Ridiculously accurate memory

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Uggh, I have always had a terrible memory for numbers. But when it comes to irrelevent stuff like what I ate two weeks ago. Some of my earliest dreams from age 3, etc. I can still remember names of kids that I went to 2nd & third grade with.
Horribly huge & overwhelming at times. Yet because of one med I can forget where I sat my water glass down a minute ago!

Sincerely,
Matthew

I also remember phone numbers from when I was a kid. some number sequences are easy just because they seem like they flow together and some seem discordant.But I am really lousy at math,the numbers just seen to float out of my head.

My memory is pretty good. Probably close to eidetic (facts).

I have a fantastic memory. I can bring back many childhood memories including details, I'm great on memorizing tv show and movie plots and dialogue, and great with info on special interests.

I can remember conversations really, really well. It is like playing back a movie in my mind.

I used to think that everyone was like this, but apparently not.

I remember working at the Copy Center and sometimes catching a moonbeam and reliving a movie. This would occasionally happen during repetitive work, and was pretty neat and would help the time really fly.

And also, if it's a movie I open myself to and take ownership of so to speak, I can discuss it five years later as if I had just seen it the night before. (This is a separate ability and situation from reliving the movie.)

I'm great at remembering things that I have read about, especially if it is a fact or I found it particularly interesting.

I'm the best with the definition of words. Since I've been an avid reader all my life, I would always look up any word that I did not know the definition of. Once I've done that, it's in my head, sometimes word-for-word. I'm a walking dictionary.

I don't know if this counts but I remember every year in my home growing up where we had our Christmas tree. I also remember every year what room I was in for school and which classroom it was. I remember all our play ground equipment. I can even remember where I saw a movie at and which theater is it. There are some theaters I cannot remember where I saw them at but I know the town I saw them in. I remember lot of my school mates as if it was yesterday. I shocked one of them on Facebook that I remembered her and she was in my brother's grade and she told me she is used to people not remembering her. I thought that was very strange because my mom remembers her friends and kids she couldn't stand.

I also remember my old home address and phone numbers. But yet I do not remember my home phone number I used to have here in my apartment when we had the land line.


I can remember all my classrooms well like it was yesterday, even preschool. Even a toy I have from my childhood, I know when I got it for which Christmas or birthday or Easter. But now as an adult I don't even remember anymore where I got my all my books from I have as an adult or video games or movies. Maybe because I don't care so it's as if I lost that gift. All I may know is "Oh I got this at Gamestop" and not know which one.

I have an almost ridiculous ability to remember song lyrics from nearly any genre. And if a song is stuck in my head (which is nearly always), it's almost like listening to it live. I can "hear" the chord changes, drum sequence, rhythm, background singers, etc. If I could only sing...

What does "catching a moonbeam" mean?

If I manage to hear the lyrics to a song (which, in almost 100% of cases, requires me reading them), I am the same - they're memorized in totality pretty much forever, even if I don't practice it.

However, I almost never understand what people are saying when they are singing.



I have absolute pitch - I know what you are talking about. Are you able to know the exact notes and chords and such of a song, with no external reference (such as a tuner or an instrument - what I mean is, determining the notes/chords using just your mind and the music), such as hearing a note and knowing it is F, or hearing a chord and knowing it is F minor with a flat 2nd (phrygian mode)? Or, if you have no musical training or have not linked notes/chords to note/chord names - are you able to hear one note/chord and KNOW that it is precisely that exact note/chord, which you've heard before, and only perceive in that one precise way, and know without any doubt that it is that note/chord, just like you know when you look at the sky, that it is blue, or grass is green, or oranges are orange, etc.?

(assuming the sky is cloudless at midday on a normal day - that the grass is healthy and of a common species midsummer - and that the oranges are ripe and healthy - and that you can see, which I am going to assume anyway)

If you're able to do all that - you should work on singing, and playing instruments, too, if you don't already. I didn't start really singing until late December (Dec. 2011). I had all of these abilities for as long as I can remember (being able to recognize notes and chords like I recognize colors), yet I was not started on instruments until 8 or 9 years old, and not started on more complex instruments until 10 years old. Once I was, I took off and excelled at them.

If you have absolute pitch you could have great potential - and even if you don't it is NEVER too late to start singing, or playing instruments, or anything. There are no rules saying you must start singing/playing whatever instrument before a certain age. It's all up to you. I've only played piano for 2.5 years (more like 2.75 now) and I'm already better than every pianist I know in person (granted that's only talking about 20 or so people - only counting people who consider piano/keyboards to be their main instrument), and all of the best ones I know personally - meaning the ones who, when I play with them, I thoroughly enjoy it and they're able to keep up no problem (a list with only 6 people on it) have been playing almost their whole lives.

Also, I apologize if you already play instruments and such and already have boatloads of musical training - if that is the case this post probably will seem annoying or offensive or something - that's not my intent at all. I'm just trying to make sure that if you -don't- have that training and such, that I do my best to encourage you to go get it. Please start singing if you are able to - it was very hard for me to start (I still can't sing in front of certain people - namely my mother and sister, for very very complicated reasons - although I do sing at any show I'm playing - I sang today while busking, for hundreds of total strangers, for example.). But I'm very glad I started - and for a while I could only sing while alone. I still do my best singing, and most singing, alone. Humming is another story (that, I have done as long as I can remember, in front of anyone).

If you ever want to talk music please please feel free to PM me. (this goes for anyone)

Atomsk, thanks for your thoughtful post. I don't have any musical training and I'm unable to read music. I guess what I was trying to say was, once I hear a song, I generally can remember just about everything in detail. For example, when a singer starts to ad lib toward the end or hum along with the song, I can remember that. I have trouble controlling my pitch sometimes, so I'd probably be hopeless as far as real singing. (I sound great in the shower, though!) I bought a karaoke system for my wife and kids a few months ago, and I'll sing all day if it's just us. But if we have friends over, I won't even hold the microphone. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that I'm an Aspie!

I can easily remember long sections of books, with very few errors (and I can explain what it was about, giving all of the information contained in the book, with no errors, though I may explain factual or logical errors in the book itself at the end). I can also remember early childhood, and a very small amount of behing a baby (not being understood by adults really sucks). I can also remember the plot of every TV show and movie Ive ever seen (and if Ive seen it multiple times, I can quote it, with the quotation being more complete with each viewing).

Same here, but I prefer to tell them during class. They find it annoying, but I dont care... Though often the book is incorrect, in which case I just tell the teacher the correct information, and make edits to the book with a pen.

By catching a moonbeam, I mainly mean my imagination starts to flow and I let it flow.

For example, at the Copy Center, I might have 150 course packets to bind, which involves a punching machine and then a machine to open up a comb bind for me to lay in stacks of sheets. I openly wore wax earplugs thinking the repetitive noise wasn't good for my ears. I even offered them to other people. I think the noise was actually abrupt and irritating and maybe not so much injurious. But the wax earplugs softened the noise and enabled me to feel far away. It even distanced me from the chattering conversations of the Copy Center. I could then get into my own thoughts. And sometimes I would remember something and it would pull up something else which in turn would pull up something else. Sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn't. It's kind of a matter of allowing it to happen, and not trying to make it happen. (plus the punching and binding were rhythmic activities with some individual choice of when to punch and when to bind). And plus, the copy center felt safe, kind of like reading at an airport.

I hate my memory I can't tell you what I did yesterday but can quote your verbatim from all the science books Ive ever read.

I have an excellent memory for sound, which means that I can internalize lectures far better than books. I do well with dates, numbers, and things like that as well. I wish I had a photographic memory though; that would be friggin awesome.