Minds in Formation
Conversations about how people actually live — family, work, tech, community, and the systems trying to run them. Recorded in Colorado Springs.
Minds in Formation
#20 Darrius
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In this episode we discuss war stories, lost teammates, Military experiences, the active duty to veteran transition, tech work, deployments, the Iran situation, motivations to enlist, Airborne operations, warfare, Afghanistan, religious extremism, American history, the dark side of social media, avoiding negative messaging, culture, crime, preconceived notions, travel abroad, wisdom, and much more.
Divergent thinking is a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing, nonlinear manner, such that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive fashion. Many possible solutions are explored in a short amount of time and unexpected connections are drawn.
SPEAKER_03Welcome.
SPEAKER_04So you've never done a podcast before, huh?
SPEAKER_00Never in my life.
SPEAKER_04Are you a listener? Do you uh do you listen to him?
SPEAKER_00I've listened to a few. The fat electrician's hilarious.
SPEAKER_04What is it called?
SPEAKER_00The fat electrician? I think he's an ex engineer or medic. One or the two. But he does go over like military history, he goes over like current military events, and just from the the the mind frame of a uh enlisted soldier with a whole bunch of retirees and vets around him, it's hilarious.
SPEAKER_04That's cool. Yeah, I do like some of the veteran ones. As long as it's not like too veteran, bro, right? Like there's a sweet spot.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. You start selling like uh protein and uh get tactical gear or just constant war stories.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god. But that shit used to bother me even when I was in the military because it starts as soon as you join.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, you go to basic training and everybody's just trying to figure out what the hell's going on. But then you go to AIT and you got to listen to everyone's basic training stories. I was like, oh God. And then it just continues throughout your your whole career. Like, oh, this one time at NTC, there's one deployment, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I mean, unless something really cool happened, I'm not interested, bro, because we've all done the same shit.
SPEAKER_00Oh, all every single one of us. The only time I tell like war stories when I'm like the soldiers, and it's more of like learning lessons, you know what I'm saying? Lessons learned. Like, look, I remember my first deployment, I didn't know what was going on. I was lost, and then I get there, and it's just uh go war zone, but it's not a war zone, you know what I'm saying? You you were G Watt, right? Yeah, it was like work in the desert.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, especially for us, and and that's one thing I have to convey to people too. I'm like, my time in the military, I was a nerd the whole time.
SPEAKER_00The entire time.
SPEAKER_04I just wore camouflage. So they'll be like, How many people have you killed?
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, none.
SPEAKER_04I've helped kill a lot. Yeah. A bunch, you know. Yeah, I mean, I was a part of it, you know, that is probably responsible for all kinds of bodies. But me personally, I'm not kicking down doors and pulling triggers and stuff, you know. I mean, and if I am, something's gone terribly wrong.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my favorite war story to tell the soldiers, right? And it's it serves two points. It's like serves a point like A, you're 25 series, you're not going to kill nobody. And B, you can be put in the bullshit because you're still a soldier.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right? Like, they were like, I'm have you ever like shot at somebody? I was like, I shot three bullets in my entire military career at a person. Like, I've I've been to the range, I've been, you know what I'm saying, I've handled a gun, I know how to shoot, how to aim, you know what I'm saying? But it was one time on a it was we were gonna set up a strong, like a stronghold, a forward point. And uh, we were getting shot at the whole time, and I got out and started, we got we were getting shot at, and I started shooting back, and then the platoon starts smack me in the back of the hand, like, get back in the truck. You're the only 25 series we got. Who else is gonna set up this damn equipment?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. Yeah, like especially like in an austere condition, you know, like you lose your communicator or you lose your medic or something. I mean, that's a bad day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. And it's like, I mean, we I've been in what 18 years. I've seen a whole bunch of crazy shit, a whole bunch of crazy shits happen around me, but it's like it's I'm not my job to go shoot at people. Right. It is, but it is not.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I think that's a little bit different. Uh one thing that the Marine Corps does a little bit differently, they kind of beat into their dudes your an everyone's an infantryman first. Yeah, yeah. And then you have your job. And I mean, I yeah, it makes sense, but you know, it's just not really the way we roll, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, again, the first person that I know that died that wasn't combat arms was a cook. Sarge Tate, he died on a uh convoy in Afghanistan with my first story, and I was like that. Like I knew him, but not very personally. Talked to him a lot, you know what I'm saying? You get around to cook and start bullshitting. You you you know what I'm saying, you start developing like a relationship. It was in that in that type of context. Yeah. And then I found out he died, and I was like, he's a cook. What happened? He was on the convoy, he was a gunner.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_00Got hit. I was like, wow.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. You never know. I mean, throughout my career, it's like unfortunately, when somebody would pass away that I knew directly, unless I my memory's failing me, but a lot of times it wasn't combat. It'd be random shit. I remember this one lady, she fucking had a heart a random ass heart attack on a deployment. And you know, unfortunately, a couple couple people smoked themselves.
SPEAKER_00I think I know more so uh soldiers that committed suicide than I know soldiers that died in combat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's it's crazy because I know a few soldiers that died in combat. Oh, you know what I'm saying? Two, what, two 12-month deployments in Afghanistan in like what late 2000s? Still really, really hectic. And it's like to say that, hey, I know like what maybe eight soldiers that died in combat to versus maybe the three to four dozen that I know that died of suicide, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_04It is crazy, man. And uh I I don't know what's up with that. Like, we're all aware that like the suicide rate is pretty high in the military and veteran community. It's hard for me to pinpoint, though, exactly what is going on with that, though. You know, you don't ever know what's going on in somebody's mind. Exactly. You know, everyone's different. For for me, the military was super easy. You know, there's times that's stressful or whatever, but it's also like streamlined and easy in a way because you you know what you gotta do. It's the the same old rules.
SPEAKER_00It's the same old rules.
SPEAKER_04Show up, be on time, be on the right uniform, do what the fuck you're told. And in many cases, you can kind of just turn your brain off and just be like, okay, on to the next thing. Okay, put your parachute on, okay, land, you know, or all right, uh, go back to work, send send this report, whatever. You know, it's it's just you just do the steps. Yeah. So I don't know what what is happening with that. Uh maybe in the veteran community it makes slightly more sense. Yeah. Because I do understand people struggle with that transition and that like loss of identity. And maybe you thought you were, you know, G.I. Joe war hero for 20 years, and then you go work at the Amazon facility and you're like, fuck, dude, this sucks.
