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ROR 127: Friends · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

• 0:08
  Hello, this is a prepaid call for US and the Virginian Department of Corrections
• 0:14
  read a new state prison to accept this call for US zero. This is
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  Randall Bob. I'm currently serving one thousand, two hundred and fourteen years for
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  capital murder right on your state person in state of Virginia in the USA.
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  This is my podcast, Right on your rand I hope you enjoy listening to
• 0:35
  me today. This is Randall Bob. I'm currently serve in one thou two
• 1:00
  hundred and fourteen years for capital to murder and on robbery and Keene Mountain Correctional
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  Center in Oakwood, Virginia. This is my podcast. We're right on your
• 1:10
  Randy. I have a toll free number if you would like to call,
• 1:17
  you know, leave a message, encouragement, ask a question, whatever it
• 1:23
  may be. The number is one eight eight five two four one nine three
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  two. That's in the United States. Anyone outside of the US simply put
• 1:38
  a plus in front of the one and it's the exact same number. Hope
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  to hear from me today. I'm gonna talk about friendship and how important it
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  is not inside of prison because as long time listeners you know already know for
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  me, and a new time listeners. I don't. I do my best
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  to not do friendship in person, you know, with guys that are in
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  prison with me, because the simple fact is I'm one of them, does
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  it. I'm loyal. I'm loyal to a fault, you know, And
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  if they go, I'm obligated by my own honor, my own code to
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  ride with them. So, you know, I have had some friends in
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  prison, but I do my best to stay away from it because it can
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  it can definitely get you in trouble. But I want to talk about the
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  friendships outside of prison. Those are the ones that mean the most to me,
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  because the friends that I have outside of prison, they're not the friends
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  I came, you know, into prison with, because quite frankly, I
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  didn't have friends back then. I have them now, and they've they've been
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  such a blessing to me. I would not be here where I'm at right
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  now. I would not be here a keen mountain. I would not have
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  the life I have. I would not be enjoying life nowhere near as much
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  if it wasn't for my friends. You know, I have some who helped
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  me in just many, many various ways. Yes, you know, some
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  of that help is financial, and that makes a world of difference in here,
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  you know, when you're not forced to eat meat rock. You know,
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  in the meat rock it literally has on the box not for human consumption,
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  you know. So thanks to Paulie and Ava and Sinclair, you know,
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  and a few others, I can buy commissary now, you know,
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  So that that that's been such a blessing. But that's not what I want
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  to talk about, because that's just the material things, and that's at the
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  end of the day. While it is such a blessing to me and it
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  means the world to me, it's it's not It's not what I'm talking about.
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  What I'm talking about is when someone in here is just constantly running their
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  mouth, you know, or they're just gossiping, they're making stuff up just
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  to make themselves seem more important, so they start lying about you behind your
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  back, or they just fake ass gang bangers. I can't stand a fake
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  ass gang banker. Like, if you're a gang banger and you're real,
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  like you're legitimated, you actually live it, you walk it out. I
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  respect for you. I can live with that, don't have a problem with
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  it. But ninety five percent of the gang bangers in the State of Virginia
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  Department corrections are a bunch of scared ass bitches, and I've got no respect
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  for them. But yet they want to walk around with the chest out and
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  man like you hartwork, you ain't hard man, get away from me,
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  and I get drawn in to that anger and that emotional state where you know,
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  I want to revert back to who I used to be. I want
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  to sit there and teach it object lesson, not just to them, but
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  to their homies and to the rest of the people. And I can't do
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  that because that's not who I want to be anymore. Because that's not who
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  I am anymore. I no longer set on my disputes with this. Now,
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  that doesn't mean that I won't get into another fight, you know,
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  before these doors open and I get that chance to go home. You never
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  know is sometimes you know, they might swing on you, and then it
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  is what it is. I've learned a lot from my friends, you know,
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  because when I get frustrated, when I get angry, when I get
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  mad, I'm not alone anymore. I'm not alone in that anger. I'm
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  not alone in that pain or that frustration or that rage. That just that
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  feeling of despair, like longer alone. I have people that have willingly walked
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  into my darkness to bring me some of their light. You know. For
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  example, I've got a buddy named Matthew Johnston. Originally he's from North Carolina,
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  but now he's living in the Dallas Fort Fort Worth area of Texas,
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  and he's actually done, Tom. You know, he's of all of my
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  friends, he's the only one that's actually done real prison. Tom. The
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  couple of others have done some jail time, like you know, my buddy
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  Joseph and Appleton, Wisconsin. Shout out to you, Hals, But as
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  far as actually being inside real prison, Matthew was the only one, you
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  know, and he's he's done time in North Carolina and d and Texas and
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  Texas. That's a that's a rough system right there, to do, Tom,
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  And I don't care who you are, what color you're scaring of,
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  what you're locked up for. Like, that's that's some pretty harsh time right
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  there. That's that's a state. I mean, I can make it any
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  prison in the world. I'm going to survive. That's what I am.
