PEOPLE WITH GLASSES: Close one of your eyes and stare rigidly against a dark background with the other. You can a see a magnified visage of YOUR OWN EYE!

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I hadn't realized this before! It looks kinda scary!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

i can't do it

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Does the visage of the eye see me as I see it?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

Umm, dude, it's, like, a reflection. Of your eye. In your lens. Don't panic.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

(Also visages are faces.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm staring at a dark background, but I'm having trouble staying rigid.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

think about Sophia Loren.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

"stare rigidly against a dark background"

wtf does this mean? and why not just simply hold a mirror closely in front of your eye?

― ghetty green (eman), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

I see this all the time. It's why I really hate wearing glasses.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

You wouldn't happen to be high right now, would you Tuomas?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

And for someone who says things like "Apurahan saajien yhteystietoja haastatteluja varten saa kirkon tutkimuskeskuksesta" in real life, I think Tuomas' English is very, very good.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

No, it is. But if we don't pick on him... well, it'll be less fun.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

if you look at the sky and move your eyes around a bit you can see dust molecules floating on your cornea :O

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

xxpost - i just didn't know if he meant stand in front of a dark background or what. i wonder they sell Tuomas's English Muffins over there.

the dust molecules thing i used to enjoy, but now i feel it's kind of creepy.

― ghetty green (eman), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

yeah, fe zaffe, you can see, like, drops of eye-water rolling down your eyeball just after you blink, it's brilliant. My method to make this happen, when I was a kid, was to stare into the light beside my bed and blink rapidly like a freak until the particles come into focus.

― dasein, Friday, 5 August 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

I wasn't gonna pick on the "visage" part, because yeah, I only speak one language, Tuomas uses English better than most native speakers -- but then it was repeated, so it seemed like fair game.

I'm surprised by the thread, though -- I see my eyes in my glasses all the time, I thought it went without saying. It might have something to do with your prescription, though: mine is very, very light, so I suppose I might be more likely to see the reflection. If you're really blind and have really serious lenses you should be less likely to notice this.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

Ever try closing your eyes and staring into the sun on a very bright day? Do it for about a minute, then turn your head away and very slowly open your eyes. Everything will have lost its hue and saturation, coming close to being black and white.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 5 August 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

Also, if you close your eyes then mash them with your palms you can sometimes see nifty glowing fractal like patterns. How does that work?

― richard a. (dasein), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

nifty glowing fractal like patterns

They're called phosphemes.

― theantmustdance (theantmustdance), Friday, 5 August 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

Coated lenses have no eye-reflections

But they do have creepy purple and green reflections dash across them from time to time

― Will M. (Will M.), Saturday, 6 August 2005 09:32 (twenty years ago)

Nabisco, I looked up visage because I assumed it has more meanings.

vis·age
1. The face or facial expression of a person; countenance.
2. Appearance; aspect: the bleak visage of winter.

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Saturday, 6 August 2005 09:37 (twenty years ago)

owned.

― g-kit (g-kit), Saturday, 6 August 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

HAHAHA!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 6 August 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

"Now I find myself behind the eye -- of the lens..."

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 6 August 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

if you look at the sky and move your eyes around a bit you can see dust molecules floating on your cornea :O

Actually it's usually little bits of protein matter that are normally equally spread throughout your eye. Sometimes they stick together and form little masses. I actually went to have one checked out because it's fairly noticeable and floats around in the center of my visual field in my right eye. They're pretty much just there, you can have them broken up with lasers if they get too obnoxious.

― mike h. (mike h.), Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

Nath, yr dictionary is just telling you how metaphors work; saying "the bleak visage of winter" is the same as saying "the bleak face of winter." If you looked up "face" you'd find a similar line.

Whereas you would be very metaphorically confused if you said "the face of your own eye," because the eye is of course part of the face. Same goes for visage. To be honest I'm not sure anyone should ever use "face" or "visage" in the metaphorical sense for anything that has (or is related to) an actual literal face: "the bleak visage of winter" goes under the second part of that definition, but the "the bleak visage of that rabbit" goes under the first.

― nabiscothingy, Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

(Also the usage in this thread isn't about "appearance" or "aspect" -- he's talking about the literal image of your own eye in your glasses!)

(Also the great part about visage=face is that the "aspect" definition is there to match a whole other use of face, like one "face" -- or "aspect" -- of a cube.)

― nabiscothingy, Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

And for someone who says things like "Apurahan saajien yhteystietoja haastatteluja varten saa kirkon tutkimuskeskuksesta" in real life, I think Tuomas' English is very, very good.

Actually, I wouldn't say anything like that. I'm not a theologist.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 7 August 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

Nabisco, you just CAN NOT LET IT GO, CAN YOU? ;-))))))) Just kidding. Thanks for clearing that up. :-)

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Sunday, 7 August 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

what does the Finnish quote mean?

― MarkH (MarkH), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

Something about the eighth seal and Paul Newman.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, 7 August 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

If I'd tell you'd soon face a horrible death. And no one would be ever charged for it.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 7 August 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

The dust bits are called floaters and are actually inside your eyes. They tend to get more noticeable as you get older, they're a sign of aging, alas.

― Margo J Lemner, Saturday, 13 August 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

Nathalie otm. This (the eye thing) is a lot easier using binoculars, I think. I did it when I was 8 or so the first time so it can't be all that hard.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Saturday, 13 August 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

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