methodwriter85

Adam Phillips has talked at length about his observations in guys who "walk the fine line", and how clearly straight or clearly gay starts to become blurred, so I think Noah is representing a little of that. Gathan especially represented the guys of the 2000's who clearly did abscribe to any sexual labels to themselves...Noah seems more along of the lines of straight guys who can flirt around with gay guys and not be uncomfortable with it. I called it "jokingly gay"...I noticed it a lot in 2003, but I'm sure it was around in 2001, especially considering these people are living in a liberal area of California. Finally, I really like Noah being straight, because I think Will strikes me as someone who would mostly have straight friends and not relate that much to stereotypical gay guys. (The exception being JP and Stefan.) That was true of my experience in college- I had some gay friends, but all of my very good friends in college were straight. The big bulk of the openly gay kids at UD were of the shallow, "I can't believe you wore those shoes with your hair!" variety. That's why I was shocked when I went to IUP and met gay kids who could carry on conversations about things that went beyond hair and clothes. Tim, I really agree with you about liking the social mixing. In my high school experience, social lines weren't played out along the lines of the popular head cheerleader and the quarterback and their stuck-up friends made high school hell for everybody else. There were bitches and stuck-up people at my school, but for the most part, everybody just did their own thing, and social groups would often mix. I like that Will's high school experience is apparently going to reflect that more instead of Brad's high school experience, which seemed very much of the whole "rich, good-looking kids terrorize the poor, normal-looking" kids that we see so much of in Hollywood movies about high school. It does happen (Adam Phillips's Cross-Currents definitely described his school as having the vibe where the rich good-looking kids ruled everything), but there are other kinds of experiences, too.

As much as I would have liked Noah as Will's boyfriend, I'm glad that he's got a male high school friend for whom there will be no sexual tension.

I was wondering if there was going to be any bitterness by Niners fans towards the Ravens. I'm kinda suprised by it- I thought it was a rather clean Super Bowl, where both sides played great (first half- The Ravens, second half- The Niners), and where both sides were pretty respectful of each other.

I'm going to be honest. This is actually the first job I've applied to since I left my holiday season temp job in January. So it's not like I've been searching for three months. This was kind of an "on the whim" job application. It was worth it to go on the interview, either way. I hadn't been on a job interview since October, so it was good to refresh those skills. Someone told me to think of it as like this- you don't come into a job interview with the implicit understanding that you're going to take the offer if it's given to you. Both sides need to realize it's a good fit. Every bit of my gut instinct is telling me not to take the job. Even my mother doesn't think it's a good idea. A mother of a unemployed graduate. Telling him that it's not a good idea to take a job offer.

I got a job offer as a seasonal intrepreter at a historical plantation in Pennsylvania. I'm not really jumping up and down about it. I had mis-givings about the job when I drove up there...the plantation is pretty out of the way and wasn't easy to find even with GPS, and it's about a roundtrip 90 minute to 2 hour commute. The job only offers 9 dollars an hour, and it's based on when school groups tour. On one hand, this is good experience, and I haven't had a job in a three months. On the other hand, I'm not sure the wear and tear the commute would take on my car would be worth it, as well as just the stress of the commute. Finally, I think that I'm more interested in archival work, as opposed to intrepretive living history. At 17, living history is what I thought I wanted to do, but after three internships of archive work...I think I really think I'm leaning towards that. I'm more inclined to work some job within the area and then volunteer at a historical society on weekends while I wait for the right opportunity to open up than to take this job. I'm leaning towards saying no (I wanna say 80 percent of me is thinking no), but there's this fear...what if I don't get a job offer again? I don't know, it's confusing. If I do go through with turning down the job offer on the phone(the guy gave me his personal number to call for when I reach my decision), do any of you have any advice about how to do it respectfully and without alienating them? I mean, if I lived closer, or these was a reliable transit route, or this was more of a full-time job I'd probably had said yes without hestitation, but I'm not so sure.

Not necessarily, though. Roger "snaughed", and he wasn't a Hayes. And Matt Carrswold is biologically a Hayes, but he doesn't snaugh. I don't think any of the characters have described Matt as snaughing.

Joe Flacco on his new 120.6 million dollar deal: Joe Flacco: It's About Respect, Not the Money Way to go, Flacco. It's pretty amazing to think that a guy who five years ago was talking to his college football coach about possibly joining the baseball team instead of going out for the senior combine now holds the most lucrative contract in the NFL.

Yeah, that would have been in the early 1960's. Hot Jeff would have been born in 1981 or 1982.

Yeah. That's why I said, "If you made Theo James a little bit darker..."

If you took Theo James (aka the ill-fated Turk from season 1 of Downton Abbey) and made him a little darker and 18 years old, I could see him as Darius: He definitely has the exotic, ethnically ambigious good looks down, I think.

