Memory for Weird Stuff

image credit:
http://usualerror.com/e-book/memory

I have a memory for the weirdest things.

Long ago, I had a conversation with one of the other IT Guys and he talked about not having too many children. I asked him why. He said:

The average guy can only faithfully remember between 7 and 10 things *.

1. Anniversary
2. Wife's Birthday
3. Son's Birthday
4. Daughter's Birthday
5. Password to the system
6. Admin Password
7. Own birthday
8. Dang it, what were the other ones?

Anyway, he got to talking about how if you have too many kids,we start losing some of the other ones. He estimated that over half of the divorces happen because the man forgets one of the top two. (frighteningly, I remember the conversation)

Clearly, there are layers of bad memory... my boss's memory is worse than mine. Equally frightening, he may have been the coworker with whom the above conversation happened.

My wife has an excellent memory, or so she would have me believe. My kids have realized that I don't always have a stellar memory. I have conversations where I don't remember the conversation and I'm told I said things that don't even sound like something I would say... am I being used?

So, here are just a few of the twisted things I have traded my childrens' birth dates for...

• Almost every line from Princess Bride, I know... Inconceivable! I'm stupid like a land war in Asia.
• A conversation with a person I had just met and only seen twice since, about of all things...gum and bad breath.
• The lyrics of Ice, Ice, Baby...to the extreme I rock the lyrics to a bad song, light up a cake and celebrate the wrong day.
• I met this girl once and got her number and it just stuck in my head, it's 867-5309. Her name was Jenny, but not the one from Forrest Gump.
• I remember that my sister likes German Chocolate Cake and my wife likes Red Velvet cake, but without the icing.
• I remember that my mom collects crystal perfume bottles.
• I remember that my dad will always opt for Vanilla, where as mom opts for Chocolate.
• I still remember the combination to the lock I used in gym class in 1983. I don't actually still have the lock.

Obviously, this list would be longer, but remembering what I remembered in place of the things that I've forgotten that I forgot to remember is just too much for my brain to process.


I feel like I can forget my birthday, because optimally, I have one wife and three kids who will remember it for me. Notice I don't have my parents birthdays listed on my list so clearly this is a bad plan.

What's one weird thing you remember?


What's something you've forgotten? (Yeah, it's a trick question)

* I don't remember the exact statistic, of course.