#i'm having an easier time adjusting to the plastic than the metal | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

autistpride · 1 year ago

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All of these are absolutely great and good tips.

A few to add mostly for those older.

Clothes without zippers. Especially jackets/coats. When you're trying to be quiet they are so loud. Also very challenging to do a zip when your hands are shaking. But if you need to, like your pants, grip the zipper pull with your thumb and forefinger as close to the metal elements and go slow. The fingers muffle the sound some.

If you can walk across the floor (crawling really is quieter), walk heel to toe. You'll need to practice especially if you're upstairs. You're more sturdy and less likely to fall over or appear suspicious if you're caught.

Definitely mouth breath but be sure to take long super slow breaths or very quick shallow ones. Practice this. Either breathe in and hold as long as you can and silently exhale or inhale and exhale every other second. Both can be better quieted with a hand over your mouth if needed.

Start wearing layers if you can. Undershirt, overshirt, hoodie, two pairs of socks. Comes in handy when it's cold and you can't adjust the temperature, when your not allowed a coat, softens sudden smacks, and you can hide things in the layers easier.

Hiding bills if you have them under the arch of your feet in your socks or in the soles of your shoes for emergencies.

If you have long hair, be aware that your pony tail or braid is a good handle for grabbing but it also hurts a lot less than a fistful of loose hair being yanked out. You can also hide small things in your hair if you do it up. Basically pick your poison here.

Necklaces shorter is better. Harder to grab. Thinner chains also, so they break when tugged on.

The same goes for necklines on clothing. If it's around your neck it's a risk of choking you when pulled. Hoods on hoodies and coats are easily and quickly grabbed and pulled on.

Eat as much as you can at school or your work as you can if you're able.

If you're lucky and have a vehicle use it to hide things also. You'll have more chances to develop hiding places in it because you can create some.

Be mindful your phone, computer, vehicle, or yourself you're possibly being tracked with the gps of some sort. If you turn it off it could alert them. Test it out a few times in safe places like at home or school when it can be easily explained as the signal went weird. If you're safe to do that make your time turning it off quick and remember to turn it off in a safe place and back on in the same place.

Make sure the location is turned off on camera or picture settings and make sure no one can tag you in pictures on social media.

Unless you have a mandatory come home right after school or work, stay out of the house as long as you can. You'll need excuses and places to go. Don't go to the same place everyday, that's suspicious to the workers. Develop a schedule.

Don't keep a diary or journal. Ever.

If you have to put something in the household trash bin, make sure to hide it in something and put it in the center midway through the rubbish in there already. Using a used pad or the plastic tampon inserter comes in handy for this. Oftentimes those aren't checked.

Learn to use as little toilet paper as you can to get clean, smuggle extra squares out in your pocket to use as make shift gauze for wounds. Also comes in handy for diy bandaids with some tape.

Time yourself when traveling places so you know how long it takes you on a good day and a bad one traffic wise. If you're quick you can use the bad ones time to have extra time to do things.

Learn to shower as fast as possible. Five minutes.

If you're getting fuel for the vehicle, prepay. With cash or card you can get a food or drink and the purchase rings up once for the item and the fuel. So it looks like you spent the total amount of fuel.

When getting groceries, randomly every so often on the larger food shop trips, get cash back. A small amount. Like 10 or less. Do not do this if they check the receipt!

I'm sure I forgot many.

Be aware you'll be doing many of these things for years. It's been fifteen years and I still do them unconsciously. Be kind to yourself.

hey so protip if you have abusive parents and need to get around the house as quietly as possible, stay close to furniture and other heavy stuff because the floor is settled there and it’s less likely to creak

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new-royston-cursebreakers · 1 year ago

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Hi! I'm a writer who works at a glasses shop, so lemme add a few more points to the list!

Not all is lost if a lens pops out, though many of our customers come in feeling that way! A lot of the frame's repair-ability depends on its style. And you should always bring the popped-out lens to a glasses place to have us pop it in for you, all of this is for characters who may not have that option.

Lenses can pop back pretty easily into plastic frames as long as the frame itself is intact, though it may take some heating up to do so (the frame, NEVER heat the lenses! And don't heat the frame too much, it might warp too out of shape to fit the lens back in!). The lens goes back in through the front of the frame and snaps into place.

Metal frames often work the same way, though there are some metal frames that are held together by a screw. If that screw is lost, you'll need a new one before you can put the lens back into the frame.

Semi-rimless frames need a bit of extra care. The top part of the lens pops into the upper half of the frame like normal, but the lower half of the frame has to be threaded in, and it can be difficult to do so without snapping the line.

