I am using my cast of Dominic Characters (where applicable) to memorize the order of multiple decks of playing cards by using a 17 loci mental journey for each deck and using a PAO system for each loci except the 17th one where I am visualizing the last loci with a PAO + Shadow Character to get 4 cards in at the last loci. This system is working well but I think that it’s now time to start reconfiguring a new system as I want to keep my Dominic System solely for number memorization going forward. Upon pondering upon how I should go about encoding playing cards to people, I thought of using a “Number Jogger System” for each card value and suit value. I have kept mainly to the familiar theme of Hearts being “Heart-Throbs”, Clubs being “Night Clubs or Fighting/Injury”, Diamonds being “Wealth” and Spades being “Death”. So far I have the majority of the deck worked out and can get intuitively very quickly from the cards suit and value to the “Person” the card represents. To illustrate with my 3 value cards (3H, 3C, 3D and 3S) here is how the system works. For my 3 ‘pipped’ cards, I visualize a cricket wicket as a wicket has 3 wooden sticks to make up the wicket. Keeping with the themes outlined, I googled what cricketer has made the largest amount of money in his career which yield Sachin Tendulkar, OK so he is my 3D. Next, my 3C is Mark Boucher as he suffered an eye injury leading to blindness in one eye as a bail destroyed his iris, pupil and retina, Remember “Clubs” suit are Night Clubs or Injury etc. For my 3H, I googled who was considered to be the best looking cricketer of all time (I know it’s very subjective and biased, but the name Brett Lee was suggested, so I have my 3H = Brett Lee (Heart-Throb). Lastly, my 3S must be a cricketer who suffered the fate of death. The South African captain Hansie Cronje fits the bill perfectly (sadly though it must be said). So 3S = Hansie Cronje. I did a similar exercise for the 4 pipped value cards, where I have used the “Fab 4 or The Beatles” coming into play: 4H = Paul McCartney, 4C = George Harrison (as he was attacked but a madman in his London Mansion, club = injury). Ringo Starr was easy (a Diamond is a “Star-shaped” and lastly John Lennon = 4S (Spades signify death and John Lennon was assassinated in 1980. I’m still busy finding ‘themes’ for my 2’s, 5’s, 6’s, 9’s and 10’s. So I’m putting a challenge out there if there are any forum members who can think of suitable playing cards for those numbers. I mention that I have treated my “Aces” as high-value cards and not as 1’s and whilst I originally had Adolf Hitler as my KS, I have moved Adolf Hitler to the Ace of Spades and have put a lesser despot, Idi Amin in as my KS. My Jack of Spades is Jack-the-Ripper, with my Queen of Spades being designated to Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
I would really appreciate any suggestions out there on my remaining card value that I am struggling to assign. Any suggestions would be welcome. It must be said, I’m looking more for the possible ‘themes’ that the pipped numbers: 2’s, 5’s, 6’s, 9’s and 10’s could signify, rather than the “People” themselves. Hope that makes sense?
It would help me greatly for you to develope any of these themes. Antropologists; physics; outer space exploration. People that went to space. Test pilots / combat aces. Dance.
Perhaps including specifics.
Select space ships, rockets, dance costumes.
I have completed my ‘themes’ now all except for my 9’s. My number themes are:
2’s = Couples ((2H = Romeo & Juliet; 2S = Bonny & Clyde (Death))
3’s = Cricketers (Visualize three stumps)
4’s = The Fab 4 (The Beatles)
5’s = Castle (Military Men) - Pentagon has 5 sides
6’s = Jewish People (as Star of David has 6 points)
7’s = James Bond actors (007 is James Bond)
8’s = F1 Drivers (Think of Fig. of 8 circuit)
9’s = ?
10’s = Swimmers (See my diagram below number shape)
Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces (Link to their individual suit themes. For example my Hearts suit “Royals and Ace” are: Jack of Hearts = Justin Bieber (Boy Heart-Throb); Queen of Hearts = Marilyn Monroe (Heart-Throb); King of Hearts = Elvis Presley (Heart-Throb); Ace of Hearts (First successful human heart transplant Doctor = Prof. Christiaan Barnard, whom himself was a ‘heart-throb’ being a good looking, charismatic, young thoracic heart surgeon back in 1967 himself, so a perfect fit!!)
My 10’s value cards are the theme of swimmers: 10H = Chad Le Clos (Heart-Throb); 10C = Natalie Du Toit (Injured Swimmer/amputee, one leg; 10D = Ryk Neetling. “Ryk” in Afrikaans means “Rich” and he is certainly the wealthiest South African Swimmer but certainly not world’s wealthiest so maybe ‘Michael Phelps’ would work better? And lastly, and sadly, following the Spades suit’s theme of ‘Death’, I have Fran Crippen (USA 10km Open Water Swimmer) who died in a 10km event (also links to the ‘10’ as a clue), in the Dubai Open Water 10km event at age 26, somewhere after the 8km mark - suggest ‘google’ for full story (Very sad indeed but very memorable too, if not for all the wrong reasons).
