My Life's Journey - The day of near disaster on Steemit. 😵 😳 😱
Steemit Disaster
Well, it is a really a simple story my friends. You know that big and extremely long accumulations of letters and numbers you get when Steemit approves your account? You know the one you should never ever lose or all your hard work and earned Steem would be lost? The one which Steemit emphasizes not to lose, but if you do they don't care really? I believe this is Steemit policy about it:
- The first rule of Steemit is: Do not lose your password.
- The second rule of Steemit is: Do not lose your password.
- The third rule of Steemit is: We cannot recover your password.
- The fourth rule: If you can remember the password, it's not secure.
- The fifth rule: Use only randomly-generated passwords.
- The sixth rule: Do not tell anyone your password.
- The seventh rule: Always back up your password.
Pretty clear and simple my friends. DON'T EVER LOSE YOUR PASSWORD. I remember about months back I was giving advice to some people to write it down on paper and keep in their wallet. To put it on sticky notes on the laptop. Send it to yourself with email. I was trying to be a smartass. lol
So by now, you are probably wondering why putting I put the sticky notes in bold writing. Well, let me clear that up for you. I used sticky notes to save my password. And I wrote one copy down on the paper and left at home in Croatia before I left for my basketball season in Italy. I thought that would keep me safe from ever losing it. Until about 5 days ago. Here is what happened. I borrowed my Argentinian teammate my laptop to watch the soccer games by streaming them. No harm no foul kind of thing right? What can go wrong with borrowing my laptop? I am being a good teammate.lol Oh how wrong was I was indeed. Terrible wrong...
Disaster and Panic Time
He returned my laptop to me the same night and I did not turn it on as it was late and I wanted to catch a good night sleep and rest for tomorrows practices. The next morning I woke up, turned on my laptop with the strangest feeling something is missing on my laptop's desktop. I could not figure out what it was. So I went for practice and returned home about 2-3 hours after. Had a nice lunch, but the feeling of losing something was still bugging me. So I turned on my laptop again and then it HIT ME!!
My teammate accidentally erased all my sticky notes from the computer and my Steemit password with it. RED ALERT GUYS, RED ALERT. My heart stopped for a minute until I started to think a bit and panic little less. Wait a minute Duro I was thinking to myself. You still have that written down copy of the password on the paper you left at home in Croatia. Good thinking Duro. Give yourself a tap on the shoulder for it. lol I calmed down a bit and decided to call my dad in Croatia.
Well, not so much. Keep reading, you will figure out what I mean. lol
Nothing can go wrong now. I will just tell my dad to send it to me. So I call him and he picks up the phone. After the usual how are you doing talk I asked him about it?
Me: Hey Dad, can you check something for me?
Dad: Sure son anything. What do you need?
Me: Do you remember that important long list of numbers and letters I wrote on the paper and left on the table before I left for Italy?
Dad: O yeah. I saw it about 10 days ago. That "hieroglyphics" looking writing on the paper?
Me: I already started thinking I am in the clear. He is identifying it. Nothing can go wrong now. He only needs to send it to me. Dad please copy or take a picture of the code and send it to me. You're a "LIFE SAVER" dad. lol
Dad: I remember it son, but I thought you don't need it anymore so I THREW IT IN THE TRASH after you left.
Me: 😵 😳 😱 😨 😰 😢 😥 🤤 😭 😓 😪 😴 🙄 🤔 🤥 😬 🤐 🤢 🤧 😷 🤒 🤕 Somebody call 911 please kind of feeling. lol
I think emojis can kind of describe how I felt at that moment. Not sure if I wanted to throw up, panic, or really call 911. lol Just kind of mix feelings that only emojis above put together can describe. I was incredibly dishearted because the ones who follow my profile(love you all BTW) would know I really do invest a lot of time in writing my posts. Losing my password was a disaster for me, and I am not sure if I would create another account after losing this one. Starting over would be very difficult for me.
So luckily I was still logged into my account so not everything was lost. I still had access to my account, but the password was gone. For 3 days I researched if it is possible to somehow recover the sticky notes on a laptop. Unfortunately, it was not possible. I did the only thing I could. I contacted my good friend @littlenewthings and told her all about my problem. Kind of a shoulder to cry on kind of deal. lol If you guys don't know who she is, go and definitely check out her profile. She is an amazing person.
She is one of the great friends I have here on Steemit and has really taken the time out of her way to help me out with many things surrounding the ways Steemit works. She is one of many amazing people I met here on Steemit. They were all amazingly supportive and helpful. After talking to her for about 20 minutes we both agreed not everything is lost because I still do have access to my account. But losing my main password is generally a Steemit disaster.
