methodwriter85

Deadly Courthouse Shooting From I what understand, the shooting victims were a woman involved in a bitter custody dispute, as well as one of her friends. The shooter was the father of her ex-husband. The ex-husband had years ago kidnapped their children and took them on a 18-month run throughout South America. I remembered that story, and I remember that the ex-husband did his best to paint the woman as a crazed bitch and himself as the worried father. Talk about a terrible way of concluding this saga. I think what shakes me up about this...it's not like it was a typical Wilmington drug-related shooting. This was in a high security area, and I've been to that courthouse several times. He shot them in the lobby before the gun detectors, and it shakes me up to think that someone could just flat out get killed in a place as heavily guarded as a courthouse. Those poor girls. Not only do they have to live with the fact that their father and grandmother kidnapped them for over a year, they now have to live with the fact that their own grandfather killed their mother. Damn.

Again, I really don't think it's a diversity issue that would keep Will out of a frat. It would him plain just not seeing the point in going through Hell Week to be friends with and accepted by a group. Unless it were a frat that didn't engage in pledging, I can't see Will doing it. Will just is who he is, and he doesn't strike me as someone that would go the extra mile to fit in. For JJ, yeah, I could see that happening. Darius, I'm kind of shocked that he's not pledging, although that might be more of a grade thing than anything. I don't, either, but damned if I didn't have some people at a track meet my freshman year of high school act like total douchebags to me, and when I asked them why, they replied "9/11".

I didn't say you don't know what it's like to discriminated against. I said you don't know what it's like to be a racial minority, which you don't. You don't have those experiences. You don't know what it's like to have people actually ask to touch your hair and comment on how "weird it is", or have someone you ask you where you're from, respond "Delaware, and get, "That's not what I mean. Where are you from really?" Or what it's like to be called black, respond that you're filipino, and then get told, "Oh, that's close enough." WTF? I wasn't going to bring this one up, but since we're going there... Why did you respond, "Oh, hell no" when I posted a picture of the very pretty Amber Stevens as a suggestion for John's girlfriend, and then post a picture of a pretty blond white girl? Think about that. Think long and hard about why you had that reaction to the idea of John Hobart having a black girlfriend, and then responded with a picture of a pretty blonde white girl as your idea for John's girlfriend instead. And given that Gathan very much hinted that if it weren't for Darius's wealth, he'd be looked down in Claremont, I'm not sure Darius is someone that would read to most people as "white". Didn't Ace almost call him a "half-n-word" back in 1985? I think you mean well, but I find it incredibly offensive for a white man to tell actual racial minorities that racism isn't really that bad in the country, and things were just hunky dory for Arabs in this country despite our own personal experiences of seeing anti-Arabic sentiment in this country because we were mistakenly identified as being one. It would be like me telling you that bisexuals aren't discriminated against, because I've had a relatively okay time being gay and bisexual girls were seen as "cool" at my high school.

You'd be surprised. When I told this guy on my Alternative Spring Break trip that I was filipino, he said that it was kind of disapointing to hear that., because everyone had planned on spending the break guessing what my ethnicity was. I get asked about my race constanty, as if I'm some exotic curiousity that people had never seen before. And it's not like I grew up in some 98 percent WASP community either- the Greater Philadelphia area is a very diverse area, and University of Delaware had at least some diversity to it. I've been asked if I were black, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Mexican, and Arab. If you're not clearly white or clearly black, people don't tend to be that good at nailing down what you are. The thing is, Private Tim, you're white, unless I'm somehow missing something. You don't know what it's like to be non-white, and percieved as non-white. Or what it's like to be non-white, and percieved as white, which I've found pretty interesting in the stories of people who "pass" as white even though they actually aren't. Racism isn't just putting burning crosses on the lawn. It's way more complicated than that, with levels and degrees that you can't really get unless you've been there. Anyway, the frat thing isn't about Will not seeing frats as diverse. It's about the idea that I can't see Will getting himself through the pledging process. He would never humiliate himself to try and fit into a group of people, or follow along with what the pledgemaster told him to do if he didn't want to do it. I mean, Will couldn't even fake being nice to Carter or ingratiate himself into that group, purely because he didn't want to. And he's got a very GDI mindset to him. In college, I hung out with both GDI people, and frat people, and Will just doesn't strike me as someone that would feel a need to belong to any certain group. The only kind of frat I could ever see Will belonging to would be a honor kind that didn't have any real pledging process. JJ, if he's not skating, I could very well see as joining a frat as a means to try and gain back some of the social interactions that he lost because of his skating schedule in middle school and high school.

