methodwriter85

Theo James is just hot:

JJ and Marie seem like the only teenaged grandchildren not into drinking or using drugs, although we can't be totally sure about that with Marie. Marie does have the added concern of the double-standard that people have about boys vs. girls- that it's okay for a guy to have lots of sex, drink, and use drugs, but a "nice girl" isn't supposed to do that, and if she does, she's a skank. I think the consistent premise we've been going with since Will took over as a protagonist is that he has the physical and emotional development of a 17-year old. We don't know if the same was true for Brad at 14, or if Brad was more in line with other 14-year old boys. Although given that Brad mentioned that he started given Ace blowjobs when he was around 12, I think it's more likely he was advanced like Will.

I wanted to post this in the lounge, but I thought the topic of Education in America could get political really quick. There's this video making the rounds on YouTube, where a students rants against what he deems a lazy teacher because she hands out work packets instead of actally teaching. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQlPGK9wYkg And here's the Teens React episode: I do think Jeff Bliss hits a nerve- there is a deep fracture in how children are currently taught in much of the public school system of the United States. I was fortunate enough to attend a public high school where the bulk of teachers actually tried to teach instead of just handing out packets, but it did happen. But then you also get students who have teachers that try to "touch the heart", and they're just not having it either. It's a bit of a two way street- kids become apathetic and bored because they're put in large public schools that try to have a one-size-fits-all approach to education, and teachers become jaded from year after year of having to teach students with increasingly limited resources. I'm a believer in tailoring education to student needs and interests, which is why I believe that that the traditional public school system should be replaced with charter schools and magnet schools. I think that way, you get a much more engaged student body, because they actually want to be there because they're following an education plan that suits them. In turn, that encourages teachers to actually want to teach. I aso believe that tenure needs to be abolished, so that teachers are forced to evolve and adapt to new teaching methods instead of being allowed to stay stale because they have tenure. What do all of you think about what makes a good teacher? How have the good teachers stuck with you? What do you guys think makes a bad teacher? How do you think the system should be changed to create better teachers?

Well, last time I checked, when Brad was 17 in the summer of 1980, it was illegal for a 17-year old to drink, smoke pot, snort cocaine, and drop acid, but that sure didn't stop Brad.

Really excited for this. Kate Winslet is perfect as the leader of the Erudite faction, and I love that she's playing a villain. Shailene Woodley and Theo James look great as Tris and Four.

Seriously though, check out The Runaways and Adventureland. She's really good in them.

Chapter 32 -When Will has yet another one of his blow-ups with Brad, this time calling him on his hypocrisy. "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister -When Will "runs away" to the Stanford Shopping Center. "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen -When Brad expresses his concern about Will turning into a juvenile delinquent, while everyone else points out to him what a hypocrite he's being. "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways I'm sorry, but Dakota Fanning could not pull off Cherie Curie that well . Kristen Stewart was fantastic as Joan Jett, though. If you guys noticed, I used teenage youth rebellion songs from when Brad was either a teenager or an early 20-something. Yay for themes!

Colin Ford as Riley Danfield at 13: I figure Riley will have to have a pasty, WASP-face with striking blue eyes, which is why I'm eying Colin Ford. Kiernan Shipka as Madison Graves at 13: Kiernan would mix the blond hair that Maddy's biological father has, with the brown eyes of Jeanine. I'd love it if Maddy turned to be a child prodigy like Kiernan is. Seriously, that is one talented 13-year old girl. Kiernan wouldn't make a half-bad Marie, also.

I always kind of thought that if La Danfield and MaryEllen would run across Gathan Hayes, they'd find themselves a very pliable person to manipulate. Gathan is a sweet person who doesn't have an in-born bullshit detector who's much more naieve than you'd think someone with his background would be like. That he wants to be small-town mayor would be a good starting off-point- first being mayor of a small-town in Middle America, then graduating up to district representative, and then senator or governor. Ohio is actually an important swing state, and I could see having someone in their back pocket from that state appealing to them. Gathan's not really that ambitious but that's where Elizabeth and MaryEllen would come in.

Dude, you graduated from high school in the average year that people in my class were born! (I should have been in '04 but I was held back in first grade to improve my reading skills, so I relate more to people born in late 1986/early1987 instead of late '85/early '86.) I have this great shirt that says "Class of 2005 Est. 1987." Pretty cool coincidence. John Hobart would have been born the summer after you graduated from high school- we set his birthdate as July 21, 1987. I do think 1987 was a pretty cool year- great music(The Cure's Just Like Heaven, Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over), great T.V. (Thirtysomething), great movies (Wall Street, Dirty Dancing, Fatal Attraction), and some really hilarious fashion. (Crimped hair, pegged acid wash jeans, surfer/skater hair.) Have you ever seen Adventureland? It's a pretty cool coming-of-age flick set in 1987 with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart about a guy who has to work at an amusement park the summer after he graduates from college. I think they could've done better with the clothes, but the music was fantastic.

