Cabin (Tent) Fever is kicking in! Keeping busy with memory training and a hike! Check out the new blogs: "On the way to Advanced Base Camp" and "Cabin Fever" - just click "GO" on the homepage!
http://memorychallenge.fusionio.com/intro/
Mountain gods honored, gear blessed, whiskey shots taken, rupees lost... Great day at Everest Base Camp. For more on the Traditional Puja Ceremony and the events that followed, read my blog on the Fusion-io Memory Challenge Website - http://memorychallenge.fusionio.com/intro/
4 more days until we go up to Advanced Base Camp!
Made it through the Chinese border! In snowy Nyalam for the night ... Blog Post: http://www.fusionio.com/memorychallenge/updates/index.html
Latest blog post is up about our 4 day journey to Everest Base Camp! Remember that during my climb, you can keep up with my blog posts by visiting: http://www.fusionio.com/memorychallenge/updates/index.html
What's up everyone? I just landed in Kathmandu this afternoon - what a long and tiresome journey! Make sure to follow my social media on twitter @climbformemory or www.facebook.com/climbformemory, and all of my blog updates and everything awesome about my climb from:
www.fusionio.com/memorychallenge
There you'll be able to track my progress, read my blog posts, interact with the mountain, and learn about how I'm training and testing my brain up the mountain.
All blog posts will be posted there (I will always post a link to the latest blog on this website as well).
Namaste!
It's such an odd experience reliving an exact circumstance of two years ago, being two years older. In 2011, I left for Kathmandu to climb Mt. Everest right about this time. It seems like ages ago - as if I was a completely different person back then. I feel like last time I just threw myself out there, without much of a thought (but with a lot of training, nevertheless), excited like a school girl at prom. But this time I feel a lot more composed, serious, and confident going in. Maybe it's from all the intense training, maybe it's what happens when you fail the first time and are given one last shot, maybe it's because I'm older and pretty much 30. Who knows? All I know, is that I like the feeling this time around; it feels good. I have no idea what's going to happen in the next 2 months - high-altitude mountaineering can do the strangest, unforeseen, things to people - but I know I am going to enjoy the experience more than ever and will try my hardest to climb this damn mountain.
I leave April 1st, traveling Miami-Houston-London-New Delhi-Kathmandu (fun, right?). Once I get to the bustling Kathmandu, I'll get a few days to organize my gear, buy some last minute things, meet my team, stuff my face with some fatty, delicious American-style foods, take a lot of hot showers, etc. We'll then drive out to the Tibetan border on April 6th and should arrive at Base Camp on April 10th.
As for how you'll be able to follow me and my teams progress....there are a few ways.
1. Altitude Junkies - the company I am climbing with - has a blog that will have updates on our team whenever possible. 2. Fusion-io - the company I work with as a brand ambassador and a sponsor of my climb - they are launching a website which will have ALL my personal blog posts and updates. To top it all off, the site will be monitoring my memory training progress up the mountain. All new blog posts on that site will be linked from the blog on this site (site URL will be announced soon). 3. Twitter/facebook. If you aren't following or liking @ClimbForMemory yet, then do it NOW!!
Here I go folks. Stay tuned.
PS. The picture above is what our camp will look like exactly. Go ahead, zoom in. It's pretty awesome!
It's been a few days since the competition but I wanted to give myself a few days before I wrote anything.
So if you haven't heard...I didn't win. Good god it feels like 2010 all over again. It actually doesn't even feel like I even won the last two years, haha. I came in 2nd, actually. Quite frustrating because if you look at the USA Memory Championship website, it looks like I won because it says I was in 1st place overall. But that's the nature of the competition. It doesn't really matter how you did through all the events, but rather how you do in the last event. Here's a recap of how the day went down:
I decided to get to the competition early this year just to scope things out. The Science Channel had supposedly put all these cameras and cranes and things up, and if there's one thing I've learned about myself and memory competitions is that I need to know the who, the what, and the where of everything before I go in or else I freak out and lose focus. So I did just that.
I did my usual walk down 3rd ave listening to my memory competition play-list, made a right on 14th street and found the all-too-familiar Con Edison building looming above me. There was a camera guy waiting outside to film competitors arriving and no sooner did I enter the building I got a tap on the shoulder from the camera guy asking if I could pretend walking in one more time. Reality TV is so not EVER real!
