methodwriter85

It's generally frowned upon for people to do to their undergrad and post-grad work in the same place. You're supposed to get exposed to different ideas and the like. *waits for Private Tim to tell me how I am absolutely wrong on this one* I was thinking that Georgetown and Virginia were the safety back-ups. Yes, Wade probably doesn't have to worry, but this is Generation Y. The Baby Bust is over. Gen Xers like Tim benefited from less competition, but I knew people who got rejected from their second and third choice schools. And...I don't know- here's my feeling on this. If Wade really wants to do a power struggle for control of the family, he can't really do it from California if everyone else is in Virginia. And if Wade is serious about an eventual political career, it would seem dumb for him not to end up in D.C. at some point.

I was wondering when Wade was going to start talking about post-graduation plans. Someone like him would definitely be thinking about them at this point. I can buy Matt kind of going, "Woo-hoo! It's party time and I don't have to think about graduation until the spring of '02!", but Wade would already be signing up for his LSAT's, setting up internships, and reading through law school applications. I also like that Tiffany is in no way interested in the kind of arrangment that Robbie/Brad/Jeanine set up when it came to rearing Generation 4, or what JP/Jeff/Isidore(later Sam) came up when it came to raising Brad's generation. Tiffany definitely seems to have more of an independent streak than that.

It's kind of interesting though, that between two men who were Ivy League graduates, Brad and Robbie raised three sons who don't really seem all that Ivy-inclined. Darius just wanted to go wherever. Will is a strong student academically and obviously could go Ivy if he wanted to, but he doesn't seem like he's that interested. And then JJ doesn't seem like he's all that into school- I think he probably does just enough to get by. If JJ does wind up going to college, I think it would be with a school that has a well-known, extremely well-ranked figure skating club that has produced some well-known figure skating champions and would be relaxed about him only taking a class a semester because of school's said experience with figure skating champs. I mean, I know JJ and Will are only in 9th grade- but seriously, the Ivy-League gunning kids were displaying signs of being Ivy-League gunning in like 9th grade, if not earlier. Although I guess the answer lies in the scene where Darius talks to Brad about his college plans, and Brad pretty much didn't care where Darius went as long as Darius went. Which makes me wonder if JJ will be able to get away with saying he doesn't plan on going to college, or if he'd get pressured to go. I really think it could go either way with this family. I wonder how Claire and Jack are in terms of raising their kids- if it's just, "I don't care where you go to college as long as you get in" ala Brad, Robbie, and (maybe) Jeanine, or if they're very much into the whole "you must get into a 'name' school" deal. I think Claire would probably be pushier with her kids- not a helicopter-level, but I don't think she'd be as laidback with her kids as Brad and Robbie were with Darius. I'm assuming at some point, we'll start meeting kids who are under the gun by their parents to get into Ivy League. Especially considering the caliber of Harvard-Westlake. The whole "trophy kid" phenom, while not a new concept, definitely seemed to become pretty massive during this decade as college admissions got even more cutthroat. Tommy's recounting of kids who'd down Adderall like candy to get an edge definitely rang true to the A.P. kids I knew in high school.

I was really surprised that they don't have a business administration program. I thought all universities had one. Tiffany got kicked out figure skating at age 18 in 1994. The timeline I worked out for her is that she then left Michigan to go back to California and attend college, someplace that would have been nearby where JJ learned how to figure skate. Given what Wade said about Tiffany's background, I think her grandparents definitely would have encouraged her and supported her through college, and since Tiffany's pedigree was shot, she pretty much had to go through college to get into coaching. I'm thinking Tiffany started her degree in fall 1995, and finished in spring 1999, which would have made her a senior in college when she became JJ's unoffical coach. It would make sense that when it became obvious that JJ had Olympic-level potential, Tiffany knew that she had to send him over to El Segundo because she didn't have enough experience, and she's still blacklisted by the USFSA. Speaking of El Segundo, it'll be interesting when Evan Lysacek arrives in California for the '03 season. I can see JJ and Evan being good-natured rivals.

Have a happy birthday.

