In Dreams

Only in a dream could I, Denis Leary, and Salman Rushdie be working together to try and find the person who stole a box of my old university textbooks from a Zellers store.

We did not find the person responsible.

Herman Miller Fabric Comparison – Balance vs Rhythm

I recently received the opportunity to work from home for a couple of months. As a result, I’ve been spending a lot more time in my office chair at home, which was already in need of replacing (something I gauge by the amount of duct tape on the chair).

After being unable to find any chairs designed for a human being at the local “big box” office supply stores (i.e. Staples), I decided that maybe it was time to invest in a real office chair. So, I looked up some more professional, dedicated office furniture stores and tried out some higher-end chairs.

I was very impressed with how I was treated by every place I went, especially by Jason Mills at COI Smart Furniture on King Edward St. I went to COI Smart Furniture to check out their selection of Herman Miller chairs, the best of which, IMHO, ended up being the SAYL and the Embody chairs.

Herman Miller Embody chair

I had an Embody chair delivered to my house — for free — to try out for a week or so, to see if it suited my needs. After sitting in it for a few minutes at home (after having spent a few hours in my existing chair), I could literally feel the relief in my back. It was great. The Herman Miller Embody chair has improved my posture, and I have yet to feel any aches or pains after sitting in it for an extended period of time. Contrast that to my current office chair (a $200 generic chair from Staples) in which I am constantly adjusting my sitting position and feeling aches and pains here and there.

In doing some research on the chair before officially ordering one (I’ll not mention the exact price, but I will say it was in the four-digit range) I learned that there are two fabric options for the Herman Miller Embody chair. What little information I could find on the differences in fabrics, besides price, was either unclear or contradictory.

Thankfully, Jason Mills from COI Smart Furniture dropped off some fabric samples at my house while I was out doing some other business in the middle of the day. For the benefit of anyone else who might care, here are some comparative photos of the two fabric types: Balance and Rhythm:

A brief comparison:

Balance fabric

• two layers of very thin fabric with a thicker, cushiony fabric in between. Approximately three times thicker, in total, than the Rhythm Fabric
• the cushiony layer in between has holes through it to allow air to breath through the very thin top and bottom layers of fabric.
• softer of the two fabrics

Rhythm fabric

• single-layer of thicker fabric (but still much thinner than the combined layers of the Balance fabric)
• stronger of the two fabrics

There’s not really much of a different feel between the two fabrics, that is, one doesn’t provide noticeably more friction than the other. The only reasons, IMO, to go with the rhythm fabric would be a) to save $150, and b) cosmetic preference.

For me, it’s really the extra padding that comes with the Balance fabric that does it; because of the fantastic level of support the chair provides, there is less softness in the seat and back, and the extra padding that comes with the Balance fabric is nice.

So, there you have it: a proper comparison between the Balance and Rhythm fabrics for the Hermal Miller Embody chair.  Why HM can’t put a simple photo on their website showing the differences between the two I don’t understand.

Things I Never Noticed Before

So, the other day I came across instructions for an actual magic potion in the Bible the other day:

Numbers 5:11-31 (NLT)

¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹² “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“Suppose a man’s wife goes astray, and she is unfaithful to her husband ¹³ and has sex with another man, but neither her husband nor anyone else knows about it. She has defiled herself, even though there was no witness and she was not caught in the act. ¹⁴ If her husband becomes jealous and is suspicious of his wife and needs to know whether or not she has defiled herself, ¹⁵ the husband must bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring an offering of two quarts of barley flour to be presented on her behalf. Do not mix it with olive oil or frankincense, for it is a jealousy offering—an offering to prove whether or not she is guilty.

¹⁶ “The priest will then present her to stand trial before the Lord. ¹⁷ He must take some holy water in a clay jar and pour into it dust he has taken from the Tabernacle floor. ¹⁸ When the priest has presented the woman before the Lord, he must unbind her hair and place in her hands the offering of proof—the jealousy offering to determine whether her husband’s suspicions are justified. The priest will stand before her, holding the jar of bitter water that brings a curse to those who are guilty. ¹⁹ The priest will then put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has had sex with you, and you have not gone astray and defiled yourself while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune from the effects of this bitter water that brings on the curse. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray by being unfaithful to your husband, and have defiled yourself by having sex with another man—’

²¹ “At this point the priest must put the woman under oath by saying, ‘May the people know that the Lord’s curse is upon you when he makes you infertile, causing your womb to shrivel and your abdomen to swell. ²² Now may this water that brings the curse enter your body and cause your abdomen to swell and your womb to shrivel.’ And the woman will be required to say, ‘Yes, let it be so.’ ²³ And the priest will write these curses on a piece of leather and wash them off into the bitter water. ²⁴ He will make the woman drink the bitter water that brings on the curse. When the water enters her body, it will cause bitter suffering if she is guilty.

²⁵ “The priest will take the jealousy offering from the woman’s hand, lift it up before the Lord, and carry it to the altar. ²⁶ He will take a handful of the flour as a token portion and burn it on the altar, and he will require the woman to drink the water. ²⁷ If she has defiled herself by being unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings on the curse will cause bitter suffering. Her abdomen will swell and her womb will shrink, and her name will become a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if she has not defiled herself and is pure, then she will be unharmed and will still be able to have children.

²⁹ “This is the ritual law for dealing with suspicion. If a woman goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, ³⁰ or if a man becomes jealous and is suspicious that his wife has been unfaithful, the husband must present his wife before the Lord, and the priest will apply this entire ritual law to her. ³¹ The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin.”

Nice. A full on magic divination ritual, with a potion, magic words, and everything, straight from God himself!