Which is how the high school gossip mill works. I don't think Menlo would have a bullying problem, because you can' have a school set-up that intense (not as intense as HW according to Will but it's still gotta come close) and create the kind of environment where bored kids decide to pick on other people for the hell of it. But even in an environment that's relatively bully-free, gossip is still pretty huge, especially considering that Menlo is relatively small school. The Upper School school enrollment now is 560, and if the number is comparable to 2001 enrollment, they probably only have about 125 to 150 students per grade. (Maybe even less.) When you've got classes that small, gossip spreads like wildfire, as opposed to if Will went a large public high school that had 2,000 students and like 500 kids per class. Everybody knows everybody else, and everybody has been in at least one class with every other person in their class. BTW, I checked and Menlo requires 80 hours of community servivce to graduate. I think that's even more than Harvard-Westlake required. I wonder if Will's going to go back to tutoring disadvantaged youth again because that worked so well the last time. LOL. If I were Claire, I'd force Marie to do her community service picking up trash along the highway. LOL. Do you think you'll incorporate the kid's community service again like you did in Paternity, or is that all just stuff that's going to happen off-book? Having John, Marie, and Will working together on a Habitat for Humanity project could be cool.

Yeah, I'm seeing more parallels with Brad in Be Rad than Elizabeth Danfield. The main difference is that Brad is more overt while Marie gets other people to do her bidding, and Brad wanted to be King of the entire school, while Marie wants to be Queen of her cliche. It's a small distinction, but a distinction nonetheless.

Here's something to be envious about: Average cost of in-state tution at a University in 1993: $4,064 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a public school $21,592 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a private school Average cost of in-state tutition at a University in 2012-2013: $8,655 per year at a public school $29,055 per year at a private school I think the idea that you can go to a 4-year, public university for under 20k for the entire time is going to become a pretty foreign thought, especially in the U.S. (Canada seems to be much more reasonable.) The average college kid is spending, on average, about 12k more for public college than did his 1993 counterpart for their 4-year education, while the private school person spends about 32k more.

If Noah went to Menlo's Middle School, he could have known Marie for as long as since the 1997-1998 school year, when Marie was in 6th grade and Noah was in 8th grade. As someone who went to a school that held both middle school and high school grades, there tends to be a bit of overlap where underclassmen and middle schoolers wind up hanging out with each other. I had a friend in 10th grade who was seeing an 8th grader, and god we teased him mercilessly about it.

Yeah, same here. The guy just flat out has a way with words that's unlike anyone else I've ever corresponded with. He's just so damned fascinating because of his gift of gab. Although I can say from experience that none of you would ever want to be on Adam's bad side. LOL. Anyway, I gotta say, I really liked how Mark slowly brought together threads that made it possible for the family to be in New York City for 9/11. Having Jeanine get together with a childhood sweetheart from Hoboken who's a NYC police cop made it pretty plausible.

There has never been a world without the Macarena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck This version came out in 1996, but the Spanish version of the song came out in 1995.

They could send her to Catholic school with some scary-ass nuns. Anyway, one interesting contrast...Will being annoyed that people were following him purely because of who he was. I thought that was a great contrast against Be Rad, as we know the guy relished every second of his top-tier popularity to the point where he would destroy other people for the purpose of protecting his power.

I was an awkward teen outcast who didn't have any real-life friends until about the age of 16, so online friends were my lifeline. I mainly met them through the I Hate Jen website, which was devoted to bashing Jen Lindley on Dawson's Creek. However, by season 4 or so of Dawson's Creek, the message board actually became support of Jen and hateful of Joey, who had become extremely annoying. When 9/11 happened (back on topic!), I was actually in computer class so I wound up posting about 9/11 on the I Hate Jen message board. They thought I was joking, then found out I wasn't. I'll never forget one poster named Rachel, who said that the big surplus we had...the big surplus that was FINALLY going to go to education (as Dubya platformed on No Child Left Behind) would all wind up going to this new war we were going to have to fight. She was right, and then some.

Winter and summer Olympics were the same year every 4 years until 1994. The last year that winter and summer Olympics were held in the same year was in 1992; then the winter Olympics split off and held the next one in 1994 instead of 1996, while the Summer Olympics were held in 1996 like usual. I have pretty strong memories of the '94 Winter Olympics because that was when the whole Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding thing happened.

