Updates, tons of updates...

Hey guys. 2012 is looking up to be awesome! I can already feel the excitement building up for the 2012 USA Memory Championships. I"m hoping there"ll be a good turn out this year, but I"m pretty sure there will be! People care about improving their memories, I know it. It"s just a matter of time before schools start begging us to plug this stuff into their curricula. Anyways, I submitted my application for the 2012 USA Memory Championships. You can do the same right here. Do it! The more the merrier. Cut off date is March 9th.

I"ve got a few media things coming up soon. I"ll be in the March issue of National Geographic, a couple shows here and there (which I"ll reveal once I"m allowed), and whatever comes with the competition PR this year (always something fun). Also, I"ll be in Park City this weekend for the SlamDance (no, not Sundance) Film Festival - the same festival where "Monster"s Ball", "Napoleon Dynamite", and "Momento" were discovered. My friend Jonathan Napolitano filmed a documentary about me, Ronnie White, and Brad Zupp (all Mental Athletes) as we trained for the 2011 USA Memory Competition. It"s quite awesomely named: "Ben Franklin Blowing Bubbles At A Sword: The Journey"s Of A Mental Athlete". The world premiere is Friday night @ 7:30 just in case you"re in PC. Only 9 short documentaries were selected out of a pool of 5000 films and his was one of them! Very cool.

Check out the trailer:

"Ben Franklin Blowing Bubbles at a Sword: The Journeys of a Mental Athlete" from Jonathan Napolitano on Vimeo.

Everest-wise, Alan Arnette put together this fabulous summary of the 2012 season coming up. Read it here. It"s everything you"ll ever want to know about all things Everest.

I wish I was out there climbing this year again - you have no idea how much I feel like I"m missing out... But 2013 is around the corner and giving it some distance from now allows for more hype to be created for the real cause at hand: raising awareness for Alzheimer"s disease.

I totally just bombarded you all with way too much stuff.

PS - Haven"t done a "how to memorize something" blog post recently, but there"s a good one in the works. Stay tuned.

2012

Here we go. 2011 was freaking inCREDIBLE. But as always my goal is always to make each year even better. It was only 2 years ago today that I started planning my Everest trip from last year. And now I'll be doing the same for 2013. While I did express my goal of attempting a double summit, because of the difficulty of knowing for sure what the Chinese government will do with climbing permits and all that, I still have to keep my options open and consider doing a repeat of my last climb on the south side. If that happens though, I'll still go big. I would love to bag Lhotse (the 4th tallest mountain in the world and neighbor to Everest) as a double peak-bagging expedition. As for memory, the 2012 USA Memory Championships is closing in and I'm ready to defend my title. I even made this little video because I wanted to try and be as cool as Ben Pridmore (I failed):

Speed Number Training from nelson charles dellis on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, folks! 2011 was an incredible year for me and Climb For Memory and 2012 will be even crazier. Enjoy the holidays with your family, these are the times that stick in our memories for years to come. So make sure they count! I will be out of the country until the first week of January, so Happy New Year as well! No more blog posts until 2012.

Cheers!

Card Memory

Holy cow....so about a month or two ago I set my personal best of memorizing a deck of cards in 33.80 seconds...since then, I've kinda been in a slump, getting in the higher 30, low 40 second range. That's just the nature of the beast, there are ups and downs. Anyways, I'm on the up again, the past week has been awesome with all 30 second range card times with absolutely no mistakes. It's so weird how sometimes it just "feels" easier to memorize cards, like I don't even have to try. I've hit 34 seconds twice this week, and I'm sure I'll hit 33 or even 32 very soon. Memory is strange. That is all.

