methodwriter85

Mark, the rule is that the LEAD protagonist can't be an addict. Jeff doesn't count because he was never a lead protagonist. It's just surprising that after following three genectic Hayes boys, the very strong alcoholic trait hasn't shown up in any of them. You're right about it being crap- I have a friend who was a pothead, and could experiment with coke, Special K, oxy, and other stuff and he never had a problem. Drug addiction is pretty widespread, though. The best Gen 4 candidate I think to explore that with would be JJ- his personality just doesn't gibe with being a mellow pothead, and he's in a high-stakes environment where I could see him using drugs(behind tightly locked doors) to deal with it. At the very least I can see JJ experimenting with speed to stay up so he can practice longer hours. I could also see him really getting Oxy to deal with physical pain, and his vainglorious personality would really gibe well with cocaine.

Damn, that was hilarious, Blue. I don't hate public schools- I just hate traditional public schools. I went to a public school that was a performing arts magnet school. I'm a proponent of turning the public school system into magnet schools and charter schools. See, I come from an area where you have to think long and hard about where you're going to high school, and the high school application process is like a preview of the next level. It's pretty insane- do you choice into a school in a better school district, do you audition for the magnet schools, do you try to test into the charter schools, do you go private? Private schools are big in DE. Off the top of my head, New Castle County in Delaware has Sallies, St. E's, St. Mark's, Ursuline, Tatnall(Joe Biden's school!), Tower Hill, Sanford, Red Lion, Wilmington Christian, Wilmington Friends, and Caravel Academy. In terms of magnet schools, we have Cab Calloway(my school!), and Concord Math and Science School. And then there's the Charter School of Wilmington, which is considered the top public school in Delaware. And of course, it's also a charter school and not a traditional. My neice is in 10th grade at Charter. It's been interesting seeing how things are different. Tim, I still think when Brad and Robbie were deciding, they saw that the only private elementary school in Malibu was Our Lady of Malibu, and there was no way in hell Brad was going to send his kid to Catholic school. It didn't make sense to send some little kids out on long commutes just so they could attend private primary schools, and the public schools in Malibu were good. Considering that the Crampton/Schluter family has had a long-standing tradition of having their kids go to public school, it just made sense that Brad and Robbie continued it, especially considering the caliber of Malibu High. And I think Brad in general doesn't have a favorable view of private schools, which I'm thinking got passed on to Will, re: his comments about Harvard-Westlake. Will living with Claire would be hilarious. I think Will would have the picture of himself being able to do whatever he wants after school, and getting to sneak into John's bed every night to have sex and smoke pot. I think that the reality is going to be completely different. It'd be great if it turned out that Claire and Jack like to make their kids do chores, which I've heard some rich parents do with their kids to teach them disclipline.

Mark, I'm not being a smart-ass. When have I ever been a smart-ass? You know what a sweet, modest, humble man I am. I'm just pointing out some beloved tropes of this well-loved online soap opera saga. There's no need to defend them, Mark. Fourteen's debatable. Everyone smokes pot, but the only ones for whom it is a regular habit seems to be JP, Brad, Matt, and maybe Darius. But that reminds me... 15. Despite all the drug and alcohol experimentation, no lead protagonist becomes an addict. You could argue this with Marcel having an o.d. in If It Fits, but it didn't come off as being a habit, more of just a really bad dosage. It's kinda surprising that none of the Hayes lead protagonists(Marcel, Matt, and Gathan) have any kind of addiction, considering that alcholism runs in the family, and Jeff was an heroin addict. It WOULD actually be interesting to follow a protagonist who's addicted to something. I think JJ being addicted to painkillers after a skating accident in the Olympics would make a great '06 story.

10. People must cheat on their significant others. There is never total fidelity. (Another well-loved soap opera trope.) Even Jack cheated on Claire when they were in high school, right? 11. This is a contradiction of another soap opera trope- when people die, they don't come back. Aaron Hayes is the only person that's bent this rule. Too bad it couldn't have been Jeff.

