Knitty Gritty Thoughts has posted the results of her “What do you like in a blog?” survey. There’s some interesting data there – by far, the #1 answer is “Personal stories.” “Pictures” is a close second, with “Posts in general (about projects and WIPs)” running a distant third. This confirms some thoughts I have myself, and the feedback I’ve gotten from others. Although the sample size could always be larger, I think that the results would scale up proportionately.

I found it interesting that only one or two people offered “KAL and swap lists,” “Lists of what you’re working on,” and “What books I’m reading”. Lists are beloved by bloggers everywhere (myself included). Lists are alluring to the writer, but clearly not a big selling point to the reader.

Since recipes are a big hit, here’s my recipe for A Good Password.

1. Choose a short phrase – a song lyric, snippet from a poem, funny quip, whatever. It should be more than two words, and less than about six. (i.e. We’re just monkeys with car keys.)

2. Go to Babelfish, enter in your phrase, and translate it from English into some other language. (In Dutch, wij zijn enkel apen met autosleutels)

3. Pick one or more of the non-English words, and substitute them in there. (We’re enkel apen with car keys.)

4. Repeat twice more, so that you have three new passwords. Designate them low, medium, and high security – use the low security password for websites such as Monkeyfilter, medium security for (say) your computer at work, and reserve high security for a few select sites such as your bank account.

The result will be a password 12-18 characters long which is easy to remember, but impossible to guess. A password this long takes a prohibitive amount of time to crack, even if it was just one long word. (45 years, according to some completely random site I just pulled out of Google.)

Using multiple words reduces its crackability significantly. Mixing it up with non-English words means that it is, for all practical purposes, uncrackable.

Be sure to mix up your use of the three passwords. Although it’s uncrackable, it could still be obtained by several means, including a keylogger, or a site vulnerability that reveals passwords in plaintext. Using a set of passwords acts as a firewall, so that if someone obtains password 1, they only have access to a third of your online data.

To make it easier on myself, I like to use passwords in “sets.” Use three lines from the same chorus, poem, play, what have you. That way, in a memory loss pinch, you only have to remember which song/poem/play you were using at the time, and you can look up the rest online.

Or you can use your daughter’s name and birthday – no one will ever guess that one!

Crap, an entire post with no pictures. But people like pictures! Okay, here’s a kitty.

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Finished knitting up a hat for The Ships Project, which seemed like a pleasingly appropriate thing to do on Memorial Day. (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Chestnut and Fern, held double, on 5mm circulars.)

One thing I learned from this hat is that ribbing is really stretchy. Quite a revealation, I know! I worked this hat entirely in 2 x 2 ribbing, and as a result, it will fit anyone with a head from 18 to 25 inches. From now on, all of my charity hats will be done entirely in ribbing. (Not too happy with the lack of attractive patterning in the decreases at the top. If I come up with a good solution for that, I’ll let you know.)

I managed to sneak the camera into play while Brady was absorbed with looking out the window last night.

He would like you to know that he is sturdy, or perhaps portly, but not fat. He weighs 18 pounds, is 14 inches high at the shoulder, and is not self-conscious about his funny Z-shaped tail.

Pet peeves include: windows that are open when he wants them to be closed, windows that are closed when he wants them to be open, litter boxes which are insufficiently clean, his brother’s habit of butting into everything, and plastic garbage bags.

Hobbies: pretending like he’s going to pee on something in order to get attention, trouncing his brother at greco-roman feline wrestling, rolling back on his spine to sit upright like a furry little buddha, and looking exasperated.

With that, I have officially posted the cat.

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“Net Neutrality” means that every site you visit is treated the same by your ISP. Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T feel that this is insufficiently profitable. Their plan is to essentially tax websites for the privilege of being seen by their customers.

Under this plan, if I wanted Verizon customers to be able to read my blog, I would have to pay Verizon a fee. And Comcast. And AT&T. You can see what that would do to the blogosphere.

Do you like reading blogs? Do you have a blog of your own? Then please click here to sign Move On’s “Save the Internet” petition.

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So I’m standing outside, taking a little break, when some random guy rides past on a bicycle and spits on my car. Spits! On my car!

I was so aghast, dear reader, that I did nothing. About 30 seconds later – which is to say, after the spitter was well out of sight – I was overtaken with the overwhelming urge to get in the car, drive after him, haul him off his bike, grab him by his little goatee, and start punching him in the face. But of course, by then it was too late.

I ask you: what is it about a maroon 1992 Honda Accord that makes people want to hurt it? It is not covered in mink pelts. It does not guzzle gas to fuel the Iraq war. There are no bumperstickers expressing contrary points of view. As far as I can tell, it is the most inoffensive car ever manufactured. Was it, perhaps, Hitler in a previous life? Do people sense this? Is that why they spit on it, key it, smash its windows, hide chicken under it?

Am I missing something, here?

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Doesn’t it suck when there’s a long holiday weekend, and no one updates their blog? I’ve been refreshing Bloglines all morning, but it still says “0 feeds updated.” Sheesh!

I was very sorry to miss the Dulaan Knit-In yesterday – I hope everyone had a lot of fun!

It’s a rainy Memorial Day weekend in Seattle. Nothing for a partly-completed sock to do but daydream out the window.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this color? (Socks That Rock, colorway “Algae”) Look at the little silvery bits!

Speaking of color, Knitting Sensei and I did a test run with kitchen dyeing. I used Wool of the Andes in cream, she had some white cotton. The yarn dyed with herbal tea was… underwhelming.

The Kool-Aid worked really well on the wool. Not so much on the cotton.

If you’re thinking of dying yarn with Kool Aid, check out this nifty color chart I found online.

I had forgotten that Memorial Day is about stuff until Carol’s post reminded me, so I cast on a hat for The Ships Project with Wool of the Andes in Chestnut and Fern.

Haven’t you ever wondered why it’s called the “long tail” cast on method? I’m pretty sure it’s because that’s what you’re left with, after you finish casting on.

ETA: Blue Moon Fiber Arts has updated their website with new yarn! Go look! They still don’t have the Algae – or Falcon’s Eye, which I desperately desire – but there’s some great stuff there!

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