My favorite piece of furniture, the "mookshelf."
All my life, long before I had a clue what to do with one, I've wanted a
mook yan jong (wooden man dummy) of my own. The situation is better now, but when I built this setup more than a decade ago, imported dummies commanded outrageous prices, not to mention were constructed with Asian fighters in mind--that is to say, not long armed six foot-something gringos...
Somewhere along the way, I scored the plans for building your own dummy for less than $100, appropriate for your own height and reach. A salvaged length of telephone pole, some common lumberyard boards, and a few weekends at a friend's woodworking shop and we were in business. I'm particularly proud of the arms, which are old Louisville Sluggers cut down to my own forearm length, with lead plumbing pipes stuffed inside with the help of a lathe--just the right amount of play in each arm slot, as well.
It's evolved over the years, and during a long deployment I had the brilliant idea to do away with the somewhat unsightly supporting structure and simply slapped the entire thing onto a nondescript IKEA bookshelf--training AND storage space.
(Yes, the landlady thinks I'm a little different.)