I had this post ready to go a while back and then forgot to post it. It is a little late, but still relevant.

I was recently quoted in the St. Petersburg Times discussing the formation of the Westchase Area Business Association. You can see the full story here, but here is a good quote:

In 2006, Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford, an optometrist, opened Bright Eyes Family Vision Care in West Park Village. He struggled to connect with other business owners in the community.

Westchase is a wonderful place, but if you don’t come, you don’t know it’s here,” Bonilla-Warford said. “If we can give people a reason to come here, they’ll come back.”

Be Well!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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I have been waiting for this day for some time. And I am so excited, I’m going to use a large heading:

FOURSQUARE HAS COME TO TAMPA!

Don’t know what foursquare is? It is an online system to track the places that you go and finding out where you friends are. Sound goofy? Check out this CNN article, and see why it might be a big deal.

I have already checked in to to several places in Westchase today. It is fun because there isn’t much action in Tampa, yet. You get to be first.

Bright Eyes is now a foursquare venue, so while you are here for an exam or getting glasses or contacts, why not check in? To encourage people to check in, we’ll even give a discount to whoever is the current mayor of Bright Eyes. Just let us know when you make your purchase.

Have fun out there, TPA!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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Unfortunately, due to the birth of Javier this October, I wasn’t able to make it to one of my favorite meetings: the annual meeting and educational conference of the Orthokeratology Academy of America (OAA). This year it was in Phoenix, AZ. I missed a lot of great topics  including: controlling nearsightedness, non surgical alternatives to vision correcting eye surgery, new lens designs for -improved corneal reshaping treatment, pediatric Ortho-K, post-surgical vision rehabilitation and new Ortho-K therapeutic treatments were unveiled.

Many of my friends and colleagues were there. Close to two hundred attendees came to Phoenix from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, and places as far as Taiwan and  Singapore.

I am a member of the Orthokeratology Academy of America (OAA). Its mission is to establish policy and to develop and update protocols and education for doctors performing corneal reshaping (orthokeratology).

Myopia is a progressive condition affecting 1.6 billion children and adults worldwide, with expectations that the number will hit 2.5 billion by 2020. Exciting research now shows that orthokeratology can slow the elongation of the eye which contributes to progressive nearsightedness in children and young adults. 20/20 vision can be restored in as little as one day to one month depending on severity.

Orthokeratology involves the fitting of a specialized contact lens designed to reshape the cornea during sleep much like braces realigning the teeth. In addition, Ortho-K is a less expensive and safer alternative to surgical vision correction. For more information on this process, stop by Bright Eyes or go to www.brighteyesorthok.com and www.okglobal.org.

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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Good news! We will be doing another contest this winter. We will be giving away a pair of glasses/sunglasses. We had a ball giving away some Tiffany suns this summer and we are excited to do it again!

Help us decide what the Grand Prize should be! Would you like:

Coach

Bvlgari

Tiffany and Co.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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I’ve been a big fan of Susan Barry ever since I first read about her in The New Yorker several years ago. I was an even bigger fan after her book “Fixing My Gaze” was published this year. As a neuroscientist and educator, she has written a very accessible book about her remarkable experience with vision therapy as an adult.

I’ve become so enamored with “Fixing My Gaze” that I have shared many copies with friends, held an online contest to give a the book as a prize, and even interviewed Dr. Barry. So I was delighted to see this morning that the book has been selected as the #4 top science book by Amazon.com for 2009. This is very fitting, due to the easy-reading style of a very complex and fascinating subject.

Congrats to Dr. Barry for the well-deserved praise for a fine piece of work!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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We spent part of yesterday upgrading the appearance the blog. Check out the Facebook, Twitter, and reader location widgets.

If there are any other features that you would like to see, please let use know! We’d be happy to look into it!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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With gratitude and appreciation to those who have served and continue  to serve our country, Happy Veterans Day.

To show our appreciation, Bright Eyes  does provide a military discount 365 days a year. It is our way of saying thank you.

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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More info to come!

Be Well!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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My daughter just had academic testing done. She is in 2^nd grade.  She is a great reader and has no problem writing.  Her struggle is with visual perception and long term retrieval.  She has difficulty with math; specifically with shapes, graphs and tables.  She does not seem to understand or can not see the relevance to the math problems presented.   Can you tell me if you have heard of this math issue having to do with a vision problem?

Well, without being too technical, math does involve complex visual perceptual skill. It is certainly possible that a challenge in specific visual processing can result in difficulty with math. The relationships that are involved in math are typically rooted in tangible concepts that are readily processed visually.  (Here is a simple example). This can even be the case even if your daughter is a good reader – it is also possible that her language verbal skills are so very high that they compensate for visual difficulty, or that the visual processes may not be the same used primarily in reading.

Has your daughter and a complete vision evaluation? I would start there, followed by an optometric visual information processing evaluation. After these are completed, it would be possible to tell you if  some form of intervention (glasses, contact lenses, vision therapy)  may benefit her.

And, of course, she should continue to receive the needed instruction and any tutoring/remediation/addition instruction that is appropriate.

I hope this information has been helpful. If you have further questions, you can call the office at 813-792-0637 or email me directly.

Be Well!

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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The other day I downloaded Chris Brogan and Julian Smith’s “Trust Agents” to listen to in the car on my way to and from work. I don’t remember where, but I had heard some positive things and wanted to check it out.

I’m about halfway through and liking it so much, that I wanted to establish a social media reading list. I just read Tribes, by Seth Godin on recommendation from Julia Gorzka and I already knew that I wanted to read Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It” next, but what after that?

So did a very informal poll on Twitter and here are the tweets I received:

@JuliaGorzka: Post Tribes Reading List: Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernhoff. Lots of great examples.

@JuliaGorzka:  Re-Imagine by Tom Peters, currently reading & loving Re-Imagine by Tom Peters

@tweetmaker: Serious about SMM? Read @google (Kaushik Avinash) blog and peruse Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” frequently.

When I joked that I probably wasn’t *that* serious….

@tweetmaker: My thrust: Insights about how one might approach & leverage SMM abound in sources where no direct mention of SMM exists.

@social_forces: Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” and Godin’s “Ideavirus” for a 1-2 punch?

I mentioned I hadn’t heard of “Ideavirus”

@social_forces: It’s a fine read. What Godin lacks vs Gladwell’s eloquence, he makes up 4 w/ practical application. Like a “how to” for tipping pts.

@missdestructo Hmm. How To Win Friends and Influence People is a good start…. then as far as SM goes, I love Trust Agents.

@GiftsTV current ones I’m reading – Word of Mouth Marketing – Andy Sernovitz and Six Pixels of Seperation – Mitch Joel – others you found ?

@lizzharmon: That’s tough. Hard to narrow it down to 2: Trust Agents & Tribes; also Socialnomics & Twitter Power. I read a lot.

@lizzharmon: I think I’d add Groundswell and anything by Brian Solis.

@chrisbrogan: The New Community Rules by @tamar, and Six Pixels of Separation by @mitchjoel

And my favorite…..

@NetWeave BTW, I know some folks will disagree heartily with me, that’s just my opinion.I believe that any book on SM is obsolete by the time the ink dries. Spend your reading time on @Mashable, @TechCrunch, etc.

So there you go. That should keep you busy until the new year. And by then you’ll have a bunch more to read.

If you have other suggestions of read books, please leave a comment so I can add them to the list.

Happy Reading.

Dr. Bonilla-Warford
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Westchase, Tampa, FL
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