Does nobody write down their passwords? Might be easier to hide a scrap of paper from roommates than lines of code from a hacker. My dad avoids both by remembering neither! Treats passwords as a one-time access and then gets mad when he can't use his Amazon account... or log in to his computer. lol
I try to change passwords every year or so on higher security places or just sites that are important to me like blogs and here. I like my system of typing in whatever gibberish noise pops into my head (should be somewhat foolproof unless I have a twin out there speaking the same gobbledygook), though I have begun to use more numbers and characters since watching Doctor Who episodes. "It's like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff" is too close for comfort.
But yeah, the more random your password looks, the better you'll be. Use that shift key and/or character map as often as possible! If you can scribble it down somewhere safe, there's that much more room to be unintelligible without triggering memories that other folks can guess.
*E*