methodwriter85

Great song, Mark.

Tim, there are some people you will never be able to crack under cross-examination. Sharon is one of them. I'd pay good money to see you go toe-to-toe with Adam Phillips, though. Dear god, that'd be funny. Adam would still win, but it'd be great to see you try.

You're right about that. When I was about 17, I read this interesting book called by Thomas Hine. The book chronicles the invention of the teenaged years by American society, which was necessitated by the Great Depression. Before that, mature teenagers that could work were essentially treated like adults- it would have been normal for a 14-year old to have a full-time job instead of going to school. When the Great Depression hit, more states made high school mandatory, which had the net result of trying to lower down the labor pool. The term "teenager" was invented around the 1930's/1940's, and the concept came into full bloom in the 1950's with the ascent of the SIlent Generation as teenaged bobbysoxers living in comfortable suburban households.

Do you think Will should get emancipated? Yes or no? Why?

I thought you couldn't stand Will.

You've written 18 stories, 16 completed, in a span of 4 years. We all understand if you want to take a break.

Hey, Mark, I found something called the Mindset List. It strives to capture the mindset of every entering college class since 2002. Here's what they found out about Will, JJ, and Marie's class, the class of 2008. It'll give you a good idea of the cultural touchstones that would make sense to them, if not to you. *** Most students entering college this fall were born in 1986. Desi Arnaz, Orson Welles, Roy Orbison, Ted Bundy, Ayatollah Khomeini and Cary Grant have always been dead. "Here's Johnny!" is a scary greeting from Jack Nicholson, not a warm welcome from Ed McMahon. The Energizer bunny has always been going, and going, and going. Large fine-print ads for prescription drugs have always appeared in magazines. Photographs have always been processed in an hour or less. They never got a chance to drink 7-Up Gold, Crystal Pepsi, or Apple Slice. Baby Jessica could be a classmate. Parents may have been reading The Bourne Supremacy or It as they rocked them in their cradles. Alan Greenspan has always been setting the nation's financial direction. The U.S. has always been a Prozac nation. They have always enjoyed the comfort of pleather. Harry has always known Sally. They never saw Roseanne Rosannadanna live on Saturday Night Live. There has always been a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They never ate a McSub at McD's. There has always been a Comedy Channel. Bill and Ted have always been on an excellent adventure. They were never tempted by smokeless cigarettes. Robert Downey, Jr. has always been in trouble. Martha Stewart has always been cooking up something with someone. They have always been comfortable with gay characters on television. Mike Tyson has always been a contender. The government has always been proposing we go to Mars, and it has always been deemed too expensive. There have never been any Playboy Clubs. There have always been night games at Wrigley Field. Rogaine has always been available for the follicularly challenged. They never saw USA Today or the Christian Science Monitor as a TV news program. Computers have always suffered from viruses. We have always been mapping the human genome. Politicians have always used rock music for theme songs. Network television has always struggled to keep up with cable. O'Hare has always been the most delay-plagued airport in the U.S. Ivan Boesky has never sold stock. Toll-free 800 phone numbers have always spelled out catchy phrases. Bethlehem has never been a place of peace at Christmas. Episcopal women bishops have always threatened the foundation of the Anglican Church. Svelte Oprah has always dominated afternoon television; who was Phil Donahue anyway? They never flew on People Express. AZT has always been used to treat AIDS. The international community has always been installing or removing the leader of Haiti. Oliver North has always been a talk show host and news commentator. They have suffered through airport security systems since they were in strollers. They have done most of their search for the right college online. Aspirin has always been used to reduce the risk of a heart attack. They were spared the TV ads for Zamfir and his panpipes. Castro has always been an aging politician in a suit. There have always been non-stop flights around the world without refueling. Cher hasn't aged a day. M.A.S.H. was a game: Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House.

Also, it doesn't really fit what Raine's like. She's like that cool, low-key girl you knew in high school who just walked through life with a fluid grace, unfazed by anything.

For the purposes of this thread, I'm defining an oldie as something that's at least 15 years old, which would put the end year at 1997. Another one from La Bouche... "Sweet Dreams" by La Bouche

I love listening to old music...ever since I was a little boy listening to Golden Oldies stations. So I thought it'd be fun to share some of my favorite songs that are oldies, but still a goodie. Here are three of my favorite oldies, from the same time period and genre. I love dancing to the oldies, don't you? And these particular three bring back so many memories for me. Music was so damned danceable back in the early/mid-90's. You guys got any favorite golden oldies you'd like to share?

