I don’t spend a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror – just enough so that I have to explain to people that I don’t spend too much time looking at myself in the mirror.
Some people assume if you’re constantly gazing into a pane of glass you’re a hopeless narcissist who can’t get enough of the one and only thing in the world you love. I wouldn’t know if such a motivation is even possible, but I contend that there could be another possible reason.
Reflection fanatics might be looking (and praying) for a new angle.
Ever walk past one of those three mirror alcoves in a clothing store only to be confronted with a side view of yourself? I do not recognize the side-view me as a real representation of me. I know what I look like, and it’s what I see head-on over the bathroom sink, 20 years ago.
But I do sympathize with the planet Saturn, which is almost always glimpsed on the horizontal or with its rings slightly tipped at a jaunty angle. Like an aging movie star, Saturn knew to keep the paparazzi at a distance, and always looking at that “good” side. That’s why it was so jarring when an “amateur image processor” from Croatia named Gordan Ugarkovic, produced this unusual image using 36 shots taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2007, sending back a steady stream of remarkable views.
This is Saturn caught in an uncharacteristic pose. If it were me, I would argue that my rings look too wide and that shadow is unflatteringly massive. Why, yes, yes, of course it’s me – there’s no denying. But you shouldn’t sneak up like that and just start snapping photos. Give me a moment to compose myself. We outer planets can’t be as photogenic as Earth, all colorful and swirly most of the time. After all, feeling prepared and having good complimentary lighting are really crucial when you’re a gas giant.
What’s your best angle?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboons:
At this point in my life there is no good angle. Just me, looking like my “not all that attractive” Stratton ancestors. Sigh.
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Good morning. I cant’t tell if any angle is best. Is that guy in the mirror really me? I don’t know if I would recognize myself if I saw myself walking down the street. Somehow, I don’t think the image that I see in the mirror is the same one others see when they look at me. Since I’m not sure what I look like to others, I don’t know if I have a good angle. Maybe, if I could look at myself from the right angle, I could see how I actually look and get to know myself.
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What’s you’re angle? It’s amazing who differently something can be perceived with a different stroke of the brush, a different turn of the phrase, a different spin on the slant, the back of my head while not anything one could consider attractive is now I am told one of the things people like best about me. When they see it they know they are happier than if they were dealing with the other possible options. He former Minnesota Vikings center Matt burk is making the news not for his anti gay political stands this week but for his going from. 310 lbs as a paid goon in the nfl to losing 85 lbs and being able to enjoy his retirement as a 30 something with a ripped toned torso that looks good on the cover of old guy weight loss in a can magazine owned by coca cola and putting on a contest. Their angle on Matt is pretty interesting. My angle on life thee days is to try to make a difference and enjoy myself along the way. Both are challenging, never done, leave room for another days involvement and are rewarding when done right and frustrating when done wrong. I like dale am surprised by the missing guy from 20 years ago when I look in the mirror and hope that 20 from now I am still happy with the directions today’s angles have directed me
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Any angle is fine, as long as it’s in low light.
Chris in Owatonna
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If the question applies to what might be my best angle visually, I’m in trouble because there isn’t any angle for viewing me that is not painful. I used to hate being in my sister’s home because she had full-length mirrors all over the house, and if I walked anywhere in her home I kept confronting my own image. There are only two mirrors in my home now, both small, and I learned decades ago how to walk around here without ever seeing myself. Because of that, I live with a dread about having a big gob of spinach (or some other food) on my face. Since I don’t look in mirrors, I’d never know.
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I was just thinking… why not invent a mirror that reverses your image so you see what everyone else sees when they look at you? After all, we groom ourselves to be presentable to the public, so why not base our grooming on what they see? It’s got to be possible, just like a camera film negative. I mean heck, they keep making computers smaller and more powerful, gotta be a way to computerize a bathroom mirror so it reverses the image, right? Then we can know for sure if our comb-over looks better parted on the left or the right.
Chris in O-town
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You’d go to dry your hair some morning and the mirror would read “You are using an unsupported version of iImage,” with buttons Upgrade and Cancel…or the power would be out.
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“…or the power would be out.”
Ah, but then we make it solar-powered. 🙂
Chris
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I don’t really don’t want a high tech replacement for my bathroom mirror. Never-the-less, I can think a high tech replacement that give a completely life like image that isn’t a mirror image with left and right reversed. That would be an image created by holography. You could just flip a switch and you would have a completely life-like holograph of yourself standing in front of you.
There’s an idea for you tim. Could find a way to bring a product like out on the market and start selling it?
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get to work on it chris. i think it would be cool enough to fly
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Perfect choice!
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love that
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I tried wearing my hats at an angle I thought was ‘jaunty.’ I found that 1.) people were always trying to straighten it out for me and 2.) that it was ineffective in remaining on my head due to windy/gusty conditions. When you wear a hat with a 3″ brim (which is outstanding for sun, rain, and snow defense), it tends to act as a wind catch. Initially upon purchase, you must shape your hat. This is not only a function of individual style requirements but also an aerocomplimentary necessity before feeling comfortable with it in windy conditions. Wearing it so it is ‘square’ to your head helps maintain a consistent and reliable angle of the brim-to-wind ratio. The Jauntiness Factor (the typically non-perpendicular but wide-ranging angle at which you place your hat upon your head) introduces an additional variable because the consistency of hat-to-head, and consequently brim-to-wind, ratios become inconsistent.
