i don't quite know what i look like

this first thought was more common when i was a kid.
i used to think that my face was "generic," that it was just kind of a default, plain face. i'd even get sort of caught up in this thought and be surprised when people would recognize me so easily. i'd think i should blend in easier because of my generic face.

i realize now that this isn't true, but now that i'm older i kinda think that i don't look how i think i look. it's like i have an image of myself in my mind, but it doesn't match up exactly to what i think i see when i glance in the mirror. maybe as i'm getting older, my face is changing, but i still expect to see the same me as i did 10 years ago?

i also forget how tall i am (about 6'3")
when i'm walking with a group of people and catch our reflection in a window, i'll think "damn who is that lanky fucker?....oh, it's me."


anyone have similar things?

 

Yes. I'm 6'4 - I don't think about being taller than average here. It's not that much taller than average, but every once in a while someone will make the comment that I am tall. When I see photographs of myself with others (I don't let people take my picture often, so there are few), I think that I look like a freak, even though 6'4 is not much above avg.

I know a couple of people that are right around 5 ft tall, and I don't feel that I'm much taller than them until I see us side by side in a reflection or photo.

 

I can't visualize my face at all. I can maybe hold an image of my face in my brain for about half a second and then it degrades.
I can deal with the mirror because I see my face in 'regions' as it were but pictures and video where I can see my face, freaks me out. I know it's me but it doesn't seem like it.

Same with my voice too.
I posted a vid of myself on stage in another thread. I have a hard time watching it and thinking 'that's me'. I don't look or sound like anything recognizable to me.

 

I just caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I'm a hot mess!!! I don't want to know what I look like today. I just got done working out and I'm in a very strange outfit. Clearly got dressed in the dark. Breast Cancer benefit shirt, Halloween pants, Christmas socks...yeah, HOT!!! (mess)

 

I think its normal

just like when recording your voice it doesnt sound like the one you hear normally

 

Yeah my image of myself in my head is pretty blurry and inconsistent. Changes depending on my mood, too.

 

HA! What until y'all really get old!

There have been times over the past 5 years I saw a glimpse of myself in a mirror, and thought WTH?!? I thought I was going to be like Cher and get to a certain age and stop...not (God only knows how much $$$$$$ has been put into stopping her clock. )

Years ago I used to use a dictaphone for work. For a long time I adjusted my voice and speech just so I didn't feel like flipping out everytime I had to go back and listen to myself.

 

I feel this way about my voice. If I hear a recording of myself, all I can think is how it sounds nothing like me. Or how my inner dialogue sounds, I suppose.

I also forget how short I am until some 6'+ tall person stands near me. Freaks me out. I think I have a pretty good grasp of my face though.

 

I think it's a standard thing. Even with other people, we have a basic concept of what they look like, but I've looked at my friends sometimes and thought to myself "Shit... I didn't know he/she looked like that!!".

I think that's part of the reason I love painting portraits.. there's something really strangely satisfying about deconstructing the idea of what someone looks like, and actually seeing what the do look like.. and then trying to recreate it.

Actually, come to think of it - anything in the world, not just portraits.

Crazy place :sunny:

 

What I look like to everyone else..

I have to dye my hair and let it grow out a little..



And..

That Mr. Anderson?... That is the sound of inevitability..




What Im really going for is this..



but I have to shave my face everyday or I become Homicidal..

 

That ole hairy geezer staring back at me in the mirror flips me out sometimes....:-/

 

Every time I meet someone I've either never met before, or have met a limited number of times in a public place I always think I'm gonna have trouble recognizing them out of all the other people but somehow it's usually not that hard to spot the person.

 

you poor pretty people

 

yeah but the voice thing is easy to explain. you don't hear your voice as it really is, you hear an echo of it in your head. so when you hear a recording, you're hearing something more close to accurate...depending on the quality of the recording.

i know someone is really tall when they stand next to me and i have to look up. this one dude at my old school must have been over 7 feet..

 

Josh... I have always thought you look a bit like the character on the cover of Devo's 1978 album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!



And yeah, you are mad tall. That is the first thing I noticed when I met you. I was like "Damn, this dude is mad tall."

 

The look thing not so much but the voice is one of those things that I go "do I really sound like that".

 

One thing I cannot get over is what a Jew I look like sometimes, especially when my hair gets long and fro-like. I am not Jewish, though.

 

I'm the same way, although my grandfather is half jewish.

 

Good point on the voice thing.

Over 7 feet??

 

why, yes..i posed for this album cover. how did you know?


and about being tall. it's not really the great benefit that people seem to think it is. for one, i think tall people are more prone to back problems. we are fighting gravity more. (poor me ) also, it's gotten my ass kicked at least once. some drunk tough guy wants to look tough - he picks me to start a fight with because i'm 6'3...but he doesn't tell his friends that i was about 150 lbs

and people just comment on it a lot. not meaning you, matt. you didn't say that in person from what i recall. older ladies like to tell me "you're tall."
yes. spot on you fuckin genious. :love: