As the summer semester raged on, I found myself complaining of ailments to fellow students, co-workers and my family. Now, it wasn’t apparent to me but I guess this was an everyday occurrence. I finally had to evaluate the situation when my wife was considering me to be a hypochondriac. I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary to create these annoying aches and pains that I was voicing to others as they rolled their eyes thinking “Oh boy, here we go again.” Finally as I entered my so called office or “man-cave” in my basement I took a second look at my computer area and was realizing the first cause of my nagging condition. My computer chair had a few cracked wheels and the backrest was basically non-existence since it was stuck in the way-back position that would cause me serious bodily damage if I were to lean that far back. My keyboard was completely dilapidated complete with missing numbers and lopsided causing it to wobble as I type. I had figured out where to start and hopefully get on the fast track to better office health. I remembered that the term used for body-friendly tools or equipment was ergonomics. I had a few bucks left over from my tax return that was on the brink of being spent frivolously. I figured I could leverage this to get some new office equipment and convert my ergonomic absent home-office into something comfortable to crank out lab reports and feasibility studies for my engineering courses. After much deliberation, I found my source of products that provided me a great range of

My New Chair

 choices at low enough prices that I could handle. It is an online source called www.kareproducts.com. I started by looking to replace my sorry excuse for an office chair with something from their selection of ergonomic office chairs and I found a low-back style chair, which I prefer, at a great price. Next, I was after a new keyboard to replace mine that looked as if I got it in 1987. In the computer ergonomics section I found a ton of things I wanted to add to my list,

"Beam Me Up, Scotty!"

especially with the amount of typing I have been doing this semester. I have two technical communications based courses that are going to give my carpal tunnel syndrome before I am done. I decided on a new keyboard that splits in the middle. It took me a little bit to get used to but it is unbelievably comfortable on the wrists and fingers. Besides that I feel like I am in control of the Starship Enterprise when I am using it. I also picked up a great new mouse and an anti-glare screen. I never realized how my eyes were straining to see past the glare of my basement lights. This equipment has finally got me back to feeling like a well-oiled machine again and my friends and family are much more obliged to communicate with me. Since I replaced my chair, I started thinking about saving up to get me a new desk as well. I checked out some adjustable computer desks and there were some really customizable desks that could adjust to fit my style. I like to sit low to the ground in my chair and these desks adjust right with me. The monitor and be adjusted to many different locations and heights as well. I am here to say that I can finally get back to work comfortably and if you are developing aches and pains that you can’t describe, check out your office equipment before you start annoying your friends like I did.

Until we meet again,

PEACE

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.