Welcome!
By some mysterious quirk of fate, you have reached Peter Swanson's (new) homepage. I'm sure that that name probably isn't very unique or anything, but nevertheless here I am and this is my simple little corner of the Web. You can contact me via e-mail by clicking here.
For those of you who don't already know me, here is an extraordinarily brief autobiography. I'm 25 years old, and I live in Beaverton, Oregon. I am a recent alum of Linfield College, graduating cum laude and receiving a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and economics. In January 2000, I went on a college trip to Great Britain as part of a college class, and the experience from that trip has inspired me to travel all over the world during my lifetime and seize any chance I can get to learn about another culture, its people, and their language. I enjoy playing contract bridge, cribbage, Magic: The Gathering, Scrabble, and Mad Libs. I also like listening to music; my favorite artists include Tori Amos, Dido, Natalie Merchant, and Basia. Perhaps my most unique interest is mythological creatures like mermaids, which developed from my appreciation of Jungian perspectives in psychology and fascination with gender issues. Earlier this year, some friends exposed me to the tarot, which I've also found to be right at home with Jung and not necessarily just a frivolous fortune-telling device. Generally, I'm not really into television much, but for some inexplicable reason I am drawn to watch The Simpsons. I'm more interested in watching good movies than anything on television. Whenever the sky is clear and dark, I take the opportunity to be an amateur astronomer and observe the constellations and especially eclipses.
Right now, I am employed in the field of mental health with Telecare Corporation. I work as a recovery specialist for chronically mentally ill adults in a short-term inpatient treatment facility, helping them realize their full potential in spite of mental illness. I was promoted to the evening shift last fall, which is very good news as far as I'm concerned because the night shift was catching up with me physically and socially. We've been around since April 2002, and the company is currently looking at the prospect of expanding its operations in Oregon with two new locations. However, that hasn't really gotten off the ground much yet. In any case, we've largely been successful at helping people with mental illness make a smooth transition from the hospitals back into the community. The relapse prevention rate has been somewhere around 60% for quite some time now, and this has saved literally millions of dollars in care costs. Although the job certainly has its high and low points, I find that it's been a generally positive experience for starting my career. At the moment I'm currently weighing the options for what could be next.
My LiveJournal
As a way of keeping my friends and co-workers updated on the events, thoughts, and feelings in my life, I'm maintaining a LiveJournal. One of my friends from college pointed me to the website quite some time ago, and I have to confess that I'm hooked. So, for better or for worse, you can learn more there than you ever wanted to know about me. I also update the journal far more frequently than this web site!
My Mermaid Stories
I am linking my mermaid stories below, so that they are available for the web community to read. I'm happy to report that Brian Brookwell, the webmaster of Mermaid's Tail, has added my stories to his excellent photomanipulation/Poser image archive and plans to create images to accompany them. He has temporarily moved his web site to a different server, and he has actually made one image to go with the story "The Glass Mermaid." Thank you Brian! Here's the latest update about my current writing projects. As I explained before, one of those stories has proven to be a very elaborate undertaking and has been quite time-consuming because of the attention I'm devoting to the detail. There are also a couple smaller plots on my mind that I'm also writing bits and pieces about from time to time. But there isn't anything new just yet! For now, here are the links to my four stories:
The Glass
Mermaid
I Dream of Kristin
Stacey's Secret
A Mistress Like No Other (Part One)
A Mistress Like No Other (Part Two)
I also have my bridge bidding essay to share here at the moment. It requires some basic knowledge of hand evaluation and bidding techniques, but it is recommended reading for all of my bridge partners.
Links
Most of the links on my homepage are embedded in the text in the relevant sections. However, I want to include links to my friends' homepages because they were so kind to link to my page. :-)
Thanks for visiting!