Anyways, I met a few familiar faces on the elevator ride up and then entered the main hall. I actually expected more of a to-do from the Science Channel. There was just one large crane and the amount of media present was really the same as previous years except all of them were Science Channel folks in orange shirts (I think other media had been limited by the organizers).
I was placed in the first table as usual, in close proximity to past winners Ronnie White, Chester Santos, and Ram Kolli (who finally showed up after a two year hiatus). I was actually pretty excited to see Ram (little did I know he would later beat me. HA.). Did a few interviews, said hello to all the usual suspects, then sat down in my seat ready as ready could be.
First event was Names and Faces (15 minutes to memorize as many names as possible). I love starting with this event because it isn't a very stressful event because you don't know what you're gonna get. No pressure. Last year I got 163 names right and the record is 174. In practice I had been hitting 195-200 names. I didn't pace myself very well and only touched 180 names this time. I usually get a handful of spellings wrong, so it's safe to deduct 20 names or so for a final score (you don't get points for incorrectly spelled names). I was pretty on target with that guestimate because I scored 162. Better than most everyone. Michael Glantz hit 152 - solid. I was surprised how low everyone else's scores were compared to ours - I think the next closest was around 132.
Second event was Speed Numbers (5 minutes to memorize as many digits as possible). First trial was a mess. I was too distracted by cameras and found myself going slower than usual. I made it to about 300 digits before I had to start reviewing. Made a ton of mistakes during recall and ended up with a score of 194 digits - meh. Second trial felt so smooth. I made it to 342 digits and I felt perfect about them all. There was a stupid mistake made by the organizers though - they forgot to stop everyone at 5 minutes, so people kept memorizing and I had to awkwardly shout out that time was done. I honestly blame that moment on the fact that I made 2 mistakes in my recall. Because of that I got 302 digits instead of the full 342. The last 4 digits on the 320-340 digit row were 3161 but I had memorized them by a quick mental photograph when time ran out. But when I had to shout out to correct the judges on the time, I guess I was distracted enough to flip the 61 into a 16 in my mind. So I wrote 3116 and got that row wrong because of it. Had i gotten it right I would have beaten my old record with 322 digits. DAMN. But 302 is still respectable and miles ahead of anyone else (the next closest was 132 digits).
Third event was Poetry. It was a tough poem with long lines and super erratic punctuation. I went for about 220 points (I went for 233 points last year) and ended up with a score of 165. Good enough for tied 3rd with Mike Mirski.
Fourth event was Speed Cards. First trial I decided to play it safe just to have a good score under my belt. That usually means I need to go through the deck twice. I nailed it in 1 minute, 7 seconds. Johnny Briones did an awesome 1m28s next to me. I felt awesome because nailing it in the first trial allowed me to go buck wild in the second. I typically go too fast the first time, get it wrong, then have to stress about getting it right the second. But this time I was free to go nuts for the second trial. I just went for it and slapped the timer at 34.97 seconds! On the recall I felt good, had everything correct except two cards. ARGHHH! Swapped them. So close to a personal competition best and a huge USA record. Oh well. Until next year, I suppose. I was expecting Jared Alderman to shine here, but I guess certain things didn't go his way. It happens.
So with winning 3 out of the 4 morning events, I was sure to get in the top 8. Actually 1st place. Thank the fricking baby jesus. I had been so stressed about whether or not I'd get in this year. So many people were talking about threatening this score and that, but in the end no one came even close. I never understand why this happens - it's the same story every year. Anyways, we had lunch and then started the afternoon rounds with the top 8: Me, David Kutz, Michael Glantz, Noah Ehrich, Mike Mirski, Johnny Briones, Ram Kolli, and Chester Santos (No Ron White! I was shocked).
Random Words was first (15 minutes to memorize as many words as possible from a 200 word list). I always go for 100, but I pushed for 130 to be safe. I can usually do something close to that in just over 5 minutes, so it's a pretty safe score for me. We went out on stage and nobody was getting any words wrong! I think we got into the 80th words before someone made a mistake. At around 100, we had our first 3 contestants knocked out. This is always the scariest event for me, just because it's so easy to slip up and you only have ONE shot. But I made it through, thankfully.
