methodwriter85

Did you read my post? I was commending the show and the moments of exceptional acting they had on the show, especially from Lisa Whelchel and Nancy McKeon. Tim was the one who was knocking the show, calling the writers hacks. Plus, isn't JJ totally a male Blair Warner? The only personality difference is that JJ isn't a flirt. If Mark adds a bit of Erica Kane's trouble-making ways he could really have one fun diva character on his hands. Is John Carullo totally gay or is he just bi? I've kind of wondered about that. So far the only actually confirmed bi characters for this gen seems to have been Gathan. John Hobart could count as bi, but he's not old enough to really make that call yet. And do we know if he's in the same grade as Wade and Matt, or could he be a senior? I'm wonder if there's a possibility he could be back in New Jersey, and therefore around the orbit of 9/11, eleven months from now.

Chapter 40 -When Wade has some fun with John Carullo at the A-Ho party. I had such a thing for Nick Lachey back in 2000. God. Him and David Boreanaz...ahhhh....

Why does everyone seem to be pushing at JJ to grow up and act more mature? I personally find it refreshing that he's been able to stay a little kid for just a little bit longer. I did kind of figure that JJ would be a big factor in why Tiffany would decide to come back to L.A. Of course, it's a mistake and in a few years JJ is out the door anyway, but of course she's just seeing a little boy that needs her.

I earned a 3.66, with my final cumulative GPA as a 3.75. Nice. I spent high school and college(that's 11 years), freaking out about grades and hoping against hope I'd pull out a passing grade. It's weird to be past that now.

Dude, just enjoy the sentiment. It was one hell of a scene, and for something remembered as a cheesy afterschool special from the '80s, there was some genuinely good acting there. Plus, like I said, JJ is totally like a male Blair Warner.

Keanu Reeves has been dodging the gay rumor label for years- I remember hearing it back in '95, but I don't know, he doesn't really seem gay to me. Neither does Wentworth Miller, but eh. It is pretty cool to me that Neil Patrick Harris is seriously blowing away the perception that you can't be a romantic straight lead and be openly gay in Hollywood. We really are seeing the reasons to stay in the closet melting away.

Your speech just made me think of this great scene from The Facts of Life: [media=] [/media] "That's...my father." You know, I can totally see JJ as what a male Blair Warner would be like. Blond, a bit arrogant, kind of prissy, and with levels of self-involvement that hide a pretty nice-hearted person behind it all. I bet if you took him on a trip to Bloomingdales for one scarf he'd come back with an entire winter wardrobe.

Think of the angst that a 24-year old JJ will feel when, medal-free after two tries, he goes back over his life and thinks about how he gave up high school with his brother and friends for a shot at the Olympics that ultimately failed. Too delicious to pass up.

Thanks for the well-wishes, guys.

I think Will and JJ grew closer the past couple of weeks because of JJ's little breakdown and Will trying to step up, whereas Darius not being around kind of just made them less close. It's like what happened to Wade and his brother Beau- they grew apart because they're just not around each other that much, and not because of any one particular thing. It'll be interesting to see if JJ and Will can maintain that bond even as they go off and follow different paths- perhaps if JJ drops out of Harvard-Westlake to pursue figure skating full-time and the like. It is kind of interesting to see how Ace kind of just got phased out of the story. I think it happened because: 1. Ace is straight and not bi or gay. 2. Jack took over the brother role for Brad. 3. Jack and Claire's kids are the same ages as Brad and Robbie's Irish Twins; whereas Ace's daughter is only 5. Ergo, JJ and Will just aren't going to be as interested in hanging out with Courtney as they would be interesting in hanging out with John and Marie. (Although, where the hell has she been, anyway? Shouldn't Marie be hounding Robbie for updates on the production of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?) I'm sure when JJ needs a puff piece for the '06 Olympics, he'll use Courtney as the cute kid cousin to take to Disneyland. 4. His personality became really judgmental and less fun as he got older, making us less inclined to want to see more of his character. 5. Because Mark is starting to switch focus from Brad and Robbie's generation onto Generation 4(Will, JJ, John, etc), the influx of new characters means that older characters who don't serve much of a function have been rendered surplus and thus phased out. It's been funny. I couldn't stand how Will was written for most of Poor Man's Son. But now I find him a pretty compelling and likeable character- I think once Will got away from being a pedo's dream sexpot stripping in gay bars to being a 9th grade kid doing bratty crap while trying to navigate school, friendships, and relationships, he became a much more relate-able character. Wade...I still enjoy his character and everything, but I gotta admit there's something more fun about a teenager going off the rails than a calmly centered guy logically and proficiently solving every problem that comes his way.

