Passwords - Easy to remember but hard to guess

I've been meaning to write this for some time. It seems like people still use simple passwords that are easy for hackers to guess because they're easy for the user to remember. You may think that, using your granddaughter's name is smart because, after all, how many people - hackers - would think of it? Well, have you ever mentioned your granddaughter on your Facebook or MySpace page? If you love her enough to use her name as a a password, you've probably mentioned her elsewhere. But you have several grandchildren. How will a hacker know which one is your password? Well, hackers do a lot of guessing, so they will guess all your grandchildrens' names before they get to the right one. How about your birth date? Or your street address? Easy things for hackers to guess.

So what are some good passwords? Many sites now want you to use upper and lower case letters, numbers and/or special characters. Good idea. But they're hard to remember! Not if you use them in a way that's easy to remember. Duh!

Don't use things a hacker is probably going to guess, like anything dealing with your public life. Don't use family names, addresses, birth dates, or anything else someone can find out about you.

Here are some ideas of what you can use.

What are your favorite TV shows or movies? Take something from one of those and "scramble" it with special characters. Do you have favorite actors, authors, singers, poets? I'll bet you do. Think of one that not many people know about and use them. How about an event that you can easily remember? Use it and some form of the associated date.

Here are some examples.

Let's say you really liked the TV show "Lost." The "Dharma Initiative" was an element in that show. So let's use "Dharma," but we're going to use the special character "@" in place of one or both of the letters "a." You can capitalize the first letter, but that would be easier to guess than captializing, say, the second or last letters. If you capitalize the same letter each time, you'll find it easier to remember.

So for our password, we're going to start with "dH@rma." Now, we want to incorporate some numbers. Again, if you're a Lost fan, you know that there were a few numbers that were repeated in the show, like 108 and 815. So we can use the password "dH@rma108," which would probably be hard enough to guess. But let's take it one step further. Instead of a zero, use the letter "o." Now your password is "dH@rma1o8." As a lost fan, you'll remember that password - as long as you remember which letter it is that you always capitalize.

Another thing to do is use an easy word to remember, but spell it backwards. My favorite dog's name was Rosie, and she was born in 1998. So for my password I could use "eisor1998." But instead of the "s," I'm going to use "$." It looks like an "s," so it's easy to remember which special character I used. You can go a little farther and switch all switchable letters to special characters, and/or switch out letters for numbers and vice versa. And don't forget your capitalization if you need it. So Rosie1998 becomes "eI$or1998."

To confound the hackers a little more, put the year in the center of the word, or alternate letters and numbers.

19eI$0r98 or e1I9$908r

See what I mean? This is something you can easily remember yourself, but that some hacker* is going to take a very long time to "guess."

Do this with your favorite author, or with the title of your favorite book by your favorite author. Or your favorite actor and movie. Or your favorite food. There's no limit. Just keep your scrambling techniques consistent so you don't confound yourself!

The easiest substitutions are a and @, s and $, o and 0, i and 1. But you should work some out for yourself that are not as easy to think of. Remember to be consistent so you won't forget them. For example, let's say you always substitute the "#" for the letter x, or you always use a % for the letter z, or even for more common letters. This way you're making a very complex password that you can easily remember.

Okay, so that's what I wanted to let people know. You can take my ideas and go far, using all sorts of things: favorite words, foreign words, types of trees or plants, bugs, animals. There's no limit.

I hope this helps.

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*or ex-boyfriend, or ex-girlfriend, or nosy roommate, or nosy family member, if you get my drift

Life Still Sucks, But In An Interesting Way

The bank sent me a letter. They do that often because, in their opinion, I use my overdraft protection far too much. They've been sending me letters telling me there are better ways to "borrow" money. Yeah. I know that. But most people who lend you money generally want you to have a good credit score. They want some assurance they'll actually get their money back. My credit score is not good, so these people tell me "no" and then have a good laugh when I leave their offices.

This letter was different. It said, basically, "you're cut off." They're taking my overdraft protection away. I'm not angry or surprised. Frankly, I wondered why they hadn't done it sooner, if it had always been an option.

