Anktangle

I have the privilege of currently living with not just one but two computer programmers. Because of their interests and my various pursuits on the internet, we often get into discussions about internet etiquette and common misconceptions. I've been wanting to share some of my new-found knowledge with my fellow non-professional internet consumers, because these are things I didn't used to know, and why hold on to good information!?

So here are a few things I've learned about the internet in the past five plus years of living with one or more persons who "know better":

On Password Security

Recently, my friend Lauren shared this article all about using secure passwords from CarrieActually. The gist of the article is that Carrie recommends using a secure password generator to make passwords of random characters which are much more difficult to hack than the standard (common word or pet's name + birth date) that lots of folks use. Then, she suggests that we store all these randomly generated passwords in a text file on our computer's desktop to access when we need them.

Respectfully, I completely disagree with the advice, (particularly the latter portion) and here's why:

Days 39-45:

bamboo

Welcome to the February 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Respectful Interactions with Other Parents

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have focused on how we can communicate with other parents compassionately.

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I was seven months pregnant with Daniel, and Jaymz and I were visiting some of my extended family in Louisiana. It was warm and humid (as it usually is there) and my family had a bunch of guests over to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. As I sat inside in the air conditioning with my swollen feet propped up, a family friend (I'll call him Mike) approached me and sat down next to me.

"You know," Mike began, "there are a few things you need to know about having a baby. ...I've had three kids, so I should know!"

By that point in my pregnancy, I had become accustomed to receiving unsolicited advice and judgment just about everywhere I went. I got comments from people about everything: from how I would most certainly yell and curse at my husband during labor (on the contrary: I was very gentle and loving toward him), to how I would definitely need to birth at the hospital/get an epidural/have a Cesarean section/etc. (I birthed at home, in water, with minimal intervention), to comments about my weight and appearance (it's never nice to call someone "chubby"), to declarations about the sex of the baby (80% of those polled were wrong). I got so used to having these kinds of conversations (like the one I was about to have with Mike) that I had developed a three-step strategy for getting through these awkward situations:

1. Gently explain my feelings on the topic, and continue a thoughtful discussion if the other person is interested;
2. If they're really just out for a fight (or I'm not in the mood to justify my choices) I smile and nod, then
3. I end the conversation as quickly as possible.

There's been a bit of a languagexplosion in this household lately. Since my last monthly update post, Daniel has learned close to 50 new words! We had some fun this weekend trying to record him saying a few of them, and this is the result (mostly interesting to his grandparents, I reckon):



What new thing(s) have you or someone in your family learned lately?