methodwriter85

-Harvard-Westlake has an 80's Dance, and Will enlists Claire's help, who dresses him in Brad's old early 80's prepster style. Come on Mark, you gotta admit, that would be HILARIOUS. Will would probably feel uncomfortable in the short-shorts that early 80's guys wore. And 80's theme dances/parties were pretty popular for this decade.

Yeah, JJ feels really familiar to me, for some reason.

It'll be interesting to see how Riley grows up. He has Wade the ultimate blue-blood as his dad, Matt the loveable stoner as his step-dad, and Tiffany the ball-buster as his mother. I'm thinking Tiffany and Matt will make sure Riley doesn't end up some uptight little blue blood.

Trust me, you don't want to know. Wade in this chapter convinced me he's going to be a pretty good dad, which makes sense. I think he'd be determined to be a much better parent than his parents were. Then there's Matt determined that Riley won't end up a nerd. Now you got me wondering what Riley would be like at 11...lol. I'm really hoping that Matt,Wade, and Tiffany as parents won't be as self-indulgent as Brad, Robbie, and Jeanine were. I get the feeling that Tiffany would be determined to keep Riley grounded and not turn into a spoiled brat, which both Will and JJ can turn into at times. Both Will and JJ don't really seem to understand the word "no." I'm hoping that Riley's going to be better than that. The bit where Tiffany says she's got one baby to worry about...she's definitely not seeing Maddy as hers, is she? Interesting.

I felt like doing a retro music chapter. Plus, That 70's Show was up and running, so kids growing up in the 2000's wouldn't be totally unfamiliar with 70's music. 70's nostalgia was on the wane at this point, with 80's nostalgia starting to come in, but it was definitely around. Ah, That 70's Show...

Day 10- February 2nd I found a letter from the War Department of the United States, dating from 1917 or 1918, which gave a list of desirable books for which to start a camp library. That would explain so much about why George Watson had so many different books, and often in duplicate. I also found a manual on physical training. It was interesting to see what the physical training standards were for the army in the 1910's- it seemed to be mostly focused on calistenics, swimming, and gymnastics. No real mention of running, or weight-lifting. I had some friends who did PT, and man it seemed completely different from what this manual described. Day 11- February 3rd Today we had two people come in that renewed their memberships at the historical society. One bought two maps, which was nice. Another guy came out all the way from California to renew his membership, which was cool. I really like that I get to interact more with the public here. There's something gratifying in knowing that you're helping people with their quest to learn more about their personal history. Day 12- February 4th One of the volunteers, who is an Vietnam War veteran, gave a tour to another Vietnam War vet and his wife. We looked at the second floor displays dedicated to war veterans, and there was strong emotional feel that came off of both men when it came to talking about people who didn't come back from the various wars. It reminded me of the responsibility that you have as a historian- you can tell a story, but you have to treat lightly on certain subjects. There was a part of the tour where the guide opened up a book to show pictures from the Vietnam War, and when they got to pictures of dead soldiers both the guide and the other Vietnam War Vet quickly skipped over that part. With World War II vets quickly dying off, Vietnam War Vets will(if they don't already) compose the greatest bulk of the American vet population. I'm wondering if that means that there will be an increase in attempts to exhibit the Vietnam War history in the coming decades, especially when Baby Boomers start hitting their 70's and 80's.

Chapter 16 -When Matt gets all paternal with Riley. -When Wade and Brad talk about Will. -When Wade blacks Carl into leaving the team and Stanford University.

That's pretty cool. You know, you got just a little harsh there, man. It's cool though. *bumps fist* LOL. Back to tunes.... 38. "Paint the Silence" by South, 2001 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BwKJEWMqfQ 39. "If You Leave" by Nada Surf, 2004 God, the O.C. had such great music. Major influence on me. The Nada Surf version of "If You Leave" just might be as good if not better than the original. I tried growing out my hair so I could get it to look like Adam Brody's. *hangs head in shame* LOL.

OMFG, I'm so excited!!!! A HW promo video from 2000! Some lessons from this: -Will and JJ seriously need more Asian friends -Spaghetti strap tank tops and capri pants on girls -Will should be in a drawing class; I think JJ would join up with drama -Cargo pants and ringer t-shirts on guys. And don't forget the chokers. Man, I am so stoked.

