We’re All Eyes … and Ears
More celeb news from over here at Altair…it turns out that John Krasinski (AKA Jim from “The Office”) was seen wearing a pair of Altair frames! John is wearing the Joseph Abboud 142 in the Dark Tortoise Horn, check them out on Vision Monday! His new movie “Away We Go” is in theaters now!
Well, maybe not literally. But with the 4th of July just around the corner, it’s important to keep eye safety in mind as you celebrate with your friends and family.
Our friends at Prevent Blindness America just released tips and supporting data to keep you and your kids safer this holiday. According to their release, more than 40 percent of all fireworks injuries were to children under the age of 15.
What can you do to protect your kids’ eyes during fireworks season? Check out Prevent Blindness America’s Web site to learn more.
Brian B. (left) is with VSP's customer care team.
Each year I challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone. Last year, I tried commuting to work on public transportation. I figured it would be my contribution to being “green”. I am still using public transportation each day. I was actually one of the first people to ride in the new Rancho Cordova Van, which drops me off right in front of the office. I love it! My goal for this year is to try and be more talkative. I am a relatively quiet person, and not the first to initiate conversation. I would like to be more comfortable doing so. I tried it this week and had surprising results.
While riding the van this week, I asked the driver how she is enjoying the new route and if she noticed any trends(this is the second week.) She told me that she has seen a few more people than last week. She said that she is dropping off a couple of people at the same stop that I use every time she makes her route. She asked where I worked. When I told her that it was VSP, her reply was. “Oh WOW! That is a great company. I only hear great things about them” I was instantly filled with pride by her response. I sat and thought about it, and a great big smile came to my face. I realized that she is dropping off my coworkers all morning long. My personal challenge helped to remind me that I work for a company that does its part for the environment and so does its employees. How cool is that?
Very Cool!!
VSP Global launched today at the American Optometric Association annual meeting. Steve Baker, Chief Technology Officer of Eyefinity/OfficeMate provides a guest blog post on the positive impacts.
Steve B. is Chief Technology Officer for Eyefinity/OfficeMate.
I love cycling. It’s a great sport that also affords an opportunity to get away from television and media in general. It seems that ever day I’m pelted with new brands. Products. Companies; Services. You name it. I can hardly keep up with it but every now and then something exciting and unique comes along that grabs my attention. Well, I’d like to share with you something that I hope grabs you like it did me … The VSP Global brand.
We recently announced a new brand that ties together all of our diverse companies. Pulling together industry leading companies like Marchon and Eyefinity/OfficeMate enables our companies to be much much more than just the sum of our individual parts. We can offer integrated products in benefit programs, the latest in frame fashion, advanced optical lab services, and technically superior business management solutions. The best part? Working together we can create fantastic and unique programs that you will benefit from. Here’s two quick examples:
EyeHealthCheck+: Want to increase patient satisfaction and grow your revenue? VSP doctors can jump into this program that gives them access to Optos‘ retinal imaging technology at great pricing. New optomap installations also come with a free ExamWRITER equipment integration software license for OfficeMate users.
Healthcare Technology Program: VSP doctors who are looking to update their old software but are unsure of the price can take advantage of this risk-free offer from VSP Global through Eyefinity/OfficeMate which gives current OfficeMate users ExamWRITER electronic medical records at no initial software license fee, and gives first time users the whole package: OfficeMate Suite or OfficeMate Enterprise with ExamWRITER at no initial software license fee. This offer will prepare VSP doctors to take advantage of federal stimulus money which will become available to eyecare professionals who use electronic medical records. How great is that?
We’re hard at work developing new programs that leverage all of the companies under the VSP Global brand. Check out the latest video Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this VideoPress video.
Drop me a line on your feedback. I’d love to hear from you, especially if you love cycling!
~Steve
Sara P. is an Account Executive at Altair Eyewear.
Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 and everyone is talking about it. I was reminiscing and flipping through pictures of him online today when I realized that Michael’s sunglasses, which were a huge part of his overall look and style, were trendsetters. He started the aviator craze in the 80’s!
Over the years, Michael was rarely seen in public without his sunglasses. For a few years, he seemed to branch out away from the aviator style, but he always came back to them in the end. I found a great group of pictures showing MJ’s sunwear, included for your viewing pleasure.
VSP provider Dr. Dan Carver is featured on today’s Blog Talk Radio discussing Summer Eyecare for Kids. Listen now!
Patti S. is a member of VSP's Ophthalmic Operations Team
Perhaps the only things we really see instantaneously are the little blobs and flakes of loose matter that float in the chambers in our eyes. Unless something is right on top of your eyes, you are gazing into the past every time you peer out at your world and beyond.
The images you see are the result of light bouncing off objects and connecting with your consciousness (or possibly sub-consciousness). It travels through your eyes to your retinas, through your optic nerves, and ultimately to the visual center of your brain, where vision is achieved. Light is reflected off the surfaces of tress, stars, babies, rocks, water, and all the matter that composes our tangible realities. As with sound, it behaves like waves and moves and outward from its point of origin in all directions, where it is potentially perceived by a sentient being or absorbed into dark matter. Light is reflected, refracted, absorbed, and manipulated.
