Been a Long Time

    Oh, wow, it's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without a strong rhyme to step to. I've been pretty busy with my life as of late. I've done a good bit of traveling in addition to the Africa trip (shootouts to Zamunda!!!!), got into graduate school and I even relinquished my chokehold on the marriage is for chumps movement!!! I know, I've done a lot of traveling literal and metaphorical but worry not! I'll be dropping some heat still. I have a lot more places to go and I'll make sure ya'll hear about it.

   Among the posts that I have for y'all I'm going to try and rap up the Africa trip with some advice and elucidate my experiences a little further. I'll be going through my Eurotrip, how I liked each country and what I liked (and didn't like) and of course some tips and tricks to navigating your way around Europe (and hopefully, not getting your wallet stolen the first day in Europe). The hardest post that I'm going to write is about coming back to America and how surprisingly hard it is. Leaving really isn't all that difficult, you have a new adventure ahead of you and you know that you'll be home. Coming home is another animal entirely and you probably won't understand it until you do it.

   Welp, that's it for now, I'll be dropping by soon with a word or 300!

Your questions answered!!

Thank you guys for showing an interest and asking questions about my African excursion. The questions I got were oddly close to some of my biggest take aways from this deployment. All three of these questions are experiences that will forever stay with me long after this deployment ends.

How many of you earned diving certifications?

- There were quite a few of us that got their SCUBA diving certificate. I am very proud to mention that I am a certified advanced open water diver!!! I can dive to something around 120 feet below the waves and flourish in the aqua blue yonder. I am VERY happy that I had the opportunity to dive and dive often while I was here. The ocean really is amazing! I was blessed to live next to a beautiful beach with an amazing coral reef and crystal clear waters. I saw octopuses, sting rays, star fish, sea cucumbers and incalculable varieties of fish! A group of us even saw a maco shark... Thank god I didn't see that, I probably would have soiled myself.
   SCUBA diving was really an eye opening experience for me. I honestly think that if I had been exposed to this as a child I would have studied marine biology in college! However, I will warn you that the ocean is a HORRIFYING place to be after dark. Biolumesicent organisms are pretty cool, but the rest of the ocean feels like a death trap!!!! Oh and try not to have a panic attack under water because your ears aren't equalizing and the pressure is getting to you, and you forget which way is up, and you forget to breathe.... Not that anything like that has ever happened to me of course.

What are your thoughts on payday PT with the new Battalion?

- Now you know that I would never criticize or speak ill of our leadership. They are doing the best they can to not be completely, wholeheartedly, mind numbing retarded. I think they are fighting the good fight.

How does it feel emotionally and spiritually to be there overall? Being the motherland and all.

- Emotionally, it has been such a beautiful feeling. Being around the original people, the genesis for all mankind. When I saw this I am not using hyperbole, I have looked upon the bones of the earliest human "Lucy" that we know existed. Further than that seeing so many people who look just like me (ESPECIALLY IN ZAMUNDA!!!) being so successful and doing such amazing things. I really feel as if I met kindred spirits in Zamunda, who look out for their communities and sought to elevate their people just like I want to do. Emotionally, it made me feel so much better about my people both members of the diaspora and not.

Spiritually, Africa affected me much more. I think I am going to wear the lessons that I learned in my heart long after the memories of the deployment has faded. The largest spiritual effect that I take away from this is how I view African Americans. First off, I no longer say "nigga". When I got to Africa and I saw how our brothers and sisters acted and carried themselves, from the beggars to the businessmen, I did not see niggas. I saw black people striving for success. This will stay in my heart of hearts. I saw a group of people who were never colonized and the PRIDE that they took in themselves and their actions. I intend to take these lessons back to America. Their ancestors were not slaves, or second class citizens and I saw people that carried themselves as such. We aren't niggas, we should not even think it much less use it to address or describe each other. I encourage you to stop saying it. If you don't want to , I encourage you to come to Africa and ask yourself if you see niggas walking around. Don't worry, I won't be one of the Dr. Cornell West type brothers who chastise you for saying it, this is a decision I made for myself based off of what I have seen.

Introspection.

"What I want to do to you... nah, really it's for you, is open my mental window, hoping that you will climb in, or if not, at least look in. I want to take you to places that I have been and to the places that I want to go. I mean this blog, it ain't all that I got, but it does mean a lot to me, I injected my whole being into it, and I've been doing it for a while, it's like my whole life has become a style. I want to get into it... yeah."

