Bridge building and the scifi writer

[rolanni]

So, the Compleat Combined Manuscript of Neogenesis now stands at 105,647 words, more-or-less.  I need to write two more scenes and build a buncha bridges, which is not quite the same as writing a scene, even though some bridges pack more wordage than a scene.

It's an art.  Yeah.

There may still be a minor timing problem lurking in the depths, and I have to go back and find the perfect place to put a sentence to explain That Thing, but there's nothing so seriously askew that I can't go forward comfortably and finish the damn' thing.

I think that yesterday, when I stitched together the front half with the back half and could finally, finally, see the book as One Whole Thing, instead of a bunch of Random Chunks, was the first time I felt certain in my bones that I could actually finish the damn' thing, so progress, if not yet victory, is mine.

On the not-book side of things -- does anybody here wear bifocal contact lenses?  The last time I tried them, the approved method was to over-correct one eye and under-correct the other, in order to give the wearer "bi-focal vision," but all it ever gave me is a headache.  I understand that there have been Advances since then, including soft contacts built in rings of varying powers, so your eye can choose which ring it needs to see through for a certain task.  Much more like my glasses, in fact.

. . .and I think that's all the news I have at the moment.  Hope everyone who celebrated had a happy holiday of their choice.

# # #

Neogenesis
105,647/120,000 OR 88% complete
"It is possible, after all, to have too many enemies."

Comments

Neogenesis

[margotinez.livejournal.com]

Oh, congratulations! I'm so happy for you - and for us!

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I wore contacts where one was corrected for near vision and one for distance, and I had no problem with them. I was given to understand that some people could do this and some had problems. I even went so far later on to get glasses set up the same way for shooting purposes, where your dominant eye needs to be able to focus on the front sight, not the target. This brought mixed success, since while they did work ok, in the process I discovered my dominant eye has become resistant to fine correction, probably due to the beginnings of a cataract.

Back when I had contacts, I'd heard of the ring method, although the optho said he they seemed less likely to work for me. I think there was also another method involving contacts that were weighted, so they would tend to sit in a certain orientation and would work as progressives. I was led to believe that this method didn't usually work as well as hoped. However, all this was at least 20 years ago and as you said, much progress has been made since then.

I gave up contacts back then on the recommendation of my optho when he found the beginnings of blood vessels starting to work into the edges of my cornea, which he said resulted from insufficient oxygen. It seemed easier, as my eyes got older, to just stick with glasses.

Contacts

[charlie russel (from livejournal.com)]

I used bi-focal contacts for a short while, and found them less than satisfactory. Ultimately what I went to is "mono-vision" -- ie, one eye for distance, one eye for near. With a pair of glasses I wear over the contacts for the few times I need to get both eyes in really close (such as when soldering or doing detail work trying to unpick a stitch.) This works really well for me, but not for everyone. However, IMO it's definitely worth a try, since it's the most transparent solution for the end user.

[steve headstream (from livejournal.com)]

I have bifocal contacts which have the "add" ring completely around the center, which have the normal correction for my eye. I think the add is +2 while the eyes are slightly different at -3.25 and -3.75. The ring means it doesn't matter orientation when you put them in. Distance vision is pretty good. I have a slight astigmatism so reading is good on book scale print, but text messages and Google maps should be viewed not while driving as you drift too much while trying to pull it into focus, so my wife says. These are one year old and a huge improvement over the tech level 8 years ago when I last had bifocal contacts.

[reedrover]

Off of the current topics somewhat - would you be so kind as to mention to Steve that we currently cannot answer his most recent LJ post because there's no option to comment? Please and thank you!

[thewol.livejournal.com]

I was pretty much born with the monovision thing anyway (20/50 in left eye and 20/What chart? in right eye) so my little brain was already wired up for monovision contacts and I did quite well with them. I would love to wear contacts again but alas, am doing good to get a new pair of glasses every three or four years. When I was a sophomore in high school, I learned that I read exclusively with my right eye. We had to read something (silently) in English class, and I gradually became aware that my English teacher was standing beside my desk looking down at me. She said, "Are you all right? " Apparently, when I'm reading, my left eye tracks in unison with my right eye, but it gets bored, unfocuses and kind of drifts upward. Evidently, this looks really weird. I've taken to closing my left eye when I read, which also looks kinda, but less, weird.