If a lens detaches from a rimless frame, you're fucked. Though I survived about a year and a half with semi-broken rimless frames where the screw was loose but not all the way out.

Thinner lenses are easier to replace than thicker lenses. Thin lenses come from either small prescriptions or more expensive lens materials.

YOU CANNOT BUFF A SCRATCH OUT OF A LENS. The prescription is on the surface of the lens, so you ruin the prescription by doing that. In addition, buffing the lens removes the coatings, which could include things like UV protection, blue light filters, mirror coats, and transitions.

Speaking of, that thing where glasses turn into sunglasses is called transitions. A lot of transitions don't work in the car, and a lot of them come with a base 10% tint, which means you'll essentially be wearing mild sunglasses all the time. And it's true that they take a while to turn back. UV light is what causes them to change.

OP mentioned nearsightedness and farsightedness, officially called myopia and hyperopia. There are a few other problems that glasses can correct:

Presbyopia is an age-related condition where the lens of the eye loses flexibility. This is why many older people need reading glasses in addition to 'normal' or distance glasses; they're both nearsighted and farsighted.

Astigmatism is another common condition where the lens of the eye is oblong rather than perfectly round. This can cause light to appear slanted, stretched, or starry. Personally, I know I could survive without my glasses if not for my high astigmatism correction. Even with glasses, I still see lights as slanted, just not as badly.

You can (read: should) only use certain materials to clean lenses. For cloths: only microfiber cloths (which some shirts are made out of, but we always say to never clean your glasses with your shirt.) For liquids: nothing with ammonia or bleach. Technically, you should be cleaning your lenses with water + soap or lens cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth, since cleaning them dry can rub dirt into the lenses and cause scratches.

You can adjust your own glasses with enough brute strength. But please reserve this for characters. Please. We do adjustments for free and have access to a frame heater and know how much force to apply before they break. Please let us do it.

Reiterating OP's point: GLASSES DO NOT MAKE PEOPLE UGLY. The right pair of glasses can accent your face in the same way that makeup can! In fact, many people get multiple pairs to use as fashion accessories. And I find that when people look at people who normally wear their glasses without glasses, they notice that the size of their eyes is different without lenses in front of them, and it can be a bit uncanny for them.

Wearing glasses does not make your vision worse. That is a myth. Vision naturally gets better or worse over time whether or not it's corrected.

I'd be glad to answer any other questions on the matter! And thank you again to OP for sharing your experience as a glasses wearer, I just wanted to share some of what it looks like from the other side of the help counter!

Some notes for anyone writing a character with glasses, from someone who wears glasses everyday:

- glasses need to come off before changing a shirt, unless it has a really big collar. Otherwise, glasses will get ripped off by said shirt collar.

- weather will affect how well you can see out of them, especially rain. Raindrops will dot glasses and it’s like trying to drive a car in the rain without working windshield wipers. Snow sometimes does this too, but not as bad, and lots of dust kicking up will make glasses dirty and foggy. If it’s humid enough (talking like swampy, Deep South levels, weather app says “90-100% humidity”), glasses will fog up when you step outside. If it’s crazy windy, glasses can fly off and the character should hold onto them or take them off and put them somewhere safe. They’ll usually get dirty or break in a pants pocket, so maybe have character carry around a sturdy glasses case if needed.

- not all materials are good for wiping glasses off. Some shirt materials just make it worse.

- if your character’s glasses are super dirty or smudged, they will be able to see it 24/7 as they look around and it’s annoying af.

- although glasses can keep things from getting in a character’s eyes (like something that’s been sprayed), it doesn’t protect our eyes all the time, especially if it’s coming at an angle or there’s a large amount. For that, you’d need actual safety glasses or goggles (and yes, they do make prescription goggles, but they’re not cheap).

- speaking of waves, for the love of god, DO NOT have your character swim with their glasses on. At best, they’ll get wet and they won’t be able to see. At worst, if they’re forced underwater or an ocean wave smacks them in the face, they’ll fly off and/or break.

- a crack in glasses is actually annoying af and makes it very hard to see.

- if a character’s face is wet, like from sweat or a ton of rain, their glasses will continuously slide down their nose and they’ll need to keep pushing them back up.

- lots of liquids other than water will make glasses opaque.

- glasses should be fitted pretty well to a person’s head. So if the character’s face is dry or there’s a moderate amount of wind, the “legs” that go behind their ears should be tight enough that they don’t just constantly fly off or slip down their nose. If they do, they’re too big (but obviously something a tornado will make them fly off).

