methodwriter85

He means another, as-of-yet unwritten story set after the Box, most likely during Y2K.

I don't think 40 is old age- it's middle age. Average life expectancies in the US fall around 80, so 40 hits the middle perfectly. Although, you know, I have heard that the gay community tends to see anyone over 30 as old. I guess I'd modify and say that Brad at 37 is approaching middle-age, but still has a few years to go. Though I suspect Brad will have an early mid-life crisis because he settled down so young, his oldest son is graduating from high school, and he's going to lose a considerable amount of money. We'll for sure if/when Brad gets a nose ring and buys a new sports car.

Hmm, middle age is generally thought to start about between 35 to 40, so I'd say Brad is in the very early stage of middle-age. He's definitely past his young adult stage, in any event.

Mike, there's a line in CAP where JP talks about how the oldest of the Hayes brothers was a nice guy who went to high school with Steven and died in the war before he did. As for soap conventions, I like that Mark stays fairly consistent with ages. I loved that we've seen these characters grow up and change, like Brad going from a 5-year old in 1968 to the high school senior in 1980 to middle-aged dad of three in 1999 who's getting ready to see his oldest off to college. I'm excited that we'll get to see the same process, to a point, with the new generation. Like Will and JJ- we get introduced to them as babies circa 1986, they're currently around 13 in the story, and we'll eventually see them enter their mid-20s when the story is brought to 2010.

I doubt Aaron is alive. Mark has never brought someone back from the dead- deaths are pretty permanent in CAP-Verse. It's kinda hard reading this story because you know these two boys will be dead within two, three years.

I came close to joining the Intravarsity Christian club at my school- there were some damned cute guys there. It's been a fantasy of mine to have sex with an innocent Christian guy...

I've never heard of this Adam Phelps guy, either. But it seems like he writes some keen stories.

Speaking of good porn...chapter 21 of Cross-Currents. Andy bottoming for the first time with a straight boy. Never fails with me- the line about Andy lifting his legs to give his teammate access makes my toes curl.

Let's Go Phillies!

Chapter 10 -December the 7th, 1941 "God Bless America" by Kate Smith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCavKL2zdjM

I always thought Be Rad showed a marked improvement in your writing, and I think its because you put so much of yourself and your life into the story. You knew the world- 1980 suburban NorCal teenage life- and you did a great job of recreating that world for us. I especially liked how you lifted the exchange from On the Mark where the mid-westerner guy makes fun of Mark saying a car is 'bad', and turned it into an exchange where Robbie doesn't understand Brad's use of bad.

Tiger, it was stated that in CAP that Aaron dies in the war before Steven does. They can join in 1943, and I'm guessing Aaron dies pretty much that year. Steven survives until close to the end of the war, because Stefan was born on some vague, never-enumerated date in 1945, so he couldn't have died earlier than the second half of 1944. As for the 1999 stuff, Stefan feels like Cassandra, warning about the impending tech meltdown. Come spring 2000, Brad is going to be so burned on this...

I tried tequila once on Halloween 2005, and I never needed to try it again. It's great to see how the CAP family gets to travel all around to these exotic locales.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ON0lJRGV7Mg/S5k2e0JbOfI/AAAAAAAAaCk/iPTA0YUOHmI/s1600-h/evan5.jpg I like Evan better with hair, but man, his stance against this wall...something just utterly sexy about it.

