Peter's Place

Why Are We Rushing the Year Away? This is really me, everything else is AI-generated. The holiday pause we’ve misplaced Bloomfield, CT —  We are officially two weeks away from the New Year. The calendar still clearly reads “December,” yet if you look around at the collective mindset, it feels as though we have already fast-forwarded to January 1st. We haven't even unwrapped the Christmas gifts or lit the final Hanukkah candles, yet the noise of “New Year, New Me” resolutions and Q1 planning is already deafening. Why are we acting like the New Year is already here? This is not just nostalgia talking; it is a yearning for a different pace of life. There was a time when people genuinely took their time. The holiday season was a distinct container of time—a pause button on the chaotic soundtrack of life—where the primary objective was simply to experience joy, connection, and—for...

Gratitude for the Mind, the Spirit, and the Signal in the Noise By Peter C. Frank Bloomfield, Conn., November 27, 2025 - Thanksgiving is often painted in broad strokes—turkey, football, and parades. But for me, this year, the gratitude is granular. It is deep, specific, and hard-won. I am thankful, first and always, for my foundation: for my sister, whose strength is a constant; for my nieces, who bring light into the world; and for my father, a veteran whose resilience is part of my DNA. I am thankful for the healthcare teams who have navigated the complexities of my care, and for the friends—both offline and especially online—who refused to let me drift away when things were at their darkest. But this year, I am also thankful for an unexpected ally: Artificial Intelligence  (AI). For a long time, living with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), I feared that the best parts of my mind were lost in the fog. I worried that the sharp, analytical edge I prided my...

I'm sick. I've been sick since Wednesday evening. I think it's my annual bout of bronchitis. Or it could be COVID. But I doubt it. But with all the anxiety over COVID, IDK anymore. I think all the anxiety they have given us over COVID has left us unable to determine when we have a simple cold or the flu, or something like bronchitis, or something worse--like COVID--or some other sort of infection.  More likely than not this either is my annual bronchitis or a URI (upper respiratory infection). But I'm sick and miserable. Oh. I'm being redundant. But I'm sick so I'm allowed a bit of redundancy. I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels this way. That is, that one little sniffle--or in my case, a single cough--sends off alarm bells and trips to CVS buying out every single possible home COVID test there is on the shelves. Because I've already had COVID-19. And not the trimmed-down Delta or Omicron variants but the OG one that first came out, when ...

Today marks the completion of the 48th revolution of my corporeal existence on this ball of rock flooded with a substance we call water (chemical composition  H 2 O ) around a gaseous body whose core is a continuous fusion reaction primarily fueled by hydrogen and helium (i.e., our "sun," which we classify as a yellow star). In other words, it's my 48th birthday today. And. I'm. Terrified. . . No. Make that petrified, immobilized by a foreboding sense of impending...change? It's not that I haven't faced change before--I have, on numerous occasions and yet, I'm still here (despite more than a few attempts to the contrary but, I digress). NOTE: If you are having thoughts of not wanting to be here any longer, please--PLEASE--call someone and ask for help. Call your local mobile crisis hotline number, call 911, call your local Suicide Prevention Hotline . Yet this time, something is different. I don't know if it's the times we're living in or the f...

Wow, so it's been a while since I've posted a personal update. Let me fill you in. First of all, to all of you who have given to me in the past, a huge thank you and much gratitude for your generosity and assistance. I could not have gotten through these past few months without your support and kindness.  I know that I've asked for assistance in the past. My GoFundMe page  states I've raised some money but the vast majority of that money was from last year. As explained below, the shelter either "lost" or threw out my summer clothes (and denies all responsibility). As such, I have very little to wear for the coming months. Additionally, I have other needs as I lay out below. Since the last time I've posted an update, I wound up back on the funny farm. That is, my depression sunk to a level that led me to "bad thoughts," i.e., I became despondent and suicidal. Essentially, I went to City Hall in Hartford, CT seeking help with my housing situati...

