B1ue

I'm aware of UCSB's history. We even glossed over it in a couple of classes. The comments students made in response were not exactly kind. In any case, I was talking about when I went there, which would (barely) overlap Will going there, if he so chose. The quarter system really wasn't that instense, in practice. Perhaps for the science and engineering departments, I didn't delve much into those. The liberal arts professors all seemed to hate the quarter system, and adjusted their courses to reflect the shortened class durations. They didn't try to cram a fifteen week course into ten weeks, they spread a two semester course series over three quarters. A good chunk of my upper division classes didn't even have midterms. As to what I said about studying abroad, a foreign study program is a really great way to broaden the horizons of an average student, who otherwise might not have the means or connections to go live in another country and really thrive. Will is not so limited. He can go to school anywhere he pleases any time he pleases. Or, not even go to school, just take off for a year or two and live in a foreign country, if that's what he feels like. Why burden himself with excess structure and oversight when he doesn't have to? It's not like he'll find himself in a situation where he can't talk to locals or run out of money with no way of contacting home (not unless he's really trying to do exactly that). (And Tish is pissed at him). Edit: Also, I will admit that a lot of the party aspect of UCSB is not actually from UCSB students, but locals, CC kids, and out-of-towners. But these were the people we partied with every weekend, worked with (for those that worked), and often lived with, so there's a good amount of social pressure to try and keep up with kids that had a lot less on their plates. Aaaand, let's not even get into "Fuck Towers." Which, while they've cleaned it up, is still a freshman dorm, with all the concentrated stupidity that applies.

It isn't huge, but the programs are there. You have to understand, UCSB is a party school. Laid-back doesn't even begin to cover it. Not that Guachos are stupid or lazy, but studying abroad seems like an awful lot of work for not as much profit. What would WIll, especially, get out of a study-abroad program? He can study abroad any time he pleases. Maybe he'll get a second doctorate out of a school in Australia. The bug turn-off for UCSB is that it has a pretty annoying homophobic streak. It's quite possible to be out and have no issues, and the university administration itself bends over backwards for all minority groups, including minority sexualities, but the student population is another matter. I wanted to punch a girl one day for making remarks about a friend of mine during one of his dance performances, but sadly, she was far from the only one to make those remarks. Edit: Now that I think more on it, what is Will heading towards in terms of a degree? Max and Jack have been the only members of the cast that didn't get degrees in social science, correct? If Will heads towards Oceanography and Marine Biology, that'd be different. Of course, given the last couple chapters, I could also see him start studying to become a psyciatrist.

I don't think there's been a time in my life where I didn't own at least one pair of flip-flops, and pretty much wore them out every summer. Mine now last a wee but longer, but maybe just every other year. I didn't know they weren't synonymous with sandals until I was a preteen, I don't think. I second the puka-shell and hemp necklace. I had a hemp necklace the tail part of the nineties. Necklaces are sort of my thing; I've gone through dozens over the years. And I cannot stand the years that massive bead arrangements are "in," I prefer simple pendants or at most a couple charms. They are annoying to shop for when people want to look like they're wearing curtain beads. Leather bands, I think I recall. Didn't go for them myself, so I don't know. I've seen that brand for Ruca, but I couldn't tell you when. It only started up in 2001, so it's doubtful I ran across the label in college. Perhaps I've seen in stores more recently.

Except that, even if it never happens again to JJ, it already has. So the rule ticket has still been punched. As to it never happening again..well, everyone is different, but I didn't avoid older guys. Eventually, anyways. At first, I could barely stay in the same room as guys that reminded me too strongly, to everyone's consternation. Eventually, that eased, and the triggers are hardly ever at all. And when they do, I can deal.

Thank you Tim. I thought that was the case, but as I said, my knowledge of pre-2002 technology, and what it could do, was fairly limited. I knew I could do that with a camera now, but not necessarily then. Also, to build off your later comment, going to the USAFS would be the correct thing to do. I'm curious if they will.

You bring up many of the questions I had, Centex. Although, I may have an inlking on how it stayed buried for so long. This doesn't seem to be the latest, ready to be downloaded pictures Michael had on him when Jeff got a hold of his camera. This seems to be an additional batch of photos hidden on the camera or on the memory stick itself. I'm not sure that would have been possible in 2000, but perhaps. I don't think I had so much as touched a digital camera until 2002 or so. Probably later. I really hope this unites everyone. Michael didn't though, so I worry Robbie at least will try to bluster and stall, looking at the possible reprecussions a well-connected coach could have on JJ's carreer if they made an enemy out of him, or one of his other patrons.

I never saw the issue with Matt and Brad hooking up. Obviously, I saw why Robbie, and to a lesser extent JJ, would take exception, but otherwise no. If Brad had to any real extent acted as some sort of step-father to Matt, I might, but as it stands, he didn't, so I struggle. However, last time around, I was pretty much the only poster with this opinion, so clearly I just see things differently. Speaking as someone that dealt with memories of being raped in a similar fasion to this, it can help. It might be odd from your perspective, but whatever gets us all through the day.

