I thought I’d share some of the tips I use to counter modern data insecurities. As a once financial information stolen victim I’ve come up with a few tricks that I use to safe guard my “stuff.” When I go to sites that require an account creation it often involves using your birthdate. The liability with giving that information is two fold. If someone acquires that info it could assist them in stealing your identity, and if you fake the birthday you could have a difficult time recovering your information, updating payment methods, renewing subscriptions, or any number of other complications. A good method to use is come up with a spoof on your birthdate, always off by a day, or a year, or a different month. The trick is to remember what your spoof is so that one, you can retrieve date if you need to and two, you have a reliable methodology for securing your information.

A second tip is in regards to passwords. This subject is beaten to death. You can’t turn on a computer with someone or something telling you your password isn’t secure enough. But when it comes down to it, it is the truth. I have multiple passwords that I use. I also have multiple formula’s that I use to create a password. This uses a combination of numbers, letters, lower, and uppercase letters.

At first glance, for most people, it feels like an insurmountable task to keep track of all this information. But this is where the trick comes in. I try to look at my password management as a game. I’ve never been a fan of crosswords or sudoku, but I manage a large number of passwords over a large variety of sites without writing them down. This wasn’t always the case. It has been a process to build up to this point. I still find myself without the ability to remember a password, but as I go through this process more and more I’m able to remember more accurately what they are.

In the beginning I would write down passwords. As with any task the more you do it the easier it gets. The more passwords you can keep track of, and where they belong. You’ll learn little tricks that related specific sites to specific passwords.

I also continually add to my password list, the newer passwords are always the most difficult to remember, but eventually they take hold. It usually only takes forgetting them twice before they

I dropped off 3 rolls of 120 film this morning for processing. It’s various stuff around the Sunset District. A few houses, nature stuff, the beach. I’m kind of ambivalent about seeing it. While I’m excited to see how they came out, photography feels like the act of taking the picture that I’m enjoying right now. Not necessarily the end result. Which I like, and I’m going to roll with for a bit. I’m interested to see how this plays out, especially with how it will affect the work.

The weather dictates that I get outside and enjoy this beaufitful sunshine and warm temperatures! I’ve been taking long morning walks, eating lunch outside, riding my bike and walking to the grocery store. There isn’t much that can replace the feeling of sitting in the sun and feeling your skin warming up from the sun hitting your skin.

The downside of this weather is that this is the prime rainy season for San Francisco, and already drought stricken California needs rain, not sunshine. Sometimes it’s hard to put aside my own wants or desires for a larger good. As much as I love this sunshine, a part of me worries about the repercussions of a further decreased water table. The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about  a month ago talking about the lower than average snowfall in the Sierra Nevadas. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/31/MNGD150KFJ.DTL&hw=lower+snowfall&sn=001&sc=1000

With an impending worsening recession the compounded effects of water rationing, are really going to stress an already stressed Medium and Lower Class. The last great depression devastated the lower economic groups, and typically these classes carry the weight of a society. I worry about what these people will see in the next couple of years. I worry about what the rest of need to be doing to help people who are struggling, I worry that the rest of us will turn our head to those who are struggling more than us.

My love affair with film is deeping! It’s really amazing because I was always the person dismissing people when they claimed film was better than digital. I would label them closed minded and old school. Assume they were just holding onto the “golden” years, note to self, don’t think so much.

As I’ve been pushing my own photography more I’ve really come to appreciate film. In well lit compositions digital holds up, but it is anything other than perfect light that I really see a difference with film! But more so for me financially, results are much easier to produce on film equipment than on equivalent digital equipment which can run into the $15,000 range!

My latest purchase is this little guy.

Picture by http://flickr.com/photos/vxt/28133939/

This is a Canon Canonet GIII QL17. Long ass name, it’s a rangefinder 35mm camera. It’s affectionately called the “poor man’s leica.” The pictures that I’ve seen from it are amazing! I found a good deal on a used model (well I guess obviously used since they haven’t been made since the 1970’s). I’ve always dreamed of getting a rangefinder but couldn’t rationalize the hefty price tag for a leica, or voigtlander, and even more so, the thousands of dollars the lenses cost!

I’ve never had a birthday where I could run around with a short sleeved shirt on, never. That was until now. The weather has been amazing these past two days. Today I layed on the beach shirtless and soaked some sun into my Vitamin D deprived skin! I’ve taken a lot of photos the last two days, all on my RB67. Which I might be really infatuated with. Although I accidentally shot an almost whole role of ASA 50 as ASA 125… whoops. I’ll have to push it in development.

School starts backup tomorrow. Change of heart or change of mind, I’m feeling like it’s time to pursue my dream.