methodwriter85

I always figured calmly reasoned postings work better than whining.

Marcel has to be the least-liked protagonist in the history of the CAP. Mark's admitted that his mind was already on the next story, and it showed. It just creeped me out that JP slept with Jeff's son and the brother of the boy he raised as his son for 15 years, who looked exactly like the both of them. And I never really got behind the Marcel/Max pairing.

Brad slept with a woman because Mark was brewing the next generation, silly goof. It's still strange to me that although all of the characters HAVE slept with women and enjoyed it, only Lark ever identified with being bisexual. (Matt Carrswold said he was bi initially, although it seemed like he moved towards gay as the story progessed because I think he felt more an emotional connection to men than he did to women, even though he enjoys sex with both.) I did think they were all a little on the young side to start having kids, especially Claire, but eh. I'm not going to complain too much about Mark giving JJ my birthdate and a few of my characteristics. Darius, JJ, and Will have all turned into fun characters in their own right.

I think Cody is still technically in his 20's(although he could have already turned 30 since If It Fits was set in spring/summer 1995- he was defnitely on the edge of it), but yeah. I don't really see Cody as being like Stefan, except that they're both rent boys who could only express themselves through sex. So for that, I can understand why Cody is the way he is. (See, I can be emphathetic when I decide to get off my soap box.) Cody seems a lot more laidback than Stefan is, and not really about being charming or witty. He's just...there. A hot-looking guy who molds into whatever the needs are of the moment. I think a lot of us can forgive Brad and Stefan for their sh*tty behavior because they've got interesting personalities, we care about them, and we understand their motives. We've seen Cody through three or four stories at this point, and the character has remained a secondary character with a stagnant growth, and I think at some point along the way I just lost interest in him. I'd rather see what's going on with characters that I actually care about, like Brad and his quest to find out what was going on with his biological family. I think when Mark uses a supporting character in the right way, it's pretty good- I loved Lou's little cameo in Bloodlines, and I think the use of Max has been good as well. But with Cody, I feel like there's an overload of his character, and I frankly don't think his character warrants it because it's the same pattern with him every.single.time. Your mileage may vary, but yeah. In thinking this over in a calmly rational way, I've come up with the reason why I'm having this reaction to him, and there it is. I hope I came off as a little bit less of a whiny bitch in this one.

How big is the water polo scene there? I think it might be cool for Mark to cover another kind of sport- he's already done surfing, football, hockey, and I believe baseball. I could buy a surfer moonlighting as a water polo player as well.

I think Brian is like JP in that they appear to be ice-cold calm.

I have to agree with Mark on that- Brad's pretty willing to work through any beef he might have with someone, especially after what happened with Billy.

*shrugs* Okay. I'll get off the soapbox now. Anyway, we're inching down to the end of 1999. 1999 has been the longest-lived year in the CAP saga- it's spanned three stories. Thank god 1999 is almost done. I've got some 2000 music I want to use. Although I might set aside and for when we get back to a teenaged/college-aged protagonist.

Hey, who's the guy in the second picture? I think he might be a good "casting" for an 18-year JJ. -Jeremy, always on the lookout for faces that could serve as the physical model for Mark's story characters.

Eh. I get overzealous sometimes.

You gotta love Cody. "Hey, I know you and Robbie are making tentative steps in getting back together, but let's screw around because it's about how close it makes OUR friendship feel. It's good for me. Who cares if it's good for you and Robbie or for the three boys that depend on you two for a stable home?" Cody's slowly made his way onto my sh*t-list this story. That was the final push. He's nothing but a cipher pleasure doll for the characters. At this point I really couldn't gave a crap about Kevin or Cody. I want to learn more about Brad's biological family than about an aging circuit boy and his choice f*ck for the moment.

Chapter 44 -When we're fully introduced to the piece of work that is Alexandra Carmichael. "Killer Queen" by Queen -When Cody tries to persuade Brad into not becoming monogamous again so they can have sex with each other. "Different Drum" by the Stone Poneys -At the end of the chapter, when Robbie and Brad talk while going to Big Bear. "More Than This" by Roxxy Music

Brad grows up in Man in Motion. Of course, graduating from college and dealing with the height of the AIDS hysteria will do that to you.

It's a huge part of the youth culture in general. I'm sure that when JJ and Will are 17-ish, we'll see them experimenting with OxyContin, Adderall, and Percoet. Probably X and Special K as well. Drug popularity may come and go, but they'll always be around.

