#memory testing

At the ripe age of 40 years and 51 weeks (yup, I’m turning 41 in less than a week), I’ve become more aware of taking care of my brain. I’m very mind over body oriented, and although my brain doesn’t always do things in the simplest of ways, it is still my favourite body part. Only, it tends to be packed with unnecessary facts, memories, songs and all kinds of things that I could live without, and it’s sometimes a bit hard to find the important stuff.

So, today Rhett and Link go down the memory lane trying to remember exactly what they once said on GMM. With almost 1700 episodes, it amazes me that they can remember anything specific from all these years, but unlike an average person trying to remember their past, they have video evidence of everything. But can they actually remember anything? Oh, and I’ve linked all the episodes mentioned to this post, be sure to rewatch them!

I’m always at awe of those people in this fandom who can remember specific details about what Rhett and Link said years ago. I have, altogether, a pretty blotchy memory for things that are spoken - I remember visual things much better. And I remember things that I’ve actually understood and processed in my own brain. But if you’d ask me who is the exeption to Rhett’s rule “never tweet with #____life”, I wouldn’t have a clue. For some reason, I did think it might be #doglife, which is closer to the real thing than astronaut. Do I get half a point?

Link is clearly more in touch with his memories, but I think his memory was also a bit easier to go back to because it was so much more personal. Who wouldn’t have some rules about personal space? I think it’s kind a nice to hear him say he has grown as a person, and is now less awkward about touching strangers in a subway. (No, that came out wrong. My bad.)

Another sign of personal growth is Rhett admitting he’s BSing 99 percent of the time with his opinions. I know he is, and being able to do that without a flinch is one of the things that make his jokes so great. But apparently, he can get a little awkward when reminded about his past comments. Also, Link is loving this just as much as I am.

You know what, I think my memory works a bit like Link’s: He doesn’t actually remember what he said, but what he said was originally the result of a thought process, and all he needs to do now in order to find his original comments is to rethink things, and come to the same conclusion. This way of remembering is probably one of the reasons why I never liked learning things by heart without actually understanding them. But Link is really good at this game!

I couldn’t remember much else from the mind map episode than the fact that Rhett had really thought about what he wanted for his mind map, and Link took a more comedic approach, and Rhett had actually added Link on the same paddle board with rest of his family, and that was the sweetest thing ever. Although no one got points this round, I have to say, if Antarctica is an island, wouldn’t that mean all continents are islands? How big can an island be before it turns into a continent? I mean...all continents are surrounded by water, and should therefore be islands. Right?

What does it say about me that I could remember exactly what Rhett said about Tom Cruise’s ball sack? But also, unlike on the other rounds, when Rhett is unable to access this memory, he now does the more Link-style thing of rethinking the ball situation and coming to a similar conclusion as he did in the original episode. He just really believes that Tom Cruise has a tight/smooth ball sack.  But I do think he deserves to get a point for good this round.

(This is about as much ball sacks I can take for one day, I prefer not to think about them in any situation, celebrity or otherwise. Moving on.)

Oh, we are not moving too far, now we talk about farts. This was, and still is, a solid theory on what laughter is, and it should be put on a t-shirt. Of course Link remembers this, everybody remembers this. “Laughter is like farting out of your mouth.”

Memory tests make me nervous. I often say that my memory is photographic, but sometimes the photos are a bit blurry, and I can’t see all the details. Also, unless it’s something super interesting, my mind drifts, and I forget I was supposed to concentrate on a specific thing - which is something that happened while Rhett and Link read the way too long instructions to each memory test in GMMore. But I actually did remember the answers to the first test correctly.

The second test is something that I suck at. I tried doing the test like the guys did, by only listening to the sentences Stevie read, but my brain is unable to remember things this way. I did gather the basic idea of the stories, but nothing word to word. And like Link, when I heard the strange verb tread, my mind went to thinking about that. The funny thing is, I’ll probably remember the sentences better in a few days, at a moment when they are not only unnecessary but also distracting. And I may forever remember the camera was a Nikon D5600 DSLR, because I’ve now watched this episode twice and things like that stick to my brain like the ink seems to stick to those whiteboards. I also have a 10000 lb egg in my mind now. And the last four numbers of the final test round.

To end this post, here’s an accurate depiction of a kid who has finished their test first and can’t wait to show the teacher that he knew all the answers. I’ve been that kid. I’m still that kid to this day, on the Spanish class I take. That kid can be a little annoying at times.