The Advent – Day 14 (2025)

Cortenifora™ Memory Aid

Helps recall entirely fictional years. Is it a memory or a moment?

Possible Side Effects of Cortenifora™ Memory Aid

Side effects may include, but are not limited to:

  • Remembering why you entered a room but forgetting what room it was
  • Remembering the name of an actor from a 1993 commercial but not your neighbor’s name
  • Sudden recall of locker combinations from middle school
  • Temporary inability to forget song lyrics, especially jingles
  • Mild déjà vu about events that definitely did not happen
  • False confidence in trivia night answers
  • Calling people by the correct name but with alarming intensity
  • Brief emotional attachment to forgotten passwords
  • Vivid recollections of meals you did not particularly enjoy
  • Remembering the plot of a movie incorrectly, but with conviction

Additional side effects may include:

  • Replaying conversations from ten years ago with new arguments
  • Feeling smug while recalling obscure facts no one asked for
  • Momentary belief that you invented a common phrase
  • Remembering where you parked, but not why you drove
  • Accidental time travel to 2008 via Facebook memories
  • Sudden urge to alphabetize books you don’t own
  • Remembering birthdays but forgetting ages
  • Remembering ages but forgetting people
  • Confusing dreams with memories and memories with dreams
  • Making eye contact while saying, “I remember this exactly

Less common but reported effects include:

  • Hyper-specific nostalgia for smells
  • Remembering a childhood pet that may or may not have existed
  • Recalling the layout of a house you visited once in 1997
  • Mentally rearranging furniture from past apartments
  • Vivid memory of a waiter who was “very polite”
  • Emotional response to old receipts
  • Remembering arguments you won only in hindsight
  • Recalling names of teachers while forgetting what they taught
  • Sudden awareness of how long ago 2015 actually was

Rare but notable side effects:

  • Remembering a joke halfway through telling it
  • Forgetting the punchline but laughing anyway
  • Remembering an email draft you never sent
  • Re-experiencing secondhand embarrassment from decades ago
  • Remembering passwords almost correctly
  • Remembering PIN numbers but not which card they belong to
  • Becoming overly confident in eyewitness testimony
  • Mistaking recollection for wisdom
  • Confusing memory retention with personal growth

Psychological side effects may include:

  • Questioning whether memory is identity
  • Feeling nostalgic for times you disliked at the time
  • Believing your memory is “finally working”
  • Distrust of people who remember things differently
  • Mild superiority complex during family storytelling
  • Existential unease triggered by remembering too much
  • Wondering who you were before you remembered all this

Cognitive side effects may include:

  • Remembering lists but forgetting priorities
  • Remembering priorities but ignoring them
  • Remembering tasks immediately after missing deadlines
  • Remembering deadlines from jobs you no longer have
  • Over-indexing on details that do not matter
  • Believing memory equals accuracy
  • Recalling facts with misplaced confidence

Social side effects:

  • Correcting others unnecessarily
  • Saying “Actually…” more often
  • Bringing up memories no one else shares
  • Insisting “you were there” when they were not
  • Becoming the unofficial family historian
  • Being asked to stop telling the same remembered story

If symptoms persist, worsen, or begin to narrate your life internally, discontinue use and consult a professional, a notebook, or someone who remembers things differently than you do.

DECEMBER Fourteenth
Cortenifora™ Memory Aid
Helps recall entirely fictional years. Is it a memory or a moment?