me and memory

I didn't realise it's November that I last write in this blog... it's January now... 2007.. and I still thought it's 2006 because I said to myself today... what a nice number today, its 26 january 2006. Then, it came to me that it's already 2007. My... what an absent-minded I am..

I'm well-known for my forgetfulness.... my family, friends...nothing will surprise them...There was time when I drove my car and didn't realise that my umbrella was still hanging on the side mirror.... and I thought the guy driving next to my car was smiling because he like me!. There were other events too when I left my car door open, forgot my car keys hanging on the trunk lids, forgot my passport when we're going to Miri... ha.. I could write about my scatterbrained longer than my 5,000 assignments...

It's funny though how human brain work... despite my forgetfulness, I could remember hundreds of phone numbers, date of birth, identity card numbers of my family & friends... I don't know how but I just have a technique of putting two and two together... for example, our postcode number is BC2715. So I just keep in my mind that the postcode is a combination of my date of birth and my sister's. Or two of my cousin/friend's birth date falls on the 11 September...the 11 September!!....My sister's association membership no. is 2438 that's the same as my uncle's car licence 438, or my teacher in the secondary 5 phone number is 4481511, when he told me about it twenty years ago, he said to me 4+4 equal to 8 and 1511 (Portugese capture Malacca).

I guess it's just easier to remember things when it can be related to something. Thomas Nissen, a Danish psychologist called it cumulative learning. It occur when you learn something off by heart, or invent a connection to something that you know.

I called it my other not-so-forgetful memory...