methodwriter85

Across the Universe by Fiona Apple I far prefer this cover to the original. This one has a serene beauty to it that I think the original doesn't have. And then here are three 80's pop hits that I think are better than their 60's orginals. I Think We're Alone Now by Tiffany Hazy Shade of Winter by the Bangles

For the most part, yes. Especially for the younger guys. I did cruising from late 2006 to late 2007- so about a year. The university library bathroom is known as a cruise spot. Most of the guys I saw there were pretty old- I think I ran into maybe four guys that were actually young. Most of the younger guys are doing the CL thing, pretty much. I hit the "jackpot" early on- I was able to hookup with this really cute, tall, slender guy with abs and pretty blue eyes. It was because of it that I kept going back, thinking I'd get another guy like that. Never really did, so but the excitement of, "Maybe I'll get another really hot guy!" kept me going. These days, though, I don't do it. I refuse to end up on the sex offender's list just for some really bad, cheap sex in a public bathroom.

Chapter 9 http://nifty.nisusne...k/on-the-mark-9 -When Mark is excited on his plane fight, naieve about what the future holds for him. "What A Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jIbUp2IAFc -When Mark meets Matt, a homophobic Alpha male that he's in lust with at first sight. "Denis" by Blondie http://www.youtube.c...h?v=DL6hNSPaJrY -When the chemistry between Mark and Matt becomes pretty apparent in a baseball game and some pool wrestling. "Electricity" by OMD http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ZB1J57LGQfY -When Mark becomes morose, aimless, and depressed for most of his senior year of high school, spending most of his time just driving around the valley and thinking about life. "New Dawn Fades" by Joy Division -When Matt tries to rag on the City, and California Boy Mark gets very animated in his defense of his city. "California Uber-Alles" by the Dead Kennedys -When Matt and Mark run into an emaciated and VERY femme Darryl in the City. "Sad Eyes" by Robert John -When Mark gets "one" thrust with a girl named Claudia in his car for senior prom night, and gets his ass saved by the fact that she's connected to the police. "Sentimental Lady" by Bob Welch http://www.youtube.c...h?v=jE9CW-QHoUo (What a perfect prom song, right?) **** I have a couple of comments about this one... Matt was SOOOOOOO obviously a closetcase homophobe, or at least very curious, and definitely would have gone for Mark had this not been 1980 and a very homophobic time. Also, it seems like Matt and Van have the same sort of body type that seems to drive Mark wild- really big guys with broad shoulders and a soft coating of fat over the muscles so they don't have that ripped look. I'm kinda curious about Darryl- why did he turn into a make-up wearing leather twink? That's pretty interesting. I would figure he prolly would have ended up a hooker, but I thought that he would have been more appealing in short-shorts and a tank top. Anyway, the Darryl moment was orginally going to be "Broken-Hearted Me", but eh. I figure "Sad Eyes" works better there, with "Broken-Hearted Me" working better for when Mark says good-bye to to Van. Finally, leave it to Mark to almost get busted for "lewdness", but be with a girl who just happens to be the daughter of a man the cop respects.

The vibe I've been getting so far seems to be history programs are a little more relaxed than say, psychology or English masters programs, and it seems to be focusing more on the history GPA than the accumulative GPA. So yeah, what I'm aiming for is a 1000+ GRE, a 2.8 acculmulative, and a 3.0+ history GPA. We'll see how that goes.

That's what I'm planning on.

