I’m so much happier when I have no electronic contact with the outside world. Life is beautiful at Winterpast, the garden of happiness. All day, I can tend to the needs of potted plants while pulling stray weeds under the big blue sky on the northwestern plains of the Nevada Desert. But, just like a moth to a flame, when I drive, I turn on the news. Yesterday’s main topic was troublesome.
Of course, humorous at times, too. Like envisioning THE Prince and Princess being chased to within an inch of their lives over a two hour period in New York City. Now, I’ve never been to NYC, but from what I’ve seen, that would be a little impossible with all the traffic. Maybe 30 seconds? A minute? But then, I’m not royalty. Maybe the entire town was on lockdown so those two could move about with their car chase.
If you haven’t watched the episode on Southpark about their “Privacy Tour”, you can catch some clips on “You Tube”. So funny I had to watch a few of them. Yes. We all want our privacy. Some just want it a little more than others.
Well, after the nonsense about the American royals, the news became more personal. The focus was on computer passwords. The ones we all use every day. In the very beginning, I was at a loss for thinking of new and fun passwords. Over the years, I’ve gotten better.
Now, it seems, the hackers have gotten better, too. A password of eight characters was the norm for 2018 standards. That’s what many companies recommend. Now, with Artificial Intelligence becoming so much smarter, it is recommended that our passwords are 12 random characters long, with plenty of symbols included. Don’t forget upper and lower case letters, numbers, and while you’re at it, throw in a picture of the family dog.
So, yesterday, I decided that I would comply for the bank. I would select a very new, random and personal code. But what would it be?
Being a writer, my brain can be quite creative. Two nights ago, I was enjoying a night at a most beautiful hotel just 46 miles from my doorstep. I was lucky enough to have a room on the 19th floor, which happened to be at the very top. I’ve stayed there many times, but on this occasion, I was lucky enough to be in a suite looking at the second tower across the way.
I had just turned off the lights and looked out once more to see the night view, when I was shocked. Across the way, at another tower (just a few floors shorter), were hundreds of birds reflecting in the lights. Dive bombing, this way and that. Reflected in the lights, they looked huge. They were swarming everywhere. I will tell you, it was unsettling. 10 PM atop a huge hotel, the place was under siege from birds.
Were they owls? Condors? Great Bustards? Trumpeter Swans? Pelicans? Were they hired by the hotel? I went to sleep wondering about random possibilities.
In the morning, still troubled, I Googled to find out what would cause the birds to behave in this way. There was the answer. Bugs and lights. These were seagulls and pigeons, not exotic at all. It’s a nightly occurrence. I’ve just never been on the top floor to witness it.
So getting back to the passwords (I promise it will all tie in soon). It seems that the hackers can now hack any plain jane password of 8 or less characters as if it’s not even there. We should be using 12 random characters. Are you kidding me???? I don’t know about you, but I need to have something to affix these passwords to my brain. What would I do now?
I’ve overused Oliver’s name in many forms. I’ve even used Winterpast once long ago. My name and address are way to obvious. As I sat trying to think of a new password, it came to me.
#SglsEtgBgs52023$.
It had everything. Uppercase. Lower case. It held a memory and the month and year. It even reminded me that a one night vacation can be a little pricey. Perfect.
I discarded my old password entered the new one, careful to write the new one down in my “Sh*t I Can’t Remember” book (Purchased from Amazon and quite useful. Look it up. I use mine several times a day. It’s a lifesaver. Sorry for the name.)
This morning, when I went to enter the new password, it was a disaster. With just way too many variables, I was quickly locked out of my website. At 4:30 in the morning, waiting for my WordPress site to unlock after an unsuccessful password attempts isn’t pleasant.
Don’t even doubt for a minute that everything is now changed back to passwords I know and love. Somedays, I can barely remember to blog. 12 characters, upper and lower case, mixed with $, #, and *** isn’t going to happen here.
The news.
It can take a perfectly peaceful day and invite new worries to our already full brains. I need to take my own advice and unplug. Put on some great music and focus on the beauty of spring. Hackers gonna hack and worrying won’t change that.
Whatever you do today, think of this. Although we all need to have passwords, just try to remember to change yours once in awhile. If you do change it, please write it down. Do check out the notebook on Amazon. Keep organized and carry on.
More tomorrow.