- although I hate the whole “they took off their glasses and now they’re a ✨ model ✨” trope, people do tend to look very different with glasses on vs off - especially a character like Harry Potter who constantly wears their glasses. It’s not unrealistic that people who don’t know the character well (or even those who do, but just aren’t as quick) won’t recognize them at first without their glasses.

- as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never been able to do this), if a lens pops out of the frames, it can’t be popped back in by non-professionals without the right tools. The glasses are just done for.

- if your character has contacts in (or this is a psa for anyone who wears contacts), DO NOT have them rub their eyes. The contact will pop out and they’re very translucent and tiny, so trust me, it will just fall and be lost forever.

- being able to see clearly out of one eye and not the other (like with a broken/missing lens or a contact falling out) causes headaches.

- glasses are expensive af in the US (idk about other places). One time when I didn’t have vision insurance, an eye exam and two frames with lenses (I have blue eyes and very extreme light sensitivity, so have to have prescription sun glasses as well as regular glasses) cost over $900USD. If you want the special frames that become tinted and basically turn into sunglasses when you walk outside, it will cost extra.

- speaking of those lenses that become tinted when you walk outside, they take awhile to fade back to normal after you go back inside. Your character needs to be prepared to still be “wearing” sunglasses for the first 5-10 minutes after they walk inside.

- if a character is wearing contacts, they can wear normal sunglasses. If not, they’ll need special prescription sunglasses to be able to see. You cannot wear prescription sunglasses with contacts in or you won’t be able to see anything. Ever tried to look through your friend’s glasses and everything’s weird and warped and giving you a headache? That’s what it will look like.

- not exactly glasses related, but people with lighter colored eyes will always have worse light sensitivity than people with darker eyes. I have very blue eyes and looking up at the sky on a sunny day will literally make me see stars, and especially if I’m driving towards the sun while it’s setting, I have to have my sunglasses on or I literally will not be able to see and tears will be leaking out my eyes the whole way home.

- speaking of prescription sunglasses, unless your character can see pretty far without their glasses or they’re far sighted, you cannot just take prescription sunglasses off and still be able to see, especially while driving. You just have to deal with it and keep the sunglasses on and look like a Matrix wannabe if it gets cloudy or starts raining, or you have to do the super speedy Dance of Death where you’re still watching the road in front of you, taking off one pair of glasses and putting the other on super fast (which usually requires you to use your mouth to open and close things).

- GLASSES ARE FRAGILE. Seriously, a very petite person could sit in them and snap them in half. They’re not something you want your character just throwing around.

- there are varying levels of how well someone can see. There’s farsightedness and nearsightedness. Some people don’t have that much trouble and can see pretty far, so only wear their glasses as needed. But some people (aka moi) can genuinely only see a few inches in front of their face. Like if I ever lost my glasses or they broke, I’d be done for. I wouldn’t be able to work or drive or do anything around the house.

- glasses need to be replaced about once a year because of possible prescription changes or sometimes lenses losing their strength and becoming harder to see through. Trying to tough it out after long enough will give your character headaches/migraines and sore eyes from eye strain.

- some mascaras (especially thick ones) will smudge glasses when the character blinks. Same with false lashes (although they’ll brush instead of smudge). Usually less intense mascaras and shorter fake lash lengths are better.

- eye makeup is harder to see with glasses on.

- please, please, PLEASE stop using the whole “omg look how much prettier/more attractive they are without their glasses” trope. Not everyone’s eyes can handle contacts and some people prefer wearing their glasses. And it makes those of us who prefer glasses or have to wear them feel like shit, especially because there aren’t a lot of characters with glasses in media who don’t become the butt of a joke (ie the one wearing glasses is the “ugly duckling” for it like in princess diaries, or like Velma from scooby doo always losing them and patting around, or people who wear glasses will always be some sort of dorky/insufferable know it all).

- glasses come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and can be used to actually enhance a character’s style! Some of them even have magnetic frames that click in place over the simple pair, so have fun using glasses to build your character’s style.

- edit to add: no one ever purposely falls asleep with their glasses on. You will crush and break them when you roll around. However, if a character does accidentally fall asleep with them on, a love interest gently taking them off so they don’t wake them up and setting them on the table next to them can be a super cute moment.

- whoops thought of some more. Hair products, especially hairspray, can be a bitch to get off glasses and doesn’t always just rinse off with water. If they’re spraying anything, including dry shampoo, the glasses have gotta come off and get out of the line of fire first.

- hair can and will get caught in the little hinge by the legs and we do occasionally not notice till we take our glasses off and rip a hair out of our heads.

- be careful when you comb or brush, cuz if the glasses legs get caught in the brush or comb, it will be ripped off our face.

Hope this helps! May the writing gods bless your work 🤓

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