Sunday, February 9, 2014
I'll Be Back
I'm going to try to start blogging again. Problem is, when I have something to say I can usually say it in a couple of sentences. I'm not one of these wordy people who can use paragraphs and paragraphs to express a simple thought. But I'll try. I'll have to think of something to blog about first, though.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Talk Like A Pirate Day is Coming!!! What's Your Pirate Name?
My pirate name is:
Mad Anne Kidd
Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.part of the fidius.org network
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday with the Doctor at the VA
I had another medical appointment on Wednesday. I've had this appointment before, but always missed it. The appointment was important because I've been suffering from chronic fatigue for a couple of years, and I really need to find out why. The irony is that the reason for the appointment is also the reason for missing the appointments in the past. I'm not sure the people at the VA care about that or not. Of course, all they see is someone missing a whole bunch of appointments. But this time I made it.
First I had to go for some lab tests: blood and urine, as usual. My lab appointment was for 9:00 a.m., but I wasn't scheduled to see my doctor until 3:00 p.m. It's an hour drive and over a gallon of gas to go from home to the doctor's office at the VA, so when I go, I plan to stay all day. I'll find something to do between appointments. The lab appointment time is not really carved in stone. It was my understanding that the tests they do take about two hours, so I planned to get to the lab by around noon at the latest. I actually got there at about 11:00. There was no one ahead of me so I went right in. (I found out, later, when I saw the doctor, that the labs take a lot longer than two hours. Some actually require a day or two. So I wondered why they scheduled the appointments for the same day. Why not do the labs four or five days before the appointment with the doctor?)
It was a "fasting lab" appointment, which means I didn't get to eat that morning, or drink any coffee, so by the time I had my appointment, I was quite hungry, and starting to get what was probably a caffeine headache. I headed off to my favorite when-I'm-in-Temple fast food joint, Jack in the Box, for a spicy chicken sandwich, some seasoned curly fries, and a diet Dr. Pepper. After I finished my lunch, I headed up to Petco. A friend of mine gave me a Petco gift card for my birthday, so I used it to make ID tags for Buddy and Sadie. (Sadie is a new dog I've adopted. I should have blogged about her sooner, but I didn't. I'll do so in a day or two.)
I'd been wanting to get some tags for them. Buddy is a wanderer and sometimes wanders out of my sight, and Sadie is new, so not real familiar with the neighborhood. I haven't let Sadie wander too far, but now, if she does, she'll have the ID tag with my phone number. (Just in case you're wondering, I don't intend to let her wander off.)
After I finished at Petco, I went back to the VA with my Kindle. It was only about 1:00, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I had my Kindle, so I started to read Stephen Kings non-fiction essay, Guns. He'd written it after the killings at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut. I got about half way through and decided to check in. By then it was about 1:30. I figured if they were ahead of schedule maybe I'd get in early. I was right. I went back to reading, finished Guns, and was called in to see the doctor shortly after 2:00 p.m.
It was very productive. I got some consults that I needed, and renewed my prescriptions. We talked about my chronic fatigue and the doctor said she'd send me to the sleep clinic. So one way or another, we're going to find out the cause of my tiredness. She was surprised to learn that I hadn't had a colonoscopy when I turned 50, and so I will be scheduled for one. Whoopee.
The doctor - a different one since my last visit - wasn't real comfortable renewing my prescription for antidepressants, so when we were done she had me go over and talk to a psychiatrist. That was a good thing because she suggested that she may be able to help a little with the fatigue, as well. She suggested that I start taking Wellbutrin which, when taken with the other antidepressants, should give me a little more energy. I certainly hope she's right. I'm so tired of being so tired!
I ended up not leaving the VA until just after 4:00. After the hour-long drive home, I was completely exhausted. (I don't think I'd gotten any real sleep Tuesday night.)
And that was my exciting day doing medical things. I await appointments with the sleep clinic as well as a couple other clinics, and the results of my blood and urine tests. Since my life is an open book, I'll share any bad news I get. Let's hope I don't get any.
First I had to go for some lab tests: blood and urine, as usual. My lab appointment was for 9:00 a.m., but I wasn't scheduled to see my doctor until 3:00 p.m. It's an hour drive and over a gallon of gas to go from home to the doctor's office at the VA, so when I go, I plan to stay all day. I'll find something to do between appointments. The lab appointment time is not really carved in stone. It was my understanding that the tests they do take about two hours, so I planned to get to the lab by around noon at the latest. I actually got there at about 11:00. There was no one ahead of me so I went right in. (I found out, later, when I saw the doctor, that the labs take a lot longer than two hours. Some actually require a day or two. So I wondered why they scheduled the appointments for the same day. Why not do the labs four or five days before the appointment with the doctor?)
It was a "fasting lab" appointment, which means I didn't get to eat that morning, or drink any coffee, so by the time I had my appointment, I was quite hungry, and starting to get what was probably a caffeine headache. I headed off to my favorite when-I'm-in-Temple fast food joint, Jack in the Box, for a spicy chicken sandwich, some seasoned curly fries, and a diet Dr. Pepper. After I finished my lunch, I headed up to Petco. A friend of mine gave me a Petco gift card for my birthday, so I used it to make ID tags for Buddy and Sadie. (Sadie is a new dog I've adopted. I should have blogged about her sooner, but I didn't. I'll do so in a day or two.)
 | |
| Buddy |
 | |
| Sadie |
After I finished at Petco, I went back to the VA with my Kindle. It was only about 1:00, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I had my Kindle, so I started to read Stephen Kings non-fiction essay, Guns. He'd written it after the killings at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut. I got about half way through and decided to check in. By then it was about 1:30. I figured if they were ahead of schedule maybe I'd get in early. I was right. I went back to reading, finished Guns, and was called in to see the doctor shortly after 2:00 p.m.
It was very productive. I got some consults that I needed, and renewed my prescriptions. We talked about my chronic fatigue and the doctor said she'd send me to the sleep clinic. So one way or another, we're going to find out the cause of my tiredness. She was surprised to learn that I hadn't had a colonoscopy when I turned 50, and so I will be scheduled for one. Whoopee.
The doctor - a different one since my last visit - wasn't real comfortable renewing my prescription for antidepressants, so when we were done she had me go over and talk to a psychiatrist. That was a good thing because she suggested that she may be able to help a little with the fatigue, as well. She suggested that I start taking Wellbutrin which, when taken with the other antidepressants, should give me a little more energy. I certainly hope she's right. I'm so tired of being so tired!
I ended up not leaving the VA until just after 4:00. After the hour-long drive home, I was completely exhausted. (I don't think I'd gotten any real sleep Tuesday night.)
And that was my exciting day doing medical things. I await appointments with the sleep clinic as well as a couple other clinics, and the results of my blood and urine tests. Since my life is an open book, I'll share any bad news I get. Let's hope I don't get any.
Monday, May 13, 2013
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.
----------------------
*or ex-boyfriend, or ex-girlfriend, or nosy roommate, or nosy family member, if you get my drift
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.
----------------------
*or ex-boyfriend, or ex-girlfriend, or nosy roommate, or nosy family member, if you get my drift
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