like it at all (but it drives me crazy when 90% of people use something else in speech...isn't it ironic?). I remember in junior high reading a book off of my mother's office shelf* that had a forward by O. Hobart Mowrer, and thinking "What name could be so bad that this guy goes with "Hobart" instead?

Yeah, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Go through 5th grade surrounded by 5th grade boys with a name that rhymes with a bodily function, and tell me you don't do the same thing.


* it occurs to me, my mother didn't have an office when I was in junior high. No idea where the book was then, it's in her office now. Not that it matters to anyone but me.

And the book, of course. Books always care where they're stored.

** it occurs to me, I didn't attend junior high. I attended "middle school." What a ridiculous name...middle school.