Please enter username and password

reasonably safeguard your User Name and Password;
not allow someone to observe you entering your User Name and Password;
not disclose or allow your User Name or Password to become known to anyone else (including family or those in apparent authority such as the Police, or ####Financial Services staff);
not write them down, record or store them anywhere in written or electronic form, including in a file on your computer or in any password saving facility .
reasonably safeguard your User Name and Password;
choose a User Name and Password that are unique and not the same as or similar to User Names or Passwords used for any other services you may use, including non financial services.
If you believe for any reason that your User Name and/or Password could be known by someone else, or if you discover any unauthorised use of your User Name and/or Password has taken place, you must change your User Name and/or Password immediately, then call us ...

On the face of it all that sounds very reasonable - for a store credit card.

The problem is that near identical conditions apply for the power bill, the phone bill, the gas bill, internet banking, trademe, email, MSN, SMF, Pet forum, Knitter's forum, Blogger, online magazine subscriptions, job seeking websites, any big company who lists vacancies on their own websites, NZ Herald "have you say", the local library, photobucket, every single online shopping site... the list goes on.

Not all of them require both upper and lower case and not all of them require a number or two in the user name or the password. All of them however are very clear on one point. DO NOT WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD OR USER NAME.

That is all very fine and dandy but if you use different names and passwords as you are supposed to how the hell to you remember them all?
There are 18 in that list for a start.

Even doubling up and using the same password for several sites doesn't help when several sites helpfully allocate a user name for you. You still have to remember which password goes with what.

Then there is the joint account problem. Do you give your partner access to your online magazine subsciption? If it was a paper copy you would just pass it over or leave it on the coffee table.

How about internet banking for joint accounts, does your partner need their own log in?

What triggered this rant?

The Secretary needs to pay the phone bill. The account is in He Who Earns name and he set up the account. She can't remember the username or password because she didn't set them. He doesn't pay the bills so he can't remember them either. Better still she can't fix the matter via phone during office hours because it is his account and he is too busy working to hang around on hold to sort it out.

The death of Guy Fawkes night

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot;

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.

A stick and a stake for King James’ sake!

Holla, boys, Holla, make the town ring;

Holla, boys, Holla, boys, God save the King.

Is it the recession?

Is it the PC banning of rockets, double happies and the like?

Is it the injuries and out of control fires of Guy Fawkes past?

Is it the PC restrictions on the sale of fireworks and the idiots they are aimed at?

Is it all of the above or something else that is seeing the slow demise of the celebration of a failed 17th Century treason attempt?

Down here at the bottom of the world you could be forgiven for blaming the weather. Late spring, dry bush and fire are not a good mix after all. However this isn't just happening here but in the UK as well. Home of the very Parliament that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up.

I only know what stopped Guy Fawkes in my back yard.

The noise.

It is easy to put my rabbit friends in a room with the curtains drawn the and light on to cover up the flashes. Not so easy to muffle the screams and bangs. The screams and bangs get louder every year. They even bother me. Given that we hear mortar and gunfire from the range across the harbour about 1km away that is saying something.

If modern fireworks were quieter no doubt we would still buy a few to let off . They are rather pretty.

Last night I retired to the lounge with Cinnamon Bun, Mystery and Mr Biscuit confined to carriers and Inky hopping around trying to chase me, just as I have done in Guy Fawkes past.

Just as I will no doubt for the next couple of nights - until the neighbours run out of fire power.

If last night was anything to go by they will run out sooner than usual.

Driveways vs Kids

Yet another child is fatally skittled in a driveway by her father.

The very next day another is hit but survives.

Is a child worth less than the price of a fence beside your driveway and a gate at the bottom?

No matter how hard you try you can't watch a toddler every second of every day.

When a car is being backed up the drive is not a good time to discover that not only has the rug rat given you the slip and that when given a head start it can run faster than you as well.

How much do you value your child?

A fence is bound to be cheaper than a funeral.

Ok, who turned out the lights?

Some fork lift driver lifting a container near Otahuhu apparently.

That was all that was needed to knock out the power supply to not just a small part of Super Auckland but much of Waitakere and all of North Shore, Kaipara and Northland.

Not a huge deal given the time of day (8am to 10am) but it would have been if it lasted longer.

My secretary decided to weed the garden instead of using the powerless washing machine.

Subsequently I spent the time catching low flying buttercups and attempting to murder pansies (of the plant variety).

Still I have to wonder about the logic in supplying such a large area with just one power line and no power stations.

Does this sort of thing ever happen to Wellington?

Update: I stand corrected, there are two lines carrying electricity north. The other one was out for maintenance :S

The goverment giveth and taketh away again

Remember those tax cuts we got last year?

ACC levies are rising and not by a small amount.
After over 100 years of classes at low cost for all who wanted to learn community education is being discontinued.
Contrabutions to the Super Fund have been suspended - for 10 years.

I think I have just figured out where the money for those tax cuts came from.

Catching the surf - Tsunami style

Just as well the wave turned out not to live up to expectations.

It sort of happened like this:
Doooo Doooo Dit Dit Doooo Doooo Dit Dit Doooo Doooo Dit Dit

What is that alarm?
Why is it getting louder?
Is that on this side of the harbour?
No?

Waitakere City Council was on the ball - it turns out that was the tsunami siren warning alert signal.

Of course not living in Waitakere City meant it took half an hour of web site searching to find that out. Something the secretary didn't do until the next day.

That could have been a bit of the problem considering Civil Defence was advicing people to stay 35m above sea level or 1km inland.

We're neither.

Still that was better than North Shore City Council.

Apparently you have to sign up to receive a phone/email alert if you think your property may be in a danger zone for tsunami.

The secretary didn't know that, she does now after wondering why there were no warnings from our own council even as the "stand down" sounded from across the harbour.

As it happened I didn't get my paws wet, with sea water anyway but not as a result of any advanced warning from our local authorities.

Thank god for radio and breakfast TV.

Firstly I can confirm that contrary to popular rumour I do not have skin cancer. My ears and eyes have just been suffering from sunburn and that fluff monster next door.

The vet has confirmed that.

Yes, I have been to the V.E.T.

Now I don't really have a problem with the vet. I do have a problem with the dog in the waiting room on occasion but not with the vet himself. Well, except for that sunscreen, antibiotic paste, eye drops and flea treatment he just forced on me.

What I don't like is the trip to the Vet.

Who decided that we cats must travel in those small cages? Who decided that we had to go in those horrible metal boxes called cars?

Until I get an answer I will continue to sound like a fire engine on the way to a fire when ever I am forced to endure caging and metal box transport!

P.S. Good luck getting those eye drops in.