Climbing For Memory

A good friend of mine, Kuntal Joisher, recently was climbing in the Himalayas and brought along some Climb For Memory action with him.. We at Climb For Memory, decided to take a few moments to sit down with him and learn more about his passion for climbing and why he decided to "climb" for "memory." Tell me a bit about yourself. My name is Kuntal A. Joisher, and I come from a land of billion sparks a.k.a India :-) Anyway, I'm 31, and I live in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. By profession, I'm a Computer Engineer (I've a Bachelors in Computer Engineering, and a Masters in Computer Science from USC, Los Angeles). I work as a General Manager for an IT multinational company based in Mumbai. When I'm not working, you'll mostly find me trekking, climbing, photographing or doing something fun and adventurous!

How did you find out about Climb For Memory? Since past few years I've been regularly following Everest Spring climbing seasons. I tend to follow pretty much all well known agencies (such as PeakFreaks, Alpine Ascents, Adventure Consultants, Mountain Madness, IMG etc) and how their climbers are doing on the mountain. I follow their blogs, dispatches, pictures, videos -- pretty much everything!! I came to know about Climb for Memory when I was going through 2011 pictures on Peak Freaks facebook page. Out of all pictures of that season, one picture that struck me the most was you with the Climb for Memory flag probably near the south summit. Those words "Climb for Memory" had me intrigued about your organization, and in no time I was going through your website and blog!!

What made you want to "climb" for "memory"? 2 things -- Climbing and Memory, both of which I'm very passionate about. Also I'd like to give some context about my situation. Few years ago, my dad was diagnosed with Dementia, at a relatively young age of 50. The doctors mentioned that he probably had Multi-infarct dementia. Over past few years my dad's condition has deteriorated quite bit, and it's to a point where he doesn't even remember or recognize me! It's been a very emotional journey over past few years to see him deteriorate day-by-day and get to this state, and it's very frustrating at the same time that I cannot do anything about it as Dementia as a disease does not have any cure. However, at the same time it's been quite a learning experience just in terms of knowing more about the disease itself, how to come to terms with it, how to deal with it -- basically how to plan your life around it -- so that you can give utmost love and care to your loved one. One of the things I'm very passionate about is to increase awareness about dementia, encourage lifestyle changes to delay the onset of the disease, support dementia cure research in any way possible etc. When I saw your organization Climb for Memory and it's mission, I was like A-ha! this is exactly what I've wanted to do for quite some time i.e. combine both my passions: Climbing and Dementia awareness!!! So basically Climb for Memory is something I would have eventually done independently, but when I saw that your organization already was there and doing great work, I thought why reinvent the wheel? It would be so awesome to work for your organization and pursue my passions. And so I got in touch with you, and since then I've been taking Climb for Memory flags on all of my treks/climbs.

Tell me about your most recent climb with Peak Freaks.

SHEARPRESENCE.COM/MHTML/

I've always been interested in climbing Mt. Everest. It's the top of the world!! It's my dream to stand on that summit some day. But before I get there, I need to strengthen my mountaineering skills, train hard physically and mentally, get adjusted to the expedition life, figure out how well I acclimatize etc. Peak Freaks have this amazing Everest Training expedition at Mt. Pumori, the idea of which is that you would learn all the necessary skills as part of the trip, and if you do well enough then you could probably start thinking seriously about climbing Mt. Everest as the next step. So I became part of this trip, and let me tell you - even though we didn't summit Mt. Pumori, I learnt quite a bit, both about mountaineering as well as myself. Now I know where I'm lacking, and I have a rough plan in mind as to how gradually over next few months I intend to address my weaknesses, as well as take my strengths to next level.

Whats next on your climbing list? Up next is Chadar Trek (Frozen river trek) in Feb 2012. Just to give you a bit of an idea about this expedition -- The word "Chadar" literally means blanket, basically a blanket of ice, and it is used to refer to the trek along and over the frozen Zanskar River in the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh in India. This trek is undertaken during a small window of 20 days during peak of winter season when the temperatures during the day are around -12C, and during the night go down to around -30C. Basically it's a spectacular, and at times challenging trek across the Zanskar river, with opportunities to savor ancient Buddhist monasteries and remotes villages nestled in the depths of deep gorges and valley's of Trans Zanskar ranges. So yup that's what I would be doing in February of 2012!!

