PrivateTim

I know Jeremy likes to do "Faces for Mark's Stories", but I think I've nailed Will.

No he doesn't. Will looks like the callow 17 year old he is, with zero understanding of what the consequences of a dishonorable discharge mean in a person's life.

I felt the anger burn through my body at how he was taking me on this fucking emotional roller coaster ride just because he couldn’t bend me to his will. - - Instead, he’d been a complete dick, and hung up on me twice. He hadn’t told me where he was. OMG I laughed so hard at this. How many HUNDREDS of times has Will hung up on Brad? There is NOTHING noble or right in what Will did this chapter. What Brad does is NONE OF HIS FUCKING BUSINESS. Will laid down the parameters of this relationship, "stay the fuck out of my life" was the Prime Directive. So why does Will think he has the right to interfere? To bully Grace? To threaten Brad? How appropriate is it that Psyche is ridden by Psycho?

“Your read on the situation was good enough to convince me,” I said as I pondered the situation. “How do we handle that?” said Will with zero self awareness, nor a sense of irony. Yes.... I do know this is all fiction... Yes, I know there is a puppet master who makes Will this massive ball of hypocrisy and contradiction, but Jiminy Christmas, the Will character goes ballistic and on rage filled expeditions when anyone hints at anything he thinks delves into his private business. Either you accept that people who love you try to help you and keep you from harm or you do not. You cannot, or rather should not, involve yourself in others lives if you resent such interference in your life. There is apparently nothing Will can ever do wrong in the eyes of the Will-ophiles. If Will kicked a baby out of a stroller at noon on Park Ave, the Will-ophiles would either say, "well the baby had it coming" or "he was just trying to save the baby from a speeding truck". I think the only reason Will is going to Harvard is because he thinks he should. As of right now we only know three things that Will is passionate about, 1) fucking 2) surfing and 3) partying (drinking and drugs). If he were a history buff, a foodie or into culture, I'd say Boston is an awesome place to be. But it isn't. People not in California may not appreciate how good schools like UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara are. In the latest Forbes rankings UC San Diego is the #3 public university in the nation behind only Berkeley (#1 and #5 overall) and UCLA (#2 and #7 overall). Harvard is #9 overall on the Forbes list. UC Santa Barbara is physically on the ocean, with its own beach and surf break; part of the UC San Diego campus is on the ocean (Scripps Oceanographic Institute) with a great surf beach and nude beach. Will would have a very easy time at either of these schools indulging his three hobbies 24/7/365. If he decides to follow a business/finance track, Berkeley and UCLA have two of the finest MBA programs in the country, not to mention USC and UC Irvine (which really was UC Newport Beach when it was built since Irvine didn't exist yet).

I hope they pay the chauffeurs a boat load of money. Can you imagine the smell of that backseat and what it takes to clean it up?

Additional thoughts. Yes racism is wrong, but it is also okay to have types. Some guys like skinny guys and don't like beefy guys; some guys like blondes, some like swarthy. What ever Dustin's deal is/was, it sure didn't warrant Will's rage/anger reaction. He obviously needs more therapy to deal with his issues. I also think hooking up with Chris Mendoza was sleazy, both on Will's part and especially Chris's.

Brad does know better. I've decided it is Arbour who makes Brad do stupid shit. 🤣 Let me say again, for the 738th time in a review in a CAP story. I do not understand why people get drunk when they feel like crap the next day. You can't say "it's what teens do" because I was a teen, a fraternity boy, a raver and I liked clubbing and I did it all without getting blotto drunk at every opportunity. The first time I ever drank was my freshman year of high school, I got stupid drunk, puked and had a horrible hangover. I decided very quickly and easily that getting drunk wasn't a good tradeoff for pleasure received vs pain endured. Will seems miserable the next day and getting drunk, or coked up doesn't seem to enhance the fun he has.

I am very confused by this. Black and White laws work very well, that is why we have them. No means no when ever it is said, at any point it is said in an encounter. Age of consent laws are there to protect minors. Sexual harassment laws are there to protect employees, or anyone in an unequal relationship. They by nature have to be black and white, without gray areas. I am also a little surprised that Will was hitting on and flirting with Falco, especially since he knew about the deal with Patrick AND with Falco's strong push back in the last chapter. He was obviously annoyed at people treating him like an object.

“The other thing is that I have noticed that when you encounter a dilemma, you instinctively want to solve the problem, or right a wrong,” he said. I thought about that. The "problem solver" is a subset of the "control freak". He butts into other people's business when no one has asked him to. The Will apple didn't fall far from the Brad tree.

I will reiterate it is Will who should have apologized to Travis for Will's reaction/behavior. Travis' reaction was understandable. Will, instead of playing games, should have sat down with Travis the minute they were reunited and explained what was going on and why. Will's burning rage is another hint that he is not as grown up as he'd like to pretend and as some here would elevate him to. I will also reiterate I think it is a VERY BAD IDEA to be going out clubbing in a foreign country before Travis turns 18. I'd get off the MY Tonto, as it is easily tracked using the AIS tracking technology. I'd get a villa in Switzerland in Locarno or Geneva and hide out until 4-20, when I'd return to the U.S. Surely Travis knows where he is going to college in the Fall. Lastly, I will reiterate my belief in monogamy. I think the Wade - Matt relationship was a beautifully crafted bit of literature showing the pitfalls when one partner wants monogamy and the other wants an "open" relationship. If a person is unable to curb base, carnal urges then I think they are in need of help.