I think Mark knows better than to pander to the trope of "let's punish the sexually active teenaged girl by making her pregnant!" that moralistic t.v. writers seem to love so much (Hi, The Secret Life of the American Teenager!), particularly since Raine was at least on birth control. And Mark already did the "teen pregnancy" storyline with Claire in Be Rad, and retroactively with Robbie's 1979 girlfirend Laura. Besides, if Raine did get pregnant she'd probably be likely to get an abortion- if I recall what you said once, parents who send their kids to a place like HW are very invested in their kids's success, and being a mother at 14 doesn't fit into it. It'd be funny if Will joined the celebs who came out to help Louisiana during the oil spill in 2010. Mark can hook Will up with Ian Somerhalder. LOL. Of course, it would be a little weird since Jack Hobart is supposed to basically look exactly like Ian Somerhalder, but eh- I think Will would still hit that. And kinda be turned on by Ian's resemblance to Jack, frankly. The main point though is that if Will's being set up as being like the second coming of Tonto, he's going to have to be interested in social/political/and/or environmental issues. Tonto was very much about trying to improve the world and fighting for social justice, and we're already seeing seeds of that in Will at 14. In this case, Will's going to be able to further his causes through the use of the internet. Darfur was a pretty big cause circa 2007- even UD, which was ranked as one of the most politically apathetic campuses in the US, had some big fundraiser for that one. I'll give you that one. Although I still think that Will's going to have a few vegetarian/vegan friends. That was a part of going to high school in the 2000's, especially high school in a liberal area. Darius seems like the most likely one to do it. I can see 9/11 making Darius feel like he's got to prove he's more American than anyone, once he starts getting racial epithets thrown his way, and the military being a handy way to do that. It'd also be interesting, and a sign of the modern times, if Ella Hayes wound up joining a few of her cousins and Claremont friends to the military.

So I was thinking about this last night while in sleepland... I've joked before that I think Will is going to wind up having a threesome with Raine and whoever his life partner is, resulting in a baby and Will having his own family before his 25th birthday is reached, like with Brad and Robbie, and Matt and Wade. That assertion was based off of Will's attitude in Poor Man's Son about wanting a partner, and the opening chapters of this current one about how attached Will's gotten to Riley and how he's almost fatherly to him. And the fact that Will had sex with Raine and at least somewhat enjoyed it bolsters that theory. But I was thinking...I think my opinion changed on that. I see Will taking a long time to get to the point where he wants to be a dad and a family man. Will would be currently almost 26 in present time, and I'm not sure I can see see him settled in a marriage by 26 the way I used to. Watching the way Brad and Robbie's relationship blew apart in Millennium would have to had some long-term effects on him, as well as the way his bubble was burst about "happily ever-after relationships" in Poor Man's Son. And his current troubles with Brad...I'm not sure he'd be jumping at the bit to go through having that with his own child. What do you guys think? Also, since Will's described as being like Tonto incarnate, there's gotta be a wealth of social/political/environmental issues that Will's going to involve himself in as the 2000's and 2010's unfold. The biggie's going to be Prop 8- even if Will's not keen on marriage for himself, I can't see him not fighting for the right to have the choice to get married. I can see a conflict between Will and JJ, because JJ refuses to speak out openly against Prop 8 because he's worried about what his sponsors will think, and Will going through the roof because of that. I can also see Will getting involved with helping out Louisiana after the oil spill, to try and save marine and marsh life. Darfur can be another cause that Will gets himself involved in- that was big around 2007 or so. It might be interesting if Will got involved in helping out Iraq War veterans, like fundraising for them or something. And since Will's going to be living in the Bay Area, it'd be funny if he wound up becoming a vegan. I ,mean, I'm from podunk Delaware, and I've met a lot of them. I feel like it'd be almost mandatory out in San Francisco.

I KNEW you owned a vaginia, YB, I KNEW IT! Anyway, if this works, then I think it's a good thing, because woman have been undergoing vaginal rejuvenation surgery, and if a topical cream can take the place of surgery, that's always a good thing. Anyways... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P16QYhc3Aw0

I actually think Sam Claflin is pretty cute too, in that British lad kind of way. It's funny though that people are bitching he's too young to play Finnick- Finnick is 24; Claflin is 26. I think we're so used to seeing people in their mid-20's play teenagers that we tend to "see" someone that age and think of them as a teenager. I gotta admit though- I totally thought they were going to get an actor who was about 30, 32 because Jennifer is six years older than her part.

After seeing Logan Lerman on the cover of Out magazine, I'm re-iterating him for Alisdair. He's pretty, wears the hell out of formal clothes,can pull off extremely nerdy and awkward...all that's missing is a pair of glasses.

God, you are bringing back memories. I can't tell you how many times I played King's Cup(We just called it Kings), and the utter jaded attitude you have by junior year and the way in which you look at freshmen's wide-eyed innocence.

Catching Fire is the sequel to the Hunger Games. The book was just called Catching Fire, but the movie is officially called The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

From reviews: Wait, JJ pushed Jeanine into becoming a psycho stage mother who would do anything to make sure that he shined on top? I really disagree with that. I think they had a toxic, enabling relationship, but JJ didn't "push" Jeanine into anything she hadn't already made her mind up about. She thought Shane was an obstacle, and getting him out of way while sticking it to Will just seemed like a win-win to her. JJ's whining about Will and Shane didn't help, but I don't doubt for a second that this still would have happened even if JJ had been shut his mouth about it because Will getting the attention over JJ still would have been a cardinal sin in her eyes.

