Pegging Using Numbers

Pegging using loci or location has been a popular memorization method since ancient times when Roman senators used Loci to memorize speeches that sometimes lasted for several hours. Ancient orators did not carry notes with them.

But using loci rooms is not the only way of pegging. Many people use lists. As I wrote earlier when I introduced pegging this list might be the alphabet or any list already memorized like the nine planets or the 44 presidents of the United States.

The only requirement is order and numbers. The alphabet has its own order and the presidents would most likely be in chronological order.

Both those lists are abstract. We made the alphabet more concrete by creating fun alphabets like my list of popular singers. There are many ways of making the alphabet more concrete. Just associate each letter with an item that can be experienced with the senses.

“A” might be applesauce , an ape or astronaut. “B” might be a battlestar, bumble bee or a banana. “C” might be a calico cat, cow or a candelabra. It is best to come up with your own associations.

Some people knowing they have to number the items use numbers. They might use soundalikes like: one is a sun; two is a school; three is a bee; four is store; five is dive off a high platform; six is a stick; seven is heaven; eight is a skate; nine is crime’ ten is a wren.

Others use associations that look like the numbers. One is a pencil or a tree; two is a swan; three is an Alfred Hitchcock profile; four is a sail boat; five is a bike; six is an elephant trunk; seven is a boomerang; eight is a snowman; nine is a balloon; ten is a bat and ball.

You can also associate the numbers with concrete items and make popular associates for dozens of numbers. For instance here is a numbers pegging list that I created.

Geoge Washington. He is on the one dollar bill and he was the first president

Dancers. There are usually two.

The Three Stooges, or musketeers

The Beatles. John, Paul, George and Ringo

A tape recorder. In the old “Mission Impossible” television series, the tape would self destruct in five seconds.

Actress Tricia Helfer who played Number Six in “Battlestar Galactica.”

Seven Up.

A skate. Skaters do figure eights.

A reindeer. Santa has nine of them.

Cowboy hat. It is a ten gallon hat.

George Clooney who starred in the film “Oceans Eleven.”

Monkeys. Think of the film, “Twelve Monkeys.”

Huckleberry Finn who was thirteen years old in the novel.

Shakespeare. A sonnet has fourteen lines.

Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II won 15 medals.

Candles. Jimmy Clanton sang “Sixteen candles make a lovely glow.”

Mary Poppins, who worked for the Banks family at 17 Cherry Tree Lane.

A semi truck is an eighteen wheeler.

Gold clubs. The 19th hole is the watering hole.

Eye glasses. Perhaps you have 20/20 vision.

A wine glass. At age 21, we can drink.

A rifle. Some rifles are 22’s.

The Bible with its well-known 23 rd psalm.

Keifer Sutherland, the actor who starred in the series “24.”

Buck Rogers who'd who lived in the 25th century.

A Texas or Arizona Ranger. A very old television western about the Arizona Rangers was called “26 Men.”

Dresses after the film “27 Dresses.”

A television set. Remember the old 28 inch screens.

An airplane. The B 29 won World War II.

A hippy who would not trust anyone over 30.

An ice cream cone. A popular brand has 31 flavors.

A comic book which usually has 32 pages.

Frank Sinatra who make many 33 1/3 RPM records

A Matador. Thirty-Four is the area code for Spain.

A camera (35 Millimeter).

There’s more to it, which can be obtained from emailing me and asking for Mary Ann’s pegging list. You may make any changes that make sense to you.

