methodwriter85

So, I make a joke about how I'm used to Black and Mild cigars as opposed to the chocolate cigars they were handing out to celebrate Sister 2's twins arriving, and now Sister 1 and Sister 3 are convinced I'm a cigar smoker who secretly goes out to get my fix. They really do want to believe I'm just some liar who hides what he does from everyone and is into all kinds of crazy shit. I absolutely lost it in front of my mother. God, they piss me off. It of course makes sense that the first time in a long while that I've gotten this pissed off, it'd have something to do with Sister 3. God, what a bitch. I need to just ignore it, but god. I make a 4.0 this semester and I land an internship, but because I don't have a paying job that makes me some kind of cigar-addicted leech. I am so sick of the way my sister treats me. Of the three sisters, I can only really get along with the one who just had twins, but since she's pretty much occupied...there's not much support I'm getting. Starting the internship and getting out of the house will be nice. Really nice. God, I'm going to need it to get through this summer.

Yeah, but you aren't an idiot, Matthew. So, in Millennium we had had callbacks to Be Rad. Now we're getting callbacks to Man in Motion. Does this mean that in the 9/11 story Bruno and Marcel will show up again? LOL. Mark does seem to be going with this theme of how this current generation is having to deal with the mistakes of Brad's generation. I'm not sure how I feel about the direction Will's being taken in. On one hand, it'll cause him a lot of broody angst, which should hopefully turn him into some sexy broody skater punk boy and get him away from the boring Abercrombie and Fitch clones. On the other hand, I really kinda liked how there was a juxtaposition between Gathan, the guy with serious issues, and Will, the boy with cute 9th grade angst about boyfriends and parents. We were getting the "dark" story with Gathan, and the fluffy story with Will. Now Will's going to have to go all dark on us. Which means it might take longer for Mark to get into Gathan's issues, of which there have to be plenty. When has the story ever NOT been a crazy gay soap? If I recall correctly, in the very first story, we had a professor who was practicing S&M on his students, JP discovering he and his mother shared the same lover who died in Vietnam, JP discovering he's a bastard, a soldier who kills himself after losing his penis, and a threesome that resulted in twins by two different fathers. I think the only really tame story we had was A Summer Love, and even that included Marcel stripping on the dance floor as he tripped on X.

Chapter 18 -When Jerry Kohl, Neil's lover from Man In Motion, reveals himself to be the kidnapper. "Remember Me" by Eminem http://www.youtube.c...feature=related *Warning: This song is extremely explicit. -When Dr. Cambronne reveals his plans. " Bad Meets Evil" by Eminem http://www.youtube.c...h?v=tiWcGMejad0 -When Will enjoys some statutory rape. "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest It's been nice looking up all these old Eminem songs, that aren't really remembered as much. I hope there's a place for "Guilty Conscience" at some point. I loved that song. 2000 was pretty much Eminem, Moby, David Grey, the boybands, Limp Bizkit, and Korn. Linkin Park is more 2001 for me, although I'll probably start using their stuff soon.

Well, that's one way to lose your virginity. Not that I can really judge, considering how I lost mine.

Mark and I FINALLY agreed on what JJ looks like. It took me years to find the right character model. He'll look like Lucas Till from the XMen movie coming out: JJ really must be a total bitch if he's that cute yet no one at school likes him. LOL.

Lucas Till for JJ?

Wow, Tet. I would love to see you tell Adam Phillips that soccer is a weakling sport. I triple-dog-dare you.

Sweet stories. It was Alumni Weekend over at my alma matter. I didn't go to any of the official events, because I graduated in '10 so it's not really my time to do the nostalgic reunions yet. This is probably my favorite song, in terms of being nostalgic and thinking about the past. Here's to the class of 1986! Twenty-five years, can you guys believe it?

Hey, I was reading about USC being stripped of their 2004 national title. Mark, is there anyway you could have Zach going to USC? He graduates in 2003, so he'd be a sophomore for the 2004-2005 school year. It's not impossible that he'd start for sophomore year. It would be something you've never really done before, focusing on the dynamics of a college football team that was doing some highly illegal stuff. And with a delightfully amoral character at the helm. Think about all the fun you'd have writing about all the excess and abuses of power.

Why you wanna ruin good things, Tim?

Chapter 17 -When Will mopes internally with his revelation about John. "Emo" by Blink 182 Blink 182....the soundtrack for any angst-filled teenaged boy in the late '90s/early '00s. LOL. -When Darius and Gathan talk about their respective girlfriends. -When Brad talks to Will about Billy, and Will starts to really get how much emotional baggage his dad has. "Bent" by Matchbox Twenty

21. Obsession - Animotion, 1985 I heard this in Adventureland, and I gotta admit I'm really feeling it. This song paired with the video hits so many 80's cliches that it nearly borders on self-parody. Do you have any stories about dancing to this song at the disco while coked out of your mind, Mark? 22. Rock Me Amadeus- Falco, 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yCR_WYxyoU 23. Bastards of Young - The Replacements, 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jA-W1p3Pp4 24. Your Love - Outfield, 1985 25. Live To Tell - Madonna, 1986 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vmX-p8IFSA Prolly one of my favorite songs by Madonna. I would have used this for the scene in Man Motion where Brad and Bitty talk about who the father of JJ is, but that scene was set in '85 instead of '86 so I couldn't. Damnit. LOL. I've run into that problem so many times.

Still, the point is that the fights are a huge part of the sport, just as much as wrecks are a part of Nascar.