- Common 

   Of course Common wasn't talking about a blog here, he was talking about music but whatever, the rest of it mostly fits. It's from a song "Introspection" which is the intro to one of my favorite albums, "One Day it Will All Make Sense". Great album if you've never heard listened to it.... Anyway, I have spent an awful lot of time over the past few months being very introspective about myself and who I am for the better and more often than not for the worse. I've learned quite a few things and I thought that I should share a part of my travels from a personal standpoint.

   First and foremost I want to apologize to someone who I KNOW will never read this 1. He doesn't speak english and 2. I doubt he has internet access. That is our former gate guard, I won't put his name out, even though he has literally the most popular name on the planet. We treated him like ish and he really didn't deserve it. Well, we treated him like ish by OUR standards but for a local he had it decently well. Anyway, through him I noticed that I definitely do look down on some people and regard them as lesser. About halfway through my time with him I thought about how he might one day use our toilet and I was disgusted about it. Afterwards I immediately thought about that movie "The Help" and how that same scenario played out. I am not proud that I think this way and now that I am aware of it I'm sure I will notice other ways in which I look down on other people. This probably makes me a bad person. I both hope and do not hope that I'm the only one who does this.

   Secondly, I've noticed that I require a woman to like me way too much. I think I noticed this after I broke up with the Ginger and decided to be celibate for awhile. Anyway, I did not like the person I became after the Monkey and I broke up AT ALL. The emotions that I felt and furthermore, the reasons behind the emotions that I was feeling were not the emotions of someone who has a healthy view of relationships. I really took that breakup  and the subsequent trials and tribulations as some kind of referendum of who I was. I get that everyone goes through something like this after every breakup, but I never hear men say things the way I felt. For some, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, <~~~ I cannot stress those really's enough strange reason I roll not being wanted by a woman with my mom dying. Does that make ANY logical sense? Nope WTF BRAIN???????

   Not to end this on a negative note (this could easily be a thesis length  work on my person shortcomings) I have learned that I do have a genuine desire to see people do well. There was a time when I would tell people that "I'm all about positivity" and encourage people to be and do positive things but not really believe it. Now, I've noticed that I really do believe that. It's not just talk to me. I genuinely want to see people be and do awesome, even when I would get zero benefit out of it. I get legitimately excited when people are progressing and big things for themselves and I know that I say it with ZERO hate. I know there is that maxim that "they want to see you do good, but never more than that" but I really don't think that applies to me. I love to see people do good, but seeing them do great is even better! I suppose lots of people think that they think this way but I don't think there would exist the whole Haters and you post if people really wanted to see you do well.

   This is by no means all of the things that I discovered about myself. Like I said earlier, I could drone on and on about my shortcomings. I could also extol some of my virtues, but my mind doesn't work that way, it always focuses on what I am currently not doing well at. All that said, I think noticing one's failings and attempting to correct them, while balancing that with some positivity is very important for growth as a person.

Or, I'm just a bad person, I'm going to go with the former.

The worst person in the world

   Can we sit down and have a grown up conversation like adults? Is that cool? If not it's my blog so I'm doing it anyway.

    If you are a gown man and enter a bathroom where urinals and stalls are available and you pee on the seat, your life is not worth living and AT THE ABSOLUTE VERY LEAST you should be painfully sterilized. I think we should replace those automatic flushing robots will death machines and if you are caught pissing on the seat in a bathroom that has urinals available you would just be terminated with extreme prejudice. I am not joking here, you should be killed. You have no purpose in society! You are worst than the person who switches lanes in heavy traffic with no turn signals or the person doing the speed limit in the left lane.

   
    Now, you might be saying "Whoa, Token! Isn't this a little extreme"? My response is...... BOLLOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you do this you really are one of the worst human beings ever to be placed on the planet you worthless savage. The only way that you can redeem yourself is if you clean it up. But if you commit THE ULTIMATE SIN and force another adult to clean up your lazy ass piss then I fully believe that those aforementioned death machines should kill you AND your entire immediate family. Humanity has reached the point where we don't need more people and I'm not 100% certain that we should allow you or any of your genetic line to keep breeding.






