I’ve been getting really horrible headaches lately. They haven’t been pleasant at all, but really I’m sure I’m entirely to blame for getting them. You see, I’ve been staring way too hard a lot of those Magic Eye 3D pictures. I’ve been particularly determined to get them to work for me.
I’m unsure how it happened, but this past weekend in a conversation with Julius the whole 90′s phenomenon of the 3D stereograms came up. Back in B-town, I still recall seeing stands set up in the heart of BCC displaying several of these photos. They attracted sizable crowds just standing at a distance gawking. Every few minutes you’ll hear someone exclaiming “Oh my God! I see a pony!” or something equally strange. To me, no matter how much I stared at the images I never managed to see anything besides a lot of visual noise, much less a shark or whatever else the images held secret. I just figured that I was just physiologically unable to see anything. Publicly, I just said that it was all some sort of conspiracy–there was nothing there!
And then the images just faded from memory.
Well, when they were brought up again, I did a search and found a good amount of the stereogram images online. I gave them another go quite determined to unlock their secrets. Maybe a few years will have made a difference, right? Well, I squinted and strained and still nothing. Julius suggested that maybe one of my eyes was weaker than the other. I scoffed at the idea–I have perfect vision! At least, I thought I did. I tried covering my right eye and attempted to read some text at a distance. I was fine. I then covered my left eye and tried to do the same. Holy crap, I was surprised to actually run into some difficulty. I was seriously shocked. It turns out my left eye is my dominant eye. It compensates for my right eye’s slightly weaker vision. I guess most of my vision is based off of what I’m seeing out my left. I’m pretty sure that’s why these stereograms don’t work for me–if my brain is working from mostly my left eye there’s no way I can get the hidden 3D image. Seriously. Give it a shot. If you are good at picking out these 3D images, try seeing the hidden image with just one eye. You’ll be unable to do so.
So, at some point I need to go to my doctor to get a referral for an optometrist; I want to get measured. My eyes are kind of achy right now, and I wonder how much of that is from straining to see those damn things vs. me coming to the realization that I have unbalanced vision. Maybe my brain is starting to compensate weirdly now that I’m conscious about my problem. I have no clue.
All this because of those maddening Magic Eye things. No good comes from them! None at all!
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4 comments
Tabitha says:
Tue. March 17, 2009 at 12:55 pm (UTC -5 )
I used to be able to see the hidden images in Magic Eyes no problem, as a kid, but now I TOTALLY CAN’T! I heard somewhere recently that if you have astigmatism, it is completely impossible to see those images. And I did develop an astigmatism as a teenager, so I guess it’s probably true.
Bummer, though! I hope your eyes don’t give you too much trouble.
PS – Reading via 20SB feeds.
Jay says:
Tue. March 17, 2009 at 11:08 pm (UTC -5 )
Yup, I’m sure that if your eyes are somehow off such that your brain relies way too much on one eye, then the whole thing won’t work.
I always assumed I was just fine. I even joked around that I wanted glasses for a certain aesthetic look. Now that it’s a possibility…eh…it kind of sucks.
Thanks for visiting!
Black Prophet says:
Thu. March 19, 2009 at 7:59 pm (UTC -5 )
You don’t need a referral. Just walk into any optomotrist’s office and your good to go. Although you will have to pay for the visit.
Jay says:
Fri. March 20, 2009 at 8:55 pm (UTC -5 )
Hey man, I appreciate you pointing that out. I think I’ll attempt a drop-in on Monday. We’ll see if they take me.