methodwriter85

I liked PMS, and I liked how you ended it. But there were problems to the story, and one of the problems was the lack of balance between the narrators. You hit that much better here.

He kind of did that with the April Fool's chapter of Poor Man's Son.

I think you hit on what the problem was with Poor Man's Son. Will's teenage angst and Gathan's teenage angst were both too much. If Will had been the comedic B-story of wacky 13-year old hijincks to Gathan's A-story of coming to terms with both his past and his newfound wealth, it would have been a much better story because there would have been more of a balance. Mark was coming at it full-throttle with the angst on both sides, and it became too much. Here, there's much more of a balance.

Christian Bale Visits Shooting Victims I thought this was a pretty neat story. Yeah, Christian Bale was the guy who went on an ugly rant on the set of Terminator Salvation. But he's also a guy who took the time out of what was obviously a busy schedule to comfort the fans who went to see his movie and got struck by bullets instead. I'm really impressed by him now. People may always point at the Terminator rant, but I hope they'll always point to this act, as well.

I think you might have mixed up Will with Wade for that moment.

Chapter 53 -At the party, and again when Wade stops the car to give Matt a blowjob. "Country Grammar"(Hot Shit) by Nelly We're going to be hearing a good deal of Nelly for the first half of the 2000's.

Wade doesn't really come off as a smart-ass the way Matt and Will do.

I really liked Will as narrator when he was just a kid having fun with his friends at Harvard-Westlake, but the war with Brad really turned me off on him, as well as the guy's insistence on being 24 at 14. So I guess I'm back to liking Wade more.

In 2000, I think my main concerns were about listening to Third Eye Blind's Blue album and making sure I saw Popular. I would bet serious money that JJ knows the entire WB lineup by heart.

I think you're not entirely far off. In any event, Penn State is lucky they have a billion dollar endowment, because most of that is probably going to go towards all the litigation. As the largest school in Pennsylvania, it has a such an impact on the regional economy that it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Check me out at Firefly Music Festival! It was so much fun.

I spent three days as a volunteer at Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware. I left Thursday night to set up camp, and came back Monday afternoon. Thursday night was probably the most fun in terms of camping- I was placed next to people who were pretty cool and friendly, and all of us hung out when we got back on Friday and Sunday. I got to see the Black Keys, the Killers(who set off fireworks for their finale), Graffiti 6, the Silversun Pickups, The Wallflowers, Ok!Go, and Imagine Dragons. It was so much fun.

I'm not picky, but there's got to be at least somewhat of physical attraction, but personality trumps it. I'd take an okay-looking guy with a great personality over a drop-dead gorgeous guy who didn't have anything else going on for him in a heartbeat. Because if all you have in common with someone is the fact that you like looking at them, it's not going to last in the long run.

Penn State Students Keep Vigil Over Paterno's Statue Two Penn State students have decided to set up a tent to protect the Paterno Statue from vandals, after a plane flew over the campus saying "Take the Statue down or We Wil." I don't think the statue should be taken down, but maybe Penn State should put up a memorial garden or something for victims of sexual abuse?

Agreed about Nick Bartzen. The Conrad Boys could have been a very good movie if the director/lead actor had someone set him aside and told him that he couldn't act. Seriously- all three of the other lead actors in this- the drifter, the errant father, and the angsty little brother- were all good, natural actors. When the director is the weak acting link, something is wrong. I get that this was his first(and so far only) film, and it was his baby, but come on. He should have looked for a guy that could actually act.

Do Harvard-Westlake students get the day off for Election Day, or not? That was the norm for my public school days, but I'm assuming it might be different for private schools.

I don't think JJ has to die, though, in order to explain why he doesn't get the Olympic Gold medal. From what I understand about 2006, nobody but Evengei Plushenko was going to get the gold medal. And in 2010, Johnny Weir was the odds-on-favorite, and Evan Lysacek got the gold medal instead. There are so many variables that happen in the world of sports that it's completely believeable that someone with massive talent doesn't reach the heights they should have reached. Although if JJ does die at 9/11, he'd be 15 years old, same as Billy's age when he died. That would really freak Brad out, I think. But if we're going for likelihood, JJ would be in either Bulgaria for the first Junior Grand Prix of the 2001-2002 season, or he'd be at home. I think if Kristin was named Christian and looked like this, you'd be all over that character.