SPEAKER_00It that's one thing that it's like I don't know because I'm still in you, obviously. But it's one thing that I'm like not afraid of, but like cautious of. Getting out seems weird to me because I don't, I've never held as an adult, as a teenager, I've held like regular jobs, but that was like what 20, almost 20-something years ago. Now I was like trying to get out and work with regular people. I was like, oh brother, I don't think I have the vocabulary to work around civilians, let's alone the you know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude. It actually messed with me a little bit more than I thought it was going to. I kind of took it for granted and blew it off. You know, I have a good resume, I've got a good, you know, network or whatever. So I was like, you know, I'll find a job or whatever. You know, I wasn't worried about that. Yeah. But there was just some mental stuff going on to a degree. You know, you get out and then yeah, you got to look for a job, and it's not guaranteed, you know, until you get that offer letter. And just trying to figure out like what you want your life to look like. Exactly. You know, I hit the easy button, went to the defense contractor route. So maybe you could say in some ways, I still haven't really transitioned out. Exactly. And just doing the same shit. I'm talking to the same people.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, been around the exact same people. Like they get out, they join the same defense contract, everybody's moving in this one unit to work as contractors. And I I thought about that, and I was like, I want something different. My mil I've been, I grew up in the military, Brad. My mother was in the military, retired as a staff sergeant. My dad was in the military. My mom was both retired, 35-year-star majors. So it's like, I grew up around the military, my entire military career. I want to have a corporate job. I just don't know if I'm ready for a corporate job.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, it's weird, man. And you know, the a big factor why I got sucked back into it was strictly just because of logistics, right? Let's just say you're looking at a net admin job, right? Yeah. All right, you're gonna go look look at, you know, maybe a hospital or a college or something, and they're gonna pay X amount. They're gonna give you 70k a year or whatever, which maybe that's all right for some some folks, you know, depends on your situation.
SPEAKER_00If you're not living in Colorado, yeah, yeah, that's a big one.
SPEAKER_04But then you look at the ones that require security clearance, whether you're directly supporting a unit or you're working for fucking Northrop, right? And it might be almost double, dude.
SPEAKER_00You know, or and that's what I was seeing. I was like, there was one job that I saw when I was trying to retire until they were were promoted my ass. I was like off shift. You worked like eight hours, like two to fucking ten o'clock at night, and it was paying like maybe 80k. And I was like, 80k plus the retirement, it'll get me there. It is more time off because it was only four hours, four days a week.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, but that's a weird transition. Like going from, you know what I'm saying, uh 6 30 to 5, 5, uh 6 o'clock at night to to 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 10 o'clock at night, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird process, dude. Weirder than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah. Because again, I was just like, nah, whatever. And then it hit and I was like, oh fuck, dude. I do I do feel a little crazy. I do feel a little panicked.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, especially for people like me. Like, I came in the military to not go to college or jail, but yeah, either or, you know what I'm saying? Because I wasn't I knew I wouldn't do well in college and I would continue doing the dumb shit that I was doing in high school. So I was like, I want an environment that would benefit my type of personality. I don't think I'm retarded, but or we can't say that nowadays.
SPEAKER_04I don't think I'm you can say whatever you want, bro.
SPEAKER_00I don't think I'm dumb. I find myself believing that I am kind of educated. I just don't like school.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, me neither.
SPEAKER_00I feel yeah. And then I'm looking at all these jobs uh jobs want bachelor's and master's degree and cybersecurity. They want all these certifications plus 30 years' experience. I'm like, if I have all this, I have to be 65. Yeah. There's no way in the world that you're gonna look at me and be like, you want 30 years of experience, eight years worth of college, with every certification known to man, sec plus C C N A C C C I P, all the G SECs, and all that other stuff, just to do 80k a year security job. Brother, you come on now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, get real, bro.
SPEAKER_00Get real, brother. If that's the case, I might as well just go ahead and finish the 35 years out, retire as a SAR major, and just sit it down.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, totally. But but I will tell you, like, there's a there's a lot of opportunity in the in the defense contracting world, man. So it is the easy button and it it can pay good. So just as you kind of go through that thought process, I mean my recommendation for people is to it's almost like going back to talking to your kids, you know. It's like, what do you want to be when you grow up? Like, what is something that you love to do?
SPEAKER_00And that's why I tell everybody I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Meaning the the army has been the easiest job I've ever done in my life. And a lot of people look at that and be like, how is it easy? You going over there, you could die at any time. Like, you could die at any time, anywhere. Yeah, like I said, most people I know that died died outside of combat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Motorcycle accidents, skydiving accidents, suicide, heart attack. I had a soldier that died of cancer in Hawaii at garrison. Damn. You know what I'm saying? It's like it's it might seem dangerous, but being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, what to wear and where to be, it's the easiest thing you could possibly do. You don't even have to think about it. The hardest part about being in the military for like us is the technical part of the job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? That's the strenuous part. It's generally probably what all civilians be doing. Like, hey, how do I get this router working? It's not working.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I've I've I've scanned these configs for this router, I'm going line by line, and then it's not working, and then find out you missed one number like a uh an ACL or something. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh okay, now the traffic's going through.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's the stressful thing. That's yeah, that's the stressful thing. When people are breathing down your neck and they're like, dude, we need this shit up now.
SPEAKER_00The network's down, I need it up. We need internet. I'm like, oh, okay, yeah. But the range?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The range is the most peaceful day ever.
SPEAKER_04Totally. Yeah, it's funny, you know. It's like, yeah, you talk about those deployments and those experiences and which ones are stressful and which ones are not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It was always the technical ones. 100%.
