The Meyering Christmas Gathering

This gets me caught up to the present time. Tonight we had the Meyering get-together. Rachel was plugging her blog and, incidently, inspired us to get going on ours. Once again, Gavin managed to steal the show.

The Wagner Christmas Gathering

Wednesday afternoon was a get together with Amy's mother's side of the family. We ate, opened a few gifts, played a game of Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit and pretty much watched our nephew, Gavin, be the center of attention.

Arnie's Day (December 21)

This past Wednesday we celebrated "Arnie's Day." Two years ago we met after church for the first time to go on a blind date (we were set up by Kate York) and went to Arnie's for lunch. This year we went for breakfast and got to sit at the very same table we sat at two years ago. The hostess was going to seat us at a table nearby so I requested "our" table and explained why it was so important. We reminisced about how nervous we were, how conspicuous we felt and how Amy dropped her boxed up leftovers in the lobby on the way out and how her fries went all over the floor. Arnie's gave us a little cake (more like a big cupcake) to commemorate the occasion.

It's no longer all about me

I haven't done well keeping up on writing this blog at all. Part of it is because my life doesn't seem all that exciting to me but also because I really wasn't writing this for anybody but myself and I've never had much sticktoitiveness with journals. Amy and I had talked before about doing one together but it never really got off the ground. We've thought a little more seriously since Rachel, Amy's cousin, started writing hers and has found it a really good way to keep in touch with the family. Since mine wasn't going very far on it's own we are going to make it about us and not all about me. This should also make it much, much more interesting to read.

Let Joy and Innocence Prevail

In going through the special features on the Mary Poppins DVD, the reason I am a Disney fan was crystalized for me. Over and over again people gushed about having the privilege of working with Walt Disney. They talked about his love for children and the inner child and what he loved most about children was their joy and innocence. When I heard that, everything inside me yelled, "That's exactly it!" That's what I love about children and what pains me most is when it's not there. What I love the best about most of the stuff the Disney company has done is that it fosters joy and innocence. I have been concerned about Disney as of late because I think they are starting to lose that.

It got me thinking about the movie Toys again. The theme of the movie is etched on the statue of Milton the Friendly Elephant - "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail." There are so many things that threaten to steal them away from us and, while war is antithetical to joy and innocence, we need to fight to preserve them.

Planarity: Turn Your Mind into a Pretzel

Planarity: Turn Your Mind into a Pretzel: "Planarity is complete waste of time. It's also fiendishly addictive, lots of fun and a perfect de-stresser for a Friday Afternoon. The idea is this: you drag dots around a graph until none of the lines cross each other."

I'm a puzzle guy and I found this quite absorbing. Levels 1 through 10 increase in difficulty and, while you can go past 10, it doesn't get any harder after that. (I stopped after level 11)

First Post

So who is Milton Zevo? It's me! It's not my real name but a name I use for computer stuff. (My real name is Pete Anderson.) I first came up with it when I was at a LAN party. Other people had interesting names they always used in games and I had nothing. I made a couple attempts at names to inspire fear in my opponents since I'm not really all that great (at least I wasn't at the time, I'm getting better) but I was never comfortable with them. I decided to go for the opposite of fear. I had recently watched one of my favorite movies, "Toys", and thought I would use the mascot for Zevo toys. "Milton the Friendly Elephant" was a bit long so I just used "Milton" and then "Zevo". So... if you ever play a multiplayer game and get fragged by "Milton Zevo" then know you just got killed by a cute elephant that blows bubbles out of his trunk.