Now It Has A Name

I started taking ginko biloba to improve my memory. That stuff really works. After 6 months I can finally remember that the name of the stuff is ginko biloba.

I got some of that ginko stuff,,but I can never remember to take it....

This sounds more like Cocaine Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

I have found that by setting a goal first thing in the morning of doing absolutely nothing al day keeps me from having days like that!

Sure you can try and improve your memory but why bother when a simple goal change can do so much more towards how your day turns out!

Sure the wife wont be happy but then again making her happy was never on the list to begin with.

GA

Brilliant; plus, I believe you've invented a new word: autonemesis, which aught to take off rapidly.

That happens to me all the time. I'm sure this phenomenom is why my projects take longer to complete.

I'll just pound this nail back into that baseboard.

Wait, there are crumbs on the floor...I'll just get the broom.

Drat, the broom closet needs tidying. What's my Van Halen beer coozy doing here? I'll just put it with the rest of them.

Ah...so that's where my MegaStein went. I'll just put it with my collection downstairs.

Mrs. North asks me to bring up some pork chops for dinner. Immediately wonder what I'm doing in the freezer room with my MegaStein.

An infinitum...

Mrs. North tells me it's fun to watch someone self-destruct.

I started to read this post by Doorman..hey look at all the posts he's made. These look interesting.............

A few thoughts on "AAADD"----- Why is it that when I see something in the workshop "mess"that I will need in the near future, I put it in a place where it will be obvious to me when I need it. But then when I need it I can't find it or remember where the "obvious place" was? You must have spoken to my wife before posting your description of me. One error though, it's Diet Coke not Pepsi. Good Luck, Old Salt

'AAADD'

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We might need to devise an alternate acronym.....That one will certainly be reduced to 'Triple-A Double-D', which sounds like a product intended for, but ultimately turned down by Victoria's Secret.....some sort of Battery Enhanced Brazier. While that might be fun to consider, it is a diversion likely to exacerbate the condition it describes.

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Perhaps it should just trail off in the middle, to denote attention has refocused elsewhere as in: 'AAA....' or 'AAA...er...what?' Those don't really provide much relief compared to typing the full title though.

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On a completely 'on-topic' note: my favorite all time cartoon about 'deficit disorder' can be found here: 'Nuts to You'. _{(If it is hard to understand what they are saying, listen once through and then play it again you'll understand the 2nd time)}.

Please write these things in full. As demonstrated above, life is tough enough in advanced age without having to memorize acronyms.

I don't believe any number of listenings would enable me to understand a word the 'squirrels?' are uttering...

I thought listening twice would work, but I guess it doesn't.

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I typically recommend a different technique for achieving squirrelian comprehension, which has never failed. I didn't mention it because I thought fewer people would follow the link if they thought they had to first follow another link to 'learn' the language...

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The tried and true technique is to watching 'Five More Minutes'. The dialogue between a squirrel and a human will have you easily understanding the squirrels pretty quickly (much less than five minutes) ....and it is mildly entertaining to boot.

You overestimate my ability to distinguish garbled speech from noise. To me, even normal speech from those who do not enunciate carefully is only partially understandable, although its better if I can read their lips. One of these days I'll get around to trying a hearing aid...

Okay.

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I'm curious. Did you actually watch twice the first time around and then watch 'Nuts to you'? I'm not trying to get you to watch either one at this point, I'm really just curious if it actually didn't work or if you know it wouldn't and so skipped it. (That is coming off in an unfriendly way, which it not intended....but rewording it hasn't helped. Trust me, just friendly curiosity on my part.)

Your hunch was right; I listened long enough the first time to know I could understand the girl, but absolutely nothing of the 'squirrels'. I did not bother even trying a second time, nor waste 5 minutes viewing another.

I'd love to learn some more languages, but squirrel isn't one of them...

Fair enough. Thank you for responding and not taking it the wrong way.

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As far as learning other languages, Pimsleur is amazing if you want to quickly be able to converse effectively (understand, be understood and not be laughed at to the point if gets in the way) with people on the street for the vast majority of situations. People rave about Roseta Stone, which I've never tried. Pimsleur, unlike Roseta Stone, does not spend any time on reading or writing at all, it is only focused on getting you conversant. It is basically interacting with a set of CD for 30 minutes a day. I did it in my car for a little over a month before going to Italy for two weeks, and I had no problem understanding and being understood. I got lots of complements on pronunciation and the times I was laughed at were pretty enjoyable.

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I hadn't heard of Pimsleur.

Unfortunately, I am extremely visually oriented. Even in my native English, I commonly do not understand a new word until I see it in writing. Actually the same thing is often true for words I already know, and even more so in other languages.

I'm also very visually dominated. And tend to focus on words when learning a language, which makes me pretty choppy when speaking and not particularly adept at becoming conversant.

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Pimsleur does elucidate words and meanings, but only after you have been saying the whole phrases correctly, not even knowing where the words begin and end at first. It was a big change for me and very effective. We may think in terms of words, but when we are conversant we don't think or speak in individual words any more than we do in individual letters...we think and speak in phrases.

"...we think and speak in phrases."