More Loci

More Loci

by Mary Ann Slavcheff


In an earlier blog, I wrote about organizing items into lists using location, numbering them and attaching them to things already learned.
I often use my laundry room even though I have added other rooms over the years. When using Loci, start with one room. 
The  items in my laundry room are, 1. doorway, 2. litter pan, 3. window, 4. Dryer, 5. wall cabinets, 6. mops, 7. furnace, 8. washing machine, 9. hot water heater, 10 sink. Say I want to memorize a list of the southern states in the order in which they seceded. (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee.)
Here is how I will use Loci to memorize the  names of the states in order of secession.  You may, of course,  use other images if those will work better for you.
I see Caroline Kennedy standing in the doorway of my laundry room speaking in a strong Souther accent. (South Carolina)
I see a Mississippi river boat  sitting in my cat’s litter pan. (Mississippi)
I look out the window and there are flowers blooming everywhere in my back yard. I  pink roses, purple  lilacs and yellow dandelions.  (Florida)
I look in my dryer. Ali MacGraw and Bambi are in there. (Alabama)
Next I open the wall cabinets above my dryer. George W. Bush is dressed as a confederate general and he is leading a cavalry charge. (Georgia)
Below this are my pail of mops. My Uncle Louis is  holding a mop that perhaps he might use as a weapon in the war. With him is actress Anna Paquin who is also holding a mop.  Louis plus Anna. (Louisiana) 
I look at the furnace and there is my tax statement for last year. I must have forgotten to mail it.  (Texas)
Virginia Graham swims in my washing machine. (Virginia)
On top of my water heater is an ark and a chain saw. (Arkansas)
Caroline Kennedy is now by my sink. She keeps saying “No” to let me know that she has lost her accent. (North Carolina)
Backing away from Caroline, I bump into Tennessee Ernie Ford, who is standing in a waste paper basket.(Tennessee)
An easy technique if I have ten items in the room and eleven items to memorize, is to add either a person, an animal  or a wastepaper basket to the room. (Eleven states seceded, so I had to put Tennessee Ernie in the wastepaper basket.
Those states will now be easer to remember. I have given them order and numbers. I associated them in fun ways with locations I had already memorized.
Loci is an ancient method, but fun for modern scholars. See my earlier blog on Loci. For longer lists, I use more than one room.  Kevin Vost has one of the best explanations of Loci in his book, “Memorize the Faith.”  He has a ten commandments room, a seven deadly sins room, a seven virtues room and even a cathedral. 
Readers do not have to be Catholic to use his rooms or for Vost to  help them with Loci. His rooms work for memorizing anything and I often use his ten commandments room. 
I like to work in multitudes of ten, so I added items to some of Vost’s other rooms when they had less than ten items.  
I also have a Loci car which I copied from “O.W.” Bill Hayes’ book “Your Memory.” This last book is a 1958 edition that has been out of print for years. It is still available  at online bookstores and at rare book stores.  There are 20 items on the Loci car.
I also have a Woodward Avenue list that I created.  Woodward is main street in Detroit and runs through several Detroit suburbs. A few of the businesses I slotted onto my Woodward Loci have gone, but I remember them where they were.  There are thirty items on my Woodward Avenue List going south and  twenty-six items going north.
Many people find Loci even easier to use than fun alphabets.
I shall close this column with the loci person. We will come back to this Loci person later and see how it can help us learn code and memorize even very long numbers.
Because this list is more than just Loci, when you memorize it, please use the exact words given. Don’t change toes to foot or muscle to leg.  Also leave the numbers as they are. Zero does not follow nine, but this will make sense later when we learn this as master code. 

1. Toes, 2. knee, 3. muscle, 4. rear, 5. love handles, 6. shoulder, 7 collar, 8. face.9.pate, 0. ceiling

Your assignment is to create some Loci rooms on your own. Draw a floor plan; below that number and name each item.  You may use my laundry room or any of Vost’s rooms. I will print print Hayes’  Loci car list in a future column.
Also memorize the Loci person, we will be using that as we learn other learning techniques.

Be A Rich Whiz Kid

Some billionaires claim they can start from scratch tomorrow and rebuild their fortunes. How?

Success in life does not come easy. Even the most talented among us need some help now and then. This article is filled with great advice. I wish I had written it. Be Smart. be Rich.

http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-effective-yet-efficient-way-to-get-rich-2/answer/Evan-Asano?srid=pzlH&s...

John Langan's Seven Steps to a Better Memory

If you are looking for a good book on getting better grades, check out John Langan’s “Reading and Study Skills.” Adult learners will find it is the bible of books on how to survive in school.  Parents will find lots of help for their children.  Sixth graders and above can read the book for themselves. Struggling students might want to reread it once a year.  Now in its tenth edition, a new copy online  might cost you over a hundred dollars. College book stores will be just as expensive. Older editions are just as good and usually much cheaper.  Go with an older edition, unless assigned the latest edition.
The book discusses attendance, test taking, note taking  and all the other skills, students need.
It was a required textbook in the college classes I taught.  I drilled Langan’s seven steps to a better memory into students, so I hoped they would never forget.
Step One: Organize the material.  Using this step I could introduce Pegging. My students organized material chronologically, alphabetically, or by order of importance.  See my earlier and blog on “Pegging” and “Loci.”.  To really learn anything, you must learn the order.
Step Two: Intend to learn.  So many students think they don’t need English or math and that they can forget the information as soon as the test is over. Decide to learn the material and to keep that learning.  Review previous learning from time to time. I find a good time to review my old learning is when I am walking the dog, biking or doing dishes.
Step Three: Test yourself repeatedly.  Who says the teacher must do all  the testing? Write your own tests.  Quiz fellow students and let them quiz you.
Step Four: Use memory techniques.  Langan introduces his readers to catch words and phrases, but to learn more about memory techniques, read my blogs.  I will also be sharing a list of books that have some of these techniques. Those of you not willing to wait for me to address these topics can look for books by Harry Lorraine, Joshua Foer  or Dominic O’Brien,all of them memory champions. 
Step Five: Space out learning sessions.  Don’t cram for tests. Study everyday, but give yourself breaks. Get up, watch a television show, walk the dog, or eat a sandwich.
Step Six: Over learn. When I would give tests, I would watch the students leave the classroom, take  a deep breath and promptly forget the material.  Spend a little extra time and really learn the materials. I can rattle off the names of U.S. presidents in alphabetical or chronological order. Give me a number from 1-44, and I can tell you what president had that number. I also still know the shorthand I learned way back in high school.
Learning is something you should strive to keep.
Step seven: Study before bed time. We are more open to new learning when we are relaxed. Studies have shown that playing baroque music and relaxing comfortably increases learning.The very best time to study is just before bed time.
While Langan is a great introduction to learning, my techniques go further and show you more. I elaborate on techniques described by Langan and other scholars.  I hope you enjoy my blogs and learn from them.