SPEAKER_00Every time I remember my first deployment, I'm thinking, I was terrified. I got a wife, kids at home. We're on this plane going to Afghanistan. I'm like, oh my God, we're going to war. First day in, we get to this fob, which is just like a building, five tents in the middle of the desert, and I'm like, get into networking. And brother, that first week was like terrible. It was like, I got my STT up, I get all my networks up, I'm running cable, I'm trying to get switches up, the switches aren't passing down. I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm stressed out. I think we slept maybe out of that week, we slept like five hours. Take a quick nap, go back at it, trying to get a network up. And once it came up, just like every 25 series ever, what's this up? I'm playing dominoes in the back with the homies. I really ain't got nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Until somebody's radio go down or somebody's network go down or somebody's accounts mess up. I really ain't got nothing to do. I'm doing extra, uh like additional duties and stuff. People got me like, hey, we need somebody to go work the child hall. So can you go KP? Hey, we got somebody that we need somebody to go dig this ditch. Hey, you gonna go on this patrol with them because they down a man. That was easy. That part was easy. It's the technical part that was hard for me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. I mean I remember one of my worst ones, like pucker moments. I mean, I had a bunch because I was in a high-level spot, so just it was like everything was always critical, you know. So there was always a certain amount of pressure. But I remember one specific engagement where I was like, oh god, I was just like shitting my pants, you know, super uncomfortable, because we have a bunch of DVs come into the site and they want to do some big VTC, and it's like a non-standard connection, right? You know, you're going from whatever classification, but like a DO DOD network to some outside agency. It's not really working right. And they're like, hey, Matt, you need to come fix this. And I walk in there, and they're State Department people, generals. I think there's a fucking congressman in there, all looking at me like I got a dick on my forehead as I'm like clicking through settings on the codecs. I'm like, just give me a minute, guys. And I don't fully know what I'm doing. I'm just like trying things. I'm like, maybe we gotta switch it over to H264, or you know, I don't know. You know, I'm just like clicking through settings.
SPEAKER_00It's like H dot 3233, not working. All right, cool. Let's see. I learned early in my career that I never wait to test the day before, yeah, a day of. Yeah. I remember once I set up a VTC. It was a VTC from our headquarters and like Pink Hill to division. It was this big old like conference that my BC wanted to be in. And it was like the highest priority thing they needed to do happen that day. So the day before I went in there, I text, text, uh, test the bridge, I set the uh thing up in this hot box I'm talking about. It was like a cabin with no AC. It's August and like Virginia, it's hot as hell outside. So we set it up. I set it up, I test it, cool, I go about my day. We played dominoes for the rest of that day. Like literally did nothing else but play dominoes. The next morning they were doing a BTC. I came in early with my uh with my homeboy Bayer, and Bayer thousand number hits call. It goes through, works beautifully. They gave that man an award. Save the day. He I was like, I'm the one that set it up. I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna be a hater. Congratulations, brother.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, good job, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, good job, bro. Impact AAF. There you go. That's the 82nd airborne to feel you, man.
SPEAKER_04That's how it goes sometimes.
SPEAKER_00It'd just be like that.
SPEAKER_04So I got a question for you. Uh interested on your perspective. So, you know, we're talking about you know, being a support MOS. It's not really that dangerous. You just kind of do your job. But now with these Iran shenanigans, they're just shooting missiles, you know, all over the damn place, targeting bases. So you you might have you like some Intel weenies or whatever. I don't know the MOSs of the people that have have been killed so far. Uh what is it? It's up to like 14 or something so far. Somewhere like that, like that. Don't quote me. But these are not infantrymen that are getting killed. They're not in the direct line of fire. These are dudes in an office.
SPEAKER_00And wait in Harat and all that place. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and a ballistic missile is just fucking smoking their their fob. You know, like what are your kind of thoughts on this whole Iran thing in general?
SPEAKER_00I mean, not to get anything classified, because you understand. Of course. Yeah, but it's my opinion on it is that it's a travesty travesty, you know what I'm saying? Any lost life is travest uh is a travesty. And I generally don't agree with the reasons we're going to war. But as a soldier, it's like that's what we came here to do. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That is part of the job. Like I said, it seems dangerous. Like I and I know a lot of people that lost their life in conflict, but it it's it's what we like. I came in during war. You know what I'm saying? I came in during the Afghan and Iraqi war. I didn't go to Iraq unfortunately, but unfortunately, I don't know. I wanted to go to Iraq. It seemed cool over there. Baghdad and all that.
SPEAKER_04I'm the opposite. I've only been to Iraq, not Afghanistan.
SPEAKER_00Afghanistan, bro, that was a dust bowl. It was so damn hot. Yeah. And then there was like parts that was really fucking cold. It was weird. But no, back to it. It's like, it's our duty, you know what I'm saying? I'm not here for like all the patriots, like, oh, we're doing this for our country, but at the end of the day, we all live here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you signed up, you know, that's an all-volunteer force.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. No one forced you to sign up. It is a great way to get yourself out of bad situations at home. It is a perfect opportunity to build like career path and get you out of like, let's say, poverty. Some people come in, they already have the uh their family already has money and all that good stuff. But my mom was a specialist when I was in middle school and high school. You know what I'm saying? No, in middle school. We didn't have a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? But we had the money was tight. The money was tight, you know what I'm saying? But it it was she came from where she was in Florida to now being able to afford what she wants. You know what I'm saying? She hits at the home now, she's been retired since 2012, and makes like what $4,500 just sitting on the on the sit on the sofa.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00Ain't bad at all. So, yeah, you joined, you took those benefits, it's your duty now to perform. Knowing the dangers that that brought uh that brings them. You don't have to agree with the civilians. I don't agree with our civilians. You know what I'm saying? Everybody's like, oh, the Democrats and the Republicans, this, they're the warmongers, the the crooks, the thieves. I don't generally agree with any politician. I don't like politicians. I'm not a I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat. History tells me that neither of those parties are good for my health. But I stay out of politics. You know what I'm saying? If they say we need to go do this, we gotta go do it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And it's terrible because I know people who have been hit in those. Like I think the one in on the what was it, uh, step site or uh the one out in Jordan or was it Bah Bahrain, maybe? I think it's Bahrain.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It was like a radar site or something.
SPEAKER_00It was a radar site, yeah. Yeah, with all the 25 Sierras at it. And I know three people who died now. Damn. And it's terrible. Because it's like you were just talking to these people. You know what I'm saying? You just were having conversations with them and just talking about the future and what they want to do. Yeah. Now they're gone. Yeah. Especially when it's a young guy, you know. My first time seeing like a young soldier die was in Afghanistan, and it was terrible. Because PFC just made specialists, nineteen years old. Brand new wife, brand new baby. Did not make it all. Damn.
