Friday, February 16, 2018

Celebrate: Passwords (Uh-oh)



Sometimes I think I hit the "off" switch on my darn brain, and it's taking a long time to reboot. Among the things that are the most difficult are passwords. You know... those things you need in order to get onto practically any account on the net.  I got spoiled coz my PC had all those passwords in its memory and supplied them whenever I opened the corresponding page. But my PC crashed (for about the 5th time) and this time it wasn't reparable. Bummer. :(

On the good side, hubs bought me a new PC. Yay! But there are no passwords in its memory, and the sites I frequent don't recognize the new PC and don't supply my password. Ack! So, I've been trying to change my passwords to all the sites I frequent, and I write down the new ones in a notebook (which I specifically made for this current situation). 

But somehow I don't write the passwords down correctly or I capitalize something when I shouldn't -- and next time I visit I can't get in! Password-protected sites are very particular... 

At a glacial pace, I'm going to all the sites I used to frequent, and since the new PC won't supply the password, I have to hit the sites' "Change Password" button. Things don't get much simpler than that ... but it takes a lot of time. 

Also (like that's not enough), my mobile phone died. On the good side, hubs gave me an extra one he had. On the bad side, I cannot seem to remember how to use the different menus and the various commands. Yup, I'm pretty pitiful...

So send me your good luck vibes coz I need all I can get!!


My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Celebrate The Small Things Linky:



Grab the Linky html-code here:


** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **


 Celebrate the Small ThingsTo be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)


17 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Sorry you are having to redo all of your passwords. Definitely write them down. You don't want to rely on technology to remember them.

JeffO said...

Passwords are horrible. Sometimes I can't remember a password I made ten minutes ago!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I'm so sorry. I copy and paste all passwords (along with the site and my user name) into a document that I save multiple places AND I print it out every six months. There are over 100 sites on that list - no way I could remember all of them.

Kate Larkindale said...

There are programmes that store you passwords in a safe so you only need to remember one. Every time you go to a site where you need a password, you just typw in your one password and it will remember the supersecure one it created for the site and fill it in for you. I think one is called One Password, but there are many of them. That would probably help, and save you from having to write them all down which isn't that secure either.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. What a pain! You could always use LastPass I think it's called. My hubby uses it and it makes super long secure passwords and all you need to remember is the password to get into LastPass.

Andrew Leon said...

Passwords are a neat trick for the best of us.
Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where they weren't really needed.

Cathrina Constantine said...

Sending you Good Luck Vibes!!! I copy and paste my passwords with the site name onto a new word document and Title it PASSWORDS. So if I forget, I can just go to PASSWORDS and copy and paste.

Have a pleasant weekend, Lexa.

messymimi said...

You are not pitiful, you are relearning and that takes time and being patient with yourself. You will get there, step by step.

Patricia said...

Passwords are important but a pain in the butt to keep track of. I do write them down which helps...unless I copy it wrong. I think we all have password problems from time to time. Technology is great but it does require patience.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Ack, passwords! We’re always warned to use gibberish, but how do you remember gibberish? And you’re warned not to write it down. Impossible! One time, I wrote mine down in an address book, disguised as a phone number of a friend who didn’t have a phone at the time. But it’s just too much to expect, so the losers who are known as hackers will find you sooner or later.

I hope things work out for you, Lexa!

Beverly Stowe McClure said...

So happy you're back, Lexa. Yeah, those passwords can be a headache. I keep a spiral notebook with each site's password and user name and stuff like that. I recently bought a new computer and had to change all the passwords. No way could I remember them. Have a restful weekend.

Patsy said...

Passwords are a pain. Every site seems to have different requirements, so we've no chance of remembering them and have to write them down - which doesn't feel all that secure to me.

Good luck!

Rhonda Albom said...

I read an article a few years ago about making a code for passwords. Now, all we have to remember are the rules for our code and it works for all our passwords. It can be as simple as 2nd, 4th, 6th letter of the company name followed by a symbol and then a number code that means something to you. Or much more complex.

Tonja Drecker said...

Yikes! That sounds like a nightmare. I need to get mine written down better too. Your husband deserves extra hugs :)

Yolanda Renée said...

Your not the only one! Been there. Done that. Good luck!

Sending you all positive vibes! -> -> ->

Toni said...

I keep a hidden book with all my passwords. It became a nightmare trying to remember all. I also have so many books in the house a person would shoot themselves from frustration before discovering the book!

I thought I might join Celebrate Small Things but seems complicated. Here's my link: http://musingsfrommara.blogspot.com/2018/02/celebrate-small-things.html

I'll visit the other sites!

PlanetKimberly said...

This idea might help you. Pick a short 2 or 3 letter word, add it to the name of the site, add a number, and a symbol. For example, if you choose the word "cat" as your 3 letter word and your number is "3" and your symbol is "_", you would add it to the website name.

If the website is "Bankname" your password would be "catBankname3_". If the website is "Facebook" then your password would be "catFacebook3_", etc. Or you can choose to capitalize "cat" as in "Cat" then you would have the standard security measure of one capital, one number, and one symbol without capitalizing the website name.

It sounds complicated in writing, but if you just remember what key name, number, and symbol you use, you won't have to worry about remembering passwords as much unless the website name is too long. Then you could write the password down or shorted the website name.

You can use different variations to this idea. Maybe move the keyword to the end or move the location of the number and symbol.

If you write your passwords down, you can leave out the keyword, number, or symbol so if someone finds your passwords, they won't work because it'll be incomplete.

I use this method, so if I go to a website I haven't been to in months or years, I will still remember the password without having to search for the password. The only time I get tripped up is when the site will not allow the symbol I chose or restricts the amount of letters, forcing me to have to choose another one.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

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