A Renewed Appreciation for Enormity, or "Size Does Matter At Night"

Posted by Ira at Saturday, January 26, 2008

I work too much. I work in the morning. I work in the afternoon. I work at night. Much of this daylight time is spent at the local coffee shop, or at Panera drinking gallons of black coffee in my bottomless cup using the free Wi-Fi.

When I'm in public, I need to think of the ladies (I think my wife would even agree with me). No one, not even the least stylish of the dudes should have to see this.

Just after midnight -- almost any night.

But when the lights come on and the kids are safely tucked away in their beds, I bring out the big guns -- and I'm amazed at how much more comfortably I can take in the dual monitor setup and the various post-it notes and piles of paper on the desk. The narrow, wide frames are great for the width of the setup but these big suckers (nearly 40mm high!) allow my eyes to do the work that my neck has been doing all day.

I don't think I'll ever be able to get myself in something like the ones below again. The United Nations ban of eyeglasses such as these was tucked away in U.N Resolution 645 or 646...

Spring 1989.

...but man, I'd have nearly 180 degrees of majestic vision.

Anyway, if you're at all like me, you might want to consider "going BIG" next time you click one of those nifty links over there to the left.

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19 comments:

At January 27, 2008 at 9:51 AM meg said...: I've noticed this . . . even 26mm lens height helps. These are my spare (& often worn) 39dollarglasses.com "Miami" model: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9656374@N05/2187723831/
Just got sunshades from Zenni, too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9656374@N05/2220912533/
Been enjoying your blog, thanks!
At January 27, 2008 at 10:17 AM Janice in GA said...: I like large lenses too, but I literally could not find any in a larger size when I last bought glasses (not online). :(
At January 28, 2008 at 5:52 AM Anonymous said...: Every time I go in to get glasses from an optician, I get steered toward little tiny wire frames because of my huge prescription. And my glasses have been nearly useless as a result. Now I know why! I have no peripheral vision in tiny lenses.

I say we start a campaign to bring back large glasses. I know 39 Dollar Glasses sells larger ones, because I accidentally got a pair of comically large ones from them. I knew I wanted larger glasses than my stupid tiny ones, but I didn't realize just how MUCH larger these would be (despite cutting out their helpful real-size images and trying them on, much to the amusement of my family).
At January 28, 2008 at 11:55 AM Anonymous said...: A number of the sites do "custom lens rimless" glasses. Have a look at their many template lenses and if one doesn't suit you, send them measurements on what you'd like. Can't beat the flexibility of being able to choose your own size and shape on a lens!
At January 28, 2008 at 1:34 PM Anonymous said...: Thank you for addressing the size issue. I've threatened my wife with Hary Caray's or Buddy Holly's. But she put her foot down. My last non-internet pair were bought with her help, the narrow fashionable kind. I hated looking down or up and seeing blur. 27mm is not enough!

Thanks to you and the internet, I got some large glasses that my wife tolerates, and huge ones that I wear in secret.
At January 28, 2008 at 4:23 PM Unknown said...: How strong is your prescription on these bad boys?

Mine is in the +7 range, with the high index lenses I notice significant distortion unless I'm looking straight ahead. This would seem to eliminate larger lenses unless I were to switch to lower index as well.

Thoughts?
At January 28, 2008 at 5:04 PM Ira said...: @bill,

Your point is a good one. My prescription is pretty moderate (-2.50, -3.25), and big lenses for me -- in a non-hi-index -- need to be surrounded by some nice thick plastic.

Big lenses with a strong prescription are certainly more of an issue.
At January 29, 2008 at 5:12 PM Anonymous said...: Where'd you get those frames? I have seen a similar style but without the metal detail at the corners.
At February 1, 2008 at 8:19 PM Nikolas Sanow said...: where did you get those specific frames, ira? i wear a pair of Shuron Freeways that are 50X42(which can be seen in my blogger profile, albeit pre-friendly vodka fight turned sour), and i just can't afford $120 to replace them right now. so far the closest i have been able to find to what i wear are these:

http://www.optical4less.com/plastic-eyeglasses/P092/

http://www.optical4less.com/plastic-eyeglasses/p095/
At February 6, 2008 at 11:15 PM Anonymous said...: Late to the party, but wow, I think I need your glasses. (And I'm female. Make of that what you will.)

Who and where, please?
At February 7, 2008 at 12:13 AM Ira said...: @anon,

I get asked this a lot.

All the information you need to get a pair of these beauties shipped for roughly $8 can be found here:
http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com/2006/12/free-prescription-eyeglasses.html
At February 7, 2008 at 1:49 PM Anonymous said...: Thanks, Ira.

Looks like they're no longer available but it's a nice site I hadn't seen before.
At February 7, 2008 at 2:10 PM Ira said...: @anon,

They're still there -- and still free. You need to upload a pic and use the VMS tool thing. At the bottom of the list of frame options is FREE GLASSES.

They're in there. I just ordered a pair of the same frame in black for less than 4 pounds -- shipped.

- Ira
At February 7, 2008 at 5:02 PM Anonymous said...: Must be IE only, which I can't use.

In Firefox, the list is several brands, premium, value, budget, funky; varifocal, all rimless, all half-rims. And that's it. The list under filter is metal; plastic; half-rim/rimless; all; bifocal; varifocal. And that's it.

(In Opera, the app doesn't work at all, can't seem to display my pic even cloaking as IE or emulating IE.)

I do appreciate the help. I'd be willing to pay for the frames, even, but I'm running out of patience putting so much time into this.
At February 7, 2008 at 5:23 PM Ira said...: @anon,

That's a drag. I'm totally Firefox on my Mac.

They certainly don't make it easy on you. It would really make sense if you could just buy them.

Anyway...
At February 7, 2008 at 6:09 PM Anonymous said...: Eh, thanks for the help anyway.
At February 18, 2008 at 12:22 AM Anonymous said...: Hey other anon:
At first it wasn't there, then an hour later it was. Maybe they take it down for the day after distributing the 20 they allocate? Anyway, it's working for me with both Firefox and Safari. (17 February 2008, why doesn't blogger put dates with their times? useless otherwise)
--different anon
At February 19, 2008 at 12:29 AM Anonymous said...: You should bring them out of hiding, they look great. Exactly like this ridiculously expensive pair: http://oliverpeoples.com/opt_lukas_dm.html
And anon - you need to create an account, then follow the link the vms link from this page: http://www.specsonthenet.com/free.jsp?ref=5960 and it should work, it did for me and I'm in firefox too.
At February 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM Nikolas Sanow said...: as it did for me. i recieved the order dispatch confirmation notice today.

also, the frames are quite similar, but the specsonthenet.com frames have a decidedly tear-drop lense shape, where as the lukas pair are more rectangular, which is closer to what i am wearing currently.

http://www.shuron.com/freeway.htm