I could see Darius, if he put himself into the mindset, letting himself be molded into becoming a military guy. We know there's some interest there, and when 9/11 hits, I think there would be some need on Darius's part to prove that he's as loyal of an American as anybody else, once he starts getting some racist comments thrown his way. (*I* got racist comments from people who thought I was Arab, and I'm filipino.) Will, never. For that reason I couldn't see Will joining a frat, either. He's way too much of an stubborn individualist. JJ would never work in the military because he'd take one look at sheets that were less than 800 thread count, toss his head, pick up his Prada suitcase, and leave. I'm not saying it has to be anybody in the family, but I could see it being friends of their's, especially because Claremont fits the profile of the kind of town that would be sending a lot of guys and gals off to Iraq. Friends of Gathan, especially.

That's a good point. People can and do change, and the characters in CAP aren't static. When I was 23, if you had told me that I'd spend two years in literally the middle of nowhere Western Pennsylvania, and I'd actually love being there and would consider it the best two years of my life, I'd ask if you were on crack. It'll be interesting to see if JJ becomes less effeminate over the next couple of years, because it seems like his fathers want to become more involved with him. It's interesting when that happens. I was very, very feminine at 13/14. Now at 27, people actually don't believe it at first when I tell them I'm gay, because I somehow come off as straight-acting to them. When I was about 22, I met some guys I knew from high school who couldn't believe how deep my voice had gotten, as opposed to the high-pitched girly voice I had for most of high school. I wonder if JJ will go through something similiar, or if he'll follow the Johnny Weir mode of lots of makeup and designer purses.

I think the reason why it felt like a Pearl Harbour moment was that you had news stories about people joining up, who weren't the typical profile of people joined. I guess the fact that they did deem it newsworthy does point to the idea that it wasn't like World War II when people were coming out in droves. I'm just really hopeful that you're going to address the Iraq War in a pretty meaningful way, because even though it wasn't exactly a "Vietnam", there were a fair amount of people in my generation who were pretty impacted by it. I think the way you've written Will...he'd care, and he'd be pissed that his generation wasn't doing much to protest it because they were too busy downloading "My Humps" on their cell phones. As for Cody, I think it's unlikely, but it's not something I think is impossible, and your explaination makes sense. The only thing I'd say is impossible would be JJ hooking up with Gathan, or any hockey player. Zach and Will certainly would never happen, either.

That really does explain so much of why Mark associates military people as only being blue collar types, and why I have memories of knowing kids from white-collar families who joined up from high school and college. You really bridged a generation gap between us there, Tim; one I didn't even realize existed until you pointed out the difference in the demographics of the army when Mark was enlistment age back in the early/mid-1980's, and when I was enlistment age back in the mid/late-2000's. Good job there. I wonder who will join up, if any of them do. I definitely can't see Will joining up in the army. There's no possible way a guy who's that stubborn would ever listen to a drill sergeant. And JJ's way too soft. Darius and Gathan, I could see it.

I'm going to try another Noah...Jeremy Irvine from War Horse? Is this closer to what you were thinking for Noah, Mark? I could imagine him looking absolutely fabulous in a blue polo shirt, with those eyes.

I don't know if you've ever been around Pittsburgh people, but this nails it. Pittsburgh sports fans are incredibly loyal to their sports teams. Like, in Philly, you'll get people who are Eagles fans, but aren't Phillies fans. Or vice versa. In Pittsburgh, you have to be a Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates fan. There's no deviation there. It's a down-the-line loyalty. I remember I would go to this bar...I told the bartender that the Ravens lose if I watch the entire game...he joked that he'd get me a NFL Network pass so I'd never miss a game again. I also got some crap from a Browns fan about my Flacco fanboy stuff. Any funny stories, pictures, or videos that poke fun at rivalries that you've witnessed?

