methodwriter85

Day 53, May 8 I'm nearing the end of Box 1 and therefore the end of processing this collection. I found one book that was in french, and depicted how the various planes in various countries looked. That was pretty interesting, since World War I was the first war that was really fought in the air as well as on the ground. I also found a 1902 calendar, which was cool, but didn't really fit in the scope of the collection. I talked to my adviser about that, and she agreed. It was put in an envelope and was likely going to be put in storage with other old calendars. That really emphasized to me how much of a judgement call you have to have when it comes to collections- you can't just turn down a collection, but a lot of times, people will just throw in things without really questioning how important something is within the context of the collection.

Back to this thread... Anyone have ideas about why Gathan didn't work as narrator, seven months down the road? I'm genuinely curious. I liked Gathan a lot and I liked the idea of having someone from a different kind of background narrating, but something didn't quite click. Was it just that Mark decided to put all the attention into Will, or the fact that people weren't that interested in seeing a protagonist having a relationship with a woman, or something else? Ideas?

Hey, I like your choice for Darius, Tim. I think we're both on the same page that Darius needs to have an ethically ambiguous look, and be more "cute with loads of charm" as opposed to drop-dead gorgeous. My one problem with Zayn is that he looks a little too twink and skinny- I think Darius is supposed to have a bigger build than that. Not "Cato in The Hunger Games" kind of build, but not the kind of build that was built for skinny jeans. And the muscles on Danny from Teen Wolf...gah... http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4032/4602460314_7c8b65e0f3_z.jpg

You might as well start getting used to feeling now, Westie. "Legal" now means people born in 1994. Which means that the little kids from movies that came out in the late 90's/early '00s are fully adult now. Although Nicholas Hoult is actually close to our age- he's 22 now. It's just the fact that About A Boy preserves him as a 12-year old boy that makes him seem like he must be so much younger than us.

They're apparently making a comeback. I'm kind of excited. http://blog.chron.com/celebritybuzz/2012/04/call-it-a-comeback-boy-bands-back-on-music-scene/ I don't really like One Direction so much with the exception of What Makes You Beautiful, but I'm digging The Wanted.

I kind of like Danny(Keahu Kahuanui) from Teen Wolf as a possible Darius: The dimples totally win me over. Plus, that scene with Danny and Stiles watching Derek change into too-tight shirts will be forever hilarious to me. These are the parameters that I see with Darius: 1. Good-looking, but not in a pretty way. He's made hot by charm, not by being drop-dead gorgeous. 2. Tanned and tall 3. Vaguely ethnic-looking, as in you have to keep guessing what he is. 4. Not hugely muscular, but not skinny either.

But according to Julian, who is only three years behind JJ and Will in terms of HW, HW was pretty strict regarding attendance and it was an uphill battle for a friend of his to pursue acting.

I'll go ahead and consult Daisy on this. It really is amazing the amount of school JJ has to miss. It's why I'm surprised he decided to go HW with Will...I kind of figured that he and Jeanine had worked something out with Malibu that allowed him to miss so much school, whereas with HW he's just a new kid who's missing weeks of school at a time.

It seems like Madison is getting cared for along with Riley, but because Madison isn't actually Wade's daughter, we're just not really seeing much scenes with Maddy because the story, at its heart, is about the father/son bond. Plus, Madison is only a couple of weeks old so we can't have much in terms of scenes with her anyway. I think Wade noted at one point in the story that Cody's interest in Maddy basically consists of, "Oh, she's still alive? That's good. Alright, I've got a circuit party to head to with my latest trick. Later!"

JJ's Norway competition is November 2nd through November 5th, which means he'll probably have to leave either November 1st or on Halloween. I imagine that Brad and Robbie will show up for the last day or two of the competition, while Claire chaperones JJ. The 2000 Election happened November 7th. I do wonder what America would have been like if Al Gore had been president. Other than that and the sinking of USS Cole(I'm kind of surprised we didn't get a mention of that), 2000 was a pretty quiet year. If you use Mark's general m.o., it's likely that we'll go out to at least the spring of Wade's junior year, especially because Matt and Wade both have their milestone birthdays. That's why I'm thinking we'll go into the 70-chapter range with this story. The next story would likely be the summer of 2001, which leads into... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Kxr5xll7DP0&NR=1

We also have to see Jeanine come back to normal...depression usually takes more than just a few months to come back from. As well the clusterffuck that was the 2000 Election, JJ's trip to Norway that everyone is planning on going on, and what-have-you. There are way too many strings left untied to wrap up the story now. I'm not going to be surprised if Paternity winds up Millenium-sized.

