methodwriter85

LOL. I'm 30- the point is that would be more unique if I was a guy born in the 1940's or 1950's with that name. It might be different outside of the U.S. Jeremy peaked as a baby name in the 1970's and 1980's, which translates to meaning that most guys with that name will be in their 30's or 40's. I did actually run into an 11-year old boy last night with my name. Go figure. LOL.

This was a pretty fascinating data look at how U.S. names changed over the course of the late 19th to early 21st century, with names put in bubbles that get smaller or bigger depending on where the name is ranked. Here's the girls: Here's the guys: It was fascinating to watch my name- it basically came out of nowhere in the early 1970's, peaks as top 15 name in 1976, and then just free-falls out of popularity. Most of the guys with my name are in their early 40's now. I don't really meet little kids or old men with my name. I don't think I've ever met a guy in his 60's running around with the name "Jeremy." It's kind of rare to see that with male names- it feels like most parents stick to traditional names like Matthew, John, and Michael with boys.

I came across this pretty interesting question on Reddit, by a guy who wants to write a period piece about Los Angeles gay men in the mid-1990's. I wonder if Private Tim's still around? He'd probably have a lot to say about this. It was his "time", so to speak. All I really have to say about being gay in the mid-1990's would be movies I watched from that time period, like I Think I Do, Kiss Me Guido, Johns, and Bedrooms and Hallways. (Although they're not actually set in Los Angeles.) There was also this book I read called California Screaming. It focuses on mid/late 90's gay Los Angeles society, in a tale of a pretty boy who failed to make it big by 30, who manages to land himself a big media player. It's good trashy fun.

Millie Bobbie Brown as a 12-year old Maddie? Millie's coloring is actually pretty close to how I pictured Jeanine's (and her daughter's) being. I think Millie's supposed to have some Mediterranean blood in her, like Maddie. I do think she'd be one very cool, chic little girl like Millie is.

Wilshire Grand Tower is Now the Tallest U.S. Skyscraper West of the Mississippi Pretty cool. Los Angeles seems to be having a push towards building skyscrapers right now. Also of note is that it's the first skyscraper to be built in Los Angeles with a curved roof, after a 1974 law requiring all roofs on skyscrapers to be flat in order to have helicopters land on top was redacted.

I used Uber for the first time. It was pretty good, and I'll definitely use it again.

I wound up finishing.... I was already spoiled for this, but I LOVED that Nancy didn't suddenly start dating Jonathan and dump Steve. I liked that they allowed Steve to redeem himself. Maybe I just have a thing for tall lanky guys with a great head of hair. All in all, it was great. I liked that they wound up leaving up just enough to allow for a new season, but at the same time, they wound up answering the big questions. (If they had left Will in the Upside Down, I would have been PISSED.) I'm definitely in for a season 2.

I finally broke down and got Netflix so I could watch Stranger Things, which is kind of like an homage to 1970's/1980's sci-fi teen fantasy movies/books. It's about a nerdy group of middle school friends in small town America 1983, when one of the group goes mysteriously missing. Some big nostalgia factor- aside from being set in '83, it's also got 80's teen stars Matthew Modine and Winona Ryder. Winona especially turns in quite the performance as a single mom slowly but surely coming apart at the seams as the horror of realizing her son has gone missing. I'm on the 4th episode currently- it's been pretty true to the early 1980's setting other than some anachronisms, like playing "Hazy Shade of Winter", a 1987 song, or someone calling another person a "douchebag", which is more late 90's slang. I'm pretty thrilled by that- nothing's more annoying than watching a period piece where they completely bungle the setting and don't get it right, like 'The Carrie Diaries". But yeah, watching the show, they really get that "First-Term Reagan America" ennui right, with the girls in the prairie blouses and long tartan skirts and the guys in tight jeans and pattern/colored polo shirts and the way the cars/houses look. Still lots of traces of the 70's, but slowly fading out. The soundtrack has been pretty fun- they played one of my favorite songs...the melancholy . Anyone else watching it?

If you're not Michael Phelps or Simone Biles, nobody gets covered.

Kevin living in a suburb of the Frat Life- I dug that comment. Mainly because my freshmen year of college, I really was pretty much living adjacent to frat life. (Then I switched over to hipsters sophomore year- talk about a change!) But as much as you might feel as if they're your friends, you're never really quite one of them. I remember having some friends who were pledging a sorority and they were stuck wearing this awful purple sweatsuit and pigtails the whole week. One I'm pretty sure depledged. Although my school was very small, and Greek life didn't have nearly the kind of money that they seem to have here. I do get a kick out of how much in (non-gay) love Chris Baker seems to be with Becker, with Becker not even realizing it.

Not much else I can add but just say that this has been one hell of an 8-year ride with you, and a lot fun. If the ride ends now because you need to take care of yourself, I'm still one hell of a happy man. You don't owe me, or Sharon, or anybody else anything but to focus on getting well.

