“Less L. Voodoo Transporter Room Memory Technique” …I also told myself “obvious troll is obvious”.
But on an other hand, he writes many long messages, I think a real troll would have spend less time & energy.
Less L? - Less b*llocks please!
Hi every one,
Thank you all for reading and participating in this thread.
In this post, I plan to answer the questions as to why this Less L. Voodoo Transporter Room is useful, why others might not have invented it before. I’m also going to give some very practical applications of this particular Less L. Voodoo technique and I will explain why I have chosen those particular words to name it.
First, I’m going to use a metaphor to compare the Less L. System with the Journey Method. Imagine a guy walking on a tight rope. Now, in the Journey Method, the guy can see clearly the rope as he walks, in the Less L. method, because of the distant locations and not so straight trajectory, this rope becomes less visible, it is as if the tight rope walker tried to move forward with the knowledge of where the rope lays ahead only be based on his current position. It is indeed possible for such a blind rope walker to move forward but if he wants to move fast he will need to see the rope.
I understand that this is not a perfect analogy but I think it does sort of give an idea of my difficulties. In Post 19 and 20, I was already showing ways to try to cope with this problem but perhaps I didn’t explained what motivated me to find those new ways to travel in between distant loci. Again, this Less L. Voodoo method is more satisfactory than the methods I have posted in Post 19 and 20 but these early posts constitute part of the research that has led me to this new method. Other bright lights of the memory world may never have faced the kind of challenge that I had, to make a system of distant loci with 100 images in them become a fast moving one. Since necessity is mother of invention, I’m the one coming up with this.
Now I’m pretty pleased to have finally come with a memory technique invention that is easy to use. This way, it will be very easy for anyone to give his own opinion about the method based on personal experience with it, something which I understand is much more difficult with the two original Less L. systems that require hundreds of pegs all arranged in a special way.
Again, I have invented this Voodoo system for use with the Less L systems and I know it works well there, even though this is a very recent invention. The easy practical applications of the system is something I only though of lightly before posting my method here. Despite the lightly tested and unproven nature of those applications I will immediately share a few. I have already made one or two test runs with this first application that I’m about to share and I’m satisfied with my preliminary results.
I’ve been riding my bike in a bike path with pleasant scenery. As I went along, I would look for a blind point in whatever outstanding feature of the landscape I was passing through. Having found one, I would next take a piece of the next prominent feature of the landscape and I would visualize it in the blind spot of the first feature that I had determined a few seconds ago or so. Now when I pass again through this bike path, I visualize myself going to the blind spot and immediately I’m seeing the next location seconds before it appears. I believe this will work better and better with practice. Just keep adding as many hidden spots (Transporter Rooms) as you feel will help you to get a good grasp of the whole design of the bike path.
The second experiment that I would recommend would be simply to do some store window gazing while walking on a street with lots of store windows. Just do exactly what I have outline in the first bike ride application and keep doing it for as long as you like.
Finally, the reasons why I have chosen this name are that a) Less L. : because I have invented the system mainly to help with that complicated method b) Voodoo: because Mukkinese had just used this term to sort of describe what I was doing (trying to shave seconds of my times with a special technique.) c) Transporter Room because this is really the essence of my method, going somewhere special to be transported elsewhere. d) Upon thinking of this name, a smile came upon my face.
Cheers,
SL
good idea to manage multi-journey also, hahaha ^^
Sorry for not replying here sooner – I’m just catching up on forum posts now.
I think that Simon’s ideas are very interesting. IMHO, people should be trying to think outside the box of established memory techniques. That is the way to push the techniques further. Not every idea is going to work perfectly, but it’s good that people are trying to see how far they can take new ideas.
Simon L. is the organizer of the Canadian Memory Championships – I don’t see any evidence that he is joking.
An image of a “transporter room” may not be suitable for everyone, but I think that most of us have very weird images that we use to help make things easier. In one of my journeys, I have to move from a bus stop to a bus to a field about 3 or 4 miles away. I used to take about 1 second to make the transition from the bus to the field, but now it’s instant. The visual props tend to fade with practice.
Experimentation should be encouraged. Even if the experiments turn out not to work, they may provide ideas that could be applied to other types of memorization. The original Less L method gave me a lot of ideas and I think Simon’s methods are very creative. IMHO, pushing the limits of experimentation is the best way to develop new techniques…
OK, if you are not pulling our legs, then I apologise Simon. Still it does all seem a but voodoo…
Hi Everyone,
Thanks Josh for standing up for me.
