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Featured in AlltopAll right, confirmation that GlassyEyes kicks ass, but nonetheless it's cool. To complete the "kicks ass" reference, see about halfway down the left navigation area. Alltop.com has a really useful product and a sense of humor to back it up.

Started by Guy Kawasaki (formerly of Apple, and who wrote the most excellent book, "Art of the Start"), and a couple of his friends (Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens), Alltop.com is a topic-based RSS aggregator that saves me from the fear of "what am I missing". And with the new "Frugality" topic, at http://frugality.alltop.com, I can find ways, beyond affordable eyeglasses, to save money and to promote this site to an even wider audience.

Check it out.

You're a contact lens wearer and you've neglected your glasses for years. Why on earth would you spend even $200 on a basic pair of glasses when you only wear them to watch Letterman?

You haven't and not only may you be straining your eyes, what happens when you get a knock on the door at midnight from your super-hot neighbor looking to borrow a cup of sugar? Think ahead and spend a few bucks to upgrade the "night vision" into something that doesn't force you to hide behind closed blinds.

Part Two in a multi-part series on eyeglasses-themed Halloween costumes. I know it's (the end of) September, but the eyeglasses featured in these posts will take a week or two to arrive. ACT NOW!

If you're like me, the idea of an eyeglasses-wearing Halloween costume subject lends itself to me being comfortable -- able to see. With reasonably-priced eyeglasses now available to us, you can get "costume eyeglasses" that you'll be able to wear at the party, walking the kids around as they gather candy, and to work the next day.

---

Geek-chic Tina Fey

The glasses are basic enough. She wears a dark, either black or brown plastic, round-bottom, horn-rimmed frames.

I looked at all of the sites listed to the left and was unable to find much of anything that closely resembled these. Why?

They're super-basic frames. I think this speaks to the idea that we need to see some more updated, classic designs added to the collections.

Blergh!

Here are a couple that might do the job in a pinch.


The Lioni - $39
These aren't really "horned-rimmy" enough, but if you've got the hair right, no one will notice.


4419 Tailored Acetate Full-Rim Frame with Spring Hinge - $29.95
Great name. These are horn-rimmed enough, but look like they're too tall. I think it might be harder to pull off the height. I'd like to see a better pic.


If these two frames mated, then we'd have something.

Google is doing some maintenance thing at 6PM CDT today (9/25). Supposed to take only 10 minutes.

So browse before or after -- or both.

That is all.

A drawer full of electrical tape and super-glue is no way to prepare for the eventuality of your son or daughter's broken glasses. Kids are tough on glasses. Really tough. I recall the horror of breaking a pair of glasses as a kid in about 4th grade. This was a brand new pair and a soccer ball to the face at recess did them in. I panicked.

I remember the look on my mom's face when she wrote the second check for $100 dollars -- [begin codger]and that was back when a hundred bucks was a hundred bucks[/end codger]. A hundred bucks was six tanks of gas, an overflowing grocery cart, new tires for the station wagon, a really fancy family meal, or a car payment.

It's not like that now -- or at least it doesn't have to be, contrary to what the folks at LensCrafters are telling you.

A few things to consider when buying glasses for children:

  1. You're going to get polycarbonate lenses. The benefits are four-fold; shatter-proof, lighter, inherent UV protection, and inherent scratch resistance.
  2. You're going to want to order them from 39DollarGlasses because the polycarbonate lenses are standard and you're going to be able to get two pair for $80.
  3. Talk to your eye doctor about testing them when they arrive. If she says she won't, find another doctor, this one isn't concerned with your child's eyes -- just her wallet.
If you don't see something you like at 39 Dollar Glasses, consider getting frames elsewhere and having them lensed for roughly the same price -- with the standard polycarb lenses.

Part One in a multi-part series on eyeglasses-themed Halloween costumes. I know it's September, but the eyeglasses featured in these posts will take a week or two to arrive. ACT NOW!

As an eyeglasses wearer, I'm always on the look for a Halloween costume that allows me to be who I am -- without the discomfort of wearing contacts all night at a smokey bar, or look like a dork (NOTE TO SELF: Obi Wan Kenobi does not wear eyeglasses).

Also, I'm not sure about you, but the idea of buying eyeglasses for one night (or maybe two), didn't fit in my oh-so-very-tight budget. Enter online eyeglasses, and that concern goes (mostly) out the window. Not only do you get what you need to do the eyeglasses-themed costume, but you get a pair of glasses that at the very least will be great for kicking around the house after the curtains are drawn. All for less than $50.

---

Dwight Schrute from The Office

The glasses are available -- mostly. 39DollarGlasses has something similar at that pricepoint. Close-ups show a silver frame, but the Dakota in Cafe will work just fine -- and if you're a perfectionist, like Dwight, buy a can of spray paint, undo a screw or two and change them.

