methodwriter85

It was originally a 12-month pregnancy- March 1962 to March 1963. Not quite as bad as the other elephant-like gestation period you've written.

I've finally found a decent link to Man in Motion by John Parr. For all you whippersnappers who weren't even a gleam in their daddy's eye in 1985, Man in Motion was the theme song to a well-known movie called St. Elmo's Fire, which followed a group of Georgetown University graduates as they struggled with the start of adulthood. It's the inspiration behind the title of Mark's story, Man in Motion. *states the obvious* Man in Motion by John Parr Growin' up, you don't see the writing on the wall Passin' by, movin' straight ahead, you knew it all But maybe sometime if you feel the pain You'll find you're all alone, everything has changed Play the game, you know you can't quit until it's won Soldier on, only you can do what must be done You know in some way you're a lot like me You're just a prisoner and you're tryin' to break free I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire Burning up, don't know just how far that I can go (just how far I go) Soon be home, only just a few miles down the road I can make it, I know I can You broke the boy in me, but you won't break the man I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me, burnin' in me Just once in his life a man has his time and my time is now, I'm coming alive I can hear the music playin', I can see the banners fly Feel like you're back again, and hope ridin' high Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me Burnin', burnin' in me, I can feel it burnin' Oooh, burnin' inside of me... (to fade) *** When Mark was telling me about the story idea he had about Brad as a senior in college in 1985, I thought that Man in Motion was a fitting song. It really does do a good job of describing where Brad was at in his life at the age of 23.

I'm not the one writing the proposed story- it would be a very sexy friend of mine who's a total DILF. He's got an idea to send a character to the Olympics. But it wouldn't be the future Olympics- prolly set at the 2006 Olympics.

So it's late teens to about 24/25? Then yeah- for someone born in 1985, their Olympic Cycles would be for the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. It's kinda funny- had this character been born in 1983 instead of 1985, he probably could have competed in '02, '06, and '10. It's amazing what a different two years can make. Thanks for the help, Daisy. You gave a lot of great insight. I have a friend who skates with the University of Delaware, which has a good (but apparently decling) figure skating club, but I'm too lazy to call her up. LOL. Daisy, do you know what other areas aside from UD are known to have really good figure skating programs? Any in California?

Thanks. You did. So it sounds like it would be possible for my friend's character to still attend regular high school while training for the Olympics, and also attend college. It doesn't sound like the crazy schedule that gymnasts have. And I guess the '06 Olympics works fine- not only do you get Apollo Ohno, but Jeremy Bloom as well. *drool* But at 24, would he still realistically be able to compete at the Olympics of 2010? And what about the Olympics of 2014, when he's 28? What's the "prime" physical age for male figure skaters? Anyone else wanna weigh in?

I do the offical music recs, but I've gotten a couple of comments from people who've wanted to post music they like that makes them think of the story. I thought this would be an unofficial thread for people to do that. There's only one rule, though- a music recomendation you make CAN'T be a song that was released after the story takes place. If you're recomending a song for Man In Motion, you can't recomend a song that came out after 1986. If you're recomending a song for That Land Whore, you can't use a song that came out after 1974. So no use of Miley Cyrus *looks pointedly at Mark M* for any of the stories so far, since we've only gotten as far as 1999 in the CAP saga. That said, if you would like to use a song that came out well BEFORE a story takes- like say, using a 1971 song like Baba O'Riley for the Who to score a scene from the 1980-1981 set Be Rad, that is perfectly okay. You just can't use Hungry Like the Wolf for a Be Rad scene, since that is a 1982 song. I'll start. Here's a song from 1986: Human by The Human League The song makes me think of Robbie and Brad's up-and-down relationship in Be Rad.

Hey, I have a friend who's thinking about having a character become a famous figure skater. So I'm curious about the world of figure skating, and have some questions. 1. What are practices like, and how long are they? Is someone who is training for the Olympics able to attend high school/college, or would they have to get a tutor because the training is all day? 2. The character was born in late 1985. That means they will be 16 years old for the 2002 Olympics- is it common for a 16-year old male to be in a figure skating competition for the Olympics? He'll also be 20 in 2006, and 24 in 2010. Would 2006 and 2010 be his main Olympic cycles, or would he have a shot at the 2014 Olympics as a 28-year old? Is 28 "over the hill" in terms of male figure skaters? 3. What is the ideal height and weight for a male figure skater? If a male figure skater suddenly went through a 3-inch growth spurt that also packed on about 15 to 20 pounds of muscle, would that completely throw him off? Are eating disorders a common enough occurence among male figure skaters? 4. What are the sorts of injuries that are common to figure skaters, and what would be the career-ending injuries? 5. Does California have any prestigious figure skating programs at the college level, or would someone serious about figure skating be more likely to move to a place like Colorado or something? Is there a state that is known to have a plethora of top-notch skating programs/ Thanks, you guys would really help.

