Saturday, January 20, 2007

Where's my Mind?

"One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place."

- Emily Dickinson

I think I have to write something...hypergraphia of the highest caliber. I haven't been sleeping in my room this past week...I've been on our living room floor, and I've slept much better as a result. There seems to be something about the room you sleep in...it has a feeling all to its own...like an old classroom...or a hospital hallway. There are memories in places...places in memory...and there's a whole theory postulated by the ancients as to the nature of this. The method of loci speaks to the idea that memory preoccupies a space...much like boxes preoccupy a warehouse...the key to remembering nearly anything is to picture the item you want to retain as being in a physical place...a place you know well...like your home...next, each item you wish to remember should be mentally placed in a corresponding room of your home (this seems to work even better if you are physically in the room you wish to associate with your item). In fact, there are cases where we do the association of place/memory subconsciously...students who write exams in the same room they've been taught do better than students who write their tests elsewhere. They say to never do school work - or any work for that matter - in your bedroom...you'll subconsciously lose sleep due to your mind's association of work+bedroom=wakefulness. I guess writing on a blog counts as work, hey? Best be jettisoning.

-Brady

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Our Future

A leaden weight
We waste away
Wonder if I can wait to wane
Looking forth to retain the names
Of all the rest we lost in vain

-Brady