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September 11 Was The Day New York Stopped **Twenty-five years later, I still carry that day with me.** There are some days in your life that divide everything into a *before* and an *after*. For me, September 11, 2001, is that day. I have thought about writing this story for years. Every time I try, I find myself back there. Sometimes I can remember tiny details with extraordinary clarity. Other parts are blurred together. I don't remember exactly how long I was inside the dust cloud. I don't remember precisely what time anything happened. In many ways, I don't think my brain recorded that day as a normal sequence of events. It recorded fragments. And those fragments have stayed with me for twenty-five years. An ordinary morning It was early in the morning when I went outside to the bodega to get an iced coffee. I hadn't really gotten my life together yet. At the time, I was sleeping on a mate's couch. I had met him in a bar, and my life was still very much in transition. I'd been travelling back and forth across the United States, particularly between New York and San Francisco.

Bring Back Rent Controls Have you had enough of unfair rent increases? Are you being intimidated in your own home from fear of your landlord? Join the London Renters Union to stand up for your rights. I did and we are rallying. We are getting together in May to build up momentum to reestablish Rent Controls in the UK. They were abolished in the 80s during Thatcherism. Recently, I left my Mezzanine flat on Kensington Gardens after four years. I had just finished decorating it, having painted the walls a crisp clean white. They had been off-white, almost brown from the many years that they hadn’t been painted. This was an enormous amount of work as I had to give it at least three coats or more in the worst areas. I purchased all new furniture to match the “Treehouse” theme I was creating. I had a giant window that let in lots of light allowing for a lot of plants. All the furniture was wood based accentuating the vibrant greenery all around the flat. At night, I would climb up the stairs into my sanctuary for a good night’s sleep, until my landlord ruined it all. I

Decisions, Decisions. I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. So much that it has to feel comfortable. I believe that a good work environment creates more productivity and higher quality work. I have had many computers in my career. I have grown attached to Macintosh. It produces much higher quality graphics than a PC. In fact any creative material is always best made on a Mac. In my NY apartment, I had a Mac Pro with cinema screen that I ran an LLC from. I had a MIDI keyboard, mixer, microphone, cameras, scanner, pen tablet, and laser printer attached to it. It was a digital workstation. I used it to build websites, edit photos, make DJ mixes and just play with creativity. It was nothing for me to sit at my desk and get productive. It was actually inviting me to go to work when I was sitting on the couch. Unfortunately, when I moved to London I could not carry it so I sold it for less than market value. I had many Macs in my day - probably spent close to $10k. The first one I bought was the MacBook Pro. I