Get It All Down: the friends who met here and embraced are gone, Each to his own mistake

Days 10-13: door, hat, pet, frame

Some say that high school is the best time of your life. Was that true for you? no. It wasn't the worst time of my life, but it also wasn't the best. For me, that period was not an end in itself, but more of a doorway into the next stage.
What do you find yourself encouraging others to try? grace. Few concepts have made such an impact on me like the simple idea of grace.
Which is better: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen? Mel Brooks by a long shot. I don't think I've ever seen an entire Woody Allen movie, because if I had, I think I'd have poked in my own ear drums. And anyhow, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are two of my favorite films ever made.
When was the last time you were up all night? it's been a while. Now and then I'll go overboard while reading on a weekend, and very rarely I'll hang out with a friend talking until the wee hours of morning. Frame it that way, though, and I think it goes all the way back to some of those all-night conversations with Johnnie Walker.
"__ is life. The rest is just details." Fill in the blank. love! No: poetry. Or maybe music? Prehaps literature. Maybe bacon?
Are people too complex and different to be categorized? nope. People are effectively categorized all the time. Children and adults. Blondes and brunettes. Lefties and righties. There are more and less important and useful categories, and of course more and less offensive ones. But categories are necessary in order to be descriptive. For instance, if you want to tell a friend about an item that you need them to pick up from your office, how do you describe it? With feelings, or with description? It's the same about people.
Is it good to have pride in your own race or does that separate people from each other because it makes them think of everyone else as 'outsiders'? 'pride' may be a misguided way to think about it. There's a big stink going on in the media (on social media, anyway) lately about the backlash against the glamorization of ultra-thin fashion models, using the phrase "real women have curves." The backlash takes the form of this protest: "real women look however they look." Which is, of course, true. It isn't the point of the original argument, but what backlash ever is?

Again, I don't know that "pride" is the term that I would use. It implies both a purity (which is both troubling and statistically...unlikely...) and an arrogance that is unpleasant and pointless.
What fictional story would you like to live through? no, thank you. Fiction, for one thing, requires an arc through adversity before resolving into happily ever after. Having done some time slogging through the swamps, I would prefer instead to skip right into the blissful, thanks.
Are cats or dogs smarter? with no disrespect intended toward anyone's beloved pets--cats are clearly superior to dogs in every way
Have you ever guessed someone's password and broken into their diary? not that I recall? If I have--I'm sorry, belatedly.
What teacher, if any, has affected you the most in your life? his name is Seymour, he taught me History, and he absolutely changed my life
Are you more easily bored or excited? it's funny--I think I'm probably just as easily bored as I am excited, though obviously by vastly different things. My capacity for being interested is very high, but it is quite specific.
What's the bravest or most daring thing you have ever done? loved, and lost, and loved again.
"What's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking?" (- Adam Ant) the Hell of it.

“Perhaps our greatest distinction as a species is our capacity, unique among animals, to make counter-evolutionary choices.”
[Jared Diamond, from Why Is Sex Fun?]
If your man or woman served you breakfast in bed as a treat what would you want? something easy to eat. Oatmeal? Cereal, maybe?
What do you do only when you are upset? cry in the shower
What's the oddest CD in your collection? the Elbow EP from 2001, Newborn, which includes the incredibly strange song "Lucky with Disease."
What's the best diary name you ever saw? I was totally unfamiliar with the idea of naming a diary until I saw this question. I had to Google it to get in the right frame of mind to answer it, in fact. Diaries and journals are, for me, just a place to write stuff, not a formal thing like that. No "Dear Diary" needed.
What would your friends be surprised to learn about you? I'm on a quest to someday find a hat that I can wear, for real
Who owes you an apology? my last love
Who deserves an apology from you? D
How would you like to treat your kids differently from the way your parents treated you? huh. Well, if I had kids...I suppose that some of the things that happened between my sister and me would be off the agenda, completely. That stuff made childhood pretty rough at times, and complicated. Considering that they were not "un-strict," she was allowed to run things for quite a while.
Which do you like best: 60's, 70's or 80's fashion? ugh. Can I choose none of the above?

If no, I'll go with the 80s, I guess? I think I could pick and choose a few things from that era that wouldn't run me too mad.
What is the worst pick up line ever used on you? "Let's meet up and have sex."
Of the following, which word best describes you: inventive, kinetic (energetic), light-hearted, mature? inventive