SPEAKER_04And it's terrible. And that's such a trip, bro. Cause like, I mean, I got two boys, you know, they're they're about to be 17 and 18. And to imagine them, you know, running around and you know, just like fucking eating a ballistic missile. I mean, it like breaks your brain. You're like, cause because I still see them as babies. Exactly. I mean, you don't know what the fuck's going on, bro.
SPEAKER_00My mom has the same thing going on with me. She's like, I know what it is to be uh a soldier in the United States Army. She was a soldier in the United States Army, even though she doesn't understand why I chose all the extras to attach to it. Yeah. But uh, she worries. She worries every time she hears something on the news. I'm like, Mama, you was in the army. You know not to listen to the news.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's all fear-mongering. I'll let you know if I'm actually gonna be in danger or not. Yeah, I told I was every time I got an update uh upcoming deployment, she was like, You gonna be okay? I was like, Mom, I'm my if we're we're going to Europe, we will be fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I don't I don't think anybody's gonna hit any of the European countries that we're gonna be in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a trip, bro. And I mean, yeah, I agree with what you're saying. You know, it's like it's it's horrible whenever whenever something happens. And and somehow, maybe this sounds shitty, but it almost seems worse when it is like communicators or support guys that are that are not running around the front lines and they're just sitting there on a computer and all of a sudden their building blows up. You know, and maybe that's just my perspective, but that somehow seems worse.
SPEAKER_00I think it seems worse because those uh and working around a lot of communication, especially young communicators, a lot of them believe they joined the United States military to do their job and not be in danger.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, and that's but it comes back to the stories I tell about Ms. Horne Tate and all of them about cooks and and Intel people and combo people dying in combat, because at any given time, yes, we have a soldier, we have a job to do, but we're soldier service. It's not hard job, but it's dangerous.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00You're not gonna be always in danger, but I mean you could uh die on a a jump.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that shit happens from time to time.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_04Or people get super fucked up, you know, you rip your damn arm off or snap your legs.
SPEAKER_00That broke my leg on a jump in 18. You yeah, you was there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, there was uh what was that one star major blew out his knee because you know, for anybody that doesn't know, if you're a paratrooper, jumping in Colorado is different. You're up here, the the air is thinner, so you're you're definitely falling faster. All the drop zones, it's like a bad video game. That's what I always tell people. Everything's covered in spikes. There's snakes everywhere and gopher holes. When you're when you're coming down, you're under canopy, you look down, dude, it looks like Swiss cheese, bro. Exactly. And you have no control if you if your foot just goes right into one of those holes, you're breaking your leg. Just period. That's all there is to it.
SPEAKER_00And I I brought that th I broke my leg, but it took me about a year to recover. They wanted to madboy me. I was like, nah, I'm trying to retire. Because I that was the whole reason I came in and retired. Yeah. So I went back on duty and I was like, I probably can jump again. My wife was like, no, you're done. I don't know why I let you do this to begin with.
SPEAKER_04I know.
SPEAKER_00I was like, I've it's been what it was 10 years at that point. I jumped for 10 years straight in Georgia, North Carolina. I think I jumped once in Hawaii. Like, all of it was fine. It's soft, you know what I'm saying, till except for Holland. Holland DZ was trash, but you know what I'm saying? Jumping all those DZs in like the South and in Hawaii, I think we jumped what once into Normandy. It didn't seem as bad. I get here it's like hit hidden ground like a bag of bricks.
SPEAKER_04It's rough too. And I think a lot of us kind of understood. We'd ask ourselves from time to time like, why are we actually jumping? Like, what are the no shit chances that this would ever be utilized in any type of real situation? Even just looking back through history, what there was one, I think one alleged combat jump throughout the entire GWAT, and it was into a secured airfield in Iraq. Like Rangers had already went in and held it down. So even you know, getting a mustard stain for that is dubious at best. And then I mean did they use it in Vietnam? Maybe a little. I don't really, I can't remember for sure.
SPEAKER_00No, they did jump into Vietnam a couple times, but it's like you think like jumping in the desert seems bad. Jumping in the jungle seems terrible. Oh, yeah. It just seems so terrible. And now you're talking about snakes and and big cats, you're talking about big old trees, swampland, you got all the marsh and rivers and like a couple of our brother. I I would rather jump into the desert.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_00But no, it's like I think that ranger jump was again dubious. But you tell those mustard stainholders that they they're gonna fight you tooth and yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. They're proud of that shit.
SPEAKER_00They are very proud of that shit.
SPEAKER_04But I'm still calling your ass out, dude. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fuck that.
SPEAKER_00Like this next like war that we go into, if be it in Europe or the Middle East, I don't see us jumping into like the American US the US Army's logistics is way too good for that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, it's just towards the military, man. Right. Yeah, like time times have changed, and and I think just the conflicts that are going on right now, whether you're talking Russia and Ukraine or you know what's what's been happening in Iran, you know, we're already at that point to where boots on the ground, you know, just dudes shooting each other, it that's getting further and further away, you know, like the autonomous warfare, the drones, you know, like we've been doing long-range strikes forever.
SPEAKER_01Forever.
SPEAKER_04It just seems like that's the nature of the beast. And I mean, how long is it before it's just straight up robots fighting each other? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it's going there's a I can't remember who made the quote, but uh it was World War II was fought in one by planes, bullets, and bombs. World War III will be fought by robots, drones, and nukes. And then the next World War after that will be fought with sticks and stones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I forget who said that, but yeah, yeah, I'm familiar as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's wild, bro. But you know, going back to the the Iran thing, what one of the things that I that I struggle with, and maybe this was also a thing during the entire G Watt experience, is it's difficult not to ask yourself, like, what are we doing? Like, what is the actual goal? What's the agenda here? I understand that there's conversations that we're not gonna be privy to. Yes. You know, over in DC, they're gonna they're gonna be in the skiff and they're gonna be talking about how they're trying to shape the environment over the next however many years.
SPEAKER_00Prepare to the to prepare for this contingency or that contingency.
