Passwords

One of the hardest parts about losing my memory was having to remember my computer passwords. I had a partial list written in a notebook, by the computer, and sent my wife for the notebook. We had a laptop that she brought to the hospital and the hospital had wi-fi.

I was able to connect to Facebook from my hospital room (which was a huge relief for my parents) or I could walk down the hall to a computer they had set up.

That was a public computer, so I felt like changing my password. It's probably good that I didn't, since my short term memory was still unreliable.

Actually, the few times that I did change a password I immediately forgot it, so I guess I was right not to change it. I still can't get into my database for 3and3quarter.com, and I created a new database and forgot that password as well.

My password has always followed a similar pattern, I picked a random word (usually a compound word, something that would be easy for me to remember, like Stormshadow or Starscream) and I would had a numeral at the end, and if the website required an extra secure password, I would toss in a pound sign or a dollar sign, just before the number.

But even knowing that, I haven't been able to crack the database password.

When I was a freshman at the University of Kentucky, I was involved in a "subculture" called the Phoners. Everyone on campus had a "Prime" account but only a few could log on to the Phone software. It was basically a chat program, but it evolved into a social network. I met my first girlfriend over Phone, and spent way to many hours chatting with her on it.

I don't remember what any of my passwords on Phone were, but I could tell you what some other people's passwords were. My friend Suzanne used her pet's name, Brownie, and I borrowed that as my password for a while.

I also borrowed my brother's password and I occasionally use Robin's.

My PIN number in college started out as my prom date's phone number, then I rearranged it into another number that was easy to remember. It's still my PIN today, which is why I don't want to even give a clue about it.