The Perpetual Thread of Praise!

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by MZhukov

2047 I think, have to be 68 according to my pension plan :/

I may increase payments soon to take off a few years!

it will have increased many times before you lot get close

[Eja Cool8]

Aye, the Govt. whip meisters will have you at that coal face till 70 at least!

[jimbobaggies]

Thought I'd pop on to tell you about the deal I got from Sky. Essentially I said I was unhappy about the amount I am paying for my Sky TV package (usual annual get a new deal ploy), and the Sky rep said he couldn't do a deal on the TV package, but could give me a retention deal for phone and broadband. The deal he gave me was as follows;

Sky Line rental £3 for 12 months (usually £14.50)
Sky Broadband Unlimited free for 6 months (usually £7.50)
I have also taken the Sky Talk Anytime at £5 a month

We will be paying £8/mth for 6 months, then £15.50/mth for the following 6 months, all on a 12 month contract. (This is phone and broadband contract, I am still free to change my TV package, although I must have at least the minimum subscription to keep the deal)

So that's £141 for the year, at full price it would be £324.

In comparison with O2 I am paying £13/mth for O2 Broadband Premium (old truly unlimited) and £16.25/mth for O2 Home Phone Anytime, which is £351 for the year. To be fair I had 6 months free broadband in the last 6 months, but that is still £195 for the year.

[Ashen]

Originally Posted by Eja Cool8

Aye, the Govt. whip meisters will have you at that coal face till 70 at least!

Or put your head in a jar and have you working in a call centre till the sun consumes the earth.

[Eja Cool8]

Luckily, I'm rated as having 'excellent customer focus'.

Apart from today, as I'm having trouble focussing on much at all. Fully moistened & clean contact lenses, and me eyes still feel like the sahara on a really dry day.

I blame the whisky, that, and the IPA

[burundi]

My eyes are getting better after the lens implant op. Vision is slowly returning to better than 20/20 although they said it may take a few months for it to be as good as it's going to get, my brain is having to learn how to deal with the new imaging system I've bought it.

[Bilb]

Burundi ...

Did you go for Interocular lenses rather than laser? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. It's something I'd been considering. An optician friend of mine said "If (she) needed to have her eyes corrected, she would have interocular lenses, since they are the same as cataract treatment, meaning you'll never get cataracts either".

[Bilb]

Oh and yesterday I went to "An Evening with Joe Cornish", a presentation by the highly acclaimed landscape photographer. He has a great presentation style and was able to talk about his history of imaging, and his progression; his style and what he looks for in images.

Amusingly he conceded that none of his images would ever win photography competitions, because he breaks all the conventional rules which are used to measure such events!

[Eja Cool8]

Aye, those dodgy pics from cams hidden in shampoo bottles and the like are always difficult to judge

[[n00b]Zippy]

Originally Posted by Eja Cool8

Aye, those dodgy pics from cams hidden in shampoo bottles and the like are always difficult to judge

Yeah, but still post them so we can at least try

[burundi]

Originally Posted by Bilb

Burundi ...

Did you go for Interocular lenses rather than laser? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. It's something I'd been considering. An optician friend of mine said "If (she) needed to have her eyes corrected, she would have interocular lenses, since they are the same as cataract treatment, meaning you'll never get cataracts either".

Laser surgery can correct up to about -12 but the higher the correction the thicker the cornea has to be to begin with as they will only do laser surgery if you have a certain thickness left after the surgery.

My eyes were around -10 but my cornea isn't thick enough to leave enough lens material over afterwards so my only option was IOL's.

Your friend may be thinking of a different surgery, possibly adaptive IOL's which do replace the internal lense, this is similar to a cataract operation which is quite invasive and your vision response is reduced afterwards, basically it would give a 30 year the visual response of a 60 year old even though you may not need glasses to correct your vision afterwards you would need bifocals and would have trouble changing focus rapidly. This operation is only recommended for folks whose eyes are old anyway.

The IOL's I've had are phakic IOL's and sit under the cornea but over the pupil and the existing lense is not touched in anyway, it's a less invasive surgery than laser correction with apparently quicker recovery. It's effectively a tiny contact lense implanted into my eye, if there are any problems with it they can remove the lense again and I could go back to wearing glasses.

As far as the surgery was concerned the only thing you see is the eye dropper keeping your eyes moist, the actual work is done from the side out of your line of sight, they sedate you to relax you and you may forget some bits of it but you don't get a general, the most painful part of it was the insertion of the canula, and the subsequent removal of it along with half the hair from the back of my hand.

Post surgery is going fine, I get 3 sets of drops to use every four hours for 2 weeks per eye. You have to wear an eye shield for a week when in bed.

