methodwriter85

Me, too- New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Yes. There are only 3 counties in my state.

I'll add on to that with: Charlottetown - Prince Edward Island (Thank you Anne of Green Gables) Victoria - British Columbia Regina - Saskatchewan St. John- Newfoundland Whitehorse- Yukon Territory I've got to admit, I've always wanted to travel to Prince Edward Island and spend a weekend at a farmhouse like the one in Road to Avonlea:

Well, you guys can test yourselves: USA State Capitols I scored a perfect 150 out of 150 points on this. The hardest were the Prairie states.

It's not a city bus system, though. Suburban city buses are AWFUL. It takes an hour to do what would take 10 minutes in a car. In any event, I just think it's hilarious that they're making a big deal of Will giving out a car, when they've given out how many cars to how many guy friends? They treat cars like friendship bracelets, and have ever since the first story. Am I hallucinating or didn't even Cole get a car? It's purely because it's Zach that it pisses them off.

California, Texas, and Florida seem to have gotten noticed the most.

In honor of Thanksgiving, someone asked a bunch of Brits to fill in a map of the United States. The results were, um, mixed. Brits Fail to Fill out Map of the United States Some of my favorites were: -1 of these 10 states are New York - Florida aka Disneyland - Stephen King Land (aka Maine) - California (Florida) Oh, god, could you picture a Californian being mistaken for a Floridan? Those states apparently hate each other.

Don Bosco isn't actually a boarding school anymore- it was at its founding, but it converted to day school at some point. (I checked online.) So it's not like Zach can just roll out of bed and go to class. My impression is that Zach lives with a "host" family, who gives him rides when he needs it. It's probably not awful, but it's gotta be annoying to a 16-year old boy who has a license and knows that he has a trust fund. Besides, it's suburban New Jersey. It's not like he lives in NYC and can take subways and trains. You need a car, period, to get around. This was right when they started banning teenagers from having other teenaged passengers in cars for their first 6 months of a license, so it's not like he can rely that much on his friends, either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nIqpuczU7I

Chapter 54 -When Will lusts over Austin Biehl, and John and Marie tease him about it. "It's Raining Men" by Geri Halliwell Can I just say that I think it's weird that Will hasn't mentioned Tom Welling yet? Remember the Smallville poster that was posted everywhere during the summer of 2001?I remember a lot of teens were watching the show. Gay guys and straight girls had Tom Welling, while straight guys and gay girls had Kristin Kreuk. Given Will's penchant for beefy muscle boys, I'd have a hard time believing he wouldn't have pictures of Tom Welling plastered all over his room. Edited to add: I checked and the show didn't premiere until October 16th. Still, I'm betting Will noticed the Smallville poster. If I'm remembering correctly, it was placed around gay communities, which led to a minor controversy about how it looked too much like what happened to Matthew Shepherd. -When the family goes for a drive and checks out the new offices. "Have A Nice Day" by The Stereophonics

Mark, you know how hard you make it for me to score high school scenes when you have Will being so accepted and loved? No one ever makes songs about happy, well-adjusted popular kids, especially late 90's/early 00's poppy punk bands like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte.

The body types in CAP tend to run from twinks, to Hockey players, to football players, surfers, and swimmers. (Tony was described as a soccer player, but his body type sounds more like a football player.) I'm hoping we get more lacrosse types and long-distance runners at some point. I think Will pretty much said that Cam's not really shy- he was shy the first day, but now he's pretty much trying to mack on girls all the time. (Not that it means he's not gay- but he's not really shy.) Did anyone else notice that we're not really seeing too many seniors? It seems like the bulk of upperclassmen that Will's interacting with are juniors, which makes me think that we'll probably see glimpses into the 2002-2003 school year. Mark probably doesn't want to bother that much with introducing characters that are seniors and therefore only around Menlo until spring 2002. I remember when I was a freshman/sophomore I hung out with a lot of class of 2002/class of 2003 people, which kind of screwed me over by the time I was a junior and the bulk of the people I hung out with were gone. LOL. If you have to go outside your class, it's best to stick to people a year ahead or a year behind. (Although I'll admit by the time I was a senior, I actually had a lot of friends in the class of '07.)