UCLA doesn't have a sports-related undergrad degree program? Seriously? A school that known for their basketball program doesn't have sports medicine, physical therapy, sports management, or any kind of related degree? Damn. I had Tiffany in my mind as a UCLA graduate who has a degree that would allow her to coach or become an agent, but I guess maybe she went to USC instead? Hmm.

1. Ireland 2. Italy 3. France 4. Japan 5. Australia

Day 23, February 28th I found the 1966 bibliography that had been written for the collection when it was housed at the old museum. It's a pretty great thing to have, in order to understand how this collection had been processed and cataloged before. Day 24, February 29th I continued working on Box 3. There was also a visit from someone who was a consulting, which I'm interested in doing as a career. It was neat to hear the advice from her. Day 25, March 2nd I finished work on Box 3, and began work on Box 2. Day 26, March 3rd Box 2 had a folder of items that were donated by Richard Watson's son in 1990. It had a picture of father and son standing outside of their home in 1941, as well as a picture of Richard Watson at his American legion ceremony in 1960. He was being commemorated for forty years of membership with the Indiana County American Legion. The folder included a letter from Richard Watson's son that included the context of the items. It was really nice to have that- it made understanding the photos much easier! Definitely rare for that to happen when it comes to collections. Today I also watched a tour being given. It was interesting to see how the tours can differ in terms of who the audience is. The person giving the tour did not mention the Vietnam War pictures, probably because this wasn't a veteran crowd, and because there was a little kid there. You need to read your audience in order to figure out how you're going to relate the items to the people there.

I finally figured out Cole. Robbie Amell from True Jackson, if he gained about 20 pounds and had darker hair. He's got the kind of round, cute, boy-next-door face that I picture Cole having.

I mean I could see it if Harvard-Westlake was a community school right by where they live, but my understanding of the school is that it's not really a neighborhood school, but a private school that attracts people from communities all around the Greater L.A. area. I don't know if I see JJ and Will being the type of people who come back to watch school sporting events, especially JJ. It's possible, especially if these guys have older siblings that would have been at the school in 2000-2004, but I'm leaning towards "no".

It might be possible, but they wouldn't have grown up with them. Will and JJ are the class of 2004, which means a present-day high school senior would have been in 4th grade when these guys are graduating from high school. If they've got older siblings, it may be possible- but 8 years is usually too much ahead for you to know people who still go there. Unless Will and JJ became coaches at the school, but I don't see that happening. Will's not into team sports, and JJ gives the vibe that as soon as he's done with high school he's never looking back.

I'm really OCD about ages, and I estimate that you would have been about 2 years from conception when Q was in college. I would have been a couple of months old when Q graduated. (I think Quonus graduated college in 1986, correct me if I'm wrong.)

I pretty much thought he was trying to pull an American Pie, too.

It's kind of interesting how, in a sense, Wade is a social better compared to the Crampton/Schluter family. They're rich and powerful, but they just don't have that kind of pedigree- more of just solid mid-Western affluent stock who gained a massive amount of wealth starting in the 1960's.

Yeah. That's pretty much a given that we'll be exploring Justin Timberlake's ghetto fab period from '02 to '07. (Unless Mark somehow skips over the early/mid-2000's, but I don't see that happening. Mark doesn't do multi-year time jumps anymore.) I remember Christina Aguilera also did the ghetto thing. It's kind of interesting though, that Pink started her career with that, but when everyone jumped on the hip-hop band wagon, she jumped right off. Her career kind of lagged through the mid-part of the decade, though, after the success of Mizunderstood. You really had to. I liked Linkin Park, New Found Glory, and the White Stripes, but it wasn't like you were going to be able to hear any non-hip/hop stuff at dances. How else were the high school kids going to be able to bump n grind? Frat parties in '05 were pretty much wall to wall hip-hop. (See the bit above about grinding.) I kind of learned to appreciate hip-hop when I got into rager mode. This song especially brings me back to fall '05 Alpha Phi Delta parties... By the late part of the decade other music started coming back in, but you really did have to make an effort. Which is why I think it's interesting to see how Mark's going to portray this- you've got Brad's 1980's generation, where it was actually cool to be a whitebread preppy and flaunt the fact that you were, and then you got Will's 2000's generation, where more than just a few rich white kids attempted to act black, listen to hip-hop, and have street cred. I do think it's funny hearing Will throw around terms like "homie" and "da bomb". It's accurate, but it's still funny.

