Something
About
Van-d

#mike's_story

Life can be boring sometimes, especially when you are stuck at home with a little change in your pockets and a lot of time on your hands. So I told myself: "Mike, you're always on some crazy project or adventure, so open a blog and start writing to the world." So I did.

My Story in a
nutshell

After a deployment and an honorable discharge from the US Army in 2010, I spent a few years wearing different hats. I spent a fair amount of time in the automotive industry, transitioned into low voltage and fire alarm, and slid from that to fire sprinkler design. It took me about 10 years but I realized none of that actually means a damn thing to me. A few battles with the VA and years later and I find myself in a rather fortunate position of retirement at a fairly young age.

Now I spend a lot of time playing outdoors and feeding my passions and hobbies and I want to bring you, dear reader, along for that adventure while I hone my writing, expositional, and editorial skills. Among other things. First band-aid we’re gonna rip off here, since you’ve made it this far – I have a very informal writing style. I’m gonna swear, I’m not always going to use perfect grammar, and occasionally you’re going to see the stream of conciousness of my general thoughts. A lot of things, really, this is as much an experiment for me as it is entertainment for you. So enjoy, dear reader, there’s an eclectic collection of stories, photos, videos and adventures headed your way.

Self Portrait, 2024

Terminology

Some terms you, the reader should be aware of. I’m building a brand here, so that means there’s some crossover, crossposting, terms of endearment, and other colloquialisms that I gotta explain. This list will get updated as I think of things or y’all bitch at me in the comments enough about defining something.

CREEPY/CREEPIES/CREEPS/CREEPERS/CREEP-OS, ETC – So you’d think this one would be obvious but it’s the one I get asked to explain the most, so here it is: Y’all are creepin’ on me, my socials, this webpage. Granted, I’m posting shit publicly, with the intention of it being discovered and read by you lot but waaaay back when I started all this nonsense on BookFace, there were a handful of creepers that did not want me to know they were creeping. Professional mode kids, you can see er’rythang. So I began addressing the crowd as creeps as a petty jab towards those folks. It makes me giggle, so now it stays as a general term of endearment.