The Bingo Moment
About 2 hours after our talk something suddenly dawned on me. We were talking a bit how Chrome always ask you if you want them to remember your password. It took me a bit as I am little slow, but ladies and gentlemen BINGOOOOO. lol As I did log into my account with my main password the first time there was a chance I pressed save my password. I went to check and I can tell you one thing for sure. If google chrome had a face to kiss I would be all over it. lol
So I went to my wallet and used the saved password even though I can't see it to generate a new password and save the day. lol What a relief my friends. Thank you google chrome. It was a close call, but we turned it around in the end. I think the feeling of creating new password was like hitting a full court shot to win a basketball game. lol We were down by 2 and 1 second left on the lock. The ball is taken out of bounce and the shot is up in the air. It is a SCOREEEEEEE. We win. We win kind of feeling. lol I got to say it again, WE WINNNNNN. lol Incredible feeling. :)
The moral of the story and lessons to be learned.
So what to say after this story, my friends? I believe there two morals we should all learn. One is of course to expect the unexpected. Expect that your sticky notes will somehow get deleted and that your dad will throw away the "hieroglyphic" writing you left at home in trash. Make more backup plans and more copies of your password. That password is your "LIFE" on Steemit.
DO NOT REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE I DID. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE.
The second moral of this story and I believe this is a secret gift on Steemit. The secret gift we all can have. The secret gift to us all on this amazing platform is that we get a chance to create some amazing friendships and relationships from people around the world. The people like my amazing friend @littlenewthings. Without her, my account would be gone with the wind. The money we make on Steemit is not the only gift we really get on Steemit, but relationships we create and the friends we meet along our Steemit adventure. Which in my opinion by far precedes the money part of the Steemit.
So before you start worrying too much about your posts making money focus more on creating great relationships and making great friends. Soon you will realize success on Steemit is incredibly tied together with these two "little" things called relationships and friendships. :)
Thank you for reading guys, until next time, much love,
dbjegovic 💓
Previously posted My Life's Journey entries:
My Life's Journey - A first amazing weekend in Cosenza, Italy. Part 2-Part 1/2
My Life's Journey - A first amazing weekend in Cosenza, Italy. Part 1
My Life's Journey - The Adventures of Dama(our cat) Part 2
https://steemit.com/tsufamily/@awakentolife/my-life-s-journey-the-adventures-of-dama-our-cat-part-2
My Life's Journey - Flying to a new basketball adventure in Cosenza, Italy.
My Life's Journey - The Adventures of Dama(our cat). Part 1
https://steemit.com/tsufamily/@awakentolife/my-life-s-journey-the-adventures-of-dama-our-cat-part-1
My Life's Journey - Forest fire above my hometown Drnis, on a mountain Promina.
My Life's Journey - Forest fire above my hometown Drnis, on a mountain Promina. Progress Report
My Life's Journey - Unexpected gift on the horizon.
https://steemit.com/tsufamily/@awakentolife/my-life-s-journey-unexpected-gift-on-the-horizon
My Life's Journey - Finally rebuilding our home with my father after it was ravaged by war.
My Life's Journey - Finally rebuilding our home with my father after it was ravaged by war. Part 2 - Progress
My Life's Journey - Amazing day with my brother Nikola.
https://steemit.com/tsufamily/@awakentolife/my-life-s-journey-amazing-day-with-my-brother-nikola
ALL THE IMAGES POSTED, AND WORDS WRITTEN IN THIS POST BELONG TO ME. 100% ORIGINAL
COPYRIGHT OF DURO BJEGOVIC
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Oh my!! My heart was pounding a bit faster just reading this! Great Steemit advice...passwords and friends make the world a much nicer place!! Resteemed and tip!
@melinda010100 my life stopped for about the minute I realized the sticky notes are gone, but when realized my dad threw away the paper. lol That was the one which almost stopped it all together. lol
I am glad all worked out in the end. Very happy. lol
Thank you for amazing comment and for the tip. I truly appreciate it. Have an amazing day Melinda. :)
Hi @awakentolife! @melinda010100 is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)First of all, I'm glad Chrome had your back.
I would advise you to go remove your Steemit password from Chrome's database now, and if you don't feel comfortable doing this, at least make sure 2FA is enabled for your Google account so there's no chance someone could access your Steemit password.
