methodwriter85

Happy New Year's everybody. I've spent the day being massively hungover. For the most part, these days whenever I go out, I have at most 2 beers, because I'm my own designated driver. But last night, I went to a house party and they allowed us to crash there, so I went way harder than I normally do- two Yuenglings, 1 Negron Modelo, 2 Harvest ales, a double shot of Whiskey, and champagne. At 21 in college, I could have consumed all that plus smoke a joint and felt fine the next day. But 8 drinks apparently equals "completely wrecked the whole next day" for me now. Kinda funny. I can't remember the last time I had a hangover this bad. In any event, I did have fun. It's the house of a friend of a friend. He lives in the upper-middle class suburb of Pike Creek, so his parent's house was pretty nice. It wasn't a full-on rager, but still a decent amount of people. I wound up crashing on a couch sometime around 3 a.m., and woke up around 10 a.m. All in all, pretty nice way to ring in 2014. I kind of felt like, "So this is what it was like to go to parties thrown by upper middle-class kids in high school." LOL.

If Will were a guy who did everything right all the time, he'd be extremely boring to read about, wouldn't he?

I worked at a dining hall that was across from the school gym, so I saw lots of college jocks wearing tank tops and gym shorts, and most of them had some kind of ink. I didn't notice it nearly as much in 2005, when I started college, as opposed to 2011-2012, where it seems really present. The difference is that frat boys usually kept to tattoos that could be easily covered up, because most of them were destined for white-collar jobs. Frat boys in this decade seem much more covered up in tattoos than they were in the mid-2000's. As for trend tattoos, it's funny because they easily date somebody. Anytime I see a guy with a barbed wire tattoo or a celtic cross, you can guarantee that he got it sometime in the late 90's/early 2000's.

I really hate those "writing on chest" tattoos that are currently all the rage right now, because they obscure the pecs and I really like a guy's chest. It's getting really hard though now to find people under 30 who don't have tattoos, a portion of them going a bit overboard. Zayn Malik from 1D verges on "too much" for me.

So, at the stroke of midnight, we'll be entering a new part of the decade. What songs did you enjoy listening to in the early 2010's? (Songs from 2009 are allowed.) Music of the Early 2010's- My Playlist 1. "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift 2. "California Gurls" by Katy Perry 3. "Say Aah" by Trey Songz ft. Fabulous 4. "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga 5. "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz 6. "Fireflies" by OwlCities 7. "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus 8. "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland 9. "Fuck You" by Cee-Lo 10. "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry 11. "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys 12. "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People 13. "Fucking Pefect" by Pink 14. "Animal" by Neon Trees 15. "Good Life" by OneRepublic 16. "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO 17. "Some Like You" by Adele 18. "Back To December" by Taylor Swift 19. "Set Fire To The Rain" by Adele 20. "We Are Young" by Fun ft. Janelle Monae 21. "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye 22. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen 23. "Brokenhearted" by Karmin 24. "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction 25. "Glad You Came" by The Wanted 26. "Tongue Tied" by GroupLove 27. "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons 28. "Gold on the Ceiling" by The Black Keys 29. "Carried Away" by Passion Pit 30. "Thift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis 31. "Royals" by Lorde 32. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke I'd definitely have to say that of this part of the decade, 2011-2012 were my favorite music years. Let's see what the mid-2010's bring!

Chapter 62 -When Will sees the 2001-2002 Don Bosco Prep Football Team in action. "The Rockafeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim -When Zach admits to Will that he's the first true friend he's ever had. "You've Got A Friend" by James Taylor

It's fun when Mark adds "local" (to myself) touches in the story...like in CAP, when he had Peter Gordon and JP Crampton spending a weekend down in the Nor'Easter ravaged Rehoboth Beach. Or in Be Rad, when he added in the 1980 World Series that the Phillies won, or the having Robbie be an Eagles fan. I definitely hope we'll meet Johnny Weir at some point, who was trained at the University of Delaware Skating Club. It was quite a big deal when he went to the Olympics. Him and JJ should have the fur flying. It'd also be cool to see them react to Philadelphia, which does have a bit of a renaissance in this decade. It'd also be cool to have a character rooting for the Baltimore Ravens at the 2012 Super Bowl against the 49ers, but I'm not sure that's likely because Mark was pretty unhappy about the outcome of that game.

