Peter's Place

Today is an important day in the annals of the struggle to obtain equality in matters of love: forty years ago, to this day, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that two consenting adults, who are in love with each other, have a fundamental right to marry each other, regardless of their respective race. I've previously blogged about the struggle same-sex couples face in their struggle to achieve " marriage equality ." I've written letters to my congressional representatives in support of extending this fundamental right of marriage to same-sex couples. I've even blogged about the various levels of judicial review that guide courts' decisions in determining the constitutionality (or unconstitutionality) of particular laws passed by various legislatures in our great nation. Finally, we are able to look back a mere ten years to see that little, if any, has changed in the fight to achieve marriage equality. Today, however, a voice fr...

I recently sent the following questionnaire to a group of friends and associates. How would you answer these questions? Feel free to e-mail your responses to me , or leave a comment : What do the terms blog(s) , blogger(s) , and blogging/to blog mean to you (it's okay if you don't know--just say so)? Do you consider blogs to be part of the press ? Regardless of whether or not you think blogs to be part of the press, do you think they should be considered part of the press? Do you consider blogs to be part of the media ? Regardless of whether or not you think blogs to be part of the media, do you think they should be considered part of the media? Do you think there is a difference between the press and the media? If so, what is it? Do you think anyone can create and maintain a blog or are there certain qualifications/skills one must possess in order to do so? Regardless of whether or not you think there are any such qualifications/skills one must possess in order to set up ...

Google ( GOOG -- don't you wish you had bought their stock during their IPO ?) recently announced a developer release of a new service called Google Gears . Gears is a browser extension (mini-programs that extend the functionality of one's web browser), which allows one to access web-based applications off-line (which may sound like a paradox). While this is a developer release (which means it's in the very early testing stages), Google Gears has the potential for becoming a very useful and routine tool for people who use mobile computers to access the Internet when an Internet connection isn't available ( Ms. Berger provides a great web-site that explains, in pretty simple English , a lot of common computer jargon ). For instance, one of the uses of Google Gears is to enable one to read off-line up to 2,000 entries that have been set up in Google Reader , even if one isn't able to get on-line. This is because the entries will be stored locally, on one...

Not too long ago, I had blogged about being out of the political landscape for far too long. To recap, this realization came to me when I discovered that Bill Schmidt -- someone I consider to be a good friend -- had lost his bid for re-election to the City of Peekskill 's Common Council . As it turns out, Bill recently announced that he'll be running for Mayor of Peekskill. I've since offered to help him on his campaign, in ways that will probably become clearer to me as the campaign gets off the ground. Over the past few months, I can now admit that Bill confided in me that he was interested in seeking office again although, at the time, he wasn't certain which position he would seek. The conversations that I've had with him energized me, and as I've alluded to in other posts, I believe that these conversations and the cursory involvement I've had in launching his campaign have helped to bring me out of an indescribable depression (although I've at...

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...