This new mousepad really stinks. I don’t mean “stinks” as in “doesn’t function properly,” but rather, it smells bad.

My coworker Ken gave it to me. It came with an issue of PC World. I’ve been wanting a new mousepad for a while now, because my current mousepad is a little uneven, so the mouse sometimes gets stuck.

So Ken brought me this new mousepad, and I was really excited. It has a nice, flat surface, so my mouse glides smoothly over it. Also, it has acronym definitions (AFK, BRB, IMHO, ROTFLMAO, etc) on it, as well as examples of emoticons and some rules of Netiquette. It’s the ultimate web geek’s mousepad.

But the damn thing seriously smells like rotting vegetables or something. I have never smelled anything as raunchy as this mousepad. Mind you, though, you can’t smell it in the air or anything. The only way you can smell how putrid it is is to either hold the mousepad directly up to your nose or touch the mousepad and then smell your fingers.

The second one is the problem. No one goes around sniffing his or her mousepad all day, but we inevitably smell our fingers anytime we put them anywhere near our faces. And believe me, it’s impossible to not touch the mouse pad. I only have a certain amount of available desk space, so I am constantly shifting my mousepad into more comfortable positions on the desk, depending on how much I’m using it at the moment.

So it’s really annoying. I’m trying not to touch it, and I’m hoping the smell will eventually dissipate, but in the meantime, I have a stinky mousepad.