I have to disagree with that- Ella got into either NYU or FIT (I think it's FIT, but it could be NYU), and I doubt she could have gotten there if her grades from the first three years of high school weren't good, Zeke is knocking out his general requirements at Claremont Institute of Technology (I'm assuming they're a junior college), and either Brent or Trent has plans to start a garage. (One of them is like only 12 or something, right?) Zach was troubled and they're not perfect, but given the environment and the depressed opportunities of 1990's Claremont, they all come off as doing pretty well. None of them seem like they're in gangs or anything like that. I think you're approaching "solid track" with a white-collar mindset view of success...the idea of skipping college and doing a trade instead seems like a failure, but I don't really agree with that. Not everyone is suited for college, and high-skilled mechanics can make pretty good money. As for the other stuff...I'll admit something: Mark and I have come to blows sometimes over character development and direction, especially when he was writing Paternity. The lesson? I learned to relax a bit and let Mark write the story. I was NOT happy with the JJ Story, to the point I couldn't sleep, but you know what? The story turned out way better than the suggestion I had for it, and that definitely underscored the point that you need to let the author write the story and the characters. Finally, a random note- I freakin' love that Zach has a Dodge Durango. His car was produced at the Chrysler Plant in Newark, Delaware when I was a teenager. Pretty funny. It's cool having these characters in New Jersey and closer to my neck of the woods.

Alright, this tune goes out to the 2013 NFC Northeast Champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. Woo-hoo! "Always Alright" by The Alabama Shakes From 4-12 last season, to 10-6 and getting the chance to play in the play-offs this year...to fucking awesome! I'm sure the Saints will crush us at home because the Philadelphia narrative is always one of disappointment and dashed hopes, so I really want to enjoy this one.

Good point. So question...what is the most regrettable hairstyle any of you have ever had? In my case...I shaved off all my hair except for my bangs when I was 14...bleached those bangs, and then dyed them red. It looked hideous, but it was fun to do it. '

Interesting. I associate 2006-2007 with the Faux Hawk, but sometimes this stuff is hard to pin down. Anyway, Blue and Tim, I really have enjoyed reading about your insight on California culture. I think it's great, and very illuminating. I had this viewpoint of Californians- I thought they either were Beach Bunnies, Napa Valley types, South Central L.A. types, Valley Girls, Hollyweird types, San Francisco Hipsters, Silicon Valley Tycoons, Orange County Rich Republicans, or Beverly Hills Rich People...it's been cool learning about the nuances of the culture. I mean, really though- think about T.V.- all the shows set in California are like always in San Francisco or Los Angeles...the closest people get to rural life there would be Nappa Valley. It's been cool learning about the nuances.

I'm pretty sure it did, but I haven't seen the book in awhile.

So, this year, the Macklemore Haircut, otherwise known as the undercut, has become pretty popular. Here's an example of the look: The basic idea of the haircut is that the sides are shaved down, the hair is left long on the top, and you usually part the hair on the side, adding hair height through gell. Do you guys find the haircut hot or not? Here's a fashion article that discusses the trend. In my cases, I want to try it out, but I think it's a look that works best on guys with long, oval faces and not round faces like mine. I tend to stick with a fade or a Roman Caesar. It does seem like a pretty popular haircut right now, though.

I really like how the start of Zach and Will's whatever-this-is has been essentially the inverse of the start of Tony and Will's whatever-this-is. Tony talked a really good game about honor and family, but turned out to be a totally untrue. Zach has basically been talking about what a total using shit he is/has been, but Will's finding redeemable things about him. I think it's the honesty- Zach isn't a white knight and he's not pretending to be. I can see that being really attractive to Will after dealing with Tony's shit. Also, Zach has a Dodge Durango. That made me smile, as Dodge Durangos were produced at the Chrysler Plant in Newark, Delaware...I passed by that plant all the time. It closed in 2008 or 2009 and is now being turned into a technology/health sciences campus for the University of Delaware. Finally, I liked the peek into how Will views the world. Right now, I see him being way too compassionate to lead a global corporation...it'll be interesting to see if that changes.

