My High-Tech, Hypermodern, Handwritten Profile Page
(changed to blog #1)

Don't call me Ishmael. It's not my name. :) I'm Dymitri, and it's nice to meet you. Some people from way back still call me Hubert, but I mostly go by my middle name now. A lot of my best friends call me Squirrel, but I met them all before my friend Coby and I got carjacked, kidnapped, and held hostage by a gang of vicious thugs in October 2007.

Anyway, I'm excited about this website MIT put together for prisoners to blog. Who knew the famous "hard sciences" school would offer such a platform for social justice? It's a beautiful thing.

Assuming we've never met (and if we have, hi! How ya doing?), a picture or two is here to show you how I look. These were taken in North Hollywood and one month before I was "arrested", Sept./Oct. 2007.

[photo of Dymitri. He's wearing a backwards black hat and is leaning sideways.]

Here's the rest of my introductory stuff: Southern California is home; I grew up in Ventura, went to Montalvo Elementary, Anacapa Middle, and Buena High Schools. Then Ventura College, Antelope Vally College in Lancaster, and finally CSUN in Northridge. I last lived in Palmdale and North Hollywood, but I spent so much of 2007 in Hunington Beach and Costa Mesa that I basically lived there, too. Las Vegas was a second home growing up, since my parents had real estate there.

I majored in philosophy and psychology, pre-law. I wanted to work in criminal defense and civil liberties litigation—to be a lawyer for the powerless. I've studied Aikido and played tennis since my mid-teens, raced motorcross since I was 12, and jumped RMX bikes since I learned how to ride one. I like edgy music with meaning, and my last concert was Marilyn Manson in San Diego with two of my very best friends at the end of '07. I love to laugh and share laughs, but cruel humor and other people's pain doesn't amuse me.

This the second time I've been put in prison, this time for life. Thought that likely won't stick. The sentence is 600+ years, some such meaningless and ridiculous thing. I did not have a real trial. In this blog, I'll post about life in hell, but also about the life I love and miss. Friends and family have always meant the world to me, and I'm anti-authoritarian to the core, so I'll write on those themes. I may post some entries straight from my journals over the years; hopefully those will be interesting to you.

I try to keep some humor in my writing, but i don't always succeed. There's a lot of hate built up in me—obviously I've been hurt, but worse is my rage over the pain and abuse suffered by so many people I care so much about, all the good people hurt by that sick, malicious army of assholes that shamefully claims to be "the good guys." That anger shows sometimes, so my apologies in advance.

I know I tend to write a lot; tell me if it's too much. Apparently, you can leave comments and I hope you will. I'll reply to all comments as quickly as I can. Positive or negative, say what you really think. I sure will.

Finally, I'll try to always include a quote I find inspiring and try to live by. Here's an old favorite I quote often and always keep in mind: "To understand all is to forgive all." Sorry, I don't know who originally said it (but it was in French—tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner). I find that to be very true and valuable to remember.

Thanks for reading.
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