I can't see that at all. Tonto is supposed to be from an uber-WASP family. The brassy Italian grandmother look doesn't work at all. She was also described by Stefan or JP as being kind of round.

Beloit College just made their list where they try to tackle the mindset of the class of 2017. Always a fun read... The Mindset List for the Class of 2017 For this generation of entering college students, born in 1995, Dean Martin, Mickey Mantle, and Jerry Garcia have always been dead. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal. GM means food that is Genetically Modified. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen. “Dude” has never had a negative tone. As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited. As kids they may well have seen Chicken Run but probably never got chicken pox. Having a chat has seldom involved talking. Gaga has never been baby talk. They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay. They have known only two presidents. Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger. PayPal has replaced a pen pal as a best friend on line. Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car. The U.S. has always been trying to figure out which side to back in Middle East conflicts. A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning. Threatening to shut down the government during Federal budget negotiations has always been an anticipated tactic. Growing up with the family dog, one of them has worn an electronic collar, while the other has toted an electronic lifeline. Plasma has never been just a bodily fluid. The Pentagon and Congress have always been shocked, absolutely shocked, by reports of sexual harassment and assault in the military. Spray paint has never been legally sold in Chicago. Captain Janeway has always taken the USS Voyager where no woman or man has ever gone before. While they’ve grown up with a World Trade Organization, they have never known an Interstate Commerce Commission. Courts have always been ordering computer network wiretaps. Planes have never landed at Stapleton Airport in Denver. Jurassic Park has always had rides and snack bars, not free-range triceratops and velociraptors. Thanks to Megan’s Law and Amber Alerts, parents have always had community support in keeping children safe. With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address. Java has never been just a cup of coffee. Americans and Russians have always cooperated better in orbit than on earth. Olympic fever has always erupted every two years. Their parents have always bemoaned the passing of precocious little Calvin and sarcastic stuffy Hobbes. In their first 18 years, they have watched the rise and fall of Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriquez. Yahoo has always been looking over its shoulder for the rise of “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” Congress has always been burdened by the requirement that they comply with the anti-discrimination and safety laws they passed for everybody else to follow. The U.S. has always imposed economic sanctions against Iran. The Celestine Prophecy has always been bringing forth a new age of spiritual insights. Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year. They aren’t surprised to learn that the position of Top Spook at the CIA is an equal opportunity post. They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena. As they slept safely in their cribs, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Unabomber were doing their deadly work. There has never been a national maximum speed on U.S. highways. Don Shula has always been a fine steak house. Their favorite feature films have always been largely, if not totally, computer generated. They have never really needed to go to their friend’s house so they could study together. They have never seen the Bruins at Boston Garden, the Trailblazers at Memorial Coliseum, the Supersonics in Key Arena, or the Canucks at the Pacific Coliseum. Dayton, Ohio, has always been critical to international peace accords. Kevin Bacon has always maintained six degrees of separation in the cinematic universe. They may have been introduced to video games with a new Sony PlayStation left in their cribs by their moms. A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii. The Canadian Football League Stallions have always sung Alouette in Montreal after bidding adieu to Baltimore. They have always been able to plug into USB ports Olestra has always had consumers worried about side effects. Washington, D.C., tour buses have never been able to drive in front of the White House. Being selected by Oprah’s Book Club has always read “success.” There has never been a Barings Bank in England. Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing. New York’s Times Square has always had a splash of the Magic Kingdom in it. Bill Maher has always been politically incorrect. They have always known that there are “five hundred and twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes in a year.” *** My niece is starting college this year...she was born in December 1994 instead of in '95, but still pretty close enough. It's weird to think that today's college freshman has literally never known a world without mainstream Internet. Also the idea that they've only really experienced two presidents, as they would've been 5 at the end of the Clinton administration. When I was their age I had already experienced Bush I, Clinton, and Dubya.

Chapter 31 -When Marie manages to get herself banned from her first day of school. "You're A God" by Vertical Horizon -When Will squares down with Blake Leddington during lunch, and realizes that people are willing to follow him because of who he is, which doesn't exactly make him happy. "Celebrity" by N'Sync

Oooh, Tyne Daly. I hadn't even thought of her. That's fucking perfect. Tyne Daly is totally believable as the matriarch of the family who busts everybody's balls but does it in a charming, "you can't really argue with her" kind of way, especially with an infectious smile like that. I can look at this woman and completely believe that she could've gotten a racist Mid-western town to desegregate their high school. What do you think, Mark?

I'm a historian. Digital archives are the next wave in record-keeping. I think the oldest email I've ever kept was from 2003, but that's in my hotmail account. The oldest Yahoo email I have is from December 2007.