Cock rock spirit flow ape macro one sage emo

Quickly, just for fun:

I take a lot of notes—words or phrases I see and like, things I overhear, quarter-baked ideas. I have a giant folder of these in Gmail and, if you looked through it, you would probably think I was a crazy person. But it's super-valuable. For instance, it's where I squirreled away the Smithsonian factoids that found their way, months later, into The Wrong Plane.

Now, the iPhone has been a revolution in note-taking affairs. Before that, I would sort of ineffectually text notes to myself. And before that, I would use mnemonics.

The easiest way to explain what I mean is just to share the one I used this morning. I forgot my phone at home while I was out for coffee, and for whatever reason, during the walk my brain was really percolating with things I wanted to remember. So, for each one, I chose a tag; these formed a growing string in my head, up and down the street.

This mnemonic trick is like magic. As long as you can remember the string, it's easy to "decompress" it back into words and phrases, ideas and bits of weirdness when you're finally in front of a computer.

So, the string was: cock rock spirit flow ape macro one sage emo. Let's unpack it:

  • cock = cockpit = cockpit voice recorders. Such interesting artifacts. The complexity of cockpits. All sorts of bells and klaxons going off, all the time. (This is triggered by the news story about the Northwestern pilots missing Minneapolis, obviously.) In fighter jet cockpits, they get people you love to record some of the vocal cues; the idea is that you'll really pay attention to those voices. Just a very weird, rich environment.
  • rock = rock band in the woods = What would be the weirdest thing to stumble across in the deep woods? Like, in the middle of the Pacific Crest Trail? My current candidate: a full electric rock band. I like the idea of the sound filtering through the trees. "Is that... electric guitar?"
  • spirit = The Forest Spirits = obviously the rock band in the woods would be called the Forest Spirits, and you wouldn't know for sure if it was just one of these new woodsy indie bands (guys with beards, music video shot in Maine, etc.) or actually, you know, elves.

  • flow = a particular look—very San Francisco, though not exclusively San Francisco—that's all flowing scarves and long, formless dresses—all of the various fabrics sort of merging together, and the shape underneath almost entirely obscured. Sometimes accompanied by features that, themselves, merge into the flow—long, limp hair; drooping eyelids; long creases in the cheeks; etc.
  • ape = apiary = What a great word.
  • macro = life macros = Is there anything in your life where, anytime you do one thing, you almost always do another? Activities that always come in a group? For instance: In the morning you get coffee and a scone; always coffee and a scone. Or, when you go to a particular mall, you go to the same three stores, usually in the same order.
  • one = I can't remember what this was! And upon reflection, "one" is a terrible mnemonic tag! It might as well have been "something" or "the"—argh!

  • sage = Jerusalem sage = Good lookin' plant. That's all.
  • emo = emotional categorization = This one's complicated to explain, and probably boring. Just the seed of an idea for a collaborative art project. Seems less cool now than it did when I was walking.

There you have it. I used to do this a lot—besides being useful, it's (maybe obviously) a fun game to play with yourself—but for me, the iPhone killed the mnemonic star.

Do you have any tricks like this?