Peter's Place

One of the last books that I read during my most recent hospitalization at Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher . I read a paperback version of the novel, which was 505 pages. I began reading Friday evening, but only got through about 15 pages or so. On Saturday afternoon , I began reading in earnest as I was drawn into the story, and then I didn't put the book down until I had finished with it on Sunday evening, a sign to me that my depression was improving as the pace with which I read was more reminiscent of my childhood days, when I wouldn't put a book down until I was finished with it, especially if the story held my interest, which, for some reason, Winter Solstice definitely did. If you're interested in reading the book (which I highly recommend), you can find reviews about it all over the net . There are three pages that I had photocopied, as those passages spoke to me in that certain way that other books have been doing -- therapeutically. Once you get past...

Leave it to the folks at Google to come up with a way that gets people to help develope one of their core technologies free of charge, all the while letting people have fun at the same time. And they make you feel good about wasting away the hours into the middle of the night, by calling it something benign and innocuous, like, " Google Image Labeler ." The premise for this game is quite simple: You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn points depending on how specific your label is. You'll be shown more images until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned througho...

Well, as some of my friends inferred from my absence, I was in hospital again for my chronic major depression . This time, against my better judgment, I went to St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester . The last time I was an inpatient there, I had a therapist basically tell me to go ahead and kill myself, when I told her that I was suicidal . Additionally, their partial hospital program (outpatient services) violated my privacy rights by divulging information about my treatment to family members, without my permission (and the disclosure did not fall within a permissible exception to HIPAA 's privacy rights guarantees). This hospitalization, however, was actually one of my better hospitalizations, and was productive. I think I have a better handle on my depression now, and for whatever reasons the universe has come up with, I've managed to make some progress in dealing with some of the issues that have been weighing me down over the past few years. And, I'm not thinking ...

As I've recently blogged about, I had an intake appointment with RPC to try to get back into treatment. I met with the director (who holds a MSW ) and a psychiatrist (who would become my psychiatrist if I were accepted). During the intake, they ask a number of questions to try to get an overview of your current and previous mental health issues. During the "interview" (for lack of a better term), I was asked about prior treatment, prior hospitalizations, and current feelings. As I've previously mentioned, I've been hospitalized on a number of occasions for my depression , usually when it gets to the point of my becoming suicidal . Over the past few years, I've been getting better about knowing when I need to put myself into the hospital to keep me safe -- when these suicidal thoughts become overwhelming and I feel like acting upon them. Right now, I don't think I'm at that point, but the Dr. asked me if I was having any of these thoughts, and I told h...

I've been off my meds for three months now. I have an intake appointment tomorrow morning with Rockland Psychiatric Center's Mount Vernon Clinic, where I hopefully will get back into treatment and back on my meds ( Paxil , Buspar , and Remeron ). In the meantime, as I'm not currently in treatment, my depression, and the symptoms I'm exhibiting, are getting progressively worse as time marches forward. The depression has started to affect my thinking processes and comprehension abilities. I just finished reading The Last Precinct by Patricia Cornwell . It took me over a week to finish the hardcover book, which is about 445 pages. Normally (that is, when the depression isn't this bad), it would have taken me a mere two or three days, tops, to read the book at a leisurely reading pace. This is just one indication that, currently, my ability to focus and concentrate isn't so great. If I continue to go without treatment, it could get to the point of my not being able...

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 ...