Addiction and Recovery

[jbwelda]

naw this isn't going to be some tawdry story about how I just came out of a 10 year opiate haze or anything like that but it is about something I have found nearly as enticing and just as dangerous.

I am talking about a visor. you know those magnifying kind you wear and all of a sudden like 20 years of eye damage goes away? how you can actually see straight lines up close again? how those impossible to assemble PE pieces suddenly snap into clear view that your eyes can now actually see even if your hands cant hold still long enough to thread them together?

Yep some time ago I took the plunge and bought one of these from micro-mark (actually found it half their price on ebay so got it there instead...but I SAW it in micro mark first!) Really painful and difficult to use at first: didn't like the constricting feeling of the band around my head and the close up vision kinda made me dizzy. but then slowly I started using it more and more and now the first thing I do when I sit down is reach for the visor and put it on!

So I was thinking...I am hooked, there is no going back to my old world anymore. but then I started thinking maybe I need to go back and I tried, tried really hard to kick it. but it only took a few quick seconds to reach over for it for...ah...quick relief from the increasingly swollen feeling in my limbs when I looked at pieces without the crutch.

currently I am still really trying to kick it but am slowly giving in to the warm glow of its influence. why cant the world be like this? of course it can...but what will my fellow modelers think when they find out how tightly I am in its grip?

this is even worse than when I got my first cordless dremel tool.

jb

[Mike Kucaba]

I have found over the years that the visor only magnifies the addiction

[Belugawrx]

That is awesome

I use my Mag Lamp like that now!

I think I may have to fall off the wagon and .....

Get Me One of Those!!!

[keyser]

Myopia isn't what it used to be

[pharoah]

How old did you say you were JB?

I can't do anything without mine. But my vision is bad to start with.

Yes,I am addicted..

[Mike Kucaba]

Myopia isn't what it used to be

Neither is Utopia.

[slusher]

I have thought about getting but have not took the plunge yet...

[mikemodeler]

Might be time for me to get one as I have been struggling with taking the glasses off and on when building. Not worried about becoming addicted to it, if I do then maybe I will get more models completed!

[ZTony8]

I often just take off my regular glasses when I do my model building,sometimes I upgrade to my reading glasses when I feel the need to do so.But when I wear my magnifying visor I have to play around with different combinations of the glasses,no glasses,higher power magnifier lens or not on the visor.Sometimes it's just a big pain.

[Custom Mike]

I feel like I'm gonna hurl when I use any kind of magnifier, whether it's an Optivisor or the lamp/magnifier combo. Thankfully I can see my fingerprints with out my glasses on, so I really don't need one.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Neither is Utopia.

Not to worry...Dystopia's coming on strong.

[lordairgtar]

Since I solder small circuitry at work all day, I'm used to having my head stuck to a mag light. I don't think I could build models with out it.

[Art Anderson]

This is one of those occasions I really appreciate being severely near-sighted--I have to wear a pretty strong correction just to navigate in the world. However, for model building, it's an absolute blessing--I simply take my glasses off to do close work, as I can move in to 4-6 inches from any project, and see that clearly, and far better than any magnifier would let me.

Of course, it means the extra expense of a supply of those plastic safety glasses, but what a small price to pay, huh?

Art

[Ramfins59]

I usually take my glasses off when building (I'm nearsighted) but I've been using an Optivisor for over 15 years for fine detail painting and gluing tiny PE parts. I love using it.

[High octane]

Occasionally but seldom I use a lamp/magnifier, and now that I also work in 1/48th scale it does help. The price was right also, as I got it from someone and just had to buy the heavy base as the clamp wouldn't work on my 50 year old desk.

[teardrop96]

Have you thought about going to VA (visors anonymous), and getting a sponsor!

[chunkypeanutbutter]

We "borrowed" our visor from a hospital...

[jwrass]

I knew it!!!! I guess I'm headed for rehab

[mnwildpunk]

Sadly my eye are noy the problem its my hands nothing out there to fix that yet

[MADDOG]

I have been wanting to pick up this ugly habit. Seems like my eyes get worse with each build.

[Tom Geiger]

I don't have an optivisor. I'm far sighted and only started wearing glasses for close up work when I was in my 40s. The first time I noticed my diminished eye sight was when I tried to read the date on an old Mercury dime! And at first I just needed the glasses for reading small print and model building. I could still work on the computer without glasses. In the past 15 years my eyes have gotten worse so that I now wear my glasses for computer work too. In fact I got to work one day, having forgot my glasses, and was useless.

Going the other way, I still don't need glasses to see distance. I can read small print a good distance away too.