methodwriter85

I think in Brad and Robbie's minds, they're done with all that- now they're just trying to get JJ and Will through the teenage years, and then can set off for a trip around the world to celebrate being empty-nesters. It would be a shock to their system, I think.

Surprisingly Harry became the looker of the brothers, but the dude is dumb as a box of hammers.

I'll be working for Habitat for Humanity for spring break '11 in Winter Haven, Florida. We get a pit stop in Atlanta, and we also get that Friday off to go to Daytona Beach. No alcohol, which is a bummer, but overall I'm really excited. And this should go great on my CV. I have never been to Florida in my life, so I'm really excited!

Yeah. Some people unfortunately peak in attractiveness as teenagers. Eh. It's not like he's ugly, though. Although Harry's much hotter. His mother's inner beauty still lives on through him, if not so much her outer beauty as we had all intitally thought when he was 15 and cute as hell.

Royal weddings are kinda cool, no? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_en_ce/eu_britain_royal_wedding I wish I had been around to see the Princess Diana wedding. That must've been insane. Anyway, I thought I'd post this because I know my buddy Mark Arbour has a major thing for aristrocracy.

You gotta love the conversation towards the end, where Robbie talks about this girlfriend he had that he thought he was in love with. Who happened to be pregnant and carrying his only biological child that he never got to raise. He kinda dodged a bullet there, though. Imagine what Robbie's life would have been as a teen dad in that hell-hole of a town.

Brian had a really tough childhood. Some people can come out of it with their humanity still intact(see: Wade), but others can become self-serving users who border on sociopathic.

When Matt got at him with that line, I really wanted Brad to reply, "But I was 23, finished with school, starting a career, and comitted to Robbie. You're 19, only a sophomore, and you don't know if you'll still be with Wade when you guys finish college." I don't know, the whole lackadasical attitude about it annoyed me, although I do realize that Matt was seeing himself as doing a big favor while at the same time getting his rocks off. Still, we're talking about kids here. It might be interesting if Jeanine and Tiffany really don't want that much help from whoever the biological father is, or for him to be that much into their lives, which would be much more dramatic and tension-making. I just really can't see Matt and Wade taking an active part as a "dad"- they're too young, and for Matt especially- not in the mindset to be there. Most 20-year old guys don't want to be tied down with a kid, and I don't think they're the exception. I can see them as fathers, but more when they're about 28 or so. Not now. I think they'll play more of like an "uncle" role to the kid. At least I hope so. Somewhere down the line, when they're ready, I'm sure they'll use Tiffany as a surrogate for their own kids that they plan to raise. As for Washington....man. I gotta admit I love Elizabeth Danfield. She's evil with some glimmer of humanity.

Chapter 43 -When Brad talks to Matt and Wade about Tiffany, remembering his own dalliance with Jeanine that resulted in Will. "If She Knew What She Wants" by The Bangles -At the formal society function, where Brad makes his introductions with Wade's family, and notices David Carmichael. 500 Miles Instrumental http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WFAeJncaag I used to be a catering server, so I know exactly the type of music they play at these kind of functions. Usually some kind of instrumental of a popular song from the '60's or the '70's.

We could call an Andrew "Andy" instead, so as to differentiate from Will's first boyfriend. Brian, Justin, and Mike have already been used, but I figure Mark can use those names again since it's a different cohort. He already re-used Jason for Will's best friend. And if he wants to be true to life experience, JJ and Will are going to know a ton of Mike's, Chris's, and John's. (For whatever reason, I knew a TON of Steve's as well.) The other big names I missed were Jake, Ryan, and David. Lindsay should be on there as well. As for the J-thing, it is pretty true. Think of it- Jennifer, Jason, Justin, John, James, Joseph, Jeffrey, Jake, Jessica, Josh, Jeremy- all of them were top 40 names in the '80's. Some trendy-but-not-really-common names I ran across: Brandy, Ariel, Mason, Mackenzie(we called him Mack) Here are some links to look at: Top Baby Names of 1986 Top Baby Names of 1987 I'd include '85, but really, JJ for all intents and purposes might as well have been born in 1986. I like that Mark gave the family a bit of a mini-baby boom in 1985 to '87, which is true to the American experience- there WAS a mini-baby boom starting in the mid/late '80's. It's why college became an absolute bitch to get into.