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  A survivor. But there there's a few systems. I don't want to do
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  time, and a Texas is up there at the top of that damn list.
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  But I get to call this guy, you know, and I'll sit
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  there and you know, when I talk, I'll use prison terminology sometimes,
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  and with him, I don't have to stop and explain myself, you know,
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  like I do with pretty much everyone else. If I say, yo,
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  man, I fix the swow, he knows exactly what I'm talking about.
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  He knows I cooked a bunch of soups, cheese, mayonnaise, hot
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  sauce, you know, whatever I could put in it. We put it
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  in there, and we throw it on the table, and you know,
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  we child down. Like he knows that, Like I don't have to stop
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  and explain that and explain every ingredient and ingredient and I cooked it and all
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  that stuff. I just swell, yeah, bro, remember them days.
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  You know, Like he knows if he understands. He gets me in a
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  way that most don't because he has his experience. But the thing that he
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  helps me with the most is in how he's raising his two boys, Limb
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  and Ryan. Liam and Ryan. I hope you'll hear this. And they're
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  good kids, you know, they're they're a little rambunctiously, you know,
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  they're they're boys, you know, And like he doesn't beat his kids,
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  you know, and I've actually been on the phone a couple of times when
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  he disciplines his kids. You know, he doesn't start screaming at them every
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  now and then. He has to. He has to put a little base
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  in his voice, especially you know, when Ryan he wants he wants five
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  minutes of a game time and he's already had about fifteen extra. You know,
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  I'm like, all right, damn it, I'm gonna take it from
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  you. Like he has to, you know, kind of assert of dominance
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  a little bit. But like he's never once yelled at him. He's never
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  once screamed at him. He's never once put his hands on him. You
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  know, Like he's showing me and teaching me how to be a father when
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  that day for me comes, you know. And his father wasn't drunk.
