One way to deal with Moments of Forgetfulness

I have worked out a 'trick' that serves me well concerning certain types of moments of forgetfulness. When I come across something (a fact, a name, an idea) that I am likely to want to recall at a later time, I tell myself two things:
1. "Try to remember this!"
2. "It's no big deal if you don't!"
I am in effect giving myself permission to not remember it. This has the effect, I suppose, of reducing the stress of remembering, as well as the stress of forgetting. It also, ironically, seems to make it more likely that I will remember it later. In my experience, I have been at times conscious of trying to recall something that I remember having given myself permission not to remember! It doesn't always mean that I remember what I was trying to recall, but I don't fret much about my forgetfulness, because I have 'pre-forgiven' myself ...

The trick is in remembering to pre-forgive myself and thereby increase my chances of recalling!

Yeah-Yeah ... #3 - Give me Coffee!

"I just HAVE to have a cup of coffee to start the day!" "I just can not FUNCTION until I've had my coffee!" These "Yeah-Yeahs" are closely related to these: "DECAF? No way - give me the real stuff!" "Oh I ONLY drink caffeinated - I can't STAND decaf!"

Sound familiar? What is it about caf-coffee snobs - and they are not the same as coffee lovers (of which group I am a happy member) - not only do they feel they have to emphatically declare to the world that they are addicted to the buzz of caffeine, but they despise decaf coffee as a poor pretender.

Yeah-Yeah - maybe you should stop to think about the extent of your addiction ...

Yeah-Yeah ... #2 - The Book was Better!

Another favorite "Yeah-Yeah" moment is when you're discussing a movie that's based on a book. It seems that no matter how good or bad the critics thought the movie was, or how much or how little you enjoyed it, there's always someone who (claims to have) read the book and says "I thought the book was so much better!" This has happened so often in my experience that it's become a cliché - it prompts me to have a "Yeah-Yeah" moment - in some cases I anticipate the "Yeah-Yeah" remark, even.

Now it might well be the case that every movie that is based on a book fails to live up to the promise of the book - a case could indeed be made for the argument that your imagination when reading a story is (at least for you) more powerful and compelling than some movie director's portrayal of that story. But, yeah-yeah, reading a book is so much more laudable than watching a movie ... you are holier than me, what can I say?

Yeah-Yeah ... #1 - No Tech for Me!

What's a "Yeah-Yeah"? It's a remark or opinion that makes me want to say "Yeah-Yeah!" Perhaps an example will clarify what I mean ...

Now, not all people like technology or gadgets; many people have a hard time learning or understanding how "techy" things work; many people choose not to use technology and prefer "the old way". You can probably think of several examples. A common one I encounter is writing address or calendar info in a little book instead of typing it into a computer or PDA.

People have a preference for one thing over another, which is great - that diversity is partly what makes us human! What makes me shake my head and say "Yeah-Yeah!" (usually imperceptibly, I hope) is when someone expresses their preference emphatically as if it's something new, original or significant in some way ... maybe they say "Oh, I can't stand typing things into a little device, it's way too hard to see. I can do it much quicker on paper."

It's when it comes across as a cliché that I get the "Yeah-Yeah!" urge.

Stay tuned for different examples of "Yeah-Yeahs" ...

Lead me to the lead piping! - a favorite linguistic typo

Maybe calling them "typos" is being too kind ... one of the "typos" that seems to catch my eye fairly frequently is the use of the spelling "lead" when the writer means "led" (the past tense of the verb "to lead"). We all know that the metal "lead" is pronounced with a short "e", as in "led", but when a writer carelessly types "lead" when they mean "led", the reader (alright, I mean "I") will confuse it for the present tense of the verb instead, which distracts the reader from the intended sense of the sentence.
(Don't get me started on "effect" and "affect" - oh, alright, maybe in another blog entry ...)

Just go ahead and ... use that cliche!

The next time you watch someone demo a product, whether live or in a web movie or whatever, notice how often they use the expression "so now I'll just go ahead and ..." or something like it. The first few times they say that, it sounds fine, helping to set the stage for what they're about to do. But then after a while, when they keep prefacing every little step they demonstrate with that same expression, it gets distracting and irritating. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, and maybe I'm the only person who notices, but I bet I'm not! How about you?