To clarify a point, I wish to say that I do not use any image of a transporter room in my loci. The transporter room is a metaphor to explain that I’m going to a blind point and from there reach a new destination. For instance, I don’t know if you know about a TV cartoon called “Simon.” It used to run long ago and since I almost never watch TV any more, I don’t know if it still runs. Anyway, there was a tune with the cartoon, “My name is Simon…” and whenever Simon jumped over the wall in the background, he found himself in another world of imagination. I guess I could have named this Voodoo method after that TV cartoon strip as well.
Yesterday, upon noticing that I hadn’t apparently been fully understood by you, I thought hard again about how to best explain this Voodoo method and came up with an interesting theory of loci which I will now share with you. This theory claims that loci can be either dominant or non-dominant. When the loci is dominant, it’s because it is a part of the real world in your mind. When loci is non-dominant, it’s because it is a model representing loci.
This theory may be best to try to explain what goes on in my mind as I move through my loci. For instance, say I’m at my loci 39 and just linked some image there, then, in a blind spot, there is a model of loci 40, (which is, in reality or in dominant loci form, 5 km away) so I move to this spot where the model is hidden. Now a model of my loci is in itself good enough to help me conjure up all the images that are permanently in it. So, I’m immediately starting to use the images, linking or just staring at the images there that I need, to memorize what I want. As I do this, loci 39 being now out of my sight becomes less dominant and disappears. As it vanishes, loci 40 becomes dominant. I have been transported to the real home of loci 40 and now I’m going to move to the non-dominant loci 41 which I keep hidden in a blind spot somewhere around loci 40, a model of my loci 41, and so on. I think this theory is very interesting as it shows how loci can become object and vice-versa. I don’t have a name made up for that theory yet, any funny suggestion anyone?
Cheers,
SL
what you just wrote caught my attention.
"[...] I think this theory is very interesting as it shows how loci can become object and vice-versa"I find this theory interesting, even if I would like to share a deviant interpretation.I consider that the dominant loci refers to an intern representation of loci, and the non-dominant to an extern representation. It seems that there is a difference between the loci as a place in a journey, and the loci as a storing place. I immediately thought to the use of PAOL (Personn-Action-Object-Loci) within a journey, which implies a kind of loci inside locis. I am skeptical about the efficiency of this technique in a journey, but if it turns to work well, it's a good point to support the idea that a loci may have 2 independant representations : an external representation, related to the access of the loci, and an internal representation, related to the storing of future content. For example - pure introspection here - I am used to place my images in precise spot in my loci, but when I am about to reach the loci, I think I have in mind a much larger representation of the loci.
By the way, sorry about my last message 
Hi Everyone,
There is one very interesting memorization method which I believe has now been made possible by the invention on the Less L. Transporter Room. I’m working on it currently but I have no clue whether it will really work or whether it will be fast. Regardless of this, I’ve decided to inform the Forum of what I’m doing.
I think this method could be called the decision method of memorisation. Instead of memorizing any images, you would be memorizing decisions as a card would be the instruction to go to this loci or that.
What I have begun to do is to add 50 Less L. Transporter rooms at each of my 50 loci containing 100 images. These transporter rooms are in fact nothing more than predetermined and organized loci with nothing memorized on them. I set them in groups of 10s at an extended location from my loci. So, say I’m working on loci 7, a chess club I used to frequent, I’m going to post a group of 10 loci at the immediate extended left position, beyond my left grid images of 10-19, another group of 10 at the immediate extended front, etc.
It’s going to be much work because that’s still 2500 loci but since there is nothing to memorize on that loci, it shouldn’t be too tough.
So, how is it going to work? Well, at first, I plan to join this method with the Less L. method. I would just look at a low image 700-749 representing a card, then a high image 750-799 for the next card and then, my next card would tell me at which of my transporter room (or extended loci) I have to go. Say that the card is an ace of diamond, or an 11 for me, then I’d move to my far left set of transporter rooms and use the number one within that set where a copy of the model of my loci 11 stands. From there, I’d be transporter to my loci 11 where I would again use my low images for the next card and high images for the next one and then the next card would again tell me at which of my waiting transporter rooms surrounding loci 11 I need to go. In total, it would mean that 34 cards would be memorized the Less L. way and 17 cards memorized without image, only through decision. If this works out, I would then try to do it without any images, simply by moving around through the loci and the transporter rooms for all the cards.
I thought that this method sounded too cool not to share. Take it as fiction if you’d like. I’m not advising anyone to try this. I am writing this for your information only. Ha! Ha!