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  His father, you know, abused and beat him, you know, not
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  sexually, just he beat his ass in his brother's asses. That's what I
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  mean by abuse. You know, we have that stuff in common, like,
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  but it's it's the fact that he's broken that cycle, like he's doing
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  really good for himself. He's done time in two prison systems. And he
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  doesn't just have a job, you know, he's not working for McDonald's or
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  something. He's actually a project leader for a construction company, you know,
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  like, and he's doing really well for himself. That gives me hope,
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  Like, Okay, you know what, man, I can get out here
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  and I can do something too. And I don't just have to beat,
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  you know, a bottom feeder in the child world. I don't have to
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  just take some crapy asked job of McDonald's, you know, for eight nine
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  bucks an hour or whatever it is nowadays. I can actually go out there
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  and do something. I can actually make a good living, you know,
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  because he takes his boys all over. I mean, they do all kinds
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  of stuff. You know. The boys live mostly with their mom, you
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  know, especially during the school year and everything. He gets them on the
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  weekends, and you know, for the most part, he gets them for
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  the summer too. But you know it, I just I love to sit
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  back and like I'll call and sometimes I may only speak to him for ten
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  minutes of the twenty minute call, but for the other ten minutes I'm listening
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  to him engaged with his boys and you know, they're asking him questions,
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  and you know, he stops what he does and he actually focuses in on
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  me. He communicates with them in a way that most parents don't, you
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  know, and that's that's really really freaking cool to see in order to listen
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  to him my case. You know. Plus, he's a good dude,
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  you know, I genuinely I really do like this guy. He's uh,
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  he's good people's you know. And then I have others, you know,
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  obviously, I have my you know, my fiance at the moment, h
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  Nicole, you know, she, Yeah, that's a whole whole another two
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  or three podcasts in and of itself there. You know, she makes me
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  laugh. You know, I've got uh my buddy Paulie and uh Donica,
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  you know, uh, two young boys from Ireland, Dublin as a matter
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  of fact, you know, and I talk to them on a regular basis
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  and they watch some of the trashiest, stupidest TV there is in existence.
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  You know what I get what they're doing. It's you know, it's masonally
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  in the background. They'll have a few beers. It's you know, late
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  at night, it is what it is. But like they watched some of
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  the stupid it's television and I get to call and I get to talk to
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  them, and they put me on speaker, and you know, and you've
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  got you know, sometimes their friends are over, sometimes their girlfriends are over.
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  Although Pauli is in a bit of a dross bill that's just a shame.
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  But uh, I get to laugh, like, you know, talking
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  to them, hearing them, you know, do their things and make fun
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  of the TV and what's going on, and they'll tell me what's happening and
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  stuff, and it relieves it relievest I said, you know, it lightens
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  my mood. It gives me something to laugh at. It gives me something
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  to make fun of them for watching, which honest I kind of think they
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  sort of do at this point. Now they're just really searching for dumb television
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  just so I can call them make fun of them for it. And I
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  appreciate that voice I've got. You know, my buddy Josh and Uh in
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  Philadelphia, you know, we talk sports a lot because he's he's a huge,
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  huge, uh Philadelphia Eagle fan. He's a huge Uh damn, what's
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  their baseball teams? I can't even Sorry, I'm drawing a freaking blank here.
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  But you know, we talk sports, you know, we we talk
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  about you know, his interaction with his friends. You know, we we
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  we talk about different things like you know that. And that's the thing about
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  my friend, It's like they all come from these different walks of life.
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  You know. I have friends that come from the hood. Uh. And
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  I've got my friend Cupcake from you know, from northern Virginia, originally from
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  Philly, in the Jersey area, and you know, and ever I need
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  someone to call up here. You know, I just call her and she's
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  you know, she anxious. She's all bubbly and happy, you know,
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  and everything. And I'm like, look, Cutcake, I don't I don't
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  need you right now. I need Hell, Cake, I need you to
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  call up here. She's like, oh goodie, Like she gets excited when
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  she can call up here and raise hell just to help me out. You
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  know. These are the kind of friends that I have and they mean the
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  world to me. I have my buddy Michael in Ontario, Canada. You
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  know, me and him, we have a whole lot of fun, especially
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  making fun of his fiance and her uh her horse vexation, you know,
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  she loves horses, and you know all I'm constantly telling him, like,
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  look, man, you have to go with her whenever she goes to a
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  horse show. Otherwise she's probably coming back with five or six horses, and
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  two of them probably didn't pay for. You know, she loves horses that
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  much, she probably will wind up stealing the horse up, especially if she
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  finds the horses being abused or something like. She will not tolerate that for
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  a second. And you know he's my tech guy. Of course. Now
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  you know, Michael two is actually my new editor. So you know,
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  shoot him an email and thank him for stepping up. You know, I
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  have I have, you know friends, you know Michael want you know,
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  the original Michael. He produces the podcast. He's the one who started all
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  this. If it wasn't for him, there would be no rid on your
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  Randy. If it wasn't for him, I would have no voice. I
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  would have a lot to say. I just would have no one to say
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  it too, you know. And he's open the world to me. You
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  know. As a matter of fact, him and Paulie, my field producer,
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  they just actually flew over to America to visited me together, you know,
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  which was. I don't even know how to put that in the words.
