methodwriter85

I'm not huge on tattoos, but damn Dan Osbourne looks great.

You're never going to get over that, are you? LOL.

I can see why you'd like the "I'd like to imagine" approach. What do you think of the "compromise" look, though? I don't know about you, Blue, but as a leg man, I'm thrilled that shorts that go above the knee are making a comeback.

Generally board shorts, but if you have the body for it...

It's so weird re-reading this again seven years after the first time, at the perspective of being 28 instead of being 21. I really liked Jeff's friend pretty much could see what was going on, but couldn't bring himself to actually say it. As someone who grew up in a world where terms like "lesbian" and "gay" and "bisexual" or "bi-curious" were thrown around with ease, it was interesting to see the mindset of someone who's not really comfortable with those words because they grew up in a very conservative environment. I really didn't understand that until I moved to Western P.A. for grad school and saw how people would react when I'd tell them that I had an openly lesbian principal at my high school, or when I heard about the kinds of things that were happening to LGBT kids on campus. And of course, the friend's reaction is exacerbated by the fact that he knows Jeff is married, and he's likely been charmed by Jeff's lovely wife Michelle at staff functions. I think I also get Fitz more- he's a guy who's life didn't really turn out the way he wanted it to, and at late 20's that's when you start to see the people who at least appear to have made it (i.e. Jeff) vs. those who seem like they're still searching, in terms of Fitz. I do think Jeff's repression was pretty fascinating- that you can get to nearly 30 and deny such a huge part of yourself because you're a slave to an image that people want you to fulfill, until you just can't anymore.

I hate to be the party pooper, but it's the 9 year anniversary of when he joined Gay Authors, not when he started posting stories here. CAP first started posting around late July/early August 2008. Still, happy 9 years, Mark.

There's a former member of Mark's writing team that would just not. let. up. on Mark for killing off Jeff. It's been pretty funny watching Mark introduce new Hayes guys in retribution for that...lol. Jeff's death has become a lingering part of CAP, and I'm assuming that Robbie's death will as well. Robbie's death sets off long-lasting story consequences for CAP, especially for Brad, Matt, and JJ. I really do have to say that Mark has done a great job with this story- I like that it's different from the usual "happy ending" stories that he's done in CAP, where everybody is paired off with a new boyfriend and it's all happily-ever-after...until the next story. This felt more like real life.

And that's why I didn't subscribe to the notion of not getting DVD's in favor of just only using Netflix.

Chapter 78 -When we close out 9.11. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel I'm picking this one because I have very strong memories of it being performed at a 9.11 benefit concert that my school did, probably around early '02.

I think Tonya Harding singing the theme from Ice Castles has to be one of the most hilarious things I've seen. Never change from your bat-shit crazy self, Tonya. I'm rooting for her son to become a figure skating contender so we can see her on the sidelines as a batshit crazy skater mom in about 20 years.

They're running a documentary on NBC at 7 p.m. EST tonight on the 1994 skating scandal that involved Skating Olympians Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. For you whippersnappers, Nancy Kerrigan was kneed by a club on the night they were practicing for the 1994 U.S. Nationals Figure skating championship. Evidence pointed to her rival, Tonya Harding, as putting someone up to it.The media firestorm around the case made the 1994 Olympic Figure Skating finals one of the most watched events in television history, and it led to a 1990's boom in U.S. figure skating. I'm pretty excited- I was 8 years old when the scandal broke, and it was the first really big media event that I followed. '94 was such a crazy year- started off with then, then O.J., and ending with the Susan Smith murder case.

Hey, Blue, I don't know if you read the TWOP fan forums, but they're having an extensive discussion about starting here. (Well, up until the mods shut down the discussion. I don't think it's about homophobia. I think it's kind of weird for him, because if you think about it, the interaction between Stiles and Derek on the show hasn't been that positive, when it does happen. Derek thinks of Stiles as a joke and treats him accordingly. It's not canon, and Derek has been shown as being straight as an arrow. And I can see where he's coming from, because the Sterek thing gets brought up constantly, and if you're watching the show just to see Sterek while demanding that it becomes canon, that's where I can see how you'd think that fans aren't watching the show in the right way. I'm also willing to give Tyler Posey the "well, he's young" treatment. He certainly doesn't deserve the death threats he's been getting. I also wonder though if maybe he's kinda pissed off at the clear focus and attention for Teen Wolf fandom is on something that's not even happening on-screen, and it's a symptom of the larger focus that has been put on Dylan O'Brien and his clear break-out star status while Posey was hired on as the lead character?