Alright, so I saw Scream 4 today. It was decent- I liked it. And so it got me to thinking...the Scream franchise makes fun of all the horror movie conventions. What if we applied the "rules of horror movies" to the CAP Saga? After 11 stories, there are certain rules and conventions that Mark's written into the saga, like any other author who's written a continuing serial. Here's what I see as the "rules" of CAP: 1. Every teenage/early twentysomething protagonist must have sex with someone significantly older than them, at least ten years older. Preferably, it should be with a middle-aged guy. 2. Conversely, if you are a middle-aged protagonist, you must have sex with someone significantly younger than you, preferably a teenager but a 25-year old will do. 3. Every protagonist must fall in love with a Hayes boy, if they are not a Hayes themself. Or they at least have to have sex with a Hayes boy. 4. Whenever Stefan or Claire encounters a poor/middle-class person, they must give them a makeover. They never encounter anyone who's into the thrift-store look or the punk look and would therefore shudder at the clothes in Nordstrom or Bloomingdales. 5. The Schluters/Cramptons always make great finanical decisions- like investing in Alameda County real estate in the 1970's or getting out of the tech market just before the bubble burst in 2000. There will never be a serious financial set-back for them, or any kind of financial blunder. I bet they'll get out of real estate in 2006 or 2007. You could argue against this by mentioning Robbie's movie failures...but then...he's a Hayes so this rule doesn't really apply to him. 6. Long-lost relatives pop up out of nowhere. (I love how Mark uses such a well-loved soap opera convention.) 7. To get the normally-gay characters to procreate, there's a moment where the gay guy is just so overcome with desire for a woman they have sex, and she winds up pregnant. The other way is that the gay couple have a threesome with a woman. No one uses IVF, adoption, or anything like that. The latter part of this convention is used the most. 8. Every story, the family takes in some abused or neglected youth to practice some noblesse oblige on them. The only one I don't think did that would be Marcel. Any other CAP saga rules I'm missing here?

It's funny how we all call Will fourteen even though his birthday is still two months away. But that's actually true to life- before you're 21, you basically think of yourself in terms of being the next age when you're past the three-quarters point of your current age- i.e. some who's less than three months away from his 14th birthday thinks of himself as being fourteen even though he's technically thirteen. But then you turn 21, and at that point you get pissed off if someone calls you the next age. For example, when I was 24 and a half, I got pissed when my sister called me 25. Now I would get pissed if someone called me 26. You want to cling on to whatever amount of youth you still have left when you're no longer as young as someone like Will. And of course Will wants to be twenty-two, it seems. LOL. I think you're doing a good job of making Will seem very mature in some ways, but very 9th grade in others. He doesn't see grey or nuance yet, which is a very youthful trait.

That's why I think Will needs some make some huge mistake that makes the point that sometimes he doesn't have everything figured out. Not a mistake that's life-threatening or anything like that, but Will having an idea that seemed to him that it would work out, but turns out to have been a mistake. Some other things... Daisy, Mark does research on slang so that he gets the way kids sounded in the late '90s/early '00s right. He also has help with Adam Phillips, who graduated in high school in 1998 like Matt Carrswold did, and myself. I'm the same age as Will and JJ. One of the things I like about Mark's stories is that he tries to recreate the mindset of an era as painstakingly correct as possible. He's been pretty good at recreating the teenaged world of the early 2000's so far- the only things missing are baggy Tommy Hilfiger, punk skater boys, and girls(and guys) crushing over Josh Hartnett. I can see what you're saying Timmy, although I do think Brad and Robbie would have sent their kids to public school because the only private elementary school in Malibu is a Catholic school, and I can't see Brad ever sending his kids to a Catholic school. Since the schools were fine and Darius seemed happy, I don't think they would have seen any reason to change that pattern. However, I do think Jack and Claire absolutely would have sent their kids to a private school because it seemed like the middle school situation in Palo Alto was kinda unstable in the 1980's and 1990's, from what I read. Menlo seems like a good fit for them, and especially for John. My one reluctance about having them in private school is that, barring visits to Claremont or volunteering at the shelter, the kids won't have any significant interaction with people of a different socioeconomic class. Some of the best parts of Be Rad was when Brad had to meet guys who came from a different kind of background, and it made him realize the silver spoon he had in mouth. We won't really get these kids meeting people like Mouse if they're all going to Harvard-Westlake or Menlo. As for Will and his differences from Brad, we gotta remember that Will doesn't have Brad's baggage about a troubled childhood or even growing up in a time where being gay was something you didn't talk about. Will has the fortune of being from a time and place where he can take his boyfriend to his senior prom, and he can tell his friends he's gay without getting much of a reaction. Those are the two huge differences in how Will grew up, and why his actions should differ from Brad's at times. Ooh, another thought- if he does go to Gunn, maybe Will can pick up skateboarding! That would be very cool and very generational of him.

Did anyone else have a moment where they announced July 11th, 2000 as being Gathan Hayes day, and think, "Oh, god, 9/11 is just fourteen months away." They're getting close. And with their ties to D.C., and the ties they made with New York City because of the Pfinster family...there's no way this isn't affecting them in some tangible way, especially the Danfields.

It was the first state to ratify the Constitution, on December 7th, 1787. It's the second-smallest state in the Union, and it's located east of Maryland, South of Pennsylvania, and North of Maryland. Here's a video that better explains it: We're the home of tax-free shopping, you know. And a pretty cool gay beach.