Seriously tho, if you do this you should Chris Benoit yourself at my earliest connivence. If you need a hint my earliest connivence is as soon as absolutely possible and preferably in the most painful way readily available. 

What to expect when you're away.

   I have taken two long trips in my life. In those two trips I have learned less than I should but more than I care to know about how people act towards you when you're removed from them. My second trip either reinforced and changed some of the conclusions that I drew from the first trip. I write this so that you, you nebulous person who theoretically is reading this blog, might be a little prepared for what to expect when you're gone.

1. You will randomly acquire SO MUCH random stuff that you don't need/ want.
   
   You won't realize that you got all of this nonsense either until it's time to leave and you're mailing stuff home. You will go through your belongings and be at a complete and utter loss for words as to how you came to acquire so much..... Stuff! During the tail end of my Iraq trip I discovered that I had picked up so much extraneous that I had no clue what to do with it. Markers, flashlights, boxes up boxes of pens, batteries, trinkets, shirts and I even picked up a mouse (that tore through my chemical suit and flew out of one of my bags) all of this was the random things that I just kinda picked up along the way.

2. You will not pack enough stuff.

    You will forget things, probably important things. Why would you do this? Because you're packing for a long trip and you will not remember everything. This time, I left a hat! How did I forget something so base as a hat? Clearly I'm retarded, but I did it. I don't remember what I forgot last trip but I'm sure it was something important! I really don't think it's possible for you to reasonably pack for every contingency, especially when you don't really know what you'll be doing.

3. You will pack too much stuff.
    So you're going to a warm weather environment and you want to bring cold weather gear "just in case"? You want to bring a suit just in case you get to suit up and go somewhere special? You're not going to need it but bring it! A nice pair of shoes? Like basketball shoes? Eff it, bring em you'll use em like 4 times so why not! Look, bottom line you're bringing entirely too much nonsense and there really isn't much you can do it.

4. You will feel left out.

    The Grunt and I were having a conversation the other day about pop culture and how we miss so much pop culture related things while on a trip. The last time I COMPLETELY missed out of the cupid shuffle, I came back and everybody was doing this dance that I had zero clue about. To again put it in prospective I heard Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" for the first time a week ago when I downloaded his newest album. Popular culture seems to move at sub 12 parsec speeds while you're gone. But the feeling of being left out by pop culture pales in comparison to other things.

5. Your loved ones will make you feel left out.

   So while you're gone you think pop culture is going to make you feel left you? Wait until the people that you love and love you completely ignore you. You'll leave messages and get no responses, you'l see other people getting the love you want from people and you'll get none of it. Laughing at people for having a loving and supportive group around them quickly isn't funny anymore when you start to realize you don't have that. You will hear "oh what do you want I'll get it together" of some for more times than you want to hear and you will cease to expect anything.

6. The people that hold you down will forever be in your heart.

   Two people who immediately come to mind who held me down my entire first trip are Jewbacca and my grandma. Those two people sent me letters and packages and Jewbacca was always there to talk to and bounce ideas off of and everything like that. For this deployment, I'll always hold Butters in high regard. He was the very berry first person to send me anything this trip. We haven't spoken a whole lot but it really doesn't take much to make a person feel good. Jewbacca has always been there for me. She was the second person to send something and she's the only person to consistently have the decency to respond to messages! The coolest thing about these two people is that I've never asked for anything, they just knew what was up and decided to act like a friend. There are others that have certainly been pretty awesome this deployment. A special shootout goes to my brother who constantly held me down back at home and with forwarding things to me that I need. Without him looking out for my interests at home and here I'd be sunk!

7. Jodie will get to your girl. Yes, your girl.

   The American military has a grand tradition of singing about the not at all mythical person named Jodie who has sex with your girl while you're at the supermarket getting eggs on a deployment. With phrases like "ain't no use in calling home, Jodie's on your telephone" from basic training on young military members are confronted with the fact that someone (probably that they know) is having sex with their sweethearts while they toil away. So, before you leave on your trip just know that your sweet wonderful sweetheart who PROMISED that she can be with you through your trip and SWORE that she wouldn't bang Jodie? Well, she's banging Jodie. When your trips starts you'll hear less and less from her till she lets you know what's going on or you find out. But don't you worry, she still loves and really loves you and really this is your fault because well, people can't just be owning up to their personal failings can they?

