Best Products

Occasionally I do product reviews. Lately I hear people worrying about the "economy," which I think is silly. If the economy slows down, it's like it's doing taijiquan. We notice where we're wasting energy, we discard excess, our appetites readjust and become more refined, we redesign our interactions for the space and things we use everyday-- generally we simplify our lives.

That being said, of course, most of the people reading this blog will not be effected in any significant way by the Economic Tai Chi Effect.

In fact, since I'm getting between 1 and 2 thousand hits a day, by my rough calculations, there are about 20 people reading this blog once a week who make more than 50 million dollars a year. One man's economy, is another man's splurge.

There are a few products I have purchased over the years which out class all the others for their sheer usefulness and contribution to my simple life.

The first is my skateboard, and I make no brand recommendations.

The second, my weapons, which will each get their own reviews at some point.

The third is my programmable rice cooker which has a setting for porridge (jook, congee). I've got a Neuro Fuzzy.

The forth is my Japanese warm spray toilet. I love that thing. I love it so much that when I go camping I now bring a hand held high-pressure squirter. (Saves money on toilet paper too.)

The sprayer I bought was cheap ($72 on Craigslist), but heck, if you're saving money by moving to a smaller home or something, you might consider spending $13,000 on this new toilet by Inax!

The blog where I saw the toilet also has an Auto Healther--massager that would be a welcome addition at most schools. In fact, it would be nice to have one handy to put my Kung Fu students in when they are acting like monsters.

Update: After posting this, my reader numbers suddenly dropped suggesting that perhaps my calculations were wrong.  200 Americans made $50 million last year. That number could be almost doubled if we include the whole English speaking world.  So I was assuming that 1 in 20 were reading my blog, and that is probably too high.  It is probably closer to 1 in 200-- which comes out to 2 very wealthy people.  It would be safer to say that there are 10 people with assets of 50 million or more who practice taijiquan, have an interest in Daoism, and sometimes read my blog.