The next one after this would be something big! The trips I'm contemplating at this moment are -- trying to get up to Camp 3 of Mt. Everest, Or climbing Mera Peak (highest trekking peak in Nepal), Or some unexplored high-passes or peaks in the Indian himalayas.

10 Warning Signs Of Alzheimer's Disease

I've had a lot of people ask me about warning signs for Alzheimer's Disease. Here they are according to Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp

Another common question I get is how exactly one dies from Alzheimer's Disease? Alzheimer's is a disease related to memory, so how can one die from it? Here is a great article about that:

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp

No WMCs.

Alas, I"m not going to the World Memory Championships anymore. This is kind of a delayed announcement, because I"ve actually already announced it in a bunch of other places, but I figured it should be mentioned on my blog in some way or another. So yeah...not going.

Why? Well, it"s complicated. But basically a bunch of stuff went down with the Chinese sponsor - things were changed very last minute and prize money essentially vanished. So a lot of people have decided that they aren"t going anymore. No more Ben Pridmore (the 3 time World Memory Champion), no more Germans, and now no more Americans (me). I was really looking forward to doing the USA proud. I had practiced a LOT and was pretty sure I could finish top 10. Oh well. Next year...

I don"t know what"ll happen to the competition next atoledo.com year, but we will see. For now, I"m 100% focused on reclaiming my throne at the 2012 USA Memory Championships. I"ve seen and heard about a lot of people training real hard for this championship (mostly because of interest generated by Josh Foer"s book I"m assuming), but I can tell you that none of you have been training harder than me. Sorry. You may be better than me, but there"s no way you can train harder than me. Just saying. If any of you thought for a second that I was happy with my win this year and slacked off a bit, you"re dead wrong. Everything I could do last competition, I can now do better, faster, and more efficiently.

With that being said, I"m excited for any challenger who comes to the competition with the mind-set to beat me. I think it"s great for the sport. Anyways, gotta go run. Happy holidays.

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life and I'm going to pay special attention to those things today (and then I'll focus on eating tons of food, Dolphins beating the Cowboys, then where I'm gonna get my Black Friday on...PS, isnt Black Friday supposed to start at like 3am? Not midnight? I'm confused....and scared. And excited). Hope you all have a great one! Many THANKS for reading my blog in the first place :)

credit because they are

I Feel Like I've Written This Blog-post Before...

There's this scene in The Matrix where Neo casually blurts out "woahhh.....déjà vu..." after seeing a black cat cross an entryway, and then a second later, sees the same exact cat cross the exact same entryway. That scene always annoyed me because that is NOT déjà vu. What annoyed me even more is just how casually he attributes that bizarre witnessing of cats to déjà vu. With déjà vu, you usually don't know where or why something is familiar, but in this scene Neo knows he's just seen the exact thing happen right in front of his nose twice in quick succession. Argh, it's so dumb. Anyways, I don't know about you, but whenever I've had déjà vu, it's usually a very strange feeling. A feeling that makes me feel like I've seen it all before and know what's going to happen next (when I really don't). It's this kind of icky feeling that I can't seem to fully latch on to or describe (which makes the whole experience even stranger).

The reason I'm writing about it here is because I had a very bizarre experience on Mt. Everest this past spring. Once I reached Base Camp at 17,500 ft, I began experiencing déjà vu constantly. I'd say on average about 6-10 times per day. It became so chronic that it turned into something extremely frustrating and invasive, almost like hiccups that won't go away. 6-10 times per day is a lot for me. I typically only experience déjà vu once a month (if even that) in everyday life. But up there at altitude, it was happening non-stop, sometimes even happening back-to-back-to-back. So weird.