Cheers,
SL
Hi everyone,
I’ve been working for several months now on a new variation of the Less L. method. I’ll call it the Less D.L. method with the D standing for Direct, (I choose “direct” because with this method, you go from one point to another directly without the need to reorient yourself within the locus.) This method runs differently from the Less L. method but it is very much based on the Less L. memorization technique.
Let me put it another way, a working understanding of my Less L. method is a pre-requisite to understand this new memory technique that I’m now presenting.
To my knowledge, no other person other than me has ever used the Less L. method to memorize a pack of cards and so, I expect little interest in my new technique. I’m presenting this only for your information.
Here’s how it works.
Say, my first card is a 2 of diamonds; to me this is a 12. In my first locus (locus 0) of 100 images, it will be the Tuna, located on the left side wall, (on a grid # of 10 images) that I can observe when I have my back against the 0s grid. In this respect, the first image with my new method gets to be selected exactly the same way as with the Less L. method. There are no changes for the first card.
Things change only with the second card because the second card’s image is selected in function of the position of the previous card.
Say that my second card is a 3 of diamonds. Now normally, 50+13= 63 so my image with less L. would be my ChuM but with this new Less D. L. method, the image I need to choose is 73, CoMb. The reason why it is a comb is a bit long and difficult to explain but I’ll try to be as clear as I can.
Normally, a diamond is always either in the 10s or 60s grid depending on whether the diamond comes with a first card or a second card in the locus. So, in the example above the diamond, second card in the locus appears as a 73 and not 63. Why? The reason is that the previous card stands still across the locus and it is being interpreted as if it were where the zero grid stands. If the Tuna were in the 0s grid, then straight across facing it would be the 60s wall or grid, the wall of second card diamonds. What I’m trying to say is that every time I have a diamond for second card, I’ll be hitting the wall that is straight across from the locus where the first card has been selected. That’s it. There aren’t any exceptions to this.
Now, let’s continue a little more with this example. Let’s say our 3rd card is a 3 of clubs, which would normally be a 33 or 83; we now go to the second locus of 100 images, but this time we enter from the same wall/grid as the one from which we left locus #1, the 70s wall. Now, image 133 would be for me a tampon but now this is not the image that I’ll use because I’m entering from the right side wall and the 30s are always located on the wall that is on the right side of my entry point and in this case this means it will be my image 123, the bike dynamo. etc.
Again, this is just a sample of my current technique. I’m explaining only the working principle and not all there is to explain about it because I feel my technique is just a single person’s technique and will remain that way, so why bother with all the details? I just wanted to inform people interested in memory techniques of the working principle of my method.
My current top time running through of a pack of cards with this method is 3:29 with a few errors during recalls and the recall time did exceed the 5 minutes limit. My current perfect memorization of a pack with this method is 4:05 with a recall time exceeding the 5 minutes limit once again.
Simon L
Hi everyone,
The Less D. L. is still the method that I currently use; however, it has grown in complexity recently. One of the things I didn’t like about my method is that when I would have for second card in my locus a Spade or a Club (80s and 90s) that would send me to the top or bottom grid. Now, when I’d enter the next locus, from the top or bottom, it would be very difficult to get a good sense of orientation (Where is your left or right when you enter via the top or bottom?) So to solve this, I decided to enter the next locus from the position of the first card whenever the last card was either a Spade or a Club. But I didn’t like the flow of this move, looking back.
So, over the past few weeks, I have decided to find a way to enter the new locus by the top or bottom grid whenever the previous locus ended in those same respective grids. The solution I devised is to simply abandon the Less D. L. method to revert to the Less L. method but only for the first card of the new locus. (This means that if I’m entering by the top grid, and I have a 6 of Hearts, or 76, then I’m going to hit on image 76 for that first card)
After that, I can return to navigating using the Less D. L method. Following this change, I have found it necessary to make a bunch of other modifications to my method without altering its working principle. I won’t go into that now but as soon as I achieve a new personal best with this method, I’ll outline more details.
Also, I have over the past few weeks started to redesign my grids #. Before, I used mainly this numbering system:
123
456
789
with the 0 over the grid # or under it or just bigger in my mind.
Now, I’m renovating my memory castles using this numbering system for my grids:
123
894
765
The reason for this is that there is no visual break between the 3 and the 4 or the 6and the 7.
As far as the 0 is concerned, I now put it right before the 1 but in a slanted way.
Simon L.
I’ve had recenttly a relatively good time (from my perspective) of 4:01 second to memorize perfectly a full deck of cards with my new method. It is my pb with this new method and also my best in over 6 months.
So, I feel that now is the time to start explaining my highly complex method. It is a mix of two methods, Less L. and Less D. L. and this is why I continue using this thread for it. It think I’ll call it method 232 because this is my post # 232.