An Assignment: Plan a Journey Around the World
by Mary Ann Slavcheff

Phileas Fogg went around the world in 90 days in a Jules Verne novel.

Abe Lincoln's son Willie used to make imaginary train

timetables

Plan a trip around the world in 90 days. Sure it can be faster today, but let's stop here and there and enjoy perhaps a soccer game or a concert or bicycle trip.  Maybe we can climb a mountain or take part in a festival.
Leave from your home. How long will it take to drive to the airport or bus station or to drive to New York City.
Go to the cities you want.  You can go north, or south east or west. Just so long as you go around the world in 90 days.
Find out about airline, bus, train and boat timetables.

What cities will you spend extra time in?

How will you get from airports or bus depots?

The imaginary trip is yours to plan.

Faulty Argument

Now that we have learned how to memorize anything faster, easier and better, let’s learn how to evaluate facts.  If you still need help with memorization, go the earlier blogs on chaining and pegging. They may take some practice, but after you have a fun alphabet or two and some loci, you can memorize anything.

Next comes logic. How do we evaluate information that is coming to us? 

If you are on a jury, how do you decide guilty or not guilty?

Who should you vote for? 

What product should you buy?

We use logic, to evaluate the facts and make a decision.

Too often in our modern world, we make decisions based on Liking or on Social Validation. Liking means that if I like someone, I am more likely to vote for him or buy a product from him. Salesmen work on likability. Social validation means we make decisions based on popularity. We read books on best seller charts, watch popular movies and television shows, and buy stupid toys because we saw people fighting over the toy on the evening news.

These are not good reasons to make selections.

One of the best ways of understanding logic is to understand examples of poor logic. That way when bad logic comes our way, we can quickly recognize it.

Over the next several months, I will be presenting a blog each on about a dozen and maybe more faulty arguments.

How to Select the job of Your Dreams

There are lots of guides that will tell you what future fields will be hot. Don't believe them. Often they are wrong because managers tend to overestimate future needs. Schools want to attract students so they often exaggerate the demand for the professions they teach. Besides that, no one can predict the future or the impact of technology.

 The best thing you can do is pick a field that you have a passion for working in. People are spending more and more time on the job, so doesn't it make sense that you should be doing something fun?

What is your dream job?

Surprisingly many of us don't know where our passion lies. Also our interests can change from decade to decade and even from year to year. Here is some help.

Name five things that you would do, if you had the next year to do whatever you wanted. People are not made to sleep in the sun. Those who do it are castaways without a choice, or they are on vacation. If you had unlimited time, you would stay busy. What would you do? Rebuild cars? Walk dogs at the animal shelter? Play guitar in a bar? No answer is too ridiculous.

What did you like to do as a child? I loved swinging and daydreaming and I make my living being creative. Sometimes, even today, I walk to the park, sit on one of the swings and daydream for awhile. It releases my creative energy and I walk home full of ideas. \\\\

Look for people who have unusual jobs. John Keene bills himself as Sherlock Bones and he has made a career out of finding lost pets. Others become food critics, ice cream tasters or video game testers.

Check out newspapers and magazines for articles about people who are doing jobs that you think you might like, Clip the articles, Contact the people in these jobs if they live near you.

I found one article about a woman with a knack for decorating rooms. She lacked the credentials to become an interior decorator, so she started decorating garages. She makes them look good enough for a home and garden magazine.

Other individuals write mystery scripts for murder weekends, become disc jockeys, bridal consultants, mystery shoppers or clowns. People who love second-hand treasures might be able to earn a living on e-Bay or with a resale shop.

One man became a pizza farmer. With just a small parcel of land, he planted a slice of his property in tomatoes, green peppers and onions. He raises chickens and pigs and shows them off to visitors. The animals don't even have to be killed. He makes his money by charging visitors or a tour of the pizza farm.

A woman gives business seminars in manners – no, not Miss Manners.

A 71 year old woman became a runway model.

A woman who had no place to teach her exercise class arranged for sessions at a tavern. An entrepreneur started a web site that recommends local restaurants, gives hours, menus and ratings.

Just reading about people like that fills me with hope and with ideas.

 Start thinking about your likes and your talents. Put together a list of things you would like to do.