Do you ever feel like you have too much information to keep track of?
When I was in college the only number I needed to know was my social security
number. Remember the scene in the beginning of Reality Bites when Janeane
Garofalo says her social security number was the only thing she learned in
college? That was me. For the first month or two, I had to look it
up every time I was asked for it.
Now I have an almost infinite number of data to remember and usually don't fare
so well. I have a home
phone, a work phone and a cell phone. When asked for my number, my work
phone is the only number that immediately comes to mind. I
have to think about the others.
When my car was stolen I had to learn my plate number because I was asked it by
every police officer, insurance person, et al. who I had to contact about it.
I have about a zillion passwords for both
work and personal use. When I was bitching to T about having too many
passwords, she said, "I always use the same one." That works in
theory, however some passwords have to be at least 7 characters, some have to be
only 5, some
have to be no fewer than 9, some have to be all numbers, some have to be alpha and
numeric. And so on and so on and so while most of my passwords are similar, they have all these
variations that makes them difficult to distinguish at times.
When I worked for Wal-Hell, I used 8675309 (you know...the Jenny
song...867-5309) as my password for those little hand held scanning guns, but I
couldn't remember it. I kept getting the numbers mixed up. So every
time I had to log in to it, I had to sing the little song to myself which of
course meant the song was in my head all day and I don't even really like that
song. (I wonder why I used it then. Hmm.)
About a year ago I was watching 60 Minutes and Andy Rooney was bitching about
this same thing in his annoying Andy-Rooneyesque way. It really disturbs
me when I agree with him.