Rantings and Ravings

By Sun Advocate

Sign in with your user name and password. Did you forget your password? Then what is the name of your favorite pet.
This is what has it has come to when we have to remember passwords and pins to do about anything.
Personally, I can barely remember that I left the TV remote in the fridge, next to the milk, after the phone rang the other night.
It is bad enough to have to put a password on everything. I have about three that I try to use most often, but the user name thing is really frustrating. I once tried 50 different combinations of my name and numbers before one computer site would let me sign on. It seems like there is someone else who signs on as Terrywillis123.
Anyway I have never been able to get back on the site because I can’t remember the user name it finally accepted. I also can’t remember the password. Apparently you need to remember at least one of these for them to give you a hint on how to get back on the site.
On one web page I really like to shop on, I gave up the guessing game and tried to re-sign up as a new user. The computer ozone that won’t give me a hint about how I might get back on now seems to remember I have already signed up and tells me to use the user name and password I already have. I have forgotten those.
In addition to web sites I have to remember pin numbers for my credit cards, check cashing cards, health insurance card, 401K retirement account, and voice messaging service.
So I have taken to writing these down and putting them somewhere I can find them. It sure seems to defeat the security purposes of having all these secret codes to protect me. I was thinking of just keeping a computer hacker on retainer since they can break these codes in a heartbeat.
The other day one of those little boxes at the check out counter kept rejecting my pin number. Frustrated I tried one more time shouting out each number as I punched the keyboard.
It worked, but now all I have to do in Smith’s if I forget what it it is, is to ask if any of the customers or cashiers.
It really is a good thing our brains are so equipped to deal with all this memorization as we continue to add more and more numbers to our lives. Most of us now have three to five phone numbers that are ours. We need to remember our social security number, zip codes, car license plate numbers, addresses, pins, and passwords.
If exercising the brain helps keep us from showing signs of senility, then we all will be in pretty good shape for the years to come.
Now if I can only find the TV remote again.
I’ve already checked the fridge.