LastPass is a great option. I don't know if your laptop has a fingerprint scanner, but encrypting a file with your password in it that way might be something to consider. I wouldn't store your Steemit password in an unencrypted file unless the computer is not connected to the Internet.
There are many tips about the master password, and I think you've definitely learned a lesson here. There are always ways to become more secure, but financial passwords are essential to keep safe, so good luck in the future.
I enjoyed your narrative of the story. I'm sure this has happened to many of us where our parents have thrown something important away. I thought my parents had thrown away an old cell phone of mine that I still had some data on. Thankfully I found it, but I still experienced a similar sensation.
Thanks for sharing!
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Does your Dad have a computer? If so, ask him to create a file, file, not sticky note, with your private keys. That will definitely cover your arse next time.
@enchantedspirit and I have 3 accounts and 4 computers. All the passwords are stored on all the computers, along with backups of her websites. You can't be too careful.
My dad is like @enchantedspirit would probably say stuck in third world country world. We barely got him to use a phone. Still struggling with it too. lol
But I will use you suggestion for my laptop. YOu truly can't be too careful as I almost lost everything in one day. :)
Thank you for suggestions. I would wish you a great day, but you are living with @enchantedspirit so I bet its never a good day. lol jk Have a great day my friend. :)
AHA!! I found you talkin' trash about me on your blog. WFT, man? Didn't you think I'd find out? FYI ... and for the future ... I have to follow @catweasel around constantly with a broom and bucket, cleaning up after him. You respond to something he said, and I'm bound to see it. Beware!
hahaha behind your back? Can't you see I tagged you so you do see it? lol
Just to clear it up. This is something called a tag @enchantedspirit. lol
Ooooh! So that's what that is!! I thought @catweasel stepped in something and messed up your blog before I got here. That being the case, I'll sit down and drink a Dr Pepper before I have to hustle off to wherever he's gone next. (In between all this I write some posts. ) Love to you my sweet, sweet @awakentolife. My world was a dismal wasteland before we met.
hahaha yep you need to watch over your @catweasel. How appropriate name for the occasion. He has weaseled onto my account before you did. Now we all know you are only sad you are a bit sad he got here first and not you to mess it up. lol :)
Enjoy you Dr.Pepper, my new little weird, crazy, funny, insulting, racist, but an amazing new friend on Steemit. lol
Have an amazing day. @enchantedspirit. :)
Super glad you got your password back!
Me and you both my friend. lol Very very glad.. hehe :)
Thanks for stopping by my post. Have an amazing day. :)
Ohhhh gosh. That was a stressing story to be reading man. Grrrrr lol glad you were able to recover it
Me and you both my friend. Very glad. :) The dad phone call was funny when I look back at it now. :)
Eheheh let's just hope it wont happen again ehehehe
Phew close one. I have it written down once by hand, I think I will add a few more just in case. About 3 people have recommended to me "Last pass" as well. No more non-encrypted notes on my computer of my passwords, I have been told lol. So glad the story had a happy ending.
Close one indeed my friend. I will have to get Last Pass for sure. I definitely don't want to play with fire ever again. Hopefully, I learned my lesson. :)
It's possible to view saved passwords in in Google Chrome & Firefox, here's the GC way:
If you've saved passwords to Smart Lock for Passwords or to Chrome while signed in, you can also see and delete your saved passwords at passwords.google.com.
More about managing saved passwords from the web.
Thank you, brother, for taking the time to write step by step instructions for me. I truly do appreciate it. Love how people are helping each other here on Steemit.
Thank you again. I wish you a blessed day. :)
You're most welcome, and now that you know how to find/manage them you can pay it forward by passing this on to others when they need it, and they in turn can do the same.
Process is much the same principle just different look/locations from Google Chrome to Firefox to MS Edge/Internet Explorer.
Perhaps you could make use of a secure password storage service like LastPass? :https://steemit.com/technology/@neuromancer/how-vulnerable-are-you-secure-ubiquitous-ease-of-access
Or make your own with KeePass and cloud storage: https://steemit.com/technology/@neuromancer/how-vulnerable-are-you-managing-complexity
Wow, what a close call... a real heart stopping moment when you found out your Dad threw away the password! Think I might go and make some backups of my password!
OMG my friend. I literally stopped breathing for a full minute. lol Not a great feeling at all. I invested a lot of time in my profile only to lose it like this. I am just glad all worked out for the best. :)
MAKE TRIPPLE BACKUPS and BACK THEM UP WITH ANOTHER 3. LOL