Okay. So I'm looking out over my senior year, and I came to a realization. If I want any chance of getting into grad school, I've GOT to get my grades up. My grades have been slowly going in the right direction- from an absolutely abbysmal 2.134 GPA for fall 2007(depression sucks), my accumulative GPA is now standing at a 2.42 after spring 2009 and summer 2009, thanks to a 2.867 and a 2.6something for those semesters. Still mediocre, but at least going in the right direction. My major GPA is better- standing at a 2.875, I'm almost at a 3. When I get my major GPA to a 3.0, I'll have a much better chance of getting into grad school. I won't be getting into William and Mary, but I'll live. Right now, there is exactly one school that I know would take me- Millersville University in Pennsylvania. They require a 2.75 history gpa, so I could make it in now. There's another school that I can get into if I get my acculmulative GPA up to a 2.75- it's called Shippensburg University, also in P.A., and it actually seems like a program that could be good for me- applied history masters. It's a broader program, and would allow me a bit of flexibility in what I want to do. Getting my history GPA to a 3.0, I'd also be able to get into Salisbury University, which has a concentrated history program that I like, as well as Delaware State University, which has a museum program that I think I'd be interested in. So, the goal right now is to just keep bringing the grades up, especially when it comes to my history courses. I need to get at least an A or two in history. I'm planning on taking winter session. My goal is, by the end of winter semester, to have a 2.8 acculmulative GPA, and a 3.0+ GPA in history. If I get there, I'll be much more comfortable about beginning to apply to graduate schools. (Of course, there's also the GRE's, which I plan to take in Feburary.) But there's another option- take another semester and graduate in fall 2010 instead of spring 2010, so I could just work on getting the GPA up, as well as maybe do some independent study with one of the history professors. That's another option- but there's a bit of a caveat. I only have four more history classes I need to take- two more 300 level history classes, 1 400 level, and Western Civ 2. That's it. After that, I could take history classes, but they'd just be for show and wouldn't actually count for credit. So if I do that, I'd prolly have to get a minor. It's all pretty confusing. I'm thinking about sitting down with my history adivisor and see what he thinks. I mean, if I went to undergrad during the 2010-2011 school year, it'd be a sixth year in the chronological sense, but because of the fact that I took a year off in 2008, I would only be a 5th year senior, meaning I'd still be covered by finanicial aid. (It looks like they'll cover up to a 5th year of undergrad.) What do you guys think?

Yeah, it would. LOL. It's a pretty interesting, complicated case. We'll see how it unfolds. I do think my friend is being unrealistic though- if I got supended for a year for the "incident" which I'm not going to go into, I have a hard time believing that UD isn't going to expel him. The press isn't good for the school. She thinks they might just suspend him for a semester, or something, but I really think UD will expel him. I mean, if he's found guilty, he will never be able to be a nuse, so...yeah. My friend Cherie...god, I feel for her. I just don't know what she'll do.

Mark, here are some good ones- "Head over Heels" Literal Version "Never Gonna Give You Up" Literal Version "Under the Bridge" Literal Version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILhJs8BLcTQ And this is the one that started it all... "Take On Me" Literal Version http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832838 "You know you like it that I'm flirting with you..." So, so true. LOL.

I talked to his girlfriend, who is my good friend, and she's deciding to stick by him until she gets some concrete proof that he's guilty. Me? I don't know. I'm still leaning towards him being guilty, but I'm going to try and give him the benefit of the doubt. Still, I have a hard time believing that the cops wouldn't have arrested him unless they had some really good proof, which they can't release to the public. I just feel bad for his girlfriend, who's struggling through a final exam today with this on her mind. And his family, who have to deal with this. Imagine the amount of money they spent sending him to college, and there's a good chance he's going to be expelled. Either way, he can't be a nurse- you can't be a nurse and have a criminal record.

From Myspace to Rape Charges Man. I know Nick. Nick is the boyfriend of my friend, who's a pretty sweet girl and absolutely doesn't deserve this. It's absolutely creepy to think that just after the weekend I hung out with him and his girlfriend, he got arrested for having sex with a 12-year old girl. I mean, I played beer pong with him two weeks ago! *shudders* It's crazy. Something about the guy always creeped me out, although I could never quite articulate it, and now I know why. Man. He's a perfect case of why you need to trust your own instincts when it comes to people, even when they seem like a cool party guy. I just don't get why he had to do this- he has a girlfriend his own age, and he seemed to be good at getting girls interested in him. I don't get why this happened. It's so strange that I now can say I've met and hung out with a pedophile. Ugh. Eww. And Uck.

Good point.

I think it's interesting that in Granger's view, a 15-year old boy having sex with an older man is a form of rape, but when Granger actually was 15, he was having sex with older men all the time.