I've tried many-a-time to try and think why all of a sudden at altitude I was starting to experience it. I've climbed to high altitudes before and never had déjà vu even once. So what was different? Well, for one, at the time of the climb I was more obsessed with my memory training than I had ever been before and I was training my memory throughout the whole expedition. On past climbs I would either stop memory training completely or I hadn't really gotten into memory training all that obsessed-like yet.

So what does that suggest? That my memory training at altitude was activating some part of the brain that unleashed déjà vu after déjà vu? Yeah sorta, I guess.

Here's my bizarre theory. I've heard many explanations for déjà vu, but no one really seems to know for sure what it is or how it starts (it's pretty hard to conduct scientific studies on the phenomenon since no one knows how to induce it on demand). One explanation I've heard is that déjà vu is a mixing of the unconscious and conscious parts of the brain. Basically, a confusion about memories that occurred in an unconscious state (dreaming). Your conscious brain fires of these warnings that scream, "Hey, this is familiar!" when something that happened in a dream is in someway familiar. Most of what we dream isn't very memorable, but what if in real life, something slightly reminded you about that dream somewhere deep inside your subconscious. That would feel weird right? You would feel like something was familiar but you wouldn't know why or from where. That's exactly what déjà vu is.

Here's where it gets stranger. It's common amongst high altitude climbers to say that dreams at altitude are much more vivid and bizarre. This happens because it's more difficult to breathe at high altitude because of the lack of oxygen. Because your body is struggling to get the same amount of oxygen it's used to, sleep is often interrupted by fits of waking panic and suffocation or sleep apnea, which in turn makes climbers sleep lighter and dream wackier.

Now, because of this whole vivid dream thing, combined with my whole intense memory training, could it be possible that my brain was much more active in searching the unconscious for recognizable things in real life? Was my strengthened memory able to reach deeper into those wacky, memorable dreams and tag them onto moments in real life that bared any type of resemblance? I have no frigging clue, but it sounds cool. Either way, the fact remains that I was experiencing déjà vu many times a day and it wasn't normal. It was actually kinda scary at times. It was like I couldn't get rid of this feeling like I knew everything around me. The weirdness was amplified by the fact that I was somewhere I had never been before in my entire life (Mt. Everest). So I knew, on top of me knowing that this was all familiar, that this couldn't be familiar in any way at all.

Mind == BLOWN.

Anyways, just wanted to share that with you all...(On a side note, my chronic déjà vu disappeared once I returned to sea level, so it was most likely altitude induced).

For all you readers out there, I'd love to know how frequently you get déjà vu? And when you do, what it feels like to you? It's interesting to hear different peoples account of this because everyone describes it differently.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite clips from one of my favorite movies ("I wish we could all live in the mountains...", lol).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hq5jZrFTbE#t=2m10s

My Aunt Gets It

So for any of you doubters of memory techniques and memory training out there, who think it's too crazy or hard, get this: my 65 year old aunt uses it all the time. She isn't training like crazy or anything, she just uses the basic principles whenever she needs it. Here is a recent example she told me about (it's awesome!) where she had to memorize a shopping list. She came up with an image for each item and then linked them into a quick story: 1. Toilet Cleaner refills (Winston Churchill - has initials WC like the bathroom) 2. Celery (Tom Seleck - his last name sounds almost like celery) 3. Mussles (Jean Claude Van Damme - he has big muscles) 4. Thyme - (Biding time - action of biding one's time) 5. cigarettes - (Eating fuming hot cigarettes - another action) 6. French fries - (Eating KFC - another action) 7. Cucumber (While playing the ukelele - another action. I guess ukelele reminds my aunt of a cucumber somehow?).

So she pictured Winston, Tom, and JCVD biding their time eating cigarettes and KFC while playing the ukelele. Something as simple (and outrageously silly) as that, got her 7 items on her grocery list. BA-ZING!!!

