Dalai Lama Skating on a Bowl of Noodles

So I'm back from the Welsh Memory championship. Leading up to it back in October November, I was really excited about competing, still am, but then I changed my system and tried to consistently get my personal bests. Then in December it tailed off and only got practising a week before the competition. I had a month of deadlines and coursewerk leading up to the championship, and the last one had to be in the Friday before so i was a bit rushed.

When we got to the Welsh thing, I had a bit of trouble sleeping that night, I was so excited, there's nothing better than hearing your scores even if there not that great, cos they kind of mean nothing, it's just exciting. So we got to the venue, we shared a taxi with Katie Kermode, and let on to the arbiters n competitors and set up shop.

Random words are of course better with practice but it's about the luck of the draw most times. It's suppose to be 85% nouns and image based words and 15% abstract. They were quite easy to be honest, bring, ugly, chair, flower, tree etc but I wanted to be 100% they were correct during recall, I got 49 words. All went good, new world record for Katie with 109 in 5 mins.

Then binary reared it's ugly head, Ben did 840, quite impressive, I did 351 after I asked for mine to be remarked, I had pefect recall of what I remembered but I didn't observe it all that great a lot of switched 0 and 1's

Historical dates I always wing it last minute. "Someone gets married in Charlotte Church" was a memorable one. oh and Policeman arrests himself". 15 minute numbers failed a bit, I missed loci during recall then rewrote the same digits about 4 -5 times before running out of time. Damn.

10 minute cards went well...ish. I got 3 decks in 10 minutes, but the 4th deck I did I got up to 31 cards into, but messed up on the recall.

Then lunch came thank God. Went to a qaint little pub looking place for a Welsh feast. The meat was rationed but the vegetables were help yourself. We spent over an hour in there, I thought we were gonna be late for the start back.

Erm...in the afternoon, images were not great, 5 minute numbers were not great, spoken numbers were not great, speed cards were not great. I'm being a bit too harsh on myself, but I could have done better in all the events. I put it down to not being used to the competion and being a bit too frowny and tense. I had a face like an orphan most of the time.

It all rounded off nicely, Ben, Katie then Me and James in fourth.

Then we all went round to Dai's for liquid refreshment, James was giving us a lift behind Phil, but We were supposed to be behind Warren and Dai but they went through a light and left us. So we finally met up that night, had a drink, had a musical undertone, bit of curry, and headed off back to Travelodge, shared a taxi with Connor.

All in all, it was great, enjoed it. I am gonna make no hesitation in starting my 3 digit system for the UK open championships. Also, stuff which I never practice, dates, images, names, words, I'm gonna make an effort to be at least half decent.

I could make the whole Welsh memory championships sound a bit more interesting but I need to do my stand up comedy routine for next Monday, so take care of your shelves.

Memory Training? That's a joke.

So anyway, I got really committed to memory training in September til November but ever since my birthday when I started going tpo the gym I've been very lazy. But hopefully I'm back on track now.

I have a limited number of decent loci. I tend to use very sentimental loci and get used to erasing them constantly rather than seeking new loci which I know is detrimental especially to a mental athlete. Even though I tend to use houses, I use restaurants and gyms and workplaces for the longer disciplines. Because the Welsh Memory championships is all on one day I haven't got the luxury of the loci being refreshed overnight. So I worked out I need a supplimentary 200 locations if I aim to acheive my personal bests in each discipline.

I'm quite confident with cards, but with numbers I get a bit jittery and it's usually 50/50 on whether I get over 200 digits in 5 minutes. Names and words and images and that I'll practice for a week in advance. I'll hopefully get a decent score but nothing to write home about.

The reason I've been a bit disloyal to my memory training is because I found a new outlet for my creative and idiosyncratic perspective. At least I think I am I'm probably just average, but anyway I've started writing stand up comedy. Memory wise I think it brilliant. Using all the associative powers that a memory trainer has and the ability to mental recite jokes is awesome.

So that's what I've been doing instead of memory training. It's a blend of memory, timing, psychology and confidence which I hope to do quite well in.

I'm a bit nervous over the Welsh championships. I don't want to screw up. I wanna get my personal bests, and hopefully make it into the top world 30. I don't want to let down Dai, I'm his hero. j/k

NB Peace.

Is it still called stress if you refuse to deal with it?

New memory personal bests this week. A deck of cards in 63.48 seconds, and 176 cards in 10 minutes, wouldv'e been 196 cards if I didn't miss the 8 of spades. Darn.

Liking uni as always. Can feel the tightness in my back and chest from the gym. Hopefully do more amino acid composition this evening after sports assignment. Erm...nothing much else new, Money trouble hindering me but I'll survive, eventually.

Hoping to improve on all my scores since UK 2008 Open. Especially speed numbers and 10 minute cards, two of my best disciplines I screwed up. After Wales I hope to start a new system, 1000 characters, 100 actions, 1000 objects. The reason for the only 100 actions is to make the final scene only 8 digits instead of 9. When memoriseing a row of 40 it's easier to make everything fit and you don't back track over past digits. I have 10 scenes per house and loadsa houses so it's easier for me. Also, if you have too many actions they become indistinct, my actions are general and allow me flexibility. The binding part of the scene aloows me creativity and induces just the right amount of effort without straining my concentration or time. Got enought chracters, just need to organise them.

