Spent today home, sick. Played a bunch of games, went to the optometrist, took the dog out for a couple walks, and cooked some risotto.
The games:
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat – fun arcadey shooter. A really weird hybrid of arcadey and realistic, the single player is oddly compelling, yet still too strange for me to really get into.
Perfect Dark Zero – at times excellent, at times completely directionless, f’ed up garbage. It’s actually really strange – it’s clear a *lot* of work went into this game, but it’s really strangely unfinished-feeling. I know it was rushed to make launch, and so I feel bad dissing the game, but there are times when it is *so* poorly done that it’s almost unplayable. The “stealth” aspects are horrible in almost every respect, and are almost game-ruining in and of themselves.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted – much better than the Underground games, the cop chases add a level of uniqueness and chaos that was sorely missing from the series. Easily the best NFS I’ve played, and there have been a lot of ’em. Not nearly as pretty as PGR3, but in some respects, more fun.
The optometrist:
I believe these will be my next glasses – Oakley Chop Top 4.0 in Olive Titanium. I’ll find out Saturday at noon, if they’re “affordable” or not. They’ll probably run ~$350 pre-VSP, and probably about $100ish with insurance.
I figure I’ll get some Oakleys, becuase I really love their sunglasses, and they’ve got stellar customer service. $300’s exorbitant for sunglasses, but for prescription glasses, it’s more or less the standard. So might as well go for something I like, instead of like, Ralph Lauren, or Hugo Boss or some crap.
The dog walks:
Standard ’round the blocks stuff.
The risotto:
Mushrooms, cannellini beans, bacon, arboio, rosemary, chicken stock, onion, celery, butter, parmesan, deliciousness. This was complemented by Joe’s coppa-wrapped shrimp. When we ran out of coppa, I flash-fried the rest of the shrimp in butter & olive oil. Delicious, as well, and made for a fine dinner.
Ah, fun. Back to work tomorrow – I think I’m feeling better.
Yesterday I was checking out Xbox.com and people on my friends list.
I was surprised to see two things:
1. You playing Perfect Dark Zero in the middle of the afternoon.
2. That you had a 360. Sell out! 😉
My housemate bought it. And PD0 was borrowed from Unknown.
When did $300 become the standard for frames? My current frames, which I consider to be quite expensive but worth the price, were only half that.
The frames I’ve seen range from $~100 to $~400 – obviously, the $400 frames are pretty hoity-toity. But it seems that glasses frames are woefully overpriced, compared to other glasses, like sunglasses, for instance. Even if I wanted to get el cheapo frames, they’re all like $100, and they’re complete crap. (not to say your frames are crap) My last frames were ~$150, or so, and though they’ve held up ok, they’re definitely “cheap” frames, and they *feel* it on a daily basis.
My last frames were about $350-400 including lenses. I have no idea what the break down between the two was.
I got frameless glasses that seem to be all the rage these days (when Donald Rumsfeld, the guy from CSI and me have the same glasses, that’s a rager), so, you’d think they’d be cheaper. Without the frames.
Less than $100, and they’re like the hunks of one-size-fits-all shit you get at a convenience store for $5. It’s amazing.
A lot of places in NYC have specials on frames where, if it’s less than $100, it’s free with lenses. So, of course, all the sub-$100 frames are pure garbage.
Depending on whether you have any shame or not (I don’t), you might want to get those “Transitions” lenses that turn to sunglasses when hit with UV light. I thought it was an old-man gimmick, but now I swear by them and will never get a pair of glasses without them from now on.
They still don’t get as dark as real sunglasses, but they work fine for me and I don’t have to mess with a separate pair of prescription sunglasses. I never notice the change between dark and light; I can just see all the time now, without squinting.
A+++ Great Lenses Would Totally Buy Them Again
Those frames are hawt.
My lenses are the big money sink. My frames generally run around $150 or so (the sturdy kind with bendy joints and such), with the bulk of that covered by VSP. But the lenses I need (in order not to look like I’m wearing Coke bottle bottoms on my face) are at least the second thinnest that you can get, which generally cost like $300 before VSP and only a little less after. As a result, I don’t even take advantage of VSP very often because it is such a huge out-of-pocket expense for me.
For the coming year, I’ve put money into my MSA/FSA/whatever so that I can afford to get both nice new glasses and contact lenses.
I was thinking about the transitions, but I need to see some in action first before I can feel good about it. 😀