It uses 26 memory castles of 100 images each such as the ones described earlier for the Less L. and Less D. L. methods.
There is one minor change however to the value that give to two of the walls in those memory castles: The wall of the 50s, which is located on the left (from having one’s back against the 0’s grid) and set usually higher in the locus, used to represent royals (from Jack of Diamond-50 to Jack of Spade-59.) Now those cards are re-assigned to the ceiling grid. The ceiling grid used to represent the clubs and now the clubs are located where the 50s used to be. Doing this switch really simplified things and I’ll explain why later in this post.
The principle of selecting two images per memory castles to represent 2 cards continues to be in effect.
I think the best way to explain the method is simply to go over a bunch of examples. A lot of examples are needed to cover the many possible combinations of two cards.
Say I start with a 5 of Clubs. At the start, I’m at my zeros wall and since 5 of Clubs is worth 35 (Less L. method) , I’ll simply hit image number 35 in my locus. Then, say the next card is a 4 or Spades. I’ll hit image 54 because, and this following rule explains why:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a spade from a vertical low position 0s 10s 20s 30s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and high. Image 54 is across the room and high. (If the spade had been the first card, we would have simply hit the floor, or 90s as the 90s grid represent the Less L. Spades)
Now we move to the next locus and we enter by the high wall of the 50s (the same wall type as the second image from the previous locus) Now say the card is a 2 of Spades. Then we will hit image 52 of that wall. That is because the following rule:
On the first card of a locus, if you enter by a high vertical wall (40s,50s,60s,70s) and you have a spade card, then you just hit the image on the wall by which you are entering.
Now, say the 2nd card for that locus is 9 of Spades, then you hit image 99 of the locus as in the Less L method. (9 of Spades is worth either 49 or 99) (Do not hit image 49 because from image 52, moving to image 49 would represent a lateral move and lateral moves are reserved for when you get either a club or a diamond card.)
Okay, so now we move to the next locus and we enter by the floor grid. Say the card is a 5 of Diamond. Then you hit, as you would with the Less L. method the image #15 of that locus. (If we were entering by the ceiling grid, we would be hitting image #65 because it is physically closer from the ceiling.) Okay
now say the next card for that same locus is an 8 of Hearts. You would then be hitting image 58 in that locus because of this rule:
On a second card in a locus, if you get a Heart from any vertical wall, then you go either to the wall below or the wall above. So, just above the girds of the 10s is the 50s and so image 58 is picked. Let’s keep going.
Next locus, we now get a King of Diamond (02 or 82-used to be 02 or 52 in Less L) as we enter from the 50s (being the same grid type as the final card from the previous locus) We’ll be hitting image 82, on the ceiling. (Now, had we entered this locus from a lower grid -10s,20s,30s,40s- we would have remained on that same grid and hit the second image of that same grid, much as we did earlier for our 2 of Spades and the upper locus entrance)
Now let’s say the second card in that locus is a Jack of Hearts. We will then image 73. The reason is that whenever the 2 cards of one locus are both royals, clubs or diamonds, you generally go as much as
you can in a straight line within the locus. So, in this case, we have entered from the 50s, hit the ceiling 82 and now bouncing across in a straight line to the grid of the 70s. Since the Jack of Hearts is always a 3 (either 03 or 83 with the modified Less L System) we hit the image 73 and when we’re doing our recall, we’ll know that the 73 represent a jack of hearts because we can see the straight trajectory that was used to reach that image.
Okay, now on to the next locus, entering by the grid of the 70s. Let’s say we now have a 3 of clubs. Since a club is a black color we will hit laterally the image that is on a grid either to the immediate left or right depending upon the color of the grid (The concept of the color of the grid comes from the Less L. system where the 10s 20s and 60s 70s are always red girds because you put diamond or hearts cards on those grids whereas the 30s 40s and 50s – and by the way that is why 30s and 80s had to be switched with this new system- are now black as you put the black club or spade cards on those grids. Okay, so right beside the 70s, you have the 60s which are red and the 40s which are black, so we’ll put this first club on image #43 of that locus. Now say the next card is an 8 of Clubs, we have to go in a straight line as much as possible and this means we’ll hit high again and right next gird, the grid of the 50s, image #58.
