Fun with number systems-
I call it HEADWARE SYSTEM
First, choose your favorite way to remember numbers, we will be building 10 pegs. For some experienced mnemonicists, a system already in use can be used here. If new, i suggest a rhyme scheme- one sun or wand or gun etc.
For everyone though, there are three criteria for this step- you cannot choose people and you cannot choose hats or headwear or anything that goes on or around the head.
No people. No hats. But they should be tangible things. And simple.
0-9
Thats 10 single digits. We will call these your essences.
Now think of 10 settings or great variety. The main concentration here is deciding on settings that give a specific feeling-for example: storm, beach, morning, night.
These are not singluar graspable tangible things they are vibes they are arenas they are stages and they are worlds. They must be distinct.
0-9
It is best if they have a flow to them, my personal ones go from waking to death.
We will call these your filters
NOW-
Each essence appears in each filter.
If beach is your first filter for 1 then all essences must exist on the beach.
Go filter by filter, and allow your essences to morph and transform into different but similar things.
But again- not people, and not hats. Its ok if people use the thing, but it cannot be a hat, and it cannot be a person.
If one is sun and beach is 1 then 11 might be sunscreen or sunburn or suntan or anything at all that somehow reminds you that the sun is specifically on a beach. You CANNOT use the sun here though, you must decide on its new form.
This is where it gets difficult- trying to create sun-ness in a storm setting. But maybe it’s just a flashlight there, or maybe a zippo lighter or storm match or reflective mirror or fire through a window. You can find a way. This takes the most time and should.
If you wish, this is the appropriate time to try and test and play with new essences and filters. I highly suggest changing essences first because you will see which are translatable across filters and which are not. In doing this you will notice which filters are weak.
Do all the versions.
0-99
We’ll call these your items
The filter tells you 10s place, essence tells you ones place. in a two digit 0-99 peg system.
Well done. I applaud you, genuinely, and you have earned my praise.
Now when you see sunburn you know 11 because it breaks into two pieces and you know which piece corresponds to which number, yet a sunburn is one thing. An item
Let’s add another layer, and trust me after all the restraint I’m sure you’ll enjoy this-
People.
People will be our hundreds place. Choose 10 people. I highly suggest a rhyme scheme here.
0-9
These should be people you can picture vividly WITHOUT A HAT.
If part of their character is contained in the hat they wear, like the mad hatter or Yosemite sam, you cannot use them.
These restrictions are what will make the system easiest to use.
Only choose people you can picture well.
We’ll call these your people.
Now when your people interact with your items you can build three digit numbers.
The person is the hundreds place, the item is the tens and ones place.
Try it!
123
654
789
I bow to you now, for combining a person and an object is imaginative in the deepest sense. What verb connected them? What happened? I am curious, and only you will ever know.
Regardless, each interaction should be the point of contact, and i personally had to make rules like “doors close and crates open” since door is four for me and crate is eight and i found them blending.
Search for blending, search for anything that doesnt sit individually or looks like something else or is vague or fuzzy before moving forwards to the ultimate level.
HATS
Decide on vivid images of 10 distinctly different hats. These will represent the thousands place of any number.
I find its best to model the hat after the geometry of the number- my first couple examples are- 1 santa hat, 2 mickey mouse ears, 3 tricorne hat, 4 graduation cap. I hope you can see the geometry in the examples.
It is also helpful to choose a hat which corresponds to the same filter, as if “hat” were an essence. I did this for a couple.
I think of the hats as having been worn by every one of your people, and you should picture each person wearing each hat, as if people we essences and hats were filters.
You have now completed the system to the thousands place.
1991 means something to you
1st hat, 9th person, 91st item
This is an image.
Dates are easy because pre-100 is no hat, after 1000 is all the same hat, after 2000 is all the same hat.
The hat will never interact or interfere with the object- because none of your objects involve the head.
People only ever represent the hundreds place, because there are no other people.
Items are known to be a form of essence that exists in a particular filter.
Now use it to memorize pi or something. And thank you, so very deeply, for reading this.
I have struggled to complete my 000-999 PO for the last few months and this might make me willing to reorganize it since it has slowly been falling off amidst my failing discipline.. I started out using a variation of your system, but it was quite limiting in how I would derive characters’ objects themselves (without it being a part of their original design). So before I dedicate myself to the cause however, I have a few questions regarding FAFL:
I will definitively put my own flair on various categories that better speaks to me personally, though the inspiration you bring will probably influence the direction to say the least. Your display of combinational creativity is marvelous, and even had me pick up a few new objects as well.. I never knew those were called Pelican boxes, but even less so was I aware that bugs bunny was a literal bug (jk, funny mix-up though)
Cheers!!