I remember my locker combination from 7th grade (12 - 2 - 28). I remember Idi Amin’s self-described title (His Excellency, President-for-Life, Doctor, Haji, Idi Amin Dada). I remember the periodic table up to calcium (too lengthy to list here).
These things aren’t exactly vital for me to know. (I’m hardly ever asked what Idi’s title was.) This knowledge seems to be taking up “brain bytes” that could conceivably be used to store useful information.
Why does my brain latch onto trivia while letting me forget names, appointments, the proper way to use its vs. it’s, etc.?
Too bad there’s not a way of doing a mental inventory and flushing the useless data from the places that seem to readily capture information.
PS- Pam Hallstrom’s address was 5249 27th, and I haven’t seen her since high school.
I think its called gracefully maturing. I can remember silly things too. My phone number when I lived in the arctic when i was a kid 873-4529, events that no one else in my family can remember. There must be some reason for it all. Maybe when I’m 90 I’ll figure it out.
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another
You need brain clutter, how else would you win at trivial pursuit?
It also gives me a bit of a lift. I may not be able to remember the name of that person I just met or any of my appointments, but, by God, I can recite Star Wars and I can remember that my first phone number was 748-5534. So, at least I know I’m not completely brain dead.
Ooooh, yes, I dream of Norton BrainSweep, but it could leave me perilously empty minded. I remember snippets of stuff; plots and characters in books but not the titles, scenes from movies but not the names, nifty landmarks but not the state/city they’re located in.
Does anyone else worry about the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s?
Oh, another symptom of brain clutter. Useless, annoying brain sludge gets lost in some synapse cache until unnamed persons recall it, e.g. the lyrics to “Under the Boardwalk”.
Thanks, Crick&Watson, I just lost part of the periodic table and my social security number.
When I was in college, I could remember the phone number of every friend and aquaintance my roomate and I had. One day, I decided to write each of them down, in case I forgot any crucial contacts. Low and behold, a few days later, I had trouble recalling many of the less important numbers. By putting it all down on paper, I had given my brain “permission” to forget a lot of useless crap. I felt like I had done a thorough cleaning job on a dusty old attic. Since then, I write down all the trivial stuff, and let my brain take care of the important information.
When I was in the military, I could remember sign/countersigns, target references, weapons specs, rendevous coordinates, etc. I still have old countersigns and radio frequencies I remember from over 10 years ago. I can look at a scenic landscape and still plot out artillery and air support fire in my head.
My wife tells me to go to the store now and pick up “Bread, eggs, paper towels, and onions”. If I don’t write it down in bold colored lettering and tape it to my hand, then I will come back with “Bread, root beer, Cheetos, Vienna Sausage, Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies, and duct tape” (you can never have too much duct tape).
I really could use some of that memory for more practical purposes. I am starting to look like the village idiot with all the yellow stickies my wife leaves for me.
Blue I am really starting to worry about you guy.
This is so strange because I was just telling Sue on the phone this morning something that I remembered from seventh grade. Yet I can’t remember how to do college algebra. Oh well…maybe because I hate math? I think our minds are conditioned to “forget” things that may have something bad attached to them.
I know all the words to every They Might Be Giants song I’ve ever heard. If I heard it in concert, but don’t have the CD, I still know it. No one believed me for years about “The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas”.
I also know snippets of poetry - Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Bells” in full, Sonnet 116, Emily Dickenson, and tons of others. William Carlos Williams’ “Red Wheelbarrow” gave me a nightmare once.
The other night I pulled the FOIL method of solving equations out of some deep recess for a pal taking Trig. I hadn’t thought about that since 9th grade.
I remember the recipe for every dish I ever made.
I remember:[list]
[li]My 7th grade gym locker combo: 29-39-5. All three numbers are offset one from 30-aught-6.[/li][li]My first phone number when I was a little kid: 242-3791[/li]*My 7th grade schedule, and the two other students who shared my exact schedule. I didn’t realize that they did until we had a band function right after 5th period, Science. Our uniform was blue jeans, white shoes, white short-sleeved shirt, and a red uniform vest supplied by the school. (We didn’t wear the vests until concert time.) When I walked into science, everyone was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt; we were all in 7th grade band! When our teacher walked in, he was taked aback, then asked if this was a Mormon mission class. I then realized that my bandmates Mike and Nicholetta were in all of my classes.
[li]how to solve a Rubik Cube[/li][li]all the episode titles of the original “Star Trek”[/li][li]my only two spankings from my father when I was about 4.[/li]------------------
Judges 14:9 - So [Samson] scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Come on people, recycle! Bits of ancient phone numbers make great PIN numbers. You already know it. Old license plates, or Idi Amin’s title - computer passwords. EPFLDHIAD-who’s going to guess that?.
Also, if you’re worried about running out of storage space, mute those commercials. Especially the ones with music or songs: they’ll be with you for life. Two all-beef patties, special sauce…
Thats an excellent idea!
My first phone number is also the access code to my computer at work, my password here, yahoo mail, my local email account, my logon password,
and the last 4 numbers make up my pin number.
If I need extra digits, I insert area code, or my initials.
Works great too!
some of my brain clutter:
At the Santa Claus parade in 98, I stood next to a guy and his girlfriend with my kids. we chatted briefly. Xmas 99, I see him in a checkout line and proceed to tell him that I remember both his occupation, and the type of truck he prefers.
I never forget a face. Ever. I cant always match it to a name or even a place, but if I see them once, its etched in stone. I also have almost complete recall of movies and books. Especially movies. What a waste of brain space.
I can also recall every inch of the home I grew up in, and the yard, even though its been 15 years.
Hey, I remember the lyrics to “It’s a small world!”
Come on, sing with me!
It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears,
It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears,
There’s so much that we share,
It’s time we’re aware.
It’s a small world after all.
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small small world.
There is just one moon and a golden sun,
And a smile means friendship to everyone,
Though the mountains are high,
And the oceans are wide,
It’s a small world after all.
Like I said in some other thread, I can read the Hollerith code from a punchcard. That’s gonna be useful somewhere down the road.
The standard U.S railroad track gauge is 4 feet 8 and 1/2 inches measured 5/8 inch below the top of the rail. Uh huh, I’ll probably be needing that on the drive home tonight.
Don’t ask about slide rules. Fortuantely I have forgotten how to use my abacus though.
“That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines.” - Phaedrus, translator of Aesop’s Fables
I then realized that my bandmates Mike and Nicholetta were in all of my classes.