Bieber isn't a boyband, though. Anyway, this was fun. LOL. Gotta love TW.

Over in reviews: I don't think JJ is equpped to handle his own emotions, let alone the negative emotions of a crazed mother. He's coming apart here, I think. I don't think a total breakdown will happen, though. At least not until JJ watches Evan Lysacek take the gold medal at the '10 Olympics(and likely his last chance at them as being 28 at the 2014 ones would be pushing it), and realizes that he traded in his entire childhood and adolescence on something that never panned out. I agree with that, for the most part, but I think that if JJ REALLY believes wholeheartedly in something, and it's important to him, he'll be really, really stubborn on it. But he's not going to make a big mess about something if it's not something deep down in his gut that he believes in. I think for the most part, JJ would avoid being a rebel, because figure skater rebels don't exactly get rewarded in this sport. It seems very much like being good little boys and girls who do what they're told and say what they're supposed to say. I think that's a big part of why Johnny Weir never got gold, because he wouldn't do what he was expected to do. I honestly can see them being close brothers in adulthood that Skype regularly- who live either on opposite coasts with Will in L.A. and JJ in NYC, or even countries- maybe JJ winds up living in Paris or London. I think it'd be good for JJ to be in an environment where he can't blame the fact that he doesn't have friends on Will hogging up all the attention- maybe at Tisch School of the Arts? (If and when he decides to drop skating and go to college.) You've got two brothers, so opposite in so many ways, who've essentially been raised as Irish twins. It can be so tension-filled and explosive in those teen years; that I can really see them getting closer if they don't live in the same area, because then JJ will have to make his own friends without riding on his brother's coattails, and come to some realizations about why he's not as popular as they are.

I found this article from the Washington Post. I thought it was pretty interesting- it covers the 5-year reunion of the class of 2007 at Dickinson College, a small school in Pennyslvania. It looks at the class of 2007 in terms of being the final class of my generation to have graduated without the recession and horrible economy hanging over their heads. The Class of 2007- Reunion After A Tough 5 Years I was a sophomore when the class of 2007 graduated. It's kind of interesting to realize their place in history. I loved the context they put for them: This class first met in fall 2003, when jobs seemed plentiful, if you had a degree. George W. Bush was president, and Sept. 11 was a horrible Tuesday morning in their junior year of high school. Dorms had land lines, and cellphones were for making calls, not text messaging or checking e-mail. Their college days were marked by Hurricane Katrina's destruction, the television finale of "Sex and the City," the debut of Facebook. In some ways, the Class of 2007 was the last one to have it easy. It graduated into a workforce with an unemployment rate below 5 percent. For the Class of 2009, the rate was at 9.5 percent. Now, it is just above 8 percent. I should have graduated in 2009, but I had to take an extra year. I had friends who graduated in '08 and '09 and pretty much none of them were on the pathway of having a job and most were living with their parents. These were the kids who got to the party just before the punch bowl got taken away, which is kind of interesting to think about.

I didn't realize how much it bothered me until I read it being used in a story A LOT, but "effin" and "f'cking" being written in place of the actual word. I mean, really?

It'd be interesting if/when we get to the Penn State scandal in CAP. I don't think it's likely any of these characters would go there, but I'm sure they'd have reactions, especially since we know at least Robbie likes college football and Zach seems destined for college ball. People protested. In favor of Joe Paterno. From what I understand about Penn State, it's a party school where football is god and big business.

MAJOR personality type from the 1980's. So popular it even inspired a movie.

If Robbie goes through trying to ban Jeanine from having to do with JJ's career, he's going to be one very big rage diva ball. Jeanine and JJ are extremely dependent on each other.

A fast-talking girl from Cali. I'm assuming she's a Val, you know?