The Tea Party was up next, and in my opinion was a total shit show. The people that the organizers got to read out their profiles were so annoying - everyone suddenly thought they were professional actors or something (I guess because they were gonna be on TV?). It made the event look kind of stupid. Either way, I hardly ever listen to the people talking anyways. I just memorize it straight from the sheet. Then we got an extra 5 minutes to review everything in the back room. Easy. Didn't make a mistake at all. Michael, Ram, and I made it through.
On to the finals: Double Deck 'O Cards (5 minutes to memorize two decks). I had practiced this so much. In practice I had even gotten my 2 deck time down to 2m30 seconds. Typically in competition it takes me about 45 seconds to go through each deck the first time and then I spend the rest of the time reviewing the decks as many times as possible. So the 5 minutes ended and as we walked to the stage, I mentally rehearsed both decks. Knew them down cold. As we went started reciting the deck on stage, out loud, I remember being so careful and focused on saying each card correctly. It's easy to say the wrong card even if you are thinking the right one. Michael Glantz got eliminated on the 27th card, then I corrected him with "6 of diamonds", Ram: "10 of Spades", me: "9 of hearts", Ram: "2 of Spades", me: "Queen of Clubs", Ram: "Jack of Hearts". All while this is happening, Tony Dottino (the MC) is telling us to slow down and is having trouble showing the audience the cards. I remember the crowd kind of muttering at this point and me looking over at Tony briefly. I think at that moment is when my focus shifted and I temporarily lifted myself out of the memory palace I was in for the cards. When I went back in, I started speaking before I knew where I was. "2 of Spades" I said (which was the correct answer 3 cards prior)....instantly as I said it, I knew what I was saying was wrong. It was "Ace of Spades"....FUCKKKKKKK. And that was it. I lost. Just like that. Off of a stupid mistake. It felt like 2010 all over again.
Such is life.
So there you have it. My 2 year dominance stunted by a dumb mistake. Congrats to Ram for sneaking into the top 8 and having the persistence to stick it out till the end. That might have been my last USA Memory Competition....at least my last USAMC in that format.
Losing sucks, for sure. And it hurts especially when you know you could have won for a third straight time. But I have to look at the positive, and that is that losing is usually better than winning. At least in terms of where it takes you next. When I lost in 2010, it pushed me and motivated me like crazy to win in 2011. I did. But after winning for 2 years straight, it was a lot harder to push myself this time around. So with this loss, I know I'll have to push myself in another direction, and for that I am happy. I needed that boost. So whatever it is that I push myself towards next, watch out!
But for now, on to EVEREST!
Too bad this is my 5th time :)
The 2013 USA Memory Championship is finally upon us! The 16th annual competition of the minds starts at 8:30am this Saturday, March 16th in the Con Edison Building (4 Irving Place, NYC). For those of you planning to go (and everyone reading this should be planning to go), the first event starts at around 8:45. You'll be seeing us "mental athletes" memorize names and faces, massive numbers, poems, and then decks of cards. That's in the a.m. After we break for lunch, the top 8 competitors battle it out elimination-style on stage. To me, this is really the most exciting part of the competition for viewers, so if you don't have all day to kill, aim to show up at around 1:30 to see that. It goes till about 5ish.
Good god it's gonna be a good one! This is how excited I am: here and here and here. I'm trying to win my third title in a row, while a good handful of new-comers are setting their sights on the title as well. Some competitors are even throwing around the world "world record" for a lot of the events. I've set records that are respectable in the world of memory, but to see a world record be broken on the USA stage would be unprecedented. We will see.
How am I feeling? Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt so calm before a competition. Back in 2010 when I first tried to win, I was nervous as hell. In 2011 I was slightly nervous but confident more than anything. In 2012 I was an absolute wreck - I have no idea how I kept it together. But this year I for once, feel great. Not because I'm kick-ass confident or anything, but more because I don't really care as much this time around. And when I don't really care when memorizing, I memorize the best. Either way, I'll be trying to break all the US records as usual. Hopefully I can walk out with a few new ones and a few old ones improved.
Hope you can make it out there. If you can't then you can follow my twitter. I'll be tweeting as much as I can throughout the day.
It"s 5:30pm and I"m reviewing the list of attendees for the night"s Fusion-io event - an event celebrating their top 100 customers in Japan. Yeah, Japan. I"m trying desperately to make some sense out of all these crazy looking names I"m reading. Takenori, Takeshi, Katsutoshi, Yoshihiro, Kazuhiko, the list goes on. To a native, names like these are no problem, but for me they literally look like Japanese. I"ve memorized rooms full of people before, but with names like Bob, Steve, Carol, and maybe a lengthy asian name here and there - but for the most part not.
