Monday, April 21, 2008

The Weekend

* At a house party, why am I hearing so much of MGMT, the day after that Good Friend Adrian played them for me in his car? Is it because they're wonderful?

* Losing at Boggle, winning at drinking, general confusion about the game where they stick a paper on your forehead.

* My new neighbour plays various bugle calls, very loudly, on his trumpet. I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean but it's sort of wonderful.

* Who is who? I can't register more than one new name each night.

* Most significantly: why are the birds singing at 2:30am? This doesn't make any sense. When I hear birds singing I assume that it's daybreak, but in this case...no, it's the middle of the night. Crazy birds. Crazy singing.

7 comments:

Adrian said...

Remembering names...

A trick I use when meeting someone new is to think about a friend with the same name, and then mentally associate their faces. This only works if the person has a name the same or similar to someone you already know.

I find unique names are kind of memorable in themselves, so the trick isn't as necessary.

Anonymous said...

Remembering names? Hmm. There was this cartoon about using the well know associativity thingy. Idea was to rhyme an attribute with the name.

The punchline?
Dick the "p***" is mis-remembered as Dennis. :-) :-)

Adam Thornton said...

In order to remember a name, I need to literally stare at a person for about ten seconds, and I need to use a similar "by association" trick (I canvass them for famous people who share their name). Even then it only works if I see them at least once a month and mention their name each time.

On Sunday I DID manage to remember a name...but I used it on the wrong person at the end of the night. :(

Anonymous said...

Busy? Long time no update.
Oh, a really great and cool technique that we have used in "ice-breaker" games - Each person is required to think of an good fitting Adjective starting with the same letter as his first name. So you get both an insight into his/her personality and a good mnemonic at the same time.
So eg you are either Muddleheaded Muffy or whatever you please. :-)

And oh btw, you made me curious and google really is a dear friend.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW008

Adam Thornton said...

Am I busy? Think two words: DWARF FORTRESS.

Aha, so there really ARE birds that sing at night! I wonder why they only do it on certain (rare) nights, and why it's happening city-wide (so not just due to a cat prowling around)? I heard them again when I woke up briefly at 2am this morning.

The alliterative adjective name game seems like a good idea. Munificent Muffy? You already have an allitervate name (unless you pronounce it "judge") :)

Kimber said...

I ran into a girl I've known since Kindergarten the other day and enthusicastically greeted her as "Tracy." Her real name, I realized as I was leaving the store, is "Lori." Oops. Then it struck me: I called her Tracy because she had the exact same poofy hair-do as a colleague of mine who is also named Tracy.

Is there such a thing as hair association?

Adam Thornton said...

I definitely do hair association, I think it's one of the most distinctive parts of a person. Unfortunately it's also one of the most mutable!

Don't worry, I'll never forget YOUR name Melissa.