Hey, Private Tim, I wrote this blog about the Bode Miller custody battle that's spanning California and New York, and made mentions of the Jason Patric custody case. I'd be really interested in having you comment on the blog, being that you seem to know a lot about family court/custody laws. Blue, I'd also like you to comment if you have an opinion on it, as you seem to have personal experience with California family court.

I think what really bothers me is the guy's insistence on calling his son Nate...it has the heart in the right place, but it's just really over the line. I wish I could have posted this in the lounge, but I think it gets too close to political for this not to get shut down by the mods.

Thanks for the information about AIDS. For some reason I thought that AIDS medication was only meant to stop HIV from turning into AIDS, and once you hit the AIDS point, there wasn't much they could do. Right. We have JJ getting tutored by some never-seen tutor. Although really, he might as well just get a GED- he's old enough at nearly 16 to get one now. And that was a typo- I meant Menlo. I kinda always wondered what would happen if JJ flat out told JP that he doesn't plan on going to college. He doesn't really seem interested in doing so. (Although I kinda want JJ to wind up going to Tisch. That place sounds cool.) It does seem like most skaters at the elite level, if they go, take a looooonnnngggg time to finish college. If JJ does go, he'd at the very least have to take off during the 2005-2006 school year to try and make a run at Torino.

No, no spoiling. I live in the northern Delaware area. Sharon lives somewhere around the Baltimore area. That's only about an hour drive. If I spoiled a major plot, she'd glean where I live based on my very public Facebook, show up on my doorstep, and then bitchslap me into next Sunday.

Eh, he's an institution. His wife actually was a professor at the community college I attended when the '08 campaign happened; it was pretty exciting. Delaware's strange in the sense that socially, we're a very "blue" state and pretty liberal, except for the stance on medical marijuana. But we've also got a very relaxed, "laissez-faire" tax system and a very "Corporations are Great!" mindset, which was probably fostered by the noblesse oblige that the Du Pont Corporation practiced throughout the 20th century for our state. That was what was interesting about living in Western P.A. for two years and running into that anti-corporate blue-collar Union mindset, especially when I was taking "History of the Labor Class" while Occupy Wall Street! happened. I think the problem with making Ethan central is just the fact that he's not at Menlo and he seems rather happy at the Webb School. And you're right that the high school scene is pretty crowded right now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Jeff tell Will that Pat had full-blown AIDS? If you're going to resurrect Pat, you might have to do it soon because his shelf life can't be too long. Thanks for the typo pointing out, Tim.

I've been reading about this case, and all the strangle twists and turns it's taken, and I'm really fascinated by it. The basic gist is that Bode Miller, in 2012, had a few dates with a woman named Sarah McKenna that he met on a matchmaking service. He got her pregnant. She contends that he initially wanted nothing to do with her or the baby. In the meantime, Bode Miller met and married volleyball player Morgan Beck, in a span of a few months. At seven months, Sarah McKenna left California for New York in order to start school at Columbia. This is where things started to get nasty. Bode Miller filed to establish parental rights, and McKenna was castigated by a judge for "shopping" for a more sympathetic court by going to New York. Custody was awarded to Miller. This enraged women's rights advocates, who believed that this ruling set a dangerous precedent that would allow biological fathers to dictate where pregnant women are allowed to go. It was overturned, and right now they have a short-term custody agreement before a hearing in March. It's pretty contentious- the mother and the father can't even agree on a name- Bode's son was named Samuel, after Bode's legal name. Miller wants to call Sam "Nate" after his recently deceased brother, to the point where the visa that would have allowed his son to go with him to Russa got held up because of his insistence that "Nathaniel" be added as a middle name on his birth certificate. And of course, Miller's wife decided to post a blog, since deleted, blasting McKenna for her poor mothering skills. (His wife, by the way, suffered a miscarriage in 2013, and decided to call it a blessing in disguise because it meant they could focus on raising just one baby instead of two. Which...kinda raises The Hand That Rocks the Cradle red flags in my mind.) Here's an article about the case, and what it could mean for women's rights: Bode Miller Changed His Mind and Hurt Pregnant Women's Rights Everywhere It does raise a really good ethical question- is a woman obligated to stay in the same state as the child's father while the baby's in utero and before they've worked out custody arrangements? Another interesting case I've been following is the Jason Patric custody case, which challenges the California state law about sperm donors. His ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child insists that Jason Patric is a sperm donor, Jason insists that he had every intention of parenting the child. I think both cases are interesting views into how parental custody battles have evolved over the years in regards to paternal rights.

