Memory Class #4

Last night's memory class was largely focused on numbers, continuing a handful of exercises were used to internalize the numbers-phonetics table to which we were introduced in last week's class.

And we had a test!

A single-page description of a house for sale was distributed. After a few minutes to read it through and memorize the details, we were asked 15 questions about details contained therein. I scored 14 out of 15, missing one of the easiest items: the name of the town in which the house is located. On the good side, I got every question about the layout of the property & house and all numbers related to rooms, room size, price and telephone numbers.

The last hour of the class was dedicated to building a method for memorizing a deck of cards. Cards are ordered by suit: clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. This particular suit order alternates black & red suits and --we are assured by Prof caller_dayle-- is a standard order used by magicians and card sharks world-wide.

Anyway, take the first letter of each suit (which is a conveniently unique value), then a phoneme from our internalized numbers table to select a word which is viscerally memorable. For example, we use the "c" from "clubs" and the sound we associate with the number 4, "r," giving us the obvious word "car." The image of a car --perhaps your favourite previous car, your current car, your fantasy car, whatever is memorable-- is now associated with the card "4 of clubs."

We mapped out the entire deck this way, 52 unique images for 52 cards and each set of images customized uniquely to be meaningful to the person in question.

To specifically memorize which cards have been viewed at a particular instant, one recalls the image associated with the card then visualize the image being destroyed in some horrific way, using the emotional connection to enforce the memorization process. For example, in my memory image inventory, the card "3 of hearts" is an image of a ham; to memorize the card once I see it being drawn by the dealer, I envision the ham being ravaged by a pack of hungry wolves.

This will all take practice. I haven't picked up a deck of cards in decades so I'm not sure it will have practical value but I'm in this for the mental discipline & training rather than improving my skills as a wanna-be card shark.

Memory Class #4

Last night's memory class was largely focused on numbers, continuing a handful of exercises were used to internalize the numbers-phonetics table to which we were introduced in last week's class.

And we had a test!

A single-page description of a house for sale was distributed. After a few minutes to read it through and memorize the details, we were asked 15 questions about details contained therein. I scored 14 out of 15, missing one of the easiest items: the name of the town in which the house is located. On the good side, I got every question about the layout of the property & house and all numbers related to rooms, room size, price and telephone numbers.

The last hour of the class was dedicated to building a method for memorizing a deck of cards. Cards are ordered by suit: clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. This particular suit order alternates black & red suits and --we are assured by Prof caller_dayle-- is a standard order used by magicians and card sharks world-wide.

Anyway, take the first letter of each suit (which is a conveniently unique value), then a phoneme from our internalized numbers table to select a word which is viscerally memorable. For example, we use the "c" from "clubs" and the sound we associate with the number 4, "r," giving us the obvious word "car." The image of a car --perhaps your favourite previous car, your current car, your fantasy car, whatever is memorable-- is now associated with the card "4 of clubs."

We mapped out the entire deck this way, 52 unique images for 52 cards and each set of images customized uniquely to be meaningful to the person in question.

To specifically memorize which cards have been viewed at a particular instant, one recalls the image associated with the card then visualize the image being destroyed in some horrific way, using the emotional connection to enforce the memorization process. For example, in my memory image inventory, the card "3 of hearts" is an image of a ham; to memorize the card once I see it being drawn by the dealer, I envision the ham being ravaged by a pack of hungry wolves.

This will all take practice. I haven't picked up a deck of cards in decades so I'm not sure it will have practical value but I'm in this for the mental discipline & training rather than improving my skills as a wanna-be card shark.

What Evening?

Work at the office was relatively light. Work at home, however...

Ken Ritucci wants to teach an Advanced square dance blitz class February 13-15, 2009. I'm thrashing around to see if I can scare up a dance space which can accommodate 5-7 squares, is available and is affordable. Feelers are out to folks who know these things in Maryland and Virginia. It might be easier to build a hall from scratch.

Apparently, the hotel room bookings for the GCA caller school coaches, TAs and staff falls on me as the local GCA point-of-contact. Not a problem. Well, kinda a problem: we know that the hotel room block doesn't have too many spaces left available for the Sunday night of the caller school. We can expand the room block but we don't want to increase it too much so we need to determine how many of the current room reservations are for the caller school and how many are simply early convention arrivals.

So far, there are five registrations for the caller school. I have about 15 hotel reservations by GCA members for the dates covering the caller school. As near as I can tell, there's only one overlap between the two lists. I've sent e-mail to the other 14 folks to figure out their intentions. With a little luck, we'll soon have a better idea how many more rooms we need for the GCA.

BTW, if you're thinking of coming to the caller school or the convention and haven't registered yet (or made your hotel reservations), please do so asap.

I'm still pursuing two convention staff callers to see if I can get them to join the GCA. I'd like a 100% sweep of all the staffers... we'll see how it goes.

I have the caller contracts ready for DCLS' Harvest Festival Hoedown 2009. Now I just need a current board member who can sign them on behalf of the club so I can get the things into the mail.

Later tonight, we're heading to Arlington, VA, to visit with urbear, in town on business. Note to self: take the camera.

What Evening?

Work at the office was relatively light. Work at home, however...

Ken Ritucci wants to teach an Advanced square dance blitz class February 13-15, 2009. I'm thrashing around to see if I can scare up a dance space which can accommodate 5-7 squares, is available and is affordable. Feelers are out to folks who know these things in Maryland and Virginia. It might be easier to build a hall from scratch.

Apparently, the hotel room bookings for the GCA caller school coaches, TAs and staff falls on me as the local GCA point-of-contact. Not a problem. Well, kinda a problem: we know that the hotel room block doesn't have too many spaces left available for the Sunday night of the caller school. We can expand the room block but we don't want to increase it too much so we need to determine how many of the current room reservations are for the caller school and how many are simply early convention arrivals.

So far, there are five registrations for the caller school. I have about 15 hotel reservations by GCA members for the dates covering the caller school. As near as I can tell, there's only one overlap between the two lists. I've sent e-mail to the other 14 folks to figure out their intentions. With a little luck, we'll soon have a better idea how many more rooms we need for the GCA.

BTW, if you're thinking of coming to the caller school or the convention and haven't registered yet (or made your hotel reservations), please do so asap.

I'm still pursuing two convention staff callers to see if I can get them to join the GCA. I'd like a 100% sweep of all the staffers... we'll see how it goes.

I have the caller contracts ready for DCLS' Harvest Festival Hoedown 2009. Now I just need a current board member who can sign them on behalf of the club so I can get the things into the mail.

Later tonight, we're heading to Arlington, VA, to visit with urbear, in town on business. Note to self: take the camera.