One Lovely Blog Award

I would like to thank the amazingly artistic Lynn from Lynn’s Books for nominating me 😀

The Rules:

• You must thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
• You must list the rules and display the award.
• You must add 7 facts about yourself.
• You must nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on one of their posts to let them know they have been nominated.

My Facts:

1. I am a former D2 collegiate baseball player. While I am from New England, I went to college down south, and the sole, and only reason, I chose to go that school was because it was in the sun and baseball. Sadly, after several injuries (the worst of the two being a right scapular muscle strain at the start of my senior year of high school, and then a lumbar spondylosis with mild spondylothesis my summer freshman year of college), I was unable to recover from them and, thus, not able to compete at as high a level as used to be, and my baseball career ended my junior year of college.
2. Since college is about learning, I had to study something. I graduated with a major in Ancient Studies (focusing on language translations), and a minor in Chinese.
   With this, I wanted to go on to get a PhD in the Classics to be a translator. I mainly read satirical Latin poetry; Catullus was my favorite, so I wanted to translate his poems in to my own book. What I really wanted to do was right in Latin and Greek. I had two ideas: I wanted write some type of tie-in-fiction. I though it was awesome to write all of the God of Wars video games into an an Ancient Greek epic. Kind of like The Odyssey, except with Kratos. Second, was I wanted to translate fantasy novels into Latin. We already have The Harry Potter Books and The Hobbit in Latin, but I wanted to do a major series: something on the scale of the whole A Song of Ice and Fire.Then, years down the road, I wanted to continue studying Chinese so I could translate Catullus into Chinese.
3. After my baseball career ended, I took up the sport of bodybuilding. Those guys that wear a speedo, and get all tan and oily? Yeah, that’s me LOL I have been bodybuilding and competing natural (drug-free) since I was 21, and are a former Junior National Champion. I you curious what I look like on stage, here a some photos.
4. The only thing I own more of than books are video games; I have HUNDREDS of video games. Outside of baseball, this was my main passion and hobby up through high school. I stopped playing a bunch toward the end of high school, cut down more in college, and only occasionally play since graduating. I still have that same passion and love for video games, but I just haven’t had it in me to play them as much anymore. If I do, it’s a max hour at a time.
   Like I said, I still LOVE video games, and because I don’t really play them as much, I like to watch Let’s Plays and other video-game related content on Youtube. Totalbiscut, Jim Sterling, That One Video Gamer, Jesse Cox, Dodger, Notherlion; these are generally what I watch when I’m eating food. I also listen to The Co-Optional Podcast every week.
5. I collect art and sports memorabilia. I don’t go to art galleries or have a very large collection, but being an artist – drawing, in particular – is something I loved to do when I was a kid, and in an another life may have pursued. (My father is actually a fairly talented hobby cartoonist, although he hasn’t drawn in years.) The hobby of drawing my have stopped by my interest hasn’t.
   Some of the favorite pieces I own are: this Diablo 2 painting by Keith Parkinson, a Todd Lockwood panting of the anatomy of dragon (Lady Trent series), a handful of these Lost prints by Mattson Creative, and I just won this print from Jay Swanson last month. I haven’t bought anything in years, but one artist I discovered in College, and become a favorite instantly was Thomas Cole. I’d love to get some of his prints one day.Then I have too many sports related memorabilia to list.
   My walls are covered in everything: baseballs, bats, gloves, footballs, pictures, an assortment of collectables, and a number of these items signed. My two prized pieces are a singed glove and jersey from Manny Ramirez. Oh yeah, about 99% of my sports memorable are Boston teams – and mainly Red Sox.
6. I’m related to Sir Issac Newton. You know, that physics dude with gravity and inertia we all learnt about in high school? I have his blood in my veins. I’m not a direct descended of him, but no one is. He didn’t have any kids. But if you trace my family tree back he is one of my great, great, great,… etc. grandparent’s brother.
7.  I’m about to blow you mind: I “pahk my cah”. Yep, I have a Boston accent, and do not pronounce the letter “r”. Think of that next you read my reviews ;)It’s not a thick accent, I know people who have it a lot worse, but when I go outside of New England, people mention it almost right away. Sometimes though, they try to be polite and not say anything. I can always tell when that’s happening because I’ll have asked them a question and they’ll just nod and say yeah (because they couldn’t understand a single word I just said.) XD

The Nominations:

Wow, 15 is a lot. I’ll nominate some the bloggers I read a lot, and some who new to me reading.. There are also a couple of bloggers, whom I see liking my reviews everyone in a while, but have never commented or said hi! (you know who you are) 😛 Then my fellow time-travelers, because I actually don’t know much about them outside of they are authors and like to read time travel stories 🙂

1. Admiral_IronBombs @ YellowedAndCreased
2. Alesha L. Escobar
3. H.M. Jones
4. James @ MightyThorJrs
5. Kaja @OfDragonsAndHearts
6. Klinta @ BookOwly
7. Lisa @ TenaciousReader
8. Michael @ RelentlessReading
9. Mogsy, Tiara, and Wendy @ Bibliosanctum
10. Proxyfish @ BooksbyProxy
11. Sharry @xAwlaysDreamsx
12. Steph @ BooksihSwint
13. Tammy @BooksBonesBuffy
14. Timothy C. Ward
15. Wendell @ Bookwraiths