November 22, 2019

Any experience with "emotional support animals"?

I suffer from pretty severe anxiety disorder as well as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I see a psychiatrist regularly, have a number of prescribed medicines, and also have a regular therapist.

I used to have a dog - a lab mix I got from the pound - who would sit next to me on the couch or in bed when I was feeling anxiety. He made sure his body made contact with mine. He was so calm when you touched him - there was no muscle tension in his body at all, which was different from other dogs I have had. I also suffer terrible nightmares and he would wake me up if I was having a bad one. I slept so much better at night with him by my side.

He passed away, and I was hospitalized for a time. When I got out, I had to relocate to an apartment building that doesn't allow dogs. I understand that my state has a law that requires a landlord to allow a dog if you can get a note from a doctor or therapist that says you benefit from having an emotional support animal.

I'm not sure where to begin with this: how can I get a dog declared an "emotional support animal" when I haven't even adopted one yet? And if I adopt one, where do I keep him / her until I can get the official documentation?

One idea I thought of is to foster a dog, have my sister take care of him until I can get the documentation and clear it with my landlord. Then I can move the dog into the apartment.

Is this a workable solution, or should I save up the big bucks to get an honest-to-god PTSD service dog?

Thanks for anyone who has experience with emotional support animals or service dogs.

July 25, 2019

I cut the cord! (cable / dish)

Well, lately I've been finding the hundreds of channels and the constant Trump talk on 24-hour news depressing. Most of my favorite TV shows are no longer around, and if they are, I can get them on Netflix or Amazon.

I finally worked up the nerve to call DirecTV and cancel my service.

I'm looking forward to the silence. I'm going to use the saved money to buy a second laptop - a 2-in-1 that I can use to hook up to my TV or draw on (I like to design things using graphics programs).

Have you stopped using cable or dish? Did you replace it with something such as Sling (I have no plans to do so - I have an HDTV antenna so that I can watch local news)?

Looking forward to this new zen chapter in my life. I spend much more time listening to music lately as I'm working, and the TV has just become a depressing distraction.

May 11, 2019

Seventies glammy LA rock magazine for girls, archived

http://www.star1973.com

Of course, there CAN'T be a music magazine for girls, so they only had five issues. But it's a great historic document.

If you follow the links on the page, you can find other things the host has offered, like archives of Rock Scene magazine.

[link:|

March 13, 2019

Are any of you on Spotify?

I would love to have more Spotify friends and listen to others' playlists, but my own long-time friends are music shy....so I don't have a lot of friends on there.

I am open to many, many genres - from contemporary pop and r&b to classic rock, soul and funk and I like lots of darkwave and alternative. Rather than post my name here, I'll link to a playlist I made that shows you what I like to listen to : soulful grooves, dance music, soundtracks and a bit of hip-hop.

https://open.spotify.com/user/kerrylkatriviera/playlist/4vsWm3mlrHFX4rkGx8xn0q?si=ZIwayO2CSiylq4a-AMBcBA

If you're interested, feel free to add me and I'll add you back!

March 1, 2019

Reparations and that Chicago story Cohen told about Trump

I spent years covering the struggling Chicago neighborhoods like the one Cohen described. I also know a lot of success stories that have come from public-private partnerships between low-income residents and enlightened downtown executives who know a simple truth of urban life: Inside every ghetto there’s a neighborhood struggling to make a comeback.

I think neighborhood development could be a form of reparation, but it will have a much broader consensus of support if we don’t limit it to African-Americans.

Most serious proposals, by the way, ask not for a big lump-sum payout to black folks, as many imagine, but programs and policies to reduce inequality and promote education and skills training.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/page/ct-perspec-page-reparations-harris-warren-cohen-trump-sanders-brown-0303-20190301-story.html

January 2, 2019

This video reminded me of how awful Reagan was...

I do graphic design work, and while I'm working I often play history documentaries in the background. Lately my pet topic has been assassinations and the Secret Service. I especially enjoy listening to videos of old news coverage. So I get to Reagan's assassination attempt, and I click on this video to get a sense of that period (I was a teenager back then and felt completely powerless), and before they get to the assassination coverage, you have to sit through a Reagan speech.

I know that many people will disagree with me, but this man was the absolute worst. I'm sorry someone tried to shoot him, but I found this speech more unbearable than any of Trump's. With Trump, it's a given that everything is a lie. And they are easily proven lies. But this speech brought me back to that sick feeling I had through eight years of Reagan. The self-righteousness, the anger, the extreme self-confidence of the religious right that they had "won". Nearly forty years on, it's clear that they haven't won shit. A lot of Trump's mob aren't even good Christians. They're a different crowd - ignorant trash. And yes, it's disturbing that they got their man in the White House. But ignorant trash is much more easily discredited. They can make all kinds of mistakes that are easily exposed. I do think that over the years the opposition (us) has won a lot of victories and has gotten much stronger. For example, they really went overboard when they got hysterical over the Clintons. They let the militia / patriot nutcases into their fold. I think we won our argument a long time ago, but I found the Reagan administration much more intimidating. Sit through a Reagan speech, listen to how cold and self-righteous the man is, and all of this pious rhetoric he uses, and tell me who the bigger asshole is. I think that in his "heart", Trump knows what a buffoon he is.

Notice how, if you can sit through the speech, Reagan ends his speech with "make America great again." When I watch Trump, it's clear to me he's trying to imitate Reagan. I do blame Reagan for all of this we deal with today. No Reagan, no Trump.

As tragic as the Trump presidency is for our country, I don't feel as bad about the future of our democracy as I did then. Trump is no Teflon president. He's a blatant crook and liar. So was Nixon, and I remember (as a very young child) thinking Nixon was shit and heard it from my parents all of the time. My father met Nixon when he was a waiter at a fancy hotel restaurant in downtown Chicago. He said that Nixon was the biggest asshole of all of the presidents he ever met. But I don't remember feeling despair when he was President, because it seemed that he had a healthy opposition who had won a lot of political battles. There was hope back then, and there is hope now. Reagan, however, did so much of the damage that made Trump possible.

I mean, just listen to his self-righteous crap about government spending and deregulation. Reagan started all of this shit. Fuck him.