I've been kind of hesitant to put the "hate crime" label on this as well- yes, it was a horrible and thoughtless prank, but to put this and what happened to Matthew Shepherd in the same category...doesn't quite work for me.

Damn, this was a sweet story. http://randyreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/pic-of-day-marine-homecoming.html The more you have people living their lives and being part of the mainstream, the harder it becomes to marginalize them. I'm glad I'm seeing this happening in my lifetime.

Right. They're still more indie than everything, but at least they're managing to do pretty well in Canada. I don't think they're going to be a flash in the pan. The very early '00s, I associate with the pop explosion, pop country acts, Latin stuff, hip-hop, and hip-hop rock like Limp Bizkit. Then '03-'06 hip-hop rises above anything else, while rock retreats into the Indie background. '07-08 the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana rise, then Lady Gaga explodes in '09.

I don't know, Adele and Foster the People have given me hope...2010-2011 actually had some great music.

In general, music did change after 9/11- I kind of think Pink and Avril Lavigne's '02 rise happened because people were sick of the pretty princess pop trend. Pop definitely seemed to take a hit for a few years after 9/11- I'm thinking that's the reason why hip-hop and crunk really galloped ahead of pop, especially during around '03-'07. Pop really didn't come back in until the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus hit in the late '00s. (You could count the Pussycat Dolls, but they seemed to have more of a hip/hop vibe to them.) Then there was also Alicia Keyes, who was fantastic on her first two albums, but after...meh.

Day 22, February 25th I continued working on Box 5. Today, there was a presentation given by someone who wrote a book called Native Womb, about his journey into learning about his biological family once he got adopted. He talked about his usage of Ancestry.com, which makes me think the usage of genealogy to help people learn about where they come from. That's what the Historical Society helps with a lot- we've had so many people come in wanting to learn about their family history. That's the cool thing about working here- we're preserving the continuity of family knowledge, or at least making it easier to develop a sense of a family narrative.

I was kind of being flippant with the Brad and Robbie remark, to match Mark's remark about leaving JJ in Bulgaria. I could see Will getting pissed off about JJ wanting to go off to Bulgaria instead of being around for his birthday, but then again, he might not. I figure at that point JJ would have been in his 3rd year of figure skating, and the family would be used to it.

Would Brad and Robbie even notice he was gone? I'm actually thinking that JJ would have decided to stay home instead of going out to Bulgaria, because it was close to the beginning of the school year and he'd want to have everything squared away with his 10th grade teachers before taking week-long absences. Plus, it is supposed to be Will's 15th birthday that week, which hits on a Friday, which(in Will's mind) would equal a really fun birthday weekend. And in any event, JJ probably would have figured it would have been better just to do his Junior Grand Prix event in Arizona because it's a hell of a lot closer than Bulgaria.

I know I already posted a Liam Hemsworth picture, but hot damn... Seriously, if that's what Zach is going to look like in his 20's, who the hell cares that he's a sociopath? LOL.

Day 20, February 22nd I finally finished Box 5. It came out to about 130-something items. Day 21, February 24th I started work on Box 3 of the collection. It holds a lot of correspondence that Richard Watson got while being in charge of Camp Hancock in Augusta, Georgia. Some were regarding people who were prisoners for being AWOL, or simply getting drunk and disorderly. One was about a boy who lied about being 18 years old to get into the army, and was therefore getting discharged. I also found a letter about a man who tried to prove that his son was disabled and therefore needed to be discharged, but the army medical board replied that they could not find anything physically wrong with the song. It was interesting- you wonder if the son really was lying, or if he wasn't, and the army was ignoring actual injuries so that they could provide more cannon fodder for the Western front.