methodwriter85

Hmm. I don't think they necessarily have to be aristocratic, but someone who's well-bred and classically good-looking from at least a respectably upper-middle class family.

I do think Mary Ellen is over-estimating her ability to control Alex and the Grangers. Something tells me that while she's a vicious social climber, they have ways of dealing with her and making sure she's kept in line.

The stuff about the mini-Lizzie McGuire reunion made me remember that in 2003 to 2005-ish there's gonna to be a glut of Hilary Duff. I still remember this girl going off about this huge Hilary Duff "Got Milk?" ad that hung in our cafeteria back then. I found her really annoying back then and I preferred Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes...man, I bet on the WRONG horse there. LOL. I did always think Hilary had a major case of bitchface, but she seems to have turned out alright. I just found it creepy how much make-up they put on her and how much they were trying to push her as a sex symbol, similar to Bella Thorne now. I think most straight teenaged guys I knew back in 2003 wanted to marry Hilary Duff, LOL.

Agreed. Marry Ellen has obviously picked up on the fact that JJ is not exactly a kid-friendly guy, and she's right- JJ is not going to work with someone who's a parent, unless their kid is either grown or shipped off to boarding school. I actually get a kick out of just how anti-kid JJ is...it really makes him stand out against his brothers. Darius and Will are probably going to be dads by age 25, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if instead JJ gets himself "fixed" in his 20's just to make sure he never accidentally sires a kid. Which given Jim and Rich Crampton are his bio-father and bio-half-brother, it's a totally valid concern. LOL. I really liked the class ring scenes with Zach and Will. (Not just because that was my era of high school- 2003 was my sophomore year, 2004 was my junior year.) But I liked that both Zach and Will weren't really "about" their high schools, you know what I mean? Like there were the people who had a ton of school spirit, and were very into the experience, and there were the people that didn't really care. Not that they were anti-social, but their high school wasn't the big focus of their lives. It made total sense that Will never planned on getting school ring, but then Zach decides to relent to this silly, sentimental high school tradition to make his big announcement that they're going to finish out this high school romance in the same school together.

Chapter 46 -When Will gets a class ring from Zach, who announces that he'll be going to Menlo with Will for his last semester. "True Blue" by Madonna I decided to go with an oldie for this scene. (Well, its an oldie to us, probably not to them just yet.) In any event, this video was from the 1986 "Make My Video" contest, where Madonna and MTV had fans submit fanmade videos for her song. Considering how crude home video technology was at the time, I think they did a great job. Also, I get a kick out of the main guy's very 1986 hair in a 50's music video. Honestly, I love mid-1980's spiky hair styles, because they kinda remind me of late 1990's spiky hairstyles. LOL. I learned about the "Make My Video" contest (1989 is the first year I can remember) from MTV's 20th Anniversary retrospective back in 2001. I thought it was such a cool idea. Years later, you'd get YouTube and tons of people making their own fanmade videos. At one time, MTV was actually AHEAD of the times, go figure. -When Darius admits to Will that he's his rock. "Thicker Then Blood" by Garth Brooks -When Zach and Will exchange their "I loves" for Christmas. "Cry" by Mandy Moore I always thought it was shame that Mandy didn't have a bigger film career. She should have. I don't think she was that interested in pop stardom, though- this was pretty much the end of Pop Star Mandy and she seemed more interested in doing niche stuff.

I loved how elegantly simple Mary Ellen's plan is. She's right- JJ hates kids, therefore he is not going to work in the long run with a partner who is a parent, unless the kids are either grown up or shipped off to boarding school. As for Will and Zach...I kinda loved that moment, because neither Will or Zach were really all that centered on high school, or being part of their high school scene, but they're going to finish out their sweet high school romance together.

If we see the end of Zach's senior year of high school, I'm thinking that Zach is going to blow off his prom and do something really romantic and fun with Will. Neither Zach nor Will really strike me as the prom type. I can see Marie and her boyfriend (whoever he is) blowing off her own junior prom to do something with them.