I'll give you Lark, because I think Lark in "A Summer Love" didn't match at all the Lark we had gotten to know in "Be Rad". I couldn't buy what Lark had turned into- we were never given any indication in "Be Rad" that Lark was a user, and what happened to him didn't make sense. However, as early as "The Land Whore", we were given indication that Billy was a follower who didn't have a mind of his own, and throughout "Be Rad" we kept getting hints of that- that Billy was easily influenced by his asshole friends and didn't care enough about other people to stand up for them. How he treated Mouse wasn't surprising- that he had this little guy to pick on and sate his urges, and could use his physical strength to get him to do it. And what happened to Billy was sadly realistic- he rode with his friends who were driving drunk, and that is all too common with high schoolers and college kids. Billy wasn't a horrible person- he was just a shallow 15-year old boy who was given an easy life and a great bod and took it all for granted. Most of us are not our best at 15. I'm sure that if Billy had been able to grow up, he would have been fine. But he never got that chance. I actually liked that Mark incorporated MADD into the story- the 1980's really seemed to be the decade where awareness about teen drunk driving deaths really went up. It's interesting though that the Hayes are looking to pretty much fade out- Robbie didn't have a biological kid, and Marcel doesn't seem interested in having kids, either...so...it kinda makes me sad that there won't be a Gen 3 of Hayes along with the Gen 3 of the Schluters and the Cramptons. As for what's next, I like the idea of 1997. 1999 would be good, too. I just feel like there needs to be at least one more story before we stop at 9/11. One thing that I like is how Mark is developing the next generation of CAP with Darius, Will, and JJ. The custody fight storyline in "If It Fits" was a great way of letting us get to know the new kids, without letting it overtake what was going on with the story in general. Darius seems to be like Ace, but with a better control on his temper. Will is like Brad, and JJ seems to be someone who marches to the beat of his own drummer, and is never serious, and happy to try new things even if he sucks at them. That could be interesting- pitting a future Golden Boy like Will against an off-beat charmer like JJ. That could be very interesting for Mark to write. Oh, and if he does 1999, Darius's college search will be pretty fun and interesting to read, I think.

Revised Chapter 8 http://nifty.nisusne...k/on-the-mark-8 -When Mark talks about the changes that Darryl's departure has wrought, including the fact that Van will no longer experiment with him anymore. Nor will any other guys who might have been interested. "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbZhj6H9kfY -When Mark and his father work on Mark's 1968 Mustang Flashback. "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow http://www.youtube.c...h?v=B_o8F36CfHU -When Mark gives a blowjob to his manager, Ken. And it starts a series of one-sided blowjobs. "Orgasm Addict" by Buzzcocks -When Mark confronts the manager about the way he uses him for sex, and the manager goes apeshit. "What Do I Get?" by Buzzcocks -When Mark and Van spend a few days at the beach, and Mark gets lucky with a girl named Dawn, who's very sexually compatible. "Night Moves" by Bob Seeger -On the final night at the beach, when Mark and Van finally get together and have sex again. "Thicker than Water" by Andy Gibb -When Van kisses away Mark's tears and makes love to him one last time. "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seeger http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Mj7SD9BPwcU -When Mark says goodbye to Van at the airport. "Brokenhearted Me" by Annie Murray http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsnqpIXHaNE **** I was orginally going to use "Brokenhearted Me" for something else, but damn. Reading that part again, I really could not let those scenes go without having "Brokenhearted Me" scoring it. And I decided to revise a little, because I heard "We've Got Tonight" and realized it was released in 1978, so I HAD to use it for that love scene and used "Brokenhearted Me" for the good-bye scene instead. I hope I made the right choice.

Mark, 1997 is a fine idea. Lots of interesting stuff happened that year.

Still, I think spanning 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 is a bit much. Mark tends to have his stories be about a year, sometimes a year and a half. I think it'd be better to have one story that focuses on 1999 and early 2000, and then another story that focuses on summer 2001 to winter 2002.

My vote is that you do a story set in 1999-2000 first.

Will is from the United States, though, and I remember the country being glum for a pretty long time afterwards, so I'm assuming the party mood is going to be a bit down for his birthday, though. And we're talking about a 15-year old boy who watched something dramatic happen on TV (or in person) , not an older woman who's prolly seen a good amount of atrocities and disasters in her lifetime.

Will turns 15 on Friday, September 14, 2001. Mark has to get in Will's 15th birthday in there somewhere- I know it was pretty traumatic for people who had their birthday on that day, but I suppose it was still traumatic for those who had their birthday that week as well.

Today is the 35th anniversay of Richard Nixon's resignation speech over the Watergate scandal. "Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office." That must have been a crazy event to witness.

My opinion is that Darius, who is attending sophomore year of college by 2001, should be going to school in New York City. It's an easy way to get them there.