Hey, Blue, curious...when did the "Undercut" haircut become popular in California? I first started noticing it in 2010-2011, and then Macklemore exemplified the extreme version of the look: David Beckham also has a version of it. Now it seems like a lot of guys are doing the look. It's reminiscent of the Zack Morris surfer haircut from the early 90's, I think, only that style was courtesy of mouse rather than pomade. And the sides weren't shaved as high up. Did you wear that hairstyle, Tim? I've always pictured you as having blond hair for some reason, and you're about the same age as Zack Morris (the gang was the class of 1993), so I kinda figured you dressed like Zack Morris/Saved By The Bell in high school. (I sure as hell can't picture you doing the flannel grunge Jordan Catalano look when you were 17.) I do remember Mark having a bit about the early/mid-90's surfer haircut in If It Fits...that look seemed to go out circa 1998, when guys started spiking their hair instead, which stays popular at least to 2003-2004. The mid/late part of the 2000's, it seemed like guys were leaning towards longer hair, like Zac Efron hair, as what I referred to as the 'winged look.' Now it seems like guys are going back towards shorter hair again, or at least shorter hair on the sides. I can definitely see JJ doing the David Beckham version of the undercut, not so sure about Will.

I got a pop-up book of illustrations about celebrity scandals like Britney Spears' meltdown and Mel Gibson's racist rants.

Again, I think it's reasonable for a family member to expect that another family member isn't going to sleep with their love interest. It's not the same.

Alright, I'm going to try another Marie...Anna Sophia Robb? (Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Carrie Diaries.) I'm leaning towards blonde girls with doll-faces and big blue or green eyes because that's the Claire Be Rad description, but if that's wrong and Maire ISN'T supposed to look like Claire and looks more like Jack, please let me know, Mark. The fail on Marie is getting me down, because she doesn't seem to have a particularly quirky or picky look like Tony or Austin seem to have. When I read Austin's description, I just thought, "There's no way in hell I'm going to find a model that fits his looks. That mouth thing is way too distinctive." I also wonder what the hell Tony's supposed to look like ,because I feel like I've trotted out every single Italian-looking hunk to no avail. LOL. The description of Tony's looks have also been pretty vague- it seems like a generic Italian hunk look (but he can't look "pretty" like say Young Antonio Sabato Junior), but you've been picky as hell about it, Mark. LOL.

Perks of Being A Wallflower DVD, a black dress shirt, cookie decorator, and shaving lotions. Not really much but I also got myself a grey henley shirt courtesy of Old Navy, and I'm probably hitting up the sales tomorrow.

Probably not well. Liquefaction was an issue with the 1989 quake, and I imagine that it's still an issue. Also, a lot of the buildings that were built from the 1910's to the 1970's weren't built as strongly as they could have been, and while retrofitting helps...it's still probably not going to be pretty. I mean seriously, look at the damage of the 1989 quake, and that was a 6.9 rather than a 7.8. They say the only reason why the death toll wasn't in the hundreds for '89 was because people weren't on the roads like they usually would have been because of the World Series.

I thought I was going to do this in three parts, but it looks like I'll probably have to do five parts. LOL. Part 4 1. "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees 2. 3. 4. 5. " 6. 7. "You Only Get What You Give" by The New Radicals 8. 9. 10. " 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. "Brimful of Asha" by Cornshop (Norman Cooke Remix) 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

I'd say Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind were my first big bands, followed by Blink 182, New Found Glory, and Good Charlotte.

Big Time Rush's cover of All I Want for Christmas:

Chapter 61 -When Darius gives Austin some advice. "The Wanderer" by Dion and the Belmonts -When Will has one of his sad attacks, and Darius admits that he gets them, too. "Ordinary World" by Duran Duran -When Will and Zach talk on the phone. "Nothing at All" by Heart

Hey, guys, I came across this interesting article, from the point-of-view of a Millennial who went away to war instead of going away to college. I think it's a pretty raw look into the mindset of a certain subset of this generation. The Division of Generation Y Two different narratives for this generation...both different, but in some ways, the same. I definitely felt a bit of guilt for the fact that I wasn't off in Iraq or Afghanistan, getting physically or emotionally maimed like Gen Y military counterparts. The biggest thing I worried about in 2005-2006 was whether or not a friend might get too wasted at a party and need to go to a hospital. These guys had to worry about whether or not the little Aghan kid approaching them might or might not be a human bomb. It's insane. I remember in 2007, I took part in an Iraq "die-in" at U of D...basically, we lied on the ground and pretended to be dead veterans- some of us were dressed in military gear, and had fake blood and everything. We probably looked utterly ridiculous, and University of Delaware is an incredibly politically apathetic campus (despite the fact that Joe Biden is one of ours), but I remember lying there, really thinking about the thousands of guys and gals who sacrificed. It's like Vietnam, but worse, because so many of their counterparts lived blissfully unaware of the problems in Iraq/Afghanistan, where we cared more about getting new Ipods and Britney Meltdown '07 than them.