The greek alphabet. I pledged a fraternity in college, and despite forgetting almost literally everything from college, I still remember and can recite on request the greek alphabet.
As I commented above, I've never read pi written out (to my recollection) but when the question was posed I guessed at it and got the 33 correct, by chance, and have since been able to do that several other times... But my mind is basically a glue trap, I can remember ridiculously obscure things like that and not even know where I picked up the information.
For pi day at my school we had a competition to memorize the most digits of pi. Whoever won got a whole pie to themselves. The first year one of my best friends memorized 314 digits of pi, then the next year he memorized 628 digits and his goal for senior year was 1000. Unfortunately he didn't have any time to memorize it with all the school work and such. Anyways he still won that year, by just memory from the previous years memorization.
I've honestly never tried to learn them, never even remember reading pi written out, but this past year (my senior year) our math teacher asked if any of us would like to try to recite it so I did and got 33 right, I've tried a few times since then and got them correct.
Funny story, I also memorized the alphabet backwards. A couple years ago I went to this Lasertag place where they had dumb "contests" between rounds. You win the contest, you get free coupons for Lasertag. One of those contests ended up being reciting the alphabet backwards in roughly 5 seconds or so (with a bit of leeway). Ended up saving me $20.
I have old license plates from my family memorized. Vehicles that are long gone now, but BRV-300 and CRU-900 are still etched into my mind. Yet, I can barely remember what my current license plate is.
BXX-919 was the license plate number on my mom's white oldsmobile when she owned it. That was probably 20 years ago. I also have no idea what my current license plate number is.
y ojos es un organo de le vista que sirve para ver que una vaca y un edificio no se parecen en nada.
I died. This is wonderful. I'll be spending the next twenty minutes clarifying some of the words I don't recognize, so I can follow the whole thing -- thank you for sharing!
The NATO phonetic alphabet. like Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. Everyone around me uses shit like A for Apple, D for David type shit, but the NATO phonetics are just so much cooler.
For those that care:
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee, Zulu
Haha I remember the phone number of an insurance company called Hastings Direct. Its 0800 001 066 very convenient to remember because in the advert they sang it in a song and it has 1066 in it. I must have remembered this for about 7 years. Whoever designed that advert deserves a medal.
I memorized the number of planks on the dock at the place where we vacation. The idea was to be able to reconstruct it in my mind when I was stressed and meditating to clear my head (it's a very relaxing place), but I realized that the number of planks has nothing to do with a good visualization of the place. Still know it though. 27 planks. What has helped with visualization is that the 5th plank from the end has a deep gouge in it and the 16th has a spot of white boat paint on it.
The alas poor Yorick speech from Hamlet. It makes me so annoyed whenever someone says "Alas poor yorick, I knew him well", it's "I knew him, Horatio." That's part of the reason I wanted to memorize it seeing as how many can't seem to remember the first 7 words of it.
Of course, there's also my memorization of Pi to the 42nd digit, but that's not really that rare based on the thread :P
I don't know if these would count as random but Martin Sheen's beginning monologue in Apocalypse Now and the lyrics to "It's the End of the World."
Also, Keep Putting Condoms On For Good Sex
I memorized a lot of the lines to the Star Wars prequels, just because they were so bad. I just randomly blurt them out in public sometimes, assuming people will understand the reference.
Join the Discussion
All of Weird Al's "Albuquerque". It's 10 minutes long and I memorized it when the CD came out. Years later, I'm not sure how I feel about that.
You got the part time job at the Sizzler, didn't you?
Accomplished.
The feeling you should have about that is accomplished.
Here's an animated version of Albuquerque. It's hilarious.
Where the air smells like warm root beer.
The greek alphabet. I pledged a fraternity in college, and despite forgetting almost literally everything from college, I still remember and can recite on request the greek alphabet.
I'm so glad that tuition wasn't wasted.
As some who learned ancient greek for 3 years during high school, this isn't random at all. It's been very useful when studying physics too.
I have a degree in physics, can confirm, learnt the greek alphabet by equations and it came in handy when I went to Greece on holiday!
Temperature, partial differential equations, wave functions, so much coefficients use a greek letter too : Friction, damping etc.
Me, too! Ask me what's new and I'll respond with, "The 13th letter of the Greek Alphabet."
Pi to the 33rd digit... Probably not really impressive but thats something random
Man... I've only got it to 3.14159265, I figured that was close enough for any practical application not dealing with rocketry.
As I commented above, I've never read pi written out (to my recollection) but when the question was posed I guessed at it and got the 33 correct, by chance, and have since been able to do that several other times... But my mind is basically a glue trap, I can remember ridiculously obscure things like that and not even know where I picked up the information.
For pi day at my school we had a competition to memorize the most digits of pi. Whoever won got a whole pie to themselves. The first year one of my best friends memorized 314 digits of pi, then the next year he memorized 628 digits and his goal for senior year was 1000. Unfortunately he didn't have any time to memorize it with all the school work and such. Anyways he still won that year, by just memory from the previous years memorization.
I've honestly never tried to learn them, never even remember reading pi written out, but this past year (my senior year) our math teacher asked if any of us would like to try to recite it so I did and got 33 right, I've tried a few times since then and got them correct.