Well, you grew up in a small town where country was popular, right? That would make sense.

The Phillies win the 2012 World Series! Woo!!!

Mark is forcing me to review early/mid-2000's slang. I need to start using "chill" and "beast" more again. For reals.

His ass isn't much, though. The Mannings both have some great badonkadonks. I love me a nice badonkadonk.

Well, not the Stone Temple Pilots, but I agree about that. Blurry is a great song. Modern rock definitely took a backseat to hip/hop and R&B for the 2000's. I checked- on the Billboard Top 100- in 2003, there was only one non-hip-hop Number 1 single. And that single would be Clay Aiken. So yeah. 2004 had no non-hip-hop/R&B singles at 1. The hip-hop explosion at the time is probably why the teachers at my prom had to force in some non-hip/hop songs into the playlist. Seriously, you go to a school dance at this era and you will hear nothing but hip/hop. And the dancing will consist of the girl shaking her ass in a guy's crotch, or two girls doing that with each other. That would be called "grinding" or "freak dancing." 36. "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, 2003 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ0-JA6K0Dw Everywhere in '03. EVERYWHERE. I'm picturing 16-year old Will and his friends, riding to the beach in their fully tricked out SUV's, blasting 50 Cent. 37. "Hot In Here" by Nelly, 2002 Like, seriously. Is it even a question there's going to be a scene in '03-ish that would fit "Hot In Here"? The only person in that family I can't see that song being appropriate to would be JJ, and it's doubtful he'll get a lead story before around '06 or so.

Day 7 January 27th I finished sorting through Box 8. Now I'm working on Box 10. Day 8 January 31st Going through Box 10, I found a manual for young officers. It was from 1907. I know that George Watson was born in 1881, which means he would have been about 26 years old when he got that manual, and presumably became an officer in the army. It was interesting to think about that- I'm 26 years old, and I just can't even imagine what it would be like to have that kind of responsibility at my age. As part of the advice for the new officers, I found two quotes I thought were interesting: "DON'T, if you are well off, perpetually boast about the largeness of your purchases. Nothing is more offensively vulgar than telling people "what you gave" for this or that, and the chances are that you are only advertising your own folly or guillibility." "DON'T set undervalue on pedigree or family connections. NOBLESSE OBLIGE should be your patrician motto. Remember Lord St. Leonards' answer to the snob who reminded him that his father was a barber. "Had your father been a barber," was the rejoinder, "you would have been a barber too." There is no need to declare yourself a born gentlemen, if you behave as such." I wonder if that means that officers at this time in history were often from well-off, rich families. Nowadays, people don't really associate the social elite with the army, so it's interesting to consider that at one point this was a popular career path for American blue bloods. Day 9- February 1st I continued working on Box 10. While there, I had a conversation with Colleen Camp, and the other intern, Amanda Peters, about historic preservation. The Clark House, which is where part of the historical society is located, has been under the threat of demolition quite often. It made me think of my own experience of being from suburban Delaware, where historic preservation for everything not belonging to the du Ponts is an uphill battle. Newark, Delaware constantly tears down older buildings to make way for the new, or they "preserve" buildings by gutting the interior and leaving only the facade. It's one thing I really like about Indiana, PA- you can see all these older buildings.

35. "Get Busy" by Sean Paul, 2003 Seriously, how does this song not make you wanna get up and dance? What a tune. I'm the class of 2005, not '04, but god, I gotta say this is really good practice for when I help plan my 10th year reunion in 2015.

Hey, Mark, I found this Youtube video of footage from the Windows on the World restuarant shot on September 9th, 2001. Pretty incredible. God, that view just must have been incredible. I've been in a similiar kind of restuarant in NYC, but of course it wasn't that high up. I think it was the Marriot Marquis, which is only 49 floors high. The mention of the MJ special and the MTV Music Awards made me think about people who were saying just how much fun was going on that weekend in NYC, with the weather being "last days of summer perfect" and so much going on.