Ultimately this will be a good thing for me. I mean, it's money I have to "pay back" every month, so there's no outstanding balance like with credit. And each time I "dip into" the overdraft protection I am charged a fee, which only adds to my monthly deficit. Again, this is money they take from me and which is paid back each month. So technically, I can get along without overdraft protection, and now I'm going to have to try even harder to do so. The good news is it will be cheaper for me because there will be no more overdraft fees. The bad news is that there will be "insufficient fund" fees if/when a check bounces.

I'm going to go in to see the people in this very same bank about getting one of the loans they have urged me to get. The easiest one should be an account based on the equity in my home, and that will mean a very low interest rate. I still expect them to say "no" and laugh at me, though, because my credit score is so low.

I'm also planning a yard sale. I have a bunch of stuff that's worth money, and a lot of it I don't even use.

The cat situation in my home is becoming unbearably stressful for me. A few nights ago I broke up a cat fight between two of my "pet" cats. I did so without thinking and without gloves. That resulted in a couple of fairly deep and serious bites to my right hand. I know that cat bites are notoriously bad due to the sharpness of their teeth combined with the bacteria in their mouths. For this reason it's always a good idea to go straight to the hospital whenever you suffer a cat bite. I didn't. Several of my Facebook friends are angry about that. My hand swelled, and is still swollen, but feels like the swelling is going down. And I thoroughly cleaned the bites with hydrogen peroxide and have been keeping them clean and, until a few hours ago, bandaged. The bites are drying up and scabbing, which means they're not infected. As long as it doesn't get any worse, I'm not going to see the doctor. I'm sure they'll want to put me on strong antibiotics, which I don't mind, but they'd probably be of the IV type, and that would require either a stay in the hospital or a visit every eight hours for the duration of the treatment. No thanks.

Besides this fight & bite incident, I had a minor meltdown a couple of weeks ago. I have at least three - possibly more - cats that spray urine to mark territory. A couple of them want to climb up on counters and table tops and spray things you definitely do not want sprayed. I mean, no one wants anything to be urine sprayed by cats, but there are things that are not so bad, like walls, which can be easily cleaned, and there are things that are very bad, like the clean dishes in the dish rack, and the toaster oven, and the coffee maker, and anything that isn't easily cleanable. And this was what was happening in my house. I have gone so far as to tape protective pads (puppy potty training pads) to many items in order to protect them: my computer, monitor, and peripherals; countertop appliances; televisions (when not in use); and more. This is drastic and somewhat disgusting, but it has saved me some serious stress. But when I had my meltdown it was because someone had sprayed the coffee maker before I could get the protective pad in place. It was nearly the straw that broke the camel's back, and I was about ready to get out my gun and start "euthanizing" all the cats in my home.

"Get rid of the cats," you suggest. Yeah. Easier said than done, unless you just don't care about cats. And if that were true, I wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a home for an adult cat - even a neutered and vaccinated adult cat? It's very difficult. And I didn't take in these animals just to turn them over to someone who will euthanize them. I have put an ad up on a local Facebook page for pet adoptions, and I'm willing to give up most of the cats that are now in my care. But like I said, there are not many people who want adult cats.

My sweet cousin sent me a book called Cat vs. Cat, which I have not yet read but which I intend to very soon. She hopes it will help me with the problems I'm having. I hope so, too, but I confess that I'm not very optimistic. I've researched some of the problems I'm having and have not yet found the answers. But like I said, I have not yet read the book. I suppose the easiest "fix" would be to find a way to keep the cats off the counters and tabletops. Anyone know how to do that? Please don't tell me to put tape on the countertops unless you can tell me a way to keep it on the countertops. I want to annoy the cats, but I don't want the tape to come off the counter and stick to them.

My car has been causing its occasional routine and not-very-expensive-thank-God problems. First I had a blowout while driving to see one of my favorite authors who was appearing in a bookstore about a hundred miles from my home. While changing my tire I discovered that the spare, which was 16-years old (as old as the car), had shredded in my trunk. So I had to call a tow truck to take me and my car home and then I had to buy a new tire and a new spare. My spare is one of those little "doughnut" spares, which is smaller than a regular tire and requires you to drive no faster than about 50 miles per hour for as long as you're driving on it. It also costs more than a regular tire.