Chapter 37 -When Will tries to reconcile with his Pop. "Let That Be Enough" by Switchfoot

For me, the best era of music was from about 1988 to about 1996. I LOVED scoring A Summer Love and If It Fits. I seriously wish I was Private Tim's age, so I could have been in college during the Grunge Era. That would have been sick.

It WOULD be interesting if JJ and Will played out Cain and Abel, but I don't think they have that kind of sibling rivalry.

Hey, I went back to 1989 for this chapter, Mark.

Day 50 -May 2nd Finally finished Box 4. Just one more box to go. There's a woman who keeps visiting the Historical Society with her kids. They like seeing the guns. It's great seeing the importance of the historical society as a free place for families to go and entertain their children. I think hands-on activities would be great to add, like maybe teaching children how to make haversacks or marching. Day 51- May 4th Interestingly, I'm starting on Box 1 as my final box. Luckily, there doesn't look to be that much here. I found a program for America's sesquicentennial in 1926. That was pretty interesting, because I really wish I could have been around for the bicentennial in 1976. I'm definitely looking forward to the tricentennial in 2076. Day 52- May 5th I continued working on Box 1, and taped some covers back on to the manuals using archival tape.

Scallops wrapped with bacon. Mmm. And shrimp. Can't forget shrimp. God, I love living on the East Coast. Seafood is awesome. I really need to hit up the Eastern Shore this summer.

I've liked that contrast; I really have. Shows me that you're not recycling the Brad and Robbie relationship for the new millennium in younger models- where both Brad and Robbie were pretty much ruled by their dicks, especially in high school and college.

I didn't think that they had to be helicopter parents themselves, just that now we're getting into the Generation Y perspective, that's one thing that comes up. If these were kids who only ever interacted with other rich kids, I could see that point- but Mark has made it a point to bring in kids from other socioeconomic backgrounds to be more reflective of where American society was at certain points. That's been true ever since the first story- the family COULD chose to be in a complete bubble if they wanted to, but it's been installed in them to interact with people that aren't like them. Good points about Sam and the way the kids were raised, especially in how they felt like they could really go to their parents if they needed help. That hasn't been true with Brad and Robbie in regards to their Irish twins. I really would love it if JJ told them point blank, "I didn't ask you guys for help when I was depressed about Mom because you seemed too busy to care." Of course, I don't think he will, but it would be great if that point got across. Anyway, Blue, let's just rage for a bit and have some fun. It'll be totally sick. Come on!It's Arbour's birthday!*smiles* Come on, I even brought a case of Yuengling! Cheers!

Chapter 36 -When Will goes surfing with his dad.

That kind of jibes with the impression that I've gotten- Brad and Robbie were once more active parents with their kids, especially up to about 1995 with If It Fits, but as Darius got ready to graduate from high school and JJ/Will entered their teens, both the parents and the kids had less time for each other. And then the events of Millenium happened, and damn. Right, but one function of CAP has been about reflecting period quirks and mindsets. The song that Mark picked to represent how JP, Sam, and Jeanine were raising their kids was "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by the Mamas and the Papas. I'm just saying.

Nah, just certain boundaries like "you don't sleep with your kid's boyfriend" and the like. Although I kind of always thought that the upbringing that they had was supposed to represent the off-beat, 1960's/1970's style of parenting, where everyone was free to be you and me and the like. This is the Helicopter Parent generation, but we haven't really encountered much of that. Although I guess it makes sense that these are supposed to be high-powered people who can't be all up in their kid's grill all the time, but I don't know- I kinda would have thought that after seeing what happened to Billy, Brad and Robbie would have been more interested in teaching their kids what the word "no" is.

Because Sam sleeping with Brad's boyfriend and Isidore letting Billy get away with murder equals "managed."

Wait, when have I ever indicated that I didn't think Jeanine did the bulk of parenting for the kids in CAP? I thought I was fairly consistent in the expression of my belief in that, although I qualified that by saying that each parent tended to focus more on one of the children- Robbie on Darius, Jeanine on JJ, and Brad on Will. In any event...I don't know, the impression that I'm getting is that they WERE active and involved parents, especially around the time of If It Fits, but as Darius got into high school and Will and JJ kinda went off into their own tweenage things, they got less involved, which then got excerabated by the events of Millenium as they had to step up their corporate game. It would make for an interesting story for Wade to decide to "scale down" his lifestyle in order to be more of an active parent, which can and does happen. I had a teacher who used to run a pretty successful construction business, but then he realized that he wasn't able to spend enough time with his kids, so he sold it off and became a teacher at their school.