Rick's b.log - 2024/07/21
It is the 21st of November 2024 You are 18.225.56.78, pleased to meet you!

Some software updates

SeaShell has been updated with some fixes and improvements to the generated wimp code.

Both can be downloaded from Store, or the following links:

New glasses

Indeed it had. My previous, and longtime, prescription was -2.25 for one eye and -2.50 for the other. I don't recall which eye was which.
Now? -3.50 for both eyes.

How I see.

On the left, corrected sight with glasses. On the right, my blurry world using just my eyes.

I move my eyes a lot, so I don't think I would have a hope in hell of adapting to progressive lenses, so it's a regular lens. Unfortunately it is a trade off. The better my distance vision (I can read licence plates again, whoo!), the worse my close vision. Anything closer than about two metres is blurry.
Therefore, I now have an extra set of glasses for reading. The problem is that nothing really works for using the computer. It's too close for distance glasses, too far for reading glasses, and just fuzzy with no glasses... so I'm using the reading glasses with it.

My glasses.

In the front, distance glasses. Anti-reflection, anti-UV, variable tint (depending on strength of UV). The Sécu paid three centimes. My top-up paid €109,62 per lens and €99,97 for the frame. I had to make up the remaining €18,15 of the cost of the frame. The frames are a very lightweight titanium material.
In the middle, reading glasses. Anti-reflection and a treatment to reduce blue light. The frames were much cheaper, only €30, and €79 for the lenses. Again, I had to make up €18,15.
And at the back, special offer of sunglasses. A euro for the frames and 30 each for the lenses, treated with anti-UV, polarisation, and tinted (class 3 brown). None of this is covered by the Sécu or top-up, so it cost me €61. However, it's important for me because my eyes are photosensitive so they are necessary for most daytime driving.

Sunflowers

For my own, the potatoes are still going. I'm hoping for some decent sized spuds at the end. I didn't get many corn plants growing, but those that did seem to be doing okay. In front of them, cayenne peppers. They are growing, but I don't expect much.
Likewise, the melons. It seems as if only one really started to grow, but again I am not hopeful. Sure, there are two weeks until my three-week August summer holiday, so there's still time, but the thing is that it's really kind of cold in the mornings. It's not been a great summer to be honest.

Your comments:

Zerosquare, 21st July 2024, 21:35

> It's too close for distance glasses, too far for reading glasses, and just fuzzy with no glasses...     Beware -- your eyes will be working extra hard to compensate, and that can cause health problems. Maybe you could rearrange your desk to put the monitor closer/farther, and/or switch to a smaller/larger one?

David Pilling, 22nd July 2024, 02:51

Love the sun flowers. A neighbour has planted three, not really the same.    Talking to an optician about intermediate range glasses for computers, he said he'd be happy to sell me as many pairs of glasses as I wanted.    I've managed by using big screens far away with large fonts. I am the one who uses Windows in 120 dpi (125%) mode.    With reading glasses you can do your own thing, supermarkets sell different strengths of lens.    I suspect what you're paying is above the UK prices. There are good post based services, send frames and prescription and they will return the frames with lens.

jgh, 22nd July 2024, 06:00

The glasses thing is *SO* frustrating. My opticians absolutely *REFUSE* - at least, that what is seems - to provide me with glasses that allow me to actually work. I *NEED* to be able to look at what I'm refering to on my desk *AND* then type stuff into the computer having refered to it. I only have two hands, it is hugely frustrating having to keep removing a hand to remove my glasses and then put them on again, and then remove them again, all within semi-dozens of seconds.    They gave me a set of "reading" glasses and a set of "working" glasses, but thet required me to give up *BOTH* hands as I was having to keep swapping between different glasses multiple times a minute. At one point I got up to make a cup of tea while wearing the reading glasses and almost broke my neck tripping over my own feet.    The tried varifocal glasses, but the "vary" bit was always in the wrong place.    There's a SpecSavers advert currently running where they test you in your home. That might be an option, get them to test me *DOING* *REAL* *STUFF* instead of artifically sat in a chair staring at a wall.

C Ferris, 22nd July 2024, 09:26

As was said - home here the supermarkets have a big stand of glasses - go with a mag and try various pairs - to see if any work for you.

David Pilling, 22nd July 2024, 12:17

Seemingly bi-focals are still available - spex4less (cheap online). I often do poor mans bi-focal, either look through the lens or over/under.     I did not like vari-focal, but perhaps I would have been better off if I had persisted. They say vari-focal has improved, but expensive to find out.    But getting from one thing to another, at different distances can be a problem - online systems wanting numbers to be typed in quickly. Perhaps I should position the text and the keypad at the same distance...

Rob, 22nd July 2024, 12:18

I'm weird. I'm short sighted in one eye, long sighted in the other. I can get by without wearing any glasses, but have three - reading glasses, distance glasses, and an intermediate set I use for the laptop because neither eye focuses at that distance.

Clive Semmens, 27th August 2024, 11:27

I don't like varifocal AT ALL. Bifocals I can manage. Luckily I have negligible astigmatism, and both my eyes are pretty much the same - near point and far point both about 10 metres plus. So cheapo off-the-shelf specs from a bargain store do me absolutely fine. But I need different pairs for reading, desktop computer, laptop, and close work. And none for driving, going for walks, or normal shopping.