One Last Walk Through

Here are the secrets of my memory palace that I used for my list of Odyssey characters on Wednesday.  I just thought I'd take one last walk through before I clear out the palace for our test on Monday.

1. Odysseus: Protagonist.  Walking up my driveway, returning home from his journey.
2. Penelope: Wife.  A woman wearing a pineapple shirt that greets Odysseus at my front door.
3.  Circe: Witch that turns men to pigs.  Circe is wearing a witch hat in my brother's room because his room was always a pig sty.
4.  Calypso: sea nymph.  In my sea-blue room.
5.  Agamemnon: king killed by his wife.  An egg sits in my bathtub that is filled with blood.
6.  Telemachus: son.  My brother wearing a sun shirt using the telephone in my parent's bedroom.
7.  Anticlea: mother.  Woman made of clay sitting on my mother's side of the bed.
8.  Laertes:  father.  My father LAYing on his side of his bed.
9.  Achilles: hero of Troy.  A giant heel/foot perched on the Trojan horse sitting on a recliner in my living room.
10.  Tiresias: blind prophet.  A man's tie holding a white cane in another living room recliner.
11.  Alcinous:  King of the Phaecians.  A giant nose on a face sitting on the left end of the couch.
12.  Nestor:  King of Pylos.  A nest resting in a pile of blankets on the right end of the couch.
13.  Menelaus:  King of Sparta.  A man sitting on the left side of the loves-seat wearing a purple and gold Hawaiian lay (the school colors of my high school- the Spartans).
14.  Helen:  Wife of Menelaus.  Sitting next to him on the love-seat wearing a shirt that says Hell.
15.  Eumeaus:  Swine herd.  Standing at the kitchen counter cooking a ham and wearing an apron that says "You may kiss the cook."
16.  Eurycleia:  Old Maid.  An old maid standing at the stove cooking with a clay pot.
17.  Melanthius:  traitorous goat herd.   A goat sitting on the floor of the kitchen crying (he's MELancholy).
18. Antinous: Lead suitor.  A giant ant wearing a suit sitting at my father's place at the table.
19.  Eurymachus:  deceitful suitor.  A macho man wearing a suit with a snake wrapped around his arm sitting at the table.
20.  Polyphemus: cylops.  A cyclops with many femurs sitting at the table.
21.  Hermes:  messenger god.  Opening the back door to deliver mail.
22.  Apollo: sun god.  The sun-emblem on our patio wall.
23.  Athena:  goddess of wisdom.  An owl (her symbol) sitting at the bird-feeder eating thistle.
24.  Aphrodite: goddess of love.  A dove with an afro sitting at the other bird-feeder eating a heart.
25.  Poseidon: god of the sea.  Our poisoned water fountain.
26.  Zeus: god of thunder.   A lightning bolt with the word "zoo" engraved on it sitting in our porch rocker.

A world without written language.

     The last few days in class we have discussed whether written language is an asset or a detraction from the oral tradition.  The truth is, several cultures live with only a spoken language.  Ong mentions this in chapter one saying, "Of the some 3000 languages spoken that exist today only some 78 have a literature."  I find this a very difficult concept to wrap my head around.  Written language permeates every single aspect of our society and I can't imagine living without literature.  Besides our standard textbooks and written works, written word infiltrates all businesses, communication and technology.  I would not be conveying these thoughts to you in a blog if written language didn't exist.  Heck, the internet wouldn't exist.  The Facebook tab open next to this one would not operate.  In this sense, I think writing has been an essential addition to our oral tradition.  Perhaps our memories and speaking abilities have deteriorated, but I believe these qualities can be recovered with the proper amount of ever.  In this case, the good has out weighed the bad.  With writing we can communicate to people across the globe, we can share our thoughts and ideas and discoveries without being trapped by distance.  This has made leaps and bounds for society across the globe.  Civilization could not progress without writing.

One Liners

Here's my list of one liners from Ong

• "There is no way to stop sound and have sound."
• "In a primary oral culture, the expression "to look up something is an empty phrase."
• "Oral folk have no sense of a name as a tag, for they have no idea of a name as something that can be seen."

My 51 items

I have chosen to memorize important characters and gods for my memorization test.  I will memorize 26 characters and their titles or position in the story for a total of 52 things.  Here's my list:

1. Odysseus-protagonist
2. Penelope-Odysseus' wife
3. Telemachus-Odysseus' son
4. Polyphemus-cyclops, son of Poseidon
5. Eumaeus-swine herd
6. Menelaus-king of Sparta
7. Antinous-lead suitor
8. Eurymachus-deceitful suitor
9. Eurycleia- Odysseus' old maid
10. Melanthius-treacherous goat herd
11. Calypso-nymph that traps Odysseus on island
12. Circe-witch goddess that turns men into pigs
13. Laertes-Odysseus' father
14. Tiresias-prophet in underworld
15. Nestor-King of Pylos
16. Helen-wife of Menelaus
17. Agamemnon-king killed by wife
18. Zeus-god of thunder
19. Poseidon-god of the Sea
20. Athena-goddess of wisdom
21. Aphrodite-goddess of love
22. Hermes-messenger of gods
23. Apollo/Helios-sun god
24. Alcinous-King of Phaecians
25. Achilles: Hero that fought with Odysseus at Troy
26. Anticlea-Odysseus' mother

