Sue Simmons, the irreverent doyen of TV anchors in New York (still cute after all these years) properly summarised the storm-that-wont-go-away-and didnt-meet-expectations-and-hype as -:

"The Storm That Got On Our Nerves".
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Im fucking fooling myself

What I really want to do is get paid for writing about what I observe and what I see.

Yeah, me and everybody else in New York buddy. Get in line.

I wanna be another Mike Royko, frankly.

I have an idea of what I want to do for the long term, but short-term income?

Right now, Im at a loss at what Im gonna do.

And its frustrating.
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I may really be a New Yorker now.

Whenever I see a TV show about new York, I notice whats on screen and if it matches 'reality'.

Rich and I caught a trailer for the upcoming DeNiro flick 15 Minutes, while watching NYPD Blue.

We noted that all the cabs were Chevy Caprices.

Same thing with NYPD Blue, all the cars were caprices too.. using old footage, thinking people wont know the difference.

It makes the show look dated.

You would have to look long and hard to find a Caprice cab or patrol car nowadays.

Most of them having been destroyed on the streets of NY.

Nowadays, its almost all Crown Vics or Chevy Impalas (for patrol cars).

NYPD looks grimy enuff, but you can tell now all the shooting is done on sets in california.

The actors all have that hollywood sheen, that they lose when they live in NY. Cant fake it.

For proof, look at Spin City - production having moved from New York to Cali when Michael J left.

Never mind that the jokes are all "What we THINK New York is like".. but the details.

The cast is no longer fondling those ubiquitous-to-NY 'greek' or blue, red, purple 10-ounce coffee cups like their lives depend on it.

Or ad libs like

"The Mayor was seen handing money to a prostitute."
"Whats wrong with dat?"
*pause*
"Somebody please tell this woman what life is like OUTSIDE of Brooklyn."

Details like that. :-)
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Today, I hauled out my trusty old Toshiba T4900CT and wrote.

Its been through hell, as I lent it to my brothers to learn as well as had it as a testing machine for TSC.

The battery is dead, its only got 16 megs of RAM, and an 850 meg hard drive.

Shit, Im still running Office 4.3 on it.

Its worth between 200 and 350 bux.

To upgrade it with a bigger hard drive, more RAM and a new battery would cost about that.

I would rather buy a more powerful one..

Ive got my eye on the listings for Toshiba 7000CT's and G3 Powerbooks on e-bay.. the best place to find cheap laptops nowadays.

But there's nuthing wrong with this beastie.

I want laptops so I can run the Ricochet service as well as use it with wireless networks at home.

Actually, I could do it with this one. Its still powerful enough and runs clean.

Being poor makes ya look at whats necessary, not what youd like.
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