I’ve been working on the Ben System for hours I can’t seem to form images I’m stuck at a very early stage. I require assistance.This is my current progress…:
SOOS - Dr. Seuss
SOOT- A Mannequin in a suit
SOON- A ‘get well soon’ card
SOOM- A sumo wrestler
SOOR- A friend of mine named SOORawardy
SOOL- (there is a video game called Dark Souls but I’m not sure how to picture the game as it has no main character of any sort)
SOOG -
SOOK -
SOOF/TH -
SOOB -
I’d appreciate if someone could help me fill the empty spaces, I’ve seen people link random arrangements of letters to form memorable images I’d like to see this in action. Sharing your experience with the Ben System and how you completed it is appreciated.
SOOG: you could bend the pronunciation of sugar to “soogar” SOOK: souk - a stand at a market. Or if you don’t use “sugar” above, the Spanish word “azúcar” (a-SOOK-ar) means sugar. SOOF: sufi -> whirling Dervish. Or you could bend the pronunciation of “surfer” to fit. SOOB: I took “Susan B. Anthony” and linked that to that sound (“Sue B.”). Her name can refer to a type of coin in the US.
SOOL = Sulu (Star Trek character)
SOOG = Sugar, same as Josh says, you may sometimes need to accept an alternative pronunciation.
SOOK = Suki (a name, in my mind) or if you accept Z, Zookeeper
SOOF/TH - Actually I came up with Sufi / Whirling Dervish, too, as Josh mentions. I accept ‘V’ as an alternative to ‘F’, so Souvenir was also a possibility.
SOOB = if you’re strict about the B, maybe Subaru (a brand of car that typically has 4-wheel drive). In my case, I accept ‘P’ as an alternative to ‘B’, so I actually have Superman here.
Generally, the stricter your requirements on phonetic matching, the more gaps you’ll have to fill. On the other hand, having a lot of possible matches means that you need to work harder to remember which one you’ve picked. The sweet spot may be different for different people.
I just noticed that you can use TH instead of F. In the system I use, TH is for a different letter, but “SOOTH” is “soothsayer” – specifically, this wizard:
(I played a lot of D&D when I was a kid, and I try to incorporate some of the old artwork. Erol Otus’ work is classic.)
Edit: in my images, 024 is “SOOTH” (soothsayer). 028 was “SUF”, but I moved the Whirling Dervish to 28. The sound for 28 is “NEI”, which refers to the reed flute, since that’s the first association that came into my head. 028 is now “souvlaki”.
Let us know how it works out. When I first started, I was really concerned that the Major System consonant folding (d, t, etc.) would be hard to learn. But now I consider it pretty natural. The one thing that might be worth noting if you are considering using Ben System for cards or binaries also is that Ben does not fold t,d and b,p because those are separate consonants to help him cover the 16 combinations he needs for two card suits or the 1st 4 binary digits.
It may be that you’ll just cross that bridge when you get there and train yourself to treat, say, t and d separately when you do cards but not for digits. That’s probably doable.
Or you may choose a system that still permits folding because it needs fewer phonetics, like LociInTheSky’s Shadow System.
The main reason I’m okay with folding is that I have no intention of ever using Ben phonetics for cards. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is just realism. 2704 is a heck of a lot of images to maintain. But also I worry about suit pairs. Learning club/diamond = t, diamond/hearts = l and training all 16 of those for speed just seems nuts. It could be that for some people, mastering that is a small part of learning Ben system or SS and that I am overestimating the relative difficulty.
If I ever do 2704 images, I’d be more likely to choose CVCV, with the C’s standing for the card ranks and the V’s for the suits. That would be two syllables per image, but I’m not certain that’s a real tragedy. Maybe CCVC is possible, too while preserving one syllable, but it seems harder to sort out which of the 1st two C’s to allow.
Strictly, CVCV would be a hard table to fill in, too. But C(C*)VC(C*)V, allowing some extra consonants, might make it viable. But that’s a topic for another thread.
I find this fascinating, just because it had never occurred to me at all that this part of learning the Ben System might be complicated or confusing. This is probably because it’s something I made up myself based on what seemed logical to me, rather than something that would make sense to normal people…
As for the images, mine aren’t much use to anyone here unless you also went to school with Sue Phipps, or are familiar with the TV presenter Sue Barker. But 001 is ‘suit’ for me, and I’m intrigued that that makes you think of a mannequin with a suit - for me, it’s just the suit itself; if the next image is a person, they can wear it…
Oh, it’s quite logical from a mathematical point of view. 16x13x13 is a great way to factor 2704 if you want 3 components. Maybe I should just trying looking at two suits at a time to see if it’s as gnarly as I imagine.
I’m not sure if this is what you are talking about, but one thing I take advantage of is that for some letters, the sound of the name of the letter is actually in the system. So the letter ‘G’ is pronounced ‘GE’ (by most people). This is one case where I find an initial to be okay. So for me:
673 = GM (as in GM Truck)
I also use it for:
668 = JV (short for Junior Varsity)
Mostly I abhor initials, though, unless it’s someone’s name and they only go by their initials. So I might consider JK for J.K. Rowling but not BC for Bill Clinton, for example. (To me, BC is a comic strip about caveman.)
Ben, one of my images is “suit,” and it is just a suit as well. But my image for 524 is lingerie, which is a mannequin wearing lingerie xD. Great minds think alike, octaveslur!
Why didn’t I choose something a little sexier than a mannequin for the word lingerie, you ask?
“Is there such a thing?” I respond incredulously.
I get it though, the mannequin over the plain suit. It makes sense to want something “more” in your image. And you can have the mannequin do weird, stiff, robotic movements if you need to. I have four shirts/suits, a jacket, and a life-vest in my image list, all without a person or mannequin. I always fear that I’ll confuse them and think that they are bad images, but for all the errors I make, that never seems to happen.
The mannequin was the OP moazzamkm’s idea. I also have a suit in my image list. I think for a short time it was suitcase, which is slightly more active, but I shortened to suit when I realized luggage was also an image. I’ve settled on pinstripe, as leisure conflicts too much with a plaid I have elsewhere.
People visualization challenge? I have a bit of the same. For example, I have Sammy Sosa and Derek Jeter images. Both baseball players and they don’t look alike at all. But at speed, well, I think as you’ve said elsewhere I’m not going to see their faces clearly. I can do that, but not quickly. So one has to be at bat and one fielding.
Today I had trouble recalling TeR = Terry Farrell, a very sexy woman. Suddenly I realized Pterodactyl could fit that space, too. I almost shouted out, “124 could be a pterodactyl!” but, well, there aren’t many places one can do that without getting funny looks. This is one of those places, thank goodness.