When light reflects off the surface of a body or when emanated from a source, it bounds forth at an incredible s
peed. At 186,000 mps through space, it takes about 8.5 minutes for images of the sun to reach earth. Because it travels so fast, it is nearly impossible to discern its journey when objects are close, like across a room or on the surface of the moon. When you look deep into the night sky, you are experiencing visions from the distant past. Many of the celestial objects painting the heavens died out during one of the many eons preceding our flash in time.
Powerful telescopes peering into space may be able to collect the light and radio waves created during the origin of the universe. This glimpse into nascent existence may explain the mysteries of universal origin or reveal vastly more complicated webs of an ethereal and ineffable beginning.
Sara P. is an Account Executive for Altair Eyewear
So in case you don’t know who we are, Altair is VSP’s very own eyewear division. We have been in existence for 15 years and we are in the business of designing, producing, distributing, marketing and selling frames to VSP doctors! We’ll revisit the multitude of reasons why VSP doctors should use Altair frames at another time-I promise.
I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you to someone very near and dear to us at Altair. She is constantly at the front of our minds and the tips of our tongues, and she holds a very special place in all of our hearts. I got to thinking about her today while talking with an office new to the Altair program. They asked me what ONE item was an essential for their office, and I immediately dropped her name.
Want to know who I’m talking about? Well….I’d like you to meet Sigrid Olsen 103 in Café Mint…and around here, she’s a bona-fide rock star! This frame has outsold every single frame in our company by a 3 to 1 margin. She is a guaranteed best-seller for every office that carries her and since her introduction, she has been the star of the show around here!
So now that you’re “in the know” about who the real rock star is around our building, keep your eyes peeled for a sighting of Ms. SO 103…she’s out there!
Paula F. is a member of VSP's Commerical Marketing team.
The locker room at VSP is quiet in the morning, or I should say the women’s locker room is quiet. It’s nice, but where are all the women?
For years I toyed with the idea of commuting on my bike to work. There is always a reason not to get the process started. A few of my personal favorites (call them reasons or excuses) involve coordinating clothing and duplicating hair products and make up. And then the big one, what if I get to work and don’t have what I need, or even better, what if I don’t want wear what’s hanging in my locker? All water under the bridge….
For me, the key is driving to the office once a week, on the weekend. Yes, that’s right, load up clothes and shoes for the week. It isn’t always possible to ride five days a week, but I can tell you this process has changed my life. I used to spend quite a bit of time in the morning standing in the
Fellow bike commuter John Kretschmann, IT
closet, picking, choosing, coordinating and ironing if necessary. My new process — five minutes of assembling outfits and putting them in the car with a clean towel. Even if I forget something, no one is the wiser. So many things just don’t matter.
So life is different now. I don’t get up and get ready for work anymore, I get up and head out the door on my bike. Ten miles later I stop at the office and take a nice shower. Best yet, unlike most bike rides where you hope you can find something other than power food to eat, we have the cafeteria waiting to fill that need. This is all good.
And there you have it. In addition to saving gas you can rack up lots base miles every week that will make you strong and fit. And what you see along the way to the office is amazing!
It wasn’t too long ago that our choices in lenses were as narrow as “plastic or glass.” This was the predominant question posed to patients in the 1980s and even into the 90s, (even though relatively modern technological options were available at that time). During most of the 20th century, glass was the only material and the selection in lens designs presented to patients was usually limited to basic single vision, bifocal, and trifocal configurations.
The question of frames often centered on plastic or metal, black or brown, and silver or gold. It’s been a fairly recent development that people don’t routinely regard their eyewear in varying degrees of ugly and the catalyst to adolescent social annihilation, not to mention the weight induced crevices gouged into many overburdened noses. Heavy lenses and cumbersome frames didn’t seem to be a great motivator for innovation in the optical industry during those dark, yet not so long ago, ages.
Today we see a plethora of materials, designs, and treatments that offer an exponential array of choices when combined with the multitude of available frames on the market. It is no longer necessary to cast our children into infinite nerd-dom or liken ourselves to the portraits of unsmiling ancestors, wizened beyond their years by unsightly eyewear. Frame and lens choices abound that enhance our appearance and vision well beyond the limitations of yesteryear’s trends.
While the frame purchase may be regarded as any other fashion accessory by many, it’s function is to hold lenses in front of the eyes. When those lenses contain a prescription, the frame need only be of ophthalmic quality and manufactured suitably for your correction. It can run anywhere from $20.00 to thousands, depending on designer labels, gold content, and the number of embedded diamonds sparkling on the temples. Aside from the obvious expense of bejeweled frames in precious metals, there are other factors that determine cost and some would justifiably argue that quality is among those considerations. Nevertheless, it is not necessary to go broke buying a good quality, attractive frame.
Lenses, on the other hand, are generally functional and don’t usually bear visible or commonly recognizable markings. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but they are typically in the form of sunglass/lens combinations and most often don’t include a prescription. The lens portion of your prescription eyewear should be your first concern; they provide the fundamental purpose for the frame. Furthermore, your prescription, facial measurements, and lens choice affect which frames are appropriate for you. If your budget doesn’t permit both the optimum lenses for your correction and a designer frame, it’s always best to compromise on your frame selection—not your lenses. The aesthetic charm of your eyewear is admittedly very important, but it shouldn’t dominate and supersede the part that helps you see better.
