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Today is my one year anniversary since having to turn myself in on charges of (essentially) assault with a deadly weapon. I've already passed my one year conviction anniversary in July, and I celebrated by buying a Lexus. Today is a little bit more chill.

My experience in work furlough in Camarillo was a complete life-changer, and I would never claim that it was easy. But it's done. I finished it. I graduated from four years of Caltech and I graduated from five months of incarceration. I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit, if you can call it an accomplishment.

Look, I was wrong. I did a bad thing. I was the guilty man in Shawshank. But I know that my karma is secure. The lawyers handling my civil case have forwarded their offer to the other party, an offer that's most likely to be accepted. I remember a year ago, with Jacob, driving back from the 24 hour Starbucks in Encino, and I told him that if I make it out of this ordeal without losing my house, I'm going to do a cartwheel.

Fast forward to today, not only have I not lost my house, but I've been practicing cartwheels in prepartion to selling the house. I've been using the interlock device for about a month, and while it is a nuisance and is mildly embarassing, I'm still a productive member of society, so don't sit there acting all high and mighty just because you're not on probation. Fuck you and your high horse. Your time on earth is finite; are you certain you want to waste that time gloating about how you're better than me? Will I waste my time being embarassed and, uh, nuisanced?

I'm awake early because I left my sliding doors open. The fog of a Thousand Oaks morning sent chills across the house. I'm making myself a hearty breakfast while watching Power Lunch on CNBC. While cracking an omelete, they're showing a report of all the looting going on in New Orleans. Hey, life sucks, but it's all of you've got. Every day is a gift. Celebrate it. Get a cake.

Quick links about other Techers (the ball got rolling when Greg mentioned the ephemeral Brigitte Roth):

Vertabrett, from one Brett Walker. You may know his last name better as Tolman. Also found here on blogspot.
Heaney got married, by way of Gregori's site. And McHeaney isn't the only one in love.

And there's also some German guy.

UPDATE: Nine Inch Nick is a grad student at You See El Ay.

Wondering if we had spent our living days well
I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves
Wondering what we might have been.

Dave Matthews Band, "Lie In Our Graves"
---

The show was really amazing. My buddy Joe scored some floor-level seats and it resulted in a show that rivals only Moby at the Greek and The Roots at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip.

Concerts are a fantastic venue to people watch, especially someone like Dave, who attracts a wide clientele. The guy next to me seems like the kind of guy where fun and energy go to die. He brought a cushion for his dainty ass. The couple in front of me was dutifully enforcing the puff puff give rule. The couple behind us went to the show the night before and were clearly still drunk. And the frat boys two rows up would high-five each other for no good reason. Then again, the seats were absofuckinglutely fantastic, so perhaps in a different mindset, I too would be smoking, drinking and sitting on a comfy chair.

The John Butler Trio opened for them, a fantastic jam band who was on hand to sign their CDs. Jason Mraz came next, and I actually was looking forward the most to his show. While his set was very good, I came to understand why he's just the opener and Dave was the headliner. Jason was thoroughly entertaining, but Dave was absolutely mesmerizing. I stood transfixed, in awe of such creation, such art. Butch Taylor and Boyd Tinsley had fantastic solos throughout, and Robert Randolph came out on slide guitar to help out with "All Along The Watchtower". All in all, an amazing show.

I swear I'll put up the review for Bar Celona. Just wait for it.

I've finally found a host I like for liquidetchings.com, and I plan on ultimately moving the blog off of the Blogger server. I'll keep the same themes, but by having everything handled in a local MySQL database accessed by PHP, it's faster by many gobs, which, I suppose, is a unit of time.

I sat in the backyard and listened to my father and uncles discuss why the Philippines as a nation continues to stagnate economically. I cited that because of the lack of personal mobility, employers are not forced to pay workers competitively. That and the corrupt government.

It's interesting to hear the older generation speak with shame in their voice about their mother country, juxtaposed with the gleam of hope that overcomes them when the unveil grand plans to make a difference. Starting a scholarship; helping fund a school; providing good-paying jobs: generosity and altruism are always in fashion.

One thing I like about driving is now I get to belt out my singing voice along with The Killers or Bloc Party or Britney Spears and the Ying-Yang Twins. I'm reminded of this because I'm now ripping the Bremsstrahlung Live CD that Fun Bobby sent. Oh my God I'm a terrible singer.

At Matt and Pauline's joust party, I had the chance to show off my awful awful voice at a Karaoke bar. Yup. Terrible terrible. But I did kick ass with "Hey Jude". Every where else I was just the crazy guy who sang horribly and didn't drink anything.

So, yes, I'll have the MP3s uploaded soon.