At 6pm, I"ve positioned myself at the entrance of the banquet hall where the clients will enter once having registered. At first two stroll in: Yuta and Toshikazu. I bow and introduce myself and they politely return the bow and present their business cards. I pause for a moment, work my memory magic, and I"m good; I"ve memorized their names.
A few more people walk in and I repeat the process. So far so good. But soon, the volume of people coming in is too much for me to handle and I can"t introduce myself to everyone so easily. I do my best but soon find myself flustered in a room full of 40 (and climbing) Japanese men. What"s worse, and I hate to say it, is that I"m having a hard time telling the difference between many of them. They"re all wearing similar business suits and they all have very similar facial features (at least to me, an American who"s not accustomed to being around asians). I can typically pick out a feature on an a Westerner in a split second, but here it"s a real challenge.
Time is running out - I only have until 6:30 to make my way around the room and learn as many names as possible, then the event will start. Ryusuke, Yousuke, Kensuke, Horishi, Tonesuki, Daniel (phew, an easy one), Hideki, the names keep coming. I make it through about 60 or so people before time finally runs out.
The event begins. Founders David Flynn and Rick White do their magic on stage, and soon after The Woz joins them for a Q&A. A sake barrel is hammered open in custom, a toast is made, and dinner is served. It"s nearly showtime. I scan each of the 11 tables in the room to make sure I remember all the names. I"m drawing a lot of blanks. This is gonna be a disaster.
Finally I"m ushered backstage. They play a short media clip about me and I"m called to the stage. "If you remember shaking my hand when you entered, please stand up." Over half the room stands up. Yikes. "If I say your name correctly, have a seat. If not, stay standing. I apologize if I mis-pronounce your name, I"ve never had to memorize so many Japanese names in my life! It was quite a challenge." The audience lets out a polite laugh but I know I"ll have to nail everyone"s name or else it"s not gonna be very impressive.
I walk over to one of the tables in the front that I feel very comfortable with. I nail the names of the 5 people standing. Each one lets out a resounding "OHHHHHH" as I correctly say their name. Okay…I got this, I say to myself as I move on to the next table. Boom, Bam, Boom, name after name I fire them off almost without thinking. More ooohhhs and ahhhhhs. "I"ll come back to you later" I say to one guy in particular whom I can"t remember. I circle the room, flawless. I mispronounce one name, but I can see they are very understanding and still impressed. I come to the last table and name "Toshikazu" - "Aha!" I turn to the gentleman I had previously skipped over in the front of the room. "Your name is Toshikazu too!" DONE. The room bursts into thunderous applause. I have no idea how, but I"ve done it.
That was a short recap of my recent business trip last week. The point of the story is to emphasize how important it is to trust in your memory. I"ve talked about this before, but I"ve found that the fastest times and best scores I"ve achieved while memorizing have all happened when I wasn"t really thinking. I know that sounds odd. How can you memorize something, which in itself is a process that requires a great deal of thinking, without thinking? I don"t have a solid answer for that, but I do know that memory works better when confidence is high. I guess because a lot of the thinking/memorizing power can get lost in the thoughts of self-doubt and unsureness while memorizing. If you remove that and just "look" at what you are memorizing (using techniques of course - just looking at stuff won"t help you memorize better) it"ll flow and stick better.
Performing at a high level without thinking is a phenomenon that applies to a bunch of different arenas. The idea is that you become so proficient in a skill or task through practice, that you can almost operate without thinking. Think of when a basketball player catches fire. He has no idea why, it just happens. And then compare it to someone in a slump, à la Tiger Woods. Suddenly the best golfer in the world sucks and everything he tries to do to fix his poor performance just seems to make him even worse.
So if you"re ever frustrated with your performance, in whatever field that may be, just remember that sometimes less thinking can improve performance. So just let go. Step back form the situation and just do it.
One of the more common questions I get from people is "So...how do you train for Everest?"
Last time I climbed Everest my training was roughly 5-6 days a week running 4-7 miles, with 3-4 of those days also lifting, working on strength. Nothing super over the top, but still a pretty good schedule. I felt strong on that climb, but as many of you know, it didn't get me to the top. I think that was because I had too much of a predictable workout schedule, and after a while, running just wasn't pushing me enough.