Believe In The Ball, And Throw Yourself

That's one of my favorite quotes. I'm pretty sure I tweeted it the morning of the 2011 USA Memory Competition. Sadly, it's from one of the worst "funny" movies out there (Not Another Teen Movie)....but it's a great quote nonetheless. Watch Mr. T (The Wise Janitor) say it in this clip (be warned, some rough bad language in there). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIl_4D-FUo4

Anyways, I've always attached to that motto, rather than the kind that should read: "Believe in yourself, and throw the ball." I honestly can't stand quotes that tell you to "believe in yourself". It's basically suggesting that you become aware of the situation you are in and realize that you have practiced millions of hours for this one very important moment and that there's a ton of pressure to win and that if you don't win you'll probably lose a lot of things that were at stake. Yeah....great right?

havent experienced being

In moments where your practice is being tested, I believe that not thinking about anything is the best way to go. You have to just "throw yourself". "Believe in the ball" refers to believing in the skill you've attained, but leaving it out there almost as if it wasn't a part of you. The skill is there, so believe that it's there, working somewhere deep inside you, and just let it be whatever it is. Then "throw yourself"....meaning, just mindlessly go for it. Don't even think about what you're doing. It's when you over-think things that things can get ugly.

Think of Federer when he hits a few double faults....you know he's thinking about all the things that are usually automatic during his serve the next time he's serving. His serving is suddenly awkward to him because he has to think about it, which makes his results even worse. More serves go out, and it just builds on previous doubts. And then emotions set in, like so:

When memorizing quickly, there's no time to think. It has been said that if you are pausing to think about the images you are memorizing, then you aren't memorizing well and will most likely forget the image. Seems counter-intuitive, that if you want to memorize something you shouldn't spend more time looking at it. But yes, the less you think about it and the more you just "see" the images and move on, the better it sticks. No joke.

Anyways, just a few words of quasi-wisdom for the day. Basically, stop thinking. It's bad for things you've practiced. On a side note, can I just express my hatred for the following type of quote as well? "Tomorrow you would have wished you started Today". Hate that. I prefer "Why do today, what you can do tomorrow". I'll explain that another time.

DJ Shadow & Ben Pridmore

There are very few "cool" videos out there relating to memory. Usually the show, explanation, demonstration, etc. of memory is a re-hashed version of some previous one. For once someone has done it right. In what is one of the coolest videos I've seen in a long time, check out Ben Pridmore's thought process while memorizing a deck of cards....only soundtracked by DJ Shadow and acted it in one continuously shot nightmare-ish stage show: http://vimeo.com/31908447

Ooops

Had to remove my last post that had to do with a TV show I"m not supposed to mention yet, for a TV network I"m not supposed to mention yet, with a host I"m not supposed to mention yet. I"ll probably be allowed to mention it near the end of the allyslot.net year though, so I"ll re-post that blog-post then. Sorry! If any of you guys read it, try and forget it! In other news (hopefully I"m allowed to mention this), I"ll be filming with for the Martha Stewart show in January and then with ABC Nightline as well. Also I"ll be in a two-page spread in the March 2012 Nat Geo magazine. I"m also doing a shoot for Playgirl. Just kidding. Stay tuned!

Fusion IO!!

So it's official. For the next year I will be working side-by-side with this awesome tech company out in Utah, Fusion IO. Ever heard of the legendary Steve Wozniak? Yeah, he's their Chief Scientist (just to give you an idea of how awesome they are). What do they do? They create memory software and hardware for computers that is the most efficient (and badass) out there on the market. They basically have the best memory in the world. At least for computers...

Why am I working with them? It only makes sense that the best memory for computers is paired up with the best memory for the brain (mine!). The methods they use to create such efficient memory devices is pretty similar to what I use as a mental athlete to memorize things. Our goals are one in the same, to make the best use of what is available out there in order to store data. They use the latest hardware and cutting edge software technology, while I use the most effective memory techniques. We live in a world that has information flying out at us at a mile a minute. To be able to properly memorize some of things is key to being an efficient and successful human being, but for the thousands of other things we need to store, we use computers. So why not use the best memory systems out there for that? We need to store those things fast and without any problems. That is what Fusion IO can do.

