Peter's Place

Post by Peter C. Equality Frank .

Yesterday, October 21st, I celebrated my 29th birthday, again. It's a birthday I've celebrated before, and one that I will continue to celebrate, because I'm not done. I've been thinking a lot this year about why I celebrate my 29th birthday, instead of my actual age. Most people -- most of my friends, included -- probably think it's because I'm vain. As a gay man, I can't age into my 30s. But that's only a part -- a very small part -- of it. The year of my actual 29th birthday was the year of my automobile accident -- the one and only. The one that changed my life. The one that put me into a living coma, out of which I'm continuing to emerge. That year, I survived a fatal automobile accident in Montauk. I shouldn't have survived and were it not for a good samaritan who pulled over when he saw my car go off the road, I wouldn't have survived. I spent most of that year in hospital (including my birthday), both for my physical and men...

Apparently, YouTube has decided to allow infomercials to be played on its network -- as advertisements!  Consider this advert, which appeared (and I had to suffer through) on a 3:48 video I wanted to watch. I mean, seriously, forcing me to watch a 15:30 advert in order to watch a 3:48 video? Can we say, #EpicFail, boys and girls? :P

Over the past few months, I have carefully been considering the 2013 New York City mayoral race and examining the candidates who are seeking office. I reserved making a decision about whom I would support until I had invested enough time to examine and try to work with all of the candidates. Most importantly to me as an LGBTQ-rights activist, NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has stood out among the candidates as standing by the LGBTQ community, and I believe that she will continue to do so. Not many know about this but Quinn has laid out a plan for LGBTQ residents of NYC : Establish a Mayor’s Office of HIV/AIDS Policy Ensure That No Young Person in New York Has to Spend the Night on the Streets Build New York City’s First LGBT Senior Housing Community Make Sure City Agencies Effectively Serve all LGBT New Yorkers Redouble Efforts to Combat Hate Crimes and Promote Tolerance Quinn's plan and support for the LGBTQ community, laid out in more detail on her web site...

During my many inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations for Depression and suicide (both ideation and attempts) after my car accident, I was suffering from not only a loss of social status (adjusting to living on SSD income) but a loss of physical and mental capacities (Depression really  does a number on one's cognitive abilities). I've since overcome many of these feelings, and even some of the physical and mental debilitations (although not all of them, unfortunately). I've had to learn how to live with a "new me" if you will, and learn that I have new limitations, in addition to discovering what previous limitations I've always had. It wasn't the doctors who helped me with the profound sense of loss and feelings of inadequacy. They're just there for pharmacological stabilization--"let's get him stabilized on pharmaceuticals and shove him out the door" is the mantra of most psychiatrists these days. It certainly wasn't ...

I was having a discussion with an older gentleman in my friend's hair salon yesterday, while I getting my hair done ( the salon is owned by my friend, and as we barter for services I don't pay anything out of pocket). The essence of the conversation revolved around the political crisis that we're facing. We discussed some of the possible reasons that we've managed to sink into such a time of extreme crisis: the vast majority of people in this country (the USA) do not want to know what's going on in the world or in this nation, unless it's something they don't have to think about. In other words, they just want to kick back, pop open a brewskie, and be entertained. They do not  want to think about and/or deal with real-world issues—something they leave to the realm of their employment (should they be one of the 37% in this nation who are gainfully employed). I posti that a very large part of this mentality is due to the fact that we have no real news c...

A friend from a BBS suggested that I watch this video, which is taken from an episode of Sesame Street. They censored one word, and the entire meaning of the video has changed...if you can't figure out what the word is that they censored, let me know and I'll post it in the comments. But first,  watch the video  and be prepared to laugh!