Has anyone seen the new McDonald's commercial running during the Olympics? It's absolutely brilliant. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lj8pQR_pkU It works on so many levels- the music, the father/daughter relationship, and 1980's Gen Xer nostalgia. It's such a cynically brilliant love letter to the "children of the 80's" generation, who've mostly taken over as the parents to school-aged kids.They did a great job with creating that mid-1980's "feel" in a way that didn't feel overdone or underdone. The house and the car especially felt spot-on for Reagan Era America. Kudos to the little boy playing the child of the 80's. He really did a good job with giving the paternal vibe even though I'm assuming he didn't actually film with his "daughter." It's been a while since I've seen an ad this good. Whoever did it, I hope got a great raise out of it.

Heh. Kids React to Blockbuster Video: [

This selfie has been burning up Reddit, and it made me think... Claire and Marie Hobart? Ava really is the best ideal combination of Reese and Ryan facial-wise. Speaking of Ava...are there any daughters on the horizon, Mark? That's going to be a hot baby name. I can totally see Wade wanting to name a daughter something like Ava. Very old-school and throwbacky.

New PSA about the Los Angeles River: I wonder how much Blue would have to be bribed before he'd splash around in the river.

JWolf, after a year absence, is back to posting more chapters of the English Year. See how our Corbin Crowley navigates his way through the spring '09 semester at Old Dominion!

I really like how you basically hinted at this, until coming right out in this chapter and admitting that Adam feels this almost personality split going on with "Peter" and "Adam", and that he has a hard time admitting to it. It'll be interesting to see if the rest of his family gets to meet "Adam", and see how they react to it.

One bit I really liked in this was how Adam didn't seem to get that Chris Baker had basically fellated him the entire year in terms of pledging. He is so insecure and so jealous of his golden boy brother and so used to being the afterthought that he doesn't get that when people view him as a "catch", even if it's in a platonic way. I thought that was a really nice, subtle background character development. Kevin O'Malley. God, something about those lanky hot stoner boys just make you lose all reason.

Glad you're writing again. Really enjoyed this chapter. I thought the section where they're at Rob Winslow's house and Adam was noting all the pictures was hilarious. I was at a New Year's party once for a guy who was able to use his parent's house, and I spent the night marveling at how many childhood photos they had managed to put up of this guy. He was CLEARLY an only child.

This guy is basically a Duran Duran super-fan: I think it's great that he's using archival boxes to store their posters. Another fan wrote a book: Back to rock stars...Stephen Jenkins from Third Eye Blind. I had such a thing for him.

Stanford Silenced Women Who Warned About Brock Turner If this is all true, and JP is still around in 2016, I feel like he would be so utterly disappointed in Stanford.

If we go with Mark's m.o. and general patterns, we should be reading about 2016 in the year 2029 or so. LOL. The lag right now seems to be between 11-13 years- the last years Mark skipped were 1996-1997. There haven't been time jumps over years since Bloodlines. That may or may not change as we go along.(Now that JJ isn't skating, I'm hoping we skip 2006. That was a pretty boring year for the most part. The only reason I wanted Mark to cover that year was because of the Winter Olympics.) I always kind of thought that if Mark ever did reach "present" time, he could do a send-off to the family we know, and then do a series based around the Cramptons in the early 19th century as they founded Claremont, or maybe something based around the Gilded Age of America. The 1870's-1900's would be a pretty interesting time period for a super-rich family, and it's an era Mark hasn't done yet. Anyway, 2004 is coming up in CAP. That was a pretty interesting year. It was the first election year I could vote in, and I still remember those 'Swiftboat Veterans for Truth' ads that SNL skewered. We also have gay marriage, the Jim McGreevey scandal (although I'm not sure that would be something West Coast people cared about), and the rise of Facebook. And Will finally turns 18. Not that it ever really mattered to the guys who he hooked up with being underaged, LOL.

Eh. Maybe they don't know. I could have sworn they did know, though. Brad's "I've been taking care of your son for 14 years" line was such a great line from that book. It was the first time that JJ's parentage since Man in Motion was mentioned.

They know that, and Matt and Wade found out about that during Millennium at the same time Ella was introduced, I think. I could be wrong. They've remained tight-lipped about JJ because the reality that his bio mother was whoring herself out to someone who was basically her uncle is just not very pleasant.

I guess. He's Rich's half-brother, and Rich is Ella's bio father, which I guess makes JJ her uncle, basically. I don't think anyone's really discussed with JJ the fact that he's Jim Crampton's son. Will doesn't even know. Of that generation, only Wade and Matt know. Meanwhile, he's got not just one but two Golden Boy brothers, both of whom everybody just seems to love and adore. (I'd be shocked if Darius wasn't prom king for Malibu High's class of 2000.) New York is definitely good for him for that reason. JJ should get a gossip/society blog. I bet he'd be amazing at it. The one thing about him is that even though he's not the best at friendships/relationships, he can be really keen at observing people.