Other Interests
Though metalsmithing and Blacksmithing have become the focus of my life, and in fact my career, I am a jack of all hobbies, and I can’t help but to get involved in as many interesting things as possible.
I am a huge fan of anything medieval, and at that I find that my second home is the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is an international corperate group geared towards the creative recreation of the life, arts, and times of people pre 17th century. Participants take on a name and a persona of a specific era to go enjoy themselves while they camp, fight with heavy rattan swords in armour, shop at merchants row, and spend time with friends. To learn more about my persona, visit his page.
In addition to the SCA, I have been introduced to Belegarth Medieval Combat Society by my girlfriend in late 2007. Belegarth is like the SCA’s little brother, with a focus on padded weapon combat which allows a wider range of participants. There is less structure in the way of merchants and organized sciences and arts, but Belegarth sports a younger mentality of fun loving people who enjoy getting out into the woods to fight, flirt, hang out, and make friend from all across the united states.
Branching out of the medieval activities, sort of, I am also an avid scholar of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work on Lord of the Rings. I actually met my partner in crime on the Ramaloke Project, Crew Moss, in a Tolkien linguistics chat room called elfling IRC, back when I was in high school. I study the history of middle earth as well as the linguistics of the elven tongues, which were designed based off of Latin, Portuguese, and a few other surprising source languages.
I also bagan learning to ride horses in 2007 and have begun training as a Horseback archer under Katie Stearns. You can go learn more about that sport at her site on Mounted Archery.
Other then that, I am an avid camper and hiker and love to get into the outdoors. I have studied a few different martial arts including Erney Reye’s World Martial Arts, Aikido, and Shaolin Kung Fu under teacher Brian at the Eugene Shaolin Kung Fu Club. I enjoy anything from paint-balling to movies, and love a good conversation whenever I can get one.
