OK, there you have it. That is one of my passwords.

I might be a man, but I'm not that dumb. I quit using that password long ago. It is so good that I can't forget it.

While it looks like a jumble of letters, it is really very easy to remember.

Today we need passwords because everything related to computers is protected.

Every e-mail account requires a password, and I have three e-mail addresses, plus access to another three or four.

I rarely write a paper check because internet banking is easy and fast. Most bills are paid through electronic transfer, so funds go directly from my bank to a business' bank and instantly credited to my account.

The password for the bank account is complicated and includes upper-case letters and numbers so that it looks like a long word of gibberish, but isn't.

Electronic funds transfers are economical to a business because money goes directly into their account from yours, and they need not handle checks.

As weird as anything can be, Atlanta levies a charge for making electronic funds transfers to pay water bills.

They reason that if one is prosperous enough to electronically transfer funds to pay a water bill, then an extra $5 surcharge for the convenience is fair.

People are furious!

It makes no sense, but after all, it is Atlanta.

I am sure my mother never had to deal with a password.

My father had passwords associated with membership in Masonic and civic organizations, but that was nothing like what we have to remember today.

Passwords are keys that open doors to e-mail accounts and special internet sites where security is important.

I have three passwords at work, three for e-mail accounts, one for an account at Ancestry.com for genealogical research, a bank password, passwords used for travel and three door codes. That’s 16 passwords I use on a regular basis.

Some rarely change, and I don't have to think about them. Passwords that I control are changed every six months, sometimes less.

The clue to building an effective password is to use something you'd never forget and nobody else could possibly guess.

Sometimes I use a sentence with numbers that I move around. The number might be part of an old address or an old post office box.

That jumble at the top looks like random characters but it comes from the first letters of “rock and roll is here to stay,” and “59” is the year Buddy Holly and three others died in an airplane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. I've done the same with famous slogans and Bible verses.

Keeping up with all those passwords is a job in itself. The ones I use often are no problem, but there are some I rarely use.

Of course, I keep up with those passwords on a page in my computer that is also password protected.

Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.