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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: COMPUTER (05/19/16)
We arrived in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, just prior to Easter and were living in the back room of a church just behind China Town. The room was set into a hill, it was airless and humid, the heat was unrelenting as we were less than 900 km from the equator. The bathroom was a short distance away, up a dozen or so steps and a short path. It was not uncommon to find Giant African Snails, a poisonous pest, on the steps and path especially late at night, one night we found one sitting on the toilet seat. The mosquito population tended to congregate in the warm moist air of the shower.


We decided to walk into town to buy supplies and check our emails. I stayed close to my husband as I had been warned by the locals not to venture out alone as it was not safe to do so. We were deep into culture shock, Honiara is so different from what we had experienced when we served in Vanuatu. The produce in the shops, mostly owned by Chinese men, was stored behind chicken wire for security. Theft to finance the betel nut habit is common. As we walked along people smiled at us revealing bright red, stained teeth. Many people were addicted to the betel nut.


We eventually arrived at the Internet Cafe and noticed that our backpack had been half opened. Fortunately the laptop was still inside, someone had been disturbed in the process of stealing from us. We found the safest way was to wear the backpack on our chest.
We fired up the computer and logged onto the Yahoo.com site. I typed in our email address; but what was the password?

The account had been set up 8 years earlier and we had completely forgotten what password we had used. Checking Outlook gave us no clues either as the password showed on our account setting as dots. After a few tries we gave up and clicked on the link to ‘forgot password’.


This should be easy we thought. We had to answer security questions, the first: Where was your father born? First problem, which father, who set up the yahoo account, Russell or me? More than likely it was me. I put in Bendigo, wrong answer! So it was Russell after all. I put in Ballarat, wrong answer. We only have two fathers between us. Ok try again, perhaps Russell had put in where his father had grown up. Yendon, Bingo!


Next question: What was your first car? Easy I thought, we know whose car now. I typed in the name, wrong again. What now I thought? I checked Google for the spelling, typed it in, wrong again. I had a go at spelling the car’s name various ways. Bingo! Russell had wrongly spelled the name of his car. The next two security questions we got right the first time. At last we were in and able to set a new password.


We collected our emails, sent a few off to our supporters, friends and family then logged off. The whole exercise took over an hour and cost 24 Solomon dollars. The next time we logged on to Yahoo, there was a message telling us that someone had tried to log on to our account from the Solomon Islands. It was nice to know that Yahoo cared enough to notify us.


Passwords are meant to protect our accounts. We are advised to change our passwords regularly, this is good in theory. Considering most of us have many different accounts, changing passwords often is not practical. We now have a note book, encoded for security, containing all our passwords and secret questions, it is a less stressful option.
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This article has been read 457 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Judy Sauer 
05/26/16
The plight of remembering passwords resonates with me greatly. I too use a cryptic system to track my passwords.

You wrote an accurate story of what computer users face daily.

I am perplexed, however, about not using the Yahoo account in eight years, and not recalling passwords, yet you were checking emails. Something seems off.
Robyn Harbour
05/26/16
I usually go through Microsoft outlook out. this time I chose not to because of the slow internet at the café. Thus the problem.
Pat Small
05/27/16
Interesting, and a frustrating experience obviously. I did notice some punctuation errors, so that is something to be aware of.
Nicki Jeffery
05/27/16
Great title for your entry this week. I liked how you set the scene for your readers with your descriptions. How frustrating forgetting a password! Well written.
Karen Dick 
05/30/16
I thought your descriptions were well done in this. I can totally relate to the password problem and can especially understand the panic in a foreign country. Yikes!
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
05/31/16
You have a delightful sense of humor. It really propelled me forward and left me with a grin on my face. I could relate. If not for my hubby, my computer would have been thrown through the window ages ago.

I'm guessing this is a true story, so the show don't tell mantra isn't a perfect fit, but there are ways to spice up nonfiction. For example, you might be able to do something like this: After arriving in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, our hosts warned us. "Don't wonder off alone. The mosquitoes are huge. Most importantly, be aware of poisonous snails." Rolling my eyes, I thought, Seriously, I have to worry about snails? They eat them in France! I quickly found out to be diligent at all times when I went to sit on the toilet seat and discovered the slimy pest staring at me. First, I wrapped my arms around my body, squealed, and then thanked God for the warning and that I was already in the bathroom.

Of course, I took a lot of liberties that may not fit, but sometimes it's easier to understand if an example is given. Since you have a delightful sense of humor, I used that for inspiration. By using body language, dialog and thoughts, you can turn a true story into creative nonfiction. I also turned the passive line about warnings into an active line, which also helps the reader picture the scene.

You did a great job of capturing my interest. I think you managed to write on topic in a fun and fresh way. Your message is a good one, and the story was fun to read.
C D Swanson 
05/31/16
Delightful! And so fun to read!

Blessings~