Suffering from short-term (uh) memory loss

Warning!  Prolonged exposure to academic research may cause short-term memory loss.

Years ago when I was an undergrad my (premed) roommates used to torture me by reading from their very graphic biology textbooks.  I heard all about diseases with grusome symptoms as I went to sleep each night.  However, the most memorable thing they retold to me was about a man named JM.  He went in for a routine lobotomy (it was the 1940s I think) and the surgeons accidentally knicked his short-term memory centre.  So (as the medical establishment did in the 40s), they decided to conduct experiments on this poor man with no short-term memory.  They gave him tennis lessons, which he never remembered taking, but he did improve – thanks to muscle memory.  They also gave him a mirror everyday which completely freaked him out since he didn’t understand why he was aging.  And the worst was every day they would tell him that his auntie had died and he would mourn for her over and over again.

Well I am not JM (yet) but sometimes I think I may be losing my short-term (uh) memory.  For instance, today I decided that I needed some more books from the library.  I do this every time I am meant to be writing (not reading!).  So I logged on to the library catalogue and started to search for my favourite terms and authors and threw in a couple new ones (so I thought) to boot.  Well I recognised some of the titles, because the books were still sitting mostly unread all over my desk.  However, there were a couple that I tried to recall (meaning get them back early from the person who has them currently checked out ) only to realise I was the one who had them checked out (yes they were sitting right in front of me).  Now that is worrisome that I do not recognise books that I have recently read.

But it is not all bad losing your memory, the upside is that I often forget that I am losing my (uh) memory and ignorance is truly bliss.