Okay, next locus, entering by the grid of the 50s, say we have an Ace of diamond. We then look laterally to the immediate right or left grid and pick the red one. In this case, it will be the 60s and so we hit image 61. Now the next card for this locus is a 6 of clubs. When there is such a change of suit within a locus, we switch levels as we keep going in a now rather skewed line. A straight line would have gotten us to the 70s but now we hit below the 70s where the 30s are found. This works very well as a 36 is a Less L. 6 of Clubs but that doesn’t always work so neatly. We will try something similar but which does not have this neat ending. So we’re entering the next locus by the gird of the 30s. Let’s say we get a 10 of Diamonds, we’ll go to the 20s because it is a red grid and hit image 20. Then we get a 5 of hearts and go straight up on the wall to reach image #65. Now, we enter the next locus by the grid of the 60s. Let’s say we get a 5 of Clubs, we’re going to go to the black adjacent grid, the 50s and hit image 55 and then say we get a 2 of diamonds. Now we need to switch level as we go in a straight line and this means we’re hitting the 0s. But the zeros are royals under the Less L system and the royals are both black and red. If we prefer to hit the opposite wall of the red 20s instead, that would work just as well and is a viable alternative. (But had this second card been a King of Hearts instead, we would have hit straight across the room going down one level to hit the grid of the 30s. This moved would have been dictated by this rule:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a royal from a vertical high position 40s 50 60 70s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and low.
Not all moves have been covered here but all the basic principles behind all moves are covered, I didn’t go into explaining how I memorize the 2 missing royals. I may do this later. This is enough for now.
A quick update regarding method #56 of this thread:
A few days ago, I did a time of 2:56 for a perfect recall of a full deck of cards with method #56 explained above.
This rivals my almost 2 year old pb of 2:52 with the Less L. method.
Now that I’m back doing the same times I used to do, I can say that I’m still happy with having made this change of method. It does seem to flow better…a bit.
Again, my recall times are way beyond the five minutes limit. I’m now using a second deck to rearrange the cards as opposed to straight recalling. It does make it easier to get it all right.
If I were to start all over again, knowing what I now know, I think I would not use the Major system to build my memory loci of 100 images. Instead, I would use a 2 consonants and one middle vowel where the middle vowel would represent the number of the 100s. The reason is that it I now think it would make it easier to know exactly in which locus I am: just focus on the consonant sounds and you immediately have your answer. I’m not changing my system now though, as this does not make that much of a big difference. I think it would just make one’s progress easier and perhaps faster.
Simon
Hello Simon,
Thanks for the info
It is good to know that we all have different systems-it makes sense because humans do not all think a lot and have the same brains
Your system is a highly complex system that you invented
I would not recommend it for a beginning memory athlete
As long as it works for you and you enjoy it, then run with it
Ray:)
The system that I’m going to describe may not appear to have much of any use to any of you but I feel it is of considerable interest to anyone interested in using huge amounts of pegs such as is the case with the Less L. system together with the Major system.
What I’m about to describe is simply a system to create shortcut words that are effective and simple with which to name and rehearse your images. The idea is quite simple and it is a wonder to me that no one before has expressed this idea.
As a matter of fact, this is based on an old concept. My method takes this old idea and considerably increases its complexity and scope.
Okay, let’s first review the old concept: Maria and Mario. Now everyone knows that Maria is going to be a female and Mario a male. It is the last vowel that tells us this. “O” is generally used for the males and “A” is used for female.
What I’m proposing is similar except that I mostly target the middle vowel and I add new rules for the end vowel and expend the scope of the meaning of the changes that the vowels bring.
I’ll start by listing vowels and I will write next to it the main category to which that vowel will apply. After this, I will show the practical applications for this.
“eo” “ee” as in People
small “i” as in Animal
“o” as in Chlorophyll
“u” as in Natural
“ah” as in Cult (culture)
“uh”, “eh” as in Instr-u-ment
“ay” as in Corsay (any cloth or container)
“ah” as in Flag (any symbol image)
big “I” as in Device
“ow” as in Power
“wi” as in Liquid
Okay, now let’s work on some example of how my word invention system applies. My image for number 86 is a fish. Now fosh is not a word but if you know that “o” is for chlorophyll, you can then be inspired to find a new appropriate meaning for this assemblage of letters. You could have an image of a fish that lives in algae or that eats plants or you may want to see a fisherman that is pulling out weeds attached to his line.
For a feesh, (as in People) you may simply want to assign the current definition for a person that is called a fish. For me that would be a person hat I know who constantly takes bad, losing bets playing chess.
I guess I could go on like that and make hundreds of example but I feel certain that just these two examples are enough for you to understand where I’m going with this.
I could at this point describe better the categories that I have listed but I think it is better if I let you use your own imagination for this or recreate your own categories.
