this, the last day of spring

an interesting event this spring: a train wreck near my house

Spring has been both good and bad this year. There were, to be sure, disappointments, glimpses of hope followed by what could only be compared to a Spitfire crashing in the Channel during the Battle of Britain, and there were tragedies too real to warrant cheesy, off-the-cuff metaphors. God gives us bright moments in the dark seasons of life, and there have certainly been those: lots of parties, reunions, a beautiful wedding. Spring's ending and summer's beginning, and I have high hopes for this summer, I really do.

One such hope is to get back into biking. Dad "stole" my Cannondale, but he said he's cool with me taking it back. I want to bike around Norwood, Hyde Park, Oakley. I may even want to bike to work: I used to do it when I worked at Starbucks. And if when my car breaks down for good, it'd be good to be versatile on a bike. I'm going to try and start the Couch to 5K this weekend or next week. I've got a cool "Zombie" app to help: it plays your music, and when you hear the zombie, RUN!

One of this spring's highlights was Rob coming into town to officiate John and Brandy's wedding. It was so great hanging out with with at the wedding, drinking beers with him in the tree house, stuffing myself at Dusmesh with him by my side, and rolling over in laughter as we gathered 'round the hookah late Sunday night. It was truly sad saying Bye to him, and I hope to see him sooner rather than later. Mandy's in Europe right now, gallivanting around Amsterdam with Isaac, and I'd REALLY like to go out to Portland and spend time with both her and Rob, to catch up and laugh. I'd really like to piss Mandy off, just to hear her yell at me. It's weird how I miss that.

Since I beat Dead Island, I've been playing a new game: Birds of Steel.

Yearning for my old World War 2 Pacific Theater combat game for PC, I found a replacement.

You get to fly as the Americans, British, Germans, Japanese, or Russians.

You can do campaigns, build your own missions, and fly all sorts of planes.

Fighter planes, bomber aircraft, even planes reminiscent of World War One biplanes.

The graphics are amazing, too, so much better than the game I longed for.

What I'm saying is, I found a new dorky, nerdy obsession.

(but I can't play for more than an hour: video games aren't really "my thing")

Writing, you could say, is my thing. Dad asked me if I've been doing any writing. The truthful answer is, "Not really." To be honest, I'm just not that into writing about zombies anymore. I love them, don't get me wrong, but the last book I wrote is the fifth in a series of disconnected zombie novels. It was a good niche to fall into: my books have been rated by many better than Cell by Stephen King, and I've gotten some pretty kickass reviews and was even put on a list of Top Five post-apocalyptic novels (and I was alongside authors such as Stephen King for Cell, Richard Matheson for I Am Legend, and [this gets me every time] Cormac McCarthy for The Road. Nevertheless, I feel pretty burnt out on zombies and want to turn my fiction writing elsewhere. I've been toying with an idea for historical fiction centered on the French & Indian War. I think I could pull it off, and it's worth a shot.