SPEAKER_04Right. Or we gotta shape hearts and minds. Exactly. Work in influence, you know, like true like global shaping, you know. And I'm sure that's a conversation, at least in in certain levels, is like what do we want the world to look like? Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00It it's it is weird that we sit here and police the world and we care so much about what's happening across the st across the pond. Again, I'm not here I'm not a political person myself, but uh history shows it doesn't end well.
SPEAKER_04And it hasn't worked out for us that well.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I think you could say Korea was the last time that it that it worked out. Prior to that, it somehow seemed to work out pretty well. So if you look at Germany today, it's a flourishing society uh all across Europe, you know. And if you look at Korea, that's like an amazing success story, right? Once like communism was pushed back, and I mean South Korea is now one of the most powerful economies on the planet. Very, very much first world, super, you know, it's nice there, it's dope there. Anything after that, any conflicts that we've been in, has not worked out well.
SPEAKER_00So you gotta look at it like this. I don't think there was a goal for Afghanistan. Yeah, a lot of people said there was a pointless war and nobody really won. And I'll point them to the Vietnam bets, because they had the exact same problem. Totally. It is not a military as a military operation. We held somebody else's country for 20 years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Held it. Like they didn't, they could not control their country for 20 years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then we just gave it back to them. Right. Because there was no follow-up.
SPEAKER_04There's no plan behind it. And we gave it back to them in the most ridiculous fashion of all of them. You can also have all these black hawks and weapons and night vision goggles and billions of dollars worth of gear. Good luck to you.
SPEAKER_00It is so ridiculous to be hearing the Taliban on the edit on the internet and on the TV explain that their like political goals and asking for help with refugees. And I'm like, brother, no. We were just shooting each other. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm pretty sure we're still giving them money, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's weird to me. Like, it's it's about as backwards as the French in Haiti debt repayment. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Where France was kicked out of Haiti during during their independence and then demanded the Haities pay them back for their losses. And I was like, they're only doing this because they can. Right. And it's weird to me that we are sitting here giving them money back. And I understand that they won't, they don't want like another Germany to have it. Cool. You want to make sure their economy comes back, thrives, so they don't fall into that point where they can't afford anything and they just start lashing out at the world.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Understood.
SPEAKER_04But uh But haven't we also established that you can't really negotiate or deal with like Islamic extreme extremism? Like I'm just gonna say it, you know?
SPEAKER_00Me personally, religious extremism is weird, and I don't think we should be trying to negotiate. I don't think we should try to take part in it, be it Christians, be it the Islamic, be it like whatever the hell's happening in India. You know what I'm saying? Whatever extreme like terrorists are gonna be terrorists brother. They don't have their their whole point is to control people and and try to get as much gains out of people as possible.
SPEAKER_04Right. It's like join or die mentality, you know, with us or against us, point blank.
SPEAKER_00And you can't work with that. No, and then they they're they're the the rhetoric that comes out of those extremist groups is just like weird.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like women can't drive, women can't vote, they have to have their face covered at all times. Like I've talked to a lot of Islamic people, they are taking their faith and twisting it into something that's corrupt and wrong. Right. And I mean, me personally, I think the Islamic community, especially in the Middle East, needs to nip that in the bud.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That that is your neighbor. Yeah. He is causing y'all harm, he is tarnishing y'all reputation and y'all faith.
SPEAKER_04Totally.
SPEAKER_00Why have you not put that down?
SPEAKER_04Right. Because it seems like there's other nations in the region that are trying to I don't know, modernize a bit, you know, or re rethink some things.
SPEAKER_00And I mean it's so the the the rhetoric they putting out hasn't been current since like the 40s. Right. Right. It's you look at like I hate to say Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia's doing pretty damn well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too. Yeah, they're they're doing alright. They're realizing that they gotta kick some of that old shit to the curb. Otherwise, like you're you're not really invited to the global table.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean you your their law, they have religious guidelines and and rules that they follow, and no one has a problem with your religious rules. No, it is when you start forcing those rules upon everybody else. Right. You know what I'm saying? Your faith is a personal thing, it's not a community thing. It's you take your personal faith to the community, and y'all build a community from that faith. Right. It is not a forced faith on the community, right? And I think a lot of the Islamic states or the Islamic communities in the Middle East are coming to see that, but the problem is there's a lot of people that want to corrupt that for their own gains.
SPEAKER_04Weird, man. Super weird.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the world is a is a weird place we live in right now. Yeah, yeah, it is. We got the Russia trying to take land because they think it belongs to them because they held it at one point in time, and I'm like, uh, brother, that was that was not the World War II. The World War II vets are old.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude. If not dead. And and these things are are always in flux, and that's why like I get kind of frustrated with folks and they get real wrapped around the axle about like who originally came from where or or like who would and how things end up the way they are today. I'm like, brother, it's always changing. Every everything's always changing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, some people like I like what kills me, especially in like American politics, right? We sit here and demonize refugees as a country of refugees. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Oh, they're coming to our country, even though you as the your leaders at some point came to this country. Totally. Yeah. And it's like everybody's fear-mongering, like they're bringing rapists and killers. And I'm like, brother, they said the same thing about the Irish. They said the same thing about the Polish. They said the same thing about everybody else, and we've made it this far.
SPEAKER_04Once upon a time, the the pilgrims would would be considered terrorists.
SPEAKER_00They definitely would they they were definitely terrorists.
SPEAKER_04According to the kingdom, they were full-blown terrorists, rebels, you know, like should be fucking killed swiftly.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. And it's now it's the founding of our country.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So it's funny, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But it it it is weird. And maybe it's like just an internet thing, right? I feel like the the internet, whenever I go on, you know, Twitter or Instagram, I feel like people are trying to radicalize me. Like you know, they're always just showing you the the worst of the worst, like trying to get you upset. So I tried not like not to participate and be conscientious of the fact that like people are just trying to get under my skin, be like, yeah, your your neighbor who's a Mexican is probably a fucking murderer. I'm like, okay, that's definitely not true, dude. So like why why is that so prevalent?
SPEAKER_00It's the internet's not a real place. No, not at all. It's not a real place.
SPEAKER_04No. And there's probably outside actors that are just trying to fuck with us.