Plus, you already did the whole "hot guy shows up who reminds everyone of Jeff thus freaking them out" storyline with Roger in The Land Whore. It's been an interesting dynamic for sure- that JJ being smaller(and therefore more vulnerable) has been an impetus for people to treat him like he's younger than he actually is. When he finally hits puberty and he no longer looks like a 12-year old boy, it'll be interesting to see how that'll change things in said dynamic.

You grew up with the people you went to high school with. I graduated in a class of 82 people- there wasn't a single person there I didn't have a class with at least once. College is entirely different, especially if you go to a huge school. The graduation was pretty impersonal at UD- the IUP graduation was smaller and I guess I had more fun with it.

It went off pretty well, for the most part. The departmental ceremony in the morning was nice- it was kind of weird in a way. I remember at my departmental ceremony for my UD graduation, noting when the M.A. students graduated, just how small the group was. And then two years later, I was on the other side, with my two other fellow masters. (Other people graduated, but they didn't come.) One of my professors joked with me that I was graduating despite her best efforts, but then congratulated me on the fact that I was able to pull together that fall seminar paper together at the end. I was also able to talk to the professors that really meant something to me, especially the head of Alternative Spring Break. I told him how going to ASB was one of the best things I've done in my life, and that definitely seemed to please him. There was a bit of a snafu with the large graduation, as I and one of the other grad students accidentally lined up with the bachelors. I didn't realize my mistake until the master students stood up and walked to the podium. I remarked on this to some girls I was sitting with, and they said, "Run!" So I basically rushed the stage, got behind my friend Seth, and walked across the stage all out of breath. I completely ruined the order doing this, but at least I made sure I graduated with the other masters. Apparently Melissa realized the mistake when I ran up, because she said she ran after me and got in line with people who were getting their MBA's. After that happened, I sat with my friend Seth and joked about how IUP really needs to co-ordinate their graduations better. Later on, I threw my cap up in the air, but no one followed- I guess it's not a tradition in Western PA to do that or something. LOL. After the graduation I joked and laughed with some people about the whole thing. I mean, on one hand it kind of sucked that I didn't get to be all dignified for the second graduation and really savor the moment of walking across the stage, but I got to have that for the departmental, and secondly, I have a pretty funny memory. And it allowed me to sit with my friend Seth instead of whoever I was supposed to be lined up with. It wasn't perfect, but it was my moment, and it was a great one. In between the small graduation and the big graduation, I talked to one of my friends who was a first year graduate student in Student Affairs. She's getting kicked out of school because her GPA was below a 3.0. She was bawling out crying. I had told her, way back in September, that I thought she was taking on too much extracurricular activities for a grad student instead of focusing on school. I didn't remind her of this, of course, but talking to her made me glad of all the times that first semester of grad school where I turned down socializing in order to study, giving me that cushion so that I wouldn't need to pull off a 4.0 GPA to stay in. I had a bit more fun this second year, but I had earned it by that point. Talking to this girl who will never graduate from IUP made me appreciate the moment a lot more, I think.

Chapter 39 -When Will and Tony have their little reunion hook-up.