This year I've been varying my routines on the daily to keep my body guessing and ready for anything. Typically I do 3-4 days on, 1 day off, then repeat. It really depends on how my body is feeling. Some workouts hurt for longer, so for example, this week I rested Friday and Sunday. The goal of my training is to keep my whole body in shape and capable of attacking any type of physical situation. Granted, climbing is pretty predictable - it's pretty much just carrying a heavy pack and using your legs to walk up a steep incline. But I truly believe that being fit means being ready for absolutely anything. Here's a taste of what I did last week.
Monday:
Strength: 10 Rep Max Lunges (5 each leg)(Front Rack Position)
then...
3×5 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), 1 minute rest between sets 10 burpees 5 bar muscle ups 10 squat jumps 100m run
Tuesday:
Buy In: 1000m run
then...
5 rounds of: 8 deadlifts 185 lbs 10 wall ball shots 20 lbs 12 kettle bell swings 55 lbs
Buy Out: 1000m run
Wednesday:
EMOM (every minute on the minute) for 10 min.: 3 hand-stand pushups
then...
15 min. AMRAP: 5 burpees 10 ring aussie pull-ups 10 weighted step-ups with 35 lb dumb-bell (5 each leg) 5 strict pull-ups
Buy Out: Hi-plank hold for 5 min.
Thursday:
15 min. EMOM: 2 hang squat snatch 95 lbs + 5 burpees
then...
For time (split between a partner): 100 pull-ups 150 thrusters 95 lbs 200 double unders (jump rope)
Friday:
Rest day :)
Saturday:
10 rounds for time: 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups 7 front squats 115 lbs 7 hand stand push ups
(brutal!!!)
Sunday:
Active rest day - 5 mile run.
So, there you have it (If you're not sure what some of those movements are, just youtube 'em....you'll find plenty of tutorials). I've been following this training regiment for just over a year, whereas in 2011 I had only started training 6 months before. I feel incredibly strong - stronger than I've ever felt in my life - and my endurance and stamina are through the roof.
Onto the next week of training!
Yes, the memory championship is in less than two months (March 16th), but more importantly my Everest climb. Every day I get more and more excited for it. I really can"t believe it"s been nearly 2 whole years since I last went. I was 27 then, now I"m 29. I really feel a difference in how much better I am able to focus on goals. Back then, with climbing, memorizing, etc., I was pretty solid when it came to having a strict schedule and working my ass off. But now, the difference is not so much the volume of practice and training (which is what I used to think it was all about) but more about the quality of it. I"m a lot smarter about what I do to prepare and I avoid wasting time on the things that don"t really matter.
Just to give Engebretsen's Des Moines-based agency provides primary care to many poor people with little or no individual insurance . you an idea of what will be happening here on this blog during the climb. There"ll be updates as often as possible as I climb up to the different camps on the mountain, more frequent tweets and facebook updates, live satellite position broadcasting, and once all is said and done, another series of Everest videos. Should be fun. The North side of Everest is a classic climb but there"s never as much coverage on that side as there is on the South...so hopefully I can change that a bit.
Remember that this climb is all in the name of Alzheimer"s Disease. I started climbing and memorizing because of my grandmother, after she passed from the disease a few years ago. The goal is and has always been to raise as much funds and awareness for the disease. If you haven"t done your part yet and would like to help out, please make a donation here: www.climbformemory.org/donate
Here we go. For those of you who follow my progress, y'all knew that I was climbing Everest again via the same route I did back in 2011. And also, that I was planning to do a two-fer: Everest + Lhotse (the neighboring 8000m peak), back to back.
Well, scratch that. I'm going North Side.
It sounds like a small, quick switcheroo, but honestly it was a long and hard decision to make. Just a few months ago, as my climb started to rear its head around the corner, I started to feel a sense of dread, rather than excitement. It was a weird feeling to have because I've always had butterflies in my stomach before a climb, especially before Everest. The feeling wasn't 100% dread though really - I mean, I have such amazing memories of my climb of '11. I love the Khumbu Valley, Everest Base Camp, and most of all Peak Freaks and their Sherpas. But I also realized that knowing exactly what I was going to have to do to summit (having come within 280 ft of the summit last time) was mentally messing with me. The Khumbu Ice Fall always scared the shit out of me - it was my favorite part of the climb by far, but I had serious nightmares about that thing - just because of the uncertainty of it. And then there's the way I felt up to Camp 4 and then my summit push. I was strong, but it was painful - mentally and physically. I think knowing that I was going to have to go through that pain again was just mentally draining me and making me not want to fully climb it again.