The phone number of someone I knew 20 years ago and maybe called once when I knew him.
So why did you memorize it? Or did you not mean to?
Alphabet backwards (not too uncommon though), the xp values for several levels in RuneScape, and the text on the Newberry medal (picture).
Funny story, I also memorized the alphabet backwards. A couple years ago I went to this Lasertag place where they had dumb "contests" between rounds. You win the contest, you get free coupons for Lasertag. One of those contests ended up being reciting the alphabet backwards in roughly 5 seconds or so (with a bit of leeway). Ended up saving me $20.
Pretty much the entire Princess Bride script.
If I say this, do you get angry?
"Hi, my name is fernando garcia, you murdered my dad and I'm now going to kill you"
The alphabet backwards. I can recite it faster backwards than forwards these days.
ZTXQVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
E: Wisdom tooth got pulled today, so my fingers were a little off. But I'll leave it there, it's funny and I don't care :)
Ummm....
I think we might have discovered why /u/inconceivable gets arrested every time they get pulled over.
HAd a wisdom toot extracted today, so my fingers are a little off. No matter, it was silly enough :)
I have some bad news for you...
haha, would you believe me if i told you i had a windsom tooth pulled today and the drugs havent made typing easy?
I have old license plates from my family memorized. Vehicles that are long gone now, but BRV-300 and CRU-900 are still etched into my mind. Yet, I can barely remember what my current license plate is.
BXX-919 was the license plate number on my mom's white oldsmobile when she owned it. That was probably 20 years ago. I also have no idea what my current license plate number is.
The Bartman.
IDKFA
(for those who don't know, it's a cheat code for Doom - one of the first games I ever played).
IDSPISPOPD
Smashing Pumpkins In a Stinking Pile Of Putrid Debris !
This is actually engraved in my Soul!
Is it sadder that I believe it was actually "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris" on the original BBS?
IDDQD
The Golden Ratio: 1.618033988749894848204586834365 - thanks to "Science Genius Girl" by Freezepop
Some weird things just happened in my brain when I read Freezepop. It's been so, so long. Thanks for reminding me!
No worries! Forgotten relic as far as I'm concerned, cheers!
Now I'm going to spend the week listening to Freezepop and I thank you for that fine sir or madam.
Surprisingly it's a sir who made the Freezepop reference! :D Also listen to Plastic Stars and Starlight!
haha "surprisingly"... this is 2015. Gender stereotypes are BS. Fucking LOVE Freezepop. Will do!
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The NATO phonetic alphabet. like Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. Everyone around me uses shit like A for Apple, D for David type shit, but the NATO phonetics are just so much cooler.
For those that care: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee, Zulu
I need to memorize that!
The Battle of Hastings was in 1066.
Haha I remember the phone number of an insurance company called Hastings Direct. Its 0800 001 066 very convenient to remember because in the advert they sang it in a song and it has 1066 in it. I must have remembered this for about 7 years. Whoever designed that advert deserves a medal.
Cheat codes for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
19, 65, 9, 17 for level select.
1, 9, 9, 2, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 1, 2, 6 for debug mode and the ability to turn into Super Sonic.
3.1415926535897932.
Also the alphabet backwards.
Very convenient when you want to pretend you aren't drunk.
I had a nightmare when I was 3 involving a 'monster church'. We were forced to kneel, stand, and sit in rapid succession and my legs got super tired.
I have no clue why I have remembered it so long or furthermore why I had that dream in the first place.
I memorized the number of planks on the dock at the place where we vacation. The idea was to be able to reconstruct it in my mind when I was stressed and meditating to clear my head (it's a very relaxing place), but I realized that the number of planks has nothing to do with a good visualization of the place. Still know it though. 27 planks. What has helped with visualization is that the 5th plank from the end has a deep gouge in it and the 16th has a spot of white boat paint on it.
My ICQ number I got somewhere at the end of the last millennium and that I don't use since at least a decade.
I have my ICQ number memorized as well - I wonder if we can still use it, or if AOL finally turned off those servers.
If you did not use it in a given time frame, it is recycled.
A song listing prepositions alphabetically, which I made up in the 7th grade.
Down, during, except, for, from, in, into. Near of off on over past through!
I memorized a whole bunch of German Dative prepositions when I was in tenth grade:
aus, asser, bei, mit, nach, von, zu, seit, and gegenuber
The alas poor Yorick speech from Hamlet. It makes me so annoyed whenever someone says "Alas poor yorick, I knew him well", it's "I knew him, Horatio." That's part of the reason I wanted to memorize it seeing as how many can't seem to remember the first 7 words of it.
Of course, there's also my memorization of Pi to the 42nd digit, but that's not really that rare based on the thread :P
I don't know if these would count as random but Martin Sheen's beginning monologue in Apocalypse Now and the lyrics to "It's the End of the World." Also, Keep Putting Condoms On For Good Sex
The tiger song from the hangover
I memorized a lot of the lines to the Star Wars prequels, just because they were so bad. I just randomly blurt them out in public sometimes, assuming people will understand the reference.
The first song I memorized was You're Beautiful by James Blunt, when I was in junior high. I was into rock.