Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in durinde's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 1st, 2009
9:56 pm	A small slice of my life So I'm coming up to my 2nd anniversary of joining the Navy. I felt like writing so I thought I'd write a small narrative. Michael was nervous as hell. His mind wandered aimlessly through the night pondering his research about what he was walking into. He knew that things were going to be tough. He told himself that if he could do this then he would prove something... he just wasn't sure what that something was or to even to whom he was proving it to. Himself? Perhaps if he did this his self-confidence would go up and he would feel like his life was worth something. Basic training. He heard horror stories of people getting injured, washing out, getting yelled at and just not being able to take the mental pressure recruits were put under. He had read and re-read Starship Troopers. A sci-fi classic where early on the main character goes through basic training and describes the physical and mental stresses involved. Michael had paid particular attention to the part where the main character described a "hump" or a mental barrier that every soldier goes through in training. He wondered what his hump would be. On the last day of June, 2007, Michael woke early and had breakfast with his father. Bacon and eggs, Dad's specialty. His last meal of his civilian life. Technically he wasn't even a civilian anymore. Two weeks ago in a small ceremony in Corner Brook, Michael, along with a number of other Canadian Forces hopefuls were sworn in. There was no quick way back to civilian life at that point. Each recruit was warned that if they wanted out now, they would have to do the paperwork to release from the forces. They were now recruits in the Canadian Forces and were now on unpaid leave until their vacation began. After breakfast, the countdown began for the flight out. It was later that day so he had some time to spare. Fishing. His last activity before flying out for what would certainly be a stressful time was fishing for trout in a small stream near his father's cabin. It was a beautiful summers day and he could imagine himself easily spending the day on the bank of that stream. However, he had more pressing matters and going AWOL over trout seemed like a bad idea. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 28th, 2009
11:28 pm	I had a grand time hanging with Laura this weekend. Good to know that friendships can last even after all this time. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 9th, 2009
9:07 pm	Songwritin' So my Dad's is hosting the 1st annual heritage song writers festival on LBI this summer around the time I have leave. Not that I have to or anything, but I've been trying to think of a song to play while I home. Something nobody's heard before. They say write what you know so I'm running with that. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 8th, 2009
2:05 pm	Cool things I've done in my life Achievements I have unlocked in my life. The Not So Angry Video Game Nerd Achievement Awarded for: 1. Had a brief stint as a video game reviewer for a now long dead game site. (Didn't get paid or anything, but I did get a free copy of Blood 2 for review). 2. Interviewed the guys at Valve about Half-Life for the above website. The I Want To Be Writer Award Awarded for: 1. Being on the editoral board for a newspaper while I was in school. 2. The Valedictorian for my Jouralism course in college. (Now I can barely string together a coherent sentence) The OMG you were SO FAT Award Awarded for: 1. Being over 300 lbs 2. Loosing over 100 lbs The "What a cool job" Award Awarded for: 1. Working as a professional radio DJ for a couple of years. 2. Joining the military. The "This list sounded cooler in my head award" 1. See above. (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
8:09 pm	Old creativeness While hunting around on my computer for god knows what, I stumbled across an old file on the back corner of my c-drive. It was a bunch of sketches that an artist did for me when I was working on a comic book with a few pages of the actual story roughed out. Made me think about trying to revive the project, but I can seem to decide what I would want to do. Actually getting published is near impossible and I'd have to set aside money to hire an artist for to produce my script... and even if I did find an artist for my inital pitch, I'm not sure of the likelyhood of he/she following me into a contract with a publisher. There is the idea of just getting paying to get the thing drawn/inked for my personal writing portfolio (which is pretty much empty at this point). Ideally I'd collaborate with someone and split the glory/profits etc.. but I don't think that it would work. I kind of wish I had a local artist friend of some sort that I could exploit... err work with (pay in booze). (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
3:43 pm	After all the skinny, emo, guys in anime. I finally found a character that looks something like me. (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
8:39 pm	Hello universe Hey there universe... I could use something exciting happening to me to justify my existance.... day in day out gets boring after a while... nothing I can't handle 'kay? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
8:53 pm	Just a crazy observation. You know, during my on-line gaming days (Muds, Mushes) I'd have to go through the procedure of writing a back ground for a character and providing a physical discription. I remember one time in an effort to produce an interesting character, I created a character that had a longish scar running down his right arm. I never came up to a reason as to why this character had this scar - my plan was to make something if somebody asked. Nobody asked. Years later when I attended basic training in Quebec, I was going through the motions of preparing my room for an inspection. One of the things to do was to eliminate all the wrikles on your bedsheets by ironing them just before the inspection began. I had just completed this task and placed my iron on my desk and turned to do something else. Now summer dress for CadPat is rolling your sleeves up, so my arms were not covered by anything. I turned around to get something on my desk when my right arm bumped the iron... which was still blazing hot from being used just minutes before. I weathered the inspection with a blazing pain on my arm. It's been a year since graduation.. and I now sport of longish scar that runs down my right arm. Life imitating art. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
9:07 pm	I thought I'd do a little update. It's been a long time. I guess one of the good things about LJ is that it serves as an archive, I was able to go back through the years by looking over previous posts and see how I viewed the world in those times. I went through some pretty crappy times. I have to say things are much better now. I'm in better shape, paying my bills and working a well paying job. In retrospect I do miss working in radio sometimes, and perhaps in the future that will be something I might revisit. I gave myself shin spints a couple of weeks ago. While waiting for them to heal, I have been using the rowing machine at the gym and I must say its a pretty good workout. I would like to be able to get back to running though. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 1st, 2008
12:08 pm	Fall September again. I just got back from 2 and 1/2 weeks of the most wonderful, restful, and reflective leave of my life. I got back to Newfoundland after finishing the 1st semester of my QL3s (trade training for you non-military types). Had a great time seeing friends and family and enjoying one of the most beautiful places of the world. This was my first break in a long time where I actually got to rest because I wasn't loosing money by not working and/or I didn't have to look for another job. As mentioned above, it was also a reflective time. I realised that this is the first time in my life I have the stability to make longer term plans for the future (rather than trying to plan how I'll survive from paycheck to paycheck). It looks like I might buy some land in one of the most senic areas of NL if things work out right. Because of this I have to live frugally for a while (I have to admit I was pretty spend happy for a bit there) so I can raise the funds to buy the land. Along with this I'm making a commitment to hit the gym hard and fast. Our PT was cut last semester so we could make up classes so things became lax, but that didn't mean I couldn't get up earlier or stay up a little later to get my exercise (bad me). Here's hoping for a future. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
6:27 pm	Urgh I have a week and a half of classes left and add another for exams. I just want to get home for the summer. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 30th, 2008
11:02 pm	Anniversary One year ago today I was a newly arrived recruit at CFLRS in St. Jean Quebec. It is amazing how the last year of my life went. 3 of us got on the plane in Deer Lake, and I'm sure if you took odds on which one of us would make it through training, mine would have been very low. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
6:44 pm	Anyone ever use tht random journal feature on LJ? Some people have some interesting stuff and are able to write very long posts about there lives. If I'm lucky, I manage to string together a couple of paragraphs every couple of months... so much for the journalism diploma. It's not like I have much to write about. I wish I could describe in detail everything that happened to me in basic training... but my not sure what I could recall or how accurate things would be. But I digress. My life is running in neutral right now. For the first time in my life I have money in the bank, I don't have to worry about bills and I'm getting to the gym every day. I trod off to navy tech school everyday to learn about ohms, current and whatnot and come back feeling drained. My life is punctuated by scattered inspections where I pray I prepare my uniform enough not to get picked up for anything... but the amount of excitement in my life seems.. lacking. Now mind you, I've had plenty of excitement in my life, and not the good kind. I don't know, I need to get involved with some clubs or SOMETHING. The only thing I look forward to every couple of weeks is my pay... which isn't so low that I'm only making ends meat, but not high enough to do anything really exciting with. I don't really "NEED" my pay like I did at one time (yes I need it, but the pressure to pay bills and such is gone). I do get my one year raise in a couple of weeks. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
1:30 pm	I gotta stop drinking full throttle after 6 pm. Took me a while to get to sleep last night. I managed to get my homework done anyhow. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