Well, you gotta remember, Mark, the 2000's were to me what the mid-70's to mid-80's were for you-i.e. teen years and the first half of twentysomething. So this decade profoundly shaped how I view the world. You gave me four contemporaries in this story, so it'll be interesting to see how the events of this decade shape them. Plus, since you're obviously planning on doing more than two or three stories for this decade, you'll need to mine the source material a little more than you had to when it was just two stories a decade. Luckily, with the exception of years like 2002/2007, a LOT of stuff happened in the 2000's. Good point. I was thinking Tony was going to get married young and get a girl pregnant as a way of proving to himself that he's not gay. Joining the military after college would work just as well. Maybe he and Darius join together in '04 a year into the Iraq War? Tony definitely wouldn't be the first guy to join the military to prove he's straight.

My question is...Nick Zano...wouldja?

-Stefan recoils in horror the first time he sees an emo boy, and immediately offers a total makeover. Ditto for hipsters. -Will travels the world after he graduates from college, and runs a v-log where he documents all of the different coastal reefs throughout the world. (That would actually be really cool.) -John Hobart and his friends dress up as the Duke Lacrosse team for Halloween '06. When Claire gets wind of the Facebook photos, she rips John a new one. (The lacrosse team at my college seriously dressed up as the Duke Lacrosse team. It was hilarious and awful at the same time.) -Tony gets married when he's 22 to a woman, has three kids by 2012, and frequent "fishing trips" with his buddy John from work. -Courtney gets into the Twilight Craze, prompting Robbie to invest in the movie adaption in 2008. I'm thinking Courtney will be Team Jacob. -Will gets hit on by Daniel Radcliffe at some Harry Potter premiere party -JJ sets up a twitter account to document his attempts to break into acting after his figure skating career stalls. -Ryan and Will enjoy watching episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy together. LOL.

Will's hook-up with Tony in chapter 15 of Paternity: "Electric Feel" by MGMT When JP reads Jeff's suicide note in 1968: "Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots

I'm assuming JJ won't see parties until he's about 18 or so. It'll be funny to see him get "corrupted". The kids who wait until they're in college to go crazy always tend to over-do it. Meanwhile, by the time Will actually hits college, I'm guessing he'll be over ragers. He'll be more of a, "let's throw a low-key bonfire party with a few intimate friends and get drunk while someone plays the guitar" kind of party guy, while I'm seeing JJ as a New York City club kid once he's past caring about looking pristine. Will's going to be all, "been there, done that" at 21, while JJ's going to trying hard to make up for lost time. Kinda like my friend Stoner Stever. He was so over college parties by junior year, and meanwhile I was doing everything I could to keep up that 19-year old college freshmen excitement about parties. Over in the Reviews, Mark wrote: Are you saying you and your Generation Jones co-horts (i.e. The Kevin Arnold "Dazed and Confused" generation) didn't expect your parents to be consistent in how they parented? Really? I thought that would be a classic expectation, not a generational one.

The fight was pretty great. Will's bit about being perfect made me think about JJ. JJ's entire life revolves around being the perfect little figure skater. Bitchy diva or not, he still pretty much follows all the rules and stays away from even the slightest bit of rebellion. As such, would Brad or Robbie even really pay attention to him? Why would you need to pay that much attention to a kid who pretty much always follows the rules and doesn't do anything that you'd need to get bothered about? I've never seen a scene where Robbie even interacted with JJ, and the one and only time Brad actually interacted one-on-one with JJ was back in December 1999 in Millenium. That'd be almost a year ago in CAP time. Jeanine's out of commission, Tiffany's gone, and JJ can only really be around Matt so often. The kid pretty much doesn't have any kind of support system. I am so glad that Brad and Robbie are finally getting shit from their kids now that the dust's settled after the events of Millenum. They so deserve it.

You can't act all Mr. Buddy Dad and be lax on your kid, and suddenly try to act like the disclpinarian when the kid's already 14. Children call bullshit like that immediately. Anyway, it's weird. I really like Will in this story. I think it's that he's more like a 9th grade kid here than a 20-year old guy in a 14-year old body. The bit where they sneak into the party really reminded me of when I would hang out with college kids in 10th grade, and how mature and awesome I felt because I had. And later on, when I was in college, how much we laughed when we saw obviously high school kids sneaking into parties.

Chapter 15 -When Ryan and Will hit up a sorority house party. -When Will and Tony sneak out to have sex. -When Ryan tries to game a college chick and gets cockblocked by Carl.