| personally i discourage folks from using pet names and simple words as a password. even using a real word found in dictionary can be iffy for some. the key to a good password is length and variation. two suggestions. i am not foisting any religious beliefs here, just utilizing a tool. most homes have a Bible/ Koran/ whatever. open it randomly. point on the page. then use the chapter book and verse as a password. like 2genesis25. paperclip it!!! most of the time people have some kind of a book with a quote or item like that, if not a religious text. another book, but you do get the idea. my favorite way to get a new password, is to log onto the web page for mail on yahoo http://mail.yahoo.com there will be a lot of gobbledy gook in the address bar... it is randomly generated code, (yahoo just saved you money =o) use their random character generator, you don't have to hunt one down....) 
nothing there is any part of your password to yahoo. you could use that , all of it, or part of it as your new password. so if you do the 94hjf90n83f stuff that's in the address bar ~ you have a pretty safe password ~ make sure you copy it down and save it!!!!! tape under keyboard, load to a program, or somewhere else.. so you CANT get locked out.. if you use a password saver, make sure you have the file backed up to a disc. if cookies are cleared, or something goes *poof, you still have your passwords. use letters and numbers and if it allows you to capitalize, use that for SOME, and also see if you can use alternate symbols like -, _ , & , * , %, $, #, @, and ! |