What will I be doing for/with them? Numerous things. Memory seminars and workshops, helping them promote their title of having the best memory, hyping the upcoming memory championships, etc. The sky is the limit.

How can I learn more about Fusion IO? Go to their website here: http://www.fusionio.com/ and follow them on twitter at @fusionio.

(Fusion IO is working with Nelson Dellis, not Climb For Memory....as of yet anyways. While Fusion IO is not affiliated with the charity Climb For Memory, Inc., they are 100% behind it)

One Month Before WMCs

I have one more month of rigorous training before the World Memory Championships (WMCs). There are still a few uncertainties about the competition (which is quite nerve-wracking). It was moved last minute to Guangzhou a few weeks ago and the people hosting the events are extremely hard to communicate with. Here's a sample of my email back and forth with the guy who's supposed to be in charge of booking hotels for all of the international competitors: ME: Hi there, I'm registered for the 2011 World Memory Championships in Guangzhou. I'll be coming from the USA and need accommodations. Can you help?

THEM: Hi: may i help you ?

ME: Hi yes, I was told to contact you to book a hotel room in Guangzhou for the World Memory Championships. Can you help me with this?

THEM: I will give you the imformation of the hotel to you .

ME: Um okay.....When?

THEM: NO REPLY

Looks promising....Anyways, there are a lot of rumors and concerns that the competition will be scrapped or changed again at the last minute. Oh yeah, and the $92,000 worth of prize money has suddenly vanished too. No prize money is going to be offered, which is totally fine, but not when we were promised a bunch of it before hand. There is even talk about the top memorizers not even going to the competition as a kind of boycott. If that ends up happening, I'm down to join in. We competitors just don't feel very protected.

Whatevs. I'm still training bloody hard. It would be a waste if I didn't go....all this time spent training for nothing? No way. I'm still on for China....I'll probably get my plane ticket this or next week. But it's still a bit scary to know that I might get to China and then get royally screwed.

As for other news....the Alzheimer's walk in Coral Gables last Saturday went swimmingly well. Over 3000 people showed up and I think about $150,000 was raised. AWESOME! Thanks to everyone who remembered all the words I listed during my introductory talk!

There's another Alzheimer's walk this weekend in Hollywood, FL - so if you're interested, come walk! I'll be there! So will an ABC camera crew who's filming a story about me and my yes, you guessed it.....memory.

Cheers!

First Double Summit Ever

Ever since I came within 280 feet of the summit, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Mt. Everest. It literally haunts me and populates my dreams and each of my every waking moments. I wish I could go back next March already, but alas I can't. BUT.....in 2013, I can.

In fact, here is my plan (I've told a few people about this already, but never publicly): In March 2013 I'll be heading to Tibet to try Mt. Everest from the north side. Some say it's harder, some say it's easier. The fact remains that it's still Everest, and is hard either way. I just want to try something different. It would probably be easier for me to try again from the south side (the side I know well), but I don't like to do things easy :) And anyways, this is all for Alzheimer's Disease awareness....and the more attention I can get for doing something extremely difficult, the more awareness the disease will get.

Anyways, so here is where it gets interesting. Not only will I attempt to summit coming from the north, but I will continue down to the South Summit (roughly where I stopped this year) and then come back over to the north side all in one go, essentially summiting twice in a matter of hours.

This will be insanely difficult, but I believe I can do it. What's more (and if I'm wrong, someone please correct me), no one has ever tried this or successfully completed anything like this before. A few people have tried to do a double traverse (which is where after summiting they go all the way down to base camp on the other side, rest a few days, then come all the way back over to the original side via the summit), but haven't succeeded. While I won't be going down all the way to base camp, I will be trying to do this all in one summit push. So I will have summited Everest twice in a span of a few hours. Pretty darn cool. Plus, I will have completed the rest of what I couldn't complete this year on Everest. Nice.

