Don't Back Down

Now that I've been sitting in my Aeron Chair for nearly two months, and especially since I've been asked at least once, it seems like the right time to post a little review.

First: The chair is expensive. Even without all the add-ons and whatnot, it's easily the price of two or three other nice chairs (and ten times the cost of not-so-nice ones). That doesn't mean it's bad though. If those other chairs fall apart after a year or two, then you could easily spend the amount of money I spent on the Aeron.

It's just across multiple chairs. With a 12-year warranty (make sure you get it from an authorized dealer), it's very likely I'll be on the same chair while you are out buying yet another. So price alone isn't a factor. You've got to include the time scale.

My last chair was a reasonably expensive one - roughly 1/8th of the Aeron - and it lasted perhaps a year and a half. With the aforementioned 12-year warranty, and comparable results from inferior chairs, sticking with such a plan would result in an expenditure of almost exactly that same amount over the 12-year span. Call it a push.

Second: The chair is comfortable. That chair I had previously, as well as any other chair I had previously, had a noticeable drag to it after a very short time. The cushion was depressed, or the fabric was dirty or the arms weren't sitting just right. Even after two months of solid usage (that is, 8-10 hours per day for 4-5 days per week), the Aeron looks about the same as it did the day that it arrived.

I sprung for the Comfort Fit model, which is basically a fancy lumbar support. Is it worth the extra money? Tough to compare, since I've never tried the run-of-the-mill lumbar. I think the chair by itself would be okay, but the lumbar support makes it really nice (and supportive). I like the Comfort Fit too. I won't worry about over-spending, at any rate. I don't know if it was necessary, but I don't have a problem with the money that I spent for it. No buyer's remorse.

Third: The chair is awesomely adjustable. Of course, you don't (generally) adjust it over and over again throughout the day. But I do adjust it quite a bit to find the right fit. The arms not only move up and down, but side to side. The "rocking" action of the chair is smooth, instead of some chairs that make you feel as if you are going head-over-heels as soon as you lean back. Pretty much all of the positions can be customized - even the depth of the Comfort Fit lumber. Very sweet.

All in all? I'm happy. If you have sitting issues, spend the money up-front instead of dealing with something and being unhappy. If you're happy as you are, don't spend the money. For me, the ongoing comfort is well worthwhile. That may not be the case for everyone. If, like Ted, you find your sofa comfortable, by all means stick with it. But keep the Aeron in mind for when it becomes uncomfortable.

Not actual voice mail, mind you, but a persistent voice mail indicator. To those who are familiar with it, it's a stutter-tone when you pick up the line. Many phones (including our Uniden) have a voice mail indicator on it that apparently interacts with that signal somehow.

There are two pieces here. One is if you have a stutter tone and one is if you don't. If the former, then Vonage thinks you have voice mail, and apparently it does so pretty regularly - even if you don't. The most common occurence of this that I have seen is if I listen and delete messages through the web.

Often, simply visiting the Trash folder after the first deletion, and deleting them again, will have the desire effect and you will have no more stutter tone.

Unfortunately, sometimes it continues. In this case, the only reliable solution I have found is to leave myself a new voice mail, then use the phone to listen to the message and delete it. At this point, the stutter tone will invariably go away (it has for me, at any rate).

If the problem is that you don't have a stutter tone, but have an indicator on the actual phone, you'll need to visit your friendly user manual. In the case of our Uniden phone, holding in the flash/find hs button for a few seconds actually resets this indicator. Unfortunately, doing this only resets your phone - and if the stutter tone is still there, it will come right back on shortly.

We hardly knew ye. Apparently, anyway, because the Coca-Cola company has decided to phase out Vanilla Coke by the end of 2005.

I'm not surprised that it's happening, only that it has taken so long for something like this to happen on a larger product line. I mean we see flavors come and go, but typically they are smaller lines that hardly made a ripple. Vanilla Coke, on the other hand, was introduced with a huge amount of advertising.

