I recently got my hands on a used phone, whose owner I had never met. I’m not really sure why she was giving it away, it works perfectly well and there’s no wear and tear to speak of. In any case, I went to the Notepad application, and these are the notes I found, transcribed verbatim:
My name is memory
I used to be a pimp now I wall with a limp
Summer island
290
Pink Parka tangerine
Vintage jewelry and modem boutique
Picillo
Charlies
Metropolis
322
Do you want to get drunk and watch passion of the christ
The weed is like a strob light
Amgen gilead
The Opposite of me
White panda
Change me
The girl who fell from the sky
The big pink
Fire stone
March 5 130
The fireplace
Friendly toast
DI 1961
Pomegranates
The tap
Alexis bittar
348 442
i Washed my belly button today
11
Dove nutrium mositure body wash
r i was destined to not Like
Cudderisback
12 28 24
Wet and wild sevilla sangria
I think there were probably only three or four that didn’t make me go “Wtf…?” upon first reading.
I recognize some of those as book titles and song lyrics (and also Googled a few). For example: “I used to be a pimp and now I walk with a limp” is a lyric from a 50 Cent song. “My Name is Memory”, “Summer Island”, “The Opposite of Me” = book titles. White Panda is a band. Etc.
Seems like they were just using this file as a personal notepad/scratchpad (it’s called Notepad, after all). Doesn’t seem all that unusual or remarkable.
I just looked at the notes on my phone, and if anyone saw them they would be completely mystified:
Rich Capulet Lacquer
Delta Oscar stroke Dog comma Ugly
Gomez: 27"
Mini Bell Mill
17.5 - 36
review/map spots
They are (I think):
The name and color of a neat fabric for the family room drapes
A funny thing my husband said
My dog’s chest measurement
A good type of ham
My husband’s shirt size
A reminder for my dermatology appointment
A lot of those things sound like the names of bands, songs, books, movies, etc. I write down crap like that all the time so I can check it in more detail later (especially song and band name).
I’ve got files like that on my phone - containing notes I needed to jot down quickly before forgetting them; comprising:
Lyrics of songs I heard, but couldn’t identify (to be looked up later)
Names of products I saw or heard of, and intend to try
Shopping list items
Titles or outlines of story ideas I thought of
Topics I intend to investigate/blog about
Things I intend to invent
and so on. They all go into one long ‘ideas’ file. I’ve had too many potentially good ideas slip from my memory in the past, so now, I just list them, so I can forget them until required. I’m seldom bored or stuck for ideas of what to do, because there’s a long list of things waiting for me to look at them.
Yeah, I think a lot of people have a “to do” note on their phone that nobody else would understand. It only needs to jog the user’s memory, not function as a complete record.
I have a software registration code on my phone that I can’t even remember what program it’s for. In hindsight, it would probably have been useful to take ten seconds to also write down the title of the software.
Oooh! I know that one. The Friendly Toast is a restaurant. There’s one in Cambridge, MA and one in Portsmouth, NH. Charlies is also a restaurant/bar in Cambridge.
ETA: And the Fireplace is a restaurant in Brookline, MA…or could be a bunch of other things. OP, are you in MA by any chance, or was the phone’s previous owner?