Thank god Will's never been with JJ. The Hayes men really satisfy the incest quotient. Will had oral sex with Drew, but he didn't go further than that. John was supposed to be his first fuck, but Zach had a go at John instead. Will's first technical anal sex experience was with the kidnapper guy, although I'm not really counting a rape as a sex partner.

I will say that it's been kind of consistent that Will seems to let friendships go by the wayside whenever he gets all sprung on someone. He's well-known and liked, but none of his Harvard-Westlake friendships seem all that deep, and I think it's because as you've said, this guy pretty much jets off on weekends and on summers, and he's really all about his love interests. I do think that when you're 15 and in 10th grade, friends expect a level of loyalty and quality time, and I think that mindset is kind of reflected in the fact that Will doesn't really seem to have any seriously close, non-HW friends, mainly just buddies like Austin and the like. It seems his really close peers are also his family in Marie and John, and then JJ. They're the only ones we've seen Will consistently maintain a tight bond with. I really do enjoy Adam's gossip dirt about how Troy Aikman's been seen in the Dallas gayborhood quite often. I still think it's kind of sad that he'll likely never come out, but then again, Aikman's private life is his private life. God, I loved this exchange. I've been waiting for two or three years for us to get into the fictious Johnny Weir and Jeremy James rivalry, and this is going to be so good. Johnny Weir's rivalry with Evan Lysacek was pretty nasty- he used to call Evan a "slore"- i.e. a slut and a whore. He also tended to roll his eyes and do quotations in regards to Evan's "straightness." Meanwhile, Evan seemed to insinuate that Johnny Weir was lazy, and he made a crack about Johnny's gender on Twitter but then pretended that his Twitter got hacked. Johnny Weir, according to Daisy, was kind of known as the "East Coast" guy- like there just wasn't really anyone on the East Coast that could touch him during this time period. It'll be interesting to see how JJ stacks up against the guy, as they'd be competing in the East Coast Sectionals to get a spot at Nationals. It'll be interesting to see what nasty one-liners the fictionalized Johnny Weir will make towards JJ, and vice versa. I think it'll make the Trevor Morgan conversation look like a cakewalk. At this time, Johnny Weir is Junior Worlds Champion, so I imagine the ego is probably pretty high at this point. And eh, Delaware is kind of of a generic American suburban hellhole, but the nice thing about it, when you get sick of our lack of culture, boringly flat landscape(our highest point in the state is a mere 447 feet tall), and relentless ugly surburban sprawl, you've got New York City being 3 hours away, Philly being 1 hour away, and DC/Baltimore being about 60-90 minutes away. Not to mention that you're never more than 90 minutes away from a beach when you live in Delaware. (How far again do you have to drive to get to an ocean beach again, Mark? I think the weirdest thing about living so far inland for grad school was not seeing any seagulls.) Plus, I gotta say it's nice not having to pay sales tax.

Dude, you still didn't change the "regionals" to "sectionals."

This is kinda OT but check out Johnny Weir's ladies short commentation outfit. Johnny Weir's style is often not my taste, but god, this is outfit is FIERCE. I wonder if we'll have JJ dressed in similiar get-ups. (Probably not, unless JJ's style changes from his Junor Brooks Brothers look.) It was also nice to see Tara Lipinski again.

In my case, I was so sick of hearing it back then.

Chapter 76 -When Will and Zach work out the beard deal, and Zach tells him that he's moving to California in 2002. "Follow Me" by Uncle Kracker I absolutely and completely hate this song, and I still get hives listening to it, but I can't deny that it fits. My at the time 6 year old niece LOVED this tune. Ugh. -When everybody's in celebratory mode for the Ironmen, and Gathan congratulates Zach on a game well done. "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige

"Jesus fucking Christ! They play this song like 20 times a day!"