sonora2sonoma

I’m trying to create a passable password on Twitter

so I can check out the tangerine twitterer.

It seems practically everyone is on Twitter these days;

it’s one of the reasons I haven’t been among them

but now, provided with a motive, although a dubious one at best,

with mounting trepidation, I take the plunge–

I type the password I use on my blog

(I know that’s not advisable, but I’m lazy about such things)

and get a screen that says it’s already taken

so I try using “already taken”

and, guess what?

“already taken” is already taken!

Twitter suggests I try “already90513040”

or “already38281025”–

either of which would be guaranteed to make me feel

grateful & contented

every time I was presented with the opportunity

to type out 15 characters in order to log in.

This reminds me

of the time I encountered similar difficulties

in establishing a passable password on a Microsoft site:

I first offered a respectable password

which, I was informed, was already taken.

I then posited a proposed password

intended to achieve the dual purposes

of both gaining access to the site

while also including an unvarnished appraisal

of my thoughts on the subject of passwords

in general:

“Fuckbillgates,” I submitted,

feeling, with a bit of smugness,

that the likelihood was low

that anyone had chosen that particular

combination of words.

My sense of smugness did not survive the response

when the onscreen reply said

“We’re sorry! Fuckbillgates is already taken.

Would you like to use Fuckbillgates38?”

I took them up on their offer.

2 January 2017

Petaluma, CA

Tim Konrad