Stay tuned for more updates. This is gonna be awesome. I haven't decided on the company I will be going yet with because very few teams set up expeditions on the north side (it's kinda like the wild wild west over there) and preparations won't start happening until next year, so we will see. I'd love to go back again with Peak Freaks but I don't think Tim will run an expeditions on the north side because of how difficult it can be to organize logistics over there (maybe he will make an exception??)....otherwise I'm pretty sure I'll be working with a guy named Ronnie Muhl who runs Adventures Global, an expedition company that has successfully run trips on the north side in the past.

Alzheimer's Walk

Hey all. Been busy moving and as a result have nothing exciting to report. Well no, that's not true. The Alzheimer's Association walk is this Sunday in Miami. I'm stoked for that. It's a great way to get out there and support an awesome cause. Not only that but I get to talk to random people and tell them that they can take charge of their memory and improve it. Lots of fun. If you live in the Miami area, you can register right here: http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=479987 Please go!

Going to Miami

So I'm packing up my apartment here in Boston. It's always so interesting to me how new places can become new mental journeys for memorization. I've got a new place down in Miami waiting to have itself be memorized by a deck of cards. Pretty sweet. As for the near future, we all just got an update for the World Memory Championships. Still seems to be on target and not on the verge of collapse. Hopefully that will remain. Still going to wait to buy my ticket though, but I might just go ahead and figure out my Chinese visa. I feel bad for the people who have already bought their ticket to Beijing before it got switched to Guangzhou. There isn't any prize money either anymore so no hope of winning back some money spent on the trip. Bummer.

Anyways, I'm still training everyday. Going through a bit of a slump right now. Slumps are good though, because they make me re-work my current systems. I've been crap at cards for the past 5 days and I have no clue why. But this is good. I'll break down my system and figure it out; only makes me better.

Other highlights in my training are that I've been rocking the spoken numbers practice (memorizing digits spoken out loud at 1 digit per second). I can manage 100 pretty easily now and I did a record best 170 digits the other day. 200 is close in sight! Also I've been getting smoother at Abstract Images (where you have to memorize the order of random blobs), managing 95 in 5 minutes. If I can get over 250 or close to 300 in 15 minutes, I'll be happy.

Gotta keep packing. On a side note, when I meet people with the name Steve, I think of them as a stove. Like so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0rpv43AlY

Living Social

So I did a talk yesterday at Living Social in DC. That company is pretty fricking awesome, I'm not gonna lie. Everyone's young, there's an awesome vibe in the office, and they have Xboxes everywhere. Anyways, I just wanted to thank everyone there for giving me the opportunity to talk about memory. I hope it got a few people interested. For those that did, please check out my memory section of this website. I've outlined in more detail how to memorize names, numbers, and playing cards. I'm always adding new things, so keep checking my site.

In the mean time, to basically summarize my points from yesterday. The key to memorizing well and properly is to a). be able to convert what ever it is you want to memorize, into something visual. Not only something visual, but something visually funny, gross, bloody, bizarre, or sexual (you should have gotten a good feel for this from my demonstration lol). b). To create "journeys" in your mind of familiar places in order to "store" memorized information. Remember, these journeys can be any place you know, just as long as it's a place you know relatively well. The more anchor points you select on this journey, the more slots you have for stuffing information into it.

That's the basic idea, the rest is practice. Practice is the biggest part of it. Don't listen to Allen Iverson.

Poems

Saw this page (don't know who's page it is) today and thought it was pretty cool and interesting:http://jjhayes.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Memorize-A-Poem Memorizing poetry is one of the events at the USA Memory Championships and probably one of the trickiest for most people. There are different schools of thought on how to go about memorizing poems, and this website shows a technique that I don't use. Gotta try it out though....Even still. Pretty well explained.