how to choose secure passwords

"I need to change the password on my email account. Someone managed to figure out the old one."
"That's why your password should always include numbers as well as letters. Everyone thinks its fun to use the name of your dog or boyfriend, but that actually makes it easy to crack."
"My old password was Gj7B!X."

Greetings from a former RCC. This post exists because a friend fell for phishing, and it worked due to universal password usage. Universal passwords are bad, bad, bad. *finger wagging*

Guidelines for password selection:

• use at least one number and one letter.
• use both upper and lower case letters if possible.
• also use at least one special character or punctuation mark (if permitted).
• be at least seven characters long.
• do NOT use dictionary words (especially in English), names of people/pets, addresses, birthdays, SSN's, driver's license #'s, passport #'s, variations of your usernames/aliases, or phone numbers. or for that matter, fundamental constants (e, pi, the speed of light, square root of 2, sequences of perfect numbers, fibonacci sequence, or if you do choose one of the irrationals, don't start in the first five digits or so)
• do NOT use patterns on the keyboard (i.e., qwerty, ;lkjh, or 2468)
• And change your passwords every three months.

You might ask: how the hell am I supposed to memorize a unique something like Q34jp$s! for every account I have? and change it every three months?! Who do you think I am?  River Tam?  Veronica Mars?

Actually, it's easy. Pick a novel, movie, or a book of poems. Pick a page/passage/quote at pseudo-random. Pick a sentence with a number in it. use the first character of each letter, preserve punctuation, use actual numbers to represent the numbers or constructions like "some1" If you're really desperate for numbers.  (Okay, fine, you can take every prime-th decimal digit of pi.  I'll allow you that.)

Now you have secure passwords. Remember, passwords are like underwear. Change often, don't share.

Current music: Slow Runner - Make you love me

Garden Salad 2.0

Materials:

romaine lettuce (3/4 bowl, chopped)

fresh basil leaves (1/4 bowl, also chopped)

vine-ripe tomatoes (chopped into half-bite-sized pieces)

fresh mozerella cheese (also chopped into half-bite-sized pieces)

jalapeno peppers (1 or 2)

garlic cloves (about 1 head of garlic)

shredded parmesan

fresh lemon balm (finely chopped, optional)

juice from 1 lime

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Methods:

1. Peel all garlic cloves (partial-smashing is an acceptable method for peeling).

2. Decapitate and disembowel jalapeno peppers, and chop into cm^2 pieces.

3. Pan-sear garlic and jalapeno pepper pieces in a small frying pan with olive oil until soft and cooked.

4. Combine all remaining ingredients in one large salad bowl.

5. Toss in the contents of the frying pan. Add the juice from one lime.

6. Mix well. Consume.

behold, the mustard squeeze bottle centrifuge

Do you ever wish your kitchen had a centrifuge so that the mustard squeeze bottle would actually dispense mustard?

Yes, I ran into this problem when making a sandwich. The solution: a piece of string.

The basic construction involves 2 tight loops (one around the neck of the bottle, another around the 'waist' or skinnier portion in the middle), and a handle (attached to both loops so it stays centered when you spin it).

You can use whatever topology suits you best, but my method used one continuous piece of string, somewhat similar to tying a ribbon around a gift box. By similar, I mean ribbon^2(giftbox) where giftbox = mustard bottle.

Also discovered that the two red wires in my thermostat were switched, but that it didn't matter for heating, only for cooling. I'm on a roll.

Current music: Don't worry be happy.

Truly Minimalist Pepper Oil Sauce

Materials:

- 2 handfuls red chili peppers (dried, whole)
- 1 clove
- hot oil (corn or canola, not olive oil -- high flashpoint preferred); approx. equal vol. to the peppers before they are ground.
- coffee grinder
- glass jar (enough to store oil + spices)

Methods:

1. Grind spices in coffee grinder. (Play around with proportions to find your favorite combination.)
2. Heat hot oil in a saucepan until almost at its flashpoint.
3. Turn off heat.
4. Put in spices. Stir and immediately close lid.
5. Allow to cool to room temperature. Store in jar. Or serve mixed into rice/noodles with a touch of soy sauce.

Notes: Crushed pepper seeds will take on a sesame-like aroma after being fried--that's the best part about this insanely easy sauce.

Current music: Bonobo - Scuba

as per J's request

that lovely creamy-coconut-citrus concoction from last night... suggestions for a name?

Materials:

1 baijiu-shot-glass cointreau
1 baijiu-shot-glass coconut milk (optional)
1 glass organic non-homogenized milk (type of milk affects the taste)

Methods:

Pour into a tall glass in the order listed above.

Note: baijiu shot glasses are much smaller than regular shot glasses.

Current music: Hooverphonic - 2 Wicky

Ginkgo Harvest

Stage 1: Wait for ginkgo fruit to ripen and fall to the ground from a storm or gust of wind. It is their natural inclination to be just slightly larger than chemically-fattened cherries.


Stage 2: Allow small furry creatures to eat the fruit and leave the seeds behind. Depending on their oral dexterity (and something of natural gracefulness in their eating habits), some seeds will be left with teethmarks. Judging from the size of the teethmarks (see below), I'd hypothesize a chipmunk-sized creature.


Stage 3: Wash and dry ginkgo nuts overnight on a paper towel. Crack open ginkgo nuts with a nutcracker. Cover and microwave until you hear a few explosions being tamed by the cover you, ahem, didn't neglect to place on top of the nuts (approx. 1 min. for 25 nuts, microwave-dependent). Consume delicious translucent green gems.

Mmmm...



Current music: Nickelback - Someday

Spicy Vegan Chocolate Cake

(adapted from this one)

Materials:

Dry
* 1 3/4 cup white flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 2 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp salt
* 2 tsp cinnamon
* 2 tsp chili powder (or cayenne)
* 1 cup cocoa powder
* 1/3 cup sugar (or sugar replacement – experimental run was with Simply Sweet)
* pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Wet
* 1/2 cup oil (canola)
* 1 cup maple syrup
* 1 cup soy milk or rice milk
* 1 cup coffee, warm or cold, not hot
* 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
* large dash, vanilla (1 Tbsp-ish)
* nontrivial dash, almond
* hazelnuts (optional)

Methods:

1. Stir dry ingredients together in large bowl.
2. Stir wet ingredients in a well in the dry ingredients.
3. Mix everything together. Batter is highly liquid.
4. Bake at 350 until done, rotate every 15 min.