Well, that's about it. Stay turned for the part 2 to this series "What to expect when you get home" coming as soon as I get home and feel like writing.

GUESS WHOS BIZZACK???

    Its been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without a strong rhyme to step to without a dope blog or two to read. I do offer you my sincerest apologies but sometimes during a Token's travels the man restricts what websites he can visit. BUT IT IS NO MORE!!! I am back in the lab spittin hot fiya for the streets giving you new and cooler insights to the mind of a token.

    As an update in my life since all 6 of you that read this undoubtedly care about me, my time in the motherland is drawing to a close. I've learned a lot about myself, other people, other cultures and I think the world in general. My time here has really opened my eyes to some things that I find positive and very negative about life. I had a few heartaches, few more successes and more failures than I like to admit but c'est la guerre, I'm sure some of these will find a place in my musings from time to time. Anyway, I stopped blogging because I moved to a place where I only had the man's internet and blogs are blocked on the man's internet (boo!!! hiss!!!!!) but don't you worry, even tho you didn't get to read about my travels I still have some gems! In the near future I have a few more travels lined up that you should keep posted to hear about. To name a few, I have a tentative Vegas trip lined up, a definite Euro trip that's happening and a trip to Canada. All should be excellent times.

   So, in summation, stay tuned the Token has some new content for ya, and tell a friend or 7 about Token travels! Why you ask? I'm awesome, my life is interesting and people should read about it!

Traveling Wins (If you're from 'Merica)

   I'm going to paraphrase someone famous whose name and exact quote I don't feel like googling but with the appalingly low* amounts of Americans with a passport a group of American's discussing the world is like a bunch of virgins discussing a porno flick starring Gianna Micheals. I doubt any of my esteemed, well traveled, intellectual readers has any of these problems but I shall still impart to you some of the traveling wins that I have experienced. I can only write about this from the prosepective of someone from ' Merica and as such I have noticed SO MUCH WIN!!! So here we are, a few traveling wins when you're from 'Merica even when you're not exporting democracy.
    I cannot underestimate how amazing it is that wherever you go, people speak English. Not that everybody everywhere speaks English but enough people speak enough English that you can be understood. This is a perk that CANNOT be understated. Want to find a place to eat/drink/party dart show ask a few people. Someone close to you will speak some English. If you're in a touristy spot you'll find either other Americans or white people Europeans that speak English and they can help you out! This doesn't always work. When I was in Thailand I found myself, inexplicably, in a Russian club. There I met this guy named Nicholai. He spoke very broken English and I speak no Russian but we were able to have a struggling conversation in French. That only barely has to do with this post but it's a cool story I wanted to share. Another win is the American dollar.
   
    Yes, yes, yes I hear you. The American dollar isn't what it used to be since Obama ruined the economy. Sure, the greenback might not have the buying power that it used to but you know what it does have? Acceptance. I swear a good old fashioned American dollar is taken neigh anywhere in the world. From seedy Thai "establishments" to backwoods restaurants in the desert, people WILL take American currency. Now, I suppose this might also be the case for other foreign currencies (Euro, Pound, etc) but I'm out for Presidents to represent me (Shoutouts to Nas). To be fair you only really need to carry dollars on your person if you are in an emergency or neglected to exchange money at the airport/ nearest bank to your hotel. For me, speaking and money aren't the best part about 'Merican traveling wins.

    Despite all the messed up stuff that America has given the world in the past few years people still LOVE AMERICANS!!! This might be the limited scope of travel that I've done but no matter the country people love us. I'm not really sure why. What I do know is that as soon as people find out that you're from America they get so happy and say things like "America number one!" it is pretty random. For most of the world I'm willing to bet that it's a combination of the exportation of our TV shows and our culture. Maybe the old phrase that the black American man is the most copied person on the planet rings true. I've only been to 4 continents so I can't speak for the other ones but it seems true to me. You know to know something really random (That again only barely relates to this post) African kids LOVE JOHN CENA. It is one of the most random things I have ever seen.

    So there you go, the three greatest traveling wins (If you're from 'MURICA). From our culture, to our money, to the  language (shoutouts to the Limeys for starting it) we should feel very comfortable traveling more. After traveling so much I'm semi baffeled why more American's don't travel more often, I'm telling you it's AWESOME!


** Please note: I just got my blue passport 2 months ago but I still got around.