Enter your user name and password...

I got a pop-up reminder on my work computer today that my password expires in 23 hours (yes, they have it down to the hour now). For security purposes, it's a good thing. For my short-term-memory mind, not such a good thing.

I recently typed up a list at home of all our user names and passwords. My premise was that I needed to do this so hubby could still pay the energy bill online (and whatever else) should something happen to me. The real reason I did it, though, was because I suffer from CRS (can't remember stuff). Especially when the list included more than a dozen user names and passwords between us (not to mention PINs for our ATM cards, Carter's school lunch, etc.). Amazing how many accumulate over time.

Imagine being Carter's age and this will always be a way of life. He's already got a Yahoo email account and was just signing up on an NFL site to be able to play some kids games. He couldn't get it to work. I asked what his user name was. He said "hostile" but he actually typed "hostel." So he had trouble logging in. This is where I explained that it would be helpful for him (in the memory department) to try to use the same or similar user name and password. It's a heckuva lot easier for me to remember rraustin than raustin sometimes and robynaustin other times and robyna still other times.

So he re-did it. This morning I got a confirmation email as his parent (which I really appreciate that they do) that he'd signed up. Judging by his new user name, he completely ignored my advice and just looked around the computer room for an idea.

User name: deskjetink

He better start writing these down now!