New office chair, and a slight problem of flatulence
I received a brand new office chair. It's pretty impressive actually... it's a BalanceBall Chair.
This one, except my ball will be purple, or "plum" as they call it.
It's got its pros and its cons... on the pro side, my posture is better, my leg circulation is not getting cut off due to the chair's edge cutting into my leg, I can actually do some exercises at work... I'm really loving it.
But it's got a down side.
First of all, the casters are a bit on the cheap side. Since the entire chair only cost $90, I'm not surprised, but still... if you do a lot of "rolling" in your chair, this isn't the chair for you. I do a small amount of rolling. I suppose I can live with the annoyance of not rolling as smoothly as I'd like.
Secondly, I have to pay very close attention when I sit down. There are no chair arms, and there's not a lot of room for error. I didn't appreciate how much I just sort of "approximate" where my chair is when I sit, until I got this chair. There's no "approximating" with this chair. If you don't sit directly on the bullseye, you'll be bouncing onto the ground. This could be a serious problem, but I figure I need to give myself enough time to get used to the idea of actually paying attention to where I'm sitting. If I can get into the habit of doing that, it won't seem like a big deal anymore.
Finally, and most embarrassingly, there's this other issue. A tiny problem of flatulence.
Now I don't know how other people handle flatulence. In my family home, Dad would always just "let 'er rip", Mom would be completely grossed out, and we kids would laugh. In elementary school, if someone farted, either a loud ripper, or silent but deadly bomb, it was always an issue of "ewwww!" coupled with giggles. And then we got older, and it just didn't seem to happen anymore. At least not in public.
Which brings me to my embarrassing secret: I cannot and have never been able, to hold it in.
I might have about 20 seconds warning. If I'm lucky. I don't know how other people do it; how they can get to the bathroom on time. Not me. Unless the bathroom is within a few feet, there's no hope, and I'm doomed to a public pressure release. Even though I have my own office (mostly due to chance), the office coffee, microwave, mini-fridge, and reference books are stored in my room. Which means that my office sees a pretty high volume of people that just "pass through" on a regular basis. It's not quite a "public" space, but it's close.
Now, that's not to say that I don't make serious attempts to mitigate the damage...
I will try to position myself as far away from others as possible, I will try to get to open air, I will try to "aim" so-to-speak, into the chair where the upholstery both muffles the sound and absorbs some or all of the odour. I'm never sure if my attempts are successful, but no one has turned green in my presence, nor have they commented, so I'm assuming that my attempts at discretion have been at least partially successful.
But now you can see my new problem.
The new office chair, is rubber. There is no upholstery. Not only is there no upholstery to absorb any potential odour, but an unfortunate, and relatively minor "release" while sitting on that chair, makes a sound much like the sound of a C-7 rifle on automatic fire. It's about that loud too.
I really like the ergonomics of the new chair. I like that I'm using my core all day. I like that I'm not slouching anymore.
I'm not sure that I can live with the embarrassment.
This one, except my ball will be purple, or "plum" as they call it.
It's got its pros and its cons... on the pro side, my posture is better, my leg circulation is not getting cut off due to the chair's edge cutting into my leg, I can actually do some exercises at work... I'm really loving it.
But it's got a down side.
First of all, the casters are a bit on the cheap side. Since the entire chair only cost $90, I'm not surprised, but still... if you do a lot of "rolling" in your chair, this isn't the chair for you. I do a small amount of rolling. I suppose I can live with the annoyance of not rolling as smoothly as I'd like.
Secondly, I have to pay very close attention when I sit down. There are no chair arms, and there's not a lot of room for error. I didn't appreciate how much I just sort of "approximate" where my chair is when I sit, until I got this chair. There's no "approximating" with this chair. If you don't sit directly on the bullseye, you'll be bouncing onto the ground. This could be a serious problem, but I figure I need to give myself enough time to get used to the idea of actually paying attention to where I'm sitting. If I can get into the habit of doing that, it won't seem like a big deal anymore.
Finally, and most embarrassingly, there's this other issue. A tiny problem of flatulence.
Now I don't know how other people handle flatulence. In my family home, Dad would always just "let 'er rip", Mom would be completely grossed out, and we kids would laugh. In elementary school, if someone farted, either a loud ripper, or silent but deadly bomb, it was always an issue of "ewwww!" coupled with giggles. And then we got older, and it just didn't seem to happen anymore. At least not in public.
Which brings me to my embarrassing secret: I cannot and have never been able, to hold it in.
I might have about 20 seconds warning. If I'm lucky. I don't know how other people do it; how they can get to the bathroom on time. Not me. Unless the bathroom is within a few feet, there's no hope, and I'm doomed to a public pressure release. Even though I have my own office (mostly due to chance), the office coffee, microwave, mini-fridge, and reference books are stored in my room. Which means that my office sees a pretty high volume of people that just "pass through" on a regular basis. It's not quite a "public" space, but it's close.
Now, that's not to say that I don't make serious attempts to mitigate the damage...
I will try to position myself as far away from others as possible, I will try to get to open air, I will try to "aim" so-to-speak, into the chair where the upholstery both muffles the sound and absorbs some or all of the odour. I'm never sure if my attempts are successful, but no one has turned green in my presence, nor have they commented, so I'm assuming that my attempts at discretion have been at least partially successful.
But now you can see my new problem.
The new office chair, is rubber. There is no upholstery. Not only is there no upholstery to absorb any potential odour, but an unfortunate, and relatively minor "release" while sitting on that chair, makes a sound much like the sound of a C-7 rifle on automatic fire. It's about that loud too.
I really like the ergonomics of the new chair. I like that I'm using my core all day. I like that I'm not slouching anymore.
I'm not sure that I can live with the embarrassment.