Raid your dad's closet (or the local thrift store) for a short sleeve dress shirt, slacks and tie for between $0 and $10. Buy a dead pager or pager case on eBay for a couple bucks, make a batch of stapler jello and you're done -- apart from the patented Dwight Schrute attitude (and bear knowledge).

Brighten the lives of those around you as only Dwight can.

It had been awhile since I'd seen a pair of glasses that I needed to have -- and then Albert sent me a link.

The link was to a pair of glasses that had almost nothing in common with the other 16 pairs in my collection. It had also been awhile since I'd placed an order with Optical 4 Less.




I ordered the second pair, because you can never have too many pairs of sunglasses (and you waive the shipping fees, so they're heavily discounted).

The sunglasses frames are more substantial than the glow-in-the-dark frames, but well, they don't glow. I'm used to having a metal insert in the temple and was surprised not to see one in the glow-in-the-dark rimless, but I think it's by design. Sure it costs less to make, but the flexibility rivals my titanium hingeless pair.

The lenses on both pairs are absolutely perfect in every way. I'm thrilled with the both of them.

Sorry for the video -- it's crazappy, and the glasses really do glow like crazy..

We're gaining momentum.

Many of you have come to the site over the past few weeks thanks to the wonderful piece in Slate, by Farhad Manjoo. He was a blast to talk to. This kind of surge in eyeballs really helps to get the word out. The more people that become aware of the site, the more this industry will (if you'll pardon the political overtones) "Change™".

Luxottica (look them up) and their movement to corner the entire optical industry from manufacturing, to retail, to insurance thought they had us by the short hairs. This site and the awesome participation in the forums are having an effect on their bottom line.

If you feel you've benefitted from some of this site's content, here are just a few of the ways you can help let other's know about it. Let's make sure it's not a secret!
  1. Blog about the GlassyEyes site.
  2. Tell your friends.
  3. Ask me to send you some business cards to give to your friends and strangers you see on the street.
  4. Twitter about the site.
  5. Tell your parents.
  6. Throw it up on your (and your friend's) Facebook walls. Click here and add GlassyEyes as a favorite.
  7. Chat about it with your MySpace friends.
  8. Place a link in a sidebar of your site -- it helps!
  9. If you have a bad experience at a brick and mortar optician, make sure to let people know on Yelp.com (and pop in the http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com URL as an alternative).
  10. Use the "Get the Word Out" button above to email people the info about the site.
  11. If you're a journalist or are married to, live next door to or play frisbee golf with one let them know about what we're doing here.
  12. Tell your shrink.
  13. Participate!
In a web filled with social media, there are surely many, many more possibilities to continue the momentum. Add your ideas (and actions) to the comments!

OK, they arrived about a week ago, but things have been hectic -- living in St. Paul, we've been dodging stormtroopers with tear gas and rubber bullets just walking about the town.

Also, someone switched off summer and we went from 90s last weekend to low 70s this week. I like it hot and this isn't cutting it for swimming. Forced indoors, I hit the pool at the Y on Saturday, and gave my new goggles a work out.

I ordered the Hilco Prescription Swimming Goggles for $30.95.

They performed admirably. I'm really thrilled with these. It's great to be able to see so clearly under water -- better than I ever have.

If you've been on the fence with these. Take a look at the video, read the first post again and order up.



My apologies for the 3-day shadow (and note to self, buy some blades).



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NOTE: GlassyEyes in no way endorses this or any other political candidate (unless said candidate wholeheartedly endorses GlassyEyes).
;-)

Thank you John McCain (and his roving band of political strategists). Picking a VP candidate who so prominently wears glasses will definitely give me some content ideas over the coming two months -- not sure how I'll be able to mix in the "experience" or "oil" angle yet, but they'll be plenty with the glasses.

Her glasses wardrobe appears to be her trademark (so we've got one thing in common). They do set her apart from the crowd a bit.

From my perspective, it appears that she's gone a bit more conservative since the announcement and has been working the rimless variety more prominently.

Do we recognize any of the other frames she is wearing?

Bonus points to anyone who finds anything resembling any of these at any of the sites listed to the left -- Halloween is coming!

I recognize the ones below:

"Larry Who?" wrote a comment to this post ("Expired Eyeglasses Prescription? Oh NOES!!!!!!!11") that both had me nodding my head and rolling my (quite comfortable and healthy) eyes. He makes some good points (before descending into the all-to-familiar rhetoric and un-informed blow-hardedness of someone who sees the gravy train leaving them behind on the platform). Here's one:

...prescriptions expire for a good reason, especially in the case of contacts. Contact lenses all cause progressive damage to the cornea, like it or not. Thank your lucky stars that your contact prescription expires, thus forcing you to see the doctor so he can stop your cornea from turning into a raisin by saying "you are no longer compatible with contacts".