SPEAKER_00You gotta think about this foreign actors, you gotta think about the people who are just trying to rage bait you, those extremist groups out there that are pushing an agenda. It's like the food industry. If you go on the internet, go on YouTube, and look at any like health advice, like, hey, this has Red 40 in it, this has corn syrup in it, this has high fruit charts cold syrup in it, this has uh chemicals in it. Don't buy that. Buy mine. You it's always if somebody's giving you advice, especially free, unsolicited advice, they're selling you something.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's an agenda.
SPEAKER_00There is an agenda. Every person that gives advice or has a hot take on something in the world is selling you something. Be that the United States government or random actors on the internet. Everybody has an agenda. That is what the internet is. It is a place of agendas and fear mongering. Now, again, there's entertainment and all that stuff. Sure. You know what I'm saying? But you gotta stand. The entertainment system industry is also selling something.
SPEAKER_03Totally.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, selling tickets. They're trying to get butts and seats. They're trying to take about three hours of your day to watch this movie, an hour and a half of your day to watch this show.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, attention. Attention. It's all attention. So that's the uh the ultimate commodity right now. It's just eyeballs. Like if you're looking at it, you're ingesting ads and information or whatever, like someone else's wallet is getting fatter the whole time.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And uh I like I don't think I've watched a commercial in like 15 years. Yeah. I have paid for so man, like I have so many subscriptions just to get rid of ads. It is not funny. Because I don't like people selling new things. Yeah, I mean, and I'd rather, if I'm going to buy like YouTube, if I'm gonna watch something on YouTube, I'd rather just watch what I want to watch and pay the person up front instead of somebody like, hey, here's our ad break. And it's like, this coffee is made from mushrooms. Let me stop before you I don't I don't want to get arised on your on you, but you know what I'm saying? Yeah, like it burnt fat and it does all this. And I'm like, if it's so healthy, why is it just coming out, brother?
SPEAKER_04My algorithm thinks that my dick doesn't work. I don't know what it is. I scroll through Instagram or I pull up YouTube. Yeah, every other ad.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that little green pill. I was like, brother, it it's just it sees you're a man over 30. That's all it is. It's like, hey, you're a man over 30. Even if it still works, it can work a little bit better. Like, brother, I'm not taking your random ass drugs.
SPEAKER_04No, and it's always like some hot chick and be like, oh, we used to never have sex and now I can't get enough.
SPEAKER_00What the fuck, dude? It was like, brother, uh, do you understand? If if I wanted to, I am married, I'm gonna have sex regardless. It's the world doesn't revolve around sex. I have three kids, I don't need to reproduce no both.
SPEAKER_04I know, right? It's wild, but you know, like going back to like the the rage baiting and and shit, you know, one thing that I always tell people that really helps me, and I and I kind of suggest it to everyone, is like obviously for one, put that shit away, put the screen away, like disengage, right? But look at what's happening to you locally. You know, you're sitting here watching feeds, you're like, oh, the immigrants are killing everyone, you know, there's war in the streets, there's protests everywhere. What's happening in your neighborhood?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like, are your friends good? Is your family good? Are your people good? 99% of the time, you know, at least in America, the answer is yes. Like it's it's fine. Sure, there's always things that could be improved, of course, you know, when there's issues that pop up. But most of the time, it's fine. So I just think there's a part of our brains that we're we're not meant to ingest all of the fucking problems in the world. It's too much to handle, it's overwhelming. You know, we're not designed that way. We're designed to be, I still think, you know, like hunter-gatherer, right? We're designed to look out for our tribe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's uh we are highly social, but like small clan-based.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we're local. Yeah, we're local based.
SPEAKER_00And a lot of the the fear that's going around with the like the immigrants, it's all outsider the base. You know what I'm saying? You're the fear of the outsider, the fear of the stranger. Somebody's gonna come in and take what's yours. And I think that's ingrained in our brains from when we were hunters-gatherers, because at any given time somebody can come take your food and then it can kill your whole tribe. Yeah, starve everybody out. And we gotta understand we live in a different world. Yeah, no one's gonna tell come like if you've lived this long and nobody's robbed you yet, it's fine. Even if they did, if somebody can be a lot of people want guns just in case somebody breaks in their house. You know what I'm saying? And I remember uh when I was younger, my whole thing was like, I'm not worried about people breaking in my house, but they kind of just steal it, take it, I gotta assure it. Right? If I had if I wanted home protection, it'd be for the police. Because so there's a string of no-knock warrants. That's never happened to a lot of people, but it's happened to me a couple times. You know what I'm saying? I it it's it is very jarring to see somebody breaking your house.
SPEAKER_03Totally.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? And most of the time, if you get robbed, it's somebody you know. Yeah, yeah, brother. It's they've been in your house before.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they know what they're looking for.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, they they came here for something specific.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was your alleged homeboy or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I promise you, there's no way ever robbing your house while you're there. That if you if somebody is coming in your house holding you a gunpoint, you know who that person is and you know why they're there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, or it's a one in a million thing, which again is like the chances are crazy low.
SPEAKER_00I like I I taught the I talked to my uh brother. And he was like, What happens if somebody breaks in the house? I'm like, what did you do to somebody? Why would they break in the house? He was like, They want your stuff they want my stuff. I was like, if they want if they were here to take your stuff, you you invited them in. They know what's in here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? That's that's point back for it. You do not live in a place of where that type of poverty exists. Right. Right? When it's desperate and they're hungry and they need food, or they're drug outled and they need drugs. Those are the people, the desperate people who are either hungry, sick, or uh addicted to something that breaks into your house to take stuff to sell for you know what I'm saying, what they need. You live in if you live in suburbia, somebody broke in your house and stole your PlayStation, took your TVs and all that, look around, look at the people around you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's probably a damn family member. Yeah, exactly. That's the things you. You hear about the most. You know, you got your cousin or what nephew or whatever who got hooked on drugs and then he comes sneaking around so he can try to, you know, steal your watch so we can go score again.
SPEAKER_00Because uh I know a lot of thieves, unfortunately. Generally, they want to know the patterns. No thief wants to break into a house when somebody's there. Right. They want to know that you don't got a dog. They don't want to know, they want to know when you go to work, when the house is empty.
SPEAKER_04They want they want the least barriers. The least barrier.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So I break in, even if the alarm goes off, I got enough time to get away before you get there or the police get there. Conflict is not what they want.
