dibbons
Well-Known Member
In 2004, I was writing a manuscript on my laptop that totaled more than 62,000 words. I chose a passcode to lock it from the snooping eyes of anyone and everyone. I abandoned the project after attending a couple of writer's conferences in San Diego when I could not find an editor interested in publishing my "book".
This week I found the manuscript file on my computer, but when I went to open it, I found I had completely forgotten the passcode! Of course, at the time I thought I had chosen something that I would never forget.
So I have been brainstorming and trying every other passcode I had made a note of, but nothing worked. As soon as I exhausted all the possibilities, I calmly asked myself what was the idea I used originally to make it something I would never forget?
Then a hint came to me. I was in my bedroom at the time (remember, this is 2004) in a small apartment I was renting in Tijuana, Mexico. The bedroom door was closed and there was something the former tenant had left behind stuck on the inside of the bedroom door that I had used to formulate the passcode. Now, I was getting somewhere. Just had to prod my brain a little longer to remember what was on that bedroom door!
Then, out of nowhere, the answer popped into my head! It was a bumper sticker from a local restaurant. And then I also remembered that the passcode was almost like the name of the restaurant, but I misspelled the restaurant just a little so it would be that much more difficult for someone to unlock my "secret" manuscript, if they somehow got a hint of what the password was based on. Anyway, I am very pleased I can access my file again, even if it never gets published! Found an image of the bumper sticker after an internet search:
This week I found the manuscript file on my computer, but when I went to open it, I found I had completely forgotten the passcode! Of course, at the time I thought I had chosen something that I would never forget.
So I have been brainstorming and trying every other passcode I had made a note of, but nothing worked. As soon as I exhausted all the possibilities, I calmly asked myself what was the idea I used originally to make it something I would never forget?
Then a hint came to me. I was in my bedroom at the time (remember, this is 2004) in a small apartment I was renting in Tijuana, Mexico. The bedroom door was closed and there was something the former tenant had left behind stuck on the inside of the bedroom door that I had used to formulate the passcode. Now, I was getting somewhere. Just had to prod my brain a little longer to remember what was on that bedroom door!
Then, out of nowhere, the answer popped into my head! It was a bumper sticker from a local restaurant. And then I also remembered that the passcode was almost like the name of the restaurant, but I misspelled the restaurant just a little so it would be that much more difficult for someone to unlock my "secret" manuscript, if they somehow got a hint of what the password was based on. Anyway, I am very pleased I can access my file again, even if it never gets published! Found an image of the bumper sticker after an internet search:
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