Nothing Worth Buying

I've noticed that there is next to nothing worth buying anymore. Either the soul has been sucked out of stuff or the companies that make the things we love have lowered the quality of the goods so much that they're not worth the money. It's all glitter and shiny to get you to notice things, but nothing lives up to the promise. 

Where does that leave us? Well, what about Kickstarter? With a little digging, you can find some interesting things to support, like:

The Oona

or

Malls Across America

Does this solve everything?  No. But at least the people here have a little passion about what they're doing and making. Plus, the Malls Across America video is kind of awesome and reminds me of my youth.

So instead of buying clothes that fall apart or stain when you spill water on them, instead of buying crap at Target, instead of throwing money away on a 3-D TV, buy something interesting instead.

Yoga and Neal Pollock

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A little earlier this year due to high stress levels and some health issues, I decided to try to find a way to take better care of myself. I wanted to add something that would reduce stress but nothing crazy like joining a gym. For a few years, my wife had been encouraging me to take a yoga class. I was always resistant for some reason, but I thought why not? So after two classes I'd describe as "old lady" yoga (lots of napping, farting, and lying still under blankets), I found a class that for eight weeks or so did the trick. 

For the most part I thought I was the only non-hippy, sarcastic, asshole doing Yoga. Then we discovered that Neal Pollock was raising money to go to Yoga school via Kickstarter. It was all in support of his soon to be released book Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude. As part of our support, Neal was kind enough to send us a number of books, including his soon to be released tale of his Yoga awakening. 

It all starts when the New York Times calls him fat. Role in pop culture references including Star Trek II, The X-Men, Star Wars, and the rest of my nerd sphere and you get a writer who goes from being a 35-ish sarcastic writer to a 40-ish sarcastic yogi. Not only is the book inspiring (by taking some of the weird/scary/unknown out of yoga) but it's one hell of a good read too. Neal's journeys take him everywhere from doing yoga with a small group of dedicated people within walking distance of his house to conferences in San Francisco to Thailand. Through the course of the book you get a clear picture of how he's trying to be his "best self" more often. To tap into that attitude and bring it into his day to day life. At the same time he writes with humor, tenderness, and the Gen-X sarcasm you'd expect from him.

It's totally worth the $10 or so on Amazon.