With those thoughts in mind I said to myself that I would only climb Everest if I was excited and motivated to do it. I thought of pushing it back a year, or abandoning it entirely, just because I didn't know if I'd ever get that gusto back for climbing it. After mulling about on it for a few weeks I suddenly thought, well what about climbing it from the other side?
The northern side (in Tibet rather than Nepal) has always been the side I first fell in love with when I first set my sights on Everest. All the books I had read (aside from Into Thin Air) and all the Discovery Channel episodes I saw back in '06 and '07 were all North Side. That was actually the side I had originally intended to climb on, but after doing all the research, I soon found out how tricky and unreliable it was to climb over there ever since the 2008 Olympics in China. Not only that, but the North Side had a reputation of being very "wild, wild, west" (quoteth Alan Arnette). So I did my research again, and found a company called Altitude Junkies that runs a pretty reliable operation over there. I had briefly met their leader Phil Crampton while descending through the Ice Fall back in '11 and he seemed like a good fellow. The more and more I got into the research, the more I felt that excitement come back. Once I noticed that, I knew exactly what I had to do.
There's nothing better than climbing with a huge excitement before a climb. On top of that, add the fact that it's always been a dream of mine to travel through Tibet ever since the early 2000's and that I perform physically better when I don't know 100% what to expect. Altogether it made sense. So it's official. I'll be climbing the North East Ridge Route from the northern, Tibetan side with Altitude Junkies.
Nothing has changed other than the route. The climb is still for the same cause and I'm still as motivated as ever. What's even better about going on this new adventure is that it will create a completely isolated memory in my mind. I love that! Plus, I'll have this incredible view from my tent at Base Camp:
First of all, check out these awesome pictures from the World Memory Championships: http://designtaxi.com/news/355271/Photographer-Captures-The-Strain-At-The-World-Memory-Championships
It shows some artsy photos of people concentrating before memorizing. Some people are wearing crazy goggles, glasses, and other things I have no names for. While it may seem like everyone wears these things, a good portion actually don't. I personally like to wear headphones and that's it. No glasses. Although I probably should use some glasses with blinders, given that last year at the USA Memory Championships the media was rudely taking flash photos just inches from my face as I tried to concentrate. Not cool. (For any media reading this and planning to attend the USA competition in March, please remember that no distracting photo snapping is allowed during memorization. That's a rule. Thanks). Maybe I should wear this completely embarrassing contraption?
Now for more important business: I officially registered for the USA competition! YES! I will be defending my title of 2 years, aiming to secure a 3rd title in a row. I've been training ridiculously hard for this, and while there are whisperings all around the internet of people planning to dethrone me, I feel pretty confident I can pull through. But if someone beats me, well man, then hats off to that person. I know what it takes to win, so if anyone is able to one-up that, nice. They absolutely deserve it. But I'm gonna make it extremely difficult for that to happen. Just saying.
As for Everest....OH MAN I'M EXCITED. I'm leaving in 2.5 months. Can't wait. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement regarding that climb.
Sorry for that slight hiccup. The site is back! Gearing up for Everest 2013!
Hello everyone and hello 2013. Why don't you make your New Year's Resolution to stop forgetting people's names. It's actually pretty easy to memorize names, you just need a method. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCq62_UWC14
I'll be gone for the next week or so....so for those who read my blog, have an awesome start to the new year! I'm a huge fan of new years because it's an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, set new goals, and get things going. So get your stuff going.
"A year from now you'll wish you had started today" -someone clever.
See you guys in 2013!
I know it's the last day of Christmas, but I'm sure you've been hearing "The 12 Days Of Christmas" song a whole bunch. Just in case you don't know each of those 12 days by heart.....