My view of JJ is that he has a very specific type that he will go for. (Not just ogle, but actually go for.) The gay side of JJ is going to go for well-bred, lithe, pretty boys like Alex. The straight side of JJ is going to go for a classically beautiful aristocratic woman- long neck, long face, high forehead, understated make-up and elegance. He is soooo not going to be drooling over Hilary Duff like his contemporaries are. Anyway...check out Mark's inspiration for Marc, Chace Crawford! (Best known for starring on Gossip Girl as a teen hunk back in the late 2000's.) He's never really done that much for me, but I will say he's pretty as hell.

Happy 27th birthday, Jon! Welcome to the late 20's club!

I tended not to notice in college as well, but looking at the video reminded me of them. Anyway... Buzzfeed does a shit ton of videos on L.A. This video seems REALLY sprung on Griffith Park. I would totally do a ghost hunt in the abandoned zoo.

No, I wasn't thinking you'd be rude, but I imagined your facial expressions would be hilarious. (Sorry for that loss, by the way. I've been an uncle since I was 9 years old and I can only imagine.) We had a guy called Kirkbridge Jesus Guy at University of Delaware. He would sit outside Kirkbridge Hall, on the sidewalk, and preach his religious views to us. I think there was more than one. The main guy has been doing it since at least the late 1990's, I think. Apparently he finally left. Although watching that clip made me wonder...were L.L. Bean backpacks really popular where you went to high school/college, Blue? There were pretty much ubiquitous at University of Delaware, along with Northface. (Which has been replaced by Patagonia, apparently.) Kind of like the standby item for preppy high school and college students.

Hey, if you're about my age/Blue's age, you probably remember Andrew Keegan, best known for starring as the conceited jerk in Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger's teen romantic comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You. He's now founded his own religion. Seriously, what is it with California and all these religious off-shoots? Blue, have you ever been approached by these alternative religion types? I would love to see what your reaction was. LOL. Maybe we could have a storyline where JJ gets recruited into a cult, and the family rallies to save him. I can't see it being Will, Marie, Darius, or John...JJ's the only one I can see being able to get brainwashed. Kidding. I can't see Mark ever touching cults.

You've been pretty consistent about that- Brad's love life has always been so dramatic because of that. What's interesting is that Will kind of started out that way, where he got all sprung on some guy and got super-in to him, but I think after the drama of Tony, he doesn't really do that anymore. He grew out of it, but Brad never did. Interesting enough, JJ is the same way that Brad is about his love/infatuations. However, I think JJ could handle an open-relationship in a way that Brad never could, because JJ doesn't want to control the person he's in a relationship with. He just wants the other person to like him the best. JJ won't "beat her", but he's pretty good about understanding her game. JJ is surprisingly good at observing people and realizing how they tick. He's fighting back in subtle ways, although I kind of just want JJ to say "Fuck it" and move on from tis.

Oh yeah, he's pretty hot. One of my favorite things about the 2014 Olympics.

Check out Christopher Sean. He's an actor known for being Mr. Bing Lee on the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, as well as a gay baseball player on Days of Our Lives. He's half-Japanese, half-white, and pretty delectable. You liked mixed-Asian guys, right? That guy combines Caucasian and Asian features pretty beautifully, in my opinion.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, which is the largest domestic terrorist attack that has happened in the U.S. On April 19th, 1995, 168 people died when Timothy McVeigh parked a van in front of a federal building filled with explosives. Bill Clinton, who was president when the attack happened, lead the memorial ceremony today. 20th Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing Remembered I was 2nd grade when this happened, and its the first big tragedy that I remember really registering with me. I lived in Copperas Cove, Texas, so Oklahoma was our neighboring state...I remember being asked to collect pennies for the recovery fund. It feels like this event got overshadowed by 9/11 and it doesn't seem to get remembered nearly as much. Still, it deserves to be. Crazy when you think of those 19 children who should have been in their 20's and living life now. I will never forget the image of the firefighter carrying the baby that died.

When I was a little kid, I thought sex meant rolling around under your bed covers naked, because of the episodes of Melrose Place that I watched as a 7-year old. I didn't realize what sex actually was until I was 9 and saw The Miracle of Life on PBS. I NEVER got the sex talk from my parents. I also thought that if I could spin around fast enough, I could time-travel.