I think my thoughts on prescriptions have changed a bit. I mentioned at one point, only a couple of days into this eyeglasses blog journey some things about the artificial expiration of the 2-year eyeglasses prescription. Many of us have been forced by price-gouging optical stores to "get by" with old glasses.

The difference in struggling to see through scratched and beat-up old glasses and using that 25 month-old prescription to get a new pair (sans scratches) didn't seem like much of a decision at all, but with the cost of your next pair of glasses now being out of the hands of these brick and mortar stores, you can -- and certainly SHOULD -- afford to get your eyes checked REGULARLY.

Let's make this new, better way of getting glasses lead to better eye health with regular checkups. Remember, that $50 checkup doesn't have $400 in "additional parts and labor" attached to it any longer. Stay current!

Read this and viewed the image while I stood in line for FIVE HOURS for the Daily Show today in St. Paul -- we got moved inside while the protests "raged" outside.

It's Awesome. Thanks Rob!

I was at my yearly checkup today and while I was left alone waiting for my eyes to dilate, I checked out the equipment. I noticed that the pupil distance is shown right on the "glasses machine", not sure what it's called. It's around on the doctor's side at the top left (sorry for the poor cameraphone photo).

So, one more way to try and get a pupil distance if your doc tries withhold it.

Click the image to see the very clearly marked '64'.

Kudos on the yearly checkup too!

...and again with the angry optometrist.

"smosh" posted with a question on how to get frames adjusted -- even plainly stating that he didn't want to "resort to subterfuge" again:

a couple of years ago I bought a pair from framesdirect.com - at that
point I saved $350 or so...from $600 down to $250. My ears are
slightly different heights, so the earpieces always have to be bent.
I took the framesdirect.com glasses to my optometrist and passed them
off as sold by another of their locations (i had seen the frames there
first, then started googling, leading to framesdirect.com)

I want to buy another pair, but I don't want to resort to subterfuge
to have them adjusted.

So what do people do?

The people of the GlassyEyes forums had a number of helpful suggestions including "deborah's" experience:
I plan to take mine to the optometrist who prescribed my lenses. I
told him what I was doing, and he said that of course I could (and
definitely should) bring them in to have the prescription tested and
to have them adjusted.

At this point "adameyeball" chimed in with the smugness and vitriol we've seen so often by a number of people "connected" to this industry.

Here are the highlights (with my responses in blue):
> deborah i have a better idea for you. why don't you lay your glasses
> on the computer and have the computer adjust them. thats what you
> signed up for when you bought glasses online.

Or she could do exactly what she said she was going to do and take them to her optometrist who is apparently more interested in the vision of his patients than in moving his "100 thousand dollars worth of frames". Look in the mirror, adameyeball. Really look.

> need a screw replaced, ask the computer to do it since the reason i
> charge a higher price is that i have customers who pay for that
> service (they get unlimetd adjustments and service).

Or you could just pick up an eyeglass repair kit for like a buck and fix it yourself. Or ask a professional and offer them a few bucks for the trouble. I guess I wasn't aware that optometrists worked on a retainer basis. Even my worst pair of frames from a brick and mortar store only needed to be adjusted 3 or 4 times (before they broke on my face). I'd guess that was less than 15 minutes of time in the "unlimetd adjustments and service" (I don't normally call out spelling and punctuation, but you kind of deserve it). By your logic, and the price difference, that works out to more than $1200/hour for adjustments. Um, I'll pass.

> please don't come into my office trying on frames and trying to get the model
> number ,instead try them on virtually online.

That's a fantastic idea. Optical4Less and EyeBuyDirect offer excellent "virtual try on" systems. They do a pretty good job with the technology.

> why should i expect to service a product you didn't purchase from me
> for free! would you go in and ask them to fix the watch you bought
> online for free??

You shouldn't -- and if it's your store, feel free to be a dick about it. The other option is charge a fee. $5? $10? You might make enough for lunch for you 2 minutes of time.

> so go save a hundred dollars and buy your glasses
> online just remember not to come into my office not to get them
> adjusted .

Please let us know where you are so we can "remember not to come into [your] office". If I'm not mistaken, it's a little place in Park Slope? I would hate to have anyone "wasting your time".

FWIW, I have the same issue with one ear higher than the other and I just give my frames a gentle twist. Works every time (unless we're talking titanium -- and then there is a need for more "physical" measures).

If there are any illustrators out there, I'd love an "angry optometrist" image to pop into articles such as this.