Takes One To Know One

Summer is here. Before any of you say a word about the Summer Solstice, know that I now define summer as when my sons are out of school.

So, as I was saying before I was almost so rudely interrupted, summer is here. The weather is warm, my backyard has places to sit, and I am planning on keeping my schedule as free as possible. Fishing and road trips are sure to follow.

Furthermore, I have set up a pretty intense video game schedule. I just finished Splinter Cell: Conviction (I know, awesome, but please hold your applause until the end of the post). I intend on finally beginning to get use out of my used copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. After that, I’ll get to Fallout 3. The copies of Mass Effect and Fable II that my brother loaned me then sit at the ready. That ought to last me through July at the rate I play.

Should I happen to finish early, I have plenty of old NES games I’ve been wanting to get reacquainted with, not the least of which is Urban Champion. Nothing like a children’s video game involving street fighting where each man goes to his own corner of the block and whistles innocently in the air whenever a police car rolls by. It reminds me of the now considered inappropriate violence of Tom & Jerry. Ah, those were the days.

While these are all things I have prepared to indulge in during free time, there is one front I have been remiss in organizing. I don’t have a summer reading list established. I have a few books I’m planning on reading, but only one is a novel. This time of year, I like to have a few lined up and ready to go so that I jump right from one to the other and carry whatever I'm reading around with me to that I can get a few pages in if I'm get stuck waiting for anything.

I’m open to suggestions here.

Some time ago, I vowed to read more of the classics that I’d never gotten around to in school. I was never assigned Moby Dick or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but I’ve read them both within the past year as well as other books. I’m now at a loss for what do stack on my desk. I like to have the list prepared so that I can look forward to each title. I’m leery to start in on the sole novel I’ve been waiting on because I want to have one in reserve as well.

Allow me to address for a moment that this scenario is exactly what I meant when I decided on this week’s sign you are a nerd. I do, in fact, like to have a list of video games and books for the summer months. Yes, that does make me a nerd if you hold me to my own criteria. I freely admit it and thank you for keeping me honest.

I’ll remind you here that I have never denied being a nerd. In fact, my comfort with and acceptance of my nerd status is exactly what allows me to have such a weekly feature as signs that you are a nerd. How else would I be so well acquainted with what these signs are?

So, if you’re done trying to insult me, I’ll have you know that nobody insults me better than I do. When I’m done schooling you on this, I’ll ask you to let me know what you’re planning on reading this summer. If you have any suggestions for me, I’d be glad to hear them.

Until then, I’m going to go heavy on the video games. My proficiency at first person shooters is returning and I think I may be near mastery once again.

And now…

*APPLAUSE*