I'm off home to print of some binary and random digits. A few decks of cards and something to eat. Since my job means less to me now than when I started I think my only option is to not waste time. Memory, gym, nutrition is my life.

I say life, I mean my passions.

I say passions I mean devout hobbies.

Yeah, that'll do.

New Personal Bests

In the last week I've done like 6-7 hours practice and reached a new personal best in speed cards and speed numbers. I did 240 numbers in 5 mins with one mistake which brought me down to 220 digits which is still a best for me. Then yesterday I did a deck o cards in 67.66 seconds. which was kinda a suprise cos I kept shaking my head through it saying "oh I'll never remember that, oh dear oh dear" But I did so crisis averted.

Also I want to tell you about the magical wonderland of manchester, an aladdins cave of treasures, a place of fantasy and amazement to all those who seek to find it. It's called Costco. Absolutely brilliant. First time we went there we spent £133 on stuff. Decks of cards (bicycle), lounge pants, make up brushes, trainers, socks, mixed herbs and the stupidist purchase ever a flippin 12 pack of chewing gum. I dunno what I was thinking, I think I got carried away. At least they'll last, Unlike most people who buy them, I don't need them. Mwah ha ha.

Erm, I really like nutrition. I wanna write a book on like the philisophical aspects of it and the place of such a lifestyle subject in the context of the world. But like I have no original thoughts, and my philosophical witterings are dry and unprofound. I decided to write a nutrition poem instead. With an actual rhythm and all the other poetical devices.

PS I think cous cous is my favourite carbohydrate based food. I dunno yet. There's a lot of life, time, and places out there. Wish me luck.

Detoxing My Blog

To appeal to a broader audience I have cleaned up my blog. Before it was rated 12A now it is rated PG.

Yesterday I accidentally soaked 5 cups of lentils in water overnight not realising that half a cup is one portion. Now I got the lentil population of a small village to consume by tomorrow.

I'm working on my juggling, cos appearantly every German does it, Gunther, Boris, Gaby to name a few...if not all. I like juggling with clubs better though, I like things that rotate. I Practice my memory untile I've used up my immediate store of loci which is about 300 locations in about 20 buildings, mostly houses. Seeing as though Welsh Memory thing is all on one day I need to come up with twice as many loci, I can't recylce them later on in the comp, too much interference.

I'm gonna put a Findus Lasagne in the oven now, then later do some immunology work for my presentation. Oh my days.

Bread Facination.

I've been like baking bread rather than buying it. It takes ages longer and doesn't last as well but it tastes better...tenfold. I grind up seeds and that and add a bit too much bran then make rolls rather than a bread. Sliced bread is for little baby girls.

My car is looking an feeling pretty fine. New exhaust, new other stuff and a full valet.

Tonight I'm gonna make chicken in a white sauce with veg potatoes and brown bread. Got work at 7 in da morn tomorrow, then memory training and writing my nutrition CV all day, after the gym of course, back and triceps then abs.

Yesterday I memorised 160 digits perfectly in 5 mins when I haven't practiced for 3 months and that was with my new system. I need to do the world memory championships next year for deffo.

Steve Coogan was semi amazing, HAlf of it was hilarious the other half was filling material, cos Steve had to get changed innit. Alan Partridge is a legend.

Steptoe and Son: Upstairs Downstairs Upstairs Downstairs

There's So Much On My Plate It's A Platter.

I realised my MOT ran out last May. I've been driving without MOT for half a year. For shame.

My Car tax runs out in 11 days, They won't issue it without a valid MOT certificate, and I'll deffo fail it if I don't get me exhaust fixed, when I say fixed I mean actually get an exhaust. It fell off.

Mum's stuck in Kenyo for another two weeks. I said I'd get the coach down to London to pick her up then fly up with her. The invalid.

Got to finish a business proposal for tomorrow, which I don't mind, I kinda like it, but I think in long terms and I had this ludacris vision of me having this idea that does well, like i get backing from Dragon's Den or something and I have to split it with others jus cos I "happened" to be in the same group. When I came up with the idea, the logo the ethos and vibe of the company, totally original, totally workable, with the propensity to grow. I don't like sharing my ideas unless I get accredited with them, I'll share a slice of pie, or a mars bar but not my ideas. My sense of self and originality are all I hold dear. Also, my logo is very poetic, I came up with like 10 to 12 different levels my logo could work on. If you're interested to find out lemme know, i'll gladly share my very bad philisophical message of my logo.

Erm, I'ma gonna get super tonk before my birthday. Creatine, Protein and Iron in both senes of the word. Wanna be flexible aswell. Doubt I'll be able to ever touch my toes again, I can still do the splits though.

Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow. If I shall ever awaken from the fast of the night.

PS. Isn't biofocus the coolest brand name you've ever heard? So much association.