After an alcohol fueled weekend (Ron is an @sshole!), Christmas came early. Long ago I heard about Japanese people throwing away perfectly good things in the garbage like furniture, appliances, and electronics, but I never believed it. A co-worker told me some time ago that he grabbed a 32 inch flat screen HDTV from the corner on garbage day. The lucky guy said that after he purchased the correct HD cables and mounted it on his wall it worked perfectly. After that day, I always kept an eye out for some interesting stuff.

A couple weeks ago, I found a Numark DJ mixer (battle mixer w/2 channels), but I thought I would come pick it up in the night as I didn`t want to look like a garbage picker. I went back in the night and it was gone. Upset, I kept looking every week and last night I hit the jackpot! Shining on the corner sat a Dell Inspiron 640M laptop with the manuals and driver cds placed neatly beside it. I immediately grabbed it and took it home to try it out. Everything worked perfectly, but I didn`t have the charger. I was going to buy one on the weekend, but when I was on my way to work, I saw the charger sitting on the curb in the same spot where the laptop was last night. I grabbed that quickly and brought it back home. As I am typing this, I am re-installing Windows XP without issue. I am still in shock. If you are in Japan, make sure to check the garbage! You never know what people will leave outside. PEACE!