Chapter 4 -When Steven finds Tonto having sex...with a woman! "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" by Anne Shelton -When Steven and Aaron have sex with each other during a weekend at his family's lake cabin. "Racing With the Moon" by Vaughn Monroe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dehBW_U0k

The more I read, the more I am convinced that Enric is really Benjamin Whist come to life.

On one hand, its cool to see kids standing up for their beliefs like that. But on the other hand...its a Catholic private college. I can't see how much good it will do, because a school affiliated with the Catholic church doesn't have to comply with non-discrimination policies because of the fact that its private. Not to mention that because Catholic teachings are clearly against homosexuality, so the school can pretty claim that forcing them to provide protections to gay faculty would be condoing homosexuality, and would therefore go against their beliefs as an institution. I went to a Methodist college once, and I remember they actually had to look up Methodist doctrine to see if having a GSA would go against it. It didn't, so it was allowed to happen. Still, Methodism is not nearly as conservative as Catholicism. No offense, man, but why would any gay person actually want to attend a college that is affiliated with a very anti-gay church?

Now that would be cool. J.J. into's skating- maybe he could wind up competing for the '02, '06, and '10 Olympics. If that happens, we likely won't see him in high school or at college, though. I could see Will becoming this well-known engineer. I sense Will as a future scientist type. What I wanna see though is how extremely-whitebread Claire and Jack, as well as Brad and Robbie, are going to deal with the "urban" stylings of their kids. JJ, Will, Marie, and John are going to grow up in a generation that is highly saturated with hip-hop fashion, clothes, slang, and music. It would be interesting to see how Mark explores the generation Gap- I already like how it did it for the Silent Generation vs. the Baby Boomers, and the Baby Boomers vs. Gen X. I can already picture this conversation between Claire and Marie.... 2002 Claire- Marie, you are NOT wearing sweat pants to school. I want you to wear a real outfit. What happened to the 400 dollars I gave you to buy a back-to-school-outfit at Neiman Marcus? 2002 Marie- Mom, I AM wearing my back-to-school outfit. This track suit was $250, and my Uggs were $150! 2002 Claire: You spent 400 dollars on that ugly montrosity of an outfit? And is that a thong I see? 2002 Marie: All the girls wear them. 2002 Claire: Not MY daughter. Now go and change into something else! God, I can just picture Claire recoiling in horror at what's going to be trendy for her daughter's generation, especially the whale tail and Juicy Couture. Or when her son or nephews decide to start wearing Timbalands and Fubu. The closest to preppy she'll see is Abercrombie Fitch and Tommy Hilfiger, and even that stuff is pretty baggy and not the sort of tailored preppy look Claire likes to dress everyone in. *Whale tails are an early/mid 2000's trend in which girls would wear thongs that would be shown off by their extremely low-cut jeans. It was a ubitious look at every high school and college.

Not only that, but as Mark has said before, the CAP saga is a soap opera. He's modeling CAP as like a much, much gayer West Coast version of Dallas. It's not meant to be a gritty reality story.

I don't think Steven is 100 percent straight- I gotta feeling that he has a thing for Aaron. I think Steven is the kind of guy that is mostly straight, but he's got a part of himself that can really fall in love with a guy. Some things tip me off- like how Steven thinks Aaron has a beautiful voice and stuff...I think he's in love with Aaron in one of those I'm--mostly-straight-but-I-really-love-my-best-friend kinda deal. And I don't mind that there will be heterosexual sex in this story.

THANK YOU so much for articulating exactly what was bugging me about Enric's postings. I feel like I'm being lectured at, rather than being engaged in an actual dialogue. I thought I was the only one who was getting bugged by this. LMAO. I hope you're right and Wade Danfield becomes a real person. I already lust after his real-life physical model, Nico Tortorella, but it'd be great to meet a Southern blue-blood hottie who is refined yet well versed in the ways of wacky tobbacky.

Mark, thanks for posting those great pictures of those cars. They're swell.

The problem I have with Enric is his orignal declaration that the set up of the Cramptons and Schluters having two sets of cousins that were born within a year of each other as "not plausible." Then, when presented with anecdotal evidence not just from myself but from Blue that counters the idea that it's implausible, he then switches to it being "unusual" without actually conceding that he's wrong in the idea that set-up is impossible. Nothing he's said has refuted the idea that it's impossible, just that it's highly unlikely. I'm not arguing the idea that it's not a common occurence, but he was the one who said that having two pairs of cousins so closely matched up in age was implausible. He's been wrong in that regard, and I'm calling him obdurate because he refuses to admit that his *original* assertion is wrong. As someone who will fully admit fallacy if presented with evidence that counters my original assertion, I haven't seen anything from Enric that gives off my original impression that it is possible for two sets of cousins in the same family to be of the same age. It is possible. It's just not usual. And wow, this is getting so off-topic. Enric, let's just shake hands and agree to disagree. I don't want this to be a debate that takes over this thread. Thanks Mark, though, for backing me up here. As for Mark, yeah, stretching the limits of reality for your story have been a great bit of fun. I really do like how Claire and Billy are twins, yet Claire was fathered by J.P. while Billy was fathered by Jeff. Or Jim Crampton becoming a father at the age of 60 because he wanted to mess around with social propriety and mess with crack-whore Bitty. Not the most likely stuff, but still in the end, plausible.