This is such a good cover: "Burning Down the House" by Walk the Moon

Right, but it's kind of disappointing, because the theme of the Hunger Games is about rebelling against a corrupt, greedy government and the disparity between the poor districts vs. the rich Capitol, so it's jarring to see Make-up ads and talks of theme parks for the Hunger Games. Although I do think the Clock would actually be a pretty good theme park idea.

Elisabeth Olsen as a twentysomething Marie Hobart? She's this Indie actress that has a lot of buzz surrounding her, and has the kind of earthy, sensual beauty with an edge that I picture Marie having:

I read The Hunger Games right before I saw the movie, and then I bought Catching Fire and Mockinjay. It's weird to me that people haven't read the books- my friend who I saw the movie with hasn't read the books.

I'll start out with my disappointments. I really hated that they took out Johanna's "I don't care if you are knocked out, I'll rip your throat out" line, as well as the Second Quarter Quell. I was expecting that they would take them out, but I was hoping I was wrong. I think they should have kept in the foreshadowing about District 13 somewhere- I get why they cut out Bonnie and Twill, but they should have found another way to foreshadow them. I think they should've put in a little more about District 12- it's hard to feel that much loss about it considering we met very few District 12 people- we didn't even see Gale or Peeta's family. I also thought we should have seen more of the Careers- I mean, even a small scene where they discuss their plans would've worked. In terms of the positives, I absolutely loved the shot of the turkey turning into Marvel, in order to show Katniss's PSTD, as well as Katniss's nightmares. Jena Malone absolutely stole the show. I've liked Jena Malone since seeing Life as As A House and Saved and I'm glad she's getting a big spotlight. She was perfection in the part- the stripping scene was even more hilarious in the movie than it was in the book, and she was pitch-perfect. And the scene where she and Katniss go off to the jungle with Katniss clearly not wanting to had just the right amount of tension, leading up to Johanna ripping out the tracker. I did think their interpretation of Finnick was interesting- he was a bit more silent, and he didn't feel as much of a friend to Katniss, which is why it makes sense that she really thought about killing him. I do hope they bring back more of Katniss's great friendship banter with Finnick in the third movie. I also hope they tone down the make-up- he was far more attractive in the jungle scenes without the heavy make-up they had on him earlier in the movie. The thick bronzer made Finnick look like he had far more wrinkles than a 24-year old should have. (Although I'm wondering about the age thing, because apparently Annie Cresta's games were only 5 years ago, making her 23, but the woman they picked for Annie is clearly in her early/mid-30's. Eh, at least she's not playing a teenager.) I think Liam Hemsworth improved a lot from the first film, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the plot of Mockingjay. Although I really didn't think they should have had them kiss more than once- one of the bits about Gale and Katniss's relationship is that there's an ambiguity to it- Gale clearly loves her, while Katniss is more ambiguous. She COULD love him as more than a brother, but can't entertain those feelings while they're stuck in such a harsh, brutal existence. I felt like they clearly played up the love triangle here more than the book did. Effie's character growth was so well-done by Elizabeth Banks- you can really feel the difference between the first reaping scene, and this second one. Effie was a bundle of joy in the Hunger Games and was excited at the action of having someone volunteer for the Games, but now that she's grown fond of Katniss, it's much harder for her to pull out the slip of paper. And the gold bracelet scene was so subtle but beautifully conveyed that Effie was now completely on their side. The Rue tribute and ensuing execution scene were so well-done. Really translated beautifully. Did you guys notice that Rue's family didn't have the father, which would suggest that he had been killed in the District 11 uprising from the first film? What a great detail. I was really also glad that they kept in Peeta's painting of Rue, which was one of my favorite bits from the book. Finally, I loved the last scene, of Katniss going through the shock, sadness, and then steely determination for revenge all playing out on her face. Overall, I thought the movie was a strong sequel- it lacked the cinema verite style that the first one had, but I was pleased. Bring on Mockinjay!