I missed seeing the author I'd wanted to see, but I did managed to get a autographed copy of the book he was trumpeting by arranging it with the wonderful people at the bookstore.

I'm his personal idol! Wow!

About two weeks after the tire incident my relatively new battery died and I had to replace it. I say "relatively new" because it was only two years old, and other batteries I'd had lasted at least five years. I didn't get a free replacement from the store where I bought it, but I got a discount. Same type of battery, though, which means it'll probably last just another two years. Texas heat takes a real toll on car batteries. And I don't have any shade over my driveway, so my car is parked in direct sunlight most of the time.

I had to have another beloved dog put down. He was so sick, and having such a hard time getting around. Roscoe came into my life as an adult stray. I'm not exactly sure when I took him in, but I know it was at least 2004. So he was at least ten years old. He was a basset mix. He'd been a stray in my neighborhood for about two weeks when I put him in my backyard and called animal control to come and get him. Needless to say, they never did. He became a member of my family and was a wonderful addition. He got along with all the dogs and cats, and was housebroken. It took him a short time to get used to using the doggy door because of the clicking sound it made when he went through. For some reason he was spooked by loud noises. But he soon got to be a pro! He went to be with Rosie at the Rainbow Bridge on February 26th - just one week after the anniversary of Rosie's passing.

My butt's getting a little sore because I've been sitting here for awhile, so I'm going to quit for now.

Peace, love, and umbrella hats.

I Could Easily Cry - Some More

There are a lot of things going on right now - big and small - that are making me very sad. As someone who suffers from depression, I have good days and bad days. I suppose that's normal for everyone who suffers from depression. But today is a really, really bad day. It didn't start out that way.

It started out as a normal day, and all I was really thinking about was the upcoming $250 charge for the tires I have to have put on my car. You see, I had a blowout on the highway Tuesday afternoon, on my way to Austin to finally see and meet one of my favorite authors, Dave Barry. He has a new book out and I was going to meet him and have him autograph my book. I was also excited because I was going to tell him that I was the person behind the moniker Suzie Q. Wacvet when I sent odd items to him for his blog. AND I was going to confess to being the webmistress of his (un)Official Dave Barry website.  I figured he'd either be elated to meet me or he'd hit me. Either way I was looking forward to it. But I barely got out of Gatesville before my tire blew out. My spare is one of those little doughnut tires that limits your speed to 50mph, if I'm not mistaken. I was actually considering continuing to Austin on my doughnut tire until I saw that it had begun shredding in my trunk. (I guess that's normal when you have a tire that's 16 years old.) So the trip was cancelled, and I had to have a tow truck carry me and my car home. So I'm going to have to buy two new tires. Believe it or not, the doughnut tire costs more than the full-sized tire. So money is my first issue today. (It's almost always an issue, anyway.)

My second depressing thought is that it's getting closer to February 17th. I can hardly even type this without sobbing. February 17, 2012, is the day that Rosie died. This will only get worse for nine more days.

My third depressing thought is that my younger brother, who has always been an outspoken republican, and who has always jumped on any chance to bad-mouth our President (whom I voted for, by the way), has finally fallen of the deep end. He has gone so far as to compare the President to Hitler. It's difficult for me to find acceptable words to describe just how I feel about anyone who compares anyone to Hitler. Come on. Hitler was responsible for the annihilation of approximately seven million people. The only acceptable people who can be compared to Hitler are Stalin and Sadam Hussein. (There may be more but my knowledge of history isn't great.) Once people I know - or people I don't know - start comparing the President to Hitler, I put their names in the "completely insane" and "ignore completely" categories of the list of friends and acquaintances that I keep in my head. I never thought my brother would be in either of those categories, but he is, apparently and disappointingly, that stupid. I still love him though. I just don't like him very much.