I have to admit, I'm really excited about this. They seem pretty well matched, and they certaintly took a long time in making sure this is right. I hope they have lots of future heirs that can't serve because the Queen of England will live to 120!

Good to know that, Tommy. See, my high school started the week BEFORE Labor Day- I'm thinking usually about August 27th. The freshman had the first day by themselves to get accustomed, and then the rest of the kids came in. Seniors had their finals about two weeks before school let out, and graduation was the first week of June. The rest of the kids got out the second week.

I didn't start hearing "Man Cave" until maybe...2002? 2003? Something like that. The usage is nearing but it's not there yet. And I give Brad and Robbie a pass for using "Love Den" since they grew up in the '70's. It would be like me saying something is "dope" or "tight". Outdated, but I'm just merely using slang from my childhood. Had it been Matt or Wade using that term, I would have gotten on Mark for that. I can't think of anyone guy my age or Adam Phillip's age that would use that term without bursting out laughing.

I'm assuming he meant the Junior high, and then later on he used that address to send Scott to Santa Monica High.

Adam had the same reaction about Stefan, Tim. Kinda funny. I do think that Stefan didn't come off as nearly so femme earlier, but if you think about it, Stefan referred to himself as Greg's "wife" at the end of The Land Whore. It makes sense that Stefan devoted himself to that role and got more femme as the years went by and the 1970's era of androgyny continued into the early '80's. (See: The New Romantics and stars like Billy Ant and Boy George.) Jake having sex with Sam was wrong on a lot of levels. After a lot of lecturing from Sharon(the editor of the team), I can't think of anymore underage sex that happens in the story. The adults don't mess with a character until he's at least 18. I think part of that is a reflection of the fact that it becomes increasingly verbotten for an adult to have sex with jailbait, and the penalties get much stiffer. Plus it's California. If I'm understanding correctly, if you get convicted of a statutory rape in California(where the age of consent is 18), you're seriously done. I don't think any of the characters in the CAP saga are that stupid to risk everything to have sex with a minor, at least by the time they get to the 1990's and those laws start getting stricter. As for the coke...well...in the late 70's/early 80's, a lot of people thought cocaine was a recreational drug that was not addicting. It was as the 1980's progressed that people realized that cocaine may not be physically addictive, but it was highly mentally addictve.

Is that one of those community colleges that have dorms? I've heard of those. I don't think Will, who despises shopping, would be into a fashion design school, but thanks for your thoughts. And thanks for you thought on the military situation. Mark's going to try and work in Iraq, and I figure having a friend there might be a good way to do that. Very "of this generation", I think.

Is it just me, or do blond guys tend to go bald earlier than guys with darker hair? Or is it just that balding is more noticeable on a blond guy? With some hairplugs or a completely shaved head, he'd still look good, I think. It's just people can't help but unfavorably compare him to what he looks like now to what he looked like as a teenager, which is pretty unfair, in my opinion. He can't help losing his hair or his features changing- it's not like he sat around and got fat or something. Some people unfortunately peak early in their attractiveness- such as Brooke Shields or Devon Sawa from Casper, etc etc. Does anyone really want to be held to the standard of what they looked like when they were fifteen for the rest of their lives? Anyway, I imagine this will be a boon to her parent's event planning business. LOL.

I'm the same way. I generally can't stand long hair on a guy. It's why I never really got into Josh Holloway or Taylor Kitsch. There are some exceptions, but in general, I like shorter hair on a guy.

Yeah, I think I'll like Florida as well. It'll be fun, especially considering how cold the winters in Western PA are.

We're just going to say it's Santa Monica High, which has a decent rep, right? I don't think Mark has mentioned Malibu High until this story, and that's because of the storyline with Darius getting ready to graduate and JJ contemplating leaving school. It should take a much bigger role when Mark eventually switches focus to Brad's kids in high school, like Gunn High did for Be Rad.

Did they actually mention Malibu High, or just "high school"? I don't think the school was mentioned specifically, just that it was a public school. It probably was Santa Monica High. If you're right and the story mentions a Malibu High in 1974, that kinda bums me out- we should've caught that one, Mark. I've failed you as a historical researcher. *cries* I don't want to live anymore! *runs for the nearest window to jump out of* Okay, kidding. Coincidentally, Malibu High is the same age as my school- they were both founded in 1992. I wonder if there was some big increase in the teenage population there that it stopped making sense to just send the kids to Santa Monica. I'm assuming that's the reason why it took so long for Malibu to get a high school- because there were so few kids in that area, and because a lot of Malibu people would send their kids to school in Switzerland.