The Soapbox Archives:
One place where I don't believe in skimping is my eye glasses. They're the first thing that people see so it pays to get something nice; it's much like taking a moment to make sure you're wearing a nice clean shirt. My opticians, Two Opticans in South Boston, won't let me leave their store with glasses that don't look just right on me.
I've always bought the higher end lens. The high-index plastics will bend light for my prescription yet be thin and light. Glass lens would be so much thicker and even that much heavier; I'm enough of a geek without needing to look like one.
One area where I hadn't considered as much is the anti-glare coating. I've always gotten the better anti-glare coating anyway on the store's recommendation. It adds a significant cost to the glasses but it helps me see better. It also helps people see *me* better. What? When we were looking through our wedding pictures, Denyce noticed that there was no glare at all from my glasses. *I* was completely visible in the pictures; there were no reflections in my glasses. Other people who were wearing glasses had a reflection in their glasses so you weren't really looking at *them*. I'm going to have to thank my opticians for pushing for the special coating on my glasses.
If you ever want to see this anti-glare feature in practice, go to any picture framer. They're going to offer several levels of glass that are UV-proof and also anti-glare. If you look through the anti-glare (museum-quality) glass, you're going to put your finger to the glass to make sure there's really glass there. There are *no* reflections off the glass; you see everything behind the glass.
Went to the Super Mega Festival in Marlboro this weekend. It's a great opportunity to get up close and see various television and movie stars. I was excited to meet James Marsters who played the character "Spike" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer which I binge-watched 7-years' worth in a few months. There was also Lee Meriweather who was "Catwoman" in the original Batman movie; she looked absolutely fabulous. I probably should have gotten Peter Mayhew's autograph ("Chewbacca") but he was either really busy or not around while I was in the area. Last April, I got to talk to Jonathan Frakes ("Commander Riker" on Star Trek: The Next Generation) where I learned about "Riker's Beard".
Repeat from last week:
I'm especially looking forward to Beantown Lindy Hop Camp this year because that's where Denyce and I got married back in September. A few years ago we had gone down to the Tent for the Monday night barbeque and both thought "This would be a nice place for a wedding" and that's where we ended up. The place had everything: outdoor wedding, ocean view, a fallback position in case of rain. Even the weather cooperated on a late Sunday afternoon.
Why should *you* go there? Beantown Lindy Hop Camp is a great event featuring some of the best Lindy Hoppers in the world. It's also a great atmosphere that encourages people to meet and make friends, whether it be the nightly dancing or the world-class "cafetaria". It's not just a big event at a hotel where people disperse for meals and split their time between the dance floor and their hotel rooms. If you haven't been there before, don't wait.
The son goes to Boston College and in one of his (marketing?) classes, the instructor asked "who was the most internationally marketted sports stars?". After a few minutes of guesses, the instructor indicated that the answer was "Kobe Bryant" and that he (the instructor) was the guy who did the international marketting for Kobe Bryant. And that Kobe Bryant was sitting in the back of the classroom. And there he was.
Naturally not much got done during the class because everyone wanted to ask questions and get pictures taken with the guy (I saw the picture with the guy's son so I know it was true).
At some point, one of the students asked how Kobe got into the classroom totally unnoticed. While Kobe was wearing a hoodie, he noticed that everyone had their nose in their cellphones and no one looked up at him. It wasn't until he went down to eat in their cafetaria that people started noticing him.