methodwriter85

Right. Well, I wasn't going literal. It's more about the anger and feeling backed into a corner so that you're lashing out. It's in the same emotional vien, and it's period. So, yeah.

I could see Will hanging out with the latter type- he doesn't seem like one who would hang out with lazy rich snobs. JJ, on the other hand, I could see hanging around that crowd. He's somewhat stuck-up in a way that I can see turning him into a total monster by his 20's, especially if/when he becomes famous. I can see him being someone who'd drop money on people to get them to be his friends. Is there any chance you know anything about Armie Hammer and the Hammer family? He's another Los Angeles contemporary, and god, I've been in lust with that guy since The Social Network.

So is this what contemporary rich kids are like, Tim? I don't have friends that are legitimately rich, just upper middle class at most, so I'm interested in your opinion here. "Maybe you should go back on meds." I do think there's a surprising lack of meds for these people- I know Will's got access to Adderall, but I'm kind of surprised that kids aren't dropping references to being on Lexapro or the like at school. That was part of casual conversation. Or maybe the whole "drug out our kids" deal is more of an East Coast thing.

I'm going to fanwank that in 3rd grade, JJ whined about how much he wanted to play piano, and Jeanine used her Mommy Allowance to pay for it. He took lessons for a week, got bored with it, and the piano has been sitting in the corner since 1995. It's an established character trait that JJ will take up things and often get bored with it- figure skating's the only thing he's actually stuck with. I could totally see him having an array of past childhood interests around the house.

Chapter 31 -When Will goes on his teenaged rampage. I'm going to be honest, I NEVER thought Last Resort would ever apply to a spoiled rotten Golden Boy like Will. Color me shocked, Mark. -When Will sits on his veranda, and ponders what he did. Linkin Park moment. Finally.

Right. I wasn't sure what you meant. Will COULD have been a surf star, apparently, but the idea didn't appeal to him. I kind of like that- it's less a sport and more of an art form for him. As for JJ, I think he imagines himself as a major star. People just haven't recognized Jeremy James yet.

Can you clarify what you mean there? Potential star as in JJ's career is about to take off, or what?

I was kind of thinking that Alisdair would have a big influence on him, but it'll be interesting to see if JJ decides he wants to balance a tough school like HW with the demands of figure skating, or if he decides to give up school for figure skating. Which will make it all the more angsty when he DOESN'T win the gold in '06 or '10.

Right. Community service was required for National Honor Society, but when I was in a non-traditional public high school in the early/mid-2000's, it was more of an elective thing. Community service was something that you'd do for college apps, but not something you had to do. I think more schools are mandating it these days. It could be an interesting storyline if JJ winds up dropping out of regular school, though it doesn't seem like he hates HW like he hated Malibu. He'd definitely be going against the family academic grain, although if he eventually goes to college I don't think home schooling will be a mark against him.

Yeah. I kind of figure Raine picked HW for it's art/acting program or something. It sounds like they have a top-notch one there. Like I said before, I had friends who went to a strict charter school with hippy-dippy parents- maybe I'm just used to the idea that kids get to pick where they go to school based on interests because charters and magnets(as well as private school) rule the educational scene where I'm from, but unless a parent was REALLY set on one place, I can't see them forcing a kid to go to a school if the kid was set on somewhere else that had a good education. Speaking of the toughness of the school, I do kind of wonder if JJ will ultimately wind up dropping out of HW and getting homeschooled...HW seems like a way intense school for someone who will have to miss at least 4-5 weeks of school each year. Although I could see the acting program being a tight pull for him, if he let himself get into anything besides figure skating. What I really like about HW, and what impressed me about it, is the fact that they force their kids to do volunteer work and the kids have to clean up the cafeteria and the like. Could you have ever imagined high school Ace, Brad, and Claire ever willingly doing that kind of stuff? Nice way to distinguish this generation from the last one- instead of having spoiled kids who rule the school and get to do whatever they want(including taking trips to Amsterdam in the middle of the school year), these kids have a tighter rein on them that'll teach them social responsibility and humility, which I like a lot.

See, that's why I called them "trustafarians", not hippy dippys, because I figured they were both rich kids who got swept up into the Berkeley Movement of the 1960's and 1970's and played around with hippie commune lifestyles, but then went back into the establishment while still retaining some of those deals, kind of like Kirsten on the O.C. or Jake and Helen Morgendorfer on Daria. The dad was an alum of Harvard School for Boys back in the late 60's, and Raine picked the school based on that. If Harvard-Westlake came off as a really conservative school, I could see hippie-dippie parents not being into it, but the school seems to be on the liberal side and I think they'd be swayed by the social responsibility programs like Squid and the like. I mean, I know kids who went to really top-notch "establishment" schools and their parents were obviously hippie dippie types at one point in their life. Would it be more likely they'd send their kid to one of those schools were kids are allowed to chose their own curriculum in an attempt to teach them to be their own person? Perhaps, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility, particularly if one of the parents were alums. If anything, HW sounded way too liberal for someone like Ryan's dad to want to send their kid there, but we assumed that the wife really pushed for it to try and get Ryan an "in" with the creme de la creme of L.A. society, which did work. Julian, do you want to weigh in on this? I just don't think it's THAT out there for someone to have extremely liberal and free-love type parents and go to a school like HW, given the impression I've got of the school. I've had friends who've gone to a top-notch charter school who had parents like that, and this IS Generation Y, with Baby Boomer parents, so you kind of figure there have to be some former hippie parents mixed in there with these schools. All schools have parents that don't quite fit the profile of the school- my high school was about as liberal and gay-loving as you can get, and we had parents who were conservative types who still sent their kids there because they knew that Cab Calloway was still a pretty decent high school, especially compared to places like Glasgow or McKean. *shudders*

I don't think conservative pro-lifers would name their daughter Raine, raise her to be comfortable around gay guys at a young age, or let her go on the pill at the age of 14. I kind of picture Raine as having parents who were once trusterfarians in the 1960's and 1970's, then settled down into an affluent(yet environmentally sustainable) domestic life partnership before actually getting married in the '90's, with Raine as their flower girl. I had an aquaintance in high school who's parents named her Ruby Tuesday Rock n Roll...you can guess what her parents were like. And you're right, Brad and Robbie have no moral authority whatsoever. Kids are pretty tuned into what their parents are like, and they'll recognize hypocrisy when they see it. I can't see Brad or Robbie ever realistically trying to disclipline Will and JJ. JJ would flat-out walk out the door if they even tried.

