I just spotted a one-legged woman…

… petting a duck that’s pooped! Seriously — in the washrooms at the Cathay Pacific lounge in Vancouver Airport.

You might wonder what on earth I’m talking about. Well, if you’d been at the WritersUA 2009 Conference yesterday you would have seen the picture that Jared Spool showed and would know exactly what I’m talking about. If you weren’t there, then take a look at this photo of Jared’s on Flickr… The point he was making is that we perceive what we want to perceive or expect to perceive. When you look at the image you’ll see something you expect to see. But if you look at the image in a different way (same image, different perception), then you’ll see a one-legged woman petting a duck that pooped! ;-)

It’s a bit like the FedEx logo — once you spot the arrow or are told how to spot the arrow, you’ll never NOT see the arrow.

Here’s my photo:

One-legged woman petting a duck...

And for those who don’t understand the reference to the arrow in the FedEx logo, then here’s one you can stare at for a while:

My other conference links:

• WritersUA 2009: Day 1 (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/writersua-2009-day-1/)
• Interview with Scott McCloud (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/interview-with-scott-mccloud/)
• Interview with Mary Jo Foley (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/interview-with-mary-jo-foley/)
• WritersUA 2009: Day 2 (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/writersua-2009-day-2/)
• User Assistance in Web Forms: Luke Wroblewski (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/user-assistance-in-web-forms/)
• WritersUA 2009: Day 3 (https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/writersua-2009-day-3/)

[Links last checked April 2009]