Just a girl and her dogs: That's my face!

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about growing old. Every time I look through my hair, I find long strands of white. I make G look though them and pull out the white ones. It makes for very exciting Sat afternoons, he loves it of course. :) A few months ago, I did something to my left hip/leg. Not quite sure what, think I might have just pulled it working out and it still kind of aches in the mornings or when I'm walking on uneven ground. I swear, I thought it was sympathy pain or something for Mia when I first felt it, you know what with her hip issues and all. But she's been doing a lot better now and I still hurt. So I don't know. And then a couple of weeks ago, I was carrying something out of my car, didn't see the side view mirror in front of me and banged into it, totally bruising my ribs. I bump into things all the time actually, and don't even know it until I see the bruise a couple of days later.

So anyway, I feel old and creaky. And with another birthday around the corner, I can't help wondering, if I'm like this now, how will I be when I'm really old? I guess that's why I was kind of intrigued when I ran into this website that predicts how you'll look 10, 20, 40 years from now. Its actually kind of cool. Basically they ask you to send in your two ugliest pictures of yourself ever (well, not really, but they have rules for how pics should look and I gotta say, I followed the rules and mine weren't particularly flattering). They also ask you to mark specific features on your face -- that part's a little tedious. You submit, and they send you an email when your reconstructed face is ready, in a few hours or so.

I showed G the pics and asked him how he would feel about being married to this woman

20 years from now, and he started laughing, and thought the face looked a little fat, so I guess it 'll depends on how the rest of me looks.

At 40, all I got was a "Um, babe, I don't know . . . " I know, I know, I married a charmer for sure.

But the program actually does more than just predict how we'll age. It takes your features and shows you how you'd look with European, Southeast Asian, African, and East Indian features. It rates how closely your features actually align with these groups. When you first send them your face, they ask you what your ethnicity is. And of these, I figured I'm the closest to East Indian so I marked that -- though why they'd focus on just the eastern part of India is beyond me. But the kicker was that when they rated my face, I wasn't anywhere close to having East Indian features, or any of the others for that matter. Ha, go figure.

Here's how I might look as a black girl by the way, just as an example:

The program also takes your characteristics and amplifies them. For example, it statistically "beautifies" you, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. Like beautifies you according to who exactly? Actually though, I remember learning in an undergrad class that although personal tastes might differ across cultures, the underlying factors of attractiveness are actually the same and are driven by evolution. For example, I vaguely remember the ideal waist-hip ratio in women being one that best promotes childbearing (and guys are naturally drawn to this over skinny models). Anyway, I'm not sure if this particular software program took the same Ethical Issues in the Neuro-sciences class, but it attempts to statistically gauge your beauty and decided I rated 65% on the attractiveness scale. I'm not sure if I should be pleased or annoyed. Is 65% good? I know its better than average but I thought I was cuter than that!! And is this "beautified" version of my face more attractive? Hmm . . .