Peter's Place

Well, I've been homeless for over one year now (a year ago today, I was in the psychiatric ward at Phelps Memorial Hospital for my depression ). However, because I can (usually) find a place to sleep at night, Westchester County doesn't consider me to be homeless. This is in direct contravention to the definition of homelessness, as promulgated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ), which defines homelessness as " an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence ...." Currently, I don't have a fixed, regular nighttime residence. I've been couch-hopping among friends, mostly spending the weekdays down-county and the weekends up-county. Up-county, I have more of the accoutrements that I grew up with, or at least I have access to them (computer, Internet, television, etc.) Down-county, the people I know are dirt poor, so I pretty much have been reading a lot (that's why I've been posting a lot latel...

I'm really surprised that people don't show more initiative at times. Perhaps I need to get back into doing web sites and create this one: Jerk of the Year Award. Basically, there are some people out there who just have nothing better to do with their time than annoy (or attempt to annoy) others, and we need a place on-line where we can point these people out. As you know, one of these such individuals is Peekskill Councilwoman Mary F. Foster , who recently spent some energy in an attempt to to create an issue out of nothing . Then, we have the likes of Pete Tubbs, who I gladly nominate for the 2007 Jerk of the Year Award. You see, PT (as he apparently likes to be called) responded to a post I had made on craigslist, seeking technical assistance for a friend's computer. Here's the text of the ad I put up: Hi, I'm an IT professional and have already fixed what otherwise needs to be done on my friend's computer but there's just one more thing. I could do this ...

It's amazing the lengths that people will go to in order to stir up trouble. Take, for instance, Peekskill City Councilwoman Mary F. Foster. She had to do a bit of digging to come up with this one, and I'm sure that the good citizens of the City of Peekskill would rather their representatives make better use of their time than attempt to stir up trouble over something so petty. Here's the scoop: It seems that Peekskill City Councilwoman Mary Foster has had a bit of a conniption over a new blog about the City of Peekskill by one of its former councilmembers, Bill Schmidt, even before he has made his first topic-centric post. You see, Bill's friend Andy Bazzo , who posted about Bill starting his blog on the Lower Hudson Forums (aka, LoHud, which is sponsored by The Journal News ), received an e-mail from Ms. Foster. Here is the email that she sent to Bill's friend, Andy: From: "mary f foster" maryfoster7990@msn.com To: Andy Bazzo Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16...

As I've been blogging about lately, one of the things that I've been doing to help with my depression is to read. I guess one of the things that this does for me is keep my mind off a lot of the stressors that are in my life right now. Additionally, it helps keep my mind focused, and as I've blogged about, I find a lot of things in books to be applicable to or reflective of my life, or more generally, there are passages that "speak" to me. Two of the authors that I've been reading a lot lately have been Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell. Because the selection of books that I have not yet read by these female authors has dwindled, I recently asked a librarian if she could recommend something else to me along the same genre/style of the two woman powerauthors, and she recommend Kathy Reichs. I picked out Death du Jour and within a few pages, I was in love. Reichs, like Cornwell, is employed in the forensics field. In addition to being an author of great caliber...

Who we are is who we were and the more things change, the less they do, unless we start with our hearts. ~Trooper Truth, character in Patricia Cornwell's novel, Isle Of Dogs. -- -- PCF http://petercfrank.blogspot.com

Well, here it comes. The snow has finally started falling. Let's see if it actually last this time. If it does, I'll post pictures. -- -- PCF http://petercfrank.blogspot.com

The other day, when I was getting out of work, I couldn't find my metrocard to get on the subway. Just my luck, right? So I went into the station with my last twenty dollar bill in hand, hoping to buy a ten dollar metrocard with the twenty. As luck would have it, I got all the way down the stairs and the entrance I had picked didn't have a token booth, only the vending machines selling metrocards. I tried to purchase a ten dollar card with my twenty dollar bill, but the machines will only give out a maximum of six dollars in change! I didn't want to buy a twenty dollar card as then I'd have no money left, yet I needed to get back to where I was staying. so I started asking people if they had change of a twenty. This one lady stopped and looked, and apologized that she didn't have change. Then I guess she saw that I was walking with a cane, and asked if I just needed a swipe to get on the subway. It took me a minute to realize what she was asking me, as it totally ...

A New York state senator has announced his plan to introduce legislation that would ban the use of electronic devices such as iPods, BlackBerrys and cell phones while crossing streets in major cities. State Sen. Carl Krueger, a Democrat who represents New York's 27th district in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, claimed that the phenomenon of "iPod oblivion" has led to a number of fatal accidents on urban streets. While he did not cite any statistical studies that have indicated a rise in such incidents, he referred to the January death of a 23-year-old Brooklyn man who, tuned into his iPod headphones, walked into the path of a city bus. Very recently, I briefly blogged about the various levels of judicial review , which is the process that judges in appellate courts apply when determining whether or not a governmental action is or is not constitutional. Judicial review isn't a power of the courts that is spelled out in any law. Rather, it is found in common la...

I'm glad to see that the typically Californian modus operandi of being laid back, easy-going, c'est la vie is taking a back seat in the struggle for those gay couples wishing to marry and thereby obtaining equal rights and treatment under the law. As a form of protest , a very smart, sassy, and ingenious Yolo County Clerk employee ( Freddie Oakley -- she's the person responsible for issuing marriage licenses) is standing up for equal rights under the law and, in concert with various other demonstrations and protestations that will occur this year on Valentine's Day , she will offer a "Certificate of Inequality" for same-sex couples seeking a marriage license , which cannot be obtained under current state law in California (well, not just California ; only Massachusetts allows for same-sex marriage , and even that right is under attack ). Quoth one article , The woman who oversees civil marriage in Yolo County is planning to issue "certificate of...

Y'know, it's bad enough that Microsoft is trying to kill Linux . But now we have them trying to revise history. I really have to wonder about the level of intelligence of the general public who thinks that Microsoft is such hot shit. If Microsoft believes that there is misinformation or inaccurate information in the Wikipedia article, then there are steps that they can take , as outlined by the folks at Wikipedia, to correct such information. But no, they decide to go ahead and try to get around Wikipedia's ban on public relations firms editing Wikipedia pages/information by paying a Wikipedia user to make the edits. How low will Microsoft sink? Let's take a look, shall we? Microsoft executives pondered whether to remove the company's name from a 2002 report done by research firm IDC that touted Windows total cost of ownership over Linux, according to e-mail messages entered into evidence in an Iowa antitrust case. ( Read more ) Microsoft risks a new showdown with...

Say you've had a really hard day. You come home, and find yourself trying to sit down for some good ol' R&R, or P&Q, or whatever it is that you're searching for, and your phone just won't stop ringing. And it's not important people calling you, it's those pesky telemarketers. Well, maybe you'll want to try soething along these lines. Or, if you just need a good laugh, then have a listen. It's a flash thing, I think, with audio, but a visual transcript, and it's fairly safe for work (I think the harshest word they use is "ass"). I thought it was hilarious. YMMV (your mileage might vary). But have a listen anyway. Let me know what ya think. How to prank a telemarketer .

OK, as I mentioned in one of my last posts, I've been reading a lot. Specifically, I've read a lot of the Alphabet Mystery Series by novelist Sue Grafton . One of the greatest things I love about the Kinsey Millhone mysteries is that her character virtually grows out of the page. I was going to say that it leaps off the page but that's a little cliché , don't ya think? Anyway, her books aren't fast paced at all. In fact, one might say that they can, at times, be painfully slow in plot development. But one doesn't read Sue Grafton's novels for plot; one reads them for the sheer joy and passion of reading. The characters in her novels are so well-formed, three-dimensional, that it makes me feel as though I could literally reach into the book and touch them. Not to mention, she has a great insight into the human psyche. Oh, and did I mention that I could totally see my friend, Stacey , as heroine Kinsey Millhone? I just finished reading Patricia Cornwell '...