methodwriter85

Because actually seeing the guy that Darius is helping makes it more real than Darius just saying, "I'm giving up my spot in Annapolis for some stranger I've never seen in my life." Darius has to be glad he's 18 and therefore able to get away with turning down the guards. JJ's sounds like a pain in the ass.

And a darn good lacrosse program.

Rags to riches? The only person in this story you could apply that to would be Gathan, and that's because he got a trust fund, not because he actually earned the money. There's also Robbie, but he was springboarded from a comfortably middle-class family. albeit with white trash roots. I guess you could say Frank, because he managed to do quite well from himself, but I wouldn't say he became rich- just married a rich woman. (Are they married?) I'm trying to think of a character who started with nothing and built an empire based on pure hard work without getting the magical Schluter/Crampton trust fund infusion, and I'm coming up blank. I think Father Tim might come close, although it's more of a "spiritual riches" deal. Maybe Lou as well? He's got to be doing well for himself if he's on the order of an Anderson Cooper news anchor. I want to count Isidore, but I can't because that construction company was a spin-off of the Crampton Construction company. And you really think America is going to recover from this economy? I'm already thinking about immigrating to Canada. LOL. The 90's really were the last decade of America's true dominence in the world.

Well, since we found out John Hobart is a lacrosse player, it seems reasonable enough to send John there. The East Coast is where the heartland for serious collegiate lacrosse is, with Maryland as its pulse. As you've said before, lacrosse takes the backseat to water polo in California, so why wouldn't John want to go to a college in an area where lacrosse is a first-rate sport and not just a club? Sports can usually be a big persuader in where people go to school. I love John being a lacrosse player. It'll add some personal reactions to the Duke University Lacrosse case when he's a freshman in college. I imagine him and his teammates dressing up as the Duke Lacrosse guys, with Claire hitting the roof when Marie tells her about the pictures on Facebook. I knew an entire lacrosse team that all dressed up like the Duke Lacrosse team for Halloween '06. That was the Halloween I debated dressing up like Steve Irwin, but decided against it.

Alright. You got me there. I guess I just meant that if you took out that circumstance. It's just...I don't know, Brad and Robbie come off as such permissive parents in nearly everything that it's not really the lack of punishment for the Italian trip that bothers me, just the lack of punishment and disclipline in general that bothers me. How they somehow lucked into three kids who don't take that permissive parenting and become out of control kids is kinda amazing to me. My life experience has been that the kids who are given that kind of freedom tend to have at least one nutty phase. I'm holding out hope that Claire and Jack aren't nearly as lax with their kids as Brad and Robbie have been with theirs. I need to think that, for some reason. I guess it's just...I had parents who didn't really parent. They let us do whatever we wanted to do, and all four of us went off the rails in different ways at different times. So maybe that's why it bothers me- I wish my parents had set boundaries for me as a little kid because a part of me blames that lack of strict disclipline as the reason why I had a really rough transition into my late teens/early 20's. It's weird. When CAP was focusing on Brad and Robbie coming of age, I didn't have such personal reactions to it. I think it's the fact that Will and JJ are my age that it's almost kinda getting me back into remembering myself as a 14-year old in 2000, and I'm reading so much personal stuff into it.

It's depressing, but I think it'll get tempered when I start using and "Candy Shop" as music recs. Nah, but seriously, there are a lot of parallels to Vietnam and Iraq, but the big difference is that we didn't have nearly as many casualties, and the all-volunteer army made it so that there was no huge anti-war movement among students. I did some protesting- it was always a few students and some Baby Boomers. That was about it. Honestly, my peers seemed more about Laguna Beach and updating their cell phones and Ipods than caring about what was going on Iraq. But god, just think about it. The Dot-Com Crash. George Bush stealing the election from Al Gore. 9/11. Aghanistan. The Beltway Sniper. The Iraq War. The London Metro bombings. The Asian Tsunami. Hurricane Katrina. Virginia Tech. The Great Recession. Sarah Palin. What a horrible, horribe decade.

I think we'd need to see a photo of your boyfriend before we could judge. Right now I've got him pictured as gothy wan type with long hair, white make-up, and black lipstick.