Alright, so I found this online- The Malibu High School Class of 2005 graduated June 23 with a full stadium of proud parents, relatives and friends attending ceremonies to cheer them on their success. Out of the 171 graduates, 59 percent are planning to attend four-year colleges, 37 percent are planning to attend two-year colleges or technical schools, while a handful are planning to work or travel, and one graduate will join the military. This is Malibu High's 13th graduating class. I couldn't find much on Darius's class, but here you have it for the class of 2005. So that graduation will be held on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005. 171 is somewhat of a small class- not tiny, but not one of those huge 300+ classes that both of my sisters had. (I graduated in a class of 82 people.) I think that means that these kids have to interact more with one another, for better or worse. Sometimes going to a smaller school was a good thing. Sometimes you just wanted to throttle people. On a side note, my own graduation got held on June 2nd, 2005. (or 3rd.) Is it customary to hold graduations at Malibu High during the third week of June, Tommy? Here's another cool thing I found... Where Is the Class of '05 Going? I don't think this is a full list, but yeah, they did mostly go off California colleges, although there were kids who did indeed head East, and not just for the Ivy League. It also gives Mark good ideas for names of future characters- it seems like "Kelly" is a very popular name for that class. After reading this list, I'm voting for Darius to head to UC Santa Cruz, or maybe he should just bum around to Santa Monica College to get his grades up.

Happy birthday!

And with other women. S P O I L E R S Namely Tonto. Did not see that one coming. The fact that Jim screwed his cousin's daughter in 1985 to create JJ makes a lot more sense now.

There's a guy who's an author here, Adam Phillips, that wrote this incredibly analytical piece that basically reflects your thoughts. I'll bump it up for you to read.

Alright, so I found this online- The Malibu High School Class of 2005 graduated June 23 with a full stadium of proud parents, relatives and friends attending ceremonies to cheer them on their success. Out of the 171 graduates, 59 percent are planning to attend four-year colleges, 37 percent are planning to attend two-year colleges or technical schools, while a handful are planning to work or travel, and one graduate will join the military. This is Malibu High's 13th graduating class. I couldn't find much on Darius's class, but here you have it for the class of 2005. So that graduation will be held on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005. 171 is somewhat of a small class- not tiny, but not one of those huge 300+ classes that both of my sisters had. (I graduated in a class of 82 people.) I think that means that these kids have to interact more with one another, for better or worse. Sometimes going to a smaller school was a good thing. Sometimes you just wanted to throttle people. On a side note, my own graduation got held on June 2nd, 2005. (or 3rd.) Here's another cool thing I found... Where Is the Class of '05 Going? It gives Mark a really good ideas for names. To get this generation right, JJ and Will are going to know multiple Matthews, Christophers, John's, and Mike's. Justin, Jason(maybe spelled Jaysen), and Brian are three other big names for that age cohort. Jennifer is a big one for girls. So are Ashley/Ashleigh, Jessica, Brittany, and Sarah. Kelly seems like a popular name for this class and this school. The cartoon Recess had a running joke about how popular Ashley/Ashleigh/Ashlee was for girls, as there were three girls in one class named Ashley and they had to refer to one another by their last initial to differentiate. Other names I'd recomend for Mark when he gets around to the class of '05: Kendra, Breana, Ian, Melissa, Emily, Elizabeth, Liana, Sean, Steven, Shane, James, Josh, Kaylie/Kayla, Daniel/Danielle, Alex/Alexandra, Caitlyn, Chase, Crystal, Chelsea, Hannah, Meghan, Trevor, Eric, Aaron, Kyle, Tyler, and Taylor. Zachary could be good as well. The other thing that Mark might want to try doing is reflecting that in the mid/late '80's, there were parents who started going with alternative spellings to try and make common names sound less common. Most affected were the many variations of Ashley , Brittany, and Kate, but I also knew a Kiel. In that 2005 class listing, there's also an "Alixzandra". Will has a best friend named Jason, but I bet he also knows a Jayson or something. As a final tip, Mark, when a doubt, pick a "J" name. That never, ever goes wrong when you're choosing names for characters who were born in the Reagan Era. One great little period detail I loved about Be Rad is that the names of Gunn High's characters were often the names that were popular to name babies in the early/mid-1960's, which is when those characters would have been born. Mark did the same thing again when he picked the names of Matt Carrswold's friends as well. I thought I'd help a little since there are so many characters and therefore so many names we need to pick out. Blue, are there any names I'm missing that you remember as being common/trendy to people born in the 1980's?