SPEAKER_04No, not at all.
SPEAKER_00Most thieves are cowards.
SPEAKER_04Especially in America, because you do know shit goes sideways, you know, gramps might be packing at 45. You know, so you're not just gonna start kicking down doors.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. You hear start hearing Moxburg pumps go off, you know. Like, no, I'm I'm good off that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you're like, I'm straight, I don't need that 50 bucks.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Most times you the the most thing, the most things I've seen stolen are cars and things in your cars because they're left on the side of the road. Right. It's easy access. Yeah, exactly. Easy access. Break one window, open, gone.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00So like the key awards. They find something that's easily getting to gotten to, they take and leave.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Maybe it happened to me one time, and it was a little jarring just because I hadn't been robbed before, right? But then looking back, it made sense, and I realized, like, dummy, like you kind of allowed this to happen. So, long story short, I'm fishing down at Pueblo.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_04I might have told you about this back in the day. I was probably when we were working together. But I was dating this chick at the time, and I just didn't think about it because normally when I go fishing, it's just like me and my sons. I never have anything in my vehicle. Yeah, I have a couple fishing poles and a tackle box, and I take that out and take it to the damn river. There's nothing in the truck. But this time this girl came, and again, I just didn't think about it. She was like working on her laptop doing this shit, and she just left all this shit in the vehicle. Just spaced it. This just wasn't on my radar. I wasn't used to checking on somebody else like that at the time because I was a single guy, you know. Sure enough, walk back to the truck, windows busted out, all of her shit's gone. But you like you invited that one in. There's a laptop, a phone, and a purse, all just sitting out in plain view, and someone's walking around, you know, just looking again for like a quick, easy access type thing. You know, grab that shit, take off. And those are the things that get you in trouble is just not paying attention to your surroundings, you know, like letting your situational awareness lapse, and then you get caught up in something like that. But again, 99% of the time it's fine. And I actually had a little kind of valuable lesson here, here recently, because again, my algorithm's always trying to radicalize me. It's always trying to tell me that everything is fucked up. Me and my homeboy, last weekend we took a quick trip to Chicago. Never, never been before, just wanted to check it out. It was like a place that we could meet in the middle, just hang out, you know, go be bozos, have some drinks, go to a baseball game or whatever. Yeah. But, you know, I couldn't help but think a little bit ahead of time. I was like, oh, it's probably gonna suck. Like you hear shit about Chicago, you know, especially like Southside or whatever, which obviously we're not going to that area, but still I couldn't help but think like it's it's probably gonna be fucked up. It's probably gonna be like bums and crime everywhere, it's gonna be fucking grimy. I had this like negative idea in in in my mind before I even been there, which was like fucking ridiculous. And when you think back, you're like, why, why, why are you going into something with that like mentality that you and you know nothing about it firsthand? You're just taking bullshit off the internet and allowing it to like frame your mind that something bad's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But long story short, get there, and you know, we're of course we're staying in like you know, one of the nicer parts of town, but it it was awesome. We took public transportation everywhere. Never once did I feel not safe or that somebody was targeting me or anything, like not even close. Everybody was delightful. We had a great time, and at some point I just light bulbed myself, and I'm like, dude, you gotta fucking not pay attention to the fucking internet, dude. It's just gonna it's gonna skew your perspective.
SPEAKER_00So the I feel safe generally anywhere in the United States of America, right? I grew up around, you know what I'm saying, not good people.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. So I'm generally comfortable in those uh scenarios, you know what I'm saying? The most time I like the hardest time I've had America is this the burgers.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because at any time, it's some teenager breaking into your stuff. Because teenagers are gonna be teenagers. They do dumb shit. We dog did dumb shit when we was teenagers.
SPEAKER_03Totally.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? Or it's some somebody that's having a bad day and they want to take it out of the world.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just like an asshole neighbor or something that's fucking freaking out.
SPEAKER_00But like, generally, if I'm in like somebody's neighborhood that's they know they're doing criminal activities, they don't want to broadcast that. They don't want to go to jail. Why would they mess with you? You know what I'm saying? It's like generally when when you hear people saying, like, oh, they were yelling at me because I was in their neighborhood, because you probably were doing something weird.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they don't want you to bring that trouble around them.
SPEAKER_04100%.
SPEAKER_00Uh so it's like I I generally when I go vacational places, I generally just like if I stay out of the way, I say to myself and I have the funds that I came here to have. Nobody's really gonna bother me.
SPEAKER_03Totally.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no one's gonna bother you. No one's looking for you. If somebody is looking specifically for you, you know why. Yeah. You did something to somebody, or you owe something to somebody, or somebody is targeting you for a reason.
SPEAKER_04Totally. And I've implemented that all over the world, which was again, it was stupid that I had this like preconceived notion about going to Chicago. It was like so dumb when I thought about it after the fact. But you know, I've implemented that shit all over the world. I've been all all these different countries, both both professionally and personally. And it's something that I'm totally aware of that if you mind your business, you're polite, it you you respect the local customs and courtesies or whatever, you're good.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, you're gonna have those one-offs where it's like weird people, especially like Turkish people in Germany, right? Uh, who are just gonna be racist or just sexist or you know what I'm saying? They just have something wrong with them. And it's that's everywhere. You know what I'm saying? People look weirdos everywhere.
SPEAKER_04For sure. And and and I felt a little bit of that traveling. You know, it's just certain areas, if it's a little poorer, you're just walking around as a white guy, people are gonna be like, this guy's got money, that's a potential, potential target. I definitely had a little bit of that in South Africa.
SPEAKER_00See, I've had the exact opposite problem, especially like in Germany, where you go to like where most of the rich people live at, they're like, Why are you here?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you're robbing us. I'm like, I'm I'm an American, brother. I'm not robbing you in Germany.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Especially because like Europeans are weird. They think every American is currently holding a gun at any time. And I'm like, brother, I can't get that into this country legally. I'm not going to rob you. I don't have a gun on me. And it's just weird. It's just weird sentiments, weird like prejudices people have against Americans in Europe. I didn't have that problem in Asia. Asia was like just a cool place to be.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, they're super chill.