You gotta factor in that, after Jeanine and Tiffany, Matt is JJ's biggest supporter. If Will's sluttiness in Norway hadn't bothered JJ and made him feel like he was being overshadowed it, Matt would have applauded it. But since JJ very likely cried on his cell to Matt about how Will ruined his competition, Matt's not going to feel all that friendly towards Will. As for whether or not Will can handle adulthood...I think he can, but the biggest thing that Will has to get, and that I haven't seen Will demonstrate, is that there are sometimes negative consequences to your actions, and being a adult means you have to live with the choices you make. Seriously, what negative consequences has Will had to deal with?He gets drunk and high on a school camping trip, and the headmaster goes easy on him. He torches his parent's property while drugging up his Pop, and everyone bends over backwards to make him feel better. He sluts around on the Norway trip despite knowing full well that he could put his friends in serious career danger without using a hint of discretion, and he manages to blackmail the USFSA to get them to shut up. I think at some point I'd like to see Will live with the consequences of his actions, with things not turning out exactly the way he wants and having to live with that, anyway. I'm telling you man, that threeway in a 5th Avenue penthouse with Godspell's Hunter Parrish and some other Broadway actor to celebrate his 26th birthday is soooo in his future. JJ and early 2010's Broadway, here we come! It'd be beyond fucked up if it turned out that Jeanine knew what Mike was doing from seeing JJ's pictures, and then told Mike she wouldn't turn him in if he got pictures of Will and Shane.

In my case, I'm going to laugh my ass off when a certain e-novelist we both know and love deals with his son entering his teens in about 7-8 years. Holy hell, that'll be hilarious. They are pretty similiar, but I do think that Brad tends to view things in grey, while Will is very firmly convinced that he knows what's wrong and right, and will never consciously do something he believes is the wrong thing. That might be a function of Brad's age, but even in high school, Brad didn't seem all that much interested in standing up for the right thing- he tended to accept the status quo whereas Will seems like he wants to change it for the betterment of others. Probably the most glaring example of this would be his blackmail of the USFSA association in the hopes that it make it okay to be openly gay in figure skating. That's why you can't really recreate Be Rad here...part of the running thread in Be Rad was that Brad started off the story a pretty shallow, somewhat mean-spirited Social King who would easily throw someone under the bus if it meant maintaining his social status because he loved the power that went with it. He didn't care about making things better unless it was in his face, like Mouse. It wasn't until he dealt with getting outed and having his brother die that Brad changed a bit, but he wasn't all that nice of a person at the start of the story. I'm not saying Will's perfect, but I do think he's generally a nice kid in a way that Brad wasn't. He never would have done what Brad did to Doug Childers, that's for sure. Brad tended to treat his friends like chess pieces to move around to do his bidding, while Will's more empathetic than that. Or at least tries to be, despite having the typical self-centered attitude of a teenager.

The thing is, it was going to be almost impossible to pull off casting someone who fit everything about Finnick in the book- he was described as tall, tanned, with bronze hair and sea-green eyes with looks so beautiful that people fell over themselves to sponsor Finnick in the Games. That's a pretty narrow description, and if you only go after people that fit that part physically, you run into the risk of getting a pretty boy who can't act. I'd rather have a guy who can actually act than look like the model that Finnick was described as. As for the other bit, I think Josh pulled off Peeta well- my only beef was that the movie took out so many of Peeta's great lines from the book and made Peeta a little more bland. They also toned down Haymitch's character- he was supposed to be a complete and total mess, which he wasn't in the movie. As for the Mortal Instruments, I heard that Alex Pettyfer wanted 4 million dollars for the part and walked when they wouldn't pay him that. Dude's pretty, but god what a diva.

Well, it looks like we have our Finnick O'dair : Sam Claflin Cast in Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I'm a little disappointed because I really wanted Armie Hammer as Finnick, but I have faith that Lionsgate knows what they're doing. It's pretty hilarious reading the bitching from the fans because Sam Claflin isn't good-looking enough for them, though. Hair and make-up can go a long way, and charisma can turn a cute guy into an extraordinarily hot guy, like Andy in Cross-Currents. Although Sam will really need to buff up- we're supposed to believe he can carry Peeta and Mags over his shoulder in the scene where they're being chased by the poisonous fog. I'm not buying it with Sam Claflin as he looks now. In any event, I can get over Sam Claflin not being a perfect physical specimen the way Finnick was described as being so long as the dude can act- that's first and foremost important, despite what the fans who expected and demanded a model-looking actor for the part. Fifteen more months until Catching Fire comes out! I'm so excited!

It's pretty incredible to think though, Adam- this year's 10th grade class would have been born the year you started 12th grade. Pretty incredible to think 15 years have gone by since you were 18. One of my facebook friends and I talked about how we couldn't believe 1997 was really 15 years ago- seems like just yesterday.

I took part in a ghost hunt at my school, once during Halloween and the second time around April. Nothing happened around Halloween, but the second experience was pretty crazy. We used flashlights to try and communicate. In one of the rooms, the flashlights kept coming off and on, and we had sustained conversations with several of the spirits. During one of the communications, I had chills going up and down my spine, and later on the leader told me that I had the ghost standing right behind me the whole time.

Can you edit the chapter to say at the end "See You Again" instead of "Party in the U.S.A."? That song came out in fall 2009, not fall 2008. Other than that goof, really good chapter.