Fourth is a tiny thing that shouldn't bother me at all, but it does. Someone read something I wrote on Facebook, misinterpreted it, and banned me from a pet-related group. I don't go around trying to insult people, and I don't ever act like I'm better than someone (even though I often think it). But when I wrote something about irresponsible backyard breeders, she took it personally. I don't know why. I'm hoping she will let me know. She is a breeder of Olde English Bulldogs, and I thought I had made a clear distinction between people who breed responsibly (like her) and people who don't. But she, like I said, misinterpreted or misread what I wrote. So, Facebook. So what? Happens all the time. Right? Shouldn't be such a big deal. Right? Right. But I think we all are bothered, to some degree, when someone dislikes us. And Facebook makes it difficult to iron things out with acquaintances who don't know you. There's a lot of jumping to the wrong conclusion. It's one thing if someone dislikes me for good reason, but it's annoying when someone dislikes me for something they completely misunderstood. In fact, in this case, as a responsible breeder I would think that she would have been one of the first to agree with me. What makes it worse is that, after I wrote what I wrote, I asked for the group admins to read it and comment. No one said anything negative. The person who was offended said nothing at all. She just banned me. No discussion. I've contacted her since then, which is how I found out what drove her to banning me. She has said we can discuss it (when she get home, later). Maybe it will get worked out.

Still, I'm annoyed by people - even people I barely know - who fly off the handle about something that didn't happen! There are a lot of them. I confess, they're mostly on Facebook, where I shouldn't give a damn about this sort of thing. I should just get off of Facebook. But I have intelligent friends there who I enjoy and who, I've heard, enjoy me and my posts. I think I'm just going to go over there and quit some groups and unfriend some "friends," and my life will be better for it.

Add all of this to the things that "normally" depress me and you'll see that it's a bad day. It's just a bad day.

Happy New Year!

Well, we made it. Another year has come and gone and we're still here. Some will take that as a blessing. Others, not so much. In either case I just want to wish my two or three readers a very Happy New Year! May 2013 be your best, happiest year ever!

Bringing You Up To Date

Let's see. Where to begin. (Is that a question?)

Charlie has been adopted. I had him neutered and had his eye fixed. (He had entropion, which is common for the breed.) As I said in my previous post, he was trying to kill my cats and causing me incredible stress. I arranged for him to go back to Animal Control where they assured me he would not be euthanized. While there, he was noticed and adopted by a family that has another dog. So Charlie has his forever home and a playmate.

The girl who wanted to adopt Charlie had a cat, and her mom told her she had to find a home for her cat before she could adopt Charlie. I decided to adopt her cat, Himz. He's a great cat that has fit in very well with me and my extended fur family. He seems very happy and secure with us. I think it was a real good "trade."

I'm sorry that the family felt they needed to get rid of the cat before they could adopt a dog, but it has worked out well this time, thank God.

As for Rebel, I don't know his status. He may still be with the foster. I hope he has been adopted. He's a cute little dog.

I finally got to Fort Hood to get my car registered, again. I'd had it registered several years ago, but it expired. I wanted to re-register it so that I can start making regular trips to the commissary and PX where, I hope, pet food will be cheaper. I already know that canned dog food is cheaper by about 10 cents a can. That's $3.00 per month savings. Is it worth it? That will depend on how much they want for dry food. I've been buying 13-pound bags of cat food at $13 per bag, and I'm going through about eight bags a month. That's expensive for me. I think I'm going to switch to another type of food that is sold in a 16-pound bag for about the same price as the other. (I try to feed my pets the best quality food that I can afford.) After I see what the PX and commissary have and how much it costs, I'll decide if the trip is worth the cost of gas - approximately a gallon to get there and a gallon to get back.

I also want to check out Fort Hood's Rod & Gun Club. I want to see if they have a shooting range that I can use. I still haven't gone to fire my new pistol, and I really need to. I need to know how it feels to fire it before I'm forced to use it to defend myself - God forbid that ever happens. There's a private range not far from my home and I could go there if I have to. But I'm going to check out the R&G anyway.

I'm still tired all the time and still missing the appointments I make to find out why. Still planning to make it in to see the doctor one day, eventually.

I did get in to see the dentist, finally. My fears were validated. Treatment will cost much more than I can afford, even with my dental insurance. I did get two very broken teeth removed. The worst part of that was the novocaine shots! There was no pain afterwards, either. I was given a prescription for pain pills but didn't need them.

I'm sure there's more to write about, but I'm tired and my brain isn't working at 100%. (Not that it ever does!) So farewell for now.