So, this a comic web series called Pittsburgh Dad. These three episodes pokes fun at the Steelers/Ravens rivalry. This is a rivalry I had no clue about until I moved to Western P.A. for two years. Wearing a Flacco sweatshirt wasn't entirely welcome there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_688366&feature=iv&src_vid=ORW_ZP3xEIA&v=eJqVZyNlE0E

Be careful with that. Eagles fans can be batshit crazy. Anyway... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ1YPo-pSLw I wish I could have been there- that looks incredible.

Senior year of high school, one of the teachers there had to deal with the death of her son in Iraq. I also had another friend who went Iraq...physically he lost his pinky, but emotionally he had to deal with substance abuse issues and the like. I also knew a good amount of people who were on the G.I. Bill. I always thought it was interesting- these were kids, basically, but they had far bigger concerns and responsibility. Of course, the thing to keep in mind was that there were three military bases in my area- Dover Air Force Base, Fort Monmouth, and Aberdeen Proving Ground were pretty close, but still. If there weren't ties to a small town like Claremont, which in the past Mark has shown as being pretty active in sending their sons and daughters off to war, it'd be one thing, but with that, and the fact that Mark's given this current generation ties to the youth in Claremont...I don't see them not knowing at least a person or two who goes. I'm not saying that it has to be someone they're close to, but at least an acquaintance or two, to make this war personal to them. I could see JJ not caring all that much, but I can see the war really bothering Will, and finding his generation's general apathy toward the war pretty bothersome. My friend Steve (Long Island Hipster Steve, not Jersey Stoner Steve)...he was really into protesting the war. One time...I wanna say during my first junior year, he staged an Iraq War die-in, where we basically dressed up as soldiers, put on fake blood, and lied on the ground pretending to be dead in order to try and get people to care. There were maybe a dozen people at most that participated, which was kind of disapointing. Thank you for explaining why I noticed a large amount of people who had joined up when I was in high school and the first half of college, and why I percieved that as a big surge even though Mark's numbers doesn't back that up. I think there's a little bit of a generation gap between myself and Mark in this regard- for Mark's generation, you didn't see white collar or white collar-aspirational people joining up. I think Mark has the perception that it's only blue collar people who sign up, because that's the way it was back in the 1980's when he was military-aged. For my generation, you were seeing a shift in the demographics of the people joining up- the fact that college tuition is like three or four times what it was in the 1980's probably has something to do with it. Kids from families that twenty years ago could have sent their kid to college when it was like 3 or 4 thousand for an entire year at a state school couldn't by the 2000's, when you could expect to pay at least 20k a year at even a relatively in-expensive state school. I felt like there was something that I just wasn't conveying correctly to Mark in this regard, and Tim, you just explained what it was. Thanks for bridging a generation gap here. :2thumbs: I agree about Lou, but I don't think Cody's going happen. Cody is his sister's biological father, so there's something kind of squicky about having them hook up. Also, even though I don't think Will's going to hate Cody for this, I do think it bothers Will that Cody doesn't have it in him to be a father to his daughter. Family is very important to Will, and even though I think Tiffany's talk with him about Cody makes it so that Will can be friends with Cody, I can't see Will wanting to hook up with him. Will have a very strong sense of responsibility and what's right and what's wrong, and I think Cody would be permanently dinged in his mind. Maybe it wouldn't be fair, but it would be very human, and I think that's how Will would view Cody from this point on. Yeah, yeah, Will's a guy and hormones are huge and yada yada yada, but I think in this case, Will's sense of responsibility, and his love for his sister...I can see that ruling over any physical appeal that Cody would have to him. I think before Paternity, I would have agreed that a Cody/Will hook-up is inevitable, but not after this story. I don't think it would make sense, character-wise, for Will to get with Cody. I don't think it would be as out of character as it would be for you to have JJ and Gathan have wild hot sex, but still out of character.