I hope Will really likes Asians, TI-81 calculators, and Adderall. Oh, and no longer being able to surf before and after school. (Gunn High, from what I read, reminds me so much of the math & science Charter school that was upstairs from my high school, sans the uniform.) I seriously can't see how a competitive surfer would deal well with going from a school that had a beach literally a block or two away to going to school where he can only surf on weekends, but we'll see how this goes. *goes off to Youtube to look at Gunn High School videos* We really need to have down where John's going to middle school, since he's the co-protagonist's boyfriend and all that. Tommy suggested Menlo School, which sounds like a good school for John and something I could see Claire and Jack choosing.

Chapter 8 -When Will vents his life frustations with Tiffany, and vice versa. "Run" by Collective Soul -When Brad tells Will about Jake, and Will gets a better appreciation of what John has to feel. "Wait for Me" by Hall & Oates -When Gathan gets the hero's welcome in Claremont. "Heroes" by The Wallflowers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g2VdB4YpzQ&feature=related

Delaware Passes Civil Unions Bill Pretty cool! I'll remain cautiously optmistic about this, but I honestly never thought that I would still be in my 20's when civil unions passed in my home state. I really thought that if I wound up settling down, I'd have to move to New Jersey.

Here's a news story about a 7-year old who got her ears pinned back as a preventative measure against getting bullied. http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/bullied-child-gets-plastic-surgery-24902719 Which begs the hypothethical question- if you had a child who had a distinguishing feature that could cause them to get bullied, would you allow them to get plastic surgery to change that feature so they won't get bullied? I think I would, if I had kids and I had the money to pay for it, or there was a program like the one that paid for her plastic surgery. I grew up really hating my pug nose, and I remember really wanting to get a nose job. Still do, although I've come to peace with my nose. If it's something my hyphothetical kid really wanted as a means to be better-accepted among their peers, I don't see the problem with letting the child get surgery. What about you guys?

This is a HIGHLY edited Youtube clip of a gay erotic film called The Freshmen. It was apprently filmed around the Stanford Campus in 1997. The edits are pretty hilarious, and it's pretty amazing that the school actually let this get filmed around there. There's no actual nudity or anything, so it's safe for work. It's filmed in 1997, yet everything looks as if it were 1989. Man, the erotica business was behind the times. Edited to reiterate that there is no actual nudity or sexual content- the hilarity is in the fact that only about four minutes of the entire film can be put on youtube. And the fact that Mark's sent two characters to Stanford.

I had a good weekend. I didn't go crazy and rage- I just had a couple of drinks with my friend Seth at this nice little bar on Philly Street. Sang some karoke and all that fun stuff. The next night I went out to Wolfie's and danced. Friday night I got to see the Plain White T's, and that was fun. But the best part about this weekend was the sense of utter contentment I had. I've made some choices that have left me satisified about where my life is headed, and I just feel good. Sunday afternoon, it was beautiful day out...I walked around IUP, marveling at this rare nice weather day. I stopped at the Oak Grove, which is the campus quad full of big old oak trees. I saw all these people out, enjoying their own day...friends lying out on towels and blankets, enjoy each other's company. I saw little kids playing with one another, next to what I'm assuming would be their parents. I saw people sitting on benches, quietly reading. It was all ordinary, yet extraordinarily beautiful. So here I was, observing this beautiful day. I sat down over by a bench, and I was just overcome by the beauty of everything that surrounded me...I started crying tears of joy. At how wonderful the world can really be, when you stop to really look at it, and how lucky I am that I'm still alive and able to experience it. And this sense...this sense of "I was right to come here" just came over me. Yes, it would have been cheaper to have gone to Del State, yes I might have been better served by getting a degree from Wilm U, but yeah....I really do feel like I made the right choice in coming to IUP. This place just feels like home, and that's the first time I ever truly felt that, deep down in my gut. And realizing that I moved on; that I can be happy in a life outside of being a University of Delaware guy...well, I really did need to learn that. Because when I was a senior in college I thought the best part of my life was over when I finished UD. And I realize now that I was wrong; that I still have a lot great moments of happiness left even though I'm no longer a crazy UD college kid. I hope of all you get that kind of experience every once in a while...the only I can best describe how it feels would be the words of Louis Armstrong: I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom, for me and you And I think to myself What a wonderful world I see skies of blue, and clouds of white The bright blessed day, dark sacred night And I think to myself What a wonderful world The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces, of people going by I see friends shaking hands, sayin', "How do you do?" They're really sayin', "I love you" I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know And I think to myself What a wonderful world Yes, I think to myself What a wonderful world Oh yeah

Eh, it happens. From what I understand, though, he'll view you as less of an adversary and more of a friend when he moves into his twenties.

Honestly, it probably would be. There'd be no balance there.

Gee, I can't help but notice that Cooper in The List is the youngest of three kids. What a coincidence. They do say you should write what you know.

Because the baby is so loveable and fun?

