Twenty Questions

Okay, Sunny answered these and invited people who read her blog to jump in. Here are my answers FOR TODAY. Things, as the Buddhists say, change.

1. Why did you start your blog?
I started this blog after we moved to Wisconsin as a way to keep my family and a few friends up to date on what was happening in my/our life. I had a couple of blogs before, and I think I started the first one at the suggestion of a friend in Chicago. Those were more issue-oriented, but I decided this one would not be a place for controversy (although I sometimes slip up). Also, since I am a semi-hemi-demi-part-time author, it is good for me to write something.

 2. What made you choose your blog name?
Seriously? I happened to run across the button somewhere online and thought it would work, Dodd being my family name. There is also a Georgia connection, and my Dodd family came from Georgia. I was born there myself, but grew up in Texas. The Georgia connection is from Georgia Tech coach, Bobby Dodd. When he was quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers, enthusiastic fans came up with the slogan, "In Dodd We Trust." My first blog was called Damien's Spot, named for St. Damien of Molokai. Damien is my confirmation name.

3. What is your favorite thing that has come from blogging?
Favorite thing would have to be the people I have connected with through blogging. I have had occasion to meet a few. Through the blog I can say I have more friends in places like England and Italy. Also, a few old friends have found me through the blog. (I don't do Facebook!)

4. What is your favorite color and why?
Too much of a rainbow guy to have one favorite. Blue, green, red, purple ... I notice most of my t-shirts are red, but right now I am wearing olive slacks and a navy blue shirt.

5. What inspires you?
Wisdom? I love running across one-liners that make me see the world differently, that shake up my prejudices and habitual ways of thinking.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Not into guilt much, but I suppose some would consider my love for the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon to be something I should hide.

7. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
Me. As far as I can tell, me is the one thing in the world I have a chance of changing. But I need help to do that!

8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I fell in love with the Lake Chapala region outside Guadalajara when I visited there as a student in 1974. That is my dream home.

9. If you could change something about your home, without worrying about expenses, what would it be?
Move it to Lake Chapala? An enormous lake, mountains in the background, lovely climate...

10. Who is your celebrity crush (boy or girl) and if you could spend a day with them what would you do?
I will go with Sheldon Cooper/Jim Parsons. Some people (Tom and others) say I am a lot like him, so this is perhaps a bit narcissistic. We would talk about Texas and how we (he and I, not Texans) are the only ones who see the world correctly. (See why I need to change me?)

11. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Have you never met me? I do not max out credit cards. Instead, I postpone the purchase until I get a 30% off coupon or until I realize I no longer want whatever it was that caught my eye.

12. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I grew up in a family with lots of teachers, and I guess I thought teaching was what grown-ups do. My father could teach anything, and I wish I had let him teach me more of the practical things I am not good at today.

13. What was your first job?
My first job was putting a drive-in theater's monthly calendar/flyers on the windshield of parked cars. I did not get any money, but I and my family got into the movies for free. Within a few weeks, this turned into a paying snack bar job making popcorn. I worked from three to five hours a night, six nights a week, earning three dollars a night and taking home $16.80 each week.

14. What is your best memory?
Being with friends. Too many good memories of that kind to pick just one.

15. Would you rather live near mountains or by the sea?
I want to live near the mountains by the sea. Why should life be either-or?

16. What do you consider the best TV Show or Movie ever created?
I am not good at "bests". I loved the 1970s Saturday night CBS lineup: All in the Family; MASH, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show, Carol Burnett Show. That was my favorite lineup.

17. How would you describe yourself in three words?
I am awesome. (I know, that's cheating and SO not true.)

18. If you knew that tomorrow your life would change forever, what would you do to appreciate
today?
Okay, here's the thing. My life will change forever tomorrow. So will yours. So I would just live today.

19. Favorite blog (or blogs)?
Again, not good with favorites or bests. Life is not all competition. (That might be one thing I would change about the world: the idea that everything is a competition.) I used to read a zillion blogs, but I cut back a lot. The only non-political, non-issue blogs I follow these days are Tom's and Sunny's.

20. One thing you’ve learned about yourself in the last year.
I recently learned that I have hyperparathyroidism and osteoporosis.  That is two things, but they are related. And what I learned from that is -- surprise! -- I am mortal and getting older. Again, two things that are related.