If you are looking for a nice word to describe a prostitute, maybe use 'politician'.

If Will were a more realistic character, the drugs would begin to wear down his body and I fear he'd develop a habit. Cocaine is very psychologically addicting; that is why so many "smart" people got addicted. The high comes fast, but goes away fast too, which is why people do more and more of it to try and make the euphoria last. Will's handing of Tara was cute, so was the interaction at the KL. Looking forward to the party at the Buck Mansion.

It is a moral judgment and intended to be so. I don't believe in moral relativism or "do your own thing", as it were. I think hooking up with a random guy you've known for 30 seconds and doing it in a shop dressing room is sleazy.

Interesting comments on the taste of beef in different parts of the world. The most different tasting beef I've ever had was in Argentina. My favorite beef is in Japan. Oddly enough, the single best steak I've ever had was at Del Frisco's in Las Vegas, at least it was the most memorable. Nice to see JP & Stef appear. I hope they can work things out with Tom.

I should live so long......

Depending on the sport, I think there are different reasons, because each sport has its own ethos and zeitgeist. I didn't come out in college for some of the reasons Canuk lists below. My teammates would have been fine I think, but it would have changed the dynamics of our relationship and would have changed the climate in the locker room. I felt that if I let them know I liked guys that when they looked at me, saw me, the first thing that would go through there head was, "he's gay" (without noting the difference between gay and bi) not, "oh, there is Tim". In the wrestling world, it is such a close, personal contact sport where two guys are constantly in contact with each others junk, I think it would be nigh on impossible to be out. I've known two, world class wrestlers who cracked under the pressure of being gay and in wrestling, and committed suicide. I think your insights are correct and as I said, maybe sport specific. It is easier to come out as gay in tennis, track, golf, figure skating, etc because of the nature of the sport. I think it would be much harder in football, rugby, soccer and water polo. Yes, but I like hyperbole as a literary device.

I probably would never understand why he couldn’t get to that final point in the first place without taking me on some wild emotional journey first, but I decided that was just how he was, and I’d have to deal with it. And I'd say, why can't you understand he is going to get to that final point from the first place and not let yourself get on some wild emotional journey first? But also elitist. Most people won't have had the advantages or upbringing Will has. Will is smart, but he's also been raised in an environment where education is revered. Hawaii has a notoriously bad public education system. It is very common for students on neighbor islands, students from privileged backgrounds, to go to Oahu to attend Punahou or Iolani. Promising students of Hawaiian ancestry attend the Kamehameha School. Just being privileged doesn't get you into Harvard, but being privileged and smart does. Harvard rejects 40,000 very, very smart people every year. Me either. It is amazing his face has only needed to be fixed twice.

Kahului and Wailuku are relatively small areas, people talk story. When one of the wealthiest families in the world builds a house, let alone a compound, tongues wag. It would also make the local papers. Yes. Putting my fist through a window when I was 10, in a fit of pique it was enough to convince my parents I needed help in dealing with anger issues. I didn't destroy over $1,000,000,000 in property and valuables, steal $50,000, drug either of my parents and runaway 3,000 miles away..... oh and then have them decide the obvious solution to my rage issues was to grant me independence from them. I gained independence through displays of maturity, respect and achievement. Yes, I mean it really isn't harder to do better than Will has. I never forget that Will is a fictional character, written by Mr. Arbour to elicit strong emotions. My joy and delight is calling out characters for their hypocrisy. I don't doubt for one minute that The Creator is not well aware of the hypocritical situations. I think he throws his head back and goes, "mwahahaha, muwhahaha, mwahahaha, muwhahaha" until his sides hurt. What makes my head explode is the Will-ophiles who excuse or explain away the hypocrisy instead of just acknowledging it. It is okay to shrug and say, "so what, he is a hypocrite", but there are some who won't see it, so deep is the love for The Chosen One. I hope it isn't, and I don't think it is. I live in a world that is by nature adversarial. It can start out friendly, even stay friendly, if parties are amenable. But in a world with Curtis Buck and the like, you'd better hire a vicious killing machine as your advocate, not Snowball The Wonder Kitten.

Ahhh, me too. But I've been to the shooting range every day this week. I won't miss again 😁

It was once a FINA rule that swimmers could not have visible tattoos, but that rule went away. My old college teammate had a ton of them.

Is this the last chapter? I've loved the story even if Jackson was more than a little irritating at times. I wonder how important swimming will be to him once he is away at college. Swimming was always important to me, and still is, but swimming is different from competitive swimming. Once I was at Berkeley it was somehow less important than it had been in age group and high school. It didn't happen right away, but by the end of my sophomore year, my passion for the competitive world waned, at least as a competitor. So will Jackson get to UGA and everything seem different and less important? Will other priorities come to the forefront? I hear competing philosophers in my head, Wolfe and Mitchell. One said, "You can't go home again" and the other, "Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone".

Yeah! Well said! Don't we remember when Will was outraged and inappropriately dressed down JP and the other adults for making Austin feel uncomfortable at dinner, even though the tension Austin felt, was not attributable to him.

But... but.... but.... wait! Who was the Black Widow? What happened with Maria? Alexandra? Elizabeth?

Is no one mad at Will for prying into Brad's business and spoiling the surprise of his plan?

“No, he doesn’t want me to join the navy if I’m gay because... Colin is already in the U.S. Navy. When you are a midshipman you are considered an O-1.