I don't know, on the right guy it can be pretty hot. Baseball player Daniel Norris pulls it off nicely: http://images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-03-11-at-9.46.30-AM.png Although I'll kinda admit I like seeing him with a shorter beard/just stubble instead: It's kind of funny- with the big beard he looks like a 30-year old lumberjack, without it, I'd think he was a 20-year old frat boy. He rocks it either way.

Not nearly as bizarre as the father/daughter dances where girls proclaim their intention to remain virgins until marriage. I saw that in the documentary "The Education of Shelby Knox", where a girl from Lubbock, Texas fights to add comprehensive sex education. They're called "purity balls", but they're more of a Bible belt thing. All I know about debutante balls was that episode of the O.C. where Ryan was Marissa's escort to 47th Annual Newport Beach Cotillion and everyone found out that Marissa's dad was an embezzler. Anyway, here's another installment of Tom Explores Los Angeles....this time, he follows a man's job is to paint over graffitti all throughout Los Angeles city proper: Tagging was VERY popular with the people I grew up with, and there are/were a lot of taggers throughout the Wilmington/Newark area, so I've seen a lot of graffiti in my day. I don't mind graffiti when it's within certain parameters- that it's not being done on actual businesses or old historical buildings, and it's actually artistic and not just someone writing their name. And I sure as hell do not like it when people do it over murals- luckily you don't see that as much around the Newark, DE area murals. Philadelphia has some great graffiti...are there some really good taggers in Los Angeles, Blue?

I thought he was an odd choice for the lumbersexual look. His beard wasn't all that thick or long, the clothes were off (should have been a flannel shirt with jeans and boots), and they tend to have tattoos and Buddy Holly glasses. He also probably should've had an undercut haircut.

Buzzfeed did a video where they used models to demonstrate the various beauty ideals around the world. It was pretty cool to look at, getting an idea of how beauty is viewed in different parts of the world. The Brazilian did the most for me. LOL. What 'bout you? Also...can I please say again just how much I absolutely hate the current "let's cover up our arms and chest with tattoos" craze, re: the UK guy? I can get into the lumbersexual look sometimes, but it usually gets paired with guys plastering themselves with tattoos, which is such a turn-off. Daniel Norris is an exception...dude pulls off the lumbersexual look beautifully in my opinion. I tend to find Australian men the hottest, but I was kind of "meh" on the guy they picked for Australia.

I'm not sure I can see him as Regina George, because he doesn't do the fake-nice shit she does, and JJ's not as dumb as Karen, or a "yes man" like Gretchen. I'd say JJ is more like a male equivalent of Blair Warner from The Facts of Life , Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl (Will is totally the Serena to JJ's Blair, especially during that Norway trip), and with a little bit of Teenaged Erica Kane from All My Children mixed in. Not so much the vixen part, but the broken little child of divorce part, as well as the drive to be famous and need to stand out from the crowd. I mean, that last exchange: "Erica, why don't you come off your high-horse and come down here with the rest of us?" "I don't want to be down anywhere, with the rest of you. I want to be special, and I'm going to be." That is soooo JJ to a tee.

Justin Bieber doesn't fit JJ at all. JJ is about snarky bitchiness; Justin Bieber is like that smug kid who thought being an asshole made him funny.

Nice. Okay, so it then goes... The Essential JJ Playlist 1.) 2. "I'm the Greatest Star" by Barbara Streisand 3.) 4.) 5.) " 6.) " 7.) 8.) 9.) 10.) "Lose Yourself" by Eminem 11.) 13.) 14.) 15.) 16.) " 17.) Anyway, Mark, you now have a full-proof way of getting into JJ's headspace if you're stalled on a JJ chapter.

Private Tim, is there like a "set" time for debutante season in California, or no? I've gotten the impression that on the East Coast, it's right around the Holiday season, but according to an article I've found, the San Francisco Debutante ball seems to take place in June...so in California, is it more of a spring/summer thing?