Brands I swear by

In this flat World we live in ( been readin Friedman's The World is Flat ) , businesses are in a constant frenzy to make sure we keep doing what we love doing - consume. Out of the pile of rubbish products out there, this is my list of "Things and Brands I Swear By, Peksman"

Casio - The G. You might not survive a plane crash but The G-Shock will. A great watch that you can wear around Manila without gettin robbed because its too, well, plastic. Every gadget-man and catastrophy-paranoids should have one.

Doc Martens - When you just cant decide whether to go Friday casual, mall-junkie or whatever lies ahead, the Docs are as rough and refined as any Briton can get. They also last like forever, the Volvo of shoes.

Clorox - cleans anything on contact, i mean anything, this thing is so strong you can actually watch mildew disappear before your eyes. Whitens anything on contact too - most particularly your favorite jeans, shirts and just about every textile you love. The smell, I suggest rinsing really-really well, coz the smell sticks like glue, and you'd end up walkin around smellin like..yup, sperm.

Zwilling Henkels - If you are a cullinary junkie, you will never want to be caught using a dull knife, nor a cheapo one. As Anthony Bourdain puts it - you will be cursed by the kitchen gods if your knife sucks. The knife is a revered instrument for Japanese cooks - where a $2,000 price tag is not unussual. Being the case, JAHenkels plays the chopping board well. Its brittle, so better not use it for fastening screws.

T-FAL - There's a lot of em Teflon covered pans out there, but trust me I've thrown every one of em except for my T-FALS, coz they were the only ones that remained non-stick all throughout.

Pentiums - Twice I had Celeron processors, and twice I've been pissed with it. My recent upgrade was a Celeron D (i thought it meant dual core before) - grinning at the fact that I have 3.2 gigs processing power at a bargain, I felt like my PC is a powerhouse....until I ran games and photoshoped. If you're as much as a nerd as I am, skip Celeron, they keep crashing like its their job.

Made in Japan - anything with this mark seems to top and outlast anything without this mark. I used to tell myself "what's the big deal where it was made??, its the same shit , just different place" ..but I''m now a born-again believer that technology can be transferred, but quality doesnt always come with it.

Leather - Anything leather is beautiful. Being a shoeholic, watchaholic and bagaholic, I have now focused my attention on the upper range of my addiction - yes , leather. They last longer, age beautifully and goes with any fashion statement you're in. Italians still hold this realm, trust them. To authenticate, I've learned to scratch and sniff - if it doesnt scratch its fake, if it doesnt smell like one, then its not. When you suspect a fraud - test burn it, a good 3 seconds wont do leather any harm but would definitely melt faux.

Yoshida Porter Bags - Made by Yoshida & Co. these bags cost like: "two bloody hundred bucks for that!!" , they're often made of plain black textile. Canvass is their signature, but of course its no ordinary one, its as tough as a nail and are made to be passed on to your siblings, and your siblings siblings...whether they like it or not..." Ey Juan, here's a really worn-down canvass bag that I got from your grandfather, you can use it when you go to college"..."oh!, you can also have the Casio after you graduate".

Cupie Mayonaisse and Kikoman Soy Sauce - You havent tasted good mayo til you try this Japanese brand. Sushi aint sushi w/out authentic Jap soysauce.

Sharp,Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshiba (in that order) - The guys that kicked Sony's butt and sent it home with a whimper. It might have taken more than 1 brand to topple Sony's domination of the electronic market, but they sure beat em good. With Sony losing consumers faster than they can pull out their nasty- encoded CDs, this is another lesson in arrogance...no matter how big you are, esp in this new non-boundary info age we live in, you should never piss off consumers.

This list will go on as I further discover more stuff to throw my hard-earned money in. I consume, therefore I am.