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  I mean, it was so surreal. I know their voice over the
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  phone so well, but actually seeing them in person, you know, being
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  able to hug them, you know, to sit across this little small table
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  from him and just talk, you know, and just look at each other.
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  It was, it was, it was one of the coolest moments of
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  my life. That's It's something that you know, I would absolutely cherish,
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  you know, that memory of just talking to him, you know, laughing
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  at joking, you know, telling them some stories, telling them about old
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  man red uh In here. It's you know, I'm definitely doing a podcast
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  on him too, because he's He's one of the funniest people I've ever met
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  in my life. I mean, that boy was freaking wild. Eighty two
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  years old, the oldest man in prison and he's done forty seven years.
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  One of the level near bed like that's yeah, you know, but I
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  got to tell them stories about him, and you know, seeing him laugh
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  like it was just it was something else. But I think my friends ju
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  Yann means the most to me out of all my friends, and that means
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  no disrespect to any of my other friends. You know, especially those that
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  I don't mention. I'm sorry, I just there's literally there's too many I
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  I can't. Yeah, it would probably take me forty or fifty episodes to
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  talk about every friend that I have, and I'm pretty sure people will get
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  bored by him. But you yen is Is is the most special ones of
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  me. And I can't even really put into words why. You know,
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  I know she's hurting right now. I know, you know, she's battling
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  health issues, which she's probably you know, not too happy with me saying.
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  But there's just something about her that that touches me on the level that
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  most people have never touched me on. You know, I care for this
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  woman, and you know, I pray for her daily and the fact that,
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  like you know, she doesn't get better, you know, it kills
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  me inside because I feel like I'm letting her down and I know that she,
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  you know, would never want me to feel that way. And the
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  crazy thing is, going through everything she's going through, she still does everything
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  in her power to make my life better. She still does everything and her
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  power to to take on my own pain and to help me deal with it.
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  You know, like there's times when the pain is so bad for her
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  that you know, she can barely roll over and beby yet she'll she'll she'll
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  make herself sit up and type me an email just to see how I'm doing.
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  You know. She has a heart of a lion, you know,
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  and she yeah, she uh, she missed the world to me. Like
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  I said, it's one of the very first things I do when I get
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  out is get a passport so I can go over to Australia to visit her,
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  to spend time with her. You know. She she has this park
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  that she loves to go to, and she has this tree like it's a
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  cool tree. I wish I could put a picture. Matter of fact,
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  I might try to talk Michael into going and taking a picture of that tree
• 19:30
  and putting it up on a on one of my platforms. It is.
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  It's a nice looking tree. I like that tree. It's got character.
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  You have one unite meaning I want to take her to that tree and just
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  sit there and just talk, you know, and just spend a few hours
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  you know. Yeah. Anyway, Sorry, folks, I'm getting a little
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  emotional thinking about her. She uh, she really is hurting, So pray
• 19:57
  for her, please, But just know something you know when you reach out
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  to a prisoner, yeah, you're walking into their darkness. And yes,
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  some of them might try to use you, and I'm sorry for that,
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  truly, I am you know, So be careful. Go back and find
• 20:15
  the episodes where I talk about how to be safe when you're writing one.
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  But you're bringing a light to us that is immeasurable in value. And for
• 20:26
  all of those who reached out to me, God bless you because you helped
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  me in ways that you will never understand. I am who I am because
• 20:37
  of you. I'm still on the right path because of you. Y'all kept
• 20:41
  me strong. Thank you for using GTL