My close up vision is excellent, computer work is no problem at the moment, I've only just been cleared for driving though - 3 weeks after the first op, and my distance vision is nowhere near as good as it used to be but they say it will improve as the eyes continue to heal (approx 6 weeks they reckon in total) and my brain adapts to the way images are presented to the retina. Worst case if my vision doesn't improve enough they will need to tune the optics with laser surgery which is included in the price I paid and they'll only need to take a tiny amount off the cornea so corneal thickness won't be a problem.

There is haloing around the edge of the lense which is noticeable in dim light or where there is a strong light source to one side of you, night vision isn't too bad but there is some glare around lights, not sure if this will clear or whether I'll just have to get used to it.

I don't regret having it done at all but I'm a bit nervous about it not improving enough and needing laser surgery, operations are stressful!

[[n00b]Zippy]

Sounds like it went well - I'm terrified of needing something going with my eyes as I can't stand anyone getting too near them.

Both my mother and my sister have to have regular injections directly into their eyeballs and even typing this I feel like fainting!

[milou]

Originally Posted by Bilb

Oh and yesterday I went to "An Evening with Joe Cornish", a presentation by the highly acclaimed landscape photographer. He has a great presentation style and was able to talk about his history of imaging, and his progression; his style and what he looks for in images.

Amusingly he conceded that none of his images would ever win photography competitions, because he breaks all the conventional rules which are used to measure such events!

Hope you enjoyed it. He does take the odd good photo. He's also a contributor to http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/search/Joe+Cornish

[Eja Cool8]

Originally Posted by [n00b]Zippy

Sounds like it went well - I'm terrified of needing something going with my eyes as I can't stand anyone getting too near them.

Both my mother and my sister have to have regular injections directly into their eyeballs and even typing this I feel like fainting!

What you need is one of these!

[Brocken]

Went to a Science News Quiz at the Royal Institution of GB this evening. Lot o' fun. Never felt so unintelligent in my life though.

Going to go again sometime in the future (hopefully not on my own again)

[Spanks]

Glad to see others with fucked up eyes like mine!

Ive got Kerataconus and im restricted to hard gas permeable lenses ive been trying these new lenses from the US that cost close to the GDP of a developing country but the vision quality is amazing and comfort is astounding.
Ive tried kerataconic soft contact lenses but my scarring on my corneas just gives me terrible vision so ive recently just been trialled on these So2Clear lenses that are the same size as soft lenses ~15mm hopefully ive found a lens that can sort my problems.

If you have very high distortion or thin corneas (which is basically what kerataconus is) there is a treatment called T-CAT from accuvsion that basically lasers the lense to the required surface then collagen and riboflavin drops are added to the lense to artificially increase growth of the lens effectively locking it in place. This artifical growth is essentially aging your eyes lenses by 50 years or so

http://www.accuvision.co.uk/keratoconus-treatments.html

It is a very new treatment however and cannot be done under the NHS i believe. There is also limited data to what the long term effects are for this treatment.

[GroovYF]

Originally Posted by [n00b]Zippy

Sounds like it went well - I'm terrified of needing something going with my eyes as I can't stand anyone getting too near them.

Both my mother and my sister have to have regular injections directly into their eyeballs and even typing this I feel like fainting!

I'm with you there! Contacts (gas permeable) I couldn't get used to for the same reason. Almost dreaded putting them in/taking them out.
I gave up the notion of not wearing glasses a long time ago.

[Bilb]

Originally Posted by milou

Hope you enjoyed it. He does take the odd good photo. He's also a contributor to http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/search/Joe+Cornish

It was excellent, and has ignited my spark to take more photos. My creative mojo was seriously flagging!


He mentioned that he tends to take shots with "little snapper" cameras, rather than his view camera as a pocket notebook style, to keep a log of where he's been. I did laugh out aloud when he was asked to list his "little snapper" cameras, and amongst them was "Nikon D800".

[Bilb]

Originally Posted by burundi

Laser surgery can correct up to about -12 but the higher the correction the thicker the cornea has to be to begin with as they will only do laser surgery if you have a certain thickness left after the surgery.

My eyes were around -10 but my cornea isn't thick enough to leave enough lens material over afterwards so my only option was IOL's.

Your friend may be thinking of a different surgery, possibly adaptive IOL's which do replace the internal lense, this is similar to a cataract operation which is quite invasive and your vision response is reduced afterwards, basically it would give a 30 year the visual response of a 60 year old even though you may not need glasses to correct your vision afterwards you would need bifocals and would have trouble changing focus rapidly. This operation is only recommended for folks whose eyes are old anyway.

The IOL's I've had are phakic IOL's and sit under the cornea but over the pupil and the existing lense is not touched in anyway, it's a less invasive surgery than laser correction with apparently quicker recovery. It's effectively a tiny contact lense implanted into my eye, if there are any problems with it they can remove the lense again and I could go back to wearing glasses.

As far as the surgery was concerned the only thing you see is the eye dropper keeping your eyes moist, the actual work is done from the side out of your line of sight, they sedate you to relax you and you may forget some bits of it but you don't get a general, the most painful part of it was the insertion of the canula, and the subsequent removal of it along with half the hair from the back of my hand.

