Another reason to love Japan

Internet Vending Machines!

It’s no secret that Japan is the country of vending machines… but this is new: Tokyo-based beverage company Asahi Soft Drinks took the wraps off a vending machine that not only offers drinks but also sends out Wi-Fi signals within a 50m radius.

The Wi-Fi will be available for free, is accessible with multiple devices, without registration, and for anyone to use (meaning users won’t have to buy any drinks to go online through the machine). It’s possible to use the web for about 30 minutes before the machine cuts you off (re-connecting is possible, however).

What a perfect compliment to Coffee in a Can!

Now you can serf the internet while drinking Wanda Wonderful Coffee.

The first is always tasty.

I used to live there.

For about a year I lived on the third floor of an apartment building on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh.  That was the only place I ever lived alone.  I loved that apartment despite its many flaws, like the horrible bright red carpet and the constant hum of the traffic on the bridge.  The entrance was through the backyard and up a staircase.  There was an open air back porch although I didn’t use that much.  The kitchen floor sloped significantly which was not unusual for buildings in Pittsburgh.  The floor evened out in the living room then sloped the other way in the bedroom.  The best part was an enclosed front porch overlooking the Bloomfield Bridge.  I spent a lot of time chilling there with my giant cat Oliver.

Oliver has lived with my mom for the past few years.  He died last month.  I miss the kitty!

A friend sent this article this morning.  I’m glad all the people are okay, but humored that the building is considered worth $300,000 – in a real estate developer’s dream!

Fire Ravishes Polish Hill Apartment Building

A raging fire in Polish Hill was so intense that firefighters had to back out of the building and the people who live there still cannot get back in.

A neighbor that first spotted smoke billowing out of the windows on the second floor of the six-unit apartment building on Bethoven Street.

At first, the other tenants had no ideathey were in danger.

Note the article says “Bethoven Street.”  That is because the street signs say “Bethoven” instead of “Beethoven”.  This due to some long ago clerical error.  Citizens were always trying to get it changed but others would fight back with a “That’s how WE spell it” small town mentality.  I wish I had a picture of the street sign.  I do have a mixed cd labeled Bethoven No.3 that I just ran across last week.  I guess that’s what I’ll be listening to today.  While living there I remember rediscovering the band Letters to Cleo, whom I had liked in high school but not really understood.  It made more sense sitting watching the traffic on Bigelow Boulevard.

Just living on a Sunday morning,
got my toast and tea and I’m warm and
I just thought I’d think about.
All the things to get and keep getting,
never enough not enough and never ending.
I just thought I’d think about….
And it might be…

The comfort of a knowledge of a rise above the sky
but could never parallel the challenge of an acquisition in the
here and now, here and now.

Growing in the overgrown backyard were silver dollar plants which my grandmother, who had recently passed away, used to keep dried in vases.  I had never seen them living before.

I don’t have many pictures from when I lived in Pittsburgh, but I did make friends who are close to this day.  Cheers to Polish Hill and goodbye Bethoven Street.

My new girl crush: This woman

I had no idea I’d been so limited.