I don't think "subtle" is in JJ's vocab.

It did for me, too. When someone's the "favored" child, like Will was/is, there's a little bit of satisfaction in seeing them fall/fail at something. Will was clearly the golden kid at Malibu, and it looks like things are heading that way here at HW, so I can't help but think that annoys JJ just a bit. Not to the point where JJ is deathly jealous of Will(I don't think they're Cal and Aron from East of Eden), but there's going to be a little bit of a grin when the Golden Boy falls off his pedestal.

This is really hard to admit this, but god, if I were in JJ's position, I so would have sold Will out like he did. It's such a dick move, but when you're an attention whore, you'll do anything to get it and you don't think so much about whether or not what you're saying is hurtful or not. JJ really does remind me of myself at 14, and not in the best ways. I liked Raine just being Ms. Open and Free and not so hung up on labels, and I liked that Will enjoyed his experience. It kind of reminded me of Kelly and Danny on Real World- Danny was gay, but they did have an attraction to each other, and explored that by making out. Finally...yay! We get to see how strict and not as taking-of-b.s. HW is! I've felt like so far they've been exceedingly lax on Will, with the amount of time they've let him take off to attend JJ's meets, so it's nice to see them in action.

Chapter 30 -When the gang has their making out contest. -When Will experiments with girl sex. -When Ryan and Will have sex, and Ryan completely shuts him out afterwards.

I don't know, I kind of thought both Robbie and Brad took some major character hits for their behavior during Millennium, and the cutesy little wedding scene didn't really make up for it.

This sounds like a Nifty story I would have read in 2002.

-In true CAP modus operandi, Will and whoever his partner is decide to have sex with Raine to create a baby somewhere in Will's mid/late 20's. I'm leaning more towards when Will is around 24, because Mark likes his characters having their first kids at young ages. No Schluter/Hayes/Crampton is allowed to wait until their 30's before procreation. (The notable exception being Ace.) Raine willingly obliges, as long as they promise to raise the baby with organic, free-range food and make regular donations to Amnesty International.

Yeah. I kinda figure myself a character continuity consultant.

From Chapter 44 of PMS: Before he could say anything, three really hot girls came up to our area. I knew two of them, Felicity and Mariah, but the third I’d never met. She was really cute, with hair the same color as Stef’s: a strawberry blond. Our eyes met and that embarrassed me, so I looked away. I felt my face warm up, and knew I was blushing. When I turned back to look at her again, she was standing right next to me. “I’m Raine,” she said. That was kind of a cool name.

Elle Fanning(Dakota's little sister) is TOTALLY how I'm picturing Raine... Blond and pretty, but in this warm ethereal kind of way, instead of the hot blond bombshell kind of way that Kristin would be. It helps that Elle Fanning is actually 14.

I think my favorite thing about high school overnight trips was seeing how much shit people got away with. I didn't know the kids who got away with bringing bud and the like, but I'm sure it happened. Kids always find a way. I remember one time I snuck out and hung out with some kids who were watching the stars- some people were cuddling and the like and I'm sure sex happened, but I wasn't in on any of that. I just had friends that were doing it. Yes. I really was JJ in high school. LOL. I'm kinda surprised JJ hasn't gone into a bitch fit about the reality of being out in the woods. You would think he'd be more soft than that, and moan about how his Luis Vuitton baggage has been ruined. (Not that I ever bitched when I've spent time in the great outdoors bemoaning the lack of amenities and like. No siree.) Brad and Robbie don't seem like the outdoors type, nor does it seem like they sent their kids to summer camp, so that was surprising. I kind of figured that Ryan's racist father was what happened with Shiloh and Ryan. I also kind of figured that we really weren't being set up for a "Will falls in love with his straight best friend" storyline, and I'm glad that got confirmed that's it more of a "buddies helping each other" kind of deal. I picture Raine as this free-spirit type, born in 1986 to hippie-type parents who run some kind of animal cruelty-free corporation and espoused on her the virtues of open relationships and letting her be her own person without getting caught up on labels. Which would be cool. I've had friends who had parents like that, and they were always kind of a trip. I love that this is happening with Raine being entirely in the know that Will speaks fag fluently, instead of being in the dark about that.

I wonder how many references would have to be changed for this to be a good guide to Stanford Circa 2000.... Towards the end, I seriously had trouble understand what they were saying until that one guy ended with "fro-yo." And of course, the bit about his super-chill quarter lined up. The tall lanky dark-haired guy with glasses was cute as fuck. Mark, I've gotten you to add in "chill", right? Some major early '00s slang that doesn't seem to have gone away.

Day 43, April 17th While working on Box 9, I came across three religious service books. It made me think about how important religion must have been to the soldiers who fought. It may not have been their personal beliefs, but they definitely had to consider religion as part of their daily lives. I wonder what it might have been like to have been an atheist in World War I- would one have even admitted to such a thing back then?