Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Modern... whatever that word is for things that you remember?

So I'm going to be Thirty-thrrrruuun... something this year. It's not like I feel old... oh wait I did have some joint and back issues this past year. Scratch that last part. It's not like my mind feels old... wait I forgot what this blog was about. Where was I going with this? Blah.

Here I'd like to add a quote by Jasper from my favorite episode of The Simpsons titled Duffless - Ep. 16, Season 4.
Jasper Pictures, Images and Photos
(Jasper enters Community Center.  Rev. Lovejoy sits at the welcome table)

Lovejoy: Coping with senility? [wondering why Jasper had arrived]

Jasper[gruff] No. I'm here for Microwave Cookery!  No, wait.  Coping with senility.

Oh yeah, so I'm one of those people who has really good memory. I have fairly vivid memories of my very early childhood, from before I could really even talk much. But up until my mid-twenties, I thought everyone had those memories. Evidently not. So it's no surprise that as my short-term memory starts to fog up a little, I'm starting to fear forgetting normal stuff I take for granted everyday.

Normally if I forget something, I then remember it when I'm reminded of something similar. Not anymore though, I've started forgetting stuff that honestly I'm not for sure if I ever had known it or done it. It's very scary for me too. I have a semi-recollective photographic memory. In other words, weird things like a song will come on the radio and I have a flash memory of exactly where I was driving maybe week or even five years ago the last time I heard that song. I see the front windshield of my car the surrounding environment, etc - all from that day in the past. It's a little unnerving, especially since I have no control over how to productively use this skill. The closest I ever got was in college. I would read a book for a class, then when I needed to sight a specific section of the book, then usually I could remember what part of the page (left or right - bottom paragraph, third sentence, etc.) and where in the book to find that section, even if the book was 500 pages or more. It's weird.

So, here's where we are today. I leave a string of evidence all over the house telling where I've been throughout the day, which helps me find my glasses... which I lose about every 30 minutes. I feel like frick'n Velma from Scooby-Doo. And don't even ask about my eyesight as I get older. And if it's not my glasses or billfold or keys, then it's my damn shoes or jacket. The remote control to the TV has become my arch-nemesis. My short term memory isn't worth crap anymore.
And if that wasn't bad enough, then this is the nail in the coffin. I hate when I watch a trailer for a movie that looks interesting or hear a song I like. Then I spend the next eternity trying to remember the name of it. I can't imagine how many hours I've wasted digging around on yahoo or amazon with vague descriptions of items, just hoping I'll stumble across it. Well... BINGO! Today Netflix helped me find a movie I forgot the name of in 2005... which is how long I've been trying to find it. In 2007 I went as far as asking a guy at Blockbuster to load the Ellen Page movie Hard Candy on all of their 12 TV screens, just because I thought I saw the trailer there. Well after spending 10 minutes getting it all set up (with other customers looking on)... the previews section did NOT have the trailer I was looking for... it was a different movie... shit.

After that tool-riffic idea, I decided to scale back my searches to the internet. Well that didn't pan out, many different times. And after all that searching I almost feel embarrassed to know what the real movie is. I'm sure that this movie looked interesting in 2005, but I'm even MORE sure that it won't be interesting enough to justify my stupid-angry-mega-quest.

Well just to keep everybody from asking, here is the trailer for the movie... Mean Creek.



And yes, now it's in my Netflix queue... so I won't forget. And this movie better be good, it owes me hours upon hours of my life back.

2 comments:

  1. dude i totally know how you feel - i can do the whole book thing know the page, paragraph where the info is. when i can't sleep i like to try to lay there and remember childhood memories and i try to go farther and farther back -- but lately i can't remember shit - i was at lindy's the other day and i came out of the bathroom going to tell her something and i made it to the living room and i completely forgot!!

    its just sad :) good blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh hey! I remember Mean Creek. I also had seen the trailer and thought it worth checking out and then promptly forgot about it. Thanks for bringing it back from the dead! Yay, selective memory.

    ReplyDelete