I’m told that my best angle is ‘obtuse.’ …ha-ha…ain’t math humor great?… I was always told by my brothers that I had ‘a face made for radio.’ So, I was rather surprised when casting agent friend of mine strongly suggested that, in addition to voiceover work, I do print or ‘on-camera’ work as well. Per her recommendations, I got a shorter haircut, lopped off the disco sideburns, shaved off my beard/moustache, and I’ll be getting contact lenses. My voiceover agent said they’d give me an audition and see how I come across on camera. So, we’ll see…
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I have never been able to keep a hat with a wide brim on my head due to way they catch the wind as you say, TGITH. I like a hat that at least shades my eyes to protect them from bright sun light and one that covers the top of my head. The only kind of hat that works for me is the kind usually reffered to as a baseball cap.
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You need to work it. Bend the brim slowly over time…don’t fold it or crease it. It needs to be shaped to fit your head and your needs. I usually work the front and back brims down and let the side brims ride up. But it takes patience and time.
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I must have a slippery head. I even have trouble keeping a baseball style cap on my head when the wind is blowing. I try to get versions of those caps that can be easily adjusted so that I can tighten them to keep them on my head when it is windy.
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No, Jim, you just have a non-pointy, nice round Dutch head.
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steam makes it happen like butter
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does the wood just make it grab better?
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Maybe my Dutch heritage combined with my English heritage has caused my head to be over inflated.
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How do people feel about the angle on their senior high school pictures?
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The photographer put me in a very snobbish-looking stare up to the right. Don’t know if it was the best but it was the one chosen (by whom? I can’t remember). I agree with Anna that any angle that de-emphasizes the chinnage is the best.
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That was so long ago, they were still working on perfecting photography. On the other hand, when my youngest daughter graduated, I had her photos shot by a professional photographer friend, then took the film and, in Photoshop, made it look like her hair was on fire. She had one of the most collectible senior photos that year, but I can only imagine the requests the senior picture photographers got the following year.
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Sorry, but comments on the latest from Bart were closed. MN State Parks Facebook page featured one of Bart’s relatives this morning. https://www.facebook.com/mnstateparksandtrails?hc_location=stream
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Tee Hee! Reminds me of the very polite Canadian moose I saw waiting to to cross the road by the moose crossing sign just over the border of Manitoba a few years ago.
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the angle of the dangle
gets my noggin off to joggin
with a topic from the tropics
to obamacare distress
lose your mind and you will find
you aint lost much just stay in touch
with civic leaders bottom feeders
newsfeeds live from meet the press
tell the story in its glory
get the point to rock the joint
just so your side gets the free ride
and paints the other side a mess
tea part antics make me frantic
what the hell says dfl
watch them roll in their self made hole
as toxic buttons they try to press
to find perspective from the collective
is pretty scary the views do vary
truth can be found the whole world round
do truth and rethoric impress?
they state their case right in your face
but partner choosing may soon cause losing
it sounded good out in the woods
with no on there with cause to bless
will it hold water like it ought to
will truth be there in your underwear
when it all begins to fall
or will you wish you had said less
now its the time to switch your rhyme
a different tact causes you to react
to upspeak words like no one heard
a political art form you must possess
the voice of reason in another season
the whacko screamer now redeemer
leads the party gosh he’s hearty
the gop it does digress
find a heartbeat or some red meat
a breathing man who’ll take a stand
as polls instruct w/rabbits foot for luck
its a democratic game of chess
when its tough and the world is rough
you wonder why you ever try
bedfellows fall youve had them all
and now you stand here all undressed
come up with words that will be heard
that you embrace to state your case
that match your heart thats a good start
try the run it up the flagpole test
i hate the posture and all it costs ya
pleasing all is not my call
look at john mccain who lost his brain
idealistic visions all fading west
if you live to say you give to
the world as a whole with your entire soul
i hope youve grown like paul welstone
a inspiring model for all the rest
but if like me and you have to see
the world through eyes as it implies
that angles change and rearrange
like an impressionistic world head dress
hunker down in plain folk town
where folks talk plain on flat terrain
where integrity is what appeals to me
where the angle dangles as i beat my chest
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Love “i hate the posture and all it costs ya”
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Like other baboons, obscure with low lighting is the way to go!
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Any angle where my genetically-present extra chins don’t show…even when I weighed 40 lbs less than i currently do (or, at my slimmest, almost 80 lbs less – that was almost “too skinny”), the extra chin shows up in photos. I think it’s because of the angle my throat matches the actual chin bone…that’s my excuse, I’m sticking with it.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A pretty profound statement, and, I think, a true one. I’ve experienced it again and again that someone I thought attractive at first glance became less and less attractive as I got to know them better. The reverse is also true. I specifically remember a young woman, a nursing student, who was working on the evening tray line at the hospital where I worked when I first came to the Twin Cities. She was, at first impression, very plain, bordering on homely, but she was such a lovely, kind, and delightful person that she radiated beauty.
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I love when that happens…
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It certainly is to be much preferred over looking good at first and going downhill from there, isn’t it?
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I eiother have a great deal to say on this topic . . . or nothing at all.
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I’m voting for “let’s hear it.”
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whats your angle on that?
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I see you’re choosing the “nothing at all” option, Clyde.
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. i must have read a different post than you but in the true spirit of blogmanship and angle having to do with looing at yourself…. i think it was marlene dietrich who had someone show her how to get the lighting just right so hhse looked good because the director and or camera man didnt always know beans. marilyn had the same knowledge.. we laugh at my son when we have dinner at easter thanksgiving etc the only times we use the dining room table. there is a mirror at sit down level for people on on side of the table we sit one on each end and 3 or 4 on each side so its not impossible to keep him on the no looking at the mirror side and if we forget its such a riot catching him raising his eyebrows at himself in the mirror that we all crack up through the meal. my 9th grader talks to the woman in the reflection of the window regularly too. woo hoo im over heeeereee. love those family get togethers
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