I don't know, Tim...I have a pretty credible source who concurred with me that Ryan Devlin would make a great young Mark.

You will, but you have to get through 1968 first.*wishes Adam was here to discuss 1968* I'll be honest and say I'm more interested in the relationships and the historical context of the story than I am in the sex. The characters that Mark's invented purely for sex reasons generally tend to bore me. CAP is good, 1968 pisses people off although it's still good in my opinion. The Land Whore was a cute story. Be Rad and Man In Motion were the first two really good stories. A Summer Love was a mixed bag, but If It Fits was a return to form for Mark. Bloodlines was freakin' amazing in my opinion, and the Box started off slow but turned into a great story. Millenium's been pretty good so far.

"I Shall Be Released" by Joe Cocker. God, it just kills me.

Okay, Cadeus, so I consulted a figure skating person about JJ and how his dating/sex life would be affected as he navigates adolescence. Her general points were this: 1. American figure skaters are "strongly encouraged" to adhere to "family friendly" lifestyles. The figure skating federation for Americans apparently gets pretty nasty about that. The way she put it, it's best for American figure skaters to act as they don't even know what sex is. I'm sure that's even more true for someone who's only 14. If JJ got the image of being a "bad boy" who engaged in pre-marital sex, he could risk losing invitations to tours and sponsorships. 2. Most figure skaters stay single throughout their career, because of the constant training and traveling around. 3. There are parties held by the International Skating Union where the figure skaters get to whore around and unlease their sexual tensions. It's basically total bacchanalia. But American figure skaters rarely show up to these, because again, they can't risk tarnishing their image. 4. Relationships among figure skaters do happen, but it's only rarely talked about, and only after they've been married or engaged because you don't want to hint that you're having pre-marital sex. Skater+coach can happen, but not very often. Skater+fan happens a lot more often, but only if the skater is not under the boot of the USFSA. So her bottom line was that JJ must absolutely maintain secrecy about what he does, whether it's with men or even with women. Also that he's more likely to have have one-night stand type encounters, because figure skating doesn't lend itself to long-term relationships. So JJ might have sex, but publically, he wouldn't admit to it because he's got to maintain a pristine image. I could see that actually becoming a source of tension between JJ and Will as they grow up- JJ being jealous of Will's ability to do whatever he wants because of the relaxed rules of pro surfing, while JJ has to be the Marcia f**king Brady of the Malibu Colony. (Points if you know what period movie I'm referencing there.)

Happy birthday!

Dude, it's not odd for a 14-year old to not be having sex yet. It happens at different times for everyone. I had friends who started having sex at 12. I had others that remained virgins all through high school. I myself didn't have oral sex until I was 15, and I was technically a virgin until I was 21. You've also got to remember that JJ is busy all the time with skating, and he's focused more on that than having a sex life just yet. I'd actually be surprised if JJ WAS dating, because of how time-consuming skating is. And JJ has so far been written as a late bloomer- he's a 14-year old who looks like he's about 11, while Will is 13 and looks old enough that a high school guy would be interested in him. The people who bloom first are usually always the ones who get sexually active first. Remember, JJ and Will are in middle school. Middle school. Are we really going to be rooting on middle school children to have active sex lives, or acting like it's unrealistic/odd for a middle school kid to be a virgin? They can't even drive yet. Just a few years ago, they were playing with stuff animals and Pogs. Sex in middle school happens, but I'm not exactly going to nag Mark into depicting 7th grade kids with healthy sexual appetites and encounters. I'm sure that when JJ gets to the '06 Olympics, he'll be in one non-stop orgy. Mark's going to like writing the Olympics, I think. From what I understood, the Olympic Village is basically like Soddom and Gommorah. I had a friend who was short all of his life until he had a growth spurt at 20 where he put on 5 inches of height and 20 pounds, so it could be interesting if that happened to JJ. Mark's been molding two great future protagonists in JJ and Will, I think.