I would imagine that the way they have the school set up would retard most major bullying that seems so common at public high schools, and at the mean-spirited Catholic prep schools. I think just having kids who want to be there and are challenged tends to cut down on fights and the like. I went to a high school that was, for the most part, a pretty safe place for kids and we didn't have half of the rigor that HW seems to have. But it was a public high school you had to apply to get into, and if you fell out of line there were hundreds of kids waiting to take your spot, so we had basically what we called the "Annual Cab Calloway Fight" and that was about it. The small classes, the committment to social service, the peer mentoring program- it really does seem like kids who might not normally fit in would find a niche at a place like Harvard-Westlake, and would not be bullied. It'll be good for JJ to start over in a place where he wasn't the weird short kid everyone made fun of.

Tet, it's a shame that you were born in '92 and were therefore too young to experience MTV during it's better days. The grunge era for MTV was awesome. This video was just hilarious. In case you guys don't remember the mid-90's, this video was basically making fun of all the Mentos commercials that were airing at the time.

Still, given what we know about Claire, I think John would have definitely gotten a stronger punishment than, "Okay, you can't go to Italy for the rest of the summer." At least ground him for the weekend or something! Claire and Jack probably aren't strict displinarians, but I seriously doubt they're as relaxed as Brad and Robbie were. I don't think Darius would have gotten away with the slacking he did in high school if Claire had been his mother. Claire strikes me as someone who sets more boundaries with her kids than Brad and Robbie do with theirs. Or actually, Claire sets boundaries and Brad and Robbie don't. LOL. JJ could go through a religous phase after 9/11. A lot of people did that, including my two sisters. It lasted for two, three years. They were definitely influenced by their peers. And given that the skating world leans more towards the conservative side, I'd have a hard time believing that JJ wouldn't make some friends who were Good Christian Bitches. It'd add to the feeling of JJ not really fitting into his family, which has been a theme throughout his entire life.

I thought Logan said he was a swimmer in the first chapter?

Alright, you have a point. It just would be nice to have a contrast there, with Will as the lovelorn teenager and JJ as the guy who keeps it nice and casual because he's not the least bit interested in settling down. Especially since as a skater, JJ's not really able to hold any serious relationships down because of all the traveling and the need to look as if he's not having pre-marital sex. LOL. Most figure skaters wait until they're done with competing, it seems like. I'm just hoping that I don't have to write "JJ angsts about [insert love interest's name]" as much as I have to do that for Brad and Will for the music recs. LOL. You are right that JJ's not that controlled emotionally, but I think that would be the reason why JJ would avoid getting seriously attached to anyone, because he knows what he gets like when he cares about someone. I guess I was thinking about this because I was reading about Chris Colfer, the actor from Glee, and he's apparently very driven on his career and not really thinking that much about romance because that can wait while his career needs to happen now. I like that a lot. And actors and skaters are similiar in the sense that there's a short window of opportunity to strike it big, so I think they'd hold similiar viewpoints about settling down and relationships.

It'd be purely a P.R. move. He definitely wouldn't say anything about being raised by an Atheist. Maybe he'll just wear a cross and pretend, like Daisy said. I like the idea of JJ being pushed by his handlers into talking on Good Morning America about how Christian faith got him through his hard life as an orphan. Cue Brad crushing his coffee mug in anger. LOL It'd be interesting. I think JJ's in better control of his emotions than Will is because he mainly keeps to superficial aquaintances and avoids emotional attachments. JJ's also not a hopeless romantic like Will is. JJ knows he's got a limited time to compete, therefore worrying about romantic entanglements would be a waste of time. He'd know that intellectually, but of course it would be funny to see him lose his head over someone at the same time knowing that he's not supposed to have a serious relationship while he's still competing.

True. I've talked to my friend Mason. He lost a pinkie in Iraq, but most of all he just lost that happy twinkle in his eyes that he had when I knew him in high school, and he's apparently battling a drinking problem. It's just weird reading CAP now. It's the start of the 2000's, and these people really have no clue how horrible the proceeding decade is going to be.