11:34 pm	I'm delaying going to bed, because when I get up tommorow I have a lot of homework to do. Shouldn't take me tht long... but I want to do it well. I might try and take one of the hour long harbour cruises next weekend. It'll give me something to look forward to besides payday. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
7:43 pm	While poking around of my C: drive, I discovered my an old copy of the half-written first issue of the comic I was working on a few years back (complete with art done by someone who did some sketches for me). I'd almost like to revive the old project, make a few changes to make the storyline somewhat more reasonable... (within the limits of the fiction that I'm trying to tell) and hire an artist to work on me to put together a single issue that covers the inital story arc I had planned. Of course I boot up Wordperfect to rewrite the first part of the script, and then proceed to stare at a blank cursor for a while before deciding to play Crisis Core on my PSP. That's what allways kills me. I have all these ideas, but translating what is in my head to paper never seems to go as planned. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
8:40 pm	Collection of thoughts Its been 13 weeks since my last LJ post. I've been wanting to write something for a while, but have either been too lazy or can't think of anything going on in my life that is worthwhile to post. I'm doing my trade training now for the Canadian Navy and things are going well. There is a lot of math involved which I was worried about, but it seems like I remeber a lot of skills from high school. Relationship wise my life I'm still single, not really seeing anyone.. honestly not sure if I'm ready to take the plunge yet. When I look back at the last year, it has been an awesome experience... one that I am glad I went through, but never would want to go through again. It is amazing how you can have some of the best memories and the worst tied to one year (in retrospect, I've gone through tougher things than the last year.. but it was a rough ride none the less). I'm in much better shape... which seems to happen on its own when you have a Sergent yelling at you to move fasters. I don't know... I wish I could some how write about my experiences and share them.. and hopefully someone would find them interesting... but the entire thing is just a blur right now. Do I have any long term plans to stay with the military? Right now... no... I'll re-evaluate when my contract nears its end, but I have a hard time getting over the fact that I could be tied to something for the next 24 years. I still dream of my crazy shit like walking across Newfoundland, writing a comic book or a movie script... but I just can't seem to get myself doing those things. My ultimate goal over the next 20 years? I'd like to own and operate a boat tour business in Newfoundland in the summer and spend my winters writing. I know it isn't the most complext dream or goal in the world... but it is something I'd like to do. I'd also like to have someone to share that with. I know that probably 2 or 3 people in the world will read this post.... but a journal isn't about that is it? Food for thought. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 15th, 2008
10:17 am	Well it has been a long journey, but as of Jan 25 of last month I finsihed basic training (finally) and became a full fledged memeber of the Canadian Forces. Why did basic take so long you ask? I failed my fitness test during the first week of training and was put of the RFT (Recruit Fitness Training) program. It took me the max amount of time that the armed forces allow for me to reach the standard. RFT is very tough and the standards are very high, but it is a very excellent program. Finally hitting the "real" basic training, I found out that I had a issue with heights that I had to deal with. I spent some very neverous times on top of walls, cargo nets and repell towers (which didn't bother me so much for some reason). Right now I'm waiting for my Navy training, but for now I'm working on a ship, which is kind of cool. Here's hoping everyones life went well in the time being. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
10:47 am	Possibly my last uodate for a while I post pretty irreguarly on LJ anyways, so there is a chance that this will be my last post before I hit BMQ. I get sworn in this comming monday.. then I'm Recruit Private Forward. I'm pretty sure I'm headed to Borden in Ontario, but I'll find out for sure on Monday... I make the arrangements then for the movers to come in a pack up my apartment. I have a few loose ends to wrap up, like getting the phone and power turned off, but other than that I should be golden. I'm trying to stay positive, but the possibilities of stuff that could go wrong run through my mind. Take care everyone, wish me luck. -Mike (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
10:28 am	Well, I'm now taking the only sick day I've ever had with the station. I only work 3 hours a day anyway, so instead of going in to spread around germs and make myself miserable for 3 hours, I phoned in sick. The sucky thing is I'm so miserable I can't exercise, plus it is snowing. I gotta get a hold of my landlord this week to inform him that June will be my last month in the apartment. I've been reading Cohort of the Damned, a story about a guy who joins the foreign legion in some far flung future and goes through basic training. (Comment on this)