SPEAKER_00Super chill. Like Germany's a Germany has some weird places. Poland was great. I don't know. Poland was like little America. They they're kind of weird. Like little prejudice towards like, you know, darker scared people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Poland's like super, super white, right? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Super white.
SPEAKER_04Because they're like no fucking refugees allowed, like super strict with immigration.
SPEAKER_00But as soon as you sound like you're from America, they're like, oh, okay, never mind. He's a good one. I'm like, oh heard that one before.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, don't worry about this guy.
SPEAKER_00This one's alright. This one's alright. You know what I'm saying? But it but you mean what? We was there for like six months, and it was a great uh we had a great time. Generally don't go places thinking, like, hey, everybody's like this. Everybody's like that. No, it's just go to some as long as you don't make trouble, no trouble's gonna find you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if some trouble does find you, 99% of the time, you know why.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, I was talking about South Africa, and even that, like, part of that was my own fault. Because I'm chilling in Cape Town and I'm rolling around, and obviously there's parts of Africa that are in rough shape. You're like everyone's aware of that. And we're hanging out, and a couple people told us, like, hey, it's great, Cape Town's dope, you know, enjoy the downtown, go have some drinks, but maybe don't stay out too too much after dark. Yes. And I don't know, just at the time, I was like, nah, you don't gotta worry about that. Like, I'm an American, I'm like, I'm open-minded. Like, I know you guys are dealing with all this bullshit, but that's not how we roll in America. Yeah, yeah. Like, we're cool with everybody. So a little ignorant on my part. But sure enough, hour or two after dark, I'm the only white dude out. And people are just staring at me, eyeballing me hard, you know. At one point I had to go to the ATM to get some some some cash or whatever, and people were making crazy comments. They're like, ooh, this guy's got money, you know, like kind of following me around. I was like, oh dude, I gotta get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_00That was a mistake. Yeah, I don't give a fuck where I'm at, not going to the ATM after dark.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_00I evaluated it. If I ain't got it, I don't need it.
SPEAKER_04I know it. So that one was my fault. I got myself into that just by being being ignorant, but learned a lesson. I mean, I mean, the only thing that happened, I did get pickpocketed, lost my phone. But at the end of the day, no harm, no foul. I got insurance, I can get another fucking phone. It's not a big deal. Good lesson, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I learned a similar lesson. I got kind of robbed immediately. We went to a wedding, we crashed a wedding, but uh it was a great time. Beautiful wedding, beautiful service. I had a great time with all those people. Got a little too drunk. Had my friend drive drive us home, fell asleep, woke up in a parking lot at a strip club and couldn't find out, could not find my friend. So I was like, I'll just get a taxi. Got out the car, called a taxi. I guess the Moroccans heard me. And they were like, oh, we got a taxi before you just come with us. I was like, oh, I know this, I know this one. I know this deal. So there's like six, seven of them. I was like, all right, cool. I'm outnumbered. So just go along with it. I was like, all right, cool, you can take me to the hotel. He just like turns the little meter on, then turns the little meter off, drives, I'm gonna say about 30 minutes out, gets to like five, maybe six blocks away from my hotel, stops, and says, uh, it's gonna be uh 250 euros. I'm just like, lucky, I took money out. So I handled him 250 euros, he drives me, he's like, What you doing here? Talking about the wedding and all that. We talked, we chopped it up for a little bit. I wasn't even gonna stress about the money. It's you know what I'm saying, a hard lesson learned. And uh he pulls up to the hotel, he kind of, I guess he kinda feels bad, right? And he's like, Man, look, I it should have been just like 40 euros. I'm like, no, no, you got it. You keep hold on to it. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't me paying for the taxi, it was paying for the trouble that I avoided. So I let him have the money, get out when my hotel room crashed. My friend comes in the next morning. Like, I say eight o'clock. I was like, what the hell were you at? He was like, man, I went to the strip club. You should have came inside. I was like, bro, like I was drunk as hell. Woke up in the middle of a strange parking lot. You just left me in the in the car. He was like, I locked the doors. I was like, nah, that's not how you do that. Nah. You could have at least taken me to the hotel and then went out.
SPEAKER_04That's a bad battle, buddy.
SPEAKER_00That is a bad battle, buddy. Uh but you know what I'm saying, it's it is what it is. I learned the lesson.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about, dude. I mean, shit's gonna happen, especially you add in a couple drinks, bro. You're gonna be a fucking bozo sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it happens all the time.
SPEAKER_04But I mean, that's that's what it is, dude. That's that's life, bro. You get older and you get a little wiser. You know, when you're younger, it that sounds stupid. You older folks are like, you should listen, you know. I'm I've been around the block, and you're like, you don't know shit, grandpa.
SPEAKER_00I that's so my my boys are starting to hit the teenagers like yours. Yeah. And uh my middle child, he's out there being the ex uh explorative. He's going on his little ventures, trying to do everything in the world. Yeah, right, trying to experience everything. And I'm like, look, you can you can take my advice and learn through lessons learned, or you can hurt learn a hard lesson. It's up to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna advise you every step of the way, but if you don't take my advice, I'm going to let you learn the hard lesson.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's just how it how it goes, man. You can't force nobody to to listen to you, you know, especially your children. And you know, I mean, they're gonna they're gonna pick up pieces, they're gonna pick up chunks, and they're gonna implement in their lives. But there's certain things that you can sit there, and I've experienced it myself, I'm sure you have too. You tell them the same thing until you're blue in the face. Then they go do the exact same shit, and you're like, bro, I tried to tell you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's the it's the the typical the stove is hot scenario. Yeah, you're not gonna learn until you burn yourself. Yeah, man. And I'm like, I hope, I hope you can take my advice, and I hope the trouble you get out get into, you can get out of.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But sometimes you gotta learn learn a hard lesson.
SPEAKER_04That's true, man. Well shit, bro. With that, I mean, fucking good conversation, dude.
SPEAKER_00No problem, brother. I appreciate you having me on the podcast, bro.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I appreciate you coming out. It's your first one. You're gonna be famous. Like 17 people are gonna listen to it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, bro.
SPEAKER_04All right, buddy. Until next time.
SPEAKER_00Until next time.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for listening, everyone. Please make sure to like, comment, and subscribe.
SPEAKER_04It really helps the show out.
SPEAKER_03See you next time.
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