Teen Pregnancy

I read an article in the Charleston Gazette Mail about teen pregnancy rates in WV that left me dumbfounded.  I have several problems with the attitudes revealed in this article.

First, While I agree that it's a problem,  I think the article oversimplified the problem.  Births to unwed mothers in general and teenager unwed mothers in specific are a problem.  Married 18 and 19 year-old mothers are not the problem. It isn't just age.

Second, the article talks about pregnancy and birth  as if they were diseases.  Pregnancy is the rational, expected outcome of the activity designed to produce it.  Birth naturally follows pregnancy.  Nobody works out in the gym, and wonders why she looses weight.  Nobody goes to a tattoo parlor, has needles stuck into his arm, and wonders why he  have a tattoo.  Nobody goes to work and wonders why she gets a paycheck.

I find some of the comments laughable.  Like this one.

Although one particular reason cannot be pinpointed for West Virginia's teen birthrate, Pomponio said poverty might be one factor.

Sure, I'll grant that poverty may have something to do with it (there's a joke about not affording cable TV), but I can pinpoint one reason for the high teen birthrate, actually stated it in the article.

The CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2009 indicated that West Virginia has a higher rate of teen sexual activity than the national average: 54 percent compared to 46 percent.

The big news is that teens are getting pregnant because they are having premarital sex.

Note:  WV Free, the organization which published the report that the article addresses, is a pro-abortion organization.  The organization is a champion of "reproductive justice."

Searching is for Chickens

I was doing some research on COOP plans, which are Continuity of Operations plans.  It's the idea of planning how your organization will stay in business when emergencies or disasters strike.

I kept getting results about nesting chickens and chicken coops.  My mind was a million miles away from chickens, so it took me a second to realize that coop and C.o.O.P mean the same to Google.  Goes to show, you can get some really fowl results from searching.

Sallie, you're screwed up!

I was stupid.  I went into debt to get my degrees.  I owe a little over $20,000 to Ol' Sallie Mae for an Associate's and a Bachelor's degree.  I freely admit I was stupid.  No shock there, for I'm frequently stupid.

That disclaimer said, I went to answer some love-mail from ol' Sallie, and tried to log into my account.  I forgot my password.  Easy enough to do, I know.  I dare not even count the number of different web sites, accounts and services for which I must remember passwords.  But I digress.

I forgot my password, but there was an easy, simple little button that says "forgot password."  I clicked it, believing it would be simple. 

It was.  Simply frustrating.  I typed the password I wanted.  It was a nice, juicy 18-character complex password that makes computer-security types sleep well at night.  An error came back that said...

Invalid password.  Passwords must be between 8 and 32 characters long, contain at least one number and at least one letter, and must not contain the word 'password' or your user name.

Maybe the password was too long?  I counted the symbols.  Nope, less than 32.  I looked at it clsoely, and could see at least a number, and a letter, and that it did not contain 'password' nor did it contain my user name.

So I tried a different one, thinking that maybe I used this one before.  I got...

Invalid password.  Passwords must be between 8 and 32 characters long, contain at least one number and at least one letter, and must not contain the word 'password' or your user name.

So I tried another and another and another .... Until I realized what was happening. 

As part of a complex password, I was including a special symbol in each of my passwords.  As encouraged by most security geeks, I was including spaces, dollar signs, and other punctuation marks to make the password that much harder to guess. 

Ol' Sallie Mae choked on special symbols.  Did they say not to use them?  No.  Did they say "Um, here's your problem?"  No.  The web site wasted my time with that inane message that was completely off base.

Not only did they waste my time, but they show how pathetic they really are.  I mean, even Windows supports complex passwords.  Papa Johns, Gmail, and Facebook all support complex passwords. 

But good ol' Sallie Mae chokes on them, meaning that their passwords are less secure than your Speedie-Rewards account.  Great job, Sallie.