ESPECIALLY when Mark added in Gathan and a new generation of Hayes boys. It's in their blood. One of them, if not more, is going to want to fight in Aghanistan after 9/11 happens. There were a lot of guys who signed up for the military after 9/11 hit, including Pat Tillman, an NFL player who wound up getting killed by friendly fire which the miltiary covered up for years.

There's always that. It'd be funny if Robbie and Brad's reaction was, "Good. JJ was a major bitch, anyway. I'm just glad it wasn't Darius or Will. Let's go off to IHop and celebrate." In all seriousness, I think the other big difference is that I can't see JJ as a guy who gets that busted up over relationships, when he starts dating. First and foremost is his career, then school, then dating if there's time left over. He won't be the way Will is about dating, getting serious and emotionally attached almost instantly the way Will does. There's just no reason to even try, given the amount of traveling he's supposed to do. I think he'd be more apt to approach things in a very discreet "friends with benefits" deal.

Will is lucky that Brad is his father. If John even remotely pulled a stunt like that, Claire would have grounded him for six months. Yeah, I don't see rebellion in JJ's future until his early 20's, when he's out of the house and doing the Olympic circuit in Europe. His life is going to revolve around school, practice, school, practice, and volunteer work, so when exactly would he have time to do much in terms of partying or rebelling anyway? It might be good for JJ to join a church youth group for P.R. purposes.

No you wouldn't write crap like that, because otherwise your writing team would bitch at you until it got changed to something that didn't go beyond believeability.

Mark's editors have done research on camera cell phones; that's why they're not in the story and won't be until CAP world hits 2002; 2003. They hit the market in '02; hit the mainstream market in 2003- I remember the fall of my 11th grade year(Will and JJ's 12th grade year)- everyone suddenly had camera cell phones. I do remember distinctly Everwood being the first time I had seen camera cell phones in action. And of course, a year later, Veronica Mars would have a plot that featured very heavily on cell phone cameras and videos. Nano Ipods, the brightly colored ones that were much smaller than the orginal ones, also hit the mainstream teen at about the same time, if not a year later. The big innovation right now, which Mark showcased, was the flash drive. Coming up very soon are the IPods. MP3's are already common at at this point- I remember my sister used to burn me CD's off of Napster in 2000. Jack will be probably be the first one to have an IPod- Ipods were the toys of the middle-aged techies who liked their music before they got to the teenagers.

So Kristin's parents esentially prostituted their daughter. Nice. I think Darius is going to take Will to his first rave. I always wish I had gone to one- they were the coolest things circa 2000-2002.

I actually have to agree with you on that one, Tim. It's not very likely, especially considering how dark the clubs are.

Chapter 31 -When Kristin realizes she's essentially been prostituted by her parents. "What It Feels Like For A Girl" by Madonna -When Brad and Will go surfing, and then talk.

Maybe Marie can be the rebellious one? Claire would throw an absolute fit if Marie got gauged ears, even if Marie was of age. I do like that we're getting hints she's more on the nerd side than a mini-fashionista like Claire, such as her love for Harry Potter. That will make Robbie millions. We already had Claire; the lack of a "Claire" for this generation feels reflective of both the fact that looking preppy isn't cool to these guys, and it gives this gen an entirely different feel. Which is a good thing. I grew up around skater kids and punk kids so gauged ears were pretty common around me. I guess part of me still thinks the look is hot, like leather cuff bracelets and wifebeaters.

In celebration of MTV's 30th Birthday, I thought I'd post this cool 10-minute block from the launch of MTV in 1981! MTV First Day Launch God, remember when MTV actually used to *play* videos? I started watching MTV in 1989-ish, and during the early '90's to mid-90's you'd see a ton of videos, from 120 Minutes to Buzz to Yo MTV Raps. Not to mention Unplugged. Remember when MTV VJ's seemed like the coolest people ever? I feel sorry for the kids today, who only know MTV in its current 16 and Pregnant form. So I thought I'd start a request for two videos...a song from 1981, and your favorite MTV video ever. I'll start...here's a tune from 1981 I really like a lot. And this remains my favorite MTV video: So simple, yet so effective and epic.