The 80's pastel revival was more 2003-2007, peaking in 2005-2006. Then the late 80's neon revival happened in 2008-2009. (You're still seeing a lot of neon tank tops, especially on frat boys.) It was in pretty stark contrast to the late 90's/early '00s aesthetic, which had very subdued colors.

So, here's what happened to me. I worked a retail job for the Holidays last year. This year, I was told by the same retail job at the Holiday job fair that I would get to come back and do the seasonal job again. I came in a week later and asked to leave a message with the person who told me I was hired, but then they never got back to me. Lo and behold, I came in today to find out what was going on and they told me that (shocker) I wasn't hired. They told me some bullshit excuse about how they had me so far back in the line and they were so busy with background checks for others that I fell off. Which was bullshit, because I was told I was going to be hired on October 17th. My guess is that the person who wanted to hire me back got overruled, and they didn't have the guts to let me know that they didn't want me back. I would have been fine if they had told that they decided that I wasn't a fit for the job. I would have taken an email or a phone call, but I got neither. It definitely sucked and I spent two hours on the phone commiserating with my friend Seth, who's also going through unemployment blues. He's gearing up to do a doctorate (which I really think is the best idea for him)...meanwhile I'm giving myself another year while looking into jobs with the possibility of getting another master's degree. (An urban planning degree to compliment my public history degree, as I think I want to specialize in the history of urban renewal.) The hiring window for my field is strongest from about January to March, so I need to get myself up for this again. Like Seth said to me, there's no real way to make this feel better or comfort me, and all I can do is dust myself off and go back on the application trail. 2013 wasn't a total wash for me- I gained 6 months of field experience with my volunteering at the local museum, but I think it's safe to say I won't look back at my 27th year with any great fondness. Any of you got a "Blues" tale today? *orders a beer and listens expectantly*

Good point. I've been told by people that I have really horrible poker face, so they can tell what my emotions are just by looking at me. It makes sense that JJ's good at managing his facial reactions to people.

I kind of based it off of the same thing that Blue's talked about- that when he was a teenager, he had a reaction to disabled people that bordered on rude, even if he didn't act malicious. I think I was probably similar. I'm not saying JJ would have SAID something awful- I think he might have had a facial reaction that would have made him look like an ass.

Andy Sharpe from Cross-Currents would beg to differ.

I thought it was strongly indicated that JJ can be quite rude to people and that's why Darius and Will hoover over him in public places to make sure he doesn't make an ass out of himself: Of course, JJ doesn't view himself as having that problem, but he was also being defensive. I think the only time he sucks up to people and acts like a sweetheart to total strangers are probably when he's at a competition and around judges, media, and well-respected senior skaters ahead of him. I do think odds are JJ would have made a total ass of himself, somehow, while meeting Kai and his family, like Blue said. He would NOT be comfortable around a disabled dad and Kai's blue-collar family.

Could you imagine what JJ would have reacted if he had met Kai's father? People can be so rude at times when it comes to the disabled. I remember I had dinner with my friend's boyfriend's family, and they told me beforehand that the grandfather had his voicebox removed and spoke through a tube to make sure I'd be respectful. In any event, JJ's not going to Hawaii. It's October, which means it's crunchtime for him- the Central Pacific Regionals and Skate America in Colorado are up for him this month.

Yeah, when he was in high school, he did a video lip-syncing to "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" with his diving team while wearing a speedo and I seriously wasn't going to link to that because it verged into questionable as some of his teammates looked like they were 12. This guy is clearly proud of what he has and loves showing it off, and for that we should all be grateful. LOL.

Yeah. The main guy in this video has been showing off his torso online since he was jailbait: I think I found that video when I was looking up videos for "I Want It That Way". It was actually an internet meme years back for guys to lip-synch to Backstreet Boys videos and I enjoyed the hell out of it. If you check out his videos he's basically shirtless in every single one. LOL. He clearly knows how to play up to his strengths.