I find this method of 'classification into meaningful groups of playing cards, far superior to the Dominic Method of encoding for two main reasons:
I don’t end up with a meaningless haphazard order of cards and I can literally visualize the image of the “Person” onto the playing cards.
the face value or ‘number of pips’ the cards have immediately assign me directly to the number value theme (e.g. 6’s are all “Jewish People” because a Star of David has 6 sides) 6 of Hearts = Heart-Throb Jew; 6 of Clubs = Injured Jew; 6 of Diamonds = Super-wealthy Jew (Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook) and 6 of Spades = Dead Jew
I am still looking for a ‘theme’ for the 9’s value cards, if anyone has any ideas?
Does anybody else on the forum believe this system to be an improvement upon a Dominic or Major System playing card encoding systems. To my mind this system is unique and novel and makes far more sense in arriving at a cast of characters for one’s 52 playing cards as you can literally ‘read off the Person’ from the actual face of the playing card my 'images ‘morph’ from the playing card into the actual image (see picture below). I now need to develop “Actions” and “Objects” for each of my playing card images so that I can develop a PAO System to simplify recall of cards even easier, namely by placing them as 'mini-movies into each of 17 loci as PAO scenes.
I’m just needing to find a suitable ‘theme’ for the #9’s card values now. Any suggestions?
I was also thinking about cats as they are said to have 9 lives. e.g. Sylvester, Top Cat, Tom (Tom and Jerry) etc. But golf is the obvious choice too.
Planets could even prompt one further to think about astral bodies like Moon. Therefore 9S could be Keith Moon (Death - Who Drummer)? etc.
In Rugby Union #9s are Scrum-halves, so Joost van der Westhuizen would work well for a 9 of Spades too as he died prematurely of MND - Motor Neuron disease. In keeping with the schema of the card suits I would need to think of a good looking scrum-half for 9H, a scrum-half who is always injured = 9C and a very wealthy scrum-half. Problem is, much like many other sporting disciplines, most international scrum-halves are wealthy as the norm and not the exception. Do my other Peg words of People work well or are there any you would change?
Of course your pegs are great. Basketball is big in Vegas. Baseball never seemed right for 9. Fantastic Four is different, has good art, even has the 4 in the name. Sue Reed Ben Johnny
I have just finished my “Thematically Encoded Playing Card System”. My outstanding number I was looking to complete the system was the #9’s. I decided to go with famous boxers as a #9 looks like a Boxing Glove.
Here is my complete list:
I have changed a couple of things around (as can be expected),nothing is set in concrete and signed in blood. I have rather opted for Janet Jackson (as a pole-dancer) in the “Jack 'O Clubs -Strip Joint”. Whilst I know that Janet Jackson is a women, my Jacks do look a little effeminate. I choose Jacket Jackson as a Club Royal because I have her brother Michael Jackson as "The King of Clubs (Pop) and Donna Summer as the “Queen of Disco-Clubs”. I finished of my Jacks with the obvious “Jack-the-Ripper” to signify death or the “Spades” suit.
I have also moved Adolf Hitler to the King of Spades and have opted for the Grim Reaper (signifying Covid) as my Ace of Spades or “Death Card”. Floyd Mayweather 9D doesn’t belong amongst my cast of Heavyweight Boxers, so I have cast George Foreman in his place. To my surprise George Foreman is the wealthiest heavyweight boxer in the history of boxing.
Great technique Fred2. One would have to use themes appropriate to there life experience. i.e i noticed you mentioning Rugby and Cricket as a theme, and Jetpunk mentions baseball and basketball. Obvious you guys are from different neck of the woods.
6 for Jews, is probably not my first choice. I would lean towards a revolver ( 6 bullet chamber). 6H -Clint Eastwood etc.
3 would be the toy story cast. I.e 3Spade would be Sid, that oak was a terrorist injuring all the dolls, almost launched buzz lightyear into space with a real fire cracker.
Anyway, thanks for this …I will go ahead and have some fun setting up my themes using your system.
No I actually ended up using boxers as my theme for 9’s as a 9 is shaped like a boxing glove. I was originally considering using scrum-halves as my #9’s as you have picked up from the posts in this link though. I hadn’t thought of Toy Story as a theme for #3’s. A Trilogy of Toy Story Movies gets you to 3, I’m guessing. The character “Sid” would work well as a 3 of Spades but you would still need to find suitable characters from Toy Story cast for: 3H (Woody maybe?), 3C (One of Sid’s monster ‘injured dolls’ ?) and 3D = ? Wealth (Maybe the Miner character - gold digger?). Ultimately the Persons to Cards translation are as unique as we are as individuals as you have correctly identified. So in short, I’ve put out my idea for a system of encoding playing cards for Forum members to tinker with, to use the idea of “Themes” in creating their own unique cast of characters. Good luck in developing your own set of unique characters!