Damn it Mark, you and your need to back statements up with statistics. LOL. Okay, so there's not a huge surge, but there are going to be guys who join up in the War...so I'm assuming that characters we've met in CAP will join up in the coming war. There are way too many characters and these characters aren't that insulated, so I can't see you being able to avoid sending at least one of Will and JJ's friends off to the Iraq War. It won't be like Vietnam because this isn't a draft, but they'd still have at least a friend or two that'd go. And Gathan would especially be hit hard, because his Claremont buddies are pretty much screaming "Future Iraq War veterans". I don't see you being able to avoid the War on Terror/the Iraq War...those were the big long-lasting effects of 9/11 on this country and the world.

Well, in about a year guys are going to start joining the miliary en masse for the new-fangled War on Terror. I could see Tony joining the military, superficially because of patriotism, but really because it's his last-dtich effort to prove to himself that he's not gay. Tony would not be the first closet case to think that the army would turn him straight, and that would actually be a pretty "of the time" storyline- a closeted gay soldier fighting the War on Terror during the last decade of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Does Corbin not understand the concept of bisexuality? I understood when I was 12 in the late 90's.

That's actually pretty ambigious. I really thought that Mark was setting up Tony as the love of Will's life during Poor Man's Son, but I'm not so sure anymore we're going to see them getting married in 2012.

Broadway actor Jeremy Jordan as Noah? Like, if you got a 16-year old version of him. (Although really, if Mark Sailling could play a teenaged boy, this guy could. LOL.) I have Noah pictured as a guy with green/blue eyes, dark hair, a very strong jawline, and a broad nose- hot, but not "cookie cutter WASP" hot. I'm also pretty sure Mark wrote Noah as being moderately hairy.

As much as I like Tony, I was glad that he wasn't there for this scene. I can't see an Italian-Catholic mother letting him miss Christmas, and I liked Noah being there. Also, I'm pretty sure that if Mark had included Tony in the heart-warming family crest scene, Private Tim would have broken his lap top. Or tablet. Whatever he's reading this on.

So, I'm appearing in a community theater play, 12 Angry Jurors. I'm playing Juror 12. My director envisions my character as this young New York City advertising type - he's very cocky and full of swagger, but he's also insecure and kind of jumps into conversations he's not invited into because he wants desperately to impress people but fails to do so because he's trying too hard. He apparently works with Batton, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne...since the director doesn't seem to want me to play older than I am(my character being younger than the other jurors seems to be driving his insecurity), the character would be 27 and I'm assuming in some kind of entry-level job there. I get the distinct feeling this is my character's first real job right out of business school- he can't stop mentioning that he's in advertising because he wants badly to impress these people. What would a typical 27-year old young advertising type in New York City be like? What would his education be? How would he dress? I mentioned wearing a polo shirt but my director told me that he doesn't think Juror 12 would be that casual- not three-piece business suit level, but 12 would still be trying to impress people. What would you see him dressing in? (This is probably directed to Arbour.) Keep in mind that it's set during summer. I'm seeing boat shoes and seersucker shorts, but I could be wrong. The character is also supposed to be from Baltimore...I'm thinking some kind of upscale suburb like Silver Springs. I get the distinct feeling he's a spoiled, pampered type who was taught by his parents to think he's the absolute shit and every word that comes out of his mouth is brilliant, but I don't know a ton of people from Maryland. Sharon, is there any chance you're familiar with guys from that kind of background in the area? It's going to be fun creating this character. I was told that the last time they staged this, back in 1996, they had Juror 12 act like a coke addict, because in the 1980's and 1990's Coke was a big part of Wall Street. They don't want me to do that, but I was thinking he's probably downing a lot of Red Bull. Anyway, any feedback or input would appreciated. Thank you!