One of the reasons I came up with this idea is that since I have several thousand pegs, some of the pegs would get exactly the same short word to identify it and I would just leave it to its loci to tell me which number represented which image. For instance, 0181 Divide, is an image of a pair of scissors while 4181 is also divide but this time it is a border on a map. I found that the use of the same word for an image to be one of the many causes why I would fail to pick up the image back as I scan back through my loci after the memorization. So from now on, I will attempt to call my scissor 0181 the word, div-uh-de (instr-u-ment) whereas the 4181 border will be called div-a-de (Fl-a-g category.)
I have also created a few more specific rules to alter or add an end vowel to many words:
-
For any baby, (as in baby John being called Johnny), I will add an EE sound at the end. Massive, #308 for instance, is an elephant, as in massive elephant but Massivy #X308, will be a baby elephant. Deery will be baby deer, Liony will be a baby, etc.
-
Anything that is strong in its category can be added a strong “I” at the end. For instance, a hammer, 034 could become a hammeri X034 and the image for this would be a sledge hammer. Anything that is small or weak in its category could be added an “oo” at the end. Hammeroo, X034 could thus be a piano hammer or a gun hammer.
-
Expend the significance for the current understanding of the end vowel “o” and “a.” Anything that penetrates, make sure to add an “o” at the end. This way, you can call forko 0847 a kitchen fork but think of fork X847 as a forklift since it does not penetrates into anything. Anything which you feel as female or male proprieties, you can go ahead and decide to add the appropriate ending.
-
Use liberally the “er” ending for a maker. Call a glasser a glass blower for instance.
Ultimately, how you decide to call your images will be decided by your own judgment or according to what you think is the best way to call your image.
There are obviously more ways to “program” the vowel so that they have a meaning to you that enable you to give a more specific meaning to a word. You may want to add a vowel before the words something which may alter its significance in ways that you have yet to invent!
For instance a Molon with two strong "o"s as in chlorophyll might be the way to describe a honey dew melon as it is green, the color of chlorophyll!
But this is getting a bit too complex for now. The idea is out of the box and I think this is the main thing.
1 Like
I’m not sure if I could apply that idea to my consonant-vowel system, but I think that there’s something interesting in there to think about.
Thanks for the comment Josh,
I think only someone who has an interest in big systems is going to have interest in this.
I continue to enjoy creating new words and I must admit that I am not completely certain of the value of doing this. Time should tell.
Here in this post, I would like to share another new variation to this word creation system using colors.
If it suits my purpose, I can add a single vowel at the beginning of a word to represent the color of the object. For instance, I now call my number 1521, a LiNT brush, aylint brush. Why? It’s because the lint brush I am familiar with and upon which I’m basing this image was red (r-ay-d). Sometimes using a vowel for a color can work great if you know very well the color of the object of your image. Again, this helps to differentiate the word lint from when it is used to represent a clothes dryer’ lint compartment, which is 0521 for me.
I currently use only 10 colors for this purpose,
S-i-lver
Wh-i-te
Gr-ee-n
Amb-e-r Orange
Bl-a-ck
R-e-d
Br-ow-n
Vi-o-let
Bl-ue-
-Ye-llow
Simon
I’ve made a small change to my method. I’m reposting here my method from post 232. I will underline what is changing and highlight the changes.
Interestingly, my current pb with this newly adjusted method is 2:32. I had called this method, “Method 232”
The reason for the changes is simple: I think it flows a bit more naturally this way:
So, I feel that now is the time to start explaining my highly complex method. It is a mix of two methods, Less L. and Less D. L. and this is why I continue using this thread for it. It think I’ll call it method 232 because this is my post # 232.
It uses 26 memory castles of 100 images each such as the ones described earlier for the Less L. and Less D. L. methods.
There is one minor change however to the value that give to two of the walls in those memory castles: The wall of the 50s, which is located on the left (from having one’s back against the 0’s grid) and set usually higher in the locus, used to represent royals (from Jack of Diamond-50 to Jack of Spade-59.) Now those cards are re-assigned to the ceiling grid. The ceiling grid used to represent the clubs and now the clubs are located where the 50s used to be. Doing this switch really simplified things and I’ll explain why later in this post.
The principle of selecting two images per memory castles to represent 2 cards continues to be in effect.
I think the best way to explain the method is simply to go over a bunch of examples. A lot of examples are needed to cover the many possible combinations of two cards.
