methodwriter85

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.

I was, too. The summer I was 14, I bleached my hair and dyed it a shimmery blue color. Manic Panic was my friend from about 13 to 16. There was one hideous time where I had shaved off all my hair except my bangs, bleached them and dyed it red, and then spiked them. The thing about dating- I remember that in Be Rad, Brad really wanted to have a relationship like the one Stefan and Greg had- they were like his role models for a gay partnership. By the time Will was growing up, he didn't quite have that role model. Brad and Robbie's relationship blew apart when Will was 13, and while Will was obsessed with having a partner in Poor Man's Son I don't think it was necessarily about wanting to have something like what Brad and Robbie had. I wouldn't be surprised if Will had something of a Gay Man's Nifty Cinderella Effect, as in Will had read too many Gay Nifty Stories and believed in the Happily Ever After. But when John, Italian Boy, and Tony blew apart that illusion, Will got embarrassed and didn't want to get carried away again like that. So he put a wall up and switched to 'hook-up only mode', and hasn't looked back. It works better this way, because while 'happily ever after' works if you're only having a protagonist do 2 or 3 stories, it won't work over a lot of stories. From a soap opera standpoint, it keeps things more wide open if Will doesn't get settled down into something serious like Brad did with Robbie in Be Rad, or Matt did with Wade in Bloodlines.

My guess as to why Will hasn't had more 15 or 16-year old school love interests is because Harvard-Westlake's 9th grade is still part of the junior high, so he's only around guys who are 12 to 14 at school. I'm assuming that if/when Will goes to Menlo School, he'll meet sophomores, juniors, and seniors that he'll probably try to date. Most 14-year old guys aren't like Will- most are still pretty awkward physically so it makes sense that Will would be into older guys. It was like the 8th/9th grade girls I knew that would date juniors/seniors- 'cause junior year is usually when everyone's past their awkward stage and looking their best. I know junior year for me was when my skin cleared up and my voice finally stopped sounding like a girl's. The other thing is that by the time someone's 18 and in college, they're usually past the "puppy dog" love deal, and they're much more okay with hooking up and not settling down into relationship, as opposed to the intense "we'll be together forever" love that people have in middle school and high school. Since Will no longer wants that, it makes more sense he's chasing after college-aged guys, because you're more tuned into the hook-up mindset in college.

For me, it's not an easy read because the last time I saw my dad was when I was 9 years old in 1995 and he hasn't tried to contact us since even though we know he's alive, so anything about being a father can hit at some pretty deep parts within my psyche. Anyway, back to the other post- it was kind of funny the bit about private school, gay fathers, and lesbians having children being part of the weirdness that is Will's life. In Delaware, private schools are pretty big- it's not even a rich person thing- people who are just middle class tend to send their kids to private school, or charter/magnet schools. It's a function of having a pretty bad public school system, which never recovered from the forced busing desegregation plan that was implemented from 1978 to 1995. The public school system got gutted, and as a result almost anyone who had the means to send their kids to private, with charters/magnets as the back-up. In 8th grade, picking out where you're going to high school is like a practice run of the college application process. The best option is private, second-best would be charter/magnet, third would be choicing into a decent district if your own district sucks, and the worst is having to go to your crappy feeder pattern traditional public school. I lucked into getting into a performing arts magnet school instead of having to go to my feeder pattern school. As a result of my experience, I'm a firm believer in getting rid of traditional public schools and see charter schools/magnet schools as the wave of the future. Over at my high school, we had openly gay teachers who were raising kids with their partners, and an openly lesbian principal who had used a sperm donor to become pregnant. We saw her wife a couple times around the school. Delaware has second-parent adoption laws that makes it easier for gay couples to raise families, which is probably why I've had a fair amount of role models in that regard. (If I were so inclined to do so, which right now I'm not.) So yeah, Tim, Delaware's not the redneck backwater you seem to think it is.;-) (Well, the Northern part above the canal, anyway.)

Happy birthday!

And you gotta remember that CAP is first and foremost a soap opera with erotic situations. It's like Queer as Folk meets Dallas meets The O.C. It's expected that if someone is a protagonist, they're going to have lots of sex, because that's what Mark wants to write- an erotic soap opera about a very slutty and rich family who dabble in politics and civic life on the side. That's what it's been since Chapter 1 of CAP, and that's what it'll remain unless Mark decides to change the tone of it.