Here are the lyrics (for the last go-round):
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 12 Drummers Drumming 11 Pipers Piping 10 Lords-a-Leaping 9 Ladies Dancing 8 Maids-a-Milking 7 Swans-a-Swimming 6 Geese-a-Laying 5 Golden Rings 4 Calling Birds 3 French Hens 2 Turtle Doves And a Partridge in a Pear Tree
Ok, let's start with what technique to use: The Number/Rhyme system. Since the above list only goes up to 12 and we know that we'll be counting down from 12, we just need to have an association between the number (1-12) and the item that goes with it. So what is the number/rhyme system? Well, it's when you think of easy words that rhyme with numbers 1-12 and then use those words as "pegs" to attach each image to. Here's the pretty standard list for 1-12 (note that they all rhyme):
1. Gun 2. Shoe 3. Tree 4. Door 5. Hive 6. Sticks 7. Heaven 8. Gate 9. Wine 10. Pen 11. Lemon 12. Elf
Now, for each of those words, we need to associate (or imagine) something having to do with the christmas item for that number. Let's begin:
12 - elf - We need to associate "Drummers drumming" with an "elf". Easy. Just picture an elf playing the drums. Maybe he's playing some Metallica. 11 - lemon - We need to imagine "Pipers piping" with a lemon. Why not just imagine a lemon smoking a big wooden pipe. 10 - pen - Ok, imagine a big fat Lord Of The Rings book leaping over a pen, back and forth (lords-a-leaping). 9 - wine - Imagine some sexy ladies dancing while drinking some wine....that's an easy one (ladies dancing). 8 - gate - Imagine some french maids pouring milk all over themselves, all scantily clad, pleading to be let in through a gate (maids-a-milking). 7 - heaven - Imagine swans swimming in the clouds up in heaven, all serene-like (swans-a-swimming). 6 - sticks - Imagine some geese having intercourse (or "laying") some sticks (you can just picture some geese laying on some sticks, but that's rather boring...) (geese-a-laying). 5 - hive - Imagine some bright gold rings or honeycombs stuck up in this hive, dripping with delicious honey (golden rings). 4 - door - Imagine calling a bird on his cell-phone and as he flies down to your doorway to meet you, you slam the door in his face. BAM (calling birds). 3 - tree - Imagine some hens wearing french berets and with moustaches, sitting in a tree, enjoying some cheese and baguettes (french hens). 2 - shoe - Nearly done! Imagine a turtle and a dove putting shoes on each other, stinky workout shoes (turtle doves). 1 - gun - This one you should just know, but in case you don't, imagine a partridge in a pear tree and firing a gun at them (partridge in a pair tree).
There you go!
Merry Christmas everyone!
My new title. It's so going on all my credit cards, checkbooks, letterheads, business cards, and toilet paper rolls - Grandmaster Dellis. The WMC has come and gone and I can honestly say I'm glad it's over. No joke, it was a heavy competition. 3 days of grueling hours of memorization definitely took its toll. I totally crashed last night when I got home, albeit on a really big high. For one, I came in 7th place (out of 70+ competitors) and almost caught up to the 6th place Ben Pridmore (who was a bit out of practice, but still performed some awesome scores). I think my total score of 5300+ points bumped me up to 20th or 21st in the world (from 24th). Nice.
But coolest of all is the fact that I achieved my Grandmaster of Memory status, which I have been trying to do for quite some time. How do you do that? Well....
1. Memorize a deck of cards under 2 minutes (easy, I did it in 40.65 seconds) 2. Memorize 10 decks of cards in 1 hour (easy, I did 12 and a bit) 3. Memorize a 1000 digit number in 1 hour (easy, I did 1320)
Voila.
As for my scores throughout Day 3:
Random Words - I shot for 208 words, which is a bit less than I normally do. I made some careless errors, so it cut my score down to 177 points. Still not bad, but my mistakes were silly - I confused "crown" with "queen" and "baggage" with "suitcase" UGH!
Spoken Numbers - Three trials to try and memorize as many digits in a row, spoken to you at a rate of 1 per second. The first trial I went for 100 digits but missed the 8th one, giving me a whopping score of 7, haha. The next round I went for 101 and nailed it cold. Third round I was gonna shoot for 200 but I got a bit overexcited at around the 87th digit mark and I stopped paying attention to the numbers. Whoops.
Speed Cards - The final and most exciting event. Two trials to memorize a deck of cards as fast as possible. In my first trial, I stopped the timer at 50 seconds, only to recall everything perfect minus two reversed cards. FRUSTRATING. My second trial (which was more stressful than the first since I needed to secure it or go home a sad little man) I nailed 40.65 seconds. Holy crap - It was my best competition score EVER. I even beat out Johannes Mallow (42 sec), Boris Konrad (43 sec), and Ben Pridmore (42 sec). I was stoked.