Let's congratulate Mark for winning best hosted story with Paternity! It's been an interesting 4 and a half years working with you as part of the team. There have been times where I've been really frustrated with you, and vice versa, but I think we've done a great job of working through it and I really hope that we as a writing team have helped you create the best work that you can do. *hugs* You're like the zany fun older uncle I never had, and I'm glad to be your e-friend. In celebration, I thought I'd post a song...enjoy!

Hey Blue, I'm wondering... Mark has his characters saying "that's raw", as in "that's awful" or "that sucks", quite a lot. Do you remember ever saying that with your friends? I'm racking my brain trying to remember it, but I don't. I feel like I would have heard and said "that bites", "that sucks", or "that's a dick move" in place of how the characters seem to be using "that's raw." Mark, where are you getting the "raw" thing from? Off of a website, or personal memory? It doesn't feel like something that would be anachronistic, but I'm curious about it, because it's not a slang word I remember using that much. Is it possible that it's actually 80's slang that wasn't that popular with my generation? Or is it possibly slang that's particular to your area and just didn't hit my area, Mark?

I think it's within the edge of possibility. Robbie's mom would have been in her early/mid-40's in 1981/1982. I'm also going with Ryan's father, but I'm not sure about it being a relative of Robbie's.

Here's a pretty life-affirming story about a man who found an abandoned baby on a subway, and would eventually raise the child with his boyfriend, and then get married to him by the same judge who allowed him to raise the child. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/we-found-our-son-in-the-subway/ What a great story. Family really does come in all different shapes and sizes.

I'm really shocked Corbin's article was allowed to be run in the first place. Then again, my school newspaper was nothing but a propaganda piece for University of Delaware.

I was about to say that wouldn't work because I thought Jeff was from Oklahoma, but then again, it's entirely possible that Jeff's father is from L.A. while Jeff himself was raised in Oklahoma. I do like that someone's interested in a college that's not Stanford or Cal. I remember Mark saying once to me that he needed to spread the characters out when it comes to colleges, and we've hit max density with Stanford. USC seems like a pretty fun school, and Jeff would be a senior in college when Zach Hayes is a freshman or sophomore, so there's possibilities there... From reviews: I think it makes perfect sense. Think about it. JJ was born a preemie to a crack-addicted mother, and there were concerns that Bitty might have relapsed at some points during that pregnancy with JJ ending up a deformed crack baby. He didn't, but right when he was born, Jeanine knew that JJ's mother couldn't be a mother, and his father thought of him as an unfortunate consequence with his whore that didn't really happen. JJ simply needed Jeanine, probably much more than Will did, because Will had Brad, and there was no way to cut into the bond that existed between Will and Brad. So Jeanine focused on building a bond with JJ, and to a slightly lesser extent Darius, instead. And as Darius explained it, JJ is more into girly stuff than either Will and Darius are, so they had that in common. I'm sure JJ made a fantastic shopping and pedicure companion for Jeanine.

I want costumed intrepretors pretending to be Titanic passengers, like what they're doing at the Franklin institute. I wonder how many people they're going to have to stop from going to the bow and yelling, "I'm king of the world!" or "I'm flying, Jack."

Buzzfeed mocked up a Christian Dior ad of Jennifer Lawrence's fall. Pretty stunning ad, I think: She somehow managed to look graceful while falling on her ass. Pretty impressive.

I've had grey hair since I was a little boy. It was annoying because EVERYONE used to comment on it, but I'm used to it. I'm waiting for it to go fully grey so I stopped getting carded all the freaking time. It was fine in my early 20's but at nearly 30, getting carded is annoying.

It really doesn't seem possible that 1984 was 29 years ago. You know, I heard on my local oldies station. Kind of weird to think Madonna is now golden oldies music.

A surprising amount, apparently. I do it for shits n giggles, and I assume a fair amount do it, too.

Yeah, I really wished Bradley Cooper had a shot, because he was fantastic- but DDL gave a virtuso performance. No one had a shot. I'm also pretty happy that Jennifer Lawrence won. I loved Silver Linings Playbook.

I lived in a small Western Pennsylvania town called Indiana for two years, and I remember being told by people that Target would never come there because Wal-Mart would never allow a Target being close to it, and the town wasn't rich enough to support it. I do wonder what it's like if you're a straight guy who gets an M4M connection. I remember this creepy series of postings about someone who not only posted the guy's name, but where he worked at Home Depot. It wasn't just one time, but serveral times. It eventually got to the point where the actual guy posted about how creeped out he was about it, and how he was getting merciless teasing about it.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the only male in the Crampton/Schluter family that has been described as short was JP. Otherwise, it seems like everyone else is six feet or more, or almost there like Will. As for the childhood thing, one thing to keep in mind is that figure skaters are expected to repress any outward signs of sexuality, or partaking in activities that aren't considered wholesome. Unless you're safely over in EU competitions where they tend to care less about it, JJ needs to maintain a pristine image at all times. He can't do the kind of things that Will does, like drink or smoke pot or have an open sexuality. (And we're talking even a straight one- good little skaters don't have sex before marriage, or at least don't admit to it.)

Have a good one!