Ouch,  were you badly hurt?   It probably took your mind off the poker though

I find the whole subject of memory pretty fascinating (coz I'm dull like that).  In a lot of areas my memory is pretty terrible, but the most vivid memories I have are usually linked to some kind of very heightened emotion, which I guess helps to etch it on the brain.  I've felt real fear (as in fear for my life) a handful of times over the years, and those are the memories that are the most vivid.

False memory is another area that I find really interesting - I have one really vivid memory from very early childhood (about 18 months old).  Although I know some of it is factually accurate because I checked with my mum a couple of years ago, elements of it are clearly false, yet I can 'remember' it clear as day.

I agree Claire, anything to do with memory is interesting. I watched a documentary years ago about Daniel Tammet. He is the amazing guy who has been classed as a high functioning autistic savant. Not only is he a polyglot and mathematician. he also holds the European record for reciting pi. The interesting thing about his case is many of his achievements have recently been questioned by leading memory experts. Tammet says his abilities are natural although memory experts can achieve similar results using techniques such as the loci method and different number systems. His book "Born on a blue day" can be found online at a site I can't legally say on this forum ( The first word describes what Bruce Lee did to many of his onscreen opponents ). There are loads of threads about him on most of the memory forums I read.  I am glad you mentioned false memory, probably my most vivid memory is a false memory as well.

Great stuff Baldock. How did you find yourself in a position to climb that?   Is climbing an interest of yours or was it some sort of charity thing? 

There was a thread on Blonde years ago started by Moorman, 2006ish ( I think it was Moorman ). In it he set his target as making around 100k over the next year at cash games and trying to buy a house. I may have got a completely different player in mind here and be mixed up, I don't think I am though. Thinking back to those days seems like a different age given Chris's achievements and place in poker now. In your mind, did you ever believe any of this would be possible while you were grinding the micros?   Also, if it wasn't a Moorman thread mentioned above. Who was it?  

Others memories I always find myself revisiting are making it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro

Interesting memories.  Tell more about this mate, that is some achievement. I thought climbing Ben Nevis was impressive when I was a kid 

I think we all have individual memories we return to again and again in our minds. Some of these are nice memories that we want to experience again and some aren't so nice that we would rather forget. If I command my mind to recreate a past memory, I tend to return to three memories unconsciously before trying to conjure up a memory of a past event consciously. I have no idea why I always seem to think of these three memories above all others as they weren't really big events in my life and haven't shaped me in any way that is noticeable to my personality now.

One of these default memories was as a 6 year old. It was a cold rainy day and I wasn't at School for some reason, I don't know why this was and think it may have been the Christmas holidays as in my memory there was ice on the pavements and it had that festive feeling. I was climbing up onto a wall using a rickety old table. There was a green house just inside a Neighbours garden which acted as part of the hedge separating the two gardens. The table broke and I fell through the glass into the greenhouse.  I had a cut on my head that required stitches and I stayed overnight in hospital. I even remember my Father picking me up the following morning and taking me for ice cream on the drive home. The strange thing about this particular memory is that it never happened. Some years later I asked my Family about the incident and was told our house didn't have any next door neighbours and I never needed stitches or stayed in hospital. This is still a memory I return to when I try to think of one of my earliest memories.  It is very vivid and I can only think I saw it is a movie and somehow latched onto it for some reason. I only have one living family member who knew me from that time, my sister who stays in the States so I don't have the opportunity to find out where this memory came from.

What is a memory you still replay in your mind?  Obviously if it is painful it is probably best to not recreate it.

It would have been 1990.
 
I'd tell myself to invent the internet and patent internet poker.

For years I thought you were much younger than me mate. I just clicked your name for the first time to find you are 35. Your forum name just made me assume you were in your 20's 

he was in his 20s when he signed up for the forum

True, lol.  I always thought he was about 18 when I first joined here years ago making him in his mid 20s now

It would have been 1990.
 
I'd tell myself to invent the internet and patent internet poker.

For years I thought you were much younger than me mate. I just clicked your name for the first time to find you are 35. Your forum name just made me assume you were in your 20's 

As a kid I had an uncle who was a golf fanatic. He wasn't really an uncle, just one of those family friends who kids call uncle. He didn't have any children of his own and desperately tried to get my sister and I interested in golf. I used to go to his house most days after school where his wife would look after me until my family got home. He went to school with Scottish golfer Michael Miller and he also did lots of charity work with Sam Torrance over the years, his playing skill didn't match theirs, however he did play many amateur events. Right from the time that I first began to walk he tried to get me to join him on the golf course and eventually when I got to about 13 he gave up trying.  I wish I had taken him up on his offer to play golf with him. These days I really enjoy watching golf and became interested in it after watching Justin Rose have his amazing run at the Open some years ago while he was still an amateur. I forget what year that was, perhaps 1997? 

