Vexxt?

I recently took my son to the Children’s Museum to see the various exhibits. Especially one of our favorite parts of the museum—the ‘funhouse’. There are two rooms that offer visual illusions and/or induce vertigo.

Since I’m not the tallest of guys, I prefer the room that makes me look like a giant. I can stand in one corner of the room and appear 8 feet tall on the observation camera. Or, I guess I could go to the other end where I appear to be less than half of that. Either way, the different angles and scale changes really affect your perception of an otherwise simple room. My son loves to position us so that he looks the taller of the two (not too much of a stretch, but still…).

The other room is absolutely normal. No visual illusions there, or so it seems. But, it’s built on a slant that you don’t realize until you’ve stepped inside. Once you enter the room it’s obviously tilted, significantly. But, it’s enclosed so that everything appears level. Your inner ears (and gravity) tell you the opposite.

These are exactly the little unexpected changes in perception that give us pause. And teach us something. The real estate market has tanked and no one is buying, right? Not really. There is always a market, you just have to work a little harder to avoid becoming invisible.

I saw a house for sale recently that I drive by daily. Only this time the sign read “Waterfront Property”. There is no real waterfront in this area. We aren’t by the ocean, the lakes aren’t that close, so what were they doing?!

They were referring to what is probably the smallest creek. ever. In the backyard, you could see a teeny-tiny line of water running through the property. They weren’t lying, and they weren’t particularly serious.

But, they were getting a much deserved second-look from everyone driving by. I don’t know if it was the real estate agent with a sense of humor or a badgering homeowner, but it was brilliant. You could see people chuckle as they passed by.

That sign wasn’t up very long, it changed to a regular sale sign; although that wasn’t up for much longer. We can only speculate if that contributed to someone’s decision to take a look, but it was obvious that a little tweak to someone’s perspective deserves a little extra thought.

photo by sean dreilinger