Apparently it didn't work, and the Vanilla line is skipping town, along with Diet Coke with Lemon. I think it would be an interesting exercise to see more of this. While I appreciate the idea to appeal to every market niche, the fragmenting it has done is incredible, with just a small sliver of sales going to any one such speciality beverage. There has to be a trade-off between such a strategy and actually making any money.

According to Douglas Gresham, stepson of C. S. Lewis, the clearest image of Lewis' Christianity came one day when a beggar asked for some change. Lewis dug into his pockets and gave the beggar all that he had. The person with them (perhaps J. R. R. Tolkien) suggested that the beggar would just spend it on drink, and that Lewis' effort was wasted. Jack's response to his companion? "Well if I had kept it, I would have only spent it on drink." Heh. (via, thanks)

It's very easy to insert separators into Movable Type. Simply place them at the bottom of your MTEntries loop, and after every entry you will have a separator.

Read "Using Entry Separators" »

So now it's official. TO has officially apologized. But as I read the story, I have to say that I'm still completely baffled. He reportedly said, to Donovan McNabb, "I apologize to him for any comments that may have been negative." That's pathetic.

Our kids are 10 and 8, and they're already learning that when you apologize, you apologize. You say "I'm a moron and would be eternally grateful to you if you even consider being my friend again, because I know what I said was stupid and inconsiderate."

What you do not say is something ambiguous that just barely qualifies as an apology. I hope he does get cut, and that no other team wants him. Maybe then he'd figure it all out.

Here in Charlotte, we're in one of those times of year where it's cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon. I'm not talking a few degrees. I'm talking low 40s in the morning so you freeze your little toes off while waiting for the bus, and upper 70s in the afternoon, so you want to wear shorts and a t-shirt. The most annoying thing is the thermostat.

We have one of those "smart" thermostats, but I still have to switch it between heating and cooling. Even our car has a set-it-and-forget-it option, where it just keeps things the same temperature, turning on the heat or the air as needed. Surely something like this could be devised (or is already available) for the home.

Even though Carolina Panthers coach John Fox was outed by New York Jets coach Herman Edwards as having earned the nickname of Crash in college for his hard-hitting play, he'll always be Foxy to us.

Why? When asked about the team's record (currently 7-2) and what it meant for the future, Foxy responded: "We are 7-2," he said. "The worst we can do is 7-9. That is all I know."

Heh. Even though some of the defensive players are starting to talk a little smack, Foxy is keeping it real. Well done.

A creative mom from Oklahoma came up with a way to teach her unrepentant daughter a lesson. Since the girl suffered from poor grades, regular tardiness to class and talking back to teachers, the mom made her stand on a street corner with a sign that said (paraphrased) "Preparing for my future. Will work for food."

Apparently some folks who saw the display called talk radio stations to blast her for the behavior (some praised it) and at least one passing motorist called police to report psychological abuse. Please. We can all use a little humiliation now and again if it helps get us back on track, and kids are no exception. Suck it up and deal with it.

As I mentioned a while back, I enjoy a good puzzle now and again. So I must say it was quite enjoyable when I first came across the tangram game (via).

Read "Passing Time with Puzzles" »

According to at least one source (via), the Windows Genuine Advantage program now supports Mozilla browsers (including Firefox) through the use of a downloadable plugin. Sweet!

I'm constantly fighting the inability to keep track of anything. I've tried over and over to make use of the tools I have (such as Outlook) to keep track of things, but I always end up with fifty reminders and thus ignore them. Once you pass a certain number of entries in that little reminder box it just becomes useless.

So recently I've tried to become more efficient at marking things off the list. I've found that as I take the time to complete tasks and actually address reminders (instead of just letting them suffer through procrastination rot from disuse), I actually look at the list - mostly because it's a completely manageable 3-5 items most of the time, motivating me to do it more.

The disadvantage is that I now how to put everything into Outlook or I simply don't remember it. I've transferred that part of my brain to the computer. Yikes.