I would also like to have told myself to get an apprenticeship when I turned 16. Maybe its because I am currently watching lots of downloads of the "New Yankee Workshop" starring Norm Abram but the idea of working with wood interests me. In last nights episode, Norm expertly built a chicken coup from scratch. I guess I could still learn to become a skilled craftsman if I travelled to Pennsylvania to  join an Amish group. I doubt they would take me though as I don't speak German, don't really follow religion, I have a fear of heights and I also suffer from bad sunburn in overly sunny places. Pennsylvania's heat would pose a problem. I also tend to grow patchy beards and not the typical impressive Amish beard. I will probably just stick to buying products from Ikea rather than dreaming about building them myself

Yea Clementine, that is shocking. I have read in many books that Royal/Ball Pythons are difficult eaters and often refuse frozen rodents. That is a Royal Python shown in the picture above . I asked a snake breeder recently about this topic and he said that there is no need to feed any captive snake live food.

Yea, I agree that a lot of profits are sadly lost through administration . On a side note, I have a friend who used to volunteer in PDSA and he used to tell me some shocking stories about  books being thrown away through ignorance of their value. I donated around 20 university text books that he said were often thrown away as they take up too much space or the staff in the shops don't know what they are. Some of these books were bought for £40 and more. I spoke to a woman who runs the nearby PDSA shop to point out my donated Anthony Gidden's Sociology book cost me £42 and not to throw it away. I saw it on the shelf a week or so later when I visited so I got the message across  

Byres Road in Glasgow has Oxfam books and Oxfam music.  Both are great shops . 

I like that Thunderball cover

haha,  I don't even think  Kerry Katona's kids would want to read her book. Although racking my brain I suspect I know a few people who probably own a first edition if I checked their bookcase. 

I have always had mixed feelings about keeping reptiles as pets. On one hand it is great to care for a pet as they offer company if you stay by yourself , on the other hand I was always under the impression that a reptile is kind of pointless as they don't have a personality as a dog or cat does. A few months back I visited a friend who was about to go and buy a corn snake for his Daughters upcoming birthday. I tagged along as I wasn't busy.

We went to Pets At Home in Glasgow and while there we handled a few snakes and chatted to the staff about corn snake care. In the end he bought a King Snake from a friend at work and the snake and his Daughter are now getting along famously.

As I have now spent some time around the snake while visiting I have come to see snakes differently. Snakes clearly do have personality even though perhaps not as unique as a dogs or cats.  As I am a nerd I have also read a few books on rat snakes now as it wasn't an area I had a great deal of knowledge about. I would even consider getting a snake at some point in the future if I wasn't able to have a dog for any reason.

One or two questions to snake and reptile owners.  

Why did you want a reptile as a pet?  

I have heard negative things about buying from a high street pet store such as Pets At Home compared to a private dealer.  Why is this?   from what I saw they seemed healthy and well cared for

What advice would you give a new owner of a snake?

For snake owners, do you feed live or frozen food?   My Sister owned a milk snake for a brief time as a kid and fed it live mice. This put me off owning a snake straight away. After reading and watching numerous youtube videos I have since learned this is not only dangerous for the snake it can also be a cause of illness for the snake.  What are your reasons for live feeding?  

I wonder if anyone else has had a painful experience related to a rare book as I have recently had. Painful is perhaps a slightly dramatic word, however I feel it best describes my current feeling  .

As the anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death has just passed, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the old books and memorabilia I owned about him. One book that always stuck in my mind was called "Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving". At one point I actually owned four copies of this book. I bought a copy when I was 13 from Waterstones for around £5 with my pocket money upon its release. My friend stole a copy for me from a Kilmarnock Library as he knew I was a massive Senna fan. The other two copies came from my Uncle and Gran for Christmas that year.  I hung onto one copy and gave the rest to Oxfam.  

After some searching I couldn't find the book anywhere so decided I would just buy another copy from amazon. To my dismay I was surprised at the current value of the book  

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ayrton-Sennas-Principles-Race-Driving/dp/1874557403


A few years before my Father died he had a similar experience. While watching an antiques show on tv related to movie and art memorabilia he saw a feature on the movie 'The Hobbit'. As a kid he was given a 1930's edition of  J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit. I remember the book well and often used it as a make shift wall when acting out battles between He-Man and Skeletor with my action figures. Even up until my middle 20's I remember the book as it sat in his houses bookcase. However when he tried to find it the book had disappeared most likely to a rubbish tip somewhere.

This copy of 'The Hobbit' has the exact same cover as his version

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit