The proper response to “my name is Michael” is “I know”.

I need to be around people for quite a while before I can remember their name. More regular time and I’ll remember their name better. I’ve been working on it, though, and I think I’m doing better, but it takes effort to remember the names of new people I meet.

Me, on a Seregios hunt:

AuDHD.

A memory has to cross a terrifying gauntlet before it can even become a memory.

Then another for classification purposes.

Some of the categories, are terrifyingly photographic accurate, even decades later.

No, I don’t quite get to pick the categories.

Im terrible with names and with dates, but I usually remember some random details no one else does… so it’ll be like “remember that one time we were here and you said so and so, and blah blah” and they’re like “no? When was this?” and I shrug and take my best guess, because it was either a month ago or 10 years ago ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

The custom here, about names, is to have more than one “first” name, and at least both dad and mum’s last names. So I can go with not remembering the name you have just told me, to remember the full name for life.

His name really was Steve. He was playing an Autistic joke when he said Michael. An Autistic joke is one where you feel like an idiot halfway through saying it and then never clarify so nobody else ever knows it was a joke.

Steve’s entire life will be documented in the social media posts of confused third parties.

He’ll always be Steve to me now.

Abysmally bad and kinda avarage at the same time.

I completely lack lived through memory part, episodic memory. The collecting memories or reminiscing about past or good memories does not exist for me. No it’s not that i haven’t had any memories worth remembering, neither is it from any trauma. Just an extreme end variation of human memory.

The factual part of memory functions almost normally, just slightly randomized due to ADHD.

My memory is strange. It locks in really hard on numbers and conversations. Like I have a great working history of talks I’ve had with individual people. And I can remember credit card numbers or how much money is in my bank account without checking. Plus I can mentally convert temperature, do quick maths and percentages, etc…

But nouns? Names of people places and things slip away like there’s no place to hold them. I’ve even forgotten friend and family names sometimes. I know I know the name, and if given enough time I’ll be able to recall it. Sometimes it makes reading books and watching media really annoying. Because I know who I’m talking about or remembering. I remember their face and the dialogue. But I can’t recall the character’s name.

My best friend remembers very little. Only exactly what he wants to remember. And often he just has a bunch of banked trivia he can pull out of his brain at any given moment. It’s wild sometimes, like, he won’t remember my girlfriend’s name, but he’ll remember exactly which Simpson’s episode number and title Homer said, “You can’t keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once and move on.”

So our conversations are funny sometimes, where he retells me a personal story he’s told me dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and I’m counting like ah yes this is the 3rd or this is the 55th time you’ve asked me that. Used to stop him all the time but I think it makes conversations awkward or annoying. So I let him yap even though I know the story. Sometimes I mentally mark what’s changed about the retelling since last time for fun.

I’ve remembered his appointments and obligations more often than he does, cuz he’ll tell me, “I have to be here on this day” and then it’ll be that day, and the appointment is approaching, but we’re still talking, and I’ll say “Don’t you have this thing to go to in like an hour?” “… shiiiit bye”