Matt and Wade getting married in 2010 D.C. That would make a perfect ending to the CAP series.

You are really goddamn obdurate, Enric.

It's not that far-fetched at all. My sister Jennifer and our cousin Stacey were both born in 1977. And I'm about the same age as my cousin Heather. And it's something that will continue in the series- J.J. Schluter, Will Schluter, Marie Hobart, and John Hobart were all born in a span between December 1985 to March 1987. Forget a pair- the cousins are a quad, all within a year-and-half of each other. (And before you bitch about the implausibility of Marie and John Horbart being born just 11 months apart, it's been a regular enough occurence for two siblings to be born less than a year after each other that it's called the Irish Twin.) Jim's age was never really that concrete in CAP, so Mark is allowed room to clarify it through this prequel. I think it works out fine that Jim is a contemporary of Steven. While I agree that it's unusual for Jim to have waited until he was in his 30's to get married and have kids, it's certaintly not unhead-of, especially considering what a heel Jim is. I don't think he was exactly fighting off the girls in his 20's.

I just realized that Tonto is actually J.J.'s GREAT-grandmother. Man though, that J.J. has some complicated geneaology. I would pity the guy for having to do a family tree. His cousins Marie and John will have it much easier.

Chapter 3 -In the limo, when the guys chat before getting ready to read the journal. "Time in A Bottle" by Jim Croce (early 1970's) http://www.vimeo.com/8702237 -When Steven Schluter describes his 16th birthday in 1941, where his father stiffs him of a car. "When You Wish Upon A Star" by Cliff Edwards (early 1940's) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ1NYFFDT8I -When Tonto calls out Barry on his affairs, and forces him to concede about the car. "All That Meat and No Potatoes" by Fats Weller (early 1940's) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM_f7PzRURw -When Tonto and Steven buy the biggest, most expensive cars they can get as one big "eff" to Barry. "On the Good Ship Lollipop" by Shirley Temple (mid-1930's) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yR7ONpWlIE God, how freakin' adorable was Shirley Temple? -When Steven goes to the dance with Kim Alpers, and then gets to second base with her in his car. "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller (early 1940's) -When Stefan and J.P. cuddle together, after reflecting on the two younger couples with them, and their own relationship. "More Than This' by Roxy Music (early 1980's)

Ithought this would be an interesting article to post here. It's about how a fraternity at George Washington University is fighting against the stereotype that frat boys are homophobic and sexist. A New Kind of Frat In my own experience dealing with frat kids, most didn't seem homophobic, and had a "live and let live" attitude. Except for KDR. Damn, they were jerks. But anyways, I thought it was cool to see how things are changing, even in an institution that was well-known for having homophobic overtones. I heard stories that back in the 1980's or something, it was actually a frat inititation to go to a gay bar, pick up a gay guy, and then gay-bash him! And then, in the 1990's, with John W.'s "Frat Memoirs", we see things still aren't that gay-friendly. It's great to see how things have changed since then- the story about the gay ROTC guy who had his brothers rally around him was great to read. Would anyone here like to share what their own experience was like to be either gay or bisexual in a frat? How did the brothers handle it? And do you agree that the homophobic stereotype of frat guys is a fair one? I'm very curious to hear some stories about this.

I didn't mention my mother's side of the family because they live in a foreign country, as my mother is an immigrant from the Phillipines. I have no memories of my mother's side of the family, and the last time my family set foot in the Phillipines was 1986. We don't really know anything about that side of the family, and how its changed and grown since the 1980's. As for the 11-year old cousin, I haven't seen my aunt since about 1993, so again, I've never met the guy and it's hard to think of him as family since I've never met him. My side of the family- we're the black sheep, as my father's side of the family won't have anything to do with us. I generally just tend to think of my immediate family, and my brother-in-laws, as family. I don't really have any extended family in my life. And it's long, sordid story why this is so, and I don't want to get into it. Moving on. Again, Mark, you should have J.J. hook up with Nick's drip of a son. It'd be hilarious.

Right. I mean, my dad had two siblings, and 3 kids is considered a fairly big family these days. My dad had 3 kids- my two sisters and me. My uncle had three kids- 2 girls and one boy who are all in their 30s now. Then my aunt had a daughter who is my age, and a son who would be about 11 now. So yeah, no age-appropriate male kin to get with. My family isn't very fertile- right now my two sisters and one half-sister have 2 kids between them, and they're already in their late 20s/early 30's.

Mark, did Nick ever get married and have kids? You feel like as an aspiring politician, he'd want the image of a doting husband and father to use. It would be hilarious if Nick had a son or something and he messed around with J.J. or Will and it was absolutely horrible. The cousins-fooling-around-thing seems to be a common. Well, not in my case- the only male cousin I have is in his late 30s and not cute at all.