Chapter 7 http://nifty.nisusne...k/on-the-mark-7 -When Mark plays third wheel with Van and Tanya, and actually manages to become good with Tanya. "Hey, Deanie" by Shaun Cassidy http://www.youtube.c...h?v=NXn4aOVK-Ng -When Mark causes a scene with Mari's mother, spraying her with a hose. "Cold As Ice" by Foreigner -When Mark and Van wrestle around before hooking up. "You Make Loving Fun" by Fleetwood Mac http://www.youtube.c...h?v=MWFU1Yjyv5A -When Mark gives Van a massage as prelude to some gnarly sex. "Touch Me" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show -When Mark goes to San Francisco by himself, taking in the scenery...and the catcalls. "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMqg-MQRI9I -When Mark is sunning out in his pool, gets splashed, and finds Darryl's goofy lopsided grin staring back at him. And then sex happens. "Heat Wave" by Linda Ronstadt http://www.youtube.c...h?v=DmwrqldUdCc -When Mark talks about sophomore year, and how Mari is labeled a slut, and he somehow manages to patch things up with Aaron Bryce by joking with him about what a whore she is. "Lay Down Sally" by Eric Clapton http://www.youtube.c...h?v=EivR78mrRFE -When Mark finds out about Darryl getting outed. And freaks out, worried that Darryl's misfortune will turn him into an unloved, lonely freak. "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen -When Darryl comes to Mark's house, beaten up, and Mark's mother takes Darryl over to the hospital. "Point of No Return" by Kansas -When Darryl lies about going to an aunt in the City, and he says good-bye to Mark and his parents, leaving for parts unknown. "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas **** Mark, you were one seriously emotional teenager. Geez.

Chapter 25 -When Stefan tells Brian about Greg, and then goes into a bit of family history. "Landslide" by The Smashing Pumpkins -When Stefan tries to explain his relationship with JP to Brian. "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morisette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S92U5EqyPQs -When Cody and Brian met, and fall in love at first sight. "Big Me" by the Foo Fighters http://www.youtube.c...h?v=GhfWzCPRPtg -When JP calls up Stefan, who updates him on the lives of their young friends and family in Malibu, including Brian and Cody...well, you know. "Alright" by Supergrass http://www.youtube.c...h?v=VMY6Uy2B0EQ -When Stefan gets to JP's lecture, and JP comes out by introducing Stefan as his life partner. Thus, JP has come out about everything in his life, and is ready to be an open and proud gay man in the 1990's. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pAIKznMPXUk *** Alright, guys. It's been a blast. Mark is taking a break from the Cramptons, so it'll be awhile before I do another set of music for the CAP saga. Thanks for enjoying the ride along with me!

Chapter 24 -When J.P. reads the letter that Alexander Crampton wrote back in 1936, detailing how J.P. is not the natural son of Jack Clampton, and how he was the product of an affair. "You Can't Pull the Wool Over My Eyes" (1936 Hit Recording) -When Claire gets Ace to cool down over the news, and accepts JP's apology for lying to everyone. "Ode to My Family" by The Cranberries http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xf5ZlTlrgw -When JP and Stefan talk about the events last night, and we meet the new and and Claire-improved Brian Parnell. "The World I Know" by Collective Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dIZ6fkLJew -When Stefan and Brian get to Malibu, and Brian gets schooled on the art of love by Stefan. In a surprisingly non-sexual way. "Exhale" by Whitney Houston http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnub4GmaPg -When Stefan and Brad talk about the goings-on of the two teenagers and Cody, and then Stefan decides to talk to Brian about his deceased husband, Greg. "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis

Chapter 23 -When they discuss the "active" life that Bill Hendrickson must have had even into his 60's, JP's plans for the family dinner, and how Brian will live at the Cramptons. "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest -When Stefan makes phone calls to family to make sure they all come to the family dinner. "This Is A Call" by the Foo Fighters -When we meet Brian's soon-to-be-former roomates as Stefan helps him move out. "Good" by Better than Ezra -When Stefan buys Brian a new '96 4Runner Toyota. "Life Is A Highway" by Tom Cochrane -When Brian is taken to Escorial, settles in, and gets introduced to the always-entertaining Crampton family dinner. "In the House of Stone and Light" by Martin Page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxskNG6e5ZU