Say I start with a 5 of Clubs. At the start, I’m at my zeros wall and since 5 of Clubs is worth 35 (Less L. method) , I’ll simply hit image number 35 in my locus. Then, say the next card is a 4 or Spades. I’ll hit image 54 because, and this following rule explains why:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a spade from a vertical low position 0s 10s 20s 30s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and high. Image 54 is across the room and high. (If the spade had been the first card, we would have simply hit the floor, or 90s as the 90s grid represent the Less L. Spades)
Now we move to the next locus and we enter by the high wall of the 50s (the same wall type as the second image from the previous locus) Now say the card is a 2 of Spades. Then we will hit image 52 of that wall. That is because the following rule:
On the first card of a locus, if you enter by a high vertical wall (40s,50s,60s,70s) and you have a spade card, then you just hit the image on the wall by which you are entering.
Now, say the 2nd card for that locus is 9 of Spades, then you hit image 99 of the locus as in the Less L method. (9 of Spades is worth either 49 or 99) (Do not hit image 49 because from image 52, moving to image 49 would represent a lateral move and lateral moves are reserved for when you get either a club or a diamond card.)
Okay, so now we move to the next locus and we enter by the floor grid. Say the card is a 5 of Diamond. Then you hit, as you would with the Less L. method the image #15 of that locus. (If we were entering by the ceiling grid, we would be hitting image #65 because it is physically closer from the ceiling.) Okay
now say the next card for that same locus is an 8 of Hearts. You would then be hitting image 58 in that locus because of this rule:
On a second card in a locus, if you get a Heart from any vertical wall, then you go either to the wall below or the wall above. So, just above the girds of the 10s is the 50s and so image 58 is picked. Let’s keep going.
Next locus, we now get a King of Diamond (02 or 82-used to be 02 or 52 in Less L) as we enter from the 50s (being the same grid type as the final card from the previous locus) We’ll be hitting image 82, on the ceiling. (Now, had we entered this locus from a lower grid -10s,20s,30s,40s- we would have remained on that same grid and hit the second image of that same grid, much as we did earlier for our 2 of Spades and the upper locus entrance)
Now let’s say the second card in that locus is a Jack of Hearts. We will then image 73. The reason is that whenever the 2 cards of one locus are both royals, clubs or diamonds, you generally go as much as
you can in a straight line within the locus. So, in this case, we have entered from the 50s, hit the ceiling 82 and now bouncing across in a straight line to the grid of the 70s. Since the Jack of Hearts is always a 3 (either 03 or 83 with the modified Less L System) we hit the image 73 and when we’re doing our recall, we’ll know that the 73 represent a jack of hearts because we can see the straight trajectory that was used to reach that image.
This concept of the straight lines remains in effect but only when the ceiling or floor are involved (80s or 90s.)
Okay, now on to the next locus, entering by the grid of the 70s. Let’s say we now have a 3 of clubs. Since a club is a black color we will hit laterally the image that is on a grid either to the immediate left or right depending upon the color of the grid (The concept of the color of the grid comes from the Less L. system where the 10s 20s and 60s 70s are always red girds because you put diamond or hearts cards on those grids whereas the 30s 40s and 50s – and by the way that is why 30s and 80s had to be switched with this new system- are now black as you put the black club or spade cards on those grids. Okay, so right beside the 70s, you have the 60s which are red and the 40s which are black, so we’ll put this first club on image #43 of that locus. Now say the next card is an 8 of Clubs, we have to go in a straight line as much as possible and this means we’ll hit high again and right next gird, the grid of the 50s, image #58.
This changes. We don’t go in a straight line here anymore. Instead, we go to the lower level and hit the black side wall that is adjacent, the 30s. Had the card been a diamond, we would have hit the 10s.
Okay, next locus, entering by the grid of the 50s, say we have an Ace of diamond. We then look laterally to the immediate right or left grid and pick the red one. In this case, it will be the 60s and so we hit image 61. Now the next card for this locus is a 6 of clubs. When there is such a change of suit within a locus, we switch levels as we keep going in a now rather skewed line. A straight line would have gotten us to the 70s but now we hit below the 70s where the 30s are found. This works very well as a 36 is a Less L. 6 of Clubs but that doesn’t always work so neatly.
Now, this always work this way. There are no exception. The club, a black card will always hit the 30s, a black wall in that manner.
We will try something similar but which does not have this neat ending. So we’re entering the next locus by the gird of the 30s. Let’s say we get a 10 of Diamonds, we’ll go to the 20s because it is a red grid and hit image 20. Then we get a 5 of hearts and go straight up on the wall to reach image #65. Now, we enter the next locus by the grid of the 60s.Let’s say we get a 5 of Clubs, we’re going to go to the black adjacent grid, the 50s and hit image 55 and then say we get a 2 of diamonds. Now we need to switch level as we go in a straight line and this means we’re hitting the 0s.
