Tag Archives: memories

August 14, 2025

BB #95: Our Documentation

The previous post, Our Memories, suggested that — in large part because they become faded self-imaginings— we might want to consider not clinging to our event memories as much as we sometimes do. We might want to focus on what we are more than where we’ve been.

Put it this way: What matters is what you are (and can do), not what facts or moments you can recall. Which is likely why I always resisted memorizing dates or formulas I can easily look up.

Which touches indirectly on a counterpoint to what I wrote yesterday…

2 Comments | tags: cameras, memories, smartphones | posted in Brain Bubble

August 13, 2025

BB #94: Our Memories

By Wyrd Smythe

In another place, someone wrote: “It is memories that make us who we are, that haunt us, that enrich and warm us, that remind us of how to be better.” The place and the someone can be anonymous here because the sentiment is a common one.

In this Brain Bubble, I’d like to push back on that, at least a little. I want to suggest as counterbalance the one memorable line from an unmemorable film trilogy:

“Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.”

1 Comment | tags: Kylo Ren, memories, the past | posted in Brain Bubble

August 12, 2011

My First AFF Skydive!

By Wyrd Smythe

The post two days ago told the tale of the first time I (and my new girlfriend) jumped out of an airplane, and the post yesterday was about the second skydive.

Both those jumps were tandem jumps. We were securely attached to professional Tandem Master skydivers who did all the work. We were basically just along for the ride. I’d say it was the ultimate “E” ticket, but only old-time patrons of Disneyworld would know what that means. Suffice to say it’s the coolest carnival ride you can imagine. And after you’ve jumped out of an airplane a few times, even the wildest roller coasters seem a bit tame.

As I mentioned in the first tale, when they saw how much we loved jumping they immediately began whispering in our ears, “AFF. AFF.” When we came back for another, the whispering got louder!

2 Comments | tags: AFF jump, drop zone, memories, parachutes, skydiving | posted in Life

August 11, 2011

My Second Skydive!

By Wyrd Smythe

Yesterday I told the tale of my first skydive with then new girlfriend (and now ex-wife). We both loved our first jump so much we came back a week later for second jump.

I wrote the original version of these stories about a year later. The versions here have been slightly revised to fill in some details, obfuscate some names and improve (I hope) the quality of the writing.

So sit right down and you’ll read a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. (And ironically, for those who caught the reference, the round-trip driving time to Hutch is about three hours.)

2 Comments | tags: drop zone, free fall, memories, parachutes, Point Break, second jump, skydiving, tandem jump | posted in Life

August 10, 2011

My First Skydive!

By Wyrd Smythe

The next several posts are trips down Memorex Lane. They recall one of the most exciting times of my life. I’d just started an incredible relationship with a girlfriend who later became my first (and so far only) wife.

That the marriage didn’t last but a small handful of years and that we’ve been divorced at least twice as many years doesn’t at all detract from the wonder of joy of those early years.

It was in that setting that I (we) tried skydiving for the first time and fell (pun definitely intended) in love with it. These posts (which were first written back then and have since been slightly revised) are about those experiences.

9 Comments | tags: drop zone, first jump, memories, parachutes, skydiving, tandem jump | posted in Life

August 1, 2011

The Night of Bruce Springsteen

By Wyrd Smythe

This is an account of one of those perfect events when all the stars align, and things go your way. That doesn’t happen very often (at least for me), so it’s worth remembering. And recording.