Will also has far more expected of him than JJ does. Can you imagine any of the adults in this series leaning on JJ for support like Brad does with Will? Or for anyone to tell JJ, "I know, this situation sucks. It's not going to get better soon. But please try not to make it worse." Or trust him to act more or less appropriately at a heated board meeting? Mind, he might surprise us. As Will has demonstrated, the fastest way to learn how to handle responsibility is to be placed in a position of responsibility, so there's hope for JJ yet. But as long as he's willing to act out into this persona, and as long as Will is around for him to be compared unfavorably against, it ain't happening.

And damn if I know anything about pizza in that area. Santa Barbara, sure. I liked Woody's, and they delivered on campus. But as to the rest of California, yo no se. I'm technically a hick. The only pizza place in my town as a teenager was a family owned restaurant that all of my immediate family everyone except my father worked for at some point or another, though not all at the same time.

I also got the impression that 13th was extremely out of character for JJ, and part of why Jeanine and JJ were so pissed. I'm not sure how accurate it is to say that the characters ever had a strong academic tradition. JP did, but he seemed to be an anomoly for his family. Going to school was important, yes, but because that showed good class, not for it's own sake. JP took that to an extreme though. Brad, Ace, Claire, and Robbie all got into good schools, but the first three were raised by two college professors and Isiodore, and Robbie had all the reason in the world to prove he wasn't his brothers. No one in the current generation has that kind of motivation, with the exception of JJ, and he's channelling his efforts elsewhere.

And Ms. Lange certainly can bring the crazy: http://www.youtube.com/embed/UiQm2Y62BRg One of the creepiest things I've seen lately "The Name Game (Asylum version)."

Do you really want to see what was described as a lame, awkward moment between them? Sure, it'd have been one thing if Ryan had suddenly realized he was losing Will and either tripped him into a bed or declared some form of attraction, or tried at all, but from Will's account it doesn't seem like that happened. Better to leave it on the nice note of Ryan actually reaching out to Will the week before, in my opinion. I feel this chapter explains why the bruhaha between Robbie and Will was included in this book rather than allowed to be ther seed of the next. Little Will is still growing up, it seems.

I don't have much to say that hasn't been covered by others, and more eloquently than I can do so. I will point out that JP and Stef's willingness to work with Robbie, such as they are, is a good sign. No one in this family, except Wade, quite has a handle on compromise or half-measures. If they were really, truly pissed off at Robbie, they'd be even more polite, and simply blow up his car (with him in it, needless to say). They aren't there yet. Even Stef's threat to put Will on the board of Anders-Hayes is a way to wake Robbie up. After all, what could Will do that Stef wouln't enjoy inflicting on Robbie himself, except force him to deal with his own shit?

Honestly, I'm feeling hunted, being a possesor of thick hair and dark eyes. All kidding aside, the version of Tony I have in my head is a bit darker than yours, and heavier than this last. The model you picked for Beau is pretty close, though perhaps a bit darker than that, even.

That's a pretty realistic scenario, MJ. On my mom's side, our family revolved around my grandmother for four generations. That included her siblings and their descendants, not just her own. After she passed away, the family began to splinter off, and we've never really come together as a family group since, so a couple weddings have come close to pulling the various branches together. My particular offshoot doesn't even get told about all the important deaths and marriages until after they've occured, on occasion. I live a bit less than 20 miles away from the main branch. I maybe see them once a year, and usually not even that frequently. This is depite my maternal grandfather still being alive. He was just never the cultural his wife was, as we tend towards matrlineality.

That's not really a good answer, especially not to the questions posed the way they were posed. If that was an acceptable answer, and not just mental laziness, then there's absolutely nothing to discuss, at all, because the answer would always be "because he made it that way." Furthermore, analyzing stories, picking their narrative flow, characters, and structure apart to try and see why things are they way they are is a hobby of mine. I'm not really able to just read a story anymore, I'm always trying to tear it apart. I don't really see how this story would be any less worth that kind of attention than anything else I read.

I'm going to attempt to take the middle ground here. Time does raise a good point, why doesn't anyone ever say no to Will? Certainly, my first reaction when reading the story, especially the line "Jeff said I was an easy lay?" or something to that effect, was to imagine Paulo saying back, "Are you kidding? Your phone number is on bathroom walls all over this county and in two states." Snark aside, I think Jeremy did a good job of answering that question. 1) People when they meet Will don't assume he's underage, or at least not as much as he actually is. 2) Even if they did, that's not exactly a deterrent to behavoir in this universe. 3) This is an erotic story, the vast majority of characters are introduced so that someone can have sex with them, and it may as well be Will. 4) Will is both a slut and single, and sees no reason to not try and have sex with everyone he meets. To add to those point, true sluts actually aren't deterred by getting turned down. They, like the late-night gentlemen callers Tim described a couple posts ago, just move on to the next target, and have the self-possession to genuinely not give a fuck. So, I don't actually think it would add anything to the story for Will to run up against a hard target. He's hit them before, and got a little depressed when it happened, but then he moved on, and then circled back around to collect them later. Because, again, Mark does not bring a dick into this story without it going off into someone. The only growth I can really imagine for Will if he experienced someone that said no and stuck to it would be he'd just learn to move on faster and with less emotion.