No, but I knew a girl in 8th grade who had gotten an abortion and was pregnant again; I knew lots of kids who were having sex in 7th and 8th grade, and I knew it didn't seem like a big deal to be 13 and not a virgin when I was 13. The girls who were early bloomers were often hooking up with high school guys- there was a girl in my 8th grade class who had gotten into a relationship with a 10th grade guy. After they had broken up, he came to our school and yelled at her while she went on the bus. That's why puberty plays such a big role in what happens when you're in the junior high range- the physically mature people often got involved with sex, drugs, and partying in 7th/8th grade, and those lagging behind usually don't until they finally mature by 11th/12th grade, sometimes not even until college. I'm not going to say that it doesn't bother me, but while Will's situations are a lot more amped up, they're not so out of the ordinary that I can't believe it. Some kids are hyper-sexual bunnies like Will who 'eff everything in sight at 13/14 until they finally feel ready to settle down. Some kids are more innocent and take longer to get around to having sex, like JJ. That's realistic, and being sexually active at 13/14 doesn't make Will a bad or immature person- he's just not at the point where he wants to build something deeper when he has sex and just wants to have fun.

I can't agree with that idea. Bad teenage behavior doesn't just come out of nowhere- I had friends in high school that were the "bad kids", and they had a long history of acting out that got progressively worse. Billy was already 15 years old- I think at that point, bad behavior problems should have been known and corrected, but JP, Isidore, and Sam engaged in overly permissive parenting. For some kids, it works out fine. But for others, never being taught the word "no" can and does take kids over the edge, and the problem is that if you try to discipline the kid the kid will resent you for it because you can't just suddenly switch gears on them. I thought that the point that's been reiterated over and over again with Will is that he's essentially a 17/18 year old guy with a 1986 birth year instead of 1982/1983 one. So it's basically like Will is the same age that Brad was in Be Rad. It does happen- I had a friend named Sean in 9th grade who was 6 foot tall and pretty much looked and acted like an adult, so the Will stuff isn't as weird to me. I also like that JJ is balancing that out by being the late bloomer- my voice didn't drop until I was 17 and I was constantly told I looked 12 until I was 16, so I relate to JJ's childlike innocence a lot. When I was around the kids who just seemed so much older even though they were either my age or younger, it was like we were on two levels- I was still a little boy and they were pretty much men. Physical maturity plays into so much how the ages of 12-15 play out, (by 16 and 17 guys start to even out) so I like how Mark's reflected that- some guys are still little boys, like I was at JJ's current age, and some guys are men, like Will is. I've done basically everything in my power to delay adulthood for as long as necessary (5th year of college, grad school) that the idea that someone would want to rush into adulthood at the age of 14 is pretty foreign to me, but to each his own. It's not like Will has to worry about paying for bills and the like- the only negative about this would be that he could be tried as an adult if he ever got arrested, but I don't see that in his future. He can't really be the carefree teenager that Brad was at the start of Be Rad, which is interesting.

A Love Letter from Waiters to the City of Los Angeles The first guy is sooooo hot. I bet Stefan would leave a big tip for him if he ran across him as his waiter. Well, as long as he bagged the attitude.

*think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts*

So, another thought- now that Jeanine is officially around the bend again, do you think Cody will try and step it up as a dad, or will Tiffany continue having to care for Madison? And if Cody doesn't step up as a dad, do you think that would impact his relationship with the family? I can't see the family holding such a high regard for Cody if he completely shirked his parental obligations to Madison, but I'm basing that on how JP, Stefan, and Brad have reacted to Jim Crampton's treatment of JJ, which isn't exactly the same. Jim completely pretends that JJ doesn't exist, while Cody acknowledges Maddy- he's just not an active parent. So I'm torn on whether or not I think they'd get all self-righteous with Cody in regards to him not stepping up as a dad to his daughter, or if they'd be more accepting of that because Cody pretty much thought of himself as just a sperm donor to Jeanine and Tiffany for a kid they were going to raise. I do think their opinion of Cody would probably lessen a bit, but that depends on each individual. Thoughts?