There is nothing more important to #PRIDE than the Truth and that means even when it may not be very convenient. The #LGBTQ+ community is uniquely situated to handle this quandary because, after the self-realization of identifying as LGBTQIA2S++, one is then faced with perhaps the greatest inconvenient truth of all: the great, big LGBTQ closet. It's quite unfortunate that I've seen a rise in other such inconvenient truths (and no, not that  Inconvenient Truth ) since my return to the social web after a hiatus of a few years while I cared for, and then lost my mother as she battled breast cancer for the fourth time. We have come so far in the past 50 years yet have much further to go, especially as a community. I believe that is because we have been fighting for equality when in fact we should be demanding equity and justice . One needn't look far from the gayborhoods to see the self-harm that staying in the closet does to us. And that's why today, on this 32nd anniversa...

Greetings and salutations. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my situation and need for assistance. I'm launching the first chapter in what essentially is a new book in my life, so I've dubbed it  Life 2.0 . In a nutshell, I'm homeless, disabled, have a plethora of health issues (numerous physical health issues plus severe chronic depression and anxiety), lost my mother to breast cancer a year ago and her sister just passed away in Thailand, successfully fought off a COVID-19 infection, and have only a limited support system. I need help to get back on my feet and make a new start of things, and I'd appreciate your assistance with that. That being said, I truly appreciate and am grateful to you just for finding and supporting this post and hopefully contributing to my  GoFundMe campaign  (which you can do right now simply by clicking this link ). For other ways to help out, scroll down to the bullet points at the end of this article. A Bit More ...

I need a new laptop. All THREE of my current laptops died on me at the beginning of this year. Were it not for a kind and generous friend who gave me his old desktop, I'd be without any computer at all. 😞 I'm looking for a powerful but affordable 8th generation or later core i7 or core i9 laptop. I don't need it for gaming but the laptops built for gaming seem to contain the specs I like; however, they're too expensive. I use a laptop as my primary computing device. I'm disabled so I am on a very tight budget. I do *a lot* of multitasking and usually have a plethora of tabs open in numerous web browsers that put a strain on a system's processing power (think, lots of web apps running in many tabs and windows). A typical computing session might be: having Gmail , Google Voice , Google Duo , Zoom , Google Docs , Google Sheets ™, 10-15 LinkedIn , 25 Facebook , 10 Twitter , my Tweetdeck (that has 38 columns), 50 Pinterest  (usually more though as it...

It's official: I've officially just been registered as a homeless person in CT's Coordinated Access Network (CAN) for homeless persons. I am not one who has an easy time asking for help but right now, I need all the help I can get. I would truly appreciate any amount of money you can spare to help me get back on my feet. I can accept funds via the following methods: PayPal CashApp Google Pay  (send to my email address pcfrank73@gmail.com) Zelle (bank transfers) via pcfrank73@gmail.com or 914-417-9579. Venmo Amazon  (I can always use gift cards for Amazon to get things I need, such as clothing, food, household supplies, etc.) I had been staying with the relative of a friend for the past few months, ever since I had to move out of my mother's apartment when she lost her fourth battle against breast cancer. Unfortunately, we both now are homeless and instead of expressing to me what was going on constructively, this person chose to pick a fight with me, as you c...

Hello Everyone, [UPDATE 16 August 2019: Mom has been moved to inpatient hospice. She is unable to move any of her limbs or her head. She can barely speak and sleeps for most of the day. She's not going to last very long. I would very much appreciate your help. Instructions are below in the bold-faced paragraph, further down in this post. Thank you so much for your kindness, generosity, and support.] As I write this, my mother is on her deathbed. She is only expected to remain with us a day or two longer, if that. Many of you may have noticed that for the past 1.5 years my online and social media activities have been quite diminished as compared to my norm. There are numerous reasons for this but the primary reason is that I have been caring for my mother, who has been fighting #breastcancer for the fourth time and the battle took a turn for the worse about 1.5 years ago. Mom, 3 August 2019 on her way to my sister's. During her third round of breast cancer, mom und...