Toy Story Farewell

This video relates to our discussion about "imaginable" today in class.  This clip is from the end of Toy Story 3 and is my own "Winnie the Pooh" moment.  I never had imaginary friends put I spent a lot of time pretending my toys were alive and playing make-believe with them.  I love this scene because Andy passes his toys on to a new creative mind when it is time for him to go up and leave for college.  Watching him play with his toys one last time reminds me that we never really outgrow our childhood.  It lives on in each of us.  Don't Forget!

Childhood Memories

     Just got back from class and I can't help but dwell on our discussion of memories from our childhood standing out over everyday activities.  This made me think about what memories I have from my childhood before age 5.  The answer: not many and those I do have don't seem special enough to have lasted in my memories.  I have decided to further examine these memories to figure out just WHY I remember them.

     This first one is easy:  I distinctly remember going to the tennis courts with my family to watch my mom play.  Long story short, my brother ended up running into a fence and then face-planting on asphalt.  The resulting injury involved a lot of blood and a trip to the hospital for some stitches in his forehead.  This clearly stands out as a traumatic event and one that did not occur often and so was  new experience.

     Now they get trickier.  I have flashes of favorite toys and friends but nothing truly outstanding.  I remember very little of my first house (we moved when I was about 3).  The only memory I have from that first house is sitting at the counter eating peaches in cream with my mother and grandfather.  I honestly have no clue why I remember this.  At all.  Perhaps I was exceptionally happy?  Maybe the peaches were delicious (however, I don't remember any taste).  This part of my life is a total enigma to me.

     The only other distinct memory I can think of right now is going to a friend's house when I was about 4.  The house was around the corner from mine and was the home of my older brother's best friend.  He had a younger brother my age so I (annoyingly I'm sure) tagged along to go hang out.  In their living room I found an adorable little dalmatian stuffed toy with a blue collar and a dark patch around his eye.  At the end of the day, the younger brother gave me this stuffed animal to keep since I was so in love with it.  Again, I'm not sure why I remember this specific event.  Getting presents wasn't terribly new (thanks to Christmas, birthdays, etc.)  Maybe it's because this was the first present a boy randomly gave me.  It could also help that his same boy is now my boyfriend some 15 years later (small world eh?).

     Regardless,  I am still stuck pondering why my mind elected to save these memories and not others.  As we discussed, everything was new and exciting at such a young age...so what made these memories extra special?  Do these influence what I will select to remember in my future?  Only time will tell.

Yates Ch. 2

"Imagination is the intermediary between perception and thought.  Thus while all knowledge is ultimately derived from sense impressions it is not on these in the raw that thought works but after they have been treated by, or absorbed into, the imaginative faculty.  It is the image-making part of the soul which makes the work of the higher processes of thought possible.  Hence 'the soul never thinks without a mental picture'; 'the thinking faculty thinks of its forms in mental pictures'; 'no one could ever learn or understand anything, if he had not the faculty of perception; even when he thinks speculatively, he must have some mental picture with which to think.'"   Yates, pg 32.


This passage brings up an interesting thought for me: the fact that we always think in mental images.  This is a part of human nature that is so natural it has escaped my notice before.  These mental images appear unconsciously, it just happens.  Even as I type this, images flicker through my mind: mostly memories of day dreams that involved vivid mental images.  I have never put stock in this human function before but it now makes sense that mental images are such an important part of memory.  We naturally think with images so it is natural that we should use images to remember things as well.  This has helped inspire to but a little more effort into creating crazy visual images as I create my memory palaces.

Spencer the thought provoker

Like Tia of the Crawling Ants, my mind was blown by Spencer the Soft Spoken Shaker's post YOUKNOWWHATI'MSAYING.  I've seen the second trick he posted-the one where all the letters in a word can be mixed up except the first and last and the brain is still capable of reading the words easily.  Crazy what our brain can do huh?  I enjoyed the challenge of decoding the rest of his blog with no spaces and was pleased to find that the task became easier as I read.  My brain seemed to adjust to the alternate form of reading.  It makes me wonder just how much our brains are capable of doing.  Mankind has barely begun to stretch the limits of their minds in any area but it's fascinating to imagine what we might be capable of accomplishing if we were able to employ 100% of our brain power.  Just think about it:  could we fly?  Could we remember every word we've read, every face we've seen?  Could we compute complex mathematical problems within seconds just in our heads?  The potential possibilities are endless and almost scary, but it's fun to ponder.