Over at Adam Phillip's Yahoo group, I made a comment about how I felt a bit dirty for having sexual thoughts about Taylor Lautner, because he's all of 18 and that feels wrong to me somehow. Adam said that there's absolutely nothing wrong with having those kinds of thoughts about a young dude, because it's not actually a child I'm lusting over- it's a young man who's in terrific shape, and I shouldn't feel like there's anything about having salacious thoughts about the guy just because he's a good deal younger than I am. And he's got a point, and I was wondering why it had been bothering me so much whenever I looked at an 18-year old guy, thought he was hot, and then felt, "God, you are such a dirty old man, Jeremy!" And I came to this conclusion- it's weird for me, because 18-year olds remind me that I'm no spring chicken anymore, and it makes me question if I'm reacting that way to them because I want to re-live my youth. It used to be that I could look at a cute 18-year old boy, and think, "Maybe I should ask him out", because at the time, I was 18 or 19 years old, and I was age-appropriate. Nowaways, as I'm moving in my mid-20's, I generally find that most of the guys that I'm really attracted to are in their early 20's or mid-20's, because most 19-year old boys look just like that to me- boys, not men. But occasionally, such as in the case of Taylor Lautner, I just think, "Wow, he's really hot and gorgeous!", and then there comes that, "Oh wait, I shouldn't hit on the dude, because I'm way too freaking old for him." It's strange how life moves so fast- one day I was in high school homeroom talking about the merits of the O.C., and now I'm facing the end of college and I'm no longer really and truly young anymore. My youth is almost behind me, and it's a disconcerting thought. Am I mourning my youth? I guess I am, but in another way, I'm really not. I loved certain aspects of my youth- I loved driving around with friends late at night while we searched for post-drinking food, I loved the wild excitement of going to the first college parties with a set of eyes full of innocent, wide-eyed wonder at all these new experiences, and I loved the quiet, heart-to-heart moments I had with friends as we searched our way through post-adolescence. I have all these memories, and I lived through it, and those memories can't be taken away from me. I don't know if it's really that I would go back and re-live my youth...I guess it's just...I don't know what it'll be like to finally be out of that stage of my life. I've prolonged my days of college youth much longer than I should have. Now that it's finally here- the end is finally here- I'm hestitating before I make that finally plunge into that other stage of life- adulthood. My friend Steve has been getting on me about how I need to stop being so obsessed with youth- and he's right about that. I think it's just that I've seen my youth as being the one and only thing I've ever had going for me...that now that it's gone, I don't know what I have anymore. But I think I can find it. I hope I can find it. What I do know for sure is that I can't just wallow around and mourn my lost youth- because no amount of that is going to bring it back. And to be honest, I'm not really sure I want to go back to my youth again, either. What I do need is to just become more comfortable within a new role that's developing for me as I leave my youth behind. I just hope I get there. I know I'll get there.

Hey, since someone started a discussion on On the Mark, I thought I'd bump this up. Not to brag, but I think I did a fantastic job, especially with "We've Got Tonight". It really summed up the mood of the scene, and the mood of the time period. I also really liked the use of "Dust in the Wind".

Talking to Adam online about this, I realized what bothered me about this. I've been around addicts in some way, shape, or form in my life. And people talking about their own experiences confirmed it to me... The thing is...Jeff's downward spiral felt too abrupt for me. Yes, I know that there was an 9-month period before the story opens. And he's dead by June or July. That means it's about a year-and-half that Jeff goes from beginning to use drugs, to developing a habit, and then just giving up. That doesn't ring true for me- I feel like it takes more than just about 18 months for anyone to get to that point. Barring an accidential overdose, most drug addicts don't check out in so little a timespan like that. Drug addiction tends to be longer and more spread out, with a lot more peaks and valleys than the one we got with Jeff. Jeff giving up like that would have rang true to me if it had been more like a 5 or 10-year struggle. I think that's what didn't ring true for me.

That's a good point. Maybe he was outed in some way, and the Hayes family disowned him. It really is interesting to see how the Hayes family were before they got ripped apart.

Chapter 9 -When the family celebrates Thanksgiving, 1941. "Class Will Tell" by Ted Weems and His Orchestra -When Steven and Aaron talk about the most eligible bachelors in town, and imagine life as married men that will never happen for them. "I Know Why and So Do You" by the Glenn Miller Band

I can't stand online dating because of the way guys are so goddamn picky, so I can't see myself using it.

Word, Mark. There is nothing wrong with wanting to sleep around, as long as it makes the person happy and they do it in a safe way..

Jimmy Fallon couldn't reunite the cast of Saved by the Bell, but he could, as a consolation prize, reunite the cast of California Dreams. It's pretty awesome. California Dreams Man. It's funny how you never really forget the shows you grew up with.

This song pretty much sums up the early part of high school for me. Change "Noelle" to Noah, and you've got it. Standing on the sideline, staring longingly at the person I couldn't have. I had this really unfortunate crush on this guy named Andy in 9th grade. He was a senior who dressed up like a boyband member. I look back, and cringe when I think about it. I had REALLY bad taste back then! Ah, 2001...

Unless you're Drew Barrymore. Then you're Studio 54's star partier, and worthy of a confidential tell-all book at the age of 13. I kinda hope this story will serve to finally heal what went wrong with the Hayes family- that successive generations of that family won't become what Fred Hayes became.

I agree. The part where JP reacts with gratitude and relief for Sam kindly euthanizing Jeff with a needle full of heroin was absolutely heart-warming. Nah, but in all seriousness, Mark, do you still hate mail for killing off Jeff? I'm kinda curious. As for me, I think Bloodlines took the cake. It's worked on so many levels. And Evan Wadle is seriously fine eye candy. And I love Nico Tortorella, and think he and Evan would be such a cute couple.