My guess would be that she's about 25 or 26.Old enough to want kids, but young enough that she never really registered in Matt's mind as an "older lady". I thought Mark was playing Tiffany as being a 19-year old college student along with Matt and Wade, but generally, 19-year old college girls aren't trying to have kids. Especially if Tiffany were still young enough that she might have still had a shot with trying to go pro as a figure skater. Tiffany is likely someone who was good, but never good enough to get to the Olympics, and quit when she hit her mid-20's and became a coach. Mark never really specificed Tiffany's (or Triffany's *wink at KYE*) age in Bloodlines, so he can get away with making her a bit older than I would have thought he would. She's definitely got to be old enough at this point that she's stopped trying to go pro, or else she wouldn't even think about having a kid. Figure skaters are VERY body concious, and anything that could drastically change a person's body is avoided at all costs, and that includes pregnancy. It's why eating disorders are so high in sports like figure skating or gymnastics. JJ, at 14, could get extremely screwed over if he manages to hit a growth spurt before 2002, or if he grows in between 2002 to 2006. It's generally why you don't see that many 16-year old guys in the Olympics for figure skating- too many of them are having to adjust to growth spurts. Because girls generally quit growing around the time they are 14 or 15, you see more of them there. It would be interesting to see how JJ would deal with a growth spurt- he'd likely do something called "controlled eating". When this initially happened, I really didn't agree with Mark doing this because I don't think Matt and Wade are remotely ready to have kids yet, but it's not like they're actually going to have any hand in raising them. I'm guessing Matt will go back to Tiffany to use as a surrogate when he's ready to settle down with a husband and kids, like around 2007 or so. As for Jeanine getting pregnant...man. I hope not. I can't see Brad and Robbie trying to raise kids all the way to 2018. LOL.

Chapter 40 -When the family votes to expell Brian, and JP loses his credibility as a result. "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3mAX5xdxo Chapter 41 -When the board at Anders-Hayes restructures itself, with Brad getting 30 percent of the company. "Dragging The Line" by Tommy James and the Shondells http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skydln4BhDI Chapter 42 -When the family manages to get their act together in time to open their presents for Christmas Eve. "Christmastime" by the Smashing Pumpkins -When Brad, Jeanine, and Robbie have a threesome. "Venus" by Shocking Blue

Agreed. And again, Mark killed off at least six characters with AIDS in 1985-1986, which was the high-water mark of the AIDS crisis. He had consultations with guys who were there, and remember 1985-1986 as the time they attended the most funerals. Mark did that because you can't cover the gay experience in the 1980's without bringing up AIDS. The gay historical mood of the 80's was the AIDS crisis. By the time we got to the late '90s/early '00s, AIDS was no longer the main focus of the gay experience as less people started dying from it. It started shifting more towards fighting for gay adoptions and gay marriages. The gay historical mood of the 2000's was less about AIDS and more having kids and trying to get married. The story's reflecting that.Yes, Cody and the behavior of the guys aren't that responsible. Matt even had an AIDS scare in Bloodlines. But I just don't see the point in Mark going there- he's already made the point before. Compare the story before Be Rad, where no one even THOUGHT to use condoms. Having Tiffany and Jeanine end up with AIDS would be way too dark for Mark to go there, and I flat-out don't think he would do that.

Tiffany. Not Triffany. Tiffany. It was a common American name for baby girls during the 1970s and 1980s.