Post surgery is going fine, I get 3 sets of drops to use every four hours for 2 weeks per eye. You have to wear an eye shield for a week when in bed.

My close up vision is excellent, computer work is no problem at the moment, I've only just been cleared for driving though - 3 weeks after the first op, and my distance vision is nowhere near as good as it used to be but they say it will improve as the eyes continue to heal (approx 6 weeks they reckon in total) and my brain adapts to the way images are presented to the retina. Worst case if my vision doesn't improve enough they will need to tune the optics with laser surgery which is included in the price I paid and they'll only need to take a tiny amount off the cornea so corneal thickness won't be a problem.

There is haloing around the edge of the lense which is noticeable in dim light or where there is a strong light source to one side of you, night vision isn't too bad but there is some glare around lights, not sure if this will clear or whether I'll just have to get used to it.

I don't regret having it done at all but I'm a bit nervous about it not improving enough and needing laser surgery, operations are stressful!

Awesome reply, thank you.

I guess my issue is "I want to get my vision corrected because wearing glasses is so inconvenient and ontact lenses are ok, but fiddly."

For instance:
Mountain biking, I'd rather wear biking glasses, but would need prescription ones.
Swimming need to wear contact lenses, which isn't ideal, but means I can see.
Skiing - have to wear contact lenses as goggles over glasses is uncomfortable.
Socialising - It's a royal pain in the ass when out in town of a winter to go between pubs, and immediately have to halt as soon as I walk inside the pub to wipe the condensation from my glasses!

Anyway, I'd considered laser, but understood that if they were to remove too much cornea, then would there be enough left for subsequent cataract surgery if required.
Likewise Phakic IOL's sounded appealing, quicker, and a faster recovery.

My issue with laser is some people have mentioned a haze afterwards, which would bug the hell out of me.

Also as I have toric contact lenses, I get a halo when driving at night, and that frustrates me. I'd rather not have IOL's if I were to get halo's constantly!

Plus I'd want my vision to be as good as, or better than it currently is.

I realise I'm after moon on a stick, but if I'm going to have someone cut into my eyeballs, then I'd want it to be an upgrade.

But granted after it's done, my prescription would change, and I'd need glasses again!!

[milou]

Originally Posted by Bilb

It was excellent, and has ignited my spark to take more photos. My creative mojo was seriously flagging!


He mentioned that he tends to take shots with "little snapper" cameras, rather than his view camera as a pocket notebook style, to keep a log of where he's been. I did laugh out aloud when he was asked to list his "little snapper" cameras, and amongst them was "Nikon D800".

He now uses the Phase IQ180 digital back (£36k: http://www.teamworkphoto.com/phase-d...k-p-15499.html) on his cameras. He writes about it here: http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2012/03...s-impressions/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KFCCw4YA-0

[[n00b]Zippy]

I'll get two of those in case the first one doesn't work

[milou]

Strap 'em to yer eyes too.

[Bilb]

Originally Posted by milou

He now uses the Phase IQ180 digital back (£36k: http://www.teamworkphoto.com/phase-d...k-p-15499.html) on his cameras. He writes about it here: http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2012/03...s-impressions/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KFCCw4YA-0

Ah yes, he was talking about using film, and then switching to a digital back. Which he begrudgingly said that he eventually found more convenient than film. He still uses the view camera with digital back for most of his shots. Although for a recent National Trust commission, he used his D800.

But he even showed some shots he took with his phone.

He poked fun at one of the guys in the audience who had previously wound him up with regards to the "JCB" - Joe Cornish Boulder, the rock or boulder at the foreground of the majority of his shots. Nice to see he had some humour.

Very good at getting his point across and very good presenter.

[milou]

Oh aye. I saw him in a show with Andy Rouse where landscapers were described as those trying to get two rocks, seven miles apart, into focus.

http://www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/w...-day-workshops

Edit: worth a purchase: http://www.withlandscapeinmind.com/

[Bilb]

I've just been messing with Automator and setting up some folder actions on my mac.

One folder will automagically print any file that lands in there.
Another folder, once files land in it, will launch Calibre, which then imports the files and sends them to my Kindle. After 5 minutes have elapsed, it then closes Calibre.

Small things that impress!

Now if only I could get it to do my work for me!

[[n00b]Zippy]

New arrivals \o/

[Bilb]

Never let it be said that Zip isn't hen pecked!!

[Eja Cool8]

I found a tenner at the bus stop this morning!

[The Scientist]

Phoned my car insurance to change my address expecting to be shafted for a admin fee. Not only did they NOT charge me a penny for that, they also informed me that my premium that is due in a month will now be £300 instead of £395
\o/

[Ashen]

Just been shifted to a different department and been given the job to completley change how they work and bring the operation into the 21st century.