Some thoughts I've had on this chapter: 1. The callback to Bloodlines was cool. Man. Did Mark really write that almost three years ago? Damn. 2. The Tony and Will stuff...I'm glad Will's not being entirely stupid about it, but it does seem like maybe perhaps Tony will someday be cool with liking guys. Although I think Will has to hit at least age 17 before Tony would openly date him- the four years difference is going to be a big deal for at least a few more years, since I'm sure Tony doesn't want to end up on Megan's List. 3. The Darius and Will interaction was totally interesting. I can see how the lack of Darius doing anything but Ella and having fun at Santa Clara while things completely blew apart for both Will and JJ would cause a lot of resentment on Will's part. As for JJ, Mark's been pretty consistent about the fact that JJ has never really looked up to Darius or tried to emulate him, not in the way that Will did. So Darius was never really on a pedestal in his mind, which made his little rant really in character. JJ thought Darius choosing Santa Clara was stupid and told him to his face back in Poor Man's Son, which makes this such a nice piece of character continuity.

Maddy falls by the wayside because this story is at heart about the father/son relationship. At least that's what I'm assuming. It was cool to see the sibling rivalry. Going off to college can change the way siblings interact with one another, and Will not really having Darius to lean on...I can see where that could cause resentment and knock him off the pedestal that Will had for him.

Happy birthday, Mark!!!

I'm not talking emo mode as in Will's going to start wearing Marie's jeans and eyeliner with gravity defying-hair while posting carefully angled pictures of himself on Myspace- just short for "emotional" mode. As in when Will got all "I'm 14 and no one understands me or my teenaged angst." That kind of thing. I can see Will being cool with emo kids, because he comes off as the kind of guy that could chill with any kind of group of kids, but the closest he might get would be taking on the whole skater punk deal(although that's fading out by the early 2000's), which would still be pretty different from emo. Although really, I don't see Will as a guy who can be easily categorized into any one group. This seems like a good Brad theme for Paternity: I cannot tell you how much I love this song. I can't wait 'til it's '06 in the story so I can use it.

Alright, this was basically Will's theme song whenever he got into Emo mode: This song nails that whole "I am 14 and NOOOOOOO one understands me and my very poignant and original teen angst because I'm all alone in the world with these deep feelings!" point of view. It's kind of nice that emo bands like New Found Glory and Simple Plan coincided with Will and JJ's high school years. That'll make things easy.

Here's another hilarious One Direction parody: I lost it when they showed the 20-something gay guy leering at them. LOL.

Yeah, I liked BBMak a lot. Anyway, 98 Degrees...I used to have a picture of Nick Lachey in my diary. LOL. But for me, "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" by BSB was the video that jumpstarted puberty for me. I was 11 when that song came out, and god they were hot. I have this distinct memory from 1997, where "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" started playing at a fair I was at, so I ran over to the speakers to listen while my sister was busy flirting with this cute carnival worker.

There's something kind of cool about the fact that if I wanted to, I could adopt kids with my hypothetical partner and get a civil union without having to leave Delaware. Nice.

I know that you already admitted you were wrong, but I love dramatic irony so I was pointing out this quote again. It makes total sense- the era of the BSB/N'Sync happened ten to fifteen years ago. A current-day middle schooler doesn't even remember the hey day of the boybands. So it's new to them, with a new crop of young guys who fit the current skinny-jeaned standard of what's hot. I actually heard "Glad You Came" in the food court today. I'm getting the feeling we'll hear it ad nauseum this summer. Although I really liked this one by the Wanted: "War Zone" by The Wanted basically makes me think of "Gone" by N'Sync and "Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake. With a touch of "Too Late To Apologize" by OneRepublic. It's funny reading the comments of One Direction fans ripping on The Wanted, and vice versa. Shades of the BSB/NSync wars back in the late 90's/early '00s. Here's an absolutely hilarious parody of One Direction:

Eric Foreman from That 70's Show = Mark from On The Mark. (Tim thought Ryan Devlin was too handsome, so I dialed it down to the goofy cute boy next door.) Come on, Mark is totally like a more affluent, bisexual version of Eric Foreman who has access to better weed and hotter male friends. I can't be the only one who sees that. Topher Grace's look in Take Me Home Tonight was also how I envisioned late 1980's Mark Arbour: I can totally picture a 26-year old Mark giving a speech like that. LOL.