Anyway, I’ve had some interesting reactions to my office chair, which is a red exercise ball like in one of your pictures. It’s fun to bounce on and is good for my back (it’s constantly making you swivel your hips and try to sit up straight) but it has no commodity chic at all. Sometimes people see it and go “ooh, you use a ball for a chair?!” like it’s all cool & stuff. Then when they find out it’s just a normal exercise ball you can get for $20 they start visibly losing interest. If it was a special red ball that cost $200, well, that would keep their interest up.

The weird thing is that some companies are now offering an “exercise ball chair” with the apparent aim of improving the cachet and upping the price of the ball — but completely defeating the whole idea of using the ball, which is to provide an unstable surface that forces your body to work rather than be held mechanically in some favored position. I dunno, I haven’t used one of those, but if I didn’t have a ball I’d rather use a recliner.

By the way, the interior of my 400-square-foot granny house is done — check it out on my blog.

Cheers, bottleman