Contact Info:
Richard Lee Nieto #1013323
Allred Unit
2101 FM 369 N.
Iowa Park, TX. 76367

Blog Entry #1

Hi my name is Richard Lee Nieto, and welcome to my blog. I found out about MIT's project through word-of-mouth and thought it was not only an interesting vehicle for prisoners to have a voice, but also for research purposes. I thoought I'd use the opportunity to bring to life some of the never-ending thoughts of "non-sense" constantly flowing through my mind.

I'm 32 years old and needless to say I'm a work in progress - but aren't we all? I'm currently doing a 15 year sentence for agg. robbery (to be more descriptive it was a car-jacking). I have 10 years done on this sentence. Previously I had done 4 years (1996-2000) for agg. assault. You do the math, that's literally all of my adult life (except for the 4 months I was out, from May 2000 - September 2000) spent in here. But I made my mistakes and I have no qualms about suffering the consequences. In this life we make our decisions and must live with them. Question is: what do we learn from our mistakes? Is this an obstacle or a permanent handicap? I believe that every decision we make - whether good or bad - leads us down a path and it's up to us to adapt and/or work with what we have. There's been a lot of self-realization over the years, at some point we all find ourselves, I guess. Some call it "maturing", call it what you want. Some reach it an early age; some never actually get there. How do we "know" when we've matured? Who decides this? Society or us? Is "maturity" an acceptance of the norm, or is it a realization of "self"? Hmmm... all good questions - of which I'm sure each of you reading this may have different views. Those of you sociology majors will definitely differ in opinion from the psychology-types. Me personally, I'm more of a psychology-type. Or maybe even a philosophy-type. I like asking the questions. I read a quote once which said something to the effect of "a SMART man knows which answer to give; a WISE man knows which questions to ask". I guess in a way it's easier to ask than actually answer! That wise man was just trying to get out of answering the tough questions in life. Nah, but everyone has their calling, everyone is good at SOMETHING. Seems to me my strength is also my weakness.

I was sitting here thinking to myself "What is my blog going to BE about? It has to be about something - a topic, or a consistent theme." Then I realised, "Hey, wait a minute... it's MY blog, it'll be about whatever the HELL I WANT it to be!!"... :) ha ha I mean, who decides what a blog is about? The blogger. So for those of you curious readers there's the answer. Once enough entries have been made you'll notice consistent themes and it won't seem like such madness.

For full disclosure I must admit I'm curious about doing a little research of my own using this blog. I'm very interested in technology and communication tools. About the effect blogs - or any type of media - can have upon a product and the followers. Who knows, maybe I'll create a blog when I'm out to promote something or just for plain communication. This gives me an interesting topic to discuss on my next entry.

Richard Lee Nieto

[photo including handwritten info]