Charlie the Dog

For the past week I've been fostering a dog that I thought I might adopt. I can't adopt him, though, because he wants to kill my cats. Because of this, I've had to keep him tethered constantly - indoors and out. Well, indoors and mostly outdoors. When I take him into the backyard to pee, I let him off the leash, but only after making sure there are no cats out there that he can catch. There have been a few close calls, and my cats are extremely frightened and terribly unhappy. I, on the other hand, am extremely stressed. Charlie will go back to animal control soon, but I've been promised he won't be put down because he's been vaccinated and neutered. Charlie is a shar-pei, by the way.

Charlie used to belong to my neighbors - the ones who live in the house behind mine. He was a backyard dog for a few years. He was neglected - put in the backyard to be a pet and left there, alone for most of those years. I never saw the family do anything with him - no playing or visiting. For awhile they even neglected to feed him. He was dangerously thin.  I had to call Animal Control to get them to feed him.

A few weeks ago Charlie and his companion, Rebel, a wire-haired terrier, got out of the backyard and were roaming around the neighborhood. Animal Control picked them up. The neighbors knew that Animal Control had the dogs but decided not to go get them. Charlie and Rebel were marked for euthanization.

Someone rescued Rebel. She took Rebel in as a foster. But Charlie is a big dog and people don't often adopt big, older dogs. So I did. I knew Charlie was a great dog, but I also knew he might be a threat to my cats. So I asked Animal Control before I took him if it was okay to bring him back if it didn't work out. Jessica, who works at Animal Control, said yes. And after Charlie was vaccinated and neutered, she promised me he wouldn't be euthanized. I was right. Charlie wants to kill cats. As I said, there have been a few close calls, so I'm being very careful now. Charlie is with me in the house, and he's tethered to something so he can't get at the cats. The cats have learned that he's dangerous, but they also have learned that, when he's tethered, he can only go so far.

So here I sit, listening to Charlie bark at one of my cats, stressed out (me and the cat) and hoping someone will step up and offer to foster him. Someone will, eventually.

Sore Hip and Sleeping A Lot

For some reason my left hip has been bothering me for the past few days. It's like a pinch, and it happens mostly when I'm sitting or lying down, or in the process of sitting or lying down, or in the process of standing up. In other words, it doesn't bother me when I'm standing or walking. I have no idea what it is. I keep meaning to reschedule my doctor's appointment but keep forgetting until it's too late and the office is closed. I suspect the pain will stop just before any appointment I make.

Been sleeping a lot, too. Today I decided I wasn't going to get up until I was ready to get up. That was about 7:00 p.m. Other days I have gotten up when I felt like going back to sleep. Every now and then I need one of these extra-long sleeping sessions. Otherwise I feel even more tired than normal (i.e. normal for me).

I've been procrastinating doing some things I need to do, like grocery shopping and mailing an important package. (It's merchandise that was defective. I'm sending it back to be replaced.) Fortunately, this is one of those times when my procrastinating hasn't left the dogs and cats with minimal food! They have plenty of food. In fact, so do I. But there are a few things I need in addition to mailing that package.

An old friend who I really would like too see was in town a couple of days ago, but I was sleeping and didn't get his phone call. When I had my Blackberry phone, I could turn off all sounds but the ringing of the phone. That was great because I would still get phone calls when sleeping, but I wouldn't be awakened by other sounds, like emails and such. But with my even-more-expensive iPhone, I can't do that. I have to turn off all sounds or no sounds. I have chosen to turn off all sounds rather than be awakened by unimportant things. And this is why I missed my friend when he called to say he'd be in town. So there's another down side to my chronic fatigue - missing phone calls I don't want to miss.

I have several wasp nests in the eves of my house just outside my back door. I don't want to bother them, and I probably won't, but they're right in a spot where I'd like to inject some expanding foam because of a gap in my house where the older part of the house meets the newer part of the house. I don't know. Which is more important: dozens of lives or my house gap? I think I'll put off filling the gap until the wasps have left for the winter. (They might be hornets. I can't tell the difference, and and don't think a lot of other people can, either. What do you think?)

This is the largest nest, and the

one that's closest to the "gap."