(no subject)

[aprilstarchild]

My other new icon, of course. Should come in handy here and there.

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I was reading a friend's thing on ADD, and apparently it's not just me, it's an ADD thing: I can only remember something if it's connected to something else.

This was driven home to me last week. I opened up the back door before turning off the alarm, and because it was the back door it immediately went into that horrible "whoop! whoop!" noise that means it's going to call the cops. I turned it off but didn't hit cancel, so the alarm company called to ask if everything was all right. Then they wanted the password, and I couldn't remember it. My dad's told it to me a few times, and I totally blanked. I went upstairs to find ruby_wings, and when I said her name her head popped up from the blankets, her face all squinched up and her hair all curly around her face, and she said the password (which is a really goofy word) in a flat voice.

The sight of that was so comical (sorry, but it's true) that I'll never forget the damn password.

I have an excellent head for trivia, because it's all connected to something. I've got a reputation among my coworkers, actually. One asked me today if salt water taffy had real salt water in it, and I was able to tell her: It depends on the brand, but if they do, it's not seawater, it's purified sea salt dissolved in water, because seawater is polluted and nasty.

I can tell you that the American Psychological Association decided that homosexuality wasn't a mental illness in 1973. I can tell you that the recreation of Plimoth Village is 2.something miles from the original site and that it's reenacted to be exactly 1627. I can tell you that Strattera is an SNRI, a Selective Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor. I can tell you that broiler chickens in a modern farm get less room to stand on than the size of a piece of notebook paper. I can tell you that there are 275,000 people in Iceland (approximately), that there are 13 sheep for every person in New Zealand, and that West Virginia was formed when it split off from Confederate Virginia during the Civil War. I can tell you every phone number I've had since first grade except for one, and keep in mind I've moved a lot.

I know all of these things because they relate to me or to something else I already know. If something seems unconnected, I'll have a really hard time remembering it. The only reason I can do my job is because I know how the actual department works--when I try to memorize how to do individual tasks I screw up, but the more I know about how files move around and why we do things certain ways, the better I get at my job.

It's all about context!

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My mom's cooking for a whole bunch of us now that Chris is back from Drum Corps stuff. So it'll be DJ and silverrose79 and Chris and ruby_wings and my parents and....me. Just like Thanksgiving, actually. I commented to my mom that it's too bad dragon_mintz works tonight, but then, that's probably a rather intimidating way to get to know all of them: all at once. *lol*

Comments

[galactagogue.livejournal.com]

that is an amazing icon.

i want more trivia! use that ADD to educate meeeee! heh heh.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

The movie Pocohontas pisses me off.

John Smith, when he met her, was a fat redhead in his forties. She was ten or twelve, and in the tradition of her tribe would have been shaved bald and butt naked.

The story of her saving his life is only recorded in one place: his memoirs. And he was known to exaggerate a great deal.

Also, Jamestown is hardly a paradise like in the cartoon. It's a swamp and buggy. They had to build the fort twice, the first time it sank into the damn swampland. The replica of Jamestown that you can visit, is several miles from the original site, just so they could have it on solid ground!

....how's that for ya?

[trillium-flower.livejournal.com]

Most people remember things better if it is associated with something else. Remember a couple of months ago I posted about the world championship memorizer contest. All of the people interviewed had associations for the things they were trying to remember. Two examples stick out in my mind, the first was the people that would be given a stack of shuffled cards. They had X number minutes to memorize the deck and then whoever could repeat the order of the cards back the fastest won. The man who won visualized it as things in his neighborhood (ace clubs = blue car, 2 diamonds tree with yellow ribbon) so all he had to do was take a walk around his neighborhood and verbalize what he saw. One of the other people used a doll house. She just rearranged the contents to match what she was trying to memorize and then start verbalizing it from the garage to the attic.

It's an artificial connection that still represents what you do. Large picture (doll house, whole department) relates to individual item (rocking chair, individual task). It's what I do too. (sunset bay, cape arago hwy, libby (libby libby on the table table table) shinglehouse, hwy 101) You should hear the song I made up to memorize the 12 codes. It's really terrible, but still a pneumonic to key my brain in. I do the same thing with the alphabet. You would think that I'd know my alphabet by now, but I remember things in relation to lmnop. T is after lmnop, h is before lmnop. lmnop is in the middle. I couldn't spell for crap until I learned to type, and then words became patterns that my fingers could "see" even when I wasn't typing.

My point I guess is that perhaps this isn't an add thing, but regular old brain function, and that people with add notice more because they are aware of any coping mechanisims that they use. I'm going to have to dig out my psych book from last term and re-read the section on memory.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I've been told, via other ADDers and book on ADD, that it's something we do more often.

It's also something we tend to be better at--one of our gifts is seeing connections where other people don't. We often look like we're jumping from topic to topic when we talk, but in our head they're all actually connected. A friend of mine played a "game" for a while where she'd stop me when I did a topic jump and actually ask how I'd got there. She always found it funny.

In any case, one of my life goals (half-seriously) is to get on Jeopardy. I'm pretty good at it. I did make that PCC team and go to go to Boise for a championship. That was fun.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Random trivia moment. La & I are watching QAF when Michael goes on his date with Tracy to the Sports Bar, and they breifly show the TV screen for 2 seconds of some guys celebrating a touchdown.

It was the 1991 Notre Dame at Michigan game, which I attended on a road trip to Ann Arbor with some friends. Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard made one of history's most famous catches, diving in the endzone on 4th down to seal the win for Michigan. In fact, that catch won the guy the Heisman Trophy.

We were sitting in the UM faculty section and received truckloads of abuse from the resident Phd's and their spouses. They had been riding us all game, but when that touchdown was scored, the game was over. One of my most unpleasant memories.

And that was the scene - the UM euphoria of that touchdown - that they decided to show for 2 seconds 14 years later (for me) on a show that has nothing to do with college football.

I had to pause the show and voice my complaints to a phenominally uninterested viewing partner before resuming the show.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

LOL

Oh man, that sucks though.