4-1-12

This will be my first official blog entry. I have no idea where to start. The world that I now live in is so different from anything I have ever encountered that I am finding it hard to put it down on paper so you might understand. If anyone reading this would like to ask more personal questions and/or talk about more personal topics, they can contact me at:

Joseph Dickey 25345-001
FCI Marianna Creek B
PO Box 7007
Marianna, FL 32447

I will answer anyone who writes. This blog is not going to be in any type of order concerning the dates of events that I talk about. It will only be random thoughts and comments about things that occur in this crazy world known as prison.

LANGUAGE

To understand the problem I had with language when I first came to prison, one has to know a little bit about me. I am a “Geek”.

A lot of these people's stories begin with “one time this fool pulled a piece out on me and...”, while on the other hand my stories are more like: “One time at band camp...” So as you can guess, I am not "hip" to a lot of slang.

The first week or so I could not for the life of me understand some of the things these people were saying. For example: I kept hearing that “Chow was off the chain tonight.” I honestly thought that a guard dog had gotten loose. I was perplexed that they used “chows”, as I always thought of a German Shepherd as the guard dog type. IT was only later that I learned that “chow” was dinner and “off the chain” meant it was good.

Also the use of profanity in here makes one lose track of what someone is actually trying to say. If a sentence has 10 words in it, about 4 of those words are curse words. The most overused word in prison is the “F” word.

When you add in the maternal aspect to this word (“MF”), it can mean anything. Examples:

* It is hot as a “M.F.”
* It is cold as a “M.F.”
* Man, you are crazy as a “M.F.”
* That dude is as smart as a “M.F.”

I finally learned that “M.F.” most often simply means “very”.

So... as you can probably guess, language was one of the first aspects I had to adjust to when I first entered this wild world.

That is all I will write for this first blog because I am hungry as a “M.F.” and it is about time for “chow”. Peace out and keep it real until next time.

(See my new prison language skills?)