Hey, Mark, I found something pretty cool. There's a Malibu High history teacher who posted up pictures from his time at Malibu High. There's a good many pictures, and from the time that JJ and Will are supposed to spend their time at school. It even includes some pictures from the class of 2004 graduation. I laughed and thought of Tommy when I saw that one kid was wearing a Hurley shirt. http://web.mac.com/panish/Panishs_Site/MHS_Photos_I.html It gives you such a great idea of how kids looked and dressed at the time. I really liked this picture...I'm guessing it's either 2004 or 2005. http://web.mac.com/panish/Panishs_Site/MHS_Photos_I.html#96 I think this picture does a good job of showing the range of styles present at the time, and the commonalities. Whether they're dressed punk or prep, each boy is wearing a pair of pants so baggy you're surprised that they haven't fallen off. Even the preppy kid with the rugby polo and the soccer boots- his chords just "fit"- they're not tight at all. It's such a stark contrast to Brad's Be Rad crowd, where guys wore really tight pants. Another thing to note is that the spiky hair look made popular by Ricky Martin was falling out of favor at the time, and more guys wore their hair naturally. That's getting reflected here, too- only one guy has spiked hair here. But in 2000, it still would have been popular to wear spiky hair, so that's still "in" at this point. But that picture, I think, gives you a fairly good idea of how the average teenage boy dressed circa 2004.

I thought this was a cute little article about birth order. I've always found birth order theory to be pretty fascinating, but I've never seen it applied to dating.Birth Order and Love Life In terms of my own family, they got it pretty much right about the two oldest, but the middle child is not in any way dependable. My oldest neice, who's an only child, hasn't started dating yet so I can't really judge for that, either. I went through a lot of angst a couple of years ago about being the last-born, so I really read up on birth order to fully understand why my older siblings really just loved to boss me around so much, even at the age of 20. It can all be pop psychology bunk, but from my own experience it tends to be true...only children are usually very mature, intelligent, and well-spoken for their age. The first-borns tend to be best at leading people, and tend to have perfectionist personalities...Adam P. is such a perfect example of the first-born type. Middle kids seem to be the ones that are all over the place. And the family babies tend to be the off-beat, fun-loving ones. Kind of a cool idea to think that your birth order can explain your own personality quirks, no?

I'm kinda curious- is the relationship that Will has to Brad similiar to the one you have with your son, Mark? Do fights get explosive like that with your kid? I would imagine that someone like you would have a pretty head-strong son as well.

What I like about this is that we're seeing something that's been building since the last story. Will just doesn't have any respect for his mother, and the more latitude Brad's given, the more Will thinks he doesn't have to follow the rules.

Chapter 7 -When Will gets the news about Gathan getting shot, and hurriedly gets ready to go down to Dallas. "The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Might Bosstones -When Will gets to the hospital, and he and Gathan seal their life-long friendship with certain bodily fluids. " I Think God Can Explain" by Splender -When Will and Brad get into another fight. "Whatever" by Godsmack

Good point, but I'm going with Daisy's assertion about the way figure skaters have to maintain image at all times. And when you consider JJ's inflated sense of self, he likely WOULD think he'd make a story if he were caught at a rave. Well, yeah, but I meant that when I was in high school (2001 to 2005), it was popular for guys to layer short-sleeved shirts over long-sleeved shirts. Like what Sean Faris aka Will's wearing here: Layering was really popular from the early to mid-part of the decade. My favorite look was the guys who'd wear two polo shirts with both collars popped. LOL. For me it's weird watching that video because those ARE my contemporaries(which is anyone who graduated in 2002 to 2008), and I went to a performing arts high school. High school feels at once just like yesterday and about a million years ago. For the Gunn High School side- http://www.youtube.com/user/Gunnvideo#p/u/17/bqr8Q1rZQPQ This was posted February 2006, so I'm guessing it's from the Homecoming Pep Rally either from fall 2005 or winter 2006. It's only about two years away from John Hobart's time at Gunn, so I'm betting John did something like that as well. It'd be funny to watch John do a cheerleading routine to "Toxic" by Britney Spears with his best buddies by his side. Gunn High School apparently came up with these really lame videos promoting Homecoming and Prom. Gunn apparently REALLY takes their dance themes seriously. http://www.youtube.com/user/Gunnvideo#p/u/15/BU6Nq-3MJNI This is another 2006 video, so it gives you a good idea of how the kids dressed. It also gives you a good idea of the racial make-up of the school- there's a pretty high amount of Asians and other minorities that go there. Gunn comes off as incredibly nerdy compared to Malibu. LOL. From what I've read, it sounds a lot like the math and science charter school that was upstairs from my school. People there were under so much academic pressure that most of my friends were addicted to some form of caffeine(some just went straight for the Adderall). Yes, it was basically like the episode of Saved By the Bell where Jesse is addicted to caffeine pills to stay up and study, only most of the people were like that.