I like to forget about some things, like movies I've watched. That way, I can watch the good ones again in a year or two. The only problem there is I also often forget which ones were good. I guess I should label the ones I've bought with a rating so I'll know, if I remember to do that.

I have a semi-long term photographic memory for things that are spoken and some that is written. But it seems to come at a cost. I cannot remember names or faces sometimes hardly at all, even if the name comes in the middle of a sentence which I remember word for word except for the name. Those memories must be stored somewhere I barely have access to or something. I can remember an entire scene and how everything was positioned and where people were standing when someone is talking, but the memories of people just look like silhouettes to me much of the time. All I can usually remember is the color of their hair and some general features. If I've seen the same person quite a few times in the same environment, I can usually remember them eventually, but take them out of that environment and I might recognize them somewhat but I can't place them until I hear their voice or see some general mannerisms that helps me identify them.

I expect a lot of people have nearly this same problem, though. I didn't really think it was much of a problem for me until I started having people walk up to me on jobs (hanging commercial wallpaper), calling me by name, and talking to me like they've known me for years, and I have no idea who they are. That happens to me at least once a week now. I must have known them from another job, I guess, but the jobs all tend to run together for me, running back and forth between them so much, and I forget about them as soon as they're over so I can concentrate on the next one.

As far as remembering things like groceries and what I need to do during the day, if there aren't many and I don't keep a list, I just remember the number of things I need to do. For instance, so I don't forget anything, there are five things I need to do while getting dressed for work and five things I need to do before I walk out the door, so I run over each list before I step out and count them out on my right hand. I usually associate certain feelings to important things as well. That feeling usually creeps back up a few times during the day to remind me. So even if I forget what it was I was supposed to do, I don't usually forget that I was supposed to do something. At that point I can just run through categories of things to do or buy - groceries, hygeine, household, automotive, tools, etc - and find the feeling that I have associated with one or more of those groups, and usually it'll come to me. I also tie in particular feelings with certain steps that must be performed when working through some physics and mathematics so I don't forget.

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Let's put together the pieces of The Grand Puzzle . (website - now revised)

"Let's define another operator, Sz, which we won't pay any attention to."
"This transformation will automatically make zero equal zero."
"It may be true that zero equals zero -- and that is certainly an equality -- but I don't want to go into the details at this time."