Keeping all the Information Straight

[CrazyCholeBlack]

I've been thinking reciently, how do you keep all the information that you're learning about the GAoP straight in your head?

I have a notoriously terrible memory. I can remember vague ideas, but never names, dates & places, forget details like book titles and actual quotes. Naturally that is what history is all about! I desperately want to be able to remember the facts so that when someone asks a question I can be of some help. My current, "I think I read about that once, in a book with a red cover, written by some guy with a beard" is less than helpful!

So how do those that have been doing this a lot longer remember everything? I'm sorely tempted to invest in a big notebook and just start writing everything down.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

I'm sure there will be as many different answers as there are people here, but the idea of a note book is not a bad one. Taking detailed notes is how I got that 4.0 GPA, and I keep the notebooks. History comes easier to me because I am so intrested in it. However, because I do so many periods, I mess up myself sometimes. Fortunately we have a great wealth of information here in the pub, and we keep each other straight. I just started learning about GAoP this year, and have far to go, but we are in the right place.

I say go with the notebook idea, and build a library of your own as you can afford it. Use your public library too. Our Community College has a great library that is also available for public use, so check aroun your area. With the internet, they are tied into libraries nationwide and can usaually get anything you can find.

Hope this helps some.

Bo

[Fox]

Hmm... Like Bo said, there's probably as many different answers as there are people. Sometimes I keep notes (particularly when I'm writing something and need to be able to find the information at my fingertips) but generally I think I just have a good memory (which is remarkable under the circumstances! ).

I think the real trick is not to try to remember the exact details of everything, but to try to remember where you can find the exact details.

Sometimes it's not even knowing about something, but having a good idea where to look for it.

Of course, talking to people face to face rather than from behind a keyboard is a different thing entirely. THEN you have to be able to remember a lot of stuff.

[kass]

I've often said that it's not what you know, it's that you know where to look it up. If you can remember that you read it in a book with a red cover, that's the first step to finding it again. Of course you have to get to the next step of knowing where the book with the red cover lives...

I find that writing things down helps set them in my mind. I can read something fifty times, but I won't remember it until I write it down.

But what really helps me is telling someone else about something I've learned. The stuff I can quote off the top of my head 10 years after I first read it is the stuff I used in a lecture or my schpeel to the public or just something I told a friend, "Hey, wanna hear something f--in' cool?"

So Chole, I'm afraid you're just gonna have to start talking to yourself!

[Gentleman of Fortune]

I have a note book... I like to write things down.

I also "make a web page" and add it to my gentlemenoffortune site. There are probably twice as many pages unpublished with notes, pics and stuff to help me remember.

But I am a little weird

Greg

[kass]

Yeah, Greg, but you're our kind of "weird"...

Merry Christmas, dude.

[Patrick Hand]

One of the problems that I have, is I can remember a lot of stuff.... but some of the exact details and dates kinda slip....

[Rumba Rue]

I had a memory once...but it escaped....

[Lady Seahawke]

First I have a good memory, which irritates the hell out of a number of people.

Second, I have a very extensive library that I have to keep the books by areas of topic. Because when I get interested in a subject I read/study the hell out of it. (Dang if I haven't thought about cateloging the lot, but don't have the time to go through all of them...project for next year ...as well as, using Access to file my collection via computer...again project for next year...which remains me I need a new book cabinet... )

Then again, I keep a notebook of quotes and ideas of the most interesting items...been known to do some handdrawn pics as extra memory boost. I memorized things in picture form. Can't explain it but, it works.

And as others have stated I do talk about it with others be in person or with my character writing. Through the character/role play writing I paint a picture in words...then I see in it my mind's eye as a scene and implant it in my memory further.

hope that helps.

[Red Cat Jenny]

I keep and have been adding to (thanks to all here ) a library on my laptop. It's quick and easy to run notepad or word and copy/paste on the fly. Then you can spend some time reorganizing and reading it bit by bit later on.

I am also building a book library. However, for reading, using, searching and sharing, keeping it electronically is beneficial at least to me.. a cd or download onto a zip drive is also quite a lot more portable.

For memorizing, I am terrible remembering names , but I never miss a voice. As for facts, I have found if I read something like a Historical novel or article, it's much easier to remember all the details including facts. Try to learn a general bit of everything, but stick to one area of REAL learning at a time..ship types, famous pirates/privateers, clothing etc. ~ Hope this helps!

[blackjohn]

I've been thinking reciently, how do you keep all the information that you're learning about the GAoP straight in your head?

Cruzan Black Strap rum?

There are days when I seriously think my head is going to explode. And then there are days when I just have to get up and turn my back on the pirate world lest it consume my soul.

Honestly, I don't know that I do keep it straight. And I believe that's a good thing. I sometimes find myself rediscovering things I knew. Sometimes I see things in a new light, with some new knowledge I didn't have before.

Isn't that part of the fun of learning? That quest for the unknown, and pushing the limits of one's being?

Now, where's that rum...

[Ransom]

I keep and have been adding to (thanks to all here ) a library on my laptop. It's quick and easy to run notepad or word and copy/paste on the fly. Then you can spend some time reorganizing and reading it bit by bit later on.

I am also building a book library. However, for reading, using, searching and sharing, keeping it electronically is beneficial at least to me.. a cd or download onto a zip drive is also quite a lot more portable.

For memorizing, I am terrible remembering names , but I never miss a voice. As for facts, I have found if I read something like a Historical novel or article, it's much easier to remember all the details including facts. Try to learn a general bit of everything, but stick to one area of REAL learning at a time..ship types, famous pirates/privateers, clothing etc. ~ Hope this helps!

Easy for you, but not so easy for the computer impared!

I make notes. I have a memory like a sieve, so unless I make notes, it's in one ear and out the other. I also have books - lots and lots of books. However, most of them are on the Medieval and Elizabethan period, and King Arthur, since that was my first interest. On pyracy, I have next to nothing, except "The Pirates Own Book" by Dover Press, which is a reprint from the late 1800's. Oh, and I have the Pirates book similar to Piratology, but I don't really count that as resource material. I have checked out numerous books from the library on pirates, so that has helped.

If I have a question I also Google search things, and then...make notes!

[Salty]

notes an asking questions from folk who have a handle on the information i want to know.....and more notes and research