You're going to make him as effed up as his dad, aren't you? LOL. Thank god JJ gets to stay a happy, well-adjusted kid, since you're apparently going to heap the drama on Will. Being a secondary character has it's advantages. Namely that you don't bear the brunt of the misery. LOL. Especially not the protagonist of On The Mark. God, what a whiny nerd.

I don't think hockey would be nearly as fun without the fighting. Football is so structured; I like that hockey is still so rogue.

Yeah. Well, just remember that John Hobart's eyes are blue/green, so he can go both ways. Not sure what Marie looks like- Mark's never really specified anything about her looks. It'd be cool if she actually looked more like Jack.

Yeah, I don't really think Will's going to paraylyzed from all the emotional pain. He'll feel crummy a few days, and then move on. Mainly because the heartbreak were from relationships that weren't as deep as he thought they were. When you're fourteen, it's generally easy to bounce back from heartback. It's not like he and John were married with kids or anything like that. And it isn't even really a break-up...it's just Will realizing that they're not lifetime partners, but best friends who get to have sex with each other. Which is pretty cool.

They could be, but they could also be blue. I do know that Jack's eyes were supposed to be hazel, which means they can look different depending on the time of day and what light he's in. Here's some trivia for you- Jack and Claire produced a son with blue/green eyes. So we don't have to choose- they'll look different no matter what. It's possible that Claire's eyes are green but can appear blue.

I generally shriek and run away from anything that has to do with math. When I had my last-ever math class and passed it with a C, I was filled with a sense of joyful gaiety for days. As for the actual issue...I'm thinking that in the end, it doesn't really matter what they are, because this is a generation of guys for whom sexual labels start to mean a lot less. If Darius does wind up fighting in Iraq, I'm sure he'll have a buddy that he gets extra close to.

I finally figured out Claire....Amanda Seyfried from Mama Mia. Can't you just picture her as the woman who's cute doll face and short, curvy body hides a steely determination to get things done while using her feminine wiles in an extremely awesome way? She even has the green eyes and the well-endowed chest that Claire is supposed to have.

Now that the gang is in Paris again, I decided to re-read MiM. Here are my thoughts: 1. It's funny how Jeanine and Brad were supposed to have had this "connection" that made them close enough friends that they had sex, but it all kinda turned out that Jeanine had more in common with Robbie. 2. I had this thought that it feels like Mark is re-creating the Brad/Jack friendship with Will and John, only in this case they can have sex with each other. 3. The acrimony between Jim's branch of the family and JP's branch of the family was set up pretty well...you can buy why the two sides are bitter with each other. 4. Reading about Will's birth is funny because he's now this horny, sexually active 13-year old in the story. 5. We know next to nothing about Marie Hobart, except that she likes Harry Potter and she was born on April 18th, 1986. LOL. I'm hoping she's the complete opposite of Claire in terms of being some bohemian type who dresses like the Olsen twins circa 2005 and preaches about sustainability and saving the rainforest. That would be more funny than if she were the fashion plate we would expect Claire's daughter to be. Although, to be fair, the boho look IS in for the mid-part of the 2000's. I'm just not sure Claire will like it. 6. I think JJ's bitchiness in part comes from being Jim's son. They both have that diva, over-inflated sense of importance going on. Some personality traits are just inherited. Imagine what JJ would have been like had he actually been raised as a Crampton. Ugh. 7. Speaking of JJ, it is interesting that Jeanine is the closest to him and estranged from her actual biological child. But it's actually set up here in the story- JJ was a preemie, and back in 1985 it wasn't so likely that he'd be fine. In the hospital scene with Brad, you can feel that Jeanine took it on herself to protect JJ at any cost, because he needed it more than the average baby did. And that's carried through all the way to his teenage years, and explains why JJ can get away with murder with Jeanine while Darius and Will can't. 8. The end scene makes me think about Jeanine's impending second biological child, due sometime around August or September 2000. Brad got to choose the name of the first one and Jeanine kinda just went with it. There's going to be something very cool, though, about how Jeanine really gets to pick the name of this second child, the one she's raising with her partner. Like Jeanine's officially liberated from being Brad's glorified nanny, and gets to finally experience raising a child(well two kids) in an equal partnernship. I just took a course where I had to learn about women's history and conducted some oral history on women's studies, so Jeanine's story as a lesbian who put aside her own desires for a relationship in order to be a stay-at-home mom is pretty interesting for me.

Will's birth. Man. Kinda funny to be reading this since he's now a very horny, sexually active 13-year old in the story. Kid definitely grew up fast. LOL. It really was such a perfect ending to the story.

It's funny reading this stuff and knowing how things wind up 15 years later for this family. Brad and Jeanine do not keep that loving friendship they were supposed to have had, and she turned out to have bonded more with Robbie. And the acrimony between Jim's side of the family and JP's side of the family is set up pretty nicely. Finally...heh...JP obviously did not wash his hands of Claremont. I think the Box made sure that JP would always care.

It really was awesome that you waited for five stories(and 14 years) before Brad confronted Jim about JJ. That was a wonderful case of delayed gratification. It will be an interesting character arc for JJ to deal with the truth of his paternity when his time for a story comes.

Cam-to-cam chats were defnitely around earlier than 2004; I knew kids who were using cams circa 2000-2001. What changed in 2004 was that people could send photos of themselves using camera phones- 2003/2004 was when camera phones really took off. Right now, the big innovation they're just on the cusp of would be the IPod, which hits in 2001. Jack seems like he'd be the first one to get it- initially, IPods were the playthings of tech-savvy thirtysomethings. They made their way down to the average teenager when the IPod Nano hit in 2003.