Alright, Mark, I'll withdraw my argument against the study abroad and internship for Wade and Matt. It would make sense for Will, especialy if he goes into the sciences instead of business. I can see it likely for John and JJ(if he goes to college), but I understand the reasoning behind Wade and Matt. I will say that college expectations start to change during the decade, where the people are expected to become well-rounded individuals on top of grades, hence why people like Will basically had themselves doing a lot of clubs and extracurriculars to get themselves looking good on a college app. He's a freshmen, so he wouldn't be freaking out about it now, but by the time PSAT's roll around for second semester sophomore year it starts to become crunch time. I could even see Will as the type of person who does early admission for junior year. The kind of 4.0 overachiever kid you've written Will as being starts to freak at first semester junior year and doesn't relax again until second semester senior year. I think you hinted that Will uses ADDERALL to stay up, which was a good touch. I knew a fair amount of people who were chowing down on Adderall or diet/caffine pills to stay up and study throughout high school and college. In some ways, Adderall was to my generation what cocaine was to yours. It was that prevalent. I tried that once, but instead of studying for some reason I wrote a blog about the merits of charter schools/magnet schools over the traditional public school system. I have no clue why that happened, but it was funny. I'm going to be honest with you, Tim. I can't see Tony going anywhere. He's a legacy character. He's also Mark's representation of the "classic tortured closet case", to be contrasted against Will's new-style "never been closeted" type of gay. Mark feels like Tony's story is an important one to be told, and I can't see Tony not becoming a major character because of that. I'm sure when 2004 rolls around in CAP Mark will give Tony some reason to stay around in California permanently instead of going back to St. Louis.

I think if Will had his "we're done" moment with Tony and Tony really did go bye-bye, Private Tim's reaction would be something along the lines of this: I'd probably play "I Believe I Can Fly" to score that moment, too. And hey, Blue, your school was ranked 12th in terms of the biggest party schools in the Nation. I'm jealous. UD was once a party school, but then they had to get all serious and strict when I went there, and shut down every big drunkfest we had while I went there. Penn State was 7th. I do kinda wonder if JJ might actually be a good fit for that school...I could see him, once he's in his 20's, reacting to all of his teenaged repression by throwing himself hard into the college party scene, to kind of make up for all the social stuff he didn't have in high school. I'm still kind of surprised that of all the party schools in the area that Darius could have gone to, he picked a boring school like Santa Clara. Maybe Darius could transfer out? That'd be another sign of the times...transferring colleges becomes much more common in this generation as opposed to Brad's. Edited to add: Wow, I read the rest of the list and saw that University of Delaware came in as 27th. I'm truly shocked- I thought the Harker adminstration had really killed the party scene there. We're apparently on par with San Diego State University in terms of our party scene. Top 30 isn't bad, but I'm betting it annoyed the administration. They want University of Delaware to be considered an "East Coast Classic", serious Public Ivy school.

JJ watches the 2001 Junior Worlds in Bulgaria on his plasma TV... He'll start screaming at the top of his lungs, "I could have beat him! I could have beat him!", then throws something at his t.v. screen, breaking it. Forget about Shane Jackson- he'll be obsessed with beating Johnny Weir from that point on, I think.

I'm much more interested in the possibility that evil Zach Hayes could wind up playing football for USC starting with the 2003-2004 school year, when Will and JJ are seniors in high school. That would be interesting, considering we know how corrupt the team turned out to be. Plus, Zach Hayes looks like Liam Hemsworth. Dear god what I wouldn't do for a ride on THAT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5z6sVNNiaI :wub: Miley Cyrus is one lucky bitch. Liam really does look like a Hayes boy come to life, doesn't he? I can't see that. Will's the reform-minded one, not JJ. I think that while JJ cares about what happens to the world and he doesn't want bad things to happen(I really don't see him as a sociopath like MaryEllen or Zach Hayes), I don't think he's someone who wants to rock the boat too much...Mark has very much painted JJ from the first stories he's been featured as a 'go with the flow kind of guy' with very little rebellion tendencies. More likely I think JJ would play the same kind of game that Evan Lysacek does, where he appears completely straight in public and he follows what his coaches tell him to say to the media. I see him in the performing arts or liberal arts area. He's got the complete mindset and temperament of a performer. I don't think he has the kind of logic-filled, rationalistic mind that a science/math guy like Will does. He's also an attention junkie, and I mean how many figure skaters have we seen try to start "acting" careers once they get that first taste of their 15 minutes of fame?

Wow, this was bitchy, but still pretty funny. I think he looked the most attractive in 2009. I kind of hate it when good looking guys hide behind shaggy beards and shaggy hair. If you're going to wear long hair, at least take care of it. He clearly knew how to if you look at his 2006 photo.