Overall, the competition was a great experience. Some parts I could have done better, some other parts I did what I expected, and other parts I surprised myself. With the ultimate goals of placing top 10 and becoming a Grandmaster, I'd say I had a pretty good competition.
Thanks for everyone's support! Now on to win a 3rd USA Memory Championship in March!
'Sup. Day 2 is over and I'm not feeling so hot about my performance. Don't know what's up with me this weekend, but I'm not gonna let this happen again....My scores haven't been bad, I mean I'm still doing pretty well, it's just I know I can do a ton better. Anywho, tomorrow is filled with stuff I'm very good at like Random Words, Spoken Numbers, and Speed Cards...so hopefully I can redeem myself.
Today started with the announcing of yesterday's scores. I got 3rd place for names and faces - YES (101 names). I think 8th for hour numbers (went for 1680 or so, but got 1302). Binary I got around 1200 digits correct just as I had predicted. Meh. But it left me in 9th place overall and with the help of Brad Zupp and Luis Angel, put team USA in 6th place!
Abstract Images - my goal was to break 200 points. I went for 205 and I'm pretty sure I nailed it. So I'm excited about that. That's a good score for me considering how little I practiced this event.
Speed Numbers Trial 1 - I went for 288 (again, I felt sluggish) but made a good amount of mistakes, ended up with a score of 208 digits. This is like my score from 2 years ago. Yuck.
Historic Dates - Was hoping for at least 60, but my pace was poor and only got to look at about 55 dates, recalling about 48 or 49 or so. Might be a personal best in competition though.
Speed Numbers Trial 2 - Went for just under 320 digits this time, but I know I made mistakes. Hopefully I hit about 240 this time, we'll see tomorrow.
Hour Cards - Had 21 packs of playing cards laying on my desk ready to be memorized (dwarfed by my neighbor Ben Pridmore's absurd collection of 36 packs!!!), but at this point (and I know I'm being kinda negative, but sorry) I just wanted to nail 10 so I could get my Grandmaster title. So I went for 15, recalling 13.25 decks (perfectly, I think).
Ok, time to be positive. Tomorrow I could be crowned a grandmaster. And that means "Nelson" gets replaced with "Grandmaster" everywhere and always. Grandmaster Dellis.
As for the other competitors, Jonas is destroying it like it's nobody's business. Right on brother. Simon and Johannes are still keeping it real in first and second.
Quick update here. Day 1 has passed, and while there have not been any scores announced, I can still share how I felt I did. The answer is....meh. Today my memory felt weird and slow (never felt like that before). Could be because I only slept like 4 hours, but no excuse.
Names and Faces - I think I did well. The names were absolutely ridiculous though. I know they"re trying to be all "international" by having names from all around the world, but I seriously question a lot of those names. I didn"t see very many "normal" western names, which isn"t all that fair. Anyways, the general consensus was that it was harder than normal. Which is guess I good....hoping to have hit 100 or slightly better.
Binary - did pretty much as expected: horrible, lol. That"s okay though. I really don"t like this event and don"t plan on ever practicing it again; glad it"s over. Tried to hit around 2000 (which is not a great score), but only got to In case you missed them, check out some Instagram of Justin recently getting cozy with Kendall Jenner!20+ pictures inside of picture of justin bieber having fun at Disneyland…Buaha! I love that nobody cares anymore. around 1600-1700 digits....I started off super slow. Made a good amount of mistakes, so hopefully I can still get around 1200 digits.
Hour numbers - good but not great. Was hoping to touch or flirt with 2000 digits. I always forget how hard live competition is compared to practice. Anyways, my first journey confused me for some reason and I ended with it having skipped two spots and thinking I was off by a digit. Trying to figure that out, wasted about 5 minutes of my time. Then I found myself needing to review too much, because stuff just wasn"t sticking...it was just weird. Anyways, I did 1682 digits, which would be decent if I hadn"t made a ton of mistakes. The major goal was to get above 1000 digits so I can snag the grandmaster title, so I think I did that at least.
Didn"t really ask around how other people were doing, but I"m guessing that Johannes Mallow, Simon Reinhard, Boris Konrad, Christian Schaeffer (all German), Ben Pridmore (UK), Jonas von Essen (Swedish), and Ola Risa (Norwegian) are at the top. Hopefully I can peek my head into that crowd a little after some more events tomorrow. We"ll see.