This changes. We now hit the 20s or 22 because the 2 of diamond is red and the 20s is a red wall.
But the zeros are royals under the Less L system and the royals are both black and red.
Now, the royals are black only.
If we prefer to hit the opposite wall of the red 20s instead, that would work just as well and is a viable alternative.
This viable alternative is now my method and I think it is better.
(But had this second card been a King of Hearts instead, we would have hit straight across the room going down one level to hit the grid of the 30s. This moved would have been dictated by this rule:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a royal from a vertical high position 40s 50 60 70s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and low.
Not all moves have been covered here but all the basic principles behind all moves are covered, I didn’t go into explaining how I memorize the 2 missing royals. I may do this later. This is enough for now.
This is just a synopses of my recent pb in training with the method mentioned above along with a new training approach specific to this method.
It was early in the morning, I had done a few minutes of my fluidity ‘n’ back memory game, and the results were good but not exceptionally so. I had my wet pants on. (I provide more explanation on this wet pants trick in the Post Your Best Times thread for speed cards.) I did a few warm up runs where I look only at the suit of the cards and move appropriately to the correct walls in the locus but no visualization of any image on the walls. This is very fast. My times for this warm up were very good, sub- 60 seconds.
I was thus expecting a possible good time. But at my very second locus of memorization, I realized that I had landed in locus 3 instead of locus #1. I thought, oh no, do I continue from locus 3 or go back? I chose to go back. Not too good a start, I thought. Then later as I was doing the memorization, I said to myself, “don’t be so tense, you know you don’t go fast when you are tense.”
Then at two different locus, I had blocks. I could not see the image and just focused on the location and swore to myself that I would remember these loci. That often works but then the previous image tends to disappear from my memory when I do this. At the end, I realized that, whoops, I had missed a locus somewhere as I had two cards left and I was at the finish locus. I used another locus to wrap up this apparently hopeless memorization. I looked up at the clock and was pleasantly surprised to see 2:32. I thank the cold wet pants for that.
When the recall began, I was fortunate to find quickly and with certainty which room I had skipped. This helped. Then everything just fell into place. As expected, the images that I hadn’t seen were recalled easily and only the previous one was uncertain; I did an educated guess for it and got it right. The recall took me about 15-20 minutes and I may have spent another 5 minutes to try to find any possible hidden error in the pack but nothing was uncovered.
My new training methods were directly inspired by suggestions to me from AlexM. He wrote about practicing doing many packs without putting the images in the journey, just looking at images.
Well, in the case of my method, if I know the correct image, the locus is also known. So, I decided to try speeding up by looking only at the suit and practicing going through my locus quickly without seeing any images, just bouncing from the correct wall to the next correct wall, given the suit of the card in the pack. I now manage to do a pack of this in just under a minute.
AlexM also suggested doing other cards where you move to the next card as soon as you think you know the card without necessarily having seen the image. Well, the evening prior to my new pd, I had done about 8 to 10 such packs. To me, this is like using a metronome, if the image does not come, well, you get to become keenly aware of just how much you need to improve! I think getting this feeling is important. Before, I would practice this and try to recall the cards. Now, given AlexM’s suggestion, I don’t bother with attempting any recall. I just do many successive packs. These days, I reach speeds of around 2:00 minutes doing this but this can vary easily depending on how much time I give myself before I move on from a locus where nothing shows up.
That’s all the latest news for this method.
I’m now down to a new pb of 2:24 with this latest method. After 2 years and a few months with no speed increases, I’ve just increased my speed by 20% in the past 30 days or so.
“Success is to go from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm,” said WC. Well, I believe it.
Since I seemed poised to go in the sub-2 minutes range soon, I’d like to share in this post, my last secrets regarding this method: How to deal with the King and Queen of Spades (50th and 51th cards.) It’s quite simple: when the Queen of Spades shows up, I repeat the previous card. If the King of Spade shows up, then I simply skip the locus, leaving nothing there. It may or may not be the ideal way to manage this and if anyone can come up with a different idea, I might be willing to try it.
Also, I forgot to mention another thing I’ve been doing in training recently that may have made a difference in helping me to get faster times. Here it is: If I do a memorization that is below my current pb., I simply go a second time through the pack and then quickly call the pack straight out. Then I call it out once again straight out, hoping that this will take less then 2 minutes. Once I’ve achieve this, I try to call it out all once again perfectly in under 70 seconds. I usually limit my time doing this to about 20 minutes, less if I’m completely successful early. I do think it is a valuable memory exercise. I started doing this early this January.