Monthly Archives: August 2010

PSA VI

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Recently, I’ve seen several emails come through Facebook and Gmail that show definite signs of hacking. It’s amazing to me how little these people have to do. But I know it’s big business, whether the snoop is ransacking government files or your Yahoo account.

That got me thinking about your password. According to John Pozadzides at Lifehacker, some people wouldn’t have to think too long to guess it. Says John:

Adding just one capital letter and one asterisk would change the processing time for an 8 character password from 2.4 days to 2.1 centuries.”

Food for thought indeed.

My passwords aren’t even in English, and they have multiple cases, characters (when allowed) and numbers. So far — knock on wood — I’ve never been hacked. That doesn’t mean the kool kiddies won’t keep trying, though, so complicate and change your passwords often. Your PSA for today, because the Fink hearts you all.

Today is not the weekend. We weep.

Scientific observations

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OK, the first day of school is over with. Behold my findings:

  1. No matter who graduates, someone is always there to step up to the plate and continue the tradition. That is a good thing in choral music.
  2. Ninety-nine percent of the students on my Facebook friend list hated the first day of school. Puzzling, since the first day is always the easiest day.
  3. Smaller can mean better (70 in HS choir this year — 20 fewer than years past).
  4. The thought of Stoney and I getting together tomorrow to face the gargantuan task of devising a rehearsal schedule for the next three months is making me feel a bit sickly.
  5. We need a follow spot operator. Any ideas?
  6. For the first time in my career, I didn’t spend the entire week before school actually at school. Does this mean I have a life?

I wonder many things this day.

Yikes — 6 a.m. and me sitting here like I got nothing to do. Hey, it’s Welmsday — we’re halfway to the weekend. Hang in there, everybunny.

FO

For the 18th time…

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…it’s the first day of school for me. Only 12 more first days. Or not. There are days when I say, “I’ll still be at this when I’m 70,” and other days when I doubt I’ll even make it to 30 years before I call it quits.

It’s not the teaching that wears me out; I love directing choirs. Rather, it’s the shows and the NYC tours and the positively insane rehearsal schedules that keep me away from my family, my fiends, my Nook, and more than five hours of sleep per night. Yet…I’m not sure I could keep my present job and not do shows. There might be lynchings.

Anyway. I think I’d be in a chirpier mood had Rousseau not decided he absolutely had to go outside at 4:00 this morning. Does he choose the Thriller’s side of the bed to nuzzle with his cold, wet snout? NooOoOOoOOOOoooo

Hey, here’s something that will blow your mind, courtesy of my awesome fiend Harold (Suzanne’s handsome husband). Harold posted a link on his Facebook wall to some fantastic color photographs from Russia and the surrounding countryside. What’s so fantastic about that? you ask. Answer: they were taken between 1909 and 1912. Unbelievable. Check it out.

Welp, off I go. Make the coffee, make the lunch, take the shower, drive the Finkmobile, start the school year. Allons! Hope your week got off to a great start.

FO

Fantastic weekend

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OK — was this the “funnest” or what? Is “funnest” a word? I hope so.

Mavis and I spent a couple of days with some very sweet people. The best in the world, actually. Don’t you love it when that happens? Indescribable…

~

Suffice it to say that Bobby and Kathy made our weekend, our month, our year, our decade…

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