On memory.

To remember things without paper handy, I used my fingers. I started with my index, and turned whatever it was into the Radio Phonetic Alphabet. "Milk", for example, becomes "Mike", and I imagine Michael Jordan dancing on my finger. Alpha is an Alpha symbol. Bravo was Johnny Bravo. Charlie was Charlie "Winning" Sheen. Delta is Jason Bourne (Read the book!) Echo is Echo from Dollhouse. And so on. It was less than effective.

"Sherlock" mentioned the memory palace mnemonic technique in S02E01. Now, I had actually heard of it before, thanks to Derren Brown. I, being I, decided to take the mustachioed magician's method and put a little backspin on it. I decided to mix it with another technique from the novel "The Pigman", involving imagining the objects touching each other. So I imagine alphabetical things that are on, near, or contain other things. Armoire, Beneath the armoire, a Chair, Diamonds, Elephant (toy), Fireplace, golf Clubs, Hatrack, Icebox, Jumper, Kite. This worked so well I was up to K before I realized I had forgotten the first two.

I decided I needed to specialize. Study/Den/Library for things related to personal art and writing. Garage for schoolwork. Kitchen for shopping lists. Living room for everything else. I spent something like half an hour trying to find items that were at least vaguely appropriate to each room. The Living Room, for example, seems to belong to a family with lots of kids with lots of afterschool hobbies, who are always leaving stuffed Arachnids and Kites and Jumpers and Trumpets and Umbrellas about. I came up with a Blotter for the study while I was trying to get some sleep last night, and since all three of my main categories lacked As at the time, I stuffed it into an imaginary Armoire, under the classic system. Then I realized that I didn't need to strictly adhere to the themes, and bizarre, illogical items might actually be easier to remember.

And that's why the Queen is in my Garage between a Poker Table and a Roomba.

PROTIP:

If you happen to knock over your lamp and break the bulb, and you happen to have a bag nearby filled with fairly fresh satsuma peels, then you can use the inside of the peels to pick up most of the little bits, if your flatmates happen to have lost the dustpan.

And you can use a half-potato to unscrew a broken incandescent, if you happen to have a potato and no pliers.

GAME IDEA: Skatebang

No, it's not an H-Game.

You play a kid in the near-future with a fancy hover-skateboard. He ends up in an experimental military high-mobility suit with bullet-time. Gameplay consists of skating and shooting through varied locales as he's conscripted into the struggle. You get bonus points for chaining tricks and shooting, like in Vanquish. Conveniently, there are rails everywhere. Mission control sends you upgrades with the points you earn. Upgrades arrive via rockets falling onto the battlefield. This is fluffed as Command, obviously not trusting some random kid with the cool stuff, even if they can't get the suit off him, until he proves himself.

Also, there's a cameraman following protagonist and his unit around, who sends his exploits to the brass, public, and embattled defenders, raising morale. Gameplay environments would be like Crysis 2; large areas linked by set pieces.

So you're sliding down the rail of the mall escalator. You see bad guys filing out on the left, the right, dead ahead. You heel-kick 360 tailspin back-goofy-foot off to the side, and activate your bullet time as you leap through the air. Narrowly avoiding the balloon kiosk, you land on your side, sliding toward the Sports Centre. As you crash through the window, bad guys fall before your fire like wheat before a thresher. As your GoFast Meter runs out, you spring to your feet and narrowly dodge generic mook as he swings a speedbag at your head. A smack with your gunbutt, and he's down. One liner. You crouch behind the protein shakes for cover as your GFM recharges and the bogeys close in, and activate your skatewhatever. With a combination of skating skills, slowdown, and high-speed lead delivery systems, you clear the store of tangos. Going out the front is...challenging, so you head for the service door in order to flank the bad guys in the other stores by sneaking in through the back way. You don't have the key, but you can easily open the door with your large amounts of military weaponry, unlike just about every game ever. As you exit, a message pops up on your screen.

"TROPHY ACHIEVED: Good Neutralization Combatant."

Oh yeah.

Basically, Tony Hawk meets Max Payne.

So, Vanquish?

Ye-NO.