Does this happen to all memorisers?

I'm wondering if there comes a point in every memory man's life where he just has to say something that Ben Pridmore is probably thinking about writing as we speak. Why is a programme like the X-factor so addictive and yet so incredibly poor at the same time? I've just been watching a 16-year-old girl talking about a dream career of not having to work because her singing life would mean she never had to. After hurling abuse at the TV screen, I realise that it was only my blog I could turn to now.

The youth of today confuse me. I was in peterborough this morning and walked past a group of Goths that must have been over a hundred strong...... as in seriously, there was probably 100 Goths there. I've never seen anything like it. I have no problem with Goths at all, in fact, I'm very fond of a lot of the music they listen to. It was just very surprising to see what I can only describe as a gaggle of Goths all flocking towards me looking like they should all be on some kind of suicide watch. Come on, it takes more muscles to frown etc etc.

This is my first non-memory related comment and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Thank you for reading.........

She's home!

Well, my lovely girlfriend is back and it's great to see her. She's incredibly tanned and looks like a different person!

The memory training over the period of time she was away did not exactly go according to plan. I have no tangible results, although having a couple of days off seems to have helped with the formation of images for some reason.I think I've been pushing myself a bit too hard and my brain is giving up. A Break seems to have allowed my brain to understand what I'm trying to teach it.

I'm really annoyed that I can't make the German championships. I just can't book any more time off work. It would have been great to see everybody again, perhaps next time.

Anyway, I have a best man's speech to prepare this weekend which I will also have to memorise. You'd think it wouldn't take too long, but I'm actually quite nervous that I won't have enough time and the stress of the day will not allow my memory to perform properly! I think this will be a good memory exercise. Speaking in front of people that you know is harder, in my opinion, than speaking in front of people that you don't. If I can do this, it will give me a good little confidence boost!

Thai My Shoe

I think I want to learn a new language and Thai seemed like the best idea!

I've never used mnemonics to learn a language but from doing a bit of research on it I think it could be good fun.

Hasbro got back to me saying they would give me a Trivial Pursuit of my choice for a charity memory event which was nice of them. Just need to sort out a venue, people to help, promotion, a charity to do it for and memorise all the questions!

Life alone.......

Well, it's been five days since my girlfriend went to Thailand. The memory training hasn't exactly been going according to plan. I wanted to spend lots of time practising but unfortunately real life has got in the way. I never realised how hard it was cleaning up after me!

I've been practicing binary and that seems to be going quite well, although there is room for a lot of improvement. I'm becoming a lot more familiar with the groups of digits which makes memorising them much easier. I think that having a couple of days off has actually helped. Sometimes I'm guilty of pushing myself too far, to a point where it becomes nonproductive.

I've been thinking a lot recently about new applications for an improved memory. My girlfriend's mum keeps telling me there must be a way to make money from it! I'm sure she's right, but the idea of sitting down and improving my game of blackjack does not really appeal. I'm sure I'll come up with some great moneymaking scheme but that takes time and energy, neither of which are in great abundance after a few too many beers last night.

Person, action, object

I can't get these 3 words out of my head....................

I'm using person, action at the moment but something keeps trying to tell me to stick an object in there too!

I played around with this a few months ago and got nowhere so gave up but I'm going to give it another crack. It will shorten my routes and will also give me more time on each part of my route to form better images. At least, that's the theory.

Andi Bell broke the world record for speed cards using this method, Ed Cook uses it as well as Josh and they are all getting some excellent times with the cards. Hmmmmmmmm getting a bit excited, yet, strangely frightened of the change...........

Binary developments

Last night I sat down with my girlfriend and put together a pack of 64 cards with 6 digit binary combinations on one side and the person/object associated to the combination on the other. It's great, really helps and I think it will help me to recognise blocks of 6 digits as people and objects much faster than doing the conversion in my head as I go.

My girlfriend goes to Thailand tomorrow for 10 days and I'm planning an immense training program filled with meditation, software training and a bunch of timed events. I will post results as and when relevant.

My stomach, my memory

I've started taking some tablets today for a stomach problem I've had for the last month or so. It's a yeast problem that just makes you feel hungover all the time, groggy, tired, unable to focus etc. I've been putting off taking the tablets because the side effects are really not great, they makes you feel worse before you get better so my memory training has suffered really badly :o(

I wonder how my performance was affected at the championships because of it? I had a bad problem 2 days before hand and I didn't think I could go if I didn't get better but it cleared up to a point that I could function OK.

Anyway, I should be performing much better in a week or so once the tablets have sorted it.