I have very little doubt that is true for you, but it is NOT for me. I suspect you are a fast reader also. Due to the fact that I am unable to see an entire phrase at once, I am an extremely slow reader; I read one word at a time. On the other hand, I commonly notice details that others miss.

I taught physics for 32 years. Unfortunately, it was only well after I retired from teaching that I truly began to understand how different people have entirely different processes occurring in their brains. I know I was an excellent teacher for some people - probably those whose thought processes were close to mine. I also know I was NOT an excellent teacher for those whose thought processes were totally different from mine. Surely I would have been a better teacher if I had understood those differences at the time.

The same narrow focus definitely limited my abilities in music; I can read ONE note at a time. I've never been able to 'see' a chord, much less multiple bars of music. My mother was a pipe organist; obviously she had to read and play multiple bars simultaneously. I clearly did not inherit that gene.

I speak a version of Spanish based on the language of Chile, but outside my home I have much more contact with the dialects from Mexico. I can converse with little effort with any educated Mexican, but when two of them converse with each other, I usually loose it. Again, when I hear for example, the name of a new tool, I commonly don't really hear it until after I've seen it written.

Interesting.

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I probably should have said that I find I am most effective when I read, think or speak in phrases rather than words, in the same way that reading, thinking and speaking in words is more effective than syllables or phonemes.

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I certainly didn't know that I could learn to speak a foreign language so quickly with a technique like that prior to that experience, which is probably why I am apparently so biased toward the idea that it is a universal trait, and not just a quirk of mine. You are absolutely right in pointing out that my assumptions about the universality of certain language processes, are not well founded. It's funny because since you pointed it out, while I can see the irrational bias of by assumption, but I haven't yet shaken that initially unexamined belief that it is true. Funny that cognitive mistakes, like physical mistakes, don't heal instantly.

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"Sana sana culito de rana si no sanas hoy sanarás manaña "

Let's simplify it by calling it "A³D²" or even shorter "AD". If the "AD" is used it will be so similar to "AA" and "NA" that it could be made a twelve step program. I can see it now:

Step #1- We admit we are powerless over Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder--that our lives have become unmanageable.

Step # 2- Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to an Un-age prompted Attention Deficit Disorder.

Step #3 thru #12--- etc., etc., etc.

And here my wife thought I was just stupid, dumb and ignorant. Wait till she hears about this! She may even send me to an Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder Specialist Neurologist!. I don't think it will help though. I'm just so lovable this way!

Good Luck, Old Salt

Man if you can remember all that you've got no problem.

I think I'm starting to feel some of that A³D² myself. At first I used prioritizing to sort it out but I find myself using a piece of paper and pencil to make a list and cross it off. I do not use the list to obtain satisfaction as suggested by several helpful people. Instead I use it to try to avoid running into the uncompleted task again and again. That also allows for other tasks to be added at the bottom.

Now, it is just a matter of finding a piece of paper and a pencil before I forget what I was going to write. I'm also feeling my vocabulary slipping away, I think. Then again, it could be simply because I had to cut back on the caffeine for the sake of my kidney stone production. Ah, well. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to finishing my sentences later....

In a computer program, that's called stack overflow.

Quite humorous!

Here are some important points:

AAD effects vary with age. Pre school most of the population has it. As we mature we grow increasingly better at controlling our attention. When we are old enough to enter school almost half of us have grown out of it. By middle school, most students have mastered attention the ones that don't are often medicated. Later in life as our mental powers fade, ADD becomes more prominent.

ADD is more of a symptom than a diagnosis. The different treatments that are successful demonstrate ADD is cause by different conditions. You shouldn't lump them together.

The most common AAD symptom is attention deficit the next symptom, which is almost as common, is the need for less than a healthy night's sleep. We just learned Lack of sleep 'increases beta-amyloid deposition' as well as reduces mental acuity. Part of the ADD may be cause by not getting enough sleep. One of the successful ADD treatments is meditation in which your brain produces alpha waves which improves mental acuity.

There is a linkage between ADD and age related dementia. It is likely only a small percentage of the adults with ADD are diagnosed. Most just 'need' coffee and do fine. We do know the lack of sleep over decades is a major factor in age related dementia such as Alzheimer's.

Anyone suffering from age related Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) might want to get your beta-amyloid levels check out or at least insure you get 7 hrs of sleep. I take melatonin nightly to insure I get about 7 hrs sleep. Without that I would sleep 5-6 hrs/night. It is not that my mind races or I worry I just don't get sleepy. I take this all very seriously since my mom died of Alzheimer's. One of its symptoms is being oppositional. She refused to eat. Her living will forbid any forced feeding so she starved to death. In her later life she didn't sleep at all until she was put on an Alzheimer's ward. She would watch TV all night and would dose off from time to time. She would have been much better had she taken care to get enough sleep.

Stimulants will help you function but will not correct the underlying problem.

Thank you Guys, I thought it was just me. All I know is getting older is a *itch! Somehow we will survive.

I thought it was CRS.... can't remember sh*T

I tried a small notebook on a lanyard with an attached pencil...did not work.

Before that I tried a bow tied around penis....when I occasionaly found the bow...I couldn't remember what it was for either.

I find a similar aspect in the age of a relationship. The longer I've known her, the faster I "glaze over"