I would imagine that if people didn't correctly guess his race, they would assume he was Mexican. I've a couple Arabic friends (of various cultural background) that told me they were more often assumed to be Mexican than their actual race. I, on the other hand, am assumed to be Persian more often than Mexican, so it was sort of amusing. I'm not sure how racist the coastal cities would have been. Inner-city was pretty bad, Santa Barbara wasn't altogether pleasant. Ventura was alright, but not great either. I think I encountered more racism and homophobia in college than in high school. Combining the two, some idiots probably assumed he was the maid or the gardener's kid, and wondered why he went to school with the normal people.

I knew several guys that couldn't quite work out what they wanted their freshman year of college. Plus, it's not like the answer is completely nailed down even then. I was still attracted to and dating women when I was 18, my attraction to males didn't completely outpace that until I was about 19, I think there's some room for legitimate confusion.

I am not one of Robbie's biggest fans, but I can at least see the logic in asking Will to be the bigger man. In a way, it's kind of good for everyone. By asking Will to step aside, even for a family function, he's acknowleding that Will is the more mature brother, more willing to make sacrifices for the sake of family peace. That's going to have consequences, especially when Robbie finally does get a handle on his emotional reaction to the whole situation. And the entire rest of the family is going to remember that JJ pulled this crap. I'm starting to wonder if JJ is shaping up to be another Billy after all. He may die, sure, but unlike Brad, Will actually is extending olive branches towards JJ, and JJ is the one being totally unreasonable.

I'm well aware of when Will would have started school. It depended to some extent on where you grew up. When I entered school into the LAUSAD, I was one of the oldest kids in my grade (my birthday is in February). When I moved out of there into a different district, I was towards the middle of the pack, because in that district it was common for kids who were not yet six when kindergarten ended to be held another year. And that's just public schools; I imagine private schools could make whatever policies make sense to them. Edit: From what my parent's tell me, the reason for the December 2nd cut if because there used to be two cut-off dates, one for summer class and one for winter class. I'm not sure how exactly that worked, but apparently every grade was split between a Summer and a Winter class, and December 2 was one of the cuts involved. I'll have to ask them to explain it again to me.

So, at most, he's guilty of a misdemeanor? And not just Will, but Alastair too? Yeah...I can see that being pursued real hard. JJ losing his shit, THAT is almost a given. But he's going to have to convince Alastair to feel a lot more torn up about it than a typical fourteen-year-old. Edit: Something to keep in mind is that, due to a quirk in CA school system, Will is one of the youngest children in his grade, and JJ is one of the oldest. It's become common practice (and now codified policy) to let kids born late in the year, like WiIl is, to be held back a year in kindergarten, but that evidently didn't happen in his case. Which means Alastair is probably older than Will too, and the onus of responsibility would probably fall on him, ridiculous as that seems.

He DID pick up a poor boyfriend. The hell was his name, Drew I think? Whoever, the formerly rich kid that Brad took in for a couple weeks. Also, how old is Marie again? I had thought she was younger than she apparently is. Edit: Ah, you gave Marie's age. Yeah, I'd thought she was about 11 or so.

I didn't quite mean this situation. I think I'm more surprised he cares than anything else, and look forward to seeing where it goes. I'm trying to parse what exactly he does that makes me think "spoiled," and I think it's his lack of a middle gear. He can moderate himself, we just saw him do so with Tony, but that's not exactly his favorite tactic. He has a tendency to reach for the biggest hammer he has and whack any obstacle in his path as hard as he can when they present themselves. Actually, that's not fair. He does that when the big hammer will work, he does bow to the inevitable when he recognizes it. I may still be doing the character a disservice. All of his problem lately have been big hammer problems, so perhaps that's where I'm getting that impression from. Although I can't help but see a future moment where Stef yells, "Will, you're grounded! No talking to your lawyers for two weeks!" Oh, he has his good points. It's just my personal impression. And that whining is probably the most annoying trait I can find in an adult, male or female.

See, here's the thing with that. Whatever level of maturity Will may or may not posses, which is another argument, Will is a flight risk. There's only so far his elders can guide him before risking him just saying "I'm sorry you feel that way," and walking away. And however emotionally stable you read him as, he is not a typical 13 or 14 year old in that regard, because he can actually do that and have it stick. So in this respect, his elders are limited to treating him as they would an adult child, which is somewhat true in his case, and hope that's enough. That Robbie, JJ, and Brad between them are doing their absolute best effort to piss the entire rest of the clan off simultaneously is not helping. Will can, and does, act like a spoilt brat at times, but when his parents also act that way, who are they to choose between? It's also been my impression that Robbie has been more tolerated than embraced, so they aren't exactly inclined to side with him anyways. But that may be my own personal reaction forcing things into the text that isn't really there. Robbie gets on my nerves like Will gets on Tim's and JJ gets on Sharon's.